Dishonours and Churchyards that are the Seminaries of the Resurrection should not be places of pasturage for all kind of Animals And would to God that the Laity only were to be blam'd for this impious Prophanation BUT Fourthly Are our Bodies so curiously built Judge what the Soul must be that Lamp of Light that Candle of the Lord the invisible Jewel that 's laid up in that Casement 't is no less than the Breath of God it bears the Image of the Deity in legible Characters How active and indefatigable is it in the the search of Truth How much above the Enjoyments of Sense and feculent Pleasures of the Body With what transport doth it embrace Conclusions drawn from their Principles How fond is it of its own Contemplations that are raised on the immoveable Pillars of Reason How swifts in its Thoughts How easily does it fly round the Earth climb the Heavens and view the Creation 'T is a divine Spark of Light from the Father of Spirits that glances in those prisons of flesh for a while it 's true Pleasures are pure and Angelical it grasps Truth for the sake of Truth with Order and Complacency and makes to it self Ladders of true Consequences from the visible Creatures to ascend to Heaven BUT let us dwell a while longer on this Meditation Did God furnish our Minds with such noble Powers only to till the Ground and make provision for the flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof No certainly This vast and capacious Spirit that than lodge so many Truths together without Confusion or Disorder was design'd to enjoy God any thing else falls short of its Height and Grandeur WHENCE is this Appetite of Immortality that we feel within our selves Is it altogether in vain Did God place it within our Souls purely to vex us Was there nothing design'd to satisfie it Yes certainly else Mankind had been a phantastick Impertinence the vainest and the silliest nothing in the Creation For if in this life only we had hope we were of all men the most miserable confined to the Earth when our Souls fly far beyond it and immured in the Walls of Flesh when their Capacities dispose them for the Life and Enjoyment of Angels ALL the rest of the Creatures have Objects proper for their Appetites shall Man alone have Inclinations beyond the Earth and yet die like the Beasts that perish Let no such thought enter our Souls for we shall see him as he is LET me add to this If the Soul be so vivacious in its Walls of Flesh when 't is chained in this dark Tabernacle that as Quintilian observes it flies in a trace from one Object to another nothing can engross its power and strength how large and comprehensive must it be when we come to our Countrey above when we are united to the original Wisdom Light and Truth What a foolish violence doe we offer to our Souls when we bend and bow them to earthly Enjoyments Why did we not rather let them fly to the place of their rest and tranquility Their natural motion is towards Heaven and Christian Religion designs no more than their Primitive Liberty WHEN we would persuade Men to be religious we need not borrow our Arguments from foreign Topicks let them only look inwards let them view the frame of their own Souls their Knowledge Will and Memory the uneasie Reflections of their Consciences when they do amiss it makes them taste whether they will or not the fears of an impartial Tribunal that drags them in the midst of their Jollities before that Judge that can neither be deceived nor be imposed upon HEAR then the calm Reasonings of your own Spirits you may shift the force of our Arguments when we have urged them with all Zeal and Sincerity but you cannot hide your selves from that invisible Judge your own Souls IT were Folly in the highest degree to feed a hungry Stomach with wise Sayings excellent Diagrams or if such things were offered for the cure of a Man in a raging Fever this is the Folly we transcribe when we endeavour to satisfie our Souls with any thing short of God himself the Satisfaction and Happiness that we look after is higher than the Earth The Earth says it is not in me and the Sea says it 's not in me and the Treasures of both the Indies have nothing in them to feed the strong Desires of Immortality or to fill the Appetite of Reason BUT Fifthly Are our Souls and Bodies such Monuments of the Divine Wisdom should we not then frequently view and consider our own Frame and Composition Why are we such Strangers to our selves When the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the great deep the rest of the Creatures were formed in their order as they were commanded to appear by his word that commanded things which are not as if they were they were inded the more negligent strokes of Omnipotence but MAN appears by his deliberate Method and set off with the Characters of his Image in Wisdom Purity Liberty Immortality What Majesty in these Words Come let us make Man in our own Image And if the very rubbish of this Edifice the ruines of him in his lapsed Condition be so magnificent what was he when but a little lower than the Angels crowned with glory and dignity Especially when we remember that still he is capable of such Improvements Recover him by Education from his childish Vanities from his untamed Lust and Passions furnish him with Health Strength all Wisdom divine and humane invest him with publick Honour and Attendance and then he is but some degrees below the Angels of God And yet all this is but a shadow and a dream in compare with what Improvements he is capable of when regenerate to the Image of God and the hope of Glory ARE not we our selves then worthy of our most serious thoughts True Religion teaches a Man to converse with himself in the noblest manner to covet the highest Improvements of his own Nature to observe his own Failings Seneca tells us in one of his Epistles that it was his custom every Night when the candle was out calmly to examine himself and look narrowly into the Retirements of his own Conscience this often and seriously performed begat Calmness and Serenity in his Bosom which he compares to the Regions above the Moon where there are no Clouds no Vapours no Exhalations BUT a wicked Man is afraid to look within himself the violent Earthquakes and shakings of his Spirit make those Reflections intolerable Did we thus take our selves more accurately to task we would not have so much spare time to descant on the Actions of others we should be more merciful in our Censures less severe in our Reflections more equitable and just in all our Proceedings When Pausanias the Lacedemonian desired Simonides the Poet to bestow some memorable Saying upon him he gave him this Remember that you are a man AND indeed this contained a Compend
positae quoniam suaves miscetis odores And this is prophesied of the Messias that his Garments should smell of Myrrhe Aloes and Cassia And from him the Church hath all those excellent Smells mentioned Verse 14. Saffron Calamus and Cinnamon to teach us that though the Gifts of the Spirit are and have all their several excellencies yet they are all useful to the Church whose garments are made of needle work and different colours and therefore it is an unpardonable vanity in the People to make saucy comparisons between the Gifts of Ecclesiasticks for stabit unus quisque sorte sua and the Philosophy of S. Paul to the Corinthians should teach them more modesty If the foot shall say because I am not the Eye I am not of the Body is it therefore not of the Body If we look up to our Superiours for assistance conduct and direction they must look down to us for obedience deference and submission THE third Thing that I promised was the rise of those Waters they come from Mount Libanus by an impetuous force and vigour Nothing can more lively represent the first rise and beginning of those heavenly Oracles The Gospel is the day star from on high and the Doctrine that our Saviour hath revealed is from Heaven We are told by Historians that at the foot of Mount Libanus there arises a pleasant Fountain aquas habens limpidissimas that run down from it through subterraneous passages most impetuously and there burst forth in great plenty and by several Conduits waters all the Gardens of the Plain And this leads us naturally to the Divinity of our Religion but here I stop being afraid that I have transgress'd already the time that was allowed me To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be Glory for ever Amen A SERMON ON ROM xii 1. I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercies of God that you present your Bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service THE Apostle in the former part of this Epistle asserted the Doctrine of Evangelical Justification against the unbelieving Jews who stuck so tenaciously to the System of Moses's Laws And now he sums up in one pathetic Exhortation the strength and design of the Gospel and of all Religion Christianity was not a Collection of dry and airy Notions calculated to amuse the World but a Discipline the highest and the purest that ever was received amongst men the immediate Revelation of Infinite Wisdom which brought along with it true and everlasting righteousness And therefore they ought not to let their thoughts dwell so much and so long on the glory of their Temple and the variety of their Sacrifices under the Levitical Oeconomy They were now invited to offer unto God more valuable Oblations than any of their former They were to bring themselves to the Altar of God and resign their Will to his Will And this was more agreeable to the nature of true Religion the design of the Gospel and the highest exercise of Reason When we bring unto God only things that are without us we mistake his Nature and despise his Goodness Reason taught us that the best things are to be offered unto God and therefore the Heart and Soul and Mind of Man are the only Sacrifices that are truly valuable And this is the reason why the Apostle addresses to the Christians at Rome with so much zeal and affection I will shortly consider 1. His Preface 2. His Exhortation And 3. The Motive to enforce it And 1. For the Preface By the mercies of God We easily infer from the fervour and solemnity of the Apostles Introduction the weight and importance of his Exhortation i. e. I do beseech you with all the earnest passion and true tenderness that I am capable of I exhort you by the Mercies of God i. e. by what is uppermost in his Nature his boundless Compassions that are in the front of all his glorious Perfections and in the Language of the Psalmist from everlasting to everlasting by all that is great sacred and venerable that which takes up the wonder of Angels the praises of men and the adorations of the Saints in glory that you no longer resist the Light of the Gospel but since you are redeem'd from the pompous drudgery of an external Religion that you would think no Sacrifices worthy of God but such as are attended with your life strength zeal and devotion for this is the true Worship of the New Testament when our Will is united to the Will of God 'T IS easie to observe the holy Violence and Fire of S. Paul's Spirit when he endeavours to plant-plant-true and solid Religion Here he speaks as if his Soul was ready to crack the strings that ty'd it to his Body He is all flame all love all endeavour all charity He wishes himself an Anathema i. e. a publick Sacrifice for the unbelieving Jews if this could recover them from their Infidelity to the acknowledgement of the Truth as it is in Jesus HE made use of this weighty Argument in this place because there is none of greater force If the Angels were to preach to us and gain us to the belief of the Gospel they could not fly higher in their Perswasives than the Mercies of God It is by them that he chuses to proclaim all his Titles of Honour to the World The Lord the Lord God slow to anger and of great goodness So when the Apostle exhorts by the Mercies of God he exhorts by God himself and all those ineffable appearances of his Goodness that are felt by the intelligent World and every moment proclaim'd with wonder and acknowledgement HOW merciful must he be who suffers without present revenge the many horrid Crimes that are daily committed the provocations that fly in the face of Heaven their multitude their variety and their circumstances as if men would pull down the Almighty from his Throne and reverse the foundations of good and evil And yet such is the love of God to mankind that after many unkind denyals and rude affronts he besieges the Consciences of men by the force of his Convictions he makes the Light of his Word to pierce to the bottom of the Soul and powerfully overcome the stubborness of our Will How wisely does he conduct us through the labyrinth of tentations How sweetly does he engage us by the motions of his Spirit How kindly does he receive the Prodigal when as yet he had but some small beginnings of wisdom sobriety and calmness He saw him afar off he ran to him fell upon his neck and kissed him WHEN we remember that the Mercies of God are our surest Refuge and Sanctuary in all our fears straits and difficulties we need say no more to amplifie them This is the strong Hold that we flee to when we are assaulted by fear despair or the terrour of the Law WHEN Nathan the Prophet by a
desirable event WE are to meet with God in the most comfortable and sublime Ordinance and to dress our Souls in their best Robes and Wedding-garments We are to come to this Feast with pure intentions and to arm our selves with the whole armour of God and against every Limb of the body of Death We are to set the pure Law of God before our Eyes and faithfully to compare our actions with it and do you think that this can be done by a superficial glance or can we renverse so easily what is so deeply rooted in our Nature and frame can we by the slightest attempt overturn the works of Satan When we remember that we are to be judged for every secret thought and every idle word and every evil deed how impartial and accurate ought we to be in this Examination when we compare our lives with the Law of God what a formidable Army of our sins do we at first view perceive Our omissions our careless performance of what we do our injuries towards others our foolish impertinent and uncharitable Censures of many our breach of former Promises and Resolutions the hardness of our Hearts against the various Methods of Gods Goodness Patience and Providence against the light reproofs and directions of our own Consciences and the honour of our most holy Profession now when we have gotten such a sight of our sins the Prayer of the Publican in the Temple becomes us Lord be merciful to me a sinner 2. WHEN you have made an impartial discovery of your Condition judge thy self with all severity for if we judge our selves we shall not be judged of the Lord. We are not to judge our selves blindly and with precipitation but upon a full and clear evidence of our Condition nor is it enough to pass sentence against our selves in general forms to acknowledge that we are sinners but we must confess our particular sins such as are our sins in a special manner either by habitual custom temperament of Body ordinary Society or by any other accident or teâ—â—ation for without this particular and ingenuous confession we are not ashamed of what we have done and consequently not truly penitent Let us therefore neither hide nor extenuate our sins before God to whose Eyes all things are naked and open and whose word divides between the soul and the spirit who knows our thoughts afar off and the very first tendencies of our Soul towards evil Apply the confession of the prodigal Son to thy particular state and say with true contrition and humility I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called thy son THE Grace of God cannot grow to any ripeness and perfection but in the Soul that is truly humble and that sensibly feels it self in the most destitute condition unless our Saviour speedily interpose for our recovery and there is no Method so proper to make us truly humble as to see our selves without disguise naked as in the sight of God When we are stript of our Excuses and artificial coverings by which we endeavour to hide our selves from our Neighbours then we see the vast distance that is between the pure Laws of our Religion and our loose careless and disordered lives God is present with us at all times and his Eyes pierce to the Center of our Spirits Let us therefore go to the bottom of the Sore and examine our actions by that infallible Rule of his Word and then we must condemn our selves in the most serious and afflictive strain of true remorse and contrition and therefore we find that the most eminent Saints have been most accurate and impartial in censuring their own sins and transgressions they were more ingenuous than their most watchful Enemies to aggravate their own follies Thus my heart was griev'd saith the Psalmist and I was pricked in my reins so foolish was I and ignorant I was as a beast before thee 3. WE are to approach this Sacrament with strong resolutions at last to be revenged on our sins Let us reason our selves out of our former idleness and sloth if we are truly griev'd for our sins we must break thorough the ordinary Obstacles that formerly kept us in bondage Is there no strength in this Sacrament to break those Iron bars by which we are shut up under the power of our sins Are our bonds so strong that they cannot be shaken off Are our Appetites so violent and unruly that they cannot be resisted Were not others encompassed with the same flesh and infirmities and yet happily made free And shall we miserably groan under the load of our sins even though we feel that they make us hateful to God Nay let us cast our selves under the compassionate Eye of our blessed Lord and Master and beseech him that he would let us feel the power of his Resurrection and break our Captivity that he would let us know that He that is in us is stronger than He that is in the World that his Wisdom and Strength may interpose to help our weakness and folly that He would gird his victorious Sword upon his thigh and eradicate our evil Habits Let God arise and let his Enemies be scattered and fly before his presence Our resolutions must not only be vigorous and fervent but fixt against particular sins to which our inclinations are more violent and forward 4. COME unto the Holy Table with full trust in the mercy of God He will not quench the smoaking flax nor will he break the bruised reed He blows upon the first sparks of Sincerity until they are flam'd into perfect zeal and Devotion The Waters that He gives are a Well of water springing up unto life eternal He will perfect that which he hath begun The goodness of God and the incomprehensible Love of Jesus are immovable Pillars of our Faith and therefore we are to fill our Eyes with a prospect of Mercy He will not deal rigidly with us neither will he upbraid us with our former guiltiness when we are prostrate at his feet when we plead with him by his boundless Compassion and the Abyss of our miseries The Blood of Jesus is the true Atonement and propitiation for the sins of the World So reasons the Author to the Hebrews that the blood of Jesus must be of infinitely greater force than that of Bulls and Goats and the ashes of an Heiser for he offered himself without spot unto God and that through the eternal Spirit and therefore he lives for ever to make intercession for us and if we believe the sufficiency and merit of his Sacrifice we must also be persuaded of the real efficacy of this Sacrament to convey the Merits of Christs blood to every penitent Communicant This may be easily discern'd by its contrary influence on the prophane and impenitent If he that eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks damnation then certainly it it must convey life strength light
excellent beginnings that we shall be made more than Conquerours through Jesus Christ that loved us and we resign our selves to his conduct and goodness and by them we put to silence all our fears and anxieties Why art thou cast down O my Soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my Countenance and my God To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be all Praise Power and Dominion for evermore Amen A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL Of the Right Honourable WILLIAM Viscount of Strathallan Lieutenant-General of all His MAJESTIES Forces within the Kingdom of SCOTLAND At Inverpeffray April 4. 1688. LONDON Printed for Joseph Hindmarsh at the Golden Ball over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1693. A SERMON ON JOHN xi 25. Jesus said unto her I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live Compared with 1 Cor. 15.12 13 14. Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead how say some among you that there is no resurrection from the dead But if there be no resurrection of the dead then is Christ not not risen and if Christ be not risen then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain THE first Sentence that I have read is placed in the Frontispiece of the Office for the Burial of the Dead the clear foresight we have of our after subsistence being the only and the strongest Antidote against the Terrors of Death and the Solemnities of our Entrance into the Grave What more proper to be told the Sisters of Lazarus than that which rais'd their thoughts from the Corruptions of the Earth to that State of Celestial Vigour to which we shall arrive one day when we shake off the Dishonours of Weakness and Mortality The Article of the Resurrection is the great Pillar of the Christian Faith the Corner-stone of our Religion our Hope is founded on it and as the Apostle reasons our Belief without it is but one continued Fable and Imposture This alone hath in it the Strength and Quintescence of all Consolation and there is no remedy against our present Trouble but to believe our condition shall be changed into a better Humane Nature feels it self relieved by no other thought than the sure prospect of our happiness to come The wise sayings and pretty knacks of the Philosophers who had no view of the Resurrection did avail but little to support the Mind against Grief and Sorrow So S. Paul concludes that if in this life only we had hope we were of all men the most miserable There was indeed a general Tradition of the Immortality of the Soul that had overspread Mankind and so much we might gather from the Writings of Cicero and Seneca But to believe that the dispers'd parts of a Mans Body shall be rang'd and dispos'd into their true order and situation after they have been scatter'd thorough all the Corners of the Earth that they shall be reduc'd unto a temper fit to serve the Soul in all its Vital Functions that those Atoms shall be joyn'd to that Spirit from whom they have been separated was and is the peculiar Belief of the True Church WE cannot think of our utter Dissolution without horror and amazement we are naturally enemies to Sadducism and death in its strictest Notion The most barbarous Nations have something in their Rites and Religious Ceremonies that carry their thoughts beyond the Grave The very Phrase by which the ancient Romans did express Death let us see that they could not with patience think of being entirely extinct and annihilated when their Souls left their earthly habitations As for the Jews they could not but be fully acquainted with the Doctrine of the Resurrection though not from the Law of Moses yet the sayings of their Wise Men the Comments and Predictions of their Prophets the Traditions of the Patriarchs did establish them fully in the Belief of the Resurrection As we are informed by the Prophecies of Daniel and Job And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt and they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever Could any of the Christians prophesie with greater assurance of the Resurrection than Job I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth And though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another though my reins be consumed within me It s the Observation of S. Hierom upon these words that none spoke so clearly of our Saviours Resurrection and his own as Job before the Incarnation did And the following Prophets teach the same Doctrine Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise Awake and sing ye that dwell in dust for the dew is as the dew of herbs and the earth shall cast out the dead But the Doctrine of the Resurrection hath received much Evidence and Certainty from our Lord Jesus Christ himself who brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel who not only asserts it frequently but proves it convincingly from the Books of Moses by the clearest and most undeniable consequence I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living IT is needless for me or my design to trouble you with the more accurate inquiry of the order and coherence of those Words that I have read either out of the Gospel or the Epistle though we should disjoin them from their neighbour places yet they are entire in themselves full of light and comfort Martha told our Saviour her Faith now being almost overcome with Grief that he was highly in favour with God and so probably might prevail with him and obtain any thing he desired Our Saviour assures her that her Brother shall rise again this puts some life into her expectations and she seemed artificially to wave what she hoped and did insinuate that she understood him of the general Resurrection But he quickly saw into the darkest recesses of her mind and told her plainly that there was no necessity to let her thoughts fly so far off as the general Resurrection He who was the first efficient cause of the Resurrection and the Author of Life was himself present and so might when he pleas'd raise his subjects and followers from the captivity and dishonours of the Grave FROM both the places that I have read I invite your attention to Meditate First On the Resurrection of our Saviour as the Author and finisher of our Faith Secondly Our Resurrection who
my Discourse against fleshly lusts in the strictest sense as they signifie all manner of uncleanness contrary to chastity General Discourses against vice are seldom successful towards the recovery of men from under their dominion and therefore when we assault the body of death we must level our strokes against particular limbs and members as the surest and the speediest way to our victory BUT that I may discourse with the better success let us consider First the Exhortation it self Abstain from fleshly lusts and this Exhortation is strengthen'd with a twofold Argument one is taken from the opposition of such lusts to the Soul and the other taken from our present state condition and relation We are but pilgrims and strangers NOW that I may make those fleshly lusts as odious to the Christian eye as is possible I will in the first place lay before you some considerations to represent them in their true and proper colors And Secondly I will offer those Remedies from Reason and the holy Scriptures by which we may be defended against their assaults First Do but consider that those fleshly lusts are directly opposite unto the Nature Spirit and Tendency of Christianity It was our Saviour's great design when he took upon him our Nature to fortifie our Spirits beyond the reach of bodily impressions to establish them in an absolute Empire and just Sovereignty over the Senses to exalt that part of us that is divine and heavenly to its true elevation that it might no more truckle under the body that the senses and all the motions that we feel by them might be kept at their true distance and not meddle with that command and authority that belongs to the mind In a word that our Souls might be adorn'd with their true Glory and Majesty When we are thus set at liberty then and not till then are we free indeed when we remember the value strength and excellency of the Soul which though it be united to the Body and therefore must mind the concerns of the Body with great care and tenderness yet it more vigorously desires to be united unto God It may subsist without its Union to the Body but it cannot be happy unless it be united unto God so that this Union of the Soul with God is in a manner folded up in its very nature and essence WE are in the strictest sense the off-spring of God and it was reasonable for us to expect that when the Son of God did appear to reform Mankind he should level his Directions and Precepts against those vices and sins most vigorously that did sink the Soul below its true glory and dignity the sins that took down its Plumes by which it mounted the heavens but now was become soft trifling and degenerate And because no lusts did break the vigour of our mind and blunt the edge of our Spirits and weaken our union with God more than fleshly lusts in the strictest sense therefore do we find the cautions against those sins so frequent in the New Testament with this assurance that he that is in Christ Jesus hath crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof THE Arguments that S. Paul makes use of against those sins are heavenly and sublime 1 Cor. 6.19 20. Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost and you are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your bodies and in your spirits which are Gods Answerably to this we find that the first Christians notwithstanding of the blackest Calumnies of their Pagan adversaries lived the life of Angels in earthly Bodies their Chastity was so great a Jewel in their eyes that many of their Christian Women most cheerfully resign'd their life rather than part with their honour And Tertullian towards the close of his Apology resolutely defies the impudence of the Pagans for they themselves did acknowledg the purity and innocence of the Christians in this matter because they judg'd it a more intolerable punishment for their Women to be condemned to the Stewes than to suffer Martyrdom How many of the Christian Women among the Romans when the Goths and Vandals made their Irruption into Italy threw themselves into Tyber rather than be expos'd to the savage Embraces of lust and dishonour The Story of the young man recorded by S. Jerom is very memorable who feeling himself entangled in the embraces of a wanton Strumpet did bite off his own Tongue and spit it in her face lest the strength of his temptation and the weakness of humane nature might betray him into Indecencies unbecoming his holy Profession We see then it is most certain and clear that fleshly lusts are in their nature and tendency contrary to that Religion which our Saviour planted and the first Christians embrac'd But Secondly LET us remember that these fleshly lusts are severely punish'd both here and hereafter We are told by Solomon Prov. 6.26 that by means of a whorish woman a man is brought unto a piece of bread And the Parable of the Prodigal in the fifteenth of S. Luke represents the miserable estate of such with great advantage the sufferings that those lusts expose men to are not confin'd to one single capacity but they spread their Poison not only through the body reaching sometimes even beyond the bones into the marrow but also through all the suffering capacities of human nature health fortune life and reputation are the ordinary Sacrifices that are brought to the Altars of this unclean Devil Solomon again tells us Prov. 66.33 That a wound and dishonour is his reward and his reproach shall not be wiped away Have you sometimes observed the macerated Skeletons of Lust worn in the Devils warfare bearing the dishonourable marks of their Masters service sometimes in their foreheads to such a degree of infamy that hardly one would think that Mankind could be made so miserable And though those Trophies of Misery have frequently been displayed to the scandal of Religion disgrace of human nature and the terrour of all Spectators yet so inconsiderate are the most part of Mankind and so stupifying is the Enchantment that it requires a heavenly frame and a bold Resolution to subdue those imperious and stubborn lusts How many did God remarkably punish for this sin Numb 25. Zimri and Cozbie were slain in the very act and four and twenty thousand of the Children of Israel fell for their unlawful mixture with strange Women And though God had left those filthy Creatures without Punishment yet the sin carries corruption in its Nature for he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption in the most literal sense Add to all this the flames of unquenchable fire that are prepared for the Sons of Lust and Wantonness in the other World They may possibly escape the notice and observation of earthly Judges but when the hidden things of dishonesty are brought to light then Heb. 13.4 God will judge whoremongers and adulterers Thirdly CONSIDER that
to despair and damnation on the contrary the way of virtue is smooth regular even and pleasant Her wayes are wayes of pleasantness and all her paths are peace Vice is rugged and intricate full of labyrinths and turnings and the wicked weary themselves to commit iniquity I THINK any one of those Considerations may startle us out of our security and awaken us to lay hold upon eternal life to go forward without weariness in the race that is set before us No man having put his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God Know ye not that they which run in a race run all but one obtaineth the prize BUT I hasten to the second Particular and that is the regular Method of his Zeal and Devotion He press'd toward the mark in the way marked out by the Master of the Game There are very many zealous enough but their zeal is blind turbulent and factious the Christian zeal acts strongly but prudently discreetly and humbly and in subordination to them whom God hath set over us In the fire of Hell there is heat without light and the fury of zealots resembles it much or rather is the beginning of it We are not only to be active in our Christian course but we are to order our Motion by the Rules of our Institution IT is not enough to run strongly and swiftly for carrying the prize but one must also run within his Circle and Sphere else by the Laws of the Game he falls short MY meaning is when we run toward the Mark in the Christian course we must act in all our performances like the Disciples of that Institution and like the Spirit of Christianity and though we come short of perfection yet our habitual byass being the Love of Jesus we move toward the Mark and in our way though clogged with many infirmities NOW this Genius and Spirit of Christianity discovers it self 1. By the simplicity of our intentions Matth. 6.22 The light of the body is the eye if therefore thine eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light By the single eye in the judgment of most is meant the single and habitual design and resolution of advancing the glory of God when this runs through all our actions suppose the matter of them good and allowable though they be depress'd by many imperfect adherences yet we are sure of acceptance for God loves to take up his residence with men of single and sincere intentions 2. THIS is known by our disengagement from the World the Genius of our Religion is stated against it and all its most ordinary practices fraud dissimulation vain glory the satisfaction of any of our appetites against the Rules of Jesus Christ is of the World and contradicts the Spirit of Jesus for by it we are inspired to contemn it and despise all its trifling enjoyments and to square all our actions with an eye to immortality and eternity Love not the World neither the things that are in the World 3. THIS Spirit is known by the Dominion over our Passions and the victory we have over tentations The passions in the Soul have their true use grief fear joy and anger when they come and go at the command of Reason They are not to be extirpated as the Stoicks vainly pretended but they are to be kept in awe and within their bounds as the passions in the blessed Jesus were Now if we move thus in our Christian Race we move streight toward the Mark and in the way that our Lord Jesus marked for us and this will undoubtedly carry us to the prize propos'd by our Saviour which is the third Particular I was to speak to Thirdly THE Prize of the High Calling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dum in sublimi sederunt Brabeutai as the Learned Grotius hath it those publick Judges of the Game gave the signal from on high to alarm the Competitors to make themselves ready And the Son of God came down from Heaven and reveal'd Immortality as the Prize and he alarms the World by the Gospel to despise the present Scene of things and to carry their thoughts beyond this little Globe to that life that is pure durable and in the presence of God for ever this is so strong that nothing but Inconsideration makes men neglect it O Eternity O Eternity who can comprehend it who can without madness forget it and remembring it who can but despise all things in comparison with it To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be all Power and Glory for ever Amen A SERMON ON 2 PET. 1. ch 1. v. 4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust IT is not my present design to amuse you with any Enquiry about the Author of this Epistle whether he was S. Peter the Apostle or S. Simeon the immediate Successor of S. James Bishop of Jerusalem as is most probable My business is rather to invite your attention to the important Truths that are contain'd in this Verse which need but little explication when we look back into the former For the Glory and Power of God appear'd so conspicuous in the Ministry of our Saviour that Infidelity becomes inexcusable and it is by that Glory and Power that the great and precious Promises of the Gospel are given unto us WHEN the Gospel was to be establish'd and the Kingdom of Darkness to be pull'd down there was a necessity that the arm of God should appear bare in the defence of the first that he might confound the arts and delusions of the other The Author puts the believing Jews in mind of this demonstration in the Verse preceeding the Text for the Gospel appear'd in its beginnings full of glory and power And afterwards he argues that the testimony of the Apostles could not be rejected for they were eye-witnesses of his Majesty They did not follow cunningly devis'd fables they were most unlikely of all men to impose upon the World being destitute of that artifice and subtilty that recommend secular interests and contrivances And therefore the Christians might without any scruple or fear receive the Gospel as the undoubted Truth of God the infallible Method of his Wisdom for the recovery of Mankind THE Text is the abstract of the whole Gospel having couch'd in it the History of our Misery and Recovery and the method whereby this wonderful contrivance was accomplish'd In speaking to it I sum up all I have to say in these four Particulars 1. THAT there is a Corruption in the World 2. THAT this Corruption may be escaped 3. THAT we escape this Corruption by the great and precious Promises of the Gospel 4. THAT the Design and Tendency of the Promises is to make us partakers of the Divine Nature 1. THERE is a Corruption in the World We
no other Business or Employment can exhaust the strength and activity of our Spirits The Soul ranges thorow the Creation like the Bee that tasts every Flower but quickly goes off to another Thus our Spirits after their most diligent enquiries into all things that the World hath sit down meagre and discontented they feel something within them still thirsty and unsatisfied there is no fixed peace to our Spirits until we fix the eye of our Soul upon that Original Beauty and Light that dwells in Light inaccessible This is Employment proper for our Spirits here they rest as in their true Center and Element To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be all Praise Honour and Glory for ever and ever Amen A SERMON Preached on Good-Friday ON JOHN xviii V. 11. Then said Jesus unto Peter Put up thy Sword into the sheath the Cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it I NEED not the help of a Preface to reconcile this Text to this Day it being a part of that Gospel which the Church appoints to be read on this Solemn Fast when the Vniversal Church puts on Mourning and beholds her Redeemer dying in the Arms of Love THE Verse that I have now read contains our Saviour's fixt resolution to act the last part himself with true Magnanimity so he stood like an impregnable Rock not only against the treachery tumult and rage of his Enemies but also the timorous and faint Counsels and insinuations of his dearest Companions I suppose the Church appointed the Gospel for this day to be taken out of St. John because he was an Eye-witness of the whole Tragedy from first to last THE beginning of this Verse is a Command to St. Peter to forbear these Methods and Weapons of humane Violence that his ill-plac'd but well meant zeal did suggest unto him The Kingdom Scepter and Laws of the Messias needed not those Weapons of Iron and Steel but they were to be advanc'd to their height by Patience by Humility by Sufferings and by the Cross And this Philosophy the Sophies of the World did despise THE latter part of the Verse to which I invite your Meditation more closely is our Saviour's resolution to go through his most formidable sufferings with a chearful and undaunted Spirit inflam'd with Love Fortitude and invincible Zeal Here we have not his sufferings divided in several parcels but a full view of them in gross and in their solemn Circumstances and all of them made bitter and terrible by the most exquisite aggravations THUS the Captain of our Salvation considered his Enemies drawn up against him in battel array He saw all the Powers of Hell combin'd and all their Malice skrew'd up to the highest Pin and this Malice vented against himself with all the marks of affront and indignity All the suffering Capacities of his human Nature were at once assaulted and the terrour of the Roman Power the sullen hypocrisie of the Pharisees and the Clamours of the Rabble were all in their united force muster'd against him Yet he stood like a Rock of Brass to receive their blows and he tells S. Peter with design to cool his fervour That the Son of God must suffer THE Cup which my Father giveth me c. It was usual amongst the Jews to express the happy or adverse Lot of a Mans Condition under the notion and phrase of a Cup. Psalm 11. v. 6. Vpon the wicked he shall rain snares fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest this shall be the portion of their Cup. Psalm 16. v. 5. The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my Cup thou mantainest my lot The meaning then is this That Cup which is mixt by human Malice and filled with Gall and Vinegar is nevertheless ordered by my Father He superintends all things and not a hair of our head falls to the ground without his watchful providence This is a Cup indeed that hath in it all degrees of terrour and poison and such as may fright and daunt the courage of the whole Creation Yet I will drink it to the bottom for it is prepared by my Father nay I will drink it chearfully even when my flesh shrinks at it and by its innocent reluctances testifies its fear THUS we see what is folded up in those words but because our Eyes are not strong enough to view them all at once let us fix our attention on them in this Method 1. His bloody sufferings and more particularly the last Scene of them 2. Let us consider by whom this Cup was ordered and prepared It was the Cup that his Father gave him 3. With what courage and resolution he drank it 1. WE have his sufferings under the notion of a Cup especially the last and most Tragical Scene of them by the nature of his glorious Office and the determinate Counsel of God He was a Man of sorrow and acquainted with grief He endured the contradiction of sinners and the Cross was the very Character of his Kingdom Let us but view the preparations to this Tagedy and secondly the last act of it First I SAY the preparations towards it And here we may stop and go no further for we are not able to fathom the very beginnings of his sorrow they are too deep at the entry Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto his sorrow He was plowed upon and they made long furrows upon his back Take but a view of him in his Agony in Gethsemany when the arrows of God stuck fast in his Soul when the warm and celestial influences of Heaven seem'd to be suspended when he was left alone to contend with the malice of Earth and the fury of Hell Who can conceive the weight of this pressure How astonishing is it in the very beginning of those Agonies to consider the very outward posture of his Body He went a little further and fell on his face and prayed saying O my Father If it be possible let this Cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt AND must his face kiss the ground who supports the whole Creation Are his arms become feeble that is the strength of Men and Angels Shall fear and darkness take hold of Him that is the Light of the World Shall the Sun of Righteousness be thus eclips'd and the Fountain of Innocence and Purity thus grapple with misery and disaster What Consternation is this What Complication of Mysteries Yet we see but little when we view no more than the outward posture of his Body Dare we enter at a distance into his Soul Is that undefil'd Temple of the Divinity become the habitation of grief and fear Is Light it self become Darkness And are the original Notions of Things confounded Is the Wisdom of the Father put to this What shall I say Are all the Laws of the Creation broken at once and innocence it self made the only Theatre of Calamity WE are not
rose again that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living THE Meditation of our Saviour's Resurrection puts us beyond all doubt and hesitation as to our own Resurrection for he rose again as our Captain our Head our Mediator and in our Name And this leads me to the Second particular I proposed to speak to 2. THAT though we sleep in the dust of the Earth we shall be raised again by his Power He is risen as the first born from the dead and the first fruits of them that sleep as our forerunner and advocate He went unto the Heavens to prepare a place for us that where he is there we may be also And we shall follow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in due rank and season as the younger Sons of the Resurrection we shall be raised under his standard and conduct so reasons the Apostle S. Paul If the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in us he that raised up Jesus from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in us And again If we have been planted with him in the likeness of his death we shall also grow up in the likeness of his Resurrection And the same Apostle to the Thessalonians assures us that if we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so them also which sleep through Jesus will God bring with him Our Resurrection from the Dead stands in our Creed as one of the great Articles of our Faith the Revelation of it is clear and I need not prove it by a particular allegation of places for S. Paul concludes that if the dead rise not our Faith and all our Hopes that depend upon it are wholly vain and impertinent It 's true the Carnal World did struggle against the belief of the Resurrection And the Athenians could not forbear to laugh at S. Paul when he advanced this new Doctrine And Minutius Faelix in his excellent Dialogue proves how reasonable it is for us to believe it though the external Evidences for it were not so undeniable when once we come to have true notions of the Deity Did he Create us from nothing And is it so difficult to him to make us up when we are broken and scattered Can any particle of our dust and ashes be hid from the eyes of his omniscience And this is the current Argument of the Fathers Or as the same Author reasons though we are dryed into dust or dissolved into water or scattered into ashes can we be removed from the sight of him that weighs the Mountains in scales and numbers the sands upon the Sea shore And then he goes forward to prove the Resurrection from congruities in Nature and the vicissitude of Things Vide adeo quà m insolatium nostri resurrectionem futuram omnis natura meditetur The Sun goes down and rises again and the frame of Nature seems to die in the winter and when the spring returns they put on their garments of life and joy So universally is the Doctrine of the Resurrection preach'd by every Creaure under Heaven But I will not insist on this I 'll rather endeavour to lead your thoughts into the inferences that naturally arise from it And first are we raised again Is the fabrick of our bodies rebuilt by infinite Wisdom Then with what peace and assurance with what quietness and serenity may we lay them down in the Grave It was no wonder that the stourest Philosophers amidst all their speculations could not reason themselves into this composure of Spirit at the aproach of Death for the strength of all their Arguments was but of little value to calm the tempests and the fears that arose in their Brests when this Enemy of Nature drew near them Nothing can allay those commotions but the stedfast belief of the Resurrection and the hopes of Immortality Then may we say in the language of the Psalmist Yea though I walk thorow the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me And is not this enough to make thee quiet and resigned that thou art assured when thy Soul goes to the invisible regions of Light and Purity thy Body also however scatter'd divided and dispers'd shall again be rejoyned to thy Spirit And ought we to doubt of the Divine Power to accomplish this Since the forming of our Bodies in the Womb from so small a beginning unto such a beautiful structure furnished with so many exact Proportions and Features was no less the effect of Divine Power than the raising it again when reduced to dust and ashes How chearfully did the first Martyrs sacrifice their Bodies for the love of Jesus The Executioners might divide Soul and Body but they could destroy neither they might cut and pierce and launce and throw their flesh to the wild-beasts but still they were within the Territories of their great Creator And when the voice of the Arch-Angel sounds the dead are made to hear it and the Sea must give an account of its dead and the Earth must open her dark vaults and cayerns and thrust up her Inhabitants to appear at the publick Rendesvouze of the Resurrection to receive according to what they have done in the Body ARE we raised from the dead We ought to treat the bodies of our dead with care and honour All civiliz'd Nations agree in this nor can there be a piece of greater barbarism and inhumanity than to deny the rites of Sepulture even to our very Enemies The Poet could not express the height of cruelty and rudness otherways than to say that the honour of Burial was denyed hominemque cruentus Exuit tenuem caesis invidet arenam Though the methods of particular Countries vary yet all agree to perform Funerals with great solemnity The most natural way is to bury them in the Earth and it is the most ancient of all others as we see in the Holy Oracles Gen. 23.4 And though the Persians did burn the bodies of the dead yet Herodot tells us that the method of Inhumation was more ancient among the Egyptians and the Persians And when the Roman Empire became Christian the old custom was resumed and the bodies of the dead were committed to the Earth Diodorus Siculus informs us how critically nice the Egyptians were in performing the Funeral Rites that the persons imployed about the dead were divided in so many ranks and orders and to each their proper part was assign'd And the Greeks and Romans were no less careful about their dead And no doubt our most holy Religion strengthens the obligation and the Scriptures remark the Funerals of the Patriarchs and the care of their Relations in that matter S. Augustin discourses at length to this purpose that our bodies are a part of us and though they are laid aside yet we have not lost all relation
stoop so low as to take notice of man or the highest amongst the sons of men who dwell in houses of clay whose foundation is in the dust THIS Contemplation is so just and so natural to the Souls of Men that it appeared frequently beyond the bounds of the Church Tully argues pertinently from this Consideration that it were the grossest Stupidity the most unaccountable Folly the most unreasonable Madness to admit that we our selves are endued with a Principle of Wisdom and free Election that our Actions are managed by counsel and choice and yet think that the vast Machine of the World the Harmony of all its parts the Beauty Order and Variety of all its wonderful productions should be destitute of some supreme and infinitely wise Contriver to regulate its Motions and order all its Revolutions And this may be discovered in the whole and through every part of it the divine Providence displays its Artifice in the works of Nature to the conviction of the most stubborn and the observation of the most ignorant THE Lillies of the field do exceed the glory of Solomon and the little Flowers that we overlook preach the unimitable Wisdom of their Creator The Beauty of Nature and its Productions infinitely surpasses the faint Endeavours of human Skill and Invention In the best polish'd Steel we discern remarkable protuberances but when we view the works of Nature whether by our eyes immediately or by the interposal of Microscopes we are forc'd to say with the Psalmist Marvellous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well AND yet no part of the visible frame of Nature points more significantly to the Deity than the Body of Man which made the devout Psalmist retire into himself as into the Abstract and Epitome of the World the Quintessence of the Creation he had for a while ranged abroad his thoughts ran the circuit of the Heavens and saw as it were the Deity tuning the Spheres ruling the Orbs ordering the course of the Sun when he perceived that secret and universal spring of Motion the wheel within the wheels his unfathomable Wisdom his unlimited Goodness his irresistible Power his active Providence his unsearchable Omniscience his Eyes that pierce to the secrets that are buried in darkness then he comes home fully satisfied fraughted as it were with the purchase of his Enquiry I will praise thee O God c. Galen in his Book De Vsu Partium which some say he wrote in a kind of divine Enthusiasm the more he viewed the Skill that is transparent in the structures of human Bodies the Wisdom and Art that shines in the formation of all the parts the more clearly did he discover the Author of Nature And tho he was no great Friend to Religion yet his Philosophy constrained him to acknowledge that there was some divine Skill some invisible Hand that guided the motions of Nature and presided over all its actings they appear to be ordered pondere numero mensura every grain weight weighed in the balance of infinite Wisdom WE cannot look abroad either below or above but all things preach the One Great Numen whose Power and Presence runs to and again without whose Government and Conduct the Elements would break their mutual league and correspondence they would quickly jumble themselves into their original Chaos and break all the Laws of Order and Beauty THIS is the voice of universal Nature but made more loud and audible in the structure of Man's Body So one of the Ancients reasons against that acute Heathen Cecilius after he had considered the Heavens and the Earth the the four Seasons of the Year the Hills Valleys Trees Mountains the Stars and their influence he then as it were to strengthen his Argument to give it the last stroke that he might force his Adversary to yield considers the structure of human Bodies he invites him to admire the stately House that God built for the Soul the five Senses plac'd in the higher rooms to view and watch over the concerns of the body his Eye full of Life and Majesty most useful and yet most beautiful his erect Countenance the convenient habitation of his Brain his Veins like so many channels wherein the Blood regularly circulates his Nervs and Arteries his Stature Proportion and Features his Arms and Limbs the Distance Use and Situation of all his parts undeniably prove the Wisdom of God that displays it self more visibly in Man than any where else So that as that excellent Author reasons 't is hard to know whether the Use or Ornament exceed one the other but to be sure both are undeniable Monuments of infinite Wisdom and Omniscience IT was then a blind Fancy in Epicurus and his Followers to affirm That there was no design in the contrivance of Man's Body As if so beautiful a Fabrick had been rais'd by chance as if the Materials had leapt together without counsel or foresight as if they had started into this order without the direction of some wise and powerful Being as if blind Chance which is no cause at all had been the Parent of Proportion and Order But Tully affirms There is nothing so absurd but some of the Philosophers did own and defend it I leave this Contemplation and let us see how far we may improve the Psalmists Philosophy for the Government of our Lives And The Text offers two things to our Consideration I. The Psalmist's Acknowledgment and Resolution II. The Foundation and Ground of his Acknowledgment I consider the last particular in the first place which tho it be last in the order of the Words is yet first in order of Nature I mean the Ground and Foundation of his Acknowledgment Marvellous are thy works and c. GOD placed Man among his fellow Creatures as Superintendent of the lower World He is the Image of God and in him some rays of the Divinity appear and until such time as he fell from his Obedience by Folly and Presumption all the lower Animals did acknowledge him as their Governour He was plac'd upon the Theatre of the World to hold intelligence with Heaven to be the Mouth and publick Orator of the Creation to admire the works of God And he that was thus taught to admire is himself one of the greatest Miracles in Nature But let us improve this Theory to direct our Christian Practice and Morals And First ARE our Bodies thus curiously fram'd then certainly they ought not to be abus'd to the vilest drudgeries of Sin Why did God build such beautiful Tabernacles Did he design this stately Habitation to be the receptacle of wild and furious Passions and unbridled Appetites to be the dwelling-house of unclean Spirits Is it usual with wise and considerate Men to bestow so much cost and pains in building Houses for keeping the filthiest Creatures Do Men erect stately Palaces for the meanest uses No certainly No more did God design that our Bodies that are so wonderfully made
should be the instruments of unrighteousness To this purpose the Apostle exhorts Rom. 10 v. 1. I beseech you by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service And again 1 Cor. 6. v. 15. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ How clear and solid is the Consquence v. 20. You are bought with a price wherefore glorifie God in your bodies and in your spirits which are Gods It was on this Consideration again that he exhorts the Thessalonians 1 Epist 4. v. 4. That every one should know how to possess his vessel the Tabernacle where the Soul dwells in sanctification and honour THE Nimbleness and strength of the body is not to be prostituted to Sloath Idleness and Luxury those Vices thwart the design of God cross the purposes of our Creator baffle and affront the kindness of our great Benefactor Therefore we are taught by the curious Fabrick of our Bodies to remember that God takes special notice how we employ them Psal 494.9 Vnderstand O ye brutish among the people and ye fools when will ye be wise he that planted the ear shall he not hear and he that formed the eye shall he not see LET me add to this that God is to be worshipped with the Body as with the Mind For he made both redeemed both and will glorifie both I need not prove this it were a reflection on the Gravity of my Hearers to offer at any proof of that nature But there are amongst us who have banished the Worship of the Body out of our Churches to bow their knees or to stand upright at some of the more solemn pieces of Worship is thought Superstition and they measure the Purity of Religion by its Rusticities and Undecencies and think that they are never got far enough from Rome unless they oppose all the decent Customs of the civilized World As if the Eternal Majesty of Heaven were to be approached contrary to the Custom of all Nations the Devotion of all Churches and the common Sense of all Mankind THE Devotion of such resembles the Superstition of those Pagans that Strabo mentions that offered none of the Flesh of their sacrifices unto their Gods but affirmed that the Gods were contented with the Blood only as if they had no regard to the Externals of their Worship The behaviour of some of us in the time of God's worship would not become us in the presence of our Governours But customary and universal Faults are not so easily reformed and some of them the more they are reproved the more incurable they become Secondly IS the Body so curiously framed Is this brittle and mortal Edifice so artificially reared Are there such prints of the Finger of God on this Tabernacle even whilst we are here then judge what it will be when it is raised from the dust when it shakes of the dishonours of the grave and appears with its Robes of Light when this unwieldy clog of Flesh and Blood is made pure and aerial nimble enough to vie with the swiftest Angels and fly with ease in the regions of Glory when we shall be all Life Light Spirit and Wing fellow sharers of Angelical Pleasure Now the earthly Tabernacle drags and pulls down the Soul to low and despicable Enjoyments then the Body is made strong and refined to comply with the highest Capacities and Inclinations of the Mind WE shall mount aloft from the Earth unto the Air where his imperial Throne is erected We shall shine ass the brightness of the firmament and as the stars for ever and ever when we are got loose from the Prisons of the Grave and the Fetters of Corruption knockt off but now in our present state how hard is it for us to raise our thoughts to the Liberties of the Sons of God! WHEN we have our feet upon the top of Mount Zion when we see the Glories and Empires of this little Globe below us and we our selves beyond Danger and Temptation far above its frowns and flatteries How will our Souls be transported to find their Garments lighter and our selves encircled in the arms of Divine Love and instead of this lumpish Clay this load that damps and depresses our Spirits the weight that holds them in fetters and captivity we shall then be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven when mortality shall be swallowed up of life and the shackles of our bondage broken to pieces THE very thoughts of this pure and Angelick state if they dwelt seriously upon our spirits might crack the strings that tie our Souls to our Bodies to think that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is WE cannot express the glory of the Body after the Resurrection better than in the language of the Scriptures There is one glory of the sun another of the moon and another glory of the stars so also is the Resurrection of the dead it is sown in corruption raised in incorruption 't is sown in dishonour raised in glory 't is sown in weakness raised in power 't is sown a natural body raised a spiritual body Thus we are told by the same Apostle to the Philippians that he shall change our vile bodies that they may be fashioned like his glorious body by the power whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself With what confidence then may we lay them down in their grave since we are sure to receive them again pure and incorruptible beyond the Weaknesses and Indispositions of their former Captivity The hour is coming when all that are in their graves shall hear his voice we may triumphantly apply to our selves that place in the book of Job 19.25 I know that my redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God Thirdly ARE our Bodies such curious Representations of his Wisdom and Skill then we should treat them honourably and decently after the Soul is departed The first Christians had a great care that the poorest of their number should be handsomly interr'd and many times did they dress the bodies of the meanest Christians with costly Ointments and odoriferous Spices that they might do honour to the human Nature and testifie their hope of the Resurrection that the dear Companions of the Soul might be decently treated and laid in their graves as in their safe repositories until the general summons of the Arch-Angel awakened them WHEN their Enemies observed their great care of the Bodies of the Martyrs to do the Christians despite they burnt the Bodies of their dead and scatter'd their Ashes in the Sea lest the Christians might have the satisfaction of doing the common offices of humanity to their deceas'd Relations Certainly the Bodies of the dead should be preserved from all rude Affronts and
one earthly the other heavenly Secondly THIS opposition appears if we will consider the things that the World most admires loves and preserves We are exhorted by S. John 1 Ep. ch 2. v. 15. Love not the world nor the things that are in the world for all that is in the world the Lust of the Eyes the Lust of the Flesh and the Pride of Life THE Lust of the Eyes tempts out Covetousness the Lusts of the Flesh set on fire those appetites that deserve that name in the strictest notion of the phrase The Pride of Life are honors preferments and glories that men pursue with so much concern and eagerness But How poor and despicable are these things to the enlightned eye of a Christian that sees by the eye of Faith How thin are they how unworthy of our choice how disproportionate to the Soul of Man how feculent and paultry are the pleasures of Sense attended with so much toil in the purchase vanity in their enjoyment uncertainty in their continuance And if the World had nothing else to make it vain beyond all expression but this one thing that those who have admired it most and sought those satisfactions from it have been forced at length to acknowledge that there was nothing in it but vexation of Spirit This I say might convince us that the things the World most admires are very unsuitable to the Soul of Man BUT instead of such things the Christian Religion offers to our view and choice the pure and masculine pleasures of Devotion the savour of God the peace and tranquillity of our Consciences the victory and dominion over our lusts and passions and those riches that are at Gods right hand in the Heavens The chast and solid satisfaction of having overcome our vices brings more true honour than the atchievments that are proclaimed by the loudest fame 'T is more glorious to overcome evil habits and inveterate diseases of the mind than to surprize or take by open force a City IN a word let us but remember what are the conquests glories and triumphs that are exposed to our view by the Christian Religion and we shall find that they move in a far higher Sphere than the little things that take up the time talk business and thoughts of worldly men THE voluptuous Man sacrifices his Soul to the appetites of the flesh as if it had been given him to make provision for the lust thereof The rich Miser pierces himself through with so many cares and fears lest his Angels should take wings to themselves and fly The Ambitious is filled with a Phantom of honour which he hath painted in his own fancy that he forgets his sleep and all things else to place himself where he would be BUT the Christian Religion teacheth us not only to neglect but despise such fantastic apparitions such dreams such nothings that the blind World adores with so much pageantry and folly We are taught by it to recollect our selves from this hurry and madness to strip those things naked of their borrowed lustre to pierce into their very essence and feel that we are not made for such mean things as human fancy and opinion hath magnified beyond their true size when we come up close to them and consider them then their paint falls off and we must acknowledge that we were fools to the greatest degree So intangled are the Labyrinths of the World which made Augustus Cesar wish so frequently for his retreat and ended many of his Discourses to the Senate with the pleasant hope of his retirement that now bore up his Spirit under the load of so many affairs He had so many Armies at his command the Roman Empire to maintain them he enjoyed the applause of the Wisest Senate yet how did he sigh after the advantages of enjoying himself WE are in the truest sense the off-spring of God why then should our affections be mean Why should we so much admire what is despicable for the world passeth away and the fashion thereof but our Spirits and thoughts run parallel with eternity nothing less can satisfie the immortal Spirit of Man THEREFORE are we exhorted so frequently in the New Testament to place our affections on things alove and not on the things of the Earth to remember that here we have no continuing City that here we are Pilgrims and Strangers that when this tabernacle is broken down we have a house with God not made with hands eternal in the heavens These and such treasures are the things that we are taught to admire by our Religion these are the things we are commanded to pursue since we are Heirs and Co-heirs with Christ HE holds forth to us a Crown of immortal happiness that the sight of it might provoke us to the most heroick efforts of virtue piety self-denyal mortification patience and humility Now it is most evident that the World and the Spirit of Christianity pursue and admire things of a different nature But this opposition will more fully appear if we consider Thirdly THE rewards by which the World allures to its friendship and those proposed by our Saviour what do men expect from the World when they have sold themselves to serve it when they have sacrificed their time and strength to court its honours and follow its genius Such as have prostituted their very Souls to comply with its folly and wickedness how miserable is their gain or rather how infinite is their loss how emphatick is the Interrogation of our Saviour What hath a man gained when he hath lost his own Soul We find the World cannot relieve a Man when he hath most need of help and consolation LET him but put the friendship of the World to the Test when he groans under the terror of Conscience or when his Soul is ready to leave his body and then let him sincerely declare what weak and brittle reeds these things are that he most admired to support him against his own fears WERE we so wise as in our fancy to go down into the Grave before we are carried thither to converse with the dead that are gone before us to live a while under ground to wrap our selves in our Winding sheets and then from that place of silence and darkness to view the things that keep the Men of the World so much in agitation WOULD not we be astonished to see Men made after the Image of God so much enslaved to those Idols of fancy to those shadows that vanish so quickly to such trifles that are the object of childish appetites Did we but call to mind the present regrets and tortures of the damned Were we allowed to see Dives turned down from his sumptuous Table his stately Palace his numerous attendants and fine linnen into the scorching flames of Hell And on the other side could we see the Martyrs that have gone through the flames of persecutions and disasters now seated above malice and misery in the Regions of peace
have the Testimony of S. John to this great Truth that the whole world lyes in wickedness and this is very evident if we consider 1. The opposition and strugglings that we feel within our selves before we are illuminated by the Gospel 2. The slow progress of Grace after we are illuminated And 3. The Relapses of the best of Men into their former faults and failings 1. I SAY Do but consider the struglings of our Reason against our Corruptions before we are acquainted with the Gospel And this proves sufficiently that we have an unhappy byass in our Nature to oppose the Dictates of Reason as well as Revelation We are made up of Body and Spirit there is a Law in the Members bringing into Captivity the Law of the Mind crossing its counsels and designs bowing and bending its most heroick resolutions what a load do we feel when we would fly towards Heaven Our sensual inclinations and propensions baffle and affront the Sovereignty of the Mind And the Schools of all the Pagan Philosophers seem to reason from this Truth as from the universal experience of Mankind We feel such intestine commotions between our Reason and our lower Appetites that the one is run down against its natural tendencies oppressed and buried under the drudgeries of the Body So that we cannot but see and feel the decayes of our first Beauty the lamentable ruins of our original frame And this needs neither proof nor illustration to any that is so far acquainted with himself as to reflect on his own acts and inward motions How frequently is he hurried to follow the importunity of his Senses against the clearest light of his Soul How often baffled in his best thoughts by their unreasonable clamour and noise In one word when we would prove that there is a corruption in the World we need no more than bid men of ingenuity and consideration look within themselves and they must acknowledge the great disorder that attends on most of their actions and that it proceeds from some unhappy principle of Corruption that maintains a constant War against the Spirit What God made was beautiful and harmonious the Soul of Man as well as his Countenance looked towards Heaven his lower faculties were then calm and obedient But when we view him in his present condition we feel that he is miserable and his greatest infelicity is that he knows not of himself where to find his remedy 2. THIS is clear if we consider the slow progress of Grace after we are acquainted with the Gospel This corruption is so inveterate and so deeply rooted that even when we are rescu'd from its tyranny it yet molests our peace and disturbs our quiet We must fight after we are in possession of Canaan as well as when we struggled with our enemies in the Wilderness My meaning is that the Canaanite is still in the Land and the most signal Victory leaves some remains of the Enemy though scatter'd and broken yet they are very troublesome and uneasie SUCH is the strength and enchantment of tentations such the subtilty of our enemies the infirmity of our Nature and the soft insinuations of Sense that unless we keep the strictest watch we lose more ground in a moment than we are able to recover in a considerable time And though we feel our selves sometimes full of life and alacrity to run the race that 's set before us yet in an instant such weariness creeps over all our faculties that we grow lumpish and heavy cold and unactive as the Earth So difficult a thing it is to climb up the Hill to row against the stream to change the old customs of our Nature to pull up inveterate habits and to crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof So backward are we to receive the impressions of the Gospel that when our Souls are form'd into the Image of Jesus Christ we again look back unto Egypt God is provoked every moment to desert us his Graces are not improved his Spirit is resisted his love despised so slowly goes our Victory forward after full and plain Convictions the most solemn Vows and deliberate Resolutions If the Light of the Gospel in conjunction with and superadded to our Reason conquers our Corruption so slowly we must conclude that it is very deeply rooted in our Nature especially when we consider 3. THE relapses of the best of Men into their former follies Nothing proves more the weakness of Humane Nature than the remarkable failings of Wise and Religious Men. And it is observable that the Divine Providence hath sometimes permitted the most eminent Saints to fall into the very sins that they most abhorr'd and were most opposite unto their habitual resolutions What more inconsistent with the generous and warlike Spirit of David than by treachery and baseness to expose his faithful Servant Vriah to unavoidable ruine and destruction What more unagreeable to the Wisdom of Solomon than to prostitute his Royal Authority to the humors and fancies of so many Women Was there any thing more unlike the zeal and courage of S. Peter than to be so soon frighted at the Challenge of a poor Maid If we are kept from the most notorious Crimes we should wholly impute it to the Grace and Favour of God THE danger and prevailing force the universality and pertinacious obstinacy of this Corruption cannot be better express'd than in the Language of the Holy Scriptures We are transgressors from the womb shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin Branches of the Wild Olive Naturally dead in trespasses and sins Born only of the Flesh Sin is present with us and doth so easily beset us We are become servants unto sin and in the Apostle's phrase brought into bondage And this is the reason why most men are past all feeling their Consciences being seared with a hot iron they are deaf unto the suggestions of the Spirit secure against all the Threats of the Law they are not wrought upon either by hopes or fears and in a word they stand out against the variety of Gods methods WHEN we reflect upon the former Truth with attention It teaches us humility For if this Corruption be so infectious so pertinacious and so difficultly cur'd may not we infer with Eliphaz the Temanite What is man that he should be clean and he which is born of a Woman that he should be righteous Behold he putteth no trust in his Saints yea the heavens are not clean in his sight how much more abominable and filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water WHEN we remember that we have been made a little lower than the Angels crowned with glory and dignity yet now fall'n in a manner below the Beasts that perish that our understandings are darkned with ignorance and error and our Souls become the habitations of many passions ought not this consideration alone to take down our pride and vanity There is not a more compendious method to attain
were irrecoverably chain'd up under the power of his sins and evil habits God pleads with him and his own Conscience expostulates and the experience of all sober men baffle his pretences for no man is so fatally ty'd to misery and corruption but that he may break his bonds and escape the corruption that is in the World through lust To day then let me exhort you if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts break up the Prison doors the Grace of the Gospel is mighty and powerful you cannot be captive against your wills this corruption that prevails in the World may be escaped and overcome Do not fright your selves out of your duty by vain apparitions scare-crows and counterfeit apologies such as the slothful man in the Proverbs is said to use There is a Lyon without I shall be slain in the streets All such excuses are vain and impertinent whether they are taken 1. From the difficulty of removing old habits or 2. From the variety of our worldly incumbrances or 3. From the multitude and strength of temptations or 4. From the severities of Christian Religion 1. THE excuses taken from the difficulty of old habits The incorrigible sinner will plead that the Ethiopian cannot change his skin nor the Leopard his spots nor they that are accustomed to do evil ever learn to do well THUS Celsus against Origen seems to deny the possibility of any such reformation as the Christian Religion requires because customary sins become a second Nature that no punishments can reform or change yet saith Origen herein Celsus not only contradicts the Christians but all others who own any genenerous principles of Philosophy And there Origen gives instances in their own Heroes and such as were admir'd for Vertue among the Heathens that our recovery from Vice was very practicable and though it be difficult in the beginning to eradicate old habits yet when the first assaults are over if we vigorously prosecute so excellent a design it becomes pleasant and delightful Herein appeared the power of the Gospel that it made men exemplary in these very Graces that were most opposite to their former biass Thus the first Apologists plead in behalf of Christian Religion Let us see saith Lactantius the most proud and he will become humble the most covetous liberal the most fierce and cruel tame and meek like a Lamb. And is it possible that such a change can be wrought but by a supernatural Cause by light and motives far beyond our former principles If we act by worldly Maxims we must be confin'd in our thoughts to the lower Regions but when the day-spring from on high visits us the Soul feels within her self new powers and faculties which earthly motives could not put in motion Therefore though evil habits could not be throughly reform'd by the faint and pusillanimous attempts of the Pagan Philosophers yet the most inveterate customs and wicked practices could not resist the light of the Gospel When we plead that we cannot do otherwise than we do it is not our Reason that speaks but our laziness our idleness and sensuality for all wise men and the starkest fools in their lucid intervals thought otherwise else there is no distinction between choice and blind fate between Men and Beasts between Reason and Mechanism between Intellect and Matter If you then persist in this obstinate foolery that you cannot be reform'd from your vicious conversation your reasonings design to prove no more than that you have no excellency above the Beasts that perish and by such arguings you take the nearest methods to resemble them in the strictest sense 2. SOME plead the incumbrances of the World And it is certain that most men endeavour to excuse themselves by such Arguments The vanity and emptiness of this excuse is represented by our Saviour One went to his Farm another to his Merchandise and alledg'd they could not come But this is the highest contempt of the Wisdom of God as if there could be any business of so great importance as the saving of our Souls And besides to prove the impertinence of this excuse I can instance Men of Royal Quality and vast incumbrances who amidst all their divertisements and avocations found leisure for their devotion and the Worship of God Moses was a great Captain a great Prince and a great Politician yet his hands were lifted up to Heaven in Prayer when others must needs support him Job was very illustrious among the Arabians and yet under a deluge of Calamities and the continual repinings of his Wife he preach'd resignation David was a Warlike Prince yet the melodious Strains of his Harp were as Devout as Poetical Solomon a King the greatest and wisest that ever sat upon the Throne of Judah when he enter'd upon the Government in the first place fell down before God and begged Wisdom to order and conduct so numerous a People Daniel is entrusted with the affairs of so many Provinces yet he prayed thrice a day towards Jerusalem The Eunuch whom Philip baptiz'd read the Prophecies of Isaiah in his Chariot when he was upon his Journey LET us not then plead the incumbrances of the World for they that most converse with God are taught even to dispatch their worldly affairs with greater discretion than their neighbours because no part of their time is spent impertinently 3. SOME plead the strength and impetuous violence of temptations It must be confess'd that the objects of Sense do strongly allure and flatter the mind to unworthy compliances and that they entice us constantly to bodily pleasures yet if it be uneasie to overcome such insinuations let the very difficulty provoke our courage for the most glorious enterprises are atcheiv'd by patience and fortitude And if the prize of honour were not encompass'd with Thorns and Briars it might fall to the share of every despicable Wretch whereas indeed honour crowns the Heroes and such as resolutely face the enemy Was it sleep softness ease and luxury that first distinguish'd the Nobles from their inferiours No. It was magnanimity valour courage fidelity and patience that rais'd them above their neighbours And if such a transient thing as the favour of a King and the Hosanna's of the Croud cannot be justly obtain'd but by toil and labour how is it possible that we can think to gain immortal honours without wrestling and struggling God hath placed us on this Theatre to act our part to try our patience and our fidelity and with a design to trample upon the World by his Grace in us that we may be more than Conquerours through Christ that loved us The tentations from the World are indeed very terrible the Lusts of the Flesh the Lusts of the Eye and the Pride of Life But may not all these be conquered by Faith and the Spirit of Christianity their strength if we approach them closely is not so formidable 'T is true they appear invincible to the soft and delicate but they
Christian all of them acknowledge that this is pure and undefiled Religion because it is agreeable to the Nature as well as the Authority of God for he hath no pleasure at all in the death of a sinner And therefore we are plainly told by the Prophets and the Apostles that nothing short of true integrity can please God and that this is his delight Have I any pleasure at all that the Wicked should dye saith the Lord God and not that he should return from his ways and live Consider that remarkable advertisement of the Prophet Micah He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Therefore we are commanded by the Baptist to bring forth fruits meet for repentance It is not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven The conclusion of all this is no other than that every one that nameth the name of Jesus must depart from all iniquity Our Religion is very pure and it is the last revelation of his Will that God vouchsafes to Mankind And therefore it bears the nearest resemblance of the Divine Nature and is perfective of ours and the Disciples of this Religion must not think to recommend themselves to God or Mankind by artificial knacks of hypocrisie disfigured faces and Pharisaical Prayers but rather by ardent zeal unaffected simplicity the most generous charity sincere mortification and a Will resign'd to his Infinite Wisdom 2. LET us suppose that the Scriptures did not so peremptorily inculcate the necessity of this change yet the Notions that we have of God confirm this truth that nothing short of true Piety can recommend us unto Him that in order to our Salvation we must be partakers of the Divine Nature Is he such an easie Majesty that he may be put off with multitude of Sacrifices costly Oblations and outward Solemnities of Religion Can he be diverted from the execution of his Justice by complemental Addresses Pray what do we take him to be Is he fond of Trifles and Ceremonies To imagine that sighs and tears and melancholy reflections will propitiate the Deity charges him with severity and cruelty as if he took pleasure in the calamities and sufferings of his Creatures Whereas nothing is intended but our true reformation and freedom from sin We are to remember that Innocence Purity Ingenuity and Simplicity Heavenly mindedness and Charity are the Sacrifices most agreeable to the Deity 3. SUCH is the distance of our Nature from Heaven and the employment of that State that we must do violence to our corrupt inclinations before we can act our part among the Spirits of just men made perfect we must become meet partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Sin though pardoned yet if it is not extirpated must sink us unto Hell It is in its nature most opposite unto God i. e. to his Wisdom Goodness and Power because it carries along with it all the lineaments of baseness weakness and malice This should make us hate all those Principles in Religion that make the way broad that our Saviour hath pronounced strait All those Doctrines and Opinions that seem to promote licentiousness folly and wickedness if the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness but when corrupt Nature and corrupt Principles are combin'd together there is no hope of our recovery and we are carried headlong into all folly and misery 2. LET us enquire wherein the Characters of the Divine Nature appear God is the first and original beauty and true Religion is but a Transcript of his Nature And 1. IT carries the Lineaments of his Power and Victory True Religion is a Confederacy with the Almighty We can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth us The Lord is my strength saith David my rock and my fortress my deliverer my God in whom I will trust My buckler the horn of my salvation and my high tower His Power is visible in our conquests over sin we must prove our selves to be the Sons of God by our triumphs and victories over the World because he that is in us is greater than he that is in the World THE ravishing beauty of the Divine Nature shines in the conversations of the righteous For all round about them see their good works and glorifie their father which is in heaven They are blameless and harmless without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation THE Purity of the Divine Nature is copied in the life of a Christian pure and undefil'd Religion flies from all filthiness and hypocrisie by a divine instinct and sensation The Scripture seems to search for all Metaphors to represent unto us the filthiness of sin The Rottenness of the Grave the Vomit of Dogs the Poyson of Vipers the Filthiness of Swine are some of the expressions that point unto us the odious Nature of sin But God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity And the Wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie THE Wisdom of God is no less seen in the lives of good men True Religion is the knowledge of the most excellent Truths the contemplation of the most glorious objects and the practice of such duties as are most serviceable to our happiness The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom The Children of this World are said to be wiser in their own generation than the Children of Light i. e. they are more skilful to manage worldly affairs But in the true estimate of things they are fools in the strictest sense The truly Religious is the only Wise Man he alone improves his Reason to the best advantage for he looks to things future as well as to the things present he prefers great things to small things and chuses the fittest Means to attain his ends this is to be wise unto salvation WE are taught by the Christian Religion to imitate the Divine Goodness his unenvious Bounty his unconstrain'd Liberality Love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you that you may be the Children of your Father which is in Heaven for he maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and unjust GREATNESS of Spirit is a branch of the Divine Nature and the Christian is great in his Victories Expectations and Behaviour nothing mean and sordid in the behaviour of the true Sons of God they are heirs of God and coheirs with Christ and therefore must needs have the world under their feet FROM what I have said we may easily
of true Devotion more than wrong notions of Almighty God The great reason why the Heathens were over-run with Idolatry and Superstition was because the Histories of their Gods were stuff'd with folly and wickedness and they could not pretend to greater heights of Purity than the Deities that they worshipped To adore God is to bestow upon him the highest Love Veneration and esteem of our Souls His Eyes pierce to the secrets that are buried in darkness and to the Centre of our Spirits and if our Sacrifices are sullied and defil'd in their first springs and principles they are an abomination unto him No Worship can be pleasing unto God unless what is offer'd by Love Pray what do we take him to be when we endeavour to put him off with any thing less than the flower and strength of our Reason Thus our Saviour instructs the Woman of Samaria in the Nature of true Worship but the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him How gross must their apprehensions be who think that he is delighted with carnal Oblations for he is a Spirit and must be worshipped in spirit and in truth If I were hungry I would not tell thee for the World is mine and the fulness thereof Will I eat the flesh of Bulls or drink the blood of Goats offer unto God thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the most High THE Philosophers discover'd the reasonableness of this Doctrine without Revelation and the best of them undervalu'd outward services and Sacrifices in comparison of a chast Mind and a pure Soul Do ye think saith Seneca that God is pleas'd with many Sacrifices and much Blood high Temples and magnificent Structures nay rather in suo cuique consecrandus est pectore The breast of a good Man is the most lovely Temple for the Divinity the place of his peculiar residence and Habitation And this is but the language of the Prophet Isay a little varied Thus saith the Lord the Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my footstool where is the house that ye build unto me and where is the place of my rest For all those things hath mine hand made and all those things have been saith the Lord But to this man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word He that killeth an Ox is as if he slew a man c. The Sacrifices of Gods own institution were not regarded unless they were subservient to this more excellent Oblation THIS Evangelical Sacrifice is the only and most proper mean to attain the true ends of Worship freedom from sin the favour of God and peace of Conscience are the great ends of all Religion and these things are not attain'd by the most pompous shew and parade of Ceremonies unless the Soul and Will be first sacrificed to his Obedience When ye come to appear before me who hath requir'd this at your hand to tread my Courts bring no more vain Oblations Incense is an abomination unto me the new Moons and Sabbaths the calling of Assemblies I cannot away with it is iniquity even the solemn meeting How loathsom in the eyes of God are all our publick services when the Soul is left behind He hath shewed thee O! man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God THIS is the Sacrifice that is peculiar to the New Testament when we approach the Throne of God with filial confidence like Children of the free woman disingaged from the servile incumbrances that held the Jews in bondage When we offer our selves unto God with true alacrity strong desires and a mind purified from the World and feculent adherences that stick to us from the neighbourhood of sensible Objects when we come with that masculine and chearful Devotion that becomes them that are set at liberty from the weak and dark shadows of the Law By St. Peter we are said to be a spiritual Priesthood to offer up spiritual Sacrifices And we are told by S. Paul that we have access to the Throne and liberty to cry Abba Father And commanded in our Prayers to lift up holy hands without wrath or doubting This is the Worship of the new Testament the foundation of that ingenuous Converse that is between us and Heaven Therefore do we with so much elevation of spirit magnifie the goodness of God that gave us his Son Vnto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen THIS is true Evangelical Sacrifice and it alone affords the most solid delight and satisfaction to the Votary Outward Services when they are separated from this inward dedication have nothing in them but toil and bodily labour we are told by the Author to the Hebrews that the Jewish Religion did consist in Meats and Drinks and divers Ordinances And we find in the Prophecy of Amos that such of the Jews as did not see further than the letter of the Law thought their attendance on the Temple-service the most intolerable weariness But when we sacrifice our very Souls unto his obedience his Presence fills our hearts with joy and gladness the purest rapture and contentment Thou hast put more gladness in my heart than in the time when their wine and their oil did increase True joy arises in the Soul from an Union with God when the light of his Countenance shines upon us by its clear beams and irradiations the clouds of darkness and disasters cannot approach us we are then secure against fear and despondency we feel our selves encircled in the arms of divine Love and made strong against the assaults of anxiety God is the source of all Felicity and the nearer we draw unto him the more happy we are and rational happiness must be felt and necessarily must dilate it self in all the faculties of the Soul A Conscience void of offence towards God and towards Man is a house built upon the Rock it may be batter'd but it cannot be shaken And God loves to pour into our hearts such degrees of joy when we are purified from all filthiness of the flesh and of the Spirit when we offer our selves without reserve to his service and obedience when we sacrifice our hearts unto God when Charity consumes the Oblation and true zeal inflames the Victim I had rather said the Psalmist be one day in thy Courts than a thousand elsewhere And again O! How love I thy Law it is my meditation night and day They are strangers to true Peace and satisfaction that are unacquainted with the pure and unmixt pleasures of Religion 2. LET us consider the value that God did set upon
acknowledgment of that particular Deity to whom they were offered 1. I SAY they were separate from common Use And this is the true Notion of all Relative Holiness It is in Allusion to this that we are exhorted by St. Paul to be separate and not to touch the unclean thing for the Temple of God hath no agreement with Idols Ye are the Temple of the living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my People Let us call to mind our New and heavenly Relation by the solemnity of our Baptism We are built up a spiritual House an holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ Let us remember that we are bought with a price we are not our own therefore ought we to glorifie God in our bodies and in our spirits which are Gods The Prophanation of things Holy and dedicated was looked upon as an extraordinary Crime We must not take the Vessels of the Sanctuary and profane them to common Use This is the Argument that St. Paul made use of to the Corinthians against Fornication Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an Harlot And this Reason may be extended without any violence against all sin and impurity we are confederate with Jesus Christ we are listed under his Banners we are separated from the World therefore all compliance with it as far as it is opposed to the Kingdom of Christ is utterly unlawful therefore Love not the World neither the things that are in the World if any man love the World the love of the Father is not in him We are sacred Persons we are dedicated to his service in our Baptism we must not run into the same excess of Riot with others a chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar People that we should shew forth the praises of him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light 2. SACRIFICES were not only separated from common use but were also the badge and Tessera of the Votaries and the peculiar Worship of that Deity to whom they were offered This made it so highly criminal for the first Christians to be present at the Sacrifices of their Pagan Relations they were frequently invited to these Idolatrous Ceremonies And though they might pretend that they came to gratifie their Friends without any further design of Religion yet their very presence at those Solemnities of the Pagans did confute this Pretext For the Sacrifices were the peculiarties and Bonds that did oblige to the Worship of that Deity to whom they were offered and both among the Jews and the Pagans there was some one Ceremony or other that pointed to that Deity that was worshipped and acknowledged The Sacrifices of the Jewish Religion and religious Ceremonies were most of them diametrically opposite to the customs of the neighbour Nations that they might remain marks of distinction between the Idolatrous Nations and the Jews who worshipped the Creator of Heaven and Earth It is most certain that the Sacrifices in all Religions have this in them that they unite the Votary and the Deity to whom they are offered And therefore the Ancient Church was so severe not only against the Thurificati and such as did sacrifice in the time of Persecution but also against such as were present at these Sacrifices So much we gather from St. Pauls reasonings The Cup of Blessing which we bless is it not the Communion of the blood of Christ i. e. Is it not the Characteristick of the Christian Worship Compare this with the 20 th verse following the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to Devils and not to God I would not that ye should have fellowship with Devils Ye cannot be partakers of the Lords Table and of the Table of Devils therefore you ought with all care to flee those Idolatrous meetings NOW when we sacrifice our selves with allusion to this Practice we must remember the peculiar Laws of our Religion the Laws that erect a Wall of Partition between the Christians and the rest of Mankind where then are our peculiar Obligations We are told of them in the fifth of St. Matth. Gospel Those graces of Humility Calmness Goodness and Charity that are levell'd against the prevailing Vices of Mankind This is our Religion in its heighth in its Flower in its mark of Excellency and distinction This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Christianity by which we know our selves to be the Disciples of the Crucified Jesus There was always in all Religions some proportion or analogy between the Sacrifice and the Deity Let our Sacrifices therefore prove that we are the Children of the most High God and his Son Jesus Christ whom to know is life eternal And because we have the best Religion we must do more than others that they seeing our good works may glorifie our Father which is in Heaven 3. THE third Epithet that St. Paul mentions is that the Sacrifice must be Acceptable And this also in allusion to what made the Sacrifices acceptable according to the letter of the Law and to make it acceptable thus it ought 1. to be offered at Gods own Altar at Jerusalem The Solemnities of publick Worship were always ordered by God himself immediately or by them to whom he did intrust by regular conveyance the management of Sacred things LET us not then as the Author to the Hebrews exhorts forsake the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is who forsake the Communion of the Catholick Church and erect Altar against Altar and to justifie their prophane Schism must pretend the very forms of the Church that distinguish us and our Religion from Pagans Infidels and Hereticks Why should I be says the Spouse as one that turneth aside by the Flocks of thy Companions Tell me where thou makest thy flocks to rest at noon There is no shelter against the heat of Gods indignation to be had but in the Society of the Church When we are dazled with Singularities and Novelties and forsake the Communion of the Church we venture without the Line of his Covenant and Promise and 't is needless to aggravate the danger of so doing HOW joyfully does the Psamist tune his Harp when they spake to him of the meetings at Jerusalem I was glad when they said unto me Let us go into the house of the Lord our feet shall stand within thy gates O Jerusalem Let us say with the mournful Captives in Babylon If I do not remember thee let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mâ—uth if I prefer not Jerusalem to my chiefest joy With what impatience did the Psalmist sigh for the Sanctuary As the Hart panteth after the Water-brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God My Soul thirsteth for God for the living God
circumstances and weaknesses that made his work more difficult 2. THE manner of his address not with the enticing words of mans wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and in power 3. THE true reason of this whole Oeconomy that their faith might stand in the power of God And 1. WE have here his uneasie circumstances and weaknesses that made his work more difficult I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling The weaknesses wherewith the Apostle was emcompassed in preaching of the Gospel were partly his own bodily frailties partly the infirmities that did arise from the many persecutions of his implacable enemies for the Gospels sake The Jews and the Gentiles did daily thirst for his blood and from place to place he was hunted like a Partrige upon the mountains Those frailties whether incident to the peculiar structure of his body or whether left by the stripes and violences frequently offered unto him made his person appear despicable to them that only considered the outward appearance That mighty Soul that had nothing less in his view than the total overthrow of the Devils universal Monarchy this Soul I say dwelt in a ruinous tabernacle This he himself often acknowledged 2. Cor. 10. v. 1. I beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ who in presence am base among you And again v. 7. Do you look on things after the outward appearance Consider also the 2. Cor. 4.7 We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us v. 8. We are troubled on every side yet not distress'd we are perplex'd but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken cast down but not destroy'd And again Chap. 6. v. 4. In all things approving our selves as the Ministers of God in much patience in afflictions in necessities in distresses in stripes in imprisonments in tumults in labors in watchings in fastings Consider also 2. Cor. 7.5 6. For when we were come into Macedonia our flesh had no rest but we were troubled on every side without were fightings within were fears and it may be the messenger of Satan mentioned 2. Cor. 12.7 was some bodily infirmity NOW considering the natural temper of his body the extraordinary troubles watchings and labours that he endured and the voluntary restraints and chastisements he had used towards himself we may easily understand what a complication and series of difficulties he had to wrestle with Sometimes hardly escaping with his very life Let down in a basket by the wall and to put this account beyond all debate read 2. Cor. 11.23 forward Are they ministers of Christ I speak as a fool I am more in labours more abundant in stripes above measure in prisons more frequent in deaths oft v. 24. Of the Jews five times received I fourty stripes save one v. 25. Thrice was I beaten with rods once was I ston'd thrice I suffer'd shipwrack night and day I have been in the deep v. 26. In journeyings often in perils of waters in perils of robbers In weariness and painfulness in watchings often in hunger and thirst in fasting often in cold and nakedness NOW the natural result of this heap of Sufferings and Calamities so thick crowded together were fear and trembling Partly his innocent fear of dangers and persecutions partly his holy care and solicitude for the success and propagation of the Gospel though the false teachers vilified the blessed Apostle because of his Infirmities yet considering the nature of his Office and the design of his Ministry they were an undeniable proof of his authority and mission and consequently of the verity and divinity of Christian Religion FOR allow but the Apostles to be men of common sense and desirous to preserve themselves if they were not sure of the truth of what they delivered how unaccountable were their sufferings and therefore their calamities so much mistaken by other had in them the strongest proof of their sincerity since they were ready to sacrifice all that was dear to human Nature in defence of the Gospel How came they so readily and unanimously to part with all their justest Interests if they had not the highest assurances of their Commission and Authority and of a life after this more pure solid and immoveable than what we here enjoy How came they to be so ready upon all occasions to undergoe all that was most bitter and painful most disgraceful and ignominious and this for no other design than to advance a fable amongst mankind and for no other reward either here or hereafter than stripes tumults persecutions and martyrdoms He that supposes the Apostles to have been endowed with ordinary reason and judgment and yet will believe that they followed cunningly devised fables for no other design than to make themselves miserable to all intents and purposes will yield his assent to something more incredible more monstrously fictitious than the most Romantick Follies of imagination AND if we yet suppose that the Apostles were destitute of the use of their reason and still be able to the wonder and admiration of mankind to contrive the story of the Gospel so orderly and coherent and adapt the most antient Prophecies to its proof and illustration and that to the conviction and astonishment of the learnedest of their opposers He I say that believes all this which Atheists and Anti-scripturists are obliged to do believes something more fabulous more inconsistent than all the Legends of Poets and all the adventures of Knight-errantry The Apostle then is so far from denying his Infirmities that he glories in them as one special proof of his mission and authority highly agreeable to the Christian Religion and the tendency of that Doctrine that recommended Christ Crucified to the world In another manner and by other demonstrations than those demonstrations that the Schools of Philosophy did furnish I have chosen to discourse of the Sufferings and Infirmities of the Apostle under this aspect as they yield a clear proof of Christianity rather than to run out in the commendations of the courage and patience of Primitive Christians and it will appear in its greater lustre if we consider 2. THE manner of his address not in the eloquent and harmonious periods of Rhetorical Discourses but by a more heavenly and victorious demonstration more certain and undeniable than the surest Principles of the Grecian Philosophy not in the enticing words of mans wisdom but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power There are who understand by these words the inward and powerful illuminations and presence of the Divine Spirit upon a mans heart in order to his Sanctification I am very far from denying that Illumination to be necessary but that is not meant in this place nor by this phrase For the proof that the Apostle brings here is External and consequently must be referred to that demonstration of the Divine Power that waits upon the Apostles in preaching and asserting the Gospel
Therefore they must needs invent a Religion that is calculated to serve their designs and to silence the troublesome alarms of their mind But be not you deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap Our Saviour set himself to undeceive the World in this great affair and to remove the Pharisaical paint and varnish from the Law and to let us understand that our God is not an Idol that he values no Sacrifices but such as resemble his Nature For he is a Spirit and must be worshiped in Spirit and in Truth 2. A SECOND part of our Saviour's design was to give true repose and tranquillity to the Spirits of Men. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest The inward disorder of our Spirits is the cause of all our trouble when the Light of the Gospel removes our Errors and by its beams warms our affections the day-star from on high ariseth in our breasts our fears and dreadful apprehensions are over and there is a perfect calm and tranquillity One great instruction in our Saviour's Commission was to bind up the broken hearted The Souls of Men are at variance with themselves until they are united unto God He fixes their Spirits in their operations and choice and creates within them that harmony and peace which the World cannot give them Then they are arm'd against all events and disasters they are like a Rock of Adamant immoveable against the most tempestuous waves and storms the winds may blow and the storms may threaten and beat upon the Rock with the loudest roarings but they are quickly beat back into froth and disappointment The righteous are like mount Zion which cannot be mov'd THAT it was a part of our Saviour's design to establish this tranquillity of Spirit appears from this very Sermon on the Mount where he endeavours by so many arguments to fortifie us against all fears discouragments and solicitude The Wisdom of God levell'd the strongest arguments against the most desperate diseases and therefore the Doctrine of the Gospel in all its branches hath an admirable tendency to create this peace When we believe that all things are ordered and dispos'd by an universal infinitely wise unlimited and active Providence With what acquiescence and serenity of Spirit may we give up all things to his conduct and government Not a hair of your head falleth to the ground without his pleasure The nature and frame of all the Graces of the Spirit the whole spiritual furniture of the Gospel naturally lead to peace love joy and meekness We are assured that all things work together for good to them that love God Even our light afflictions that endure but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory And the belief of this establishes the mind against all the shakings of adversity And we may add to all the former considerations that we are frequently exhorted to place our affections on the things that are above to leave this World ' its hurry and noise and to get above it in our affections and to view with satisfaction and ease amidst our lowest depressions that Country that is above 3. ANOTHER part of our Saviour's design was to unite us together in the straitest bonds of humane society In order to which he hath made Love the badge and character of his profession So exactly fulfilling the Prophecies concerning the Messias that in his days the Wolf should dwell with the Lamb the Leopard and the Kid should ly down together i. e. that the fierceness of human Nature should be banish'd and all the rugged and uneven excrescencies of passion the boisterous swellings of humour should be filed off John the Baptist told that every valley should be fill'd and every mountain brought low the crooked should be made straight and the rough ways should be made smooth i. e. All injustice fraud and oppression all pride hypocrisie and violence should give place unto everlasting righteousness every one should keep his own post and move in his own Orb with contentment and sobriety Hence Servants are exhorted not to repine at their condition for as the members of the body natural must hold their distance and situation so must the members of the body political 4. ANOTHER part of his design was to liberate us from the Yoke of Moses Law I only name this particular I will not insist on it at present Now if the design of Christian Religion was to restore true morality the image of God humility patience the love of God and contempt of the World and to discover the hypocrisie and wickedness of the Pharisees Let us then enquire In the Second place IN what instances the Pharisaical Religion did cross the Christian and we shall discover the manifest opposition of the one to the other When we consider 1 THE Vices that they were most addicted to 2. THE Prejudices that they were blinded with 3. THE Maxims and shifts that they espous'd into their Doctrine to defend their wickedness and immoralities 1. Do but consider the Vices that they were most addicted to Pride contrary to the humility of the Gospel Avarice in opposition to that contempt of the World that our Saviour taught Hypocrisie that overthrows the ingenuity recommended and enjoyn'd by our Religion Revenge Cruelty and Rebellion contrary to the Loyalty Meekness and Obedience of our most holy Faith We are inform'd by Josephus though he was himself much addicted to the Sect of the Pharisees that they were a crafty and subtile generation of men and so perverse even to Princes themselves that they would not fear many times openly to affront them They had a mighty ascendent over the People and by their long prayers superstitious tricks and disfigur'd faces they got the Rable once of their side and by their interest in the multitude they became terrible to the Governours Alexander Jannaeus when he lay a dying advis'd his Queen not to irritate and displease the Pharisees and told her plainly that this was the very thing that deriv'd the Odium of the Nation upon him that he had comply'd so little with that restless and pragmatick Generation IF the Vices of the Pharisees prevail amongst the Christians what a reproach is it unto us and to our Religion When we remember that we are to obey for Conscience sake We may easily see that there is nothing more opposite to Christianity than Rebellion And this very Sect amongst the Jews strove to advance their Religious Tyranny above the Highest Powers as if they had been bred near the Infallible Chair or a General Assembly Many Popes declar'd it to be of necessity to Salvation to every humane Creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff and the instances are many as they are undeniable Therefore we are smoothly told by some of them that this is not matter of Faith but Discipline I confess it is
Heavens By which Gifts and Graces the Apostles were enabled to assert the Truth of our Religion boldly and proclaim the glad tidings of Salvation to all Nations and the Literal Judaism was to give place to the Mystical and the Messias was not only to be the Glory of his people Israel but a Light to lighten the Gentiles OUR Saviour after his Resurrection gave all assurance to the Apostles that he would send them another Comforter when He was gone unto the Father an Advocate to plead his Cause successfully one who should inspire them with strength and skill to defie and resist all the Calumnies and Slanders of Infidelity and therefore they ought not to give way either to grief sorrow or despondency For all Power in Heaven and in Earth was given to their Lord and Master He was highest in the Glory of the Father He was not only declared to be the Son of God by his Resurrection from the dead but God did highly exalt him and gave him a Name which is above every Name that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth He instructed them formerly in the Spiritual Oeconomy of his Kingdom that they needed not be ashamed of the Doctrine of the Cross that it behov'd Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day to the end that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his Name throughout all Nations beginning at Jerusalem and withal that He was not unmindful of his Promise that He made before He was crucified now that he was risen from the dead but He assured them He would send the Promise of the Father upon them so much to their comfort success and satisfaction that the whole World should take notice of it In the mean time they were to remain quiet and knit together at Jerusalem until this Promise was fulfilled HE had before at their Ordination and formal Admission into the highest Order of the Church breathed on them and bad them receive the Holy Ghost By the which they were invested with a Legal and Authoritative Title to act as the Ambassadors of Jesus Christ to proclaim his Laws to require the Obedience of all Nations to convey this Power unto others to erect a new Society distinct from all Secular Incorporations to bind and loose by the Censures of the Church but still notwithstanding of their Authority they remain'd without strength until the solemn and magnificent Effusion of the Holy Ghost by which their Tongues being fired from Heaven their opposers were not able to resist the Wisdom by which they spake Now was the Prophecy of Joel fulfilled in the highest sense and so S. Peter applies it to this astonishing and heavenly manifestation And it shall come to pass in the last days saith God I will poure out of my Spirit on all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesie and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams THERE are who distinguish in the Writings of the New Testament between the Holy Ghost and the Spirit and that the Spirit signifies the Power of Miracles healing the Sick casting out of Devils restoring sight to the Blind raising the Dead by all which our Saviour proved himself to be the true Messias And by the Holy Ghost they think we ought to understand the wonderful Gifts of Utterance of Languages of Interpretation of Mysteries by which the Apostles were enabled in a moment to confound all the arts and oppositions of their enemies to run down with evidence all the calumnies and reproaches invented either by Jew or Gentile against the Person Life Doctrine or Miracles of our blessed Saviour BUT we shall have a better view of this when we fix our Meditations on that part of Scripture that I have read and consider it in all its mutual aspects and relations then I will endeavour to gather the several Branches of it together again in the Application WE find that the Apostles did exactly obey the Command of our Saviour they tarried at Jerusalem waiting for the promise of the Father The Text hath in it the accomplishment of this Promise and because it is so peculiar to this day to commemorate the Effusion of the Holy Ghost with the highest Joy and Gratitude I will invite your attention to these three Particulars in the words that I have read 1. THE disposition that the Apostles were in to receive the Holy Ghost they were all with one accord in one place 2. THE sensible Emblem of it manifested 1. To their Ears in the second Verse and to their Eyes in the third Verse And 3. HERE is the Accomplishment of the Promise the success and the appearance of it they were all filled with the Holy Ghost they began to speak with other Tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance 1. Consider the Disposition that they were in to receive it They were all with one accord in one place The Holy Spirit cannot dwell in those Breasts that are gangreen'd with discords jars and animosities All our wild passions and unfriendly humours must be hush'd into silence at the approach of this heavenly Guest he chuses for his residence habitation those pure and innocent Souls that breath nothing but love candor simplicity and meekness the secret retirements of the Mind where he dwells must be made smooth even and regular the rugged and intricate circuits of Hypocrisie Hatred and Envy are inconsistent with his Presence He loves to fix his residence where there are some beautiful Lineaments of himself The peaceableness the charity the mutual love and zeal of promoting the welfare of one another was so remarkable in the first Christians that we must needs confess they were acted by a Spirit beyond the World this peace and love and unanimity is so essential to the Christian Religion that our Saviour made it the badge and Character of his Disciples hereby shall all men know that you are my disciples if ye love one another It is the fulfilling of the Law without it there is no access for our Prayers We are commanded when we bring our gift to the Altar to leave it there unoffered until we are reconciled to our brother And we are directed by the Apostle St. Paul to lift up holy hands without wrath or doubting In a word the wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie And a little before he telleth us that bitter envyings and strife are the Companions of that wisdom that is earthly sensual and devilish Nay this Hatred and Enmity makes up the very nature of the Devil and if you could divide him and his Malice he were no more a Devil nor opposite to God for God is Love and they that dwell in God dwell in Love and the frequent repetitions of
Love in the first Epistle of St. John give us to understand that the Love of God and his Neighbour did actuate and enliven his Soul to the highest warmth and Charity WHEN we look upon the Apostles in this interval between Christs Ascension and the effusion of the Holy Ghost before they proclaim'd boldly and openly the wonderful things of God in the name of Jesus before they came forth with displayed Banners against the Kingdom of darkness then it was that their Unity did miraculously support ' them and what degrees of chearfulness and courage were found in any of them came seasonably to the relief of every one upon all occasions Their Unity first strengthened their Prayers they went up to Heaven as the Evening Sacrifice and with united force prevailed The Prayers of those Souls that are knit in Charity soon fly to the Ears of God they are raised above the Skies on the wings of servent Love the Devotions that are harmoniously poured forth on Earth resound with an Eccho in the Heavens as if the Inhabitants of the upper and the lower World had begun already the most intimate friendship and familiar Converse 2. THEIR Unity among themselves filled their Souls with great Tranquillity and though they were not yet actually inspired as afterwards they were with the gifts of the Holy Ghost yet by their unanimity they were so prepared for them and thirsted after them as the parched and gasping Earth thirsts for the showers of the latter Rain 3. THIS Unity had with it also some foretasts of the joys of Heaven Those triumphant Spirits that are above are twisted together in the mutual Embraces of Love it is their Element where they move it is the life of their Soul they cannot live without it either here or hereafter 4. THIS Unity dispos'd the Apostles and the Disciples to a clearer understanding of the truths of the Kingdom of Heaven Truth is the true nourishment of the Mind and this Truth enters not in its force and influence unless the Soul is first alienated from all harsh rugged and ill-natured Passions Proud and unmortified Men may make a great ostentation of Wisdom and Knowledge but the truth all this time is not successfully united to the essence of the Mind and the retirements of the Conscience though the words that convey it to our Ears may be lodg'd in the memory and imagination when we come to know the Truth in its divine energy and strength then are we made free from sin and hereby we know that we know him if we keep his Commandments Now the Apostles locked themselves up from the noise of the World and felt those invisible supports of Faith and Love when as yet they had not courage enough to venture abroad but Unity cannot long be preserved without uniformity and therefore they are said not only to be of one accord but also in one place THE Order and Discipline of the Catholick Church into which we are received by Baptism oblige not only to inward peace but also to an outward Decorum and visible Uniformity The Church in the language of Solomon is beautiful as Tirzah comely as Jerusalem terrible as an Army with banners The comprehensive Apostolick Canon is that all things be done with decency and in order and therefore are we exhorted by the Author to the Hebrews not to forsake the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is i. e. We are not to erect Altar against Altar but to continue in the Communion of the Christian Church observing those Laws and Rules by which the spiritual Society of Christs Family has been best preserved in the times of greatest danger and persecution If we cut our selves off from Christs mystical Body the consequences are fatal and dreadful THE publick Worship of the Sanctuary is Christs Trophy over his Enemies his Standard erected and set up in those very places where the Devil had his Altars are not his Oracles now silenced and his Sacrifices deserted where our Saviour is acknowledged King and Sovereign Is not the publick Worship the very joy of our hearts as the Prophet foretold Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths See with what fervour the best of Gods Servants pray for it and with what satisfaction they speak of it Pity saith Daniel thy Sanctuary that is desolate for the Lords sake And the Psalmist Thy servants take pleasure in her very stones and favour the dust thereof And again I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord our feet shall stand within thy gate O Jerusalem HOW hateful then are they to God and how contrary to the Spirit and design of the Gospel who destroy the publick Worship and the uniform Meetings of Christs Family upon Earth by Faction Mutiny Tumult Schism or Disobedience Is it not sad to consider how implacably Schismaticks are set to destroy the peace and order of the Sanctuary 'T is true as we shall have occasion to consider within a little the Holy Ghost came upon the Apostles in cloven tongues of fire but all fiery Tongues are not from the Holy Ghost A Sect there is of unquiet and restless Spirits who have no Principles but what tend to destruction and though it be no part of my design or inclination to rake into that Puddle of little Cavils and Exceptions that have been boisterously vented against the beauty and order of our National Church yet I would offer to the consideration of the meanest Hearer these four Particulars and then let them declare their thoughts of the present Schism and Wall of Partition that the Presbyterians have rais'd between themselves and the Catholick Church 1. CONSIDER that they and their Practices are disclaim'd by all Protestant Churches With what face do they alledge that they themselves are the strictest Patrons of the Reformation who have deserted all other Churches and by their Principles now think it unlawful to keep the Communion of any setled Church in Europe 2. ARE they not Nonconformists to themselves Their former Confessions of Faith and their Ringleaders as well as to the present Church the windings and turnings of Errour are infinite it leads them to a thousand absurdities it hath no solid Basis to rest upon but the present crasis of the Imagination and as that changes its Figure the Errour shifts its appearance and comes forth with further improvements And yet such is the unlucky fate of all Schismaticks that after all their refinings and Reformations they still retain some one thing or other that baffles and confounds all their childish and whiffling Objections against the Church I will instance but in one Particular which to this day is practised by the Presbyterians and that is they appoint Adulterers and such as are most eminently scandalous to wear
FROM what was heard let us go forward to what was seen and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and sat upon each of them 1. There appeared Tongues The Apostles that were formerly silent had now their tongues loos'd they lifted up their voice like Trumpets and spake the wonderful things of God and the Jewish Proselytes from all Nations that were now at Jerusalem were astonish'd to hear the poor Galileans open up the profoundest Mysteries so readily and so successfully their Tongues as if they were cloven by the finger of God spake those words that were like sparks of fire in the Souls of men now they appear'd to be the genuine Disciples of him who spake as never man spake who taught as one having authority whose words did reach the Souls of men with life and force and pierc'd between the Soul and the Spirit between the joynts and the marrow It was then true of the Apostles what was prophetically said by the Psalmist of our Saviour Grace is poured into thy lips therefore God hath blessed thee for ever The streams of their heavenly eloquence ran smoothly and fluently in Mysteries in Revelations in Reproofs in Directions in Counsels in Wisdom in Knowledge in Purity not exactly limned and proportion'd by elaborate periods and artificial dresses but in the greatest plainness mixt with the greatest power they deliver'd their message how boldly and how pertinently did they confute the slanders of Infidelity With what courage did they upbraid the Sanhedrim with the Murder of the Lord of Life Who among their Scribes and their learnedest Pharisees durst encounter the Wisdom of S. Stephen when once filled with the Holy Ghost How flat are Humane Reasonings against the Wisdom of God How feeble and how dull are all contrivances against the Council of the Almighty And now the Apostles found the Prophecy concerning the Messias in a great measure verified in his Disciples The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the Learned that I should know to speak a word in season to him that is weary 2. THOSE Tongues were cloven There are some Tongues cloven by the Devil that can nimbly shuffle themselves into different figures and are so accurately vers'd in the little arts of dissimulation that you may come much sooner to their meaning when you understand every thing that they say in a contradictory sense than when you swallow it down in the literal meaning S. James telleth us that with the same tongue we both bless God and curse man but the Tongues of the Apostles were cloven for a more noble end viz. that they might divide aright the Word of God unto all Nations under Heaven Parthians Medes and Elamites and the dwellers in Mesopotamia in Judea in Cappadocia Pontus Asia Phrygia and Pamphylia strangers of Rome Jews and Proselytes Cretes and Arabians all of them heard the Apostles in their own language speak the wonderful things of God The Church was no longer to be confin'd to the Land of Judea but from the rising of the Sun to the going down thereof the Worship of the Living and true God was to be set up in all Nations without distinction of Jew and Gentile So our Saviour tells the Woman of Samaria that the hour was come when the Worship of the true God was neither confin'd to Jerusalem nor the Mountains of Samaria but that he should be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth 3. THOSE Tongues appear'd in the similitude of Fire the Tongues of the Apostles were fired from Heaven and this is evident whether we consider 1. The Heat of their Zeal or 2. The Light of their Doctrine or 3. The Force Activity and Success of their Ministry 1. I SAY View the Heat of their Zeal what a flame was kindled by it in the hearts of other men How did they crowd into the Church when there was nothing to be gain'd by it but Death Disgrace and Martyrdom What a change was wrought upon the Spirits of men by the Light of the Gospel How earnestly and how vigorously did they serve God when they first came over from Paganism and Superstition How joyfully did they take the spoiling of their goods And with what courage did they offer themselves before all Judges Courts and Tribunals to be sacrificed for the Name of Jesus 2. Next to this let us consider the Light that is in it now the World was convinc'd that the Messias was the Light of the Gentiles in the highest sense that He was the light come down from heaven and the day-star from on high that visited us How swiftly did Error Darkness and Superstition flee before him When the Enemy of Mankind did bend all his forces to retard obscure his Victories the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ broke through those Clouds and appeared in its Meridian Splendor maugre all opposition When the Sun ariseth then man goeth forth unto his labour and the Beasts retire into their Dens but when the Sun of Righteousness thus appear'd the Demons that formerly enslav'd Mankind were forced to retire Their Idolatrous Rites and Ceremonies were deserted and made to leave the field to the triumphant Standard of our Blessed Saviour This Light look'd men so broad in the face that they were asham'd of their former folly and wickedness they surrendered themselves captives to its clear discoveries and illuminations for its evidence was so strong and undeniable S. Paul telleth us that it was the main scope of their Commission and Design to open mens eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified 3. FIRE did resemble the Holy Ghost because of its Force and Activity and when we consider the success of their Ministry we must acknowledge that the Power of God was engag'd to second their Commission Who can without the deepest astonishment and Adorations of Gods infinite Wisdom think of the Atchievments of those poor men When we remember what it was that our Saviour commanded and by what means they were to put his Commands into execution and what opposition they ought in all reason to look for if they attempted any such thing what was it then that he did command them No less than to go and teach all Nations i. e. to renverse the establish'd Laws Sacrifices and Customs of the whole World to destroy the Worship of all false Gods to introduce the Mystical Judaism in the room of the Literal of which the Jews were so obstinately fond to reform the manners of all Mankind to teach them to live by new Principles and in hopes of distant and unseen rewards to mortifie and subdue inveterate prejudices and their strongest inclinations to run up the Hill against the force of Custom Law and Example In a word to make the most incredible Changes in the World by such men
as were most unlikely to bring them to pass Must rude and illiterate Mechanicks grapple with the Rabbies and Philosophers of East and West By what Armies by what deep Contrivances must this Design be set on foot How ridiculous is the very thought of it to a man that stands no higher than on the level of Humane Maxims Yet this Divine Fire in their Tongues burnt up and consum'd the Worship of the Devil and silenc'd his most famous Oracles and brought the whole World in a manner under new Laws and as a rapid and violent flame devours combustible matter without mercy without resistance so the Christian Religion pulled down the Rites Customs and Solemnities of Superstition even then when the Learning Zeal and Power of all Mankind were engag'd to support it S. Paul tells us that the foolishness of God is wiser than men i. e. the most unlikely means seconded by his assistance produce the most wonderful and astonishing effects the methods that seem comtemptible to humane eyes overcome the wisest and the most subtile contrivances the meanest and weakest arrow in his quiver the clownish Fishers of Gallilee will baffle and confound all the Sons of Wit and Speculation the most accurate amongst them who had been train'd from their infancy in the Arts of Sophistry and Eloquence stood mute and stupid before those new Philosophers who came to discover unto us life and immortality The Topicks and the Methods of the Athenian Schools were swept down like thin Cobwebs when this true Light appear'd their curious Schemes were all rejected and a higher Doctrine than any that was formerly taught was establish'd upon no lower Principles than the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit the little knacks of the Philosophers that consisted most in the shufflings and turnings of Words and Phrases vanish'd like aery Phantoms when Truth it self in its Meridian Splendor inspir'd those frail men can we attribute this their Victory to any thing short of God himself His word is like a fire and as a hammer that breaketh the rocks in pieces So the Apostles forc'd their way through Rocks and pierc'd to the Center of mens Souls and gain'd to the obedience of Christ those hearts that one would think were altogether inaccessible they pulled down strong holds and lofty imaginations and by their swift and universal success at such a Time and against such Mountains of Opposition they gave the World to understand that their Mission was from above And here are the Trophies and Triumphs of Christianity the wonderful Propagation of our Religion made it evident that this Fire that came down upon the Apostles in Cloven Tongues was not a flitting and vagrant Meteor unfixt and moveable but a solid and durable Light which was to continue in the Church until the consummation of all things 3. HERE we may consider the accomplishment of the Promise contain'd in the fourth Verse They were all filled with the holy Ghost That the Apostles were inspir'd by God is beyond all contradiction and they who impute their Progress in the Conversion of Nations their Languages and Miracles their divine Reasonings and Revelations to any ordinary Cause subvert the Principles upon which our Religion stands All Civiliz'd Nations ancient and modern do acknowledge the possibility of a Divine Revelation nay that it is reasonable for Mankind to expect it in some extraordinary Cases and most people plead it in favours of some one Custom or other received amongst themselves and if all men agree in this that it is reasonable to look for it and that by the strength of Reason we may distinguish a true Revelation from what is counterfeit What should harden men against the Christian Religion for the miraculous Inspiration which the Church commemorates this Day hath stampt upon it all the Characters of Divinity that our Souls can think of even when they examine things most calmly and accurately LET us therefore thank Almighty God that he gave us the highest assurances of our Religion that he made our hope so sixt that it cannot be battered for when we read that the Holy Ghost came down upon the Apostles in this manner we may conclude infallibly that our Lord is not only risen from the dead but invested also with the highest Power at the right hand of God the Father The Gifts and magnificent Donatives that he scattered amongst his Subjects when he enter'd into the Heavens sufficiently convince us that all power in heaven and in earth is given unto him To his Ascension may be applied that of the Psalmist Thou hast ascended up on high thou hast led captivity captive thou hast received gifts for men yea for the rebellious also that the Lord God might dwell among them Let us say then as the Psalmist invites I will bless the Lord at all times his praise shall continually be in my mouth O magnifie the Lord with me and let us exalt his Name together This Effusion of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles is so full a proof of his Victory that now we lean on his Promise with the greatest tranquillity and assurance He hath ridden prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness his right hand hath taught him terrible things the enemies of his Kingdom fall before him he hath broken them as with a rod of iron he hath dasht them in pieces like a potters vessel he is established for ever King in Zion The meditation of this fills our hearts with joy and gladness that our Redeemer who is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh hath trodden all our enemies under his feet We have this hope as an anchor of the Soul both sure and steadfast and which entreth unto that within the Veil whither the forerunner is for us entered even Jesus made an High Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedeck NOR are we to think that because now he is encircled with Glory and Majesty that he can be unmindful of us no more than he was when he was compass'd with our Infirmities and as he made good his Promise to the Apostles and sent upon them the Holy Ghost to plead his cause against Infidelity so we may rely on his Word that he will raise us again unto life and immortality tho our dust stould mingle with all the scattered Atoms of the Creation he will change our vile bodies that they may be fashion'd like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself And the same Apostle assures us that if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in us he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in us Thus from the fulfilling of what is past we may reason our selves into the belief and certainty of what is to come AND let us thank our heavenly Father that so early strengthen'd the
hands of the Apostles against Infidelity and Atheism by such plentiful effusions of the Holy Ghost the Cataracts of Heaven seem'd to be opened and the Apostles were made to speak with irresistible Wisdom and the same Spirit is given unto the Church in proportionable measures as her necessities require to the end of the World especially to the immediate Servants of the Sanctuary if they do not wickedly shut their Eyes against its light and beauty The garments of the Church are of Needlework variegated with the manifold Excellencies of the Spirit the interchangeable appearances of those gifts that in different Figures make up the decorum of the whole were not so entirely confin'd to the Primitive Ages but that his more immediate Servants are furnished in all periods of the Church according to the nature and difficulty of their undertaking He doth not give all gifts to every one but parcels them out with that heavenly discretion that no man may say to his Brtoher I have no need of thee therefore the Spirit of Love scattereth his Donatives so as at once to supply our Necessities and advance our Charity that all of us might hang upon one another in the closest Relations and dependencies the mystical Body of the Church being knit together by Joints and Bands as is the Natural NOW when we add unto the former considerations that the gifts of the Spirit did not only seal our Religion by all possible external evidence in the Apostolical Ages but that now the very same Spirit by its sanctifying power and Vertues unites us to Christ What reason have we to rejoice in God our Saviour It is the Spirit that breaks our bonds and fetters and makes us run the Race that is set before us with joy and alacrity it is by this that we crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof by this we become the Temples of the living God resolute against Temptations humble chast sober heavenly minded in a word it is the earnest of our inheritance the Spirit by which we cry Abba Father the Spirit that helpeth our infirmities and makes us more than Conquerors through Jesus Christ that loved us Can there be any more ample matter of Praise What is it can loose our Tongues unto the most joyful acknowledgments if this does not Let us say with the Psalmist when we view the whole Oeconomy of our Redemption I will extol thee my God O King and I will bless thy Name for ever and ever And let us conclude that we cannot escape if we neglect so great a salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto others by them that heard him God also bearing them witness both with Signs and Wonders and with divers Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own Will To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be Glory Dominion and Power for ever and ever Amen A SERMON ON PSALM xxvi v. 6. I will wash mine hands in innocence so will I compass thine Altar O Lord. THIS Psalm is David's Appeal to the Omniscience of God as to his own Innocence and Integrity and it seems tacitly to refer to the Calumnies and Slanders propagated against him during the Reign of Saul and therefore he puts his trust in the strength of the Almighty that he should never be shaken by the fury and malice of his Enemies THE Verse that I have read is but a part of that Appeal and though our English Version reads it in the future yet the scope of the Context the Analogy and coherence of the whole allow the reading of it in the preterit as may appear easily to the attentive Reader but whether the one or the other is not so much my business to enquire This is certain that the custom of Washing before Sacrifices both amongst the Jews and the Gentiles had this Moral in its bosom that all our approaches to the Divine Majesty especially our most solemn and extraordinary ought to be performed with the most accurate Preparation purity of Mind and recollection of Spirit therefore the Psalmist as a part of hiâ— Appeal made use of this Argument in his Defence that he walked in his Integrity constantly and when he brought his Sacrifices to the Altar he viewed his Soul with the most accurate search and enquiry to see if there was any thing that might indispose him to come so near the divine Presence THESE words have in them no remarkable difficulty they are a plain allusion to that known Custom of Washing before Sacrificing both amongst the Jews and the Gentiles All the Eastern Nations were very frequent in their Washings especially before they approached their most solemn and sacred Mysteries and therefore I may the more safely apply this Text to the highest Mystery amongst the Christians which is the Sacrament of the Lords Supper which now requires in a peculiar manner our Attention and Meditation IT is in it self by the confession of all Christians the highest Mystery of our Religion nay all the Mysteries of it gathered together in one and therefore all the Graces of the Spirit ought to adorn our Souls when we come so near unto God they meet together at this Solemnity all of them in their highest slight and Exaltation I shall confine my Discourse at present to two Particulars 1. OUR Duty and Obligation of coming to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper 2. I will direct the manner of our coming and how we must attempt it 1. LET us consider our Obligations to attend this Solemn and Magnificent Entertainment and there is nothing more clear if we consider the Authority of him who enjoins it God upbraided his People of old that the Nazarites were more careful and observant of the original Rules and directions of their founder than his People were of his Laws who was the Creator of Heaven and Earth All the Sects of Philosophers up and down the World thought it their honour and their interest to propagate the Opinions of the first of their Order AND will our dearest Lord and Master give us a Command of the highest consequence and dare we refuse to obey it This is an indignity to his Authority an immediate affront to his Sovereignty and Power How highly would an earthly Prince resent an injury of this nature Here is a Feast prepared noble and plentiful and design'd to express the highest kindness and respect This Metaphor is used by Solomon and by a greater than Solomon mystically to set off the ingratitude of such as refuse and trample upon the inestimable offers of his Love and Favour WHEN we remember who invites us to this Feast the Author and finisher of our Faith whose dominion is from everlasting to everlasting who came from the bosom of the Father to rescue us from the bottomless Abyss of our miseries is it not the highest impudence the rudest affront to the Majesty of Heaven the most daring violation of
believe in him Thirdly The Interest that we have in his purchase by our adherence to him and dependence on him He that believes on me though he were dead yet shall he live First THAT our Saviour did raise himself from the dead is certain else our Religion is but a fable and a lying vanity It is S. Paul's own Inference to the Corinthians If Christ be not risen then our faith is in vain and we are yet in our sins And so our Saviour tells the Disciples that Christ must needs suffer and rise from the dead the third day The Spirit of Prophecy did enlighten the Jewish Church and foretold the success glories and triumphs of the Messias He shall drink of the brook in the way therefore shall he lift his head And Isa 53.10 That when he made his Soul an offering for sin he should prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hand That because he had poured out his Soul unto death God would divide him a portion with the Great and he should divide the Spoils with the strong All those Predictions have the Resurrection of our Saviour in their bosom and without it they are nothing When he was declared to be the Son of God by the Resurrection from the dead the suspicions concerning his Person were remov'd he appear'd then to be the Christ of God the Lord of all things the Judge of the world And his mean equipage bitter pains and shameful disgraces did but heighten and inflame the Zeal and Devotion of Jew and Gentile How mysterious was the stratagem of his Love to hide the Glories of his Divinity to obscure the brightness of his Majesty by the interposal of human Nature to cloath himself with our flesh that he might die that through death he might overcome him that had the power of death and by his omnipotence raise himself from death and the grave For though he was Crucified through weakness yet he liveth by the power of God He was put to death as a notorious Malefactor exposed to the reproach and contempt of all Nations treated as an Enemy to God and to true Religion his adversaries insulted over him as one stricken smitten of God But when it appear'd that he was the mighty Favorite of Heaven by his Resurrection from the Dead how did this confute their Reasoning How did it baffle their Accusations How did it upbraid their Ignorance and scatter their vain Surmises and aggravate their incurable Malice Since he must needs be acknowledged to be the Messias in defiance of all spite and contradiction The stone which the builders refus'd became the head-corner-stone of the building Being found in fashion as a man be humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and that every Tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father Now the human Nature is rais'd above the Angelical in the Person of our Saviour And the hosts of heaven fall down before him that was dead and is alive and dies no more and every creature which is in heaven and in earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea say with a loud voice Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessings The very thought of it delivers us from all our fears as the value and merit from our offences This is the Triumphant Song of the Christian Church the strong Tower we flie to in all our straits and difficulties the immovable Author of our Faith Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us The meditation of it is the strongest inducement to a holy life for he was rais'd to bless us in turning every one of us from our iniquities For as he was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father Even so we also should walk in newness of life And if you be present with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God Do we worship him that is risen from the dead and brake thorow the Iron barrs of death and yet remain captive our selves under the tyranny and bondage of our sins Let it appear by our heavenly Conversation that we are acted by a Spirit superior to the World that we are born of God that he that is in us is stronger than he that is in the world for in this the Children of God are manifest and the Children of the Devil whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God neither he that loveth not his brother Do we believe that our Saviour is victorious over Death and the Grave and yet shall we remain slaves to our Lusts and Passions Let the contrary appear that we are united to him in the closest manner encouraged by his Promises and enliven'd by his Spirit Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue and if there be any praise think on these things And this is the most proper method to prove to the World the Resurrection of our Saviour and the divinity of our Religion and this was the Argument that the first Christians made frequently use of to confound their Adversaries For how can we be made partakers of the Divine Nature but by the Divine Power Shall we live a Life more pure and heavenly than the rest of Mankind if we are not inspir'd with a Spirit not only opposite to but above the maxims principles and genius of the World Shall the Scythians Persians and Romans forsake their fierceness lasciviousness and pride and become calm and chast and humble if they have no other rule to direct them than the glimmerings of Nature and weak essays of Philosophy Is it possible that we can overcome the Inclinations of Nature Lust Passion and Revenge but by a Spirit higher than Nature Can evil Habits be so soon removed Or can the Ethiopian change his Skin If we are then changed from what we were to the true use of our Reason and the acknowledgments of the Deity and the practice of all Vertue To what cause can this change be imputed but to the Divine Spirit of Jesus whose powerful intercecession prevails to Redeem us from under the dominion of all Error Darkness and Prejudice Do we then believe in Christ risen from the dead Let us live no more to sin but unto him that died for us and
to them which made the holy Patriarchs command their Children to transport their bodies from one place to another that their ashes might sleep with their Ancestors How boldly did the first Christians venture their Lives to procure the bodies of the Martyrs which the cruelty of their Persecutors left unburied And S. Cyprian tells us how dangerous it is to omit it and that we should expose our selves to all hazards rather than leave it undone Neither did the Piety of the ancient Christians confine it self to those of their own Religion but frequently did bury the Pagans deserted by their Relations and they thought it not enough to inshrine the remains of their fellow Christians in Tombs and Sepulchres but also prepared their Bodies for their Funeral with the richest odours spices and perfumes the best drugs and ointments they thought but too mean to express their tender regard to their deceased Friends So Tertullian in his Apology tells us that the most curious Spiceries the Sabeans could afford were employed this way When Mary Magdalen poured Ointment on our Saviour's Head he approved it as done to anoint his body to the burial And the good women mentioned by S. Luke prepared their ointments and sweet odours to embalm his body All this was done because they looked upon the body as the expectant of a joyful Resurrection And hence we commit it unto the earth in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection For when they have varyed all forms and figures they are again built up immortal and more delicate habitations for our Spirits 3. LET the thoughts of the Resurrection comfort us concerning our departed Friends and Relations It s S. Paul's own inference But I would not have you ignorant brethren concerning them that are asleep that you sorrow not even as others which have no hope Vers 16. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout and with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first wherefore comfort one another with these sayings 4. LET the thoughts of the Resurrection comfort us in our present troubles O happy day when we are brought again into the light after so many nights of darkness and solitude when our bodies appear with their brighter robes when flesh and blood are Spiritualised and invigorated with the warmth of the Sun of Righteousness and our heavy Earth is calcined and purified for its true Imployment that it may serve the Soul in its swiftest thoughts and vye with the Seraphims of Light and Zeal in their attendance on their Creator Now the Earthly Tabernacle drags and pulls down the Soul to low and despicable Enjoyments then the Body is made strong and refined to comply with the highest Capacities and Inclinations of the Mind We shall mount aloft from the Earth into the Air we shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and as the stars for ever and ever when we are got loose from the Prisons of Darkness and the Fetters of Corruption are broken off When we see the Glories and Empires of this little Globe below us and we our selves beyond danger and temptation far above its frowns and flatteries HOW strongly do we then feel our selves united to our true and immovable Happiness and assimilated to the Blessed Temper and Imployment of the Hosts of Heaven and the Spirits of just men made perfect When instead of this load of clay the uneasie weight that holds our Spirits in Captivity we shall then be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven when mortality shall be swallowed up of life The very thoughts of this Elevation and Purity to think that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is might fill our Souls with the strongest Ardors and Impatience to be with Christ to be above the Clouds and the vicissitudes of this unquiet World WE cannot express the glory of the Body after the Resurrection better than in the language of the Scripture There is one glory of the Sun another of the Moon and another of the stars so also is the resurrection of the dead it is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption it is sown in dishonour it is raised in glory it is sown in weakness it is raised in power it is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body And thus we are told by the same Apostle to the Philippians That he shall change our vile bodies that they may be fashioned like unto his glorious body by the power whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself What a mighty support is it for us at the approach of death to reason our selves out of our fear and diffidence to get above the terrour and the thought of our dissolution and strengthen our selves in view of the Glory that is to come Let us say in the words of the Psalmist Why art thou cast down O my Soul and why art thou disquieted within me Hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my Countenance and my God The Meditation of this joyful Day puts us beyond all Calamities sets our feet upon a Rock and makes us look down with Magnanimity on all the changes of this lower World for when our Eyes are fix'd upon those purer Pleasures what can disturb the peace and tranquillity of our Spirits For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet our inward man is renewed day by day for our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory The prospect of that state and felicity makes us forget this foolish World and trample on all its glories with a generous disdain and contempt when we remember that we are heirs of God and coheirs with Christ of that inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away 5. But fifthly THE belief of the Resurrection arms us more immediately against the terrours of Death Thus St. Paul discourses in the fifteenth Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians and 54. verse So when this corruptible hath put on incorruption and this mortal hath put on immortality then shall be brought to pass this saying that 's written Death is swallowed up of victory O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The King of terrours is rifled his Forces are broken we have an Antidote against his Poison Let him come in his blackest dress in his most dismal Robes of darkness and fear Let him appear with all the Solemnities of terrour and sadness yet the Christian in the midst of all this meets him with undaunted Courage He is like mount Zion which cannot be moved he sees beyond those Clouds he defies all those frowns he strengthens himself in the death of Jesus and his Resurrection from the dead and the belief of both makes us more than Conquerours This is
the true Philosophy that animates against the pale fears and gloomy apprehensions of the Grave The merry Atheist that braved Death at a distance begins to tremble when it makes its approaches nearer then his Jests and his wanton Efforts of Fancy vanish into fearful expectations He flies to his desperate Complaints uneffectual Wishes and fruitless Prayers for the time of Prayer is over but the Christian gathers his Forces and strengthens himself in the Victory and Sacrifice and Power of our Lord Jesus Christ O how sad is it to delay the examination of our Consciences the confession of our Sins the amendment of our Lives until we have no more time than the few moments that just enter us into the Grave 6. WHEN we think of the Resurrection it should spiritualize our Souls and teach us in our desires and designs to fly above this terrestrial feculent Globe How come we to be so unwilling to leave those Habitations of sin and misery How come we to admire nothing and vanity when we are Candidates for a heavenly Kingdom If ye be risen with Christ set your affections on the things that are above c. Let the belief of the Resurrection put us in mind of the future Judgment For he 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 unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead Can we think of that solemn Appearance without fear And if we call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth every man according to his works Let us pass the time of our sojourning here in fear Let our zeal appear more and more in trimming and preparing our Souls for Eternity That we may know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death if by any means we may attain unto the resurrection of the dead THE third thing I proposed to speak to is the Interest that our faith gives us in a happy Resurrection I mean such a lively faith as is recommended to us in the Gospel Not every one that saith Lord Lord but he that doth the will of my Father which is in heaven I mean the faith that purifies the heart and overcomes the World and assimilates us to the temper and Spirit of the blessed Inhabitants above and makes us more than Conquerors through Jesus Christ that loved us MY Lords and Gentlemen so far have I discours'd of this Consolatory Argument to ease our mind upon this sorrowful occasion But you see another Text viz. the earthly remains of the noble Viscount of Strathallan When I remember his true Vertues I despair to say any thing proportionable to his worth the naming of him once suggests greater thoughts than ordinarily occur When we form to our selves the most perfect Idea's of Valour and honour and generosity then we have the best Notion of that great Soul that once lodged in that Tabernacle All the Projects of his Mind were beyond the common Level The generous Inclinations he derived from his Ancestors began to appear very early A Family too well known in Britain for every thing that is great ancient loyal and generous to need any particular descants of mine I am not to act the part of a Herauld from this place there is none capable to be my Hearer but knows already how needless it is to tell Scotchmen of the noble Atchievments and many Illustrious branches of that Cedar of which our deceased General is descended He began to bear Arms when as yet he had not strength enough to manage them the vigour and alacrity of his Spirit out running the growth of his body He then when but a Child lodged no thought in his Breast but such as were daring great and difficult When he was a Boy at St. Leonard's College he gave all the proof of a docile and capacious Spirit far above any of his School-fellows but his Mind that always entertain'd extraordinary Enterprises began to be weary of an unactive life Then it was that he was made Captain in that Regiment that went to Ireland against the Rebels under the Command of an old and experienced Officer In that expedition he behaved with so much life and resolution as drew upon him the eyes of all men and every body concluded the young Captain was calculated for the greatest actions There are no words so proper for this period of his life as those we meet with in the life of Agricola Nec Agricola licenter more juvenum qui militiam in lasciviam vertunt neque segniter ad voluptates Commeatus titulum tribunatus inscitiam retulit Sed noscere provinciam nosci exercitui discere à peritis sequi optimos nihil appetere jactatione nihil ob formidinem recusare simulque anxius intentus agere And this without the change of one word was his deserved Character when first he appeared in the Fields HE came over from Ireland some years after and assisted those Forces that beat the Rebels once at Stirling and all those Loyal Gentlemen engaged in that Expedition upon all occasions bestow'd upon him the most ample Applause and unforced Commendations that were truly due to his skill conduct and fidelity AFTER this General Drummond and all his Associates became so odious to the prevailing Faction of the Covenanters that until the Mock-repentance after Dunbar fight he was not suffered to engage in his Majesties Service Mean while he went to London and the Forces commanded by his Friend were disbanded And there he was a Spectator of that Tragedy that pierced his Soul with the most exquisit grief I mean the Martyrdom of King Charles the First The Scene he saw and the preparations to the fatal blow but more he could not endure He himself could not afterwards give an account of that consternation that seized his Spirits All that 's black and terrible invaded his Soul at once the most dismal Passions struggled within his Breast confusion and indignation possest his Heart and nothing but the force of Christian Religion and the belief of Providence could have preserved his Mind from sinking How can his great Soul but burst forth into all expressions of Sadness to see prosperous Villany lift up its head withy so much rage and insolence and defie the Justice of the Almighty and pull down his Image upon earth and sacrifice the best of Men the best of Kings to the fury and hypocrisie of the Rabble O Heavens Let not the Plagues due to the Cry of that sacred Blood fall upon Britain Next day after with all speed he went to Holland to the Prince and there he was the first that saluted him King He came over with his late Majesty and commanded a Brigade of that Army that went to Worcester where his Courage and Magnanimity appear'd to the highest
degree And his Actions even in that Engagement deserve rather a full History than the transient glances of a Sermon How he broke thorow three Regiments of the Enemy how warmly he disputed the matter with the third that were strongly guarded by a Hedge how he retired how he preserved himself and some other Gentlemen in a Redoubt all Night how he forced the Enemy even after the Royal Army was beat to grant him an honourable Capitulation and was receiv'd as Prisoner of War All of them are evidences that the sorest Disasters could not break his Spirit He is then carried to Windsor Prisoner and much about this time the Earl of Midleton and Dalyell made their escape out of the Tower but the General ordered the Affair with that dexterity that he got a poor Fellow accepted Bail for him And so quickly over he went to his Master then at Paris So naturally in all the traverses of his Life did he run to the King for whose safety and service he despised all things else Life Fortune Interest and Ease Loyalty was the spring that gave motion to his great and restless Soul his active and daring Spirit refused no toil or labour by which he might serve the Royal Family AT Paris he received his Majesties Commands and many Letters and Commissions for the Nobility and Gentry that yet adhered to the afflicted Cause of true Honour and Loyalty He came over then himself in the quality of Major General he landed near Tarmouth in England with a double bottom'd Trunk in disguise in which were laid his Majesties Letters and Commissions From thence he came to Newcastle then to Kelso from Kelso to the Earl of Roxborough's house from thence to Edinburgh in the habit of an ordinary Carrier From Edinburgh to the West-ferry where he was almost discovered to be another than what he appear'd by one of the Usurpers Spies But the divine Providence watched over his Person He got rid of this Fellow and went to Elplingstoun and being provided of a Boat that afternoon he came quickly to this Country so wearied and disguised that his nearest Relatives could not know him Now though he had most dexterously disfigured his Complexion yet how difficult was it to hide and obscure his noble Genius notwithstanding of his sorry Horse and his load of Cheese he could not persuade the People with whom he lodged upon the Road but that he was some extraordinary Person upon every turn they saw something in him above their Level they knew not what he was but they were sure he was none of their Gang He was out of his Element as a Fish upon dry Land And though his Cap Perruque and his Beard made him appear another thing yet he could not hide his Looks and the poorest of the People saw in him something they could not name but still above servility and meanness the Artifice of his Design could not raze out the Signatures of Greatness that God had stamped upon his Soul and Body WHY should I enter upon the History of that unfortunate Expedition You all know the event of it The sins of Britain stood in the way of our Recovery and our Nation for their contempt of God and their King groan'd under the Yoke of Anarchy Confusion and prophane Pedantry And those generous Hero's that strove to recover the Kings Affairs at that time in Scotland were forced to give way to that Current of Impiety and Rebellion that then shook Monarchy Order Religion and the Laws But there 's no fighting against the Decree of Heaven He might have truly said of his Country what the Roman Poet makes Hector say of himself Si Pergama dextrâ Defendi possent c. Yet in the worst Circumstance the presence of the Generals Mind never forsook him Seneca tells us that such a Man who struggles with Adversity and preserves his Soul untainted under the load of Misfortunes is fit for the Society of the Gods Who but the great Soul of General Drummond would not have sunk under such innumerable Calamities that so fast trod upon the heels of one another his Prince banish'd his Country over-run his Army broken his Friends discouraged and Rebellion become impudent and all the endeavours of the Kings true Servants defeated and disappointed but all this was not enough to damp his Courage FINDING in this Juncture that the wrath of God could not be so soon removed from this Island He treated with Monk for others of our Nation with great dexterity onely for himself and Dalyell he would have no share in it as if he had sworn from his Infancy against all degrees of Rebellion as Hanibal did against the Romans whom his Father made to touch the Altar with an Oath when but nine years old that he should never be reconciled to them nor their Interest He and his Friend again both of them stole away and went to find their Sovereign who then was forced to wander here and there for Shelter and was as the Royal Psalmist sometime hunted as a Partridge on the Mountains But all hopes being lost at that time to serve his Majesty The General and Dalyell beg'd leave to go for Moscovia which they obtain'd and accordingly took their journey And when he arriv'd at the Imperial Camp the Emperour of Russia was then lying befor Riga and now we have this generous Soul in Moscovia a Stranger and you may be sure the Cavaliers Coffers were not then of great weight but he carried with him that which never forsook him till his last breath Resolution above the disasters of Fortune composure of Spirit in the midst of Adversity and Accomplishments proper for any Station in Court or Camp that became a Gentleman THE Emperour of Russia quickly took notice of him and immediately he was made a Collonel and soon after Lieutenant General of the Strangers He served the Emperour of Moscovy against the Polonians and Tartars in many Rencounters with great conduct and fidelity But I must be allowed to mention one instance of his Valour in which he saved the whole Army that was then sent by the Emperour of Russia against the Poles and commanded by Knez Joury who was of extraordinary Reputation among the Russians But in this Encounter when he march'd too near the Enemy he withdrew all the Cavalry and left our Scots here with a small body of Foot to the mercy of the Polonian Horse perhaps the best in Europe What shall he do in such Circumstances must he fly But that was it he was not acquainted with He drew up his handful of Men behind some Shrubs which had a Marsh at each end of them and planted the Swans feathers before them The Polish Horse came to assault them in that Post with extraordinary briskness but were received with so much order and resolution that the first and second Salutes of the General 's Musketeers put the Enemy in great disorder and in defiance of
Neighbours He brought honour to the preferments he possess'd and valued none but such as naturally fell to him in the true channel of Merit 3. LOOK upon him as a Counsellor to his Prince he never suggested in publick or in private but what was for the honour of the King the Peace and Tranquillity of the Subjects the regular administration of Justice and the safety of His Majesties Dominions on all hands His advice was always temper'd with Prudence Caution and Foresight he understood Mankind exactly and the particular genius of this Nation so all his Counsels were even calm and moderate never surpriz'd or hurry'd unto any thing precipitate or indeliberate No Man ever had the resolution of a Great Captain and the gravity of a Senator more happily contemper'd 4. WHAT need I mention his affability and candor his charming inoffensive and pleasant Conversation Nothing tempestuous nothing rough nothing disorderly in his Behaviour he was of easie access to all ranks of Men and knew that Men in high Places cannot live without their Inferiors And if at any time his Anger broke forth into any appearances of Indignation it was to chastise and drive from him what is base unjust ungentile mean and vicious Will you consider him in his more familiar Relations as a Neighbour as a Husband as a Father as a Friend how amiable in all of them did he appear Friendship seemed to be his very Element and his proper Air And as none knew better how to make a choice so none more stedfast to that sacred tye The last words he spoke distinctly were expressions of Friendship to a Person of Quality with what gratitude was he wont to acknowledge acts of Kindness and Civility done him in the time of his Imprisonment in England Take him altogether he was a proper standard of Vertue fit for the imitation of the present Age and the commendation of Posterity Would God there were but many such in our Nation who truly needed so little the artifice of Flattery and despised it as much as our Deceased General BUT my Lords and Gentlemen when I have said this if I had no more to say perhaps I had said nothing All that is splendid and glorious in the Eye of Mortals is nothing in compare with the Spirit of true Religion In all his Life-time and in all the different Occurrences and Periods of his Troubles he had deep impressions of the Divinity Religion in him was not an idle speculation but broke forth and shined in all his Actions his devotions to God were fervent sincere and constant The expressions of his Charity to his Neighbours were full of affection love and sincerity He took his Characters of a Religious Man not from the dreams and fooleries of Enthusiasm but from the plain words of S. James Who is a wise man and endow'd with knowledge amongst you Let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom And that other of the same Apostle Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the Fatherless and Widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world The instances of his Charity have been many and liberal and seasonably conveyed some of them visible great and lasting Let us follow him to his Death Bed and see his behaviour there BEING of a vigorous and cleanly Constitution he lived to the Age of Seventy notwithstanding of the constant fatigue of his Life When he felt that his Disease was like to prove stubborn and that it resisted the skill and care of the learnedst Physicians he sent for a pious and grave Divine of our Church with whom he took sweet Counsel how to order his Soul for its last flight to the other World And in this interval gave all evidences of the greatness and goodness of his Spirit ONE of the Physicians that waited on him did with all modesty and discretion insinuate that their endeavours were like to have no success He received the news of Death with all composure and equality of Spirit he never knew what fear meant and he met the King of Terrors not with that resolute sullenness and stupidity that is sometimes observable in the most profligate but with all calmness and resolution as became the strength of Faith the hopes of Immortality and the Majesty of Christian Religion THE frequent attacques of a lingring Disease had now brought him upon the coasts of Eternity he ordered his worldly Affairs with that speed and discretion that was always visible in all his actions he gave his Fatherly Advice and Blessing in the most Christian and composed manner to his dearest Relatives and marks of his Favour and Bounty to all his Servants And all this with that exactness of Memory and undisturb'd Judgment that ever attended him he omitted nothing that was to be done And then he beseeched such as were about him in the Bowels of Jesus Christ to give him no more trouble about worldly Affairs so be left the World in his Thoughts and Meditations and looked stedfastly to the things that are above and by frequent flights and ejaculations to Heaven was loosed from the Body from all the interests and concerns of it before he left his earthly habitation How weak are the strongest Chains that tye us to the Earth when we are thus illuminated when we are near our heavenly Country when the Soul begins to tast of the rivers of pleasure that are at Gods right hand Then she gathers together her spiritual Forces and the World becomes so insipid that she can relish nothing but the Fruits of the Tree of Life O happy day when we have run thorow the difficult stages of a wearisom World we then can say in the Apostles Language We know that if this our earthly house were broken down we have houses with God not made with hands eternal in the heavens LET us enter into the Grave before we are carried thither and from thence view the various tossings of mens thoughts to scramble together the heaviest pieces of the Earth how soon do the glories of it vanish into a shadow and the painted nothings that we foolishly admire are found empty and unsatisfying Are those the things we are to hunt after Are we made for them Have not we vast appetites and inclinations beyond them Can they serve us in our greatest extremities Let us remember then wherefore we are made For here we are but Pilgrims and Strangers Should not we pray with the Psalmist Lord teach me to know mine end and the measure of my days that I may know how frail I am Those dark habitations in which we live will shortly crumble to dust Upon this occasion we are to lift our Eyes from the Coffin where his earthly remains are laid to the place and company and employment of his Soul where we shall be cloathed with Light as the Angels of God and encompassed with the beams of
have no relish to the Soul illuminated with the knowledge of Christ The eye of Faith discovers their emptiness they are but shadows and appearances of things attended in their most flattering dress with vanity and vexation of Spirit Let us awake then and see what is it that thus inchants us into folly and sin What are those pleasures that we doat so much upon if once compar'd to the pure rivers of pleasure that are at his right hand 4. SOME plead the severity of Christianity to excuse them from the practice of it The Precepts of humility meekness and self-denyal are intolerable to such but I must tell them that such Precepts appear only terrible to strangers and such as have no mind to come under any yoke or discipline at all The experience of the best men puts it beyond all debate that there is no rest or tranquillity of Spirit but in the practice of such Commandments Nay the pleasures that attend a pious life are pure and unmixt they are sweeter than the honey or the honey-comb With what transports and exstatic elevations did the Psalmist long to appear in the place of God's presence O when shall I come and appear before God! We are not acquainted with the ravishing satisfactions of Religion because we keep at a distance and therefore we are terrified by our first conflicts but if we struggled vigorously until the noisome rubbish of our corruptions were remov'd then our Souls might become a clean habitation for the Spirit of God and where the Spirit of God dwells there is also peace light and tranquillity joy unspeakable and full of glory What an impregnable Garrison against calumny and disaster is a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards man How vain is it to endeavour the painting of it by rhetorical colours Words cannot reach it the bold Metaphors of Poets are faint in comparison of it It receives comforts immediately from the hand of God and such as cannot be taken away from us so strong are the pleasures that do attend the practice of true Religion WHY then are we frighted with Mormo's and apparitions of our own invention Let us believe our Saviour who hath expresly told us that his yoke is easie and his burden is light The more we plead in favour of our bondage the more entangled we are by our corruption and the more miserable is our condition This Corruption may be escaped and reform'd and whatever is usually pleaded in its defence is vain and unreasonable Let me ask then how this Contagion that has so universally over-run Mankind may be cured And the Text makes answer to this that this Corruption is escaped by the great and the precious promises AND this leads me to the third Particular that I am oblig'd to speak to The Gospel in it self is the great and last Engine of God's Goodness and Wisdom for the recovery of the World and the Promises of the Gospel are the Wheels upon which it moves So much Spirit and Life did go alongst with the first preaching of the Gospel that it shook the Pillars of the Kingdom of Darkness threw open the Prisons of Satan and loos'd whole Societies of Men from their bondage The Apostles did open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God The Promises of the Gospel are the counterpoise that God hath laid in the other Scale against sin He principally designs to deliver from sin and from the Love of the World because it leads unto sin and the Promises of the Gospel have a peculiar energy to save us from the one and to deter us from the other If we believ'd the Promises of the Gospel without fear and hypocrisie we would immediately turn our backs upon our sins especially when we remember that these very Promises are environ'd about with the most terrible denunciations of the wrath of God against the disobedient The Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ Can there be any thing so powerful to alienate our affections from the World as the Promises of the Gospel How far was the glory of the Court of Egypt below the Spirit of Moses when he saw him that is invisible and had respect unto the recompence of reward We are expresly told by S. John that if any man love this world the love of the Father is not in him And again that the friendship of this world is enmity with God And S. Paul tells us that the Christians must not set their affections on the things on Earth for their life is hid with God in Christ THE brightness of our Inheritance obscures the glory of the World This is the promise that he hath promised us eternal life And now are we the sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but this we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Did we weigh the Gospel Promises as they deserve and think of them with love and application how powerful are they to disengage us from the entanglements of this present life and to promote the reformation that the Gospel enjoins 1. LET us heartily believe the Promises Eternity seriously and frequently pondered exhausts all our strength and all our thoughts It fortifies our Souls against the flatteries of the World and alienates our affections from the Earth The Patriarchs saw the promises afar off and embraced them and confessed that they were but strangers and pilgrims upon the earth And if the dark view that the Patriarchs had was so mighty to support their Spirits under the old Oeconomy what may not we do who are animated by the clear and glorious Promises of the Gospel 2. LET us lean on these Promises in our most difficult circumstances For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a-far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal We rejoyce says the same Apostle in our tribulations Patience under sufferings is the peculiar ornament of our Saviour's Disciples for they only have the surest Antidote against despondency The Devil that can transform himself into an Angel of Light cannot counterfeit Christian Meekness and Patience It is no stupidity but a rational submission to the Will of our Father they that are Martyrs for the World or their own Pride may for a while put on a resolute sullenness but true Christian calmness and magnanimity springs from the hope of glory and