Cross must not be accounted to them but upon conditions which they are not able to perform they are required to master all their wicked Customs their untam'd appetites and setled habits to keep under their Concupiscence to calm their inclinations and their passions Now on such severe articles friendship with the Cross they think is too hard bought But therefore Secondly the Cross was the consideration upon which Grace is oâ—â—er'd us whereby we are enabled to perform all this thâ— power to will and strength to do all necessary aids from Heaven are granted to us as Christ merited them for us by his Sufferings and that Bloud he shed upon the Cross it is the Fountain 't is the Ocean of all Grace And if temptations storm thee lay hold on that Cross it is the Anchor of Salvation thou hast hold on tell thy God although thou art not able to resist and stand thou hast the price of strength that which did purchase it was paid down for thee on the Cross and is at his right hand he hath it give me therefore grace for it let me have the value of that Blood the Blood of God in spiritual succours which may make me able to resist thy Enemies and do thy will Now God will never be unjust to deny any man those aids that were so dearly purchas'd for him and for which he hath receiv'd the price And then that men should be Enemies of the Cross which is their Magazine of strength against their Enemies As men that do resist the having Grace lest it should change their inclinations as men that will not be impowered against Vice but will oppose the Aids of Heaven fight against the succours that are given them and destroy their own forces lest with them they should be able to encounter sin and overcome it Thus wilfully to run against and charge their Anchor of Salvation to poison to themselves the Fountain the whole Ocean of their graces is the state of them onely that do resolve and that had rather perish Once more on that Cross was wrought a reconciliation betwixt God and Man and that upon such terms of honour to us Men that God does seem to condescend as far in this his Treaty as in coming down from Godhead into Flesh there is Exinanition in his yieldings and compliance He sent his Son to move us to be reconciled as if he did acknowledg us the offended party and as if he meant to give us satisfaction in his Blood he dies upon the Cross to effect that Reconciliation When our Saviour would magnifie a Love he thus expresses it Greater love than this hath no man that a man lay down his life for his friend But behold here is greater love for Christ commended his love to us in that when we were Enemies he died for us only out of hopes to make us friends Love strong as doath indeed that brought him to the Grave who could not die 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 affection violent as Hell that brought God to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and made him descend to Hell For so low he stoop'd thus he humbled himself to persuade us to be reconcil'd and to prevail with us to be at peace with God And is a Reconciliation with the Lord so hateful to us that we will be Enemies to the Cross that works it are we so assur'd of worsting God Almighty that we will resist whatever makes towards a peace with him are the Sinners expectations so tempting do we look for such advantage from the Covenant we have made with Death and the agreement we are at with Hell that we will have the League defensive and offensive will be foes to their foes and will have War with God because he is their Enemy are we thus resolv'd to be reveng'd upon the Triumphs of the Cross and because our Saviour spoiled Principalities and Powers triumphing over them on it therefore set our selves against that Trophee of his Victories over our friends the Devil and his Fiends is the love of Christ so injurious to us that we will be Enemies to the Expresses of it and when his affection threw him down so low for our sakes humbled him to Hell to beg and to procure our friendship will we go to trample on him there rather than not go thither and rather than we will not be for ever there Wâ—◠〈…〉 for this O blessed Saviour that thou didst pray against thy Cup 〈◊〉 earnestly because of Man's ingrateful 〈◊〉 to itâ— because thâ—â—â—ast to 〈◊〉 God Almighties Indignation in it and the Siâ—â—ers hatred for it because it was the Cup of the Lords 〈◊〉 and 〈…〉 squeezed into it all the dâ—egs of his Wrath and 〈…〉 into it and when the one will make thee drink it up the 〈…〉 it in thy face was it not because thou wert to take a Cross up which thou couldst not bear the Torments of and 〈◊〉 will not endure the blessings of but most despitefully treads down that 〈…〉 thou art sinking under it laden with their weight this is alas a state so sad that neither S. Paul's tears nor Christ's blood hath sufficient compassion for And yet though one wept the other dyed for them these men have neither tears nor pitty for themselves Yet one would think this were a subject worthy of them 'T is storyed of Xerxes that when he took a view of his vast Army which he went to Conquer Greece with an Army such as the Sun never saw and it could scarce see that which the Historian says did Coelo minitari tenebras as it cover'd and drank up the Sea and took up and devour'd the Earth so it did seem to darken Heaven too An Army which consisted saith Herodotus when muster'd at Thermopylae of Five Millions Two Hundred Eighty Three Thousand Two Hundred and Twenty Men besides Laundresses Harlots and Horses and it had Twelve Hundred Gallies for Sea-fight besides Twenty Hundred Ships for carriage When upon this view he had for a while gloryed in his happiness to behold and Gommand so many Nations and so Powerful a Fleet and Army notwithstanding on a sudden he burst into tears on this Consideration that in one Hundred years there should not one survive of that great marvellous multitude And truly through his folly in one hundred weeks scarce any one but was the prey of Enemies and Death and Infamy But 't is a sadder Contemplation to reflect on the far greater Army of the Enemies of the Cross who if they do not end that quarrel will in fewer years be all dead and in Hell I know not whether such a sad reflection called out S. Paul's tears but sure I am it does deserve their own And there is nothing will avail in their behalf without their tears It may be tears are piteous things for such brave Sinners But then what will these insulting Enemies of the Cross do when they shall see that Sign of the Son of Man coming in the
I now described hath none of that hath no good wishes nothing else but hate is worse than a perpetual Pestilence Yet neither is this state so comfortless in respect of this life as not to have a Friend in the concernments of the Life to come none that hath so much kindness for my Soul as every man hath for his Enemies Beast which if he see fallen in a Ditch he will at least give notice that it may be help'd out thence No one that when a sin like to that Falling sickness in the Gospel and it is such indeed without a Parable is casting me into the water quenching my parts my Reason and the Immortal spark within me or throwing me into the Fire raising Lascivious heats within which after will break out into Hell fires none yet that will stretch out his hand to catch me or to pull me out None that does care to see me perish to Eternity or that values my Soul which yet did cost the Blood of God at a word speaking This is to be like Dives in the Flames to whom they would not lend the help of the tip of a finger or give the kindness of a drop of Water I am as it were on the other side the Gulf already Here is the use of Friendship the only noble one that 's worthy of that blessed quality When I have one that will be an assistant Conscience to me who when that within me sleeps or is benummed will watch over my actions will testifie them to my Face will be as faithful to me as the Conscience should be hold a Glass to my Soul shew me the stains and the proud tumours the foul Ulcers that are there and then will fret and rub or prick lance and corrode to cure those Tumours and do off those spots such an one is a familiar Angel Guardian is truly of that blessed Heavenly rank and onely less than the Friend in the Text the Person related to and my next Part. My Friends There are three things from which men use to take the measures of a Friend First From the good things he bestows on them He that thinks to keep friendship alive onely with Air that gives good words but parts with nothing that entertains onely with Garbs and Civilities is but the pageant of a Friend They that own having but one Soul and seem to clasp as if they would have but one Body too cannot keep such distinct and separate proprieties in other little things as not to have communication one from the other And Secondly The friendship of these benefits is rated by the measures of our need of them When Midas was ready to die for hunger his God was kinder to him in a little bread than in making all that he touch'd turn into Gold Great things engage but little where there is but little use of them And all these Thirdly Are endeared by the Affection they are given with Good turns done with design what need soever I have of them are hire and not friendship it is the kindness onely that obligeth the gift without the love does but upbraid and scorn my want Now to measure the Friend here in the Text by these were an impossible undertaking whose Friendship did exceed all bounds and measures I shall do no more towards it but read the words before my Text which were the occasion of it Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his Friends and then it follows Ye are my Friends The token therefore of his Friendship the gift he gave them was his life rather that was the least he gave He gave his glory first that so he might be qualified to give his life for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. ii 7. He lessened himself from the condition of being Lord of all into that of a Servant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. ii 9. being diminished made lower meaner than his Creatures for the suffering of Death Now with the price of such Divine essential glory to buy onely a life rather onely a possibility of Death that after he might give that life for us and with his Death purchase us an immortal life is such a gift as no Romance of friendship ever fancied or did aim at We may have heard of two Companions that would die for one another that never quarrelled in their lives but for this who should suffer first to save the other and strave onely for Execution But for a Person of the Trinity to leave his Heaven to come down to us to dwell with Agonies that he might be at one with us and be tyed to the Cross that he might be united to us this is a friendship fit for Ecstasies of apprehension Of all the things that court thy kindness here below that spread snares and lay baits for thy friendship if any bid so fair so temptingly if any will give such a price in Gods name let it have thy love I shall not blame him that engageth his Affection there But sure Heaven cannot give a greater gift than this for what can God give greater than himself Yea I may say God could not give so much for he must be Man too to give his life and this saith he he gave for his Friends even in our stead who must have perish'd else eternally which intimates the second thing the need we had of this A need great as the gift necessity invincible that could break into Heaven rifle the Trinity to serve it self throw Death into those Regions of Immortality and which would not be satisfied but with the Blood of God And now is not the kindness and the condescension of Friendship in his expressions too when he saith greater love than this hath no man which was the third Endearment There never were such wounds of Love as those that tore this Heart never such meltings of Affection as dissolv'd this Lover into sweats of Blood There was no motive to all this but his meer love For all this he designed to us before we were and therefore sure before we were deserving And O our God! thou that from all Eternity didst lay Contrivances to give thy Life for us so to redeem and then to glorifie us what were we then that thou shouldst do this for us what were we then when we were not and yet that thou from the Abyss of Everlastingness shouldst think thoughts of such kindness to us and such blessedness for us who then were not and deserved nothing and who since we were have deserved nothing but Damnation And as there was no other motive to all this design but love so neither was there any thing but love in the fulfilling Look on your Saviour in the Garden and upon Mount Calvary and you shall find him there in as great Agonies of Affection as Torment and hanging down his head upon the Cross with languishments of kindness more than weakness His Arms stretched out and rack'd as if on purpose to the
posture of receiving you to his embraces and his side opened not onely to shed Blood for you but to make you a passage to his very Heart Look on him offering up his Tears his Prayers and his Soul for Sin and in the midst of all projecting happiness to you as it were praying O my Father here I charge my self with all the guilt of those my Friends I thy onely Son God one with thee am content to suffer Torments that they all may be acquitted Here I lay down my Life that they may have eternal Life let me be Crucified so they be Glorified Which was the purchase and the gift of this his Passion to all his Friends even to those that do what he Commands which is the first Condition that entitles to his friendship and my next Part. Ye are my Friends if ye do what I command you I shall not urge that Great men upon Earth will not take any to their Friendship but upon these terms nor will I plead the reasonableness of this in Christ there being no cause why he should be a Friend to any that will daily disoblige him and dishonour him Nor will I press the whole Oeconomy of Scripture which says all the advantages Christ ever gave or meant us and all the acts of Friendship that he ever did for us were with this design He gave his grace that brings salvation to save us into an estate of sober Vertue Tit. ii ver 11 12. He gave himself also to Ransom us from our own evil doings and to redeem us into his Obedience Tit. ii ver 14. Without which no dependance on him will avail Matth. vii 21. He will own no acquaintance with nor services from them who have friendship with sin though they have cast out Devils in his Name if they retain their Vices though they do Miracles if they do wickedly he will bid them depart profess he never knew them ver 22 23. He will not let such have a bare relation to his Name nor have the friendship of a Title 2 Tim. ii 19. All his Rewards also that he will give are promised to none other but them that do what he commands Apoc. xxii 14. that is do Evangelically heartily and faithfully endeavour it and do this with all diligence exprest by words that import all strife imaginable as Running Wrestling Fighting Warring And persevere also by patient continuance in well-doing Rom. ii 7. and he hath nothing else but Vengeance for all others 2 Thes. i. 8. and we have neither Christ nor Gospel nor Religion but with these terms But I shall wave all this and bound my self within the present words Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his Life for his Friends Ye are my Friends if ye do what I command you When Christ is boasting of his love making comparisons and vying friendships with mankind nay more contriving heights and depths of Mercy such as Man hath no comprehension nor fathom for when he was preparing to do an act of compassion almost equal to his Divinity when he had resolutions of so much kindness as to give his life that he might shew kindness Yet could he not then find in his heart to offer or declare one jot of kindness to the men that will not do what he commands but in the midst of such Agonies of compassion he thought of nothing but infinite indignation and eternal vengeance to the disobedient I have but now given my Body and my Blood even to the Traitor Judas to one who is a Devil I am going to give my life even for my Enemies for the World But I will give no love to any have no friendship with any but the virtuous no though they be my own Disciples ye are my Friends ye my Companions and Apostles are my Friends onely on this condition if ye do what I command you And then is it not matter of Astonishment to see men fancy they have a right in all Christ's Actions and Sufferings presume upon his favour and their own happy condition though they do nothing or but very little towards this and the main of their life be disobedience as if all Christ's Commands appointed them to do no commands and Christianity were but a liberty from virtue To pass by those that do nothing but Evil that which the Devil does suggest or their flesh dictate and to consider the Demurer sort of Christians that pretend a respect to Christ and to Religion and see what they will do Why sometimes you may find them troubled at their Vices and themselves and those troubles breath out in Sighs and in warm wishes that they could do that which Christ prescribes to will is sometimes strongly present with them but to perform they know not how Alas Christ does not tell you that you are his Friends if you wish well to him and his Commands but he requires that you shall do them These are but vapours of a troubled Soul which howsoever they may chance rise warm catch a strong suddain heat breath up in flashing thoughts They are but Meteors little shooting flames that onely do catch fire and fall and die shew fair but they warm nothing And so these thoughts do never heat the Heart into Devotions and holy resolutions the fire is not strong nor does it live enough to melt and work away the filthinesses of the Soul No though they grow to aversations For you may find such men when wearied with the pursuit of their sins hating their customs and the engagements to the practice of them complaining thus I know 't is ill and 't is against my heart that I obey the motions of my passions or Lusts The incitations of my Appetite the usance of the World the Obligations of Civility or mistaken honour do indeed prevail upon me but 't is with great reluctancy of mind that I yield to them but I cannot avoid it There are not few that satisfie themselves with this condition Now sure Christ does not say Ye cannot be my Friends except you sin against me and against your Knowledg and your Consciences too 'T is strange that men should think the Heathen instance of a Witch that cryed Video meliora proboque Deteriora sequor I know and do approve of better things but cannot choose but follow these that are the worser strange that this Fury that had the Devil for Familiar should make Christ a friend that this should be the state of Gospel Saints and of Gods favourites 'T is possible some therefore go yet further to good purposes towards Obedience and have holy Intentions but this is not sufficient neither if to do his Commands be necessary for to purpose and intend to do them is not certainly to do them Yet where are any that do aim at doing any more and there is none of these but does presume upon his interest in Christ and satisfies himself and is secure Yet is it hard to find a ground of
out his own Bowels and cut off his hopes will Sacrifice his onely Son and Sacrifice Gods Promises to his Commands And then he that will trust to Abraham's example of believing yet will not follow him at all in doing will obey no Commands that is so far from offering up an onely Son he will not slay an onely evil Custom nor part with one out of the herd of all his vicious Habits will not give up the satisfaction to any of his carnal worldly or ambitious appetites not sacrifice a Passion or a lust to all the Obligations that God and Christ can urge him with he hath nor faith nor friendship no nor forehead 'T is true indeed he that hath Abraham's faith may well assure himself he is Christs Friend but 't is onely on this account because he that believes as Abraham believed he will not stick to do whatever Christ commands which is that universality of obedience that is the next condition that entitles to Christs friendship and my last Part. Ye are my Friends if ye do whatsoever I Command you There is no quality so necessary to a Friend or so appropriate to friendship as sincerity They that have but one Soul they can have no reserves from one another But disobedience to one Precept is inconsistent with sincerity that hath respect unto all the Commandments and he that will not do whatever Christ prescribes hath reserves of affection for some darling sin and is false to his Saviour He is an Enemy indeed so that there is no friendship on either side S. Paul says so of any of one kind the minding of the flesh saith he whether it be providing for the Belly or any other of the Organs of Carnality is desperate incurable Rebellion Now such a Rebel is we know the worst of Enemies S. James does say as much of any of those vicious affections that are set on the World Whosoever will be a friend of the World is an Enemy of God James iv 4. And he calls them adulteresses and Adulterers who think to joyn great strict Religion to some little by-by-love of an Honour or a profit of this World Such Men are like a Wife that not contented with the partner of her Bed takes in another now and then she must not count her self her Husbands Friend though she give him the greatest share in her affections no she is but a bosom Enemy And so any one Vice allowed is a paramour sin is whoredom against Christ and our pretended friendship to him in all other obediences is but the kindness and the caresses of an Adulteress the meer hypocrisie and treachery of love If it be necessary to the gaining Christ's friendship that thou do his Commands 't is necessary that thou do them all that thou divorce thy self from thy beloved sin as well as any other Because his Friendship does no more require other obedience than it does that but is as inconsistent with thy own peculiar Vice as with the rest Indeed it is impossible that it should bear with any they being all his murderers If thou canst find one sin that had no hand in putting Christ to Death one Vice that did not come into the garden nor upon Mount Calvary that did not help to assassin thy Saviour even take thy fill of that But if each had a stab at him if no one of thy Vices could have been forgiven had not thy Jesus died for it canst thou expect he should have kindness for his Agony or friendship for the man that entertains his Crucifiers in his heart If worldly cares which he calls Thorns fill thy head with Contrivances of Wealth and Greatness of filling Coffers and of platting Coronets for thee as the thorns did make him a Câ—own too wouldst thou have him receive thee and these in his bosom to gore his Heart as they did pierce his Head If thou delight in that intemperance which filled his deadly Cup which Vomited Gall into it can he delight in thee That Cup which made him fall upon his face to deprecate will he partake in as the pledge of mutual love He that sunk under could not bear this load of thine when it was in his Cross upon his shoulders will he bear it and thee in his Arms when thou fallest under it When thou wilt cast a shameful spewing on his glory too if he own such a Friend Thou that art so familiar with his Name as thou wer't more his Friend than any in the World whose Oaths and imprecations Moses says strike through that Name which they so often call upon thou mayst as well think his Heart did attract the Spear that pierced it and the Wound close upon its head with Unions of Love as that he hath kindness for thee If Christ may make Friendship with him that does allow himself a sin he may have fellowship with Belial For him to dwell in any heart that cherisheth a Vice were to descend to Hell again But as far as those Regions of Darkness are from his Habitation of Glory and the Black Spirits of that place from being any of his Guard of holy Myriads so for is he from dwelling with or being friend to him that is a friend to any wickedness to him that will not do whatever he commands And now if these Conditions seem hard if any do not care to be his Friend upon these terms they may betake themselves to others Let such make themselves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness A Friend indeed that hath not so much of the insincerities as many great ones have For this will furnish them with all that heart or lust can wish for all that necessity or wantonness proposeth to it self to dress out pomp or Vice But yet when with enjoyment the affections grow and become so unquiet work them so as not to let their thoughts or actions rest make them quicken themselves and like the motions of all things that go downwards tending to the Earth increase by the continuance grow stronger and more violent towards the end then when they are most passionate it fails them And having filled their life with most unsatisfied tormenting cares it leaves them nothing but the guilt of all When their great Wealth shall shrink into a single sheet no more of it be left but a thin shroud and all their vast Inheritances but six foot of Earth be gone yet the iniquity of all will stick close to them and this false Friend that does it Self forsake them will neither go along nor will let its pomp follow them raises a cry on them as high as Gods Tribunal the cry of all the Blood all the oppressed rights that bribery till then had stifled the groans of all those Poor that greatness covetousness or extortion had groun'd or crush'd the yellings of those Souls that were sâ—arv'd for want of the Bread of life which yet they payed for and the price of it made those heaps which will
is the sense of men But truly this is to discourse against Text and perfectly to go against that duty which the Scripture does so strictly enjoin upon those very grounds for which they refuse it This is so far from doing without disputing that we would reason our selves out of our obedience with those very reasons for which God says we should obey And truly very justly for when is any use of light but in the dark 'T is then most time for us to shine when there is nothing else but works of night about us When thou art engag'd in the conversation of those profane people or by any occasion cast into the company of them when either custom or passion or carnal inclinations make them without regard of God and Piety transgress or break one or more Commandments if thou be a Christian and consequently pretend to those things here which Christ says every Christian is if thou be a Light then God hath cast thee where there is some business some emploiment for thy light and truly that hath several things to do in such a case One is to reprove Eph. 5. 11 13. And truly as to this duty of reproving that is if the persons offending be such as either are my charge or such as preserving that respect that is due to Autority and distance I may speak to freely then clearly to reprehend them or if they be otherwise then by some humble gesture or other meek manner to give them to see that sense I have and every Christian ought to have of their sins and that tho I respect their persons yet I dislike and detest the crime is such a piece of Piety as if there were no other engagement to but that of Friendship methinks it should prevail with me For should I see my company that I pretend a kindness to or any of them that I call friend going to drink a cup of poison either heedlesly or in an humor or stab himself in a frolick when probably by speaking I might hinder it at leastwise I may hope to do somwhat towards it if I but beg them to be kinder to my friend and not to stab or poison him that I have a kindness for not to destroy my friendship shall I think I have a friendship for him if I would not so much as make essay to hinder it but let him take this course of ruin Shall I say I have a kindness for him when I would not so much as mind him of that precipice he stood upon the edg of nor offer to desire him back Or is it indeed more friendship to pledg him in the dagger or the poison or when I see him at the brink of headlong destruction to thrust him forwards and to throw my self down with him This is indeed the way of the world's kindness but God deliver me from such a friend I can have legions of such as those in Hell the Devil hath bin shewing me such kindness constantly ever since I did know what sin was offering me the company and the delights of sin urging me forwards to them No sure I that should think that man had scarce affection for me who would not tell me to prevent a little danger or a mischief or that should but see a great unhandsomness about my habit or foul stain upon my face which probably would make me laugh'd at by the company I was then going into and should not care to give me warning should much less think he lov'd me that would not tell me of a spot or deformity which would render me hateful to God and all the holy Saints and Angels nor come to keep me from eternal condemnation I think he loves me most that labors heartily to do me most good and he that endeavors to make me blessed does that And truly can you tell me what other very great use there is of friendship which yet is one of the greatest desirables in this world besides this of having one that will heartily mind the making of me better and so helping me forwards that which is infinitely and everlastingly my greatest concernment All other uses may be had without it but a faithful Monitor a Reprover cannot be had without it The benefit of such reproof where it is follow'd is the worthy issue of such an excellent thing as holy friendship God-like love And indeed the kindness of reproving befits well the most bosom-friendship that it tied by the utmost engagements of this world This where it did speed and they that love in earnest will desire and labor that it may would be sure to breed a kindness as lasting as their Souls they need feel no decay of it while there is an Heaven to reward the good success of such Reproofs And a much greater kindness too 't would be than any little carnal endearments and the merits of mutual delights beget common interests and common pleasures and common children are not like common salvation when one of these pairs shall look upon the other as the Angel that watches over him to keep him from from falling into evil as Lots two Angels that took him by the hands to hurry and to force him out of Sodom as one to whom he does not onely owe his share of the comforts of this life but the comforts of Religion and the Hope of Eternity This must cement beyond all carnal Unions and he that evermore hath a friend whom he dares trust and hath no interest disjointed from his own would give a commission and desire that friend to reprehend him in whatever thing he sees amiss however I may be passionate at the time yet let this be your warrant do it I may think on it afterwards do not let me be ruin'd because in that hot moment I would be angry to be saved if you love me love my happiness and not the satisfaction of an instantaneous passion or the letting me enjoy that present folly Rather than see me hot with anger will you see me dwell with everlasting burnings When I come to my self the heat will change into devout and into loving warmths and if I do recover by it both our Souls at last in one close Pyramid of zealous and affectionate Flame will mount to Heaven Now I have said all this and do consider that by almost all the world reprehensions and kindnesses are thought two very distant things I know not whether all this will signify much nor may be would it more if I should press this property of Light this kind of shine that a Christian is bound to reproof of whom them he sees sin from the reason of the Text the glory that will accrew to God by it When in a loose and vicious company a Sinner does run on in a full carrier transgress without a rub if there be no one there that is fit and dares owne Piety and the Lord of it they are quite put out of countenance and vice becomes creditable in that company and
come thence too quite discourag'd them broke all their confidence and faith they must have their Provisions and their Deity too nearer cry out for Flesh-pots and the Calf of Egypt that their meat and God too may be present And altho God always answer'd their complaints by satisfying of them miracle sustain'd them constantly yet as Moses told them Deut. 29. 2 3 4. Ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh and unto all his servants and unto all his land the great temtations which thine eyes have seen the signs and those great miracles yet ye had not an heart to understand and eyes to see and ears to hear unto this day they had no sense of them but what brute beasts were capable of having onely gaz'd as lookers on them did not mind consider and much less discern how great he was that wrought those wonders and how able ready and desirous to supply whatever they could need or he had promis'd and that whatsoever they might want 't was sure they should not want a miracle to furnish and by consequence had all obligation that could be imagin'd to believe in trust upon him and his promises But of this they were not sensible made no such reasonings but when ever any thing they had a mind to was not present or when any danger look'd upon them disbeliev'd and murmur'd still flew in his very face insomuch that God says Num. 14. 11. How long will this people provoke me and how long will it be ere they believe me Now after all those strong most operative ways of making faith they still persisting in their incredulity and most unreasonable and sensless doubtings not believing him is but consequent they would not hearken to him and be wrought on or perswaded by him but resisted his will always and as it must follow grew more and more stubborn and inflexible that is stiff-neck'd as God calls them having their hearts harden'd For it is the nature of things harden'd to be such intractables And being so to that degree that Miracles God's most effectual method could make no impression on them that he labor'd in vain with them he must needs abandon them and give them over as incorrigible and so having worn out all his methods and by consequence all his forbearance he swore they should not enter in Canaan and however he endur'd them to live fourty years their opportunity was dead and their day ended I might tell you how the same ill temper of that Nation looking after present earthly satisfactions consequently for a temporal Messiah made them disbelieve and hardned them against Christ's miracles and teachings but that former instance serves my turn and when St Paul proposes this Example to the Christians as a warning that they suffer not their day to pass them least they be shut out of their eternal rest their heavenly Canaan he expresly cautions them against the same two things that they fall not by the same ensample of unbelief Heb. 4. 11. and that their hearts be not hardened by the deceitfulness of sin Heb. 3. 13. Christ's Miracles if they did not make faith of his person and commission of the duties promises and threats of the Gospel to the Jews when present with them we may fear their efficacy may be fainter in men at this distance and if strong inclinations to the present howsoever sinful satisfactions of their appetites together with long practice and converse in them have got a great love to them 't is most certain that this will not suffer them to receive the love of the Gospel no not of its promises and blessednesses all which are so averse and opposite to those satisfactions and not loving it it is impossible they can be willing to give credit to it Yea those sensual affections blind the Understanding so that indeed it discerns not the truth of it and engage the heart so that it gives no great heed to it and then as Attention to it doth the belief of it must decay The man is onely such a stupid Auditor of what is recorded in Scripture as the Jews in the wilderness were Spectators of it without faith or reflection he considers not himself concern'd much in whatever it proposes whether by injunction threat or invitation whether it do promise blessedness or denounce judgment and so grows insensible of his condition as to either and then coming thus to have no sense of his condition therefore neither hath he any fear by reason of it i. e. so far his heart is hardned and so going on continuing in that state it is so perfectly And what that is Pharaoh can inform us 'T is such an heart as admits no compunction tho you let fly all God's arrows at it No respect to God what grounds soever of experienc'd goodness he have for it softens it if you beseech him on God's part he is not mov'd nor yields altho you threaten him if God invite him by prosperity and kindness he is ungrateful and he grows more dissolute but if he scourge him he grows either senseless or else furious and desperate shameless here fearless of hereafter of all humane things regardless of Divine contemtuous all past things are most perfectly past to him he remembers nothing of the good or evil so as to consider or make use of either and altho he throw away the present yet as if the future would never arrive altho you lay before him certain death and the ensuing two Eternities it is not possible to move him to provide for that Futurity And then when neither present past nor future can work any thing upon him how is it possible to change him Now 't is no wonder if God give him over when his state is thus unalterable Indeed as this condition when 't is grown thus irreversible makes the state of Hell here as to sinning so it seems to make the state of it hereafter as to suffering adding weight and in some sort Eternity to its torments for with the other grounds that shew it just for God to plague the little transient satisfactions of our sins with an immortal worm and everlasting burnings this also is one that the Sinner's appetite and resolution to sin is endless and as much as in him lies eternal and were he not cut off from the commission his iniquity would be immortal And it does appear so certainly when if God set him out a time for his Repentance and their Reconciliation and how great soever he have made his heaps if he do not seal up the sum with this hard-heartedness and persevering obstinacy if while there is yet any sand to run he will consider and take up then God will pass by all the rest and cancel the whole reckoning if yet he will refuse this mercy will go on to fill his Ephah and commits even while the life of his Repentance is breathing out its last while the possibilities of
Miracles but to assist our Worldliness Ambitions and Lusts to be our opportunities of Vice and provocation of him And being thus affronted and refused his Enemy preferr'd not this God but Barrabas any the vilest thing for Friend rather than Christ must he not needs be more our Enemy than heretofore And if he be that question will concern us Are we stronger than God It should behove us not to fall out with him till we are See how he does prepare himself for the Encounter Wisd. v. Taking his Jealousie for Armour putting on Justice severe and vindicative Justice as a Breastplate and his Wrath sharpening as a Sword and arming all the Creatures for Auxiliaries Alas when Omnipotence does express it self as scarcely strong enough for Execution but Almightiness will be armed also for Vengeance will assume Weapons call in Aids for fury who shall stand it Will our Friends think you keep it off us and secure us did we consider how uneasie God accounts himself till he begin the Storm while he keeps off his Plagues from overrunning such a Land we would expect them every moment and they must come Ah says he I will ease me of mine Adversaries and avenge me of mine Enemies and then in what condition are we if God can have no ease but in our ruine if he does hunger and thirst after it go to his Vengeance as to a Feast And if you read the 25th Chapter of Isaiah you will find there a rich Bill of Fare which his Revenge upon his Enemies does make view the sixth Verse He that enjoys his morsels that lays out his Contrivances and studies on his Dishes so as if he meant to cram his Soul let him know what delight soever he finds when he hath spoiled the Elements of their Inhabitants to furnish his own Belly and not content with Natures Delicacies neither hath given them forc'd Fatnesses changing the very flesh into a marrow suppling the Bones almost into that Oyl that they were made to keep all â—his delight the Lord by his expressions does seem to take in his dread Executions on his Enemies a sinful People And if the vicious Friendships of the World have so much more attractive than Christ's love and favour and the happy consequences of it as to counterpoise all the danger of such enmity you may joyn hands with them But if His be the safer and more advantageous then hearken to his Propositions and beseechings for He does beg it of you As he treated this reconciliation in his Blood so he does in Petitions too For saith S. Paul We are Ambassadours for Christ as if God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christ's stead Be you reconciled and then be Generous towards your GOD and Saviour and having brought him as it were upon his knees reduc'd him to entreaties be friends and condescend to him and your own Happiness If He be for you take no care then who can be against you His Friendship will secure you not onely from your Enemies but from Hostility it self for when a man's ways please the Lord he will make even his Enemies to be at peace with him Prov. xvi 7. He will reconcile all but Vices And afterwards see what a blessed throng of Friends we shall be all initiated into Heb. xii 23. To an innumerable company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the First-born that are written in Heaven to God the Judg of all and to the Spirits of Just men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediatour of the new Covenant c. And of this blest Corona we our selves shall be a noble and a glorious part inflamed all with that mutual love that kindles Seraphims and that streams out into an heavenly glory filling that Region of immortal love and blessedness and being Friends that is made one with Father Son and Holy Ghost that Trinity of Love we shall enjoy what we do now desire to ascribe to them All Honour Glory Power Majesty and Dominion for evermore Amen The Fifth SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL Third Wednesday in LENT EZECH XXXIII 11. Why will ye Dye THE Words are part of a Debate which God had with the sinful House of Israel in which there are three things offer themselves to be considered First The Sinners Fate and Choice He will Die That 's his End yea 't is his Resolution he will die Secondly Gods inquiry for the Ground of this he seems astonished at the Resolution and therefore reasons with them about this their so mad choice and questions Why will ye dye Which words are also Thirdly The debate of his Affections the reasoning of his Bowels and a most passionate Expostulation with them on account of that their Resolution Why will ye dye which as it is addrest by God directly to the House of Israel so it would fit a Nation perverse as that which mutinies against Miracles and Mercies is false to God Religion and their own Interests led by a Spirit of giddiness and frenzy unsteddy in all things but resolutions of Ruine that would tear open their old Wounds to let out Life and they will dye And though the Lord be pleased to work new prodigies of mercy for us and to say unto us in despite of all our Enemies both Forein and Domestick Live The use we make of all is onely to debauch the Miracles and make Gods Mercies help to fill the measure of our Judgments live as if we would try all the ways to Ruine and since God will thus deliver us from dangers we would call for them some other way But to prescribe to these is above the attempt of my endeavours May the blessed Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding the Spirit of Holiness and Peace and Order breath on their Counsels whom this is committed to I shall bend my Discourse to the Conviction of Sinners in particular and treat upon the words as if they had been spoke to us under the Gospel The first thing which my Text and God supposeth is the Sinners Fate and Choice He will dye Even the second Death for it is appointed for all men once to dye and then cometh the Judgment which shall sentence him to another death that is immortal in which he and his misery must live for ever that is he must die everlastingly Such is first his Fate That Sin and Death are of so near so complicated a relation as that though they were Twins the birth and Issue of one Womb and moment yet they are also one anothers Off-spring and beget each other while Sin bringeth forth Death as S. James saith and is the Parent of Perdition and yet the Man of Sin is the Son of Perdition as S. Paul saith and Iniquity is but destruction's birth onely itself derived And that this Death and Perdition is Eternal in the most sad sense of the word there are a thousand Texts that say This is the Message of God in the mouth and Blood
Tranquillity of the State is committed must have the power to judg and to determine what Faith shall be publiquely profess'd and priviledg'd by the State In which Judgment and administration if they err and priviledg a false Faith and inhibit the true they use their Power ill and are responsible to God for doing so but they do not invade or usurp a Power that is not their own Rather 't is most certain if the Principles of any Sect or else if not they yet the pursuance of any Principles do tend directly towards or are found to work Commotions and Treasonable enterprises the Supreme Power hath as much right to restrain yea and Punish them although with Death according to their several merits as he hath to punish those effects in any other instances wherein they do express themselves Nor must Religion secure those practices which it cannot sanctifie but does envenome For by putting an everlasting concern into mens Opinions and actions their undertakings are made by it more desperate and unreclaimable What Wounds and what Massacres must the State expect from them that stab and murder it with the same Zeal that the Priest kills a Sacrifice that go to act their Villanies with Devotion and go to their own Execution as to Martyrdom 'T were easie for me to deduce the practice of this Power from the best Magistrates in the best times if that were my business who had onely this temptation to say thus much that I might not seem to clash with the Magistrates Power of coercion in Religious causes when I did affirm that to destroy mens Lives or other temporal Rights on this account meerly because they are Apostates Schismaticks or otherwise reject the true Religion or Christ himself is inconsistent with the temper of the Gospel If you would discover what the temper of the Gospel is you may see it in its Prophecy and Picture in the Prophet Isay The Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lye down with the Kid the sucking Child shall play on the hole of the Asp and the weaned Child shall put his hand on the Cockatrice den and the Serpent shall eat the dust Whatever mischief these have in themselves there 's nothing of devouring or of hurt to one another in this state 't is like Paradise restor'd the prospect of the Garden of the Lord. Rather whereas there these Creatures onely met here they lye down and dwell together And the Asp and Serpent that could poyson Paradise it self have now no venomous tooth to bite no not the heel nor spiteful tongue to hiss But to speak out of Figure the Gospel in it self requires not the Life of any for transgression against it self it calls all into it and waits their coming those that sin against it it useth methods to reform hath its Spiritual Penalties indeed whereby it would inflict amendment and Salvation on Offenders But because final impenitence and unbelief are the onely breaches of the Covenant of this Religion therefore it does wait till life and possibilities of Repentance are run out and then its Punishments indeed come home with interest but not till then The Law 't is true was of another temper it required the life of an Apostate to Idolatry whether 't were a single Person or a City Deut. xiii To the Jew that was a Child as S. Paul says and so not to be kept in awe by threats of future abdication things beyond the prospect of his care but must have present punishments the Rod still in his eye and was a refractory Child that seem'd to have the Amorite and Hivite derived into him a tincture of Idolatry in his Constitution that was as ready to run back into the superstitions as the Land of Egypt as eager for their Deities as their Onions and had the same appetite to the Calf and to the fleshpots to make the one a God the other a Meal to such a People Death that was the onely probable restraint was put into the Law by God who was himself Supream Magistrate in that Theocraty against whom 't was exact Rebellion and Treason to take another God and therefore was by him punish'd with Death But the Spirit whom Christ sends breaths no such threats for he can come on no Designs but such as Christ can join in but saith Christ I came not to destroy mens lives Secondly The temper of the Gospel is discovered in its Precepts I shall name but one Matth. v. 43 44. Ye have heard that it hath been said Thou shalt love thy Neighbour and hate thine Enemy But I say unto you love your Enemies c. Where if Enemy did not mean the man whom private quarrel had made such and Him it could not mean it being said to them that they must love that Enemy Exod. xxiii 4 5. But as the Jews neighbour was every one of his Religion and he liv'd near him that lived in the same Covenant with him so enemy being oppos'd to that must signifie one not of his Religion An Alien an Idolater with any of which they were indeed to have no exercise of love or friendship no commerce and to some Enemies the Canaanites no mercy but they were to hate them to destruction Deut. vii If so then our Saviours addition here But I say unto you love your Enemies does say that we must love even these the Christian hath no Canaanites but the most prosligated adversaries of his Religion he must love and pray for them although they persecute him Which makes appear it does at least include Enemies of Religion for Persecutions seldom were on any other ground and Religion which should have nothing else but Heaven in it as if it had the malice and the Flames of Hell breaths nothing else but Fire and Faggot to all those that differ in it But whether it be an addition and mean thus or no since it is sure that both they and we are bound to love the Neighbour and Christ hath prov'd Luke x. that the Samaritan he whom our two Disciples would consume that Schismatick and rejecter of Christ is yet a Neighbour therefore him also we must love and pray for Now 't is a strange way of affection to destroy them to love them thus to the death to get admission to their hearts with a Swords point to pray for them by calling for Fire down from Heaven to consume them S. Greg. Nazian calls the founder of that Faction that began this practice in the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and if so we know well of what Spirit he is that does call for fire to devour those that differ from him in Religion 't is sure one of this Legion or it rather is the leader of them that did dwell in Tombs and does in flames things which he loves so to inflict one that was the first Rebel too which leads me to my second Observation That Secondly To attempt upon or against the Prince on the
it self in the sackcloth and neglected rudenesses of a pious penitent sorrow The prides of this side Hell are of a different garb I 'm sure if theirs be such if they design by those just means to settle the inheritance of Heaven in their Families sure the vices of Hell may be fit patterns for our Religious performances and 't were to be desired that all Christians had this mans ardencies and flames in their affections to their Houses Yet neither can I from this one particular instance draw any general proposition concerning the kindness of that place to Sinners upon Earth although all those that make this History not Parable would give me colour for it But waving that since Christ hath so framed the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a relation of such words as they would have spoke had they spoke on this occasion I shall take that as ground enough to apply it to the conviction of those who are so far from these Charitable designs to the Souls of others that they contrive nothing more than how to have the company of their Friends in those ways that lead to this place of Torment prevail with them to join in sinning and shew a Vice how to insinuate into them The kindnesses of our man here in the flames were divine God like Charities compared to these Our Saviour says Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones for I say unto you that in Heaven their Angels do always behold the Face of my Father which is in Heaven Matth. xviii 10. Which one expounds if we neglect to do what is in our power to preserve the meanest Christians from Vice and sleight their sinning their Tutelary Angels that have continual recourse to God and are high in his favour will make complaints of us in their behalf at least they will if we offend them and any action of ours prove an occasion of their sins And if a favourite of Heaven shall accuse us to the Lord for that Then how will he complain of us when we tempt when he shall have to say against us that we have ensnared and drawn such a Soul into a Custom that will ruin it eternally and when he shall bring against us an instance out of Hell here and the kindnesses of one among the Devils shall come in Judgment against us where we see the Rich Man thought not of his own condemnation so much he thought of the averting that of his Brethren We might suppose a man in his condition could not consider any thing but his own Tortures O yes to preserve others from them yet when the man in Hell does so the men on Earth do think of nothing more than to entice others into them And is it not a strange Age then when to tempt is the onely mode of kindness and men do scarcely know how to express themselves civil to their Friends but by pressing them to sin and so be sick with them as if this were the gentile use of Societies to season Youth into good Company and bring the Fashionable Vices into their acquaintance And 't is well if they stay there it happens so that Parts and Wit Faculties and Acquisitions do ingratiate men into these treacherous kindnesses and qualifie them for the desires and friendships of such persons as entertain them by softning them into loosness and then into prophaneness debauch their manners and then their Principles teach them to sport themselves with Vice and then with Holy things and after with Religion it self which is a greater Luxury than that their Riots treat their Appetites withal the Luxury of Wit And thus they educate them into Atheism and these familiar Devils are call'd Acquaintances and Friends And indeed the Companions in sin a man would think should be dear Friends such as pour an heart into one another in their common Cups shed Souls in their Lusts are friends to one another even in ruin and love to their own Condemnation are kind beyond the Altar-flames even to those everlasting fires such communications certainly cement affections so that nothing can divide them And let them do so but Lord send me the kindness of Hell rather one that will be a friend like this man in his Torments that with unsatisfied cares minded the reformation of his Friends Nay Father Abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent which brings me to the Choice the second thing If a Ghost should indeed appear to any of us in the midst of our Commissions it would certainly hurry us from our Enjoyments and there are no such ties unions by which the advantages of sin do hold us fix'd and jointed to them but the shake and tremble we should then be in would loosen and dissolve them all and make us uncling from them if we may believe discourses that tell us such a sight is able to startle a man however he be fix'd by his most close Devotions for what the Jews were wont to say we shall die because we have seen an Angel of the Lord from Heaven most men do fear if they should see the Spirit of a dead man from the Earth Indeed the affrights which men do usually conceive at the meer apprehension of such an Apparition do probably arise from a surprise in being minded hastily of such a state for which they are not then prepared so as they would wish or hope to be to which they think that is a Call for we shall die said the Jews But not to ask the reason of this now but find the reason why our Rich Man thinks when Moses and the Prophets cannot make a man repent such a Ghost should We have it in ver 28 they do but discourse to us but one from the dead could testifie he could bear witness that it is so as they say speak his own sight and knowledg and therefore though they hear not Moses and the Prophets yet if one went unto them from the dead they will repent For First One from the Dead could testifie that when we die we do not cease to be and he would make appear that our departing hence is not annihilation and so would dash the hopes of Epicures such as I was and I may fear they are who as they live like Beasts do think to die so too and who are rational in this alone that they desire to be but Animal And all the rest of men whether worldly or sensual that enclose their desires and enjoyments within this life and above all the Atheist that dares not look beyond it all these would be convinc'd by such an evidence Indeed this would take away the main encouragement of all ungodliness which upon little reasonings how thin soever that there 's no life after this does quicken and secure it self Wisd. 2. and therefore every Sect of men that did prescribe Morality did teach an after life nothing was more believ'd among the Heathen Their Tribunal below where three most
that do not by putting them out of his Train into the condemnation of Publicans 't is no wonder all this does not work with them whom their own sufferings and black Calamities will not convince There is not one of us but knows that thus our miseries began but few years since and yet we that have suffered for and by our Divisions whose quarrels wounded the whole Nation and our selves who have wept so much bloud at once to vent and to bewail our differences are still as full of the same animosities as ever and want nothing but opportunity to confound all again Religion and our selves And in the name of God what did Christ mean when he prescrib'd this Precept when he disputed prest it thus or what do Christians mean when they do break and tear this Precept and themselves Though I be far from any hopes to reconcile our Parties as by Gods help I shall ever be from making any yet I will offer an Expedient to make them not so noxious namely if they will keep the differences of their judgments from breaking out into their affections and actions And though while meekness and obedience to Governours and the whole constellation of Gospel-graces do not seem to shine so fair as man's own reputation or humor or possibly some strict opinion which they have own'd and the shew of holiness that glitters in it while 't is thus I say we cannot look any party will yield all do or will believe themselves to be in the right yet I will give them leave to think so and my prescription shall concern them equally although they be and by addressing my Discourse to them that are so really I shall conclude more forcibly them that are not who ere they be for sure I am none can be more in the right than those whom Christ lays this injunction upon than his Disciples and Apostles as relating to those that would be their Enemies as such Yet 't is to them he speaks here I say unto you love your Enemies c. The words contain a Duty prescrib'd and the Authority prescribing it The Prescription and the Authority in these words I say unto you the Duty in the rest where it is set down 1. in general Love your Enemies and that to be consider'd under a double prospect 1. As it is plac't in opposition to somthing that was before indulg'd the Jews or presum'd so to be by them signified here by the particle But and then as it stands by it self in its own positive importance Love your Enemies And Secondly this Duty is particulariz'd in several exercises of the Act commanded Love in relation to several sorts of the Objects of that Act Enemies As 1. Those that curse you you must bless 2. Those that hate you you must do good to 3. Those that use you despitefully and persecute you you must pray for These I shall treat of in their given order beginning with the general Duty and viewing that at once in both the lights that it doth stand in that one may clear and fortifie the other But I say unto you love your Enemies Of all the Points of Christian Religion those which did most stagger the faith of some and check their acceptation of it or adherence to it saith Marcellinus writing to St. Austin were these 3 The incarnation of our Lord The meanest of his Miracles which they thought the works of Apollonius equall'd and thirdly the prescriptions in the Text It seems they lookt upon these Duties as the mysteries of Practice that spoke as loud a contradiction to their active principles and inclinations as the other appear'd to do so those of Speculation and Discourse a God made flesh and flesh and bloud made so lame and passive sweetned so being alike impossible to their belief As if no flesh could certainly be so except that of which God was made and the Word incarnate onely could fulfill these words here in my Text They lookt upon this as a much-more mighty work than any of his Miracles as if 't were easier to snatch one out of the arms of Fate from the embraces of the Grave than to receive an enemy into ones own As if Christ had done more when he pray'd for his Crucifiers then when he pray'd Lazarus out of his grave For their Magicians they say vied Miracles with him but none of their Religions or Gods did ever aim at this Prescription ut quae sit propria bonitas nostra saith Tertullian this being a sort of Piety peculiar to the Christians Nor did they onely think it unpracticable but unreasonable as carrying opposition to all Government to the Prosperity and Peace of every Polity for he that does require that I shall have no return of injuries but for a wrong makes me in debt a kindness not onely supersedes judiciary proceedings but does secure Rapine by Law and encourage it by reward and truly if it were impossible for him that does affect a person to dislike his evil actions and to desire he may have condigne punishment such as by Gospel-measures may be satisfaction equal to his fault and warning to himself and others these men had reason But if a Father can at once love and correct his Child if when I am with indignation displeas'd at my offences against God and by severities revenge them on my self I do then love my self most passionately and if I can pray with all the vigour of my soul for that false Traytor-bosom-enemy my flesh while it lies goading me to sin and with temptation persecuting me to everlasting death then no reason of State or of my own requires I should not do all these acts of kindness to my Adversary In that thou hast an exact pattern for thy enmity to them that wrong thee and thou shalt hate thine enemy as thy self is a most perfect Gospel-Rule that being most consâ—â—â—nt with and directive of this Duty love your enemies But yet there is so great a difference indeed betwixt this Act here and its object Enemy being constituted such by enmity that is aversion and hate that love and that seem strangely coupled things that can be put together onely for a contest just as heat and cold to weaken one another that both the love and enmity may be refracted into a luke-warmhess Therefore I shall divide them handling Love first by it self viewing the import of that as it is sincere lest the enemy appearing with it make it shrink into a very slender Duty and having done that secondly see whether an others enmity and thirdly whether enmity with that appropriation here your enemies can take off from the Obligation of that Duty Love Now Love shews fairest to our purposes in those dresses which S. Paul presents her in 1 Cor. 1. 13. and 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 4. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 5. it suffers long if not the damage yet the malice of repeated injuries as knowing it is bound to forgive 'till
70 times 7 times And 't is not easily provok't not apt for sudden violent heats instantly all one fire quick as lightning Such heats are from another passion which though sometimes they do but flash and die yet oft they have their Thunder-bolt and most what do fore-run a storm whereas the heats of Charity are calm as sun-shine such as do not consume but cherish For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the same verse Love is kind and gracious full of humanity This Vertue is a kind of universal friendship hath nothing of reserv'd morose or sour an humour that makes solitude in the midst of Society and makes men onely their own company their Rule and scope and such a person Aristotle says must be either a God who can enjoy nothing beside himself is his own blessed and immortal entertainment or a wild beast whose nature is unsociable because 't is savage whereas Love is a pious complaisance to all 't is condescention too for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 5. v. does not think any thing unseemly how contemptible soever nor unworthy of him so he may do his Neighbour good he will debase himself to meanest Offices to work a real kindness Thus Christ because he lov'd his own knowing the Father had given all things into his hand he took a Towel and girded himself and put water in a Basin and washt his Disciples feest making the lowest act of servitude be his Expression and our Example That is but slender Charity that will keep state Heaven could not unite Majesty and Love But to exercise this God did descend from Glory into the extremity of Meanness 'T is Bowels that express compassion and tender kindness Now those we know of all parts of the Body are employed in the most low ignoble Offices and to such Love condescends where 't is true Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it cover all the naked with a garment and the deformed the leprous Sinner with a covering too for Charity covers a multitude of sins hides his own wrong from his own eyes this Love too like that in the Poets cannot see yea covers all that is no fit for light suffers onely the graces to be naked near him and not to name all which you may find there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 7 believeth all things however incompatible to love and to be wise have been accounted yet this Love is S. James his Wisdom that came down from Heaven Cap. 3. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 interpret any thing to the most favourable sense and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 easie to â—â—persuaded still believes the best and where it cannot yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hopes the best Affection while it lives cannot despair for then it must deposite its desires which are onely the warmth of Love and 'till it die cool not but if all do not answer hopes yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he does wait for it is not discourag'd with relapses and the repetitions of injuries but still expects and suffers all the contradictions of spite and wrong Now if all these acts and the many other there are essential to Love and all be under Obligation and S. Paul says there they are so much Duty that without these performances all Faith and all Graces profit nothing the Preaching Rhetorick of Men and Angels would be nothing else but tinkling and working Miracles but shewing tricks It follows then these Acts must necessarily have a certain object there must be some body that we are bound to love thus And if that Object be or Neighbour as that is most sure 't is clear my Neighbours injury or hate or enmity to me cannot take off nor yet diminish in the least that Obligation I have to all those Acts but I must love him though he be mine enemy in every of those instances For it is plain his having wrong'd me does not make him cease to be my Neighbour nay more that enmity does formally dispose and qualifie my Neighbour for the Object of my love And many of its Acts cannot relate but to a man that injures me it must be in respect to provocations that love is said to cool into such a temper as is not easily provokt For men are not provokt with kindnesses I cannot suffer any thing but wrong nor suffer long except there be continuation and frequency of wrongs Nor is it possible I should forgive unless it be offences done against me And so for divers of the rest Now it were strange the enemy should supersede the obligation of the Duty which cannot be a Duty but in order to an Enemy that injury should give me a release from doing that which I can neverr have cause or occasion to do but in the case of injury that I should have leave not to obey the Command for that meer reason which alone maks it possible to obey it and which alone makes the Command Whereas indeed because I must needs love in these expresses therefore he must needs be my enemy whom I must love But if he be without all provocation very unjustly so if his hate be his sin so that he hath offended God too in it may I not then espouse Gods quarrel thus farr not to love his Enemy if I must mine own not to love the injurious the sinner Vice certainly is the most hateful thing that is and therefore it must needs render the subject not to be belov'd accordingly 't is said that the ungodly and his ungodliness are both alike hateful unto God Wis. 14. 9. and David does comply with God in this Psalm 139. Do not I hate them O Lord that hate thee yea I hate them with perfect hatred I count them mine enemies And when I reflect on mine under this Notion or if mine be such as set themselves against Religion and the peace and quietness of the Church am I bound to love them If so then I may be allow'd to do it with a little regret sure But yet if we consider how these in the Text are designated by that Appropriation your enemies which means those that hate you my Disciples those that in the last words of my Text will persecute you even for your being mine and yet those they are bid to love we may conclude in the next place we may not hate our enemies as Sinners Nor yet does enmity with God his Church or his Religion qualifie a person for our aversation or mischiefs I except here Apostacy and utter obduration in it a state that incapacitates for mercy and by consequence for love and kindness There is a sin which S. John would not say that we should pray for and the Church thought that there was such a sinner Iâ—dian but as to less degrees they that are suppos'd to persecute Disciples and in doing so persecute Christ himself may well be granted sinners enemies to God and Christianity but yet says he I say unto you love these your enemies Tertullian
understood this so and writing to the Governour of Carthage who threatned all the Christians of that Province with Excision that he might persuade him from his purpose thus began his Proposals We do not write as fearing for our selves or dreading any thing that we are like to suffer for we did enter our Religion on the condition of suffering we covenanted to endure and staked our lives when we began our profession but 't is for you we fear for you our enemies whom our Religion does command us to love and to do good to And though we must hate Vice and do our best to root out Infidelity and Atheism destroy Profaneness Irreligion and Heresie and Schism These are fit objects for the zeals of Hate and for the feavers of our Passion and if our enemies be such we may meetly endeavour they may have appropriate restraints yet not to exercise the Acts of Charity and kindness to them we have no allowance No sins can make it lawful for us to ruine or not to do good to the Sinners In fine the onely persons that the Jews pretended to have ground to hate were Enemies and Enemies indeed to their Religion the Idolatrous Gentile-world therefore that being now forbid to us there is not sort of men nor any man whom it is lawful for a Christian not to love and all the reasons urg'd here by our Saviour do prove that all mankind whether good or bad is the object of a Christians love Because God does good to all his methods of Mercies are universal he makes his Clouds drop fatness even upon them that consume the encrease on their Lusts and sacrifice it to their Riots making their belly be their God He gives abundance of his good things unto those that love them onely as they advantage Vanity and Sin and that turn Gods-store into provision for Vice and for Destruction He gives gold to them that make gold their Idol and bestows large portions of Earth on them that are Children of Hell and them who for the pleasures of that Earth despise his Heaven Yea the whole order of things does teach us this the Creatures do service to the whole kind they acknowledge the man and not the Countrey-man and Friend but alike the rich and poor the good and grateful the wicked and ungrateful too The Sun does not Collect his Rays and shed more day to gild the gaudy and gay person whose Cloaths and Jewels will reflect his light return him as much almost as he sends and vie brightness with him than he does to the poor dark sordid rags that even damp his beams He sheds the same unpall'd day even on those men that draw such streams of bloud as with their mists endeavour to put out or stain his shine The Ayr gives breath to them that putrifie it as well as those that send it out a Perfume Yea the Cretures of sense and perception do not yet discriminate their Lords but with that same indifference serve all The Oxe knows his Owner and the Ass his Master not his Religion not his Vertues and then as there is something in man as man which God is kind to somthing in man as man for which the Creatures serve so there is somthing in man as he is man which we must love and consequently we must love every man And 'till thou hast found one so much a Monster that no creature will fear or obey and such a one as God will shew no kindness to at all will not let his Sun shine or his Rain rain upon but while as others are in Goshen sets him in the storm and dark of Egypt 'till then I say thou hast not found a person whom thou mayst not love no though he be thine enemy in mind and thought indeed for if he Curse thee thou must bless and must do good to him which hates thee which are the particular expresses to the love in the Text the first of which is Bless them that Curse you BLess being here oppos'd to Curse must signifie wish well to them that wish you evil Though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also do import speak well of as that is oppos'd to railing 1. Pet. 3. 9. not rendring railing for railing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but contrariwise Blessing And both are the duty of this place which does intend that all sorts of loving words should be the Christians returns to the offences of the tongue whether by Curse or contumely And truly when I do consider how the other way the rendring like for like and giving him that does wish or speak evil as good language as he brings is so far from all shadow of compensation that there is really a loss of honour in those dismal imprecating words the anger that does belch them out does swell and stretch and rack the passion blushes at it self the malice drinks those spirits up which it lurks in and the envy that Snake sucks all the blood away leaves nothing but its own pale venom in the stead In a word the very Essence of impatience is vexation and fret and then that men should call that recompence for suffering which is it self a present agony and hath no prospect of any after good that they should satisfie themselves in that does make that bold assertion of the Romanist who says that those in Hell do will and love their being there not strange at all for indeed there is one and the same reason of both that in the paroxysm of a passion whensoever a man is seiz'd by an affection with violence as they in Hell are always and those that speak evil are for the present He does for that time love cherish and pursue the affection and in good earnest if so be that men can please themselves in the extreme impatience of a fruitless choler it looks like demonstration that the damn'd may please themselves in their damnation as to that part of it that which tears the Soul the rage of its own passions when they are loose and unmuzzel'd and the more because we have good reason to believe theirs are the very passions we are now upon Envy and Hate and Shame and they do vent themselves in the same manner too in Blasphemy and Curses and differ nothing but that their's are endless and then let such men please themselves in the returns of calumny and imprecations we will allow them the delights of Hell in doing so and they do tast those very onely satisfactions that the fiends do in their torments and much good may they do them 'T is true then what the Psalmist says that he who thus delights in Cursing it shall enter into his bowels like water and like Oyl into his bones like pleasure and refreshment like water to allay his passionate heats and Oyl to make him chearful after his vexation For so indeed the venting of his Curses seems to do but alas if to powre them out do make them enter into