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III. To confider the Penalty upon which this higher Degree of Duty is enjoined, Exclufion from the Kingdom of Heaven.

IV. To fhew the Equity of this Sentence, why the Duty of a Chriftian fhould be carried higher than the learnedeft Doctors among the Jews carried it.

V. To draw fome practical Inferences from this Doctrine.

Now having at that Time dispatched the First and Second of thefe, concerning the Defects of the Pharifaical, and the further Perfection of the Christian Righteousness, I fhall now proceed to the other Three Things which I propofed.

III. The Third Thing then I was to confider, is the Penalty upon which this higher Degree of Duty is enjoined, Exclufion from the Kingdom of Heaven: Ye shall in no cafe enter, fays our Saviour, into the Kingdom of Heaven; where there are Two Things to be accounted for:

1. The Nature of the Penalty.

2. How the Want of this higher Degree of Duty deserves it.

1. As to the Nature of the Penalty, it is a Total Debarring both out of the Church and out of Heaven; For the Kingdom of Heaven com prehends both the Kingdom of Grace and of Glory; and by it is commonly understood in the New Teftament, the Kingdom of the Meffiah. Why our Saviour ufually called the Meffiah's Kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven, or the Kingdom of God, may perhaps be worth while to enquire. By thefe Phrafes is meant the Chriftian Church under the Government of the Meffiah, which was by the Jews commonly styled the

Age

Age of the Meffiah, or the Kingdom of God, according to that famous Prophecy of Daniel, Dan. ii. 44. That the God of Heaven fhould fet up a Kingdom which fhould never be deftroyed, but fhould ftand for ever. The Meaning then here feems to be plainly this; Unlefs ye my Hearers obferve the Moral Law in a more full, perfect, and fpiritual Senfe, than is required by the Scribes' and Pharifees, who content themselves with the outward Obfervation of the Letter (fuch a Righteoufnefs that the Law cannot reach them), ye fhall not be counted worthy Members of the Chriftian Church here, or be admitted to the Kingdom of Glory hereafter. Perhaps one great Reafon why our Saviour loved to use this Phrafe, and to defcribe the State of the Chriftian Church under the Meffiah by the Kingdom of Heaven, might be first for the Word Kingdom, all Men had learned it from that Prophecy of Daniel; and they expected mighty Things from it, that the Meffiah would be a very great earthly Prince, and erect an univerfal Monarchy, in which they were often cutting out great Places and Preferments for themfelves; To have denied this of the Meffiah's being a King, as it would have been against the Scriptures of the Old Teftament, and against the Truth of the Thing, it being the nobleft Kingdom that ever was erected, and the most durable, being to laft for ever and ever in Heaven; fo it would have been fuch Doctrine that even his own Difciples could not have digefted. And therefore our Saviour chofe rather always to explain it, by calling it the Kingdom of Heaven, that fo he might raife their Minds above thefe Worldly Hopes; and fo when he was queftioned before Pilate about his

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being

being a King, he explained it thus, that his Kingdom was not of this World; and that it was not a Kingdom to be propagated by carnal Weapons, that wanted Soldiers to fight. This Kingdom of the Meffiah then is that happy State or Government of true Believers under Chrift their Head, which may well be resembled to a Kingdom, for the Excellency of it's Laws, for the Beauty of it's Order and good Difcipline, for the Greatness of it's Rewards, for the fubduing and punishing of it's Enemies, and the Obedience and Happiness of it's Subjects, under this great King Jefus Chrift. The being excluded any Share in this Kingdom, is certainly the being abandoned to Everlasting Mifery; as it is in the Parable, He that was thrown out from the Marriage Supper of the King's Son, as not having on a Wedding Garment, was caft out into Outer Darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of Teeth. Now because true Believers are all Members of the Visible Church, it is no unusual Thing for the Visible Christian Church to have it's Denomination from the better Part, and to be called the Kingdom of Heaven, tho' there is in it a great Mixture of Tares with the Wheat, Hypocrites with true Believers, who fhall be at the General Judgment separated from them, and finally excluded Heaven. For there after all, is the true Glorious Kingdom of Heaven, into which we shall never enter, except our Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharifees. And this leads me to the

2. Second Thing I propofed to confider, How the Want of this higher Degree of Moral Righteousness doth defervedly exclude from Heaven. Might it not have been a more equal Punishment

for

for a lower Degree of Righteousness to have been affigned a lower Degree of Glory? but to be altogether excluded Heaven and Happiness, and condemned to Everlasting Mifery for want of a fuperior Degree of Righteousness, seems hard: Efpecially if we confider that the Pharifees are represented as Men of good Moral Lives, as far as could be feen or obferved by the World; and if they fall short of the Higher Righteousness of the Gofpel, it might be imputed to the Times of Ignorance in which they were bred, and their Want of Opportunity to be better informed. In Anfwer to thefe Doubts and Difficulties, and firft as to this laft Excufe of their Ignorance, there is no neceffity that we enter into the Secrets of God's Judgments, to examine how far Ignorance will excuse those Faults, which have proceeded from pure invincible Error. I am fure that is not the Cafe of my Text; for the Ignorance of the Scribes and Pharifees in our Saviour's Days, was chiefly owing to their own Obftinacy, who having Ears, would not hear our Saviour's excellent Doctrine; and having Eyes, would not fee his great Miracles; and having Hearts, would not understand the Prophecies; and if after all it should be thought hard that fo fevere a Sentence should be pronounced against them, I anfwer, that it is not directly pronounced against them, but against fuch of our Saviour's Disciples as being educated in his School, fhould not obferve the Moral Law better than the Scribes and Pharifees thought neceffary. There is great Difference between these Two, Pharifaical Righteoufnefs in a Pharifee and in a Christian. And this brings me to the Fourth Thing I propofed to confider from the Words.

[SARM. IV. To fhew the Equity of this Sentence, why the Duty of a Christian fhould be carried Higher than the learnedeft Doctors among the Jews carried it. There are briefly Two Reasons for this Doctrine; the great Corruption of the Jewish Doctors in our Saviour's Days; and the great Advantages aChriftian has beyond what the Jews had.

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1. First, I fay, the great Corruption of the Jewifh Doctors in our Saviour's Days, which was fuch, by the Descriptions given of it in the New Testament, that it required a great deal of Reformation. When Matters where come to that pass, that Traditions were fet up to evacuate Scripture; when the chief of Religion was placed in external Ceremonies, and the weighty Matters of the Law were flighted and neglected; when the Promises of the Meffiah's Kingdom were all interpreted in a carnal Senfe; when the Commandments of the Moral Law were fo flightly taught, that Men thought it fufficient to perform the mere Shell of Duty, by refraining the grofs outward Acts of the Sins prohibited in the Law, without carrying it Home to the Heart and Soul; when Men thought they could atone for greater Crimes, by a Strictnefs in leffer Trifles, it was then high Time to preach up the Neceffity of obferving the true fpiritual Senfe of the Law, under the fevereft Penalties. And to think that the turning all Morality only to an external Decency, and the laying afide that which is the Soul of all Duty, the Purity of the Heart, the Principle of Love to God and Man, ought to be punished only with fome Abatement in the Degrees of Glory, would be to alter the Nature of God, who regards chiefly the inward Sincerity of the

Heart;

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