severe Discipline Danger and Persecutions will make them stagger and recoil The Seed that fell upon Stony Ground sprung up faster for a season than that which fell on the Good Ground but when the Sun arose and smote it it presently withered wanting root The Children of Israel went cheerfully and lustily with Moses out of Egypt but when their Food grew scarce and they saw the Host of Pharaoh pursue them they boggled in their Enterprize and in their hearts returned again into Egypt preferring Bondage with Safety and Plenty before Freedom with Hardship and Danger But their Posterity voluntarily follow'd Christ three days without Sustenance and never lookt back to their houses or yet to their beloved City If I forget thee O Jerusalem says the Psalmist let my right Hand forget its Cunning. But these Israelites when they heard Tidings of the Heavenly Jerusalem the Jerusalem above they cast behind them all thoughts of Jerusalem below it appeared to them no better than a second Babylon or house of Bondage As our Lord therefore made others of the People his Scholars he made these of his Family as he taught them he fed these revealed not only the Word but the Power and Glory of God to them To conclude I shall raise from all that I have said but this One acceptable and comfortable Doctrine Whosoever follows Christ faithfully affectionately and constantly in these days will find him as Compassionate in their Wants and Distresses as the Multitude here did For he has the same Bowels and Tenderness now at the Right Hand of God which he had when he conversed with men on Earth he is ascended Intire into the Heavens he did not carry up his Body thither and leave his Affections in the Grave If we therefore seek the Kingdom of Heaven in the first place and its Righteousness we may rest assured of our Lord's Promise That all the Necessaries of this Life shall be added to us that if we perform the Principal he will take care to make good the Accessory What is said of the Productions of Nature That she brings forth nothing but what she provides for is much more true of the Productions or Children of Grace For when the Earth with-holds its Fatness and the Clouds their Dew when the Creatures that should nourish Men starve themselves for want of Nourishment when the Breasts of Nature seem wholly dryed up venit Coelum in partes Heaven it self will come in to succour and take Part with the Faithful and if Sterility abounds Grace on this occasion also will much more abound if the Soil afford no Corn Bread shall be rained from the Sky if the Springs fail the Stony Rock shall send forth Water and Rivers shall run in dry places the Ravens shall feed the Righteous or their little Stock shall encrease as fast as 't is spent the Courses of Nature shall be inverted rather than Christ's Truth fail Heaven and Earth shall pass away but not one Tittle of his Word shall fall to the ground And if any say How comes it then to pass that the Servants of God do suffer Want Nay that commonly they are more destitute and persecuted than other Men I answer to this as our Lord did to his Disciples urging him on a time to eat I have Meat to eat says he which you know not of So the Faithful have Meat to eat which the World knows not of they have Peace Plenty and Prosperity though not seen by every Eye They have the Grace of God which is as a hidden Manna in their Hearts and as a Well of Living Water which suffers them neither to hunger nor thirst And is it not much more Eligible and Glorious to fast with Moses and Elias forty days than to feast even at the Table of Princes To be in the State of Angels who need neither Food nor Raiment than to be clothed and served with all the Sumptuousness and Magnificence of Solomon The Righteous have Content in Poverty which is more than Riches Joy in Bonds which is better than Freedom Satiety in a little which is not always found in Abundance And what is this but to receive Bread from Heaven when the Earth affords none Water from the Rock when the Springs are dryed up To be fed even by a more Wonderful Way than by the Ministry of Ravens Neither is the Favour of God this Way shew'd to the Followers of Christ less than that which he shew'd to his Own Servants of old but much greater for it speaks yet a higher Grace to be content to perish under Hunger Poverty and Bonds than to be snatch'd out of these Evils after a Miraculous Manner Saint Peter rejoiced more when he was scourged for bearing Testimony to Christ than when he was delivered by an Angel from the Death design'd him by Herod And Saint Paul gloried more in his Persecutions and Sufferings than he did even in his Charismata his Miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost And thus our Gracious Lord relieves the Necessities of his Servants from the Store-houses of the World or from the Riches of his Grace rescues them out of their Afflictions or makes them delight in them supplies their Wants or sets them above the Wants of other Men takes away their Wants or takes them up to that Place where no Wants are and where all Tears shall be wip'd from their Eyes To which blessed Place God of his infinite Mercy through our Lord Jesus Christ bring us all And To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Glory Worship and Thanksgiving this Day forth and for evermore Amen The Fourteenth Sermon LUKE xvi 9 Make to your selves Friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations THESE Words may be call'd a Lecture of holy Usury they teaching us the highest Advantages that are to be made of Riches beyond what is to be learned from the Books of Eastern Merchants or the Trade to both the Indies from the Mysterious Rules of the antient Publicans or our modern Bankers 1. They teach men by a Divine Alchymy how to convert Earthly Treasure into Heavenly to make Money the ordinary Salary and hire of Sin to be the Price of Salvation and the Purchace of the Holy Ghost without the Danger of Simony 2. Men are instructed by them how to cure the Vanity and Instability of Riches call'd for their inconstant and short Abode mendacium phantasmata praestigiae scenica persona c. a Lye a Dream a Delusion the quick shifting of a Scene or Vizor in the Theatre and notwithstanding that 't is said We can carry nothing out of this World with us we are shew'd which way to confer them to Heaven and to erect Banks in those Eternal Mansions 3. Whereas Folly is ordinarily imputed to Rich men insanus dives stultus dives the Mad man and the Rich the Fool and the Rich being seldom in Scripture out of conjunction
Agreeable to him for his own sake And this Rule of Love to Men may teach us what Love we ought to pay to God for we ought to wish Well to God and to procure things Good and Agreeable to him And if any ask Wherein we can do this to God I need look no further for an Answer than the second Petition in the Lord's Prayer Thy Kingdom come thy Will be done in Earth as 't is in Heaven It consists in the Execution of God's Will and the Extension of his Glory For all other things besides these are nothing to God as the Psalmist says My goods are nothing unto thee The Riches of this World and the most precious things in its account are contemptible in his Sight but these two which I have named he esteems and in some measure wants and desires possesses not perfectly and absolutely as he would All his Creatures do not acknowledge him honour him worship him delight in his Dominion pay a ready cheerful Obedience to his Commands as the Angels in Heaven do notwithstanding that they are reasonable honourable beneficial have more of Profit than of the Yoke in them But so it is there is another God of this World that blinds most men and leads them away captive with divers Lusts and they chuse rather to be Vassals and Drudges to this Usurper and Tyrant than to be Nobles and Princes even adopted Children to the King of Heaven and Earth And with good reason holy Men in every Age have pray'd for God's Kingdom i. e. the Encrease of Righteousness and of the Number of the Faithful for God is yet in a manner like those Princes which are outed of part of their Dominions and deny'd the Obedience of whole Nations of their People and his Loyal Subjects can no way shew their affection so much to him as by espousing his Interest abetting his Title employing their best Endeavours to reduce the Rebellious to Allegiance by wishing with the Psalmist That Kings and all People young men and maidens old men and children would praise and glorifie his holy Name 'T is the business of Great Ministers of State to understand the Strength and weakness of Foreign Princes the Commodities and Defects of their Countries that they make the most advantageous Alliances for their own Masters and they are held the best Politicians that do this best But if both those of the highest Condition and also of the lowest and meanest even all People would set to their Power to serve the Great Monarch of Heaven and Earth they would find no Policy comparable to this that the promoting of his Designs would be the most certain way of promoting their own whether publick or private they would find that they would thrive like Jacob that all things would prosper under their hands like Joseph that they would return with constant Victory like David and heap up Gold and Silver like Solomon Numa though a Heathen rely'd so confidently on this Policy that when he was told on a time That the Enemy was drawing up against him he answer'd And I am praying against them And when 't was said They were charging he reply'd and he was Sacrificing assuring himself the Gods would not neglect his Safety while he was solicitous for their Worship But you will say Is it needful that we should wish for the Encrease of God's Kingdom does he want the help of his Creatures No. Is he not Omnipotent and can bring to pass whatever seems good to him Yes Who has resisted his Will As the Question is ask'd None and yet it may be as truly said Who is there that has not resisted his Will What was spoken of Israel may be affirmed of all Mankind that they are a rebellious and gain-saying People God 't is true is Omnipotent and his Power never fails he brought the World out of nothing by his Word and by his bare Word can reduce it again to nothing if he had pleas'd he could have created a Generation of Men that should have served him regularly and constantly fatally and necessarily as the Fire burns and the Sun and the Moon move in their Courses But this is not the Service that God wants and which we are to pray for in his behalf 't is the Free and Voluntary not the Constrain'd Service of his Rational Creatures that Men would obey him out of Love and Choice as his Dominion is gracious that they would desire it as it is beneficial and honourable that they would delight in it Compell'd Righteousness is no Righteousness 't is in Obedience as in Charity he that gives grudgingly and of necessity does not give but is tax'd and he that obeys of Compulsion is a Slave and not a Votary 'T is reported of the famous Painter Apelles that when he had finish'd any rare Piece his custom was latere post tabulam to hide himself behind it that he might hear what Passengers said of it and that he car'd for no Approbation but what came in this free way After the like manner God exposes to the View and Consideration of Men his Works of Power and of Wisdom of Mercy and of Goodness and then delights latere post tabulam to conceal himself in his inaccessible Glory and to observe what free and unextorted Returns of Honour and Love they will bring him in all forc'd or feign'd Superstitious and Hypocritical Acknowledgments being odious to him And now after all that has been said in strict speaking God stands no more in need of our Obedience and Worship than he does of our Riches as 't is said Acts 17.24 He dwelleth not in Temples made by hands neither is he worshipp'd by mens hands The meaning of his being outed of part of his Kingdom and denied his full Dominion in truth signifies no more But that he has not yet extended the Salvation of Men to the Bounds his Goodness designed But to proceed We said Love did not only Wish but Procure things good and acceptable to the Person belov'd and we ought not only to wish the Execution of God's Will and the Extension of his Glory but to set-to our hands to Effect what we pray for as it is not sufficient in Point of Charity to give good Words only to the Poor to say Be thou warm be thou fill'd God assist thee and the like when we can supply what they want our selves so 't is not sufficient in our Love to God to say only Thy Kingdom come thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven but we must zealously and industriously do his Will and endeavour all we can to promote his Kingdom Says our Lord to S t Peter Simon Peter lovest thou me Lord reply'd he thou knowest that I love thee And yet notwithstanding that he knew the Sincerity of his heart he ask'd him the same Question three times Why to grieve Peter or that he delighted in the repetition of the Profession of his Love No but to excite him to a more
into the hearts of Believers to quicken them and to raise them from the Death of Sin to a Life of Righteousness i. e. to sanctifie and enable them to master Sin in themselves They that saw Christ in the Flesh knew not at first That the principal Intention of his Flesh was his Spirit viz. that his Incarnation was to produce their Sanctification to conform them to his likeness in the Inner-man as he was conformed to their likeness in the Outward-Man and those that are not thus conformed that have not their Sins taken away In them by Vertue of his Nativity shall never have them taken away From them by Vertue and Merit of his Passion Secondly By his Word he takes away our sin from within us Now ye are clean says our Lord John 15.3 through the Word which I have spoken unto you i. e. you have put away your former wickedness upon believing what I have preached To believe and to be clean in a Scripture sense is the same thing For 't is not possible rightly to believe and to continue in the Pollution of Sin The Word of God is quick and powerful sharper than any two edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit The efficacy of it was seen in the reprobate hearts of Herod and Felix How did it ruffle and discompose the incestuous security of the first and put an Earthquake into the stupid Conscience of the last But yet 't is then only to use Solomon's expression that wise Words are as Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver when they meet with docile ears and honest hearts when the disposition of the Hearers concurs with the faithful intention of the Preacher and they comply to destroy Sin in themselves as he endeavours to destroy it in his Sermon Otherwise this most powerful and effectual Engine to batter and beat down Sin the Word preached profits not as 't is in the Chapter now mentioned in the Hebrews But the Word preached did not profit them not being mixt with Faith in them that heard it Thirdly Christ takes away Sin from within us by his Example i. e. by his holy Life as well as by his Word and by his Spirit his Meekness Holiness Self-denial Obedience c. were designed by him to excite his Followers to practise the same Vertues equally or above his Precepts And though we condemn the Errour of those who affirm That the Pattern of Christ's life the perfect Exemplar of Piety and Holiness which he exhibited to the World was the only means besides his Word which he used to take away our Sins We may yet more condemn the sloth and hypocrisie of those who set his Life above our Imitation who put his Vertues into the same Classis with his Miracles and think it as impossible for us to practise his Humility Patience and the like as to open the Eyes of the Blind or to raise the dead affirm that his Obedience and Righteousness were not set for our Example to direct and encourage us to do the like but to upbraid and reproach our weakness and infirmities In the mean time our Lord himself Joh. 17.19 declares That the holiness he practised was not only for the love of holiness but that his Disciples should follow him even in the roughest Paths he trod those of his Suffering to which his Words more particularly relate For their sakes says he I sanctifie my self or offer up my self a Sacrifice that they also might be sanctified through the Truth And S t Peter says expresly Christ suffered for us leaving us an Example that we should follow his steps And this brings me to the second Motive the Apostle alledges to disswade men from Sin the sanctity and sinlesness of Christ's Person and ye know that in him is no sin But because this in a great part has fallen-in with the former Motive and to accumulate Reasons of the same Nature rather nauseates than perswades I shall wave this Point and proceed to my last The Inference which the Argumentation of the Apostle implies from the foregoing Motives viz. That 't is the Duty of all Christ's Followers to endeavour as far as 't is possible to be also without sin and which shall serve me also for an Application The Son of God we have heard was manifested in the Flesh to take away our sins and in him is no sin Now certainly we cannot think that we comply either with the Example of Righteousness which he has set us or yet with the gracious Purpose that brought him into the World if we reflect on his Nativity only after an Historical manner as that he was born in such an Olympiad or when such an one was Emperour that such rare Events attended his coming into the World as are recorded by the Evangelists namely that he was conceived by a Virgin of the Holy Ghost welcom'd by Angels signaliz'd and reveal'd to the Gentiles by a Star c. as if we were Chronologers rather than Christian Believers But that principally we are to consider these things Doctrinally and Morally to regard the Obligations they lay upon us and the final intendment of God in them For Example to say to our selves If God came so far as from the highest Heavens to take our Flesh that he might destroy sin how much more are we concerned to destroy sin in whom it dwells whose Flesh is its Domestick Organ and which will certainly destroy us both Body and Soul unless we destroy it Again if God vouchsafe so highly to dignifie our Flesh as to assume it to his Divine Nature and to carry it up to Heaven with him and that by way of Pledge and assurance to carry up all that live holy lives thither also how ought we to respect and even to revere these our mortal Bodies and not to pollute them with sin which are designed to such sublime Honour as to reign with God in Glory Once more If the Son of God came into the World not only to teach us his Father's Will but to demonstrate to us by his own performance the feasibleness of accomplishing it and did not only discourse of the probability of mortal mens ascending to Heaven but gave an instance of it in our Flesh how are we without excuse if either upon pretence of the difficulty of the Duties enjoined or the arduous ascent to the heavenly Kingdom promised us we supersede our endeavours to attain it When the Israelites were travelling to the Land of Canaan they said to Aaron Make us Gods that may go before us i. e. visible Gods that we may behold they were not satisfied with the conduct of an invisible Deity of a God that afforded not his personal presence Christ manifested in the Flesh is such a visible palpable God as they required who marches as a Captain at the Head of us and guides us not only by his Counsel but leads us by his Bodily Presence But yet notwithstanding this compliance with our infirmities
among the Jews to repulse those that moved any thing to them unseasonably or unworthy of them to do in their Opinion and also to express their Resentment if they thought themselves hardly dealt with The Widow of Zerephath used it this last way to the Prophet Elijah when she conceiv'd the Cohabitation of so holy a Person with her and his near Inspection into her Life was the Cause of her Childs death What have I to do with thee says she O thou Man of God! art thou come unto me to call my Sins to remembrance and to slay my Son And David used it the first way 2 Sam. 19. to Abishai urging him to put Shimei to death upon the Day of his Restoration to the Kingdom because he had Curs'd him in his Flight from Jerusalem Says he What have I to do with you ye Sons of Zerviah And notwithstanding the great Dislike and Offence this Phrase exprest our Lord forbore not to use it to his Mother intermedling in his Divine Employment Woman says he What have I to do with thee I confess it was durum Dictum a harsh Speech considering the Person to whom 't was spoken but 't was also if rightly weighed frugiferum Dictum a Speech full of good Instruction and Profit For it shews Christ's equal and impartial Deportment as he is a Lord and Saviour to all Persons whatsoever without Consideration of Country Acquaintance or Kindred The very Womb that bare him in an Unadvis'd Action shall not go away without a Rebuke if his Mother does that which is Dishonourable to his Office she shall hear that which is less honourable to her Relation if she forgets her Duty he will forget her Name and Title A good Lesson for those Favourites of Christ in these our Days who call themselves his Elect and his Darling Children however they live in Disobedience to his Laws and fansie he can see nothing in them that displeases him whatever wickedness they commit Though Propinquity in Grace be more in Christ's account than Propinquity in Bloud yet if even those that are ally'd to him by Grace sin presumptuously against him they will find him but a rough Kinsman Though Coniah were as the Signet upon my Right hand says God yet would I pluck him thence And if Peter the most Zealous of the Apostles shall take upon him to tempt Christ he shall bear the Name of Adversary Get thee behind me Satan If the Provocations of the Servants of God be Great however near and close their former Relation to him was they will find him as far Estranged from them and in Case their Provocations be of a less and meaner Allay they will receive a Check as the Blessed Virgin here did And so I proceed to the Reason why Christ reprov'd her Because she unseasonably interpos'd in what she ought not to have meddled prompted him to work a Miracle before his Time was come My Time says he is not yet come These and the foregoing Words Woman what have I to do with thee utterly o'erthrow all the vain and false Glories which the Church of Rome Superstitiously Idolatrously and injuriously rather than Devoutly heap upon our Lady ascribing to her impeccability and being born without Sin the Title of Queen of Heaven and a perpetual Regency over her Son c. But as Stout and resolute Souldiers where the Works are weakest shew the greatest Valour So those of that Church shrink not for all the Assault they receive from my Text but the ruder the Shock is the more obstinately they maintain their Post. They affirm that the Action of the Blessed Virgin here was not only without Blame but full of Faith Charity Humility Prudence c. and that Christ was so far from being angry with her or having any Cause given him to be so that he took up a feigned and dissembled Dislike to have an Occasion only to teach the World and not her neither That the Power by which a Prophet works Miracles is not derived from his Parents nor to be governed by them but wholly by the Spirit of God says Cornelius à Lapide In ipsa nulla fuit culpa ergo non vera fuit Christi reprehensio reprehendere tamen illam videtur ut non ipsam sed nos doceret in operibus theandricis parentes nihil habent juris and so forth Thus the Jesuite is not asham'd to make our Lord Jesuitize i. e. falsifie and dissemble but the time would be ill spent to confute such gross Follies and Blasphemies which chuse rather to find a Miscarriage in Christ than in his Mother to make him angry without a Cause or to feign an Unjust Anger than to allow it possible for her to give him a Just Cause to be angry But the Explanation of these Words my hour is not yet come will more plainly shew wherein our Lady deserv'd a Reprehension The Hour of Christ is sometimes understood of the Hour of his Death as 't is said They could not lay hold of him because his Hour was not yet come But here it is to be understood of his Season or Opportunity to do a thing as when he answered his Brethren that ask'd him to go up to Jerusalem to the Feast Your Time says he is always but my Time is not yet come But here by the way we must not conceive any thing of the Hours assign'd to Christ of that nature which the Arrians and Priscillians did who said He was subject to Fate and Necessity and bound up to the Observation of Times and could not therefore be the Eternal Son of God Christ's Death was not impos'd on him by any Fatal Necessity as himself declares Chap. 10. and 18. of our Evangelist No man taketh my Life from me says he but I lay it down of my self I have Power to lay it down and I have Power to take it up But when 't is said The Hour of his Death was not yet come it means no more than this That he had not yet finish'd the Work for which he came into the World he had not fully preach'd the Gospel accomplish'd the Prophecies that were of him confirm'd his Disciples c. i. e. the Hour by his own Eternal Wisdom chosen was not yet come the Hour as S t Augustine speaks non Necessitatis sed Voluntatis the Hour not of his Necessity but his Will not of his Constraint but of his Counsel And the like may be said of the Hour of his working Miracles he attended no Critical Minute or favourable Conjuncture of the Stars to assist him as to his Power he could have wrought them when he would every Hour was the Hour of his Power but every Hour was not the Hour of his Opportunity he could have turned the Water into Wine at the time his Mother spoke to him as well as at any other but the End for which he did it would not have fallen out so Easily and Naturally at one time as at another and though
of thy Strange and astonishing Miseries thy low Condition and sad Wants thy perpetual Dangers and Persecutions What is the meaning of thine Agony and bloudy Sweat thy Crown of Thorns platted and crusht into thy Head thy being Mockt and Spit on What is the meaning of thy Submitting not only to the Dishonours of a Humane Birth but to those also of a Violent and Ignominious Death Being the Son of God why didst thou suffer any Evil Why didst thou not convert the Stable in which thou wert Born into a Palace and the Cross to which thou were Nail'd into a Throne Why didst thou undergo such Miseries and Indignities as made the World doubt of thy Divine Nature and not exert thy Deity and destroy thy Murderers and burn up their City as thou spak'st in one of thy Parables Thy People expected thee a mighty Prince but thou shew'd'st thy self a Destitute Forlorn Person they lookt for a Deliverer but behold one Obnoxious to Bonds and Death for a Redeemer but Alas none needed Redemption more himself Great undoubtedly and wonderful was the Mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God and that he should not only be born in a Mortal but in a Miserable Condition The Apostle might well give it the precedence to all other Mysteries of Godliness Great is the Mystery of Godliness says he God was manifested in the Flesh justify'd in the Spirit seen of Angels c. But that Christ should suffer the things he did in our Nature was no less Necessary than Wonderful And to omit all other Reasons for it I shall insist only on that One Great One Because Sin could not otherwise have been abolisht the End for which Christ came into the World attain'd which was To destroy the Works of the Devil Christ could have destroy'd the Devil with more Facility if he had come in Majesty and Glory as the Apostle says 2 Thess. 2. He shall consume Anti-Christ with the Spirit or breath only of his Mouth and the Brightness of his Coming But our Lord's Business at this time was not to destroy the Person but the Power of the Devil Sin was both the Stratagem by which he conquer'd and the Chain by which he held Mankind in Captivity and Christ undertaking to rescue them from this Thraldom to bind the Strong Man and to take from him the Armour in which he trusted he was not to do this by an Omnipotent Power as he brought the World out of Nothing Light out of Darkness c. but by an Heroick Vertue such as he shew'd when he trampled upon the Temptations of the Devil in the Wilderness He therefore enter'd the Lists against Satan as a Champion or Combatant according to the fair Law of Armes as they say i. e. with a sutable Strength and Appointment to his Adversaries Man was lost by Sin and could only be restored by Righteousness he had forfeited God's Favour and his Felicity by his Transgressions and could recover them again no other way but by Obedience On this Account Christ laid by his Majesty and Glory and took our Nature that in the Infirmity of our Flesh he might foil our Strong Enemy the Second Adam redeem the Glories lost by the First Adam the Seed of the Woman bruise the Serpents head made himself subject to the Law that he might fulfil the Law obnoxious to Death that he might subdue Death and the Author of it by suffering Death as S t Paul says Heb. 2.14 That through Death he might destroy him that had the Power of Death that is the Devil So that we see here was no place for Thunder and Lightning for an O'er-bearing Irresistible Power but only for Divine Graces or Vertues and the Weapons Christ used in this Conflict were only Courage Holiness Obedience Patience Self-denial Meekness and the like such as were in the Power of Men also to make use of he so conquer'd as they might conquer after him For the Great Business was not Christ's Personal Victory that was secure but the Victory of his Followers he indeed was to break the Power of the Kingdom of Darkness but they were to compleat the Conquest every one in his own Particular to subdue Sin and Satan And thus while Christ destroy'd the Power of the Devil disarm'd him and made those that had been his Slaves Lords over him by consequence and in a Political Sense he destroy'd the Devil himself as a Prince is said to be destroy'd that is stript of his Forts and Castles his Territories and Armies his Ammunition and Harness of War though his Person still survives However then that Zipporah upbraided Moses upon the Circumcising of her Child saying factus es mihi Sponsus sanguinum thou art to me a Bloudy Husband we have no reason to quarrel that Christ was to us Salvator Sanguinum a Bloudy Saviour i. e. a Saviour drencht in his own Bloud for without the Bloud of Christ there had been no Redemption But to be more particular and distinct There are two Ways by which Christ destroy'd the Power of the Devil and delivered Mankind from his Bondage and those are Pretio Exemplo by the Price or Satisfaction he paid for Sin And by the Example of his Holy Life By the first he destroy'd the Guilt of Sin And by the second the Dominion or reigning Power of Sin 1. Therefore we may say There was a Necessity of Christ's Death and Sufferings and that he should be a Wounded Saviour that he might pay a Price make Satisfaction to God the Father for the Sins of the World For whether it be that the Vindicative Justice of God for Sin be so natural and intimate to his Essence that he cannot without renouncing his very Nature and Being pardon Sin without a Competent Satisfaction as some would have it Or whether it be only his Declared Will not to pardon Sin without a Competent Satisfaction as others more sutably to the Divine Goodness and Glory affirm I shall not need here to dispute seeing both Sides agree in one and the same Conclusion That it was necessary for Christ to Dye for the Sins of the World The Wages of Sin is Death says the Apostle and in another place Almost all things by the Law were purged by Bloud and without shedding of Bloud there was no Remission Now though the Bloud there mentioned was but the Bloud of Beasts that were sacrificed yet those Beasts were the Proxies and Representatives of Men and also Types of the Great Sacrifice which Christ was once to offer on the Cross and derived from it all their Vertue and Merit and God revealed this Way of atoning by Sacrifice early to the World and afterwards prescribed it to his People the Jews by written Laws from whom it was deriv'd to all Nations though the Mystery that Sacrifices were founded in the Death of Christ was not clearly understood till the Days of the Gospel As a Remedy for Sin was promised from the Beginning so 't was
except they be agreed i. e. can it be expected that God should go along with men and bless them unless they be righteous that he should Favour them if they live in Rebellion against him If we will not have God our Enemy after he has been our Friend and therefore our Enemy because he has been our Friend if we will not have him send Evils on us because he has sent Blessings on us so long in vain we must rise in our Duty to him as he exceeds in his Mercies to us improve in our Obedience as he enlarges in his Bounty And then he will adde Grace to Grace and Blessing to Blessing till he has brought us to the Perfect State of Blessedness even to the Unspeakable Joys and Glory of his Heavenly Kingdom Whither God of his infinite Mercy through our Lord Jesus Christ bring us all To whom be ascribed all Honour Glory c. The Twelfth Sermon PSALM CV 44 45. And he gave them the lands of the Heathen and they inherited the labours of the people That they might observe his Statutes and keep his Laws THIS long Psalm is nothing but an Enumeration or Recital of the Favours and Benefits conferr'd by God on Israel even before it was Israel beginning with the first Promise of the Land of Canaan made to their Fathers when they were yet but a Family and not a Nation Wanderers from one Kingdom to another People Sojurners in all places where they found admittance but Inhabitants of none In which fleeting weak Condition and obnoxious to many Evils God greatly preserved them as we read ver 4. He suffered no man to do them wrong yea he reproved Kings for their sakes And he delivered them not only from the Violences and Outrages of Men but exempted them from the Judgments which himself sent on the Nations where they sojourned For when a Dearth as 't is said Gen. 41. was on all Lands i. e. the adjacent Countries Canaan Syria Arabia and Idumea by a Gracious Providence he sent a Man before them to introduce them into Egypt where he had made Provision of Bread for them And though he suffered them in this place of Sojourners to be made Bond-men yet when the determined Time of such his Counsel was expired he raised up another Man even Moses who by ten Miraculous Judgments made the stubborn Heart of Pharaoh stoop and let them go free And thus he brought them out of Egypt with a Mighty Hand they being but imbellis turba an unwarlike Troop a mixt Multitude of Men Women and Children and conducted them with a Supernatural Cloud which was a Shadow by Day and a Light and Bulwark by Night and when the Host of Pharaoh pursu'd them he open'd them a Passage through the midst of the Sea but overwhelmed the Egyptians presuming to follow them Their Way then lying through the Wilderness a place by Nature barren of all Provisions he made it fruitful by Miracles spread a Table for them with Dainties not afforded from the Earth but from the Clouds commanded a River to flow out of the Stony Rock and to journey with them forty Years to refresh them and their Cattel And when they drew near unto the Borders of the Promis'd Land he inspired a third Heroick Person to be their Military Leader and by his Prowess and Conduct cast out the Heathen before them and to crown all his foregoing Mercies he put them into actual Possession of the Land of Canaan a Land that was the Glory of Lands ready till'd and cultivated built and furnisht to their hands with all manner of rich Moveables and Commodities Dominis parantur ista serviunt vobis Provisions made for the Canaanites but enjoyed by the Israelites And now if any ask Why was all this Munificence and Bounty showred on this People what was the Design of the Almighty in making such a Profusion both of natural and supernatural Favours The Declaration of that is reserved to the last place suspended to the End of the Recital of the Benefits that it might look back to all that went before and make a deeper and more lasting Impression in the hearts of the Receivers and it was naturally this That they might observe his Statutes and keep his Laws All the Families of the Earth had corrupted themselves again after the Floud before God and were either fallen into Atheism or Idolatry but God determining in his Mercy never utterly to destroy Mankind again resolved to take a contrary Course to woo and soothe them to Vertue and Righteousness by his Favours to add Benefits to the authority of his Commands Blessings to the Obedience of his Laws Blessings I say and Benefits not only in the ordinary secret Course of his Providence but as Occasion required Openly and Miraculously that Men might see 't was wiser to worship the Living God than to be Idolaters or Atheists more advantageous to do his Will than to bow to Stocks and Stones or to be Slaves to wicked Spirits And he made Election of Abraham and his Seed after him to experiment this his Gracious Method on but with the Design that as he revealed his Power Wisdom and Goodness to them they should be as a Nation of Prophets Holy in themselves and Preachers of Righteousness to the rest of the World The Israelites thought all the Wonders that were wrought for them were only to pleasure and profit them but they were principally to make known the Glory of God and were Sermons as well as Benefits designed not so much to gratifie their Carnal Affections as to train them up in the Obedience of God's Laws 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 I shall observe in the Words these two things I. How or which Way God did confer the Lands and Labours of the Canaanites on the Israelites viz. He gave them II. Why or for what End he gave them it was for this one Great End That they might observe his Statutes and keep his Laws In the handling of the first of these The Manner or Way of God's conferring the Lands and labour of the Canaanites there being many collateral Circumstances in it which highly magnifie his Gift I shall not only reflect on the bare Donation but also on the concomitant Circumstances I. He Gave the Lands In the Translation we use in the Common-Prayer-Book 't is said they took the lands and labours of the Heathen in possession But the Expression of their taking them in one Translation and God's giving them in the other amounts to the same thing for a thing may be taken two ways by Force or by Gift and Reception Now Israel took the lands and labours of the Canaanites the second of these two Ways by Gift from God 'T was not their own Sword as 't is said or their own Bow that subdued their Enemies but God that fought their Battels They took
it being rarely seen that a Good Understanding goes along with a Great Estate that the same Person should be born both to much Wealth and to much Wit my Text informs men how to reconcile these together how the Rich having the advantage of Wealth may have also the advantage of Wisdom how with their Transitory things they may purchase things Eternal nay and which is yet a higher Strain of Wisdom how being but Stewards of the Riches they possess they may make after the example of one of the craftiest Dealers in this World and best practis'd in the Double ways of Cozenage the gainful Purchace of Heaven at anothers Cost and do this Innocently as he did it Fraudulently Lastly Men are taught how to remove the Difficulty and almost Impossibility of a Rich man's entering into the Kingdom of Heaven how to make its Narrow Passage which is as the Eye of a Needle to a Camel as wide as the Gate of a City or the Royal Way leading to it A Lecture which undoubtedly must be very acceptable to Great and Rich men instructing them how to possess the Good Things of this World without forfeiting those of the next how to join Celestial Joys to Earthly Felicity immortal Glory to Secular Prosperity Again which can be no less grateful to the Penurious and Covetous who love to enjoy their Wealth after they have parted with it to have it their Friend when they can hold it no longer their Servant who desire to dwell for ever if it were possible with their beloved Gold to cohabit with it in the next Life as they brooded over it in this my Text comports and complies with all these Desires Make to your selves Friends of the Mammon of Vnrighteousness that when ye fail they may receive you into Everlasting Habitations The Words offer these two things in general to our Consideration I. The Necessity of our Faâ—ling in these Habitations When ye fail II. The Policy taught us how to procure Admission into Everlasting Habitations when we fail in these and that is By making Friends of the Mammon of Vnrighteousness And without troubling you with any further Division at present I begin with the first of these The Necessity of our failing in these Habitation These Words when ye fail are by some understood two ways by our failing in Duty and our failing in our Being or Dying As the Steward in the Parable fail'd two Ways 1. In his Honesty as at ver 1. he had wasted his Master's Goods And 2 dly In his Office as at ver 2. where his Master says to him Thou may'st be no longer Steward And after the like manner all Men fail more or less in their Fidelity and Justice But all equally and necessarily in their Mortal Being But whether we fail in the one of these Ways or the other whether we come short in our Duty or are cut short in our Lives in both these Failings the Unrighteous Mammon will stand us in stead 1. If we fail in our Justice Eleemosynae sunt instar Justitiae Alms are a kind of Justice and not only to Forgive but also to Give will cover a multitude of Sins So that if we fail viz. in our Integrity we may again be restored by our Charity and when we have wasted and consumed our Graces we may recruite them by exhausting our Purses and in this Shipwrack also casting our Goods overboard may be a Means of our Preservation But though this Sense of the Words has nothing in it contrary to sound Doctrine yet it cannot be that which our Lord points at in them For the Failing here spoken of is supposed to be Inevitable Necessary and Universal when ye fail indefinitely when ye All fail neither can the Words be supposed to allude to the Common Pardonable Failing or Miscarriage of an honest Servant but to the Purloining and Cheating of a Thief which the Steward was and for that cause was turned out of his Office If therefore we say the Failing here is meant of our Duty it must be of our General Total Duty which is Apostasie or else it holds no proportion to the Steward's failing in the Parable and if we do it holds no proportion with the Truth for we must affirm our Lord supposes it Necessary and Inevitable for all Men Universally to be Apostates We must take the Words therefore in the other Sense For Failing in our Being or Mortal Bodies which are often resembled in Scripture to Houses and Tabernacles but I shall instance only in 2. Cor. 5.1 For we know if the Earthly Houses of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a Building of God a House not made with Hands Eternal in the Heavens There is in the Words the Figure Euphemismus which terms things by more gentle and Favourable Names than properly belong to them Death sounds harsh to those 't is denounced to alleviate therefore the ungratefulness of it 't is render'd Failing But the plain Importance of these Words when ye fail is no other than this When ye Die But now though this be the true Meaning of the Words it may seem to be a Theme less necessary to be insisted on than any other To tell men they must Die Not that the Admonition is not weighty and of the highest Concern but because it is so well known by all and none needs this Information Linquenda domus tellus pavens uxor that our Houses Lands and tender Relations must be left by us that nothing which is either dear to us or we dear unto can exempt us from the Law of Death is News to no man all men of what Sort and Condition soever can assume Saint Paul's scio We Know that this Earthly Tabernacle shall be dissolved The Ignorant see it daily demonstrated in the Mortality of other men and the Infirmities they find in themselves the Learned yet further by Philosophy and Reason which tell them That their Bodies being made up of a Mass of contrary Humours continually jarring and fighting with one another the Victory on either side must certainly be the Destruction of the Subject in which they are contained Divinity adds to these a third Demonstration teaching men that there is a Law of Death in their Members not that which I but now spoke of a Natural Law of Mortality but a Spiritual Law of Sin and consequently of Death which Law had its Sanction from God 's own Mouth Gen. 2. In the hour thou eatest thou shalt dye This present World is but a Nursery or Seminary to another in which nothing is to be seen more common than the transplanting of Men from this to that Or it may be likened to a Tree that has at the same time upon it some Fruit decaying some ripe and some blooming the one continually succeeding and thrusting off the other till the Tree it self at last fails as not being design'd to stand for ever All Men I say are of sufficient Learning to preach such Lectures as
Condition or Qualification of it The Vnrighteous Mammon 1. The Name and Substance of it Mammon The Word Mammon by the consent of most Criticks is originally Syriack but with very little Variation of writing and pronunciation as Mamon or Mammon Mamoná or Mammoná 't is Chaldee Hebrew Greek Latine and as S t Hierome and S t Augustine affirm also Punick or Carthaginian not to say how far it has obtained in the Modern Tongues A Word it seems very significant that is adopted into so many Languages and become Proverbial and the Proper Name of a Deity for Mammon imports the Same with Plutus the God of Riches who was an Anti-Deity of old set up by Covetousness which as the Apostle says is Idolatry and to whom every full Barn of the Miser is as 't were a Chappel and every Store-house a Temple And this Idol has more and more Early Votaries than any other whatsoever not only Old men being its Priests and Sacrists but Young men are also its Adorers and Children were of old dedicated to it in Ventilabro olim infantes collocabant in futurarum divitiarum affluentiae auspicium 't was an antient Custom to lay Infants to sleep in the Fan that winnow'd Corn as a Good Auspice of their future Plenty and Abundance But to understand plainly what Mammon is without Deity or Disguise without Figure or Mystery we have no more to do but to look to the 6 th Verse of this Chapter where he is set down in his pure and naked Nature to be a hundred Measures of Oil and a hundred Measures of Wheat i. e. to be the Fruits and Products of the Earth Corn Wine Oil Gold Silver Jewels c. all that is Money and Money-Worth is Mammon and so the Word signifies in the Original Treasure or Riches of any Sort or as Suidas yet more critically Superfluous or Unnecessary Riches And here by the way this mightily commends the Policy which is taught us that with such Vile Superfluous Unnecessary things we may purchase things Inestimable and of the highest Importance that with things Temporal and Perishing even in the Using we may procure things Eternal even Everlasting Habitations But so it is God is pleased that we should trade with him for his Heavenly Treasures as men traded at first with the Indians for their Gold and Jewels with Beads and Glasses Only we must observe the Rule S t Jerome prescribes in such our Negotiation We must give our Hearts to God as well as our Goods male enim dividit says the Father qui animam Diabolo tribuit opes Deo he 's a false and deceitful Merchant that offers his Goods to God and his Service to the Devil without Sanctity of Life there is no difference between Alms and Simony between attempting to purchase the Kingdom of Heaven and the Gifts of the Holy Ghost for Money Mammon joined with Righteousness is the Current Price of Salvation but mixt with Sin is worse than the Dung of the Earth this is Mammon And then in the second place for the Condition or Qualification of it the Vnrighteous Mammon or as it is in my Text the Mammon of Vnrighteousness which is the same thing this being only the Hebrew manner of speaking which often uses the Genitive Case for the Adjective or instead of an Adjective Now Mammon is not call'd Unrighteous because it is Unrighteous in it self all the Creatures of God are Good and Riches are the Choicest Part of those Good Creatures Neither in regard that 't is Unrighteous to possess them contrariwise they are the Gifts and Favours of God and beatus dives the Rich and Blessed are not undeservedly made Synonyma's But Mammon is call'd Unrighteous because for the most part 't is got Unrighteously according to that Saying Omnis Dives aut iniquus est aut iniqui Haeres Every Rich man is either an Unjust Man or the Heir of an Unjust Or again because it goes Unjustly from us in the Expence of Sin and Vanity 'T is call'd also Unrighteous in Opposition to the True Riches as at ver 11. If ye have not been faithful in the Unrighteous Mammon who shall commit to your trust the True Riches But though Mammon may be and is call'd Unrighteous upon these and the like accounts yet it seems to be term'd Unrighteous in my Text upon a Particular and distinct Account from all these which is set down ver 12. If you have not been faithful in that which is an Other Man's who shall give you that which is your Own So that Mammon is principally styled Unrighteous here because the Riches we employ are an Other Persons and yet we employ them for our Advantage as if they were our Own as the False Steward did his Lord's Goods And Riches may be said not to be our Own in two Respects 1. Because they are God's as the Psalmist says The Earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof He is the True Proprietary and the most rightful Possessors among Men are but Stewards 2. Because in the Law those things are only styled propria our Own which will stay with us which are in our Power and which we can dispose of at our pleasure as Birds and Beasts which we take and let go and take again but those which we have not thus at our Will and Command are counted Ferae Naturae of a Wild Nature Now Worldly Riches in a Moral account are of this last Sort Wild and Uncertain no man is Secure of them with any Care or Providence can hedge them in But they make them Wings as Solomon says and fly away They depart through their own default or the default of others we forfeit or we lose them they perish or by a Secret Decree pass to an other Master On these Considerations therefore when ever we bestow a Charity or any other Pious Benefaction we may well account we give but that which is at present in our power and perhaps to morrow will not be and again that when we are most Liberal we are but de alieno munifici bountiful at an Others Cost and we may say of our Alms if we speak strictly what Christ did of the Sitting at his Right hand and his Left in his Kingdom They are not mine to give Yet such is the Goodness of God that he accepts our Robberies from him as our Bounty to him interprets our Trespasses on his Royalties and Purloinings of his Treasure our Righteousness Fidelity and Wisdom gives us an Euge for it as the Lord of the False Steward did to him in the Parable Not that he applauded his Falshood and Dishonesty but the Subtilty and Dexterity he shew'd in it as 't is said subitis casibus ingenium for shewing a Present Wit in a sudden Streight and making the best of a bad Accident The Steward is prais'd as we praise the Fox not for the Mischief he does us but for the Craft with which he does it Or as a Judge may
admire the cunning Fetches or Contrivances of a Thief whom he thinks fit notwithstanding to condemn to the Gallows We are not taught by the Example of the Steward to steal from our Neighbour to serve our Own the Poors or God's Interests we must not cheat in our Trade to provide for our Children rob on the High-way or cozen the Exchequer to give Alms or build Hospitals No but if as the False Steward made Provision for his approaching Poverty at his Lord's Charges we shall take of God's Abundance of which he has made us his Stewards and lay it out in Pious Works there is no harm done if I say we make the things of this World Instrumental to the obtaining the Next if we make Riches which are commonly a Snare and lead so many to Perdition conduce to bring us to the Kingdom of Heaven God who is our Lord and Master will applaud this Divine Craft in us who thinks himself only then to be Robb'd and Defrauded when his Goods are not after this manner employed And so I pass to the Use we are to make of the Vnrighteous Mammon which is To procure Friends with it Here I shall enquire 1. How we are to make Friends with it And 2. What Friends we are to make How we are to make Friends with it the Practice of the Steward will direct us Who where a hundred Measures were due required only fifty again where the Debt was a hundred accepted of fourscore i. e. in fewer Words By Giving our Riches There is nothing that makes Friends equal to Bounty a Gift as it blinds the Eyes of the Wise so it wins the Hearts of the Ingenious and reconciles the Affections of the Averse The antient Heroes held no Friendship so Sacred as that which was begun with Gifts a Goblet or Spear a fair Horse or Armour given by the Parents laid the Foundation of future Amity between their Posterity and they often preferr'd such Amity before Alliance or Consanguinity as Teucer on this account sided with the Grecians against the Trojans though Priam was his Unkle and his Mother a Trojan But we need not seek prophane Story for the proof of this matter Solomon tells us A Gift is as a Precious Stone in the eyes of him that has it wheresoever it turns it prospers And Jacob found this Course successful in appeasing his Brother Esau's wrath God himself is pleased with Offerings and Sacrifices with Alms and Oblations Thy Prayers are heard says the Angel to Cornelius Acts 10.4 and thy Alms are had in remembrance in the Sight of God If we would write many Volumes of the Art of making Friends we could not prescribe a more powerful Expedient than this of Liberality A Gift is an Experienc'd Good-Will a Demonstration of the Affection as 't is vulgarly call'd he that Gives not may Love but he that Gives has testified his Kindness But then in the second place What Friends are we to make We shall learn this best from the Rule Christ gives us Luke 14.12 to chuse our Guests When thou makest a Supper says he call not thy Kinsfolk and rich Neighbours but the Poor the Maimed and the Blind Those which he would have us there make our Guests he would have us here make our Friends 'T is the Practice in a great Part of Christendome to give away large Estates and Possessions to lusty Men to sing Latine Prayers in behalf of the Living and the Dead which the one hear not and the other for the most part understand not Prayers poured out by Number not by Devotion and that plentiful Relief that should be sent to the Hospital is consum'd in the Covent which should feed the Hungry and clothe the Naked is given to maintain a Holy Sloth and too often a Lewd Idleness and it may be truly said of those that part with their Estates on this account that they part with them for a Song I know they maintain That these Evangelical Poor as they call them are to be relieved in the first place and the Poor through a hard Necessity in the second But we neither find any such Doctrine or yet such Persons in the Gospel the Widows and Fatherless the Sick and Aged are there recommended to our Charity and not the Voluntary Sturdy Ambitious and affected Beggars the Beggars that awe the States they live in The Rule Christ gives us is To make those our Friends that cannot be our Friends again These are they to whom the Corn and the Oil are to be imparted or remitted Invite not the Rich says he lest they invite you again as if there were Danger in so doing Danger of losing the Reward promis'd to Charity Alms never shoots up to so large a Harvest as when 't is cast into Barren Soil the greatest Sterility sends forth the richest Crop And so I pass to my last Particular The End of the Policy That they may receive you into Everlasting Habitations As our Lord said There were many Widows in Israel in the days of the Prophet Elias but he was sent to none of them but unto Zarepath to a Woman that was a Widow so it may be said Though there are many Lazarus's in the World there may be but few that will be admitted into Abraham's Bosom and therefore the Policy may not be so good to rely on them to introduce us into that Place from whence themselves shall be shut out But yet if we consider that in giving to the Falsly Poor we may be Truly Charitable and though our Money be cast away our Good Purpose will not we shall not trust to a Deceitful Policy if we promise our selves that those that are rejected and cast into Hell may assist us to the attaining of Heaven and that even these Reprobates may make us Saints But to answer this and the like Objections Whereas 't is said in my Text that They may receive you as if the Poor or Mammon or Angels or some other failing Power were to receive us the Words are to be taken Impersonally ye shall be received Or else as having a Figure in them a Metonymy of the Motive for the Effect and so the Poor are said to receive us when God or Christ in Contemplation of our Charity to them receives us Now to make some Application and to conclude Though things stand thus that Men are of their Worldly Goods but breves Domini short Possessors and they may purchase with them Eternal Felicity and Glory they generally neglect to make this Advantage by them And we see some when their Treasure is like a Mine and their Store-houses resemble the Harvest and Vintage of the Year yet their Covetousness so much exceeds their Abundance that they cannot be content to do any Good with all they have their Business is to Gather not to Use cogitant quà m bene alii post se vivant non quà m male ipsi moriantur they are pleas'd to think how Happily others shall live after them and
faithful God will continue to be favourable while they serve him he will protect them while their Righteousness is immutable their State shall be invincible at least their Foundations shall not be destroyed in their greatest Dangers they shall have a Refuge in their highest Exigents they shall know what to do The Time and Occasion of writing many Psalms are utterly unknown and we have nothing but the bare Conjecture of Expositors for them grounded upon the fansy'd comporting or agreeing of some Words in the Psalm with some Historical Passage and in the great Obscurity and uncertainty of the Occasion of the present Psalm before us all I can say is It seems thus to have stood with David when he wrote it He had cast the Jebusites a Nation of the Canaanites out of their Strong hold the City of Jerusalem flank'd with the Fortress of Sion which he made his Habitation the Seat of his Kingdom and of the Worship of his God But as it is said of the foul Spirit in the Gospel that when he was cast-out he was restless as in a Desart till he had regain'd his Possession So it far'd with the Jebusites here they could not sit down with the Loss of their Power and Dominion digest the Disgrace of their Deities and the baffling of their Confidences hear the taunting Scoff of the Lame and the Blind which themselves had Ironically utter'd of their Idols according to the Sence of the Hebrews not their own retorted and verify'd on them These things prickt and stung them to the heart and they could find no peace till they had restored their Gods to their Glory and themselves to their Country and Reputation and that by destroying David and his Foundations One while therefore they sought to subdue him by Force another while by Stratagems and treacherous Practices another while by Parley and friendly Advices representing to him the Danger of his Condition surrounded by so many Nations of a Contrary Religion to induce him to forsake his own and to fly as a Bird to their Mountain But he whose Heart was fixt and rooted in his God at once encourages himself and confutes his Enemies with this Fundamental Principle That God is the sure Rock and Refuge of the Faithful beats them with his Argumentation and Reasoning out of their Sophistry as he had before by his Arms out of their Strong-holds The Demonstration which he uses is that which Logicians call leading to an Absurdity and is the Strongest of all others for it evinces That if such an Assertion be not granted then some thing must which is a Contradiction to a confest Principle For example If the Foundations which I rely upon may be destroyed then this Absurdity will follow That the Righteous may be destitute of a Refuge brought to that pass as not to know what to do The Minor which for brevity is omitted and ought to be subsum'd is this But the Righteous cannot be destitute of a Refuge brought to that pass as not to know what to do therefore the Foundations I rely upon cannot be destroyed If the Foundations be destroyed what can the Righteous do In the Words thus explain'd we may observe these two General Parts I. The Design of David's Enemies It was to destroy his Foundations II. The Absurdity of such their Design or the Impossibility of it For otherwise the Righteous would not know what to do I begin first with their Design Which was to destroy David's Foundations And what were the Foundations which the Psalmist here speaks of For the Word is in the Plural Number and the Foundations of a Kingdom may be many Some Material and Visible as Fortresses Armies Rocks Mountains c. Others Immaterial and visible only in practice as Laws Civil and Ecclesiastical which are its Moral Fortifications for the Laws of a Land support it no less than its People Wealth Bulwarks and whoever seeks to subvert these though he attempts nothing against the Magazines and Strong-holds yet he undermines the very Foundations There is also an Invisible Foundation of a State which is God's Favour and Defence pointed at by the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 4. ver 5. in these words Over all the Glory shall be Defence And though David had a regard to all his other Foundations this was the Chief the Surest Rock in which he trusted as himself professes 2 Sam. 22. The Lord says he is my Rock and my Fortress he is the God of my Rock and saveth me from violence His Rock was strong but the God of his Rock was stronger his Habitations stood upon the Rock of Sion but then Sion again was founded upon God And thus as Ezekiel's Vision was rota in rota a wheel in a wheel so David's Foundation was Fundamentum in Fundamento a Foundation upon a Foundation The Heathen had also in their Superstitious Way an Invisible or Divine Foundation for as out of jealousie to their Neighbours they chose to plant their Cities upon Rocks and Hills so they dedicated again those Rocks and Hills to the Protection of some Deity which was the Rock of their Rock and Moses seems to allude to this Deut. 32.31 where he says Their Rock is not as our Rock even our Enemies themselves being Judges Now in the first place the Design of David's Enemies was to destroy All his Foundations not only his Material and Visible ones but also his Immaterial of his Laws and his Invisible of the Deity in which he trusted For the Gentiles had a conceit that the Gods themselves were conquerable They had a Sort of Godlings or lesser Gods which they assign'd to the Guardianship of Springs and Trees as Nymphs and Dryades which they thought Mortal and extinguishable with those Springs and Trees Other Great Gods again which they set over Kingdoms and Cities and though they believ'd these last to be immortal yet they fansy'd when the Cities or Kingdoms over which they presided were subdued that these Deities were also subdu'd Secondly As the Design of David's Enemies was to destroy all his Foundations in general of what kind soever So it was to destroy them Finally and Vtterly For as our Lord says of the Providence of the Children of this World in Temporal things That they are Wiser than the Children of Light So they are also in their Malice and Mischievous Designs they lay the Axe to the Root they dig as deep to destroy as others do to build Says S t Paul As a wise Master-Builder I have laid the Foundation but these on the contrary as Master-Destroyers aim to rase the Foundation knowing this to be the speediest way to make an absolute Destruction for the Super-structures must follow these Thirdly The Ways which the Enemies of David took to effect his Destruction are exprest to be three Parley Violence and Stratagem Parley is implyed at the first Verse In the Lord put I my trust how say ye then to my Soul Flee as a Bird to the Mountain Violence is
be as Mount Sion which shall not be removed but standeth fast for ever And the truth is that which is said of Temporal Kingdoms Justitia Thronum firmat Justice supports the Throne may be affirmed of God's Spiritual Kingdom in the World his Justice and Goodness establishes his Dominion in the Hearts of Men. For if it were not so That the Lord regarded the Righteous this great Incongruity would produce another great Incongruity and Irregularity The Righteous as the Psalmist says would put their hand to Iniquity i e. they would be no longer Righteous they would make Justice and Piety no more their Business and Concern if there were no Regard in Heaven for these things and so God would lose his Obedience when he neglected Good Men. Let us therefore be careful of our Duty and we need not be solicitous for our Safety let us firmly rely upon God in well-doing and believe that our Trust in our Divine Invisible Foundation is not merely Chimerical or Imaginary and while we fail not it it will never fail us but the Business of this Day shall be the business of the Year round viz. to praise and magnifie our Foundation for protecting and preserving our Foundations and these Lauds and Thanksgivings if they be Cordial and Real will create us new Occasions of Lauds and Thanksgivings even daily Mercies and Blessings I say if they be Cordial and Real not only Verbal and Vocal not only express'd in Bells and Bonfires Noises and Excesses but in true Piety and Devotion as our Prayer of General Thanksgiving teaches us In shewing forth God's Praise not only with our Lips but in our Lives by giving up our selves to his Service and so forth For though 't is impossible to solemnize Publick Joy and Thanksgiving without Publick Expressions of them yet these Publick Expressions should be but the Outward Signs and Significations of the Inward Sence we have of God's Benefits and the Gratitude that dwells in our Hearts and which ought chiefly to be shew'd in the Duties of Religion in the Acts of Mercy and Charity in a Day of Mercy and Deliverance in the Reformation of whatsoever is contrary to the Divine Will in us and the like 'T is not enough therefore that our Streets resound with Festivity and Joy or yet that we celebrate God's great Mercies in Psalms and Hymns sung to the Organ by Asaph and other Chief Musicians but every Faithful Person must be a Musician and every Grateful Heart that has been delivered an Instrument of God's Praise To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Glory Worship and Thanksgiving this Day forth and for evermore Amen The Sixteenth Sermon JOHN xvi 23 Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name he will give it you THESE Words are part of our Lord's Farewel-Speech to his Disciples when he was to leave the World the unexpected News of which did so afflict them that they had not the power as himself takes notice ver 5. so much as to ask him any Question concerning it But now I go to him that sent me and none of you ask Whither goest thou but because I have said these things unto you Sorrow hath filled your heart And very deservedly for what more amazing more Ominous Tidings could they have heard than that he for whom they had forsaken all they had should after that forsake them than that he that had put Enmity between them and the World should abandon them to the World he in whom they had plac'd all their Ambition all their Hope should at last leave them in a Riddle A little while and ye shall not see me and again a little while and ye shall see me To raise therefore their drooping and disconsolate Spirits he promises them a double Advantage by his Departure and which could only arrive to them by his Departure 1. That they should receive the Holy Ghost who would establish their Faith and wonderfully rejoice their Hearts by assuring them of the truth of the Doctrines he had taught them and of their own Divine Mission 2. That they should be under the immediate Care of the Father by reason of whose Almighty Protection they would have no Cause to deplore his Absence or in the least to wish for his Corporal Presence again for they would find their Dependance on the Father much more happy than the following his Steps through the Cities of Palestine The Words of my Text relate to the latter of these two Advantages Their being under the immediate Care and Protection of the Father While our Lord abode with his Disciples he supply'd all their Wants solv'd all their Doubts stopt the mouths of all their Maligners but he let them know that his Father was Greater than he and would perform all these things in a more uncontroul'd and unlimited manner than he had done when he acted only in the Flesh by his Commission that the Using only of his Name to the Father would be more Beneficial to them than his Person had formerly been for though in many things he had been kind to them there was nothing so Precious nothing so Difficult nothing so Wonderful but if they pray'd for it in his Name the Father would bestow it on them Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name he will give it you In this Singular Priviledge and Prerogative promised by our Lord to his Disciples there are three things very remarkable I. The Person with whom they are to have it The Father he will give it you II. The Measure in which they were to have it it is a Measure indeed unlimited and without Measure Whatsoever ye shall ask ask what you will he will give it you III. By what Means they are to obtain it by asking in Christ's Name Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name I begin with the first of these The Person with whom they are to have this Singular Priviledge The Father This was a comfortable Promise of our Lord 's to his Disciples if they had then understood it as they afterwards did but when the Words were spoken they were but as a Parable or Proverb to them as 't is ver 25. These things have I spoken unto you in Proverbs the time will come that I shall speak no more unto you in Proverbs but I shall shew you Plainly of the Father How was that in what fashion did he afterwards shew them plainly of the Father By his Charismata the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost which they received from him and which bore the very Character of the Father stampt upon them For every Good and perfect Gift as S t James says is from above and cometh from the Father of Light And thus he shew'd them more plainly and convincingly of the Father than he did to Philip when he said Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not known me Philip he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father For he
Endowments S t James notes that Elijah by the power of prayer shut the Windows of Heaven and caused a Dearth and again open'd them and made Plenty But the Prayers of the Apostles wrought not only Wonderful Effects in the second Region of the Air in the Magazines of Snow and Rain but entering into the Heaven of Heavens call'd down Showres of Supernatural and Divine Graces And though before the time of Christ it was said That 't was not known that God so hearkened to the Voice of a Man as he did to Joshua commanding the Sun to stand still yet after Christ's ascension he frequently hearkened to the Voice of Men and effected greater Wonders For after this Promise was once of force Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name he will give it you nothing was impossible nothing was difficult to a Disciple of Christ. But some perhaps will say That it does not appear that this Promise was fulfilled according to the Extent and Latitude of it even to the Apostles themselves not to say how little of it has been made good to the Faithful since For undoubtedly S t Paul was not the only Person that prayed thrice i. e. often and instantly that the Thorn in his Flesh might be taken away and was not heard but others also of the Apostles and first Planters of the Gospel made many earnest Supplications for Success to their Endeavours and Deliverance in their Persecutions and were not answered in their Petitions So that this Promise Whatsoever ye shall ask c. seems to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Promise with Repentance which was never made good To this may be said in general what S t Paul says of all God's Promises That in him they are Yea and Amen i. e. Truths which are ratified with Performances But when we meet with such General and Unlimited Expressions as this in my Text Whatsoever ye shall ask he will give it you though we ought to look upon them as no more than what God is both able and willing to perform when any Just Cause shall require yet they are only then to be expected from him when a Just Cause does require For we must not imagine because he promises according to the Greatness of his own Power and Goodness that he promises according to the Extravagance of Mens Lusts and Phancies because he promises Liberally that he promises also like Herod Licentiously who at a wanton Banquet engaged the one half of his Kingdom to a dancing Damsel and gratify'd a Harlot with the Head of a Saint God's Unlimited Promises are to be understood like the Unlimited Promise of the Good Samaritan when he left the Wounded Man in the Inn Whatsoever thou spendest more says he to the Host I will give it thee i. e. in Order to the hurt man's Recovery the Credit did not extend to the Purchace of the Inn in case his Guest had desired it And if we shall thus receive the Words of our Lord cum grano Salis as they say but with two Grains only of prudent Interpretation cast into them we shall understand their just Latitude and Extent Whatsoever ye shall ask he will give it you i. e. si justum si rationabile if it be Righteous if it be Reasonable First If it be Righteous Righteous in the Matter Righteous in the End and Righteous in the Manner of the Petition 1. Righteous in the Matter if it be something Pious or Charitable that is pray'd for something for God's Honour or the Spiritual Advantage of the Votary something in a word worthy to concern and engage Heaven in for if men shew themselves over-much in love with the things of this Life too solicitous for that which is Vile and Transitory when they have the Promise of things Eternal this declares a Degenerateness in their Affections and an Indecorum that is reprovable and not rewardable as 't is said indecorum est ei curare de cibo qui militat de regno Care of the Belly and the Kitchin ill becomes him that is in pursuance of a Kingdom Such as these while they pray to God despise him and let them not hope while they set at Nought the Glories of Heaven that he will regard their abject Desires he promised to give to them that ask'd in his Son's Name not in the Name of the World 2. Righteous in the End The End of what men desire should be the Glory of God for if it be to satisfie their Pride Revenge Concupiscence c. 't is enough again to put an Embargo upon their Requests as S t James says Ye ask and ye receive not because ye ask for your Lusts and though God has promised to have his Ears open to faithful Prayers he has not engaged to assist Sin or to be accessory to Wickedness 3. Righteous in the Manner if men lift up pure and holy Hands sincere and faithful Hearts without Hypocrisie and without Presumption neither doubting nor tempting God constant but with resignation devout but yet humble Zealous and Fervent but without Murmuring and impatience Heaven is taken by Violence but 't is by an Agonistical not a Hostile Violence by contesting with our own Sins not by quarrelling with God his Kingdom is not to be storm'd after the manner the Poets feign'd the Giants to assault Olympus but to be conquered by Submission Duty and Devotion God is to be wrestled with as Jacob did with the Angel in Faith and Prayer and they are brutish who because he has promised his Servants shall have power With him expect to have a power Over him And thus as our Prayers must be Righteous have nothing in them repugnant to God's Holiness and Majesty so secondly they must be Reasonable i. e. agreeable to God's Divine Will for Reasonable here is not to be measur'd by what is Reasonable to us but to God that which is often Good and fit in our Eyes is not so in his If therefore as S t John says we ask according to his Will he heareth us And a thing may be supposed to be ask'd according to his Will three Ways 1. If it be not contrary to his Decrees something which he has predetermined for these are immutable and though Noah Daniel or Job should intercede they should not prevail again as reducible to these if the Prayer be not against the Decrees or Laws of Nature For though I confess the Promise made to the Apostles in my Text relates chiefly to things of a Miraculous Nature yet the Promise in that part is not to be extended beyond the Apostles Own Persons or the Time of the first planting the Gospel To bring about some great Designs of his in the World God thought fit to interrupt and discompose the Order of Nature but 't is not for Men at their Pleasure to think to do the same Miracles 't is true were wrought by Men but they were never wrought by the Will of men and 't is a Fanatick Presumption
It covers all Sins I answer That Charity nor no other Vertue in a high and Heroick Degree are Single but Complicated Vertues and whoever shall consider what S t Paul says of Charity throughout the thirteenth Chapter of the First to the Corinthians and again Rom. 13.8 He that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law will confess 't is not a Single Vertue but that whoever has Charity in an Eminent Degree must also have Faith Justice Liberality Patience Humility Self-denial even a whole Conjugation or Constellation of Christian Graces And that where this Vertue is entertain'd there all Quarrels and Dissentions secret Malice and open Injuries both the greater Outrages and more petty Vexations and Molestations so much complained of in humane Society are utterly interdicted and banisht Where Charity has its abode indifferent actions are not put upon the Tenter and men made guilty by Censures when their Lives are Innocent Calamities and Misfortunes are not reckoned among Crimes and the Miserable judged void of Goodness because they are void of Success Brutish and voluptuous Affections are not call'd Vertues Lust the greatest Enemy to Charity stampt with the Specious Title of Love Men are not seen to visit their Lawyer oftener than their Neighbour to seek his Ruine and undoing whom 't is their Duty to protect to keep him upon a perpetual Guard and Alarm whose Security should be as precious to them as their own giving him cause to complain That he rather borders on the Den of a Dragon or some savage Beast than on the Habitation of his Christian Brother Men disturb not for every Nothing the Quiet of their own Families making their Houses resemble the Habitation the Poets describe of Aeolus places of continual Storms and Tempests Look not upon the Peace and Safety of their Country with a more malignant and malevolent Aspect than a fatal Comet hatch not worse Mischiefs in their black Cabals than are brooded in the poysonous Womb of the Air when the Contagion of a Plague is fermenting in it Men rend not the Church in pieces to patch up their Beggarly Fortunes or to cover their more beggarly Endowment knowing the Perverseness of men is such that a mean Harangue will lead them sooner into Sedition than the most powerful Oratory will be able to retain them in their Duty and Obedience and that their Voices which sound so loud and shrill in the Cause of Schism and Rebellion would be hoarse and flat in the Defence of Loyalty and Conformity Against these and infinite Disorders more Charity is the best Catholicon the best General Antidote can be prescribed Which as the Apostle says seeks not its own things but the things of another And if we entertain this Vertue it will not only remove those Mischiefs which are already on foot but prevent those that are springing up it will defend us not by the Power of Arms but by turning Wars into Peace Ill-Will into Love Enemies into Brethren by making the World one Common Family and of one Common Interest by making God our Common Father and Heaven our Common Aim and Ambition to the attaining the highest Honours and Dignities in which Kingdom 't is not Envy and Strife the crossing and frustrating Mens Endeavours but the furthering and assisting them that conduces To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Glory c. The Twentieth Sermon MATTH xxii 46 On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets THE Law being a large Body consisting of many weighty Precepts upon several distinct accounts as that of the Sabbath for the remembrance of the Creation of the World and the Redemption out of Egypt that of Tythes for the maintenance of the Sanctuary and the Priests that of Sacrifices for the purging away transgressions that of Circumcision for the sealing of the Covenant and which for its better remembrance was rigorously carved into the very Flesh of the Covenanters c. the Jewish Doctors more curious to compare the Excellence of their Precepts than solicitous to obey them to make them contest their Priority with one another than to reform and regulate their Lives by them made it a Question of the highest concern Which Commandment had the Preheminence of all the rest And our Lord in those days opening as 't were a School of Divine Knowledge and professing a Solution of all Difficulties in the Revealed Will of God to men a Pharisee either to shew his Skill in the Law or to try our Lord's to inform himself or to have whereat to cavil put to him this so controverted Point among those of his own Sect Quaenam est suprema Lex among the many Great Commandments which is the Queen or Supreme Commandment the Law as one may say that gives Law to all beside Our Lord whose custom it was not to answer directly to the impertinence of the Asker but to take occasion from his malice mistake or the like to make known some important Truth satisfies not the folly of the enquiry Which Law had the Precedence to the prejudice of the rest but declares That the End and Design of all God's Laws is Piety and Charity the love of God and the love of our Neighbour brings these two Duties which lay overwhelmed and neglected under the Rubbish of vain Traditions over-seen like Saul in the Stuff and Lumber not only into Competition with the Commandments more highly prized by them but as the tallest and most Illustrious anointed them with the Royal Oil and set the Crown upon their heads The Love of God and of our Neighbour are not distinct formal Laws but the Drift and Scope of the Whole Law duae Cardines Tabularum the Hinges on which the two Tables and all the preaching of the Prophets hang and turn and without which they would fall to the ground i. e. have nothing of Vertue or Moment in them But our Lord having styled them two Commandments has made them so by his authority and as such I shall observe in them these two General Parts I. The Substance of them Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy mind And thy Neighbour as thy self And II. The high Dignity of them by reason of the Dependance of the Whole Law and Prophets on them On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets In the First of these two General Parts the Substance of these two Commandments I shall observe more particularly these three things 1. The Duty enjoin'd which is the same in both Commandments Love 2. The Objects of this Duty God and our Neighbour 3. The Measure or Degree in which the Love to each Object is commanded viz. God to be lov'd with All the heart And our Neighbour as our self I begin first with the Duty enjoin'd which is the same in both Commandments Love To love a Person as Aristotle defines is to wish him well and to procure things Good and
for the Flame of Divine Love as well as for that of Carnal and if men excite not their Love to God by the Contemplation of his Sublime Perfections and Goodness their Love will be no better than the dead Carcase of a Passion than the cold Picture of a Flame And if any say A high and abstracted Contemplation of the Nature Properties and Attributes of the Deity is only fit for Philosophers who have Learning and Subtilty to penetrate into them but they come not within the comprehension of Common Men though otherwise Godly I answer Neither need they be solicitous in this matter there are other Motives to stir men up to the Love of God no less Excellent and subjected to the meanest Capacity viz. those which are taken from his Love to us first his manifold and never-to-be-enough-acknowledged Benefits both Spiritual and Temporal especially Spiritual which he has bestowed upon us through Christ Jesus the Son of his Love as the Remission of our Sins the Gift of Grace the Adoption of us to be his Children the Promise of the Kingdom of Heaven c. For when all is done there is no greater Procurer of Love or Motive to it than to be prevented with the Acts of Love Says David Praise the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me praise his holy Name who forgiveth all thy Sin and healeth all thy Infirmities who saveth thy Life from Destruction and crowneth thee with Mercy and Loving-kindness If men would weigh and consider the accursed and dreadful Condition into which the Guilt of Sin had brought them that the Wages of it is Eternal Damnation they would also be sensible how inestimable a Benefit the Remission of Sin and the Gifts of Grace and Glory are And as there can be no greater Motive to winde up mens Affections to God to the highest Pitch than this Exceeding great Love of God to them so there will need no other Instead therefore of heaping up many Motives I shall leave this one to your Meditations and proceed to shew what Inducements we have To Love our Neighbour And now the whole Hour would not suffice me to give a particular account of them some drawn from Mankinds being all at first of one Stock and Kindred others again from the Renewing this Relation between them by their being made Brethren through Grace in Christ and the adopted Children of one Father in Heaven from mens needing one anothers mutual help even the Greatest and Happiest as well as the Poorest and Meanest and the like But all these Inducements however weighty I shall wave at present not having time to insist on them and restrain my self to the one Motive express'd in my Text Because the Love of our Neighbour is one of the two Hooks or Hinges on which all the Law and the Prophets hang has the Honour to support at least one of the Tables of the Commandments one half of the Conditions God requires of men to make them Partakers of his Promises of the Blessings of this Life and of the Glory of that to come And though I said it has the Honour or Dignity to support but One of the two Tables yet there is that inseparable Connexion between the two Tables that he that breaks the one inevitably breaks the other Whosoever says S t James shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one Point he is guilty of all 'T is not possible to offend against the Law and not against the Law-giver 't is not possible to transgress against the Second Table and not to violate the First to hate our Brother and to love God And the School-men on this account make but one Theological Vertue of our Love to God and our Love to our Neighbour and S t John reckons Uncharitable men among Unbelievers the Hater of his Brother and an Infidel to be the same says he If a man says I love God and hate his Brother he is a Lyar and again he is in darkness i. e. without Faith or the Knowledge of God Our Lord also Matth. 25. pronounces That whatsoever Love is shew'd to his Brethren is shew'd to him Inasmuch says he as you have done it unto one of the least of these my Brethren ye have done it unto me and again what is denied to them is denied to him Inasmuch as you did it not to one of the least of these you did it not to me The true Love of God carries with it as a necessary Consequence the Love of our Brother and 't is but a cheap Piece of Hypocrisie and a niggardly Lye to pretend to love God who is above any Material Expressions of our Love and to harden our hearts to our Brethren who stand in need of such things and whom God has appointed and deputed to be the Receivers of such Tribute in his behalf And thus as all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two Commandments The Love of God And the Love of our Neighbour So these two again depend on one another The Summ of all that has been said is this Love is the End of the Commandment all the Numerous Precepts contain'd in the Law point only at this One grand Duty and are but particular Instances and Exemplifications of it Many things in the Law consist more in a Shew of Goodness than of true Goodness and are rather the Way to Righteousness than Righteousness it self all the Typical Ceremonial Ordinances were but ad populum phalerae as 't is said Pomps and Ornaments either to amuse the rude People or to be Helps to their weak Understanding to bring them to the Knowledge of better things while therefore they observed these they learned to be Religious but when they lov'd God and their Neighbour they were Religious Etiam stante Hierosolyma Jerusalem even standing and the Law of the Sabbath being in force the Strict Rest of it yielded to the Works of it and our Lord tells us Matth. 12. None broke and prophan'd the Sabbath more than the Priests toiling in killing and sleying the Beasts for Sacrifice and were yet blameless And upon another occasion of breaking the Sabbath says he I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice i. e. when both cannot be performed he prefers the Works of Mercy or Charity to a Brother before the Outward Duties to God himself And the learned among the Jews perceived that even while they did perform the Outward Works enjoined them by the Law that they were not principally intended in the Law nay that in respect of the Works of Love that they were cancell'd even when they stood most in force that which is said of our Lord 's particular Obedience Psal. 40. Burnt-Offerings and Sacrifices thou wouldest not but a Body hast thou prepared me then said I Lo I come to do thy Will O God! may be said in like manner of the Obedience that is required of all Men that there is a noluisti thou wouldst not have implyed in all Commands concerning them