THE RIGHTEOUSNESS EVANGELICAL DESCRIBED; THE CHRISTIAN'S CONQUEST OVER THE BODY OF SIN; IN THREE SERMONS, PREACHED AT CHRIST-CHURCH, DUBLIN. TO THE MOST NOBLE AND VIRTUOUS PRINCESS, THE LADY DUCHESS OF ORMOND, HER GRACE. MADAM, I PRESENT your Grace herewith a testimony of my obedience, and of your own zeal for the good of souls. You were in your great charity, not only pleased to pardon the weakness of this discourse, but to hope it might serve as a memorial to those that need it, of the great necessity of living virtuously, and by the measures of christianity. Madam, you are too great and too good to have any ambition for the things of this world; but I cannot but observe, that in your designs for the other world, you, by your charity and zeal, adopt yourself into the portion of those ecclesiastics, who humbly hope, and truly labour, for the reward that is promised to those wise persons who convert souls, if our prayers and your desires that every one should be profited in their eternal concerns, cast in a symbol towards this great work, and will give you a title to that great reward; but, Madam, when I received your commands for dispersing some copies of this sermon, I perceived it was too little to be presented to your eminence; and if it were accompanied with something else of the like nature, it might, with more profit, advance that end which your Grace so piously designed; and, therefore, I have taken this opportunity to satisfy the desire of some very honourable and very reverend personages, who required that the two following sermons should also be made fit for the use of those, who hoped to receive profit by them. I humbly lay them all at your Grace's feet, begging of God, that even as many may receive advantages by the perusing of them, as either your Grace will desire, or he that preached them did intend. And if your Grace will accept of this first testimony of my concurrence with all the world that know you, in paying those great regards, which your piety so highly merits, I will endeavour hereafter, in some greater instance, to pursue the intentions of your zeal of souls, and, by such a service, endeavour to do more benefit to others, and by it, as by that which is most acceptable to your Grace, endear the obedience and services of, MADAM, Your Grace's most humble And obedient Servant, JER. DOWN. THREE SERMONS. SERMON I. THE RIGHTEOUSNESS EVANGELICAL tions, be united to God by a new nature, and made alive by a new birth, and fulfil all righteousness; to be humble and meek as Christ, to be merciful as our heavenly Father is, to be pure as God is pure, to be partakers of the Divine nature, to be wholly renewed in the frame and temper of our mind, to become people of a new heart, a direct new creation, new For I say unto you, that except your righteousness principles, and a new being, to do better than all the exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pha-world before us ever did, to love God more perfectrisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.-Matt. v. 20. DESCRIBED. ly, to despise the world more generously, to contend for the faith more earnestly; for all this is but a proper and a just consequent of the great promises, which our blessed Lawgiver came to publish and effect for all the world of believers and disciples. REWARDS and punishments are the best sanction of laws; and although the guardians of laws strike sometimes with the softest part of the hand in their The matter which is here required, is certainly executions of sad sentences, yet in the sanction they very great; for it is to be more righteous than the make no abatements, but so proportion the duty to scribes and Pharisees; more holy than the doctors the reward, and the punishment to the crime, that of the law, than the leaders of the synagogue, than by these we can best tell what value the lawgiver the wise princes of the sanhedrim; more righteous puts upon the obedience. Joshua put a great rate than some that were prophets and high priests, than upon the taking of Kiriath-Sepher, when the reward some that kept the ordinances of the law without of the service was his daughter and a dower. But blame; men that lay in sackcloth, and fasted much, when the young men ventured to fetch David and prayed more, and made religion and the study the waters of Bethlehem, they had nothing but the of the law the work of their lives: this was very praise of their boldness, because their service was much; but christians must do more. no more than the satisfaction of a curiosity. But as lawgivers, by their rewards, declare the value of the obedience, so do subjects also, by the grandeur of what they expect, set a value on the law and the lawgiver, and do their services accordingly. And, therefore, the law of Moses, whose endearment was nothing but temporal goods and transient evils, "could never make the comers thereunto perfect ;” but the έπεισαγωγὴ κρείττονος ἐλπίδος, "the superinduction of a better hope," a hath endeared a more perfect obedience. When Christ brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, and hath promised to us things greater than all our explicit desires, bigger than the thoughts of our heart, then tyyĺžoμev T OE, saith the apostle," then we draw near to God;" and by these we are enabled to do all that God requires, and then he requires all that we can do; more love and more obedience than he did of those who,-for want of these helps, and these revelations, and these promises, which we have, but they had not, were but imperfect persons, and could do but little more than human services. Christ hath taught us more, and given us more, and promised to us more, than ever was in the world known or believed before him; and by the strengths and confidence of these, thrusts us forward in a holy and wise economy; and plainly declares, that we must serve him by the measures of a new love, do him honour by wise and material glorifica Heb. vii. 19. Nunc te marmoreum pro tempore fecimus; at tu Si fætura gregem suppleverit, aureus esto. They did well, and we must do better; their houses were marble, but our roofs must be gilded and fuller of glory. But as the matter is very great, so the necessity of it is the greatest in the world. It must be so, or it will be much worse: unless it be thus, we shall never see the glorious face of God. Here it concerns us to be wise and fearful; for the matter is not a question of an oaken garland, or a circle of bays, and a yellow riband: it is not a question of money or land; nor of the vainer rewards of popular noises, and the undiscerning suffrages of the people, who are contingent judges of good and evil : but it is the great stake of life eternal. We cannot be christians, unless we be righteous by the new measures: the righteousness of the kingdom is now the only way to enter into it; for the sentence is fixed, and the judgment is decretory, and the Judge infallible, and the decree irreversible: "For I say unto you," said Christ, "unless your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven." Here, then, we have two things to consider. 1. What was the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. 2. How far that is to be exceeded by the righteousness of christians. 1. Concerning the first. I will not be so nice : understood their master's meaning to have been, that they should put more affections to labour and travel, and less to their pleasure and recreation; and so it was with the Pharisee for as the Chaldees taught their morality by mystic words, and the Egyptians by hieroglyphics, and the Greeks by fables; so did God by rites and ceremonies external, leading them by the hand to the purities of the heart, and by the services of the body to the obedience of the spirit; which because they would not understand, they thought they had done enough in the observation of the letter. in the observation of these words, as to take notice | though if they had not been fools, they would have that Christ does not name the Sadducees, but the scribes and Pharisees, though there may be something in it: the Sadducees were called "Caraim," from cara, "to read;" for they thought it religion to spend one third part of their day in reading their Scriptures, whose fulness they so admired, they would admit of no suppletory traditions: but the Pharisees were called "Thanaim," that is, devrɛpúTa, they added to the word of God words of their own, as the church of Rome does at this day; they and these fell into an equal fate; while they "taught for doctrines the commandments of men," they prevaricated the righteousness of God: what the church of Rome, to evil purposes, hath done in this particular, may be demonstrated in due time and place; but what false and corrupt glosses, under the specious title of the tradition of their fathers, the Pharisées had introduced, our blessed Saviour reproves, and are now to be represented as the avriαpádεiyua, that you may see that righteousness, beyond which all they must go, that intend that heaven should be their journey's end. 66 2. In moral duties, where God expressed himself more plainly, they made no commentary of kindness, but regarded the prohibition so nakedly, and divested of all antecedents, consequents, similitudes, and proportions, that if they stood clear of that hated name which was set down in Moses's tables, they gave themselves liberty, in many instances, of the same kindred and alliance. If they abstained from murder, they thought it very well, though they made no scruple of murdering their brother's fame; 1. The Pharisees obeyed the commandments in they would not cut his throat, but they would call the letter, not in the spirit: they minded what God | him fool, or invent lies in secret, and publish his spake, but not what he intended: they were busy disgrace openly: they would not dash out his brains, in the outward work of the hand, but incurious of but they would be extremely and unreasonably the affections and choice of the heart. 'Yμeiç Táv- angry with him: they would not steal their brother's Tа σaρkikws Vevoŋkarɛ, said Justin Martyr to Try- money, but they would oppress him in crafty and phon the Jew, "Ye understand all things carnally;" | cruel bargains. The commandment forbade them that is, they rested év ñλáoμarı evσɛ¤ɛíaç, as Nazi- to commit adultery; but because fornication was not anzen calls it, "in the outward work of piety," named, they made no scruple of that; and being which not only Justin Martyr but St. Paul calls commanded to honour their father and their mother, carnality," not meaning a carnal appetite, but a they would give them good words and fair obcarnal service.b Their error was plainly this: they servances; but because it was not named that they never distinguished duties natural from duties rela- should maintain them in their need, they thought tive; that is, whether it were commanded for itself, they did well enough to pretend "corban," and let or in order to something that was better; whether it their father starve. were a principal grace, or an instrumental action: so God was served in the letter, they did not much inquire into his purpose: and, therefore, they were curious to wash their hands, but cared not to purify their hearts; they would give alms, but hate him that received it; they would go to the temple, but did not revere the glory of God that dwelt there between the cherubims; they would fast, but not mortify their lusts; they would say good prayers, but not labour for the grace they prayed for. This was just as if a man should run on his master's errand, and do no business when he came there. They might easily have thought, that by the soul only a man approaches to God, and draws the body after it; but that no washing or corporal services could unite them and the shechinah together, no such thing could make them like to God, who is the Prince of Spirits. They did as the dunces in Pythagoras's school, who, when their master had said "Fabis abstineto," by which he intended"they should not ambitiously seek for magistracy,"they thought themselves good Pythagoreans if they "did not eat beans ;" and they would be sure to put their right foot first into the shoe, and their left foot into the water, and supposed they had done enough; b Gal. iii. 3. and vi. 12, 13. Phil. iii. 34. 3. The scribes and Pharisees placed their righteousness in negatives: they would not commit what was forbidden, but they cared but little for the included positive, and the omissions of good actions did not much trouble them; they would not hurt their brother in a forbidden instance, but neither would they do him good according to the intention of the commandment. It was a great innocence if they did not rob the poor, then they were righteous men; but they thought themselves not much concerned to acquire that godlike excellency, a philanthropy and love to all mankind. Whosoever blasphemed God was to be put to death; but he that did not glorify God as he ought, they were unconcerned for him, and let him alone. He that spake against Moses, was to die without mercy; but against the ambitious and the covetous, against the proud man and the unmerciful they made no provisions. Virtus est vitium fugere, et sapientia prima They accounted themselves good, not for doing 4. They had one thing more as bad as all this: they broke Moses's tables into pieces, and, gathering | Pharisees." I wish it were no worse amongst us; up the fragments, took to themselves what part of and that all christians were indeed righteous as duty they pleased, and let the rest alone; for it was they were; "est aliquid prodire tenus:" it would a proverb among the Jews, "Qui operam dat præ- not be just nothing. But I am sure that to bid cepto, liber est à præcepto;" that is, "if he chooses defiance to the laws of Christ, to laugh at religion, one positive commandment for his business, he may to make a merriment at the debauchery and dambe less careful in any of the rest." Indeed, they nation of our brother, is a state of evil worse than said also, "Quis multiplicat legem, multiplicat vitam;" that of the scribes and Pharisees; and yet, even "He that multiplies the law, increases life;" that among such men, how impatient would they be, is, if he did attend to more good things, it was so and how unreasonable would they think you to be, much the better, but the other was well enough; but if you should tell them, that there are no present as for universal obedience, that was not the measure hopes or possibility, that, in this state they are in, of their righteousness; for they taught that God they can be saved! would put our good works and bad into the balance, and according to the heavier scale, give a portion in the world to come; so that some evil they would allow to themselves and their disciples, always provided it was less than the good they did. They would devour widows' houses, and make it up by long prayers; they would love their nation, and hate their prince; offer sacrifice, and curse Cæsar in their heart; advance Judaism, and destroy humanity. Lastly: St. Austin summed up the difference between the Pharisaical and evangelical righteousness in two words; "Brevis differentia inter legem et evangelium; timor et amor." They served the God of their fathers "in the spirit of fear," and we worship the Father of our Lord Jesus "in the spirit of love," and by the spirit of adoption. And as this slavish principle of theirs was the cause of all their former imperfections, so it finally and chiefly expressed itself in these two particulars-1. They would do all that they thought they lawfully could do. 2. They would do nothing but what was expressly commanded. This was the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, and their disciples, the Jews; which, because our blessed Saviour reproves, not only as imperfect then, but as criminal now, calling us on to a new righteousness, the righteousness of God, to the law of the Spirit of life, to the kingdom of God, and the proper righteousness thereof,-it concerns us in the next place to look after the measures of this, ever remembering that it is infinitely necessary that we should do so; and men do not generally know, or not consider, what it is to be a christian; they understand not what the christian law forbiddeth or commandeth. But as for this in my text, it is indeed our great measure; but it is not a question of good and better, but of good and evil, life and death, salvation and damnation; for unless our righteousness be weighed by new weights, we shall be found too light, when God comes to weigh the actions of all the world; and unless we be more righteous than they, we "shall in nowise," that is, upon no other terms in the world, "enter into the kingdom of heaven." Now concerning this, we shall do very much amiss, if we take our measures by the manners and practices of the many who call themselves christians; for there are, as Nazianzen expresses it, the οἱ τότε καὶ νῦν Φαρισαῖοι, “ the old and the new c Sed Beelzebulis callida commenta Christus destruit. | Omnes videmur nobis esse belluli Et festivi saperdæ, cùm simus oamρót. VAR. Passim corvos sequitur, testâque lutoque being, according to the Jewish proverbial reproof, 1. Therefore, when it is said our "righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees," let us first take notice, by way of precognition, that it must at least be so much; we must keep the letter of the whole moral law; we must do all that lies before us, all that is in our hand: and therefore opytážeσ0α, which signifies" to be religious," the grammarians derive άñò то~ xεipaç оpéyeolaι, “from reaching forth the hand:" the outward work must be done; and it is not enough to say, "My heart is right, but my hand went aside." Prudentius saith, that St. Peter wept so bitterly, because he did not confess Christ openly, whom he loved secretly. Flevit negator denique A right heart alone will not do it; or rather, the heart is not right, when the hand is wrong. "If a man strikes his neighbour, and says, Am not I in jest? it is folly and shame to him," said Solomon. | religion is something that is not seen, it is the hidFor, once for all, let us remember this, that chris- den man of the heart; orì rìs →ɛòs ëvdòv, “it is tianity is the most profitable, the most useful, and God that dwells within ;" and true christians are the most bountiful institution in the whole world; men, who, as the Chaldee oracle said, are woλuv and the best definition I can give of it is this;-It | ¿ooáμevoɩ vovv, “clothed with a great deal of mind." is the wisdom of God brought down among us, to do And, therefore, those words of the prophet Hosea, good to men, and therefore we must not do less than "Et loquar ad cor ejus," "I will speak unto his the Pharisees, who did the outward work; at least, heart," is a proverbial expression, signifying to let us be sure to do all the work that is laid before speak spiritual comforts, and, in the mystical sense, us in the commandments. And it is strange that signifies εvayyɛλíšɛɩv, “to preach the gospel: this should be needful to be pressed amongst where the Spirit is the preacher, and the heart is christians, whose religion requires so very much the disciple, and the sermon is of righteousness, and more. But so it is, upon a pretence that we must peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Our service to serve God with the mind, some are such fools as to God must not be in outward works and scenes of think that it is enough to have a good meaning. religion, it must be something by which we become "Iniquum perpol verbum est, 'bene vult,' nisi qui like to God; the Divine prerogative must extend bene facit." And because we must serve God in beyond the outward man, nay, even beyond the the spirit, therefore they will not serve God with mortification of corporal vices; the Spirit of God their bodies; and because they are called upon must go "in trabis crassitudinem," and mollify all to have the power and the life of godliness, they our secret pride, and ingenerate in us a true huabominate all external works as mere forms; and mility, and a christian meekness of spirit, and a because the true fast is to abstain from sin, there- Divine charity. For in the gospel, when God enfore they will not abstain from meat and drink, joins any external rite or ceremony, the outward even when they are commanded; which is just as work is always the less principal. For there is a if a Pharisee, being taught the circumcision of the bodily and a carnal part, an outside, and a cabinet heart, should refuse to circumcise his flesh; and as of religion in christianity itself. When we are if a christian, being instructed in the excellencies of baptized, the purpose of God is, that we cleanse spiritual communion, should wholly neglect the ourselves from all pollution of the flesh and spirit, sacramental; that is, because the soul is the life of and then we are, indeed, kalapoì őλot, “clean all man, therefore it is fitting to die in a humour, and over." And when we communicate, the commandlay aside the body. This is a taking away the sub- ment means that we should be made one spirit with ject of the question; for our inquiry is, how we Christ, and should live on him, believing his word, should keep the commandments? how we are to do praying for his Spirit, supported with his hope, rethe work that lies before us, by what principles, freshed by his promises, recreated by his comforts, with what intention, in what degrees, after what and wholly, and in all things, conformable to his manner, "ut bonum bene fiat," "that the good life; that is the true communion. The sacraments thing be done well." This, therefore, must be pre- are not made for sinners, until they do repent; supposed we must take care that even our bodies they are the food of our souls, but our souls must bear a part in our spiritual services. Our voice and be alive unto God, or else they cannot eat. It is tongue, our hands and our feet, and our very bowels good to "confess our sins," as St. James says, and must be servants of God, and do the work of the to open our wounds to the ministers of religion; commandments. but they absolve none but such as are truly penitent. : This being ever supposed, our question is, how much more we must do? and the first measure is this, whatsoever can be signified and ministered to by the body, the heart and the spirit of a man must be the principal actor. We must not give alms without a charitable soul, nor suffer martyrdom, but in love and in obedience; and when we say our prayers, we do but mispend our time, unless our mind ascend up to God upon the wings of desire. Desire is the life of prayer; and if you indeed desire what you pray for, you will also labour for what you desire; and if you find it otherwise with yourselves, your coming to church is but like the Pharisees going up to the temple to pray. If your heart be not present, neither will God; and then there is a sound of men and women between a pair of dead walls, from whence, because neither God nor your souls are present, you must needs go home without a blessing. But this measure of evangelical righteousness is of principal remark in all the rites and solemnities of religion; and intends to say this, that christian | Solemn prayers, and the sacraments, and the assemblies of the faithful, and fasting days, and acts of external worship, are the solemnities and rites of religion: but the religion of a christian is in the heart and spirit. And this is that by which Clemens Alexandrinus defined the righteousness of a christian, Δικαιοσύνη συμφωνία τῶν τῆς ψυχῆς μερῶν· "all the parts and faculties that make up a man, must make up our religion:" but the heart is "domus principalis," it is "the court" of the great King; and he is properly served with interior graces and moral virtues, with a humble and a good mind, with a bountiful heart, and a willing soul, and these will command the eye, and give laws to the hand, and make the shoulders stoop; but "anima cujusque est quisque ;" "a man's soul is the man," and so is his religion; and so you are bound to understand it. True it is, God works in us his graces by the sacrament; but we must dispose ourselves to a reception of the Divine blessing by moral instruments. |