themselves sought to make the world any thing the better for their being in it what infinitely greater esteem do those blessed Apostles deserve who accounted not their lives dear to them that they might make even their enemies happy If those mens memories be dear to us who sacrifice their lives and fortunes for the sake of the Countrey they belong to shall not those be much more so who have done it for the good of the whole world Such who chearfully suffer'd death while they were teaching men the way to an eternal life and who patiently endured the flames if they might but give the greater light to the world by them Such who did as far out-goe any of the admired Heroes of the Heathens as the purging the World from sin is of greater consequence than cleansing an Augaean Stable from the filth of it and rescuing men from eternal flames is a more noble design than clearing a Countrey from pyrats and robbers Nay most of the Heathen Gods who were so solemnly worshipped in Greece and at Rome owed their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to such slender benefits to mankinde that sure the world was very barbarous or hugely gratefull when they could think them no less than Gods who found out such things for men If a Smiths forge and a Womans distaffe if teaching men the noble arts of fighting and cheating one another were such rare inventions that they only became some of the most celebrated Deities which the grave and demure Romans thought fit to worship sure S. Paul had no cause to be ashamed of his Religion among them who had so much reason to be ashamed of their own since his design was to perswade them out of all the vanities and fooleries of their Idolatrous Worship and to bring them to the service of the true and ever living God who had discovered so much goodness to the world in making his Son a propitiation for the sins of it And was not this a discovery infinitely greater and more suitable to the nature of God than any which the subtilty of the Greeks or wisdom of the Romans could ever pretend to concerning any of their Deities Thus we see the excellent end of our Religion was that which made S. Paul so far from being ashamed of it and so it would do all us too if we did understand and value it as S. Paul did But it is the great dishonour of too many among us that they are more ashamed of their Religion than they are of their sins If to talk boldly against Heaven to affront God in calling him to witness their great impieties by frequent oaths to sin bravely and with the highest confidence to mock at such who are yet more modest in their debaucheries were not to be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ we might finde S. Pauls enough in the Age we live in and it would be a piece of gallantry to be Apostles But this is rather the utmost endeavour to put Religion out of countenance and make the Gospel it self blush and be ashamed that ever such bold-faced impieties should be committed by men under the profession of it as though they believed nothing so damnable as Repentance and a Holy life and no sin so unpardonable as Modesty in committing it But to use S. Pauls language when he had been describing such persons hâ—mself Heb. 6. 9. We are perswaded better things of you and things that accompany that salvation the Gospel was designed for though we thus speak For certainly nothing can argue a greater meanness of spirit than while wicked and profane persons are not ashamed of that which unavoidably tends to their ruine any should be shye of the profession and practice of that which conduces to their eternal happiness What is become of all that magnanimity and generous spirit which the Primitive Christians were so remarkable for if while some are impudent in sinning others are ashamed of being or doing good If we have that value for our immortal souls and a future life which we ought to have we shall not trouble our selves much with the Atheistical scoffs and drollery of prosane persons who while they deride and despise Religion do but laugh themselves into eternal misery And thus much for the first ground of S. Pauls confidence viz. The excellent end the Gospel was designed for 2. The effectualness of it in order to that end It is the Power of God to salvation Wherein two things are implyed 1. The inefficacy of any other doctrine for that end 2. The effectualness of the Gospel in order to it 1. The inefficacy of any other Doctrine for this end of promoting the eternal salvation of Mankinde If the world had been acquainted with any doctrine before which had been sufficient for the purposes the Gospel was designed for there would have been no such necessity of propagating it among men nor had there been reason enough to have justified the Apostles in exposing themselves to so great hazards for the preaching of it If the notion of an eternal God and Providence without the knowledge of a Saviour had been sufficient to reform the World and make men happy it had not been consistent with the wisdom or goodness of God to have imploy'd so many persons with the loss of their lives to declare the Doctrine of Christ to the World So that if Christianity be true it must be thought necessary to salvation for the necessity of it was declared by those who were the instruments of confirming the truth of it I meddle not with the case of those particular persons who had no means or opportunity to know Gods revealed will and yet from the Principles of Natural Religion did reform their lives in hopes of a future felicity if any such there were but whether there were not a necessity of such a Doctrine as the Gospel is to be discover'd to the world in order to the reformation of it For some very few persons either through the goodness of their natures the advantage of their education or some cause of a higher nature may have led more vertuous lives than others did but it is necessary that what aims at the general good of Mankinde must be suited to the capacities of all and enforced with arguments which may prevail on any but the most obstinate and wilfull persons But when we consider the state of the World at that time when Christianity was first made known to it we may easily see how insufficient the common Principles of Religion were from working a reformation in it when notwithstanding them mankinde was so generally lapsed into Idolatry and Vice that hardly any can be instanced in in the Heathen World who had escaped both of them And there was so near an affinity between both these that they who were ingaged in the rites of their Idolatry could hardly keep themselves free from the intanglements of vice not only because many of their villanies were practised as part of their Religion
miserable For whatever the minde of man can imagine necessary in order to its own happiness in its present fallen and degenerate condition is abundantly provided for by the Gospel of Christ. For man was so wholly lost as to his own felicity that among the ruins and decayes of his Nature he could not pick up so much as the perfect image and Idea of his own happiness when he reflects upon himself he finds himself such a confused mass of folly and weakness that he can never imagine that so noble a design should have its ground-work laid upon so course a Being And rather than believe the foundation of his happiness to be within himself there is nothing so vain and trifling without him but he is ready to fall down before it and cry out Here I place my felicity Sometimes he admires the brave shews and the Pomp and Gallantry of the World and thinks nothing comparable to a glorious out-side and a great train of attendants sometimes he raises himself and flutters upon the wings of a popular Air till a cross blast comes and leaves him in the common rout sometimes his eyes are dazzled with the glory of the more refined and solid pieces of that Earth out of which he was framed and thinks it reasonable that the softness of flesh and blood should yield to the impressions of silver and gold sometimes he even envyes the pleasures of the Brutes and if it were possible would out-doe them in their grossest sensualities sometimes again he flatters himself and then adores his own imperfections and thinks his Passions Honour and his Profaneness Wit So far is vain man from making himself happy that the first step to it is to make him understand what it is to be so But supposing that the true image of his happiness should drop down from Heaven and by the place from whence it fell should conclude where the thing it self is to be found yet this were only to make him more miserable unless he withall knew how to come thither He is sure not to climb up to it by the tops of the highest mountains nor to be carried thither upon the wings of a mighty wind he hath no fiery Chariots at his command to ascend with to the Glories above but only he that maketh his Angels Spirits and his Ministers a flame of fire is able to preserve the souls of men from vanishing into the soft air and to conduct them to the Mansions of eternal Bliss It is he only that can make them capable of the Joyes of another life by purging them from the stains and the pollutions of this And therefore without his grace and favour ever to hope for the happiness of Heaven must be by fancying a Heaven to be there where there is no God So that it is necessary that the Proposals of this salvation must come from the Author of it and that with such arguments as may perswade men of the truth of it and with such motives as may encourage men to accept of them Now the Gospel of Christ affords us all these things which are necessary to our happiness there we have the most agreeable and settled notion and Idea of it the most large and free offers of divine goodness in order to it the greatest assurance that these things did immediately proceed from God and the most encouraging motives to accept of these offers in order to that great salvation which is tender'd to us 1. We have the most agreeable and setled notion of true happiness not such a mean and uncertain thing which lyes at the mercy of the continual vicissitudes and contingencies of this present state but that which is able to bear up the minde of man against all the troubles of this life and to carry him to a Region beyond them all where there is a fulness of joy without an allay of sadness after it and ever-flowing rivers of pleasures that need no dams to make them rise higher nor falls to make their motion perceived Our Blessed Saviour never flatters his followers with the expectation of a felicity in this life Contentment is the most he hath promised them and that they may enjoy if they follow his directions let this world be be what it will and do what it pleases with them He never tells his Disciples they may have satisfaction here if they lie upon their beds of down with their heads full of tormenting cares that the pleasure of humane life lies in the gratifications of the senses and in making what use they can of the world he never deceives them with the promise of so poor a happiness as that which depends upon health friends prosperity and having our own wills No but he tells them of a more noble and generous felicity that will preserve its own stae and grandeur in spight of the world a happiness consistent with loss of Estate loss of Friends with affronts and injuries with persecutions and death it self For when our Saviour begins to discourse of happiness what another kinde of strain doth he speak of it in than any of those Philosophers who have so much obstructed the happiness of mans life by their voluminous writings and contentions about it Here we meet with no Epicurean softness which the sense of true Virtue carried the minds of the more noble Heathens above no rigid and incredible Stoical Paradoxes that make men only happy by the change of names no Aristotelean supposition of a prosperous life for Vertue to shew its power in but here the only supposition made is that which lyes in a mans own breast viz. true goodness and then let his condition be what it will his happiness is consistent with it For those above all other persons whom our Saviour calls Blessed in the beginning of that excellent Abstract of Christianity his Sermon on the Mount are not the rich and great men of the world but those who to the poverty of their condition adde that of their spirits too by being contented with the state they are in not those who are full of mirth and jollity that laugh away one half of their time and sleep the rest but they who are in a mournfull condition either by reason of their own sorrows or out of compassion to others or out of a general sense of their own imperfections or the inconstancy of our present state Not those who are ready enough to give but unable to bear affronts that think the lives of men a sacrifice small enough for any words of disgrace which they have given them but the meek and patient spirit that is neither apt to provoke nor in a rage and madness when it is that values the rules of Christianity above all the barbarous Punctilio's of Honour Not those who are as impetuous in the pursuit of their designs and as eager of tasting the fruits of them as the thirsty Traveller in the sands of Arabia is of drinking the waters of a pleasant
that we might have time to amend them but no sooner did our fears abate but our devotion did so too we had soon forgotten the promises we made in the day of our distress and I am afraid it is at this day too true of us which is said in the Revelations of those who had escaped the several plagues which so many had been destroyed by And the rest of the men which were not killed by these Plagues yet repented not of the work of their hands For if we had not greedily suckt in again the poyson we had only laid down while we were begging for our lives if we had not returned with as great fury and violence as ever to our former lusts the removing of one judgement had not been as it were only to make way for the coming on of another For the grave seemed to close up her mouth and death by degrees to withdraw himself that the Fire might come upon the Stage to act its part too in the Tragoedy our sins have made among us and I pray God this may be the last Act of it Let us not then provoke God to finde out new methods of vengeance and make experiments upon us of what other unheard of severities may do for our cure But let us rather meet God now by our repentance and returning to him by our serious humiliation for our former sins and our stedfast resolutions to return no more to the practice of them That that much more dangerous infection of our souls may be cured as well as that of our bodies that the impure flames which burn within may be extinguished that all our luxuries may be retrenched our debaucheries punished our vanities taken away our careless indifferency in Religion turned into a greater seriousness both in the profession and the practice of it So will God make us a happy and prosperous when he finds us a more righteous and holy Nation So will God succeed all your endeavours for the honour and interest of that people whom you represent So may he add that other Title to the rest of those you have deserved for your Countreys good to make you Repairers of the breaches of the City as well as of the Nation and Restorers of paths to dwell in So may that City which now sits solitary like a Widow have her tears wiped off and her beauty and comeliness restored unto her Yea so may her present ruines in which she now lyes buried be only the fore-runners of a more joyfull resurrection In which though the body may remain the same the qualities may be so altered that its present desolation may be only the putting off its former inconveniencies weakness and deformities that it may rise with greater glory strength and proportion and to all her other qualities may that of incorruption be added too at least till the general Conflagration And I know your great Wisdom and Justice will take care that those who have suffered by the ruines may not likewise suffer by the rising of it that the glory of the City may not be laid upon the tears of the Orphans and Widows but that its foundations may be setled upon Justice and Piety That there be no complaining in the Streets for want of Righteousness nor in the City for want of Churches nor in the Churches for want of a settled maintenance That those who attend upon the service of God in them may never be tempted to betray their Consciences to gain a livelihood nor to comply with the factious humours of men that they may be able to live among them And thus when the City through the blessing of Heaven shall be built again may it be a Habitation of Holiness towards God of Loyalty towards our Gracious King and his Successors of Justice and Righteousness towards Men of Sobriety and Peace and Unity among all the Inhabitants till not Cities and Countries only but the World and Time it self shall be no more Which God of his infinite mercy grant through the merits and mediation of his Son to whom with the Father and Eternal Spirit be all Honour and Glory for evermore FINIS A SERMON Preached before the KING MARCH 13. 1666 7. By Edward Stillingfleet B. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty Printed by His Majesties special Command The Fourth Edition LONDON Printed by R. White for Henry Mortlock and are to be sold at his Shop at the Sign of the White Hart in Westminster Hall 1669. Proverbs 14. 9. Fools make a mock at Sin WHEN God by his infinite Wisdom had contrived and by a power and goodness as infinite as his Wisdom had perfected the creation of the visible world there seemed to be nothing wanting to the glory of it but a creature endued with reason and understanding which might comprehend the design of his wisdom enjoy the benefits of his goodness and employ it self in the celebration of his power The Beings purely intellectuall were too highly raised by their own order and creation to be the Lords of this inferiour world and those whose natures could reach no higher than the objects of sense were not capable of discovering the glorious perfections of the great Creator and therefore could not be the fit Instruments of his praise and service But a conjunction of both these together was thought necessary to make up such a sort of beings which might at once command this lower world and be the servants of him who made it Not as though this great fabrick of the world were meerly raised for man to please his fancy in the contemplation of it or to exercise his dominion over the creatures designed for his use and service but that by frequent reflections on the author of his being and the effects of his power and goodness he might be brought to the greatest love and admiration of him So that the most natural part of Religion lyes in the grateful acknowledgments we owe to that excellent and supream Being who hath shewed so particular a kindness to man in the creation and Government of the world Which was so great and unexpressible that some have thought it was not so much pride and affectation of a greater height as envy at the felicity and power of mankind which was the occasion of the fall of the Apostate Spirits But whether or no the state of man were occasion enough for the envy of the Spirits above we are sure the kindness of Heaven was so great in it as could not but lay an indispensable obligation on all mankind to perpetual gratitude and obedience For it is as easie to suppose that affronts and injuries are the most suitable returns for the most obliging favours that the first duty of a Child should be to destroy his Parents that to be thankful for kindnesses received were to commit the unpardonable sin as that man should receive his being and all the blessings which attend it from God and not be bound to the most universal obedience to
preserved its primitive honour in the world For so far were men then from making their zeal for Religion a pretence to rebellion that though Christianity were directly contrary to the Religions then in vogue in the world yet they knew of no other way of promoting it but by patience humility meekness prayers for their persecutors and tears when they saw them obstinate So far were they then from fomenting suspicions and jealousies concerning the Princes and Governours they lived under that though they were generally known to be some of the worst of men as well as of Princes yet they charge all Christians in the strictest manner as they loved their Religion and the honour of it as they valued their souls and the salvation of them that they should be subject to them So far were they then from giving the least encouragement to the usurpations of the rights of Princes under the pretence of any power given to a head of the Church that there is no way for any to think they meant it unless we suppose the Apostles such mighty Politicians that it is because they say nothing at all of it but on the contrary bid every soul be subject to the higher powers though an Apostle Evangelist Prophet whatever he be as the Fathers interpret it Yea so constant and uniform was the doctrine and practice of Obedience in all the first and purest ages of the Christian Church that no one instance can be produced of any usurpation of the rights of Princes under the pretence of any title from Christ or any disobedience to their authority under the pretence of promoting Christianity through all those times wherein Christianity the most flourished or the Christians were the most persecuted And happy had it been for us in these last ages of the World if we had been Christians on the same terms which they were in the Primitive times then there had been no such scandals raised by the degeneracy of men upon the most excellent and peaceable Religion in the world as though that were unquiet and troublesome because so many have been so who have made shew of it But let their pretences be never so great to infallibility on one side and to the Spirit on the other so far as men encourage faction and disobedience so far they have not the Spirit of Christ and Christianity and therefore are none of his For he shewed his great wisdom in contriving such a method of saving mens souls in another world as tended most to the preservation of the peace and quietness of this and though this wisdom may be evil spoken of by men of restless and unpeaceable minds yet it will be still justified by all who have heartily embraced the Wisdom which is from above who are pure and peaceable as that Wisdom is and such and only such are the Children of it 3. I come to shew That the design of Christs appearance was very agreeable to the infinite Wisdom of God and that the means were very suitable and effectual for carrying on of that design for the reformation of Mankind 1. That the design it self was very agreeable to the infinite Wisdom of God What could we imagine more becoming the Wisdom of God than to contrive a way for the recovery of lapsed and degenerate Mankind who more fit to employ upon such a message as this than the Son of God for his coming gives the greatest assurance to the minds of men that God was serious in the management of this design than which nothing could be of greater importance in order to the success of it And how was it possible he should give a greater testimony of himself and withall of the purpose he came about than he did when he was in the world The accomplishment of Prophesies and power of Miracles shewed who he was the nature of his Doctrine the manner of his Conversation the greatness of his Sufferings shewed what his design was in appearing among men for they were all managed with a peculiar respect to the convincing mankinde that God was upon terms of mercy with them and had therefore sent his Son into the world that he might not only obtain the pardon of sin for those who repent but eternal life for all them that obey him And what is there now we can imagine so great and desireable as this for God to manifest hiâ— wisdom in It is true we see a great discovery of it in the works of Nature and might do in the methods of Divine Providence if partiality and interest did not blinde our eyes but both these though great in themselves yet fall short of the contrivance of bringing to an eternal happiness man who had fallen from his Maker and was perishing in his own folly Yet this is that which men in the pride and vanity of their own imaginations either think not worth considering or consider as little as if they thought so and in the mean time think themselves very wise too The Jews had the wisdom of their Traditions which they gloried in and despised the Son of God himself when he came to alter them The Greeks had the wisdom of their Philosophy which they so passionately admired that whatever did not agree with that though infinitely more certain and usefull was on that account rejected by them The Romans after the conquest of so great a part of the World were grown all such Politicians and Statesmen that few of them could have leisure to think of another world who were so busie in the management of this And some of all these sorts do yet remain in the World which maâ—â— so many so little think of or admire tâ—…s infinite discovery of divine Wisdom nay there are some who can mix all these together joyning a Jewisâ— obstinacy with the pride and self-opinion of the Greeks to a Roman unconcernedness about the matters of another life And yet upon a true and just enquiry never any Religion could be found which could more fully satisfie the expectation of the Jews the reason of the Greeks or the wisdom of the Romans than that which was made known by Christ who was the Wisdom of God and the Power of God Here the Jew might find his Messias come and the Promises fulfilled which related to him here the Greek might find his long and vainly looked for certainty of a life to come and the way which leads to it here the Roman might see a Religion serviceable to another world and this together Here are Precepts more holy Promises more certain Rewards more desireable than ever the wit or invention of men could have attained to Here are Institutions far more pious usefull and serviceable to mankinde than the most admired Laws of the famous Legislators of Greece or Rome Here are no popular designs carried on no vices indulged for the publick interest which Solon Lyourgus and Plato are charged with Here is no making Religion a meer trick of State and a thing only
the perception clear and undisturbed the fruition with continual delight and continual desire Where there shall be no fears to disquiet no enemies to allarm no dangers to conquer nothing shall then be but an uninterrupted peace an unexpressible Joy and pleasures for evermore And what could be ever imagined more satisfactory to mindes tired out with the vanities of this world than such a repose as that is What more agreeable to the minds and desires of good men than to be eased of this clog of flesh and to spend eternity with the fountain of all goodness and the spirits of just men made perfect What more ravishing delight to the souls that are purged and made glorious by the blood of the Lamb than to be singing Hallelujahs to him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever How poor and low things are those which men hope for in this world compared with that great salvation which the Gospel makes to free a tender of What a mean thing is it to be great in this world to be honourable and rich i. e. to be made the object of the envy of some the malice of others and at last it may be an instance of this worlds vanity and after all this to be for ever miserable But O the wisdom of a well-chosen happiness that carries a man with contentment and peace through this life and at last rewards him with a Crown of everlasting felicity Thus we see the Gospel proposes the most excellent means to make men happy if they be not guilty of a gross neglect of it and if they be that is their own act and they must thank none but themselves if they be miserable 2. But I pray what reason can be given since God is so tender of our happiness that we should neglect it our selves which is the next thing to be spoken to There are three sorts of things we think we have reason to neglect Such as are too mean and unworthy our care such as are so uncertain that they will not recompence it such as our own Interest is not at all concerned in but I hope there are none who have an immortal soul and the use of their understandings can ever reckon their salvation under one of these 1. Is it too mean an employment for you to minde the matters of your eternal welfare Is Religion a beggarly and contemptible thing that it doth not become the greatness of your mindes to stoop to take any notice of it Hath God lost his honour so much with you that his service should be the object of mens scorn and contempt But what is it which these brave spirits think a fit employment for themselves while they despise God and his Worship Is it to be curiously dressed and make a fine shew to think the time better spent at the Glass than at their Devotions These indeed are weighty imployments and fit in the first place to be minded if we were made only to be gazed upon Is it meerly to see Playes and read Romances and to be great admirers of that vain and frothy discourse which all persons account wit but those which have it This is such an end of mans life which no Philosopher ever thought of Or is it to spend time in excesses and debaucheries and to be slaves to as many lusts as will command them This were something indeed if we had any other name given us but that of Men. Or lastly is it to have their minds taken up with the great affairs of the World to be wise in considering carefull in managing the publick interest of a Nation This is an employment I grant fit for the greatest mindes but not such which need at all to take them off from minding their eternal salvation For the greatest wisdom is consistent with that else Religion would be accounted folly and I take it for granted that it is never the truely wise man but the pretender that entertains any mean thoughts of Religion And such a one uses the publick Interest no better than he doth Religion only for a shew to the world that he may carry on his own designs the better And is this really such a valuable thing for a man to be contented to cheat himself of his eternal happiness that he may be able to cheat the world and abuse his trust I appeal then to the Consciences of all such who have any sense of humanity and the common interest of mankinde setting aside the considerations of a life to come whether to be just and sober vertuous and good be not more suitable to the design of humane Nature than all the vanities and excesses all the little arts and designs which men are apt to please themselves with And if so shall the eternal happiness which follows upon being good make it less desireable to be so No surely but if God had required any thing to make us happy which had been as contrary to our present Interest as the Precepts of Christianity are agreeable to it yet the end would have made the severest commands easie and those things pleasant which tend to make us happy 2. Are these things so uncertain that they are not fit for a wise man to be solicitous about them if they will come with a little care they will say they are desireable but too much will unfit them for greater business But do men believe these things to be true or not when they say thus if they be true why need they fear their uncertainty if they be certain what pains and care can be too great about them since a little will never serve to obtain them Let but the care and diligence be proportionable to the greatness of the end and the weight of the things and you never need fear the want of a recompence for all your labour But suppose you say if you were fully convinced of their certainty you would look more after them What hinders you from being so convinced Is it not a bad disposition of minde which makes you unwilling to enquire into them examine things with a minde as free as you would have it judge seriously according to the reason of things and you will easily finde the interests of a life to come are far more certain as well as more desireable than those of this present life And yet the great uncertainty of all the honours and riches of this world never hinder the covetous or ambitious person from their great earnestness in pursuit of them And shall not then all the mighty arguments which God himself hath made use of to confirm to us the certainty of a life to come prevail upon us to look more seriously after it Shall the unexpressible love of the Father the unconceivable sufferings of the Son of God and the miraculous descent and powerfull assistance of the Holy Ghost have no more impression on our mindes than to leave us uncertain of a future state What mighty doubts
the blood of his Son to have it shed only in allusion to some ancient customs But if there were such a necessity of alluding to them why might not the blood of any other person have done it when yet all that custom was no more but that a sacrifice should be offer'd and upon the parts of the sacrifice divided they did solemnly swear and ratifie their Covenant And if this be yielded them it then follows from this custom that Christ must be consider'd as a sacrifice in his death and so the ratification of the Covenant must be consequent to that oblation which he made of himself upon the Cross. Besides how incongruous must this needs be that the death of Christ the most innocent person in the World without any respect to the guilt of sin should suffer so much on purpose to assure us that God will pardon those who are guilty of it May we not much rather infer the contrary considering the holiness and justice of Gods nature if he dealt so severely with the green tree how much more will he with the dry If one so innocent suffer'd so much what then may the guilty expect If a Prince should suffer the best subject he hath to be severely punished could ever any imagine that it was with a design to assure them that he would pardon the most rebellious No but would it not rather make men afraid of being too innocent for fear of suffering too much for it And those who seem very carefull to preserve the honour of Gods Justice in not punishing one for anothers faults ought likewise to maintain it in the punishing of one who had no fault at all to answer for And to think to escape this by saying that to such a person such things are calamities but no punishments is to revive the ancient exploded Stoicism which thought to reform the diseases of Mankind by meer changeing the names of things though never so contrary to the common sense of humane nature which judges of the nature of punishments by the evils men undergo and the ends they are designed for And by the very same reason that God might exercise his dominion on so innocent a person as our Saviour was without any respect to sin as the moving cause to it he might lay eternal torments on a most innocent Creature for degrees and continuance do not alter the reason of things and then escape with the same evasion that this was no act of injustice in God because it was a meer exercise of Dominion And when once a sinner comes to be perswaded by this that God will pardon him it must be by the hopes that God will shew kindness to the guilty because he shews so little to the innocent and if this be agreeable to the Justice and Holiness of Gods nature it is hard to say what is repugnant to it If to this it be said that Christs consent made it no unjust exercise of dominion in God towards him it is easily answer'd that the same consent will make it less injustice in God to lay the punishment of our sins upon Christ upon his undertaking to satisfie for us for then the consent supposes a meritorious cause of punishment but in this case the consent implyeth none at all And we are now enquiring into the reasons of such sufferings and consequently of such a consent which cannot be imagined but upon very weighty motives such as might make it just in him to consent as well as in God to inflict Neither can it be thought that all the design of the sufferings of Christ was to give us an example and an incouragement to suffer our selves though it does so in a very great measure as appears by the Text it self For the hopes of an eternal reward for these short and light afflictions ought to be encouragement enough to go through the miseries of this life in expectation of a better to come And the Cloud of Witnesses both under the Law and the Gospel of those who have suffer'd for righteousness sake ought to make no one think it strange if he must endure that which so many have done before him and been crowned for it And lastly to question whether Christ could have pity enough upon us in our sufferings unless he had suffer'd so deeply himself will lead men to distrust the pity and compassion of Almighty God because he was never capable of suffering as we do But the Scripture is very plain and full to all those who rack not their minds to pervert it in assigning a higher reason than all these of the sufferings of Christ viz. That Christ suffered for sins the just for the unjust that his soul was made an offering for sin and that the Lord therefore as on a sacrifice of atonement laid on him the iniquities of us all that through the eternal Spirit he offer'd himself without spot to God and did appear to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself that he was made a propitiation for our sins that he laid down his life as a price of Redemption for Mankinde that through his blood we obtain Redemption even the forgiveness of sins which in a more particular manner is attributed to the blood of Christ as the procuring cause of it That he dyed to reconcile God and us together and that the Ministery of Reconciliation is founded on Gods making him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him and that we may not think that all this Reconciliation respects us and not God he is said to offer up himself to God and for this cause to be a Mediator of the New Testament and to be a faithfull high-Priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people and every high-Priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God not appointed by God in things meerly tending to the good of men which is rather the Office of a Prophet than a Priest So that from all these places it may easily appear that the blood of Christ is to be looked on as a sacrifice of Atonement for the sins of the World Not as though Christ did suffer the very same which we should have suffer'd for that was eternal death as the consequent of guilt in the person of the Offender and then the discharge must have been immediately consequent upon the payment and no room had been left for the freeness of remission or for the conditions required on our parts But that God was pleased to accept of the death of his Son as a full perfect sufficient sacrifice oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the World as our Church expresseth it and in consideration of the sufferings of his Son is pleased to offer pardon of sin upon sincere repentance and eternal life upon a holy obedience to his will Thus much for the
as Macrobius and Servius observe out of his excellent skill and accuracy in the Pontifical rites Sanguine placastis ventos virgine caesa Cum primum Iliacas Danai venistis ad oras Sanguine quaerendi reditus animaque litandum Argolica Which shews that the expiation was supposed to lye in the blood which they call'd the Soul as the Scripture doth And the Persians as Strabo tells us looked upon the bare mactation as the Sacrifice for they did not porricere as the Romans call'd it they laid none of the parts of the Sacrifice upon the Altar to be consumed there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for God regarded nothing but the Soul in the sacrifice which words Eustathius likewise useth upon Homer of the Sacrifices of the Magi. And Strabo affirms of the ancient Lusitani that they cut off nothing of the Sacrifice but consumed the entrails whole but though such sacrifices which were for divination were not thought expiatory and therefore different from the animales hostiae yet among the Persians every sacrifice had a respect to expiation of the whole people For Herodotus tells us that every one that offers Sacrifice among them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prayes for good to all Persians and the King But thus much may serve to prove against Crellius that the mactation in an Expiatory Sacrifice was not a meer preparation to a Sacrifice but that it was a proper sacrificial act and consequently that Christ acted as High-Priest when he gave himself for us an offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour But this will further appear from those places wherein Christ is said to offer up himself once to God the places to this purpose are Heb. 7. 27. Who needeth not daily as those High-Priests to offer up sacrifice first for his own sins and then for the Peoples for this he did once when he offer'd up himself Heb. 9. 14. How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offer'd himself without spot to God purge your Conscience from dead works to serve the living God V. 25 26 27 28. Nor yet that he should offer himself often as the High-Priest entreth into the holy place every year with the blood of others for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the World but now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself And as it is appointed to men once to dye but after this the Judgement so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation Heb. 10. 10 11 12. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all And every High-Priest standeth daily ministring and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins but this man after he had offer'd one sacrifice for sins for ever sate down on the right hand of God To these places Crellius gives this answer That the name of Oblation as applyed to Christ primarily signifies Christs first entrance into Heaven and appearance before the face of God there but consequently the continuance of that appearance so that when a thing is once actually exhibited and presented it is said to be once offer'd although being offer'd it alwayes remains in the same place and so may be said to be a continual Oblation But this first appearance saith he hath a peculiar agreement with the legal Oblation and therefore the name of Oblation doth most properly belong to that because Christ by this means obtained that power on which the perfect remission of our sins depends but although the continuance of that appearance seems only consequentially to have the name of Oblation belonging to it yet in its own nature it hath a nearer conjunction with the effect of the Oblation viz. the remission of sins or deliverance from punishment and doth of it self conferre more to it than the other doth And therefore in regard of that Christ is said most perfectly to exercise his Priesthood and to offer and intercede for us from the time he is said to sit down at the right hand of God Against this answer I shall prove these two things 1. That it is incoherent and repugnant to it self 2. That it by no means agrees to the places before mention'd 1. That it is incoherent and repugnant to it self in two things 1. In making that to be the proper Oblation in correspondency to the Oblations of the Law which hath no immediate respect to the expiation of sins 2. In making that to have the most immediate respect to the expiation of sins which can in no tolerable sense be call'd an Oblation For the first since Crellius saith that the proper notion of Oblation is to be taken from the Oblations in the Levitical Law we must consider what it was there and whether Christs first entrance into Heaven can have any correspondency with it An Oblation under the Law was in generall any thing which was immediately dedicated to God but in a more limited sense it was proper to what was dedicated to him by way of Sacrifice according to the appointments of the Levitical Law We are not now enquiring what was properly call'd an Oblation in other Sacrifices but in those which then were for expiation of sin And in the Oblation was first of the persons for whom the Sacrifice was offer'd So in the Burnt-offering the person who brought it was to offer it at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation i. e. as the Jewes expound it at the entrance of the Court of the Priests and there he was to lay his hands upon the head of it and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him This Offering was made before the Beast was slain after the killing the beast then the Priests were to make an Offering of the blood by sprinkling it round about the Altar of Burnt-offerings the rest of the blood say the Jewes was poured out by the Priests at the South-side of the Altar upon the foundation where the two holes were for the passage into the Channel which convey'd the blood into the valley of Kidron thus the blood being offered the parts of the beast were by the Priests to be laid upon the Altar and there they were all to be consumed by fire and then it was call'd an Offering made by fire of a sweet savour unto the Lord. The same rites were used in the Peace-offerings and Trespass-offerings as to the laying on of hands and the sprinkling the blood and consuming some part by fire and in the sin-offerings there was to be the same imposition of hands but concerning the sprinkling of the blood and the way of consuming the remainders of the Sacrifice there was this considerable difference that in the common sin-offerings for particular persons