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A65571
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Eight sermons preached on several occasions by Nathanael Whaley ...; Sermons. Selections
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Whaley, Nathanael, 1637?-1709.
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1675
(1675)
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Wing W1532; ESTC R8028
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120,489
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326
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the Jews who were not called into the Vineyard till the Heat of the Day was over and were Strangers to the Covenant of Life and Peace many Ages after it was ratified to the Seed of Abraham shall yet enjoy the full benefit of it and assuredly receive the same Reward of Eternal Life which was promised to the Faithful and obedient Israelites And the same reason there is to believe that whenever it shall please God to call in the Unbelieving Jews or any of the Nations that never yet beheld the great light of the Gospel their late entrance into the Vineyard shall not bar them of an equal Reward with those that have finisht their Work and are long since gone to Heaven before them This I take to be the true Meaning and Importance of the Parable and to have in many respects the advanvantage of that which stands in competition with it Which will more fully appear if we try them by the Rules before mentioned and consider 1. The Rise and Occasion of this Parable or the Dependance it hath upon the Words which our Saviour spake immediately before it Chap. 19. ult Many that are First shall be Last and the Last shall be First Whereupon it follows For the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a man that went out early in the Morning to hire Labourers into his Vineyard Chap. 20. 16. c. And 't is very observable that our Saviour closes his Parable with the same saying which gave occasion to it and then I am sure that can be no Good Interpretation of it which does not square with this saying And certainly the truest if any choice there be is that which salls in most naturally with it Now to put the matter upon this Issue By the Labourers we understand the Jewish and Christian Churches And whereas our Saviour tells that the Last shall be First and the First Last so the Gentiles that were hired last into the Vineyard were the first in the Kingdom of Christ and the Jews who were first called will be the Last being cast off for rejecting the Son Mat. 21.38 whom the Lord of the Vineyard sent to receive the Fruits of it in their Season Rom. 11 25. till the Fulness of the Gentiles be come in And thus our Lord himself interprets this very passage Mat. 8.11 12. Many shall come from the East and West and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven But the Children of the Kingdom the Unbelieving Jews that reject the Gospel shall be cast out into outer darkness Thus far there is a manifest congruity between the sense which I have given of this Text and that remarkable Sentence which our Saviour seems to have plac'd at both ends of the Parable purposely to guide us through the meaning of it Let us see now how the Opinion of those that expound it of Dying Penitents will sute with their being in the First Rank of Christians Can they be said to be first in the Kingdom of God unless in the sense that Judas was who are Traytors to him till their last hour Or do they do him better or longer Service than others that defer their Repentance till they can do nothing but ask his Forgiveness for what they have always done in contradiction to him It is to be hoped that there are men that for many years from their Youth to their Dying Day have lived in the sear of God and a constant exercise of Virtue and Piety and shall we say that the best of these come behind those who live as long without God in the World till they come to the very edge and point of Eternity I confess I cannot imagine what construction these men can make of our Saviours Prophecy So the Last shall be First and the First Last unless they will venture to say that the Professors of Christianity who begin not to look towards God and Religion till their last sickness are before others in his Faviour and may therefore expect a greater reward than such as spend their whole lives in his Service Which were it true I grant would be a mighty credit and encouragement to a Death-bed Repentance 2. If we view the Context and follow the Thread of our Saviours Discourse V. 11 12. we shall find that the Labourers that came first into the Vineyard murmured at the Good-man of the House for making the last equal with themselves who had borne the burden and heat of the day Now this is exactly true of the Jews who repined mightily at the Gentiles coming into the Church upon all advantages imaginable being entiteled to the same Rewards without observing the Rites or feeling any of the Burdens which they themselves had so many Ages laboured under Nay this raised their Envy so high that St. Paul speaks of it as the great impediment to their Conversion the main thing that hindred their effectual closing with the Gospel But still there was great reason for what was done supposing the Jews to be the Early and the Gentiles the Late Comers into the Vineyard For tho the World was growing old when the Gentiles were called yet are we generally called as young as the Jews themselves were and may work as long in the Vineyard and perform as much and as faithful Service as they did And therefore our coming after them can be no reason why our Great Master should not reward us as liberally to the full as them He that does a Days-work the last day of the year if he was called to it no sooner deserves a Days-wages as well as he that was hired the first But I hope no man will say there is the same reason why a Death-bed sorrow after ten thousand Calls to Repentance and Newness of Life should be equally rewarded with the longest holy and most religious Life However that our Saviour was not of this mind may appear 3. If we consider the plain scope and meaning of other Parables such as that of the five Foolish Virgins who wanted Oyle in their Lamps at the Bridegrooms coming Mat. 25.10 11 12. and while they went to buy were barred out of his Presence which the Wise were admitted into and when they cryed Lord Lord open to us methinks I hear the Sorowful Death-bed Cry received this Dreadful Answer Verily I say unto you I know you not And as little coherence will be found between a Dying Penitents being equally rewarded with the most Eminent Christians as he must be if we rank him with the Labourers in the Text and the Parable concerning the Talents the Moral of which is apparently this that good men shall be rewarded according to the good they have done and the several advantages they were entrusted with and they that have done none but squandred away their Lives and Opportuities of Grace shall feel the high displeasure of God and with the Unprofitable Servant be cast into outer darkness Let men impartially
once Recommended in Scripture as the great Pattern and Exemplar of the Faith which Justifies and that the Great Commendation of it lies in the Influence it had upon the Holiness and Obedience of his Life And then if we have not the same kind of Faith that is a Faith which makes us Obedient to the Will of God we have not that true and genuine Faith which Justifies And therefore if we Believe but do not obey the Truth we must needs fall as short of the Favour of God as we do of the Faith of Abraham For to speak freely I cannot understand what Use there is of Faith but to quicken us to do the Will of God in order to our obtaining his Favour And if this be the proper and only good Use of Faith it follows that if we separate Faith from Holiness and Obedience it loses all the Virtue which it hath to Justify us And then if we are never so Orthodox in Points of Faith what does it Profit my Brethren Can that Faith save us which cannot procure our accptance with God Have not all Wicked Men that Believe the Truths of Christianity the same Jam. 2.19 Nay the Devils as St. James observes Tremble under as good a Faith as this 'T is strange therefore that any Man of Competent Reason should think that a Dry and Barren Faith a Volatil notion in the Head that never Reaches the Heart and Life should put him into the happiest state that he can possibly attain to in this Life Or that which makes him never the better Man should yet make him the Favourite of God That a Dead and Useless Faith should do him the greatest Kindness in the World and Intitle him to Life Eternal Now if Justifying Faith be more than an Assent to Truth if besides this it be a Vital Principle of Vertue and Holiness we see what a perfect Dream the Antinomian Doctrine of Justification from Eternity is For surely no Man was Justifyed by Faith so long ago as from Eternity And if we were justifyed from Eternity our Faith comes too late to justify us and then there can be no such thing as justifying Faith And this the Patrons of this Opinion do not dissemble in their Descriptions of Faith in which they represent it as a means only of Manifesting and Applying to themselves their Personal justification from Eternity And is not this a fair step to the laying aside of the whole Gospel For let any Impartial Man judge what effect the Great Precepts and Motives of the Gospel are like to have upon those Men that conceive they have but one thing to do to satisfy themselves that they are in a justified state and that is to Believe Roundly that they were so from Eternity 2. We are taught by this Tryal not to stagger or Repine at any sharp or Mysterious Providences but to look upon them as the Wise Methods of God to prove our Sincerity and to exercise our Faith in him Of all the Excellent Men in Scripture there is none that was honoured with more Eminent Tokens of Divine Favour and Acceptance than Abraham was He was styled the Friend of God the Father of the Faithful Seed and the Heir of the World Rom. 4.13 He was Familiarly Visited by Angels from Heaven and Dignify'd with many special Revelations and glorious Promises He was the Keeper of Gods Secrets Gen. 18.17 one whom he declared his Confidence in Yea was so Highly in his Favour that God engaged himself by a Covenant with him to preserve true Religion in his Family in all future Ages and gave him a Prospect of the Day of Christ Joh. 8.56 at almost two thousand Years Distance from it And besides this Instance it has been no Unusual thing with God to single out the Best men for the sharpest Tryals and to propose them as examples of Faith and Patience to their own and all succeeding Generations as appears by the rest of the Worthies of this Chapter and the best Histories of all Ages Now shall we call this an Errour of Providence and conclude that all these Excellent Men were cast out of Gods Favour and Protection because he call'd them to such Noble Tryals for the Honour and Vindication of their Faith If not we can infer nothing either against our selves while we study to please God or against the Equity and goodness of his Providence from the Troubles and Perplexities of this present Life how extraordinary soever they may be for the Nature or Circumstances of them We should consider rather that good Men are the fittest to serve the Great ends of Providence and to teach the World Submission to the Appointments of it by their Afflictions and Tryals And this clears at once the Wisdom and goodness of God in thus training them up for those excessive Heights of Glory which are prepared in Heaven for them 3. The Carriage of Abraham in this Tryal may serve to convince the World that there is such a thing as Living by Faith that is serving God without Respect to Worldly Advantages nay in view of the greatest Losses and disappointments that can be sustained by it The looser part of Mankind has been always very apt to charge the sincere with pretending Religion for secular ends Being willing to ease themselves of the shame of their wicked and Impious Lives they would faign have the World believe that there is no such thing as true Faith and Piety That 't is nothing but Hypocrisie that gives some men the Reputation of being better than others And that the Best love the World at their Hearts as dearly as those that Proclaim their Passion for it and professedly make their Court to it And the truth is it has cost the Servants of God very dear in their several Ages to Undeceive the World in this matter and to Vindicate the Honour of Religion against the Scoffs and Infidelity of Men. For I doubt not but one special end of the Tryals and Sufferings of Good Men is to convince the World that Religion is a Reality and that there are those that chearfully serve God upon the Faith and Hope of a Better Life yea tho' it cost them their very dearest Delights and Comforts in this The Example in the Text is a Demonstration of this beyond all possibility of Evasion or Answer And since Abrahams Children have the same Kind of Faith which he himself was so Renowned for I mean a Faith which carries them through the service of God in Pursuit of a Heavenly Country and a Kingdom which hath Foundations this vindicates all True Believers to the end of Time from the Foul charge of Hypocrisie and doing their Works to be feen of Men. 'T is the Character of their Family That they Believe him that is Invisible That they live by Faith and not by Sense and are all of them Men and Women of the same Spirit and Ingenuity tho' not in the same Perfection that Abraham was