Forty Sermons, Sermon 15 – Dedication 1
SERMON XV. WHITE-HALL. Novemb. 15. 1668.
MARK X. 15.
Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little Child, he shall not enter therein.
THE Kingdom of God, especially as it is concerns the forepart of the Text, signifies nothing else but that of the Messiah, or in one word, Christianity; and that both as to the profession and the practise, the Doctrine and the life of it: For so the foreign, by which Theophylact expounds the words, the Preaching of the Doctrine is it self called the Kingdom of God by our Saviour, Mat. 21. 43. 'Tis not delivering of a message onelyonly in weak empty words, 'tis Jurisdiction and exercise of Soveraignty: And the Commission that authoriz'd to it was the delegation of the Powers of Omnipotence:aMat. 28. 18. 19. All Power, saith our Lord, is given to me both in Heaven and in Earth, And (which the Syriack adds in that place also)bJoh. 20. 21. as my Father sent me, so send I you, go ye therefore and teach all Nations, teaching them to observe whatsoever I have Commanded you. As if this were execution of the greatest and most Kingly Power, and every Doctrine had the force of Proclamation, every denunciation were Sentence; as it will be certainly to them that do not give obedience to it.
Which obedience is Secondly, and that most properly entitled the Kingdom of God; Rom. 14. 17. for by that he Reigns; without this our great universal Lord were a Prince of no Subjects, had a Kingdom but of Rebells onelyonly: So that to receive the Kingdom of God is by the obedience of Faith to submit to the Gospel, to receive the Doctrines of it by believing, and the Precepts by obeying them: The duty which our Saviour here directs, and which with such severity he threatens non-performance of, even with exclusion from that blessed Immortality of Joyes which the Kingdom of God imports, which is that sense it bears in the last words of my Text. In which we must consider,
First, the Object both of the Duty and the Threat a Kingdom, and that the Kingdom of God.
Secondly, our concern and duty in relation to that Kingdom we have onelyonly to receive it. Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God.
Whatever bustl… men are well content to make to g…t possession of any Earthly Dignity or Power, sometimes to wage War with their Conscience and all obligations, violate all Rights both Humane and Divine, and assault greatest difficulties and yet greater guilts, to invade mens Crowns, and other rights, there's no such need in this; we have no more to do but let this Kingdom come, and not resist the having it. For therefore also,
Thirdly, the manner we are by our Saviour here prescribed to receive this Kingdom in is, as a little Child. Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little Child, as one that cannot stand against the power of a Kingdom when it comes; that hath not strength nor malice, neither force nor will to oppose; which they that do must needs keep themselves out of it; Which is,
Fourthly, the thing threatned, they shall not enter therein; there being neither reason, nor indeed a possibility men should possess that which they will not receive.
Lastly, Christ's asseveration is added to all this, Verily I say unto you whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little Child, h… shall not enter therein.
But because the main thing Christ intended in the Text (which he so oft repeated upon several occasions) was by the significative emblem of a little Child, visibly to inform us of some dispositions that are absolutely necessary to the entertaining Christianity, either in our minds by Faith, or in our lives by practice; I shall therefore wholly attend that design of his in the words, and handle them particularly as they seem here to be spoken in relation to the Doctrine of it. This being most of use now in an Age when men not only tear Religion with disputes, but aim to baffle it with reproaches quite out of the World: Now against such the Text is positive, Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God, the Doctrine of Christianity as a little Child, be cannot enter therein, neither into the possession of the Promises of Christianity, nor indeed into the profession of it.
And here I need not labour much to find that in a Child which Christ requires of those that come to be Disciples in Religion; for it is plain that Children being impotent, unable to sustain or to direct themselves, they give themselves up to the aids and the directions of others, those especially whom they are committed to, and with whose cares of them they are acquainted; to whose guidance they resign themselves entirely, laying hold on them in any dangerous appearance, and not trusting to themselves at all: And when their Age first makes them capable of having any thing infus'd into them, being empty and unseason'd Vessels they will easily receive all and sincerely without taint: And being neither fill'd before-hand with prejudicate opinions, nor with windy vain conceits of their own skill or knowledge, they must needs take in without any let … hindrance whatever is infus'd, and submit themselves to be directed wholly by their teachers, without contradiction or dispute, for they Judge not, nor examin, but receive. Now such a resignation seems the proper disposition which our Saviour expects in a Disciple. It is plain that his pretended Vicar and that Church expect it, that men shall submit their Faith entirely to the Church, believe whatever she proposeth as reveal'd by God meerly on that account as she proposeth it, for otherwise it is not a right faith: Yea she requires that men give their assent to the determinations of her head, the Pope, in matters of fact also, where they are as competent to Judge as he; and though with all their industry, and using the same means, they cannot find the fact to be as he determins, yet they are oblig'd in conscience to that superior to depart from their own Judgment, and to yield and sign their assent to his determinations. Witness the matter of Jansenius. Yea their great Cardinal is positive thatcSi Papa erraret praecipiendo vitia, vel prohibe…do virtutes, teneretur Ecclesia credere vitia esse bona, virtutes malas, nisi vellet contra conscientiam peccare. Bellarm. de Rom. Pontif. l. 4. c. 5. sect. ultima. If the Pope could err so far as to call evil good, good evil, to prohibit vertues or command vices, the Church were bound in conscience to believe those vices good and honest, and those vertues evil. So far he.
Indeed if that Church be the Mother and Nurse of all Christians, 'tis from her breasts only they must seek the sincere Milk of the word: Now that she is so, they must take her word, as Children do their Parents words that they are so. And indeed this is properly to receive the Doctrine as a little Child, not judge, nor reason, not examin, but believe it. And such legendary doctrines as well as Histories, which they deliver are most fit to be receiv'd by such as Children. Yet as if this had been the proper method among Christians always, in S. Austin's time we find the Manichees derided Christianity, that discipline of Faith because bydIrridere Catholicae Fidei disciplinam, quod juberentur homines credere, non autem quid esset verum certissimâ ratione docerentur. l. 1. Retract. c. 14. that men were commanded to believe and were not taught how to distinguish truth from falshood by clear reason, and again, that it eDe util. cred. c. 1. ante Fidem nobis quam rationem imperari.requires us to assent before we have a reason for it. And long before thatfOrigen. adv. Celsum. l. 1. p. 8. editio Cantabrig, C. 1. Celsus did advise the Christians to receive no doctrines but on the account of reason, credulity being the inlet to deceit, saying, they that without grounds believe, are like those that admire and …e satisfied with juglers, and take appearances and sleight of hand for truth, adding many of the Christians, neither would receive, nor give a reason of their faith but us'd to say foreign, do not you examin, but believe, 'tis your faith shall save you; and as if from the beginning it were so we cannot but have heard the story of that man that reading Genesis where Moses says, In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth. And he said let there be light and there was light, &c. Swore at him, saying, this Barbarian only asserted boldly but prov'd nothing. As if Argument and Reason never had place in the Jewish or the Christian Religion, only those who were the in…titutors of each Religion, did deliver it; others had no more to do but to believe it, that is, to receive it as a little Child.
Whether these reproaches, and the Oath of these known enemies may go for proofs that it was so, I shall not now enquire. But it is certain on the other side S. Paul requires of his new Christiang1 Cor. 14. 20. Corinthians, that they be not Children in understanding, that they be in malice Children, but in understanding Men. Now a Man and a Child differ not in this, that the one hath an understanding reasonable soul, and the other hath not; but in that the one cannot use his understanding or his reason, and the other where he acts as man does: So that our Religion in requiring that we be in understanding men, does require of us that we use our reason in it.
And since assenting to a thing as truth is an Act of the highest faculty of the soul of man as it is properly and truly reasonable, namely as it understands and judges, it is not possible a man should really believe a thing unless he satisfie himself that he hath reason for so doing. Yea, whether that be true or not which many men so eagerly contend for, that the will though free is bound, and cannot choose but will that which appears best at that time it wills, yet it is sure that he who with his understanding, which is not free in her apprehensions and judgments, but must necessarily embrace that which hath most evidence of truth: He I say who really assents to any proposition does satisfie himself that he hath better and more cogent reasons for that then the contrary: And therefore it is impossible that any man can verily believe a thing which he is throughly convinc't is contrary to clear and evident right reason, for he cannot have a better reason for the thing that is so; and were it possible for any man to believe so, there could be neither grounds nor Rules for such a ones belief; for there is nothing in the World, so false and so absur'd although he were assur'd it were so, but he might assent to it, for whatever demonstrations could be offer'd why he should not, yet it seems he might believe against acknowledg'd evident truth and reason, but this were onelyonly wish, or fancy and imagination, not belief. And to prevent such Childish weak credulity was the great work and care of Christ, so far is he from requiring we should be as Children in this kind. For when he was ascended up to heaven he gave some Apostles, some Evangelists, some Pastors and Teachers, he shed down the Holy Spirit and his gifts, that we might not be as Children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of Doctrine; Eph. 4. 14.
First, For want of rational grounds instable in our Faith as Children are in body, and in judgment also, taking all appearances for truths. If men were only to believe, there must needs be as great variety of Religions as of teachers. And though God hath appointed that some Church should be as perfectly infalliable as that of Rome pretends to be; yet since there are so many Churches, and the true one therefore could be known no otherwise then by some marks, there must be disquisition before Faith; and men must reason and examin ere they can believe upon good grounds; for were they to receive Religion as a little Child, be nurst up with the Doctrine as with milk, a Child we know may suck infection from the poyson'd breast of an unwholesom mother, or some other person, for it knows not to distinguish; and so may be nurst to death. A soul like theirs that is but rasa t…bula, white paper, is as fitted to receive the mark of the beast, as the inscription of the living God, just as the first hand shall impress. Therefore we are bidhI Joh. 4. 1. not to believe every Spirit, not every Teacher though he come with gifts, pretend and seem to be inspir'd, but try them; and ouriMat. 24. 24. Saviour forewarn'd the Jews of false Christs that should come with signs and wonders. Something therefore must be known first and secur'd, before the understanding can be thus oblig'd to give up its assent; anda2 Cor. 10. 5. Captivate every thought into obedience, as S. Paul directs. Now what that was here to the hearers in the Text is easily collected, namely that he was the Christ that does require it: And S. Paul expresses it in the forecited place; where he says we must bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, to wit, of that Christ, who as he does himself profess that if he had not done among them the works which no other had done, they had not had sin: John, 15. 24. If his demonstrations had not convinc't them it had been no fault not to believe: So when he had made appear he was that person whom their prophesies had pointed out, the Messiah, the Son of the living God, and this not only hisbMat. 16. 16. Disciples had acknowledg'd; but thecJohn …. 12. multitudes; yea, when his miracles had made one of the Pharisees confess, dJohn …. 2.Rabbi we know thou art a Teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles, except God be with him. Then if theeMat. 19. …. Pharisees dispute against his Doctrine of Divorce, urge the authority of Moses and Gods Law; and thefv. 10. Disciples press the inconveniences that will happen, If the case of Man be such with his wife; he may answer them: He that will not receive my Doctrines without dispute, that is to say, He that will not receive the Kingdom of God as a little Child shall not enter therein. gLuke 19. 38.This King that cometh in the name of the Lord may well determin how we shall receive the Kingdom of God. If he propose strange precepts to our practise, it appears that he is sent from God, and Gods commands are not to be disputed but obey'd; if his revelations present dark unintelligible Mysteries to our faith, his promises offer seeming impossibilities to our hope, why yet he hath made proof he comes from God; and surely we are not so insolent as to doubt that God can discover thing above our understanding; and do things above the comprehension of our reason. Therefore since we are as Children to all these, it is but just we should receive them even as little Children: With a perfect resignation of our understandings and of our whole souls. Here 'tis most true what S. Austin says,hDe utilit. cred. c. 14. Those are not Christians who deny that Christ is to be believ'd, unless there be some other certain reason of the thing besides his saying, Si Christo etiam credendum negant …isi indubitata ratio reddita fuerit Christiani non sunt. For to them that are convinc't of that, 'tis such a reason that he is the Christ.
There is indeed no other name now under heaven, to whom we are oblig'd to give such deference, for however the modern Doctrines dare assert, that Christ hath given the very same infallibility which himself had to all S. Peters successors as often as they speak ex Cathedrâ; and that in matters both of right and of particular fact; yet not to countenance this monster by admitting combate with it, nor to put my self into the circle which these men commit who talk of the Authority of the Church, to which they require us to resign our Faith. I shall not stay to rack them on that their own wheel: This I dare affirm, it is impossible for any person or assembly to produce a delegation of authority in more ample terms then the great Councel of the Jews could shew, sign'd both by God and Christ. According to the sentence of the Law which they shall teach thee, and according to the Judgment which they shall tell thee thou shalt do; thou shal… not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee, to the right hand, nor to the left, faith God, Deut. 17. 11. compar'd with 2 Chron. 19. 8, 9, 10, 11. And our Saviour says, They sit in Moses Chair, all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do, Mat. 23. 2. Let them of Rom… produce you a better and more large commission. Yet did not this suppose that Councel was infallible either in the interpreting the Law, or in attesting of tradition, or in judging of a Prophet, or that the Jews were blindly to give up their assent and their obedience to their sentence; God did not mean the people should imagin that when he prescrib'd a Sacrifice for expiation of their errors in their Judgment when they found it out. Lev. 4. 13. As their owni…. Tad. Shegagoth. c. 12. 13. V. … l. 3. c. … p. 465. Or see, Ai…sworth upon that place of Levi…. Doctors do expound it: Therefore God suppos'd that they might err, and we know that their Traditions did evacuate the Law, Mat. 23. 15. They judg'd and slew true Prophets, v. 37. They declar'd the Messiah an impostor, Mat. 27. 63. and blasphemer, and for that condemn'd him, Mat. 26. 65. and decreed what the Apostles told them they must not obey, Act. 5. 25.
But though there be no such Authority that's absolute, over the Faith of Men now upon Earth; yet if this Jesus did acquire such by his Works; if by the Miracles he wrought, his raising others from the Dead, his own Death and his Resurrection, he sufficiently justified the Divinity of his Doctrine; (And if those Miracles were true, they were not doubt sufficient) and if those that did pretend they were eye witnesses and ministers of all this, his Apostles and the Seventy Disciples, and those others that accompanied him, who conversed with him continually, and could not therefore be deceived if they profess they heard and saw all this, and Preacht it in the face of those that would have contradicted if they could, and rather than their lives have proved all false; yea Preacht it every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the Word with signs following. If they consign'd that Word in Writing also which they Preacht, to be a measure and a Standard of that Doctrine to fnturity; which Word so Preacht and Written by agreeing, would in aftertimes give mutual illustrious evidence to one another; and if any Heter …ies should at any time creep by degrees into the Articles or the external practice of the Church, they might he easily discovered by those Records.
And if the multitudes that heard, and saw, and did receive all this, and which were grown extreamly numerous almost in every Nation of the then known World, while those Apostles and Disciples liv'd; if these deliver'd what they must needs know whether 'twere true or not, deliver'd both that Doctrine and those Books of it as most certain truth, by Preaching, and by Writing, and by Living to it, and by Dying for it, and engaging their Posterity to do so; and they also did that to all Ages; if all this, I say, be true, then it is easie to conclude that we are to receive the Doctrine of that Jesi…, and this Book the Records of it, with the resignation of a little Child, and absolutely to submit our Faith to them.
But that it was thus; first as sure as any of us here, who have not seen the thing can be, that Christianity is now profest; the Bible now received in all the Regions round about us throughout Europe, or indeed that there are …ch Regions and places, so sure we may be, for we have the testimony of the World, that for example in the days of Dioclesian 'twas over the World profest both with their mouths and lives; owned in despite of Spoyl, of Torments, and of Death; and they did value the Records of this Doctrine so much dearer than their Lives or their Estates, that in prosecution of thosemvid. Eus…b. l. 8. c. 3. Edicts, wherein the Christians were required to deliver up their Bibles to be burnt, in one Monthnvid. Baron. Annal. ad annum. 302. num. 22. & 26. 17000, were put to death: And the Persecution lasted at that rate for ten years time; so that in Egypt only it is said there were slainoSpondanus ad annum 302. num. 4. Severus l. 2. hist ait, Omnis ferisacro martyrum cruore orbis infectus est. 144000, and 70000 banisht. (The Laity it seems were allowed Bibles then.) Or put the case higher in Adrian's, or Trajan's time, who both lived within anpThere were …ut seven years betwixt the death of S. Joh. and the Persecution of Trajan, some say but one. Hundred years of Christ, who Martyr'd them 'till weariness slackned the Execution, and they gave off onelyonly as it were that so they might cease to persecute themselves; and we have theqPlinius. Procon. Ponti. & Byth ni…. vid. ipsius Ep. l 10. Ep. 97. Tertul. Apol. Euseb. Ecc. hist. l. 3. c. 3… Officers engaged attesting this, all which must needs be as notorious as the Light.
Now Secondly, 'tis most impossible those so vast multitudes of every Nation should have met together, forg'd a Code of Doctrines, and agreed so uniformly in professing a Religion, and in dying for it; for we may as easily believe that there were never any men before this Age we live in but that these began the kind, as that those of that Age began the Christian Religion.
Thirdly, 'tis as impossible that their immediate Ancestors who lived in the Apostles Age, who heard their Preaching, received their Writings, saw the Miracles they did, if they did any, and many of them must have seen Christ also after he was risen if it were so; yea multitudes of them were themselves parties in the gifts of Tongues and Miracles, if there were any, and so could not be impos'd on, but must necessarily know whether they were truths or forgeries: It is as Impossible, I say, so many should agree together to betray all their Posterity into the profession of a Religion from which they could look for no advantage but the certain total Ruin of themselves and their posterity; it was not possible they could have done this if they had not thought all this was true; and since they did know whether it were true or not, if they thought it was true, they did know it was, and if they knew it was, then it is certain that it was so; and these Scriptures, and the Doctrines Christians deliver (so far as they have not varied since that time from these Authentical Records) they have the Seal of God, Miracles to attest they come from God.
I might have urged completion of Prophecies to prove the same. First those in the Old Testament of the Messiah, which so eminently came to pass in Christ, that they sufficiently clear those Books to be Divine: Next Christ's predictions in the New, particularly those about Jerusalem, which saith Eusebius rEuseb. lib. 3. c. 7. Hist Eccl:He that will compare with what Josephus an eye-witness and no Christian, writes of it (or what our selves know of that Nation and that place indeed) he must acknowledge the Divinity of his words. But enough hath been said to prove they come from God, and therefore we must so receive them as the Word of God, with perfect resignation of our Souls, and submission of our judgments, denying every apprehension that would start aside from and not captivate it self to that prime truth which cannot be deceived nor lye; and renounce all discourses Reason offers that resist such abnegation of it self and all our other faculties, that is, receive this word of the Kingdom as a little Child. duplicate page duplicate page
I do not here affirm, by saying this, that our Religion does disdain, or keep distance from the service of any of Mans faculties, for it sometimes admits them not as Ministers only, but as Judges: 'Tis plain the senses were the first, I do not say conveyance onelyonly, but, Foundation of Faith, which was built on the first believers eyes and ears; they heard the Doctrine, saw the Miracles, were sure they saw and heard them, and so, supposing the signs sufficient to confirm the Doctrine to have come from God, were certain of their truth, without any Authority of a Church to influence that faith into divine: And S. John therefore does not onelyonly call in, and admit, and urge their testimony,sI Joh. 1. 1, 2. That which we have heard, which we have seen with our Eyes, which we have lookt upon, and our hands have handled of the word of Life, that declare we unto you; But our Saviour in the highest point of Faith appeals directly to their Judgment:tJoh. 20. 27. Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless but believing: And S. Austin also gives them the decision of a point of Doctrine which of all others now troubles the Church most; for speaking of the Eucharist, he says,uQuod ergo videtis panis est. & calix quod vobis etiam oculi vestri renuncia…t. Aug. serm, ad infantes. that which you see is Bread, and 'tis a Cup, it is that very thing which your eyes tell you 'tis. xTertul. de Anima. c. 17.Tertullian also long before that had appealed to them in that very cause. And in an instance where their sentencè passes, 'tis not strange if Reason also take the Chair, and do pretend to Judge. And truly when the Scripture that does call those ElementsyMat. 26. 29. Christs Body and his Blood, does also call them after ConsecrationzI Cor. 11. 26. 27. Bread and Wine; and since they must be called one of them by a figure, for they cannot be in Substance both; and since that Scripture hath not told us where the Figure lies, hath not expresly said, 'tis this but in resemblance, that in Substance: Here if Reason that hath Principles by which to judge of Bodies, which are expos'd to all the notices and trials of our several faculties, and to which a Trope is not a stranger, it can judge of figurative speeches; when it therefore finds if it admit the figure in that form This is my Body, foreign'Tis but just the same which was in the Jews Sacrament the Paschal Lamb: which they call'd the Body of the Passover, though it were but the memorial,Talm. Baby. tit. Pesachim. c. 10. sec. 3. Mai…on. Yad. titulo foreign c. 8. sec. 7. a figure which was always usual in Sacraments, and is indeed essential to Sacraments: And which is used in all things that are given by exhibitive signs. But if it should resolve it to be Bread and Wine onelyonly in a figure, besides a most impossible acknowledged Consequence, that a man can be nourisht by them, which the Romanists dare not deny; nor yet dare grant that men can feed upon a trope, be nourish't with a figure; besides this, if reason shall resolve that, it must judge against all Rules it hath of judging by, and judge in contradiction to known Principles, and trample on all Laws of sense and understanding, which (especially when the Scripture hath no where defined expresly) must be most unreasonable; yea most impossible, to judge that true (that is to say, believe that thing) which it sees is most irreconcileable with known truths. Here therefore Reason is not insolent if it give verdict by its proper evidences; men are not bound to swallow contradictions as they do the Wafer, or receive as a little Child, that discerns the Lords Body, no more then it does the repugnancies that are consequent to their Hypothesis concerning it.
Or to make another instance, when the Scripture says, God is a Spirit, yet does also give him hands, and eyes, and ears, and wings, and these of strange prodigious dimensions; neither tells us which of these is proper and which figure: Here if Reason that can prove God cannot be a Body, and cannot endure his God should be a monster, shall be called in to pass sentence; they that make Philosophy interpret Holy Writ in this case, and give the last resort to Reason, do no more usurp or trespass on Religion, then they that make use of Authors, or a Dictionary judge of the sense of any Greek or Hebrew word in Scripture.
But notwithstanding this we may not think the mysteries of Faith are to be measured by the Rules of natural Reason, so to stand or fall as they approve themselves to its discourse or Principles: for though it be impossible that any Revelation can contradict right Reason (truth cannot be inconsistent with truth:) yet it is very possible God can reveal those truths which we have neither faculties analogal, nor Principles or notions proportioned to, nor any natural ways of judging or examining. And if those faculties which are not capable of cognisance will judge; and judge of things removed from all our notices; (such as Spiritual, Infinite, Eternal being is) and do it by principles gathered from the information of our Sences, and by analogy with things of another kind; corporeal finite things that are about us; reason need not be informed how liable such judgments must be to mistakes; and how that which we call repugnancy in one may have no place in the other. Here therefore to submit ourunderstandings, and believe is but modest justice, and to receive as Children what our Heavenly Father says.
And therefore they that will presume to comprehend what ere they are commanded to believe, and those that will believe nothing but what they are able to comprehend, are alike insolent, if not pernicious. 'Tis true God by the Gospel hath revealed and brought to light many things which before appeared onelyonly as he himself did in the Temple, in a Cloud; namely concerning the Divine nature, Persons, Properties, and the Eternal being, and the Incarnation of his Son; but still, as God himself is said to do, these also dwell in Light, that no man can approach unto. Which he that will needs gaze and pry too near to, must be dazled into blindness, and be only so much more in the dark. But he that proudly does conceit his little spark of Reason can bear up with that Divinity of brightness, and enlighten him to look through all those inaccessible discoveries, with Lucifers assuming he hath reason to expect his fall. TheaThe Schoolman. one of these that will needs clear all mysteries, thebThe Socinian. other will take them all away; the one that with his Pencil will presume to figure him who is the brightness of Gods glory, and trace out the lineaments by which that everlasting Father did impress the character, and express Image of his person on him, and the other that with a bold hand dashes out the Person from the Nature; the one that will untie the knots of the Hypostatick union; and the other that will cut them and the union too asunder; the one that will needs prove by Reason whatsoever is in Scripture, and the other that speaking of Christs Satisfaction, saith cEgo quidem etiamsi non semel, sed saepe id in sacris monimentis scriptum extaret, non id circo taman ita prorsu… se habere crederem. Socin…s, de Servatore. l. 3. c. 6. 2 Vol. 204.for my part if it were not onelyonly once but oftentimes set down in holy Scripture, yet would not I therefore believe it, because forsooth it was against his reasonings: Neither the one or other of these sure receive revelation as a little Child, not like young Samuel, Speak Lord for thy Servant heareth.
But these, as all extravagance is wont, are profited into much worse: The one that would be proving, making reasons for, the mysteries, often God knows framed only shadows, and the other by their light of Reason being able to dispel and make those shadows vanish, that so easie victory encouraged them to frame reasons against, and to attaque the mysteries themselves; and then others finding there was something that was taken to be reason not agreeing with some chief heads of Religion, as they had been still received; took occasion thence to conclude against the whole Religion; and by scruples at some Articles taught themselves to dispute all the Creed; and now a difficulty in one Doctrine makes the rest suspected, and regarded onelyonly as things made to amuse, and the unusual wording of a Command is thought ground enough to turn all Christian duty into Raillery.
For instance; If Christ intending by prescribing patience, to teach men how to escape not onelyonly from the guilt, and present torture that a Spirit which will needs return each sleight offence is subject to, but also from the future and eternal recompences of revenge, shall in phrasing his injunctions but bid themdMat. 5. 39. turn the other cheek, no Gentleman can be of his Religion; and that is cause enough I hope not only to renounce, but scorn it. If in meer compassion meaning only to make virtue easie, by advising us against the snares and the occasions of Vice, he word his Counsel in prescriptions toeMat. 5. 29, 30 pull out the right eye, cut off the right hand: His Religion is a much worse Tyranny then the CovenantfAnd the men of Jabesh Gilead said unto Nabash, make a covenant with us and we will serve thee. And Nabash answered them, on this condition will I make a Covenant with you, that I may thrust out all your right eyes and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel. 1 Sam. 11. 1, 2. Na…ash offered to the men of Jabesh Gilead, and they think themselves as much concern'd to make parties against it: In fine, if that he might at once instruct us how to pull up g1 Tim. 6 10.the root of all evil, he forbid ushMat. 6. 19, 20 to lay up treasures upon the Earth, and tell us that our treasures should be laid up in Heaven, and say it is iMat. 19. 24, 26.impossible for a rich man to enter into Heaven; here they cry out mainly he supposeth us, and treats us just as Children: This Command requires indeed that they who do receive it should be Children, whom we use to cheat of gold by the same methods, telling them it is not good for them at present that it shall be laid up for them; and therefore when Religion does attempt to deal with men so, 'tis concluded it designs to cozen them, as they think it does indeed, and is a cheat, and all that minister about it are meer fourbes: And truly if we rackt the Consciences of dying men, and if so be they would give so much to this Cloyster or that Order promised them remission of their sins, and worse than Judas, sold the purchase of Christs Blood at those base rates, and betrayed the Redemption so, on Gods name let them so account us; but if we do attempt on nothing but mens vices, and would onelyonly steal their Souls from Hell, and cheat them into piety and blessedness, these we hope are very unreproachful frauds. But alas! to talk to them of these after-things, of Heaven and Hell is altogether as much liable to their contempt as the commands are. If we tell them of a Resurrection to Judgment, and of everlasting fire to punish wicked men, because their reason cannot comprehend how flame can hurt a Soul; or for the Body how devouring fire can repair the food it preys upon, that it may keep alive and nourish torment to eternity; or how each man's peculiar dust that is digested into several mens being and so become no one mans peculiar, when it shall be also blended with the ashes of the Universe, can be singled out and parted to its proper owner, when there are so many own it, because their reason cannot comprehend all this, therefore Scriptures lake of fire must be no more then the Poets Acheron; and Resurrection was fram'd (as the apparition of a Ghost is wont to do) to fright men meerly; and however 'tis attested Christ did never rise, but all is fable: Thus from such premises as these our rational disputing men conclude.
And here I shall not ask how these men dare presume, that if there be a God who hath declar'd that he will bring such things to pass, yet he must be unable to affect them, if they cannot comprehend the manner how he does them; or be confident they can look through those beams that come out of his hand, Hab. III. 4.in which the hiding of his Power is: But this I shall say to our men of reason, theirs is the most unreasonable way of arguing in the world; to dispute against plain matters of fact, the being and the Works of such and such so many ages since, and witnessed by a greater testimony then the World can shew for any other thing; and ever since appearing in their visible and vast effects, as the Conversion, Suffering, Faith, of the whole Earth almost. Now to attempt the confutation of such matter of fact by reasonings drawn from difficulties in some things which those men are witnessed to have deliver'd, or to conclude, that there can never have been any such persons in the World, because they cannot understand all that those persons taught, or possibly because they can take some occasions to buffoone on what they taught, is most ridiculous. Thus History must have been false, and several known places not to have been, because the story hath been turn'd into Burlesque: Thus he that with the Ancients cannot comprehend how it is possible that there should be Antipodes, or the Earth can be any thing but a plain flat, otherwise he thinks the inhabitants must fall down to Heaven; may as rationally despise all the discoveries of the Earth, assure himself our constant Navigations which perswade us 'tis a Globe inhabited on both sides, bring home from the Indies nothing else but false relations, and that indeed there are no Indies.
I need not urge how Christianity approves it self even to the reasoning of the sober part of mankind; and the morality of it had the suffrage of the World before it self appeared: For while the evidence stands good, if the matter of fact be true, the Doctrine must be true, and the commands obey'd: and to use such arguings to resell such matter of fact is just like that which Zeno did attempt, namely, by subtilties to prove it was impossible there could be any motion, while another did disturb his Lecture by his motion up and down the Schools; it is the same thing as to take a bowl to cut with, or the vessels of the Danaid's to carry water in: For such reasonings are alike improper for that work.
And indeed these arguings are not the exceptions of reason, but the struglings of mens vices against Religion. And it must be impossible so many Thousands would give up their Bodies, rather then their Bibles to the fire in Dioclesian's days, because it is a book which they can find no other pleasure in but that of railling it, or helping them with subjects to be prophane upon. It must be false that Christ did feed 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 small fishes, Mat. XIV. 20. 21.'till 12 baskets full of broken pieces did remain; yet not so much because they know not how their eating could nourish the victuals so, and make it grow; as because they are angry with the worker of the miracle, who forbids and upbraids the excesses of their luxury, which can easily, and does daily consume the price of that that would suffice 5000, without miracle on 5 single persons; and all that when 'tis drest according to the modern mode of eating well, dissolved, turned into juyces, and exalted into the Elixir of the Epicure, shall leave, alas! no broken pieces for the Alms-basket: This is the quarrel; this does make the miracle impossible. And yet methinks upon the same account they should allow,John II. 6. 7. that at a feast he turned so many pots of water into wine, because that seems to gratifie the thirsts of their intemperance. In fine, we do not live as men prepared or willing to be called to an account of all our doings, therefore we have no mind to rise again to give it: When we are thus minded, it is not hard to meet with difficulties that encourage the opinion that we shall not rise. Which difficulties when we look into, we cannot find how it is possible we can be raised, and 'tis easie then to think we cannot, that it is impossible, especially when it is our will and interest to think so; and then it must be false whatever is in Scripture that we shall. These are the processes of those that reason against Christianity, such the grounds that they dispute upon: But their reasons are but Sophisms of lust and interest, which will guild and paint whatever they are much in love with, and it is no wonder they find colours for it, and can think them reasons, for they always did so against present evident conviction. When Moses by his miracles endeavoured to let Pharaoh know who was the Lord, and to persuade him to let Israel go; while God permitted theaExod. VII. 11, 13, 22. Magicians to counterfeit those miracles, it lookt like reasonable indeed that Pharaoh should not be convinced; but when they could not immitate, but did confessbExod. VIII. 19. the finger of the Lord, andcExod. IX. 11. themselves suffered those plagues which they could not either conjure up or down; then if Pharaoh will not be persuaded, 'tis plain nothing but his interest, not the wonders which were brought by the Magicians, were the reasons that prevailed with him; for those were not reasons against more and greater miracles; yet they were effectual with him to the destruction of himself and his nation. Again when they who knew the mighty works Christ did, and were dMat. 24. 29.forewarned by him of false Christs and false Prophets, that would come with signs and lying wonders; God allowing Sathan leave to struggle at his last gasp, and to make a blaze when he was to fall from heaven as lightning, but far beneath the glory of his onelyonly begotten Son: when they who knew both these, chose yet to follow a Barchocab, a false falling Meteor, who came indeed with greater shew, and not with such strict mortifying Doctrines, nor onelyonly with the thin encouragement of after-expectations as Christ did, for he gave them hopes of present temporal enjoyments; but he did no wonder besides spitting fire (S. Jerome says) and throwing great stones from his kn…e as from an Engine, Vid. Raimundi Martini, pug. fidei, p. 262.say his followers; which yet could not scare the Souldiers, neither did the Roman Eagles (which were true-bred) fear those flames he spate,foreign but destroyed someeFour Millions, vide pug. fid. ibid. millions of them. Now 'tis evident by the comparison of the several signs that Christ and this Barchocab wrought, the onelyonly reasons that gave efficacy to that sleight imposture, and did make it over-power Christs mighty works, was their earthly desires and affections which Christs severe Doctrines could not gratifie, and thereforef2 Thes II. 10. they receiving not the love of the truth, but having pleasure in unrighteousness, gave themselves up to delusions to believe a lie; Tert. Apol. c. 23. Edatar hic aliquis sub tribunalibus vestris ex iis qui de Deo pati exist imantur, qui aris inbalan…es numen de nidore concipiunt, qui ructando conantur, qui anhelando profantur; nisi se damones confessi …uerint, Christiano mentiri non audentes ibidem. &c.yet still those delusions went for reason with them. Once more Tertullian challenging the Heathen says, Produce before your judgment-seats some, whom you will, of those who are inspired by any of your Gods, when gaping ore the Altar they have in its fumes (according to their custom) taken in the Deity 'till they are great with it, & ructando conantur, while they are in travel with him, as it were, have belching throws, that they burst almost 'till they are delivered of the inspiration: while it is thus, let but any Christian adjure them by the name of Christ, and if the spirits that they are possest with do not presently confess that they are Devils, ibidem illius Christiani procacissimi sanguinem fundite, let the sawcy petulant Christian lose his life. He speaks of this as a known frequent trial. And Minutius Felix says, their chiefest Gods have been forced out of their Votaries, and acknowledged they were evil spirits. Now here was reason and experience; the miracle was so evident, that Tertullian braging says, do not believe it if your eyes and ears can suffer you; and the reason was more pressing then the fact, Nec enim Divinitas deputanda est quae fubdita esthomini, it being most impossible that that should be a God which a man could rule and triumph over, so imperiously manage him, as with a bare command to force him from his hold, and make him shame himself so villainously before both his adorers and his enemies, as to say, He was a Devil. Yet the Heathens still found colours to do out all this conviction; and their old acquaintance with their Gods, together with the Custom of their vicious Worships, had more force with them then miracle and reason. And while the Christian dispossest their Deities, he was himself turned out of all his own possessions; and although he made their God confess himself a Devil, yet still poor he was made to suffer as a malefactour.
And 'tis not strange if men now stick as closely to their vices, as those did to the Gods that patronized them, and it be as hard to exorcise the Devil out of their affections and practices, as it was then out of Heathen Votaries or Temples. They are as fierce against the Christian Religion for their lusts sake, as those for their Venus, and the very same account that made those Heathen Customs, or the lying wonders of false Christs, or Pharaoh's Magicians sings, be more persuasive then the other more real miracles; namely, because they sided with their inclinations and interests. This very account makes little difficulties (which Almighty God hath left in our Religion, as he suffered signs and lying wonders heretofore, for trials) yea, makes cavils, mere exceptions, pass for reasons most invincible, be disputed, urg'd with great concern and passion, against all those methods of conviction which God hath afforded Christianity.
Now if this be to receive Religion as a little Child, 'tis with the frowardness of Children, when they are displeas'd or ill at ease; who resist and quarrel with the thing that is to make them well or please them, and return the Parents cares to ease and quiet them with little outrages and vexing. And do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? Is not he thy Father that hath bought thee? Hath he not made thee and established thee? Ask thy Father and he will shew thee, thy Elders and they will tell thee, Deut. 32. 6, 7. Now have Children any other way to know their Parents, then to let their Father shew them, and their Elders tell them? Or should we cast off the relation and renounce all the obedience due to it, because we are not sure of it our selves? For ought we know those may not be our Parents, we have only testimony for it: Thus we serve our God on that account; and yet Hath he not made thee and established thee? As he began us, so did he not nurse and bear us in his arms, and carry us in all our weakness and difficulties, 'till he brought us up to a full strength? 'Till by a miraculous and signal providence he had establisht, settled us? and after all these cares bestowed upon us, do we prove a generation of vipers onelyonly, such as do requite the bowels that did bear and nourish them, by preying on them and consuming them? Or like the of-spring of a Spider, who, when he hath spent himself with weaving nets,Arist. hist. Anim. l. 5. c. 27. Plin. nat. hist. l. 11. c. 24. and working of them into labyrinths, to be the granaries and the defences of his brood, to catch them prey, and to secure them; then the strongest of his young ones, when he is by these his cares establisht and grown ripe to destroy, makes those threads fatal to his parent, which he spun out of his bowels to be thread of life to him. And shall we be such Children to our Father that establisht us? Make all his plenties turn to poison in us, and invenome us against himself? make his miraculous mercies furnish us for the abuse and provocation of him? His blest Providence serve only to afford us arguments against it self; help to confute it self because it hath so prospered, doth still suffer us? but after all this, is he not thy Father that hath bought thee? who to all his titles to us, his endearing obligations, notwithstanding our despites and provocations of them; yet did give the life of his own Son to purchase o're again the same relation to us, that we might have right to the inheritance of his Kingdom: And then however we have hitherto affronted, let us be content now to be bought and hir'd,Rom. VIII. 7. to receive that Kingdom of God as his Children; for if Children then heirs; heirs of God, and joynt heirs with Christ, who died to make us Kings and Priests to God and his Father.
To whom be glory, &c.
A SERMON PREACH'D IN St PETER's WESTMINSTER ON SUNDAY, January vi. 1660.
AT THE CONSECRATION OF THE Right Reverend Fathers in God,
GILBERT Lord Bishop of Bristol,
EDWARD Lord Bishop of Norwich,
NICHOLAS Lord Bishop of Hereford,
WILLIAM Lord Bishop of Glocester.
By RICHARD ALLESTRY D. D. Canon of Christ-Church in Oxford, and one of His Majesties Chaplains.
LONDON: Printed by John Playford, in the Year 1683.
Right Reverend Father in God, GILBERT, Lord Bishop of London, and Dean of His Majesties Chappel Royal.
My LORD,
WHEN I consider with what reluctancies I appear thus in publick; I have all reason to suspect and fear, lest this offering, which like an unwilling Sacrifice was dragg'd to the Altar, and which hath great defects too, will be far from propitiating either for its self or for the votary. But I must crave leave to add, that how averse soever I was to the publishing this rude Discourse, I make the Dedication with all possible zeal, and ready cheerfulness. For I expect your Lordship to be a Patron, not only to my Sermon, but to my Subject. Such a separate eminence of virtue and of sweetness mixt together may hope to ingratiate Your Function, to a Generation of men that will not yet know their own good, but resist mercy, and are not content to be happy. And for my self, Your Lordships great goodness and obligingness hath encourag'd me, not … to hope that you will pardon all the miscarriages of what I now present, but also to presume to shelter it and my self under your Lordships Name and Command, and to honour my self before the World by this address, and by assuming the relation of▪
My Lord, Your Lordships most humbly devoted and most faithful Servant, RICH. AL…STRY.