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
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
few Exceptions that have sometimes been offer'd to justifie the doing of it This is a work both too large for such a Discourse and besides the design of my present Undertaking And that one Concession of many of our Brethren themselves who tho' they continue ordinarily to separate from us yet nevertheless freely allow of what they call Occasional Communion with us I think sufficiently shews how little real ground there is for those Scruples that have so long detain'd them in an unjust aversion to our Worship Blessed be God who has abundantly justified both the Purity of our Doctrin and the Innocency of our Worship not only by the general Approbation of the Reformed Churches abroad who both freely communicate with us in our religious Offices and have often given Testimony in favour of them but in the happy Conviction of many at Home who were once Enemies to our Constitution but who now go with us into the same House of God as Friends And indeed the things for which some forsake us now are no other than what they were in the Beginning of the Reformation when yet there was no such thing as Separation from our Communion But on the contrary the old Non-Conformists themselves tho' they disliked some things in our Worship yet freely declared they thought it a Crime to divide the Church on the account of them And they who at this day separate from us for the sake of those few Constitutions that have been made for the Order and Decency of our Publick Worship must for the same reason have separated from all the Churches of the Christian World for above 1500 years in none of which they might not have found as great that I do not say and much greater occasion of Offence than they can in Ours But yet since Mens Scruples are unaccountable and after all that can be said they will still differ even about indifferent things and be afraid many times where no Fear is and a too long Experience has already shewn us That if ever we mean to accomplish that Union so much recommended to us by our Apostle so advantagious to the Church at all times but especially at this time so necessary to our Peace and our Establishment that it seems to be the only way that yet remains to settle and to secure us and upon all these accounts so much to be desired by all Good Men we must seek it by that Rule which St. Paul here proposed to the Dissenting Christians of my Text We then that are strong in the faith ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves I cannot but think it a Reflection becoming every good Christian among us but in a more especial manner worthy the Consideration of such an Auditory as this Whether somewhat may not yet be done for the sake of Peace and to bring things to such a TEMPER that both Order and Decency may still be preserved and yet our Vnity no longer broken And for Exhortations to so Good and Christian a Work shall I set before you the Example of our Blessed Saviour recommended to us in the Text with what a mighty condescension he has treated Us how he came down from Heaven and took upon Him the form of a servant and being made in the likeness of a sinful man humbled Himself even to the Death upon the Cross for us How He still bears not only with our Infirmities but with our Sins too and by all these wonderful instances of his Love to us teacheth us says St. John How we ought also to love one another Or rather shall I shew you how far such a Blessed Vnion as this would conduce to the Glory of God to the Security of our Religion and to the Promotion of Peace and Charity and Piety among us I need not say what a dishonour our Divisions have already brought to the Reformation nor what a stop they have put to the progress of it Great to be sure is the Advantage which our Enemies either have or at least hoped to have made by those Contests which they have taken so much pains both to bring in and to keep up among us And methinks there should need no other Argument to stir up every true Friend to the name of Protestant to endeavour all he can to compose our Differences than this one thing That we are sufficiently convinced who they are that we please and whose Interests we serve by the continuance of them Let us add to this what great Obligations our Holy Religion lays upon us to follow after those things that make for peace and whereby we may edifie one another How our Saviour has set it down as the very Badge of our Discipleship By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have love one to another What Exhortations his Apostles have given us If it be possible as much as in us lies to live peaceably with all men But especially with reference to the differences about Religion To mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which we have learnt and avoid them With what a scrupulous care did St. Paul manage himself between the dissenting parties in my Text What admirable Rules did he lay down for them to walk by And with what an affectionate earnestness did he enforce them If there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of Love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any Bowels and Mercies fulfil ye my joy that ye be like-minded having the same Love being of one Accord of one Mind And may I not beg leave tho' not with the Authority yet with the Charity of St. Paul to apply all this to those unhappy Divisions that at this day rend in pieces the Church of Christ among us and beseech you by all these endearing Considerations to pursue those things which may make for our Peace and for the closing of those breaches which the malice of our Enemies too successfully begun and our own weakness has too fatally kept up among us Never certainly was there a time since the name of Separation was first heard of among us in which we had greater reason to consider of such a Vnion or I hope a fairer opportunity to promise our selves an Accomplishment of it Only let us be on all hands as careful to improve it as I am persuaded we have all of us not only seem'd to desire but have indeed earnestly long'd for it Let us shew the sense we have of that wonderful Deliverance God has given us out of the hand of our Enemies by uniting our selves in the strictest League of Friendship with one another Hitherto we have defended our Church by our Arguments let us now by our Charity settle and establish it against the like Dangers for the time to come This will indeed render both our selves and our Religion Glorious to the World and may be a Happy Augury
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
without a particular Revelation no one can according to their Doctrine be sure that he is of the number of the predestinate yet as they allow that there are certain Marks whereon to found a probable Conjecture so among those which is as much as can be said in this Case he doubts not to place this in the first rank to be devoted to the Virgin MARY Secondly * Whether a Christian that is devoted to the Blessed VIRGIN can be damned To which he answers roundly That he cannot Thirdly * Whether God refuses any thing to the Blessed VIRGIN And indeed we need not wonder that they are peremptory in this that he do's not when their Church it self calls upon her to shew her self to be a Mother and once at least did pray to her that by the Right which she had over her Son she would command him Fourthly * Whether the Blessed VIRGIN loves Sinners i. e. so as to save them And of this the Blessed VIRGIN her self has given us an Assurance In this famous Revelation to one of the Saints of that Church I am says she the Queen of Heaven I am the Mother of Mercy the Joy of the Just and the Gate by which Sinners must go to God And there is no Sinner so far from God but what shall return to him and obtain Mercy provided only that he call upon me and put his Trust in me But I shall pursue these Extravagancies no farther from what I have said we may see what their Opinions are of the Holy MARY in that wherein they differ from us viz. That she is to be honoured with a Religious Worship above any other Saint That she is to be prayed to as an Advocate and Mediatrix in Heaven that she has Authority to do what ever she pleases there and in effect do's partake of the most proper and peculiar Attributes and Prerogatives of the Divinity Let us enquire in the next place 2. What their Practices are towards her in conformity to these Opinions I shall need say the less as to this Point having already in great measure exhausted it in the Account I have given of the foregoing There is so near a connexion between the Opinions of the Church of Rome and their Practices founded upon them with reference to the Blessed VIRGIN that 't is impossible to mention the one without inferring the other as consequent upon it He that saies that the Blessed VIRGIN ought to be prayed to do's imply That if he believes himself in what he affirms he must then pray to her And so of all the other Instances I before mentioned But yet because this will still the more clearly shew the true state of the Difference between us I will make a few Reflections upon the Practice of Piety which is found in the other Church towards the Holy MARY in two Considerations 1. Of the publick Worship that is offered to her 2. Of the private Devotion which is usually practised and recommended by them towards the Blessed VIRGIN For the former of these 1. The publick Worship that is given to her in the Church of Rome It runs through all the Parts of their Offices and scarce any holy Exercise performed among them that is not infected with this Superstition If we consider the publick Prayers of the Church sometimes we find the Mass it self said to her Honour and in the very Canon of it God is constantly desired That for her Merits he would grant them the help of his Protection In all their Hours they close with a particular Salutation and Address to her and once every Week if no more a particular Office is publickly said to her If we look into their other solemn Acts of Devotion I have already observed what a Share she has in their Confessions and Absolutions Three times every Day at the sound of a Bell all her Votaries are taught to fall down and worship her What the Allowance and Encouragements have been to the Practice of her Rosary and what a mighty place this Devotion has among them I need not say In their solemn Sermons to the People the Preacher never fails first to invoke the Assistance of the Virgin MARY in the angelical Salutation and lest Men should not by all this be sufficiently encouraged to a publick Devotion to her there have been particular ways found out to carry them the more readily thereunto 'T was for this that the Order of the Scapulary was set up about 400 Years ago and to which Men are encouraged by no less a Promise than that of a Deliverance from Damnation by the Blessed Virgin and from Purgatory by the Promises of five or six of their Popes To the same purpose in the last Century Pope Gregory the xiii th first and Sixtus the v th afterwards set up another kind of Order the Congregations of the Annunciation to the same End And the solemn Admission into which is made by the Dedication of him that enters to the Service of the Blessed VIRGIN whom he there chuses to be his Lady Patroness and Advocate and vows to honour serve and love unto his life's end I might to this add that other long Catalogue of Superstition the building of Churches and setting up Altars and Images to her Honour Their Pilgrimages that are made to them their Litanies and Processions in which she bears no small part of the Service The dedicating whole Countries and Kingdoms to her as her own proper Inheritance The glorious Titles and Attributes which they give her in all their Prayers and many other Instances no less superstitious than these And by all which it plainly appears That they have too much divided their Love Service and Obedience nay their very Faith and Hope between God and her as if the End of Christianity had been no less to teach us how to magnifie the Mother than how to serve and honour and believe in the Son and the Duty of a Christian were as much to set forth her Praise as our Saviour's Glory But I shall stop here and add only a Word or two 2. Of that Private Devotion which is usually practised by and recommended to her Votaries Many are the Instances that I might offer of this but I shall take a few only as they lie together in the late Directions that have been given by one of their own Authors to this purpose 1. To have a high Value for her sublime Dignity to congratulate her in the full Possession of it to make a publick Profession of this our high Esteem of her incomparable Perfections and to invite others to the like Valuation of them 2. To express these inward Affections by external Acts of the Worship of eminent Servitude towards her By frequent visiting Holy Places dedicated to her Honour By a special Reverence towards Images representing her Person By performing some daily Devotions containing her Praises congratulating her Excellencies or imploring her Mediation