SERM. acceptable to him; can also therefore with more seXVIII. curity and advantage commend unto us the imitation of him in our disposition and demeanour. Nor could any doctrine more clearly and fully inform us concerning ourselves; concerning our nature, our original, our end, all our state, past, present, final; what the dignity of our nature is, for what purposes we were designed and framed, wherein our happiness doth consist, what shall be our state after death, how we shall be judged and dealt with then; the knowledge of which particulars is of so immense consequence, for the satisfaction of our minds and direction of our lives; concerning which therefore men in all times have so earnestly inquired and disputed, without any sure resolution but from hence. Nor could a more accurate rule of life (more congruous to reason and suitable to our nature, or perfective thereof; more conducible to our welfare and our content; more apt to procure each man's private good, and to promote the public benefit of all) have been prescribed; nothing can be more just, or comely, or pleasant, or beneficial to us, than are the duties of piety (consisting in love, reverence, gratitude, devotion, obedience, faith and repentance toward God) which Christianism doth require. No directions concerning our deportment toward our neighbours and brethren can be imagined comparable to those (those of hearty love, good-will, beneficence, compassion, readiness to forgive, meekness, peaceableness, and the like) which the Christian law enjoineth. No precepts or advices concerning the management of ourselves (the ordering our souls and our bodies in their respective functions and frui XVIII. tions) can be devised more agreeable to sound rea- SERM. son, more productive of true welfare and real delight unto us, than are those of being humble and modest in our conceits, calm and composed in our passions, sober and temperate in our enjoyments, patient and contented in our state, with the like, which the Christian doctrine doth inculcate. No other method can raise us up so near to heaven and happiness as that which we here learn, of abstracting and elevating our minds above the fading glories, the unstable possessions, the vanishing delights of this world; the fixing our thoughts, affections, and hopes upon the concernments of a better future state. in Marc. No religion also can be purer from superstitious alloys, or freer from useless encumbrances, (or from, as Tertullian calleth them, busy scrupulosities,) than Negotiosa scrupulosiis this, (such as it is in its native simplicity, and as tates. Tert. it came from its Author, before the pragmatical cu-lib. ii.. riosity, or domineering humour, or covetous designings of men had tampered with it,) it only requiring a rational and spiritual service, consisting in performance of substantial duties plainly necessary or profitable; the ritual observances it enjoineth being, as very few in number, in nature simple and easy to observe, so evidently reasonable, very decent and very useful, able to instruct us in, apt to excite us to, the practice of most wholesome duties. No religion also can have the like advantage of setting before us a living copy and visible standard of good practice, affording so compendious an instruction, and so efficacious an incitement to all piety and virtue: so absolutely perfect, so purposely designed, so fitly accommodated for our imitation, and withal so strongly engaging us thereto, as the SERM. example of Jesus our Lord, such as it is in the GosXVIII. pels represented to us. Neither can any religion build our duty upon more solid grounds, or draw it from better principles, or drive it to better ends, or press it with more valid inducements than ours; which builds it upon conformity to the perfect nature of God, and to the dictates of his infallible wisdom, upon the holy will and most just authority of our natural Lord and Maker; which draweth it from love, reverence, and gratitude to God, from a hearty good-will to men, and from a sober regard to our own true welfare; which propoundeth God's honour, our neighbour's edification, and our own salvation, as the principal ends of action; which stirreth up good practice by minding us, that we shall thereby resemble God, express our thankfulness, and discharge our duty to him, obtain his mercy and favour, acquire present comfort of mind and future bliss, avoid regrets of conscience here, and endless torments hereafter. Neither can any doctrine afford more encouragements to the endeavours of practising it than doth this, which tendereth sufficient help and ability toward the performance of whatever it enjoineth ; offering (upon our seeking them or asking for them) God's infallible wisdom to direct us in our darknesses and doubts, God's almighty strength to assist us in our temptations and combats, God's loving spirit to comfort us in our afflictions and distresses. Nor can any doctrine in a more sure or kindly manner appease and satisfy a man's conscience, so as to produce therein a well-grounded hope and solid comfort; to heal the wounds of bitter remorse and anxious fear, which the sense of guilt doth in flict, than doth this, which assureth us, that God SERM. XVIII. Almighty, notwithstanding all our offences committed against him, is not only reconcilable to us, but desirous to become our friend; that he doth upon our repentance, and compliance with his gentle terms, receive us unto perfect grace and favour, discharging all our guilts and debts, however contracted; that our endeavours to serve and please God, although imperfect and defective, if serious and sincere, shall be accepted and rewarded by him. Such is the doctrine, law, and religion of Jesus; expressed in a most unaffected and perspicuous way, with all the gravity and simplicity of speech, with all the majesty and authority of proposal becoming divine truth; so excellent, and so complete in all respects, that it is beyond the imagination of man to conceive any thing better, yea, I dare say, repugnant to the nature of things that there should be any other way of religion (different substantially from it) so very good. God himself, we may presume to say, cannot infuse truer notions concerning himself or concerning us, cannot reveal more noble or more useful truths; cannot prescribe better laws or rules, cannot afford more proper means and aids, cannot propound more equal and reasonable terms, cannot offer higher encouragements and rewards, cannot discover his mind in a more excellent way than he hath done by Jesus, for his own glory and service, for our benefit and happiness: so that hence we may reasonably infer, that the doctrine taught, the law promulgated, the religion instituted by Jesus in God's name, are the very same which the predictions concerning the Messias do refer unto, as SERM. the last which should ever come from God, most full XVIII. and perfect, universally and perpetually obliging. 2. Thus in general the prophets spake concerning the Messias's doctrine, and so that of Jesus correspondeth thereto : but of that doctrine particularly it was signified, that it should be very comfortable, joyful, and acceptable to mankind; as containing a declaration (peculiar thereto) of God's kind and gracious intentions toward us, overtures of especial mercy and love, dispensations of all sorts of spiritual blessings; the pardon and abolition of sins committed, peace and satisfaction of conscience, deliverZech. ix. 9. ance from spiritual slaveries and captivities; Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: so Zechariah speaketh of his coming, and implieth Isa. lii. 7. the joyful purport of his message: and, How beautiful, saith Isaiah, upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God Isa. Ixi. 1. reigneth! and, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; xlii. 1, 3. because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance, or of recompense, as the avramodó- LXX. render it, of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to give unto them that mourn in Zion beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. It is a part of what God in Jeremiah promised to disJer. xxxi. pense by him; I will forgive their iniquity, and I σεως. |