invade and use a force upon themselves and vanquish their own natures And sure we that are Christians and are so no farther than as we have this Faith here in the Text we must not count it hard we who have the Revelations and Example of the blessed Jesus all that he hath done to make it easie now saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Courage for I have overcome the World They are but broken forces we are to resist we have the Strengths of Heaven on our side and therefore sure we may adventure to encounter them and if we do begin to faint we have an Almighty Captain of Salvation and if we have but Faith to lay hold on him and be not false to our own selves but keep our hold if we be foiled Christ must be vanquish'd too and we may fear impossibilities as well When those poor Heathen march'd on naked had none of our Weapons to assault the VVorld or to defend themselves had neither Shield of Faith nor Helmet of Salvation no Sword of the Spirit the Word of God and yet master'd it in great degrees shall we that are harnessed turn our selves back in the day of Battel and confute this Scripture and make good that they do overcome the World most easily who never heard that Jesus was the Son of God 'T is not onely base for us to faint most who have most advantage but it is a contradiction for them to be overcome that have the Victory Now this is the Victory that overcometh the World even our Faith the Victory that overcomes both Worlds indeed it tramples upon this and lays hold upon that to come out-doing what S. Paul sings of it in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. xi His Heroes through Faith subdu'd earthly Kingdoms but by Faith we overthrow the Kingdom of the Prince and God of this World and the Kingdom too of the Almighty suffers violence from it and our Faith takes that by force forces even a right to it By it they stop'd the mouths of Lions in the Wilderness by it we stop that roaring Lion's mouth that compasses the Earth seeking whom he may devour by it they quench'd the violence of Fire we the Everlasting burnings by that Women received their dead raised to life again by it we shall rise to Immortality of Life and blessedness receive all that we do believe more than we can comprehend receive the end of our Faith the salvation of our Souls Which God of his Mercy state us all in for the sake of Jesus Christ the Author and the Finisher of our Faith and the Captain of our Salvation To whom with the Father c. The Ninth SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL Sixth Wednesday in LENT 1664 5. GAL. II. 20. I am Crucified with Christ. THE Ancient Observation of this Time would justifie my Choice make the Text Seasonable in the most Severe sense it can put on when in their Exomologeses they ate onely the Bread of Sorrow and tears were their Drink day and night so as that in the Agonies of their Repentance they did Crucifie without a Meraphor and mortifie the Body of Flesh as well as Sin But it seems to have happened in our Sins as in our great Diseases men are grown more skilful and have found out much more grateful ways of Cure there is no need of going through a discipline of Torments a whole course of Medicinal Cruelty but they can heal at least palliate with more ease and speed Besides that Christianity is now of a more delicate and tender make and cannot bear austerities neither come I here to call for them or to provoke their Constitutions if they have found a softer and more pleasant way to Heaven on Gods Name let them walk in it onely in our walk we are now coming within ken of the Cross of Christ and we can bear commemorations of his Passion they make the closing Ceremony of this Season which was set aside on purpose by the preparations of Humiliation to fit us for the performances and expiations of that Day by Repentance to put off our Old Man the whole Body of Sin that we may hang it on his Cross as we go by That is the onely use of this time and the onely application of that Day Which I crave leave to shew you how to make at once And without this that Ceremony howsoever solemn will be meerly Pageantry not Worship the observation but dramatick and we shall have no part in the Atonement onely in the Scene of that days Tragedy rather than Sacrifice He onely Celebrates that Passion onely he partakes that Offering who can say with S. Paul I am Crucified with Christ. In which words we shall first endeavour to discover what this Person is Secondly What the Nature is of that Condition and estate which S. Paul does affirm here of that Person and that First In it self Crucified I am Crucified Secondly In its adjunct with Christ Which because it cannot signifie conjunction in time he is not now upon the Cross that I might say now I am Crucified with him nor when He was was I that I might say then I am Crucified with Christ but we shall find it hath other importances First it implies a likeness to Christ's Passion I am Crucified as he was so it means through the whole Rom. vi and the being crucified with Christ is what S. Paul elsewhere expresses by the being made conformable to his death Secondly It imports more even Communication and partaking with him in his Passion being planted together in the likeness of his death Rom. vi 5. and I am Crucified with Christ does mean I have a fellowship of his Sufferings as he words it Phil. iii. 10. Thirdly It means also a conjunction of causal Relation that there is a Vertue and Efficacy in the Cross of Christ to work the Sinner into Crucifying of his sin so the particle must needs import Ephes. ii 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath set us together with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Where we are neither in conformity nor fellowship but onely in our head and in our cause so I am Crucified with Christ does mean his Passion hath an influence to Crucifie and cause in me the death of Sin Of these in order and First what this Person is I say not who we know it was S. Paul but what and the reason of the Enquiry is because we find indeed elsewhere crucifying the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts required and we are also bid to mortifie our members that are on the Earth such as Fornication and Vncleanness Covetousness and the like But these are not I how am I mortified in these Is it because it may be they are grown so dear to me that I am Crucified in their destruction and long practice and acquaintance hath riveted them into my very heart Now the Wen we know though an excrescent tumour but an accessory bag of noxious humours yet if it lay
came along to them by the way of oral practical Tradition If it did 't is not a sure infallible Rule of conveying Faith if it did not then that Church did not still receive their Faith upon that Rule and Principle or by that method tho that they did so is their first great Principle and the great Master of that Scheme assur'd his Holiness it was not possible to maintain their doctrine otherwise against the subtlety of the English Hereticks And truly they that make the greatest noise amongst us now are fled to the last hold of it but that indeed it does alone protest Infallibility whether of the Church or the Succession of their doctrine by that way of practical Tradition and that is the infallible most necessary certainty of Faith But I shall say no more to this than what the grand Abettor of the Principle hath said in answer to himself objecting what was to be said to them that could not penetrate into his demonstrations see the force and evidence of that Rule and Principle and yet have that Faith that 's necessary to Salvation I shall give it you in his own words as near as I can put them into English He says there is a certainty deriv'd into the understanding of these men out of their will for since they think themselves assur'd these truths were brought down by the Church from Christ to them stand convinc't of that act this is sufficient to cause their wills firmly to adhere to them and by that adherence to repell all difficulties and objections to which curious wits are subjects And whether the man see that the Autority of the Church which he follows is of more force at least to him than particular objections in those truths or whether he thinks nothing at all of it but rests stedfast in that assent which his very ignorance caus'd 't is plain he hath a certainty of will which in its way extends it self to the Government of his whole life answerably to that his perswasion and by consequence he hath a certainty exclusive of all doubt and such as moves him to direct his actions all to God that is there is in him that Faith which worketh by love So he Now hence 't is evident by his Concessions first that there may be a saving Faith which hath not that infallible certainty arising from the motives Guide or Principle or way of Resolution And that secondly a Certainty deriv'd into the Understanding from a Will that is piously dispos'd sufficeth Thirdly that there is this certainty where the Will firmly cleaves and adheres to God relying on him with a vigorous hope and trust directing all the actions up to God and to his service and persevering in it to the life's end Now this is all that I am all this while contending for It is not by self-evident or demonstrative methods or by an infallible Guide that he provides against mens unbelief but when with preparation like our man here in the Text in weeping earnestly we betake our selves to him crying out for help and direction and applying our understanding meekly to attend his methods he disposes piously the Will to entertain the gracious blessed Proposals of the Gospel with complacency and heartiness and from conversing with the experience of them to prefer them before all worldly carnal things that used to bait our lusts ravish our hearts and carry us away from God and from our duty and it is against this unbelief in thus departing from the living God that his assistances are mainly level'd and our Praiers chiefly are to be directed For 't is most infinite madness to perswade and satisfy our selves we are of the true Church have the onely true certain Faith if yet our practices be such as set us at as great a distance from Almighty God as Hell is from Heaven and while we do commit such things 't is as impossible we can adhere to God as 't is impossible for Christ to have communion with Belial It is a Contradiction by ungodly actions to defy God and turn our backs upon and depart from him yet to cling and adhere to him 't is as I say a Contradiction to believe that we have Faith while we do not cling to and adhere but depart from him Lord help thou this our unbelief And if his grace but once dispose us to prefer the blessed expectations of a Christian he does easily prevail with us to cling to them with such certain assurances as will carry us thro all the stages of our life and duty with all chearfulness and constancy This is that certainty of Faith by which the Martyrs cleav'd to and embrac'd at once the Cross and their Religion firm in dying as believing and when with arts of torment they broke all their joynts and their limbs piece-meal scatter'd all their parts asunder tore their souls out of their bodies still they kept their Faith whole and their Tormentors could not tear one Article of their belief or Christian practice from them and when their Wills were once inflam'd with the desires and expectations of God's preparations then no other martyring flames could make them shrink Those seem'd to them but brighter Emblems of and speedier Conveyances to that Eternal Light and Glory which their Faith had given them the evidence and the first vision of they knew by them they onely did expire into Everlasting Life and Glory SERMON XIV THE CHRISTIANS LIGHT is to shine before men Matt. 5. 16. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven THE words have two parts a command and a reason of it the command Let your light shine before men the reason That they may see your good works c. The command affords to us this instruction the life of a Christian is to be fruitful and exemplary Both these are commanded not onely in the command it self but proved in the reason That they may see your good works there must therefore be works which are the fruits of virtue Yea and fruitfulness is every where requir'd by Christ and if we look upon the current of Scripture and our duty we shall find that it will not serve a Christian's turn not to bring forth ill fruit to be onely barren ground not to have vices bud and sprout within us and grow with an increase of sin but we must do good In the Parable of the Sower Matt. 13. 23. But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word and understandeth it which also beareth fruit and bringeth forth some an hundred fold We are gods Husbandry 1 Cor. 3. 9. Now is any of you satisfied with his field because it plows well and receives the seed most kindly if it bring you no increase or crop yield you no harvest No saith the Author to the Hebrews c. 6. 8. such ground is nigh to cursing Why your works they are your
curiosity or emulation or sin does long for they will prostitute before me But what are all those satisfactions in comparison with the joys of God Is there delight in the full affluence of those enjoyments Hath God indulg'd pleasure to those things which he hath allow'd to wicked Egypt and shall I think he hath not provided greater pleasures for his own self and for those he intends to make happy with him Now let me have Gods delights Heaven I do assure my self hath the more advantages and therefore there I chuse And so he chose rather the afflictions of this world for he had an eye to the recompence of the reward and by this we are sure if we had hopes we should make other choices than we do If a sin come to temt me drest with all its pleasures and cloath'd with all the bewitching arts it can put on or fancy paint it out with if at the same time I can but look up to my Hopes bethink my self of the rewards of Religion and recollect that there are no such pleasures in the sin as there are prepar'd for me if I abstain from it shall I not then reject and scorn the temtation think it impertinent and foolish and wonder it should be so unreasonable to desire or think me so vain as to grant upon score of pleasure in the commission when I am sure of greater if I do not commit it Shall I not have reason to believe the sin very unkind to me when it allures me with some little delight and I must part with all blessedness for it No surely nothing can withdraw him whom a Christians Hopes do entertain But because temtations are apt to prevail where there is no appearance of danger to come a little nearer to you that you may with terror see that none can have this Hope but they that purify which was the last thing I shall onely ask thee whosoever thou art that hopest to have thy sins forgiven thee and to have Eternal Life upon what grounds thou hopest it We have no reason to hope for any thing but what God hath promis'd Now hath God any where promis'd that thou particularly â—â—alt be sav'd Certainly no. What then why dost thou hope if thou canst answer me Because he hath promis'd to the Pure in heart that they shall see God he hath given assurance to them that repent that they shall be forgiven and I how sinful soever I have bin yet I am penitent I endeavor to purge out that old leaven to cleanse my self I am resolv'd not to allow my self any of my vicious inclinations or my customes I 'le strive against my petty sins and my soul is humbled in me and therefore have I Hope If thou canst answer thus thou hast indeed good grounds thou hast prov'd that thou maiest hope but withal thou hast prov'd also that thou dost purify and upon that score dost hope For if thou didst not repent and amend and purge thy self from thy filthy wickednesses thou must then know that the same God that seal'd all his promises with the bloud of his Son did also represent and seal these threatnings in his suffering Without holiness no man shall see God Except ye repent ye shall all perish The axe is laid to the root of the tree every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be hewn down and cast into the fire s And Be not deceiv'd neither fornicator nor adulterer nor covetous person nor rietous and the like hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ or God For without are dogs and whoremongers and murderers and idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie and They that live after the flesh shall die and Christ himself pronounc'd Go ye cursed into everlasting fire Now if thou goest on in a course of any of these sins dost any of these deeds of the Flesh I shall onely ask thee are not these threats as true and as much to be believ'd as his promises And if thou dost believe them how is it possible that thou that liv'st in any of those courses which these threats belong to canst have any hope When God hath so solemnly declar'd thou shalt have nothing but everlasting ruin how darest thou how canst thou hope for Heaven This is the same thing as to think to anchor on the billows or to lay foundations in a wave and on a storm to hope in threats at least in opposition to all Scripture and to all promise to wage war with the Gospel and resolve to have them both against and in despite of God and that certainly will very little avail thee No he that does not amend cannot hope for he that hopes must needs purify himself And now should we apply this to the careless Sinner if we consider first not onely what sad character St Paul does give of men in that condition how it is the description he gives of the Heathen and he joins it with other most comfortless expressions Eph. 2. 12. without Christ strangers from the Covenant of promise having no hope and without God in the world but also look upon the experience how to be in a lost desperate condition in relation to so eternal a consequence as the world to come imports is such a thing as none was ever able to stand under the consideration of it one hours despair sinks them for ever we could not bear the weight of it Judas did chuse all the sad issues of it hereafter rather than the passion here thought it easier to go meet Gods fury than despair of mercy and when he saw he had no hopes of pardon he ran to damnation No we are resolv'd we must hope to be sav'd 2. Consider that it is impossible for the wicked man while he continues such to hope he cannot chuse but know that the promises concern him not they are conditional they are made onely to them that repent and believe and God knows that he hath not don yet so that nothing but the threats belong to him And then how shall we reconcile these considerations if we put them both together in the Sinners mind How shall they be at peace and not tear one another and the soul It is impossible to endure not to hope and yet 't is impossible that man should hope and if this contest happen when he goes to die then his own thoughts will drag him down to the Abyss with more violence than the fiends Sure 't is a very sad consideration to think that men that know the wretchedness of being hopeless that dare not not hope will not yet industriously and piously set upon the performance of that condition on which they may hope will not purify that they may have reason to expect the promises And it is more sad to see that men who never purge themselves from filthiness of Flesh or Spirit but go on in their sinful courses and consequently know that while they are such they
Shall that miscarry that is a part of thy custody and care a part of thy possession and inheritance for all this is implied in that challenge my God For they whose God he is they are his People that is the correlation Now that means a special People Deut. 7. 6. a peculiar People 1 Pet. 2. 9. a peculiar Treasure Exod. 19. 5. his People of inheritance Deut. 4. 20. his Jewels Mal. 3. 17. the Jewels of his Crown Zach. 9. 16. If I am his I am so under all these precious notions and then how dear how valuable am I to my God who make up his inheritance who do enrich his treasury who give a lustre to his Diadem of glory and am a Jewel in his Crown How secure may I be For will God wretchlesly lose his inheritance or will he not take care of his especial things or will he throw away his treasure or will he throw his own Crown to the ground so to dash off the Jewels of it That place of Malachy expresses the different condition of those that are God's People from the others that have no relation to him in respect of God's carings and protection Mal. 3. 14 15 16 17 18. Ye have said it is in vain to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of Hosts And now we call the proud happy yea they that work wickedness are set up yea they that temt God are even delivered Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard it and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name And they shall be mine saith the Lord of Hosts in that day when I make up my jewels and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not In times of undisturbed abundance and of full prosperity when the God of this World is good to them that serve him when the Lord lets men alone and the ungodly thrive then indeed his protections are not much regarded but wickedness and wealth do seem the strong securities But when God sends his indignation abroad and when his judgments sweep away those confidences then this will be a comfortable consideration Come what will come I have one that will care for me one that hath writ me in his note book his book of remembrance to put him in mind that he is to provide for me and when the most florishing ungodly man shall be stript of all his hopes and trusts so that there remains no least relief from them nor can he look for any from the Lord he is not of his People then have I one that will make me up amongst his Jewels have the same care of me as of his precious and peculiar treasures I have a right and title to his protections to provide for and to take care of me it is his office he undertook it in his Covenant and not to do it were to break his compact which he hath bound himself to with an oath For I am his therefore I can with confidence go to him I am thine save me Therefore the words afford me greater grounds of confidence when they give me autority to challenge him and tell him Thou art mine my God All the securities that his preserving mercies signify all the watches of his providence all the blessings that fulfil his Attributes as goodness they are all mine for he is mine Can I fear the malice of Adversaries shall I doubt the fury of that spoiler that even robs necessity will rob me even to a perfect desolation Ah my poor soul Nunquid sibi Christianum I am sure it cannot take all from me it must void Heaven before it can disfurnish me of all it must commit a rape upon my Jesus for while they leave him I have my God Can I want any thing for this life or the life to come if there be a supply in Christ I may be sure to have it if his Divinity can effect it I need not want for I have right to him he is my God What one thought can afflict or trouble me long unless it be such an one for which there is no help for in God If such a one indeed do seize me there is danger but till that happen why art thou so troubled O my soul why art thou so disquieted within me O put thy trust in God in Christ for he is my God Can I desire indeed when I have him Sure I am strangely greedy if the Almighty be not enough for me more unsatisfied than Hell if Christ that is God cannot suffice me if I am not content when he is my God O my soul Christ never failed to pay his debts he is a happy Creditor to whom he owes especially where he owes that debt and where he owes himself Now if thou be a faithful and Religious Soul he is thy debt as due to thee as thy own portion Thou art my portion O Lord saith David thou hast as great a right to him as thy inheritance Thou art the lot of my inheritance saith he again as St Thomas here He is my God But never hath a faithful Soul more right to lay this claim than at the Sacrament to both the claims that I have treated of 1. To be his Treasure his peculiar Treasure for the Church tells us If with a penitent and true heart we receive that holy Sacrament then we spiritually eat the flesh of Christ and drink his bloud then we dwell in him and Christ in us we be one with Christ and Christ with us an Union which fulfils what Christ hath praied for John 17. 21 23. I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one with us Here 's Unions and interests enough and all cemented and assured by the worthy receiving of this Sacrament I am certainly his if I be made one with him and dearer than his Jewels and more peculiar to him than his Treasure for I am him himself And the same thing will prove that he is mine for certainly if I have a title to him ascertain'd if I be made one with him I may well call that mine to which I am united So when he dwells and is in me then I may say He is my Christ my God And then he that there faithfully performs worship and service to him and so does take him for his God then if his God be his inheritance there he does make his entry if his God be his portion there he receives his portion The Priest there gave thee if thou wast a good Communicant the Body and Bloud of Christ and
motives to believe them and the faith of them do's come to lose all vigor not to be recover'd if there be not some assistance to the will that may be able to take off that ravenous inclination which it hath to present satisfactions and that gross torpid stupidity it labors under towards future things and withal excite and inflame it with desires after that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory and besides remove all those other impediments of our belief which I have mention'd Which assistance from what hand it is to be expected and how it effects all that I must declare in the third place from those words Lord help thou my unbelief Now that the birth and growth and strength of Faith that Faith I say that is effectual to salvation is all from God from the preventing and assisting graces of his Spirit is a Doctrine which the Scripture is abundant in It is the gift of God St Paul saith Eph. 2. 8. and Christ says No man can come to me that is believe in me except the Father which has sent me draw him John 6. 44. i. e. those preparations of the heart by which men are dispos'd to come at God's call and receive his Gospel when as others whom 't is equally propos'd to and who alike understand it will not come are the effects of his good grace and in that respect such are said to be drawn by the Father and to be taught of God verse 45. and v. 64. speaking to his Followers and telling them that there are some of you that believe not tho they had all the methods of conviction having heard his preaching seen his miracles as well as others yet some of them notwithstanding not believing he adds v. 65. therefore I said unto you that no man can come unto me except it be given him of my Father All the other means and motives if alone prevail not I have planted Apollos watered but 't is God that giveth the increase 1 Cor. 3. 6. I need not say this is the Doctrine of the Church of England 't is so of the Latin and the Greek Church and on this account of the necessity of Grace and the assistance of God's Spirit in believing the whole Church of Christ hath universally maintain'd a war against Pelagius and his Followers 'T is more expedient to shew what he doth and how he does proceed in doing it how he removes those hindrances of Faith I mention'd in each faculty both of the will and understanding First as to the understanding that he doth enlighten and clear it into the discerning of those Heavenly truths appears since David therefore prays Open thou mine eyes that I may behold the wondrous things of thy Law Psalm 119. 18. and the like v. 27. Make me to understand the way of thy precepts It should seem he apprehended wonderful miraculous dispensations in God's discoveries of himself and of his will to man besides those of his nature his transcendent goodness also in the pardoning our sins in giving us such excellent Precepts in assisting us to the performance in accepting our imperfect Obedience and in preparing everlasting blessed Glory to reward and crown it Now that he might discern all these so sensibly as to be ravish'd and transported with them so as that he might be wrought on to adore the blessed Donor of all these and cling to him and them with the close and inseparable unions of Faith and love he therefore prays that God would open his eyes enlighten and remove all those degrees of darkness that remain'd within him quicken and enliven all his faculties give him a vital sense and relish of all those things make him understand them that believing them he might adhere to them And since the Scripture says I told you that with the heart man believeth unto righteousness so it also therefore says that God does give an heart to understand Deut. 29. 4. and the Lord opened Lydia's heart that she attended to the things that were spoken Acts 16. 14. thus preventing unbelief which comes for want of such advertency as I shew'd you And as to the Will which hath its influence I prov'd to you that God works in us to will is express Scripture Phil. 2. 13. And if we should but onely put the understanding in that case wherein as we before demonstrated 't is needful that the Will engage it to make applications to these Spiritual objects when the man is not as yet byassed or corrupted but is onely languid and indifferent and unconcern'd yet then there is an absolute necessity the Spirit cause it for if the Will be it self a faculty indifferent and free there must be some prevenient proposal thought or motion that may determin or fix it and to will what it ought it therefore must have some good motion or proposal such as will prevail with it Now such proposals and motions come not from it self the Will does not propose to it self it cannot think or make the motion and the Understanding which as the case is put does need a resolution of the will thus to engage it is not therefore qualified to make the motion sufficient and of force for then it could and would apply it self without the Will 's engaging of it much less is it qualified when the Will drawn in by the affections of the lower Appetite hath applied the Understanding as I shew'd you to converse with sensual objects and by doing so 't is altogether stein'd with their impressions and images and hath few others to excite or entertain it self withal In neither case since neither Understanding nor the Will is able there is nothing therefore but God's grace that do's it by presenting objects and occasions and disposing circumstances so in soft and congruous seasons as with the assistance of his overshadowing and incubating on them may be sure to hatch some inclinations and desires that way in the Understanding and Will both He does all by these means upon all occasions of Divine truth heard or read or meditated on by his applying intimately to the mind the motives of believing and to help the evidence by breaking in upon it with his own illuminations which discover to the Soul the beauty of God's promises make it see how infinitely advantageous they are to it Thus he fills it with those beauteous images then backs the thoughts with their allurements so as that they love to hover and to dwell upon them this animates them into chearful practice of all performances that tend to them then he scatters as it were some gleams of future glory shedding flashes of it in the joys of Conscience arising from the sense both of God's encouragements and assistances to duty and of the delights resulting from the faithful sincere practice of it and by this joy quieting the Conscience if it either raise fears from the apprehension of God's dealings in these outward things or else if it be scrupulous in little things to
blasphemy and persecution tho 't was conscience guilts these of a bloudy and deep scarlet and this very conscientious man found cause to call himself the chief of Sinners v. 15. Howbeit secondly he tells us v. 16. for this cause I obtained mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them that should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting that in me the worst of men might have example and encouragement to depend upon him for eternal mercies if they will but come in to him he was pleas'd to shew me mercy call me in the very flagrancy and execution of my crimes Whereupon as he says thirdly he not onely was not disobedient to the Heavenly Calling but as if by owning himself chief of Sinners he had set himself a standard for his service put upon himself an obligation to be chief of all Christ's Votaries he became more laborious in his duty than all others and particularly so sincere faithful resolute and constant as nothing could remove him neither opposition stop him nor temtation divert him Now it is this faithfulness this being honest-hearted to Almighty God 't is the firmness of this purpose to go thro with duty in a constant tenor of obedience in whatever circumstance we are plac'd whatever happens not to be allur'd nor frighted neither biass'd nor forc'd out of it with the consciencious pursuance of this resolution that particularly qualifies for this secure dependance upon God for success it does dispose a man for perfect resignation of himself and full assurance It was St Pauls case here for this I suffer saith he and indeed he liv'd almost in constant martyrdom yet all this does not in the least discourage me but by God's gracious assistance I will do my duty come what can come Now discerning himself thus resolv'd and thus assisted he concludes that he hath ground enough for trust for he that is thus faithful to him may trust on him then he says I know whom I have believed And that we may not think this is an instance solitary in the third of Daniel when Nebuchadnezzar told the three Children If ye worship not the Image I have set up ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands Shadrach Meshach and Abednego answered and said to the King O Nebuchadnezzar we are not careful to answer thee in this matter if it be so our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us out of thine hand O King but if not i. e. but if he would not be it known unto thee O King that we will not serve thy Gods nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up The being conscious to themselves that they were thus resolv'd in earnest not to offend against the Lord but to obey how dear soever their obedience cost them and so casting themselves on him to do what he would with them gave them confidence made them know and say he would deliver them and so he did It is according to the measures of discerning the integrity and faithfulness of our own hearts that we assure our hearts before him as St John expresseth 1 Epist. 3. 19. and then tells us if our heart condemn us God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things v. 20. If we find not that sincerity within if any thing be false there if our conscience accuse us our own hearts condemn us 't is most certain God will do so too because he knows all those things of us that we can know of our selves But if we truly cannot charge that insincerity upon our selves we need not fear that God will charge us with the things we are not guilty of No surely as he there goes on Beloved if our heart condemn us not then have we confidence towards God v. 21. And this is the confidence that we have towards him that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us and if we know that he hears us whatever we ask we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him c. 5. 14 15. And whatsoever we ask we receive of him c. 3. 22. Thus by assuring their own hearts to God they know this have this confidence towards him i. e. have the trust and the dependance in the Text which in what cases it admits this strong assurance that is here exprest by the word know is my next inquiry I know Now by the last words it should seem as if in every case in every thing that he can want or does desire the person that is qualified so had a ground to trust with full assurance We know saith St John that whatsoever we ask we receive of him and accordingly in all the Spiritual needs of the Thessalonians both in particular and as the Church St Paul when he had blest them and praied for them thus The very God of peace sanctify you wholly and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Thess. 5. 23. adds in the 24thâ—erse Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it And here in this Epistle of himself he says The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me unto his Heavenly Kingdom 2 Tim. 4. 18. Nor did good men want this confidence as to the things of this life for in times of publick consternation in the want of all things Habbakuk does thus assure himself c. 3. 16 17 18. When I heard my belly trembled my lips quiver'd at the voice rottenness entred into my bones when he cometh up unto the people he will invade them with his troops but in that state he adds Altho the Fig-tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the Vines the labor of the Olive shall fail and the fields shall yield no meat the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls yet I will rejoice in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation The exstasy of trust the rapture is too elegant and gay too high and full of transport to admit of any descant Holy Job went yet a little farther Tho he slay me yet will I trust in him c. 13. 15. In a word at once in whatsoever God hath promis'd there the Faithful Christian hath a right to trust I will not be so rude as to suppose my Auditors so unacquainted with the rich and precious Promises those Christian Treasures which God's Book is the Repository of that I should need to mind them of them and indeed to do it were to read a very great part of that Book 'T is sure in every case of every whether publick or particular real just concern whether in temporal spiritual or eternal things in some indeed
St Paul to such a one was that Saint crucified for thee that he should be more concerned for and more sensible of thy condition and that thou shouldest have a greater confidence of his good will than of his that did and suffer'd all that for thee that he might be merciful and faithful toucht with thy necessities that I mention not the rest of those qualifications that do make one fit to be relied upon 'T is to be fear'd such persons do not know well whom they have believ'd But I pass them There are that trust their being here to Policy and Prudence to their own contrivances that is trust to themselves and give credit onely to what interest or their ambition suggests and accordingly design ends and devise means weave plots spread their nets abroad with cords and lay snares and do all this with that confidence of success as if they did believe they were fulfilling Prophecies and mov'd by the directions of Heaven for many times they seem to do this in the fear of God and in subserviency to Religion but whatever fair pretences some of them may have to wash or color their intentions God you may be sure hath no hand there in those designs where his Commandments are broken Where you discern either as to particulars treachery or fraud or falseness undermining and supplanting to serve interests or pride or malice or revenge or as to publick interverting justice and the due course of Laws or mutiny sedition raising discontents and making breaches 't is not he on whom they have believ'd And did they but consider what they see perpetually how false interests are and how unstable high place how this tumbles men down headlong those change daily and altho men thrive so that they wash their steps with butter they are only so much more in slippery places where God also leaves them somtimes overturns them suddenly Or did they consider who the great Patrons of interest and ambition are Mammon the fomenter and encourager of almost all the mischiefs upon Earth and Lucifer that was discontent in Heaven had ambition to be greater there too mutinied and stirred sedition up against God and got by it to be chief of Devils onely Prince of Hell Did these designers but reflect on these things they would know then whom they have believ'd a deceitful world a false glistering light that mocks them and a treacherous malicious Devil that hath bin a Liar and a Murderer from the beginning I might ask the sensual person whether he that hearkens to the cravings of the one or other of his inclinations and is so perswaded overcome by their insinuations that whenever any of his appetites is high he thinks there is no joy that is like the satisfaction of that appetite and is mad till he have it yet hath found himself betraied fool'd cheated every time he serv'd it but still courts and embraces the false treacherous mischief and will not be disenchanted whether he considers whom he hath believ'd whether he knows that he lets his horse ride him and is guided animated by and believes the beast Once more whether he knows whom he hath believ'd that ownes being an Infidel any one of those that with great seeming gravity or wit and railery declares dissatisfaction at the proof of those things which the world for many hundred years continued so convinc'd of that they chose to die rather than say that they did not believe them when as for them good Souls they think they can believe nothing but upon demonstration yet if a man consider but the men themselves the method and the means of their conviction into that their unbelief he would find that themselves are always vicious and that they examin little but converse much and keep company with them that in the heat and confidence of drink and vice swear 't is impossible those things can be and rally them that give heed to or profess them and then themselves give easy credit to this and their own inclinations that would have them all impossible for it is their concern they are eternally unhappy if they be not so that we know whom they have believ'd their debaucht company and their evil inclinations and these stupid Infidels are the most credulous we see on the least grounds of any in the world It is not my emploiment at this time to make comparison betwixt the one and others grounds the several motives of belief and infidelity 't is plain Christ Judg'd the arguments and grounds of faith were so sufficient that he positively gives his charge thus Go and preach the Gospel to the whole world he that believeth is sav'd and he that believeth not is damn'd And if his threats are as inviolable as his promises 't will be but ill knowing him whom we would not believe the conviction will be very fatal when their unbelief will become vision And this gives me yet occasion to ask what temtation Sinners can have not to believe to be willing to come in to Christ and be sav'd They cannot chuse but see all others whom they have believ'd betraied them and will fail them all their satisfactions must go out their expectations die and perish and why will ye not take up here then why will ye die for ever Is your case think you desperate and have you gon too far to be receiv'd if you should turn Why our Saint here the person of the Text declares he was the chief of Sinners that obtain'd mercy for encouragement to all that would believe and turn and if you did but know whom he believ'd you must know one that went to meet the Prodigal in his return when he was yet far off that sought the lost sheep while he straied and ran away still till he found him and when he was gon so far that he could not return he carried him And will you neither be invited into life nor carried into it Why will ye die Can ye not help it Have your inclinations and customs think you so prevail'd upon you that to leave them looks impossible Then 't is plain you know not whom you have believ'd Is any thing impossible for him that is Almighty whose grace is sufficient Or can he command too hard things who enables to perform what he commands who as St Paul saith worketh in us both to will and to do if we will suffer him He never praied and tried in earnest watched endeavor'd and comported with God's workings that complains thus You cannot but believe indeed they are too hard while you hearken to the cravings of your lusts your customs and your inclinations but why will you believe them still Why will you die Is it not in fine worth while to strive against it but e'en go on with the stream abandon all consideration of concern for that life Indeed if that which God thought worth the concern of all his Attributes the contrivance of his Wisdom the assistances of his Almightiness the
things that go by in a Whirl-wind come in storm and so they pass away refuse inmortal Hallelujahs for a Song cast away solid Joys and an Eternal weight of Blessedness for froth for the shadow of smoak Perchance this may be said for them the nearness of the object does impose upon them they choose something in present rather than dry future hopes But then when that advantage to lies on the other side their Choice hath no Temptation when the Pious mans possessions are in hand the others onely in desire in view indeed they may be he does catch at and pursue them still But the hinder Wheel of the Chariot that presses and with larger turns and rowlings hastens after may as soon hope to undertake the first as that man reach a satisfaction still it removes and he does onely heat his appetite in posting after it onely get more desire Now 't is prodigious that these great Men of Sense should be men of such Faith and Expectation as to trust and hope in things that have so constantly so daily mock'd their confidences and desires yet be not onely Infidels to all Gods blessed preparations which they have nor reason nor Experience against but also have no sense nor relish of himself in present Not taste nor see how gracious the Lord is 'T is said that the desires of Earthly sensual things do make the greatest part of the Torments of Hell Now though this Doctrine be false and pernicious yet 't is plain that Torment must attend strong passions and most infinite desires which are radicated in the Sinner's heart and which he carries hence and cannot there deposite and to which yet satisfactions are impossible against his knowledg to be mad to have what he knows all the World cannot make it possible for him to have this tears his Soul Affections these that may be said in some sense to fulfil some of the expressions of the Torments of that place their Envy makes the gnashing of their Teeth and their Desires are their Vultures Thus Tantalâ—s's riotous hunger that does gnaw his bowels is his Worm that never dies and his intemperate thirst his everlasting burnings and his Water that he cannot reach or taste of is his Lake of fire without Metaphor So that desire alone without its satisfaction is so much of Hell and yet this is the worldly sensual mans estate exactly here on Earth for he hath nothing but desires and lusts and his condition is not easier at all for how is Tantalus more wretched than a Midas or than any covetous wretch who in the midst of affluence and heaps hungers as much as Midas did for meat and for Gold too and an touch neither for his uses so that the Worlds delights are very like the miseries of Hell and men with so much eager and impatient pursuit do but anticipate their torments and invade Damnation here And if the case be so sure there is no great self-denial in our Psalmist here when he resolves to desire nothing upon Earth in comparison of his God 'T is no such glorious conquest of my Appetite to make it not pursue a present Hell and an eternal one annex'd to it before a Saviour Yet the World does so Some there are that desire Money rather and although when Judas did so this desire could not bear it self but cast all back again and though it did disgorge it burst him too the Sin it self supply'd the Law and his guilt was his Execution Yet this will not terrifie men will do the like betray a Master a Saviour and a God onely not for so little money peradventure Others when the Lord paid his own Blood for their Redemption yet if their wrath thirsts for his Blood that does offend them their revenge makes their Enemies the sweeter blood though their own Soul bleed to death in his stream To others the deservings of the Partner of an unclean moment are much greater than all that the Lord Jesus knew to merit at their hands or purchase for them And it is no wonder they are so ungrateful to their Saviour when they are so barbarous to themselves as to choose not to have present Divine Possessions rather than not suffer the vengeance of their own Appetites choose meerly to desire here though that be to do what they do in Hell rather than have in Heaven O thou my Soul if thou wilt needs desire propose at least some satisfaction to thy Appetite do not covet onely needs thirst for a feaver and desire meerly to inflame desire and Torments But seek there where all thy wants will find an infinite happy supply even in thy Saviour covet the riches of his Grace and Goodness thirst for the fountain opened for transgression for the waters of the well of Life desire him that is the desire of all Nations yet why should we desire even him when we have him in Heaven and we have nothing upon Earth left to desire but that God who hath exalted him unto his Kingdom in Heaven would in his due time exalt us also to the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before To whom c. The Seventh SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL Third Wednesday in LENT 1663 4. MARK I. 3. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. I Shall not break this single short Command asunder into Parts but shall instead of doing that observe three Advents of our Saviour in this Life before that last to Judgment For each of which as it must concern us there must be preparation made by us In pressing which I do not mean to urge you to do that which none but God can do It is not in man to direct his own ways much less the Lords The very preparations of the Heart are from him Therefore supposing the preventings of his Graces I shall subjoyn that the Comporting with those graces the using of his strengths to the rooting out of our selves all aversation to Virtue and all love of Vice and planting other inclinations even Resolutions of good life is the onely thing that can make way for Christ and for his benefits Now of those Advents the First was when he came Commission'd by God to reveal his Will to propose the Gospel to our belief the coming of Christ as a Prophet which particularly is intended in the Text. The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it is written prepare ye the way of the Lord. The Second was that coming which the Prophet Isay did foresee and in the astonishment of Vision ask'd Who is this that comes from Edom with dy'd garments from Bozrah travelling in the greatness of his Strength Why is he red in his Apparel and his garments like him that treadeth in the Wine-fat And it was the Prospect of him when he came to tread the Wine-press of the Wrath of God to Sacrifice himself for us upon the Cross his coming as a Priest The Third is when he comes to visit for Iniquity coming
Mankind it broke through all the oppositions of corrupted Nature and deprav'd Habits nor could all the Devils arts who then govern'd the World stifle or quench the Light of Reason which through all that darkness did discover such deformity in Vice such strict agreement betwixt that which we call Virtue and a rational Creature that they accounted it and truly the essential duty of his nature he that was wicked was reputed false to his own being as great an aberration from and contradiction to Nature as an Animal that were insensible or as cold fire In this all the most distant Factions conspir'd in despite of Principles The Stoick who by fettering all Events all Consultations and Designs in the lines of inexorable Destiny does seem to make all Virtue worthless all endeavours towards it useless yet requires it with as strict necessity as his Fate prescribes with his reasons are as ineluctable as her Laws Nay he does seem to break his Adamantine Chain to make way for this Chain of Virtues though his Jupiter were bound by that yet for the sake of these he leaves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our appetites and actions in our power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that so there may be place for doing well while it is in our choice and we are free to do it And on the other side the greatest enemies to their necessity and to choice too the Sect that made all actions and things in the whole World to be not effects of any Agent that intended them but meerly sports of Chance and matter who taught that their own souls were but the concretion of some Atoms casually met together without any direction and to no end yet the great Master of it in his Ethicks would not suffer any of this blind Contingency to have to do in Humane actions regulating them by strictest Rules and Laws and in plain contradiction to his Tenents from which our Age derives the most of their impiety although he held there was no God look'd on nor after-life attended none that did see or would reward or punish any of his actions yet requires highest Virtue yea and liv'd such too they say In a word many of them rais'd Morality to such a pitch as if it had arriv'd at the same heights from whence our Christian Revelation did pretend to come And there is nothing so peculiar to Christs Doctrine in the points of Morality but you may find it recommended by the Heathen as a thing which no external obligation did impose but the Law of their making did prescribe which they read in themselves and Christian Morality is but a fairer and more perfect Copy of the impressions of Reason on our Soul clear'd from the blurs and defects which they had been tainted with but Naturales Tabulae Natures Decalogue wrote by the Finger of the Lord So that to quarrel with Christ for requiring it is the same thing as to be angry with our Saviour because the nature of the Fire is such as does require that it should burn Nay many of them were so sensible of the unhappy state of their Corruption found so great pressures in themselves from the weights of their vicious inclinations discerned so perfect an antipathy betwixt their being and their actions that when with all the arts of Reason and the practice of their Philosophy they could not ease themselves they went to Sorcery and Magick for a Cure receiv'd Catharticks and a discipline of purity from Hell the Region of uncleanness the Devil making them believe he would assist in casting out himself Such were the stress the restlesness the groans the cry of Nature to be rid of its impurity These poor Souls were mistaken in their Method but if the Devil by those worships of his which they were us'd to had not stop'd the avenues sure one would judg they had prepar'd the way for Christianity there being no obstuction to it nothing that can hinder its acceptance but the low esteem and aversation of Virtue For if men believe the Moral truths they have no reason in the world to doubt the Supernatural these being intended for the most part as encouragements to those other as God's last attempts to kindle in us love of Virtue by such strong incentives that that wherein Philosophy was ignorant and the Law weak as having neither Promises nor Terrors equal to the force of our Corruptions that the Gospel might effect as having both to the utmost possibility of Divine Contrivance Now this requires us to believe those Supernaturals mostly for this reason by believing them to make us perform what it enjoyns And it is apparent that because men would not do this therefore they will not believe those Shew me but any one that is sincere and strict in Christian duties that does doubt the Principles if there be such an one be cannot doubt them long not onely for Christ's Promise sake If any man will do my Will he shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God he will soon know that Doctrine is from God that does prescribe such Godlike lives nor onely for the Churches judgment which did make Synesius a Christian Bishop before he did believe the Resurrection upon that confidence they had of him by reason of his Piety But in reason why should he that does embrace the Piety disbelieve that which was propos'd to his belief only to urge him to embrace only to crown that Piety Indeed he that accounts his Vices but sleight tricks of wit or folly onely pleasant satisfactions to the desires of his Nature for he understands no nature but his carnal one he hath no reason to believe there was a Passion of the Son of God by making him a Sacrifice for sin so to condemn sin in the flesh is not prepar'd to think that there is an Eternal weight of Indignation due and ready for it He that hath but mean thoughts of Virtue counts it onely pedantry or as it were the Flatus of the Mind making the Soul Hypocondriack it is impossible that he should think God was Incarnated and died to teach it by his Doctrine and Example and to purchase graces to enable us to live it or that there is a Resurrection to reward it a Trinity engag'd in working out Salvation for it I must confess I would believe that men persuade themselves that the reason of their disbelief is onely this that these things are not testified sufficiently because I find the Man in Hell would have one sent to his Brethren from the Dead to testifie unto them of that place of Torments Luke xvi 28. as if those Truths did want witnessing But this is not because enough hath not been done for their conviction in the truth of Christ's Religion for there is hardly any thing besides in the whole World that men believe but they believe upon less grounds The whole World was convinc'd in such a manner as that millions chose to die rather than not confess it
own Indictment yea and his own Sentence too for our own heart condemns us saith S. John And when ever it does so Oh that we would follow it through all the gradations that brought Christ to Death and use our wickedness as he was us'd strip it from its Cloaths bare it from its fair pretexts it useth to be dress'd in Lay our anger naked from all those excuses which our provocations that either wrath or humour will be sure to think intolerable do make for it strip our Pride and Vanity from those paints and dresses which the Custom of the Age that does require and warrant strange things dawbs the sin with use our Luxuries and Intemperances so and the other greater and more thirsty dropsie that of Wealth and of unjust unworthy gains which there are richer Luxuries in too And there are none of these but have their pleas their colours which they set themselves out in to please the Appetite and to deceive the Mind all which we must strip off and then when we have laid them naked spit upon them vomit all our spleen and contumelious despite at that which hath made us so ugly in Gods sight scourge it with Austerities and buffet it as they did Christ and S. Paul did himself 1 Cor. xvi 27. And when the Body of Sin is thus tamed and weakened it will be easie then to lead it out and crucifie it A Crucifiction this that does make our Good-Friday be a day of Expiation and Atonement to us A sight which next to that of his own Son upon the Cross is the most acceptable to the Lord when he does see us execute his Enemies although they be our selves and Crucifie the dear Affections of our bosom as God did This is indeed to be conform'd unto the death of Christ. If I might have leave to go before you and to let you into the Example draw the Curtain from before the Passion I would call my Sins out drag them to behold that Prospect hale them into the Garden shew them how he was us'd there You my Extravagancies of my youth my mad follies and wild jollities come see my Saviour yonder how he swoons when guilt began to make approaches towards him and can I make my self merry with nothing else but that which made him die tickle chear and heighten my self with Agonies You my intemperate Draughts my full Bowls and the riotous Evenings I have past look yonder what a sad night do these make Christ pass look what a Cup he holds which makes him fall lower to deprecate than ever my Excesses made me lie You my lazy Luxuries Fulness of Bread and Idleness whereby I have controul'd Gods Curse and onely in the Sweat of others Faces eat my Bread and in that dew drank up the Spirits of those multitudes that toil to faintings to maintain my dissolute life see how he is forc'd to bear the whole Curse for me how the Thorns grow on his head and how he Sweats all over You my supine Devotions which do scarce afford my God a knee and less an heart not when I am deprecating an Eternity of all those Torments which kill'd Christ look yonder how he prays behold him on his Face petitioning see there how he sweats and begs You my little Malices and my vexatious Anger 's that are hot and quick as Fire it self and that do fly as high too that are up at Heaven strait for the least wrong on Earth look how he bears his how his patience seems wounded onely in a wound that fell upon his Persecutors and when one that came to apprehend him wrongfully was hurt as if the Sword of his defence had injur'd him he threatned and for ever curs'd the black deeds of that angry Weapon and made restitution of what he had not taken made his Adversary whole whom he had not hurt See how with his cruel Judges he is as a Sheep that not before his shearers onely but before his Butcher too is dumb You my Scorns and my high Stomach that will take no satisfaction but Blood and Soul for the faults of inadvertency for such as not the wrong but humour makes offences lookhow they use him they buffet and revile and spit upon him Ye my dreadful Oaths and bitter imprecations which I use to lace my speeches with or belch out against any one that does offend me in the least making the Wounds and Blood of God and other such sad words either my foolish modes of speaking or the spittings of my peevishness There you may see what 't is I play with so you may behold the Life of Christ pouring out at those Wounds which I speak so idly of and what I mingle with my sportive talk is Agony such as they that beheld afar off struck their breasts at and to see them onely was a Passion Ye my Atheisms and my Irreligion but alas you have no prospect yonder it 's but faint before you who out-do the Example whatsoever Judas and the rest did to the Man Christ Jesus you attempt on God you invade Heaven Sentence Cruicifie Divinity it self And now having shewed my Sins this Copy of themselves what they are in their own demerits when my bowels do begin to turn within me at that miserable usage which Christ underwent it will be a time to execute an act of Indignation at my self who have resetted in my bosom all these Traytors to my Saviour made those things the joy and entertainment of my life which had their hands in the Blood of my God and what a stupid sensless Soul have I that was never troubled heartily at that which did make him almost out of hope and if this be the effect of sin then it is time for me to throw it off O my Jesu sure I am I am not able to support the weight of that thou didst sink under Thou didst come to bear our sins in thy own Body on the Tree therefore in thy Body they were nailed to the Cross and then certainly I will not force and tear them thence No there I leave them and will never re-assume them more which resolution is the effect of that vertue and efficacy which is in the Cross of Christ to the crucifying of sin which is the second sense in which the Christian does profess with S. Paul I am Crucified with Christ. There are some Learned Men that when they would assign reasons sufficient to move God to lay the punishment of our iniquities upon his Son and execute that Indignation that was due to us on the most innocent most Holy Jesus give this onely that this was the highest and most signal way imaginable to discover Gods most infinite displeasure against Sin and by consequence to terrifie men from the practice of it For if any thing in Heaven or in Earth could make us fear and from henceforth commit no such evil it was surely this to see Sin sporting in the Agonies of Christ Iniquity