A SERMON Preached before HIS MAJESTY on GOOD-FRIDAY at Whitehall, March 24. 1664/ 5. By J. DOLBEN, D. D. Dean of WESTMINSTER, and Clerk of the CLOSET. Published by His Majesty's special Command. London, Printed for Timothy Garthwait, 1665. Out of the Gospel. 19 Ch. St. JOHN, part of the 19 Verse. Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews. ALthough I am by my Place, and the honour usually vouchsafed me to appear here on Good Friday, a Preacher of ill Omen and abode, one engaged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to be Phalaris. Ep. α. an Evangelist of sad uncomfortable things: And you may expect from me at least a Tragical doleful representation of our Saviour's Crucifixion, That I shall call you to contemplate all the bloody stages of his conflict with Sin and Death, to meditate on the several aggravations of his sufferings, and consider if ever any sorrow were like unto his sorrow wherewith the Lord Lam. 1 12. afflicted him in the day of his fierce anger; And not show you those things as in a Scene or Landscape, but with a vehement astonishing Rhetoric, (such as the Subject will furnish to the meanest Orator) force and drive them home into your souls, recollect all the sad thoughts which have been fermenting in your breasts during the Lent past, and actuate them in one pungent amazing sorrow, able not only to fetch tears from your eyes, but even to repeat his Agonies and draw showers of Blood from every heart that is not more infidel than Judas or Pilate, more insensate than the earth itself, and harder than the rocks and stones about Jerusalem. Nay further yet, you may justly look that I should this day come up with a Discipline in my hand, turn all the whips and thorns and nails upon my Auditory; lance and wound your Consciences, by convincing you that yourselves have inflicted, and daily by your sins do inflict those pains which you bewail, act those Treasons which ye condemn and abhor, execute those inhuman Butcheries which you tremble at, are confounded and ready to die at their very apprehension. Though to do all this, and so make it your Passion day, as well as your Saviour's, would be most suitable to my office, and apposite to the business of our present meeting; Yet I have now chosen to put on another Person; Not to lament the shame and cruelties, but to Celebrate the Triumphs and Glory of Christ's Passion, to do Homage to the King of sufferings, and adore the Majesty of our Lord's abasement; Discovering to you, not only that the Contumelious addresses of Honour, the mock Purple, the counterfeit Sceptre, and the Bloody Diadem of Thorns, were, as St. chrysostom phraseth it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Mystical representations of a Chrys. Tom. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. real Kingdom, while they upbraided his vain affecting a false one; But that this whole Treatment, so entertained by Christ as it was, did directly signify and declare him to be Messiah, the King both of Jews and Gentiles, and that having already punctually fulfilled what the Prophets of old had spoken concerning his Birth and life, there remains now nothing to complete the Demonstration, but that he answer all the Types and Prophecies of his Death too, That the Captain Heb. 2. 10. of our salvation be made perfect by sufferings! Perfect in the whole latitude of the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 original word, consecrated and inaugurated upon the Altar and Throne of the Cross; while the soldiers are busily anointing him with the most Precious ointment which the world ever saw, his own inestimable Blood, and Pilate becomes both his Herald and his Champion, proclaiming him with defiance to his enemies, King of the Jews. THat his Title may appear good, and well cleared and justified by this procedure, I will set it forth, 2. By opening to you what this Magnificent Style, King of the Jews, imports; what Royalty and Dominion was by God designed to Messiah, challenged and exercised by our Saviour Christ. 2. Show you that this shameful, cruel Death did apply all that honour and power to Jesus of Nazareth, demonstrated him to be the very person promised by God, represented by Types, described by Prophecies, expected by the whole Nation of the Jews, under the Names of Shilo, the coming King, Messiah the Prince. THe First Part of my Text is to declare the Nature of Christ's Kingdom. And this we are therefore concerned carefully to examine; because from their mistaking this, fancying a temporal, in stead of a spiritual Messiah, arose the Fundamental Error of the Jews, and all their prejudice against Christ: That God would one day raise up unto them out of their Deut. 18. 15 Brethren, a Prophet like and superior to Moses; a Prince whose Dominion should extend from one Sea to the other, to whose Sceptre the Kings of the Earth Psal. 72. 8. 9, 10, 11. should submit their Majesty: They were at all times so confident, that this conceit made them triumph in the midst of their Captivities; Despise, and in their own thoughts reign over their Masters and Conquerors; nay, even yet, after so many Defeats of their desires, so long and dreadful Desolation, makes them threaten and design to ruin all Kingdoms where they are dispersed. That about the time of our Saviour's Incarnation, this Great Person should discover himself, their solicitous examining the Records of Scripture had assured them; they had computed diligently the Periods of daniel's Chronology, compared all coincidences of Affairs which answered his Predictions; and from thence settled in themselves a seeming pregnant hope, and spread even among the Gentiles an expectation of a mighty and happy Prince now to arise in Judea, Cic. de Divinatione. l. 2. circa med. Virgil. Eclog 4 Sueton. in Vespesiano Tacit, Histor. l. 5. who should Govern the World. This alarmed Herod's Jealousy at the arrival of the Magis: And this Tradition helped to interpret unto those wise men the portent of that New Star, which their skill in Astronomy had made them observe. This made the Jews take fire on every little occasion, run into war at the call of every Rascal that was bold and Sueton. ubi supra Joseph. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, l. 6. c. 31. wicked enough to head their Rebellions: And therefore it was no wonder, when the Fame of Christ's Miracles reported him a man like to answer the largest of their wishes, that they flocked about him with importunate Eagerness: Nor was it the light and giddy multitude alone that fixed their hopes on him; even the most sage and cautious of their Rulers had a vehement surmise that he should redeem Israel. But when he opened himself fully, preaching only Innocence, Obedience, Poverty of Spirit, Contempt of worldly Advantages, and embracing Affliction; When he lived poor, and conversed with them that were so; declined respect and honour, and refused the offer of a Kingdom: When in stead of freeing his Country from Roman Tributes and Exactions, he determined in favour of Caesar's right, and was so far from undertaking a war to deliver himself or others from oppressing Power, that he instructs his Scholars to offer their left Cheek to him that should strike them on the right, and make no other return to their most injurious persecuters beside blessings and prayers; these were so contrary to the Jews Hypothesis, so disagreeing with that Idea and Fancy which they had cherished, of a fight, conquering, triumphing Messiah; Poverty was so unlike to raise and pay Armies; Meekness so unfit to rout Legions; Patience so unable to break the yoke of Servitude, to shake and subvert the Roman Empire; that their defeated Hope turns to Scorn, their Kindness to Rage and Cruelty: And because Jesus will not be their Captain, he must be their Martyr, and suffer for their seditious Thoughts and Designs, because he will not act them. You see what Scribes and Pharisees mean by King of the Jews; and therein, how ill Interpreters Carnality and Self-love are of the Mind of God; how little room souls full of the world have for the entertainment of spiritual Benefits; how hard it is for men whose Affections are riverted to the Earth, to raise themselves up to heavenly contemplations. Should I let myself lose to enumerate all the absurd and monstrous Dreams, the contradictions and impossibilities which the Jews embrace; how they confound all the Principles and Rules of humane understanding, jumble and invert the Series of times and actions, and disturb the whole frame of Nature; merely that they may force themselves to apprehend in the Shell and Outside of a Prophecy, Flesh in stead of Spirit, Earth in stead of Heaven, a filthy robbing Barchocab, a murdering Villain and Boutefeu, rather than a Jesus, Prince of Peace and Life; you would extremely pity such miserable Delusions, and say, their Fathers, who longed for Leeks and Onions, but loathed Mannah; wished to return to slavery and making Brick in Egypt, rather than enjoy the delights and plenty of Canaan, had appetites far less corrupt, wills less debauched than they. But to our business. 'Tis most true, all great things are said of Messiah in the Psalms and Books of the Prophets; and they generally expressed under the Symbols of earthly power and happiness: But that was God's way of dealing with the Jews. They were a fleshly People, and God bred them under a suitable fleshly Oeconomy, drew them on to his service like children with entertainments agreeable to their infirmity; That they might grow up under the Pupillage and imperfect institution of the Law, and by its Carnal Ordinances and Rewards, as by the art of a Schoolmaster, be made fit for and led unto Christ. Consider, I pray you, that no man apprehends any thing he knows not, but by analogy and likeness to somewhat that he already understands (of which we have a ready vulgar instance in the impossibility of making a Negro of Guinee, or even a Native of our own Barbados, conceive what frost or snow can be, till he hath seen a winter in England) and you will presently discern how necessary it was that God should represent to Jews, who thought of no happiness beyond a perpetual affluence of plenty in Canaan, those infinitely greater, but spiritual Blessings which he designed them in his Son, under the figure and shadow of such things as they were affected with. St. CHRISOSTOME says well and judiciously, That had the spirituality of Christ's office been plainly and nakedly declared by Tom. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. per totum. the Prophets, none of the Jews would once have thought on him before his coming, or regarded him when he came. And therefore though all the other Prophecies were so delivered as to be clear and intelligible to those who received them; yet, such as concern Messiah had a vail and shadow of earthly things drawn over them, that the people might not be dazzled and confounded with too much brightness and glory; but approach cheerfully, and comprehend by degrees that Mystery which they contained, being alured and engaged to taste and like its spiritual Divine intention by a Preparatory relish and pregustation of Carnal Promises. All which we find distinctly exemplified in the carriage and temper of Christ's own twelve chosen Disciples. To the same purpose, though on another occasion discourseth Maimonides himself, assigning this for the reason why God prescribed by Moses such an outward and fleshly way of worship to the Jews, Because, saith he, that people who had seen the Egyptians and all other Nations adore their Idols with sacrifices continually More Nevochim Par. 3 c. 3● smoking upon their Altars, consecrating themselves and their oblations with blood, wine, salt, and perfumes, and other sensible rites, were not then capable of a mental internal Religion, could not suddenly be brought to leap from one contrary to another and apprehend how to serve God only in spirit and truth; And therefore it was sufficient for that time, to draw them from those false and ridiculous Deities, from offering one Beast to another, from burning incense before a Cat or Crocodile; and engage them to worship the one true God, though in a fashion not unlike that which they observed the Heathen to use toward their Abominations. Which assertion as it expressly avows what I now insist on, The necessity of Gods condescending to speak to the Jews in such a Dialect as they would understand, and propose sublime and heavenly notions in terms suitable to their low thoughts; as we see those curious men who establish a kind of discourse and correspondence with Birds, are forced to whistle and chirp like them: so does it, by the way, give us the confession of that learned Rabbi, That the whole carnal Oeconomy of the Law was in God's original intendment temporary, not designed to continue always, being but an imperfect rudiment, attempered to their present infirmity; A rough draught of a more excellent reasonable service, Perfective of humane Nature, Worthy of God, and apt to elevate the soul, and bring it near to him that should be revealed in the fullness of time, or, as the Jews sometimes speak, in the days and Kingdom of Messiah; which observation will go a great way towards the determining the main controversy between us and them. Nevertheless, this veil upon the face of Moses was not so dark, the cloud which covered the Mystery of Christ's spiritual Kingdom was not so thick and impenetrable, but that considering discerning men might have seen through it, had there not been another vail and cloud upon their hearts, had they not loved that too much which lay nearest to their senses: For ISAIAH brings in Christ with the Spirit of the Isaiah 61. 1. Luke 4. 18 19 7 22. John 7. 49 Lord upon him, Anointing him, i. e. making him his Messiah, to the end that he might preach the Gospel to the poor, whom Scribes and Pharisees thought unworthy, profane, and such as it would be a kind of sacrilege to cast away their Doctrine upon; To heal the brokenhearted, not to add affliction and vengeance to their grief; to preach deliverance to the Captives, not to enslave and destroy all Nations of the world, as the Jews expect; to restore the blind their sight, and set at liberty those that are bruised; illustrating their souls with Divine light and Graces, redeem the contrite from the pressures of sin, and the bondage of Satan, and proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord, the perpetual Jubilee of lasting eternal comfort to the poor that hear his voice. DANIEL describes him, making Dan. 9 24. reconciliation for iniquity, and introducing everlasting righteousness. JOEL (as he is cited by St. Joel 2. 28. Peter, and his prophecy applied to the times of the Gospel, Acts 2.) promises, that in his time God's Spirit shall be poured out upon all flesh; and the gift of Prophecy and Vision (which had ceased ever since the Captivity) bestowed upon all ages, sexes and conditions. MICAH sets out Messiah extirpating Micah 4. Idolatry, and bringing in the Heathen to serve the true God. And that his spiritual Dominion might be complete and absolute, MALACHI represents him reforming and purifying the Jewish worship; Coming as a refiners fire to purge the son's of Levi as Gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering of righteousness. Sure all these are more than earthly actions, Offices designed to some higher purpose than filling the Jews Basket, and increasing the milk and honey of Canaan. And therefore it would be much more commodious for the Jews, to embrace the spiritual sense of other Prophecies which fall in naturally and sweetly with these that I have mentioned, and all together present us a coherent beautiful prospect of Messiah's Kingdom, then to make him fight with himself as fiercely as with Gog and Magog, set one part of his Character to contradict and destroy the other, and all of it to oppose the mind of God, and that great end for which he designed and promised to send Christ into the world. How much more Rational as well as more Pious is it, to acknowledge, That God may be as good as his word, when he is extremely better? perform his Promises most graciously, by giving things infinitely more valuable than the letter of his undertaking imports; in stead of Corn and Wine and Oil, consigning to us an assurance of competent provision for our bodily needs, and therewith a fullness of Content, and Heaven into the bargain? then to depend upon impossible events, and brutish expectations; such as make the Paradise of Mahomet seem a sober and severe refectory; and the most prodigious Fables of Heathen Poetry, modest and probable Inventions: Unworthily to disparage the Goodness of God, by supposing that he hath no greater Blessings even in this life, for men whom he hath inspired with Rational Divine Souls, on whom he hath stamped the signature of his own Image; then such low sensual satisfactions as are enjoyed equally, perhaps with more gust, by the Beasts which perish: no better treatment for his own Elect precious People, whom he vouchsafed to teach and govern by his immediate Word and Power, than what he scatters without distinction among the Heathen who have not heard of his Name? To abase and undervalue his Wisdom by imagining that it hath found no more efficacious methods to advance that Righteousness which David and the other Prophets so highly celebrate in their descriptions of Messiah's Government, than the allurements of earthly Prosperity, which we know by many notorious examples of the Jews, and (God wot) by a nearer experiment in ourselves, are more apt to produce contrary effects, to make men grow wanton when they are full and fat, Kick and Rebel against God in the strength of his benefits. How gloriously are the Predictions of Messiah's Victories and Triumphs fulfilled in Christ's conquering Sin and Death, subduing and captivating the powers of Hell? and how unworthy is it of his greatness, to bring him into the world only to avenge the Jews of their enemies, which Shamgar with an Ox-goad, Samson with an Ass' jaw, Gideon by a stratagem of Trumpets and broken Pitchers, nay Deborah by her feminine conduct, with the help of Jaels' nail and hammer, might have performed as successfully as he? How repugnant is it to that meekness and beneficence which the Scriptures attribute to him, His coming down like rain into a fleece of wool, and as the still and Psal. 72 8. fattening drops which water the ground, his deliverng the poor when they cry, pitying, preserving the helpless; to set him out with a Commission like a Turkish or Tartarian General to harasse and Ubi solitudinem saciunt pacem appellant: Tacit, in vita Agricolae. Ysaiah 35. 9 Depopulate the Earth; establishing peace, as our Countryman Galeacus in Tacitus says the Romans did in his time, by Vastation and ruin; taking away Lions and Bears from Jerusalem, and becoming himself more devouring and savage than all the beasts of the wilderness; Making all nations blessed through him, only by vexing, afflicting and destroying all the nations of the World? I might run through the several other footsteps of Messiahs' Kingdom extant in the Old Testament, and show how eminently, and with how much harmony and consent they are verified in a spiritual sense, and what impossibilities, how many unworthy and vile consequences lie in bar against those absurd interpretations which the Jews catch from the outward sound of the letter, or rather from their own prejudice and Carnality. But the time will not allow me so large a course, nor does the Case need it. For after all their Tergiversations, all the shameful discomfitures of their Nation in which obstinacy can engage them; They must be forced to acknowledge with us, that there is somewhat more than earthly greatness and felicity intended in these things, or else confess of themselves what the Socinians unkindly impute to their Fathers, that they have no hope or grounded belief of Heaven at all, because they will easily grant, that among all the Revelations recorded in the Books of their Canon, nothing looks so far, or so directly towards Heaven, as do the Prophecies and Descriptions of Messiah and his Kingdom. And therefore now, in stead of disputing any longer against their Cavils, it will be great Charity, to assert and make out this Truth for them: And that I will do from the mouth of their Father Jacob, who prophesies thus; The Sceptre shall not depart from Gen. 49. 10. Judah, nor a Lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh See Mr. M de discourse 8. come, and to him the gathering or obedience of the Nations, i. e. till Shiloh come, and the Nations be gathered to obey him: So, in perfect accordance with the Original, a learned and happy Critic of our Nation understands the Text. Now we all see, that the Sceptre is many Ages since departed from Judah; they have not for almost 1600 years been so much as a People, but scattered, proscribed Vagabonds, driven like Chaff before the Wind over the face of the Earth. So that if Shiloh be not come already, he never can come, the positive precise limitation of his time being evidently passed at the Dissolution of the Jewish State. But then, if you recollect when that dissolution happened, that Titus destroyed their Temple-service and Commonwealth, just when the Nations were gathered to the obedience of Christ, when the Gentiles began to receive the Gospel at the preaching of his Apostles; You will believe that old Jacob was vouchsafed on his Deathbed a sight and revelation of Christ's Spiritual Dominion, and died in that hope; Promising to Judah, (now the head of his Family) That some face of Government should always be preserved among the Children of Israel (as there was in their greatest distresses) until Shilo, Judah's son after the flesh, should begin to reign spiritually in the hearts of Men, till both Jew and Gentile should submit to his Sceptre of righteousness, and be governed by the Divine Laws of his heavenly Discipline. By this prime fundamental Prophecy, you see the purport of all the rest; For nothing can be more expressly foretold then is Christ's Spiritual Kingdom in these words; Nor was ever the event of any Prophecy so signalised. A Nation chosen by God from the Mass of mankind, a solemn way of worship invented and prescribed by himself, both destroyed utterly, to proclaim and perpetuate the memory of its completion, and assure us that Gods Temporal favours in Canaan were but Types and shadows, the substance whereof is Christ, and therefore they ought of their own nature to vanish and disappear, when he brought in the solid eternal blessings of his heavenly Kingdom, which they prefigured. So that I shall not need now to add any more upon this head unless it be to give you a short, but real view of that Kingdom in Christ's own exercise and administration of it. Look therefore into his Sermon on the Mount (I had rather you should find it in your hearts then in your Books) where you shall discover a Perpetual Edict of that Law by which Christ will govern his Kingdom, and a Scheme of that Policy whereby it must subsist. A Divine Law, and a Policy all spirit. Had a Solon or Lycurgus been to lay the Plot and groundwork of a Commonwealth, you should have seen an institution apt to make their Citizens Rich, Politic and fierce, successful troublers of the World. Had Machiavelli been the Contriver, he would have recommended Craft, Jealousy profound dissimulation, crooked Arts of Deceit and Circumvention; advanced Ambition, Avarice, Rapine and Bloodshed, the virtues of the Iron age, and the accomplishments of Caesar Borgia. These are the methods by which worldly Greatness is usually acquired and maintained. But Christ found'st his Kingdom on nobler Principles, because its interests are of a sublimer Nature. And therefore here, instead of anxious cares and fears, the solicitous plots and contrivances which carnal men set up as a Counter-Providence of their own, to check and control that wisdom which governs and sustains the World; We are taught, by retrenching and mortifying our desires, to need little, and to be sure of what we want by ask it of God; And be happy, whether we obtain our petitions or no, by our unconcernednesse for these outward things; Depending securely on that goodness which suffers not a Sparrow to be unprovided for, nor a flower of the field to lack that nourishment and those influences which are requisite to maintain its verdure. In stead of that Ambition which makes men climb till they grow giddy, and most an end like Falcons lessen as they mount; We are directed how to find Honour in the Dust, in that Humility which makes us like the coequal Son of God. Instead of Fraud, Lying, Hypocrisy, which use to be called Cunning, but are fripperies of folly (for sure he that wants not wit hath no need to be a knave) Christians are showed a straighter way to their ends, by the rule of strict severe justice, with honest upright intentions, ingenuous open single hearts. Thus Christ builds his new and holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, according Revel. 21 11, 12 Isa. 54, 11, 12. to St John's description, and the elder design of Isaiah, with Crystal, Saphires, and Carbuncles, where every part is transparent and seen through by its own light; That which is all beauty, needs hide nothing, and when its brightness ought to illustrate others, must shine out; 'twas only sin made nakedness inconvenient and shameful, and that innocence which Christ designed to retrieve, takes away the fig-leaves from before our minds as well as bodies, introducing a simplicity which fears not Momus his window and privy light into our souls; A charity, apt to keep out Breasts always open, ready to receive and cherish our Brethren. In the place of false perficlious friendships, those kindnesses which are but properties, and baits for Treachery; Christ advanceth a real affectionate amity and good will even to enemies, whose Evil we are commanded to overcome with our good, being taught a new skill, by heaping our Love like Coals of fire upon their heads, to subdue their most obstinate hardness, and melt them down into the same Mass of Christian charity with ourselves: And that no pretence be left of hating any person under the notion of enmity, the very name of Enemy, and of Stranger, is for ever banished the World; The partition wall of Jewish uncharitableness razed and demolished, and every man become brother to every man. Indeed no body can properly be an enemy to a Christian, because he cannot truly hurt him, unless the Christians own sin give a sting and venom to the others malice. For what can the supposed enemy do? He can make me Poor; Christ made himself so, and if I be Poor in spirit too, that conformity to my Saviour gives me a Title to his * Kingdom, where all my real solid Muc. 5. 3. Concernments are. He can make me Mourn, 4. and then I shall be comforted. He can soften my meekness by oppression and tyranny, and that gives me an inheritance in the Earth. He can do me wrong, 5. and thereby need my Pardon, and offer me an occasion of being Merciful, which shall secure me the Mercy that I need infinitely more. He can 7. put me to those fiery Trials which may refine and burnish my Purity, and so make me more 8. fit to see God. He can take away my life, and so send me sooner to Heaven; give me an earlier entrance into that Region of Eternal Bliss, for which the previous temporary Paradise of Christ's Spiritual Kingdom on earth is designed to prepare me. I must not insist on all the parts of this Divine Sermon: In a word therefore, that one Golden Rule of Doing as we would be done by; not only abstaining from offering such injuries as we are unwilling to suffer, but doing all the good to the Bodies and Souls of our Neighbours, which we desire to receive from God or Man; This short, but comprehensive Precept, which wise Heathens have admired, and almost Deified, would at once do all the great things which the Prophets have in so many Allegories and Hyperboles ascribed to Messiah; this would beat Swords into Ploughshares, and Spears into Pruning-hooks; this would bring the Wolf and the Lamb Isai. 2. 4. to feed quietly together, and make the Lion eat straw with Isai. 65 25. the Bullock: Not by changing the nature of those Animals, as the Jews fond imagine, and teaching Wolves to graze, or Lions to pull their fooder from a Rack: But by taming our ravenous appetites, cicurating our fierceness and rage, those savage Beasts within us, and introducing such a sweetness into the souls of men, as that Innocence may dwell more safely in the Arms of Power, and Strength be no longer a Terror, but a Support and Guard to impotent Weakness, while every Christian is a Protector, a Tutelar Angel and God to his Brother. You may now be sure, Christ's Kingdom is not of this World, which is in every instance so contrary to it; (I wish the same unlikeness were not too observable among his professed Subjects, who allow, but follow not his Rule;) and Pilate had reason enough to rest secure, that Jesus, though he asserted himself to be King, could on these terms be no dangerous Rival or Competitor with Tiberius; such a Kingdom might bless and prosper Caesar's Government, could not impeach his Power or diminish his Greatness. It must now seem very strange, after Christ hath so expressly renounced all claim to Temporal Authority, convinced the Jews and Romans, that his Kingdom is not of this World, if any Christians can be so bold as under him, and in his Name, to assume the Government of the World. It must be matter of deepest astonishment to those who believe our Saviour spoke truly when he told his Apostles, The Disciple Matth. 10 24. is not above his Master, nor the Servant greater than his Lord; that any Person, as Vicar to Jesus of Nazareth (who refused to arbitrate between contending Luk 12 13, 14. Brethren, had himself no house where to lay his 9 58. head, and admitted men into the condition of his Subjects upon the terms of forsaking all worldly interests) should pretend to dispose of Crowns and 14 33. Sceptres, aver that by Him Kings reign, that He can pull down one, and set up another, and do it too when their weakness or misfortune gives him opportunity. Pilate would have been very jealous of such a Spiritual Prince, though the Jews perhaps would have liked him well; for he looks more like a Lieutenant of their Messiah, than a Deputy and Apostle, of our Christ, who treads on the necks of Caesar's, and without a figure makes his enemies Frederic. I. Imp. Pap. Alexand. 3 lick the Dust. Had the Apostles themselves owned such a Commission, Christianity had never taken root in the World: Haddit St. Peter declared, that all Power in Heaven and Earth was given to him by Terreni simul & coelestis Imperii jus. Extr. Job. de major. & obed. c. si●r●trum. God, he had been crucified with his heels upwards, not by the choice of his own Humility, but for a suitable punishment of his inverting the Doctrine of Christ, and turning the Gospel and the World itself up-side-down. Had Heathen Princes been Acts 17. 6. alarmed at first with this pretence; told, that while They and their People remained Infidels, a Christian Bishop might give away their Country to any one that should convert them by the Sword, (the old Greek pretence, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) and if they embraced the Faith, and yet happened to err in any point of it, they should be deposable at his pleasure; that by professing Christianity, they should Extr. de major. & obed. c. solitar acknowledge to hold their Power and Dignity at the beck and good liking of their Pastor, from Extr. Com. tit. cod. Vnam Sanctam, per tot. whom, as the greater Luminary, they must derive all their saint influences and borrowed light, he alone having right to institute earthly Powers, to judge all, and be judged of none, and therefore must in all things be obeyed, even of Princes, at the peril of their souls: Do you think the Roman Emperors, or the Monarches of the East, would have been brought in to Christ's fold by these harsh invitations, this rough voice of the Shepherd? Would such a Doctrine have placed the Cross on the Crowns of Kings, made them Nursing Fathers to the Church? I doubt it would rather have exasperated their fury, sharpened their persecutions, and made cruelty itself seem just and necessary, a provident endeavour to destroy Christianity in its first conception, as a Viper which was like to tear out the bowels of its Mother. I know I am not wise enough to interpret the Revelation, nor am I bold enough to affix hard names without certain grounds. But we have some, who frankly enough call the Pope Antichrist, sounding out that name with all the force of their lungs, (which is great;) and yet (if it be not ill manners to make comparison between so high pretenders) themselves deserve that Title as well as he, and upon the same Reason: For whoever advanceth in Christendom an Interest so directly contrary to that of Christ, is an Anti- or Counter-Christ. You know who they are which talk so much of advancing Christ's Sceptre, and the Rod of his Power: but you know likewise (by woeful experience) that all this is only that it might become a Rod in their hands to eat up all other Rods, and be the greater Serpent when it hath done so. Beside, there is among us a Pestilent Devilish Sect, which we call the Fifth Monarchy, but should call it the Sixth or Seventh, for the Papacy and Presbytery come both in before it; These expect just such a Temporal fleshly Kingdom as the Jews talk of, urge all the same Texts, interpret them out of their Books, and would bring in the Dominion they aspire to, like them, with Blood, Confusion and Ruin, make Christ reign among Thiefs and Murderers; And as the former Temporalists would place Christ on his Throne, that themselves may sit on his right hand and on his left, so these cry up King Jesus, only for a stale and property to serve their design of binding the hands and eating the flesh of other Kings, that the sheep may tear and devour the VVolves. But most certainly, were he now once more upon earth in the same lowly guise as before, Preaching the same spiritual Doctrines, advancing the same heavenly Kingdom, they would persecute and crucify him again as the Jews did, for defeating their Carnal hopes and Designs. I have been the longer in clearing and asserting the spirituality of Christ's Kingdom, because in effect it concludes the whole Question, and therefore I may make you amends by shortening the other remaining part of my discourse. For seeing Christ had no interest or authority in earthly things; Seeing his Empire and Dominion was not to consist in Temporal Power and Greatness, but in the establishing such a Rule in the hearts of his subjects, as might make them fit to reign with him in another world: 'Twill be no wonder, if he suffered unkindness in a strange enemy's Country, was advanced by Death and the steps of his Cross to be crowned with glory Heb. 2. 9, 10. Rev. 3. 21. and honour, to sit on the Throne of God in the full enjoyment and administration of his Kingdom in Heaven, the reward and purchase of his sufferings. Had I time, I might easily show the great fitness and infinite wisdom of this Method; but by God's goodness and the King's favour I may have another opportunity for that. My present undertaking obligeth me no further then to evidence the design of God, expressed by Types and Prophecies that Christ should thus suffer, and so enter into his glory: My other Part. FIrst, for Types: And concerning them, I will freely yield all that can be demanded. That they are illustrations rather than Proofs; fit to open men's apprehensions, to refresh and strengthen their memories, and confirm the Faith of Believers: But not able to convince, and enforce the assent of a pertinacious Gain-sayer, who admits no part of our assertion. Yet with Jews (the great Masters of Allegories) who acknowledge (unless when their hatred to Christ compels them to renounce all ingenuity) a great part of the Mosaical dispensation to have been symbolical, and doubt not, but that God did declare his mind by ut vocibus Ita robus Prophetatum. Real as well as verbal. Prophecies; foreshow future events by Persons, Offices, Rites, and actions, as well as foretell them by Words; these things must be of great weight and consideration. Non minùs Parabolis operato Deo quam locuto. Tertull. I de Resurrec. carn. For which Reason the Primitive Fathers, though they use other Topiques against Heathen disputers, and in the main controversy with the Jews, insist (as the Apostles did before them) upon the irrefragable arguments of Christ's miracles and resurrection, yet they refel their little exceptions against the circumstances of his outward condition both in life and death, by instances of these prefigurations recorded in the Old Testament, indulging sometimes to zeal and fancy, successfully and artificially enough, considering whom they dealt with; but more freely than will become me in this Philosophical age. The use I mean to make of such adumbrations I hope shall not be blamed by the most rigorous Demonstrators. For I pretend to assume no more, then that those Persons who in the substance of their Character were apparently Types of Messiah, may be understood in all the most conspicuous Tracts and lineaments of that character, the remarkable accidents of their lives, and famous Circumstances of their Conditions, to represent him too: That those Offices, Actions and Rites, which must be observed to have many things in them very notable, of which no other account can rationally be given, than a meaning to adumbrate somewhat more noble in fullness of time to be revealed, may not be thought, now that the substance appeareth to answer and own its shadows; The Antitype, applieth and interpreteth its foregoing Types, inconveniently referred by me to that Purpose. If the most illustrious Heroes under the Law attained not their dignity and exaltation, approved not not their Virtue and Zeal for God, but by passing a sharp trial and discipline of afflictions; it canbe thought unreasonable, that Christ also should be consummated by an answerable method of sufferings, if it diminish not the excellency of Patriarches and Prophets, that they were hardly treated by men very unlike them; were no argument of God's disfavour, that he seemed to sleep, neglecting and leaving them unregarded in those pressures and difficulties; but rather a comfortable presumption that he had better things in store for them, reserved to their proper season, whereby he meant abundantly to make good with advantage all his gracious Promises; why should we prescribe God other Laws in a Parallel Case? Shorten his arm, and shrink up the nerves of his power, suspect his goodness, and circumscribe his wisdom by our narrow conceits, which before we allowed to operate by its own rule; judging Christ to be forsaken by his Father, because he is exposed to endure the contradiction of sinners, and rather appointed to triumph over, then be delivered from the petulant injuries of unreasonable and wicked men? Whereas it is much more rational, that seeing a series of correspondent effects and Productions, we should acknowledge the same hand-working in all, the same Providence pursuing one uniform design, perfecting and accomplishing in the Person of Messiah, what it began to form and shape out by degrees in those models and ruder Draughts (literally those Types) which were exhibited from time to Divinarum virium lineamenta. Tertull. ubi supra. time under the Law. To name some few by way of instance. Recollect, I pray you, that ABRAHAM, when God promised him the inheritance of Canaan, and a Descendent from his loins in whom all Nations should be blessed; was (as it were) in the same breath commanded to get out of his Country, to forsake his Kindred and his Father's house, to conflict Gen. 12. 1, 2, 3. with difficulties and dangers in his wand'ring life, and not permitted (otherwise then as a journeying, fleeting stranger and Pilgrim) to take a view and taste of the Promised Land, and at last dies, expecting with a very distant hope, the accomplishment of that Promise, which he obtained not: And then you will not wonder, if Christ, in whom this and all other Promises of God are Yea and Amen, performed the principal sublimest part of it, made all Nations blessed, by being himself a stranger among Psal. 69. 8. his Brethren, an alien unto his mother's children, who gave him a courser reception than Abraham met at Egypt or in Gerar. ISAAC, the first pledge of this promised blessing, was derided and grieved by Ishmael as soon as he was capable of feeling such injuries, in which respect he is brought by St. Paul as an example of the Spirit persecuted by the Flesh, Psal. 4 29. and did prefigure the scorns and contumelies which Christ suffered from his Brethren: Then devoted and given up to Death by his Father, lies a destined Sacrifice upon the Altar; and when the Knife is at his throat, redeemed by substitution of a Ram, to show that the offering of the Blessed Seed was yet to be suspended, and Beasts for a time accepted as a Pledge of that expiation which he should one day make. Thus did Isaac, in whose loins Christ then was, represent and personate beforehand the entire Mystery of his Passion, and (which is not unworthy of note) in the very Place where afterwards it was to be acted. How punctually did JOSEPH, being sold for a bondslave, suffering a Martyrdom for Virtue, and then rising from his Chains, and the stench of a loathsome Dungeon, to be a Saviour to Egypt, and to jacob's Family, set forth the Persecutions, Innocence, Exaltation of Christ, and the Salvation which by all these he wrought out for the whole Israel of God? Was Messiah to be like unto MOSES? Then 'tis Deut. 18. 15. most fit, by an early persecution as soon as he was born, being cast out to one Danger and Death for the avoiding another, by the unkindness and treachery of those whom he came to save; the threats, and hard dealings from Pharaoh, and the long and manifold grievings of his meek soul by his perverse Countrymen whom he had brought out of slavery; He should leave behind him a Copy and Pattern which Christ must transcribe, and be equal to Moses in every part of his laborious troublesome life, as well as transcend him in Wisdom, Power, and the incomparable Deliverance and Salvation whereof the achievements of Moses were but a weak imperfect shadow. Does Ezekiel four or five times call Christ, DAVID, prophesying, that he Ezek. 34, 23, 24. & 37. 24, 25. shall be an Eternal Prince over God's People, feed and guide them in the ways of his Judgements and Statutes? Then (beside that this description of Christ's Government infers the spiritual ends and purposes of his Dominion) we are assured by God himself, that DAVID was a Type of Christ; and indeed he was a lively and exact one; In him we have a concurrent adumbration of all Christ's Offices: The Authority of a King; the Spirit and Illumination of a Prophet; and (though not the Function of a Priest, yet) the Holiness and Devotion, the Care and Zeal for God's service, belonging to that Function: Nothing could better represent our King of the Jews in the form of a Servant, than David; a King chosen by God, and anointed by his appointment, yet living without power in the time of Saul. Nor could any thing foreshow the ill treatment which our Lord found in the days of his humiliation at their hands, whom he delivered from more dreadful enemies than Philistines and Giants of Gath; like those disgraces, oppressions and persecutions which David endured from Saul, whose Battles he had fought. As his victories over the enemies of Israel, were Types of Christ's subduing the powers of darkness; His Reigning over the People of God, an emblem of Christ his Sons spiritual dominion in the hearts of the Faithful, in which sense only David's house became sure, and his Kingdom perpetual: So were the cruelties of Saul, the treachery of Doeg, and Achitophel, the railing and curses of Shimei, and the unnatural rebellion of Absalon, only so many prelusions to Herod's early attempts on Christ's life, the slanders, blasphemies, malicious designs, and bloody Prosecutions of the Jews, the treason of Judas, and the pernicious wisdom of Caiaphas. Nothing more can be added to make the resemblance complete, but this, that David was a person most dear to God, as being a man after his own heart, received the amplest testimonies and assurances of God's favour, the most gracious Promises and Pledges of his lasting sure Mercies; Yet no man more severely chastised by his afflicting hand: Which makes it a less wonder, that God for the great ends of Mercy designed by that method, should give up the Son of his love, in whom he declared himself by a voice from heaven to be delighted and well pleased, into the hands of evil men: And for a compliment of his sufferings, pour his own wrath, due to our sins, like fire into his bones. This whole Parallel is by David so fully set forth in very many places of Lam. 13. the PSALMS, that the most acute interpreters are often put to great difficulties, how to distinguish the persons, and assign when the Prophet speaks of himself, and when of our Saviour; and indeed P. 2. 22 40 69. nothing can safely be resolved, but that both are intended; the two cases being so much one, that the same words most fitly express them. I hope you will forgive me the insisting so long upon this famous Type of our Saviour's sufferings. I will name no more, though it be evident that the best and most renowned men of all Ranks, and particularly the PROPHETS (who sure had as good right to God's Temporal promises as any other Jews) were vexed, tormented, imprisoned, banished, slain, to leave a cloud of witnesses attesting this Truth, that as Christ exceeded them all infinitely in the excellency of his Person and Dignity of his Office, so he was to outgo them only in the degrees of his afflictions, that the merit of his sufferings might be of greater value, as being intended to higher purposes. Nor will I trouble you after all this with the many Typical Rites and Actions observed very pertinently by others; though some of them do not only adumbrate Christ's sufferings in general, but point particularly at his Crucifixion. As ISAAC ' s carrying the wood whereon he was to lie, which in the Antitype is fairly answered by Christ's carrying his cross; The crucified saving Brazen serpent, giving health to all that looked up in Faith to it, besides a fit declaration and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (in St. Chrysostom's expression) of Christ's curing the deadly fiery bitings of the old Serpent by virtue of his death, represented in that figure; gives us a further advantageous instance against the Jews, that every thing is not accursed which hangeth on a Tree. And St. John's authority is very considerable, who applies the command of not breaking a bone of the Paschal Lamb to this business; and his Reason of the Rite, that it Joh. 19 34. was intended to leave a Prophetical intimation, that Christ our Passover should die a death to which breaking of limbs was ordinarily annexed, but yet that the breaking his should by care from Heaven be prevented; is much better than Maimoni's weak More Nevochim. part. 3. c. 46. conjecture, that it was only to comply with the Jew's haste; For in what haste soever they then were, the Wisdom of God is never in haste, nor can his Providence be surprised, or decree any thing to no purpose. After these Typical representations, it will be now seasonable to hearken to the voices of the Prophets, which are the voice of God, and with clearer evidence predict what the other did but tacitly insinuate and adumbrate; and we shall find them all with one mouth proclaim the same thing, the great and various sufferings and violent Death of Messiah: Whom though they do not always Dan. 9 26. name, as sometimes they do, particularly Daniel tells us MESSIAH shall be cut off, and dates his account not to the Birth or Reign, but the Death of Messiah the Prince; yet they so describe him, as that the ancient Jews understood their meaning well enough, allowing the reading of Psal. 22. 15. and expounding it of Messiah; as also Zach. 12. 10. which are both referred to by S. John as Prophecies v. Fuller Misc. l. 3, c. 12. of Christ's being pierced on the Cross. And the latter Rabbins, by their pitiful shifts, show clearly that they refuse the Interpretations of their Fathers only for fear of prejudicing their Hypothesis; and therefore strengthen our Arguments, while they endeavour to elude their force. Out of the great plenty of Prophecies I will select but one; (for what God hath said once, is as infallibly true as if he had said it a thousand times:) 'Tis the 53 Chapter of Isaiah, where you may read the contempt and scorn, the pains and torments, the ignominious and servile Death of Christ, so graphically described, so fully expressed, that you would imagine the Prophet to have been Spectator of the whole Tragedy, and retiring from that black Scene while the sense of it was warm and high in him, he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, dip his Pen into his Mind, and transcribe as much as Ink and Paper could delineate from his affections and troubled Soul into his Book. I need not enlarge, for the Jews are so oppressed with multitude and weight of Evidences for a suffering Messiah, that to deliver themselves in this straight, they give us a Tale of two Messiahs, the first to be afflicted and killed, the other to triumph only and reign: And so while one part of their fiction confesseth the sufferings we contend for, and the other is affirmed vainly without ground or colour by them, they have thereby yielded us the whole Cause: And we may safely conclude, that since Jesus of Nazareth appears every way to have been such a Person as all Predictions and Types have fore-shewed, and to have been so used as they assure us he was to be, and no other is pretended to answer those prefigurations in any degree, Pilate was as good a Prophet as Caiphas, and being overruled by the Spirit of God, wrote more than he understood, but not more than was true, in this Title and Recognition. Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews. ANd now perhaps some of you are ready to say, that I have spoken a great deal to my Text, but little to my Auditory: Why should I bring you back to the first Elements of Christianity, who have been baptised into Christ's death in your infancy, grown up in the profession of his Gospel, have had Christ in many Sermons evidently set forth crucified among you, and received him often in the holy Sacramental representation of his Death? After so many pledges of service and love interchanged between you, what reason have I to doubt of your being Christians? I do not doubt it: But give me leave to tell you, There goes more to that then we generally imagine; every man is not a Christian who believes his Creed, nor does every one believe the Creed who supposeth and takes it for granted: Many of us believe the Articles of our Faith as we do the Antipodes, or the story of the Trojan War; we care not whether they be true or no: And such have need sometimes to be catechised in the grounds, and more in the importance of their Faith. And many others who explicitly believe the Truth, are so far from obeying it, that they hold it in unrighteousness; and R m. 1. these aught often to be told, that they believe enough to condemn, but not enough to justify and save them. Suppose then, that you have devoured all the scandal of the Cross, and what is an offence to Jews, and to Greeks foolishness, is to you the wisdom and power of God, the one appearing eminently in the contrivance of this Mystery, and the other in the great things wrought thereby. And now upon the whole matter, your arms are open to receive Christ, for the very reasons which provoke the Jews to reject and scorn him: you can discern the Lord of Glory through the disguise and form of a servant, contemplate him triumphing over the powers of Death and Hell in a servile ignominious Crucifixion, and therefore, because he came not down from the Cross, you will believe him. Pardon me, if I say, you may do all this, and yet be Jews. To make it appear, let me mind you of the Jews miscarriages in this behalf. We have found them unblamable, 1. For not accepting Jesus as their King: 2. In the reason why they refused him, Because he he was a Spiritual, not a Temporal Prince. Be faithful then to your own souls, and in this solemn season of self-examination ask your Consciences these two Questions; 1. Whether you do sincerely own and receive Jesus for your King? 2. If you find yourselves faulty and deficient in that Duty, Whether the reason why you do not cordially embrace him be any other then that of the Jews, because his Kingdom and his Laws are spiritual, and you are Carnal? 1. Whether you do own and accept Christ for your King? I know you are apt enough to admit his other Relations to you; every one hearkens willingly to the glad tidings of a Mediator and a Saviour: 'Tis pleasant to think of a Sacrifice considerable enough to atone for our sins, of such a High Priest entered within the vail interceding on our behalf at God's right hand, who will surely be heard when he prays, and who hath already obtained eternal redemption forus. Nay we can like well that he be a King too, (provided that as his Kingdom is not of this world, so he trouble not us with it in this world, pretend not to govern us till we come to heaven. 'Tis not amiss that he be powerful enough to overcome our Enemies to spoil Principalities and Powers, lead captivity captive, and after that give gifts unto men, when he hath through his Death destroyed the Devil who had the power of Death, that he be able and willing to enstate us in eternal life, and assume us to the participation of his Kingdom. Tell me now, I pray you, what temptation had the Jews, why they should not be as good Christians as we upon their own grounds, if this be all? what carnality of theirs would have resisted the proposition of such a Sacrifice to expiate for their sins? Why should not a Pharisee be content that he might have an Advocate always pleading for him at the Throne of Grace? What could move the grossest dreamer in the Sanhedrim to refuse a reversion of eternal glory in heaven after the enjoyment of those present selicities which he desired on earth? There is something surely more than this in the accepting and acknowledging Christ for our King, or else the Jews would have accepted him too. The Duty of a subject to a Prince is expressed in one word, Obedience. The Tributes of our Esteem, Honour, Reverence and Recognition, are good circumstances in the performance of our main Duty; but without it are follies or crimes. I need not teach the Court how little Compliments signify, you know that for the most part they are like Nil's in a cipher, used only to amuse, to conceal, not explain our minds: Nor shall I need to say here, the profession of that Duty and service which we mean not to perform, is no more than a Compliment, unless it prove a scorn too; for in severe examination, to acknowledge our Sovereign's Power, and yet refuse his commands, is at once to recognize and defy him; to call Christ our Prince, and not submit to his rule and Laws, is but to bow before him, cry Hail King of the Jews, and crucify him. Obedience hereby appears to be the natural necessary Duty of a Subject to a Prince, because it supports and maintains the end of the Relation between them, enables the Prince to do his Office. It is the end of all Government, to procure the good of the whole Community; but no Governor can do that, unless he be obeyed: without obedience, the Sceptre is but a Reed in his hand, a Rod of weakness and contempt, not of power. 'Tis folly to expect to sit quietly under our own Vines and Figtrees, enjoying all the benefits of peace and plenty, unless we conform to those Laws which preserve peace, and effect plenty, by regulating every man in the orderly pursuit of his own honest ends without interfering with those of his Neighbour. 'Tis madness to look that a King in his single Person should suppress Rebellions, repel the force of invading Armies, drive Enemy's Fleets from his Coasts, or conquer them upon their own: But by the free and hearty obedience of his People, He can do whatsoever his whole Kingdom can do, Because thereby their entire strength is concentred in Him, and He can manage and employ it as easily as the members of his own body. The same obligation both of Duty and Interest have we to obey Christ; of Duty, that we defraud him not of what we owe him; and Interest, that he may be able to do us the good which he designs: For neither can he subdue his and our Enemies (to the purposes we are concerned in;) nor make his Subjects happy without the concurrence of their obedience. He cannot destroy the works of the Devil, if we will persist to employ ourselves in his works, resolve to be slaves still, notwithstanding all the liberty purchased for us, and when the Captain of our Salvation hath cast down and bruised his head; made it easy and safe for us to tread upon our old Enemy, we set him up again, and fall down and worship him Nor can he bring us to heaven unless we conform to the Laws and conditions by which we are to be advanced; receive his Kingdom first into us, that we may be afterwards received into it; For whatever God might have done, if we suppose a time before the method of our Redemption was decreed; It will be safe to say, that since he hath limited himself by an express act and declaration of his will, and Covenanted with Christ, that upon his voluntary laying down his life as a ransom for the World, he should have power to bestow the Kingdom upon such, and such only as Believe and Repent, no man now can look to go to Heaven by Christ, but he whose Faith receives Christ for his King, and whose Repentance grieves for having offended him, and resolves to serve him faithfully for the time to come. These are the two joint inseparable Conditions of our Salvation neither of which will singly avail us: For as it is impossible to Repent without Faith, to convince us of the necessity and benefit of that Duty, so our Repentance itself instructs us, that Faith alone is not our whole work; Because we Repent not that we have no Faith (seeing we suppose Faith, to be the principle which moved us to repent) but we grieve to find ourselves defective in our obedience, that we have not performed what we believe ourselves bound, and engaged to. For this is the proper business of Faith, to show us our King, and direct us in our duty to him. If we only believe the Theory of the Gospel, acknowledge the truth of all that our Saviour hath taught, and no more, This makes Christ but such a King as GROTIUS thinks Pilate took Grot, in Joh. 9 v. 38. him for, a kind of Rex Stoicus, a Prince and author of some rare opinions and speculative truths; and Christianity itself but a sect (as Tertullian often calls it in a better sense) combined in the asserting an excellent Hypothesis; not a Kingdom and body Politic, joined to one Common head, by which all the members are guided in the actions of life, and pursuance of real solid concernments. Me thinks the Lawyers (who are versed in matters of government) give us a good Notion of Faith, when they join it with, and make it Synonymous to True Allegiance. And a Prohibition from them would be seasonable in this case, to tract the exorbitances of some Divines, who evaporate all Religion in Notions. Had Christ been proposed to us only as Prophet, such a Faith had been a hand fitter to receive him, it might have apprehended Visions and Revelations well enough: but seeing he is a King, and delivers commands, Obedience only is relative to them. And we may believe St. James, who tells us, that Faith which works not, when 'tis bidden by such an Authority, James 2. 26. is Dead. The Faith which only lives, and can make us do so, is that which expresseth itself by lively operations, being animated and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 5. 6. actuated by an obedient Love, that Generous Principle which even in humane affairs noble produceth all the great and worthy things in the world, by those Persons who serve the Prince whom they love, vigorously and Bravely. That Obedience only can bring us back to God, we may know by this, that Disobedience cast us out of his favour and presence: and if the effect of our Redemption be to recover us the Paradise and the favour of of God, which we lost at first by disobeying his commands, it must also put us into a state of obedience, without which we cannot be capable of recovery, the Cherubin with their flaming sword will still fight against us upon the old quarrel; and it must find a way to help us in that state, or else we shall quickly lose all again. It was very agreeable to the Majesty and goodness of God, to compassionate the weakness of his poor Lapsed Creature so far, as to make our task easy and proportioned to our infirmity, to accept sincere honest endeavours instead of exact unerring obedience, which Adam failed of, and we in the ruin of our nature could by no mean have performed. But to be reconciled to disobedience, is inconsistent with every one of his attributes; even goodness itself would cease to be good, should it Patronise and encourage evil; now disobedience is all Evil, transgresseth and violates the whole Law at once, The soul that doth aught presumptuously, Num. 15. 30, 31. disobeying with a high hand, reproacheth the Lord, and despiseth his comandments. I may add, and his Mercy and Grace too, which are afforded to invite and help us to obey, and would not have been given us to that purpose, were disobedience by any means reconcileable to our obligation and God's favour: And between Obedience and Disobedience I know no Medium; That pretence of serving Christ out of Gallantry is something that I confess myself not acute enough to understand, any further, then as a colour for not serving him at all. For precarious Authority is a contradiction in Terms; the Prince who hath no other, is a Tenant at will, holds his Crown and Dignity in a kind of Villeinage, and servile dependence on the Pleasure of his Subjects; and where Christ hath no greater command than so, he may be any thing else, but cannot be a King. My Brethren, be not deceived; though God so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son to die for us; yet doubtless he loved his Son whom he sent from his bosom, infinitely more than all the world for whom he gave him; and therefore will be sure to provide for his honour before our safety: To which purpose, we see he hath settled his Kingdom on such terms, as that we shall not have the benefits we expect, unless he have from us the glory due to him. We cannot be saved, unless he be obeyed; and we become so far both his Servants and Friends, as to do whatsoever he commands us. God will certainly assert his own Laws, and vindicate his Son's Honour; and that may be done, whatever becomes of us: Christ may be glorified even in our destruction, and will be so, if we envy him the glory of saving us: He will show himself a King in punishing our Rebellions, if we bereave him of the delight of rewarding and crowning our Obedience. His Kingdom cannot stand, to the effecting its gracious purposes of making us happy, if it be so divided against itself, as that our perverseness draws one way, while his Precepts direct us another: Nor to the preservation of his Majesty, if he be so divided against himself, as to prevaricate in the execution of his own Laws, suffer our disobedience to prevail over his Justice, and escape the punishment denounced against it, that Death which we choose and seek in the error of our ways. Let us therefore be wise, and follow the good Advice long since given to Mankind in this behalf; which Cicero hath translated for us out of the Sibyls Books, Eum qui Rex est Regem essem agnoscamus. Loca sup. citat. de Divinatione, l. 2. Let us obey faithfully and in good earnest the King whom we own and acknowledge; yield the same compliance to his Rule and Government which we give every thing else under whose power we are. Even our follies may counsel us in this; our sins may inform and direct us to the way of performing righteousness; serve but God as heartily as you do the Devil, and it will be well. While sin reigns in our mortal bodies, we obey it in all the lusts thereof. One fleshly appetite bids us go, and we go; another calls us to come, and we come at a beck; a third commands us to do this, and we do it readily, without stop or hesitancy, Ambition makes us slaves, in hope of being Princes; We become flatterers and parasites to great persons, and if one of them strike us on the right cheek, we hastily turn to him the left, esteeming his scornful blows as healing as the KING'S Touch. Our Covetousness condemns us to the mines, sends us to the confines of Hell, and we often break into the bowels of it to fetch Treasure, and we bring up with labour and hazard our Idol Gold from them, which we consecreate for a God in our hearts, and serve it with far more Religion, than the Lord of heaven and earth. Our Luxury, Gaming, and other costly sins, take away our Cloaks, and we give them our Coats also: Our Proud, Malicious, Lustful Quarrels bereave us of our eyes and hands, and we choose rather to go to Hell, blind or maimed, then having all our Members to enter into Glory. Why do we not obey Christ at this rate? Why do we love to be the Slaves and Martyrs of the Devil and Damnation, abhorring the free and happy Service of Christ. 'Tis not because his wages is inconsiderable; for eternal life is the reward of such as obey him. Nor that his commands are grievous and intolerable; for they are peace and joy in the Lord: Present happiness in themselves, and pledges of future glory. I should disparage the excellency of Christ's prescriptions by saying, That as much as Health is better than a Fever, so much is Sobriety better than Drunkenness; which often recompenses the jolly, voluntary madness of one hour, with the indisposition and uneasiness, at least, if not greater inconvenience of many years. If a lasting vigorous constitution of Body, a constant serenity of Mind, a Soul firm and lively in all its faculties; an active Manhood, a venerable Wise, length of days, be more eligible, then early Gouts and Catarrhs; a decrepit useless youth, a wretched contemptible old Age before its time; a Soul always loose and unhinged, a Mind sottish in debates, and brutish in its resolutions, unable to give or take counsel; then is the perpetual feast of Temperance more inviting, than the loads of Gluttonous meats, and the kill debauches and riots of Luxury and Incontinence. Heathen Philosophy could have made these comparisons, and carried them by instances through the whole Scheme of Ethics; or rather it would have disdained that Virtue should be at all compared, either with the filthy nature of Vice, or its pernicious consequences. And I hope a Christian conversation will appear in all respects to transcend Heathen Morality, as far as that is above the dirt and mire of the most brutish sensuality. The satisfactions of a regular orderly life led, secundum Naturam, Cic. de Fin. passim. which is all Philosophy aims at, are much more agreeable than those low and vile disorders which some men desire to wallow in; but infinitely short of those heavenly joys, wherewith minds illuminated by the Holy Ghost, furnished and adorned with his Graces, are continually entertained; beside, that this Paradise they now enjoy, is the way to Heaven, this serving and walking with God in a delightful affluence of pleasures, is but their pledge and assurance of being translated in time to live with him for ever. Nor yet is our employment dishonourable and base; for our Lord requires us to do nothing, but what himself hath done before us. 'Tis true that Seneca says, Rules and Precepts are neither so compendious, nor efficacious a way to Epist. 6. teach Virtue, as when we see the thing itself exemplified in actions adorned with all the advantage and life of Circumstances, and real Demonstrations; we apprehend better such solid representations, and are affected more, when we perceive our Teacher believes himself, and practiseth what he recommends; and men, in all cases, follow cheerfully, when their leaders first attempt difficulties, endure hardships, and undertake dangers in their own Persons: All these Invitations we have from Christ. He is himself the Rule of all he teacheth; the Example of all he commands; the Instance and Pledge of all he hath promised: We may learn of him to be meek and lowly; for he hath dignified that humility by debasing and emptying himself, which Aristotle thought a vice, and we account a Eth. Nicons. l. 2. c. 7. folly; He hath consecrated that Poverty in his own wants and destitutions, which we fear more than death; He hath sanctified Afflictions in his Sufferings, honoured contempt and scorn by being reviled and spit upon, and placed a Crown for martyrdom upon his Cross; He hath conquered Death by submitting to it, and made it now a way to Eternal Life, of which his Resurrection and Ascension are our certain Pledges. What then is the reason, why after all this we are unwilling to learn the best things, follow the noblest, most alluring example, embrace the most precious rewards under the conduct and government of this our King? The very same thing causeth our backwardness which made the Jews so refractory and untoward before us; the things proposed to us are spiritual, and we are carnal. I doubt not but R. Akiba thought much better of Jesus whom he helped to condemn and crucify, then of Barcochab, whose Esquire he made himself in that fatal Rebellion against the Romans; but the one gave him hopes of enjoying the worldly things which he loved, the other would have taught him to contemn them, which was a hard lesson to a Carnal Man. And we may believe, the Jews now desire that Messiah whom they look for, and yet some of them deny him beforehand for the reason that Christ was refused by their Fathers. Fagius tells us, divers of Fag. in Deut. 23 them confessed to him that they would not have Messiah come in their days, because the Law would oblige them to forsake their Usury, being returned to Canaan, and having no strangers left on whom to exercise it. Just so it is with us; we are enslaved by strong habits and the power of sin, and so not free to apply ourselves to a better Master; we are bored through the ear, and cannot abide to change, though for liberty; we have so long served our senses, and fleshly appetites, that our souls themselves are grown flesh: Being used to Leeks and Onions, gross foul feeding, we loath Manna as insipid light Bread; relish not spiritual delights, because they are too subtle and too pure, food rather for Angels then Men. And as spiritual entertainments are too fine, so spiritual commands, which undertake to purge the heart and soul, are too severe for flesh and blood. Repentance is a grim Duty; Mortification, that Metaphorical death, is to us like the true one, a King of Terrors; Because to our fleshly concupiscences it is a true and real Death, brings out those Enemies of Christ which will not let him reign over them, and slays them before his face. For this sad and kill malady, this spiritual madness of ours, I know but one remedy: Had we the same reserve of Reason in our distemper, as had that mad Philosopher, who leapt into the Water, which the nature of his Disease made him abhor, we might find a cure as he did: could we be persuaded (for trials sake) to take up Christ's yoke a while, we should soon find it an Instrument not made to load and gall our necks, but to ease and defend us from the pressure of our burden; we should discover, that no one Precept hath been given us by Christ, but to make our life more comfortable, and our duty more agreeable. Meekness was prescribed to allay the storms of Anger, to preserve a Person of that Dignity that every Christian is, from discomposing himself, forfeiting his Reason and his Reverence with Mankind at every little accident, and to cast out the Devil of Rage, which makes us foam and tear ourselves, and place us quiet, and in our right minds at the feet of Christ. Not to look is enjoined, as an expedient to make the ancient Duty of not lusting more practicable, it being much easier to keep a house from burning before then after the fire is kindled in it. Resignation and Contentedness are commanded, to deliver us from the Rack of covetous and impatient Desires,, and to be our Sanctuary in all distresses. Humility will prevent Quarrels, and Mercifulness will end them as soon as they begin. Charity will reconcile us to God and Man, and the Duty shall I call it? or Privilege? of doing all the good we can to men's bodies and souls, is a Dignity and a pleasure (I had almost said) too great for mortal Men; it makes us Kings and Priests, nay, Angels, the ministers and conveyors of God's mercies and graces, and subordinate Saviour's to one another; anticipating our future joys and blessedness, giving us beforehand that Quality which alone shall possess our souls in Heaven, pure and universal Love. The Apostles themselves were carnal enough, unapt to entertain the Spiritual part of Christ's Doctrine and Kingdom; continued, even after the Resurrection, to expect an earthly Acts 1. 6, Rule under him: But when the Holy Ghost had enlightened their Minds, and racked their Affections from this Earth and Lees, than they soon despised all the allurements of the World, scorned them as dross and dung, accounted nothing happy or pleasant but to serve Christ, nothing great and honourable but to suffer and die for him. The same Spirit of Grace, did we not check and stifle his good motions, unkindly grieve him by refusing and resisting his Addresses and Courtships to our souls, would work the same blessed effects on us, give us a true taste and delightful relish of spiritual excellencies; convince us, that nothing is so lovely as innocence, that harmless Dovelike temper; nothing so happy as a Conscience always at peace with itself and with God; nothing so honourable as to serve Christ, whose Injunctions are but so many steps and degrees whereby we ascend nearer and nearer to God: Assure us, that Repentance itself is but the casting off an intolerable Burden, Mortification but the pulling a Thorn out of our Flesh, which grew there from the Curse; subduing that Rebel part which is always infesting our quiet, and giving us an entire Dominion over our lusts, which Heathen Moralists say is the greatest Empire that mortal men are capable of; and in sum, that there can be no objection against that Obedience which makes our Lives comfortable, and Death itself advantageous. Lastly, this would establish such a practice of Christianity as might remove the only scandalous obstacle of the Jews conversion. At this day they say, Christians themselves keep them from being Christians, add a new offence to the Cross, which lay not in the way of their Fathers; By not living such lives as the Prophet's foretell should be the effect of Messiah's Government, and as Christ's own Doctrine and undertaking gave the World ground to expect. What shall I do? (says a poor doubting Jew,) I see, after so many Ages of vain which our Doctors talk of; and indeed, Jesus of Nazareth did so well answer all the Characters observable in Scripture, that I began to turn my thoughts toward him: But alas, I perceive his own Scholars do not believe him: They persecute us indeed for blaspheming his Name, and yet they give us every day new cause to blaspheme him; and not only think him an Imposter, because we see nothing come to pass which he promised, no meekness, no humility, no patience, no innocence, and especially none of that love which he told us should be the badge and cognizance of his Disciples. But on the contrary, all the vices reign among the Professors of the Gospel, which Jesus professed he came to extirpate and drive out of the world. How can we choose but speak evil of His Name, when Christians lie, and cozen, and swear falsely by it; call his name over all their wickednesses and lusts; slander, backbite, supplant, rob and murder one another, and all in Christ's Name, do all those things for which no Sacrifice will expiate with us, and which Heathen honesty abhors to hear of, for Christ's sake, and in zeal to his Glory. If Christ taught these things, he deserves all the Reproaches and Curses which any Jew can lay upon him; and if he did not, where shall I be instructed in his Doctrine, for Christians seem to think he did teach them. Furnish me, I pray, with some answer to this objection in charity to this Jew, for your own credit, and for Christ's honour; nay, help me, I pray you, to defend mine own Sermon. For perhaps another Jew will say, I am willing to think God did not intend Messiah a Temporal Kingdom, But hath your Jesus any where a Spiritual one? You have proved his Title, But where is his Possession? Can he have a Kingdom without Subjects? Perhaps he ought to reign, but I would be glad to see that he does: I would join myself to a Church, not to a fancy and Rosecrucian invisible society, which subsists only in imagination. The Prophets have told us, that Messiah shall see of his seed: I would be Isai. 53. 10. glad to see it too, and that the pleasure of the Lord did prosper in his hand. But certainly, you Christians believe our Messiah, not your own; for all your aims, endeavours and affections are fixed upon worldly advantages, and satisfactions of the flesh; and while your discourses destroy the Temporal Dominion of Jesus, and your lives his Spiritual, you seem to confirm me, that Jesus of Nazareth is not King of the Jews. These objections cannot be taken off by any way but one; the Reformation of our lives, the expressing in our actions, as well as words, that Religion which Christ's Doctrine, Example, Graces, and holy Ordinances were designed to plant and keep up. Were this done, we should soon see the Mountain of the Lord advanced, and all the Nations flow to it; Micah 4 1. Isai. 2. 2. 3. Jews and Heathens would be ravished with the beauty of such a Religion, and crowd into Christianity; ambitiously contend to come under the government of that King who makes Virtue the Complexion of his Subjects, Humility, Meekness, Purity and Charity, the Elements of his new World, and outdoing all the Heathen Fables of a Golden age, all the Jewish fancies of a second Paradise in their new Jerusalem, settles among Christians a temporary Heaven, while they live in the way to that Eternal one which he hath prepared for them after death. To which Kingdom, prepared for us in the eternal design of his mercy, and purchased by the blood of his Cross, he bring us by the help and guidance of his grace and holy Spirit, etc. FINIS. ERRATA in some Copies thus to be amended. PAg. 5. lin. 6. for seeming, read teeming. P. 8. l. 11. for Chrisostome, r. chrysostom; P. 10. after unworthy, add of their care: after profane, add and accursed. P. 14. l. 25. for Nation, r. Reason. P. 27. l. 23. deal vot. P. 35. l. 4. for therefore, r. thereby. P. 42. l. ult, for tract, r. trash. P. 43. l. 2. r. a Prophet. P. 43 l. 25. for help, r. keep. P. 46. l. 2. r. esse. P. 47. l. 27. for meats, r. meals.