with their fruits if time be granted to bring them forth are not only described and required clearly and frequently in holy Scripture as the necessary conditions without which no Man shall but as the necessary qualifications without which no Man can see the Lord with holy eternal love and joy And therefore no doubt the for hath a rational inference in it as to the acceptance and reward of the godly and righteous person Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you for I was hungry and ye fed me c. For ye have perform'd the conditions which I in my Gospel or gracious covenant required of you with promise to accept and reward them for ye are qualified with those graces and holy dispositions which are my own Image and likeness the impress of my holy Spirit which renders you capable of enjoying me and my Father with endless delight which makes you though not in strict justice worthy of my Heavenly Kingdom yet in my gracious mercy and bounty and through my merits not utterly unworthy that is not wholly unmeet to inherit it for these all have confest and forsaken their evil ways fled with penitent believing hearts to that propitiation which God had set forth in his only Son through faith in his blood By doing so they have received that holy Spirit by whose direction and assistance they have mortified the flesh with its lusts and affections conquered the World with its temptatations resisted the Devil and quenched the fiery darts of the wicked fought the good fight of faith till they finished their course and though the remainders of sin and the flesh abide lusting and strugling against the Spirit yet no sin hath reigned over them and the very remainders of sin they have bewailed watcht over and resisted betaking themselves to Christs intercession for their pardon therefore they are heirs of the Kingdom through the merits of Christ imparted to them whereby they are entituled to it as the meritorious cause on his part whereby they have an actual plea title and interest in Christs merit as the condition and qualification on their part And thus the Kingdom and eternal Rest is theirs though not by right of justice or merit but by right of gracious promise And may not all this be thought sufficient to justifie the truth of the for or causal particle unless it be granted that it signifie meritoriously in strict justice on their part as strictly and fully as in the other Depart ye cursed for ye did no good works but many ill ones without repentance and reformation without faith and love to me The goodness and justice of Gods Majesty will not suffer him to sentence any Man to any punishment much less to eternal intolerable sorrow and pain unless it hath been strictly and fully deserved or demerited But the goodness and bounty and mercy of God may without wrong to any perfection or attribute of his accept and reward any Man that is not utterly incapable of it but in some sincere degree qualified for it with such an abundant measure of happiness as he thinks fit although no ways merited by him The Lord Jesus hath satisfied his Fathers justice and honour in his Government and holy Laws and made it a righteous thing with him to save the penitent sinner upon condition of reformation and holy obedience They that are saved have performed these conditions and therefore they are admitted with a for Come ye blessed c. For I was hungry If a gracious Prince of his own free goodness proclaim a general merciful pardon to all Rebels Traytors and Theeves provided they will by such a day acknowledge their fault and profess and resolve to do so no more and make their peace with their Neighbours whom they have wronged Suppose all accept the pardon in outward shew but some of them secretly practice the same wickedness against their Sovereign and their Neighbours when as the others perform faithfully the conditions of their pardon If at the General Assizes the Judge upon notice of their demeanours should say to the one I restore you to your former condition state and dignity for or because since your pardon proclaimed ye have so demeaned your selves as penitent loyal faithful Subjects And to the other You I condemn to death and torments for or because ye have abused your Sovereigns clemency No Man of sober reason or common sence I think can deny that either the condemnation of the one were entirely to be ascribed to their own willful choise and vile misdemeanours as due in justice to their demerits or that the restoring or saving the other were to be attributed not to the merit of their demeanour but to the Kings gracious mercy and bountiful favour Their good demeanour could be at most but the necessary condition or qualification of their pardon or restoration without which it could not consist with the wisdom or honour of the Prince his Laws or Government so to use them with which it might well consist with his wisdom and honour so to do and that with advantage to the glory of his mercy without disparagement to his Justice especially in case his Justice and honour had been satisfied for their former misdemeanours by the merits and intercession of the Prince his Royal Son Now just so it is in this case of which we now speak They whom our Lord calls here to eternal life and that with a for For ye have fed clothed lodged me are so far from this proud conceit of Romish merit by their works that they are ready to disclaim them as nothing worthy of such acceptance ready to blame their sluggish backwardness Lord say they when saw we thee hungry thirsty naked or a stranger or prisoner and relieved thee Nor is it amiss what is observed and acknowledg'd by Jansenius though a Romanist and too far engaged in this error what Saint Chrisostom had long since observed before him that our Saviour saith to those on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father but to those on his left hand he saith only depart ye cursed but adds not Of my Father implying that God the Father is the Author and gracious donor of life everlasting but every Man that doth wickedly and dies in his wickedness without repentance is the only Author and cause of his own accursed estate The one are blessed freely and mercifully by God the Father for his Son Christs sake in whom alone he is well pleased with all that come by him with such a faith as works by love But the other are accursed most justly because they sought not or refused when it was offer'd them that grace and mercy which would have blessed them first with grace to do good works then with glory a superabundant weight of glory for doing them And this is consonant to that of St. Paul Rom. 6. v. the last For the wages of sin is death but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or gift
from God's Rest that will prepare themselves for it by faith hope and love unfeigned sincere impartial persevering obedience and patience giving them full assurance of it upon the evidence of their integrity in these things inclusive of none but such as entirely humbly thankfully believe and accept it on these terms They that as yet neglect these terms or are in danger of falling away from their former diligence in observing them had need to fear lest they miss of it and in that fear work out their own Salvation give all diligence to make their calling and election sure which as it seems by St. Peter is not so unless by adding to Faith Courage to Courage Knowledge Godliness Charity Temperance Patience more and more Having these promises dearly beloved saith St. Paul 2 Cor. 7.1 The promises of a most gracious reception all the mercies of Heaven hereafter with so much on Earth as is for our good I will receive you and be your Father and you shall be my Sons and Daughters saith the Lord Almighty Having these promises let us cleanse our selves from all pollution of Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the fear of God It seems then that humble fear of offending God and losing his promises by not performing of their conditions not coming out from among the wicked or coming out not cleansing our selves more and more from all pollutions of Flesh and Spirit is not only the beginning of Wisdom as you have it elsewhere but perfective of Holiness which is our only true Wisdom Were all that profess the Name and Gospel of Christ Jesus sincere professors or were all that begin to be so secured for ever from ceasing to be so by turning back to disobedience and unbelief Saint Paul and St. Peter would not thus both of them exhort to fear lest a promise being left them of entering into God's Rest any of them should seem to miss or fall short of it But since it is so clear and manifest that many professors in all Ages have been faithless and hypocritical in their profession and since it is so disputable at least nay highly probable both from Scripture and from reason and experience that many professors sincere at first may prove backsliders and fall away from their former righteousness faith and obedience 't is both the Duty and Wisdom of all to fear lest any miss of the promises for want of performing sincerely and constantly the necessary conditions annexed to them Scarce is there any part of Divinity more dangerously mistaken corrupted debauched by the prejudices or interests passions or lusts of several Men made more instrumental to flatter and cherish that sloth in good or security in evil for destruction of which they were made or propounded than that of the promises of Christ and his Gospel Some give them the inclosure or monopoly as I may so say of our faith while the precepts and threats which have as much right to be believed as they his Kingly and Prophetic Office to which he was as particularly anointed as to that of Priest being too commonly set aside as unnecessary nay with some not only look'd upon as no part of the Gospel but as dangerous to be obtruded for the object of Faith or Duty Some would perswade themselves and others that the promises of Christ are particular and absolute confin'd to some few and to those howsoever they be qualified when as the whole tenor and current of Christian Doctrine proclaims directly the quite contrary that they are general and conditional a Picture that looks every Man in the face that comes into the room but cannot be imagined to eye any Man else unrestrained to all provided they perform the condition and an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those diffusive rich Store-houses sealed up against all who do not perform it Shall we therefore have the patience the justice and piety yea the wisdom and faithfulness to our selves to resist a while these strong prejudices to rescue the sacred object of faith from such misprisions to set up the promises of Christ henceforth in such a posture as may have the safest and kindest influence the powerfullest and most benign aspect on our Hearts and Lives not to swell and puff up our phansies any longer with an opinion that we are the special favourites of Heaven to whom the promises of Rest are consign'd unconditionally or without possibility of being forfeited but to engage and oblige our Souls to that universal constant righteousness holiness obedience as well as faith which may really instate us in those promises that may like the Angel to St. Peter in Prison awake us out of our sleep and dream and shake off those gyves and manacles which keep our feet from walking in the ways which God hath prescribed and thereby even confine and fetter God himself if I may so speak from making good his promises effectually to such indisposed unqualified persons If we look on the lives of most Christians professing the Gospel with great pretence at least of confidence that they shall be partakers takers of God's Rest that the promise thereof belongs to them though they live as those that set up their Rest in the lusts of the flesh those lusts of the Eye that pride of life which is directly contrary to it and the love of the Father we have but too great reason to fear that unless they repent and reform speedily and effectually they will prove such as no Rest belongs to And if we look on the slothful negligence in good works yea the wilful backsliding to wicked works to false Doctrines to lewd practises which are to be found too visibly and frequently even in those who once were sincere Believers such as had for a time obeyed both in heart and life the Gospel of Christ received his precepts into their practice as well as promises into their Creed we shall have too great reason to fear that they also may fall away finally from those conditions without the renewed presevering performance of which there is no rest of Gods to be had Wherefore both in respect of the former faithless Professors and of the latter backsliding Professors let us fear as the Apostle exhorts us fear in wisdom towards our selves and fear in charity towards others fear and watch over our selves and one another watch and pray labour and strive lest a promise being left us of entering Gods rest any of us seem to fall short of it for want of attending to its conditions which is not onely an outward profession but a lively faith working by love and that not onely begun or continued for a while but persevering to the end Despise not then the motive of Fear lest you despise your own Souls To fear any mortal visible enemy any earthly temporal danger in an holy righteous cause is cowardise and servile baseness to fear the labour of study and diligence is sloth and idleness but to fear God and his righteous threats especially
Gods children and must love God above all as our Father love our Redeemer so much more than all Relations than life it self and its dearest contentments as to forsake and renounce them for ever rather than him Yet we are still exhorted and enjoyned to pass the time of our sojourning here in fear not to fear what Man but God can do unto us To love him as a Father and fear to lose his love by offending him to love the Son and kiss him with reverence lest he be angry to love the Holy Spirit of God and fear to grieve resist and quench him lest we turn his grace into wantonness and make him withdraw his gracious presence that would enable us in holiness and righteousness to serve him without fear of any evil that can befall us so doing or of any enemy that can hurt us and yet to fear him whom we serve as our Lord and King A good Son may fear to incur his Father's wrath by ceasing to be so and yet cry Abba Father Tertullian interprets that of Saint John Perfect love casts out fear of lazy fear that will not go on in the way of grace for fear of a Lion in the way some hazard and difficulties likely to meet him not the fear of Gods wrath possible to be incurred by sin and backsliding but of temporal dangers and persecutions If our love be perfect though with the perfection of sincerity that is habitually prevailing over all other loves 't will cast out such fear and make us lay down our lives for the Brethren to glorifie God and encourage others by the evidence of our faith content to adventure any thing for Christs sake even death it self but sure not the displeasing of God and the torments of Hell that were too prodigal an alms too wild a valour directly contrary to the love as well as fear of God in Christ Charity again casteth out all fear but by degrees as that increaseth so fear abateth If our Sanctification were as perfect for degrees as universal for its parts were our obedience like that of Angels which cannot fail we should need neither hope to encourage our love nor fear to guard it but while it is only in part the best Christians in this state of imperfection may have use of a Deaths Head and make Gods threats as well as promises subordinate means to concur with the principal Buttresses to keep the Building from swerving while the foundation of Faith and Love keeps it from sinking Fides spes tuta si cauta secura si sollicita Tert. Fear makes our love reverent our hope wary our faith discreet If the Sails be too full they may endanger us as much as a Rock for Fear as a Rudder guides and steers our Faith and Hope between the gulph or sands of Despair and the rock of Presumption or proud Security Serve we the Lord then in love but in fear too and rejoyce unto him with trembling as David speaks fear him as Lord love and rejoyce in him as Jesus yea and fear him as Jesus too fear to offend so gracious a Saviour to vilifie and hazard such precious Salvation sit timor innocentiae Custos saith St. Cyp. ut Deus qui in mentes nostras clementer influxit in animi hospitio justâ operatione teneatur If God hath entered into our hearts through his Son by his Spirit let us be glad and rejoyce in his presence for thankful joy is his entertainment but let fear keep the door that nothing enter that may displease so holy a presence Aiunt quidam saith Tert. se salvo metu vel fide peccare some say they can venture on sin without any prejudice to faith or fear sic ergo ipsi salvâ veniâ detrudentur in Gehennam dum salvo metu peccant so shall such who say and do so be thrust into Hell without any prejudice to God's mercy or Christ's merit and intercession Whether we consider the infinite eternal worth and weight of this Rest the intolerable endless troubles of missing it or the absolute necessity of hating and shunning all evil of loving and following all duties and graces in order to attaining the one and escaping the other Whether we look upon the weakness inconstancy treachery of the flesh within us or upon the variety of temptations alluring and terrifying us from the world without set on by the Devil with all the vigilance of subtil malice or on the shortness or uncertainty of the time wherein this Rest must be secured or lost for ever Whether we look on the love and infinite mercy of God in offering purchasing inviting drawing us to this Rest at such a price by such powerful obliging variety of means or motives or on the deceitfulness of mans heart willing to think the conditions of it fewer and easier than they are and to satisfie it self in the hopes of it on an outward profession a speculative faith or a partial obedience Or lastly whether we consider the possibility of falling away through sloth or impatience from the sincere repentance and faith love and obedience which was begun All and every one of these call for an humble watchful fear and godly jealousie over our selves solicitous cautions and diligence lest we fall short of it Take heed then of thinking this fear of missing it either unnecessary or unbeseeming Christian Professors or true Believers since many Professors are no true Believers and they that are may cease to be so unless they watch and pray assiduously and work out their own salvation with fear and trembling Look not upon it as too slavish for Persons regenerate and Children of light since sure it is that the Spirit of God and the holy Apostles made choice of no Arguments but such as were fit to be made use of by Christians and the motives of fear are more than once the Arguments they chose even to those who had been made partakers of Christ and were of the House and Family of God such as had received the Kingdom that could not be moved Heb. 12.28 Who yet are there exhorted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have Grace or to hold it fast by making an humble diligent use of that pretious Talent Or if you will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be thankful to God the munificent donor of such a benefit and this duty raised to the height to the serving of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether that refer to the Persons and signifie serving with cheerful alacrity for fear and chearfulness are very consistent the former the Guardian the Conservator of the latter Or whether it refer to God as we render it serving him acceptably with reverence and godly fear you have still in this Apostle the motives of fear annexed to this duty for our God is a consuming fire 'T was wisdom then and sober piety in him that said He would not leave his part in Hell meaning the benefit he found in meditating on God's threats as well
what and why they believe then they are clearlier convinced and condemned by their own conscience for not persevering and increasing that faith by living sincerely according to it but contradicting their very faith as well as profession untill the custom of sin hath darkned if not extinguisht their former evidences is it not high time then for any that finde it thus with them to cast away all longer delays of self abhorrence and repentance to return to God and their own hearts with shame and grief for their former backslidings and for ever from henceforth to be the more humble for what is past watchful and zealous for the future in reviewing their faith and living by it in Holiness and Righteousness Purity and Peaceableness Obedience and Patience lest that faith which hath been deadned and contradicted so long and often turn to a total and final apostacy in the end There 's nothing more clear in Holy Scripture than that they whom God vouchsafes to call by his loudest voice and powerfullest means to Repentance and Faith and Obedience are rendred thereby so much the more hainously guilty of willful ingratitude unbelief and disobedience and therefore liable to so much the sorer Condemnation unless they repent believe and obey according to that light and grace which was afforded them You have I known of all Nations therefore you will I punish the sooner and more severely This is the condemnation that light is come into the World and ye have loved darkness rather than light Woe unto thee Corazin woe unto thee Bethsaida for if the mighty works c. they had repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes How shall we of all others escape if we neglect so great salvation It is indeed a great favour and mercy of God to send us his Gospel to prevent us with all the means of grace but favours and mercies abused and perverted increase the guilt of those that receive them but would not use them to God's glory and their own Salvation And yet what more common and general for Men and Women of all sorts to suppose themselves safe enough and entituled sufficiently to God's Rest because they are of the visible Church professing that Truth which should purify and sanctify them but doth not because it is not aright considered and laid to heart in its grounds and reasons terms and conditions as well as its promises The greatest part of the Jews you see though brought out of Egypt with many Miracles made the peculiar People of God the lively Oracles committed to them and what not that could be desired to make them holy or happy yet for want of considering and believing the word of God forfeited and lost their Title to Canaan And the greatest part I fear of Christians yea of the purest professors of Christianity will forfeit and lose their Title to Heaven unless they consider believe and obey the Gospel of Christ more sincerely impartially constantly than hitherto they seem to have done And if they miss of Gods Rest for want of considering and performing its conditions their anguish and pain will be so much the heavier to all eternity They that have the Oracles of God the word and Sacraments Pastors and Teachers granted to them and yet are never the better and holier are so much worse because they disgrace and bring a reproach on the greatest and weightiest Truth in the World as if it had no evidence or power in it The Israelites once were like Gideons Fleece full of heavenly Dew in a drought endued with those high and happy priviledges of which we read Rom. 2.3 and Rom. 9.4 But yet because they lived not answerably to their vocation but made their privileges occasions of Pride and vain presumption of Gods favour till at last they rejected their very Messias of whom they boasted as their peculiar they are at this day like the Mountains of Gilboa barren and dry while the Dew of Heaven hath fallen abundantly upon the Nations The favours shewn to the Christian Church are greater than theirs because the Truth is clearlier revealed the means of grace more powerfull and less burthensom But yet these favours if trusted to and yet neglected will prove aggravations of God's displeasure To be surrounded with such helps of God from above of Men below ready to further us towards Heaven of precepts to guide promises to encourage us and yet to fall short of Gods Rest is a double and treble shame and sorrow Wherefore if not in gratitude to God for all his mercies yet for fear lest these mercies prove by our own willful neglect and contempt of them the aggravations of our misery let us while it is called to day excite our selves and exhort one another to repentance and faith holiness and righteousness obedience and patience against whatever temptations arise We have a promise infallibly sure incomparably pretious of entring Gods Rest his word to quicken us his Sacraments to confirm us his Grace to prevent assist and follow us If we hearken to his word and resist not his grace neither Prophane nor Idolize his Sacraments but receive them with faith and reverence as they were instituted in love If we hear the Church and watch over our selves and one another Sin shall have no dominion over us we shall be built up from one degree of faith and holiness to another until we enter Gods Rest without any fear or possibility of falling from it But if we neglect the conditions of it and trust to the promise as if it were absolute to the means of grace as if they were even grace it self our sloth and confidence will end in despair and find for ever so much the greater trouble and anguish for having missed of God's Rest offered unto us on such conditions Let us awake then and excite our selves and one another by all the arguments of hope and fear love and gratitude that so God may have the honour of all his favours bestowed upon us and we the everlasting comfort of being thankful and hearing that beatifical voice Well done good and faithful Servant enter thy Masters Joy and Rest Now this Rest of Gods is not the Rest of the Sabboth or Canaan in this life but that eternal Rest with God in Heaven implied indeed and preparation made for it by the Sabboth Typified by Canaan begun here by believers to be injoy'd in its first fruits through faith and hope but not to be had in its full harvest its perfect peace and joy in God 'till we come to Heaven We which have believed saith Saint Paul do enter into Rest that is shall if we persevere in faith and holiness enter into it perfectly without possibility of forfeiting or losing it do enter into it now by faith and hope in God's promises by love and obedience of his precepts which gives us a real Title to it yea a true though initial imperfect defeasible admission into it by that Rest from the guilt of Sin which
faith and the merits and intercession of Christ Jesus receives and imbraces with peace and joy by that Rest from the power disorder and tyranny of Sin which faith procuring Gods Spirit and looking upon the certainty and weight of his promises and threats the beauty and excellency of his precepts together with the great obligation of God's mercy in sending his Son to die for our sins and rise again for our justification effects and enjoys Thus believers if such believers as rely on the promises of God's Rest with faithful resolutions and endeavours to perform its conditions do enter into it initially and shall enter into it eternally But how proves the Apostle this the proof of it is in these words He said I have sworn in my wrath that they shall not enter my Rest who shew themselves obstinately unbelieving and disobedient The Argument is taken à contrario from the nature of contrary things If infidelity and disobedience be that alone which excludes from the promise of God's Rest then faith and obedience or such a faith as produceth obedience is that which entitles us to enter into it for God's promise cannot be satisfied nor wholly norutterly disappointed or made to become of none effect And therefore though they who would not believe it nor keep its conditions fell short of it yet they who believe and perform its conconditions must enter into it Yea his very wrath and oath against the one for their unbelief and disobedience implies and inferrs his complacency and love towards the other his undefeasible decree and oath that they persevering in faith and obedience shall enter and fully enjoy his Rest And this Rest was not the Rest of Canaan For if Joshua or Jesus the Son of Nun had given them Rest then would not David afterwards have spoken of another Rest from whence the Apostle inferrs what he began with there Remains therefore a Rest to the People of God another manner of Rest than that of Canaan eternal and perfect with God in Heaven to which the true Joshua or Jesus the Son of God must give us entrance by faith in him of whom Joshua the Son of Nun was but an imperfect transitory Type as that Rest of Canaan and of the Sabboth was of the perfect eternal Rest which still remains for Gods People the whole Church of true persevering obedient believers From what the Apostle hath said we may make this observation That Man hath no true and perfect Rest in ought but God His Rest is Mans Rest because he is the Rest and happiness of Man the ultimate compleate satisfactory object of reasonable creatures To Rest in any thing but in him as our happiness without dependance on him as the Author and reference to him as the end thereof is sinful vanity and vexation sure to end in eternal trouble without repentance Canaan it self was not to be the final Rest and happiness of the Israelites nor must any thing in this World any thing less than God be ours What God hath said to the Jews of old he much more clearly hath said and proved to us Christians Arise and depart for this is not your Resting place The Heavenly Rest and eternal life of seeing God as he is was but obscurely and imperfectly revealed to them who lived before or under the law till Christ came in whom the promise of it was made when man had lost all hope of it It was till then wrapt up as it were in the seed and bloome of Types and Prophesies implied and intimated in the Sabboth and Canaan and Temporal blessings attending Piety in this life rather than manifested and brought to light in its clearest evidences and strongest assurances as now our Lord Jesus hath done who hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel and therefore if they were obliged only in God through Christ Jesus to place their happiness in nothing below but to look on him through the vaile of Types and Temporal blessings how much more are we obliged as well as enabled to do so to whom Christ hath been exhibited with all the fulness of Truth and grace revealing the whole counsel of God our Rest in him and the way to attain it without obscurity and beyond dispute If David foresaw and foretold this Rest to be remaining when he not only enjoy'd Canaan and its blessings as the other Israelites did but the very height thereof as a prosperous King If he could say Deliver me O Lord from the Men of this World whose portion is in this life I am a stranger and sojourner here as all my Fathers were How much more are we obliged to think and say so who have not such Types and Temporal blessings to vaile the Object of our Rest and interrupt our sight of it to whom the Son and Lord of David hath been exhibited exemplifying and teaching us our only Rest to be in God the Father through him the Son by his holy Spirit dying to purchase an entrance to it rising and ascending and sitting down in a Glorious Rest at Gods Right Hand to assure us of it It is no less than the sin of Idolatry to place our Rest confidence or happiness in pleasures or honours possessions or riches or any thing else that this World can gratifie us with it is the bitter spring or Root of all sins It contradicts the design of God in giving us any Temporal blessings he gave them to help us unto him that reflecting upon him as their Author and end we might be perswaded to love him incomparably above all if we fall in love with them instead of raising our love to him we quite pervert the intent of his favours and turn them into hinderances to his dishonour and our own ruine He gave them to comfort us in our journy and shall we so mistake his meaning as to set up our dwelling in the Inn and Travaile no farther towards our Country but forget the giver because of that gift which was sent us on purpose to mind us of him This were to bring that curse on our selves which the Prophet foretold rather than prayed might fall on Gods enemies Let their Table be made a snare and that which should have been for their wealth be an occasion of falling to them This were indeed to provoke God either to withdraw those favours which thus he sees rested in instead of him or else to embitter and curse them from yeilding any content and if he should suffer us still to rest in them to his dishonour 't would prove the greatest surest curse of all others to live and die in this false deceitful transitory Rest which leads to and ends in eternal trouble and sorrow of body and soul That which is Mans true Rest must be able to give him full and perpetual satisfaction But all things below do neither satisfie us while we have them nor can continue with us longer to yield us that Rest or Pleasure which we fancy We
to fall short of it So run that ye may obtain is the command and all precepts of Scripture are back'd with threats for ill or not doing as well as promises for doing well and are intended by God as so many arguments and strong motives to hold us to our duty do we our part and God will certainly do his and we cannot lose the reward of Well done good and faithful Servant enter into thy Master's joy The last judicial sentence of Christ of which we read Matt. 25. Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the World is an invitation of so much mercy and loveing kindness that none can give nor can any expect or require more What can the eloquence of Man add to it or what better assurance can be desired than the gratious promise of so powerful so faithful a Lord Or what greater reward can any hope to receive than that which the Author and dispenser of all good assures us by letting us know what ever we do to the poor and needy he will interpret it as done to himself and so reward our labour of love as to Crown it with eternal Rest an inheritance of that Kingdom and all its joys as well as honours which fade not away But we must not understand this award of eternal life this glorious inheritance to be the reward of the righteous for the merit of their good works as everlasting fire is to the wicked for their demerits what ever the Romish Church pretends to from those words of our Saviour in the forenamed 25th of St. Matt. The particle for say they is as truly causal by way of merit and efficiency in the one as in the other the form of Speech in both sentences the same Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire For I was hungry and ye gave me no meat Come ye blessed inherit the Kingdom for I was hungry and ye fed me In answer to this 't is clear enough that though the particle for be granted to signifie causality in both sentences yet need it not signifie the same kind or degree of causality in both and if it need not then it must not unless they resolve to contradict many other plain Scriptures rather than depart from their own vain and proud conceit of meriting Heaven in strict justice For first The word or particle for may signifie only the cause of our or others knowledge that the Kingdom of Heaven is their inheritance by true title of gracious promise or the Covenant of grace and mercy in Christ Jesus which accepts and rewards repentance and faith working by love whereof these works of Charity are the fruits and signs For every Authentick Declaration or Revelation of any truth before unknown is the true cause of our knowledge of it though not of the real truth which is so known Now among such as profess Christ and call him Lord 't is hidden to us who are the true heirs of the Heavenly Kingdom and who not untill at the day of final judgment when all Men shall be judged by their works The first infallible certain knowledge which shall be had of this difference is from the declarative sentence of that infallible righteous Judge who hath declared he will proceed with one and the other according to their several works when all must appear before the Judgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in the Body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5.10 The ones performance of good works declared and testified by the Judge shall be the true cause by which Men and Angels shall know them to be the heirs of that Heavenly Kingdom which here they sought and longed after with faithful desires and endeavours such as prepared and fitted themselves for it The others omission of good works testified by the same Judge shall be the true cause by which we shall know them to be utterly unworthy of Gods everlasting favour and mercy most worthy of death eternal We shall then truly know that the one are Crowned as saith St. Cyprian according to Gods grace which graciously accepts of faithful sincerity in stead of strict legal perfection and that the other are condemned according to justice because they neither fulfilled the law nor embraced the Gospel upon its gracious terms and conditions That the ones omission of good works and commission of evil ones is the true meritorious cause of their condemnation And that the others performance of good works at least in faithful resolution and that hearty inward faith hope and love which would have produced them if time and space had been granted is the testimony or declaration that they are the Sons of God heirs of everlasting life though not the meritorious cause of their Salvation and life eternal We commonly come to know the cause by the effect and therefore this word for may and doth often point out not the cause of the thing it self but the effect and our knowledge of the cause by it That 's the Major 't is commonly said for the Mace is borne before him Let no Man think that the bearing of the Mace before him is the cause of his being Major his lawful Election was the cause of his Majoralty and his Majoralty the cause of the Mace being carried or borne before him but the bearing the Mace before him is the true cause of many Mens knowing him to be the Major And this answer to the question may serve with greater probability than ought our adversaries bring for themselves But with more clearness and evidence of reason agreeing with the Analogy of Faith and the current of Scripture I answer That the particle for implys a causality in both the sentences but in one that of the wicked the strict meritorious sole cause of their condemnation whereas in the Godly and Charitable Persons the heirs of Heaven the for implys such a causal influence as that which they call conditio or causa sine quâ non good works or that faith working by love of God and Man whence they spring and the necessary conditions without which no Man shall inherit the Kingdom yea the necessary qualifications without which he hath not only no worthiness but no capacity no fitness to prepare himself for that Kingdom whose happiness is to see God with mutual complacency And no Man can so see the holy merciful gracious God the God of Love and Father of Mercies the faithful righteous unchangeable fountain of all that is pure loving or lovely unless he be like him and bear the Image of those his perfections though imperfectly as to degrees yet impartially and sincerely as the transcript and resemblance of that Wisdom which comes from above first pure then peaceable Unless his religion be that undefiled one before God which visits the Fatherless and the Widow in affliction and keeps himself vnspotted from the World These and the like graces