Affections and cannot afford to take any pains to be Religious are frequently heard to say They serve God as well as they can and they can do no more and that such a Religion as we urge Men to is much too hard for Flesh and Blood 'T is a Law fitter for Angels than Men and tho they wish they could observe and do it and can't but consent to the Excellency of it in the Inner Man yet they find a Law in their Members warring against the Law of their Minds and bringing them into Captivity to the Law of Sin and so the good that they would they do not and the evil that they would not that they do And they take up with this as a sufficient Excuse and because God is infinitely merciful and good they think he will accept the Plea of the great Hardship of his Commands and their Inability to perform them instead of Obedience to them But as the Lord in the Parable said to his slothful Unprofitable Servant Out of their own Mouths will I judge those wretched Persons that thus mock and abuse God and deceive their own Souls into Ruin For if God be infinitely good and merciful then certainly he will not expect any Thing from Men beyond their Ability nor command their Service and Obedience any farther than they are able to pay it And consequently what this merciful and good God commands by All Men to be done without any Exception or Dispensation and threatens Eternal Misery to such as shall dare wilfully to disobey him this Every Man no question is able to perform through the Divine Grace and Assistance which as I have before prov'd is in sufficient measure given to every Man And to deny this is in effect to charge God with the greatest Cruelty Oppression and Injustice that is possible For what less is the giving Men such Commands as they are not able to perform and withal threatning and actually inflicting unconceivable Torments for such are those of Hell upon all that shall be found disobedient to the impracticable Law This would be indeed to require Brick without Straw as the Egyptian Task-masters did and then to lay on Stripes for a Failure in the Work nay 't would be infinitely worse because the Punishment for Irreligion and not improving our Talents is infinitely greater and shall be inflicted to all Eternity Since therefore God knows whereof we are made and remembers that we are but Dust and can tell how difficult his Commands will be to us and how proportionable our Ability is to keep and do them better than we our selves for 't is he that hath made us and gave us our natural Powers and Faculties and the Superadditions of Grace and Aid from Above since he is infinitely good and will not overload his Creatures nor exact impossible Tasks or such as are extremely difficult and but one degree below impossible since he is likewise infinitely just and will not damn Myriads of poor Wretches to all Eternity for not making an impossible Improvement of their Talents and expects only that they should give a reasonable Account according to what they have received from him From all this it will follow Not that therefore a Man shall be excus'd for pleading Inability but that every Man is Able through the never deficient Grace of that good God to such as heedfully attend to it to keep his holy just and good Commands and make Improvement suitable to the Talents he hath receiv'd and if for all this he perish his Blood will be upon his own Head Wherefore let no Man for the future be so Impious as to charge God with expecting impossible Services from his Creatures or think to palliate his Irreligion by crying out of the extreme Hardship of living like a Christian but let every Man set heartily and sincerely about his Duty and he will find that God's Grace will be sufficient for him to his daily Improvement and that the Ways of Religion are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace I come now to the last Thing to be consider'd in this Parable which is That the Condition of the diligent Improvers of their Talents will be unspeakably happy but the Condition of the Unprofitable beyond Expression miserable and that both in this World and in the next First The Condition of the diligent Improvers of their Talent will be unspeakably happy both in this World and that above In this World a quiet and serene Conscience will be to them a continual Feast the Sense of having perform'd their Duty according to their Ability of having been good Stewards of the Grace of God bestow'd upon them and that they can give a sincere Account though not a perfect one to their great Master when he shall come to look into their Behaviour in their Stewardship this will fill their Breasts with unspeakable Satisfaction their Soul will be calm and their Thoughts at Rest in Conscience of their Fidelity their Life not imbitter'd with anxious Fear and Dread of a sad After Reckoning but like that of a faithful Servant who is in his Master's Favour steady and easie and moving cheerfully in the Circle of his Duty and in joyful Expectation of the Reward of his Diligence when his great Lord shall advance him from the State of a Servant to that of a Friend and Bosom Favourite nay of a Coheir with himself of the Joys and Felicities of the Eternal Kingdom of Heaven And besides this Serenity and Satisfaction of Mind and comfortable Prospect of so glorious a Recompense of Reward which are Blessings of the first Magnitude and to which nothing in this World is comparable the improving Christian shall have more Talents given him more Grace shower'd down upon his Soul what the Slothful have forfeited shall be conferr'd upon him and he shall abound still more and more in every good Word and Work And what Condition can approach nearer to the state of Heavenly Glory than that of a holy Soul thus plentifully stor'd with the divine Grace And if Grace and Glory differ only in degree and the One be but the Completion and Perfection of the other a Soul so filled with Grace as the improving Soul will be must needs live a Heaven upon Earth and have frequent Antepasts of Glory And in that other World when the Glory shall be reveal'd that is prepared for them that love and serve our Lord Jesus in Sincerity then will their Happiness be as ineffable as endless It is express'd in this Parable by entring into the Joy of our Lord that is partaking of his Glories and Felicities in the Presence of the Immortal God They shall be conducted after having given a good Account of their Stewardship by the Blessed Angels into the Presence of the great King of Heaven where they shall see him face to face and with wondring Eyes and enravish'd Hearts behold his Glory gaze upon his Splendors and nearly view his Beauty who is the Fountain of
p. 91. l. 17. r. to p. 111. l. 10. r. eternally p. 119. l. 1. dele the. p. 129. l. 17. r. have p. 133. l. 15. r. affected ib antip r. their p. 141. l. 3. r. then p. 142. l. 7. dele us 144. l. 20. r. if 162. l. 7. r. own p. 171. l. 8. dele and. p. 185. l. 20. dele and. p. 186. l. 23. r. us as 202. l. 10. r. slighted p. 223. l. 3. r. were p. 227. l. 13. r. his 228. l. 28. r. breaking p. 234. l. 12. r. struck so p 239. l. 6. r. behaviour p. 241. l. 16. dele such ib. l. 17. r. which 245. l. 17. r. that p. 252. l. 12 r. Mankind p. 257. l. 29. r. general 266. l. 12. r. Relief p. 284. l. 14. r. of p. 289. l. 23. r. from p. 328. l. 13. r. Indignus ibid. l. 15. r. Charae p. 329. l. 6. r. accordingly p. 332. l. 3. r. sleep p. 333. l. 6. r. unspeakably p. 335. l. 12. r. we p. 342. l. 28. r. Dewes p. 355. l. 29. dele Publick p. 361. l. 25. r. your p. 374. l. 18 19. for they r. he p. 378. l 10. r. she p. 380. l. 10. r. those ibid. l. 29. r. Passions p. 382. dele Crysippi porticus grex ibid. r. prava p. 392. l. 4. for Saviour r. Father 404. l. 3. r. in the Favour 405. l. 27. r. makes p. 415. l. 27. r. could not p. 416. l. 26. r. irreconcileable p. 430. l. 2. r. numbed p. 441. l. 25 r. encourager p. 457. l. 23. r. Favour p. 470. l. 25. r. bitter p. 475 l. 29. r. depreciate PARABLE I. Of the Sower that went forth to sow his Seed Matth. xiii 3 4 5 6 7 8. Behold a Sower went forth to sow And when he sowed some Seeds fell by the Way-side and the Fouls came and devoured them up Some fell upon sttony Places where they had not much Earth and forthwith they sprung up because they had no Deepness of Earth And when the Sun was up they were scorched and because they had not Root they withered away And some fell among Thorns and the Thorns sprung up and choaked them But other fell into good Ground and brought forth Fruit some an Hundred-Fold some Sixty-Fold some Thirty-Fold THIS Parable is very fitly placed first as giving Account of the Causes of Mens Fruitfulness or Unfruitfulness in Christianity and consequently shews what is to be avoided and directs to what is to be done in order to Men's being better'd by the Sermons of the Gospel Which is a thing first of all to be taken notice of by such as would be Christians endeed Our Lord's Interpretation of this Parable Matth. 13.19 Mark 4.14 Luk. 8.11 from a Collation of the Three Evangelists that record it is this The Seed is the Word of God or the Word of the Kingdom that is the Gospel the Religion that Christ Jesus came to teach the World When any one heareth this Word and understandeth it not then cometh the wicked one or Satan immediately and catcheth away that which was sown in his Heart lest he should believe and be sav'd this is he who receiv'd Seed by the Way-side But he that receiv'd the Seed into rocky or Stony Places is he that heareth the Word and presently with Joy receiveth it yet hath not Root in himself and so endures or believes but for a while for when Tribulation or Persecution ariseth because of the Word he is soon offended or discouraged and falls away in Time of Temptation He also that receiv'd Seed among the Thorns is he that heareth the Word and goeth forth and the Cares of this World and the Deceitfulness of Riches and the Lusts and Pleasures of this Life entring in choak the Word and it becometh Unfruitful or at best bringeth no Fruit to Perfection But He that received Seed into the good Ground is he that having heard the Word Understandeth or considereth it and receiveth and keepeth it in an honest and good Heart and bringeth forth Fruit with Patience according to his Ability whether Thirty Sixty or an Hundred-Fold From the Parable thus interpreted by its Divine Author it appears as was said that the Design of it is to shew what are the Causes of Men's improving or not improving under the preaching of the Gospel that so we may know what to avoid and what to embrace and endeavour after in order to our being fruitful under those Means of Instruction we enjoy We shall now consider each Part of this Parable with its Interpretation The First is Behold a Sower went forth to sow And when he sowed some Seeds fell by the Wayes-side and were trodden down and the Fowls of the Air came and devour'd them up The Interpretation is that the Seed which is sown is the Word of God and when any one heareth this Word and understandeth it not then cometh the Devil or the wicked one immediately and catcheth away that which was sown in his Heart lest he should believe and be saved This is he that receiv'd Seed by the Way-side or this is that Seed which fell by the Way-side The Word of God is compared to Seed because of its fructifying growing and encreasing Nature because it hath in it an Active Principle and will when sown unless kill'd and made unfruitful by Accidental Injuries spring up into excellent Fruits and in great Abundance to the Glory of God and the nourishing strengthening nav the immortalizing of Men for of this Divine Seed consists that Heavenly Bread which whoso eateth of shall live for ever 'T is this Seed that bringeth forth those Graces of Christianity which keep up the Divine Life in the Soul 't is this that makes it grow in Grace and in the Knowledg and Love of the best and noblest of Objects our Lord Jesus 't is this that is its Preparation for Heaven and an Earnest of that Immortal and Glorious Inheritance For wheresoever that Seed is sown Rom. 6.22 and springs up and brings forth Fruit unto Holiness the End most certainly will be Everlasting Life And this Word of God is not only for these Reasons compared to Seed but to Seed sown 'T is not only potentially fruitful but the Powers of it are now call'd forth into Act 't is actually sown the Gospel is preach'd and made known to the World its excellent Precepts are openly declar'd and planted in Men's Hearts by the Proposal of infinite Rewards and Punishments to such as do or do not obey and practise them And this Seed thus sown is water'd with the Dews of Heaven with the Distillations of the Divine Grace and Blessing which are in sufficient Plenty afforded to every Man so that God the great Husbandman is not wanting in any thing that is necessary to the Flourishing and Encrease of that Seed which he hath thus committed to their Hearts And therefore he expects and 't is but reasonable he should to see it grow and bring forth Fruit where'ere 't
and the great Obligation we have to imitate this Example of our merciful God To forgive one another in Imitation of the Divine Example is first to forgive such as have injured us freely and without Reserve and that though they still continue to shew themselves our Enemies and are ready to do us fresh Mischiefs when it lies in their Power For thus as we have seen God dealt with us miserable Sinners he first lov'd us and while we were yet Sinners and consequently in open Hostility and Rebellion against him even when he sent his Son to dye for us and be the Propitiation for our Sins He took pity upon us when we were still adding new Wickednesses to our long Account and when we deserved nothing but eternal Misery thought upon Mercy And in Imitation of this our Lord commands us to love our Enemies not to render Evil for Evil but contrariwise Blessing that so we may be the Children of our Father which is in Heaven For to use our Saviours Enforcement of this if those only share in our Affections or Esteem who are as beneficial and kind to us as we to them what Thank have we self-Self-Love and Interest may there be the Motives and very little of True Piety and Goodness nay even the very worst of Men may be as eminent for such Sort of Charity as the best Publicans and Sinners as our Lord observed doing the same But Christians should be of a more Godlike Temper their Charity more free and disinteressed the greater and more frequent their Injuries the more ready should they be to pardon and forgive and not only be reconciled after a seven-fold Wrong but after one repeated seventy times seven And our Saviour has likewise further inforced this by his own Example who with his last Breath pray'd for the Forgiveness of his cruel Murtherers Secondly We must not only forgive such as but little deserve it but likewise in Correspondence to our divine Pattern whether they desire it or no For thus it was in God's Forgiveness of Sinners he prevented us by the Riches of his compassionate Goodness and entreated us his rebellious Creatures first by his Prophets then by his only Son to be reconcil'd to him and embrace their Pardon And thus those that will be Imitators of God as dear Children must likewise do Rather than Enmity should continue we must seek to our Enemies to be reconcil'd though they were the first that offered the Offence And this however hardly it may sound is not only our Duty by Vertue of that general Conâ—â—â—d of forgiving one another as God has forgiven us but is expresly commanded by our compassionate Saviour Mat. 18.15 which occasion'd that Question of St. Peter Vers 21. How often shall I forgive my Brother Upon which our Lord deliver'd this Parable his Words are these and deserve our serious Attention Moreover if thy Brother trespass against thee go and tell him his Fault between thee and him alone If thy Brother trespass against thee or as we usually express it first did the Injury or gave the Affront go thou to him stay not till he comes and acknowledges his Fault to thee for that 's a thing Men are very backward in doing either for fear or for Shame or out of Pride and Greatness of Spirit as it must be term'd or for other Reasons and Time usually widens such Breaches and encreases Strangeness and Aversion But go thou therefore to him in Meekness and the Spirit of Forgiveness and with Resolutions of passing by all further Unkindnesâ—â— and it may be reproacheâ— for your good Will calmly tell him his Fault expostulate the Case with him and in all Likelyhood he will hear thee a right Understanding between you will ensue and thou shalt gain thy Brother This is indeed to be like God in this great Excellence of forgiving Injuries and is as a most noble Expression of christian Charity so we see very plainly commanded by our Lord and should be taken into our serious Consideration in order to our agreeable Practice Thirdly We must not only so far forgive as not to revenge but in Imitation of the divine Pattern of Forgiveness set before us be ready to do all Acts of Kindness and Beneficence to our Enemy as Occasion shall serve and his Needs require Remembring the Words of our great Master Do good to them that hate you and pray for those that despightfully use you and persecute you for so sâ—â— ye be the Children of the Highest who is 〈◊〉 to the unthankful and to the evil And we must endeavour to confirm the new made Agreement by more than ordinary Expressions of good Will that we may heap Coals upon our Enemies Head to melt him into a Correspondent Charity and likewise that there may be no Place left for our Enemy or our selves to doubt the Sincerity of our Forgiveness For the smoothest Words may be rotten and deceitful and the not revenging an Injury may be for want of Power or Opportunity but when to good Words beneficial Actions are added then may a Man well be thought to love and forgive not in Word only but in Deed and in Truth This is Christian Forgiveness of Injuries or Ephes 4. ult in the Apostle's Words the forgiving one another if any have a Quarrel against any even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven us i.e. freely and intirely though their Malice still cotinues against us nay to go and offer 'em Forgiveness and Reconciliation tho' they neither desire nor deserve it and to accompany our Forgiveness with Acts of Kindness and good Turns But what has been said upon this Account must have a Limitation lest it bound indiscriminately upon all Men and at all Times that is in all Instances of Wrong it thwart and run Counter to other Duties of our holy Religion Now in order to our being inform'd of the just Limits of this great Duty we must consider that Injuries may be of three Sorts affecting either Men's Persons their good Names or their Estates And each of these may be either in Danger of Ruin by the Injuries of a wicked Man or only greatly damag'd or the Injury may be but small and trifling and such as brings no considerable and lasting Ill Effects along with it Now such Injuries as threaten Ruin to a Man in any of those Respects ought not to be silently let pass nor the Man so forgiven as to have no Notice taken of him and such a legal Prosecution of him as is necessary to secure a Man's Person or to vindicate or recover his blasted Reputation and to preserve his Estate all or either of which would be ruin'd by the injurious Person if tamely let alone a legal Prosecution in such Cases as these is allow'd by the Law of God and Nature as well as that of the Land And the Case is proportionably the same as to Injuries that greatly endamage a Man in any of those Respects before mentioned And were all
divine Love and Philanthropy upon the Souls of his Creatures to see 'em love and compassionate one another according to his glorious Example we are infinitely obliged to imitate his Pity and Forgiveness towards us in passing by the Offences of our Fellow-Servants Further those to whom God has forgiven so vast a Debt as that which miserable Sinners ow'd to the divine Justice are questionless bound and that with the strictest Ties to love him infinitely again but now St. John says plainly 1 Joh. 4.20 21. that he that loves God must love his Brother also and if a Man say I love God and yet hateth his Brother he is a Lyar and the Truth is not in him For as he says Chap. 3.17 He that shutteth up his Bowels of Compassion from his Brother how dwelleth the Love of God in him And therefore as much as we are bound to love our good God who has forgiven us our numberless Iniquities so much are we bound to manifest that our Love to him by being pitiful and gentle to our brethren that have injur'd us and ready to forgive them For so says our Lord shall ye be my Disciples and so shall ye be the Children of your Father which is in Heaven And doubtless that wicked Servant in the Parable had not so due an Apprehension of his Lord 's great Compassion to him nor so grateful a Sense of it as he ought to have had who could immediately forget the miserable Condition he was so lately in himself and how much he dreaded lest his Lord should rigidly exact his great Debt of him and how importunately he begg'd that he would have Patience with him and yet use so much Cruelty to his Fellow-Servant for a Debt very inconsiderable He could not but know that such Barbarity would be very contrary to the compassionate Temper of his Lord and therefore was bound in Gratitude if upon no other Account to imitate his Lord's Example and not immediately act what would be so displeasing to him And so it is in our Case God is Love and has wondrously manifested his Love in forgiving us miserable Sinners and therefore we are bound in Gratitude and because 't will be pleasing to him were that all to imitate that his Charity and mutually to love and forgive one another But when besides we have our Saviour's express Command for it Mat. 5.44 and Luk. 6.37 and that not until seven times only but until seventy times seven as in the Verse before this Parable As much as Men are obliged obliged to obey the Commands of God their Saviour so strong is their Obligation to forgive Injuries with Respect to God Secondly Our Obligation is very great to imitate God's compassionate Example with respect to our selves For 't is the best Way to secure Quiet and Peace and Happiness and as much as every Man is bound to provide for his own Quiet and the Peace and Happiness of Society and of his own Soul too in the other World so much is every Man bound not to be malicious and revengeful but of a Temper ready to forgive For however sweet Revenge may seem to be to malicious Spirits in the Execution it must needs make the Mind very uneasie before 't is executed and bring great Calamities along with it afterward and is the most base devillish Temper in the World and makes a Man a Fiend incarnate Whereas an Aptness to forgive is a Godlike Disposition for God is Love the Spring of Kindness and Compassion of Mercy and Forgiveness and as his Happiness is the Result of the Excellencies and Perfections of his Nature so those who resemble him in the most glorious of those Perfections must needs likewise enjoy a great Share of Tranquillity and inward Bliss But if God be the great Exemplar of Forgiveness how groundless is the usual Objection against this excellent Vertue of Christianity that it betrays a mean servile Spirit and is a thing much below a Gentleman Can any Man of common Sense think it a Disgrace to be like God and that in his most glorious Perfection too If God be the Fountain of Honour we must allow it to be rather the most noble generous Action in the World It is the best Way likewise of ending Strifes and overcoming our Adversaries by rendring Good for Evil. It eases the Mind of those great Disquietudes that constantly attend Desires of Revenge it prevents all the Mischiefs that follow it such as fresh Injuries from the Party we revenge our selves upon if we leave him his Life and the Stroke of Justice if we persue him to the Death But besides these evil Consequences of Revenge and many others which Forgiveness prevents there is more true Pleasure and Sweetness in the Act of Forgiveness and Reconciliation as was hinted above than in that of Revenge For however the Devil may hurry Men on in an eager Persuit of Revenge and flatter 'em with the Hopes of great Satisfaction when 't is perfected yet there is a secret Horrour and Aversion to it from within which as 't were pulls back the Hand when going to strike or what other way soever it be expressed endeavours to hinder it and makes the Heart recoil and repent of the Undertaking and execute it with trembling and misgivings of Soul and immediately after come dire Forebodings of the Venge ance of him to whom Vengeance belongeth and a Kind of Hell upon Earth But Forgiveness is attended with Applauses of Conscience and the Approbation of Reason and Chearfulness of Spirit There is an inward Pleasure and Satisfaction of Mind quite throughout the Action and when 't is compleated no Man can express the silent Joy that runs through the whole Soul and it seems a Foretaste of the Joys of the Blessed in Heaven Even that Part of Forgiveness which seems most of all impracticable and contrary to Flesh and Blood that of suing to a Man to be reconciled that has done the Injury and still continues to be one's Enemy this does of all yeild the greatest Pleasure to the Soul And that not only because 't is the nearest Resemblance to the Mercy of God who sent his Son to mediate between him and us and by his Death to reconcile us to himself when 't was we miserable Wretches that had offended and were then in actual Rebellion against him but from the Nature of the thing it self For 't is a kind of surprizing a Man into Charity before he is aware When Men do Injuries they generally stand upon their Defence and expect to receive Injuries again but when a Man finds instead of this Acts of Friendship and Good will and Readiness to forgive and Peace and Quietness offer'd so freely and upon such easie Terms without the Shame and natural Regret in seeking it and asking Pardon and making Satisfaction and the like How pleas'd must the Man needs be to find a Friend when he fear'd and expected an Enemy Few Men love Strife for Strife's Sake and
or Christian Religion does 1. create the nearest Relation between Christ and Believers it makes us Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bones and as was before quoted from St. Paul Ephes 5.30 i. e. it makes us as near to him as the Members are to the Head the Flesh and Bones to the Body or as our Church expresses it it makes us one with Christ and Christ with us 't is so near a Relation that nothing can sufficiently express it but what expresses an Union It creates likewise 2. the dearest Relation for thus our Lord John 14.21 He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self unto him and Vers 23. We will come unto him and make our Abode with him and Chap. 15.14 Ye are my Friends if ye do whatsoever I command you And Rev. 3.20 Behold says our Lord I stand at the Door and knock if any Man hear my Voice and open the Door i. e. by Faith and Obedience I will come in unto him and sup with him and he with me he will shew the greatest Expressions of Dearness and Affection to him And as the Gospel makes the nearest and dearest Relation between Christ and Believers so that Relation is 3. inseparable i. e. unless we willfully divorce our selves from him by Apostacy or Disobedience Thus a little before his Ascension he tells his Apostles and in them all faithful Believers that observe whatsoever he hath commanded that he will be with them always even to the End of the World And because he was to ascend to his Father and their Father to his God and their God therefore says he I will not leave you comfortless but will pray to the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever John 14.16 and in the 2. and 3. Verses of that Chapter I go to prepare a Place for you and if I go and prepare a Place for you I will come again and receive you to my self that where I am there ye may be also And John 10.27 28. My Sheep hear my Voice and I know them and they follow me and I give unto them Eternal Life and they shall never perish neither shall any pluck them out of my Hand And St. Paul with great Assurance asks this Question Rom. 8.35 Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ and after enumerating what in the Esteem of the World was most likely to do it he concludes Vers the last that nothing shall be able to separate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And he is likewise in a spiritual Manner always with us in the Reception of those Mysteries which he instituted in Remembrance of him The Gospel then effecting so near so dear and so inseparable a Relation between Christ and Believers that nothing can so fitly resemble it as the State of Marriage we may from hence collect in the next place what Privileges the Gospel intitles Believers to by reason of this their so intimate Relation to Christ As first it intitles to the peculiar Love and Tenderness of Christ such a Love as will incline him to promote the Happiness of Believers and to pity and compassionate their Infirmities Failures and Imperfections for Love covereth a Multitude of Faults Thus the Apostle Col. 3.19 Husbands love your Wives and be not bitter against them be not extreme to observe every little Defect and Failing in them but consider 'em as the weaker Vessel and bear with their Infirmities And accordingly the Author to the Hebrews says of our Lord he is not one that cannot be touch'd with a Sense of our Infirmities but knows and pities them having been in all Points tempted as we are though without Sin Heb. 4.15 And as for his Tenderness and Care of our Happiness 't is miraculously evident in that he gave himself for us sacrific'd his very Life for our reconciliation to his offended Father that he might sanctifie and cleanse us and present us to himself a glorious Church not having Spot or Wrinkle or any such thing but that we should be holy and without Blemish as the Apostle expresses it in the before cited Eph. 5.26 c. And he does continually nourish and cherish us by the Communications of his Grace in the blessed Sacrament that spiritual Body of his which whoso eateth of shall live for ever and by the Comforts and Assistances of his holy Spirit And to lye thus in the Bosome of the Son of God to have such great Degrees of his Love and Tenderness to us express'd in such amazing Instances to be thus pitied and commiserated and our Failures excus'd and past by by him that is to be our Judge and our Happiness in all Respects so carefully endeavoured by him who is the Fountain of it This is such a Privilege as can never be enough valu'd and is infinitely above the Reach of any Comparison Another Privilege the Gospel intitles Believers to upon their so near Relation to Christ is Christ's Protection of them from Dangers and Defence against Assaults of Enemies For as in Marriage the Husband is the Shield and Guardian of his Wife so Christ is the Protector and Defender of the faithful he covers them from the Rage and Malice of unreasonable Men and arms them against the Attacks of the Spirits of Darkness by the Supplies and Aids of his blessed Spirit who helps our Infirmities and strengthens us mightily in the inner Man so that the Gates of Hell all the infernal Powers shall not be able to prevail against us And accordingly says St. Paul I can do all things through Christ that strengthneth me Phil. 4.13 Rom. 8.37 In all these things Tribulation Distress Persecution Famine Nakedness Perilor Sword in all these things we are more than Conquerers By what means Why through Christ that loveth us And our Lord says expresly in the forecited John 10.27 my Sheep that hear my Voice shall never perish neither shall any pluck them out of my Hand And if the Almighty Son of God be for us and takes us into his own Protection and shields and guards us as a Husband does the Wise of his Bosome who then can be against us We shall be hid under his Wings and safe under his Feathers his Faithfulness and Truth shall be our Shield and Buckler And to dwell thus under the Defence of the most High and abide under the Shadow of the Allmighty is no doubt an inestimable Privilege Again as the Husband confers Honour upon his Wife intitles her to have a Share in that Honour that is due to him so Believers by their intimate Union with Christ are advanc'd to the highest Step of Honour that Mortals can arrive at For what more honourable than to be in so near a Relation to the most glorious Son of God! Accordingly the
Riches or Abundance of Gold and Silver in which now-a-days we esteem Riches chiefly to consist they are really no better than Heaps of Earth of different Colours impress'd with different Stamps and made of different Sizes and to which Men have given a different Value and Esteem according to their different Colour Size and Impression and which in themselves are good for little but to be look'd on and which he that would live must part with when he has them in Exchange for other Things that are necessary for his Subsistence Now what can be more vile and base than for so Noble and Excellent a Creature as Man so far to degrade himself as to employ his greatest Love and Admiration and Desire upon a Piece of Earth which was originally made for him to tread upon and produce Things for his Food and Pleasure To make that his Master nay his God which was made to be his Servant For a Rational Soul to doat upon a sensless Clod to neglect the Contemplation of the Excellencies of his infinitely perfect Maker and admire one of the lowest of his Creatures to desire a Piece of Earth with the greatest Application and have no Value for the Immortal Glories of Heaven to place his Happiness in what is so very much inferiour to him and upon that which is indeed his Happiness to bestow no Thoughts what can be more vile and abject than this what more unbecoming the Dignity of the Rational Nature and of a Creature that has such glorious Hopes Where is the Reason of a Man that lays out all his Endeavours to acquire a Trifle and in the mean time disregards that which is his chief good and where is the Religion of a Christian that has been redeem'd not by Corruptible Things such as Silver and Gold but with the precious Blood of Christ as of a Lamb without Blemish and without Spot where is his Religion that notwithstanding this makes Silver and Gold the chief Object of his Affections and treads under foot the Son of God and counts the Blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy or common Thing and does despight to the Spirit of Grace and loves and admires Mammon more than his Saviour What more vile and brutish than this what more stupidly ungrateful This is to come down to a Level with the Beasts that perish nay 't is to sink much lower for They act according to their Natural Instincts and choose as they are directed by their Great Creator and serve him obediently in that Rank of Being in which he has plac'd them But that Man much more that Christian that makes perishing Riches the main Object of his Desires and Endeavours acts directly contrary to the Reason that God has given him degenerates many degrees below the Dignity of his Nature disobeys the Orders of his Creator slights the Heavenly Counsel of his Saviour despises the Glories and Felicities of the Kingdom of Heaven and of a Man and a Christian makes himself a vile Muckworm delighted in nothing Noble and Excellent but groveling upon the Earth as if that were the Centre of his Happiness And what can more vilifie and degrade a Reasonable Soul made after the Image of God than such base Affections as these 'T is certainly a most vile Degeneracy and renders a Man the most contemptible Creature in the Universe both to God and Angels and all wise and good Men. And thus much may suffice to expose the Folly and Vileness of an immoderate Desire of Riches as in them placing the Happiness of Life I shall now shew The ill Consequences that attend it which besides that great Perplexity of Mind they cause mention'd before are chiefly these two 1 It mightily hinders a Man's Progress in Religion which is the one Thing necessary 2. It exposes a Man more than any thing to the Danger of Apostacy or falling from the Truth First An immoderate Love of Riches does mightily hinder a Man's Progress in Religion which is the one Thing necessary We may remember our Lord in his Interpretation of a Parable before discours'd of Matt. 13.22 says that the Cares of this World and the Deceitfulness of Riches like Thorns that spring up with Seed choke the Word of God and render it unfruitful and in another Parable of a great Supper made at the Marriage of a King's Son Matt. 22. Luk. 14.18 by which as was discours'd upon that Parable is represented the glad Tidings and Invitations of the Gospel he tells us That that which detain'd Men from it was likewise the Cares of the World and the Love of Riches they had Ground to look after and Oxen to prove and therefore they could not come to the Wedding Supper And accordingly says our Saviour in as express Words as can be Matt. 6.24 No man can serve two Masters ye cannot serve God and Mammon Now the Reason of this is twofold For first Nothing so much distracts a Man's Thoughts as an eager Desire and Pursuit of Wealth for Riches are so difficult to be acquir'd as has been said and so very slippery when gain'd that as to get them will exercise all a Man's Contrivance employ all his Thoughts and Attention and consume his whole Time so to keep them when once gotten will to a Man that knows the Hardship of getting them and how soon they are lost again engage him in constant Care and Solicitude to watch his Idol lest he be depriv'd of it and so his Mind becomes distracted with continual Apprehensions of Danger and at leisure for no other Thoughts than how to secure his Riches And this those that are acquainted with Men much wedded to the World may soon perceive by their careful anxious Looks and distrustful Timorous Discourse Now the immoderate Love of Riches thus engrossing a Man's Soul and the great Business of Religion or making Provision for Another World and laying up a Treasure of good Works in Heaven being a Thing that likewise requires Time and Diligence and a close Application of all our Faculties to the Performance of it and it being impossible for a Man to attend closely to two Things at once and the Love of this World and of the next being not only different but contrary the one to the other How can it be but that he that eagerly loves Riches and has his Soul prepossess'd with a strong Desire of them and all his Faculties before engag'd in their Pursuit must move very slowly in the Way of Religion if he moves at all nay indeed rather move backward than forward and the more he loves the World grow colder still in his Affections to God Another Reason of this is Because an Immoderate Love of Money is a kind of Fascination and Enchantment it casts a Mist before a Man's Understanding and makes him less sensible and apprehensive of the great Obligation to a Religious Life and so dulls and stupifies the Soul that it becomes very little moved with the Sermons of
more and more to soften their Hearts and make them pliable to the Impressions of the Word of Life that it may sink deep into their Souls and be fix'd there beyond the Danger of yeilding to every Temptation and withering when Adversity shall come They must not boggle at any thing that appears to be their Duty but be diligent and industrious in ridding their Minds of their former Evil Habits and Inclinations and inure themselves to the Obedience of Christ not pretending Hardship or Impossibility when He commands not endeavouring to lessen the Obligation of any of his Precepts or shifting it from themselves nor expecting Heaven upon easier Terms But knowing their Lord's Will endeavour to do it in Sincerity upon such Obedience only through the Merits of Christ hoping for the Promises And this Course like good Tillage and Manuring of our Ground will soon mollify the Heart and make it not only superficially but intirely Plyable to the Word of God receptive of its Impressions to the very Bottom so that it shall dwell in us richly and bring forth Fruit not only in Times of Security and Peace but even then when Tribulation shall arise because of the Word and take still deeper Root and bring forth greater Abundance notwithstanding all the Storms and Scorchings of Persecution or even a fiery Tryal Thirdly in order to the Fruitfulness of the Word we must be very careful that it be not like Seed that falleth among Thorns lest the Thorns spring up and choak it so that it yield no Fruit. That is that after the hearing of the Word we go not forth and suffer the Cares of this World and the Deceitfulness of Riches and the Lusts and Pleasures of this Life to enter in and choak the Word and it become utterly unfruitful or at least bring no Fruit to Perfection 'T is by a lamentable Experience too true that the Love of this World very much hinders our Provision for the next and 't is as true that this is the greatest Folly and Madness in Nature because the World to come is upon all Accounts so infinitely to be preferr'd before the present that there cannot be the least Competition between them For how can a World of Cares and Vexations of Misery and Affliction of all Sorts of Hazards and Uncertainties of Sickness Pain and Death as this is compare with a World of eternal unmix'd and uninterrupted Happiness as is the other And therefore one would think Men should be so wise and so much their own Friends as to bestow their greatest Endeavours in Pursuit of their main Interest and not on the contrary such egregious Fools as for the Gain of an empty Bubble to forfeit an happy Eternity So far as is consistent with the Care of the Soul 't is very allowable to mind the Affairs of this Life Nay 't is a Duty of our Holy Religion for every man to be industrious in his Calling and to enjoy with Thanksgiving the Portion that God hath given him here below But to invert God's Order and place that First in our Esteem which should be Last when he says seek ye First the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and then all needful things of this World shall be added unto you to run quite counter and First provide for Abundance here and then and that but very coldly God knows think a little of the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness this is such a preposterous Course as can never end in any thing but Shame and Confusion If it be true that the Gain of even the whole World would be a very unprofitable Exchange when compared with the Loss of the Soul and if it be true that the Loss of the Soul will follow upon the Unfruitfulness of the Word of God for Faith alone will not save but must bring forth the Fruits of the Spirit And finally if it be true that a too great Love and eager Prosecution of the things of this World will choak the Word of God and make it unfruitful as our Lord in this Part of the Parable affirms it will If all this be true I see not how it can be avoided but that such as have a Desire that the Word of God should be fruitful in their Souls in order to the eternal Salvation of them must love the World less and their Souls more must be careful in the First place to grow in Grace and be rich towards God and clear their Minds of these worldly Thorns and Briars lest the Divine Life be stifled and that Seed choak'd which alone can fructify to a happy Immortality We must use this World yet so as not to abuse it but certainly he abuses it and all the Blessings that God affords him in it who so immoderately Doats upon it as to prefer it before the Service of his great Benefactor and spends most of his Thoughts and Endeavours about the encreasing Wealth and the Enjoyment of these sublunary Pleasures and can spare but very little if any of his Time and Pains to prepare himself for the Enjoyment of God in Glory And yet as plain as this is Men are generally so little affected with it as not only to neglect Religion as much as ever and love the World still more and more but even to plead the Cares of the World as an Excuse for their Coolness in Religion and the Unfruitfulness of the Word of God in their Souls We would be oftner at the Sacrament and more constant in at the Prayers of the Church and in reading and meditating upon the Holy Scriptures but that the Cares of the World and the Hurry of Business takes up most of our Time and Thoughts But for God's Sake let such consider is that an Excuse which is it self as great a Fault as any Will God accept such an Excuse at the Day of Judgment Has he not plainly forewarn'd us of the Danger of too much worldly Mindedness Has not St. John said plainly 1 Joh. 2.15 love not the World nor the things of the World for whoso loveth the World the Love of the Father is not in him And our Lord as plainly ye cannot serve God and Mammon How strange a Plea then is it for the Neglect of Religion to say we are deeply engag'd in the Persuit of this World 's Good If we believe we have Souls to be saved methinks we should take care of them in the First place and as for this World a moderate Industry such as does by no means intrench upon Religion is all that can be justifyed And what our Lord said to the Scribes and Pharisees about their taking care of lesser Matters and neglecting the weighty things of the Law should be our Rule in providing for our Families and providing for our Souls These things ought ye to have done and not to have left the other undone He that provides not for his own House according to the Measures of Necessity and Moderation is worse than an Infidel
yet be so taken up with minding other things as not to attend to the Danger and heedlessly fall into it And so a Man may habitually believe that there is a Pit of Bottomless Destruction which will at length swallow up the incorrigibly wicked and yet be so deeply engag'd in the Pleasures and Follies of the World as not to attend to it till 't is too late But suppose some that call themselves Christians do not at all believe any thing of the Christian Religion there are innumerable more that do believe and live accordingly and the Harmony of their Belief and Practice methinks should be a better Argument in the Affirmative than the Infidelity and Debauchery of a few titular Christians should be in the Negative And though to a Man that stiles himself a Christian and yet believes not a Word of the Matter to him the Whole of Religion 〈◊〉 is as nothing yet certainly it cannot be from thence concluded that therefore 't is really and indeed a Fiction For that may be assuredly true and that to their Cost which some Men don't care to believe Thus we see 't is no strange thing that there should be both good and bad that go under the general Name of Christians in this World and that though some are much scandaliz'd at it and raise an Objection from it against the Truth of the Religion yet there is no Reason so to do for 't is not the Name that makes a Christian he only is a Christian indeed that to a right Belief adjoins good Works The first Planters of the good Seed or the Tares the bad or good Professors of Christianity respectively are Christ and the Devil Christ by teaching a holy Reliligion to the World such as shall conduct Men to Glory and Immortality and by the good Motions and Inspirations of his holy Spirit inclining 'em to imbrace it does endeavour to make all Men happy to deliver 'em from the Miseries of this World for if Sin were weeded out of it there would be no Misery in it and to prepare 'em for the eternal and ineffable Felicities of the Kingdom of Glory in which after a persevering Righteousness here they shall be actually instated The Devil on the contrary that great Enemy both to God and Man makes it his great Endeavour by all Sorts of Wiles â—nd Stratagems to obliterate the divine Impressions of this holy Religion upon Mens Souls to divert 'em from attending to its great Beauty and Excellency and the Nature and Duration of its Rewards and Punishments to perswade 'em that here lies the only Scene of Happiness and that a future Felicity or Misery is only fit to amuse and frighten Children withall that the Desires of the Body are given us that we might gratify them to the full and that to deny and mortify our selves is the most unnatural Cruelty in the World that we must make our selves happy while we have Opportunity and not trust too much to uncertain Reversions And when he can't wholly blot out the Belief of another World then he endeavours to corrupt it by perswading us that a very little Religion will serve turn seeing we have to do with so merciful a God And if by these Means or the like of which he has great Variety he can incline Men if not intirely to apostatize from Christianity yet like Tares to rest satisfyed with the Name and Appearance of Christians and live at loose and random and follow the Stream of their own Passions and Desires and his sly Insinuations and tempting Delusions then he has his End and will at length cheat 'em of the Happiness that Christ design'd 'em and decoy 'em into his own Possession and so bring them to the Portion of Tares and noxious Weeds that Furnace of Fire prepar'd for himself and his Angels And therefore as we tender our eternal Welfare we must be very watchful and observant that we may discover the sly Insinuations of this our great Enemy Whatever would disparage Religion or lessen the Obligation to a good Life comes certainly from that infernal Tempter The Temptations to an excessive Gratification of our bodily Appetites assuredly come from him the Opportunities of Vice are of his disposing and 't is he that ingages us in so great a Love and earnest Persuit of the World And therefore every thing of this Nature must be rejected with the greatest Abomination as the Endeavours of our great Enemy to deprive us of our Happiness and involve us in his own Ruin And on the contrary those blessed Motions that we all of us often feel to a more pious and holy Conversation must be thankfully embrac'd and chearfully follow'd as the Directions and Excitations of our dear Saviour to what is conducive to our eternal Happiness They are those heavenly Dews which will refresh our Souls and improve their Growth and Increase in Holiness and if sincerely cooperated with will at length bring the Fruits of our holy Religion to Perfection And thus much for the first thing this Parable informs us of namely That the State of the Gospel in this World is such that there will be both bad and good under the general Name of Christians as good Corn and Weeds together go under the Name of one Field of Corn and that the first Planters of this Good and Evil respectively are Christ and the Devil together with the Improvement of each Consideration to the Interest of Religion But before I quite leave this Particular I shall from what has been said of the promiscuous Mixture of bad and good Men in the Christian Church and God's suffering it to be so without any extraordinary Discrimination From this I shall observe how unreasonable 't is for some to object as too many do against the Reception of the Lord's Supper in our Church because as they say we admit any that will come even those that have been scandalous Livers and by that Means the Solemnity is prophan'd and made less beneficial to the good But now supposing though not granting that we admit any that will come though Men of ill Lives I say not granting this for the thing is evidently false as appears from the Exhortations to the Communicants before and at the Solemnity and from the Rubric of that Office And from the 26 27 and 28th Cannons of our Church in which Ministers are expresly forbidden to admit notorious Offenders Schismaticks and Strangers to the Communion But supposing this which is so evidently false as to the Church to be true as to some particular Ministers why must communicating with such Ministers and as we think in such prophane Company be unchristianly abstain'd from and the Ministers declaim'd against with so much Bitterness At this rate they may as well desert the Communion of the whole Church of Christ and refuse to join in any part of divine Worship for no Doubt but ill Men are intermxi'd in all though they may not be discover'd and if their Company
is hurried on to dangerous and destructive Actions but Nature goes on evenly in making Provision for its Health and Support and it enjoys its Strength and Beauty as in the Times of Quietness and Peace In the last Place a comfortable Expectation of a much better and endless Life in the Regions of Glory can spring from nothing but sincere Religion and therefore Religion is of very great Value with Respect to this world For what can be of greater value and more to be desired in this Valley of Tears this World of Sin and Sorrow and Ignorance Vexation and Disappointment than to have a well grounded Hope that 't will not be always so with us That there will be a Time when all Tears shall be wip'd from our Eyes and Sin and Misery be at an End for ever That we shall one Day be disentangled from the Clog of Flesh the Prison Doors set open and our captiv'd Souls set free and with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory return to the great Father of Spirits and with the full Vigour of all their Faculties contemplate and enjoy the only satisfying Good That instead of Floods of Years there shall then be Rivers of Pleasures flowing in upon us to all Eternity Halleluia's instead of Groans and mournfull Accents the triumphant Rejoycings of eternal beatified Spirits instead of the bitter Complaints of miserable Mortals and in a word Love in its Perfection instead of Quarrels and Discontents Envy and Hatred and Malice and Revenge and all the dire Attendants of them That instead of spiritual Blindness and Ignorance of the most concerning Truths for here we know but in Part and see through a Glass darkly we shall e're long be admitted to contemplate Truth it self and know as we are known and shall see God as he is and in him all things For God is Light What can be more valuable than such a chearing Expectation as this How will it sweeten all the Troubles of this Mortal Life and be a sensible Foretaste of the Glory that shall hereafter be revealed But now nothing can create such a Hope as this but sincere Religion for God is infinitely pure and holy and into his Presence no unclean thing can enter And 't is expresly said in the Revelations of his Will That without Holiness no Man shall see the Lord. A wicked Mans Breast that is not seared can be full of nothing but the dire Reflections of an enrag'd Conscience and dreadful forebodings of the Wrath to come The Miseries he feels in this World are but as the Beginnings of his eternal Sorrows and while he continues in his Rebellion against God he can expect nothing but new Expresses of his Indignation here and to be doom'd to the Portion of the Devil and his Angels at the Day of Judgment He only that has liv'd piously in this World can with any Comfort think upon a future State But to him that has led this First Life by the Rule of Religion and serv'd his Maker in Sincerity of Heart no Joy comparable to that which he experiences when he thinks of being dissolv'd and conducted to the Embraces of his Saviour in the Kingdom of Heaven where he shall be for ever with him and unspeakably happy in the Joy of his dear Lord. And thus much for the Value of Religion with Relation to this World It is the Parent of the most perfect Peace and Quietness Content and Satisfaction of Mind of a long and healthy Life here and of a comfortable Expectation of a glorious Immortality in the Regions of Blessedness And were this all that could be said of it I question not but to any considering Man it would appear to be a Jewel of inestimable Price that nothing the whole World can afford is comparable to it and that he is the wisest Man who with the Merchant in the Parable immediately parts with all that stands in Competition with Religion and would hinder him in the Performance of the Duties of it But this is far from all Godliness has not only a Promise of the Life that now is but also and chiefly of that which is to come And if it appears to be so inestimable a Treasure when we look no further than this Life what shall we think of it when we contemplate that exceeding Weight of Glory which shall be its Reward in Heaven The Happiness that will crown Religion in the other World springing from the same Fountain from whence do flow the Felicities of God himself i. e. it consisting in an intimate View and full Enjoyment of the Beauties and Perfections of the Divine Nature for so St. John 1 Joh. 3.2 We shall see God as he is It must needs be inexpressible Nay the very Contemplation of it is too bright for Minds darkned with Flesh the Splendors of it flash too strongly upon our feeble Sense now we are in the Body and too long and closely gaz'd on will rather dazle than enlighten our Understandings No Mortal Man can see God's Face and live and therefore most true is that of the Apostle Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard 1 Cor. 2.9 neither can it enter into the Heart of Man to conceive the things that God hath reserv'd for those that love him Indeed this includes all that can possibly be imagin'd of Excellence and much more than we poor ignorant benighted Creatures can imagin For God is the Fountain of Being and consequently of Perfection All that is charming and truly desirable in Nature to our Senses or to our Understandings in the visible or invisible Creation is but a Stream from this divine Fountain and is in him ininfinitely greater Excellency For he is Beauty and Goodness and Harmony it self And therefore since Religion will bring us to such a Happiness as the Vision and Enjoyment of this chief Good what can compare with it for Value The Depth says 't is not in me and the Sea says 't is not with me Man knoweth not the Price thereof neither is it found in the Land of the Living It cannot be valued with the Gold of Ophir with the precious Onyx or the Saphire no mention shall be made of Coral or Pearls for the Price of Wisdom is above Rubies Job 28.13 c. Such then being the Excellency of Religion that it is above all things conducive to the Happiness of Man in this World and will bring him to the Enjoyment of God himself to eternal Ages when this short Life is ended and the whole that the World can afford amounting to no more by the Confession of one that enjoy'd it all to the Full than Emptiness and Disappointment Vanity and Vexation of Spirit here and if the Word of God be true an eternal Banishment from the supreme Good shall at last be their Punishment who love this worthless World more than Religion and their Maker These things being duly weighed and considered let any Man in his Wits say which is of greatest Value Religion or
Scripture exhorts us to walk worthy of our holy Profession Ephes 4.1 Phil. 1 2â— and to have our Conversation as becomes the Gospel of Christ And agreeably said our Lord to the Seventy Disciples whom he sent as Harbingers to the Places whither he himself intended to come he that despiseth you despiseth me and 't is in some Proportion true of all other sincere Believers Christianity is a most honourable Profession and what David said to Saul when he offered him his eldest Daughter to Wife for his great Services â— Sam. 18.18 who am I and what is my Life or my Fathers Family in Israel that I should be Son in-law to a King may with infinitely greater Reason be said by every true Christian who am I and what is my Life that I should be taken into the nearest Relation to the eternal Son of the Majesty of Heaven and Earth No Title comparable to this no Relation so much to be glori'd in nor any Care too great to live up to so august a Character But In the last place the Gospel intitles Believers as to a Participation in some Degree of the Honour of Christ so likewise of his Glory and Happiness And as a Husband is to provide for his Wife suitable to his own Quality and make her a Sharer in his Happiness and Prosperity so will Christ confer upon sincere Believers a plentiful Share of his Glories and Felicities in Heaven Thus John 14.2 3. a little before his Passion in my Father's House says he are many Mansions and I go to prepare a Place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you to my self that where I am there ye may be also And in that solemn Prayer to his heavenly Father John 17.22 The Glory says he which thou gavest me I have given them and Vers 24. Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold thy Glory which thou hast given me i. e. may share in the Beatifick Vision which is the Summit of all Happiness And Rom. 8.17 St. Paul says we are joint Heirs with Christ and if we suffer with him i.e. still continue faithful Believers notwithstanding the Discouragements and Temptations of the World we shall be glorified together And 1 Cor. 14.23 Christ is call'd the first Fruits of a glorious Resurrection to immortal Bliss which supposes a general Harvest to follow Christ the first Fruits afterwards those that are Christ's at his coming For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a Shout with the Voice of the Arch-Augel and with the Trump of God and the Dead in Christ shall be raised first then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the Clouds and so shall we ever be with the Lord 1 Thes 4.16.17 And if to all this we add that this intimate Union of Believers with Christ as of a Wife with her Husband and these immense Privileges that are consequent upon it will be everlasting that nothing can put a-sunder whom God has in infinite Mercy joyn'd thus close together but our wilful Unfaithfulness to this our divine Husband As it will make up the Account of the Wonders of God's Love to the Children of Men and should in Return make us all over Love and Gratitude to that good God who hath done such great things for us so it should make us exceeding careful upon no Considerations whatever to divorce our selves from this our glorious Husband but for ever pay all possible Love and dutiful Obedience to him Which brings me in the next Place to shew that as the Gospel effects the same Relation between Christ and Believers as Marriage does between a Man and his Wife and intitles to the like Privileges so it obliges likewise to the like Duties And first As a Wife is bound to bear unspotted Love and Fidelity to her Husband so is every Believer bound to demean himself towards Christ That is to love him above all things and to be intirely his not to suffer his Affections to wander after strange Loves such as the World and the Vanities of it not to be debauch'd by the Devil and his Temptations and share his Heart between Christ and Belial But since his Maker is his Husband Isa 54.5 as the Prophet Isaiah expresses it to be intirely faithful to him and admit no Creature to that Dearness of Affection which he alone should have For this is that Crime which the Scripture calls spiritual Fornication and Adultery and which St. Paul told the Corinthians he began to fear they were guilty of I am jealous over you says he with a Godly Jealousie for I have espous'd you to one Husband that I may present you as a chaste Virgin unto Christ But I fear lest by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his Subtilty so your Minds should be corrupted from the Simplicity or Purity and Integrity that is towards Christ 2 Cor. 11.1 2. This is that Fornication for which Christ will give us a Bill of Divorcement and for ever put us away from him depart from me ye cursed c. Mat. 25.41 This is in a spiritual Sense to take the Members of Christ and make them the Members of an Harlot and these spiritual as well as carnal Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge And therefore as much as it concerns us to continue in this near and dearest Relation to Christ which is attended with such inestimable Privileges so much it concerns us to bear an intire and unspotted Love to him for he hath hought us with a Price therefore we should glorifie him in our Bodies and our Spirits which are his Secondly As a Wife is bound to submit her self to her Husband to comply with his Government and reverence his Person and Authority so and much more is every Believer bound to do to Christ That is to be satisfied with the Disposals of his Providence to submit to his Guidance and Conduct to reverence all the Expresses of his good Pleasure to be in Subjection to his holy Discipline to have one Will with him the same Likes and Dislikes and in no Case to oppose or resist his Sovereign Authority This is no more than what the Apostles command from a Woman to her Husband as every one that has read their Writings knows very well and that though they are both alike frail sinful Mortals much more then ought we to be subject and bear the profoundest Reverence to Christ our Saviour who is the King of Glory the Son of God who upholds all things by the Word of his Power and sits on the right Hand of the Majesty on high whom all the Angels of God worship and who besides is most tender and affectionate to us and his Government directed by infinite Wisdom Thirdly As a Wife ought not only to be subject to the Disposals of her Husband and
passively obedient but likewise actively so and ready chearfully to obey his Commands so ought every Believer to be to Christ Indeed this is the main Tryal of true conjugal Affection and is the best Demonstration of the Sincerity of all other Shews of Love and Fidelity and Reverence and Submission For where true Love Reverence and Submission is a chearful Obedience will surely follow and on the contrary where there is no willing chearful Obedience there is but very little if any sincere Affection And therefore says our dear Lord if ye love me keep my Commandments And why call ye me Lord Lord and do not the things that I say And of Sarah 't is said she obey'd Abraham as well as call'd him Lord. And St. John agreeably 1 John 2.5 whoso keepeth his Word in him verily is the Love of God perfected and hereby know we that we are in him And therefore Obedience to the Commands of this our glorious Husband is above all things necessary to continue that our near Relation to him and his Commandments are not grievous but his Yoke is easie and his Burthen light And 't would be strange if we should not obey him who commands us nothing but what is in its own Nature necessary in order to our Happiness in both Worlds In the last place the Gospel is productive of like Effects to those of Marriage and from this so near Relation of Believers to Christ proceeds the Increase of such as shall be the Children of God a numerous Progeny to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven and fill up the Vacancies left by the Fall of the rebellious Angels Thus our Lord calls the becoming Christian 's a being born again John 3.3 and teaches us when we pray to God to say Our Father And St. Paul agreeably in a Quotation from the Prophet Jeremiah says as in the Person of God I will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters saith the Lord Allmighty 2 Cor. 6.18 And the Jerusalem which is from above or the Christian Church is said to be the Mother of us all Gal. 4.26 and Chap. 3.26 we are all the Children of God by Christ Jesus And if Children then Heirs Heirs of God and joynt Heirs with Christ of that glorious Kingdom of his which is not of this World but eternal in the Heavens Well therefore may we cry out with Admiration as St. John does 1 John 3.1 Behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestow'd upon us that we should be call'd the Sons of God! And every Man that hath this Hope in him of being receiv'd into the Bosom of his heavenly Father and seeing him as he is must purifie himself even as he is pure And having such glorious Expectations cleanse himself from all Filthyness both of Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holyness in the Fear of God 2 Cor. 7.1 This then is the Nature of the Gospel 't is as a Marriage between Christ and Believers There is one thing more to be consider'd under this first General namely who they are that are admitted to the Joys and Happiness of this blessed Condition They are describ'd in the Parable by the poor and the maim'd the halt and the blind And truly just such was Man's Condition before God was pleased to call him to this happy Marriage Despicably poor we were and destitute of any real Excellency that could recommend us to the Favour of God our Souls were like a parch'd and barren Wilderness burnt up with vile Lusts and Passions no Fruits of Holiness appearing but drawing still nearer and nearer to everlasting Perdition Maim'd we were in all our Faculties by our frequent desperate Falls from our Obedience to God and full of Wounds and Bruises and putrifying Sores and our best Performances very lame and imperfect like the Haltings of a Cripple and our Understandings withall blinded by the Deceitfulness of Sin which put out that Candle of the Lord and made it uncapable of directing us in the right Way that leads to Happiness so that we lay groping in the Dark surrounded with Terrors rack'd by Uncertainties miserably poor and indigent and utterly unable to help our selves When lo There arose up a Light in this Darkness and through the infinite Mercy of our God the Day-spring from on high did visit us we were pitied and commiserated by the Father of Mercies and in this forlorn Condition call'd to partake of the ineffable Joys and Felicities that attend the nearest and dearest Relation to the Son of God The Lord anointed him to preach the Gospel to the poor he sent him to heal the broken-hearted to preach Deliverance to the captives and Recovery of Sight to the blind and to set at Liberty them that are bruised Luke 4.18 And accordingly he inrich'd our Poverty restor'd our Sight heal'd our Bruises and confirm'd our Strength and of his Fulness have we all receiv'd and nothing for the Future can ever make us miserable but our selves Wherefore as we should adore and magnifie with all our Souls the wondrous Goodness and Compassion of God and our Saviour in receiving such wretched polluted Creatures as we were by Nature into so intimate a Relation to himself and making us Partakers of the Comforts of his blessed Spirit in this World and providing Crowns of Glory for us in the next So above all things should we dread to fall back into the same Condition again and work out our Salvation with Fear and Trembling For otherwise 't would have been better for us never to have tasted of the divine Compassion in so extraordinary a Manner as we have done and our latter End will be worse than our Beginning And thus much for the first thing to be consider'd in this Parable namely the Nature of the Gospel or Christian Religion represented by the Marriage of a King's Son and the poor and the maim'd the halt and the blind being call'd in to partake of the Joys and Festivities of that great Solemnity I proceed now to the Second thing to be consider'd namely God's great Care in having this Gospel preach'd this Religion publish'd and made known to all Men and his repeated Invitations to all Men to embrace it represented by that King 's sending forth his Servants to call those that were bidden to the Wedding and again sending other Servants and commanding them to tell those that were bidden that he had prepar'd and made all things ready and therefore to urge them to come unto the Marriage How great God's Care has been that this Gospel should be publish'd and how repeated his Invitations to Men have been that they would embrace it is evident from the whole Story of the first planting of the Gospel and from the Course that by God's Appointment has been taken ever since At first many were endow'd with very extraordinary Abilities for this Purpose such as the Gift of Tongues whereby they were enabled wherever they should go to preach the Gospel to Men
obstinate Infidelity and their murdering their Saviour was to urge the Jewish Christians to a Preparation and watchful Care against that Time of Sorrows and that they would be so wise as to make Provision for their Safety by being very careful that that Time surprize them not in wicked Courses but that living like faithful Disciples of Christ in all Obedience to his holy Commands his Providence might watch over them and secure them from perishing in that dreadful Destruction Though this might be the first Intention of this Parable yet I suppose it designed likewise to represent the Necessity of Men's constant Preparation for Death and Judgment by a sedulous Care and Watchfulness over themselves and diligent Practice of all religious Duties and Obligations Because 't is very uncertain when God will summon any of us to leave this World and appear before his just Tribunal and his Call may be very suddain and unexpected and because the Consequence of being unready and not fit to obey it will be inexpressibly miserable Watch therefore says our Lord in the Conclusion of this Parable for ye know neither the Day nor the Hour when the Son of Man cometh In my Discourse upon this Parable thus understood I shall do two things First I shall give a particular Interpretation of the Parable and shew how aptly expressive it is of the Sense our Lord couch'd under it And Secondly I shall urge that upon the Practice of Christians which is express'd by it namely that they would watch and be ready because they know not the Day nor the Hour First I shall give a particular Interpretation of this Parable and shew how aptly expressive it is of the Sense our Lord couched under it The Parable is an Allusion to a Custom among the Jews of the Friends and Neighbours of the Bridegroom when there was a Wedding conducting him to the Bride-Chamber with Songs and burning Lamps and partaking of an Entertainment that was prepar'd for them and shutting the Door when the Bridegroom was enter'd to keep out the intruding Rabble and afterwards admitting none that were not ready to attend him at the Hour he came which was uncertain And the Sense which our Lord couch'd under this Representation is this That 't is highly necessary every Christian should be always ready and prepar'd by a holy Life to attend the Call of Christ whenever he shall summon him out of this World by Death in order to his final Judgment because the Time of that great Summons is so very uncertain and eternal Happiness or Misery respectively depends upon Men's being prepar'd or not prepar'd for it Now how aptly and movingly expressive this Parable is of this Sense will appear from the following Interpretation of it By the Virgins in the Parable is represented the Society of Christians those that profess to believe in and to be Disciples of the holy Jesus who like Virgins ought to be pure and spotless innocent and modest and humble solâ— and temperate in all things pious and devout and the like And as the Want of these or any of these good Qualifications is to a Virgin the greatest Blackening and Disparagement so the Want of them in Christians is likewise the greatest Dishonour to them exposes them to the Scorn and Contempt of God and all good Men renders them unworthy of that holy Name by which they are call'd and defiles and stains those Souls which Christ purified with his precious Blood that they might be his own Peculiar zealous of good Works By half of those Virgins being wise and half foolish is represented the great Difference there is among those that go under the same general Character of Christians some vain and idle careless and unthoughtful taken up with the Gaieties and Follies of the World lavish of their Reputation and loose in their Conversation and Behaviour while others are so wise as to consider the Character they bear and live as those that make Profession of Holiness that is with Care and Circamspection Watchfulness and a diligent and attentive Piety That so they may preserve their Honour and the Dignity of their Profession inviolate and unstain'd and be presented as chaste Virgins unto Christ that divine Bridegroom whenever he shall come By the Lamps of those Virgins is expressed the Souls of Christians which are to burn with holy Fires of Love and Devotion to God and their Saviour and make them as so many Lights in this dark and benighted World for ye are the Light of the World says our Lord to his Disciples therefore let your Light so shine before Men that they may see your good Works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven Mat. 5.14 16. That is as the Souls of Christians are illuminated by the Spirit of him who is the Father of Lights and in whom is no Darkness at all as they are warm'd by his Influences who descended upon the Apostles in the Likeness of Fire and have divine Affections by his holy Breathings inkindled in them so they should influence the whole Man and make those that name the Name of Christ like so many burning and shining Lights in the Midst of a crooked and perverse Generation so many eminent Examples of Piety and real Goodness such as by theis own Practice should recommend their most hloy Religion and set before Men's Eyes the Beauty of Holiness by their own Conversation By the Bridegroom whom these Virgins with their Lamps went forth to meet is represented our dear Saviour that heavenly King 's divine Son for whom he made so glorious a Marriage in the Parable I last discours'd of where the Reasons why the Gospel is compar'd to a Marriage and our Lord to a Bridegroom are particularly insisted on And by going forth to meet this divine Bridegroom is signifyed our preparing against his calling us from this World by Death and providing against his Advent to Judgment that is by frequently contemplating our Mortality reflecting on the Shortness and Uncertainty of Life and therefore making the best Use of our Time while we have it as not knowing how soon our Breath may be required of us and because after Death comes Judgment therefore endeavouring to make ready our Accounts by frequent Self-Examination and from the serious Consideration of the Terrors of that great Day and the severe Scrutiny into our Thoughts as well as Words and Actions that we must then undergo collecting with S. Peter 2 Pet. 3.11 what manner of Persons we ought to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness that we may be found of the great Judg in Peace and as Virgins without Spot and blameless By the Oyl in the Virgins Lamps and which they took with them in their Vessels when they went to meet the Bridegroom is represented the Graces and Vertues of Christianity which are the proper Nourishment of the Soul that Lamp of the Lord as Solomon calls it and will brighten and enliven it as Plenty of Oyl does a
necessary Advice even to the best Man living be watchful and strengthen the things that remain which are ready to die for I have not found thy Works perfect before God And what our Lord says Rev. 16.15 deserves to be seriously consider'd Behold I come as a Thief blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his Garments lest he walk naked and they see his Shame By a Cry being made at Midnight behold the Bridegroom cometh go ye forth to meet him is very lively and movingly represented how unexpectedly the Day of Judgment shall surprize the drouzy World and how suddain for any thing we can tell to the contrary the Time of our Death may be which is to us the Forerunner of it Midnight is a Time of great Silence and destin'd to Rest and a Forgetfulness of the Toils and Troubles of the Day and then suddain Outcries and Alarums are doubly scaring and affrighting and seize with an inexpressible Confusion Horror and Consternation And thus when Men are in the Midst of their Wickedness that spiritual Night employ'd in Deeds of Darkness given up to Ease and Luxury and forgetful of the great Business of working out their Salvation then shall that Time of Sorrows steal upon them as a Thief in the Night the terrifying Cry shall be made behold the great Judge of the World cometh go ye forth to meet him For when they shall say Peace and Safety says the Apostle Then suddain Destruction cometh upon them as Travail upon a Woman with Child and they shall not escape 1 Thes 5.3 Then shall the Kings of the Earth and the great Men and the rich Men those that were thought happy upon Earth instead of going out to meet this Judg hide themselves in Dens in Rocks and Mountains and say to the Mountains and Rocks fall on us and hide us from the Face of him that sitteth on the Throne and from the Wrath of the Lamb for the great Day of his Wrath is come and who shall be able to stand Rev. 6.15 16 17. And no wonder if a guilty Wretch dreads to go meet his angry Judg and all on the suddain with all his Stains and Pollutions about him appear before his Tribunal who hateth Iniquity and into whose Presence no unclean thing can enter And who is a consuming Fire to those who by their obstinate Impieties have provoked him to become their Enemy And since all this is so a Man of any Thought and that has any Apprehension of the sad Condition of being thus surpriz'd and hurried into the other World by so quick and unforeseen a Summons which no Man is sure shall not be his Case since many have been call'd away with little or no Warning that have no more expected than we do now a Man of any Thought and Apprehension of things will surely be mov'd by such Considerations to shake off that fatal Drouziness which too easily besets him and by a constant Attendance to his Duty and Preparation for his Departure hence be ready chearfully to obey his great Master's Call whether at Even or at Midnight or at the Cockcrowing or in the Morning lest coming suddainly he find him sleeping By the wise Virgins arising and trimming their Lamps when that Midnight Cry was made is represented the more than ordinary Care that even good Persons ought to take when by Age or the Violence of any Distemper the Time of their Departure hence seems to be near approaching to enliven their Piety and by putting a Recruit of Oyl into their Lamps acquiring new Degrees of Sanctity and warming their Souls with greater Ardors of Devotion and holy Love prepare to go chearfully to meet their Lord. Then is the Time when every sincere Christian should endeavour to adorn his Soul with all the Graces of the holy Religion he professes to improve every remaining Minute of his Time to this best of Purposes to redeem the many Hours formerly mispent in Vanity and Folly and by frequent Contemplation of the infinite Glory Sanctity and Bliss of that heavenly World to which he then so sensibly draws near inflame his Defires of being at the End of his wearisom Journey to it and fit himself for the spiritual unspotted Enjoyments of that happy Place by having as little Commerce as is possible with this World below and have his Conversation in Heaven which will so quickly be the Place of his everlasting Abode By the foolish Virgins saying to the wise give us of your Oyl for our Lamps are gone out is represented the Want of Preparation among the careless and inconsiderate for this so great and suddain Change and their mighty Consternation upon it and the vain and insignificant Courses they will take in their Surprize to make up if possible their own Defects by borrowing of others that have Souls better furnish'd with Piety than theirs And by the wise answering not so lest there be not enough for us and you and bidding them go rather and buy for themselves is shewn that 't is utterly groundless to expect at that great Day of Retribution when every Man shall be rewarded according to his own Works to fare the better for the Sanctity of others and that every Man has enough to do to work out his own Salvation and must keep his Lamp alive with his own Oyl must nourish his Soul with his own Vertue for there was never nor ever shall be any meer Man so holy and excellent but must return this same Answer as the wise Virgins did to such as should beg them to bestow some of their Vertues or Merits upon them not so lest there be not enough for our selves and you And if this be true what will become of the Popish Doctrin of Works of Supererrogation If the best Man in the World has but Vertue enough to secure his own Condition and that through infinite Mercy too and upon Account of the all-sufficient Merits of Christ where is there any left for him to bestow upon others But this is one of those doctrins that bring much Mony into their Coffers and therefore right or wrong they 'l be sure to maintain it By the Bridegroom's coming while those foolish Virgins went about so unlikely an Employment as then immediately to furnish their Lamps with Oyl which before were unregarded and suffer'd to go out and the Door before they were provided being shut is represented the Invalidity generally speaking of a Death-Bed Repentance that 't is too late to begin to be good when the Bridegrom comes and those that would enter with him into the Marriage Chamber must be ready and prepar'd by a previous Course of holy Living and that for some considerable Time This Hurry of the foolish Virgins at that Time to get Oyl for their Lamps was only the Effect of the Terrors of that Midnight Call had it not been for that they would have drouz'd on still in their thoughtless Way of living and in all Probability had it prov'd a false Alarm they
another and shews what wretched Shifts Ill Men are put to to palliate their great Neglect of their Duty to their Master as appears by his Lord 's answering and saying Thou wicked and slothful Servant thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not thou oughtest therefore to have put my Money to the Exchangers that at my coming I might have receiv'd my own with Usury By which is represented the Necessity of Mens improving their Talent for that very Reason were it true which they are apt to plead in Excuse for their slothful Negligence For to him that looks upon God as so austere a Being there is more than ordinary Obligation to improve what he has committed to his Trust for that Purpose And because a Man esteems God as an hard and severe Master therefore to be idle and negligent in his Service is a very preposterous Course and looks as if he had a mind to provoke his Anger against him But indeed This is the Truth God is so very far from being an unreasonably severe Master that He is a most indulgent Parent and commands nothing but what is very practicable and highly conducive to the Good and Happiness of his Creatures which should create a Filial Love and Reverence in us towards him rather than a slavish Dread But however he is not so unreasonably fond neither as to pass by the Provocations of obstinate irreclaimable Rebels and clear those that are Impenitent as well as Guilty that have heinously offended him and yet take no care to amend and recover his Favour Though he does not reap where he did not sow nor gather where he did not strew yet he expects a due Improvement of what he commits to our Charge and is ready likewise proportionably to reward our Industry And this is apt indeed to quicken and encourage us in our Duty but by no means to scare and affright us from it For nothing can be more reasonable than for God to expect we should improve what he bestows upon us for that very end and that we should obey those Commands of His which are so highly reasonable in themselves and which he likewise assists us to perform Let no Man therefore say God is an unreasonably rigid Master and his Commands intolerable Burdens for 't is abominably false as will appear more fully in the Sequel But were it true it would be no Excuse for Sloth and Idleness in his Service much less for wholly deserting it but rather an Argument for double Care and Diligence in it By the Lord of that Slothful Servant commanding his One unimprov'd Talent to be taken from him and given to him who by his Industry had improv'd his Five Talents to Ten is represented God's depriving those of his Grace and the Assistances of his Holy Spirit who so much neglect it and make no use of it to the great Enas for which it was given them viz. His Glory and Their own Happiness and making still greater Additions of his Grace to such as have well improv'd their former Stock And by his commanding the Unprofitable Servant to be cast into Outer Darkness where shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth is express'd their Deplorable Condition in the Regions of eternal Misery and Despair who make no Improvement of the Talents committed to them the Deprivation of Grace in this World being a certain Forerunner of Perdition in the other It nearly concerns therefore every Man carefully to improve the Talent committed to him because unto every one that hath shall be given and he shall have Abundance but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath This Parable thus interpreted affords us these Six Heads of Discourse First That God gives sufficient Grace to every sensible Christian wherewith to work out his Salvation Secondly That God expects from every Man that he should improve what Grace he has receiv'd and that proportionably to the Measure in which it was given him and make use of it to the Ends for which it was given Thirdly That there will be a Time when our Lord will come to take Account of Men's Improvement of the Grace that was given them and reward every Man according to his Deserts Fourthly That there shall be Degrees of Men's Happiness or Misery in the other World according to the Degrees of their Improvement or Negligence and Carelessness in this Fifthly That 't is abominably False and Impious to charge God as being unreasonably rigid and severe in taking this Account of Men's Improvement and expecting to find a Good Use made of what he committed to their Trust And Lastly That the Condition of the Diligent will be unspeakably happy and that of the Unprofitable unspeakably miserable and that both in this World and the next First God gives sufficient Grace to every sensible Christian wherewith to work out his Salvation I say to every sensible Christian because I would confine my Discourse to the State of such as are Christians and such of them as have the Use of their Senses and their Reason For as for those that are out of the Pale of Christ's Church though Charity will incline us to hope well of them and that God's Mercy will extend even to Heathens that never yet heard of the Gospel of Christ and his Spirit assist them to live according to that Natural Law written in the Heart of every Man yet we can determine nothing in this Case with Relation to them and have nothing else to do but to leave them to the Infinite Mercy of God and pray for their Conversion And as for such as have been receiv'd into the Fold of Christ and have afterwards prov'd Idiots and without the Use of their Reason their Case is likewise wholly in the Dark to us and though we need not question but God's Infinite Goodness will incline him to pity their Deplorable Condition yet which Way he will express his Mercy to them we must not presume to say Hidden things belong to God the reveal'd are for us and our Children Among which I take this to be one That God gives sufficient Grace to every sensible Christian wherewith to work out his Salvation And here not to enter into the Endless and most Abstruse Dispute about Predestination which the less Men trouble their Heads about the better 't is for 'em in all Respects I shall only urge two or three plain Places of Scripture to confirm this Position and add to 'em one as plain Reason The Places of Scripture are first that in 2 Pet. 3.9 where the Apostle says that God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance to which is agreeable that of St. Paul to Timothy 1 Epist 2.4 God will have or desires that all Men should be sav'd and come to the Knowledge of the Truth Now the next Scripture I will quote which is 2 Cor. 3.5 tells us That we are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing as
he is 1 Joh 3.2 and St. Paul by seeing him face to face and knowing him even as we are known 1 Cor. 13.12 And since the Misery of the Wicked in Hell consists in an eternal Banishment from his Divine Presence for so the Sentence runs that shall be pass'd upon them at the Day of Judgment Depart from me ye Cursed c. Upon these Accounts it seems to them most agreeable to Truth that All the Just being admitted to the Beatifick Vision of God should be equally Happy and All the Wicked being for ever exil'd to him should be equally Miserable But this Argument in my Apprehension is so far from destroying the Doctrine of the Degrees of Happiness and Misery in Heaven and Hell that I think 't is rather the best Supporter of it For since 't is very true that the Happiness of Heaven consists in the Beatifick Vision of God and the Misery of Hell in an eternal Banishment from him and since 't is as true that some good Men in this Life approach nearer to him and see more of his Excellencies and bear a greater Resemblance to him than others and so become capable of a more intimate Vision of him in Heaven and some bad Men on the contrary wander to a greater distance from him here and become more unlike him by their great Impieties than other Sinners do and so become more incapable of that pure and holy Vision than others that are less wicked Since this is so methinks it should be most agreeable to Truth that those that were the Holiest Men here should be the Happiest Saints in Heaven as bearing a nearer Resemblance to the Divine Nature and consequently capable of a more close and intimate Vision of him and that those who by their great Impiety beyond other Men were most estranged from God here should be banish'd farthest from him in the Regions of Despair and Darkness as being the most hateful to him because the most unlike nay contrary to him and the most uncapable of seeing and enjoying him and consequently feel the most exquisite Pangs of Horror and Despair the hottest Boilings of Rage and Impatience and most bitter Remorse of Soul for bringing this most miserable Condition upon themselves when once they might with much Ease and Pleasure have avoided it and been for ever happy in the Vision and Enjoyment of God Indeed as to plain Proof from Scripture of the Degrees of Misery in Hell I must confess I cannot recollect any and would by no means strain God's Word beyond its due Extent but as to Degrees of Glory and Happiness in Heaven I think there are several Places of Scripture that plainly enough establish that Doctrine of which I shall mention but one and that because 't is part of a Parable exactly the same in the concealed sense of it with that I am now discoursing upon only something differently related by S. Luke 'T is in the 19th Chapter the 15th and 4 following Verses where we find when the King came to take Account of his Servants Improvement of what he left in their Hands to trade with in his Absence he exactly proportion'd every Man's Recompense to the Increase he made of what was committed to his Charge to him that had gain'd Ten Pounds with the Pound his Lord left with him was given Authority over as many Cities and so to him that had gain'd Five proportionably Authority over Five Which I think can mean no less than this that where there is different Degrees of Mens Improvement of Grace in this World there shall be as different Degrees awarded of Glory and Happiness in Heaven and there being great Difference between the Degrees of Christians Improvement here there will be as great Difference in the Degrees of their Happiness hereafter And though every Saint in Heaven shall have as clear and intimate Vision and Enjoyment of God as he is capable of and partake in an agreeable Measure of the Happiness that will flow from such Vision and Enjoyment and be as Happy as 't is possible for him to be yet the Capacity of every Saint will not be equal Some Souls will be more enlarg'd than others and able to receive more Rays of the Divine Glory and so though every of those Vessels of Honor shall be full yet all will not hold alike and one Star there will differ from another Star in Glory 'T is true indeed that the Mind of every good Man shall then be clarified and refined purg'd from the Dross and Soil contracted during its Residence in the Flesh and rendred more agile and expedite in the Exercise of its several Faculties and its Knowledge and Love of God vastly improved But that Souls of less Improvement here shall immediately upon their Departure from the Body receive extraordinary new Additions to equalize them to those of higher Attainments is hard to imagine and would mightily discourage the generous Endeavours of Heroick Piety and Exemplary Religion But when every Man shall in that glorious Kingdom above be rewarded according to the Degrees of his Piety and a great Love to God and zealous Prosecution of the Interest of Religion and an eminent Sanctity shall be crown'd with a more than ordinary Glory and Felicity in Heaven 't will mightily encourage a holy Soul to forget with St. Paul the things that are behind and press on to what is still before always aiming at still greater Degrees of Perfection till Mortality shall be swallow'd up of Life The Improvement of this Speculation to Practice is this That since the Degrees of Glory and Happiness in Heaven shall be answerable to the Degrees of Mens Holiness and Improvement of their Talents upon Earth we would run with Diligence the Race that is set before us and gird up the Loins of our Mind and set our selves to the Performance of every thing that is well-pleasing in the sight of God with Cheerfulness and not pretend Difficulty when the Reward is so exceeding great and shall be proportion'd to the Degrees of our Vertue For can we be too happy Can we be too like God Can our Crown be too glorious and resplendent Away then with that mean-spirited Religion which thus lessens and confines our Happiness let us unfold our Hands and pluck them out of our Bosoms and encourage our selves in a vigorous Pursuit of an excellent Piety forasmuch as we know that our Labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Fifthly In the next Place I am to shew that 't is abominably false and impious with the Unprofitable Servant in the Parable to charge God with being unreasonably rigid and severe in taking so strict an Account of Mens Improvement of his Divine Grace and Assistances and expecting to find a good Use made of what he committed to their Trust That God is often charg'd with such unreasonable Severity by Men that care not to perform their Duty is too true to be question'd and such as love to indulge their vile
amends for If abundance of Gold and Silver would certainly make a Man wiser and better if 't would clear his Apprehension or strengthen his Memory or improve his Reasoning if 't would make him more prudent and discreet and of a riper Judgment if 't would increase Piety and Religion and promote a Godlike Frame of Spirit nay if 't would but so much as refine a Man's Temper and make him of more sweet and obliging Behaviour or regulate the Passions and Affections of the Soul and help him to Tranquility of Mind and cure Anger and Pride and Envy and Lust and Revenge or the like if abundance of Riches would work any of these good Effects 't would be worth while earnestly to desire them and industriously to endeavour to procure them But when 't is so far from this that the direct contrary is general observable in those that have greatest Riches in Possession it must I think be allow'd to be a very great Piece of Folly for a Man to endure so much for what when he has it will not countervail But though greedy Worldlings may own that great Riches have little or no Influence upon the Happiness and Improvement of the Inner Man yet because a Man has a Body as well as a Soul to take care of they are thus greatly desirous of much Wealth because 't will help them to the Enjoyment of much of this World's Happiness and acquire what will highly please and gratifie the Body as the Rich Man in the Parable said they may take their ease eat drink and be merry when they have much Goods laid up for many Years I shall therefore in the Second Place shew the folly of expecting even this World's Happiness from Abundance of Riches For besides that the Appetites of the Body are generally observed to be more sickly and deprav'd in rich than poorer Persons their Sleep worse rather than better than other Mens Eccl. 5.12 the Abundance of the Rich will not suffer him to sleep says Solomon but the Sleep of the Labouring Man is sweet eat he little or eat he much and that Health is much more a Stranger to the Rich than to the Meaner sort and the Pleasures of having a Body Vigorous and Active without the Encumbrance of Weakness and Diseases almost engross'd by the Labouring Poor Besides this which yet alone is enough to prove that 't is a folly to expect even this World's Happiness from Abundance of Riches for without Health which Luxury destroys the most of any thing there is no Taste or Relish in any other of its Enjoyments there is this One Reason more among others that will farther and I think evidently prove that 't is a very great Folly to expect to be happier even in this World by growing Richer and it is this That Riches are of all Things the most unsatisfying and the most perplexing Other Good Things of this World do in some sort satisfie and Men are often cloy'd with Pleasures have enough of Mirth and Jollity of Recreations and Diversions and the like and the Mind is for a while eas'd and refresh'd by them But as for Riches as they increase the Desire of still more increases proportionably nay rather disproportionably with them and 't was never yet known that a worldly-minded Man ever thought he had enough but that his Appetite grew keener after Wealth the more 't was fed with it And 't is not unusual to hear the greatest Complaints Murmurings and Repinings from the richest Men. And as for the Perplexity that attends Abundance of Wealth that likewise is as evident to common Observation The more a Man hath the more Care he must take to preserve it the more Quarrels and Law-Suits will he be embroil'd in and when there are Troubles and Commotions in the State and Times grow dangerous and uncertain then are the greatest Worldlings fullest of Fears and dreadful Apprehensions and not only real but imaginary Dangers terrifie their Unman'd Souls Things always appearing with the worst Aspect to their troubled Fancies who have made Gold their Deity and ty'd up their Happiness in their Bags And nothing certainly can be more perplexing to a Man's Mind than such great Fears of losing That in the possession of which his whole Happiness is concentred And accordingly Solomon who had great Possessions above All that were before him and gather'd him Silver and Gold in such Abundance that Silver was in Jerusalem common as the Stones in the Street 1 Kings 10.27 after all says he Eccles 5.10 11. He that loveth Silver shall not be satisfied with Silver nor he that loveth Abundance with Increase And what Good is there to the Owners thereof saving the beholding of it with their Eyes And even the Eye is not satisfied with seeing neither And St. Paul says very plainly That the Love of Money is the Root of all Evil and they that will be Rich fall into Temptation and a Snare 1 Tim. 6.9 10. and pierce themselves through with divers Sorrows and that Contentment with only Food and Raiment is a far greater Happiness And therefore good Reason had the Wisest King to say after all his Increase and the Abundance he had amass'd together that it was not only Vanity but Vexation of Spirit Eccles 2.11 Now that which can never satifie and as it increases increases a Man's Trouble and Perplexity which is true we see of Riches is no doubt far from conducing to a Man's Happiness in this World and therefore 't is a very great Folly for any Man to depend upon Abundance of Wealth for Happiness for 't is rather the Cause of much Trouble and Disquietude Or however God may suddenly deprive a rich Worldling of all he has by Death and say as in the Parable Thou Fool this Night shall thy Soul be required of thee then whose shall those Things be which thou hast provided For As we brought nothing into the World so 't is certain we can carry nothing out And thus much for the Folly of Immoderate Desire of Riches in Expectation of a Happy Life from Abundance I proceed now to shew The Vileness of this sort of Covetousness and of placing the Happiness of Life in great store of Wealth That 't is a very vile Thing for a Man immoderately to covet Riches and place the Happiness of his Life in Abundance of them will be very evident if we briefly consider what a Man is and what Abundance of Wealth is and what little or no proportion the one bears to the Dignity of the other A Man is a Creature endow'd with a Rational and Immortal Soul capable of Knowing Admiring Loving and Enjoying God who is the Supreme Good and the Centre of Felicity As a Christian he is an adopted Son of God Coheir with Christ of a Crown of Glory in the Eternal Kingdom of Heaven and design'd to participate of those Rivers of divine Pleasures that are at God's Right-hand for ever and ever As for
the Gospel What else should be the Reason of that strange Unconcernedness in the Worldly-minded though press'd never so home with the Necessity of minding Religion more and the World less of endeavouring before all Things to be rich towards God and to give of their Abundance to the Relief of the Poor and not to trust in uncertain Riches and the like They give us the Hearing perhaps and that 's All and go on still in their own Course as earnestly as ever and if they offer any thing in their Defence 't is so strangely weak that a Man can't but admire at it Sometimes we shall hear them say they don't know what Streights they may be reduc'd to yet before they dye and therefore they think it but Prudence to provide for the worst forgetting all the while that our Lord expresly forbids all such anxious Solicitude for the Morrow and commands an humble Trust in the Providence of God who never forsakes those that are moderately industrious and depend upon him for a Blessing and never reflecting upon the miserable Streight they will be in at the Day of Judgment if destitute of good Works and not able to give a sincere Account of their Stewardship Sometimes these Men will quote Scripture and tell us the Apostle says He that provides not for his own House is worse than an Infidel forgetting in the mean time the Words of the same Apostle in another Place that the Love of Money is the root of all Evil and those of our Saviour immediately before this Parable Take heed beware of Covetousness for a mans Life consisteth not in the Abundance of the Things which he possesseth And in Matt. 6.32 Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and all these Things shall be added unto you for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things 1 Cor. 6.10 Eph. 5.5 and that the Covetous are in the number of those that shall never see the Kingdom of Heaven Of all Vices that we reprove and warn Men against Covetousness and Worldly-mindedness we find to be most stubborn and irreclaimable and 't is very seldom indeed that we can stop a Man that is in a hot pursuit of Wealth so strangely bewitching is this Love of Money and more than ordinary destructive of a true Sense of Religion in the Soul And accordingly says our Lord How hard is it for a rich man one that makes a God of Riches and confides and trusts in them to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven 't is easier for a Camel to pass through the Eye of a Needle 'T is next door to an Impossibility and nothing but the Almighty Power of God changing his Heart can make him capable of that Happiness And St. Paul agreeably Not many rich not many mighty are call'd and the God of this World hath blinded the Eyes of those that believe not And the Pythagoreans by the meer Light of Nature were sensible of this and taught their Scholars a Separation from the Affairs of the World if they would Philosophize well and find out pure Truth and the Secrets of Wisdom Wherefore we see it highly concerns us to take no such Thought for the Morrow but endeavour to lay up a Treasure in Heaven because Where our Treasure is there will our Hearts be also Another very sad Consequence of an Immoderate Love of Riches is that it exposes a Man more than any Thing besides to Apostacy or falling from the Truth St. Paul 1 Tim. 6.9 says They that will be rich fall into Temptation and a Snare and more expresly in the next Verse The Love of Money is the root of all Evil which while some have coveted after they have erred from the Faith and the Event has often prov'd this true and the Hopes of gaining and the Fear of losing Riches has prevail'd with Thousands to turn Apostates to the Truth For the sake of a little Money 't was that Judas betray'd his Master and Saviour and to tempt with Money is a way of proceedure so very successful an Engine so almost irresistable that 't is made use of by all sorts that would gain Proselites to a Party and the great Tempter with much Confidence after his other Stratagems fail'd him made Offer of Riches to our Lord Himself as his best Reserve when he would perswade him to Fall down and Worship him And so unreasonable a Love have Worldly-minded Men for Wealth as to be and do any Thing at the Frowns or Promises of him who has Power to give or take away Riches This has been the Experience of all former Ages and too much of our own too and will still be so till Men grow so wise as to know how to be content with Food and Raiment and believe our Lord's Words that a mans Life consisteth not in the Abundance of the Things which he possesseth and that Godliness with Contentment is the greatest gain And therefore as much as it concerns Men to be constant in the Profession of the Truth of God that is as much as their Salvation is worth so much it concerns them to take heed and beware of Covetousness For 't is very true in more Senses than one that it is Idolatry Colos 3.5 Having thus shewn the great Folly and Vileness of an Immoderate Desire of Riches and of expecting the Happiness even of this Life from Abundance of Wealth and mention'd two very ill Consequences of this Covetousness I proceed now to the Third Thing I intended to do which is to Answer the Rich Fool 's Question that he proposed to himself upon the great Increase he had What shall I do because I have no room where to lay my fruits And shew how many good Ways there are of Disposing of Abundance Of all the Ways of bestowing what was more than his Barns would hold by which I suppose is express'd his having more than was needful to his own comfortable Subsistance Covetousness would let this Rich Man think of none but of Building New Barns wherein to lay up his Abundance and then to take his Ease and eat and drink and be merry He looked no farther than Himself and the more God's Blessings increas'd upon him the more he purpos'd to live in Luxury and Excess and Epicurize away that which God gave him to a quite different and much better Purpose Quod superat non est melius quo insumere possis Cur eget indignis quisquam te divite quare Templa Ruunt Antiqua Deum cur improbe chara Non aliquid Patriae tanto emetiris Acervo Horat. Serm. Lib. II. Sat. 2. For every Man whom God has blessed with Abundance is God's Steward of that Abundance and must bestow it according to the Will of his great Lord for so St. Peter in his first Epistle chap. 4. ver 10. As every man has receiv'd the Gift even so minister one to another as good Stewards of the manifold Grace of God Now the
to his Heavenly Father what rejoycing is there With what endearing Kindness does the Divine Goodness entertain a miserable self-condemn'd Wretch that sees his Error is asham'd and griev'd for it and returns with hearty Purpose to obey him better 'T is represented in the Parable by the highest Expressions of Joy that were in those Eastern Countries the Prodigal's Father ran to meet him fell on his Neck and kissed him commanded the best Robe to be put on him and a Ring on his Hand and Shooes on his Feet and made merry with Feasting and Musick and Dancing One would have thought his wild Extravagancy should have met with rougher Entertainment at least at first Interview and Reproof have been given to his Folly which brought him to so much Misery But his Father's Compassion was above his Anger and because he whom he thought was dead and lost was alive again and found he forgot all Resentment and embraced him with Tenderness and Endearment And thus it is with God when he sees a Returning Sinner Though the Sinner has indeed deserved nothing but the Expresses of his Wrath and Indignation and to be for ever rejected by him yet he who gives freely to every man and upbraideth not and whose Mercy is over all his Works will not break the bruised Reed nor quench the smoaking Flax but in infinite Goodness not only give Admittance to but receive with joy his Returning Prodigals And how can we enough praise and admire these Wonders of the Divine Compassion and Love to poor miserable and polluted Creatures 'T is an Abyss that can never be fathom'd our Thoughts are lost and swallow'd up in the Contemplation of it and silent Admiration does best express that which no Words can reach And now for a Conclusion of the whole Since Vice and a Lawless Course of Living is the Parent of so much Misery and has so many ill Consequences closely attending it even in this World and is as the most extravagant so the most unhappy Prodigality and since the Miseries of a wicked Life here are but the Beginnings of unconceivable and eternal Sorrows hereafter and since there is but one Cure for this great Evil and nothing but sincere Repentance will save us from Destruction and since God is so infinitely good as greatly to desire we would Repent and return to our Obedience to him and affords us all possible Helps in order to it and greatly rejoyces to see a Sinner penitent and receives him with the highest Expressions of Tenderness and Love since all this is so let us put off no longer what if we would be happy must be done at last but with the greatest Thankfulness embrace the inestimable Favour of being again receiv'd into the Arms of our merciful God and Saviour Let us immediately turn from every Evil Way and that we may do so effectually let us lay to heart how vexatious and full of Shame and utterly unprofitable a wicked Course of Life is and how full of Pleasure and unspeakable Delight it is to advance from Grace to Grace and to perfect Holiness in the fear of God And having resolv'd well and fully purposed our Return to the wise and good Government of our Heavenly Father without Delay do as we have resolv'd and arise and go to our Father and say with all Humility and Confusion of Face and sincere Contrition Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy Son and he whose Compassions never fail will embrace us with the Arms of his Mercy and forget our former Provocations and take us to his Favour and Protection in this World and at length make us Partakers of the Joys of his Heavenly Kingdom where there shall be Rejoycing in his Presence for our Happiness and Salvation Because we were dead but are alive again were lost but are found The PRAYER I. ALmighty and most merciful Saviour whose Government is directed by infinite Wisdom and proceeds in infinite Goodness so that happy are they in whose Hearts are thy Ways and that turn not aside from thy Commandments I confess with Shame and Confusion of Face and I hope with a truly humble penitent and obedient Heart that my vile Extravagancy and Impatience of thy blessed Restraint and Foolish Desire of Liberty and following the Byass of my own brutish Inclinations has hitherto been too notorious and sad have been the Consequences of my Departure from thee I have prodigally wasted thy Divine Grace and turn'd it into Wantonness I have squander'd away my Time in Vanity and Folly which is the only Opportunity of securing my Salvation and without Infinite Mercy have forfeited my Reversion of my Heavenly Inheritance and all this for what is below the Affections of a Rational Creature and indeed as I have found by a costly Experience no other than Vanity and Vexation of Spirit And just it is thou should'st withdraw thy Grace which I have so slighted and abused and leave my Soul to starve and famish and dayly draw nearer and nearer to Eternal Death But thou O Father of Mercies whose Compassions fail not and who desirest not the Death of a Sinner but rather that he should repent and live look graciously upon thy Returning Prodigal II. I now am sadly sensible of my deplorable Condition and beg importunately that I may so effectually hearken to the inward Shame and Remorse that now I feel for my past inexcusable Madness and Folly as that I may immediately return to my Obedience to thee my infinitely wise and indulgent Parent who art ready I know to stretch out thy Arms to receive me and to whose preventing Grace I owe these pious Resolutions of humbling my self before thee Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy Son make me but as one of thy meanest Servants I am now fully sensible that one Day in thy Courts is better than a Thousand and had rather be a Door-keeper in the House of my God than to dwell in the Tents of Ungodliness O continue to strengthen these good Affections in me and send out thy Light and thy Truth even thy Blessed Spirit that he may conduct me to thy Dwelling-Place and secure my Retreat from the Kingdom of Darkness O may I never defer what if I would be happy must be done at last but instantly Return to thee O Father of Compassions Then shall I experience the happy Exchange of Misery and Shame for Joy unspeakable and full of Glory and instead of being the Triumph of Malicious Fiends in Hell occasion extraordinary Joy in the Presence of thee my God and thy Holy Angels because I was dead but am alive again was lost but am found O Blessed God verifie this Bliss upon me for thy Mercies sake in Jesus our Redeemer Amen PARABLE XII Of the Rich Man and Lazarus Luke xvi 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31. There was a certain
rise and give him because he is his Friend yet because of his Importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth And the Application of this Parable is Ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be open'd unto you And the Reason why our Lord applies the first Parable to God's certainly avenging his Elect which cry Day and Night to him though he bear long with them I suppose to be with Dr. Hammond the great Discouragements his Disciples were then under by reason of the Malice of the Jews which made it necessary for him to keep up their Spirits by assuring them that God's not immediately hearkening to their Prayers by manifestly appearing in their Cause to protect them and punish their Enemies was no Argument that he wholly disregarded them but that if they persisted in their grateful Importunity he would at length answer their Desires For if Importunity be so prevalent even with Wicked Men how much more will it be so with the God of Mercy and Compassion 'T is plain then the chief Design of these Parables though differently worded and apply'd is to enforce the Necessity of frequent and earnest Prayer and therefore without any farther minute Explication of them they being so plain that they neither need nor will bear it I shall address my self to discourse upon what is couch'd under them and endeavour to evince the Necessity of Praying frequently and with Earnestness and Importunity That Prayer or a Liberty of making our Requests known unto God is a Privilege and Happiness inestimable no one that considers the Nature of God and the Nature of Man can question The latter a poor dependent Creature helpless and weak short-sighted and ignorant full of Wants and Necessities obnoxious to innumerable evil Accidents of unruly Passions and Affections the Hate and Envy of the Spirits of Darkness strongly prone to what is Evil and averse to what is Good the former a Being of infinite Fullness and Perfection infinitely wise and powerful and good the Maker of the Universe whose is the whole Creation and to whom every Thing that is obeys Now that this indigent helpless Creature should have such a Patron to make his Wants known to a Patron so inexhaustibly full so wise so able and so willing to direct and guide him to support and comfort him to protect and defend to relieve and succour him to have Freedom of Address to such a Patron as this is without all doubt a Privilege and Favour that no Man can sufficiently esteem And yet so unaccountably stupid and thoughtless are Men for the Generality What is more neglected nay despis'd than this invaluable Privilege As if they were full and had need of Nothing or were self-sufficient and could be their own Helpers when indeed they are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked In pity to this our doubly Forlorn Condition our Blessed Saviour the God of Compassions that if possible we might receive the full Benefit of so great a Favour and Divine Condescention has made this Privilege become our Duty and bound it upon us by the Commands of his Holy Institution encourag'd our Practice of it by his own Example and by Himself and his Apostles left such Directions for the more effectual Performance of it that every Man for the Future might be without Excuse if he either Pray'd not at all or to no purpose Among which Directions the Importunity recommended in this Parable and in that other before-mention'd so near of Kin to it is greatly to be regarded as that which will certainly if other Requisites are not wanting for there are others bring down a Blessing But because there are other Things requir'd both by our Lord and his Apostles in order to our Praying successfully besides Importunity I think it will not be amiss if I discourse more largely of this great and concerning Duty of Prayer than I could do if I strictly confin'd my self to the Bounds of this Parable and endeavour these three Things First To prove that Prayer is not only an inestimable Privilege but the Duty of every Christian Secondly To shew how far the Obligation to this Duty does extend And Thirdly What are the necessary Requisites that this Duty may be perform'd successfully First Prayer is not only the Privilege but the Duty of every Christian Watch and pray Mat 26.41 that ye enter not into Temptation was Our Lord's Charge to Peter and the two Sons of Zebedee in the Garden of his Agony and not to them only but to all others that are in their Circumstances i. e. in great Danger of being tempted and weak and unable of Themselves to make Resistance and that God knows we all of us are and therefore to all of us is this Command directed Ask and ye shall have seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be open'd unto you says the same Blessed Jesus immediately after one of the Parables before mention'd as if he had said God will be gracious and relieve your Necessities but 't is upon Condition you will lay your Wants before him and implore his Help according to that of S. James chap. 4. ver 2. Ye have not because ye ask not In the Sixth of Matthew our Lord has set us a Pattern of Prayer and commanded us to use it When ye pray say Our Father c. And he spake the Parable we are now discoursing on to this very purpose That men ought always to pray and not to faint and he himself was our Example too in this Matter and continued whole Nights in Prayer unto God and his Example in Things within our reach as assiduous Prayer is we are upon innumerable Accounts obliged to follow And as our Lord so his Apostles bind this upon us as our Duty Phil. 4.6 Col. 4.2 Eph. 6.18 1 Tim. 2.8 1 Thes 5.17 Thus S. Paul bids us in every thing by Prayer and Supplication with Thanksgiving to let our Requests be made known unto God and to continue in Prayer and watch in the same with all Perseverance and to Pray every where and without ceasing The Duty we see is sufficiently bound upon us by our Holy Religion 'T is plain and express and must as carefully be observ'd as any other Command so sollicitous is our good God for our Happiness as by all Means to bring us to the Practice of what will be so highly beneficial to us And where the Love of a Thing upon Account of its own Excellency and Serviceableness to our Selves will not attract our numbred senseless Souls there to goad and prick us on and even force us to it by Threats of Punishment if we refuse Good God! That Men should need haling to Felicity And that God should be so desirous of it as thus to take all Measures to bring us to it O the unaccountable Stupidity of Man and the unsearchable Riches of the Goodness of God! And what a
the Dangers of the Night past God's careful watching over us while we slept and lengthning out our Opportunity for Repentance and making Provision for a Better Life ought certainly to bring us upon our Knees in humble Adoration of that Good God in whom we live and move and have our Beings in humble Submission to his Providence for the Future and devout Oblation of our whole Selves and our whole Time to His Service who has continu'd to us Life and Health and all Things And since all our Sufficiency is of God and we can do no good Thing nor so much as think a good Thought without him to beg his Blessed Presence with us That he would work in us to will and to do according to his Good Pleasure That he would guide and protect us and bless and prosper our honest Undertakings and still continue to watch over us for Good That we may be undefil'd by the Temptations of the Day and look back with Comfort upon our Actions when we cast up our Accounts at Night 2. As for our Mid-day Devotions because we are then in the midst of the Dangers and Temptations of the Day beset on every side with Allurements to do Evil 't will highly concern us afresh to beg the Divine Aid and Support that we may stand upright If we have pass'd securely the former part of the Day it becomes us to pay our humble Acknowledgments to our Divine Guardian and Guide and if we have fallen it becomes us with Shame and Sorrow to confess our Vileness and deprecate God's Anger and beg his Grace that we may be more circumspect the Remainder of it And besides the Works of the Creation the wonderful Order of the Universe the Variety Beauty and Usefulness of the Creatures and the plentiful Provision God hath made for all our Necessities will then be very proper to engage our Thoughts and will minister abundant Matter for Devotion and be very apt to fill our Breasts with Holy Breathings and Aspirations towards that inexhaustible Fountain of Beauty and Perfection and Power infinite who by his Word spake all this into Being 3. And for Prayer at Evening our Protection from the many evil Accidents and the many great Blessings of the Day past the Miscarriages likewise and Failures of it if no worse and the Dangers of the approaching Night are sufficient Motives and Engagements to renew our devout Addresses to the Almighty And as private Prayer ought to be thus constant and without wilful Intermission so and more especially no Opportunity of praying to God in the publick Congregation should be omitted For this Attendance upon the publick Worship of God is that which is chiefly and primarily intended by the Apostles in what they wrote about this Duty of Prayer Most part of the first Epistle to the Corinthians is spent in giving Directions for the more decent Management of the publick Service of God and 1 Tim. 2.8 the Command of Praying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in every place and that Ephes 6.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon every opportunity must primarily relate to the publick as any capable Person may perceive by considering the Context And accordingly those Converts made by S. Peter Acts 2.42 Continu'd stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking Bread and in Prayers and v. 46. They continu'd daily in the Temple with one Accord and on the Day of Pentecost we find them all with one accord in one place Acts 2.1 And thus it was in all Ages of the Church till Iniquity abounded and the Love of many began to wax cold But methinks the Consideration of the great Advantages of these Publick Devotions above the Private should have some Influence upon us in order to our more constant Attendance at the places of Divine Worship for our Lord has expresly promis'd his peculiar Presence there and that the Prayers there offer'd shall be successful Thus Matt. 18.19 I say unto you says he that if two of you shall agree on Earth as touching any thing that they shall ask it shall be done for them of my Father which is in Heaven for where two or three are gather'd together in my Name there am I in the midst of them The Church is an Emblem of Heaven and the Congregation of the General Assembly of the First-born which are written there whose happy Employment is to Admire Adore and Extol the Infinite Mercy and Majesty of God for ever and ever and as there so here the Devotion of others will raise our Affections and their Zeal and Fervor quicken our Devotion To which purpose is that of the Apostle Heb. 10.24 25. Not forsaking the Assembling of your selves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and provoking to Love and Good Works by pious Example and devout Behaviour in the Church And the Blessing pronounc'd by the Minister at the Close of those publick Offices was in the Primitive Times thought a Thing of no mean Regard whatever low Thoughts Men now-a-days may have of it To this Head of Publick Prayer may be reduc'd the Assembling of a Family together to offer up their joint Petitions to God whether by the chief of the Family or by some Minister of Religion if present And this has been a Practice of very long standing and is of excellent Use It keeps a Family in a serious Sense of Religion it accustoms Youth to it betimes and is an excellent Example to Children and Servants who are apt to mark and imitate their Parents and Masters Steps more than they are aware of and Young People will be inclin'd to think there is something more than ordinary in Religion when they see those of whose Prudence and Experience they have an Opinion so seriously set about it The Returns of these Family-Devotions at the Beginning and Close of the Day ought not without good Reason to be omitted for they naturally tend to make People more Industrious and Just in their Dealings in the World as keeping up in their Minds a sense of their being in the Sight and Presence of a Just and Holy God and to prevent Abundance of Folly and Levity and Loosness of Manners and make the Days Sober and Honest and the Nights Innocent and Chaste And this appears evidently to be true in the great Difference any Man may discern between Families where this Holy Custom is and is not observ'd Idleness and Laziness Pilfering and Cheating Swearing and Lying Lewdness and Intemperance and Debauchery of all sorts generally where 't is neglected and good Order Modesty and Sobriety Diligence and Faithfulness where 't is observ'd For it tending so much as it evidently does to the making Men Good Christians it consequently must needs tend to the making them good in every Relation These solemn Family Devotions are likewise a very good preparation for the better performance of the more publick Offices in the great Congregation For they tend to create that habitual Seriousness
the World And which is the wisest Man he that ruins his Soul for the Gain of even the whole World or he that counts all these sublunary things as Dung in Comparison with Religion and is ready to part with all that this Earth can afford him for the Joys of a good Conscience here and the Glories of Heaven hereafter He that prefers the World in his Choice deprives himself of the greatest Comfort of this present Life and parts with the certain Reversion of eternal Happiness in Heaven for Pleasures that don't deserve that Name they are so empty and unsatisfying he brings most exquisite and everlasting Misery upon his whole self Soul and Body for a very short liv'd imperfect Gratification of his brutal Part only and purchases the Torments of the other World by making himself unhappy in this In a Word therefore as much as to be like God in Holiness and Happiness is to be preferr'd before being like the Devil in Sin and Misery as much as Satisfaction is better than Disappointment Peace and Quietness and Content than Vexation and continual Disturbance and Perplexity of Mind a confirm'd Health and long Life than the Diseases and hasty Death that follows Debauchery and the comfortable Expectation of being for ever happy with Saints and Angels and the blessed God in the Coelestial Paradise than the confounding Dread of the Judgment of the great Day As much as Immortality is more to be prized than a Life of a Span long and the Enjoyment of the chief Good than the Pleasures of a Swine of so much gerater Value is Religion than all that this World can afford and indeed the only desirable Treasure and a Pearl of inestimable Price And now if what has been hitherto discours'd be true the Application is easy If Religion be of all things the most precious let us make it more and more our Endeavour to inrich our Souls with this Treasure to adorn our rational Nature with this Pearl of great Price and with the Merchant in the Parable think nothing too much to part with that we may purchase that Heavenly Wisdom which will make us wise to Salvation For sound Wisdom as the wise King expresses it Prov. 3.18 is a Tree of Life to those that lay hold upon her and happy is every one that retaineth her She shall give to thine Head an Oranment of Grace Prov. 4.9 and a Crown of Glory shall she deliver to thee But he that would have this Wisdom and find this Pearl must not only wish and desire but with the Merchant in the Parable diligently seek it seek and ye shall find says our Lord Pro. 2.4 5. and Solomon assures us That if we seek Wisdom as Silver and search for her as for hid Treasure then shall we understand the Fear of the Lord and find the Knowledge of God Religion is not acquired without Diligence for though it be the Gift of God yet the Soul must be prepared to receive it all evil Habits must be broke and rooted up and pious Dispositions planted in their Room and the Temper of the Mind changed by Repentance and all the Powers of the whole Man become pliable to the Motions of the Spirit of Holiness before the divine Likeness can be formed in the Soul And though 't is the Grace of God that enables us to go thus far for without it we can do nothing yet our own Concurrence and Co-operation with his Grace is necessary to bring the blessed Work of Regeneration to Perfection An obstinate Resistance of preventing Grace will grieve and quench that Life-giving Spirit and such a Soul shall know no more of Religion than that it was invited to it but rejected the Offer and might have been happy in the Enjoyment of so great a Treasure but it would not But when a Soul with Joy embraces the Motions of the holy Spirit to a new Life and makes it her great Endeavour to remove all Obstacles out of the Way that they may make a due Impression and hungers and thirsts after new Degrees of Righteousness This Soul shall be fill'd with the Treasures of the divine Grace and the Power of Godliness will be visible in all Manner of holy Conversation But this can't be perform'd without a watchful persevering Diligence there is so much Opposition from within and without to this great Business that like Nehemiah's Labourers Neh. 5.17 we must work with our Swords in our Hands and fight and strive that we may carry on the Building of a living Temple for our God and make our Souls Houses of Prayer adorn'd with religious Affections and sit to receive him that hates Iniquity He that is thus diligent shall grow rich towards God and daily increase in the Knowledge and Love of him 'till Mortality shall be swallow'd up of Life and then all the Labours of Religion shall for ever be at an End and nothing remain for the happy Soul to do but to enjoy to all Eternity the glorious Rewards of it Let us all therefore be stedfast unmoveable and always abound in this Work of the Lord for as much as we know our Labour shall not be in vain and to our diligent Pursuit of this inestimable Treasure of Religion let us add frequent and earnest Prayer to God who is the only Giver of every good and perfect Gift that he would send down Wisdom from his holy Heaven that being present she may labour with us that we may know what is pleasing in his Sight and set our selves to do it with all Alacrity running with Diligence and Patience the Race that is set before us looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith who for the Joy that was set before him endur'd the Cross despising the Shame Heb. 12.1 2. and is set down at the Right Hand of the Throne of God remembring that we also shall reap in due Season if we faint not And if we part with all the vile Affections for the Sake of Religion in this World and are ready in Preparation of Mind to suffer any worldly Loss even to that of Life it self for the Sake of Jesus and his Truth we shall find such a Recompence of Reward in the Kingdom of Heaven as will abundantly compensate all our Sufferings here for our light Affliction which is but for a Moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal Weight of Glory Happy is the Exchange of all that this World can afford for a Jewel of so great Price as Religion and for such inexhaustible Treasures of Bliss as are reserved to Reward it in the Presence of God What is our greatest Interest therefore let us before all things persue and where our Treasure is there let our Hearts be also The PRAYER I. O Mercifull Jesu Who hast prepared for us a Treasure in Heaven and taught us the Way to attain it and warn'd us of the Emptiness of this World 's Good that we may not be
allur'd by its Temptrations to leave the Way to Life enable me I intreat thee so stedfastly to attend thy divine Instructions that I may more and more daily take my Love from that which does not cannot satisfy and is indeed but Vanity and Vexation of Spirit and fix it upon that which is above all things valuable That so I may be convinc'd by a happpy Experience that true Pleasure and Freedom and Happiness is only to be met with in thy Service and that I am so little design'd for the Delights of the World and of Sense that the longer I live to prove them the less capable I shall be of their Enjoyment O may that Peace and Tranquillity within my own Breast that Quiet with others that Health and Length of Days which is in the Right Hand of Religion and the durable Riches and true Honour that is in her Left and that chearing Expectation of Heaven when this frail Tabernacle shall be dissolv'd may this which is the natural Offspring of true Piety leave so lovely an Idea of it upon my Soul that I may value it as indeed the greatest Treasure and a Pearl of inestimable Price And may I be so wise as where my Treasure is there to fix my Desires and thither to direct my Endeavours and part with every thing that is my Hindrance in the Acquisition of it And since this Pearl is not cast before Swine and this Treasure must be diligently sought for e're it be found Do thou so purify and refine my Affections that I may above all things hunger and thirst after Righteousness and diligently search for this saving Wisdom as for hid Treasure and may thy blessed Spirit which leadeth into all Truth so guide and direct me in my Search that seeking I may find and having found never more part with that inestimable Jewel though for the Gain of the whole World but rather sell all even Life it self to secure my Possession of it And this Wisdom I earnestly beg of thee O Lord who art the Giver of every good and perfect Gift through the Merits of Jesus thy beloved Son our only Saviour Amen PARABLE IV. Of a merciful King and his unmerciful Servant Matth. xviii 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35. The Kingdom of Heaven is likened unto a certain King which would take Account of his Servants And when he had begun to reckon one was brought unto him which owed him Ten Thousand Talents But forasmuch as he had not to pay his Lord commanded him to be sold and his Wife and Children and all that he had and Payment to be made The Servant therefore fell down and worshipped him saying Lord have Patience with me and I will pay thee all Then the Lord of that Servant was moved with Compassion and loosed him and forgave him the Debt But the same Servant went out and found one of his Fellow-Servants which ought him an Hundred Pence And he laid hands on him and took him by the Throat saying pay me that thou owest And his Fellow-Servant fell down at his Feet saying have Patience with me and I will pay thee all And he would not but went and cast him into Prison till he should pay the Debt So when his Fellow-Servants saw what was done they were very sorry and came and told unto their Lord all that was done Then his Lord after that he had called him said unto him O thou wicked Servant I forgave thee all that Debt because thou desiredst me Shouldst not thou also have Compassion of thy Fellow-Servant even as I had Pity on thee And his Lord was wroth and delivered him to the Tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto him So also shall my heavenly Father do also unto you if ye from your Hearts forgive not everyone his Brother their Trespasses THIS Parable was spoken upon St. Peter's asking our Lord Vers 21. how often shall my Brother sin against me and I forgive him Till Seven Times To which Question the compassionate Jesus first answers directly Vers I say not unto thee till Seven Times but till Seventy Times Seven And then illustrates that his Answer and shews how great Obligation we have to forgive Injuries and how sad will be our Punishment if we do not in the Parable above written In which Parable there are two things in general to be considered First The mercifull Example of God's Dealing with us miserable Sinners who lay under a vast Debt to his Justice express'd by a King 's taking Account of his Servants c. and forgiving c. Secondly His great Displeasure against those that will not imitate that his compassionate Example in forgiving such as have been injurious to them express'd by the King 's being wroth with his unmerciful Servant who though he receiv'd so much Kindness himself would shew none to his Fellow-Servant who owed him a Trifle in Comparison but without the least Compassion threw him into Prison till he should pay it upon which his Lord delivered him over to the Tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto him Under The first General there are three Particulars to be considered First the Greatness of the Debt which by Sin we have contracted to the Divine Justice expressed by Ten Thousand Talents Secondly The Impossibility of our ever clearing this Debt and the sad Consequence if it still should have remain'd upon Account express'd here by the King's Debtor having nothing to pay and the King 's commanding that therefore he should be sold and his Wife and Children and all that he had that so Payment might be made Thirdly The wondrous Compassion of our good God in pitying our miserable Condition and forgiving us all our Debt expressed by that King 's being mov'd with Compassion at the deplorable Condition of his insolvent Servant and loosing him and forgiving him the Debt Under the second General there are likewise three Particulars to be consider'd First What it is to forgive one another as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven us and the great Obligation we have to imitate this Example of our merciful God Secondly Our great Baseness if we do not and Thirdly The miserable Consequence that will attend that Baseness we shall provoke God to recall his Pardon to us and be deliver'd over to the Tormentors till we shall pay all that is due unto him The first General to be consider'd in this Parable is God's Example in dealing with us miserable Sinners who lay under a vast Debt to his Justice express'd by a King 's taking Account of his Servants and freely forgiving one that was deeply indebted to him And the first Particular to be consider'd under it is the Greatness of the Debt which by Sin we have contracted to the Divine Justice By contracting a Debt to the Divine Justice is meant the having violated the just and holy Laws of God and thereby becoming obnoxious to his just Anger unless we