assumed or taken into The Word both being united into one Person the Natures being preserved entire and distinct without any Mixture or Confusion For as the Fourth General Council hath defined it He was so made Flesh that he ceased not to be the Word never changing that he was but assuming that which he was not And though our Humanity was advanced by it yet his Divinity was not at all diminished and the Mystery of Godliness God manifested in the flesh was no Detriment to the Godhead which is always unchangeably the same And therefore the seeming Harshness of this Expression may be easily molified by comparing it with others of the same import for elsewhere where it is said that he was manifest in the flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 which only denotes that the Divinity was made known and did appear in the World in a Humane Nature Elsewhere it is said that he took on him the Nature of Man Heb. 2.16 which only denotes that the Divinity did assume the Humane Nature to it and was personally united with it So here The Word was made flesh that is The Word was made one with the Flesh by assuming the Humane Nature into a personal Union with it self Having thus explain'd to you the Sense and Meaning of the Words I shall now conclude this Argument with three or four short Inferences from the whole 1. From hence we may infer the Eternal Divinity of our Blessed Saviour even from this great name The Word that is here attributed to him For since it is so apparent that this Phrase is a Term of Art derived from the Schools of the Jews and Gentiles and since by it they did all so generally understand a Divine Person subsisting from all Eternity it must necessarily follow that the Holy Ghost deriving it from them and applying it to our Blessed Saviour must use it to the same Sense for otherwise He were better never to have used it at all because by discoursing in the same Language with them he will give us just occasion to think that he means the same thing namely that Christ whom he calls The Word is a Divine Person subsisting from all Eternity which if he doth not mean by using that Term he will almost necessarily betray us into a false Belief concerning our Saviour As to instance briefly in a Case of another Nature Our Saviour in his Sermons doth frequently press us to Meekness and Patience Humility and Charity all which are Terms frequently used long before in the Moral Philosophy both of the Jews and Gentiles by which they signify fuch and fuch particular Virtues Since therefore our Saviour doth use the same Terms with them we have just Reason to conclude that he mean the same Virtues by them and should he mean any thing else his very using of these Terms would necessarily impose upon us a false Sense of his meaning for how should we understand his Meaning but by his Words and how should we understand his Words but by the common Import and Signification of them And can we imagine that the Spirit of Truth would have ven described our Saviour by a Term that was so generally used to signify a Divine Person subsisting from all Eternity and used it too as he doth without any Restraint or Limitation nay and so seemingly at least to the same Purpose as he doth in the three first Verses of his Chapter where he describes the Divine Nature and Operations of Christ The Word in the same terms in which the Jews and Gentiles were wont to describe the Divinity of their ΛΟΓΟΣ can we imagine I say that the Holy Spirit would have done thus had he known Christ to be nothing but a meer Man that never was before he was born of his Mother Far be it from us to charge that Blessed Spirit with imposing such a Delusion upon Mankind 2. Hence I infer the astonishing Love of our Blesed Saviour in condescending so low as to be made Flesh for us and assume our Nature For what he was before he took our Nature you have heard already He was no less than the Eternal Word of the Father in whose Bosom he enjoyed the supremest Degree of Bliss and Happiness being crowned with Glory and incircled about with the Essential Rays of the Divinity And yet such was his Love to poor Mortals so infinite was his Zeal and Concern for our Happiness that seeing the Misery we were plunged into he could not rest no not in the blessed Arms of his Father but strip himself of all his Majesty and Bliss and comes down among us and assumes our Nature to save and rescue us and invite and lead us to those Heavenly Mansions from whence he descended to us Lord what a Prodigy of Love was here as doth not only puzzle my Conceit but out-reach my Wonder and Admiration For when I seriously consider it though it be a Blessing beyond all my Hopes and such as I could never have had the Impudence to desire yet it fills my Mind with an awful Horror to think that there was a Time when the great God was here upon the Earth in my Form and Nature and conversed familiarly with such mortal Wights as my self and for my sake and such poor Worms as I patiently under-went the common Infirmities of Men and willingly exposed himself to the Contempt and Scorn of a malevolent World and the Malice and Cruelty of those barbarous Men to whom he gave Being and could with the Breath of his Nostrils have scattered into Atoms and all this in meer Compassion to a Company of apostatized Natures who had so highly deserved to be thrown from his Care and Mercy for ever O my Soul how am I astonished at this Miracle of Love Methinks when I consider it I am looking down from a stupendous Precipice whose Height fills me with a trembling Horror and even over-setting Reason 3. From hence I infer what might Obligations we have for ever to love and serve our Blessed Redeemer If our Hearts are capable of being warmed into any degree of Affection sure 't is impossible but we must be affected at such an unheard of Instance of Love For the Son of God to leave his Father's Bosom where he was infinitely more happy then we can express and think of and disguise himself in mortal Flesh and become a Man of Sorrows that the might make me a Man of endless Joys can my Heart hold when I think of this Is it possible I should reflect upon such a prodigious Instance of Affection without being wrapt into an Extasy of Love Blessed Jesus what barbarous Hearts do we carry about with us that will not melt before the Flames of thy Love Flames that are sufficient to kindle Seraphims and to fill all reasonable Breasts with burning Affections towards thee For how is it Possible that any Man I had almost said that any Devil should be so disingenuous and ill-natured as not to be affected with such stupendous
Power yet unless we had Vnderstanding to guide and manage it it would be altogether insignificant For Blind Power acts at Random and if we had the Force of a Whirl-wind yet without a Mind to stear and manage it it would be an equal Chance whether we did well or ill with it So that unless there were some Vnderstanding either within or without us to conduct our active Powers and determine them to our Good we were as good be altogether without them because while they act by Chance it is at least an equal Lay whether they will injure or advantage us Since therefore Vnderstanding is the Rule and Measure of all our other Powers it necessarily follows that it self is the greatest and noblest of them all What an excellent Being therefore must a Soul be in which this great and Sovereign Power resides a Power that can collect into it self such prodigious Numbers of simple Apprehensions and by comparing one with the other can connect them into true Propositions and upon each of these can run such long and curious Descants of Discourse till it hath drawn out all their Consequents into a Chain of wise and coherent Notions and sorted these into such various Systems of useful Arts and Sciences That can discern the Harmonious Contextures of Truths with Truths the secret Links and Junctures of coherent Notions trace up Effects to their Causes and sift the remotest Consequents to their natural Principles That can cast abroad its sharp-sighted Thoughts over the whole Extent of Beings and like the Sun with it s out-stretched Rays reach the remotest Objects That can in the Twinkling of an Eye expatiate through all the Vniverse and keep Correspondence with both Worlds can prick out the Paths of the Heavenly Bodies and measure the Circles of their Motion span the whole Surface of the Earth and dive into its Capacious Womb and there discover the numerous Offsprings with which it is continually teeming That can sail into the World of Spirits by the never-varying Compass of its Reason and discover those invisible Regions of Happiness and Misery which are altogether out of our sight whilest we stand upon this hither Shore In a word That can ascend from Cause to Cause to God who is the Cause of all and with its Eagle-Eyes can gaze upon that glorious Sun and dive into the infinite Abyss of his divine Perfections What an excellent Being therefore is that Soul that is endowed with such a vast Capacity of Vnderstanding and with its piercing Eye can reach such an immense Compass of Beings and travail through so vast an Horizon of Truth Doubtless if humane Souls had no other Capacity to value themselves by but only this this were enough to give them Preheminence over all inferiour Beings and render them the most glorious Part of all this sublunary World 2. The Soul of Man is of vast Worth in Respect of its Capacity of Moral Perfection For by the Exercise of those human Virtues which are proper to it in this state of Conjunction with the Body it is capable of raising it self to the Perfection of those Angelical Natures which of all Creatures do most nearly approach and resemble the great Creator and Fountain of all Perfection For by keeping a due Restraint upon its bodily Appetites and thereby gradually weaning it self from the Pleasures of the Body it may by degrees be educated and trained up to lead the Life and relish the Joys of naked and immortal Spirits it may be contempered to an incorporeal State so as to be able to enjoy it self without eating and drinking and live most happily upon the Fare of Angels upon Wisdom and Holiness and Love and Contemplation And then by governing its own Will and Affections by the Laws of Reason and Religion it may by degrees improve it self so far in all these Moral Endowments which are the proper Graces of every reasonable Nature as to be at last as perfectly wise and reasonable in its own Choices and Refusals in its Love and Hatred in its Desires and Delights as the Angels themselves are For though it cannot be expected that in this imperfect state a Soul should arrive to such a Pitch as this yet even now it may be growing up and aspiring to it which if it doth as I shall shew you by and by when this is expired it hath another Life to live which being antecedently prepared for by those spiritual Improvements it hath made here will furnish it with Opportunities of improving infinitely faster than here it did or possibly could For in that Life it shall not only be freed from those many Incumbrances which do here retard it in its spiritual Progress nor shall it only be associated with a World of pure and blessed Spirits whose holy Example and wise Converse will doubtless wonderfully edifie and improve it but be also admitted into a more intimate Acquaintance with God who is the Author and Pattern of all Perfection the sight of whose ravishing Beauty will inflame it with a most ardent Love to him and excite it to a most vigorous Imitation of him All which considered it is not to be imagined how much the state of Heaven will immediately improve those happy Souls that are prepared and disposed for it But then considering that Moral Perfection is as infinite as the Nature of God in which there is an Infinity of Holiness and Justice and Goodness within this boundless Subject there will be Room enough for Souls to make farther and farther Improvements in even to Eternity And then when they shall still be growing on so fast and yet be still forever improving to what a transcendent Height of Glory and Perfection will they at last arrive For tho no finite Soul can ever arrive to an infinite Perfection yet still it may be growing on to it because there will still be possible Degrees of it beyond its present Attainments and when it is arrived to the farthest imaginable Degree yet still it will be capable of farther and so farther and farther to all Eternity And if so O blessed God of what a Capacious Nature hast thou made these Souls of ours which tho they will doubtless improve in Goodness as fast in the other Life as is possible for them with all the Advantages of a Heavenly State yet will never attain to an utmost Period but still be growing perfecter and perfecter for ever 3. The Soul of Man is of vast Worth in Respect of its immense Capacities of Pleasure and Delight For its Capacity of Pleasure must necessarily be as large and extensive as its Capacity of Vnderstanding and of Moral Perfection because the proper Pleasure of a Soul results from its own Knowledge and Goodness from its farther Discoveries of Truth and farther Proficiency in inward Rectitude and Virtue and consequently as it Improves farther and farther in Vnderstanding and in Moral Perfection it must still gather more and more Fuel to feed and encrease its own Joy and
and promised to us such an accumulated Plenty of inward Grace and Assistance to encourage and enable us to do his Commandments 5thly He dwelt among us full of Grace in respect of the Vastness of the Recompence which he promised to us and which infinitely exceeds whatsover he promised when he dwelt in the Tabernacle of Moses For when the Eternal Word reigned over Israel as the Vice-Roy and Substitute of his Father he only acted the Part of their Civil Sovereign or Governour which Part he continued till they chose another King and then he resigned his Title to the succeeding Heirs of David And accordingly we find that when the Israelites first desired a King of Samuel God bids him hearken to their Cry For saith he they have not rejected thee but they have rejected me that I should not reign over them 1 Sam 8.7 Which is a plain Argument that before he only acted as their Political Prince in that he interprets their desiring another King to be a rejecting of him from reigning over them For had he been no otherwise King over Israel then as he is over other Nations where the true Religion is owned and professed his Dominion might have fairly consisted with that of another King or Sovereign and it would have been no more a rejecting God's Rule for Israel to desire a King then it is for France or Spain or England For it 's plain the Israelites did not reject God's Divine Dominion which he claims over the World as the Omnipotent Creator of all things for then their Desire of a King had been Idolatry and the Kings whom they desired had been Idols or false Gods It is plain therefore that it was his Political Dominion only which they rejected by desiring another King to reign in his stead which he interprets as their Intention to rob and divest him of that Civil Authority which till then he had claimed and exercised among them So that the plain Sense of their Desire was this God shall no longer be our Civil Sovereign but for the future we are resolved to have a King from among our selves even as other Nations round about us whom we will invest with the same Civil Authority which hitherto he hath challenged and exercised among us God the Eternal Word therefore being their Civil Prince or Ruler as such he gave them the Mosaick Law which he only designed to be the Rule or Instrument of his Civil Government and Dominion which is the Reason why in that Law he only promised civil or temporal Blessings because it was only a Law of Civil Government and as such could design no further then the civil or temporal Happiness of those who were to be ruled and governed by it And accordingly if you peruse the Promises of that Law you will find that they all consist of outward and temporal Blessings such as Health of Body and Victory over their Enemies Peace among themselves and with their Neighbouring Nations Plenty of Bread and the Conveniences of Life and Success and Prosperity in all their Affairs and therefore the Author to the Hebrews calls the Gospel the bringing in of a better Hope and upon this Account opposes it to the Law of Moses Heb. 7.19 which plainly implies that that Law brought in no better Hope then that of a temporal Happinss and those Words of the Apostle Gal. 3.12 The Law is not of Faith but The Man that doth them shall live in them do plainly seem to imply this Sense The Law proposing only present and sensible Blessings to such as do it such as that Thou shalt live a happy and prosperous Life in this World doth not require Faith properly so called which is the Evidence of things not seen that is of the invisible Blessings of the other Life and v. 21. he plainly asserts that if there had been any other Law besides the Gospel that could have given that promised Life Rightousness would have been by that Law and therefore since as he asserts Righteousness was by no other Law but the Gospel it follows that no other Law no not that of Moses could give or promise Life eternal Not that I make the least Doubt but Good Men under the Law of Moses did firmly believe a future Happiness for this the very Heathens themselves had very great Hopes and Expectations of though they never had so much Reason as the Jews to induce them to believe For besides all those weighty Arguments which were common to them with the Heathens they had those general Evangelical Promises which God made to the Patriarchs of being their God and their exceeding great Reward the Histories of the Translations of Enoch and Elijah and of sundry most eminent Examples of God's exceeding Love to Goodness and good Men from whence they might easily infer that sure he had better Rewards in store for them than any of the transitory Blessings of this Life especially when they saw how many good Men were deprived of these and left naked and destitute of all worldly Comforts Besides all which in every Age they had Prophets that were divinely inspired and who among all the Secrets that were revealed to them cannot be supposed to have been wholly unacquainted with the typical Meaning of their Ceremonies and Polity which among other things presignified the glorious Recompences of the Life to come But however they came by it I think it is very apparent from sundry Passages in the Book of the Psalms Ezekiel and Daniel that they were far from being Strangers to the Doctrine of a blessed Immortality hereafter though I think it is very apparent from what hath been said that they did not derive their Belief of this Doctrine from any express Promise of their Law But yet it is very apparent that though they were not altogether unacquainted with it yet 't was never so clearly discovered to them by the Eternal Word as it was afterwards to us by the Word Incarnate since as the Apostle tells us He brought Life and Immortality to light by the Gospel For therein he hath most clearly promised it to us and as far as humane Language can express explained and unfolded its Nature and by his own Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven hath given us a clear and visible Demonstration of its Truth and Reality so that now the Existence of it is become as certain to us as it 's possible for a Matter of Fact to be and we cannot be more infallibly assured of it than we are unless we had been personally in Heaven and had there surveyed its Glories with our own Eyes Well therefore may He be said to have dwelt among us full of Grace since he was graciously pleased to make us such express Promises of future Happiness and give us such ample Assurance of its Reality and Existence And so I have done with the first Note of Distinction between Christ's dwelling among us and his dwelling in the Mosaick Tabernacle He dwelt among us full
and in this the Right of his Dominion over us is originally founded For he that hath Power must needs have a Right to exercise it so far as it is just and becoming his Nature otherwise his Power would be altogether in vain and therefore since God from all Eternity hath a Power of doing whatsoever he pleases so far as is consistent with his Holiness and Goodness there is nothing can be pretended against the Right of his Dominion and Authority over us For God cannot but have an eternal Right to exercise his own Power and he cannot but have an immutable Right to exercise it over his own Creatures And as from all Eternity he had Power to do whatsoever was just and becoming him so from his creating of us it became most just and becoming that he should rule and govern us for we became his as soon as we were created by him all our Powers of Action were from him and by that he hath acquired an unalienable Right in whatsoever we are able to do We have nothing but what is his Gift and therefore can do nothing but what is his Debt we received all from him and therefore must owe all to him for by Right of Creation he is the supreme Proprietor of all our Powers and Faculties and as such hath a just Claim to all the Homage and Obedience that we are able to render him So that as God's Dominion over us is originally founded in his most absolute Power to do whatsoever is just and becoming him so the Justice and Becomingness of his Dominion over us doth immediately result from his creating of us by which he hath for ever intitled himself to all the Obedience we can render him And by Virtue of this immutable Title doth he claim our Obedience to the Laws of Jesus Christ whom next to himself he hath made our Prince and Ruler having vested him with his own Sovereign Authority and constituted him his supreme Representative in the Church So that by disobeying his Laws we incur the Guilt of the most monstrous Injustice in the World we resume our selves from him to whom we owe our Being and refuse to own our selves to be his Creatures from whose Bounty we receive even the Power of rebelling against him we alienate our Faculties from those sacred Uses whereunto they were designed and consecrated and turn these living Temples of God into Dens of impure Thoughts and filthy Lusts In a word we fight against God with his own Gifts and arm the Effects of his Bounty against his Sovereign Authority And what do we think will be the Consequence of these Things Can we be so sottish as to imagine that the Almighty Father will sit above in the Heavens and see how his Laws are trampled upon his Authority contemned and exposed to Scorn and Derision by a Company of impious Wretches that owe their very Beings to him and never be concerned at it Do we think him so stupid a Being as that no Provocations will awake his Vengeance that he will for even sit unconcerned with his Hands in his Bosom whilst his violated Laws like the Souls under the Altar are continually crying out to him How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not avenge our Quarrel upon the Heads of these audacious Rebels that every day trample us under foot and have no more regard for our Authority than they have for the Whistling of the Wind For God's sake Sirs let us consider before it be too late what is like to become of us what probable Hopes of Security we can propose to our selves if we persist in this unjust Rebellion Gird up your Loins like Men and I will demand of you in the Name of God do you think that the wise Governour of the World will be for ever insensible of all the rude Affronts and Provocations you offer him If so pray where is his Wisdom or in what sense doth he govern the World if he takes no care to secure his Laws by punishing Offenders and lets his Subjects alone to do as they list Or have you an Arm as strong as God's Can you grapple with his Almighty Vengeance or withstand the Stroke of his Thunderbolts Sure such a ridiculous Conceit can never enter into any reasonable Breast and if not in the Name of God what do you propose to your selves when you can neither hope for Favour from God nor Security from your selves Are you so abandoned of all your Reason as wilfully to shut your Eyes against your Danger and run the desperate Venture of falling into the Hands of the living God Hath not our blessed Lord most fairly warn'd us what we are to trust to Hath he not told us how he values his Laws and how dreadfully he will punish the Transgression of them Hath he not most seriously protested to us that unless we do repent and amend he will never forgive us either in this Life or that to come and that if we still persist in our Rebellions he will at last banish us from his Presence for ever and assign us our Portion with Devils and damned Ghosts in that Lake that burns with Fire and Brimstone And hath he not taken it upon his Death that all this is true when he so freely sealed his Doctrines with his Blood And now after all this is it possible we should be so sensless as to think we can be safe in our Wickedness when God the Father is enraged both in Wisdom and Honour to avenge it as an Affront to his Authority and God the Son hath revealed his Father's Wrath from Heaven against all Unrighteousness and Ungodliness of Men and therefore as we value our own Safety it concerns us either to submit to that Divine Authority which is stamp'd upon the Laws of our Saviour or else to secure our selves of some Retreat of Sanctuary from that Almighty Vengeance which our Rebellion will certainly arm against us 2dly He dwelt among us full of Grace Hence I infer what mighty Encouragement we have to serve and obey our blessed Master who in his dwelling among us was full of every thing that can render his Service lovely or desireable and abounded in all those amiable Graces that can oblige us to love and obey him For what was there wanting in our blessed Master that any reasonable Subject can desire in his Prince and Sovereign Would he desire a Prince of a sweet and gracious Temper one that is full of Love and Tenderness to his Subjects Such a one in the most eminent degree is our blessed Lord for how doth the History of his Conversation upon Earth abound with the Expressions of a most sweet and loving Temper For Love was the Principle of all his Actions the Life and Soul of his Conversation and in all that he did or spoke he made some new Discovery of his unfeigned Affection to the World for he went about doing good and his whole Life was nothing but one continued
Act of Charity to Mankind For still you find him either instructing the Ignorant or reproving the Erroneous or comforting the Dejected or feeding the Hungry or curing the Sick and Diseased From Morning to Night he was constantly engaged in one good Action or other and the whole Race of his Life like that of the Sun was spent in enlivening or inlightning the World So endearing was his Behaviour that he obliged his very Enemies and when he had won them treated them with all the Tenderness and Affection of a most loving Father towards his dearest Children From all he conversed with he extorted Respect and Veneration and none were able to resist the Charms of his victorious Love but those whose Hearts were harder than the nether Milstone But that I may convince you of the infinite Goodness and Tenderness of his Nature I will give you but that one Instance Luke 19.41 And when he was come near he beheld the City and wept over it which as you will see afterwards was occasioned by the Fore-sight of its approaching Ruin and Destruction and yet at the same time he foresaw the Cruelties which those barbarous Villains were about to practise upon him how they would scourge his Body with knotty Whips and nail his Hands and Feet to the Cross and thrust a Spear into his Heart he saw how they would triumph over his Misery mock at his Calamity and dance to the Musick of his dying Grones And now one would have thought such a Prospect as this would have for ever enraged his Soul against them and made him rejoyce to see that sweeping Destruction that was coming upon them but such was the incomparable Sweetness of his Temper that while he foresaw them plotting his Ruin he could not but sigh over theirs and while he beheld their Malice all reeking in his Blood and sporting it self with his Torments and Agonies yet at the Sense of their approaching Destruction his very Bowels earned and his Heart melted with Commiseration and he could not forbear weeping to think that those cursed Instruments of all his Miseries must e're long be so wretched and miserable themselves earnestly wishing that they who so greedily thirsted for his Blood had known in that their day the things which belong to their Peace And though one would have thought the barbarous Entertainment he met with here upon Earth would have for ever quenched all his Affection to Mankind yet still it lives and in despite of all the Affronts and Outrages he endured burns as vigorously in his Breast as ever So unconquerable was his Love to his Subjects that all the bloody Cruelties they practised upon him when they chased him out of the World were never able to alienate his Heart and Affections from them but after all their Cruelties he still retained his Fatherly Bowels towards them and when he could endure their Torments no longer breathed out his loving Soul in an earnest Prayer for their Pardon Father forgive them for they know not what they do And now that he is in Heaven among Angels and glorified Spirits where he cannot but remember how unkindly we treated him when he was upon Earth and perhaps doth still bear upon his glorified Body those very Wounds which he received from our Hands which one would think were sufficient to incense him against us for ever yet his Heart is the same towards us full of all those kind and tender Resentments that first brought him down from Heaven and render'd his Conversation among us so full of Sweetness and Endearments And now being so infinitely kind as he is why should we be disheartned from serving him Methinks the Sense of his Love to us if there were no other Argument in the World should be sufficient to bind us to his Service for ever For O my Soul how can I do too much for so kind a Friend How can I be too submissive to so good a Master That is so infinitely tender of all his Servants and loves them a thousand times more than they love themselves Sure if we had any Spark of Ingenuity in us the Sense of his matchless Kindness towards us would be sufficient to turn all our Duty to him into Recreation to make us thirst after his Service and catch at all Opportunities of expressing our Loyalty and Obedience to him We should embrace his Commands as Preferments to us and wear them as the greatest Favours and think our selves more honoured in being the Servants of Jesus Christ than in being made mighty Kings and Potentates 2. Consider as he is full of Grace in Respect of his own Personal Disposition so he is also in Respect of his Laws in which as I have already shewed you he requires nothing of us but what is for our Good nothing but what tends to the Perfection of our Natures and the Consummation of our Happiness All that our Saviour requires at our Hands is only that we should act according to the Laws of a Reasonable Nature and constantly pursue the great End of our Creation which can never be obtained by us unless we regulate our Actions by those wise and excellent Rules which he hath prescribed us and which he hath prescribed us upon no other Inducement but only to oblige us to be happy For as to any Advantage that will accrue to him from our Actions 't is altogether indifferent to him whether we obey him or no for he was always infinitely happy within himself and would have always been so though we had never had a Being so that his Felicity depends not upon us and were it not that the super abundant Goodness of his Nature doth for ever incline him to make us happy as well as himself he would never have concerned himself about us but would have let us alone to do as we list and abandoned us to the Fate of our own Actions He therefore being infinitely happy within himself can have no self-Ends to serve upon his Creatures because within the Circle of his own divine Being he hath all that he needs and all that he desires but being infinitely good as he is infinitely happy we are sure that our Good must be the only End of his intermedling with our Actions and his giving Laws to direct them And if we consult the particular Laws which he hath given us we shall find they all of them most naturally tend to perfect and rectifie our disordered Natures to exalt and spiritualize our Affections and inspire us with all those divine Dispositions that are requisite to qualify us for the Happiness of the World to come And now methinks if we had any Sense of our own Interest this Consideration should mightily encourage us to Obedience to think that while we are serving our blessed Master we are serving our selves to the best Purposes and that his Service and our Interest are so combined and united that by the same Actions we may gratify him and do our selves the greatest Kindness in
excellent and divine Doctrine which he taught was such as became the only begotten Son For certainly if we consider the excellent Frame and Contrivance of the Christian Religion we cannot but confess it to be most Divine and Godlike most worthy of that infinite Wisdom and Goodness from whence it was derived For Religion in general is the means of advancing Rational Beings to that Perfection and Happiness for which the great Creator hath designed and intended them and certainly never was there any Religion in the World more adapted to advance this noble Design of God than that which our Saviour hath taught For as for its Agenda what it requires to be done ' they all consist in acting reasonably and according to the Dignity of our Nature in thinking speaking and practising in loving and hating disiring and delighting hoping and fearing as becomes Reasonable Beings placed in our Condition and Circumstances and do require nothing of us but that we should regulate our Practice by the Rules of Right Reason and direct all our Faculties and Affections to their proper Ends and Objects and when we come to this Pitch always to think that which is most reasonable and always to practise what we think so then we are advanced to the topmost Round of our Perfection in which is founded the utmost Happiness we are capable of So that in all the Course of our Christian Practice we are in a direct Progression and Tendency towards our Perfection and Happiness And as for the Credenda of Christianity the Doctrines it requires us to believe they are all of them pregnant with the most strong and vehement Motives to engage us to the Practice of what it enjoins Motives that have such a Potent I had almost said Omnipotent Force in them that 't is impossible for any Man heartily to believe and throughly to weigh and consider them and not be effectually perswaded by them Since therefore it was so highly convenient that the Son of God in Person should come down from Heaven among us that so the Dignity of his Person might give Authority to that Religion by which the World was to be governed and since he did come down upon this honourable Errand it was impossible for him to have taught any Doctrine that could more effectually have promoted the great End of Religion or more fully expressed his infinite Wisdom and Goodness and Zeal for the Welfare of the Souls of Men htan that which is contained in the Christian Religion which is every way so adapted to make Men good and happy so accommodated to the Nature and Condition of Mankind that there is nothing could better become the only begotten Son to teach in the World or that could be more worthy of all those infinite Perfections that are lodged in his Nature and do speak him to be the most genuine Offspring of the most High For so excellent was his Doctrine that his very Enemies were astonished at the Wisdom that was given him Mark 6.2 3. and wondred at the gracious Words that proceeded out of his Mouth Luke 4.22 Well therefore might he say of himself I am the Light of the World he that followeth me shall not walk in Darkness but shall have the Light of Life Joh. 8.12 4thly And lastly The incomparable Sanctity and Purity of his Life was such as very well became the only begotten Son For as it was highly convenient that he should come down into the World and in his own Person teach us that Religion by which he intended to govern us that thereby he might stamp it with a more awful Authority so to render it more fuccessful it was no less convenient that he should come down in our Natures that therein he might be capable of practising what he taught us and setting us an Example of what he would have us to do that so we might see that he enjoined nothing upon us but what was practicable and what did become the most glorious Person that ever did assume our Natures that thereby we might be encouraged to our Duty and animated with a noble Emulation of treading in his blessed Footsteps Since therefore all this was so highly convenient and the Son of God in Compliance with this Convenience did actually assume our Nature it was impossible for him to lead a Life that better comported with this Design of his Incarnation or better became the Dignity and Excellency of his Person than he did For now that he was become a Man he was obliged to act suitably to his Nature and should he have done any thing that was unsuitable to the State and Circumstances of his Nature he would not have acted becoming himself So that it was highly convenient that he should become a Man and being a Man it was indispensably necessary that he should live like a wise and a good Man in the Condition and Relations wherein he was placed and nothing could be more worthy of or becoming him then so to do though he was still the only begotten Son of the Father For it is the Glory of God himself that he always acts most reasonably according to the State and Relations of a God and therefore when God becomes Man by assuming our Nature to his own it is his Glory to act most reasonably in the State and Relations of a Man And thus did the blessed Jesus do in the whole Course of his Conversation upon Earth for his Life was a most exact Pattern of all humane Virtues in which all that is ornamental to humane Nature was represented in its fairest Colours There you may see a fair Example of the most ardent Love to and constant Dependance upon God of the most profound Humility and perfect Resignation to his Heavenly Will There you may behold the Moderation of Humane Passions and Appetites set forth to the Life and fairly delineated in its most exquisite Perfections in a word there you will find Loyalty and Submission to Superiors Fidelity and Justice to Equals Courtesy and Candor and Condescention to Inferiors universal Love and an unbounded Charity to all practised to the Height and Exactness and which way soever you turn your Eyes on this fair Monument of Virtues you can discover nothing but what is lovely and adorable and infinitely becoming the only begotten Son of the Father Having thus explained and demonstrated the Proposition to you I shall conclude with these four Inferences from this four-fold Glory of the Word which they saw 1. They saw the glorious Splendor which invested his Person at his Baptison and Transfiguration From whence I infer his Deputation from the most High God and Father of all Things to be his Representative and Vice-Roy in the Christian Church For this visible Glory with which he was invested was always the peculiar Character of the immediate Representative of God and therefore by way of Appropriation it is called the Glory of God and the Glory of the Lord and wheresover God as Supream Monarch
were true or false yet they seldom underwent any milder Name than Heresie or gentler Doom than Damnation which hath been one of the grand Occasions of all the Ruptures and Divisions that have happened in the Christian World But as for the Faith which the Apostle here speaks of it was of a much less Bulk than what it is now arrived to by rolling through the wild Opiniatry of Sixteen Disputation Ages which by degrees have swelled it from a short script into a large Volume For if we look into the New Testament and into the Writings of the most Primitive Fathers we shall find the Sums of Christian Faith therein contained consisting of very few Articles and those such only as are essential to Christian Religion and such as wherein almost all the differing Persuasions of Christians do to this Day concenter To hold the Faith therefore is to persevere immovably in the Profession of the true Christian Doctrine so far as in us lies and not to be prevailed upon to desert or forsake it either through Fear of Persecution or Hope of Temporal Advantage or the Knavish Arts and Sly Insinuations of false Teachers 2. The second Term here to be explained is What is meant by keeping a good Conscience Conscience in general is nothing but our practical Judgment directing us what we ought to do and what to avoid and approving or reproving according as we follow its Directions or run counter to them The Conscience therefore is good or bad according as the Directions are which it gives for the Government of our Lives and Actions If our Judgment be false and erroneous and directs us to do what we ought to avoid or to avoid what we ought to do it is a bad Conscience that instead of being a Light to guide our Steps in the Paths of Righteousness is only a wandring Night-fire that leads us into Bogs and Quagmires As on the contrary A good Conscience is our practical Judgment well informed and truly directing us in the Course of our Actions what we ought to do and what to avoid For a good Conscience is the true Eccho of God within us that faithfully resounds his Voice and upon all Opportunities of Action repeats after him to our Wills and Affections To keep a good Conscience therefore implies two Things First To maintain in our Minds a true Sense of Good and Evil and so far forth as in us lies to preserve our practical Judgment pure from all false Principles of Action and not to suffer either our vicious Inclinations or worldly Interest to warp and seduce it and cause it to mistake Evil for Good and Good for Evil. Secondly It implies our following the Dictates and Directions of a good Conscience our doing what it bids and abstaining from what it forbids and faithfully resigning our selves to its Conduct and Government and not to be prevailed upon by any Temptation whatsoever to act counter to its Sense and Persuasion In short To keep a good Conscience is to live in a strict Conformity to the Dictates of a well-informed Judgment and not to allow our selves in any Course of Action which this Vice-God within us forbids or disapproves 3. The Third Term to be explained in the Text is What is meant by putting away a good Conscience which being directly opposed here to keeping a good Conscience must denote the Contraries to it To put away a good Conscience therefore is either first to corrupt our own Judgment of Things and Actions out of vicious Affection or worldly Interest and impose upon our selves false Notions of Good and Evil or secondly to act directly contrary to our Sense and Persuasion to leave undone those Things which our own Conscience tells us we ought to do and to do those things which it tells us we ought not to do In short to put away a good Conscience is to live in any known Course of Sin either of Omission or Commission to practise Contradictions to our own Judgments and to follow the Inclinations of our Wills against the Light and Conviction of our Consciences 4. The last Enquiry is What is here meant by making shipwrack of the Faith which being here set in Opposition to holding or keeping the Faith must signifie oppositely and consequently must denote not holding and keeping it or which is the same thing losing and abandoning it For in this Allegory the true Christian Faith is represented as a Ship and a good Conscience or a pure and holy Life as the Pilot that steers and governs it And indeed in that State of Things there was no other Pilot but Purity of Conscience and Holiness of Life was able to conduct and preserve this Ship and carry it safe through those incessant Storms of Persecution wherein at that time it was toss'd and agitated For when Christians have once thrown off the Obligations of a good Conscience by abandoning themselves to a wicked and dissolute Life what is there left to restrain them from abandoning their Faith when it stands in Competition with their Worldly Ease and Interest And though there should be no Competition between their Faith and Interest but they might freely enjoy them both without any disturbance yet their wicked Lives will naturally tempt them to corrupt their Faith with wicked Principles of which later in the next Verse he gives an eminent instance in Hymenaeus who had not wholly deserted Christianity but only renounced one Fundamental Article of it viz. The Resurrection of the Dead As of the former he gives another Instance in Alexander who as it seems probable had through the Fear of Persecution deserted Christianity it self The Words thus explained may be resolved into this Sense That Mens living wickedly against the Convictions and Obligations of their Conscience doth very much expose them to Apostacy from true Religion into gross and impious Errors Thus to the love of money which is the root of all evil the Apostle attributes Mens Erring from the Faith 1 Tim. 6.10 And that which exposed those silly women 2 Tim. 3.6 to the Seduction of false Teachers was their being laden with sins and led away with divers lusts And the same Apostle ascribes Demas's Apostacy to his Covetousness or inordinate love of this present World 2 Tim. 4.10 But that I may evince this Truth more fully I shall give you some particular Instances of the mighty Tendencies there are in every vicious Course of Life to Error and Apostacy from true Religion 1. It corrupts and debauches Men's Reason and Understanding 2. It renders the Principles of true Religion uneasie to ther Minds 3. It deprives Men of the highest Encouragements to Constancy and Stedfastness in Religion 4. It weakens the natural Force of their Consciences which is the greatest Restraint from Apostacy 5. It strengthens the Temptations to Apostacy 6. It provokes God to give us up to the Power of Delusion 1. Living in any known and willful Course of Sin corrupts and debauches Men's Reason and
his Conscience the natural Tenderness of it will by Degrees wear off till at length it grows quite callous and insensible For what is reported of Methridates that by often drinking of Poison he had so familiarized it to his Constitution that at length it sate quietly on his Stomach and gave him no Disturbance is true of Conscience which at first recoils at every sinful Potion and cannot swallow it without suffering violent Spasms and Convulsions but having been awhile accustomed to it it by Degrees grows more and more natural till at length it goes more glibly down without straining and goes quietly off without Remorse or Reluctance And when once a Man's Conscience is frozen over by a Custom of Sinning it will every day grow harder and harder and at length be able to bear the heaviest Loads of Guilt without Relenting and when once Things are Reduced to this State Good and Evil Virtue and Vice are Things indifferent to him which he chuses or refuses as they come to hand and are more or less subservient to his present Convenience He can blaspheme and pray oppress and give Alms with the same Unconcernedness of Mind and to act the Devil or the Saint are Parts so indifferent to him that he can perform them both with the same Remorslessness And when a Man is thus got loose from the Restraints of his Conscience there is nothing so bad that can come amiss to him If therefore while he stands in this Posture his temporal Interest should chance to beckon him to change the best Religion in the World for the worst to pray to insensible Images and dead Mens Ghosts instead of the everliving God to let go Substances to catch at Shadows and Ceremonies and to part with the most rational Truths for the most palpable and fulsom Contradictions he hath no Principle in him strong enough to withold him from a base Compliance his Conscience being laid fast asleep which whilst awake would have trembled at such an horrid Proposal And though by thus prostituting his Faith to his Interest he at once renounces his God his Saviour and all his Hopes of future Immortality yet his insensible and remorsless Heart is no more toucht or affected with it than if it were the slightest Peccadillo Thus by letting go a good Conscience Men pave themselves an easie way to Apostacy from true Religion which otherwise would be one of the most craggy and difficult Passages in all the High-Way to Hell 5. Living in any known Course of Sin doth very much strengthen and enforce the Temptations to Apostacy He who lives under the Conduct and Government of a good Conscience takes Care to regulate his Affections towards the Things of this World so as neither to fear the Evils of it too much nor love the Goods of it too well but makes a just and equal Estimate of both and by that proportions his Affections towards them and he who doth this disarms them of their tempting Power which is chiefly owing to our selves and the false Estimate we make of them 'T is our own Imagination that gives Life and Efficacy to the Charms and Terrors of the World and renders them so successful and victorious We fancy that to be in them which is not and so are affected not so much with the Things themselves as with the false Representations that we make of them But he who by following the Dictates of a good Conscience hath reduced his wild Affections within the Lists of Reason and Sobriety can from thence defie the World and maintain his Post against all its Temptations He loves its Goods no better than they deserve and consequently he loves them not so well as to part with his Virtue his Innocence and his Soul for them He dreads its Evils no farther than they are truly dreadful and consequently is fully satisfied that to Sin is much more dreadful than to suffer and he hath found by often Experience that in the faithful discharge of his Duty there is far more Peace more Joy and Satisfaction than in all the vain Allurements of this World He hath found another Heaven upon Earth besides these temporary Enjoyments a Heaven within his own Breast composed of joyous Hopes and blessed Expectations and in this Heaven hath often found himself a thousand times more happy than among all the Festivities of an earthly Paradise and therefore knows very well that he is bid to his Loss when ever he is tempted to exchange the one for the other He is throughly sensible having already found it to his Smart that by Sinning he shall sustain a much heavier Loss and expose himself to far more exquisite Agonies of Mind than any this World can threaten him withall and therefore certainly reckons upon it that when ever to avoid a Sin he incurs a Suffering he wisely chooses of two Evils the least And while his Soul stands thus affected it is shot-proof against all Temptations and much more against those Temptations which sollicite him to renounce his Religion and in which he knows by Experience there is far more Good than the World can propose to him in Exchange for it He knows both how little the World and how much true Religion is worth and having made a just Estimate of both to propose to him any worldly Hope as a Price for his Faith is the same Thing as to offer a Miser Dross for his gold His Mind is fixed in this Persuasion that all the Mischiefs this World can do him are inconsiderable to one who must live for ever in another unspeakably happy or miserable and therefore to threaten him into a Apostacy with any worldly Fear is to attempt to blow up a Rock of Marble with a Squib of Wild-fire But when once a Man hath taken off the Restraints of his Conscience from his wild Affections and let them loose to the World they will aid and assist its Temptations against him and animate them with a thousand times more Life and Vigour than is in their own Natures For as for the Goods of this World they can never bewitch us as they do did we not give a Dress to them we paint their Faces and varnish them over with an artificial Beauty and then fall in Love with our own Fucus and so much as we value and affect them beyond their natural Worth so much Power we give them to conquer and inslave us When therefore by leading a sensual and wicked Life a Man has wholly devoted himself to the World he hath put himself into the Worlds Power to be commanded and disposed of as it pleases And now if any worldly good beckons and invites him his mad Affection will presently hurry him after it though it be through thick and thin through the most flagitious and enormous Courses If any worldly Evil threaten and alarm him he must immediately fly though it be from Virtue and Innocence from God and Heaven and all that is Sacred in Religion His Affections have