were made of very small things done by other persons as the cure of a blind Man by Vespasian when such multitudes of far more certain and considerable cures can hardly keep up the reputation of any thing extraordinary in him But though his kindness was great to the bodies of men where they were fit objects of pity and compassion yet it was far greater to their souls that being more agreeable to the design of his coming into the World for the other tended to raise such an esteem of him as might make him the more successful in the cure of their Souls And to shew that this was his great business wherever he comes he discourses about these things takes every opportunity that might be improved for that end refuses no company he might do good upon and converses not with them with the pride and arrogance of either the Pharisees or Philosophers but with the greatest meekness humility and patience How admirable are his more solemn discourses especially that upon the Mount and that wherein he takes leave of his Disciples How dry and insipid are the most sublime discourses of the Philosophers compared with these how clearly doth he state our Duties and what mighty encouragements does he give to practise them how forcibly does he perswade men to self-denyal and contempt of the world how excellent and holy are all his Precepts how serviceable to the best interest of men in this life and that to come how suitable and desireable to the souls of good men are the rewards he promises what exact rule of Righteousness hath he prescribed to men in doing as they would be done by with what vehemency doth he rebuke all hypocrisie and Pharisaism with what tenderness and kindness does he treat those that have any real inclinations to true goodness with what earnestness does he invite and with what love doth he embrace all repenting sinners with what care doth he instruct with what mildness doth he reprove with what patience doth he bear with his own disciples Lastly with what authority did he both speak and live such as commanded a reverence where it did not beget a love And yet after a life thus spent all the requital he met with was to be reproached despised and at last crucified O the dreadful effects of malice and hypocrisie for these were the two great enemies which he always proclaimed open war with and these at first contrived and at last effected his cruel death What baseness ingratitude cruelty injustice and what not will those two sins betray men to when they have once taken possession of the hearts of men for we can find nothing else at the bottom of all that wretched conspiracy against our Saviour but that his doctrine and design was too pure and holy for them and therefore they study to take him away who was the author of them 3. We consider in what way and manner our Saviour underwent all these sufferings and this as much as any thing is here propounded to our consideration For it is not only who or what but in what manner he endured the contradiction of sinners that we ought to consider to prevent fainting and dejection of mind So another Apostle tells us that Christ suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judged righteously He uses none of those ranting expressions which none of the patientest persons in the world were accustomed to of bidding them laugh in Phalaris his Bull and when they were racked with pains to cry out Nil agis dolor he tells them not that it is their duty to have no sense of torments and to be jocund and pleasant when their flesh is torn from them or nailed to a Cross if this be any kind of fortitude it is rather that of a Gladiator than of a wise man or a Christian. The worst of men either through a natural temper of body or having hardned themselves by custom have born the greatest torments with the least expression of grief under them And Panaetius one of the wisest of the Stoicks is so far from making insensibleness of pain the property of a wise man that he makes it not the property of a man The inferiour Creatures are call'd Brutes from their dulness and insensibleness and not meerly from want of reason any further than that one follows from the other bruta existimantur animalium quibus cor durum riget saith Pliny those animals are call'd Brutes which have the hardest hearts and the nearer any of them approach to the nature of man the more apprehensive they are of danger and the more sensible of pain thence Scaliger saith of the Elephant that it is maximabellua sed non maximè bruta though it be the greatest beast it is the least a Brute Stupidity then under sufferings can be no part of the excellency of a man which in its greatest height is in the Beings the most beneath him But when danger is understood and pain felt and Nature groans under it then with patience and submission to undergo it and to conquer all the strugglings of Nature against it that is the duty and excellency of a Christian. If to express the least sense of grief and pain be the highest excellency of suffering the Macedonian boy that suffer'd his flesh to be burnt by a Coal till it grew offensive to all about him without altering the posture of his arm lest he should disturb Alexanders sacrifice out-did the greatest Philosophers of them all Possidonius his pitiful rant over a fit of the Gout so highly commended by Pompey and Tully O pain it is to no purpose though thou beest troublesome I will never confess thou art evil falls extremely short of the resolution of the Macedonian boy or any of the Spartan Youths who would not in the midst of torments so much as confess them troublesome And what a mighty revenge was that that he would not confess it to be evil when his complaint that it was troublesome was a plain argument that he thought it so It is not then the example of Zeno or Cleanthes or the rules of Stoicism which Dionysius Heracleotes in a fit of the Stone complained of the solly of that are to be the measures of patience and courage in bearing sufferings but the example and Precepts of our Lord and Saviour who expressed a great sense of his sufferings but withal the greatest submission under them When Lipsius lay a dying and one of the by-standers knowing how conversant he had been in the Stoicks writings began to suggest some of their Precepts to him Vana sunt ista said he I find all those but vain things and beholding the Picture of our Saviour near his bed he pointed to
value upon them But Gods justice was not to be bribed his wrath against sin was not to be appeased by the greatest riches of this World nothing but the inestimable blood of Christ would be accepted for the purchase of souls and when they are so dearly bought must they be cast away upon such trifles as the riches and honours of this world are in comparison with them These are men who lose their souls upon design but there are others so prodigal of them that they can play and sport them away or lose them only because it is the custom to do so With whom all the reasons and arguments in the world cannot prevail to leave off their sins if it once be accounted a fashion to commit them Yea so dangerous things are fashionable vices that some will seem to be worse than they are although few continue long Hypocritical in that way that they might not be out of the fashion and some will be sure to follow it if not out-do it though to the eternal ruin of their souls But although all damn'd persons at the great day will be confounded and ashamed yet none will be more ridiculously miserable than such who go to Hell for fashion sake What a strange account would this be at the dreadful day of judgement for any to plead for themselves that they knew that chastity temperance sobriety and devotion were things more pleasing to God but it was grown a Mode to be vicious and they had rather be damned than be out of the fashion The most charitable opinion we can have of such persons now is that they do not think they have any souls at all for it is prodigious folly for men to believe they have souls that are immortal and yet be so regardless of them Yet these who are vicious out of complyance are not the only persons who shew so little care of their souls what shall we say to those who enjoying the good things of this life scarce ever do so much as think of another Who are very solicitous about every little mode of attire for their bodies and think no time long enough to be spent in the grand affairs of dressing and adorning their out sides but from one end of the year to the other never spend one serious thought about eternity or the future State of their souls Their utmost contrivances are how to pass away their days with the greatest ease and pleasure to themselves and never consider what will become of their souls when they come to die Alas poor immortal souls are they become the only contemptible things men have about them All care is little enough with some for the body for the pampering and indulging of that and making provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof but any cure is thought too much for the soul and no time passes so heavily away as the hours of devotion do The very shew of Religion is looked on as a burden what then do they think of the practice of it The Devil himself shews a greater esteem of the souls of men than such persons do for he hath been always very active and industrious in seeking their ruin but is ready enough to comply with all the inclinations of the body or mens designs in this world nay he makes the greatest use of these as the most powerful temptations for the ruin of their souls by all which it is evident that being our greatest enemy he aims only at the ruin of that which is of greatest value and consideration and that is the thing so much despised by wicked men viz. the soul. These do in effect tell the Devil he may spare his pains in tempting them they can do his work fast enough themselves and destroy their own souls without any help from him And if all men were so bent upon their own ruin the Devil would have so little to do that he must find out some other imployment besides that of tempting to divert himself with unless it be the greatest diversion of all to him to see men turned Devils to themselves But are the temptations of this world so infatuating that no reason or consideration can bring men to any care of or regard to their souls we have no ground to think so since there have been and I hope still are such who can despise the glittering vanities the riches and honours the pleasures and delights of this world when they stand in competition with the eternal happiness of their souls in a better world And that not out of a sullen humour or a morose temper or a discontented mind but from the most prudent weighing and ballancing the gain of this world and the loss of the soul together For what is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall he give in exchange for his soul 3. Which is the last particular to represent the folly of losing the soul though it were for the gain of the whole world Which will appear by comparing the gain and the loss with each other in these 4. things 1. The gain here proposed is at the best but possible to one but the hazard of losing the soul is certain to all And what folly is it for men to run themselves upon so great and certain danger for so uncertain gain which never any man yet attained to or are ever like to do it our Saviour knew how hard a matter it was so set any bounds to the ambitious thoughts or the covetous designs of men every step the ambitious man takes higher gives him the fairer prospect before him it raises his thoughts enlarges his desires puts new projects into his mind which like the circles of water spread still farther and farther till his honour and he be both laid in the dust together The covetous person is never satisfied with what he enjoys the more he gets still the more he hopes for and like the grave whither he is going is always devouring and always craving Yet neither of these can be thought so vain as to propose no less to themselves than the Empire or riches of the whole world But our Saviour allows them the utmost that ever can be supposed as to mens designs for this world let men be never so ambitious or covetous they could desire no more than all the world though they would have all this yet this all would never make amends for the loss of the soul. It is a thing possible that one person might by degrees bring the whole world in subjection to him but it is possible in so remote a degree that no man in his wits can be thought to design it How small a part of the inhabited world have the greatest Conquerours been able to subdue and if the Macedonian Prince was ever so vain to weep that he had no more worlds to conquer he gave others a just occasion to laugh at so
much Ignorance which made him think he had conquered this And to put a check to such a troublesome ambition of disturbing the world in others how early was he taken away in the midst of his vast thoughts and designs What a small thing would the compass of the whole earth appear to one that should behold it at the distance of the fixed stars and yet the mighty Empires which have made the greatest noise in the world have taken up but an inconsiderable part of the whole earth What are then those mean designs which men continually hazard their souls for as much as if they aimed at the whole world For we are not to imagine that only Kings and Princes are in any hazard of losing their souls for the sake of this world for it is not the greatness of mens condition but their immoderate love to the world which ruins and destroys their souls And covetousness and ambition do not always raign in Courts and Palaces they can stoop to the meanness of a Cottage and ruin the souls of such as want the things of this world as well as those that enjoy them So that no state or condition of men is exempt from the hazard of losing the soul for the love of this world although but one person can be supposed at once to have the possession of the whole world 2. The gain of this world brings but an imaginary happiness but the loss of the soul a most real misery It is easie to suppose a person to have the whole world at his command and not himself and how can that man be happy that is not at his own command The cares of Government in a small part of the earth are so great and troublesome that by the consent of mankind the managers of it are invested with more than ordinary priviledges by way of recompence for them but what are these to the solicitous thoughts the continual fears the restless imployments the uninterrupted troubles which must attend the gain of the whole world So that after all the success of such a mans designs he may be farther off from any true contentment than he was at the beginning of them And in that respect mens conditions seem to be brought to a greater equality in the world because those who enjoy the most of the world do oft-times enjoy the least of themselves which hath made some great Emperours lay down their Crowns and Scepters to enjoy themselves in the retirements of a Cloyster or a Garden All the real happiness of this world lies in a contented mind and that we plainly see doth not depend upon mens outward circumstances for some men may be much farther from it in a higher condition in this world than others are or it may be themselves have been in a far lower But if mens happiness did arise from any thing without them that must be always agreeable to their outward condition but we find great difference as to mens contentment in equal circumtances and many times much greater in a private State of life than in the most publick capacity By which it appears that what ever looks like happiness in this world depends upon a mans soul and not upon the gain of the world nay it is only from thence that ever men are able to abuse themselves with false notions and Idea's of happiness here But none of those shall go into another world with them farewel then to all imaginary happiness to the pleasures of sin and the cheats of a deceitful world then nothing but the dreadful apprehensions of its own misery shall possess that soul which shall then too late descern its folly and lament it when it is past recovery Then the torments of the mind shall never be imputed to melancholy vapours or a disordered fancy There will be no drinking away sorrows no jesting with the sting of conscience no playing with the flames of another world God will then no longer be mocked by wicked men but they shall find to their own eternal horrour and confusion that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God He neither wants power to inflict nor justice to execute nor vengeance to pursue nor wrath to punish but his power is irresistible his justice inflexible and his wrath is insupportable Consider now O foolish sinner that hast hither to been ready to cast away thy soul upon the pleasures of sin for a season what a wise exchange thou wilt make of a poor imaginary happiness for a most real and intolerable misery What will all the gain of this world signify in that State whither we are all hastening a pace What contentment will it be to thee then to think of all those bewitching vanities which have betrayed thy soul into unspeakable misery Wouldst thou be willing to be treated with all the ceremonies of State and Greatness for an hour or two if thou wert sure that immediately after thou must undergo the most exquisite tortures and be racked and tormented to death When men neglect their souls and cast them away upon the sinful pleasures and gains of this world it is but such a kind of aiery and phantastical happiness but the miseries of a lost soul are infinitely beyond the racks and torments of the body It hath sometimes happened that the horrour of despair hath seized upon mens minds for some notorious crimes in this life which hath giyen no rest either to body or mind but the violence of the inward pains have forced them to put an end to this miserable life as in the case of Iudas But if the expectation of future misery be so dreadful what must the enduring of it be Of all the ways of dying we can hardly imagine any more painful or full of honour than that of sacrificing their Children to Moloch was among the Canaanites and Children of Ammon where the Children were put into the body of a brass Image and a fire made under it which by degrees with lamentable shricks and cryings roasted them to death yet this above all others in the New Testament is chosen as the fittest representation of the miseries of another world and thence the very name of Gehenna is taken But as the joys of heaven will far surpass all the pleasure which the mind of a good man hath in this life so will the torments of Hell as much exceed the greatest miseries of this world But in the most exquisite pains of the body there is that satisfaction still left that death will at last put an end to them but that is a farther discovery of the unspeakable folly of losing the soul for the sake of this world that 3. The happiness of this world can last but for a little time but the misery of the soul will have no end Suppose a man had all the world at his command and enjoyed as much satisfaction in it as it was possible for humane
all his evil actions which is the liberty we are now speaking of as any persons assert or contend for we cannot suppose that he should have a greater experience of it than now he hath So that either it is impossible for man to know when his choice is free or if it may be known the constant experience of all evil men in the world will testifie that it is so now Is it possible for the most intemperate person to believe when the most pleasing temptations to lust or gluttony are presented to him that no consideration whatever could restrain his appetite or keep him from the satisfaction of his bruitish inclinations Will not the sudden though groundless apprehension of poyson in the Cup make the Drunkards heart to ake and hand to tremble and to let fall the supposed fatal mixture in the midst of all his jollity and excess How often have persons who have designed the greatest mischief to the lives and fortunes of others when all opportunities have fallen out beyond their expectation for accomplishing their ends through some sudden thoughts which have surprized them almost in the very act been diverted from their intended purposes Did ever any yet imagine that the charms of beauty and allurements of lust were so irresistible that if men knew before hand they should surely dye in the embraces of an adulterous bed they could not yet withstand the temptations to it If then some considerations which are quite of another nature from all the objects which are presented to him may quite hinder the force and efficacy of them upon the mind of man as we see in Iosephs resisting the importunate Caresses of his Mistress what reason can there be to imagine that man is a meer machine moved only as outward objects determine him And if the considerations of present fear and danger may divert men from the practice of evil actions shall not the far more weighty considerations of eternity have at least an equal if not a far greater power and efficacy upon mens minds to keep them from everlasting misery Is an immortal soul and the eternal happiness of it so mean a thing in our esteem and value that we will not deny our selves those sensual pleasures for the sake of that which we would renounce for some present danger Are the flames of another world such painted fires that they deserve only to be laughed at and not seriously considered by us Fond man art thou only free to ruine and destroy thy self a strange fatality indeed when nothing but what is mean and trivial shall determine thy choice when matters of the highest moment are therefore less regarded because they are such Hast thou no other plea for thy self but that thy sins were fatal thou hast no reason then to believe but that thy misery shall be so too But if thou ownest a God and Providence assure thy self that justice and righteousness are not meer Titles of his Honour but the real properties of his nature And he who hath appointed the rewards and punishments of the great day will then call the sinner to account not only for all his other sins but for offering to lay the imputation of them upon himself For if the greatest abhorrency of mens evil ways the rigour of his Laws the severity of his judgements the exactness of his justice the greatest care used to reclaim men from their sins and the highest assurance that he is not the cause of their ruine may be any vindication of the holiness of God now and his justice in the life to come we have the greatest reason to lay the blame of all our evil actions upon our selves as to attribute the glory of all our good unto himself alone 2. The frailty of humane Nature those who find themselves to be free enough to do their souls mischief and yet continue still in the doing of it find nothing more ready to plead for themselves than the unhappiness of mans composition and the degenerate state of the world If God had designed they are ready to say that man should lead a life free from sin why did he confine the soul of man to a body so apt to taint and pollute it But who art thou O man that thus findest fault with thy Maker Was not his kindness the greater in not only giving thee a soul capable of enjoying himself but such an habitation for it here which by the curiosity of its contrivance the number and usefulness of its parts might be a perpetual and domestick testimony of the wisdom of its Maker Was not such a conjunction of soul and body necessary for the exercise of that dominion which God designed man for over the creatures endued only with sense and motion And if we suppose this life to be a state of tryal in order to a better as in all reason we ought to do what can be imagined more proper to such a state than to have the soul constantly employed in the government of those sensual inclinations which arise from the body In the doing of which the proper exercise of that vertue consists which is made the condition of future happiness Had it not been for such a composition the difference could never have been seen between good and bad men i. e. between those who maintain the Empire of reason assisted by the motives of Religion over all the inferiour faculties and such who dethrone their souls and make them slaves to every lust that will command them And if men willingly subject themselves to that which they were born to rule they have none to blame but themselves for it Neither is it any excuse at all that this through the degeneracy of mankind is grown the common custom of the world unless that be in it self so great a Tyrant that there is no resisting the power of it If God had commanded us to comply with all the customs of the world and at the same time to be sober righteous and good we must have lived in another age than we live in to have excused these two commands from a palpable contradiction But instead of this he hath forewarned us of the danger of being led aside by the soft and easie compliances of the world and if we are sensible of our own infirmities as we have all reason to be he hath offered us the assistance of his Grace and of that Spirit of his which is greater than the Spirit that is the World He hath promised us those weapons whereby we may withstand the torrent of wickedness in the world with far greater success than the old Gauls were wont to do in the inundations of their Country whose custom was to be drowned with their arms in their hands But it will be the greater folly in us to be so because we have not only sufficient means of resistance but we understand the danger before hand If we once forsake the strict
continuing their lives and making them miserable but let them live and they will sin yet further must it be by utterly destroying them that to persons who might have time to sin the mean while supposing annibilation were all to be fear'd would never have power enough to deterr men from the height of their wickedness So that nothing but the misery of a life to come can be of force enough to make men fear God and regard themselves and this is that which the Gospel threatens to those that neglect their salvation which it sometimes calls everlasting fire sometimes the Worm that never dies sometimes the wrath to come sometimes everlasting destruction all enough to fill the minds of men with horror at the apprehension and what then will the undergoing it do Thence our Saviour reasonably bids men not fear them that can only kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both body and soul in hell Thus the Gospel suggests the most proper object of fear to keep men from sin and as it doth that so it presents likewise the most desireable object of hope to encourage men to be good which is no less than a happiness that is easier to hope to enjoy than to comprehend a happiness infinitely above the most ambitious hopes and glories of this world wherein greatness is added to glory weight to greatness and eternity to them all therefore call'd a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Wherein the Joys shall be full and constant the perception clear and undisturbed the fruition with continual delight and continual desire Where there shall be no fears to disquiet no enemies to allarm no dangers to conquer nothing shall then be but an uninterrupted peace an unexpressible Joy and pleasures for evermore And what could be ever imagined more satisfactory to minds tired out with the vanities of this world than such a repose as that is What more agreeable to the minds and desires of good men than to be eased of this clog of flesh and to spend eternity with the fountain of all goodness and the spirits of just men made perfect What more ravishing delight to the souls that are purged and made glorious by the blood of the Lamb than to be singing Hallelujahs to him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever How poor and low things are those which men hope for in this world compared with that great salvation which the Gospel makes so free a tender of What a mean thing is it to be great in this world to be honourable and rich i. e. to be made the object of the envy of some the malice of others and at last it may be an instance of this worlds vanity and after all this to be for ever miserable But O the wisdom of a well-chosen happiness that carries a man with contentment and peace through this life and at last rewards him with a Crown of everlasting felicity Thus we see the Gospel proposes the most excellent means to make men happy if they be not guilty of a gross neglect of it and if they be that is their own act and they must thank none but themselves if they be miserable 2. But I pray what reason can be given since God is so tender of our happiness that we should neglect it our selves which is the next thing to be spoken to There are three sorts of things we think we have reason to neglect Such as are too mean and unworthy our care such as are so uncertain that they will not recompence it such as our own Interest is not at all concerned in but I hope there are none who have an immortal soul and the use of their understandings can ever reckon their salvation under one of these 1. Is it too mean an employment for you to mind the matters of your eternal welfare Is Religion a beggarly and contemptible thing that it doth not become the greatness of your minds to stoop to take any notice of it Hath God lost his honour so much with you that his service should be the object of mens scorn and contempt But what is it which these brave spirits think a fit employment for themselves while they despise God and his Worship Is it to be curiously dressed and make a fine shew to think the time better spent at the Glass than at their Devotions These indeed are weighty imployments and fit in the first place to be minded if we were made only to be gazed upon Is it meerly to see Plays and read Romances and to be great admirers of that vain and frothy discourse which all persons account wit but those which have it This is such an end of mans life which no Philosopher ever thought of Or is it to spend time in excesses and debaucheries and to be slaves to as many lusts as will command them This were something indeed if we had any other name given us but that of Men. Or lastly is it to have their minds taken up with the great affairs of the World to be wise in considering careful in managing the publick interest of a Nation This is an employment I grant fit for the greatest minds but not such which need at all to take them off from minding their eternal salvation For the greatest wisdom is consistent with that else Religion would be accounted folly and I take it for granted that it is never the truly wise man but the pretender that entertains any mean thoughts of Religion And such a one uses the publick Interest no better than he doth Religion only for a shew to the world that he may carry on his own designs the better And is this really such a valuable thing for a man to be contented to cheat himself of his eternal happiness that he may be able to cheat the world and abuse his trust I appeal then to the Consciences of all such who have any sense of humanity and the common interest of mankind setting aside the considerations of a life to come whether to be just and sober vertuous and good be not more suitable to the design of humane Nature than all the vanities and excesses all the little arts and designs which men are apt to please themselves with And if so shall the eternal happiness which follows upon being good make it less desireable to be so No surely but if God had required any thing to make us happy which had been as contrary to our present Interest as the Precepts of Christianity are agreeable to it yet the end would have made the severest commands easie and those things pleasant which tend to make us happy 2. Are these things so uncertain that they are not fit for a wise man to be solicitous about them if they will come with a little care they will say they are destreable
of Religion neither inquisitive about them nor serious in minding them what can we otherwise think but that such a one doth really think the things of the World better worth looking after than those which concern his eternal salvation But consider before it be too late and repent of so great folly Value an immortal Soul as you ought to do think what Reconciliation with God and the Pardon of sin is worth slight not the dear Purchase which was bought at no meaner a rate than the Blood of the Son of God and then you cannot but mind the great salvation which God hath tendered you 2. Consider on what terms you neglect it or what the things are for whose sake you are so great enemies to your own salvation Have you ever found that contentment in sin or the vanities of the World that for the sake of them you are willing to be forever miserable What will you think of all your debaucheries and your neglects of God and your selves when you come to die what would you give then if it were in your power to redeem your lost time that you had spent your time less to the satisfaction of your sensual desires and more in seeking to please God How uncomfortable will the remembrance be of all your excesses oaths injustice and profaneness when death approaches and judgement follows it What peace of mind will there then be to those who have served God with faithfulness and have endeavoured to work out their salvation though it hath been with fear and trembling But what would it then profit a man to have gained the whole World and to lose his own soul Nay what unspeakable losers must they then be that lose their Souls for that which hath no value at all if compared with the World 3. Consider what follows upon this neglect not only the loss of great salvation but the incurring as great damnation for it The Scripture describes the miseries of the life to come not meerly by negatives but by the most sensible and painful things If destruction be dreadful what is everlasting destruction if the anguish of the soul and the pains of the body be so troublesom what will the destruction be both of Body and Soul in Hell If a Serpent gnawing in our bowels be a representation of an insupportable misery here what will that be of the Worm that never dies if a raging and devouring fire which can last but till it hath consumed a fading substance be in its appearance so amazing and in its pain so violent what then will the enduring be of that wrath of God which shall burn like fire and yet be everlasting Consider then of these things while God gives you time to consider of them and think it an inestimable mercy that you have yet time to repent of your sins to beg mercy at the hands of God to redeem your time to depart from iniquity to be frequent in Prayer careful of your Actions and in all things obedient to the will of God and so God will pardon your former neglects and grant you this great salvation SERMON VI. Preached on GOOD-FRYDAY before the Lord Mayor c. HEBREWS XII III. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest ye be weary and faint in your minds IT hath never yet been so well with the World and we have no great reason to hope it ever will be so that the best of things or of men should meet with entertainment in it suitable to their own worth and excellency If it were once to be hoped that all Mankind would be wise and sober that their judgements would be according to the truth of things and their actions suitable to their judgements we might then reasonably expect that nothing would be valued so much as true goodness nothing so much in contempt and disgrace as impiety and profaneness But if we find it much otherwise in the Age we live in we have so much the less cause to wonder at it because it hath been thus in those times we might have thought would have been far better than our own I mean those times and ages wherein there were not only great things first spoken and delivered to Mankind but examples as great as the things themselves but these did so little prevail on the stupid and unthankful world that they among whom the Son of God did first manifest himself seem'd only solicitous to make good one Prophesic concerning him viz. That he should be despised and rejected of men And they who suffer'd their malice to live as long as he did were not contented to let it dye with him but their fury increases as the Gospel does and wherever it had spread it self they pursue it with all the rude clamors and violent persecutions which themselves or their factors could raise against it This we have a large testimony of in those Iewish Christians to whom this Epistle was written who had no sooner embraced the Christian Religion but they were set upon by a whole army of persecutions Heb. 10. 32. But call to remembrance the former days in which after ye were illuminated ye endured a great fight of afflictions As though the great enemy of souls and therefore of Christians had watched the first opportunity to make the strongest impression upon them while they were yet young and unexperienced and therefore less able to resist so sharp an encounter He had found how unsuccessful the offer of the good things of this World had been with their Lord and Master and therefore was resolved to try what a severer course would do with all his followers But the same spirit by which he despised all the Glories of the World which the Tempter would have made him believe he was the disposer of enabled them with a mighty courage and strange transports of joy not only to bear their own share of reproaches and afflictions but a part of theirs who suffer'd with them v. 33 34. But lest through continual duty occasion'd by the hatred of their persecutors and the multitude of their afflictions their courage should abate and their spirits saint the Apostle finds it necessary not only to put them in mind of their former magnanimity but to make use of all arguments that might be powerful with them to keep up the same vigour and constancy of mind in bearing their sufferings which they had at first For he well knew how much it would tend to the dishonour of the Gospel as well as to their own discomfort if after such an early proof of a great and undaunted spirit it should be said of them as was once of a great Roman Captain Ultima Primis cedebant that they should decline in their reputation as they did in their years and at last sink under that weight of duty which they had born with so much honour before Therefore as a
men as any thing else is But here men think they may justly plead with God and talk with him of his judgements what proportion say they is there between the sins of this short life and the eternal misery of another which objection is not so great in it self as it appears to be by the weak answers which have been made to it When to assign a proportion they have made a strange kind of infinity in sin either from the object which unavoidably makes all sins equal or from the wish of a sinner that he might have an eternity to sin in which is to make the justice of Gods punishments to be not according to their works but to their wishes But we need not strain things so much beyond what they will bear to vindicate Gods justice in this matter Is it not thought just and reasonable among men for a man to be confined to perpetual imprisonment for a fault he was not half an hour in committing Nay do not all the Laws of the world make death the punishment of some crimes which may be very suddenly done And what is death but the eternal depriving a man of all the comforts of life And shall a thing then so constantly practised and universally justified in the world be thought unreasonable when it is applyed to God It is true may some say if annihilation were all that was meant by eternal death there could be no exception against it but I ask whether it would be unjust for the Laws of men to take away the lives of offenders in case their souls â—urvive their bodies and they be for ever sensible of the loss of life if not why shall not God preserve the honour of his Laws and vindicate his Authority in governing the world by sentencing obstinate sinners to the greatest misery though their souls live for ever in the apprehension of it Especially since God hath declared these things so evidently before hand and made them part of his Laws and set everlasting life on the other side to ballance everlasting misery and proposed them to a sinners choice in such a manner that nothing but contempt of God and his grace and wilful impenitency can ever betray men into this dreadful State of eternal destruction 2. Thus much for the argument used by the Apostle the terrour of the Lord I now come to the assurance he expresseth of the truth of it Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade men We have two ways of proving Articles of faith such as this concerning Christs coming to judgement is 1. By shewing that there is nothing unreasonable in the belief of them 2. That there is sufficient evidence of the truth and certainty of them In the former of these it is of excellent use to produce the common apprehensions of mankind as to a future judgement and the several arguments insisted on to that purpose for if this were an unreasonable thing to believe how come men without revelation to agree about it as a thing very just and reasonable If the conflagration of the world were an impossible thing how came it to be so anciently received by the eldest and wisest Philosophers How came it to be maintained by those two Sects which were St. Paul's enemies when he preached at Athens and always enemies to each other the Epicureans and the Stoicks It is true they made these conflagrations to be periodical and not final but we do not establish the belief of our doctrine upon their assertion but from thence shew that is a most unreasonable thing to reject that as impossible to be done which they assert hath been and may be often done But for the truth and certainty of our doctrine we build that upon no less a foundation than the word of God himself We may think a judgement to come reasonable in general upon the â—…sideration of the goodness and wisdom and justice of God but all that depends upon this supposition that God doth govern the world by Laws and not by Power but since God himself hath declared it who is the Suprem Judge of the world that he will bring every work into judgement whether it be good or evil since the Son of God made this so great a part of his doctrine with all the circumstances of his own coming for again this end since he opened the commission he received from the Father for this purpose when he was upon earth by declaring that the Father had committed all judgement to the Son and that the hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth they that have done good to the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation Since this was so great a part of the Apostles doctrine to preach of this judgement to come and that God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance to all men in that he hath raised him from the dead No wonder the Apostle speaks here with so great assurance of it knowing therefore c. And no persons can have the least ground to question it but such who wholly reject the Christian doctrine upon the pretences of infidelity which are so vain and trifling that were not their lusts stronger than their arguments men of wit would be ashamed to produce them and did not mens passions oversway their judgements it would be too much honour to them to confute them But every Sermon is not intended for the conversion of Turks and Infidels my design is to speak to those who acknowledge themselves to be Christians and to believe the truth of this doctrine upon the Authority of those divine persons who were particularly sent by God to reveal it to the world And so I come to the last particular by way of application of the former viz. 3. The efficacy of this argument for the perswading men to a reformation of heart and life knowing the terror of the Lord we perswade men For as another Apostle reasons from the same argument Seeing all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness There is great variety of arguments in the Christian Religion to perswade men to holiness but none more sensible and moving to the generality of mankind than this Especially considering these two things 1. That if this argument doth not perswade men there is no reason to expect any other should 2. That the condition of such persons is desperate who cannot by any arguments be perswaded to leave off their sins 1. There is no reason to expect any other argument should perswade men if this of the terror of the Lord do it not If an almighty power cannot awaken us if infinite justice cannot affright us if a
the preservation of this present life for whosoever saith Christ will save his life shall lose it and to those words before these of the text have a particular reference and therefore must be understood not of losing this life but of the loss of the Soul in a future state And this loss cannot be understood of the souls annihilation or ceasing to be as soon as the life is gone for that being supposed he would be the happiest man that had the most of this world at his command and enjoyed the greatest pleasure in it So St. Paul himself determines that if there were no future state the Epicureans argument would take place Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die and he reckons those among the most miserable of all mankind who ventured the loss of all that is accounted desirable in this world and of their lives too if there were not a better life to come For if in this life only we have hope in Christ saith he we are of all men the most miserable So that the strength of our Saviours discourse depends upon the supposition of the immortality of the soul and its capacity of being happy or miserable in a future state And it is the great commendation of the Christian Religion that the particular duties required in it are established on the same Foundations that natural Religion is which are the belief of a Deity and the immortality of the Soul For he that comes unto God must believe that he it and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him which being spoken with a respect to one who for being good was translated out of this world must refer to the rewards of a future life And we desire no more than these common principles of Religion to make the most difficult duties of Christianity appear reasonable to mankind For it is upon the account of this future state of the soul that it is our most just and necessary care to look after the welfare of our souls in the first place to seek the Kingdom of God the and righteousness thereof before the concernments of this present life because a state that endures for ever ought to be preferred before a short and uncertain abode in this world It is this which makes it reasonable to please God though to the displeasing our selves and the crossing our natural inclinations because eternal happiness and misery depends upon his favor or displeasure It is this which obliges men to the greatest care of their actions because their future state in another world will be according to their lives here for every man shall then receive according to his works It is this which ought to keep men from all fleshly lusts not meerly because they are inconvenient for their bodies but because they war against their souls It is this which makes the love of this world so dangerous a thing because it draws away the hearts and affections of men from things that are above and fixes them upon things below It is this which makes it necessary for us to subdue our passions to conquer temptations to forgive injuries to be patient under afflictions and to lay down our lives for Religion because there will be a reward for the righteous and the happiness of another state will make abundant recompence for all the difficulties of this So that in the Gospel the doctrine of the souls immortality is not spoken of as the nice speculation of subtile and contemplative men nor meerly supposed as a foundation of all Religion but it is interwoven in the substance of it and adds strength to all its parts For herein we find the immortality of the soul not barely asserted nor proved by uncertain arguments nor depending on the opinion of Philosophers but delivered with the greatest authority revealed with the clearest light and confirmed by the strongest evidence If any one can make known to mankind the state of souls in another world it must be God himsēlf if ever it was made known plainly by him it must be in the Gospel whereby life and immortality are brought to light if ever any arguments were proper to convince mankind of it they are such as are contained therein For it is not barely the resurrection of our Lord which is a manifest evidence of the truth of the souls subsisting after a real death but the whole design of his doctrine and the Christian Religion is built upon it So that if we suppose the immortality of the soul the Christian Religion appears more reasonable by it but if we suppose the doctrine of Christ to be true there can be no doubt left of the immortality of the soul and whatever arguments we have to prove the truth of this doctrine by the same do of necessity prove the certainty of the souls immortality I confess many subtile arguments have been used by those who never knew any thing of divine revelation to prove the soul to be of such a nature that it was not capable of dying with the body and some of them such as none of their Adversaries were ever able to answer For the most common acts of sense are unaccountable in a meer Mechanical way and after all the attemps of the most witty and industrious men I despair of ever seeing the powers of meer matter raised to a capacity of performing the lowest acts of perception and much more of those nobler faculties of memory understanding and will But although the arguments from hence are sufficient to justifie the belief of the souls immortality to all considering men yet the far greatest part of mankind was never so and a matter of so great consequence as this is ought to be proposed in the most plain most certain and most effectual manner While these disputes were managed among the Philosophers of old though those who asserted the immortality of the soul had the better reason of their side yet their Adversaries spake with greater confidence and that always bears the greatest sway among injudicious people And some men are always fond of a reputation for wit by opposing common opinions though never so true and useful especially when they serve a bad end in it and do thereby plead for their own impieties But it cannot be denied that those who were in the right did likewise give too great advantage to their enemies partly by their own diffidence and distrust of what they had contended for partly from the too great niceness and subtilty of their arguments partly from the ridiculous fopperies which they maintained together with that of the souls immortality as the transmigration of them into the bodies of Brutes and such like But the main disadvantage of all to the world was that the immortality of the soul was rather insisted on as a Principle of Philosophy than of Religion Some of the best of their arguments were such as made the souls of
Brutes immortal as well as those of men and those could not be imagined to have any great force on the lives of men which would equally hold for such creatures which were not capable of rewards and punishments in another life But therein lies the great excellency of the doctrine of the souls immortality as it is discovered in the Gospel not only that it comes from him who best understands the nature of souls but is delivered in such a manner as is most effectual for the reformation of mankind For the fullest account herein given of it is by the rewards and punishments of another life and those not Poetically described by fictions and Romances but delivered with the plainess of truth the gravity of a Law the severity of a Judge the authority of a Lawgiver the Majesty of a Prince and the wisdom of a Deity Wherein the happiness described is such as the most excellent minds think it most desireable and the misery so great as all that consider it must think it most intolerable And both these are set forth with so close a respect to the actions of this life that every one must expect in another world according to what he doth in this How is it then possible that the doctrine of the souls being in another state could be recommended with greater advantage to mankind than it is in the Gospel and what is there can be imagined to take off the force of this but the proving an absolute incapacity in the soul of subsisting after death It is true indeed in the state of this intimate union and conjunction between the soul and body they do suffer mutually from each other But if the souls suffering on the account of the body as in diseases of the brain be sufficient to prove there is no soul why may not the bodies suffering on the account of the soul as in violent passions of the mind as well prove that there is no body It is not enough then to prove that the soul doth in some things suffer from the body for so doth the Child in the Mothers womb from the distempers of its Mother yet very capable of living when separated from her but it must be shewed that the soul is not distinct from the body to prove it uncapable of being without it But on the other side I shall now shew that there is nothing unreasonable in what the Scripture delivers concerning the immortal state of the Souls of men as to future rewards and punishments because there are those things now in them considered as distinct from their bodies which make them capable of either of them And those are 1. That they are capable of pleasure and pain distinct from the body 2. That they have power of determining their own actions 1. That the souls of men are capable of pleasure and pain distinct from the pleasure and pain of the body Whereever pleasure and pain may be there must be a capacity of rewards and punishments for a reward is nothing but the heightning of pleasure and punishment an increase of pain And if there be both these in men of which no account can be given from their bodies there must be a nobler principle within which we call the Soul which is both the cause and the subject of them We may as easily imagine that a Fox should leave his prey to find out a demonstration in Euclid or a Serpent attempt the squaring of the circle in the dust or all the Fables of Aâ—sop become real histories and the Birds and Beasts turn Wits and Polititians as be able to give an account of those we call pleasures of the mind from the affections of the body The transport of joy which Archimedes was in at the finding out his desired Problem was a more certain evidence of the real pleasures of the mind than the finding it was of the greatness of his wit Could we ever think that men who understood themselves would spend so much time in lines and numbers and figures and examining Problems and Demonstrations which depend upon them if they found not a great delight and satisfaction in the doing of it But whence doth this pleasure arise not from seeing the figures or meer drawing the lines or calculating the numbers but by deducing the just and necessary consequences of one thing from another which would afford no more pleasure to a man without his soul than a book of Geometry would give to a herd of Swine It is the Soul alone which takes pleasure in the search and finding out such Truths which can have no kind of respect to the body it is that which can put the body out of order with its own pleasures by spending so much time in contemplation as may exhaust the spirits abate the vigor of the body and hasten its decay And while that droops and sinks under the burden the soul may be as vigorous and active in such a consumptive state of the body as ever it was before the understanding as clear the memory as strong the entertainments of the mind as great as if the body were in perfect health It is a greater and more manly pleasure which some men take in searching into the nature of these things in the world than others can take in the most voluptuous enjoyment of them the one can only satisfie a bruitish appetite while it may be something within is very unquiet and troublesom but the other brings a solid pleasure to the mind without any regret or disturbance from the body By this we see that setting aside the consideration of Religion the mind of man is capable of such pleasures peculiar to it self of which no account could be given if there were not a spiritual and therefore immortal Being within us not only distinct from the body but very far above it But the very capacity of Religion in mankind doth yet further evidence the truth of it I would fain understand how men ever came to be abused with the notion of Religion as some men are willing to think they are if there were not some faculties in them above those of sense and imagination For where we find nothing else but these we see an utter incapacity of any such thing as Religion is in some brute creatures we find great subtilty and strange imitations of reason but we can find nothing like Religion among them How should it come to be otherwise among men if imagination were the highest facultie in man since the main principles of Religion are as remote from the power of imagination as may be What can be thought more repugnant to all the conceptions we take in by our senses than the conception of a Deity and the future State of Souls is How then come the impressions of these things to sink so deep into humane nature that all the art and violence in the world can never take them out The strongest impressions upon
all other Beings are such as are suitable to their natures how come those in mankind to be such as must be supposed to be not only above but contrary to them if an immortal soul be not granted If men had no principle within them beyond that of sense nothing would have been more easie than to have shaken off the notion of a Deity and all apprehension of a future State But this hath been so far from easie that it is a thing utterly impossible to be done all the wit and arts all the malice and cruelty all the racks and torments that could yet be thought on could not alter mens perswasions of the Christian Religion much less raze out the Foundations of Natural Religion in the world But what imaginable account can be given of the joys and pleasures which the Martyrs of old expressed under the most exquisite torments of their bodies if their minds were not of a far nobler and diviner nature than their bodies were Although a natural stupidity and dulness of temper may abate the sense of pain although an obstinate resolution may keep men from complaining of it yet not only to bear the Cross but to embrace it to be not only patient but pleasant under tortures nay to sing with greater joy in the flames than others do when they are heated with wine doth not only shew that there is something within us capable of pleasure distinct from the body but that the pleasures of it may be so great as to swallow up the pains of the body But I need not have recourse to such great and extraordinay instances although sufficiently attested by such who saw and heard them for every good man hath that inward pleasure in being and doing good which he would not part with for all the greatest Epicurism in the world And where there is or may be so great pleasure no wonder if there be likewise a sense of pain proportionable to it witness those gripes and tortures of Conscience which wicked men undergo from the reflection upon themselves when their own evil actions fill them with horror and amazement when the cruelties they have used to others return with greater violence upon their own minds when the unlawful pleasures of the body prove the greatest vexation to their souls and the weight of their evil actions sinks them under despair and the dreadful apprehensions of future misery These are things we need not search histories or cite ancient authors for every mans own Conscience will tell him if he hath not lost all sense of good and evil that as there is a real pleasure in doing good there is the greatest inward pain in doing evil Having thus shewed that the soul of man is capable of pleasure and pain in this present state distinct from the body it thence follows that it is capable of rewards and punishments when it shall be separated from it 2. That the souls of men have a power of determining their own actions without which there could be no reasonable account given of the rewards and punishments of another life Were I to prove liberty in man from the supposition of Religion I know no argument more plain or more convincing than that which is drawn from the consideration of future rewards and punishments but being now to prove a capacity of rewards and punishments from the consideration of Liberty I must make use of other means to do it by And what can be imagined greater evidence in Beings capable of reflecting upon themselves than the constant sense and experience of all mankind Not that all men are agreed in their opinions about these things for even herein men shew their liberty by resisting the clearest evidence to prove it but that every man finds himself free in the determining his moral actions And therefore he hath the same reason to believe this which he hath of his own Being or understanding For what other way hath a man to know that he understands himself or any thing else but the sense of his own mind and those who go about to perswade men that they think themselves free when they are not may in the next place perswade them that they think they understand when they do not Nay they might hope in the first place to perswade men out of their understandings for we are not so competent judges of the more necessary and natural acts for men understand whether they will or no as of the more free and voluntary for in this case every man can when he pleases put a tryal upon himself and like the confuting the arguments against motion by moving can shew the folly of all the pleas for fatal necessity by a freedom of action But if once this natural liberty be taken away wisdom and folly as well as vice and vertue would be names invented to no purpose no men can be said to be better or wiser than others if their actions do not depend on their own choice and consideration but on a hidden train of causes which it is no more in a mans power to hinder than in the earth to hinder the falling of rain upon it If therefore sense and reason may prevail upon mankind not to fancy themselves under invisible chains and fetters of which they can have no evidence or experience we may thence infer the souls capacity of rewards and punishments in another life since happiness and misery are set before them and it must be their own voluntary choice which brings them to either of them When either by their own folly they run themselves upon everlasting ruine or by making use of the assistance of divine grace they become capable of endless Joy But since men have not only a power of governing themselves but are capable of doing it by considerations as remote from the things of sense as Heaven is from Earth it is not conceivable there should be such a power within us if there were not an immortal soul which is the subject of it For what is there that hath the shadow of liberty in meer matter what is there of these inferiour creatures that can act by consideration of future things but only man Whence comes man to consider but from his reason or to guide himself by the consideration of future and eternal things but from an immortal principle within him which alone can make things at a distance to be as present can represent to it self the infinite pleasures and unconceivable misery of an eternal state in such a manner as to direct the course of this present life in order to the obtaining of the one and avoiding of the other And thus much concerning the supposition here made of the loss of the soul and its immortality implied therein I come to consider the hazard of losing the soul for the gain of this world Fâ—r although our Saviour puts the utmost supposable case the better to represent the folly of losing
the soul for the sake of the world yet he doth imply the danger may be as great although a mans ambition never comes to be so extravagant as to aim at the possession of the whole world The whole world can never make amends for the loss of the soul yet the soul may be lost for a very inconsiderable part of it although all the wealth and treasures of the Indies can never compensate to a man the loss of his life yet that may be in as great danger of losing upon far easier terms than those are It is not to be thought that those whom our Saviour speaks to could ever propose such vast designs to themselves as the Empire of the whole world was but he tells them if that could be supposed it were far more desirable to save a soul than to gain the world yet such is the folly of mankind to lose their souls for a very small share of this present world For the temptations of this world are so many so great so pleasing to mankind and the love of life so natural and so strong that inconsiderate men will run any hazard of their souls for the gain of one or preservation of the other The highest instance of this kind is that which our Saviour here intends when men will make shipwrack of faith and a good conscience to escape the danger of their lives or with Iudas will betray their Saviour for some present gain although very far short of that of the whole world And if I be not much mistaken it is upon this account that our Saviour pronounces it so hard for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven because in such difficult times of persecution on the account of Religion as those were such men would be shrewdly tempted to venture the loss of their souls in another world rather than of their estates in this For it was the young mans unwillingness to part with his great possessions to follow Christ which gave him occasion to utter that hard saying It is on this account St. Paul saith the love of money is the root of all evil which while some have coveted after they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows It was on this account that Demas forsook Paul having loved this present world and that the friendship of this world is said to be enmity with God and that our Saviour saith no man can serve two Masters for either he will hate the one and love the other else he will hold to the one and despise the other ye cannot serve God and Mammon Which doth suppose that these two do require two contrary things at the same time for if a hundred Masters did all require the same thing a man might in doing that be said to serve them all But when Religion requires that we must part with all for that and the world requires that we must part with Religion to preserve our interest in it then it is impossible to serve God and Mammon together for we must hold to the one and dispise the other But what then Is there no danger of the loss of the soul for the sake of this world but only in the case of persecution then some may say we hope there is no fear now of mens being too rich to go to Heaven Thanks be to God that we live in times free from such dangerous tryals as those of persecution are and wherein men may quietly enjoy their Estates and the best Religion in the world together but although there be no danger of splitting upon the rocks there may be of sinking with being overcharged or springing too great a leak within us whereby we let in more than we can be able to bear And supposing the most prosperous and easie condition men can fancy to themselves here yet the things of this world are so great occasions of evil so great hindrances of good that on these accounts men always run a mighty hazard of their souls for the sake of this world The Devil knew well enough where his greatest strength lay when he reserved the temptation of the glories of this world to the last place in dealing with Christ himself when nothing else would prevail upon him he was yet in hopes that the Greatness and Splendour of this world would bring him to his terms And surely if the Devil had not a mighty opinion of the power of these charms of the Kingdoms and glory of this world he would never have put such hard terms to them which were no less than falling down and worshipping him which we do not find he ever durst so much as mention before till he held this bait in his hand And although our Saviour baffled him in this his strongest temptation yet he still finds that far less than what he here offered will bring men in subjection to him How small a matter of gain will tempt some men to all the sins of lying of fraud and injustice who pawn their souls and put them out at interest for a very small present advantage although they are sure in a very little time to lose both their interest and the Principal too How many for the sake of the Honours and preferments of this World are willing to do by their consciences as the Indian did by his letter lay them aside till their business be done and then expect to hear no more of them What poor and trifling things in this world do men continually venture their souls for As though all were clear gains which they could put off so dead a commodity as the Salvation of their Souls for How apt are such to applaud themselves for their own skill when meerly by a little swearing and lying and cheating things which cost them nothing but a few words they can defeat the designs of their enemies and compass their own But how low is the rate of souls fallen in the esteem of such persons as these are If they had not been of any greater value they had not been worth any ordinary mans much less the Son of Gods laying down his life for the redemption of them Is this all the requital men make him for the travail of his soul the wounds of his body the bitterness of his passion to sqâ—ander away those souls upon any trifling advantages of this world which he shed his most pâ—ecious blood for the redemption ofâ— When ever men are tempted to sin with the hopes of gain let them but consider how much they undervalue not only their own souls but the eternal Son of God and all that he hath done and suffered for the sake of the souls of men If theâ—e had been no greater worth in our souls silver and gold would have been a sufficient price of redemption for them for if men lose their souls for these things it is a sign they set a higher
rules of Religion and goodness and are ready to yield our selves to whatever hath got retainers enough to set up for a custom we may know where we begin but we cannot where we shall make an end For every fresh assault makes the breach wider at which more enemies may come in still so that when we find our selves under their power we are contented for our own ease to call them Friends Which is the unhappy consequence of too easie yielding at first till at last the greatest slavery to sin be accounted but good humour and a gentile compliance with the fashions of the world So that when men are perswaded either through fear or too great easiness to disuse that strict eye which they had before to their actions it oft-times falls out with them as it did with the Souldier in the Roman History who blinded his eye so long in the time of the Civil Wars that when he would have used it again he could not And when custom hath by degrees taken away the sense of sin from their Consciences they grow as hard as b Herodotus tells us the heads of the old Egyptians were by the heat of the Sun that nothing would ever enter them If men will with Nebuchadnezzar herd with the beasts of the field no wonder if their reason departs from them and by degrees they grow as savage as the company they keep So powerful a thing is Custom to debauch Mankind and so easily do the greatest vices by degrees obtain admission into the souls of men under pretence of being retainers to the common infirmities of humane nature Which is a phrase through the power of self-flattery and mens ignorance in the nature of moral actions made to be of so large and comprehensive a sense that the most wilful violations of the Laws of Heaven and such which the Scripture tells us do exclude from the Kingdom of it do find rather than make friends enough to shelter themselves under the protection of them But such a protection it is which is neither allowed in the Court of Heaven nor will ever secure the souls of men without a hearty and sincere repentance from the arrest of divine justice which when it comes to call the world to an account of their actions will make no defalcations at all for the power of custom or common practice of the world 3. The Impossibility of the Command or rather of obedience to it When neither of the former pleas will effect their design but notwithstanding the pretended necessity of humane actions and the more than pretended common practice of the World their Consciences still fly in their faces and rebuke them sharply for their sins then in a mighty rage and fury they charge God himself with Tyranny in laying impossible Laws upon the sons of men But if we either consider the nature of the command or the promises which accompany it or the large experience of the world to the contrary we shall easily discover that this pretence is altogether as unreasonable as either of the foregoing For what is it that God requires of men as the condition of their future happiness which in its own nature is judged impossible Is it for men to live soberly righteously and godly in this world for that was the end of Christian Religion to perswade men to do so but who thinks it impossible to avoid the occasions of intemperance not to defraud or injure his neighbours or to pay that reverence and sincere devotion to God which we owe unto him Is it to do as we would be done by yet that hath been judged by strangers to the Christian Religion a most exact measure of humane conversation Is it to maintain an universal kindness and good will to men that indeed is the great excellency of our Religion that it so strictly requires it but if this be impossible farewell all good nature in the world and I suppose few will own this charge lest theirs be suspected Is it to be patient under sufferings moderate in our desires circumspect in our actions contented in all conditions yet these are things which those have pretended to who never owned Christianity and therefore surely they never thought them impossible Is it to be charitable to the poor compassionate to those in misery is it to be frequent in Prayer to love God above all things to forgive our enemies as we hope God will forgive us to believe the Gospel and be ready to suffer for the sake of Christ There are very few among us but will say they do all these things already and therefore surely they do not think them impossible The like answer I might give to all the other precepts of the Gospel till we come to the denying ungodliness and worldly lusts and as to these too if we charge men with them they either deny their committing them and then say they have kept the command or if they confess it they promise amendment for the future but in neither respect can they be said to think the command impossible Thus we see their own mouths will condemn them when they charge God with laying impossible Laws on mankind But if we enquire further then into the judgements of those who it may be never concerned themselves so much about the precepts of Christian Religion as to try whether they had any power to observe them or not nay if we yield them more than it may be they are willing to enquire after though they ought to do it viz. that without the assistance of divine grace they can never do it yet such is the unlimited nature of divine goodness and the exceeding riches of Gods Grace that knowing the weakness and degeneracy of humane Nature when he gave these commands to men he makes a large and free offer of assistance to all those who are so sensible of their own infirmity as to beg it of him And can men then say the command is impossible when he hath promised an assistance suitable to the nature of the duty and the infirmities of men If it be acknowledged that some of the duties of Christianity are very difficult to us now let us consider by what means he hath sweetned the performance of them Will not the proposal of so excellent a reward make us swallow some more than ordinary hardships that we might enjoy it hath he not made use of the most obliging motives to perswade us to the practice of what he requires by the infinite discovery of his own love the death of his Son and the promise of his Spirit And what then is wanting but only setting our selves to the serious obedience of them to make his commands not only not impossible but easie to us But our grand fault is we make impossibilities our selves where we find none and then we complain of them we are first resolved not to practise the commands and then nothing more easie
shewing his power in working miraculous Cures and his humility in concealing them Conversing with the meanest of the people and choosing such for his Apostles who brought nothing to recommend them but innocency and simplicity Who by their heats and ignorance were continual exercises of his Patience in bearing with them and of his care and tenderness in instructing them And after a life thus led with such unparallel'd humility when he could add nothing more to it by his actions he doth it by his sufferings and compleats the sad Tragedy of his Life by a most shameful and ignominious Death This is the short and true account of all those things which the admirers of the greatness of this world think mean and contemptible in our Saviours appearance here on earth But we are now to consider whether so great humility were not not more agreeable with the design of his coming into the World than all that pomp and state would have been which the Son of God might have more easily commanded than we can imagine He came not upon so mean an errand as to dazle the eyes of Mankind with the brightness of his Glory to amaze them by the terribleness of his Majesty much less to make a shew of the riches and gallantry of the World to them But he came upon far more noble and excellent designs to bring life and immortality to light to give men the highest assurance of an eternal happiness and misery in the World to come and the most certain directions for obtaining the one and avoiding the other and in order to that nothing was judged more necessary by him than to bring the vanities of this World out of that credit and reputation they had gained among foolish men Which he could never have done if he had declaimed never so much against the vanity of worldly greatness riches and honours if in the mean time himself had lived in the greatest splendour and bravery For the enjoyning then the contempt of this world to his Disciples in hopes of a better would have looked like the commendation of the excellency of fasting at a full meal and of the conveniencies of Poverty by one who makes the greatest hast to be rich That he might not therefore seem to offer so great a contradiction to his Doctrine by his own example he makes choice of a life so remote from all suspicion of designs upon this world that though the foxes had holes and the birds of the air had nests yet the Son of Man who was the Lord and Heir of all things had not whereon to lay his head And as he shewed by his life how little he valued the great things of the World so he discovered by his death how little he feared the evil things of it all which he did with a purpose and intention to rectifie the great mistakes of men as to these things That they might no longer venture an eternal happiness for the splendid and glorious vanities of this present life nor expose themselves to the utmost miseries of another world to avoid the frowns of this From hence proceeded that generous contempt of the World which not only our Saviour himself but all his true Disciples of the first Ages of Christianity were so remarkable for to let others see they had greater things in their eye than any here the hopes of which they would not part with for all that this world thinks great or desirable So that considering the great danger most men are in by too passionate a love of theâ—e things and that universal and infinite kindness which our Saviour had to the Souls of men there was nothing he could discover it more in as to his appearance in the world than by putting such an affront upon the greatness and honour of it as he did by so open a neglect of it in his life and despising it in his death and sufferings And who now upon any pretence of reason dare entertain the meaner apprehensions of our Blessed Saviour because he appeared without the pomp and greatness of the world when the reason of his doing so was that by his own humility and self-denyal he might shew us the way to an eternal happiness Which he well knew how very hard it would be for men to attain to who measure things not according to their inward worth and excellency but the splendour and appearance which they make to the world who think nothing great but what makes them gazed upon nothing desireable but what makes them flattered But if they could be once perswaded how incomparably valuable the glories of the life to come are above all the gayeties and shews of this they would think no condition mean or contemptible which led to so great an end none happy or honourable which must so soon end in the grave or be changed to eternal misery And that we might entertain such thoughts as these are not as the melancholy effects of discontent and disappointments but as the serious result of our most deliberate enquiry into the value of things was the design of our Saviour in the humility of his appearance and of that excellent Doctrine which he recommended to the World by it Were I to argue the case with Philosophers I might then at large shew from the free acknowledgements of the best and most experienced of them that nothing becomes so much one who designs to recommend Vertue to the World as a real and hearty contempt of all the pomp of it and that the meanest condition proceeding from such a principle is truly and in it self more honourable than living in the greatest splendour imaginable Were I to deal with the Iews I might then prove that as the Prophecies concerning the Messias speak of great and wonderful effects of his coming so that they should be accomplished in a way of suffering and humility But since I speak to Christians and and therefore to those who are perswaded of the great kindness and love of our Saviour in coming into the World to reform it and that by convincing men of the truth and excellency of a future state no more need be said to vindicate the appearance of him from that meanness and contempt which the pride and ambition of vain men is apt to cast upon it 2. But not only our Saviours manner of Appearance but the manner of his Conversation gave great offence to his enemies viz. That it was too free and familiar among persons who had the meanest reputation the Publicans and Sinners and in the mean time declaimed against the strictest observers of the greatest rigours and austerities of life And this no doubt was one great cause of the mortal hatred of the Pharisees against him though least pretended that even thereby they might make good that charge of hypocrisie which our Saviour so often draws up against them And no wonder if such severe rebukes did highly provoke them since
reason to disobey when there is an apprehension that may make more for his advantage But when the reason of obedience is derived from the concernments of another life no hopes of interest in this world can be thought to ballance the loss which may come by such a breach of duty in that to come So that no persons do so dangerously undermine the foundations of civil Government as those who magnifie that to the contempt of Religion none so effectually secure them as those who give to God the things that are Gods and by doing so are obliged to give to Caesar the things that are Caesars This was the Doctrine of Christianity as it was delivered by the first author of it and the practice was agreeable as long as Christianity preserved its primitive honour in the world For so far were men then from making their zeal for Religion a pretence to rebellion that though Christianity were directly contrary to the Religions then in vogue in the world yet they knew of no other way of promoting it but by patience humility meekness prayers for their persecutors and tears when they saw them obstinate So far were they then from somenting suspicions and jealousies concerning the Princes and Governours they lived under that though they were generally known to be some of the worst of men as well as of Princes yet they charge all Christians in the strictest manner as they loved their Religion and the honour of it as they valued their souls and the salvation of them that they should be subject to them So far were they then from giving the least encouragement to the usurpations of the rights of Princes undeâ— the pretence of any power given to a head of the Church that there is no way for any to think they meant it unless we suppose the Apostles such mighty Politicians that it is because they say nothing at all of it but on the contrary bid every soul be subject to the higher powers though an Apostle Evangelist Prophet whatever he be as the Fathers interpret it Yea so constant and uniform was the doctrine and practice of Obedience in all the first and purest ages of the Christian Church that no one instance can be produced of any usurpation of the rights of Princes under the pretence of any title from Christ or any disobedience to their authority under the pretence of promoting Christianity through all those times wherein Christianity the most flourished or the Christians were the most persecuted And happy had it been for us in these last ages of the World if we had been Christians on the same terms which they were in the Primitive times then there had been no such scandals raised by the degeneracy of men upon the most excellent and peaceable Religion in the world as though that were unquiet and troublesom because so many have been so who have made shew of it But let their pretences be never so great to Infallibility on one side and to the Spirit on the other so far as men encourage faction and disobedience so far they have not the Spirit of Christ and Christianity and therefore are none of his For he shewed his great wisdom in contriving such a method of saving mens souls in another world as tended most to the preservation of the peace and quietness of this and though this wisdom may be evil spoken of by men of restless and unpeaceable minds yet I will be still justified by all who have heartily embraced the Wisdom which is from above who are pure and peaceable as that Wisdom is and such and only such are the Children of it 3. I come to shew That the design of Christs appearance was very agreeable to the infinite Wisdom of God and that the means were very suitable and effectual for carrying on of that design for the reformation of Mankind 1. That the design it self was very agreeable to the infinite Wisdom of God What could we imagine more becoming the Wisdom of God than to contrive a way for the recovery of lapsed and degenerate Mankind who more fit to employ upon such a message as this than the Son of God for his coming gives the greatest assurance to the minds of men that God was serious in the management of this design than which nothing could be of greater importance in order to the success of it And how was it possible he should give a greater testimony of himself and withal of the purpose he came about than he did when he was in the world The accomplishment of Prophesies and power of Miracles shewed who he was the nature of his Doctrine the manner of his Conversation the greatness of his Sufferings shewed what his design was in appearing among men for they were all managed with a peculiar respect to the convincing mankind that God was upon terms of mercy with them and had therefore sent his Son into the world that he might not only obtain the pardon of sin for those who repent but eternal life for all them that obey him And what is there now we can imagine so great and desireable as this for God to manifest his wisdom in It is true we see a great discovery of it in the works of Nature and might do in the methods of Divine Providence if partiality and interest did not blind our eyes but both these though great in themselves yet fall short of the contrivance of bringing to an eternal happiness man who had fallen from his Maker and was perishing in his own folly Yet this is that which men in the pride and vanity of their own imaginations either think not worth considering or consider as little as if they thought so and in the mean time think themselves very wise too The Iews had the wisdom of their Traditions which they gloried in and despised the Son of God himself when he came to alter them The Greeks had the wisdom of their Philosophy which they so passionately admired that whatever did not agree with that though infinitely more certain and useful was on that account rejected by them The Romans after the conquest of so great a part of the World were grown all such Politicians and Statesmen that few of them could have leisure to think of another world who were so busie in the management of this And some of all these sorts do yet remain in the World which makes so many so little think of or admire this infinite discovery of divine Wisdom nay there are some who can mix all these together joyning a Iewish obstinacy with the pride and self-opinion of the Greeks to a Roman unconcernedness about the matters of another life And yet upon a true and just enquiry never any Religion could be found which could more fully satisfie the expectation of the Iews the reason of the Greeks or the wisdom of the Romans than that which was made known by Christ who was the Wisdom of
of the doctrine he hoped to preach among them Had Christ come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a great deal of pomp and state into the World subduing Kingdoms and Nations under him had St. Paul been a General for the Gospel instead of being an Apostle of it the great men of the World would then allow he had no cause to be ashamed either of his Master or of his employment But to preach a crucified Saviour among the glories and triumphs of Rome and a Doctrine of so much simplicity and contempt of the world among those who were the Masters of it and managed it with so much art and cunning to perswade them to be followers of Christ in a holy life who could not be like the gods they worshiped unless they were guilty of the greatest debaucheries seems to be an employment so lyable to the greatest scorn and contempt that none but a great and resolved spirit would ever undertake it For when we consider after so many hundred years profession of Christianity how apt the greatness of the world is to make men ashamed of the practice of it and that men aim at a reputation for wit by being able to abuse the Religion they own what entertainment might we then think our Religion met with among the great men of the Age it was first preached in when it not only encountered those weaker weapons of scoffs and raillery but the strong holds of interest and education If our Religion now can hardly escape the bitter scoffs and profane jests of men who pawn their souls to be accounted witty what may we think it suffered then when it was accounted a part of their own Religion to dispise and reproach ours If in the Age we live in a man may be reproached for his piety and virtue that is for being really a Christian when all profess themselves to be so what contempt did they undergo in the first Ages of the Christian World when the very name of Christian was thought a sufficient brand of infamy And yet such was the courage and magnanimity of the Primitive Christians that what was accounted most mean and contemptible in their Religion viz. their believing in a crucified Saviour was by them accounted the matter of their greatest honour and glory For though St. Paul only saith here that he was not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ yet elsewere he explains that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is contained in these words when he saith God forbid that I should glory in any thing save in the Cross of Christ by whom the World is crucified to me and I unto the World Gal. 6. 14. i. e. Although he could not but be sensible how much the world despised him and his Religion together yet that was the great satisfaction of his mind that his Religion had enabled him to despise the World as much For neither the pomp and grandeur of the World nor the smiles and flatteries of it no nor its frowns and severities could abate any thing of that mighty esteem and value which he had for the Christian Religion For in his own expression he accounted all things else but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Iesus his Lord Phil. 3. 8. Which words are not spoken by one who was in despair of being taken notice of for any thing else and therefore magnifies the Profession he was engaged in but by a person as considerable as most of the time and Nation he lived in both for his birth and education So that his contempt of the World was no sullen and affected severity but the issue of a sober and impartial judgement and the high esteem he professed of Christianity was no fanatick whimsey but the effect of a diligent enquiry and the most serious consideration And that will appear 2. By the grounds and reasons which St. Paul here gives why he was not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ 1. From the excellent end it was designed for and that is no less than salvation 2. From the effectualness of it in order to that end it is the Power of God to Salvation 3. From the necessity of believing the Gospel by all who would attain that end to every one that believes the Iew first and also to the Greek 1. From the excellent End it was designed for the recovery and happiness of the souls of men both which are implyed in the term salvation For considering the present condition of humane Nature as it is so far sunk beneath it self and kept under the power of unruly passions whatever tends to make it happy must do it by delivering it from all those things which are the occasions of its misery So that whatever Religion should promise to make men happy without first making them vertuous and good might on that very account be justly suspected of imposture For the same reasons which make the acts of any Religion necessary viz. that we may please that God who commands and governs the World must make it necessary for men to do it in those things which are far more acceptable to him than all our sacrifices of what kind soever which are the actions of true vertue and goodness If then that accusation had been true which Celsus and Iulian charged Christianity with viz. that it indulged men in the practice of vice with the promise of a future happiness notwithstanding I know nothing could have rendred it more suspicious to be a design to deceive Mankind But so far is it from having the least foundation of truth in it that as there never was any Religion which gave men such certain hopes of a future felicity and consequently more encouragement to be good so there was none ever required it on those strict and severe terms which Christianity doth For there being two grand duties of men in this world either towards God in the holiness of their hearts and lives or towards their Brethren in a peaceable carriage among men which cannot be without justice and sobriety both these are enforced upon all Christians upon no meaner terms than the unavoidable loss of all the happiness our Religion promises Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Heb. 12. 14. This is then the grand design of Christianity to make men happy in another world by making them good and vertuous in this It came to reform this world that it might people another so to purifie the souls of men as to make them meet to enjoy the happiness designed for them This is that great Salvation which the Gospel brings to the world Heb. 2. 3. and thence it is called the Word of Salvation Acts 13. 26. the way of salvation Acts 16. 17. the Gospel of salvation Ephes. 1. 13. So that though Christianity be of unspeakable advantage to this world there being no Religion that tends so much to the peace of mens minds and
but too much will unfit them for greater business But do men believe these things to be true or not when they say thus if they be true why need they fear their uncertainty if they be certain what pains and care can be too great about them since a little will never serve to obtain them Let but the care and diligence be proportionable to the greatness of the end and the weight of the things and you never need fear the want of a recompence for all your labour But suppose you say if you were fully convinced of their certainty you would look more after them What hinders you from being so convinced Is it not a bad disposition of mind which makes you unwilling to enquire into them examine things with a mind as free as you would have it judge seriously according to the reason of things and you will easily find the interests of a life to come are far more certain as well as more desireable than those of this present life And yet the great uncertainty of all the honours and riches of this world never hinder the covetous or ambitious person from their great earnestness in pursuit of them And shall not then all the mighty arguments which God himself hath made use of to confirm to us the certainty of a life to come prevail upon us to look more seriously after it Shâ—ll the unexpressible love of the Father the unconceiveable sufferings of the Son of God and the miraculous descent and powerful assistance of the Holy Ghost have no more impression on our minds than to leave us uncertain of a future state What mighty doubts and suspicions of God what distrusts of humane Nature what unspeakable ingratitude and unaccountable folly lies at the bottom of all this uncertainty O fools and slow of heart to believe not only what the Prophets have spoken but what our Lord hath declared God himself hath given testimony to and the Holy Ghost hath confirmed 3. But is not your Interest concerned in these things Is it all one to you whether your souls be immortal or no whether they live in eternal felicity or unchangeable misery Is it no more to you than to know what kind of Bables are in request at the Indies or whether the customs of China or Iapan are the wiser i. e. than the most trifling things and the remotest from our knowledge But this is so absurd and unreasonable to suppose that men should not think themselves concerned in their own eternal happiness and misery that I shall not shew so much distrust of their understandings to speak any longer to it 3. But if notwithstanding all these things our neglect still continues then there remains nothing but a fearful looking for of judgement and the fiery indignation of God For there is no possibility of escaping if we continue to neglect so great salvation All hopes of escaping are taken away which are only in that which men neglect and those who neglect their only way to salvation must needs be miserable How can that man ever hope to be saved by him whose blood he despises and tramples under foot What grace and favour can he expect from God who hath done despight unto the Spirit of Grace That hath cast away with reproach and contempt the greatest kindness and offers of Heaven What can save him that resolves to be damned and every one does so who knows he shall be damned if he lives in his sins and yet continues to do so God himself in whose only pity our hopes are hath irreversibly decreed that he will have no pity upon those who despise his goodness slight his threatnings abuse his patience and sin the more because he offers to pardon It is not any â—elight that God takes in the miseries of his Creatures which makes him punish them but shall not God vindicate his own honour against obstinate and impenitent sinners He declares before hand that he is far from delighting in their ruine and that is the reason he hath made such large offers and used so many means to make them happy but if men resolve to despise his offers and slight the means of their salvation shall not God be just without being thought to be cruel And we may assure our selves none shall ever suffer beyond the just desert of their sins for punishment as the Apostle tells us in the words before the Text is nothing but a just recompence of reward And if there were such a one proportionable to the violation of the Law delivered by Angels how shall we think to escape who neglect a more excellent means of happiness which was delivered by our Lord himself If God did not hate sin and there were not a punishment belonging to it why did the Son of God die for the expiation of it and if his death were the only means of expiation how is it possible that those who neglect that should escape the punishment not only of their other sins but of that great contempt of the means of our salvation by him Let us not then think to trifle with God as though it were impossible a Being so merciful and kind should ever punish his Creatures with the miseries of another life For however we may deceive our selves God will not be mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap for he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flâ—sh reap corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting I shall only propound some few Considerations to prevent so great a neglect as that of your salvation is 1. Consider what it is you neglect the offer of Eternal Happiness the greatest kindness that ever was expressed to the World the foundation of your present peace the end of your beings the stay of your minds the great desire of your Souls the utmost felicity that humane Nature is capable of Is it nothing to neglect the favour of a Prince the kindness of Great Men the offers of a large and plentiful Estate but these are nothing to the neglect of the favour of God the love of his Son and that salvation which he hath purchased for you Nay it is not a bare neglect but it implies in it a mighty contempt not only of the things offered but of the kindness of him who offers them If men had any due regard for God or themselves if they had any esteem for his love or their own welfare they would be much more serious in Religion than they are When I see a person wholly immersed in affairs of the World or spending his time in luxury and vanity can I possibly think that man hath any esteem of God or of his own Soul When I find one very serious in the pursuit of his Designs in the World thoughtful and busie subtle in contriving them careful in managing them but very formal remiss and negligent in all affairs
Genetal in the Field after a sharp and fierce encounter at first with a mighty resolution by his Souldiers when he finds by the number and fresh recruits of the enemy that his smaller forces are like to be born down before them and through meer weariness of fighting are ready to turn their backs or yield themselves up to the enemies mercy lie conjures them by the honour they have gain'd and the courage they had already expressed by their own interest and the example of their Leaders by the hopes of glory and the fears of punishment that they would bear the last shock of their enemies force and rather be the Trophies of their Courage than of their Triumphs so does our Apostle when he finds some among them begin to debate whether they had best to stand it out or no he conjures them 1. By the remembrance of their own former courage whereby they did bear as sharp tryals as these could be with the greatest chearfulness and constancy and what could they gain by yielding at last but great dishonour to themselves that they had suffer'd so long to no purpose unless it were to discover their own weakness and inconstancy 2. By the hopes of a reward which would surely follow their faithfulness v. 35 36. Cast not away therefore your confidence which hath great recompence of reward For ye have need of patience that after ye have done the will of God ye might receive the promise and the time will not be long ere ye come to enjoy it v. 37. but if ye draw back you lose all your former labours for he who alone is able to recompence you hath said that if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him v. 38. and then from the example of himself and all the genuine followers of Christ but we are not of them who draw back unto perdition but of them that believe to the saving of the soul v. 39. But lest these examples should not be enough to perswade them he conjures them by the name of all those who were as eminent for the greatness of their minds as the strength of their Faith who have despised the frowns as well as the smiles of the world and were not discouraged by the severest tryals from placing their confidence in God and their hopes in a life to come and all this done by persons who had not received the Promise Heb. 11. 39. and could there be a greater disparagement to the clearness of that light we enjoy above them if we only grew fainter by it And therefore in the beginning of this Chapter he encourages them by that army of Martyrs which had gone before them by that Cloud of witnesses which did both direct and refresh them that they would lay aside every thing which was apt to oppress or dishearten them but especially their sinful fears which they were so easily betray'd by and so run with patience the race that was set before them v. 1. But saith he if none of these will prevail with you there is an example yet behind which ought above all others to heighten your courage and that is of the Captain of your salvation the author and sinisher of your faith under whom you serve and from whom you expect your reward and as Caesar once said to his Souldiers when he saw them ready to retreat out of the field Videte quem quo loco Imperatorem deserturi estis Remember what kind of General you forsake and in what place you leave him one whom you have vow'd your lives and your service to one who hath thought nothing too dear which was to be done for your good one that will be ready to reward the least service you can do for him one that is ready to assist you to the utmost in what you undertake one that hath already undergone far more for your sakes than ever you can do for his therefore Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest ye be weary and faint in your minds In which words we have represented to us the unparallel'd example of courage and patience under sufferings in our Lord and Saviour and the great influence that it ought to have on all those who are call'd by his Name that they would not dishonour so excellent a pattern of enduring sufferings by weakness or dejection of mind Christianity is a Religion which above all others does arm men against all the contingencies and miseries of the life of man yea it makes them serviceable to the most advantageous purpoâ—es that the greatest blessings can be designed for It raises the minds of men higher than barely to consider the common condition of humane nature the unavoidableness of such things which are out of our own power and the unreasonableness of tormenting our selves about the things which are so and that most mens conditions in the world as to their contentment depends more upon their minds than their outward circumstances though these are things very fit for us as men to consider and make use of yet they do not reach to that height which the consideration of a life to come and the tendency of all our sufferings here to the inhancement of our future glory may raise us to Especially considering not only the weight of the arguments in themselves but the force they receive from the example of him who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross and despised the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God By which mighty instance we find that the sufferings of this life are so far from being inconsistent with the joys of another that he who is the Captain of salvation was made perfect through sufferings and therefore none of his followers have cause to be dejected under them But that we may the better understand the force of this argument we shall consider 1. What those things were which he endured 2. From whom he suffer'd them it was the contradiction of sinners against himself 3. In that Way and manner he underwent them 4. For what ends he did it And when we have considered these we shall see the influence this example of Christs sufferings ought to have upon our constancy and patience which will be the most useful improvement of it to us 1. What those things were which Christ endured which are here comprehended under those words the contradiction of sinners It is agreed by the best Expositors both Greek and Latin that under this phrase of the contradiction of sinners the whole history of our Saviours sufferings is comprehended All the injuries reproaches false accusations all the cruelties indignities and violence which were offer'd him from the time of his publick appearance to his expiring upon the Cross being undergone by him by the malice of unreasonable men may be call'd the contradiction of sinners For the sense of this word extends
proceedings with him and the obligations that lay upon them to the contrary So that the first shews the injustice and unreasonableness of them the second their great ingratitude considering the kindness and good will which he expressed towards them 1. The Injustice and unreasonableness of their proceedings against him It is true indeed what Socrates said to his wife when she complained that he suffer'd unjustly What saith he and would you have me suffer justly it is much greater comfort to the person who does suffer when he does it unjustly but it is a far greater reflection on those who were the causes of it And that our Blessed Saviour did suffer with the greatest injustice from these men is apparent from the falseness and weakness of all the accusations which were brought against him To accuse the Son of God for Blaphemy in saying he was so is as unjust as to condemn a King for treason because he saith he is a King they ought to have examined the grounds on which he call'd himself so and if he had not given pregnant evidences of it then to have passed sentence upon him as an Impostor and Blasphemer If the thing were true that he was what he said the Son of God what horrible guilt was it in them to imbrue their hands in his blood and they found he always attested it and now was willing to lay down his life to confirm the truth of what he said This surely ought at least to have made them more inquisitive into what he had affirmed but they allow him not the liberty of a fair tryal they hasten and precipitate the sentence that they might do so the execution If he were condemned as a false Prophet for that seems to be the occasion of the Sanhedrim meeting to do it to whom the cognisance of that did particularly belong why do they not mention what it was he had foretold which had not come to pass or what reason do they give why he had usurped such an Office to himself If no liberty were allowed under pain of death for any to say that they were sent from God how was it possible for the Messias ever to appear and not be condemned for the expectation of him was that he should be a great person immediately sent from God for the delivery of his people And should he be sent from God and not say that he was so for how then could men know that he was So that their way of proceeding with him discovers it self to be manifestly unjust and contrary to their own avowed expectations Neither were they more successful in the accusation of him before Pilate why did not the witnesses appear to make good the charge of sedition and treason against him where were the proofs of any thing tending that way Nay that which abundantly testified the innocency of our Saviour as to all the matters he was accused of was that the Roman Governour after a full examination of the cause declares him innocent and that not only once but several times and was fully satisfied in the Vindication he made of himself so that nothing but the fear of what the Iews threatned viz. accusing him to Caesar a thing he had cause enough otherwise to be afraid of which made him at last yield to their importunity But there was one circumstance more which did highly discover the innocency of Christ and the injustice of his sufferings which was Iuda's confession and end the man who had betray'd his Lord and had receiv'd the wages of his iniquity but was so unquiet with it that in the time when his other Disciples durst not own him he with a great impetus returns to them with his Money throws it among them with that sad farewel to them all I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood What could have been said more for his Vindication at this time than this was by such a person as Iudas one who had known our Saviour long and had been the fittest instrument if any guilt could have been fasten'd upon him to have managed the accusation against him but the anxiety of his mind was too great for what he had done already to live to do them any longer service for either his grief suffocated him or his guilt made him hang himself for the words will signifie either Neither can it be said by any modern Iews that all the testimony we have of these things is from his own Disciples but that certainly they had some greater matter to accuse him of which we now have lost For how is it possible to conceive that a matter so important as that was should be lost by those of their own Nation who were so highly concerned to vindicate themselves in all places as soon as the Gospel was spread abroad in the World For the guilt of this blood was every where by the Christians charged upon them and their prodigious sufferings afterwards were imputed wholly by them to the shedding of that blood of Christ which by a most solemn imprecation they had said should be upon them and their Children Besides how comes Celsus who personates a Iew opposing Christianity to mention no other accusations against him but those recorded in the Gospel and Origen challenges him or any other person to charge him with any action which might deserve punishment And which is very observable Porphyrie one of the most inveterate enemies of Christianity and that took as much pains to write against it as any and had more learning to do it with yet in his Book of the Philosophy of Oracles as St. Augustin tells us quotes an Oracle wherein were these words concerning Christ And what became of him after his death it saith that his Soul was immortal Viri pietate praestantissimi est illa anima and that it was the soul of a most excellent person for piety and being then asked why he was condemned the answer only is that the body of the best is exposed to weakning torments but the Soul rests in heavenly habitations So that on no account can this contradiction appear to be otherwise than an act of great injustice and cruelty and therefore must needs be the contradiction of sinners 2. This contradiction of theirs to Christ was an act of high Ingratitude It was a sharp but very just rebuke which the Iews received from our Saviour when they were once ready to stone him Many good works have I shewed you from my Father for which of those works do you stone me The very same might have been applyed to his Judges and accusers when they were about to crucifie him For what was his whole Life after he appeared publickly but a constant design of doing good His presence had far more vertue for the curing all bodily distempers than the Pool of Bethesda among the Iews or the Temples of Aesculapius among the Gentiles What wonders
work so many miraculous cures by vertue of a temperament peculiar to themselves for how come they only to happen to have this temperament and none of the Jews who had all equal advantages with them for it Why did none of the enemies of Christ do as strange things as they did How come they never to do it before they were Christians nor in such an extraordinary manner till after the day of Pentecost Did the being Christians alter their natural temper and infuse a sanative vertue into them which they never had before Or rather was not their Christianity like to have spoyled it if ever they had it before by their frequent watchings fastings hunger and thirst cold and nakedness stripes and imprisonments racks and torments Are these the improvers of an excellent constitution if they be I doubt not but those who magnifie it in them would rather want the vertue of it than be at the pains to obtain it 2. But what a natural temper cannot do they think the power of imagination may and therefore in order to the enervating the power of miracles they mightily advance that of imagination which is the Idol of those who are as little Friends to reason in it as they are to Religion Any thing shall be able to effect that which they will not allow God to do nay the mostextravagant thing which belongs to humane nature shall have a greater power than the most holy and divine spirit But do not we see say they strange effects of the power of imagination upon mankind I grant we do and in nothing more than when men set it up against the power of God yet surely we see far greater effects of that in the world than we do of the other The power of imagination can never be supposed to give a being to the things we see in the world but we have the greatest reason to attribute that to a divine and infinite power and is it not far more rational that that which gave a Being to the course of nature should alter it when it pleaseth than that which had nothing to do in the making of it So that in general there can be no competition between the power of God and the strength of imagination as to any extraordinary effects which happen in the world But this is not all for there is a repugnancy in the very nature of the thing that the power of imagination should do all those miracles which were wrought by Christ or his Apostles For either they must be wrought by the imagination of the Agent or of the Patient if of the Agent then there can be no more necessary to do the same things than to have the same strength of imagination which they had what is the reason then that never since or before that time were so many signs and wonders wrought as there were then by the Apostles and Disciples of our Lord If Peter and Iohn cured the lame man by the strength of imagination why have no persons ever since cured those whose welfare they have as heartily desired as ever they could do his Certainly if imagination could kill mens enemies there would never need Duels to destroy them nor Authority to punish such as do it and if it could cure Friends there would need no Physitians to heal and recover them and death would have nothing to do but with persons that were wholly Friendless If they say that persons are not sufficiently perswaded of their own power and therefore they do see little good let any of those who contend the most for it attempt the cure when they please of any the most common infirmity of mankind and if they cannot do that let them then perswade us they can do miracles by that which they cannot cure the tooth-ach by But here they will say the imagination of the Patient is necessary in order to a miracle being wrought upon him not such I am sure as Christ and his Apostles wrought who not only healed the lame and the blind but raised the dead and what power of imagination do they suppose in Lazarus when he had lain four days in the Grave and however they think of the soul they must in this case allow this power of imagination to be immortal So that were there no other arguments but that of raising the dead that demonstrates it impossible that what Christ or his Apostles did did depend on the strength of Fancy in those on whom they wrought their miracles Object But say they did not Christ and his Apostles require believing first in all persons that had miracles wrought upon them and why should this be but because the strength of imagination was required to it And is it not expresly said that Christ could not do any mighty works among his own country men because of their unbelief by which it appears that the efficacy of his miracles did depend on the faith of the persons To which I answer Answ. 1. That Christ did not always require faith in the person on whom he wrought his miracles for then it had been impossible he should ever have raised any from the dead which we are sure he did And did not St. Paul raise Euâ—ychus from the dead and can any think so absurdly as that faith was required from a dead man in order to his resurrection So that the greatest miracles of all others were wrought where there was no possibility of believing in those on whom they were wrought 2. When in miraculous cures believing was required it was to shew for what end those miracles were wrought viz. to confirm the Doctrine of the Gospel by them they did not work miracles to be admired by the people as Simon Magus would have done the Apostles had no such intolerable vanity to be cried up for Gods though they did such great things not like that Caesar of the Atheists as some call him who concludes one of his Dialogues with that horrible piece of vanity to say no more of it aut Deus es aut Vaninus and Pomponatius his Master before him had said Philosophi sunt Dii terrestres and you must be sure to reckon him in the number but how was it possible for these men to discover more their mean thoughts of a Deity than by making him to be as despicable as themselves What boasting and ostentation would these men have made of themselves if they could have done but the thousand part of what the Apostles did But they were men did as far excel all such in all true vertue and real excellency as they did in that miraclous power which God had given them If they required men to believe whom they cured it was that they might cure both body and soul together but sometimes they cured persons whom they saw not as the hankerchiefs from St. Paul at Ephesus cured the diseased when they were carried to them But generally
the supposition of humane nature or a being endued and acting with reason to make all things equally good or evil For what doth reason signifie as it respects the actions of men but a faculty of discerning what is good and fitting to be done from what is evil and ought to be avoided And to what purpose is such a faculty given us if there be no such difference in the nature of things Might not men with equal probability argue that there is no such thing as a difference in the things about which life and sense are conversant as in those wherein reason is imploved With what impatience would those men be heard who should assert that there is no such thing as a difference in the qualities of meats and drinks but that they do all equally tend to the preservation of life that it is pedantical and beneath a Gentleman to talk of any such thing as Poisons that will so suddenly and certainly destroy mens lives and that these are things which none talk of or believe besides those whose trade is either to kill or cure men With how much wit and subtilty might a man argue upon these things that it is impossible for any man to define what the nature of poison is or in what manner it destroys the life of man that men have conquered the malignity of it by use and that the same things which have been poison to some have been food and nourishment to others But notwithstanding all these plausible arguments none of these brave spirits dare venture the experiment upon themselves and yet these only changing the terms are the very same arguments used against the natural differences of good and evil viz. the difficulty of defining or setting the exact bounds of them and the different customs or apprehensions of men in the world concerning the things which are called good and evil If we proceed farther to the objects of sense how ridiculous would those persons appear that should with a mighty confidence go about to perswade men that the differences between light and darkness between pleasure and pain between smells and tasts and noises are but phantastick and imaginary things Who would ever believe that those are men of the most excellent sight to whom light and darkness are equal for others who pretend not to so much wit are wont to call such persons blind Or that those have the most exquisite sense that feel no difference of pain and pleasure which was wont to be thought the sign of no sense at all And surely the persons I am now arguing against love their palats too well to admire those who can discern no difference of tasts and would be well enough contented to be thought deaf if they could put no distinction between the pleasant sound of vocal or instrumental Musick and the harsh jarring of two saws drawn cross each other Thus it appears that nothing would make men more ridiculous than to explode and laugh at the difference that there is in the means of life and the objects of sense let us now proceed higher Dare any man say there is no such thing as reason in man because there appears so little of the truth of it in men and so much of the counterfeit of it in Bruits or that there is no such thing as a difference of Truth and fashood because they are so commonly mistaken for one another What reason then imaginable can there be that there should not be as wide a distance in the matters of our choice as in the objects of our sense and understanding Is it that we have natural faculties of sense and perception but not of choice that every one is able to resute by his constant experience that finds a greater liberty in his choice than in his perception The reason of which is wholly unintelligible unless a difference be found in the nature of the things proposed to his choice that some have a greater excellency and commendableness in them more agreeable to humane nature more satisfactory to the minds of those who choose them than others are And must all this difference be destroyed meerly because all men are not agreed what things are good and what evil We call goodness the beauty of the soul and do men question whether there be such a thing as beauty at all because there are so many different opinions in the world about it Or is deformity ever the less real because the several nations of the world represent it in a colour different from their own Those arguments then against the natural differences of good and evil must needs appear ridiculous which will be granted to hold in nothing else but only the thing in question And yet in the midst of all the ruines and decays of humane nature we find such evident footsteps and impressions of the differences of good and evil in the minds of men which no force could extinguish no time could deface no customs could alter Let us search the records of ancient times and enquire into the later discoveries of nations we shall find none so barbarous and bruitish as not to allow the differences of good and evil so far as to acknowledge that there are some things which naturally deserve to be praised and others which deserve to be punished Where as if good and evil were meerly names of things there can be no reason assigned why praise and honour should necessarily belong to some things and infamy and disgrace to follow others If the things themselves be arbitrary the consequences of them would be so too But is it possible to imagine that any man should deserve to be punished as much for being true to his trust as for betraying it for honouring his Parents as for destroying them for giving to every one their due as for all the arts of injustice and oppression Is it possible for men to suffer as much in their esteem for their fidelity temperance and chastity as they always do for their falseness intemperance and lasciviousness How comes the very name of a lie to be a matter of so much reproach and dishonour that the giving of it is thought an injury so great as cannot be expiated without the satisfaction of the givers blood if it be in it self self so indifferent a thing Nay I dare appeal to the consciences of the most wicked persons whether they are so well pleased with themselves when they come reeking from the satisfaction of their lusts and sodden with the continuance of their debaucheries as when they have been paying their devotions to God or their duties to their Parents or their respects to their Country or Friends Is there not whether they will or no an inward shame and secret regret and disquiet following the one and nothing but ease and contentment the other What should make this difference in those persons who love their vices far more than they do the other and if
he will not do it when he hath declared that he will is instead of bringing peace to his own mind to set God at variance with himself For nothing can be more plainly revealed more frequently inculcated more earnestly pressed than that there is a day of wrath to come wherein the righteous judgement of God shall be revealed and wherein God will render to every man according to his deeds wherein tribulation and anguish and wrath shall be upon every soul of man that doth evil wherein the secrets of all hearts and actions shall be disclosed when the graves shall be opened and they that have done good shall come forth to the resurrection of life and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation For the Lord Iesus himself even he who dyed for the salvation of all penitent sinners shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power Then shall that dreadful sentence be passed upon all impenitent sinners depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Which words are so full of horrour and astonishment as might not only disturb the sinners peace and security but awaken him to such a sense of his sins as to loath abhorr and forsake them and thereby flie from the wrath to come 3. But after all this is it possible to suppose that any should think their present pleasures would countervail all the miseries of another life which is the last imaginable foundation for a sinners peace while he continues in his wickedness The most professed Epicureans that ever were made this one of their fundamental maxims that no pleasure was to be chosen which brought after it a pain greater than it self on which account they made temperance and sobriety necessary to a pleasant life because excesses and debaucheries leave far more of burden than of ease behind them But what would these men have said if they had believed the intolerable anguish of a tormented mind the racks of an enraged conscience the fire of everlasting vengeance to be the consequent of all the pleasures of sin they must upon their own principles have concluded that none but madmen and fools would ever venture upon them And that not only because the after pain would so much exceed the present pleasure but because the fears of that pain to come must abate proportionably of the pleasure which might otherwise be enjoyed Suppose a man certainly knew that upon the pleasing his palat with the most excellent wine and gratifying his appetite with the most delicate food he must be racked with the stone and tormented with the Gout as long as he should live can we imagine such a person could have any pleasure in his mind whatever his palat had in the emjoyment of them while he did consider the consequent of them But what are these miseries compared with the insupportable horrour of a conscience loaden with guilt sunk under despair having a gnawing worm and unquenchable flames the wrath of an almighty God and the fury of his vengeance to encounter with without the least hopes of conquering I do not now ask what the sinner will then think of all his Atheism and Infidelity when the greatness of his miserie shall convince him that it is an Almighty hand which lays it upon him nor what pleasure he can have in the thoughts of his former excesses when not one drop can be procured for the mitigation of his flames nor what satisfaction those lusts have given him the very thoughts of which pierce his soul and if it were possible would rend him in pieces with the torment of them but that which I demand is what peace of mind a sinner can have in this world who knows not how soon he may be dispatched to that place of torment can he bind the hands of the Almighty that he shall not snatch him away till he doth repent or can he reverse the decrees of heaven or suspend the execution of them can he abrogate the force of his Laws and make his own terms with God can he dissolve the chains of darkness with a few death-bed tears and quench the flames of another world with them O foolish sinners who hath bewitched them with these deceitful dreams will heaven-gates fly open with the strength of a few dying groans will the mouth of hell be stopt with the bare lamentation of a sinner Are there such charms in some penitent words extorted from the fear of approaching misery that God himself is not able to resist them Certainly there is no deceit more dangerous nor I fear more common in the world than for men to think that God is so easie to pardon sin that though they spend their lives in satisfying their lusts they shall make amends for all by a dying sorrow and a gasping repentance As though the unsaying what we had done or wishing we had done otherwise since we can do it no longer for that is the bottom of all putting off repentance to the last were abundant compensation to the justice of God for the affronts of his Majesty contempt of his Laws abuse of his patience and all the large indictments of wilful and presumptuous sins which the whole course of our lives is charged with The supposal of which makes the whole design of Religion signify very little in the world Thus we have examined the foundations of a sinners peace and found them very false and fallacious 2. we are now to shew that those things do accompany a sinners course of life which certainly overthrow his peace which are these two 1. The reflections of his mind 2. The violence of his passions 1. The reflections of his mind which he can neither hinder nor be pleased with No doubt if it were possible for him to deprive himself of the greatest excellency of his being it would be the first work he would do to break the glass which shews him his deformity For as our Saviour saith every one that doth evil hateth the light lest his deeds should be reproved not only the light without which discovers them but that light of conscience within which not only shines but burns too Hence proceeds that great uneasiness which a sinner feels within as often as he considers what he hath done amiss which we call the remorse of conscience and is the natural consequent of the violence a man offers to his reason in his evil actions It was thought a sufficient vindication of the innocency of two Brothers by the Roman Judges when they were accused for Parricide that although their Father was murthered in the same room where they lay and no other person was found on whom they could fasten the
all things they do not love to dispute where they cannot answer and that is their case in all their retorts of Conscience upon them They know there is no drolling with so sowre a piece as that within them is for that makes the smartest and most cutting repartees which are uneasie to bear but impossible to answer Therefore they study their own quiet by seeking to keep that silent and since they never hope to make Conscience dumb they would have it sleep as much as may be and although the starts it sometimes makes shew that the most sleepy sinners have some troublesom dreams yet if it doth not throughly awake in this world it will do it with a vengeance in another Then there will be no Musick and Dancing which can cure the biting of this Tarantula within no Opium of stupidity or Atheism will be able to give one minutes rest How will men then curse themselves for their own folly in being so easily tempted and all those who laid traps and snares to betray them by what different apprehensions of sin will they have then from what they have now while they are beset with temptations to it O will a forsaken sinner then say had I ever believed as I ought to have done that this would have been the fruit of a sinful life I should have taken more care to prevent this misery than I have done But O the solly of intemperance the mischief of ambition the rage of lust the unfatiableness of covetousness the madness of debauchery and the dulness of Atheism what have ye now brought me to with all your pleasures and promises and flatteries while I lost my soul in your service O that I had time to grow wise again and once more to try whether I could withstand the cheats and witchcraft of a deceitful world Now all my sins are as fresh before me as if committed yesterday and their burden is heavier than the weight of mountains however light I made of them then I need no judge to condemn me but my own conscience O that I could as easily see an end of my misery as I do that I have deserved that there should be none Thus shall the book of conscience be opened at that day in the heart of every impenitent sinner wherein like Ezekiels roul he finds written within and without lamentation and mourning and Woe Yet this will not be the only terrour in the proceedings of that day that all the sins that ever wicked men committed will be set in order before them with their several circumstances and aggravations although the remembrance of them cannot be without extreme horrour and amazement but that they must undergo a strict and severe examination of all their actions by a most powerful holy and just Judge And if it be so troublesom a thing to them in this world to go down into themselves or to call to remembrance their own wicked actions which they have loved and delighted in what will it be when they must all be brought forth before the judgement seat of Christ who hates and abhorrs them If men can so hardly endure to have the deformity of their vices represented to them though very imperfectly here how will they bear the dissecting and laying them open in the view of the whole world When the smallest fibres and the most subtile threads in our hearts shall be curiously examined and the influence they have had upon our actions fully discovered When sins that have been dispised for their littleness or unregarded for their frequency or laughed at as no sins at all shall appear to have had a greater venom in them than men would imagine What shall they think then of their great and presumptuous sins whereby they have not only offered violence to God and his Laws but to the dictates of their own consciences in committing them Never think that length of time will abate the severity of the enquiry or lessen the displeasure of God against thee for them Remember the case of Amalek how God dealt with that people in this world for a sin committed 400. years before and think then whether God be not in earnest when he tells us how much he hates sin and how severe he will be in the punishment of it I remember saith God what Amalek did to Israel how he laid wait for him in the way when he came up from Egypt Now go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have and spare them not but slâ—y both man and woman infant and suckling c. What a whole naâ—ion to be destroyed for one sin and for a sin they thought to be none at all who committed it and for a sin at so great a distance of time from the commission of it But I forbear I know not whether there be such another instance of Gods severity in Scripture but it is such as may justly make us cry out with the Pâ—almist If thou Lord shouldst thus mark iniquities O Lord who shall stand But although God in this world so seldom shews his severity and tempers it with so much kindness we have no reason to expect he should do so in another For here he hath declared that mercy rejoyceth against judgement This being the time of Gods patience and forbearance and goodness towards sinners being not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance but if men will despise the riches of his goodness if they wil still abuse his patience if they will trample under foot the means of their own salvation then they shall to their unspeakable sorrow find that there is a day of wrath to come wherein their own dreadfull experience will tell them that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God For that will be a day of Justice without mercy a day of vengeance without pity a day of execution without any further patience Then no vain excuses will be taken whereby men seek to palliate their sins and give ease to their minds now It will be to no purpose to charge thy wilful sins upon the infirmity of thy nature the power of temptation the subtility of the Devil the allurement of company the common practice of the world the corruption of the age the badness of education the folâ—y of youth all these and such like excuses will be too weak to be made then when it shall appear to thy eternal confusion that thy own vicious inclination swayed thee beyond them all Then there will be as little place for intreaties as for vain excuses God shews his great pity and indulgence to mankind now that he is so ready to hear the prayers and grant the desires of all penitent sinners but for those who stop their ears to all his instructions and will not not hearken to the reproofs of his word or the rebukes of their own consciences but
inclinations of men and proposed such means of advancing it as were most like to make men great by undertaking them And men are never so willing to be cheated by any Religion as that which complies with their present interests and gratifies their sensual inclinations In this case there need not many arguments to court persons to embrace that which they were so strongly inclined to before and the very name of Religion does them great service when it allows what they most desire and makes them sin with a quiet Conscience But that is the peculiar honor of Christianity that as it can never be suspected to be a design for this world so it hath risen and spread it self by ways directly contrary to the Splendor and Greatness of it For it overcame by sufferings increased by persecutions and prevailed in the world by the patience and self-denial of its followers He that was the first Preacher of it was the greatest example of suffering himself and he bids his Disciples not to think much of following their Lord and Saviour though it were to take up the Cross and lay down their lives for his sake We may easily imagine how much startled and surprized his Disciples were at such discourses as these who being possessed with the common opinion of the temporal Kingdom of the Messias came to him with great expectations of honour and advancement by him and no less would content some of them than being his highest Favourites and Ministers of State suting at his right hand and at his left hand in his Kingdom they had already in their imaginations shared the preferments and dignities of his Kingdom among themselves and were often contending about preheminence who should be the greatest among them Insomuch that when Christ now the time of his suffering approaching began more plainly to discourse to them of his own sufferings at Hierusalem v. 21. St. Peter either out of his natural forforwardness and heat or being elevated by the good opinion which our Lord had expressed of him before v. 17. takes upon him very solemnly to rebuke him for ever thinking to submit himself to so mean a condition Be it far from thee Lord this shall not be unto thee v. 22. upon which Jesus not only reproves Peter with great smartness and severity as savoring more of the pomp and ease of the world than of the nature and design of his Kingdom v. 23. but takes this occasion to tell his Disciples that they must no longer dream of the Glories and Splendor of this world nor entertain themselves with vain Fancies of the Pleasures and contentments of this life but if they would shew themselves to be truly his Disciples they must prepare for persecutions and Martyrdoms they must value their Religion above their lives for the time was now coming on they must part with one or the other and if they were not prepared beforehand by self-denial and taking up the Cross they would run great hazard of losing their souls for the love of this world and therefore our Saviour shews 1. The great advantage that would accrue to them if they were willing to suffer for his sake Whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it v. 25. i. e. instead of this short and uncertain life which would spend it self in a little time he should have one infinitely more valuable and therefore no exchange could be better made than that of laying down such a life as this for one of eternal Happiness and Glory for so our Saviour elsewhere explains it he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal St. John 12. 25. 2. The great folly of losing this eternal state of happiness for the preservation of this present life or the enjoyment of the things of this world which he first lays down as a certain truth v. 25. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it and then discovers the folly of it in the words of the text by comparing such a mans gain and his loss together supposing he should obtain the utmost that can be hoped for in this world For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul Wherein we may consider these three particulars 1. The possibility supposed of losing the soul though a man should gain the whole world 2. The hazard implied of the loss of the soul for the sake of the gain of the world 3. The folly expressed of losing the soul though it be for the gain of the whole world 1. The possibility supposed of the loss of the soul in another world For the force of our Saviours argument depends wholly on the supposition of the certainty of the souls Being in another state and its capacity of happiness or misery therein For setting that aside there can be no argument strong enough to perswade any man to part not only with what he hath or hopes for in this life but with life it self He that is so great a Fool to be an Athiest would yet be much more so to be a Martyr for his opinion What is there could recompence the loss of life to a man that believes that there is nothing after it But supposing there should be a life to come as it is impossible to give any demonstration to the contrary what madness would it be for a man to run himself into the miseries of another world with a design to prove there is none If all that our Saviour had meant were only to represent the folly of a person that would lay down his life for the purchase of an estate for so the soul is often taken for the life that would not have reached the scope and design of his discourse And no instances can be produced of such a kind of folly which would be as great as for a man to lose his head for a wager or to purchase the lease of his life by destroying himself But supposing this to be a Proverbial speech yet the folly of losing a mans life for the gain of the whole world is not brought in by our Saviour meerly for it self but as it doth much more represent the unspeakable folly of such who for the love of this world will venture the loss of an eternal endearing life and all the misery which is consequent upon it If that man would gain nothing by his bargains but the reputation of a Fool that for the possession of the whole world for one moment would be content to be killed in the next how much greater folly are they guilty of that for the sake of this world and the pâ—eservation of their lives here expose themselves to all the miseries of another life which God hath threatned or their souls can undergo It is such a loss of the soul which is here spo ken of as is consistent with
nature to have yet the very thoughts of dying and leaving all in a short time must needs make his happiness seem much less considerable to him And every wise man would provide most for that State wherein he is sure to continue longest The shortness of life makes the pleasures of it less desirable and the miseries less dreadful but an endless State makes every thing of moment which belongs to it Where there is variety and liberty of change there is no necessity of any long deliberation before hand but for that which is to continue always the same the greatest consideration is needful because the very continuance of some things is apt to bring weariness and satiety with it If a man were bound for his whole life time to converse only with one person without so much as seeing any other he would desire time and use his best judgement in the choice of him If one were bound to lie in the same posture without any motion but for a month together how would he imploy his wits before hand to make it as easie and tolerable as might be Thus solicitous and careful would men be for any thing that was to continue the same although but for a short time here But what are those things to the endless duration of a soul in a misery that is a perpetual destruction and everlasting death always intolerable and yet must always be endured A misery that must last when time it self shall be no more and the utmost periods we can imagine fall infinitely short of the continuance of it O the unfathomable Abysse of Eternity how are our imaginations lost in the conceptions of it But what will it then be to be swallowed up in an Abysse of misery and eternity together And I do not know how such an eternal State of misery could have been represented in Scripture in words more Emphatical than it is not only by everlasting fire and everlasting destrustion but by a worm that never dyes and a fire that never goes out and the very same expressions are used concerning the eternal State of the Blessed and the damned so that if there were any reason to Question the one there would be the same to question the other also 4. The loss of this world may be abundantly recompenced but the loss of the soul can never be For what shall a man give in exchange for his soul If a man runs the hazard of losing all that is valuable or desirable in this world for the sake of his soul heaven eternal happiness will make him infinite amends for it He will have no cause to repent of his bargain that parts with his share in this evil world for the joys and glories which are above They who have done this in the resolution of their minds have before hand had so great satisfaction in it that they have gloried in tribulations and rejoyced in hopes of the glory of God they have upon casting up their accounts found that the sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed because the afflictions they meet with here are but light and momentany but that which they expected in recompence for them was an exceeding and an eternal weight of Glory O blessed change what life can be so desirable as the parting with it is on such terms as these It was the hopes of this glorious recompence which inspired so many Martyrs to adventure for heaven with so much courage patience and constancy in the primitive times of the Christian Church How do they look down from heaven and despise all the vanities of this world in comparison with what they enjoy And if they are sensible of what is done on earth with what pity do they behold us miserable creatures that for the sake of the honours pleasures or riches of this world venture the loss of all which they enjoy and thereby of our souls too Which is a loss so great that no recompence can ever be made for it no price of redemption can ever be accepted for the delivery of it For even the Son of God himself who laid down his life for the redemption of souls shall then come from heaven with flaming fire to take vengeance on all those who so much despise the blood he hath shed for them the warnings he hath given to them the Spirit he hath promised them the reward he is ready to bestow upon them as in spight of all to cast away those precious and immortal souls which he hath so dearly bought with his own blood Methinks the consideration of these things might serve to awaken our security to cure our stupidity to check our immoderate love of this world and inflame our desires of a better Wherein can we shew our selves men more than by having the greatest regard to that which makes us men which is our souls Wherein can we shew our selves Christians better than by abstaining from all those hurtful lusts which war against our souls and doing those things which tend to make them happy We are all walking upon the shore of eternity and for all that we know the next tide may sweep us away shall we only sport and play or gather cockle shells and lay them in heaps like Children till we are snatched away past all recovery It is no such easie matter to prevent the losing our souls as secure sinners are apt to imagine It was certainly to very little purpose that we are bid to work out our Salvation if lying still would do it or to give all diligence about it if none would serve the turn or to strive to enter in at the straight gate if it were so wide to receive all sinners No Many shall seek to enter in and shall not be able what then shall become of those that run as far from it as they can Those I mean whom no intreaties of God himself no kindness of his Son no not the laying down his life for their souls no checks or rebukes of their own consciences can hinder from doing those things which do without a speedy and sincere repentance exclude men from the Kingdom of heaven O that men could at last be perswaded to understand themselves and set a just value upon their immortal souls How would they then despile the vanities conquer the temptations and break through the difficulties of this present world and by that means fit their souls for the eternal enjoyment of that blessed State of souls which God the Father hath promised his Son hath purchased and the Holy Ghost hath confirmed To whom be rendred c. FINIS A DISCOURSE Concerning the TRUE REASON OF THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST By EDWARD STILLINGFLEET D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty The Second Edition LONDON Printed by Robert White for Henry Mortlock and are to be sold at his Shops at the Sign
v. 4. For he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows which is applied by St. Matth. 8. 17. to bodily diseases which our Saviour did not bear but took away as it is said in the foregoing verse he healed all that were sick on which those words come in That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias c. To which I answer 1. It is granted by our Adversaries that St. Mathew in those words doth not give the full sense of the Prophet but only applies that by way of accommodation to bodily diseases which was chiefly intended for the sins of men And in a way of accommodation it is not unusual to strain words beyond their genuine and natural signification or what was intended primarily by the person who spake them Would it be reasonable for any to say that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to give because that place Psal. 68 18. where the word by all is acknowledged to signifie to receive is rendred to give Eph. 4. 8. so that admitting another sense of the word here as applied to the cure of bodily diseases it doth not from thence follow that this should be the meaning of the word in the primary sense intended by the Prophet 2. The word as used by St. Matthew is very capable of the primary and natural sense for St. Matthew retain words of the same signification with that which we contend for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither of which doth signifie taking away by causing a thing not to be So that all that is implied hereby is the pains and trouble which our Saviour took in the healing of the sick For to that end as Grotius well observes upon that place the circumstances are mentioned That it was at even and multitudes were brought to him in St. Matthew that after Sunset all that were diseased were brought and all the City was gathered together at the door in St. Mark That he departed not till it was day in St. Luke that we might the better understand how our Saviour did bear our griefs because the pains he took in healing them were so great And here I cannot but observe that Grotius in his notes on that place continued still in the same mind he was in when he writ against Socinus for he saith Those words may either refer to the diseases of the body and so they note the pains he took in the cure of them or to our sins and so they were fulfilled when Christ by suffering upon the cross did obtain remission of sins for us as St. Peter saith 1 Pet. 2. 24. But upon what reason the Annotations on that place come to be so different from his sense expressed here long after Crellius his answer I do not understand But we are sure he declared his mind as to the main of that Controversie to be the same that it was when he writ his Book which Crellius answered as appears by two Letters of his to Vossius not long since published and he utterly disowns the charge of Socinianism as a calumny in his discussion the last Book he ever writ But we are no further obliged to vindicate Grotius than he did the truth which we are sure he did in the vindication of the 53 of Isaiah from Socinus his interpretations notwithstanding what Crellius hath objected against him We therefore proceed to other Verses in the same Chapter insisted on by Grotius to prove That Christ did bear the punishments of our sins v. 6 7. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all It is required and he was afflicted as Grotius renders those words Socinus makes a twofold sense of the former clause the first is That God by or with Christ did meet with our iniquities the latter That God did â—ake our iniquities to meeâ— with Christ. The words saith Grotius will not bear the former interpretation for the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being in Hiphil must import a double action and so it must not be That God by him did meet with our sins but that God did make our sins to meet upon him To which Crellius replies That words in Hiphil are sometimes used intransitively but can he produce any instance in Scripture where this word joyned with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is so taken for in the last verâ—e of the Chapter the construction is different And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 uncertain way of interpreting Scripture will this be 〈◊〉 every Anomalous signification and rare use of a word shall be made use of to take away such a sense as is most agreeable to the design of the place For that sense we contend for is not only enforced upon the most natural importance of these words but upon the agreeableness of them with so many other expressions of this Chapter that Christ did bear our iniquities and was wounded for our transgressions and that his soul was made an offering for sin to which it is very suitable that as the iniquities of the people were as it were laid upon the head of the Sacrifice so it should be said of Christ who was to offer up himself for the sins of the world And the Iews themselves by this phrase do understand the punishment either for the sins of the people which Iosias underwent or which the people themselves suffered by those who interpret this prophesie of them To which purpose Aben Ezra observes that iniquity is here put for the punishment of it as 1 Sam. 28. 10. Lam. 4. 6. But Socinus mistrusting the incongruity of this Interpretation flies to another viz. That God did make our iniquities to meet with Christ And this we are willing to admit of if by that they mean That Christ underwent the punishment of them as that phrase must naturally import for what otherwise can our iniquities meeting with him signifie For the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken properly as Socinus acknowledgeth it ought to be when he rejects Pagnins Interpretation of making Christ to interceed for our iniquities signifies either to meet with one by chance or out of kindness or else for an encounter with an intention to destroy that which it meets with So Iudg. 8. 21. Rise thou 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LXX irrue in nos fall upon us i. e. run upon us with thy sword and kill us Iudg. 15. 12. Swear unto me that ye will not fall upon me your selves where the same word is used and they explain the meaning of it in the next words v. 13. We will not kill thee Amos 5. 19. as if a man did flee from a Lyon and a Bear met him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. with a design to kill him Now I suppose they will not say that our sins met with Christ by Chance since it is said that God laid on him c. nor out
different kind of expiation as far as purifying the flesh is from purging the Conscience But we do not deny that the whole dispensation was typical and that the Law had a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things i. e. a dark and obscure representation and not the perfect resemblance of them There are two things which the Apostle asserts concerning the Sacrifices of the Law First that they had an effect upon the Bodies of men which he calls purifying the flesh the other is that they had no power to expiate for the sins of the soul considered with a respect to the punishment of another life which he calls purging the Conscience from dead works and therefore he saith that all the gifts and sacrifices under the Law could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the Conscience and that it was impossible that the blood of Bulls and Goats should take away sin So that the proper expiation which was made by them was civil and ritual relating either to corporal punishment or to legal uncleanness from whence the Apostle well proves the necessity of a higher Sacrifice to make expiation for sins as pertaining to the Conscience But that expiation among the Iews did relate to that Polity which was established among them as they were a people under the Government of a body of Laws distinct from the rest of the world And they being considered as such it is vain to enquire whether they had only temporal or eternal promises for it was impossible they should have any other than temporal unless we imagine that God would own them for a distinct people in another World as he did in this For what Promises relate to a People as such must consider them as a People and in that capacity they must be the blessings of a Society viz. peace plenty number of People length of days c. But we are far from denying that the general Principles of Religion did remain among them viz. that there is a God and a rewarder of them that seek him and all the Promises God made to the Patriarchs did continue in force as to another Country and were continually improved by the Prophetical instructions among them But we are now speaking of what did respect the people in general by vertue of that Law which was given them by Moses and in that respect the punishment of saults being either death or exclusion from the publick Worship the expiation of them was taking away the obligation to either of these which was the guilt of them in that consideration But doth not this take away the typical nature of these sacrifices No but it much rather establisheth it For as Socinus argues If the expiation was only typical there must be something in the type correspondent to that which is typified by it As the Brazen Serpent typified Christ and the benefit which was to come by him because as many as looked up to it were healed And Noahs Ark is said to be a type of Baptism because as many as entred into that were saved from the deluge So Corinth 10. the Apostle saith that those things happened to them in types v. 11. because the events which happened to them did represent those which would fall upon disobedient Christians So that to make good the true notion of a Type we must assert an expiation that was real then and agreeable to that dispensation which doth represent an expiation of a far higher nature which was to be by the Sacrifice of the Blood of Christ. Which being premised I now come to pâ—ove that there was a substitution designed of the Beast to be slain and sacrificed in stead of the offenders themselves Which will appear from Levitious 17. 11. For the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it you upon the Altar to make an Atonement for your Souls for it is the blood that maketh an Atonement for the Soul The utmost that Crellius would have meant by this place is that there is a double reason assigned of the prohibition of eating blood viz. that the life was in the blood and that the blood was designed for expiation but he makes these wholly independent upon each other But we say that the proper reason assigned against the eating of the blood is that which is elsewhere given when this Precept is mentioned viz. that the blood was the life as we may see Gen. 9. 4 Levit. 17. 14. but to confirm the reason given that the blood was the life he adds that God had given them that upon the Altar for an Atonement for their Souls So the Arabick Version renders it and therefore have I given it you upon the Altar viz. because the blood is the life And hereby a sufficient reason is given why God did make choice of the blood for atonement for that is expressed in the latter clause for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the Soul why should this be mentioned here if no more were intended but to give barely another reason why they should not eat the blood what force is there more in this clause to that end than in the soregoing for therein God had said that he had given it them for an Atonement If no more had been intended but the bare prohibition of common use of the blood on the account of its being consecrated to sacred use it had been enough to have said that the blood was holy unto the Lord as it is in the other instances mentioned by Crellius of the holy Oyntment and Perfume for no other reason is there given why it should not be profaned to common use but that it should be holy for the Lord if therefore the blood had been forbidden upon that account there had been no necessity at all of adding that the blood was it that made atonement for the Soul which gives no peculiar reason why they should not eat the blood beyond that of bare consecration of it to a sacred use but if we consider it as respecting the first clause viz. For the life of the flesh is in the blood then there is a particular reason why the blood should be for atonement viz. because the life was in that and therefore when the blood was offered the life of the Beast was supposed to be given instead of the life of the offender According to that of Ovid Hanc animam vobis pro meliore damus This will be yet made clearer by another instance produced by Crellius to explain this which is the forbidding the eating of fat which saith he is joyned with this of blood Levit. 3. 17. It shall be a perpetual Sâ—atute for your Generations throughout all your dwellings that ye eat neither fat nor blood To the same purpose Levit. 7. 23 25 26. Now no other reason is given of the prohibition of the