with Silas in soothing up the poor Iailour and sowing Pillows under his Elbowes which is no better than to dawb with untemper'd Morter to lead their Convert into a Paradise wherein there lurks both an old and a cunning Serpent A Serpent apt to persuade him and by the help of this Text That though there are in the Gospel which is the Garden of God a great many sorts of forbidden fruit yet 't is so far from being deadly that 't is not dangerous to taste it as the best of God's Children have ever done so long as he can eat of the Tree of Faith too which is not only better tasted but also wholsomer by far than the Tree of Knowledge by being grafted on the stock of the Tree of Life What I say might be the Motive which induced Paul and Silas to give this Answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Believe and be sav'd Is there more than This needful or is there not If any thing more than this is needful for the attainment of Salvation why then did They conceal it and that from one who even thirsted after a full Draught of Knowledge What was the All he was to do that he might be sav'd Or if This is so sufficient that nothing more than this is needful what Necessity is there of preaching or of learning any thing else For as when it was said by our Blessed Saviour It is easier for a Camel to pass the Eye of a Needle than for a Rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven his Disciples ask't presently Who then can be sav'd so when to One that had inquired what he must do that he might be sav'd no other Answer was given by Paul and Silas than that he must believe in the Lord Iesus Christ It may be ask't with as good reason who then can be damn'd For thus we see the way to Heaven is not only made Broader but less incumber'd than That to Hell The Flock of Christ is made a great and a numerous Flock So as The Kingdom of Heaven is but improperly compar'd unto a Pearl of great Price which a Merchant sold all that he had to purchase since one may have it for a Believing in the Lord Iesus Christ. All which being Absurdities and very profanely inconsistent with the Veracity of our Saviour may seem to speak Paul and Silas to be a Couple of gross Casuists for having given the Jailour's Quaere so lame and partial a Resolution But This again is an Absurdity as little allowable as the former For besides that All Scripture is of Divine Inspiration and Paul and Silas in particular had been acknowledged by The Daemoniack in the 17th Verse of this Chapter to be The Servants of the most high God who shew unto us the way of Salvation The Text which now lyes before us may be justified by a Parallel out of our Saviour's own Mouth For having been asked by the People who flock't about him at Capernaum what they should do that they might work the work of God John 6. 28. This reply'd our blessed Lord is the work of God That ye BELIEVE on Him whom He hath sent v. 29. In so much that to obviate and to satisfie all Objections we must not quarrel or suspect but meekly study to understand and explain the Text. Which I shall first attempt to do by a full Division and after That not by a curious but by a pertinent and useful Tractation of it § 5. First to Divide the Text aright and so as that it may contain an Explication of its Importance we must view and review it in its double relation to the Context I mean in its Dependance on the words going before and its Cohaerence with the two Verses which do immediately follow after The words before are an Inquiry touching the Thing of all the World which is to every man living of greatest moment even the Necessary Means of his being sav'd This is the Ground and the Occasion and Introduction to the Text. The Text it self is an obscure because a short Resolution of That Inquiry And the two Verses coming after do very happily though briefly and so indeed the less plainly expound it to us The Inquiry was made by the frighted Iailour of Philippi The Resolution is given by Paul and Silas The Exposition is St. Luke's to whom we also owe the Narrative and the Contexture of the whole The Text abstractively consider'd does afford at first view but a single Act and a single Object Yet in relation to the Context each of these is twofold one whereof is express'd and the other imply'd First the Object here express'd is in sensu composito The Lord Iesus Christ. And this is Objectum formale Quod. It is not Christ without Iesus nor is it Iesus without The Lord. For That were the gross and common Fallacy A benè conjunctis ad malè divisa which yet the Flesh of most Professors is apt to impose upon their spirits He is in all his Three Offices to be the Object of our Belief And in his Three special Titles his Threefold Office is here included His Prophetical in the first his Priestly in the second and his Kingly in the third If Salvation is the end and if we aspire to have it also the event of our Belief we must impartially believe in the whole Messias Not as Iesus only a Saviour no nor only as Christ a King but undividedly and at once as the Lord Iesus Christ. This is the Object of our Faith which is here express'd Next the Word of God preach'd is the object of our Faith which is here imply'd And as the men of the Schools do love to word it This is Fidei objectum formale Quo. For as Faith cometh by Hearing and Hearing by the Word of God which Word cannot be heard without a Preacher so no sooner was it said by Paul and Silas that the Jailour must believe in the Lord Iesus Christ but in the next breath it follows They spake unto him the WORD of God v. 32. They had in vain told him he must had they not taught him how he might And therefore they did not only possess him with the necessity of his believing But in tenderness to his Soul they straight afforded him the means too They did not train up their Convert like the Catechists of Rome only to believe as the Church believes that is to say by a blind and implicit Faith making Ignorance and Credulity the only Parents of Devotion But they built up his Faith on the Foundation of the Scriptures That by the knowledge of some Praemisses which he might easily comprehend he might attain to a Belief of what was yet Incomprehensible To beget in him a solid and a well-grounded Faith such as whereof he might be able to give a rational Accompt they both exhorted him to believe in and also preached to him the WORD of the Lord Jesus Christ the object of our Faith which
putrid Carcass And as the Pleasures of the Soul are by much the greatest so 't is the Soul's greatest Pleasure to arrive at an Ability to despise That of the Body Such was the Savour and the Gust which David had of God's Precepts and such was his Accompt of the Delight he took in them And surely All People of Vertue in all the Ages of the World have ever said the same thing from the same Experience So that if any body is not of David's Mind 't is meerly for want of his Experience For the Proof of sweet things lyes in the Trial and the Taste As the Psalmist cry'd out in one place Lord how sweet are thy words unto my Taste yea sweeter than Hony unto my Mouth So he prayed in another Lord open thou my lips For he knew he could not Taste that Food from Heaven whilst carnal prejudice and perversness had shut his Mouth First therefore having pray'd that God will open our lips as the Psalmist did we must indeavour as He did too to taste and see how gratious the Lord is and not only in his Promises but Precepts also Which the oftner we taste with the more Appetite shall we desire them But we know not how they taste before we taste them As he who covets knows not the sweetness of Contentment Nor he the Delights of living chastly who has Eyes full of Adultery Nor he the deliciousness of Temperance who hath made himself a Slave to Debauch and Surfet Fraudulent Persons could not be Fraudulent if they experimented the Pleasure of upright Dealing But they must actually be upright in all their Dealing before they can find out the Pleasure of it The Royal Prophet therefore said well That WHEN he had KEPT the Commandments he loved them exceedingly Not that he loved them exceedingly before he kept them What else was it which induced him to speak so kindly of his Afflictions to say that God of very Faithfulness had caused him to be troubled but that he was thereby much assisted in the keeping of the Commandments which he knew by much experience are naturally apt to rejoyce the Heart Psal. 19. 8. and that in the very keeping of them is great Reward Psal. 19. 11. But where a Cloud of Vitious Habits doth incessantly interpose bewixt the Eye and the Object how can the Beauty of the Commandments be rightly seen or apprehended The Prophet David was sain to pray not only that God would open his lips that he might taste But also his Eyes that he might SEE the wondrous things of his law Psal. 119. 18. And by the help of his Grace which we must pray for as well as David we are to cast out the mote perhaps the Beam out of our Eyes before our Eyes can be ravish't with the Charming Beauty of Christ's Commands And the way to do That is ipso facto to obey them For they are Pure saith the Psalmist and inlightning the Eyes Psal. 19. 8. they give wisdom unto the Simple are altogether undefiled and converting the Soul moreover by Them is thy Servant Taught v. 7 11. From which expressions of the Psalmist it plainly follows that the Commands of the Law Moral which are common to Moses with Christ and Nature do make an excellent Collyrium a Soveraign Oyntment or Eyesalve to clear our Sight of those Mists which the Devil and the World have cast before them § 14. Say then Thou Demas Thou Crude and unexperienced Christian or whoever thou art who hast a share in the Objection Dost thou find within thy self nothing of Appetite or Love to the Yoke of Christ It is because thou dost not know how pleasant a thing it is to wear it And wilt thou know the true Reason why thou dost not know That It is because thou art not us'd to the wearing of it For how can any man find the Pleasure of keeping close to Christ's Precepts before he keeps them Do but live a strict life and begin now in Lent till thou hast got into an Habit of living strictly and my life for thine thou wilt find it Pleasant But He who will not live exactly till he arrives at those Pleasures which nothing less than Experience can bless him with is neither more nor less foolish than the meer Scholar in Hierocles his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who would not adventure into the Water until he was certain that he could swim or one who utterly refuseth the putting of meat into his Mouth until he shall have tasted the Goodness of it For as thou canst not taste meat till thou hast put it into thy Mouth nor find its goodness till thou hast chew'd it and by digesting it into Blood hast made it a parcel of thy self too so thou canst never discern the sweetness of the Commandments of Christ until for some time they have been thy Diet. Do but feed upon them enough and digest them into thy Soul by obedience to them and Then how soon wilt thou resemble the men in Homer who having eaten a while of Lotos were as much captivated in Love with the Place it grew in as our Ecstatical St. Peter with the Delights of Mount Tabor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wer 't thou but wonted and inur'd as much to the keeping of Christ's Commands as now thou art to the breaking of them Thou wouldst find as great a change as from Hell to Heaven And if from this Instant wherein I speak Thou wilt but serve The Lord Christ with as much Zeal and Assiduity and as long as thou hast served thy Master Satan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I dare lay a Wager of Gold to Brass Thou wilt not change Masters for all the World § 15. But here perhaps it may be said that the main Aking Tooth is not drawn out of the Obection For thô the Yoke of Christs Precepts is thus evinced to be easy yet the burden of his Cross is not hence proved to be light Nor does it follow his Yoke is easy in That ruggidest part of it wherein both his Yoke and his Burden meet For so we know they Both do in his Precept of Self-denial and of bearing his Cross after him whether laid upon us by others or freely taken upon our selves § 16. To which I answer by these following Degrees beginning with the least and lowest First when laid upon us by others there is matter of Comfort in it from the Consideration of its bare Nature For we know 't was the Prerogative of Goodly men heretofore above other Mortals that they were able out of choice to be bravely Miserable if such a Latinism as That may be us'd in English Fortiter Ille facit qui miser esse potest Many Examples of which we have not only in the Christian but Heathen World It was for no other reason that Hierocles flung his Blood in his Lictor's face that Zeno spit out his Toung into the Teeth of his
well to the Will as the Understanding It gives us as I may say a kind of Livery and Seisin of all we hope and pray for and even long to be united to though by the Help of a Dissolution In so much that the Plenitude of this One Grace in the sense I mention'd which Plenitude is expressed by a threefold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and boldly rendred a full Assurance I say the Plenitude or fulness of this one Grace which is attainable by Christians whilst here below is worthily reckon'd by St. Paul The Inchoation of our Glory This very Grace is once affirm'd to be a kind of beatifick although an antedated Vision of the Glory of God And for a man to leave This for a better world with such a cordial Believing in the Lord Iesus Christ as was here recommended by Paul and Silas which I have hitherto explain'd by several passages of Scripture is nothing else but to pass from a Paradise to a Heaven or to use St. Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from one Glory to another For we all with open Face beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. § 10. But some may tacitly now object against Paul and Silas in the Text or at least against St. Luke the Relator of it That if by Faith we must be justified and also sanctified in part before we can expect it should ever save us they should have told the Jailour of it in Terms at large and have shew'd in the Retail how many Duties of a Christian are succinctly comprehended in that expression not have told him only in Gross as Dutchmen make their dishonest Reckonings He must believe in the Lord Iesus Christ. For how knew the Jailour he was to do any thing but to Believe or to believe in any other than the second Person in the Trinity God manifest in the Flesh for they seem to have made no mention to him of his being to believe in God the Father or in God the Holy Ghost much less did they add the other Articles of the Creed which are Ingredients in the object of Saving Faith § 11. To which I answer by two Degrees And first of all by a concession That if indeed Paul and Silas had said no more to their Catechumenist than that He must believe in the Lord Iesus Christ not explaining what was meant by that Habit of Faith from which the Act of his Believing was to proceed nor yet explaining what was meant by the Lord Iesus Christ who is often put by a Synecdoche for the whole object of our Belief Faith in Christ being the Pandect of Christian Duties which are all shut up in Faith as Homer's Iliads in a Nutshell Then indeed they might have made him a Solifidian or a Fiduciary which had not been the way to his being sav'd But secondly I answer That the objection is made of a false Hypothesis For Paul and Silas dealt honestly and discreetly with the Jailour when having told him he must believe in the Lord Iesus Christ for his being sav'd it presently follows after the Text they spake unto him the Word of God that is they expounded the Scriptures to him And in the doing of That they prov'd the object of his Faith to be the Trinity in Unity not solely and exclusively the Lord Jesus Christ but in conjunction with God the Father and with God the Holy Ghost too Again in expounding the Scriptures to him they could not but tell him what was meant by an effectual Belief in the Lord Jesus Christ importing such a kind of Faith as is ever working and such a kind of working as is by Love and by such a kind of Love as is the fulfilling of the Law and of such a Law too as does consist of somewhat higher and more illustrious Injunctions than those of Moses and of such an obedience to those Injunctions as is attended and waited on by Perseverance unto the End There is no doubt but they acquainted him in their expounding of the Scriptures and speaking to him the Word of God how very highly it did concern him not only to escape the Corruption that is in the world through lust and also to believe in the Lord Iesus Christ but besides This as St. Peter speaks to give all diligence for the adding to his Faith Vertue to Vertue Knowledge to Knowledge Temperance to Temperance Patience to Patience Godliness to Godliness Brotherly kindness to Brotherly kindness Charity For that these were all needful and no redundant superadditions is very clear from St. Peter in the next verse but one He that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see a far off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins But if these Things be in you and abound Then indeed as St. Peter adds ye shall not be barren in the knowledge of our Lord Iesus Christ. If ye do these things ye shall never fall 2 Pet. 1. 10. Now can we think that St. Peter did not teach the same Doctrin with Paul and Silas or can we think that Paul and Silas would withhold from the Jailour that Train of Duties for want of which he had been Blind and not in Case to see God no whatever might have been wanting in their succinct and pithy Answer whereby to give him a right Understanding of it was abundantly supply'd by their following Sermon And though the Heads of their Sermon are not put upon Record but only the Text upon which they made it yet St. Luke records This That such a Sermon there was preach'd in that he saith They spake to him the Word of God § 12. And truly This is such a Method as I could wish were well observ'd by all that are of their Function I mean the Stewards of the Mysteries of the Living God Unto whom is committed the Word of Reconciliation whose lips are made to be the Treasuries and Conservatories of Knowledge and which the People are appointed to seek at their Mouths For the Text we have in hand is often turned to advance either Truth or Falshood even according to the handle by which 't is held forth to the giddy People And is made to be eventually either venomous or wholsom just in proportion to the sense in which 't is taken and digested by them that hear it If to Believe is only taken for an Assent unto the Truth or a Relyance on the Merits of Jesus Christ or a confident Application of all his Promises to our selves And this in a kind of opposition to the Necessity of Good works which ought to be in conjunction with it Then 't is apt to cause a wreck in the waters of Life and through the Malignity of a Digestion a man may be kill'd by the Bread of Heaven But if 't is taken for obedience to the Commandments of Christ
that it may rationally be doubted whether when the Son of Man shall come a second time from Heaven he will come with such success as to find Faith upon the Earth Examin therefore whether Thy self may'st well be reckon'd to be one of that little Number Examin whether thy Belief is really such as Thou believ'st it and try whether thy Confidence is not the Thing to be distrusted the most of any For § 15. Of this I can convince thee by a mental Demonstration which is more cogent than an ocular That if thou hast not such respect unto the Recompence of Reward as to choose rather with Moses to spend thy short and dying life in Mortisications and Self-denials and to suffer Tribulation with the People of God than with the brutish Sons of Belial to injoy the Pleasures of Sin for a season If thou dost not esteem the Reproach of Christ to be much greater Riches than all the Treasures of Egypt Or if thou canst basely fear Them that can kill the Body only but are not able to hurt the Soul more than Him that can cast both Soul and Body into Hell And hast often done more to escape the former than ever thou wilt do to eschew the latter Thou hast not yet the first Degree of a Saving Faith Thou dost not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not so much as believe the Lord Jesus Christ. Thou dost not assent to his veracity or look upon him as a True Speaker Thou dost not so far confide in the Truth of his Promises and his Threats as to adventure any great matter upon the meer Reputation and Credit of them For most undoubtedly if thou didst Thou wouldst prefer that which leads to all the Pleasures that he hath promis'd before the Things that will betray thee to all the pains that he hath Threaten'd Thou wouldst pursue with more vehemence what will end in an eternal and exceeding weight of Glory than what will terminate in a worm which never dyes and in a Fire which is not quenched That thou dost now affect to walk rather in the broad than the narrow way is not so much that thou espousest a way which leads thee to Destruction or hast Averseness unto That by which thou mayst enter into Life as that thou dost not quite believe the Lord Jesus Christ when he would fright thee from the one and allure thee to the other That thou dost now take the Course to dwell with everlasting Burnings rather than That which hath a tending to Ioys unspeakable cannot possibly be from hence that thou preferr'st a very short to an endless Pleasure but rather from hence that thou preferr'st thy present experience of the first to the uncertainty and the doubtfulness which thou retainest of the second Not at all that thou preferrest the Miseries of Hell to the Ioys of Heaven But that thou dost not believe what is said of either § 16. Again admit thou dost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 believe the Truth and the Veracity of the Lord Jesus Christ Yet if thou are destitute of the Faith which is consummated by Love and by such a Love too as doth cast out Fear nor only the fear of all that may be inflicted but so far also the Feeling of all that is as to be able to rejoyce and to leap for joy when thou art persecuted and rail'd at for righteousness sake If thou canst not say heartily in the language of St. Paul I take pleasure in Insirmities in Reproaches in Necessities in Persecutions and in Distresses for Christ his sake If in a word Thou art not able to conquer all thine own weakness by Ghostly strength so as to hold fast thy Union and good Intelligence with Christ in spight of Nakedness or Famin or Peril or Sword or Life or Death or Angels or Devils or Principalities or Powers or things present or things to come And all by vertue of that Faith which overcometh the World which is not only the means of Conquest but the Victory it self Thou dost not heartily believe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is In or Upon the Lord Jesus Christ. 'T is very evident that thou doubtest either his Power or his Propensity Thou dost not so depend and rely upon him as that I can assure thee thou shalt be sav'd § 17. Again if thou hast not such a Faith as does denominate thee a good and a faithful servant such a justifying Faith as in the literal sense of it does make thee Iust Iust I mean in that notion in which 't was said of holy Iob that he was a just and an upright Man If thou hast not such a Faith as by which thou art qualified in part both with Holiness and Righteousness with Godliness and Honesty with the Duties of the first and the second Table whereby the Righteousness of Christ may be so wholly imputed to thee as to instate thee in the Pardon of all thy Sins it being impossible that thy Saviour should ever justifie thy Person and not sanctifie thy Nature in some proportionable degree If besides thy Assent to the veracity of his Doctrin and besides thy Dependance on the Almightiness of his Power Thou dost not pay so great a Reverence unto the Iustice of his Will too as to serve and obey him with godly fear Thou dost not practically believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thou dost not own him in his Authority dost not receive him in his Commands dost not embrace and entertain him as he comes to thee a Legislator as one who hath a Name written both on his Vesture and on his Thigh King of Kings and Lord of Lords And by consequence though thy Head may be as full as it can hold of the Christian Science or however thou mayst have Faith whereby thou canst remove Mountains Yet thou dost not so Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as that I can assure thee thou shalt be sav'd § 18. Again if thou hast not such a Telescope as by which thou art inabled to look on the other side the Veil such a Faith as is the Evidence of things not seen and the substance of things that are hoped for hast not any praepossession of things invisible and future nor any glimmerings and foretasts of the Glory to be reveal'd hast no ground for an Assurance whether of Faith Hope or Understanding that thy Pardon is seal'd and thy Peace ratified Art not inwardly sustained in all thy Agonies and Conflicts with spiritual Ioy in the Holy Ghost hast not any the least Intelligence through the secret whispers of the Spirit of a Ravishing Mansion praepared for thee in the Land of the Living And art not placed by that Intelligence above the Level of Temptations exempted from the Fear of what Men or Devils can do unto thee If thou canst not reflect with comfort upon the Day of Discrimination when the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming Fire taking
Moses to Israel have a remarkable Importance What doth the Lord thy God require of thee but only to fear the Lord thy God Deut. 10. 12. And what is it to fear him but as it follows in the next words to walk in all his ways and to love him and to serve him with all thy heart and with all thy soul Without this Fear we shall easily fall into presumption or into carnal security We shall not strive to enter in at the strait Gate Nor give all diligence to make our Calling and Election sure We shall not give an earnest heed unto the things which we have heard Heb. 2. 1. If we do not fear lest a promise being left of entring into his Rest any of us should seem to come short of it Heb. 4. 1. we shall not labour to enter into that Rest v. 11. For who will labour to get a thing which he verily thinks he hath as good as in possession Or who will labour to keep a thing which he verily thinks he can never lose I will not here stand to shew the manifold danger of their Opinion who say they were justified from Eternity and their Sins so forgiven before committed That they cannot fall totally much less finally from Grace although my Text would bear me out in such a profitable Severity Nor dare I otherwise be severe to any difference in opinion than as I find it corruptive of Christian Practice The case is clear that our Apostle having commended his Philippians for having always obey'd the Gospel does not there make a stop as if they had done enough already or needed no more of his Admonitions but immediately adds that they must work for their Salvation and work so far as to work it out and work it out in such a manner as to do it with Fear and Trembling and that according to the threefold Importance of this Expression which having thus considered in the Gross I shall now consider in the Retail too First we must work it out with meekness and humility of mind because it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure All we have is but little and all that little is but receiv'd All the good we have received we have received as intrusted or lent unto us And whatsoever God lends us he lends us purposely to Employ Of all that is lent us to be imploy'd we are every one to render a strict Accompt And this alone may serve to keep us in all humility of mind that the more we have the more we owe and for so much the more we are accomptable And for the more we are unable to render a satisfactory Accompt by so much the more we shall be appal'd at the Day of Reck'ning 'T is true indeed vvhat St. Iohn saith that by keeping the Commandments we may come to have a right to the Tree of Life And by suffering for God may be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God Affliction suffer'd in such a Case is said to work for us a weight of Glory 'T is true indeed we may be profitable Servants in God's Accompt because the unprofitable was commanded to be cast into utter Darkness Matth. 25. 30. And the Joys of Heaven are express'd by a Crown of Righteousness as if Eternity of Life were become our due But all this only by the force of God's Promise who cannot lye or by the Tenor of the Covenant which God was pleas'd to make with us Not by vertue of our Obedience as that that is equal to our Reward Which when it is in its Apogaeo at the utmost Top of its Exaltation is not worthy to be compar'd with the Glory which shall be revealed in us For however St. Paul had preach'd the Gospel and preach'd it too without charge not living of the Gospel which yet by right he might have done but making his own hands to serve and minister to his Necessities that he might not be burdensom unto any yet he professed he had nothing to glory of for so gratuitous a preaching the Word of God because a moral Necessity was laid upon him and woe had been to him if he had not preach'd it 1 Cor. 9. 16. Our blessed Saviour so puts the Case as to illustrate it with a Colour Luke 17. 7 8 9 10. Admit a Servant is very diligent in the performance of his Duty ever going when he is sent ever coming when he is call'd and ever doing as he is bid Does the Master give Thanks to that diligent Servant for doing the things that were commanded him I trow not saith our Saviour Even so ye as our Lord goes on to Application when ye shall have done all those things that are commanded you say we are unprofitable Servants we have done but our Duty and had been lyable to wrath if we had not done it Away then with those Philosophers St. Austin speaks of qui sibi vitam beatam fabricare vellent who design'd themselves a Heaven of their own skill and industry And away with those Pharisees not only of our Saviour's but of these our own Times whose custom 't is to thank God for that they are not like other men And confining Sanctity to the men of their Sect do separate from the rest of the Christian World as from Publicans and Sinners Sinners not to be approached by men of their Purity Stand farther off is their language for we are holier than you Isa. 65. 5. Conform we rather to St. Paul the special Badge of whose Saintship was the profoundness of his Humility For as the chiefest of Sinners do call themselves by an impious Antiphrasis and Hyperbole the chief of Saints so That Apostle on the contrary although Chieftain among the Saints doth call Himself by an holy M 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 osis The chief of Sinners When therefore our obedience hath led us to Christ and Christ is leading us to Heaven Let us remember the New Ierusalem though a vastly great City yet contrary to Myndus hath a very low Gate And seeing the lowness of the Gate stoop we down to enter in Let us love Good works but let us not lean too hard upon them Let us love them as things without which we cannot be saved but let us not hope to be saved by them Let us not labour with an ambition of being more meritorious but less unworthy than heretofore Claim we Heaven by a Right not of Purchace but of Donation Having added Obedience to our Faith add we Meekness to our Obedience Having done Iustice and lov'd Mercy let us walk humbly with our God And so expect our Salvation with Faith and Hope as withal to work it out with Fear and Trembling And that according to the first Importance of this Expression Again we must do it with fear and trembling in as much as that signifies the greatest anxiety and solicitude that we do not run in vain nor labour
consequence be inferr'd to be but the Daughter of Praesumption § 8. No the saving Faith is That which comprehends Both the former and more than Both. It is indeed the very Pandect of all that is requisite to Salvation by being the Substance and the Epitome even of all other Duties required of us In so much that we must learn how to expound it when alone by what we find spoken of it when it stands in conjunction with other Duties For when our Saviour gave Commission for the preaching of the Gospel to every Creature he did not only say He that believeth shall be sav'd But he that believeth and is Baptèzed He 's the man that shall be sav'd Mark 16. 16. And so when He preached first in Galilee He did not only say Believe But Repent and Believe the Gospel Mark 1. 15. And still by Repentance is meant amendment as St. Peter hath explain'd it by his Preaching at Ierusalem in Solomon's Porch Where he did not only say Repent and Believe Nor only Repent and be Baptized as he had said a while before but Repent and be Converted that your sins may be blotted out Acts 3. 19. Again in other places of Scripture we find it coupl'd with Confession without the company of which it is nothing worth And of this I gave examples in the Division of the Text. Nay we read in other Scriptures touching the work and the Law and the Obedience of Faith Nay in one place especially I observe the two phrases To Believe and To Obey are clearly us'd as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the very same breath importing both the same Thing and promiscuously expressing the one the other The Place I speak of is Rom. 10. 16. But they have not obey'd the Gospel For Esaias saith who hath Believed our Report now if obeying in the first clause did not signify Believing it must have been in the second who hath obeyed our report because it is in the first But they have not obeyed the Gospel And if Believing in the second clause did not signify obeying it must have been in the first But they have not Believ'd the Gospel because it is in the second who hath Believed our report else what means the Causal For by which the second Clause is proved to give a reason of the first for this is evidently the Logick which our Apostle there useth To Believe the report of the Evangelical Prophet Isaiah is to Obey the holy Gospel which he prophetically preached But they have not Believ'd the former Therefore they have not obey'd the latter But neither have we yet the utmost of saving Faith For as it signifies an obedience to all the Commandments of the Law in that it worketh by Love which is indeed the fulfilling of it so it does many times imply a Perseverance in Love and in Obedience unto the end As when 't is said by the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews We are not of Them that draw back unto Perdition But of Them that Believe to the saving of the Soul We read of some who had a Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ but such as was utterly overthrown by Hymenaeus and Philetus whose words did eat into their Faith as doth a Canker and so however for a time it might have justified yet for want of perseverance it could not save them For let the Nature of our Faith be what it can still 't is a Requisite to Salvation That we indure unto the End Matth. 24. 13. § 9. Now when the Faith of a Believer is arriv'd at such a pitch as hath been describ'd by Repentance and Conversion and Perseverance unto the end or to use St. Paul's words 1. Thess. 1. 3. by his work of Faith his labour of Love and his Patience of Hope that is to say in terms yet plainer by the obedience which his Faith and by the Industry which his Love and by the Constancy which his Hope in the Lord Jesus Christ hath effected in him so that the Righteousness of God hath been successfully revealed from Faith to Faith as St. Paul expresseth a Perseverance in Faith Rom. 1. 17. It is then indeed the Substance of things hoped for and the Evidence of things not seen and virtually the Praesence of things yet future A steady Dependance upon God for the Performance of his Promise and a confident expectation of the Glory to be reveal'd A being convinc'd that That is true by a mental Demonstration which does not fall under an ocular And as in other respects Faith is said to be the Hand so in This is it the Eye of a pious Soul wherewith looking up to Iesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith we may easily see our way through any Night of Tribulation that can befall us Thus we see how saving Faith does carry Hope in its Importance as well as Charity as may appear by the Duplicity of the Apostle's Definition which seems to have a twofold Genus and a twofold Differentia For first he saith it is the Substance and then the Evidence In as much as 't is an evidence it is objected on Things invisible But in as much as 't is a Substance so it is of Things which are hoped for A Definition very fitly against the Method and the Rules of Art and Nature because it is of such a Quality as is exceedingly above them And yet it is a Definition whereof I think it will be easy to give a rational Accompt For this Faith being an Act or rather an Habit of the Intellect And yet determin'd to its object by the Empire of the Will which is at last its Subject too That as expressed by the word Fides and This as well by the word Fiducia 't is plain its object must be consider'd both as True and as Good As the object of the Intellect the Injoyments of Heaven are still consider'd by us as True and so are properly contemplated as Things not seen whereof there is yet no other Evidence than that of Faith But as the object of the Will they are consider'd by us as Good and so are properly here expressed by Things hoped for and Faith of such may be call'd the Substance Though not in a logical or physical or metaphysical Sense yet in a moral and metaphorical as that which is first in every kind and either radically or vertually contains the rest in it is said to be the Substance of all the rest as the Contents are the substance of the following Chapter or as Adam was the Substance of all Mankind or as there is said to be a Substance and Body of Sin which very Body is also said to have a strength and a sting And then with a greater force of reason may Faith be said to be the Substance of things hoped for because it hath an amazing power of presentiating the things which are wrapt up in Futurity and represents them all at once as
Reck'ning how his Talent of Authority has been employ'd and what Good he has done with his Jurisdiction What poor Orphans he has righted what Widows Causes he has pleaded what injur'd Innocence he has protected what Vertuous Persons he has incouraged with Rewards what vile Offenders he has discountenanced and punish't what Great mens oppressions he has resisted what Rising Mutinies and Rebellions He has indeavoured to repress For a man's Honour and Authority his Power and Greatness as well as Wealth are things of which he must give Accompt Thô for a King to be accomptable to any Tribunal upon Earth implies indeed a Contradiction yet Kings Themselves do stand accomptable to God even for their high Privilege of unaccomptableness to Men. And therefore the Greater any man is he is to humble himself the more and then as it follows in the Text he will find favour of the Lord. This is the use we are to make of the Third Qualification of our Inquirer and These especially are the Reasons inducing to it But now the Case in my Text is one of the strangest we ever heard of For would we not think it exceeding strange if the chief Magistrate of a City forgetting the Mace that is born before him should run to meet the poorest Cottager and throw himself down upon his Knees too and lifting up his trembling Hands should intreat him so humbly as to call him Master and so earnestly intreat him as to call him Good Master 'T is true that Christ was no Cottager because according to his Manhood He was very much poorer as having not where to lay his Head Yet the Man in my Text who had Great Possessions and was a Ruler in the pride and glory of his Youth too did thus come running after Christ and kneeled down to him thô in the Form of a Servant and call'd him Master thô born of Mary Spouse to Ioseph the Carpenter As if through That Veil of the Carpenter's Son he had had an Eye of Faith to see The Wisdom of the Father The Son of That Almighty Architect who indeed was The Builder of All the World Heb. 11. 10. This Jewish Convert without a Name hath somewhat more strange and more remarkable in his Conversion than The Iailour of Philippi who was but frighted into his wits and sought for Salvation in that Fright only and rather in the negative than positive sense of that word For That which He sought directly was a Deliverance out of his Dangers Not an Inheritance of Aeternity but only an Escape from the Wrath to come So that the Quaerist we are upon is more Didactical than the former as affording us many more and more Noble Lessons Three whereof we have had already And Three if well minded are enough for One Lecture as if slighted they are too many And therefore the Prospect of Life Aeternal which is a very great Deep enough to exercise the freshest and the most vigorous of our Thoughts is the fitter to be reserved for another Opportunity THE Excellent Nature OF THE INQUIRY MARK X. 17. And when he was gone forth into the way there came one Running and kneeled to him and asked him Good Master what shall I do that I may Inherit Aeternal Life § 1. HAving done with the Person who here Inquires and dismiss't the Three Lessons arising thence together with the Reasons on which those Lessons were chiefly Grounded I am in order to proceed to the second General observation The excellent Nature of his Inquiry which was not carnal and temporal but wholly spiritual and eternal He did not ask as an ordinary Youth what he should do that he might compass the greatest measure of Sensuality nor as an ordinary Worldling or man of Wealth what he should do that he might purchase the greatest Treasure of Gold and Silver nor as an ordinary Ruler what he should do that he might climb to the highest Honour upon Earth But casting These Things as it were behind his Back or treading them down under his Feet he was intent upon Inquiring as no ordinary Christian even before Christianity had got its Name what he should do to get an interest and share in Heaven How much soever he did abound in the things that are seen which are temporal He wholly directed his Ambition to the things that are not seen which are Eternal As the faster he ran to salute his Master by so much the better he was in Breath so the Lower he kneeled down he lifted his Thoughts so much the Higher Being mounted on the wings of an holy Zeal His Soul had now taken a nobler Flight than to Pearch upon any thing on this side Heaven As if he had lost the consideration of all his Secular Concernments such as Houses and Lands Goods and good Name Wife and Children if he had any and other things here below All the subject of his Inquiry was what he should do that he might be sav'd not only saved in the negative but in the positive sense of that word Not only so as to be rescued from a Bottomless Lake of Fire and Brimstone But also so as to be drown'd or swallowed up in a Boundless Ocean of Bliss and Glory Nothing would satisfie him but Life and no other Life than one Eternal Good Master what shall I do that I may Inherit Eternal Life § 2. From him therefore let us learn how to regulate our Ambitions and where to fasten our wild Desires We ought to tread upon the Glories of such a World as This is which besides that 't is a perishing and fading World is also the Instrument of Satan whereby to betray us to our Destruction and level the Gaspings of our Souls at Things Invisible and Future Things expressed to us in Scripture by a City having Foundations Heb. 11. 10. and by a Kingdom which cannot be moved Heb. 12. 28. and here in this Text by Aeternal Life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was St. Paul's Precept to his Colossians Set and settle your affections on things above And that for this Reason because your Christ is there sitting at the right hand of God Set them not upon the Earth For Iesus Christ is not here but is long since Risen as the Angel once said to his weak Disciples And if we are risen together with Christ let 's make it appear that we are Risen by our seeking those things that are above Since we were born out of due time to injoy the wish of St. Austin by seeing our Saviour in the Flesh let us look for him where he is and at least behold him in the Spirit Since I say we were not living when Christ was Conversant upon Earth Let us redeem the whole Time by a Ghostly Conversation with Christ in Heaven He who desires in Curiosity to see the Pope or the King of Spain and all the Rarities to be met with throughout their Countries will inquire as he is going which is the ready way thither and
of All Evil without Exception so a truly Christian Faith which is operative and works by a due love of others a love of God with all our hearts and of our Neighbour as our selves cannot choose but be the Root of all the Good fruits to be imagin'd For how can any man indure to be rebelling against his God whom he does love with all his Soul and above Himself And how can any man knowingly suffer himself to be induced to wrong his Neighbour whom he does love without hypocrisie and As Himself that is as sincerely thô not as well or as well if you please thô not as much With a sicut similitudinis thô not aequalitatis In which sense 't is said by our Lord Himself Be ye perfect As your Father in Heaven is perfect He does not there say Be ye as perfect as he is perfect But be ye perfect as sincerely as he is perfect consummately Be ye That in your measure which He is without measure Be ye perfect comparatively as He is absolutely perfect For as God is said in Scripture to have made Man in his own Likeness so we may say by the same reason that he makes a Man's perfection thô at a vast and humble distance in the Similitude of his own Now if what I have said of a True Christian Faith as it works by Love and as it is the Substance of Things hoped for and as it is the Evidence of Things not seen and as 't is that whereby a Believer overcometh the world be duly compared with all before it touching the faithlesness and malignity the wants of love and common honesty wherewith the world is overcome 'T will not be difficult to conclude That when the Son of Man cometh let his coming be when it will He will find his own Prophecy fulfill'd amongst us § 12. Perhaps 't is too little a thing to mention either Cotterus or Dabricius or Christina Poniatovia however their Praedictions touching Christendom in general and particularly touching the whole House of Austria and That of Bourbon long and long ago printed are coming to pass in These our Days Nor will I apply That of David touching Absolom's Rebellion and the general Revolt occasion'd by it stigmatized in the Fourteenth and in the Three and fiftieth Psalm The Fool hath said in his Heart There is no God Where by the Fool he means a Multitude as appears by his next words The Lord looked down from Heaven upon the Children of Men to see if there were any that would understand and seek after God But they are all gone out of the way they are altogether become Abominable There is none that doth good no not one Nor will I descant upon That of the Prophet Micah The Good man is perished out of the Earth There is none upright among men They all lye in wait for Blood They hunt every man his Brother with a Net They do evil earnestly and that with Both hands The Iudge asketh for Reward The Great man uttereth his Mischievous Desire The Best of them is a Briar and the most Upright of them is sharper than any Thorn Hedge I do not speak of These things in this unlimited universality unless it be by a Paralipsis But This I think I may say with every man's suffrage and consent There is so eminent a Defection from God and Goodness throughout the World that Most do seem to have renounced and to have utterly cast off All Fear and Care if not Acknowledgment of the most High The Tongues of men are their own their Thoughts are free their Wills invisible and the secrets of their Hearts are known to God only The Searcher of them But yet as far as mens Actions are the Interpreters of their Hearts and as far as they discover an Epidemical Decay of Christian strictness a Decay of That Seriousness in Reality and Substance which some poor Quakers retain in Shew a Decay of all Duties to God and Man a Decay of Moral Honesty and Humanity it self and which is the Top of all Impiety a devilish blending and confounding the very Natures of Right and Wrong a turning Religion Topsy Turvy calling Evil Good and Good Evil putting Bitter for Sweet and Sweet for Bitter Light for Darkness and Darkness for Light holding Perjury and Parricide Killing of Kings and Subverting of Kingdoms not only Innocent but Pious not only Laudable and Vertuous but the most highly Meritorious and Supererogating Works of the purest Christians nor only of the purest but of the only true Christians in all the World the Only Members of the true Church and Only Heirs of Salvation whilst they who dare not break Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy dare not rail at and libel the Laws in force dare not rebel against their Governours dare not fall down and worship the Jesuites Idol even for This very Reason are Damn'd for ever I say as far as men's Actions are Thus the Indices of their Hearts we may conclude there is a Principle of downright Atheism within them at least an Heathenish Belief that their Souls are not Immortal and that for what they do in This they shall not be brought to give Accompt in Another World § 13. I am far from undertaking what yet some have done to name the last Days of the Son of Man or the Time of his coming to the avenging of His Elect and to judge the World But of This I am certain because I have it from his own Mouth as well as from the Mouths of Three at least of his Apostles that we must not infer the Day of Doom is far off because there are few prepare for it and even the wisest do not expect it No It 's seeming very far off is rather a Sign of its Approach For The Scriptures tell us expresly That Christ at his Coming will surprize us as a Thief in the Night His Coming for Quickness will be like lightning It shall be as suddain saith our Lord as Noah's Deluge was to All Noah himself being excepted They did eat they drank they married wives even until the very day of Noah's entring into the Ark when behold the Flood came and destroy'd them All. It shall at least be as surprising as was the shooting of Hell from Heaven in the Days of Lot And how surprising That was our Saviour tells us in the next words They did eat they drank they bought they sold they planted they builded unto which it may be added they play'd they sported they were indulging all their Lusts when behold the same day wherein Lot went out of Sodom The Fire and Brimstone rained down and destroy'd them All. So swift so suddain so surprising shall be The Day of The Son of Man's Coming to judge the World Watch therefore says our Saviour for ye know not what hour your Lord will come Heaven and Earth shall pass away But of That day and hour knoweth no man says he again no not the
does there speak touching proportionable Temptations such as are not above our strength and are not for the staggering but for the trial of our Faith Now the Trial of our Faith worketh Patience and Patience breeds Hope and Hope maketh not ashamed Again The Trial of our Faith shall be found unto praise and honour and glory at the blessed Appearance of Iesus Christ. If Christ himself had not been tempted with all the Kingdoms of the Earth and the Glory of them yea and afterwards too with Disgrace and Torment and Death it self How then could he have led Captivity Captive but for Injuries and Pains where were our Fortitude and Patience were it not for all sorts of forbidden Fruit where were Continence and Sobriety and all other Abstinencies from Evil were it not for Wealth and Plenty where were Munificence and Works of Mercy where the Victories of Meekness and Moderation if there were no such thing as Glory and worldly Greatness Yea but for Danger Destruction and Death it self how should we come by our Immortality Our Saviour therefore when he compar'd a rich man's Entrance into Heaven with the Entrance of a Camel through the Eye of a Needle did not speak of a natural but of a moral Impossibility For wealthy Abraham went to Heaven as well as poor forsaken Lazarus And therefore St. Mark does very fitly not only translate but explain St. Matthew saying How hard not how Impossible Nor for them that have Riches but for them that trust in them to enter into the Kingdom of God And this may competently serve to keep the Richest out of Despair § 6. Yet even This Alleviation may serve to keep them from Praesumption and make them humble because 't is hard to have Riches and not to trust in them Nor is there any one Thing that I am able at least to think of throughout the Gospel against which we are admonish'd praepar'd and arm'd with greater store either of explicit or implicit warnings When an ingenuous young Ruler whom Jesus lov'd came to inquire after Eternity and after the Means of its Attainment there was not any thing but his Possessions which seem'd to stand betwixt Him and Heaven For when his Oracle had told him He must sell all he had and distribute unto the Poor he was sad at that saying and went away grieved So great and real is the misery of too much Happiness upon Earth Had he been worth but two Mites he would no doubt have parted with them as the poor Widow did for a Treasure in Heaven And That was promis'd by our Saviour in the very same Breath in which he was exhorted to sell all he had But however such a Praecept could not be possibly so heavy as not to be made exceeding light by such a Promise as was annext Yet such a dangerous thing it is to have the Friendship of this World by injoying all the Pleasures which Power and Plenty can purchase for us that the Treasure in Heaven was but of cold signification and he was sad at That Saying that he must sell all he had Eternal Happiness in Reversion was but a Melancholick thing when only promised on condition of being merciful to the Poor The Expression of St. Luke is short and pithy on that Occasion He was very sorrowful for he was very Rich. And from That Single Instance our Lord took occasion to say in General and of All How hardly shall they that have Riches enter into the Kingdom of God Let the Persons be who they will Great and Rich or Rich only Rich and Prodigal or Covetous yet in case they Have Riches their Case is difficult They may be sav'd but very hardly Possibly they may but with much ado With very much strugling and striving to enter in at the strait Gate A man of great Bulk may possibly though hardly be able to pass at a little Door by a great deal of squeezing and compression and coarctation of himself perhaps by rubbing off his Flesh and by bruising some of his Bones And so a Camel may enter through the Eye of a Needle But then the Beast must be burnt to Ashes or cut at least into shreds and fitters that one shred may enter before another and all may pass in the Conclusion A very cold degree of Comfort not to be in any likelyhood but in a bare Possibility of being sav'd § 8. It is enough to deterr us from being grieved at the loss or overglad in the Injoyment of worldly Goods That the good things of this World are apt to be Enemies to all that 's Good They are often Enemies to Preaching for the Deceitfulness of Riches choaks the Word and makes the Hearer become unfruitful Matth. 13. 22. They are usual Enemies to Praying for you ask and receive not because ye ask amiss that ye may consume it upon your Lusts James 4. 2. They are common Enemies to Loyalty and upright dealing for Iudas being Christ's Cash-keeper did quickly find his very Office became his Tempter He did not stab but sell his Master Nor that out of malice but love of mony And when the Husbandmen of the Vineyard conspir'd to murder their Landlord's Heir It was to this end alone That the Inheritance might be Theirs Mark 12. 7. Again the things of this World are general Enemies to Religion to Religion in its practical and chiefest part whose Truth and Purity does stand in This That we keep our selves unspotted from the World that is to say from the Wealth and Friendship from the Luxuries and the Lusts and the Glories of it Iames 1. 27. Briefly they are Enemies to the Eternal Salvation of Soul and Body For they that will be rich fall into Temptation and a Snare into very many foolish and hurtful Lusts which drown the Soul in Destruction and Perdition 1 Tim. 6. 9. Nor was it sure without Cause that our Saviour made Dives the Repraesentative of the Damn'd A man of Quality and Fortune highly befriended by the World cloath'd in Purple and fine Linnen and faring sumptuously every day Which was so far from being a Narrative of any Particular man's Case that I could never read of any whose name was Dives much less that there was such in the time of Lazarus Nor was Lazarus there meant of any Begger in particular who lay full of Sores at the Rich man's Gate But all was spoken in a Parable And that as 't were on purpose to let us know what kind of Voiagers more especially are bound for Heaven and for Hell and with what sorts of People they Both are aptest to be stock't to wit with poor Lazars and wealthy Gluttons Those Inhabitants of Heaven as These of Hell Again it teaches us how frequent and usual 't is for every man to have his Portion of Pain and Pleasure either in This or another Life His good things here and his evil things hereafter or his evil things now and his
Tyrants of Cyrene could never plunder him of his Philosophy That Inaccessible Treasure which was within him who yet would be the sole Masters of all his Wealth those obnoxious Possessions which were without him Which Advice of Aristippus was much like That of our Lord himself Lay not up for your selves Treasure on Earth where Plunderers and Thieves break through and steal From whence 't is obvious to collect that we are not so much obliged to Them who give us our Estates as to Them who do teach us to use them safely The Devil and his Agents are often permitted to do the former But God alone and his Embassadours will oblige us so far as to do the later § 22. Secondly let us consider That since we find God Himself bestowing Riches upon some as upon Abraham and Iob or whosoever has a right to the several things which he possesseth whilst the Devil gives to others by God's Permission as to the Sabaeans and the Chaldaeans who plunder'd Iob of his Substance to Achan and Ahab or whosoever has Possession without a right It concerns us to examin the exact Derivation of our Estates and to have it well stated whether we receive them from God or Satan For if honestly acquir'd and so from God by his Appointment and Approbation Then we may honestly injoy them to the Glory of God and our private Comfort Always bearing This in mind That we are but God's Almoners or Usufructuaries and must dispense to His Members who is Proprietary in chief But if dishonestly attain'd to and so from Satan by God's permission only and sufferance we cannot honestly possess much less injoy them and therefore ought to do neither to God's Dishonour and our Damnation But as our Saviour hath said of the Eye and Hand That if at any time they offend us we must pluck out the one and cut off the other so must we say of our Possessions That if they offend us in the like sense by making us stumble into Sin we must pluck them out of our Treasury like the Emperour Sigismund and like Him too cast them from us because 't is better for us to enter as Poor as Lazarus into Heaven than remaining Rich as Dives to be cast into Hell Always keeping This in memory That Ill-gotten Goods may purchase matter for Repentance But Repentance it self they can never purchase § 23. Thirdly let us consider That if the Devil himself is suffer'd to have more of This world at his Devotion and Disposal than The Great Cham or the Great Mogul or whosoever of earthly Potentates is worthily thought to be the Greatest Then are our Shares of this world the things the most to be suspected and of which we should least be proud Nor should we rashly take it for granted that they are evermore the Blessings and Gifts of God because we learn by sad Experience that they are many times the Curses and Snares of Satan If to have Riches in Possession were still a sign of God's Favour This great Absurdity would follow That the Devil himself would be God's chief Favorite The Apostle's Rule is That whom he loveth he chasteneth not that whom he loveth he maketh Rich. That He scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth not that every one whom he receiveth he makes to wallow in Prosperity And 't was a thing so very rare when Times were better than now they are to see the same man both Good and Prosperous That men did scandalously complain in the Days of Malachi It is vain to serve God And what profit is it that we have kept his Ordinances and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of Hosts when the Proud are happy and the Workers of wickedness are set up Nor was it otherwise in the Days of the Prophet Ieremy They are waxen fat they shine They overpass the Deeds of the wicked They judge not the Cause of the Fatherless yet They prosper See and consider how the Devil inrich't and prosper'd those Idolaters whom he made to burn Incense unto the Moon which they commonly then called The Queen of Heaven in the Four and fourtieth Chapter of Ieremy Whilst they committed That Idol-worship Their women lying with strange men in their Husbands Presence v. 19. All was well with them they saw no evil But when they ceased from that Idolatry they were consumed with Sword and Famin v. 18. Whence we see the great Folly of those mens reasonings who reckon Prosperity as a mark of the best Religion and Adversity of the worst Inferring Herod and Pontius Pilate to be more the Favorites of God than the Innocent Iesus whom they slew and hanged on a Tree For the former still liv'd in Peace and Plenty in Ease and Honour whereas the later was Vir Dolorum a Man whose life was full of Sorrows Let not any man therefore say in pretence of Gratitude when he hath gotten an Estate by Fraud or Violence I thank God for it I have a competent Fortune These are the Blessings of the Lord upon my Labours or God hath given these things unto me for what is this but a fair-spoken Blasphemy intitling God to the Injustice by which a man is made Rich Whereas to ascribe it to the Devil and his own heart's Lust is to lay the ugly Brat at its Father's Door And to justifie God whilst he dishonours and disobeys him We must accordingly distinguish between the things that we possess by distinguishing the Means whereby we have them and proportionably resolve on our usage of them What is honestly come by and we can prove so to be we must not fail to be thankful for and may injoy them as well with Gladness as with Singleness of Heart But for our ill-gotten Goods the Gifts of Satan and not of God we must part with them as greedily into their true Master's Hands as ever we got them into our own § 24. Last of all let us consider That if the Things of this world commonly call'd the Goods of Fortune are often suffered by God to be in the power of the Devil and often given by the Devil to such as serve him And if Both must give accompt at the Day of Judgment for whatsoever is so given and so receiv'd we learn from hence not to repine at the Prosperities of the wicked but together with their ways to have respect unto their End For why should any man be envied for being the Favorite of Hell for accepting that Proffer which here the Devil made our Saviour upon condition of Idolatry and which for that very reason our Saviour rejected with great Disdain Again we learn not to be sorry as men without hope when we find it goes worst with the best of men It being enough to reconcile the greatest Prosperity of the Unjust and the greatest Adversity of the Righteous both with the Mercy and the Iustice of God Almighty That the Lord of the Harvest when the Harvest-Time is come will
thy Neighbour's Goods which is less than to seize upon them thou transgressest God's Law and in transgressing God's Law thou keepest Satan's And to keep Satan's Law is to fall down to him and worship him And if thou wilt not do This thou must refuse the man's Proffer as Christ did Satan's and that with the like indignation express'd by an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Get thee behind me Get thee behind me as for other so for this great Reason because thou offerest to me That which is none of Thine We must carefully distinguish 'twixt Power and Right It may be much in thy Power though more in Satan's But neither Satan nor thy self can have a colour of Right to it Wer 't thou as liberal of thine own as of another man's Goods thou would'st have offer'd me the one at as cheap a Rate as the other Something therefore there must be in it that being a Great Lover of Wealth thou yet canst part with it so easily It plainly shews that thou tak'st it for none of Thine for else thou hadst stood upon other Terms And therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Get thee behind me Which as it ends the first Lesson we are to take from This Doctrin so at the very same instant it prompts us also to a second And therefore § 5. Secondly let us consider what kind of Recompence or Return we are to make unto the Devil for all his offers What David said in another case to the end he might not be unthankful Quid retribuam What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits bestow'd upon me we are as well to say here to the end we may not be unreveng'd Quid retribuemus What shall we render unto the Devil for all his mischievous Bounties bestow'd upon us The fittest Requital we can make him is to fling back his Favours into his Face and to bespeak him in such a stile as was used by St. Peter to Simon Magus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thy mony perish with thee When any Tempter shall make us dishonest Proffers as Potiphar's Wife did once to Ioseph And shall press us to an Acceptance as She did Him we must repel such a Tempter as He did Her who knew she did but offer what she had no right to give And certainly all of that Nature we ought to look upon as forbidden Fruit. For such God made it by the last Praecept in the Decalogue Non concupisces Thou shalt not covet And therefore as often as the Devil by what Instrument soever shall frankly offer us a Portion of Wealth or Greatness which he may easily have a power but not a right to bestow upon us Let us rebuke him with such an Answer as Ioseph made unto his Mistress Or let us expostulate with our selves as Moses did with the People Israel Do we thus requite the Lord O foolish People and unwise Is not He our Father which bought us Hath not he made us and established us Shall we kick at him like Iesurun and quite forget the Rock out of which we were hewn Or let us say with our Saviour whose words are writ for our learning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Get thee hence Satan For it is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve Again it is written Thou shalt not covet or desire thy Neighbour's Goods much less by Violence or by Fraud shalt thou take them into Possession § 6. Again we learn from this Doctrin to suspect our own Treasures as well as to be spotless from other mens For Satan tempts us to Idolize him as well by making us abusive of what we have as by making us covetous of what we have not Agur pray'd against Riches of God's own giving not against such alone as are given by Satan For he did not say thus Suffer not the Devil to give me Riches But Give me not Riches lest I be full and deny thee Thereby intimating unto us That Riches are Temptations though never so honestly acquir'd And however they are Blessings as given by God yet consider'd even as such they are dangerous Blessings for by the artifice of Satan and the suggestions of the Flesh they may be easily perverted to God's Dishonour and so prove matter of Execration Indeed it is not our Fault to be as rich as God made us But to sacrifice our Thoughts and to devote our Affections to what we have is flatly and plainly to Idolize it To bestow the very Riches which God hath given us upon our Coffers by Avarice or on our Pride by Prodigality which is another kind of Avarice to wit a coveting of Fame is neither better nor worse than to fall down to them and worship them All the wickedness in the World does seem to have enter'd at these Three Doors Beauty Riches and Reputation The first of which does give Fodder to the Lust of the Flesh as does the second to the Lust of the Eye and the third to the Pride of Life Now what Danger soever there is in Beauty will be found to be in Riches and Reputation They are Idols all Three very eminently great But Riches if either are much the greatest Te facimus Fortuna Deam was said by the Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Greatest Fortunes have more Adorers than the greatest Beauties in all the World Besides that Those are the most constant as well as the fondest and the most passionate And 't is a rational Conjecture that there is more sleep broken for love of Riches in a year than there is in many Ages for love of Beauty We may judge by one Sigismund how it fares with all worldlings When the worldly man should sleep he will be thinking upon his Treasure But when he should pray he will fall asleep And which is likeliest to be his Deity That God of Heaven on whom he cannot think for sleeping or That white and red Earth for his thinking upon which he can seldom sleep We see how Avarice is Idolatry and so a spiritual Fornication and so an absolute Divorce of our Souls from God Nor can the Sin of Prodigality be one whit less as being a Sacrifice to the Lust of the Flesh perhaps to many of those Lusts perhaps to all And look how many Lusts he trys to satisfie so many Idols he does adore Admit the Prodigal spends nothing but what is properly his own and does some Good with it by accident yet it is but by accident that good is done for which not He himself but his Ambition is to be thank't Let the man be what he will who abounds in Riches whether a Prodigal or a Niggard or hardly Either they are apt to ingender a flat forgetfulness of God as before I noted which in Iesurun and Nabal and in David himself may be clearly seen The first waxing fat did even kick against his Maker When the second was drunk he valued not God any more than David
438 c. Englishmen the worse the more Ingrateful 439 440. their Degeneracy 667 Example More cogent with some men than Reason 680 681 Experience of the Worst and Best men compared 50 51 52. A Proof of the Pleasure the Law of Christ yields us 58 59 60 61 F. FAith Seldom Truly Christian 85 86. of the greatest Consequence that it be True 86 87 102. a special Instance of Obedience 108 109. Never True but when the Mother of Obedience 110 111. how a Telescope 181 182 256 257. how and when Salvifick 223 224 c. It s several Sorts and Significations 229 230 c. It s mysterious Definition 239 240. how the Pandect of Christian Duties 241 242 c. to be found in very few 418 c. what Faith Salvifick 441 to 449 Fear How requir'd to true Faith 96 97. Fear and Trembling of a threefold Importance 131 132 133 c. Nothing more forbidden or more commanded in Scripture 135 136 137. the Reconcilement 138 139 c. a Religious passion 152 154 161 162 Fiduciaries represented 104 105 106 c. 113 114. Antidoted and humbled 219 220 c. 250 251 c. 319 320 G. GIfts Of men Imperfect 587 588. of God only Compleat ibid. of the Devil dangerous 589 590 c. 592. described 593. to be bewared 594 595 596 God How a comfortable Light and consuming Fire 111 112. how his Omnipotence should oblige us to Obedience 398 399. his Permissions of Evil accounted for 560 561. c. 583 584. Other Reasons 572. The Uses to be made of it 573 574 c. The Difference 'twixt his Distribution of Endless Torments and present Goods and Evils unto men 628 629 630. Evils happen to Good men by his Order or Permission ibid. Goodness of Christ as a Legislator 349 350 c. Gospel A Rule not a meer Dispensation 119. It s Summary preached by Paul and Silas 245 246 c. how a refuge from the Law 329 330. why to be called the New Law 341 342 Government Of a mans self difficult 657 Grace In All is sufficient 47 48. How it signifies the Gospel 92 93 94. Resembled by Manna 404 405. how it exceeds the state of Innocence 406. The freeness of it 407 408 c. H. HAppiness upon Earth wherein it lies 259 260 305 306 c. 368 369 370 c. Heaven See Aeternal life Hell made for the Use of All 156. an Hell to think of 183 184. Humility Necessary in the working out Salvation 131 132 c. 141 c. the Proper vertue of the Greatest 287 288 289 c. The great Motive to it 406 407 c. Hypocrisy In what Professors most seen 346 347 I. IDleness It s miserable Effects 498 499 c. Iews parallel'd with Christians and less obliged 127. less unexcusable 429 430 Impunity the severest punishment 565 566 c. Infidelity How to be proved 441 442 c. Infirmities How beneficial 404 405 406 Injuries How beneficial to the injured 67 68 Inquiries How to be made 302 303 c. to 315. what sort to be avoided 316 317. c. a Touchstone to try of what sort we are 321 322 c. Interest governs the World 83 84 85 Iob. His case at large 529 to 535. and 567 568. Iustice. Its wants in the World 436 437 c. Iustification From Eternity a dangerous Doctrin 7 8. to what kind of Faith it is ascribed 233 234 c. K. KIngdoms The littleness of them on Earth 311 312 c. Kings next to God most capable of Injuries 66 67. most accomptable to God because not at all to man 297. L. LAw of the Gospel 42 43 c. of Faith 121. of Moses how it drives us to Christ 328 329 330 350. Christ a Legislator as well as Moses 341 342 c. Liberality In whom the Effect of Avarice 593 594. Libertines How made and why so many 6. like the old Gnosticks 44 45. described 103 104 Liberty of a Christian wherein it stands 95 96 100 166 Love How it casteth out fear and carries fear along with it 138 139 161 162. How the greatest of Vertues 312 313. how seldom True 433 434. How it fulfils the whole Law 445 446 M. MAhomedans Better than many Christians 425 426 Man How much more obliged than other Creatures 385 386. yet of All the most ingrateful 387 388. How to learn of the Brutes 399 400 c. Martyrdom The Reasonableness of it 28 29 c. Moderation of mind how attain'd 673. Motives to it 673 to 700. Money It s danger and Description 507 508. Moses How he leads men to Christ 328 329 c. as a lesser Paedagogue to a greater 342 343 c. 350 351. How he escaped the Devils Lime-twigs in his youth 505 N. NIggard His largess and folly equal 490 491. to 495 Nobility Wherein it consists 288 289 c. it s proper duties 296 297 O. OBedience Its necessity to Salvation 2 to 34. It must be Passive as well as Active 27 28 29 30. its own Reward 60 61 62 c. Indispensably necessary under the Gospel 92 93 c. All one with Saving Faith 235 236. The All in All to a Christian 344 345 346 c. if not Servile but ingenuous 377 378 c. 395 396 400. the Condition not the Cause of Salvation 410 411 c. Opinions Why to be well examin'd 8 9 Oracles many and deceitful 331 332 Orthodoxie not enough 198 199 c. P. PErfection Evangelical what 364 365 Persecution Consisting with Pleasure 71 72 73 Perseverance Necessary to life 146 147 149 150 152 153 390 Poverty Preferred by many Heathens 509 510 c. Sanctified by Christ and recommended 513 514 c. 519. a Comfort 605 645 646 647 652 653 654. of what sort intended 654 c. Practice The life of Christianity 195 196 c. 200 c. follows Principles 441 442 c. Prayer Worthless without Perseverance 418 419 c. 462 Presumption More dangerous than Despair 144 145 147. oft mistaken for Faith 421 Pride In the poorest 294 295. the Sin of Sodom 497 Principles To be known by Practice 442 443 c. Prodigality Hardly avoidable even by Niggards 494 495. no less Sin than Avarice 601 Prognostick of the Coming of Christ to Judgment 417 to 463. Promises of the Gospel still clog'd with Precepts 123 124. yet confer a Right on All Performances of the Condition 150 151 154 159 160 Prosperity The hardest Weapon to wield 184 185 c. No mark of Goodness 436. tho often its Reward 437. the Common Portion of the worst 539 540 c. Not to be envied 583 accompanied with trouble 676 Puritans Modern Catharists 388 389 Pythagoreans Their exact Conformity to their Master 19 20. wherein to be aemulated by Christians 177 Poverty Wherein it truly consists 659. the Good Effect of it ibid. 660 661. Consolation from it 691 R. REconcilement 'twixt Calvinists and Remonstrants 158 159. 'twixt St.