SERMON XXII. THE HOLINESS OF CHRISTIANS OUGHT TO BE MATT. V. 16. "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." WHEN it pleased the only-begotten Son of God to come down in his own person to visit his creatures upon earth, and to converse with men in their own likeness, he found that all flesh was corrupt, and mankind in general addicted either to idolatry or superstition; for all the world then were either Jews or Gentiles: but the Gentiles, although they had some confused notions of a Deity, such as dim-sighted nature could direct them to, yet, "when they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, but changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like unto corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things'." Wherefore they being guilty of such gross idolatry in worshipping the creature more than the Creator, God blessed for evermore, God was justly pleased to give them up to uncleanness and vile affections, whereby their moral actions became as corrupt and bad as their unrighteous services; insomuch 1 Rom. i. 21. 23. that, although they still retained some common and natural distinctions betwixt good and evil, virtue and vice, among them; yet it was very rare to find one so much as striving to square his life according to them, so as to choose the good and refuse the evil, to embrace virtue and eschew vice, according to the knowledge they had of them. And if any did chance to offer at something like to virtue and goodness, yet it was still attended with so many failures and imperfections, that there was nothing of real virtue and goodness in it. And as for the Jews, although they had the law and the prophets to direct them both in their religious and civil actions, in the service of God and behaviour to one another, yet came they very short of performing their duty to either; insomuch that the very Pharisees themselves, which were, as the apostle tells us, "the strictest sect of all the Jewish religion 2," they placed their religion only in external rites and ceremonies; as in frequent washing of themselves and vessels; in often fasting with sad countenances and disfigured faces; in long prayers, and hypocritical giving of alms, to be seen of men; in avoiding the company of such as themselves judged to be sinners; in paying the lesser tithes which the law required: and in the superstitious observation of all such things as they received by tradition from their forefathers, whereby they made the law of none effect; as Christ himself told them "." Howsoever, by this means they were in great esteem among the people, being accounted the most devout and religious sect among them; notwithstanding they neglected the weightier matters of the law, as our Saviour himself told them to their faces, saying, "Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint, and anise, and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone 1." 4 When Christ, therefore, came into the world, finding 2 Acts xxvi. 5. 3 Matt. xv. 6. 4 Ib. xxiii. 23. mankind, both Jews and Gentiles, so strangely corrupted and debauched both in their principles and practices, although his great design was to offer up himself as a propitiatory sacrifice for their sins, yet it was necessary also that he should instil into them better principles, and acquaint them more clearly with the nature of true religion; without the practice whereof they would not be fitted, nor qualified, to partake of that happiness which he designed to purchase for them with his own blood. Hence, therefore, it was, that, although his death would have been as meritorious for us as soon as he was born, as it was afterwards, yet he thought good to live about thirty years, as it were incognito, in the world; and after that, too, before he would die for us, he continued above three years conversing with all that had the happiness to enjoy his presence. All which time he spent in working all sorts of real miracles for the confirmation of his doctrine, and in instructing mankind more perfectly than they had been before instructed in the principles of religion and morality; how to serve God, and love one another, better than they had done before. And intending now to introduce a new religion into the world, grounded upon clearer principles, and better promises, than any before had been, for this purpose he chose out several persons to be daily conversant with him, that so having his doctrine and discipline frequently inculcated into them, they might fully understand what he would have mankind both to believe and do, and so might faithfully transmit the same down to posterity, that all mankind might afterwards know how to come to heaven. To these persons, therefore, in a more particular manner, and to all in general that would come unto him, he revealed and explained the whole mystery of godliness; assuring them all along that the strictest sect of all their religion, even the Pharisees themselves, howsoever specious and plausible they seemed to others, yet they came very short of that which he required: "For," saith he, "except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven "." Whereby he plainly acquainted them that, in order to their attaining everlasting happiness, it was absolutely necessary not only that they should be righteous, but that they should be more righteous than they were which hitherto had seemed the most righteous of all among them. And, therefore, he would not have them think that, because he came to die for their sins, he therefore came also to destroy the law and the prophets: "No," saith he, “I am come not to destroy, but to fulfil 6." He came not to revoke the moral law, but to establish and enforce it with stronger arguments, and with greater obligations to obedience, than ever had been before. And, therefore, he would have all men know that they who would be his disciples, so as to be saved by him, must outvie and excel all others, whether Jews or Gentiles, in all manner of righteousness both to God and men. And this is that which he assures us of in my text, saying, "Let your light," &c. In speaking to which words I shall not discourage your attention with putting any superfluous glosses upon them, nor yet with forcing any impertinent observations from them; but, in the same order wherein our Saviour spake them to his disciples, I shall endeavour so to explain them unto you, that you may all know the true intent and meaning of your Saviour in them, and for the future, I hope, order your lives and conversations accordingly. First, saith he, "Let your light:" for the opening of which words we must look back to ver. 14, where our Saviour saith to his disciples, "Ye are the light of the world." But elsewhere he saith of himself, "I am the light of the world'." And St. John, speaking of him, saith, "This is the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." So that Christ and true Christians are equally termed "the lights of the world," though in diverse respects: Christ is the 5 Matt. v. 20. 7 John viii. 12. • Ver. 17. 8 Ib. i. 9. sun, they the beams that are sent from him; he the fountain, they the streams that flow from that fountain of light or he is light in and from himself, as theirs is borrowed or derived from him, as the light of the moon is from the sun; so that he giveth light from himself to them, they reflect it from him to others. Before the Sun of righteousness arose with healing in his wings a spiritual darkness was spread over the face of the whole earth; but so soon as he appeared he presently shined upon his disciples, first enlightening them with true knowledge and understanding of the mysteries of salvation; and so they, being first enlightened by him, were thereby enabled to enlighten others after the same manner. And hence it is that Christ, the true light, calls his disciples also "The light of the world:" whereby he intimated to them how they should carry and behave themselves towards the rest of mankind: for nothing, you know, is more pure, nothing more piercing, nothing more acceptable, nothing more pleasant, nothing more advantageous, nothing more apparent than light: according to all which qualities of light our Saviour would have his disciples to deport themselves in this world; forasmuch as they being sent to open the eyes of others, the eyes of others would be sure to be upon them; as our Saviour intimates in the following words: "A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick and it giveth light unto all that are in the house." By which expressions he acquaints them, that now that he had endowed them with knowledge and grace as with light, they must not think to lie hid: but to be as a city upon an hill, apparent to all that pass by; and as a candle which being lighted, is not put under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that all may see it and receive light from it. And therefore he adds, 66 'Let your light so shine before men;" that is, the truth of that grace and faith which you have now re 9 Matt. v. 14, 15. |