or indowed either a College or a Church an Hospital or an Alms-house But his Heart 't is plain enough was wholly set upon his Barns They had drawn out his Bowels Thither went his Affections Though a little was too much to be bestow'd upon Himself yet All was little enough for Them He was so passionately kind and partial to them One spends all upon his Back another upon his Belly a third upon his Titles and Stiles of Honour a fourth upon his Sports and Recreations And there are as That Parable does plainly shew who spend and lavish out all they have on their Barns or Purses § 11. Thus 't is difficult not to offend in the laying up Riches And 't is as difficult to be innocent in the laying of them out too For we may borrow from our Avarice for the maintaining of our Pride and what we spend on our Ambition is at least as ill laid out as what we bestow on our Barns or Baggs To keep an open Cellar and a very large Table is not the Vertue oppos'd to Avarice For we may lavish out our All in dishonour of God's Name as well as treasure all up in distrust of his Providence Our hearts will be as I said before in what place soever our Treasure is and as good in our Coffers as in our Kitchens A Talent wrapped in a Napkin will be no more imputed to us than one consumed upon our Lusts. We know a man of great Fortune has wherewithal to entertain and to cherish Vice Has abundance of Fewel to feed his Fire Is able to purchase at any rate whatever is acceptable and pleasing to the greedy Appetite of the Flesh. Whereas a man that is poor cannot go to the price of many chargeable Sins His Lamp burns faintly for want of Oyl Fulness of Bread is such a thing as was reckon'd for one of the Sins of Sodom and commonly follows a Great Estate So that That which the rich man esteems his blessing may prove the subject of a very great Curse For thus we read in the Psalmist Let their Table be made a Snare to take them withal And that which should have been for their welfare let it be to them an occasion of falling Psal. 69. 22. Thus we have the two Branches of the first and chief Reason why the Worlds Good things are the goodliest Snares and Temptations and such as our Adversary the Devil does most rely on § 12. Again the Goods of this World are apt to breed and nourish Pride which was another great Sin in the men of Sodom Plenty makes men contemptuous and superciliously looking down on such as are poorer than Themselves Thence is the Latin word Superbia à superhabendo Pride does take its Derivation from having Wealth above others Does not breed that Respect which is due to others But that undue Respect of Persons which is express'd by Partiality and declared against as an heinous Sin James 2. 1 9. It is a Custom whose Tyranny has invaded most parts of the World we live in to have respect unto Him who weareth gay Cloathing and to make him sit down in the upper place whilst 't is said to the poor man stand Thou there or sit here under my Footstool James 2. 3. Not at all laying to heart as St. Iames goes on That God hath chosen the Poor of this World rich in Faith and Heirs of the Kingdom which he hath promis'd to them that love him V. 5 This is one of the main Branches of That most fatal and fruitful Tree whereof the Love of this Worlds Goods must needs be granted to be the Root § 13. Again the Goods of this World are very apt to breed Sloath And this was the Third great Sin of Sodom Not only Pride and Fulness of Bread but Abundance of Idleness was in her A man who lives by his labour has not Time and Opportunity to commit many Sins to which abundance of leisure would have betray'd him He whose Ambition leads him no higher than to the foddering of his Cattle or the Government of his Plough will have the least Cause of Scruple in all probability as well in his Conscience as in his Stomach Whereas a Man of great Plenty is not so apt to have Employment to keep him safe and so much the less by how much the less he has need of working He is not only able to buy the various Nourishments of Vice but is at leisure to be hurt and debauched by them He is not fortified with Labour is not fenc'd and barricado'd with store of Business the Avenues of his Soul lye always open so as the Tempter needs not besiege him But may take him by a Surprise Whilst David liv'd at Bethleem with his poor Father Goodman Iesse where his Thoughts were taken up with his Attendance upon the Cattle his following the Ewes great with young in the Spring his washing and sheering them in the Summer his giving them Fodder in the Winter and his keeping them from the Wolf at every season of the year whilst he was thus keeping Sheep He was able to keep Himself too as Chast and Harmless But when he was placed as a King upon a very high Mountain of worldly Greatness although he was placed there by God he was so tempted there by Satan and that like Christ the Son of David with the Kingdoms of the Earth and the Glory of them as to have fallen into diverse most deadly Sins When he lived at his Ease and tarri'd still at Ierusalem stretch't himself upon his Bed and that at Noon too and had nothing else to do when he rose from it in the Evening but to walk up and down upon the Roof of his Palace where his Employment was nothing greater than the feasting of his Eyes with all the Varieties of the City none is so ignorant of his History as not to know what did ensue Had he been with his Army as by right he should have been for the Text tells us 't was at the Time when Kings go forth to Battle He had been probably too busie to have been tempted as he was whilst he lay at Ease In the Time of his Hardship and Afflictions we know he had somewhat else to do than to admit of what he did at a Time of Idleness and Plenty when he wallowed in the Mire of the Good Things of This World Thus the Earth which lyes Idle is presently over-run with Weeds whilst the Heavens which ever move still keep their Purity Just as Waters standing still are very easily corrupted whilst Those that run and run swiftly keep themselves pure and unpolluted § 14. Again the Goods of this World the more they labour to fill the Appetite the more they dilate it and make it empty They are apt to make a thirsty hydropick Soul As the Poor man does labour to grow less poor so the Rich does lay up to grow more rich And though 't is hard to make
being made perfect through suffrings he thereupon became the Author of Eternal Salvation not to them that believe him only but to them that obey him also v. 9. not to any Believing Rebels not to Treacherous Believers of which the world is too full but to them who have Faithfulness as well as Faith who so believe as to serve him and do his Will He is not the Author of Salvation to them that know it but do it not or to them who do promise but not perform it For almost All do know his Will and all do promise to perform it not only in their Baptism but over and above on their Bed of Sickness No to Them and Them only is he the Author of Salvation who live according to what they know and justifie their Promise by their Performance Our Saviour intimates by a parable Matth. 21. 28 29 30 31. that the obedient Churl is much better than the mealymouth'd Rebel It is a vain thing to say we are Sons of God and Servants of Christ unless we practically Shew as well as Say it A Son honoureth his Father and a Servant his Master said God heretofore by the Prophet Malachi If I then be a Father where is mine honour if I be a Master where is my Fear Now what was thus said to others by God the Father under the Law is as effectually said to us by God the Son under the Gospel Why call ye me Lord Lord and do not the things that I say To say Sir your Servant is either a Complement or a Ieer when we say it with our Lips but without our Actions And this doth seem to be intended by the words of my Text if we compare it with the Inference deduced from it Ye call me Lord and Master and ye say well But to say very well is not sufficient For the Devils said well in saying that Christ was the Son of God And the Worldling said well in that he said unto our Saviour of the Commandments of the Law All these things have I kept from my Youth But not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven for the Life of Christianity consists in Practice And therefore the Inferences are These which are drawn from the Text by Him that spake it If I then your Lord and Master have washed your feet ye also ought to wash oneanother's feet v. 14. If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them v. 16. And by the same Logick he argues in the very next Chapter which is another part of his Farewell-Sermon If any man love me he will keep my words v. 23. and He that loveth me not keepeth not my words v. 24. which is as if he should have said He that loves me will obey me and do the Things that I appoint him which if any man does not let him say what he will he does not Love me For no good Tree can bear ill Fruit that 's an Aphorism of Christ Matth. 7. 18. there is not any thing more impossible than that sincere Love and a solid Faith should ever bring forth Rebellion and Disobedience Or so much as consist with that which does No no more than a Vine can bring forth Thorns or no more than a Fig Tree can bring forth Thistles From whence the Sequel is Unavoidable That if we do not justly Obey our Master we neither heartily Love him nor do we cordially believe him For let our Faith and our Love be what they can be they are no more than a Couple of Trees which must be known by their Fruit. That 's the great Diagnostick commended to us by our Saviour whereby to judge of ourselves and others Matth. 7. 20. If the Fruit is Disobedience to the Commandments of our Lord then the Love that is pretended is but a Thorn and the Faith so much talk't of an arrant Thistle Let the Lover or the Believer be commonly call'd what he will either a Vine or a Fig Tree A Godly man or a Saint And let the Leaves or the Branches be never so specious to the Eye I mean Professions and Shews and Forms of Godliness Yet our Master's Affirmation is still as true as it is Terrible Every Tree without exception which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the Fire Matth. 7. 19. Lord what a change of men's manners would this one word produce were it but throughly Understood or but sufficiently consider'd had it the happiness to be taken as well into the Hearts as the Ears of men behold the only sure way whereby to judge without Sin of our selves or others If we are fraudulent persons or Drunckards if we are Schismaticks or Rebels if we are Slanderers or Railers or fals Accusers or any otherways abounding in the fruits of the Flesh Gal. 5. 19. 't is plain that God when he cuts us down will also cast us into the Fire I say he will and must do it because of his Iustice and Veracity unless Repentance step in timely 'twixt Us and Death And still by Repentance I mean Amendment Not an empty confession that we have sin'd nor yet a cheap wishing we had not sin'd no nor expressions of Attrition for having sin'd but a bringing forth fruits meet for Repentance A Renovation of the outward and inward man such a thorow Reformation as does make a New Creature A Change of mind and of manners even the fruits of the spirit Gal. 5. 22. In a word If we are not our own but are bought with a Price and bought out right by our Lord and Master and that as to the whole of us both Soul and Body Then as St. Paul does well infer let us glorify him that bought us both in our Bodies and in our Souls because they are not truly ours but his that bought them 1 Cor. 6. 20. § 14. But there is yet another Lesson to be derived from this Doctrin and such as our Master in the Text has taught us how to draw from it by his Example For it being to be praemised that the Disciple is not above his Master nor the Servant above his Lord we must not only do as our Master did But when God shall call us to it it is our Duty also to suffer as he hath suffer'd First we must do as our Master did For 't is his own way of arguing in the next verse after my Text If I your Lord and Master have washed your feet ye ought also to wash oneanother's feet for I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done Here he argues from his being our Lord and Master the obligation lying upon us to give an active obedience to his example and by way of consecution to his Command And this being so what manner of men ought we to be in the course of our Lives and conversations we ought to Love oneanother as
Ioy at the Return of Good Friday upon which they were to celebrate their Master's Suffrings on the Cross as that the sense of Their suffrings seem'd to be wholly swallow'd up by the far greater sense which they had of His. Though they were scatter'd and dispers't as far asunder as the Ingenie of Malice could well contrive some imprison'd upon the Land some under Hatches upon the Sea some in Caves of the Wilderness and some condemn'd upon the Scaffold Yet as the Angles of a Pyramid however distant at the Basis do still come nearer as they Ascend and at last Concenter in the Conus so how distant soever the one from the other those Christians were in respect of their Bodies here below They met together in their Affections at the same Throne of Grace And though Our Church like Theirs in the late ill Times was truly Militant when with the Burden she labour'd under she sadly hung down her Head yet Sursum Corda she lifted up her Heart to the Lord of Glory And by an union of Affections kept all her Holy Days and Feasts with the Church Triumphant It would be certainly a voluminous if not an Endless Undertaking thô otherwise easy enough to prove by way of Induction or by a Catalogue of the Particulars how many Myriads have been enabled to run with Patience the Race that was set before them by meerly looking unto Iesus the Author and Finisher of their Faith so far forth as for the Ioy that was set before him he endured the Cross and despised the shame and so sate him down at the right hand of God Nor indeed can it be otherwise with such as Love and believe in the Lord Jesus in sincerity And give an Evidence of Both by their new obedience For so long as we are such the Spirit it self saith St. Paul beareth witness with our Spirits that we are children of God And if Children then Heirs Heirs of God and joynt Heirs with Christ if so be we suffer with him that we may also be glorified together with him And suffer with him we shall with the greater ease if not Ambition because we shall reckon with St. Paul That the Suffrings of this present Time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be revealed in us and because the whole Trinity is clearly ingaged in our behalf For so St. Paul tells us in the following Parts of the same Chapter God the Father gave us his Son and all good things together with him God the Son gave us Himself not only that he might dye but also rise from the Dead and be an Advocate for us incessantly at the right hand of God Thirdly God the Holy Ghost ingageth for us as much as either both by helping our Infirmities through which we know not what we should pray for as we ought And by making Intercession for us with Groans not to be utter'd And whilst so great a Care is taken both of us and our Interest by God Himself It cannot but follow that all the Crosses which shall be laid upon us by others will work together for our Comfort in this life present as well as for our Glory in that to come § 19. Lastly the Burden of Christ is light when freely taken upon our selves as in particular when he Commands us somewhat like what the Ammonites commanded the men of Iabesh Gilead to pluck out an Eye a right Eye too and to cast it from us For First it is not an Absolute but a Conditional Command We are to pluck out an Eye upon a supposal that it offends us that is to say If it is scandalous and makes us stumble into Sin and into such wasting Sin as makes us fall headlong into Hell for so our Saviour does infer in his very next words In such a formidable Case and for the preventing of such a Mischief It is not only not grievous but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith our Saviour It is profitable for thee that one of thy Members perish and not that thy whole Body be cast into Hell So that Secondly 't is not a Positive but a Comparative Command And 't is the Dictate of Common Sense That of two evils of Punishment we are in Prudence to choose the least As rather to lose one Eye than Both and rather Both than the whole Body and rather the Body than the Soul To suffer any thing rather than Death and Death it self rather than Hell A man having a Gangraene in any Limb of his Body will not only permit but hire the Artist to cut it off And by consequence will confess it very much better and more desirable to Pluck out his Eye and to cast it from him than by keeping it in his Head to be Cast into Hell Better suffer under Them who can destroy the Body only than under Him who can destroy both Body and Soul Yea Thirdly 't is the Dictate of Sanctified Reason That of any two evils whereof the one is of Sin the other of Affliction we must choose to Suffer the greatest rather than wilfully Do the least Our first Care must be to make a Covenant with our Eyes not to look upon a Maid Next in order to That Design we should not look round about us in the Streets of the City for fear our Eyes become our Enemies Or if our Eyes chance to wander beyond the Bounds of That Counsel our third degree of Care must be not to gaze upon a Woman lest we fall by those things that are pretious in her v. 5. 8. Or if This cannot be done 't is better to out them whilst they are innocent as Virginius did his Daughter than continue them as Inlets to Sin and Hell Nor should we be griev'd at our Advantage though it be bought with great Pain whilst it is for the Prevention of a very much greater Last of all this Commandment which is so grievous to us in Sound is very far from being such in its intrinsick signification For in our Saviour's gratious sense 'T is but the Vanity of the Eye which we are bound to pluck out 'T is but the Violence of the Hand which we are bound to cut off And the obliquity of the Foot which we are bid to cast from us as is shewn more at large in an other Place Several vices of the Soul being fitly enough expressed by so many Members of the Body And That severest of our Lord's Precepts If thy Right Eye offend thee pluck it out if thy Right hand offend thee cut it off if thy Right Foot offend thee cast it from thee may very well admit of this Serene Signification That we must pluck out a Lust thô as dear to us as a right Eye And we must cut off an Avarice thô as dear to us as a right Hand And we must cast away an Ambition of greater things than are good for us thô perhaps as dear to us as
both our Feet § 20. Thus we see this very Precept which seems a very rough Part of our Saviour's Yoke and a very heavy part of his Burden too does upon serious Consideration appear as Easy and as Light as any Servant can expect from so kind a Lord. For this Maxim being praemis'd as most unquestionable and cogent That without the pursuing of Peace and Holiness no man living shall see the Lord And that no unclean Thing can ever enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but does inevitably belong to the Commonwealth of Hell how could our Master have obliged us with better expressions of his love than by Commanding us to flee from the wrath to come and to forbear the least evil which may possibly lead unto the greatest rather to crucifie the Flesh than permit it to defile and destroy the Spirit even to pluck out our right Eye rather than suffer it to pollute us to lose any thing rather than Heaven to indure any thing rather than Hell And rather to smart for some Time than to all Eternity § 21. Say then again thou Habitual Sinner or who ever else thou art who hast a Share in the Objection Since 't is thy Duty and thy Interest to bear the Yoke of Christ's Precepts and the Burden of his Cross with Faith and Patience by whomsoever 't is laid upon thee whether spitefully by others or piously by thy self what pretense canst thou invent for thy unkindness to those Commandments which are not only not grievous but very agreeable to thy Nature if at least thou retainest and hast not rooted out that Nature which the God of Good nature implanted in thee or what Apologie canst thou make for thy starting aside from the Cross of Christ which alone can exalt thee to wear a Crown nor that a meer Earthly and Perishing Crown but one which fadeth not away eternal in the Heavens So that admitting the Cross of Christ were heavy or grievous in it self yet in respect of thy Reward it should cease to be so Shall any Thing be call'd grievous which does evidently tend to thy greatest Good All the Apologie Thou canst make and all the Reason thou canst give is that thou art not yet arrived at a True Christian Faith nor by consequence at a Love of the Lord Jesus in Sincerity For do but imagin honest Friend thou wert just falling from a Praecipice or from the Pinacle of a Temple And a Neighbour standing by should thrust his hand to thy Rescue and catching hold of thine Arm should snatch thee back with such a vehement and sudden Twinge as either to dislocate or break a Bone would'st thou be angry with thy Neighbour for so much rudeness And in stead of being thankful for springing in to thy Deliverance would'st thou accuse him of being hasty and quarrel the roughness of his motion asking why he did not use thee with greater softness and would not deliberate before he acted would'st thou not rather kneel down before him and make an offer of obedience as well as thanks and look upon him thenceforwards as dearer to thee than thy life And in case thou art a rich man as He a poor one would'st thou not give him an yearly Pension for such an obliging act of Friendship as that ransoming of Thy life with the utmost hazard of his own Apply this now to the Case in hand Imagin as strongly as thou art able that thou art even now falling into the Bottomless Pit of Hell a Lake eternally burning with Fire and Brimstone And suppose in this Case that God the Son shall spring forth from the Bosom of God the Father ascend the Cross with set purpose to fetch thee down and descend into the Grave for no other end than to raise thee up And go purposely into Hell to fetch thee back from thence to Heaven Wilt thou repine at That Deliverance in case the violence of the Twitch shall happen to cost thee a little pain or be displeas'd with thy Deliverer in case he should not set thee Free at a cheaper rate than that of taking off the Weights that kept thee down that is by mortifying the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts by Commanding thee to be clean and pure and holy And that for this obliging reason because thy happiness does depend on thy being Such Wilt thou grumble at thy Physician for being severely Faithful to thee in using the means of thy Recovery Or wilt thou not rather bethink thy self with the Royal Psal mist Quid Retribuam What shall I render unto the Lord for all his Benefits and Blessings bestow'd upon me If this Redeemer of thine is poor as in his Members indeed he is wilt thou not give him an yearly Pension devote a Part of thy Revenue to Pious uses as a small Token that thou resentest his Goodness to thee or admit that He is Great as in Himself he is immensly and unspeakably such wilt thou not Sacrifice unto him the constant Tribute of thy obedience though he should rigidly command thee to fight with Anakims and Lyons to fetch him Water from Bethleem or Grapes from Canaan Suppose he orders thee as he does to pluck out an Eye of Lust or Vanity To cut off an Hand of Fraud or Violence To cast away a Foot which is swift to shed blood rather than keep them to thy undoing wilt thou not execute those orders for the Love of thy Saviour and of thy self too rather than thine Eye shall find the right Rode to Hell Thine Hand work out thine own damnation Thy Foot carry thee in the Broad way which leadeth to Destruction Imagin strongly that thy Saviour does long as much for thy obedience as King David did to drink of the Well of Bethlem Christ as Perfectly out of kindness as David out of Curiosity Wilt thou not do as much for Christ as David's Soldiers did for Him what They did to please David was at the Peril of their Lives But what thou dost to please Christ is for the Safety of thine own And 't is so natural for a man to pursue his own Interest that there is no better way to make a Rebel become Obedient than by convincing him of This That 't is his interest to be so as well as Duty Although a man be such a passionate Idolizer of his Wealth that he will part with his Blood a great deal sooner than with his Mony yet a desperate fit of Sickness will make him send for the Physician And He conceiving it for his Interest will give him very large Fees too The tenderest Person and the most delicate who values his Body above his Soul if he esteems it for his Interest to have a Member saw'd off being infested with a Gangraene will as I said a little before even hire the Chirurgion to use his Tool And after the very same manner as well as on the same ground He who is now the greatest Enemy both to the Counsels and Commandments
and Cross of Christ If he be but once brought to an inviolable Belief without all Scruples or Peradventures That every man shall live eternally either in Heaven or in Hell And that 't is clearly for his Interest to do or suffer as Christ commands him because in order to his Escape from all the miseries of the one and in order to his Attainment of all the Beatitudes in the other He will presently break off his Sins by Righteousness as Daniel charged Nebuchadnezzar He will be ready for Restitution to every one whom he hath injur'd as Zachee the Publican when He repented He will bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance as the Jews were admonished by Iohn the Baptist. He will be glad to be thought worthy to suffer shame for Christ's sake as the Apostles at Ierusalem Acts 5. 41. The Consideration of his Interest will give an high Relish to all his suffrings making his Torments and his Tormentors to become his great Instruments and means of pleasure § 22. Thus we see in all cases both Temporal and Spiritual every man is for himself and intends his own Interest in whatsoever it is which he undertakes either the Interest of his Profit or of his Pleasure and Reputation The Interest of his Flesh or of his Spirit his present Interest or his future still 't is one Interest or other which leads him on unto the best or the worst Performances in the World Is any man Covetous and extremely close sisted He thinks it is for his Interest as being the way to be Rich in mony which is the only Grand Project that he is driving Or is he Free and open-handed He thinks it for his Interest because it is the ready way to make him Rich in good Works which is the highest and noblest end at which he ayms in this World Is there any man running headlong into a Customary Contempt of his Saviour's Yoke He thinks it is for his Interest as being the way to live merrily and in Prosperity here on Earth which is the Soveraign Allective of his Desires Or does any man take pleasure in supporting both the Burden and Yoke of Christ He thinks it is for his Interest as being the way to dye safely and to live after Death a life of Bliss and Immortality which is the utmost Atchievement his heart is set on Lastly would ye know the Reason why I have meditated so much upon this kind of Subject why I have struck so many Blows upon this great Anvil made so many long Discourses though on occasion of divers Texts touching the Equity and the Law of our Saviour's Gospel and indispensable Necessity of our obedience unto the end The Reason of it is truly This Because I have thought it most mine own and other men's Interest so to do And till we are able to be so happy as to convince our selves and others that 't is most for our Interest to bear the Yoke of Christ's Law and the Burden of his Cross when 't is laid upon us 'T is very sure that neither of us shall bear the one or the other as is requir'd Whereas 't is as sure on the other side That as we never neglect our Interest in what is Secular or Carnal as touching our Credits or our Estates or our Temporal Preservation so as little shall we indure to start aside from the Burden or Yoke of Christ if indeed we do believe it our greatest Interest to bear them as He requires For can the very same man who is sollicitously careful to get a Trifle be as perfectly careless to gain a Talent or stand in very great Dread of a lesser Punishment But of an infinitely greater in none at all If we are strict in our conforming to the Commandments of men with whom the Penalties are but Temporal and the Recompenses but finite we cannot sure be Non-Conformists to the Commandments of Christ on a Supposal that we believe it as great a Truth as any is That his Punishments and Rewards are both Immortal and Immense Nor can I think of a more rational or a more satisfactory Accompt why the Commandments of men should be so commonly heeded by us with more circumspection than those of Christ but that we fear Them more and believe Him less or value the Interest of our Bodies above the Interest of our Souls or prefer the seeming certainty of what is Present before the Hope and Expectance of what is future And had rather become the owners of Earthly Contentments in Possession than to be dealing for Reversions in Heaven it self § 23. And therefore to the end we may be able even to feel and by consequence to arrive at the Conviction of Experience That the Yoke of Christ's Law is really Easy in it self and the Burden of his Cross is in comparison very light And that they have Both a secret vertue of giving Rest unto the Souls of Them that labour and of Refreshing the heavy laden for so our Saviour tells us expresly in the two next Verses before the Text let us be Conversant incessantly in all the means of attaining to a True Christian Faith That so by cordially believing we may passionately love the Lord Jesus Christ. And that loving him as we ought we may by consequence delight in doing that which he requires and by consequence may attain to that Reward which he hath Promis'd For as our Faith and our Love do what we can will beget obedience if the first is unfeigned and the second without Dissimulation So 't is sure that our obedience will end in bliss Not in bliss whilst we are Passengers but when we shall arrive at our Iourneys end For here we are Dead saith our Apostle and our life is yet hid with Christ in God But when the Lord Iesus Christ who is our life shall appear Then shall We also appear with Him in Glory Which God the Father of his mercy prepare us for through the working of his Spirit and for the worthiness of his Son To whom be Glory for ever and ever THE INDISPENSABLE NECESSITY OF Strict Obedience Under the GOSPEL THE INDISPENSABLE NECESSITY OF Strict Obedience Under The GOSPEL HEB. XII 28 29. Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved let us have Grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with Reverence and godly Fear For our God is a Consuming Fire THere is something Difficult in the Text which will I think be best explain'd by way of Answer to an Objection For why is it said here Let us have Grace It may seem at first hearing a strange expression whether we have it or have it not For if we have it it seems superfluous and if we have it not it seems as vain We need not say Let us have what 't is plain we have already before we say it And we say to no purpose Let us have this or that which whilst we have not it is not in our power to have For Is
Rom. 3. 27. And as the whole Moral Law was published by Christ as well as Moses which any man may see who will not wink in the fifth sixth and seventh Chapters of St. Matthew so Christ as well as Moses thought fit to give it upon a Mountain Nor is it unworthy our observation That throughout the New Testament though there is many times a Precept without a Promise annexed to it yet there is not one Promise which is not clogg'd with some Precept As if our Saviour had esteemed it an easier thing to make us believing and orthodox Christians than obedient and sincere ones According to which he elsewhere tells us that they only shall enter into the Kingdom of his Father not that call upon his Name but that do his Will Nay as there he goes on in the following Verses Though a man may have Faith to the working of Miracles yet if it be built upon the Sand as most certainly it is when 't is not seconded with obedience he foretells what he will say unto men of that sort at the Day of Judgment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I never knew you Not that Christ can be ignorant of their persons or their works to whom he will say I never knew you For even that very saying imports he knew them well enough that is he knew them to be such as did deserve that such words should be spoken to them And therefore the meaning must needs be this I never knew you to be members of my Body or to be sheep of my Fold that is I know you to be Persons I cannot own For as to know in the holy Dialect does often signifie to approve so not to know does very often import no more than to disown I must confess we might think it exceeding strange but that our Oracle does assure us 't is very true That as Believers we may be able to cast out Devils and yet as Disobedient may be our selves possess 't with them We may preach to save others and yet be Castaways our selves For be we never so zealous Preachers or Professors of the Gospel and at the very same time Indulgent Transgressors of the Law our very Advocate will say when he shall come to be our Iudge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Depart from me ye workers of Iniquity And therefore our blessed Saviour being about to leave the world and to teach his Disciples before he left them how to serve him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in such a manner as he would like did not speak in this stile If ye love me cast all your Care upon my Promises or If you love me stoutly rely upon my merits althô there is a place for each of these too But as preparatory to Both If ye love me keep my Commandments John 14. 15. which was as if he should have said shew me your Faith by your works and your Love by your obedience Plainly implying to Them and Us that our Sonship does not give us any Exemption from our Service our Service being the only thing by which we are able to prove our Sonship As Christ hath a Priestly and a Prophetical so hath he also a Kingly Office Nor may we kick at the Scepter and Throne of Christ and think it sufficient to declare we are his Majesty's most humble and loyal Subjects Some Earthly Potentates have been thus mock'd but the King of Kings will never be so We cannot honour our Lord by disobeying him or shew our selves kind by being undutiful For we see that our obedience is both the Argument and the Badge of a True Affection Our Saviour saith Matth. 10. 38. He that follows me not is unworthy of me Where to follow him is to be like him To conform our selves to him more than a Parasite to his Patron not to walk in his Path only but to tread in his very Footsteps According to that of the Pythagoreans which deserves for its worth to be Christianiz'd however writ by that Hierocles who writ a Book against Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou shalt honour God the better the more thou studiest to be like him For him we love most whom we most imitate and he honours God best who doth best resemble him And what kind of Resemblance he most requires St. Iohn hath told us twice together in his first Epistle and third Chapter to wit our being pure as he is pure v. 3. and our being Righteous as he is Righteous v. 7. And our Saviour to the same purpose having mustred up his Precepts with the several Promises annext makes a kind of a Corollarie or rather Abridgment of the whole not at all with a command that we be happy as God is happy but with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be ye perfect as he is perfect Thus as briefly and yet as fully as I could possibly contrive I have shew'd the chiefest end of our blessed Saviour's coming hither and his principal Business when he was here It was not only as a Saviour to propose Promises to our Faith nor only as a Teacher to fiill our heads with new knowledge but as a Soveraign and a Prince as St. Peter calls him to exact obedience to his Commands And to place it without dispute He made it part of his business when he was here to let us know why he came hither For as he tells us in one place enough to keep us from despair that he came not to destroy mens lives but to save them so he tells us in another enough to keep us from presumption that he came not to destroy the Law but to save and preserve That also and that in each sense of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not by fulfilling it only but by filling it up too For thô nothing could be completer than the Law Moral in it self yet did he fill up those vacuities which Moses left in his Delivery From all which it follows do what we can that Unless our Righteousness shall exceed the Righteousness of the Iews we shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven For can there be any thing more agreeable to the judgment of common Sense I had almost said of Carnality it self than that where God hath afforded a greater Stock he should expect a greater Increase that where he hath strengthened the Shoulders he should in proportion increase the Burden And that as he hath shrunk up the Mosaical Law so he should also extend the Moral Of Moses we know that he had a Vail upon his Promises as well as upon his Face and was as obscure upon Mount Nebo as before he had been upon Mount Sinai Whereas our Antitype of Moses hath been graciously pleas'd to uncover Both. The Iews beheld Christ as in a Glass but we in comparison face to face They walk't by Twilight but we by the Sun in his Meridian They were us'd like little Children but we like Men. They had a Sensible
make us sure to miss of Heaven by making us dream it is unavoidable For as God in his Iudgment is no Respecter of Persons so neither was he in his Decrees As his Rule is in Time to judge us according to our works so he decreed from all Aeternity to proceed in Time by that Rule He did determin the end of men with a special respect to their Qualifications from whence his Decree is call'd respective But he did absolutely determin that men who are thus or thus qualified should come to this or that end And I could wish that this Distinction since 't is sufficient of it self might find so much favour in all mens Eyes as to appease and reconcile dissenting Brethren That as the Decrees of the Almighty are said to be Absolute in one sense so they may candidly be granted to be Respective in Another This methinks should be the Judgment of all Mankind being so visible in it self and of so necessary Importance to the well-ordering of our Lives That God did absolutely decree a most indissoluble Connexion betwixt Repentance and Salvation as betwixt Impenitence and Condemnation Which proves the end to have been decreed with a special respect unto the means Let this one thing be granted as well for the Comfort of the good as for a Terror to evil Doers And I for my part shall ask no more For the Decree which is respective in sensu diviso may so be proved to be Absolute in sensu composito as to afford a Demonstration That God's Decree of the several Ends was in respect to the several Means For if in sensu composito He did absolutely decree that all who are faithful and repent should belong to Heaven and that all who are faithless and impenitent should in like manner belong to Hell Then his Decree was respective in sensu diviso of that Repentance or Impenitence by which Professors do belong to Heaven or Hell From whence it follows unavoidably that if we are faithless and impenitent be it in a greater or lesser measure we ought to be affected with fear and trembling in the literal sense of this expression and never to give our selves Rest until we be faithful and do repent But faithful and penitent we cannot be till by the power of God's Grace after our Prayers and Tears shall have given him no Rest he shall be pleas'd to work in us and with us too not only to will but to do his work That by the power of his Grace we may all endeavour and by the power of his Grace on our Endeavours we our selves may have a Power too whereby to work out our own Salvation And work for it we must with a sacred horror because of the Dreadfulness of our Doom if we work remissly For as on one side God himself cannot condemn us although our sins past have been very great if we immediately repent and amend our lives because he is faithful who hath promised and he hath promised forgiveness to all that repent and turn unto him so withal on the other side Let our Righteousness past have been what it will yet if we return from Righteousness to Sin God himself cannot save us without our Repentance and Reformation because he hath sworn that the Impenitent shall not enter into his Rest. Not that God can be overpower'd by any Quality in the Creature whether Repentance in the first Case or Impenitence in the second But because his Power in the first is suspended by his Mercy as it stands in conjunction with his Truth For in his Mercy he made a Promise to give us pardon if we repent and in his Truth he must perform it Just so his Power in the second is suspended by his Iustice as it stands in conjunction with his Truth too For in his Iustice he made an Oath to be revenged on the Impenitent and in his Truth he must make it good Now since each of these Cases concerns us All be we never so good or be we never so evil I need not shew by another Medium how the love of God's Mercy doth consist with a fear of his Indignation and how whilst we love him as a Father we ought to fear him as a Judge But to conclude with such a Caveat as may best of all become an Ingenuous People Take we heed that our Fear do not swallow up our Love for fear it swallow up us too in the Bottomless Pit of Desperation We must serve God with Fear but so as to fear him also for Love Ever saying with the Psalmist There is mercy with thee ô Lord therefore shalt thou be feared The Psalmist did not thus argue There is Mercy with Thee ô Lord Therefore shalt thou be rely'd upon Therefore we shall make the bolder with thee we shall break thy Commandments without the fear of being damn'd because we know thou art slow to anger and being angry art quickly pleas'd But because of thy mercy thou shalt be feared And there is good reason for it For by how much the kinder a Father is a well-natur'd Son will fear to offend him so much the more And the more our Father which is in Heaven does even delight to please us by heaping his Mercies and Favours on us by so much the more shall we be afraid if we are well-natur'd Children to exasperate our Father which is in Heaven What then remains but that we ponder these things and lay them up in our hearts and draw them forth into our Actions and daily repeat them in our Lives And reap the comfort of so doing in the hour of Death and the Day of Iudgment Which God of his Mercy prepare us for even for the glory of his Name and for the worthiness of his Son To whom with the Father in the Unity of the Spirit be ascribed by us and by all the World Blessing and Glory and Honour and Power and Wisdom and Thanksgiving from this time forward for evermore THE GRAND INQUIRY To be made In these Inquisitive Times Taken from the Mouth of The Frighted Iailour OF PHILIPPI THE GRAND INQUIRY To be made in These Inquisitive Times ACTS XVI 30. What must I do that I may be saved THus the Iailour at Philippi sought to his Pris'ners for a Deliverance Not his ordinary Pris'ners who at once were in Bondage to Him and Satan And were bound up in Misery as well as Iron who had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spirits so gross and so incrassat and so manacl'd to the Flesh that together with their Bodies their Souls were put into the Stocks as knowing no better Liberty than what consisted in the Freedom of Hands and Feet But the Pris'ners in the Text were Pris'ners only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men whose Liberty did consist in the ubiquity of their Thoughts and in being made free of the New Ierusalem Men who by living the Life of Faith maintain'd an Intercourse with God and his glorious Angels And though their Carkasses
to our Charity touching the Safety or the Danger the unworthiness or the worth of our selves or others For when All that are in the Graves shall hear the voice of the Son of Man and shall come forth our Saviour adds both their Qualities and the Ends of their coming forth They that have done good shall infallibly come forth unto the Resurrection of Life And They that have done evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation John 5. 29. Now certainly He who is the Saviour can best of all tell us what belongs to Salvation and to whom it does belong who they are that must be saved and what we must do that we may be sav'd It is not meerly the priviledge of being received into the Church and of being admitted to all her Publick Dispensations but especially the Abstaining from so much evil as would denominate Evil-Doers and the Doing so much Good as does denominate a Good and a Faithful Servant by which a man hath just Ground to think himself in God's Favour and that he is doing what he must do that he may be sav'd And if this is the Exegesis of what is said by Paul and Silas and that by way of Answer to the Inquiry of the Iailour Believe in the Lord Iesus Christ and thou shalt be sav'd so as it cannot be understood concerning Faith without Works but of such a Faith only as worketh by Love and so fulfilleth the Law of Christ The proof and evidence of which we have in part seen already and shall see more at large upon the next opportunity Then let us not so mistake the words in the next Verse after my Text or take them so by the wrong handle as to imply that Paul and Silas were but a Couple of Antinomians Or that nothing is to be done as of necessity to Salvation but barely to believe in the Lord Iesus Christ which being abstracted from obedience is nothing better than Presumption But rather let us work out our own Salvation and let us do it with fear and trembling Let us give all diligence by adding to Faith Vertue and one Vertue unto another to make our Calling and Election sure Let us not look upon our selves as having already apprehended or as being already made perfect but forgetting those things that are behind let us reach forth to those things that are before ever pressing towards the Mark for the Prize of the high Calling of God in Christ Iesus And leading a life of Self-denials by frequent watchings and fastings and other warrantable Austerities which are found in holy Scripture to be fit Instances of Attrition let us beat down our Bodies and bring our Flesh into Subjection if by any means we may attain to the Resurrection of the Dead if by any means we may apprehend That for which we are also apprehended of Christ Iesus That so when Time it self shall be lost into Eternity and all days shall be ended in that one great Sabbath which never Ends we may also lose our hopes and our endeavours of being sav'd into the ravishing experience and presence of it There with Angels and Arch-Angels and with all the Company of Heaven singing Hosannahs and Halleluiahs to Him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever more A SHORT and EASY RESOLUTION Of the fore-mentioned ENQUIRY Borrowed from the Mouths of the Two Free-Pris'ners Paul and Silas A RESOLUTION OF THE INQUIRY FROM A Practical Belief c. ACTS XVI 31. Believe in the Lord Iesus Christ and thou shalt be saved § 1. THere are such shallownesses and depths too in this little short passage of the Waters of Life as I am prompted out of Scripture to call the Gospel that I may say of this Rivulet what St. Austin once spake of the whole Ocean of holy Writ The tenderest Lamb may here wade and the tallest Elephant may swim It is a small Current of words But such as opens and will ingage us in a full Sea of matter A Sea as hospitable and easy as That which is now call'd The Euxine But yet as hazardous and as difficult if not as proverbial as The Aegaean and so as famous for danger as 't is for safety A Sea we all are to sail in if bound for Heaven And yet for want of good steerage How many Adventurers unaware have been imbark'd in it for Hell and been even split upon the Rock of their own Salvation The Antinomians Fiduciaries and Solifidians betwixt whom there is a nice but a real Difference do not more differ in the ground and the occasion of their Error than they agree in the danger and issue of it For making use of the literal against the rational Importance of many Scriptures and blending many great Truths with the greatest Falshoods so as the latter do pass for currant by their vicinity with the former they commonly reason within themselves in this following manner § 2. Sure we need not live so rigidly by Rules and Praecepts as some Arminian and Legal Divines would have us For we are not under the Law but under Grace And we are justified by Faith without the Deeds of the Law Nor are we justified from some things whilst we are answerable for others but as St. Paul taught at Antioch where he is written to have preached Forgiveness of Sins All that believe are justified from all Things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses Then why should we busie our selves with Martha about many Things of little moment when 't is so easy for us with Mary to choose the One that is needful for can any Thing be easier than to believe without doubting that Iesus is the Christ yet whosoever so believeth is born of God And whosoever is born of God overcometh the world Nor indeed is it a wonder considering the Vertue of such Belief For our Saviour tells us expresly That all Things are possible to Him that believeth From whence it follows that to believe is The unum Necessarium which a Christian is to provide in his way to Heaven And accordingly said our Saviour unto the Ruler of the Synagogue not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 believe but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Only believe Nor can this be thought the Priviledge of but here and there one for 't is indefinitely extended to all in general He that believeth in me hath eternal life Where the word He being indefinite is tantamount to whosoever and every one And so indeed it is express't in other passages of Scripture As when 't is said to Cornelius and others with him whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins And in the Epistle to the Romans we find it said of the Gospel That ' t is the Power of God unto Salvation to every One that believeth Where the Gospel cannot be meant as being inclusive of the Law because 't is said of our Lord in the same Epistle
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
is here imply'd Come we now from the double Object to observe in the Text a double Act too Whereof the first is Internal and that express'd the second External and that imply'd The Act Internal which is express'd is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to believe The Act External which is imply'd is to confess what is believ'd in spite of Temptations to conceal it And this did the Iailour of Philippi in the next Verses after my Text. For as inwardly with the Heart a man believeth unto righteousness so outwardly with the Mouth Confession is made unto Salvation Indeed the Gnosticks were all for the Inward Act only for the better avoiding of Persecution But the Outward is by God as indispensably requir'd And the Inward Act without it is not sincere Thence it is that they are coupl'd as the condition of Salvation Rom. 10. 9. If thou shalt confess with thy Mouth the Lord Iesus and believe in thine Heart that God hath raised him from the Dead thou shalt be sav'd Believing and speaking are from the same spirit of Faith 2 Cor. 4. 13. It is written I believed and therefore have I spoken We also believe and therefore speak A double Act then there must be if the end be to be sav'd A True Believer must be a Confessor in time of Trial And when duly call'd to it a Martyr too Again As the Object and the Act so too the Subject of it is double For though begun in the Intellect yet 't is consummated in the Will as Aquinas and his Followers do rightly state it or else it would be meerly an human Faith Fides cui potest subesse Dubium a Faith whose very formal Reason is a radical Fear I do not mean an ingenuous but carnal Fear a Faith without Love and without Activity and so without the effect of Obedience too And therefore Cajetan argues well That an habit of Salvifick or saving Faith must be at once both a Speculative and a Practical habit And truly such is That Faith which is required in the Text as may appear by the Effects and Products of it in the Context For first the Iailour did assent unto the Things that were preached by Paul and Silas which infer's the Christian Faith to have got already into his Head And then immediately after we find it sunk into his Heart too witness the Sacrament of his Baptism which he received from Paul and Silas witness also his tender Charity in his washing of their stripes his entertaining them at his Table and his rejoycing even in That that might be temporally his Ruin v. 34 which are a proof of his abounding in those fruits of the Spirit Acts of Iustice and Gratitude and works of Mercy and spiritual Ioy in the Holy Ghost All Effects and Diagnosticks of saving Faith The overflowings of That Love which to use St. Paul's phrase is shed abroad in the Heart of a true Believer And thus we have the twofold Subject of Believing as we ought in the Lord Iesus Christ to wit the Intellect and the Will too Our full Assent must be seconded by our Love of the Truth and Obedience to it and that by a natural Production of the one out of the other For what at first is no more than The light of Knowledge in the Brain does by enkindling in the Bowels the Fire of Love of Love to God in the first place and to our Neighbour in the second produce Obedience to the first and the second Table of the Law After the Object and the Act and the Subject of this Belief each of which is twofold we are in order to reflect on the Nature of it Which is indeed very closely but significantly couch'd in the Praeposition For 't is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 believe the Essence or Existence of Jesus Christ nor is it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 believe his Truth or Veracity But 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 believe and trust IN or UPON the Lord Jesus Believe at once his Propensity and Power to save thee Believe his Power for he is Dominus The Lord. And believe his Propensity for he is Iesus the Saviour Well therefore said the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews Whosoever cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Now what is thus said of God is exactly true of the Lord Iesus Christ. For God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself And whosoever cometh to Christ must believe as that he is so withal that he is a Rewarder too A Rewarder but of whom and on what Condition for he is not a Rewarder of all in general no nor of All that do believe him to have the Office of a Rewarder But of all such as seek him and that with diligence And of all who thus believe in Him as in the Lord Jesus Christ. Such an important monosyllable is the Praeposition in as 't is the English of the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in conjunction with an Accusative that the Life of the Text would be lost without it For standing here as it does betwixt the Act and the Object it does imply the true nature of saving Faith Pass we on from the Nature to the Necessity of Believing Which here is visibly imply'd by the Retrospect of the Text as 't is an Answer to the Question 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what must I do that I may be sav'd for sure the sense of the Answer if it be adaequate to the Question must needs be This Thou must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is of absolute Necessity and indispensably requir'd For as without our pleasing God it is impossible to be sav'd so we know without Faith it is impossible to please him Heb. 11. 6. Last of all we have here the Issue or the Conclusion of the whole Matter at once implyed in the Reflexion of the Answer upon the Question and expressed in the words of the Answer too Salvation is not the Effect but yet the necessary event of our Faith in Christ. Nor is it properly the wages but most certainly the Reward of a true Believer It comes to pass as unavoidably upon the Praemisses suppos'd as an Effect on a supposal of all things requisite to its Production For the Question having been This What must I do that I may be sav'd to which the Answer is Believe and thou shalt be sav'd An Answer given by Paul and Silas who spake as the Spirit gave them utterance here does arise a mutual Inference as of the Praecept and the Promise so of the Duty and the Reward Here is a necessary Tendency of the first towards the second and a necessary Dependence of the second upon the first For as Salvation cannot be had by such as live under the Gospel without a praevious Belief in the Lord Iesus Christ so wheresoever such Believing does go before 't is very plain that Salvation
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
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
with Perseverance unto the End in conjunction with it Then the Answer of Paul and Silas is the short Summary of the Gospel and they might well promise Salvation to whosoever should accomplish the purpose of it That this indeed is the Importance may appear by the words of our blessed Saviour who having been asked by a Iew as Paul and Silas by a Gentile what Course was to be taken whereby to inherit Eternal Life gave him an Answer which some may censure as too much savouring of the Law but yet it seems not unsuitable to the oeconomy of the Gospel If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments Now in as much as Paul and Silas did not teach another Doctrin but the same in other words with their Master Christ they must needs be understood to have given This Answer That if the Jailour should so believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as to imitate his Example and yield obedience to his Commands and continue so to do all the days of his life he should not fail in that Case of his being sav'd And though the Rule is very true That nothing is wanting in any Sentence which is of necessity understood which well might justifie Paul and Silas in the conciseness of their expression Yet not contented with this excuse they rather chose not to want it by speaking largely to the Jailour the Word of God After the very same manner § 13. That the People may not wrest the outward Letter of the Scripture to their Damnation we must carefully explain and disentangle it to their Safety If any of Us shall be consulted by either Believers or Unbelievers about the means of their being sav'd we have two ways of Answer and both exact but both are to be taken cum grano salis and with a due Interpretation We may answer with our Saviour They are to keep the Commandments or else with Paul and Silas that they are to believe in the Lord Iesus Christ. But if the former we must add This is the chief of the Commandments that we believe on the Name of the Lord Iesus Christ 1 Joh. 3. 23. And although we must have an inherent righteousness in part yet there is need that That of Christ be imputed to us if but to make up all the wants and the vacuities of our own For our own is no better than filthy Rags if impartially compar'd with our double Rule to wit The Doctrin and Life of Christ. We must negotiate indeed with the Talents of Grace that we may not be cast into outer Darkness yet so as to judge our selves at best to be unprofitable Servants weigh'd with the Greatness of our Redeemer and with the Richness of our Reward Or if we give them the second Answer we must also speak to them the Word of God We must explain what it is to believe in Christ and by the help of some Distinctions duly consider'd and apply'd teach them to see through all the Fallacies and flatten the edge of all objections which are oppos'd to the Necessity of strict obedience and good works When any Iustifying Vertue is given to Faith we must tell them it is meant of Faith unfeigned When we speak of the Sufficiency of Faith unfeigned we must shew them how Love is the Spirit of Faith Whether because in the Active it works by Love or else because in the Passive in which the Syriac and Tertullian translate the word by works of Charity and Obedience Faith is wrought and made perfect When we celebrate the force of a lively Faith we must season it with a Note that Faith is dead being alone When 't is said out of St. Paul that we are justified by Faith without the Deeds of the Law 't is fit we add out of St Iames that we are justified by Works and not by Faith only For to shew that St. Iames does not either contradict or confute St. Paul The Works excluded by St. Paul are no other than the Deeds of the Ceremonial Law And those included by St. Iames are no other than the Works of the Moral Law So we are justified by Faith as the Root of Works and we are justified by Works as the Fruit of Faith Not by Faith without Works for then St. Iames would not be Orthodox nor yet by Works without Faith for then we could not defend St. Paul but by such a Faith as worketh and by such Works as are of Faith By Both indeed improperly as being but necessary Conditions But very properly by Christ as being the sole meritorious Cause Again because 't is very natural for Carnal Professors of Christianity so to enhaunce the Price of Faith as to depretiate good Works and make obedience to pass at the cheaper Rate They must be told that when our Saviour ascribes the moving of Mountains and other Miracles to Faith He does not speak of That Faith which is a Sanctifying Grace Gal. 5. 22. but of that Faith alone which is an Edifying Gift 1 Cor. 12. 9. by which a man may do wonders and yet be damn'd Matth â— 22 23. So when he said unto the Ruler who had besought him to heal his bed-rid Daughter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Only Believe He only meant it was sufficient for the healing of her â—ody without alluding in any measure unto the saving of her Soul So far he was in that place from giving any ground of hope to a Solifidian And therefore briefly let it suffice me to say once for all That when we find men Believers without good Life we must shew them how many ways a man may be a Believer without true Faith may be justified in the Praemisses yet not sav'd in the Conclusion may get no more by his Knowledge than to be beaten with many stripes and have no more of a Saviour than to be damn'd by We must instruct them to distinguish betwixt the Act and the Habit of their Believing But above all betwixt a Speculative and a Practical Belief A Belief in the Heads and the Hearts of men A Belief which does consist with a drawing back unto Perdition and That by which a man believes unto the saving of the Soul § 14. Stand forth therefore Thou Antinomian or Thou Fiduciary or whosoever else Thou art who art a sturdy Believer without true Faith and ever namest the Name of Christ without departing from Iniquity Try thy self by this Touchstone which lyes before thee and examin whether thy Heart be not as apt to be deceiptful as 't was once said to be by the Prophet Ieremy Let the Tempter that is without make thee as credulous as he can And let the Traytor that is within make thee as confident as he will of thy Faith in Christ yet Thou wilt find when all is done there is exceeding great Truth in the Spanish Proverb That 't is a very hard Thing to believe in God And so very few there are who attain unto it
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
the New Ierusalem And what shall we do to be walking in it Which is the way to escape a Hell And what must we do to obtain a Heaven For this is certainly the Scope of the young man's Inquiry we have in hand What shall I do that I may Inherit Aeternal Life § 3. All the Kingdoms of the Earth can neither satisfie nor justifie all our Appetites and Desires But the Kingdom of Heaven expressed here by eternal life will be sure to do Both. For if we are Covetous Here are Riches to make it lawful If we are Amorous Here is Beauty to make it Vertuous If we are Ambitious Here is Glory to make it Good For we must know that our Affections receive their Guilt or Vitiosity not from their strength but from their blindness when they are either double-sighted and look asquint or else are short-sighted and cannot see a far off they embrace those things for fair or pleasant which like Ixion's watery Iuno do only mock them with their Injoyment Whereas were our Affections so Eagle-sighted as to see through the Creatures discerning Happiness in its Hypostasis and flying at it where it is our only fault would then be This That our Ambition is too low and our Avarice too little and that we are not Amorous enough For they are poor-spirited persons of thick Heads and narrow Hearts whose thoughts are groveling upon the Creature and aspiring to nothing but what is Finite It is an impotent Ambition a feeble Avarice and a very flat Love which makes a stoop at such low Trifles as Crowns and Kingdoms here on Earth He alone is of a Noble and erected mind who can say and say heartily with Christ to Pilate his Kingdom is not of this World Alas the Kingdoms here Below are less than Grass-Hoppers to the very least Mansion in the Kingdom of Heaven Nor are they genuine but degenerate and bastard Eagles which will greedily catch at such little Flies The Soul of man was created for the highest Purposes and Ends. And therefore we may not only be lawfully but even dutifully ambitious provided our Ambitions are great enough and every whit as high as our Soul's Extraction we are not only permitted but even obliged to be Covetous upon condition that it be but of solid Riches which are not liable to Plunder or to impairment We ought in Conscience to be inamour'd if it be of real Beauty and not of that which depends upon human Fansie not of handsome Dirt or well-complexion'd Clay not of Beauty so call'd whose Foundation is in the Dirt which saith to Corruption Thou art my Father and to the Worm Thou art my Mother But if we choose a right object like the Spouse in the Canticles we shall never be so well as when with that Spouse sick of Love For our Bowels ought to yern after the Bridegroom of our Souls we ought to pant after Goodness and in the phrase of Espensaeus to languish after him who is the Fountain of that Goodness and so to thirst after that Fountain as never to be satisfied 'till swallow'd up In this one sense the Italian Proverb is to be verified Bello fin fà chi ben amando muore He makes a good end that dyes a Lover to wit a Lover of Him who is the great Lover of Souls We should not vouchsafe to love our selves unless because we love Him or because he loves us the only measure of loving whom is to love him without measure § 4. Seeing therefore we have met with an easy way whereby to bridle a Passion and at the same time to let it loose how at once we may abjure and yet injoy our Sensuality or to speak more exactly how 't is the Duty of a Christian not to evacuate not to invalidate not to extenuate his Affections but only to regulate and to direct them to place them there where true Injoyment is to be found let no man say within himself what shall I do to get a Fortune to raise a Family to erect a Temple unto Fame what shall I do to be a man of this World of some Authority and Power able to mischief or to oblige to beat down mine Enemies and raise my Friends what shall I do to be a man of great Knowledge a famous Chymist an exact Mathematician a remarkable Lawyer or an eminent Divine for the best of These Inquiries has something in it of Carnality But let every man say within Himself what shall I do to get an Interest in Jesus Christ and to be sure I am a Member not only of his Visible but of his Mystical Body what shall I do for a Demonstration that my Faith is truly such as does work by Love and that it does work by such a Love as does bring forth obedience to the Commandments of Christ And such a kind of obedience as Christ will graciously accept what shall I do that I may repent and repent in such a manner as to bring forth fruits meet for Repentance what shall I do to see the secrets of my Heart and to know by some Token which will not fail me whether the Good which I do is well enough done I mean well enough to deserve Acceptance What shall I do whereby to work out mine own Salvation and yet for all that to serve my God without fear all the days of my life what shall I do whereby to make my Election sure and to make my self sure of my Election so as to be able to say in Truth with St. Paul Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness what shall I do or what shall I not do or what shall I suffer either for doing or not doing that by distress or persecution by nakedness or famin by peril or sword by banishment or bonds by sickness or death by any means whatsoever however troublesom or costly or any way terrible to the Flesh I may but finally inherit eternal Life § 5. But now how little there is to be found of real and solid Christianity even in that part of Christendom where Christ and his Gospel are always preach't least of all amongst Them who are the great Monopolizers of Life Aeternal 't will not be difficult to guess by the solemn Theme of their Inquiries what shall we eat and what shall we drink and wherewithal shall we be cloath'd which shews the Zeal and the Devotion wherewith they Sacrifice to the Flesh. And therefore well said our Saviour to shew the Religion such men are of After all these things do the Gentiles seek Matth. 6. 25 Thereby intimating unto us That Christians must seek for diviner things than such as perish in the using for in the seeking of such as these they do not differ from the Gentiles who know not God And yet if we look upon those Professors who do pretend to an Inclosure of all the good things in Heaven we may observe them still inclosing as many good things as they can
and absolute Belief both in his words and in his works both in his Counsels and his Commands both in his Promises and his Threats For He who Thus is believing is ipso facto and eo ipso at once an Obedient and Loving Christian. A Christian so loving that the longer he lives the more he lives the Life of Faith the more he is weaned and sequestred from the things here below the more he is wedded and betrothed unto those things that are above His Affections are taken off from the beggarly Elements of the World and fix't entirely upon God as his soveraign Good I mean they are set upon God in Christ reconciling the World unto Himself And overcome The world he does as St. Iohn must needs mean by overcoming its Temptations its Pomps and Vanities its Smiles and Flatteries nor only the Pleasures but Terrors of it He overcometh That world which St. Iohn has comprized under three general Heads to wit the lust of the Flesh the lust of the Eye and the pride of Life For a sincere Faith in Christ in his Death and Resurrection and in the Consequences of Both gives us a much greater Byass a stronger Bent and Inclination to all good Things than the whole World can to the contrary by all its flatteries or its frights It possesseth us immediately with Inward Ioy in the Holy Ghost and praepossesseth us with an Antepast of The Glory to be reveal'd It praesentiates unto us such Joys to come as do exceedingly over-weigh the frowns and favours of the world It is expressed by St. Iohn in the place before-cited not only as the means whereby we grow Victors But as the Victory it self This saith he is The Victory which overcometh the world even our Faith As if it were not only the Instrument but Essence of it § 10. It follows then that we must distinguish with exceeding great Care and every minute of our Lives between two things which do extremely much differ like Heaven and Hell and yet are commonly confounded to admiration I say we must carefully distinguish not only between an Idle and an Operative Faith a Faith which works and a Faith which works not But withal between a working and working Faith between a Faith which only works by the Love of a man's self and a Faith which duly works by the Love of others For when the Son of Man shall come with his holy Angels in flaming Fire taking Vengeance of them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of Iesus Christ He will find enough idle unactive Faith which either works not at all or not at all by Love or else by none but Self-love which is the worst and greatest Evil that can possibly come to pass in the last and worst Times St. Paul sets it down in his long Catalogue of Impieties which shall be in the last Days as The Ring-leader and Head of All the Villanies which ensue as the first and greatest Link of that Chain of Darkness which draws the other Links after it and reacheth as far as from Hence to Hell In the last days says he to Timothy perilous Times shall come For men shall be Lovers of their own selves and in consequence of That All the Devilish Things that follow from the First Verse unto the Ninth of that Third Chapter of the Second Epistle to Timothy A Chain of Darkness almost as long as That the Devils themselves are held in and reserved saith St. Iude until the Iudgment of the Great Day Nor is it my opinion only But that of Estius Simplicius and Strigelius that the Sin of Self-love is set down First in The Black List as The Head-spring and Fountain of all the Rest. For I think I may challenge any man living without immodesty to Name any one Actual and Damning Sin which has not the Sin of Self-love for its most execrable Original It was meerly Self-love which turned Luciser into a Devil and made the Son of the Morning The Prince of Darkness It was the Sin of Self-love which turned those Protoplasts Adam and Eve out of their Innocence and by consequence out of their Paradise which they held and possessed by That one Tenure It was at first the Love of Self and of Self-preservation which moved Peter to renounce and abjure his Master And it was first a Self-love which produced in Iudas a love of Mony wherewith he was tempted to betray and to slay his Master Thence it was that Self-denial or Self-abnegation was the very first Lesson our Saviour taught his first Disciples And 't is the first we are to learn in the School of our Master Iesus Christ. It being the Causa-sine-qua-non of all other Duties in a Christian. For whosoever has once attain'd a good Degree of Self-denial or of Self-hatred for Sins committed can fast from eating when he is hungry and even from drinking when he is dry from stealing when he is Poor and from coveting when he is Rich from repining when he is low and from oppressing when he is lofty and so from every thing else which either is sinful in it self or so much as a Temptation inducing to it How did St. Peter when he repented revenge himself upon himself for his having so basely out of Self-love not only disown'd but forsworn his Lord He did not only deny Himself in opposition to his Denial of Jesus Christ But abhorr'd himself too in opposition to his Self-love which betray'd him to it How triumphant was his Faith and his Self-denial how triumphant over Himself and his former Cowardize how did he preach up Christ Crucified for which he was Crucified with his Head downwards and in All he did or suffer'd how did he bear down all before him not only all the World but the Flesh and the Devil too as mighty Cataracts and Torrents do sticks and straws So did Peter as well as Paul courageously sight the good sight of Faith Such in Him was That Faith which overcometh the World And when the Son of Man cometh to be the Judge of Quick and Dead Lord how much or rather how little shall he find of such fighting and conquering Faith upon the Earth § 11. This is infinitely far from That Carnal Faith which only works by self-Self-love All the Degrees of Disobedience to Christ's Commands No The Faith which He shall find in comparatively None that is to say in very few at his second Coming is such a Faith as strongly works by a Love of others which is said with great reason to be The fulfilling of the Law in Both the Tables of The Decalogue which our Blessed Lord came to fulfil and perfect not to abrogate or to destroy because 't is hard if not impossible for us to name any one Duty incumbent on us as Men or Christians which is not the Necessary Production of such a Love as Faith works by For as immoderate self-Self-love which consists with an human and worthless Faith is the Root
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