can that Soul expect any benefit of his Death and Sufferings for his forgiveness hereafter who now will not vouchsafe so much as to make that common Acknowledgment which every Christian ought of his remembrance of it or shew any sense of his Obligation though we have here so plain and peremptory a Comâ—â—â—d to do it And if we look to the Denuntiations of the Old Testament against those who should thus neglect to joyn in the Jewish Passover and shew forth this remembrance of the deliverance which that Feast referr'd to we may I think have some cause to fear how much greater shall be our Punishment whose neglect is certainly upon many accounts much more inexcusable than theirs If any man says Moses Deut. xii 15 shall eat leavened-bread in that time that Soul shall be cut off from Israel But more expresly Numb ix 3 He that is clean and is not on a journey and forbeareth to keep the Passover even the same Soul shall be cut off from his People Whatever the meaning of that Excision be which God here threatned that People with whether it be that such a one should have no part in the World to come as some interpret it or that God would cut him off by an untimely temporal death as others Or lastly which was esteemed by them no small Curse that he should die childless and have his name put out in Israel This is certain that the Denuntiation is very severe and if the Remark of a very learned Rabbin be true almost particular to the thing in hand there being but two of all the affirmative Precepts to which God made this Denuntiation viz. to him that neglected the first Sacrament of Circumcision and this second of the Passover But perhaps it will here be said That this Commination was to those that were clean and near at hand and yet neglected this Holy Institution And therefore ought not to be applied to them with reference to the Blessed Sacrament which we are speaking of who would gladly receive it and have a very honourable remembrance in their hearts of the Death of Christ but alas either they are not clean or are in a journey either they are not prepared or have not the leisure to come to this Table 'T is true indeed God did here restrain the Judgment I have mention'd to such as were clean and at or near to Jerusalem but the rest were not therefore by any means excused and permitted to neglect the partaking of it They had time given them till the next Month to cleanse themselves and to come up to Jerusalem and if they neglected in the second Month to keep the Feast after having omitted it in the first there was then no farther Provision for them but they fell under the Curse of those who neglected altogether to eat of it And this therefore may serve for a useful Admonition as well as full Answer to the Excuses of those who are still pretending they are not worthy to come to this Sacrament or else have not time and leisure to prepare themselves for it If indeed this should chance by any accident to hinder them at this time or on this occasion from receiving of it they ought not therefore to disquiet themselves but to believe that in such a case our Saviour Christ will make the same allowance for this Feast that God did for that other and permit them yet another Month to remove the Obstacle and prepare themselves to come to his Table But if instead of doing this they shall still go on to insist upon these vain Pretences and live so as not to be worthy to receive the Holy Sacrament and continue to live so still without taking any care to put themselves into a better state this will prove an aggravation of their Sin not a lessening of it and their neglect will be but the more inexcusable for being grounded on a reason so contrary not only to the design of this Holy Sacrament but of the whole Christian Religion But Sixthly And to close all The Command of our Saviour in these words we have been so long considering will not only oblige us in the general sometimes to remember his Death by receiving this Holy Sacrament but frequently and oftentimes so to do I have before observed that the word which we here render Remembrance does not imply a bare Memorial but a renew'd Commemoration to teach us that we are often to refresh the Memory of Christ's Death in our minds by this Sacred Solemnity and to repeat again and again the Remembrance of it And though it be pretty hard to say how often a Man ought to receive the Sacrament yet 't is plain he is not so zealous a Christian as he should be that very seldom or never does it We know that in the first Ages of Christianity when Devotion was quick and vigorous and Men had the most sensible impressions upon their minds of the love of our Saviour in giving himself to die for us that then they received it ordinarily every day Insomuch that some of those Fathers who then lived have interpreted this Eucharistical Bread to be that daily Bread which our Lord has taught us to pray for Afterwards as Mens Zeal cool'd so did their frequent Communicating decay in proportion with it At first it fell in some Churches to four in others to three times in the Week and in a little while it came to be the distinctive Devotion of the Lord's days And at last the necessary least proportion established was the three great Feasts of the Year in which our Church still obliges all her Members to partake of it But as he who is in a pure and holy state can never receive it too often so certainly it is a thing than which none would more advance our Piety to labour as frequently as we can to fit our selves for it And since it has pleased God to revive something of the Primitive Zeal among us as to this particular in bringing our Solemn Communions to a monthly course besides other extraordinary occasions of it I do not see what better Exhortation I can leave with you as to this Matter than seriously to advise and earnestly beseech every one of you to examine and prepare your selves then at least to joyn with your Brethren in these Holy returns and not deprive your Souls of the Benefits which are thus graciously offered to you in this great and most useful Remembrance This will indeed both best answer the design of our Blessed Lord in the Text and be the best Application I could even wish you would make of my Discourse upon it But then I must observe that I speak now by way of Exhortation not as necessarily requiring this in Obedience to the Command before us but as the improvement I desire if it were possible you might all make of those Opportunities God is pleased here to reach out to you in order to this End and which I do
not see how any good Christian can with a good Conscience so frequently neglect In the mean time this is the summ of all He that despises this Institution does not only shew a light esteem of the Death of Christ and do violence to the Command of his Saviour but does moreover deprive his Soul of the most excellent assistance God has given us in this World in order to our Salvation in the next Whereas he who comes frequently and with that due Preparation he ought to it will not only put himself out of all danger from the Precept before us but will in a little while secure himself of such a measure of the Grace and Favour of his Redeemer whose Memory he here honours as shall carry him through all the Temptations the Sorrows the Afflictions of this Life to an Eternal Enjoyment of Glory Honour and Immortality in the next And to which God of his infinite Mercy vouchsafe to bring us all for the same his Son Jesus Christ's sake our Lord Amen OF THE Honour due to the Blessed Uirgin A SERMON Preached on Lady Day MARCH xxv 1688. LUKE I. 48 49. For behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed for he that is mighty hath done to me great things and holy is his name THese Words are part of that Magnificat or Song of Thanksgiving which the Blessed Virgin made to God in return of that wonderful Favour He had vouchsafed unto her in esteeming her worthy to become the Mother of our Lord. And they contain in them a kind of Prophecy of that Honour which the Christian Church should in all Ages to come pay to her Memory upon the account of it It is the Observation of our English Rhemists in their Annotations upon this Place That this Prophecy is fulfilled in their keeping her Festival Days and saying the Ave Marie and other Holy Anthems of our Lady And that the Calvinists therefore so they are pleased to stile us for not doing of this are not among these Generations which call our Lady Blessed And in their Marginal Note on the same Passage they very briskly ask this Question Have the Protestants had always Generations to fulfil this Prophecy Or do they call her blessed that derogate what they can from her Graces Blessing and all her Honour In answer to so ignorant or so malicious a Calumny and to shew that We tho' we neither say any Ave-Maries to her Honour nor are engaged in any other part of that unwarrantable Superstition whereby they have so long dishonoured God abused the Blessed Virgin and scandalized the Church of Christ have yet as just an Esteem for the Holy Mother of our Lord and proclaim her Blessedness as much as either this Prophecy requires or any sober Orthodox Christian may be allowed to do it I shall crave leave to make use of that Occasion the Solemnity of this Day offers to me to enter on the Comparison between our selves and them And could I be assured That the Blest above have this Honour from God to be made acquainted with these solemn Exercises of their Brethren here below I would not doubt to appeal to the Holy Virgin her self to judge betwixt us Who they are that do the most truly honour her We who freely pay her all that Love that Respect that Glory that any Creature in her Circumstances can possibly be thought capable of Or they who by giving her more raise her up to a State above the Condition of her Nature and so instead of honouring her dishonour that Son whom she was so happy as to bring into the World and that God who thought her worthy of so great an Exaltation Now in order to this End I shall observe this following Method I. I will shew what that Honour is which the Blessed Virgin is now capable of Receiving and which accordingly we our selves this Day pay to her Memory II. I will lay before you some Instances of that Additional Worship which those of the other Church pretend is due to her III. I will offer some of those Reasons for which we think such a Worship to be unlawful and therefore refuse to give it to her I. I begin with the first of these I. What that Honour is which the Blessed Virgin is now capable of receiving and which accordingly we our selves pay to her Memory For answer to which Enquiry I shall lay down this plain and I suppose undeniable Foundation viz. That however some have been pleased to exalt the Glories and Prerogatives of the Holy MARY to a very great indeed to an extravagant Degree so as hardly to leave any Comparison between her and any other Creature whether in Heaven or Earth yet since they still confess her to be but a meer Creature the Measure we must take whereby to judge What Honour may warrantably be paid to her must be to consider What Honour any meer Creature in her Circumstances is capable of receiving And then I presume it cannot be justly said That we are not of the number of those who call the Holy Virgin Blessed who upon this Foundation do freely profess That providing only for that just Distance that ought to be observed between the Adoration that we owe to God and that Honour which we may be allowed to give to a Creature there is no Respect that we think too great to be given to her Nor will we scruple to pay her any Honour that does not entrench upon our Piety and confound the Service of God and his Creatures together Were the Blessed Virgin yet present upon Earth with us we would soon convince those our Accusers that we thought no Respect too much for her which either they or we are wont to give to the greatest Saints yet on Earth Now that she is departed from us all we can do is to follow her with our Esteem our Praise and our Imitation That is To give her all that Honour which any Creature in the same Circumstances is fit to receive or which it may be either Lawful or Reasonable for us to offer to such a one We pray not indeed to her now nor would we do it if she were still on Earth and we were sure she could hear and know our Requests Because Prayer we look upon to be an Act of Religious Worship and therefore such as is proper to God only But we Bless God for the Honour he vouchsafed unto her when he made her the Mother of our Lord with the Angel we pronounce her Blessed among Women and that in that very Form which she her self set us for our Pattern And so every Day fulfil her Prophecy whilst we cry out with her to God Almighty My Soul doth magnifie the Lord and my Spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour in that he regarded the lowliness of his Handmaiden We intreat her not to pray for us because we cannot tell how to convey our Requests to her And tho' for ought we know God might
Lights in the Primitive Church and Reason according to the common Condition of Mankind and from which they themselves cannot produce us any Authority of Holy Scripture to exempt her And if some among us have with St. Chrysostom freely supposed That in some cases she did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet in the very Instances to which they refer they have at least probable grounds for what they say And for the most part we are contented with St. Austin to suspend our selves and for the honour of our Saviour not to enter into any question at all concerning her as to this matter whether she ever did actually sin or no Or now that God has taken her up into Glory Have we not all that high and worthy Opinion of her Exaltation that we ought to have because indeed we freely profess we cannot believe such extravagant Romances as all sober Men even of their own Church are ashamed of We doubt not but she is at this time in Heaven Do we ever the more debase her because we will not entertain a shameless Legend of her Assumption thither We are persuaded that she is adorn'd with one of the brightest Aureola's in God's Kingdom That her Crown is more Illustrious than any among the Daughters of Eve Is not this sufficient unless we will undertake to tell you what her Crown was made of how many Stars went into her Atchievement what Badges her Servants wore and what Speeches and Complements were made to her upon the occasion and to compleat all set forth in perspective all the Holy Trinity concurring in this Ceremony and all the Powers of Heaven and Earth singing Praises to Her and adoring of Her We make no question but that as she was very highly favour'd by God on Earth so is she now no less beloved by him in Heaven But should we therefore set her up as another Mediatrix that as both Sexes concurr'd to our Ruin so might both concur to our Reparation and so tye up the Hands of God as not to allow any to be saved but according to Her Will Nay make her so far the Queen of Heaven and Earth as to give her a Power of all the Grace that is to be bestowed on Mankind Of saving her Votaries if they do but sufficiently love and worship Her whatever their Affections or their Service be to God Almighty Of fetching Souls not only out of Purgatory but even from Hell it self by her Authority Of ordering all the Events of the Fortunes of Men and Kingdoms insomuch that not a Battel can be fought or a Victory obtain'd but by the favour of this Pallas to whom the Success is due and to whom the Praise and Honour therefore ought to be return'd These indeed are the Extravagancies of some of our Adversaries but God forbid they should ever be the Practice or Opinions of any among us To conclude It is impossible for any to entertain more honourable Sentiments of the Blessed Virgin than we do who will not run out into Blasphemy and Fanaticism and believe such things as neither Scripture nor Antiquity have deliver'd nor will either Piety or common Sense suffer us to receive Let us see Secondly Whether our Actions be not every way suitable to our Opinions Now for this I must observe according to my Foundation before laid down That the Holy Virgin however highly exalted by God being yet still but a meer Creature our Actions towards her must be no other than what a Creature that is at such a vast distance from us and out of all compass of Civil Communication is capable of receiving And so the summ of what may warrantably be paid to her will fall under these Three Generals First To celebrate the Memory of those Blessings and Favours which it has pleased God to bestow upon her Secondly To return Praises to God on the account of them And Thirdly To endeavour what in us lies to imitate her Excellencies This is all the Honour she is capable of receiving from us and it cannot be doubted but that we are as careful as any to fulfil the Prophecy of our Text in every one of these Particulars First We celebrate the Memory of those Blessings and Favours which it has pleased God to bestow upon her Let this day and the other Solemn Festivals we observe to the same End be our Witness how careful we are as to this particular We mark it out in our Rituals as a Day Holy unto the Lord We assemble in our Sacred places solemnly to recount what the Holy Scriptures have recorded of God's Mercies to Her And annually as at this time we encourage one another to bless and praise Him upon the account of them But here the Objection made in the beginning will rise against us 'T is true indeed we do observe some of her Festivals but yet we pass by the greater part of them And for the main thing of all we quite omit it in that we say not AVE MARIA so often and so impertinently as they do nor other Anthems of our Lady as they call her by a new and phantastical Title never given her either in Scripture or by any of the ancient Fathers This we confess is in some measure true We say no AVE MARIE'S i. e. after the manner that they do nor can we imagin what Honour is done to the Blessed Virgin by the nauseous tautologie of a Salutation pertinent in its season when the Angel spoke to her upon her Conception but now as unseasonable in the Application as it is vain and absurd in the Repetition But yet when we recite the History and celebrate the Memory of that surprising Salutation then we read it in our Assemblies that is we do say Ave Maria as often as 't is either pious or to the purpose to do it And if for not doing it as they do we are to be excluded out of the Number of those of whom our Text speaks yet God be thanked we shall run but the same Fortune that the Apostles and the primitive Ages of the Church did before it was first as they tell us revealed to St. Dominick and by him to the Church how they were to recite the Rosary But now for the other Instances objected against us viz. The Feasts and Anthems of our Lady in these we may venture to justifie our selves We celebrate the Memory of all the great Particulars that we know of her Life And if upon the meer Authority of Fables confess'd to be uncertain and disputed by many among themselves as not fit to be credited we cannot be induced to observe more yet in this we hope all sober Christians will acquit us and esteem us to be very excusable in what we do It being certainly to mock not honour both God and Her solemnly to commemorate and seriously to thank God for such Blessings as at the same time we are sure He never bestowed upon Her nor She ever receiv'd
IMPRIMATUR Carolus Alston R. P. D. Hen. Episc. Lond. Ã Sacris Septemb. 4. 1689. SERMONS AND DISCOURSES ON Several Occasions By WILLIAM WAKE D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to Their Majesties and Preacher to the Honourable Society of GRAYS-INN LONDON Printed for Ric. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard And W. Rogers at the Sun over-against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet MDCXC TO The RIGHT HONOURABLE Sir WILL. RAWLINSON Kt. One of the Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal of England Sir JOHN HOLT Kt. Lord Chief Justice of England TO The HONOURABLE Sir WILL. GREGORY Kt. One of the Justices of Their Majesties Court of Kings-Bench Sir JOHN POWELL Kt. Sir THO. ROOKESBY Kt. Justices of Their Majesties Court of Common-Pleas Sir EDWARD NEVILL Kt. Sir JOHN TURTON Kt. Barons of Their Majesties Court of Exchequer TO The WORSHIPFUL THE MASTERS OF THE BENCH AND TO The Rest of the MEMBERS OF THE HONOURABLE SOCIETY OF GRAYS-INN HAving a long time designed to make some publick acknowledgment of my great Obligations to you I could not tell in what way more properly to do it than by presenting to you a small Collection of some of those Discourses which I have lately had the Honour to Preach before you 'T is upon this acount that I now crave leave to Prefix your Names to these Sermons Both as a Testimony of that particular Respect I owe to you and to let the World see what Persons they are by whom I have the Happiness to be Countenanced and Encouraged in my Ministry Such whose Integrity and Abilities have rendred them at Once both the Support and Ornament of our Courts of Justice Whose firmness to the true Interest of our Church and Government in the Worst of Times have set them above the power of Malice to Calumniate Who by suffering heretofore rather than they would betray either the Liberties of their Countrey or their Own Consciences have effectually convinced all Impartial men That as it cannot be Ignorance of our Laws and Constitution so neither is it Interest or any other unworthy Design but the clear Evidence of Right that engages them to that Submission they now pay to the Present Government And who that they may long possess those Places they so worthily fill and be the Honour of the Bench as the Rest of the Society are of the Profession is the Hearty Prayer of Him who with all possible Respect will always remain Your most Obliged Humble Servant WILLIAM WAKE The CONTENTS SERMON I. OF the Qualifications required to a Profitable Hearing of God's Word Luke viii 8 He that hath ears to hear let him hear SERMON II. Of the Benefit and Practice of Consideration Deuter. xxxii 29 O! that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end SERMON III. Of the Devices of Satan 2 Cor. ii 11 For we are not ignorant of his devices SERMON IV. Of stedfastness in Religion 2 Pet. iii. 17 18. Ye therefore Beloved seeing ye know these things before beware lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked fall from your own stedfastness But grow in grace and in the knowledg of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ To him be Glory both now and for ever Amen SERMON V. Of the Reasonableness and Terrors of the future Judgment Acts xxiv 25 And as he reason'd of Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come Felix trembled and answer'd Go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will call for thee SERMON VI. Of the Causes of mens delaying their Repentance Acts xxiv 25 Felix trembled and answer'd Go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will call for thee SERMON VII Of the Danger of mens delaying their Repentance Acts xxiv 25 Felix trembled and answer'd Go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will call for thee SERMON VIII An Exhortation to mutual Charity and Union among Protestants Rom. xv 5 6 7. Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive ye one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God SERMON IX Of the Nature and Benefit of a publick Humiliation Joel ii 12 13. Therefore also now saith the Lord Turn ye even to me with all your heart and with Fasting and with Weeping and with Mourning And rent your heart and not your garments and turn unto the Lord your God for he is gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and repenteth him of the evil SERMON X. Of Contending Earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. Beloved when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you That you should Earnestly contend for the Faith which was once delivered to the saints DISCOURSE I. Of the Nature and End of the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper 1 Cor. xi 24 This do in Remembrance of Me. DISCOURE II. Of the Honour due to the Blessed Virgin Luke i. 48 49. For behold from henceforth all Generations shall call me blessed For he that is Mighty hath done for me great things and holy is his name ERRATA SErm 1. p. 27. l. 6. r. Christ's Ib. l. 24. r. an Indisposition Serm. 3. p. 80. l. 16. r. may we Serm. 5. p. 161. l. 3. r. he so much ib. l. 15. r. Interests p. 182. l. 1. personally r. presently Serm. 6. p. 190. l. 10. dele been p. 202. l. 19. r. than as they Serm. 8. p. 264. l. 17. r. in the Faith Serm. 11. p. 383. l. 11. marg r. illustre Serm. 12. p. 471. l. 23. r. do not esteem l. 24. dele not p. 480. l. 13. these r. those p. 493. l. 7. r. ordinarily OF THE QUALIFICATIONS Required to a Profitable Hearing OF GOD's WORD A SERMON Preach'd on the Gospel for Sexagesima-Sunday AT GRAYS-INN 1689. LUKE VIII 8 He that hath Ears to hear let him Hear THE Words are a kind of Proverbial Expression with which our Blessed Saviour very frequently concludes his Discourses to his Disciples the more to engage them to a just Attention to and Consideration of that holy Gospel which he delivered unto them And the import whereof we cannot better learn than from that excellent Parable to which they are here subjoin'd A Sower went out to sow his Seed and as he sowed some fell by the way-side and it was trodden down and the fowls of the air devoured it And some fell upon a Rock and as soon as it was sprung up it withered away because it lacked moisture And some fell among Thorns and the Thorns sprang up with it and choaked it And other fell on good ground and sprang up and bare fruit an hundred-fold
that the blessed time so long wrapped up in sacred Prophecy is indeed now ready to be revealed When the Church of Christ being purged from those Corruptions that have so long defaced its Beauty shall again appear in its primitive Purity When all Heresie and Schism being every where abolished and the Mystery of Iniquity laid fully open and the Man of Sin destroyed true Religion and sincere Piety shall again reign throughout the World God himself shall pitch his Tabernacle among us and dwell with us and we shall be his People and he shall be our God O Blessed State of the Church Militant here on Earth the glorious Antepast of that Peace and Piety which God has prepared for his Church Triumphant in Heaven Who would not wish to see those days when a general Reformation and a true Zeal and a perfect Charity passing through the World we should All be united in the same Faith the same Worship the same Communion and Fellowship one with another When all Pride and Prejudice all Interests and Designs being submitted to the Honour of God and the discharge of our Duty the Holy Scriptures shall again triumph over the vain Traditions of Men and Religion no longer take its denomination from little Sects and Factions but we shall all be content with the same common primitive Names of Christians and Brethren and live together as becomes our Character in Brotherly Love and Christian Charity with one another And who can tell but such a Change as this and which we have otherwise some reason to believe is nigh at hand may even now break forth from the midst of us would we but all seriously labour to perfect the Great Work which the Providence of God has so gloriously begun among us and establish that Love and Vnity among our selves which may afterwards diffuse it self from us into all the other Parts of the Christian World besides But however whether we shall ever see I do not say such a Blessed Effect as this but even any good Effect at all of our Endeavours here on Earth or no yet this we are sure we shall not lose our Reward in Heaven When to have contributed tho' in the least degree to the healing of those divisions we so unhappily labour under shall be esteemed a greater Honour than to have silenced all the Cavils of our Enemies and even to have pray'd and wish'd for it and where we could not any otherwise have contributed our selves but to have exhorted others to it shall be rewarded with Blessings more than all the Stars in the Firmament for number Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ To Him be Honour and Praise for ever and ever Amen A SERMON Preach'd before the Honourable House of Commons AT St. MARGARET'S WESTMINSTER June 5 th 1689. Being The FAST-DAY Appointed by the KING and QUEEN'S Proclamation TO Implore the Blessing of Almighty God upon Their MAJESTIES Forces by Sea and Land and Success in the War now declared against the FRENCH KING Jovis 6 o die Junii 1689. Resolved THat the Thanks of this House be given to Mr. Wake for the Sermon he Preached before them yesterday And that he be desired to Print the same Ordered THat Mr. Grey do give him the Thanks and acquaint him with the Desires of this House accordingly Paul Jodrell Cl. Dom. Com. OF THE Nature and Benefit OF A PUBLICK HUMILIATION JOEL ii 12 13. Therefore also now saith the LORD Turn ye even to Me with all your heart and with Fasting and with Weeping and with Mourning And rent your heart and not your garments and turn unto the LORD your God for He is Gracious and Merciful slow to Anger and of great Kindness and repenteth Him of the Evil. THough the time of this Prophecy be uncertain so that neither the Jewish Rabbins nor Christian Antiquaries are able to give us any tolerable Account of it yet is the Design plain and the words of my Text a most proper and pathetick enforcement of the great duty of this day to turn unto the Lord our God with all our Heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning for he is Gracious and Merciful slow to Anger and of great Kindness and repenteth him of the Evil. If we look into the foregoing Chapter we shall there find an astonishing Account of the great Evils that were just ready to befall the Jews for their Sins But that which is yet more surprising is That though all this was about to come upon them yet were they nevertheless insensible of their danger nor took any the least care to prevent their utter desolation To awaken a stupid and inconsiderate People a Nation dead in Sin and Security in the beginning of this Chapter he prepares a lofty and magnificent Scene He sets before them a Prophecy of yet greater dangers than any they had hitherto experimented and that in a manner so unusual with such a Pomp of Words and in such Triumphant Expressions as carry a terror even in the Repetition of them Blow ye the Trumpet in Zion sound an Allarm in my holy Mountain Let all the Inhabitants of the Land tremble for the day of the LORD cometh for it is nigh at hand A day of darkness and of glooâ—iness a day of Clouds and of thick darkness as the Morning spread upon the Mountains a great People and a strong there hath not been ever the like neither shall be any more after it A fire devours before them and behind them a flame burneth The Land is as the Garden of Eden before them and behind them a desolate Wilderness The Earth shall quake before them the Heavens shall tremble the Sun and the Moon shall be dark and the Stars shall withdraw their shining Whatever be the Import of these Phrases whether by the mighty and terrible Host here spoken of we are only to understand that swarm of Locusts and other Insects that we are before told were utterly to devour all the Fruits of the Land Or whether under the Character of these we shall with most Interpreters comprehend the numerous and mighty Armies of the Chaldeans and Babylonians which at divers times brought such Desolations as we read of upon the Jews This is plain that we have here the denunciation of some Judgment worthy of God and great as the sins and incorrigibleness that occasion'd it And now who would not here expect the final desolation of such a People as this But behold God even yet in his Anger remembers Mercy and tho' they had hitherto neglected all the Calls and Invitations of his holy Prophets to Repentance yet He resolves once more to try whether they would now at least in their dangers hearken to his Admonitions He raises up Joel at once both to set before
them his Judgments if they continu'd still impenitent and to encourage them by repenting not only to prevent their Ruine but to assure themselves of his Favour That though they had so long neglected him yet if they would now even now at the last return with a true Zeal and a sincere Affection to their Duty they should not fail to meet with a favourable acceptance from him Therefore also now saith the LORD Turn ye even to me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning and rent your heart and not your garments and turn unto the LORD your God for he is gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and repenteth him of the evil It is not my intention to seek a a Parallel of all this either in the sins or in the danger of our own Country I would willingly hope that neither our Guilt nor our Incorrigibleness have been so heinous as theirs nor shall any such deplorable Judgment as this ever I trust be made the punishment of what our Iniquities have indeed but too justly deserved No blessed be God who by a wonderful Concurrence of great and singular Mercies seems rather to call upon us to celebrate his Goodness than to deprecate his Judgments to praise his Name in Hymns of Triumph and Eucharist than to weep between the Porch and the Altar in melancholy Litanies to avert his Anger and implore his Mercy But yet since the Goodness as well as Judgments of the Lord are designed to bring us to repentance and that whether we look back into our own particular Actions or consider those Publick and National Transgressions whereby we have so long and loudly call'd to Heaven for vengeance we must with shame and indignation confess our selves some of the greatest of Sinners I cannot but think both the Solemn Occasion of this Day and the Design of my Text to be a most proper and seasonable Admonition to us to turn unto the Lord our God and to implore his Blessing upon our present Enterprises that those vile Insects the Locusts and Caterpillars that have so barbarously consumed our Neighbours round about us our worse than Assyrian or Babylonian Enemies may not be able to prevail against us And indeed however it has pleased God as at this time to give us some Encouragement to trust in his Mercy yet we cannot so soon forget that we have also born the punishment of our sins For not to repass upon the things that are at a greater distance from us let the Instances still fresh in all our Memories speak to us What just Apprehensions did we but very lately lye under of our Lives and of what is yet dearer to us than our Lives our Liberty and our Religion How did our Enemies not only project our Ruin but as if it were already accomplished begin to say in their hearts nay they began freely to speak it out to us Aha! so would we have it Persecute them and take them for there is none to deliver them And if now we are no longer exposed to those dangers that so lately threatned us if God has begun upon our late more serious concern for Religion and more general return to him to give us some Testimony of his gracious Designations towards us This certainly ought to be so far from lessening our solemn Humiliation at this time that it should rather engage us to be the more forward in perfecting our Repentance the greater Encouragement we have to hope that it shall be accepted at our hands And I must now beg leave with so much the more Earnestness to enforce the Duty of my Text Therefore also now saith the LORD turn ye even to me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning And rent your hearts and not your garments and turn unto the LORD your God By how much I hope I may with the greater assurance propose to you the Promise of it for your Encouragement For he is gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and repenteth him of the evil I have already pointed out to you the two great parts of my Text and which must therefore be the Subject of my Discourse upon it viz. I. The Address of the Holy Prophet to his Countrey and in that the Exhortation which I am earnestly in the Name of God to recommend unto you this day To turn unto the LORD your God with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning II. The great Encouragement which he offer'd to induce them and which ought to be of no less a force to stir up all of us to a serious and diligent performance of it For he is gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and repenteth him of the evil I begin with the former of these the Exhortation of my Text I. To turn unto the LORD your God with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning And here I presume I shall not need to tell you That all this is but a larger Paraphrase of what I may in other Words call a General and National Repentance of those Publick and National Sins which had provoked God Almighty to send down so many Judgments upon them and to threaten them with yet greater if they continued still in their Impenitence And indeed what could be more reasonable than by such a Solemn and Universal Acknowledgment both of the Evils they had committed and of the Judgments which they deserved and of the sorrow they were now touch'd with for their Offences to appease God's Anger for that General Incorrigibleness by which they had so long exposed both his Goodness and his Justice to Contempt among the Heathen round about him For however it be very certain that all the outward pomp and solemnity of Repentance the fasting and the weeping and the mourning are at best but a form of Godliness empty and unprofitable unless there be also added to these that true inward change of Mind in which alone consists the Power of it yet there may be such Circumstances and Cases put wherein this Duty must pass beyond the Heart and the Closet and the Humiliation will be imperfect if it be not as publickly set forth to the Eyes of Men as it is sincerely perform'd in the sight of God And such especially must be the Repentance for National Sins Where Mens Transgressions have been open and notorious there their Return also must be no less Solemn and Evident that so the Honour as well as Justice of God may be vindicated in their Forgiveness and some sort of Reparation made not only for the Guilt which they have contracted but also for the Scandal which they have given to his Honour and Religion in the World Now 't is this which at once both declares the Piety and commands the publick Humiliation of THIS DAY And for the due discharge whereof I must intreat
even unto him and with all our Heart Words very Emphatical and which offer to us two great Conditions which are absolutely necessary to render our Conversion every way such as it ought to be First That it must be hearty and sincere There must be nothing of the Hypocrite mix'd with it our Souls must go along with our outward Performances and these penitential appearances be the true Declariations of that real inward sorrow which we feel in our Hearts for our Offences For God is not a Man that he should be mocked He sees into our very Souls and knows the secrets of all the Children of Men. And Secondly That it must be intire and without reserve As we must be sorry for every Sin we have already committed so we must resolve against ever committing any for the time to come For God is of purer Eyes than to behold the least Iniquity and if our Repentance be sincere so shall we be too The same Piety which moves us to hate any Evil will equally fill us with an Aversion against all And if we desire to continue but in one Offence it is because that we do truly repent of none So that now then if we will answer the design of this day if we will render our Fast such as the Lord has chosen and has promised to reward with the Blessings both of this life and of that which is to come we must not think it enough that we comply with the outward Ceremonies and shew of Repentance but we must indeed resolve to bring forth the Fruits of it Whilst we address our selves to God for Pardon we must take heed to dispose our Souls in such a manner that we may be fit to receive it And if we thus improve the great Solemnity of this day we shall not fail to meet with a favourable acceptance at the Throne of Grace God will be jealous for his land and pity his People He will perfect the great Deliverance he has begun for us and once more render us the fear and the terror of all our Enemies round about us Our Faith which has so often triumph'd over all the Arguments of its Adversaries shall now no less triumph over all their black Designs to root it out and to destroy it and shew to all the World that though for our Tryal God may sometimes permit the Winds to blow and the Floods to rise and the Storms to beat against our Church yet has he founded it on that Rock that shall never fail Nor shall the gates of Hell either the Power of France or the Cunning of the Jesuit or the Malice of Both ever be able to prevail against it And this brings me to the other thing I am to speak to Our Encouragement to this Duty II. For God is Gracious and Merciful slow to anger and of great Kindness and repenteth him of the Evil. It is not at all needful for me to enter on any particular Explication of all these Attributes and shew what Arguments every one of them affords to engage us to Repentance Two things in general there are which will at first sight arise from them to excite us to it viz. First The Goodness and Mercy of God to the greatest Sinners upon their Repentance God is Gracious and Merciful and of great Kindness Secondly His unwillingness to pronounce any Judgments at all against them and his readiness to recal them if they repent He is slow to Anger and repenteth him of the Evil. And First Of the Goodness and Mercy of God to the Greatest of Sinners upon their Repentance He is Gracious and Merciful and of great Kindness When God proclaimed his own Name in the midst of the People of Israel we read Exod. xxxiv that he chose to do it not so much in the terrible Attributes of his Majesty and Power as in the soft Ideas of his Mercy and Goodness The Lord the Lord God Merciful and Gracious long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin And if we look into all the following Representations which he makes of himself whether by his Holy Prophets under the Legal but especially by our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles under the Christian Dispensation we shall find there is no Character he so much delights in as this of being Good and Gracious not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance 2 Pet. iii. 8 And now what more forcible Encouragement can any one desire to bring him to Repentance than to be thus assured of the Goodness and Mercy of God to the greatest of Sinners if they Repent That he will not only forgive him upon his return but will even assist him with Grace and Strength in the doing of it That he desires not the death of the most profligate Offender but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live In a word That he has promised forgiveness without exception to the most wicked Men upon their Repentance so that if they will but yet break off their evil Course and keep his Statutes and do that which is lawful and right they shall surely live they shall not die Ezek. xviii 21 Many are the ways and excellent the Methods that God has taken to convince us of his Mercy and the time would fail me to enter on a particular Consideration of them Sometimes he declares not only that he is ready to pardon us if we repent but that he even desires we should repent that he may forgive us And lest his Word should not be sufficient he confirms that desire with an Oath Ezek xxxiii 11 As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the Wicked but that the Wicked turn from his way and live Turn ye turn ye from your evil ways for why will ye die O House of Israel Sometimes he Expostulates with us in the way of Reasoning to see if by that means he may be able to bring us to consider his Love and Affection to us Isai. i. 16 Wash ye make ye clean put away the Evil of your doings from before mine Eyes cease to do evil learn to do well Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord Though your Sins be as Scarlet they shall be white as Snow though they be red like Crimson they shall be as Wool If he Exhorts us to Repentance he always does it upon this Promise That he will Pardon us if we repent If we turn from our Sins Iniquity shall not be our ruine If he threatens Judgments yet still he keeps a reserve for Mercy to triumph over Judgment and will rather be thought inconstant in his most peremptory Decrees than inexorable to Repenting Sinners Thus he commanded Jonah to go to Niniveh and to pronounce an utter Destruction against it He fix'd the very time too Yet forty days and Niniveh shall be overthrown
neither more nor less and lying along with our Heads in one anothers Bosoms as the Apostles now did and which I suppose no Christian of whatsoever Church or Persuasion he be does at all think himself obliged to do But my meaning herein is this That in those things wherein the Nature of this Holy Sacrament consists and which the Holy Scriptures have recounted to us on purpose to direct us in the Celebration of it in those we are not to depart from our Saviour's Institution nor to presume to set up our own Innovations as the Council of Constance has most presumptuously done in opposition to and even in defiance of our Blessed Lord's Appointment To receive the Holy Sacrament in this or that posture with such or such particular Ceremonies these are things wholly foreign to the Nature and Design of this Blessed Sacrament and therefore such as may in different places and Ages be different And every Christian ought to comply with what is used and prescribed in that Church with which he communicates But for those things in which the very Nature of this Holy Sacrament is concern'd for such parts as constitute the integrity of it and serve the more lively to set it off as a memorial of the Death and Passion of Christ and which therefore we must look upon our Lord and Saviour to have sealed with his express Command Do this In these I say we are to keep close both to the Example of our Saviour and to the Command of the Text and when he has distinctly instituted this Holy Supper in Two Kinds not dare to command Men under the pain of an Anathema to believe that One alone is sufficient And this may suffice for the Explication of the former part of my Text What it is we are to understand by that Phrase of my Text Do this I go on Secondly to enquire Secondly What it is to do this in Remembrance of Christ. It is I think agreed on all hands That the Design of our Saviour in this Command was to set forth the great End of his Instituting this Holy Sacrament viz. That it was to keep up in our own Minds and set forth to others a solemn and lively Remembrance of his dying for us and of the great Benefits and Advantages that accrue to us thereby And however it be pretty hard to reconcile this plain Design of this Institution with what those of the other Communion now make to be the main business of it namely to be a true and proper Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of the Living and of the Dead in nothing differing from that upon the Cross but only in the manner of the Oblation A remembrance being ever of things absent from not present with us and the same Sacrifice very improperly said to be a Type or Memorial of it self yet so clearly is this design of this Holy Sacrament here declared to be for the remembrance of Christ's Death and Passion that they have chosen rather to encounter all these Absurdities than to adventure to deny what our Savior has so very plainly delivered as the End of this Institution But though it is not therefore to be doubted but that the Intention of our Blessed Lord in this Command was to oblige us by such a Solemn Ceremony as this to continue the Memory of his Death yet we are not therefore to think that all we have to do when we come to the Holy Table and attend on this Great Memorial is simply to remember or call to mind the Sufferings of our Saviour No this is not sufficient to answer either the meaning of this Command or the design of this Institution The word in the Original which we here render Remembrance is very emphatical and imports not a bare calling to mind but a renew'd Commemoration It regards the Affections of the Heart as well as the Action of the Mind In a word it denotes not so much a private Remembrance as a publick and solemn Commemoration when in our Apostle's Phrase ver 26. we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 annunciate and shew forth to others at the same time that we thus call to mind our selves the Lord's Death and that with all those pious motions and resentments that befit so excellent and so advantageous a Remembrance To know therefore what it is that our Saviour here requires of us when he bids us to do this in Remembrance of Him two things will be necessary to be considered by us First What it is that we are to remember or shew forth when we come to this Holy Sacrament Secondly In what manner and with what Motions and Affections we are to do it And First let us examine What it is that we are to remember or shew forth when we come to this Holy Sacrament Now this in general St. Paul here tells us is his Death ver 26. that is that bitter Death and Passion which he was just then about to undergo for our sakes when he established this Solemn Memorial of it For says he as often as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup ye do shew forth the LORD 's Death till his coming But because a bare Remembrance of the Death of Christ without any farther Consideration either of the cause and manner of it or of those infinite Advantages which accrue to us thereby will afford but a very imperfest Memorial to us We must therefore for a full discharge of this duty and to raise up in our Souls those suitable resentments we ought to bring to this Holy Administration take a farther and more particular prospect of it And consider First What our State and Condition was that obliged our Blessed Saviour thus to die for us Secondly What that Death Passion was which he underwent for our sakes and has therefore commanded us to remember in this Holy Sacrament Thirdly What the Benefits are that accrue to us thereby And First To do this in Remembrance of Christ will engage us to call to mind what our State and condition was that obliged our Blessed Saviour thus to die for us For however we were by Baptism wash'd from all the Guilt and delivered from the Punishment of our Original Pollution and admitted into the Covenant of Grace and made Heirs of the Promise of Eternal Glory yet we are not therefore to think our selves ever the less concerned when we come to this Holy Sacrament and shew forth that Death of the Lord by which our very Baptism it self was consecrated into a laver of Regeneration there to call to mind that wretched State in which we once were and must for ever have lain had not the Blessed Jesus given himself up unto Death for us I should indulge too much your Curiosity in an Argument of this moment should I enter on that vain Speculation which the School-men first started and has since been made the Sport and Diversion of our Modern Scepticks in Religion Whether God could not otherwise have provided for
come frequently too When you shall begin effectually to perceive the Benefit of your Communicating in the still new encrease of Piety and Holiness in all your Actions When being full with a constant Sense of the Love of the Blessed Jesus here set forth to us you shall find it to be the Desire and Longing of your Souls to come often to this grateful and pleasing Declaration of it When in a Word being accustomed to consider the Blessings and Advantages of that New Covenant our Blessed Master has sealed to us in his Blood and here offers to renew with us in this Sacrament you shall wish if it might be every Day to repeat it and think you can never enough declare your Desires of being admitted into the Conditions and Advantages of it And thus have I offered to you what I suppose may suffice for the full Explication of the Words before us And from the Account of which we may now easily see What is the true Nature and Design of this Holy Sacrament Namely that it was instituted by our Saviour to be a Sacred and Solemn Memorial of that Death and Passion which he underwent for us and of the great Benefits and Advantages which accrue to us thereby That as by the Paschal Feast among the Jews God perpetuated the Remembrance of his preserving them from the destroying Angel first and then delivering them from their Egyptian Bondage and engaged them to a constant annual Return of Joy and Thanksgiving to Him for so great a Blessing So by this better Passover should we in like manner keep up for ever in the Church a lively and affectionate Commemoration of that better and more glorious Preservation which our paschal Lamb the Lord Jesus has by his own Blood obtained for us and set forth to the whole World that grateful and vigorous Sense which we have of so wonderful and blessed a Deliverance Now this being the true meaning and Design of this Holy Sacrament we may from hence see How great and dangerous the Mistakes are which some have run into concerning it with reference both to Faith and Practice For 1. If this Sacrament as we have before shewn was instituted as a Memorial of the Death and Passion of our Saviour Christ It is then plain That it is not our very Saviour Christ Himself neither in the State of his death nor in any other that is here presented to us There have been in the Church since the time of Paschasius Radbertus one of the first considerable Innovators that we meet with in the Doctrine of this Holy Eucharist among others two different Opinions concerning the Real or Corporal Presence of Christ in this Sacrament and both maintained with no small contention at this day One That the Bread and Wine are converted into the very Natural Body and Blood of Christ so that nothing of the Bread and Wine themselves at all remain but only in shew and appearance which is what they called Transubstantiation the other That the true Substances of the outward Elements the Bread and the Wine do indeed remain but that the very Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ are in an extraordinary and supernatural manner joyned to them so that in the Communion of them we do together with the Bread and Wine receive the true Body and Blood of Christ into our Mouths truly and really present which they call Consubstantiation Now however the latter of these be much the more pardonable Error of the two as neither doing any Violence to our Senses which evidently tell us That what we see and receive in this Sacrament is certainly Bread and Wine nor contradicting the many Passages of Scripture which declare to us the same thing yet are they both very great Mistakes The natural Body of Christ being not capable of existing in more Places than one at the same Time nor to be divested of the inseparable Properties of a Body such as Extension of Parts Space Figure and the like in which the very Nature of a Body as it is distinguished from a Spirit does consist But these Opinions do not only involve a plain Impossibility in the very Nature of the Thing it self but moreover do carry a manifest Incongruity to the Nature and Design of this Institution For if the End of this Holy Sacrament were as our Text shews to be a Remembrance of Christ a Sign and Figure of his Body broken and of his Blood shed for us then certainly as in all other Cases the Sign must be different from the thing signified so here the Sacrament of Christ's Body is not his Body but the Memorial of it the Sacrament of his Blood is not his very Blood but the Figure and Representation of it And thus these latter Words Do this in Remembrance of Me become the best and clearest Interpretation of the former This is my Body which is given for you and shew that we are to interpret it after the same manner as when we read in the like kind of Speaking in the Old Testament This is the Lord 's Passover i. e. the Memorial of that Action when the Angel passed over the Houses of the Children of Israel and destroyed them not when at the same Time he slew the Egyptians But here it may be asked Do we then exclude Christ altogether from this Holy Sacrament and leave only an empty Sign a meer ceremonial Remembrance of him and no more God forbid Nay but I dare say We esteem Christ to be no less present tho' in another manner than they Inasmuch as in this Sacred Ordinance he communicates Himself in the Benefits of His Passion in a more especial manner to every faithful Receiver of this Blessed Sacrament and makes the Bread which he eats and the Wine which he drinks become not indeed by any such needless and absurd Change as we before mentioned but by Grace and Blessing by his divine Power and Spiritual Communication his Body broken and his Blood shed for us to all the Effects of Piety and Justification The Elements are not altered they continue not only after the Consecration but in the very receiving of them the same they were before Bread and Wine without any bodily Substance besides either veiled under those Appearances or received together with them But by Faith at the same Time that we take these into our Mouths we take Him also whom they represent into our Souls Not as bringing Christ from Heaven but raising up our Minds and our Hearts to that Holy Place where he is we unite our selves to Him and have all the Benefits of his Death and Passion communicated to us for the Forgiveness of our Sins for the increase of his Grace and Favour to us here and to be at once both the surest Earnest and the most effectual Means to bring us to everlasting Happiness hereafter This is that real but divine and spiritual Presence of our Saviour in this Sacrament which we firmly believe and which secures
neither were the Gentile Christians utterly without fault in it but so far stood fast in that liberty wherewith Christ had made them free as not only to despise the weakness and ignorance of the others but to be ready almost even to cut them off from their Communion I need not say how dangerous such a Controversie as this might have proved nor what a stop it might have put to the progress of Christianity in those first beginnings of the Gospel Great were the difficulties which the Apostles underwent on this occasion whilst they endeavoured so to menage themselves between these two Parties as not only not to offend either but if it were possible to bring them Both to such a temper with one another that neither the Gentile Convert might despise the weakness of his Judaizing Brother nor the Jewish Votary judge too severely of the Liberty of the Gentile Christian. And this was the design of St. Paul in the Chapter before my Text. Where addressing himself as indeed he seems to have done this whole Epistle to the Gentile Christians and whom as having the truer Notion of their Christian Liberty as to this matter he therefore calls the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the strong in the Faith v. 1 he exhorts them in a most admirable Discourse on this Subject throughout the whole Chapter to bear the Infirmities of the Weak i. e. not to grieve nor despise them for their mistaken Zeal but by complying a little and condescending to their Infirmities to endeavour if it should please God to draw them out of their Error Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to Edification And then concludes all in the words of the Text wherein we have First A hearty Prayer to God Almighty That he would inspire them so effectually with a Spirit of Vnity and Charity that notwithstanding all their differences they might joyn unanimously both Jews and Gentiles not only in the same common Worship of God but with the same hearty affection to one another Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus that ye may with one Mind and one Mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Secondly an Exhortation as the final result of his whole Discourse That they should with all charitable condescension and kindness receive and love and assist one another and not despise and censure and deprive one another either of their Charity or their Communion Wherefore receive ye one another as Christ also received us to the Glory of God In which words as they thus lye before us in the Occasion and Design of them there are two things that will offer themselves to our consideration First An Exhortation to these Dissenting Christians and in them to all of us Not to break either Charity or Communion with one another upon the account of such things wherein we may securely differ but mutually to bear with one another in our differences Secondly An Enforcement of this Exhortation from two of the greatest Considerations that can possibly engage any Christian to an observance of it viz. First From the Example of Christ towards us Secondly From the greater Glory that will hereby redound to God Wherefore receive ye one another as Christ also received us to the Glory of God I shall make it my endeavour with all the plainness that I can to pursue both the Exhortation and the Enforcement in the three following Propositions I. That there may be differences in matters of lesser moment between very good and zealous Christians without any just reflection either upon the Men or upon their Religion II. That these differences ought not to hinder such Persons from agreeing together not only in a common Charity but if it be possible in a common Worship of God too III. That to this End it is the Duty of all Christians but especially of those who are the strong in Faith not only to pray for such a Vnion but as they have opportunity heartily to labour Themselves and earnestly to stir up all Others to endeavour after it And First That there may be Differences in matters of lesser moment between very good and zealous Christians without any just Reflection upon the Men or upon their Religion For proof of which I think I need go no farther than the very History of my Text. I have already said how great a division there was between the Jewish and the Gentile Converts about the Ritual Observances of the Law of Moses and with what a Zeal the Dissenting Parties managed the Dispute till they had almost lost their Charity and made a deplorable Schism in the Church of Christ. And yet I am confident no Man will say that this was at all derogatory either to the Truth of their Common Christianity or to the Infallible Authority with which the Apostles had deliver'd it unto them And for the Parties themselves that thus differ'd with one another that they had a true Zeal on both sides for the Glory of God and thought it matter of Conscience the one to observe these Ceremonial Institutions as what God still required of them the other to refuse any such Imposition as not only a needless Burden but even repugnant to the Grace of Christ declared to them in his Gospel S. Paul in the prosecution of this very Argument does clearly bear witness to them Ch. xiv 6 Where he makes use of this very thing as one Reason why they should mutually tolerate one another in their Dissensions viz. That however they differ'd in their Notions as to these particulars yet they were both perfectly agreed in the same common Zeal for the Glory of God and the Discharge of their Duty He that regardeth the day regardeth it unto the Lord and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord he doth not regard it He that eateth eateth to the Lord for he giveth God thanks and he that eateth not to the Lord he eateth not and giveth God thanks And indeed either we must say that all even the least Points relating to our Religion are so clearly and plainly revealed that no Honest Man can possibly be mistaken if he will but impartially enquire into them which from the Differences of whole Parties concerning these things 't is plain they are not Or else Men's different Capacities and Opportunities and Tempers and Education consider'd 't is in vain to expect that all Good Men should agree in all their Notions of Religion any more than we see they do in any other concerns whatsoever And who am I that I should dare to pronounce a Sentence of Reprobation against any one in whom there appear all the other Characters of an humble upright sincere Christian only because he has not perhaps met with the same Instruction or read the same Books or do's not argue the same way In a Word because he is not
you to go along with me in these following Reflections First That though as I have just now shewn there must be the publick marks of Sorrow and Humiliation in our publick Repentance yet we must by no means stop in these nor thinks that this is all that God requires of us in order to our Forgiveness This was indeed the Vanity of the Jews heretofore and is too much the folly of some misguided Christians now Their Indignation against their Sins and against themselves for having committed them was spent especially in the outward appearance of Sorrow They rent their cloaths and put on sackcloth they wept and fasted and went softly and then they supposed they had done their business though it may be their Souls were not yet humbled nor their Hearts at all broken with any true Contrition for their Sins And so among those of the Church of Rome at this day If we may believe some of their greatest Casuists an external Worship is sufficient to carry a Man to Heaven without the trouble of the true inward Devotion of the Soul He may repent without Contrition may fast with a full Meal Nay and if the Pope pleases may obtain a plenary remission of his Sins se ancho non fosse confesso ne contrito though he has neither confess'd them to any Priest nor finds in his own Heart any manner of Contrition for them I shall not need to say how many new ways of Salvation of this kind they have found out by wearing Leathern Girdles about their Loins or Scapularies over their Shoulders by listing themselves into such or such certain Fraternities by dressing of Altars and going on Pilgrimages by Holy Water and Agnus Dei's And all which and infinite more of the like kind if as our late Masters tell us they are not Authorized by their Church yet I am sure are publickly recommended by their Greatest Men and generally practised too without any censure or contradiction among them This is certain that all these and whatever Artifices of the like kind Men may please either to flatter themselves or to delude others withal without a true Contrition and a serious Reformation they are all but Vanity they make a shew of Piety in the Eyes of Men but they avail nothing to our forgiveness with God I will not now dispute of what use some of these External Performances may be to assist our Repentance and render our Sorrow for Sin the more solemn and so in some Cases as I have before observed the more pleasing to God I know well enough that St. Paul has told us That Bodily Exercise where 't is discreetly order'd does profit a little though it be not like Godliness profitable for all things But then as 't is plain that the greatest part of those Follies so much magnified and recommended in the Church of Rome are but vain and ridiculous Impositions to cheat the silly and superstitious Multitude so 't is certain that the best of these things are neither in themselves Meritorious much less Satisfactory for Sins as they pretend them to be nor otherwise of any value at all with God than as they are attended with that true Repentance which alone can either incline his Mercy or obtain our Forgiveness If we will therefore make our solemn Humiliation this day acceptable to God and available to our selves our Country and our Religion we must take the Method of the Prophet in our Text We must turn unto the Lord our God with all our Heart and then our fasting and our weeping and our mourning shall indeed be pleasing unto him We must rent our Hearts and not i. e. rather than our Garments must humble our Souls first and then the violence we do our Bodies will be considerâ—d by him When Jonah denounced God's Judgments against Niniveh we read in his 3 d. Chapter That the People of Niniveh believed and proclaimed a Fast and put on Sackcloth from the greatest of them even unto the least But was this therefore that Repentance for which he spared them No it is not so much as once mentioned among the Reasons of it It was the Reformation of their Lives that tied up his Hand and sheathed his Sword ver 10. And God saw their Works that they turn'd from their Evil way and God repented of the Evil that he said he would do unto them and he did it not 2. And this brings me to a second Remark for the farther clearing of this great Duty viz. That not only these outward marks of penitence are not sufficient to the discharge of it but though we should to these add a true and real sorrow of heart for the Sins we have committed even this would not be sufficient to purchase our Forgiveness Now by true sorrow I do not mean that little imperfect sorrow which looks rather to the danger of our Condition than to the heinousness of our Offences and bewails our Transgressions more out of an apprehension of those Judgments that may be the Consequence of them than out of any real regret that we have sinned against a most Gracious and Merciful God For however those of the other Communion out of their great tenderness to Sinners have declared such a sorrow as this if accompanied with Confession to be sufficient to dispose Men to obtain the Grace of God by the Sacrament of Penance and therefore have resolved that true Contrition or a sorrow for sin committed with a purpose of sinning no more is not necessary to the Sacrament of Penance after the Commission of mortal Sin but that Attrition is sufficient though a Man knows it to be no more Yet I suppose it needless in this place to obviate any such gross Error however otherwise of very great danger in the Practice of this Duty Be the sorrow for sin never so sincere and our Resolutions thereupon no more to return to the Commission of it never so firm and well grounded yet if instead of making good these Resolutions we shall stop here we are but half Penitents seeing we yet want that change of life which alone is able to compleat the Nature and render the Practice of our Repentance acceptable unto God and available to our Forgiveness 3. In short Thirdly if we will truly discharge that Repentance to which we are here called we must do it not by being sorry for our Sins or by resolving against them but by an effectual forsaking of them i. e. as our Text speaks By turning unto the Lord our God This is that which alone can implore his Favour and commend us to his Mercy And this was what I before observed in the Case of Niniveh When God saw their works that they turned from their Evil way then he repented him of the Evil that he had said he would do unto them and he did it not Nay but it is not any turning unto God that will suffice neither We must turn
our Religion from Destruction And by the Blessing of God he accomplish'd it in a manner so extraordinary in all its Circumstances as I think should not suffer us to doubt from whose Providence it was that this Redemption was sent to us This was the Lord's doing and whatever it is I am sure ought to be marvellous in our Eyes And may I think be a final I hope it shall be an effectual Confirmation to us of this Great Engagement of our Text to turn to him with all our hearts viz. That he is a God repenting him of the evil and therefore whose Mercy if we now truly do so we may securely depend upon both for the forgiveness of our sins and for our deliverance from those dangers which our sins have so justly exposed us to And now what remains but that having all these great Encouragements such Promises or rather such an Earnest of God's Favour to us we resolve every of one of us seriously to comply with the great Design both of this Day and of this Discourse and by our sincere Repentance for our past Offences obtain that Blessing we so much desire both for our Country and for our Religion Never was there a time wherein we had greater Reason to hope for God's Acceptance than at this Day and such an Occasion as this to implore his Favour there may not perhaps again occur in the Course of many Ages For indeed what is it that we are now assembled to recommend to His Mercy but in Effect the preservation of our Selves our Laws our Liberties and our Religion against the Violence of those who have long conspired both Their and Our Destruction That be would preside in our Councils and go forth with our Armies and so direct the one and prosper the other that we may again enjoy the Blessings of Peace and Security that there may be no decay no leading into Captivity and no just complaining in our Streets And this he will do if we be not our selves wanting to our own Preservation Only let us act as becomes Good Christians and True Englishmen let us do all things for the Glory of God and for the Safety Honour and Welfare of our Country In the words of Joab to his Brother Abishai upon an Occasion not much different from our own at this time Let us be strong and of good Courage and let us play the Men for our People and for the Cities of our God and then he will not fail us nor forsake us But if instead of pursuing the things that make for our Peace we shall still go on to precipitate our own Destruction If when we are call'd this Day to turn unto the LORD our God with all our hearts and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning we shall instead thereof fast only for strife and for debate If when we should be here prostrating our selves before the LORD to implore the Completion of that Great Deliverance he has begun to work for us we shall on the contrary continue ungratefully to murmur against his Providence and be ready almost to implead his Justice for what he has already done and with those repining Israelites of old be looking back again to our Egyptian Bondage when we are brought even within prospect of the Promised Land In a word If when we should be uniting our selves against the Common Enemy of our Country and Christendom we shall suffer a Spirit of Faâ—tion and Sedition of Mutiny and Discontent of private Interests and unseasonable Resentments to distract our Councils and divide us against one another What can we then expect but that God should at last give us over into the hands of our Enemies and make those that hate us to rule over us Wherefore now arise O ye Worthies ye Chosen and Counsellors of our Israel Consult consider and resolve And may the God of Heaven the God before whom we are here assembled this Day He who has and does and we trust will still deliver us our Rock and our Defence against the Face of our Enemies so direct and prosper all your Consultations that the Children which are yet unborn may rise up in their Generations and call you Blessed when they shall enjoy the Benefits of that Peace and Security which we trust shall descend to them through your Wise and Vigorous Resolutions Behold this day the Eyes not of your own Nation only but of all the Nations round about us fix'd upon you The Fortunes I do not say of every single Person among you tho' that were somewhat nor yet of your own Country and Religion only which ought to be much more valued but what is still more considerable than all this the Fortunes of all the Reformed Churches and distressed Countries of Europe depending on the Success of our present Enterprizes This is the fatal Crisis that must secure or ruine both them and us for ever May the Consideration of all these things inspire every one of you with a Spirit suitable both to our present Needs and to that great trust that is here committed to you A Spirit of Wisdom and Vnderstanding a Spirit of Prudence and Discretion a Spirit of Charity and Moderation but above all with a Spirit of Piety and Vnity that being endu'd with all these excellent Qualities ye may become the Repairers of our Breaches the Restorers of our almost lost and trampled Liberties the Defenders of our Faith the Support of your Country the Avengers of your barbarously abus'd Allies the Scourge and Terror of the Vniversal Enemy of Truth Peace Religion Nature In short of all the common Laws and Rights both of God and of all Mankind May your Councils be govern'd with such a Calmness and Temper as may settle and compose all the unquiet and dissatisfied Spirits if there be any yet remaining among us and suffer none to regret our wonderful Preservation but those only whose fury had once prompted them to attempt and whose Principles still carry them on to desire even when they are not able to accomplish our Destruction May your Resolutions be as speedy as the publick Necessities are pressing and their Execution be accompanied with a Fidelity and Success that may equal not only our Expectation but even our very Hopes and our Desires And for the obtaining of all these Blessings and whatever else may serve to make these Kingdoms Happy May we all this day fast the fast which the Lord has chosen to loose the bands of wickedness to undo the heavy burdens and to let the Oppressed go free Let us confess our wickedness and be sorry for our sins Let us turn to the LORD our God with all our heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning Let us deal our Bread to the Hungry and bring the Poor to our Houses So shall we call and the Lord shall answer we shall cry and he shall say Here I am Our light shall break forth as
on that one most just and reasonable Method never to leave our own Faith till we can be clearly and evidently convinced that we have a better offer'd to us in the stead of it and then we shall either free our selves altogether from the Attacks of our Adversaries who seldom care to meddle with honest and understanding Men or I am sure we shall not run any great Hazzard by their Attempts But above all Thirdly Whilst we thus contend for the Faith that was once delivered to the Saints let us be Followers of their Lives as well as of their Doctrine This is that which must save us when all our Disputes will otherwise stand us in no stead To believe aright will do us but small service if we do not live so too And I am persuaded would we but be prevailed with to do this as we ought it would not only most effectually secure us in the Truth but be the most likely means in the World to draw over others to it And indeed what pity is it that a Chureh which has in all other respects so many admirable Advantages above its Adversaries that it is defective in no other mark of being truly Primitive and even in this is less defective than others should not be blessed with this too Consider I beseech you that we rely upon none of those broken Reeds which others lay so much stress upon to make you happy in another Life though you are not upright and holy in this If there be then any concern for your own or your Church's honour if any value for your Immortal Souls if you desire the Blessing of God now and the benefit of his Promises in the World to come if these Motives which one would think should be of all others the most considerable may be allowed to have any influence at all upon you think then upon these things and fulfil ye our Joy in the practice of that Piety whereunto ye are called Be as Good as ye are Orthodox as free from all Corruption in your Manners as God be thanked you are from Error in your Belief Accomplish that great Work which Heaven seems at last to have begun among us And as we are now apparently more concern'd for our Religion than we have perhaps any of us heretofore been so let us go on in well-doing more and more Let us grow in Grace and then we shall also grow in the Knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ till finally we all come in the Vnity of the Faith and of the Knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect Man to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. OF THE Nature and End OF THE HOLY SACRAMENT OF THE Lord's Supper A SERMON Preach'd at St. PAVL's COVENT-GARDEN Decemb. 30. 1688. 1 COR. xi 24 This do in Remembrance of Me. THese Words are part of that Solemn Form in which our Blessed Saviour first celebrated the Holy Sacrament of his Body and Blood anâ— establish'd it as a sacred Institution to be continued for ever in his Church in remembrance of that Death and Passion which he was just then about to undergo for it Whether our Apostle recounted the History of this great Institution according to what some of those who were present at the first Celebration of it had delivered it unto him or whether as seems most probable he had received the manner of it by some extraordinary Revelation from our Saviour Christ himself This is plain that what he here reports to them of this matter was no idle Story no vain Account of his own Invention but a true and exact Relation of what the Blessed Jesus then did when in the same night in which he was betray'd he took Bread and when he had given thanks brake it and gave it to his Disciples saying Take Eat this is my Body which is broken for you This do in Remembrance of Me. So that our Text then you see contains a positive Command of our Saviour Christ himself of something which he ordered his Apostles to do with reference to this Holy Sacrament And my business at this time shall be to consider what that was and how far we at this day are to look upon our selves to be concerned in it I shall reduce what I have to offer upon this occasion to these two general Considerations I. Of the false Construction and Application which those of the Church of Rome make of these words Which having done so far as may be necessary to the following Discourse I will then II. Shew what indeed it was that our Blessed Saviour here commanded his Apostles and in them All of us to Do in Remembrance of Him And by that time I have clearly examin'd these Two Points I presume I shall in some measure have laid open the whole Nature and Design of this Holy Sacrament and in that have answer'd the End of these Solemn and Extraordinary Assemblies And first I am to consider I. That false Construction and Application which those of the Church of Rome make of these words It is the Opinion of those of the other Communion That our Saviour Christ here spoke to his Apostles not as the Representatives of the whole Body of the Church but as those whom he was now about to consecrate to the peculiar Office of the Ministry in it And therefore that commanding these To Do This He did at once both command them to continue this Holy Sacrament for ever in his Church and also at the same time invest them with a Power to Consecrate and Take and Distribute it to others as he had done to them To which if we did add their other Notion of this Sacrament viz. that in the Celebration of it there is a true and proper Offering made for the Sins and Satisfactions both of the Dead and the Living we shall then find the full import of our Text according to their sense to be this DO THIS that is Receive the power which I hereby give you of consecrating i. e. of converting these Elements of Bread and Wine into the true and proper Substance of my Body and Blood and having so done Offer them up to my Father as a true and real propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins and Satisfactions for the Punishments and all other the Necessities of all my faithful Disciples whether they be alive or dead whether they be yet on Earth or gone to Purgatory Such is the Account which those of the Church of Rome give us of these words And in this they are so very confident that they not only Anathematize all those who shall say either that Christ in this Command did not institute his Apostles Priests or that he did not Command that they and other Priests should in like manner offer up his Body and Blood but have also made it the very Form of Ordaining Priests at this day in their Church having delivered the Patin and Chalice into
their hands to bid them Receive Power to offer Sacrifice to God and to celebrate Mass for the Living and for the Dead I shall need say very little to shew the falseness of this Interpretation which many of their own Doctors notwithstanding all their Definitions concerning it yet are not themselves very well satisfied withal They freely allow that this Command of our Saviour when he bids them Do this cannot be so restrain'd to his own Act of Consecrating the Holy Eucharist as not to have an equal respect to the Peoples Act of Receiving it And by consequence that all that can hence be gathered is that our Saviour has hereby obliged his Church to the continuance of this great Memorial of his Death both by the Consecrating and Distributing of the Priests and by the Receiving and Eating and Drinking of the People and which is no other Account than we our selves give of the Words before us 'T is from hence that Aquinas concludes that all Christians are obliged as far as they have opportunity to communicate in this Holy Sacrament not only in Obedience to the Commands of the Church but as a thing which our Saviour Christ himself required when he said in our Text This do in Remembrance of Me. But Estius is more express He tells us that by Do this our Saviour plainly intended the whole Action both of his Consecrating and Distributing and of their Receiving these sacred Elements As if he had said What you have seen now done by me and you that do you and your Successors henceforth in Remembrance of Me. And that this is clearly the meaning he shews from the Context of St. Paul in the following Verses where repeating the very same Command after the Distribution of the Cup that he had mentioned in my Text upon the delivery of the Bread he expresses himself in this plain manner This do ye says he as oft not as ye shall Consecrate or Offer but as ye shall drink it in Remembrance of Me. And then immediately subjoins a Reason which clearly refers to the Peoples Eating and Drinking and not to the Priest's offering any pretended Sacrifice in this Celebration For as often as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup ye do shew the Lord's Death till he come that is ye do by this Action of yours fulfil the Command before us ye set forth the Memory of Christ's Death and Passion and do this in Remembrance of Him And even Bellarmin himself tho' he supposes these words to have been spoke in a peculiar manner to the Apostles as those who were hereby to be consecrated to the Priestly Office yet cannot but own that they must refer as well to the Action of their Eating as to those of our Saviour's Blessing and Distributing the Holy Elements Nay he says yet more that it is most agreeable both to the Context of St. Paul and to his Design of repeating the History of this Institution to apply them rather to the Disciples action of Eating and Drinking than to our Saviour's of Consecrating and Offering the Error of the Corinthians which he design'd to correct consisting not in their Consecrating but in their Receiving of the Holy Eucharist in that they did not do it with that due reverence which they ought to do Tho' how to reconcile this not only with the Opinion of his Church before mention'd but even with his own Interpretation of Aquinas's Argument from this place to prove the necessity of all Mens Receiving this Holy Sacrament where it may conveniently be had viz. that St. Thomas did did not intend to collect this immediately from this Command as if it had been given to All but only by consequence as our Lord must be understood to have commanded the People to Receive what he commanded the Priests to Consecrate and Distribute I cannot easily understand The truth is both the Opinion of our Saviour's making his Apostles Priests by these words and the Paraphrase which they now give of them in order thereunto are a meer Invention of these later Ages sought out to support that other great Corruption of this Holy Institution the Communicating of the Laity only in One Kind When being pressed both with the Example of our Blessed Lord in his Institution of this Holy Sacrament who gave the Cup as well as Bread to his Disciples and with his positive Command to do that to Others which Himself had done to Them The nice Masters of the Schools Men who never wanted a subtilty to elude what they could not otherwise fairly answer first found out this admirable Secret unknown to the Church for above a Thousand Years before viz. That our Saviour here Consecrating the Holy Eucharist and giving a Command to his Apostles to Do likewise did invest them thereby in their Priestly Office and so intitule them to a Right of Receiving the Cup from him which neither they therefore had any Right to before nor have the People by consequence any more Right to at this very day But however such an Evasion as this might well enough become the School-Errantry and serve to amuze a barbarous Age wherein it was first invented yet was it certainly too great a presumption in the Council of Trent in such inquisitive Times as these to impose it upon Mens Consciences as an Article of Faith and to think by the vain Terror of an ungrounded Anathema to secure it against all Opposition For not to insist First On the many gross Absurdities and even blasphemous Consequences of the very Doctrine of the Mass it self That there should be a true and proper Sacrifice and yet nothing truly and properly sacrificed A Propitiatory Offering and yet no Propitiation made by it That Christ was but once offered for our Sins and yet that he should be offered again ten thousand times every day That by that One offering of Himself he should have perfected for Ever them that are sanctified and yet that those that are sanctified should not be perfected without many of these New-Mass-Offerings made for them To say nothing Secondly Of the inconsistency there is in the very Supposition That our Saviour Christ should ordain Priests of the New-Covenant in his Church before he had yet so much as sealed that Covenant by his Death or establish'd his Church To pass by Thirdly That we have another plain and evident Account both when and after what manner and with what words our Blessed Saviour did ordain his Apostles to the Ministry of his Church namely in the Twentieth Chapter of St. John where we are told how after his Resurrection he thus gave them their Mission ver 21 22 23. Peace be unto you as my Father hath sent me even so send I you And then he breathed upon them and said Receive ye the Holy Ghost whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained And which are at this day own'd by the
the Pardon and Salvation of Mankind than by the Death of his Son For since it was the Pleasure of God to pitch upon this way of doing it to what purpose is it for us vainly to enquire whether he might not have made use of some other This we ought at least to believe That God had his Reasons for preferring this and that however we ought not so far to tye up the Power and Liberty of our Creator as to presume to say he could not otherwise have redeem'd us than by the Death of Christ yet thus much we may and 't is our duty to conclude That none could have better or so well have answer'd the great Ends both of his Justice and of his Mercy or more illustriously have set forth the Riches of his Love and Favour to Mankind or more powerfully have engaged us to a suitable return of Love to him or more clearly have convinced us of the hatred of God to Sin or more effectually have stir'd us up to our utmost endeavours to live as we ought to do and as becomes those who had been so wonderfully redeem'd by the precious Blood of the Son of God himself But though this then be a Question otherwise of more Curiosity than Vse and raised for the most part rather to cavil at Religion than to magnifie the Power of it yet may it here perhaps be of some benefit to us to fill our Souls with the highest resentments of Love and Gratitude to our Great Redeemer to consider not only from what Miseries he has delivered us but with what a freedom and readiness and good-will to us he did it No God was not constrain'd nor any necessity put upon our Saviour Christ as if either the one must have died or that the other could not by any other means have reconciled Mankind unto himself It was the free Choice of both by this means the better to magnifie their Love to us and to secure our Love and Duty to them again that so as St. John says 1 Ep. iv 19 We may love God because he first loved us Hence it is that the Holy Scriptures every where set out to us the whole business of our Salvation as the effect of the free Choice and Pleasure of God So says St. John cap. iii. 16 God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life So says St. Paul 2 Tim. i. 9 where he makes the business of our Redemption to have been the eternal purpose of God before Adam had yet sinned or by consequence before there could be any necessity of Christ's dying for us who hath saved us says he and called us with an Holy Calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and Grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the World began And of our Blessed Saviour the same Apostle tells us not only that He gave Himself for us Tit. ii 14 but that he did it with all imaginable readiness and with the same good-will with which God designed it Lo I come says he to fulfil thy Will O God Heb. x. 7 9. And again in St. John speaking of laying down his life for us he declares ver 18. No man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again Such therefore was the love of our Blessed Saviour to us in freely giving up himself to the Death for us And for the reason that induced him to it and the benefits which thereby accrue to us I shall not need to say either what or how great they were Indeed the time would fail me should I go about particularly to lay them all before you Miserable was the State and deplorable the Condition of Mankind beyond any thing that we are able almost to conceive We were all dead in Trespasses and Sins and must for ever have lain both under the Guilt and Punishment of our Transgressions had not the Blessed Jesus opened to us the Gates of Heaven and sealed a Gospel of Repentance with his own Blood for the Remission of our Sins Our Nature was decayed and that he has restored so that whereas before we had no sufficiency of our selves we have now a sufficiency of God and can do all things through Christ that strengthens us Our Sins had got the dominion over us and these he has not only very much prevented by his Grace but will also utterly wipe away by his Death and Satisfaction for us We were under a miserable Sentence of Death and Judgment But Christ has now took away the sting of the one and the danger of the other so that our Temporal Death is no longer a Punishment but rather a Blessing to us and the Eternal Judgment of God shall instead of being our Condemnation prove to us perfect Absolution and a glorious Reward This is the blessed Change which has been made in our Condition and which certainly ought to render the remembrance of our Text most dear and precious to us But I must not insist any longer upon this Point I am persuaded there is no one that now hears me so ignorant in the great Mystery of Godliness as not to be fully acquainted with this first and chiefest Foundation of all our Faith Nor have I mentioned that little which I have now remark'd of it so much to instruct you in what you ought to make a great part of your Memorial when you come to this Holy Sacrament as rather if it shall please God to stir up some Affections both in my self and you that may be suitable to a serious Reflection on all these things There being nothing it may be in the World more apt to fill our Souls with that due resentment we then especially ought to have of the Death of Christ when we come to this Sacred Memorial of it than to consider the wretched condition from which we were delivered by it nor more apt to engage us to live as becomes those who have been freed from such unspeakable Miseries and are now put into a capacity of Everlasting Glory and without which our remembrance of him in this Sacrament will be a Reproach and a Scandal not an Honour and a Service to him we shall forfeit all the benefits of that Death we are call'd to commemorate and as our Apostle phrases it ver 29. of this Chapter Eat and drink our own Damnation not discerning the Lord's Body This is the first thing we are to do in pursuance of the Command of the Text This do in Remembrance of Me. Secondly This remembring of Christ in this Holy Sacrament will oblige us to consider what that Death and Passion was which he underwent for our sakes and commanded us in this place to continue the Memory of in this Institution And this to be sure must be the proper business of every one when
he comes to this Holy Table But now what or how great those Sufferings were which the Blessed Jesus underwent for us it is not for me to pretend to declare unto you Great and terrible are the Accounts which the Scriptures every where give us of them How doth Isaiah set forth to us in his Prophecy the Type and Shadow of them He tells us That he should be a Man of sorrow and acquainted with grief without form or comeliness or beauty that we should desire him He represents him as labouring under all the Miseries and Afflictions that were due to the Sins of a wicked and incorrigible world Surely says he he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows We esteemed him stricken smitten of God and afflicted But he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed All we like Sheep have gone astray and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all Thus did Isaiah speak of the Sufferings of Christ when he foresaw his Death and prophesied of his Passion And if we look into the Accounts which the Holy Evangelists give us of the Accomplishment of it we shall find those exceeding whatever we are able to comprehend of it 1. If we consider the Circumstances of his Suffering it was accompanied with all the bitter Aggravations of Misery that can well be imagined For indeed what else can we say of the Mockeries and the Insults of the Scorns and Reproaches that appeared in all the parts of his Passion Of the Baseness and Treachery of his Disciples and of the barbarous Malice and Cruelty of his Enemies How was he betray'd by one of his own Apostles deny'd by another forsaken by all condemn'd at one of those Feasts that brought together all the Nation of the Jews to Jerusalem And that for two of the most grievous Crimes that could be laid to the Charge of an innocent Soul Blasphemy against God and Sedition among the People Set at nought by the Soldiers Execrated and Abjured by his own Countrymen Adorn'd as a mock King that he might be the more derided by them and then finally to compleat the Tragedy Executed by a Death not only the most scandalous but the most painful of any in the World 2. Which therefore brings us to a Second Consideration of his Passion namely of the Pains and Torments of it And here I shall not enter upon any long Account of the Cruelty of that Death which has been thought sufficient by those whose kind of Punishment it was to give a general Name to the greatest Torments by derivation from this one as the highest and chiefest of all The Wounds of the Hands and Feet which the Nails made when he was fastned to the Cross the Agonies and Convulsions of his whole Body when he hung upon it the slowness of dying not to say any thing of those Furrows which in the Psalmist's Speech they had before made with their Scourges upon his Back All these sufficiently declare to us an extraordinary Suffering and may warrant us to cry out with the Prophet in the Reflection on it Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto this sorrow wherewith the Lord afflicted his own Son in that day of his fierce anger 3. And yet still all this was but the least part of his Passion and the anguish of his Soul those unknown Sufferings he underwent within far exceed whatever Torments his Enemies were able to put him to They were these that made him sweat great drops of blood in the Garden before ever the Officers had seiz'd him or begun to inflict the least Punishment upon him They were these that made him not only declare to his Disciples That his Soul was exceeding sorrowful even unto death but carried him farther in the bitterness of his Grief to pray three several times to his Father with the greatest importunity That if it were possible this Cup might pass from him And when at last it could not be but that he must drink off the very dregs of it forced that vehement Expostulation from him My God My God why hast thou forsaken me It has been the rashness of some from all these Expressions of his Grief but especially from the last to conclude That our Saviour in his Passion underwent all the Punishment that all the Elect of God should have suffered for all their Sins and in short That he bore in his mind the very pains and torments of the Damn'd But it is not necessary nor indeed agreeable to a right Belief to run to any such Extremity His Sufferings were indeed great but they were not such as either excluded him from the love and favour of God in the midst of them nor accompanied with any despair which is always one and that not the least part of the Sinner's torment in another World He died and went down into the Grave but his Soul was not left in the regions of the dead nor did his flesh see corruption His Punishment was short in the duration and the intenseness of it though very grievous yet no more than was agreeable to the Nature of a Man to bear And we must not so speak of the Sufferings of Christ as to forget that though he was God when he underwent them yet that he died and suffered as he was Man Thus therefore must we call to mind the Passion of our Blessed Lord We must go through all the stages of it with care and exactness and neither diminish the Horrour of what he endured by an imperfect Memorial of it nor do violence at once both to the Nature and Innocence of Christ by straining it up to a greater heighth than either the Authority of Holy Scripture or the Honour of our Saviour or his Humane Nature in which he suffered will permit us to do This is the Second thing we are to remember when we come to the Holy Table The Third and last thing here required of us is Having called to mind the Sufferings of Christ and the Evils from whence we are delivered by them to consider finally what the Benefits are that accrue to us thereby It is not to be doubted but that there must be somewhat very extraordinary for which the Son of God should Himself come down from Heaven and not only humble himself so far as to take upon him the form of a Servant but being made in the similitude of a Man expose himself to all those vile and cruel Sufferings I but just now recounted And indeed the Benefits which he purchased for us by his Death were not at all inferior to the Punishment he underwent for the obtaining of them And to speak them all in one general Conclusion he purchased the Redemption of a lost miserable sinful World we were all before dead
in Trespasses and Sins we are now raised to the Hopes and Assurance of Everlasting Glory But here therefore I will be a little more particular And First By these Sufferings our Saviour Christ delivered us from the Curse which descended to us by our first Parents Transgression and from that Eternal Punishment which must otherwise have been the consequence of it For not to enter now into any scrupulous Enquiry concerning the Nature of Original Sin or the Grounds upon which God is supposed to impute it to us Or how far we should have been either condemn'd or not for the Actual Sin of Adam in Eating of the forbidden Fruit This at least cannot be doubted of by any That our Nature is now much degenerated from that primitive Purity in which Man was at first created that we have all the very best of us a strange Propensity to Evil and are born with an Impotency if not Adverseness to that Virtue and Piety which the Principles of natural Religion as well as of revealed require of us So that if we should allow the contentious Disputers of our Days that God will not impute Adam's Transgression to us for Sin nor condemn us for a Defect which we are not our selves consenting to but bring into the World with us yet would this have stood us but in very little stead Whilst we should every one of us have been Guilty of so many Actual Sins as had not Christ purchased a Redemption for us must for ever have sunk us down into Ruine and Destruction And certainly we ought then to esteem it no small Benefit of our Saviour's Passion that he has now delivered us from this Danger and removed the fatal Necessity we must otherwise have lain under of being for ever miserable without all possibility of preventing of it But this is only one Part and that the first and least of those Blessings which his Death and Passion has obtained for us For Secondly Our Saviour Christ has not only delivered us from those Dangers to which we were before exposed but he has put us in a new and better way of attaining to that nay perhaps to a greater Happiness than what we should have had if Adam had never sinned nor by consequence our Saviour Christ ever given himself an Offering for our Sins This is indeed the great Commendation of our Saviour's Love to us that not content to deliver us from those Dangers that before threatned us He saves to the uttermost those that come to him And here to unfold the Greatness of this Benefit as I ought to do I must run through all the excellent Advantages of that New-Covenant God entred into with us by the Blood of his Son But this would carry me into an Argument great indeed and worthy your Attention but beyond the Bounds of my present Discourse In general * If to have a Systeme of the noblest and most admirable Rules of Living that were ever communicated to the World such as by their own Excellence no less than by God's Command recommend themselves not only to our Practice but to our Love too * If to be endued with a supernatural Divine Assistance to enable us to fulfil them and overcome all those Temptations that may at any time seek to draw us from them * If to be assured That upon our hearty Endeavours and earnest Prayers to God this Grace of his shall still increase in us according as we sincerely apply our selves to make use of it or as other Circumstances shall happen to put us in need of it * If besides this Help to keep us from sinning to live under a Gracious Promise of Pardon for those Sins which many times we shall commit notwithstanding all our Labour to the contrary upon our humble Confession and hearty Repentance of them * If to know that for all these Ends we have a Redeemer in Heaven who stands continually in the Presence of God to make Intercession for us and represent to his Father that Death and Passion which he underwent on purpose that he might obtain this Forgiveness for us In a Word * If to be undoubtedly secured That whatever becomes of us now yet let us but sincerely labour what in us lies to fulfil our Duty and we shall be in a little Time eternally happy in the Consummation of all these Blessings in the Kingdom of our Saviour That yet a few Years and our High-Priest shall again return in Glory and pronounce the great and final Blessing upon us which shall instate us in Joys never to be forfeited If I say to live under the Conduct of such a Saviour and such a Religion to have the Comfort of so great Promises now and the blessed Assurance of such Glory hereafter may be esteemed a Blessing as indeed what can we think of it but to be the greatest Blessing that a merciful God could bestow upon his Creatures or a Divine Saviour purchase for his Servants All this and many other Benefits which I cannot now so much as mention to you Christ purchased for us by his Sufferings and calls upon us in this Holy Sacrament to remember with the highest Joy and the most grateful Acknowledgments Which brings me to the other thing proposed for the full Explication of the Duty here required of us viz. Secondly * After what Manner and * With what Affections it is that we are to Do this in Remembrance of Him For the former of these I. The manner How we are here to remember Him I have already observed That the original Word which we here render Remembrance is very emphatical and implies not any calling to Mind all these things but a frequent renewed Commemoration of them And that especially such by which we may not only remember our selves but also set forth to others the Memorial of them So S. Paul interprets it v. 26 As often as ye eat this bread and drink this Cup 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 annunciate shew forth make a solemn Declaration of the Lord's Death until his coming And so indeed the very Design of this Institution will oblige us to understand it When our Saviour first celebrated this Holy Sacrament and commanded his Disciples by the like Sacred Ceremony to continue the Memory of his Death until the End of the World We are told by the Evangelists That he had just finished the Feast of the Passover into the Place whereof he substituted this Christian Feast and as all the Circumstances of it plainly shew designed this to have the same Place in the Christian that the other had till then had in the Jewish Church Now concerning that solemn Feast we read in the Book of Exodus cap. xii 17 That God appointed it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a Memorial that is for a solemn Recognition which the People was thereby to make every Year of that great Deliverance by which they were brought up out of the Land of Egypt And in the thirteenth Chapter they are
commanded to Remember the Day in which they came out of Egypt and to keep the feast of unleavened bread seven daies And then and there solemnly to declare to their Children the Cause of it namely That they did this because of that which the Lord their God had done for them when they came forth out of Egypt To which end it was the Custome of the Jews at this Solemnity to have their Children propose to them the Question What the meaning of this Solemnity was And thereupon the Master of the House gave a full Account to them of the History of their Deliverance and which from thence they called the Haggadah the Annunciation or Remembrance Because of their using it at this Time to commemorate or shew forth that wonderful Deliverance which God had wrought for them Such was the Nature of that Remembrance which God commanded the Jews to continue in their Paschal Supper of His bringing them out of Egypt And the same is the Remembrance which our Saviour here commands us by this new Feast to continue in his Church of his dying for us We are to celebrate it as a solemn and Publick Memorial of that great Deliverance which our Blessed Lord has wrought for us and to declare to all the World thereby what a Sense we have of his infinite Love and Mercy to us Nay but this is not yet all we are to do if we will answer the full extent of the Duty here required of us We must not only make in this Holy Sacrament our Publick and solemn Recognition of Christ's Death and Passion but we must do it with that Affection that Joy those Resentments that become so great and excellent a Memorial So these kind of Expressions in Holy Scripture are for the most part to be understood and so it is plain we must take the Word in this Place And this is the other thing remaining to be considered for the full understanding of the Text. viz. II. With what Affections we ought to come to this Holy Table and Do this in Remembrance of Him It were too much for me here in the close of my Discourse to resume the whole Consideration of this great Sacrament and enter again upon a particular View of it and shew what kind of Affections we ought to raise in our Souls proportionable to the several Parts and Respects of it If we are indeed so sensible as we ought to be of our Saviour's Love to us in thus giving himself to the Death for us If we have so seriously weighed as becomes those who are called to this Feast the mighty Benefits and Advantages which are derived to us thereby what Miseries we have escaped to what Blessings we are entituled by his Sufferings the Sense of all this will soon teach us what Motions and Affections ought to fill our Souls that may be suitable to so great and blessed a Memorial For indeed who can be so ignorant as not to know without my Remark when he comes to the Holy Table and there beholds the Minister of God setting forth as S. Paul speaks evidently before his eyes Christ crucified for Him when both his Words and his Actions call upon Him to consider How the Son of God humbled himself even to the death for our Redemption and submitted his Body to be broken his Blood to be spilt as He there sees the Bread broken the Wine poured out in this Celebration that here certainly he ought with the greatest Ecstasie of Love to contemplate this Love of his Saviour to Him and break forth into the highest Expressions of a grateful Thanksgiving for this mighty Demonstration of his Favour and Affection to Him When from this He begins to reflect on that wretched Condition in which we all of us must have been had not the blessed Jesus thus graciously undertook the great Work of our Redemption and by dying for us delivered us from that Death to which we were condemned and raised us up to the Hopes of Eternal Glory Where is the Soul so dull so un-affected with the Contemplation of such a glorious Change as to be able to keep in his joyful Resentments of so wonderful a Deliverance and not rather burst forth into new Songs of Praise and Gladness for all the Benefits which God and his Redeemer have been so wonderfully pleased to do unto Him But above all who can think on that Value which the Blessed Jesus has put upon our Souls that he thought the Salvation of them to be a Price worthy his own Death and Sufferings to redeem them and then consider That even these very Souls for which Christ died will yet be exposed to the hazard of a greater and worser Damnation than that from which they have been delivered if we shall still go on impenitent in our Sins And not presently resolve here to sacrifice all his Passions at this Altar to lay down all his Lusts at the Pedestal of the Cross and vow Himself entirely to the Obedience of that Saviour who as S. Paul tells us for this very End gave himself for us that He might redeem us from all Iniquity and purchase to himself a peculiar people zealous of good Works Such Resentments as these will naturally arise in every pious Soul when he comes to this Sacred Feast and therefore I shall not need to give any particular Directions concerning them Only I would take occasion from this last Import of the Remembrance to which our Text calls us To exhort you when you come to this Holy Institution that you would take Care to raise up all these Affections and Resentments to as great a Heighth as you are able and having done this that you would then cherish and improve them that being not only warm and vigorous upon your Souls at the present but also rooted and engrafted into them they may not easily cool again but become operative upon your Lives may encrease your Love and confirm your Faith and enflame your Devotion and keep you firm and steady to your Duty till some new Occasion shall again call you to a new exciting of them This will be indeed to render your Remembrance such as your Saviour here requires of you And the frequent Returns which by the Blessing of God you here enjoy of this Memorial beyond most Christians in the World shall not only put you in a Capacity of coming still with better and more affectionate Resentments to this Holy Sacrament but shall by the Blessing of God prove a most useful and excellent Assistance to the promoting of all the other Parts of your Duty you shall live as becomes those who know what mighty Engagements their Saviour has laid upon them to what Hopes they are called and by what means their Redemption was purchased for them And as this Exercise will be the best means to prepare you to come worthily to this Remembrance so will it be also the most powerful Motive to engage you to
reveal them unto her yet since he has no where promised that he will do this nor encouraged us to call upon her to this End we think we cannot in this manner pray to her without either great Folly or great Impiety Without great Folly if not believing that she do's certainly some way or other understand our Requests we yet neverless address to her Without great Impiety if in confidence that she has such an Ability we ascribe the most peculiar Prerogatives of God to her viz. Immensity Omniscience Omnipresence and so make her every way equal with God But were she now upon Earth where we could either speak to her our selves or otherwise entertain any certain Correspondence with her we should be far from discouraging any to beg the Benefit of her Prayers or thinking them worthy of Censure for so doing When we stand at our Altars and celebrate the blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ and set forth the Lord's death until his coming We cannot indeed allow our selves to do this to the Honour and Veneration of any other than of him only whose Death and Passion we commemorate But even here also we do the utmost that we can to Honour her We name her at the Holy Table we recite there the History of God's Favour to her and magnifie him with her upon the account of it In a Word when we confess our Sins and absolve our Penitents if we commend either our selves or others to God's Mercy In these and the like Cases we think it an Impiety to joyn the Daughter of Anna with the great God the Lord of Heaven and Earth If we give Thanks for any Blessings we have receved we chuse rather to follow her Example and cry out with her My Soul doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour than with others to divide the Glory between God and her and say Glory be to JESVS and MARY If we vow a Vow unto the Lord or swear by his Name we neither think it fitting nor lawful to joyn God and the Blessed Virgin together lest we should thereby seem to make her the Searcher of Hearts as well as him and a powerful Avenger of such secret Sins If we speak of Her we readily give her any Attribute that either the holy Scripture warrants or her Nature allows of But to call her a Goddess and our selves her Suppliants to style her Queen of Heaven and Mother of Divine Grace the Refuge of Sinners and the Ark of the Covenant the Sovereign Lady of Angels Archangels Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors and all Saints and as such beseech her That she and her Son would bless us this we think is to carry the Complement too far and a Strain much fitter for some poetical Heathen Goddess than for a Christian Saint But let these and the like Superstitions be laid aside and which a Virgin so humble on Earth cannot sure be supposed to be so much altered for the worse as to aspire after in Heaven let Religion and the Worship of that be exempted as the peculiar Due of that God who made both her and us and whom alone both she and all of us therefore ought to adore and then what farther remains to proclaim her Blessed shall as freely be allowed and paid her by us as it can be justly claimed of us Now the sum of all such Honour may be referred by us to these two general Considerations 1. Of that just Esteem and Value and Opinion we have of her And 2. Of Actions suitable to such Opinions As for the former of these 1. That Esteem and Value and Opinion we have of her It is certainly as great as any sober Christian can desire it should be We believe her to have been a most pure and holy and vertuous Creature That her virgin Mind was clean and spotless as her Body Chast and immaculate and that she was upon the Account of both the most fit of any of all her Race or Sex for the Holy Ghost to overshadow and for the Son of the most Highest to inhabit When we consider the firmness of her Faith the fervour of her Devotion the excellency of her Humility we cannot but acknowledge a Grace extraordinary in her working all those eminent and Divine Qualities And tho' we are not so curious as to enter on those nicer Speculations in which so many have in vain exercised themselves Whether she was Conceived in Sin And if she was How far it was restrained in her at first and at what instant totally extinct in her afterwards Whether she was Sanctified in the Womb of her Mother And to what degree And at what time Whether before she was Animated or after And Whether this Sanctification was such as to keep her from ever committing any so much as Venial Sin Yet as the common condition of Mankind does not permit us without all warrant from Holy Scripture which they confess is here wanting to them to exempt her from all Sin so neither do we pretend to accuse her of any And for her present state we do not at all question but that God who shewed her such favour on Earth hath also very highly exalted her in Heaven So that among all the Race of Adam next unto him who was God as well as Man we think it very probable that she has obtain'd the chiefest place in God's Kingdom who brought forth the Son of God into the World And here then let these our Accusers who say that we are not of the number of those of whom the Blessed Virgin in my Text prophesied That Behold from thenceforth all Generations should call her Blessed tell us if they can Wherein is it that we are defective in our Opinion concerning the Mother of our Lord Is it that we deny her Immaculate Conception and suppose her to have in this been submitted to the common condition of all others since the Fall of our first Parents Christ only excepted But then they must not forget that this is no more than what their own Brethren of their own Infallible Church deny as stifly as we do And if there have been Saints and Popes and Visions and Miracles for it yet we know there have been also Saints and Popes and Visions and Miracles against it too And at this day there is Order against Order School against School about it And as if the Spirit of Infallibility had in this Matter forsaken their Church it could never yet be finally determined either by Council or Pope which Side is in the right Is it that we suspend our selves as to the Point of her Actual Sins And see no cause to conclude why the Blessed Virgin though a most pure and holy Creature yet should not have been as capable of committing Sins as well as all others Christ only excepted here also we think must be allowed to be But yet in this we do but follow some of the greatest
their Solemn Service which cannot be uttered without Impiety nor be excused but by this shameful Pretence that in their Publick Devotions when one would think if ever they should take the Advice of Solomon not to be rash with their mouths nor hasty to utter any thing before God even there they speak one thing and mean another they speak little less than Blasphemy but still with a very pious and innocent meaning and such as no body would suspect to be intended by their words Secondly As for the other thing here to be considered the Attributes which they ascribe to the Blessed Virgin these are yet more dangerous than the worst of all their Compellations of her Such are 1. Their ascribing to her a Power not only of hearing their Prayers but of dispensing also Blessings unto them Let MARY and her SON bless us Hail Holy Queen Mother of Mercy our Life our Sweetness and our Hope To thee do we cry poor banish'd Sons of Eve To thee do we send up our Sighs mourning and weeping in this Valley of Tears Turn then most Gracious Advocate thy merciful Eyes towards us and after this our Exile ended shew us the Blessed Fruit of thy Womb. 2. Of delivering them from danger So in her Office We fly to your Protection O Holy Mother of God despise not our Prayers which we make to you in our Necessities but deliver us from all dangers O ever Glorious and Blessed VIRGIN 3. Of enabling them to praise Her and to overcome Her Enemies Vouchsafe that we may be worthy to praise thee O Holy VIRGIN and grant us strength and power against thine Enemies 4. Of succouring them in their greatest Necessities MARY Mother of Grace Mother of Mercy do thou protect us from our Enemy and receive us in the hour of Death 5. And lastly not to mention any more A capacity to receive Praise and Glory together with God and our Blessed Saviour in our most sacred returns of Thanksgiving to them So a late Author in our own Language Open my lips O Mother of Jesus And my Soul shall speak forth thy praise Divine Lady be intent to my aid Graciously make hast to help me Glory be to JESVS and MARY As it was is and ever shall be Now in all these Instances and many others that I might have mentioned either they really intend what their words signifie and then what can all this be but a most desperate Superstition to give all those Attributes the Power the Glory to a meer Creature that is due only to God Or if they do not what is it then but to mock both God and the Blessed VIRGIN to complement her with such Titles and ask of her such things and offer her such Praises by which at the same time they neither seriously intend to signifie any thing but on the contrary believe they should be guilty of a great Impiety should they really mean what their words do certainly denote And if this be the case as to the Foundation of all that Service which these Votaries of the Blessed VIRGIN give her beyond us it must then necessarily follow that their practice built upon it can have no very good Establishment And I shall need say very little to Apologize for our Church in that other instance wherein we are thought to be defective Secondly In our Actions built upon these Opinions Now these may be reduced to Three general Points correspondent to the Three Instances I before laid down and upon which these Actions are founded viz. I. Of our not Praying to her II. Our not flying to her Merits and Intercession III. Our not paying her those other Expressions of Worship which those of the Church of Rome allow so profusely to her For the first of these Our not praying to the Blessed Virgin I have already said That we look upon this to be a proper Act of Religious Worship and such as does necessarily imply a Supposition of such Excellencies in her as cannot be supposed in any Created Being how great and glorious soever it may otherwise be And therefore that it ought to be reserved as solely due to that God who alone is infinite in Power and Knowledge and who alone by being present every where is every where fit to be called upon And this I say with reference to the very thing it self without considering what kind of Prayers they are that are made to her But now Secondly Not only to call upon the Blessed VIRGIN to pray for us but that she would her self aid and assist us and which 't is evident that in many if not all the Prayers of her Office they do this does yet more encrease the danger of such a Service and yet more justifie our refusal of it When therefore it shall be proved to us either that we can with Faith call upon the Blessed VIRGIN and yet not suppose that she is able either to hear our Prayers or to answer our Desires or that we can without Impiety suppose that she can do either When it can be shewed that there is any manner of warrant in Holy Scripture or so much as Encouragement to pray to Her or that 't is possible for any Benefit to accrue to us by so doing which we might not as certainly and readily obtain by going immediately to the Throne of Grace through our Lord Jesus Christ. In a word when it can be made appear to us either that Prayer is not a proper Act of Religious Worship or that all such Acts are not reserved by our Holy Religion as due to God only Then will we be content that our Adversaries should accuse us as Enemies to the Holy MARY for not joining with them in this Service But till then this one Consideration shall be of more moment with us than Ten thousand of their Anathema's That seeing to pray to any one does imply the Person so called upon to have such a Knowledge and Power and Presence as no finite created Being is or can be capable of we ought to give this Service to that God only who alone is infinite in all these Perfections Whom alone the Scripture sets forth to us as a God hearing Prayers and searching the Heart and therefore to whom alone in all such Addresses all Flesh must come For the next thing proposed Secondly Our not flying to the Blessed VIRGIN s Merits and Intercession What I have before offered may suffice for our Excuse We have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous and he is the Propitiation for our Sins This is our Mediator who has promised us That whatsoever we ask the Father in his Name he will give it us Who has invited us to come to him in all our needs who was in all things tempted as we are that he might know how to have Compassion on us in our Temptations and to whom therefore the Apostle exhorts us to address on these Occassions Let us therefore says he come
of life and it is not without some violence that they break through the restraints of Shame and Modesty to pursue it Sometimes it sets before them the obligations which their duty lays upon them to fulfil it How worthy and honourable a thing it is to live Virtuously what a Credit and Respect it gains a man here and what a glorious Reward shall be the consequence of it hereafter Sometimes it calls to mind the terrors of the Lord and forces them whether they will or no to think of that Time when for all these things God will bring them to Judgment and how they shall then be able to endure an Eternity of Torments in that wretched place where the Worm dieth not and where the fire never shall be quenched Now all these and many other hindrances of the like kind which the Sinner meets with in the first beginnings of his Evil Course are not only so many Barriers which it has pleased God to set in our way to keep us from ruine but so many helps too to assist us if we should at any time be enticed to do wickedly to recover our selves again out of it But by a longer Continuance in Sin all these are overcome and we are not only thereby more deeply engaged in the ways of wickedness but having lost all these Assistances our retreat is also rendred infinitely more difficult than whilst we lay under the restraints of Shame and Fear and Conscience to reclaim us But this is not yet all for by continuing in Sin and putting off the time of our Repentance we do not only diminish our own Natural strength and thereby render our selves still less able to encounter with it but what is yet more to be consider'd we deprive our selves of the Assistance of God's Grace too without which it will be impossible for us ever to overcome it It is laid down by Isaiah as the reason why God forsook his ancient People the Jews Chap. lxiii vers 10. That they rebelled and vexed his Holy Spirit therefore was he turn'd to be their Enemy and He fought against them And our Blessed Saviour in his Gospel every-where proceeds upon this measure in the dispensations of his Grace that to Him who has i. e. who makes use of and improves what God has already bestow'd upon him shall be given and he shall have more abundantly But from him that has not i. e. that does not make use of and improve what he has even that which he once had shall be taken away And however it may sometimes please God in an extraordinary manner to raise up Sinners at the last and though they continue long in their Wickedness yet nevertheless still continue his Divine Assistance to them to bring them to Repentance yet cannot this be any Ground for any one to rely upon in this matter seeing it is plain both from the Authority of Holy Scripture and the Common Experience of Mankind that in the ordinary Methods of God's Providence his Grace is withdrawn in proportion to Men's neglect of it till at last they are utterly deprived of it and given up to be led Captive by the Devil at his Will Hence it is that we sometimes read in Holy Scripture of Persons deliver'd up to a Hardness and Impenitence of heart Not that I think God ordains any man to destruction or denies him such a measure of his Grace as may be sufficient to preserve him from it But when Men neglect his Offer and despise and grieve his Holy Spirit and go on in their Sins notwithstanding all the methods of his Providence to bring them to repentance When the measure of their Iniquities is now fill'd up and they are become ripe for Vengeance then God is pleased sometimes to withdraw his Grace from them and seal them up unto destruction And tho he may sometimes permit them for other ends of his Providence to continue still in this World yet he no longer continues the Power and Assistance of his Holy Spirit to them to bring them to repentance This I take to have been the Case of Pharaoh after the Sixth Judgment Till then the Scripture tells us that He hardned his Heard or that His Heart was hardned But when his own Magicians confess'd that the finger of God plainly shew'd it self in the Miracles of Moses and yet he still continued obstinate then God declares that He hardned him Exod. ix 12 and caused him to stand i. e. kept him alive when he had deserved to be punish'd with a quick destruction for this very end that he might shew in him his power Exod. ix 16 Many are the Declarations of the Holy Scripture that confirm this to us If we look into the state of the Old World before the Flood God himself declares Gen. vi 3 That his Spirit should not always strive with Man Yet a hundred and twenty years and if they repented not in that time then He would bring an utter Destruction upon them And in the same manner we find Holy David speaking in the person of God concerning the Rebellious Israelites and which I the rather remark because Saint Paul applies it Hebr. iii. 12 to the very purpose of what I am now speaking That because they hardned their hearts and tempted and grieved God forty years therefore he at last sware to them in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest And the application which the Apostle makes is this plain Conclusion Take heed Brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God But exhort one another daily while it is called to day lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulness of Sin And lastly to mention no more The same is the Declaration which Solomon makes in the Name of God concerning the Destruction of hardned and impenitent Sinners Prov. i. where having first set forth the Grace of God ready to assist them if they would repent verses 22 23. How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity And ye scorners delight in their scorning and fools hate knowledge Turn you at my reproof Behold I will pour out my Spirit upon you I will make known my words unto you He afterwards declares the just indignation of God against them if they should still continue obstinate and impenitent verses 24 25 26. Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded But ye have set at nought all my Counsel and would have none of my Reproof I also will laugh at your Calamity and mock when your fear cometh And again Verses 28 29 30. Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me For they hated knowledge and did not chuse the fear of the Lord They would none of my Counsel they despised all my Reproof Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own
way and be filled with their own devices It were an easie matter to multiply Passages to the same purpose out of every part of the Holy Scripture But I have said enough already to shew the danger of delaying our Repentance from the apprehension of over-passing the time of it and to warrant that great Conclusion which I think is generally received by most Christians viz. That there is to every wicked man a certain Time when the measure of his Iniquities being accomplish'd there shall be no more any space for repentance nor any farther assistance given them by God to bring them to it Now if this be so then would I only desire that these three things might seriously be consider'd by every one of us 1 st Whether he who being invited by the Grace of God and the Motions of his Holy Spirit by the cheeks of Conscience within and the importunate calls of the Ministers of the Gospel without to Repentance nevertheless neglects all these Admonitions and with Felix still puts off the practice of this duty to some more convenient season does not thereby grieve the Holy Spirit of God and despise his Grace and affront his Goodness who thus graciously offers and continues to him the means and opportunities of Salvation 2 dly Whether by so doing he does not provoke God in as high a manner as can well be imagined no longer to continue his Grace to him nor to expose his Mercy to contempt by suffering his Holy Spirit still to strive with such obstinate Offenders And then by consequence 3 dly and lastly Whether every such Person may not have just cause to apprehend that by delaying his Repentance and putting off the business of Religion to a still future opportunity he shall at last provoke God to withdraw his Grace from him And seeing when he had the opportunity given him and was invited to repent he despised the offer and neglected so to do God may not hereafter deliver him up to a hardned and impenitent heart and take away that Grace from him which he has so unworthily abused and thereby deserved to have no longer continu'd to him To conclude If in that famous Parable of the Talents there be any application yet remaining to be made of that part of it in which we find the Talent taken from the unprofitable Servant and a terrible Sentence of Everlasting Misery pronounced against him for his neglect Or in that other of the Fig-tree which was to be pruned and digg'd and then try'd another year and if still it continued to bring forth no Fruit then to be cut down and cast out of the Vineyard The meaning of both can be no other than this That he who despising the Grace of God and the opportunity of Salvation continues still in his Sins and improves not those Abilities God has given him to the great ends for which they were bestowed upon him shall at last by a severe but most just judgment of God be deprived of them and have his neglect punish'd with the loss of God's Grace here and in the consequence of it with an Eternal Damnation hereafter And this then may suffice to shew how dangerous it is for a man to put off the business of Repentance at the present out of an unwarrantable presumption that it will be time enough to perform it hereafter But now if the Question be What a man who has unhappily done this should do I reply 1 st Let him by all means hasten his Repentance all he can and the longer he has deferr'd it already the more careful and resolute let him be not to put it off one moment longer 2 dly Let him be so much the more zealous and diligent in his Religious Performances let his sorrow be the more pungent his Confessions the more humble his Prayers the more fervent but especially his Resolutions and his Endeavours the more hearty and sincere to break off the course of his Sins the longer he has continued in them that so by the extraordinary vigor of his present Endeavours he may make some kind of reparation for the slowness he has been hitherto guilty of in setting about his duty But this is not all It will perhaps be farther enquired Whether upon the Principle I have now laid down of the withdrawing God's Grace from such as refuse and reject the offers of it it will not follow that such persons as these are to be look'd upon as in a desperate Estate and therefore that it is in vain for them now to think of repenting at all But this is a Question which every man will best be able to satisfy himself about That he who puts off his Repentance now upon a presumption that it will be time enough to fulfil it hereafter may justly fear the withdrawing of God's Grace from him I have fully shewn But that God does absolutely withdraw his Grace from every such Person I do not say and whether or no he has withdrawn it from any particular Person he will presently be able to discern by the state in which he finds his Soul as to the business of Religion If his Lusts and his Passions lead him captive at their pleasure If he has no Affections or Desires remaining after Piety in his soul if he cares not for God nor his duty nor can yet persuade himself either to think of another world or to provide for it These indeed are though I will not say certain signs of a desperate condition yet such as may give us just cause to fear whether he be not come into that state from which there is no Redemption and in which God will no longer give him any Assistance to return into the way of Righteousness But if on the contrary he even now begins to come again to himself and wishes and desires if it be possible to be reconciled unto God If being touch'd with a lively sence of his sins and his obstinacy he is at last willing to amend and return unto God with all his heart Then 't is plain that though his Condition may be bad yet it is not desperate God has not yet given him up a Slave to the Devil but still continues to him the benefit of Repentance so that if he be not again wanting to himself he may yet hope for a sufficient measure of Divine Grace to bring him by Repentance to Salvation But here still there will one difficulty more arise and it is this How such a Person shall satisfie himself that he is truly penitent and by consequence that he may depend upon the mercy of God for Pardon notwithstanding his former Impenitence To this I answer 1 st If the person who thus repents at the last be in a condition of continuing yet longer in this world he may then be sure of the sincerity of his Repentance and of the consequent security of his Condition by the same experience that all others are viz. by the fruits of it in a