SERM. those of mean degree to be patient, content, and LXXIV. cheerful in their station. He was exceedingly wise 15. and knowing, without bound or measure; yet made no ostentation of extraordinary knowledge, of sharp wit, of deep subtilty; did not vent high, dark, or intricate notions; had in his practice no reaches and windings of craft or policy; but was in his doctrine very plain and intelligible, in his practice very open and clear; so that what he commonly said or did, not only philosophers and statesmen, but almost the simplest idiots might easily comprehend; so that those might thence learn not to be conceited of their superfluous wisdom; these not to be discouraged in their harmless ignorance; both having thence an equally sufficient instruction in all true righteousness, a complete direction in the paths to happiness, being 2 Tim. iii. thereby σopicóuevo eis owτnpíav, made wise and learned to salvation. He did not immerse himself in the cares, nor engage himself into the businesses of this world; yet did not withdraw himself from the company and conversation of men: he retired often from the crowd, that he might converse with God and heavenly things; he put himself into it, that he might impart good to men, and benefit the world, declining no sort of society; but indifferently conversing with all; disputing with the doctors, and eating with the publicans; whence thereby both men of contemplative and quiet dispositions or vocations, and men of busy spirits, or of active lives, may be guided respectively; those not to be morose, supercilious, rigid, contemptuous toward other men; these not to be so possessed or entangled with the world, as not to reserve some leisure for the culture of their minds, not to employ some care upon the duty of piety and LXXIV. devotion; both may learn, whether in private re- SERM. tirements, or in public conversation and employment, especially to regard the service of God and the benefit of men thus was the example of our Lord accommodated for all men; especially conducting them in the hardest and roughest parts of the way leading to bliss, the acclivities and asperities of duty; self-denial, or neglect of worldly glory and fleshly pleasure, patience, humility, general charity; shewing us the possibility of performing such duties, and encouraging us thereto. Through these difficult and dangerous passages (as a resolute chieftain of life) he exis undauntedly marched before us, charging, beating Acts iii. 15. back, and breaking through all opposite forces, all enemies, all temptations, all obstacles; enduring painfully the most furious assaults of the world; boldly withstanding and happily conquering the most malicious rage of hell; so that victory and salvation we shall be certain of, if we pursue his steps, and do not basely (out of faintness or falsehood) de- 1 Pet. ii. 21. sert so good a leader; we shall not fail of the unfad- Heb. xii. 2. ing crown, if with patience we run the race that is pagavriset before us, looking unto the Captain and Per-or the diğns fecter of our faith, Jesus, who, for the joy proposed ripavos unto him, endured the cross, despised the shame, Rev. ii. 10. and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Would it not raise and inflame any courage to see his commander to adventure so boldly upon all hazards, to endure so willingly all hardships? Whom would not the sight of such a fore- Heb. vi. 20. runner animate and quicken in his course; who, by running in the straight way of righteousness with alacrity and constancy, hath obtained himself a most glorious crown, and holdeth forth another like there I Pet. v. 4. νον δόξης ζωής. Jam. i. 12. Πρόδρομος. SERM. to, for the reward of those who follow him? Now LXXIV. as our Lord's doctrine, so did his example, in the nature and design thereof, respect and appertain to all men, it being also like the light of heaven, a common spectacle, a public guide, to guide our steps in the way of peace: if it do not appear so, if it do not effectually direct all, it is by accident and beside God's intention; it is by the fault of them who should propound it, or of them who have not eyes fit or worthy to behold it; briefly, what was said concerning the universal revelation of Christian doctrine may be applied to Christ's practice. 9. Jesus is the Saviour of all men, as having combated and vanquished all the enemies of man's welfare and happiness; dispossessing them of all their pretences and usurpations over man, disarming them of all their power and force against him; enabling us to withstand and overcome them. Man's salvation hath many adversaries of different nature and kind; some directly oppugning it, some formally prejudicing it, some accidentally hindering it; some alluring, some forcing, some discouraging from it, or from the means conducing to it: the chief of them we may from the scripture (with consent of experience) reckon to be the Devil, with all his envy and malice, his usurpations, his delusions, and his temptations to sin; the world, with its snares and baits, its violences, persecutions, and menaces; the flesh, or natural concupiscence, with its bad inclinations and propensities to evil, its lusts and pleasures; sin, with its guilt, and mischievous consequences; the law, with its rigorous exactions, hard measure, and harsh boding; conscience, with its accusations and complaints, its terrors and anguishes; divine a anger, with its effects, death and hell. All these SERM. LXXIV. our Lord hath in several and suitable ways defeated; as to their malignity, contrariety, or enmity in respect of man's salvation; he hath, as Zachariah prophesieth in his Benedictus, saved us from our Luke i. 71, enemies, and from the hands of all that hate us: so that being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, we might (apóßws) safely and securely, without danger or fear, serve him, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life. 74. 28. Dragon, &c. John xii. 31. xiv. 30. 2 Cor. iv. 4. Acts xxvi. The Devil, (that enemy, that adversary, that ac- Matt. xiii. cuser, that slanderer, that murderer, that greedy Luke xi.19. lion, that crafty serpent, the strong one, the mis-1Pet. v. 8. chievous one, the destroyer,) who usurped an au- Rev. xii. 3, thority and exercised a domination over mankind, Acts x. 38. 1John ii. 14. as the prince of this world; who made prize of Rev. xii. 9. them, captivated them at his pleasure; who detained them under the power (or authority) of dark-s Ephes. ii. 2. ness and wickedness; who had the power of death; vi. 12. him our Saviour hath destroyed or defeated, (Karp- Coloss.i.13. Yo, as the apostle to the Hebrews speaketh; that 18. x. 38. is, abolished him as to any further pretence of em- Heb. ii. 14. pire or power over us ;) him he hath dejected from Luke x. 18. heaven, (I saw Satan like lightning falling down 31. xvi. 11. from heaven;) him he hath cast out: Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the prince of this world be cast out: all his works he hath dissolved: For this cause, saith St. John, the Son John iii. 8. of God did appear, that he might dissolve the works of the Devil. He combated this strong one, Matt. xii. (this mighty and dreadful foe of ours,) and baffled 29. him, and bound him, and disarmed him, (taking Αὁ Χριστὸς οὐδὲν τῆς ἰδίας ποιήσεως προσκατέλιπε τῷ ἄρχοντι τοῦ KÓGμOU TOÚTOV. Athan. contra Apoll. p. 628. 2 Tim.ii.26. John xii. 22. 15. SERM. away avoпλíav avтoũ, the whole armour in which he LXXIV. trusted,) and spoiled him, (τà σkeún diýptaσe, rifled Luke xi.21, all his baggage, bare away all his instruments of Coloss. ii. mischief,) and plundered all his house; leaving him ἐδειγμάτισεν, unable (without our fault, our baseness, our negligence) to do us mischief, (as is intimated in the 12th of St. Matthew and 11th of St Luke;) yea, he triumphed over all those infernal principalities and powers, and exposed them, as St. Paul saith: he Luke x. 19. imparted to his disciples ability to trample upon all his power, by him all his followers are so fortified 1John ii.14. as to conquer the wicked one, as St. John says: he Eph. vi. 11. affordeth light to discover all his wiles and snares, 2 Cor. ii.11. Eph. vi. 16. strength and courage to withstand all his assaults, Eph. iv. 27. to repel all his fiery darts, to put him to flight. 1Pet. v. 9. Jam. iv. 7. The world also (that is, the wicked principles, the bad customs, the naughty conversation and example which commonly prevail here among men ; alluring to evil and deterring from good; the cares also, the riches, the pleasures, the glories of the world, which possess or distract the minds, satiate and cloy the desires, employ all the affections and endeavours, take up the time of men; all in the world which fasteneth our hearts to earth, and to these low transitory things; or which sink them down toward hell; and which detain them from soaring toward heaven) is an enemy, an irreconcileable enemy to our salvation; the friendship thereof being inconsistent with a friendship in us toward the God of our salvation; or in him toward us: for the 1 John ii. friendship of the world is enmity with God; and, If any man love the world, the friendship of the Father is not in him. And this enemy our Lord hath John xvi. vanquished, and enabled us to overcome. Be of cou Jam. iv. 4. 15. |