by adding higher rules of holiness for as he established the New Covenant upon better promises than those the Old was built upon so he gave sublimer and higher precepts than those that were given in the Old If the Law and the Prophets forbad murder murder committed by the hand our Saviour stifled it in the heart for he hath forbiden causeless anger I say unto you whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment Matt. 5.22 If Moses condemned adultery in the body our Lord condemns the very impurity of the mind and styles it the adultery of the heart ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old thou shalt not commit adultery but I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart v. 27 28. If the Law of Moses allowed divorce upon small disgusts and animosities our blessed Lord doth not allow it save only in the case of Adultery which is the peculiar and proper breach of matrimonial obligation v. 32. of the same Chapter If the Law allowed a retaliation of evil for evil an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth our Lord hath forbidden us to resist evil v. 39. that is to say to revenge it for not to resist the evil done us is to give place to the wrath of our Enemy and this is the same as not to avenge it and so we learn from St Paul's words Rom. 12.19 Dearly beloved avenge not your selves but rather give place unto wrath for it is written vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord. If the Law and the Prophets forbad perjury our Lord hath forbidden all swearing in our common and ordinary conversation let your communication be yea yea nay nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil v. 37. If the Law allowed to hate an Enemy that is to say any person of the seven Nations whom God had devoted to destruction our blessed Lord hath commanded us to love our Enemies I say unto you love your Enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you v. 44. of the same Chapter Thus hath he fulfilled the moral Law by filling up several vacuities that Moses was forced to leave in it in condescension unto the Jews and to the hardness of their hearts and by adding higher rules of holiness than the Law or the Prophets had delivered 2. Now to proceed in the second place to the ceremonial part of the Law this did our Lord fulfil likewise and that also two several ways 1. By personal obedience to it and all the rights therein enjoyned whereunto he freely became subject He was circumcised the eighth day according as that Law enjoyned he was redeemed by a certain price being a Son and a First-born he observed the feasts prescribed in the Law yea and that of the dedication also although but of humane institution as appears in the history of the Gospel he did and permitted to be done in and upon his own Person whatsoever it was that Law required whence he is said to have been made of a woman made under the Law that is to say subject to all its Rites and Ceremonies Gal. 4.4 2. But secondly there is another way wherein our Lord fulfilled the ritual part of the Law which was by accomplishing all those things and introduceing all those graces which were typically figured and shadowed in it That had a shadow of good things to come and not the very Image of the things that is to say not the things themselves Heb. 10.1 and so is the word effigies taken by no worse an Author than Tully himself nos solidam et expressan effigiem virtutis nullam tenemus but Christ introduced the very things which were foreshadowed in that Law His Priesthood was antitype to that of Aaron his Sacrifice to the Sacrifices of the Law his entrance into heaven it self to appear in the presence of God for us to the High Priests entrance into the Holy of Holies on the solemn day of expiation the expiation made by his Sacrifice to that which was made by those of the Law the spiritual purity of the Gospel to the legal washings and purification and abstinences from things then impure the eternal rest that he hath prepared for the people of God to the Jewish Sabbaths and new moons all which things were only shadows of things to come and so the Apostle himself assures us Col. 2.16 17. Let no man therefore judge you in meat or drink or in respect of an holy day or of the new moon or of the Sabbath days which are a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ that is to say Christ introduced the things themselves which were but shadowed in the Law by typical figures and similitudes which is likewise the meaning of these words John 1.17 The Law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ he brought in the very life and substance of what was but pictured in the Law and thus he fulfilled the ritual part of Moses his Law as well as personal obedience to it 3. Now for the judicial part of the Law whereby the Jewish State was governed I need not say how our Lord fulfilled it by submitting himself both to the Roman and Jewish Magistrate He was contented to pay tribute he suffered himself to be apprehended by the Officers sent to this purpose he suffered himself to be tried and sentenced and yielded himself to the Execution of the sentence unjustly passed upon him and though he could not owne the guilt yet did he quietly receive the punishment for he was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so opened he not his mouth Isa 53.7 But the way whereby he did more especially fulfil the judicial Law of Moses was by introducing the royal Law of universal love and kindness which if observed would more effectually attain the end of humane Laws than all the wisdom force or power which can accompany and attend them The end of all political Laws is only the safety and the prosperity of the Common-wealth that men may live in mutual peace that every man may possess and enjoy his life and estate and reputation and whatsoever belongs unto him without the trouble of fraud or violence from other persons all which ends would more sucessfully be attained by the Law of universal love peculiarly setled by our Lord than by the wisest of humane Laws and the strictest execution of them those can but bind the outward man they cannot change the hearts of men those can but tie the hands of violence and muzzle the mouth of the wild beast they cannot alter and mend his nature nor make him further abstain from injury than the fear of punishment and revenge may put a restraint
some years since with great propriety and accuracy of style in his Book De Sacrificiis wherein he hath also given a proof of his profound skill in the highest points of the Divine Wisdom But what his abilities were in other parts both of Divine and Humane Knowledge he had not leisure enough from his Ministerial labours to let the world know Nor have I ability to make it sensible how great they were or to represent the Gravity Sobriety Simplicity Truth and plainness of his Conversation his Devotion to God and his Charity to the Neighbourhood especially the sick and afflicted His indefatigable Industry in his private Studies as well as in the publick offices of his Profession and his readiness to impart and communicate the effects of his mighty pains and industry to his Friends His Civility and Beneficence to Learned Foreigners His Respect and Reverence to his Superiors together with his Humility and Candor to his Equals and Inferiors Which excellent Vertues as they rendred him very valuable and useful to the world whilst he was alive so they will imbalm his memory now he is dead All that needs further to he added is to beg thy pardon Reader for the Errata of the Press which are too many and to desire that if a Sermon of the Authors upon the Sin against the Holy Ghost or any other be in thine or any other hand that thou knowest thou would please to restore or send notice of it to the Printer that it may be inserted in another Collection TEXTS OF THE SERMONS SERMON I. Isaiah xxxiij 6. And Wisdom and Knowledge shall be the stability of thy Times Fol. 1 SERMON II. Psalm lxviij 28. Strengthen O God that which thou hast wrought for us fol. 33 SERMON III. Philip. i. 27 28. That ye stand fast in one Spirit with one mind striving together for the Faith of the Gospel and in nothing terrified by your Adversaries fol. 60 SERMON IV. St Matth. vi 23. If therefore the Light that is in thee be Darkness How great is that Darkness fol. 89 SERMON V. St Matth. xvi 18. And the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it fol. 110 SERMON VI. 1 Cor. xiv 15. What is it then I will pray with the Spirit and I will pray with the understanding also fol. 129 SERMON VII 1 John iij. 3. And every Man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as He is pure fol. 149 SERMON VIII Galat. v. 13. Ye have been called unto Liberty only use not your Liberty for an occasion to the flesh fol. 171 SERMONS IX X. St Luke xij 1. Beware ye of the Leaven of the Pharisees which is Hypocrisie fol. 194.216 SERMON XI St John xiv 1. Ye believe in God Believe also in me fol. 237 SERMON XII Philip. i. 10. That ye may approve things that are excellent fol. 261 SERMON XIII St John vij 17. If any Man will do his Will he shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of my self fol. 290 SERMON XIV Malachi i. 6. If then I be a Father where is mine honour And if I be a Master where is my fear fol. 309 SERMON XV. St Matth. v. 17. Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfil fol. 334 SERMON XVI Psal cxix 59 60. I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto thy Testimonies I made haste and delayed not to keep thy Commandments fol. 355. SERMONS XVII XVIII 1 John iij. 7. Little Children let no Man deceive you he that doth Righteousness is Righteous even as he is Righteous fol. 390.411 SERMON XIX St Luke xvi 8. For the Children of this World are in their Generation wiser than the Children of Light fol. 432. SERMON XX. St Matth. vi 21. For where your Treasure is there will your heart be also fol. 453 The First Sermon ISAIAH 33.6 And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times The whole verse is thus And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times and strength of salvation The fear of the Lord is his Treasure ALthough the effects of the great calamities which we have suffered in this Nation namely those of a raging Pestilence a devouring Fire several grievous and bloody Wars be in some measure now removed yet were the minds and thoughts of men never more disturbed or more uneasie than now they are The reason hereof seems especially to be this namely that most desperate Plot which was designed to murder our Prince and to overthrow our Laws our Liberties our Religion our Spiritual as well as our Temporal welfare This and the fears that it hath awakened sit so close upon mens hearts and give such sensible apprehensions of future troubles and calamities that we enjoy not what we have we find no ease or satisfaction in any thing which we as yet possess We have indeed a Peace at present but it is unsetled and uncertain we have a Religion and that reformed according to the word of God but it is dangerously undermined We have good Laws to preserve our Liberties and just Rights but know not how long we may retain them we have a good and fruitful Land but are not without all apprehensions of dispossession or at least of great disturbance in it Which things being so it should seem our present fears and troubles arise not so much from the sense of any present want as from the uncertainty of what we have not from the evils we feel at present but those we fear may fall upon us that is to say from the instability of the times This was the thing which cast my thoughts upon the words I have now read and made them seem to be suitable to the present occasion Now these seem to have been delivered after Sennacherib had spoiled Hezekiah of his treasures to make conditions of Peace with him but before his Army made its approaches toward Jerusalem which it seems it did in a little time after the making of that Peace as may appear 2 Kings 18.13 14 15 16 17. Which false dealing of Sennacherib is noted and censured by the Prophet in the beginning of this Chapter Isaiah 33.1 Woe to thee that spoilest and thou wast not spoiled and dealest treacherously and they dealt not treacherously with thee The case in short seems to be thus Sennacherib had invaded Judah assaulted and taken the fenced cities as it is recorded 2 Kings 18.13 He so distressed both Hezekiah and his people that he freely offered to submit to what conditions Sennacherib would please to impose upon him Return from me says Hezekiah and that which thou puttest on me I will bear v. 14. These conditions were so hard being no less than three hundred talents of Silver and thirty talents of Gold that he was constrained to make them good by giving Sennacherib as well the treasures of the Temple all the Silver found in the House of the
apprehensions If a Church be setled by the Laws of the State and those not put in Execution opposers have a double advantage the Laws of the State being against them give them all the advantage of being thought to suffer persecution The not executing those Laws gives them all the advantages of Toleration and truly they have great advantages that have both these put together that of a seeming persecution and that of a real Toleration To these I might add many other instances to shew the frailty and mutability of all the Societies of mankind and how much help they do require from the power and Providence of God Almighty for their establishment and preservation 2. But I have said enough of this and shall now proceed to die next particular which is the willingness of God Almighty to afford his help and assistance to them upon their due and right behaviour Now the terms whereupon Divine Providence usually strengthens and settles Nations in peace and quiet and prosperity are 1 either general or 2 More particular 1. The general terms are the piety and vertue of a Nation 2. The more particular are due reverence to the Magistrate and chearful obedience to the Laws The former of these that is to say piety and vertue are so necessary so indispensable to this end that it is impossible that any Nation should flourish and be secure without them Prophaneness impiety and irreligion riot and luxury and oppression are so destructive to the peace and strength of every Nation that would God leave them to themselves and to their natural effects and issues would he stand neuter or indifferent and bring no other evils on them than what they bring upon themselves they would at length destroy a Nation for a people abandoned to prophaneness can have no conscience faith or truth to knit them together in society and the vices of luxury and excels are like a flame that eats and devours its own fuel and then perishes together with it dies and vanishes when that is consumed But God is far from being indifferent to any National sins or vices his Judgments indeed may be delayed but they are sure to come at last and that in most severe displeasure they have iron hands though leaden heels and come with so much greater violence for having been so long delayed Prophaneness wickedness and impiety destroyed the Kingdom of the Jews a Kingdom setled by peculiar Providence and under a Family chosen by God and anointed by his special Command God hath prescribed it as a Law as a certain Rule to his own Providence not to protect any such people as live in rebellion against himself and this we learn from his own words Deut. 5.29 O that there were such a heart in them that they would fear me and keep my commandments always that it might he well with them and with their children for ever Where he is pleased to represent it as a thing ven out of his own power because so contrary to that Law which he hath prescribed to his own Providence to make it well with an impious people so necessary and so indispensable are piety and vertue to the establishment of a Nation 2. But now the more particular terms requisite to the same establishment are due reverence unto the Magistrate chearful obedience to the Laws quiet and peaceable dispositions These are so requisite to this end that whatsoever is contrary to them Rebellion Tumult and Sedition immediately tend unto destruction which is the reason why God hath charged and required obedience to the Magistrate in such express and explicite language and under a most severe penalty So hath he done Rom. 13.1 2. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers for there is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation But this is a duty that I need not perswade in this Audience All I have further to add is this that while we return our thanks to God for restoring our Prince and Laws and Government we do not omit the like for the peace we now enjoy under them while all our Neighbours are in want We dwell at home in our Country and sleep Securely in our beds while they are driven from place to place and alarmed with daily fears and dangers We build and plant and adorn our houses and habitations while theirs are burnt and battered down and lie in ruine and desolation We sow and reap eat and drink in peace and plenty and enjoy the fruits of our own labours while others reap what they sow and the owners it may be starve for want and think it well to save their lives which yet they cannot always do with their loss of all accommodations What full we render unto the Lord for these and all his mercies to us Let us love the Author of all our happiness let us demonstrate that love by free and thankful obedience to him Let us thus study peace with him and let us also duly study the things that make for peace amongst our selves Let us heartily and really love one another Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from us with all malice and Let us be kind one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God fir Christs sake hath forgiven us Let us fear God honour the King not medling with them that are given to change So will that God who hath wrought our deliverance strengthen what he hath wrought for us To him c. The Third Sermon Philip. 1. 27 28. That ye stand fast in one Spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel And in nothing terrified by your adversaries THere were two sorts of bitter Enemies that opposed themselves to Christianity in the primitive Ages of the Gospel the former were the Idolatrous Gentiles in whose hands the secular Government then remained The latter were those of the Jewish Religion who had toleration amongst the Gentiles Both which though differing each with other did yet conspire and agree in this to extinguish and root out Christianity The former because that this Religion did as well demonstrate the Gods they worshipped to be no Gods but Devils or Beasts or dead mens Souls Images and inanimate Creatures as the worship itself to be vain and barbarous The latter because it disannulled the temporary Rites of Moses his Law much more the many Superstitions which themselves had added thereunto Upon this account the Apostle St Paul being now in bonds writes this Epistle to the Philippians whom he had converted to Christianity not only further to inculcate what he had before delivered to them but also to fortifie and prepare them against such sufferings and persections as their Religion drew upon them He lets them know that he himself was now a prisoner for the Gospel that he
And now to conclude with some reflections upon the words 1. If every man that hath this hope purifie himself as God is pure then first of all hence it appears that whosoever doth not this whosoever indulges his sinful lusts hath not really that hope as it hath been described unto you he either hopes for nothing at all after this life or for another kind of happiness than that is which God hath promised or to gain it without a holy life or so to live without the assistance of Gods grace and application to God for it or he reels and staggers in his hope and is not firm and stable in it Some or other of these defects do always attend that hope which doth not purifie and reform the lives and hearts and spirits of men and that which I take to be the general and great defect in those that profess the Christian Faith is that they hope for life eternal without performing those conditions whereupon it is promised in the Gospel namely repentance and reformation Although there be scarce one single page in the whole Gospel wherein it is not expresly said or clearly implied that no man shall ever be admitted into eternal bliss and glory who doth not yield sincere obedience to Christs precepts and purifie himself as God is pure yet will they not see what is most visible they will not believe what is revealed they will trust to a fruitless liveless Faith or to some Penances and Satisfactions and Commutations made with God doing what he hath not required instead of what he hath commanded No perswasions shall prevail to move and excite them to do this no reasons arguments or demonstration no not the express words of God that it is necessary to be done or to forbear to censure them as enemies to the grace of God who do with clear and express Scripture shew the absolute necessity of it They blindly and wilfully shut their eyes to the light that shines as clear as day in the very Oracles of God himself and so they stumble and fall and perish and brand and revile all those persons who refuse to erre and perish with them 2. But secondly if every man that hath the hope before described purifie himself as God is pure Hence we learn the great advantage the Gospel gives us for the purifying of our hearts and lives For it hath given the firmest reasons to settle that very hope upon and qualifie it with the very conditions which may make it useful and efficacious to purge and cleanse us from all filthiness of flesh and spirit The Gospel hath promised eternal glory upon these conditions and no other it hath also promised the Spirit of God to them that ask it to enable them to yield sincere obedience to Christs precepts that is to perform those conditions The Gospel hath given firm foundations of that true and powerful hope which where it is never fails to purge the impure to humble the proud to soften the hard and bring them to eternal happiness 3. But what then what if the Gospel have done this done it to infinite satisfaction to all that believe and entertain it Why then take heed of departing from the living God by an evil heart of unbelief Take heed lest a promise being left you of entring into eternal rest any of you should come short of it Fix your hope on eternal glory but hope not for it on other terms than those whereupon it is promised to you than in obedience to our Lord than in conformity to Gods image than in mitation of that God of whom you expect and hope for it Fix and settle this kind of hope in the very bottom of your hearts and when you have done use it in every part of your lives and live by the power and virtue of it Ask its counsel in all the temptations that any forbidden joys or pleasures any unlawful gains or profits offer to you and it will confute and resist them all it will not suffer you to embrace a trifle a shadow a perishing vanity instead of eternal life and glory Ask its counsel in all the temptations whereby the dangers of the world may attempt your innocence and integrity and it will resist them also and make you chuse rather to suffer the greatest evils in this life with patience courage and perseverance in your duties than lose your part in Gods Kingdom It will subdue and overcome all the inordinate desires and appetites of the fruitions of this world It will remove the fears and dreads of all its sufferings and calamities It will make you sober just and holy It will make you wise and strong and patient It will establish you in obedience and place and settle you in that Kingdom which is in righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost The Eighth Sermon Galat. 5.13 Ye have been called unto liberty only use not your liberty for an occasion to the flesh ALthough the Law given by Moses was so heavy a yoke upon the Jews that they themselves who were otherwise apt to glory in it sometimes complained of the burden of it saying What a weariness is it Malach. 1.13 Yet were there some of the very Gentiles and these converted to Christianity who were willing enough to embrace that yoke which the Jews themselves were not able to bear S. Paul had no sooner planted the Gospel amongst the Galatians a Colony of Gauls seated in Asia but there arose some false Apostles amongst these Converts to Christianity who taught the necessity of Circumcision pretending they could not be saved without it and so fuccessful was this attempt as strong pretences use to be upon ignorant and unsetled minds that the Galatians began to waver and yield themselves to the importunity of those that opposed the Apostles Doctrine Upon this account he stirs them up to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and that they should not suffer themselves to be intangled again with the yoke of bondage v. 1. of this Chapter And because they might judge that Circumcision was less troublesom and more needful than the other Rites of Moses his Law he assures them that they that submitted themselves to that institution of the Law left all the advantages of the Gospel Behold I Paul say unto you That if ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing v. 2. And this he proves in the next words For I testifie again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to the whole Law that is to say to all the rest of its ritual Precepts and to the penal Sanction it self in all its rigour and severity and therefore no gainer by the Gospel And having shewed in the following verses what is the summ of Christianity namely faith working by love having perswaded them to persist in the Faith which he himselfe had taught them having sharply censured the false Apostles who laboured to pervert that Faith he adds what you
twenty other dues all but one at the peoples charge and of the dues that were so charged one was the flesh of the expiatory Sacrifices and these Sacrifices were required for above fifty kinds of sins But that which I now insist upon is not the greatness of the expence which the Law charged upon the Jews but that all their Offices of Love and Charity were so circumstantiated by the Law that they who had the best inclinations to these duties in the general must of necessity be much encumbered by the circumstances which the Law required in the exact performance of them 5. Add hereunto the numerous Rites prescribed to the Jews in the very culture of their bodies and that in the very minutest things They could not so much as cut their hair or shave their beards but under the restraint and scruple of Law Levit. 19.27 They were not begotten they were not born without a ritual stain upon their parents every woman that had brought forth a child was to take a journey to Jerusalem to sacrifice for her purification and the child it self was to be redeemed with a certain price if it were a son and her first-born And now that I have mentioned Purification what shall I say of the numerous cases wherein the Jews were made unclean by the sentence and judgment of the Law What shall I say of the several Washings the several Sacrifices sometimes required to purge and make them clean again What shall I say of their confinement and separation from the Congregation during the time they were unclean The Jews observe that there were eleven general Fountains so they stile them of pollution and these generals were almost infinite in their particular parts and branches If a man had touched an unclean creature or any of the clean which died of themselves if he had touched a dead mans body or any thing else which that had touched if he had an issue of blood in himself or had touched another that had such an issue or any thing else which he had touched In these and innumerable other cases he was by the Law pronounced unclean and being unclean upon pain of death to purge himself sometimes by Sacrifice sometimes by the water of separation always by bathing himself in water Time would fail me if I should insist upon all the minute and scrupulous Rites which the Law of Moses enjoyned the Jews and indeed I have said enough already in order to my present purpose For as it appears from what I have said they could not legally worship God without abundance of nice observances wholly indifferent in themselves but hard and troublesom in performance They could not discharge their moral offices towards men without most scrupulous observations in point of circumstance of time and place and other minute considerations They could not manage the least affairs they could not do the commonest things without the scruple of Law and Conscience For they could not build or inhabit their houses they could not so much as cloath themselves they could not plow nor sow nor plant they could not reap or gather in their fruits they could not eat or prepare their meat they could scarce discharge any one action religious moral civil or natural but under the check of a positive Law And that which is further to be observed is that the most exact performance of the letter of all these positive Laws might leave them vicious and immoral full of hypocrisie pride and malice slaves to the world and their own lusts and that where it left them in this condition it did neither improve them in themselves nor recommend them to Gods acceptance much less procure eternal life Which plainly appears from the Scribes and Pharisees who although the most exact observers of all these ritual institutions were most impure and foul within and least acceptable unto God Yet after all it was not needless and therefore no unreasonable thing that a people amongst whom God himself in the first Ages of their Polity held the place of a Civil Magistrate a people prone unto Idolatry and living among idolatrous Nations should be thus bound up by positive Laws in every instance of life and action that so whatsoever they saw or did the commonest actions in the world might put them in mind of the true God and of his absolute Soveraignty over them Especially seeing that their bondage under this toilsom Dispensation might better dispose them to embrace the easier state of Christianity when God should please to call them to it S. Peter tells them that Moses his Law meaning its positive institutions was such a yoke as neither they nor their fathers were able to bear Act. 15.10 Christ tells us that his yoke is easie and his burden light Mat. 11.30 They were in bondage under the elements of the world Gal. 4.3 And as S. Paul himself stiles them under weak and beggarly elements v. 9. We are under a royal law Jam. 2.8 We are under the law of liberty Jam. 1.25 a Law recommended by better promises a Law attended with greater helps larger effusions of Gods Spirit a Law that requires little else but what is immutably good in itself a Law that where it proceeds further rests in few and easie instances in Baptism and the Lords Supper these are the Sacraments of the Gospel these are but two and both of them easie in practice easie in sense and signification and also greatly useful to us both to oblige us to our duties and to increase our strength and comforts Such is the liberty wherein the Gospel hath placed the professors of Christianity a liberty from those numerous rights those scrupulous precepts and injunctions which fettered and perplexed the Jews in every instance of life and action 2. Yet secondly there is a further liberty wherein the Gospel hath placed us Christians arising from the relaxation of the rigour of the penal Sanction which was added to the Law of Moses The Law indeed did not threaten death to every sin but in some cases allowed a sacrifice for expiation but wheresoever it threatned death in express words it did not allow repentance it self as a condition of remission Add hereunto that the same Law did threaten death to abundance of several kinds of sins which the time will not suffer me to enumerate whensoever committed against knowledge So that whosoever had so sinned in any of those numerous kinds had no dispensation from the Law no not upon repentance it self but was by the sentence of the Law to die by God or the Magistrates hand 'T is true indeed the Law-maker did sometimes that is in some extraordinary cases dispense with the rigour of his own Law An example whereof we have in David who although he was the supreme Magistrate and therefore not to account to men for his transgression of the Law was lyable to the hand of God a punishment threatned in the Law for his sins in the matter of Vriah yet was
instances wherein they exercised their hypocrisie 2. The second was that they confined all their Religion to outward actions but all this while neglected the purifying of their hearts S. Paul reporting what he was while he continued to be a Pharisee expresly tells us that he was blameless as to the righteousness in the law Touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless Phil. 3.6 His meaning is that he avoided the outward actions expresly forbidden in the Law that he observed and performed them which were expresly then commanded according to the interpretation which the Pharisees put upon the Law more than this he could not mean he could not possibly believe himself to have been punctually clear and spotless in the inward affections of his foul but only in point of outward action But being so he declares himself to have been blameless touching the righteousness in the Law while he continued to be a Pharisee which plainly shews they thought the Law required no more than a conformity to its Precepts in outward action and behaviour And thus doth Kimchi expound those words Psal 66.18 If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me that is saith he if I only think or design iniquity but do not accomplish the design if I only think or wish the evil but do not act it in overt action God will not impute it as fin to me a gloss just contrary to the Text not an explication of the words but an express contradiction to them 'T is true indeed the Law did say Thou shalt not covet but did not expresly threaten punishment to them that coveted if they did not act the ill imagined Whereupon these Pharisees judged it a counsel rather than a precept in gratification to their lusts and judged themselves exactly righteous when they performed the overt actions the Law required and avoided them forbidden in it Such is the nature of hypocrisie and such was that of the Scribes and Pharisees 3. As they placed their righteousness wholly and solely in outward actions and the omissions of such actions so they performed those actions with abundance of outward pomp and shew that they might be seen and praised of men They gave alms but sounded a trumpet both in the Synagogues and in the streets at the giving of it Mat. 6.2 They prayed much but they loved to pray standing in the Synagogues and in the corners of the streets and this that they might be seen of men Mat. 6.5 They fasted also twice a-week Luk. 18.12 but they put on a soure countenance disfigured their faces that they might appear unto men to fast Mat. 6.16 And this as our Lord expresly tells us Mat. 23.5 they did all their works to be seen of men Which is the nature of hypocrisie and a certain signification of it 4. They were far more nice far more scrupulous in lesser things than they were in things of greater moment far more punctual in the observance of their own precepts and institutions than those that were of Gods appointment and far more diligent in the observance of Gods appointments in ritual matters and constitutions than in the very Laws of nature and things of indispensable goodness These are the things our Saviour often objects to them and more especially Matt. 23. the 23d and following verses Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for ye pay tythe of mint and anise and cummin and have omitted the weightier matters of the law judgment mercy and faith those ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone Ye blind guides which strain at a Gnat and swallow a camel which make such scruple in lesser things and none at all in things of moment And yet again in the following words Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter but within they are full of extortion and excess to wash the cup before they drunk to cleanse the platter before they ate was an institution of their own and this they very duly observed to purge the heart from all extortion and impurity was a Law enjoined by God himself but of this they made no account at all 5. As they much abounded in institutions of their own so some of these were so extravagant that they were contrary to the very Laws of God and nature What Law more sacred and indispensable what more natural and more agreeable to humanity than that which requires us to honour our Parents to relieve and assist them in their wants which is both a part and a signification of that honour yet such was the blindness of the Pharisees that they licensed a man to make a vow to deny relief unto his Father and pronounc'd the vow to be obliging so our Lord Mark 7.10 11. Moses said honour thy Father and Mother and who so curseth Father or Mother let him dye the death but ye say if a man shall say to his Father or Mother it is Corban that is to say a gift by whatsoever thou mayest be profited by me he shall be free and ye suffer him no more to do ought for his Father or his Mother making the word of God of none effect through your traditions inventing a vow flatly contrary to Gods Law and making the former oblige and bind to the destruction of the latter Thus did they use a pretence of Piety towards God to absolve and quit them from their very duty to their Parents used Religion against Religion and made the very pretence of it a ground to neglect and contradict it 6. They prescribed to others what they themselves would not practise their precepts were stricter than their lives to others they were extreamly severe but kind and gentle to themselves whence that reflection of our Lord Matt. 23.34 Do not after their works for they say and do not for they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born and lay them on mens shoulders but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers an evident instance of Hypocrisie of prevarication and deceit for if the duty though hard and difficult was yet necessary unto others why was it not so to them likewise and if it was not so to them as it should seem they judg'd it was not why was it then so to others why did they then impose it on them why reprove the neglect of it why upbraid the mote or atome which they espied in their neighbours eye while they suffered a beam to blind their own But to proceed to the last instance of the hypocrisie of the Pharisees this lay in the flaming zeal they had to make Proselytes to their Party to make Disciples to their Sect while they made them worse and not the better nay greatly worse by so doing And this is the thing objected to them by our Lord Matth. 23.15 Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for ye compass Sea and Land to make one Proselyte and when
Which teaches us further to consider how grievous a burden guilt becomes whensoever a lively sense thereof is moved and excited in the Soul The spirit of a man will bear his infirmity but a wounded spirit who can bear Prov. 18.14 While the spirit within is clear and vigorous it will support and sustain the Soul under every outward loss or danger but if the Spirit it self be broken either by the calamities of the World or by the sense of its own guilt what shall support and sustain it But then it is here to be remembered that although the calamities of this world may indeed break the spirits of men yet that there is vast difference between the breaches made by them and those that are made by their own guilt These may seise upon the Soul but they cannot seise upon the Conscience those may enter the outmost trenches but they cannot enter the Royal Fort but guilt attaches and arrests the Conscience makes a desolation there where our chiefest support and comforts dwell for it comes arm'd with Gods displeasures and these are sharpned with such a force as nothing is able to resist the glorious Majesty the Almighty power the spotless purity the Sovereign dominion of God himself And hence that observation of David Psal 39.11 When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth where the original word that is rendered beauty signifies all that is desirable all that is pleasant in any person that is not only noble stature excellent shape comely features lively air pure complexion and the like but gay humour pleasant wit fine address mirth and briskness in entertainment and whatsoever else it be that may serve to render any one acceptable in common Society and conversation All which beauty presently withers fades and dies as David here expresly tells us under the sense of Gods displeasures when he rebukes us for iniquity When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth What then remains but that we reverence so great a God who can stain the beauty eclipse the Glory of all flesh with a single frown of his displeasure and that we express that reverence in most sincere obedience to him fear him for he is your Sovereign Lord fear him for he is a mighty God The Angels themselves so love God as that they fear and reverence his Maiesty The Devils tremble under his displeasure and the greatest persons cannot bear it no flesh no spirit can endure it It wasts the one confounds the other no creature is able to stand before it But after all although the Majesty of God Almighty have a most astonishing glory in it yet is the dread and terrour of it allayed and mitigated by his goodness and therefore as he demands our fear so doth he also require our love And hath he not reason so to do or do we want most powerful motives to excite and kindle our love to him He hath given us life and breath and being he daily gives us all the supplies and supports of life We eat the fruits of his kindness to us we wear the livery of his bounty we lie down and rise we sleep and awake live and move and have our being under the shelter of his providence And to proceed to higher things he hath given his own Son for us And he that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things Rom. 8.32 unless we deny them to our selves by refusing the terms whereupon he gives them What hath God by his prohibition denyed to men none of the blessings of this life none of the joys of that to come he hath not forbidden us wealth or power or reputation or peace or pleasure in this World much less denyed us eternal happiness in the other There is but one thing in all the World which he hath denyed us and that is sin and this very thing he hath refused us because it is really hurtful to us And although he hath not allowed us this yet can he give us that very thing that very happiness we seek in it for this we seek in every thing this he can give without our sin and what is more will give to them that truly love him whatsoever is really good for them He can give Wealth without Covetousness he can give Power without Oppression he can give Honour without Ambition and pleasure of life without any stain without any spot upon our innocence He needs not our sin to make us happy no nor do we need it neither to this purpose The truest happiness in all the World is to love God as our Lord commands with all the heart and soul and mind If we so love him we shall enjoy him and shall be eternally happy in him Which he for the sake of his only Son grant unto us Now to God the Father c. The Fifteenth Sermon Matt. 5.17 Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfil IF you view the following parts of the Chapter you shall find our Lord prescribing several rules of vertue which were at the least in some instances far more perfect and exact than those that were given in the Law of Moses or by the Prophets succeeding him and all of them stricter than those were in the sense received amongst the Jews which is the reason why he opposes what he said to what had been said to them of old Now because this seeming opposition between his precepts and those of Moses and the Prophets might create a suspicion among the Jews that he came to destroy the Law and the Prophets to contradict what they had said and to offer violence to their Laws he removes the occasion of that suspicion 1. By a caution in these words think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets 2. By an express declaration of the contrary I am not come to destroy but to fulfil The former I shall not insist upon because whatsoever is contained in that must be considered in the latter for the better understanding whereof it will be requisite to explain what is understood 1. By the Law and the Prophets 2. What by destroying the Law or the Prophets 3. And lastly what by fulfilling them 1. And for the first although it be very true indeed that the Son of God did not in any wise contradict either any history or prediction contained in the Books of the Old Testament but contrariwise confirmed whatsoever is there related and accomplished what was foretold of him yet I conceive that the Law is taken in this place for the Laws delivered in the Books of Moses and the Prophets for those rules of life which are contained in the other Books of the Old Testament which were received amongst the Jews and my
reason is because our Saviour in his following discourse in this Chapter takes no notice of matter of history or prediction but only of matter of Law and Precept 2. And then further as the Law and the Prophets signifie the precepts delivered in the Books of the Old Testament so when our Lord assures his hearers that he came not to destroy those precepts his meaning is that he did not come to thwart or oppose or contradict them or any thing which God designed in them for so is the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken in several places of the Scripture 3. And lastly when he further adds that he came to fulfil those precepts his sense necessarily must be this that he came to advance and improve or accomplish whatsoever God intended in them Having now sufficiently cleared the sense of the words before us I shall proceed to shew the truth of the several parts contained in them 1. And first of all of the negative part I am not come to destroy the Law or the Prophets 2. And secondly of that which is affirmative But I am come to fulfil them In my discourse on both which parts it will be convenient to consider the several kinds of Laws or Precepts given to the Jews Moral Ceremonial and Judicial apart or severally by themselves 1. And to begin with the negative part plain it is 1. In the first place That our Lord did no way contradict any moral precept of the Law but left his followers under perpetual obligations to obey all precepts of that kind All things saith he whatsoever you would that men should do to you do ye even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets Matt. 7.12 Where we find him confirming that general rule which the Law and Prophets had delivered touching our duty towards our neighbours and consequently setling all particular acts of duty which the moral Law required toward them by the confirmation of that rule The same is done as to our duties both to God and man Matt. 22.37 39. where he establishes and approves the two great commands of the Law that we love God with all our heart and with all our mind and that we love our neighbour as our selves whereunto he presently adds these words on these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets These were the things which the Law and Prophets aimed at in all their precepts and exhortations and these hath Christ confirmed and ratified but no way prejudiced by the Gospel I say not now how much more holy rules of life our Lord hath given in several cases than were given by the Law or Prophets of that I shall give an account anon all that I now observe unto you is that an addition of higher precepts of obedience was no destruction or violation of those that were not so high as they but really an improvement of them just as the growth of a child to a man is no destruction but an improvement of the person or as a greater degree of vertues includes but doth not destroy the less from whence I conclude that although our Lord hath added perfecter rules of holiness than the Law or the Prophets had delivered yet he did not destroy them by so doing but further improved what they designed But the great difficulty doth not lie in reconcileing our Saviours words I came not to destroy the Law or the Prophets with what he did as to the moral part of the Law but with what befel its other branches namely the ceremonial and judicial both which parts fell to the ground after his coming into the World and what he did and suffered in it and yet in truth he did not destroy either of them in the sense wherein destruction is taken in these words that is to say he did not oppose or contradict them or otherwise behave himself toward them than was suitable to the mind and will of the Law-giver 2. He did not violate much less oppose any precept of the ceremonial Law but caused the Law it self to cease not by any opposition to it but by removeing all occasion of any further use of it as the Laws of war are not violated but cease and take no place in peace He introduced that very thing which the ceremonial Law designed the introduced the life and substance of those things which were foreshadowed in that Law and so he made it cease and vanish not by opposing or contradicting but by accomplishing the end of it as it will further appear to you when I shall shew how he fufilled it 3. Nor lastly did our Lord destroy that is violate or contradict the judicial part of Moses his Law namely the Law of the Jewish State for that Law fell of it self in the Jewish Common-wealth when the City of Jerusalem was destroyed when the generality of the people were carried away into captivity when the whole Government was dissolved and the Country became a Roman Province there was an end of that Common-wealth and so an end of those Laws whereby that Common-wealth was governed For the Laws of the Jewish Common-wealth were not given save only to the people of the Jews nor were they designed to continue longer than the Common-wealth it self continued so that when this was once dissolved those also fell of their own accord without any violation offered unto them by our Saviour from all which several considerations it plainly appears that he did not come to destroy or opose the Law or the Prophets or any precept contained in them and that he did not behave himself to either of them as one that came to oppose or thwart them So careful was he to give no scandal to create no real offence to the Jews by contradicting in any precepts moral ceremonial or judicial which the Law or the Prophets had established 2. Having shewed the truth of the negative part of our Saviours words which is that he came not into the World to destroy either the Law or the Prophets let us now proceed to give an account of the other part wherein he affirms that he came to fulfil them that is as I have before explained it to improve and accomplish what they contained and what was mainly designed in them And here proceeding in that method which I have used in the former part 1. I first observe that our blessed Lord fulfilled the moral part of the Law by giving stricter rules of holiness than either Moses or the Prophets had formerly given unto the Jews according to the received sense amongst the best of their Interpreters and no doubt in several cases stricter than Moses himself design'd and this is the sense wherein St Chrysostom and Tertullian and divers others of the ancient Christians affirm our Saviour to have fulfilled the moral Law as well as by personal obedience to it They teach that he filled up those vacuities that Moses had left in moral duties because the Jews were not able to bear them
and awe upon him whereas the mutual love and kindness that Christ hath commanded amongst men and also recommended to us by the highest and most effectual motives would not only restrain the outward actions of fraud and injury and oppression but kill the very lust within wither the very root of biterness and render every man easie and helpful to his neighbour instead of being injurious to him and this is suggested by St Paul Rom. 13.8 9.10 He that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law For this thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal thou shalt not bear false witness thou shalt not covet and if there be any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying namely thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self love worketh no ill to his Neighbour therefore love is the fulfilling of the Law Love throughly accomplishes all those ends which were indeed designed by the Law whence it is said That the Law is not made for a righteous man a man animated and inspired by a living Law of love within but for the lawless and disobedient 1 Tim. 1.9 And thus hath our Lord fulfilled the judicial Law of Moses as well as the moral and ceremonial by the most efficacious ways and methods of setling such a Law within us as would most effectually work and propagate the great design of the Law of Moses which was added as the Apostle speaks because of transgressions till the seed should come to whom the promise was made Having thus cleared both the parts of the words before us it now remains that we reflect upon what hath been said and draw some Observations from it First And first of all since our Lord came not to destroy but to fulfil the Law and the Prophets hence we learn That Christianity that the righteousness and holiness of the Gospel was the thing that God had in his eye the thing that he purposed and intended and that lay at the bottom of his counsels in the whole Mosaical Dispensation as well in all the external Rites as the other parts of Moses's Law God never had any delight or pleasure in the flesh or blood of Bulls and Goats or any Sacrifices of the Law he was never pleased with ritual washings or expiations as things excellent in themselves nor did he institute these Rites for any complacence he took in them but partly as the Ancients observe to typifie things that were to come namely the mysteries of the Gospel and partly to retain the Jews accustomed to such like Rites in Egypt in the worship and service of himself the only true and living God lest being denied their former Rites in the worship of the true God they should have used them unto Idols and to have continued in that apostasie whereinto themselves and the world were fallen at the delivery of the Law Had there been no such Reasons as these for the Rites enjoined in Moses's Law they had never been instituted or commanded nor had God any respect for them any regard to the most zealous performance of them when divided from the essential parts the great Fundamentals of Religion judgment and mercy and the love of God Hence those words of the Prophet Jeremy chap. 6.20 To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba and the sweet Cane from a far Country Your burnt offerings are not acceptable nor your Sacrifices sweet unto me And those of Isaiah chap. 1.11 12. To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices unto me saith the Lord I am full of the burnt offerings of Rams and the fat of fed Beasts and I delight not in the blood of Bullocks or of Lambs or of He-goats Adde hereunto those excellent words of the Prophet Micah chap. 6. verf. 6 7 8. Wherewithal shall I come before the Lord and how my self before the high God shall I come before him with burnt-offerings with Calves of a year old will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or with ten thousands of Rivers of Oil shall I give my first-born for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul No He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God These were the things which he accepted nay these were the things which he designed in the very Ceremonies of the Law and in all its symbolical Types and Figures And these are the things which Christ our Lord came to propagate and promote in all he did and suffered for us So constant hath God been to himself and to the advancement of real goodness amongst men in all the Ages of the World before and under and after the Law He still designed the same thing he had still the same end in his eye namely that we should love him with all our hearts and love our Neighbour as our selves on these as our Saviour himself tells us hanged all the Law and the Prophets And the end for which our Lord himself came into the World was more effectually to promote what the Law of Moses had designed and so the Apostle himself assures us Rom. 8.3 4. For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Secondly What then remains in the last place but that since our Lord came into the World not to destroy but to fulfil the Law and the Prophets since he â—ath fulfilled them by introducing that Religion which God always had in his eye in all the Shadows of the Law a Religion suitable unto reason a Religion that perfects humane nature a Religion free and disentangled from the load of Mosaical Rites and Ceremonies a Religion aiming at nothing more than hearty love to God and our Neighbour and peace and happiness both in this and the other world what now remains but that we freely embrace and practise a Religion thus recommended to us neither reproaching it by our lusts by foul and sensual inclinations nor yet abusing and obscuring it by vain and useless superstitions It is a reasonable and manly service that God is pleased to require from us it is the cure of all our maladies it is medicine unto all our distempers it is health and soundness to all our powers It is not sacrifice and oblations it is not circumcision nor uncircumcision it is not what is hard and burthensom but what is useful and good for us 't is righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost So that had we no other demonstration of the infinite love of God to us this were sufficient proof of it that he hath made our Religion our happiness Foâ— in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor
uncircumcision but a new creature that is the renovation of our minds by a sincere faith and love And as many as walk according to this Rule peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel of God The Sixteenth Sermon Psalm 119.59 60. I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto thy testimonies I made haste and delayed not to keep thy Commandments THE ways of a man being in the language of holy Scripture all those actions and omissions those words and thoughts and inclinations which ought to be governed by Gods Laws here styled his testimonies and commandments there is no doubt but that these are the things which David here styles his ways Nor need we question what kind of thoughts he employed upon them for the event it self declares that they were serious considerations how far they accorded or disagreed with Gods Commands together with quick and strong resolutions to amend what he found amiss in them wherein he discharged a great Duty but such as is very much neglected yea such as even he himself as these very words themselves suggest had for some time at least omitted Some men are afraid to make a review of their own lives as being sensible in the general that they cannot account even to themselves for their irregularities and neglects This is the reason why they dare not reflect upon themselves but decline the test of their own Consciences like men unwilling to come to Tryal in that Court where Sentence is like to pass against them Others involve and intangle themselves in such a continual throng of business and are so perplexed and overwhelmed with the cares and concernments of this life that they allow themselves no time for recollection of themselves and examination of their lives And some there are who spend their days in nothing but pleasures and diversions in constant entertainments of fancy which so possess their imaginations that they leave no room for serious thoughts of the very concernments of this life much less of that which is to come Thus it comes to pass that few â—eform their evil habits namely for want of recollection But did we call our selves to account and make inquisition into our ways did we impartially reflect upon them and allow our Consciences to examine them and judge by calm and sober reason excluding the briberies of our lusts and the fallacies which they put upon us these thoughts by the Grace of God assisting might have the same success on us that those of David had on him And what that was we understand from these words I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto thy testimonies I made haste and delayed not to keep thy commandments In which words he represents these two things I. The effect which the thoughts of his ways had upon him which was the reformation of them I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto thy testimonies II. The shortness of the time wherein they wrought this effect as it is expressed in the following Verse I made haste and delayed not to keep thy commandments For the better improvement of which example in order to our own advantage I shall follow the method of the words and shew what it is that the thoughts of our ways may suggest to us as apt and proper 1. To work the reformation of them and 2. To work it without delay 1. And to the former of these Generals I refer the serious consideration of the vast number of our sins with the many and great aggravations of them the sad effects which these sins have had or yet may have upon us the vanity and emptiness of all those pleasures or advantages which we have yet found in them or can reasonably hope to find hereafter to weigh against those evil effects and the solid happiness of that state whereupon we enter when we cast off and forsake our sins and turn our feet to Gods testimonies These are the things which the thoughts of our ways may suggest to us in order to the reformation of them First The first whereof that I may speak distinctly on them is the vast number of our sins with the many and great aggravations of them which we can never understand much less reform without impartial examination Sometimes we forget those very sins which we have committed against knowledge Tract of time decay of memory multitude of business or diversion wear out the thoughts of those very sins which we our selves took notice of in former times though now they be vanished from our remembrance Sometimes we take no notice at all of our sins and follies while we actually engage in them We think vainly desire inordinately speak rashly censure unjustly act indecently in the eyes of men and sinfully in the eyes of God not considering what we do while we thus entertain and employ our selves And this no doubt was David's reason why herepresents the sins of men as passing the reach of their understandings Who can understand his errours Cleanse thou me from secret faults Psal 19.12 And if we be often so far surprized as not to observe the motions of our own minds which we may feel within our selves nor what we speak what we act before the ears and eyes of others we may easily judge we are much more faulty in our omissions and neglects which are less sensible and observed both by our selves and other persons For sinful actions cry aloud in the scandals they bring upon Religion and sensible injuries to our Neighbour while mere omissions are dumb and silent and make no noise or stir in the World And yet there are some other things which we observe as little as our omissions namely the circumstances and aggravations of our sins which are sometimes wilful and deliberate sometimes against our former vows and resolutions of reformation sometimes against severe corrections or kind and fatherly castigations sometimes pernicious to other persons as well as hurtful to our selves often habitual and long continued and always against the mercies of God in whom we live and move and have our beings even while we continue to sin against him Which aggravations of our sins make little impression upon our minds much less urge us to reformation till we seriously recollect our selves and impartially reflect upon our ways But did we so reflect upon them did we consider how oft we have wilfully done amiss and that both against God and men and how much oftner done the like through ignorance errour and infirmity did we consider our many neglects in the Duties immediately respecting God while we have omitted or ill performed them adding hereto our great omissions towards our Neighbour while we have neglected to feed the hungry to clothe the naked to support the weak to assist the injured and oppressed might not these thoughts by the Grace of God so represent our sins to us as that we should judge it most unreasonable still to persist and proceed in them Could we think it tolerable
Christs Laws pass with God for righteous persons These things explained I shall observe these two things from the words before us 1. That men may imagine themselves to be righteous persons in Gods eyes to be in grace and favour with him though they live impure and unrighteous lives although they do not do righteousness else this caution had been useless So it had been had it been a caution against an errour that no man could have fallen into 2. That this Imagination is a very great and dangerous errour so do the words themselves suggest He that doth righteousness that is he and be only that is righteous even as Christ is righteous not that any man can be so in the same degree with Christ himself nor by his own desert and merit gain the favour and grace of God but that there is no way to gain it without being really just and righteous as Christ was perfectly and fully so First I begin with the first which is that men imagine themselves to be righteous persons in Gods account to be in grace and favour with him though they live in habitual disobedience to the Laws and precepts of the Gospel In the prosecution of which point 1. I shall first prove that this may be so 2. And then secondly give some account of the rise or occasions of this errour 3. And lastly reflect upon the whole by way of inference or application And for the first that there may be such an errour as this which I have now mentioned to you plainly appears from matter of fact and matter of fact plainly appears 1. From the open profession of some 2. And secondly from the lives of others 1. There are some who openly profess that there is nothing required from us to recommend us to Gods favour no condition on our parts to gain acceptance and grace with him They own no Covenant between God and us but only one between God and Christ This say they Christ hath performed and so reconciled us unto God without the performance of any condition on our parts see Saltm Flowings c. p. 152. wherein they palpably contradict the whole strain and tenour of the Gospel all its commands threats and promises as well as the vow made in Baptism whereby we enter into a Covenant with God himself and promise sincere obedience to him These are they who are commonly styled the Antinomians which was a Sect once very numerous in this Nation but is now become either less numerous or more silent and therefore I shall not at this time make any longer stay upon them 2. But proceed to those who though they do not in words profess that men may be in favour with God and duly hope for life eternal though they live in habitual contradiction to the Laws and precepts of Christianity yet live as men who so believe and consequently may be duly judged to cherish such a belief as this and of these there are divers and several sorts 1. Those who profess or not deny the Christian faith but have no care no concernment for Religion in any instance of their lives live as though there was no such thing in all contradiction to its Laws Such there were in St Paul's days as you may see Phil. 3.18 Many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are enemies to the croft of Christ whose end is destruction whose God is their belly and whose glory is their shame who mind earthly things Yet these very persons professed themselves to be Christs Disciples and to believe the Christian Faith As they did so do many in our days They profess to believe in Jesus Christ they profess the hope of life eternal declared and promised in the Gospel and yet they live in habitual and wilful disobedience to the holy precepts and institutions which the same Gospel hath prescribed Now how can these things consist together how can they possibly be reconciled unless these persons judge themselves in Gods favour though they live in such disobedience to him could men neglect all the Laws all the precepts of the Gospel could they promise themselves the remission of fin and eternal life while they continue in this neglect did they not judge that they might gain remission of fin and the favour of God notwithstanding the wickedness of their lives or else at least not judge the contrary They do profess as I said before the hope of Salvation Salvation promis'd in the Gospel they give no signs of doubt or fear of falling short of so great a happiness they pass their days in ease and pleasure they enjoy the world they enjoy themselves in the midst of prophaneness and impiety which shews they have in their own thoughts reconciled the hopes of future happiness with the present enjoyment of their sins 2. Another fort there is who though they seem to have some concernment for Religion yet wholly neglect the practice of it They spend their time either in speculation of things remote from life and practice or in meer dispute about the things that relate to practice in the mean time their own lives are little better than theirs who neglect all Religion They are not more careful of truth and justice of mercy and charity in their lives than other persons the same temptations that sway the affections and vitiate the lives of other men do also sway and vitiate theirs they love the wealth and power and honour all the pleasures all the advantages of the World as much as they who love them most nor do they forbear to use any of the same methods the same forbidden arts and ways to attain their ends that are used by the common sort of persons They please themselves in the speculation of useless notions or spend their zeal in meer disputes or the censure of the lives of others but take no care to reform themselves yet all this while believe extremely well of themselves assure themselves of Gods favour and of his singular love to them which shews they presume upon his favour though they continue in their sins 3. There are some other persons who proceed indeed a step further but not so far as a Christian life who yet fully allure themselves of being righteous in Gods account and of eternal life and happiness These are they who confess their fins and possibly with bitter lamentations and with great accusations of themselves as in truth we have ail reasons to do but when they have done take no care to amend and reform those very sins which they confess with so much passion and such invectives against themselves Or if they proceed a little further it is but to some ineffectual purposes faint resolutions of reformation which never come to effect or issue They take the design for the thing it self the resolution of reformation for the very repentance God requires The former of these namely the resolution of reformation they look upon as a
give a right understanding in all things The Eighteenth Sermon 1 John 3.7 Little children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous FROM these words I have observed these two things 1. That men may imagine themselves to be righteous in the eyes of God to be in Grace and favour with him although they do not do righteousness but live in habitual disobedience to the Laws and Precepts of the Gospel 2. That this imagination is a very great and dangerous errour The former I have already finished and shall now speak unto the latter that is to say to the greatness and danger of the errour Where I consider That for God to judge unrighteous persons otherwise than in truth they are to accept their persons and pardon their sins while they abide and persist in them is contrary 1. To his own nature and 2. To the Gospel likewise 1. This is contrary to Gods nature that is to say both First To his wisdom and Secondly To his holiness First It is contrary to his wisdom So it is to judge of men otherwise than they are in themselves to esteem them righteous just and holy while they are unrighteous and impure It is the nature of true wisdom to judge all things according to truth this is its nature as it is found even in men much more as it is found in God He cannot erre or be deceived even in the deepest obscurest things nothing is hidden from his eye the night and the day light and darkness are alike unto it he tries the reins and searches the very hearts of men discerns whatsoever is in them and judges according to truth Now he that judges according to truth must judge of things just as they are and therefore seeing the judgment of God is always true hence it appears They who are unjust and wicked impure and unholy in themselves are so in the judgment of God likewise so in his esteem and account Secondly If it be said That although it be very true indeed that God cannot judge otherwise of men than according to what they are in themselves not judge the Sinner to be righteous the wicked to be pure and holy yet that he may love and accept the wicked as much as if he were just and holy the Answer is That this is contrary to God's holiness This doth as much thwart the purity contradict the holiness of his nature as the other contradicts his wisdom as is often declared in the holy Scriptures God is of purer eyes saith Habbakkuk than to behold that is to say to approve evil He cannot look upon iniquity Hab. 1.13 So far is he from approving evil or those that indulge themselves in it that their way is an abomination to him Prov. 15.9 From whence it follows That they who judge themselves or others to be in grace and favour with God to be holy just and righteous persons who are not fully and really so ascribe and impute that to God which is quite contrary to his nature If it be said That God is said to justifie the ungodly Rom. 4.5 The meaning is That he justifies those that have been so not those that continue so to be that he justifies and accepts the ungodly when they forsake and leave their sins not while they still continue in them And so we learn from the same Apostle who having given a large Catalogue of sins and Sinners concludes his Discourse with these words 1 Cor. 6.11 Such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God First washed and sanctified by Gods Spirit and then justified and accepted 2. But then secondly as it is contrary to Gods nature to justifie and accept the wicked while they continue in their sins so is it likewise greatly contrary to the Gospel First Expresly to the plainest and and clearest parts of it And Secondly To the whole by evident consequence First It is most expresly contrary to the plainest and clearest parts of it to its most positive Declarations such as those words of St John are which I do now insist upon Little Children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous He that is really and truly so he is so and he only in God's account Like unto these are those of St Paul Ephes 5.6 where having mentioned uncleanness covetousness and prophaneness he presently addes this admonition Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the Children of disobedience Whereunto we may add his expostulations 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God Can there be plainer words than these or can there be any thing more contradictory to the Gospel than what contradicts the plainest words and expressions of it or a greater or more dangerous errour than what so contradicts the Gospel The Gospel declares that the unclean shall not inherit the Kingdom of God the Gospel pronounces the Drunkard likewise declares the covetous and extortioner while they continue in these sins to be uncapable of that Kingdom this it declares in as plain words as can be written or expressed and will these persons still presume of an interest in the favour of God and of a title to his Kingdom If they will it is their folly so to do it is a folly of that nature as doth not only expose them to the greatest danger but shut the door to all possibility of escape while they persist and continue in it Such is the presumption of God's favour of being reconciled unto him while a man continues in his sins Secondly And secondly as this is expresly contrary to the clearest passages in the Gospel so to the whole by evident consequence To its commands and exhortations to all the promises and threatnings of it and what is more to the very design of Christ's death the very thing which men abuse into an indulgence to their sins To promise our selves the favour of God and acceptance with him while we continue in our sins it is a presumption expresly contrary First To the Precepts of the Gospel These require and strictly charge us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Tit. 2.12 These require that we put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts that we be renewed in the spirit of our minds that we put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Ephes 4.22 and following Verses In a word the Laws of Christ require us to love God with all our hearts and to love our neighbour as our selves Now