be not changed and made holy it is all in vain as to him because Christ dyed for sinners this many look upon as a good ground for hope but the question if put home must be this did Christ ever dye to save impenitent and unregenerate sinners did he dye to save such as flight him refuse his yoke and live and dye enemies to him if he did then hope on but if not then there is no hope Nay let me tell you it is out of the reach of Christs power to save any one of you in your lusts Mat. 1.21 He can save you from your sins but he cannot save you in your sins For 1. He can't falsify his trust God the father hath put the great work of Salvation and damnation into Christs hands And how is salvation carryed on but in pursuance of the election of God look how God chooses to Salvation and so Christ carries it on Now we are chosen that we should be holy Eph. 1.4 He hath chosen us through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience 1 Pet. 1.2 And therefore Christ will save none that are not sanctified for he came to do the will of God and he will not betray his trust 2. He cannot alter the standing law of Heaven and what is that it is the standing law of Heaven which the righteous God hath fixed more firm than the Sun in the Firmament and will never vary from it that a man must repent Luk. 13.2 and turn to Christ or perish He must be converted or he shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Matt. 18.3 He must take the yoke of Christ upon him Heb. 3.18 or he shall never find rest to his Soul Mat. 5.8 None but the pure in heart shall see God This is the standing law of Heaven and how then can the unbelieving and disobedient be saved either the law of Heaven must be reversed or sinners are eternally undone and will Christ who revealed this law to the world reverse it again to gratifie thy lusts 3. He can't make void his own offices Why hath God made him a King but to subdue sinners to himself to conquer the nolency of the will to set up his government and rule in the heart and to subdue and destroy the rebels He reigns that he may put all his enemies under his feet 1 Cor. 15.25 And if so what shall become of disobedient sinners can you think that this Melchizedek this King of Righteousness will ever countenance the impenitent and unbelieving will he take those to reign with him in his Kingdom of glory that would not that he should rule over them in the Kingdom of grace This were to violate the rights of his Crown which you cannot think he will do if you do but consider two Scriptures one is Luk. 19.27 Those mine enemies that would not that I should reign over them bring hither and slay them before me The other is in 2 Thes 1.7 8 9. The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power And how do you that slight Christ think to escape this sentence will not the judgment of the great day of the Lord be very terrible to all that live and dye in their lusts can you bear it Can thy heart indure or thy hand be made strong in the day that I shall deal with thee Ezek. 22.14 If not then be wise and flee from wrath to come and there is but one way and that is by closing with Jesus Christ and giving your selves up to an intire subjection to his yoke There is no way to escape wrath and secure eternal life but this You read of a strait gate Mat. 7.14 and a narrow way that leads to life The yoke of the spirit in conviction to conversion that is the strait gate and the yoke of Christ in holiness and obedience that is the narrow way and there is no other and as our Lord Christ sayes few there be that find it Is there any sinner here now that stands convinced of the necessity of undertaking this duty that you must take up Christs yoke or you must perish in your sins I hope you are and therefore I shall lay you down some directions to help and guide you in this work Take heed of mistaking the yoke of Christ Direct 1 Some will tell you it lies in this way of worship some in that as Christ sayes many will say lo here is Christ Mat. 24.23 and lo their is Christ believe them not Some will perswade you it lyes in ceremonious services and humane traditions but this is the yoke of men and not the yoke of Christ and therefore take heed of it If you would know which is the yoke of Christ you must be guided by the word of Christ for nothing is duty but what the word commands Some will tell you it lyes in Popery but this is the yoke of Antichrist And therefore you that are young ones take heed of this yoke for it is none of Christs It is a grievous yoke It binds you from the use of the Scriptures which are able to make you wise to Salvation It ties you up to worship God in an unknown tongue in a language you don't understand It ties you to make use of many Mediators whereas there is but one Mediator between God and man 1 Tim. 2.5 the man Christ Jesus It ties you to believe against your senses To believe that a blind sottish Priest can with a few words convert a wafer into the very body and blood of Christ and then you must believe it to be the very substance of Christ against Scripture against Reason and against Sense For though the Scripture calls it still bread and though you break bread and see bread and tast and eat bread yet you must believe it not to be bread It ties you to believe many abominable errors and false Doctrines as that of merit by works though Christ sayes when we have done all we must say we are unprofitable servants Luk. 17.10 And that of the infallibility of the Pope and his Supremacy over all Churches and Princes and that if he doth but excommunicate any Prince and pronounce him a Heretick it is lawful to murder him It is full of such abominable Doctrines Oh therefore never come under this yoke it is an idolatrous yoke a cruel bloody yoke a heavy intolerable yoke a yoke which neither we nor our fore-fathers were able to bear therefore they wisely cast it off and let us rather choose to dye then put it on again for it is none of the Yoke of Christ If you would resolve to take up Christs Direct 2 yoke then you must remove all hinderances
and dulnesses Are they any of the precepts of Religion that cause this that cannot be for there is no duty God commands but what hath a certain and direct tendency to the comfort and happiness of the creature And therefore the promises are not only said to rejoyce the heart but the precepts too Psal 19.8 The statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the heart Is it any Grace of the Spirit we are called to the exercise of that is of a dejecting tendency no that cannot be neither for Peace and Joy are the proper fruit of Grace Rom. 15.13 filled with peace and joy in believing The highest exercises of Grace bring forth the sweetest Peace and the richest Comfort which is evident in this that in Heaven where the Saints are in the highest exercise of Grace there they injoy the most perfect comforts and delights Therefore if Religion prohibits no lawful delights if its precepts impose no besotting services if it improves those graces the perfection whereof is attended with perfect joy and delight then Religion is no melancholy besotting thing there is nothing in it but what is desirable and lovely and therefore whereas the Objection says farewel all good days when once young ones come to be Religious I say nay the word of God says they must never look to see good days till then 1 Pet. 3.10 11. He that will love life and see good days Psal 34.12 let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile let him eschew evil and do good Let no man therefore be discouraged from taking up the Yoke of Christ upon this pretence Object 4. Another prejudice that lieth in the way of young ones to hinder their taking up the Yoke of Christ betimes is the difficulty of it The duties Religion binds upon us are an intolerable burden its laws are very rigid and its precepts uneasie it commands duty utterly contradictory to our affections and interests to deny our selves to love our enemies to bless them that curse us to mortifie our members to cut off our right hand and pluck out our right eye John 6.60 c. These are hard sayings who can hear them difficult duties and who can perform them who can enter in at this strait gate and walk in this narrow way without fainting Now I would obviate this Objection thus Answ 1. Either this is the way to Heaven and there is no other or it is not If it be not then the Bible is a lye and the whole of Religion is a grand cheat and God in all his precepts and promises is the greatest Impostor and Deceiver that ever the world knew But who hath a forehead to assert this which is the highest Blasphemy that can be imagined And if this be the way to Heaven and there is no other as most certain it is Jesus Christ himself the true and faithful witness every where attests it Matt. 7.14 Strait is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life And vers 21. Not every one not any one that says to me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doth the will of my father which is in heaven Matt. 5.29 30. If thy right eye offend thee pluck it out if thy right hand offend thee cut it off and cast it from thee for it is better for thee that one of thy members should perish than that thy whole body should be cast into hell Matt. 16.24 Matt. 16.24.25 If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me for whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it Matt. 18.3 Verily I say unto you except ye be converted and become as little children ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven Most evident it is by these and a hundred Scriptures more that there is no other way to Heaven but this and if so then no difficulties should deter us from it how many and great soever they be We should account no pains no labour too much in so important a concern as this Luk. 10.42 which is the one thing needful Nay difficulties in the service of God should rather excite than discourage will ye serve God with that which cost you nothing consider that though the gate be strait Matt. 7.14 and the way narrow yet it leads to life 2. Hath not the service of sin its difficulties too yea greater than any that are imposed by the Yoke of Christ the commands of sin are unreasonable brutish full of contradiction and therein full of difficulty and slavery as I have said and therefore the carnal sinner is in this self condemned in that he objects the difficulties of Religion thereby to keep off the Yoke of Christ and yet at the same time yields a willing obedience to his lusts notwithstanding all the difficulties that attend them which are as great or greater than those of Religion can be Suppose that Religion doth call a man to part with all as sometimes it doth doth not lust do the same Pools Apology for Religion p. 63. and where one man hath sacrificed his all to Religion many have sacrificed their all to their lusts How many have drunkenness and gluttony undone how many have been brought to beggery by pride and excess how many have been brought to a morsel of bread by the whorish woman Prov. 6.26 Besides whatever a man loses for God and Religion God hath engaged to make it up again Matt. 19.29 But if a man wasts all upon the service of his lusts who makes up that again there is none to make up his loss but the wast will make guilt great and his account grievous It may be you account it hard that Religion and the service of God require so much of your time and doth not the world and lust require as much of their followers and that for meer dreams and shadows and why should it be more burdensome to live to God than to the Flesh or to spend time in seeking and serving God for eternal blessedness than in seeking and serving the world for empty vanities which either we cannot get or if we do we cannot keep Doth Religion at any time expose a man to sufferings to corporal pains and death So doth lust much more O how great are the pains of Hatred the torments of Envy that one lust of Vncleanness what pains and miseries hath it exposed men unto and where one dies a Martyr for Christ thousands dye Martyrs to their lusts having their days shortened by excess in sin besides the endless torments that follow after So that they who complain of the difficulties of Religion find greater in the way of their lusts and therefore are self-condemned in that they serve them without complaining 3. The difficulties of Religion do not arise from the nature of the Precept but from
be in this case For nothing can innoble and inrich you like this Have you no friends this makes God your friend Are you of a low extract this shews you to be born of God Is your education mean why hereby you are taught of God Have you none to leave you an inheritance why God is your inheritance Though you have neither house nor harbour yet this secures you an house not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 O what a comfortable thing it is to see the see of the poor to fear the Lord it makes them rich in their poverty I know thy poverty but thou art rich Rev. 2.9 It gives you a preference in the esteem of God to the greatest sinners on earth The Righteous is more excellent then his Neighbour Prov. 12.26 Suppose you come out of the loyns of a rich Parentage VVhat an advantage may this be for you have nothing to mind but your soul and your Salvation others are forced to spend much of their youth in learning a calling whereby to get bread but your Parents have laid up a plentiful estate for you so that your work should be to mind God You have that time and leisure that others have not it may be said of you as God said to Israel I have given you a land for which ye did not labour houses that ye builded not and Vineyards that ye planted not And what follows Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and truth Josh 24.13 14. This sanctifies all your enjoyments and makes them Blessings indeed without this they are but fewel to your lusts and so become a curse and a snare This then is one great advantage of Christs yoke 2. It is your subjection that proves your relation to Christ Mal. 1.6 If I be a master where is my fear The question implyes that whatever men pretend the authority of God is no farther own'd then as his will is obeyed Why call ye me Lord Lord and do not the things I say Luk. 6.46 and Matt. 12.50 He that doth the will of my father the same is my Brother and Sister and Mother Relations are not empty Titles though they are minimae entitatis yet they are maximae efficaciae They have a mutual 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and affection to each other Obedience is the filling up of your relation to Christ Now whom do ye obey who hath your subjection whose will do ye do If ye call God father and live in sin ye blaspheme his holy name you lay the devils brats at his door If you say our Father you must say Thy will be done and labour to do it 3. Your subjection to Christ is your proper qualification for glory Heb. 5.9 Submit to him here and reign with him for ever And your obedience to Christ dont give you a right to blessedness that comes in by faith but it disposes and qualifies for blessedness a great advantage therefore 3. Consider the disadvantage of not taking up Christs yoke 1. This spoils all your duties If the heart be not subjected to Christ no duty can please God No obedience no audience If we will not hear God he will not hear us Quantum a praeceptis tantum ab auribus dei longe samus He that turns away his ear from hearing the law his Prayer shall be abomination prov 28.9 If his arguments can't prevail with us nor shall ours with him What is the great argument you are wont to use in pleading with God it is the blood of Jesus Heb. 10.19 We have boldness by the blood of Jesus and Ephes 3.12 We have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him Now this is the argument God uses with you Phil. 2.1 If there be therefore any Consolation in Christ if any bowels and mercies If Gods beseeching you by the bowels and blood of Christ can't prevail with you to duty why should your pleading then with God prevail with him for mercy for his blood was shed to redeem us to obedience as well as to be the price of mercies 2. It renders all your hopes vain The hope of a goodman shall never be frustrate it shall be finished but never be disappointed His hope ends in the fruition of the good hoped for It is a living hope But the hope of the sinner is a dying soul-undoing hope that will certainly fail at last and needs it must For 1. It is a hope that hath no foundation 1. None in the soul what is the foundation of hope there I will give you it in two Scriptures One is 1 Pet. 1.3 Begotten us again to a lively hope Their regeneration is made the ground of hope The other is Col. 1.27 Christ in you the hope of glory There Union to Christ is made the ground of hope So that where-ever there is a union to Christ by faith and a change of state by Regenerating grace that man hath a foundation of hope in himself No other man hath or can have 2. His hope hath no foundation in the word for that gives no countenance nor incouragement to hope in a state of disobedience that tells you that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.9 it tells you that without holiness no man shall ever see the Lord. Heb. 12.14 and therefore for a man to hope for Heaven in a state of sin is to hope that the word of God is not true or that God will not do as he saith and how vain is that hope 2. It is a hope that sets Gods attributes at variance It sets mercy against justice his goodness against his truth and righteousness God is as righteous as good as just as he is merciful and for an unsanctified man to hope in the mercy of God is to set his attributes at variance for if he shew mercy to such as live and dye in their opposition to Christ he can't be a just and righteous God 3. It is a hope that gives the lye to Christ For he hath with the most solemn asseveration averred that no man shall or can see the Kingdom of God unless he be regenerate Joh. 3.3 he hath said the gate is strait Mat. 7.14 and the way narrow that leads to life and but few find it Now for a man to hope for Heaven without being born again to hope to be saved in the broad way is to hope that Christ will prove a false Prophet 4. It is a hope that layes no stress upon any lust to subdue and weaken it That hope that is right and genuine purifies the heart 1 Joh. 3.3 But cursed is that hope that cherishes men in their Lusts and cursed be those lusts that frustrate a mans hope 3. It renders all that Christ hath done about the purchasing Salvation as to you vain and to no purpose What a blessed work hath Christ undertaken what great things hath he done what great things hath he suffered but if a man
quenched there he never strives again Where it is quenched but partially and gradually it is a very hard thing to kindle it again as you may see Cant. 5.6 but where it is totally quenched it can be kindled no more Alas who should kindle it The Saints can't Call now if there be any that will answer thee and to which of the Saints wilt thou turn as Eliphaz said to Job in another case Job 5.1 Could the wise Virgins kindle the foolish Virgins lamps when they were gone out no they could not Give us of your oyl for our lamps are gone out Mat. 25.8 but alas they had none to spare Not so lest there be not enough for us and you v. 9. Can the sinner himself kindle it no that is impossible he can quench it but he cannot kindle it He may sin away the Spirits motions but he can never recover them again That is plain in Prov. 1.24 25. Because I called and you refused I stretched out my hand and no man regarded but ye have set at nought all my counsel c. Here is the Spirit quenched and see how they strive to light it again but in vain Vers 28. They shall call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but shall not find me The sinner you see can quench the Spirit but he cannot kindle it Can the Ordinances kindle it again no neither Alas how should they when they have no life in themselves but what the Spirit puts into them Pray mind if you at any time quench the Spirit in your selves you do thereby quench it in all the Ordinances and then though the Word be otherwise the word of life yet it is but a dead letter when the Spirit is quenched None can kindle it again but God and he will not Where the sinner doth once totally extinguish it God will never light it again Thirdly If it once come to this you can never come to Christ never take up his Yoke For this is a work that can never be done without the help of the Spirit If he must help the Believers infirmities then sure he must cure the Sinners obstinacies there is a yoke to be broke off as well as a yoke to be put on corrupt habits to be extirpated or obedience to Christ can never be owned And this is a work that none but the Spirit of God can effect The yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing Isa 10.27 Though that be spoken of the Assyrians yoke yet it is typical of sins yoke which none can free thee from but the Spirit of Christ and therefore if the Spirit depart thou art undone there is no possibility of conversion to Christ thou art given up to a perpetual vassalage to sin and lust and to an hardned refusal of all the counsels of God and of all the ways of life So that upon all these accounts it is highly reasonable that every one of you should stoop to the Yoke of Christ betimes The Spirit of the Lord calls you to this the end of all his motions and strivings is to bring you to this And how little while he may strive you don 't know And if he once give over striving the work can never be done Here then you see the reason why every one should take up the Yoke of Christ in his youth because of the Call of God God the Father calls who made thee God the Son calls who redeemed thee God the Spirit calls who was sent to counsel and guide thee to regenerate and change thee to sanctifie and make thee meet for Glory And shall not the Call of God be obeyed This one thing will make it appear to be the most reasonable thing in the world viz. The Covenant you are entred into are not you entred into a Covenant with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost What is your Baptism but a token and pledge of it Hereby God hath owned you for his and hereby you are ingaged to be the Lord's And shall God take me into Covenant and shall I refuse to take up Christs Yoke This is that will destroy your Covenant-interest God expects that so soon as you come to years of understanding to know your interest and duty you should renew the Covenant of God upon your own Souls and take hold of it for your selves as your Parents did for you before Now wherein doth your personal entring into Covenant with God chiefly consist but in your taking up the Yoke of Christ Sure therefore this should be done betimes if you refuse this ye renounce your Covenant with God you cast your selves out by your unbelief and then God will cast you out Rom. 11.20 Because of unbelief they were broken off Secondly Consider what this Call is When you are called to take up the Yoke of Christ you are called from a state of sin and misery to a state of true blessedness from the vilest slavery and drudgery in the world to a work of the highest pleasure and delight Prov. 3.17 No greater pleasure than in duty and obedience where the heart is right with God You are called to holiness 1 Thess 4.7 God hath not called us to uncleanness but unto holiness And a life of holiness is the most desirable life in the world it is the life of God it is that life in which only a man can have communion with God for a man must partake of the nature and life of God that would have fellowship with God contrary natures can have no communion He will not take the wicked by the hand * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Job 8.20 Without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12.14 It is not meant only of seeing God in Heaven but in this world also for there is a seeing of God fiducially as well as beatifically Mat. 5.8 Heb. 11.27 and the one is as necessary to the present state as the other is to a state of Glory And he that doth not see God in this world shall never see him in the next Now that which fits for present Vision and Communion is holiness And your holiness lies in taking up the Yoke of Christ and conforming to the Law and Will of Christ This is that which you are called to Nay when you are called to take up Christ's Yoke you are therein called to partake of the glory and blessedness of Christ in Heaven For though this Call of God begins in Grace yet it ends in Glory There is a twofold end of Gods Call with respect to sinners the near and proximate end is the conversion of sinners to Christ and a life of obedience the remote and ultimate end is the bringing those to glory who are thus brought home by grace and therefore the Call of God is said to be to glory 1 Thess 2.12 who hath called you to his kingdom and glory And 2 Pet. 1.3 called us to glory and virtue To virtue as the means to glory as
sound belief the want of a serious consideration is the great cause why men dally with God For as Faith makes invisible things evident Heb. 11.1 and future things present so consideration makes them great and gives them their due weight Consideration is an intimate view of things it ponders matters fully their natures events and tendencies It compares one thing with another kind with kind cause with cause circumstance with circumstance issue with issue how they begin and how they end Sin and lust are indeliberate and sudden they must have a present compliance they allow of no consideration they consider not that they do evil Eccles 5.1 He considers not that the dead are there and that her guests are in the depths of hell says Solomon of the simple sinner Prov. 9.18 Consideration would break the force of lust and spoil Satans design Would men but seriously ponder what sin is and what the Soul is how deceitful how vain how unsatisfying how brutish the one and how noble how precious how immortal the other they would not stake and pawn them to every base lust as they do Would they but consider of the nearness of death and eternity that within a few days or hours they must be in Heaven or Hell that there is nothing between but a little breath which the next morsel he eats may stop all hangs upon a small thred of life which the next disease may fret in sunder they could not dally with duty and slight conversion and a life of holiness as they do What is the reason that men are better upon a sick bed than at another time that Jesus Christ is then prized and repentance sought and holiness desired which in health were slighted and put off the reason is the sense of their condition their case makes them considerate and consideration gives death and eternity a near approach and than they do make other kind of impressions than when we look on them at a distance Had we but the same thoughts of these things in health as we shall have in sickness we should labour for Grace and Holiness as much now as we shall then wish we had I tell you you don't consider enough of the nearness of death and eternity and he that puts the evil day far off will put the Yoke of Christ off too and so he is undone by his own security 4. It is from the unsuitableness that is betwixt the things of Christ and the temper of a sinner Christs Yoke doth no way fit a carnal heart and where there is unsutableness there will be dislike Matt. 16.23 They savour not the things that be of God A carnal heart is satisfyed with carnal contentments and delights a rattle will please a child and a toy be more welcome to a fool than a Crown Every nature delights in things sutable to it self and therefore it is that the carnal mind is enmity against God Rom. 8.7 that it neither is nor can be subject to the law of God for how can spiritual things be sutable and relishing to a carnal heart If Christ should come to the ambitious man and say follow me and I will give thee all the honour and grandeur of this world or to the voluptuous man and say follow me and I will give thee all the pleasures of sense and flesh or to the covetous man and say follow me and I will fill thy Bags and thy Barns I will bless the Ship and the Shop I will give thee the treasures of the Earth and the Sea this would do more than all the motives of the Gospel The young man had never left Christ as he did had he but urged such an argument as this for his heart to close with It is the base love of this present world that makes the call of the Gospel so unsuccessful and ineffectual you may see it in that parable Matt. 22.5 They make light of the tenders of Christ and what is the reason why the Farm and the Oxen and the Merchandise were in the case these must not be left for Christ where lust hath the casting voice O how sad is this if Christ should offer you riches and honours you would come and yet for Heaven and Glory you will not 5. It is because they are deceived and beguiled partly by the cunning of Satan who puts a false varnish upon things Partly by the deceitfulness of their own hearts which turns them aside that they cannot see and say it is a lye which they have in their right hand Isai 44.20 Partly from the delusive appearances of things which by reason of both the former seem other than they are Bernard distinguishes of four sorts of things 1. Some things are good and pleasant so is communion with God for there is the chiefest goodness and the highest sweetness 2. Some things are good but not pleasant as repentance and mortification and self-denial 3. Some things are neither good nor pleasant as utter despair in the present State it is a thing full of sin and sorrow 4. Some things are pleasant but not good and such are the delights of sin they are sweet but not safe they please but they deceive It is the sweetness of sin that gives it countenance it would never be committed if there were no pleasure in it And herein the deceitfulness of sin consists Heb. 3.13 it allures by fair baits and kills by a sharp hook it tempts by its sweets and destroys by its snares Sin is like poyson very luscious but very dangerous the pleasant taste invites and the sinner can't refrain though that which is sweet in the mouth be in the belly bitter as wormwood Many are so bewitched to their lust that though they know it will cost them their Souls yet they can't renounce its pleasures Now these five things put together namely Ignorance Unbelief Security Unsutableness of spiritual things and the deceitfulness of Sin are the causes why so many slight the Yoke of Christ Secondly Let me in the next place having shewed you the causes of it lay before you the aggravations of it for it is a sin of a very hainous nature to put off and slight coming under Christs Yoke First it is base disingenuity for we don't deal with God as we would have him deal with us When we want any mercy we must be heard at first call but God calls for duty again and again and we hear him not We are impatient if God delays us and yet we make no scruple to delay him When we have any thing for God to do that must be done speedily In the day when I call answer me speedily Psal 102.2 But when God hath any thing for us to do there we take leisure If we would have mercy that must be to day but if God calls for duty we put him off till the morrow Now this is basely disingenuous that when we can't bear Gods delays yet we make him bear ours although
slay them before me The Lord open your eyes that you may see the madness of this for most true is that of Solomon concerning sinners Madness is in their heart while they live and after that they go to the dead Eccles 9.3 Thirdly Now having shewed you the causes why so many do neglect taking up the Yoke of Christ and laid before you the aggravations of the sin let me lay down but three considerations if the hardness of your heart will suffer you to take them in First Consider what you will answer to Christ for slighting his Yoke do ye believe there is such a day coming wherein the Lord Christ will sit in judgment upon every Soul and in which every one must give an account of himself to God if ye do not ye do not owne the Bible ye do not believe the Scriptures to be the word of God for there is no truth more plainly attested in the Scriptures than this See Acts 17.31 Rom. 2.5 6. and chap. 14.10 11 12. 2 Corinth 5. 10.2 Thess 1.8 9 10. Heb. 9.27 James 5.9 Revel 20. 12 13. and many places more And if ye do believe a judgment to come pray tell me what you think the business of that day will be will it not be to take an account how you and I have carried it to Christ God hath sent him into the world to dye for sinners 2 Tim. 1.10 to bring life and immortality to light through the Gospel to fix the terms and conditions of life and salvation and these terms are subjection and obedience to Jesus Christ and his commands as King and Lord and the business of that day will be to take an account what complyance we have made with these terms not whether we have professed him and outwardly owned him but whether we have closed with him upon the conditions of the Gospel Now you that have refused or neglected taking up the Yoke of Christ how will you answer it to Christ in that dreadful Day 1. Will you say you were not called that you cannot for God hath called you many ways many of you have had calls by your Parents in a Godly education calls by instruction calls by counsel calls by correction calls by Godly examples many of you have been called by being placed in religious families under Godly Masters or Godly Tutors and Governours Mic. 6.9 Many of you have been called by afflictions by the voice of the rod of God all of you have been called by the dispensation of the Gospel for what is the work of Ministers but to call you to Christ to take up his Yoke Will you say you were too young that you can't for others as young as you have heard his call and obeyed taking up his Yoke betimes Besides it is your duty to make it your first work Matt. 6.33 Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness Will you say you have present concernments that must first be attended to that you cannot for there is nothing in the World of so great concernment as this Besides God hath made a promise of all other things to Godliness for this very reason that we might be incouraged to an early practice of it and to leave the neglecters of it without excuse Matt. 6.33 1 Tim. 4.8 Psal 84.11 Will you say you expected a longer time in the World for this work but how could that be why should you expect what God never promised or why should God lengthen your days for you to spend in the service of your lusts you that would not repent of sin and turn to Christ in the time that God gave you for that purpose neither would you have done it if the Lord had lengthened your life to the age of Methuselah Therefore your mouth will be stopped Matt. 22.12 and you found speechless in that dreadful Day of account Secondly Consider you that will not come under the Yoke of Christ must come under the wrath of Christ You shake off this you cannot shake off that There is a two-fold dispensation of wrath to these Sons of Belial one in this World the other in the World to come 1. That in this World lies in giving them up to their own corrupt wills and lusts of their own hearts And this is wrath to the uttermost as it is call'd 1 Thes 2.16 There can be no greater expression of Gods wrath in this world than to give a man up to his own lusts And when a man sits under Gospel-seasons and hath sin disovered Christ tendred faith and obedience pressed upon him and yet will not hearken to the voice of God herein nor leave his lusts for Christ that man is very near to this judgment See Psal 81.11.12 My people would not hearken to my voice Israel would none of me so I gave them up to their own hearts lusts and they walked in their own counsels This is a dispensation of wrath in this world 2. There is a dispensation of wrath in the next world and that lies in the pouring out of eternal vengeance Now I pray consider this you can refuse present obedience but can ye refuse eternal vengeance you may say I will not come under Christ's Yoke but can you say I will not come under his wrath You read of some that call for the mountains to fall on them and hide them from the wrath of the lamb Revel 6.16 but all in vain How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation Heb. 2.3 mark if we neglect he doth not say if we reject and renounce it if we scoff at and deride it if we oppose and persecute it no but if we neglect it the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same as in Matt. 22.5 They made light of it If we make light of let slip shift off take no present care of our salvation what then how shall we escape that is there can be no escaping the wrath of God It is somewhat like that expression Rom. 2.3 Thinkest thou this O man that thou shalt escape the judgment of God Thirdly Consider where will you lay the blame of your destruction you can't lay it upon God for he gave Christ to redeem and save you You can't lay it upon Christ for he would have gathered you Matt. 23.37 and you would not he never cast you off till you cast him off You can't lay it upon the spirit for he would have convinced and converted and sanctifyed you and you have resisted and quenched him You cannot lay it upon your ministers for they have set before you life and death and declared to you the danger of sin and the necessity of holiness but you would not believe their report You can't lay it upon your ignorance for either you do know your duty and then your disobedience is inexcusable or you might know it if you would and so your ignorance is inexcusable You can't lay it upon your want of leisure and time for you
three heads and speak a little distinctly to each of them that so you may know how to make use of them in the tryal of your state The first is The enlightening the mind The second is The convincing the Conscience The third is The inclining the will 1. There is a saving illumination of the mind There can be no coming to Christ out of the darkness of a natural state till the light of God break in to shew us the way Spiritual things cannot be discerned by natural light The natural man receives not the things of the spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.14 for they are foolishness to him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned The object is supernatural God in Christ and the mysteries of the Kingdom and therefore cannot be discern'd but by a supernatural light Psal 36.9 In thy light we shall see light By nature we know little of God but nothing of Christ 2 Cor. 4.6 or the mind of Christ till God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness shine into our hearts The first creature that God made in the World was light and the first work of God in the soul is light The will of man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a rational appetite it is acted by the guidance of the mind and therefore God deals first with the mind and understanding of man And hence it is that Christ is made a Prophet as well as a King he doth not subdue the will meerly by an unaccountable power but by a saving light And because the mind must first be inlightned in this work therefore Christ first appears in the office of a Prophet not only revealing the will of God as a rule of obedience but inlightening the mind to see the reasonableness of complying with the rule He doth not only bring light unto the soul by the revelation of the word but he brings light into the soul by the communication of his spirit We have received the spirit of God that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God 1 Cor. 2.22 This I call a saving illumination for that light which the Lord works in such as are brought home to Christ is of a saving nature and hath saving effects First It is in its own nature as saving as any Grace in the will or affections for it is a work of the same spirit and wrought for the same end to bow the soul to Christ It is an essential part of that Image of God after which we are renewed Colos 3.10 And have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him So that this light differs not only gradually but specifically from the highest light that is in hypocrites and formal professors A hypocrite may have much notional knowledge great measures of light in spiritual things from the common work of the spirit but in the highest degree of it it is not saving for as to saving light so he is in darkness until now Secondly It hath saving operations and effects and that both as to believing and obeying First As to believing They shall all be taught of God and what then John 6.45 every man that hears and learns of the father comes to me This coming to Christ is believing and this believing is the fruit of Gods teaching so that this is a saving operation Secondly As to obedience As it is said of the two blind men whom Christ cured that as soon as they had received their sight straight way they arose and followed him Matt. 20.34 David says the sun arises and man goes out to his labour till the evening Psal 104.22 23. when the sun of righteousness arises in the heart it is so So that this is a saving operation Now let this be a rule of tryal for young ones have you been prepared for subjection to Christ by a saving illumination do you know any thing of being called out of darkness into his marvelous light 1 Pet 2.9 can you say I was blind John 9.25 but now I see the soul that is savingly inlightened it sees that in sin it never saw before it sees that in Christ it never saw before That soul is far from the Yoke of Christ that was never inlightened with the light of Christ 2. The second thing is the convincing of the conscience Where the soul is brought to take up the Yoke of Christ it is the fruit of through convictions There must be a threefold conviction wrought upon the sinner before ever he will stoop to Christ A conviviction of sin a conviction of righteousness and a conviction of judgment this is through conviction and all conviction short of this leaves the soul short of Christ And therefore when ever the spirit of God comes to convince the soul to conversion he convinces of all these as you see John 16 8. When he is come he will convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment First He convinces of sin This is the next end of illumination He sets up a light to see sin and then applys the guilt of sin to the Conscience for though a man lies under the infinite guilt of sin and the dreadful wrath of God for it yet till the spirit of God do set this home upon a mans Conscience he never sees his condition nor considers with himself what to do No it is the being pricked at heart that causes this Acts 2.37 When they heard this they were pricked in their heart and what then then they cry out men and brethren what shall we do And therefore the spirit first deals with a man about his sins so he did to the first sinners he opens their eyes to see their nakedness and shame their sin and misery before the seed of the woman is promised Gen. 3.10.15 There is one instance instead of a thousand and that is of Paul I call it so because he tells you that Jesus Christ set him up for a pattern in his dealing with sinners 1 Tim. 1.16 And therefore look how Christ dealt with him to bring him under his Yoke and so he deals with all Now the first great work upon Paul was conviction of sin The Spirit of Christ by the word set sin home upon his Conscience and there the work began This is meant by the coming of the Commandment Rom. 7.9 When the commandment came sin revived and I dyed You may see it more particularly expressed in Acts 9.3 4 5 6. There shined round about him a light from heaven and he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying to him Saul Saul why persecutest thou me and he said who art thou Lord and the Lord said I am Jesus whom thou persecutest it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks And he trembling and astonished said Lord what wilt thou have me do Here 's a light and a voice there shined
a light from heaven and he heard a voice this did the work Here 's illumination and conviction The light makes the blind eye to see and the voice makes the deaf ear to hear The voice comes through the light And what says the voice Saul Saul why persecutest thou me I am Jesus whom thou persecutest There are two things in this voice First It singles out the person and applies guilt in a particular manner Saul Saul why dost thou persecute me Secondly It singles out a particular sin and that is his persecuting Christ in his Saints And upon this the conviction sticks and fills him with terrour he falls a trembling and is astonished and crys out Lord what wilt thou have me to do Now pray mind the manner of Christ's dealing with Paul was exemplary it was to be a pattern He tells us so 1 Tim. 1.16 For this cause I obtained mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe It is as if he should say look how God dealt with me singled me out stopped me in the heat of my wickedness applyed guilt particularly to me and so made me see my self lost So he will deal with all such sinners as he brings home to Christ I am set up for a pattern So then there are these two things in conviction as we may learn from this patern 1. A singling out the person charging sin particularly thou art the man And indeed where conviction of sin is throughly wrought the word is as particularly applyed to the soul as it was to Saul when it called him by name and it is this that is called the coming of the commandment It comes home and singles out the sinner as if it said thou Thomas thou John 2. There is in conviction most commonly a setting home some particular sin upon the Conscience For we say Generalia non pungunt convictions don't lye in a general charge Indeed in the progress of the work all sin is set home Isai 4.4 for the spirit is a spirit of judgment and therefore every sin must come under the judgment of the spirit He holds the glass of the Law before the sinners eyes till he makes him see all not only the sins that break out but the lust that is within not only the wickedness of his life but the plague of his heart and the sin of his nature But yet he first begins with some particular sin And usually though the methods of the spirit are herein very various he begins with some chief sin Thus when Christ would deal effectually with the woman of Samaria he begins with that which was her chief sin her living in Adultery John 4.18 The man thou now hast is not thy husband Thou hast had five Husbands and yet after all thou livest in Adultery This word struck her to the heart and by this she was led into a sight of all her sins for said she v. 29 Come see a man that told me all that ever I did Thus he dealt with those Jews Acts 2.23 37. and thus with Paul as I shewed you And indeed there is admirable wisdom and grace in this That sin which is a mans chief sin he will stick fastest to and part with all other to save the life of that and therefore the work of conviction is never effectual till a man be made throughly sensible of that Besides that sin that a man loves most he will act most and that wounds Christ most Now the spirit takes that arrow that wounds the heart of Christ most and makes it fall upon the head of the sinner that shot it against him Thus God happily out-shoots us in our own bow whilst the arrows of our sins that wound Christ's heart are taken and made the arrows of the almighty to stick in us and drink up our spirits Job 6.4 This is the usual way of the Lord. Nor can it be proved out of the Scripture that any who have arrived at capable years have ever been called home to Christ any other way than by conviction of sin first It may be with some it hath been in a more secret and gentle way or it may be the remedy hath been propounded together with the discovery of the malady so that some have not been able to distinguish of things yet this doth no way enervate the truth of what we affirm And though we read in Scripture of some that were effectually brought into Christ whose convictions we read nothing of as Lydia and Zacheus c. Nortons Orthod Evangelist p. 139. yet it doth not therefore follow that they were not convinced of sin before their receiving Christ because their convictions are not mentioned It must necessarily be supposed for that no man can close with Christ without a sight of the need of him and no man can see the need of Christ with a sight and sense of sin They that be whole need not a Physician but the sick Matt. 9.12 And Christ says V. 13. he came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance that is sensible sinners Isai 40.3 This is that which prepares the way of the Lord into the soul and makes strait in the desart a high way for our God Here then you have another rule to try your selves by Have you ever been prepared for a close with Christ by a through conviction of sin hath the Spirit of the Lord been at work in your hearts have you ever felt the commandment come with power have you ever been made to see your selves lost thus it hath been less or more with all that are brought to take up Christs Yoke conviction of sin must first make us weary of sins Yoke before ever we can take up Christs Yoke Secondly Nor is this enough to bring the soul to Christ but there must be a conviction of righteousness as well as of sin or else the work would be spoiled and to no purpose save to bring the soul to despondency The spirit would not only be a spirit of bondage but a spirit of despair and therefore he doth not only convince of sin but also of righteousness both of the need the sinner hath of it and of the fulness of it First Of the sinners need of it And indeed when a man is thus sick it is easy to shew him the need of a Physician Only the misery is we are apt to use wrong remedies When a disease is desperate we run to such Physicians as are next like the poor woman with her bloody issue Mark 5.25 runs from one Physician to another and what is she the near why the issue of her purse was dryed up but not her issue of blood she spent all she had upon them V. 26. and yet grew worse And it will always be so in these maladies no created medicine shall avail in that disease which Christ himself will have the honour
man close to God in duty it is love 2 Cor. 12.10 for this will spend and be spent as it is right in regard of its object so it is laborious in its motion and doth so inlarge the dispositions and resolutions of the heart for God that as it knows it cannot do enough so it is apt to overlook all it doth as nothing And this is many times the reason of those complaints that are found among Christians that it is not with them as in time past they cannot pray nor act nor walk nor work for God as once they could and did the complaint arises meerly out of an improv'd affection not because duty is lessened but because love is increased He that loves but little will think he doth enough when he doth least but as love is increased so duty will be diminished in our esteem though it be inlarged in our endeavour 5. Love is a regulated principle it acts by rule and direction The motions of love are voluntary and free but its offices and acts are bounded by the commandment As the Promise is the rule of faith so is the Precept the rule of love Love to God is not a love of equals but of inferiours and therefore comes under a law it is our duty to act it but it is Gods prerogative to govern and guide it The expressions of our love are to be wholly regulated by what God requires and commands of us what ever is done otherwise though in the service of God yet it hath not love for its principle Many supererogate in the service of God and think this love to God as the Papists and among our selves how zealous are many for ceremonies and superstitious observances and think this is their love to God whereas it is in the language of God himself a hating of him as you see in the second commandment Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me Exod. 20.5 6. Who they are that hate him the former part of the command tells you they are such as corrupt the worship of God by any manner of will worship or humane institutions Though every sin hath a degree of hatred of God in it yet false worship is in a peculiar manner said to be a hating of him because it is a down right invading the rights of his Soveraignty to whom alone it belongs to prescribe how he will be worshipped and hence one says it is a less sin in the worship of God not to do what God commands than to practise what he hath not commanded because in the former we shew our weakness to do the will of God but in the latter we shew our impudence in making our selves wiser than God 1 Joh. 5 3. Herein is love that we keep his commandments 6. Love is a commanding principle it swayes the heart Every man is acted by the power of love That which gives sin its dominion in the soul is the love of it So much as a man loves sin so much power it hath over the heart and so much as we love Christ so much he rules in us for Christ and lust rule by love As love to sin abates the power of sin decays and as love to Christ increases so his interest and government advances in the soul Therefore it is that God bespeaks us to give him our hearts Prov. 23.26 My son give me thy heart and to love him with all our hearts Matt. 22.37 Because he knows that if he hath our hearts he hath all 7. Love is an induring principle It beareth all things indureth all things 1 Cor. 13.7 Jacob served twice seven years for Rachel and indured hard things and yet the time was short Gen. 29.20 and his burden light all was nothing because of the love he had to her Nescit amor molimina love knows no difficulties how can it when it makes hard things easie Is it not a hard thing to keep the respects of the soul fixed upon God when he hides from it or frowns upon it Amare Deum cum se praebet inimicum This Luther counted a very hard work but love makes it easie Is it not a hard thing to indure reproaches and persecutions for Christ yet love makes it easie I take pleasure in reproaches and persecutions and distresses for Christs sake 2 Cor. 12.10 There is no man can take pleasure in these things for themselves no but for Christs sake It is love to Christ that sweetens all Is it not a hard thing to lay down our lives for Christ and yet love makes it easie I count not my life dear sayes Paul so that I may finish my course with joy Acts 20.24 They loved not their lives to the death Rev. 12.11 there is no part of Christs Yoke grievous to love no duty burthensom Great peace have they that love thy law and nothing shall offend them Psal 119.165 8. Love is a lasting principle The holy Ghost sayes it never faileth 1 Cor. 13.8 it is sure to hold out and persevere to the last Nay it shall not only be a principle of obedience in Saints while they are in this world but in heaven for ever A believer is acted by some principles in the present state that shall cease in heaven but love shall never cease it shall be a principle of obedience in heaven to Eternity O what an excellent principle of obedience is love and therefore see that your love to Christ be sincere and that all your services to Christ flow from this principle for without it all ye do is nothing If I give my body to be burned and have not love it profits me nothing 1 Cor. 13.3 3. The third principle of obedience to Christ is self denial There is a self denial before closing with Christ which is necessary in order to the taking up his Yoke As Christ finds every sinner in himself so he first calls him out of himself to close with him If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me Matt. 16.24 A man must come out of himself to Christ And there is a self denyal which is the effect of closing with Christ that follows upon our believing and is an essential part of sanctification None of us liveth to himself and no man dyeth to himself Rom. 14.7 Self-opinion self-will self-love self-confidence all must be denyed every imagination and every high thing must be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.4 5. Nay righteous self too is as much to be denyed in point of dependance as carnal self is in point of indulgence for trusting to self-righteousness hath undone many Not only our unrighteousness will undo us if we abide init but our very righteousness will undo us also if we trust to it and why because hereby we thrust Christ out of office Rom. 10.3 and make void his righteousness Let
salvation of others then we ought not to count our lives dear IV. When external duties are commanded internal obedience is therein required and chiefly intended For every precept is given to the whole man and therefore binds the inward man as well as the outward or else we are obliged to be hypocrites and seem what we are not When we are commanded to repent to hear to pray to do good works they are not the outward acts only that Christ calls for but the inward graces and affections And therefore you never obey the precept whatever duties you perform unless they be done in spirit and truth V. Observe the station and condition God hath set thee in and the circumstances thou art under and attend to the duties thereof For that which is the duty of one may not be the duty of another and that which is a great duty at one time may be no duty at another One man may be a Magistrate another a Minister and so may be obliged to those duties which are no duties to another VI. Lastly whatever duties conduce most to Gods glory whatever have the greatest tendency to our own salvation and the salvation of others whatever may put the greatest honour upon religion and render it lovely among men and put to silence the ignorance of the foolish 1 Pet. 2.15 in these things lye the proper acts and exercises of obedience And therefore these are the works chiefly to be attended to by all that are under the Yoke of Christ but we must not so be concerned in the greatest as to neglect the least Qui minima spernit paulatim decidit Spiritual decays begin in the neglect of lesser duties Remember that of Christ to the hypocritical Pharisees These ye ought to have done and not to leave the other undone Matt. 23.23 And that in Matt. 5.19 Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven 3. If you would carry it becomingly under the Yoke of Christ as you must look that the principles of your obedience be right and that the matter of your obedience be in right exercises so you must see to the manner of your obedience It is not the bare doing what God commands that is obedience unless it be done in a right manner Most men miscarry herein taking up in a bare performance of duty and resting in opere operato in the work done Like the blind Papists that bead out their devotions and serve God by tale How few watch over their hearts in duty or look to the frame of their spirits in obedience whereas this is the great thing God looks at And therefore the precept doth not only direct in the matter to be done but also in the manner of doing not only what but how Take heed how ye hear Luke 8.18 Take heed ye do not your alms before men Matt. 6.1 Now what doth our Lord Christ mean by these take heeds but to shew us how possible it is for a man to miscarry in the very doing of duty if he do not make as much conscience and shew as much care in the manner of doing as in the matter to be done Malum ex quolibet defectu Tho all requisites must concur to make an action morally good yet any defect makes a good thing evil And therefore in all instances of obedience the manner is carefully to be attended to For 1. This is the great distinguishing character between a true believer and an hypocrite It is not in the matter done but in the manner of doing both may be ingaged in one and the same duty and yet it may be an act of grace in one and an act of sin in the other The good man prays so doth the hypocrite but the one prayes with faith and fervency the other draws nigh to God with his lips when the heart is far from him Matt. 15.8 The good man serves God so doth the hypocrite but the one brings the male of the flock Mal. 1.13 the other brings the torn and the lame and the sick The one serves him deceitfully the other acceptably Heb. 12.28 2. A duty that is materially good may be formally evil by failing in a right maner Good becomes evil and duty is turned into sin by an undue manner of performance It is iniquity even the solemn meeeting Isa 1.13 3. It makes God disown his own appointments and reject the very performances which the precept makes a duty When ye come to appear before me who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts Isa 1.12 It was Gods requirement as you may see Deut. 12.5 To the place which the Lord your God shall choose to put his name there to his habitation shall ye seek and thither ye shall come So that they had the command of God for treading his Courts and yet here God rejects his own appointments Who hath required this at your hand Though God required it yet not of such as they were nor in such a manner as they appeared So in v. 13. Bring no more vain oblations incense is an abomination to me But were not these oblations and incense of Gods own institution Yes but because they were feignedly performed therefore they were not accepted and so became vain and abominable But there is a farther hint in the words for oblations were from the people incense was from the priests so that when he saies their oblations are vain and incense an abomination he doth therein reject the specious worship and services both of priests and people He that offereth an oblation is as if he offered swines blood Lev. 11.7 and he that burneth incense as if he blessed an Idol Isai 66.3 And if God rejects that worship which he himself appointed and so was right for the matter because not done in a right manner what shall become of that worship which is neither right for matter nor manner where the commandments of God are made of none effect by the traditions of men this Matt. 15.6 wherever it is renders the worship of God vain for so the Lord Christ himself hath determined the case Matth. 15.9 In vain do they worship me teaching for Doctrines the commandments of men O that our superstitious will-worshippers would consider this who have to use the Phrophets phrase the broth of abominable things in their vessels Isa 65.4 and as ever they would avoid the devils meat let them shun feeding upon his broth For little innovations in the worship of God open a door for the gradual entrance of the most abominable idolatries And so the house of prayer becomes by degrees a den of thieves Matt. 21.13 4 A man may lay himself under great vengeance and judgement from God in the doing the very thing which God commands for want of a right manner Cursed be the deceiver that hath a male in his flock and voweth and sacrificeth to the Lord a corrupt thing Mal.
can any way stead us to communion with God unless our end be good One end in all duties is to obtain communion with God There is Commerce and Communion Commerce is when one man Trades with another for private advantage and so a man will maintain commerce with a stranger or an enemy But communion supposes love and delight in the object A carnal man may have commerce with God in duties for selfish ends as they that followed Christ for the loaves Joh. 6.26 but a man can have no communion with God in duty unless his ends be right He puts himself seven times farther from God by an unholy end than by a holy action he seemed to draw nigh to him Our ends therefore are to be narrowly looked unto The best action is corrupted by a bad end and our civil and natural actions have a holiness upon them and are tinctured with religion when they are done to a right end Therefore the Apostle counselling servants in their duty to man bids them make the glory of Christ their end Ephes 6.5 Servants be obedient to your masters in singleness of heart as unto Christ And ver 6. Not with eye-service as men pleasers but as the servants of Christ And again ver 7. With good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men The great design of the Apostle's counsel is to sublimate and enoble their ends that the meanest act of their servile state may reach to Christ Be obedient as unto Christ And as the servants of Christ and as to the Lord. What ever a man doth whether in civil or spiritual performances if his ends be not right his heart cannot be right There is a twofold end in obedience which commends it to God the one is subordinate to the other as the ultimate The subordinate end is the honour and credit of the gospel the good of our neighbour the edification of the Church and our own salvation That when we have done all we be not cast awayes 1 Cor. 9.27 2 Ep. Joh. 8. losing all that we have wrought but that we receive a full reward Then there is the ultimate end of our obedience and that is the honour and glory of God which is the chief end of all Whether ye eat or drink or whatever ye do do all to the glory of God 1 Cor. 10.31 If the stream of every action empty not it self into the sea of Gods glory it runs wast This is the mark of a hypocrite self love is his highest principle and self-seeking is his utmost end But the Christians true character is in this Love to God is the great principle he acts by and the glory of God is the great end he aims at I might here answer a case of conscience Case of Conscience whether a man ought alwayes actually to intend his ultimate end that is whether he ought to have his eye continually upon the glorifying of God in every particular duty which he performs Answ 1 A. 1. Affirmative precepts though they alwayes bind yet they bind not to all times now this being a duty by virtue of an affirmative precept it is alwayes a duty yet not absolutely necessary in every particular act Indeed as the affirmative doth include a negative so it binds ad semper to all times so that we must at no time do any thing against Gods glory that may reflect any dishonour upon him 2. There is need of a distinction for the fuller resolution of this case Aims and intentions with respect to their end are either habitual or actual or virtual 1. Habitual The work of grace in the heart is to change and sublimate our end so that wherever grace is there is an habitual scope and aim at Gods glory as the end of all obedience But this is not sufficient 2. There is an actual aim at the glory of God in each particular performance Now this cannot be the duty of a believer in his present imperfect state for three reasons 1. Because it would leave no place for other duties 2. It is not absolutely necessary in every particular act though it ought to be frequently done yet it is not so necessary in every duty as that it ceases to be an act of obedience if it be not actually done If a man make a voyage to the Indies his aim and design is to be there in such a time and accordingly he sets sail in pursuance of his end Yet his end is not in his eye in every action he doth in steering and guiding the vessel So it is in this case The design of a Christian is the glory of God in all his actions though he may not actually aim at it in every particular performance 3. It is impossible to perform it where there is a constant lusting of the flesh against the spirit as is in every believer Gal. 5.17 and therefore a further work of grace must pass upon the regenerate soul then can be attained in this state to enable it hereto and that is in glorification whereby grace is compleated and freed from all mixtures of flesh and interruption in its acts by temptation Saints in heaven do actually intend the glory of God in every thing they do and no wonder for they see face to face They are held close to God by an immediate and uninterrupted vision Therefore the holy Ghost puts these two sight and service together Revel 22.3 4. His servants shall serve him and they shall see his face They shall serve him so they do here I but there they shall serve him perfectly with purity of intention and compleatness of performance and how so they shall see him immediately and injoy him fully God is never perfectly served till he is fully injoyed 3. There is a virtual aim and intention which is more then habitual And though it is not actual yet the action hath thereby such a tendency as naturally referrs to the glory of God He that in alms-giving actually intends the good and comfort of his poor neighbour doth therein virtually aim at the glory of God When a man by his repentance and mourning for sin actually aims at the obtaining of pardon and forgiveness the tendency of his action is to an end subordinate to the glory of God For it is the glory of God to forgive sin So then I would resolve the case thus To intend the glory of God habitually is not enough for a believer to do To intend it in every particular duty actually is more then a believer can do But to intend it in each duty virtually and as oft as we can actually this is a believers present duty and obedience thus performed shall certainly find acceptation with God And so much for the second direction to such as are under Christs Yoke that they would labour to bear it becomingly which is done when obedience is from right principles and consists in proper performances and all is done in a due manner
the case is not the same for we are bound to answer Gods precepts but he is not bound to answer our requests and yet we make him tarry our sinful leisure in the business of duty though we think much to tarry his holy leisure in the case of mercy Secondly It is down-right disobedience he that delays a duty transgresses the precept and slights the divine Authority The season is as much a part of the command as the thing commanded If God says return ye now every one from his evil way Jer. 18.11 the now is as much a duty as the returning If the Father says to his Son go work to day in my vineyard Matt. 21.28 it is flat disobedience to defer it till to morrow for the time of working is as much a duty as the work it self Thirdly It is the highest ingratitude for Christ did not adjourn his love to us one day his heart was to us from everlasting I was set up from everlasting rejoycing in the habitable parts of the earth and my delights were with the sons of men Prov. 8.23.31 He gave himself in the Covenant of Redemption to dye for sin and redeem sinners from the first day that sin entred And therefore he is said to be a lamh slain from the foundadation of the world Revel 13.8 Though he came not to dye actually till the fullness of time Galat. 4.4 yet in the decree of God the Father and in the consent of God the Son he was a Saviour from the beginning and his Blood was as efficacious to Salvation before ever it was shed as after he was a Saviour and Redeemer from the first entrance of sin Adam Noah Abraham and all the Saints that lived before his Incarnation were saved by his Blood as well as we His love bears date from everlasting and it breaks forth very early in the overt acts of it to particular persons Christ begins with sinners betimes who knows how soon puts upon many of them a federal holiness betimes seals them for his betimes puts his spirits into them betimes and calls them to an actual close with him betimes it is hard to say how soon but it appears to be very early in that many have been converted from their very childhood as Samuel and Timothy and others O the earliness of the love of Christ and shall we adjourn our obedience as if we were afraid of closing with him too soon he took up our burden betimes and shall we delay the taking up his Yoke for the last work of our lives This is great ingratitude Fourthly It is manifest injustice and a fraudulent detaining of Christs right For whose you are his your strength and service is and are ye not the Lords hath he not redeemed you and that both by price at the hands of God and by power out of the hands of Satan ye are the redeemed of the Lord and therefore you are his your time is his your gifts and parts are his your affections are his your estates are his your strength is his your youth is his your body and soul are his your all is his and therefore not to give up your selves body and soul to him not to love and fear and serve him is a crying injustice Nay to delay it one day one moment is to deny him his right Many boast of their honesty they are just to all and wrong none yes you wrong your redeemer you are unjust to Jesus Christ and that is the highest injustice in the world To delay any man in that which is his right is a great sin the wages of the hireling must be paid at the day and it must be done before the sun be set Deut. 24.14 15. It is a maxim in the Law minus solvit qui minus tempore solvit not to pay at the time is to pay the less because there is so much advantage for improvement lost Is it such a sin to detain a servants right what is it then to detain our Lords right must we not withhold wages for a servants work till the sun be set and yet dare we withhold doing our Lords work till the sun of our lives is setting O what base injustice is this Fifthly It is altogether unreasonable there is no man living can give a reason to excuse him from this duty You cannot say it is the wrong way to Heaven for it is the way the Lord Christ hath directed and chalked out You cannot say it is a needless Yoke for there is no Salvation without taking it upon you You cannot say it is a dangerous Yoke for it hath salvation certainly intailed upon it You cannot say it is a fruitless Yoke Matt. 11.28 for it yields perfect peace and lasting joy to all that come under it You cannot say it is an impossible Yoke for as you have the command of Christ to undertake it so you have the promise of Christ to help and inable you to bear it So that you cannot give one reason why you should neglect it and therefore he that refuses to take it up is without excuse Whoever remains graceless in a day of Grace will be found speechless in the Day of Judgement Matt. 22.12 Sixthly It is downright madness for you refuse Heaven because you will not be holy You will rather lose the eternal injoyment of God than be made like God You will rather chuse to perish under the wrath of Christ than you will consent to come under the Yoke of Christ You will be contented to be damned so you may go a pleasant way to Hell And is not this madness to the height to chuse rather to perish eternally than be tied to love and serve your maker and redeemer O what a base and low opinion have you of God and Heaven how can ye degrade and dishonour him more If a man should publish it as his opinion that darkness is better than light that Hell is rather to be chosen than Heaven that he had rather be in an everlasting society with Devils and damned Spirits than with God and Christ in the glory above what would you say of such a one but that he talked like a mad man why then reflect upon your selves a little for mutato nomine do teâ— Fabula narratur you that prefer the pleasures of sin to the service of Christ that will renounce your part in God and Christ and eternal happiness to satisfie a base lust that will stake your Souls for a few minutes of sinful delights can any man be guilty of greater madness do ye know what ye do or what ye speak when ye say in your hearts this lust shall reign but Christ shall not reign let us break his bonds Psal 2.3 and cast his cords far away from us this is treason against the Crown of Heaven your Blood Luk. 19.27 your Life your Soul must go for this Those mine enemies that would not that I should reign over them bring them out and