hopes but such as these the greatest part of the world will fall into when that terrible day of the Lord shall come For as it was in the days of Noe so shall it be also in the day of the Son of Man they did eat they drank they married wives they were given in marriage until the day that Noe entred into the Ark and the flood came and destroyed them all Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot they did eat they drank they bought they sold they planted they builded but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from Heaven and destroyed them all Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole Earth If some of these expressions seem to relate to the unexpected coming of Christ to judgment upon Hierusalem we are to consider that was not only a fore-runner but a figure of Christ's coming to judge the World And that may be the great reason why our Saviour mixeth his discourses of both these so much together as he doth for not only the judgment upon that nation was a draught as it were in little of the great day but the symptoms and fore-runners of the one were to bear a proportion with the other among which the strange security of that people before their destruction was none of the least And the surprise shall be so much the more astonishing when the day of the Lord shall come upon the whole World as the terrour and consequents of that universal judgment shall exceed the overthrow of the Jewish Polity But supposing men were aware of its approach and prepared for it the burning of the Temple and City of Hierusalem though so frightful a spectacle to the beholders of it was but a mean representation of the terrour that shall be at the conflagration of the whole World When the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise or with a mighty force as some interpret it and the Elements shall melt with fervent beat i. e. when all the fiery bodies in the upper regions of this World which have been kept so long in an even and regular course within their several limits shall then be let loose again and by a more rapid and violent motion shall put the World into confusion and a flame together For then the present frame of things shall be dissolved and the bounds set to the more subtile and active parts of matter shall be taken away which mixing with the more gross and earthy shall sever them from each other and by their whirling and agitation set them all on fire And if the Stars falling to the Earth were to be understood in a literal sense none seems so probable as this That those aethereal fires shall then be scattered and dispersed throughout the Universe so that the Earth and all the works that are therein shall be turned into one funeral Pile Then the foundations of the Earth shall be shaken and all the combustible matter which lies hid in the bowels of it shall break forth into prodigious flames which while it rouls up and down within making it self a passage out will cause an universal quaking in all parts of the Earth and make the Sea to roar with a mighty noise which will either by the violent heat spend it self in vapour and smoak or be swallowed up in the hollow places of the deep Neither are we to imagine that only the sulphureous matter within the Earth shall by its kindling produce so general a conflagration although some Philosophers of old thought that sufficient for so great an effect but as it was in the deluge of water the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of Heaven were opened so shall it be in this deluge of fire as one of the ancients calls it not only mighty streams and rivers of Fire shall issue out of the bowels of the earth but the cataracts above shall discharge such abundance of thunder and lightning wherein God will rain down fire and brimstone from Heaven that nothing shall be able to withstand the force of it Then the Craters or breaches made in the earth by horrible earthquakes caused by the violent eruptions of Fire shall be wide enough to swallow up not only Cities but whole Countries too And what shall remain of the spoils of this devouring enemy within shall be consumed by the merciless fury of the thunder and lightning above What will then become of all the glories of the world which are now so much admired and courted by foolish men What will then become of the most magnificent piles the most curious structures the most stately palaces the most lasting monuments the most pleasant gardens and the most delightful countries they shall be all buried in one common heap of ruines when the whole face of the earth shall be like the top of mount Aetna nothing but rubbish and stones and ashes which unskilful travellers have at a distance mistaken for Snow What will then become of the pride and gallantry of the vain persons the large possessions of the great or the vast treasures of the rich the more they have had of these things only the more fuel they have made for this destroying fire which will have no respect to the honours the greatness or the riches of Men. Nay what will then become of the wicked and ungodly who have scoffed at all these things and walked after their own lusts saying Where is this promise of his coming because all things yet continue as they were from the beginning of the creation When this great day of his wrath is come how shall they be able to stand or escape his fury Will they fly to the tops of the mountains that were only to stand more ready to be destroyed from Heaven Will they hide themselves in the dens and the rocks of the mountains but there they fall into the burning furnaces of the earth and the mountains may fall upon them but can never hide them from the wrath of the Lamb. Will they go down into the deep and convey themselves to the uttermost parts of the Sea but even there the storms and tempests of these shours of fire shall overtake them and the vengeance of God shall pursue them to everlasting flames Consider now whether so dreadful a preparation for Christ's coming to judgment be not one great reason why it should be called the terrour of the Lord For can any thing be imagined more full of horror and amazement than to see the whole world in a flame about us We may remember and I hope we yet do so when the flames of one City filled the minds of all the beholders with astonishment and fear but what then would it do not only to see the earth vomit and cast forth fire every where about us
their Houses which the Plague had driven them from and now they hoped to make some amends for the loss of their Trade before but they returned home with the same sins they carried away with them like new Moons they had a new â—ace and appearance but the same spots remained still or it may be increased by that scumm they had gathered in the Countries where they had been Like Beasts of prey that had been chained up so long till they were hunger-bitten when they once got loose they ran with that violence and greediness to their ways of gain as though nothing could ever satisfie them But that which betrayed them to so much security was their late deliverance from so sweeping a Judgment as the Plague had been to the City and Suburbs of it they could by no means think when they had all so lately escaped the Grave that the City it selâ— should be so near being buried in its own ruines that the Fire which had missed their blood should seize upon their houses that there should be no other way to purge the infected air but by the Flames of the whole City Thus when the Mariners have newly escaped a wreck at Sea the fears of which have a long time deprived them of their wonted rest they think they may securely lye down and sleep till it may be another storm overtake and sink them We see then there is neither piety nor wisdom in so much security when a great danger is over â—or for we know not but that very security it self may provoke God to send a greater And no kind of Judgments are so dreadful and amazing as those which come most unexpectedly upon men for these betray the succours which reason offers they infatuate mens councils weaken their courage and deprive them of that presence of mind which is necessary at such a time for their own and the publick interest And there needs no more to let us know how severe such a Judgment must be when it comes upon men in so sudden and unexpected a manner but that is not all for the severiry of it lies further 2. In the force and violence of it and surely that was very great which consumed four Cities to nothing in so short a time when God did pluere Gehennam de Coelo as one expresses it rained down Hell-fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah And this is that which some think is called the vengeance of eternal fire which all those in Sodom and Gomorrah are said to suffer i. e. a Fire which comsumed till there was nothing left to be consumed by it Not but that those wicked persons did justly suffer the vengeance of an eternal fire in another life but the Apostle seems to set out and paint forth to us that in the life to come by the force and violence of that fire which destroyed those Cities and it would be harsh to say that all who were involved in that common calamity who yet were innocent as to the great abominations of those places viz. the Infants there destroyed must be immediately sentenced to eternal misery But although God since that perpetual monument of his justice in the destruction of those Cities hath not by such an immediate fire from Heaven consumed and razed out the very foundations of other Cities yet at sometimes there are fires which break out and rage with a more than ordinary violence and will not yield to those attempts for quenching them which at other times may be attended with great success Such might that great fire in Rome be in Nero's time which whether begun casually or by design which was disputed then as it hath been about others since did presently spread it self with greater speed over the Cirque as the Historian tells us than the Wind it self and never left burning till of fourteen Regions in Rome but â—our were left entire Such might that be in the Emperor Titus his time which lasted three days and nights and was so irresistible in its fury that the Historian tells us it was certainly more than an ordinary fire Such might that be in the same City in the time of Commodus which though all the art and industry imaginable were used for the quenching it yet it burnt till it had consumed besides the Temple of Peace the fairest Houses and Palaces of the City which on that account the Historians attribute to more than natural causes Such might that be which comes the nearest of any I have met with to that Fire we this day lament the effecâ—s of I mean that at Constantinople which happened A. D. 465. in the beginning of September it brake forth by the water side and raged with that horrible fury for four days together that it burnt down the greatest part of the City and was so little capable of resistance that as Evagrius tells us the strongest Houses were but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like so much dryed stubble before it by which means the whole City was as he calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a most miserable and dolefull spectacle so that as Baronius expresses it that City which before was accounted the wonder of the world was made like unto Sodom and Gomorrah Such likewise might those two great Fires have been which have formerly burnt down great part of the then City of London but neither of them come near to the dreadfulness of this considering how much bigger the habitations of the City were now and how much greater the riches of it than could be imagined at those times How great must we conceive the force of this Fire to have been which having at first gotten a head where there was little means of resisting it and much fuel to increase it from thence it spread it self both with and against the wind till it had gaâ—ned so considerable a force that it despised all the resistance could be made by the strength of the buildings which stood in its way and when it had once subdued the strongest and the tallest of them it then roared like the waves of the Sea and made its way through all the lesser obstacles and might have gone on so far till it had laid this City level with the ruins of the other had not he who sets the bounds to the Ocean and saith Thus far shalt thou go and no farther put a stop to it in those places which were as ready to have yielded up themselves to the rage of it as any which had been consumed before 3. The severity of it will yet more appear from all the dreadfull circumstances which attend and follow it Could you suppose your selves in the midst of those Cities which were consumed by Fire from Heaven when it had seized upon their dwellings O what cries and lamentations what yellings and shriekings might ye then have heard among them We may well think how dreadfull those were when we do but consider how sad the circumstances were of
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 outside 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 arâ— dazled with the glory of the more refined and solid pieces of that Earth out oâ— which he was framed and thinks it reasonable that the softness of flesh and blood should yield to the impressions oâ— silver and gold sometimes he even envies the pleasures of the Brutes and if iâ— were possible would outdo them in their grossest sensualities sometimes again he flatters himself and then adores his own imperfections and thinks his Passiâ—ns Honour and his Profaneness Wit So far vain man from making himself happy that the first step to it is to make hiâ— understand what it is to be so But supposing that the true image of his happâ—ness should drop down from Heaven and by the place from whence it felâ— should câ—nclude where the thing it 〈◊〉 is to be sound yet this were only tâ— make him more miserable unless 〈◊〉 withal knew how to come thither Hâ— is sure not to climb up to it by the top of the highest mountains nor to be caried thither upon the wings of a mightâ— wind he hath no fiery Chariots at his command to ascend with to the Glories above bâ—t 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 soâ—t air and to conduct them to the Mansions of eternal Bliss It is he only that can make them capable of the Joys 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 setled 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 tendred to us 1. We have the most agreeable and setled notion of true happiness not such a mean and uncertain thing which lies at the mercy of the continual vicissitudes and contingencies of this present state but that which is able to bear up the mind 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 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 state 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 kind of strain doth he speak of it in than any of those Philosophers who have so much obâ—â—ructed 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 Vertue 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 Aristotelian supposition of a prosperous life for Vertue to shew its power in but here the only supposition made is that which lies 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 add 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 mournful 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 Punctilioes 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 Spring but such who make righteousness and goodness their meat and drink that which they hunger and thirst after and take as much pleasure in as the most voluptuous Epicure in his greatest dainties Not those whose malice goes beyond their power and want only enough of that to make the whole World a Slaughter-house and account racks and torments among the necessary instruments of governing the World but such who when their enemies are in their power will not torment themselves by cruelty to them but have such a sense of common humanity as not
only to commend pity and good nature to those above them but to use it to those who are under them Not those whose hearts are as full of dissimulation and hypocrisie as the others hands are of blood and violence that care not what they are so they may but seem to be good but such whose inward integrity and purity of heart far exceeds the outward shew and profession of it who honour Goodness for it self and not for the Glory which is about the head of it Not those who neuer think the breaches of the world wide enough till there be a door large enough for their own interests to go in at by them that would rather see the world burning than one peg be taken out of their Chariot-wheels But such who would sacrifice themselves like the brave Roman to fill up the wide gulf which mens contentions have made in the world and think no Legacy ought to be preserved more inviolable than that of Peace which our Saviour lest to his Disciples Lastly not those who will do any thing rather than suffer or if they suffer it shall be for any thing rather than righteousness to uphold a party or maintain a discontented faction but such who never complain of the hardness of their way as long as they are sure it is that of Righteousness but if they meet with reproaches and persecutions in it they welcome them as the harbingers of their future reward the expectation of which makes the worst condition not only tolerable but easie to them Thus we see what kind of happiness it is which the Gospel promises not such a one as rises out of the dust or is tost up and down with the motion of it but such whose never-failing fountain is above and whither those small rivulets return which fall down upon Earth to refresh the minds of men in their passage thither but while they continue here as the Iews say of the water that came out of the rock it follows them while they travel through this wilderness below So that the foundation of a Christians happiness is the expectation of a life to come which expectation having so firm a bottom as the assurance which Christ hath given us by his death and sufferings it hath power and influence sufficient to bear up the minds of men against all the vicissitudes of this present state 2. We have the most large and free offers of divine Goodness in order to it Were it as easie for Man to govern his own passions as to know that he ought to do it were the impressions of Reason and Religion as powerful with Mankind as those of Folly and Wickedness are we should never need complain much of the misery of our present state or have any cause to fear a worse to come There would then be no condition here but what might be born with satisfaction to ones own mind and the life one day led according to the principles of vertue and goodness would be preferred before a sinning Immortality But we have lost the command of our selves and therefore our passions govern us and as long as such furies drive us no wonder if our ease be little When men began first to leave the uncertain speculations of Nature and found themselves so out of order that they thought the great care ought to be to regulate their own actions how soon did their passions discover themselves about the way to govern them And they all agreed in this that there was great need to do it and that it was impossible to do it without the principles of Vertue for never was there any Philosopher so bad as to think any man could be happy without Vertue even the Epicureans themselves acknowledged it for one of their established Maxims that no man could live a pleasant life without being good and supposing the multiplication of Sects of Philosophers about these things as far as Varro thought it possible to 288. although there never were so many nor really could be upon his own grounds yet not one of all these but made it necessary to be vertuous in order to being happy and those who did not think vertue to be desired for it self yet made it a necessary means for the true pleasure and happiness of our lives But when they were agreed in this that it was impossible for a vitious man to enjoy any true contentment of mind they fell into nice and subtle disputes about the names and order of things to be chosen and so lost the great effect of all their common principles They pretended great cures for the disorders of mens lives and excellent remedies against the common distempers of humane nature but still the disease grew under the remedy and their applications were too weak to allay the fury of their passions It was neither the order and good of the Universe nor the necessity of events nor the things being out of our power nor the common condition of humanity no nor that comfort of ill natured men as Carneades call'd it the many companions we have in misery that could keep their passions from breaking out when a great occasion was presented them For he who had read all their discourses carefully and was a great man himself I mean Cicero upon the death of his beloved daughter was so far from being comforted by them that he was fain to write a consolation for himself in which the greatest cure it may be was the diversion he found in writing it But supposing these things had gone much farther and that all wise men could have governed their passions as to the troubles of this life and certainly the truest wisdom lies in thâ—t yet what had all this been to a prepararation for an eternal state which they knew little of and minded less All their discourses about a happy life here were vain and contradicted by themselves when after all their rants about their wise man being happy in the bull of Phalaris c. they yet allow'd him to dispatch himself if he saw cause which a wise man would never do if he thought himself happy when he did it So that unless God himself had given assurance of a life to come by the greatest demonstrations of it in the death and resurrection of his Son all the considerations whatever could never have made mankind happy But by the Gospel he hath taken away all suspicions and doubts concerning another state and hath declared his own readiness to be reconciled to us upon our repentance to pardon what hath been done amiss and to give that divine assistance whereby our wills may be governed and our passions subdued and upon a submission of our selves to his wise Providence and a sincere obedience to his Laws he hath promised eternal salvation in the life to come 3. God hath given us the greatest assurance that these offers came from himself which the Apostle gives an account of here saying that this salvation began at first
his highest and most peculiar attributes thence he is said to resist the proud as though he made an attempt upon God himself and he loaths the Hypocrite in heart as one that mocks God as well as deceives men The first tendency to the destruction of this Nation of the Jews was the prevalency of the Pharisaical temper among them which was a compound of Pride and Hypocrisie and when the field was over-run with these tares it was then time for God to put in his sickle and cut them down God forbid that our Church and the Protestant Religion in it should be in danger of destruction for that would be a judgment beyond fire and sword and plague and any thing we have yet smarted by that would be the taking away the Kingdom of God from us and setting up the Kingdom of darkness that would be not only a punishment to our own Age but the heaviest curse next to renouncing Christianity we could entail upon posterity But however though God in mercy may design better thâ—ngs for us we cannot be sufficiently apprehensive of our danger not so much from the business of our enemies as those bad Symtoms we find among our selves When there is such monstrous pride and ingratitude among many who pretend to a purer worship of God than is established by Law as though there were little or no difference between the Government of Moses and Aaron and the bondage of Egypt O England England what will the Pride and unthankfulness of those who profess Religion bring thee to Will men still preferr their own reputation or the interest of a small party of Zealots before the common concernments of our Faith and Religion O that we did know at least in this our day the things that belong it our peace but let it never be said That they are hid from our eyes But if our common enemy should enter in at the breaches we have made among our selves then men may wish they had sooner known the difference between the reasonable commands of our own Church and the intolerable Tyranny of a foraign and usurped power between the soft and gentle hands of a Mother and the Iron sinews of an Executioner between the utmost rigour of our Laws and the least of an inquisition If ingratitude were all yet that were a sin high enough to provoke God to make ouâ— condition worse than it is but to whaâ— a strange height of spiritual pride are those arrived who ingross all true godliness to themselves as though it were not possible among us to go to Heaven and to Church together As though Christ had no Church for 1500 years and more wherein not one person can be named who thought it unlawful to pray by a prescribed form As though men could not love God and pray sinsincerely to him that valued the peace and order of the Church above the heats and conceptions of their own brains Where differences proceed meerly from ignorance and weakness they are less dangerous to themselves or others but where there is so much impatience of reproof such contempt of superiours such uncharitable censures of other men such invincible prejudices and stiffness of humour such scorn and reproach cast upon the publick worship among us What can such things spring from but a root of bitterness and spiritual pride I speak not these things to widen our differences or increase our animosities they are too large and too great already nor to condemn any humble and modest dissenters from us but I despair ever to see our divisions healed till Religion be brought from the fancies to the hearts of men and till men instead of mystical notions and unaccountable experiences instead of misapplying promises and mis-understanding the spirit of prayer instead of judging of themselves by mistaken signs of Grace set themselves to the practice of humility self-denial meekness patience charity obedience and a holy life and look on these as the greatest duties and most distinguishing characters of true Christianity And in doing of these there shall not only be a great reward in the liâ—e to come but in spight of all opposition from Atheism Profaneness or Superstition we may see our divisions cured and the Kingdom of God which is a Kingdom of peace and holiness to abide and flourish among us SERMON IX Preached at WHITE-HALL WHITSUNDAY 1669. JOHN VII 39. But this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive For the Holy Ghost was noâ— yet given because that Iesus was not yet glorified WHat was said of old conceâ—ning the first Creation of the World that in order to the accomplishment of it the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters is in a sense agreeable to the nature of it as true of the renovation of the World by the doctrine of Christ. For whether by that we understand a great and vehâ—ment Mind as the Jews generally do or rather the Divine power manifesting it self in giving motion to the otherwise dull and unactive parts of matter we have it fully represented to us in the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost For that came upon them as a rushing mighty Wind and inspired them with a new life and motion whereby they became the most active instruments of bringing the World out of that state of confusion and darkness it lay in before by causing the glorious light of the Gospel to shine upon it And lest any part should be wanting to make up the parallel in the verse before the text we read of the Waters too which the Spirit of God did move upon and therefore called not a dark Abyss but flowing rivers of living water He that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water Not as though the Apostles like some in the ancient Fables were to be turned into Fountains and pleasant Springs but the great and constant benefit which the Church of God enjoys by the plentiful effusion of the Holy Spirit upon them could not be better set forth than by rivers of living water flowing from them And this the Evangelist in these words to prevent all cavils and mistakes tells us was our Saviour's meaning But this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive And lest any should think that our Blessed Saviour purposely affected to speak in strange metaphors we shall find a very just occasion given him for using this way of expression from a custom practised among the Jews at that time For in the solemnity of the feast of Tabernacles especially in the last and great day of the Feast mentioned v. 37. after the Sacrifices were offered upon the Altar one of the Priests was to go with a large Golden Tankard to the Fountain of Siloam and having filled it with water he brings it up to the water-gate over against the Altar where it was received
imploy their power in promoting a doctrine so contrary to their interest For Heaven and Hell cannot be more distant than the whole design of Christianity is from all the contrivances of wicked Spirits How soon was the Devil's Kingdom broken his Temples demolished his Oracles silenced himself baffled in his great design of deceiving mankind when Christianity prevailed in the world Having thus far asserted the truth of the thing viz. that there was such an effusion of the Holy Spirit we now come to consider 2. The nature of it as it is represented to us by Rivers of living waters flowing out of them that believe by which we may understand 1. The plenty of it called Rivers of waters 2. The benefit and usefulness of it to the Church 1. The plentifulness of this effusion of the Spirit there had been some drops as it were of this Spirit which had fallen upon some of the Jewish nation before but those were no more to be compared with these Rivers of waters than the waters of Siloam which run softly with the mighty River Euphrates What was the Spirit which Bezaleel had to build the Tabernacle with if compared with that Spirit which the Apostles were inspired with for building up the Church of God What was that Spirit of Wisdom which some were filled with to make garments for Aaron if compared with that Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation which led the Apostles into the knowledge of all Truth What was that Spirit of Courage which was given to the Iudges of old if compared with that Spirit which did convince the world of sin of righteousness and of judgment What was that Spirit of Moses which was communicated to the 70 Elders if compared with that Spirit of his Son which God hath shed abroad in the hearts of his people What was that Spirit of Prophesie which inspired some Prophets in several Ages with that pouring out of the Spirit upon all flesh which the Apostle tells us was accomplished on the day of Pentecost But these Rivers of Waters though they began their course at Ierusalem upon that day yet they soon overflowed the Christian Church in other parts of the world The sound of that rushing mighty Wind was soon heard in the most distant places and the fiery tongues inflamed the hearts of many who never saw them These gifts being propagated into other Churches and many other tongues were kindled from them as we see how much this gift of tongues obtained in the Church of Corinth And so in the History of the Acts of the Apostles we find after this day how the Holy Ghost fell upon them which believed and what mighty signs and wonders were done by them 2. The benefit and usefulness of this effusion of the Spirit like the Rivers of Waters that both refresh and enrich and thereby make glad the City of God The coming down of the Spirit was like the pouring water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground Now God opened the Rivers in high places and fountains in the midst of the valleys that the poor and needy who seek water might be refreshed and they whose tongues failed for thirst might satisfie themselves with living waâ—er These are some of the loâ—ty expressions whereby the Courtly Prophet Isaiah sets sorth the great promise of the spirit none better befitting the mighty advantages the Church of God hath ever since enjoyed by the pouring out of the spirit than these For the fountain was opened in the Apostles but the streams of those Rivers of living water have run down to our Age not confined within the banks of Tiber nor mixing with the impure waters of it but preserved pure and unmixed in that sacred doctrine contained in the Holy Scripture Within those bounds we confine our faith and are not moved by the vain discourses of any who pretend to discover a new Fountain-head to these waters at Rome and would make it impossible for them to come down to us through any other Channel but theirs But supposing they had come to us through them have they thereby gotten the sole disposal of them that none shall tast but what and how much they please and must we needs drink down the filth and mud of their Channel too As long as they suffer us to do what Christ hath commanded us to do viz. to take of these waters of life freely we do our own duty and quarrel not with them But if they go about to stop the passage of them or adulterate them with some forrain mixture or strive with us as the Herdsmen of Gerar did with Isaac's Herdsmen saying the Water is ours then if the name of the Well be Esek if contentions do arise the blame is not ours we assert but our own just right against all their encroachments For as Isaac pleaded that he only digged again the wells of water which they had digged in the days of Abraham his Father and although the Philistins had stopped them after the death of Abraham yet that could be no hindrance to his right but he might open them again and call their names after the names by which his Father had called them So that is the substance of our Plea we pretend to nothing but to clear the passage which they have stopped up and was left free and open for us in the time of the Apostles and Fathers we desire not to be imposed upon by their later usurpations we plead for no more but that the Church of God may have the same purity and integrity which it had in the primitive times and that things may not only be called by the names by which the Fathers have called them but that they may be such as the Fathers have left them But otherwise let them boast never so much of the largeness of their Stream of the Antiquity of their Channel of the holiness of their Waters of the number of their Ports and the riches of their Trading nay and let them call their stream by the name of the Ocean too if they please yet we envy them not their Admah and Pharpar and all the Rivers of Damascus so we may sit down quietly by these living waters of Iordan We are contented with the miracles which the Apostles wrought without forging or believing new ones we are satisfied with the gift of strange tongues which they had we know no necessity now of speaking much less of praying in an unknown tongue we believe that Spirit infallible which inspired the Apostles in their holy Writings and those we acknowledge embrace and I hope are willing to die for But if any upstart Spirit pretend to sit in an infallible Chair we desire not to be brought under bondage to it till we see the same miracles wrought by vertue of it which were wrought by the Apostles to attest their infallibility 3. The last thing to be spoken to is the season that this effusion
of the Spirit was reserved for which was after the glorious ascension of Christ to Heaven This was reserved as the great Donative after his Triumph over Principalities and Powers when he was ascended up on high he sends down the greatest gift that ever was bestowed upon mankind viz. this gift of his Holy Spirit Hereby Christ discovered the greatness of his Purchase the height of his Glory the exercise of his Power the assurance of his Resurrection and Ascension and the care he took of his Church and People by letting them see that he made good his last promise to them of sending them another Comforter who should be with them to assist them in all their undertakings to direct them in their doubts to plead their cause for them against all the vain oppoâ—itions of men And he should not continue with them for a little time as Christ had done but he should abide with them for ever i. e. so as not to be taken from them as himself was but should remain with them as a pledge of his love as a testimony of his truth as an earnest of God's favour to them now and their future inheritance in heaven for he should comfort them by his presence guide them by his counsel and at last bring them to glory Nothing now remains but that as the occasion of our rejoycing on this day doth so much exceed that of the Jews at their ceremony of pouring out the â—ater so our joy should as much exceed in the nature and kind of it the mirth and jollity which was then used by them With what joy did the Israelites when they were almost burnt up with thirst in the Wilderness tast of the pleasant streams which issued out of the rock that rock saith the Apostle was Christ and the gifts of the Spirit are that stream of living water which flows from him and shall not we express our thankfulness for so great and unvaluable a mercy Ouâ— joy cannot be too great for such a gift as this so it be of the nature of it i. e. a spiritual joy The Holy Ghost ought to be the Fountain of that joy which we express for God's giving him to his Church Let us not then affront that good Spirit while we pretend to bless God for him let us not grieve him by our presumptuous sins nor resist his motions in our hearts by our wilful continuance in them The best way we can express our thankfulness is by yielding up our selves to be guided by him in a holy life and then we may be sure our joy shall never end with our lives but shall be continued with a greater fulness for ever more SERMON X. Preached at WHITE-HALL MARCH 2. 1669. ISAIAH LVII 21. There is no peace saith my God to the Wicked IF we were bound to judge of things only by appearance and to esteem all persons happy who are made the object of the envy of some and the flattery of others this text would seem to be a strange Paradox and inconsistent with what daily happens in the world For what complaint hath been more frequent among men almost in all Ages than that peace and prosperity hath been the portion of the wicked that their troubles have not been like other mens that none seem to enjoy greater pleasures in this world than they who live as if there were no other The consideration of which hath been a matter of great offence to the weak and of surprise to the wisest till they have searched more deeply into the nature of these things which the more men have done the better esteem they have always had of divine providence and from thence have understood that the true felicity of a man's life lies in the contentment of his own mind which can never arise from any thing without himself nor be enjoyed till all be well within For when we compare the state of humane nature with that of the beings inferiour to it we shall easily find that as man was designed for a greater happiness than they are capable of so that cannot lie in any thing which he enjoys in common with them such as the pleasures of our senses are but must consist in some peculiar excellencies of his being And as the capacity of misery is always proportionable to that of happiness so the measure and the kind of that must be taken in the same manner that we do the other Where there is no sense of pleasure there can be none of pain where all pleasure is confined to sense the pain must be so too but where the greatest pleasures are intellectual the greatest torments must be those of the mind From whence it follows that nothing doth so much conduce to the proper happiness of man as that which doth the most promote the peace and serenity of his mind nothing can make him more miserable than that which causeth the greatest disturbance in it If we can then make it appear that the highest honours the greatest riches and the softest pleasures can never satisfie the desires conquer the fears nor allay the passions of an ungoverned mind we must search beyond these things for the foundations of its peace And if notwithstanding them there may be such a sting in the conscience of a wicked man that may inflame his mind to so great a height of rage and fury which the diversions of the World cannot prevent nor all its pleasures cure we are especially concerned to fix such motion of man's happiness which either supposes a sound mind or else makes it so without which all the other things â—o much admired can no more contribute towards any true contentment than a magnificent Palace or a curiously wrought bed to the cure of the Gout or Stone All which I speak not as though I imagined any state of perfect tranquility or compleat happiness were attainable by any man in this present life for as long as the causes are imperfect the effect must be so too and those Philosophers who discoursed so much of a happy state of life did but frame Ideas in Morals as they did in Politicks not as though it were possible for any to reach to the exactness of them but those were to be accounted best which came the nearest to them but I therefore speak concerning a happy state of life for these two reasons 1. That though none can be perfectly happy yet that some may be much more so than others are i. e. they may enjoy far greater contentment of mind in any condition than others can do they can bear crosses and suffer injuries with a more equal temper and when they meet with vicissitudes in the world they wonder no more at it than to see that the Wind changes its quarter or thaâ— the Sea proves rough and tempestuous which but a little before was very eveâ— and calm They who understand humane nature have few things left tâ— wonder at and they who do the least wonder are the
with a great deal of pomp and ceremony with the sounding of the Trumpets and rejoycing of the People which continued during the libation or pouring it out before the Altar after which followed the highest expressions of joy that were ever used among that people insomuch that they have a saying among them That he that never saw the rejoycing of the drawing of water never saw rejoycing in all his life Of which several accounts are given by the Jews some say it had a respect to the later rain which God gave them about this time others to the keeping of the Law but that which is most to our purpose is that the reason assigned by one of the Rabbies in the Ierusalem Talmud is because of the drawing or pouring out of the Holy Ghost according to what is said with joy shall ye draw water out of the Wells of Salvation By which we see that no fairer advantage could be given to our Saviour to discourse concerning the effusion of the Holy Ghost and the mighty joy which should be in the Christian Church by reason of that than in the time of this solemnity and so lets them know that the Holy Ghost represented by their pouring out of water was not to be expected by their rites and ceremonies but by believing the doctrine which he preached and that this should not be in so scant and narrow a measure as that which was taken out of Siloam which was soon poured out and carried away but out of them on whom the Holy Ghost should come rivers of living waters should flow whose effect and benefit should never cease as long as the World it self should continue So that in the words of the Text we have these particulars offered to our consideration 1. The effusion of the Spirit under the times of the Gospel But this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive 2. The nature of that effusion represented to us by rivers of living waters flowing out of them 3. The time that was reserved for it which was after the glorious ascension of Christ to Heaven For the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Iesus was not yet glorified 1. The effusion of the Spirit under the times of the Gospel by which we mean those extraordinary gifts and abilities which the Apostles had after the Holy Ghost is said to descend upon them Which are therefore called signs and wonders and divers gifts of the Holy Ghost and the operations of the Spirit of which we have a large enumeration given us in that place The two most remarkable which I shall insist upon and do comprehend under them most of the rest are the power of working Miracles whether in Healing diseases or any other way and the gift of tongues either in speaking or interpreting they who will acknowledge that the Apostles had these will not have reason to question any of the rest And concerning these I shall endeavour to prove 1. That the things attributed to the Apostles concerning them could not arise from any ordinary or natural causes 2. That they could not be the effects of an evil but of a holy and divine spirit and therefore that there was really such a pouring out of the spirit as is here mentioned 1. That the things attributed to the Apostles could not arise from any meerly natural causes It is not my present business to prove the truth of the matters of fact viz. that the Apostles did those things which were accounted Miracles by those who saw them or heard of them and that on the day of Pentecost they did speak with strange tongues for these things are so universally attested by the most competent witnesses viz. persons of the same age whose testimony we can have no reason to suspect and not only by those who were the friends to this Religion but the greatest enemies Jews and Heathens and by all the utmost endeavours of Atheistical men who have not set themselves to disprove the testimony but the consequence of it by saying that granting them true they do not infer the concurrence of a divine spirit that on the same grounds any person would question the truth of these things he must question the truth of some other things which himself believes on the same or weaker grounds than these are Supposing then the matters of fact to be true we now enquire whether these things might proceed from any meerly natural causes which will be the best done by examining the most plausible accounts which are pretended to be given of them And thus some have had the confidence to say That whatever is said to be done by the power of miracles in the Apostles might be effected by a natural temperament of body or the great power of imagination and that their speaking with strange tongues might be the effect only of a natural Enthusiasm or some distemper of brain 1. That the power of miracles might be nothing but a natural temperament or the strength of imagination 1. An excellent natural temper of body they say may do strange and wonderâ—ul things so that such a one who hath an exact temperament may walk upon the waters stand in the air and quench the violence of the fire and by a strange kind of sanative contagion may communicate healthful spirits as persons that are infected do noisom and pestilential These are things spoken with as much case and as little reason as any of the calumnies against Religion which are so boldly uttered by men who dare speak any thing as to these things but reason and do any thing but what is good But can these men after all their confidence produce any one person in the World who by the exquisiteness of his natural temper hath ever walked upon the waters or poised himself in the air or kept himself from being singed in the fire If these things be natural how comes it to pass that no other instances can be given but such as we urge for miraculous We say indeed that Christ walked on the Sea but withal we say this was an argument of that divine power in him which as Iob saith alone spreadeth out the heavens and treadeth upon the waves of the Sea We say that Elijah was carried up into Heaven by a Chariot of fire and a whirlwind but it was only by his power who maketh the winds his Messengers and flames of fire his Ministers as some render those words of the Psalmist We say that the three Children were preserved in the fiery furnace that they had no hurt and even Nebuchadnezzar was hereby convinced that he was the true God which was able to preserve his servants from the force of that devouring element which was therefore so much worshipped by those Eastern people because it destroyed not only the men but the Gods of other nations But is this enough to satisfie any reasonable men that these things were done by
and the Sea to boyl and swell and froth like water in a seething pot but to hear nothing but perpetual claps of thunder and to see no light in the Heavens but what the flashings of lightning give Could we imagine our selves at a convenient distance to behold the eruption of a burning mountain such as Aetna and Vesuvius are when the Earth about it trembles and groans the Sea foams and rages and the bowels of the Mountain roar through impatience of casting forth its burden and at last gives it self ease by sending up a mixture of flames and ashes and smoak and a flood of fire spreading far and destroying where-ever it runs yet even this though it be very apt to put men in apprehensions and fears of this great day falls very far short of the terrour of it Could we yet farther suppose that at the same time we could see fire and brimstone raining from Heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah the earth opening to devour Corah and his company Belshazzar trembling at the hand-writing against the wall and the Jews destroying themselves in the fire of their Temple and City this may somewhat higher advance our imaginations of the horror of the World's conflagration but yet we cannot reach the greatness of it in as much as the Heavens and the Earth which are now are kept in store saith the Apostle reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men even those heavens whose beauty and order and motion and influence we now admire and that earth whose fruitful womb and richly adorned surface affords all the conveniencies of the life of man must either be destroyed or at least purged and refined by this last and dreadful Fire The expressions of which in Scripture being so frequent so particular so plain in Writers not affecting the losty Prophetical stile wherein fire is often used only to express the wrath of God make it evident that their meaning is not barely that the world shall be destroyed by the anger of God but that this destruction shall be by real fire which adds more to the sensible terrour of it to all that shall behold it 2. The terrour of Christ's appearance in that day The design of the Scripture in setting forth the coming of Christ to judgment is to represent it in such a manner to us as is most apt to strike us with awe and terrour at the apprehension of it Now the greatest appearance of Majesty among men is either when a mighty Prince marches triumphantly in the midst of a Royal Army with all the splendor of a Court and the discipline of a Camp having his greatest attendants about him and sending his Officers before him who with the sound of Trumpets give notice of his approach and is every-where received with the shouts and acclamations of the people or else of a Prince sitting upon his Throne of Majesty set forth with all the Ornaments of State and Greatness with all his Nobles and Courtiers standing about his Throne and in his own Person calling Malefactors to account and both these ways the appearance of Christ upon his second coming is represented to us first as coming in the clouds of Heaven i. e. riding triumphantly as it were upon a Chariot on a body of light brighter than the Son having all the Heavenly host attending upon him and therefore he is said to come with power and great glory and sending his Angels with a great sound of a trumpet before him after whom the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the vioce of the Archangel and with the trump of God Not as though we were to imagine any material trumpet as some have grossly done whose sound could reach over the whole earth but the sound of the last trumpet seems to be the same with the voice of the Son of God which the dead are said to hear and live i. e. it shall be an effectual power for raising the dead which may be therefore called the sound of the Trumpet because it supplies the use of one in calling all people together and doth more lively represent to our capacities the Majesty of Christ's appearance with all the Heavenly host of Angels and Saints Thus when God appeared upon Mount Sinai with his Holy Angels about him we there read of the noise of the trumpet and when God shewed his glorious presence in the temple he is said to go up with a shout and the Lord with the sound of a trumpet and when he sets himself against his enemies God himself is said to blow the trumpet and to go with the whirlwinds of the South But besides this we find Christ upon his second coming described as sitting on the throne of his glory and all the Holy Angels about him and all nations gathered before him to receive their sentence from him His Throne is said to be great and white i. e. most magnificent and glorious and to make it the more dreadful from it are said to proceed lightnings and thundrings and voices and so terrible is the Majesty of him that sits upon the throne that the Heaven and Earth are said to fly away from his face but the dead small and great are to stand before him and to be judged according to their works And if the appearance of a common Judge be so dreadful to a guilty prisoner if the Majesty of an earthly Prince begets an awe and reverence where there is no fear of punishment what may we then imagine when Justice and Majesty both meet in the person of the Judge and fear and guilt in the Conscience of Offenders Therefore it is said Behold he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him and they also which pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him We find the best of men in Scripture seized on with a very unusal consternation at any extraordinary divine appearance The sight upon Mount Sinai was so terrible even to Moses that he did exceedingly fear and quake the vision which Isaiah had of the glory of God made him cry out Wo is me for I am undone for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts When Daniel saw his vision all his strength and vigour was gone and though an Angel raised him from the ground yet he saith of himself that he stood trembling If these whom God appeared to in a way of kindness were so possessed with fear what horror must needs seize upon the minds of the wicked when the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from Heaven in flaming fire on purpose to take vengeance upon them If in the days of his flesh there appeared so much Majesty in his Countenance that when the Officers came to apprehend him they went backward and fell to the ground how unconceivably greater must it be when his deâ—ign shall be to manifest that