V. SER M. ing their endeavours otherwhere, toward perfons of a more docile and ingenuous temper; thence more fufceptive of faith and repentance: To you (say Acts xiii. Paul and Barnabas to the contradicting and reproach16. ful Jews) it was necessary that the word of God should Apoc. ii. 5. firft have been fpoken; but feeing you put it from (or thrust 46. xxviii. 19. 16. it away from you, dπWJεTodε autòv), and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, we turn to the Gentiles. So when the Church of Ephefus was grown cold in charity, and deficient in good works, God threatens to remove her candlestick; or to withdraw from her that light of truth, which fhone with fo little beneficial Kai yàp Taç influence. It seems evident that God for the like (pari) reafons may withhold the difcovery of his truth, or Chryforbear to interpose his providence; fo as to tranfmit John. iii. light thither, where men's deeds are fo evil, that they 2 Cor. ii. will love darkness rather than light; where their eyes are so dim and weak, that the light will but offend, and by the having it, hurt them; where they, by the having it declared to them, will only incur farther mischief and mifery; it would prove to them but boun Javáry, a deadly fcent, as the most comfortable perfumes are offenfive fometimes and noxious to diftempered bodies. Wherefore as where the light doth fhine moft clearly, it is men's voluntary pravity, that by it many are not effectually brought to falvation; fo it is men's voluntary depraving and corrupting themselves (mifufing their natural light, choaking the feeds of natural ingenuity, thwarting God's fecret whifpers and motions, complying with the fuggestions of the wicked one) fo as to be rendered unmeet for the fufception of God's heavenly truth and grace, which hinders God (who proceedeth ordinarily with men, in fweet and reasonable methods, not in way of impetuous violence and coaction) from difpenfing them: we may fay of fuch in the words Ifa. Ixvi. 3. of the Prophet, They have chofen their own ways, and Jer. v. 25. their foul delighteth in their abominations. Your iniquities have turned away thefe things, and your fins have with bolden ν. xxxiii. αὐγάται holden good things from you. Τῇ ἑαυτῇ ἀγαθότητι πᾶσιν S E R M. ὁ κύριος ἐγγίζει μακρύνομεν δὲ ἑαυτοὺς ἡμεῖς διὰ τῆς ἁμαρτ τίας, God doth by his goodnefs approach to all, but we fet our felves at diftance by fiu, faith St. Bafil; and ὅπου Baf. in Prale αὐτο-προαίρετος πονηρία, ἐκεῖ καὶ ἀποχὴ τῆς χάριτος, where there is felf-chofen or affected wickedness, there is a withholding of grace, faith another Father (apud Cyrill. Hier.) The Gofpel, if it be hidden, 'tis (as St. Paul fays) hidden ἐν τοῖς ἀπολλυμένοις, in viris perditis, among 2 Cor. iv. 3 loft men (that is, men defperately gone in wickedness, incorrigible, unreclaimable people), in whom the God of this world (that is, as St. Chryfoftom expounds it, not the devil, but the good God himself) hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, fo that the Εἰς τὸ μὴ light of the glorious Gofpel hath not fhined to them (πῶς ἐν αὐτοῖς. ἐτύφλωσεν ; how then did God blind them? faith St. Chryf. in 2 Cur. iv. 40 Chryfoftom) ἐκ ἐνεργήσας εἰς τᾶτο, ἄπαγε" not by any eficacy of his upon them toward that ; fe on that ; ἀλλ ̓ ἀφεὶς καὶ συγχωρήσας, but by permilion and concellion ; for fo the Scripture is wont to fpeak; Ἐπειδὰν γὰρ αὐτοὶ ἠπίσησαν πρῶτοι, καὶ ἀναξίας ἑαυτὲς κατεσκεύασαν τῷ ἰδεῖν τὰ μυςήρια, καὶ αὐτὸς λοιπὸν εἴασεν· ἀλλὰ τί ἔδει ποιῆσαι ; πρὸς βίαν ἕλκειν, καὶ ἐκκαλύπτειν μὴ βελομένοις ἰδεῖν ; ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον ἂν κατεφρόνησαν, καὶ ἐκ ἂν εἶδον Seeing, faith he, they difbelieved first, and conftituted themfelves unworthy to fee the mysteries, even God at last let them alone; for what should he have done? Should he have drawn them violently, and difcovered it to them being unwilling to fee? They would then have more despised it, and not have feen it. God is ever willing and ready to dispense Luke xix. his mercies and favours, but he is not wont to do it 4 extraordinarily (or befide the course of his ordinary Rom. xiii. provifion), but in a proper and fit feafon (in that t καιρὸς εὐπρόσδεκτος, acceptable time and day of falvation, when he feeth men capable of receiving them); which feafon commonly dependeth upon man's will and choice, or the refults of them. Καθόλα γὰρ ὁ Θεὸς οἶδεν Clem. τάς τε αξίας τῶν ἀγαθῶν καὶ μή· ὅθεν τὰ προσήκοντα ἑκάσοις Strom. VII. δίδωσιν. Σωτὴρ γάρ ἐσιν· ἐχὶ τῶν μὲν, τῶν δ ̓ ἐ· πρὸς δὴ ὅσον αν 2 Cor. vi. 2. Ρ. 105. V. S E R M. ἐπιτηδειότητος ἕκασος εἶχεν, τὴν ἑαυτῶ διένειμεν εὐεργεσίαν· for (faith Clemens Alex. in his 7th of the Stromata, where he clearly and fully affirms our present doctrine) Our Lord is not the Saviour of fome and not of others but according as men are fitly difpofed, he bath Quæft. 68. diftributed bis beneficence to all. St. Auguftine himself eQuæft. 83. fomewhere fpeaketh no less; or rather more: Præcedit aliquid in peccatoribus (faith he) quo, quamvis nondum fint juftificati, digni efficiantur juftificatione: et meritis, &c. idem præcedit in aliis peccatoribus quo digni fint obtufione. But, Tom. iv. Part i. Venit de occultiffimis Ibid. 6. 3. If all these confiderations do not throughly fatisfy us concerning the reafon of God's proceedings in this cafe, we may confider that God's providence is infcrutable and impenetrable to us; that (accordPfal. xxxvi. ing to the Pfalmift) as God's mercy is in the heavens, and his faithfulness reacheth to the clouds; so his righteoufness is like the great mountains (too high for our reason to climb), and his judgments, woran älvoros, a great abyfs, too deep for our feeble understanding to fathom; that his ways are more fubtile and spiritual than to be traced by our dim and grofs fight. So upon contemplation of a like cafe, although, as it feems, hardly fo obfcure or unaccountable as this, the cause concerning God's conditional rejection of that people, whom he in a special manner had fo Rom. xi.33. much and fo long favoured, St. Paul himself doth profefs. That therefore although we cannot fully refolve the difficulty, we notwithstanding without diftrust should adhere to thofe pofitive and plain declarations, whereby God reprefenteth himself feri2 Pet. iii. 9. oufly defigning and earnestly defiring, That all men fhould come to the knowledge of the truth; that none fhould perish, but that all should come to repentance; not doubting but his declared mind, and his fecret providence, although we cannot throughly difcern or explain their confiftency, do yet really and fully confpire. But no farther at this time. SERMON SERMON VI. The Doctrine of Univerfal Redemption afferted and explained. 8. I TIM. iv. 10. The living God; who is the Saviour of all men, A VI. S our Saviour was fuch to all men by his doc- sER M. trine, or the general difcovery of all faving truth; fo may he be efteemed fuch in regard to his exemplary practice; whereby upon the open ftage of the world, and in the common view of all that would attend unto him, he did reprefent a living pattern of all goodness; by imitating which, we may certainly attain falvation. He that will confider his practice fhall find it admirably fitted for general inftruction and imitation; calculated for all places and all forts of people; fuited to the complexions, to the capacities, to the degrees, to the callings of all men; fo that every fort of men may from it draw profitable direction, may in it find a copy, even of his particular behaviour: for he was a great Prince, illuftrious in birth, excellent in glory, and abounding in all wealth; yet was born in obfcurity, lived without pomp, and feemed to poffefs nothing; fo teaching H 2 VI. SER M. teaching men of high rank to be fober, mild, and humble; not to rest in, not to regard much, not to hug and cling to the accommodations and fhews of worldly ftate; teaching thofe of mean degree to be patient, content, and cheerful in their ftation. He was exceedingly wife and knowing, without bound or measure; yet made no oftentation of extraordinary knowledge, of fharp wit, of deep fubtilty; 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 faid or did, not only philofophers and statesmen, but almoft the fimpleft idiots might eafily comprehend; fo that thofe might thence learn not to be conceited of their fuperfluous wifdom; thefe not to be difcouraged in their harmlefs igno 15. both having thence an equally fufficient inftruction in all true righteoufnefs, a complete direction in the paths to happinefs, being thereby copC62 Tim. iii. μevos eis owrngiav, made wife and learned to falvation. He did not immerfe himfelf in the cares, nor engage himself into the bufineffes of this world; yet did not withdraw himself from the company and converfation of men he retired often from the crowd, that he might converfe with God and heavenly things; he put himfelf into it, that he might impart good to men, and benefit the world, declining no fort of fociety; but indifferently converfing with all; difputing with the doctors, and eating with the publicans; whence thereby both men of contemplative and quiet difpofition or vocations, and men of bufy fpirits, or of active lives, may be guided refpectively; those not to be morofe, fupercilious, rigid, contemptuous toward other men; thefe not to be fo poffeffed or entangled with the world, as not to referve fome leifure for the culture of their minds, not to employ fome care upon the duty of piety and devotion; both may learn, whether in private retirement, or in public con verfation |