Christ from the dead shall quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you IF the Resurrection of Christ had been of his Person only it would have been a rare and glorious Event but an Event of no Concern to us and if we did meet only this Day to celebrate his Resurrection from the Dead and not our Own that shall be though we celebrated a Great Miracle we should not celebrate a Great Benefit But S t Paul teaches us in my Text how we may be assured to commemorate our own Resurrection as well as Christ's namely If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in us Those whom the Spirit does not inhabit in this Life when they dye they dye for ever but they on the other side in whom it dwells and inhabits now the Resurrection of Christ is not to them a History but a Precedent and such Persons shall not be only Admirers but themselves Partakers of the Miracle If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the Dead shall also quicken c. To look further into this Mystery and the Expedient propos'd to bring this Wonderful thing to pass I shall observe in the Words these three Particulars I. What it is for the Spirit of God or which is all one of him that raised up Jesus from the dead to dwell in us II. The Effect or Consequence of such In-dwelling of the Spirit of God viz. if it be in a Man He that raised up Christ from the Dead shall raise up his Mortal Body III. By what Means God will produce this Effect in such a Man even by that which dwelleth in him by his Spirit that dwelleth in him I. What it is for the Spirit of God to dwell in a man The Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead is no other than the Eternal Spirit of God the third Person in the Trinity the Spirit which is mentioned in Genesis that in the beginning of the World gave Life to all things is the same Spirit that still gives the Palingenesia the second Genesis or Regeneration whether we understand the Word of the Change and Renovation of our Soul and Affections to the Will of God in this Life or the Resuscitation of the Body from the Grave in the next and the Reuniting it with the Soul in order to Eternal Bliss The Spirit is said here to be the Spirit Of God but not the Spirit In God as if it dwelt in God as it dwells in us it is in God Personally and Essentially as his Being but 't is in us only by way of Tenancy as an Inhabitant or Inmate to excite in us its Gifts and Graces And this may serve to refute and silence those deceived Souls who of late times through their misunderstanding of the Union of the Saints with God exprest in Scripture have run into such high-flown and horrible Blasphemies as to say They are In-Godded in God and In-Christed in Christ thus claiming Prerogative instead of Priviledge and affirming Divinity instead of a Divine Spirit to be in them supposing themselves to be inspired even Essentially with the Divine Nature But such Blasphemous Conceits as these so audacious and injurious to the Deity are so far from being Effects of God's Spirit which is the Principle of Eternal Life in those it dwells that they are Demonstrations of the Spirit of Satan an Affectation to be like the Most High and to equal their Maker and unrepented of will certainly consign them to have a Portion with him in Eternal Death for what the Jews blindly objected against our Lord as a Crime That being but a Man he made himself God may be justly charged on these that being indeed but Men and commonly but the Dreggs of Men they fansie themselves to be Gods Only the Sin of these is more unpardonable in regard that after so long a time and so much warning of the like Miscarriage in this kind they have not exploded this old worn out Stratagem of Satan's But though this Diabolical Frenzy must be abhorr'd yet when 't is said that the Spirit of God dwells in a Man we must look upon it as denoting something more Extraordinary and Excellent than the common Lodging or Abiding of an Inhabitant in a House as representing rather God's Residence in his Temple at Jerusalem which Temple as it was Splendid and Glorious with all that Art and Cost could make it a Representation of Heaven so God by wonderful Tokens and Testimonies declared his Divine Presence in it And after this manner the Heart of every Christian ought to be embellish'd with Vertue and sanctified like a Temple appear like a little Heaven upon Earth in which the Holy Spirit may be seen to dwell by shewing his Divine Operations Know ye not says S t Paul that your Bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost Solomon built God but one Material House but Christ by his Spirit has raised to God as many Living Temples on Earth as there are Believers But to be more particular Dwelling in a House implies three things 1. Legitimate Possession by Legal Title and Introduction 2. Command and Dominion 3. Residence or Mansion And all these Properties the In-dwelling of the Spirit of God ought to have in those whom it hereafter quickens to Everlasting Life 1. The Spirit must have Legitimate Introduction and Possession God dwelt not in his Temple at Jerusalem till it was Dedicated and consecrated to him till he was introduced into it by Supplications and Sacrifices And his Holy Spirit will not dwell in Mens Hearts till they be dedicated and consecrated to him by Baptism and he be introduced by Prayer and Vows of Faith and Repentance Ephes. 3.17 S t Paul beseeches God that he would grant to the Ephesians according to the riches of his Glory to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the Inner-Man that Christ may dwell in their Hearts by Faith They that by Faith in Christ do not unite themselves unto him and so receive of his Spirit have not yet introduced the Spirit into its Temple and they that recede again from the Faith after they have received it dislodge and thrust the Holy Spirit out of his Tenure and Occupation The Jews reckoned that God was still among them as before when they had rejected and crucified the Holy One but after such their Infidelity and Wickedness he remained no more in their Hearts than he did in their Material Temple after that Voice was heard to come out of it migremus hinc let us depart hence Wheresoever it is so That either Men believe not on the Son of God or else having believed on him through the Allurements of the World and the Flesh fall back again into Unbelief and chuse rather to dispossess his Spirit than their Sins and Lusts there no Quickening Power will be found to revive their Mortal Bodies at the
into the hearts of Believers to quicken them and to raise them from the Death of Sin to a Life of Righteousness i. e. to sanctifie and enable them to master Sin in themselves They that saw Christ in the Flesh knew not at first That the principal Intention of his Flesh was his Spirit viz. that his Incarnation was to produce their Sanctification to conform them to his likeness in the Inner-man as he was conformed to their likeness in the Outward-Man and those that are not thus conformed that have not their Sins taken away In them by Vertue of his Nativity shall never have them taken away From them by Vertue and Merit of his Passion Secondly By his Word he takes away our sin from within us Now ye are clean says our Lord John 15.3 through the Word which I have spoken unto you i. e. you have put away your former wickedness upon believing what I have preached To believe and to be clean in a Scripture sense is the same thing For 't is not possible rightly to believe and to continue in the Pollution of Sin The Word of God is quick and powerful sharper than any two edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit The efficacy of it was seen in the reprobate hearts of Herod and Felix How did it ruffle and discompose the incestuous security of the first and put an Earthquake into the stupid Conscience of the last But yet 't is then only to use Solomon's expression that wise Words are as Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver when they meet with docile ears and honest hearts when the disposition of the Hearers concurs with the faithful intention of the Preacher and they comply to destroy Sin in themselves as he endeavours to destroy it in his Sermon Otherwise this most powerful and effectual Engine to batter and beat down Sin the Word preached profits not as 't is in the Chapter now mentioned in the Hebrews But the Word preached did not profit them not being mixt with Faith in them that heard it Thirdly Christ takes away Sin from within us by his Example i. e. by his holy Life as well as by his Word and by his Spirit his Meekness Holiness Self-denial Obedience c. were designed by him to excite his Followers to practise the same Vertues equally or above his Precepts And though we condemn the Errour of those who affirm That the Pattern of Christ's life the perfect Exemplar of Piety and Holiness which he exhibited to the World was the only means besides his Word which he used to take away our Sins We may yet more condemn the sloth and hypocrisie of those who set his Life above our Imitation who put his Vertues into the same Classis with his Miracles and think it as impossible for us to practise his Humility Patience and the like as to open the Eyes of the Blind or to raise the dead affirm that his Obedience and Righteousness were not set for our Example to direct and encourage us to do the like but to upbraid and reproach our weakness and infirmities In the mean time our Lord himself Joh. 17.19 declares That the holiness he practised was not only for the love of holiness but that his Disciples should follow him even in the roughest Paths he trod those of his Suffering to which his Words more particularly relate For their sakes says he I sanctifie my self or offer up my self a Sacrifice that they also might be sanctified through the Truth And S t Peter says expresly Christ suffered for us leaving us an Example that we should follow his steps And this brings me to the second Motive the Apostle alledges to disswade men from Sin the sanctity and sinlesness of Christ's Person and ye know that in him is no sin But because this in a great part has fallen-in with the former Motive and to accumulate Reasons of the same Nature rather nauseates than perswades I shall wave this Point and proceed to my last The Inference which the Argumentation of the Apostle implies from the foregoing Motives viz. That 't is the Duty of all Christ's Followers to endeavour as far as 't is possible to be also without sin and which shall serve me also for an Application The Son of God we have heard was manifested in the Flesh to take away our sins and in him is no sin Now certainly we cannot think that we comply either with the Example of Righteousness which he has set us or yet with the gracious Purpose that brought him into the World if we reflect on his Nativity only after an Historical manner as that he was born in such an Olympiad or when such an one was Emperour that such rare Events attended his coming into the World as are recorded by the Evangelists namely that he was conceived by a Virgin of the Holy Ghost welcom'd by Angels signaliz'd and reveal'd to the Gentiles by a Star c. as if we were Chronologers rather than Christian Believers But that principally we are to consider these things Doctrinally and Morally to regard the Obligations they lay upon us and the final intendment of God in them For Example to say to our selves If God came so far as from the highest Heavens to take our Flesh that he might destroy sin how much more are we concerned to destroy sin in whom it dwells whose Flesh is its Domestick Organ and which will certainly destroy us both Body and Soul unless we destroy it Again if God vouchsafe so highly to dignifie our Flesh as to assume it to his Divine Nature and to carry it up to Heaven with him and that by way of Pledge and assurance to carry up all that live holy lives thither also how ought we to respect and even to revere these our mortal Bodies and not to pollute them with sin which are designed to such sublime Honour as to reign with God in Glory Once more If the Son of God came into the World not only to teach us his Father's Will but to demonstrate to us by his own performance the feasibleness of accomplishing it and did not only discourse of the probability of mortal mens ascending to Heaven but gave an instance of it in our Flesh how are we without excuse if either upon pretence of the difficulty of the Duties enjoined or the arduous ascent to the heavenly Kingdom promised us we supersede our endeavours to attain it When the Israelites were travelling to the Land of Canaan they said to Aaron Make us Gods that may go before us i. e. visible Gods that we may behold they were not satisfied with the conduct of an invisible Deity of a God that afforded not his personal presence Christ manifested in the Flesh is such a visible palpable God as they required who marches as a Captain at the Head of us and guides us not only by his Counsel but leads us by his Bodily Presence But yet notwithstanding this compliance with our infirmities
Text but the People of whom he was King For though a wicked King shall certainly bear the burden of his Sins and though the Judgment here denounced by Samuel was after a King was anointed in Israel yet 't was denounced against the Sin of the People committed before there was a King Neither had Saul as yet displeased God he affected not the Kingdom though Israel affected to have a King They are the Israelites therefore that are threatned in the Person and misfortune of their King whom God declares he will involve in their destruction even when he is not involved in their sins and a good King is sooner cut off for the provocation of a Land than a bad but then though he falls 't is the Land that is punished though he be untimely snatcht away 't is the Nation that is judged and condemned But if ye shall still do wickedly ye shall be consumed both ye and your King The Words consist of a Commination or Threat Ye shall be consumed both ye and your King And the Case wherein the Commination or Threat shall take place If ye shall still do wickedly I begin with the Commination or Threat Ye shall be consumed both ye and your King The Commination runs high a greater cannot well be denounced 't is only to be fear'd it may suffer the fate of the vain menaces and Rhodomantadoes of men which are most despised when they sound loudest and affect to carry most terrour Ye shall be consumed both ye and your King Why certainly men will say This is some Figurative Hyperbolical Speech which carries not so much danger in it to be feared as difficulty to be understood and sends us to an Interpreter and not an Asylum or Sanctuary Was it ever known that a whole Nation was destroyed as one man Dathan and his Complices 't is true went down into the Bowels of the Earth and it clos'd its mouth upon them but they were not a whole Nation but a seditious Party only Pharaoh and the Egyptians were overwhelmed in the Sea and not one of them escaped but they again were not a King and his People but a King and his Host. The seven Nations of the Canaanites were adjudged to utter extirpation but by reason of the Sins of God's own People the Sentence was not executed with that rigour it was denounced and they were not utterly destroyed Let us see therefore how we are to understand the Commination in my Text How a King and People may be said to be totally consumed A thing may be totally consumed or destroyed two ways simul semel altogether and in a moment as Fire consumes Flax or Gunpowder so that nothing remains but the Place of them Or gradually and by degrees when 't is wasted by little and little as Liquor consumes over the Fire or as a Body is extenuated by Sickness Now though God perhaps through the greatness of his Mercy has never consumed a whole Nation in the fullest and strictest sense of either of these two Ways yet so dreadful have been his Judgments and so universal the Destruction he has wrought that there will be no cause to say There is an Hyperbole in the Commination in my Text. The first way God practised when he caused the ten Tribes and their King to be carried away captive by Shalmanezer into Assyria with a swift destruction and the other two Tribes and their King by Nebuchadnezzar into Babylon This way also God practised when he gave this Nation up to the Conquest of the Normans Or as the Tragedy on this Day should rather prompt us to remember when he permitted the Bloud of our righteous Sovereign after the slaughter of many thousands of his Loyal Subjects to be spilled by the hands of execrable Villains and together with that sacred Sluce broke-up all the Floud-Gates of Impiety and suffered it to overwhelm the Land with wickedness and ruine as the World was once overwhelmed with a Deluge of Water At which time we may affirm Death or a change like Death past upon all the Rich became poor and the Poor rich the Nobles were debased and the Scum of the People exalted the Loyal were accounted Traytors and Traytors Loyal Oppression and Cruelty sat in the Seats of Justice Hypocrisie and Blasphemy in the Chair of Religion and an abject Villain in the Throne of Majesty And when the Kingdom was reduced to this State may we not say it was destroyed simul semel altogether and at once both King and People and that nothing remained of what had been but the Place and Memory The Scripture says Adam dyed on the Day he eat of the forbidden Fruit though he survived nine hundred and thirty Years after because he fell then into an evil condition and forfeited all his happiness Again the Scripture calls Damnation Eternal Death not because the Bodies and Souls of Sinners shall be extinguish'd but eternally tormented Life consisting not so much in duration as in felicity And in this sense when a Kingdom has lost its Felicity and Glory its Laws and Liberty its King and Religion though a Remnant of the People be left it may deservedly be said To be totally and utterly destroyed God practised the second way of destroying a whole Nation when he consumed the Israelites in the Wilderness by such slow and lingring paces that a new Generation was grown up by the time that the old was expired and the Children were ready to enter into the Land of Canaan as soon as their Fathers Graves were made in the Wilderness God thus punishing them after the manner they had transgressed as they had grieved him forty Years he consumed them for forty Years together And when ever a Nation is seen to decline in Piety Vertue Policy Wealth Reputation the Number of its People and the like when private interest takes place in mens hearts before the Publick when Trade Vigour and Industry languish then this lingering Curse works and ferments I may seem both ill-affected and also to intrude into a Secret that cannot be known if I should pronounce that this Kingdom lay at this present under this slow and lingering destruction as it has been more than once a miserable Instance of the other quick and total destruction But it may become me and all that hear me this day to fear and endeavour to prevent so dreadful a Judgment especially when so many and sad Symptoms of it seem to appear For not to name our Consumptions of late Years by War by Pestilence and by Fire we see the Moral and Spiritual Consumptions of Piety and Vertue and as fearful an encrease of Riot Prophaneness and Irreligion Popery gains upon the true Religion on one side and Fanaticism on the other and Atheism the Vorago of all other Sects and Schisms daily swallows up Popery and Fanaticism Again we hear plentiful Years complain'd of that the People are impoverished by the great encrease of the Land Abundance cry'd out against
last Day for where the Spirit it self is not its Operations cannot be expected 'T is true indeed that Sinners and Infidels shall rise again as S t Paul says Acts 24.15 There shall be a Resurrection of the Dead both of the Just and Vnjust Those that crucified Christ in the days of his Flesh and those that crucifie him by their Wicked Lives now in his Glory shall rise no less than True Believers than his holy Apostles and Martyrs But how and to what Resurrection shall they rise Even to such a Resurrection as is no other than a Second and Worse Death a Death not of Extinction or annihilation but a Death of Eternal Duration in Torment Non-Existence being not the State of the Second Death but Endless and Insupportable Misery insomuch that they shall wish that the Grave had for ever swallowed them up that as they liv'd like the Beasts that perish so they had also dyed like them without the Expectation of any After-Being So that the Resurrection of the Wicked is but an Aequivocal Resurrection as the lifting up of the Head of Pharaoh's Baker on the Gallows and the hanging Haman fifty Cubits high were but Aequivocal Advancements The Bodies of the Saints that rose after the Passion dy'd again the same Death but those that shall rise at the Last Day not having the Spirit shall dye again not the same Death that would be a Happiness but a Death that shall have no End and the Miseries of which we can no more describe than we can the Joys of Eternal Life but we must suffer a Change and be endued with new Powers and Faculties before we can support the Bliss of the one or the Torments of the other The second Property of an Inhabitant or Dweller in a House is to Command and Rule 'T is the Saying of every man to those that withstand the Exercise of their just Authority or but their Civility Give me leave to Command in my own House The Spirit of God must Rule and Command where it dwells we must not only give it House-room but Dominion look upon him as a Tenant but revere as our Land-Lord resign our Actions Wills Affections the Whole Man to his Dispose and Guidance Faith invites the Holy Ghost but Obedience and Submission to his Gracious Motions perfumes his Habitation and makes him delight to stay in it The Spirit of Love Meekness Purity and Holiness will not reside but where these and the like Vertues bear the Sway. Let the Word of Christ says S t Paul dwell in you Richly in all Wisdom So let the Spirit of God dwell in you Richly in all Wisdom it will not Cohabit with the Sons of Men unless it be Richly i. e. in the Abundance of its own Divine Graces and Operations If we will have the Spirit of God quicken our Mortal Bodies hereafter we must suffer him to quicken our Souls in this Life if we hope to reign by his Power in the World to come we must submit to his Dominion in this present World The third Property is Residence and Mansion our Houses are called our Manours and Places i. e. the Places where we ordinarily abide and where the Law presumes we are to be found so that if a Writ be delivered to any of the Houshold or but fastned to the Ring of the Door 't is counted the same thing as if given into our hands Thus our Hearts must be the Holy Spirit 's Manour or Place for what David says of God's constant Abode in his Temple on Mount Sion This is the Hill which God delights to dwell in yea the Lord will dwell in it for ever the like must be said of the constant Abode of the Holy Spirit in our Hearts This is the Habitation of the Holy Spirit and if we grieve him not nor drive him away by our Sins he will delight to dwell in us for ever When we were devoted to God in Baptism we devolved and made-over to his Holy Spirit an Estate in our Hearts even the Whole Term we had to live in this World and if we make good this Grant or Demise he will never abandon his Tenements till he has raised them up to Eternal Glory The Reason that a Great Schole-Man gives Why God punishes the Sins of Men which were but Temporal with an Eternity of Torments is Quia peccaverunt in suo aeterno because they sinn'd out all the Eternity they had i. e. all the Time God allowed them in this World and had he continued their Lives to the End of all Ages they would have continued still the same Wicked Persons The like Reason may be given for God's rewarding the Temporal Obedience of the Righteous with Eternal Glory Quia obedientes fuerunt in suo aeterno because they were Obedient all that little Eternity he allowed them in this World and would have persever'd in their Obedience if he had drawn out their Lives to the last Period of Time Abiding and Persevering in Righteousness is that which will give us Immortality if we give up the Possession of our Souls to the Dispose and Conduct of the Blessed Spirit the Whole Little Aeternum we have in this World we shall certainly obtain an Eternity that shall have no end in the next And thus I have shew'd the Manner of the Spirit 's Dwelling in every Christian and they that pretend to his In-dwelling without these Properties boast of an In-mate which they have not and as they want this Divine Guest so they will want the Blessed Effects and Consequence of his inhabiting in them the quickning of their Mortal Bodies at the last Day to Glory Which is the second thing I propos'd to explain The Effect or Consequence of the Spirit 's dwelling in us If the Spirit dwell in you He that raised up Jesus from the Dead shall quicken your Mortal Bodies The Words suggest two things to our Consideration 1. What shall be done to such Persons in whom the Spirit dwells He shall quicken their Mortal Bodies 2. Who shall be the Author to effect or bring this to pass He that raised up Jesus from the Dead 1. What shall be done to such Persons in whom the Spirit dwells 'T is said He shall quicken their Mortal Bodies Our Bodies are Mortal three Ways by Natural Death the Dissolution of the Substance of them by Eternal Death which succeeds the Natural that Riddle of a Death which by its Existence is in truth a Life but by the Torments belonging to it may deservedly be called a Death and by Spiritual Death which is the Cause of the other two Now our Mortal Bodies may be quicken'd or reviv'd again to three Lives To a Life of Eternal Duration to a Life of Eternal Joy and to a Spiritual Life or a Life of Grace which is the Cause in us of the other two Lives Some understand these Words shall quicken our mortal bodies only of Spiritual Proselytism of the raising us from the Death of Sin and
necessarily be a Consequence of his by the very Law as I may say of the Body or the Inseparable Conjunction of the Limbs to one another for it is not possible that the Head should be quickened and the Body mortified that the Head should be raised to Life and crowned with Glory and the Members remain in Death and Dishonour And 't is on this account that Christ is said To be the First-fruit of those that Sleep and not only in regard that none went before him but the First-fruit in relation to them that were to follow after him The First-fruits in the Law were Part of the Fruits of the Season one Sheaf of the Harvest which being lift-up and consecrated to God in the Name of the rest sanctified the Whole Crop So Christ being lift up as the First-fruit of the Dead consecrated and sanctified the Whole Harvest of the Dead And as Saint John says of every true Believer in point of Impeccability He cannot Sin because the Seed of God abideth in him i. e. none can be a Child of God's and a customary Sinner for these are irreconcileable So we may affirm with unspeakable Comfort in the point of our Immortality A true Believer cannot be held in Death because God's Seed abideth in him i. e. Death and a Seed or Principle of Immortality are inconsistent with one another And thus we see we have not only Matter of Congratulation for Christ's Victory over Death and the Grave but the highest Cause of Jubilee and Rejoycing for our own Deliverance from this heavy Curse and Punishment of Sin As Sin subjected us to the Dominion of Death the Spirit of Sanctification breaks the Bonds of the Tyrant asunder and enables us to conquer this Conquerour of Mankind as Disobedience shut the Gates of Heaven against us Obedience sets them open again Holiness of Life in the Faith of Christ in this World is the Ticket whereby we receive Happiness and Immortality in that to come The Young Phoenix is said to spring out of the perfum'd Ashes and Reliques of the Old but though this be never so fabulous I am sure we shall be renewed and quickned to Eternal Life from the perfum'd Reliques of a Holy Life the remaining Good Works and Graces the Spirit of God wrought in us which as S t John says can never dye but will follow us into the other World If therefore we give our selves up to be led and governed by the Spirit of Christ in this Life conform our selves in all things to his Divine Will if the Spirit of Christ conducts us safely to use the Psalmist's Expression through Fire and Water i. e. through the Sharper Tryals of Afflictions and the Softer Allurements and Temptations of the Flesh and the World he will carry us also safe through the Regions of Death and the Grave pass us indemnified by the Gates of Hell and neither the Malice of Devils the Weight of our Tomb-Stone the Load of our Flesh or the yet greater Load of our Infirmities shall hinder but our Bodies shall be raised and so winged that they shall overtake their Souls and be joined to them that took their Flight so long a time before them and both of them together shall be transported in Triumph to Heaven and crown'd with Immortality and Glory the Assurance and Pledge of which Christ has given us this Day in his own Resurrection To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Glory Worship and Thanksgiving this Day forth and for evermore Amen The Seventh Sermon PSALM ii 6 Yet have I set my King upon my holy Hill of Sion WIsdome does not only do her Works well but perceives that she does so delights in their Beauty exults in remembrance of the master'd difficulty and triumphs over the conquer'd Opposition Thus God stood-off as 't were from his great work of the Creation when he had finish'd it applauded and bless'd it prided himself as I may say in his noble performance in that he had brought Light out of Darkness Order out of Chaos a World out of nothing In the like manner when he had here compos'd the Distractions and Confusions both in the Church and State of Israel by establishing David literally and Christ mystically on the Throne of the Kingdom he glories in having brought about his great Design laughs at the fruitless Opposition of his Adversaries at home and abroad of the Philistines the Moabites the Ammonites the Damascens the Amalekites of the King of Zoba and of all the turbulent and ambitious Spirits of the House of Saul delights to recount their Might and their Machinations the more to signalize their Overthrow and to make his Victory illustrious For after all their rage their malice their Counsels their Combinations their seeming successes against him the Issue was this Yet have I set my King upon my holy Hill of Sion We may observe in the Words these three things I. The Person establisht My King i. e. David Literally so called and Christ Mystically II. His Establishment I have set my King upon my holy Hill of Sion III. God's Glorying in the Fact that he had done it with such a Non obstante notwithstanding such Opposition and Contradiction Yet have I set my King I. The Person establisht My King God's King Not only holy Scripture but the Writings of Heathens declare Kings to be Sacred Persons descended more immediately from the Gods and more particularly depending on them Kings are from Jupiter says Callimachus and nothing ever descended more sacred from him And Theocritus Kings are the special Care of the Gods And this Epithet's affected by Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God lov'd Kings Indeed all Kings in general are God's derive their Authority from him govern by his Permission and Providence as himself testifies By me Kings Reign But then he delights in a more especial manner to style Good Kings his to appropriate their Persons and owne their Causes to interpret all things done to them as done to himself as at Verse 2. Why do the Rulers take Counsel together against the Lord and against his Anointed Conspiracies against the King are reckoned Conspiracies against God the resisting his Anointed the resisting himself And thus if it be a Glorious thing to be a King 't is a Blessed to be a Good King for as splendour attends Majesty and Greatness protection and safety and felicity and the love of Heaven attend Righteousness But let us see why David is here more particularly call'd God's King than others The First Reason we may say was Because he was a King of God's Making because he brought him to the Throne having no Title by Birth to it à Caulis Ovium tuli te I called him from the Sheep-hook to the Sceptre And as those Persons which are of our Election preferring or favouring we call Ours this is my Scholar my Souldier my Officer because he was of my nomination my chusing my advancing so David was called God's King
Poets tell of a famous Enchantress whose Spells were so dreadful that the Celestial Orbs yielded Obedience to her carmenque timent audire secundum and durst at no time stay her second Charm But though this were but a Fiction or Juggle yet so it was that all the Creatures without any Demur speedily and constantly obeyed the Injunctions of our Lord and never stay'd his second Command whether they were Elements Diseases or Devils themselves And as when he commanded the Storm to cease the Mariners ask'd amazedly What manner of Man is this that even the Sea and the Winds obey So the Multitude were no less astonisht here when they saw not only the deaf Elements obey but Deafness it self to lend an Ear when I say upon the pronouncing only of this single powerful Ephata they beheld the Doors of Audience and of Utterance both fly open the Dumb to speak and the Deaf to be so quick of hearing their Mouths were also open'd in Lauds and Praises and with one Universal Consent they gave our Lord this Testimony or Elogy He hath done all things Well he maketh both the Deaf to hear and the Dumb to speak Which brings me to my second General Part The Verdict and Approbation of the People But the time will not suffer me to go through the Several Stages of it I shall therefore only make some Use of what I have said and conclude at present We have heard that our Lord not only in the present Miracle before us but in many others used divers Ceremonies though he could have wrought them if he had pleas'd without so much as seeing the Persons as he did the absent Servant of the Centurion But while such Ceremonies edified the Beholders instructed their Ignorance made a deeper and more durable Impression in their Minds of his Glorious Works while they added Authority to his Words and Veneration to his Person he disdained not to serve himself with them And though the Wisdom of our Church for the like prudential Reasons viz. to explain her Doctrines to adde Order and Beauty to her Worship to stir up Zeal and Reverence in her Worshippers and the like has admitted of some few Ceremonies yet they lye under so great a Prejudice to many that to name them only without Detestation is enough to render the Person that names them Detestable But what our Lord has so far approved of as to practise ought not to be detested by his Followers It will not be possible in the few Minutes remaining to me to treat fully of this Subject But what are Ceremonies which are so cry'd-out against but the Outward Expressions of the Faith and Devotion we have Inwardly in our Hearts to God As the Apostle says With the Heart we believe unto Righteousness and with the Mouth Confession is made unto Salvation For we may manifest our Belief by Actions as well as by Words neither is it material by which we do it so we do it sincerely and whatever Exceptions can be made against Ceremonies may be made also against Words viz. that they may be Abused But then as men reject not the Use of Words because some do Deceive with them So neither ought they to reject Ceremonies the Outward Expressions of a Devout Soul because they are used by some Superstitiously and Idolatrously And the true Cause indeed of so manys abhorring Ceremonies is the Excessive and Idolatrous Use of them in the Church of Rome the multitude of their Cringings Bowings Crossings Prostrations Sprinklings of Water tinklings of Bells censing and kissing of Books Images and Altars changing of Vestments exposing of Reliques lighting and extinguishing of Candles c. all in one and the same Service insomuch that the Worship of God among so many busie Fooleries is the least part of it self and Religion so far from being Explained and Adorned by these things that 't is Disfigured and rendred only more Dark and Mysterious Which while some have taken just offence at they have run as much into the other Extreme and condemned all Ceremonies in general and endeavoured to justifie their transport against them by Scripture Unskilfully or Unsincerely wresting whatever they find spoken against the Old Jewish Ceremonies to the Christian Whereas the Apostles Quarrel against the Jewish Ceremonies was not for any thing which they had in Common with those that are used at this day in the Church of Christ but for their being directly Contrary to Christianity they were Types of Christ and of the Gospel and while they were kept on foot they denyed that he was come into the World However therefore that Ceremonies have been abused or that it may be said that the Outward Worship of the Body if compared with the Inward Worship of the Soul is but as the Outward Court of the Sanctuary to the Holy of Holies Yet if we consider rightly of the Exterior Acts of Devotion they are no less the Acts of the Heart than the Interior for as the one are the Elicite the other are the Imperate Acts of the Soul and though in a Degree once removed may be as Cordial and Sincere as the other and are in many respects not only Useful but Necessary in Religion For first It is not possible to perform the Publick Worship of God without them the assembling in his House in his holy Name and on his Own Day the bowing our Knees before him and lifting up our Hands and Eyes to Heaven and the like are all Ceremonies Outward Expressions of the Faith Reverence and Dependence we have on God and those that are so Unreconcil'd to some of these things necessarily and unavoidably practise others of the like nature to those they condemn And what reason can these Men give when they can dishonour and sin against God with their Body why they may not also honour him with it When with their Body they can commit Idolatry why with their Body also they cannot perform a Legitimate and holy Worship The Body is to be Partaker with the Soul hereafter in Glory and no reason can be given why it should not now join with the Soul in the Duties of Religion How graciously did God accept and reward the Formal Outward and Ceremonial Humiliation of that Hypocrite and Idolater Ahab for his Fasting and putting on Sackcloth and walking softly upon hearing the Judgments denounced against him by Elijah God revers'd his Judgments Seest thou says God to the Prophet how Ahab humbleth himself before me because he humbleth himself before me I will not send the Evil in his days c. If men rightly considered these things they would not come into God's House as if they came to affront and not to adore him neither baring the Head nor bending the Knee out of a foolish fear to commit Idolatry deport themselves in his Presence like Idols and as if they came there to be worshipp'd and not to worship 2. Ceremonies are useful in regard of the Persons that use them for they are
Moloch and the Queen of Heaven So these ascribe to Chance or Fortune to Good and Bad Seasons to Humane Prudence or Folly all their Prosperity and Adversity and not to Divine Providence When I say the Goodness of God is thus injured his Benefits over-seen or denied his Judgments contemned his Righteousness hated and his Deity set at naught what wonder is it if his Love be also turned into Detestation and Hatred When Men hate they wish the Person hated may perish they wish it I say because their Power does not always answer their Anger but God to whom it is as easie to destroy as to be angry when he hates he sends certain Ruine and Destruction on the Offenders he punishes with the same Facility as he says in my Text I will punish you for all your iniquities And now to hang our Ancestors Picture in our Gallery if I may so allude to set the Actions of Israel by ours that we may draw some Instructions from them I could almost wish that this Proposition Whatever People God has blessed above others if they sin against him he will also punish above others were not so great a Truth so Ominously it sounds For if there be a Nation upon the Earth that God has Known i. e. distinguish'd by his Singular and Signal Favours from all others it is this of ours S t Paul reckons it among the highest Priviledges of Israel that they had the Oracles of God though we may say of them they were Oracles indeed if their Darkness be compared with the Clear Light of the Gospel revealed to us Christ was preached to them and not preached but if to any of us he be hid 't is through wilful and affected blindness and as the Apostle says He is hid only to those that perish And when through the Inundation of Barbarians and Ignorance and the worse Inundation of Corrupt Manners Errours and Superstition over-spread the Face of the whole Christian World upon the first Dawning again of the Light of the Gospel and the shaking off of this Darkness while the Abominations of Rome were yet seen and detested by all Discerning and Conscientious Believers and the Fermentation of the Truth in mens hearts was not settled again upon the Lees of Secular Policy and Interest we were rescued by God's Goodness from the Yoke of Anti-Christ But not to look back to the Benefits of remote Ages but only to those we our selves have been immediate Partakers of and are accountable for What Mercy was ever more Glorious than the Restauration of our King and Church in these our Days not to name our later though Signal and Illustrious Deliverances But as God has known us in all our Distresses and Adversities and wrought such Miracles of Mercy for us how have we received them What Miracles of Thanksgivings and Duty have we returned to him We have wrought Miracles indeed but Miracles in an Untoward Sense Miracles of Impiety and Ingratitude As God restored our King and Kingdom to their former Splendour and Glory and all of us to our forfeited Peace and Prosperity multitudes have endeavoured by their Atheistical Opinions to depose God from his Kingdom in Heaven and Government over the World As God brought us out of the Saddest and Darkest Night of Adversity into the bright Sun-shine of Felicity by a Power and Goodness like that by which he brought Light out of Darkness at the Creation there are those that have turned Light into Darkness i. e. denied and obscured all the Light of Divine Truth and Revelation again that have turned Darkness into Light made the Sins of Darkness become Sins of Light and Noon-day those Sins which were reproachful and crept into Corners in all Ages to be of Credit and Reputation in this These together with the rendering things Venerable and Sacred ridiculous and contemptible are the Miracles of these times Saint Peter says In the last days shall come Scoffers walking after their own Lusts. These two Sins Walking after their own Lusts and Scoffing at things Holy go together and 't is no wonder that this dissolute and profligate Age should mock at Religion and at all things Serious mock at their Reason and degrade it below their Sense mock at the Immortality of their Souls and level themselves with the Beasts mock the Kingdom of Heaven into a Dream and the Torments of Hell into a Fable the Creation of the World into a piece of Non-sence and Impossibility and why Because 't is more rational to believe the Doctrine of Atoms that the orderly and beautiful Frame of Heaven and Earth and all that is in them were produced by the casual shuffling together of I know not what little Particles than by the Contrivance of an Infinitely Wise and Powerful God Or again that the World was from all Eternity and that Men and all other Creatures grew at first like Plants out of the Earth and the like rather than that they were created No certainly these things are not so easie to be conceived and digested by Reason as the Doctrines that are rejected but the most Monstrous Opinions are easier to be embrac'd by Wicked men than such Truths as cannot be held together with their Vicious Lives as the Apostle says They live without God in the World and they cannot endure to hear that he made it and will judge it that their Bodies should dye and their Souls survive their Pleasures come to an End and their Guilt remain that there should be a Resurrection to Punishment and not for the Execution of their Lusts. Julian the Apostate to justifie his revolt from the Faith said of the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have perused it I have understood it I have despised it Alas if he had approved it he must have condemned himself if he had acknowledged the Gospel to be Divine and the Way to Bliss he must have confess'd himself a Monster and the most Accursed of Mankind But that which is so great a Prodigy is that the least Night or Darkness of Atheism should be seen in this Kingdom where the Gospel shines in its Meridian that Apostasie should be found where so many glorious Manifestations of God's Power and Goodness are found We have heard that the Ungratefully Wicked the Wicked after much Good done for them are in greater Danger of God's Wrath and Displeasure than the Simply Disobedient What then can we expect our Portion should be when after so many Unparallell'd Benefits we have shew'd our selves not only Unthankful but Atheistical not only Transgressors of God's Laws but Renouncers of them Says our Prophet Verse the 5 th Will a Lion roar in the Forest when he has no Prey i. e. will he roar to no purpose when nothing provoketh him when he designs nothing by it So when God threatens Sinners does he mean nothing are the Dreadful Denunciations of his Judgments mere Empty Noise Again in the Verse before my Text says the Prophet Can two walk together
he spared not the Natural Branches take heed lest he spare not you 'T is not so much the Contingency that is in the Nature of the things of this World as the Sins of Men that make them unstable the Fortunes of Kingdoms are not tost like the Waves of the Sea lift up one while to the Clouds and then carried down again to the Center by the force of Winds but according to their Righteousness or Unrighteousness God pulls down one and sets up another Neither are they governed by the Power of Stars The Jews have an excellent Saying Non est Planeta Israeli Israel has no Planet i. e. though God gave up the Heathen oft-times to be governed like the Plants of the Earth by the Influences of Stars because they trusted in such Vain things yet he orders and disposes the Affairs of his faithful People immediately himself And 't is a mere Vulgar Conceit that Comets cause Wars and Changes of States Divine Philosophy tells us Mens Sins occasion God to send Comets and to fill the Sky with Prophetick Prodigies We affect to look as far beyond our selves as we can for the Causes of our Evils but they are to be found nearer at Home and arise out of our own Breasts the Heavens are not the Authors of our Misfortunes i. e. the Conjunctions or Revolutions of the Celestial Bodies but our own Wicked Lives and the surest Prognosticks are to be made from the Innocence or Guilt of a Nation and not from the Face of the Sky Let no Man think I cast a Cloud upon the Glory of this Day Illustrious in the Birth Illustrious in the Restoration of our most Gracious King that instead of exciting I affect to damp the Publick Joy by Ill Bodings unless he also supposes that the Blessings of a Nation cannot be rightly commemorated and celebrated without Noise and Inconsideration Tumult and Riot Excess and Debauchery setting-light by Sin and forgetfulness of Religion A sad and severe Reflection on our Unthankfulness to God for the Singular Mercies of this Day with a serious Resolution of our better Acknowledging them by a future Holy Life will add more Lustre and true Joy to it than the Bravery and Feasts the Bells and Bonfires and all the other Pomps that solemnize it For let us consider That every Wise Agent works to some End or other and that not only the Words we have heard this Day explain'd but the whole Tenour of Scripture concurs in this That the End and Purpose of God's bestowing Benefits on a Nation is to make them Righteous and Holy and that the only Expedient on our part to secure a Continuation of them is to have a strict regard to our Duty that Obedience is the best Preserver of our Happiness and the Means always to keep God's Favour is always to keep his Laws The Thirteenth Sermon MARK viii 2 3. I have Compassion on the Multitude because they have now been with me three days and have nothing to eat And if I send them away fasting to their own houses they will faint by the way for divers of them came from far THESE Words were the Introduction to that Illustrious Miracle by which our Lord fed four thousand Souls with seven Loaves and a few small Fishes made the bare and spare Allowance of seven Persons as some suppose sufficient to satisfie the Hunger of so great a Multitude A Miracle that baffled one of the clearest and most irrefragable Principles in Natural Reason namely That the Part is less than the Whole making it appear that when the Lord of Nature will have it so a Part shall as many times exceed the Whole as he pleases as the Bread and Fishes here encreased by being eaten and consumed multiplied by being dol'd and distributed about and the Fragments which remained exceeded seven times seven fold the Provision which at first was set before them that eat Our Lord wrought this Miracle as himself declares to relieve the Hunger of the Multitude but his principal Design here as in all his other Miracles was to create Faith in such as received Benefit by them to teach those whom he healed that he was the great Physician of the Soul and whom he fed that he was the true Bread that came down from Heaven And if We at this great Distance of time by our Meditations and Reflections on this Miracle shall make it also nourish our Souls refresh our Faith relieve and sustain our fainting Spirits ready to sink under the continual Opposition of Sin and the length of Duties we shall add yet to the Glory of it and in a Spiritual Sense make these Words spoken to us I have Compassion on the Multitude because they have now been with me three days and have nothing to eat c. This Portion of Scripture is part of a larger Narrative and I shall take that Way in handling it which those do who make Remarks and Observations upon Notable Occurrents and Events in History reflect and descant on the Principal Passages in it as I conceive they may be most edifying and useful And in order to this I shall observe in the Words three things 1. Our Lord 's tender and compassionate Spirit I have Compassion 2. The Object of his Compassion the Persons to whom he shew'd it the Multitude I have compassion on the Multitude 3. The Motives of his Compassion which are exprest to be two Their present Distress they were Hungry and had nothing to eat And their future feared Danger in case they were so dismiss'd they will faint by the way I begin first with Christ's tender and compassionate Spirit I have Compassion The Great Preacher our Blessed Lord had ended his Sermon to the People and as the antient custom of the Church was at the End of the first Service to dismiss the Poenitentes and Catechumeni all such as were not qualify'd to receive the Sacrament with these Words Ite missa est Depart and void the Church So the Disciples might very fairly here have pronounc'd an Ite missa est to the Multitude Ye may be gone there is nothing more at this time to be expected the Prophet has no further words of Instruction to impart to you For as for their want of Bread whether it proceeded from Negligence or Necessity it was not chargeable on the Preacher he that ministred Spiritual things was not also to minister Temporal but in these to be ministred to But our Lord had no purpose to shift off a Work of Mercy when 't was seasonable and in his power though he might never so fairly have done it he cast not therefore in his thoughts how he might plausibly Excuse his not relieving the peoples Hunger but which way he might do it best for the Glory of God and their Comfort and Edification There were a Sort of Preachers in this Kingdom in the days of its late Troubles who when they had usurp'd the whole Revenues of the Church grudg'd to allow
the least part of them to the Just Owners but thought they approved themselves faithful Pastors absolved all the Duties of Good Men if they shew'd but Strong Sides and able Lungs stood three Hours as they call'd it in the Pulpit but after that concerned not themselves though their poor Brethren stood as many Days without Meat The continual Burden of their Sermon was The Word of God the Word of God! Frighting the People with a Fear of a Famine of that of which there was no fear viz. of their seditious Doctrines and shutting their Eyes to all other Famine the Want of those things which should cherish the Life of Man But our Lord who was Pastor bonus as well as Doctor bonus a good Shepherd as well as a good Teacher thought Tender Bowels were requisite as well as Tough Sides and fed his Sheep Corporally as well as Spiritually when necessity required he considered that the devoutest Souls stood in need of Meat and that as Man did not live by Bread only so neither did he live by the Word of God only but that Food was necessary as well as Precepts Relief to the Hungry as well as Instruction to the Ignorant In the Church of Rome they have an Order of Fryars-Preachers men of learning and ability to confute Hereticks and another Order which were called Fratres ignorantes the Unlearned Fryars whose business 't is to tend Hospitals and to do other Offices of Charity And though we approve not the bringing of Ignorant Orders into the Church and Clergy yet this double Care of theirs in providing for the Bodies as well as the Souls of men is highly commendable and may be justified by the Practice of the Church in its Earliest and holiest days as we read Acts 6. that there were not only Apostles to preach but also Deacons to serve Tables The People had been our Lords Auditors now three days fasting in a desart place and his compassionate Heart would not dismiss them hungry lest the Dissolution of the Assembly should be the Dissolution of the Souls and Bodies of many of them he resolved therefore to supply by a Miracle what was wanting in the Desart to furnish from the Granaries of Heaven what the Villages did not afford The Word in the Original rendred by our Translators Compassion implies more than a bare Pity viz. that our Lord felt a Strong Impulse or vehement Percussion in his Bowels for the Suffering of the people He wanted not meat himself but he was nevertheless sensible of the hunger of others his own Stomach grip'd him not yet he was pain'd because the Multitude lack'd Sustenance And this is the true nature of Compassion and Goodness it lyes under no Evil it self but yet 't is afflicted for what another suffers it is safe in its own particular and yet agast at the Dangers which it hears of Who is weak says S t Paul and I am not weak who is offended and I burn not That which Flattery does in Pretence and Dissimulation Compassion does in truth and Reality The Satyrist makes the Sycophant if his Patron says 'T is cold call presently for his Furr-Gown though in the midst of Summer and again if he says 'T is hot strip himself of it in the Extremity of Winter Compassion feels the heats and colds the pains and griefs the wants and nakedness of those that are under such Afflictions not apishly imitating but truly suffering their Distresses And our Saviour shewed that this Passion was predominant in him not only at the present but on many other Occasions he sigh'd for the Sick shed tears for the Dead pray'd for his Persecutors upon the Cross c. And now I have said so much of our Lord's Compassion it were to reproach my Auditory and not to exhort them to use any Arguments to shew we ought to sympathize with him in the like Tenderness that when he was all Pity and melted at every Calamity it will ill become us to shew our selves Rock and Steel at the Miseries of our Brethren I proceed to the Object of Christ's Compassion the Multitude I have Compassion on the Multitude Our Lord in journeying from Decapolis and the Regions thereabout had gathered to himself by the power of his Preaching and the sight of his Miracles a great Number of promiscuous People styl'd in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Rabble of the Meaner Sort such as the Priests and Pharisees pointed at John 7. when they said Have any of the Rulers believed on him but only this People who know not the Law and are accursed For the over-weaning Pharisees reckoned the Poor among Publicans and Sinners Reprobates and Harlots esteemed those who had no Name in the State who were capable of bearing no Honour or Office to be also uncapable of receiving any Special Mark of God's Favour according to the Proverbial Speech so common among them Spiritus non requiescit nisi super divitem the Spirit is sent only to Eminent Persons and refuses to rest on the Mean and Abject And yet it was the Distress of these undervalued despised People the Hunger of this condemned reprobated Rabble in their Rulers account not worthy to be fed if with trouble scarce to be starved and who if they did dye through Want the World would find no Want of them that so nearly affected our Lord and so sensibly toucht his very Vitals A Commiseration fit to be transcribed by those that are in Power and Great Place who shew too much of that Anti-Christian Turkish Principle That the Lives of the Vulgar are of no Moment fit only to be sacrificed to the Lusts and Pleasures of the Rich in times of peace and in War to fill up Ditches and blunt the Enemies Sword thus not being content to be at Ease only and out of the Peoples Danger unless they may be also without all Sense of their Misery 'T is said as I remember of Pompey the Great mavult Rempublicam turbari quà m Comam he would rather the Commonwealth should be disordered than his Hair and too many there are of this nice Temper to be deeplier concerned for every trifling Curiosity about their own Persons than for the Publick Good or Evil of their Country and if their Lot be so happy as to exempt them from bearing a part in a General Calamity they easily exempt themselves from feeling any Trouble for it But our Lord shew'd himself of a Publick Spirit for when he was above the Evils and Calamities of Mankind he espoused their Nature to no other End but that he might espouse their Miseries and after he had laid aside his Glory he laid down also his Life for the Salvation of his Creatures he disdained not to converse with the Meanest of the People to instruct their Ignorance to heal their Infirmities to relieve their Hunger And this to teach us That Christians ought to shew Regard where others shew Scorn there to place their Pity and Compassion where the
diligent Execution of his Apostleship Feed my Sheep And the Method which our Lord here prescribes to Peter must be observed also by us in advancing the Kingdom of God When thou art converted says he strengthen thy Brethren We must first set up the Kingdom of God in our own hearts before we attempt to erect it in others As he is unfit to be a Teacher that is not first well instructed himself So he is not fit to be a Reformer that is not first reform'd himself for his Evil Manners will certainly defeat his Sermon and instead of making others righteous by his preaching he will render himself ridiculous 'T is a Noble Undertaking to bring others to the fear of God but 't is an indispensable Duty to serve God our selves says S t James He that converteth a Sinner from the Error of his ways shall save a Soul from death that 's an Heroick Action and shall hide a multitude of Sins that 's a necessary Concern Self-reformation is the most Effectual Step we can make to promote God's Glory 't is such a Giantly Step as I may say as reaches from the Setting out of the Course to the End of it 't is like the first Step of the Sun above the Horizon which darts Rays to the furthest Circumference of it and fills the whole Hemisphere with Light and Vigour which these Words of our Lord seem to allude to Let your Light so shine before men that they may see your good Works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven Nothing so illustrates the Gospel nothing so powerfully converts Sinners and brings them to glorifie God as the Holy Lives of the Faithful But I urge not this to exclude other Endeavours to propagate Righteousness but to shew the great Force and Prevalence that Righteousness has to produce Righteousness I proceed to the Objects of our Love which are two God and our Neighbour 1. God Saint John speaks as if there were some difficulty in this Part of our Duty Our loving God says he He that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen Implying though the Ear be Janua Scientiae the Gate of Knowledge the Eye is Janua Amoris the Gate of Love and that to excite this Passion 't is requisite some Visible Beauty be display'd But we may say to this Though we do not see God yet we may love him by what we see and hear of him nay with good reason we may be the more enamour'd on him because his Perfections transcend not only our mortal Senses but even all humane Conception and thus we may fall in love as Blind Men often passionately do by report and hear-say But more particularly there are three Motives why we should love God comprehended in the very Object The Lord thy God 1. Because he is God For that 's the Name of the highest Excellence and Perfection and they are only Glorious and Illustrious things that stir Love and Admiration in us we run not out to gaze upon Common Persons but upon those that are famous for Greatness Learning Beauty Prowess and the like Now there is nothing Rare or Admirable of any kind but 't is in God in its Fullness and Perfection and for this reason Epicurus though he believed no Providence or that Men received any Good or Evil from the Gods yet he adored them and sacrificed to them merely because they were Glorious Beings Had we no other Cause to love God but for the Stupendous Perfections that are in him it were sufficient But we have greater reason to love him from the Second Motive Because we have the Honour of Relation to him he is The Lord Our God The Psalmist thought it a high Obligation to praise him because he was created by him I will praise thee because I am fearfully and wonderfully made But we have not only the Obligation upon us of Creation and Conversation which is a kind of continual Creation in common with all Creatures to love God but other Extraordinary and Distinguishing Favours viz. his calling us to the Knowledge of the Faith and the Blessed Consequences attending it and this ought to tune our Harps yet higher and to be the Subject of many Hymns and Psalms more But then Thirdly Our greatest Motive of all to love him is Because he Redeem'd us after we were lost restor'd us when by our Sins we were in a manner uncreated again when we had defac'd the Image of God in us our Innocence and Righteousness forfeited all our Felicity and were become the Bond-slaves of Satan then he rescued us from Eternal Damnation and made us again the Children of God So that as he is Deus or God to all Mankind to Christians he is also over and above Dominus a Lord i. e. a Redeemer and Saviour There is nothing so much obliges as Love and Benefits Celsus the Physician speaking of Philtres or Love-potions says Amor est naturale Philtrum Love is a Natural Love-potion and more powerful than those that are compounded of Drugs and by Incantations The most stupid of Creatures the dull Oxe and Ass the wildest and fiercest the Lion and Tyger are brought to love by good Usage though they know not the Nature of a Man they know if they receive Meat at his hands and be well treated by him and will love him and be obsequious to him And men were more insensible than the Brutes if when they have received of the Riches of God's Bounty and Goodness they refuse to love him because they have not seen his Person and cannot comprehend his Essence And God Isai. 1.3 complains of this stupid Insensibility in Israel The Oxe says he knoweth his Owner and the Ass his Master's Crib but Israel doth not know my people do not consider We love God as S t John says because he loved us first he began with us and our Love to him is at best a Gratitude or Retaliation if therefore the innumerable and inestimable Benefits of God work no return of Love in us to him we deserve not only to have our Names rased out of the Number of Men but to be allowed no place among the better natur'd Beasts but to be rang'd with Devils who are the only Enemies of God for his Goodness and Haters of him for that which is Excellent and Amiable in him The next thing I am to shew is In what Measure or Degree we are to love God The Words of the Commandment are Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Soul with all thy heart and with all thy mind On which three Expressions Commentators have many Observations and Criticisms but more nice than profitable for as Saint John says of the three that bear witness on Earth the Spirit the Water and the Bloud these three are one so I may say of these three Expressions in the Commandment however diversify'd that in importance they are but One and may be summ'd up
and Allowances to our selves in any Interested Point as they though they contradict the express Word of God and make that glorious Light a mere Ignis fatuus a Will with the Wisp and extinguish also the Candle of the Lord that Inward Light of our Conscience which was kindled in our Soul at our first Creation and instead of its Divine Instructions teach it new Lessons after the Mysteries of Hell and Iniquity But these wicked Artifices must be laid aside and Sincerity Fidelity and Diligence used in the Examination and Tryal of our Ways before we can possibly turn to the Lord. Which is the Second Particular I said was contained in the Prophet's Advice and for the sake of which Duty the other of Searching and Trying our Ways was prescribed for to search into our wicked Lives and to call our pass'd Sins to remembrance if not in order to their Condemnation and our Returning again to the Lord must be to applaud them and to delight our selves in a fanciful re-acting them over again which is a greater Sin if it be possible than the first committing them And this Duty of Turning again to the Lord is also express'd by a Metaphor the so common Figure in Scripture by a Similitude taken from such as go astray and return again into the Right way or that fly from their Abode and upon better thoughts return home again For there are Wanderers from their Duty as well as from the Road or High-way Fugitives from Vertue as well as from their Houses and Country Philo says of Adam and Eves flying from God's presence after their Transgression Every Sinner is a Fugitive and the Psalmist calls those that break the Commandments Wanderers out of the Right-way God in the Wisdom of his Counsel made Some things without Himself the Centre or Resting-place of Inferior Creatures as the Air for light Bodies the Earth for heavy c. but he made Himself the only Center of Man's happiness the only Resting-place of his Soul and when ever Men are intic'd and led away with their Lusts to seek Content in any Worldly or Carnal Enjoyment as they depart from God and turn their Backs upon him so they depart from their Peace and turn their Backs upon their Felicity and till they follow the Prophet's Advice Turn again to the Lord they pursue only their Misery Now the turning here spoken of being Figurative not Corporal but Spiritual not local from place to place but progressive from Vice to Vertue the plain Importance of returning to the Lord is Repentance the forsaking our former wicked Courses and serving God for the future in Holiness of Life And though the Words comprehend in their full Latitude the Whole Duty of Man yet they may be reduc'd to these two short Precepts which we find in the fourth Chapter of S t James ver 8. Cleanse your Hands ye Sinners and purifie your Hearts ye double-minded By our Hands the Apostle means our Outward Actions our Hands being the ordinary Instruments by which they are wrought and by our Hearts he denotes our Inward Affections because from thence our Affections proceed Now our Outward Actions must be Just and Honest because by them our Hearts are only made legible and intelligible to the World and our Hearts again or Inward Affections must be pure and holy because otherwise 't is as impossible that our Actions should be Just and Honest as that a clear Stream should flow from a troubled and puddled Fountain besides God sees the Heart though Man does not and East and West will sooner meet and make one Point in the Compass than God will close with an Impure or Wicked Person If we will enjoy an Union with God we must forsake our Sins and not expect that he should recede from his Righteousness we must turn to him or he will never turn to us and all our Prosperity and Felicity depend upon our Early and Sincere Turning to the Lord for as those that Dye in the Lord have all Tears wip'd from their Eyes so the Living Man that turns to the Lord shall have all Tears wip'd from his Eyes as the Prophet implies in my Text i. e. his Complaints for the Punishment of his Sins taken away nay his Punishment shall be turned into Blessings and Mercies by the God of Mercy I shall add but a few Words of Application and conclude We see here the highest Encouragement to excite us to Repentance and a Holy Life no less than the removing all our Complaints by the removing all our Evils nay than by turning our Evils into Blessings Thanks be to God we cannot parallel the Evils of our days with those of the Jewish Nation which the Prophet here laments we are not actually reduced again as some years since to an Egyptian bondage to work in Brick-kilns by our bloudy and oppressing Dissenting Brethren Thanks be to God I say the Calamity of our Israel is not such that we should take up this Complaint How is She become a Widow She that was Great among the Nations a Princess among the Provinces how is She become tributary Among antient Roman Medals there is one with a disconsolate Figure sitting on the Ground with this Inscription Britannia capta Britain subdu'd but I trust to the Divine Goodness that the like Fate is far from us this day though we were lately so near being Surpriz'd and totally destroy'd by the Malice of our Bloudy Enemies that what one said of a Dog 's near seizing the Prey might be apply'd to us similisque tenenti non tenet we were so near being taken that we were only not taken and though we were not confounded we seem'd to be As might be gathered as by other Evidences so from the Letters of our ill-willing Neighbours who more solicitous for our Ruine than charitable to warn us of our Danger enquired only after the Manner and Measure of our Destruction but doubted not in the least of the Certainty of it But though we were Miraculously snatch'd out of the Jaws of Ruine are we now secure so that the Reprehension in my Text may be retorted on us Wherefore doth a living man complain Some forward Heads and Branches of the late Conspiracy I acknowledge are cut off or secured but the Roots of it are still left in the Ground and charily preserved and fostered by the Still-Designing Parties and not a little cherished and assisted by many who pretend to be of a contrary Perswasion This Age which despises to go less in a Refined Way of working Mischief than any former whatsoever has fram'd an Engine which would be thought to have been filed and polished by the very Hand of Charity though it was forged in Hell and that is To disbelieve all that is said of any Plot and Conspiracy against the King Church or State insinuate nay dare to publish in Print That the Conspiracy which makes such a Noise is indeed only against the Accused Party either to destroy or