Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

SERMON XXXVI.

OF SUBMISSION TO THE DIVINE WILL.

Matt. xxvi. 39.

SERM.

THE

LUKE Xxii. 42.

Nevertheless let not my will, but thine, be done.

great controverfy, managed with such earnestness XXXVI. and obftinacy between God and man, is this, whose will fhall take place, his or ours. Almighty God, by whose conftant protection and great mercy we fubfift, doth claim to himself the authority of regulating our practice and difpofing our fortunes: but we affect to be our own mafters and carvers; not willingly admitting any law, not patiently brooking any condition, which doth not fort with our fancy and pleasure. To make good his right, God bendeth all his forces, and applieth all proper means both of sweetness and severity, (perfuading us by arguments, foliciting us by entreaties, alluring us by fair promises, scaring us by fierce menaces, indulging ample benefits to us, inflicting fore corrections on us, working in us and upon us by fecret influences of grace, by vifible difpenfations of providence ;) yet so it is, that commonly nothing doth avail, our will oppofing itself with invincible refolution and stiffness.

Here indeed the business pincheth; herein as the chief worth, fo the main difficulty of religious practice confifteth, in bending that iron finew; in bringing our proud hearts to ftoop, and our sturdy humours to buckle, fo as to furrender and refign our wills to the juft, the wife, the gracious will of our God, prescribing our duty, and affign

in 1 Cor.

tom. v. Or.

28, 43.

ing our lot unto us. We may accuse our nature, but it SERM. is our pleasure; we may pretend weakness, but it is wil- XXXVI. fulness, which is the guilty cause of our misdemeanors; Chryf. tom. for by God's help (which doth always prevent our needs, vi. Or. 12. and is never wanting to those who feriously defire it) we Or. 17. may be as good as we please, if we can please to be good; there is nothing within us that can refift, if our wills do yield themselves up to duty: to conquer our reafon is not hard; for what reafon of man can withstand the infinite cogency of thofe motives, which induce to obedience? What can be more eafy, than by a thousand arguments, clear as day, to convince any man, that to cross God's will is the greatest abfurdity in the world, and that there is no madness comparable thereto? Nor is it difficult, if we refolve upon it, to govern any other part or power of our nature; for what cannot we do, if we are willing? What inclination cannot we check, what appetite cannot we restrain, what paffion cannot we quell or moderate? What faculty of our foul, or member of our body, is not obfequious to our will? Even half the refolution, with which we pursue vanity and fin, would serve to engage us in the ways of wisdom and virtue.

Wherefore in overcoming our will the stress lieth; this is that impregnable fortress, which everlastingly doth hold out against all the batteries of reason and of grace; which no force of perfuafion, no allurement of favour, no discouragement of terror can reduce: this puny, this impotent thing it is, which grappleth with Omnipotency, and often in a manner baffleth it: and no wonder, for that God doth not intend to overpower our will, or to make any violent impreffion on it, but only to draw it (as it is in the Pro- Hof. xi. 4. phet) with the cords of a man, or by rational inducements to win its consent and compliance: our fervice is not fo confiderable to him, that he should extort it from us; nor doth he value our happiness at so low a rate, as to obtrude it on us. His victory indeed were no true victory over us, if he should gain it by main force, or without the

Quodcunque fibi imperavit animus obtinuit. San, de Ira, ii. 12.

SERM. concurrence of our will; our works not being our works, XXXVI. if they do not iffue from our will; and our will not being our will, if it be not free: to compel it were to destroy it, together with all the worth of our virtue and obedience: wherefore the Almighty doth fuffer himself to be withflood, and beareth repulfes from us; nor commonly doth he mafter our will otherwise, than by its own spontaneous converfion and fubmiffion to himb: if ever we be conquered, as we shall share in the benefit, and wear a crown; so we must join in the combat, and partake of the victory, by fubduing ourselves: we must take the yoke upon us; for God is only ferved by volunteers; he fummoneth us by his word, he attracteth us by his grace, but we must freely come unto him.

Our will indeed, of all things, is most our own; the only gift, the most proper facrifice we have to offer; which therefore God doth chiefly defire, doth most highly prize, doth most kindly accept from us. Seeing then our duty chiefly moveth on this hinge, the free fubmiffion and refignation of our will to the will of God; it is this practice, which our Lord (who came to guide us in the way to happiness, not only as a teacher by his word and excellent doctrine, but as a leader, by his actions and perfect example) did especially fet before us, as in the constant tenor of his life, fo particularly in that great exigency which occafioned these words, wherein, renouncing and deprecating his own will, he did express an entire fubmiffion to God's will, a hearty complacence therein, and a serious defire that it might take place.

For the fuller understanding of which cafe, we may confider, that our Lord, as partaker of our nature, and in all things (bating fin) like unto us, had a natural human will, attended with fenfes, appetites, and affections, apt from objects incident to receive congruous impreffions of pleasure and pain; fo that whatever is innocently grateful and pleasant to us, that he relifhed with delight, and

ὁ Ἐπεὶ τᾶτο κα αὐτὰ διαβάλλει τὰ ἀγαθὰ εἰ μὴ τοιαύτη αὐτῶν ἰσιν ἡ φύσις, ὡς και εκόντας προσδραμεῖν, ν' χάριν ἔχειν πολλήν. Chryf. in 1 Cor. Orat. 2,

thence did incline to embrace; whatever is diftafteful and SERM. XXXVI. afflictive to us, that he refented with grief, and thence was moved to efchew: to this probably he was liable in a degree beyond our ordinary rate; for that in him nature was most perfect, his complexion very delicate, his temper exquifitely found and fine; for fo we find, that by how much any man's conftitution is more found, by fo much he hath a smarter guft of what is agreeable or offenfive to nature: if perhaps fometimes infirmity of body, or diftemper of foul (a favage ferity, a ftupid dulnefs, a fondness of conceit, or stiffness of humour, fupported by wild opinions, or vain hopes) may keep men from being thus affected by fenfible objects; yet in him pure nature did work vigorously, with a clear apprehenfion and lively sense, according to the defign of our Maker, when into our conftitution he did implant thofe paffive faculties, difpofing objects to affect them fo and fo, for our need and advantage; if this be deemed weakness, it is a weakness connected with our nature, which he therewith did take, and with which, as the Apostle faith, he was encompassed. 'Exì è auSuch a will our Lord had, and it was requifite that he should have it, that he thence might be qualified to discharge Heb. v. 2. the principal inftances of obedience, for procuring God's favour to us, and for fetting an exact pattern before us; for God impofing on him duties to perform, and dispensing accidents to endure, very cross to that natural will, in his compliance and acquiefcence thereto, his obedience was thoroughly tried; his virtue did shine most brightly; therefore, as the Apostle faith, he was in all points tempted; Heb. iv. 15. thence, as to meritorious capacity and exemplary influ. ii. 10, 18. ence, he was perfected through fuffering.

Hence was the whole course of his life and converfation among men fo defigned, fo modelled, as to be one continual exercise of thwarting that human will, and clofing with the divine pleasure: it was predicted of him,

τὸς περίκειται ἀσθένειαν.

Pfal. xl. 7.

Lo, I come to do thy will, O God; and of himself he af- Heb. x. 7. firmed, I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, John vi. 38. but the will of him that fent me: whereas therefore such v.30. iv.34. a practice is little seen in achieving easy matters, or in ad

SERM, mitting pleasant occurrences; it was ordered for him, XXXVI. that he fhould encounter the roughest difficulties, and be

engaged in circumstances most harsh to natural apprehenfion and appetite; fo that if we trace the footsteps of his life from the fordid manger to the bloody crofs, we can hardly mark any thing to have befallen him apt to fatisfy the will of nature. Nature liketh refpect, and loatheth contempt; therefore was he born of mean parentage, and in a most homely condition; therefore did he live in no garb, did affume no office, did exercise no power, did meddle in no affairs, which procure to men confideration and regard; therefore an impoftor, a blafphemer, a forcerer, a loose companion, a feditious incendiary, were the titles of honour and the elogies of praise conferred on him; therefore was he exposed to the lash of every flanderous, every fcurrilous, every petulant and ungoverned tongue.

Nature doth affect the good opinion and good-will of men, especially when due in grateful return for great courtesy and beneficence; nor doth any thing more grate thereon, than abuse of kindness: therefore could he (the John vii. 7. world's great Friend and Benefactor) fay, the world hateth me; therefore were thofe, whom he with so much charity and bounty had instructed, had fed, had cured of diseases, (both corporal and spiritual,) so ready to clamour, and commit outrage upon him; therefore could he thus exJohn x. 32. postulate, Many good works have I fhewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye fione me? Therefore did his kindred flight him, therefore did his disciples John xiii. abandon him, therefore did the grand traitor iffue from his own bofom; therefore did that whole nation, which he chiefly fought and laboured to fave, conspire to persecute him, with most rancorous spite and cruel misusage. Nature loveth plentiful accommodations, and abhorreth to be pinched with any want: therefore was extreme pe

18.

nury appointed to him; he had no revenue, no eftate, no Matt. iii. certain livelihood, not so much as a house where to lay his 20.xvii. 25. head, or a piece of money to discharge the tax for it; he Luke viii.3. owed his ordinary support to alms, or voluntary benefi

xxi. 19.

« VorigeDoorgaan »