SERMONS PREACHED Partly Before His MAJESTY AT WHITE-HALL And Partly Before ANNE Dutchess of York AT THE CHAPPEL at S t JAMES By HENRY KILLIGREW D. D. Master of the Savoy and Almoner to his Royal Highness LONDON Printed by J. M. for R. Royston Bookseller to His most Sacred Majesty MDCLXXXV THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER THERE are so many Sermons upon all sorts of Subjects already extant that the Author of these had he been perfectly left to his own liberty would not have increased the Number But there were some Reasons which made it in a manner necessary for him to add unto the Heap though as the common complaint goes it be grown too big And none were more forcible to extort them from him than the kindness he hath for some persons Which every one that feels any touch of that passion knows to have a power to constrain us unto those things which merely for our own satisfaction alone we should not chuse to do Some near Relations that is were desirous to converse with him by the help of these Discourses when he is dead and were perswaded withal that others might now reap some profit by them in the reading whom the lowness of his Voice could not reach when they came to hear them No man I can bear him witness is more sensible than he that there are more elaborate and more universally useful Sermons and Tracts already in the peoples hands but Mankind having several tastes as well as faces and very different relishes it is possible these Discourses may be better fitted to some palates and touch some hearts more smartly than those which in themselves may be more excellent This I can say of them That there are many seasonable Truths delivered in them and expressed in words so apt so pure and clean that while they display the Object which they represent they strengthen and cherish the sight In short they both instruct and delight satisfie the appetite and excite it present solid nourishment and give it a grateful taste Nothing here I am sure is insipid much less nauseous nothing feeble and flagging much less dead but there is quickness and life every where both in the sense and in the Style Which may please even this delicate not to say fastidious Age wherein things very commendable are wont to be disrelished But whether the nice and curious be pleased or no the Author is not concerned if the pious and vertuous reap any profit by these Sermons and be the better for them And then we grow better when as the Apostle speaks we approve the things that are excellent or things that differ not entertaining falshood under the appearance of truth nor evil under the shew of Good but having a right judgment in all things and making the same difference between good and bad in our lives that we do in our minds preserve our selves sincere and without offence unto the Great Day of Judgment Ian. 26. 1684 5 S. Patrick The CONTENTS SERMON I. On Christmas-Day 1 John iii. 5 And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins and in him is no sin SERMON II. On January the 30 th 1 Sam. xii 25 But if ye shall still do wickedly ye shall be consumed both ye and your King SERMON III. John ii 4 Woman what have I to do with thee mine hour is not yet come SERMON IV. On Wednesday before Easter Dan. ix 26 And after threescore and two Weeks shall Messiah be cut off but not for himself SERMON V. On Good Friday Zech. xiii 6 And one shall say unto him What are these wounds in thine hands Then shall he answer Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends SERMON VI. On Easter-Day Rom. viii 11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you SERMON VII On the 29 th of May. Psal. ii 6 Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Sion SERMON VIII On Whitsunday John xvi 8 And when he is come he will reprove the world of sin of righteousness and of judgment SERMON IX and X. Mark vii 37 He hath done all things well he maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak SERMON XI Amos iii. 2 You only have I known of all the Families of the Earth therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities SERMON XII Psal. cv 44 45. And he gave them the lands of the heathen and they inherited the labour of the people That they might observe his statutes and keep his laws SERMON XIII Mark viii 2 3. I have compassion on the multitude because they have now been with me three days and have nothing to eat And if I send them away fasting to their own houses they will faint by the way for divers of them came from far SERMON XIV Luke xvi 9 Make to your selves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness that when ye fail they may receive ye into everlasting habitations SERMON XV. On the Fifth of November Psal. xi 3 If the foundations be destroyed what can the righteous do SERMON XVI John xvi 23 Whatsoever ye shall ask the father in my nome he will give it you SERMON XVII Luke xvii 37 And they said unto him Where Lord And he said unto them Wheresoever the Body is thither will the Eagles be gathered together SERMON XVIII and XIX 1 Pet. iv 8 And above all things have fervent Charity among your selves for Charity covereth the multitude of Sins SERMON XX. and XXI Matth. xxii 46 On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets SERMON XXII Lam. iii. 39 40. Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins Let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord. The First Sermon 1 JOHN iii. 5 And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sin and in him is no sin THE main Drift and Scope of Saint John throughout this whole Epistle is to perswade the Christians to whom he writes Not to sin These things says he in the former Chapter I write unto ye that ye sin not For such Christians it seems there were then as well as now who believed that the Faith and a wicked Life were not inconsistent together that men might profess the Gospel and not forsake their Vices They acknowledged Christ to be the promised Messiah and Saviour that was to come into the World but they understood not rightly wherein Salvation consisted viz. that 't was not only in the remission of sins but in the reclaiming men from the commission of them not only in taking away their guilt but in reforming their evil lives The Apostle therefore to set them right in a matter of so high concernment alledges in the foregoing Chapter many Reasons against their indulging themselves in any vicious course As the
the Earth below So at the End of the World when God shall come to judge it he will distinguish and separate the Mass of men according to the Quality of their Works and those who have set their Hearts on heavenly things shall be thought worthy of Heaven and to reign for ever with him and his holy Angels in Glory and those who have hated heavenly things and set their Affections on things below corrupted themselves with the Vices of this Life to use the Psalmists words shall be turn'd into Hell And the revealing of this Mystery does vindicate the Justice of the Deity and absolve Providence from the Censures and hard Speeches of men for our Lord has plainly taught That there shall be a Day of calling all Flesh to account for what they have done in this Life and however the Good and Bad are promiscuously join'd at present and seem to be every way alike and equal to one another though they be in the same Field as he says or the same Bed yet one shall be taken and the other left Again in another place The hour is coming when all that are in the Graves shall come forth those that have done Good unto the Resurrection of Life and they that have done Evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation And this being asserted by the mouth of Truth it self and also the Fundamental Part of our Creed which sustains its whole Frame and Fabrick it will be sufficient thus to have illustrated it without bringing any Proofs of the Matter The Article of Christ's judging the Quick and the Dead though it be last in Place in the Confession of our Faith yet it is the first in Office and Importance and has an Influence on all the Articles that go before it and which would be of no Consequence without it For what avails it to believe there is a God if neither in this Life nor in the Life to come he will make any Difference between the Righteous and the Wicked What profit is it to believe a Redeemer or a Saviour if there be no Salvation or Damnation That there is a Holy Ghost if in the Issue it shall be all one to those that are Sanctify'd and to those that are not Sanctify'd The very Equity and Reason of the thing that there should be a Day of Judgment is a sufficient Demonstration that there shall be such a Day Instead therefore I say of bringing Proofs of this Doctrine I shall rather advise men to make the best Use of it and not to be deceived with the present Uniformity and Identity as 't were of the Condition of the Godly and Ungodly in this World but to reflect on what is said of the Severe Scrutiny that shall be at the Last Day when the present Mask shall be pull'd off from the Face of the World and no Action whatsoever be concealed when the secret Sins as well as secret Counsels of Princes whatever they have done amiss or been the Authors of others doing amiss without regard to their Persons shall be laid open when the delinquencies of the Meaner Sort shall not be past over or lost in Oblivion by reason of the Obscurity of their Condition When the Nice in point of Fame and Reputation but regardless of their Innocence shall have their Sly and close Sins ript open and publisht to their greater Confusion before Men and Angels When the Player and Actor in Religion the Hypocrite shall be stript of his Vizard and Mantle of Holiness and the loathsome Vices concealed under them exposed For as 't is said At the coming of Christ Anti-Christ shall no longer deceive the Nations So it shall arrive to all those that have liv'd Anti-Christs at the coming of Christ to Judgment they shall no longer deceive however successful their Cozenages have been in this Life The Children of Darkness are many times to outward Appearance clad in richer Robes of Righteousness and make a goodlier Shew of Piety and Devotion than the Children of Light But in the Day that God shall make up his Jewels as the Prophet Malachi speaks he will distinguish the true from the false and however the Counterfeit Vye at present in Lustre with the right and Orient and exceed them in Magnitude then it shall be seen what trash they are Which if men would duely consider and that this Tryal and Examination of all Flesh is not only to lay open their Actions to the Eye of the Judge for alas he knew them in the hour they were committed or yet to expose them only to Shame before the innumerable Host of Men and Angels that will be there assembled for that is but the Beginning of the Evils they are to expect But 't is that every One may receive a Reward according to his Merit as our Lord says They that have done Well Everlasting Glory and they that have done Evil Everlasting Fire I say if men would seriously consider this they would anticipate this Work of Tryal and Judgment while time was allowed them to do it they would tear off their Disguises of Sin before they were stript of them they would distinguish and separate themselves from the Wicked by a Holy Life before the Great Day of Separation of the Just and Unjust prevent God's severe Sentence on their Misdeeds by their own severe Condemnation of them before-hand that whether they labour at the Mill or in the Field in the City or in the Camp whatever their Callings and Employments be they may be of the number of those that are taken and not of those that are left And let this suffice to be said of my first Observation That at the last Day there shall be an exact Discrimination between the Righteous and the Wicked I proceed to my Second Observation That there shall be some particular visible Place to which all men shall be brought to Judgment Although it be in the Power of the Almighty where-ever Sinners shall be found at the last Day there to sentence and send them to Hell and where-ever the Righteous shall be found from thence to translate them to Heaven Yet as 't is the manner of Earthly Princes to summon their People to receive Justice at some certain Place their chief City where their Court and ordinary Residence are so it seems good to the Wisdom of God to assemble all Persons both Just and Unjust to one Place of Common Judicature and Writers do most probably conceive the place shall be Jerusalem the City of God's most visible Residence on Earth And that for these two Reasons 1. For the Reparation of Christ's Honour Because he suffered there not only the Scorn and Despight of the Jews who put him to a cruel unjust and shameful Death but the Affronts also of all Nations gathered together at the Feast of the Passover it being God's will that he should receive Reparation and Amends where he had received the greatest Outrage and Indignity and that the Prophecy of Zechary should be
fulfill'd in the most eminent Manner They shall look on him whom they pierced 2. For the clearer Conviction and more sensible Compunction of those that denyed and murdered him For as it is the Custom again among Men to send Malefactors to be judged and executed near the Place they committed their Crimes the more to awaken their Guilt so God the more first to awaken and then to confound the daring and relentless Infidelity of our Lord's Crucifiers who after all their Persecutions wish'd his Bloud might be on them and on their Children has determin'd to pass the Sentence of Condemnation on them in the Place they perpetrated their Crimes And the Prophecy of Joel Chap. 3. seem'd to some of the Antients to countenance this Opinion That God will assemble all Nations to Judgment in the Valley of Jehoshaphat which was near adjoining to Jerusalem says the Prophet Assemble your selves all ye Heathen and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat for there I will sit to judge c. Multitudes multitudes in the Valley of Jehoshaphat for the Day of the Lord is near in the Valley of Decision Which Prophecy whatever earlier Accomplishment it had in God's judging the Heathen that were Enemies to Israel yet the Principal Completion of it has been thought to point at the last Universal Judgment And 't is a General Perswasion of the Jews that the Tryal of all Men at the Last Day shall be at Jerusalem but not understanding That the Dead shall be gathered together by the Office and Ministry of Angels they say That in whatever remoter Parts of the World they dye in their Dispersion their Bodies by the Power of God shall be roll'd along through the inward and secret Parts of the Earth to Jerusalem the Place assigned for their Resurrection and the Appearance of all Men. But now after all that has been said though we conclude not peremptorily and chorographically Where or over what Part of the Earth Christ will erect his Throne for Judgment the Scriptures being silent or very obscure as to the Place yet there is nothing that they deliver more plainly than that the Great Session or Assize at the End of the World shall be Conspicuous and Dreadful and they seem even solicitous and industrious in describing the formidable Manner of it to make in mens minds a deeper impression of the Terrours of the Lord as the Apostle calls them And as we have two Corporal Senses or Inletts of Fear into the Soul the Eye and the Ear the Word of God makes the Terrours of Dooms-Day to consist in the Objects of both these Senses viz. in fearful and amazing Sounds and in Prodigious and Ghastly Sights For 't is said That the Lord shall descend from Heaven in a Shout with the Voice of the Arch-Angel and with the Trump of God and the Dead shall rise and the Sun shall become black as Sackcloth and the Moon red as Bloud and the Stars shall fall and the Heavens be roll'd up like a Scrole c. A Picture of such Horrour which no Phancy of Man could ever have drawn or possibly conceiv'd if it had not first been Divinely revealed and though we look upon this Scheme or Draught of the Lord 's coming at present with little Concern because we suppose it to be at a great Distance yet if we would consider that the holiest Persons of old were as dead men at the Sight only of an Angel though coming to them in a familiar Shape and with a gracious Message and that we our selves are beside our selves but at the fansy'd Appearance of a Spectre or Ghost or any other Supernatural Occurrent what must our amazement and Confusion be when we shall behold the whole World in a Flame the Visible Heaven and Earth passing away with tumultuous Thunders Lightnings and Earthquakes When we shall hear the Crack of the dissolving Universe and the Groans of dying Nature when we shall behold not only one Evil Spirit but the whole accursed and damned Crew in their Horrour again when we shall behold not only one Angel but all the Host of Heaven and their Lord and ours sitting in the midst of them with all the annexes of Majesty and Terrour And this dreadful Spectacle not like one of the Visions of the old Prophets which concerned not the Beholder himself but others but such as concerns the Eternal Woe or Welfare Salvation or Damnation of every Person there present i. e. of all that ever came or shall come into the World When our Lord discoursed of these things to his Disciples and of the dreadful manner of the Destruction of the Jewish Nation as a Prelude to it they were too big for their Imaginations to conceive or their Faith to digest and they could not or durst not understand him they were in the like Astonishment the three Disciples were in at his Transfiguration when Peter said not knowing what he said Let us make three Tabernacles c. So great I say was the Consternation of the Disciples at our Lord's Words that their Reason and Spirits were in a kind of Deliquium or Swoun as well as their Faith And they answered and said unto him Where Lord a Question not of Curiosity but of Terrour and Doubt And even still to this day we find men more inclin'd to distrust what is taught of the last Judgment than to be warn'd and edify'd by it to think the things affirmed of it impossible than to follow S t Peter's Advice and to consider what manner of Persons they ought to be seeing the World shall be dissolved And so I pass to my last Observation The Vnwillingness of Men to believe a Judgment-Day So weak is the Nature of man or such is the Subtilty of our Spiritual Adversary the Devil that even when we are convinced of the Substance of many Truths yet by reason of the Strangeness and Unconceiveableness of some Circumstances of them we let go the very Substance of the Truths again and the best Men have been sometimes subject to this Infirmity The Psalmist was throughly instructed in this fundamental Truth That there was a God that judged in the Earth yet because he saw the Righteous opprest and the Wicked in prosperiry he stagger'd in his Faith and his feet as himself confesses had well-nigh slipt The Blessed Virgin could not but believe the Message of an Angel appearing at Noon-day and out-shining the Brightness of the Noon-days Light but because she was to conceive miraculously without the knowing of a man some Scruple remained in her holy breast of the Event of the Prediction The Israelites heard from their Prophets of whose Divine Mission they doubted not That if they went on in their Transgressions their Temple should be destroyed and themselves led Captive by the Gentiles but then the Conceit that God would never suffer these things to be done for his own Glory whatever their Demerits were that if they were remov'd he would want a People and if
Text but the People of whom he was King For though a wicked King shall certainly bear the burden of his Sins and though the Judgment here denounced by Samuel was after a King was anointed in Israel yet 't was denounced against the Sin of the People committed before there was a King Neither had Saul as yet displeased God he affected not the Kingdom though Israel affected to have a King They are the Israelites therefore that are threatned in the Person and misfortune of their King whom God declares he will involve in their destruction even when he is not involved in their sins and a good King is sooner cut off for the provocation of a Land than a bad but then though he falls 't is the Land that is punished though he be untimely snatcht away 't is the Nation that is judged and condemned But if ye shall still do wickedly ye shall be consumed both ye and your King The Words consist of a Commination or Threat Ye shall be consumed both ye and your King And the Case wherein the Commination or Threat shall take place If ye shall still do wickedly I begin with the Commination or Threat Ye shall be consumed both ye and your King The Commination runs high a greater cannot well be denounced 't is only to be fear'd it may suffer the fate of the vain menaces and Rhodomantadoes of men which are most despised when they sound loudest and affect to carry most terrour Ye shall be consumed both ye and your King Why certainly men will say This is some Figurative Hyperbolical Speech which carries not so much danger in it to be feared as difficulty to be understood and sends us to an Interpreter and not an Asylum or Sanctuary Was it ever known that a whole Nation was destroyed as one man Dathan and his Complices 't is true went down into the Bowels of the Earth and it clos'd its mouth upon them but they were not a whole Nation but a seditious Party only Pharaoh and the Egyptians were overwhelmed in the Sea and not one of them escaped but they again were not a King and his People but a King and his Host. The seven Nations of the Canaanites were adjudged to utter extirpation but by reason of the Sins of God's own People the Sentence was not executed with that rigour it was denounced and they were not utterly destroyed Let us see therefore how we are to understand the Commination in my Text How a King and People may be said to be totally consumed A thing may be totally consumed or destroyed two ways simul semel altogether and in a moment as Fire consumes Flax or Gunpowder so that nothing remains but the Place of them Or gradually and by degrees when 't is wasted by little and little as Liquor consumes over the Fire or as a Body is extenuated by Sickness Now though God perhaps through the greatness of his Mercy has never consumed a whole Nation in the fullest and strictest sense of either of these two Ways yet so dreadful have been his Judgments and so universal the Destruction he has wrought that there will be no cause to say There is an Hyperbole in the Commination in my Text. The first way God practised when he caused the ten Tribes and their King to be carried away captive by Shalmanezer into Assyria with a swift destruction and the other two Tribes and their King by Nebuchadnezzar into Babylon This way also God practised when he gave this Nation up to the Conquest of the Normans Or as the Tragedy on this Day should rather prompt us to remember when he permitted the Bloud of our righteous Sovereign after the slaughter of many thousands of his Loyal Subjects to be spilled by the hands of execrable Villains and together with that sacred Sluce broke-up all the Floud-Gates of Impiety and suffered it to overwhelm the Land with wickedness and ruine as the World was once overwhelmed with a Deluge of Water At which time we may affirm Death or a change like Death past upon all the Rich became poor and the Poor rich the Nobles were debased and the Scum of the People exalted the Loyal were accounted Traytors and Traytors Loyal Oppression and Cruelty sat in the Seats of Justice Hypocrisie and Blasphemy in the Chair of Religion and an abject Villain in the Throne of Majesty And when the Kingdom was reduced to this State may we not say it was destroyed simul semel altogether and at once both King and People and that nothing remained of what had been but the Place and Memory The Scripture says Adam dyed on the Day he eat of the forbidden Fruit though he survived nine hundred and thirty Years after because he fell then into an evil condition and forfeited all his happiness Again the Scripture calls Damnation Eternal Death not because the Bodies and Souls of Sinners shall be extinguish'd but eternally tormented Life consisting not so much in duration as in felicity And in this sense when a Kingdom has lost its Felicity and Glory its Laws and Liberty its King and Religion though a Remnant of the People be left it may deservedly be said To be totally and utterly destroyed God practised the second way of destroying a whole Nation when he consumed the Israelites in the Wilderness by such slow and lingring paces that a new Generation was grown up by the time that the old was expired and the Children were ready to enter into the Land of Canaan as soon as their Fathers Graves were made in the Wilderness God thus punishing them after the manner they had transgressed as they had grieved him forty Years he consumed them for forty Years together And when ever a Nation is seen to decline in Piety Vertue Policy Wealth Reputation the Number of its People and the like when private interest takes place in mens hearts before the Publick when Trade Vigour and Industry languish then this lingering Curse works and ferments I may seem both ill-affected and also to intrude into a Secret that cannot be known if I should pronounce that this Kingdom lay at this present under this slow and lingering destruction as it has been more than once a miserable Instance of the other quick and total destruction But it may become me and all that hear me this day to fear and endeavour to prevent so dreadful a Judgment especially when so many and sad Symptoms of it seem to appear For not to name our Consumptions of late Years by War by Pestilence and by Fire we see the Moral and Spiritual Consumptions of Piety and Vertue and as fearful an encrease of Riot Prophaneness and Irreligion Popery gains upon the true Religion on one side and Fanaticism on the other and Atheism the Vorago of all other Sects and Schisms daily swallows up Popery and Fanaticism Again we hear plentiful Years complain'd of that the People are impoverished by the great encrease of the Land Abundance cry'd out against
from paying him Obedience that they knew him not from acknowledging him their King that they crucifi'd him They dreamt of a second Joshua for their Messiah not of a Melchizedeck of a fighting not a preaching King when therefore he rebuk'd their Vices they conspir'd his Death and cut him off instead of cutting off their Sins 'T was no wonder therefore that God allow'd but one Week of Years for the destroying so Carnal so wicked so ungrateful a People 'T is an Ominous and Fatal Sign when God has given Eminent Deliverance to a Nation and allow'd it time for the Re-establishing it self if at least in the second place it makes not Religion and his Worship its Business but falls from Secular Employments to Sensual and Sinful never reflecting either why he did so severely punish them or why again so Graciously Restore them We of this Nation attend not the fulfilling of the Weeks foretold by Daniel for the Coming of the Messiah in the Flesh his Cutting off and the Destruction of Jerusalem these things are already past But there are other Weeks in which we are concern'd which are not yet fulfill'd viz. the few Weeks before God may possibly call us to account for the ill Use we have made of his Glorious Restoration of our King and Nation and his other Illustrious Mercies Or if in his Wisdom he shall think fit to adjourn this Account to the General Audit at the Last Day then the very few Weeks before we that are here present shall be seal'd up for that Dreadful Day by our Departure out of this Life And in the mean time we have daily an Image or representation of that Great Assize of the Whole World in the Absolution which the Church pronounces to Penitent Sinners and consequently in binding over to Judgment the Impenitent For though the Righteous are not juridically and finally absolv'd in this World nor the Wicked condemn'd yet the Issue that both are to expect is foreshew'd and however there seems for a time a Forgetfulness of the one and the other that the Just appear to go away without their Reward and the Unjust to be Tenants to an Easie Lord that will never call them to account yet they will receive their Recompence according to what they have done in this Life and find though Christ suffered for Sin he never suffered or tolerated Sin but that his Death will prove Effectual for their Condemnatition for whom it prov'd not Effectual for their Salvation The Reason that Men put off the Fear of the Lord 's Coming to Judgment or think his Coming but a Fable is because they consider not how far he is already advanc'd on his Way towards them how many Stages he has past and how very near he is come He is advanc'd long since to the Destruction of Jerusalem there 's the first prophesy'd Stage of his Coming and so many Weeks of Years past Secondly His Gospel is preach'd through the World Christ is arriv'd so much Nearer on his Journey towards us Thirdly Anti-Christ is come the Apostle speaks of him as entred into the World though as 't were incognito or conceal'd in his time but now for many Years he has shew'd himself openly and raged in the Church and there 's the Third Sett of Weeks foretold for Christ's coming past So that there remains but one Parcel of Weeks more before we shall see him at our very Doors i. e. coming in the Clouds of Heaven to judge the Quick and the Dead We have seen three Predictions of his Coming actually fulfill'd and is it possible our Sins should perswade us that he will tire by the Way and that the fourth shall not come to pass The Night succeeds not the Day Winter the Summer so certainly as Christ's Second Coming shall succeed in the time appointed And seeing these things shall be so what manner of Persons as S t Peter says ought we to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness My Text says Christ was not cut off for Himself let us take care to be of the Number of those he was cut off For and not of those he shall be cut off From. And so I pass to my Second General Part the Angel's Direction for the right Understanding of his Prediction He shall be cut off but not for himself The Words in the Original ve en lo which our Translators render but not for himself and in the Margent and shall have nothing are so concise and abrupt that they leave place to several Apprehensions to add what they think will best fill up their Sense But all that is offered being merely conjectural and also less edifying than what we read in our own Bibles I shall not decline what I there find And it may be understood in two Respects That Christ was cut off and not for Himself 1. In Respect of any Demerit or Fault of his There were many that pretended to be the Messiah that were Thieves and Murderers and were cut off but 't was justly for their Offences But the Angel prevents here the least Suspicion that the True Messiah should be a Guilty Person cut off for his own Crimes He did no Sin as S t Peter says neither was Guile found in his mouth But he could make that bold Challenge to all the Nations of the Jews Which of you convinceth me of Sin It fared indeed with him as it did with David a good King and his Type who Psal. the 59 th and the 3 d complains of his Enemies after this manner They lye in wait for my Soul the Mighty are gathered against me not for My Transgressions nor for my Sin O Lord they run and prepare themselves without my Fault No if any man could take away our Messiah by justly alledging Impiety against him we would readily deliver him up our selves But when he was Holy in his Life and Doctrine when his Righteousness was attested from Heaven before and in and after his being in the World by Prophecies Miracles by the Voice to use S t Peter's expression which came to him from the Excellent Glory saying This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased by his Resurrection Ascension and sending the Holy Ghost we may well adhere to such a Saviour and excuse the seeming Shame of his Cutting off for those real Glories which none beside himself ever pretended to 2. Not for himself in respect of any Benefit he received If the Angel had told the Prophet That the Cutting off of the Messiah had been for any Personal Advantage of his own though he had taken Death in the Way to that Advantage his Suffering had not been Relative to Others it had been for Himself But the Scripture disclaims this and affirms 'T was for our Redemption our Salvation our being Reconcil'd to God and instated in Glory that Messiah suffered For he being enthron'd already in Heaven what could he gain to himself by taking our wretched Flesh and undergoing all the Miseries and
in the most General and Universal comprehension both of Prince and People not of the Prince alone as some are willing to reckon the Benefits his Majesty has receiv'd not to revere him the more for being so much in God's Favour but to make him more indebted to God than themselves as if because this is call'd the King's Day all the Mercies of it and all the Thanks for them were to be put upon his account Undoubtedly the Kings Obligations to Heaven are infinite but was he only restor'd this Day to his Crown and Country Or were not all we likewise re-call'd from the same Banishment or from Prisons and Sequestrations Dungeons and Gibbets at home to enjoy our Lives and Liberties our Religion and Estates Has all the delicious Fare of the Land been serv'd to the Kings Table All the Gold Lace been worn upon his Back Nay but I behold many at this instant standing like Kings in the presence of the King and 't is to be complain'd of that the Enjoyments of many Out vie his in their proportion Is there then no Thanks of our Own due to God We have this Obligation even more than the King has that we have him that we enjoy this Principle of Union this Bond of Peace this Foundation of Security and Prosperity O let us not forget in the loud Joys and Gaiety and Festivity of this Day the days of Sadness and Silence of Scarcity and Doubtfulness of Soul when we had no King when a Villain sat on the Throne when our Hatred and Aversion rul'd over us the Scourge of Loyalty and the Oppressor of Religion and Justice Let us not forget the Time when to be Noble was to be Guilty and to be Loyal an Enemy to the State Again when to be a Mechanick made room for the Person in the Places of Honour and a Fanatick qualify'd him for the highest Charges and Honours and our Great Ones bow'd down to these or bow'd under the saddest Misery The remembrance of these things will make us readily acknowledge the Mercies of this Day to have been General to us all and not only heighten but sanctifie our Joy make the Feast resound with Thanksgiving and Praises of God and not wholly to be spent in loose and confus'd Mirth Riot and Excess it will preserve us from falling into that Fatal Ingratitude which accompanies Prosperity and which God in the People of Israel warns all Nations of and yet which all more or less fall into The forgetfulness of the Arm that deliver'd them and the Goodness that made them Great And in the midst of our Felicity we shall remember our Duty and our Ease shall not corrupt our Manners nor our Prosperity and Affluence be snares to us And God will repeat and iterate his glorying we have heard this Day not only in the Person of our King but of his Posterity to all Ages even till all Kingdoms are swallow'd up in the Kingdom of Heaven Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Sion Which God of the riches of his Mercy grant to whom be ascribed all Honour Glory and Thanksgiving this day forth and for evermore Amen The Eighth Sermon JOHN xvi 8 And when he is come he will reprove the World of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment GOD who at sundry times and in divers manners says the Apostle spake in times past unto the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son c. as if this were his ultimus conatus the last and utmost Effort or Endeavour of his Power and Goodness to reduce the Sinful and Unbelieving World But by miserable Event it appear'd that this Means prov'd as uneffectual as the former that the World did unto Christ as they had done unto the Prophets before him slew the Son as they had slain the Servants Yet notwithstanding the unfathomable Depths and Riches of the Divine Goodness gave not over here where Reason would have given over but shew'd it self still Infinite where Humane Imagination was Finite bow'd the Heavens again and sent down the third Person in the Trinity the Holy Ghost Pertinacia nostra exhausit Coelum the Obstinacy of Men even drain'd and exhausted Heaven Verbum Caro the Word made Flesh was not sufficient to master this Obstinacy but it must be Verbum Spiritus too the Spirit must become a Word i. e. be sent from Heaven to be a Word in the Mouth of the Apostles to reprove or as the Margent has it to convince the World of Sin And when he is come he will reprove or convince the World of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment To convince is to force the Understanding of the Opposer by strength of Argument to acknowledge the Truth that is contended for And to reprove or rebuke is again but a Moral Conviction of Sin in a person In the Words I shall consider these two things I. The Matter of the Conviction which the Spirit shall bring the World to an Acknowledgment of namely of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment II. The Manner how he shall bring the World to this Acknowledgment viz. by convincing it by irrefragable Arguments I begin with the Matter of the Conviction Sin Râ—ghteousness and Judgment And First He shall convince the World of Sin What Sin it is which is meant here that the Spirit shall convince the World of is doubtful It may well be thought to be the Sin of Cruelty the perverse and barbarous Inhumanity the Jews shew'd when they demanded a Murderer to be releas'd unto them and kill'd the Just One. And we read in Effect Acts 2.36 that it was one of the first Works of the Spirit after his coming to bring three thousand Souls to confess this Sin and shew their Compunction for it for after S t Peter had laid before them how by wicked hands they had crucified and slain the Lord of Life they were prick'd to the heart and said Men and Brethren what shall we do i. e. to be deliver'd from the Sin of Murder or Cruelty But though this Interpretation be plausible it agrees not with the Reason Christ himself gives in the Verse immediately following my Text why the Holy Ghost should convince the World of Sin Of Sin says he because they believe not on me It should seem then it was the Sin of Unbelief that he came to reprove or convince the World of And this is the Opinion of many on the place The truth is Infidelity is a Sin highly injurious to the Deity it makes God a Lyar as S t John says He that believeth not God hath made him a Lyar. It makes him impotent and ignorant How should God perceive says the Wicked Psal. 73.11 is there knowledge in the most High And the faithless Israelites Can God prepare a Table in the Wilderness He smote the stony Rock indeed that the Water gushed out but can he give Bread also and provide Flesh for his People Nay it
Perverse Judgment of Christ and the other things appertaining to God He shall convince the World says he de Peccato quod dissimulat de Justitia quod non ordinat de Judicio quod usurpat of the Sin which they now cloak or dissemble of the Righteousness which they direct not aright and of the Judgment they unduly exercise But the 11 th Verse clearly opposes this Interpretation and shews that the Judgment spoken of is not meant of the World Actively which the World had made but Passively which shall be made or pass'd upon the World Now the World or Unbelieving Part of it are said to be convinc't by the Judgment that should come upon them in this That the Prince of the World is cast out For he that hath Master'd the Prince broken the Power of his Kingdom and holds him in Vassalage may be accounted to have master'd and subdu'd his People also And the Prince of the World is said to be thus Judg'd two Ways First By spoiling him of his Strength Having spoiled Principalities and Powers he made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in it Coloss. 2.15 What is a Prince when he is stript of his Power When his Counsels and Policies are defeated or detected his Officers arrested his Prisons broke open his Fortresses ruined and dismantled his Harness and Ammunition of War seised and the like And thus Satan was divested and unthroned by Christ and shewed openly to be judged and subdued after the Coming of the Holy Ghost Sin his strong Yoke by which he held Mankind in Bondage and Slavery was broken Guilt the Plea of his Dominion and Tyranny over them taken away by Satisfaction made for it Temptation his great Stratagem made weak and invalid by Grace Death his Sergeant himself mortified the Grave his Prison set open and made only a Dormitory and harmless Through-fare to Life These things were his first Judgment before the great and final Day when the Staff of his Authority was as 't were broken over his head and no Power left him but what those that love Servitude better than Freedom chose their own Destruction before the Salvation purchas'd for them voluntarily give him over themselves These things I say did evince the Fall of Satan as manifestly as the train of Light which follows that which the People call a Falling Star evinces the descent of that Meteor and which possibly our Lord alluded to when he said I beheld Satan as Lightning fall from Heaven But then Secondly Satan is judged Personally for though his Sentence of Condemnation be yet as I may say but Ambulatory in regard of the Execution yet it is Final and Peremptory in regard of the Determination He that has forfeited his Life to the Law and is reserved in Chains in expectation of the next Assize or waits only donec sternuntur Subsellia till the Judge puts on his Robes and the Court sits differs but little from him that has actually received his Doom And such is Satans Condition since the Coming of Christ and the Holy Ghost Datur mora parvula some little stay there is till the Figure of this World be changed and then he goes for ever to his Proper Place And let this suffice to be said of the Matter which the Spirit shall reprove or convince the World of namely of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment I come in the next place to shew the Manner how the Spirit did convince the World The Manner of the Conviction The word in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies as was said either to Reprove or to Convince to convince the Understanding of an Errour or to reprove the Will of a Crime And the Holy Ghost performed both these parts at his Coming First He convinced mens Understandings that they were in Sin under the Guilt contracted by the first Man and that Belief in Christ who was the Seed of the Woman that was to bruise the Serpents head and who had power to cast out the Prince of the World that he should no more abuse the Nations was the only Way to get out of that and all other Sins and to obtain Justification And this was de facto brought to pass in so great a Part of the World 's being converted after the Coming of the Holy Ghost and being content to go down into the Laver of Regeneration the Waters of Baptism to cleanse away their Sins and the Church of Christ in those days might have been compared as Solomon compared the Jewish to a Flock of Sheep newly come up from washing For all these renounced the Prince of this World and acknowledged Jesus Christ to be the only Saviour and those that made use of and improved the Grace given them in Baptism found the Devil a weak and impotent Prince that might easily be resisted and foiled that had no Power but what was meerly precarious and delusive such as might perswade or deceive men into Sin but could not compel them But then as the Holy Ghost wrought this Conviction on the Unbelieving World by what Means did he work it There are two Ways of convincing Mens Judgments The one by Argumentation and necessary Consequence on certain Premisses granted The other by sensible and ocular Demonstration And though the last Way of these by Aristotle and the Masters of Reason be counted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unartificial and less Noble yet in Assurance it goes beyond all manner of Reasoning And this was the Way the Holy Ghost took to Convince the Gain-saying World of the Salvation preached by Christ Our Lord himself also points at this Way Joh. 15.26 where he says to his Disciples When the Comforter is come the Spirit of Truth he shall testifie of me and ye also shall bear Witness Ye also shall bear Witness was not unnecessarily added for a Spirit has no Voice of its own no more than it has Flesh and Bones But the Apostles were the Spirit 's Agents their Sermons were its Voice and their Hands its Organs by which it wrought its Miracles the Epistles of S t Paul and of the rest of the Apostles we may say were the Rhetorick but the Acts of the Apostles were the Logick of the Holy Ghost The truth is whatever other Proofs were brought for the Confirmation of Christian Religion Miracles were the Strength of it the Unresistible Engines that bore down all Infidelity before them and S t Paul Heb. 2.3 shews the Unexcusableness of not yielding to this Conviction How shall we escape says he if we neglect so Great Salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard it God also bearing them Witness with Signs and Wonders and with divers Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Ghost But then here some will say That this Conviction by the Miraculous Operations of the Holy Ghost was indeed a Powerful Conviction to those that were Witnesses of them and saw these things done but
what do they signifie to us upon whom the Ends of the World are come and saw them not To answer this Objection at large would be in Effect to ingage in a Discourse of the whole Subject of the Truth of Christian Religion or the Demonstration Evangelical of which Eusebius the first Christian Historian after the Apostles now extant wrote seven Books I shall therefore content my self in the short time that remains to me to present you by way of Answer only with one Consideration but 't is a Consideration that had great force with S t Augustine and 't is this The very Conversion of the World is the highest Argument imaginable that it was converted by the Miraculous Power of the Holy Ghost For that Man says the Father that can conceive the World should relinquish their long doted on Religion received from their Ancestors with so much Veneration and a Superstitious Conceit that they had been Prosperous under it a Religion so well suited to their Carnal Affections and receive in Exchange of it a New Religion derived from so despicable and infamous an Author as a Mean Man crucified by his own Nation and the very Principles of which were so harsh to Flesh and Blood and contrary to all worldly Glory and Interest That Man says S t Augustine that can conceive this could be done without Miracle is himself a greater Miracle than those he thinks so hard to be believed There were among the Roman Fencers of old one sort that with a Net and Trident maintained Combate against their Opposers armed with a Sword and Helmet and were so dextrous as to intangle and vanquish their Adversaries with these Uncouth Weapons The Apostles of Christ those Fishers of Men may be likened to these Retiarii these Fencers with Nets who with the Metaphorical Nooses and Meaches of preaching seconded by the Power of Miracles ensnared and captivated to the Gospel the armed potent proud Idolatrous learned and vicious World And this was the Way the Spirit took at his Coming if we interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Convince the Understanding of the World of its Errors But if we take it in the other Sense redarguet Mundum he shall Reprove the World for its Sins it imports these two things That the Spirit shall shame the World And condemn it First That it shall reproach and shame the World for loving Darkness more than Light Death than Life for lying under Wickedness and Guilt when the Means of becoming Innocent was offered them for chusing things Base and Degenerate before things Noble and Praise-worthy things Vicious and accompanied with Danger rather than things Vertuous though accompanied with Glory and Felicity in a word for chusing rather to perish in their Sins and Ignorance than to be Instructed reformed and saved And as the Spirit shall shame the World for so brutish and sottish a Choice so Secondly it shall Condemn it Shame and Confusion of Face is but the beginning of the Misery of Sinners the consequent of the Discovery of their Wickedness not the Punishment of it What the Wiseman says shall be the Portion of those that love Danger they shall perish in it is true also of those that love Darkness more than Light and the ways of Death than the ways of Life that they shall prove what the Riddle of Eternal Death is of a Death that never dyes and dwell in Eternal Night and Darkness And thus that Spirit which is the Spirit of Love and Gentleness which descended in the Similitude of a Creature that has no Gall nor Anger and whose Office 't is to save to comfort and support shall exercise a Part so contrary to its Name and Nature as to Condemn destroy and confound instead of shewing it self the Spirit of Lenity and Kindness shew it self the Spirit of Indignation and Fury a Froward Chiding and Reproaching Spirit O ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in Heart and Ears says the Holy Ghost by the mouth of S t Stephen which of the Prophets have not your Fathers persecuted and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One of whom ye have been now the Betrayers and Murderers Stephen who dyed the Example of Meekness the Miracle of Patience and Charity inspired by the same Divine Spirit lived a sharp Reprover and severe Condemner of their Hardness of Heart and Unbelief And now Beloved to make some Application of what has been said Are the things we have heard this day remote and unconcerning Stories Tales only of the Apostles Times and Events at the first preaching of the Gospel Or is it not still the Business of the Spirit to Convince the World of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment To rebuke and reprove it for the little or ill Use it has made of the Unvaluable Benefits offered it by Christ To Judge and Condemn it for preferring the Ways of Death and Destruction before those of Life and Salvation even rejecting and crucifying the Lord of Glory a second time by their Sins 'T is true the Extraordinary Miraculous Operations of the Holy Ghost are ceased but his Ordinary his Inward Reproofs and Convictions by the Outward preaching of the Word his converting sanctifying and justifying of some and final Condemnation and sealing up of others in their Impenitence still remain Christ's Work of our Salvation lasted but a while and had its Period on the Cross but the Spirit of Christ which came after him had no Period no Hitherto of his working but his Operations continue to the End of the World And 't is wonderful to consider That after so many Unwearied and powerful Endeavours of the Spirit for sixteen hundred Years that so much gross Infidelity and so many scandalous Impieties are still in the World That the Unjust and Unmerciful are Unjust and Unmerciful still the Voluptuous and Incontinent are voluptuous and incontinent still the Prophane and Atheistical are prophane and atheistical still the Seditious and Disobedient to Government persist to be so still as if the World were grown too Old to blush or to learn and what was said in Praise of our Lords Constancy and Resolution in Suffering That he Despised the Shame were Commendable also in the Effrontery and Impudence of the World in its Sins That it despises all Shame S t Augustine says That in his Young Unconverted days he boasted of many Sins which he had never committed ne viderer abjectior quo innocentior lest I should have appeared Abject and poor Spirited if I had been known to be Innocent And too many there are in this Age that count the Vices of the Time the Gallantries of it and are as much abasht to come behind in any Lewdness in Vogue as to be late in the Fashion And when things stand thus that those that have given their Names to Christ in Baptism are more profligate Sinners than Turks and Infidels may not Preachers be allow'd to say The World is not yet Converted the Holy
prays well he preaches well he is ever arraigning Sin and the like but caetera sint paria do all things correspond does his private Practice comport with his publick Demeanour his inward Goodness with his outward Austerity as he is Severe against Sin is he merciful to Sinners as he is assiduous in his Calling is he Obedient to his Governours and faithful to his Prince as he exhorts the People to Church does he not debauch them with Factious Doctrines when they come there as he is not Scandalous in his Conversation so is he not Morose Proud or Covetous In a Word does he conform his Whole Life to the Tenor of the Gospel does he indeed do All things well All things that is in a Moral Sense and according to the Measure of a Sincere Honest Man If he does let him carry away our Euge's and our Sophos our Approbations and Applauses But if he does only two or three of these things and those hypocritically and upon Design to give credit to a Cause and to carry on an Interest the Pharisees made long Prayers that they might devour Widows houses and Herod heard John the Baptist gladly and did many things upon his preaching but continued still to live incestuously with his Brother Philip's Wife and at last gratify'd her Malice with the Baptist's head If a few Good Actions may set such a Colour and Varnish upon mens Lives that they ought to be accounted holy Persons the Scenes in our Theatres may pass for the Glorious Heavens and solid Edifices they represent when they are nothing but patcht Clouts and pasted Papers painted and shewed to an artificial Light Lucian's Image of Jupiter in Gold outwardly of a Majestick Form grasping a Thunder-bolt may be allowed to be the Deity that rules the World though it be nothing within but Dust and Cobwebs Soder and Cramps of Iron which hold the miserable Machine from falling asunder I say if we thus make Saints from Shews and Seemings we may fill the Kalendar with Red Letters but we shall adde but few Names to the Book of Life I shall therefore conclude this last Particular with our Lord's advice John 7. 24. Judge not according to Appearance but judge righteous Judgment And now what Use shall we make in general of the Peoples Testimony and Approbation of our Lord shall we likewise justifie his Actions assert his Divine Mission and say He hath done all things well To praise Christ to speak Honourably of him to vindicate him from the Aspersions of Jews and Gentiles and the like is our bounden Duty but all of us here present are his Disciples and Followers all of us Christianissimi Pretenders to be the Chiefest and most Eminent of his Worshippers and we acknowledge not only that he spake the Truth but that he is the Truth even the Eternal Logos and to take upon us to pass a humane Judgment on him and to censure him as one Man censures another to say He is no Seducer or the like were so far from honouring him that it were to be Irreverent and Insolent towards him and to set our selves above him for the Justifier is Greater than the Justified How then must we celebrate his Eternal Generation and Descent from his Father's Bosom for our Redemption in Magnificats sing his Victory over Death and Hell Yes this we must do but not this only for these are still but Empty Words we must adde Deeds to our Praises Obedience to our Magnificats Duty and Service to our Psalms and Hymns the Praises of a holy Life to the Acknowledgments of a thankful Tongue To praise God only with the Voice is to praise him like the Trumpets of the Sanctuary or the Organs of our Churches Or as the Psalmist calls upon the Sun and Moon Fire and Hail Beasts and feather'd Fowls to praise him which all do in a Figure and after a manner in that they are the Works of his hands and proclaim his Wisdom and Power thus also the Devils and Damned Spirits praise him while their Sufferings and Torments declare his Justice But we are to praise God not only passively occasionally and instrumentally like Inanimate Brute or accursed Creatures but intentionally primarily and affectionately as becomes Rational and Intellectual Beings Obliged and illuminated Persons and Believers And as the Faithful do best evidence their Faith by their Works so they best evidence also their Good Opinion of Christ by their Works viz. by following his Precepts then we give our true Approbation of him when we transcribe his Actions and tread in his Steps 't is the Life of a man that expresses his Thoughts of Christ if that be righteous and conformable to his Gospel he has set to his Seal that he is the Messiah and Son of God that was to come into the World proclaims indeed That he has done All things Well But if his Ways are Wicked and repugnant to his Gospel let him praise him never so industriously never so ambitiously with never so loud Vociferations he does but in Effect say He was an Impostor and deceived the People For as S t Paul says of False Teachers Tit. 1.17 They profess that they know Christ but in Works they deny him being abominable disobedient and to every Good Work reprobate So we may say of these false and counterfeit Extollers of Christ that in Words they Approve him but in their Works they Condemn him being abominable disobedient and to every Good Work reprobate How can a Strumpet praise Chastity Or the Sot that is fill'd with Drink like a Spunge say any thing in the Commendation of Sobriety Vertue is praised of her Followers and the best Verdict we can pass on Christ is to imitate him in all holy Conversation to live after his Example is the highest Encomium we can give him To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Glory Worship and Thanksgiving this Day forth and for evermore Amen The Eleventh Sermon AMOS iii. 2 You only have I known of all the Families of the Earth therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities THIS Expression of God's knowing a Thing or Person is taken in Scripture in several Senses Sometimes it is meant literally and in propriety of Speech of the Knowledge of mere Perception and Discerning as when David says Thou knowest my thoughts long before and S t John God is greater than our hearts and Knoweth all things i. e. perceiveth and discerneth all things Sometimes again it is taken Figuratively not for mere Perceiving or Understanding a thing but for the Owning Approving Favouring Blessing of it or the like because these follow upon God's perceiving a Good thing Thou hast Known my Soul in adversity says the Psalmist i. e. Own'd protected and delivered it Again the Lord Knoweth the way of the Righteous and the way of the Ungodly shall perish Knoweth their way i. e. prospereth blesseth and will not suffer it to miscarry like that of the Ungodly
in these days Lord Lord but do not the Will of God A Vain and Superstitious Citation of Christ's Name will avail none in their Prayers his Name is no Charm and if there be no Vertue in the Users of it there will be as little in the Letters or Sound as in other Names Which the Sons of Sceva the Jew found Acts 19. when they call'd over the Evil Spirits the Name of the Lord Jesus in imitation but not with the Faith of S t Paul for the Name protected them not but left them to the Outrage of the Devil strengthen'd and not subdu'd by the undue Invocation of it Saint Peter best interprets these Words in my Name Acts 3. when he cur'd the Lame man in the Name of Christ His Name says he through Faith in his Name has made this man Strong And our Lord himself John 15.7 shews that 't is not the Vocal but Vertual Using of his Name that prevails If you abide in me says he and my Words in you ye shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you So that the true Quatenus or Reason of the Return of men's Prayers the Secret wherein their Strength lyes as Samson's did in his Hair is their Discipleship to Christ or in other words their doing the Will of God this only powerfully insinuates and effectually presses his Name to the Father When mere Nominal Christians present themselves before God in the Congregation of Believers 't is but as Satan intruded Job 1. among the Sons of God they are of their Company but not of their Number neither will they find any Advantage by using Christ's Name God is not to be impos'd upon like Isaac by false Pretences by counterfeit Hands a borrow'd Name or Garments but will discover the Cheat through all and he that to the Righteous is all Ear to the Wicked will be as an Idol that has Ears and hears not those I say that regard not the Words of his Commandments nor understand the Voice of his Spirit are to him also as Barbarians as a People whose Language he understands not Nay and 't is well if it fares no worse with them than not to be understood and that their Petitions are only answered with Silence for God many times breaks forth in Fury and Indignation against such for their double Provocation of him for rebelling against him and presuming to make Addresses for his Favour Vnto the Wicked says God What hast thou to do to declare my Statutes or that thou shouldest take my Covenant into thy mouth seeing thou hatest to be reformed c. Such as these when they make their Prayers add Sacriledge to Disobedience and as they have corrupted themselves they prophane the Ordinances of Religion and God is not only deaf to their Devotion but angry at their Presumption Men themselves are not patient of such an Usage that those that injure them be they never so much their Near Relations should importune them for the highest Benefits And can we imagine that God should brook the bold and impudent Sollicitations of those that Sin against him which are his only Enemies be they Jews or be they Christians Esse Christianum grande est non videri as S t Jerome says 't is a Blessed and Glorious Priviledge to be a Christian but not only to be call'd one and they are hugely deceiv'd as the Father goes on that think a Good Name can profit those that do wickedly a fair Appellation justifie such as have foul Manners If we will have God Kind and Propitious to us we must be first Kind to our Selves if we will have his Ears open to our Prayers we must keep our Ears open to his Commandments we must be Obedient if we expect he should be Gracious like David we must search and try our Hearts whether any Iniquity be found in us for we may assure our Selves where Iniquity is found Favour will not be found There is no Name under Heaven given among men whereby they can be sav'd but that of the Lord Jesus But as we must not trust in a Wrong Name so neither must we trust in the Right Name a Wrong Way we must not entertain Vain Confidences in our Saviour himself hope that he will countenance any thing contrary to his Gospel as S t Paul says Let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from Iniquity Which God give us Grace all to do to whom be ascrib'd all Honour Glory c. The Seventeenth Sermon LUKE xvii 37 And they said unto him Where Lord And he said unto them Wheresoever the Body is thither will the Eagles be gathered together AS the Spirit of God before the time of the Gospel was fain to turn and winde it self as I may say many ways to reclaim the World from Sin So after the Son of God came into the World to preach to it he found it necessary to use many holy Arts to win upon it Sometimes the Convictions of Miracles sometimes the Invitations of Promises sometimes the Terrours of Threats and Judgments as in my Text and those Judgments not only temporal which concerned the Jewish Nation but eternal which concerned all Mankind And we that live in these Days so much nearer the Approach of the final Judgment prophesy'd of by our Lord have reason to deplore the strange Contumacy which is yet seen in the World that the Hearts of men are still so Unalterable from their Evil Ways that those Engines that heretofore were so successful in oppugning Sin should now like antiquated Engines of War become wholly unserviceable those powerful Methods of the Gospel which could convert the Heathen World cannot reclaim the Relaps'd and Apostate If the Preacher does paulo majora canere add Terrours to his Perswasions join the Voice of the Trumpet and even of the last Trumpet to his own Voice leave Christ's Sermons and take his Prophecies for Texts threaten Destruction to restrain Vice Damnation to awe Impiety it effects nothing But where the Pulpit is Ominous Men are Obstinate and Obdurate hear of Christ's coming in the Clouds and their appearing before his Tribunal as unconcerned as they hear a Poetick Fable shew not that Fear and Amazement however mixt with hesitancy and doubting which the yet raw Disciples did upon their being informed of these things And they said unto him Where Lord And he said unto them Wheresoever the Body is thither will the Eagles be gathered together Before I proceed to explain the Words it will be necessary to shew to what they appertain The which that I may do I must have recourse to the 24 th Chapter of S t Matthew where the Subject of which my Text is but a Branch is more fully treated of than by our Evangelist And there we read at the third Verse That the Disciples enquired of our Lord three things When the Time of his Coming the Destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple and the End of the World should be To which
according as his Custom was he framed an Answer not to gratifie the Curiosity of the Askers but to reveal to the World what was the Will of God should be revealed For there are some future Events which the Divine Wisdom thinks fit to make known to men the better to prepare them to receive or avoid them Others again which it thinks fit to hide from them not only to restrain their Curiosity but to prevent their Trouble Our Lord being therefore to speak of Future things and the secret Counsels of God as the Subject was Prophetick he treats of them in a Prophetick i. e. in a more Obscure Strain than when he taught the Doctrines and Precepts of Life Not that there is any imperfection in his expressing himself or uncertainty of that which he foretold but as Solomon says It is the Glory of God to conceal a thing as 't is the Honour of Kings to search out a matter Christ spoke sufficiently plain what his purpose was should then be known and what was not he kept still under a Cloud However therefore there are those that undertake to say He handles one Question precisely to such a Verse and another to such a Verse and the like there are no discernible Transitions in his Discourse but he seems purposely to involve the matter he speaks of to treat sometimes of two Questions together and sometimes of all three promiscuously uttering himself one while literally another while allegorically Which has caused some to conceive that his whole Discourse has respect but to one thing Which some will have to be the Day of Judgment Others to the temporal Destruction only of the Jewish Nation by the Romans expounding the Eagles in my Text of the Roman Standards or Ensigns and all the other Wonders and Prodigies that are mentioned The darkning of the Sun and Moon the falling of the Stars c. allegorically of the Change that should be in the Church and State of Israel parallel to the like Allegory us'd in the second of Joel Some understand by the Eagles in my Text the Elect or Faithful and by the Body about which they shall be gathered together the Person of Christ to which they shall fly as to their Spiritual Food But it seems very strange when the Disciples enquired of our Lord three things and his Words comport so well to the Satisfaction of all three that he should be thought to answer to None or but to one of them which yet we must say if we admit of any of the Interpretations I have instanc't in As therefore not only as more congruous to Reason but to the Passages in our Lord's Discourse we may determine that he answers however indistinctly to all his Disciples Queries And as there is no Question but that he speaks of his Coming to destroy Jerusalem and his wicked Crucifiers So there is as little doubt to be made that he speaks also of the Destruction of the World at the last Day and his coming to judge it For however the Calamity of the Jews was so great the Tragical Circumstances of the Subversion of their Nation so dismal that it was a kind of Dooms-day to them and their particular Destruction may be resembled to the General Destruction of the World Yet they that shall duely consider the formidable Phaenomena or Appearances the Scene of mixt Majesty and Terrour set out by S t Matthew must confess they are Incommunicable to any other Event but his coming to judge the World and the Dissolution of the visible Heaven and Earth and can be affixt to none beside but figuratively and improperly So that not only to accommodate but to appropriate them to a less Accomplishment with the exclusion of the greater seems an Interpretation intolerable I shall not therefore scruple to proceed to understand the Words as I have begun of the last Judgment Particularly that by the Body in my Text or by the Carcase as S t Matthew has it is meant all Persons of the World and by the Eagles the Angels whose Office it shall be as God's Apparators to summon and bring together at the Last Day the Quick and the Dead before the Tribunal of Christ. And the End or Drift of an Emblem or Parable being chiefly to be regarded and not the particular Words rack'd for what Mysteries may possibly be found in them I shall insist no longer at present to consider what Comparisons may be brought from Carcasses and Eagles or the like but observe from the General Scope of the Words these three things I. That at the Last Day there shall be an Exact Discrimination and Distinction between the Righteous and the Wicked II. That there shall be a particular Visible Place to which all men shall be brought together to Judgment III. That Men very hardly or very unwillingly believe these things I begin with the first of these That at the Last Day there shall be an Exact Discrimination made between the Righteous and the Wicked The Almighty and Wise God finds it not Expedient while this World remains continually to be giving outward and ocular Demonstrations either of his Approbation of the Faithful or of his Detestation of the Wicked the most which he does in the Course of his Providence is sometimes to check the Madness of the one that they grow not insupportable and to encourage the Vertue of the other that they may not be dejected but as Solomon says There is no convincing Argument from visible Occurrences of God's love or hatred to either of them And the Unrighteous take from hence no little heart to run on in their Evil Ways and to deride the Faithful for losing the certain pleasures of a present Life for the uncertain Hopes of a future they see no Difference made between themselves and the Godly in this World and they conceive there will be as little in the next flatter themselves that their Sins will either be buried with them in the Grave and forgotten in that long Night or else shuffled and lost in the vast Heap of semblable Transgressions of other men But as it is the Quality of Cold to congeal and unite together into one Lump things heterogeneous or of divers Sorts as Sticks Straws Stones c. and of the Thaw when it comes to dissolve the Union and then the Stones and like heavy Bodies are precipitated Straws and light Bodies float and those of a middle Nature are suspended between both So though in this World the Innocent and Guilty cohabit together and make but one Lump or Corporation yet at the Dissolution of it some Men shall be precipitated into the Bottomless Pit and others again exalted above the Region of the Stars Or else as at the Creation all things made but one Chaos and appear'd to be but of one and the same Nature till God by his Divine Power separated them and then the Lighter flew up to the Heavens or higher Parts of the World and the Heavier settled on
great distance and the Sinner has leave to execute his Wickedness so that the Terrours of Religion work only upon the Good and Faithful while the Worst and most of men despise them But even the boldest and most daring in their Impiety who count Heaven and Hell only the Parables of Scripture and the Fictions of Preachers will boggle in the Cariere of their Sins at the remembrance of a severe Judge and an unrelenting Humane Law and consider whether they can escape if they commit them and will not run on madly to transgress when they see nothing is to be had but Vengeance the Attempt and their Miscarriage their Sin and their certain Death Thus we see Severity is not contrary to the Rules of Charity the Sword in the hand of Justice less instrumental to mens Good than the Scales that the fear of Punishment is a kind of Grace and Principle of Obedience in the Hearts of Wicked men which restrains them from Vice even when it wins them not to the Part of Vertue But then though Severity and Punishment are Noble and necessary Branches of Charity they are not the Natural and Genuine they relate to it but as the Prophet Isaiah says they do to God They are his Works his strange Works his Acts his strange Acts. The Works which Charity delights most in are those that are mild and gentle which not only produce Good but which in themselves are Good which shew Mercy by the Ways of Mercy and are no less beneficial in their Progress than their End And these are the Operations of Charity which our Apostle chiefly recommends here to us and that we may not erre in so Divine a Grace or come short in so important a Duty our best way will be to set before us the Perfectest Exemplar of it that ever was our Lord and Saviour and himself commands us John 15.12 to do this As I have lov'd you says he so love one another thus making his Love to us the Rule or Pattern of our Affection to those of our own Kind And the first Instance of Christ's Love which I shall propose for Imitation is this That as he lov'd us Before we lov'd him lov'd us without any Merit or Invitation on our part lov'd us when we could not love him when we were wholly benumm'd and dead to all heavenly Affections So likewise that we love one another expect not Obligations and Invitations from our Brethren to quicken our Charity towards them but rather delight to begin and be before-hand in our Expressions of Kindness and to have it seen that they come from our selves A natural Spring flows of its own Impulse unbid unprovoked and makes its Way through all Oppositions if it meets a hollow in its Course it fills it up if a light Obstacle it bears it away with its Stream if a great one it swells and passes over it at least pours out still its free Source till it finds or makes a Passage And thus our Charity must take its Rise and flow from its self shew it depends on nought beside that it cannot be obstructed by the want of any Qualifications or yet by any Disobligations of our Brethren Atticus the charitable Bishop of Constantinople when he sent Money to relieve the Poor in the City of Nice commanded that no enquiry should be made in the Distribution of it of what Sect in Religion the Poor were but what their Wants were He that confers his Benefits upon Consideration only of mens agreeing with him in Opinion of their Merit Neighbourhood former Obligations or the like may be just prudent or Grateful but he cannot be said to be Charitable for this is a free unbiass'd disinterested Vertue and if it regards ought in the Good it does beside the Opportunity and Power it has to do it it changes its Nature becomes another thing and assumes a New Name Let no man therefore think he has absolved the Duty of Charity if he be Kind only where his Honour is courted and comply'd with ready to entertain Friendship when he is sought to to be reconcil'd when full Amends is made him But if he will shew this Grace he must first break the Ice and lead the way to Concord Kindness and Beneficence And none think this so hard a Saying as those who would hugely stomach and disdain in case their Neighbour should precede or take place of them upon any Meeting or Encounter as if it were Disparagement to them to sit lower than another at the Table and not to be below him in Vertue to go after him at a Door and not to come behind him in all Goodness If we cannot part with our Passions and Evil Affections for the sake of our Brethren as well as our Money for go our Pride and Animosities as well as our Goods we are Charitable but in part Merciful but in a Case and possibly the Vertue may not be only Imperfect and lame in us but we may be wholly destitute of it for S t Paul says We may bestow all our Goods to feed the Poor give our Bodies to be burnt and yet not have the Grace of Charity Because these things may be done out of Ostentation and not only so but without any Profit or Benefit For put the Case our Brother be not low in Fortune but weak of Undestanding not indigent of outward things but of Instruction and Advice stands in need to be born with not to be reliev'd what Good will our Money do him in these his Infirmities It were as seasonable to apply it to a broken Arm or fester'd Wound to give it to one starving in a Desart where no Food is to be bought If we will be Charitable we must compassionate our Brothers Necessities of what Nature soever they be supply his Wants not gratifie our own Temper The second Instance of Christ's Love which I recommend to our Imitation is this That as he lov'd us not only first and before we lov'd him but lov'd us when we were Enemies to him when we were not only Strangers but Rebels to Heaven when we exercised all the acts of hatred and hostility against it So that we love one another and not think the Obliging and Good Natur'd only worthy of our Kindness but the Discourteous and Injurious Some men are contentious with their Neighbours outrageous to their Children tyrannical to their Inferiors insupportable to their Equals irreconcileable to their Enemies implacable upon every Colour of a Wrong But the Charitable on the other side can Excuse and pardon the most design'd and study'd Injuries see something to commiserate and pity even in mens Injustice can look upon their Malice as their Mistake or Misfortune pray for their Enemies as our Lord did in the very Article of the Death which they have brought upon them Father forgive them for they know not what they do And if we consider rightly Sinners are Ignorant and Mistaken in what they do Fools as the Scripture
Structure of the Body or other Graces of a fair and amiable Person which is the Child only of an abused Fancy begot through Weakness and nurs'd up by fond Conversation Musick Feasts Comedies and other the like Genial Sports and busie Idlenesses of the times and produces no better Effects than Folly dissolute Manners Jealousie discontent Madness c. This Frenzy has obtain'd too much in being the glorified Theme of Poets and Romance-Writers who advance it above all other Concerns of Man's Life whether Secular or Sacred and while they make it the admired Subject of many Fables and the ambitious Pursuit and highest Ornament of their counterfeit Heroes the gilded Poyson is often swallow'd by the more Sober and Vertuous Our Apostle is so far from recommending or in the least degree countenancing of this Dotage that ver 3. he ranks it among the detestable practices of the Heathen and such things as Christians ought to be asham'd of For this Sensual Love in those days was not only an Immorality or Vice but a prime Branch of Idolatry from hence flew all the Cupids from hence came the Temples dedicated to Venus the Divinity of Beauty and the Deities of Women And happy it were if we could say These were not Idols still in the World for if as S t Jerome says every reigning Lust is an Idol set up in our hearts Sensual Love is no inferior Deity Quotcunque habemus Vitia says the Father quotcunque peccata tot recentes habemus Deos iratus sum ira mihi Deus est vidi Mulierem concupivi Libido mihi Deus est as many Vices we have as many Sins so many Gods we have I am angry Anger is a God to me I see a Woman and lust my Lust again's a God to me And the Reason of this is plain Because none of these things can be in us but they must be before God in us for if they can come after God they can agree with and be reconcil'd to God which is impossible and then being before or above him can we say less of them than that they are Gods in us 'T is not the Temple or the Image that constitutes the Idolatry but the Shrine the Idol has in our hearts the Adoration and Sacrifice paid to it by our Affections Neither does God require of us a higher Acknowledgment than to love him with all our Heart and with all our Mind The Love therefore recommended here by the Apostle cannot be any thing that is an Enemy to God to Man or to our Selves Charity or Love carries something Pious and Beneficial in its very Name and if these things be not in the Nature of it 't is a Spurious or Bastard Love To come then to the Love recommended by the Apostle we define it to be A Divine Vertue or Supernatural Grace inspired into us by God's Holy Spirit a Quality which resides in himself and which is subject to no perturbation an Image of it we see in the pious Love of Parents and Children the religious Amity between Brethren Friends and Neighbours and the Perfection of it in our Saviour his Apostles Martyrs and other Christian Heroes that follow'd his Example An Affection it is but a Severe and Sober one a Fire that warms the hearts of men but a pure and sanctify'd one lifted far above the Softnesses and Wantonnesses of the other Carnal heat and not kindled by the Deception of the Outward Senses or flaming from the Fewel of a bright Beauty but a reflected Beam of our Love to God descending downwards and glancing on our Brethren from a Sense of God's Goodness to us and in obedience to that Commandment of his that enjoins us to pay to men as his Proxies and Substitutes on Earth the Tolls and Tributes due unto himself So that 't is not This or That Person that this Love makes court to but to Mankind its Addresses are as Universal as the Image of God in the World no more regard is had by it of the Handsome than the Deformed of the Young than the Aged or if more be had of the one than the other 't is of the Party most to be compassioned the Object of this Love is Want or Misery in any kind and whoever it can help is its Amata or Beloved And as the Object of this Love is no less General than the Distresses of Humane Nature so its Expressions towards them are as many and various as there are Ways of doing Good and being Beneficial in any kind For Charity is not only a Largess of Money or a Dole of Bread a feeding of the hungry and a cloathing the naked c. but a parting with our Passions for the sake of our Brethren a condescending to their Weakness a complying with their Temper and tolerating their Infirmities 'T is again a relieving them with Good Counsel a Donative of Seasonable Admonition and Reproof a shewing of Severity when need requires as well as Mercy an Exacting of Punishment as well as a remitting of it for Charity is not that which is always grateful and always pleasing but which is ever salutary and ever beneficial The Wanton Love we condemned is a constant Floud of Sweetness which flows smoothly into the Ocean of Destruction a smiling Evil that knows nothing harsh or disagreeable till it turns all to Harshness and Disagreeableness But Godly Love is often bitter in the first Taste and sweet in the after Relish a rugged Mercy and an Austere Kindness a Good transferr'd with Frowns and Severe Discipline and such are the Corrections of Servants and Children the Correptions of Friends the Excommunications of the Church and the exterminating Sentences of the Law the Rod and the Stocks the Hurdle and the Axe being as instrumental unto Charity as Money Food Raiment and the like Open Rebuke says Solomon is better than secret Love and I may say Open Rebuke has in it much secret Love And to think the Remissness of Laws charitable and the Execution of them cruel is a Shortness of Reasoning which becomes only Women and Children who pity the present Sufferings of the Criminal but see not the future Good purchased by it The timely cutting off of a Notorious Malefactor has rescued a Nation from Destruction Phineas stood up and pray'd and the Plague ceas'd his seasonable Execution of two Eminent Offenders preserved the lives of many thousands of the people and holy Writ calls not his Fact Slaughter but styles it by the milder Name of Prayer because it invoked God's Mercy and propitiated his Wrath. If Pity may bind the hands of Justice and Charity protect Violence and Outrage not only one Wolf will worry a whole Flock but the Flock or Body of People will in time become Wolves and Tygers for Religion only perswades men to be Just and Righteous it does not constrain them to be so indeed it promises Rewards to Well-doers and threatens Judgment to Evil-doers but they are Rewards to come and Judgments at a