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Ser. 56. verified and made good, what manner of perfons fhould we be in all holy converfation and godliness? How would the lively thoughts of another world raife us above the vanities of this prefent life, and fet us out of the reach of the most powerful temptations that this world can affault us withal, and make us to do all things with regard to eternity, and to that folemn and dreadful account which we must one day make to God the judge of all?

It is nothing but the want of a firm and steady belief of thefe things that makes our devotion fo dead and heartlefs, and our refolutions of doing better fo weak and inconstant. This it is that makes us so easy a prey to every temptation, and the things of this world to look fo much bigger than they are; the enjoyments of it more tempting, and the evils of it more terrible than in truth they are: and, in all difputes betwixt our confcience and our intereft, this makes us hold the balance fo unequally, and to put our foot upon the lighter scale, that it may feem to weigh down the other.

In a word, in proportion to the ftrength or weaknefs of our faith, our obedience to God will be more or lefs conftant, uniform, and perfect; becaufe faith is the great fource and spring of all the virtues of a good life.

Fifthly, We have great reason to fubmit to the ordinary strokes of God's providence upon ourselves, or near relations, or any thing that is dear to us. Most of these are eafy, compared with Abraham's cafe. It requires a prodigious strength of faith to perform fo miraculous an act of obedience.

Sixthly, and lastly, We are utterly inexcufable, if we difobey the cafy precepts of the gofpel. The yoke of Chrift is eafy, and his burden light, in comparison of God's former difpenfations. This was a grievous commandment which God gave to Abraham, to facrifice his only fon. It was a hard faying indeed; and which of us could have been able to bear it?

But, if God think fit to call us to the more difficult duties of felf-denial, and fuffering for his truth and righteoufnefs fake, we must, after the example of faithful Abraham, not think much to deny or part with any

thing for him, no not life itself. But even this, which is the hardest part of religion, is eafier than what God put upon Abraham.

For it doth not offer near the violence to nature, to lay down our life in a good caufe, as it would do to put a child to death with our own hands: befides the confideration of the extraordinary comfort and fupport, and the glorious rewards that are exprefsly promifed to our obedience and felf-denial in fuch a cafe; encouragement enough to make a very difficult duty eafy.

And whilst I am perfuading you and myself to refolution and conftancy in our holy religion, notwithstanding all hazards and hardships that may attend it, I have a juft fenfe of the frailty of human nature, and of human refolution; but withal, a moft firm persuasion of the goodness of God, that he will not fuffer thofe who fincerely love him and his truth, to be tempted above what they are able.

I will add but one confideration more, to fhew the difference betwixt Abraham's cafe and ours. God commanded him to do the hardest thing in the world, to facrifice his only fon; but he hath given us an cafy commandment. And, that he might effectually oblige us to our duty, he hath done that for us which he required Abraham to do for him: He hath not fpared his own Son, his only fon; but hath given him up to death for us all. And hereby we know that he loveth us, that he hath given his Son for us.

What God required of Abraham, he did not intend fhould be executed; but one great defign of it was, to be a type and figure of that immenfe love and kindness which he intended to all mankind in the facrifice of his Son, as a propitiation for the fins of the whole world.

And as the moft clear and exprefs promife of the Meffias was made to Abraham, fo the most exprefs and lively type of the Meffias that we meet with in all the Old Teftament, was Abraham's offering up his fon. And, as St. Hierom tells us, from an ancient and conftant tradition of the Jews, the mountain in Moriah, where Abraham was commanded to facrifice Ifaac, was mount Calvary, where our Lord alfo was crucified and offered up, that by this one facrifice of himself once offer

VOL. IV.

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ed,

ed, he might perfect for ever them that are fanctified, and obtain eternal redemption for us.

Now, to him that fitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb that was flain; to God even our Father, and to our Lord Jefus Chrift, the firft begotten from the dead; to the prince of the kings of the earth; to him that loved us, and washed us from our fins in his own blood: to him be glory, and honour, thanksgiving and power, now and for eAmen.

ver.

SERMON

LVII.

Mofes's choice of afflicted piety, rather than a kingdom.

Preached at Whitehall, 1687, before the Princefs Anne.

HEB. XI. 24. 25.

By faith Mofes when he was come to years, refused to be called the fon of Pharaoh's daughter; chufing rather to fuffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleafures of fin for a feafon.

Τ

HE text fets before us a great pattern of self-denial. For our better understanding whereof, I will give a brief account of the hiftory of Mofes, to which our Apostle in this paffage doth refer.

When Mofes was born, his parents, for fear of the cruel law which Pharaoh had made, that all the male children of the Hebrews, fo foon as they were born, fhould be put to death, after they had hid him three months, did at laft expofe him in an ark of bulrufhes upon the river Nile; and committed him to the providence of God, whom they despaired to conceal any longer by their own

care.

Pharaoh's daughter, coming by the river-fide, efpied him, and had compaffion on him; and gueffing him to be one of the Hebrew children, called for an Hebrew

nurfe,

nurfe, to take care of him; who, as the providence of God had ordered it, proved to be the child's own mother. As he grew up, Pharaoh's daughter took care of his education in all princely qualities, and adopted him for her fon; and Pharaoh, as Jofephus tells us, being without fon, defigned him heir of his kingdom.

Mofes refused this great offer. But why did he refuse it, when it seemed to be prefented to him by the providence of God, and was brought about in fo ftrange a manner; and when by this means he might probably have had it in his power to have eafed the Ifraclites of their cruel bondage, and perhaps have had the opportunity of reducing that great kingdom from the worship of idols to the true God? Why would he refufe a kingdom which was offered to him with fo fair an opportunity of doing fo much good?

That which feems to have prevailed with Mofes, was this, that he could not accept the offer without forfaking God, and renouncing his religion: for confidering how ftrangely the Egyptians were addicted to idolatry, he could never hope to be accepted for heir of that kingdom, unless he would violate his confcience, either by abandoning or diffembling his religion.

And how unlikely it was, that he should prevail with them to change their religion, he might eafily judge by the example of Jofeph; who, though he had fo much authority and efteem amongst them, by having been so great a benefactor to their nation; yet he could never move them in the leaft in that matter.

Now, feeing he had no hopes of attaining or enjoying that dignity, without finning grievously against God, he would not purchase a kingdom at fo unconfcionable a price. And as for the deliverance of his people, he was content to truft the providence and promife of God for and in the mean time was refolved rather to take a part in the afflictions of God's people, than to enjoy the pleafures of fin for a feafon.

that;

From the words thus explained, I fhall take occafion to confider these four things.

1. Mofes's felf-denial, in preferring and chufing a state of afflicted piety, before any finful enjoyments whatfoever, before the greateft earthly happiness and profperi

D 2

ty,

ty, when it was not to be attained and enjoyed upon other terms than of finning against God.

2. I fhall confider thofe circumstances of this felf-denial of Mofes, which do very much commend and fet off the virtue of it.

3. The prudence and reasonableness of this choice, in preferring a ftate of afilicted piety and virtue, before the greatest profperity and pleasure of a finful courfe.

4. Suppofing this choice to be reasonable, I fhall inquire how it comes to pafs, that fo many make another choice.

I. We will confider Mofes's felf-denial, in preferring a ftate of afflicted piety before the greatest earthly happinefs and profperity, when it is not to be enjoyed upon other terms than of finning against God. He was adopted heir of the kingdom of Egypt, one of the greatest and moft flourishing kingdoms then in the world; but he could not hope to attain to this dignity, and to fecure himfelf in the poffeffion of it, upon other terms than of complying with that nation in their idolatrous religion and worship.

Now, being brought up in the belief of the true God, the God of Ifrael, by his mother, to whom Pharaoh's daughter had committed him, he could not, without great violence to his confcience, and the principles of his education, renounce the true God, and fall off to the idolatry of the Egyptians: and for this reafon he refused to be called the fon of Pharaoh's daughter; chufing rather to fuffer affliction with the worshippers of the true God, than to have the temporary enjoyment of any thing that was not to be had without fin; for fo the word ought to be rendered, ή πρόσκαιρον ἔχειν αμαρτίας απόλαυσιν, than to have the temporary enjoyment of fin. fes's felf-denial, that he chofe rather to fuffer affliction with the worshippers of the true God, than to gain a kingdom by the renouncing of God and religion.

So here was Mo

II. We will confider thofe circumftances of his felfdenial, which do very much commend and set off the virtue of it.

1. What it was he refused to be called; the fon of Pharaoh's daughter; that is, to be heir of one of the greatest and most flourishing kingdoms in the world: A tempta

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