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SERMON II.

A Cafuiftical Difcourfe.

I PET. ii. 21.

Leaving us an Example, that ye should follow his Steps.

M

Y Argument here is the Imitation of Chrift, or the following Chrift's Example.

And in

treating of it, I proposed to do thefe Three Things.

First of all in general, To fhew the great Obligation that lies upon all Chriftians to follow Chrift's Example.

Secondly, To explain the Extent of this Obligation; How far, and in what Inftances

1

Inftances Chrift's Life is an Example to us, and doth oblige us to Imitation.

Thirdly, To propofe fome of those Virtues that our Saviour was most eminent for, and which are of the greatest Use in human Life, and ferioufly to recommend them to your Imitation.

The First of these Points I have already dispatched, and fhall not now trouble you with a Repetition of any thing about it.

I proceed therefore to the Second, which is to give an Account how far, and in what Inftances Chrift's Life is an Example to us, and doth oblige us to Imitation.

And here the Cafe that comes to be difcuffed, is this. Are we Chriftians, fo to propofe the Life of Chrift as the Pattern and Model of ours, as to take ourselves to be obliged to do every Thing that our Saviour did, and in the fame Manner that he did it? or, if we be not bound precifely to do this, What Rules and Measures are we to take in this Matter?

It is a very weighty Cafe, and deferves to be very carefully confidered, because indeed, upon the well adjufting of it does depend the Refolution of a great many particular Cafes of Confcience, which daily Y 2

happen

happen in human Life, and which, if Men have not right Notions of this general Point, do frequently bring both Inconveniencies upon themselves, and Harm to the Publick.

Now what I have to offer for the Refolution of this Cafe, I fhall, for my more diftinct Proceeding, comprize in fix Particulars, And the First of them is this:

I. Our Saviour cannot be fuppofed to have given us an Example in all the Paffages of his Life, because in fome of them it is not poffible for us to imitate him. Several of our Saviour's Actions were wholly extraordinary, and the immediate Effects of a fupernatural divine Power. Such were all the Miracles and wonderful Works he wrought for the Confirmation of his Doctrine, and giving Teftimony to the World that he was a Prophet fent from God; as his curing all Diseases, cafting out Devils, opening the Eyes of the Blind, making the Lame to walk, and the Dumb to speak, feeding many Thousands with a very small Quantity of Meat, raifing the Dead to Life, fafting forty Days and forty Nights, with many more Inftances of the like Nature. Now in these Things, I fay, we cannot pretend that Jefus Chrift was an Example to us, because they are above the Powers of human Nature to perform.

Some

Some of the Quakers indeed heretofore have been fo extravagantly vain, as to think they could do thefe Things by the Power of the Divine Spirit that was in them. And accordingly, as I have read, fome of them have attempted to raise a dead Man out of his Grave; and others, to faft forty Days, as our Saviour did. But their fhameful Difappointment in the first Enterprize, and their lofing their Lives in the second, hath been a Demonstration that it was not the Spirit of God (as they pretended) that they were acted by, but the Spirit of Error and Delufion.

II. But fecondly, neither was our Saviour an Example to us in all thofe Actions of his Life in which we are capable of imitating him. He did several Things which it is not warrantable for us to do; and he did likewise several Things which, tho' we can be supposed to do them lawfully, yet we are not obliged to do them: Nay, oftentimes it would be highly inconvenient if we fhould. This is This is my fecond Propofition;

and the Reafon of it is this: Our Saviour was not in the fame Circumftances that we

are in this World. He had a particular Office committed to him by his Father, for the Discharge of which many Things were neceffary, and many other Things highly convenient to be done by him, which would

by no means be allowable in us: and fuch of them as would be allowable, yet would indifcreet.

be

very

As for Inftance; Our Saviour, as being a Prophet fent from God, was vefted with an Authority to reform Religion, and the Abuse of God's Worship among the Jews; and by Virtue of that Commiffion and Authority, we fee he drove the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple, and overthrew the Tables of the Money Changers, and the Seats of them that fold Doves. Thefe being great Profanations of the Temple, which was defign'd, as our Saviour tells them, to be a House of Prayer, and not a Place of Merchandize. But now for any of us to do fuch an Action, who are private Perfons, and have no Commiffion from God, nor Warrant from publick Authority, tho' the Caufe of Religion was never fo much concerned, would be a Thing highly reproveable. I mention this the rather, because this Fact of our Saviour's hath fometimes. been pleaded for the countenancing of all outrageous, tumultuous, feditions Actions, that bold and mistaken Zeal could prompt a Man to. Men have thought, that by this Precedent they were warranted to affront the Minifters of Religion, even when they were doing their Office, to difturb the publick Service, to tear the Liturgy, to deface Church Windows and Monuments, to de

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