the World may offer yet God doth infinitely out-bid them what they offer is but a piece of light and fading vanity but what God offers is a weight an eternal weight of glory The Reward must needs be great because God rewards not only according to mans work but according to the riches of his own grace and bounty A great King accounts it his shame to give a mean reward he must do all things like himself It is said Heb. 11. 16. of those believing Patriarchs God was not ashamed to be called their God why for saith the Text he hath prepared for them a City that is if God had not well provided for them if he had not prepared a glorious habitation for them somewhat like himself he might have been ashamed to be called their God so This Reward excels in the sureness of it It will certainly come Though we may fail of success in our work yet we shall not misse the reward of it as the Prophet Isaiah speaks Isai 49. 4. I have laboured in vain there he mist his success yet my judgment is with the Lord and my works with my God there he finds the reward And it is the Apostles argument 1 Cor. 15. ult let us abound in the work of the Lord and the Argument is not only because there is a reward but the reward is sure as knowing that our labour is never in vain in the Lord. It is true God doth defer it at least the greatest part of it but why is it that he might learn us to live upon Trust He having given us such a sure promise he may presume that we have enough to support and encourage us though the reward be for a season deferred Therefore saith the Apostle Heb. 10. 35 Cast not away your confidence which hath great recompence of reward Oh but we do not see the recompence we possess it not therefore he adds yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry and the just shall live by faith 2. The second work of the spirit is a work of mortification Mans selfish nature must be mortified else he will be serving himself and not the Lord. That life in a believer that serves the Lord springs out of the death of his carnal life as man ceaseth to be his own so doth he come to serve the Lord and live to him The message that Moses carried to Pharaoh from the Lord was this Let my people go that they may serve me they must go out of the Land of Egypt and from under the power of Pharaoh that they might serve the Lord. So must man go out of that selfish nature that keeps him in bondage and out of the power of the infernal Pharaoh before he can be capable of serving God And this is done in us by the Spirit that smites those enemies that held us in bondage that we might go forth into the liberty of serving God pride must be smitten and self-love must be smitten and unbelief must be smitten c. before any man doth indeed enter into the Lords service No man saith Christ can serve two Masters especially two Masters whose commands are contradictory now every lust is a Master which man is serving and till the Spirit crucifie them man cannot be serving Jesus Christ 3. The third work is a work of renovation The faculties of the soul must pass under a spiritual renovation before they can be fit to serve the Lord. For I am not of their opinion who think that if lust be mortified the soul would of it self return into its primitive course as a river that is stopt if you remove the dam it runs of it self or a stone that hangs in the ayr by a string if you cut the string of it self it falls to the centre but there must be aliquid divinitus infusum a principle infused from above to act it towards the Lord and in his service Lust it is a confining thing it makes man dwell at home and serve himself but grace is enlarging it lets man out of himself and brings him home to the Lord and to the service of the Lord. He that is a fit servant for a Prince must have many accomplishments to fit him for it And so would I dwell here I might shew you how many things are necessary to accomplish a man for the Lords service as Faith Love Hope Humility Self denyal c. are all necessary that he may be a vessel of honour prepared for his Masters 2 Tim. 2. 21. use For natural accomplishments may fit a man for the service of man but man must be accomplisht from Heaven to fit him for the Lords service But I passe Use 2 That which I infer next from the Doctrine as more suitable to the day is matter of Lamentation Ah may we not mourn over our selves mourn over the City mourn over the Nation yea mourn over the world that that which is mans great work is laid aside as if it was none of his work at least other work hath the praeeminence Oh that the Devil that hath no true right to us for he neither made us nor bought us and that payes no wages but death and misery and that the lusts of the flesh to which as the Apostle saith we are no debtors yet these should have more real more free more chearful service then God then Christ to whom we are indebted by so manifold ingagements and obligations This is true but ah is it not sad Hath not Christ think you better deserved of the World Hath he not Might not Jesus Christ promise himself that after he had manifested such stupendious love as to lay down his life for an undone world that they should be so amazed so ravisht with this love as to be ambitious who should love him most and honour him most and serve him most that the very naming the name of Christ should be argument enough to provoke them to ingage in any service for him Yea and after he had laid down the price of his blood the greatest price that Heaven or Earth could give to purchase us might he not promise himself that the Sons of men would no longer be their own but his wholly his But alasse we see nothing lesse then this in the world Men after all this are their own live to themselves serve themselves and Christ and his service both are despised and rejected of men may not Heaven and Earth even tremble and be astonisht at this Or when men are serving Christ do they serve him with the best do they serve him with such life and vigour as they serve themselves and the world do not they bring him the lame the blind the torn the maymed as if any thing was good enough for Christ as Jeroboam made Priests of the lowest of the People so do men think the lowest of their affections the very dreg of their time and strength good enough for God Was there ever
of the several vanities that he had observed under the Sun and one is this which he mentions chap. 6. vers 7. All the labour of man is for his mouth and yet the belly is not filled Man labours and toyls and yet he hath not out of all his labour that which can fill his appetite His appetite is capable of more then his labour can bring him in which was a vanity he observed But now he that is in sincerity serving the Lord when he comes to enjoy the fruit and the reward of his service he shall find that which will be satisfaâ—tion to his soul for he shall find God himself both in that service and especially at the end of the service As the good servant in the Gospel that had faithfully served the Lord was bid to enter into his Masters joy Other servants that are serving the World and serving their Lusts may enter into the joy of the creature and the joy and pleasure of sin but not into the joy of the Lord which is only that joy that can satisfie the heart of man Lastly consider this If a man doth not serve the Lord he doth not Live I say again he doth not live It is true take life in a large sense so it is the whole activity of the Reasonable Soul displaying it self in the several actions of man in the world But take life in a stricter and Theological sense and so it is the activity of the soul displaying it self by the power of the holy Ghost in the service of God So that when the service of God is the Sphaere and the Spirit the Principle of the souls activity this is most truly and properly life The Apostle saith of the Widdow that liveth in pleasure She is dead while she liveth The Widdow indeed She serveth God day and night as he 1 Tim. 5. 6. said before But she that liveth in pleasure not serving God is dead whiles she liveth I suppose you have heard the story of him that was converted in the latter end of his days and therefore would have this Inscription upon his Tomb after his death Diu fui in Mundo parum vixi I have been long in the world but I have lived but a little For that life which man lives whiles he is serving himself and acting his lusts and promoting his own carnall interests is so far differing from that life which he at first reveived from God in innocency that it is quite another and not that life as if he that had lived the life of a man should come to live the life of a beast as Nebuchadnezar did you would say this is another and not the same life So that when a man is in sincerity serving the Lord this is his original life and his only true life Thus I have spoken to you as men and the ingagements you see that lie upon you on that lowest account are very strong to be serving the Lord but those that follow are yet stronger wherein I shall speak to you 2. Secondly as Christians Christians I mean not in the largest sence as Baptized only into the name of Christ but in a stricter sence as Baptized into his Spirit for I believe I speak to many such at this time and as such you are peculiarly ingaged to serve the Lord. For 1. First you are those that the Lord hath bought peculiarly bought for though Christ in a more general sence hath purchased all men yea the whole creation for his Lordship and dominion over all creatures comes in upon him upon the account of his death yet his death and the purchase of it doth more peculiarly relate to his people Being the Saviour of all men yet especially of those that believe Now the Apostle argues 1 Cor. 5. last concerning the believing Corinthians Ye are not your own why For ye are bought with a price What then Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are the Lords As a servant that is but hired is ingaged to serve his Master how much more if bought with his money as those servants under the Law So that the Lord hath a stronger title to you then others as being not only his by the more common right of Creation but the more peculiar right of purchase And the price that purchased you is not Silver and Gold which yet are accounted the most precious things in nature but the blood of Christ the blood of God which is indeed the greatest that Heaven or Earth could yeeld So that Gods expectation cannot but be greater upon his people then upon any others that whoever deny him service yet that they should yeild it to him And so saith the same Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. If one died for all then were all dead c. that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him that died and rose again As if he should say we were indeed all dead but we are purchased from death into life by Jesus Christ and this life now we are not to live it to our selves but unto him by whose death we come to live 2. As Christians you are Married to the Lord. He hath divorced you from your first Husband which is the Flesh which you were in League with and obedient to and he hath married you to himself Now why are you thus married the Apostle tels you Rom. 7. 4. We are married to him that is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit to God We are married to Christ Crucified that we might be dead to sin and to Christ raised from the dead that we might live a new life which is to bring forth fruit to God As we know in Marriage a man marries a wife that she might bring forth her fruit as by himself and not by another so to himself and not to another also Now this is to serve the Lord when the fruit we bring forth we bring it forth not to our selves but unto him And we know also by the Law of marriage the wife is not her own but her Husbands and hath not power over her own body but the Husband as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 7. 4. So is the case here ye that are married to the Lord the Law of that spiritual Relation doth take you off from being your own or having a power over your selves so as to be serving your selves and doth ingage you to be the Lords and to be serving him 3. As Christians and Saints he hath bestowed more cost and workmanship upon you then upon others he hath formed you for himself He hath Created you again So saith St. Paul Eph. 2. 10. We are his workmanship why So are all Creatures but he adds Created in Christ Jesus we have a new creation in him but to what are we created To good works that we should walk in them and what is that but to be serving the Lord Why was it that the Lord did so expect fruit
Lord where we have first the Act serve and the Object about which it is conversant The Lord. The Act Serve The word Service as applyed to God or Christ is taken either more strictly for that service we perform when we are upon some part of his instituted worship as prayer hearing c. and so is enjoyned in the second Commandement and is so taken Acts 26. 7. Or else it is taken more largely for any duty of Christianity any action of mans life which he performes in obedience to the will of God and subordination to his glory and so it takes in all the other 9. commandements and is thus used Rom. 12. 11. And as I conceive also in the Text. Then for the Object The Lord. In the Heb. Jehovah And whether it is God the Father here spoken of or Christ who is the King mentioned before that was set up and the Son that is to be kissed though it is somwhat controverted among Expositors yet I think it not material to spend time about it seeing we cannot serve one aright but we must serve both the Son as in the Father and the Father as in the Son And then for the persons that are thus more particularly admonisht to serve the Lord they are Kings and Judges men that sit at the upper end of the world The eminency of their place doth not the more acquit them but rather the more ingage them to service Though they be Kings yet there is a King eminently above them from whom their power is derived upon them and therefore they must serve If they be Judges yet there is a Judg higher then they before whose tribunal they must stand and be judged and therefore they must be serving So that the main propositions from hence resulting which I shall insist upon is this Doct. That the great work that every man hath to do in this world especially those that are set down in places of power and seat of judgement is To be serviceable to the Lord. This is the work we come into the world for and if this be not done we shall give but a sad account of our lives to the Lord. God made all creatures for service the Sun Moon and Stars for service the Clouds the Air the Fire the Earth for service c. but much more Man And it is a monster in nature for the creature not to serve its end As for the Sun and Stars above to confine their light within themselves and not to send it down upon the world for the clouds to hold in their moisture and not to resolve it upon the earth for the earth to imprison its fatness and virtue within its selfe and not send it forth in grass corn and fruit for the use of man and beast would not this be a monstrous thing in the world So for man to be serving himself with those powers and abilities that God hath put into him and not the Lord is a thing as absurd and anomalous Look through the whole Creation you shall not find any creature that was made for it self every creature is serving some end without it self So is man much more made for an end without himself which is to serve the Lord. So that Right Honourable my work I come upon this day amongst you is to put you in mind of your Debt I mean that Homage Duty Service and Subjection which you all do owe to the Lord and which must be paid by every one of you for though the Debt of Satisfaction which through sin we owe to the justice of God he remit it for Christs sake to his people yet the Debt of Service which we owe to his glory he neither hath remitted it or ever will remit it to any of the sons of men But that we may a little understand what it is to serve the Lord take this twofold distinction There is a serving God either mediately or more immediately First As to the Mediate Service The whole Creation serveth God by and through man the creatures without reason without sence and without life do serve their Creator as they hold forth to man such footsteps of his glory wherein he may admire praise and glorifie him The greatness of the works of God shew forth his greatness their beauty his beauty their perfection his perfection their order and workmanship his infinite wisdom their course and motion his providence in the world Or else they serve God through man as they serve to maintain him in his Life and Being which being maintained are to be subordinated to the Lord and to his service The Sun sends down its influence that man might live the clouds distil their moisture that man might live the Sea sends forth its waters that man might live the Earth brings forth its fruit that man might live all do serve the life of man that the life of man might serve the Lord. 2. There is a more immediate serving God and so there are but two sorts of creatures Angels and Men whose service can immediaâ—ely refer to God For no other creatures are capable of an immediate application of themselves to him They have not understanding to know him Wills to close with him and so not capable of applying themselves to him or looking at him in any thing they do The second Distinction is this There is a serving the Lord ex Intentione and praeter Intentionem 1. Praeter Intentionem or accidental as to him that serveth and so wicked men who thought of nothing less then serving God yet have eminently served him As Nebuchadnezar King of Babylon served a great service for God against Tyrus Ezek 29. 18 19 20. and God gave him the land of Egypt for his wages though he intended nothing less then to serve God in that Designe And so the King of Assyria was employed by God to execute his vengeance upon the hypocritical Nation of the Jews Howbeit saith the Text he meaneth not so neither doth his heart think so as you read Isa 10. 6 7. And so when Baasha executed the vengeance threatned upon the house of Jeroboam 1 King 15. 29. and when Zimri executed the vengeance threatned upon Baâ—sha 1 Kings 16. 12. and when Jehu executed the judgement of God upon the house of Ahab it was service done for God though they did not do it with an intention of serving him yea the most eminent Prophesies upon Record have been fulfilled besides the intention of the instruments As that of Christ's being crucified for the redeeming of the world Pilate and the Jews thought of nothing less then the fulfilling the counsel of the Lord in what they did or in serving his decrees or his glory therein though they were eminently served hereby 2. There is a serving God ex Intentione when the mind and heart of man respect God in what he doth And this is the service that God calls for and the Text calls for and doth alone find acceptance with God Now to this
from his Vineyard Isaiah 5 and so wondred when he found it not it was because he had bestowed so much cost and work upon it He had fenced it and gathered out the stones of it and planted it with the choicest vine c. THEN he looked it should bring grapes Had not the Lord bestowed so much workmanship upon it he would not have had such expectation upon it God expects better and greater things from his people then from others that they should do that which is singular and serve him at a more Spiritual and excellent rate then others either do or can and that upon the account of that workmanship he hath bestow'd upon them It is said 1 Kings 10. 12. That King Salomon made of Almug-trees Psalteries and Harps for Singers to praise the Lord. So all the spiritual carving and polishing that God bestowes upon the Spirits of his people is but to make them instruments of service and praise to himself 4. Consider again Doth not the Law of Love as you are Christians ingage you to be serving the Lord How can we say we love Christ if we do not serve him The Nature of love is to deny it self and overlook it self that it may serve the person beloved Amor est Donum Amantis in amatum Through love the true lover bestowes himself upon his beloved and if himself much more his service 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that Ancient speaks it suffers not a man to be his own Now can we justifie it to Christ or our own Consciences that we love him if we bestow not ourselves in a way of service upon him What is the reason that men are so serving themselves is it not because they love themselves It is this self love that doth confine man within himself and makes his charity not only according to the Proverb to begin at home but to end at home also But now when man doth indeed love the Lord this same carries him out of himself and resigns him up to the Lord and all that he is and hath to be serviceable to the Lord. Lastly How can we say that Christ reigns in our hearts if we are not serving the Lord For the great end of Christs reigning is to subdue in man his self-ish Nature whereby he is serving himself that the Lord that hath right to him may have service from him Christ is made Lord of the Creation is set up King of all the Earth that he might make the Creation serviceable to God that God might have the glory of his works come into him through his Son So is he set up King in the heart of man that he might smite those Enemies that had carried him from God and his service and subdue his Reason his Will his Affections and his whole man to the obedience and service of God And it is an undoubted Truth That as Christ's Reigne and Kingdom prevails in the heart of man so doth he cease from himself and is serving the Lord. Thus I have spoken to you also in the second capacity as Christians and now give me leave also to speak a few words to you in that capacity wherein you meet in this House that is as Magistrates or Parliament-men And in this more Publique and Politique capacity you are to serve the Lord For every Talent that is in our hands we are to improve it for our Masters use For what is a Talent but any Ability or Opportunity that is in the hand of man whereby he may be useful to the praise and service of God And where there are more Talents there will be the more required He that had but one Talent in the Parable was severely punish'd because he hid that one in the Earth and improv'd it not But suppose that he that had the five Talents should have hid them all five Should he not have been punish'd five times more Men that have great Estates great Authority great Interests and act in a wider Sphaere then other men as they have greater advantages in their hand so their sin and their punishment will be greater if they I do not say abuse them for the unprofitable Servant did not so but neglect them and improve them not The Magistrates of the world Kings and Judges of the Earth are particularly called upon to serue the Lord in the Text and to Kiss the Son in the next verse For whatever power they have even as such is derived from Christ the Mediator By whom Kings Reigne and Princes Decree Judgement For Christ is not only King of his Church but King of the VVorld and so the powers of the world are derived from him and are to be subordinate and subjected to his honour and so far as they are concerned to the Affairs of his Kingdom in the Earth I intend not to enter that perplex controversie of the Magistrate's power in matters of Religion about which I find a double Extream The one in that opinion of ERASTVS that would have no other Government in the Church but that of the Civil Magistrate and his power to interpose even in the Intrinsick affairs thereof The other is that of the Jesuites whose Maxime is Magistratus nil statuat de Religione And I have heard it asserted That nothing of the first Table or of the Souls of men doth at all fall under his cognizance which I humbly conceive to be an Extreme on the other hand For without question somthing may and ought to be done by the Magistrate to the befriending of the Gospel and its progress in the world I shall only speak of those things which I think most sober men will grant because it is a tender point 1. Without question he is to do nothing to hinder the preaching and spreading the Gospel within his Dominion For the true Gospel hath a right to be preached in all Nations The Apostles had a Commission from him that was King of kings and Lord of lords To Go and teach all Nations and therefore they might by vertue of their Royal Commission from him demand of the subordinate Kings and Rulers of the Earth a free and un-interrupted passage through their several Dominions for the publishing of this Gospel in any part of them And they were not to be accounted Intruders in any Nation or any City which they might enter into for the discharge of their Commission 2. Because the Gospel hath such a Right Magistrates ought not only to suffer it but to remove outward Obstructions that may lie in its way and that may hinder the passage and progress thereof And he doth but that which is to have a free passage through the world So that if any should shut their dores against the preaching of it he may command them to be opened If any should lay hands upon the Dispensers of it to restrain them in their work he may command that they be set at liberty if any disturb and interrupt them in their work he may forbid all such