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
God against the damned when he sees his heavenly Father angry though it be not against him yet this must needs strike a reverential Fear and Aw into his Soul Now this reverential Fear will remain for ever The Fear of the Lord endureth for ever yea when the Children of God shall be made for ever happy in Heaven yet this Fear shall be then encreas'd and not at all diminished the more they see of the Power of the Wrath and Severity of God executed upon the damned the more they fear and reverence this powerful this Sin-revenging God and this kind of Fear is no prejudice to their full Assurance and Joy nor shall it be prejudicial to their compleat and perfect Happiness in Heaven Thirdly 3. Because of the desert of their Sins The consideration of the desert of Sin should cause a holy Fear of God even in those that are fully assured of his Love When a Child of God looks upon Sin and sees what Wrath and Torment he hath deserved by it tho' he be assured by the Testimony of the Spirit of God that he is pardoned yet it cannot but fright him to consider that he should deserve so great Condemnation As a Malefactor though he be pardoned yet if he be present at the Execution of his Fellow Offenders it must needs strike him with Fear and Horror that he should be guilty of the same Crimes that they are to suffer such sharp and cruel Punishments for What the Thief on the Cross said unto his Fellow Thief Dost thou not fear God seeing thou art in the same Condemnation The same may I say to Believers Do not your fear God seeing you deserve at least to be in the same Condemnation with those Wretches that lie frying and howling in Hell 4. Because in it self it is possible all this Wrath might have been their Portion Fourthly Another Ground of fear is that it is in it self possible that all this Wrath should be your Portion for ever even you who are most assured of Glory And is not this just cause of Fear if not of Expectation yet at least of Terror Indeed as God hath been graciously pleased to bind himself in a Covenant of Grace and Mercy to you so it is impossible that this Wrath should fall upon you but yet such a Supposition as this is is enough to cause Fear in the most assured Heart to think that if God had not engaged himself by Promise to deliver him from that Wrath what then would have been his Condition to all Eternity Would not such Thoughts as these are make you tremble Suppose a Man were fast chained to the top of some high Rock hanging over a bottomless Gulf though he knew and was assured that he should not fall into it being immoveably fasten'd there yet when he looks down that deep and dangerous Precipice and fees the Gulf foaming and raging under him will not a cold Fear drill through his Heart to think O! if I were not here fastned by a strong Chain to this immoveable Rock what would become of me Even so Believers you that are most assured to escape Hell this is your Condition you are fastned to the Rock of Ages by the unchangeable Promise of God that will ever hold you fast but yet every time you look down into the bottomless Gulf that is under you where thousands are swallowed up to all Eternity doth not such a Thought as this is fright you to think O! if I were not fastned to this immoveable Rock if God had not made an everlasting Covenant with me ordered in all things and sure I should also have been swallowed up with the rest of the World and have gone down quick into Hell Why alas we are all of us held over the Lake of Fire and Brimstone in the Hands of God some he holds in the left Hand of his common Providence and others of them he holds in the right Hand of his special Grace those whom he holds only in the Hands of his Providence he le ts fall and drop one after another into Hell where they are swallowed up and lost eternally those that he holds in the Hands of his Grace it is true it is impossible upon that Supposition that ever they should fall into Hell yet when they think O if we were not upheld yea how possible it was that they should not have been upheld this apprehension must needs strike them with Fear and Terror though not with a perplexing Doubtfulness concerning the safety of their Condition yet with a doubtful apprehension of the possibility of what would have been their Condition if God had held them over Hell only by the Hand of his common Providence 5. Because they escape very narrowly Fifthly Consider though you are assured that you shall escape this eternal Death yet it will be a narrow escape and that may cause Fear It will be an escape with very much Labour and Difficulty tho' you are held in the Hands of God yet he leads you along to Heaven by the Gates of Hell and this is sufficient to cause Fear Our way to Heaven is so strait the Rubs in it so many our Falls by them so frequent our Enemies so potent that though our assurance may make us not to fear but that in the end we shall escape Hell yet it will be high presumption for us not to fear how we may escape it The Apostle brings in the Salvation of the Elect themselves with a scarcely 1 Pet. 4.18 1 Pet. 4.18 If the Righteous scarcely be saved Why now this scarcely doth not imply that there is any uncertainty in the End but only it implies the great difficulty in the means of obtaining of it So then the End is certain that is a Believers Salvation from Hell and that is just cause of rejoycing but the Means are very difficult and laborious and that is just cause of Fear Well then briefly to apply it in one Word Though you are assured through Faith of the Pardon of your Sins yet tremble at the thought of that Wrath and Hell that you have escaped It is observed that those are the fixed Stars that tremble most So Christians who are fixed immoveably in the unchangeable love of God as Stars fixed to the Heavens in their Orbs yet they are most of all in Trepidation and Trembling when they reflect upon themselves and think that instead of being Stars in Heaven they might have been Firebrands in Hell Those to me are suspicious Professors that make a great blaze with their Joys in the apprehensions of their Right to Heaven but never tremble under the apprehensions of their Deserts of Hell What there is in the consideration of God as our God that may cause us to fear him Having shewed you upon what account God is to be feared as he is a consuming Fire in the next place I shall shew you what there is in the consideration of God as our God that
The Fear of being judged by God at the Tribunal of Christ at the last Day engaged the Apostle to labour to please God and to be accepted by him 5. The Fear of God is an excellent Corrective of the base and degenerous Fear of Men. Fifthly The Fear of God is an excellent Corrective of the base and degenerous Fear of Men. Our Saviour says Luke 12.4 Be not afraid of them that can kill the Body and after that have no more that they can do but fear him who after he hath killed hath power to cast into Hell yea I say unto you fear him It is well observed by a learned Author that Men may be considered either as they bear upon them some resemblance and impress of the divine Majesty as they are invested with Authority and Power and constituted Magistrates and Rulers over us This resemblance is so great that the Scripture stiles them Gods I have said ye are Gods and so we are to fear them with a Fear of Reverence and Obedience and to obey them in that which is lawful And they may be considered also as standing in opposition to God abusing their Power by commanding things that are unlawful and by Persecution endeavouring to terrifie Men from the Ways and Service of God And so they may be feared with a Fear of flight and eschewal When ye are persecuted in one City flee you to another Matth. 10.23 We may so fear them as to labour to avoid their Rage and to consult our own Safety But the Fear that is here forbidden is Fear not them that can kill the Body that is with a distrustful perverting Fear such a Fear as causeth Men for the securing of their temporal Life to desert the Profession and Practice of Godliness with such a Fear Fear not Men. He will not that truly fears God thus fear Men no the Fear of God lays a check upon this sinful Fear of Men he that truly fears God will not immoderately fear Men for it is the property of holy Fear to represent the displeasure of God as an infinitely greater Evil than the loss of Estate Liberty nay of Life it self or whatever the Rage and Power of Man can either inflict or threaten and this makes them choose Affliction rather than Sin See this fearless Spirit in those three Heroick Champions Dan. 3.16 Dan. 3.16 who though they saw a burning fiery Furnace before them into which they were threatned to be cast yet all the Terrors of it did not fright them to an Idolatrous Worship with what a holy Contempt and Slighting did they answer King Nebuchadnezar We are not careful say they to answer thee in this matter And whence proceeded this undaunted Courage but only because they were more afraid of God who is a consuming Fire than they were of a fiery Furnace A Man that truly fears God reputes with himself that to gain the favour of Men with the displeasure of God to redeem a temporal Life by an eternal Death is the foolishest Bargain that can be made he knows the rage of Man is under the restraint of God and that a Hair of his Head shall not fall to the Ground without his heavenly Father's Knowledge and Permission and if God doth suffer wicked Men to inflict the utmost that their Rage and Spight can prompt them unto yet it reacheth only their earthly part the dull part of Man the Body they may persecute torment and kill us but yet they cannot hurt us one momentany Gripe of Hells Torments is infinitely more intolerable than all the Cruelties that Men can possibly invent or inflict one Frown from an angry God hath more Dread and Terror in it than all the Rage and Threatnings of the most barbarous and cruel Tyrants and that Christian that makes such an account as this is can never certainly so fear Torment or Death as to be drawn to Sin against God whose Displeasure he more fears than he fears either Torment or Death Now to shut up this whole Subject What there is in God that may affect us with an Awe and Fear of him I shall only briefly mention a few Particulars to you whereby you may take a brief View of what there is in the Nature of God that may justly affect us with a holy Fear and Awe of him First 1. His glorious Majesty The Consideration of God's glorious Majesty may strike us into a holy Dread and Terror And therefore says Job 33.22 With God is terrible Majesty Job 33.22 This is that which daunts the holy Angels in Heaven they cover their Faces with their Wings as not being able to bear the piercing Rays of that Glory wherewith he is cloathed An earthly Prince when he is set forth in the Royalty and Grandeur of his State casts an awe upon those that approach near him And how much more ought we to fear the great and glorious Majesty of Heaven who is always clad with Light as with a Garment that Light which no mortal Eye can approach being always surrounded with an innumerable Host of glittering Attendance each of which maintains more Pomp and State than the greatest Potentate on Earth 2. His Almighty Power Secondly God's Almighty Power should cause us to fear before him He is the uncontroulable Sovereign of all the World to whose Beck all things in Heaven and in Earth yea and in Hell too are subject and therefore says Job 25.2 Job 25.2 Dominion and Fear are with him not that God hath any Fear or stands in Fear but the Dominion and Sovereignity of God causeth Fear it strikes the Heart with an awful Fear when we consider that Dominion and Fear are with God That Power and Authority of God by which he exerciseth his Dominion causeth a Fear of him 3. His severe Justice Thirdly The severe and impartial Justice of God whereby he renders to every one according to his Works this should kindle in us a holy Fear of God So the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.10 11. 2 Cor. 5.10 11. We must receive says he according to what we have done in the Body Whence he infers That knowing the Terrors of the Lord we persuade Men. It is terrible to receive from God's Justice according to what we have done in the Body Fourthly 4. His Omnisciency and Omnipresence The Consideration of God's Omnipresence and Omnisciency may cause in us a holy Fear of him His Eye is always upon us his Presence is always with us where-ever we are and he sees and observes what-ever we do and therefore let us fear him his Eye is awful Fifthly 5. Our absolute dependance upon him The consideration of our absolute dependance upon God should cause us to stand in Fear of him left by provoking him who maintains our Souls in Life in whom we live and move and have our beings in whose Hands are our Breath our Life and all our Ways he should turn his Hand upon us and deprive
but he is intimately present with all his Creatures at once And therein is his presence distinguished from the presence of Angels they indeed pass from one to another and be one in another they may possibly stretch and dilate themselves to a great compass but they cannot stretch themselves to an Vbiquitariness to be in all Beings at once If an Angel suddenly dart himself from one Point of the Heavens through the Center of the Earth to an opposite Point of the Heavens and by a motion of insinuation without impelling or driving the Air before him yet he is not in Heaven and Earth at once but when he is in one place he ceaseth to be in another but it is not so with God for he is every-where and in all things at once for ever therefore God tells us Do not I fill Heaven and Earth Jer. 23.24 He is so in them as that he doth not leave any one place void or empty of himself for were there any places where God were not then it could not be properly said to be filled with him Thirdly This Omnipresence of God is simply necessary not only for the preserving and upholding of his Creatures in their Beings and Operations but necessary to our very Beings for his own Essence is simple and he cannot withdraw from nor forsake any place or any thing with which his presence now is God cannot contract and lessen himself nor gather up his Essence into a narrow room and compass but as he is here in this very place which we now take up so he must and will be here to all Eternity Nor is this any imperfection as if God were not an Infinite Perfection and Excellence for this flows from the immutability of his Nature and Essence for should God remove himself he were not altogether unchangeable but with him there is neither change nor shadow of turning Jam. 1. What the Heathens thought of this Immensity and Omnipresence of God it is somewhat obscure some of them confined him to Heaven and were so far from affirming him present in all things that they thought he took no care of any thing below as being too mean and too unworthy for God to regard This was the Opinion of the Epicureans Acts 17.18 Others thought indeed that the Care and Providence of God reached to these ordinary things but not his Essence and the ground of their Errour was because they thought it most befitting the Majesty of God to sit only in Heaven a glorious and a becoming place and not to make himself so cheap and so common as to be present with Men and the Vile Things of the World But this is a weak Reason as I shall shew anon Some others among the Heathens had righter Apprehensions of this Divine Attribute one of them being to give a Description what God was tells us most admirably God was a Sphere whose Center was every-where and whose Circumference was no where A raised apprehension of the Divine Nature in an Heathen And another being demanded what God was made answer That God is an Infinite Point than which nothing can be said more almost or truer to declare this Omnipresence of God It is reported of Heraclitus the Philosopher when his Friend came to visit him being in an old rotten Hovel Come in come in saith he for God is here God is in the meanest Cottage as well as in the stateliest Palace the poorest Beggar cohabits with God as well as the greatest Princes for God is every-where present and sees all things Position 2. God is not only present in the World but he is infinitely existent also without the World and beyond all things but himself He is in all that Vast Tract of Nothing which we can imagine and beyond the Highest Heavens What Reason can say for this I shall anon shew In the mean time see that one positive place of Scripture 1 Kings 8.27 Behold the Heavens and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him And if God be not contained in them certainly he then must be infinitely beyond and above them He surmounts the Heaven of Heavens that is the very highest and uppermost Heavens which St. Paul calls the Third Heaven 2 Cor. 12. That glorious Place in which God doth most specially manifest himself and will do to all Eternity The Scripture tells us that though the Heaven of the glorified Angels and Saints be the place in which God will especially manifest his presence yet it is not that place unto which God will or doth confine his presence Isai 66.1 2. Thus saith the Lord The Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my Footstool Where is the House that ye build unto me and where is the Place of my Rest For all those things hath mine Hand made As if God should have said Do not think to cloister me up within the Walls of the Temple no I am set upon the highest Heavens as upon my Throne and they are all under me and I am exalted far above them Many such glorious Expressions there are of God's Infiniteness and Immensity scattered up and down the Scripture which I shall not now spend time to recollect The Scripture you see owns it for a truth That God is Infinite in his Essence beyond the whole World which is one of those Divine Properties which poseth Reason to conceive how it is possible that since beyond the World there is nothing that God should exist there but though Reason cannot apprehend it yet from Reason as well as from Scripture it appears it must be so Position 3. As God exists every-where so all and whole God exists every-where So that all God is here and all God is there and all God is in every place and in every thing This is indeed a great and most unconceivable Mystery but yet it must needs be so because God is indivisible and simple and not compounded of Parts and therefore where-ever there is any of God's Essence there is all his Essence otherwise part of his Essence would be here and part there and part of it elsewhere which would be utterly repugnant to the simple and uncompounded Nature of God God's Attributes are his Essence Now there is no where where God is but there are all his Attributes and therefore where God is there is all his Essence He is a Spirit most Wise most Powerful most Just and the like here and there as well as in Heaven above yea and what is more to the astonishment of Reason than all this God is every-where Omnipresent and in every place And though it be common to all Spiritual Beings because they have no parts to have a totality in the whole and a totality in every part Indeed it is expressed in the Schools that Spirits are all in the whole and all in every part yet herein God hath a peculiar way of subsisting from other Spirits that not only his Essence alone is in every part of the World but also his Presence
it shall be with so much more brightness and clearness that in comparison of the obscure and glimmering way whereby we know God here it may be called a seeing of him Face to Face and knowing him as we are known by him though to speak in absolute Propriety of Speech these things are not possible to any Creature Object 3 It may seem no small disparagement to God to be every-where present What! for the Glorious Majesty of God to be present in such vile and filthy Places as are here upon Earth Answ 1 To this I answer God doth not think it any disparagement to him nor think it unworthy of him to know and make all these which we call vile and filthy places why then should we think it unworthy of him to be present there God is a Spirit and is not capable of any pollution or defilement from any vile or filthy things The Sun-beams are no more tainted by shining on a Dunghil than they are by shining on a Bed of Spices no more can God be sullied by being present in filthy Sinks to speak with Reverence than to be in the glorious Heavens because he is a Spirit and his Essence is not subject to any taints from the Creature The vilest things that are have still a being that is good in their own kind and as well-pleasing to God as those things which we put a greater value and esteem upon Lastly It reflects no more dishonour upon God to be present with the vilest Creatures than to be present with the noblest and highest because the Angels are at an infinite distance from God There is a greater disproportion between God and the Angels than there is between the vilest Worm and an Angel all are at an infinite distance to his Glory and Majesty Thus much for the Objections APPLICATION Vse 1 First Is God thus infinitely present every-where and thus in and with all his Creatures then what an Encouragement is here unto Prayer Thou canst not say Alas I now pray but how shall God hear He is in Heaven above and I am on Earth below many Thousands of Miles distant from his presence How then shall my weak Whisperings that can scarce reach the Walls of mine own Closet ever be able to reach his Ear No God's Essential Presence is with thee wheresoever thou art as he is in Heaven it self and God is all Ear he can understand the silent Motions of thy Lips every-where yea he can understand the secret Motions of thy Heart When Hannah prayed for her Son Samuel Eli the Priest of God thought her Gesture did proceed from a distempered Head and not from an holy Heart but God was present with her Lips and that Prayer which was thought by the Priest of God to be but a dumb shew yet to God himself it was powerful Rhetorick and as loud as Thunder in his Ears The Scripture generally intimates that all our Prayers shall be directed to God in Heaven So Solomon prayed 1 Kings 8.32 Then hear thou in Heaven c. And it is again expressed in the 30th Verse So that most excellent Composure which Christ taught his Disciples in the beginning of it Our Father which art in Heaven it gives our thoughts a Lift to Heaven Now this doth not imply that God doth no where hear our Prayers but only in Heaven But how then Why is this Phrase used For these two Reasons First Because Heaven is the most glorious place there God especially hath established his Throne of Grace and sits upon it Now because it is most Glorious and Majestick and since God is there to hear Suits and receive Petitions that are tendred up by all his Servants here on Earth therefore the Scripture directeth us to that most glorious and celestial place Hear thou in Heaven Hence we have that Expression Acts 10.4 Thy Prayers and thine Alms are come up for a Memorial before God Certainly if our Prayers should not be heard till they come to Heaven they are so weak and faint that they would be out of breath by the way and not be able then to speak for themselves But yet God speaks in us by his Spirit and keeps alive the Sense of his Majesty upon our Hearts that he would not have us think it to be a mean and trivial thing to have our Prayers heard therefore he represents himself to us Arrayed in all his Glory Secondly Our Prayers are directed to God in Heaven because though he hears them where-ever they be uttered yet he no where hears them with acceptation but in Heaven only Our Prayers are accepted by God because they are heard in Heaven Thy Prayers are not accepted by God because God hears them upon Earth as they are heard in thy Closet or as they are heard in thy Heart but only as they are heard in Heaven and the reason is because that Prayers are acceptable only as they are presented before God in the Mediation and Intercession of Jesus Christ He must mingle them with the Incense of his Merits before they can ascend up before God as a sweet Savour Now Christ performs his Mediatory Office no where but in Heaven for though as God he be every-where present as the Father is and therefore hears your Prayers wheresoever they be put up yet as Mediator they are only heard in Heaven by him and he hears no Prayers but the Prayers of his People as he is Mediator and therefore it is no comfort to you that Christ hears your Prayers as he is God only for so he doth and cannot but do it unless he hears your Prayers likewise as he is Mediator Now Christ as he is Mediator he is God-man for as he wrought out our Salvation in both Natures so he still continues to mediate for us in both Natures And since the Human Nature is only in Heaven therefore it follows he performs the Mediatory Office only in Heaven Now it is the Mediatorship of Christ alone that makes all our Prayers and Duties acceptable to God himself therefore it concerns us still to pray Lord hear us in Heaven It is in vain that thou hearest me on Earth unless thou hearest in Heaven too My Prayers cannot be heard acceptably unless thou hearest them twice thou hearest my Prayers on Earth not a Word of my Tongue but thou hearest but what will it avail thy Servant unless thou hearest my Prayers a second time repeated over to thee in the Intercession and Mediation of Jesus Christ in Heaven And therefore saith Solomon 1 Kings 8.34 Hear thou in Heaven and forgive When God shall only hear on Earth he will be so far from forgiving that he will be avenged but when he hears our Prayers in Heaven through the Mediation of Christ then he is inclined to forgive and pardon us Hence we find that the Jews prayed towards the Temple which was a Type of Heaven and the Altar and Incense and Mercy-seat in this Temple were Types of Christ who is now
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
Reason Possibly it might seem rather to a Carnal Judgment an incouragment to Sloath than an incouragment to working and Obedience For if God work in us both the Will and the Deed What need we then be so solicitous about the accomplishment of our Salvation which not so much we our selves as God works out for us It would rather seem to be a greater Motive for us to work if the Apostle had said God will not assist you and therefore look to your selves But yet there are two ways without torturing the Words whereby we may make them confess wherein their great Strength lies The one is by reducing this Reason to the Duty And the other is by referring it to the manner of Performing of the Duty Objection First If we refer it to the Duty of working out Salvation then the Force and Strength of it lies in the Consideration of that Aid and Assistance that God by working in us affords us to the working out of our own Salvation Work Why Alas may some say How can we Work Are not the Duties of Obedience Divine and Supernatural And is it not an Almighty Power alone that can inable us to do what is Supernatural Are we Omnipotent Doth not God herein plainly seek Advantages against us in bidding us thus to Work who have no Hands nor Strength to Work with Answer No by no means for what God Commands us to do he will assist us in the doing of it And though Obedience be Supernatural and we are Weak and Impotent yet God is Omnipotent Work therefore for this Omnipotent God works in you both to Will and to Do. And thus appears the force of the Reason if you apply it to the Duty Now if you thus refer it then Observe That all Ability in and all Incouragement to Obedience proceeds from God's working in us what he requireth from us And thus as Christ said my Father worketh hitherto and I work So may a Weak Christian say what I do is above my own Strength indeed but my God and my Father worketh hitherto in me and therefore it is that I am inabled thus to work Secondly If we refer this Reason to the manner of performing of Obedience that it must be with Fear and Trembling as if the Exhortation run thus Be humble and awful in your Obedience For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do and then it carries a double force with it First That the due Consideration of Gods working in us is the greatest inducement imaginable to a Self-Debasing Humiliation There is nothing that will sooner take down Pharisaical Pride and Boasting than sometimes to be Catechising our selves with those two or three Questions and Interrogatories of the Apostle Who made thee to differ 2 Cor. 13.7 What hast thou that thou didst not receive Now if thou hast received it Why dost thou Boast as if thou hadst not received it Why dost thou Boast and Glory O vain Weak Man when all thou hast and all thou dost is from God's free and arbitrary working in thee Alas there is nothing of all thy Graces or Duties to be ascribed unto thy self unless it be the Imperfections and Weaknesses of them And this should cause us when we are most strongly carried out in the ways of God and in the Duties of Holy Obedience most of all to renounce our selves and our own sufficiency and look upon it as an evident Argument that of our selves we are able to do nothing because through God we are inabled to do so much yea to do all things Secondly Since all we do is wrought in us by God this should cause us to obey with a Holy Fear and Reverence lest by our Miscarriages we should provoke God to withdraw from us on whom depends all the Ability and Power we have to obey It is God that worketh in you and therefore work out your own Salvation with Fear and Trembling This now shall suffice for the opening and explaining of the Words That which I shall press upon all is the Duty of this Exhortation of the Apostle And the Proposition I shall lay down from them is this Doctrine That it is the Duty of every true Christian to work out his own Salvation with Fear and Trembling Or thus Every Christian nay every Man ought to work for his living even for an Eternal Life To mention places for the proof of this were to transcribe the Bible we can no where open this Blessed Book but we find this Truth proved to us either directly or by consequence for it is the very Genius of the Scripture And yet it is strange in these Days to see how dubiously some Men who would be thought admirers of Free Grace speak of obedience and working as if it were the brand of a legal Spirit and as great a Stranger to a Christians Warrant as it is to their practice Oh it is a soft and easie Doctrin to bid Men sit still and believe as if God would Translate Men to Heaven upon their Couches to tell them that all that they have now to do is but to labour for more assurance to Praise God and to Sing Hallelujahs unto him And so also it conduces much to their abundant Comfort does it not to tell them that God sees no Sin in them nor requires no Duty from them That Repentance and Humiliation are legal things belonging only to younger Persons and not to the Heirs of the Promises Oh! Who could think it possible that such Dreams and Fantastick delusions could possess so many Mens Hearts that ever heard the Scripture speak in its own Language or that ever read what Christ himself the Holy Ghost or the Blessed Apostles have written who bid us to work the works of God To give all Diligence to abound in all the Fruits of Righteousness Is it possible that these Notions should be dispersed by some and entertained by others but because it always hath been the policy of the Devil wherein he hath sped so well still to vent those Doctrines that indulge the Flesh under the Name and Patronage of Free Grace and Gospel attainments But of this more hereafter Let us now consider the Reasons of this Truth And Reason 1 Luke 13.24 1 Cor. 9.22 Ephes 6.11.12 1 Tim. 6.12 Heb. 12.3 Gal. 6.5 First Wherefore is it that we are commanded to strive that we may enter in at the strait Gate So to run that we may Obtain So to Wrestle that we may be able to Stand So to Fight that we may lay hold on Eternal Life Not to faint in our Minds Nor to grow weary of well doing Do not all these Expressions imply great labour and pains Can you strive and run and wrastle and fight and all this by doing nothing or were it needful to be taught not to grow Faint nor to be weary when we have no work to do Therefore it is the genius and sum of the Scripture to excite Men to be always
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
than when they first believed that they are perfecting Holiness in the fear of God and every Day growing nearer unto Heaven and Happiness than other And though these Works of theirs are now imperfect yet they shall be shortly finished and consummate in Glory Well then if Pleasure and Delight do affect you here you see is that which is solid and substantial it springs from Success in your Work and from that suitableness that is in your renewed part thereunto also And therefore the more Work the greater Delight you find because the greater progress you make and the more suitable to it your Will becomes Nay your Delight is of the same Nature with that which you shall enjoy in Heaven The Work the Blessed are there imploy'd in is of the same Nature with yours only their suitableness to it is perfect and therefore their Delight and Pleasure is perfect And accordingly the more suitable your Hearts are to your Work the more Delight and Pleasure you will find in it This is that makes Heaven a place of Happiness because there is no Corruption no Body of Sin and Death there to make those Duties that are there required from glorified Saints to be irksom and grievous to them 2. The Reward of working for Salvation Secondly Consider the exceeding greatness of your Reward Doth Job fear God for nought was the Cavil of Satan when God applauded himself that he had such a Servant as Job was upon the Earth The Devil himself thought it no wonder that Job should fear and serve a rewarding God a God whose Hands are as full of Blessings as his Mouth is full of Commands And yet what were these great Something 's that the Devil envies Job for and thinks every one would have done as much as he if they had but as great a Recompence for it It was but Hedging of him about Job 1.10 but blessing of the Works of his Hands and increasing of his Substance as it is in Job 1. Why alas these are poor mean Rewards to what God intends to bestow such Rewards they are as that God still reckons himself in Arrears to his Children till he hath given them something better than he can bestow upon them here upon Earth These Things he casts but as Crumbs unto Dogs when he reserves a far better Portion for his Children And yet Satan thinks Job well paid for his Service in having of these lower Enjoyments in causing the Works of his Hands to prosper Doth Job serve God for nought And therefore if Satan doth not wonder that Job fears and serves God for Temporal Mercies will it not be to the great wonder of Satan himself that you should not fear and serve God that have infinitely better Things promised to you than Temporal Mercies are Do you deserve your Breath in spending of it some few Hours in Prayer Or do you deserve your plentiful Estate by laying out some small part of it for God Why to be able to Think or Speak to enjoy Health and Strength are such Mercies though outward Mercies as can never be recompenced to God although you should think of nothing but of his Glory and speak of nothing but of his Praise although you should impair your Health and waste your Strength and languish away in the performance of holy Duties These tho' they are Obligations to Obedience yet they are not the Reward of Obedience no far higher and more glorious Things are provided promised and shall be conferred upon you if you will but work For there is First your set standing Wages and that is eternal Salvation no less And Secondly besides this there are many incident Vails accrew to God's Servants in their performance of his Service And is not here Reward and Wages enough First 1. Working for Salvation shall be rewarded with Heaven 1 Cor. 2.9 Consider there is that eternal weight of Glory that shall be the Reward of the Saints in Heaven This now is so great that it is impossible for you to conceive It is such as Eye hath not seen Ear hath not heard nor hath it ever enter'd into no nor can it ever enter into the Heart of Man to conceive what God hath prepared for them that love him as the Apostle speaks If St. Paul were now preaching and pressing this very Consideration of the infinite glorious Reward it would possibly be expected that he who suffered a Translation and was admitted as a Spy into the Land of Promise should at his return make some Relation of it and discover something of the Riches and Glory of that Place and would not all flock about him as Men do about Travellers to enquire for a Description of the Country whence they come Who the People and Inhabitants are What are their Manners and Customs What is their Imployment Who is their King and what Subjection they yield unto him Thus inquisitive truly our Curiosity would be And yet when St. Paul purposely relates his Voyage to the other World all that he speaks of it is only this I knew a Man caught up into Paradise who heard things that no Man could nor is it lawful for any Man to utter The Glory of Heaven is such that it can never be fully known till it be fully enjoyed and yet if Heaven were ever made chrystally transparent to you if ever God opened you a Window into it and then opened the Eye of your Faith to look in by that Window think what it was that you there discovered what inaccessible Light what cherishing Love what daunting Majesty what infinite Purity what over-loading Joy what insupportable and sinking Glory what Rays and Sparklings from Crowns and Scepters but more from the Glances and Smiles of God upon the heavenly Host who forever warm and Sun themselves in his Presence And when you have thought all this then think once again that all your Thoughts are but Shadows and Glimmerings that there is Dust and Ashes in the Eye of your Faith that makes all these Discoveries come infinitely short of the Native Glory of these Things and then you may guess and guess somewhat near what Heaven is Nay as God by reason of his infinite Glory is better known to us by Negatives than by Affirmatives by what he is not than by what he is so is Heaven by reason of the greatness of its Glory better known to us by what it is not than by what it is and we may best conceive of it when it is told us There is nothing there that may affright or afflict us nothing that may grieve or trouble us nothing that may molest or disquiet us but we shall have the highest and sweetest Delight and Satisfaction that the vast and capacius Soul of Man can either receive or imagine Are you now burthened with Sin and Corruption those Infirmities that tho' they are unavoidable yet they make your Lives a Burthen to you Why the old Man shall never more molest you there that
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
for assure your selves this troublesome Inmate shall not long disquiet you I might also add Fourthly 4. Saints in Heaven are free from Satans Temptations You shall then rest from your Labour in working against Satan's Temptations who is now buffeting of you while you are here upon Earth but in Heaven the evil One shall not approach near to touch you There you shall no more trouble your selves to know how to distinguish between the Injections of Satan and the Ebolitions of your own Corruptions for you shall know neither there you shall then stand no more upon your own Guard and keep Centinel to your own Soul nor conflict with any of Satan's Temptations but shall forever triumph in Victories and Conquests over them This is that blessed Rest that you shall shortly possess if you will but now Work And what is it that comforts the painful Labourer but this that tho' his Work be hard and difficult yet the Evening will soon shut in and he shall then betake himself to quiet Rest and Repose What is it that comforts the wearisome Traveller but this Every Step of his long Way brings him nearer to his Home where he shall enjoy a longer Rest And shall not the same incourage and support you in your Way and Work What though the Work be painful and laborious yet it will not be long before you shall lie down in the Bed of the Grave and sweetly sleep away a short Night of Oblivion that is between this and the Resurrection and your tired weary Souls shall then repose and nestle themselves in the warm Bosom of God himself What though the Way be long and tedious to the Flesh yet you are Travelling to your Father's House where you are sure to be welcome and where you shall enjoy an Eternity of Rest and Repose and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob and the whole Ring of glorious Saints discoursing to them of the Dangers and Difficulties that you have passed through in getting to them Doth it not sweeten the Toil and Pains that you take in your Youth to think that thereby you are laying up that whereupon you may live at Ease hereafter and spare the weakness of old Age And is it not much more Rational that while you are in this World which may be called the Youth of Eternity you should lay up a good Foundation and treasure up a large rich Stock upon which you might live at Ease for ever Why should you not be as wise and politick for Heaven as for a little of the perishing Things of this World Will you Labour that you may Rest here where your Rest shall certainly be disquieted and you shook out of it and will you not labour that you may Rest in Heaven where alone you can enjoy an everlasting Rest I know it is that inveterate prejudice that Men have taken up against the Ways of God that they are painful and laborious and this invalidates all Reasons and Arguments that we bring them to persuade them to work Rest that is it they would have and though God tells them they shall have an Eternal Rest if they will but work a while and tells them on the other Hand that they shall never enter into Rest if they do not work that they shall never enjoy more Ease than what they can find in Hell it self where their Groans and Bellowings together with the Smoak of that bottomless Pit shall ascend up for ever yet such is the madness of Mens Folly that neither the Rest of Heaven nor the Restlessness of Hell can stir or move them but they roll themselves up in their own Sloth and will hear nothing nor lay any thing to Heart that may rouze or awaken them Hath not God often called upon them by his Ministers Sinners Sinners awake bestir your selves Hell-fire is kindling about you God is ready to open his Mouth to pronounce Sentence against you Satan is ready to lay hold of you and to drag you to be tormented One would think such Execrations as these are should awaken the Carkasses that you set over were they not in their final state and yet with you whose Souls are yet in their Bodies but know not how soon they may be in Hell who among you are moved with all that hath or can be said of this Matter nay are you not like sleepy Men when jogged ready to grow pettish and to quarrel with us Why do you molest us Why do you envy us our Rest Why do you disturb our Peace and will not let us alone Shall I say to you now as once our Saviour said to his Disciples Luke 21.40 Sleep on and take your Rest sleep on and nod your selves into Destruction sleep on and never wake more till the Flames of Hell awaken you Truly we come not to disturb your Rest but we come to inform and guide you to a better Rest than what you can find here even an eternal Rest a Rest with him that is immortal a Rest with him who alone is unchangeable and is not this Rest worth a little Pains and Strugling to obtain Do you think you are always to believe and to repent always to obey and mortifie your Corruptions You cannot think so unless you think you are always to live in this World No there is a Rest remains for the People of God after a few short Days be gone It is not therefore your Ease that you seek when you will not work no it is rather your Pain and eternal Torment which shall certainly then be given unto all slothful Persons when the industrious and painful Christian that labours and works for Salvation shall be admitted into the Eternal Rest that he is aspiring after and hath already embraced in his Hope and Faith 4. In Heaven there is an eternal Work Fourthly Consider As in Heaven there is an eternal Rest so also in Heaven there is an eternal Work to be done And therefore you should inure your selves to that Work while you are here upon Earth If Happiness according to the Philosophers Notion consists in Operation then in Heaven where there is the most perfect Happiness there must needs be the most perfect Operation And therefore whatever hath been spoken of Rest that remains yet you are not so to conceive of it as possibly some gross enough are apt to wish and fancy to themselves as if in Heaven the blessed were unactive and enjoyed there only a long Vacation and only stretched themselves on that Flowery Bank and so void of Cares and Fears lull'd away an Eternity No these are too low and bruitish Apprehensions for the Glory of that Place That Rest that is there to be expected and enjoyed is operative working Rest it is both Rest and Exercise at once and therefore it is a true Paradox though the Saints in Heaven rest from their Labours yet they never rest from their Working continually are they blessing and praising of God Ascribing Glory
and Honour and Power to him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for evermore Always are they beholding admiring and adoring of God and burning in Love to each other and mutually rejoycing in God and in one another And this is the Work of that Eternal Rest a Work never to be intermitted nor to cease And therefore it is worth our observing that both those Places that do chiefly speak of the future Rest of the People of God do also intimate a Work in that Rest So the Apostle to the Hebrews tells us Heb. 4.9 There remains a Rest for the People of God the Word is There remains a Sabbath for the People of God Look now you are to be imployed on a Sabbath such shall be your Imployment in your Eternal Rest Is it not your Work now upon a Sabbath-day to raise your Thoughts and Affections to Heaven to fix and terminate them upon God to maintain Communion with him to admire him in all his Works both of Grace and Providence to stir up your own Hearts and to quicken the Hearts of others to praise and adore him Why this shall be the Work of your Eternal Sabbath And when you are at any time lifted up to a more than ordinary Spiritualness in these Things then may you give some guess what your Work shall be in Heaven and what the frame of your Hearts shall be in your eternal Rest And so that other place in the Revelations Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their works follow them Which may be meant not only of the Reward of their Works that they shall then receive but of the Works themselves that here they performed on Earth these shall follow them and enter into Heaven with them and as they were done by them weakly and imperfectly here so there the very same Works shall be done by them with absolute and consummate Perfection all those Works I mean that for the Matter and Substance of them do not connote a sinful State and Condition Now then since you must be imploy'd in such a Work as this is to Eternity why do you not accustom your selves to it while you are here Col. 1.12 The Apostle to the Colossians Blesseth God who had made them meet to be made Partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Were it a meet thing that those that spend their whole time in Sin should be abruptly snatcht up into Heaven to spend an Eternity there in Holiness And therefore God accustoms those whom he saves in an ordinary way and manner to work those Works here on Earth that they are to be imployed in hereafter in Heaven here they are Apprentices as it were that they may learn the Trade of Holiness that when that time comes they may become fit Citizens of the New Jerusalem here God is trying their Eyes with more qualified and allayed Discoveries of himself that when they come to view him Face to Face they may be able to bear the exceeding Brightness of his Glory And therefore though you profess Heaven to be your Country and that you are Strangers and Pilgrims here on Earth yet say not with the Captive Jews Psal 137. How shall we sing the Song of Sion in a strange Land Yes you must accustom your selves to that Song you must mould and warble it here on Earth that you may be perfect in it when you come to join with Saints and Angels in their eternal Hallelujahs You must try your Eyes by seeing of God and your Voices by singing that Song that you must continually sing in Heaven And were it only for this disposing and fitting of your selves for the Work of Heaven this were Motive enough to persuade to begin it now 5. A Christian hath many helps to work for Salvation Fifthly Another encouraging Consideration to persuade you to work out your own Salvation is this as your Work is great so the Helps and Assistances that God gives for the performance of this Work are many So that your Work is not greater than your Aids are nor is it more difficult than they are potent And therefore though you are weak in your selves and so weak that were you left to your own Strength you would faint in the most easy Service yea the weight but of one holy Thought would sink you for we are not sufficient says the Apostle as of our selves to think any good thing Yet when we consider those mighty Auxiliaries that are afforded and promised as Comfort when we Droop Support when we are Weak that we shall Rise when we Fall Recruits when we are Worsted Omnipotency to supply our Impotency All-sufficiency to make up our Defects When we consider these Things then may we triumphantly say with the Apostle When we are Weak then are we Strong and tho' of our selves we are nothing and therefore can do nothing yet through these mighty Assistances we are able to do all Things Now I shall rank these Auxiliary Forces into Two Bands Some are External others are Internal External Helps are various I shall only instance in Three First You have the exciting Examples of others who have already happily gone through this Work You are not commanded that which never yet was imposed upon any of the Sons of Men nor that whoever undertook failed in the performance and sunk under the burthen of it No there are Hundreds and Thousands gone before you from whom God required as much as he doth from you and these have demonstrated that the Work is possible and the Reward certain And therefore as Israel followed the Cloud for their Conduct into the Land of Canaan So may you be led into a Land of better Promise by a Cloud of Witnesses of those who have already passed through the same Faith Patience and Obedience wherein you are to follow them It is Superstition heightned to Idolatry to make use of the departed Saints as substituted Mediators and under Advocates unto Christ that Christ may be our Advocate unto God the Father what their present Prayers for us are we know not but this we are certain of their past Example ought to be propounded and improved by us for our Incouragement in the ways of Holiness and Obedience Hence the Apostle exhorts us that we should be diligent not slothful and he grounds it upon this because in so doing we should be followers of them who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises In difficult and hazardous Enterprizes every Man is apt to stand still and see who will lead the way and according to the Success of the first Attempters so either to be incouraged or dismayed Now what says our Saviour Mat. 11.12 The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force You are not the forlorn Hope you are not the first Assailors no whole Armies of Saints have in former Ages storm'd Heaven they have heretofore planted strong Batteries
is powerfully swayed to Faith and Obedience for the converting Grace of God is not given to make Men capable to believe and to be converted but it is given to make them actually believing and actually converting The most wicked Man that is without the converting Grace of God is capable to be converted even in his state of Unregeneracy and converting Grace gives not any new Power to inable us to be converted but it gives us an actual Conversion Some shall never believe and why not because they are under an impossibility but because they will not believe it is not because they cannot but because they will not unless we would so gratifie their Sloth as to call their obstinacy an impossibility It is true they are obstinate and that obstinacy can never be cured without efficacious Grace but yet that obstinacy is not properly called an impossibility Well since Salvation is a thing possible why do you not labour for it that your Souls may be eternally happy Christ hath the Key of David and he opens and none shuts and he hath opened the everlasting Gate to you all and bids you all enter and take Possession there stand no grim Guards to keep out you or you you cannot complain that you are excluded by a forcible Decree no you shut the Doors upon your selves and refuse to enter And this is the first Reason why Salvation is not Labour in vain because the end is possible to be attained Secondly There are also right means made known to you for the obtaining of this End Jacob in his Dream saw a Ladder reaching from Earth to Heaven Certainly there is a Jacob's Ladder reaching up from Earth to Heaven that is more than a Dream every Round in it is either a Grace or a Duty it is not hid from you what Grace you must act what Duties you must perform that you may obtain Happiness these are direct and proper means to it nay not only means to it but the initials and beginnings of it The glimering Light of Nature could discover that there was a future Happiness but it could not discover to us the right means thither it could not direct us to believe in a crucified Saviour and therefore to write by this dim Light of Nature had been Labour in vain But now we know the way of Salvation is by Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ now we know that Holiness and Obedience do as certainly lead to Heaven as Sin and Disobedience drag down to Hell and therefore while we continue believing and working is there any fear Nay is there any possibility of disappointment in our great End It is as impossible that Faith and Obedience should not lead unto Glory as it is that Faith should or Obedience not continue in Glory And therefore O Soul be confident of success Hast thou any good Evidences that thy Graces are genuine and true though but weak that thy Duties are sincere though but imperfect and that thou doest work the Works of God with a steady Heart though with a trembling Hand Give this Assurance one lift higher and as thou art already assured of the Truth of thy Grace and of the Sincerity of thy Obedience so henceforth be as much assured of thy future Glory as if it were no longer future but now actually in thy present Possession thy dawning shall break forth into a most perfect Day the Womb of thy Morning Twilight shall be delivered of a Noon-tide Brightness thy Spark shall become a Sun thy Seed of Grace shall sprout till it be fit for transplantation into Paradise and there shall flower into Glory Object But may a poor Soul say Though the means that I now use for the obtaining of Salvation be right to effect it if still persisted in yet I fear lest the many Corruptions Temptations and Hardships that I meet with may turn me off from following my Work defeat me of my End and make all I have done as so much Labour in vain and therefore I could have this confidence and assurance that you speak of did I not fear this that I should desist in my Work Would you have good security against this Well then in the Third place the laborious Christian as he useth right means so he shall continue and persevere in the use of them till he hath wrought out his own Salvation by them and therefore he shall certainly accomplish his End and his Labour shall not be in vain It is true if you desist from working all that you have hitherto done will be in vain your Faith in vain your Tears in vain your Prayers in vain all in vain And therefore this should cause you to work with Fear and Trembling lest the Wiles of Satan and the deceitfulness of your own Hearts should intice you from your Work and cheat you of your Reward Let us therefore fear says the Apostle lest a Promise being made us of entring into his Rest any of us should fall short Yet as this may cause holy Fear so it may be matter of spiritual Joy and Rejoycing that notwithstanding the deadness of our Hearts the slackness of our Hands the many Avocations from without the many Interruptions from within yet none of us shall forsake our Work till we have brought it to Perfection our Obedience shall be crowned with Perseverance and our Perseverance with Glory and Immortality See for this that of the Apostle We are confident of this thing Phil. 1.6 that he that hath begun a good Work in you will perform it till the day of Jesus Christ Let therefore the Mouth of Calumny be for ever stopt that accuseth this comfortable Doctrin of the Saints Perseverance through Grace unto Glory that accuseth of patronizing Sloth and Idleness Some do fasten this Viper upon it let Christians live as they list though careless of good Works yea though continually imployed in evil Works yet being Christians they need not fear that they shall fall short of Glory But though we do affirm that every true Christian shall certainly inherit Heaven and Glory yet we shake off this pernicious confidence for he is no true Christian who is not zealous and careful of good Works whose knowledge of his own Estate doth not provoke him to walk worthy of that Vocation wherewith he is called whose hope of Heaven doth not inable him to purify himself and to perfect Holiness in the fear of God What a contradiction is it to say we patronize sinful Sloth in Men when we tell them if they are true Christians that they shall continue working Is it Sloth to continue working Or do we incourage Men to be idle by assuring them if they are Christians they must and shall work Yet this is the natural strain and tendency of our Doctrin What greater Incouragement can you have to Obedience than this If you will work you shall not fail of your End because the End it self is possible because the Means to
is the only Time and Season for working Secondly As you must work speedily without delay so you must work constantly without cessation or intermission To stand still is to backslide and to cease working is to undo and unravel what you have wrought You are not like Men that row in a still Water that tho' they slack their Course yet they find themselves in the same station but you are to go against Tide and Stream the Tide of your own Corruptions and the Stream of other Mens Actions and Examples and the least intermission here will be to your Loss hereby you will be carried down the Tide much yea and much Pains and Labour will scarce suffice to regain what a little Sloth hath lost So much for this Text. The Lord make what hath been spoken profitable Amen THE ASSURANCE OF Heaven and Salvation A Powerful MOTIVE TO Serve God with Fear IN A DISCOURSE ON HEBREWS xii 28. By EZEKIEL HOPKINS Late Lord Bishop of London-derry LONDON Printed for Jonathan Robinson A. and J. Churchill John Taylor and John Wyat. 1696. THE ASSURANCE OF Heaven and Salvation A Powerful MOTIVE TO Serve God with Fear Heb. 12.28 29. Wherefore we having received a Kingdom that cannot be moved let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear For our God is a consuming fire THIS Text contains in it a Doctrin a Use and a Motive The Doctrin is We have received a Kingdom that cannot be moved The Use or Inference from thence is this Therefore let us serve God And the Motive to enforce this Exhortation is in these Words For our God is a consuming fire In the first part which is the Thesis or Position We have received a Kingdom that cannot be moved We must know there is a twofold Kingdom a Kingdom of Grace set up in the Heart of a Saint where Christ alone reigns as sole Monarch and Sovereign and a Kingdom of Glory prepared for us in the highest Heavens where we shall reign as Kings with Christ for ever Saints have a Kingdom in a fourfold Respect If we take it in the former sense for the Kingdom of Grace so the Apostle saith we have a Kingdom that is we have it already in Possession Christ hath established his Dominion over every Believer and though he sits personally upon his Throne in Heaven yet he rules in us by the Vice-gerency and Deputation of his Spirit that received Commission from him and also by the Law of his Word enacted by it If we understand it in the latter sense for the Kingdom of Glory which seems most congruous to the Design of the Apostle so also we have a Kingdom and that in a fourfold sense First By Grace giving us the earnest of it by Faith realizing of it by Hope embracing it and by the Promises assuring of it First 1. Saints have a Kingdom in the first Fruits of it We have a Kingdom of Glory in the Earnest and first Fruits of it The Comforts and Graces of the Spirit are very often in Scripture called the Earnest of our Inheritance So you have it in 2 Cor. 1.22 and in Eph. 1.14 Now an Earnest you know is always part of the Bargain So God to assure us that he is in earnest when he promiseth Heaven and Glory to us hath already given us part of it in the Graces of his Spirit Grace and Glory are one and the same thing in a different Print in a smaller and a greater Letter here we have Heaven in seminal Inchoation hereafter we shall have it in consummate Perfection Glory lies couched and and compacted in Grace as the beauty of a Flower lies couched and eclipsed in the Seed therefore the Psalmist saith Psal 97. That Light is sown for the Righteous that is Psal 97. the Light of Joy and of a future Life are in the Graces of Gods Children as in their Seed and they shall certainly bud and sprout forth into perfect Happiness Secondly We have a Kingdom of Glory 2. Faith realizeth it because Faith realizeth things future and gives an existence and being to things that are not This is that Grace to which nothing is past nor nothing future it contracts all things into present time and makes all actually existent it draws Things that are at a great distance from it near to it self and thus the Galatians Faith represented the death of Christ so visibly to them that the Apostle told them He was crucified among them Gal. 3.1 Gal. 3.1 It dives down into the gulf of future times and fetcheth up things that as yet are not It is much at one to a strong Faith to have Heaven or to believe it this Grace makes Heaven as really present as if it were already in Possession and therefore it is called in Heb. 11.1 The evidence of things not seen and the substance of things hoped for it is the very being of things hoped for the being of those things that as yet have no being Thirdly 3. Hope embraceth it We have a Kingdom as in the view of Faith so also in the embraces of Hope And therefore Hope is called The Anchor of the Soul that entreth into that within the Vail Heb. 6.19 that is Heb. 6.19 into Heaven it lays hold on all that Glory that is there laid up and kept in reversion for us Hope is in it self a solid and substantial Possession for it stirs up the same Affections it excites the same Joy Delight and Complacency as Fruition it self doth It is the Taster of all our Comforts and if they be but temporal it not only tasts them but sometimes quite devours them and leaves us in suspence whether it be not better to be Expectants than Enjoyers Heavenly Hope gives the same real contentment and satisfaction that antedates our Glory and puts us into the Possession of our Inheritance whilst we are yet in our Nonage only it doth not spend and devour its Object before Hand as earthly Hope doth Fourthly 4. God hath assured them of it by Promise We have a Kingdom of Glory because God hath assured to us the possession of it by his immutable word of Promise And therefore it is called Eternal Life which God that cannot lie hath promised Tit. 1.2 Gods Word is as good Security as actual Possession It is this Word that gives us Right and Title to it and this Right we may well call ours Hence we have it and it is observable Mark 16.16 He that believeth shall be saved Here is assurance of Salvation for the future But in John 3.18 Joh. 3.18 there it is He that believeth not is condemned already He that believeth shall be saved he that believeth not is condemned already why Unbelievers are no more actually condemned than Believers are actually saved only what God promiseth or what God threatneth it is all one whether he saith it is done or it shall be done for Damnation is
may enforce a holy Awe and Fear of him and indeed if ever it was necessary to press Men to a due Fear and Awe of God it is so now since on the one Hand the open Prophaneness of ungodly Men and on the other Hand the pert Sauciness of some notional Professors are apt to think that Communion with God consists in a familiar Rudeness doth plainly testifie to all the World that there is little Fear or Reverence of him in their Hearts And now whilst I am shewing what reason there is that Gods dearest Children should fear him as a reconciled Father let wicked Men in the mean while sadly consider with themselves what great cause then they have to fear him who is their sworn Enemy if God's Smiles are tempered with that Majesty that makes them awful surely his Frowns then must needs carry in them an astonishing Terror that makes them insupportable We may observe how unexpectedly sometimes from the Goodness and Mercy of God that is the sweetest and most natural attractive of Love the Scripture draws an Inference to fear God Psal 130.4 Psal 130.4 There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared Not only a Sin-revenging but a Sin-pardoning God is here set before us as the Object of our Fear these two Sister Graces Fear and Love are nourished in the Soul by the same Attribute God's pardoning Mercy The great Sinner in the Gospel is said to love much because much was forgiven her and here much Fear as well as much Love is the result and issue of God's pardoning Grace And so you have it in Hos 3.5 Hos 3.5 They shall fear the Lord and his goodness And in Exod. 15.11 Moses describing the most glorious Attributes of God tells us That he is glorious in Holiness fearful in Praises even then when we are to praise God for his Mercy yet are we to fear him as being fearful in Praises And therefore Nehemiah Neh. 1.5 in Nehem. 1.5 praying to God says he O Lord the great and the terrible God Wherein Is it in overwhelming Kingdoms in bringing upon them decreed Destruction Is it in the fierce execution of his Wrath against Sinners No says he O Lord the terrible God that keepest Covenant and Mercy for them that love him So again in Chap. 9.32 O God the mighty and terrible God that keepest Covenant and Mercy Let us now consider what there is in the Mercy and Favour of God as he is a reconciled God unto us and in Covenant with us that may justly render him to be the Object of our Fear 1. That dreadful way that God took to manifest his mercy to us may justly cause us to fear him First The consideration of that dreadful way and method that God took to manifest his Mercy towards us is sufficient to affect our Hearts with Fear though we stand fully possessed of his favour In Gen. 28. when God had made many gracious Promises all along that Chapter unto Jacob of blessing of him and keeping him in all his ways of multiplying his Seed as the dust of the Earth you would think this was no terrible Thing and yet because God reveals this Mercy to him in an awful and amazing manner a Gap is opened in Heaven a bright Ladder reaching from Earth to Heaven God on the top of it Angels on every Round of it though the Message was joyful yet the strange kind of delivering of the Message makes Jacob cry out How dreadful is this place it is no other than the Gate of Heaven The very Gate of Heaven becomes dreadful when it is represented in such a Majestical manner But now the way that God took for his Mercy to arrive at us is much more dreadful than any such Dream or Vision and therefore we should be the more deeply affected with Fear and Trembling even then when God speaks Peace and Pardon to us for if we consider either the Terms upon which he is become ours or the way by which he discovereth himself to be ours both of them are full of Dread and Terror 1. The terms upon which God becomes ours are full of Terror First It cannot but strike our Hearts with Fear to reflect upon those dreadful Terms upon which God is contented to be induced to become our God His Mercy towards us is procured upon Terms of infinite Justice and Severity Divine Vengeance arrests our Surety and exacts from him the utmost Satisfaction that Curse that would for ever have blasted and withered the Souls of all Mankind seizeth upon Christ in all its malignity that Wrath some few Drops of which scalds the Damned in Hell was given him to drink off in a full and overflowing Cup He did bear the chastisement of our Peace and by his Stripes we are healed nor would God upon lower Terms have consented to a Reconciliation betwixt wretched Man and himself than the precious Blood of his only Son As of Old Friendship betwixt two Persons was wont to be attested and sealed by a Sacrifice as we find it both among Heathen Authors and also in Scripture an Instance of which we have of Laban in Gen. 31.54 where Laban and Jacob returning to Amity make a Ratification of it by a Sacrifice So the Attonement that God made betwixt us and himself is solemnized by a Sacrifice even the Sacrifice of his own Son As a Lamb without spot or blemish in this Blood the Treaty betwixt God and Man stands ratified and confirmed Oh! dreadful Mercy that clasps and embraces us about with Arms died red in the Blood of Jesus Christ But now is not this Ground enough to cause a holy Fear of God to seize upon every Soul that shall but seriously consider this sad Tragedy of pardoning Grace If a King resolve to forgive a Malefactor upon no other Terms than a Pardon writ with the last drop of the Heart-blood of his dearest Friend who is there that is so hardned that will not tremble at such a Mercy as this is though it save him So is the Case betwixt God and us the Contents of the Pardon are joyful but it is written all with the Blood of Jesus Christ reaking warm from his very Heart 2. The way by which God discovers himself to be ours is dreadful and may make us to fear him and who then would not fear even a forgiving God Secondly Consider the way and method that God takes with us when he becomes our God and that is most dreadful and must needs make the most confirmed Heart to shake with Fear and Trembling Indeed God deals not with us in such Rigour as he dealt with Jesus Christ his Son but yet usually when he becomes our God when he enters upon us as his Possession first he shakes all the Foundations of our Hearts breaths in Flames of Fire into our very Marrow cramps our Consciences and unjoints our Souls O the Tempests and Storms of Wrath that God pours into a wounded
attain in Glory where our whole Work to all Eternity shall be to love and please God or else that Perfection that consists in its Sincerity in this Life If we take it for that perfection of Love that shall for ever burn in our Hearts when we our selves shall be made perfect so it is certain it will cast out all tormenting Fears for certainly if in Heaven Hope it self shall be abolished much more shall Fear be abolished for there every Saint shall have much more than a full assurance even a full fruition of Glory and they shall know themselves to be for ever confirmed in that blessed state which shall prevent all doubts and fears If we understand it of that perfection of Love that we may attain to in this Life so also the strong and vigorous actings of Love to God casteth out all tormenting Fears It is not possible that that Soul that actually loves God with a vigorous and most ardent Affection should at the same time be rack'd with distracting fears of Hell and Damnation for it is the sense of God's Love unto the Soul that draws from it reciprocal Love again unto God We love him says the Apostle because he first loved us That is as strong as our apprehensions are of God's Love to us so strong will our Love be in its returns to God again Water riseth naturally as high as its Spring wherefore the assurance of God's Love being the Spring from whence our Love flows such as is our Love such will be our assurance also If then our Love be strong in its actings it must needs cast out Fear because it flows from that assurance with which tormenting Fear is utterly inconsistent But then there is another kind of Fear that is not tormenting and that is an awful frame of Heart struck with reverential apprehensions of God's infinite Majesty and our own vileness and unworthiness and this perfect Love doth not cast out but perfects this awful sedate calm fear of God The Angels and the glorified Saints in Heaven whose Love is so perfect that it can neither admit of an increase or abatement yet they stand in aw and fear of the terrible Majesty of the great God the same infinit Excelencies of the divine Nature that attract their Love doth also excite their Fear See how the Prophet makes this an Argument to fear God Jer. 10.7 Who would not fear thee O King of Saints For said he in all the Earth there is none like unto thee One would rather think Gods unparallel Excellencies and Perfections should be a Motive to Love who would not love thee O King of Saints since there is none in all the Earth like thee Yea but filial Fear and filial Love are of so near a kind and cognation that they may well be enforced by one and the same Argument Who would not fear thee for in all the Earth there is none like thee This is the Excellency of divine Love it is an attractive of Love and it is an excitement unto Fear Well then though we have no chilling Fear of a hot and scorching Hell yet let us have an awful reverential Fear of the glorious God whose Excellencies are such as cannot be matched nor scarcely imitable by any in Heaven or in Earth Thirdly 3. A holy Fear of God is not contrary to the Spirit of Adoption The Fear of God is not contrary to that free Spirit of Adoption which we receive in our first Conversion It may perhaps seem to some that the Apostle opposeth them in Rom. 8.15 You have not received the Spirit of Bondage again to Fear but the Spirit of Adoption whereby you cry Abba Father To this I Answer That by the Spirit of Bondage here the Apostle means the legal Work of the holy Ghost in Conviction that is preparatory to Conversion which Work usually is accompanied with dreadful Terrors apprehending God not as a reconciled Father but as an incensed and severe Judge why now says the Apostle You have not received this Spirit of Bondage again thus to fear this is not that Fear that the consideration of God as your God and reconciled Father excited to you this is not that Fear that the Apostle exhorts Christians unto but an awful reverential Fear of God whereby we should stand in aw of his dread Majesty so as to be preserved from whatever may be an offence to his Purity and if in any Night of Desertion it should happen that the Hearts of true Believers should be overwhelmed with dismal Fears apprehending God as enraged and incensed against them standing in doubt of the goodness of their spiritual Condition if this seize upon them after they have had the Spirit of Adoption let them know this Fear is not from a Work of the Holy Ghost in them they have not received the Spirit of Bondage again so to fear it is not a Work of the Holy Ghost to excite in them doubts and fears of their spiritual Condition after they have once had assurance of the goodness thereof but it ariseth either from some Ignorance or from some Sin that they have committed that interposeth betwixt them and the clear sight of the discoveries of God's Love Now for the better understanding of this place because I judge it pertinent to my present purpose I shall open it to you somewhat largely in these following Particulars 1. The Work of Conversion is usually carried on by legal Fear and Terrors First The preparatory Work of Conversion is usually carried on in the Soul by legal Fears and Terrors I call that a legal Fear that is wrought in the Soul by the Dread-Threatnings and Denunciations of the Law The Law if we take it in its native Rigour without the merciful qualification of Gospel-grace thunder'd out nothing but Execrations Wrath and Vengeance against every Transgressor of it representing God armed also with his almighty Power to destroy them this is that Glass that shew'd them their old Sins in most ugly Shapes now they see them stare ghastly upon their Consciences that before allured them the Scene is quite changed and there are nothing but dreadful Apparitions of Death and Hell fleeting now before them Hell belsh'd in their very Faces God brandished his flaming Sword over them ready to reeve their Hearts asunder they that lately were secure and fearless now stand quaking under the fearful expectations of that fiery Wrath and Indignation that they neither have hope to escape nor yet have they Strength or Patience to endure This is that legal Fear that the Curse and Threatnings of the Law when set home in their full acrimony work in the Hearts of convinced Sinners Secondly 2. Slavish Fear engenders unto Bondage This legal Fear is slavish and engenders unto Bondage There is Bondage under the reigning Power of Sin and there is a Bondage under the terrifying Power of Sin The former makes a Man a Slave unto the Devil and the latter makes a Man a
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
that require not much time to perform their Errands in for there is a holy Mystery in pointing our earthly Employments with these heavenly Ejaculations as Men point their Writings sometimes with Stops ever now and then shooting up a short mental Prayer unto Heaven such Pauses as these are you will find to be no Impediments to your worldly Affairs This is the way for a Christian to be retired and private in the midst of a Multitude to turn his Shop or his Field into a Closet to trade for Earth and yet to get Heaven also into the Bargain So we read of Nehemiah 2.4 Nehem. 2.4 That whilst the King was discoursing to him of the State of Judea it is said that Nehemiah prayed unto God that is he sent up secret Prayers to God which tho' they escaped the King's notice and observation yet were they so prevalent as to bow and encline his Heart 4. It is always to keep our Hearts in a praying Frame Fourthly and Lastly There is yet something more in this Praying without ceasing and that is this We may then be said to pray without ceasing when we keep our Hearts in such a frame as that we are fit at all times to vent our selves before God in Prayer When we keep alive and cherish a praying Spirit and can upon all Opportunities draw near to God with full Souls and with quick and vigorous Affections This is to pray without ceasing and this I take to be the most genuine natural Sense of the Words and the true Scope of the Apostle here to have the Habit of Prayer enclining them always freely and sweetly to breath out their Requests unto God They that would maintain a praying Temper must be careful of Two Things and to take all Occasions to prostrate themselves before his Throne of Grace Now those that would maintain this praying Temper must be especially careful of Two Things 1. That they immerse not themselves in the World First That they do not too much ingulf themselves in the Businesses and Pleasures of this Life for this will exceedingly damp and deaden the Heart to this holy Duty as Earth cast upon the Fire puts it out so the World when it is spread over the Affections must needs stifle and extinguish that holy Flame that should ascend up to Heaven How hard is it for a Man that oppresseth himself with a heap of Businesses to raise his Heart unto God under all that Load How hard is it for those that let out their Hearts thus too and fro a thousand ways to summon them in the next moment to attend upon God with that awful and serious Frame that becomes all those that appear before him When we come to Prayer reaking hot out of the Affairs of this World we find our Hearts subject to manifold Distractions and Discomposures and our Thoughts scattered like Bees still flying from one Flower to another still bringing some Intelligence from worldly Objects even then when we are about divine Employments Secondly 2. That they fall into no known and presumptous Sin If you would maintain a praying Temper of Soul be careful not to fall into the commission of any known presumptuous Sin The Guilt of Sin lying upon the Conscience will exceedingly deaden the Heart to Prayer Alas how can we go to God with any freedom of Spirit How can we call him Father with any Boldness and Confidence while we are conscious to our selves that we have daringly provoked him by some wilful Offence I may appeal to your own Experience in this Do not your Consciences fly in your Faces Do they not take you by the Throat and even choak your Speech while you are praying with some such Suggestions as these What can I pray for the Pardon of Sin that frequently commit that which I know to be Sin Shall I dare to lift up unclean Hands before his pure and holy Eyes or to speak to him in Prayer when as those Sins that rancor and fester in my Conscience must needs make my Breath unsavory and noisome to him Will the Lord hear such Prayers Or if he doth hear them will he not account them an Abomination You now whose Consciences thus accuse you do you not find such Reflections as these to be great Deadnings to your Hearts such Damps to Duty such Clippings of the Wings of the Spirit of God and takings off of the Wheels of the Soul so that it drives on but slowly and heavily in the performance of that Duty Certainly Guilt is the greatest Impediment to Duty in the World for it takes off from the Freeness and Filialness of our Spirits and fills us with Distrust Diffidence and a slavish Fear of coming before God rather as our Judge than as our Father And therefore we find that as soon as Adam had sinned against his Maker he hides himself from him Yea and we may observe it in our selves what a slavish dejectedness and deadness seizeth upon us when we come to God in Duty after we have wronged him by any known Sin how doth this make us come with such misgiving Fears as if we would not have God to take notice that we were in his Presence making us to be continually in Pain until the Duty be done And thus you see what it is to Pray without ceasing It is to pray constantly at set Times and Seasons it is to pray importunately and vehemently it is upon all Occasions to be sending up holy Ejaculations unto God and especially to keep alive and cherish a praying Frame of Heart Which whosoever would do he must beware of emerging himself in the World and of committing any known and presumptuous Sin And so much for the doctrinal part An Exhortation unto Prayer The Application shall be to stir us up and excite us to the performance of this Holy Duty wherein indeed the Vitals of Religion and Holiness do consist And to press this upon you consider with me these following Particulars 1. Prayer is a Sign of the new Birth First Prayer is one of the greatest Signs of a Man's new Birth As in the natural Birth we know the Child is living by its Crying when it comes into the World so also in this spiritual Birth it is an evidence that we are born living Souls to God when we cry mightily unto God in Prayer And therefore in Acts 9.11 Acts 9.11 when God sent Ananias unto Paul that he might take off that Fear from him that might otherwise seize upon him in going to such an enraged Persecutor as he was he tells him St. Paul was changed for behold he prays This is an infallible Sign that we are Children of God when we can with a Holy Reverence and Boldness cry Abba Father 2. Prayer is an inestimable Priviledge Secondly Consider it is a great and inestimable Priviledge that God will permit us to approach so near to himself that he will permit such vile Dust and Ashes
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
is in all and every part of the World So that God is every where present which is beyond the reach of our apprehensions yet it is undoubtedly true for God's Omnipresence being that Attribute which belongs to him he is present every-where and in all things Now for the Rational Demonstrations whereby it may be evinced that God is Omnipresent That God is present every-where in this World that I shall make good by these Arguments Argument 1. First from his Unchangeableness thus If there be any place where God is not then God may be there because he is Omnipotent but if God may be there where he is not actually also then it must be by motion to that place but it is impossible that God should be able to move from one place to another because he is immutable Therefore hence it clearly follows that there is no place where God is not and where he was not from all Eternity Arg. 2. It may be demonstrated That God is Omnipresent from his preservation of all things in their beings Thus God is present with whatsoever he preserves but he preserves every thing in its being therefore he is present every-where There is required as great a Power to preserve Creatures from falling back into their first nothing as there was to make them at first out of nothing for Preservation as the Philosopher speaks is nothing else but a continued and a prolonged Creation Now he cannot create any thing at a distance from it because no Creature is fit to convey a Creative Action and because also what ever Vertue or Power is in God it is his Essence therefore if he create or preserve by his Power he creates and preserves immediately by his Essence and so his Essence must be whatsoever his Operations are But God exists not only in the World but infinitely beyond the World also that may be demonstrated thus 1. First From the Infiniteness of his Nature and Essence 2. Secondly From the Infiniteness of his Perfections Arg. 1. First From the Infiniteness of God's Nature or Essence That Nature which is infinite cannot be bounded or limited but God's Nature is infinite therefore it cannot be bounded but if God were only present in the World and did not exist infinitely beyond it then his Being and Nature could not be infinite as a Spirit is infinite therefore if God should be included in the World he would also be but infinite as the World Arg. 2. Secondly From the Infiniteness of his Perfections we may argue thus That which is infinitely perfect must be infinitely great but God is infinitely perfect so that there is no Perfection which we can imagine but is eminently in God therefore he must be infinitely great so as there can be no space which we can imagine but he must be present in it But we can imagine an infinite space beyond this World therefore God is there because there is no Perfection imaginable which God hath not Whatever is infinitely perfect must be infinitely great as appears from this because the greater a thing is the more perfect it is of that same kind as a great piece of Gold is more excellent than a less and therefore from this Perfection of God it appears that he is every-where he being all Perfection Arg. 2. As it is demonstrated from God's Infiniteness and Perfection so likewise from his Almighty Power God can create another World greater than this even in that imaginary space which we can conceive beyond this World therefore certainly God is now existent there Arg. 3. God's Omnipresence may be argued from the Eternity of God God was infinitely existent before the Creation of the World since he is Eternal and the World but Temporal the World hath stood only but some few Thousands of Years and before the Creation of the World there was nothing but God and God existed eternally in himself therefore though beyond this World there be nothing yet God will be there actually existing in that same imaginary space beyond this World as he did exist in an imaginary space before this World was created Thus I have done with the Propositions and the Confirmation of them by the rational Arguments those things that relate to the Philosophical Part of the Text for informing of the Judgment in the Notion of that stupendious Attribute of God's Omnipresence I shall now come to answer some Objections The first is taken from those Scriptures where it seems to be implied that God moves from place to place as in Gen. 18.21 where the Lord saith concerning Sodom and Gomorrah I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it which is come unto me And in Hab. 3.3 it is there said God came from Teman and the Holy One from Mount Paran c. Object 1 Now these places which speak of going to and departing from places seem to oppose God's Ubiquity because Motion is inconsistent with God's Omnipresence Answ I answer These and the like Scriptures are not to be taken properly and literally but as accommodate to our capacity and conception even as Parents when they speak to their little Children will sometimes lisp and babble in their Language so God oftentimes condescends to us in speaking our Language for the declaring of those things which are far above our reach But you will say how are such Places to to be understood I answer When God is said to come unto or to depart from any Place or Person nothing else must be understood thereby but a declaring or not declaring himself to be present as Men when they manifest themselves present they do it by moving hither or thither so God to accommodate himself thereunto when he manifests his presence any where he tells us that he goes thither and when that Manifestation ceaseth he tells us he departs thence though he was always there present both before and after that Manifestation So that these Expressions used in the Scripture concerning God though spoken after the manner of Men yet they must be understood after the manner of God that is with a suitableness and conformity to his infinite Essence Object 2 The Scripture tells us that hereafter in Heaven we shall see God as he is But is not that impossible If God be an omnipresent God we shall not be able to comprehend him because we shall not our selves be infinite in Heaven and if Man be stiled finite how then can he comprehend what is infinite since infinite is comprehended of nothing but that which is infinite Answ I answer Such Scriptures are not to be understood as if the Capacities of Angels much less of Men are or ever shall be wide and capacious enough to contain the infinite greatness of God no his Omnipresence is not comprehended by Angels themselves nor shall be by Man for ever but it must be understood comparatively Our Vision and Sight of God here is but through a Glass darkly but in Heaven
in Heaven And therefore Daniel when in Babilon he prayed his Window being open towards Jerusalem towards the Temple as if no Prayer were acceptable to God but what was heard in Heaven So Jonah when he was in the Belly of the Whale Jonah 2.7 My Prayer came in unto thee into thine Holy Temple Jonah was a strong Orator when he was in the slimy Paunch of the Whale yea but God was there and God heard him there but yet his Prayer would have been as filthy as his Person if God had not heard him elsewhere than in the Belly of the Whale My Prayer came in unto thee into thine Holy Temple That is God heard him in Heaven And therefore though the Breath of Jonah could have no sweetness yet the Prayer that he breathed forth came up as Incense and a sweet Perfume before God as it came into the Holy Temple Thus God hears the Prayers of his in Heaven but the Prayers of the wicked he hears only upon Earth he hears them when they speak them but God never hears their Prayers in the Mediation of Christ but the Prayers of his own People he hears on Earth as he is an omnipresent and omnipotent God and he hears them in Heaven as he is a gracious and reconciled Father If thou dost but Whisper thy Prayer God will hear it that which is but whispered on Earth it rings and eccho's in the Court of Heaven and if Christ speaks your Prayers over to God they become so loud that God cannot stop his Ears against them The Voice of Prayer is not like other Voices the further they reach the weaker they grow no that Voice which is so weak that it cannot be heard beyond the compass of thy Closet yet when it is put forth in Prayer it fills all Heaven with its sound But where is the encouragement unto Prayer in all this If thou dost belong to God thou may'st have great encouragement to Prayer from the Consideration of his Omnipresence for because of this there is no Prayer of a Child of God but shall be heard in Heaven tho' it be uttered in secret For consider that tho' Christ as Man is only in Heaven yet Christ as God is every-where present and hears the Prayers of all Men in the World Those that are wicked he regards no further but gives them the hearing but for his own he regards their Prayers and presents what he hears from them to God in Heaven Christ makes his Omniscience and Omnipresence to be subservient to the Work of his Mediatorship One of his Offices is to be a faithful High-Priest and an Advocate to God for us and Christ being such an Advocate that hears all the Suits and all the Causes of his Clients we may be assured that there is not one Prayer that God hears on Earth from us but he hears it also in Heaven through Christ It was a notable Scoff of Elijah to Baal's Priests 1 Kings 18.27 Cry aloud for he is a God c. peradventure he sleepeth and must be waked As if he should say You serve an unworthy God that cannot hear those that pray unto him And indeed how should he do so that is not Omnipresent He is talking or he is pursuing or travelling Cry Cry aloud and peradventure if he sleepeth that will awaken him But though you should cry never so loud though your Cry should reach from Earth to Heaven he would be silent such a God as yours could never hear And therefore when Elijah himself came to pray Verse 36. the Text doth not tell us he cried aloud but that he came neer But when Baal's Priests roared and howled like distracted Men and cut themselves in an idolatrous manner Baal is not prevailed with to hear them Now Elijah came near that is he came in a calm and sedate manner and poured out his fervent composure to God as knowing that that God whom he prayed to is present every-where The Voice in Prayer is necessary upon a threefold Account First As it is that which God requires should be imployed in his Service for this is the great end why our Tongues were given to us that by them we might bless and serve God James 3.9 Secondly When in private it may be a Help and Means to raise up our own Affections and Devotions then the Voice is requisite keeping it still within the bounds of decency or privacy Thirdly In our joyning also with others it is a help likewise to raise and quicken their Affections otherwise were it not for these three Reasons the Voice is no more necessary to make known our Wants to God than it is to make them known to our own Hearts for God is always in us and with us and knows what we have need of before we ask it Secondly As the Consideration of Vse 2 of God's Omnipresence should encourage us in Prayer as knowing that God certainly hears us so it should affect us with a Holy Awe and Reverence of God in all our Prayers and Duties and in the whole Course of our Lives and Conversations Certainly it is an excellent Meditation to prepare our Hearts to Duty and to compose them in Duty to be much pondering the Omnipresence of God to think that I am with God he is present in the Room with me even in the Congregation with me and likewise in my Closet and in all my Converse and Dealings in the World How can it be possible for that Man to be frothy and vain that keeps this Thought alive in his Heart If the Presence of some Earthly Person strike an Awe in our Hearts when we come before them how much more should the Consideration of God's Presence affect us with an Holy Fear Suppose an Angel should fly in the midst of us that are here present with a rushing and dazling Glory how would it make all our Hearts beat and throb within us It would make us soon abandon all those vain Thoughts that now we feed upon those Thoughts that eat out the Heart and Life of Duty how much more should it affect us and fill us with Holy Fear that God is now and always in the midst of us whose Glory stains and sullies the Beauty and extinguishes the Light of Angels Oh! that God that is always present with us should be worshipped and served with a Holy Fear and remembred with the greatest Veneration Now to imprint this the more deeply I shall suggest two or three Particulars First Because God is in all things therefore he sees and knows all things The Omniscience of God is grounded upon his Omnipresence Jer. 23.24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him saith the Lord do not I fill Heaven and Earth saith the Lord Nothing in Heaven or Earth can be hid or concealed from God's Eye Heb. 4.13 All things are naked and opened before the Lord. There is no Corner so retired so shady so dark no Gulph so deep that can hide
against it and made wide Breaches in it they have heretofore entred and taken possession and still the passage is as open for you and the Conquest as easie as for them and you may see them beckoning out of Heaven to you and hear them calling to you Fellow Soldiers bend your Force hither there is your Labour here is your Rest there are your Enemies here is your Crown and Victory believe it there are no more Dangers for you to pass through no more Difficulties for you to meet with than what we have passed through yea and passed with so much safety as not so much as one Soul of us miscarried not a Soul left dead on the place we strugled against the same Corruptions that you do and overcame them against the same Temptations and baffled them against the same Devils and routed them against the same Flatteries and Oppositions of a base World and despised them Believe it upon our Experience all these Things are but Scare-Crows set in the ways of Obedience on purpose to affright you but there is no danger at all in them unless you fear them this they tell you with one consent And therefore if Examples are any Incouragement as indeed they are almost the greatest if Imitation hath any force to Obedience as too often we find it hath great force to sin why should we not hereby quicken our selves Why do you not arise and press upon the Footsteps of them who have gone before you and shew'd you that the way is both certain and passable Are you called to exercise Self-denial Abraham looks down from Heaven upon you and tells you that he was ready to sacrifice his beloved Isaac Are you afraid of the Scoffs and Jears of a flearing World Why Noah builded an Ark Moses relinquish'd the Honours of Pharoah's Court and met with as many Persecutions and Afflictions and underwent as many Taunts and Flouts as you are like to do Are you called to lay down your Lives for the Testimony of Jesus and a good Conscience Why Stephen tells you a Storm of Stones fell upon him and brake open the Prison and set the Prisoner free his Soul escaped that broke out of the Cage and as a Bird took Wing and flew to Heaven Are you assaulted with Temptaons St. Paul looks down and tells you that he had much stronger Temptations than you have and yet he got safe to Heaven Yea our great Master and Pattern Jesus Christ wrought out all Obedience and what were the Motives that put him upon this mighty Undertaking It was not for his own Salvation and Happiness but it was for ours Nay the Scripture goes yet lower it was 1 Pet. 2.21 To lead us an Example that we should follow his Steps Now shall Christ do all this not for himself but for us and shall we sit still and do nothing for our selves Shall Christ take so much Pains to set us an Example and shall not we follow that Example We who have so great a Happiness to work for and so a great a Pattern to work by Shall we be slothful in procuring our own Good since Christ was so laborious and expensive not in procuring Good to himself but in procuring Good for others Methinks these Things should add some Spurs to our Endeavours and excite us to follow the Examples of those that are gone before us yea and to leave an Example unto them that are to come after us and though we do come after the Examples of others who are gone before us yet the consideration of their Examples who have gone through this Work may excite us not to come behind them in any good Work Secondly God holds out to us the Light of his Gospel-Truth and Ordinances whereby to help us in our Work What Christ saith of himself is applicable unto all John 9.4 We must work the Works of God while it is Day the Night cometh wherein no Man can work You are not shut up in Darkness you are not muffled up in the Clouds of Error and Ignorance or if you are it is not because you have not Light shining about you but because you shut it out when it is breaking in upon you It is not a double Labour that is put upon you first to find out your Duty and then to perform it no the Light shines about you and unless you will seal up your Eyes against it it is impossible but that it will sometime flash in upon you and discover both what you have mis-done and what you ought to do The Mahometans have a Tradition among them That Moses Law and Christs Gospel were written at first with Ink made of pure Light This Conceit of theirs though it be fond and ridiculous yet it carries a mystick Truth in it the Scripture is as plain for matter of Duty as if it had been written with a Sun-beam Ordinances are dispensed freely and powerfully so great a throng of Teachers and such variety of Gospel-Administrations that Men must take almost as much Pains to keep themselves ignorant of their Duty as would suffice to perform their Duty And wherefore think you is all this glorious Light given you Is it not that you might work by it Doth a Master light up a Torch or Candle only that his Servants might play about it And wherefore doth God light up the Sun of Truth in the Firmament of his Church Is it only that you should dally and trifle with it No it shines that you may work by it and truly work by it you do but alas how many do work the Works of Darkness by the glorious Light of Truth How many have Light enough to see that they are notoriously wicked and prophane Swearers Drunkards Despisers of Ordinances Revilers at Religion and the Professors of it Enemies to what is sober and sacred in Christianity This Light they have flashing in their Faces from the clear Evidence of the word of God and yet still they continue to work the Works of Darkness What shall I say to such as these are Truly I can say nothing worse to them than what their own Consciences already thunder against them for they are self-condemned Persons But truly this Complaint may too too justly be taken up against all that do not walk worthy of the Light vouchsafed to them their Sins are revealed clearly and Duties are revealed as clearly as the Scripture can possibly express them and yet they live in a gross neglect of them Well believe it this Light will not always shine to be gazed at only the Day is drawing to an end the Night is hastning upon us the darkness of the Night of Death and the darker Night of Judgment and oh that then it may not be any of our Condemnations That Light is come into the World but we loved Darkness and the Works of Darkness better than Light because our Deeds were evil Thirdly God hath to this end set apart his Ministers that they might be