of the best Philosophy did we remember that we are the Offspring of God could we prostitute so noble a Nature to serve the Devil could we debase our selves so far as to truckle under the Violence and Servitude of our Passions Tully hath an admirable Saying to this purpose Put the case saith he that we should carry any thing so privately as that neither God nor man should discover us yet we should have such a reverence for our selves as not to suffer any thing that is immodest unjust or unclean to escape us So terrible is the witness of Conscience and so infallible is its decision in the great branches of our Duty THEN Sixthly Is Man such a curious piece of workmanship he must be under the peculiar Eye of Providence Thus reasons St. Paul Doth God take care of Oxen yes the very Law thou shalt not muzzle the Ox that treadeth out the corn prove sufficiently that they are under his care and the eye of his Providence BUT the care that is extended to those poor Animals that feed upon hay and corn is far below the special care that he hath of Mankind His delight is with the Sons of Men there is a peculiar eye of Favour that watches over the human Race and yet a higher degree of Love and Providence over good and holy Men. Psal 33.13 The Lord looketh from heaven he beholdeth all the sons of men v 14. From the place of his habitation he looketh upon the inhabitants of the earth v. 18. Behold the eye of the Lord is on them that fear him upon them that hope in his mercy Psal 34.7 The Angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth them But his Love towards Mankind is so strong that it cannot fall under Words He gave us his Son and if he gave us his Son how shall he not with him also give us all things He did not take hold of the nature of Angels but of the seed of Abraham It was his Love to us that engaged him to take upon him the form of a servant and humble himself unto death even the death of the cross Seventhly IF God hath put such Marks of Beauty and Honour on the human Nature Let us love one another So the Apostle enjoins Honour all men Love the brotherhood There is something due to our Nature under the cloud of the meanest Circumstances As the Philosopher alleged when he dispensed his Alms to an unworthy Person Non homini sed humanitati Our Love must resemble the Benignity of God that maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and the good and sendeth down Rain on the just and unjust LOVE is the life of Heaven whence all Bitterness and Unkindness is banished as far as Hell 't is planted in our Nature we are enclined to it by our original Constitution it is the Livery of the Christian Religion and the Badge of our Profession The Vices opposite to it make up the Devil's Nature and his Torture too Anger Bitterness Envy and Revenge create those Storms that continually ruffle the composure of our Spirits whereas the Practice of Christian Charity hath in it the Fore-tastes of Heaven and the Life of the Blessed THERE is no injury done to us can loose us from this Obligation no Error in Opinion no Enormity in Practice no Disaster of Fortune for our Brother is of our kind and however sullied and defac't retains still the Image of God The more frequently we consider this the more we are obliged to the Psalmist's resolution I will praise thee Which leads me to the Second Particular that I mentioned viz. The Psalmist's Gratitude and Acknowledgment Now in speaking to this I shall First Mention some of those Inducements that oblige us to it And then Secondly press the Practice of it 1. GOD is to be praised because he is the only Object of Praise Love and Admiration nothing else can love us again but God or some other Creature that resembles God Therefore St. John exhorts Love not the world neither the things that are in the world if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him AND if he is to be praised because of the Works of Nature how much more because of his inestimable Love in the Redemption of the World by our Lord Jesus Christ Let the purest Spirits in their Robes of Light and Innocence admire it and veil their Faces with their Wings and stand at a distance and behold what manner of Love this is wherewith the Father hath loved us that we should be called the Sons of God If we cannot fly about the World with that Swiftness and Rapidity as the Angels do in Heaven yet what hinders our Souls to center themselves in his Love by the most unquenchable Ardors when we contemplate his Love to Mankind manifested in Jesus Christ 2. THE true exercise of our Reason requires it What is that you admire or what is it you pursue The Principles of Reason are everlasting and they are never so duly placed as on God who is invariable and without shadow of turning for the world passeth away and the fashion thereof doth perish but a Mind refined by the Principles of Christian Philosophy endures for ever Do but call to mind as M. Antoninus hath it such as have been in eminent Glory the Hero's and Captains of former Ages or such as have been tumbled down by Disgrace or run down with Misery such as have engaged to talk of all Men in every Condition of Life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What 's become of all those things now And should our Reason spend its strength in the chase of such Shadows it cannot be duly employed in such transient Vanities had we but a view of the Impertinencies and Vanities that pass in one City but for one day how vain should we find the World to be 3. To praise God is the Enjoyment of Heaven The vision of God is nothing but the Light of Reason duly six'd on its true Object and advanc'd to its true Elevation when the Soul is dilated and enlarged and expatiates on its proper Theme Have you seen the Cedars or the Fir-trees that rise so high and spread their Branches so wide from a little Seed just so is the Soul how infinitely beyond its present self are its Operations then found to be Beloved now are we the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Thus the Inhabitants of Heaven are frequently represented in the book of the Revelations c. 4.10 11. and elsewhere adoring the Excellencies of their great Creator The four and twenty Elders fall down before him that sat on the throne and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever and cast their crowns before the throne saying thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory honour and power
one earthly the other heavenly Secondly THIS opposition appears if we will consider the things that the World most admires loves and preserves We are exhorted by S. John 1 Ep. ch 2. v. 15. Love not the world nor the things that are in the world for all that is in the world the Lust of the Eyes the Lust of the Flesh and the Pride of Life THE Lust of the Eyes tempts out Covetousness the Lusts of the Flesh set on fire those appetites that deserve that name in the strictest notion of the phrase The Pride of Life are honors preferments and glories that men pursue with so much concern and eagerness But How poor and despicable are these things to the enlightned eye of a Christian that sees by the eye of Faith How thin are they how unworthy of our choice how disproportionate to the Soul of Man how feculent and paultry are the pleasures of Sense attended with so much toil in the purchase vanity in their enjoyment uncertainty in their continuance And if the World had nothing else to make it vain beyond all expression but this one thing that those who have admired it most and sought those satisfactions from it have been forced at length to acknowledge that there was nothing in it but vexation of Spirit This I say might convince us that the things the World most admires are very unsuitable to the Soul of Man BUT instead of such things the Christian Religion offers to our view and choice the pure and masculine pleasures of Devotion the savour of God the peace and tranquillity of our Consciences the victory and dominion over our lusts and passions and those riches that are at Gods right hand in the Heavens The chast and solid satisfaction of having overcome our vices brings more true honour than the atchievments that are proclaimed by the loudest fame 'T is more glorious to overcome evil habits and inveterate diseases of the mind than to surprize or take by open force a City IN a word let us but remember what are the conquests glories and triumphs that are exposed to our view by the Christian Religion and we shall find that they move in a far higher Sphere than the little things that take up the time talk business and thoughts of worldly men THE voluptuous Man sacrifices his Soul to the appetites of the flesh as if it had been given him to make provision for the lust thereof The rich Miser pierces himself through with so many cares and fears lest his Angels should take wings to themselves and fly The Ambitious is filled with a Phantom of honour which he hath painted in his own fancy that he forgets his sleep and all things else to place himself where he would be BUT the Christian Religion teacheth us not only to neglect but despise such fantastic apparitions such dreams such nothings that the blind World adores with so much pageantry and folly We are taught by it to recollect our selves from this hurry and madness to strip those things naked of their borrowed lustre to pierce into their very essence and feel that we are not made for such mean things as human fancy and opinion hath magnified beyond their true size when we come up close to them and consider them then their paint falls off and we must acknowledge that we were fools to the greatest degree So intangled are the Labyrinths of the World which made Augustus Cesar wish so frequently for his retreat and ended many of his Discourses to the Senate with the pleasant hope of his retirement that now bore up his Spirit under the load of so many affairs He had so many Armies at his command the Roman Empire to maintain them he enjoyed the applause of the Wisest Senate yet how did he sigh after the advantages of enjoying himself WE are in the truest sense the off-spring of God why then should our affections be mean Why should we so much admire what is despicable for the world passeth away and the fashion thereof but our Spirits and thoughts run parallel with eternity nothing less can satisfie the immortal Spirit of Man THEREFORE are we exhorted so frequently in the New Testament to place our affections on things alove and not on the things of the Earth to remember that here we have no continuing City that here we are Pilgrims and Strangers that when this tabernacle is broken down we have a house with God not made with hands eternal in the heavens These and such treasures are the things that we are taught to admire by our Religion these are the things we are commanded to pursue since we are Heirs and Co-heirs with Christ HE holds forth to us a Crown of immortal happiness that the sight of it might provoke us to the most heroick efforts of virtue piety self-denyal mortification patience and humility Now it is most evident that the World and the Spirit of Christianity pursue and admire things of a different nature But this opposition will more fully appear if we consider Thirdly THE rewards by which the World allures to its friendship and those proposed by our Saviour what do men expect from the World when they have sold themselves to serve it when they have sacrificed their time and strength to court its honours and follow its genius Such as have prostituted their very Souls to comply with its folly and wickedness how miserable is their gain or rather how infinite is their loss how emphatick is the Interrogation of our Saviour What hath a man gained when he hath lost his own Soul We find the World cannot relieve a Man when he hath most need of help and consolation LET him but put the friendship of the World to the Test when he groans under the terror of Conscience or when his Soul is ready to leave his body and then let him sincerely declare what weak and brittle reeds these things are that he most admired to support him against his own fears WERE we so wise as in our fancy to go down into the Grave before we are carried thither to converse with the dead that are gone before us to live a while under ground to wrap our selves in our Winding sheets and then from that place of silence and darkness to view the things that keep the Men of the World so much in agitation WOULD not we be astonished to see Men made after the Image of God so much enslaved to those Idols of fancy to those shadows that vanish so quickly to such trifles that are the object of childish appetites Did we but call to mind the present regrets and tortures of the damned Were we allowed to see Dives turned down from his sumptuous Table his stately Palace his numerous attendants and fine linnen into the scorching flames of Hell And on the other side could we see the Martyrs that have gone through the flames of persecutions and disasters now seated above malice and misery in the Regions of peace
have no relish to the Soul illuminated with the knowledge of Christ The eye of Faith discovers their emptiness they are but shadows and appearances of things attended in their most flattering dress with vanity and vexation of Spirit Let us awake then and see what is it that thus inchants us into folly and sin What are those pleasures that we doat so much upon if once compar'd to the pure rivers of pleasure that are at his right hand 4. SOME plead the severity of Christianity to excuse them from the practice of it The Precepts of humility meekness and self-denyal are intolerable to such but I must tell them that such Precepts appear only terrible to strangers and such as have no mind to come under any yoke or discipline at all The experience of the best men puts it beyond all debate that there is no rest or tranquillity of Spirit but in the practice of such Commandments Nay the pleasures that attend a pious life are pure and unmixt they are sweeter than the honey or the honey-comb With what transports and exstatic elevations did the Psalmist long to appear in the place of God's presence O when shall I come and appear before God! We are not acquainted with the ravishing satisfactions of Religion because we keep at a distance and therefore we are terrified by our first conflicts but if we struggled vigorously until the noisome rubbish of our corruptions were remov'd then our Souls might become a clean habitation for the Spirit of God and where the Spirit of God dwells there is also peace light and tranquillity joy unspeakable and full of glory What an impregnable Garrison against calumny and disaster is a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards man How vain is it to endeavour the painting of it by rhetorical colours Words cannot reach it the bold Metaphors of Poets are faint in comparison of it It receives comforts immediately from the hand of God and such as cannot be taken away from us so strong are the pleasures that do attend the practice of true Religion WHY then are we frighted with Mormo's and apparitions of our own invention Let us believe our Saviour who hath expresly told us that his yoke is easie and his burden is light The more we plead in favour of our bondage the more entangled we are by our corruption and the more miserable is our condition This Corruption may be escaped and reform'd and whatever is usually pleaded in its defence is vain and unreasonable Let me ask then how this Contagion that has so universally over-run Mankind may be cured And the Text makes answer to this that this Corruption is escaped by the great and the precious promises AND this leads me to the third Particular that I am oblig'd to speak to The Gospel in it self is the great and last Engine of God's Goodness and Wisdom for the recovery of the World and the Promises of the Gospel are the Wheels upon which it moves So much Spirit and Life did go alongst with the first preaching of the Gospel that it shook the Pillars of the Kingdom of Darkness threw open the Prisons of Satan and loos'd whole Societies of Men from their bondage The Apostles did open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God The Promises of the Gospel are the counterpoise that God hath laid in the other Scale against sin He principally designs to deliver from sin and from the Love of the World because it leads unto sin and the Promises of the Gospel have a peculiar energy to save us from the one and to deter us from the other If we believ'd the Promises of the Gospel without fear and hypocrisie we would immediately turn our backs upon our sins especially when we remember that these very Promises are environ'd about with the most terrible denunciations of the wrath of God against the disobedient The Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ Can there be any thing so powerful to alienate our affections from the World as the Promises of the Gospel How far was the glory of the Court of Egypt below the Spirit of Moses when he saw him that is invisible and had respect unto the recompence of reward We are expresly told by S. John that if any man love this world the love of the Father is not in him And again that the friendship of this world is enmity with God And S. Paul tells us that the Christians must not set their affections on the things on Earth for their life is hid with God in Christ THE brightness of our Inheritance obscures the glory of the World This is the promise that he hath promised us eternal life And now are we the sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but this we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Did we weigh the Gospel Promises as they deserve and think of them with love and application how powerful are they to disengage us from the entanglements of this present life and to promote the reformation that the Gospel enjoins 1. LET us heartily believe the Promises Eternity seriously and frequently pondered exhausts all our strength and all our thoughts It fortifies our Souls against the flatteries of the World and alienates our affections from the Earth The Patriarchs saw the promises afar off and embraced them and confessed that they were but strangers and pilgrims upon the earth And if the dark view that the Patriarchs had was so mighty to support their Spirits under the old Oeconomy what may not we do who are animated by the clear and glorious Promises of the Gospel 2. LET us lean on these Promises in our most difficult circumstances For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a-far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal We rejoyce says the same Apostle in our tribulations Patience under sufferings is the peculiar ornament of our Saviour's Disciples for they only have the surest Antidote against despondency The Devil that can transform himself into an Angel of Light cannot counterfeit Christian Meekness and Patience It is no stupidity but a rational submission to the Will of our Father they that are Martyrs for the World or their own Pride may for a while put on a resolute sullenness but true Christian calmness and magnanimity springs from the hope of glory and
full view of those intricate Methods of the Divine Providence that now perplex our enquiries We shall have our feet upon Mount Zion and from thence look down with joy that we have so happily escaped the tossings of this tempestuous Sea To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be all Praise Power and Dominion for ever Amen A SERMON ON 1 JOHN Ch. v. V. 4. And this is the victory that overcometh the World even our Faith TO prepare my way to the Text I need not acquaint you with the general scope and design of this Epistle that all along breaths the Air of Peace and Love a strain of mildness and sweetness that appear'd in all the Apostles particularly in S. John who was allowed a more familiar converse with our Saviour than the rest of the Disciples FROM the beginning of this Chapter we find him describing the force and activity of the Divine Nature by which we are enliven'd to higher actions than what our Nature produces for the Divine Nature being the life communicated from and by God raises the Soul beyond its natural self and strengthens us to do all things through Christ that loved us WE are taught by the Divine Nature immediately to place our highest affections on God and this love naturally teacheth us obedience to his commands 'T is in vain to call him Lord and not to do the things he commands such is the force of this Divine Love it overcomes the World This life to which we are begotten by the Ministry and Incarnations of our Saviour is so opposite to the corrupt practices maxims and designs by which this World is govern'd that it proclaims open war against it and though he that is in us in the language of S. John be stronger than he that is in the World yet the World stands upon such advantages against us our incumbrances and weaknesses hang so close to us we are surrounded on all hands with so many troubles and difficulties in our way to heaven that before we overcome we must grapple with our enemies and bear up with Christian Courage and Magnanimity THIS state of Warfare is the Scene of our tryal and preparation we are Candidates for a Crown of Glory and it is unreasonable that we should expect it until first we have given proof of the Greatness and Vivacity of our Souls OUR Saviour cloath'd himself with Flesh and Blood that he might teach us who are lodged in Tabernacles of Flesh to manage our weapons against our enemies and this spiritual skill and conduct is visibly seen in our conquest and triumph over the World and all its flatteries and engines This leads me directly to a more particular view of the words that I have read And by the World I understand nothing else than that Spirit of Folly and Wickedness that prevails amongst Mankind Which our Saviour opposes by his Gospel And here I take three particulars to consideration First The great opposition maintain'd by the World against Christ and his Disciples Secondly The possibility of our victory and triumph Thirdly The mean by which this is accomplished even our Faith As to the First That the World doth most despitefully and violently oppose the design and tendencies of Christianity Our Saviour did acquaint his Disciples with it when he was to leave the World John 15.19 If ye were of the World the World would love his own but because ye are not of the World but I have chosen you out of the World therefore the World hateth you BUT that I may give you a clear prospect of the opposition between the Spirit of the World and the Spirit of Christianity let us First Consider the Laws and Maxims by which the World is govern'd contrary to the rules of our Saviour Secondly The things that the World most admires loves and preservs Thirdly The rewards it offers to its friends and votaries Fourthly The manner by which it acts its malice against Christ and his Disciples and when we have shortly viewed these particulars we shall clearly see the fierce opposition against Christ against the Christian Religion against the whole Oeconomy of his Kingdom and Laws As to the first of these Are not the Maxims by which the World and its affairs are governed most opposite to and different from the Laws of our Saviour We are told by him that the Children of this world are wiser in their own generation than the children of light They are acted by principles of design subtilty and artifice the other is acted by a principle of truth integrity and simplicity The one is acted by fraud cunning and avarice the other by purity innocence self-denial patience and charity THE World applauds and raises on the wings of fame the man of business might and dexterity in managing and canvassing the labyrinths and intrigues of affairs BUT by the Laws of our Religion we are taught to despise the World and all its trifling interests and pleasures and to consider the Wisdom of the World as the greatest impertinence and folly By this I do not mean its Political Constitutions by which its madness is restrained but I mean its ordinary practices WE are invited to other treasures far above the gilded nothings that this World admires O! how empty is its pageantry when the varnish drops off when it appears naked to the eye of Reason and Faith So much the World and the genius of it teacheth men to value themselvs to despise others to be revengeful to climb as high as is possible they endeavour to attract the eyes and admiration of all men to satisfie their passion to the full to gather together all the treasures of Nature and dwell securely in its embraces But the Christian Religion teacheth us to see the vanity of all those contrivances the folly of their passions the emptiness of their satisfaction WE are taught by it to go to Heaven through the tempests and storms of this World with a low Sail to prefer others to our selves to be patient under reproofs to be humble in the highest of our prosperity to be denyed to the flatteries of Sense to be unconcerned and unsolicitous for future events casting our selves with the whole weight of our faith and hope upon the care wisdom and love of God We are taught by it to cut off our right hands and pull out our right eyes to bless them that curse us and to do good to them that despitefully use us In a word it ranverses and overturns the whole fabrick of the Worlds Politicks it runs cross to all its corrupt designs and to the end we may become wise unto salvation we must be esteemed fools in the account of the World and therefore our Saviour frequently told his Disciples that His Kingdom was not of this world that it was govern'd by and established upon other Laws and Constitutions Now when we but shortly reflect upon the different Laws and Constitutions we see clearly the opposition betwixt Christ and the World the
witty Parable forc'd open the Conscience of David when the terrours of God began to take hold of him he immediately ran to the horns of this Altar According to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my sins and my transgressions This is the argument which God himself cannot resist See with what zeal and holy Rapture it is pleaded by Daniel in behalf of the Captives of Babylon O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and do defer not for thine own sake O! my God for thy City and thy people are call'd by thy Name NOW we may easily guess what stress the Apostle laid upon this Argument like a skilful Orator he reserves his strongest motives for the last Place that by one stroke he might batter down all Objections He had sufficiently reasoned the case in the former Chapters and now he pleads that his Reasonings may not be in vain that they may not resist so much Light and Authority but rather that they ought to give way to their own Convictions and the true designs of Christianity and yield up themselves an entire Victim to the Will of God IT is usual with the Apostle when he recommends those comprehensive Duties that have in them the Soul and strength of Christianity to enforce them by this Argument If there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort of Love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels of mercies c. But shortly the reasons why the Apostle pitch'd upon this Argument are these I. BECAUSE the contempt of God's mercies is attended with the sharpest and the saddest marks of his displeasure and indignation And this is just in its self if we consider that we have nothing to say on our own behalf when we trample upon his Love and Mercy So argues the Author to the Hebrews How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him And again He that despised Moses Law died without mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy that hath trodden under foot the blood of the Son of God The contempt of his Love and Mercy manifested in the Gospel is the most inexcusable folly and madness This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light This is the Vinegar and Gall that fill the Souls of the damn'd with self-horror confusion and indignation This is the thought that eternally disquiets the dark Habitations below viz. that once they might have been sav'd that once they had their day and that they refus'd the Light when it shin'd No Tortures so exquisite as the lashes of an inrag'd Conscience The Light that they despis'd whilst they were here looks them broad in the face and makes them roar to all Eternity And these accusations of the Soul against it self the upbraidings and inward whips of the Mind make up the miseries of an intellectual Being 2. THE Apostle made choice of this Argument from the Mercies of God in this place when he summ'd up the whole Christian practice into one Exhortation because his Mercies in the Gospel are his last remedy for our Recovery Upon other occasions the Apostle moves men to their duty by the consideration of his Power So he exhorts the Corinthians Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we persuade Men. But there are other Arguments to move us when those from his Power and Sovereignty are us'd If we sin against his Dominion and Power we fly to his Mercy but when we sin against his Mercy there is not another Attribute in God to which we can fly his Mercy is the last remedy for the recovery of Mankind This is decipher'd excellently in that Parable of the Gospel the Master of the Vinyard when all his former Servants and Messengers had been baffled and abus'd resolves at last to send his beloved Son It may be said he they will reverence him when they see him and if they did not the patience and goodness of God was no longer to struggle with them If we reflect a little on the weight and solemnity of this Preface we may justly infer the consequence of that Exhortation to which it is prefix'd I beseech you by the most sacred Mysteries of our Religion I beseech you by all that is amiable and delightful by the mercies of God that soften the most rugged dispositions and melt the most obdur'd hearts by that great Propitiation brought to light by the Gospel that you would present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service AND this leads me to consider this Exhortation more particularly The Apostle asserted formerly our freedom from the Levitical Sacrifices and lest we should think that by our Christian Liberty we are loos'd from all worship and obedience he informs us here what was the Sacrifice that was chiefly design'd under the Symbols and Figures of the ancient Law and indispensably requir'd under the Oeconomy of the Gospel And tho Interpreters may vary in their Expressions yet all of them must agree that there is no more intended than that the Christians instead of Beasts and bloody Sacrifices would offer up themselves i. e. their Wills Strength and Affections with purity and zeal to the service of God The word in the Original in several good Authors signifies persons That ye present your bodies i. e. Your selves for this under the New Testament is the only acceptable Sacrifice This is the whole of the Christian Religion this is the life and design of the former Ceremonies and this is the Abstract and Compend of all true Worship And because this one truth is of such vast consequence to the Souls of Men and hath in it the Spirit and Quintessence of all practical Devotion I shall endeavour to recommend it and give further light unto it in the following Method 1. I WILL consider the excellency of this Sacrifice abstractly and in it self 2. THE value that God did set upon it when the Levitical Sacrifices were prescribed by the Law and were most in vogue amongst the Jews 3. THAT this Sacrifice was principally intended by all the care caution and ceremony wherewith all other Sacrifices were offered 4. I WILL separately explain the Epithets by which this Sacrifice is recommended with allusion to the old Sacrifices of the Law And from all these particulars we must necessarily conclude that this is the Sacrifice that truly recommends us to God 1. LET us view the excellency of this Sacrifice and total surrender of our selves to his disposal There is nothing else suitable to the Divine Nature it is not Gold nor Frankincense nor the costly Perfumes of Arabia that propitiate the Deity a Soul purified from vice and sin is his peculiar Habitation Nothing quenches the fire
Love in the first Epistle of St. John give us to understand that the Love of God and his Neighbour did actuate and enliven his Soul to the highest warmth and Charity WHEN we look upon the Apostles in this interval between Christs Ascension and the effusion of the Holy Ghost before they proclaim'd boldly and openly the wonderful things of God in the name of Jesus before they came forth with displayed Banners against the Kingdom of darkness then it was that their Unity did miraculously support ' them and what degrees of chearfulness and courage were found in any of them came seasonably to the relief of every one upon all occasions Their Unity first strengthened their Prayers they went up to Heaven as the Evening Sacrifice and with united force prevailed The Prayers of those Souls that are knit in Charity soon fly to the Ears of God they are raised above the Skies on the wings of servent Love the Devotions that are harmoniously poured forth on Earth resound with an Eccho in the Heavens as if the Inhabitants of the upper and the lower World had begun already the most intimate friendship and familiar Converse 2. THEIR Unity among themselves filled their Souls with great Tranquillity and though they were not yet actually inspired as afterwards they were with the gifts of the Holy Ghost yet by their unanimity they were so prepared for them and thirsted after them as the parched and gasping Earth thirsts for the showers of the latter Rain 3. THIS Unity had with it also some foretasts of the joys of Heaven Those triumphant Spirits that are above are twisted together in the mutual Embraces of Love it is their Element where they move it is the life of their Soul they cannot live without it either here or hereafter 4. THIS Unity dispos'd the Apostles and the Disciples to a clearer understanding of the truths of the Kingdom of Heaven Truth is the true nourishment of the Mind and this Truth enters not in its force and influence unless the Soul is first alienated from all harsh rugged and ill-natured Passions Proud and unmortified Men may make a great ostentation of Wisdom and Knowledge but the truth all this time is not successfully united to the essence of the Mind and the retirements of the Conscience though the words that convey it to our Ears may be lodg'd in the memory and imagination when we come to know the Truth in its divine energy and strength then are we made free from sin and hereby we know that we know him if we keep his Commandments Now the Apostles locked themselves up from the noise of the World and felt those invisible supports of Faith and Love when as yet they had not courage enough to venture abroad but Unity cannot long be preserved without uniformity and therefore they are said not only to be of one accord but also in one place THE Order and Discipline of the Catholick Church into which we are received by Baptism oblige not only to inward peace but also to an outward Decorum and visible Uniformity The Church in the language of Solomon is beautiful as Tirzah comely as Jerusalem terrible as an Army with banners The comprehensive Apostolick Canon is that all things be done with decency and in order and therefore are we exhorted by the Author to the Hebrews not to forsake the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is i. e. We are not to erect Altar against Altar but to continue in the Communion of the Christian Church observing those Laws and Rules by which the spiritual Society of Christs Family has been best preserved in the times of greatest danger and persecution If we cut our selves off from Christs mystical Body the consequences are fatal and dreadful THE publick Worship of the Sanctuary is Christs Trophy over his Enemies his Standard erected and set up in those very places where the Devil had his Altars are not his Oracles now silenced and his Sacrifices deserted where our Saviour is acknowledged King and Sovereign Is not the publick Worship the very joy of our hearts as the Prophet foretold Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths See with what fervour the best of Gods Servants pray for it and with what satisfaction they speak of it Pity saith Daniel thy Sanctuary that is desolate for the Lords sake And the Psalmist Thy servants take pleasure in her very stones and favour the dust thereof And again I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord our feet shall stand within thy gate O Jerusalem HOW hateful then are they to God and how contrary to the Spirit and design of the Gospel who destroy the publick Worship and the uniform Meetings of Christs Family upon Earth by Faction Mutiny Tumult Schism or Disobedience Is it not sad to consider how implacably Schismaticks are set to destroy the peace and order of the Sanctuary 'T is true as we shall have occasion to consider within a little the Holy Ghost came upon the Apostles in cloven tongues of fire but all fiery Tongues are not from the Holy Ghost A Sect there is of unquiet and restless Spirits who have no Principles but what tend to destruction and though it be no part of my design or inclination to rake into that Puddle of little Cavils and Exceptions that have been boisterously vented against the beauty and order of our National Church yet I would offer to the consideration of the meanest Hearer these four Particulars and then let them declare their thoughts of the present Schism and Wall of Partition that the Presbyterians have rais'd between themselves and the Catholick Church 1. CONSIDER that they and their Practices are disclaim'd by all Protestant Churches With what face do they alledge that they themselves are the strictest Patrons of the Reformation who have deserted all other Churches and by their Principles now think it unlawful to keep the Communion of any setled Church in Europe 2. ARE they not Nonconformists to themselves Their former Confessions of Faith and their Ringleaders as well as to the present Church the windings and turnings of Errour are infinite it leads them to a thousand absurdities it hath no solid Basis to rest upon but the present crasis of the Imagination and as that changes its Figure the Errour shifts its appearance and comes forth with further improvements And yet such is the unlucky fate of all Schismaticks that after all their refinings and Reformations they still retain some one thing or other that baffles and confounds all their childish and whiffling Objections against the Church I will instance but in one Particular which to this day is practised by the Presbyterians and that is they appoint Adulterers and such as are most eminently scandalous to wear
and love Might we from thence clearly see the irreconcilable opposition between Christ and the World in their rewards But Fourthly THIS appears in the manner by which the World acts its malice against Christ and his Disciples 1. It acts this malice by slander and calumny Our Saviour told his Disciples that reproach and infamy must needs be their patrimony if they zealously adhered to the doctrine and discipline of the Cross nay 't is made so essential to Christianity that to be reproached for the name of Jesus makes up one of its great Beatitudes Blessed are you when all men speak all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake He tells them plainly in another place that they ought not to be discouraged with the calumnies and reproaches of the world for if they call the Master of the house Beelzebub the disciples should not think themselves above their Master THERE is nothing in human Nature more tender and delicate than the sense of honour God hath planted it in our Nature to be a spur to virtuous and great atchievments The first Christians did sacrifice even this to the love of Jesus So S. Paul tells us that the Apostles were made the off scouring of all things and our Saviour intimates in S. Matthew that it was impossible for Christ and his doctrine to appear but he must needs meet with slanders libels and reproaches John the Baptist came neither eating nor drinking and yet he is said to have a Devil Our Saviour came eating and drinking went to their feasts and entertainments to teach them that are engaged in such meetings the highest innocence and purity yet he is represented a friend of publicans and sinners THE Spirit of the World is so perverse and humoursom that it finds faults with the Christians at every turn for every thing that affronts their wickedness WE are to persist as S. Peter exhorts in well doing and by it to put to silence the ignorance of foolish men Let us live like the Disciples of Jesus leaving our reputation and what else is dear to us to his disposal for we shall one day be vindicated from the foolish and impertinent censures of Men in the view of Angels and Companies of just Men made perfect The hope of this bore up the Spirit of S. Paul as an invincible Rock against the most violent storms Rom. 8.33 34. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect it is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen again from the dead Secondly THE World manifests its hatred by violent persecutions of the persons and interests of the Christians Did not the whole World arm it self with rage and indignation against the light of the Gospel when it began first to shine and the Noble Army of Martyrs forced their way to Heaven by patience and invincible magnanimity How undaunted and fearless did they stand out against the powers of darkness even when they appeared above ground in their blackest and most terrible dress They withstood their fury like so many Walls of Brass resisting unto blood and striving against Sin How inveterate is the malice of the Serpent against the seed of the Woman The Spirit of Persecution smoaks from the bottomless pit and our Saviour told his Disciples no less than that they were to be driven from their Synagogues that they were to be brought before Judges that they should be hated of all men for his sake And this is not so peculiar to the first Ages of Christianity but that all good men have their share of it in all Ages For S. Paul tells us that they must suffer persecution But this is not the only way that the World discovers its opposition to Christianity But Thirdly By its Tentations by its soft sly insinuations by which frequently it trips up the heels of the greatest Saints it lays snares for us in every circumstance of our life what it cannot do by open force it ventures to compass by subtilty and artifice The World is one great Trap and how great a Miracle is it that we should escape the flatteries and allurements of it Since its most plausible offers beat constantly upon our Senses and we lye open to all its assaults on all quarters we are so near a kin to the Earth that it makes easily impressions on us unless we are assured of the victory how could we encounter so formidable an enemy such Armies of Tentations on the right and left hand WE had need to listen to the Apostles exhortation Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall Our ground is so slippery our weaknesses so many our strength so small our enemies so active and malicious and the insinuations of Sense so deceitful From what is said we shall clearly see the opposition between the World and the Spirit of Christianity and therefore let us shortly improve this Meditation for our practice First ARE they so opposite one to the other then let us not love the world Rom. 12.2 Be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed in the Spirit of your mind Let us not be moulded into the frame and fashion of this World but let us remember we have a more heavenly calling higher nature a more Seraphick Discipline in a word we are to steer our course against the tyde and current of the wicked practices of this World for even in this sense the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force Secondly ARE they so opposite the one to the other Let us remember that no man can serve two Masters you cannot serve God and Mammon If you are the servants of Christ you must renounce the World for it is a part of our Baptismal Engagement to do so Where the heart is there the treasure is also if it be glued to the World you must bid farewel to that inheritance incorruptible undefiled eternal in the heavens Thirdly IS the World so opposite to the designs of our Religion Let us fly beyond it in our thoughts and meditations Let us frequently steal out of the noise and hurry of its incumbrances and confusions and dwell in those Regions where there is nothing but peace and harmony where the Celestial Choiristers tune their Harps and run divisions in the joyful Praises of their Maker and to be sure nothing hath a greater tendency to make us victorious over the World than the frequent flights from its noise and cares And this leads me to the Second Particular that I design to speak to which is That the Saints shall certainly overcome the World notwithstanding of its bitterness and oppositions against them and this I will make good if we consider 1. The Promise of God for our conduct and direction 2. The Victory and Triumph of Jesus Christ as our Head and Mediator 3. The Strength and Energy of the Divine Nature 1. THE Promise of God for our Conduct and Assistance He hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake
in the same Epistle That which is born of God overcometh the World The Soul once touched with the Spirit and Love of God becomes nimble and active in his service and able to break through the blackest Clouds of opposition what is it can damp the Soul once fired with the Love of God Did not the Courage of the first Christians amaze the Heathen World when they saw them part with every thing for Immortality BUT when we call to mind that the Divine Nature is the Seed of God we must remember that this Seed must grow up to perfection that it cannot be choaked nor oppressed IT is by Faith that we are made the Sons of God and the ancient Poets seem to have a Notion of this when they made their Heroes and such as were famous for difficult enterprizes the off spring of the Gods the fancy may be thus far allowed That every good gift and perfect donation is from above and whatever is great and generous is brought to perfection in the strength of God Christianity makes a thorough Change in the Souls of Men we are partakers of such a Nature as looses us from the fetters of our former prejudices and errors and makes us run contrary to our most hereditary and prevailing lusts this Change is a mighty Argument for the Divinity of our Religion ORIGEN against CELSUS glories in this Argument That by the Doctrine of Faith the fierce and barbarous Scythians became mild peaceable and calm That the soft and delicate Persians became chast sober and religious That the Proud and Imperious Romans made their Eagles sit down under the Cross of Christ That the Grecians famous for their Eloquence and Philosophy despis'd all their Curiosities and embraced the humble Doctrine of the crucified Jesus This Change had been impossible unless it had been begun and advanced by the Infinite Power of God SUCH is the Strength of Faith that so powerfully disarms us of our Lusts and Passions and makes us vye with the Angels themselves in the swiftness and alacrity of our obedience by this it is we snap assunder the Cords and Bands that held us fast in the Embraces of the World But 2. BY Faith we are not only endued with the Divine Nature but also we have the true Notions of God and of our selves the strength of the World did much consist in our ignorance One great reason why the Heathen World was sunk in folly wickedness was this they had lost the true knowledge of God and the Fables of the Poets were the System of their Divinity and those Poets did represent their Deities as Actors of all the Follies and Villanies that Human Nature is capable of then there was no proper restraint in their Religion to divert them from Vice since the very Gods they adored loved and practis'd it Might not they infer reasonably that the greatest sinners might dwell with those Gods and that there was not such distance and hatred betwixt Sin and the Divine Nature BUT our Religion teacheth us that he is of purer eyes than that he can behold iniquity that nothing unclean shall enter the New Jerusalem that without holiness it is impossible to see God that the pure in heart are only capable of that Vision that holiness is not only our duty but a main ingredient of our happiness THAT which I design by this is That we could not overcome the World unless we had clear Notions of the Divinity and therefore we are frequently told that the only begotten Son did reveal the Father unto us and the illuminations of the Prophets themselves came from him who is the Eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that enlighteneth every man that cometh into the World THE Gospel manifests the eternal distance betwixt God and Sin he is Life Power and Wisdom Greatness and Omniscience and Sin in its very nature is darkness misery confusion and imperfection then our Faith teacheth us to reason against the World from the Divine Nature as well as from the Divine Authority and having by it got a clear prospect of God our selves and the immortality of our Spirits what is it that the World can offer to our choice but what we despise in our esteem 3. FAITH gives us a perfect account of the vanity of the World its emptiness and weakness it teaches us to come near it and feel it You see the things that the World most admires have not their value from their own intrinsick worth and solidity but from the fancy and opinion of men Is it not then sad that we should be so easily deceived with shadows and images of happiness Those Nations that have great store of Silver and Gold admire our Glasses and Toyes more than their own Treasures It is not real worth but fancy that makes us idolize the World BUT as I have hinted before how useless is the World to a Man that begins to feel the weight of Gods indignation and the flames of his wrath already kindled in his Conscience Let the Man thus tortured consult the skilful Physicians let him call about him his great and potent friends his numerous and splendid family his servants and attendants and withal suppose him in the esteem and love of all his acquaintance and let the World smile on him with all its flatteries and caresses yet nothing can give him the least case HE groans under the smart of his invisible wounds his Soul is inflamed with bitter reflections and all the art and skill of the Apothecary cannot give him one quiet and calm thought how thin and coarse are all the Medicaments that the World offers us when we most need relief how powerful are the enchantments of the World that we should lean upon it when our Faith hath discovered unto us how vain a thing it is What can it do at the hour of death when we go to a Country where all its friendship is rejected In our greatest stresses we ordinarily fly to those strong-holds that we judge the securest places now a man cannot be in harder Circumstances than when he is tossed between time and eternity ready to take his flight into another World how vain doth the World then appear to him when his Conscience begins to waken and its accusations can no longer be shifted This I think sufficiently proves the Vanity of the World and the knowledge of this we have by Faith and therefore Faith is our victory by which we overcome the World But 4. WE overcome the World by Faith because it gives a fair prospect of another Kingdom It is this that lifts our affections above this present World we begin to despise all its offers when we know we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ Jesus If we were surpriz'd with being chosen into the Roman Empire how little would we value our former designs and projects The Christians look down upon the World with a heavenly Magnanimity as a thing below them for they fix their
learn That there is nothing so amiable as true Religion Nothing else resembles the Divine Nature He that is born of God committeth no sin he that committeth sin is of the Devil and the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil The Text that I have hitherto discours'd of is the abridgement of the Gospel Let us remember our miserable condition by Nature and enquire what effectual remedies there may be to knock off our fetters to procure unto us the Liberty of the Sons of God to restore us to his Image and how glorious our Victory must make us when we are made partakers of the Divine Nature when we live in a purer Air and feed our Souls with the prospect of Immortality when we are got above the Enchantments of Sense when by our comfortable experience we taste and see that God is good and in the meditation of such things let us commit our souls unto him as into the hands of a faithful Creator To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be all Glory Power and Dominion for ever Amen A SERMON Preach'd before the Bishop and Synod April 1687. in S. Giles's Church Edinburgh ON CANTICLES iv V. 15. A Fountain of Gardens a Well of Living Waters and Streams from Lebanon THE Song of Solomon that is the most Elegant and Divine Composure of all his Poems the Song of Songs by an usual Hebraism the most Excellent and Seraphick Poem of all that Solomon ever wrote and deserves to be so called as Grotius hath it ob multas elegantias quae in alium sermonem translatae non idem sapiunt they are like Aromatick Spirits that cannot so easily be conveyed from one vessel to another 'T IS in its kind a Dramatic Poem full of art and delicious harmony that under the Chast and Sacred Metaphor of Marriage sets off the Love of Christ to his Church in the most ravishing strains and flourishes And this is laid down as the first foundation of expounding this Book by the best Interpreters both Antient and Modern and the Jews themselves most unanimously conclude that it hath an immediate reference to the glories and felicities of the Messias and this Metaphor of Marriage to express the Mystical Vnion of Christ to his Church is frequent in the Writings of the Prophets Hosea 2.19 I will betroth thee unto me for ever yea I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness and in judgment And it is no less usual to the Apostles when we look into the New Testament Ephes 5. and 32. This is a great Mysterie but I speak concerning Christ and his Church 2 Cor. 11 and 2. I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chast Virgin to Christ Revel 19.7 and 9. For the marriage of the Lamb is come and his Wife hath made her self ready and to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linnen clean and white for the fine linnen is the righteousness of the Saints NOW when we apply to the Church the Characters of Beauty and the Passions of Sacred Love that are scattered up and down through this Book we but follow and trace the footsteps of the Prophets and the Apostles S. Bernard in his first Sermon on the Canticles gives this Epitome of the Works of Solomon that are extant In the Book of the Proverbs superfluous self love is banished in the Book of Ecclesiastes the vain love of the World is rejected but in Cantico Canticorum praescribitur castus Amor Dei the whole Book being nothing else but the strongest efforts of the Divine Love to be united in the closest Bonds to Christ our Head AND this Chapter out of which I have read this Verse breaths the same air and is wholly taken up in commending the incomparable Beauty of the Spouse Behold thou art fair my Love behold thou art fair i. e. thou art fair beyond thought or expression And again thou art all fair my Love there is no spot in thee The fifteenth Verse is but the repetition of or a further Paraphrase upon the twelfth A Garden inclosed is my Sister a Spring shut up a Fountain sealed and here a Fountain of Gardens a Well of Living Waters and Streams from Lebanon How fitly this gradation of Epithets becomes the Church I shall endeavour to explain as I go forward Fons Hortorum qui multis hortis rigandis sufficiat And by those Waters we are to understand the pure and heavenly Doctrine of the Church that waters the withered and parch'd Inhabitants of the Earth with its streams without which they had been long e're now burnt up with the fire of Gods wrath and indignation 'T is usual with the Prophets to express the heavenly Oracles under the Notion of Dew and Rain and Living Waters Deut. 32. 2. My Doctrine shall drop as the Rain my speech shall distil as the Dew as the small Rain upon the tender Herb and as the Showers upon the Grass and our Saviour himself in his Conference with the Woman of Samaria tells that the Waters that he shall give shall be in him to whom they are given a Well of Waters springing up unto eternal life The highest pitch of temporal prosperity is expressed in Holy Scriptures by Dew God give thee of the Dew of Heaven and Fatness of the Earth And Psal 133. and 3. David compareth the Unity of Brethren dwelling together in love to the Dew of Hermon and that which descended on the Mountains of Sion as a token that there the Lord commanded his blessing and Prov. 10. 12. the Kings favour is likened to Dew on the Grass SINCE then what is most excellent and desireable is expressed by it and that in the Old and New Testament the Sacred Oracles are particularly signified by Streams and Living Waters we offer no violence to the Jewish Idiom and Prophetical Phrase when we expound this Verse and its parallel places of the Church under the Messias especially diffusing the streams of their heavenly Oracles over the habitable World and converting men from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to the living God In speaking to these words I shall confine my self to three particulars following the natural order and position of the Words and Metaphors as they lye before us First WE have the use of those Waters a Fountain of Gardens Secondly THE Purity of them a Well of Living Waters Thirdly THE first Rise and Origine of these Waters they are Streams from Lebanon First I SAY We have the use of those Waters Fons hortorum a Fountain of Gardens so conveniently situated in the middle that by its Conduits and Canals it may water and refresh the neighbouring Gardens The Church looks with tenderness and compassion on the right and on the left hand as our Saviour looked upon Jerusalem before her approaching ruine and says in his very words How often would I have gathered you She wisely and
though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wooll 'T is in the vertue of this blood that we approach the Throne without fear and diffidence the God of Pity and Compassion cannot shut his ears against those prayers that are made under the mediation of Jesus Christ the hands of Justice are bound up when his bloody Sweat and Agony his Passion Death and Burial are commemorated How fixt and immoveable is this foundation of our Faith that we have such an High-Priest at the right hand of the Father who by one Oblation of himself through the Eternal Spirit sat down victorious on his Throne Powers Dominions and Principalities being put under him Though the Doctrine of the Cross be the Scorn of Jews and Gentiles yet let us say with S. Paul God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ And this is still so much the surer when we consider the Nature of that Attonement that our Saviour made This Sacrifice was propitiatory and piacular for he suffered not only for our good but in our room and they who would make him to act no more in all this than the part of a resolute Martyr destroy one of the prime foundations of our Religion and of our hope in the hour of death and at the day of Judgment Fourthly WHEN we fix our thoughts on the death of Jesus we ought to practise those Graces that then appear'd most eminently in him his Contempt of the World his Love to his Enemies his Patience and Resignation Can we dwell on the thoughts of his love towards Mankind and not be inflam'd with the highest Zeal to serve him How can we forget the glorious adventures of his Love who dyed for us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword V. 38. For I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor heighth nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be all Power Praise and Dominion World without end Amen A SERMON ON 1. COR. ii V. 3 4 5. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling And my speech and my preaching was not with inticing words of mans wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God IN the First Chapter S. Paul had in his view the allaying the differences that had arisen amongst the Corinthians concerning their Teachers whom they should follow He puts them in mind how he had preached the Gospel amongst them and by what Arguments they had been perswaded to embrace it i. e. not with the wisdom of words And again not with enticing words of mans wisdom HE thought it not proper to advance his doctrine and design amongst them by the accurate and artificial reasonings of the wise men of the Gentiles but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power THE elegant Orations and Philosophical Discourses of the Learned Gentiles by which they were wont to put off their opinions to the people withal he did not judge proofs proper for and suitable to the nature of his Doctrine It being wholly Divine it required divine demonstration something above the reach of human speculation something yet untraced by their most accurate Disquisitions So the supernatural gifts bestowed on the followers of Christ by which they were made to interpret the sacred Oracles and ancient Prophecies concerning the Messias and accommodate those Prophecies to the most particular circumstances of his Kingdom By which they were enabled to discern Spirits and dispossess Devils such and such miraculours appearances together with the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles both upon the dead and the living were proofs of divinity in their own Nature far beyond the subtile reasonings of Orators and Philosophers more suitable to the design in hand more undeniable and authentick and therefore a proof much more solid and clear than if they had recommended the Doctrine of Christianity with all the eloquence and ostentation of words THIS method propos'd in the first Chapter He owns and vindicates in this from all the objections and carnal imputations that the admirers of Philosophy on the one hand and heretical Seducers on the other might lay to his charge He did not declare unto them the Testimony of God with the excellency of speech or wisdom It was not his design to read unto them Lectures of Plato's Philosophy but to recommend Christ and him Crucified to preach the humble doctrine of the Cross the plain and necessary Articles of Christianity the very first and indispensible principles of our Faith not the more abstruse mysteries of which as yet possibly they were not capable but those early lessons that we must know as soon as we become Disciples of that Heavenly Institution THIS Doctrine recommended at such a time and by such men so far above the genius of all the prevailing sects of Philosophers and appearing with so much modesty and humility had certainly been run down in triumph by the Patrons of Paganism and Infidelity if it had not been supported by another kind of proof and demonstration than that which was taught in the Athenian Schools Therefore the Corinthians ought not to be much stumbled at the petulancy and ignorance of false teachers who despis'd what they did not understand and measur'd wisdom by a standard of their own The Gospel was recommended amongst them by such proofs as were agreeable to its Nature that their belief might not depend upon any thing that was human and artificial but on the most solid and immoveable foundations the Wisdom and Power of God clearly display'd in vindication of the Gospel This is shortly the scope of the words that I have read The success and efficacy of what he preach'd did not at all depend on the order and composure of his periods tho one might observe Eloquence and Majesty in his Expressions if they were not too much addicted to what they valued amongst the Grecian Orators yet did he not at all affect that which the wise men of Greece most gloried in he design'd that it might be very clear That the success of his Doctrine should depend on supernatural proofs or the light and majesty and conviction that attends the power of miracles LET us view those words more closely and examine their phrase and dependance and see how clear a proof they contain of the excellency of Christian Religion And in them we have three particulars I. HIS uneasie
Therefore they must needs invent a Religion that is calculated to serve their designs and to silence the troublesome alarms of their mind But be not you deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap Our Saviour set himself to undeceive the World in this great affair and to remove the Pharisaical paint and varnish from the Law and to let us understand that our God is not an Idol that he values no Sacrifices but such as resemble his Nature For he is a Spirit and must be worshiped in Spirit and in Truth 2. A SECOND part of our Saviour's design was to give true repose and tranquillity to the Spirits of Men. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest The inward disorder of our Spirits is the cause of all our trouble when the Light of the Gospel removes our Errors and by its beams warms our affections the day-star from on high ariseth in our breasts our fears and dreadful apprehensions are over and there is a perfect calm and tranquillity One great instruction in our Saviour's Commission was to bind up the broken hearted The Souls of Men are at variance with themselves until they are united unto God He fixes their Spirits in their operations and choice and creates within them that harmony and peace which the World cannot give them Then they are arm'd against all events and disasters they are like a Rock of Adamant immoveable against the most tempestuous waves and storms the winds may blow and the storms may threaten and beat upon the Rock with the loudest roarings but they are quickly beat back into froth and disappointment The righteous are like mount Zion which cannot be mov'd THAT it was a part of our Saviour's design to establish this tranquillity of Spirit appears from this very Sermon on the Mount where he endeavours by so many arguments to fortifie us against all fears discouragments and solicitude The Wisdom of God levell'd the strongest arguments against the most desperate diseases and therefore the Doctrine of the Gospel in all its branches hath an admirable tendency to create this peace When we believe that all things are ordered and dispos'd by an universal infinitely wise unlimited and active Providence With what acquiescence and serenity of Spirit may we give up all things to his conduct and government Not a hair of your head falleth to the ground without his pleasure The nature and frame of all the Graces of the Spirit the whole spiritual furniture of the Gospel naturally lead to peace love joy and meekness We are assured that all things work together for good to them that love God Even our light afflictions that endure but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory And the belief of this establishes the mind against all the shakings of adversity And we may add to all the former considerations that we are frequently exhorted to place our affections on the things that are above to leave this World ' its hurry and noise and to get above it in our affections and to view with satisfaction and ease amidst our lowest depressions that Country that is above 3. ANOTHER part of our Saviour's design was to unite us together in the straitest bonds of humane society In order to which he hath made Love the badge and character of his profession So exactly fulfilling the Prophecies concerning the Messias that in his days the Wolf should dwell with the Lamb the Leopard and the Kid should ly down together i. e. that the fierceness of human Nature should be banish'd and all the rugged and uneven excrescencies of passion the boisterous swellings of humour should be filed off John the Baptist told that every valley should be fill'd and every mountain brought low the crooked should be made straight and the rough ways should be made smooth i. e. All injustice fraud and oppression all pride hypocrisie and violence should give place unto everlasting righteousness every one should keep his own post and move in his own Orb with contentment and sobriety Hence Servants are exhorted not to repine at their condition for as the members of the body natural must hold their distance and situation so must the members of the body political 4. ANOTHER part of his design was to liberate us from the Yoke of Moses Law I only name this particular I will not insist on it at present Now if the design of Christian Religion was to restore true morality the image of God humility patience the love of God and contempt of the World and to discover the hypocrisie and wickedness of the Pharisees Let us then enquire In the Second place IN what instances the Pharisaical Religion did cross the Christian and we shall discover the manifest opposition of the one to the other When we consider 1 THE Vices that they were most addicted to 2. THE Prejudices that they were blinded with 3. THE Maxims and shifts that they espous'd into their Doctrine to defend their wickedness and immoralities 1. Do but consider the Vices that they were most addicted to Pride contrary to the humility of the Gospel Avarice in opposition to that contempt of the World that our Saviour taught Hypocrisie that overthrows the ingenuity recommended and enjoyn'd by our Religion Revenge Cruelty and Rebellion contrary to the Loyalty Meekness and Obedience of our most holy Faith We are inform'd by Josephus though he was himself much addicted to the Sect of the Pharisees that they were a crafty and subtile generation of men and so perverse even to Princes themselves that they would not fear many times openly to affront them They had a mighty ascendent over the People and by their long prayers superstitious tricks and disfigur'd faces they got the Rable once of their side and by their interest in the multitude they became terrible to the Governours Alexander Jannaeus when he lay a dying advis'd his Queen not to irritate and displease the Pharisees and told her plainly that this was the very thing that deriv'd the Odium of the Nation upon him that he had comply'd so little with that restless and pragmatick Generation IF the Vices of the Pharisees prevail amongst the Christians what a reproach is it unto us and to our Religion When we remember that we are to obey for Conscience sake We may easily see that there is nothing more opposite to Christianity than Rebellion And this very Sect amongst the Jews strove to advance their Religious Tyranny above the Highest Powers as if they had been bred near the Infallible Chair or a General Assembly Many Popes declar'd it to be of necessity to Salvation to every humane Creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff and the instances are many as they are undeniable Therefore we are smoothly told by some of them that this is not matter of Faith but Discipline I confess it is
that kind of Religion to which they were most addicted And therefore our Religion must needs be of another stamp entirely pure gentle easie to be intreated full of good works without partiality and without hypocrisie 2. They thought that they might compensate for moral Miscarriages by long prayers and bodily severities And they would gladly submit to any thing rather than reform what ought to be truly amended 3. They believ'd they might merit eternal Life by the observation of one Precept though they liv'd in the habitual contempt and violation of all the rest Such a Precept they took their Sabbath to be WHEN we view the pure and unaffected complexion of our Religion how great an Enemy it is to all unworthy shifts and disguises how generous and refin'd above that Spirit that prevails in the World how amiable in the Eyes of God and Men then I say we may easily perceive that there is nothing more opposite unto it than that peevish superstition and hypocrisie that prevail'd in the Jewish Church when our Saviour appear'd And to the end that we may feel the force of our Religion to the best advantages Let us observe the following Directions 1. WE must understand our Religion thorowly and fix it in our Souls by the most accurate and serious consideration For though the motives of Christianity be of that moment that they may easily conquer our Souls yet unless they are duly applyed by Thought Reason and Meditation they loose their force and efficacy and they never impart to us the least degree of spiritual courage and activity God assaults our Reason in the first place and when we are overcome by Argument we are then a willing People we are Subjects by our choice and not by constraint Therefore are we frequently to view and consider the motives and arguments of our Religion and weigh them in the balance against the difficulties that oppose us That when we have examin'd and seriously debated whatsoever makes for or against our being Christians we may go forth to meet our Enemy with spiritual furniture and strength Shall the World and its triffling Interests notwithstanding that we are convinc'd of its emptiness and vanity take up so many of our Thoughts And shall we forget our immortal Souls and the Judgment to come Religion enters the Soul by Meditation and no Man can be Religious but by the acts of his Mind It is a reasonable service that we are call'd to and to make us continue in it with delight our Reason must be first engag'd How necessary this consideration is our Saviour represents in the Gospel of S. Luke What King goeth out to war doth not first sit down and consider if with his ten thousand he be able to meet him that comes against him with twenty thousand Or if a man resolve to build a Tower he first computes the expence and then he builds SUCH as are hastily engag'd in the service of Religion are frequently forc'd to retire with shame and dishonour And this is the usual result of rash and unsettled purposes which men make in the heat of their passion and under the power of some transient conviction 2. WE are always to perfer the Morals of Religion to its lesser Appendages and Ceremonies and to remember that the last are only subservient to advance the first True Christian Life is the Transcript of the Divine Nature Be ye holy as I am holy And again Be ye merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful There are such legible impressions of the Divine Nature felt in the Souls of the Regenerate that they attract his presence they are his peculiar habitations where he fixes his residence Nothing so enlarges the Spirit of a Man as to fix his eyes on the Life of Jesus to view with attention and delight how much he was above the World when environ'd with its terrors and flatteries He spoke of the invisible things as one does of his own Country He reason'd men out of their folly by all the force and weight of Heaven and Eternity And if we allow him to speak to our Consciences it is not possible to resist his reasonings He went about doing good He made himself accessible to us by the interposal of his humanity that we might see as well as hear the beauties of Christian Religion He taught us a Doctrine that is exactly calculated to refine our Nature to make us better in all relations And by this rule we are to examine the different pretences of all divided Parties If they advance by the plainest and nearest methods true Piety Innocency and Simplicity and propagate them in the Spirit of Love Unity and Subordination this is the surest mark to know that they belong to the Household of Faith 3. WE are here but Pilgrims and Strangers we are so to demean our selves as Candidates for Eternity Our Christian Life is but a flight from the World and the more we are alienated from the Spirit that prevails in it the more ripe we are for that incorruptible inheritance that is reserv'd for us Let us make the things of another World present to our selves by Faith For the fashion of this World passeth away And we are shortly to appear before Gods Tribunal stript naked of all the thin cobwebs and excuses whereby we endeavour'd to hide our deformities upon Earth 4. And lastly WHEN you have deliberately resolv'd consider the evil of back-sliding and its dreadful consequences There are but few who plainly and openly deny the Faith unto which they are Baptized yet many hundreds deny the Lord that bought them by their wicked Lives and unchristian Practices Now the just shall live by Faith but if any man draw back my Soul shall have no pleasure in him But we are not of them who draw back into perdition but of them that believe to the saving of the Soul To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be all Glory Praise and Dominion for ever Amen A SERMON Preached on Whitsunday 1688. ON ACTS ii v. 1 2 3 4. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it sat upon each of them And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance THE Christian Church from the Ascension of our Blessed Saviour into Heaven until the Effusion of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles was full of great expectations and great fears they had not yet quite broke off from the Communion of the Jewish Church yet they continued in their solitude and retirements and in the true exercise of Charity and Patience until our Saviour should scatter his Royal Donatives upon his solemn and magnificent entrance into the
Heavens By which Gifts and Graces the Apostles were enabled to assert the Truth of our Religion boldly and proclaim the glad tidings of Salvation to all Nations and the Literal Judaism was to give place to the Mystical and the Messias was not only to be the Glory of his people Israel but a Light to lighten the Gentiles OUR Saviour after his Resurrection gave all assurance to the Apostles that he would send them another Comforter when He was gone unto the Father an Advocate to plead his Cause successfully one who should inspire them with strength and skill to defie and resist all the Calumnies and Slanders of Infidelity and therefore they ought not to give way either to grief sorrow or despondency For all Power in Heaven and in Earth was given to their Lord and Master He was highest in the Glory of the Father He was not only declared to be the Son of God by his Resurrection from the dead but God did highly exalt him and gave him a Name which is above every Name that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth He instructed them formerly in the Spiritual Oeconomy of his Kingdom that they needed not be ashamed of the Doctrine of the Cross that it behov'd Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day to the end that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his Name throughout all Nations beginning at Jerusalem and withal that He was not unmindful of his Promise that He made before He was crucified now that he was risen from the dead but He assured them He would send the Promise of the Father upon them so much to their comfort success and satisfaction that the whole World should take notice of it In the mean time they were to remain quiet and knit together at Jerusalem until this Promise was fulfilled HE had before at their Ordination and formal Admission into the highest Order of the Church breathed on them and bad them receive the Holy Ghost By the which they were invested with a Legal and Authoritative Title to act as the Ambassadors of Jesus Christ to proclaim his Laws to require the Obedience of all Nations to convey this Power unto others to erect a new Society distinct from all Secular Incorporations to bind and loose by the Censures of the Church but still notwithstanding of their Authority they remain'd without strength until the solemn and magnificent Effusion of the Holy Ghost by which their Tongues being fired from Heaven their opposers were not able to resist the Wisdom by which they spake Now was the Prophecy of Joel fulfilled in the highest sense and so S. Peter applies it to this astonishing and heavenly manifestation And it shall come to pass in the last days saith God I will poure out of my Spirit on all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesie and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams THERE are who distinguish in the Writings of the New Testament between the Holy Ghost and the Spirit and that the Spirit signifies the Power of Miracles healing the Sick casting out of Devils restoring sight to the Blind raising the Dead by all which our Saviour proved himself to be the true Messias And by the Holy Ghost they think we ought to understand the wonderful Gifts of Utterance of Languages of Interpretation of Mysteries by which the Apostles were enabled in a moment to confound all the arts and oppositions of their enemies to run down with evidence all the calumnies and reproaches invented either by Jew or Gentile against the Person Life Doctrine or Miracles of our blessed Saviour BUT we shall have a better view of this when we fix our Meditations on that part of Scripture that I have read and consider it in all its mutual aspects and relations then I will endeavour to gather the several Branches of it together again in the Application WE find that the Apostles did exactly obey the Command of our Saviour they tarried at Jerusalem waiting for the promise of the Father The Text hath in it the accomplishment of this Promise and because it is so peculiar to this day to commemorate the Effusion of the Holy Ghost with the highest Joy and Gratitude I will invite your attention to these three Particulars in the words that I have read 1. THE disposition that the Apostles were in to receive the Holy Ghost they were all with one accord in one place 2. THE sensible Emblem of it manifested 1. To their Ears in the second Verse and to their Eyes in the third Verse And 3. HERE is the Accomplishment of the Promise the success and the appearance of it they were all filled with the Holy Ghost they began to speak with other Tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance 1. Consider the Disposition that they were in to receive it They were all with one accord in one place The Holy Spirit cannot dwell in those Breasts that are gangreen'd with discords jars and animosities All our wild passions and unfriendly humours must be hush'd into silence at the approach of this heavenly Guest he chuses for his residence habitation those pure and innocent Souls that breath nothing but love candor simplicity and meekness the secret retirements of the Mind where he dwells must be made smooth even and regular the rugged and intricate circuits of Hypocrisie Hatred and Envy are inconsistent with his Presence He loves to fix his residence where there are some beautiful Lineaments of himself The peaceableness the charity the mutual love and zeal of promoting the welfare of one another was so remarkable in the first Christians that we must needs confess they were acted by a Spirit beyond the World this peace and love and unanimity is so essential to the Christian Religion that our Saviour made it the badge and Character of his Disciples hereby shall all men know that you are my disciples if ye love one another It is the fulfilling of the Law without it there is no access for our Prayers We are commanded when we bring our gift to the Altar to leave it there unoffered until we are reconciled to our brother And we are directed by the Apostle St. Paul to lift up holy hands without wrath or doubting In a word the wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie And a little before he telleth us that bitter envyings and strife are the Companions of that wisdom that is earthly sensual and devilish Nay this Hatred and Enmity makes up the very nature of the Devil and if you could divide him and his Malice he were no more a Devil nor opposite to God for God is Love and they that dwell in God dwell in Love and the frequent repetitions of
Scythians fierce Germans the proud Romans and soft Grecians and Persians renounc'd their peculiar Idols and calmly surrender'd their Necks to His easie Yoke according to the Prophecy of Zachary that the names of the Idols should be cut off and were no more to be remembred WE may safely affirm that no Religion did ever spread its Wings so wide as the Christian which made the South and the North East and West meet together in their acknowledgments of the Blessed Jesus When the Languages of the old World were divided Mankind was scattered but the Gift of Tongues poured upon the Apostles united all Nations into the most harmonious Society THE Meditation of this ought to enlarge our Souls with generous inclinations towards the recovery of all Mankind unto the acknowledgment of the Truth How ought we to pray that God would be pleas'd to make his wayes known unto all sorts and conditions of men and his saving health unto all Nations There are no Charities so noble nor so well plac'd as when we convert a sinner from the error of his way The Gospel is a sovereign remedy to remove the blindness and stupidity of the whole World if we were zealous enough to promote it how shameful is it for such as have large Dominions and great Power upon Earth that they are not more busied in contriving Methods how the sound of the Gospel may reach the utmost ends of the Earth How few of them that are born without the inclosure of the Church come over to our Religion now a days And this is not to be imputed to our Religion it self but to our coldness and indifferency about it and that we do not live up to the height and purity of its Rules the mighty success that it had in the Primitive Ages in defiance of all malice and opposition sufficiently proves that it came from Heaven And this leads me to the consideration of the next word that follows 2. IT came from heaven We are told by the Psalmist that God bringeth the wind out of his treasuries but this wind that came from heaven hath a nearer claim to Gods peculiar Treasury than those Winds that are stor'd up in the dark Caverns of the Earth This was the breath of God it did not blow from the Earth nor from Humane Counsels nor from the highest Regions of the Air but from Heaven it self from the Throne of the Most High A Wind it was that blew with Majesty rather than Fury Strength rather than Boisterousness they felt some heavenly Charm in the noise that filled the room it rais'd their attention and their ears to something high and extraordinary and the surprize of its swiftness could not hinder a secret joy a mighty elevation of Spirit which cannot be named and which strongly convinc'd the Apostles that this wind came from heaven and that it was the mighty voice of God And this may appear if we consider 1. THE things that they utter'd when they were filled with it A heavenly Doctrine full of Light and Majesty a Doctrine that not only assured us of Immortality but taught us also the infallible Methods to arrive at it a Doctrine that filled our ears with new sublime unheard of Mysteries God manifested in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World received up into Glory How far were these great Truths beyond the Speculations of Plato and the little Metaphysical Subtilties of the Peripateticks 2. THIS may appear if we consider the Change and Affections that this Doctrine wrought in its Proselytes this wind did not blow them up into airy and fantastick apprehensions into proud and supercilious thoughts it taught no arts of gathering treasures nor of making themselves great in the World but it lifted their Souls above it to the place whence it came and it taught them to trample upon its glories to despise its fears and overlook all its splendor and to set their affections upon the things that are above where Jesus is inthroned in the highest Power and Majesty Now 't is evident that no such change could be wrought by Natural Causes for men acted by Natural Principles can go no higher than such Maxims can carry them but to love God to crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof to forgive injuries to despise the World all the things that our appetites formerly did headlong run into must proceed from some Supernatural and Divine force it carries us above our own level and makes us to feel that He that is in us is greater than he that is in the world This Argument is frequently insisted on by first Apologists for our Religion 3. IT appears to have been from Heaven in its Method and Operation and immediate Effects upon the Apostles which exceeded all Art and Nature that men illiterate and without education most of them come to a considerable Age that they should speak the Languages of all Nations who a little before understood but one Language and that the rudest Dialect of their own Nation This wonderful matter must needs be referr'd to some supernatural Cause 3. LET us take notice where this sound was heard and the Text saith that it filled the house where they were The Inspirations of the Holy Ghost are not casual and fortuitous but ordered by Infinite Counsel and Wisdom This is the wind that bloweth where it listeth in the strictest sense it filled that house it blew by discretion and election upon the house where the Apostles resided to let us it may be understand that the Holy Ghost to the end of the World is to be received in the fellowship of the Apostles and their Successors it is the precious Ointment first poured upon their heads and from them to the skirts of the Church in all Ages There are many Spirits gone forth into the World with a boisterous noise and they pretend their descent from Heaven but if they have forsaken the fellowship of the Apostles and broken the ligaments of peace and order by which the Catholick Church as a Spiritual Society is knit together if they run cross to the Spirit of Unity by which we are oblig'd to believe the Communion of Saints in that case we are quickly undeceiv'd they are certainly from below they are not directed by the Wisdom that is from above nor have they their rise from Heaven but from the Earth and are blown up by some subterraneous Vapours that end in nothing but in a little vain glory faction and popular applause THE Holy Ghost in its most plentiful Effusions came down upon the Apostles according to the nature of their high and difficult employment and the circumstances of the Church at that time and it was to fall in lesser drops to the end of the World upon all that are sent by God for the services of the Altar who have their Mission from the Apostles by regular conveyance and succession 2.
his Laws to slight his Invitation When we add to this the consideration of those things that are provided for us in this Feast we may easily see the folly of slighting it the pardon of our Sins is sealed the peace and tranquillity of our Consciences are confirmed our spiritual strength and fortitude are recruited and we are enabled to grapple with all our Enemies more successfully we are strengthened beyond our frailties to run the Race that is set before us ARE not we by our baptismal Vows already listed under his Standard Are not we confederated with him when we are received into the Christian Church How inconsistent is it with our spiritual Allegiance to reject the offers of his Love and trample under foot his most solemn Commands This is treachery and perfidiousness in the highest degree 2. CONSIDER the circumstances of his Love wherewith this Institution was appointed He lived with his Disciples for a considerable time in the full exercise of Patience Meekness and Humility He gave them an Example that they should follow his steps He train'd them up by his Sermons and by his Miracles in the discipline and knowledg of his Kingdom and Scepter He frequently to their own conviction baffled the contradictions of the Jews and endeavour'd to remove their prejudices by all the Methods that the highest Wisdom and Goodness thought proper for their cure He proved himself to be the true Messias by many infallible Signs and now at last when he had run out the course of his publick Ministry and solemnized the last Passeover and was ready to offer himself a publick Propitiatory Sacrifice for the sins of the World he appointed this Sacrament as the highest the last and the most solemn Seal and Pledge of his Love to the Church the Abstract and Memorial of all that he did upon Earth and of all that he taught and of all that he promised in the World to come the conveyance of those great and rich Blessings that are procured by his Death and Passion when we remember I say such a confluence of endearing circumstances how can we refuse our presence and obedience How strong are the Charms of his Love What heighth of Courage what degrees of Constancy were necessary to support him against the shock of so many Affronts and Indignities Who can read the History of his Passion and not see the inconceivable condescensions of God Who can view the progress of that Tragedy and not be astonished when we consider the incomprehensible Love of God that he who was God took upon him the form of a servant with no other design than to accomplish the work of our Redemption and that he drew the Map of his life and sufferings in this ravishing Ordinance that the Church might remember the glorious Adventures of his Love by this Eucharistical Sacrifice how monstrous is the ingratitude if we seem to neglect it IN that Night wherein he was betrayed how Emphatick and how full of Love are these words the fury of his Enemies the rage and malice of the Jews the treachery of one of his Disciples the faintness and weakness of all of them could not so divert his thoughts but that our greatest concerns were next his very heart and lest we should forget such glorious things he abridged the History of all the Gospel in this one plain Rite and Institution His Life and Doctrine and all the proofs of our Religion he sums up in one easie Ceremony so that this Sacrament is the Compend of all Religion the very Holy of Holies and the top of all Christian joy and comfort if we consider such circumstances so engaging in the first Institution of this Sacrament we cannot refuse our attendance if we break not thorough all the bonds of Piety and Humanity and renverse all the Laws of gratitude and good nature 3. WE may easily discern our Obligation to it from the practice of the first Christians and the value put upon it by the whole Church The Apostles and their Successors for the first three hundred years were very frequent in the celebration of this Sacrament it was a part of their daily Worship when the devotion of the Christian Church was vigorous and servent they could not live without the daily commemoration of the Love of Jesus This Sacrament was the most substantial and highest Cordial that he left for the support of the Church until his second coming again therefore the Christians of all Ages looked upon it with so much veneration and regard that as they judged themselves obliged to come unto it so they approached it with the strictest preparations with all the solemnities and care of Fasting Prayer and Humility The universal deluge of Atheism and prophanity that overflows the whole Island in which we live is much to be imputed to the contempt and neglect ot this Sacrament 4. WE are obliged to this Attendance because it is the peculiar Character of Christianity the badge of our Religion and the livery of the Crucified Jesus The Rites of all Religions had something in them to distinguish both the Deity that was worshipped and the Votary from all others The whole System of the Levitical Oeconomy was but a distinction of the Jews from all other Nations and all the Rites of that ancient Law were either opposite to the Zabian Customs or directly tended to preserve them from Idolatry The Pagan Sacrifices every where had some one significant Ceremony or other by which they were distinguish'd from the Worship of other Idols and the Christians by this Mystery are separated from the rest of Mankind who are without the houshold of Faith This Ordinance in the Church is the most solemn of all our Mysteries or rather the concatenation of all of them together it hath no foundation in nor directions from the light of Nature and therefore it derives its dignity and obligation from the pure Institution of our Lord and Saviour Hence it is that when Men are guilty of sins against the Moral Law their Consciences do accuse them and the remembrance of their folly proves uneasie to them but they live in the wilful neglect of this Sacrament for many years and yet they are as quiet and undisturbed in their omissions as if they were the most innocent the reason is because natural Conscience prompts not to it it hath its original immediately from our Saviour's Authority and this consideration alone makes us inexcusable if we neglect it because by it we are distinguished from the rest of mankind it is so peculiar to our Religion that we seem to renounce it unless we shew the highest zeal for it and affection to it Do it said he in remembrance of me There is no Order of Men have any such Institution it is our Characteristick that wherein we triumph that wherewith we are reproach'd by the Pagans that whereby we express our love to our Blessed Saviour and avow our selves to be his Disciples in the face of all danger
thee We may say of this Conflict with the World as the Royal Psalmist said of his frequent Combats with his enemies 't is he that teacheth my fingers to fight and without doubt the Divine Wisdom is apparent in our Conquest over the World else how could poor Creatures all made up of error darkness and precipitance venture on Tentations of all sorts without his special Conduct and Presence How quietly doth the Psalmist rejoice in the Meditation of his fatherly Care and Assistance He maketh me to lye down in green pastures he leadeth me beside the quiet waters he restoreth my Soul he guideth me in the paths of righteousness for his names sake thy rod and thy staff they comfort me 'T is through God alone we shall do valiantly The weapons of our warfare are mighty through him he not only treads Satan under our feet but the World also which is the Devils great Confederate against the Saints 2. WE are assured of the Victory through the Triumph and Victory and Jesus Christ He hath bidden us himself be of good cheer for he hath overcome the World He is the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah he marcheth upon the Head of his Disciples with displayed Banners against the Legions of Darkness the World Hell and the Grave are hauled at the Wheels of his triumphant Chariot Therefore the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews bids us consider the cloud of witnesses but most of all Jesus Christ himself the Author and Finisher of our Faith When we are like to faint when our fears grow thick and dark then consider the Captain of our Salvation who hath already broke the force of our enemies and is set down on the right hand of the Throne of God and there employes his Power in Heaven and Earth for the conduct safety and success of his followers Let us believe with the Apostle S. Paul that we shall be able to do all things through Christ that strengthens us 3. WE are assured of the Victory by the Strength and Energy of the Divine Nature So we are told in the Text that that which is born of God overcometh the World and in Chap. 4. He that is in us is stronger than he that is in the World If we were to grapple with the World by equal strength we could not promise to our selves the Victory but we are partakers of the Divine Nature we are carried above our selves God is in us in a truer and higher sense than the Poet meant it THE Divine Nature is full of Life and Power it grows unto perfection unto the stature of a perfect Man in Christ Jesus until it lodge us at last in the bosom of God 'T is a Coal from the Altar that inflames the Soul and consumes the Body of Death to nothing What is not the Christian Religion able to do in conjunction with Omnipotence THIS is it that wrought such incredible Changes in the World and if others have been so successful and victorious in their Conflicts with the World why ought we to despair Had not the Luminaries of the Church the same flesh to mortifie the same passions to overcome the same World to contend with and if they overcame the World why may not we be victorious also BUT let us improve this Meditation for our practice If we are thus assured of the Victory if we do not wilfully desert our Stations then let us not be discouraged with the Terrors of the World nor with those imaginary difficulties by which Men frequently fright themselves from their duty But in the midst of our fears and objections let us strengthen our selves in God and debate the matter with our own Consciences in the Language of the Psalmist Why art thou cast down O my Soul hope in God remember and call to mind the Victory that Men of like Passions have attained why do you thus sit down hanging your head as if the World were invincible WHY do we suffer our selves so tamely to be carried down the Stream Let us bear up against it and remember that we have to do with a broken and conquered Enemy and if we do not shamefully yield God will stand by us at our right hand and make Vs more than Conquerors through Jesus Christ It is unbecoming the Goodness of God to leave us when we are engaged with such formidable Enemies If he be for Vs who can be against Vs Here we are but Pilgrims and Strangers and since we have renounced the World so solemnly why do we look back upon it with so much fondness and delight why are we diffident of the Victory For the Captain of our Salvation looks on and suffers us to be surrounded with Tentations that he may make proof of our Courage Constancy Fidelity Loyalty and Patience God looks on the Conflicts of his people with delight and by their tryals and hard encounters he fortifies their Souls for Immortality which is the prize IT was the glimmering of this Meditation made so many of the antient Philosophers think that a Man without suffering was without reputation for honour by the esteem and vote of all Mankind belongs to them that have suffered and striven resolutely in the midst of all disasters against Vice and its insinuations To this purpose Seneca in his Book de Providentia says That a Man bearing up resolutely against disadvantages and disasters was a spectacle worthy Jupiter himself to look on SINCE then we are furnished with better Principles and a clearer Light let us under the Conduct of our High Priest face all Tentations and keep our consciences void of offence towards God and towards Men for the things that are terrible to Mans eyes are but Scare-Crows and Apparitions to the eyes of Faith AND this leads me to the third and last Particular that is The Mean by which this Victory is obtained the Apostle saith Faith is our Victory THE Figure is obvious enough this is the Mean and Weapon by which we trample under foot the World and all its glittering vanities and soar above it We are by our Laws Citizens of another Kingdom we are neither intangled with its snares nor blinded with its foolish hopes nor govern'd by its pernicious Maxims nor dazled with its false lights while we keep our eyes open to the light of Faith and the Glories that our Jesus hath manifested to us in the Gospel then we grow too big for this World and the sight of that Inheritance enlarges our Souls and the Earth becomes contemptible in our eyes BUT that I may make this the more clear I shall endeavour to give light unto it by the Nature and Excellency of Faith it self which when we have considered this Conquest will appear to be the most necessary result of Faith AND 1. Consider that by Faith we are furnished with new Principles we have a Spirit giv'n us stronger than the World opposite to it far above it this is frequently asserted by S. John