still longer Reprieve Hoping that at length the Sinner may be awaken'd by the Sermons of the Gospel and the inward Motions and Excitations of the Spirit of Life and Holiness and see and fear his Danger and return by Repentance and do no more wickedly For so in the next Place 't is said in the Parable that when the Lord of the Vineyard gave Order that the Barren Fig-Tree should be cut down the Dresser of the Vineyard by whom our Saviour is represented answering said unto him let it alone this Year also till I shall dig about it and dung it Christ is our merciful and faithful High-Priest in things pertaining to God Heb. 2.17 18. to make Reconciliation for the Sins of the People for he knows our Infirmities and in that he himself hath suffer'd being tempted he is able also to succour those that are tempted and ever liveth to make Intercession for us Heb. 7.25 He moves for a still longer Respite and promises to use new Methods that we may become fruitful of such good Works as will be well pleasing in his Father's Sight and accordingly cultivates and manures our Souls with repeated Exhortations to Repentance presses the Discourses of his Ministers still more home upon Men's Consciences and gives new Aids and Assistances of his Blessed Spirit provides new Happy Circumstances by his Providence for our Good such as a Faithful Instructer Good Conversation and Example Pious Books and Discourses which may warm and enliven a Sense of Religion in the Soul and awaken Attention and soften the Heart of Stone and render it penetrable by the Arguments of the Gospel and receptive of the Blessed Impressions of the Spirit of God That as loosening the Mould about the Roots of a Tree and cherishing it with the kindly Warmth of Dung is very conducive to the spreading of its Fibres and making it flourish and grow fruitful so these gracious Methods of the great Dresser of God's spiritual Vinevard Christ Jesus may so influence the Souls of Christians as to make them bear much Fruit to the Glory of God and their own everlasting Salvation This is the last Course that can be taken for a Sinner's Safety and if this will not prevail with him to take care of his Happiness there is no longer Hope 'T is like the Intercession of a Favourite for a Condemn'd Criminal upon Condition of his better Conversation for the future but if he again returns to his old vile Courses his Friends then abandon him as one that deserves to perish And so here in the Parable Christ the Beloved Son of God intercedes for a miserable Sinner ready for Destruction and begs a Reprieve for him to see if Time and farther Care will cure his Wickedness but if this proves ineffectual there remains nothing but a fearful Expectation of Judgment and fiery Indignation His Intercessor will then give him over for Desperate and suffer Justice to take its Course for so said the Dresser of the Vineyard to his Lord If after I have digg'd about it and dung'd it it bear fruit well but if not then after that thou shalt cut it down And this in the last Place represents to us the deplorable Condition of such as after all the Methods of Grace for their Reformation are still hardned in their Wickedness Christ will no more appear in their Behalf no more Thought shall be taken for their Safety but their Compassionate Intercessor shall then become their stern and inexorable Judge And when the dreadful Day of Doom shall come and the miserable Wretches appear before his Throne to receive the just Recompense of their obstinate Impieties then shall That Jesus who once so earnestly pleaded with God in their Behalf pronounce the Dreadful Sentence Depart from me ye Cursed into Everlasting Fire Depart from me your Saviour and once compassionate Mediator between God and You Be from henceforch and for ever depriv'd of all Hope of Redemption and Reinstatement into the Favour of my Father Be banish'd for ever from all Intercourse with Heaven without any Intercessor any propitiatory Sacrifice any Advocate to plead their Cause and without any Place for Repentance to Eternal Ages Depart to the Regions of Endless Horror and Despair in the Society of the Devil and his Angels And this is but the just Demerit of your Obstinate Wickedness who despis'd the Goodness of God that should have led you to Repentance This is the sad End of Irreclaimable Sinners this is the Punishment of an unfruitful Profession of Christianity Wherefore let those consider this that forget God before it be too late lest he pluck them away and there be none to deliver them Let them no longer turn the Grace and Forbearance of God into Lasciviousness but work out their Salvation with Fear and Trembling For God is just as well as merciful and though slow to Wrath and of great Goodness repenting him of the Evil yet he will by no means clear the obstinately guilty but to such is a Consuming Fire The PRAYER I. O Merciful God who hast planted me in the Vineyard of thy dear Son the Christian Church and by the Culture of thy Ministers and the enlivening Influences of thy Blessed Spirit hast taken tender Care of my Growth and that I thrive and flourish in all spiritual Excellencies till I be fit to be transplanted to thy Heavenly Paradise I bless thy infinite Goodness for the Enlargement of this thy Vineyard so as to extend even to us though so remote from thy first Plantation and for those extraordinary Helps we of this Church have in order to our Increase in all the Fruits of the Spirit And earnestly beg that we may not produce Leaves only the mock Appearances of Christian Vertue but the Fruit of a sincere Religion in all the Instances of Holy Conversation II. I acknowledge with Admiration at thy infinite Love to Mankind that 't is Our Happiness thou respectest in thus indispensibly requiring Fruit of us not any Acquisition to thy self who art infinitely full already and the overflowing Fountain of all possible Good Thou commandest that our Fruit should be unto Holiness because we shall otherwise be incapable of the blessed End of Everlasting Life and spend our Days in Misery in this Lower World O Lord as is thy Majesty so is thy Mercy O make me duely sensible of thy tender Care of my Happiness and may it never through my wretched Obstinacy be in vain And in vain it would be were not thy long-suffering wonderful With what amazing Patience dost thou wait to see if at length I shall be Fruitful How often have I disappointed thy just Expectations and yet thou hast still forborn me through thine own Compassions and the Intercession of my dear Redeemer the Dresser of thy Vineyard who hath ply'd me with new Methods of Conversion fresh Applications to invigorate my Piety that at the last I may return thee acceptable Fruits and escape the sad Punishment of Barrenness
Condition of his insolvent Servant and loosing him and forgiving him the Debt The King in the Parable was very merciful who upon the humble Entreaty of his poor Servant and his Promise if he would have Patience with him at length to pay him all was moved to Compassion and forgave him But God is infinitely more merciful in compassionating our Condition and forgiving our great Debt as will appear from the following Considerations For First our Debt is infinitely greater Ten Thousand Talents in Comparison of the numberless Number of the heinous Sins of Mankind are but as the Sand of an Hour-Glass compar'd with that of the Sea-Shore and one wilful Violation of our Obedience to God is a far weightier Debt to the divine Justice than Millions of Talents would be from one Mortal to another And the Reason is plain because the Distance between God and Man is infinite and for a Beggar to spurn at a Prince is certainly a Crime of much higher Aggravation than to do the like to one of his own ragged Gang. All that is culpable as was said is met together in a wilful Sin and therefore infinite and amazingly great must be the Guilt of all Man-kind who have heap'd up Transgressions without Number and have no Way left of paying this great Debt but by suffering without End the Pains of Hell And such a dreadful Punishment as this being annex'd to Sin by him who is infinitely good and just is Argument sufficient that there is no Debt comparable to that which a guilty Sinner owes to the Justice of God And therefore when God gives Mercy so great an Exaltation as to forgive so vast a Debt as this 't is Compassion impossible to be parallel'd Secondly God's Compassion in forgiving us is infinitely greater than that good King 's in the Parable because we less deserve God's Favour than that poor Servant did his Lord's He acknowledg'd his Debt and was griev'd for his not being able to discharge it and humbly submitted himself to his offended Lord but 't is quite otherwise with us we add Obstinacy and Pride to our long Score are still in actual Rebellion against God and daily more and more provoke him by new Impieties We make what Haste we can as the Prophet expresses it to fill up the Measure of our Fathers Iniquities and our own rather than by Repentance and better Life to lessen the great Account that is against us And this is to enflame God's Anger rather than to move his Compassion and does indeed deserve quick Vengeance rather than Forgiveness And yet so boundless an Ocean is the divine Goodness even in this rebellious State God pities his poor unhappy Creatures and is full of Compassion long-suffering and of great Kindness and repenteth him of the Evil and when we deserve nothing but the severest Punishment thinketh upon Mercy and forgiveness and proposes very easie Conditions of Reconciliation and Readmittance to his Favour and even courts us to accept them Turn ye turn ye from your evil Ways for why will ye dye O House of Israel Now for the great and infinitely happy God to treat such hardned Rebels at so tender and compassionate a rate to be so ready to forgive those who not at all deserve it but rather the utmost Expresses of his Vengeance is doubtless a Mercy infinite and beyond Comparison Thirdly The poor Debtor in the Parable humbly besought his Lord's Pity and Forbearance he fell down on his Face and worshipped him and by that his humble Behaviour and earnest Intreaty inclin'd his Lord to commiserate his sad Condition But instead of this we are not so little sensible of or afflicted with any thing as that great Debt we owe to the divine Justice So far from passionately begging for our Pardon that we spend but very few Thoughts about it and most of us are very little and some not at all apprehensive of the Need we have of being again receiv'd into God's Favour and the sad Consequence if we are not And are far more sollicitous about promoting some petty Interest in this World than about the Pardon of our Sins which is the One Thing necessary in Order to our Escape from Hell And this is so great a slighting and undervaluing God's Forgiveness expresses so much Indifferency whether he does it or no that one would think it should be enough to provoke God to resolve the Destruction and swear in his Wrath that they shall never enter into his Rest And yet so wondrously compassionate is our good God unsought to undesired he of his own meer Tenderness intirely forgave the past Offences of his thoughtless Creatures and for the Future still promis'd Forgiveness to such as should offend anew upon this only easie Condition that they should no more wilfully break his holy Laws and immediately repent when through Surprize or Inadvertency or the Force of Temptation they should do amiss And to be thus merciful notwithstanding so much Provocation to the contrary is Compassion that has no Parallel Fourthly God's Goodness in pitying and forgiving Sinners is infinitely greater than that of the King in the Parable in forgiving his poor Debtor because the Misery Mankind is delivered from by this Mercy of God is infinitely greater than that which the poor Wretch in the Gospel escap'd by the Compassion of his Lord. His Punishment had his Lord dealt rigorously with him would have been that he should be sold and his Wife and Children and all that he had that so in some Measure at least Payment might be made and the utmost that this could amount to was Poverty and Slavery both of himself and all his Family all the Days of his Life Which though indeed a very sad Condition and such as no Submission could be too great no Entreaties too earnest to avoid yet certainly comes infinitely short of these eternal Miseries in the Regions of Darkness and in the Society of the Devil and his Angels which would have been the Portion of the whole Race of Mankind had not God's merciful Forgiveness prevented it and given us better Hopes Now the greater the Necessity the greater the Charity that relieves it the greater and more general the Danger the more valuable the Rescue the more extreme the Misery and the greater the Number of those that were condemn'd to suffer it the greater the Compassion that relents and delivers from it It being therefore absolutely necessary that God should pardon Sinners that they might escape the Punishment due to Sin for they had nothing to pay and the Danger of those Punishments being imminent the Measure of Men's Iniquities rising to so great a Height and the Misery that would have involv'd all Man-kind had God's Vengeance had its free Course and Sin its due Reward being no less than that of Hell and that for ever too That Compassion of God that inclin'd him to forgive so many wretched Debtors as the whole Race of Man-kind and prevented such otherwise
and the great Obligation we have to imitate this Example of our merciful God To forgive one another in Imitation of the Divine Example is first to forgive such as have injured us freely and without Reserve and that though they still continue to shew themselves our Enemies and are ready to do us fresh Mischiefs when it lies in their Power For thus as we have seen God dealt with us miserable Sinners he first lov'd us and while we were yet Sinners and consequently in open Hostility and Rebellion against him even when he sent his Son to dye for us and be the Propitiation for our Sins He took pity upon us when we were still adding new Wickednesses to our long Account and when we deserved nothing but eternal Misery thought upon Mercy And in Imitation of this our Lord commands us to love our Enemies not to render Evil for Evil but contrariwise Blessing that so we may be the Children of our Father which is in Heaven For to use our Saviours Enforcement of this if those only share in our Affections or Esteem who are as beneficial and kind to us as we to them what Thank have we Self-Love and Interest may there be the Motives and very little of True Piety and Goodness nay even the very worst of Men may be as eminent for such Sort of Charity as the best Publicans and Sinners as our Lord observed doing the same But Christians should be of a more Godlike Temper their Charity more free and disinteressed the greater and more frequent their Injuries the more ready should they be to pardon and forgive and not only be reconciled after a seven-fold Wrong but after one repeated seventy times seven And our Saviour has likewise further inforced this by his own Example who with his last Breath pray'd for the Forgiveness of his cruel Murtherers Secondly We must not only forgive such as but little deserve it but likewise in Correspondence to our divine Pattern whether they desire it or no For thus it was in God's Forgiveness of Sinners he prevented us by the Riches of his compassionate Goodness and entreated us his rebellious Creatures first by his Prophets then by his only Son to be reconcil'd to him and embrace their Pardon And thus those that will be Imitators of God as dear Children must likewise do Rather than Enmity should continue we must seek to our Enemies to be reconcil'd though they were the first that offered the Offence And this however hardly it may sound is not only our Duty by Vertue of that general Conâ—â—â—d of forgiving one another as God has forgiven us but is expresly commanded by our compassionate Saviour Mat. 18.15 which occasion'd that Question of St. Peter Vers 21. How often shall I forgive my Brother Upon which our Lord deliver'd this Parable his Words are these and deserve our serious Attention Moreover if thy Brother trespass against thee go and tell him his Fault between thee and him alone If thy Brother trespass against thee or as we usually express it first did the Injury or gave the Affront go thou to him stay not till he comes and acknowledges his Fault to thee for that 's a thing Men are very backward in doing either for fear or for Shame or out of Pride and Greatness of Spirit as it must be term'd or for other Reasons and Time usually widens such Breaches and encreases Strangeness and Aversion But go thou therefore to him in Meekness and the Spirit of Forgiveness and with Resolutions of passing by all further Unkindnesâ—â— and it may be reproacheâ— for your good Will calmly tell him his Fault expostulate the Case with him and in all Likelyhood he will hear thee a right Understanding between you will ensue and thou shalt gain thy Brother This is indeed to be like God in this great Excellence of forgiving Injuries and is as a most noble Expression of christian Charity so we see very plainly commanded by our Lord and should be taken into our serious Consideration in order to our agreeable Practice Thirdly We must not only so far forgive as not to revenge but in Imitation of the divine Pattern of Forgiveness set before us be ready to do all Acts of Kindness and Beneficence to our Enemy as Occasion shall serve and his Needs require Remembring the Words of our great Master Do good to them that hate you and pray for those that despightfully use you and persecute you for so sâ—â— ye be the Children of the Highest who is 〈◊〉 to the unthankful and to the evil And we must endeavour to confirm the new made Agreement by more than ordinary Expressions of good Will that we may heap Coals upon our Enemies Head to melt him into a Correspondent Charity and likewise that there may be no Place left for our Enemy or our selves to doubt the Sincerity of our Forgiveness For the smoothest Words may be rotten and deceitful and the not revenging an Injury may be for want of Power or Opportunity but when to good Words beneficial Actions are added then may a Man well be thought to love and forgive not in Word only but in Deed and in Truth This is Christian Forgiveness of Injuries or Ephes 4. ult in the Apostle's Words the forgiving one another if any have a Quarrel against any even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven us i.e. freely and intirely though their Malice still cotinues against us nay to go and offer 'em Forgiveness and Reconciliation tho' they neither desire nor deserve it and to accompany our Forgiveness with Acts of Kindness and good Turns But what has been said upon this Account must have a Limitation lest it bound indiscriminately upon all Men and at all Times that is in all Instances of Wrong it thwart and run Counter to other Duties of our holy Religion Now in order to our being inform'd of the just Limits of this great Duty we must consider that Injuries may be of three Sorts affecting either Men's Persons their good Names or their Estates And each of these may be either in Danger of Ruin by the Injuries of a wicked Man or only greatly damag'd or the Injury may be but small and trifling and such as brings no considerable and lasting Ill Effects along with it Now such Injuries as threaten Ruin to a Man in any of those Respects ought not to be silently let pass nor the Man so forgiven as to have no Notice taken of him and such a legal Prosecution of him as is necessary to secure a Man's Person or to vindicate or recover his blasted Reputation and to preserve his Estate all or either of which would be ruin'd by the injurious Person if tamely let alone a legal Prosecution in such Cases as these is allow'd by the Law of God and Nature as well as that of the Land And the Case is proportionably the same as to Injuries that greatly endamage a Man in any of those Respects before mentioned And were all
many a Man injures another in suddain Heat and Passion and in cooler Blood repents of it though he can't prevail with himself to ask Forgiveness And sometimes a Man injures another in retaliating something that he took amiss from him though perhaps far otherwise intended and it may be false Reports may have made the Difference But now this Way of Reconciliation presently sets all right again it creates a right Understanding between Party and Party it nips Quarrels in the very Bud and leaves no Room for further Malice and Ill Will And what a holy Triumph will there then be in the forgiving Soul thus to have softned his Enemy and overcome Evil with Good And such happy Effects of Forgiveness of Injuries as these methinks should engage every considering Man to put it in Practice were this all but when besides all this so great a Mercy as the perfect Recovery of the Favour of God the Forgiveness of our own vast Debt and the Enjoyment of the Glories and Felicities of Heaven shall be the Reward of it Surely no Man in his Wits but must think himself as much obliged to forgive Injuries as to make himself eternally happy if he can And that this exceeding great Reward shall attend the hearty Practice of this Vertue is plain from our Lord 's own Words Luke 6.37 Forgive and ye shall be forgiven And as it appears from what has been said that we have upon all Accounts great Obligation to imitate the compassionate Example of our merciful God so in the Second Place Our Baseness will be very great if we do not And that both with Respect to God and Man With Respect to God not to forgive a petty Injury from our Brother when God has forgiven such infinite Provocations as ours against himself is the vilest Baseness because as was said before 't is the vilest Ingratitude and Forgetfulness of his great Mercy to us I say a petty Injury from our Brother for every Injury how great soever that one Mortal can do to another is indeed but of no regard in compare with those mountainous Heaps of Wickednesses which we have been guilty of against God and bear not so great Proportion to them as an Hundred Pence does to Ten Thousand Talents as the Parable expresses both Debts that which the compassionate King forgave his Servant and that which that wicked Man would not forgive his Fellow-Servant The infinite Goodness of God to us if it has made its due Impression upon our Spirits will leave so charming an Idea of Forgiveness upon our Souls as will incline us to a suitable Practice upon all Occasions especially since we know from God's great Compassion towards us how pleasing to him Compassion is in others But notwithstanding God's unspeakable Kindness to us to cherish a Temper of Mind which we can't but be sensible he infinitely Hates and endeavour to make those miserable as far as our Malice will reach to whom God has forgiven as much as he forgave us and for whose Redemption Christ dyed and for whom are reserv'd Crowns of Glory in Heaven through the wondrous Mercy of God and all this unmercifulness for a small Matter for the Debt of a few Pence This shews the basest of Ingratitude and weak Sense of God's Compassion shewn to us that is possible Well may our Lord say to such Men with a little Variation as the King in the Parable said to that cruel Servant of his O thou wicked Servant I forgave thee all that Debt and that though thou didst not desire it of me shouldst not thou also have had Compassion on thy Fellow-Servant even as I had Pity on thee Obligation sufficient there was no Doubt and that his Ingratitude and Forgetfulness of God's Favour and his cruel hardned Temper was very provoking will appear in the Sequel But Secondly To be revengeful and implacable after such Mercy receiv'd our selves is the greatest Baseness with Respect to Men. For we are all Fellow-Servants of the same great Lord and his Mercy has been the same to all of us we are all of us through Christ under the same Covenant of Grace and Reconciliation Now this methinks should endear us to one another and our mutual Joy for each others Happiness should put an End to all other petty Quarrels and Animosities between us But instead of this to hate and mischief one another to endeavour by all means to make one another as unhappy as we can here below and with him in the Parable pluck out Throats for Trifles and become inexorable to any that have injur'd us this is such an unnatural Piece of Barbarity and betrays so much devillish Baseness of Spirit as that every sensible Man when he considers it will abominate 'T is as if a Man should escape to Shoar from a Wreck at Sea and there meet one whom Providence had bless'd with the same Deliverance and instead of congratulating his Safety and joyning with him in praising and blessing the Mercy of their great Deliverer endeavour to knock out his Brains in Persuance of some old Grudge Nothing can be more base than this nor more justly provoking to the God of Mercy and Compassion Which leads me in the Last Place to consider the miserable Consequence of this Baseness viz. We shall thereby provoke God to recall his Pardon to us and deal with us as the King in the Parable did with his wicked ungrateful and cruel Servant and deliver us over to the Tormentors till we shall have paid all that is due unto him For so likewise says our Lord shall my heavenly Father do unto you if ye from your Hearts forgive not every one his Brother their Trespasses God's Pardon to Sinners though it be very full and free and given in infinite Mercy yet is not pass'd in such a Manner as that it can never be revok'd 't was given at first upon Conditions and may be again forfeited if we fail of performing what God requires in order to his final ratifying it Now Forgiveness of Injuries is expresly mention'd by our Saviour as Part of what God expects from us in order to his comfirming his Pardon to us for thus Mat. 6.14 15. If ye forgive Men their Trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you but if ye forgive not Men their Trespasses neither will your heavenly Father forgive your Trespasses but as 't is in the Parable his Wrath will again wax hot against you and he will make void his former Pardon and deliver you over to the Tormentors till you shall pay all that is due unto him That is will consign you to the Portion of the Devil and his Angels Spirits of like malicious and revengeful Tempers who as the merciless Executioners of God's Vengeance will not for ever spare to torment and cruciate those wretched Souls who might have escap'd those Miseries and had their Pardon seal'd with the Blood of their Redeemer but forfeited it again by indulging to that devillish Temper of
passively obedient but likewise actively so and ready chearfully to obey his Commands so ought every Believer to be to Christ Indeed this is the main Tryal of true conjugal Affection and is the best Demonstration of the Sincerity of all other Shews of Love and Fidelity and Reverence and Submission For where true Love Reverence and Submission is a chearful Obedience will surely follow and on the contrary where there is no willing chearful Obedience there is but very little if any sincere Affection And therefore says our dear Lord if ye love me keep my Commandments And why call ye me Lord Lord and do not the things that I say And of Sarah 't is said she obey'd Abraham as well as call'd him Lord. And St. John agreeably 1 John 2.5 whoso keepeth his Word in him verily is the Love of God perfected and hereby know we that we are in him And therefore Obedience to the Commands of this our glorious Husband is above all things necessary to continue that our near Relation to him and his Commandments are not grievous but his Yoke is easie and his Burthen light And 't would be strange if we should not obey him who commands us nothing but what is in its own Nature necessary in order to our Happiness in both Worlds In the last place the Gospel is productive of like Effects to those of Marriage and from this so near Relation of Believers to Christ proceeds the Increase of such as shall be the Children of God a numerous Progeny to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven and fill up the Vacancies left by the Fall of the rebellious Angels Thus our Lord calls the becoming Christian 's a being born again John 3.3 and teaches us when we pray to God to say Our Father And St. Paul agreeably in a Quotation from the Prophet Jeremiah says as in the Person of God I will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters saith the Lord Allmighty 2 Cor. 6.18 And the Jerusalem which is from above or the Christian Church is said to be the Mother of us all Gal. 4.26 and Chap. 3.26 we are all the Children of God by Christ Jesus And if Children then Heirs Heirs of God and joynt Heirs with Christ of that glorious Kingdom of his which is not of this World but eternal in the Heavens Well therefore may we cry out with Admiration as St. John does 1 John 3.1 Behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestow'd upon us that we should be call'd the Sons of God! And every Man that hath this Hope in him of being receiv'd into the Bosom of his heavenly Father and seeing him as he is must purifie himself even as he is pure And having such glorious Expectations cleanse himself from all Filthyness both of Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holyness in the Fear of God 2 Cor. 7.1 This then is the Nature of the Gospel 't is as a Marriage between Christ and Believers There is one thing more to be consider'd under this first General namely who they are that are admitted to the Joys and Happiness of this blessed Condition They are describ'd in the Parable by the poor and the maim'd the halt and the blind And truly just such was Man's Condition before God was pleased to call him to this happy Marriage Despicably poor we were and destitute of any real Excellency that could recommend us to the Favour of God our Souls were like a parch'd and barren Wilderness burnt up with vile Lusts and Passions no Fruits of Holiness appearing but drawing still nearer and nearer to everlasting Perdition Maim'd we were in all our Faculties by our frequent desperate Falls from our Obedience to God and full of Wounds and Bruises and putrifying Sores and our best Performances very lame and imperfect like the Haltings of a Cripple and our Understandings withall blinded by the Deceitfulness of Sin which put out that Candle of the Lord and made it uncapable of directing us in the right Way that leads to Happiness so that we lay groping in the Dark surrounded with Terrors rack'd by Uncertainties miserably poor and indigent and utterly unable to help our selves When lo There arose up a Light in this Darkness and through the infinite Mercy of our God the Day-spring from on high did visit us we were pitied and commiserated by the Father of Mercies and in this forlorn Condition call'd to partake of the ineffable Joys and Felicities that attend the nearest and dearest Relation to the Son of God The Lord anointed him to preach the Gospel to the poor he sent him to heal the broken-hearted to preach Deliverance to the captives and Recovery of Sight to the blind and to set at Liberty them that are bruised Luke 4.18 And accordingly he inrich'd our Poverty restor'd our Sight heal'd our Bruises and confirm'd our Strength and of his Fulness have we all receiv'd and nothing for the Future can ever make us miserable but our selves Wherefore as we should adore and magnifie with all our Souls the wondrous Goodness and Compassion of God and our Saviour in receiving such wretched polluted Creatures as we were by Nature into so intimate a Relation to himself and making us Partakers of the Comforts of his blessed Spirit in this World and providing Crowns of Glory for us in the next So above all things should we dread to fall back into the same Condition again and work out our Salvation with Fear and Trembling For otherwise 't would have been better for us never to have tasted of the divine Compassion in so extraordinary a Manner as we have done and our latter End will be worse than our Beginning And thus much for the first thing to be consider'd in this Parable namely the Nature of the Gospel or Christian Religion represented by the Marriage of a King's Son and the poor and the maim'd the halt and the blind being call'd in to partake of the Joys and Festivities of that great Solemnity I proceed now to the Second thing to be consider'd namely God's great Care in having this Gospel preach'd this Religion publish'd and made known to all Men and his repeated Invitations to all Men to embrace it represented by that King 's sending forth his Servants to call those that were bidden to the Wedding and again sending other Servants and commanding them to tell those that were bidden that he had prepar'd and made all things ready and therefore to urge them to come unto the Marriage How great God's Care has been that this Gospel should be publish'd and how repeated his Invitations to Men have been that they would embrace it is evident from the whole Story of the first planting of the Gospel and from the Course that by God's Appointment has been taken ever since At first many were endow'd with very extraordinary Abilities for this Purpose such as the Gift of Tongues whereby they were enabled wherever they should go to preach the Gospel to Men
me Thou holy Jesus though a stern Judg to obstinate Rebels to thy Father art yet the Bridegroom of thy Spouse the Church and infinite is thy Love to those that preserve inviolate their Fidelity to thee and happy will they be beyond Expression who at thy glorious coming to receive thy Bride into thy Kingdom shall be admitted into thy Marriage Chamber and be for ever where thou art and behold and partake of thy Glory O may I therefore like a wise Virgin preserve my Innocence untouch'd be cloath'd with Humility and adorn'd with a meek and quiet Spirit and sober and temperate in all things having my Lamp full of Oyl my Soul replenish'd with Vertue and constantly burning with the Fires of Piety and Devotion that so when the Cry shall be made Behold the Bridegroom cometh go ye forth to meet him I may be ready to obey thy Call though it be made at Midnight and be found of thee our dearest Lord as a Virgin in Peace without Spot and blameless II. I must confess with Shame and Sorrow O merciful Jesus that I am too prone to slumber and sleep and forget to advert as I ought to this thy glorious Second Advent and the Forerunner of it Death and am apt foolishly to put that Day far from me and to think thou delayest thy coming whereby my Oyl is wasted and my Lamp almost gone out O do thou therefore quicken me in thy Righteousness blessed Redeemer and grant that the Consideration of the surprizing Suddainness of thy Appearance upon the Throne of Judgment and the great Uncertainty of the Time when I shall be call'd from hence and bound over to that great Assize there to give Account of my Works and how I liv'd and how I dy'd Grant that this Consideration may put an End to my spiritual Drouziness and engage me in Prayer and Watchfulness and pious sober Conversation because I know not the Day nor the Hour And when by the Decays of Age or Violence of Diseases my Departure into the World of Spirits seems to be near approaching O then enable me with thy prevailing Grace to trim my Lamp with an extraordinary Diligence to enliven my Religion and not be to seek for Oyl then when my Lamp should be best replenish'd with it and burn most vigorously O let me never trust to the great Uncertainty of a Death-Bed Repentance nor vainly depend upon the redundant Merit of others except that of my Saviour which is my only Hope but now in Time of Health provide for a happy Death lest my Lamp being out when thou shalt call me to attend thee Amazement and Horror seize me and the Door be shut upon me And well will my wakeful Preparation be rewarded dearest Jesus when I shall be admitted into thy glorious Presence and enjoy the endless Blisses of thy heavenly Bride-Chamber O therefore grant me thy Grace not to sleep as do others but to watch and be sober and so much the more as I see that Day approaching Amen Blessed Saviour Amen Amen PARABLE VII Of the good Samaritan Luke x. 30 31 32 33 34 35. A certain Man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among Thieves which stripped him of his Rayment and wounded him and departed leaving him half dead And by chance there came down a certain Priest that Way and when he saw him he passed by on the other Side And likewise a Levite when he was at the Place came and look'd on him and passed by on the other Side But a certain Samaritan as he journyed came where he was And when he saw him he had Compassion on him And went to him and bound up his Wounds pouring in Oyl and Wine and set him on his own Beast and brought him to an Inn and took Care of him And on the morrow when he departed he took out Two Pence and gave them to the Host and said unto him take care of him and whatsoever thou spendest more when I come again I will repay thee THIS Parable was spoken upon occasion of a Lawyer 's asking our Lord What he should do to inherit eternal Life Who upon Christ's referring him to his own Law and his Repetition of the two great Commandments of loving God with all our Hearts and our Neighbours as our selves and Christ's returning to him this do and thou shalt live being willing to justifie himself as an Observer of all this ask'd this further Question and who is my Neighbour That so knowing our Saviour's Sense in that Particular he might the better make it appear to him that he not only lov'd God with all his Heart which he thought he could safely affirm but likewise his Neighbour as himself and therefore stood fair for eternal Life To this latter Question Jesus answer'd by the Parable above recited and then ask'd the conceited Lawyer Which now of these Three thinkest thou was Neighbour to him that fell among the Thieves the Priest and Levite that were his Country-Men Children of the same Abraham who yet took no charitable Notice of him but passed by on the other Side or the Samaritan who though a schismatical Stranger to the Common Wealth of Israel and an Enemy to every Jew yet had Compassion on him and reliev'd and succour'd him with Charity suitable to his Distress To this the Lawyer answer'd as he could not choose but do he was his Neighbour that shew'd Mercy on him Then said Jesus immediately to him Go and do thou likewise Which Words struck home upon his Conscience that they put a Stop to his intended Justification of himself and we hear of no further Intercourse he had with our Lord and may imagine how he sneak'd away asham'd and confounded The Design therefore of this Parable is to give us a true Notion of Charity or Compassion and Relief of such as are in Distress and that both with Respect to the Object of it and the Manner and Measure of expressing it to such Object And therefore in discoursing upon this Parable I shall do three things First I shall shew who are the proper Objects of this Sort of Charity according to the true Sense and Meaning of our holy Religion Secondly How we are obliged to relieve them in what Manner and in what Measure Thirdly What great Encouragement we have to this excellent Duty with respect both to this World and that above or what a Blessedness it is to be able thus to give rather than receive First As for the proper Objects of this Charity they are in general the really Indigent and Calamitous and such as are unable to help themselves And that without excepting any whether they be Strangers and Foreigners or Enemies or Heathens or Hereticks or wicked Persons All that are indeed necessitous and helpless are made by our holy and most merciful Religion the Objects of our Compassion and Relief Thus the Apostle As we have Opportunity let us do good unto all Men Gal. 6.10 and our Lord Do good to
Instrument of rescuing others from Misery and Want from perishing with Hunger or by other Calamities and restoring 'em to Life and Comfort and Health and Liberty What Delight more high and noble than that which will arise from our changing the Sighs and Groans and Laments of the Miserable into Rejoycings and the Curses and horrid Blasphemies and impious Reflections upon Providence utter'd by those whom Extremity of Poverty has made desperate into Praises and Blessing of God and Acknowledgments of his Goodness and Care of the Children of Men What can cause greater Complacency and Satisfaction in the Soul than for a Man to be as a Father to the Fatherless not only in maintaining them but in providing for them good and pious Education and honest Trades whereby these very Children become Men of Probity and useful to the State who otherwise if left at loose and unregarded would in all Probability have been the Pests and Disturbers of the Community Miserable themselves and the Occasion of much Misery to others And what more grateful to a pious Man than to relieve the forlorn Poverty of such as are at once depriv'd of their Husbands and the Means of providing for their Families and to be blessed by those that were ready to perish and cause the Widows Heart to sing for Joy Job 29.31 This is pure and undefil'd Religion says St. Jam. 1.27 James to visit the Fatherless and Widows in their Affliction nay 't is a near Resemblance of the Charity of God himself Psal 146.9 who preserveth the Strangers and relieveth the Fatherless and Widow And indeed every Expression of Mercy and Compassion resembles us to God whose Mercy is above all his Works and to the Compassionate Jesus who so pitied the miserable Estate of Mankind as to leave his Father's Glories and take on him the Form of a Servant and suffer in our stead that we might be Partakers of Life and Pardon and Immortal Happiness and who went about doing Good all the Days of his Humiliation And certainly to be like God and the great Redeemer of the World Christ Jesus and that in the most Amiable and Glorious Persection must needs fill a Man's Breast with Heavenly Joy since the Happiness of that blessed place consists in the Souls being transform'd into the Divine Image and Likeness from Glory to Glory 1 Joh. 3.2 2 Cor. 3.18 But Secondly and which with some may be the most prevailing Argument there is great Encouragement to Charity with Relation to this World because 't is the most thriving of all Christian Graces and is always attended with Prosperity and a Blessing David says expresly Psal 37.25 I have been Young and now am Old and yet saw never the Righteous forsaken nor his Seed beging their Bread i. e. as it follows in the next Verse the Righteous Man that is ever merciful and lendeth And not only himself but his Posterity is blessed And this a learned Author of our own Dr. Hammond Pract. Cat. Lib. 3. Sect. 1. Extends to all Ages and challenges any Historian of Past or Observator of present Times to give one Instance of any Christian Alms Giver that ever brought himself or his Posterity to Want nay that did not thrive and prosper the better by that means And this is confirm'd by Solomon Prov. 11.24 25. There is that scattereth and yet increaseth and there is that withholdeth more than is meet and it tendeth to Poverty The Liberal Soul shall be made fat and he that watereth shall be water'd also himself That is as the same Author has it unless by Negligence or Suretiship or some other Sin that he lives in he brings a Curse and Poverty upon himself and Mercifulness prove not Antidote sufficient against all other Poison And he that is thus assur'd of the peculiar Care of God concerning him and that he shall always have a comfortable Provision as long as he lives in Recompence of his liberal Charity to the Poor and Needy has questionless very great Encouragement to perform the Duty And as for the unavoidable Troubles of this Life which will mix with the most perfect Prosperity here as Sickness Vexation and Disappointments and Temporal Losses and such like Psal 41.1 3. The Lord will deliver him that considereth the Poor says David in the Time of Trouble and strengthen him upon the Bed of Languishing and make all his Bed in his Sickness And though many may be the Troubles even of the thus Righteous which God may permit them to be exercis'd with for many excellent Purposes yet he will surely deliver them out of all As for the Encouragement to this Charity with Respect to the next World it is thus express'd by our Saviour Mat. 5.7 Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain Mercy that is at the Time when every Man will stand in the greatest Need of Mercy the Day of Judgment For then there will be particular Enquiry made into the Discharge of every one's Stewardship in Point of Mercy and Compassion to the Indigent and Calamitous and the great Judge of all the World has declar'd that when he shall come in the Clouds of Heaven to render to every Man according to his Works he will esteem the Expresses of our Charity to his necessitous Servants as done to himself and will reward the Merciful not only with a publick Commendation at that General Assembly of all the World but will receive them to a Participation of the Glories and Felicities of his Eternal Kingdom Saying Come ye Blessed Children of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepar'd for you from the Beginning of the World Mat. 25.34 And surely no Man can want Encouragement to the Duty when it shall be rewarded in such a Manner as this I shall now infer some few things from the whole and so conclude this Argument And first from the strict Charge that God has given in the Revelations of his Will to every capable Person to supply the Necessities of all that want Relief and that according to the Wants of the Needy and in a Measure suitable to his Ability and inforced this Charge with the most prevailing Motives that can be made use of From hence I infer the great Unreasonableness as well as Impiety of charging God with the Miseries of Mankind in this Instance For what would they have God do more in this Matter than he has already done Would they have him exercise his Omnipotence in wholly preventing Poverty That is would they have him interpose in all the Contingencies of this Mortal Life and immediately command the Sea for Example to be calm when a Vessel is in Danger whose Wreck would be the undoing of several or send an Angel to steer her from Shelves and Quicksands to preserve her from Pirates and conduct her in Salety to the Haven Would they have the Land miraculously secur'd from all Misfortunes too from the Villanies of Men from Casual Fires from Inundations and Earthquakes and