magnificent for Christ When we spare no cost 1 Sam. 24. 23. nor sticke at any price to serve Christ and his Church or Christ in his Church If we shal be rewarded thus for cold water from the spring which can hardly be called ours what shall we be for warm water froÌ„ our browes bodies given to a disciple in Christs name If we shall be thus rewarded for water what shall we be for our bloud shed for the name of Christ When for Christs sake we labour and sweat and dye to do good for others When to Christ and to his people in his name we give our time and our strength our sleep and our meats our comforts and recreations our credit and our estates our liberties and our lives When Ahasuerus read in Hest 6. 1 2 3. the booke of the Records of the Chronicles how Mordecai had discovered a treason against his person The King enquires what honour and what dignity hath bin done unto Mordecai for this It seemes if the King had thought on or read him sooner he had rewarded him sooner God hath ever in his eye all the Records and Chronicles of your good workes he reades your journals every day and when he meets with any that have done or spoken aright for him he enquires what honour what dignity hath been done for this man If none hath been done he will doe it himselfe if any thing hath been done he will doe yet more He that honours 1 Sam. 2. 30. me I will honour Who would not worke for thee O King of Nations Who would not worke for thee O King of Saints None shall lose a word no nor a thought for Christ Wherefore as the Apostle concludes so shall I this first Doctrine My Beloved Brethren 1 Cor. 15. last be ye stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the worke of the Lord forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vaine in the Lord. And this leades me on to the first part of the Gradation observed and approved by Christ in their works The laboriousnesse of them I know thy worke and thy labour Laborious working in a good cause is very pleasing Doct. 2 unto God God is not unrighteous to forget your worke Heb. 6. 10. and Labour of Love Where we have the same Gradation in the same words and there not to forget is to delight in God is himselfe a pure Act and he loves to see man Active And the more active we are the more like we are to God and therefore the more liked of God Likenesse is the ground of Love He makes his Heb. 1. 7. Angels or messengers Spirits and his Ministers a flame of fire Spirits are the most active creatures living and fire is the most active creature without life Fire is the most operative Element and flame is the most operative part of the fire No sooner had man received his being but he is put to labour to serious labour though not to consuming labour The Lord God tooke the man Gen. 2. 15. which he had made and put him into the Garden to dresse it and to keep it No sooner was man fallen but he was put upon sore consuming labour In the sweat of thy face shalt Gen. 3. 19. thou eat thy bread Sinne brought in sweat and now not to sweat increases sinne It is a part of our holinesse to submit to that which was a part of our curse The idle man is Satans Agent and the laborious man is Gods Not but that Satan hath nimble hands and heads in his service Satans idle man is he that will not doe the worke which God sets him he is ready enough to toyle like a horse in the worke his owne lust sets him He will not worke in the Garden of some honest imployment or not there honestly and all this while he is idle though he sweats and breaks his sleep because he doth not a stroake of Gods worke Of such an idle man it is chiefly said Diabolus quem occupatum non invenit ipse occupat He imployes whom he finds not well imployed On the contrary Deus quem occupatum invenit ipse occupat God imployes them whom he finds well imployed He found Moses labouring on the plaines among his flockes and sends him to Pharaoh for the deliverance of his people He finds Peter and Andrew casting a Net into the Sea and he saith follow Mat. 4. 18 9. Eccl. 9. 10. me and I will make you fishers of men Then heare the counsell of the Preacher Whatsoever thy hand findeth to doe doe it with all thy might To doe and not with the might we have is to doe nothing We live no more then we worke and we worke no more then we labour As idlenesse is the buriall of our selves so unlaboriousnesse if I may so speake is the buriall of our workes without diligence they not onely flat but dye upon our hands There are some whose very businesse is idlenesse and there are many who are idle in their businesse Seest thou a man diligent in his businesse Pro. 2â— 29. Rom. 12. 11. saith Solomon Not sloathfull in businesse saith the Apostle To be slow in businesse is ill but to be sloathfull is farre worse An industrious man is often wearied with working but he is never weary of his worke Spontaneae lassitudines morbos loquuntur is an Aphorisme Hip. Apb. of Physicians To be weary when we know not why foreshâ—wes diseases of the body I am sure it is an Argument of a diseased soule The heart of the sluggard is like the field of the sluggard overgrowne with Pro. 24. 30 weeds They who worke for Christ should imitate Christ in his worke for us I must worke the workes of him that sent Ioh. 9. 4. me saith Christ There is an Emphasis in that expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As they speake in Ieremy Come Ier. 18. 18. let us devise devises against him Which notes strong plotting to mischiefe the Prophet so to worke a worke notes the strong intention of Christ upon it Many doe rather play their works then worke their works And it is observed that as mean men play so commonly rich and great men worke but for recreation Christ who had unsearchable riches in himselfe and in greatnesse was Gods Fellow will yet worke a worke for us Shall we thinke any labour too great for him Christ by his own labour in your cause when your foules lay a bleeding hath out-bid all the labour you have or can bestow in his cause now his Church lyes a bleeding I know Honourable and Beloved you have often dined upon businesse so did Christ My meat is to doe the will of Ioh. 4. 34. him that sent me and to finish his worke I know you have laboured in the midst of many crosses but Christ laboured for us upon the Crosse I know you have wrestled with many difficulties but Christ for your sakes wrestled
things saith he that holdeth the seven starrs in his right hand who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks A description which fits none but him to whom all power in heaven and in earth is committed Iesus Christ God and man I know There is a twofold knowledge first simple 2. Mixt. Simple knowledge is the bare apprehension of the object what it is Mixt knowledge is that which carries along with it either pleasure or dislike according as the object is we apprehend Thy workes Workes are of two sorts Good or Bad and in reference to either workes are taken somtime strictly as opposed to words as opposed to thoughts Sometime more largely and so our words come in account among our works and so our very thoughts are works yea in a large sence even things not done nor spoken nor thought may be numbred among our workes To abstaine from evill is a worke of grace to omit good is a worke of sinne not to doe our duty is a worke of darknesse In this larger sence take works in the Text. Good works are expressed here in these two verses and some evill the decay of their first love and the consequent of it falling from their first workes in the two following where he is plaine with them I have somewhat against thee he reckons up their faults too and in refernce to both pronounceth I know thy workes I clearly apprehend all what are good I know and approve what are evill I know and dislike Hence observe That all the workes of men lie open to the sight of Doct. 1 Christ who is God and Man Be they good or evill be they actions words or thoughts be they abstinences from evill or omissions of good they all fall within the prospect of Iesus Christ The wayes of a man saith Solomon are before the Lord and he pondereth Pro. 5. 21. or weigheth as in a ballance all his wayes If they be but halfe a graine to light his beame Pro. 15 3. will discover it The eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evill and the good The hundred thirty nine Psalme is but a continued Paraphrase upon this point v. 1. O Lord thou hast searched me and Ps 139. 1. c. known me Men often search men and yet cannot know them There are secrets and depths in man which man cannot reach What man knoweth the things of man save 1 Cor. 2. 11. the spirit of man which is in him But the Spirit of Christ knoweth what is in any man better then any mans own spirit He hath a thred which will lead him into all and thorough all the Labirynths and turnings of the most Matchavilian spirit He hath a light which will discover in man the very depths of Satan v. 24. Thou hast searched and knowne me Me not only Me naturall of which hee speakes vers 15 16. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect and in thy Booke were all my members written but also Mee civill and Mee morall as it is expounded verse 2 3. Thou knowest my downe sitting and my uprising thou art at both ends of all my workes thou compassest or winnowest my path if there bee any chaffe or trash thou wilt make it fly and art acquainted with all my waies He finds God not only at his fingers ends but at his tongues end too v. 4. There is not a word in my tongue but loe ô Lord thou knowest it altogether His knowledge staieth not here in the porch or lobbies but passeth into the presence yea into the privy chamber v. 2 thou understandest my thoughts and not only thoughts present but those which are in posse and to come thou knowest my thoughts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 afarre off that is before I thought them Things before they be are known to him by whom all things have their being Who knows saith Solomon Pr. 27. 1. what a day may bring forth man knows not what is in the womb of the next day we cannot see unerringly an houre before us But Christ knows what lies in the Wombe of eternity he knowes what all ages shall bring forth he can see thousands of years before him He declares the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done Is 46. 10 Heb. 4. 13. All things saith the Apostle whether past present or to come are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both elegant Metaphors and implying thus much that as the outward proportion and lineaments of the body are distinctly seene When that is naked and uncloathed that as the bowels and internals are perfectly discerned when the body is dissected even so are we and all we doe and all that shall be done before the Lord. That Sea of Glasse like Chrystall Revel 4. 6. standing before the Throne is well expounded to represent the whole world with the confluence and series of all things therin The World is like the Sea because so tempestuous up and downe ebbing or flowing ever but it is called a Sea of Glasse like chrystall to note that Christ doth not onely looke upon it but through it it is to him corpus diaphanum a cleare and transparent body There are foure motions very necessary to be made First part of the application in regard of the present duty in regard of this daies dutie Prayer and Fasting the Doctrine in hand joynes strongly with me in the making of them all First the duty of this day moves us to Selfe-searching and Selfe examination The voyce of this dutie sounds like that voyce of the Prophet Ieremy Let us search and try our wayes Like that voyce of Lam 3. 40. Zeph. 2. 1. the Prophet Zephany Gather your selves together or as others render it Fanne your selves yea Fanne your selves ô Nation not desired This is a day wherein every worke is called to the touch-stone to try their metall and all our wayes to the ballance even the ballance of the Sanctuary that wee may know their weight The Doctrine cals as loud for this also For doth Christ know our works and shall we be ignorant of them Doth he travell into our hearts and shall our hearts be terra incognita unto us Shal we be strangers at home A sinne of Ignorance is lesse then a sinne of Knowledge but to be ignorant of those sinnes we may know for the enquiry increases and heightens them Paul in one case after he had searched said I know nothing by my selfe yet 1 Cor. 4 4 am I not hereby justified but if we know nothing by our selves because vve vvill not be at the pains to search vve shall hereby be condemned both because the best have many sinnes they may know and because to all their sinnes they have added this the not endeavouring to know them The Heathens say that
intimated in the beginning of the 7th verse God is not mocked you cannot cozen him with tares and Cockle in stead of Wheate All our workes done are as seed under ground such as we cast in such will the crop be at harvest Never better for the kind alwayes worse for the degree time ripens sinne and improves the punishment They have sowne the winde and shall reape the Hos 8. 7. whirlewinde Fourthly this serves for our comfort and encouragement in good workes 3. wayes First if God knowes them then they shall not be lost in the darknesse of Secrecy The counsell of Christ is when thou doest thine almes doe not sound a Trumpet Mat. 6. when thou prayest enter into thy closet when thou fastest appeare not unto men to fast And least any should be discouraged he as often subjoynes your Father seeth in secret When the left hand knowes not what the right hand doth God knowes what the right hand doth he is nearer to us then we are to our selves But although our light as Christ also adviseth shines so before men that they may see our good workes yet many men will Mat 5. 16. send them to the Land of darknesse where all things are forgotten often burying the workes while they who wrought them are alive It is too usuall to write the faults of others in brasse and their noblest undertakings and successes in the water or on the sand Such is mans unrighteousnesse But the point yeelds comfort still No good worke shall be lost in the darknesse of oblivion For God is not unrighteous to forget your worke and Heb. 6. 10. labour of love which ye have shewed to his Name Our workes come up for a memoriall before God and are registred Act. 10. 4. in Heaven for ever Yea or many workes in despight of envy he saith as of the womans anointing him Wheresoever this Gospell shall be preached in the Mat 26. 13 whole world there shall also this that you have done be told for a memoriall of her He hath and will answer the Prayer of every Nehemiah Remember me O my God concerning Neh 13. 14. this and wipe not out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for the offices thereof Yet further though we our selves should doe much good which we doe not know for there are as sinnes so in a sence good workes of ignorance or if we our selves should not remember the good which we doe knowingly as the Apostle speaks of himselfe I forget that which is behind Phil. 3. 13. yet the Lord will at the last redeeme our workes out of this darknesse also the darknesse both of our owne ignorance and forgetfulnesse When saw we thee â—â— Mat. 25. 37 38. hungred and fed thee or thirsty and gave thee drinke when saw we thee naked and cloathed thee or a stranger and tooke thee in It seemes these were strangers to their owne Acts either not understanding or not remembring what they had done Christ therefore expounds and remembers for them Verily I say unto you inasmuch Ver. 40. as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me Neither secrecy nor forgetfulnesse nor ignorance our owne or others can long cover a good worke Let it be our care onely to doe good it is the care of Christ to record the good which we have done Secondly that Christ knowes our workes hath this comfort in it Then they are rightly understood There was never any great thing done in the world but it fell under misconstruction And often such glosses are given as doe corrupt the Contexture of sincerest workes For the conclusions of malice are ever like those of Logick following partem deteriorem the worser and weaker part if it can but snatch a shadow or shape a surmise of either How often are works of holinesse interpreted hypocrisie and the works of zeale vaine-glory How often is contending for the faith mis-called faction Iud. 3. and contending against superstition humour In the midst of all these clamours and loades of slander this may beare up our hearts God knowes our workes And though now ignorance and malice sit upon and censure our workes yet God will put them forth at one time or other with the Comment of our owne honest meanings upon them Not tortured and wire-drawne with false expositions of an adversary He will Ps 37. 6. bring forth our righteousnesse as the light and our just dealing as the Noone day This quieted Iobs Spirit in the midst of all the mis-apprehensions of his friends Behold Iob 16. 19. my witnesse is in Heaven and my record is on High Thirdly seeing God knowes our workes they shall certainly be rewarded It is one of the vanities which Solomon observed under the Sunne and it is a vexing Eccl. 4. 4. vanity That for every good worke a man is envied of his neighbour But will it not ballance this vanity that for every right worke a man shall be honoured and rewarded of his God Those workes which the world entertaines with Scorne and besmeares with Calumny Christ who knowes them will entertaine with an Euge and reward with Glory Well done good and faithfull servant Mat. 25. enter into thy Masters joy Man doth yea he ought to doe many good works which are never knowne of man And those which are knowne come usually but to an ill market at the best it were scarce worth the while to doe good if all the pay were to be expected from the hands of men But as we can doe no good work but it is knowne to God so because it is known it shall be repayed Blow not a Trumpet saith Christ your Mat. 6. 2. Father sees in secret And observe what is three times inferred upon that Your Father which sees in secret himselfe V. 4 6 18. will reward you openly himselfe will doe it he will not send his Steward And because many say non tua sed te Lord let us have thee rather then thine therefore he will not onely reward such himselfe but himselfe will be their reward And O how exceeding Gen. 15. 1. great how exceeding all greatnesse is that reward which hath no measure but infinitenesse I so watchfull is Christ over the least graine of good we doe that he hath protested a cup of cold water almost an indiscernable charity given to a Disciple of his in his name Mat. 10. 42 shall in no wise there is a double negative for it lose a reward Water is a small curtesie and cold water a lesse yet though thus given as prepared by nature onely without the least charge to heate or mixe it it cannot misse a reward And if workes of Love which cost us nothing shall be thus rewarded what shall we be repayed for those in which like Araunab to David As Kings we give unto the King When we are royall and
reason of wine and he smote his enemies in their hinder parts they fled he put them to perpetuall shame Then his people with an Ecce of admiration cry him up Loe this is our God we have waited for him They who but a season wait for God shall have matter of glorying in him for ever Secondly beare I beseech you with patience the reproach of men For reproach is a great proof of sincerity Work on though men scoffe on And hereby you shall as the Apostle speaks of himself and his Fellow-labourers 2 Cor. 6. 4 8. in the Gospell approve your selves as the Ministers of God in this your worke for the Church and Common-wealth in much patience in afflictions in necessities in distresses by honour and dishonour by evill report and good report as deceivers and yet true It hath been said that to doe well and heare ill is Kingly I am sure it is Christianly Christ never did more or better for us then when he was most derided Here was the patience of Christ here the strength and victory of his Love It had shewed the mighty love of Christ in the worke of our redemption if when he came into the world the world had entertained him with honour and had put him to death onely as Caiaphas gave counsell because it was expedient that one should dye for the people Ioh. 18. 14 but to come and dye for those who he knew before would mocke and revile him yea to doe the worke while they actually reviled him This was stupendious love and patience to a miracle It is commendable to do good while all praise commend approve and honour but to doe good while multitudes of all sorts and sizes reproach revile scoffe and slander is admirable is quid divinum and bids up faire to the love of a Saviour No man ever undertook a great work but he was mis-understood Wilt thou kill me saith that Iew to Moses when he came onely to pacifie him and save them all If your worke Act. 7. 25. be misscalled or mis-reported by men patience will make this a vantage ground for the raising of your acceptation with God What the Apostle speaks of Domesticke servants is as true of the Publicke servants of a State If when ye doe well and suffer for it the tongue is 1 Pet. 2. 20. a persecutor Gal. 4. 29. ye take it patiently tbis is acceptable with God Or as the Greeke more elegantly this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is thanks with God that is certainly for this God will thanke you But such who can endure most reproach can least of all endure impiety He who is a very Atlas in bearing a world of shame cannot with any liking beare a grain of sinne And when sinne growes great he hath no patience to beare it Such was the holy and zealous temper of these Ephesians though they had unconquered patience for waiting and suffering yet they had none for sinning Thou canst not beare them that are evill This is the first sort or kind of their works here specified and by Christ approved the removing or taking away of the evill Hence observe That It is as an Argument so the duty of those who are Doct. 4 good not to beare them that are evill It is an Argument for from hence this Church receives Letters Testimoniall from Heaven of their goodnesse The height and elevation of grace may well be taken by our opposition against evill The more holy any man is the lesse can he beare with his owne sinne For this I conceive to be an experimentall truth That the lesse corruption any one hath remaining in him the greater burden it is unto him And they who have most corruption in them feele it least Now as it is in reference to the evill in our selves so proportionably to that in others The more holy any man is the lesse he can beare with those who are unholy and prophane But I shall prosecute the point onely under the Notion of a duty It is the duty of those who are good not to beare such as are evill Evill men and evill manners are heavy burdens They are burdens to God I am pressed under you saith Am. 2. 13. Isa 1. 24. God to such as a Cart is pressed with sheaves God will not beare them I will ease me of mine adversaries They are burdens to whole Kingdomes and Churches they cannot beare them they sinke and ruine under them if not removed They are burdens to all good men they must not beare them it is their duty to remoove them For the clearing of this point I shall open those two principall termes in it First who these evill ones are that must not be borne Secondly what it imports Not to beare them To the former In a sence all men living on the face of the earth are evill men Why callest thou me good saith Christ to one who knew no more of him then Man There is none good but God scil essentially perfectly and independantly Mat. 19. 17. There is none that is good and sinneth not there is none that doth good and sinneth not Now though every evill man be a burden yet there is a necessity of bearing many and a duty of bearing some We that are strong saith Saint Paul ought to beare the infirmities Rom. 151. of the weake Infirmity is a degree of evill And these weake ones troubled themselves about things they needed not about the things they had no just cause to be troubled at for to be troubled at any thing which gives a just cause of offence is not weaknesse but strength yet they must be borne with We must therefore distinguish of evill men First some are private and close offenders others are publicke and scandalous Secondly some are weake and scrupulous others are obstinate and pertinacious Thirdly some are evill-doers and evill-practisers onely others are evill-promoters and evill-plotters Fourthly some are seduced and misled others are seducers and leaders into mischiefe Fifthly some are curable and willing to be reformed others are incurable and hate to be reformed Such as are publicke and scandalous such as are obstinate and pertinacious such as are evill-plotters and evill-promoters such as are seducers and misleaders such as are incurable and hate to be reformed these and if there be any like unto them ought not to be borne As for those who are close and private offenders they come not under any legall Cognizance and though many offences of such may be insufferable in their owne nature yet there is a necessity of bearing them For such as are weake and scrupulous it was a little before proved a duty to beare them For those who are onely evill-doers and seduced they being willing to reforme and be cured in some cases I say in some cases Iustice may beare them and charity in all For as it was in the Lawes of Leprosie among the Jewes Many who had risings and scabs or spots in