nothing dear in comparison of the Love of their Master whom they serve and the Crown of Glory which is propos'd as their Eternal Reward For those that draw back at any little Difficulty and faint in the hour of Trial and time of Temptation that have not spiritual Strength nor Courage sufficient to buoy them up against some Shocks and Oppositions which they must expect to meet with here in the World Such Persons shall never at the great Day of Account be adjudged faithful or worthy of that incomprehensible Felicity which shall be the Portion of all those that are truly the Servants of Jesus Christ Religion carries with it such a Grace and Loveliness it appears even to the common Persons of the World with such a Majesty and Advantage that he must be strongly engaged in the Work of Sin and closely fetter'd even from his Infancy in the slavery of Satan that never had any Purpose or Resolve to be one of its followers And I am apt to believe that the far greatest number of Mankind have at some particular times in their wisest and most considerate hours being convinced of its Worth and Excellency made Resolutions to set about Godliness and to walk in the Paths of Vertue and Religion But when they have found it a Business of difficulty to quit their Sins to deny their Lusts and that the power of Holiness would abridg perhaps their Profit and worldly Advantage and deny them the Excursions of sensual Gratifications that the way of Piety would sometimes be attended with Taunts and Reproaches and the Thorns and Briars of Affronts and Indignities Then like those whom our Saviour describes by receiving Seed on stony Ground They are presently offended their Warmth decays their Zeal grows cold and they falter and stumble and at last desist from their good Resolutions And tho they have often on a new fit of Zeal springing from a restored sense of the Excellency Benefit and absolute Necessity of a holy Life renewed their Attempts to proceed in Piety Yet Satan and the World returning again with strong Allurements to the ways of Sin All their good Purposes like an evening Cloud have vanished away and they have easily return'd to their former Follies put on their old Fetters and been bassled and beat off from all their Religious Undertakings Like the Children of Israel when deliver'd out of Egypt and pursuing their Journey to the promised Land yet by and by their Appetite tho they fed upon Angels Food gave them an hankering for Melons and Cucumbers and Garlick and Onions and this tho an Argument of prodigious Folly yet made them in their hearts return back to the House of Bondage So These not being constant in heavenly Resolutions have look'd back with eyes of Affection on the Pleasures of Sin and the Delights of the World and could not keep up to the just tenour of their own good Purposes But yet notwithstanding being still perhaps under the sense of Conviction and the strugglings of Conscience in order therefore to silence That and to rebate its edg they have at last fall'n on the same Project with those Strangers planted by Shalmaneser the King of Assyria in the Cities of Israel who when Lions were sent among them because they feared not the Lord 2 King 17.13 in order to remove the Plague and yet not wholly quit their Idolatry they made a mixture of Religion and serv'd God and their Idols And so the Persons which fall under the Character which I have been now describing will endeavour to reconcile their temporal and spiritual Interest and carry on both mix the Concerns of Time and Eternity and be moderately religious and moderately wicked And reply to the inward Arguings and Reproofs of their own Mind when that checks them for the decays of their former Zeal and their state of Lukewarmness and declining their first Love Why should I attempt a Degree of Holiness above others by appearing in a singular Zeal in the Cause of Religion And not only concern my self for my own Salvation but also for the Salvation of the Souls of my Neighbours as if I were made my Brother's Keeper And perhaps after all my Zeal may be no better than folly in procuring the Frowns of Superiors the Loss of a Customer the Coldness of a Friend the Shyness of an Acquaintance because I am now still on the Rebuke and pressing the Duties of a rigid Piety on all occasions And it may savour of Presumption too and a sond conceit of my own Abilities to attempt the Reformation of the Age and to amend the World My Zeal may be too hot as well as too cold and Moderation and Self-preservation too is good in all things And therefore since Piety ought to be mix'd with Prudence let me not exceed the Rules of Discretion Such Returns as these to the Calls of Conscience are very apt to stifie it when the Will and Affections remain unsanctified or in a meer moral State And Men may please themselves that all shall do well and that Heaven and Eternity may still be gain'd and Salvation secur'd without so much ado as some Persons make and that they themselves have been more warm than wise in the Business of Religion And worldly Interest and mundane Designs and sinful Pleasures egging on such thoughts and urging such false and sinful Arguments it becomes a snare and a stumbling-block to multitudes who still may think their eternal Welfare secure enough under the decays and apparent wanings of their former Zeal and Holiness But that such Persons as these are in a dangerous state and altogether unfit for the Service of Jesus Christ and the Glory of his Kingdom and to have their Names inserted in the Book of Life our Lord informs us here in this Chapter by the observation which he himself made on the comportment of some who pretended a great desire to be his Disciples In the 57th Verse of this Chapter we read that a certain Person appli'd himself unto our Lord with very great seeming Zeal and Affection to his Service Lord I will follow thee whither soever thou goest But on our Lord's telling him that if he would engage in that Undertaking he must not expect any secular advantage but rather the contrary in regard that tho the Foxes had Holes Dens wherein to lodg and the Birds of the Air bad Nests places to retreat to to roost in all the night Yet he tho Lord of all things here in the World had no where to lay his Head no House no Bed no place of his own to receive him and therefore none were to expect the Advantages of this World by an entrance into his Service on which we read no farther and hear no more of this great Pretender And calling to another v. 59. to come and follow him he desires first that he might have leisure to bury his Father He did not absolutely refuse to obey our Lord's Command but he was willing to procrastinate
and the Lies and Scandals they will cast at your Doors if you faint at this Trial as Syracides says your Strength is small And if this should induce any Member to look back let him be afraid of being hereby made unfit for the Kingdom of God for remember what our Lord tells us Mark 8.38 Whosoever shall be asham'd of me and of my Words in this adulterous and sinful Generation of him also shall the Son of Man be asham'd when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with the Holy Angels 3dly Sloth may be another inducement to look back For He that applies himself to this good Work with that fitness which it requires ought to be a Person of Industry and Diligence he must dedicate some part of his time for fighting the Lord's Battels against the publick Goliahs of the Armies of Hell he ought to appear personally in the Cause that he has undertook and not think it enough that he has been a Contributor towards the Charge of this glorious Fabrick of Reformation For tho I do not question but that every Penny that 's bestowed on this Account is as true Charity as feeding the Hungry or clothing the Naked and has also in it something of an excellency far beyond it as a Compassion on Mens Immortal Souls does exceed the pity that 's exprest to their Bodies yet I cannot chuse but deliver my Judgment in this matter altho it should happen to be contrary to the Sentiments of some here present That the poorest Member of these Societies who by a personal endeavour labours in this Work who sacrifices his Time and Pains at this Altar his Offering is greater and he casts in more to his Corban than they who of their abundance bestow many Pounds yearly Not that I blame no I commend the One but I highly praise and extol the Other and I do it in order to give all possible Encouragement to a personal zealous and avowed Prosecution of this Heroick Undertaking Lastly To conclude this Point I shall add a word to encourage to an exemplary Holiness of Life And this if You who have undertaken to be the Patrons of Vertue and supporters of Piety shall fail in if you shall sink down from your exalted Post to the Temptations of the World and be taken in the snares of Vice and Dishonesty this will be such a Tergiversation as must not only be satal to your selves but also to your Design and will cast the blackest Cloud on the honest and sincere endeavours of those that are join'd with you It will open a Door to all the foul Reproaches that Hell can invent and the Agents thereof inject upon you which will not only fall with the greatest weight on the Heads of the Guilty but will also affect those that are Innocent It therefore becomes every one that is engag'd in this Holy Work to walk circumspectly not as Fools but as Wise considering the Eagle Eyes of all your Adversaries await your steps and nothing can give them such an occasion of impious Joy as your stumbling and faultering at the same Stones which you endeavour to remove and this will indeed be the worst sort of looking back which possibly you can commit Be therefore wise as Serpents and harmless as Doves And as glorious Designs must be managed with the highest Prudence in order to secure 'em from the reproaches of their Enemies so let this be attended with a Wisdom and Circumspection agreeable to it such as your Adversaries cannot gainsay or resist And to obtain this be instant in Prayer that That Great God whose Cause you have undertaken would give a particular Blessing in directing every Member so to walk that you may be blameless and harmless the Sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a perverse and crooked Generation among whom ye shine as Lights in the World and as Patterns of Piety Humility and Meekness and every thing that is praise-worthy III. I come now to the last part of the Text which is to shew the Danger and sad Consequence of such a dreadful Retrospection after we have been engag'd in so good an Employment Which is that such Persons who look back are not fit for the Kingdom of God And having already in my former Discourse given frequent hints of this I shall be very brief on this Topick that I may oppress your Patience no longer In order to which I will not inlarge what is here meant by the Kingdom of God in regard the sense is obvious to every Capacity it signifying the Enjoyment of all that Happiness which Jesus has purchased and is gone into Heaven to prepare for his Church and People And as those who are not fit for the Glories of this Kingdom do not only miss of Happiness but fall into Misery so That shews something more than the loss of Heaven there 's an implication of the Punishment of Hell The loss therefore of Eternal Life and the Condemnation to everlasting Vengeance must strike Terror one very one that considers the worth of his never-dying Soul and what 't is to undergo the Wrath of God for ever and ever But yet this must kindle a greater fire of Torment in the Consciences of Some than of Others for he that never had the Means of Salvation or on whom they never came with Power and Efficacy the Reflections of Such can never be so bitter so sharp and stinging as of Those who have had the clearer discoveries of Divine Light and Love And therefore for such who have been made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good Word of God and the Powers of the World to come if They fall away it 's not only impossible to renew them again by Repentance but also to render their Condemnation half so tolerable as of those who had never those participations Consider therefore You who have put your Hands to the Spiritual Plough in order to cultivate both your selves and others if you after both the Vow of your Baptism inward Conviction and outward Profession and a more than ordinary obliging your selves to the Service of Christ Jesus If You look back of all Persons in the World you are most unfit for the glorious Kingdom The Backslider in Heart says Solomon shall be filled with his own Ways Prov. 14.14 i. e. shall reap the fruits of his own Folly But as I hope you have well consider'd the weight of the Work which you have undertook so I trust your Perseverance in it will become a Pattern to succeeding Times and other Places And that your Zeal your Wisdom and Prudence will be still more and more Illustrious and fit you for the love of all good Men here and for greater than ordinary degrees of Glory hereafter And agreeable hereunto this Observation shall shut up my Discourse That as he that looks back is unfit so he that goes on and prosecutes his Work that has an eye of Resolution looking forward on his Duty such a Person is thro' Jesus Christ fit for the Favour and Kingdom of God And your being Such will add to your Crown another day and will advance you above the common Blessing of Heaven and of eternal Life your Zeal and Constancy will be rewarded with a double Portion of everlasting Glory For the God that you serve is not unrighteous to forget your Works and labours of Love but will be a Master of the greatest bounty in liberally requiting all your diligent and faithful Services And that you may All be set down in the number of those that have endured to the End and have finished your Work with Joy and Faithfulness This the Almighty grant by the Assistance of his Holy Spirit thro' Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen FINIS
and put off the time And a 3d seeming willing to be his Disciple yet would excuse himself from the immediate attendance on his Service Lord I will follow thee but let me first bid them farewel which are at home To whom our Lord replies in the words of the Text No Man having put his hand to the Plough and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of God i.e. No Man having engag'd himself to my Service and after turning back to his secular Concerns with a regard had first to those is fit for the Kingdom of God The words are allegorical pressing a constancy to the Service of Christ from the diligence of him that tills the Ground As if our Lord had said He that holds the Plough must keep to his Business not look behind him or neglect his Work to trifle about other things that come into his head if he does he 's unfit for such an Imployment as requires a constant attendance on it So those that enter into my Service they must put on Resolution and not make vain and trifling Excuses to return back to the Affairs of the World but be constant and sedulous otherwise they are not qualified to be my Disciples and so by consequence are unfit for the Glories of my Kingdom which are only design'd as the blessed Rewards of the sincerely Faithful and constantly Laborious The Text appears to be a severe Reproof levell'd against the coldness and negligent carriage of too many who profess to be Disciples of Jesus Christ who having engag'd themselves by their Character and Vows by their Office and Order by their Profession and Pretensions to be his Followers to espouse the Cause of Religion and Piety and the Interest of Holiness and yet after all these solemn Declarations by a sad Tergiversation return to the World and the things thereof and to a remiss and loose state of Life And like Lot's Wife by Sodom tho they were once by themerciful hand of convincing Grace brought out of that supine and sinful Condition in which by Nature they lay after all those Enlightnings and Lectures of their own Consciences do return again like the Dog to his Vomit to their former Corruptions or at least with longing Desires and incurved Hearts look back to that state which will become a Prey to Fire and Brimstone In speaking therefore on this Subject I shall endeavour to do these following things I. To shew what it is to put our Hands to the Plough II. To shew what it is to look back III. To shew the Danger and sad Consequence of such a dreadful Retrospection after we have been engag'd in so good a Work which is That such Persons are not fit for the Kingdom of God I. For the first What it is to put our Hands to the Plough Since our Lord himself is pleas'd to make use of this so plain and homely a Metaphor I hope it cannot savour of Clownishness or Rusticity to follow his Example and since he applies it to those who make a Profession of being his Disciples and afterwards withdraw themselves from his Service I am sure it 's safe and easy too to follow such an Expositor The Plough we know is an Instrument of Husbandry and they that hold it render the Ground fit for Seed and this apply'd spiritually signifies all those that labour to make the World fit to bring forth fruits of Peace that strive to reform the deplorable state of Mankind and to render Mens Hearts capable to receive the Seed of the Word To put our hands to the Plough therefore is to declare against Sin and the Kingdom of Satan and to act against it in our Station It is to engage in the service of Jesus Christ to endeavour to render the Church fruitful of good Works 't is to commence an holy Warfare against the state of Darkness to suppress Vice and encourage Holiness and to do what in us lies to carry on the Cause and Interest of Religion 'T is with an holy Zeal and an undauntedness of Mind to make opposition against that torrent of Vice which is breaking in upon the face of the Church and not only to reform our selves and bring our own Lives into a conformity to the Divine Pleasure but also strenuously endeavour to reform others to break up that Soil which is crusted over with a Callus of Sin and to render it fit for the ingrafted Word of the Gospel to enter 'T is in a word publickly to espouse the Cause and Honour of Religion and to give a check to the growing Progress of the Synagogue of Satan And since the Church of God in holy Scripture is compar'd to a Field as our Lord himself delivers it in that Parable Mat. 13. of the Wheat and the Tares let us consider how much every particular Person is concern'd in the Tillage and Cultivation of it in order that a bountiful Crop of Righteousness may be brought forth to the Glory of God and the Salvation of those that labour in this holy Imployment 1st Every Man by Nature is a barren Ground in which only the Seeds of Sin spring up and fructify to the dishonour of God and destruction of himself And since by that infinite Love of God in giving Jesus Christ and contracting with us on conditions of Love he has render'd us capable of bringing forth Fruits meet for Repentance and reaping as the effect of such a gracious Harvest eternal Life And since on our entring into this contract of Peace I mean the Covenant of the Gospel we have sworn to our great Master to become his Subjects and Servants to labour in his Vineyard to be diligent in his Work the neglect and breach of which awful Vow will terminate in Destruction Every one therefore that is baptized into Christ and has put on Christ and has received the Seal of the Covenant of Grace confirm'd by our Redeemer between God and Us has put his Hand to the Plough He has vowed himself to be the obedient Servant of Jesus Christ and has declar'd himself an irreconcileable Enemy to all Ungodliness he has promis'd according to the Prophet Jer. 4.3 To break up the fallow Ground of his Heart and not to sow among Thorns and agreeable to Hosea 10.12 To sow to himself in Righteousness and thereby to reap Mercy to break up the fallow Ground since it's time to seek the Lord till he come and rain Righteousness upon him But 2dly Since we are not design'd by our great Creator for our selves alone but made for Society and therefore for the Good and Comfort of others And since in this regard there must be a discrimination of Persons in respect of Superiority and Inferiority it will be fit to consider how far we have put our Hand to this good Work in the behalf of others and who those are that are more particularly concern'd in it And in doing this I shall briefly consider the three great Divisions into which all Men are rank'd
endeavouring the repressing of Sin and propagation of Piety so to look back signifies a withdrawing our Affections and Endeavours from it and a relinquishing this so glorious and commendable an Enterprize And in speaking of this I shall briefly take notice 1st of the Persons and 2dly Of the Temptations inducing to this sinful Retrospection And in the first place as to the Persons I cannot but briefly remark with a melancholy Reflection that not only vast Numbers who are engag'd by the awful Obligations of Baptism have no more sense of their Duty and Interest than if they had been brought up in a Land of Darkness Not only great Multitudes hear the Gospel every day and themselves also read the Holy Scriptures and yet they are to 'em as a Book seal'd they neither feel nor understand their Power and Life But also there are others who have had a sight and sense of their Duty have been under Convictions and taken up Resolutions for Heaven and Eternity and yet all their Purposes like Ephraim's Righteousness have been but as a morning Dew which is presently consum'd with the heat of the next approaching Temptation And this is very sadly to look back after we have set our Hands to the Plough when we have felt the warmings of the Divine Spirit in our Hearts the incubations of the Holy Ghost brooding on our Souls in order to bring forth the Image of God in a state of renewed Holiness when we have made some advances in Piety and have begun in the Spirit yet after all to end in the Flesh this is miserably to look back from our Employment and solemn Engagement But 2dly to carry on my Application You Gentlemen who have promis'd to become the Servants of Jesus Christ not only by the Vow of your Baptism but also by the Rules of those Religious Associations into which you are engag'd to encourage one another to walk as becomes the Gospel and to declare your selves the Opponents to Vice and Ungodliness and to repress Profanation Debauchery and Excess within your sphere and knowledg by endeavouring to give Life and Vigour to those good Laws which our Pious Legislators have establish'd for this End Consider you have put your Hand to the Plough of God for 't is his Cause that you are engag'd in and if upon the account of some little opposition you withdraw your Assistance or stop in your Duty this is the looking back here intimated in the Text. I beg Gentlemen I may not be mistaken as if I was afraid you were weary of that good Work which you have set your Hands unto and were about to relinquish it my Discourse proceeds from another Design namely That by shewing the great Mischief which must attend your forsaking this Cause I might the more effectually recommend it to your Selves and perswade Others to engage in it and encourage your Zeal to all the prudential and vigorous Methods which are needful for its Prosecution But yet since 't is not impossible but some who have set their Hands to this good Work may look back may flag in their Diligence and cool in their Affections I shall briefly take notice of some of the Temptations tending to it and these fall under one or the other of these 3 Heads 1st Fear 2dly Shame 3dly Sloth 1st Fear When a Person that has not first sat down and counted the Cost what it will stand him in to be the Soldier of Jesus Christ and what degree of Valour and holy Resolution it requires to fight in this glorious Cause and to labour in this Work that he must be sincere and impartial not afraid of the Reproaches of the Small or the Frowns of the Great or any diminution of his temporal Interest when such a Person finds that the Cause he has undertook may eclipse his Profit and that there is indeed greater Opposition than he expected then he begins to faint and to chill in his Warmth and to find excuses for his Recession But let such consider that St. John tells us That the Fearful as well as the Vnbelieving shall have their part in the Lake which burns with Fire and Brimstone Rev. 21.8 i. e. Such who faint in the spiritual Warfare and have not courage enough to stand up for the Cause of Jesus Christ in opposition to the Conveniencies and Friendships of the World such are unfit for the Kingdom of God And as Solomon observes That the fear of Man bringeth a Snare Prov. 29.25 a Snare on the Conscience and an intangling hindrance to religious Duties so He that ventures upon the displeasure of God rather than Man or whom sordid apprehensions of worldly loss or the breach of carnal Friendship or the browbeatings of the Powerful can beat off from his Work such a Person does hereby render himself unfit for that blessed Sentence of Well done good and faithful Servant enter thou into the Joy of thy Lord. For he that cannot venture himself on the Cause of Christ Jesus and whose Faith is too feeble to shore him up from sinking under the fear of Men such a Person is a miserable Bondman to the World how fair soever his pretensions may be to Regeneration and Holiness of Life But Beloved I believe and hope better things of you and things that accompany a zeal of Sincerity and a vigorous prosecution of your glorious Undertaking 2dly Shame is another Temptation to induce Men to look back It has been the chiefest Policy of Satan ever since God has in wonderful Mercy unto his Church been pleas'd to stop the violence of his Rage and Persecution to oppose Religion by Scoffs and Mockings at those that will not still remain his Vassals And our Age and Nation has been so unhappily exercised by this stratagem of Hell that one would be tempted to think that the Prophecy of St. Peter look'd at these Days 2 Pet. 3.3 Knowing this that there shall come in the last days Scoffers walking after their own Lusts For how has Holiness of Life been ridicul'd and the Power of Godliness and the Life of the the Spirit and a state of Conversion and Regeneration been made the subject of impious Derision and scornful Reproach insomuch that Some have been even asham'd to own themselves so good as they really were for fear that some name of Ignominy and Contempt would be cast upon them And indeed I do not find any Opposition greater than this to balk you in the way of your vertuous procedure But to counterpoise this remember that you are engag'd to own the Cause of a Crucified Jesus of him that was number'd among the Transgressors and who endured the Cross and despised the Shame and if you have not constancy enough to bear a little Reproach for the sake of our great Master and to be contented to undergo the name of Informers and busy Fellows or such who make a noise to get your selves a Name if you cannot patiently endure the Reproaches of the Agents of Hell