the enlivening us to a Life of Grace But though this meaning sutes well with S t Paul's Design in this Epistle to confute the Imagination of the Jews that they could obtain Eternal Life by Virtue of the Law of Moses without Faith in Christ Yet the Words of my Text point at the Blessed Immortality the Righteous shall hereafter be Partakers of and are only to be understood after this manner If Christians give themselves up to be led and governed by the Spirit of God in this World which is the Spirit that raised up Jesus they in like manner shall be raised up by it at the Last Day and the more they are quickned to a Life of Grace here the more they may be assured they shall be quickned to the Life of Glory hereafter Many Practical Uses and Advantages might be inferred from hence but I shall collect only this one which may be of great Encouragement to our Christian Industry and Endeavours to lead a Godly Life and that is the Expedition we shall make towards the attaining the Unspeakable Rewards of the Kingdom of Heaven There are three Lives to be attained and all to be attained by the Well-Ordering of One of our Spiritual Life alone in this World if we rise from the Death of Sin to Newness of Life we shall attain by the same Performance three Resurrections to that of perfect Grace to that of perfect Time or Duration and to that of perfect Joy and Glory This I say is so rich a Harvest and to be purchas'd with such Expedition that the Nicest and most impatient of Toil and Difficulties may be encouraged to strive for it Happy is he says S t John that has a share in the first Resurrection i. e. in the Life of Grace for the other are but Corollaries or Additional Complements of this Sanctification is as certain and assured a Way to Glorification as Childhood is the Way to Manhood 't is the Inchoation or Beginning of it and in a sense may be said to be it Those whom he Justify'd says S t Paul those he also Glorify'd as if these were done together and not in process of Time But to proceed The Author secondly of this Grace and Bounty is God And why did not the Apostle express himself so in a Word but used this Circumlocution He that raised up Jesus from the dead Because since Christ's coming in the Flesh and having performed the Work of our Salvation God has left off to govern in the Church immediately by himself and does all things by and through our Lord Jesus Christ. God Created and Drowned the World and wrought all the other wonderful things we read of in the Old Testament in his Own Name as God But now under the Gospel he dispenses all his Mercies as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and we must expect the Gift of Grace the Pardon of Sin Resurrection to Eternal Life and all his other Blessings and Favours from his Relation to his Son It is indeed by the Power of God that all men shall be raised from the Dead but then it is again for the Merits sake of Christ and their Believing in him that they shall be raised to Glory And that we should take notice of the Change of his Name in the New Testament from that he delighted to be called by in the Old is his own Will and Pleasure Says he there By my name Jehovah I will be known but now to us by the Name of his Relation to his Son as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Manichees from the Mistake of some Passages and Observations like this raised their detestable Heresie That the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New were two Different Persons the Father of Christ another God from the Creator of the World who sent his Son in the Flesh with a Design to win men from the Creator of the World But these are Wicked and Impious Dotages 't is only an Other Name that God has taken 't is not an Other God that acts among us there is but One God from and to all Eternity whose Name be Blessed for ever The meaning of the Scripture is only to teach us That 't is not God quatenus God that we expect should quicken us at the Last Day but God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this manifests the Perverseness of the Jews who still adhere to Moses and the Synagogue for their hopes of Salvation and the Blindness also of those who perswade themselves they can please God and attain Heaven by Natural and Moral Performances without Faith in Christ But the time permits me not to insist on these things I haste therefore to my last Particular The Means by which God will quicken our Mortal Bodies at the last Day viz. By his Spirit that dwelleth in us This Particle By in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not infer any Means that God shall use as Instrumental for the quickening our Mortal Bodies but implies here and in many other places the Motive only or Reason that invites the Agent to perform an Action God will raise us from the Dead as he does all his other Works by his Word or Omnipotent Power but though his Power does the thing yet 't is for something in Men that invites him to do it namely his Holy Spirit which he gave them to that very End and Purpose to dispose and fit them for the receiving Eternal Life David says of himself immediately and Christ typically and of all Faithful People mystically Thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see Corruption i. e. God will not leave or forsake the Righteous either in their Life or Death as if he had forgotten them and the Motive of this his Favour to them is Because they are Righteous or Holy Ones And the Psalmist expresses the thing with some Indignation and as if it were an injury to God to imagine that he could suffer in his very Nature that that which was Holy should be swallowed up in the Grave that which was Righteous should perish that which was Incorruptible should see Corruption And indeed there is not only an Incongruity but an Impossibility that this should be For what the Apostle says of Christ's Resurrection God raised him up having loosed the Pains or Bands of Death because it was possible he should be held of them may be said of the Resurrection of all the Faithful with this Difference only That the Impossibility of Christ's being detain'd in the Grave proceeded from his Divine Nature ours from a Divine Promise Nay we may add and with good Warrant That the Impossibility of our remaining in the Grave depends not only on an External Promise but on Something With-in our selves though not Of our selves even on the Spirit of God which dwelleth in us by which we are united to Christ and made Members of his Body he being the Head and our Resurrection must
for the Flame of Divine Love as well as for that of Carnal and if men excite not their Love to God by the Contemplation of his Sublime Perfections and Goodness their Love will be no better than the dead Carcase of a Passion than the cold Picture of a Flame And if any say A high and abstracted Contemplation of the Nature Properties and Attributes of the Deity is only fit for Philosophers who have Learning and Subtilty to penetrate into them but they come not within the comprehension of Common Men though otherwise Godly I answer Neither need they be solicitous in this matter there are other Motives to stir men up to the Love of God no less Excellent and subjected to the meanest Capacity viz. those which are taken from his Love to us first his manifold and never-to-be-enough-acknowledged Benefits both Spiritual and Temporal especially Spiritual which he has bestowed upon us through Christ Jesus the Son of his Love as the Remission of our Sins the Gift of Grace the Adoption of us to be his Children the Promise of the Kingdom of Heaven c. For when all is done there is no greater Procurer of Love or Motive to it than to be prevented with the Acts of Love Says David Praise the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me praise his holy Name who forgiveth all thy Sin and healeth all thy Infirmities who saveth thy Life from Destruction and crowneth thee with Mercy and Loving-kindness If men would weigh and consider the accursed and dreadful Condition into which the Guilt of Sin had brought them that the Wages of it is Eternal Damnation they would also be sensible how inestimable a Benefit the Remission of Sin and the Gifts of Grace and Glory are And as there can be no greater Motive to winde up mens Affections to God to the highest Pitch than this Exceeding great Love of God to them so there will need no other Instead therefore of heaping up many Motives I shall leave this one to your Meditations and proceed to shew what Inducements we have To Love our Neighbour And now the whole Hour would not suffice me to give a particular account of them some drawn from Mankinds being all at first of one Stock and Kindred others again from the Renewing this Relation between them by their being made Brethren through Grace in Christ and the adopted Children of one Father in Heaven from mens needing one anothers mutual help even the Greatest and Happiest as well as the Poorest and Meanest and the like But all these Inducements however weighty I shall wave at present not having time to insist on them and restrain my self to the one Motive express'd in my Text Because the Love of our Neighbour is one of the two Hooks or Hinges on which all the Law and the Prophets hang has the Honour to support at least one of the Tables of the Commandments one half of the Conditions God requires of men to make them Partakers of his Promises of the Blessings of this Life and of the Glory of that to come And though I said it has the Honour or Dignity to support but One of the two Tables yet there is that inseparable Connexion between the two Tables that he that breaks the one inevitably breaks the other Whosoever says S t James shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one Point he is guilty of all 'T is not possible to offend against the Law and not against the Law-giver 't is not possible to transgress against the Second Table and not to violate the First to hate our Brother and to love God And the School-men on this account make but one Theological Vertue of our Love to God and our Love to our Neighbour and S t John reckons Uncharitable men among Unbelievers the Hater of his Brother and an Infidel to be the same says he If a man says I love God and hate his Brother he is a Lyar and again he is in darkness i. e. without Faith or the Knowledge of God Our Lord also Matth. 25. pronounces That whatsoever Love is shew'd to his Brethren is shew'd to him Inasmuch says he as you have done it unto one of the least of these my Brethren ye have done it unto me and again what is denied to them is denied to him Inasmuch as you did it not to one of the least of these you did it not to me The true Love of God carries with it as a necessary Consequence the Love of our Brother and 't is but a cheap Piece of Hypocrisie and a niggardly Lye to pretend to love God who is above any Material Expressions of our Love and to harden our hearts to our Brethren who stand in need of such things and whom God has appointed and deputed to be the Receivers of such Tribute in his behalf And thus as all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two Commandments The Love of God And the Love of our Neighbour So these two again depend on one another The Summ of all that has been said is this Love is the End of the Commandment all the Numerous Precepts contain'd in the Law point only at this One grand Duty and are but particular Instances and Exemplifications of it Many things in the Law consist more in a Shew of Goodness than of true Goodness and are rather the Way to Righteousness than Righteousness it self all the Typical Ceremonial Ordinances were but ad populum phalerae as 't is said Pomps and Ornaments either to amuse the rude People or to be Helps to their weak Understanding to bring them to the Knowledge of better things while therefore they observed these they learned to be Religious but when they lov'd God and their Neighbour they were Religious Etiam stante Hierosolyma Jerusalem even standing and the Law of the Sabbath being in force the Strict Rest of it yielded to the Works of it and our Lord tells us Matth. 12. None broke and prophan'd the Sabbath more than the Priests toiling in killing and sleying the Beasts for Sacrifice and were yet blameless And upon another occasion of breaking the Sabbath says he I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice i. e. when both cannot be performed he prefers the Works of Mercy or Charity to a Brother before the Outward Duties to God himself And the learned among the Jews perceived that even while they did perform the Outward Works enjoined them by the Law that they were not principally intended in the Law nay that in respect of the Works of Love that they were cancell'd even when they stood most in force that which is said of our Lord 's particular Obedience Psal. 40. Burnt-Offerings and Sacrifices thou wouldest not but a Body hast thou prepared me then said I Lo I come to do thy Will O God! may be said in like manner of the Obedience that is required of all Men that there is a noluisti thou wouldst not have implyed in all Commands concerning them
and all the other endeavours that have been used for our Salvation though Christ by his Spirit by his Word and by his Example has essayed to take away our sins From us and to take them away In us I know not how they are not taken away from Among us Our Sins like Idolatry in Israel like the Groves and High-Places are continually taking away and still found remaining they vary and change according to the several Revolutions and Vicissitudes of our Condition but they are not abolished when Rebellion reigned in the Land Rapine Oppression Bloudshed Sacriledge were its complexion When this Evil by a singular Mercy was remov'd from us the Sins of Peace succeeded Ingratitude for past and Insensibleness of present Benefits Drunkenness Whoredom Irreligion Schism Faction c. So that as the Romans complained of old that after they had subdued the Nations themselves were subdued by their own Vices that these sly and silent Enemies Luxury Covetousness and Ambition revenged and retaliated the conquered World victumque ulciscitur Orbem We may in like manner complain that after the Violences and Outrages of War ceased the soft and soothing Sins of Peace crept in in their place and have tyrannized over us more fatally and destructively And who then can say our Sins are taken away when they are only transformed and have assumed new Shapes and Names when that which was Rebellion in 41. is Dissoluteness or Atheism in the Year 70 But though there be too much reason to bewail this yet I hope with the same Charity that I wish the thing that none that are guilty of the more enormous Sins I have mentioned are present in this Assembly but that it fares with my Complaint as it does with the Exhortations which are made out of the Pulpit to Non-Conformists those to whom the Speech is directed are never there So in my present Complaint of not forsaking our Sins but exchangeing them for others I do but inculcate a Doctrine to the Gracious already and that those that are otherwise are not here But if any chance to be I shall only mind them of those Words they find Psal. 10.17 Take away his ungodliness and thou shalt find none If after God has endeavoured so many ways to take away their ungodliness it shall still remain they are more incorrigible than the worst of men and their obstinacy may well fear not only what the Words in the Psalm sound but what they signifie viz. that God will not only confound their wickedness but themselves also the wicked Doers Christ was manifested in the Flesh to destroy Sin and we ought in compliance with this his gracious Design to put to all our Powers to destroy Sin in our selves that purifying our selves as he is pure we may hereafter be glorious even as he is glorious To the Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour c. The Second Sermon 1 SAM xii 25 But if ye shall still do wickedly ye shall be consumed both ye and your King THE State and Commonwealth of Israel differed from all other States in the World it was neither Aristocracy nor yet Democracy but if rightly denominated a Theocracy or Divine Monarchy i. e. it was in subjection to no Man or Number of Men but immediately to God himself Ye have said Nay but a King shall reign over us when the Lord your God was your King v. 12. Again C. 10.19 Ye have this day rejected your God who himself saved you out of all your adversities God was the Commander Prince and Monarch of this State in his own Person But being a Spiritual King as well as a Temporal and exercising a Dominion over the Souls as well as Bodies of his Subjects though his Reign were as the Reign of Prosperity it self his Scepter not only a Scepter of righteousness but of felicity Plenty Victory and all other Blessings attending it they were impatient of it as of an intolerable and insupportable Yoke chose rather to be governed as the Nations of the Earth than even as the Angels in Heaven by a mortal than a Celestial King preferred an improsperous Condition together with a greater liberty of sinning before the most prosperous with a strict obligation to righteousness held it I say more eligible even to see their Enemies within their Gates than their God with narrow eyes continually prying into their actions God who saw this perverseness of their hearts in demanding a King punished their folly by complying with it defeated their wickedness by granting their request Ye shall says God for the future be governed as you desire after the manner of the Nations ye shall have a King the Court and the Sanctuary the Palace and the Tabernacle shall be separated my Divine Authority shall no more interpose in your making War or Peace in your marching or encamping in your Civil or Military Affairs all shall be in the power of your King But promise not your selves from hence a greater licence to sin for though I shall withdraw my former manner of Conduct from you I will have as near an inspection into your Actions as I had before and though my miraculous assistances are more rarely shewed I will visit your iniquity with Scourges Your King and new-modell'd State shall be so far from protecting you in your disobedience that they shall render your destruction only more signal and calamitous But if ye shall still do wickedly ye shall be consumed both ye and your King In the Days in which God chiefly invited his People to Obedience by the Promises of temporal Blessings and deterred them from Disobedience by the threats of temporal Evils none were greater than those that related to their King As whether he were a Child or of grown Years a base Vpstart or the Son of Nobles one that eat in the morning or at due season for strength or for drunkenness as Solomon speaks Or as the Prophet Isaiah A wise and gracious Prince or a fierce and cruel Lord and a Fool. Again whether the Reign of a wicked King were prolonged or of a righteous cut short whether the Prince were often changed or many set up at the same time as those Words may be interpreted either way For the transgressions of a Land many are the Princes thereof I say no higher Marks of God's favour or disfavour to a People could be shewed than in what related to their King And no wonder For undoubtedly a good King is infinitely above the encrease of the Barn and the Wine-press of the Flocks and the Herds for he is the security of all these and whatever else makes a Kingdom happy and blessed Plenty is not Plenty Possessions are not Possessions Peace is not Peace Religion is not Religion without such a Guardian and Conserver of them Well therefore might God as being the highest of Judgments threaten his rebellious People with the destruction of their King I say his rebellious People for the King is not threatned in my
Perswasion That Comets or Blazing Stars portend the Change of States and the Falls of Great Men but we have much more reason to apprehend that the Sins of the Nation which hang like so many Meteors over our Heads have an Ominous and Fatal Aspect on us The Bands of Discipline are loosned the Majesty of our Prince is despised God blasphemed common Honesty baffled and affronted Lewdness triumphs seditious Spirits take advantage from all to foment Disorders Good Men are agast the Magistrate desponds as if the Distempers were as incurable as Epidemical And yet Good Men as if we sate on a safe Shore we please our selves in beholding our Neighbours Ships tost and wreckt by the Tempests of War we read unconcernedly the weekly Gazettes of Armies overthrown Cities ras'd Countries subdu'd and ruin'd and never apprehend that our fair weather may suddenly lowre and overcast into a Storm We met at this Day with vain and elated minds to judge others not to humble our selves and if we lay load enough upon our Adversaries and render them black and odious we think our selves white as Innocence Methinks the loud Thunder in my Text for so the Commination in it sounds to me should chastise these Gaieties and not appear less terrible because articulate and speaks more to the Soul than to the Ear and this pronounces emphatically That the Issue of Sin persisted in is utter ruine and confusion and that the only way to prevent destruction is Reformation Let us therefore seek to reverse God's threats by turning from our evil ways let us upbraid the wickedness of our Oppressors by our holy Lives condemn the Hellish Practice of this Day not by Invectives but by our Loyalty and Obedience and this will turn the dreadful Commination Ye shall be consumed both ye and your King into the Blessing promised at ver 14. If ye will fear the Lord and serve him and not rebel against his Commandments then shall ye and also the King that reigns over you continue following the Lord your God the Blessing promised to Israel contained in these Words shall be made good to us God in an extraordinary manner will be our God and we shall be his People in which is included all the Felicity that can be wisht by man And which God of his infinite mercy grant to us through our Lord Jesus Christ to whom together with the Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour and Glory c. The Third Sermon JOHN ii 4 Woman What have I to do with thee my hour is not yet come OUR Saviour's turning Water into Wine at the Marriage-Feast in Cana of Galilee was not only the first Miracle he wrought but as I may say the first Revelation of the Messiah to the World For the Wonderful Conception of him by a Virgin the Vision of Angels declaring his Birth the Star pointing out his Cradle and the like may rather be reckoned among the Prophecies than the Revelations of him the Types and Shadows of him in the Law than for the Completion of them in his Person The Meanness and Obscurity of his Education and Parentage did again so darken the Glorious Prognosticks that usher'd him into the World that he was still the Messiâ—h under a Veil the Saviour to be given and the Christ to come But when he once enter'd on the Execution of his Office and began to teach and Work Miracles when at this poor but holy Feast in Cana of Galilee he turn'd Water into Wine and gave not only an Instance of his Benignity to his Creatures but of his Power over the Creatures then as our Apostle says He Manifested his Glory and lay no longer under the Disguise of Fabri Filius the Carpenter's Son but prov'd himself to be Fabricator Mundi the Creator of the Universe What we read in the Gospel hitherto is of the Child Jesus now it first treats of the Lord Jesus to this Period it relates his Obedience to his Parents but now it shews the time that his Parents were to be Obedient to him If Mary therefore upon the Score of her Maternal Authority affects still to exercise a Dominion over him he checks her by the Right of his Divine Authority if she intimates that her Desires are to be comply'd with he lets her know his own appointed Seasons are to be attended and the Submission to be paid to him which she expected from him When they wanted Wine the Mother of Iesus said unto him They have no Wine Jesus said unto her Woman What have I to do with thee my hour is not yet come The Words offer more especially to our Consideration these two things I. Our Saviour's Check or Reproof of his Mother Woman What have I to do with thee II. The Reason of his Checking or Reproving her Because she importun'd him Unseasonably when his Hour was not yet come In the Reproof we may reflect again upon two things The Name he calls her by Woman And the Terms in which he reproves her What have I to do with thee I begin first with the Name he calls her by Woman That Christ should call the Blessed Virgin by the Name only that distinguish'd her Sex Woman and not by the Individual Name of her Person Mary nor yet by the Name of his Relation to her Mother that he should thus treat his Parent as not his Parent use a Compellation to her as a Stranger was so surprizing and posing a Behaviour from him that it has occasion'd many Different and some Wild Imaginations in men why he did this thing The Montanists and Valentinians a sort of Hereticks who taught that our Saviour took not True Flesh from the Virgin affirm'd That he denies her here to be his Mother and that these Words Woman what have I to do with thee import as much as Nihil tecum commune habeo non agnosco te pro Matre I am not of the same Nature with you I acknowledge you not to be my Mother But there is no ground from our Lord's Words to say He made his Mother a Stranger to his Nature though he made her a Stranger to his Business The Jovinians Helvetians and Eunomians affirm'd as extravagantly That our Lord call'd her Woman to shew that she continu'd no longer in her Virgin-State than till she brought-forth him But what S t Augustine says is not only agreeable with the Universal Tradition of the Church but also with Scripture it self Dicta est mulier secundùm Foemininum Sexum non secundùm corruptionem Virginitatis Christ call'd her Woman in regard of her Sex not of her Married Condition as God call'd Eve Woman the hour he created her before he gave her to Adam for a Wife The Papists on the other side who may be call'd Beatae Virginis Parasiti the Parasites or Flatterers of the Blessed Virgin create to her an addition of Honour and sing her New Magnificats from her being call'd Woman They say Christ styled her so upon the same account that
also taught however obscurely from the very Beginning That Sin was not to be abolisht without Satisfaction made for it and that no Competent Satisfaction could be made for it but by the Bloud of the Son of God or the Eternal Destruction of the Sinner And if we will make the best Use of this Doctrine we must observe That as the Parts of the Body are framed in so excellent a manner that they serve for more Uses than one as the Nose not only to breathe but to smell the Hand not only to lay-hold with but to strike c. So likewise that the Institution of Sacrifices for expiation of Guilt had two Excellent Designs in it First to shew God's Mercy to Sinners and secondly his Irreconcileable Hatred to Sin And if we look no further in this Matter than on God's Goodness only in accepting so favourable an Exchange as the Bloud of the Sacrifice for the Bloud of the Sinner we defeat one half of his Design which was to shew the Malignant and Mortiferous Nature of Sin in that it could not be purged away by any less Means than Death than either by the Destruction of the Sinner or of some Other in his behalf And therefore though God deal with us after that Royal Manner as the Children of Princes are dealt with who have another Punishment for their Faults or as he dealt with David after his Numbering the People past by in a great measure his Offence and took Occasion from it only to send a Plague on Israel for former Transgressions thus chusing rather to punish David's Ingenuity than his Person to afflict him with beholding the Afflictions of others than by sending any immediately on himself yet if we shew not the like Ingenuity which David did suffer not Our Selves for what we see another suffer when we were the Delinquents I say if as he cry'd out upon the Destruction of the People Lo I have sinned I have done Wickedly but these Sheep what have they done So if we cry not out in Contemplation of what our Proxy suffered on our behalf We have sinned we have done Wickedly but the Lamb of God what has he done to be sacrificed for us We shall forfeit both the Indulgence and Indemnity which God intended us and while we shew our selves Insensible of so high a Benefit we shall be deprived of it and in the next place we must Dye our Selves and Dye to all Eternity And thus we see as the Death of Christ paid to God as a Ransom for Sins ought to be the highest Object of our Joy So the Consideration again on the other side that Nothing but the Death of Christ could pay that Ransom ought to create in us no less than a horrour and Detestation of Sin But yet I know not how we see men precipitately and remorslesly run into all Impiety as if there were no danger in Sin as if Christ had suffered nothing for it as if it were as easily remitted as 't is committed the Price of Iniquity no more than what it cost the Wicked Person to purchase it For certainly if Men did consider at how dear a Rate God's Justice and Wrath were satisfied they would not think the gratifying of every Lust more valuable than the Compensation made for it they would not set more by the Savage Delight of Revenge or the Swinish of Drunkenness than by the Bloud of Christ prefer the Favours of a Light Woman before their Peace with God a cheap Sin before the dearest-bought Redemption A Fool can work a Mischief which may pose a Wiseman to remedy and every Weak Person when he is tempted can commit Sin but none but the Eternal Son of God can remove the Guilt of it when 't is done And 't is the light Reckoning that men make of Sin which brings God's heavy Displeasure upon them for it their thinking so cheaply of the Greatest Offences because the Pardon of them costs them little that provokes him to make them feel what the Weight of Guilt is For 't is but just that those who refuse to understand the pernicious Nature of Sin by the Punishment laid on an Other should understand it by undergoing the Punishment of it themselves who will not learn how Odious it is to God by the Death of his Son should be taught it by their own Confusion Who is there so Ungrateful and Insensible even among the Worst of Men that if a Friend hazard his Life for his Preservation will not acknowledge so great a Benefit and yet the Son of God did not only hazard but lay down his Life to redeem us from Eternal Damnation and few there are that consider it that have so much Compassion as but to ask the Question in my Text What are these Wounds in thy hands resentingly to say Was it possible so Divine a Person should be so Abus'd for me that the Son of God should be buffetted spit on derided torn with Scourges mangled with Tortures and at last nail'd to the Cross for my Disobedience There are those I confess in the Church of Rome who spend a great Part of their Lives in gazing on a Crucifix and weeping over the Pictures of our Lord's Passion in bemoaning his Sufferings and kissing the Representations of his Wounds but alas these do but haerere in cortice stick at the Bark and Husk of the Mystery out of a simple or affected Fondness express their Gratitude to Christ a Wrong Way lament his Sufferings now they are past and he in Glory at the Right Hand of his Father they do not penetrate into the true Purpose and Meaning of his Sufferings as they declare the Malignant Nature of Sin that could not be expiated at a less Rate than the Death of so Divine a Person For this is the true Return that Men should make Christ for his Passion not so much to consider What his Wounds were as For what they were and from thence fly that which was the Cause of his Sufferings The second Reason of the Necessity of Christ's Sufferings I said was To give Men an Example of Obedience The Apostle Heb. 2.17 gives another Reason for Christ's suffering in our Nature viz. that he might be a Merciful High Priest become Compassionate of our Infirmities by the Experimental Knowledge of them in his Own Person But the Reason or Purpose I now speak of is such as is in Reference to Men and not to himself that he might give an Example to the World that God commanded nothing but what was possible to be performed by Flesh and Bloud The last Effort or Endeavour of Heaven to bring Men to Salvation was now essaying and the shortest and most Efficacious Motive was thought to be to give them an Instance of the Fulfilling the Law Precepts are but cold Inducements but an Example fires the Soul with Emulation to do what it sees done before it and Men think it a Disparagement to give out in that which another has enterpriz'd with
in the most General and Universal comprehension both of Prince and People not of the Prince alone as some are willing to reckon the Benefits his Majesty has receiv'd not to revere him the more for being so much in God's Favour but to make him more indebted to God than themselves as if because this is call'd the King's Day all the Mercies of it and all the Thanks for them were to be put upon his account Undoubtedly the Kings Obligations to Heaven are infinite but was he only restor'd this Day to his Crown and Country Or were not all we likewise re-call'd from the same Banishment or from Prisons and Sequestrations Dungeons and Gibbets at home to enjoy our Lives and Liberties our Religion and Estates Has all the delicious Fare of the Land been serv'd to the Kings Table All the Gold Lace been worn upon his Back Nay but I behold many at this instant standing like Kings in the presence of the King and 't is to be complain'd of that the Enjoyments of many Out vie his in their proportion Is there then no Thanks of our Own due to God We have this Obligation even more than the King has that we have him that we enjoy this Principle of Union this Bond of Peace this Foundation of Security and Prosperity O let us not forget in the loud Joys and Gaiety and Festivity of this Day the days of Sadness and Silence of Scarcity and Doubtfulness of Soul when we had no King when a Villain sat on the Throne when our Hatred and Aversion rul'd over us the Scourge of Loyalty and the Oppressor of Religion and Justice Let us not forget the Time when to be Noble was to be Guilty and to be Loyal an Enemy to the State Again when to be a Mechanick made room for the Person in the Places of Honour and a Fanatick qualify'd him for the highest Charges and Honours and our Great Ones bow'd down to these or bow'd under the saddest Misery The remembrance of these things will make us readily acknowledge the Mercies of this Day to have been General to us all and not only heighten but sanctifie our Joy make the Feast resound with Thanksgiving and Praises of God and not wholly to be spent in loose and confus'd Mirth Riot and Excess it will preserve us from falling into that Fatal Ingratitude which accompanies Prosperity and which God in the People of Israel warns all Nations of and yet which all more or less fall into The forgetfulness of the Arm that deliver'd them and the Goodness that made them Great And in the midst of our Felicity we shall remember our Duty and our Ease shall not corrupt our Manners nor our Prosperity and Affluence be snares to us And God will repeat and iterate his glorying we have heard this Day not only in the Person of our King but of his Posterity to all Ages even till all Kingdoms are swallow'd up in the Kingdom of Heaven Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Sion Which God of the riches of his Mercy grant to whom be ascribed all Honour Glory and Thanksgiving this day forth and for evermore Amen The Eighth Sermon JOHN xvi 8 And when he is come he will reprove the World of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment GOD who at sundry times and in divers manners says the Apostle spake in times past unto the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son c. as if this were his ultimus conatus the last and utmost Effort or Endeavour of his Power and Goodness to reduce the Sinful and Unbelieving World But by miserable Event it appear'd that this Means prov'd as uneffectual as the former that the World did unto Christ as they had done unto the Prophets before him slew the Son as they had slain the Servants Yet notwithstanding the unfathomable Depths and Riches of the Divine Goodness gave not over here where Reason would have given over but shew'd it self still Infinite where Humane Imagination was Finite bow'd the Heavens again and sent down the third Person in the Trinity the Holy Ghost Pertinacia nostra exhausit Coelum the Obstinacy of Men even drain'd and exhausted Heaven Verbum Caro the Word made Flesh was not sufficient to master this Obstinacy but it must be Verbum Spiritus too the Spirit must become a Word i. e. be sent from Heaven to be a Word in the Mouth of the Apostles to reprove or as the Margent has it to convince the World of Sin And when he is come he will reprove or convince the World of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment To convince is to force the Understanding of the Opposer by strength of Argument to acknowledge the Truth that is contended for And to reprove or rebuke is again but a Moral Conviction of Sin in a person In the Words I shall consider these two things I. The Matter of the Conviction which the Spirit shall bring the World to an Acknowledgment of namely of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment II. The Manner how he shall bring the World to this Acknowledgment viz. by convincing it by irrefragable Arguments I begin with the Matter of the Conviction Sin Râ—ghteousness and Judgment And First He shall convince the World of Sin What Sin it is which is meant here that the Spirit shall convince the World of is doubtful It may well be thought to be the Sin of Cruelty the perverse and barbarous Inhumanity the Jews shew'd when they demanded a Murderer to be releas'd unto them and kill'd the Just One. And we read in Effect Acts 2.36 that it was one of the first Works of the Spirit after his coming to bring three thousand Souls to confess this Sin and shew their Compunction for it for after S t Peter had laid before them how by wicked hands they had crucified and slain the Lord of Life they were prick'd to the heart and said Men and Brethren what shall we do i. e. to be deliver'd from the Sin of Murder or Cruelty But though this Interpretation be plausible it agrees not with the Reason Christ himself gives in the Verse immediately following my Text why the Holy Ghost should convince the World of Sin Of Sin says he because they believe not on me It should seem then it was the Sin of Unbelief that he came to reprove or convince the World of And this is the Opinion of many on the place The truth is Infidelity is a Sin highly injurious to the Deity it makes God a Lyar as S t John says He that believeth not God hath made him a Lyar. It makes him impotent and ignorant How should God perceive says the Wicked Psal. 73.11 is there knowledge in the most High And the faithless Israelites Can God prepare a Table in the Wilderness He smote the stony Rock indeed that the Water gushed out but can he give Bread also and provide Flesh for his People Nay it
of his Wrath as they have been of Disobedience I should think my Hour well bestowed to remove this one Practical Dangerous Errour to open mens eyes that they may be convinced That Sin is a Serpent that does insidiare calcaneo lye in the Path and mortally bite the Heel of the Sinner and that he runs not on faster in the Ways of Disobedience than he does in those of Destruction but it is not my Business at this time the Proposition which I am to prove concerns not the Punishment of Sin Absolutely considered but Comparatively viz. That Sin in some Persons or People is more heinous and more severely punished than in others that where God has conferr'd more Signal and Illustrious Favours there he punishes Sin with more Signal and Exemplary Vengeance and his foregoing Bounty despised adds Weight to his future Severity And this Truth is written in so Great Characters and so legible through the Whole Series of the Chronicle of Scripture even from the Creation that I shall not need so much to prove the Proposition as to refresh your Memories by setting before you things already known The first Man of our Race was the first miserable Example of this Truth and he that first brought Sin into the World first also left the Confirmation to us of the Fatal Consequence of it when committed against an Extraordinary Grace Adam was created after God's own Likeness in perfect Righteousness and Holiness and not only with the Knowledge of his Laws but with a Power and Ability to keep them he was made to Excel all Sublunary Creatures and had Dominion given him over them he was plac'd in a furnish'd World fruitful without Labour delightful without Satiety and the Continuance of this his Felicity was put into his own hands he was not Subject to Death Infirmities or Misfortunes like his Posterity nay 't was in his power not only to have Prolong'd his Felicity to all Eternity but to have Improv'd it Greater Favours God could not conferr on Flesh and Bloud on a Creature lower than the Angels But whither tended the Collation of all these Benefits when Adam rebelled against God Only to his greater Misery the Punishment of his Transgression was as Eminent as his Priviledges and Graces had been his ensuing Calamity as his foregoing Prosperity The day thou eatest of the forbidden Tree says God thou shalt dye the Death What Death All manner of Deaths Death Temporal Death Spiritual Death Eternal Death to Nature Death to Grace Death to Glory The Sin was but Single but the Punishment inflicted was Three-fold like a Stroke with a Trident which makes a Triple Wound and the Blow fell not only on himself but on all his Posterity Never any Sin since his had the like Recompence of Reward because none since Adam could sin against so much Bounty I shall give you but one Instance more We know by how Strange and Unexpected a Favour Saul was promoted to the Throne of Israel who being sent in quest of his Father's Asses found a Kingdom God advancing him above all his People in Honour more than he Excelled them in Stature But he proving after this Ungrateful and disobedient to the Commandment of God falling no less than thrice into that Common Fatal Errour of Faithless Princes to relye on Humane Policy more than on the Divine Support on the Favour of the People than on the Favour of God and seeking to establish his Kingdom by Bloud and Sacriledge rather than by Innocence and Justice as if the Power that gave him a Throne could not uphold him in it God's Indignation against him was as Great as his Prevarications had been And then what did all his antecedent Favours profit him but to enhance his following Punishment Which was such as when we read it we cannot chuse but pity though it were the Lord 's doing For he rejected Saul as he was rejected by him he withdrew his Holy Spirit from him and sent an Evil Spirit to vex him in the room of it a Spirit of Jealousie and Frenzy which periodically possest him and clouded all his Felicity and Glory disinherited his Posterity dethroned in a manner himself while he was yet alive by causing another to be anointed King in his days And after he had suffered him thus to survive a few Years a dreadful Spectacle of the Divine Wrath he stirr'd-up the Philistines against him and when their Host appeared and he most needed it bereaved him of his Kingly Courage and Magnanimity refused to direct or answer him by his Oracles In which distressed and disconsolate State all Heavenly Comfort being silent and Saul's guilty Conscience only loud and clamorous over-whelmed with Sorrow and Despair under a Disguise and the Covert of the Night with two Attendants only he repaired to a poor Witches Cell to enquire the Fortune of his Life and Kingdom and where God met him as I may say also in Disguise made use of the Witches delusive Arts to give him a Real Prediction of his near-approaching Overthrow and inglorious Death So that partly broken with Sorrow and partly weakned through Hunger he fell into a Swoun and was sustained by the Bread and Counsel of the Silly Woman the next day putting a Period to his Life and Miseries What Invention of Romance or Fiction of Poetry can parallel the Calamity of this once so Glorious and Heroick King And if any ask Why was all this how came the patient Spirit of the God of Mercy to turn into Fury like that of the Person he punish'd Because the Sin of Saul was not only a Sin against God but against a Benefactor and the wonderful Bounty God had shewed in bringing him to the Throne pull'd upon his Ingratitude and Infidelity this wonderful Severity and Displeasure And as this is God's Dealing with Particular Persons so 't is the same with Whole Nations Of which we shall not need a further Example than that before us of Israel In the foregoing Chapter the Prophet denounces God's Judgments against the Neighbouring Kingdoms for their Sins For three Transgressions and for four says he God will punish Damascus and chiefly for their Cruelty For three Transgressions and for four God will punish Gaza and again for their Cruelty For three Transgressions and for four God will punish Tyre because they kept not their Brotherly Love And so on against the rest But when he comes in the last place to Israel and to Judah their Transgressions being not inferior to those of the Gentiles he intimates that heavier Judgments were laid up in Store for them and that they should not escape so easily as the others he casts their Ingratitude for their former Benefits into the burden of their Guilt their forgetfulness of God's bringing them out of Egypt wich a high hand and destroying the Nations before them his raising up their Sons and Daughters to be Prophets and their Young men to be Nazarites Shall the People that have not known God be
impotent Passion And if any say Benefits given on Design are by the Generous held base and sordid that is only true when the Design is Sinister and Unworthy not when 't is Noble and Religious to promote Vertue Friendship c. Again whereas my Text teaches us that God makes use not only of his Laws but of his Benefits to bring us to a Holy Life not only employs his Authority but wooes and hires us to Righteousness This shews that he is more than ordinarily concern'd in our Obedience and that our yielding or denying it to him is not so Indifferent a thing as we make it And if any ask Why is the Almighty so concerned in the Actions and Behaviours of Men Do their Vertue and Righteousness any way profit him I answer Not at all the Righteousness of Faith contributes no more to his Happiness now under the Gospel than Legal Righteousness did under the Law his Essential Glory is no more augmented by our Spiritual Oblations than his Being was sustained by the Bloud of Bulls and Goats God is self-sufficient and self-happy his Creatures receive all they have from his Fullness and can confer nothing to him That he is pleas'd to use so many Artifices and Endeavours to make Men Righteous is for their sakes not his own 't is his Goodness not his Interest moves him to it his Earnestness that we should live Holy Lives is nothing else but his Earnestness that we should be saved A petulant Inconsideration may wonder why God was pleased to create Rebellious Man but why he should desire to preserve him when he had created him after his Own Image there is no temptation to wonder at any more than to wonder that God should be Good or to use the Psalmist's expression that the Righteous Lord loveth Righteousness We shall shew our selves wiser to adore the Wisdom of God and to submit to his Will than to cavil at his proceedings especially if we consider the Danger there is in Disobeying him for though he sollicites and courts us to a Holy Life his Judgments always attend and stand by his Favours and are ready to right any Wrong or Contempt that is cast upon them But now this being the End of all God's Mercies That he may be Glorified in the Obedience of his Creatures how did Israel comply with this his Design Why truly if we did not read it in his own Word their Wickedness and Ingratitude after so many and miraculous Benefits would be incredible There was no Sin or Abomination of the Heathen Idolatry only excepted that they were not guilty of And why did I say Idolatry only excepted when they added Apostasie to their other Provocations and multiplied Idols equal to the Gentiles so that it may be said God cast out the Canaanites for those that proved worse Canaanites and that the Jebusites were better than the Israelites And they went on despising God's Mercies and frustrating the Designs of his Bounty till at last they forfeited all his Mercies and his Bounties and became of the most happy and glorious People the most Miserable and Despicable even the Astonishment of all Nations Neither need we to travel into the once Holy but now Unholy Land to understand their Condition for God has made their Punishment as far known as they made their Sins and Provocations and has sent them home to the very Doors of all the Nations of the Earth to preach by their Example the Penalty of Ingratitude and Disobedience I have done with the Words and that we may not amuse our selves with insignificant Invectives or unconcerning Relations in contemplation of God's Mercies in common to us with other Christians and his particular Signal and distinguishing Favour to us this Day not only above other Nations but even above our own Predecessors let us ask our selves these two Questions 1. Whether the Mercies of God have not been Greater to us than to Israel or to any other People And 2. Whether our Ingratitude to him has not been also Greater than any others 1. That his Mercies to us have been Greater than to Israel or any other will need no long or laborious Proof if the Mercies of the Gospel are Greater than those of the Law the Substance of things more Excellent than their Shadows if God's casting out the Israelites themselves for our sakes as he cast out the seven Nations for theirs and making the Jews but as Gibeonites to Christians as Drawers of Water and Hewers of Wood be a higher Favour If again his Benefits to us exceed even those of our Fellow-Christians if our Religion be purer our Government happier our People freer than theirs If lastly the Blessings conferred on us of this Generation transcend even those of our Ancestors the Deliverance of the Kingdom in no Age being able to parallel the wonderful Restoration of it in this 2. And secondly I fear 't will be as easily made to appear our Sins have been also Greater than any besides For if Israel and Others were Ungrateful we have been even Despiteful to our Gracious God and Benefactor sinn'd as 't were out of a Pique to the Divine Goodness more than out of infirmity whereas they were Idolaters we have been Atheists whereas they only forgot their God we have derided ours and not only denied him by our Wicked Lives but denied him in Words to have any Being Again if Israel and others have defiled themselves with the Sins of the Flesh our Nation is polluted from one End to the Other with Riot and Debauchery we being not contented to commit the Shamefullest of all Sins but we must leave Trophees of them affix to whole Streets of our Cities the Names of those Nefanda those infamous Crimes which as the Apostle says ought not so much as to be mentioned among Christians If others have Murmured after their Eminent Benefits and Deliverances we have mutinied and been Seditious after ours turned our Thanksgivings and Glorifications of God into Libels against the Government our Vows of Loyalty and Obedience to the King into Conspiracies and Treasons against his Life And what do we promise our selves after these things That though God spared not his own People but took the Forfeiture of the Lands of the Israelites as well as of the Canaanites for the greatness of their Transgressions yet that he will spare us as more Precious to him Let us not deceive our selves the Greater has been God's Bounty to an Ungrateful People the Greater will be the Displeasure he shews to them Saint Paul Rom. II. brings in God displanting one Nation for their Iniquity and planting in another cutting off and graffing-in after the manner of a Husbandman or Gardener who places and displaces his Trees according to their fruitfulness or unfruitfulness and he expresly tells us That we that are but Wild Branches graffed into the Olive-tree have no reason to boast our selves against the Natural Branches and to be high-minded but to fear For if God says
he spared not the Natural Branches take heed lest he spare not you 'T is not so much the Contingency that is in the Nature of the things of this World as the Sins of Men that make them unstable the Fortunes of Kingdoms are not tost like the Waves of the Sea lift up one while to the Clouds and then carried down again to the Center by the force of Winds but according to their Righteousness or Unrighteousness God pulls down one and sets up another Neither are they governed by the Power of Stars The Jews have an excellent Saying Non est Planeta Israeli Israel has no Planet i. e. though God gave up the Heathen oft-times to be governed like the Plants of the Earth by the Influences of Stars because they trusted in such Vain things yet he orders and disposes the Affairs of his faithful People immediately himself And 't is a mere Vulgar Conceit that Comets cause Wars and Changes of States Divine Philosophy tells us Mens Sins occasion God to send Comets and to fill the Sky with Prophetick Prodigies We affect to look as far beyond our selves as we can for the Causes of our Evils but they are to be found nearer at Home and arise out of our own Breasts the Heavens are not the Authors of our Misfortunes i. e. the Conjunctions or Revolutions of the Celestial Bodies but our own Wicked Lives and the surest Prognosticks are to be made from the Innocence or Guilt of a Nation and not from the Face of the Sky Let no Man think I cast a Cloud upon the Glory of this Day Illustrious in the Birth Illustrious in the Restoration of our most Gracious King that instead of exciting I affect to damp the Publick Joy by Ill Bodings unless he also supposes that the Blessings of a Nation cannot be rightly commemorated and celebrated without Noise and Inconsideration Tumult and Riot Excess and Debauchery setting-light by Sin and forgetfulness of Religion A sad and severe Reflection on our Unthankfulness to God for the Singular Mercies of this Day with a serious Resolution of our better Acknowledging them by a future Holy Life will add more Lustre and true Joy to it than the Bravery and Feasts the Bells and Bonfires and all the other Pomps that solemnize it For let us consider That every Wise Agent works to some End or other and that not only the Words we have heard this Day explain'd but the whole Tenour of Scripture concurs in this That the End and Purpose of God's bestowing Benefits on a Nation is to make them Righteous and Holy and that the only Expedient on our part to secure a Continuation of them is to have a strict regard to our Duty that Obedience is the best Preserver of our Happiness and the Means always to keep God's Favour is always to keep his Laws The Thirteenth Sermon MARK viii 2 3. I have Compassion on the Multitude because they have now been with me three days and have nothing to eat And if I send them away fasting to their own houses they will faint by the way for divers of them came from far THESE Words were the Introduction to that Illustrious Miracle by which our Lord fed four thousand Souls with seven Loaves and a few small Fishes made the bare and spare Allowance of seven Persons as some suppose sufficient to satisfie the Hunger of so great a Multitude A Miracle that baffled one of the clearest and most irrefragable Principles in Natural Reason namely That the Part is less than the Whole making it appear that when the Lord of Nature will have it so a Part shall as many times exceed the Whole as he pleases as the Bread and Fishes here encreased by being eaten and consumed multiplied by being dol'd and distributed about and the Fragments which remained exceeded seven times seven fold the Provision which at first was set before them that eat Our Lord wrought this Miracle as himself declares to relieve the Hunger of the Multitude but his principal Design here as in all his other Miracles was to create Faith in such as received Benefit by them to teach those whom he healed that he was the great Physician of the Soul and whom he fed that he was the true Bread that came down from Heaven And if We at this great Distance of time by our Meditations and Reflections on this Miracle shall make it also nourish our Souls refresh our Faith relieve and sustain our fainting Spirits ready to sink under the continual Opposition of Sin and the length of Duties we shall add yet to the Glory of it and in a Spiritual Sense make these Words spoken to us I have Compassion on the Multitude because they have now been with me three days and have nothing to eat c. This Portion of Scripture is part of a larger Narrative and I shall take that Way in handling it which those do who make Remarks and Observations upon Notable Occurrents and Events in History reflect and descant on the Principal Passages in it as I conceive they may be most edifying and useful And in order to this I shall observe in the Words three things 1. Our Lord 's tender and compassionate Spirit I have Compassion 2. The Object of his Compassion the Persons to whom he shew'd it the Multitude I have compassion on the Multitude 3. The Motives of his Compassion which are exprest to be two Their present Distress they were Hungry and had nothing to eat And their future feared Danger in case they were so dismiss'd they will faint by the way I begin first with Christ's tender and compassionate Spirit I have Compassion The Great Preacher our Blessed Lord had ended his Sermon to the People and as the antient custom of the Church was at the End of the first Service to dismiss the Poenitentes and Catechumeni all such as were not qualify'd to receive the Sacrament with these Words Ite missa est Depart and void the Church So the Disciples might very fairly here have pronounc'd an Ite missa est to the Multitude Ye may be gone there is nothing more at this time to be expected the Prophet has no further words of Instruction to impart to you For as for their want of Bread whether it proceeded from Negligence or Necessity it was not chargeable on the Preacher he that ministred Spiritual things was not also to minister Temporal but in these to be ministred to But our Lord had no purpose to shift off a Work of Mercy when 't was seasonable and in his power though he might never so fairly have done it he cast not therefore in his thoughts how he might plausibly Excuse his not relieving the peoples Hunger but which way he might do it best for the Glory of God and their Comfort and Edification There were a Sort of Preachers in this Kingdom in the days of its late Troubles who when they had usurp'd the whole Revenues of the Church grudg'd to allow
I never heard he ceases not to be my Brother nay though he be a Jew Mahometan or Infidel and not only an Enemy to the Faith but also to me he has not lost his Humanity though he lost his Religion and Goodness he has not drunk of Circe's Cup he is not become a Lion or a Wolf docet Christus delicto alterius non tolli Naturam and Christ teaches us that a mans Nature is not destroyed by his Sins the Image of God remains still in him and he is yet a Member of Mankind and whoever shall obliterate this Character though but in his Uncharitable Estimation is impious and sacrilegious and because his Brother has done something unworthy of his Relation to him he does that which is unworthy of his Creation unworthy of the Divine Character he bears The Word Enemy ought to be a mere Notion or empty Term in Christian Religion or to be Relative to nothing but to Sin and Satan to the Devil and the Devil's Works God and Nature made all men Brethren Malice Interest or Chance made them Strangers or Enemies Says Hierocles To a Good man no man is an Enemy i. e. a Good man may be hated but he will not hate again he may be treated hostilely but he will not use another as an Adversary And this unconquered Love of returning good for evil is the truest and noblest Badge of our Christian Profession The Disciples of the Philosophers were distinguisht by the Various Opinions of their Masters those of the Lawyers by particular Sentences and Interpretations of the Law the Scholars of the Pharisees by certain Traditions and Observations But Christ would have his Disciples known by no Vain-glorious Marks or Distinctions But by this says he shall men know that you are my Disciples if ye love one another And those that hate their Brother be it upon what Pretence soever Judaize and though they wear their Baptismal Cross as conspicuously on their Foreheads as the Pharisees did their Phylacteries they are Disciples of the Synagogue I shall add but one thing more and conclude this Point Though we are oblig'd to love one another i. e. All men to love all men we are not obliged to love all men alike Our heavenly Father who is set to be our Example in general Beneficence does not do so though his Love be Universal to all 't is not Equal to all but as Seneca says of Earthly Kings Rex honores dignis dat congiarium indignis a King bestows common Largesses both on the Worthy and Unworthy but Offices and Charges of Honour he confers only on the Worthy So the King of Heaven sends his Rain and makes the Sun to shine on the Good and Bad on the Just and Unjust but does not in the like promiscuous manner and without Distinction scatter the Gifts of his Holy Spirit he shews himself a Common Father to all men but a Gracious Father only to the Righteous And we ought to conduct our private limited Charity by the like Rule shed the common Influences of it on all Mankind even as far as we can extend them but when they will not reach both to Believers and Unbelievers then to give the preference to Believers for the Alliance of Grace is yet straiter than that of Nature And thus S t Paul states this Duty Gal. 6.10 As we have opportunity says he let us do good to all men but especially unto the houshold of Faith And I conceive after this manner we are to understand what is said Ecclus 12.4 Give to a godly man and help not a Sinner i. e. help the Godly man rather when thou canst not relieve both chuse to relieve the first And let thus much suffice to be said of the Object of our Charity I proceed to the Reason that inforces it which is taken from its Operation and Effect It covers Sins together with the Extent of that Effect not one or two but many and many Sins For Charity shall cover the multitude of Sins These Words are Parallel to the last Verse of the fifth Chapter of S t James He that converteth a Sinner from the errour of his ways shall save a Soul from death and shall hide a multitude of Sins But in some Copies both in this place and in my Text the Original has not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Future Tense Charity shall cover a multitude of Sins implying the Sins of the Charitable Man but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the present Does cover a multitude of Sins implying the Sins of other men as 't is Prov. 10.12 Hatred stirreth up Strife but Love or Charity covereth all Sins i. e. hideth and beareth with the transgressions of other men and thus again 't is said 1 Cor. 13.4 Charity suffereth long and is kind In which words the Apostle speaks of a prime Act of Charity not of its Reward of the Goodness it shews not of the Recompence it shall receive But there will be no need to contend for rendring of the Words either way for both these Propositions are true Charity is a benign Vertue that pardons the Sins of those that offend against us And again Charity is so acceptable a Vertue in the Sight of God that for its sake he will pardon many Sins committed against him I shall therefore handle the Words in both Senses And first Charity shall cover the Multitude of Sins i. e. of our own Sins against God Sins are said to be hid or covered in Scripture when they are pardoned so Psal. 32.1 Blessed is he whose unrighteousness is forgiven and whose sin is covered And again Psal. 84.3 Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people thou hast covered all their Sins Covering of Sins imports not the concealing them in relation to God's Sight or Knowledge but in relation to his Justice or Punishment as men are said to forget Injuries not in a Sense of Memory but of Mercy when they remember them not to revenge them as Joseph forgot his Brethrens selling him into Egypt not as Pharaoh's Butler forgot Joseph in Prison But may not then the same Question be ask'd here which the Scribes and Pharisees ask'd in the Gospel Who can forgive sins but God alone In what Sense can Charity be said to cover or pardon Sins for covering or pardoning of Sins and Justification are one and the same thing the peculiar Prerogative of God and his free Gift of Grace through Jesus Christ and to affirm that Charity or any other Vertue whatsoever can work this Work belonging only to God were to make it as S t Hilary speaks ambitiosa errorum patrona an ambitious or aspiring Patroness of Errour to make it affect the Throne of God like Lucifer to attribute to an imperfect humane Vertue the Power of the Deity and to advance that to be a Giver of Pardon which stands in need to receive Pardon it self When 't is said therefore That Charity shall cover our Sins it means only That it
and Allowances to our selves in any Interested Point as they though they contradict the express Word of God and make that glorious Light a mere Ignis fatuus a Will with the Wisp and extinguish also the Candle of the Lord that Inward Light of our Conscience which was kindled in our Soul at our first Creation and instead of its Divine Instructions teach it new Lessons after the Mysteries of Hell and Iniquity But these wicked Artifices must be laid aside and Sincerity Fidelity and Diligence used in the Examination and Tryal of our Ways before we can possibly turn to the Lord. Which is the Second Particular I said was contained in the Prophet's Advice and for the sake of which Duty the other of Searching and Trying our Ways was prescribed for to search into our wicked Lives and to call our pass'd Sins to remembrance if not in order to their Condemnation and our Returning again to the Lord must be to applaud them and to delight our selves in a fanciful re-acting them over again which is a greater Sin if it be possible than the first committing them And this Duty of Turning again to the Lord is also express'd by a Metaphor the so common Figure in Scripture by a Similitude taken from such as go astray and return again into the Right way or that fly from their Abode and upon better thoughts return home again For there are Wanderers from their Duty as well as from the Road or High-way Fugitives from Vertue as well as from their Houses and Country Philo says of Adam and Eves flying from God's presence after their Transgression Every Sinner is a Fugitive and the Psalmist calls those that break the Commandments Wanderers out of the Right-way God in the Wisdom of his Counsel made Some things without Himself the Centre or Resting-place of Inferior Creatures as the Air for light Bodies the Earth for heavy c. but he made Himself the only Center of Man's happiness the only Resting-place of his Soul and when ever Men are intic'd and led away with their Lusts to seek Content in any Worldly or Carnal Enjoyment as they depart from God and turn their Backs upon him so they depart from their Peace and turn their Backs upon their Felicity and till they follow the Prophet's Advice Turn again to the Lord they pursue only their Misery Now the turning here spoken of being Figurative not Corporal but Spiritual not local from place to place but progressive from Vice to Vertue the plain Importance of returning to the Lord is Repentance the forsaking our former wicked Courses and serving God for the future in Holiness of Life And though the Words comprehend in their full Latitude the Whole Duty of Man yet they may be reduc'd to these two short Precepts which we find in the fourth Chapter of S t James ver 8. Cleanse your Hands ye Sinners and purifie your Hearts ye double-minded By our Hands the Apostle means our Outward Actions our Hands being the ordinary Instruments by which they are wrought and by our Hearts he denotes our Inward Affections because from thence our Affections proceed Now our Outward Actions must be Just and Honest because by them our Hearts are only made legible and intelligible to the World and our Hearts again or Inward Affections must be pure and holy because otherwise 't is as impossible that our Actions should be Just and Honest as that a clear Stream should flow from a troubled and puddled Fountain besides God sees the Heart though Man does not and East and West will sooner meet and make one Point in the Compass than God will close with an Impure or Wicked Person If we will enjoy an Union with God we must forsake our Sins and not expect that he should recede from his Righteousness we must turn to him or he will never turn to us and all our Prosperity and Felicity depend upon our Early and Sincere Turning to the Lord for as those that Dye in the Lord have all Tears wip'd from their Eyes so the Living Man that turns to the Lord shall have all Tears wip'd from his Eyes as the Prophet implies in my Text i. e. his Complaints for the Punishment of his Sins taken away nay his Punishment shall be turned into Blessings and Mercies by the God of Mercy I shall add but a few Words of Application and conclude We see here the highest Encouragement to excite us to Repentance and a Holy Life no less than the removing all our Complaints by the removing all our Evils nay than by turning our Evils into Blessings Thanks be to God we cannot parallel the Evils of our days with those of the Jewish Nation which the Prophet here laments we are not actually reduced again as some years since to an Egyptian bondage to work in Brick-kilns by our bloudy and oppressing Dissenting Brethren Thanks be to God I say the Calamity of our Israel is not such that we should take up this Complaint How is She become a Widow She that was Great among the Nations a Princess among the Provinces how is She become tributary Among antient Roman Medals there is one with a disconsolate Figure sitting on the Ground with this Inscription Britannia capta Britain subdu'd but I trust to the Divine Goodness that the like Fate is far from us this day though we were lately so near being Surpriz'd and totally destroy'd by the Malice of our Bloudy Enemies that what one said of a Dog 's near seizing the Prey might be apply'd to us similisque tenenti non tenet we were so near being taken that we were only not taken and though we were not confounded we seem'd to be As might be gathered as by other Evidences so from the Letters of our ill-willing Neighbours who more solicitous for our Ruine than charitable to warn us of our Danger enquired only after the Manner and Measure of our Destruction but doubted not in the least of the Certainty of it But though we were Miraculously snatch'd out of the Jaws of Ruine are we now secure so that the Reprehension in my Text may be retorted on us Wherefore doth a living man complain Some forward Heads and Branches of the late Conspiracy I acknowledge are cut off or secured but the Roots of it are still left in the Ground and charily preserved and fostered by the Still-Designing Parties and not a little cherished and assisted by many who pretend to be of a contrary Perswasion This Age which despises to go less in a Refined Way of working Mischief than any former whatsoever has fram'd an Engine which would be thought to have been filed and polished by the very Hand of Charity though it was forged in Hell and that is To disbelieve all that is said of any Plot and Conspiracy against the King Church or State insinuate nay dare to publish in Print That the Conspiracy which makes such a Noise is indeed only against the Accused Party either to destroy or