cannot save nor his ear heavy that it cannot hear but your iniquities have separted between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear His face is clothed with light we know but when Wickedness over-spreads a people those deeds of darkness put out the light of his countenance His hand although it be not shortned yet it contracts and shuts it self not only to grasp and withhold his mercies from them but to smite Iniquity builds such a wall of separation as does shut out omnipresence and makes him who is every where not be with such a people not be in hearing of their needs for vvhen their sins do cry no prayers can be hearkned to he will not hear you saith the Prophet And that gives us the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Lord's departure from a people and the manner of it He is taking away his peace and mercies from a Nation vvhen he vvill hear no prayers for it and he declares that he vvill hear no prayers when he vvithdraws once from his house of prayer and makes his offices to cease The place appointed for these offices the Sanctuary he calls we know the tabernacle of meeting that is vvhere he would meet his votaries and hear and bless them calls it his house his dwelling place his court his presence and his throne and if so vvhen he is not to be found in these vvhen he no longer dwels nor meets in them vve may be sure that he hath left the land The Psalmist vvhen he does complain men had done evil in the Sanctuary the adversaries roared in the midst of the Congregations and set up their banners there for trophies they broke down all the carved work thereof with axes and hammers and had defiled the dwelling places of God's 〈◊〉 even to the ground and burnt up all the houses of God in the land he does suppose that God vvas then departed vvhen they had left him no abiding place and therefore cries out O God wherefore art thou absent from us so long Remember Sâ—â—â— where thou hast dwelt But 't is not only upon these Aâ—â—lâ—gies I build this method of departure vve shall finde exactly in Ezekieâ—â— Vision of that case to vvhich my Text referres it begins ch 9. 3. And the glory of the God of Israel i. e. the 〈◊〉 cloud the token of his presence in the Sanctuary went up from the Cherub whereupon he was to the threshold of the â—â—nse as going out and then ver 8 he does refuse to be entreared for the land after that ch 10. 18. The glory went from off the threshold to the midst of the City and chap. 11. 23. it went from thence to the mountain without the City and so away and then nothing but desolation dwelt upon the land untill the counsel of my Text vvas followed and they did seek the Lord their God for then the glory did return into the Sanctuary just as it vvent away as you may find it ch 43. And having seen vvhen and how God forsakes a people and for vvhat that does direct us how to seek him and it is thus When men forsake those paths in vvhich they did not only erre and go astray but did walk contrary to God so that they did forsake each other and do return walk in his vvaies the vvayes of Commandments and return also to his Church and seek him in his house fall low before his footstool begge of him to meet in his tabernacle renew his vvorship and all invitations of him to return into his dwelling-place For sure as it is in vain to seek him but in his own vvayes nor can vve hope to meet him but in his Tabernacle of meeting so also Scripture calls both these to seek the Lord and promises to both the finding him To the first Deâ—t 4 29 30. If from thy tribulation thou â—â—alt seek the Lord thy God tâ—ou shalt find him if thou seek him vvith all thy heart and vvith all thy soul if thou turn to the Lord thy God and shalt be obedient unto his voice And to the second Jer. 29. 12. speaking of this sad state to vvhich my Text relates Then shall ye call upon me and ye shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you and I will be found of you saith the Lord and I will turn away your captivity I â—ould produce you instances of Asa making all his people swear to seek the Lord but because my Text speaks of David he shall be the great explication as he vvas the practice of this duty in both senses In the former 119. Psal. I have sought thy Commandments above gold or precious stone more than that vvhich does make and does adorn my Crown than that which furnishes all the necessities and all the pomps of Royalty And for the other Psal. 63. 1 2. O God thou art my God early vvill I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no vvater is To see thy power and thy glory as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary His very words do seem to labour too and he does seek expressions to tell us how he seeks The hot fits of a thirsty palate that call so oft and so impetuosly are in his soul it hath a pious fever which cannot be allay'd but by pouring out of his soul to God in the Temple by breathing out its heats in his devotion offices Nay more he longs hath that I know not vvhether appetite or passion which is not to be understood but onely suffered to vvhich all the unreasonable violences which passion can be heated into all the defaillances nature can be opprest into are natural it is the bodies Extasie Now this he had towards the vvorship of the Sanctuary his very flesh found rapture in those exercises and vvhen he vvas in a barren and dry land vvas driven from the plenties of a Court and from the glories of a throne into a desaert solitude he found no other vvants but of God's house did mind pant and long after nothing else did neither thirst for his necessities nor long for his own Crown but for the Tabernacle only And besides the Religion of this he had reason of State too to be thus affected this vvas the best means to engage his Subjects to him and secure his Throne He knew if by establishing God's worship and by going vvith the multitude as he did use to the exercises of it if by royal example and encouragements of vertue and by discountenanting and chastising impiety by doing as he did profess to doe Ps. 101. that directory for a Court he could people his land vvith holy living and his Temple vvith holy Worship he knew he should then have good Subjects loyal to him and at peace vvith themselves If they vvill seek their God then they will seek their
him without fear that we would do it in holinesse and Righteousness before him And if he would restore his opportunities of Worship how we would use them Thus we did labour to tempt God and draw him in to have compassion and this was Ephraims Imagination just I heard Ephraim bemoaning himself saith the Prophet as a Bullock unaccustomed to the yoke turn thou me and I shall be turned turn my Captivity and I will turn my life But this was as a Bullock unaccustomed to the yoke that did not like the straitness and pressure of it and would promise any thing to get it off thought it more easie to reform than bear Affliction But is this hopeful think you The Souldiers of Lyons that would ravish Death and break into the Grave for Lust it may be would have been modest and retired from the fair Palaces that are prepared to tempt and entertain that vice Cold and insensible of all those heats that Health and Beauty kindle but remember it was the taking off Gods Hand that hardned Pharaohs heart and a release from punishment was his Reprobation And as for those that were humbled under the Rod and when God had retrencht from their enjoyments did put restraints upon themselves gave over sinning I have a word of Caution for them that they examine well and take a care it be a ceasing from fin like that in the Text a dying to it that they no longer live the rest of their time in the flesh to the lusts of men For if this Old Man be onely cold and stiff not mortified by the calm and sunshine of peace likely to be warm'd into a recovery if thou owe all thy Innocence to thy Pressure wert onely plunder'd of thy sins and thy Vertue and Poverty hand in hand as they were born so they will dye together thy Vices and Revenues come in at once What is this but to invite new Desolations which God in kindness must send to take away the opportunities and foments of our ruining sins 't is true when God has wrought such most astonishing miracles of mercy for us when he did make Calamity contribute to our Happinesse when we were Shipwrackt to the Haven and the Shore when rains did advance us and we fell upwards it is an hopeful argument God would not do such mighty works on purpose to undo them we have good ground of confidence that he will preserve his own mercies and will not throw away the issues of his goodness in which his bounty hath so great an interest and share But yet if we debauch Salvation and make it serve our undoing if we order these opportunities of mercy so that they onely help us to fill up the measure of our sins if we teach Gods long suffering onely to work out our eternal sufferings these Mercies will prove very cruel to us and far from giving any colour for our hopes When the Prodigal was received into his Fathers house and arms had a Ring put on him and the fatted Calf killed for him if he should strait have invited the companions of his former riot to that fatted Calf and joyn'd his Harlot to him with that Ring he had deserved then to be disinheritated both from his Fathers house and pitty who would have had no farther entertainment nor no bowells for him To prevent such a fate let us make no relapses but quite cease from sin which if we do not do a little Logick will draw an unhappy inference from this Text if he that hath suffered hath ceast from sin then he that hath not ceast from sinning hath not suffered and then what is all this that we have felt and so layn under what is it if it be not suffering If this be but preparative then what is the full potion the Cup of Indignation when all his Violls shall be poured into it If such have been the beginnings of sufferings what shall the issues be If the morning dew of the day of punishment have been so full of blood what shall the Storm and Tempest be the deluge and inundation of Fury Take heed of making God relapse 't is in your power to prevent it your Reformation will be his preservative and Antidote That is the way to keep all whole to settle Government and Religion both at once to establish the Kings Throne and Christs For notwithstanding mens pretensions these Thrones are not at all inconsistent For that there must be no King but Christ that there cannot be a Kingdome here of this world because there is a Kingdome that is not of this world is such another Argument as that there cannot be an Earth because there is an Heaven Indeed if we fulfill my Text then we shall reconcile these Kingdoms and bring down Heaven into us for that 's a state where there is neither sin nor suffering where there shall be no tears because no guilt to merit them and no calamity to make them Now Reformation does work this here in some degree and afterwards our comforts that are checker'd with some sufferings and our piety which is soiled with spots shall change into Immortal and unsullied Glories to the Throne of which Glories he prepare us all Who washt us from our sins in his own Blood and by his sufferings hath made us Kings and Priests to God and his Father to whom be Glory and Dominion for ever and ever Amen SERMON II. VVHITE-HALL October 20. 1661. PSALM LXXIII 1. Truely God is good to Israel even to such as are of a Clean Heart ' T was a false Confidence the Jews did nourish That they should dwell securely in their Land notwithstanding their provocations because the Worship and the House of God was in it They did but trust on lying words the Prophet sayes when they did trust upon The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord As if the Temple were a Sanctuary for those that did profane it and the horns of the Altar would secure them when 't was the blood upon the Altar call'd for Vengeance Nor was that after-plea of theirs more valid We are the chosen Israel of God We have Abraham to our Father As if when by their works they had adopted to themselves another Parent were of their Father the Devil they could claim any but their present Fathers interest or have the blessings of forsaken Abraham Now if it be no otherwise with us but because in our Judah God is known his Name great in our Israel with us in Salem that is in peace he hath his Tabernacle now and his dwelling in Sion And so much knowledge such pretences to the Name of God and to his Worship are not with other Nations nor have they such advantages to know his Law If as each party of us does assume these Priviledges to it self so each do also rest in them although their Lives answer not these advantages If while they judge themselves Christs chosen Flock boast Covenants and
Alliances with God although they violate all those Relations they yet trust those will secure them For why the being of such a party and perswasion is the signature and Amulet that will preserve them in Gods favour the charm through which he will not see Iniquity in Jacob nor perverseness in Israel Lastly if we that wear the distinctive Character of Israel that of a Ransom'd Purchas'd People for sure our Rescues rise unto the number and the rate of those which brought the Sons of Jacob from the House of Bondage if we as they presume and surfeit upon goodnesse and think these gifts of God too are without Repentance believe our being his Redeemed his Church conceit our Orthodox Profession as once we thought our righteous Cause should do will shield us from the danger of our Enemies and of our vices too and neither let our soes nor our selves ruine us with such my Text and my intentions prepare to meet least we should fill the Parallel and as we equal Israel in our Deliverances and imitate their practises we do transcribe the fatal pattern too in the most full resemblance and repletion of an entire excision for although God be truely loving to his Church yet the ungodly does his soul abhorr however in a signal manner he be good to Israel yet this his kindness does confine it self to such as are of a clean heart The words need not much explication By Israel is meant the Church of God and by his goodnesse to it all his externall mercies also and protections as the Psalme evinces and by such as are of a clean heart those that to the profession of Religion and Holiness of outward conversation do add internal purity and sincerity for some translate it such as are of a clean heart some such as are true-hearted and sincere And it signifies both The words thus explicated give me these Subjects of Discourse First a generall Proposition Truely God is good to Israel to his Church Secondly an assignation of Conditions under which that general Proposition holds All are not Israel that are of Israel it holds onely in such as are of a clean heart And in this we have first a quality appropriate to the Church Cleanness Secondly with its subject the Heart and there I shall enquire why that alone is mention'd whether the cleanness of the Heart suffice and having answered that shall proceed Thirdly to consider them together in both the given senses as they mean a sincere heart and a pure undefiled heart In each of which Considerations because the latter part of my Text is a limitation of the former shewing where that generall Proposition is of force where it is not I shall as I proceed view all the several guilts opposed to either notion of Cleanness and see how far each of them does remove from any interest in the Lords goodness to his Church which is the natural Application of each part and shall be mine 1. Truly God is good to Israel his Church And sure this Proposition is evident to us by its own light to whom God proved his goodnesse to astonishment by exercising it to Miracle while he at once wrought prodigies of kindness and conviction to which we have onely this proof to add That God hath been so plentiful in Bounties that we are weary of the very mention of them and have so surfeited on Goodness that we do nauseate the acknowledgment So that his kindness in sustaining his Compassions does vie with that which did effect them who as he will not be provokt not to be good by such prodigious unthankfulness so neither will he by the most exasperating use of his Favours God did complain of Israel Thou hast taken thy fair Jewels of my Gold and my Silver which I had given thee and madest to thy self Images My meat also which I gave thee my fine floure mine Oyle and Hony wherewith I fed thee and hast even set it before them for a sweet savour And if men now do offer things in which God hath the same propriety to baser Idols to their vices if they do sauce his meat which he hath given them to sacrifice to Luxury take his silver and gold to serve in the Idolatry of Covetousnesse and use his Jewels to dress Images also for sowlest adorations If Atheism grow against Miracle and Goodness too and men do most deny God now when he hath given greatest evidences of his kind Providence I know not by what argument encouraged unless his in the Poet Factum quod se dum negal hoc videt beatum because they see they fare best now though they deny him most teaching his goodness to confute his being If they do look upon the wondrous restitution of Gods Service as but a shifting of the Scene of Worship only another and more gaudy draught and Landskip of Religion shot on the Stage and do accordingly esteem it as a variety and entertainment for their senses onely for nothing higher is engag'd I doubt me in those offices If they assist in them not out of Principle but meer indifference to all and therefore these at present It is not halting betwixt God and Baal this it is the bowing of the knee to both which they can do to each alike when either is the uppermost and truely count them Deities alike I fear Nay when the onely Ordinance the Sermon is but a prize within the Temple the Preacher but Rhetor dicturus ad aram that comes to do his Exercise before the Altar in which men are concern'd no farther than to hear and judge not to be sentenc't by If God endure all this and do continue still his Church his Worship and his other Mercies then I may well conclude that Truely God is good to Israel But I will not be this fastidious Remembrancer These arguments may prove his goodness but sure these qualities will not preserve it to us the limitation my next part must suggest them which tells us who they are God is good to Even to such as are of a clean Heart 1. Clean. Clean Pure and Holy are so essential attributes of the Israel or Church of God that though I must not say the Church does take in none but such For there are tares unwholesome poppy too and darnel with the Wheat yet I must say that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Church is but a Congregation of such as are called to be Saints 1 Cor. 1. 2. In the first Israel almost the whole Discipline of their Religion was purity in type and all the Ceremonies of their Worship were but figures rather Doctrines of Cleanness when they came first to enter Covenant with God at Horeb and to receive their Law they were to sanctifie themselves and wash their cloaths What purity do those Commandements require which they must not hear with any thing that was unclean about them which they must wash all to receive and indeed nothing with them was enterprized
at and abhor in Enemies when that shall be the way to serve their ends because they have no virtue to engage them to be otherwise And to be such is to be constant to their own designs their dispositions and usances These are the Pests of all Societies they speak and live infection and friendship with them is to couple with the Plague These do compleat and perfect what the Devil but began in Eden Nurse up Original sin chafe inclination into appetite and habit suggest and raise desires and then feed them into Constitution and Nature In a word are a brood of those Serpents one of which was enough to destroy Paradise and Innocence 'T is true a man would think these were our Friends indeed that venture to Gehenna for us Alas they are but more familiar devils work under Sathan to bring us to Torments and differ nothing from him but that they draw us into them and he inflicts them And when sinful contents come home in Ruine and pleasures dy into Damnation then men will understand these treacherous loves and find such Friends are but projectours for the Devil then they will hate them as they do their own Damnation discerning these are but the kindnesses of Hell Nay it is possible I may slander that place in speaking so ill of it Dives will let us see there are affections of a kinder and more blessed strain in Hell Luke 16. from the twenty seventh verse you find he did make truce with Torments that he might contrive and beg onely a message of Repentance for his Brethren he did not mind at all his own dire Agonies he minded so the reformation of his Friends Good God! when I reflect upon these pieties of the Damn'd together with the practises of those who have given their names in to Religion when I see Fiends in Hell do study how to make Men virtuous and Christians upon Earth with all their art debauch them into vice and ruine I cannot choose but pray Grant me such Friends as are in Hell Rather grant us all the Friendship in the Text. But then we must have none with any vice Friendship with that engageth into enmity with God and Christ I shew'd you And to pass over all those after retributions of Vengeance Christ hath studied for his Enemies when he that now courts us to be our friend and we will make our Adversary must be our Judge For were there none of this and should we look no further than this life yet sure we of this Nation know what it is to have God our Enemy who for so many years lay under such inflictions as had much of the character of his last executions they had the Blasphemies and the Confusion the dire Guilts and the black Calamities and almost the Despair and Irrecoverableness of those in Hell And though He be at Peace with us at present at least there is a Truce yet I beseech you in the presence and the fear of God to think in earnest whether the present provocations of this Nation do not equal those that twenty years ago engaged him into Arms against us and made him dash us so in pieces Whether those Actions of the Clergy be reformed that made the People to abhor their Function and their Service the Offerings and Ministers of the Lord and made God himself spew them out 'T were endless to go on to the prophanness to the loose impieties and the bold Atheismes of the Laity especially of the better sort in short what one degree or state or Sex is better Sure I am if we are not better we are worse beyond expression or recovery who have resisted every method and conquer'd all God's arts of doing good upon us been too hard for his Judgments and his Mercies both 'T is true when we lay gasping under his severe revenges we then pretended to be humbled begg'd to be reconciled and be at peace with him and vow'd to his conditions promising obedience and aliened our selves from our old sins his Foes But then when Christ came to confirm this amity came drest with all his courtships brought all the invitations of Love along our Prince and our Religion our Church and State Righteousness and Peace and the Beauty of Holynesse every thing that might make us be an Happy and a Pious Nation thus he did tempt and labour to engage that Friendship which we offered him and vowed to him And we no sooner seiz'd all this but we break resolutions as well as duty to get loose from him and laden with the spoyls of our defeated Saviour's goodness we joyn hands with his Enemies resume our old acquaintance-sins enrich and serve them with his Bounties make appear that we only drew him in to work such miracles but to assist our Worldlyness Ambitions and Lusts to be our opportunities of vice and provocation of him And being thus affronted and refused his Enemy preferr'd not this God but Barrabbas any the vilest thing for Friend rather than Christ must he not needs be more our Enemy than heretofore And if he be that question will concern us Are we stronger than God It should behove us not to fall out with him till we are See how he does prepare himself for the encounter Wisd. 5. Taking his Jealousie for Armour putting on Justice severe and vindicative Justice as a Breastplate and his Wrath sharpening as a Sword and arming all the Creatures for Auxiliaries Alas when Omnipotence does expresse it self as scarcely strong enough for Execution but Almightyness will be armed also for Vengeance will assume Weapons call in Aids for fury who shall stand it Will our Friends think you keep it off us and secure us did we consider how uneasie God accounts himself till he begin the Storm while he keeps off his Plagues from overrunning such a Land we would expect them every moment and they must come Ah sayes he I will ease me of mine Adversaries and avenge me of mine Enemies and then in what condition are we if God can have no ease but in our rnine if he does hunger and thirst after it go to his Vengeance as to a Feast And if you read the 25. Chapter of Isaiah you will find there a rich Bill of Fare which his Revenge upon his Enemies does make view the sixth verse He that enjoyes his morsels that lays out his Contrivances and studies on his Dishes so as if he meant to cramm his Soul let him know what delight soe're he finds when he hath spoyled the Elements of their inhabitants to furnish his own Belly and not content with Natures Delicacies neither hath given them forc't Fatnesses changing the very flesh into a marrow suppling the Bones almost into that Oyle that they were made to keep all this delight the Lord by his expressions does seem to take in his dread executions on his Enemies a sinful People And if the vicious Friendships of the World have so much more attractive than Christ's love
and no better than appearing 't is plain in those she fixes on the best But if the mind will not be taken off but Conscience fly in the Man's Face and will not let him rest nor his Will fix why then in this unquietnesse of hers she sets the thoughts on work and will not let them fix till they find out some salvo that can satisfie Carnality and Conscience too that will let the Man have the sin and not deprive him of Gods favour And if either application of Gods Decrees and Promises without Condition absolutely to himself and the assurances of Faith and trust will do it as we may know it will in some or if not that then if hopes of mercy resolutions of repenting afterwards and leaving off the sin as this does do with most then it is evident in choosing to obey his inclinations with such salvo the man chooseth that which does appear best for the present But if the mind unsatisfied with these and not daring to trust such rotten planks against the very face of storm object the uncertainty at least of these Principles and the unsafeness of those after hopes not fit to be security against God's Threats and would convince the man that conscience of resisting a temptation and by that keeping himself free from the clutches of the Devil and the fears of Hell together with present assurance of God's favour are more satisfying at the present than the pleasures of the sin Yet those pleasant apprehensions of the Conscience of resisting re-encountering with the seeming impossibility of resisting alway that which presses so and will sometime or other seize upon him and finding the temptation to have sharper stings than his Religious fears of things which are not present and of which he hath had no experience And besides he having never had any great sense of God's favour and rewards the Landskip of them is but dim and faint upon the mind like those representations blind men have of Beauty to whom if you discourse of exact features perfect harmony of colours of a graceful presence chearful aire and a good mine and all those other know not what 's that being seen commit a Rape upon mens faculties yet his conceptions of them are but very dark who never hath had any notices of these but such as his Ears give and though the Understanding chance to be positive and resolute in its determinations concerning them yet still the apprehensions of them are not cleer futurity which is one sort of distance making objects as all things afar of do look but confused and their Ideas not distinct nor bright or brisk therefore they move the Will but very coldly Whereas the other pleasure being known the apprehensions of it are more vigourous the draught is strong and lusty on the Fancy there is force in every line the very image of it lives and therefore is more efficacious and by that prevails that looking fairest and most tempting at that present so that from this experience of our selves in every sort of instance thus deduc't the Will does seem alwayes to fix on that which appears simply best for it for that instant which it chooseth in the man still takes what he likes better at that present and he likes better that which lookes better for that present And things are made to look better by these arts which I have shewed you This being now the temper and the disposition of the Will and such the method of her actings this is the thing the world makes use of here 's its strength namely in making things look better for the present Which how it manages so as thereby to get advantages upon us how it does improve each such advantage till it get a perfect Conquest I shall give you in few words by shewing you how the World gets first possession of our Souls and there raises in us passionate desires that expect present satisfaction which it hath at hand to serve them with which by these arts are made look better than any other expectations It was observ'd by the Philosopher most truly that a Child is born onely an Animal is to be Educated and brought up into a Man His reason is the birth of time and institution for a while nothing but sense does live in him Now all that while he is incapable of being affected with any other things but such as strike the senses things of this present world and by that means onely such possesse his mind and inclinations too the uses and advantages of every thing about him are those he is first sensible of and those alone and so the world does make the first impressions on our Souls it does prevent all other in our inclinations hath our first love and enjoyes our first embraces from which it must be with great reluctancy that we are torn and whereas these impressions should be weakened and defac't by the infusion of other notions and Principles and the Soul should be weaned from too great liking of these sensitive satisfactions by the cares of those which should be as assistant souls to us denying us every thing that was not very requisite or very moderate that we might learn to want them and be taught not to desire them The contrary alas is practis'd every way as soon as ere the mind is capable of being trained into the World's snares we betray it into them we teach it how to understand and be affected with the bait and those pomps which we but just before made them renounce we make them before any things know and be pleas'd with and the first blossom of the mind wherein the Soul exerts it self for the most part is Pride And for the rest the old complaint is true ante palatum eorum quà m os instituimus we teach their Palates sooner than their Tongues and they can cry for what they cannot name and yet among their first half words they can name Dayâ—ties and what will he not lust for when he is grown up that is taught to desire provocatives ere he can chew them Thus we teach the gayeties and the delights of the World how to insinuate into and take the heart we water and keep warm the seeds of Worldly Inclinations that are there make them sprout and cherish them nurse up original propensions into temper And as Understanding grows up we impregnate it with Principles and arts of serving them turn Reason into a sagacity and skill of catering for those Inclinations making them live Aristotle's observation backwards educating them into Creatures of meer sense teaching them to be rationall understanding Bruits Yet the world thinks sic fiunt homines this is call'd making them Men betimes And when they are thus made when the age of satisfying all their inclinations is come and when temptations are understood and multiply by Conversation and the World hath objects for them all at hand objects that what every way they turn their Eyes are still before them and
of all Gods Promises and Threats as much as if they were in fight and though we see them through a glasse but darkly yet we see them by it 1 Cor. 13. 12. it being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It represents the things of which we have no demonstration from sense or humane reasoning as convincingly to the mind as if they were before our eyes And it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the substance the subsistence and the very being of things that are not yet in being but in hope So that the Eye of Faith like that of God does see those things that are invisible and futurity is present to it Now by this alone it is of force to break the powers of the World which as we saw while the things of the other World were lookt upon as at a great distance afar off taking advantage of their absence storm'd the mind with present forces and had supplies at hand for fresh assaults so overcame it Whereas had the powers of the World to come been present now by Faith they are made so we see the other which are so inferiour that there is no more comparison than of immensity to a point a moment to Eternity could not stand before them 'T is too notorious that this is the case For should a man cry fire in the House how it had seiz'd the strengths of it were blotting out the glories of it in thick Smoak devouring all their shine in flame we would leave our Devotions our most eager pleasures to prevent this and no speed were swift enough to serve our cares and fears But though a Prophet of the Lord cry Tophet is prepared the pile thereof is Fire and much Wood and the Breath of the Lord like a stream of Brimstone kindling it and do this till his Lungs crack not one heart is mov'd nor brings a drop of tear to quench the flame because these fires are not present as the other neither have men any sense of them were they alike convincing alike present to the apprehension 't were impossible according to what we have demonstrated that the Will in her choyces and her aversations where the objects are of alike kind and have one common measure of their good and evil is determin'd to avoyd or take that which appears the greatest alwayes 't were I say impossible not to fly these which the Devils do believe and tremble at with greater dread wherever they appear Now a strong lively Faith must paint them out and shew them in each fin the World ensnares into Neither would any of those rotten planks which while the Will does fluctuate betwixt her worldly inclinations and these fears and is tost about offer themselves as I declared to you for her to escape upon though she does dash her self upon God's Threats choosing the present sin such as the application of Decrees or Promises made absolutely to himself without any condition confidence in Gods Mercies hopes of Pardon none of these would be security to one that were convinc't in earnest He that did believe and as it were discern that height which his ambition goads him to aspire to were upon the brink of the bottomless Pit whither when he arriv'd that very sin that tempts him with the glories of the prospect would then tumble him down headlong into that Abysse he would no more dare to ascend it by such false and guilty steps upon such hopes of mercy trusts on Promises or Decrees than he would dare to throw himself off from a Pinacle in confidence God was Almighty and Almerciful able enough and kind enough to stretch out his right hand and catch him in the fall or trusting to that Promise He will give his Angels charge concerning thee and in their hands they shall bear thee up least at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone Or leaning upon any such Decree as makes the term of life immovable and fatal neither to be hastned or retarded none of these will make him mad enough to break his neck neither would the same presumptions encourage him to cast away his Soul had he but equal apprehensions of the danger And it is plain all the temptations of the World and all these false encouragements cannot work upon a man when Death once looks him in the Face and the great Champions of Prophanenesse are tame then not that God's Threatnings are more true or made more evident to sense or reason than they were before but their Faith is active and they apprehend more strongly then To see my self trampled upon by pride and malice or worse yet begging of him whom my blood it may be helpt to streams of plenty begging like Lazarus the portion of his Dogs Dogs that are taught to snarle and bite and make more sores not lick them this is a state more killing than my want able almost to tempt a man to any courses But then if with the Eye of Faith I do but look beyond the gulph and there behold the Rich man in his flames begging for water and although it be the Region of eternall weeping yet not able to procure one drop of his own tears to cool his Tongue O then I see 't is better to be Lazarus although there were no Abraham's bosome But if my Faith look through that bosom also into that of God and there behold the Son of God leaving all the essential felicities of that Bosom to come live a life of Vertue here on Earth and to teach us to do so choosing to do this also in a state of the extreamest poverty consecrating want and nakednesse contempt and scorn making them thus the ensigns of a divine Royalty And to encourage us not to sink under any of the Worlds assaults he hath proposed Rewards of Vertue such as God is blessed in did my Faith give me but a constant view of all this sure the paint and varnish of these little things below the twinkling exhalations of the glories of this World could not dazle my mind and captivate my Soul I should burst these entanglements to catch at those 'T is evident and 't is acknowledg'd that when our belief shall be all vision and our expectation possession when our understanding shall become all sense in Heaven and we see and tast and have those glories then we cannot sin cannot be tempted from them And therefore by the measures of the nearness of these objects of our sight and of our interest so are our strengths to stand and overcome temptations Now Faith is sight gives presence we have seen and it gives interest too He that believes is born of God saith the Apostle and therefore hath a right Now to be born of one is to receive from him a principle of life He then that hath receiv'd from God a Principle of life such as he can derive life like his own such as is led in Heaven when he does consider his original and looks upon himself as born of
able to dead the force of the activity of all that Moses sayes although acknowledged with that veneration which the Jews receive Moses with whose credit they themselves do say no Miracle can be wrought so great as to be able to add to or diminish from why then that same improbity within a while will with more ease work off the force of this new confirmation so that it will be vain Indeed 't is possible that the surprize of such a Miracle just as any other suddain and amazing accident may make a man consider what though he did afore believe yet he did not mind nor lay to heart yet when the astonishment of that is over the motives then are left to their own strength and can work only by their own activity which we see hath been able to do nothing so that a miracle at most can be but a more aâ—ful remembrancer Now sure to bring this to our selves we want none such nor do they prove much useful Occasions of astonishment and such fatall remembrancers have come and taken up their habitation in our Land and make approaches towards hover over every place Long Bills of mortality and sad knells and dreadful passing-bells these are all messengers from the dead that come posting to us swift a Gods Arrows And one would think we should take notice of their message hear them when they passe so near us when they seem to call out to our selves when a thousand do fall besides us and ten thousand at our right hand wherefore should not an Army of such Carcasses become as moving as one Ghost should Lazarus come forth with all his sores they would not be so terrible as these carbuncles and ulcers of the Plague And the destroying Angel out of Heaven with his Sword drawn one would expect should be as efficacious as a Preacher out of Abrahams Bosom And yet men do not seem to hearken any more to these than they do to us when we either Preach or which they think much lesse when we read Scripture to them that is when they hear Moses and the Prophets Men have the same security as to their sins which they had in the freest times whatever fears possess them they are not the fears of God those that make men depart from evil none of those that fright into Repentance we have no Religious cares upon us now more than at other times but Vice as if that also had a Sanctuary under the Lords wings and might retire under his feathers to be safe dreads no Terrours of the Night nor Arrows of the Day but walks as open and as unconcern'd as ever And now should we behold a mad man on his death-bed spending his onely one remaining minute in execrations the paleness of a shrowd upon his face but Blood and crimson Sins upon his tongue the frost of the Grave over all his parts but a lascivious heat in his discourse in fine one that had nothing left alive of him but his Iniquity would not an horrour seize you at that sight and the same frost possesse you but to hear him and yet his madness is his excuse and his disease his Innocence Should we see one that had no other madness no other sickness but his sin do thus would it not be more horrid and is it not the same to see a Nation as it were upon its Death-bed visited with all the treasures of Gods Plagues his tokens on it and every place and man in fearful expectations and yet no allay of Vice Wickednesse as outragious as ever while it is thus with what face can we beg of God to keep from us this Plague and grievous sicknesse when we do onely mean to make this use of such indulgence to cherish another Plague in our own hearts What can we say to prove it would not be a mercy to us to be suddenly cut off even in the midst of our iniquity when by our going on in sin in the midst of Destruction we make appear if he should let us live yet we would onely live to finish our iniquities And longer time would have no other use but to fill up a greater measure of sin What answer do we make to all these Messengers of Death that come so thick about us what do we that may justifie Gods care in sending us so many warnings But 't is no Wonder if the onely neighbourhood of Death have not been able to prevail upon us have you not seen one whom his own iniquity or Gods immediate Hand hath by a Sicknesse or by some sad Accident cast to the very brink of Death so as the Grave seemed to begin to take possession of him and all his hopes sickned and dy'd so that recovery from that condition may be well as 't is in Scripture often called a Rising have you not seen him in that state when he supposed that sinning was now done with him and the next thing was Judgment when God's Tribunall seemed to be within his view and Hell to gape for him as wide as the Grave both opening to receive their parts of him at the same time and himself ready to divide himself into those two sad Habirations With what effectuall Sermon will he then Preach to himself against his sins and that you may be sure shall work upon him he instantly resolves against his Vices he will not carry them along with him out of this Life but cast them off as too sad dangerous Company nor yet if God shall lend him life will he retain them but it shall be a New Life which he will lead And yet when God hath rais'd him up after a while he returns to his vomit his Sins recover with his Body he owes his Innocence but to his Weaknesse nor is it more long liv'd his holy purposes decay as his strength grows and dye as soon as setled health does come And he who never would commit the Sin again when he was Dying mends into it again And then what hopes is there in this mistaken Method when we see men come themselves from the Dead unto themselves yet cannot make themselves Repent But if we are not all concerned in this take a more spreading and more visible experiment If ever one came from the Dead this Church and State came thence And by as great a Miracle of Resurrection But where is the Repentance such a Miracle may have flattered our Expectations with as I am confident the resolutions of it did in that sad dying state are not some men as violent in those wicked practises that merited our former Ruine and others in those cursed Principles that did inflict it as they ever were 't is said by many that have evil will at Sion and it is our concern to take a care they speak not truth that in the Church some that are risen up again have still the silence of the Grave upon them and are as dumb as if their mouth were yet full of their monument Earth And
the Pharisees indeed that they repented not that they might believe for thinking it impossible they could assent to what he did affirm except they would consent to what he did Command He therefore thought they were not able to Believe because they would not purpose to amend But there is nothing difficult in this to us who at the same time are so perfectly resolv'd that every threat of Gospel is so Divine truth as that we assure our selves that we could be content to dye Martyrs to the truth of them rather than renounce one tittle of them yet even then are Martyrs to those Lusts and Passions which those Threats belong to Who at once believe this Book of God that sayes except ye repent ye shall all perish and believe also that notwithstanding we do not Repent yet by Believing we shall scape not perish but be saved And is not this directly to believe our selves into Damnation the third and the great fall which his Child is set for 3. This Child is for the fall of many to wit of all those who on these or any other grounds do not believe in or do not obey him who shall therefore fall into Eternal Ruin This our Saviour does affirm S. John 3. 19. This is the Condemnation that Light came into the World c. This does aggravate the guilt and Sentence We were fal'n before indeed in Adam And I dare not undertake to be so learned to say whether to determine with some men that was but a fall from Paradise into the Grave and we were forfeit to Death onely But I may adventure to affirm that in the second Adam sinners finally impenitent shall fall much farther than we did in the first Adam Now their pit shall have no bottom but this light that came to lighten them shall be to them consuming fire and everlasting burnings And all reason in the world For upon that fall of ours in Adam help was offer'd us an easie way not onely to repair those ruines but to better infinitely that estate which we were fal'n from and a way that cost God dear to purchase cost him not this Incarnation onely but the Death and Passion of his Son and diverse other blessed methods of Salvation Now if we refuse the mercy of all this and scorn these miracles of condescending goodnesse and defie those methods that he makes use of to raise us from our Fall it is apparent we provoke and choose deeper ruine this refusal hath in it such desperate malignity as to poyson this great mercy of the Incarnation and all the rest 'T is but a small thing to say that they who Stumble at this Rock of their Salvation spurning at it by their wilful disobedience that these make an infinite masse of loving-kindnesse to be lost upon them so as that Salvation cannot save them for alas Salvation ruines them the deeper and this Child is for their fall The condition they were forfeit to before by reason of their breach of the first Covenant was advantage comfortable in comparison of that which Christ does put them in This is the Condemnation that he came into the world And it had been infinitely beter for them that this Child too had never been born The unreformed have the least reason in the world to solemnize this Festival they do but celebrate the birth of their own Ruin bow down and do reverence to their Fall Had it not been for this they had not gone to so severe an Hell So that they do but entertain the great occasion of their greater Condemnation Such it proves to them and that it might be so He was fore-ordained for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Child is set for the fall of many which does lead me to Gods Councel in all this My next part This Child is set for the fall of many even by Gods direct appointment for saith Grotius Accedo iiâ— qui 〈◊〉 non nudum eventum sed consilium Dei signifieâ—â—â— I am of their opinion who understand not the success alone but the design of this Child 's coming and Gods Counsel in it iâ— intended here And without disputing of Gods antecedent will and consequent this is safely said God design'd this Child should be such an one that they who had no inclinations for Virtue would not entertain the love of it but counted it a mean pedautick thing and all its Rules and Laws unreasonable servitude these loose men would certainly reject Him and his Doctrines which were so severe and strict That those who did pretend friendship for Vertue and a service for Religion but withal must be allowed to maintain correspondence with the World seek the Honours and advantages of Earth and will trespasse on Religion where it enterferes with these break with Virtue when their interests cannot consist with it that these false hypocritical pretenders should be offended with the mean conditions of this Child and of his followers in this World and with the poor spirited Principles of his Religion In summe they that upon these or any other grounds 〈◊〉 disbelieve or disobey him God design'd this Child to be a means of bringing sorer Punishments even to everlasting ruin upon such A black Decree this one would think He that had so much kindnesse for Mankind to give away the onely Son both of his Nature his Affections and his Bosom to them could he then design that Gift to be the Ruine of the greatest part of men This Child Simeon said but just before my Text is Gods Salvation which he had prepared before all people and does he now say God hath set him for their fall The Angels preached this was a Birth that brought glad tydings of great joy that should be to all people and is there so much comfort in destruction that most men should rejoyce at that which is ordeined to be the great occasion of it to them But we have no reason to complain 'T is not unkind to deny Mercy to them that refuse the offers of it that will not accept Salvation when their God himself does come to bring it to them tenders it upon condition of accepting and amending Which if they despise and prefer Hell before Repentance choose sin rather than Gods blessed retributions 't is but reason to deny them what they will not have and let them take their chosen Ruine to will their Judgment which they will themselves set and ordein Him to be that to them which themselves do ordein and make him to be to themselves So S. Peter sayes expresly He is a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offence to them who being disobedient stumble at the Word whereunto they were appointed Disobedience where it is obdurate alters so the temper of our God that it makes Him who swears he would not have the Sinner dye yet set out his Son to make such sinners fall into eternal Death Makes Judgment triumph over Mercy even in the great contrivances and
executions of that Mercy and while God was plotting an Incarnation for the everlasting Safety of Mankind prevails with him to decree Ruins by the means of that Salvation to Decree even in the midst of all those strivings of his Mercies that that Issue of his kindnesse should be for the fall of such as they Oh! let such consider whether they are likely to escape that which is set and ordein'd for them by God Whether they can hope for a Redemption when the onely great Redeemer is appointed for the Instrument of their Destruction and God is so bent on their ruiâ—e that to purchase it he gives this Child his Son Yea when he did look down upon this Son in Agonies and on the Crosse in the midst of that sad prospect yet the Ruin of such sinners which he there beheld in his Sons Blood was a delight to him that also was a Sacrifice and a sacrifice of a sweet smell to him For S. Paul sayes We are unto God a sweet savour of Christ in them that perish because we are the savour of Death unto death to them As if their Brimstone did ascend like Incense shed a persume up to God and their everlasting burnings were his Altar-fires kindled his holocausts and he may well be pleased with it for he ordein'd it 'T is true indeed This Child riding as in Triumph in the midst of his Hosannas when he saw one City whose fall he was set for on this very accompt He was so far from being pleas'd with it that he wept over it in pity But alas that onely more declares the most deplored and desperate condition of such sinners Blessed Saviour hadst thou no Blood to shed for them nothing but Tears or didst thou weep to think thy very Bloodshed does but make their guilt more crimson who refuse the mercy of that Bloodshed all the time that is offered Sad is their state that can find no pity in the Tears of God and remedilesse their Condition for whom all that the Son of God could do was to weep over them all that he did do for them was to be for their fall too sad a part indeed for Festival Solemnity very improper for a Benedictus and Magnificat To celebrate the greatest act of kindness the Almighty could design onely by the miseries it did occasion to magnifie the vast descent of God from Heaven down to Earth onely by reason of the fall of Man into the lowest Hell of which that was the cause My Text hath better things in view The greatnesse of that fall does but add height to that Resurrection which He also is the cause of For Behold this Child is set for the rising again of many My remaining part Rising again does not particularly and only refer to the fore-going fall here in the Text which this Child did occasion as I shewed you but to the state wherein all Mankind both in its nature and its Customes lay ingulfâ—d the state of Ignorance and sin A state from which recovery is properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a resurrection and a reviving in this Life and so call'd in Scripture often as Ephes. 5. 14. Wherefore he saith Awake thou that sleepest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and arise from the dead And Rom. 6. 13. Yield not your members as instruments of unrighteousnesse unto sin but yield your selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead Now to raise us from the death of sin into the life of Righteousnesse by the amendment of our own lives to recover us into a state of Vertue is the thing this Child is said here to be set for This was that which God thought worth an Incarnation Neither was there any greater thing in the prospect of his everlasting Counsel when he did decree his Son into the World than that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is set for this The Word was made Flesh to teach practise and perswade to Vertue To make men Reform their lives was valued at the price of a Person of the Trinity Piety and his Exiâ—anition yea his Blood and Life were set at the same rates All of him given for our recovery The time would fail me if I should attempt onely to name the various methods he makes use of to effect this How this Child that was the brightnesse of his Fathers Glory came to lighten us shining in his Doctrine and Example How he sent more light The fiery Tongues Illuminations of the Holy Ghost to guid us in the ways of Piety How he suffered Agonies and Death for sin to appale and fright us from it How he Rose again to confirm Judgment to us to demonstrate the rewards of Immortality to them that will repent and leave their sins and everlasting Torments to those that refuse this Grace Grace purchased with the Blood of God to enable them to repent and leave Besides all these the Arts and Mesnage of his Providence in preventing and following us by Mercies and by Judgments importuning us and timeing all his blessed Methods of Salvation to our most advantage Arts God knows too many if they serve us onely to resist and turn to wantonnesse and aggravation if we make no other use of Grace but this to sin against and overcome all Grace and make it bolster Vice by teaching it to be an incouragement to go on in it from some hopes we entertain by reason of this Child instead of doing that which he was set Decreed to make us do And really I would be glad to see this everlasting Counsel of the Lord had had some good effects some though never so little happy execution of this great Decree and that that which God ordein'd from all Eternity upon such glorious and magnificent terms were come to passe in any kind Now certainly there are no evident signs of any great recovery this Child hath wrought among us in the World that 's now call'd Christian. After those Omnipotent inforcives to a vertuous life which he did work out if we take a prospect of both Worlds it would be hard to know which were the Heathen and there would appear scarce any other notice of a Christ among us but that we blaspheme Him or deride Him Sure I am there are no Footsteps of him in the lives of the community of Men And I am certain that you cannot shew me any Heathen Age outgoing ours either in loosnesse and foul Esseminacies or in sordidnesse and base injustice or in frauds and falsenesse or Malignity hypocrisie or treachery or to name no more even in the lowest most ignoble disingenious sorts of Vice In fine men are now as Earthy Sensual yea and Devilish as when Sins and Devils were their Gods Yea I must needs say that those times of dark and Heathen Ignorance were in many men times of shining Vertue and the little spark of Light within them brake out through all obstructions into a glory of Goodnesse to the wonder and Confusion of most Christians
assaults and does expose the person to be taken by him But where he sees he is resisted heartily his offers are received with an abhorrency discerns Men are in earnest watch to avoid all opportunities and occasions and prepare and fortifie and arm against him there he will not stay to be the triumph of their Vertue We may know this by his Agents those that work under the Devil whom he hath instructed in the mysteries of waging his Temptations Where they are not like to speed and as to this they have discerning spirits they avoid and hate and come not near but study spite and mischief onely there The intemperate men are most uneasie with a person whom they are not able to engage in the debauch the rudeness and brutality of their excesses are not so offensive to the sober man as his staid Vertue is to them they do not more avoid the crude egestions shameful spewings of their overtaken fellows Riot than they do the shame and the reproach that such a man's strict Conversation casts on them which does in earnest make them look more foul and nasty to themselves In fine every Sinner shuns the Company of those whom he believes Religious in earnest 't is an awe and check to them they are afraid and out at it as their Great Master also is who when he is resisted must be overcome And as they that are beaten have their own fears also for their Enemies which are sure to charge close put to flight chase and pursue them so it seems he also is afraid of a sincere and hearty Christian for he flies him So he did from Christ 4. Mat. vers 11. and so the Text assures If you resist him he will flie from you And now although we all did once renounce the Devil and his works were listed Souldiers against him took a Sacrament upon it and our Souls the immortality of life or misery depend upon our being true and faithful to our selves and oaths or otherwise nor is there more required of us but resolution and fidelity onely not to be consenting to our Enemies Conquest of us not to will Captivity and Servitude Yet as if in meer defiance of our Vows and Interests we not onely will'd the ruine but would fight for it we may find instead of this resisting of the Devil most men do resist the Holy Ghost quench not the fiery darts of Satan but the Spirit and his flames by which he would enkindle love of God and Vertue in them If he take advantage of some warm occasion to inflame their courage against former follies heat them into resolutions of a change as soon as that ocasion goes off they put out those flames and choak these heats untill they die If he come in his soft whispers speak close to the heart suggest and call them to those joyes of which himself is earnest to all these they shut their ears can hear no whispers are not sensible of any sounds of things at such a distance sounds to which they give no more regard than to things of the same extravagance with the Musick of the Spheres Nay if he come with his more active methods as the Angels came to Lot send mercy to allure and take them by the hand as they did to invite and lead them out of Sodome if that will not Judgments then to thrust them out as they did also come with fire and brimstone to affright them they not onely like the men of Sodome do attempt a violence and Rape upon those very Angells but they really debauch the mercies and profane the Judgments having blinded their own Eyes that they might see no hand of God in either using thus unkindly all his blessed methods of reclaiming them till they have grieved him so that he forsake and leave them utterly As if they had not heard that when the Holy Spirit is thus forc'd away the evil spirit takes his place 1 Sam. 16. 14. As if they knew not that to those who close their eyes and stop their ears against the Holy Spirit 's motions till they are grown dull of hearing and blind to them God does send a spirit of slumber that they should not see nor bear and that for this dire reason that they may not be converted nor be saved Five times he affirms it in the Scripture Yea once more in words of a sad Emphasis 2 Thess. 2. 12 13. He sends them strong delusions that they may believe a lye that they all may be damn'd who believe not the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousnesse And that because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved Blessed God! Is it so easie for such sinners to believe and be converted that thy self shouldst interpose to hinder it and hide the possibilities of mercy from their eyes that they may never see them nor recover What can then become of those for whom God does contrive that they shall not escape when instead of those bowells that did make him swear he would not have the sinner die but would have him return and live he puts on so much indignation at such sinners as to take an order they shall not repent and take an order that they shall be damn'd And yet all this is onely to those men who being dull of hearing the suggestions of the Spirit and not willing to give entertainment to his holy motions grieve him so that they repell and drive him quite away and so by consequence onely make way for the Devil Whereas there are others that directly call him force him to them ravish and invade occasions to serve him Some there are that study how to disbelieve and with great labour and contrivance work out arguments and motives to persuade themselves to Atheisme Others practise discipline and exercise themselves to be engag'd in Vice Some dresse so as to lay baits snares to entrap Temptation that they may be sure it may not passe them Others feed high to invite and entertain the Tempter do all that is possible to make him come and to assure him that he must prevail when they have made it most impossible for themselves to stand and to resist Some there are indeed whom he does not overcome so easily but is put to compound with them takes them upon Articles for when he would ingage them to a sin to which he sees they have great inclinations with some fears he is fain to persuade them to repent when they have done to lay hold upon the present opportunity and not let the satisfaction escape them but be sorry after and amend For where these resolutions of Repentance usher in transgression there we may be sure it is the Devil that suggests those resolutions But if he can get admittance once thus by prevailing with a person to receive him upon purposes of after Penitence he is sure to prosper still in his attempts upon the same condition For Repentance
will wash out another sin if he commit it and so on And it is evident that by this very train he does draw most men on through the whole course of sin and life For never do they till they see themselves at the last stage begin repenting When they are to grapple with Death's forces then they are to set upon resisting of the Devil And when they are grown so weak that their whole Soul must be imployed to muster all its spirits all their strength but to beat off one little spot of phlegm that does befiege the avenues of breath the ports of life and sally at it and assault it once again and a third many times and yet with all the fury of its might cannot break through nor beat off that little clot of spittle when it is thus yet then are they to wrestle with and Conquer Principalities and Powers all the Rulers of the utter darknesse pull down the strong holds of sin within cast down imaginations and every high thing that did exalt it self against the knowledge of God and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ and with those seeble hands that they are scarcely able to lift up in a short wish or prayer they must doe all this resist the Devil and take Heaven by force Now sure to put it off to such a fatal season is a purpose of a desperate concern In God's Name let us set upon the doing it while there is something left of Principle and vigor in us ere we have so griev'd God's Spirit that he do resolve to leave us utterly and before the Devil have so broke us to his yoke that we become content and pleas'd to do his drudgery We deceive ourselves if we think to do it with more ease when Constitution is grown weaker as if then Temptations would not be so strong For the Habits will be then confirm'd Vice grown Heroical and we wholly in the power of Satan dead and senslesse under it not so much as stirring to get out But if we strive before he have us in his clutches we have an Enemy that can vanquish none but those who consent to and comply and confederate with him those that will be overcome So that if we resist he must be Conquer'd and Temptation must be conquer'd too for he will flie and then by consequence must cease to trouble and molest us This is the sure way to be rid of Temptations to put to flight the great Artificer and Prince of them subdue and overcome him and our selves And to him that overcometh thus Christ will grant to sit with him on his Throne as He also overcame and sate down with his Father on his Throne To which c. SERMON XIV WHITE-HALL Last Wednesday in LENT 1667 8. PHILIPP III. 18. For many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the Enemies of the Cross of Christ. THough many by the Crosse of Christ here understand any sort of Suffering for the sake of Christ or Religion it being usual with the Scripture to entitle Christ to every evil that befalls a man for doing of his duty yet others looking on it properly as that on which Christ himself suffered by the Enemies of the Crosse understand those that set themselves against the whole design and influence of Christ's Death upon it Now to name that in few words the Crosse of Christ not onely is one of the greatest Props on which our Faith of the whole Gospel leans which it establisheth the truth of as Christs Blood shed upon it was the sanction of the Covenant on Gods part who by that federal Rite of shedding Blood engag'd himself and we may certainly assure our selves he cannot fail to make good whatsoever he hath promised in that Covenant who would give the blood of his own only Son who was so holy and who was himself to Seal that Covenant and his Blood is therefore called the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant But besides this extrinsick influence of it all the blessed Mercies also of the Gospel are the Purchase of this Cross and all the main essential duties of the Gospel are not only Doctrines of the Crosse such as it directs and does inforce but the Crosse also hath an immediate efficacy in the working of them in us For S. Paul saith by the Crosse of Christ the World is Crucified to me and I unto the World On it the Flesh is also crucified with the Affections and Lusts And to say all that comprehensive Duty of the Gospel Self denyal is but another word for taking up the Crosse And then as for the Mercies of the Gospel on the Crosse the satisfaction for our sins was made the Price of our Redemption paid and that effected There was wrought our Reconciliation with our God Lastly that was the consideration upon which Grace was bestowed whereby we are enabled to perform our duty With good reason therefore S. Paul calls the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word or Doctrine of the Crosse so that the Enemies of the Crosse of Christ are in a word the Enemies of Christianity and so the blessed Polycarpe in his Epistle to these same Philippians seems to understand it And they that walk as Enemies to it are such as do not onely hate the Duties of the Gospel those especially which the Crosse directly does inforce but their course of life is order'd so as to break the very Frame and Power of Christianity they set themselves against all that Christ came to do upon and by the Cross resist and wage War with the Doctrines and by consequence oppose the mercies of it The words being thus explain'd I have no more to do but onely answer two Enquiries which they give occasion for The first is What sort of men those are that walk as Enemies to the Crosse and wherein their hostility does expresse it self The second is What the danger and the sadnesse is of that condition that they should make S. Paul think it necessary frequently to warn them of it and to do it now with so much passion For many walk saith he of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping c. First for the first And here I shall not strive to give you in a perfect list of all that walk as Enemies to the Crosse but shall take that which S. Paul hath made ready to my hands in the next words And first the Enemies which he brings up in the front are the Sensualists the Men whose God is their Belly Secondly they whose glory is in their shame Thirdly who mind Earthly things to which as being their consederates and neer allyes I shall add Fourthly those that he reckons up in the 1 Cor. 1. the wise men of this world First the Sensualists That Men who diligently mind the serving of their appetite in meats and drinks that study and
vexation or crosse passion will so sowre all those advantages that we cannot possibly enjoy them while we have them sickness makes the richest plenty onely a more nauseous trouble a more costly loathing then the poorest Soul that is in health is that great rich mans envy And ther 's no man also but does see so far into futurity as to satisfie himself that he shall dye and then the shadow of death will cloud and put out all these glories And universal reason also does tell every man that to deny himself or want his present satisfactions of this helplesse dying kind and suffer present evils is in prudence to be chosen for avoiding of a future evil or atchieving of a good to come which do transcend those other infinitely and to all Eternity continue Sure as no man pities the poor Infant in the Womb because he lyes imbrued in Blood hath no inheritance there at all is fetter'd coffin'd as it were in that dark cell if he be to be born to an Estate to live a full age here in gaiety of mind and health of body in Reputation and all plenty of delights we never are concern'd or troubled at his other nine months dungeon So if this life be to the next as the Womb is to this and if our hopes be no more on the Earth than in the Belly and we have no inheritance or abiding place here as we had not there although the waters of affliction and to be in our blood should be as naturall to us as to the Child yet if we thus presse forward to the other birth to be delivered into immortality of joyes this state were not to be lamented but endeavoured for with all our powers Lastly the same reason does assure us that if those futurities which are most certain were but onely possible yet to part with every thing and suffer any thing here to prevent miscarriage in relation to those two Eternities is certainly the safest course and then by consequence the wisest And this does appear a truth to all men when they go to dye And if it be the truth then 't is alwayes so Yet notwithstanding all this he that minds these earthly things whose heart is set upon them whose desires the World serves provides to satisfie every imagination of delight His heart is so intangled in affections to them and in prejudices for them and hath so imbib'd the impressions of them that he hath no taste for any other and by consequence no satisfying notions of them And if he hath not then it is not possible that he should really and from his heart out of conviction and inward sense value these beyond the earthly ones and it is plain we see he does not and if he do not to deprive himself of all the sweet contentments of his life and tear out his own bowells that yearn after them and cling to them and instead of those embrace a Crosse and do this for things which he cannot value more and counts uncertain he must needs think a mad folly Consequently to contrive and seize the present to the best most plentiful advantage is the wisest course and therefore they that by whatever arts do thrive advance themselves live high and in delights they are Wise men because they do attain their ends by meanes appropriate to those ends And now the enmity betwixt the Crosse of Christ and the wisdom of the World appears first their designs are most directly opposite the crosse designs to take us up from earth and from its satisfactions which have also thorns and bryars in them that Eartbs Curse things that pierce and wound as fatally as the Nayles and Thorns and other cruelties of Christ's Crosse and to lift us towards Heaven to direct our hearts and our affections thither as our harbingers to take possession for us of those joyes the Crosse did purchase for us but no crosse can ever trouble But the Wisdom of this World designs to lay out all its cares and its contrivances within this World minds nothing else but earthly things and does not lift an eye or thought to any other Secondly their Principles wage war For earthly good things being the design the main end of this worldly wisdom consequently that does justifie all courses without which men cannot gain those ends by which they do though they be never so unlawful by the Rules of that which we call Vertue and Religion it does justifie I say all such as prudent But the Principles of the Doctrines of the Crosse of Christ are positive that we must renounce all earthly satisfactions when they cannot be injoyed without transgressing Christs Commands and imbrace duty even when it executes it self upon us But Thirdly there 's no enmity so fatal to the Crosse of Christ as is the practice of those men who minding Earthly things and all their wisdom lying as to them they therefore think themselves concern'd to represent the Doctrines of the Crosse which does so contradict their wisdom as meer madnesse and the Crosse it self as the ensign of folly And accordingly they do treat it en ridicul and make the proper Doctrines of it the strict duties of Religion matter for their jests and bitter scofâ—s They character religion as a worship that befits a God whose shape the Primitive persecutors painted Christ in Deus Onochaetes as if Christianity were proper Homage onely to an Asses person as Tertullian words it And the votaries transform'd by this their service and made like the God they worship were what they were call'd then Asinarii creatures only fit for burden to bear what they magnify a Crosse and scorns No persecutions are so mortall as those that Murder the reputation of a thing or person not so much because when that is fallen once then they cannot hope to stand as because those murder after death and poyson memory killing to immortality They were much more kind to Religion and more innocent that cloath'd the Christians in the skins of Bears and Tygers that so they might be worried into Martyrdom Then they that cloath their Christianity in a fools Coat that so it may be laught to death go out in ignomâ—ny and into contempt If to sport with things of sacred and Eternal consequence were to be forgiven yet to do it with the crosse of Christ Thus to set that out as foolishness which is the greatest mystery the Divine wisdom hath contriv'd to make mercy and truth meet together righteousness and peace kiss each other to make sin be punisht yet the sinner pardoned Thus to play and sin upon those dire expresses of Gods indignation against sin are things of such 〈◊〉 and dangerous concern that S. Paul could not give a caution against them but with tears For many walke saith he of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping c. Which calls me to my last consideration Indeed the crosse of Christ does represent Almighty God in so
though we do not find that done yet vve do find his piety and his uprightness made the standard by vvhich that of his Successors is meted Of one 't is said he walked in the waies of David his father of another he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord but not like unto David his father And because David vvent aside and vvas upright vvith an Exception once therefore it is said The Lord was with Iehoâ—haphat because he walkt in the first â— ayes of his father David But besides this his very name is given to two Zorobabel and the Messiah both vvhich vvere to be the restorers of their people the one from Sin and Hell to re-establish the Kingdome of heaven it self the other to deliver his people from Babel and to repair a broken Nation and demolish'd Temple And for this vvork God bids them seek David their King The vvaies from Babel to Ierusalem from the Confusion of a people to a City that is at unity in it self the City of God where he appears in perfect beauty and where the throne of the house of David is must be the first vvaies of David in those he vvalk'd to Sion and did invest his people in God's promises the vvhole land of Canaan In those Zorobabel brought them back to that land and Sion And in these our Messiah leads us to Mount Sion that is above to the celestial Ierusalem does build an universal Church and Heaven it self And all that have the like to do must vvalk in those first waies fulfill that part of David and must copy Christ. Such the repairers of great breaches must be these are the vvaies to settle Thrones the only vvaies in vvhich vve may find the goodness of the Lord vvhich to fear is the third direction and my last part They shall fear the Lord and his goodness 3. That Israel vvho came but now out of the furnate should fear the Lord vvhose vvrath did kindle it vvhose justice they had found such a consuming fire as to make the Temple it self a Sacrifice and the vvhole Nation a burnt-offering is reasonable to expect but vvhen his goodness had repair'd all this to require them to fear that does seem hard That that goodness vvhich vvhen it is once apprehended does commit a rape upon our faculties and being tasted melts the heart and causes dissolution of soul through swoons of complacency that this should be received vvith dread and treâ—bling is most strange Indeed the Psalmist saies There is mercy with God that he may be feared for vvere there not vve should grow desperate but how to fear those mercies is not easie 'T is true when God made his goodness pass before Moscs shewed him the glory of it as he saies in those most comfortable attributes the sight of vvhich is beatiâ—ick Vision Exod. 34. 6 c. The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious longsuffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin if that vvhich follows there be part of it and that will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers up on the children unto the third and fourth generation if this be one ray of the glory of goodness if it dart out such beams alas 't is as devouring as the lake of fire his very goodness stabs vvhole successions at once and the guilty may tremble at it for themselves and their posterity But if those vvords do mean as vve translate those very vvords Jer. 46. 28. I vvill not leave thee altogether unpunish'd yet will not utterly cut off not make a full end of the guilty vvhen I visit iniquities upon the children but vvill leave them a remnant still then there is nothing dreadful in â—t but those very visitations have kindness in them and his rod comforts and this issue of his goodness also is not terrible but lovely To fear God's goodness therefore is to revere it to entertain it vvith a pious â—stonishment acknowledging themselves unworthy of the crums of it especially not daring to provoke it by surfeting or by presuming on it or by abusing it to serve ill ends or any other than God sent it for those of piety and obedience not to comply vvith vvhich is to defeat God's kindness and the designs of it If vvhen they sought the Lord he vvas found of them and came to his dwelling place onely to be forc'd thence again by their abominations if vvhen his goodness had restor'd all to them they had David their King but to conspire against an Altar onely to pollute and a Temple to separate from as Manasses the Priest Sanballat's son in law vvith his accomplices did doe this vvere both to affront and to renounce that goodness vvhich above all things they must dread the doing for if this be offended too ruine is irreversible thoâ—e is no other attribute in God a sinner can fly to vvith any hope His Holiness cannot behold iniquity his Iustice speaks nothing but condemnation to guilt his Power vvithout kindness is but omnipotent destruction but if vve have his Goodness on our side vve have an Advocate in his own bosome that vvill bear up against the rest for his mercy is over all his attributes as vvell as vvorks but if this also be exasperated and kindness grow severe there is no refuge in the Lord no shadow of him to take Sanctuary under for there is nothing to allay the anger of his Compassion and Bounty This sure is the extreamest terrour we are to dread his kindness more than his severity and wrath we have an antidote a buckler against these but none against the other if it be provok'd and if the heats of love take fire and rise into indignation 't is unquenchable flame and everlasting burning Therefore when God hath done all things that he can do or they can wish then most of all they must fear the Lord and his goodness My Text and I have spoke all this vvhile to the Iews nor do I know vvhether I need to address any other vvay all this did so directly point at us The glories of this day need not the foil of those calamities from vvhich this day redeem'd to set them off Or you may read them in my Prophet here and our own guilts will make too sad a Comment on his Text who were more barbarous Assyrians to our selves We also were without a Prince and without Sacrifice had neither King nor Church nor Offices because we our selves had destroy'd them and that we might not have them had engag'd or covenanted against them ty'd to our miseries so that without perjury we could neither be without them nor yet have them As we had broke through all our sacred oaths to invade and usurp calamity and guilt so neither could we repent without breach of Vows If â—â— is were not enough to make us be without a God too then to drive him away vve
wrong From his own eyes this Love too like that in the Poets cannot see yea covers all that is not fit for light suffers onely the graces to be naked near him and not to name all which you may find there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 7. believeth all things however incompatible to love and to be wise have been accounted yet this Love is 8. James his Wisdome that came down from Heaven Cap. 3. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apt to inâ—erpret any thing to the most favourable sense and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 easie to be persuaded still believes the best and where it cannot yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hopes the best Affection while it lives cannot despair for then it must deposite its desires which are onely the warmth of Love and till it die cool not but if all do not answer hopes yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he does wait for it is not discourag'd with relapses and the repetitions of injuries but still expects and suffers all the contradictions of spite and wrong Now if all these acts and the many other there are essential to Love and all be under Obligation and S. Paul says there they are so much Duty that without these performances all Faith and all Graces profit nothing the preaching Rhetorick of men and Angels would be nothing else but tinkling and working Miracles but shewing tricks It follows then these acts must necessarily have a certain object there must be some body that we are bound to love thus and if that Object be our Neighbour as that is most sure 't is clear my Neighbours injury or hate or enmity to me cannot take off nor yet diminish in the least that obligation I have to all those acts but I must love him though he be mine enemy in every of those instances For it is plain his having wrong'd me does not make him cease to be my Neighbour nay more that enâ—ity does formally dispose and quallifie my Neighbour for the object of my love and many of its acts cannot relate but to a man that injures me it must be in respect to provocations that love is said to cool into such a temper as is not easily provokt For men are not provokt with kindnesses I cannot suffer any thing but wrong nor suffer long except there be continuation and frequency of wrongs Nor is it possible I should forgive unlesse it be offences done against me And so for divers of the rest Now it were strange the Enemy should supersede the obligation of that Duty which cannot be a Duty but in order to an Enemy that injury should give me a release from doing that which I can never have cause or occasion to do but in the case of injury that I should have leave not to obey the Command for that meer reason which alone makes it possible to obey it and which alone makes the Command whereas indeed because I must needs love in these expresses therefore he must needs be my Enemy whom I must love But if he be without all provocation very unjustly so if his hate be his sin so that he hath offended God too in it may I not then espouse Gods quarrel thus farre not to love his Enemy if I must mine own not to love the injurious the sinner Vice certainly is the most hatefull thing that is and therefore it must needs render the subject not to be belov'd accordingly 't is said that the ungodly and his ungodliness are both alike hatefull unto God Wisd. 14. 9. and David does comply with God in this Psalm 139. Do not I hate them O Lord that hate Thee yea I hate them with perfect hatred I count them mine enemies And when I reflect on mine under this Noâ—on or if mine be such as set themselves against Religion and the peace and quietnesse of the Church am I bound to love them if so then I may be allow'd to do it with a little regret sure But yet if we consider how these in the Text are designated by that Appropriation your enemies which means those that hate you my Disciples those that in the last words of my Text will persecute you even for your being mine and yet those they are bid to love we may conclude in the next place we may not hate our enemies as Sinners nor yet does enmity with God his Church or his Religion qualifie a person for our aversation or mischiefs I except here Apostacy and utter obduration in it a state that incapacitates for mercy and by consequence for love and kindnesse There is a sin which S. John would not say that we should pray for and the Church thought that there was such a sinner Julian but as to lesse degrees they that are suppos'd to persecute Disciples and in doing so persecute Christ himself may well be granted sinners enemies to God and Christianity but yet says he I say unto you love these your enemies Tertullian understood this so and writing to the Governour of Carthage who threatned all the Christians of that Province with Excision that he might persuade him from his purpose thus began his Proposals We do not write as fearing for our selves or dreading any thing that we are like to suffer for we did enter our Religion on the condition of suffering we covenanted to endure and staked our lives when we began our profession but 't is for you we fear for you our enemies whom our Religion does command us to love and to do good to And though we must hate Vice and do our best to root out Infidelity and Atheisme destroy Profanenesse irreligion and Heresie and Schism these are fit objects for the zeals of Hate and for the feavers of our Passion and if our enemies be such we may meetly endeavour they may have appropriate restraints yet not to exercise the acts of Charity and kindnesse to them we have no allowance no sins can make it lawfull for us to ruine or not to do good to the Sinners In fine the onely persons that the Jews pretended to have ground to hate were Enemies and enemies indeed to their Religion the Idolatrous Gentile-world therefore that being now forbid to us there is no sort of men nor any man whom it is lawfull for a Christian not to love and all the reasons urg'd here by our Saviour do prove that all mankind whether good or bad is the object of a Christians love because God does good to all his methods of Mercies are universall he makes his Clouds drop fatnesse even upon them that consume the encrease on their Lusts and sacrifice it to their Riots making their belly be their God he gives abundance of his good things unto those that love them onely as they advantage Vanity and Sin and that turn Gods store into provision for Vice and for Destruction He gives gold to them that make gold their Idol and bestows large portions of earth on them that are Children of Hell and them who