are we to those who bequeath them to us And if we think we have reason to be so to Men for such mean Inheritances how much more ought we to be to our Heavenly Father for this Inheritance in light Now since we cannot be thankfull to him for an Inheritance which we are not well assured does belong unto us it will concern us here to try and secure our Evidence and for that we need go no farther than the Text. If as that tells us it be an Inheritance of Saints and an Inheritance in light what Right or Title can we pretend to it without being our selves Saints and Children of the light And if as St. Peter hath described it it be an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled how can we hope to partake of it unless our Corruptible even here put on Incorruption and we endeavour to be pure as God who is our Inheritance is pure 1 Joh. 3. 3. Heaven is no place for the polluted Into the Heavenly Jerusalem shall in no wise enter any thing that defileth or is defiled Revel 21. 27. Nor will Christ receive any into his Kingdom but whom He shall find when He cometh without spot and blameless 2 Pet. 3. 9. If these things be found in us Innocence Vertue and Holiness of Life an entrance shall then be ministred unto us abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1. 11. And so when St. Peter bids us give diligence to make our calling and election sure 1 Pet. 1. 10. He shews us the way how to doe so and that is by adding to our faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and so on verses 5 6 7. by practising the Vertues of the Moral Law there set down These are the clear Evidences of the Inheritance in light as well as the means to attain it which we are to find in our selves continually and to clear up still fearing lest any of us come short of our Inheritance Heb. 4. 1. If we doe these things we shall never fall Let our Inheritance be as sure as God can make it yet is it not sure to us till our Consciences can bear us witness that we are the Children of God by obeying our Heavenly Father And since he has provided such a glorious Estate for those that doe so how ought we to despise those poor Inheritances He allots us here below in comparison of what He prepares for us above How willing to part with those for that when He requires it and we cannot keep both Heaven will make up all our losses here it will pay for all at last And this is the main Argument the Apostle useth here to persuade the Colossians unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness in the precedent Verse because by outward afflictions God did make them meet to be partakers of such an Inheritance in light as could not be taken from them as their Earthly Ones daily were by Heathens Tyrants and Oppressors That with other Saints of God they should take joyfully the spoiling of their goods knowing in themselves that they had in Heaven a better and an enduring substance Lastly As God the Father first makes us meet to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in light so when he has once made us meet by his Grace let us endeavour by the assistance of that Grace still to make our selves meeter always blessing and thanking him as for all sorts of Blessings he bestows upon us so in an especial manner for this in the Text for the blessed hope and assurance he gives his Saints of partaking one day of such an Inheritance as is All Blessedness Here He crumbles his Blessings unto us we have them here by Retail In Heaven we shall have them all in a lump and that for ever All the satisfactions and enjoyments of this present life are so thin empty and comfortless that we have need of patience to be able to endure them The Prophet David found them so and had He not had a prospect of far better things as a Cordial to cheer up and enliven his Heart it would quite have failed him I should utterly have fainted but that I believe verily to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living Psal. 27. 15. Let this Faith bear up our drooping spirits as it did his And let our Thoughts continually dwell on Heaven and on the Happiness we shall there enjoy when we shall come into the City of the living God the Heavenly Jerusalem to an innumerable Company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the first-born which are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of All and to the Spirits of just Men made perfect who now partake of the Inheritance in light To which blessed Society God bring us all Amen Soli Deo gloria in aeternum A SERMON Preached on the Fifth of NOVEMBER St. Matt. VII the former part of v. 16. Ye shall know them by their fruits THE main design of Satan as it hath ever been the same to ruin the Church of God so his arts and methods to compass it have been various and different Sometimes he hath endeavoured to destroy her by force otherwhiles to undermine her by subtlety His first attempt was to crush her in the Birth and the second Man that ere was born dy'd a Martyr Ever since the Church has been an Acheldama a Field of Bloud and its Kalendar markt all along with Red letters the profession of truth having still been fatal as to its Author so to all his followers in succeeding Ages distinguishable not so much by the several Reigns of Heathen Emperors as those various storms that in their times have fallen upon Christians 2. But as these storms were ever blown away by the breath of God and Satan by strictly winnowing the Church gat nothing thereby but his own tares when he saw that Phoenix grew fruitfull from her own ashes and the fertile bloud of her Martyrs did but bring her in a larger harvest of Proselytes He then shifted the Scene laid aside those terrible Arguments of Racks and Gibbets to compell Men to come into his Kingdom and took up other more plausible and insinuative the allurements and blandishments of this World to baffle them out of the rewards of another thinking by out-bidding Christ to gain a more numerous party to himself wherein how successfull he has been the frequent Apostasies of Men in all Ages do abundantly testifie 3. Lastly As he met with some of a stouter and wiser temper than to be prevail'd on by either of these Methods Men not to be beaten off from their Profession by threats nor drawn away from it by such mean hopes as this World could afford them His subtlest policy has been to work upon their Judgments to deprave their Understandings by poysoning the very Fountains of Knowledge the Scriptures To which end he made choice of corrupt Teachers as the most proper
remembrance again Joh. 14. 26. He admonisheth and directeth us his Clients how to order and solicit our own business what Evidences to produce how to manage and plead them making up our failings by his Wisdom and not only so but as the word Paraclete here imports he intercedeth also with God for us not in such a manner as Christ is said to doe whom St. John also calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Advocate with the Father 1 Joh. 2. 1. For as much as that Bloud which He shed for us on the Cross speaks for us better things than that of Abel and continually pleads our Pardon before the Tribunal of God but the Holy Ghost is said to make intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered because he stirreth us up to Prayer prompting and teaching us also how to pray as we ought to doe in all our Necessities So that as Christ is the first Advocate by working our Reconciliation with God so is the Spirit our other or second one by testifying and applying the same unto our Souls 2dly He is our Advocate not only in respect of God but of Men too by maintaining our Cause against the World against Tyrants and Persecutors 1. Against the World as oft as it accuseth us by false and slanderous Calumniators laying to our charge things we never did The Spirit in this case maketh us not only plead our Innocency but rejoyce in the Reproaches of Christ count our selves happy in this that it is not such low marks as we are which the malice of the World aimeth at but the Spirit of glory and of God which resteth upon us who is on their part evil spoken of 1 Pet. 4. 14. 2dly Against Tyrants and Persecutors Whence it is that our Saviour Mat. 10. 19. bids his Disciples not be concern'd what they should speak when they should be delivered up to Men because it should be given them in that same hour what they should speak And he adds vers 20. It is not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you And we know how that God in all Ages did by the mouths of Infants maintain his Truths to the shame and confusion of Tyrants who endeavour'd to suppress them But here it may be objected Was not the Holy Ghost given to the Jewish Church before the coming of Christ Did He not comfort and support them under a long and tedious expectation of his appearance Was He not then a Teacher of the Faithfull and when that Cloud of Witnesses suffered for the Cause of the God of Jacob when they were sawn in pieces and stoned was not the Holy Ghost their Advocate as well as the Martyrs under the Gospel Did He not speak by the Mouth of Daniel when cast to the Lions and of the three Children who chanted out the Praises of God in the midst of the flames of the firey furnace How then does our Lord say here If I go not away the Comforter will not come to you since so many Ages before He was come and as a Comforter too For Resolution hereof we are to observe That although the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity be equally the Principles of all those Acts they produce without according to the received Maxim of the Schools yet with a considerable difference in relation to those three distinct Oeconomies or Dispensations towards the Church That of the Father lasted till the Coming of Christ in the Flesh yet so as that in that space of time 't is generally believed that the Son of God did sometimes appear as to Abraham Jacob and Joshua being a kind of Essay or Prelude to his Incarnation and the Holy Ghost did then also impart some degree of Efficacy to the Faithfull However This is properly to be reckoned the Oeconomy of the Father The second was That of the Son from his Incarnation to his Ascension yet so as that the Father made his voice to be heard at Jordan and Mount Tabor This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased hear ye Him As at another time in the Audience of the People Joh. 12. 28. I have both glorified it and will glorifie it again Then also did the Holy Ghost appear in the form of a Dove yet still this is to be accounted the Oeconomy of the Son That of the Holy Spirit commenced from his Descent upon the Apostles and shall last unto the end of all things Differing herein from the other two That in the two first Dispensations Men's senses were usually affected with some extraordinary miraculous and sensible Objects God the Father shewing himself in a Cloud and Pillar of Fire giving out his Oracles from between the Cherubins consuming the burnt-offerings with Fire from Heaven and filling the Sanctuary with his Glory And the Son of God conversing so familiarly with Men that it made St. John say That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life declare we unto you Whereas I say All was as it were visible and palpable here 'T was far otherwise in the Dispensation of the Spirit The Heavens were not seen to part nor was God's terrible Voice heard in the Air no Shechinah no Glory or sensible Mark of the Presence of the living God in his Temple For which reason the third Person in the Trinity has the Special Name of Spirit given Him For as He is styled Holy in respect of that Sanctification he worketh in us though that same Title belongs also to the other two Persons as having the same Spiritual Essence yet the Holy Ghost bears the name of Spirit in regard of his altogether Spiritual Dispensation and those Graces he imparts to each faithfull Soul which are Heavenly and Spiritual such as are the Knowledge of the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven and his inward Vertues and Consolations As for Knowledge it was so weak and imperfect under the Ancient Oeconomy that in respect of that our Lord preferrs the least in the Kingdom of Heaven i. e. the meanest Christian to all the Prophets not excepting the Baptist himself Nor can it be deny'd but that the very first Principles and Rudiments of Christianity do far surpass the highest Attainments of the Law The Jews were under a Cloud and the Doctrine of the Prophets was but as a light shining in a dark place All was then Shadow or rather Night and Moses his Veil was over the Eyes of the whole Nation God made himself known to the Jews as the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob not as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom They had a very wrong Notion looking upon him as the Conqueror of the World such was the very Apostle's fancy of him and that even after his Resurrection Act. 1. The ineffable Mystery of the Trinity that of Godliness which without controversie is great God manifested
Glorious things are spoken of the City of God and we may say of them what the Queen of Sheba said of the Glory of Solomon's kingdom that the half thereof is not told us But surely among those many glorious things spoken of it nothing is more glorious than this That it is a City which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God Heb. 11. 10. And that in Heaven we have an house not made with hands but eternal An House that shall last as long as its Builder and whose Inhabitants shall last as long as both and dwell therein for ever For what would all the Glories of Heaven be to us if we had no other advantage but what Solomon says worldly men have of their riches to behold them with our eyes What should we be the better for them if we might never enjoy them and have no right to the place where they are to be found What is a Kingdom to him to whom it belongs not Or a Crown of glory to that man whose head shall never wear it Had we such a sight of all the kingdoms of the world and of the glory of them as the Devil shewed our Saviour but withall as little right to any part of them as that Tempter could give Him That glittering sight might perhaps dazle our eyes but never raise any other passion in us than that of Envy towards them who should enjoy them And thus it would be with us as to the kingdom of Heaven To behold this spiritual Canaan afar off without any hope of ever possessing it to view it as another's Countrey not our own would be but such a sad and melancholy prospect as the rich man had when he saw Lazarus in Abraham's bosom or as our Lord gave the Jews when he told them that they should see Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the kingdom of God when they themselves should thence be thrust out Luk. 13. 28. There is no true satisfaction to be had in any thing wherein we have no Interest no lasting Propriety Without this Heaven it self would be a Hell to us as it is to the Damned But 't is the peculiar advantage and comfort of God's Saints that they can look upon it even while here below as their Inheritance Christ hath entail'd it upon them Matt. 25. 34. Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you They have his word for it which is as sure to them as Free-hold II. But what kind of Inheritance is prepared for them The Text tells us 'T is an Inheritance in light and that in opposition to another sort of Inheritance if I may so call it styled in the following Verse the power of darkness yea and Darkness it self Act. 26. 18. As that which lies in darkness is maintained and upheld by it and shall bring men without repentance into outer darkness into the blackness of darkness for ever From which dismal state the godly being delivered are said to be called out of darkness into God's marvellous light 1 Pet. 2. 9. Out of the darkness of ignorance the natural state of man into the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ which will at last bring them to that of eternal glory So that the Inheritance here is an Inheritance in light in two respects 1. In respect of the light of Faith and the knowledge of God which englightens us in this life And 2dly In respect of that light of Glory which shall adorn and crown us in the next We have here the outward light of the Word before us and the inward light of the Spirit within us And if we walk in these lights as children of the light we have a promise of shining forth hereafter as the Sun in the kingdom of our Father Matt. 13. 43. Both which lights are in effect but one That of Faith a light in part and that of Glory a full and perfect light For Grace is nothing else but the dawning of Glory They differ not in substance but in degree no otherwise than as light in the Sun when it first peeps out above our Horizon from that of the same Sun when it is in its Vertical point shining out in its full strength Both these lights I say of Faith and Glory make up but one great united Light And therefore 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text An Inheritance not in lights but in light There being but one Light as there are but one sort of Inheriters thereof The Saints For who fit to partake of this glorious unspotted light but they who are so themselves or who have a proper right to this Inheritance but the Children of the most Highest Psal. 82. 6. So St. Paul argues Rom. 8. 17. If Children then Heirs Heirs of God and joint Heirs with Christ Heirs of God indeed but through Christ Gal. 4. 7. Holding their Inheritance in Capite in the right of Him who is the Heir of all things Heb. 1. 2. He the natural Heir They but adopted ones Rom. 8. 15. But still in Him Ephes. 1. 5. Having predestinated us unto the Adoption of Children by Christ Jesus unto himself Whence they claim the Inheritance by promise also For being Christ's says the same Apostle they become Abraham's seed and Heirs according to the promise Gal. 3. 23. And so Heb. 9. 15. They receive the Promise of an eternal Inheritance Not that they have not the Promise also of temporal Inheritances For Godliness hath the Promise of the life that now is as well as of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4. 8. But because the Heavenly is setled only upon them whereas Temporal Inheritances may and do fall to their share and that in large Proportions who have neither part nor lot in the Heavenly I have blessed Ismael says God Twelve Princes shall he beget but my Covenant will I establish with Isaac Gen. 17. 20 21. Esau had the like Temporal blessing as Jacob had But not with a God give thee the Dew of Heaven Gen. 27. 28. God gives gifts unto men even to the rebellious Psal. 68. 18. Common giftless gifts But the Inheritance and to abide in his house for ever is for the Children Joh. 8. 35. Nor will these be put off or sent away with a few gifts as the sons of Abraham's Concubines were nothing less will content them than the Inheritance it self The Children of this world indeed have their Portion in this life and they are satisfied with it This is our Portion and our Lot is this say they Wisedom 2. 9. But the Children of light and of a better world reckon otherwise The Lord himself is the Portion of mine Inheritance says David Psal. 16. 6. They are fellow Citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem Ephes. 2. 19. Their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Burgeship is there They live according to the Laws of Heaven and even while on Earth enjoy the Priviledges thereof being
have found out a platform of Government among the fallen Angels who though their Principles be crooked yet being obey'd by Wills as crooked observe an irregular Rule and a perverse Order even in Hell so Sin rules in us too by Principles For there is saith St. Paul a Law of Sin But then 't is such a Law as if it should be Treason for any Subject not to Murther his Natural Prince or Adultery not to Ravish or Blasphemy not to take God's Name in vain 'T is such a Law as if two Anti-Tables should be written which should make it Sin not to break the Commandments Lastly Let the Apostle tell you what Law it is 'T is a Law of the Members warring against the Law of the Mind and not only warring but bringing it into Captivity Rom. 7. 23. Sin herein far exceeding the Author of it For he only aspir'd to be like the Highest but Sin hath made an inversion in the Soul advancing Sense into the Chair of Reason and placing the Beast above the Man And though it may leave us to a natural liberty in moral actions for 't is harsh to think that Justice and Temperance are but guilded Sins yet for actions of Grace it has so glewed and settered the Soul that it cannot possibly mount up to Heaven 2. Next for Death Men have made a Covenant with that saith the Scripture and if Contract be not enough we reade Wisd. 1. v. 14. of a Kingdom of Death so that Christ did not only find us Captives but Captives slain Teneo à primordio homicidam culpam says Tertullian Adam's Throat was our open Sepulchre who in that fatal Apple did not only murther his Children like Saturn but like Thyestes in the Tragedy did eat them After that Transgression there pass'd an Act upon us It is appointed for all Men once to dye Nay it were a degree of happiness to dye but once if nothing remained for punishment for nothing can suffer nothing But we were to be raised to another Death and like drowsie Malefactors that had lain down with their Sentence were to be awakened out of sleep to be put upon the Rack 3. The Scripture almost every-where styles the Devil the Prince of this World His Kingdom had enlarg'd its self from that place about which the Schools dispute to every rebellion and disorder of the Soul where as in a conquer'd Province per cupiditates regnavit saith St. Augustine He reigned by his Proconsul Sins There also making himself the Prince of Darkness by our ignorance and the Prince of the Air by raising Tempests through all the Regions of Man and exercising an universal and absolute Power over him For such was his power in the World when the Saviour of it came into it There was then a general defection from God Satan's Synagogue had in a manner swallowed up God's Church who had but one corner of the World left him and therein for a long time but a moving Tabernacle and when a fix'd habitation but one house wherein a very few to serve him while the Devil's Temples were every-where crowded with Priests and Sacrifices and his Altars smoak'd in all places with Incense so that the Earth and the fulness thereof seem'd now his and he though cast out of Heaven to have reveng'd himself in some sort of God by thus dispossessing him as it were of the Earth Nor was the Devil's power more Universal than 't was Absolute over men's Bodies and over their Souls too Their Bodies he possest and tormented at pleasure insomuch that his very Priests might have receiv'd Death with as much ease as they did his Oracles entring into Men as he did into the Hoggs hurrying them violently into perdition commanding Parents to make their Sons and Daughters pass through the fire to him tearing and bruising those he had got into and casting them sometimes into the water and sometimes into the fire Nor did he tyrannize less over Men's souls than bodies blinding their understanding putting out the light of natural reason in them first corrupting their Judgments and then their Manners from Error in judgment the passage being natural and easie to Error in practice and accordingly St. Paul tells us how vain men became in their imaginations even to worship the Creature instead of the Creator to change the glory of the uncorruptible God into Images made like to corruptible Men and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things which made God give them up to all manner of uncleanness as you may reade at large Rom. 1. 21 c. In such slavery had the Devil not only Heathens his own people as I may call them but even the Jews themselves God's chosen people who after so many Miracles of Power and Mercies so many excellent Statutes and Ordinances to direct them in the true manner of his Worship as had not been delivered to any Nation besides did not for all this fall short of the worst of Heathens either in matter of erroneous judgment or vitious practices The profane Sadducee had corrupted all good Manners and the hypocritical Pharisee perverted the Law by his false Glosses and Comments on it so that when our Saviour appeared on Earth an universal deluge of Wickedness had over-spread the face of it And thus all Mankind being the Devil 's by right of Conquest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken by him as it were in War the true import of that word and bound fast to him with his Chains of darkness of gross error and vitiousness 't was high time for the Son of God to come down to rescue miserable Men from these several Captivities which he did three manner of ways 1. By Commutation 2. By Conquest and 3. By way of Ransome or Purchase 1. By Commutation For when we were prisoners to Death by sin God made an exchange delivered his Son over to it for us became our Scape-goat like the Ram substituted in the place of Isaac and as the Apostle speaks tasted death for every man that we might not be devoured and swallowed up by it 2. By Conquest as it referrs to Power and thus our Lord offered violence to Hell snatcht us as brands out of its fire and rescued us as so many preys out of the teeth of the roaring Lion delivering us from the power of darkness and translating us into his kingdom vanquishing death and him that had the power of death the Devil and treading him under our feet And not content with that he spoiled principalities and powers making a shew or as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports an example of them openly and triumph'd over them in himself or in his Cross. 3. By way of Purchase or Ransome as it referrs to Justice Thus Christ made a perfect satisfaction to God by laying down a price for us and paying the very utmost farthing of our debt and so came not only to give us an Example as Socinians
advantage 3. Besides to make our Estate good is required Investiture so that although Christ hath made a purchase and paid a price for us yet what would this advantage us without Livery and Seizin which the same Apostle calls The Earnest of the Spirit 2 Cor. 5. 5. Lastly What are we at all the better for what Christ did for us if we be not joined to Him as He was to us and 't is by his Spirit that we are joined unto Him For he that hath not Christ's Spirit is none of his Rom. 8. 9. and then Christ will profit him nothing From whence it plainly appears That what the Father and the Son did for us could not be compleat or available without the concurrence of the Holy Ghost They could doe nothing for us without Him nor we any thing for our selves in order to our Salvation For first without Holiness we cannot see God who is therefore called Holy because he is the cause of Holiness in us his Office consisting in the sanctifying of us We are by Nature void of all saving Truth 1 Cor. 2. 10 11. None knoweth the things of God but the Spirit of God And 't is the Spirit that searcheth all things and revealeth them unto the Sons of Men That dispells their Darkness enlightens their Understandings with the knowledge of God and works in them an assent unto that which by the Word is propounded unto them Again 2dly Unless they be regenerate and renewed they are still in a state of natural Corruption Now 't is the Holy Spirit that regenerates and renews us According to his mercy he saveth us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5. And Except a man be born again of Water and the Holy Ghost he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Joh. 3. 5. We are all at first defiled by the corruption of our Nature and the pollution of our Sins but we are washed but we are sanctified but we are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6. 11. Thirdly We are not able to guide our selves and 't is the Spirit that leads directs and governs us in our Actions and Conversations that we may perform what is acceptable in the sight of God 'T is He that giveth both to will and to doe and As many as are thus led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God Rom. 8. 14. Fourthly If we be separate from Christ we are as branches cut off from the Tree which presently wither away for want of sap to nourish them Now 't is the Spirit that joins us to Christ and makes us Members of that Body whereof he is the Head For by one Spirit we are all baptized into that one Body 1 Cor. 12. 13. And hereby we know that God abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us 1 Joh. 3. 24. Fifthly Till we be assured of the Adoption of Sons we have no comfort no hope for 't is that which creates in us a sense of the Paternal love of God towards us The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us Rom. 5. 5. And the Spirit it self beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God Rom. 8. 16. who is therefore said to be the Pledge and the Earnest of our Inheritance In a word had not the Holy Ghost been sent to us we could have done nothing to any purpose no means on our part would have availed us Not Baptism which might wash spots from our Skins nor stains from our Souls No laver of Regeneration without renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5. Not the Word which without the Spirit would have proved but a killing letter Not the Sacrament The Flesh profiteth nothing 't is the Spirit that quickneth Joh. 6. 63. Lastly Not Prayer which without the Spirit is but lip-labour For unless he help our infirmities and make intercession for and with us we know not what we should pray for as we ought Rom. 8. 26. To summ up all It was expedient nay absolutely necessary that the Spirit should have his Advent as well as Christ. Christ's Advent was necessary for the fulfilling of the Law and the Spirit 's for the compleating of the Gospel Christ's to redeem the Church and the Spirit 's to teach it Christ's to shed his bloud for it and the Spirit 's to wash and purge it in that bloud Christ's to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the Spirit 's to interpret it The one without the other is imperfect Christ's Birth Death Passion Resurrection are good news but sealed up a Gospel hid till the Spirit come and open it Of such importance was his coming and so expedient yea and necessary for us it was that our Lord should go away to send Him to us And as he did send Him to the Apostles in an extraordinary manner in cloven tongues like as of fire as at this time so all Christians have a promise of the Comforter though not of the firey tongues The promise is to you and to your Children and to all that are a-far off even as many as the Lord our God shall call Act. 2. 39. That is To all that wait for and are in such a fit posture and condition to receive Him as the Apostles themselves were To all that are like Him Holy Pure Charitable Peaceable That have those fruits of the Spirit mentioned Gal. 5. 22 23. That are void of carnal sensual Affections than which nothing will more obstruct his entrance He being a Spirit and having therefore no commerce with the Flesh. Christ carnally apprehended we see could not avail any thing and so long as our Thoughts and Desires run after things here below his Spirit from above will not fill or inflame them Therefore sur sum corda let us lift up our hearts towards Him He will meet us and Christ will send Him to us if we meet Him in his way Send Him if we send for Him too if we send up our Prayers to fetch Him down For being a Spirit of supplication Zach. 12. 10. the proper means to obtain Him is Prayer And surely He is worth the asking for being the greatest gift God can give us or we receive In giving whereof He is said to give us all things Mat. 7. 11. In whom we have a Teacher to instruct The Spirit of Truth to lead us into all Truth necessary for us An Advocate to plead for and defend us A Comforter in all our outward and inward distresses so that Direction Protection Consolation and all that is beneficial to us or we can desire we have in Him But then when we have got let us be sure to retain and to cherish Him not chase Him away for then we had better never to have had Him Be sure not to resist Him by our Pride quench Him by our Carnality and so grieve Him
the advantage of his Maker 4. A fourth strange opinion of theirs was a fancy they had of a temporal flourishing Messiah which serv'd to promote their carnal ambition by filling their heads with designs of worldly grandeur and begetting a contempt in them of and hatred to all other Nations while they look'd upon themselves as the only true Subjects of their mis-shapen Messiah and on all others as Rebels to Him and consequently such as they were obliged to persecute with Fire and Sword and by force of Arms to compel to come into his kingdom and so to prepare the way of the Lord as we see our modern Chiliasts have attempted hating all foreign Princes as Usurpers and deeming it no better than a sinfull Vassalage to stoop to a Heathen Sceptre and dispensing with their oaths and obligations upon the accompt of their Religion and Customs which was the ground of their frequent Rebellions especially against the Roman Emperors and of the final Ruine of their State and Religion I might here give you in a larger Catalogue of other their erroneous doctrins Concerning their over-strict observation of the Sabbath Of an Astronomical Destiny and Fatality held by them Of Vows of Continency though not perpetual Of the necessity of Washing Cups and Pots with a farrago of more ridiculous and burthensome Ceremonies as Abstaining from certain kinds of Meats as naturally unclean though God himself had not prohibited the use of them and many such like Fopperies their Talmud is stuff'd with which is nothing else but a Shop and Legend of such Impertinences But by those main doctrines I have mentioned and which are indeed of the very essence and constitution of a Pharisee 't is easie to discover their design and drift how full of impiety they were tending to the disparaging of God's Laws and the weakning of that Obedience which was due to them and men's too and to the fomenting of hypocrisie superstition and rebellion the natural conclusions of such false and dangerous premises 2. Nor did their Actions bely their Principles If we look into their carriage we shall find there nothing but Hypocrisie a mere form of godliness without the power of it Painted Sepulchres they were offering to the purblind view of men the scum and outside of their nobility and merit in the large characters of Marble Statues Heraldry and Epitaphs while they entertained the all-piercing eye of God with the nasty prospect of a Charnel-house For such they were cramm'd with the bodies of those martyr'd Prophets whose bones they so hypocritically enshrin'd Bodily worship which is but the rinde and bark of Religion was the main of the Pharisees sanctity which usually concluded like the Turkish Lents after the vizarded austerity of a few spare hours in nightly Bacchanals They would not fast without a smeared or disfigured Face nor give alms without a Trumpet nor pray without Witnesses and vain repetitions Strict observers they were of the mint and cummin and as great neglectors of the weightier matters of the law judgement mercy and truth They could strain at a Gnat and swallow a Camel were so much for Sacrifice that they neglected Charity observed the Sabbath but had no Love laying heavy loads on others which themselves would not touch with one of their fingers God had charged them to bind the Law to their hand and before their eyes meaning thereby the meditation and practice of it and they extended the dimensions of their Philacteries to fill the gazing eyes of the People bearing them not in their hearts and lives but in their foreheads hands and heels also as whipt and branded Malefactors have no more of Law than what is legible in red letters of Justice on their backs or fists In a word all they aimed at in their works of Charity was to be seen and get glory of men to make clean the outside of the platter and draw near unto God with their lips when their hearts were far from him This is the description our Saviour gives of their Hypocrisie Nor was their Ambition less in affecting the Title of Rabbi's and greeting in the markets the highest seats in the Synagogues and the chief rooms at feasts This was their carnal and their spiritual Pride which is worse was as great while their enthron'd righteousness lookt down on the integrity of all the World besides as its footstool They were not as other men true indeed for they were much worse for this very reason because they thought themselves so much better And upon this accompt they avoided all communication with any but those of their own Tribe They would not board with a Samaritan or a Publican falling foul with Christ for tasting of their bread a crime as bad with them as to eat Swines-flesh herein shewing themselves the true Successors of those in the Prophet Esay 65. 5. whose Motto 't was Stand a-part Come not near me for I am holier than thou And thus we find the Pharisee praying by himself leaving the despised Publican in the utmost Porch of the Peoples Court whom he brands with the odious contemptible name of This Publican Uncharitableness being the natural brat of Pride and none more ready to spy a mote in another's eye than he who has a beam in his own To their Hypocrisie and Pride I may add their excessive Covetousness and Extortion charg'd upon them which was so unsatiable that their throat was an open Sepulchre swallowing up whole Widows houses and the Estates of Orphans dress'd in the poynant Sawce of their owners Tears and eaten with their leavened Bread of deceit in a traiterous Executorship And what was their Corban but an art to fill their Treasury by cheating Parents of their due upon the score of Religion Or what were all their subtle arts to gain and uphold a Party but Interest Wherein their blind zeal and industry did vye with their policy compassing Sea and Land to make but one Proselyte who when they had made him such would be sure to be twofold more the child of Hell than themselves As Renegadoes among the Turks exceed the Natural Turks in their hatred and malice to Christians and for that reason have priviledges above the Natives And indeed 't is hard to say which was greater their Malice or Cruelty to those who refused to subscribe to such dictates as they Magisterially delivered out of Moses's Chair which were to be received as infallible Oracles Of such invincible Incredulity too that though they continually required Signs and Miracles yet none though as clear as light could convince them so far were they from believing Christ that they were most jealous lest any others should doe so Doe any of the Pharisees believe on him Joh. 7. 48. Nay Were there not many that durst not confess him lest they should be cast out of their Synagogues Thus would they neither enter into the kingdom of Heaven themselves nor suffer
their sight is that of all the parcels of time regard but the present and of all things but the face and appearance men that only mind earthly things of so low and base a spirit that their Souls are but as salt to them and of so brutish a temper that such a Transmigration as Pythagoras fansied a punishment to bad men would with them pass for a happiness and with the Devils they would make it their desire that they might be suffered hereafter to enter into Hogs Such men dare not openly deny an Immortality and yet they will not believe it or if they do 't is so faintly that their lives wholly confute their judgments 'T is strange to see how many there are that having nothing but frost in their veins and earth in their face do yet so much doat on that life which they have now scarce any part in whose faith reaches no farther than their senses and yet scarce retain they those senses whose frame should lift them up above the Earth and their affections carry them wholly to it They are unwilling to leave the World though they see they cannot keep it in their weak and enfeebled bodies they carry strong desires to it being dead to every thing but to the pleasures thereof which yet they cannot now enjoy because they cannot taste and do then covet most when they are just leaving them Than which as there cannot be a greater folly so let us take heed how we imitate it learn to look off from these temporal things which are seen to those eternal which are not seen get such a perspective of faith as may draw Heaven nearer to us shew us those glories which Christ has prepared for us and already taken possession of in his own flesh that so ours may rest in hope and one day inherit His kingdom And now since Christ has given us an assurance of Immortality let us endeavour to lay the foundation of a happy one in this life to work it out even in this world this common shop of change work it out of that in which it is not out of riches by not trusting in and well using them out of the pleasures of this world by loathing and forsaking them out of the flesh by crucifying it with the lusts and affections thereof and out of the world it self by overcoming it Lastly and above all let us labour to secure this blessed Immortality which lies before us by such good works as may follow us through the huge and unconceivable tract of Eternity Else we may be so eternal as to wish we were mortal wish against our interest that in this life only we had hope make our selves who now fear death to dread immortality too hope that there were no eternal joys and tremble at the thoughts even of that everlasting bliss which our ill lives should give us no just ground to hope for But if while we enjoy this life we make lasting provisions for the next by good works then do we truly hope in Christ and then the seeds of Vertue and Piety well cultivated here shall hereafter yield us the happy fruits of a glorious Immortality which he grant us who hath brought life and immortality to light through his Gospel Jesus Christ in us the hope of Glory To whom with the Father c. Amen Soli Deo gloria in aeternum A SERMON ON ROM XII 1 I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service SAint Paul being from a Jew converted to a Christian hath taken great pains not only to prove the reasonableness of his doing so but that Judaism it self was to be Christned the legal Washings to be at last baptized That whole Oeconomy to be done away that it might be made complete and to be destroyed that it might be perfected And it was well that it was to be so For the Law could not justifie because its performances were but low its Promises but near and its strength weak The Law then could not justifie had it been observed but being broken it could condemn so that our Saviour to upbraid the Jews refers them not only to himself but to Moses in whom they did trust And indeed 't is as visible that the Jews did break their Law as that they did boast of it They were equally zealous in observing and industrious in transgressing it Instead of Religion they had brought themselves to be a Sect humorsome and peevish arrogant and censorious All the world was to be of their way and yet themselves not of it so that they were as I may so say Idolaters of the true God whose Circumcision was uncircumcised As if that fact of Moses when he brought the Law had been the Type of the future observance of it when at the time of bringing the Tables he brake them But not to upbraid the Jews with their failings let us see what use there is to be made of them while they perform the letter let us obey the meaning while their Sabbaths are lazy let ours be holy They wrote the Law on their Garments let us write them on our Hearts They boasted of it let us doe it While they sacrifice their Beasts let us offer up to God the more precious bloud of his own Lamb and with that bloud our selves For we Christians as well as the Jews have an Altar says St. Paul and are Priests too a royal Priesthood says St. Peter Aaron and his Successors offered up Bulls and Rams unreasonable Creatures that were first slain and then offered But we our Bodies and those such living Sacrifices as make up a reasonable Service No Calves here to be presented but those of our lips For a Lamb and a Dove meekness and innocence and for a Goat our Iusts must be sacrificed No death here but of inbred corruptions no slaughter but of the old man whose death enlivens our Sacrifice and so fits it for an Everliving God and makes it Holy and so becoming a Holy God And if we crown our Sacrifices with such flowers they must needs send forth a sweet and acceptable odour to God and pass with Him not only for a Sacrifice but which is more be heightned to a reasonable Service And this our Gratitude calls for and our Interest We owe it to God as to our Creator who made our Bodies and as to our Redeemer who hath purchased them We owe it to our selves too if we will be happy in the enjoyment of God who as He is not a God of the dead but of the living will have a living Body for a Sacrifice and not a Carkass And this in all respects is so reasonable that it may well be matter of wonder why our Apostle should spend so much passionate Rhetorick to persuade us to give up that unto God which 't is our highest advantage He should vouchsafe to accept But then
even now Heirs of a kingdom Jam. 2. 5. The wise that shall inherit Glory Prov. 3. 35. Heads destinated to a Diadem in Tertullian's expression which their Heavenly Father hath prepared for and will at last put upon them who alone too makes them fit to wear it meet to be Partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in light III. How differently soever the Children of God may share in the same Inheritance This is certain that every one's share therein shall be the Gift of his Heavenly Father The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here imports it The Apostle alluding to the Division of the Land of Canaan a Type of Heaven which God had appointed to be done by lot wherein Himself we know had the main hand according to that of Solomon Prov. 16. 33. The lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposition thereof is of the Lord. Thus it was in the Choice of Matthias to the Apostleship Act. 1. And thus it is as to our share in the Inheritance of Glory It falls to us by lot by the disposition of God the Father we have no part here but what he gives us And if so then no merit of Condignity nor so much as of Congruity can be pleaded by us And truly one would think it were sufficient to partake of the Inheritance without making out our own Title to it That we might be content to be Heirs without coming in as Purchasers or if we will needs be so to be Purchasers on Christ's score and not our own But this is too low and mean for some men who come with Counters in their hand ready to reckon with God to shew Him how much he is in their debt and who stick not to tell Him to his face that He is an unjust Master if he pay them not their due wages But 1. Our Lord Himself hath told us That God is beforehand with us That whatsoever we can doe is due from us to Him That when we shall have done all those things which are commanded us we must say that we are unprofitable servants and have done but that which was our duty to doe Luk. 17. 10. And then what merit can there be in paying just debts And 2. St. Paul hath told us That we can doe no good thing without Him too who worketh in us both to will and to doe of his good pleasure Phil. 2. 13. So that He crowns His own gifts in us and rewards not our deservings Besides 3. Our goodness extendeth not to God says David Psal. 16. 2. And being unusefull how can it be meritorious Nay our best works are so imperfect and so sinfull too that the utmost they can expect is but a Pardon and not a Reward And were they never so good and perfect yet what proportion can they bear to such a Reward as an Inheritance in light Our light affliction which is but for a moment to a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. where we must not let pass an elegant Antithesis For Affliction there is Glory For Light affliction a Weight of glory And for Momentary affliction an Eternal weight of glory to shew the vast disproportion between these things so vast that even Martyrdom it self the highest utmost proof of our love to God is in St. Paul's account nothing in comparison of that Glory we expect For I reckon says he that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Rom. 8. 18. IV. And lastly The very word Inheritance excludes all Purchase on our part For this were to renounce Succession to cast off all Filial Duty and Affection not to own our selves Sons but mercenary Purchasers yea and Purchasers of an Inheritance already purchased for us by Christ and for his sake freely bestowed upon us by our Heavenly Father out of His own pure Goodness and Bounty to which alone we must ascribe it For we all the best of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God Rom. 3. 23. And we are told ch 6. 23. that The wages of sin our proper wages is death but the gift of God is eternal life The Apostle might have said and indeed the Antithesis or Opposition there seem'd to require it But the wages of Righteousness is eternal life But he altered the Phrase on set-purpose and chose rather to say The gift of God is eternal life That we might from this change of the Phrase learn That although we procure Death unto our selves yet 't is God that bestows eternal life on us That as He hath called us to his kingdom and glory 1 Thess. 2. 12. so he gives that glory and that kingdom for no other reason but because He is pleased so to doe It is your Father's good pleasure for into God the Father's good pleasure Christ resolves it to give you a kingdome Luk. 12. 32. No merit nor so much as any good disposition in us for it He propares it for us Matt. 20. 23. And he prepares us for it too here in the Text by making us meet to be partakers thereof For what meetness could he find in us for such an Inheritance Title to it we have none being by nature the Children of wrath and disobedience Eph. 2. 2 3. Mere Intruders here and Usurpers The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and we the violent take it by force Mat. 11. 12. Qualifications proper for it we have none too That An Inheritance in light we darkness That An Inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 1. 4. we corruptible polluted and still decaying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cries out our Apostle We are not sufficient not fit for the word signifies either as of our selves but our sufficiency or fitness call it which you will is of God 2 Cor. 3. 5. 2 Pet. 1. 4. who as He makes us Partakers of his divine Nature so meet Partakers of the divine Inheritance not by pouring out the divine Essence but by communicating to us those divine Qualities which will fit and prepare us for the Sight thereof by putting light into our Understandings and holiness into our Wills without which no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12. 14. By cleansing our hearts and washing our hands that so we may ascend into the hill of the Lord dwell and rest in his Tabernacle Psal. 15. 24. He gives us Faith and with that a Prospect of our Inheritance and He gives us Hope and with that an Interest therein And to summ up all in one He gives us his Holy Spirit the earnest of that Inheritance Eph. 1. 14. who worketh all our works in us writes his laws in our hearts and by softning makes them capable of his divine Impressions In short That divine Spirit which by Regenerating makes us new Creatures and so fit Inhabitants for the new Jerusalem calling us first to Vertue and then to Glory to that as