find me God stops his Ears against their Prayers who stop their Ears against his Law So you find it Prov. 28.9 Prov. 28.9 He that turneth away his Ears from hearing the Law even his Prayer shall be an Abomination And this is but Equity with God to refuse to hear them that refuse to hear him Wherefore should God give attention to us when we Pray more than we to him when he Speaks Secondly 2. Prayer must be with Affection If you would have God hear you you must be greatly affected with what you speak your selves Qui frigide rog at docet negare He that asks coldly begs only a Denial Certainly we cannot in reason expect that God should regard when we Pray when we do not regard our selves what we Pray How do you think a lazy Prayer that scarce drops out of your Lips should have Strength and Vigour enough to reach Heaven and to pierce through the Ears of God If you expect to shoot up a Prayer to Heaven you must draw it from a Soul full bent Thirdly 3. We must Pray with Patience We must come to God with Resolutions to wait for an Answer We must not give over Prayer because God doth not presently bestow a Mercy upon us that we desire this is not only to lose the Mercy it self but to lose our Prayers also God is a great God and King above all Gods and it is but his due State to be waited long upon in this Sense it is true He that believeth maketh not haste Certainly if we believe God to be infinitely wise to know the best Season to give us what we crave both for his Advantage and for ours also we shall not be in haste in our Suits or peevish because we are not strait answered but patiently wait God's leisure as knowing that God hath read our Petitions and will grant them when he seeth the fittest time 4. We must not make Requests for our Lusts Fourthly If you would pray so as to be heard be sure you put up no Requests in the behalf of your Lusts The Apostle gives the reason why of so many Prayers that are put up to God so few prove successful Jam. 4.2 James 4.2 You ask and you receive not because you ask amiss to consume it upon your Lusts Now to ask Blessings from God for our Lusts is when we beg any outward Mercy be it Wealth or Health or the like with reference to the gratifying of our own carnal and corrupt Desires therefore in James 4.4 the Apostle calls them Adulterers and Adulteresses Such Men are indeed like Adulteresses in this as they ask their Husbands those Things many times that they bestow upon them that they love better so wicked Men do many times ask those Mercies and Blessings of God that they intend to spend upon their Lusts that they love better than God and therefore it is no wonder that God who knows their secret Thoughts and Intents denies them Fifthly 5. We must put some stress upon our Prayers You must put some stress upon your Prayers if you would have them heard and accepted you must believe that it is to some purpose that you pray If we think it is of no great concernment to pray God will think it is of no great concernment to give what we pray for Sixthly 6. We must not put too much stress upon our Prayers You must take heed also that you do not put too much stress upon your Prayers that you do not set them up in the stead of Christ that you do not expect to merit by your Prayers the Things that you pray for but only look upon them as a Means and Ordinance that God hath appointed to obtain those good Things that you stand in need of 7. We must plead the merit of Christ in our Prayers Lastly You must be sure to make Jesus Christ your Friend when you come unto God or else all your Prayers are no better than scattered in the Air or spilt in the Carringe Benjamin was a Type of Christ in this respect Joseph chargeth his Brethren that they should not dare to see his Face again unless they brought their Brother Benjamin with them So truly they shall find no Welcome with God that do not bring their elder Brother Jesus Christ in the Arms of their Faith and plead his Merit and his Righteousness for the obtaining of their Desires So much for this Time and Text. A DISCOURSE UPON THE Omnipresence OF GOD WITH THE Improvements thereof FROM PSAL. cxxxix 7 8 9 10. By EZEKIEL HOPKINS Late Lord Bishop of London-derry LONDON Printed for Jonathan Robinson A. and J. Churchill John Taylor and John Wyat. 1696. A DISCOURSE UPON THE Omnipresence OF GOD. Psal cxxxix 7 8 9 10. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit Or whither shall I flee from thy Presence If I ascend up into Heaven thou art there if I make my Bed in Hell behold thou art there If I take the Wings of the Morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea even there shall thy Hand lead me and thy right Hand shall hold me THESE Words declare to us the glorious Attribute of God's Immensity or Omnipresence set forth in most elegant and lofty Terms as if the Prophet would mitigate that Dread that might well seize upon us from the consideration of the terrible Majesty of God being so near us by the sweetness and flourishing of the Expression Whither shall I go from thy Spirit This Question doth not imply that David was indeed contriving how to make an Escape from God nor pondering with himself in what forlorn Corner of the World he might lie obscure where the Presence of God should never apprehend him but this Interrogation serveth for a vehement Assertion Whither shall I go That is there is no Place where I can go or where I can imagine to go but thy Spirit and thy Presence will be with me Whither shall I go from thy Spirit That is either from thee who art a Spirit and so canst pierce and penetrate me be as truly and essentially in the very Bowels and Marrow of my Soul as my Soul is intimately and essentially in my Body From thy Spirit that is from thy Knowledge and thy Power thy Knowledge to detect and observe me thy Power to uphold or to crush me In what dark Corner or Cavern soever I should muffle my self yet thy presence is so universal that it would find me out for it stretcheth it self from Heaven to Hell If I make my Bed in Hell By Hell here may be meant either the Grave which is often so called in Scripture as Acts 2.27 Psal 16.10 Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see Cortion A Prophecy concerning Christ that is Thou wilt not leave my Person in the Grave so it is interpreted Verse 31. when it is said that his Soul was not left in Hell
Body of Sin and Death shall never enter with you into Life the Motions of Sin shall for ever cease in that Eternal Rest Are you here oppressed with Sorrows Do Afflictions overwhelm you Why there God shall kiss your blubbered Eyes dry again and wipe with his own Hands all Tears from your Eyes Are you pester'd here with Temptations and doth the evil One without intermission haunt you with black and hellish Thoughts with dreadful and horrible Dejections There you shall be quite beyond the Cast of all his fiery Darts and instead of these you shall have within you an ever-living Fountain bubling up spiritual and sprightly Contemplations and holy Raptures for ever such as you never knew when you were here upon Earth no not when you were in the most spiritual and heavenly Frame Are you here clouded and cast down with Desertions and doth God sometimes hide his Face from you in Displeasure In Heaven there shall be an everlasting Sun-shine God shall look freely and stedfastly upon you and you shall no more see him through a Glass darkly but Face to Face without any interruption or obscurity Think O Soul and then think of any Thing else if thou canst What is it to see the Father of Lights in his own Rays What is it to see the Sun of Righteousness lie in the Bosom of the Father of Lights What is it to feel the eternal Warmth and Influence of the Holy Ghost springing from both these Lights What is it to converse with Holy Angels and the Spirits of just Men made perfect to join with them in singing the same Hallelujahs for ever And when you have thought all this think once more Heaven is all this and more also Well then since Heaven is such and since such a Heaven as this is may be yours what should I say more but only with the Apostle 2 Cor. 7.1 Having these Promises dearly Beloved Promises of so certain and vast a Glory as this is let us cleanse and purify our selves from all filthiness and pollution both of Flesh and Spirit and perfect Holiness in the fear of God Is this Heaven attainable upon your Working Will God give it into Wages after working Will he share Stars nay will he share himself and his Christ among you Truly methinks Christians should not have patience to hear any more methinks it is too much dulness to indure another Motive besides this Why do you not interrupt me then Why do you not cry out What shall we do that we may work the Works of God Why do you not say and pray Lord work in us both to will and to do of thy good pleasure Why is there not such a holy Tumour and Disturbance among you some Questioning some Praying some Resolveing all some way or other testifying a sense of Salvation upon you But alas there is a general Silence Men and Women set as quiet in their Seats as if their Seats were filled rather with Monuments than with Men as if Heaven and eternal Salvation were of no Concernment for them to look after And wherefore is all this but because their Sight is short and their Faith weak They do not see afar off nor believe a far off Heaven they look upon as at a great distance and very unwilling they are to go so long upon Trust and sensual Persons as they are they look for present Reward and present Wages and will not stir till they have received it And this is the Reason why the Consideration of this great and infinite Glory affects Men no more they look for something present Well be it so Will God's Work bring in no present Profit The Reward in working for Salvation is great Yes it will and that such as you your selves shall acknowledge to be great And therefore Secondly Besides those set Wages that are to be received at the end of our Lives there are many Vails and occasional Incomes that accrew to God's Servants in the performance of their Work As First 1. God will provide for us while we are working Such are assured that God will provide for them while they are doing of his Work he hath assured them of the Mercies and good Things of this Life by Promise I do not say of the troublesome abundance of them but of the Enjoyment of them so far forth as they are Mercies and good Things Godliness says the Apostle is profitable for all things 1 Tim. 4.8 having the promise of the Life that now is and of that which is to come It hath the Promises of this Life and that is a large Charter by vertue whereof God feeds them and cloaths them and provides Sustenance and comfortable Enjoyments for all those that work in his Service And therefore that I may note it by the way most Men are greatly mistaken that labour and toil in the World to get Riches and great Estates this is not the right thriving Course if you would grow Rich First seek the kingdom of Heaven and the Righteousness thereof work out your own Salvation Labour for the true Riches and this will not only increase and improve your inward Graces but inincrease and improve your outward Mercies also It is true indeed Earth Worms may by carking and caring by pinching and drudging increase their heap of Dirt but let who will for my part I will not nor cannot call that Man a rich Man that hath more Curses than Enjoyments Well thus we see what great Vails God gives his Servants he gives them not only those of another Life but those of this Life so far as they are Mercies and that is one Vail Secondly As God provides for his Servants while they are working so their very Work is Wages and Reward enough for it self If God should only give us our Labour for our Pains as we use to say and never bestow a Penny more upon us than what we get in his Service we were even in that sufficiently rewarded It was certainly a violent Pang of distempered Zeal in that Person that carried Fire in the one Hand and Water in the other and being demanded a Reason of it his Answer was He would burn up Paradise and quench Hell-fire that so God might be served and Holiness embraced upon no other Motives than themselves This was a violent Pang and cannot be allowed this Fire was strange Fire and this Water was too much muddied to be Water of the Sanctuary But yet certainly that Man who abstracting from the Consideration of Heaven and Hell eternal Rewards and Punishments would not rather choose the Works of God and the Ways of Holiness than the Works of Sin and the Ways of Iniquity let that Man know he never yet had much Acquaintance with that Way and with that Work What says holy David concerning the Commandments of God In keeping them there is great Reward not only after keeping them when those Commands that have here been the Rule of our Holiness and Obedience
shall in Heaven become the Measure of our Reward and Happiness but in the very keeping of them while we are observing and obeying there is so great a Reward that we should have no cause to complain should God bestow no more upon us than to suffer us to obey his Law For 1. By working for Salvation we enjoy Communion with God First Herein we uphold Communion with God and Christ through the holy Spirit What is Communion but only a mutual Intercourse of Grace and Duty when Grace received reflects back again in the returns of Duty Then is Communion maintained between God and the Soul when we return Duty for Grace Now is this nothing to enjoy Fellowship and Communion with the great God of Heaven and Earth to be admitted to him to walk and converse familiarly with him and to enjoy him to see him who is invisible to lean upon him who is Almighty to enjoy him who is infinite Is all this nothing Will not the Souls of those who have by Experience tasted the sweetness of these Things cry out They are so excellent and transcendent that there is but one Thing more desirable and that is immediate Enjoyment What is Heaven it self but Communion with God at a nearer Hand Here it is by Faith there by Vision here by Ordinances there by immediate Influences here it is by Duty there by Union And therefore if the Consideration of a future Heaven be not cogent and prevailing with you behold here is a Heaven at present here is Happiness for your Work as well as for your Reward It was nobly spoken of Galleacius Carriciolus Cursed says he be that Man who preferreth the whole World before one hours Communion with Jesus Christ And certainly they who have once tasted the sweetness of this Communion will subscribe to that Anathema Secondly 2. Peace of Conscience an effect of working for Salvation There is usually great Peace and Tranquility of Conscience attends and accompanies this working for Salvation that fills the Soul with as great a Calm as the World had the first Morning of its Creation when there was no Wind or Tempest to discompose it Never is the Soul more at rest than when it is most at work I dare appeal to the Experience of the People of God in this Case Doth not your most solemn Feasts come in by your Obedience Doth ever Conscience look so friendly and pleasantly upon you as when it finds you active in the Ways of God It then wears not a Wrinckle or Frown upon its Face as Sin ruffles it so Duty smooths it out again and this causeth such Peace and Quietness in the inward Man as yields more satisfaction than all the noise and ruffling Gallantry and Jollity in the World can This is our rejoycing the Testimony of our Consciences that in simplicity and godly Sincerity we have had our Conversation in the World So that if Men care not for the Enjoyment of God yet if they love the Enjoyment of themselves if they would avoid Discords and Civil Wars in their own Breasts this were enough to excite them to this pacifying Work that attones and reconciles Conscience unto themselves 3. In working for Salvation God gives in many Testimonies of his Favor Thirdly In this working for Salvation God gives in many evident Testimonies of his special favour and acceptation unto the Souls of his Servants Thou meetest him says the Prophet that rejoyceth and worketh Righteousness Thou meetest him how not to contend with him as with Jacob not to slay him as thou didst Balaam but to embrace him to reveal and manifest thy self unto him If you have any comfortable Evidences that God is yours in a strict Bond of an everlasting and unalterable Covenant and that you are accepted of him in the well-beloved Examine how you attained to this Evidence Was it not through Obedience and Working This is the way whereby God manifests himself unto the Souls of his and should your comfortable Persuasions not come in thus by Obedience and Working They are but Enthusiastical and groundless Presumptions and not true and divine Assurance The Apostle in Pet. 2. exhorts us To make our Calling and Election sure But how is that to be done Why it is by giving diligence What is it Men desire and wish for next to Heaven Is it not Assurance of it Would you not have the Terrors and Torments of Conscience apprehending and pre-occupating your own Condemnation eased and removed Would you not have the unquiet tossings and fluctuations of your Minds because of the uncertainty of your future State and Condition setled and confirmed Why then be persuaded to Work believe it this Evidence is never received in any other way than in a way of Duty God will not hold his Light of Assurance to them who will not work the Works of Obedience 4. Obedience accompanied with Joy Fourthly Those that are diligent in working for Salvation many times have high Spring-tides of Joy Joy that is unspeakable and glorious that rusheth in upon the Soul and ravisheth it with a sweet and potent Delight while it is in ways of Obedience Now this tho' it be not ordinary with every Christian yet God sometimes vouchsafes it especially to the most laborious working Christians as a Cordial to revive and quicken them that they should not faint and grow weary in their Work He gives them many times such prelibations of future Glory such bright Glimpses of himself passing before them that they scarce know wherein their state differs from the state of the Glorified unless it be that it is shorter in the duration lasting not so long as theirs Well then should you be asked as they were in the Parable Why stand you here idle all the day long You could not return the same Answer as they did because no Man hath hired us for God hath hired you and that at no less a rate than all these great and glorious Things that have been propounded to you do amount unto A glorious Heaven a blessed Work that is accompanied with Communion with God Peace of Conscience Assurance of divine Favour and Joy in the Holy Ghost and if all this will not persuade you certainly you set a mighty price upon your own Sloth only let me say this beware that these Souls of yours that you will not part with to God for Salvation beware you do not sell them to the Devil for nothing Thirdly 3. There is an eternal Rest after working Consider your Incouragements after your Work is done there is an eternal Rest that waits you I have already consider'd Heaven as a Reward for working let us now consider it as a Rest after working And so the Apostle tells us there remains a Rest for the People of God And in Rev. 14. Heb. 4.9 we read Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit for they rest from their Labours and their Works do
neither did his Flesh see Corruption it is spoken so in Gen. 37.35 Jacob speaking concerning the supposed Death of his Son Joseph says I will go down into the Grave to my Son mourning Concerning the Resurrection of Christ from the Grave Gen. 37.35 Job 17.13 that word which we translate the Grave we translate also Hell Now saith the Prophet Though I should go down to the Grave and be covered from the sight and forgotten out of the mind and thoughts of Men yet thou art there and observest every Dust how it molders and crumbles away My Body cannot be more in the Grave than thou art there If we take Hell for the place of the damned God's presence is there likewise One would think if from any place God would exclude himself it should be from Hell since his presence is sufficient to make an Heaven any where but so infinite is his unlimited Being that when the Body is in the Grave and the Soul in Hell yet then is God present both with the Soul and with the Body If I make my Bed in Hell that is If I cover my self never so close and draw the Curtains of the thickest Darkness round about me If my Body should lye in the deepest Intrails of the Earth and my Soul be wrapt about with a Winding-sheet of Smoak and Flames yet thou art there and thy presence would soon find me out Job 26.6 Hell is naked before him and Destruction hath no covering Yea the Apostle tells us 2 Thess 1.9 That the Wicked in Hell shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his Power That is not only that their punishment shall be to be separated from the presence of the Lord but look how they are said to be punished from the glory of his Power so likewise are they to be punished from his Presence their Destruction shall be from the Glory of his Power that is his Power in inflicting most dreadful Punishments upon them and his Power in sustaining them under those Punishments when with one Hand the Lord shall hold them up in Hell and lift up the other as high as Heaven to give them redoubled Strokes of everlasting Vengeance So likewise they shall be punished from the presence of the Lord that is God himself will be present in Hell to torment and punish them that at the very same time that he shall be a cherishing God in Heaven he will be a tormenting God in Hell because in them he hath established his two great Thrones the one of his Mercy the other of his Justice But yet possibly there may be found some neglected place here below where God hath no such concernment to be present in it as he hath to be present in Heaven and in Hell Now saith the Psalmist Verse 9. If I take the Wings of the Morning and dwell in the uttermost Parts of the Sea even there shall thine Hand lead me and thy Right-hand shall hold me Wings of the Morning is an elegant Metaphor and by them we may conjecture is meant the Sun-beams called Wings because of their swift and speedy motion making their passage so sudden and so instantaneous as that they do prevent the observation of the Eye called the Wings of the Morning because the Dawn of the Morning comes flying in upon these Wings of the Sun and brings Light along with it and by beating and fanning of these Wings scatters the Darkness before it Now saith the Psalmist If I could pluck these Wings of the Morning the Sun-beams if I could imp my own Shoulders with them if I should fly as far and as swift as Light even in an instant to the uttermost parts of the Sea yea if in my flight I could spy out some Solitary Rock so formidable and dismal as if we might almost call in question whether ever a Providence had been there if I could pitch there on the top of it where never any thing had made its abode but Coldness Thunders and Tempests yet there shall thy Hand lead me and thy Right-hand shall hold me Thus you see the Text declares this Ubiquity and Omnipresence of God both in Heaven and Earth and Hell and in all Places and in all Things I shall first handle this Point Doctrinally and then Practically observing this Method I shall 1. Lay down some Positions 2. Demonstrate the Truth of them by some cogent and convincing Arguments 3. Answer some Objections which may be made against the Omnipresence of God 4. Make some Improvement of this Point The first Position I shall lay down is this Position 1. That God is intimately and essentially in all parts and places of the World yea this Presence being essential is also necessary so that it is simply impossible that God should not be wheresoever the Creature is By the World I mean whatsoever was at the beginning created by the Power of God the Heavens the Air the Earth and Sea and all things visible and invisible God is with them and in them all There are three things briefly to be touched upon here First That God is intimately present with the Creatures He passeth through their very Beings and Inward Parts he is in the very Center of their Essence and this flows from the Spirituality of his Essence From hence it is that it is impossible that he should be excluded out of the most close compacted Being Bodies cannot thus enter one another because of their gross and material Substances they can only stand without and knock for admission they cannot enter into the substance one of another Water when sucked up by a Spunge doth not pass into the substantial part of it but only fills up those Caverns and hollow Pores that were before filled with Air. The Air we breath in cannot enter into the Substance of our Bodies but only into those Pores and hollow Recesses that are by Nature fitted to receive it so of all other Corporeal Beings But Spirits are not tied up to this Law The Soul of Man because it is a Spirit resides not only in the empty void Spaces of the Body but also in the midst of the most solid and substantial part of it Angels who are a degree of Spiritual Beings above the Soul they cannot be excluded from being present in the most condensed Bodies and we know not how often they are in us we know not how often they pass through us nor how many of them are now present with us We read of no less than a Legion which is Six Thousand that quartered themselves together in one possessed person Mark 5.9 Then certainly God between whom and the Angels there is infinitely more distance than between Angels and Bodies cannot possibly be shut out of any Being but diffuseth himself to every part of his Creatures Secondly God is not only intimately present with his Creatures because as he is a Spirit he passeth through the most inmost part of them
seem to be but by the help of one or two Consequences may be handed down along to clear and direct our Practice And therefore the Apostle speaking of the Whole of Christian Religion 1 Tim. 3.16 Titus 1.1 calls it The Mystery of Godliness And the Truth according to Godliness He calls it not a Mystery and Godliness or Truth and Godliness but he knits and joyns them both together the Mystery and Truth of Godliness a Truth yea and a Truth wrapt up in a Mystery because discovered only by a Divine Light and yet a Mystery of Godliness because it is a Truth that tends to incline the Will and raise the Affections and so direct the Conversations of Men unto Godliness and Obedience And thus also in this Chapter after the Apostle had soared up very high in those Transcendent Mysteries of Christ's Godhead in the 6 verse of his Incarnation in the 7 verse of his Humiliation Obedience and Passion in the 8 verse of his Glory and Exaltation above every thing both in Heaven and in the Earth and in Hell 9.10 and 11. verses After he had thus soared aloft in these Transcendent Mysteries he makes a sudden descent to the Exhortation in the Text Wherefore work out your own Salvation with Fear and Trembling This Illative Particle wherefore looks back as far as to the 5 verse Where the Apostle Exhorts them Exposition that the same mind should be in them that was in Christ Jesus Who though he was Essentially Equal with God yet Mediatorily became subject unto God Though he was in the form of God yet he took upon him the form of a Servant laid aside his Glory emptied and humbled himself and became Obedient even to the lowest Duties and to the vilest Sufferings he was Obedient unto the Death That is He was Obedient to Gods Law till Death by fulfilling of it and he was Obedient unto God's Will in Death by suffering of it for which Exinanition and Obedience God hath highly Exalted him and given him a Name above every Name that at the Name of Jesus every Knee should bow Now says the Apostle be you also of the same Mind with Christ Wherefore as he was Obedient so be you also do you Work that is Do you Obey As he was humble and emptied himself be you also humble and lowly Work with Fear and Trembling That is obey with Humility and Reverence as the Phrase imports and is often used in Scripture That so as Christ obtained Glory and Exaltation you also may be Exalted and Glorified with him Work out your own Salvation For these Words come in as a Parallel with Christ As he was obedient so be you as he was humble and emptied himself so be you also humble that so when he is Glorified you may be Saved Wherefore work out your own Salvation with Fear and Trembling And this I judge to be the Apostles scope in drawing this Conclusion In the Words you have three Parts The Division of the Words First A Duty pressed upon us by a most serious and rational Exhortation Wherefore Work out your own Salvation Secondly An express way and manner how it is to be performed and that is With Fear and Trembling Thirdly Here is the Reason of this Exhortation For it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure First Here is a duty pressed upon us and that is To Work out our own Salvation To explain the Words a little First For Salvation you may take it for the whole supernatural State of a Christian begun here in Grace 1. What Salvation is and to be finished hereafter in Glory And Secondly To Work out this Salvation 2. What it is to work out Salvation is nothing but to continue and persevere in ways of Obedience until through them that Salvation that is begun here on Earth be perfected in Heaven What it implies To Work out our Salvation therefore implies three things 1. Pains and Labour First Pains and Labour Salvation is that which must be wrought out it is that which will make the Soul pant and breath yea run down with Sweat to obtain it 2. Diligence and Constancy Secondly It implies Constancy and Diligence A Christian that would work out Salvation must always be imployed about it It is a Webb into which we must weave the whole Thread of our Lives That Man that works at Salvation only by some passionate fits and then within a while undoes it all again by foul Apostacy and Notorious Sins that Man will never work Salvation out No it must be Diligence and Constancy that must effect that 3. Success Thirdly It promises Success and Accomplishment also And this is a mighty encouragment to enforce the Exhortation Though the Work be difficult our Strength little the Enemies many and the Oppositions powerful yet continue working your Labour shall not be in Vain though it be hard work it shall not be long work for it shall be wrought out and what before was your Work shall be your Reward and what before was your Labour shall be your Wages And this Salvation that was so painful in working shall be most blessed in the Enjoyment Secondly Here is the express way and manner how this Work should be done and that is With Fear and Trembling Work out your own Salvation with Fear and Trembling Now this Fear is not to be taken for a Fear of Diffidence Perturbation or Despondency for this is so contrary to the Duty of working out Salvation as that it only stupifies and dulls us And as in other matters so in Spirituals it hinders both Counsels and performances But this Fear and Trembling that must qualify our Obedience is nothing else but an humble Self-Resignation Self-Denyal and a Holy awe and reverence of God with which Humility and Reverence the highest degree of spiritual Joy and Assurance is so far from being inconsistent that it usually springs from it and is built upon it This now is meant by Fear and Trembling and so the Phrase is often used in Scripture So the Psalmist Psalm 2.12 Serve the Lord with Fear and rejoyce with Trembling It is not meant of any desponding diffident Fear but only of an awful reverential Fear of God joyned with Self-abasement And so St. Paul to the Corinthians says of Titus 2 Cor. 7.15 That he was received with Fear and Trembling There was no Reason why Titus's coming should cause Fear and Trembling which was so much desired Only the meaning is they received him with Fear and Reverence And so Servants are Commanded to be Obedient unto their Masters So here Work out your own Salvation with Fear and Trembling Ephes 6.5 That is Work it out with Humility Self-Abasement and Reverence Thirdly Here is the Reason of this Exhortation For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do of his good Pleasure Wherein now lies the Strength of the
it and yet will you take pains for it yet will you grasp and ketch at it Who would doubt when we see Men so busy about Impertinencies and the trivial Concernments of this vain World who would doubt but that they were far more anxious and careful about the Things of Heaven and the Concernments of their Souls Who would not conclude but that they who are so diligent about petty Trifles had certainly made sure that their great Work was done But alas would it not astonish Men and Angels if we should tell them how foolish Sinners are Would it be believed that rational Creatures that have immortal Souls that must be for ever saved or damn'd should spend all their Time and Strength about nothing never taking any Care or Thought what will become of them for ever Would such Folly be believ'd to be in Men And yet this Madness are most Men guilty of We may all of us be ashamed to lift up our Heads to God when we confess the World to be so vain and slight a Thing that if we should get all of it nay should we get ten thousand of them yet were they not all worth one Soul that yet we should be so foolish to strive to get a vain World to the Neglect yea to the Contempt of our precious Souls It is such Folly as Men would scarce suspect that any Persons should be guilty of it if it were not seen daily in the Practices of almost all Men. 1. To work for Salvation makes Men honourable Seventhly Consider this Are you ambitious Do you affect true Honour and Dignity Yes I know this is the great Idol of the World that which every one falls down to and worships Well then Sinners here is a way to prefer you all To work for Salvation is the most honourable Imployment in the World an Honour that will pose and nonplus the most towring and raised Ambition when once it is spiritualized Alas what poor and contemptible Things are the Grandees and great Ones of the World though they take great State and Pomp upon them and will scarce own their Inferiours for their Fellow-Creatures nay will scarce own God himself for their Superiour are yet but like painted Flies that play and buz a while in the Sun-shine and then moulder away and come to nothing All worldly Honour and Pomp is but imaginary but would you have that which is solid and substantial Christ tells you how it is to be attained If any Man serve me John 12.26 him will my Father honour Whatever Honour we have we hold it by Service our Work is not only Duty but Preferment also If any Man serve me he shall be honoured Would you be inrolled for Right Honourable in Heavens Treasury Would you be Peers of that Kingdom with Saints and glorified Angels Then honour God And how shall you honour him but by obeying him And he who thus honours God God will honour him This is the only real Honour all other is but airy fictitious Titles like Cyphers which as they are placed stand for Hundreds and Thousands but are all of the same Value when hudled together So truly the great Ones of the World if not made honourable by Obedience to God have but imaginary Excellency and when Death once shuffles and huddles them together Nobles with Ignobles will the Dust and Ashes of the one stand at a Distance and make Obeysance to the other No all Honour here signifies no more than a King upon a Stage But here is a way to attain true Honour here is the way to it by becoming Servants Wherein the Honour of working for Salvation consists not to Command but to Obey not to be imperious over others but to work your selves this is true Honour Now I shall in three Things demonstrate the Honour of working for Salvation that if Men be not very lowly spirited they may be excited unto this honourable Work 1. It is a spiritual and pure Work First It is pure spiritual refined Work In Services among Men the less of Filth and Drudgery there is in them the more creditable they are accounted It is an Honour to be imploy'd in higher and more cleanly Work when others are busied about baser Imployments Now Christians your Work is the highest and most noble Service imaginable you are not at all to set your Hands to any foul Office you have nothing to do with that Mire and Sink in which wicked Men are raking yea and it is their Work to do it no but your Work is all spiritual consisting of the same pure Imployment that the Angels in Heaven spend their Eternity about Holy Thoughts divine Affections heavenly Meditations spiritual Duties in these lies your Work which because of its Purity is therefore very honourable Secondly 2. It is the Service of an honourable Master Your Work is honourable because it is the Service of a most honourable Master We account it a great Credit to tend immediately upon the Person of some Prince or Potentate but what is this to their Honour who are called always to attend upon the Person of God himself who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords to be continual Waiters about his Throne God hath but two Thrones his Throne of Glory in the highest Heavens about which Angels and glorified Saints are the Attendants and his Throne of Grace to which you are called Angels and Saints are but your Fellow-Attendants and if they see his Glory in the highest Exaltation you are admitted to see it in the next degree yea and herein is your Honour so great that you are capable but of one Preferment more and that is of being removed from one Throne to the other from attending upon the Throne of Grace to attend upon the Throne of Glory so great is your Honour 3. The Service of God makes us his Friends Thirdly Your Work is such as makes you not so much Servants as Friends unto God It is an Honour to be Servant unto a King but much more of a Servant to become a Favourite Why thus it is in the service of God you are not only Servants but Friends and Favourites You are my Friends if you do whatsoever I command you A strange Speech one would think the doing of what is commanded is the Office of a Servant rather than of a Friend No says Christ Henceforth I call you not Servants but Friends you are my Friends if you do whatsoever I command you And certainly no Title so truly glorious as that which God put upon Abraham To be the Friend of God Well then let wicked Men go on scoffing and mocking at Obedience in the People of God let them look on them as poor and low spirited Persons yet can there be no Honour like unto theirs to be Attendants upon yea the Friends of the great God of Heaven and there can be no Discredit so base as theirs who are Slaves to the Devil who is Gods
follow them They rest from their Labours First They rest from their Labour in working under Affliction 1. No Affliction in Heaven Sometimes Afflictions are Spurs and Incentives and sometimes they are Burthens and Discouragements to Obedience But when we arrive at Heaven we shall no longer need the Spur to quicken us nor shall we any longer bare that Burthen to oppress us but cast it down at Heavens Gate where never Sorrow nor Suffering durst yet appear And 2. No Desertion in Heaven Secondly In Heaven you shall rest from your Labour in working under Desertion Now though you do work yet it may be you apprehend God frowning upon you and finding fault with all that you do Now it may be though God doth cause the clear Light of his Precepts and Spirit to shine before you to direct you what your Work is that you should do yet he makes it dismal Darkness behind you and shuts up the Light of his Comfort that you cannot see what Work you have done and this is your great Trouble you work and labour and yet you know not whether you shall be accepted Obedience were easy and pleasant Work says the Soul if I knew that God did regard me but alas I pray and he shuts out my Prayer from him I lay hold upon him but he shakes me off in displeasure I obey but he rejects all my Services and this is the Anguish and Torture of my Life This indeed is Matter of great Grief and Trouble But know Oh Soul thou shalt not long work thus in the dark shortly thou shalt be above these Clouds and then thou shalt see that those Prayers that thou thought'st were vainly scatter'd and lost in the Air are become a Cloud of sweet Incense hovering before the Throne of God And those Tears that thou thought'st were dropt in vain upon the Earth are all gathered up and preserved in God's Bottle And those poor Duties of thine that for their own meanness and vileness thou thought'st God would scorn yet thro' that worth that is put upon them by the Intercession of Christ are ranked in the same degree of Acceptation as the most perfect Services of the Angels themselves are Have but patience a while and continue working and thou shalt see a happy Issue when the Clouds of Darkness and Desertion that now lie upon thy Spirit shall be all scattered and blown away 3. In Heaven there is Rest from Sin Thirdly You shall also rest from your Labour in working against the continual Workings of your own Corruptions which shall then at once both cease to act and cease to be And this indeed is the great Thing that makes it such a blessed Rest to the People of God Indeed God cuts you out your Work in his Commands but it is the old Man within you that makes it to be tedious irksome and difficult unto you God makes it not so but your Corruption makes it so and this it doth two ways First By deadning your Heart to it And Secondly By turning your Heart against it Deadness and dulness to and averseness from the ways of holy Obedience are the greatest cause of all that Toil and Pains that most take in the Work and Service of God if ever they will bring it to a good issue Now both these shall shortly cease and be removed if you but wait and continue striving against them 1. In Heaven there is Rest from labouring with a dead heart in the ways of God First You shall rest from all that Labour that you take with a dead and heavy Heart in the ways of God Now you are continually calling upon it Awake awake my Glory now you are continually tugging of it to get it a little more forward lifting of it up to get it a little higher towards God and Heaven Now you stand in need of continual quickning Grace to actuate and excite those Lumps of Lead that lie heavy within your Breasts and it is the greatest disquietment of your Lives that you find your Hearts so heartless and listless to what is holy and spiritual It is with them as with some great Bells that you must pull long at the Rope before you can make them sound Is not this the daily Complaint of God's Children that their Hearts are dull and heavy and they cannot raise them and this makes the ways of Obedience yea this makes their very Lives become burthensome Well have but patience for a while and continue still to struggle against this sad Indisposition and it will not be long before you shall rest from this Labour also Though now you are as Birds whose Bodies are too heavy for their Wings when you stretch them forth and would fain be soaring up to Heaven you can only run up and down and flutter upon the Earth yet shortly these heavy and cloggy Bodies shall fall off and you shall be all Wing free from all Deadness and Straitness Distraction and Weariness in the Ways of God that now afflict you Then shall your Affections be always intent and not languish always burning and yet never waste nor consume every Motion of your Soul shall then shoot themselves to God as quick as the Lightning and yet constant as the Sun-beams And those who are now out-stript by weak and underling Christians shall then be able to keep pace in their Obedience even with the Holy Angels themselves 2. In Heaven there shall be a resting from the opposition of our Heart against Duty And then Secondly In Heaven there shall be a resting from all that Labour that the People of God now take in the ways of holy Obedience through the averseness of their Hearts from them and the opposition of their Hearts against them There is that contradiction in the carnal part against what is holy and spiritual that the Godly cannot bring themselves to the performance of it without much Strife and Contention the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and when the spiritual part calleth for holy Thoughts and heavenly Affections the corrupt and fleshy part sends forth noisome and stinking Vapours obstructing the Good that we would do and infecting that little Good that we do perform So that as if working were not a sufficient Imployment a Christian must Fight that he may Work and this is it that makes working for Salvation so laborious because we must Fight and Work at once But it shall not be long before that which hinders shall be removed and then as you are not under a sad necessity of offending God so also you shall be under a most blessed necessity of serving God and shall find no more trouble in that Service than in those Actions which you now cannot but do And thus shall you have a happy Rest from all that Labour and Pains that your Corruptions here made you take And therefore be incouraged to persevere in well-doing perfect the Work you have undertaken in spight of all opposition from your own corrupt Hearts
Labour under the Sun how wavering how uncertain and how unsuccessful Things are how Means run one way and the End another they might hereby be induced to turn their Labours into another Channel and to work for their Souls and for eternal Happiness and Salvation that are as far above the reach of Disappointment as they are far above the rate of earthly Concernments Mine Elect says God Isa 52.22 shall long enjoy the Work of their Hands they shall not labour in vain And this is the great Argument urged by the Apostle upon the Corinthians Be stedfast 2 Cor. 15.58 unmoveable always abounding in the Work of the Lord and why so industrious and constant knowing this says he that your Labour is not in vain in the Lord. Two Things there are that make a Labour to be in vain First When it doth not accomplish its End Secondly When that End it doth accomplish is not worth the Cost and Pains Now in neither of these respects is your Labour in vain For First It shall not fail to accomplish the end to which it is ordained and that is eternal Salvation Three Things there are that make Men come short in the accomplishment of an End propounded First When Men propound to themselves Ends that are in themselves simply impossible Secondly When though the End be possible yet the Means that are used are unfit and improbable Thirdly When though the Means are rightly suited to the attainment of the end yet we do not persevere in the use of them Now none of these ways shall a laborious Christian fail of his end For First The End Christians work for is not impossible The End that you work for is not in it self simply impossible Should you propound to your selves to become Angels should you strive to sublimate your selves into spiritual Essences your attempts herein were all but vain because it is impossible you should ever be refined into Angels But if your end be to be like Angels to be equal to Angels this is possible and may be attained When they arise from the dead Mark 12.25 they are as the Angels that are in Heaven which another Evangelist renders Luke 20.36 they are equal to the Angels If in this Life you propose to your selves a state of perfection and freedom both from Sin and Sorrow a state of consummate Bliss and Happiness this End is impossible But if you make it your End to enjoy such a state as this is hereafter this is attainable and Labour may atchieve it yea aim at what degree of Glory you please next below God and Christ be it as high as Cherubims and Seraphims I cannot say you think of an impossibility your Labour may raise you to such a pitch and advance you to such Glory as shall dazle the Sun in its brightness It is true there was once a time when Salvation might well be reckoned among those Things that were impossible and that was in that sad interval between the Fall and the Promise of Christ when all Mankind lay in the shadow and in the valley of Death under the Breach and yet under the Bond of the Covenant of Works when it had indeed been in vain so much as once to have thought of Happiness or to have laboured for it But since Christ's undertaking We who were once without Hope have now obtained good Hope through Grace the Partition-Wall that then we could neither climb over nor break through is now taken away the Gate of Heaven is now set open and with striving we may enter for our Saviour Jesus Christ hath abolished Death and brought Life and Immortality to Light through the Gospel And therefore though it may seem an impossibility to dejected and despairing Souls that ever such vile Wretches should receive so great a Dignity that those who are sunk so low in Misery should ever be raised to Happiness that those who are so loaden with Sin and Iniquity should ever feel the weight of Mercy and beaten Glory that those whose best Works deserve the lowest Hell should though not for yet upon the performance of those Works obtain the highest Heavens Though this may seem to be an impossibility yet believe it while you think of any Glory lower than the Glory of the Godhead you think of nothing above a possibility and the reach of Industry There are none of you excluded from a possibility of being saved the Covenant of Grace runs in most large and comprehensive Terms Who ever believeth shall obtain eternal Life The Death of Christ and his Blood is a most sovereign Medicine applicable not only to all Maladies but to all Men if they will believe Tho' it is true none shall be saved but the Elect yet is it true also that a possibility of Salvation extends farther than Election Election gives the infallibility of Salvation as Reprobation doth the infallibility of Damnation but yet as there is a possibility for those that shall infallibly be saved to perish if they do not believe so is it possible for those that shall infallibly perish to be saved if they will believe The possibility of Salvation therefore stands not upon Election but upon two other Grounds First The meritorious and all-sufficient procurement of Christ whereby he hath procured Salvation for all the World and for all in the World upon condition of their Faith for that must still be taken in for were it not so how could we preach Remission of Sins in his Name to every Creature were not his Death applicable to all Then though some should believe yet for want of a Sacrifice offered up and a Price paid down for them they should not be saved though they should believe How then is it that we seriously call all Men to repent and believe that their Sins may be pardon'd and their Souls saved Certainly unless the death of Christ hath procured Salvation for all Men upon condition of Faith and Repentance such Calls would be false in us and vain to them for so we should promise Salvation upon believing to those to whom though they should believe Salvation should be denied because they want a Covenant made with them and a Surety to undertake for them Therefore I say Christ's procurement is general so far that whoever believes shall receive the Benefit of his Death Secondly As the Death of Christ is applicable to all for Salvation if they believe so Faith that alone applies this Death is attainable by you all if you be not wanting to your selves you are none of you under an impossibility of believing and therefore not under an impossibility of Salvation Though it be certain that some shall infallibly persevere in Infidelity yet there is none that hears the sound of the Gospel and the outward Call of God in his Word but may believe and obey if they be not wanting to themselves Neither is this Doctrin Arminianism nor is it prejudicial to the efficacious Grace of God whereby the Will
but the Simple pass on and are punished They are rash and confident in their Undertakings and so they pass on and are punished Fear makes a Christian circumspect and considerative with himself how he may keep from Miscarriages in the performance of his great Work If God call me to such a Duty how shall I perform it If to bear such a Cross and Affliction how shall I glorifie him under it If to conflict with such Temptations how shall I resist and overcome them Yea how shall I do to break through all Difficulties Duties and Oppositions that I who am but a weak and feeble Christian may meet withal and how shall I do to bear up And thus pondring what may be his Duty and forecasting what Duties God may call him unto he is inabled to do what is his Duty at present and what also may by Providence hereafter become his Duty Nothing overtakes such a Man unexpected nor doth any thing surprize him unprovided for it And thus a careful Fear enables him in the performance of his great Work Secondly A Fear of Humility and holy Reverence of God induceth much to the working out of our Salvation and that in three Particulars First It much helps us in our great Work to fear God as our Lord and Master that sees and overlooks all our Works observing both what we do and how we do it also That Servant must be desperately bold that will dare to be idle or slight and perfunctory in his Work while his Masters Eye is upon him Why Christians should consider Gods Eye is always upon them in Praying in Hearing and in every Duty that they perform yea in every Action of their whole Lives And if the Eye of a Master that is but a Fellow Creature nay but a Fellow Servant can have such awe and influence upon his Servant as to make him careful how he works and what he works and to make him diligent in his Work Should not much more the consideration of Gods Eye being upon us who stands at an infinitee distance from us cause a holy Fear and Diligence in us in doing what our Lord and Master commands us Secondly Fear God also as him from whom you have all your Power and Ability to work Fear him lest at any time through any neglect or miscarriage of yours he should be provoked to suspend his Influence and withdraw his Grace from you and to leave you to your own Weakness and Impotency upon whose influence all your Obedience doth depend This is the Apostles Argument in the Text Work with Fear for God works in you both to Will and to Do. Holy diligence in Obedience cannot be more strongly enforced on an ingenious Spirit than by considering all that Strength and Ability that we have to work is received from God and therefore should be improved for God lest for our Sloth he deprives us of that we make no use of Thirdly In working fear God also as he that will be the Judge and Rewarder of your Works for ever You perform them unto him who is to pass Sentence upon them and upon you for them and will you then dare to do them slothfully and negligently God will try every Mans Work with Fire and will call every Action to a severe and strict account every Mans Work shall be seen through and through and then it shall be known who hath wrought the Works of God and who hath fulfilled the Will of Satan and the final Doom and irreversible Sentence shall then be pronounced according to Mens Works God will Rom. 2.7 8 9. says the Apostle render unto every Man according to his Works to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory and Immortality to them he will render Eternal Life but to them that are contentious and obey not the Truth but obey Vnrighteousness he will render unto them Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish upon every Soul that doth Evil. Now would you but thus fear God as an upright and impartial Judge that will render unto every one according to his Works How would this prevail with you so to work that at last you might be found of God in well doing and receive the blessed Reward and Sentence of the diligent and faithful Servant To enter into your Master's joy Fourthly and Lastly If you would work for Salvation successfully then work speedily without delay and constantly without cessation First Work speedily without delay Delays in all Affairs are dangerous but in Soul Affairs usually they are damnable For First The longer you procrastinate and delay the greater and more difficult will your Work be at last Corruption will be grown more tuff ill Humours will be grown more stubborn your Heart will be more hardned your Affections being more habituated will be more firmly engag'd to Sin the Devil will plead right to you by Prescription and it is hard keeping an Enemy out that hath had long Possession Secondly Consider what a desperate Folly it is to put off your Work till to Morrow you are not sure that you shall live to see another Day And oh what Hazards do those Men run whose hopes of Heaven depend upon no better a bottom than their hopes of Life and whose eternal Salvation is subject to as many Casualties and Accidents as their present Beings in this World are subject to Mans Breath is in his Nostrils and yet how do Men suffer their Souls and their everlasting Happiness to depend upon nothing surer than their Breath that Breath that every moment goes forth from them and they know not whether ever it shall return to them again But suppose your Life and Days should continue and you should reach unto that time whereof you have boasted and promised to mind the concernments of your Souls eternal Happiness in yet consider Thirdly The Grace of God is not at your disposal for then either First The outward Call may cease or it may grow more faint and low you may not be so daily importun'd and solicited for Heaven as now you are Ordinances and Opportunities may cease or you for your contempt may be given over to a contempt and neglect of them Secondly The inward Dictates of your own Consciences and the motions of the holy Spirit may cease Conscience may be brib'd to a silence and the holy Ghost may be commissionated to depart after this present opportunity and never more may you have its Breathings and Movings upon your Hearts if you do not now listen to them Thirdly If inward Motions do continue are you sure after this moments refusal that you shall obtain that Grace from God that may make you willing to close with those Motions Leave not therefore the eternal Salvation of your precious and immortal Souls at such Hazards and Delays Now is the acceptable time now is the day of Salvation to day therefore if you will hear his voice even while it is called to day harden not your Hearts for this
the sense of divine Comfort As it is in clear Water when it is still and transparent the Sun shines to the very bottom but if you stir the Mud presently it grows so thick that no Light can pierce into it So is it with the Children of God though their apprehensions of God's Love be as clear and transparent sometimes as the very Air that the Angels and glorified Saints breath in in Heaven yet if once the muddy Humor of Melancholy stirs they become dark so that no Light or Ray of Comfort can break in to the deserted Soul And then sometimes the Devil causeth these Tragedies by his Temptations that so if it were possible he might drive them to Dispair he hated their Graces he envies their Comforts and therefore he would persuade them that all their former Joys were but Delusions proud Dreams and presumptuous Fansies and that they are still in the Gall of Bitterness and in the Bond of Iniquity and by such Suggestions as these are when he cannot hinder the Work of Grace he strives what he can to hinder the Sense of Comfort When therefore those that have once rejoyced under the comfortable Persuasions of God's Love to them the Holy Ghost witnessing himself to them to be a Spirit of Adoption by being in them a Spirit of Sanctification if they now find themselves under the Bondage of legal Fears and Terrors and slavish Dejections looking upon themselves as under the revenging Wrath of God and as Persons devoted to Destruction let them know such Fears proceed not from the Convictions of the Spirit of God who hath been a Spirit of Adoption but it proceeds from the Delusions of Satan for those that once receive the Spirit of Adoption never receive the Spirit of Bondage again to fear that is to fear with a slavish tormenting Fear Sixthly 6. We ought to fear God tho' we know him to be our God A reverential filial Fear of God may and ought to possess our Souls while the Spirit of God who is a Spirit of Adoption is by the clearest Evidences actually witnessing our Son-ship to us Let Men boast what they will of their high Gospel-attainments yet certainly they have not the genuine Disposition of God's Children whose Love to him is not mingled with Fear and whose Fear of him is not encreased by their Love Love it is the Gage and Measure of all our Affections and according to the proportion of our Love to God such will be our Fear that is the more we love God the more we shall fear his Displeasure and the Loss of his Favour It is in vain for us to pretend love to God as our Father unless we fear him also as our Lord and Master Christ who was his only begotten Son and certainly had much more clear assurance of the love and favour of God than any adopted Sons can possibly have yet the Scripture ascribes an holy awful reverential Fear of God even unto him Heb. 5.7 When he offered up Prayers with strong Cries and Tears and was heard in that he feared it may be render'd he was heard because of his godly Fear So in Isa 11.2 The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the Spirit of Knowledge and of the Fear of the Lord speaking of Christ If therefore he feared God who was himself to be feared as God equal to him and his eternal Son how much more ought we to fear the great God who are as it were but Up-starts in the Family of Heaven we wretched and forlorn Out-casts that were but lately raked out of the Dunghil and by meer Pity taken up into the Bosom of God and nurtured as his Children And thus you see the Fear of God is not in the least contrary to the free Spirit of Adoption Fourthly 4. A Fear of God is no Impediment to a holy Rejoycing in God An awful Fear of God is no Impediment to a holy Rejoycing Indeed slavish Fear damps all true Joy Those that Fear and expect the Revengings of God cannot have any true Joy they may have a kind of mad Jollity that spends it self in Noise and Tumults that may roar out Songs of Mirth only to drown the loud Roarings of their own Consciences Such as these are like your new Liquor that works over into Foam and Froth when the bottom is thick and troubl'd So in this false Joy the Countenance runs over with Laughter when yet the Heart is brim full of the Wrath of God of such the wise Man speaks Prov. 14.13 Prov. 14.13 Even in Laughter the Heart is sorrowful But now a filial fear of God puts no check at all upon our holy Rejoycing in him spiritual Joy is not of that flashy Nature but it is a sober and a severe Grace it is Joy mixed with Fear and because of the mixture of these two together the fear of God with joy in the Lord therefore we find these two are promiscuously ascribed each to other so in Isa 60.5 Their Hearts shall fear and be enlarged You know it is the property of Joy to extend and enlarge the Heart Fear contracts and draws it together but here Fear is said to dilate the Heart to denote to us that a Christians Fear is always conjoyned and mingled together with his Joy And so on the other Hand it is said Psal 2.11 Psal 2.11 Serve the Lord with Fear and rejoyce with Trembling Fear with Trembling is more proper and natural but because of the mixture of these two Graces in the Heart of a Christian therefore the Holy Ghost thus expresseth it Rejoyce with Trembling for great Joys as well as great Fears cause a kind of trembling and fluttering in the Heart As it was with the two Women whom the Angels assured of Christ's Resurrection Mat. 28.8 Mat. 28.8 They departed from the Sepulchre with Fear and great Joy So is it with those Christians who by the Eye of Faith looking upon the Death and into the Sepulchre of Jesus Christ are assured that he is risen for their Justification cannot but have their Hearts filled with a quaking and a fearful Joy Even a Christians strong Praises are breathed out with a shaking and a trembling Voice so that godly Fear is no Impediment to a holy and a severe Rejoycing in God as our Saviour Fifthly 5. Godly fear lays no check on our freedom and boldness with God Godly Fear lays no check upon our holy freedom and boldness with God God hath established a Throne of Grace whereon he sets and unto which he invites his People to approach with a becoming Confidence Heb. 4.16 Let us come boldly to the Throne of Grace As that Emperor counted his Clemency disparaged when any delivered a Petition to him with a shaking Hand as though he doubted of his Favour so God loves when we make our Addresses to him that we should do it with full assurance of Faith nothing doubting of acceptance with him and of an Answer
themselves feel it Our God says the Apostle is a consuming Fire but to whom is he such a consuming Fire Not to those certainly whose God he is He shall burn up all the Wicked of the Earth as Stubble That God doth not always stile himself a gracious God and a reconciled Father but sometimes puts on dreadful Titles his Children owe it to the Wicked against them alone it is that he arrays himself with all his Terrors As a Father may affright his Children by putting on those Arms that he useth only against his Enemies So God daunts his own Children by appearing in his dread Power his severe Justice and consuming Wrath but how much more may it apale his Enemies upon whom he intends to execute all this in the utmost rigour and extremity Secondly 2. God himself is this consuming Fire Another Consideration that may make the most secure Sinner to tremble is this That God himself will be the immediate Inflicter of their Punishments They shall be consumed by Fire and offer'd up as a burnt Sacrifice to the Wrath and Justice of God and that Fire that shall for ever burn them is God himself God is a consuming Fire I do not deny but that there is another material Fire prepared and blown up in Hell for the punishment of the Damned but certainly their most subtle and exquisite Torture shall be from God himself who is this consuming Fire This Wrath of God which shall for ever burn and enflame the Souls of the Damned is called fiery Indignation Heb. 10.17 Heb. 10.17 That Fire that destroyed Nadab and Abihu was but a Type of this and the Antitype infinitely transcends the Type the dreadfulness of their temporal Death by Fire was but a faint resemblance of the Death of the Soul what Fire must that be of which that extraordinary Fire that fell down from Heaven it self was but a meer Shadow As the Fire that came down upon Elijah's Sacrifice did lick up the Water that was poured into the Trenches so this fiery Indignation of God shall in Hell melt down the Damned as it were and then lick up their very Spirits and Souls Psal 104.4 It is said Psal 104.4 That God makes his Angels a flaming Fire It is the nearest representation that is given of the Angelical Nature that abounds both in subtilty and force He makes his Angels a flaming Fire Now when Christ saith Go into those flames of Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels why the Devils themselves are Flames of Fire and what Fire can be more piercing than themselves who have power over Fire Yet there is a greater Fire than they God is a consuming Fire a Fire so infinitely scorching as will burn and torment even Fire it self It would be unspeakable terrible Wrath in God if he should make use of his Creatures for the punishment of the Damned Who could bear it if God should only keep a Man living for ever in the midst of a Furnace though but of a gross earthly Fire and Flames Or if God should bind a Man Hand and Foot and cast him into a deep Pit full of Toads Adders and Scorpions and there let him lie for ever God knows all the several Stings that are in his Creatures and he can take out of them the most sharp and piercing Ingredients the sharpness of the Sword the inflammations of Poisons the scorchings of Fire the anguish of Pains the faintness of Diseases and of all these can make a most tormenting Composition and if he should make use of this Composition what intolerable Anguish would this cause If then Creatures can cause such Torture oh what a dreadful thing is it to fall into the Hands of God himself When God conveys his Wrath by Creatures it must needs lose infinitely in the very conveyance of it It is but as if a Giant should strike one with a Straw or a Feather so when God takes up one Creature to strike another with that Blow can be but weak and yet how terrible are those weak Blows to us What will it be then when God shall immediately crush us by the unrebated Force of his own Almighty Arm You therefore that persevere in Sin and in Security too consider who you have to deal with not with Creatures but with God himself and do you not fear that uncreated Fire that can wrap you up in the Flames of his essential Wrath and burn you for ever Can thine Heart endure or can thine Hands be strong says God in the day that I shall deal with thee The very Weakness of God is stronger than Men God can look a Man to Death The Breath of a Man's Nostrils is a soft and quiet Thing and yet the very Breath of God's Nostrils can blast the Soul and burn it to a very Cinder Oh! then tremble to think what Wrath his heavy Hand can inflict upon them that Hand that spreads out the Heavens and in the hollow of which he holds the great Waters of the Sea that Hand of God in which his great Strength lies oh what Wrath will it inflict upon thee when it falls upon thee in the full Power of his Might 3. This consuming Fire is unquenchable Thirdly Consider this consuming Fire after it hath once seized upon the Soul is for ever unquenchable Indeed thou mayest hinder it from kindling upon thy Soul As when a House is on Fire they use to spout Water upon the Walls of the neighbouring Houses to keep the Flames from catching hold of them So you may by sprinkling the Blood of Jesus Christ and by moistning your selves with the Tears of true Repentance prevent this consuming Fire from preying upon you but if once it kindles it will there burn everlastingly it is not like your sublunary Fires these spend the Matter they feed on and be they of never so great force they must at length themselves starve for want of Fuel yea the sooner they consume the sooner are they themselves consumed as in Straw and other light combustible Matter but God is such a Fire as consumes without diminishing and his Power is such a Power as destroys the Soul and yet perpetuates it he is such a wise and intelligent Fire as consumes the Damned and yet repairs them and by tormenting still nourishes them for future Torments As Minutius speaks the same Breath of God that destroys the Soul still keeps it alive that it may be eternal Fuel for it self Hence is it that Hell-Fire is described to be such as shall never be quenched Mark 9.44 And why but because the Breath of the Lord like a fiery Stream is still kindling of it Why now into the midst of this devouring Fire must the Damned dwell without any period either to their Being or to their Torment and when they have lain there frying millions and millions of Years still is it but a beginning of their Sorrows and they are as far from a Release and Discharge as