light that it shine not in upon us to our conviction humiliation and conversion but he makes him shuttings to do it of our own darkness prejudices false Principles and corrupt Affections I now proceed to the third Objection taken from Matth. 11.25 where God himself is said to hide the Mysteries of his Gospel from the wise and prudent Before I say any thing to this Objection I must premise That God in this matter as in other things hath a Prerogative which he makes use of and according to which he acts where and when he sees good He being the Supream Lord of Heaven and Earth as our Saviour styles him in the place whence this Objection is taken may dispose of the knowledge of the Mysteries of his Kingdom as he pleaseth freely vouchsafing it to some and withholding it from others For what can restrain him but that he may do with his own as he pleaseth Matth. 20.15 as in the person of the Householder he argues This good pleasure of God is it into which our Saviour expresly resolveth his hiding the Mysteries of the Gospel from the wise and prudent Matth. 11.26 Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes even so father for so it seemed good in thy sight So then reserving unto God his Prerogative I answer That yet however God's hiding the Mysteries of the Gospel from men may very much and in many cases though not universally be resolved into the sins of men For whereas there are chiefly three ways by which God may be said to hide the Mysteries of the Gospel from men namely by denying to them or removing from them the means of knowledge or by with-holding the effectual influences and operation of his Spirit to accompany the means or by permitting Satan to blind them upon consideration of the matter we shall find That the sins of men have frequently very much to do therein and contribute much towards it though even here the good pleasure of God must also be acknowlegded who permits it so to be and doth not powerfully interpose to hinder it as he might do if he saw good 1. If God deny the Gospel to men 't is often through their thrusting it away and keeping it off from themselves when 't is approaching towards them How often do men oppose themselves against it How often do men decline the light and chuse to live in places of darkness where there are no means or as good as no means of knowledge So if God remove the Gospel from a People is it not most commonly not only for their own sin but by their sin that 't is removed God for their unfruitfulness and unthankfulness for their manifold sins against the Gospel most righteously gives them up to be active and instrumental themselves in putting out the light and sending the Gospel far away from themselves 2. If God continuing the Gospel and the means of grace to a People with-hold the powerful influences and co-operation of his Spirit what is this in effect but a leaving them to themselves suffering their lusts prejudices love of sin and hatred of holiness so far to prevail in them as to shut and bar up the Soul and forcibly to keep out the light or so far to weaken the influences and impressions of it as nothing to purpose is done upon them 3. If God hide the Mysteries of his Kingdom from them by giving them up to Satan to be blinded and deluded by him the thing is still upon the matter one and the same for as hath been at large shewed Satan effects his purpose much by their own sin and makes use of their Corruptions as the Weapons of his warfare against the Soul to keep it under the power of darkness Now to apply what hath been spoken VSE 1. This gives us a true account of the reason of several Practises of the Church of Rome As 1st Of their vilifying and disparaging the Holy Scriptures as defective and imperfect as obscure and uncertain and no better than a Nose of wax that may be turned any way at pleasure that may be moulded and shaped to every man's fancy as one of that Party wickedly and and profanely reproacheth it In short Their making the word written insufficient to inform us touching the matters of our belief and practise and to lead us in the way to Heaven without the help and supplement of Human Traditions 2. Of their refusing to bring their Doctrines Worship and Practises to the Test and Touchstone of the Holy Scriptures alone and of their setting up another pretended Infallible Judge of Controversies not admitting the Scriptures to be the common Umpire and Determiner of them 3. Of their shutting up the Book of the Holy Scriptures and forbidding it to be read by the People so taking away from them the key of Knowledge What 's the reason of these their ungodly and abominable Practises but this He that doth evil hateth the light and cometh not to it lest his deeds should be reproved Their Principles are unsound and rotten wicked and abominable their Doctrine false their Worship Idolatrous their Usages vain and superstitious and therefore they hate the light of the Scriptures that discovers their Errors Cheats and Juglings therefore they decline the light and run away from it they defame and reproach it they shut it up and imprison it they do what they can to extinguish it and keep men in darkness wheresoever they have power to do it But blessed be God that we are not yet brought into bondage by them they have not yet prevailed to deprive us of the light of the Gospel we have free access to the Holy Scriptures the Bible lies open before us in our Mother-tongue O! may we never by our unthankfulness our not improving the mercies we enjoy and our other sins so far provoke God as that he should suffer the Land of our Nativity to be again overspread with that worse than Egyptian darkness VSE 2. This discovers the true reason why many that frequent Publick Ordinances love and affect such Preaching only as comes not too near the Conscience meddles not with their spiritual estate toucheth not their own particular darling and beloved sins A smooth and general Discourse that descends not to the concernments of their own Souls or it may be a serious and smart Sermon that reproves the sins of the Age or the sins of some particular Persons known to them those sins which they thomselves are not guilty of all this they can hear with much patience and perhaps with some delight Mar. 6.20 as Herod is said to have heard John Baptist gladly But if any man shall lay open and set before them the great evil of their own sins the unsoundness of their spiritual Estate while they continue in them the extream danger of their present condition the absolute and indispensable necessity of Regeneration of sincere and universal Repentance of sound Conversion
may bring you to sound Repentance for them or that he may more throughly humble you for the Sins that you have truly repented of or that he may thereby rub up and renew the Remembrance of former Sins and therewith also renew your former Sorrow and loathing of your self for those Sins which Time and Forgetfulness and carnal Security have almost worn out and lastly that he may prevent your Relapses into the same Sins Thus you see that God may have many Reasons to correct you for former Sins and therefore that if you will find out the Sin for which he chastens you it will sometimes concern you to cast your Eye far back and take a View of those your former Sins which you have long ago quitted and relinquished 5thly This searching and trying your Ways is a Work that must be often repeated and that not only in regard that you every Day contract new Guilt and run afresh in Arrears with God but because your former Sins may not be discovered presently though you search after them with some good measure of Care and Diligence When we search after a thing which much concerns us to find though we light not on it at first yet we search a second and a third time and will not easily give over searching until we have found it You have been making Search after the Sin for which God afflicts you and you cannot find it you are still in the dark and cannot understand God's Intentions in laying his Hand upon you But search yet once more yea a third and a fourth time if need be you may light on that at last which you have often overlook'd Whatever the Issue of your Enquiry be you will not lose your Labour He who digged up all his Vineyard in hope to find the Treasure which he had been told was hid there though he found not the Treasure he look'd after yet he had it in another kind which he expected not the loosening and mellowing of the Earth brought him in a more plentiful Vintage the next Year If by your Search you should not at last discover any one particular Sin which you can think God aimed at in the Affliction which he hath laid upon you yet you may light on somewhat else which may requite your Pains If no other Benefit accrue to you yet the Satisfaction you have in having used so much Diligence in reviewing the former Passages of your Life will be a sufficient Recompence of the Trouble you have been at therein But yet this is not all there are divers other certain Advantages which redound to us from taking a view of our former Sins and which if it be done in a due manner we never fail of attaining though we find not the particular Sin which we look'd after It makes us more humble it raiseth our Esteem and Valuation of Christ it fills us with Admiration of the free Grace and rich Mercy of God in pardoning so many and so great Sins it inflames our Love and increaseth our Thankfulness to God and it quickens us to more Care and Watchfulness to a more constant and serious Endeavour of sincere and universal Obedience for the time to come Now though it be most seasonable to search and try our Ways in time of Affliction yet there are also some other special Seasons for this Duty As 1. At any time when we are in any great Fear or Danger then though God doth not yet strike us yet he shakes his Rod over us and therefore to prevent what may be coming upon us and to avert those Evils which we fear there can be noâ— better Course than that we make a through Search after those our Sins for which God seems to threaten us 2. After a Man hath fallen into any great Sin Such Falls do for the most part fore-run some Affliction and make for the present a Breach between God and us For the closing up of which Breach and renewing of our Peace with God it will concern us not only to be humbled for that particular Sin but to make diligent Enquiry after such other Sins as may interpose between God and us and deprive us of the Light of his Countenance and the Sense of his Love 3. When we are in Expectation of or Suitors unto God for any special Mercy For considering that our Sins separate between God and us and withhold good things from us nothing can be more seasonable or necessary than that when we are waiting on God for any special Favour we carefully search and try our Ways that no Sin may hinder our Mercies obstruct the Passage of them to us or blast the Means which we make use of for obtaining them 4. Before our more solemn and extraordinary Approaches unto God as namely before our drawing near unto the Table of the Lord. God will be sanctified in all our Approaches unto him but especially in our most solemn Approaches And in particular as concerning our drawing near unto the Table of the Lord a more than ordinary Search into our selves at that time is in several Respects seasonable 1. In regard of the express Command of God 1 Cor. 11.28 Let a Man examine himself and so let him eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup. 2. In regard of the great Danger of coming unworthily He that eateth and drinketh unworthily Ver. 29. eateth and drinketh Damnation to himself Now unless a Man search and try his Heart and Ways how can he know whether he be an unworthy Receiver or no He must needs run a great Hazard who comes Hand over Head before he hath enquired into himself whether he be a meet Guest for the Table of the Lord or not Yea 't is very much to be feared that he who is so careless as that he never enquires into his Fitness comes unpreparedly and eats and drinks unworthily 3. In regard of the great Benefits which we shall reap thereby and the Usefulness thereof in relation to the Sacrament 1st In that Ordinance we are to bewail and mourn over our Sins we must come to it with godly Sorrow for them And how can that be unless we know them And how can we come to know them unless we search after them 'T is the reviewing of our Actions that sets before us the Sins for which we are to be humbled and affects our hearts with them 2dly We are at that Ordinance to renew our Covenant with God and to take up fresh Resolutions of cleaving to him with full purpose of Heart for the future And what is more conducing hereunto than that we by a narrow Search into our selves be informed how and wherein we have departed from God and broken Covenant with him 3dly We are there to act Faith on Christ for the Pardon of our Sins and we there expect to have the Pardon of them sealed unto us in both which Respects it is then most seasonable and requisite that we should look back and take a Survey of
And to the same effect is that of St. James To him that knoweth to do good Ch. 4.17 and doeth it not to him it is sin that is sin to the purpose sin of no ordinary complexion 2. What is done against light hath not only an inconformity to the Rule but some degree of contempt thereof Wherefore in such cases God looks upon himself as despised Why hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord said he to David when he had knowingly and deliberately sinned 2 Sam. 12.9 3. It argues Corruption to have gotten head and to have grown up to a great measure of strength and maturity it argues such a person to be set upon sin and wholly bent to gratify himself therein whatsoever shall come of it When the light it self shall stand in a man's way and flash in his face and yet he will go on he acts as one so resolved to sin as nothing shall take him off This in the language of the Scipture is to sin presumptuously by which a man under the Law was judged to have reproached the Lord in regard whereof no less punishment was appointed than the utter cutting him off from among his people Numb 15.30 31. And thus far I have only insisted on the consideration of light more generally 'T is light that is refused and contemned and therefore neither the sin nor the punishment of the person so offending can be small 2. 'T is not any kind of light but Gospel light that is so ill treated and this hath yet much more in it than all that hath been hitherto mentioned 1. The light of the Gospel is a clearer light All other light is but darkness to this The Heathens had the light of Nature for their guide but yet they were still in darkness till the Gospel enlightened them for the very Errand of the Gospel to them was to open their eyes Acts 26.18 and to turn them from darkness to light The Jews under the dispensations of the Law had much more light and yet were heavenly things in great part so vail'd and wrapt up in Types and Shadows as their condition to that of Gospel-times seems to have been but as the morning spread upon the Mountains to the noon day-light 2. 'T is a light that presents to our view the most excellent and most desirable things Pardon of sin Acts 10.43 Peace with God Rom. 5.1 Eternal life John 3.36 A kingdom that cannot be shaken Heb. 12.28 An inheritance incorruptible undefiled that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 1.4 Such things as neither eye hath seen nor ear hath heard nor have entred into the heart of man to conceive 1 Cor. 2.9 3. These excellent things which the light of the Gospel sets before us are such as were by infinite Wisdom and unspeakable Love designed and contrived for us before the foundations of the World were laid The most wise and gracious God did in nothing more discover the unsearchable Treasures of his Wisdom and the Riches of his Grace than in the Contrivance of our Salvation in such a way as in which Mercy and Justice so admirably meet together and Righteousness and Peace kiss each other We cannot therefore refuse or slight these excellent things without a manifest disparagement of the Wisdom and Love of God as if neither the one nor the other were considerable herein and as if after all that God hath done the things so wifely designed and graciously proffer'd were not worth our acceptance 4. The Gospel presseth the entertainment of these excellent things with the most cogent and forcible Arguments 'T is not laid before us as a matter of indifferency whether we will embrace what 's tendered or refuse it We are told and assured that as the acceptance of the things proffered will render us unspeakably blessed and happy to eternity so the refusal of them will certainly make us everlastingly and unconceivably miserable He that believeth shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Mark 16.16 5. Besides the external tender of these things in the Gospel the Spirit of God usually more or less accompanies the outward Ministration of the Gospel inwardly working together with it treating with us and solliciting the matters of our peace by Enlightnings and Convictions by stirring up good Motions and Affections Purposes and Resolutions which makes our refusal of mercy after all this much more worthy of the severest punishment 6. Add to all this the consideration of the greatness of the Person who at first published the Gospel and made tender of those excellent things to the World himself while here on Earth and also still continues to do it by his Servants The Lord of Life and Glory the Eternal Son of God who is over all God blessed for ever came in person from Heaven out of the Bosome of his Father on this very Errand that he might make reconciliation for sin Dan. 9. â—4 and bring in everlasting righteousness And offer the fruits and benefit of all to Mankind making this general Proclamation Whosoever believeth shall be saved If but an Earthly Prince should send his only Son to the remotest Parts of his Dominions on purpose to make tender of some great thing to one of his meanest Subjects what an indignity and how intolerable an affront would it be if that his tender should be slighted But here the King Eternal sends his only Son from Heaven to offer us Everlasting Life and we entertain him no otherwise than as if he came in a needless Embassy for so much our most unworthy carriage towards him imports if we do not accept of his Tenders This the Scripture insists on as a circumstance that carries in it no small aggravation of the sin of our unbelief If the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at first began to be spoken to us by the Lord Heb. 2.2 3. Heb. 12.25 And again If they escaped not who refused him who spake from earth much more shall not we escape if we refuse him who speaketh from heaven Now put all these things together and I see not how you can chuse but conclude That as there is no sin like that which is committed against the light of the Gospel so there is no punishment like unto that which will be inflicted for this sin or That this is the condemnation That light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light And so I proceed to the application of what hath been spoken VSE 1. First then To speak to the more dissolute Professors of the Christian Religion From the Premises we may infer That 't is a most vain and empty Plea which many loose Christians think to help themselves with at the day of their account to God They have had their birth and education where the light of the Gospel shines and under the
stripes One stripe the more for every beam of light which was not improved to the ends for which it was afforded I speak not this to disparage knowledge which is an excellent gift of God and a principal part of his Image in man much less to dishearten any in their pursuit of it but to provoke them to a joint endeavour after grace and knowledge according to the Apostle's Exhortation 2 Pet. 3.18 It was said of Galba who had a fine Wit but a deformed Body Ingenium Galbae malè habitat Galba's good Wit hath but an ill habitation The same may I say of excellent Gifts in a corrupt mind 'T is a thousand pities that so noble a Guest should have no better Lodgings Get your Soul adorned with grace and then it will be fitter to entertain Gifts And to press this a little more upon you let me leave with you only these three Considerations 1. If Knowledge be excellent and desirable Grace is much more excellent and much more worthy to be the Object of our most raised desires After the Apostle had been discoursing of those extraordinary and miraculous Gifts which in the Primitive times God was pleased to pour out upon Believers he makes way to his following Discourse of love and grace by this commendatory Preface 1 Cor. 12.31 Yet shew I unto you a more excellent way You are digging and searching after Knowledge as after hid Treasure and why not then much more after Grace Luke 16.11 which is the most precious and invaluable Treasure the only true Riches Matth. 23.23 This ye ought to have done and not to have left the other undone as our Saviour speaks in another case Yea this ye ought much rather to have done in comparison whereof your pursuit of knowledge is but as the tything of mint and cummin compared with the most weighty matters of the law 2. The more Knowledge you have the more Grace you need A little Grace will not suffice you to manage a large stock of Knowledge Your Knowledge is one of your chiefest Talents for which you must be accountable and 't is impossible you should so imploy it as to be able to give a comfortable account thereof without a proportionable measure of Grace The higher any man is lifted up in parts and gifts the more is he exposed to the violent assaults of manifold Temptations Temptations to Pride Self-confidence overvaluing of himself contempt of others wicked abuse of his knowledge and parts to the service of Satan and the disservice of God and his Church And therefore no man hath more need of grace of a plentiful measure of grace than he that is most accomplisht with knowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The more knowledge we have the greater is our danger saith Clem. Alex. in the 4th Book of his Stromates 3. Unless you have grace together with your knowledge the time will come when you shall wish that you had been as ignorant as you are graceless Quà m nescirem literas How could I wish that I had never learnt to write or read was the mild and compassionate Speech of an Emperor when he was desired to set his Hand for the Execution of a Malefactor What he said out of a tender and merciful regard to the Life of another man that shall the graceless and finally impenitent knowing man one day say out of the anguish and horror of his own Soul Vtinam nescissem literas Oh that I had never known my Letters and that my Parents had never set me to School Oh that I had been confined all my days to some poor Cottage or dark Corner where I might scarce have known my right Hand from my left that I had been the most silly ignorant contemptible Creature in the World a meer Idiot or natural Fool rather than by my sins against so much knowledge to have procured to my self this direful access to my Torments You may have heard of a poor Idiot who having never uttered one serious word before was heard to utter this short and pertinent Petition when he was going out of the World Lord require no more of me than thou hast given me The ungodly knowing man the profane Wit the learned Atheist will have his mouth stopt he will not be able to find so good a Plea for himself as that poor Idiot had He hath received much from the hand of God and much shall be required of him And so I go on to what followeth in the 20th Verse PART II. Verse 20. Every one that doth evil hateth the light THE words are a Proposition so clearly and plainly exprest that to endeavour to make it plainer were but to lose time Seeing therefore I cannot express it in clearer terms nor cast it into a better form I shall even take it as it lyes and so handle it Every one that doth evil hateth the light The Truth of which Proposition I know not how I can better demonstrate than by shewing what influence the light hath upon men in reference to sin and withal how men stand affected towards their sin 1. The light I mean principally the light of the Gospel of which our Saviour here speaks discovers sin There is a threefold light which discovers sin the light of Nature the light of the Law and the light of the Gospel 1. The very light of Nature doth in some measure discover sin The Gentiles who have not the law Rom. 2.14 15. do by nature the things contained in the law their consciences in the mean while accusing or excusing them according as their actions are more or less conformable to the dictates of the light of nature in them This light was full and perfect as it was at first set up in man by his Creator but is by the fall now become weak and imperfect so that in many things it leaves a man at a great loss That first light represented things to man exactly according to their nature so as by the help of it he could clearly and perfectly discern between good and evil but now that Primitive light being in great part extinguished the weak remainders of it represent good and evil in a dark and obscure manner so as by this light alone a man sees many times little better than he who saw Men as Trees Mar. 8.24 yea worse a great deal taking good for evil and evil for good light for darkness Isa 5.20 and darkness for light as the Prophet speaks 2. The light of the Law of God written goes further in the discovery of sin in which respect the Apostle ascribes the knowledge of sin to the Law Rom. 3.20 The Law exceeds the light of Nature as to the discovery of sin in a double respect 1. The Law discovers more sins than the meer light of Nature could I had not known sin saith the Apostle Rom. 7.7 unless the law had said Thou shalt not covet He had not known the sinfulness of the inward
redeem time and which the Apostle chiefly aims at in this place as hath been said 3. Time must be redeemed for performance of the duties and offices of love to our Neighbours whether they be such as concern their Souls or their Bodies 1. With relation to their Souls time must be redeemed for teaching instructing counselling advising comforting admonishing and reproving them as there shall be cause for it and as their conditions shall require it 2. With relation to their Bodies time must be redeemed for looking after them providing for them and ministring such reliefs and succours to them as they shall stand in need of But above all time must be redeemed for our own Souls and for the things that refer to our spiritual and everlasting welfare 3. How is the time to be redeemed A. By using our utmost diligence to make the best improvement of it that we can And for our help and furtherance therein it will concern us 1. To be careful that we rightly divide and distribute our time allotting such a proportion of it for attending the duties of our particular Callings so much for necessary refreshings so much for holy duties and so for the rest of those things which necessarily require some part of our time 2. To be ever watchful against all Incroachers upon our time and the principal Thieves of our time which will be every day attempting to steal away some part of it What these Thieves of time are every one best knows who is best acquainted with his own Temptations and the circumstances of his Condition 3. He should daily call himself to an account and enquire how he hath imployed his time and what use he hath made of it And where he finds he hath mispent any part of it he should be humbled for it and resolve to make amends by greater care in husbanding his time for the future And this he should especially be careful to do where through his carelesness he hath misimployed or vainly squandred away that time which should have been spent in the Service of God and in the Duties that more immediatly refer to his Soul and more directly tend to the promoting of the good thereof But you will say If a man should every day thus reckon with himself and call himself to an account concerning the imploying of every part of his time this would be a very irksome and tedious course Who would endure to be so strict and severe to himself as to be accountable to himself for every hour in the day This were an intolerable burthen a yoke too heavy to be born To this I answer 1. That whether we be willing to be accountable to our selves for our time daily or no we must be accountable to God for it for every hour of it And the best way to render our Account to God more easie is to be daily calling our selves to an account He that doth this and doth it as he ought makes even Reckonings between God and his own Soul every day 2. We may not think to get to Heaven so easily as to undergo nothing in our way thither that may be tedious and unacceptable to our corrupt Nature They who may hope to go to Heaven must deny themselves and cross the sinful Inclinations of their Nature they must ever and anon be rigid and severe to themselves they must be willing to take pains Luk. 13.14 â— Pet. 1. â—0 Pail 3.13 14. and to strive to enter in at the strait gate They must give all diligence to make their calling and election sure Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before they must press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God If men dream of getting to Heaven without labour and difficulty without offering some violence to their depraved and sinful Natures they are not likely to come thither Undoubtedly 't is not for nothing that our Saviour hath declared Matth. 7.14 That narrow is the way and strait is the gate that leadeth unto life 'T is a severe passage that we have and deserving to be seriously considered by all slothful Christians that would go to Heaven so as it might cost them nothing If the righteous scarcely be saved 1 Pet. 4.18 where shall the ungodly and sinner appear If the most righteous man after all the care and diligence which he hath used and the pains which he hath taken to secure his Soul be scarce saved at last if all that he could do be but just enough to bring him to Heaven shall any man think to loiter away his time here and wast it as he pleaseth and yet make account to get to Heaven as well as those who have been most careful and sollicitous most diligent and industrious in the use of all good means to prevent the everlasting miscarrying of their Souls Let no man so deceive himself whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap As men have been sollicitous and diligent or careless and slothful about the concernments of their Souls here so must they expect to fare hereafter They that sow to the flesh Gal. 6.7.8 shall of the flesh reap corruption And they that sow to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting But you will say My Condition is such that how careful soever I be about what concerns my Soul I can redeem but a very little time for things of that nature My particular Calling so continually takes me up that I can hardly gain one quarter of an hour in a day from it to be spent upon any thing else I answer 1. This may sometimes be through a man 's own fault Perhaps he takes more upon him and incumbers himself with more business than he ought No man should so intangle himself with the Affairs of this World as to shut out better things Better let part of the World go than indanger the loss of your Soul By so grasping the World as to lose your Soul you would be a sorry gainer in the end 2. But supposing a man's Calling to be such as very little time can be redeemed from it for heavenly things yet he must remember Luke 10.42 that one thing is needful absolutely and indispensably necessary and therefore he must find time for that one great thing whatever else he omitted Earthly things must so far give way to heavenly things as that our Souls and eternal concernments be not neglected 3. But yet however it must be considered That God doth not require the same portion of time from all men Persons whose Condition is low and strait as to outward things and some others also whose time is necessarily and unavoidably taken up with the duties of their particular Calling may satisfy themselves in allowing much less time for spiritual things than others who are less straitned and more at liberty But as for such as have more leisure they may not think that no more is expected of
others of them eat the Bread of idleness and will do it for their hands refuse to labour and they will not have honest Imployment when they may but I say those before spoken of are diligent and industrious they rise betimes in the morning they follow their work closely all the day and go late to bed at night a very commendable thing in them and greatly to be encouraged but yet alas What 's their great end in all this What do they aim at Nothing else but that they may eat a piece of Bread that they may have wherewithal to keep themselves and their Relations alive if any they have Do they mind God in their Employment Are they diligent in their Calling because he commands them so to be And do they in that way of their Employment intend the serving of his Providence And do they seek his Glory in that their low condition of Life Do they humbly and contentedly submit to his Providence in thus disposing of things and in allotting them so slender a portion of the things of this Life and putting them to get their Livelihood in so painful and laborious a way And lastly as low as their condition is do they seek to honour God in it as much as they can If they do so then they do faithfully what they do in their mean condition and they may assure themselves that as their eye is on God so God's Eye is on them he takes notice of their faithfulness and will assuredly reward it But how few are they who look so high as to mind God at all or in the least study to approve themselves to him A fourth instance shall be in Servants Though there were never more complaints of the carelesness and unfaithfulness of Servants and perhaps never more cause for such complaints yet there are those who are diligent and faithful and cannot justly be charged with idleness or unfaithfulness or with any of those other usual faults for which Servants are blamed And yet even amongst these who are the best and most careful to please those whom they serve and who do all they can to give them content how few are there whose eyes are upon their Master in Heaven and whose greatest care it is so to discharge the Duty of their places as to please him Who according to the Apostles injunction before-mentioned do service with singleness of heart as to the Lord and not unto men Who do all the service which they owe to man as unto Christ studying to please him therein and expecting their Wages and Reward from him For the most part even the better sort of Servants look no further than their Masters here on Earth as for God their Master in Heaven 't is scarce in all their thoughts to please him and yet without a care and study to please him they are but men-pleasers Eph. 6.6 as the Apostle calls them and must never expect either reward or acceptance from God 5. Another instance may be in Parents and Children to put them together As for many Parents they are not without natural Love Affection and Tenderness for their Children in their younger years they are willing to take any pains with them they can cheerfully undergo much trouble for them and when they are grown up they are full of careful thoughts about them and so studious of their temporal welfare that they think they can never do enough to promote it And yet 't is possible that very little of all this may be done in obedience to God and with respect to his Authority and Command who as he hath furnished them with natural Affections to put them on to do for their Children so he hath by his command made it their Duty without regard of which command they do these things no otherwise than the brute Beasts feed tender and protect their young by natural Instinct and from that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or inbred Affection which both strongly inclines them to do it and enables them to do it with delight and pleasure That many Parents are led to all that careful and solicitous travel and labour of Love which they undergo for Children by no higher Principles or Inducements is manifest because if the command of God did prevail with them it would also make them conscientiously Industrious in discharging their Duty to their Souls which God hath as strictly enjoined and which he looks after as much yea much more as the Soul is more worth and the everlasting miscarrying thereof of higher consequence than that of their temporal welfare But here how miserably do they neglect them and betray their Souls to Sin Satan and Hell While they neither bestow any pains upon them to instruct them in the Principles of Religion and their Duty to God nor use any effectual means for preventing and restraining Sin in them But neither is this the only evidence of their performing no part of their Duty to them in obedience to God for if they did then would the same command and authority of God also ingage them to reform their own Lives and frame their Conversations according to the Rule then would they not as many of them do allow themselves in sinful ways slighting God's Authority and casting his Word behind their back And what hath been spoken of Parents the same likewise may be said of Children I speak of Children grown up to years of some discretion and able to put a difference between good and evil They obey their Parents some of them I mean though many others are undutiful headstrong and rebellious I say the better sort of Children obey their Parents are unwilling to offend them or incur their displeasure but yet 't is not the command of God that sways them or prevails with them 'T is because they stand in some awe of their Parents but not because they stand in awe of God who hath threatned to punish stubborn and disobedient Children and hath promised to reward such of them as are dutiful tractable and obedient as is implied in the Motive annexed to the Fifth Commandment 'T is because of their dependance on them and in regard they live in expectation of further kindnesses from them but not with respect to God's command who hath said Honour thy father and thy mother and Children obey your parents for this is well-pleasing unto God Alas This consideration that 't is well-pleasing unto God hath not the least influence upon that obedience which many Children yield unto their Parents nor are they at all moved or stirred up to the performance of their Duty to them thereby And so I have shewed in these few instances unto which many more might be added that though men may do many good things yet very little of what they do may upon examination appear to have been done faithfully so far are they from being capable of the Testimony and Commendation given to Gaius to whom the Apostle saith Thou dost faithfully whatsoever thou dost both
than against your self A due Sense of your Sin and of the Dishonour you have done to God thereby would make you even out of an holy Indignation and Revenge against your self humbly and patiently to submit to the utmost of that Severity which God is pleased to exercise towards you 5. Remember how ill God took it from his People the Jews that they complained the Way of the Lord was not equal which is in effect your Complaint Concerning this he complains and expostulates with them Ye say Ezek. 18.25 The Way of the Lord is not equal Hear now O House of Israel Is not my VVay equal Are not your VVays unequal And so again ver 29. And then he adds ver 30. Therefore will I judg you O House of Israel every one according to his VVays saith the Lord God repent and turn your selves from all your Transgressions so Iniquity shall not be your Ruine As if he had said Whereas ye complain of the Inequality of my Dealings with you unless you repent I will destroy you all and then you will have little Cause to complain of my inequal Dealings They who complain of the Inequality of God's dealing with them had need take heed lest God lay Judgment to the Line and Righteousness to the Plummet as he threatens Isa 28.17 Lest he lay heavier things upon them lest he bring such Judgments on them as shall come up more nearly to the Measures the Proportion and Demerits of their Sins How much soever they have suffered God may yet lay much more upon them and yet still punish them much less than their Iniquities deserve 6. Whereas you complain that God deals more severely with you than with many others think with your self 1st That 't is possible your Sins may have been greater than the Sins of such as you have in your Eye greater in respect of the Circumstances and Aggravations of them It may be they never sinned against so much Light and so many clear Convictions against such Mercies and so many Discoveries of God's Love against so many Warnings and gentler Chastisements against so many severer Stroaks when milder Courses would not prevail Can you wonder at it that God deals more severely with you than with others if upon Examination it should be found that your Sins have been greater than theirs 2dly It may be God intends you more Good than many others By sorer Afflictions he means to make you better and so much the better as your Afflictions have been and are greater His Chastnings though severe are no Evidences of his Hatred but Fruits of his Love and of his Purpose to do your Soul much Good by them for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth Prov. 3.12 even as a Father doth the Son in whom he delighteth 3dly What if the time for correcting some others be not yet come even they who have been hitherto spared or been dealt very gently with may hereafter if milder Remedies do no good be as severely dealt with as you have been God takes his own Time and makes use of his own Methods for disciplining all his and some he sees good to handle after one manner some after another as to his Wisdom seems best 4thly What if some of those who are for the present spared should be reserved to the Judgment of the last Day while you are chastned here that you may not be condemned with the World hereafter God may spare some others in Anger and correct you in Mercy for his forbearing to punish is sometimes no Fruit of his Favour but an Effect of his highest Displeasure according to that Psal 81.11 12. My People would not hearken to my Voice and Israel would none of me So I gave them up to their own Hearts Lust Object 3. But my Troubles are long and tedious saith another there is no End of them I have been waiting and waiting for Deliverance but it comes not I see others in Trouble and I see them come well out of it but my Feet stick fast in the Mire Answ To this I answer 1. That it is not your Case alone Did not the People of God take up the like Complaint The Harvest is past Jer. 8.20 the Summer is ended and we are not saved The time when we expected Deliverance is over and yet we are still where we were our Afflictions are still lengthened out Was there not a time when Zion said Isa 49.14 The Lord hath forsaken me my Lord hath forgotten me Was there not a time when David after he had been long praying for Deliverance and waiting Psal 69.3 said I am weary of my crying my Throat is dried mine Eyes fail while I wait for my God Wherefore have no hard Thoughts of God much less give way to murmuring against him who deals no otherwise with you than he often deals with many of his own 2. Is not the Cause of God's respiting your Deliverance in your self Are not you still unfit for Mercy and is not that the true reason why you have it not God delighteth in Mercy Mich. 7.18 He waiteth to be gracious Isa 30.18 How ready God is to shew Mercy to us when we are ready and prepared to receive it he hath declared in the most pathetical way of Expression Psal 81.13 16. O that my People had hearkned unto me and that Israel had walked in my VVays I should soon have subdued their Enemies and turned my Hand against their Adversaries The Haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him but their time should have endured for ever He should have fed them with the finest of the VVheat and with Honey out of the Rock should I have satisfied thee And to the same Purpose is that Isa 48.18 O that thou hadst hearkned to my Commandments then had thy Peace been as a River and thy Righteousness as the VVaves of the Sea So then we may thank our selves that in our Afflictions we wait so long for Deliverance Our Mercies never meet with any Obstructions in God but in our selves We by our Continuance in Sin by our Remisness and Slackness in the Work of sound Humiliation and Reformation retard and set back our Mercies and then we complain and murmur as if God were slack and unmindful of his Promises as if he were hardly drawn to shew Mercy 3. Deliverance out of Trouble is of God's free Grace we cannot challenge it at his Hands We bring our selves into Trouble by our Sins and he may justly leave us to perish in our Troubles He therefore who doth all that he doth for us out of free Mercy may take his own time to do it when he pleaseth Is it fit that we who are unworthy of any good thing who can demand nothing of him should prescribe Times and Seasons to him and as if we required a Debt of him set him a Day when he should shew Mercy 4. His own Time is the best Time It may seem long to us that we