Serm.CXXXVIIL. as a proper Means of our Salvataón. z Experience being the ftrongeft Motive and Incitement to Pity 5 and con - fequendy to give us the greater Affurance of his tender AffeEtion to us. It was of great Ufe, that he fhould live in fo mean and a f i&ed áCondition, to confound the Pride, and Vanity, and Fantaftry of the World, and to con- binée Men of there two great Truths, that God may love thofe whomhe affliêtss and that Men may be innocent, and virtuous, and contented, in the rtìidit ofPo- verty, and Reproach, and Suffering. Had our blefféd Saviour been a 4reát world- ly Prince, his Influence and Example might poffibly have made more Hypo- crites and fervile Converts, but it would not have tended one whit to make Men more inwardly Good and Virtuous. The great Arguments that Mutt do this, múft be fetched not from the Pomp and "Profperiity of this World, but from the Happinefs and Miferyof the other. Betides, had our Saviour appear- ed in any great Power and Splendor, the Chriftian ReligionCould not have fö clearly been acquitted from the Sufpicion ofa worldly Intere& and Defgn. And then the Scripture af]'igns very plain and excellent Reafons of his fuffe- ringof Death, that he might Mahe Expiationfor the Sins of the while World, that he might take away Sin by the Sacrifice of himfelf, and put an End to that trouble- fore and unreafonable Way of Worfhip by Sacrifice, which was in Ufe both anìo g Yeses and Heathen!, and that by conquering Death, and him that had the Power of it, he might deliver thofe, who, through Fear of Death, were all their Life-, . time fobjeet to Bondage; as the Apofrle fpeaks, Heb. 2. 14. For tho' the Death of Chris, barely confider'd in it felt; be far from an Encouragement to us to hope for Immortality; yet the Death of Chris, confidered together with his Reffar- reflion from the Dead, and his Afcenfion into Heaven, is the clearer, and most fenfible, and tno& popular Demonftration that ever was in the World, Of ano- ther Life after this, anda blefîed Immortality., So thát Conflating oúr.Saviour rofe from the Dead, it is far from being ridiculous, to rely upon One that died for our Hopes of Immortality. V. As for the Plainnefs of our Saviour's Do&rive, and of the InfIruments whereby it was propagated, this is fo far from being an Obje&ion againft -it, that it is the great Commendation of it. It contains a plain Narrative of ourSaviour's Life, and Miracles, and Death, and Refurredlion, and Afcenfion into Heaven, and a few plain Precepts of Life ; but the molt excellent and rea- fonable, and the freer from all Vanity and Folly, that are to be met with iri any. Book in theWorld. And can any Thingbe more worthy of God, or more likely to proceed from him, than fo plain and ufeful a Do&rine as this ? Law- givers do not ufe to deliver their Laws in eloquent Language, to Pet them off with Flourifh of Speech, and to perfwade Met- to a Liking of them by fubtil and artificial Inunuations ; but plainly, and in few Words, to declare their Will and Pleafure. And for the Inftturnettts God was pleafed to make ufe of for the publifliing of this Do&rine, we grant they were generally tilde and unlearned Men, and ,our Religion bath rio Reafon tobe alhamed of it ; for this was very agreeable to the Simplicity of the whole Defign, that all Things should be managed in t eplain -. eft Manner; that Chririanity might be introduced in Poch a Wayy, ás there might be no poffible Sufpiciotî rof a humane Contrivance, or worldly.. Deuign in it. The Religion it felt' was fimple and plain, there were no worldly In- ducements to the embracingof it, but all imaginable Difcouragements upon that Account; the Infrruments of propagating it were fimple and plain Men, unaf- fitted by Learning or Art, by Secular Power and Authority;, which is fö fat- from being a Difparagement to our Religion, that it is a great Reputatioin-to" it and a plain Evidence of its Divine Original, that it was from God, and was countenanced and carried on by him, not by Might nor by POrrer, bei by theSpirit of the Lord. And in Truth confidering the Natureof this boarine, which confined either of plain Matter of Tad, or of eafie and familiar Precepts and Rules for à good Life, the Apoldes were as fit for the propagating of, it, as any fort of Perlons in the World: For it did not require Depth of Undemanding, of Sharpnefs of K k 4'ß'ií
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=