Of his Manifestation.

Christ's coming into the World is express'd in Scri­pture by this Term of Manifestation, to shew that 'twas of a different kind from other mens, who had no Being before their productions into the World, un­less in a very imperfect way of conceiving it, viz. in their Causes and Principles. But Christ before he was born into the World, had a full and perfect Existence, even from all Eternity, and did only assume our Na­ture to his Pre-existent Being, thereby to enable him to perform the Work of our Salvation, and more fa­miliarly to converse with Mankind: as our Apostle says, that we might see, and hear, and handle the Word of Life. And 'twas in reference to his Being before he was born of the Virgin, that Old Zachary com­pares his Manifestation in the Flesh, to the rising of the Sun above the Horizon, Whereby the Day-spring, says he, from on high hath visited us. The Sun's Ri­sing, we know is not his first Being, as some ignorant People of old conceived, who thought he was ex­tinguish'd every Night in the Sea, and a new one lighted every Morning: But the Sun, before he comes forth to us as a Bridegroom out of his Chamber, has run his Course to many People and Nations. So likewise Christ, the Sun of righteousness, before he shone to us here on Earth, had run the Course of E­ternity, as I may say, with his Father, being the power of God from all Ages, the Image of his Good­ness, and the brightness of his Person. And this, by [Page 4] the way, may arme us against the errour and sedu­ction of the Ebionites, Samosatenians, reviv'd again by the Socinians in later days: who teach, That Christ had no Being before he was conceived by the Virgin, of the Holy Ghost, Christus non fuit ante Mariam Virginem; Mary the Virgin, say they, and Christ the Saviour, were Cotemporaries. Thus these Hereticks, while they feared to worship a Man, de­nyed the Son of God; and ran into the highest In­fidelity and Sacriledge, to avoid only a supposed I­dolatry. But to proceed.

The Manifestation of Christ unto the World in our Nature, the Appearance of the Son of God in the Flesh, to speak strictly, was rather an Obscuration than a Manifestation of him. As the interposition of a Cloud between the sight of our Eyes and the Sun, is a veiling, and not a shewing of him; so the exhi­biting of Christ in the beggarly Raggs of our Flesh and Bloud, was a disguising, not a revealing of him. That God (who is incomprehensible and unconceive­able, hid from our senses, and hid from our under­standings, not by Darkness, but by excess of Light and Glory, and our incapacity to behold him) would stoop to manifest himself to mortal eyes, though in the most excellent created Form whatsoever, was an infinite diminution of his Majesty: But to manifest himself not only to, but in our Nature, must be con­fest to be the greatest Clouding and Absconding, and not Revelation, of the Deity imaginable; and such as could never have entred into the thoughts of Man to believe, if it had not been done and seen. But however that this is most true: yet if we consider this Mystery rightly (for though the Evangelists set down the Manifestation of Christ in the Flesh Histo­rically, S ^t Paul speaks of it as of a high Mystery) we [Page 5] shall find, that God could no way have more emi­nently declared his Wisdom, and consulted the infir­mity of Men, in the manifesting of his Son to the World, than after that mean manner which he did; that such his eclipsing and obscuring him, was the most advantageous and effectual way of revealing him.

For in the first Place, how was it possible for mor­tal eyes to have seen the Immortal God otherwise? Alas! we cannot behold the Sun, but in his setting, as one says, Spectantes oculos infirmo lumine passus, our weak Eyes are not able to gaze on that glorious Lu­minary in its Meridian strength; but if we will see its Beauty, we must watch the opportunity of its infirmity: For otherwise the greater its lustre is, the greater is our darkness to perceive it. How then could we have beheld the Glory of Christ? the ineffable Glory, I say, which he had with his Father from all Eternity? His three Disciples were as dead men, beholding only his Transfiguration! and those that apprehended him in the Garden, upon the streaming-forth only of some Rays of his Divinity through the Cloud of his Flesh, fell twice to the Ground: who could then have stood or supported the Fulguration, as I may say, of his Deity in its full Glory? It was not possible for Christ to have appear­ed, but in some exinanition, or being stript of his Majesty; the Son of God to have convers'd with Mankind, but in the Clothing of Humanity.

2. If we consider the Purpose of his Manifestation, which was to take away sin; it was not possible again to have effected this by any other Manifestation, but such as was also an Obscuration of him. For how could he have been subject to the Law in his Divine Nature? delivered up into the hands of wicked men, [Page 6] suffered Death, and the like? How could he have fulfilled the Types that shadow'd him in the Law, the Paschal Lamb, the Goat for the Sin-Offering, the Ram caught by the Horns in the Bush, &c. unless he had been hamper'd, as I may say, and caught in our Flesh, intangled in our infirmities, found, as St. Paul says, in the similitude of a man? There had been no Sacrifice, no Propitiation for Sin, if Christ had not come in the Flesh; no Redemption, no Salvation of the World, if the God of the World had not vouchsa­fed to have been born of a Woman. Yes, some per­haps will say, God of his free Grace might have par­doned mens sins, without the Incarnation of his Son, or any Sacrifice or Atonement for them. What be­longs to this will fall-in in the next Place, the hand­ling the Purpose of the Manifestation of Christ in the [...]sh, which was

To take away our Sins.

It is no Wisdom barely to understand things; but this is Wisdom, To understand the Purpose of things. Generally the greatest Naturalists among us admire the World, this stupendous Workmanship of the Al­mighty and Eternal Agent, and think they have stu­died and observed fairly, if they have arrived to the Knowledge of the Qualities and Properties of some particular Natural Bodies; but rarely do they deduce them from their first Original, the Creator, and rare­lier discern the chief End for which they were crea­ted; they see a continual corruption and generation of Sublunary Beings, and that by this means the succes­sion of the Universe is maintained: but pierce not so deep as to see that this is done, not so much for the continuance of the World, as for the continuance [Page 7] of God's Glory in the World; and that many Ages may see, and acknowledge his Power, and partake of his Bounty and Goodness. And so it is with ma­ny Believers under the Gospel; they read what's written of Christ, they magnifie his Miracles, admire his holy Life and Doctrine, commemorate his Suffer­ings, celebrate his Festivals; But what was the main Design of these things, what they were to bring to pass in the World, they reflect not on as they ought to do: but stand in need to be put in mind of it, as the first Christians our Apostle here wrote to. All men are ready to assent to this Saying of St. Paul, Great is the mystery—God was manifest in the Flesh, justify'd in the Spirit, seen of Angels, preached to the Gentiles, &c. But then that all these Mysteries are Mysteries of Godliness, i. e. such as should produce God­liness, Vertue and Piety in all those to whom they are preached and revealed; make them renounce their wicked ways, and fulfil the Law of righteousness; this they neither penetrate into, nor care to be con­vinc'd of. We cannot be therefore too solicitous and assiduous in making known the End, and awa­kening men to the consideration of the Design and Purpose of the Transactions of their Salvation, as ne­cessary to be understood as the Transactions them­selves: As our Apostle does not only teach, That Christ was manifested in the Flesh, but adds also the Reason of it, that 'twas to take away our sins. And this being his chief design in my Text, I shall endea­vour to explain, How Christ, assuming our Flesh, did take away our sins. For the contrary may be imagined, that by taking our Flesh, he should have taken likewise our sins, but not have taken them away. But Christ by his Incarnation took away our sins two ways. He took them away [ From us] And took [Page 8] them away out of us, or [ From within us.]

First, He took away our sins from us.] And this he did by taking them upon himself, and paying to God the forfeiture for them, undergoing the punishment of their guilt in our behalf, so that they were no longer our sins, but his own; the Original sin of Adam, after this manner, and all the Actual sins since of the whole World, he made his own. To speak strictly indeed, the Guilt of sin can never be taken away; for sin after 'tis once committed, remains for ever sinful: but in a Legal and Political sence Sin may be said to be ta­ken away from us, when the Guilt of it is trans­ferr'd, and the Punishment undergone by another; and the Word in the Original for [ taking away] our Sins is [...], which signifies [the lifting them up] and is in importance the same with St. Peter's expression [ he bare] or as the Margent of our Bible has it [ he bare away] our sins in his Body on the Tree. What our Lord said of his Exaltation on the Cross, When I am lifted up from the Earth, I will draw all men unto me; may be affirmed of their Sins, as well as of themselves; of the Guilt, as well as of the Persons of them that believe in him▪ viz. that by his lifting up on the Cross, the Sins of all men should be taken up from them, as Exhalations are drawn up from the Earth by the heat of the Sun, and after dispers'd into Air.

But now if we consider seriously this great and wonderful Dispensation of God's, in manifesting his Son in the Flesh to take away the Sins of the World, we must certainly conceive that he had a further and more excellent aim and end in it, than merely to pardon the Guilt of Sin, and to cancel past Trans­gressions. For if this had been all, as 'twas object­ed, this might have been done freely, and with less [Page 9] ado, without Sacrifice or Atonement for Sin; without God's sending his Son from Heaven to live so many Years upon Earth in a poor and persecuted Conditi­on, and at last to suffer a painful and ignominious Death: Besides, in all reason, the Pardon of Sin would have been pronounced more authoritatively and satisfactorily by God in his Glory, than in the Disguise of Humane Nature; as the Great Lord of Heaven and Earth, than as a poor Delinquent standing himself before the Tribunal of Justice. Again, what had all the other Mutations in the Church of the Jews, the removing of the Law of Moses, and the in­troducing a more perfect, that of the Gospel, to do with the bare Remission of Sin? the giving so many excellent Precepts, and Christ himself for an Example of a holy Life; the clear discovery of a Heaven for the Reward of Well-doers, and of a Hell for evil; the confirming these things with so many Miracles, and the Bloud of so many Divine Persons; the insti­tuting an Order of men to preach and inculcate these things to the end of the World? If, I say, the absol­ving men from their past Transgressions had been all the business, and nothing had been aimed at further, or required of them to qualifie them to receive this Grace, but barely to believe that such a Grace was of­fered them (as too many flatter and delude them­selves) all these operose, toilsome, mysterious and a­stonishing Performances of Christ and the Holy Ghost might have been spar'd, and any one of the least of the Sons of the Prophets would have serv'd to have proclaim'd the Remission of Sins, and coming on this Errand, would have found credence and welcome. But, alas, the Case was otherwise: Men were not only to be pardoned, but reformed; to be absolved from their Guilt: but, as 'tis in the Benedict', be­ing [Page 10] delivered out of the hands of their Enemies, they were to serve God without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of their life.

That men therefore may not mistake the principal Design for which Christ came into the World, our Apostle plainly declares it at the 8 ^th Verse. For this purpose, says he, the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the Devil. Christ came not only to pardon Sin, but to destroy it; not only to absolve a wicked World, but to make a righteous; to take away the condemnation, but the commission of Sin: And therefore the second way I named of Christ's taking away our Sins [ From within us] ought to be taken into our highest consideration. For can it be imagined, that he should descend from the Bo­some of his Father, and visit the Earth for no other end, but to make a Gaol-Delivery, as I may say, to reprieve so many Rake-Hells only and condemn'd Persons, and to turn them loose again into the World to commit more villanies? The whole Tenor of the Gospel speaks otherwise, that Christ was born in the Flesh, that we might be regenerate and new­born of the Spirit; that he was crucified, that we might crucifie our vile Lusts and Affections: dyed for the Guilt of Sin, that we might dye to the Practice of it; suffer'd, to excuse us from suf­fering, but not to excuse us in any wickedness: he cast out the Hand-writing, or Accusation of Sa­tan against us, to no other end but that we should cast out Satan himself and his Kingdom out of our hearts, and erect in the place God's Kingdom, or the Kingdom of righteousness. So that the manifestation of Christ in the Flesh to take away our sins, imports no less than his rectifying that ugly confusion and disorder which Sin had wrought in the Universe, and the de­posing [Page 11] Satan from his Usurpation over the World; than the restoring God to his Dominion, and his Creatures to his Obedience; the repairing his Honour, and gi­ving satisfaction, not to one Attribute only, his Justice, but to all his other Attributes, his Wisdom, Truth, Goodness, Holiness, &c. And this was a Design wor­thy of the Incarnation of the Deity, of the travel, sufferings, and all the other Glorious Works of the Messiah, of his unhinging and unframing the Course of Nature by his Miracles: for it was to no less end, than to re-establish it again in the beautiful Frame and Order, which God at first created it in, before the Devil had disfigured and deformed it.

And for this Cause the Evangelists, in relating the Passages of Christ's life, often take us off from looking too intently on the Events which they record, and call upon us to consider the Purposes of them, rather than the Events themselves, bidding us regard the Prophecies that went before of them, frequent­ly repeating, that it might be fulfilled, that it might be fulfilled, that was spoken by such or such a Prophet. And if we will make the best advantage of Christ's Incar­nation, we must not look so much on the Fact, as on the design of the Fact, what it intimates and preaches to us, viz. the extinction and extirpation of Sin, not only of the Guilt, but of the reigning Power of it. According to what S ^t Peter says, As he has suffered for us in the Flesh, arm your selves like­wise with the same mind: for he that has suffered in the Flesh hath ceased from Sin. This arming-our selves with the same mind, and ceasing from Sin in the Flesh, was that which God chiefly aimed at in his Manifestation of his Son in the Flesh; To the end, as the Apostle goes on, that we should no longer live the rest of our time in the Flesh, to the lusts of men, [Page 12] but to the will of God. And to shew us yet further, that the bringing of men to live righteously was the great aim of God in all Ages of the World, says St. Peter, For this cause was the Gospel preached also to those that are dead, [ i. e. to those of the old World] that they might live according to God in the Spirit. Let e­very Christian therefore (that professes the Faith of Christ's coming in the Flesh to take away Sin, and yet lives in it) hearken and attend to this Admoni­tion, [ Remember thy End.] In the Place where the Son of Syrach utters these Words, he means the End or Consummation of our Days, as we are natural men, which is good Wisdom: But remember thy end, i. e. the Design and Purpose of thy Christian Profes­sion, and the Mysteries of it: for this is yet a higher degree of Wisdom. And before I yet leave this Point, I shall give caution against two sorts of Men, who greatly pervert this Advice:

And first, Against the Papists, who play and trifle with the weightiest Passages of our Salvation, as Po­ets and Romance-Writers do with serious Histories, turn them into Gauds and Entertainments of the Fancy; make Models and Representations in their Churches, of Christ's lying in the Manger at this ho­ly Season, and of his rising from the Grave at the Feast of Easter, with all the circumstances belonging to them; as if such Puppet-Shews were adequate and sutable Returns of Devotion for these Divine Dispensations. Again, they gather and hoard up the Nails and Fragments of our Lord's Cross, as if they treasured to their Souls the Benefits of his Passion: hug his Crucifix, and weep over the Pictures of his Wounds, as if this express'd a Seraphical Affection, though they hug also at the same time the grossest Sins.

[Page 13]The second Caution is against those among our selves, who yet worse abuse the Purpose of the Ma­nifestation of Christ in the Flesh, making it to be more for the encouragement, than the taking away of Sin; fansying that he died, to excuse them from holy living; was made subject to the Law, that they might be freed from the Obedience of it; perform'd all righteousness, that they should need to perform none: and these men pray, as they believe, O Lord, say they, do thou all in us, and for us, and take thou the glory. Thus exempting themselves from all Ob­ligations to the Commandments, and making the Faith a jest and scorn to Libertines and Unbelievers, while they talk only more of a holy Life than they, but practise it as little; make the Cross of Christ not a Sanctuary to Penitent Sinners, but a refuge for Hy­pocrites and Cheats in Religion; and yet none are so righteous, so much in God's favour in their own o­pinion as these: But they will find at last to their great confusion, That Christ was manifested in the Flesh, not only to take away our Sins [ From us] but also to take them away [Out of us, or from within us.]

And he does this by three Means or Expedients, By his Spirit, by his Word, and by his Example.

First, By his Spirit. After the Manifestation of Christ in the Flesh, his Suffering, and being laid in the Grave, he was quickned (or raised to life again) by the Spirit of God, and exalted to have the Power and Prerogative of sending down the Spirit into the hearts of Believers, to quicken them, and to raise them from the Death of Sin to a Life of Righteous­ness, i. e. to sanctifie and enable them to master Sin in themselves. They that saw Christ in the Flesh, knew not at first, That the principal Intention of his [Page 14] Flesh, was his Spirit, viz. that his Incarnation was to produce their Sanctification; to conform them to his likeness in the Inner-man, as he was conformed to their likeness in the Outward-Man: and those that are not thus conformed, that have not their Sins ta­ken away In them, by Vertue of his Nativity, shall never have them taken away From them by Vertue and Merit of his Passion.

Secondly, By his Word he takes away our sin from within us. Now ye are clean, says our Lord, John 15.3. through the Word which I have spoken unto you, i. e. you have put away your former wickedness, up­on believing what I have preached. To believe and to be clean, in a Scripture sense, is the same thing: For 'tis not possible rightly to believe, and to continue in the Pollution of Sin. The Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two edged Sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit. The efficacy of it was seen in the reprobate hearts of He­rod and Felix; How did it ruffle and discompose the incestuous security of the first, and put an Earth­quake into the stupid Conscience of the last? But yet 'tis then only, to use Solomon's expression, that wise Words are as Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver, when they meet with docile ears and honest hearts; when the disposition of the Hearers concurs with the faithful intention of the Preacher; and they comply to destroy Sin in themselves, as he endeavours to destroy it in his Sermon. Otherwise this most powerful and effectual Engine to batter and beat down Sin, the Word preached, profits not, as 'tis in the Chapter now mentioned in the Hebrews, But the Word preached did not profit them, not being mixt with Faith in them that heard it.

[Page 15]Thirdly, Christ takes away Sin from within us by his Example, i. e. by his holy Life, as well as by his Word and by his Spirit: his Meekness, Holiness, Self-denial, Obedience, &c. were designed by him to excite his Fol­lowers to practise the same Vertues equally or above his Precepts. And though we condemn the Errour of those who affirm, That the Pattern of Christ's life, the perfect Exemplar of Piety and Holiness which he exhibited to the World, was the only means, besides his Word, which he used to take away our Sins: We may yet more condemn the sloth and hypocrisie of those, who set his Life above our Imitation; who put his Vertues into the same Classis with his Miracles, and think it as impossible for us to practise his Humility, Patience, and the like, as to open the Eyes of the Blind, or to raise the dead; affirm that his Obedience and Righteousness were not set for our Example, to direct and encourage us to do the like, but to up­braid and reproach our weakness and infirmities. In the mean time our Lord himself, Joh. 17.19. declares, That the holiness he practised, was not only for the love of holiness, but that his Disciples should follow him, even in the roughest Paths he trod, those of his Suffering, to which his Words more particularly re­late. For their sakes, says he, I sanctifie my self, [or offer up my self a Sacrifice] that they also might be sanctified through the Truth. And S ^t Peter says ex­presly, Christ suffered for us, leaving us an Example, that we should follow his steps. And this brings me to the second Motive the Apostle alledges to disswade men from Sin, the sanctity and sinlesness of Christ's Person,—and ye know that in him is no sin. But because this in a great part has fallen-in with the for­mer Motive, and to accumulate Reasons of the same Nature rather nauseates than perswades, I shall wave [Page 16] this Point, and proceed to my last, The Inference which the Argumentation of the Apostle implies from the foregoing Motives, viz. That 'tis the Duty of all Christ's Followers to endeavour, as far as 'tis pos­sible, to be also without sin, and which shall serve me also for an Application.

The Son of God, we have heard, was manifested in the Flesh to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. Now certainly we cannot think that we comply ei­ther with the Example of Righteousness which he has set us, or yet with the gracious Purpose that brought him into the World, if we reflect on his Nativity on­ly after an Historical manner, as that he was born in such an Olympiad, or when such an one was Em­perour; that such rare Events attended his coming into the World, as are recorded by the Evangelists, namely, that he was conceived by a Virgin of the Ho­ly Ghost, welcom'd by Angels, signaliz'd and reveal'd to the Gentiles by a Star, &c. as if we were Chrono­logers, rather than Christian Believers: But that principally we are to consider these things Doctri­nally and Morally, to regard the Obligations they lay upon us, and the final intendment of God in them. For Example, to say to our selves, If God came so far as from the highest Heavens to take our Flesh, that he might destroy sin, how much more are we concerned to destroy sin, in whom it dwells, whose Flesh is its Domestick Organ, and which will certainly destroy us both Body and Soul, unless we destroy it? Again, if God vouchsafe so highly to dignifie our Flesh, as to assume it to his Divine Na­ture, and to carry it up to Heaven with him, and that by way of Pledge and assurance to carry up all that live holy lives thither also; how ought we to respect and even to revere these our mortal Bodies, and not [Page 17] to pollute them with sin, which are designed to such sublime Honour, as to reign with God in Glory? Once more, If the Son of God came into the World, not only to teach us his Father's Will, but to demon­strate to us, by his own performance, the feasibleness of accomplishing it; and did not only discourse of the probability of mortal mens ascending to Heaven, but gave an instance of it in our Flesh: how are we without excuse, if either upon pretence of the diffi­culty of the Duties enjoined, or the arduous ascent to the heavenly Kingdom promised us, we supersede our endeavours to attain it? When the Israelites were travelling to the Land of Canaan, they said to Aaron, Make us Gods that may go before us, i. e. visi­ble Gods that we may behold: they were not satis­fied with the conduct of an invisible Deity, of a God that afforded not his personal presence. Christ mani­fested in the Flesh is such a visible palpable God as they required, who marches as a Captain at the Head of us, and guides us not only by his Counsel, but leads us by his Bodily Presence. But yet notwithstanding this compliance with our infirmities, and all the other endeavours that have been used for our Salvation; though Christ by his Spirit, by his Word, and by his Example, has essayed to take away our sins From us, and to take them away In us: I know not how, they are not taken away from [ Among us!] Our Sins, like Idolatry in Israel, like the Groves and High-Pla­ces, are continually taking away, and still found re­maining; they vary and change according to the se­veral Revolutions and Vicissitudes of our Condition, but they are not abolished; when Rebellion reigned in the Land, Rapine, Oppression, Bloudshed, Sacri­ledge, were its complexion: When this Evil by a singular Mercy was remov'd from us, the Sins of [Page 18] Peace succeeded, Ingratitude for past, and Insensi­bleness of present Benefits, Drunkenness, Whoredom, Irreligion, Schism, Faction, &c. So that as the Ro­mans complained of old, that after they had subdu­ed the Nations, themselves were subdued by their own Vices; that these sly and silent Enemies, Luxu­ry, Covetousness and Ambition, revenged and reta­liated the conquered World— victumque ulciscitur Orbem: We may in like manner complain, that after the Violences and Outrages of War ceased, the soft and soothing Sins of Peace crept in in their place, and have tyrannized over us more fatally and destructive­ly. And who then can say, our Sins are taken away, when they are only transformed, and have assumed new Shapes and Names? when that which was Re­bellion in 41. is Dissoluteness or Atheism in the Year 70?

But though there be too much reason to bewail this: yet I hope, (with the same Charity that I wish the thing) that none that are guilty of the more enor­mous Sins I have mentioned, are present in this Assem­bly: but that it fares with my Complaint, as it does with the Exhortations which are made out of the Pulpit to Non-Conformists, those to whom the Speech is directed, are never there. So in my present Complaint (of not forsaking our Sins, but exchange­ing them for others) I do but inculcate a Doctrine to the Gracious already, and that those that are o­therwise, are not here. But if any chance to be, I shall only mind them of those Words they find, Psal. 10.17. Take away his ungodliness, and thou shalt find none. If after God has endeavoured so many ways to take away their ungodliness, it shall still re­main, they are more incorrigible than the worst of men; and their obstinacy may well fear, not only [Page 19] what the Words in the Psalm sound, but what they signifie, viz. that God will not only confound their wickedness, but themselves also the wicked Doers. Christ was manifested in the Flesh to destroy Sin, and we ought in compliance with this his gracious Design to put to all our Powers to destroy Sin in our selves; that purifying our selves as he is pure, we may here­after be glorious, even as he is glorious.

Ye shall be consumed, both ye and your King.

The Commination runs high, a greater cannot well be denounced; 'tis only to be fear'd it may suf­fer the fate of the vain menaces and Rhodomanta­does of men; which are most despised when they sound loudest, and affect to carry most terrour. Ye shall be consumed, both ye and your King!] Why cer­tainly, men will say, This is some Figurative Hyper­bolical Speech, which carries not so much danger in it to be feared, as difficulty to be understood; and [Page 25] sends us to an Interpreter, and not an Asylum or Sanctuary. Was it ever known, that a whole Nation was destroyed as one man? Dathan and his Compli­ces, 'tis true, went down into the Bowels of the Earth, and it clos'd its mouth upon them: but they were not a whole Nation, but a seditious Party only. Pha­raoh and the Egyptians were overwhelmed in the Sea, and not one of them escaped; but they again were not a King and his People, but a King and his Host. The seven Nations of the Canaanites were adjudged to utter extirpation: but by reason of the Sins of God's own People, the Sentence was not executed with that rigour it was denounced, and they were not utterly destroyed. Let us see therefore how we are to un­derstand the Commination in my Text, How a King and People may be said to be totally consumed.

A thing may be totally consumed or destroyed two ways, simul & semel, altogether and in a moment; as Fire consumes Flax or Gunpowder, so that nothing remains but the Place of them: Or gradually and by degrees, when 'tis wasted by little and little, as Li­quor consumes over the Fire, or as a Body is extenu­ated by Sickness. Now though God perhaps through the greatness of his Mercy, has never consumed a whole Nation in the fullest and strictest sense of either of these two Ways; yet so dreadful have been his Judg­ments, and so universal the Destruction he has wrought, that there will be no cause to say, There is an Hyperbole in the Commination in my Text.

The first way God practised, when he caused the ten Tribes and their King to be carried away captive by Shalmanezer into Assyria with a swift destruction: and the other two Tribes and their King by Nebu­chadnezzar into Babylon. This way also God practi­sed, when he gave this Nation up to the Conquest of [Page 26] the Normans: Or as the Tragedy on this Day should rather prompt us to remember, when he permitted the Bloud of our righteous Sovereign, after the slaughter of many thousands of his Loyal Subjects, to be spilled by the hands of execrable Villains, and together with that sacred Sluce broke-up all the Floud-Gates of Impiety, and suffered it to overwhelm the Land with wickedness and ruine, as the World was once overwhelmed with a Deluge of Water. At which time, we may affirm, Death, or a change like Death, past upon all; the Rich became poor, and the Poor rich; the Nobles were debased, and the Scum of the People exalted; the Loyal were ac­counted Traytors, and Traytors Loyal; Oppression and Cruelty sat in the Seats of Justice; Hypocrisie and Blasphemy in the Chair of Religion, and an ab­ject Villain in the Throne of Majesty. And when the Kingdom was reduced to this State, may we not say, it was destroyed simul & semel? altogether and at once? both King and People? and that nothing remained of what had been, but the Place and Me­mory? The Scripture says, Adam dyed on the Day he eat of the forbidden Fruit, though he survived nine hundred and thirty Years after: because he fell then into an evil condition, and forfeited all his hap­piness. Again, the Scripture calls Damnation Eter­nal Death, not because the Bodies and Souls of Sin­ners shall be extinguish'd, but eternally tormented; Life consisting not so much in duration, as in felicity. And in this sense, when a Kingdom has lost its Felicity and Glory, its Laws and Liberty, its King and Religion, though a Remnant of the People be left, it may de­servedly be said, To be totally and utterly destroyed.

God practised the second way of destroying a whole Nation, when he consumed the Israelites in [Page 27] the Wilderness by such slow and lingring paces, that a new Generation was grown up by the time that the old was expired; and the Children were ready to enter into the Land of Canaan, as soon as their Fathers Graves were made in the Wilderness. God thus punishing them after the manner they had trans­gressed; as they had grieved him forty Years, he con­sumed them for forty Years together. And when e­ver a Nation is seen to decline in Piety, Vertue, Po­licy, Wealth, Reputation, the Number of its Peo­ple, and the like; when private interest takes place in mens hearts before the Publick; when Trade, Vi­gour, and Industry languish, then this lingering Curse works and ferments.

I may seem both ill-affected, and also to intrude into a Secret that cannot be known, if I should pro­nounce, that this Kingdom lay at this present under this slow and lingering destruction, as it has been more than once a miserable Instance of the other quick and total destruction: But it may become me, and all that hear me this day, to fear and endeavour to prevent so dreadful a Judgment; especially when so many and sad Symptoms of it seem to appear. For, not to name our Consumptions of late Years by War, by Pestilence and by Fire, we see the Mo­ral and Spiritual Consumptions of Piety and Vertue, and as fearful an encrease of Riot, Prophaneness and Irreligion; Popery gains upon the true Religion on one side, and Fanaticism on the other; and Atheism, the Vorago of all other Sects and Schisms, daily swal­lows up Popery and Fanaticism. Again, we hear plentiful Years complain'd of, that the People are im­poverished by the great encrease of the Land; A­bundance cry'd out against as a worse evil than Scar­city. God thus making his Punishments a Riddle, [Page 28] while he confounds us no less by his Blessings than his Judgments: as if he would at once confute and de­ride the Atheism that denies his Providence, and a­scribes all Events to Natural Causes; letting men see, their Wealth cannot enrich them, their Victories ad­vantage them, their Wisdom profit them, without his Blessing and concurrence. But that which ought most tenderly and sensibly to affect us, is the Fatality in the Royal Family, so many of those Illustrious Branches having been snatcht away of late Years in their Youth or Infancy, that we may compute our Annals by the Death of one or more of our Princes: the Royal House, Alas! being only fruitful to the Grave. But to proceed.

As the Consumption, mentioned in my Text, may be thus twofold; so the Persons threatned to be con­sumed are also twofold; and the threatning of the last is set down by way of Aggravation of the Evil, Ye shall be consumed, both ye and your King. But there will not want some Sons of Belial to say here, What Part have we in David, or Inheritance in the Son of Iesse? that this should be held a matter of so great moment, so high an aggravation of our misery, that not only our selves shall be destroyed, but our King also? The Speech of the People is, When I dye, all the World dyes with me; not only all my thoughts perish, as the Psalmist says, but all my care and concern for my Rela­tions also perish; whether as of a Father for my Chil­dren, or as of an Husband for my Wife, or yet as of a Sub­ject for my Prince. So that to say, Ye shall be consu­med, nay more, your Prince shall be consumed, ag­gravates the terrour, but as if one should threaten, Your Limbs shall be torn on the Rack, nay further, Your Garments shall be torn also.

[Page 29]No doubt, I say, but there are too many of these Sheba's in our Israel: But yet where ingenuity and natural goodness, honour and generosity are not quite extinguished by self-love and interest, there is in ma­ny men a care of others, their near Relations, even beyond themselves, and after their Decease. And this made Lawgivers enact (for a further terrour to evil Workers) the destruction of Wives and Chil­dren for the offences of Fathers and Husbands, ut haberent aliquid quod timerent, qui mortem non ti­ment; that they that feared not Death as to their own Persons, might yet fear it reaching to those for whom they had a greater tenderness than for them­selves. And we see those frequently among us, that chuse to wear their lives out in a noysom Prison, or to dye under the torture of the Press, that by these means they may preserve a poor maintenance for those they leave behind them. Why, the Relation of a Subject to his King; of a People to their Prince, is in just estimation the chiefest and highest of Rela­tions, the principal in importance, though not the nearest in Bloud: which the men of Israel rightly understood, when they called David the light of their eyes, and preferr'd him before so many thousands of themselves. And also the People of Rome, when upon the Election of just Numa they rejoyced, as Plutarch says, as if they had not only obtained a new King, but a new Kingdom. Indeed the felicity of a Nation is bound up in the Person of the King, and waxes or wains according to his Vertue. Well therefore may we pray heartily and truly for our King, as the Romans were wont to pray flatteringly for their Tyrant-Emperours, Demas annos meos mihi, & addas Caesari, Take, O Jupiter, from the number of my Years, and add them to the account of Caesar's; esteeming the [Page 30] King's life a greater Blessing to us, than our own; the destruction threatned to him more dreadful than the destruction threatned to our selves; looking up­on the Commination in my Text as the highest ag­gravation of Evils, Ye shall dye for your Sins, nay, your religious, your victorious, or your gracious Prince shall dye also.

But some perhaps will say here, Is it just and righ­teous with God to destroy a good King for the trans­gressions of his People? Surely yes, and the Scripture affirms as much, For the transgressions of a People, many are the Princes thereof: and in the second Com­mandment God says, He will visit the sins of the Fa­ther upon the Children: and for the same reason, of a­ny Relation upon his Correlation; as of a Subject upon the Prince. For though the Subjects are Vas­sals and Homagers to the Prince, both Prince and Subjects are Vassals aad Homagers to God, and may be disposed of by him, as he sees best for the ends of his Glory. But then though it be righteous in God to cut off a good Prince for the punishment of his People, because he can translate him to a better life, and turn his Crown of Gold into a Crown of Glory; yet wo be to those Subjects, who any way contribute to their Prince's or Countries misfortune, either by their wicked Plots or wicked lives; by their imme­diate Conspiracies against them, or their remoter, as I may say, of their sins against their Peace and pros­perity: For if men commit great offences, and go on obstinately in them, they sin not only against their own Souls, but the Publick Safety. Which brings me to my second general Part, The Case wherein the Commination in my Text shall take place, wherein both King and People are threatned to be consu­med,

If ye shall still do wickedly—

The things wherein both Israel and their Forefa­thers continually did wickedly, the Scripture tells us, were Infidelity, Stubbornness, Ingratitude, Murmu­ring openly upon the least want or distress, against their best Governours, but covertly and secretly against God himself, Proneness to Idolatry, Incontinence, the very Sins for which the Nations were cast out before them, to which the present Generation added over and above, the demanding a King, with the design to exclude God from ruling over them. For we must note here, That the greatness of the present sin of Is­rael consisted not in desiring a King simply; in re­nouncing, as some would have it, the sweet Govern­ment of the Sanhedrim, or Council of Elders, for the Regal and more Tyrannical Power. For, not to say any thing in vindication of Monarchy (that 'tis the best of Governments, not only by the consent of the wisest men of all Ages, but by the attestation of Nature, or rather the God of Nature in all Orders and Subordinations of things both in Heaven and Earth) 'twas God's express Purpose from the beginning to e­stablish Israel under a Monarchical Government, and Deut. 17. (some hundreds of Years before a King was demanded) the Laws concerning a King were set down by Moses.

Neither did the greatness of their Sin consist in desiring a King inordinately, precipitately, rebelli­ously, not attending God's time, nor consulting his Will in so important an Affair: these were Aggrava­tions of their Sin, but not their Sin it self; which was no other than Apostasie, at least in purpose and de­termination; a resolution not only to shake off the [Page 32] Yoke of God's Political Government, but also to break his Yoke of righteousness from off their Necks. And that their Sin was of no common nature, the miraculous Rain and Thunder, v. 17. sent to reprove them, are a sufficient Argument But we have no need to conjecture what their Offence was, for God himself declares it to Samuel, C. 8. v. 7. They have not rejected thee, says God, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. Their desire to be governed as the Nations of the Earth, was indeed To live after the licentious manner of the Nati­ons of the Earth; not so much to have a King like them, as to be without God in the World like them, as the Apostle speaks. They were weary of the Di­vine Conduct, uneasie under God's Discipline; his Statutes and Ordinances were a burden to them, th [...] hated on all occurrences to address themselves to the Ephod, to have their last Appeal to the Deity, to see the Cloud descend upon the Tabernacle, on every miscarriage, as in the days of their Fathers. The Presence of the Living God is dreadful to Flesh and Bloud in its purest and holiest state, well then might these Rebels wish him further removed from them, that were conscious to themselves not only of infir­mities, but of purposed defection from him; not on­ly of defects and failures, but of direct Apostasie.

And as the Greatness of their Sin thus consisted not in desiring a King, but in revolting in their hearts from God: so their [ still doing wickedly] which is so severely threatned in my Text, could not possibly be, as some interpret, their persisting in the desire to have a King. God had already given them a King, before the Prophet denounced the Commination in my Text; and not only so, but he had promised a Blessing up­on his Reign, and also on them, in case of future o­bedience, [Page 33] as may be seen at the 14 ^th Verse. Their Still doing wickedly therefore, must be, their persist­ing and going on to accomplish their wicked design to forsake God; their making good their Apostasie in Act, as well as in Determination and Purpose; their gi­ving themselves up like the Heathen to whatsoever their Lusts prompted them to; and this out of a Per­swasion that they might sin more securely under the Dominion of Flesh and Bloud, than under the Do­minion of God. And this was the Case in which the Universal Destruction, the Destruction of King and People, is threatned in my Text.

All Sin and Doing wickedly offends God; but Presumption in sinning, persisting and resolving to do wickedly, turns him into a consuming Fire; when men add wickedness to wickedness, and draw ini­quity, as the Prophet says, with a Cart-rope; i. e. with a long Series or Train of evil Deeds, not interrupt­ing or breaking them off by Repentance; but lying down to sleep in sin, and rising up to return again to it; making sin the business of their lives, and not only transgressing against God and his Laws, but re­nouncing them. And we find in After-ages, when the Children fell into the Apostasie, which their Fathers only consulted of at this time; when, I say, their King, instead of humbling himself upon hearing God's wrath denounced against him, Cut the Roll, and cast it into the Fire; and the People presumptu­ously told his Prophet, As for the Words that thou hast spoken unto us in the Name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto them; But we will certainly do what­soever goeth forth of our own mouth, to burn Incense to the Queen of Heaven, &c. as it is Jerem. 44.17. For three iniquities, and for four, says God, I will visit my People. By three is understood many, or very [Page 34] much, as we say, thrice happy, and thrice honourable, for exceeding happy and honourable. When a Na­tion comes up to be thrice, i. e. exceeding sinful, their condition is dangerous: but when it goes be­yond that, and is four times sinful, then 'tis no mar­vel if God also sets no Bounds to his Anger, but says, Nunc exurgam, I will now arise and visit; and as they have vext me with their transgressions, I will vex them with my Judgments; as they have cast me out of their Hearts, I will cast them out of my Sight; as they will allow me no longer to be their God, I will pluck them up by the Roots, and allow them no longer to be a People and Nation; or, which is all one, a happy People, a flourishing Nation, govern­ed as in times past: But I will eclipse their Glory, and change their Laws, together with many thou­sands of them, cut off their King; and they that re­main, shall be in a worse condition, as Sheep without a Shepherd, They shall be a living and lasting Destru­ction.

I am now come to the full Close and Period of my Text; and what Use or Application shall I make of that which we have heard? Shall I endeavour to set forth the Heroick Vertues of our murthered King, and shew that he fell not for his own Sins, but the Sins of his People? that the impious Act of executing a Sovereign Prince by a pretended Process of Law, was a higher Strain of Treason, than to have dis­patcht him with a Dagger, or an empoysoned Cup? the one being Treason only against a single Monarch, but the other against Monarchy in general. These things, I confess, may be worthy of a pious Pains, and a pious Attention: but, alas! what would they profit here, where they are already acknowledged? Or what would it profit to dilate either on the Ver­tues [Page 35] or Vices of other men, when we are so apt to think on the one side, that while we only extol the Vertues of Heroick Persons, we go Half-sharers with them in their Vertues? like the Cryers in the Olympick Games, who fansied, while they pronounced only au­dibly and volubly the Victors Names and Victories, part of their Glory redounded to them. And again, on the other side, while we declame against Vice, that we are free from all imputation of Vice our selves; my Text calls us to other Considerations, not only to look back on Evils past, but forward on worse Evils to come; I say, on worse, while but on the same repeated: for if it be a sad reflection, that we have been totally destroyed, 'tis certainly a much sad­der, that we may be so destroyed again; that if we shall still do wickedly, we shall be consumed, both we and our King. This consideration, if rightly made use of, will excite us rather to call our own Sins to remem­brance, than to commemorate the Sins of other men; to arraign and condemn the evil deeds are found in our selves, than to employ our time in raking into the crimes of the Age that's past. And in order to our doing this, I shall instance in three Particulars in which this Nation seems most to tread the steps of Israel, and to be in danger to bring home to it self, the dreadful Commination made in my Text against them.

And first, As Israel desired a Change of Govern­ment, only to remove God further from them: so if we may judge of mens minds by their outward actions, of the Secrets of their hearts by their fol­lowing behaviour, the passionate desire of many a­mong us to have a King again, after the fatal stroke struck this Day, was on no better an account than Isra­el's desire to have a King. We had lain a long time [Page 36] under a sad Oppression at home, or a sadder Exile abroad; ate no Bread for many Years, but what came, in a manner, to us, like Manna, from the imme­diate hand of God: and the frequent Fasts, strict Devotions, and holy Lives, which could only pro­mise a continuance of such favour from Heaven, were as insupportable as the Holiness and Obedience God required of Israel that he might dwell among them. And many desired a King, not so much to deliver the Nation from Oppression and Confusion, as themselves from the Paedagogy of Divine Discipline; not so much, I say, to rescue them from the Tyranny of the Usurper, as from the Tyrannies of Religion. And such a Surfeit many took, no less of holy Duties, than of evil days, that they have endeavoured since to obliterate all memory of them both: as 'twas the pra­ctice, or at least the boast of a prophane Person, That whereas others observed the Days of their De­liverance from any great danger, with Fasting and Humiliation; he always kept such Days with Feasting and Jollity; and for this Reason, To make his Soul a­mends for what it had suffered. And such has been the deportment of some men since God restored them to their prosperity, that they seem to vie by their voluptuous lives with the former miseries they suffer­ed; to make their Souls amends for the twenty Years affliction they lay under, by a twenty Years, or a whole future Lifes Debauchery. When God resto­red us to our forfeited Peace and Prosperity, he pro­mised himself, he had restored a People sensible of so wonderful a mercy; who, as he had made them to abound in all secure enjoyments, would have abound­ed in Good Works, and Gratitude to him: but he has found such an [...], as I may say, such an unexpected Issue among us, as the Prophet Isaiah [Page 37] complains he did in Israel in his Days, He lookt for righteousness, but behold a cry. When God lookt for righteousness, that his Glory should have been exalt­ed in this Land more than in any other, because he had done more for it, than for any other, behold, I know not what Cry of more than usual infidelity and wickedness! What shall I say? that we are fallen back again into those Sins, which brought on us the cala­mity of this Day? Nay, but we have outdone all our old Sins, and all that ever went before us; we have not only broken God's righteous Laws and Commandments, but denyed he ever gave a Law to the World; we have not only denyed him by our wicked lives, but even in our words to have any Be­ing; and as all Ages have been guilty of Adultery, Drunkenness, and the like, 'tis the Character of this, That it affirms such things are no sins.

Secondly, As Israel put their confidence in Flesh and Bloud, believed, if they could obtain a King of their own Nation, he would be invincible, possessed of all the Heroick Qualities they had read of their Judges, and as his Character was greater, so his Per­formances would be also greater; and this of course, as if God had been obliged, for his own Glory, to see it should be so, though they never so little re­garded his Glory themselves. And have not we put as high a confidence in Flesh and Bloud, who have lookt upon our King not only as a defence against our Enemies, but even against God himself? not only as a Foundation of our Peace and Felicity, but of our Rebellion against Heaven? Who have said in our hearts, We have no need of the burthensom Duties of Religion, and the severities of a holy Life, now we have a King to provide against our dangers from abroad, and to take care for our quiet at home? [Page 38] Few considering, in order to the Prosperity they de­sire, what are the provocations of the Land, how we stand in favour or disfavour with God: But en­quiring, What Alliances we have made abroad? What Ships we are able to set out? What Money there is in the Exchequer? What Supplies the Par­liament will give, and the like? Is not this to pro­voke God to infatuate our Counsels, and to bring our Enterprizes to nought? to involve our King in a common destruction with our selves, as he did this Day, though he were even a Hezekiah or a Da­vid?

Thirdly, As Israel was mutinous and rebellious up­on the least occasions against their best Governours, we come not behind them in this Sin: witness the black disloyalty of this Day. Historiographers, the publick Censurers of Mankind, brand every Nation of the Earth with some Vice more peculiar to them than others, as, to name none, one with Drunkenness, another with Robbery and Piracy, a third with ambition and desire of Sovereignty, a fourth with Whoredom, and abusing themselves with Man­kind, &c. And we of this Nation, among the rest, are taxt for stubbornness, and proneness to Rebellion, noted for a People that delight in Sedition and sedi­tious Persons, that are apt to think the most turbu­lent and factious, the best Patriots; the greatest Troublers, the greatest Lovers of their Country: So that as other Princes, in regard of the sweet com­pliance of their Subjects, are styled Reges Hominum, Kings of Men, ours are styled Reges Diabolorum, Kings of Devils. And 'tis observable, that what was the Vice of every Nation many hundred Years ago, continues to be the same still; Time has not altered them, nor the Preaching of the Gospel reformed [Page 39] them. But though we of this Nation should not care to wipe off the imputation that lies upon us among men; nor yet fear the displeasure of God (who counts Rebellion as the Sin of Witchcraft, i. e. Disobedience to Governours a Degree of Apostasie from himself) yet the experience alone of the former Evils, which our unquiet Spirits have brought upon us, and their direct tendency to bring the like again, ( viz. to be­reave us a second time of our Royal Government, and to cast us under the subjection of the basest of the People) may well make us abhor all seditious thoughts; I say, for fear lest a second time we be­come not only the most miserable, but the most ridicu­lous and despicable of all People; while we give the World leave to say, that we that could not digest a miscarriage in the State, are forc'd to digest Oppres­sion and Tyranny; that could not pass by an over­sight in our Rulers, are compell'd to undergo Seque­stration and Banishment, the Axe and the Halter, per­haps a Foreign Yoke.

To draw to a Conclusion. It is a common Per­swasion, That Comets or Blazing Stars portend the Change of States, and the Falls of Great Men: but we have much more reason to apprehend, that the Sins of the Nation, which hang like so many Me­teors over our Heads, have an Ominous and Fatal A­spect on us. The Bands of Discipline are loosned, the Majesty of our Prince is despised, God blasphe­med, common Honesty baffled and affronted, Lewd­ness triumphs, seditious Spirits take advantage from all to foment Disorders, Good Men are agast, the Ma­gistrate desponds, as if the Distempers were as incu­rable as Epidemical: And yet Good Men, as if we sate on a safe Shore, we please our selves in behold­ing our Neighbours Ships tost and wreckt by the [Page 40] Tempests of War; we read unconcernedly the week­ly Gazettes of Armies overthrown, Cities ras'd, Coun­tries subdu'd and ruin'd, and never apprehend, that our fair weather may suddenly lowre and overcast into a Storm. We met at this Day with vain and e­lated minds to judge others, not to humble our selves; and if we lay load enough upon our Adver­saries, and render them black and odious, we think our selves white as Innocence. Methinks the loud Thunder in my Text (for so the Commination in it sounds to me) should chastise these Gaieties, and not appear less terrible, because articulate, and speaks more to the Soul, than to the Ear; and this pro­nounces emphatically, That the Issue of Sin persisted in, is utter ruine and confusion, and that the only way to prevent destruction, is Reformation. Let us therefore seek to reverse God's threats, by turning from our e­vil ways; let us upbraid the wickedness of our Op­pressors by our holy Lives; condemn the Hellish Practice of this Day, not by Invectives, but by our Loyalty and Obedience; and this will turn the dreadful Commination, Ye shall be consumed, both ye and your King, into the Blessing promised at ver. 14. If ye will fear the Lord, and serve him, and not rebel against his Commandments, then shall ye, and also the King that reigns over you, continue following the Lord your God, the Blessing promised to Israel, contained in these Words, shall be made good to us. God, in an extraordinary manner, will be our God, and we shall be his People: in which is included all the Feli­city that can be wisht by man. And which God of his infinite mercy grant to us, through our Lord Je­sus Christ, to whom, together with the Holy Ghost, be ascribed all Honour and Glory, &c.

Woman.

That Christ should call the Blessed Virgin by the Name only that distinguish'd her Sex, Woman, and not by the Individual Name of her Person, Mary; nor yet by the Name of his Relation to her, Mother; that he should thus treat his Parent, as not his Pa­rent, use a Compellation to her as a Stranger; was so surprizing and posing a Behaviour from him, that it has occasion'd many Different, and some Wild Ima­ginations in men, why he did this thing. The Mon­tanists and Valentinians (a sort of Hereticks who taught that our Saviour took not True Flesh from the Virgin) affirm'd, That he denies her here to be his Mother, and that these Words, Woman, what have I to do with thee? import as much as, Nihil tecum commune habeo, non agnosco te pro Matre, I am not of the same Nature with you, I acknowledge you not to be my Mother: But there is no ground from our Lord's Words to say, He made his Mother a Stranger to his Nature, though he made her a Stranger to his Busi­ness. The Jovinians, Helvetians, and Eunomians af­firm'd as extravagantly, That our Lord call'd her Wo­man, to shew, that she continu'd no longer in her Virgin-State, than till she brought-forth him: But what S ^t Augustine says, is not only agreeable with the Universal Tradition of the Church, but also with Scripture it self, Dicta est mulier, secundùm Foemininum Sexum, non secundùm corruptionem Virginitatis. Christ call'd her Woman in regard of her Sex, not of her Mar­ried Condition; as God call'd Eve Woman the hour he created her, before he gave her to Adam for a Wife. The Papists, on the other side, who may be call'd Beatae Virginis Parasiti, the Parasites or Flatterers of [Page 44] the Blessed Virgin, create to her an addition of Ho­nour, and sing her New Magnificats, from her being call'd Woman. They say Christ styled her so upon the same account, that himself was styled The Son of Man, by way of Excellence, because she was some­thing Above a Woman. But our Church (which has no other Interest in this matter, but the Truth; which honours the Blessed Virgin, but does not ido­lize her; which celebrates her Sanctity, but makes no Markets of her Shrines) speaks as the Gospel gives her light, viz. That Christ, by the Compellation of Woman in this place, checks and rebukes her; that his Words are a Diminution and no Accession of Glory to her. The term Woman, I confess, in it self carries no Reproof or Asperity: neither did our Lord use it at other times to signifie his Displeasure. When he said to the Woman of Canaan, that be­sought him to heal her Daughter, O Woman! great is thy Faith. He call'd her not Woman, because he was angry with her, but because she was a Stranger, known only to him by her Faith. But then, though to call a Stranger Woman, has no Asperity, yet to call a Mother so, has much Asperity. We find but one time only more besides this, that our Lord took up this Compellation to the Blessed Virgin, and that was when he hung upon the Cross; a time, I confess, when he had no displeasure at all to her, but contra­riwise the most tender Resentment of her desolate Condition. When he bequeath'd her to the Care of his Beloved Disciple, he said to her, Woman, be­hold thy Son. But though the Expression there im­ply'd no Anger, it imply'd something of the like na­ture with what it does in my Text: for as his calling of her Woman upon his entering on his Prophetick Office, imported the Expiration of her Maternal Au­thority: [Page 45] So his calling of her Woman at the hour of his Death, imported the Expiration of hers, and all other humane Relations to him; and that for the fu­ture she was to look upon him as her Saviour, not as her Son; depend upon his Divine Providence, not his Filial Care of her.

It is not possible for a Son, with the preservation of his Duty and Reverence, to use a Term of Diminu­tion, or but of Strangeness to a Parent, without some very important Reason to justifie it. But the Case and Condition of Christ, as I say, was at this time much alter'd: for when the Relation of Re­deemer commenc'd, Carnal Relations began to cease; and when he was in a more evident manner declar'd to be the Son of God, his being the Son of Mary surceas'd and expir'd. He put this Question (con­cerning his Divine Nature and Humane Alliance) afterwards to the Pharisees. The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my Right hand, until I make thine Enemies thy Footstool. Seeing Christ was the Son of David, says he, why does he call him Lord? viz. for this only reason, because the Greater and more Impor­tant Relation, on some Occasions, swallows up the Less. As we see in the Case of a Father and a Son in a Commonwealth, when the Son comes to bear Of­fice, the Father that was Superiour Oeconomically, and commanded in the Family, becomes Inferiour to his Son Politically, and is commanded by him in the State: and thus though Fabius Maximus might ap­proach his Son, being a Private Person, on Horse­back, or which way he pleas'd; yet when his Son was Consul, he might approach the Supreme Magistrate only on foot: and when the Lictors commanded him from his Son to alight, he not only obey'd, but re­joic'd that he so rightly understood the Dignity he [Page 46] bore. But I might have brought an Example from Scripture. When Joseph was in his Father's house, he paid humble Submission and Subjection to his Parents: but when he was advanc'd to be a Prince in Egypt, 'twas God's will, that not only the Elder Sheaves should do Obeysance to the Younger; but e­ven that the Sun and Moon themselves, i. e. his Fa­ther and Mother (by their Representatives his Bre­thren) should bow their Heads in Homage to him. And by the same Rule, Christ, who express'd Obedi­ence to his Parents while he appear'd nothing but their Son, had Obedience belonging to him, when it appear'd he was their Lord and Saviour.

But now, though these things are true, and that omnis Christi actio nostra est instructio, every Action of Christ is our Instruction: Yet it will concern us to take heed, that we rightly understand his Acti­ons, and that we make not a wrong Construction of that, which was given to be our Instruction. We must not wrest or extend this Carriage of Christ to his Mother, to the Prejudice of our Parents Authority: for it does not warrant any one, that is a Son or Daughter among us, so soon as they are out of their Minority, to cry, Aetatem habeo, I am of Age, and owe no more Observance: Or as soon as they are promoted to any Dignity, presently to change their Behaviour, and to take up a new Compellation to them. No, in respect of a dutiful Regard to be paid to those that Bore and Educated us, Christ would have all men for ever to be Pupils, for ever to con­tinue in a Voluntary Reverential Wardship, as I may say, to them: and we read▪ that he prefer'd Duty to Parents, even before the Corban; the Mainte­nance of them, before the giving Oblations for the Reparations of the Temple. Again, no Spiritual [Page 47] Change in our Condition absolves us from the Duty of Children; though we are called to a Divine Office and holy Ministry, we are not exempted from Filial Obedience and Natural Affection. And therefore the Doctrine of the Church of Rome in this particular is to be abominated, ubi pietatis genus du­citur, esse crudelem, among whom it is held a Sublime and abstracted Piece of Piety, for those that are once enter'd into a Covent, to forget their Parents and Kindred according to the Flesh; as soon as their Persons are thus sequester'd from them, to sequester also their Natural Affections; and to espouse the In­terest of their Spiritual Cognation, though it be ne­ver so Prejudicial to their Natural. In some Cases indeed, religiosior est mentium copula, the Union of the Mind, upon long experience of mutual Vertue, may deservedly be counted a faster Tye, than that of Consanguinity, accompanied with less Vertue. As our Lord on this account preferr'd his Cognation to his Disciples, before that with his Kinsmen; e­steem'd those to be nearer Allied to him, in whom he found Faith, than those that had the same Bloud run­ning in their Veins. And looking upon his Disciples, he said, Behold my Brethren, my Sisters, and my Mo­ther. But then in such Changes of Condition, as are the mere Inventions of Men, as the Orders of Friars, and their Rules of Worship are, to add Barbarity to Superstition, under the pretence of Greater Sanctity to shake off the Duties of Humani­ty, no Church can justifie, but that which justifies yet greater Impieties. I proceed to the second Cir­cumstance I observed in Christ's reproving his Mo­ther, the Terms in which he reproved her,

What have I to do with thee?

This was a Phrase used among the Jews, to repulse those that moved any thing to them unseasonably, or unworthy of them to do in their Opinion; and also to express their Resentment, if they thought themselves hardly dealt with. The Widow of Ze­rephath used it this last way to the Prophet Elijah, when she conceiv'd the Cohabitation of so holy a Person with her, and his near Inspection into her Life, was the Cause of her Childs death, What have I to do with thee (says she) O thou Man of God! art thou come unto me to call my Sins to remembrance, and to slay my Son? And David used it the first way, 2 Sam. 19. to Abishai, urging him to put Shimei to death upon the Day of his Restoration to the King­dom, because he had Curs'd him in his Flight from Jerusalem. Says he, What have I to do with you, ye Sons of Zerviah? And notwithstanding the great Dislike and Offence this Phrase exprest, our Lord forbore not to use it to his Mother, intermedling in his Divine Employment, Woman, says he, What have I to do with thee?

I confess it was durum Dictum, a harsh Speech, con­sidering the Person to whom 'twas spoken: but 'twas also, if rightly weighed, frugiferum Dictum, a Speech full of good Instruction and Profit: For it shews Christ's equal and impartial Deportment, as he is a Lord and Saviour, to all Persons whatsoever, with­out Consideration of Country, Acquaintance, or Kindred: The very Womb that bare him, in an Un­advis'd Action, shall not go away without a Rebuke; if his Mother does that which is Dishonourable to his Office, she shall hear that which is less honourable [Page 49] to her Relation; if she forgets her Duty, he will for­get her Name and Title. A good Lesson for those Favourites of Christ in these our Days, who call themselves his Elect, and his Darling Children, how­ever they live in Disobedience to his Laws; and fansie he can see nothing in them that displeases him, what­ever wickedness they commit. Though Propinquity in Grace be more in Christ's account, than Propin­quity in Bloud: yet if even those that are ally'd to him by Grace, sin presumptuously against him, they will find him but a rough Kinsman. Though Coniah were as the Signet upon my Right hand, says God, yet would I pluck him thence. And if Peter, the most Zealous of the Apostles, shall take upon him to tempt Christ, he shall bear the Name of Adversary, Get thee behind me Satan. If the Provocations of the Servants of God be Great, however near and close their former Relation to him was, they will find him as far Estranged from them: and in Case their Pro­vocations be of a less and meaner Allay, they will re­ceive a Check, as the Blessed Virgin here did. And so I proceed to the Reason why Christ reprov'd her, Be­cause she unseasonably interpos'd in what she ought not to have meddled, prompted him to work a Mira­cle before his Time was come.

—My Time, says he, is not yet come.

These, and the foregoing Words, Woman, what have I to do with thee? utterly o'erthrow all the vain and false Glories, which the Church of Rome Super­stitiously, Idolatrously, and injuriously, rather than Devoutly, heap upon our Lady: ascribing to her impeccability and being born without Sin, the Title of Queen of Heaven, and a perpetual Regency over [Page 50] her Son, &c. But as Stout and resolute Souldiers, where the Works are weakest, shew the greatest Va­lour: So those of that Church shrink not for all the Assault they receive from my Text; but the ruder the Shock is, the more obstinately they maintain their Post. They affirm that the Action of the Bles­sed Virgin here was not only without Blame, but full of Faith, Charity, Humility, Prudence, &c. and that Christ was so far from being angry with her, or having any Cause given him to be so, that he took up a feigned and dissembled Dislike, to have an Occa­sion only to teach the World, and not her neither, That the Power by which a Prophet works Miracles, is not derived from his Parents, nor to be governed by them, but wholly by the Spirit of God, says Cor­nelius à Lapide, In ipsa nulla fuit culpa: ergo non vera fuit Christi reprehensio, reprehendere tamen illam vide­tur, ut non ipsam, sed nos doceret, in operibus thean­dricis parentes nihil habent juris, and so forth. Thus the Jesuite is not asham'd to make our Lord Jesuitize, i. e. falsifie and dissemble: but the time would be ill spent to confute such gross Follies and Blasphemies, which chuse rather to find a Miscarriage in Christ, than in his Mother; to make him angry without a Cause, or to feign an Unjust Anger, than to allow it possible for her to give him a Just Cause to be angry. But the Explanation of these Words [ my hour is not yet come] will more plainly shew wherein our Lady deserv'd a Reprehension.

The Hour of Christ is sometimes understood of the Hour of his Death, as 'tis said, They could not lay hold of him, because his Hour was not yet come. But here it is to be understood of his Season or Opportuni­ty to do a thing: as when he answered his Brethren, that ask'd him to go up to Jerusalem to the Feast, Your [Page 51] Time, says he, is always, but my Time is not yet come. But here by the way, we must not conceive any thing of the Hours assign'd to Christ of that nature, which the Arrians and Priscillians did, who said, He was subject to Fate and Necessity, and bound up to the Observation of Times, and could not therefore be the Eternal Son of God. Christ's Death was not impos'd on him by any Fatal Necessity, as himself de­clares Chap. 10. and 18. of our Evangelist: No man taketh my Life from me, says he, but I lay it down of my self, I have Power to lay it down, and I have Power to take it up. But when 'tis said, The Hour of his Death was not yet come, it means no more than this, That he had not yet finish'd the Work for which he came into the World, he had not fully preach'd the Gospel, accomplish'd the Prophecies that were of him, confirm'd his Disciples, &c. i. e. the Hour by his own Eternal Wisdom chosen, was not yet come; the Hour, as S ^t Augustine speaks, non Necessitatis, sed Voluntatis; the Hour not of his Necessity, but his Will; not of his Constraint, but of his Counsel. And the like may be said of the Hour of his working Miracles, he attended no Critical Minute, or favour­able Conjuncture of the Stars to assist him: as to his Power, he could have wrought them when he would, every Hour was the Hour of his Power, but every Hour was not the Hour of his Opportunity; he could have turned the Water into Wine at the time his Mother spoke to him, as well as at any other, but the End for which he did it, would not have fallen out so Easily and Naturally at one time, as at ano­ther; and though the Miracle had been the same, the Effect would not have been so great. An Opportunity is not to be measured or judged by the Power of the Agent, but by the Purpose and Design of his Action; [Page 52] and the Purpose of Christ's present Action here was, to give a Testimony of his Divine Power, that Men might the readilier believe in him; his Inferiour and Subordinate Purpose to this was So to dispose his Mi­racle, as it might best conduce to this End.

And in the first place therefore 'twas of no small Moment, that he should order it so, that he might be seen to be the Free and Sole Agent of it, with­out any Complice or Confederate, without Mo­nitor or Director: that it proceeded meerly from a Divine Motive as well as Power, and tended to a Divine End; to use our Adversaries Words, that in operibus Theandricis Parentes nihil habent juris, a Pro­phets Parents have nothing to do in his Divine Opera­tions. It was enough alone to have put off the Hour of Christ's working this Miracle, had it been come, his Mothers prompting him to do it. Secondly, It was of great Importance to chuse the most Advan­tageous Season or Minute for the Performance of it, viz. when it would be both most remarkable, and most grateful; and that would have been after the perfect Absumption of the Wine provided for the Feast, when the Guests felt the Defect of it: Abundance is most welcome, when it succeeds Want. Thirdly, It was considerable to perform it, when it was sure to move the Greatest Admiration and Astonishment; and that was, before there was any Intimation or Ex­pectation of it. The Surprize of a Rare Event cre­ates most Wonder: as we see the Good Wine did here in the Master of the Feast, he not knowing whence it came; the Unexpected Change and Excel­lence of it was a Miracle to him, before he knew 'twas derived from a Miracle.

Now the Blessed Virgin forestall'd and discompos'd all these Divine and Prudential Purposes of our [Page 53] Lord. First, By her inconsiderate Advising him of the Want of Wine, she disparag'd his Prophetick Power, as if he had been Ignorant, or less Observant of what past, and of what was needful for him to do; and he might well answer her trifling Solicitude with Indignation: as Elisha did the young Prophets, that took upon them to inform him, that his Master would be taken that day from his head: I know that, says he, hold ye your peace. Secondly, She precipi­tated the Proper Season of the Miracle, and had her motion taken place, the Benefit of it would scarce have appeared to have been a Benefit. Thirdly, She appears, by interposing her Motherly Authority, to have affected part of the Glory of the Miracle, ut quae Filium haberet tali potentia praeditum, as being the Mother of such a Wonderful Son: so that what­ever Honour Christ had acquired, a share of it might redound to the Womb that bare him, and to the Paps that gave him suck. Fourthly, The highest Motive which seems to have induced her to desire the Mira­cle, was some Secular Regard: as to oblige the Mar­ried Couple, to gratifie the Guests, or the like: and this appears by her whispering to the Servants to ob­serve what our Lord commanded them, as a benefi­cial Obedience to all that were concerned in the Feast.

And thus her Purpose was as different from Christ's Purpose, her Design from his Design: as Good Cheer is from Preaching the Gospel; as Wine is another thing from Faith; complementing a Friend from Converting men to Christianity; and she justly de­served the Reprehension she received. For 'twas too low and mean an Imagination of his Power, that 'twas to be engaged meerely to supply the Defects of a Meal, that those Divine Operations that were de­sign'd [Page 54] to destroy the Kingdom of Satan, and to set up the Kingdom of God in the World, were fit to be terminated, as well as employed, in serving Tables. We read indeed in the Legend of Romish Saints, that a holy Abbot or Hermit meeting with another holy Abbot or Hermit, (meerly to exercise their Faith, and to shew which had the greater Favour with God, and the profuser measure of his Graces) would vie Mira­cles with one another, as Juglers do Tricks, remove a Hill, or change the Site of a Forest, and the like: Inventions, as one says, ferrei oris, & plumbei cordis, of a blockish Understanding, and a shameless Impu­dence. Christ did not prostitute his Miracles, to light or Vain-glorious Purposes: That he turn'd Water in­to Wine at the present Marriage-Feast, was not so much to gratifie the Palates of the Company, as to give them, and the World after them, a Taste of the Inocciduum Nectar, the Fruit of the Eternal Vine that grows only in his Father's Kingdom.

And here it may be worthy our Observation, That both Christ and his Apostles were many times more Se­vere against the Mistakes of Men, than against their Misdeeds; more offended with those that did not rightly Apprehend the Faith and the Design of it, than those that Oppos'd it. Get thee behind me, Sa­tan, was a Sharp Reproof, not for Infidelity, but for an Unadvised Carnal Tenderness shew'd to Christ. Ananias and Sapphira were made terrible Examples, not again for Denying the Faith, but for thinking a Cheat or Lye were reconcileable with the Profession of it, or could be hid from the Spirit of God. And in the Passage here before us, notwithstanding the A­ction of the Blessed Virgin was not without Good-Will, Charity, and a Perswasion of Christ's Divine Power: yet because she had not a due Regard of [Page 55] that Divine Power, of the Dignity of a Miracle, and our Lord's Office, but thought she might be the Dis­poser of them, she received a sharp Rebuke.

And if ever this Observation was worthy a Serious Consideration and adverting to, 'tis in these Days, in which the Gospel is so Universally profest, and the Faith so Factiously Contended for, and the Principal Purpose and Design of it so little regarded. The Church of Rome on the one side, stands upon the An­tiquity of her Religion and Worship, though her Antiquity be no better, than that of an old Ship's, which has been pieced and altered, till little remains, beside the Name, of the first Building; Ignorance and Superstition in some Ages, and Interest and Am­bition in all, having patcht up their boasted Anti­quity, till 'tis liker to Heathenism, than the Gospel at first profest in that Church: We of this Nation on the other side stand as much upon our Reformation, and because our Doctrine and Worship are more holy and consonant to Scripture, we care not though our Lives and Manners be worse than theirs whose Errors we condemn. There are others again among us, who are perswaded they have yet purer Ordi­nances than we, and that they have Reformed the Reformation; and so it be to promote their Preten­ces, that Faction, Schism, Sedition, Treason, Mur­der of Princes, and Subversion of States, are a Justi­fiable and Holy Zeal. These Misapprehensions and Erroneous Conceits in Religion, I say, are more per­nicious to it, and hateful to God, than direct Op­position and Blasphemy against it; and Turks, Jews, and Infidels have not hindred the Progress and Pro­pagation of the Gospel so much, as the Scandalous Dissensions and the Unsutable Lives of the Professors of it. And all this while, the Ways and Modes of [Page 56] serving God are not the Service of God it self, but Holiness, Righteousness, Charity, Obedience, Meek­nees, Peaceableness, and the like. All Manners and Forms of Worship are good, that are consonant to Scripture, conduce to Edification, and establisht by Just Authority, I say, and establisht by Just Au­thority: for 'tis not allow'd to Private Men to be the Fashioners or Chusers of the Publick Way of Worship; if this were permitted, the Issue would be only Confusion; and the Dissensions about the Cir­cumstances of Religion, would destroy the Substance and Essentials of it. Christ laid not down his Life to establish these or those Rites or Forms of Worship, but, as himself professes, To destroy the Works of the Devil. And this is that which ought to be the Busi­ness and Concern of his Followers, that about which all their Care and Sollicitude should be employ'd, a­gainst which their Anger and Animosity should be directed, I say, to abolish Sin, and to make Vertue and Piety flourish in the Earth. And they that lay not the Weight and Stress of Religion in this, are Impertinent and Trifling in the Faith, and Impious in their Zeal; they understand not the most Material and weighty Part of their Profession; and instead of receiving an Euge, or Well-done from Christ at the last Day, they will receive a Check or Increpa­tion, as the Blessed Virgin did in my Text, and not only so, but a Renunciation and a Condemnation. God give us Grace to be Wise in a Wise Religion; and Holy in a Holy Faith: and to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour, Glory and Thanksgiving, now, and for evermore. Amen.

—He shall be cut off.

This Term of cutting-off does usually imply in Scripture three things. 1. The untimely destroying a Person from the Land of the Living. 2. The de­stroying him as a Criminal or Malefactor. 3. The destroying him by God himself, and if not always immediately, yet by his Appointment. I shall give but one Proof of this, of the many that might be brought, Exod. 31.14. God gives this Charge by the mouth of Moses, —Every one that defileth my Sabbath, shall surely be put to Death—that Soul shall be Cut-off from among his people. In which Words are exprest the Person's untimely Death, that he dyes as a Criminal, and that God is the Author that dooms him to it.

Now Death is call'd a Cutting-off for two Reasons. First, Because a Cutting-off is the discontinuation of a thing from that to which it was before united: or Secondly, A shortning of it from the Measure it had, or would have arriv'd to. Thus the Untimely Death of a Person is the shortning of the Days he might have liv'd to, and the separating him from the So­ciety of the Living, of which he was a Member. And however strange and wonderful it is, such was the End of the Messiah: after all the glorious Pro­phecies and magnificent Elogies relating to his Person and his Kingdom, as that he should be call'd The Wonderful, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, that his Dominion should reach to the [Page 60] Ends of the Earth, and to the End of Time, he was Cut-off and Extinguisht like a Mortal Man; after the fashion, as the Psalmist speaks, of common Princes, Ye are styled Gods, but ye shall dye like Men. Like Men? nay he dy'd like a Malefactor, and by God's Sentence and Decree. And it was upon the account of his Tragical End, and the misunderstanding of other Predictions of him; especially that one, Christ shall live for ever, that both the Jews of old despi­sed him, and those of these Days blaspheme him, calling him, from the manner of his Death, and the Structure of his Cross, The Warp and the Woof. It was by reason also of his Ignominious Death, that the Heathen derided and reproach'd our Holy Faith, saying, We believ'd in a hang'd Man.

But neither Jew nor Gentile had any just Cause of Exception against our Lord for his Violent and Un­timely Death; I say, there was nothing strange, or hard to be digested by either of them in this thing: For 'twas the Practice of them both to sacrifice the Innocent, for the Guilty; the Unoffending Victimes, for Offending Men: Nay, 'twas usual among the Gentiles for the Noblest and most Sacrosanct Per­sons, their Kings, and Generals, and holy Virgins, to devote themselves to Death for the Preservation of their Country. Why then should the Devoting of Christ for the Salvation of the Whole World be held irrational and foolish by them? Why did they despise in another Religion, what they held Honourable in their own? And the Jews had yet less reason to be scandaliz'd (especially the most Learned among them who were yet only offended) who saw their Messiah daily slain before their Eyes in so many Rites and Mysteries, the Paschal Lamb, the Scape-Goat, the Goat for the Sin-Offering, in a word, all their Expia­tory [Page 61] Sacrifices were Prefigurations of Christ's Passion. Beside those, that were Learned, were sensible, That the Way of propitiating God by the Bloud of Beasts, was of it self Irrational, and had no Efficacy in it, but as it related to the Bloud of Christ. The Jews therefore with less reason than the Gentiles disclaimed the Messiah, coming in the Guise of a Sacrifice, and drencht in his own Bloud; when 'twas his Bloud a­lone that sanctify'd all their Forefathers, and their own Offerings, and distinguisht their Temple from a common Shambles or Slaughter-house.

The reason that the Cross of Christ has given such Scandal in all Times, and that so great a Part of the World have thought it Monstrous, That a Divine Person should undergo an Ignominious Death, arises from the Slight Apprehension Men generally have of Sin, and their ignorance of the Malignity of its Na­ture; they look upon it as a mere Transient Act, and think that the Guilt of it passes away, as soon as the Fact; they have no Unkindness to their own Wick­ed Ways, and fansie God has none neither; that any Trifle will make Compensation for them, or that God will pass them by without any Compensation at all. But if they would weigh the Odiousness of Sin to God, by its Contrariety to his Holy Nature, and the fearful Judgments he has denounc'd against it, and that it cannot go unpunisht, if God be just and true, i. e. if God be God: Again, if they would consider, that the Greatness of an Offence arises in proportion to the Greatness of the Person Offended, and then compute what would be a Competent Satis­faction for offending an Infinite and Eternal Deity, they would not think it monstrous, ut medela respon­deret morbo, that a Divine Person should be found only worthy to do Right to a Divine Person. Men [Page 62] may well be astonisht at the Goodness of God, and adore his Mercy, that he vouchsaf'd to give his Son to be a Ransom for Sinners, but none can just­ly wonder, that he requir'd so Honourable an A­mends for the Violation of his Majesty; or that a less Sanctity than Christ's was sufficient either to intercede for, or to Counterpoise the Guilt of the Whole World.

But as there are those that despise the Cross of Christ, and count the Bloud of the Covenant, as the A­postle speaks, an unholy thing: so there are those a­gain on the other side, who are no less Enemies to it, by ascribing to it what was never the Will or Meaning of our Lord that they should: and these are of two Sorts; Those of the Church of Rome, who Superstitiously and Idolatrously Worship the Cross, ascribe to it the Power of driving away Devils, con­ferring Divine Graces, and the like. The others are those among us, who teach, That since Christ has Suffer'd, all Guilt and Condemnation for Sin is ta­ken away in respect of Believers: like those in the Apostles time who affirm'd, That after the Faith of Christ was once entertain'd, all that was necessary for Salvation was perform'd, and men need not be sollicitous for their future Behaviour, whether 'twere Righteous, or Unrighteous. But S ^t Paul, Heb. 10.26. stops the mouths of all such as thus pervert the Grace purchas'd by Christ's Death. If we sin wilfully, says he, after we have received the Knowledge of the Truth, there remains no more Sacrifice for Sin, but a certain fearful looking for of Judgment, and fiery In­dignation. As if he would have said, Although Christ cannot be Cut-off any more in his Person, yet he may and will be Cut-off again in the Fruits and Benefits of his first Cutting-off, from those that abuse them. Which [Page 63] Words, though spoken of Apostates to the Faith, will hold true also of Subverters of the Faith. And there is a Passage in this Chapter of Daniel before us, well worthy the observation of all those, who sin now presumptuously under the Gospel, which is this: When the Angel had reveal'd to Daniel the Time when the Captivity in Babylon should expire, and that the People should return, and rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple: and not only so, but that the long-promis'd and much-desir'd Messiah should be given them; and the Prophet thought all was now well, and nothing could be added to the Felicity of the Nation; immediately it follows, that after so many Weeks again (for the succeeding Transgressions of the People) the so-long'd-for Prince and Saviour, the Messiah, should be cut-off as if he had never been: So that he should be given in a manner, and not given unto the Nation; but be the Cause of a Second and Greater Destruction, than the foregoing Captivity, even the final Rejection of the House of Israel. And 'tis dreadful to consider, that the giving of a Saviour to many Christians shall have the like Success; that by reason of their Presumption of I know not what Favour and Election of God's, and their Continuance in their Unreform'd Lives, this Blessing shall be turn'd into a Curse; and He that was cut-off For them, shall be again cut off From them; and the Private State of their Souls, like the Publick State of the Jews, shall be much more Cala­mitous after their Redemption, than before.

And now what Use shall we make of this first Branch, the Substance of the Angels Prediction, the Excision of the Messiah, He shall be cut off—? Shall I exhort you, after the manner of the Church of Rome, to set before you Pictures of our Lord's Passi­on, [Page 64] representing his macerated and dilacerated Body hanging on the Cross between two Thieves, and at­tended by his Virgin Mother fallen into a Swoun, and expect that the like Effects of an o'r-whelming Sorrow may be seen in you? No, I shall rather desire that all such Pageantry and Ostentation of misplaced Grief may be remov'd far from you; and as our Lord directed the Women (who wept for him when he bore his Cross to Mount Calvary) to spend their Tears on the right Object, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for your selves, and your approaching misery: So let me advise you, Not to weep for what Christ suffer'd more than sixteen hun­dred Years ago for your sakes, seeing he is now at the Right Hand of his Father in Glory; but to weep for your Own Souls, that you have made no more Advantage by his Sufferings. Weep not therefore be­cause he was mockt, and spit on, and set at nought by the Souldiers, but weep because thou thy self hast despis'd him, set his Gospel at nought, perhaps deri­ded it. Sigh not because Christ was scourg'd, and crown'd with Thorns, and hung so many hours upon the Cross, but sigh truly and deeply that all these things have not moved thee to forsake one Sin, or to mortifie one Lust; mourn sensibly and pungently that he drunk the bitter Cup of his Passion in vain, as to thee, or for thy greater Condemnation: For if it be a Sad Reflection, that he liv'd a persecuted and afflicted Life, and dy'd a Calamitous Death, 'tis yet a much Sadder, that such his Sufferings do not Expiate, but aggravate thy Guilt and Damnation.

The second Use I shall desire you to make of the painful and ignominious Death of so Divine a Per­son as the Messiah, is to consider the Malignant Na­ture of Sin, which (however easily and hourly, re­gardlesly [Page 65] and remorslesly we commit) cost our Lord his Heart bloud to expiate; and after we were once infected by it, nothing less than his being Accurs'd, could put us into a Capacity again of being Blest; nothing but his being Cut-off could restore us to Life and Felicity.

Let the third Use we make of the Messiah's Death be, To consider how precious a Thing the Soul of a Man is; that 'tis such a Jewel that the Son of God came down from Heaven to save from perishing; compass'd the Earth, like a greedy Merchant, to pur­chase; set his Glory and Life at nought to ran­some! And now 'tis ransom'd at so Immense a Rate, is of more Value than before; and he that sells it now for Gold, or Pleasure, or any other Worldly Consideration, sells not only an Immortal Spirit, but a Divine Purchace; sells his Soul Redeem'd, parts with his Soul and his Messiah too; delivers it up together with the Ransom and Satisfaction, after no more can be expected. When the Devil therefore offers to barter with us his beggarly and deceitful Wares for this Divine Treasure; as the Satyrist said with in­dignation to a Gluttonous Person, that gave more for a Fish than would have bought the Fisherman, Hoc pretium Squamae? all this Revenue for Finns and Scales? So let us say with no less Indignation, Shall we give our Immortal Souls, the Bloud of Christ, and Eter­nal Glory, for a little Momentary Pleasure? such as the very Slaves to it set often below a contemptible Summ of Money, even when they have drawn their Purse, and bid for it, put it up again, as thinking it too dear? I proceed to the Circumstance of the Time of the Cutting-off the Messiah.

After threescore and two Weeks.

From what Epocha or Computation of Time these threescore and two Weeks begin to be reckon'd, or in what King's Reign they determin'd, is very diffi­cult to pronounce, by reason that the Scripture is si­lent in the Extent or Number of Years of the Reigns of the Kings of Persia, and those Accounts we have from Heathen Writers (however competently pun­ctual and sutable to their own Chronologies, yet) to make them fall in, and come to a Concurrence with Holy Story, (one reckoning by Lunary Years, and the other by Solary) has been found a very hard Task: insomuch that some that have labour'd over-curiously in this matter, while they have sought to reconcile the Times, have lost much of their own; and instead of giving Satisfaction, have only forfeited their Discretion. I shall not therefore engage in so difficult and ambitious an Undertaking, but content my self to follow the Conclusion of the soberest Expositors, hasting through the ragged Ways and barren Tracts of Chronology and Arith­metick, as a Traveller that delights not in his Jour­ney, and not sitting down, and amusing my self in them, as if I took pleasure in the Passage.

The plain Account is this, The Prophet Jeremy, long before our Prophets time, had foretold, that the Captivity of the Jews in Babylon should con­tinue seventy Years. Now Daniel being a Captive in Babylon about the End of this time, and mindful of Jeremy's Prophecy, besought of God, by fasting and Supplications, an Accomplishment of the promis'd Deliverance: whereupon an Angel was sent to him, with much more Gladsome Tydings than he expect­ed, [Page 67] viz. to assure him, that not only at the Expira­tion of the Seventy Years prefixt, the People should certainly return, but that after Seventy Weeks of Years more, i. e. seventy times seven Weeks (a Week of Years consisting of seven Years) the righteous and glorious Prince Messiah should be sent. And the more to confirm Daniel in this joyful News, the Angel (ac­cording to the Distribution of the Time for the bring­ing this Counsel and Determination of God to pass) divides the Seventy Weeks of Years into three Parts, assigns seven Weeks of Years for the rebuilding Jeru­salem and the Temple, threescore and two from that to the Birth of the Messiah and his Cutting-off, or at least for the Preaching of the Gospel by his Disci­ples; and one Week of Years remaining for the de­stroying of Unbelievers: as these things may be col­lected from ver. 21. to the end of the Chapter.

In which Distribution of Time God's singular Goodness and Wisdom, in chusing the Season for sending his Son into the World, is very remarkable. He sent him not the first seven Weeks, or forty nine Years, after the Jews return from Babylon, that the City and Sanctuary were building, and the Nation re-establishing, for that was a busie and troublesome Time, but sixty two Weeks after that, when they were setled and at Leisure to attend Divine things. And for this Reason God also so order'd it, that Christ should be born in a Calm and Serene Age of the World, in the peaceful Reign of Augustus Caesar, when, as the Historian says, universi terrarum orbis aut pax, aut pactio, that there was either an Universal Peace, or Treaty of Peace through the Whole World. God thus stilling the Noise of Wars, and the Tumults of the Nations, that the Voice of his Son might be heard; gave men nothing to intend, [Page 68] that they might intend Religion. But though he of­fer'd the Jews this Opportunity for their Salvation, they laid not hold of it: but when they were disen­gaged from Civil Affairs, they engaged and immers'd themselves in all manner of Sin and Wickedness; when their Wars ceas'd, their Lusts began to rage; when the Architects and Builders had finish'd their Work, the Contrivers of Iniquity set to plot and contrive theirs. So that few were at leisure to com­pute how Daniel's Weeks, for the coming of the Messiah, past away, and much less to prepare them­selves for his Reception; and accordingly when he appear'd, so far they were from paying him Obedi­ence, that they knew him not; from acknowledging him their King, that they crucifi'd him. They dreamt of a second Joshua for their Messiah, not of a Melchi­zedeck; of a fighting, not a preaching King: when therefore he rebuk'd their Vices, they conspir'd his Death; and cut him off, instead of cutting off their Sins. 'Twas no wonder therefore, that God allow'd but one Week of Years for the destroying so Carnal, so wicked, so ungrateful a People.

'Tis an Ominous and Fatal Sign, when God has given Eminent Deliverance to a Nation, and allow'd it time for the Re-establishing it self, if at least in the second place it makes not Religion and his Worship its Business: but falls from Secular Employments to Sensual and Sinful; never reflecting either why he did so severely punish them, or why again so Gra­ciously Restore them. We of this Nation attend not the fulfilling of the Weeks foretold by Daniel, for the Coming of the Messiah in the Flesh, his Cutting off, and the Destruction of Jerusalem, these things are already past: But there are other Weeks in which we are concern'd, which are not yet fulfill'd, viz. the [Page 69] few Weeks before God may possibly call us to account for the ill Use we have made of his Glorious Resto­ration of our King and Nation, and his other Illu­strious Mercies: Or if in his Wisdom he shall think fit to adjourn this Account to the General Audit at the Last Day, then the very few Weeks, before we that are here present shall be seal'd up for that Dreadful Day by our Departure out of this Life. And in the mean time we have daily an Image or representation of that Great Assize of the Whole World, in the Absolution which the Church pronounces to Penitent Sinners, and consequently in binding over to Judg­ment the Impenitent: For though the Righteous are not juridically and finally absolv'd in this World, nor the Wicked condemn'd; yet the Issue that both are to expect is foreshew'd; and however there seems for a time a Forgetfulness of the one and the other, that the Just appear to go away without their Re­ward, and the Unjust to be Tenants to an Easie Lord, that will never call them to account: yet they will receive their Recompence according to what they have done in this Life, and find though Christ suffered for Sin, he never suffered or tolerated Sin; but that his Death will prove Effectual for their Condemnati­tion, for whom it prov'd not Effectual for their Salva­tion.

The Reason that Men put off the Fear of the Lord's Coming to Judgment, or think his Coming but a Fable, is, because they consider not how far he is already advanc'd on his Way towards them, how many Stages he has past, and how very near he is come. He is advanc'd long since to the Destruction of Jerusalem; there's the first prophesy'd Stage of his Coming, and so many Weeks of Years past. Second­ly, His Gospel is preach'd through the World: Christ [Page 70] is arriv'd so much Nearer on his Journey towards us. Thirdly, Anti-Christ is come: the Apostle speaks of him as entred into the World, though as 'twere in­cognito or conceal'd, in his time: but now for many Years he has shew'd himself openly, and raged in the Church: and there's the Third Sett of Weeks fore­told for Christ's coming, past: So that there remains but one Parcel of Weeks more, before we shall see him at our very Doors, i. e. coming in the Clouds of Heaven to judge the Quick and the Dead. We have seen three Predictions of his Coming actually fulfill'd, and is it possible our Sins should perswade us, that he will tire by the Way, and that the fourth shall not come to pass? The Night succeeds not the Day, Winter the Summer so certainly, as Christ's Second Coming shall succeed in the time appointed. And seeing these things shall be so, what manner of Per­sons, as S ^t Peter says, ought we to be in all holy Conver­sation and Godliness? My Text says, Christ was not cut off for Himself, let us take care to be of the Num­ber of those he was cut off For, and not of those he shall be cut off From. And so I pass to my Se­cond General Part, the Angel's Direction for the right Understanding of his Prediction,

He shall be cut off, but not for himself.

The Words in the Original [ ve en lo] which our Translators render, but not for himself, and in the Margent, and shall have nothing, are so concise and abrupt, that they leave place to several Apprehensi­ons to add, what they think will best fill up their Sense: But all that is offered being merely conjectu­ral, and also less edifying than what we read in our own Bibles, I shall not decline what I there find. [Page 71] And it may be understood in two Respects, That Christ was cut off, and not for Himself.

1. In Respect of any Demerit or Fault of his. There were many that pretended to be the Messiah, that were Thieves and Murderers, and were cut off, but 'twas justly for their Offences. But the Angel pre­vents here the least Suspicion, that the True Messiah should be a Guilty Person, cut off for his own Crimes. He did no Sin, as S ^t Peter says, neither was Guile found in his mouth: But he could make that bold Challenge to all the Nations of the Jews, Which of you convinceth me of Sin? It fared indeed with him, as it did with David, a good King, and his Type, who Psal. the 59 ^th and the 3 ^d, complains of his Enemies after this manner, They lye in wait for my Soul, the Mighty are gathered against me; not for My Transgressions, nor for my Sin, O Lord! they run and prepare themselves without my Fault. No: if any man could take away our Messiah, by justly alledging Impiety against him, we would readily deliver him up our selves: But when he was Holy in his Life and Doctrine, when his Righteousness was attested from Heaven before, and in, and after his being in the World, by Prophecies, Miracles, by the Voice, to use S ^t Peter's expression, which came to him from the Excel­lent Glory, saying, This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased: by his Resurrection, Ascension, and sending the Holy Ghost, we may well adhere to such a Saviour, and excuse the seeming Shame of his Cutting off, for those real Glories which none beside himself ever pretended to.

2. Not for himself, in respect of any Benefit he re­ceived. If the Angel had told the Prophet, That the Cutting off of the Messiah had been for any Personal Advantage of his own, though he had taken [Page 72] Death in the Way to that Advantage, his Suffering had not been Relative to Others, it had been for Himself. But the Scripture disclaims this, and affirms, 'Twas for our Redemption, our Salvation, our be­ing Reconcil'd to God and instated in Glory that Messiah suffered. For he being enthron'd already in Heaven, what could he gain to himself by taking our wretched Flesh, and undergoing all the Miseries and Indignities of a Humane Life? His Sufferings, indeed, were antecedent to his Exaltation, but his Ex­altation was not the End or Reason of his Sufferings; God highly exalted him, and gave him a Name above e­very Name; that at the Name of Jesus every Knee should bow, of things in Heaven, and things in Earth, and things under the Earth: but this was the Result or E­vent of the Merit of his Humiliation, not the Design of it. And the Joy which, as the Apostle says, was set before him, and made him endure the Cross, and despise the Shame, was a Contemplation of the Re­demption and Recovery of Lost Man, and of the Glory redounding to God by his Atchievement, more than of his own Glory.

There are but two Sorts of Creatures in the Whole Lump of the Creation, for whom the Excision of the Messiah could possibly be, namely, Angels and Men: but the Scripture excludes the first, He took not upon him the Nature of Angels, but took upon him the Seed of Abraham: and the Ancients interpret, That the Nature that was not assum'd, was not ran­som'd. The State of the Angels, Good and Bad, immediately after the Fall of those that kept not their Station, was made Immutable, and they are Happy, or Accursed without Change. For Men therefore alone the Benefit was: and it being said for Men indefinitely, it must be understood of [Page 73] all the Race of Mankind; the Men of all Nations, and of all Times; quocunque sub axe, how remote or in what Clime soever, quocunque sub scelere, how re­mote from Righteousness, or under what Sins soever; all that Believe, all that Repent, are of the Num­ber of those for whom Christ was cut off: as S ^t John says, He is the Propitiation for our Sins, and not for ours only, but for the Sins of the Whole World. None are so much cut off from Goodness, but Christ was cut off to bring them to Righteousness and Salva­tion.

And now to draw to a Conclusion: What does this Universal, this Wonderful Love of Christ preach to us? Who when he was not capable, as God, to dye for us, as our Condition required, espoused our Nature first, that he might espouse our Miseries af­ter; and that he might bring us to perfect Felicity, was content to be made perfect by Sufferings, as the A­postle speaks? As I said before, an affected weeping and sorrowing in remembrance of Christ's Passion, was but an Insignificant Return for his Sufferings: So I may say here, an Empty Admiration of his Love will be as Vain, as Ungrateful, and as unacceptable an Acknowledgment of his Goodness. The Return he expects for his Unspeakable Love is, that we, ac­cording to our Measures and proportions should shew the like Love to our Brethren. And this is the Con­sequence S ^t John draws from the Love of Christ, If Christ so loved us, we ought to love one another.

But what Kind of Love is it, which is requir'd of us? For the Love commonly practis'd in the World, is but a Confederation for Lust and Pleasure: or an Association (like that of Merchants) for Interest and Profit. Moralists observe three Kinds of Love in regard of the Ends of them, Love for Pleasure [Page 74] sake, Love for Profit, and Love for Vertues sake. Now the last only of these bears any Resemblance to the Love of Christ, which we are to imitate: and which is more perfectly described by the Pen of S ^t Paul, To be, first, a Benevolence or Well-willing to o­thers, as to our Selves, not excluding our very Ene­mies; a Candid and favourable Interpretation of all Mens Actions; a Meek Conceit of our selves, and a Lowliness towards others; ready to forgive Injuries, and to overcome Evil with Good, &c. which Love the Apostle prefers even before Martyrdom. Se­condly, a Mutual Compassion and being affected as our Brethren are, a sorrowing with them that sor­row, and a rejoycing with them that rejoyce, as the Apostle says, like Members of the same Body, suffering all, if one suffers; and if one be honoured, all rejoycing. Thirdly, a Beneficence or Liberal Contribution to those that need, exprest in these Words, But to do Good and to Contribute forget not. And this Love, it seems, the Church was so happy in in S ^t Paul's days, that he thought it superfluous to recommend it a­mong other Duties to the Thessalonians, But as touch­ing Brotherly Love, says he, ye need not that I should write unto you. But had the Apostle liv'd in these days, he would have thought it necessary, not only to say, Love one another, love Strangers, love your E­nemies; but love your Friends, love your Selves. For we see Men destroy their Souls for the love of their Bodies; and their Bodies again for the love of their Lusts. And if any in these days should pretend to love merely for Vertue and Good­ness sake, to have a Kindness to those that gave them an Opportunity to exercise their Charity, even as unto those that did them a Good Turn, they would be hiss'd at as Hypocrites; and if they should love [Page 75] their Enemies, and return Good for Evil, they would be lookt on as base and degenerate, despicable and ridiculous persons. But had not Christ been so ridi­culous, as to do Good to them that hated him; so degenerate, as to lay down both his Life and Glory for his Enemies; none, that now shall be admitted into the Kingdom of Heaven, should ever have come there. And he that gave his Soul unto Death for our sakes, looks that we should not only be Believers, but Martyrs for his Sake, if Occasion requires; that we should be ready to be cut off for Him, that was cut off for us; that is, be content to lay down our Lives for the Truth, or the Salvation of our Bre­thren.

A Wounded Saviour.

What are these Wounds in thy Hands?] The Wounds in Christ's Hands do more particularly relate [Page 82] to the Wounds made by the Nails of the Cross, but by the Figure of a Part for the Whole, they may stand for the Wounds he received all his Body over; and not only so, but for all his Sufferings, whether in Body or in Spirit, from his Cradle to his Grave; from the Manger at Bethlehem, to his Crucifixion at Mount Calvary; and the Summ Total of this Questi­on, (What are these Wounds in thy Hands?) imports no less, Than what is the meaning of thy Strange and astonishing Miseries, thy low Condition and sad Wants, thy perpetual Dangers and Persecutions? What is the meaning of thine Agony and bloudy Sweat, thy Crown of Thorns platted and crusht into thy Head, thy being Mockt and Spit on? What is the meaning of thy Submitting not only to the Disho­nours of a Humane Birth, but to those also of a Vi­olent and Ignominious Death? Being the Son of God, why didst thou suffer any Evil? Why didst thou not convert the Stable in which thou wert Born into a Palace, and the Cross to which thou were Nail'd in­to a Throne? Why didst thou undergo such Miseries and Indignities as made the World doubt of thy Di­vine Nature, and not exert thy Deity, and destroy thy Murderers, and burn up their City, as thou spak'st in one of thy Parables? Thy People expected thee a mighty Prince, but thou shew'd'st thy self a Destitute, Forlorn Person; they lookt for a Deli­verer, but behold one Obnoxious to Bonds and Death; for a Redeemer, but, Alas! none needed Redemption more himself.

Great, undoubtedly, and wonderful was the Myste­ry of the Incarnation of the Son of God; and that he should not only be born in a Mortal, but in a Miserable Condition. The Apostle might well give it the prece­dence to all other Mysteries of Godliness, Great is the [Page 83] Mystery of Godliness, says he, God was manifested in the Flesh, justify'd in the Spirit, seen of Angels, &c. But that Christ should suffer the things he did in our Nature, was no less Necessary, than Wonderful: And to o­mit all other Reasons for it, I shall insist only on that One Great One, Because Sin could not otherwise have been abolisht, the End, for which Christ came into the World, attain'd; which was To destroy the Works of the Devil. Christ could have destroy'd the Devil with more Facility, if he had come in Majesty and Glory, as the Apostle says, 2 Thess. 2. He shall consume Anti-Christ with the Spirit (or breath only) of his Mouth, and the Brightness of his Coming. But our Lord's Business at this time was not to destroy the Person, but the Power of the Devil: Sin was both the Stratagem by which he conquer'd, and the Chain by which he held Mankind in Captivity; and Christ undertaking to rescue them from this Thral­dom, to bind the Strong Man, and to take from him the Armour in which he trusted, he was not to do this by an Omnipotent Power, as he brought the World out of Nothing, Light out of Darkness, &c. but by an Heroick Vertue, such as he shew'd when he trampled upon the Temptations of the Devil in the Wilderness. He therefore enter'd the Lists against Satan as a Champion or Combatant, according to the fair Law of Armes, as they say, i. e. with a sutable Strength and Appointment to his Adversaries. Man was lost by Sin, and could only be restored by Righ­teousness; he had forfeited God's Favour and his Fe­licity by his Transgressions, and could recover them again no other way but by Obedience. On this Ac­count Christ laid by his Majesty and Glory, and took our Nature, that in the Infirmity of our Flesh he might foil our Strong Enemy; the Second Adam re­deem [Page 84] the Glories lost by the First Adam; the Seed of the Woman bruise the Serpents head; made himself subject to the Law, that he might fulfil the Law; ob­noxious to Death, that he might subdue Death and the Author of it by suffering Death: as S ^t Paul says, Heb. 2.14. That through Death he might destroy him that had the Power of Death, that is, the Devil. So that we see here was no place for Thunder and Light­ning, for an O'er-bearing Irresistible Power, but on­ly for Divine Graces or Vertues; and the Weapons Christ used in this Conflict, were only Courage, Ho­liness, Obedience, Patience, Self-denial, Meekness, and the like, such as were in the Power of Men also to make use of; he so conquer'd, as they might con­quer after him. For the Great Business was not Christ's Personal Victory, that was secure, but the Victory of his Followers; he indeed was to break the Power of the Kingdom of Darkness, but they were to compleat the Conquest, every one in his own Particular to subdue Sin and Satan.

And thus while Christ destroy'd the Power of the Devil, disarm'd him, and made those that had been his Slaves, Lords over him; by consequence, and in a Political Sense, he destroy'd the Devil himself: as a Prince is said to be destroy'd, that is stript of his Forts and Castles, his Territories and Armies, his Am­munition and Harness of War, though his Person still survives. However then that Zipporah upbraided Moses upon the Circumcising of her Child, saying, factus es mihi Sponsus sanguinum, thou art to me a Bloudy Husband: we have no reason to quarrel that Christ was to us Salvator Sanguinum, a Bloudy Savi­our, i. e. a Saviour drencht in his own Bloud: for without the Bloud of Christ there had been no Re­demption.

[Page 85]But to be more particular and distinct: There are two Ways by which Christ destroy'd the Power of the Devil, and delivered Mankind from his Bondage, and those are Pretio & Exemplo, by the Price or Sa­tisfaction he paid for Sin, And by the Example of his Holy Life. By the first he destroy'd the Guilt of Sin, And by the second the Dominion or reigning Power of Sin.

1. Therefore we may say, There was a Necessity of Christ's Death and Sufferings, and that he should be a Wounded Saviour, that he might pay a Price, make Satisfaction to God the Father for the Sins of the World. For whether it be, that the Vindicative Ju­stice of God for Sin be so natural and intimate to his Essence that he cannot, without renouncing his very Nature and Being, pardon Sin without a Competent Satisfaction, as some would have it: Or whether it be only his Declared Will not to pardon Sin without a Competent Satisfaction, as others, more sutably to the Divine Goodness and Glory, affirm, I shall not need here to dispute; seeing both Sides agree in one and the same Conclusion, That it was necessary for Christ to Dye for the Sins of the World. The Wages of Sin is Death, says the Apostle: and in another place, Almost all things by the Law were purged by Bloud, and without shedding of Bloud there was no Remission. Now though the Bloud there mention­ed, was but the Bloud of Beasts that were sacrificed: yet those Beasts were the Proxies and Representatives of Men, and also Types of the Great Sacrifice which Christ was once to offer on the Cross, and derived from it all their Vertue and Merit: and God revealed this Way of atoning by Sacrifice early to the World, and afterwards prescribed it to his People the Jews by written Laws, from whom it was deriv'd to all [Page 86] Nations: though the Mystery, that Sacrifices were founded in the Death of Christ, was not clearly un­derstood till the Days of the Gospel. As a Remedy for Sin was promised from the Beginning, so 'twas al­so taught, however obscurely, from the very Begin­ning, That Sin was not to be abolisht without Satis­faction made for it; and that no Competent Satisfacti­on could be made for it, but by the Bloud of the Son of God, or the Eternal Destruction of the Sinner.

And if we will make the best Use of this Doctrine, we must observe, That as the Parts of the Body are framed in so excellent a manner, that they serve for more Uses than one: as the Nose not only to breathe, but to smell; the Hand not only to lay-hold with, but to strike, &c. So likewise that the In­stitution of Sacrifices for expiation of Guilt had two Excellent Designs in it: First, to shew God's Mercy to Sinners, and secondly, his Irreconcileable Hatred to Sin. And if we look no further in this Matter, than on God's Goodness only in accepting so favour­able an Exchange, as the Bloud of the Sacrifice, for the Bloud of the Sinner, we defeat one half of his Design, which was to shew the Malignant and Mor­tiferous Nature of Sin, in that it could not be pur­ged away by any less Means than Death; than either by the Destruction of the Sinner, or of some Other in his behalf. And therefore though God deal with us after that Royal Manner as the Children of Prin­ces are dealt with, who have another Punishment for their Faults; or as he dealt with David after his Numbering the People, past by in a great measure his Offence, and took Occasion from it only to send a Plague on Israel for former Transgressions; thus chusing rather to punish David's Ingenuity, than his Person; to afflict him with beholding the Afflictions [Page 87] of others, than by sending any immediately on him­self: yet if we shew not the like Ingenuity which David did, suffer not Our Selves, for what we see another suffer, when we were the Delinquents; I say, if as he cry'd out upon the Destruction of the People, Lo, I have sinned, I have done Wickedly; but these Sheep, what have they done? So if we cry not out, in Contemplation of what our Proxy suffered on our behalf, We have sinned, we have done Wicked­ly, but the Lamb of God, what has he done to be sacri­ficed for us? We shall forfeit both the Indulgence and Indemnity which God intended us, and while we shew our selves Insensible of so high a Benefit, we shall be deprived of it; and in the next place, we must Dye our Selves, and Dye to all Eternity.

And thus we see, as the Death of Christ, paid to God as a Ransom for Sins, ought to be the highest Object of our Joy: So the Consideration again on the other side, that Nothing but the Death of Christ could pay that Ransom, ought to create in us no less than a horrour and Detestation of Sin. But yet, I know not how, we see men precipitately and re­morslesly run into all Impiety, as if there were no danger in Sin; as if Christ had suffered nothing for it; as if it were as easily remitted, as 'tis committed; the Price of Iniquity no more than what it cost the Wicked Person to purchase it: For certainly, if Men did consider at how dear a Rate God's Justice and Wrath were satisfied, they would not think the gratifying of every Lust more valuable, than the Compensation made for it; they would not set more by the Savage Delight of Revenge, or the Swinish of Drunkenness, than by the Bloud of Christ; prefer the Favours of a Light Woman, before their Peace with God; a cheap Sin, before the dearest-bought [Page 88] Redemption. A Fool can work a Mischief, which may pose a Wiseman to remedy; and every Weak Person, when he is tempted, can commit Sin, but none but the Eternal Son of God can remove the Guilt of it when 'tis done. And 'tis the light Rec­koning that men make of Sin, which brings God's heavy Displeasure upon them for it; their thinking so cheaply of the Greatest Offences, because the Pardon of them costs them little, that provokes him to make them feel what the Weight of Guilt is: For 'tis but just, that those who refuse to understand the pernicious Nature of Sin by the Punishment laid on an Other, should understand it by undergoing the Punishment of it themselves; who will not learn how Odious it is to God by the Death of his Son, should be taught it by their own Confusion. Who is there so Ungrateful and Insensible even among the Worst of Men, that if a Friend hazard his Life for his Preservation, will not acknowledge so great a Benefit? and yet the Son of God did not only ha­zard, but lay down his Life to redeem us from E­ternal Damnation, and few there are that consider it, that have so much Compassion, as but to ask the Question in my Text, What are these Wounds in thy hands? resentingly to say, Was it possible so Divine a Person should be so Abus'd for me? that the Son of God, should be buffetted, spit on, derided, torn with Scourges, mangled with Tortures, and at last nail'd to the Cross, for my Disobedience? There are those, I confess, in the Church of Rome who spend a great Part of their Lives in gazing on a Crucifix, and weeping over the Pictures of our Lord's Passion, in bemoaning his Sufferings, and kissing the Represen­tations of his Wounds: but, alas, these do but haerere in cortice, stick at the Bark and Husk of the Mystery, [Page 89] out of a simple or affected Fondness express their Gratitude to Christ a Wrong Way, lament his Suf­ferings now they are past, and he in Glory at the Right Hand of his Father; they do not penetrate into the true Purpose and Meaning of his Sufferings, as they declare the Malignant Nature of Sin, that could not be expiated at a less Rate than the Death of so Divine a Person: For this is the true Return that Men should make Christ for his Passion, not so much to consider What his Wounds were, as For what they were, and from thence fly that which was the Cause of his Sufferings.

The second Reason of the Necessity of Christ's Sufferings, I said, was, To give Men an Example of Obedience. The Apostle, Heb. 2.17. gives another Reason for Christ's suffering in our Nature, viz. that he might be a Merciful High Priest, become Compassio­nate of our Infirmities by the Experimental Knowledge of them in his Own Person. But the Reason or Pur­pose I now speak of, is such as is in Reference to Men, and not to himself; that he might give an Ex­ample to the World, that God commanded nothing but what was possible to be performed by Flesh and Bloud. The last Effort or Endeavour of Heaven to bring Men to Salvation was now essaying, and the shortest and most Efficacious Motive was thought to be, to give them an Instance of the Fulfilling the Law: Precepts are but cold Inducements; but an Example fires the Soul with Emulation to do, what it sees done before it; and Men think it a Dispa­ragement to give out in that, which another has en­terpriz'd with Success. The Life of a Christian is full of Difficulties and Troubles, many Lusts are to be mortifi'd, many Affections to be rectifi'd, many Vices to be rooted out, and many Vertuous Habits to be [Page 90] acquir'd, which things are not Easie even to the best of Men; again, Persecutions and Evils, loss of Goods, of Liberty, and Life it self, are the Lot often of the most Righteous, and for their Righteousness: So that there was need of a Great Encouragement and a Generous Precedent to excite Men to under­take the Heroick Duties of Christianity. God there­fore afforded them his Own Son clothed in our Nature to go before them; his Own Son, I say, to add the Greater Authority to his Example; and cloathed in our Flesh, to remove all Objections which Sloth might otherwise make against the Possibility of fol­lowing his Steps. I am not Equal, says one, to the Burdens and Dangers required in a Christian Life, able to undergo Imprisonment, Beggary, Martyrdom, &c. Behold my Hands and my Feet, says Christ, these Wounds I suffered for thy Salvation, and canst not thou, who art framed of the same Flesh and Bloud, endure as much for thy Self, as another could endure for thee? Says another, I cannot digest Injuries and Affronts, my Temper, my Profession of Life, are inconsistent with these things. Learn of me, says Christ, I am lowly and meek, and when I was enthron'd in the high­est Heavens, I disdained not to descend into this World in the form of a Servant, and to bear Indignities and Outrages, when the Wisdom of God so order'd it, and well then mayst thou submit to the like, whose Original is but from the Earth. These things are too plain to be long insisted on: let thus much suffice to be said in Satisfaction to this Question, What are these Wounds in thy Hands? viz. they signifie first Malum culpae, the Evil Demerit of Sin, which Christ suffered, that we might be excused. Secondly Malum poenae, the Toleration of Evil, which Christ underwent to leave us an Example to follow him. I proceed to shew, [Page 91] For what Reason the Divine Wisdom so order'd it, that Christ should be wounded by those be deserved Best from, in Explanation of these Words,

I. What it is for the Spirit of God to dwell in a man.

The Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead is no other, than the Eternal Spirit of God, the third Person in the Trinity, the Spirit which is mentioned in Genesis, that in the beginning of the World gave Life to all things, is the same Spirit that still gives the Palingenesia, the second Genesis, or Re­generation: whether we understand the Word of the Change and Renovation of our Soul and Affections [Page 101] to the Will of God in this Life, or the Resuscitation of the Body from the Grave in the next, and the Re­uniting it with the Soul in order to Eternal Bliss.

The Spirit is said here to be the Spirit [ Of God] but not the Spirit [ In God:] as if it dwelt in God, as it dwells in us: it is in God Personally and Essenti­ally, as his Being, but 'tis in us only by way of Tenancy, as an Inhabitant or Inmate, to excite in us its Gifts and Graces. And this may serve to refute and silence those deceived Souls, who of late times, through their misunderstanding of the Union of the Saints with God exprest in Scripture, have run into such high-flown and horrible Blasphemies, as to say, They are In-Godded in God, and In-Christed in Christ: thus claiming Prerogative, instead of Privi­ledge; and affirming Divinity, instead of a Divine Spirit, to be in them; supposing themselves to be in­spired even Essentially with the Divine Nature. But such Blasphemous Conceits as these, so audacious and injurious to the Deity, are so far from being Effects of God's Spirit, which is the Principle of Eternal Life in those it dwells, that they are Demonstrations of the Spirit of Satan, an Affectation to be like the Most High, and to equal their Maker, and unrepent­ed of will certainly consign them to have a Portion with him in Eternal Death: for what the Jews blind­ly objected against our Lord as a Crime, That being but a Man, he made himself God, may be justly char­ged on these, that being indeed but Men, and com­monly but the Dreggs of Men, they fansie themselves to be Gods: Only the Sin of these is more unpar­donable, in regard that after so long a time, and so much warning of the like Miscarriage in this kind, they have not exploded this old worn out Stratagem of Satan's. But though this Diabolical Frenzy must [Page 102] be abhorr'd, yet when 'tis said that the Spirit of God dwells in a Man, we must look upon it as denoting something more Extraordinary and Excellent, than the common Lodging or Abiding of an Inhabitant in a House; as representing rather God's Residence in his Temple at Jerusalem: which Temple as it was Splendid and Glorious with all that Art and Cost could make it, a Representation of Heaven, so God by wonderful Tokens and Testimonies declared his Divine Presence in it. And after this manner the Heart of every Christian ought to be embellish'd with Vertue, and sanctified like a Temple, appear like a little Heaven upon Earth, in which the Holy Spirit may be seen to dwell by shewing his Divine Operations. Know ye not, says S ^t Paul, that your Bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost? Solomon built God but one Material House, but Christ by his Spirit has raised to God as many Living Temples on Earth, as there are Believers.

But to be more particular: Dwelling in a House implies three things. 1. Legitimate Possession by Legal Title and Introduction. 2. Command and Dominion. 3. Residence or Mansion. And all these Properties the In-dwelling of the Spirit of God ought to have in those, whom it hereafter quickens to Everlasting Life.

1. The Spirit must have Legitimate Introduction and Possession. God dwelt not in his Temple at Je­rusalem, till it was Dedicated and consecrated to him, till he was introduced into it by Supplications and Sa­crifices. And his Holy Spirit will not dwell in Mens Hearts, till they be dedicated and consecrated to him by Baptism, and he be introduced by Prayer, and Vows of Faith and Repentance, Ephes. 3.17. S ^t Paul beseeches God, that he would grant to the Ephesians, [Page 103] according to the riches of his Glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the Inner-Man, that Christ may dwell in their Hearts by Faith. They that by Faith in Christ do not unite themselves unto him, and so receive of his Spirit, have not yet introduced the Spirit into its Temple: and they that recede again from the Faith after they have received it, dislodge and thrust the Holy Spirit out of his Tenure and Occupation. The Jews reckoned that God was still among them, as before, when they had rejected and crucified the Holy One: but after such their Infidelity and Wickedness he remained no more in their Hearts, than he did in their Material Temple, after that Voice was heard to come out of it, migremus hinc, let us depart hence. Wheresoever it is so, That either Men believe not on the Son of God, or else having believed on him, through the Allurements of the World and the Flesh fall back again into Unbelief, and chuse ra­ther to dispossess his Spirit, than their Sins and Lusts, there no Quickening Power will be found to revive their Mortal Bodies at the last Day: for where the Spirit it self is not, its Operations cannot be expected. 'Tis true indeed, that Sinners and Infidels shall rise again, as S ^t Paul says, Acts 24.15. There shall be a Resurrection of the Dead, both of the Just, and Vnjust. Those that crucified Christ in the days of his Flesh, and those that crucifie him by their Wicked Lives now in his Glory, shall rise no less than True Belie­vers, than his holy Apostles and Martyrs: But how, and to what Resurrection shall they rise? Even to such a Resurrection as is no other than a Second and Worse Death, a Death not of Extinction or anni­hilation, but a Death of Eternal Duration in Tor­ment; Non-Existence being not the State of the Se­cond Death, but Endless and Insupportable Misery: [Page 104] insomuch that they shall wish, that the Grave had for ever swallowed them up; that as they liv'd like the Beasts that perish, so they had also dyed like them, without the Expectation of any After-Being. So that the Resurrection of the Wicked is but an Ae­quivocal Resurrection: as the lifting up of the Head of Pharaoh's Baker on the Gallows, and the hanging Haman fifty Cubits high, were but Aequivocal Ad­vancements. The Bodies of the Saints that rose after the Passion, dy'd again the same Death; but those that shall rise at the Last Day, not having the Spirit, shall dye again, not the same Death (that would be a Happiness) but a Death that shall have no End; and the Miseries of which we can no more describe, than we can the Joys of Eternal Life: but we must suffer a Change, and be endued with new Powers and Faculties, before we can support the Bliss of the one, or the Torments of the other.

The second Property of an Inhabitant or Dweller in a House, is to Command and Rule. 'Tis the Saying of every man to those that withstand the Exercise of their just Authority, or but their Civility, Give me leave to Command in my own House. The Spirit of God must Rule and Command where it dwells; we must not only give it House-room, but Domini­on; look upon him as a Tenant, but revere as our Land-Lord, resign our Actions, Wills, Affections, the Whole Man to his Dispose and Guidance. Faith invites the Holy Ghost, but Obedience and Submissi­on to his Gracious Motions perfumes his Habitation, and makes him delight to stay in it. The Spirit of Love, Meekness, Purity, and Holiness, will not re­side, but where these and the like Vertues bear the Sway. Let the Word of Christ, says S ^t Paul, dwell in you Richly in all Wisdom: So let the Spirit of God [Page 105] dwell in you Richly in all Wisdom: it will not Co­habit with the Sons of Men, unless it be Richly, i. e. in the Abundance of its own Divine Graces and O­perations. If we will have the Spirit of God quicken our Mortal Bodies hereafter, we must suffer him to quicken our Souls in this Life; if we hope to reign by his Power in the World to come, we must submit to his Dominion in this present World.

The third Property is Residence and Mansion; our Houses are called our Manours and Places, i. e. the Places where we ordinarily abide, and where the Law presumes we are to be found: so that if a Writ be delivered to any of the Houshold, or but fastned to the Ring of the Door, 'tis counted the same thing as if given into our hands. Thus our Hearts must be the Holy Spirit's Manour or Place: for what David says of God's constant Abode in his Temple on Mount Sion, This is the Hill which God delights to dwell in, yea the Lord will dwell in it for ever: the like must be said of the constant Abode of the Holy Spirit in our Hearts, This is the Habitation of the Holy Spi­rit, and if we grieve him not, nor drive him away by our Sins, he will delight to dwell in us for ever. When we were devoted to God in Baptism, we de­volved and made-over to his Holy Spirit an Estate in our Hearts, even the Whole Term we had to live in this World: and if we make good this Grant or De­mise, he will never abandon his Tenements, till he has raised them up to Eternal Glory. The Reason that a Great Schole-Man gives, Why God punishes the Sins of Men, which were but Temporal, with an Eternity of Torments, is, Quia peccaverunt in suo ae­terno, because they sinn'd out all the Eternity they had, i. e. all the Time God allowed them in this World; and had he continued their Lives to the End [Page 106] of all Ages, they would have continued still the same Wicked Persons. The like Reason may be given for God's rewarding the Temporal Obedience of the Righteous with Eternal Glory, Quia obedientes fue­runt in suo aeterno, because they were Obedient all that little Eternity he allowed them in this World, and would have persever'd in their Obedience if he had drawn out their Lives to the last Period of Time. Abiding and Persevering in Righteousness is that which will give us Immortality: if we give up the Possession of our Souls to the Dispose and Conduct of the Blessed Spirit the Whole Little Aeternum we have in this World, we shall certainly obtain an Eternity, that shall have no end in the next. And thus I have shew'd the Manner of the Spirit's Dwelling in every Christian: and they that pretend to his In-dwelling without these Properties, boast of an In-mate which they have not; and as they want this Divine Guest, so they will want the Blessed Effects and Consequence of his inhabiting in them, the quickning of their Mortal Bodies at the last Day to Glory. Which is the second thing I propos'd to explain,

And First, He shall convince the World of Sin.

What Sin it is, which is meant here, that the Spirit shall convince the World of, is doubtful. It may well be thought to be the Sin of Cruelty, the per­verse and barbarous Inhumanity the Jews shew'd, when they demanded a Murderer to be releas'd unto them, and kill'd the Just One. And we read in Ef­fect, Acts 2.36. that it was one of the first Works [Page 137] of the Spirit after his coming, to bring three thousand Souls to confess this Sin, and shew their Compunction for it: for after S ^t Peter had laid before them how by wicked hands they had crucified and slain the Lord of Life, they were prick'd to the heart, and said, Men and Brethren, what shall we do? i. e. to be deliver'd from the Sin of Murder or Cruelty.

But though this Interpretation be plausible, it a­grees not with the Reason Christ himself gives in the Verse immediately following my Text, why the Holy Ghost should convince the World of Sin. Of Sin, says he, because they believe not on me. It should seem then, it was the Sin of Unbelief that he came to re­prove or convince the World of. And this is the Opinion of many on the place. The truth is, Infide­lity is a Sin highly injurious to the Deity, it makes God a Lyar, as S ^t John says, He that believeth not God, hath made him a Lyar. It makes him impotent and ignorant, How should God perceive, says the Wicked, Psal. 73.11. is there knowledge in the most High? And the faithless Israelites, Can God prepare a Table in the Wilderness? He smote the stony Rock indeed, that the Water gushed out; but can he give Bread also, and pro­vide Flesh for his People? Nay, it fansies him also Wicked, as those words spoken in the Person of God, Psal. 50. do shew. Thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thy self. And in the last place it con­cludes him to be Nothing at all. The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Infidelity first enter­tains Mean thoughts of God, doubts of his Attributes, and afterwards of his very Being. Infidelity moved God to send upon the Israelites in the Wilderness al­most as many and grievous Plagues, as he had sent upon the Egyptians. And many Christian Professors are so possest against this Sin, that they have not [Page 138] doubted to aver, That as there is no Vertue that ju­stifies but Faith, so there is no Sin that condemns but Infidelity. And that the Jews were highly guilty of this Sin in reference to Christ, there is no question: for though he had wrought so many Miracles among them, as the Evangelist says, they believed not on him. They might have known who he was, if they had not been wilfully blind, by the Rule given them by Moses, Deut. 18.12. to discern a True Prophet from a False; and again at the 18 ^th ver. to distinguish the Messiah from other Common Prophets: yet blinded with Pride, Malice, Envy, and the like, the Great Council it self of the Sanhedrim condemned the Lord of Life for an Impostor, and crucified him; affirm­ed, That by a Confederacy with the Devil he cast out Devils. So that this their Unbelief, and perverse Proceeding, might be a very just Cause of the De­scent of the third Person in the Trinity to vindicate the Injury and Outrage done to the second; after a Judicial Manner to arraign and convince the World of Sin, i. e. of Infidelity and Injustice to the Son of God.

But though there was Infidelity in the Case, I con­ceive they do exactliest hit the meaning of the place, who make not our Lord's Words point so much at any particular determinate Sin after his Coming, as at the General Sin, wherein all the World lay before his Coming, viz. the Sin of Adam, in which both Jew and Gentile were concluded: and from which, 'tis said, He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be damned. Now the Holy Ghost, when he came into the World to bear Testimony to all that Christ did, reproved and convinced it (that is, all Unbelievers) that they lay still under the Old Condemnation of the First Man, see­ing [Page 139] they embraced not the Means of Grace and Par­don offer'd by Christ in the Gospel: nay, and that their Infidelity added a new and worse Guilt to the former they lay under, the Guilt of refusing Offer'd Redemption; which would make their Condemna­tion yet heavier: For though Hell be the ultimum Supplicium, the utmost Punishment the Divine Ven­geance can inflict; yet as there are Degrees of Sins, so there are Degrees of Torment; and, as 'tis said, Hell shall be a second time heated for those that leave their first Station: so we may say, it shall be a second time heated for those that refuse the Salvation offer'd by Christ.

The second Particular the Spirit shall convince the World of, is of Righteousness. But how must this be understood? Shall he convince the World of Sin and of Righteousness both? Yes, de Peccato proprio, & Justitia aliena, as S ^t Augustine distinguishes, of its Own Wickedness, and of an Others Righteousness; the Spirit shall convince the World that 'tis sinful, and that Christ was Righteous. And thus our Lord af­terwards interprets his own Words, He will convince the World of Wickedness, because I go to my Father. The World spared not, while Christ was on Earth, to spend their rash Judgments of him, He is a Good Man; say some: Nay, say others, but he deceiveth the People. Others again, He is a Samaritan, and hath a Devil, and the like. But his going to the Father, stopt the Mouth of all Slander: For as this was an ap­prov'd Maxim, which was utter'd by the Man that was born Blind, God heareth not Sinners: So this was a Truth likely to find a more Easie and General Ad­mittance, God translateth not Sinners miraculously and visibly to Heaven. Enoch and Elias were thus tran­slated; but 'tis testified of the first, That he pleased [Page 140] God, and of the last, That his Zeal for God's Glory exceeded. Christ therefore being translated to Hea­ven, it was an irrefragable Proof of his Righteous­ness. But how did the Holy Ghost convince this? Why, by his very coming into the World, had he born no other Testimony: For Christ had said in the Verse before my Text, If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. The Descending of the Holy Ghost was the Consequent of Christ's Ascending.

But then the Righteousness, which the Spirit shall here convince the World of, must be understood in a greater Latitude, than only of the Inherent Righ­teousness in Christ's Person; it comprehends also the Transient Righteousness that past from him to others: As S ^t John says in another place, That he was not on­ly a Glorious Light in himself, but the Light of the World, and the Light of Men. A Righteousness of greater Concern and Importance, than his Inherent Righte­ousness: for that made his Person only Illustrious, but this brought Utility and Benefit to Mankind; and as the first spoke him the Son of God, the last also the Saviour of the World. Christ's Righteous­ness is therefore here to be understood Causativè, that he was the Author or Cause of Righteousness; not only that he was Righteous, but Righteousness unto others; and that two Ways. First, In respect of his Doctrine, that was Righteousness, the very Rule and Standard of it, the perfect Will of God able to con­form us to his Likeness, and the World rejected it, only because their Deeds were Evil. And this the Holy Ghost, when he came, convinc't the World of, viz. of the Desperateness of its Condition, that it had refused the True Light, and for no other reason than for that which was named, Because their Deeds [Page 141] were Evil, and they hated to be reform'd. Secondly, Christ was Righteousness in respect of the Justification of the World, as he was Justitia nostra, the Lord our Righteousness, as the Prophets had foretold. And indeed this was the Chief Office and Business of the Holy Ghost at his coming, to convince Men, That there was no other Name under Heaven by which they could be sav'd, but only by that Name: That neither the Contemplation of things Divine, toge­ther with the Practice of Moral Vertues, which was the Gentiles Way; nor the Plea of being Circumci­sed, and descended from such and such Parents, which was the Jewish Way, avail'd any thing towards the obtaining of Justification, without the laying hold of Christ's Righteousness.

The third Particular the Spirit shall convince the World of, is of Judgment. S ^t Bernard understood the Words Actively, viz. That the Spirit shall con­vince the World of its Perverse Judgment of Christ, and the other things appertaining to God. He shall convince the World, says he, de Peccato quod dissimu­lat, de Justitia quod non ordinat, de Judicio quod usur­pat, of the Sin which they now cloak or dissemble, of the Righteousness which they direct not aright, and of the Judgment they unduly exercise. But the 11 ^th Verse clearly opposes this Interpretation, and shews that the Judgment spoken of, is not meant of the World Actively, which the World had made, but Passively, which shall be made or pass'd upon the World. Now the World, or Unbelieving Part of it, are said to be convinc't by the Judgment that should come upon them in this, That the Prince of the World is cast out. For he that hath Master'd the Prince, broken the Power of his Kingdom, and holds him in Vassalage, may be accounted to have master'd and [Page 142] subdu'd his People also: And the Prince of the World is said to be thus Judg'd two Ways.

First, By spoiling him of his Strength: Having spoiled Principalities and Powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it, Coloss. 2.15. What is a Prince when he is stript of his Power? When his Counsels and Policies are defeated or de­tected, his Officers arrested, his Prisons broke open, his Fortresses ruined and dismantled, his Harness and Ammunition of War seised, and the like? And thus Satan was divested and unthroned by Christ, and shewed openly to be judged and subdued after the Coming of the Holy Ghost. Sin, his strong Yoke, by which he held Mankind in Bondage and Slavery, was broken; Guilt, the Plea of his Dominion and Tyranny over them, taken away by Satisfaction made for it; Temptation, his great Stratagem, made weak and invalid by Grace; Death, his Sergeant himself, mortified; the Grave, his Prison, set open, and made only a Dormitory and harmless Through-fare to Life. These things were his first Judgment, before the great and final Day, when the Staff of his Authority was, as 'twere, broken over his head, and no Power left him, but what those that love Servitude better than Freedom; chose their own Destruction before the Salvation purchas'd for them, voluntarily give him over themselves. These things, I say, did evince the Fall of Satan as manifestly, as the train of Light, which follows that which the People call a Falling Star, evinces the descent of that Meteor; and which possibly our Lord alluded to, when he said, I be­held Satan, as Lightning, fall from Heaven.

But then, Secondly, Satan is judged Personally: for though his Sentence of Condemnation be yet, as I may say, but Ambulatory, in regard of the Execu­tion, [Page 143] yet it is Final and Peremptory in regard of the Determination. He that has forfeited his Life to the Law, and is reserved in Chains in expectation of the next Assize; or waits only donec sternuntur Subsellia, till the Judge puts on his Robes, and the Court sits, differs but little from him, that has actually received his Doom. And such is Satans Condition since the Coming of Christ and the Holy Ghost, Datur mora parvula, some little stay there is, till the Figure of this World be changed, and then he goes for ever to his Pro­per Place. And let this suffice to be said of the Mat­ter which the Spirit shall reprove or convince the World of: namely, of Sin, of Righteousness, and of Judgment. I come in the next place to shew the Manner, how the Spirit did convince the World.

The Manner of the Conviction.

The word in the Original [...], signifies, as was said, either to Reprove or to Convince; to convince the Understanding of an Errour, or to reprove the Will of a Crime. And the Holy Ghost performed both these parts at his Coming.

First, He convinced mens Understandings, that they were in Sin; under the Guilt contracted by the first Man, and that Belief in Christ, (who was the Seed of the Woman that was to bruise the Serpents head, and who had power to cast out the Prince of the World, that he should no more abuse the Na­tions) was the only Way to get out of that and all other Sins, and to obtain Justification. And this was de facto brought to pass, in so great a Part of the World's being converted after the Coming of the Ho­ly Ghost, and being content to go down into the Laver of Regeneration, the Waters of Baptism, to [Page 144] cleanse away their Sins: and the Church of Christ in those days might have been compared, as Solomon compared the Jewish to a Flock of Sheep newly come up from washing. For all these renounced the Prince of this World, and acknowledged Jesus Christ to be the only Saviour: and those that made use of and improved the Grace given them in Baptism, found the Devil a weak and impotent Prince, that might easily be resisted and foiled; that had no Power but what was meerly precarious and delusive, such as might perswade or deceive men into Sin, but could not compel them.

But then as the Holy Ghost wrought this Convi­ction on the Unbelieving World, by what Means did he work it? There are two Ways of convincing Mens Judgments, The one by Argumentation, and necessary Consequence on certain Premisses granted; The other by sensible and ocular Demonstration: And though the last Way of these, by Aristotle and the Masters of Reason, be counted [...], unartificial and less Noble, yet in Assurance it goes beyond all manner of Reasoning. And this was the Way the Holy Ghost took to Convince the Gain-saying World of the Salvation preached by Christ: Our Lord him­self also points at this Way, Joh. 15.26. where he says to his Disciples, When the Comforter is come, the Spirit of Truth, he shall testifie of me, and ye also shall bear Witness. Ye also shall bear Witness] was not un­necessarily added: for a Spirit has no Voice of its own, no more than it has Flesh and Bones: But the Apostles were the Spirit's Agents, their Sermons were its Voice, and their Hands its Organs by which it wrought its Miracles: the Epistles of S ^t Paul, and of the rest of the Apostles, we may say, were the Rhetorick, but the Acts of the Apostles were the Lo­gick [Page 145] of the Holy Ghost. The truth is, whatever other Proofs were brought for the Confirmation of Christian Religion, Miracles were the Strength of it, the Unresistible Engines that bore down all Infidelity before them: and S ^t Paul, Heb. 2.3. shews the Unexcusableness of not yielding to this Conviction. How shall we escape, says he, if we neg­lect so Great Salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard it, God also bearing them Witness with Signs and Wonders, and with divers Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Ghost?

But then here some will say, That this Conviction, by the Miraculous Operations of the Holy Ghost, was indeed a Powerful Conviction to those that were Witnesses of them, and saw these things done: but what do they signifie to us, upon whom the Ends of the World are come, and saw them not? To answer this Objection at large, would be in Effect to ingage in a Discourse of the whole Subject of the Truth of Christian Religion, or the Demonstration Evangelical, of which Eusebius, the first Christian Historian after the Apostles, now extant, wrote seven Books: I shall therefore content my self, in the short time that re­mains to me, to present you, by way of Answer, only with one Consideration, but 'tis a Consideration that had great force with S ^t Augustine, and 'tis this; The very Conversion of the World is the highest Argu­ment imaginable, that it was converted by the Mira­culous Power of the Holy Ghost. For that Man, says the Father, that can conceive the World should relinquish their long doted on Religion, received from their Ancestors with so much Veneration, and a Superstitious Conceit, that they had been Prosperous under it, a Religion so well suited to their Carnal [Page 146] Affections; and receive in Exchange of it a New Religion, derived from so despicable and infamous an Author, as a Mean Man crucified by his own Na­tion, and the very Principles of which were so harsh to Flesh and Blood, and contrary to all worldly Glory and Interest; That Man, says S ^t Augustine, that can conceive this could be done without Miracle, is himself a greater Miracle, than those he thinks so hard to be believed. There were among the Roman Fen­cers of old one sort, that with a Net and Trident maintained Combate against their Opposers armed with a Sword and Helmet, and were so dextrous as to intangle and vanquish their Adversaries with these Uncouth Weapons. The Apostles of Christ, those Fishers of Men, may be likened to these Retiarii, these Fencers with Nets, who with the Metaphorical Noo­ses and Meaches of preaching, seconded by the Pow­er of Miracles, ensnared and captivated to the Gospel the armed, potent, proud, Idolatrous, learned, and vicious World! And this was the Way the Spirit took at his Coming, if we interpret [...] to Con­vince the Understanding of the World of its Errors.

But if we take it in the other Sense, redarguet Mundum, he shall Reprove the World for its Sins, it imports these two things. That the Spirit shall shame the World, And condemn it.

First, That it shall reproach and shame the World, for loving Darkness more than Light; Death, than Life; for lying under Wickedness and Guilt, when the Means of becoming Innocent was offered them; for chusing things Base and Degenerate, before things Noble and Praise-worthy; things Vicious and accompanied with Danger, rather than things Ver­tuous, though accompanied with Glory and Felicity; in a word, for chusing rather to perish in their Sins [Page 147] and Ignorance, than to be Instructed, reformed, and saved. And as the Spirit shall shame the World for so brutish and sottish a Choice, so, Secondly, it shall Condemn it. Shame and Confusion of Face is but the beginning of the Misery of Sinners, the conse­quent of the Discovery of their Wickedness, not the Punishment of it. What the Wiseman says shall be the Portion of those that love Danger, they shall perish in it: is true also of those that love Darkness more than Light; and the ways of Death, than the ways of Life; that they shall prove what the Riddle of Eternal Death is, of a Death that never dyes, and dwell in Eternal Night and Darkness. And thus that Spirit, which is the Spirit of Love and Gentle­ness, which descended in the Similitude of a Crea­ture that has no Gall nor Anger, and whose Office 'tis to save, to comfort, and support, shall exercise a Part so contrary to its Name and Nature, as to Con­demn, destroy, and confound; instead of shewing it self the Spirit of Lenity and Kindness, shew it self the Spirit of Indignation and Fury, a Froward, Chiding, and Reproaching Spirit. O ye stiff-necked and uncir­cumcised in Heart and Ears! says the Holy Ghost by the mouth of S ^t Stephen, which of the Prophets have not your Fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One, of whom ye have been now the Betrayers and Murderers. Stephen who dyed the Example of Meekness, the Mi­racle of Patience and Charity, inspired by the same Divine Spirit, lived a sharp Reprover and severe Con­demner of their Hardness of Heart and Unbelief.

And now, Beloved, to make some Application of what has been said: Are the things we have heard this day remote and unconcerning Stories? Tales on­ly of the Apostles Times, and Events at the first prea­ching [Page 148] of the Gospel? Or is it not still the Business of the Spirit to Convince the World of Sin, of Righteous­ness, and of Judgment? To rebuke and reprove it for the little or ill Use it has made of the Unvaluable Benefits offered it by Christ? To Judge and Con­demn it for preferring the Ways of Death and De­struction, before those of Life and Salvation; even rejecting and crucifying the Lord of Glory a second time by their Sins? 'Tis true, the Extraordinary Mi­raculous Operations of the Holy Ghost are ceased; but his Ordinary, his Inward Reproofs and Convi­ctions, by the Outward preaching of the Word; his converting, sanctifying, and justifying of some, and final Condemnation, and sealing up of others in their Impenitence, still remain. Christ's Work of our Sal­vation lasted but a while, and had its Period on the Cross; but the Spirit of Christ, which came after him, had no Period, no Hitherto of his working, but his Operations continue to the End of the World. And 'tis wonderful to consider, That after so many Unwearied and powerful Endeavours of the Spirit for sixteen hundred Years, that so much gross Infide­lity and so many scandalous Impieties are still in the World: That the Unjust and Unmerciful are Unjust and Unmerciful still, the Voluptuous and In­continent are voluptuous and incontinent still, the Prophane and Atheistical are prophane and atheistical still, the Seditious and Disobedient to Government persist to be so still: as if the World were grown too Old to blush or to learn: and what was said in Praise of our Lords Constancy and Resolution in Suffering, That he Despised the Shame, were Commendable also in the Effrontery and Impudence of the World in its Sins, That it despises all Shame. S ^t Augustine says, That in his Young Unconverted days he boasted of [Page 149] many Sins, which he had never committed, ne vide­rer abjectior, quo innocentior, lest I should have ap­peared Abject and poor Spirited, if I had been known to be Innocent. And too many there are in this Age, that count the Vices of the Time the Gal­lantries of it; and are as much abasht to come be­hind in any Lewdness in Vogue, as to be late in the Fashion.

And when things stand thus, that those that have given their Names to Christ in Baptism are more pro­fligate Sinners, than Turks and Infidels; may not Preachers be allow'd to say, The World is not yet Converted, the Holy Ghost has not perfected his Work? Good God! what a Change, what a Bustle, as I may say, did the Spirit make at his first Coming? Such as is still Wonderful to Posterity to hear or read! How many thousands were Converted by one Sermon? How many Nations were made Proselytes by unfolding but some one Divine Truth? Rich men sold their Lands, the Learned in Curious Arts their Books, and laid the Money at the Apostles Feet; Souldiers surrendred their Swords, Philosophers their Reason, Kings their Scepters, upon the Sight of a single Miracle; and, which was more than all the rest, they parted with their habitual Lusts, their gainful delightful Corruptions, as allowable and cur­rant generally in those days, as the Coin among them, and made an intire Oblation of them to the Gospel. But now the Spirit of God, by all the in­dustrious and laborious Endeavours of his Servants, can hardly in many Months, in many Years, win some one Person from a Gainless Tasteless Evil Cu­stom only, as vain Swearing, Lying, malicious Cen­suring, and the like.

And all that Men have to say in their Defence for [Page 150] this is, That they have not such Divine Teachers, nor do see the Miracles spoken of heretofore. Neither, as we may reply, do they need these. It was neces­sary to remove the Jewish Law, which was given by the Ministry of Angels, by a no less Glorious Mini­stration; to extirpate the long-rooted Superstition and Idolatry of the Heathens, by Divine and Super­natural Convictions: But do those that have been bred and train'd up in the Christian Religion, need an Apostle or Supernatural Teacher to tell them, They should not steal? Signs and Wonders from Heaven to inform them, They ought not to be Drunk, to commit Adultery, to be Schismaticks or Traytors? If their Darkness be so great, 'tis not that God has not afforded them sufficient Light, but they wilfully shut their Eyes against it, or have Extinguisht it, loving the Ways of Sin, more than the Ways of Righteousness: and 'tis not for such as these, proudly to exact Miracles again to enlighten them. God ex­pects from the World the Returns of a holy Faith and Obedience for the innumerable Miracles of his Power, Wisdom and Goodness already shewed; and if ob­stinate and obdurate Sinners ask for more Signs and Wonders, they are to be answer'd, as our Lord an­swer'd the Jews upon the like perverse Demand, That no Sign shall be given them, but that of the Prophet Jo­nas, i. e. those that are already past, and not regard­ed by them.

The Holy Spirit with great Benignity and Long-suffering endeavours to reclaim Lapsed Sinners, gives them his preventing and assisting Grace; prompts them with Good Thoughts, and if they make use of these, actuates their Repentance, strengthens them to improve and encrease in Righteousness, and the like: But if they despise these Favours, stand upon [Page 151] Terms, and expect Miracles; will be converted at no Cheaper Rate, than the Holy Ghost's shewing himself in that Outward astonishing Manner, as he did at the first Pentecost; they will sooner provoke him to exercise his last Dreadful Act, which is to Seal up obstinate Sinners in the Hardness of their Heart, than win him to prostitute his Divine Power to their wicked Fancies; urge him to pronounce to them, what he does to the like Uncorrigible Sinners, Rev. 22.11. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still; i. e. the Time of Grace being forfeited by them, he will give them up to their own ways, and certain Destruction. Those therefore that thus Exalt themselves like Luci­fer, let them take heed (while 'tis yet allowed them so to do) that they fall not also like him into the same Abyss of Eternal Misery; consider that it be­comes not those that have been Rebels to Heaven, to article and capitulate for the Manner of their Par­don and Reception into Favour; to demand such Conditions and Priviledges as the Greatest Saints pre­sume not to beg, viz. to stipulate for Miracles, when Pardon is too high a Grace; as if Salvation was not their aim, but to triumph in the Contempt of God, and the breach of his Laws. The Prodigal Son, when he had spent his Portion in riotous Courses a­mong Harlots, did not send impudently to his Father to supply him with more Considerable Summs, upon the consideration that what he had received of him was Small and Contemptible: but confess'd his Miscarriage, that he had wasted in Lewdness and Dissoluteness a Li­beral Patrimony, and was not worthy to be counted the Son of so Good a Father; that to be as one of his hired Servants, was above his desert: thus as his Crimes were heinous, his Thoughts of himself were [Page 152] lowly and mean; as his Name was infamous, his Person squalid, his Condition indigent and vagabund, his Deportment and Requests were stampt with the profoundest Humility and Submission. And this be­ing not a History of one that had spent a Portion in Money, but a Parable of such as have wasted the Stock of Grace given them by God, upbraids those that are arrogant and pufft up in the like Cir­cumstance; teaches them that 'tis their part, to put their Mouths in the Dust, and to abhor themselves, to repent in Sackcloth and Ashes, and to catch greedily and thankfully at the least Glimpse of Par­don, even upon the hardest Terms: and that this is the only Course to turn their Rags into Rich Robes and Gold Rings; their Husks into a Fatted Calf; their accursed Condition, without a Figure, into a Blessed and Heavenly.

Giving of Hearing, and giving of Speech:

Deaf and Dumb are in Effect one and the same Infirmity, Evils so complicated, that one is a neces­sary Consequence of the other, and the Word in the Original [...] signifies both Deaf and Dumb: to cure also the one, is to cure the other, i. e. he that o­pens the Ear, does with one and the same Act so far release the Tongue, as to put it into a Capacity of re­covering Speech. But yet the People here very pro­perly exprest these as two distinct Cures: for though that which makes a Bar on the one Sense, tyes a Knot likewise on the other, yet they are really two Impo­tencies, and the Operation of our Lord was, as I may say, a Single Double Miracle; Single, consider­ing the necessary Complication of the two Evils; Double, considering the opening of the two Doors, the Door of Audience, and the Door of Utterance; and the People with good Reason Separated, as well as Extolled, the Fact, viz. that our Lord, with the [Page 161] simple Clue or Key only of his Finger did perforate and discover all the subtile Wards and Meanders of the Ear, and the hidden Vaults of the Mouth; and so rectifie the Imperfections of them, that Sound en­tered into the one, and was formed and made to issue Articulately out of the other. The Senses may re­ceive Help from the Arts and Inventions of men, but not Creation; the Orator, with a Pebble in his mouth, might help his Pronunciation, and by an In­strument conveying Sound, the Hearing may be as­sisted: but a total Privation, or rather Privative Abnegation or Original Impotence, that derides the Operations of the Surgeon, and the Prescriptions of the Physician, and the Cure can never be wrought, but where the Finger of Christ is the Probe and the Salve.

But I have not yet declared the Greatness of the Miracle, it was still more wonderful, if, as Interpre­ters conjecture, and not without reason, Christ did not only open the Ears and loosen the Tongue of the Impotent Person, but also enricht his Understanding; instructed his Mind, as well as healed his Senses; be­stowed on him Knowledge, which through defect of Hearing, must needs be defective in him; conferred on him Words, as well as the Power to pronounce them; and Conceptions, as well as Words; thus gi­ving him linguam & linguam, not only a Tongue, but also a Language: infusing into his Soul the Dicti­onary or whole Treasure of Words in a Moment, together with a Competency of Principles and Noti­ons; which, even to those that have the Use of the Organs, is opus dierum, a Work of Time and Labour to acquire; after the Miracle done upon the Deaf and Dumb Man, there was need of Study and Indu­stry to inform him; when the Surgeon had done [Page 162] his Work, there was place still for the Teacher. As may be seen by him that was newly recovered of his Blindness in the following Chapter, I see, says he, Men like Trees walking, i. e. I see, but I know not well what I see; I cannot distinguish Men from Trees, but that they walk. Those that are endowed with the Senses they were not born with, cannot im­mediately make a Right Use of them: and upon this account divers Counterfeits have been detected, while they have too soon confest a distinct Know­ledge of Objects and their Accidents after their pre­tended Recovery; shewing at once both their Fraud and Ignorance, by their too quick revealing their Experience. This therefore, I say, greatly adds to the Glory of the Miracle, if it were indeed so, that the Organ and the skill; the Faculty, and the Learn­ing were both given together.

We are taught from hence these two Lessons: 1. That whatever our Wants or Distresses are, how­ever amazing and seemingly insuperable our Dangers, yet to trust and confide in that Omnipotent God, to whose Power nothing can give check; who when the Senses could not be cured, could yet create them; and when there was no Remedy in Nature, could find one by a Miracle! 2. We are taught no less to adore his Bounty and Goodness, who knows no other Measure of Giving, but to supply all that is Necessary: who to the Impotent Man gave Senses, to his Senses added Knowledge, to his Knowledge Faith, to his Faith Salvation. For God deals no o­therwise with men at this day, if they reject not his Grace; whoever are his Patients, he desires should be also his Disciples; upon whomsoever he bestows Corporal or Worldly Blessings, he is more ready to bestow Spiritual and Heavenly. And let this suffice [Page 163] to be said of the first Particular, the Substance of Christ's Performance, his giving of Hearing, and gi­ving of Speech. I shall consider in the next place, the Manner of his doing it, or the Ceremony and Circumstances which he used in performing his Cure. The first of which was

The Touch of his Finger.

But you will say what need was there of this? Do but speak the Word, as the Centurion said, and my Servant shall be whole: so do but speak the Word, and the Deaf and Dumb shall hear and speak: Christ's Ephata had been enough, without his Touch; the Breath of his Mouth could have wrought the Cure, without the help of his Finger. 'Tis true, and in many of his Miracles our Lord used only his Voice, he restored Lazarus to Life, still'd the Tempest, cast out Devils merely by his Word. But yet frequently he did his Cures by his Touch, he took the Damsel that was dead, by the hand, and she arose; and he laid his hands upon the Sick, and healed them. For some reason therefore it must be, that not only at this time, but at many others, he performed by many Circumstances, what he could have perform­ed, if he had pleased, by fewer, or by none at all.

And the first Reason might be this, That the Be­holders might see, the Cure came from himself, from no Confederacy with Spirits, or any External Power, and from thence might have a greater Veneration both of his Person and his Doctrine; be perswaded, that what proceeded from his Mouth must be True, when they saw what proceeded from his Body was Divine.

The second Reason might be, That by a greater [Page 164] Number of Circumstances the Miracle might make a deeper Impression, and be longer remembered both by the Person healed, and by the Standers-by; re­main a Monument, as well as a Demonstration of his Power and Goodness. God, in the days of Moses, gave not only his Precepts in Writing, but expos'd them to the Touch and Sight of his People; made his Commandments dangle between their Eyes in Phylacteries, and trail at their feet in Fringes, that what they would have forgot in Books, they might remember, wearing as Dresses and Ornaments. And 'twas for a like reason to this, that our Lord in­stituted Baptism, and his Last Supper: for he could have convey'd to us the Pardon of our Sins, and the Grace of his Holy Spirit, without the Ceremonies of Washing, and breaking of Bread: but he thought fit to adde these Performances, not only to make Spi­ritual things more plain and conceiveable, but to make Transient things more permanent; that his Benefits being thus rendred operatiora, more full of Business and Toil, they might be also memorabiliora, more full of Remark, and better fixt in our Minds.

The third Reason why our Lord wrought this Mi­racle by his Touch, and such a Singular Touch, as thrusting his Finger into the Ear, and putting his Spit­tle upon the Tongue, might be; because these Acti­ons have a Resemblance and kind of Similitude to the Means, which Art ordinarily uses in like Cases; Obstructions are opened by Perforations, and Leni­tives cause Lubricity and Volubility; and the more to set off the Greatness of his Power, he would have it seen, that he could cure by the Figures and Ima­ges only of those things, by which Surgeons and Physicians exercise their Narrow and restrained Skill: he used, as one says, Metaphoram in facto, a Meta­phor [Page 165] in Fact, employ'd his Finger as a Probe, and his Spittle as an Ointment. It was a wonderful Perfor­mance to cure an Original Dumbness and Deafness by any Means; but to do it by such things, as were in­deed No Means, that was more Wonderful. To proceed, the second Ceremony Christ used, was

The Lifting up of his Eyes, and Sighing.

A Look to Heaven and a Sigh are the Prayers of them, that have no other Opportunity to make their Supplications. Levavi oculos meos, says the Psalmist, I lift up mine Eyes unto the Hills, from whence cometh my help. That little Motion of the Prophets, the looking only for Help in Faith, was his Impetration of it: and S ^t Paul says, By Sighs and Groans the Spi­rit makes Intercession for things that cannot be uttered, [or distinctly exprest.] Thus our Lord, by casting up his Eyes to the Throne of God, made his Petiti­on; and his Sighing, was his Strong Intercession. Not that the Father did not hear him readily, and at all times, as himself said, but he pray'd after this man­ner, to shew the Correspondence he held with Hea­ven, and that the People might see, that the Mira­cles which he wrought were the Return of his Prayers; that as his Finger toucht the Ear and Tongue of the Impotent Man, so his Request toucht the Throne of God. But we must look upon this, and all other Ceremonies which Christ used in work­ing his Miracles, as things no way needful to what he did, but needful to our Imbecillity; to help our Faith, not to help him in his Performances; they were like the Voices that came to him from Heaven, not for his own Sake, but for the sake of the Standers-by.

[Page 166]The third Circumstance, was the Word our Lord used, Ephata, or be opened. And if the former Cir­cumstances which he made use of, express'd any seem­ing Weakness or Insufficiency, this last declared the Fullness of his Power and Omnipotence; it being a Word like that which God spake at the Creation, Let there be Light, and there was Light; a Word pronounced as Imperatively and Magisterially, and which found as ready Obedience; it was dictum fa­ctum, as 'tis said, a Word and a Deed. The Poets tell of a famous Enchantress, whose Spells were so dreadful, that the Celestial Orbs yielded Obedience to her— carmenque timent audire secundum, and durst at no time stay her second Charm. But though this were but a Fiction or Juggle; yet so it was that all the Creatures, without any Demur, speedily and con­stantly obeyed the Injunctions of our Lord, and ne­ver stay'd his second Command; whether they were Elements, Diseases, or Devils themselves. And as when he commanded the Storm to cease, the Mari­ners ask'd amazedly, What manner of Man is this, that even the Sea and the Winds obey? So the Mul­titude were no less astonisht here, when they saw not only the deaf Elements obey, but Deafness it self to lend an Ear; when I say upon the pronouncing only of this single powerful Ephata, they beheld the Doors of Audience and of Utterance both fly open; the Dumb to speak, and the Deaf to be so quick of hear­ing; their Mouths were also open'd in Lauds and Praises, and with one Universal Consent they gave our Lord this Testimony or Elogy: He hath done all things Well: he maketh both the Deaf to hear, and the Dumb to speak. Which brings me to my second Ge­neral Part, The Verdict and Approbation of the Peo­ple. But the time will not suffer me to go through [Page 167] the Several Stages of it; I shall therefore only make some Use of what I have said, and conclude at pre­sent.

We have heard, that our Lord (not only in the present Miracle before us, but in many others) used divers Ceremonies, though he could have wrought them, if he had pleas'd, without so much as seeing the Persons, as he did the absent Servant of the Cen­turion: But while such Ceremonies edified the Be­holders, instructed their Ignorance, made a deeper and more durable Impression in their Minds of his Glorious Works, while they added Authority to his Words, and Veneration to his Person, he disdained not to serve himself with them. And though the Wisdom of our Church (for the like prudential Rea­sons, viz. to explain her Doctrines, to adde Order and Beauty to her Worship, to stir up Zeal and Re­verence in her Worshippers, and the like) has admit­ted of some few Ceremonies: yet they lye under so great a Prejudice to many, that to name them only without Detestation, is enough to render the Person that names them Detestable. But what our Lord has so far approved of, as to practise, ought not to be detested by his Followers.

It will not be possible in the few Minutes remain­ing to me, to treat fully of this Subject: But what are Ceremonies, which are so cry'd-out against, but the Outward Expressions of the Faith and Devotion we have Inwardly in our Hearts to God? As the A­postle says, With the Heart we believe unto Righteous­ness, and with the Mouth Confession is made unto Salva­tion: For we may manifest our Belief by Actions as well as by Words; neither is it material by which we do it, so we do it sincerely; and whatever Excepti­ons can be made against Ceremonies, may be made [Page 168] also against Words, viz. that they may be Abused: But then as men reject not the Use of Words, be­cause some do Deceive with them: So neither ought they to reject Ceremonies, the Outward Expressions of a Devout Soul, because they are used by some Super­stitiously and Idolatrously.

And the true Cause indeed of so manys abhor­ring Ceremonies, is the Excessive and Idolatrous Use of them in the Church of Rome, the multitude of their Cringings, Bowings, Crossings, Prostrati­ons, Sprinklings of Water, tinklings of Bells, cen­sing and kissing of Books, Images, and Altars, chan­ging of Vestments, exposing of Reliques, lighting and extinguishing of Candles, &c. all in one and the same Service, insomuch that the Worship of God, a­mong so many busie Fooleries, is the least part of it self: and Religion so far from being Explained and Adorned by these things, that 'tis Disfigured, and ren­dred only more Dark and Mysterious. Which while some have taken just offence at, they have run as much into the other Extreme, and condemned all Ceremonies in general, and endeavoured to justifie their transport against them by Scripture; Unskilful­ly or Unsincerely wresting, whatever they find spo­ken against the Old Jewish Ceremonies, to the Chri­stian: Whereas the Apostles Quarrel against the Jewish Ceremonies, was not for any thing which they had in Common with those that are used at this day in the Church of Christ: but for their being directly Contrary to Christianity: they were Types of Christ and of the Gospel, and while they were kept on foot, they denyed that he was come into the World. However therefore that Ceremonies have been abused, or that it may be said, that the Outward Worship of the Body, if compared with the [Page 169] Inward Worship of the Soul, is but as the Outward Court of the Sanctuary to the Holy of Holies: Yet if we consider rightly of the Exterior Acts of Devo­tion, they are no less the Acts of the Heart, than the Interior: for as the one are the Elicite, the other are the Imperate Acts of the Soul; and, though in a Degree once removed, may be as Cordial and Sin­cere as the other; and are in many respects not only Useful, but Necessary in Religion.

For first, It is not possible to perform the Publick Worship of God without them, the assembling in his House, in his holy Name, and on his Own Day, the bowing our Knees before him, and lifting up our Hands and Eyes to Heaven, and the like, are all Ce­remonies, Outward Expressions of the Faith, Reve­rence, and Dependence we have on God: and those that are so Unreconcil'd to some of these things, ne­cessarily and unavoidably practise others of the like nature to those they condemn. And what reason can these Men give, when they can dishonour and sin against God with their Body, why they may not also honour him with it? When with their Body they can commit Idolatry, why with their Body also they cannot perform a Legitimate and holy Worship? The Body is to be Partaker with the Soul hereafter in Glory, and no reason can be given why it should not now join with the Soul in the Duties of Religi­on. How graciously did God accept and reward the Formal, Outward and Ceremonial Humiliation of that Hypocrite and Idolater Ahab? for his Fasting, and putting on Sackcloth, and walking softly, (upon hearing the Judgments denounced against him by E­lijah) God revers'd his Judgments! Seest thou, says God to the Prophet, how Ahab humbleth himself before me? because he humbleth himself before me, I will not [Page 170] send the Evil in his days, &c. If men rightly consi­dered these things, they would not come into God's House, as if they came to affront, and not to adore him, neither baring the Head, nor bending the Knee; out of a foolish fear to commit Idolatry, deport themselves in his Presence like Idols; and as if they came there to be worshipp'd, and not to worship.

2. Ceremonies are useful in regard of the Persons that use them: for they are Wings to their Devotion, and raise it to a higher Pitch, than the quiet Actings of the Heart alone can do. And as a man by vehe­ment Speeches and Emotions of his Body may chafe himself into a greater Degree of Anger: so by de­vout Gestures in Prayer he may heighten and enflame his Zeal.

3. Ceremonies are useful in regard of the Behold­ers. The reverent, solemn, and holy Rites of the Church being suited to the Majesty of the Deity that is worshipp'd, excite Faith and a more awful Regard in the Hearts of men; and 'twas for this very Rea­son, as I said, that our Lord used so many Circum­stances and Ceremonies in the working of his Mira­cles. For such Visible Performances are many times more Efficacious Lessons, than long Harangues; and though men affect to appropriate the term of Edifica­tion to Sermons only, the External Parts of Religi­on are not without their Edification too; and a ho­ly Practice or Custom may make a smarter Impression on the Soul, than the Inculcations of a flat and heavy Sermon.

4. Ceremonies are useful in regard of the Light they give to many Doctrines, which being assisted and seconded by such Sensible Circumstances, as Ex­hibit them to the Eye as well as to the Ear, they are the better explain'd, and establish'd in the Un­derstanding [Page 171] by the help of two Senses, as Differen­ces in Law are by the Mouths of two Witnesses; and we may term the Ceremonies which accompany the Precepts of Religion, the Jael, or Nail that fastens the Substance of them in our Minds, as the holy Ma­tron of that Name rivetted the temples of Sisera to the ground: Or we may call them the Masorah of the Church: for as the Jewish Masorah by an exact and critical Calculation of the Number of Words, Syllables, and Letters in the Scripture, hedg'd in the Text both from Mutilations and Additions: So Ce­remonies often empale the Substance of Religion, and guard it from Innovation and Corruption. And may we not then justly condemn the Perverseness of those, that make such Out-cries against such Useful, such Innocent, nay such Necessary things, as Cere­monies? who decry the same things for Superstition, when used in the Church, which they allow to be Wisdom, when practis'd by our Saviour? But Wis­dom is justified of her Children impartially, and those that have the Ingenuity and Goodness of the People in my Text, and no Taint of Pharisaical Pride and Hypocrisie, will approve the Rites of our Church, as well as her Doctrines; and say, She has done all things Well, She has made the Unanimous in Faith, Uniform in Worship; added to the Beauty of Truth, the Beauty of Holiness; neither dressing up the Service of God in that Strumpet-like Attire, which the Church of Rome does; nor stripping it in­to that deformed and sordid Nakedness which is seen in the Fanatick and Congregational Assemblies.

He, or This Man.

The Peoples Appellation here is but a lame and imperfect Acknowledgment of Christ, it exprest only one half, and the meanest half, of his Condition. It [Page 174] was not the Style in which Believers in after-times spoke of him; who never mentioned him as mere Man, but as God, or the Eternal Son of God. When the Primitive Christians met in their early Devotions before day, laudes Christo, tanquam Deo, canebant, they sung Hymns to Christ, as to a God, as a Heathen could bear witness. But however the Appellation of the People was less Honourable, at the present it was accepted from them, and registred as a Proof of their Ingenuity, that they gave Christ the Due of his Actions, though under an imperfect Style of his Per­son. God opens the Eyes of mens Understanding, and cures the Infirmities of their Souls, by Degrees: as Christ in the following Chapter cured the Blind mans Eyes, who first saw Men like Trees, and after­wards Men like Men. 'Twas enough, upon our Lord's first entering on his Prophetick Office, and preaching to the World, that the People received his Doctrine, and conceived rightly of his Miracles, though not of his Divine Nature; that they ac­knowledged him to be a Good Man, though not the Son of God Incarnate: which at that time was not understood even by the Apostles themselves.

But then that which was an Ingenuous Expression in those days, would be an Injurious or Blasphemous one in these; if men should now so far debase Christ, as to restrain him to his Humane Nature only, and deny his Divine: as the Socinians do, who allow no higher Title to be due to him, than this Man, this Man has done all things well, this Man was born of a pure Virgin, this Man died, rose from the Grave, ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right-hand of God, and the like. And 'tis not without good reason, that some have doubted, whether those that are of this Perswasion, are to be numbered among [Page 175] Christians; who, after so full and perfect a Revela­tion of Christ, apprehend him yet so imperfectly; who with a greater blindness, if not malice, perse­cute his Divinity, than the Scribes and Pharisees did his Humanity; use greater Endeavours to destroy the Son of God, than they did to destroy the Suppo­sed Son of Joseph and Mary. I say though [ He or This Man] was a pardonable appellation from the People, who were yet but Raw Auditors of the Gos­pel, yet 'tis intolerable, coming from Grown Christi­ans; and such Elementarii Senes, Grey-headed Igno­rants, as stick still at the first Rudiments of the Faith, deserve to be expell'd the School of Christ for their Non-proficiency. Saint Paul, 1 Cor. 1.12. sharply re­proves Believers for saying, I am of Paul, I of A­pollos, I of Cephas, I of Christ: and not only for their Schisms, but chiefly, for levelling our Lord with his Servants, and making him only the Head of a Sect, a Partial Minister of mens Salvation, when he was the Sole Author and Finisher of their Faith.

But what shall we say then of those Fanaticks of later times, who deny not only the Divinity, but Humanity of Christ; affirm, that what the Gospel says of God Incarnate, is not to be understood Hi­storically, but Morally; not of a Particular Single Person, but of all that are True Believers; and that themselves are the Godded with God, those in whom God is Man'd, or Humaniz'd, as they delight to Cant. Acknowledge no Saviour or Redeemer of the World, but make themselves all to be Christs; assume his Attributes and Prerogatives, pretend to be without Sin; Not that they do not do those things, which the Worst of Men do, but the Spirit of God, as they fansie, doing all things in them; to say they could sin, were to say that God himself could Sin: how­ever [Page 176] therefore all Breaches and Transgressions of the Law are Criminal in other Men, in them they are only Nominal and Seeming Sins, Sins improperly and falsly so called, from the similitude they bear to them. And on this account they reprove none among themselves for committing the most heinous and flagitious Crimes, but for shewing Sorrow for them after; it being not Sin, in their Opinion, but a Remorse for Sin, that is the Sign of an Unregenerate State, the discerning a Difference between Good and Evil; which they call the Relish of Eves Apple still remaining, and endea­vour by all means to eradicate; perswading them­selves, that when they have destroyed all Sense of Sin, they are arrived to the highest Point of Saint­ship and Perfection, to the very State of Innocence in which Adam was created, the State in which he knew no Evil. Miserably dreaming, because Adam knew no Difference between Good and Evil Experi­mentally before his Fall, that he knew not any Intel­lectually. And thus we see, not to believe Rightly of the Person of Christ, is, in truth, not to believe in Christ; to deny either his Humanity or Divinity, is in Effect not to be a Christian. It is not only ne­cessary therefore to receive all that is delivered By him, but also all that is delivered Of him; to ac­knowledge him to be our God, as well as our Savi­our; and to adore him, as well as to be Instructed by him. To say in these days, with the People in my Text, He (or This Man) hath done all things well, were no less than Sacriledge; when our Style ought to be, The Eternal Son of God, blessed for evermore, hath done all things well! And so I pass to the Second Par­ticular, The Kind or Nature of the Peoples Verdict, it was an Approbation,

He hath done Well.

The Peoples Approbation here was rightly ground­ed, they concluded with good Reason, That he that had made the Deaf and Dumb to hear and speak, was a Prophet, and no Deceiver; that he whose Works were so Mighty, must himself be Holy, and his Words True. Miracles are infallible Signs of a Divine Person, Irrefragable Testimonies of a Man of God: as the Widow of Zarephath rightly concluded, when Elijah restored her dead Son to Life, Now, says she, I know thou art a Man of God, and that the Word of the Lord in thy Mouth is Truth: and likewise Nicode­mus, when he said to our Lord, Rabbi, we know thou art a Teacher come from God; for no Man can do the Mi­racles thou dost, except God be with him. Our Lord himself made use of this Argument drawn from his Mighty Works, as his last Appeal for the Truth of his Divine Mission: says he, If I do not the Works of my Father, believe me not: but if I do, though ye be­lieve not me, believe the Works. Thus even licensing the Infidelity of men, in case he had not performed Works above the Power and Ability of men. At the first production of the Creatures, there were certain Properties or Qualities implanted in them, as De­scending to heavy Bodies, Ascending to light, mo­ving Circularly to heavenly, &c. Now when it comes to pass, that Heavy things move Upwards, and Light Downwards; when Water, a fluid Body, is made a Pavement or a Wall; the Fiery Furnace a Refrigeratory, as Nebuchadnezzar's was to the three Children, circa frigidos capillorum globulos innoxium luxit incendium, says S ^t Jerome, the harmless Flame did only shine upon, not singe their curled Locks. [Page 178] When, I say, the Courses of Nature are thus chan­ged, and its Laws inverted, when the Creature is fa­shioned again anew, as the Author of the Book of Wisdom speaks, and is made to observe Particular Commands, it is a Kind of Second Creation: For none can change the Laws of Nature, but the God of Nature: Well therefore did S ^t Augustine say, Habent Miracula linguam suam, & opera sunt & argumenta; Mi­racles have a Tongue and speak, and they are not only Works, but Arguments. To give a man Speech, that was born without it, is even of it self a Kind of Speech, the Speech no less than of the Almighty: for God appears not Personally to converse with Men; but such as these are his Utterances of himself to the World: neither did the Voices that broke from the Clouds at the Baptism and Transfiguration of our Lord, saying, This is my Beloved Son, more clearly and intelligibly declare to the Hearers, who Christ was, than the Voice of God, in every Mira­cle he wrought, pronounc'd the same thing; but on all his Mighty Works was engraved in bright and shi­ning Characters, This is my Beloved Son, and again, This is my Beloved Son, hear him! The first Way, I say, was not more convincing to mens Senses, than the second was argumentative to their Reason; and there is but One and the same Proof of the Deity, and of the Truth of Christ's Pretences; and they are either both True, or both False; he that gives Hearing to the Deaf-born, is a Righteous Person, or he that made the Ear, is nothing; he that gives Speech to the Dumb-born, has done well, or he that made the Tongue is a mere Chimaera.

But yet this is to be received with some Caution: for there are two Uses which God makes of Miracles, The one to plant Faith, And the other to try the [Page 179] Constancy of Believers: And as God sent Christ and the Prophets before him with the Power of working Miracles for the first End: so he permits Anti-Christ and other Impostors to work False Signs and Won­ders for the second End, and those so seemingly true, as to deceive, if it were possible, the very Elect. You will say then, Which of these two shall have the Preheminence in our Belief? how shall we know to which to adhere, both performing the same Works, but drawing several Ways? Must these Miracle-Workers, as one asks the Question, take place as Wo­men in a Bake-house? the first Comer, the first ser­ved?

There is a Rule set down Deut. 13.1. how we are to carry our selves in this Case, and to judge of Mi­racles. If there arise among you a Prophet, says Mo­ses, or a Dreamer of Dreams, and gives you a Sign or a Wonder, and the Sign or the Wonder comes to pass, whereof he spake unto you, saying, Let us go after other Gods, which you have not known, and let us serve them, you shall not hearken unto the Word of that Prophet, for the Lord your God proveth you. Now the Wonders and Signs performed by Anti-Christ and other Impostors are all to this Purpose, To draw men from the Worship of the True God, or at least from some Fundamental Points in Religion: For as S ^t Paul says of Anti-Christ, He opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, so that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God, shewing himself to be God. When we hear therefore any Creature whatsoever bring such a Doctrine as this, Ego altissimus, that himself is the Supreme God, or that usurps the Power and Prerogative of the Supreme God, for­gives Sins, not Ministerially, but Absolutely, grants Dispensations to commit them, abrogates Divine In­stitutions, [Page 180] makes New Articles of Faith, assumes to himself Infallibility, and other Divine Properties, claims not only an Exorbitant Jurisdiction above his Commission in this World, but extends it even into the other, &c. as the Popes of Rome do; let the Miracles they or their Followers work be never so a­stonishing, yet they are to be held accursed by us, and we may safely pronounce, They are not Good Men, but Deceivers of the People.

But then Christ's Miracles tended quite to another End, to ratifie and establish all holy and Divine Truths, especially that Summa Veritas, that Supreme Truth, which was the Test, not only of all other Truths, but of Miracles themselves, viz. That there is but One God, and he alone to be worshipp'd: So that his Doctrine was a Proof of his Miracles, as his Miracles were a Proof of his Doctrine: neither will this reciprocal Proof, if well observed, be found to be that Circular Way of Proof so much condemned in Logick, in which the Effect is made the Cause of the same thing, which is its Cause, which cannot be in Nature. However therefore the Grand Exception, both of the Jews of old, and of these days, lyes in this Point, That notwithstanding Christ, by the Con­fession of their own Rulers, wrought many Mira­cles; yet he was not to be hearkened to, because he destroy'd the Worship of the True God, i. e. abo­lish'd those Rites and Ordinances, which were imme­diately delivered from Heaven; this their Exception is vain and without Reason. For Christ did not, as they say, destroy the Worship of the True God, but reformed and improved it; took away only the out­ward Cortex or Husk of Religion, to shew more plainly the Substance of it, and wherein its Weightier Duties consisted, removed the Shadows, drew the [Page 181] Veil from off Moses's face, altered such Inferior Alte­rable things in God's Service, as were foretold should be altered. And then he did this by the most clear and authentick Commission from Heaven that could be shewed, by the Broad Seal and Patent, as I may say, of Miracles: and the Ceremonial Law was re­moved by a no less Glorious Ministration, than 'twas at first given. Now these things being so, that a Prophet's Doctrine, Miracles, and Sanctity of Life concur (especially, as I said, when he secured the Essentials of Religion, and above all others that Great Requisite, de Vnius Dei Cultu, of the Non-Avocation of men from the Worship of the One and True God) even by the Sentence of the Sanhedrim he ought to have been received as sent from God. We may therefore conclude, that the proceeding of the Elders and Rulers against our Lord, was perverse and wicked, and the Judgment of the People a right Judgment; upon good Warrant we may justifie their Justification, and say, In pronouncing he did All things Well, they also spake Well. And so I pass to the third Circumstance I observed, The Extension of their Approbation,

He hath done All things Well.

The Judgment here of the People, I say, was a Right Judgment: but 'twas only so, as the Young man's in the Gospel was, who came running to Christ, and kneel'd down to him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit Eternal Life? Whose Words and Behaviour, though they attributed to our Lord no more than his Due, yet he gave him a Check of Instruction, because he ascribed Absolute Goodness to him, which belonged only to God, when he ap­prehended [Page 182] him to be no more than a Man. So though the Peoples Approbation was Right both in the Na­ture and Extent of it, That our Lord had done Well, and that he had done All things Well: yet 'twas not without Exception. For though our Lord had evi­denced even to the most Scrupulous, that he was a True Prophet: yet the People not understanding him to be that Great Prophet that was to come into the World, the Messias and Son of God, they could not give him so Large a Testimony as they did: for even those that were True Prophets sent by God, did not do All things Well, but all of them had their Infirmities, and committed Sin. So that the best that we can say here of the Universal Extent of the Peo­ples Approbation, is, That they had better Luck in it, than Skill; & aequum licet statuerint, haud aequi suerunt, that though they pronounc'd a Right Sen­tence, 'twas not with a Right Knowledge; but as Physicians say, An Errour in the first Concoction is never corrected in the second: so the People not rightly understanding Christ in the first place, their following Praises of him were not right; but as far as they came short in his Title, when they styled him this Man, they over-shot themselves in their Te­stimony, when they said, He hath done All things well.

Neither is this a Nice and trifling Cavil or Obser­vation, but a Point of great Importance in the Con­sequences of it. For if from a few Instances of Good­ness a Universal Goodness may be concluded: if from some Specious or astonishing Actions a Divine Approbation may be allowed, a Theudas or Judas Gaulonites may pass for the Messiah; Abbaris, for his dexterity of catching an Arrow flying in the Air, may pretend to the Divine Honours decreed him by [Page 183] the Scythians; and Simon Magus to the Godhead gi­ven him at Rome, for his Skill in Magick; the Hea­then Demons challenge their Deities, who were all Deified for some Extraordinary and Uncommon Per­formances. But I shall chuse to insist on more known and familiar Instances. Many here present may re­member, that in the breaking out of the late Great Troubles of this Kingdom, there were Persons that pretended to stand up for the Interest of the Nation, to reform Abuses, to be the only Publick Spirited Men and Good Patriots; and the People, because they pleased them in Some things, thought they might trust them in All; and idoliz'd Traytors and Rebels, and put it into their Power to plunder and tyrannize over themselves, to ruine the State, and at last mur­der their King. Again, while the same People in like manner doted on the Fansy'd Holiness and Endow­ments of some Teachers and Pastors, because they saw them Zealous and frequent Preachers, sharp Re­provers of Vice, bold Opposers of those in High Place, and Pretenders to suffer for Truth and Righte­ousness sake, they concluded from these things, That they were Good Men, and that they did All things Well: but as soon as these had gain'd their Point, they threw-off their Vizors, and shew'd themselves Hypocrites and Schismaticks, Trumpets to Rebellion, Misleaders of the People, and Corrupters of their Allegiance.

We see therefore that to infer from some Particu­lar Acts a Universal Goodness, is no less an Unsafe, than an Unsound Way of arguing. He prays well, he preaches well, he is ever arraigning Sin, and the like: but, caetera sint paria? do all things corre­spond? does his private Practice comport with his publick Demeanour? his inward Goodness with his outward Austerity? as he is Severe against Sin, is he [Page 184] merciful to Sinners? as he is assiduous in his Calling, is he Obedient to his Governours, and faithful to his Prince? as he exhorts the People to Church, does he not debauch them with Factious Doctrines when they come there? as he is not Scandalous in his Conversation, so is he not Morose, Proud, or Cove­tous? In a Word, does he conform his Whole Life to the Tenor of the Gospel? does he indeed do All things well? All things? that is, in a Moral Sense, and according to the Measure of a Sincere Honest Man? If he does, let him carry away our Euge's and our Sophos, our Approbations and Applauses. But if he does only two or three of these things, and those hypocritically and upon Design, to give credit to a Cause, and to carry on an Interest, the Pharisees made long Prayers, that they might devour Widows houses; and Herod heard John the Baptist gladly, and did many things upon his preaching, but conti­nued still to live incestuously with his Brother Phi­lip's Wife, and at last gratify'd her Malice with the Baptist's head. If a few Good Actions may set such a Colour and Varnish upon mens Lives, that they ought to be accounted holy Persons, the Scenes in our Theatres may pass for the Glorious Heavens, and solid Edifices they represent, when they are nothing but patcht Clouts, and pasted Papers, painted and shewed to an artificial Light. Lucian's Image of Ju­piter in Gold, outwardly of a Majestick Form grasp­ing a Thunder-bolt, may be allowed to be the Deity that rules the World, though it be nothing within but Dust and Cobwebs, Soder and Cramps of Iron, which hold the miserable Machine from falling asun­der. I say, if we thus make Saints from Shews and Seemings, we may fill the Kalendar with Red Letters, but we shall adde but few Names to the Book of [Page 185] Life. I shall therefore conclude this last Particular with our Lord's advice, John 7. & 24. Judge not ac­cording to Appearance, but judge righteous Judgment.

And now what Use shall we make in general of the Peoples Testimony and Approbation of our Lord? shall we likewise justifie his Actions, assert his Di­vine Mission, and say, He hath done all things well? To praise Christ, to speak Honourably of him, to vindicate him from the Aspersions of Jews and Gen­tiles, and the like, is our bounden Duty; but all of us here present are his Disciples and Followers, all of us Christianissimi, Pretenders to be the Chiefest and most Eminent of his Worshippers; and we acknow­ledge not only that he spake the Truth, but that he is the Truth, even the Eternal Logos: and to take upon us to pass a humane Judgment on him, and to cen­sure him as one Man censures another, to say, He is no Seducer, or the like, were so far from honouring him, that it were to be Irreverent and Insolent to­wards him, and to set our selves above him; for the Justifier is Greater than the Justified. How then? must we celebrate his Eternal Generation, and De­scent from his Father's Bosom for our Redemption, in Magnificats sing his Victory over Death and Hell—? Yes, this we must do, but not this only, for these are still but Empty Words, we must adde Deeds to our Praises: Obedience to our Magnifi­cats, Duty and Service to our Psalms and Hymns: the Praises of a holy Life to the Acknowledgments of a thankful Tongue. To praise God only with the Voice, is to praise him like the Trumpets of the Sanctuary, or the Organs of our Churches: Or as the Psalmist calls upon the Sun and Moon, Fire and Hail, Beasts and feather'd Fowls to praise him, which all do in a Figure, and after a manner, in that they [Page 186] are the Works of his hands, and proclaim his Wis­dom and Power; thus also the Devils and Damned Spirits praise him, while their Sufferings and Tor­ments declare his Justice. But we are to praise God, not only passively, occasionally, and instrumentally, like Inanimate, Brute, or accursed Creatures: but intentionally, primarily, and affectionately, as be­comes Rational and Intellectual Beings, Obliged and illuminated Persons and Believers. And as the Faith­ful do best evidence their Faith by their Works, so they best evidence also their Good Opinion of Christ by their Works, viz. by following his Precepts: then we give our true Approbation of him, when we transcribe his Actions and tread in his Steps: 'tis the Life of a man that expresses his Thoughts of Christ; if that be righteous and conformable to his Gospel, he has set to his Seal that he is the Messiah and Son of God that was to come into the World, pro­claims indeed, That he has done All things Well. But if his Ways are Wicked and repugnant to his Gospel, let him praise him never so industriously, never so ambitiously, with never so loud Vociferations, he does but in Effect say, He was an Impostor, and de­ceived the People. For as S ^t Paul says of False Teach­ers, Tit. 1.17. They profess that they know Christ, but in Works they deny him, being abominable, disobedient, and to every Good Work reprobate: So we may say of these false and counterfeit Extollers of Christ, that in Words they Approve him, but in their Works they Condemn him, being abominable, disobedient, and to every Good Work reprobate. How can a Strum­pet praise Chastity? Or the Sot that is fill'd with Drink like a Spunge, say any thing in the Commen­dation of Sobriety? Vertue is praised of her Fol­lowers; and the best Verdict we can pass on Christ, [Page 187] is to imitate him in all holy Conversation; to live after his Example, is the highest Encomium we can give him.

I. To clear and confirm the Proposition.

Sin, as soon as it is committed, is followed by Pu­nishment, except prevented by Repentance; Punish­ment follows it, I say, sometimes with Slow, but al­ways with Sure Paces, till it over-takes it; Venge­ance attends it, as the Gaoler in some Countries does Malefactors, who is bound in the same Chain with them: Or is coupled to it as the After-Birth is to the Birth: For as in Natural Productions, after the Birth of the Creature, there is a second Birth or Protrusi­on; so there is in the bringing-forth of Sin, it is no sooner produced in the World, but there succeeds a Title to Punishment so close upon it, as if it came from the same Womb. If thou dost Evil, says God to Cain, Sin lyeth at the Door, i. e. the Punishment of Sin is at hand to seize thee: and says our Lord, in regard of mens proneness to Wickedness, It is ne­cessary that Offences should come, but then also that 'twas as necessary, That upon them Woes should come: and the Scripture makes it a piece of Injustice to detain them, no less than a Sin, to spare Sin. The Wages of Sin is Death, says S ^t Paul: and as when the Wages of a Labourer or the Pay of a Souldier is detained, a Mutiny or Clamour is raised: so when Punishment, the Wages of Sin, is with-held, a Cry is sent up to Heaven, and God's Justice is continually sollicited, till Guilt receive its due Reward.

This, indeed, to the Men of this World is the primum incredibile, one of the most Incredible Do­ctrines [Page 193] that is taught: they see not the Link, which by God's appointment, couples Sin and Punishment, and because the Act of Sin is transient, and Venge­ance deferred, they conceive the Guilt, and the Bitterness of Death contracted by it, are also tran­sient; and that they can confute the whole Hypothe­sis from their own Experience; they having not only run on in Disobedience for many Years together, but encreased their Wickedness, as well as continued in it; proceeded from sinning with fear, to sin with presumption; from offending God, to the affronting him; from breaking his Laws, to the deriding of his Worship, and the denying of his Deity; and yet, say they, we have found none of that Vengeance that is spoken of, no, not the least Disturbance in our E­vil Ways. But is it then no Vengeance, to let a Sinner run on in the Ways of Perdition without any Check? Is the Blindness and Darkness of the Soul, and Hard­ness of the Heart, no Judgment? Is the falling from the Condition of a Man, to that of a Beast, the despising all things Spiritual and Noble, and finding no relish but in things sensual and Brutish, no Judg­ment? Is God's giving them up thus to a Reprobate Mind and Vile Affections, condemning them to love Necessarily and Finally, what they have so long lo­ved Perversely and Wilfully, no Judgment? Is the visible trailing after them in this manner the Chain of Damnation, and going on singing and dancing to Hell, without apprehending the least Evil, no Judg­ment? What Sadder Arrest can there be of God's Wrath, than such an Exemption from it? What Plague or Punishment sent upon Less Offending Sin­ners half so dreadful, as the Calm and Peace which these boast of? But let it be as these Men imagine, that all these things we speak of are Dreams, that [Page 194] Obdurateness and Insensibility in Sinning is no Punish­ment, and that nothing deserves the Name of Venge­ance, but what is Corporal Loss of Life or Liberty, de­privation of Health, Estate, and the like. How do these know they shall escape these Evils? Those of this Way are for the most part Young, or in the Strength of their Days, and perhaps God has determined be­fore they depart hence to make them as Eminent Ex­amples of his Wrath, as they have been of Disobe­dience.

I should think my Hour well bestowed, to re­move this one Practical Dangerous Errour, to open mens eyes, that they may be convinced, That Sin is a Serpent that does insidiare calcaneo, lye in the Path, and mortally bite the Heel of the Sinner; and that he runs not on faster in the Ways of Disobedience, than he does in those of Destruction: but it is not my Business at this time, the Proposition which I am to prove, concerns not the Punishment of Sin Abso­lutely considered, but Comparatively, viz. That Sin in some Persons or People is more heinous, and more se­verely punished, than in others; that where God has conferr'd more Signal and Illustrious Favours, there he punishes Sin with more Signal and Exemplary Venge­ance; and his foregoing Bounty despised, adds Weight to his future Severity.

And this Truth is written in so Great Characters, and so legible through the Whole Series of the Chro­nicle of Scripture, even from the Creation, that I shall not need so much to prove the Proposition, as to refresh your Memories, by setting before you things already known. The first Man of our Race was the first miserable Example of this Truth; and he that first brought Sin into the World, first also left the Confirmation to us of the Fatal Consequence of [Page 195] it, when committed against an Extraordinary Grace. Adam was created after God's own Likeness, in per­fect Righteousness and Holiness, and not only with the Knowledge of his Laws, but with a Power and Ability to keep them; he was made to Excel all Sub­lunary Creatures, and had Dominion given him over them; he was plac'd in a furnish'd World, fruitful without Labour, delightful without Satiety; and the Continuance of this his Felicity was put into his own hands, he was not Subject to Death, Infirmities, or Misfortunes, like his Posterity: nay, 'twas in his power not only to have Prolong'd his Felicity to all Eternity, but to have Improv'd it. Greater Favours God could not conferr on Flesh and Bloud, on a Creature lower than the Angels. But whither tended the Collation of all these Benefits, when Adam rebelled against God? Only to his great­er Misery, the Punishment of his Transgression was as Eminent as his Priviledges and Graces had been; his ensuing Calamity, as his foregoing Prosperity. The day thou eatest of the forbidden Tree, says God, thou shalt dye the Death. What Death? All manner of Deaths, Death Temporal, Death Spiritual, Death Eternal; Death to Nature, Death to Grace, Death to Glory! The Sin was but Single, but the Punishment inflicted was Three-fold: like a Stroke with a Tri­dent, which makes a Triple Wound; and the Blow fell not only on himself, but on all his Posterity. Never any Sin since his had the like Recompence of Reward; because none since Adam could sin against so much Bounty.

I shall give you but one Instance more. We know by how Strange and Unexpected a Favour Saul was promoted to the Throne of Israel, who being sent in quest of his Father's Asses, found a Kingdom; God [Page 196] advancing him above all his People in Honour, more than he Excelled them in Stature. But he pro­ving after this Ungrateful and disobedient to the Commandment of God, falling no less than thrice into that Common Fatal Errour of Faithless Princes, to relye on Humane Policy, more than on the Divine Support: on the Favour of the People, than on the Favour of God; and seeking to establish his Kingdom by Bloud and Sacriledge, ra­ther than by Innocence and Justice; as if the Power that gave him a Throne could not uphold him in it; God's Indignation against him was as Great, as his Prevarications had been. And then what did all his antecedent Favours profit him, but to enhance his following Punishment? Which was such, as when we read it, we cannot chuse but pity, though it were the Lord's doing. For he rejected Saul, as he was rejected by him; he withdrew his Holy Spirit from him, and sent an Evil Spirit to vex him in the room of it, a Spirit of Jealousie and Frenzy, which periodically possest him, and clouded all his Felicity and Glory; disinherited his Posterity, dethroned, in a manner, himself while he was yet alive, by causing another to be anointed King in his days. And after he had suffered him thus to survive a few Years a dreadful Spectacle of the Divine Wrath, he stirr'd-up the Philistines against him, and when their Host ap­peared, and he most needed it, bereaved him of his Kingly Courage and Magnanimity, refused to direct or answer him by his Oracles. In which distressed and disconsolate State, all Heavenly Comfort being silent, and Saul's guilty Conscience only loud and clamorous, over-whelmed with Sorrow and Despair, under a Disguise and the Covert of the Night, with two Attendants only, he repaired to a poor Witches [Page 197] Cell to enquire the Fortune of his Life and Kingdom, and where God met him, as I may say, also in Dis­guise, made use of the Witches delusive Arts, to give him a Real Prediction of his near-approaching Over­throw, and inglorious Death: So that partly bro­ken with Sorrow, and partly weakned through Hun­ger, he fell into a Swoun, and was sustained by the Bread and Counsel of the Silly Woman, the next day putting a Period to his Life and Miseries. What In­vention of Romance, or Fiction of Poetry can pa­rallel the Calamity of this once so Glorious and He­roick King? And if any ask, Why was all this? how came the patient Spirit of the God of Mercy to turn into Fury, like that of the Person he punish'd? Be­cause the Sin of Saul was not only a Sin against God, but against a Benefactor; and the wonderful Bounty God had shewed in bringing him to the Throne, pull'd upon his Ingratitude and Infidelity this won­derful Severity and Displeasure.

And as this is God's Dealing with Particular Per­sons, so 'tis the same with Whole Nations: Of which we shall not need a further Example, than that before us of Israel. In the foregoing Chapter the Prophet denounces God's Judgments against the Neighbour­ing Kingdoms for their Sins. For three Transgressions and for four, says he, God will punish Damascus, and chiefly for their Cruelty. For three Transgressions and for four God will punish Gaza, and again for their Cruelty. For three Transgressions and for four God will punish Tyre, because they kept not their Brotherly Love. And so on against the rest: But when he comes in the last place to Israel and to Judah, their Trans­gressions being not inferior to those of the Gentiles, he intimates that heavier Judgments were laid up in Store for them, and that they should not escape so [Page 198] easily as the others; he casts their Ingratitude for their former Benefits into the burden of their Guilt; their forgetfulness of God's bringing them out of Egypt wich a high hand, and destroying the Nations before them; his raising up their Sons and Daughters to be Prophets, and their Young men to be Nazarites. Shall the People that have not known God be judged for their Sins, and shall not those to whom he has reveal­ed his Laws and his Righteousness, on whom he has heaped his Blessings, be judged more severely? He that knoweth his Masters Will, says our Lord, and doth it not, shall be beaten with many Stripes. As the Hea­then therefore were chastised for their Offences, Israel was utterly ruined and Un-nationed.

And this was not only God's proceeding under the Law, but 'tis the same still under the Gospel: For he has Known or favoured Believers in Christ, not only above the Gentiles, but even above the Jews them­selves; and if Judah be trod down, and the Temple destroyed for the Sins and Ingratitude of that People, the seven Churches in Asia lye under a Sadder Deso­lation at this Day for their Disobedience to Christ, Travellers being scarce able to discern so much as the Places where they stood. These Examples of God's Wrath both on Single Persons and whole Nations, teach us this Lesson, That 'tis never so dangerous to offend against God, as when he has been Gracious to us; his former Benefits being so far from priviledg­ing any to transgress, that he is sure to punish those most, he has done most for. But 'tis not enough to shew the quod sit, the Truth of the Proposition, that it is so; I proceed in the next place to shew the cur sit, the Reason, Equity, and Merit of it, why it should be so.

I. He [ Gave] the Lands.

In the Translation we use in the Common-Prayer-Book, 'tis said they [ took] the lands and labours of the Heathen in possession. But the Ex­pression of their [ taking them] in one Translation, and God's [ giving them] in the other, amounts to the same thing: for a thing may be [ taken] two ways, by Force, or by Gift and Reception. Now Is­rael took the lands and labours of the Canaanites the second of these two Ways, by Gift from God. 'Twas [Page 211] not their own Sword, as 'tis said, or their own Bow that subdued their Enemies, but God that fought their Battels. They took Canaan, as they took Jericho; the Walls of which, when they had walk'd seven times about it, by the miraculous power of God fell down. The Grecians painted Timotheus, the fortu­nate Athenian Captain, lying cross a River with a Net in his hand, and Cities flowing down the Stream into it, to shew how Easie a Town-taker he was: after the like facile easie Manner did the Cities of Canaan flow into the possession of Israel. And if all Men would consider how they came possest of the Blessings they enjoy, they would find that even the Greatest of them came to them, in a manner, sitting still and without Pains. We think 'tis we that get them, that 'tis our Wit and Industry that acquire Riches and Honour, our Valour that conquers Nations, &c. but alas, we do but walk, as I may say, about the City, and long enough we might walk, and never take it, if God did not cast down the Walls of it, i. e. remove the Obstructions and Difficulties that stand in our way. Who can arrogate to himself that he had a hand in the bringing about the Mercies of the Year 1660, which we this Day commemo­rate, when all our Endeavours were frustrated, when our Designs came home to us uneffectually, or with the Destruction only of the Undertakers, when the Royal Party grew unactive, and began to de­spond? Then, even then, when all Humane Power was at a Stand, our King was restored by a Secret and Divine Hand, by means as surprizing and unhop'd for, as un­deserved by us: he was not freelier bestow'd on us this Day in his Birth, than in his Restoration.

Secondly, The Substance or Matter of God's Do­nation to Israel is worthy the reflecting on, he gave [Page 212] them [ the Lands and Labours] of the Heathen. 1. The Lands: The Gift of Lands to a people that were a kind of wandering Arabs, and who might have been denominated Sans-terre, Without-Land, as a Prince of our own Country was call'd on the same account, was no small Accommodation and Be­nefit. But then the Land God gave to the Israelites was a Land flowing with Milk and Honey, with Oil and Wine, a Land whose Stones were Iron, and the Bowels of whose Hills Brass. For we must not judge of Palestine, by what Travellers report of it at this day, since it fell under the Subjection of its present barbarous Anti-Christian Lord, whose Foot treads Barrenness and Desolation where-ever he marches Victoriously; who ruines Lands, as well as Arts and Sciences; and puts the Country-men to flight, as well as the Scholar. But Palestine must be consider­ed in the State 'twas in at the time God gave it, when not only the Bounty of Nature, but his special Blessing was upon it. And if Good Land be a Good Motive to love and serve God, we of this Nation need look no further for an Argument to do our Duty, than the very Ground we tread on: for that old Verse ( Eng­land excells in Mountains, Bridges, Fountains, Fair Churches, Women, Wool) however comprehensive, falls short in computing the numerous Blessings of this Isle. Our misery only is, that as our most malignant Enemies are forced to confess our Countrey to be bona Terra, a good Land, so the most candid Histori­ographers cannot forbear censuring it for bringing forth malà gente, a naughty People, no way comport­ing with the Excellence of the Soil; a People that are stubborn and prone to Rebellion, who think Sedition the best Physick for a Sick Government, and Seditious Persons the best Physicians: whereas the Diseases of [Page 213] a State were never cur'd by turbulent Spirits, though many States have been subverted by them; and Hi­story that tells of so many Kingdoms ruined by Re­bellion, records none that was ever reformed that way.

Thirdly, As God gave the Lands, he gave likewise [ the Labour] of the Heathen into the possession of the Israelites: they entred into Houses which they built not, enjoyed Riches which they purchased not, reap'd Corn which they sow'd not: what our Lord said of his Disciples coming after the Prophets to preach the Gospel, What one man soweth, another reapeth, was literally true here. The Israelites came not into the Land of Canaan, as Planters do into a new-discovered Country, in vacuum, into a Void and Empty Soil: but as Students into a Colledge, or In­firm persons into an Hospital, in plenum, into an Ac­commodation of all things Necessary; where the Be­nefactors have not been only Builders, but Founders of a liberal Maintenance; and provided Subsistence, as well as Reception. 'Tis the happy Lot of many in this Nation to come into the World provided of all things which the Life of Man can need, possess'd of Estates, not got by the Sweat of their Brows, but left them by the Acquisition of their Ancestors, so clear and disengaged, that they seem not to de­scend to them, as Lawyers speak, res cum onere, the Estate with the Burden and Incumbrances, but res cum foenore, the Estate with the Emolument and pure Enjoyments of it. And such was the happy Condi­tion of the Loyal Party of this Kingdom, upon the Blessed Restauration of his Majesty, that they were like New-born Heirs to great Fortunes; being not only call'd from a Fugitive Condition abroad, or delivered from Death, or the Apprehensions of Death [Page 214] or Bonds at home: but had Preferments and Riches, Honours and Dignities added to the Gifts of their Lives and Country: God being not content, in the overflowing of his Bounty, to bestow on us only a Dry-Deliverance, but accumulated on our heads all other Good things. But whereas such boundless and unparallel'd Mercies required sutable Acknowledg­ments on our Part, the multiplicity and greatness of our Benefactors have made us, like Israel, forget our Benefactor; and as they were waiward and froward on every Disgust, and lookt back again to Egypt, preferring their Bondage before the glorious Delive­rance God had wrought for them: So we, as little sen­sible of our Wonderful Restauration, upon every dis­like to the Government, think better of our past Mi­series, than our present Enjoyments; and, which is a Prodigy to hear, join hands with those that were our Oppressors, to bring our selves again into Sla­very.

Fourthly, He gave [ Them] the Lands and labour of the Heathen. The Persons to whom God was so li­beral are worthy to be considered. God gave the seven Nations in promise unto Abraham, to be made good to his Posterity: but to say nothing of his Po­sterity, whose Ingratitude is so well known, What was Abraham himself, for whose sake Canaan was promised, then when God call'd him out of Vr of the Chaldees? Even an Idolater as well as the Chaldees. For we must not take the Tradition of the Jews for a current Truth, who, because the word Vr sig­nifies Fire, as well as it denominates a Country, tell us, That Abraham's coming out of Vr, was his Escape out of the Flames of Martyrdom, which he was cast into for opposing Idolatry. The Jews together with the Papists, though they otherwise hate them not [Page 215] only as Christians, but as Idolaters, are always seeking a Reason in Man for the Motive of God's favour to him: whereas when God gives any thing, 'tis not for the Merit of the Person he gives it to. Yes, say they, he gave Abraham the promise of Canaan for his Faith so highly approved of in Scripture: But who gave A­braham that Faith? They say, He was so ingenuous as to believe upon God's Call. Ay, but who gave him that Ingenuity? If it were a Good Gift, it came from a­bove. We must look upon all God's After-Gifts, as we do upon those which we first and originally recei­ved from him at our Creation, as proceeding from no antecedent merit on our Part that invited them: God gave no man Beauty, Sharpness of Wit, or any other Grace of Body or Mind, for any antecedent Graces that were in him: it were as absurd and ridiculous to say, That any one merited the Preheminences and Advantages he has above others, as to say, he could merit his Being it self before he had one: but as God's Goodness was the Fountain, so 'twas the sole Motive of his Endowments. Let no Man go say this Day a­mong us, That 'twas for his Loyalty, and adhering to the true Religion, when so many were Schismaticks and Traytors, that God let him behold the Resto­ration of the King and Church after their fatal Ru­ine: but for his own Bounty sake, and the Reasons of his unsearchable Wisdom. For what could it profit any man to hold the Truth in Unrighteousness? to be Orthodox in Profession, as many boast themselves to be, and Ethnicks in Manners? Loyal to their Prince, and Vicious in their Lives?

I shall name but one Circumstance more of God's Bounty to Israel, and little more than name it; and that is the Smallness of the Return he required for all his immense Favours, it was only, That they should [Page 216] live according to his Holy Laws. A performance ra­ther delightsom than burthensom, so natural and rea­sonable, that a Wise man would close with the Con­dition, upon the bare hearing it, without Stipulati­on. Israels manner of Tenure of God's Favour was like our Tenure in the Church by Frank Alms; who for many comfortable, and too often envy'd Endow­ments, are obliged only to send up Prayers and Thansgivings to God, and to perform such other Duties, as conduce to our Eternal Felicity. God's very appointment of so merciful a Return to Israel, was of it self a Singular Mercy. But because this falls into my second General Part, Why, or for what End God gave the Lands and Labours of the Heathen in­to the Possession of the Israelites, I shall not prevent my self by enlarging on it before the time. And he gave them the lands and labour of the Heathen—(Why?)

I have Compassion.

The Great Preacher, our Blessed Lord, had ended his Sermon to the People, and as the antient custom of the Church was, at the End of the first Service, to dismiss the Poenitentes and Catechumeni, all such as were not qualify'd to receive the Sacrament, with these Words, Ite, missa est, Depart and void the Church: So the Disciples might very fairly here have pronounc'd an Ite, missa est, to the Multitude, Ye may be gone, there is nothing more at this time to be ex­pected, the Prophet has no further words of Instruction to impart to you. For, as for their want of Bread, whether it proceeded from Negligence or Necessity, it was not chargeable on the Preacher; he that mini­stred Spiritual things, was not also to minister Tem­poral, but in these to be ministred to. But our Lord had no purpose to shift off a Work of Mercy, when 'twas seasonable and in his power, though he might never so fairly have done it: he cast not therefore in his thoughts, how he might plausibly Excuse his not relieving the peoples Hunger, but which way he might do it best for the Glory of God, and their Comfort and Edification. There were a Sort of Preachers in this Kingdom in the days of its late Troubles, who when they had usurp'd the whole Re­venues of the Church, grudg'd to allow the least part of them to the Just Owners: but thought they appro­ved themselves faithful Pastors, absolved all the Du­ties [Page 228] of Good Men, if they shew'd but Strong Sides, and able Lungs, stood three Hours, as they call'd it, in the Pulpit, but after that concerned not themselves, though their poor Brethren stood as many Days with­out Meat. The continual Burden of their Sermon was, The Word of God, the Word of God! Frighting the People with a Fear of a Famine of that of which there was no fear, viz. of their seditious Doctrines, and shutting their Eyes to all other Famine, the Want of those things which should cherish the Life of Man. But our Lord, who was Pastor bonus, as well as Doctor bonus, a good Shepherd, as well as a good Teacher, thought Tender Bowels were requisite, as well as Tough Sides; and fed his Sheep Corporally, as well as Spiritually, when necessity required: he consider­ed that the devoutest Souls stood in need of Meat, and that as Man did not live by Bread only, so neither did he live by the Word of God only; but that Food was necessary, as well as Precepts; Relief to the Hungry, as well as Instruction to the Ignorant. In the Church of Rome they have an Order of Fryars-Preachers, men of learning and ability to confute Hereticks: and another Order, which were called Fratres ignorantes, the Unlearned Fryars, whose bu­siness 'tis to tend Hospitals, and to do other Offices of Charity: And though we approve not the bringing of Ignorant Orders into the Church and Clergy, yet this double Care of theirs, in providing for the Bodies, as well as the Souls of men, is highly com­mendable, and may be justified by the Practice of the Church in its Earliest and holiest days: as we read Acts 6. that there were not only Apostles to preach, but also Deacons to serve Tables. The People had been our Lords Auditors now three days fasting in a desart place, and his compassionate Heart would not [Page 229] dismiss them hungry, lest the Dissolution of the As­sembly, should be the Dissolution of the Souls and Bodies of many of them; he resolved therefore to supply by a Miracle, what was wanting in the Desart; to furnish from the Granaries of Heaven, what the Villages did not afford.

The Word in the Original rendred by our Tran­slators [ Compassion] implies more than a bare Pity, viz. that our Lord felt a Strong Impulse, or vehement Percussion in his Bowels, for the Suffering of the peo­ple. He wanted not meat himself, but he was ne­vertheless sensible of the hunger of others; his own Stomach grip'd him not, yet he was pain'd, because the Multitude lack'd Sustenance. And this is the true nature of Compassion and Goodness, it lyes under no Evil it self, but yet 'tis afflicted for what another suffers; it is safe in its own particular, and yet agast at the Dangers which it hears of. Who is weak, says S ^t Paul, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? That which Flattery does in Pretence and Dissimulation, Compassion does in truth and Reality. The Satyrist makes the Sycophant, if his Patron says, 'Tis cold, call presently for his Furr-Gown, though in the midst of Summer; and again, if he says, 'Tis hot, strip himself of it in the Extremity of Winter. Compassion feels the heats and colds, the pains and griefs, the wants and nakedness of those that are un­der such Afflictions, not apishly imitating, but truly suffering their Distresses. And our Saviour shewed that this Passion was predominant in him, not only at the present, but on many other Occasions; he sigh'd for the Sick, shed tears for the Dead, pray'd for his Persecutors upon the Cross, &c. And now I have said so much of our Lord's Compassion, it were to reproach my Auditory, and not to exhort them, to [Page 230] use any Arguments to shew, we ought to sympathize with him in the like Tenderness; that when he was all Pity, and melted at every Calamity, it will ill be­come us to shew our selves Rock and Steel at the Mi­series of our Brethren. I proceed to the Object of Christ's Compassion, the Multitude.

I have Compassion on the Multitude.

Our Lord in journeying from Decapolis and the Regions thereabout, had gathered to himself by the power of his Preaching, and the sight of his Mira­cles, a great Number of promiscuous People, styl'd in the Original [...], a Rabble of the Meaner Sort, such as the Priests and Pharisees pointed at John 7. when they said, Have any of the Rulers believed on him, but only this People, who know not the Law, and are accursed? For the over-weaning Pharisees reckoned the Poor among Publicans and Sinners, Re­probates and Harlots; esteemed those who had no Name in the State, who were capable of bearing no Honour or Office, to be also uncapable of receiving any Special Mark of God's Favour: according to the Proverbial Speech so common among them, Spiritus non requiescit nisi super divitem, the Spirit is sent only to Eminent Persons, and refuses to rest on the Mean and Abject. And yet it was the Distress of these undervalued, despised People, the Hunger of this condemned reprobated Rabble (in their Rulers ac­count not worthy to be fed, if with trouble, scarce to be starved, and who if they did dye through Want, the World would find no Want of them.) that so nearly affected our Lord, and so sensibly toucht his very Vitals. A Commiseration fit to be transcribed by those that are in Power and Great Place, who [Page 231] shew too much of that Anti-Christian Turkish Principle, That the Lives of the Vulgar are of no Moment, fit only to be sacrificed to the Lusts and Pleasures of the Rich in times of peace, and in War to fill up Ditches, and blunt the Enemies Sword: thus not being content to be at Ease only, and out of the Peoples Danger, unless they may be also without all Sense of their Misery. 'Tis said, as I remember, of Pompey the Great, mavult Rempublicam turbari, quàm Comam, he would rather the Commonwealth should be disordered than his Hair: and too many there are of this nice Temper, to be deeplier concern­ed for every trifling Curiosity about their own Per­sons, than for the Publick Good or Evil of their Country; and if their Lot be so happy, as to exempt them from bearing a part in a General Calamity, they easily exempt themselves from feeling any Trou­ble for it. But our Lord shew'd himself of a Publick Spirit; for when he was above the Evils and Calami­ties of Mankind, he espoused their Nature to no o­ther End, but that he might espouse their Miseries; and after he had laid aside his Glory, he laid down also his Life for the Salvation of his Creatures; he disdained not to converse with the Meanest of the People, to instruct their Ignorance, to heal their In­firmities, to relieve their Hunger. And this to teach us, That Christians ought to shew Regard, where o­thers shew Scorn; there to place their Pity and Com­passion, where the Custom of the World is to place its Contempt; to teach by his Own Example, what he afterwards taught his Apostle S ^t Peter by the Sheet of all Sorts of Creatures let down from Heaven, To hold none Refuse or Common, no, not to esteem the People themselves Vulgar. I pass to the Motives of our Lord's Compassion, which I said were two. [Page 232] The present Want of the Multitude, They have no­thing to eat. And their fear'd future Danger, in case they were so dismiss'd, They will faint by the Way.

The Necessity of our failing in these Habitation

These Words [ when ye fail] are by some under­stood two ways, by our failing in Duty, and our fail­ing in our Being, or Dying: As the Steward in the Pa­rable fail'd two Ways: 1. In his Honesty, as at ver. 1. he had wasted his Master's Goods. And 2 ^dly, In his Office, as at ver. 2. where his Master says to him, Thou may'st be no longer Steward. And after the like manner all Men fail, more or less, in their Fidelity and Justice: But all equally and necessarily in their Mortal Being. But whether we fail in the one of [Page 244] these Ways, or the other, whether we come short in our Duty, or are cut short in our Lives; in both these Failings the Unrighteous Mammon will stand us in stead. 1. If we fail in our Justice, Eleemosynae sunt instar Justitiae, Alms are a kind of Justice; and not only to Forgive, but also to Give, will cover a multitude of Sins: So that if we fail, viz. in our In­tegrity, we may again be restored by our Charity; and when we have wasted and consumed our Gra­ces, we may recruite them by exhausting our Pur­ses, and in this Shipwrack also, casting our Goods overboard, may be a Means of our Preservation.

But though this Sense of the Words has nothing in it contrary to sound Doctrine, yet it cannot be that which our Lord points at in them: For the Failing here spoken of is supposed to be Inevitable, Neces­sary, and Universal, when ye fail; indefinitely, when ye All fail: neither can the Words be suppo­sed to allude to the Common Pardonable Failing or Miscarriage of an honest Servant, but to the Pur­loining and Cheating of a Thief, which the Steward was, and for that cause was turned out of his Office. If therefore we say the Failing here is meant of our Duty, it must be of our General Total Duty, which is Apostasie, or else it holds no proportion to the Stew­ard's failing in the Parable: and if we do, it holds no proportion with the Truth: for we must affirm, our Lord supposes it Necessary and Inevitable for all Men Universally to be Apostates.

We must take the Words therefore in the other Sense, For Failing in our Being, or Mortal Bodies: which are often resembled in Scripture to Houses and Tabernacles, but I shall instance only in 2. Cor. 5.1. For we know, if the Earthly Houses of this Tabernacle were dissolved▪ we have a Building of God, a House not [Page 245] made with Hands, Eternal in the Heavens. There is in the Words the Figure Euphemismus, which terms things by more gentle and Favourable Names, than properly belong to them. Death sounds harsh to those 'tis denounced; to alleviate therefore the ungrateful­ness of it, 'tis render'd Failing: But the plain Im­portance of these Words [ when ye fail] is no other than this, When ye Die.

But now, though this be the true Meaning of the Words, it may seem to be a Theme less necessary to be insisted on, than any other, To tell men they must Die: Not that the Admonition is not weighty and of the highest Concern, but because it is so well known by all, and none needs this Information, Linquenda domus, & tellus, & pavens uxor—that our Houses, Lands, and tender Relations must be left by us; that nothing which is either dear to us, or we dear unto, can exempt us from the Law of Death, is News to no man; all men, of what Sort and Condition soever, can assume Saint Paul's scio, We Know that this Earthly Tabernacle shall be dissolved. The Ignorant see it daily demonstrated in the Morta­lity of other men, and the Infirmities they find in themselves; the Learned yet further by Philoso­phy and Reason, which tell them, That their Bodies being made up of a Mass of contrary Humours conti­nually jarring and fighting with one another, the Victory on either side must certainly be the Destru­ction of the Subject in which they are contained. Divinity adds to these a third Demonstration, teach­ing men that there is a Law of Death in their Mem­bers, not that which I but now spoke of, a Natural Law of Mortality, but a Spiritual Law of Sin, and consequently of Death: which Law had its Sancti­on▪ from God's own Mouth, Gen. 2. In the hour thou [Page 246] eatest, thou shalt dye. This present World is but a Nursery or Seminary to another, in which nothing is to be seen more common, than the transplanting of Men from this to that: Or it may be likened to a Tree, that has at the same time upon it, some Fruit decaying, some ripe, and some blooming, the one continually succeeding and thrusting off the other, till the Tree it self at last fails, as not being design'd to stand for ever.

All Men, I say, are of sufficient Learning to preach such Lectures as these, and stand not in need to have their Understanding instructed, or their Rea­son convinc'd in this Particular. But yet, I know not how, though Demonstration and Experience as­sure this Truth on the one side, there is something in Life it self on the other, something in Prosperity, Youth, Greatness, the Businesses of this World, and the like, which strangely contradict it; and though we believe nothing more certainly, than that All Men must Dye, we believe nothing more hardly, than that we our Selves must Dye. Those that burn in a Feaver feel no Cold; that are encompass'd with much Light, discern no Darkness; no more can those that are incircled with the Splendour of a high Fortune, see through it the gloomy Shades of the Grave; nor those that are within the warm embraces of Youth and Health apprehend the Cold remote Hand of Death. Paracelsus was perswaded, that there was a Certain Spirit of Salt, that gave Vegetation to all things in the World, which if he could have found out, he would have preserved himself and others Im­mortal. All men have generally a Tincture of this foolish Chymical, or rather Chimerical, Salt in their Fancy; which though it preserves them not from Dying, yet it gives them a Perswasion of long Living; [Page 247] and though it cannot defer the Fatal Hour one Moment, it can make them forget it, and put the Consideration of it far from them. Our Reflections upon our own Dying, are much like those of Raving Lovers upon the Loss of those they Immoderately affected, who at the very Instant that they embrace their Dead Bo­dies in their Arms, cry out, They cannot, they must not, they shall not Dye. What they are not able to support, they are not willing to acknowledge; the Sorrow which is too Great for their Hearts to bear, is too Great also for their Tongues to pronounce. And after the like manner, though we see and feel Death daily marching towards us, we being not able to brook its Approach, we endeavour to disbelieve it; and hope to avoid the Evil, by disowning it; to de­lude or delay our Destiny, by entertaining Fictions of a Long Life; and I may say, There is nothing that we at once so much Believe, and so much Disbe­lieve, as the Necessity of our Dying.

'Tis not therefore Superfluous to teach Men the so Known Lesson of Dying, to put them in mind of that, which is daily presented before their Eyes. And the Wisest in all Ages, as well Heathens as Christians, have used studied Arts to preserve a Memory of their Frail Condition: some have brought Urns, and Skulls, and Coffins into their Bed-Chambers and Closets, that where the Scene of their Business or Pleasure lay, there they might be admonish'd, that they must one day bid a Farewel to those things: Others have served up Skeletons at their Feasts, the whole Frame of a Dead man's Bones made with Art to turn to all the Guests, and with a horrid Aspect to survey the Table, and to insinuate that Death was always near, though forgotten in the Noise of Mirth and Wine; sate President of many Feasts, though invisibly [Page 248] through the Reek of Jollity and Meat. Others upon the Days of their Coronation and Triumph have placed those among the Multitude, that might min­gle Admonitions of their Mortality together with the general Applauses and Acclamations, that they might not forget, while they conquered or command­ed many People, themselves were Subject to Death; and that their Heads, which were now crown'd with Gold or Laurel, must after a short time be laid in the Dust. All these confessing, that it was not enough that Men should believe they must Dye, when they Con­sidered and Reasoned of it, but that they ought fre­quently to Consider and Reason of it.

And now after all is done, though these Courses may seem of great Power and Efficacy to take off the Strangeness and Terrour of Death: yet they have been found to fall short of the End they aimed at: For though men by these Artifices have become ac­quainted with the Name and Images of Death, they have still been miserably Strangers to Death it self; neither is it possible to strip the King of Terrours of his amazing Circumstances merely by remembring him, and making Pictures and Representations of him: but men must fit and prepare themselves to en­tertain him, they must lye under no Guilt of Sin, nor be too much in love with this Life, before they can Master this Apprehension: for 'tis no less than a Contradiction, that those that are fond of this Life, should welcome Death; that are inferior to every Lust and Temptation, should be Superior to the Greatest of Evils. We must make Death Harmless, before we can make him not to be Dreadful; take a­way his Sting and Curse by Repentance and a holy Life, before we can take away his Terrour; make him Beneficial and Advantageous, before we can re­concile [Page 249] him to our thoughts, and render him Fami­liar to us. For to retain Sin, and yet to hope to free our Selves from the Punishment of Sin, would not be to set our selves to conquer the Unreasonable Fears of our Nature, but to conquer God, to wrest the Vengeance of Iniquity out of his hands, which the Pain and Fear of Death are. And if it be objected, that the antient Heathen, out of a Principle only of Magnanimity and an Emulous Bravery, despised Death; I answer, That they cannot so truly be said to have Despised Death, as to have been Ignorant of it; they promised themselves after their departure hence a Being of Fame and Renown, they knew nothing but Fables of the Punishments of another World: for 'tis not Courage, but Madness, to despise Tor­ments that are Intolerable, and Eternal. If it be urged again, That many Professors of Christianity, who have heard the Doctrine of Damnation and an­other Life frequently preached, have yet after many heinous and unrepented Sins rush'd as boldly upon Death as the Heathen; I reply, Though they often heard the Doctrine of Damnation preach'd, they never believ'd it; but Infidelity wrought the same Effect in them, which Ignorance did in the o­ther. No, we must disarm Death, as I said, of the Evil that accompanies him by a Righteous Life, be­fore we can disarm him of his Terrour; if we will not be dismay'd, when this Grim Landlord comes to turn us out of our Mortal Tenements, we must pro­vide our Selves before-hand Everlasting Habitations. Which brings me to my Second General Part, the Policy which is taught us to procure Everlasting Ha­bitations, when we fail in these; and that is, by making to our selves Friends

Of the Mammon of Vnrighteousness.

We may observe in the Policy here prescribed us, three things: 1. The Instrument of it, The Vnrigh­teous Mammon. 2. The Use of this Instrument, We are to make Friends with it. 3. The End of this Use, That we may be received into Everlasting Habitati­ons.

I begin with the Instrument, the Vnrighteous Mam­mon, in which there are two things to be explained, The Name and Substance of it, Mammon; And the Condition or Qualification of it, The Vnrighteous Mammon.

Which was to destroy David's Foundations.

And what were the Foundations which the Psalmist [Page 266] here speaks of? For the Word is in the Plural Num­ber, and the Foundations of a Kingdom may be ma­ny. Some Material and Visible, as Fortresses, Ar­mies, Rocks, Mountains, &c. Others Immaterial, and visible only in practice, as Laws Civil and Eccle­siastical, which are its Moral Fortifications: for the Laws of a Land support it no less than its People, Wealth, Bulwarks; and whoever seeks to subvert these, though he attempts nothing against the Ma­gazines and Strong-holds, yet he undermines the very Foundations. There is also an Invisible Foun­dation of a State, which is God's Favour and Defence, pointed at by the Prophet Isaiah, Chap. 4. ver. 5. in these words, Over all the Glory shall be Defence. And though David had a regard to all his other Foundations, this was the Chief, the Surest Rock in which he trusted, as himself professes 2 Sam. 22. The Lord, says he, is my Rock and my Fortress, he is the God of my Rock— and saveth me from violence. His Rock was strong, but the God of his Rock was stronger; his Habitations stood upon the Rock of Sion, but then Sion again was founded upon God. And thus as Ezekiel's Vision was rota in rota, a wheel in a wheel; so David's Foundation was Fundamen­tum in Fundamento, a Foundation upon a Foundati­on. The Heathen had also in their Superstitious Way an Invisible or Divine Foundation: for as out of jealousie to their Neighbours they chose to plant their Cities upon Rocks and Hills, so they dedicated again those Rocks and Hills to the Protection of some Deity, which was the Rock of their Rock: and Moses seems to allude to this, Deut. 32.31. where he says, Their Rock is not as our Rock, even our Enemies themselves being Judges.

Now in the first place, the Design of David's E­nemies [Page 267] was to destroy All his Foundations: not only his Material and Visible ones, but also his Immaterial of his Laws, and his Invisible of the Deity in which he trusted: For the Gentiles had a conceit, that the Gods themselves were conquerable. They had a Sort of Godlings or lesser Gods, which they assign'd to the Guardianship of Springs and Trees, as Nymphs and Dryades, which they thought Mortal and extin­guishable with those Springs and Trees. Other Great Gods again which they set over Kingdoms and Cities, and though they believ'd these last to be immortal: yet they fansy'd, when the Cities or Kingdoms over which they presided were subdued, that these Deities were also subdu'd.

Secondly, As the Design of David's Enemies was to destroy all his Foundations in general, of what kind soever: So it was to destroy them Finally and Vtterly. For as our Lord says of the Providence of the Children of this World in Temporal things, That they are Wiser than the Children of Light: So they are also in their Malice and Mischievous Designs, they lay the Axe to the Root, they dig as deep to destroy, as others do to build. Says S ^t Paul, As a wise Ma­ster-Builder, I have laid the Foundation: but these on the contrary as Master-Destroyers aim to rase the Foundation, knowing this to be the speediest way to make an absolute Destruction, for the Super-structures must follow these.

Thirdly, The Ways which the Enemies of David took to effect his Destruction, are exprest to be three, Parley, Violence, and Stratagem. Parley is implyed at the first Verse, In the Lord put I my trust, how say ye then to my Soul, Flee as a Bird to the Mountain. Violence is intimated, ver. 5. The Lord tryeth the Righ­teous, but the Wicked and he that loveth Violence, his [Page 268] Soul hateth. Stratagem is mentioned ver. 3. For lo, the Wicked bend their Bow, they make ready their Ar­row upon the String, that they may privily shoot at the Vpright in heart.

And now before we proceed any further, if we shall compare the Machinations of the Enemies of our Israel this Day, with those of the Enemies of David; if we stretch Plot upon Plot, and Conspi­racy upon Conspiracy, as Elijah stretcht himself up­on the dead Child, we shall find, that not only Limb answers to Limb, but that the Malice of our Adversaries exceeded that of David's, as much as the Dimensions of a Man exceed those of a Child.

1. We say, The Design of David's Enemies was to destroy All his Foundations of what Kind soever: and the Design of ours was as Universal, to destroy our Forts and Castles, our Ships and Ammunition, our Laws and Policies, our Prince and People: and though they knew they could not subvert our Invisi­ble Divine Foundation, that the Eternal Omnipotent God was not to be subdu'd: yet they sought to de­prave his Worship, and to corrupt his Religion, which would have deprived us of him, or have alie­nated him to us. It was not for their Interest to set up Baal against Jehovah, Dagon against the God of Israel: but as it was Jeroboam's interest to set up the Calves and High Places against the Temple and Altar at Jerusalem; so it was hugely their Interest to set up their Superstitious and Idolatrous Worship in the place of our pure and Holy, so inconsistent with their Anti-Christian Monarchy. And though the Enemies of Israel designed after the same manner to destroy all their Foundations, and All can be but All, yet one All may be greater than another, and our All, if we may believe Geographers, many times exceeds theirs.

[Page 269]2. The Design of David's Enemies was Fatal and Final, and to extirpate utterly; not only, I say, to make a total Destruction, but to destroy Totally. And the same was the Design of our Enemies, only whereas the Malice of David's Enemies was weak and insignificant, they being Aliens, and at a Di­stance; rather a Disposition, than an Ability to hurt; only one of those kinds of Ill will, which Aristotle in his Ethicks says, Is not furnisht to do much Evil, and seldom grows up beyond Petulancy, and the Trou­ble of them that are possess'd with it: Our Adver­saries were Natives and in the Bowels of us, armed with Power, as well as Malice; and wanted not the Means and Opportunity to effect our Ruine, any more than the Will to plot it. Can a Nation be born at once? says Job. No, nor one would think be destroyed and brought to Nothing in a Day. The Grecians were ten Years in ruining Troy: and when our Lord said, Destroy this Temple, and I will rear it again in three days, the Jews supposing he spoke of the Temple of Stone, which was forty and six Years a building, heard his words as a Prodigy. But lo a People, that were our Adversaries, that could do more! And had not our Rock, or rather the Rock of our Rock, been Invincible, they had destroyed us; I say not in three days, but in three Minutes, in a Thought, in a Moment. Many, Alas! and of Various Perswasions and Pretences are the Adversaries of our Church: but as the Historian says of the Contentions Rome had in her Minority with the Veii and the Gabii, and other petty Town­ships her Neighbours, that they were but as the Squab­bles of little Children about the Lap of their Mother, not like those she had afterwards with Carthage, and other potent States, which were like the Fatal Dis­sentions [Page 270] of grown Men, which seldom end without the Blood of the one or the other Party. So we hop'd it might be said of the Quarrels of our Dissenting Bre­thren, (though they troubled us about the Superstru­ctions, the Rites of Religion, and the like) that their Exceptions were but lucta circa matrem, as the Brabbles and Wranglings of Children standing about the Lap of their Mother, not like the Mortal Enmi­ties of those that plotted against us this day, whom nothing could satisfie, but the Destruction of our Foundations, and that Totally and Finally. But late times have given us experience, that the Malignity of these is not inferior to the others, not less black and bloudy; and though they make such Out-cries against Popery, pretend to dread and detest nothing like its Return again into the Nation, yet they abstain not from its Practices, nor abhor to serve themselves with the Wickedest of its Principles. So that these two so seeming contrary Parties are not ill resembled to two fierce opposite Streams, which when they meet, roar and chide, but then friendly close and join. But while both Papist and Puritan stick at nothing, though never so impious, to subvert the Foundati­ons of our truly pure and holy Religion, they plain­ly demonstrate, they have subverted in their own Hearts the Fundamental Principles of Christianity it self. But to proceed.

I said, Thirdly, That the Ways which the Ene­mies of David took to bring about his Destruction, were three, Parley, Violence, and Stratagem; and our Enemies took the very same Courses to effect ours.

1. Parley. The Danger of Parley is not easily seen, it pretends only to remove Misunderstandings, and to compose Differences in an amicable Way, [Page 271] and Book-Combats have been ever held consistent with a State of Peace: but more Mischief has been done by this Close and Covert, than by Open and profess'd Hostilities; and those that have defended themselves against Force, have been undone by Trea­ties; many Camps and Cities have been lost by per­mitting a free Parley and Entercourse between the Souldiers, that could never have been stormed. And while simple and unskilful Israelites among us have play'd with this Danger, like Children upon the hole of the Asp, they have perisht by it, before they have understood that any Evil was near. How many were the Attempts of Rome in this kind upon our Glorious Queen Elizabeth at her first coming to the Crown? how many flattering Epistles were there sent her from that See? how many fatherly Admo­nitions? What tender Care exprest for her Souls good? What Sollicitude for her Temporal? How were the Treasures, i. e. the Cheats of that Church offered to be commanded by her? its Usurpt Autho­rity to be put upon the Tenter for her accommoda­tion? She might have marry'd Philip King of Spain her Brother, if her fancy or interest had lain for it; there was nothing so Unlawful, but it should have been dispens'd with; so Infirm, but, after the manner of Rome, it should have been corroborated. Never, I may say, was the Way to Destruction more strowed with Roses; never did the smooth Accents of the Tongue so vie with the soft Ayres of Instrumental and Vocal Musick; till the Holy Father saw that his Artifices were seen through and despised:

And then he betook himself to the second Means, that of Violence. But, Good God! how great was now the Change? all the late harmonious Courtship was turn'd into Harshness and Discord; the Bles­sings [Page 272] into Anathema's or Curses; nothing was heard but the Reproaches of Heretick, Apostate, Accursed Woman; nothing but Fulminations, Excommunica­tions, Interdictions, which may be call'd Rome's Spi­ritual Violence. Foreign Princes were stirr'd up a­gainst the Queen, open Invasions set on foot by Sea and Land, secret Conspiracies plotted at home; In­surrections, Poysonings, Assassinations, Treasons of all kinds fomented and encouraged: which by Di­vine Providence being also rendred bruta Fulmina, idle Thunder, that made a Noise, and did no fur­ther Hurt, the Great Enemy of our Church and State and his Complices had recourse

In the Third place to Stratagem, to carry on their Designs in tenebris, with the dark and hellish Con­trivance of the Powder-Treason this Day. I will not say with the Psalmist, They put the Arrow upon the String, that they might privily shoot at the Vp­right in heart, Alas! Bows and Arrows are an anti­quated and despicable Artillery in these days, being so far out-done by the Newer and rarer Invention of Execution and Cruelty, Guns, that they deserve not to be named for destroying Foundations, to be com­pared with the Still, and, for a time, Silent Battery in the Cave; but which, when least expected, thunders louder than the Heavens, and overturns Towns and whole Cities with greater Violence than an Earth­quake. The Jebusites were but rude and ignorant Engineers in comparison of those, who but with a little Change bear their Name, the Jesuites: these indeed are great Workers in Darkness, none ever be­fore them delved so deep to undermine Foundations; we may apply to them the words of the Prophet Ho­sea, These Revolters are profound to make Slaughter: For the Jesuites did not only Acheronta movere, stir [Page 273] Hell to promote their Plot, but they dug to Hell to carry it on. But their Stratagem, I was going to say, was blown up; but, blessed be God, I cannot say so, but is blown over, and many more since to their own great Shame only and Confusion.

And now if we ask here, Why was all this Transport of Rage and Fury against us? Why all this restless and unwearied Malice? 'Twas still for the same Reasons that the Enemies of David were set on fire against him. We had dispossest them of their Dominion, retrench'd their Power, supplanted their Religion, derided their Lame and their Blind, namely, their Images, detected their forged Miracles, degraded their Mock-Saints, their Hypochondriack S ^t Anthony, their Fanatical S ^t Francis, their Bedlam Ignatius, their Chimera Giant S ^t Christopher, &c. and they could find no peace or rest in their Spirit, till they had restored these to their former Credit and Reputation, and that by making their Prophaners, their Worshippers. And by this we may see what would have been our Condition, in case our Adver­saries could have brought about their Design? For as the Jebusites were Idolaters, as well as the rest of the Canaanites, and the Lame and the Blind with which they braved David, and defy'd the Host of Israel, were (as the most Learned conjecture) their Tutelar Gods, Telesmatical or Magical Images: So our Adversaries, however they seek to purge them­selves with their Distinctions, are gross Idolaters: and just such a goodly Change as David should have made, if he had left the Eternal God, to trust in Stocks and Stones, is the Change we should make, if our Adversaries could prevail to make us leave our Mountain or Church to fly to theirs of Rome.

[Page 274]And, First, In regard that our Mountain is a Clear Mountain, enlightned by the bright Beams of the Word of God, which darts its Rays into every Cor­ner of it: Or stands, as I may say, like a Mercurius directorius in every Path, and points the Right-Way to all that go by, bidding them to walk in it. But the Mountain of our Adversaries is always wrapt in Fogs and Mists: and yet, as if it were not Dark e­nough, those that profess to be Guides to it, blind the Eyes of all that are to ascend it: And as the Guards of Forts and Frontier Castles make those that enter into them first surrender their Weapons: so these make their Disciples and Proselytes resign their Reason and lay down their Understanding at the foot of the Mount, and go on for ever after in Ignorance and an Implicit Faith. And they do wisely in taking this Course: for 'tis not possible that any with their Reason about them should make any long Progress, where they meet so many gross Scandals or Stumbling-Blocks at every step: where they see the Scripture not only misinterpreted in some hard places, but in the most Easie industriously per­verted to Countenance the foulest Errours, even I­dolatry it self; and after they have swallow'd whole so many Contradictions no less to humane Reason, than to Divine Writ, where they are obliged to be­lieve, that the Church which imposes these Monsters, cannot Erre; nay, that God has confirmed them with Miracles, shew'd Signs and Wonders more and more glorious to overthrow the Gospel of his Son, than he did at first to establish it. Signs and Wonders cry'd indeed every Market-Day among them, like the Fruits of the Earth, i. e. the Relation of them, but which were never seen by any Eye. For, as one well observes, Whereas our Lord wrought his Mira­cles [Page 275] to make Believers, the Church of Rome requires that men should be Believers, before they see any of her Miracles, i. e. should be trained up to swal­low Lies and Impostures.

Secondly, As our Mountain is a Lightsome and Clear Mountain, so 'tis also a Safe: whereas that of our Adversaries may be likened to the Hills of Rob­bers, which the Psalmist speaks of, where nothing is heard of but Depredations, the continual Pillaging and spoiling of Travellers; men go up to Rome as to a great Fair, where Themselves are bought and sold; Confessions, Pardons, Penances, Indulgences, Dispensations, Pilgrimages, &c. aiming all at the Purse, and not at the Good of the Soul: and who shall look no further than our English Chronicle, will find, that the Vniversal Pastor, when he exer­cised his Usurp'd and Tyrannical Power in this Realm, was not content to fleece his Sheep only, but tore off the very Flesh from their Bones.

Thirdly, Ours is our own Mountain, we are in it; but our Adversary's is more than a thousand Miles di­stant, and many other Mountains are to be past over before we can come to it; and those that with a tame Simplicity delight to pay Homage to the Usurp'd Maje­sty of that Mount, travel many a dangerous and weary League, before they can attain the Abuse they seek: And sad was the Condition of this Nation, when up­on every great Controversie to be judged, every great Preferment to be collated, every great Sin to be absolved, men were transferr'd to the See of Rome, corpus cum causa, themselves as well as their Cause; and where, if they sped in their Pretences, they often miscarry'd in their Journey. We may therefore say of those that affect to be Proselytes to this Mountain, what S ^t Paul says of the Corinthians, [Page 276] That they more gladly submitted to those that took of them, that brought them into bondage, than to those that were Sincere towards them, and abounded in labour for them. Or else we may upbraid them, as the Pro­phet Hosea did Ephraim, Ephraim is like a silly Dove without heart, they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria, i. e. to the places of their Captivity and Oppression: So these delight in those that plume them and tyran­nize over them, that seal up their Eyes in Darkness, and make them believe they towre towards Heaven and the Regions of Glory, till they find themselves in the Precincts of Eternal Night. And as Ephraim was not only made a Prey, but a Scorn for their Folly, This shall be their Derision, says the Prophet, in the Land of Egypt; so those among us that call to go to the Spiritual Egypt, shall be mock'd in the Day of Great Accounts, as well as Condemned: For what remains for those that would not be warned, but to be laugh'd at? for those that chuse Destructi­on, but to be derided when they are fallen into it? In the mean time let our Adversaries triumph in the Victories they obtain by their threefold Machinati­ons, Parley, Violence, and Stratagem: for though they sometimes prevail upon Unstable Souls, prepar'd by their own Vanity for Ruine, yet they cannot pre­vail against our Cause; they may deceive some parti­cular Persons, but they cannot overthrow our Foun­dations, no more than the Enemies of David could his. Which brings me to my second General Part, The Absurdity or Impossibility of the Design of Da­vid's Enemies, To destroy his Foundations: for then the Righteous would not know what to do.

If the Foundations be destroyed, what can the Righteous do?

[Page 277] What shall I do?] is the Expression of a Person driven to the greatest Exigence, and knows not which way to turn himself in the Difficulties he is in: they are the Words of the Unjust Steward in the Gospel, when he was turn'd out of his Stewardship, What shall I do? says he; Dig I cannot, and to beg I am ashamed. The only two Means of Livelihood left to those that are reduced to the Extreamest Poverty, Labour and Begging, were taken from him; the one by Shame, and the other by a Soft Education. Such an Utter Distress as this the Words of my Text im­ply, they being a Negative by way of Question, which is the strongest kind of Negative. What can the Righteous do? i. e. They can do nothing. And if any say, Yes, the Unjust Steward had still recourse unto his old Arts of Cheating and False reckoning: and so David and other Righteous men, in case their Foundations be destroyed, may make some shift, they may fly as a Bird to the Mountain of their Ene­mies. I answer, That this is not to be admitted, Un­lawful Remedies come not so much as into the Con­sultation of the Righteous, be their Distress never so great; what is Wicked, is to them Impossible; and what they cannot do justly, they cannot do at all. How can I do this great Wickedness, and sin against God? said Joseph, when his wanton Mistress tempted him, i. e. I cannot possibly do it. He could have done it actually, but he could not do it honest­ly; and what was impossible to his Vertue, he re­solv'd to be impossible to his Practice. But the Sup­position here it self is vain, That the Foundations of the Righteous can be destroyed.

But how! some will say, not possible to destroy their Foundations? Why, Commanders will affirm, that no Place is impregnable, and consequently, that there [Page 278] are no Foundations but may be destroyed. When Philip of Macedon was told of a strong Place, which, by reason of the steepness, rockiness and narrowness of the Ascent to it, was Inaccessible; he ask'd in derision, If an Ass laden with Gold could not get up to it? Intimating, that no place was impregna­ble to Force and Fraud both. But the Distinction I gave before of a Visible and Invisible Foundation, an­swers all such Objections. David, beside his Rock, as ye have heard, had the Rock of his Rock, namely, his God. 'Tis the Invisible Divine Foundation that is the Security of the Visible. No City or Fortress is safe by its natural or artificial Strength: for as the Psalmist says, A horse is but a vain thing to save a man: so Rocks and Bulwarks are but vain things to save a City; Except the Lord keepeth it, the Watchman waketh but in vain. But on the other side, if he be the Rock and Defence, if he be the Sion himself unto Jerusalem, no Force, no Strata­gem whatsoever can prevail against it, but Jeru­salem on Earth shall be as invincible, as Jerusa­lem in Heaven, whose Builder and Maker is God.

And if any say, What is this to us, who are not to promise our selves the Priviledges of Israel? I answer, If we be Faithful like them, we may promise our selves God's protection no less than they. For, as Saint Peter says, God is no Respecter of Persons, but in every Nation they that fearh im, and work Righteousness, are accepted by him. We have a Kingdom, thanks be to Provi­dence, more strongly fortify'd by Nature, than Israel was; founded, as the Psalmist says the World is, upon the Waters, He laid it in the Waters, and founded it upon the Flouds. And though our Foun­dations [Page 279] be moveable and fluctuating, yet their Mo­bility and Mutability being only Local, and not Substantial, they are not less permanent. We may compare our Political Foundations also with Israels. But be our Material or Moral Foundations what they will, our Invisible is the same with theirs: For God is not only our Founder, but our Foun­dation too; he has not only founded us By, but On himself. He brought us one of the first of the Nations out of the Darkness of Paganism to the Light of the Gospel; and again one of the first of the Nations out of the Bondage of Spiri­tual Babylon to the Liberty of the Truth, and free Use of his Word; and he has not only given us more Excellent Ordinances, than he did to his people Israel, but many Advantages even above our Fellow-Christians; and no Church can boast more truly than ours, That 'tis built upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Christ himself being the Chief Corner-Stone; and what is this, but to be Founded on God himself? And 'tis our Reliance on this our Invisible Foundation, which makes us with David not to fear the De­signs of our Enemies upon our Material and Vi­sible. For though God has made us no parti­cular Promise concerning our Temporal Prosperi­ty, in case we keep his Commandments, as he did to Israel; yet we may rest assured on his Holy and Divine Nature and Promises in gene­ral: which are to Love and Protect the Righte­ous; and not only Israel, as the Psalmist says, but all that put their Trust in the Lord, shall be as Mount Sion, which shall not be removed, but stand­eth fast for ever. And the truth is, that which is said of Temporal Kingdoms, Justitia Thronum fir­mat, [Page 280] Justice supports the Throne, may be affirmed of God's Spiritual Kingdom in the World, his Ju­stice and Goodness establishes his Dominion in the Hearts of Men. For if it were not so, That the Lord regarded the Righteous, this great Incon­gruity would produce another great Incongruity and Irregularity, The Righteous, as the Psalmist says, would put their hand to Iniquity, i e. they would be no longer Righteous, they would make Justice and Piety no more their Business and Concern, if there were no Regard in Heaven for these things: and so God would lose his Obedience when he neglected Good Men. Let us therefore be careful of our Duty, and we need not be solicitous for our Safety; let us firmly rely upon God in well-doing, and believe that our Trust in our Divine In­visible Foundation is not merely Chimerical or Imagi­nary, and while we fail not it, it will never fail us: but the Business of this Day shall be the business of the Year round, viz. to praise and magnifie our Foundation, for protecting and preserving our Foundations: and these Lauds and Thanksgivings, if they be Cordial and Real, will create us new Occasions of Lauds and Thanksgivings, even daily Mercies and Bles­sings, I say, if they be Cordial and Real, not only Verbal and Vocal; not only express'd in Bells and Bonfires, Noises and Excesses, but in true Piety and Devotion; as our Prayer of General Thanksgiving teaches us, In shewing forth God's Praise not only with our Lips, but in our Lives; by giving up our selves to his Service, and so forth. For though 'tis impossible to solemnize Publick Joy and Thanksgi­ving, without Publick Expressions of them: yet these Publick Expressions should be but the Outward Signs and Significations of the Inward Sence we have [Page 281] of God's Benefits, and the Gratitude that dwells in our Hearts, and which ought chiefly to be shew'd in the Duties of Religion, in the Acts of Mercy and Charity in a Day of Mercy and Deliverance; in the Reformation of whatsoever is contrary to the Di­vine Will in us, and the like, 'Tis not enough therefore that our Streets resound with Festivity and Joy, or yet that we celebrate God's great Mercies in Psalms and Hymns sung to the Organ by Asaph and other Chief Musicians, but every Faithful Person must be a Musician; and every Grateful Heart, that has been delivered, an Instrument of God's Praise.

The Father.

This was a comfortable Promise of our Lord's to his Disciples, if they had then understood it, as they after­wards did: but when the Words were spoken, they were but as a Parable or Proverb to them, as 'tis ver. 25. These things have I spoken unto you in Proverbs, the time will come that I shall speak no more unto you in Proverbs, but I shall shew you Plainly of the Father. How was that? in what fashion did he afterwards shew them plainly of the Father? By his Charismata, the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost which they received from him, and which bore the very Chara­cter of the Father stampt upon them: For every Good and perfect Gift, as S ^t James says, is from above, and cometh from the Father of Light. And thus he shew'd them more plainly and convincingly of the Father, than he did to Philip, when he said, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen Me, hath seen the Fa­ther: [Page 286] For he shew'd them not the Father now in the Person of another, but in their Own, in his Divine and Omnipotent Power displayed in themselves. And this was not only a Plain and Evident, but a Graci­ous Revelation of the Father; which as it improv'd their Knowledge of him, so it gave them also De­monstrations of his Love and Favour. The Father was both gracious to them, and present with them before, under the Law; he was their God, and they were his People: but after they had embrac'd the Go­spel he sent his Son into the World to preach, they were admitted into a Nearer Relation; and were not only call'd the People and Servants, but the Chil­dren of God, the adopted Brethren of Christ; and the Father of Heaven and Earth was appropriated by our Lord no less to them, than to himself; I go, says he, to my Father and to your Father, to my God and to your God.

And this being the blessed Condition not only of the first Disciples, but of all true Believers since, I cannot chuse but take Occasion from hence to say, That those Christians are not sensible of their own Priviledge and Dignity, that go a Compass to God, when they are allowed the Directest and Shortest Way to him; who keep a Distance, when they are invited and encouraged to make a Near and familiar Address; out of an affected Humility move them, that they may move her, that she may move Christ, that Christ may move the Father. What a trifling Ambages is this, after our Lord has promised an Im­mediate Access? and upon no better ground, but because, forsooth, the like is practised in the Courts of Earthly Princes; where Strangers and Unknown Persons are not allow'd to make their Approach to the King without the Introduction of some in Place. [Page 287] Alas! to the Court of Heaven there comes no Stran­gers or Unknown Persons, all the Suters there are Sons, and these use not to implore the help of Ser­vants, but being first in Power and Place themselves, go directly and boldly to the Throne of the King their Father: as S ^t Paul, Heb. 4.16. encourages the Faithful to do, Let us come boldly, says he, to the Throne of Grace: and our Lord at the 16 ^th Verse of this Chapter speaks, as if his own Mediation were not always necessary: At that day, says he, ye shall ask in my Name, and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you, for the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. Those that believe that Jesus is the Christ, as the Apostle says, are born of God, and begotten of his Spirit, and they need no other Advo­cate to speak for them, but the Spirit, and such their Propinquity by Faith; and to distrust their Inte­rest, were to distrust God's Love and Christ's Truth; and we may say of such a Diffidence, what one says of the like in humane Alliance,— peccat, Qui com­mendandum se putat esse suis, he sins against the Right of Kindred, that thinks he needs to be recommended to his own Relations.

Therefore, though we decline not, with the rank­er Socinians, the Intercession of Christ, who say, He is mere Man, and not God, and consequently that all Prayers made to him are idolatrous: Nor yet com­ply with the more allay'd and qualify'd Poyson of o­thers of them, who allow it lawful to pray to Christ, but not necessary: yet we may vindicate the Prero­gative given to a Disciple in my Text, against the Shew of Wisdom, in Will-Worship and Humility, pra­ctis'd in the Church of Rome. For we who are rightly instructed in the Close Conjunction of the [Page 288] Father and the Son, that teach he is both God and Man, know it is indifferent, whether we supplicate the Father or the Son; whether with our Lord him­self we say, Father, into thy hands I commend my Spirit: or whether with S ^t Stephen, Lord Jesu re­ceive my Spirit, who praying after this manner, is said also to have call'd upon God. And in truth, when our Lord sends his Disciples in my Text to his Father, he neither extinguishes his own Adoration, nor Mediation: but sends them from his Humane Na­ture, as I may say, to meet them again in his Divine. And this is the true Importance of his sending them to the Father: but they were not capable at this time of receiving the Doctrine of his Divinity: for a lit­tle before, in plain terms without a Figure, he had discoursed to them of his Death and Passion, and those to whom it was a hard Saying, That they should eat his Flesh and drink his Bloud, would have thought it a much harder to have heard, That he was the Eternal God, and could yet be Crucify'd by Wicked men. Not willing therefore to force their Reason either by his Argumentation or Authority, he let this Mystery alone to be revealed in due time by the Ho­ly Ghost, and establisht their Comfort on a Founda­tion more easie to be conceived by them, the Good­ness and All-Sufficiency of the Father: For however they did believe their Master to be an Extraordinary and Divine Person, they could not chuse but believe their God was Greater; and if it were a happiness to follow the Son, it must be yet a higher Felicity to be Favourites to the Father, of whom the whole Family of Heaven and Earth is named.

Now this being the Condition which a Disciple was left in at his Lord's Departure, he had no reason to mourn and languish for his Absence; with S ^t Augu­stine [Page 289] to desire to see Christum in ore, Christ's natural face again, while he enjoyed Christum in Patre, Christ in the power and presence of the Father. When a less Person at his Departure gives us the Fa­vour of a Greater, we may say, He does not Desert us, but bestows his Absence on us. But Christ's Care of his Disciples and kindness to them will be seen yet more in the Unlimited Measure in which they were promised God's Favour, exprest in these Words, Whatsoever ye shall ask—he will give it you. Which is the next thing I am to explain.

Whatsoever ye shall ask—he will give it you.

This was a large Promise, and yet as largely and stupendiously made good. For, 1. Such was the Power of a Disciple by Prayer upon Earth, that he could cast out Devils, chase away all Diseases, heal all Infirmities, call the Dead out of their Grave, and send the Living into it. 2. Such was his Power in the Sea, that when the Ship was become a Prey to the merciless Element, and nothing but Death and De­speration appear'd to all others, a S ^t Paul could say, Not one of the Company shall perish. And why so? Because he had pray'd, and God had given him the Lives of them that sail'd with him. 3. Such was his Power in Heaven, that the Holy Ghost stood press'd and ready, as I may say, upon the laying-on of the Apostles hands, as upon a Sign given, to descend in all his various and wonderful Endowments. S ^t James notes, that Elijah by the power of prayer shut the Windows of Heaven, and caused a Dearth; and again open'd them, and made Plenty: But the Prayers of the Apostles wrought not only Wonderful Effects in the second Region of the Air, in the Magazines of [Page 290] Snow and Rain, but entering into the Heaven of Hea­vens call'd down Showres of Supernatural and Divine Graces; And though before the time of Christ, it was said, That 'twas not known, that God so hearkened to the Voice of a Man, as he did to Joshua commanding the Sun to stand still: yet after Christ's ascension, he frequently hearkened to the Voice of Men, and ef­fected greater Wonders: For after this Promise was once of force, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name, he will give it you; nothing was impossi­ble, nothing was difficult to a Disciple of Christ.

But some perhaps will say, That it does not ap­pear that this Promise was fulfilled according to the Extent and Latitude of it, even to the Apostles themselves, not to say how little of it has been made good to the Faithful since. For undoubtedly S ^t Paul was not the only Person that prayed thrice, i. e. often and instantly, that the Thorn in his Flesh might be ta­ken away, and was not heard: but others also of the Apostles and first Planters of the Gospel made many earnest Supplications for Success to their Endeavours and Deliverance in their Persecutions, and were not answered in their Petitions. So that this Promise, Whatsoever ye shall ask, &c. seems to be [...], a Promise with Repentance, which was never made good.

To this may be said in general, what S ^t Paul says of all God's Promises, That in him they are Yea and Amen, i. e. Truths which are ratified with Perform­ances. But when we meet with such General and Unlimited Expressions, as this in my Text, Whatsoe­ver ye shall ask, he will give it you, though we ought to look upon them as no more than what God is both able and willing to perform, when any Just Cause shall require, yet they are only then to be ex­pected [Page 291] from him, when a Just Cause does require: For we must not imagine, because he promises ac­cording to the Greatness of his own Power and Goodness, that he promises according to the Extrava­gance of Mens Lusts and Phancies; because he pro­mises Liberally, that he promises also, like Herod, Licentiously; who at a wanton Banquet engaged the one half of his Kingdom to a dancing Damsel, and gratify'd a Harlot with the Head of a Saint. God's Unlimited Promises are to be understood like the Unlimited Promise of the Good Samaritan, when he left the Wounded Man in the Inn: Whatsoever thou spendest more, says he to the Host, I will give it thee, i. e. in Order to the hurt man's Recovery; the Credit did not extend to the Purchace of the Inn, in case his Guest had desired it. And if we shall thus receive the Words of our Lord cum grano Salis, as they say, but with two Grains only of prudent Interpretation cast into them, we shall understand their just Latitude and Extent. Whatsoever ye shall ask, he will give it you, i. e. si justum, si rationabile, if it be Righteous, if it be Reasonable.

First, If it be Righteous, Righteous in the Mat­ter, Righteous in the End, and Righteous in the Manner of the Petition. 1. Righteous in the Matter, if it be something Pious or Charitable that is pray'd for, something for God's Honour, or the Spiritual Advantage of the Votary, something, in a word, worthy to concern and engage Heaven in: for if men shew themselves over-much in love with the things of this Life, too solicitous for that which is Vile and Transitory, when they have the Promise of things Eternal, this declares a Degenerateness in their Affections, and an Indecorum that is reprovable, and not rewardable, as 'tis said, indecorum est ei curare de [Page 292] cibo, qui militat de regno, Care of the Belly and the Kitchin, ill becomes him, that is in pursuance of a Kingdom. Such as these, while they pray to God, despise him; and let them not hope, while they set at Nought the Glories of Heaven, that he will regard their abject Desires; he promised to give to them that ask'd in his Son's Name, not in the Name of the World.

2. Righteous in the End. The End of what men desire should be the Glory of God: for if it be to satisfie their Pride, Revenge, Concupiscence, &c. 'tis enough again to put an Embargo upon their Re­quests, as S ^t James says, Ye ask, and ye receive not, because ye ask for your Lusts: and though God has promised to have his Ears open to faithful Prayers, he has not engaged to assist Sin, or to be accessory to Wickedness.

3. Righteous in the Manner, if men lift up pure and holy Hands, sincere and faithful Hearts, without Hypocrisie and without Presumption, neither doubt­ing nor tempting God: constant, but with resigna­tion; devout, but yet humble; Zealous and Fer­vent, but without Murmuring and impatience. Hea­ven is taken by Violence, but 'tis by an Agonistical, not a Hostile Violence; by contesting with our own Sins, not by quarrelling with God; his Kingdom is not to be storm'd after the manner the Poets feign'd the Giants to assault Olympus, but to be conquered by Submission, Duty, and Devotion; God is to be wrestled with, as Jacob did with the Angel, in Faith and Prayer; and they are brutish, who, because he has promised his Servants shall have power With him, expect to have a power Over him.

And thus as our Prayers must be Righteous, have nothing in them repugnant to God's Holiness [Page 293] and Majesty; so, secondly, they must be Reasonable, i. e. agreeable to God's Divine Will: for Reasonable here is not to be measur'd by what is Reasonable to us, but to God; that which is often Good and fit in our Eyes, is not so in his. If therefore, as S ^t John says, we ask according to his Will, he heareth us. And a thing may be supposed to be ask'd according to his Will three Ways.

1. If it be not contrary to his Decrees, something which he has predetermined: for these are immuta­ble, and though Noah, Daniel, or Job, should inter­cede, they should not prevail: again, as reducible to these, if the Prayer be not against the Decrees or Laws of Nature: For though I confess the Promise made to the Apostles in my Text, relates chiefly to things of a Miraculous Nature: yet the Promise in that part is not to be extended beyond the Apostles Own Persons, or the Time of the first planting the Gospel. To bring about some great Designs of his in the World, God thought fit to interrupt and dis­compose the Order of Nature; but 'tis not for Men, at their Pleasure, to think to do the same: Miracles, 'tis true, were wrought by Men, but they were ne­ver wrought by the Will of men; and 'tis a Fanatick Presumption to tempt God in this kind, when they are not mov'd to it by a Divine Spirit. And if Mi­racles were to be perform'd at the asking of every Follower of Christ, if every Prophet or Preacher of the Gospel in these days might divide the Sea, and call down Fire from Heaven, every faithful Com­mander cause Hail-Stones to be cast from the Clouds upon his Enemies, and the like; not only the Har­mony of the Creation, the Laws of Agents and Pa­tients would be confounded, but the Harmony of Religion: For if such a present certain Impetration [Page 294] of all things of this Life did attend every true Chri­stian Professor, that their Prayers were answered with a Miracle, who would not be a Professor or Believer on these Terms? and what Praise were it to be a Believer? The Congregation of the Faithful would be encreased on this account, but the Vertue of Faith would be wholly destroyed.

2. If that which is pray'd for, be not foreseen by God to be hurtful to him that prays, as 'tis said, dan­do irascitur, & non dando miseretur, if he gives, he's angry; and if he denies, he's merciful. If a Child aks of his Father a Fish, says our Lord, will he give him a Serpent? Or if he asks a Serpent instead of a Fish, will he give him a Serpent? The Gentiles in­deed complained, that their Gods, which were De­vils, easily granted them Evil things, but were inex­orable when they sought Good things at their hands, Evertere Vrbes totas optantibus ipsis Dii faciles: But the Father of Heaven and Earth gives only Good things to his Children.

3. If there be not something that is Better for the Petitioner, than that which he prays for, though Good; and which undoubtedly he would have de­sired before it, if he had understood it: and thus 'tis said again, Non tribuit quod vellem, ut tribuat quod mal­lem; God gave me not what I ask'd, that he might give me what I aim'd at; he denied the Form of my Re­quest, that he might grant what was more Advanta­geous for me. And 'twas with this purpose of con­ferring a Greater Benefit than was ask'd, that God de­nied S ^t Paul praying thrice, that the Thorn in his Flesh might be taken away: for he gave him his Grace to support him in that Temptation or Afflicti­on, whichsoever it was, which was better for the A­postle, than to have removed the Evil: for that [Page 295] would have deprived him both of the Tryal and re­ward of his Vertue. And on this account 'tis said, Heb. 5.7. of our Lord's praying that the Cup of his Passion might pass from him, That he was heard in that he fear'd, though God made him drink up the very Dregs of that bitter Potion.

And thus we see, though the Promise made in my Text extends not to the Exorbitant Desires of fond Men, nor yet to the Mistakes or Weaknesses of those that are Pious and Righteous, yet it reaches to all their great and important Concerns, to all that is be­hoof ful and best for them, that 'tis commensurate to God's Goodness and Wisdom; and 'tis not to be ima­gin'd, that when he promises his Creatures to be merciful to them, he obliges himself to do any thing unworthy of his Majesty; that when he says, he will hear their Prayers, he divests himself of his Soveraignty, renounces his Wisdom, or any other of his Attributes. We must not therefore liken God to Antigonus King of Macedon, that was Sir-named [...], or the Giver, for giving much in Words and little in Deeds, because upon every trifling Petition he does not unframe the World, or break the Course of Providence. The Words of our Lord, Whatso­ever ye shall ask the Father in my Name, he will give it you, as they are not to be swallow'd crudely, as if a Fortunatus's Cap were promised; so neither on the other side are they to be received with Doubting and Suspicion, as if they were fallacious and de­ceiveable: For in case their Petitions are retarded, or not answered in kind, it becomes not Christians pre­sently to entertain thoughts like the Heathen, who were perswaded that the Winds had power to scatter their Prayers before they reach'd Heaven, Terribilis (que) Notus jactat mea verba precesque: nor yet, should it [Page 296] be so that their righteous Requests succeeded not to their Expectation, are they to stagger in their Faith like Cato, who because his honest Vows for Pompey and the Commonwealth were not heard against the Usurpation of Caesar, doubted of a Providence. Both this melancholy Mis-giving, that God often re­gards not our Prayers, though they are Just; and the other Sanguine Folly and Credulity, that it is fit for him to grant whatever is desired, spring from one and the same Root, viz. the Immoderate Love of Earthly things: For the truly Faithful, who set their Affection on things above, feel neither such Flashes of fond Hopes, nor Damps of black Despair: but being Indifferent to Worldly things, and wholly resign'd to God's good Will and Pleasure, they can think it rea­sonable, that the Ends of his Providence, and the Inte­rests of his Glory should be serv'd in the first place. And then for those that depend and hang on Christ in hopes only of Preferment in his Imagin'd Temporal Kingdom, if his Followers for the Loaves, his Disci­ples, as I may call them, of the Basket, be disappoint­ed, 'tis no great marvel, nor matter: for 'tis not said, Whatever ye shall ambitiously, wantonly, or a­ny other way inordinately covet, ye shall receive: but, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name, he will give it you, i. e. Whatever ye that are my Disciples shall duly pray for, if you request it in my Name, as nothing is difficult to my Father, so you will find there is nothing so precious that for Love of me he will not grant you. Which brings me to my last Part, The Means by which we are to obtain our Requests, By asking in Christ's Name.

[Page 297]Whatsoever ye shall ask in my Name.

Though all the Favour Men receive from God is in the Name, or for the Sake or Merits of Christ, yet even that Meritorious and prevailing Name will bene­fit them nothing, unless they be Faithful Persons, or such as are dispos'd to be so, such as those to whom the Promise in my Text is made; and no small Em­phasis or Stress is to be put in this Particle [ Ye] what­sover Ye shall ask, Ye that are my Disciples, Ye that have received me as coming from the Father, believed my Miracles and my Doctrine, rely'd upon my Pro­mises, continu'd with me from the beginning to the end, notwithstanding the Scandal that so many others took at the Meanness of my Condition, and the Se­verity of my Precepts. The Promise, I say, is not Universal to all Men; no, nor yet to the mere titu­lar Professors of Christianity, who (as the Jews of old cry'd, The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, even when they were Idolaters and Apostates, so) cry in these days, Lord, Lord, but do not the Will of God. A Vain and Superstitious Citation of Christ's Name will avail none in their Prayers, his Name is no Charm; and if there be no Vertue in the Users of it, there will be as little in the Letters or Sound as in other Names. Which the Sons of Sceva the Jew found Acts 19. when they call'd over the Evil Spirits the Name of the Lord Jesus in imitation, but not with the Faith of S ^t Paul: for the Name pro­tected them not, but left them to the Outrage of the Devil, strengthen'd, and not subdu'd by the undue Invocation of it. Saint Peter best interprets these Words [in my Name] Acts 3. when he cur'd the Lame man in the Name of Christ, His Name, says [Page 298] he, through Faith in his Name has made this man Strong. And our Lord himself, John 15.7. shews, that 'tis not the Vocal, but Vertual Using of his Name that prevails, If you abide in me, says he, and my Words in you, ye shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. So that the true Quatenus, or Reason of the Return of men's Prayers, the Secret wherein their Strength lyes (as Samson's did in his Hair) is their Discipleship to Christ, or in other words, their doing the Will of God: this only pow­erfully insinuates, and effectually presses his Name to the Father. When mere Nominal Christians present themselves before God in the Congregation of Belie­vers, 'tis but as Satan intruded ( Job 1.) among the Sons of God, they are of their Company, but not of their Number; neither will they find any Ad­vantage by using Christ's Name. God is not to be impos'd upon, like Isaac, by false Pretences, by counterfeit Hands, a borrow'd Name, or Garments, but will discover the Cheat through all; and he that to the Righteous is all Ear, to the Wicked will be as an Idol, that has Ears and hears not; those, I say, that regard not the Words of his Commandments, nor understand the Voice of his Spirit, are to him also as Barbarians, as a People whose Language he under­stands not. Nay, and 'tis well if it fares no worse with them, than not to be understood, and that their Petitions are only answered with Silence: for God many times breaks forth in Fury and Indignation a­gainst such for their double Provocation of him, for rebelling against him, and presuming to make Ad­dresses for his Favour. Vnto the Wicked, says God, What hast thou to do to declare my Statutes, or that thou shouldest take my Covenant into thy mouth, seeing thou hatest to be reformed, &c.? Such as these [Page 299] when they make their Prayers, add Sacriledge to Dis­obedience; and as they have corrupted themselves, they prophane the Ordinances of Religion; and God is not only deaf to their Devotion, but angry at their Presumption. Men themselves are not patient of such an Usage, that those that injure them (be they never so much their Near Relations) should impor­tune them for the highest Benefits. And can we ima­gine that God should brook the bold and impudent Sollicitations of those that Sin against him, which are his only Enemies, be they Jews, or be they Christi­ans? Esse Christianum grande est, non videri, as S ^t Je­rome says, 'tis a Blessed and Glorious Priviledge to be a Christian, but not only to be call'd one; and they are hugely deceiv'd, as the Father goes on, that think a Good Name can profit those that do wickedly; a fair Appellation justifie such as have foul Manners. If we will have God Kind and Propitious to us, we must be first Kind to our Selves; if we will have his Ears open to our Prayers, we must keep our Ears o­pen to his Commandments; we must be Obedient, if we expect he should be Gracious; like David we must search and try our Hearts, whether any Iniqui­ty be found in us, for we may assure our Selves, where Iniquity is found, Favour will not be found. There is no Name under Heaven given among men, whereby they can be sav'd, but that of the Lord Jesus: But as we must not trust in a Wrong Name, so nei­ther must we trust in the Right Name a Wrong Way; we must not entertain Vain Confidences in our Savi­our himself, hope that he will countenance any thing contrary to his Gospel: as S ^t Paul says, Let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from Iniquity. Which God give us Grace all to do: to whom be ascrib'd all Honour, Glory, &c.

That at the Last Day there shall be an Exact Discrimi­nation made between the Righteous and the Wicked.

The Almighty and Wise God finds it not Expedi­ent, while this World remains, continually to be gi­ving outward and ocular Demonstrations, either of [Page 306] his Approbation of the Faithful, or of his Detestati­on of the Wicked: the most which he does in the Course of his Providence, is sometimes to check the Madness of the one, that they grow not insupporta­ble; and to encourage the Vertue of the other, that they may not be dejected: but as Solomon says, There is no convincing Argument from visible Oc­currences of God's love or hatred to either of them. And the Unrighteous take from hence no little heart to run on in their Evil Ways, and to deride the Faithful for losing the certain pleasures of a present Life, for the uncertain Hopes of a future: they see no Difference made between themselves and the God­ly in this World, and they conceive there will be as little in the next; flatter themselves, that their Sins will either be buried with them in the Grave, and forgotten in that long Night; or else shuffled and lost in the vast Heap of semblable Transgressions of other men. But as it is the Quality of Cold to con­geal and unite together into one Lump things hetero­geneous, or of divers Sorts, as Sticks, Straws, Stones, &c. and of the Thaw when it comes to dissolve the Union, and then the Stones and like heavy Bodies are precipitated, Straws and light Bodies float, and those of a middle Nature are suspended between both: So though in this World the Innocent and Guilty cohabit together, and make but one Lump or Corporation; yet at the Dissolution of it, some Men shall be precipitated into the Bottomless Pit, and others again exalted above the Region of the Stars. Or else, as at the Creation, all things made but one Chaos, and appear'd to be but of one and the same Nature, till God by his Divine Power se­parated them, and then the Lighter flew up to the Heavens or higher Parts of the World, and the Hea­vier [Page 307] settled on the Earth below: So at the End of the World, when God shall come to judge it, he will distinguish and separate the Mass of men accord­ing to the Quality of their Works, and those who have set their Hearts on heavenly things, shall be thought worthy of Heaven, and to reign for ever with him and his holy Angels in Glory; and those who have hated heavenly things, and set their Affe­ctions on things below, corrupted themselves with the Vices of this Life, to use the Psalmists words, shall be turn'd into Hell.

And the revealing of this Mystery does vindicate the Justice of the Deity, and absolve Providence from the Censures and hard Speeches of men: for our Lord has plainly taught, That there shall be a Day of calling all Flesh to account for what they have done in this Life: and however the Good and Bad are promiscuously join'd at present, and seem to be every way alike, and equal to one another; though they be in the same Field, as he says, or the same Bed, yet one shall be taken, and the other left: Again, in another place, The hour is coming when all that are in the Graves shall come forth, those that have done Good unto the Resurrection of Life, and they that have done Evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation. And this being asserted by the mouth of Truth it self, and also the Fundamental Part of our Creed, which sustains its whole Frame and Fabrick, it will be suffi­cient thus to have illustrated it without bringing any Proofs of the Matter: The Article of Christ's judging the Quick and the Dead, though it be last in Place in the Confession of our Faith, yet it is the first in Office and Importance, and has an Influence on all the Articles that go before it, and which would be of no Consequence without it. For what [Page 308] avails it to believe there is a God, if neither in this Life, nor in the Life to come he will make any Dif­ference between the Righteous and the Wicked? What profit is it to believe a Redeemer or a Saviour, if there be no Salvation or Damnation? That there is a Holy Ghost, if in the Issue it shall be all one to those that are Sanctify'd, and to those that are not Sanctify'd? The very Equity and Reason of the thing, that there should be a Day of Judgment, is a sufficient Demonstration that there shall be such a Day.

Instead therefore, I say, of bringing Proofs of this Doctrine, I shall rather advise men to make the best Use of it, and not to be deceived with the present Uniformity and Identity, as 'twere, of the Conditi­on of the Godly and Ungodly in this World: but to reflect on what is said of the Severe Scrutiny that shall be at the Last Day, when the present Mask shall be pull'd off from the Face of the World, and no A­ction whatsoever be concealed; when the secret Sins, as well as secret Counsels of Princes, whatever they have done amiss, or been the Authors of others do­ing amiss, without regard to their Persons, shall be laid open: when the delinquencies of the Meaner Sort shall not be past over, or lost in Oblivion, by reason of the Obscurity of their Condition: When the Nice in point of Fame and Reputation, but re­gardless of their Innocence, shall have their Sly and close Sins ript open, and publisht to their greater Confusion before Men and Angels: When the Player and Actor in Religion, the Hypocrite, shall be stript of his Vizard and Mantle of Holiness, and the loathsome Vices concealed under them, exposed. For as 'tis said, At the coming of Christ, Anti-Christ shall no longer deceive the Nations: So it shall arrive, [Page 309] to all those that have liv'd Anti-Christs, at the co­ming of Christ to Judgment, they shall no longer de­ceive, however successful their Cozenages have been in this Life. The Children of Darkness are many times, to outward Appearance, clad in richer Robes of Righteousness, and make a goodlier Shew of Piety and Devotion, than the Children of Light: But in the Day that God shall make up his Jewels, as the Pro­phet Malachi speaks, he will distinguish the true from the false; and however the Counterfeit Vye at pre­sent in Lustre with the right and Orient, and exceed them in Magnitude, then it shall be seen what trash they are. Which if men would duely consider, and that this Tryal and Examination of all Flesh is not only to lay open their Actions to the Eye of the Judge, for alas he knew them in the hour they were committed: or yet to expose them only to Shame before the innumerable Host of Men and Angels that will be there assembled, for that is but the Beginning of the Evils they are to expect: But 'tis, that every One may receive a Reward according to his Merit, as our Lord says, They that have done Well, Everlast­ing Glory, and they that have done Evil, Everlasting Fire. I say, if men would seriously consider this, they would anticipate this Work of Tryal and Judg­ment while time was allowed them to do it; they would tear off their Disguises of Sin, before they were stript of them; they would distinguish and se­parate themselves from the Wicked by a Holy Life, before the Great Day of Separation of the Just and Unjust; prevent God's severe Sentence on their Mis­deeds, by their own severe Condemnation of them before-hand; that whether they labour at the Mill, or in the Field; in the City, or in the Camp; what­ever their Callings and Employments be, they may [Page 310] be of the number of those that are taken, and not of those that are left. And let this suffice to be said of my first Observation, That at the last Day there shall be an exact Discrimination between the Righteous and the Wicked. I proceed to my Second Observation,

That there shall be some particular visible Place to which all men shall be brought to Judgment.

Although it be in the Power of the Almighty, where-ever Sinners shall be found at the last Day, there to sentence and send them to Hell; and where-ever the Righteous shall be found, from thence to translate them to Heaven: Yet, as 'tis the manner of Earthly Princes, to summon their People to receive Justice at some certain Place, their chief City, where their Court and ordinary Residence are; so it seems good to the Wisdom of God, to assemble all Persons, both Just and Unjust, to one Place of Common Ju­dicature: and Writers do most probably conceive the place shall be Jerusalem, the City of God's most visible Residence on Earth. And that for these two Reasons:

1. For the Reparation of Christ's Honour: Be­cause he suffered there not only the Scorn and De­spight of the Jews, who put him to a cruel, unjust and shameful Death, but the Affronts also of all Na­tions gathered together at the Feast of the Passover: it being God's will that he should receive Reparation and Amends, where he had received the greatest Out­rage and Indignity: and that the Prophecy of Ze­chary should be fulfill'd in the most eminent Manner, They shall look on him whom they pierced.

2. For the clearer Conviction and more sensible Compunction of those that denyed and murdered [Page 311] him. For as it is the Custom again among Men, to send Malefactors to be judged and executed near the Place they committed their Crimes, the more to a­waken their Guilt; so God the more, first, to awa­ken, and then to confound the daring and relentless Infidelity of our Lord's Crucifiers, (who, after all their Persecutions, wish'd his Bloud might be on them and on their Children) has determin'd to pass the Sentence of Condemnation on them in the Place they perpetrated their Crimes. And the Prophecy of Joel, Chap. 3. seem'd to some of the Antients to countenance this Opinion, That God will assemble all Nations to Judgment in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, which was near adjoining to Jerusalem; says the Prophet, Assemble your selves all ye Heathen—and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge, &c. Multitudes, multitudes in the Valley of Jehoshaphat: for the Day of the Lord is near in the Valley of Decision. Which Prophecy, whatever ear­lier Accomplishment it had in God's judging the Hea­then that were Enemies to Israel, yet the Principal Completion of it has been thought to point at the last Universal Judgment. And 'tis a General Perswa­sion of the Jews, that the Tryal of all Men at the Last Day shall be at Jerusalem: but not understanding, That the Dead shall be gathered together by the Of­fice and Ministry of Angels, they say, That in what­ever remoter Parts of the World they dye in their Dispersion, their Bodies, by the Power of God, shall be roll'd along through the inward and secret Parts of the Earth to Jerusalem, the Place assigned for their Resurrection, and the Appearance of all Men.

But now after all that has been said, though we conclude not peremptorily and chorographically, Where, or over what Part of the Earth, Christ will [Page 312] erect his Throne for Judgment, the Scriptures being silent, or very obscure as to the Place: yet there is nothing that they deliver more plainly, than that the Great Session or Assize at the End of the World shall be Conspicuous and Dreadful; and they seem even solicitous and industrious in describing the for­midable Manner of it, to make in mens minds a deeper impression of the Terrours of the Lord, as the Apostle calls them. And as we have two Corporal Senses, or Inletts of Fear into the Soul, the Eye and the Ear, the Word of God makes the Terrours of Dooms-Day to consist in the Objects of both these Senses, viz. in fearful and amazing Sounds, and in Prodigious and Ghastly Sights. For 'tis said, That the Lord shall descend from Heaven in a Shout, with the Voice of the Arch-Angel, and with the Trump of God, and the Dead shall rise, and the Sun shall be­come black as Sackcloth, and the Moon red as Bloud, and the Stars shall fall, and the Heavens be roll'd up like a Scrole, &c. A Picture of such Horrour which no Phancy of Man could ever have drawn, or pos­sibly conceiv'd, if it had not first been Divinely reveal­ed: and though we look upon this Scheme or Draught of the Lord's coming at present with little Concern, because we suppose it to be at a great Di­stance: yet if we would consider, that the holiest Persons of old were as dead men at the Sight only of an Angel, though coming to them in a familiar Shape, and with a gracious Message; and that we our selves are beside our selves, but at the fansy'd Appearance of a Spectre or Ghost, or any other Supernatural Oc­current; what must our amazement and Confusion be, when we shall behold the whole World in a Flame, the Visible Heaven and Earth passing away with tumultuous Thunders, Lightnings, and Earth­quakes? [Page 313] When we shall hear the Crack of the dis­solving Universe, and the Groans of dying Nature? when we shall behold not only one Evil Spirit, but the whole accursed and damned Crew in their Hor­rour? again, when we shall behold not only one An­gel, but all the Host of Heaven, and their Lord and ours sitting in the midst of them with all the an­nexes of Majesty and Terrour? And this dreadful Spe­ctacle, not like one of the Visions of the old Pro­phets, which concerned not the Beholder himself, but others: but such as concerns the Eternal Woe or Welfare, Salvation or Damnation of every Person there present, i. e. of all that ever came, or shall come into the World.

When our Lord discoursed of these things to his Disciples, and of the dreadful manner of the Destru­ction of the Jewish Nation as a Prelude to it, they were too big for their Imaginations to conceive, or their Faith to digest: and they could not, or durst not understand him; they were in the like Astonish­ment the three Disciples were in at his Transfigurati­on, when Peter said, not knowing what he said, Let us make three Tabernacles, &c. So great, I say, was the Consternation of the Disciples at our Lord's Words, that their Reason, and Spirits were in a kind of Deliquium, or Swoun, as well as their Faith. And they answered and said unto him, Where Lord? a Question not of Curiosity, but of Terrour and Doubt. And even still to this day we find men more inclin'd to di­strust what is taught of the last Judgment, than to be warn'd and edify'd by it; to think the things affirm­ed of it impossible, than to follow S ^t Peter's Advice and to consider what manner of Persons they ought to be, seeing the World shall be dissolved. And so I pass to my last Observation,

[Page 314]The Vnwillingness of Men to believe a Judgment-Day.

So weak is the Nature of man, or such is the Sub­tilty of our Spiritual Adversary the Devil, that even when we are convinced of the Substance of many Truths, yet by reason of the Strangeness and Uncon­ceiveableness of some Circumstances of them, we let go the very Substance of the Truths again; and the best Men have been sometimes subject to this Infirmi­ty. The Psalmist was throughly instructed in this fundamental Truth, That there was a God that judged in the Earth; yet because he saw the Righteous op­prest, and the Wicked in prosperiry, he stagger'd in his Faith, and his feet, as himself confesses, had well-nigh slipt. The Blessed Virgin could not but believe the Message of an Angel appearing at Noon-day, and out-shining the Brightness of the Noon-days Light: but because she was to conceive miraculously, with­out the knowing of a man, some Scruple remained in her holy breast of the Event of the Prediction. The Israelites heard from their Prophets, of whose Divine Mission they doubted not, That if they went on in their Transgressions, their Temple should be destroyed, and themselves led Captive by the Gen­tiles: but then the Conceit, that God would never suffer these things to be done for his own Glory, whatever their Demerits were; that if they were remov'd, he would want a People; and if his House were prophan'd, his Worship would be extinguish'd in the World; made them disbelieve their Prophets. And the like latent Incredulity possest the Disciples here, They knew their Lord had the Words of Truth, but the Strangeness and Dreadfulness of the things [Page 315] spoken of by him made their Faith fluctuate, and they could not believe, even what they could not disbelieve.

And when we see the holiest Men thus to have Doubts and Scruples to with-hold them from recei­ving a harsh and displeasing, though never so plainly a reveal'd, Truth; to have a Where, or a When, Lord? a How, or by What Means? Some Question or other of the Time, the Place, the Possibility, and the like? What marvel is it, if Wicked and profli­gate Persons, who are wholly Strangers to the Power and Wonderful Ways of God, shew a greater Infi­delity, when they hear a Doctrine wholly contrary to their Temper, repugnant to their Pleasures, de­structive of their Interests, and withal difficult to be conceiv'd? I say, if when such as these, to restrain them from their Lusts, or gainful Oppressions, are told, that they will certainly be call'd to a strict Ac­count in another Life, for what they do amiss in this, smile, or laugh out, and conceive they shall do well enough after their Sins, notwithstanding all that's threatned against them? We see Malefactors a­gainst the Laws of Men, even after the Sentence of Death is past upon them, and their Execution as cer­tain to ensue, as the revolution of the short time ap­pointed for it; yet flatter themselves they shall find means to escape, by a Bribe, by a Rope at a Win­dow, by a Reprieve, by a Rescue, by an Accident, by any thing, they know not what. And after the like manner Offenders against God, though their Condemnation be recorded in his Word, and their Condition more desperate, promise themselves they shall never feel the Evils denounc'd against them; that the Report of Dooms-Day is false, the Doctrine of a Resurrection and another Life foolish and impos­sible. [Page 316] When therefore they hear such passages in Scripture as these, Some mens Sins are open before-hand, going before to Judgment, and some mens follow after: and again, The Good Works of some are mani­fest before-hand, and they that are otherwise, cannot e­scape: they reason in their hearts, and say, Ay, but why? the Parties are dead. Ay, but When, and Where? the Parties are escap'd into a far Country. Ay, but How, or which way? the Parties are drown'd, and devour'd by Fishes, and their Bodies turn'd into Nourishment, or else burnt to Ashes, and that scatter'd—True, but where-ever the Carcase is, or the least Remains of it, thither will the Eagles be gathered together, i. e. though the Body of a Sin­ner seem to all humane Appearance annihilated; yet God by his Power will restore it, and by the Office of his Angels bring it before the Tribunal of Christ.

And this is the importance of our Lord's Emble­matical Words in my Text: for 'tis observed, that Eagles and other Birds of Prey, Ravens, Vulturs, &c. have a great Perspicacity in discovering their Food, a kind of divining, or Prophetick Conjecture where to seek it, insomuch that they will follow Ar­mies, and know the unsuccessful Troops, and expect their Banquets from their Overthrow. Says Job, The Eagle abideth on the rock—from thence she seeth her Prey, her Eyes behold afar off—and where the slain are, there is she. And then the Celerity, strength, and rapacity of these Creatures to seize, is as great, as their Sagacity to find out. And God has more a­bundantly endowed the Angels with requisite Quali­ties to execute his Will and Commands: however therefore Vertue and Piety went out of this World without any seeming Regard, yet they are the Ob­jects [Page 317] of God's Love, and the particular Care and Charge of the Angels, and they shall not pass in the next without a Glorious Reward: Again, though Wickedness dy'd in Prosperity, yet it is the Object of God's Wrath and Justice, and the Quarry of the An­gels, and it will be found out by them in all the Ru­ines of Mortality, and brought to receive its just Punishment.

And that these things are so incredible to Sinners is without all reason: For they are the only men that believe this World to be immoveable and eternal, and yet 'tis supported only by the Word or Will of God: as Job says, He hangs the Earth upon nothing, and we may say, the Heavens upon as little: But God's re­warding the Righteous, and punishing the Wicked are founded on his Justice, i. e. on his very Essence or Being, and can fail no more than the Deity it self. However therefore this Doctrine is disbelieved and slighted by sensual and carnal Men, it ought conti­nually to ring and sound in the Ears of the Faithful, as S ^t Jerome fansy'd the last Trump did in his; the Parable of the Eagles and the Carcase should frequent­ly occur to our thoughts, to make us break off our Sins, and to keep us close to our Duty. For if any One, to encourage himself in his Sins, shall say, When I leave this World, I shall creep again into the Cells of Darkness and Obscurity, where I lay be­fore I was born, I shall be reduc'd again to the State of Nothing, as when I was in my first Causes: Let him consider, that God can call him out of that No­thing which he speaks of, as he did when he first made him a living Man; and that Restoration is not so hard a Work, as Creation; that what the Psal­mist says of the Nocturnal Darkness, caus'd by the absence of the Sun, The Darkness is no Darkness to [Page 318] thee, may be affirmed of the Philosophical Darkness of his Dissolution, That Darkness is also no Darkness to him; the Night and the Day of his Being or Not-being are alike in his all-seeing Eyes. The fat and grown Deer seems Subtil to himself in retiring into the Coverts and Thickets, and leaving the Younger and smaller to feed abroad in danger of the Hunts­men; but alas 'tis for him alone that all the Quest and Search is made, and while the lean and Rascal-Herd are past by, the Keeper only marks and lodges him for the Chace. The Policies of Wicked Men are as Simple as the Craft of these Silly Creatures, who when they are grown fat with the Oppressions and Spoils of their Brethren, swollen and ready to burst with Excess and Luxury, flatter themselves, if they can but escape the Penalty of the Laws, and get into their Graves in Peace, no Vengeance can af­terwards overtake them: But alas it is to rouse them chiefly that Dooms-Day is appointed, Aquila non ca­pit Muscas, the heavenly Eagles, the Angels, stoop not at Flies; they are not Small Sinners, but these Monsters and Prodigies of Impiety which are their principal Game or Quarry. As therefore the bloudy Tyrant Sylla found it a foolish Meditation, after his butchering so many of the Roman Nobility, to lay down his Power, and to hope for Safety in a Retire­ment from the Swords of those whose Relations he had murthered: So let no Man after a Wicked Life hope to find a Place so remote, obscure, or fortify'd, as to protect him from God's Vengeance. 'Tis said, That Kings have long arms, and can reach Delin­quents at a great Distance; but the King of Kings has much longer: and if the Offenders against him could take Refuge even in the Centre of the Earth, obtain of the Rocks to shelter them, or the Moun­tains [Page 319] to fall upon them, the Angels would fetch them from thence to Judgment. There are none that shall escape, none that shall be dispens'd with from appear­ing before the Tribunal of God, and receiving their Doom at the Last Day: Only it is now in our power, while we are yet in this Life, to make it a happy or unhappy Doom; a Doom that adjudges us to Crowns and Scepters, or to Chains and Everlasting Torments. Repentance and a Holy Life will turn that Day of Terrour into a Day of Rejoicing; make the Omi­nous Portents, the dreadful Thunders, and other a­mazing Concomitants of it, but as the loud Musick, cheerful Acclamations, and Solemnities which attend a Triumph or Coronation; I say, which attend our own Triumph and Coronation, as S ^t Paul assures us, 2 Tim. 4 8. I have finisht my Course, says he, I have kept the Faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them that love his appearance. However the Predi­ctions of the Last Day cause Consternation and Di­straction of Mind in Wicked Doers, to the Righte­ous they are altogether Gospel or Good Tidings; they that keep God's Laws, cannot chuse but love and delight in his Appearance. Let the Heavens re­joice, and the Earth be glad, says the Psalmist: Let the Field be joyful, and all that is therein before the Lord—And why all this Joy? For he cometh, for he cometh to judge the World, and the People with E­quity. And Luke 21.28. says our Lord, When these things come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads: for your Redemption draweth nigh.

Have Charity.

The Charity or Love here enjoined us, is not, I say, that melting Passion that is common to Men and Beasts, an affection awaken'd in us by the be­holding of outward Beauty, the comely Structure of the Body, or other Graces of a fair and amiable Per­son, which is the Child only of an abused Fancy, be­got through Weakness, and nurs'd up by fond Con­versation, Musick, Feasts, Comedies, and other the like Genial Sports, and busie Idlenesses of the times, and produces no better Effects than Folly, dissolute Manners, Jealousie, discontent, Madness, &c. This Frenzy has obtain'd too much in being the glorified Theme of Poets and Romance-Writers, who advance it above all other Concerns of Man's Life, whether Secular or Sacred: and while they make it the ad­mired Subject of many Fables, and the ambitious Pursuit and highest Ornament of their counterfeit Heroes, the gilded Poyson is often swallow'd by the more Sober and Vertuous. Our Apostle is so far from recommending, or in the least degree counte­nancing of this Dotage, that ver. 3. he ranks it a­mong the detestable practices of the Heathen, and such things as Christians ought to be asham'd of: For this Sensual Love in those days was not only an Im­morality or Vice, but a prime Branch of Idolatry; from hence flew all the Cupids, from hence came the Temples dedicated to Venus, the Divinity of Beauty, and the Deities of Women. And happy it were [Page 325] if we could say, These were not Idols still in the World: for if, as S ^t Jerome says, every reigning Lust is an Idol set up in our hearts, Sensual Love is no in­ferior Deity; Quotcunque habemus Vitia, says the Fa­ther, quotcunque peccata, tot recentes habemus Deos; iratus sum, ira mihi Deus est; vidi Mulierem & concu­pivi, Libido mihi Deus est; as many Vices we have, as many Sins, so many Gods we have; I am angry, Anger is a God to me; I see a Woman and lust, my Lust again's a God to me. And the Reason of this is plain: Because none of these things can be in us, but they must be before God in us: for if they can come after God, they can agree with and be re­concil'd to God, which is impossible; and then be­ing before or above him, can we say less of them, than that they are Gods in us? 'Tis not the Temple or the Image that constitutes the Idolatry, but the Shrine the Idol has in our hearts, the Adoration and Sacrifice paid to it by our Affections: Neither does God require of us a higher Acknowledgment, than to love him with all our Heart and with all our Mind. The Love therefore recommended here by the Apostle, cannot be any thing that is an Enemy to God, to Man, or to our Selves: Charity or Love carries something Pious and Beneficial in its very Name, and if these things be not in the Nature of it, 'tis a Spurious or Bastard Love.

To come then to the Love recommended by the Apostle, we define it to be A Divine Vertue or Su­pernatural Grace inspired into us by God's Holy Spi­rit, a Quality which resides in himself, and which is subject to no perturbation: an Image of it we see in the pious Love of Parents and Children, the religi­ous Amity between Brethren, Friends, and Neigh­bours, and the Perfection of it in our Saviour, his A­postles, [Page 326] Martyrs, and other Christian Heroes, that follow'd his Example. An Affection it is, but a Se­vere and Sober one; a Fire that warms the hearts of men, but a pure and sanctify'd one, lifted far above the Softnesses and Wantonnesses of the other Carnal heat, and not kindled by the Deception of the Out­ward Senses, or flaming from the Fewel of a bright Beauty, but a reflected Beam of our Love to God descending downwards, and glancing on our Bre­thren, from a Sense of God's Goodness to us, and in obedience to that Commandment of his, that enjoins us to pay to men, as his Proxies and Substitutes on Earth, the Tolls and Tributes due unto himself. So that 'tis not This or That Person that this Love makes court to, but to Mankind; its Addresses are as Uni­versal as the Image of God in the World, no more regard is had by it of the Handsome, than the De­formed; of the Young, than the Aged; or if more be had of the one than the other, 'tis of the Party most to be compassioned; the Object of this Love is Want or Misery in any kind, and whoever it can help is its Amata or Beloved.

And as the Object of this Love is no less General than the Distresses of Humane Nature, so its Expres­sions towards them are as many and various as there are Ways of doing Good, and being Beneficial in any kind. For Charity is not only a Largess of Money, or a Dole of Bread, a feeding of the hungry, and a cloathing the naked, &c. but a parting with our Pas­sions for the sake of our Brethren, a condescending to their Weakness, a complying with their Temper, and tolerating their Infirmities: 'Tis again, a relie­ving them with Good Counsel, a Donative of Sea­sonable Admonition and Reproof; a shewing of Se­verity, when need requires, as well as Mercy; an Ex­acting [Page 327] of Punishment, as well as a remitting of it: for Charity is not that which is always grateful and always pleasing, but which is ever salutary and ever beneficial. The Wanton Love we condemned, is a constant Floud of Sweetness, which flows smoothly into the Ocean of Destruction, a smiling Evil that knows nothing harsh or disagreeable, till it turns all to Harshness and Disagreeableness: But Godly Love is often bitter in the first Taste, and sweet in the af­ter Relish, a rugged Mercy and an Austere Kindness, a Good transferr'd with Frowns and Severe Disci­pline: and such are the Corrections of Servants and Children, the Correptions of Friends, the Excommu­nications of the Church, and the exterminating Sen­tences of the Law; the Rod and the Stocks, the Hurdle and the Axe, being as instrumental unto Charity, as Money, Food, Raiment, and the like. Open Rebuke, says Solomon, is better than secret Love: and I may say, Open Rebuke has in it much secret Love. And to think the Remissness of Laws, cha­ritable; and the Execution of them, cruel; is a Shortness of Reasoning, which becomes only Wo­men and Children, who pity the present Sufferings of the Criminal, but see not the future Good pur­chased by it. The timely cutting off of a Notori­ous Malefactor has rescued a Nation from Destructi­on, Phineas stood up and pray'd, and the Plague ceas'd: his seasonable Execution of two Eminent Offenders preserved the lives of many thousands of the peo­ple; and holy Writ calls not his Fact, Slaughter, but styles it by the milder Name of Prayer: because it invoked God's Mercy, and propitiated his Wrath. If Pity may bind the hands of Justice, and Charity protect Violence and Outrage, not only one Wolf will worry a whole Flock, but the Flock or Body of [Page 328] People will in time become Wolves and Tygers: for Religion only perswades men to be Just and Righte­ous, it does not constrain them to be so; indeed it promises Rewards to Well-doers, and threatens Judgment to Evil-doers, but they are Rewards to come, and Judgments at a great distance, and the Sinner has leave to execute his Wickedness; so that the Terrours of Religion work only upon the Good and Faithful, while the Worst and most of men de­spise them. But even the boldest and most daring in their Impiety, who count Heaven and Hell only the Parables of Scripture, and the Fictions of Preachers, will boggle in the Cariere of their Sins at the remem­brance of a severe Judge and an unrelenting Humane Law, and consider whether they can escape, if they commit them; and will not run on madly to trans­gress, when they see nothing is to be had but Ven­geance; the Attempt, and their Miscarriage; their Sin, and their certain Death.

Thus we see Severity is not contrary to the Rules of Charity, the Sword in the hand of Justice less in­strumental to mens Good, than the Scales; that the fear of Punishment is a kind of Grace and Princi­ple of Obedience in the Hearts of Wicked men, which restrains them from Vice, even when it wins them not to the Part of Vertue. But then though Severity and Punishment are Noble and necessary Branches of Charity, they are not the Natural and Genuine; they relate to it, but as the Prophet Isaiah says they do to God, They are his Works, his strange Works; his Acts, his strange Acts. The Works which Charity delights most in, are those that are mild and gentle; which not only produce Good, but which in themselves are Good; which shew Mercy by the Ways of Mercy, and are no less beneficial in [Page 329] their Progress, than their End: And these are the O­perations of Charity which our Apostle chiefly re­commends here to us: and that we may not erre in so Divine a Grace, or come short in so important a Duty, our best way will be to set before us the Per­fectest Exemplar of it that ever was, our Lord and Saviour, and himself commands us, John 15.12. to do this. As I have lov'd you, says he, so love one ano­ther: thus making his Love to us the Rule or Pattern of our Affection to those of our own Kind.

And the first Instance of Christ's Love, which I shall propose for Imitation, is this, That as he lov'd us, Before we lov'd him; lov'd us, without any Me­rit or Invitation on our part; lov'd us, when we could not love him, when we were wholly benumm'd and dead to all heavenly Affections: So likewise that we love one another, expect not Obligations and In­vitations from our Brethren, to quicken our Charity towards them; but rather delight to begin and be before-hand in our Expressions of Kindness, and to have it seen that they come from our selves. A na­tural Spring flows of its own Impulse, unbid, unpro­voked, and makes its Way through all Oppositions: if it meets a hollow in its Course, it fills it up; if a light Obstacle, it bears it away with its Stream; if a great one, it swells and passes over it, at least pours out still its free Source, till it finds, or makes a Pas­sage. And thus our Charity must take its Rise, and flow from its self, shew it depends on nought beside, that it cannot be obstructed by the want of any Qua­lifications, or yet by any Disobligations of our Bre­thren. Atticus the charitable Bishop of Constantino­ple, when he sent Money to relieve the Poor in the City of Nice, commanded that no enquiry should be made in the Distribution of it, of what Sect in Re­ligion [Page 330] the Poor were, but what their Wants were. He that confers his Benefits upon Consideration only of mens agreeing with him in Opinion, of their Me­rit, Neighbourhood, former Obligations, or the like, may be just, prudent, or Grateful, but he can­not be said to be Charitable: for this is a free, unbi­ass'd, disinterested Vertue, and if it regards ought in the Good it does, beside the Opportunity and Power it has to do it, it changes its Nature, becomes ano­ther thing, and assumes a New Name. Let no man therefore think he has absolved the Duty of Chari­ty, if he be Kind only where his Honour is courted and comply'd with; ready to entertain Friendship, when he is sought to; to be reconcil'd, when full A­mends is made him: But if he will shew this Grace, he must first break the Ice, and lead the way to Concord, Kindness, and Beneficence. And none think this so hard a Saying, as those who would hugely stomach and disdain, in case their Neighbour should precede or take place of them upon any Meet­ing or Encounter: as if it were Disparagement to them to sit lower than another at the Table, and not to be below him in Vertue; to go after him at a Door, and not to come behind him in all Goodness. If we cannot part with our Passions and Evil Affe­ctions for the sake of our Brethren, as well as our Money; for go our Pride and Animosities, as well as our Goods; we are Charitable but in part, Merciful but in a Case; and possibly the Vertue may not be only Imperfect and lame in us, but we may be whol­ly destitute of it: for S ^t Paul says, We may bestow all our Goods to feed the Poor, give our Bodies to be burnt, and yet not have the Grace of Charity: Because these things may be done out of Ostentation, and not only so, but without any Profit or Benefit: For put the [Page 331] Case, our Brother be not low in Fortune, but weak of Undestanding; not indigent of outward things, but of Instruction and Advice; stands in need to be born with, not to be reliev'd; what Good will our Mo­ney do him in these his Infirmities? It were as sea­sonable to apply it to a broken Arm, or fester'd Wound, to give it to one starving in a Desart where no Food is to be bought. If we will be Charitable, we must compassionate our Brothers Necessities, of what Nature soever they be; supply his Wants, not gratifie our own Temper.

The second Instance of Christ's Love which I re­commend to our Imitation, is this, That as he lov'd us not only first and before we lov'd him, but lov'd us when we were Enemies to him; when we were not only Strangers, but Rebels to Heaven; when we exercised all the acts of hatred and hostility against it: So that we love one another, and not think the Obli­ging and Good Natur'd only worthy of our Kindness, but the Discourteous and Injurious. Some men are contentious with their Neighbours, outrageous to their Children, tyrannical to their Inferiors, insupportable to their Equals, irreconcileable to their Enemies, im­placable upon every Colour of a Wrong: But the Charitable on the other side can Excuse and pardon the most design'd and study'd Injuries, see something to commiserate and pity even in mens Injustice; can look upon their Malice, as their Mistake or Misfor­tune, pray for their Enemies, as our Lord did, in the very Article of the Death which they have brought upon them, Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. And if we consider rightly, Sinners are Ignorant and Mistaken in what they do, Fools, as the Scripture constantly terms them: for no man can will a Wrong Action, that is not Ignorant [Page 332] and Mistaken; and whether the Mistake lye in the thing Chosen, or in the Principle by which 'tis cho­sen, it matters not, if it be still a Mistake; and the grosser the Errour is, the more pitiable still it is: and if we can pardon Fools and Mad Folks, Children and Sick persons, and cannot likewise commiserate the Sick in Sin, the Mad and Foolish in Wickedness, we are as blind in our Anger, as they are in their Acti­ons. How will that man stand before the Severe Tribunal of God, who weighs every Grain and Scru­ple in his Brothers Trespasses against him? who shews the exactest and highest Rigour of Justice in his Re­venges, and perhaps was never just in any other pas­sage of his Life? how will he be able to excuse his non-payment of the vast Arrears he is indebted to God, who has exacted the utmost Farthing of his Brother? Beloved, we make our Condition in the World to come, according to our Charitableness or Uncharitableness in this; God will love us, or hate us; judge us, or justifie us; enlarge his Mercy, or shut it up to us; as we do these things to others: if we be difficult in remitting our Brothers Faults, he will be difficult in remitting ours; if we forgive on­ly small Offences, he will not pardon our Great; if we forgive only in part, we shall not be absolv'd in the whole. He shall have Judgment without Mercy, as S ^t James says, that shew'd no Mercy. Let no man therefore seek an Excuse, or be glad when he has found a Distinction to take him off from pardoning his Brother: for what profit is there in that Wrath which does but treasure up Wrath against the Day of Wrath? The Fourth Council of Carthage forbad, that the Oblations of Contentious Persons should be received into the Treasury of the Church, for the same reason that the High Priest refus'd to put the [Page 333] money return'd by Judas into the Treasury of the Temple, because it was the Price of Bloud. So this the Council: Obligationes dissidentium Fratrum neque in Sacrario, neque in Gazophylacio Episcopi recipiant. As there is no place in the Church of God for Uncha­ritableness, so we may be sure there's as little in the Kingdom of Heaven.

I have not time to set forth all the Instances of Christ's Love: but there is One which I must not o­mit, and 'tis that which differences and distinguishes Spiritual Love from Worldly and Carnal above all others: and that is Christ's performing all he did, merely for their Sakes for whom he did it. Carnal Love, or Dotage on outward Beauty, can in a mea­sure imitate the former things we have mentioned, love first, before it be beloved; love without Merit in the Person affected, digest all their Peevishness and Affronts, and hang on still, and leave no means un­attempted to bring their Mind about: but then they do this not for their sakes, but their own, to attain the Fruition of what they have so much desired. But, Alas! what End, what Design could the Crea­tor of all things have on his own Creatures? What Advantage could he receive by them? As Christ therefore lov'd us not for his own Good, but ours; as it was our Salvation, our re-estating in Immortali­ty that he intended, and not his own: so in our Love to our Brethren we must not have an Eye to any Sordid Profit of our own; we must not chaffer Kindness, huckster, as I may say, friendly Offices; Charity requires the mind of a Prince, not of a Mer­chant; and we must make a difference between Christianity, and Factoring. As I have loved you, so love one another. If it be here objected, That the most Spiritual and Divine Love was never so ab­stracted, [Page 334] as to be without all Intuition of Reward, and that our Lord himself, for the joy that was set before him, endur'd the Cross and despised the Shame: It will be enough to say in answer, That as in a Kingdom or Commonwealth they are accounted Disinterested Persons and without all Designs, who pursue only the Publick Interest and Honourable Designs: So in the Kingdom of the Gospel those are counted to love without all Design, who have no base and bye De­sign; who love God and their Neighbour for Hea­vens sake, are interpreted to love them purely for their Own sakes. And let this suffice to be said of the Habit or Grace of Love enjoined by the Apostle: I proceed next to speak of the Degree of it.

Have Fervent Charity.

The Word in the Original for Fervent [...], sig­nifies as well the Continuation of Time, as the Ve­hemence and Intenseness of the Quality; the Con­stancy that should be in our Love, as well as the Ar­dour. I shall therefore handle it according to both Senses.

1. In regard of the Time or Constancy of this Quality, our Charity must not be Fantastick, inter­rupted, and uncertain; there must not be several Weathers in our Affections; they must not change like the Winds, but move like the Heavens in one constant Circumvolution shedding and dispensing their favourable Influences. For he that loves not always, when he does love, loves out of Humour, not Vertue; and we may account all the good Offi­ces he does, only the Fits and Starts of some momen­tany Passion, and not the Actions of a settled and radicated Habit. Again, this Vertue must not be taken [Page 335] up only at the Alarm of a Danger or Sickness, at the approach of a Holy Season, or by way of Pre­paration to the Communion: for they are far from fulfilling the Law of Charity that lay down their Grudges and Quarrels to their Brethren out of some Affright or Design, but as soon as these are over, reassume them again; imitating the Serpent that casts up her Poyson, when she goes into the Water, and as soon as she comes on dry Land licks it up again. God accepts not those kind of Truces, where Battel ceases, but the hatred does not; where the Weapons rest, but the Affections still rage. Though Charity ought to flourish more eminently at holy Seasons, yet it must live and be exercised all the whole Year. Our Saviour's Example will direct us here in the Continuati­on of our Love, as formerly it did for the Manner of it; of whom we read, That having loved his own which were in the World, he lov'd them unto the End.

2. In regard of its Degree, our Charity must be Vehement and Intense, it must confess its Part in its Ardour, the Holy Ghost; which is call'd the Spirit of Love, and has appeared oftener to the World in Fire, than under any other Form: Good will without Fervency, is but the Endeavour of an imperfect Ele­mentary Charity. That we may know therefore the Just Degree, and certain Temper that is required in our Love, the best means will be to bring it to the Test and Tryal of the Rule which is given us to mea­sure it by, which is, Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy Self. And this Commandment makes our Love to our own Selves the Pattern or Standard of that which we ought to bear to other Men: Not that we are obliged to love other men every way Equal to our selves, that is not the meaning of the Rule, it implies not an Equality, but a Similitude; not a [Page 336] Parity, but a Resemblance of it in Truth and Reali­ty: Our Love must be as Sincere and Cordial to our Brethren, as to our Selves; we must heat our Affe­ctions in the same Forge, have the like Zeal, the like Promptness to snatch all Occasions to advance their temporal and spiritual Good, as we would to advance our own: but yet still other mens Concerns ought to be but our second Care; before we preach to others, before we labour for their Salvation, we must take heed with S ^t Paul, that we our selves be not Cast-aways.

I shall not need in these days, in which Self-Love so much abounds, and Christian Love so little, to give Cautions against Supererogating and overflow­ing Charity: but though little will need to be said a­gainst any Excess in this Grace, yet much may be behoof-ful to prevent the Mistakes of it. For many think that for Friendship-sake they are obliged to en­gage in all manner of Wickedness, to drink Drunk, and fight Duels, to spend the main of their Life in Gaming, and other dissolute Courses; nay, to enter into treasonable Practices against their Prince and Country. And there are those again that will de­bauch as highly in matters of Religion: out of their Kindness to a Sect, dip their hands in Bloud, and put a Nation into a Flame and Combustion; for their Love to an ill-taken up Opinion, and a Party they have long adhered to, renounce the Church and Truth, which in effect is God himself; chuse rather to live and dye in Disobedience and a damnable Schism, than seem to be inconstant; and to carry their Flocks along with them in the way of Perditi­on, than undeceive and grieve them with an Unwel­come, though Necessary Truth. Such as these are not tender of their Brethrens Peace, but guilty of [Page 337] their Destruction; and set not so high a Price on their Contentment, as a cheap on their own Consci­ences: 'tis not possible to be Wicked, and Charita­ble; to love men, and sooth them in their Sins. What S ^t Paul says of the false Teachers among the Galatians, is true of these, They zealously affect you, but not well; yea they would exclude you, that you might affect them; i. e. they had rather their Congregati­ons should miss of Salvation, than they lose the Inte­rest they have in them. There may be some Extra­ordinary Cases in which we ought to prefer our Neighbours Good before our own: as their greater Good before our lesser; their Spiritual before our Temporal, &c. But the Rule holds in General, I am not to destroy my self out of Courtesie; I am not to contract Guilt, to preserve another Innocent; I must love my Neighbour As my self, not Above, not Before my self.

But this Doctrine seems to be oppos'd by the Pra­ctice of the two greatest Guides of the Jewish and Christian Church, Moses and S ^t Paul. The one, Ex­od. 32.31. when the Israelites had so heinously trans­gress'd in the Golden Calf, interceded for them in this manner, This people have sinn'd a great Sin, they have made them Gods of Gold: yet now, if thou wilt, forgive their Sin; if not, blot me (I pray thee) out of the Book which thou hast written. And the other, Rom. 9.7. out of his heat of Zeal for the Salvation of the same Seed of Abraham, utters these words, I could wish my self Accursed from Christ for my Brethren. And both these seem to prefer not only the Tempo­ral, but Spiritual Good of others, before their own: insomuch as to salve their Excess of Charity, some have thought nothing less sufficient, than to say, There are many things done in Scripture by Persons [Page 338] acted by an Extraordinary and Heroick Spirit, which are not to be brought into Practice by us, who are mov'd by lower Degrees of the Spirit; and though we may admire them, we must not imitate them. Others again, on the other side, have as much depress'd the transcendent Charity of these Great Persons, by pa­rallelling what they did with like Usages and Cu­stoms common among the Jews: For, first, they re­semble Moses's Intercession for the people, to a friend­ly Complement or Expression of Good-Will famili­arly used by those of the Circumcision, and possibly first taken up in imitation of Moses's intercession, May I be thy Propitiation or Expiation, my Brother; i. e. may I undergo the Penalty of the Law in thy Stead; to rescue thee from the Divine Displeasure, bear thy temporal Punishment? And after the like manner they parallel S ^t Paul's words, ( I could wish my self Accursed from Christ) to a like Passage found in Ignatius, who was an Auditor of the Apostles, Let the Punishment of the Devil come upon me, only let me obtain Christ. Where the Punishment of the Devil cannot possibly import the Eternal Torments of Hell, for from thence there is no Redemption, or returning to enjoy Christ: and therefore it must point at Ex­communication, to the giving up to Satan, and the Punishments he had power to inflict on the Excom­municated, so frequently mentioned in Scripture, but I shall need to give only one instance of. Deliver such an one unto Satan for the Destruction of the Flesh, that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus, 1 Cor. 5.5.

But there seems here to be no need of these Extra­ordinary Salvo's, these, however ingenious and learn­ed, Accommodations. For put the Case we should take the Words of Moses in the strictest literal Sense [Page 339] they can bear, (and we must take them so, if we will take them, as God's Answer shews he took them, Whosoever has sinn'd against me, says he, him will I blot out of my Book) what would be the Danger or Inconvenience? What did his Intercession import more, than may be thus fairly paraphrased? Lord, let me prevail with thee to revoke thy Sentence of totally destroying this People thou hast done such wonderful things for, or involve me in their Destru­ction, which is easier for me to bear, than to survive so great a Calamity, and to hear the Heathen insult and blaspheme thy Name on this Occasion. But Mo­ses's words relate to an Eternal blotting out. Not necessarily, no nor probably: for whatever know­ledge he might have of another Life, the less 'tis to be supposed, that he should be willing to undergo an Eternal Death, to save the People only from a Tempo­ral. And as fair an account may be given of S ^t Paul's words, who does not say, I do, but I could wish my self accursed from Christ for my Brethren. So that his words are not an anathematizing or devoting himself, but only a Meditation: as if he had said, I could in my Imagination be contented, upon the Condition or Contemplation of an Event so much to God's Glory and the salvation of so many Millions, as the bringing in the body of the Jewish Nation to the Faith of Christ, to whom the Promise was principally made, to be separated or excluded my self from him: as Vatablus excellently expounds, Vnus pro tam multis optarim perire, si liceat, I could wish, as far as 'tis lawful for me, that One ra­ther than so many might perish. And there is nothing in either of these Passages of Moses or S ^t Paul, which every faithful Pastor may not safely imitate; let their Zeal be as much in Earnest, and as right plac'd as theirs, and it will not only be pardonable, but rewardable: [Page 340] Neither is there any thing in their Practice, if rightly weighed, contrary to this Rule, I must love my Neighbour As my self, not Above, not Before my self. I should proceed to the Object of our Charity, but what remains will be sufficient for another Task.

The Object of Charity, All Men in General.

GOD taught the Church of the Jews in the beginning by easie and natural No­tices and Instructions, by a kind of hie­roglyphical or symbolical Divinity, the Scene of their Religion lay in Gar­ments, Diet, Washes, and the like; the Command­ment was conversant in the Objects of the Senses, touch not, taste not, handle not. And thus men were inur'd to the Ways of Vertue, and held at a Distance from Vice, by allowing or disallowing them the Use of such Creatures and Customs, as shew'd the Beau­ty of the one, and the Deformity of the other. God endeavouring to render Sensuality and Prophaneness [Page 342] odious, by rendring Dogs and Swine so; Hypo­crisie and Corruption of Doctrine, by forbidding Garments of mixt matters, and sowing the Field with Seeds of several kinds; Exorbitant Lust, by amputation of the Fore-skin; Idolatry and Unnatural Mixtures, by commanding a perpetual War with the seven Nations of Palestine, deeply ingulph'd in these Sins. Again, he endeavoured to train them in Purity and Innocence of Life, by enjoining frequent Wash­ings of themselves, their Garments and their Vessels: But the Jews perverted and defeated the Counsel of God in this method of instructing them, they lookt not, as 'tis said of them, to the bottom of their Lava­tories, to the Design and Signification of their Types; they cleans'd their Pots and Skins, and polluted their Lives; they entertain'd the forbidden Sin, and ter­minated their Hatred in the innocent Sign; wal­low'd in the Sensuality of Beasts, and detested the harmless Creatures; practis'd all the Abominations of the Heathen, and when they were as guilty as they, lookt upon them as their Enemies: As if God had taught them, not to hate Idolatry, but Men; not to be at Variance with Sin, but to keep up a Feud with the greatest part of the Creation. When they were enjoined utterly to root out the Canaanites, that their Corruptions might not spread among them, they made Marriages with them, and incorporated them into one People with themselves: and again, when in after Ages the reason of such Enmity was worn out, and the Danger of their Community Out­dated; when their Aversion to the Gentiles did not Secure their Religion, but render it Odious; and preserved not the Truth, but hindred the Propaga­tion of it; then most preposterously and unreasona­bly they shew'd an irreconcileable Hatred to the [Page 343] Heathen, and extended their Malice not only to the seven Nations, but to all Nations beside themselves, and were detestable to all the Inhabitants of the Earth for their Churlishness and Inhumanity.

In this Condition of hating, and being hated, our Lord found them when he came into the World; and when he set himself to reform their Mistakes, to remove the Outward Ordinances they had so little profited by, and to reveal the Duties that were shadowed un­der them, they abhorred the Sanctity of their Mean­ing, preferr'd the Burden of them before the Vertue they signified; embraced closer and more strictly their beggarly Elements; like degenerate Children that fly from their Book to the Bables of their Infancy; from their Tutors to their Nurses; chusing rather to counterfeit still an imperfect clipt Speech, than to form their Tongue to pronounce Words of Instru­ction and Knowledge. And it cost our Saviour the Cross, and his Disciples Persecutions and cruel Deaths, while they laboured to wean them from their first Childish Rudiments; to redeem the Creatures from those Prejudices which for a time were thrown upon them for Religion and Instruction sake; to bring the anathematiz'd and excommunicated World into the Pale of the Church; to have all men seen to be of one Kindred, as they were at the Creation; to revive the Consanguinity of Nature, by the Alliance of Grace; which acknowledges its scattered and re­motest Relations, though situate in the furthest Climes, and made not only Strangers, but Enemies by distant Countries, and more distant Religions and In­terests.

However therefore the Jews were born to Animo­sities and Hatreds, had Quarrels intail'd on them like their Lands, had so many Nations made over to [Page 344] them their hereditary, legal, and commanded Ene­mies: yet Christians are allow'd to account no Sort of People their Enemies, but are enjoined to bear an Amicable friendly Disposition to all men; or taught that their Brethren are not those only of the same Kindred or Nation, but those of the same Kind and the same Nature: as Tertullian says, Lex vetus amo­rem docet in proximos, nova in extraneos; the Old Law taught us to love our Neighbours, but the New teaches us that all the World are our Neighbours; not only those that live near us, but those that do any way stand in need of our Assistance; not those alone that we know, but those whose Distresses we are acquainted with, though their Persons are Stran­gers to us. And this Doctrine our Lord revealed or explained in the Parable of the wounded Samari­tan: and according to the Tenour of it, we ought to say with Gregory Nazianzen, All the Earth is my Country, and no Part of the Earth is my Country, 'tis Heaven alone that can claim that Title; and no man ought to be excluded my Kindness, till I know him to be excluded Heaven; and no man but may challenge my Love, of whom I can say, Behold an Other Man. And this Point of Christianity is so grounded on the Principles of Nature, that the better Heathens dis­cerned and practised it: As I am Antoninus, says that excellent Emperour, my Country and City are Rome and Italy: but as I am a Man, the whole World. And like again to this is that Speech in the Comoedi­an, Homo sum, humani nihil à me alienum puto; I am a Man, and I esteem nothing humane strange to me, or not to be my Concern.

Be then my Brother an Arabian or Indian, though he has travelled far, and planted himself in a remote Clime, though he be fed with Fruits of the Earth I [Page 345] never saw, and speaks a Language I never heard, he ceases not to be my Brother; nay, though he be a Jew, Mahometan, or Infidel, and not only an Enemy to the Faith, but also to me; he has not lost his Hu­manity, though he lost his Religion and Goodness; he has not drunk of Circe's Cup, he is not become a Lion or a Wolf: & docet Christus, delicto alterius non tolli Naturam, and Christ teaches us, that a mans Nature is not destroyed by his Sins, the Image of God remains still in him, and he is yet a Member of Mankind: and whoever shall obliterate this Chara­cter, though but in his Uncharitable Estimation, is impious and sacrilegious; and because his Brother has done something unworthy of his Relation to him, he does that which is unworthy of his Creation, un­worthy of the Divine Character he bears.

The Word Enemy ought to be a mere Notion or empty Term in Christian Religion, or to be Relative to nothing, but to Sin and Satan, to the Devil and the Devil's Works; God and Nature made all men Brethren; Malice, Interest, or Chance, made them Strangers or Enemies. Says Hierocles, To a Good man no man is an Enemy, i. e. a Good man may be hated, but he will not hate again; he may be treated hostilely, but he will not use another as an Adversary. And this unconquered Love, of returning good for evil, is the truest and noblest Badge of our Christian Pro­fession. The Disciples of the Philosophers were di­stinguisht by the Various Opinions of their Masters; those of the Lawyers by particular Sentences and In­terpretations of the Law; the Scholars of the Pha­risees by certain Traditions and Observations: But Christ would have his Disciples known by no Vain-glorious Marks or Distinctions, But by this, says he, shall men know that you are my Disciples, if ye love [Page 346] one another: And those that hate their Brother, be it upon what Pretence soever, Judaize; and though they wear their Baptismal Cross as conspicuously on their Foreheads, as the Pharisees did their Phylacte­ries, they are Disciples of the Synagogue.

I shall add but one thing more, and conclude this Point. Though we are oblig'd to love one another, i. e. All men to love all men, we are not obliged to love all men alike. Our heavenly Father, who is set to be our Example in general Beneficence, does not do so; though his Love be Universal to all, 'tis not Equal to all: but as Seneca says of Earthly Kings, Rex honores dignis dat, congiarium & indignis, a King bestows common Largesses both on the Wor­thy and Unworthy, but Offices and Charges of Ho­nour he confers only on the Worthy. So the King of Heaven sends his Rain and makes the Sun to shine on the Good and Bad, on the Just and Unjust; but does not in the like promiscuous manner and without Distinction scatter the Gifts of his Holy Spirit; he shews himself a Common Father to all men, but a Gracious Father only to the Righteous. And we ought to conduct our private limited Charity by the like Rule, shed the common Influences of it on all Mankind, even as far as we can extend them: but when they will not reach both to Believers and Un­believers, then to give the preference to Believers: for the Alliance of Grace is yet straiter, than that of Nature. And thus S ^t Paul states this Duty, Gal. 6.10. As we have opportunity, says he, let us do good to all men, but especially unto the houshold of Faith. And I conceive after this manner we are to understand what is said Ecclus 12.4. Give to a godly man, and help not a Sinner; i. e. help the Godly man rather; when thou canst not relieve both, chuse to relieve the [Page 347] first. And let thus much suffice to be said of the Object of our Charity. I proceed to the Reason that inforces it, which is taken from its Operation and Effect, It covers Sins, together with the Extent of that Effect, not one or two, but many and many Sins;

For Charity shall cover the multitude of Sins.

These Words are Parallel to the last Verse of the fifth Chapter of S ^t James, He that converteth a Sin­ner from the errour of his ways, shall save a Soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of Sins. But in some Copies, both in this place and in my Text, the Original has not [...] in the Future Tense, Chari­ty [shall] cover a multitude of Sins, implying the Sins of the Charitable Man, but [...] in the present, [Does] cover a multitude of Sins, implying the Sins of other men: as 'tis Prov. 10.12. Hatred stirreth up Strife, but Love [or Charity] covereth all Sins, i. e. hideth and beareth with the transgressions of o­ther men: and thus again 'tis said 1 Cor. 13.4. Charity suffereth long, and is kind. In which words the Apostle speaks of a prime Act of Charity, not of its Reward; of the Goodness it shews, not of the Recompence it shall receive. But there will be no need to contend for rendring of the Words either way: for both these Propositions are true. Charity is a benign Vertue that pardons the Sins of those that offend against us. And again, Charity is so accepta­ble a Vertue in the Sight of God, that for its sake he will pardon many Sins committed against him. I shall therefore handle the Words in both Senses.

And first, Charity shall cover the Multitude of Sins, i. e. of our own Sins against God. Sins are said to [Page 348] be hid or covered in Scripture, when they are pardon­ed: so Psal. 32.1. Blessed is he whose unrighteousness is forgiven, and whose sin is covered. And again, Psal. 84.3. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy peo­ple, thou hast covered all their Sins. Covering of Sins imports not the concealing them in relation to God's Sight or Knowledge, but in relation to his Justice or Punishment: as men are said to forget Injuries, not in a Sense of Memory, but of Mercy, when they re­member them not to revenge them: as Joseph for­got his Brethrens selling him into Egypt, not as Pha­raoh's Butler forgot Joseph in Prison. But may not then the same Question be ask'd here, which the Scribes and Pharisees ask'd in the Gospel? Who can forgive sins, but God alone? In what Sense can Cha­rity be said to cover or pardon Sins? for covering or pardoning of Sins, and Justification, are one and the same thing, the peculiar Prerogative of God, and his free Gift of Grace through Jesus Christ: and to affirm, that Charity, or any other Vertue whatso­ever, can work this Work belonging only to God, were to make it, as S ^t Hilary speaks, ambitiosa errorum patrona, an ambitious or aspiring Patroness of Errour, to make it affect the Throne of God like Lucifer; to attribute to an imperfect humane Vertue the Power of the Deity, and to advance that to be a Giver of Pardon, which stands in need to receive Pardon it self. When 'tis said therefore, That Charity shall co­ver our Sins, it means only, That it will dispose God to shew us Favour, that it is an acceptable Vertue in his Sight, and if we come qualify'd with this Grace for his Mercy, which is a special Condition also of his Covenant, we shall not fail to obtain it; but may more powerfully urge this Petition, Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us: [Page 349] not, as the Papists teach, upon the Presumption of Merit, but upon the Confidence of God's Promise and Covenant, Fac hoc, & vives; Do this, and thou shalt live.

Secondly, If we take the Words in the other Sense, Charity covers the Sins of other men against us. Charity does this many ways, but I shall men­tion only three: 1. Remittendo, by pardoning and forgiving them: and this is the perfectest and most absolute way of covering Sins of all other: for thus Sins are covered, as, I said, God covers them; he that remits Offences, when he has right to do it, restores the Person guilty to the State of Innocence again; and does not so much cover his Transgressions, as ut­terly take them away: as he on the other side that revenges or punishes Offences, registers and preserves the Memory of them; as the Widow of Zerepaths Expostulation with the Prophet Elijah imports, Art thou come, says she, to call my Sins to remembrance, and to slay my Son? to punish her old Guilt, and to revive it, was all one in her account; to slay her Son, to call her past transgressions to remembrance.

2. Charity covers the Sins of other men, corrigendo & medendo, by Correcting and amending them, by turning their Vicious Habits into Vertuous: and thus it covers Sins, as a Plaster does a Wound; its cover­ing is its healing them, and bringing it to sound flesh again. But then much Prudence and Skill is requir'd in this Point of Charity, we must be sure that our Corrections of our Brethren be medicinal and saluta­ry, that our Cures of Mens Minds and Manners be conducted with as much Caution and Tenderness, as Surgeons and Physicians use in the Cure of their Bo­dies. The first Caution therefore that I shall give, is, That we do not mistake the Disease, and cast the Pa­tient [Page 350] into a Worse Condition; bring him out of a light Distemper, into a more dangerous and deadly. There are many Spiritual Physicians in these days, who, like the Pharisees of old, compass Sea and Land to make Proselytes, and then render them sevenfold more the Children of Hell, than they were before. The second Caution which I shall give, is, That if soft and gentle Remedies will work the Cure; we do not apply rough and sharp ones; affect to operate with Saws, and Knives, and Fire, use cut­ting and corroding Reproofs, where Oils and Bal­sams, milder Counsels will suffice: a Physician ought to compassionate the Sufferings of his Patient; and the Reformer of his Brother that shews more Rigour and Austerity than is necessary, acts the part of a Tyrant, not of a Councellor; and leaves it to be suspected, that his Design is not so much to reclaim, as to insult over him; to make him a Convert, as to dress up a Trophee to his own Pride. Churlish­ness and Harshness hardens the Bread that's given in Alms, into a Stone; whereas on the other side, Mild­ness and Gentleness renders the sharpest Reprehen­sions, sweet; and the severest Discipline, grateful. The last Caution I recommend, is, If the Disease or Sin be disgraceful, that we not only shew our selves good Physicians, but good Men; perform the Duty of Confessors, as well as of Reformers; hide the Shame, as well as amend the Crime: Open Reprehension turns into Scandal, and that which would have been Advice, if secret; publisht, becomes a Libel.

3. Charity covers the Sins of other men, benignè interpretando, by favourably Interpreting of them, and taking them in the best Part, by setting all Acti­ons, even Injuries themselves in the most advan­tageous Light; as Joseph call'd not his Brethrens ill-Dealing [Page 351] with him (in selling him into Egypt) their Envy or their Malice, but God's Providence; and looking upon the Success, and not upon their Inten­tion, he upbraided them not for their Cruelty, but congratulated the Preservation of his Father's House. And those that will have God look with favourable Eyes upon their Miscarriages, must in like manner behold and excuse the Miscarriages and Delinquences of others: where the Intention appears to have been Evil towards them, content themselves, if the Suc­cess be Good; and when the Success is Ill, yet per­swade themselves the Meaning was not so bad; and when they can make no fair Construction of either of them, then consider if themselves would not have done the same upon the like Temptation, or have not done Worse in some other Instance. And thus where they cannot preserve their Charity by a can­did Interpretation of their Neighbours Defaults, support it yet on the Consideration of their own In­firmities; where they find them not Kind, Just, or Reasonable in their proceedings, remember that themselves are as Unkind, Unjust, and Unreasonable as they.

And now I shall not have much to do in the last place, to shew the Extent of the Operation of Cha­rity, viz. That it covers a Multitude of Sins: For if it covers all our Own Sins, and all the Sins of other Men; not only a Great Number, where a Greater Number yet remains; but the whole Infinity of them, though they out-vie the Leaves of Autumn, and the Sand on the Sea-shore; we may well al­low the Apostles Expression, That Charity covers the Multitude of Sins. And I doubt not to understand the Words in their utmost Latitude, Our Lord com­mands us to forgive our Brother seventy times seven [Page 352] times, which is a definite Number set for an indefinite, and imports as much as to forgive him without Mea­sure or Number, if he request it: Again, Luke 6.37. he says, Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven, and with­out all doubt, as Unlimitedly as he commands us to forgive, he will forgive: for 'tis not imaginable that God's Benignity should be less than his Creatures; that when he requires of us to remit the Sins of o­thers totally and plenarily, that he will remit ours partially and restrainedly.

And if it be said, There are some Sins menti­oned in Scripture, as the Sin against the Holy Ghost, which shall neither be forgiven in this World, nor in the World to come: I answer, This is no Ob­jection: For where such Sins are found, 'tis not pos­sible that Charity, or any other Grace, can be found to mediate for the Transgressor; such Sins do not only offend against God's Laws, but deny his Deity; and the Committers of them are not only Trans­gressors, but Apostates; and unpardonable not on the account that their Crimes are above his Mercy, but renounce it; or that they transcend the Pro­mise made to Charity, but are destitute of the Vertue.

And if it seems too high a Prerogative to ascribe to Charity, or to any other Single Vertue whatsoe­ver, and such as derogates from the rest, and makes them useless, to say, It covers all Sins; I answer, That Charity, nor no other Vertue in a high and Heroick Degree, are Single, but Complicated Ver­tues: and whoever shall consider what S ^t Paul says of Charity throughout the thirteenth Chapter of the First to the Corinthians, and again, Rom. 13.8. He that loveth another, hath fulfilled the Law; will con­fess 'tis not a Single Vertue; but that whoever has [Page 353] Charity in an Eminent Degree, must also have Faith, Justice, Liberality, Patience, Humility, Self-denial, even a whole Conjugation or Constellation of Chri­stian Graces. And that where this Vertue is enter­tain'd, there all Quarrels and Dissentions, secret Ma­lice and open Injuries, both the greater Outrages and more petty Vexations and Molestations so much complained of in humane Society, are utterly inter­dicted and banisht. Where Charity has its abode, indifferent actions are not put upon the Tenter, and men made guilty by Censures, when their Lives are Innocent. Calamities and Misfortunes are not rec­koned among Crimes, and the Miserable judged void of Goodness, because they are void of Success. Brutish and voluptuous Affections are not call'd Ver­tues; Lust, the greatest Enemy to Charity, stampt with the Specious Title of Love. Men are not seen to visit their Lawyer oftener than their Neighbour; to seek his Ruine and undoing, whom 'tis their Duty to protect; to keep him upon a perpetual Guard and Alarm, whose Security should be as precious to them as their own, giving him cause to complain, That he rather borders on the Den of a Dragon or some savage Beast, than on the Habitation of his Christian Brother. Men disturb not, for every Nothing, the Quiet of their own Fa­milies, making their Houses resemble the Habitation, the Poets describe, of Aeolus, places of continual Storms and Tempests. Look not upon the Peace and Safety of their Country with a more malignant and malevolent Aspect, than a fatal Comet; hatch not worse Mischiefs in their black Cabals, than are brooded in the poysonous Womb of the Air, when the Contagion of a Plague is fermenting in it. Men rend not the Church in pieces to patch up their Beggar­ly [Page 354] Fortunes, or to cover their more beggarly Endow­ment; knowing the Perverseness of men is such, that a mean Harangue will lead them sooner into Sedition, than the most powerful Oratory will be able to re­tain them in their Duty and Obedience; and that their Voices which sound so loud and shrill in the Cause of Schism and Rebellion, would be hoarse and flat in the Defence of Loyalty and Conformity. Against these, and infinite Disorders more, Charity is the best Ca­tholicon, the best General Antidote can be prescri­bed, Which, as the Apostle says, seeks not its own things, but the things of another. And if we enter­tain this Vertue, it will not only remove those Mis­chiefs which are already on foot, but prevent those that are springing up; it will defend us, not by the Power of Arms, but by turning Wars into Peace; Ill-Will into Love; Enemies into Brethren; by ma­king the World one Common Family, and of one Common Interest; by making God our Common Father, and Heaven our Common Aim and Ambiti­on; to the attaining the highest Honours and Digni­ties in which Kingdom, 'tis not Envy and Strife, the crossing and frustrating Mens Endeavours, but the furthering and assisting them, that conduces.

Love.

To love a Person, as Aristotle defines, is to wish him well, and to procure things Good and Agreeable to him for his own sake. And this Rule of Love to Men, may teach us what Love we ought to pay to God: for we ought to wish Well to God, and to procure things Good and Agreeable to him. And if any ask, Wherein we can do this to God? I need look no further for an Answer than the second Peti­tion in the Lord's Prayer, Thy Kingdom come, thy Will be done in Earth as 'tis in Heaven. It consists in the Execution of God's Will, and the Extension of his Glory: For all other things besides these are nothing to God, as the Psalmist says, My goods are [Page 358] nothing unto thee. The Riches of this World, and the most precious things in its account, are contem­ptible in his Sight: but these two which I have na­med, he esteems, and in some measure wants and de­sires, possesses not perfectly and absolutely as he would, All his Creatures do not acknowledge him, honour him, worship him, delight in his Domini­on, pay a ready cheerful Obedience to his Com­mands, as the Angels in Heaven do; notwithstand­ing that they are reasonable, honourable, beneficial, have more of Profit, than of the Yoke in them. But so it is, there is another God of this World that blinds most men, and leads them away captive with divers Lusts, and they chuse rather to be Vassals and Drudges to this Usurper and Tyrant, than to be No­bles and Princes, even adopted Children to the King of Heaven and Earth. And with good reason holy Men in every Age have pray'd for God's Kingdom, i. e. the Encrease of Righteousness, and of the Number of the Faithful: for God is yet, in a man­ner, like those Princes, which are outed of part of their Dominions, and deny'd the Obedience of whole Nations of their People, and his Loyal Subjects can no way shew their affection so much to him, as by espousing his Interest, abetting his Title, employing their best Endeavours to reduce the Rebellious to Al­legiance; by wishing with the Psalmist, That Kings and all People, young men and maidens, old men and children, would praise and glorifie his holy Name. 'Tis the business of Great Ministers of State to un­derstand the Strength and weakness of Foreign Prin­ces, the Commodities and Defects of their Countries, that they make the most advantageous Alliances for their own Masters, and they are held the best Politici­ans that do this best: But if both those of the highest [Page 359] Condition, and also of the lowest and meanest, even all People would set to their Power to serve the Great Monarch of Heaven and Earth, they would find no Policy comparable to this; that the promo­ting of his Designs, would be the most certain way of promoting their own, whether publick or pri­vate; they would find, that they would thrive like Jacob, that all things would prosper under their hands like Joseph, that they would return with con­stant Victory like David, and heap up Gold and Silver like Solomon. Numa, though a Heathen, re­ly'd so confidently on this Policy, that when he was told on a time, That the Enemy was drawing up a­gainst him, he answer'd, And I am praying against them; And when 'twas said, They were charging, he reply'd, and he was Sacrificing; assuring himself the Gods would not neglect his Safety, while he was so­licitous for their Worship.

But you will say, Is it needful that we should wish for the Encrease of God's Kingdom? does he want the help of his Creatures? No. Is he not Om­nipotent, and can bring to pass whatever seems good to him? Yes. Who has resisted his Will? As the Que­stion is ask'd, None: and yet it may be as truly said, Who is there that has not resisted his Will? What was spoken of Israel, may be affirmed of all Mankind, that they are a rebellious and gain-saying People. God, 'tis true, is Omnipotent, and his Power never fails; he brought the World out of nothing by his Word, and by his bare Word can reduce it again to nothing; if he had pleas'd, he could have created a Generation of Men that should have served him re­gularly and constantly, fatally and necessarily, as the Fire burns, and the Sun and the Moon move in their Courses. But this is not the Service that God wants, [Page 360] and which we are to pray for in his behalf; 'tis the Free and Voluntary, not the Constrain'd, Service of his Rational Creatures, that Men would obey him out of Love and Choice; as his Dominion is gra­cious, that they would desire it; as it is beneficial and honourable, that they would delight in it. Com­pell'd Righteousness is no Righteousness; 'tis in Obe­dience, as in Charity; he that gives grudgingly and of necessity, does not give, but is tax'd; and he that obeys of Compulsion, is a Slave, and not a Votary. 'Tis reported of the famous Painter Apelles, that when he had finish'd any rare Piece, his custom was latere post tabulam, to hide himself behind it, that he might hear what Passengers said of it, and that he car'd for no Approbation, but what came in this free way. After the like manner, God exposes to the View and Consi­deration of Men his Works of Power and of Wisdom, of Mercy and of Goodness, and then delights latere post tabulam, to conceal himself in his inaccessible Glory, and to observe what free and unextorted Returns of Honour and Love they will bring him in; all forc'd or feign'd, Superstitious and Hypocritical Acknowledgments being odious to him. And now after all that has been said, in strict speaking, God stands no more in need of our Obedience and Wor­ship, than he does of our Riches: as 'tis said, Acts 17.24. He dwelleth not in Temples made by hands, neither is he worshipp'd by mens hands. The mean­ing of his being outed of part of his Kingdom and denied his full Dominion, in truth signifies no more, But that he has not yet extended the Salvation of Men to the Bounds his Goodness designed.

But to proceed. We said, Love did not only Wish, but Procure things good and acceptable to the Person belov'd: and we ought not only to wish [Page 361] the Execution of God's Will, and the Extension of his Glory, but to set-to our hands to Effect what we pray for: as it is not sufficient, in Point of Charity, to give good Words only to the Poor, to say, Be thou warm, be thou fill'd, God assist thee, and the like, when we can supply what they want our selves: so 'tis not sufficient in our Love to God to say only, Thy Kingdom come, thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven: but we must zealously and industriously do his Will, and endeavour all we can to promote his Kingdom. Says our Lord to S ^t Peter, Simon Pe­ter, lovest thou me? Lord, reply'd he, thou knowest that I love thee. And yet notwithstanding that he knew the Sincerity of his heart, he ask'd him the same Question three times. Why? to grieve Peter? or that he delighted in the repetition of the Professi­on of his Love? No, but to excite him to a more diligent Execution of his Apostleship, Feed my Sheep. And the Method which our Lord here prescribes to Peter must be observed also by us in advancing the Kingdom of God, When thou art converted, says he, strengthen thy Brethren; We must first set up the King­dom of God in our own hearts, before we attempt to erect it in others. As he is unfit to be a Teacher, that is not first well instructed himself: So he is not fit to be a Reformer, that is not first reform'd him­self: for his Evil Manners will certainly defeat his Sermon, and instead of making others righteous by his preaching, he will render himself ridiculous. 'Tis a Noble Undertaking to bring others to the fear of God, but 'tis an indispensable Duty to serve God our selves: says S ^t James, He that converteth a Sinner from the Error of his ways, shall save a Soul from death—(that's an Heroick Action) and shall hide a multitude of Sins, (that's a necessary Concern.) [Page 362] Self-reformation is the most Effectual Step we can make to promote God's Glory, 'tis such a Giantly Step, as I may say, as reaches from the Setting out of the Course to the End of it; 'tis like the first Step of the Sun above the Horizon, which darts Rays to the furthest Circumference of it, and fills the whole He­misphere with Light and Vigour, which these Words of our Lord seem to allude to, Let your Light so shine before men, that they may see your good Works, and glorifie your Father which is in heaven. Nothing so illustrates the Gospel, nothing so powerfully con­verts Sinners, and brings them to glorifie God, as the Holy Lives of the Faithful: But I urge not this to exclude other Endeavours to propagate Righteous­ness, but to shew the great Force and Prevalence that Righteousness has to produce Righteousness. I proceed to the Objects of our Love, which are two, God, and our Neighbour.

I. How it is to be understood, That all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two Commandments, The Love of God, And of our Neighbour.

The Law and the Prophets, i. e. the Text, and the Gloss or Comment; whatsoever the Law has concisely commanded or implyed only, and the Pro­phets more largely expounded and dilated on, were but to plant this one Duty, this One Master Princi­ple in the hearts of men, Love. In every Law there are two Parts, the Matter enjoin'd, and the Rewards and Punishments annex'd, by way of Sanction, for the better Observation of it: For a bare Injunction, not animated and fortified with the Promise of Good things to the Keepers of it, and Threats of Evil to the Infringers, will find but cold Observation a­mong men: Who, as the Psalmist speaks, are little better than horse and mule, that must be held with bitt and bridle [of Penalties] lest they fall upon you. The Office of the Prophets was to be Custodes Legis, the Guardians and Conservators of the Law, they were not to add to the Law, though they were inspired by God as Moses was, but to interpret, press, and inculcate the Duties of it, to revive in mens thoughts the Promises and Threats, and thus they were a kind of Mound or Fence to the Law to keep off Trans­gressions. The Jews had a Sort of Criticks, who with great preciseness observed the Number of the Letters in each Book of Moses, how they were writ­ten, [Page 377] together with the Various Readings, and these were call'd the Masorites, because they were, as the Word imports, a Hedge to the Law: But with much better right the Greater and Lesser Prophets may de­serve this Name. And upon this account it is, that these two, the Law and the Prophets, or Moses and the Prophets, are still quoted by our Lord together, who says not, The Law and the Interpretation of the Scribes, or the Law and the Determination of the Priests, (though in lesser Matters the People were also to harken to them) but the Law and the Pro­phets, which were both of equal Divine Production, and carried on the Same Design, the one by com­manding, and the other by preaching and inculca­ting the Will of God and Duty of Men. Now whatsoever the one of these enjoins, and the other enforces, our Lord says, Hang all upon these two Pins, The Love of God, and the Love of our Neighbour: And though the Word [ Love] is not often found in the Law and the Books of the Prophets, though they are not, as I may say, so much Canticles, as the Sermons of Christ, and the Writings of his Apostles, (in some of which there is scarce a Verse but it is even verbally repeated and ingeminated:) yet the Duties which the Prophets urge and press, are all Acts of Love to God, and Charity to our Neighbour; and whatsoever else they seem most to intend and em­ploy their Pens about, the propagation of Piety and Charity may be seen latent in the Scheme and Con­texture of their Discourse, and he that reads the one, shall be unawares engaged and intangled in the o­ther.

But then it may be ask'd here, Seeing all the Law and the Prophets hang on this One Law of Love, what need was there of so many Specifications of the [Page 378] Several Duties contain'd in both Tables? as, Thou shalt not kill? Thou shalt not commit Adultery? Thou shalt not Steal, &c.? For this Single Word, Love, comprehending them all in effect, so many Tautolo­gies might have been spared. To this we may say, Men are so crafty and subtil to evade the Duties im­posed on them, or pretend Ignorance for their Dis­obedience, that 'twas not sufficient to set down in Generals the Obligations that lay on them, but it was necessary by Express Prohibitions, and Particu­lar Instances to convince them, when they offended against the Divine Precepts. And for this reason the Law is fain often to descend to many trivial Specifi­cations, to work a lively and sensible Impression of the Justice or Injustice of every Fact in their minds: As for Example, Thou shalt not reap the Corners of thy Field, nor glean thy Vineyard. Thou shalt not suf­fer the Hire of the Labourer to remain with thee till the morning. Thou shalt not take his Garment to Pledge, his Bed, nor his Working-tools, nor his upper Milstone, and the like. Sure'y to an Ingenious Heart, disposed to Humanity, this particularizing would have been needless, I say, to a Good and Friendly Nature these things are of easie Deduction from the bare Word, Love, that all the rest might have been spar'd: we say, Verbum Sapienti, a Word to the Wise is suffi­cient; but 'tis much truer, Verbum Amanti, a single Word to a true Lover is abundantly sufficient to make him recollect the rest of his Beloveds mind. But, I say, Men being generally of a Churlish Dis­position, it comes to pass that the Duties both to God and Men, which are to be inferr'd from the Ge­neral Precept of Love, are obscure, or at least pre­tended to be so; and that they may have no Colour, from the Abridging their Whole Duty into one [Page 379] Word, Love, to say, There is no Obligation upon us to do the things required, shew us where they are com­manded, produce the Letter of the Law, and the like: all the Silva Legum, as Justinian calls them, the Fo­rest of God's and Mens Laws, consisting of such Heaps of Precepts, were added, whereas otherwise all the Duties would have been seen to hang on this brief Syllable, Love.

This Phrase [ do hang upon it] is a Figurative Expression borrowed from the hanging things upon a Hook or Pin in a Wall, which bears the Stress of their Weight. We find the same Figure used Isaiah 22.23. God determining to make Eliakim Treasurer over his House, to shew the Support he should be, by the Influence of his Wisdom and Justice, to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem, he says, I will fasten him as a Nail in a sure place—and they shall hang upon him all the Glory of his Father's House—all the Vessels, from the Vessels of Cups, to the Vessels of Flaggons: (and then it follows) In that day, says the Lord of hosts, shall the Nail that is fastned in a sure place be removed, and cut down, and the Burden that was upon it shall be cut off. But I shall shew more particularly three Ways, how all the Commandments hang or depend on the Commandment of Love.

1. As the Parts do upon the Whole, the Whole contains the Parts, and is but the Parts collected into One. And some will have this the only Dependance that is here meant of the other Commandments on that of Love, according to S ^t Paul's interpretation, Rom. 13.9. He that loveth another, hath fulfilled the whole Law: For this, Thou shalt not Kill, Thou shalt not commit Adultery, Thou shalt not Steal, &c. are briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy Self. And the like may be [Page 380] said of the Duties of the First Table, Thou shalt have no other God, but the God of Israel; Thou shalt worship him no other way than he has prescribed, Thou shalt not take his Name in vain, Thou shalt not break his Sab­bath, they are briefly contained in this, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God. And if Love were deeply rooted in the Hearts of men, upon their going about any Act dishonourable to God, or unjust to their Neigh­bour, it would pull them back from it: for this would be the immediate Question they would ask themselves, By what Rule do I do this? Will it hold according to the Precept of Love to God and to my Neighbour? This particular Fact, which I put forth by way of retail, does it not vary from the General Rule in which it ought to be comprehended as in its Body?

2. The Law and the Prophets may be said to hang or depend upon the Law of Love, because it is the Scope or Drift to which all the Commandments in particular tend: according to that Saying of S ^t Paul, 1 Tim. 1.5. The End of the Commandment is Chari­ty, or Love, out of a pure Heart, and good Conscience, and Faith unfeigned, i. e. upon the Ground of the Belief of Remission of our Sins through Christ, to love God and our Brethren for so great a Benefit, and to express our Love in the Works of a good Conscience. 'Tis not preaching the Law, though never so zealously, as those did S ^t Paul here speaks of; or the performing the Outward Acts of the Law, as many of the Jews were very scrupulous in the Observation of, that makes a Righteous Man ac­cording to the Law: but he that does according to the Design and Intention of the Law, which is Love. Ratio Legis est interpres Legis, the Purpose of the Law is the best Interpreter of the Law; and they [Page 381] that mind not this, as S ^t Paul says, Take their Aim a­miss, and swerve from the End and Intention of the Law, discern not the Grace of Love that runs through it, as the Warp and the Woof do through a Web of Cloth, and wholly sustains the Contexture of it. Without Love all that is Excellent, all that is Divine in the Law would fall to the Ground, as all the Riches and Gallantry of the Veil of the Temple, all the Purple and Scarlet would have lain grovelling on the Earth, without the Tacks or Hooks on which they hung.

3. The Law, i. e. all the Vertue, Goodness, and Righteousness it commands, all the Worth and Value of its Duties depend upon Love, as the Value of Coin depends upon the Price the Stamp sets upon it: or as a thing that is Accessory depends on its Prin­ciple, take away the Principle and the Accessory is nothing: so take away Love, and all the Command­ments are insignificant and nothing. And this Saint Paul shews, 1 Cor. 13. That even the most Specious, and seemingly Heroick Performances of Christianity it self ( as a man's giving his Goods to feed the Poor, and his Body to be burned, &c.) if they be not accom­panied with Charity (or Love) are all nothing: the Dignity of these Works depending so absolutely upon this Grace, that in God's Esteem to suffer Injury on­ly out of Love to our Fellow-Christian, is more than to suffer Martyrdom; not to envy, not to be puft up, not to despise our Brother, is more in his Eyes than to speak with Tongues, than to prophesie, than to understand all Mysteries. And indeed there is more true Religion in this one Benign Good Na­tur'd Vertue, than in the Ostentation and outward Grandeur of all the other. But the Excellence of Love, and that 'tis worthy of the Honour ascribed [Page 382] to it, to sustain all the Law and the Prophets, is the next thing I am to shew.

They Complain.

The Complaint of a man under the Punishment of his Sins may be blameable in many Respects, and de­serve the Check imply'd in this Question, Wherefore doth a living man complain? But I shall insist only on three.

1. It may be blameable in respect of the Com­plaint it self: For if it be a mere Complaint, with­out any Endeavour to get out of the Misfortune, 'tis either an Action without all Design and Purpose, and so is irrational and foolish: or else it pronounces that there is no Redress of the Evil a man lyes under, and then the Complaint is false: for there is no Case and Condition at least of a Faithful Person so misera­ble, as to be also Desperate and helpless: but as [Page 398] Saint Paul says of Temptation, That God will not suffer his Servants to be tempted above what they are a­ble, but will with the Temptation also make a way to e­scape: So in the Punishment of Sin, God does not inflict any so irreversibly, that there is no Evasion out of his Displeasure: but if the Sinner make due Application to his Goodness, he will remove it; or so support and comfort him under it, that it will countervail a Deliverance. That therefore which is here tax'd in the frequent Practice of men, is a lazy fruitless bemoaning themselves, as if they were ex­cluded all possibility of future Comfort, as well as the present possession of it; a vain and affected De­light to ask our Prophet's Question, Chap. 1.12. of all they meet, but without just cause, Was there ever Sorrow like my Sorrow, wherewith the Lord hath af­flicted me? insinuating that great Severity is exerci­sed towards them, which they have not deserved; and that they are of the Number of the Innocent, that are afflicted; of the Noble, that are Unfortu­nate: and they complain in this fond manner, till at last they grow in love with their Complaints; find a Consolation, in the Want of Consolation; the con­ceived Singularity of their Condition converting their Disasters into Glory, and a kind of Shadow of Comfort. But if these Persons in the mean time would search their own Hearts, and make Inquisition into their Lives past, they would find Cause enough for God's Wrath, and confess that their Sufferings were the least part of their Demerit; and their Plumes of Vanity would flag and sink; this fond Imagina­tion, That Satisfaction was rather due from God to them, than from them to God, would be changed in­to a sad Repentance; and they would seek a Solid Comfort by humbling themselves before his Divine [Page 399] Majesty in Sack-cloth and Ashes, and not in the vain Complacencies and Ravings of an abused Fancy. But such is the Folly of men (like the Prodigal Son before he came to himself) they set themselves to feed on Husks, when in their Father's House the very hi­red Servants have their fill of Bread; they mourn and suffer misery, when Musick and Feasting, a Ring and Robe of Honour, i. e. the highest Content, is pre­pared for them, and attends only their sueing for it.

2. Mens Complaints may be blameable and reprove­able in regard of the Persons against whom they make them. Men commonly complain against For­tune, as if the World were governed as blindly, as they govern their particular Affairs: against their E­nemies, when their Enemies have no more power o­ver them, than their Sins give them; and God over­rules the most Potent Malice, and makes a Good Mans Enemies to be at peace with him: they com­plain against themselves, as if their Misfortunes pro­ceeded only from some false or imprudent Step which they had made, and that they were the Effi­cient, as well as Meritorious Cause of their Suffer­ings: or, what is yet worse and more dangerous, they charge themselves with Unkindness to them­selves, that they are not indulgent enough to their own Content, deny themselves the Satisfactions that are in their power; and this makes them often seek to drown their Cares, as they call them, in Wine; to alleviate their Misfortunes by Debauchery: as Thetis in the Poet perswades her Son Achilles to comfort his approaching Fate with the enjoying of young Wo­men. But Sin is a sad Refreshment of Sorrow; and the Enlargement which men endeavour to procure from the Arrests of God's Judgments, by letting loose the reins of Lust, is like the Relief an Hydro­pick [Page 400] Person seeks in large Draughts of Drink; which gratifie his Thirst, but quench withal the little Spark of Life remaining to him; and remove not his Distemper, but make it incurable: Or else we may liken this wicked Course which Men take to ease their Sorrows, to Saul's seeking Counsel from the Witch, when the Oracles of God were silent; he learned by such his Apostasie his approaching Destru­ction, but he assured it also. The Church of Rome has as many appropriate Saints, as they have Needs and Distresses; and every Complaint of theirs has a Patron to redress it; S ^t Christopher at Sea, S ^t Roch in the time of Infection, S ^t Anthony when their Cat­tel are diseased, our Lady of Good-Succour for Women in Child-bed, &c. But God is all the while pass'd by, and all these that I have named, deservedly forfeit Help from him that can only give it, while they perversly seek it, where 'tis not to be had.

3. Mens Complaints may be blameable in respect of the Nature or Manner of them: when though they be rightly Addressed, i. e. to God, yet the Complaint it self is not Right, not qualify'd with the Conditions God requires, with Faith, Holiness, Humility, &c. First, If men complain without Faith, they complain to God, as they do to their Fellow-Creatures; they tell him a Tale of their Wants and Discontents, unload their Breasts of their Evils, but find no Redress: and we may reckon a­mong the Unfaithful, those who refuse or neglect to perform the Conditions upon which alone God has promised to hear the Cries and Complaints of men, though they never so much believe his Power and Goodness: for to be perswaded that God will accept the Prayers of the Wicked, is equal Infidelity, as to be perswaded that he will not accept those of the [Page 401] Righteous; and proceeds, if rightly considered, not from an Excess, but a Defect of Faith: and we may say with S ^t James, Let not such look for any thing at his hands.

Secondly, If mens Complaints be not seasoned with Humility, they are Murmurs, and not Prayers; Expostulations for Dues, not Supplications for Grace and Favour. Again, if they proceed not from a Gracious and Holy Mind, more from the Sense of their Sins, than of their Sufferings; from their Sor­row for their Unworthiness and Ingratitude to the Divine Goodness, than for the Chastisements they lye under; their Mourning and Complaining is but like that which God reproaches Israel for, Hos. 7.14. when he had sent a Famine upon them for their Dis­obedience, They have not cried unto me, says God, with their hearts, when they howled upon their beds: they assemble themselves [viz. to make Supplications to me in my House] for Corn and for Wine, i. e. they bewailed not their Sins, but their Wants; howled not like Penitents, but like Wolves; because their Bellies, not the Sense of their Sins, pinched them; they desired again their loaded Tables and full Cups, they found no miss of Justice, Righteousness, &c. The Burden of our Complaints must not be the Loss of our Plenty and Prosperity, of our Riches or our Honor, our Health or our Friends; but of the Loss of our Innocence and God's Favour; of the Smart we feel for our Guilt, not of our Punishment, if we will have them accepted by God, without the repre­hensive Interrogatory or Check in my Text, Where­fore doth a living man complain, a man for the Punish­ment of his Sins? And after all that has been said, Complaints, even the best of them, Prayers them­selves, are but Empty Words and Air without A­mendment [Page 402] of Life: and therefore in the second place, the Prophet recommends to us a Better Course to deliver us out of God's Displeasure, than Com­plaining, viz. To search and try our Ways, and turn again to the Lord. Which is my second General Part.

Let us search and try our Ways, and turn again to the Lord.

The Prophet's Advice comprehends in it two things: 1. Searching and Trying our Ways in or­der to Conversion. And, 2 ^dly, Conversion it self unto the Lord.

1. Investigation or searching out our Ways: which is a figurative or metaphorical Expression, ta­ken from the hunting of wild Beasts by the Track or Scent which they leave behind them, and implies, that our Sins many times lye hid from our selves, as well as others, and require Pains and Diligence to find them out. For as those Creatures, which are either profitable or hurtful to us, out of a Natural Instinct hide themselves from us in Holes and other fast and retired Places, till the skillful Huntsman dis­covers them by their Scent, their Slotts, their Brousings, and the like, and beats them up for the Chace: So those also that have committed Heinous Crimes, know that they are Obnoxious both to God and Man for the same, and use all possible Means to conceal them; and for their greater peace, not only from the Eyes of the World, but from themselves, i. e. from the reflections of their own memory and Conscience: insomuch, that when God awakens and affrights their secure and slumbering Souls with some loud and dreadful Judgment, they are utter Strangers [Page 403] to their Sins, and at as high a Loss to find them out as others; and are fain to use no less Diligence to discover them, than they did to conceal them; to serve themselves with the Huntsman's Art, to traverse and search by-ways to recover the secret Lairs of their Lust, the intricate perplex'd Windings of their Inju­stice, and to follow them by their Scent, as I may say, viz. the Scandal and Ill Fame they have left be­hind them; by their Tracks and wild Rangings, the Breaches made in God's Laws, and the injurious Marks yet remaining of them among men: and be­fore Amendment of Life, Peace with God and their own Consciences can be attained, they must thus hunt back on the Scent, and beat over again the same Ground, to retrieve the Knowledge of those Crimes which either their wicked Habits or Custom of Sin­ning made them pass over without regret or regard, or their wicked Craft industriously concealed. And this is that which the Prophet means, by searching out our ways.

And then [ the trying them] is much the same thing, being a Metaphor or Similitude borrowed from the Trade of the Gold-smith, who by the Touch-stone and Weights, Fire, and the Waters of Separation, and many laborious Operations, proves and distin­guishes false and adulterate Metals from true and sin­cere, light and counterfeit Coins from current and le­gitimate. For all Men are more or less Hypocrites, Coiners and Gilders of Brass and Copper, and Ut­terers of them for good Gold, i. e. Embasers of the pure Metal of God's Word, and Clippers of his Commandments, whenever their Reputation or In­terest are at Stake, and that there needs either an Ex­tenuation or Varnish for their Evil Actions; and there is no less need of the Gold-smith's or Chymist's [Page 404] Art, than of the Huntsman's; of the trying our ways, than of the hunting them out. And the same Scriptures which we have perverted and bowed to our Crooked Purposes, are the only Rule and Test by which we can straighten and set them right again; the only Waters of Separation, by which we can discover and discriminate the Allays and Corruptions of our Duties, from the pure and sincere Holiness which ought to have been in them, that can purge away the Dross of our Evasions, Palliations, Self-flatteries, and the like. To try Other mens Ways, as 'tis not so Ungrateful, so it seems not so hard a Task: we hear nothing of late more commonly cry'd in the Streets, than The Tryal of such a Priest, or such a Sectary; of such a Jesuite, or such a Trai­terous Schismatick; and what by the Sagacity of the Judge, the Uprightness of the Jury, and the False-Brothers among themselves, the Dange­rous Thoughts of many Hearts are revealed. But the great Difficulty is to find out a mans Own Ways: we are so much better Alchymists, than Christians; cunning Falsifyers, than honest Disclo­sers of our Actions; we so long hug our selves in our Iniquities, till, as the Psalmist says, our abominable Wickedness be found out, i. e. by God, or by some other, but we rarely discover it our selves; we may be deprehended, but we are seldom self-de­tected. All generally abominate and execrate the very Names of Sectary and Papist; but we are not so unkind to their Falsifications and Equivoca­tions, as to their Appellations and Denominations; we can give as large Dispensations and Allowan­ces to our selves in any Interested Point as they, though they contradict the express Word of God, and make that glorious Light a mere Ignis fatuus, [Page 405] a Will with the Wisp, and extinguish also the Candle of the Lord, that Inward Light of our Conscience which was kindled in our Soul at our first Creation, and in­stead of its Divine Instructions teach it new Lessons after the Mysteries of Hell and Iniquity. But these wicked Artifices must be laid aside, and Sincerity, Fidelity and Diligence used in the Ex­amination and Tryal of our Ways, before we can possibly turn to the Lord.

Which is the Second Particular I said was con­tained in the Prophet's Advice, and for the sake of which Duty the other of Searching and Trying our Ways was prescribed: for to search into our wick­ed Lives, and to call our pass'd Sins to remem­brance, if not in order to their Condemnation, and our Returning again to the Lord, must be to applaud them, and to delight our selves in a fanciful re-acting them over again, which is a greater Sin, if it be possible, than the first com­mitting them. And this Duty of Turning again to the Lord, is also express'd by a Metaphor, the so common Figure in Scripture, by a Similitude taken from such as go astray, and return again into the Right way: or that fly from their A­bode, and upon better thoughts return home a­gain. For there are Wanderers from their Duty, as well as from the Road or High-way; Fugi­tives from Vertue, as well as from their Houses and Country. Philo says of Adam and Eves fly­ing from God's presence after their Transgression, Every Sinner is a Fugitive: and the Psalmist calls those that break the Commandments, Wanderers out of the Right-way. God, in the Wisdom of his Counsel, made Some things without Himself the Centre or Resting-place of Inferior Creatures, as [Page 406] the Air for light Bodies, the Earth for heavy, &c. but he made Himself the only Center of Man's hap­piness, the only Resting-place of his Soul; and when ever Men are intic'd and led away with their Lusts to seek Content in any Worldly or Carnal Enjoy­ment, as they depart from God and turn their Backs upon him, so they depart from their Peace, and turn their Backs upon their Felicity; and till they follow the Prophet's Advice, Turn again to the Lord, they pursue only their Misery.

Now [ the turning] here spoken of being Figura­tive; not Corporal, but Spiritual; not local from place to place, but progressive from Vice to Vertue; the plain Importance of returning to the Lord, is Re­pentance, the forsaking our former wicked Cour­ses, and serving God for the future in Holiness of Life. And though the Words comprehend in their full Latitude the Whole Duty of Man, yet they may be reduc'd to these two short Precepts which we find in the fourth Chapter of S ^t James, ver. 8.— Cleanse your Hands ye Sinners, and purifie your Hearts ye double-minded. By our Hands the Apostle means our Outward Actions, our Hands being the ordinary Instruments by which they are wrought: and by our Hearts he denotes our Inward Affections, because from thence our Affections proceed. Now our Outward Actions must be Just and Honest, be­cause by them our Hearts are only made legible and intelligible to the World: and our Hearts again or Inward Affections must be pure and holy, because o­therwise 'tis as impossible that our Actions should be Just and Honest, as that a clear Stream should flow from a troubled and puddled Fountain: be­sides, God sees the Heart, though Man does not; and East and West will sooner meet, and make one [Page 407] Point in the Compass, than God will close with an Impure or Wicked Person. If we will enjoy an Uni­on with God, we must forsake our Sins, and not ex­pect that he should recede from his Righteousness; we must turn to him, or he will never turn to us: and all our Prosperity and Felicity depend upon our Early and Sincere Turning to the Lord: for as those that Dye in the Lord, have all Tears wip'd from their Eyes; so the Living Man that turns to the Lord, shall have all Tears wip'd from his Eyes, as the Prophet implies in my Text, i. e. his Complaints for the Punishment of his Sins taken away, nay his Punishment shall be turned into Blessings and Mer­cies by the God of Mercy. I shall add but a few Words of Application, and conclude.

We see here the highest Encouragement to excite us to Repentance and a Holy Life, no less than the removing all our Complaints, by the removing all our Evils; nay, than by turning our Evils into Bles­sings. Thanks be to God, we cannot parallel the E­vils of our days, with those of the Jewish Nation, which the Prophet here laments; we are not actual­ly reduced again, as some years since, to an Egyptian bondage, to work in Brick-kilns, by our bloudy and oppressing Dissenting Brethren. Thanks be to God, I say, the Calamity of our Israel is not such, that we should take up this Complaint, How is She become a Widow, She that was Great among the Nations, a Princess among the Provinces, how is She become tribu­tary? Among antient Roman Medals there is one with a disconsolate Figure, sitting on the Ground, with this Inscription, Britannia capta, Britain subdu'd: but I trust to the Divine Goodness, that the like Fate is far from us this day: though we were lately so near being Surpriz'd, and totally destroy'd by the [Page 408] Malice of our Bloudy Enemies, that what one said of a Dog's near seizing the Prey, might be apply'd to us— similisque tenenti, non tenet, we were so near being taken, that we were only not taken; and though we were not confounded, we seem'd to be: As might be gathered, as by other Evidences so, from the Letters of our ill-willing Neighbours, who, more solicitous for our Ruine, than charitable to warn us of our Danger, enquired only after the Manner and Measure of our Destruction, but doubt­ed not in the least of the Certainty of it. But though we were Miraculously snatch'd out of the Jaws of Ruine, are we now secure? so that the Reprehension in my Text may be retorted on us, Wherefore doth a living man complain? Some forward Heads and Branches of the late Conspiracy, I acknowledge, are cut off, or secured; but the Roots of it are still left in the Ground, and charily preserved and fostered by the Still-Designing Parties, and not a little cherished and assisted by many who pretend to be of a contra­ry Perswasion. This Age, which despises to go less in a Refined Way of working Mischief than any for­mer whatsoever, has fram'd an Engine, which would be thought to have been filed and polished by the very Hand of Charity, though it was forged in Hell, and that is, To disbelieve all that is said of any Plot and Conspiracy against the King, Church or State; insinuate, nay dare to publish in Print, That the Conspiracy, which makes such a Noise, is indeed on­ly against the Accused Party, either to destroy or to bring it low. Good and Gracious Souls! who can give the Lie to their King and Country to justifie Villains; make no scruple to rescue Traitors from the Bar, and to set the Judges in their place; to acquit Schismaticks and Regicides, and to arraign the whole [Page 409] Loyalty of the Realm. And with what reason, be­side their secret favouring of the Guilty? Forsooth, some of the Condemned Persons denied their Treason to the last Moment of their Life, and expired in Pro­testation of their Innocence. Their False Principles and Impious Tenets were their Innocence, and the Good Opinion they have of their Wicked Designs is all the Uprightness and Integrity they insist on. O foolish Galatians! says S ^t Paul, who has bewitched you? when the Christians among them Judaized. And we may say to those that countenance Sectaries and Schis­maticks among us, O insensati, O fautores! O mad and besotted Favourers of your greatest Enemies! who has fascinated, who has bewitched you? Are these indeed those truely Illuminated Persons they pretend to be, and are you your selves those Repro­bated People they call you, that you think the Terms easie to involve the Kingdom in Bloud and Ruine to be of their Number? This is no time to convince this Frenzy: but I instance in these Impor­tant and even Incumbent Evils to shew we are not without Just Causes of Complaint: and so little does the Nation want Complaints, that Complaints are one of the greatest Grievances we complain of, namely, the Complaints of those who at present have no power to do further Mischief, but with false Sur­mises and feigned Lamentations endeavour to fill the Unwary with Jealousies and Fears. Against all these Complaints the Prophet's Advice in my Text is a Sure Armour and Defence, If we turn unto the Lord by Repentance and holy Lives, he will turn our Dan­gers into Security, our Troubles into Peace and Prosperity, I laid me down and slept, says the Psalmist, and rose again, for the Lord sustained me. If we lye down, and repose our Trust in the Lord in well-doing, [Page 410] though there be Trayterous Cabals and Mid­night Conspiracies against us, our Sleeps shall be as Safe as Sweet: a false Brother or a Misgiving Con­science, a faint Heart or an Unwary Word let slip, shall betray all: Nay, Means most remote and un­likely, no way relating to the Design on foot, shall overthrow the whole Machination; a casual Fire shall drive the King into his Safety, and leave the Traytors in the Destruction they contrived against him, and the like. If we secure our Duty, God will secure our Peace and Safety. To whom be ascribed all Honour, Glory, &c.