SERMON LXXIV. THE DOCTRINE OF UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION 8. As I TIM. iv. 10. -The living God; who is the Saviour of all men, our Saviour was fuch to all men by his doctrine, SERM. or the general discovery of all faving truth; fo may he LXXIV. be esteemed 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 represent 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; so 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; so teaching men of high rank to be sober, mild, and humble; not to rest in, not to regard much, not to hug and cling to the accommodations and fhows of worldly state; teaching those of mean degree to be patient, content, and cheerful in their station. He was exceedingly wife and knowing, without bound SERM. or measure; yet made no oftentation of extraordinary LXXIV. knowledge, of sharp wit, of deep fubtilty; did not vent 15. 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; fo that what he commonly faid or did, not only philofophers and statesmen, but almost the fimpleft idiots might eafily comprehend; fo that those might thence learn not to be conceited of their fuperfluous wisdom; these not to be difcouraged in their harmless ignorance; both having thence an equally sufficient inftruction in all true righteoufnefs, a complete 2 Tim. iii. direction in the paths to happiness, being thereby σopigóμevos eis owτnplav, made wife and learned to falvation. He did not immerse himself in the cares, nor engage himself into the bufineffes 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 fort of society; but indifferently converfing with all; difputing with the doctors, and eating with the publicans; whence thereby both men of contemplative and quiet difpofitions or vocations, and men of busy spirits, or of active lives, may be guided respectively; those not to be morofe, fupercilious, rigid, contemptuous toward other men; these not to be so 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 retirements, 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 afperities of duty; felf-denial, or neglect of worldly glory and fleshly pleasure, patience, humility, general charity; fhewing us the poffibility of performing fuch duties, and encouraging us thereto. Through thefe Acts iii. 15. 1 Pet. v. 4. τέφανον. Rev. ii. 10. difficult and dangerous paffages (as a refolute chieftain of SERM. life) he undauntedly marched before us, charging, beat- LXXIV. ing back, and breaking through all oppofite forces, all'Aexys enemies, all temptations, all obstacles; enduring painfully s the most furious affaults of the world; boldly withstanding and happily conquering the moft malicious rage of hell; fo that victory and salvation we shall be certain of, if we pursue his steps, and do not bafely (out of faintness 1 Pet. ii. 21. or falfehood) defert fo good a leader; we fhall not fail of the unfading crown, if with patience we run the race that Heb. xii. 2. is fet before us, looking unto the Captain and Perfecter of ̓Αμαράντι our faith, Jefus, who, for the joy proposed unto him, en- voy Tūs dóžns dured the cross, defpifed the shame, and hath fat down at siguvos the right hand of the throne of God. Would it not raife ans. and inflame any courage to fee his commander to adven- Jam. i. 12. ture fo boldly upon all hazards, to endure fo willingly all hardships? Whom would not the fight of fuch a fore- gdgoues. runner animate and quicken in his course; who, by running in the straight way of righteousness with alacrity and conftancy, hath obtained himself a moft glorious crown, and holdeth forth another like thereto, for the reward of those who follow him? Now as our Lord's doctrine, fo did his example, in the nature and defign thereof, respect and appertain to all men, it being alfo like the light of heaven, a common spectacle, a public guide, to guide our feps in the way of peace: if it do not appear so, if it do not effectually direct all, it is by accident and befide 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 faid concerning the univerfal revelation of Chriftian doctrine may be applied to Chrift's practice. 9. Jefus is the Saviour of all men, as having combated and vanquished all the enemies of man's welfare and happinefs; difpoffeffing them of all their pretences and usurpations over man, difarming them of all their power and force against him; enabling us to withstand and overcome them. Man's falvation hath many adverfaries of different nature and kind; fome directly oppugning it, fome fore Heb. vi. 20. SERM. mally prejudicing it, some accidentally hindering it; some LXXIV. alluring, fome forcing, fome difcouraging 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 ufurpations, his delufions, and his temptations to fin; the world, with its fnares and baits, its violences, persecutions, and menaces; the flesh, or natural concupiscence, with its bad inclinations and propenfities to evil, its lufts and pleasures; fin, with its guilt, and mischievous confe quences; the law, with its rigorous exactions, hard meafure, and harsh boding; confcience, with its accufations and complaints, its terrors and anguishes; divine anger, with its effects, death and hell. a All these our Lord hath in several and fuitable ways defeated; as to their malignity, contrariety, or enmity in refpect of man's falvation; he hath, as Zachariah prophefieth in his Benedictus, Luke i. 71, faved us from our enemies, and from the hands of all that hate us: fo that being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, we might (apóbws) Safely and securely, without danger or fear, ferve him, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life. 74. Matt. xiii. 28. Dragon, Acts x. 38, John xii. The devil, (that enemy, that adverfary, that accufer, Luke xi. 19. that flanderer, that murderer, that greedy lion, that crafty 1 Pet. v. 8. ferpent, the strong one, the mischievous one, the destroyer,) Rev. xii. 3, who ufurped an authority, and exercifed a domination &c. over mankind, as the prince of this world; who made 1John ii.14. prize of them, captivated them at his pleasure; who deRev. xii. 9. tained them under the power (or authority) of darkness 31. xiv. 30. and wickedness; who had the power of death; him Ephef. ii. 2. Our Saviour hath destroyed or defeated, (xarnpynos, as the Apostle to the Hebrews fpeaketh; that is, abolished Coloff.i.13. him as to any farther pretence of empire or power over us ;) him he hath dejected from heaven, (I Saw Satan 2Tim.ii. 26. like lightning falling down from heaven;) him he hath caft Luke x. 18, out: Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the xvi. 11. vi. 12. 2 Cor. iv. 4. Acts xxvi. 18. x. 38. Heb. ii. 14. John xii. 31. xvi. 11. ὁ Χρισὸς ἐδὲν τῆς ἰδίας ποιήσεως προσκατέλιπε τῷ ἄρχοντι τῇ κόσμου τούτου. Athan. contra Apoll. p. 628. 29. 22. 15. prince of this world be caft out: all his works he hath dif- SERM. Solved: For this caufe, faith St. John, the Son of God did LXXIV. appear, that he might diffolve the works of the devil. He 1 John iii.8. combated this firong one, (this mighty and dreadful foe of Matt. xii. ours,) and baffled him, and bound him, and difarmed him, (taking away Tavonλíav airs, the whole armour in which he Luke xi. 21, trusted,) and spoiled him, (rà oxeún diýpraσe, rifled all his baggage, bare away all his inftruments of mifchief,) and plundered all his house; leaving him unable (without our Coloff. ii. fault, our baseness, our negligence) to do us mischief, (as máis, is intimated in the 12th of St. Matthew, and 11th of St. Luke x. 19. Luke;) yea, he triumphed over all these infernal principalities and powers, and expofed them, as St. Paul faith: he imparted to his disciples ability to trample upon all 1 Pet. v. 9. his power, by him all his followers are fo fortified as conquer the wicked one, as St. John fays: he affordeth light to discover all his wiles and fnares, ftrength and courage to withstand all his assaults, to repel all his fiery darts, to put him to flight. 1 Joh.ii.14. Eph. vi. 11. 2 Cor.ii.11. Eph. vi. 16. Eph. iv. 27. to Jam. iv. 7, The world alfo (that is, the wicked principles, the bad cuftoms, the naughty conversation and example which commonly prevail here among men; alluring to evil and deterring from good; the cares alfo, the riches, the pleasures, the glories of the world, which poffefs or distract the minds, fatiate and cloy the defires, employ all the affections and endeavours, take up the time of men; all in the world which fafteneth our hearts to earth, and to these low tranfitory things; or which fink them down toward hell; and which detain them from foaring toward heaven) is an enemy, an irreconcileable enemy to our falvation; the friendship thereof being inconfiftent with a friendship in us toward the God of our falvation; or in him toward us for the friendship of the world is enmity Jam. iv. 4. with God; and, If any man love the world, the friendship 1 John ii. of the Father is not in him. And this enemy our Lord hath vanquished, and enabled us to overcome. Be of John xvi. courage, faith he, I have overcome the world: he, by a constant felf-denial and temperance, defeated the bewitching pleasures and flattering glories of it; he, by an immove 15. 33. |