we may do it those first and chief Disciples have enabled us by giving us large Accounts of the Actions and Life of our Saviour in the Holy Gospels Himself tell us John XV. 8. If ye bear much fruit so shall ye be my Disciples and then Ver. 10. explains their bearing much Fruit by imitating his obedience to the Divine Commands If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love even as I have kept my Fathers commandments and abide in his love So that if we desire to retain the name of a Disciple and thereby preserve our Relation to Christ we must perform the Duty of a Disciple by religiously following the Example of our Lord and Master But then in the next place to imitate the Life and Actions of our Saviour is not only our Duty but our Happiness We may be sure that while the Blessed Jesus lived on Earth he pursued the true ends of Happiness and cultivated those Vertues which were most conducive to the perfection of his Nature and the Dignity of his Office What Honour then must it needs be to us mortal Men to be made like unto the Son of God in the Practice of the same Vertues in pursuing the same Methods of Happiness and in an intire Conformity of Actions It was the highest Ambition of the more generous among the Heathens to imitate the Lives of their antient Heroes and be thought like unto them And shall not we ardently desire to resemble our most Blessed Redeemer by a similitude of Holiness and Vertue Their Ambition was misplac't and therefore the occasion of their Unhappiness ours is directed to the right Object and therefore cannot be too great It must needs be an infinite Satisfaction to every pious Soul to be employed about the same Duties wherein the Blessed Jesus spent his Life to exercise the same Offices of Piety Charity and Devotion to be inspired with the same Principles of Humility Meekness and Patience This Consideration will dispel all weariness will add Vigour to our Souls and remove the fear of all temporal Evils which may attend the performance of our Duty This will support us under all outward Calamities alleviate our Sorrows and calm our Tempests to remember That our Lord endured the same Afflictions upon the same account If he was content to undergo the Malice of men and fury of Devils shall we hope to be exempted from the Attempts of the same Enemies If the world hate you ye know that it hated me before it hated you John XV. 18. And shall we refuse to undergo the same Fortunes with our Lord and Master No surely Only let us take care that the Hatred and Persecution of Men be brought upon us for no other Cause than they were on him that is not through any fault of ours but only for the sake of God and our obedience to his Commands So shall we imitate him as well in the most happy tranquility of Mind under all Afflictons as in the Afflictions themselves and the Causes of them Lastly The constant imitation of our Lords Example will be our Comfort and Satisfaction in the whole course of our Lives which will remove all Doubts and Difficulties and give us the best assurance that we have performed the whole Duty of Man If only Precepts of a good Life had been given to us we might have been daily distracted with Doubts and Scruples concerning the meaning extent and Application of them they might have been perverted by the errour and craft of Men and rendred useless by false Glosses and Interpretations whereas the Example of our Saviour hath taken away all these Scruples and placed every Precept in its full light If we truly imitate his Example we are infallibly assured That we have in all things done our Duty even as he performed the whole Will of God and more than once obtained that Testimony from Heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased So much greater assurance may we have by following his Example than by respecting his Precepts only And therefore St. Paul after so many Rules and Precepts given to his Converts still adviseth them to be Followers of him but then no farther than he followed Christ. Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ. r Cor. XI 1. By this also we shall be inabled to give a satisfactory Reason of all our Actions and put to silence the Gainsaying of foolish Men without the assistance of any profound knowledge or deep Speculation If they deride our Christian Vertues and scoffe at the Duties of Humility Self-denial and Mortification it will be sufficient to answer That in practising them we imitate the Example of the Son of God the eternal Wisdom of the Father Let them please themselves with their Mirth and false supposal of a more refined knowledge We follow an infallible Guide and Pattern who if he hath not placed the Wisdom of his Precepts in so clear a light as the Sun in Heaven hath at least recommended them by his Practice and can assert them by his Power Such are the Obligations of all Christians to imitate the Example of their Saviour and such are the Benefits which result from it Let us by an earnest endeavour to follow this most excellent Example fullfil the Obligations and obtain the Benefits that as we have been on Earth made like unto him in Vertue and Holiness so we may hereafter in Heaven be made yet more like unto him in Glory and Immortality The Third SERMON PREACH'D October 1688. At LAMBETH CHAPEL 1 Pet. III. 15. Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear THE most Wise God hath so contrived that most Holy and excellent Religion which he intended as the most perfect and ultimate Revelation of his Will to the World that it tendeth equally to manifest his own infinite Wisdom and Goodness and to procure the Salvation of Mankind His Wisdom appeareth in the Excellency and Simplicity of those Rules which it proposeth in its immediate tendency to beget and establish due Notions and Apprehensions of the Deity in the reasonableness of its Constitution and admirable Congruity to the nature of Mankind His Goodness is conspicuous not only in those infinite Rewards which he hath affixed to the performance of it in the Free Pardon of rebellious Sinners and liberal distribution of his Graces but which more directly comes under our present Consideration in adapting that Religion which he intended for the benefit of all to the Capacity of all and thereby rendring it no less easie than advantageous And in this the Christian Religion infinitely exceeds all other Systems of Religion whether true or false Among the Heathens many great and learned Persons had imployed their Wits in refining the Superstitions of their Countrey and assigning Reasons for that way of Worship which obtained among them But their Notions were abstruse and mystical their
any Rewards or Punishments We had been obliged by the Laws of Creation to embrace and practice it to obey the Dictates of Reason that by obeying them we might have procured the perfection of our Nature Many Duties do arise from the Consideration of our Nature and that Relation which we bear to God and the whole world which would not have ceased to oblige us although no Revelation had been made unto us Or if it had pleased God to re-inforce these Duties by a particular Revelation yet was it not necessary that he should entail any rewards on the performance of them as being parts of our Duty antecedently to any such Revelation If he had required of us more than was naturally suggested to us by the light of Reason even the most difficult and laborious Duties He might justly have done it by the right of Creation as being the Author of our Being It had been a sufficient Reward to Mankind to have received from God the benefit of Existence and the Continuation of it and to enjoy the ordinary effects of his Providence If to these he had added Threats and Punishments he might reasonably be supposed to have abundantly secured Mankind from the neglect of his Commands since none but the most stupid and brutal Persons would for the Fruition of a few not only irrational but trifling Vanities incurr the displeasure of an Almighty Being and draw upon themselves the effects of his Vengeance Or if to Actions in themselves indifferent and not in the least contributing to the perfection of our Nature Actions having nothing extraordinary in them beside the greatness of their Difficulty he had adjoyned a Promise of infinite Rewards yet could we not have omitted them without the highest degree of Folly when the performance of them might procure so vast a Reward the sole hopes of which might induce us to force our Inclinations and do violence to our Nature But when to the common Benefits of Creation and Preservation he hath added the Revelation of Divine Truths and adapted those Revelations to the capacity and imperfection of our Nature when he hath urged the practice of these revealed Truths by the Promise of Reward on the one side and the Threats of Punishment on the other And as if all this were not sufficient proceeds to heap new Favours on us intreats us as a Friend bears with us as a Father and by Prodigies of Mercy leads us to our own Happiness we must profess our selves astonished and confounded at so stupendious a Goodness and acknowledge our selves unable to celebrate as we ought the Mercy of God who when he might have satisfied both the Justice and Holiness of his Nature by requiring of us the performance of the greatest Duties without any Reward or proportioned his Reward to the imperfection of our Service or proposed both Rewards and Duties without adding continued Acts of Mercy and Forgiveness yet contributed all to the Happiness of Mankind and thereby made the Emanation of his Goodness to be no less infinite than his Nature the Fountain of them Who when it was sufficient alone to manifest the Justice of his proceeding to appeal even to the Judgment of Mankind as he did sometime in the Prophet Are not my ways equal are not your ways unequal O house of Israel chose rather to conquer us by kindness and by the greatness of his Goodness lead us to Repentance By the Goodness of God in this place we are not so much to understand that incommunicable Attribute of perfect Holiness upon account of which our Saviour said Matth. XIX 17. There is none good but one that is God As his kindness and benignity which inclines him to exercise Acts of Beneficence Love and Mercy which is frequently in Scripture called by the name of Goodness as Psalm LXXIII 1. Truly God is good unto Israel even unto such as are of a clean heart And again Psalm CXLV 9. The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works Where his Goodness is aptly expressed by the Tenderness of his Mercy The former Attribute indeed representeth God to Mankind as a fit object of Worship and Adoration and inciteth brave and generous Souls to the exercise of Vertue that so they may attain a nearer Similitude and Conformity to their Creator the imitation of whom is their ùtmost perfection But the latter chiefly creates in us that Love of God which is the best and most efficacious Principle of all religious Actions by representing to us his infinite affection to Mankind his benefactive Nature and proneness to Acts of Mercy and Compassion which even although we forget our Duty and neglect our Interest cannot but excite a lively Senfe of gratitude in us and a profound Veneration of the Divine Mercy This Beneficence and indulgence of God is designed in the Text by the term Goodness or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an eminent instance of which the Apostle had laid down in the former part of this Verse in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Forbearance and Long-suffering whereby God does not immediately inflict the deserved Punishments upon Sinners but with-holds his anger and patiently awaits their Repentance whereby he does not presently revenge the Injuries and Affronts done to his Laws and Person by the sins of Mankind but compassionates our Nature and at all times reserveth Mercy for penitent Sinners An Attribute than which nothing can render God more amiable and dear unto us or more effectually secure our Obedience to him were not the Perverseness of Mankind no less infinite than his Goodness Yet did many in that Age and as I fear more in our Times make a contrary use of this Goodness by thence taking Encouragement to continue in their sins because they see not Vengeance to be speedily executed and experience in themselves and others the Forbearance and Long-suffering of God The Apostle complains of these Men in the former part of the Verse That they despised the riches of the goodness forbearance and long-suffering of God and from these Attributes inferrs a contrary Conclusion to what they had formed namely That this ought rather to dispose us to repentance and reformation of Life by enforcing all other Arguments of our Duty with a powerful Obligation of gratitude which is violated in a most enormous manner by those who abused the Divine Mercy to a contrary intent Not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth us to repentance In handling these words I shall endeavour to illustrate and improve the Apostles Argument by considering it as well in Relation to that influence which it ought to have upon all our Actions in general as in disposing us to this Duty of Repentance in particular In Discoursing of the first Head I will lay down these two Propositions I. That gratitude or a right Sense of our Obligation arising from the consideration of the infinite Benefits and Mercies of God towards us was intended by God
to the Actions and Concerns of this Life God neither promised nor exercised any such constant visible Justice which might distinguish the Good from the Bad and sensibly teach Men the necessity of Repentance much less can it be expected that in the more spiritual Religion of Christ and more abstracted from the Interests of the World any such discrimination of Good and Bad by External Circumstances of prosperity should take place that God should constantly awaken the negligence of slothful Christians by severe and visible Judgments or if he doth not should be thought to approve their Conduct Yet is this Error almost as frequent among Christians as it was formerly among the Jews While Men enjoy the satisfactions of this Life securely and find themselves at ease they fondly imagine that Heaven also hath declared it self in Favour of them and are not willing to entertain a thought of the displeasure of God towards their vicious Courses least the thoughts of it should abridge their present Happiness They are told indeed of the pleasures and punishments of another Life but conceiving no greater pleasure than what they now enjoy nor fearing any greater punishment than the deprivation of that enjoyment because they find the possession of it continued to them they â—…magine themselves secure and think that they either have escaped the Divine Punishment or not deserved it To be convinced of the unreasonableness of this conclusion we need only reflect upon the example of our Blessed Saviour who notwithstanding he was most dear to God publickly declared to be his beloved Son in whom he was well pleased and even in respect of his Humane Nature taken separately said to increase in favour with God and Man yet in the Opinion of the World led a miserable and afflicted Life underwent all those things which the sensual appetite of Man most dreadeth as Poverty Hunger Pain and a Violent Death yet all this while continued to be the most beloved Son of God In conformity to his Example his Apostles to whom he so often professed an extraordinary Love suffered all the sensible inconveniencies of this Life and were yet the peculiar Favourites of their Lord and Master now Exalted into Heaven So that Temporal affliction is by no means any Indication of the displeasure of God nor the contrary of his Favour So then in vain do Men reject or deferr Repentance because they see not the constant execution of his displeasure upon Notorious Sinners in this World For how should that displeasure exert it self Not in Poverty Afflictions or in Temporal Calamities For these we find in our Lord himself and his dearest Servants and therefore can never be any Argument of the dis-favour of God Yet from these Characters alone Man would take his measures who fondly imagineth nothing to be more dreadful than such Disasters and knoweth no greater misery than what ariseth from them while he consulteth his Sense alone But God seeth not as Man seeth he knoweth what will be real Happiness and Misery to Man and therein placeth his Rewards and Punishments As his Rewards are not adapted to the sensual imaginations of Men so neither are his Punishments to their Fears and Passions What they suppose to be a severe Punishment may possibly be a Benefit but certainly is so small a Punishment as does not at all compensate the guilt of having offended an Infinite Majesty To revenge therefore the Wickedness of Men wholly in this Life could not but come far short of the demerit of their Actions and after all would but little contribute to manifest the Divine Justice of God or excite the Repentance of Men since what God would in that case inflict would be far different from what Men esteem the greatest misery which renders the constant execution of Divine Justice in this Life unpracticable Other considerations make it unreasonable And first the Wisdom of God hath appointed some time wherein Man should give a trial of his Obedience and live in a State of Probation during which time neither Rewards nor Punishments of his Actions should ordinarily be distributed but both reserved till that Probation should expire and the last resolutions of Man were known This time can be no other than that of Life on Earth in which Man at his first entrance hath proposed to him the Arguments of Obedience to God the Rewards of that Obedience and all other Motives to his Duty On the other side the pleasures of Sin allure him the suggestions of evil Spirits tempt him the want of consideration fits him to follow the directions of sense alone and not to trouble himself with any other Interest than that of this Life His Will and the freedom of choice is still reserved intire to him Life and Death is set before him as it was by Moses before the Jews he is at liberty to choose which he pleaseth still remembring that upon his conduct in this Life depends the Happiness or Misery of his future State In the mean time God ordinarily affrights him not into his Duty by a certain Execution of Punishment consequent in this Life to the Commission of his sins neither doth he draw him to Obedience by the sensible experience of Rewards For that would destroy all the merit of Faith or Obedience since the Actions of Men would then proceed from the dictates of their own sense not upon the principle of believing this because God hath said it or doing that because God hath Commanded it I say that ordinarily God doth not dispose Men to Obedience by the sensible experience of Justice executed in this Life although often in mercy to Mankind he doth extraordinarily in this Life Reward the eminent good Actions of his Obedient Servants and Punish the more notorious Sins of wicked Men. This he doth for the Vindication of his Justice and for the Instruction of other Men to whom beside the ordinary Light of Revelation he doth sometime indulge these extraordinary admonitions But this is not to be drawn into any Rule by us we may not hence conclude that Prosperity is an Argument of the Favour of God or the not inflicting of exemplary Revenge a sign of Reconciliation with him Rather we ought to judge that the time of this Life God hath given us for a Trial of Obedience during which he patiently awaits our Resolution All this our Lord manifests to us in the parable of the Tares which the Housholder would not suffer to be plucked up till the time of Harvest but till then be mixed securely among the Corn plainly insinuating that the ordinary providence of God should in this Life make no discrimination between the Good and Bad but suffer both alike to live secure without any denunciation of his Judgment till the time of Harvest which himself explains to be the time of the last Judgment when the Tares and the Wheat should be severed from each other This proceeding indeed doth shock the common understanding of Men but that ariseth from
and not broke loose from the Chains and Dominion of the Devil The state of our Lord and his Church were indeed at that time in the highest confusion without any Consolation or apparent possibility of Recovery Yet much greater is the Misery of an unrepentant Sinner who suffers all this thro' his own Fault and until he be regenerate seeth no approaching Delivery From all these Calamities our Saviour and his Church were rescued by his glorious Resurrection And from all these Miseries is unhappy Man delivered by his Regeneration Our Lord by his Resurrection vindicated his Honour from the Blasphemies of Jews and Gentiles who had argued against his Divinity from the seeming Imperfections of his Sufferings overthrew the design of wicked Spirits endeavouring to defeat the Success of his Mission by the Ignominy of the Cross and delivered his Church from that Disgrace and Despair which it had by his Death incurred Such were the Benefits and Glories of this days Resurrection and no less are the Advantages of rising with Christ from Sin unto a new Life which removeth that Stain and Imperfection introduced into our Nature by Sin restores it to that primitive Glory which it obtained in the State of Innocence rescueth us from the Slavery of the Devil repairs the Honour and Integrity of our Souls and renders us infinitely Happy by making us Partakers of the Divine Favour For this was none of the least Arguments which inhanced the Glory os Christ's Resurrection that God by interposing in so extraordinary a manner in his behalf evidently manifested how dear he was unto him whom he would not leave in Hell in a state of Disgrace nor suffer to see corruption This raised him beyond the Degree of all mortal and corruptible Men and placed him in such an height of Glory as cannot be resembled by any thing but the Regeneration of a Christian wherein God interposeth by his Power not so visibly indeed but no less miraculously converting assisting and confirming him by his Grace without which this admirable Change cannot be effected A Change which however in an inferiour Degree declares the Power and the Love of God who produceth Habits of the most exalted Vertue in a Soul before overwhelmed with Sin and Wickedness For Resurrection denotes not only a Deliverance from the Calamities of Death and Corruption but also an enabling any one to renew an active Course of Life Our Lord was not barely content to rescue his Body from the Grave and the insults of his Enemies but he carried it with him triumphantly into Heaven and there sitting at the right hand of God employeth it in Conjunction with his Divine Nature to mediate continually the Redemption of Man If then we be risen with Christ we must manifest the truth of our Resurrection by vital Actions proper to a new and spiritual Life which are the Exercise of all spiritual Vertues and a strict Conformity to the Laws of that new Society with Heaven wherein we are engaged Farther a bare recovery of Life deserveth not the Title of a Resurrection for then the intermediate Death would have been of no advantage at least it reacheth not the illustrious Example of our Lord's Resurrection who after that was endued with a farr more glorious State than before his Death Before his Crucifixion he was subject to all the Infirmities of humane Nature Sin only excepted after his Resurrection exempted from them all-Before his Passion subject to change and decay after his Resurrection instated in an eternal and immutable Possession of Glory For as St. Paul amplifies this very matter Rom. VI. 9. Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more Death hath no more Dominion over him His Life preceding and following his Resurrection were infinitely different that contemptible and mean this glorious and terrible that common with the rest of Mankind this exalted above all the Infirmities of humane Nature And this is the Reason why our Saviour conversed not openly among the Jews after his Resurrection as he had done before from that time a new and different State of Life was to commence never any more to be altered or relinquished Whence we are taught that to come up to the Resurrection of our Lord and Master and express it nearly in our Lives we ought to exceed what is required of us in a Natural State and improve our Obedience farther than was exacted of us in a State wherein no more than temporary Rewards were promised at least that after our Entrance into a new Life after our Profession of Christianity we walk invariably whereunto we have attained that we suffer not our selves to relapse into our former State which we relinquished bydying with Christ and deprive our selves of the Benefit of partaking in his Resurrection by a similitude in this Life which might otherwise secure to us a nearer imitation of him by a glorious Resurrection in the next Of this the Resurrection of our Lord giveth us the greatest assurance Without that signal Confirmation of the truth of the Divine Promises Men would have been prone to dis-believe them It seemed a matter incredible both to Jews and Gentiles that God should after many Ages recollect the scattered parts of a dead Body and reuniting them into their former Frame once more animate them with a living Soul This to some seemed impossible to others improbable But both were refuted by the Example of our Lord's Resurrection which was to that purpose always urged by the Apostles in their Preaching and is employed by St. Paul as the chief Argument against the incredulity of the Corinthians in the 1 Epist. XV. Chapter God had promised as well to raise up Mankind at the last day as to raise up his Son on the Third day and the certain Completion of this latter Promise secured the Belief of the former there being no more effectual Argument to perswade Men to rely upon the Promise of future Benefits than to demonstrate to them how all preceding Promises were infallibly performed And thus in some sense all Mankind may be said to rise with Christ inasmuch as Christ being risen from the dead is become the first fruits of them that slept 1 Cor. XV. 20. That as the whole Mass is sanctified by the Dedication of the first Fruits so all Mankind received an earnest of the Divine Promises concerning their Resurrection in the Person of Christ. But then in a more particular and proper manner all faithful Christians may be said to rise with Christ. There is a Resurrection to Death as well as Life a terrible as well as a desireable Resurrection To rise therefore with Christ is the happy Resurrection and That as St. Peter tells us 1 Epist. I. 4. is to rise to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us That this will be the Reward of all good and pious Christians the Resurrection of their Lord and Master is sufficient assurance to them To such Christ is a Head
are above so fit our selves for the Reception of his Representative Body in the Holy Sacrament that we be not unworthy after Death to be received unto the Society of his Natural and now glorious Body in Heaven Where he sitteth on the right hand of God To him with the Father and the Holy Spirit be ascribed all Honour Power and Glory henceforth and for evermore The Fourteenth SERMON PREACH'D May 4th 1689. At LAMBETH CHAPEL Joh. XIV 1. Let not your heart be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me OUR Lord and Saviour being now ready to leave the World and return to his Father endeavoured by many Preparatory Discourses to confirm the Minds and dispel the Anxiety of his Disciples who began to despond at the News of his approaching Departure This to them not yet fully understanding the design of Christ's Coming seemed a total Dereliction of them and abandoning them to the World They had forsaken all the present Conveniences of Life when they entred into the number of his Disciples and had all along shared in the Miseries and Hardships that their Master was content to endure on Earth in hopes of partaking at last in the Glories of that temporal Kingdom which they fondly imagined he would found on Earth With these Hopes they supported themselves under all their Calamities and busied themselves in proposing imaginary Methods of enjoying what they so long and so earnestly expected We find them disputing who should be the greatest Officer or the principal Favourite in this Kingdom who should sit on his right hand and on his left And now that after their Lord had entred into Jerusalem in a triumphal manner their Hopes were enhanced and Expectations grew higher as believing the Completion of them to be at hand and that this glorious Kingdom of the Messias would immediately commence When on a sudden all their Hopes were dashed and their imaginary Happiness overthrown by a free and open Declaration of their Lord concerning his Sufferings and ignominous Death which now drew near and were immediately to be accomplished In what Confusion and Anxiety must we then conceive them to have been when not only their Hopes and therein in their own Opinion the Fruits and Reward of so many Labours so much Hardship undertaken and endured in prospect of their Preferment in a temporal Kingdom to be founded by their Master were in an instant overthrown and cancelled When not only themselves were to be dispersed as sheep having no Shepheard exposed to the Derision Insults and Persecution of the Jews who as our Lord foretold should even force them to deny their Master and thereby renounce all Title to any share in the Glories of his Kingdom When they were to be left alone without any Head to direct comfort and protect them When not only all these Calamities were to come upon themselves but also their dearest Lord and Master was to be delivered up to the Rage of wicked Men to be treated with the utmost Indignities and at last Crucified as a Malefactor What Distraction must they then have suffered when so many contrary Passions Love of their Master and fear of their own Misery Deprivation of past hopes and Despair of future Happiness wrought together in their Minds They retained still indeed some faint Hopes of the Resurrection of their Lord after three days Imprisonment in the Grave who should then enter upon his Kingdom and satisfie all their Expectations but alas even these remaining Hopes are dissipated by our Saviour's acquainting them in this Chapter that immediately after his Resurrection he was to leave the World and go unto the Father In this disconsolate Condition of the Church our Lord seeks to chear up the Spirits and remove the Despair of his Followers by representing to them the necessity of his Suffering That thus it was written and that thus it behoved Christ to suffer by giving them the Promise of the Holy Ghost who should both Comfort Instruct and Guide them by assuring them this Comforter could not be sent untill himself first returned to the Father and by his Intercession should obtain the Mission of him that although his Bodily Presence should be taken from them yet that it was for their good and that he would ever continue to be present with them by the influences of his Government and Blessed Spirit by interceding for them continually with the Father by promoting their Requests in the Court of Heaven by pouring down his Gifts and Graces on them and watching over them with a constant Eye of Providence but above all in preparing Mansions for them in Heaven to receive them after Death and the Final Completion of their Labours upon Earth Upon all these Accounts he bids them not be troubled in their Hearts for his Departure and the temporal Calamities which they fancied would ensue upon it and for an Argument of Consolation says to them Ye believe in God believe also in me As if he should say You cannoâ—… deny that it is both your Duty and Safety also to trust in God considered only as the Creator and Governour of the World to resign up your Wills to his difposal and upon firm assurance that he both knoweth and willeth what is best for you rest contented in all the various Conditions of Life If you consider him as the Author of your Religion in which ye have been brought up ye have yet much greater reason to rely upon his Care and Providence in all doubtful Cases and Distresses as having often experienced his peculiar Kindness to your Church and Nation in many and wonderful Instances which were therefore at first recorded that ye might from thence conceive assured hope of the Divine Goodness and Providence interposing in your behalf in all Calamities as it is in the LXXVIII Psalm He gave Israel a law which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children To the intent that when they came up they might shew their children the same That they might put their trust in God and not to forget the works of God If for these Reasons you are content to trust in God and depend on him for relief in your Afflictions for much greater Reasons ye ought to confide and relye upon my Promises of Assistance to you and constant Care of you even after I shall be removed from you inasmuch as ye have received from me more manifest Assurances of the peculiar Favour of God to you than ever were indulged to any part of Mankind to the Patriarchs or the Jews My Ability to do all this you cannot doubt As knowing who I am and what place I bear in Heaven or if ye should not believe this merely for the Consideration of the Divinity of my Person yet believe me for the very works sake Ver. 11. being convinced by so many Miracles as I have wrought for your Satisfaction that I am able to perform whatsoever I Promise to you And then for my willingness to do it you have