as he himself required with which his Justice is fully satisfied and his Wrath appeased And this was that Oblation of himself of his own most precious Body and Blood when he poured out his soul unto death to be an offering for sin upon the Altar of the Cross Christ being come an High-Priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands that is to say not of this building neither by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood entred in once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us Hebr. 9.11 12. And without looking any further that one Epistle to the Hebrews may satisfie us in this Point the main Design of it being to convince the Jews that Jesus Christ was such an High-Priest as we are speaking of Who was once offered to bear the sins of many and who shall appear unto them that look for him the second time without sin unto salvation Secondly as our blessed Saviour hath offered this holy spotless and most acceptable Sacrifice of himself unto God for us so doth he likewise continually intercede for us at his right hand pleading the merits of his most precious Death and Passion in our behalf that we thereby may be delivered from the Curse of the Law and receive the adoption of Sons Christ is not entred into the holy places made with hands which are the figures of the true but into heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us Hebr. 9.24 and Hebr. 7.25 He tells us That he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them So Rom. 8.34 Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us And if any man sin saith S. John we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous 1 Joh. 2.1 Thus then it is evident that our blessed Saviour is by the holy Evangelists and Apostles that have given us a true and faithful account of him represented to be as great an High-Priest as it was possible that the Messias could be for who can be higher than he that is set down at the right hand of God And this naturally brings me to the Consideration of his last and highest Office which is that of a King For surely he that is exalted unto the right hand of God can be no less than a King in the highest Degree a King of Saints and Angels a King of Kings and Lord of Lords Let the Jews perswade themselves what they please concerning the greatness of the Kingdom of their imaginary Messias whom they fondly dream is yet to come into the world though they cannot deny that the time prefixed for his coming by the Prophets is long since past yet a greater King they cannot imagine him to be than we know and are fully assured by the unanimous Testimony of most faithful and unexceptionable Witnesses that our blessed Saviour already is who is and ever shall be a King upon Gods holy hill of Sion whom he hath exalted and set at his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come and put all things under his feet and given him to be the head over all things to the Church Eph. 1.20 21 22. That our blessed Saviour was to be such a King as this the Angel Gabriel expresly foretold to the Virgin Mary at his Conception Luk. 1.31 Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shalt call his name Jesus He shall be great and shall be called the son of the highest and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end Which words plainly imply that he was not to be a temporal King a King of this World whose Kings and Kingdoms shall all perish and come to an end but a spiritual King of a Kingdom which is everlasting Such a King as this our Lord owned himself to be I appoint unto you a Kingdom saith he to his Disciples as my father hath appointed unto me that ye may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel Luk. 22.29 30. A King even Pilate himself seemed positively to declare him by the Superscription upon his Cross Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews which he would by no means alter at the request of the chief Priests Such a King he most powerfully demonstrated himself to be by his triumphant Resurrection from the Dead Such a King he yet more fully proved himself to be by his most glorious Ascension into Heaven Having first told his Disciples that all power is given unto him in heaven and in earth he shews them the truth of it by ocular Demonstration visibly in their sight ascending up into Heaven to take Possession of his eternal Kingdom sending moreover two Angels to comfort them and assure them that he the same Jesus which was taken up from them into heaven shall so come in like manner as they had seen him go into heaven Act. 1.11 And after all this according to his Promise as a King that was ascended on high that had led captivity captive and received gifts for men he bestows upon them a gift fit for the King of Heaven to bestow upon his choicest Favourites even that of the Holy Ghost upon the Day of Pentecost thereby to the astonishment of all that beheld them impowering them to work Miracles and to speak with Tongues in order to the accomplishing that great work about which he employed them which was to proclaim him over all the World to be such a King such a Saviour and to gather him a Church out of all the Nations of the Earth declaring that unto all those that will believe and obey him and receive him for their Soveraign Lord and King he will most assuredly be the authour of eternal salvation having redeemed them from the Curse of the Law and purchased for them the adoption of sons and that when at the last day he shall come again in the Glory of his Father to judge the world in righteousness he shall then as an omnipotent King whose Power nothing can resist execute Vengeance upon all his Enemies and reward all his faithful and obedient Subjects with everlasting Felicity receiving them into his heavenly Kingdom there to Reign together with him in Glory as Kings and Priests unto God for ever thus I have proved to you I hope beyond all Contradiction except such as proceeds from wilful and obstinate Malice or notorious Ignorance or Prejudice which must
to come in this mean and contemptible Condition For since it is manifest from the Writings of the Prophets that the Messias was to be a most mighty King of the increase of whose Government and Peace there should be no end upon the throne of David and upon his Kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice for ever if this great person was to be born of mean Parents in a Stable and afterwards all his life time to continue in a Condition answerable to that obscure Birth not to enjoy so much as an house of his own wherein to hide his head to be despised and hated by his own Countreymen and persecuted unto Death it was necessary that God by his Prophets should foretel this also or else it could never have been expected that when he did come any Man living should have been able to discern him in so strange a Disguise God having no where revealed any such thing But if God hath revealed this also as clearly as any of the aforementioned Circumstances and hath by his Prophets as plainly foretold the Humiliation of the Messias as his Exaltation then it is evident that our Saviour's coming in that mean Condition in which we confess he did is so far from being any Objection against us that joyned with the former Circumstances and with what I shall further insist upon it is an unanswerable Argument to prove that he is the true Messias seeing he came exactly in such a Quality and Condition as God by his Prophets foretold the Messias should come in And that God did foretel that the Messias should appear in this low and despicable State besides other places of Scripture we have the whole 53d Chap. of the Prophecy of Isaiah to convince us which of all others is the most full and plain Prophecy both of the Humiliation and Exaltation of Christ And it is a wonderful thing that the Jews even to this day should continue so obstinate as not to believe it though this very obstinacy and unbelief of theirs is a very strong Confirmation of our Faith since even this also is expresly foretold by the Prophet and that in the very first words of the Chapter He ushers in his Prophecy with an admiration at the stupidity and unbelief of his People who he foresaw would not receive it Who hath believed our report And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed And then in the two following Verses he gives an exact Description of this mean Condition in which the Messias was to come He shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground he hath no form nor comeliness and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him He is despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him he was despised and we esteemed him not Now if this be truly as we affirm it is a Prophecy of the Messias it is manifest that it agrees exactly with the manner of our Saviour's appearing in the world And though the modern Jews deny it to be a Prophecy of him yet we have sufficient Arguments to prove that it is I shall instance only in these two First it is very unreasonable to imagine that God would suffer every punctilio of this Prophecy to be completely accomplished and fulfilled in the person of one who owned and declared himself to be the Messias except the Prophecy were really intended of the Messias and he in whom it was so fulfilled were that very person whom it meant Now that there is not one tittle of this Prophecy which was not fulfilled in the person of our Saviour who professed himself to be the Messias and applied this Prophecy to himself is evident in the account the Evangelists have given us of him and then it follows not only that this is a Prophecy of the Messias but also that our Saviour is the Messias whom it points at The second Argument to prove this to be a Prophecy of the Messias is the unanimous Opinion of many of the ancient Rabbies and Doctors of the Jews before and about our Saviour's time who all acknowledge this whole Chapter together with the latter end of the former to be a Prophecy of the Messias And therefore if the modern Jews will not acknowledge as much they differ as much from their own Writers as from us and no reason can be assigned for their so doing but their obstinate prejudice that will not suffer them to apply any passage of Scripture to the Messias that seems to be inconsistent with worldly Pomp and Grandeur Thus I have proved to you that our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the true Messias from these two Circumstances the time when he came into the world and the manner how The same truth may be yet further evinced from the reason and end of his coming but this I shall leave until another opportunity SERMON III. GAL. IV. 4 5. But when the fulness of the time c. YE may remember that when formerly I began to handle this portion of Scripture I laid down this Proposition as the Foundation of my Discourse That our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the true Messias whom God hath long since sent forth into the world and that none other is to be expected This I undertook to prove chiefly by these Arguments with which the Apostle furnishes us here in my Text taken from the Consideration of the time when the manner how and the end wherefore he came into World The two former of these Circumstances the time when and the manner how our Saviour came into the World I have already handled and in the doing of it have sufficiently cleared the truth of this Proposition That our Lord Jesus Christ is the true Messias but to make it yet more evident there remains one Circumstance more to be considered and that is the reason and end of his coming which the Apostle comprises in these words To redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons It was not for nothing that so great a person as the Messias was to come into the World No he had a mighty work to do which none was able to perform but himself for he was to interpose betwixt the Divine Vengeance and Sin which is its proper Object to redeem all Mankind from the Curse of the Law to which we were become obnoxious and to reconcile us again unto God and to purchase for us the adoption of Sons This was a work worthy of the Messias and what the Scriptures plainly foretold that he should accomplish and that he might effect it it was necessary First That he should most fully and clearly reveal to us the whole Will of God concerning us and that he should instruct and teach us how to behave our selves acceptably in his sight
Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven OF all other Sects among the Jews the Scribes and Pharisees were the Chief and by their Learning and the outward shew that they made of Religion had gained an extraordinary Respect and Veneration from the common People who looked upon them as infallible Doctors of the Chair and received all their Tenets and Traditions as Oracles And as they were highly esteemed of by the People so they had also a very good opinion of themselves they loved the uppermost Rooms at feasts and the chief Seats in the Synagogues and greetings in the Markets and to be called of Men Rabbi they despised all other Persons in comparison of themselves and as they sat in Moses his Seat so no doubt but they expected as honourable a place in the Bosom of Abraham But tho' this fair outside of theirs appeared very lovely and took much with the People yet our Saviour saw through it and discerned that there was nothing but Rottenness and Hypocrisie in their Hearts that though they made clean the outside of the Cup and of the Platter yet within they were full of Extortion and Excess that though they fasted often and made long Prayers yet it was only for a pretence to devour Widows houses that though they paid Tithe of Mint and Anise and Cummin yet they omitted the weightier Matters of the Law Judgment Mercy and Faith and that the Gate of Heaven would prove too streight to give any Entrance to their broad Phylacteries and large Borders of their Garments and therefore he often charges his Disciples to beware of treading in their steps not to acquiesce in such a vain and Hypocritical Ostentation of Religion which however it may gain the Applause of Men who can see no further than the outside will be nothing worth when it comes to be examined before his Tribunal but to labour for Sincerity and Pureness of Heart without which no Man shall see God For I say c. In the handling of which words I shall endeavour 1. to shew you what the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees was which will not be thought worthy to be admitted into the Kingdom of Heaven 2. What manner of Righteousness ours must be that will procure us an entrance thither 1. For the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees if we examine it by the Character which the Holy Evangelists give us of it we shall find it extreamly faulty and indeed it is impossible to suppose it to be otherwise when we consider how many sharp Reproofs and dreadfull Woes are denounced against it by our Saviour The chief Particulars which render it faulty and deficient are these 1. Their Righteousness could not be acceptable in the sight of God for as much as in general they had a very false Notion of the Obligation of the Law of God which they interpreted only in the literal Sence of the words and thought that it extended only to outward actions but reached not to the inward Thoughts and Intentions of the mind So long as they washed their Hands they regarded not the foulness of their Heart and so long as they kept themselves free from any open and external Breach of the Commandments they thought themselves innocent though their mind was never so much set upon wickedness So long as they abstained from open Adultery they thought they might lust after a Woman and still be chast So long as they kept their Hands from shedding any Blood they thought it no sin or at least a small and venial one such as God would take no notice of to hate their Brother in their Heart So long as they did not bear false witness against their Neighbour before a Judge in open Court they thought it no Crime to backbite and slander him and that they might securely blast his Reputation and wound his good Name without any prejudice to their own Souls So long as they abstained from plain Theft and kept their Hands from picking and stealing they thought that like the Priest and the Levite in the Parable they might innocently pass by their Neighbour whom they saw wounded by Thieves and that no Obligation lay upon them to relieve him in his Distress Thus they grosly erred in their Interpretation of the Law which reaches not only our Actions but our words and our thoughts and confines our Tongues and our Hearts as well as our Hands Such Commandments as these they taught to be the least Commandments that the Breach of them was a very light and trivial sin and that for an idle Word or for a lustful or malitious thought or Intention provided that it broke not out into Action there was no fear of Damnation But our Saviour passes a very severe sentence upon them for teaching this Doctrine in the verse immediately before my Text Whosoever saith he shall break one of these least Commandments and shall teach Men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven that is he shall not be accounted worthy to enter into that Kingdom And then he confutes this false Doctrine of theirs in the several branches of it in the following part of the Chapter Ye have heard saith he that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the Judgment but I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of the Judgment Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not commit Adultery but I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a Woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery with her already in his Heart Ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time Thou shalt not forswear they self but shalt perform unto the Lord thine Oaths but I say unto you Swear not at all but let your Commuunicatian be Yea yea Nay nay for whosoever is more than these cometh of Evil. Ye have heard that it hath been said Thou shalt love thy Neighbour and hate thine Enemy but I say unto you Love your Enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you This then was the first thing wherein the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees was deficient They misunderstood the sense and meaning of the Law which our Saviour in this Sermon of his Restores to it self and interprets in its full and proper Latitude And secondly as it must needs be that Uno absurdo dato mille sequuntur upon this first false principle they built a second and having confined the Sense of the Law to so narrow a Compass they thereupon concluded that they were able to keep and perform it to a Title without any Supernatural Grace and Assistance from Heaven And indeed if this Construction of the Law had been true it is possible that this Conclusion which
they drew from it might have been so too for if the Law had required no more of us than the bare abstaining from those outward Acts of Adultery and Murder and Theft and Perjury and the like which in express Terms it forbids perhaps then we might have fulfilled it by our own strength But when a wanton Glance is Adultery when a revengefull Thought is Murder when Usury or Extortion at least is Theft when not giving to the Poor is stealing from the Lord when a tatling Tongue bears false witness and every idle word is to be accounted for at the Day of Judgment who then can pretend to innocence who then can say that he hath made his Heart clean and that he is pure from his Sin No the best of Men must then be forced to acknowledge himself to be a debtor to the Law that he falls more than seven times in a day and that there is not a just Man upon Earth that doth good and sins not And yet that the Pharisees had this fond opinion of themselves is plain from the Parable of that proud Pharisee that justified himself in his Prayer to God Almighty Luke 18.11 God I thank thee saith he that I am not as other Men are Extortioners unjust Adulterers or even as this Publican I fast twice in the week I give Tythes of all that I possess and from the confident Answer of the young Man Matth. 19.20 who when our Saviour shewed him that the way to enter into Life was to keep the Commandments and what those Commandments were presently replies All these things have I kept from my youth but all this while though he thought that he had exactly kept the Commandments of the second Table he understood not the meaning of those of the first he knew not that Covetousness was Idolatry for when our Saviour to compleat his Righteousness and make him perfect exhorts him to sell all that he hath and give to the poor and to come and follow him though he promised him the Recompence of Treasure in Heaven yet he went away sorrowful for he had great Possessions upon Earth and was loath to part with them But thirdly they stay'd not here but they proceeded a step further and having entertained that false Opinion That they were able to perform a perfect Obedience to the Law they thereupon perswaded themselves that that Obedience of theirs was meritorious in the Sight of God and they boldly justified themselves upon the account of their own Works and arrogantly boasted of them even to God himself as ye may see by the instance I but now mentioned of the Pharisee that trusted in his own Righteousness and despised the Publican Fourthly this good Opinion they had of themselves puft them up with so much pride and vain Glory that they scorned and despised all Men that were not of their own Sect. They were so well satisfied and pleased with their own virtues that they took no care to examine their own hearts but they made it their business to invade the Prerogative of God to search the hearts of other Men and one of the most remarkable Instances of their Piety was their forwardness to censure and condemn the Lives and Conversations of their Neighbours Let a Man behave himself never so innocently and blamelesly both towards God and towards Man yet if he was not one of them he must pass for a Sinner The Temperance of John the Baptist if it be tried at their bar would be judged to proceed from his being possessed with a Devil and the free and chearful Conversation of our Saviour to be Gluttony and Wine-bibbing Friendship and Fellowship with Publicans and Sinners Fifthly they did all their good Works for an ill End and Purpose out of a vain-glorious Desire to gain the Applause of Men for this end they made long Prayers in the Synagogues and in the Corners of the Streets in the most publick places they could find that they might be seen of Men and perhaps none at all in their Closet For this end they made broad their Phylacteries and enlarged the Borders of their Garments disfigured their faces when they fasted and sounded a Trumpet before they did their Alms they put on demure and sanctified Looks that the People might have their piety in admiration when all the while it was nothing but gross hypocrisie and they made Religion only a stalking horse to their worldly interest Sixthly and lastly they preferred their own Traditions before the written Word of God upon which account they are sharply reproved by our Saviour Matt. 15. Why saith he do you transgress the commandment of God by your tradition For God commanded saying Honour thy Father and Mother and he that curseth Father or Mother let him die the death But ye say Whosoever shall say to his Father or his Mother it is a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me and honour not his Father or his Mother he shall be free Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition Among these traditions of theirs were those of washing of Cups and of Pots and of Brazen Vessels and of tables but above all that which they observed with the greatest preciseness and strictness imaginable was their washing of their Hands before they eat which as the learned Dr. Hammond tells us upon that occasion they held to be so necessary and indispensable a duty that one of their Rabbies saith That he that takes meat with unwashed Hands is worthy of Death and that the same person being in Prison and having some water given him for his use to wash and to drink having accidentally spilt one half of it he washed his Hands in the Remainder thinking it more necessary to do so than to drink and to die than to violate the tradition of his Ancestours This is in brief the Summ and Substance of the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees as we find it described to us in the holy Scriptures and if we mark it narrowly and consider on the one hand the great veneration they had for unwritten Traditions their false and corrupt interpretation of the holy Scriptures and their great confidence and trust in the merits of their own works and on the other hand their rash and intolerable censoriousness and the ungoverned liberty which they gave to their tongues their vain-glorious Ostentation of Religion their excessive Pride and their ambitious desire of being accounted Saints the Children of Abraham and the precious People of the Lord it seems to be a compleat mixture of Popery and Phanaticism and however they pretend now to be ashamed one of the other and are at so much odds and variance that a large Kingdom is too little to contain them both yet there was a time when they shook hands together were both peaceably united in one mans breast Having thus taken a view of the false and Hypocritical Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees which shall
and Blood and the Gate that must admit him into those Mansions of Glory is exceeding strait and he must strive hard if he will enter in at it Thus ye see in general that the Righteous shall scarcely be saved that is it shall cost him much Labour and Sweat and Pains to work out his Salvation and through much Tribulation through many and great Troubles and Afflictions through many amazing Difficulties and affrighting Dangers he shall at the last enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and receive a Crown of Glory And this will appear more plainly if we consider distinctly these several Difficulties which he hath to encounter in his way to Heaven And these are First his own natural Corruptions The best and holiest of Men our Blessed Saviour only excepted who was sanctified from the Womb are all conceived and born in Sin By one Man saith St. Paul Sin entred into the World and Death by Sin and so Death passed upon all Men for that all have sinned Rom. 5.12 And this Original Sin as it is generally stiled by Divines which the Righteous themselves even the best of God's Saints as well as other Men bring into the World with them deriving it from Adam by a wonderful but certain Propagation is of a spreading and infectious Nature as dangerous and deadly to the Soul if it be not carefully subdued and mortified as Leprosie to the Body It is ever active and stirring labouring and struggling continually to get the Mastery over the Soul that so it may break out into open and actual Transgressions And too often it doth so even in good Men and prevails sometimes over the most pious and devoutest Christians This was that which moved David to commit Adultery and Murder This was that which shook the Constancy of Peter and made him so timorously and basely to deny his Master And this is that which causes so many Weaknesses and Failings in all the Saints of God so that there is not a just Man upon Earth that doth good and sins not but in every Man there is a Law in his Members warring against the Law of his Mind and bringing him into Captivity to the Law of Sin which is in his Members Rom. 7.23 In every Man as the same Apostle speaks Gal. 5.17 The Flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these two are contrary the one to the other so that by means of this intestine War within him it comes to pass often times that he cannot do the things that he would Even the Heathen Philosophers did observe and complain of though they knew not the Cause of this strange Depravation of humane Nature Plato tells us that Men are by Nature wicked and cannot be perswaded to do that which is right and that the two great and principal Diseases of the Soul are Ignorance and Vice And to the same Effect Tully observes that Nature is to Man a Stepmother that brings him into the World with a naked Body feeble and helpless and with a Soul throughout the whole Course of his Life sorrowful and distracted with Multiplicity of Cares and Troubles tormented with Fears tired with Labour and prone to Lust wherein the Divine Light Wit and good Manners are as it were overwhelmed and stifled This sad Condition which all Mankind is in by Nature I say the wiser Sort even amongst the Heathen amidst the gross Darkness of Paganism and Idolatry had some little Knowledge of though they were utterly ignorant of the true Cause and Reason of it And therefore they made it their chief Care and Business by their Learning and Philosophy according to the best of their Power to correct and amend it But unto us Christians God hath unlocked this Secret and hath fully discovered this great and hidden Mystery which all the Learning of the profoundest Heathen Philosophers was not able to search out In the lively Oracles of the Holy Scriptures he hath fully explained unto us both the Cause and Danger and Remedy of this Corruption of our Nature In that Sacred Book we have it represented to us under divers Names and Characters all of them foul and abominable like it self This is that which Rom. 7.17 St. Paul calls the Sin that dwells in us Because since the Fall of our First Parents it is become natural and hereditary to us and never leaves us nor forsakes us in this World but abides continually in our Flesh even unto Death whence in the same Chapter it is called the Evil that is present with us and Hebr. 12.1 the Sin which doth so easily beset us because it cleaves to us so closely and inseparably and with so much Force and Violence presses and besieges all the Strength and Powers of our Soul The word in the Original is very Elegant and Emphatical and but once used in all the New Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sin which doth so easily beset us that Sin which doth as it were hug and embrace us and is continually insinuating and winding it self like a Serpent into our Hearts with a Design to deceive and beguile us This is that which ver 15. of the same Chapter is called a Root of Bitterness springing up to trouble us because it is ever plentiful in producing evil Branches and corrupt and deadly Fruit. This is that which by St. James is called the Lusts that war in our Members James 4.1 and by St. Peter the fleshly Lusts which war against the Soul 1 Pet. 2.11 St. Paul calls it the old Man and the Body of Sin Rom. 6 6. And what the Members of that Body are he tells us Coloss 3.5 Fornication Uncleanness inordinate Affection evil Concupiscence and Covetousness which is Idolatry Thus ye see the first Difficulty that the Righteous Man hath to encounter within his way to Heaven which renders that way so troublesome to him that notwithstanding all his Courage and Resolution he cannot walk in it without great Pains and Labour He carries a most unwelcome and heavy Clog about him from which he cannot possibly disengage himself which continually pulls him back and hinders and retards his Soul in its Flight towards those glorious Mansions of Joy and Happiness towards which it doth so eagerly press forward And had he no other Enemies but this one to vanquish even this alone might be sufficient to satisfie us that he shall scarcely be saved since it is most certain that he never shall be saved at all except he do overcome this first Enemy of his Salvation which of all others is the most formidable One deceitful Dalilab was worse to Samson than all the Philistines and this one innate intestine Foe of ours which lies continually in our Bosom is more dangerous to us than either the World or the Devil both which join their Forces together with this to bring us to Destruction And could we as we have all solemnly promised and engaged to do in our Baptismal Vow renounce all the sinfull Lusts
came in a very Mean and despicable Condition so poorly provided for that he had not so much as a House wherein he might lay his Head nor a cradle wherein he might rest but was forced to be content with a Stable for the one and a Manger for the other And all the rest of his Life was answerable to this Mean beginning He was continually affronted and abused and persecuted by the Chief Priests and Scribes and Pharisees and by almost all Men with whom he conversed and after all this he was most perfidiously betrayed by one of his own Disciples denied by another of them and forsaken by all the rest and at the last most barbarously murdered by bloudy and sinful Men. And if God dealt thus hardly with his only begotten Son in whom he was ever well-pleased it would be unreasonable for his Disciples and Followers to expect to fare so much better than their Lord as to be wholly exempted from Afflictions in this Life If the Captain of our Salvation was not made perfect but through sufferings surely then we shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven except we drink more or less of the same Cup. This our blessed Lord hath assured us shall be the Portion of all that will follow him Luke 14.26 27. If any Man come to me and hate not his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own Life also he cannot be my Disciple And whosoever doth not bear his Cross and come after me cannot be my Disciple And In the World ye shall have Tribulation John 16.33 And this the holy Apostles afterwards found true by their own Experience They were all hated and maligned and persecuted whithersoever they went and not one of them died a natural Death but S. John the Disciple whom our Saviour seemed to love above the rest and perhaps was therefore pleased to exempt him from suffering a violent Death as the other did And thus it fared afterwards with their Successours the Bishops and Pastours of the primitive Church yea and not only with them but with the greatest part of their Flock too Every one that was known to profess the Faith of Christ was persecuted as a Traytour and to be a Christian was to be a capital Offender And though at present by the blessing of God the Light of the Gospel shines amongst us gloriously yet even amongst Christians themselves those few rare Examples of Piety those Persons that are extraordinarily strict and careful to live answerable to their Profession in all Holy Conversation and Godliness are generally hated and scorned and looked upon with an evil Eye and suffer more Sorrow and Affliction in the World than other Men. And now I have given you an Account of all those dangerous Enemies and those manifold and great Difficulties and Troubles which the Righteous Man hath to overcome in his way to Heaven And from what I have said it is sufficiently evident that he shall scarcely be saved that is it shall cost him great pains and striving to work out his Salvation and through much Tribulation he shall enter into the Kingdom of God And if the Righteous be thus scarcely saved I need not insist much upon the other Proposition nor spend many words to shew you that the wicked the ungodly and the sinner shall most certainly be damned For this follows from the former Doctrine by an undeniable consequence and therefore the Apostle takes it for granted appeals to your own Judgment and leaves it to your selves to determine the question in the words of my Text If the Righteous scarcely be saved where shall the Ungodly and the Sinner appear If the Righteous that hath undergone so many Troubles hath taken so much pains to subdue and mortifie his Lusts hath with so much Constancy and Resolution turned away his Eyes and his Heart from the bewitching Baits and ensnaring Pomps and Vanities of this sinful World hath with so much Courage and Faith resisted the Temptations of Satan and quenched all the fiery Darts of the Wicked hath with so much Patience and Meekness born his Cross and indured the Afflictions and sufferings of this present Life is after all these painful and glorious Performances even when he hath gained a full and compleat Victory over all his Spiritual Enemies and is a Triumphant Conquerour over Principalities and Powers still but an unprofitable Servant and dares not appear before God's Tribunal trusting in his own Righteousness but in that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith how then shall the Ungodly and the Sinner that hath taken no pains at all to fight the good Fight of Faith that hath let loose the Reins to his Lusts that hath yielded himself a Slave to his Passions that hath put God out of all his Thoughts hath set-his Heart and Affections wholly upon the things which are on Earth and glutted himself with sensual Pleasures hath harkned to the wicked suggestions of the Devil hath walked according to the Course of this World according to the Prince of the Power of the Air the Spirit that works in the Children of Disobedience hath enjoyed his good things in this Life and hath not come into trouble like other Men be able to stand before the Righteous Judge of all the Earth when he shall be summoned to give an account of all his Actions done in the flesh The case is plain he shall not be able to stand at all but shall be overwhelmed with everlasting Confusion and Misery and Despair The Vngodly saith the Psalmist shall not stand in the Judgment nor Sinners in the Congregation of the Righteous For the Lord knoweth the way of the Righteous but the way of the Vngodly shall perish Psal 1.5 6. If then we desire to stand in that great Day and to lift up our Heads with joy at the coming of our Saviour let us resolve and labour with all our Might now to stand and fight the Lords Battles Manfully against all the Enemies of our Souls Ye see in what Circumstances we are how great Opposition every faithful Champion of Jesus Christ is like to meet with in this troublesome Wilderness before he can arrive at his heavenly Canaan But though the difficulties which threaten us be great yet they are not insuperable but we may by the Assistance of God's holy Spirit who is ready to help our Infirmities overcome them if we will Let not any thing then discourage nor affright us from our perseverance in well-doing but let us animate our selves by the Example of the blessed Apostles and Martyrs and Confessours to run with patience the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus the Authour and finisher of our Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the Right-hand of the Throne of God Let us consider him that endured such Contradiction of Sinners against