all worldly respects when I once came to the knowledge of the Christian Religion I dispised them all For in truth I found that they were so far from being real Advantages to me that they were rather hindrances in the way of Vertue and Piety Yea doubtless as he goes on in the 8th verse I account all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ That is to say Not only the above-named priviledges but all other things whatsoever Wealth Greatness Fame Friends and Life it self I account them all very pitiful things if they be compared with the inestimable advantages of being a Christian As I have once so I will again readily forsake all part with all things that the World holds most dear and valuable nay I will trample them under my feet like dirt and dung provided I may obtain the Favour of Christ And as he goes on in the 9th verse that I might be found in him not having my own Righteousness which is of the Law but that which is by the Faith of Jesus Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith This passage hath been frequently misunderstood and interpreted to a sense that I believe St. Paul did not think of St. Paul doth not here oppose an inherent Righteousness to an imputed one but an outward natural legal Righteousness to that which is inward and spiritual and wrought in a Man by the Spirit of God The Righteousness which the Apostle here desires to be found in is not the Righteousness of Christ made his or imputed to him but a real Righteousness produced in his Soul by the Faith of Jesus Christ The plain Sense of the Verse seems to be this That which above all things I desire is to be found in Christ i. e. to be found a Disciple of his ingrafted into him by being a Member of his Church not having my own Righteousness which is of the Law i. e. not being content with those outward Priviledges and that outward Obedience which by my own natural Strength I am able to yield to the Precepts of the Law which is that Righteousness in which the Jews place their Confidence and by which they expect to be justified before God But that which is by the Faith of Jesus Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith i. e. that Righteousness which I desire and in which only I shall have the Confidence to appear before God is an inward Principle of Holiness that Spiritual renewed Obedience to God's I aws which he doth require as the condition of his Favour and Acceptance and which I can never attain to but by the Faith of Christ by becoming a Christian This is none of my own Righteousness but God's it being wrought in me by his Spirit accompanying the preaching of the Gospel and as it is his Gift so he will own it and reward it at the last â—ay This is the full importance of that Verse and then it follows by way of Explication of what he now said That I may know him and 〈…〉 Resurrection c. This is the 〈…〉 that I aspire after that I may know Christ nor only by a nâ—â—ional belief of his Doctrines 〈…〉 of his Religion but by a spirituâ—â— experimental Knowledge of him such a Knowledge as â—â—ansformâ—â—â— Spirit and Temper and that 〈…〉 the power of his 〈◊〉 i. e. then 〈◊〉 experience in my self all the good 〈…〉 that his Resurrection 〈◊〉 a power to work in me that I may see the Vertue and Efficacy of it in my daily dying to Sin and rising again to a 〈◊〉 holy and heavenly Life This is that Righteousness I long for and in comparison of which I account all things in the World but as less and as duâ—â— Thus have I given you a full account of the Text and all the Apostle's Discourse that it depends upon I now come to treat more particularly of it with reserence to the solemnity of this Day We all here present do profess to believe the Article of our Saviour's Resurrection and our business at this time is to celebrate the memory of it But we must not rest here We are not to look upon our Lord's Resurrection meerly as a thing to be believed or professed or commemorated or as a matter of Fact that only concerned himself But there is a great deal in it which doth nearly concern us The Apostle tells us there is a great Power in it even a Power of raising us from Sin to a Holy and Vertuous Life It is so ordered as to be capable of being and it ought to be a Principle of now Life in us as it was the beginning of a now Life in our Saviour Now this Vertue this Power this Efficacy of it as it is that which with the Apostle we ought all most earnestly to endeavour the experiencing in our selves so it is that which will be fittest for us at this time to apply our Meditations to My Work therefore at this time shall be to give some Account of the Power of Christ's Resurrection in order to the making Men good which the Apostle here speaks of to shew how or in what respects it doth instuence upon the Lives of Christians Now if we look into the Holy Scriptures we shall find that there is a four-fold Power attributed to it or that it hath an insluence upon our Lives in these four respects That is to say I. As it lays an Obligation upon Christians to Holiness and Vertue II. As it is the Principal Evidence of the Truth of our Religion the Design of which is to make Men Holy and Vertuous III. As it is the great Support of our future Hopes or our Hopes of another Life which indeed is the main Encouragement we have to apply our selves seriously to the business of Holiness and Vertue IV. And Fourthly as to it we do principally owe all that supernatural Grace and Strength by which we are inabled to live Holily and Vertuously Of these four Points I shall Discourse very briesly I. And First of all our Saviour's Resurrection hath an influence upon our Practice as it lays an Obligation upon Christians to lead Holy and Vertuous Lives As it is in it self an incitement to Piety and heavenly-Mindedness This is indeed the lowest instance of its Power but yet we ought not to pass it by because the Writers of the New Testament do frequently insist on it For thus they argue If Christ was crucified for our Sins then ought we to crucifie them in our members And if Christ rose again the third day then are we ingaged in conformity to him to rise again to newness of Life to lead a Spiritual Divine Heavenly Life such a lise as he now lives with God And this in the ancient times was taught every Christian in and by his Baptism Whenever a person was baptized
make himself greater nor looks upon the prosperity of his Neighbour with an evil Eye backbiting and carrying about idle stories is not the thing he lives by He puts a fair construction upon other Mens Words and Actions and will rather conceal a real fault than make it worse in the reporting it He hopes and thinks the best of all Men and rejoyceth in the happiness of those about him He doth as much good as he can and that good that is done by others he is so far from envying that he thanks God for it as if he had done it himself He is a Man of great Plainness and Simplicity apert and open and free in all his Carriage You may always know where to have him for his Words and his Thoughts always go together And though he is careful not to be lavish of his Speech nor at all times to discover all his Mind Yet he is as careful that what he doth speak shall be agreeable to Truth and he so speaks it that those that hear him may take measures of his Mind from it He is a Man who though he be very watchful of opportunities to do himself good and very sagacious in spying dangers and avoiding them Yet he never uses any indirect means either for the benefiting or securing himself He scorns to make advantages of any Man's necessities Nor will he undermine another for the effecting of his own designs Deceit and Collusion are strangers to all his dealings Above all things he hates a Trick and in his account to be a Man of Intrigues a cunning or a shrewd Fellow is but a more gentile term for a Knave In a word the designs he proposeth to himself are all Honest and Just and such as tend to the good of the Community as well as his Own but to no Man's loss or hindrance And the means he useth for accomplishing these designs are all fair and regular and so free is both his Heart and his Actions from all Imposture that he cares not if all the World were privy to them This is the Man that is Vpright in his Conversation towards Men. The Man that with the Wisdom of the Serpent joyns the Innocence and Simplicity of the Dove But thus much of the Vpright Man as a Private Person Let us now view him a little under a more conspicuous character Let us consider him as a Magistrate intrusted with the management of publick affairs Which is the Second particular we are to insist on under this head and here the Upright Man is still the same acted by the same Principles pursuing still the same designs we have hitherto mentioned Onely his Vertues have another Sphere and another Object and therefore require another consideration The great thing he proposes to himself in taking any Office upon him is the glory of God and the publick good The Honour and Dignity of the place and the other worldly advantages that may attend it are but secondary considerations with him The first is his main design which he steadily and constantly pursues throughout the whole Administration of his Office the other is never thought on but with subordination to the former And therefore acting from such Principles as these we may easily conclude him to be a Man whose Counsels and Actions are not steer'd by the wind of popular Applause but by the sense of his Duty He studies not to ingratiate himself with Men but to discharge a good Conscience He is more careful to be a Good Magistrate than to be a Loved one though so happily are things contriv'd that in being the former he rarely fails of the latter The consequence of which is that he is a Man of great Courage and Boldness and Resolution He dares to do whatsoever is fit and just and conducive to the publick good what discouragements soever he meet with Neither the menaces of the Mighty nor the murmurings of the Multitude can fright him from his Duty For he dreads none but God nor fears to do any thing but what is misbecoming him But then he is a Man that doth not resolve things hastily and upon the consideration of a few particulars but takes good advice and useth mature deliberation before he determines himself He doth nothing precipitately But weighs all things represented to him as impartially as he can His Ears are open to all Parties and he debates what is said without Passion or Prejudice or Prepossession and he always considers more what is spoken than who it is that speaks it He is a Man whom you cannot so much disoblige as by attempting to corrupt him Neither the regard of his profit nor his kindness to his Friends can in Matters of Right tempt him to act against his inward sense As to these things he is as blind as Justice herself and you may as soon draw the Sun from his line as him from the steady and strict paths of Righteousness He is a Man that looks upon his Office rather as a burthen than a preferment And therefore he is wonderfully solicitous about the well discharging it His care and study is chiefly employed upon the Publick and he rather suffers the miscarriage of his own affairs than that the Community by his negligence should receive any prejudice While others are doing their own business he is watching for the common good for he always remembers that he is a publick person and that the time and strength that God affords him are not his but theirs by and for whom he is intrusted He is a Man that imploys all his power and interest as much as is possible for the maintenance of the worship and service of God and the defence and encouragement of the true Religion For he considers God as the first and principal person to be respected in all Governments and Societies as being not only the Author but the Head of them And he remembers that Religion doth so much influence the Civil State that the happiness and ruin of Cities and Kingdoms are link'd with the well or ill management of it And in pursuance of this his Zeal for God and Religion he takes care as much as in him lies to encourage those Persons that are Vertuous and Good and to suppress and bring out of credit all Vice and Debauchery all Impiety and Irreligion all Faction and Disorder together with the Maintainers and Abettors of them He is a Man that effectually makes good Job's Character of himself who was also a Magistrate Job 29.14 c. He puts on Righteousness and it cloaths him his Judgment is a Robe and a Diadem He is Eyes to the Blind and Feet he is to the Lame He is a Father to the Poor and the cause which he knoweth not he searcheth out He breaketh the Jaws of the Wicked and plucketh the Spoil out of his Teeth He is a Man that looketh upon himself to have a Trust both with reference to to those above him and those under him And therefore he
the beginning to the end thereof So that now every one hath free Access to God and a Right to his Favour through the Blood of Jesus Christ And though we have been never so bad never so unworthy yet if we have but the Hearts to forsake our Sins and come to Jesus Christ we shall as certainly obtain the Acceptance and the Love of our Heavenly Father as if we had been Innocent and never sinned at all Nay God is not only willing to receive us but he earnestly begs and sollicits us to take his Mercy And so pleased he is at the Return of a Sinner that our Saviour has told us there is joy in Heaven over such a one Nay more joy among the Angels over a sinner that repenteth than over ninety nine just persons that need no Repentance O how welcome ought this News to be to us How transported should we be at the infinite Kindness of God manifested to us by our Saviour O! praised be God for his astonishing Love For ever adored be our Lord Jesus that has made a Propitiation for us by his Blood O let us for ever kiss and hug the pretious unvaluable Scriptures of the New Testament if there was nothing else in them but that faithful Saying that Saying worthy of all Men to be received That Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners to save you and me and all Sinners even the greatest of Sinners O! who is there that is in his Wits would chuse to be out of the Christian Dispensation or be left to the Methods of Nature and Philosophy for the attaining their Happiness as some loose People among us do sometimes talk Were the natural Talents of Mankind exalted far above what they either are or ever have been yet I would value that one Saying That Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners more than all the Notions and Speculations of Reason and Philosophy I would desire to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified I would with the Apostle count all things as loss nay as Dung in comparison of the Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus my Saviour and that I may be found in him not having my own Righteousness which is by Nature but that Righteousness which is by the Faith of Jesus Christ who gave himself for me And thus much of Christ's appearing to put away Sin in the first Notion of that Expression But Secondly Christ appeared to put away Sin in another sense That is to say To destroy the Power and Dominion of it from among Men to abolish it so as that it should not henceforth reign in our mortal Bodies To free us from Sin as the Apostle speaks that is to enable us to lead holy and virtuous Lives So that whereas Mankind heretofore yielded their Members Servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity so they should now yield their Members Servants to righteousness unto holiness Thus to put away Sin was as principal an End of Christ's coming as the other before mentioned nay perhaps more principal For the other in true reasoning may be said to be wholly in order to this Certain it is unless this End be attained the other will signifie nothing to us For we are not capable of any Benefit from that Remission of Sin which was purchased for us by Christ until our Sins be put away by Repentance and and we become holy Persons by the change and renewal of our Natures Never therefore let us deceive our selves Though Christ hath actually put away all the Sins of the World in the former sense by his satisfaction that is to say hath procured the Pardon of them hath taken away the Sting of them so as that they shall not be deadly to any Yet all this is upon supposition that the Strength of them be taken away in us that they have no Dominion over us that we mortifie them in all our Members that we daily die to them and live a Life of Righteousness All that Christ merited or purchased for the World will not do us the least good unless we be made conformable to him in his Death and Resurrection by our dying to Sin and living to Righteousness And in truth if we will mind it the putting away Sin in this sense of it hath as great weight laid upon it in Scripture and is as often assigned for the great End and Business of Christ's appearance as the other St. John tells us plainly that for this purpose was the Son of God manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil And St. Paul likewise tells us that he therefore gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works And lastly St. Peter gives the same account of his coming Acts 3.26 where he tells us that therefore God raised up his Son Jesus that is sent him into the World for his raising up there spoken of as any one will see that looks into the Context was not his being raised from the dead but his being manifested to Mankind For here the Apostle's business is to apply that Promise or Prophesie of Moses unto our Saviour viz. That God would in due time raise up to his People a Prophet like unto him whom they should all be obliged to hearken to I say therefore God raised up his Son Jesus i. e. sent him into the World that he might bless his People in turning every one of them from their Iniquities This turning every one from their Iniquities was the great End for which our Lord Jesus Christ was manifested unto Mankind And indeed Reason will teach us all this as well as Revelation For in the nature of the thing none can be truly Happy but those that are truly Pious And in the same degree and proportion that any one is wicked or is under the power of his Lusts in the same degree he must needs be miserable So that if Christ came to be our Saviour and in that meant either to make us happy or to keep us from being miserable there was an absolute necessity that his first and principal Design must be to root out of our Nature all Sin and Wickedness and to restore the Image of God in our Minds which consists in unchangeable Purity and Holiness and Goodness Away therefore with all those Hypotheses that give such an account of Christ's coming into the World as to make the ultimate End of it to be the freeing us from Hell and Damnation and purchasing Heaven and Eternal Life for us but without any respect had to the renewing our Natures or the making us sincerely Holy and Virtuous All such accounts of Christ's Undertaking are monstrously unreasonable and absurd For not to insist upon the manifest Affront they put upon God's Justice and Holiness in making Him the great Patron of Sin whilst they assert Him to be the Justifier of wicked Men even whilst they continue wicked