visible that whosoever hath either read History or hath made Observations must needs have taken notice of them If ever there were any extraordinary Deliverances vouchsafed to Kingdoms or Cities or particular Persons or ever any remarkable Judgments inflicted upon any of these which so carried the Marks and Signatures of God's Hand in them that the One could not in reason but be attributed to the Care that he had that Religion or Innocence should not be oppressed and the Other must in reason be interpreted as a Divine Vengeance that pursued the Guilty for their Crimes If ever there were any Prophecies that did punctually foretell a Particular Event that came not to pass till many Years after and such an Event as was perfectly contingent and depended upon the Wills of Men If ever there were any Notices given of Approaching Calamities by Voices from Heaven by strange Appearances in the Air and such other like Presages not naturally to be accounted for If ever there were any Apparitions any Witchcraft any effects of a Diabolical Power by which it may appear that there are a sort of Invisible Beings in the World which do bear ill will to Mankind but yet are so curbed that they cannot do all the Mischief they would If ever there were any Miracles wrought either by Moses and the Prophets or by Jesus Christ and his Apostles for the confirmation of the Jewish or the Christian Religion Lastly If ever any Good Man did ever receive any Blessing or avoid any Misfortune which he might rationally look upon as an Answer to the Fervent Prayers that he had put up to God or others had put up for him I say If any of these things that I have now named be true as all Histories give us a World of Instances of the truth of all of them and as for some of them I do not doubt but they fall within the compass of our own Observation and Experience I say if any of these things be true then have we a convincing Proof that there is a Power that doth interpose in the Affairs of the World superiour both to that of Nature and to that of Mankind and which moderates all things according as it seems good unto him But in truth we need not go to supernatural Events or to particular Providences for the Truth of this For in my Opinion the daily effects that every one of us sees and feels the very Subsistence of the World for so many Ages in that regular frame that it was at first and the fair Treatment and Encouragement how unequally soever things seem to be distributed which vertuous and religious men have always found in it and do yet find notwithstanding that far the greatest number of men are of another stamp I say these very things seem an Argument beyond exception That there is a God that presides over us and takes care of us But Fourthly and lastly God has yet given us a further Proof of this by his own many Authentick Declarations in the Holy Scriptures which we call his Word One of the main businesses of which is Dan. 4.17 to assure us That He rules in the kingdoms of men and disposeth of all their Affairs There He is set forth as the Author of all Events Amos. 3.6 both good and bad so that no evil happens in a City but the Lord doth it There He is represented as the searcher of all hearts the Judge of all mens Designs and Actions the Avenger of all Evil Practices and the Refuge of all Good Men. There we are told that He is the God of of Battles Psal 33.16 and that no King is saved by the multitude of his Armies nor any mighty Man delivered by his own strength but Salvation is from the Lord. And so are Disappointments also There we are assured Psal 33. â—4 that He from his Habitation looketh down upon all that dwell on the earth He fashioneth the hearts of them he understandeth all their ways Pror 19.21 And though many are the devices that are in their Hearts yet it is his counsel only that shall stand In a word Eph. 1. â—â— it is God as the Apostle tells us that worketh all things and he worketh them all according to the counsel of his own will So that nothing comes by chance nothing is done in vain but all Events are in pursuance of a Design Nay not so much as the Event of casting a Lot which seems the most fortuitous contingent thing in the whole World is left at random For even in that Case the disposal of the Lot as Solomon tells us Prov. 16.33 is from the Lord. All this is not only the Doctrine but in a great measure the very Language and Expression of those Holy Books And what can we desire more Or what words can we invent that shall declare more fully the thing we are speaking of None can that I know of except perhaps those of our Saviour with which I shall shut up this point Matt. 10.29 Fear not saith he to his Disciples Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing yet not one of them falls to the ground without the will of your Father Nay I say unto you the very hairs of your head are all numbered O wonderful this what God Almighty number the very Hairs of our Heads Lord what is man that thou shouldst have such respect unto him and do that for him which even the nicest and most delicate of Men never yet did for themselves But thus art thou pleased to express thy particular regard to the Sons of Men. Thus art thou pleased to let us see that none of us are so inconsiderable but that we are within the Verge of thy Providence and Objects of thy Care And therefore much more are Cities and States and Kingdoms so wherein the Fortunes of so many Individuals are wrapt up O blessed be God for his Love to Mankind O for ever adored be his Name for thus humbling himself to take notice of us and our Affairs and likewise for giving us such abundant Assurance that he doth so Since therefore we have such mighty Evidence of all sorts that the Lord is King let the Earth be glad yea let the multitudes of the isles be glad thereof And we shall still see greater reason thus to be glad if we consider a little more particularly the Rules and Measures by which God administers the Affairs of his Kingdom Which are not as too often happens in Human Governments Arbitrary Will or Humour but perfect Wisdom and Justice and Goodness Tho' it be true what the Psalmist saith Psal 135.6 That Whatsoever the Lord pleaseth that doth he in Heaven and in Earth and in the Sea and all deep places Yet it is as true that the Lord will never be pleased to do any thing either in Heaven or in Earth but what is suggested by infinite Goodness and in such ways as are the Result of Infinite Wisdom
the Proposition with relation to Christianity or the Revelation of our Saviour and his Apostles That being the Dispensation we are now under and in which we are more immediately concerned Understanding therefore our Proposition of that Especial Revelation which we call the Gospel two things there are to be offered which will undeniably make it out First Those Persons that lived in the Times of our Saviour when this Publick Revelation of the Gospel was made and attested had greater Evidences and Motives to bring them over to the Belief and Practice of his Religion than if any particular Miracle had been wrought in order to their Conversion Secondly We at this day all things considered have as strong Arguments to convince us as powerful Motives to persuade us as those that lived in the Times of our Saviour and were Witnesses of what he did and taught The unavoidable Consequences of which two Points are these That those who lived in the time of our Saviour and were not persuaded by his Gospel would not have been persuaded though one had been sent to them from the dead And those they are now alive and are not persuaded by the Evidences and Motives of Christianity which we now have among us would not have been persuaded if they had lived in the Times of our Saviour So that in all Ages of Christianity the Proposition will hold true That those who give no credit to the standing Revelation of the Gospel or are not thereby induced to lead their Lives according to it would not be prevailed upon though a particular Miracle was wrought for their Conversion First then Our Saviour's Gospel at the first publishing of it was a more effectual Means for the Conversion of any Man then living than the sending to him one from the dead Let us suppose the Parable we are now upon to be a true History and that this Rich Man had five Brethren living at Jerusalem at the time when our Saviour spoke it and they were all Wicked Lewd Atheistical Persons and God Almighty in pity to their Souls is pleased to grant that Request which the Rich Man here makes to Abraham on their behalf and accordingly sends Lazarus from the dead to preach Repentance to them We cannot doubt but such a Sermon from such a Man and in such Circumstances would mightily awaken them and put them upon a more serious Consideration of the folly of their Ways and the danger they exposed them to than ever they entered into before and this Consideration it is likely might work them to serious Resolutions of quitting their present Courses and entring upon a stricter Life Certainly such an Apparition as this in reason should work such Effects and without doubt upon many it would But this we say Whether did not our Saviour perform a great deal more than all this comes to in order to the Conviction and Conversion of all about him And whether had not these five Brethren supposing them to live when he preached his Gospel and to be Witnesses of his Actions much more reason to be persuaded by what he did and taught than by the aforesaid Vision Our Saviour did by all the Signs and Tokens in the World evidence himself to be an Express Messenger sent from God which they could not be certain that the Vision was The Prophetick Records of their own Country did all testifie of him and they themselves by comparing his Life and them together might see they were fulfilled in him To omit the Circumstances of his Birth which were such as never any besides himself was born with After he came to enter upon his Publick Employment God did more than once by a Voice from Heaven testifie that he had sent him and that all People were to hearken to him And the Truth of this he himself confirmed not only by his Life which was the most Innocent and Vertuous and God-like that ever was Nor only by his Sermons and Doctrines which were the most Perfect and Unexceptionable and every way the most worthy of God that ever were taught among Men But also and most chiefly by his extraordinary Works which were such as none but God or one acted by a Divine Power could possibly perform He did the greatest things that ever were seen by Men. He shewed by his Actions and those most publickly done and frequently repeated that he had an absolute Sovereign Power over the course of Nature over the invisible Agents of this World as well Angels as Devils And likewise over both the Bodies and the Souls of Men. And particularly to make it appear that his Testimony was more authentick his Authority more to be relied on than that of any Ghost any Lazarus whatsoever that should rise from the Dead It was very usual with him to send again to the Living these that were once dead And one Lazarus he really brought again from the Bosom of Abraham after he had been four days Dead to testifie to the World that Jâ—sus was the Great Embassador that God had sent and that all Mankind were to receive and obey him And lest all this should not be convincing enough lest it should be said still One that should rise from the dead and come and preach to us would leave the greater Impressions upon us Jesus himself did rise from the dead and did come and preach to the World and that in a far more convincing manner than the Ghost of Lazarus would have done if the Rich Man had had his own Wish For Jesus told his own Death before-hand and fore-told also his Resurrection And if God meant not to lay an invincible Temptation before Mankind to believe a Falshood it had concerned his Providence to have hindred this Resurrection if Jesus had been any thing else than what he pretended to be But he did rise after three days according to his Prediction and conversed upon Earth with his Followers for forty days together shewing himself not only to a few particular Disciples but to great Crowds of them Five hundred at a time And after this in the sight of his Friends he took his leave of the World and ascended up into Heaven And for a Testimony how God approved him there he sent down the Holy Spirit upon his Disciples who for many years together enabled them to do our Saviour's Miracles over again in confirmation of his Doctrine If now to come to our Argument if these five Brethren of the Rich Man be supposed to be alive when all these things came to pass If they had the Opportunity of being present at many of these Passages and of satisfying themselves of the rest as certainly supposing the Matter of Fact to be true none that lived at that time and in that Country but had this Opportunity If they heard this Jesus that was sent from God at the first and that was sent from God the second time after he was dead testifying against their Sins forewarning them of the Judgment to come
are old and stale to us we find by long experience that they make no great impressions upon us But if we were visited in such an extraordinary way as the Rich Man here desired for his Brethren we should then undoubtedly be prevailed upon Thus I believe several of us think But that we have little ground for such a fancy nay indeed if we were tried in this way that it is ten to one we should find our selves mistaken this may farther convince us viz. If God should indeed vouchsafe to work a Miracle or to send an Apparition for the Conviction of an Obstinate Vnbeliever or vicious Person Yet such a one would as easily find out shifts and ways to evade the force of such an Argument and to hinder the effects it ought to have upon him as he formerly did to put off the standing Motives and Arguments of Religion And consequently there is little probability that he who is deaf to Moses and the Prophets will be persuaded by one from the dead This is the second Point I laid down for the proof of our Saviour's Proposition and I come now to speak to it I deny not indeed but if an Apparition should be made to a wicked Person among us If for instance One of our Companions should after he is dead in a terrible manner come to any of us and in a doleful tone and language tell us how it goes with him in the other World tell us that there is indeed a God that judges the Earth that there is a Heaven that there is a Hell all which things he as well as we made it our business to banish out of our Minds as much as we could and acquaint us what an infinite unspeakable Happiness he hath lost by living loosely and carelesly as we now do and that he is damned irrecoverably and for ever damned for that Infidelity and those lewd courses we shared with him in the guilt of and do still continue to pursue that all those Revels we had together all those Pranks and Debauches we were joint Actors in do now as to him end in unsupportable anguish and pains in the gnawings of a Worm that never dies and in a life of everlasting Burnings and that this shall certainly be our portion as well as his unless we do prevent it by a speedy reformation of our Lives I say If one of our Friends should come from the Dead and tell us all this there is no doubt but it would strike us with infinite horrour and amazement It would be the most confounding Scene that ever our Eyes beheld the most awakening Lecture that ever our Ears heard and such impressions it would in all likelihood make upon us as would not suddenly be worn out But here is the point Whether all this would be effectual for the working a perfect Change of Life a lasting Reformation upon a Man that hath long resisted the ordinary means of Conversion and by long custom of sinning hath made a course of Vice almost natural to him We say in all probability it would not be effectual for the reforming such a Man because it would be so easie after the first Heats which the Vision occasioned were over to find out colourable excuses and evasions why he should not pursue a Reformation which his Soul so much hated and which his present Interests and Appetites were so much against For first of all Though he was never so sensibly smit at the first yet after a little time the infinite love he bears to that course of life which this Vision came to testifie against would put him upon Inventions for the rendring the credit of his very Senses doubtful and suspected Many Reasons would be suggested to him from his bribed Understanding why he should not in this case believe his own Eyes For why might not all this be a mere delusion the effects of a Melancholy distempered Fancy a Business wholly transacted on the Stage of his Imagination That he had such an Apparition and that he was horribly frighted with it he cannot doubt But whether this Apparition was really presented to his outward Senses and was not only the Fiction of his own heated and disturbed Brain he thinks he hath reason to doubt For he remembers that even in Dreams things have been as livelily represented to him and made as great Impressions on him as the same things could have been or done if he had been awake And he knows very well that Fancy hath a strange power over a Man's Judgment even when his Eyes are wide open especially if the circumstances of being alone of Melancholy and Pensiveness and some particular Accidents do concur to the raising of it How many People meet with Goblins in their Night-walks and see Armies fighting in the Air and assuredly persuade themselves and others that they do so When as in truth the one is nothing else but Trees and the other but Clouds formed into such shapes by the power of their Imagination How many Persons in Feverish Distempers see plainly Fiends and Devils standing at their Beds-feet ready to take them away and hear dreadful Noises But yet none is so simple as to believe these to be Realties but only the Effects of their present Frenzy And why may not this Bugbear of a Vision that did at first so fright the Man be a thing of the same kind a mere Creature of his own disordered Fancy It is certainly not impossible for a Man whose concernment it is not to believe any thing of this nature at last to bring himself to such an Opinion Especially when he is helped forward by the concurrent Votes of all his jolly Companions whom he tells the thing to who to be sure will not fail to laugh heartily and make very merry with his Story and if it be possible to droll it out of his Head by persuading him that the whole Matter was but the Result of Melancholy and a crazed Brain and that if he still continues to believe it he is sitter for Bedlam than their Company But secondly Supposing he cannot thus easily baffle the Credit of his Senses but is forced to believe that what he saw and heard was more than a Fancy or Imagination Yet that inveterate Principle of Vice within him will put him upon other ways and contrivances for the hindring that Effect which the Vision ought in reason to have upon him Though he cannot question the Truth of the Matter of Fact yet it is likely he may question the Force of the Argument drawn from thence for his Conviction Here is one pretends to come to him from the Dead but how shall he be certain that he did really come from thence For any thing he knows it may be some Trick put upon him Some knavish Fellow had a mind to fright him or some bigotted Religionist assuming the Person or a Ghost thought by this pious Fraud to convert him to his Persuasion as he hath read in Story such
abstain from fleshly Lusts which war against the Soul I beseech you as you have any Honour for your Lord and Master as you have any regard to the preservation of a sense of Religion in your Minds as you have any concern for your Health for your Estates for your Families as you have any respect to the Publick that Effeminacy and Sottishness and Diseases may not be entailed upon our Posterity Lastly as you love your own Souls and hope ever to see the face of God in Heaven learn to live Soberly learn to live Chastly learn to practise Purity and Temperance in all your Conversation Avoid Whoredom and Drunkenness as you would the Plague for certainly they are the worst of Plagues to them that use them For other Plagues do only put our Bodies in danger but these do endanger both our Souls and Bodies Nay as to the one I mean our Souls they will prove certain inevitable Destruction without Repentance and Reformation I know these things are made slight Matters of by a great many among us But assure your selves God will not account them so it is certain he will not if we may believe his Word for it is there told us expresly that Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge And withal that neither Adulterers nor Fornicators nor unclean Persons nor Drunkards shall ever inherit the Kingdom of God or of Christ IV. I proceed to the last Head of Advice that is given in my Text. The Apostle having instanced in Three things necessary to be daily thought upon and pursued by all Christians viz. Truth and Honesty and Purity leaves off to meddle any farther with particulars and sums up the rest of his Advice in generals And that sum comes to this That as we are Christians we should not only take care of the three forementioned things but should make it our business to improve our selves in every other sort of Virtue nay in every other sort of thing that is Praise-worthy or that is well esteemed of among Mankind So that really it should be the endeavour of our Lives to render our selves as excellent and as exemplary for all sorts of amiable Qualities as it is possible for Men to be in this World This I take to be the full meaning of those four expressions that follow in my Text Whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any Vertue if there be any Praise think on these things And now Brethren see from hence what your obligations are You that have such a glorious Light vouchsafed you such unvaluable Promises such mighty Assistances made over to you by the Gospel of Christ You must in reason imagine that in return of these great Advantages great things are expected from you It will not satisfie your Engagements that you do believe and profess the Gospel that you do no wrong to your Neighbours that you are neither given to Lewdness nor Drunkenness though yet even these as the World goes are very great things and could all Men that profess Christianity truly say this of themselves we should soon see Heaven upon Earth But your Christianity obliges you to aspire after greater things you must get your selves possessed of the whole Circle of Virtues you must be Kind and Charitable as well as Just and Honest you must be Modest and Meek and Humble as well as Temperate and Chast. Nay not only so but you are to labour after all these several Virtues in the full Latitude and Extent of them even to that degree that every thing which hath but the appearance of Evil is to be avoided by you You are not only to abstain from Acts of Injustice but even from doing a hard thing to any one you are not only to keep your selves within the known Limits of Temperance and Chastity but to avoid all those things that border upon the Vices opposite thereunto and so as to all other instances if any thing be of ill Report and looks infamously to the sober part of Mankind why that very Consideration is enough to deter you from the practice of it For you are to recommend your Religion to all the Men in the World by all the ways that are possible In a Word you are to endeavour to be as free from blame in your whole Conversation as you possibly can and not only so but to be as good and to do as much good as your Circumstances will allow you This now is to be a Christian indeed by thus endeavouring you truly walk worthy of that high and heavenly Calling wherewith you are called and you do as the Apostle advises adorn the Doctrine of God in all things and happy extreamly happy are they that do thus for great is their Reward Great even in this World in the solid Peace and Assurance of God's Favour which they here enjoy and which indeed far exceeds all the Blessings that the Earth can afford but exceedingly great in the Life to come when Jesus Christ shall come with all the Powers of Heaven to do Honour to those that have thus here honoured him Thus have I gone through all the Parts of my Text but I do not think that I ought so to leave it I have given you an account of the things that St. Paul hath here directed us to to be the main pursuit of our Lives But I think likewise it will be proper to speak something of the Methods of that pursuit or the means which we are to observe if we would practise this Text and here I am to begin anew with my Advices Several things I have to represent upon this Occasion and to exhort you to I am not much sollicitous whether they strictly belong to my Argument or no. But I desire to leave them with you as things that I judge to be very useful and which I wish may be ever remembred by you And the First thing I would exhort you to is this That you would endeavour to possess your Minds with a hearty Sense of God Almighty and the absolute Necessity of being seriously Religious I do not mention this as if I thought there was any need to caution you against Atheism or Infidelity for I hope not many among us are inclined that way Mankind are naturally disposed to believe a God and Religion and since through God's Blessing it is Christianity that is the Religion of our Country and in which we have been all Educated I look upon an Atheist or an Infidel among us to be a sort of Prodigy a strange unusual Creature vastly different from those of his own Kind But here is the thing Though most of us profess Religion and the true Religion yet many of us have no lively or hearty Sense of it We use Religion as we do our Cloaths They are very convenient nay perhaps necessary and therefore we wear them and for the particular form or mode of them we follow as to that the Custom of the Country where we live Yet
Living and for the Dead And none among them dare deny this under pain of an Anathema as the Council of Trent hath ordered the matter Good God! whither will Interest and Faction and Zeal for a Party transport Men But it is not my business to expose them but to put you in mind of what concerns our selves namely as I said that when we come to the Lord's Table we do not approach thither with a belief that our Lord Jesus is there again offered but only with a design to commemorate his Sacrifice that was once offered We come not thither to sacrifice Christ but to be Partakers of his Sacrifice We are not to feast God but God there feasts us and that with the best Food in the World such Food as will nourish us to Eternal Life if we be worthy Guests Only we must not appear before God empty at this Solemnity We must offer to him of our Substance We must offer our Prayers and Supplications not only for our selves but for all the World but more especially for all that are called by the Name of Christ and among those most particularly for our own Church and Kingdom and all Orders and Degrees of Men therein We must offer likewise our selves our Souls and Bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is our reasonable service And lastly to conclude we must offer our most hearty and affectionate Thanks to God Almighty for that incomprehensible Instance of his Love in sending Christ Jesus to us to be our Saviour for his wonderful Birth for his holy Life for his pretious Death for his glorious Resurrection and Ascension and for his Intercession for us at the right hand of God And O thou Blessed Saviour that hast done all this for us give us such a lively Sense of thy marvelous Love in leaving thy Glory and taking Humane Flesh upon thee that thou mightest dwell among us and instruct us in our Duty and assist us in the performance of it and encourage us thereto by the glorious Hopes of a never dying Life and at last make thy self an Offering for our Sins O let these things sink so deeply in our Minds and so wholly possess our Hearts that we may entirely give up our selves to thee That we may with our whole Souls embrace all thy Doctrines and Revelations That we may endeavour in all our Actions to conform our selves to thy Example and make it the Business of our Lives to be obedient to thy Precepts to submit to thy Will and to be contented to be disposed of by thee in all the Circumstances of our Lives O let nothing in thy Religion ever be an Offence to us But enable us to hold the Profession of our Faith in thee without wavering in all the Tryals and Difficulties thou shalt think fit to expose us to that so in Faith and Obedience in Patience and Perseverance we may ever wait for and at last obtain that Crown of Righteousness which thou hast laid up for all that love thee and expect thy second and more glorious Appearance To thee O eternal Son of God thou great Lover of Mankind to Thee who tookest upon thee to deliver Man and didst not abhor the Virgins womb to thee who overcamest the sharpness of death and didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers To thee O most dear O most beloved O most adorable Jesus be for ever given by us and by all the Souls whom thou hast redeemed and by all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth all Honour and Glory and Praise all Service and Love and Obedience henceforth and for evermore SERMON XII Preach'd before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL On EASTER-DAY 1692. Philip. iii. 10. That I may know him and the power of his Resurrection WE shall easily see the Design of these Words and what use we are to make of them if we look at their Connexion with the Discourse that goes before St. Paul in this Chapter sets himself to shew the Excellency and the great Advantages of the Knowledge of Jesus Christ and how inconsiderable how unworthy to be named in comparison therewith all those things were that the Jews his Country-men so much gloried in His Discourse upon this occasion is so very remarkable that it will he worth our while to run over the particulars of it I also saith he in the 4th verse might have considence in the flesh If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the Flesh I more As if he had said Think not O Philippians that I therefore speak lightly of those Priviledges and Advantages which the Jews among you so much boast of upon this account because I have none of them my self No on the contrary if I would value my self upon such outward carnal things I have as much reason as any Nay there is not a Jew among you that perhaps can say so much on his own behalf in this respect as I can For as he goes on in the 5th and 6th verses I was circumcised the eighth day of the Stock of Israel of the Tribe of Penjamin an Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching the Law a Pharisee concerning Zeal persecuting the Church touching the Righteousness which is by the Law blameless That is to say I have not only the Character of a Son of Abraham upon me being circumcised but I am also of the Race of 〈◊〉 which all the circumcised Children of Abraham are not Nay surther I am an Israelâ—â— of the Tribe of Benjamin that Benjamin which our Father Israel so dearly loved and of that Tribe which together with Judah kept him to the house of David and the true Religion when the other ten Tribes revolted Nay more I am an Hebrew of the Hebrews Not sprung from Proselytes as many among you are but all my Ancestors both by Father and Mother being natural born Jews And then as to my Profession in Religion it was the strictest among the Jews for I was a Pharisee And you all know That Sector all others to be the most eminent for the Reputation of Preciseness and Sanctity Neither did I in my Zeal for the 〈…〉 Moses come short of the strictest 〈…〉 is among you for who was more 〈…〉 eager more violent in persecuting â—…nity than I was And lastly To sum up all As to the Righteousness which is by the Law I am blâ—â—dless So punctual have I always been in observing the Precepts of Moses his Law that 〈◊〉 reprove me in theâ— point but I may truely in the Jewish notion of Righteousness be accounted a Righteous Person But now am I much the better for all these things Have I any great reason to glory upon the account of them No verily as he goes on in the 7th verse but what things were gain to me those I counted loss for Christ All these outward Advantages my Birth my Profession my Sect my Reputation my strict way of living which might have proved very beneficial to me in
he was not only to profess his faith in Christ's Death and Resurrection but he was also to look upon himself as obliged in correspondence therewith to mortifie his former carnal affections and to enter upon a new state of Life And the very Form of Baptism did lively represent this Obligation to them For what did their being plung'd under water signifie but their Undertaking in Imitation of Christ's Death and Burial to forsake all their former evil courses As their ascending out of the water did their Engagement to lead a holy spiritual Life This our Apostle doth more than once declare to us Thus Rom. vi 4. We are buried saith he with Christ by Baptism unto death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the Glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of Life Thus again in the 10th and 11th verses of that Chapter In that Christ died he died unto sin once but in that he liveth he liveth unto God likewise reckon ye your selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. That is to say After the example of Christ's Death and Resurrection account ye your selves obliged to die to sin and to live to Righteousness Lastly To name no more Texts the same use doth the Apostle make of Christ's Resurrection in Coloss iii. 1 2. If ye then saith he be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God i. e. You by entring into the Christian Covenant are incorporated into Christ He is your Head you are his Members and therefore since he no longer leads a life of this World it will by no means become you to live like Worldlings or Epicures but being risen with him as the Members ought to do with the Head to mind those things that are above where he is to set your affections as he goes on on the things above and not on the things of the Earth For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God These things plainly shew that the Apostles delivered the Doctrine of Christ's Resurrection as a Practical Doctrine as a point which if Christians believed as they should do it would ingage them to mortifie their lusts to die to the World to place their affections on Spiritual things to have their conversations in Heaven where Christ our Head our Life now sits at the right hand of God II. Great will the insluence and Power of Christ's Resurrection upon our lives appear to be when we consider that it is indeed the principal Evidence that we have for the Truth of our Religion the very design of which is to make us Vertuous and Holy If any thing in the World can make a man good it must be a hearty belief of the Gospel And if any thing in the World can make a man heartily to believe the Gospel it must be the Resurrection of our Saviour from the dead All that Power therefore that the Gospel of Christ hath to make men good all that force and efficacy that its Arguments its Promises its Precepts its Encouragements its Threatnings have upon the Understandings and Wills of men in order to bring them to Vertue and Holiness I say all this may in a great measure uitimately be resolved into the Article of Christ's Resurrection For this Resurrection of his was the thing that did from the beginning and doth now and ever will ascertain mankind of the Truth of Christ's Religion This was and will be for ever the convincing Evidence that what Jesus taught was true Doctrine that what he commanded was of perpetual obligation that what he promised or threatned he was able to make good If Christ had not risen from the dead but had for ever been detained in the Grave notwithstanding all that might be urged from the Goodness of his Doctrine and the Inuncency of his Life and the multitude of his Miracles for the Proof of the Truth of Christianity though yet very strong and concluding Proofs these are I doubt it would hardly have met with that ready Entertainment in the World that we find it did But a great many both then and now would have made the same Objection against Jesus Christ and his Gospel that the Pharisees did of old that is to say That all his great Works and Miracles were done by Sorcery and Magick And that as for the Innocency of his Life and the great Vertue and Strictness that he expressed in his Conversation that was only used as a Trick and an Artifice the more easily to impose upon the World But now when it appears that Jesus who taught this holy Religion who did those Miracles who liv'd that vertuous Life did after he was put to a cruel death rise again to Life and conversed upon earth for forty days together and after that in the presence of many Spectators did ascend into Heaven I say when this appears as God be thanked it is evident beyond all contradiction here is no room left for any suspicion of this nature but all pretences of Imposture do perfectly vanish It is impossible for any considering man to believe Christ's Resurrection and at the same time to doubt of the truth of his Religion For thus let us reason Christ over and over again told his Apostles that he should be put to death but after that he would within three days rise again Matth. xvi 21. xvii 22. John xvi 16. Nay he told this not only to the Apostles but to all the People nay more than that he gave this as a Token as an Evidence to them whereby they should know and be convinced that he was what he gave himself out to be the Son of God and the great Prophet and Saviour that was to come John ii 19. Nay in the last place he not only refers the Jews to his Resurrection as an Evidence of his being the Christ but as the last and greatest Evidence that he had to give And such as if they were not convinced by they must expect no other Matth. xii 39 40. Our Saviour now laying such a mighty stress upon this point of his Resurrection putting his whole cause as I may speak upon this Issue I ask How is it possible to imagine that God Almighty should make these predictions of our Saviour good if he was not really what he pretended to be If Christ had been an Impostor it had been the easiest matter in the World to have stifled all his pretences for ever It had but been to have let him mouldered to dust in his Grave as all other men do and as He without the help of Omnipotency would have done and then all the World would have seen that he was a Deceiver But now when in stead of perishing in the Grave he was after three days restored to life again as he had foretold the People nay to a gloririous immortal Life What are we to conclude from
For as the same Psalmist tells us Psal 33.5 He loveth righteousness and judgment the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. He is holy in all his ways Psal 145.17 9. and righteous in all his doings and his tender mercies are over all his works To say That God deals arbitrarily with any of his Creatures or that He dispenseth Good or Evil to them meerly because He will without any other Reason is in truth to disparage His Nature and gives us such a notion of Him as we have perhaps of some of the Great Monarchs of the World but whom we are far from esteeming the Best Men. No certainly if we Mankind find in our selves that the wiser and better we grow the less are we led by Humour and Will and the more do we shake off our Indifferency to Good and Evil and the more steadily do we cleave to the eternal Laws of Reason and Righteousness in all our Actions We may be sure that God who is Wisdom and Justice and Goodness it self can never in any of his Actions or Dealings with his Creatures depart from these Principles The true Scheme of God Almighty's Government is plainly this His Infinite Mind clearly understood all the Possibilities of things long before they were in actual being He knew what things were possible to be and how they would act if they were put into being and what the Events of all their Actings would be His Infinite Goodness moved him to put into actual being every thing that he saw was Good to Be and to give them all those powers of Action that they have and withal to look after them so as that both they and all their Motions and Actions should at last be to the Praise and Glory of the same Goodness that first enclined him to create them His Infinite Wisdom contrived the Methods in which all this should be brought to pass and so laid the Scheme and Platform of things that nothing could happen in the whole Creation from the beginning of the World to the end thereof tho' it was in it self never so bad never so mischievous but what both might and should be so ordered as to be subservient to that end And lastly The Scheme of Things being thus laid His Infinite Power first produced All things and still upholds All things and from time to time in their several seasons actually brings to pass every thing according to the Determinations of his eternal Wisdom And tho' it doth it in ways secret to us yet it doth it certainly and surely and withal most easily and gently with the least violence to the establish'd Laws of Nature and without any force at all upon the Free Wills of Intelligent Beings This I say is the Account that both Reason and Scripture give us of God's Making and Governing the World Infinite Knowledge is the Foundation of All. Infinite Goodness is the Author and Mover of All. Infinite Wisdom is the Contriver and Director of All. And Infinite Power executes All. Admit now these Principles and see what will follow from them It will follow from hence in the first place that every Event that happens in the World is beautiful in its season as Solomon expresses it That is to say How unaccountable soever it may appear to us yet there is a good Reason to be given both why it happens at all and likewise why it happens at that time and with those circumstances that it doth It helps to adorn the Great Drama and Contrivance of God's Providence and ministers to excellent Ends tho' we poor Creatures do little apprehend how it makes for them As indeed it is impossible we should unless we had the whole Comprehension of Things in our Minds and saw the entire Scheme of God's Government from the beginning to the end This must needs be so if we be Govern'd by Infinite Wisdom Secondly It follows from hence that both Good and Evil are measured to Mankind according to their respective Capacities If we be fit for Good Good will come If we deserve Punishment we must expect that likewise For All God's ways are equal tho' Ours be unequal And therefore it is the most unreasonable thing in the World to impute our Successes whether they be Good or Bad so wholly to the immediate Hands that managed our Affairs as not in the first place to take notice of the Hand of God in them There is a Divine Power that governs all these matters And tho' it be true that no Misfortune no ill Success ever happens but there is a Human Reason to be given for it and it may be found out upon what occasion or by what neglect or thro' what ill management that Misfortune happened Yet it is as true that if those that managed for us had the Wisdom and the Conduct and the Strength of the very Angels of God yet their Endeavours would not be effectual for the making us happy unless we our selves were in a Capacity of being so by being proper Objects of God's Mercy and Favour This must likewise be true if perfect Justice govern the World Thirdly It follows from hence that even the severer Dispensations of God's Providence toward us the things we complain of and are uneasie under our very Calamities and Misfortunes and Disappointments even these are the effects of God's Kindness tho' at the same time they may be likewise Instances of His Justice That is to say they are meant really for our Good and will prove so if we make that use of them we should do The very Nature of God is to do all Good at all Times to all his Creatures For He had no other End in making them nor has he any other End in looking after them But God cannot do good to All in the same way Correction and Chastisement and Punishment is in some cases more expedient for the bringing People to Rights and promoting their true Interests than the giving them all that their own Hearts can wish In such cases therefore God must deal with his Creatures as every wise Parent deals with his Children And tho' these Chastisements as the Apostle tells us are not joyous but grievous yet are they design'd for the bringing forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness in all them that are exercised thereby The truth is we do not know what is good for our selves We often wish for things that perhaps if our wishes were granted would undo us But our Happiness is that God knows all and so tempers all that all Events even those that we are apt to look upon as the greatest Judgments shall at last appear more visibly to have been the wisest methods that could possibly have been contrived for the doing the Greatest Good to us And if they do not succeed accordingly it will be our own fault This must likewise needs be true if perfect Goodness govern All For even Justice it self is but a different way of expressing Goodness And all that which