allur'd by its Temptrations to leave the Way to Life enable me I intreat thee so stedfastly to attend thy divine Instructions that I may more and more daily take my Love from that which does not cannot satisfy and is indeed but Vanity and Vexation of Spirit and fix it upon that which is above all things valuable That so I may be convinc'd by a happpy Experience that true Pleasure and Freedom and Happiness is only to be met with in thy Service and that I am so little design'd for the Delights of the World and of Sense that the longer I live to prove them the less capable I shall be of their Enjoyment O may that Peace and Tranquillity within my own Breast that Quiet with others that Health and Length of Days which is in the Right Hand of Religion and the durable Riches and true Honour that is in her Left and that chearing Expectation of Heaven when this frail Tabernacle shall be dissolv'd may this which is the natural Offspring of true Piety leave so lovely an Idea of it upon my Soul that I may value it as indeed the greatest Treasure and a Pearl of inestimable Price And may I be so wise as where my Treasure is there to fix my Desires and thither to direct my Endeavours and part with every thing that is my Hindrance in the Acquisition of it And since this Pearl is not cast before Swine and this Treasure must be diligently sought for e're it be found Do thou so purify and refine my Affections that I may above all things hunger and thirst after Righteousness and diligently search for this saving Wisdom as for hid Treasure and may thy blessed Spirit which leadeth into all Truth so guide and direct me in my Search that seeking I may find and having found never more part with that inestimable Jewel though for the Gain of the whole World but rather sell all even Life it self to secure my Possession of it And this Wisdom I earnestly beg of thee O Lord who art the Giver of every good and perfect Gift through the Merits of Jesus thy beloved Son our only Saviour Amen PARABLE IV. Of a merciful King and his unmerciful Servant Matth. xviii 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35. The Kingdom of Heaven is likened unto a certain King which would take Account of his Servants And when he had begun to reckon one was brought unto him which owed him Ten Thousand Talents But forasmuch as he had not to pay his Lord commanded him to be sold and his Wife and Children and all that he had and Payment to be made The Servant therefore fell down and worshipped him saying Lord have Patience with me and I will pay thee all Then the Lord of that Servant was moved with Compassion and loosed him and forgave him the Debt But the same Servant went out and found one of his Fellow-Servants which ought him an Hundred Pence And he laid hands on him and took him by the Throat saying pay me that thou owest And his Fellow-Servant fell down at his Feet saying have Patience with me and I will pay thee all And he would not but went and cast him into Prison till he should pay the Debt So when his Fellow-Servants saw what was done they were very sorry and came and told unto their Lord all that was done Then his Lord after that he had called him said unto him O thou wicked Servant I forgave thee all that Debt because thou desiredst me Shouldst not thou also have Compassion of thy Fellow-Servant even as I had Pity on thee And his Lord was wroth and delivered him to the Tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto him So also shall my heavenly Father do also unto you if ye from your Hearts forgive not everyone his Brother their Trespasses THIS Parable was spoken upon St. Peter's asking our Lord Vers 21. how often shall my Brother sin against me and I forgive him Till Seven Times To which Question the compassionate Jesus first answers directly Vers I say not unto thee till Seven Times but till Seventy Times Seven And then illustrates that his Answer and shews how great Obligation we have to forgive Injuries and how sad will be our Punishment if we do not in the Parable above written In which Parable there are two things in general to be considered First The mercifull Example of God's Dealing with us miserable Sinners who lay under a vast Debt to his Justice express'd by a King 's taking Account of his Servants c. and forgiving c. Secondly His great Displeasure against those that will not imitate that his compassionate Example in forgiving such as have been injurious to them express'd by the King 's being wroth with his unmerciful Servant who though he receiv'd so much Kindness himself would shew none to his Fellow-Servant who owed him a Trifle in Comparison but without the least Compassion threw him into Prison till he should pay it upon which his Lord delivered him over to the Tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto him Under The first General there are three Particulars to be considered First the Greatness of the Debt which by Sin we have contracted to the Divine Justice expressed by Ten Thousand Talents Secondly The Impossibility of our ever clearing this Debt and the sad Consequence if it still should have remain'd upon Account express'd here by the King's Debtor having nothing to pay and the King 's commanding that therefore he should be sold and his Wife and Children and all that he had that so Payment might be made Thirdly The wondrous Compassion of our good God in pitying our miserable Condition and forgiving us all our Debt expressed by that King 's being mov'd with Compassion at the deplorable Condition of his insolvent Servant and loosing him and forgiving him the Debt Under the second General there are likewise three Particulars to be consider'd First What it is to forgive one another as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven us and the great Obligation we have to imitate this Example of our merciful God Secondly Our great Baseness if we do not and Thirdly The miserable Consequence that will attend that Baseness we shall provoke God to recall his Pardon to us and be deliver'd over to the Tormentors till we shall pay all that is due unto him The first General to be consider'd in this Parable is God's Example in dealing with us miserable Sinners who lay under a vast Debt to his Justice express'd by a King 's taking Account of his Servants and freely forgiving one that was deeply indebted to him And the first Particular to be consider'd under it is the Greatness of the Debt which by Sin we have contracted to the Divine Justice By contracting a Debt to the Divine Justice is meant the having violated the just and holy Laws of God and thereby becoming obnoxious to his just Anger unless we
finally wanting in a sufficient Degree to such as sincerely embrace it and co-operate with it And as our Lord expresses it in another Parable Mark 4.26 which for its near Resemblance to this and the next I think it needless Particularly to discourse of The Kingdom of God or of Grace is as if a Man should cast Seed into the Ground and should sleep and rise Night and Day and the Seed should spring up and grow he knoweth not how from the Blade to the Ear and to the full Corn in the Ear and when the Fruit is ripe he putteth in the Sickle because the Harvest is come That is tho' good Men's Progress in Religion often-times be not so quick and hasty as they may and wish yet though almost insensibly it may daily grow and increase and at last the perfect Fruits of Righteousness be visible in their Conversations Therefore let not a slow Improvement discourage any Man that is sincerely desirous of making still higher Advances but let him hold fast what he already hath do his best Endeavour still to grow in Grace and the Fruits of the Spirit and then with Patience wait upon God for a more plentiful Increase In the last place this Increase of the Word must be proportionable to the Quantity of the Seed that is sown and to the Strength and Powers of the Soil in which it is sown that is it must be according to every Man's Ability and the Opportunities he hath had of Improvement in some Thirty in some Sixty and in some an Hundred-Fold When a Husbandman sowes his Seed if he sowes in great Plenty and upon good Ground we know he expects to reap in a proportionable Abundance and when he sowes more sparingly and the Soil be not capable of so great an Increase his Expectations are accordingly And so it is in Religion from such as are of pregnant Parts and Abilities able to entertain and consider and make the best Use of the Word of God that is sown in their Hearts and likewise enjoy the great Blessing of excellent Instruction and have the whole of Christianity set before them in a true Light all the Duties and Rewards and Punishments of it so that there is all that can be done in order to an abundant Increase from such Men as these God will expect much Fruit even the Increase of an Hundred-Fold they must abound in every good Word and Work and the Word of God dwelling so richly in them Line upon Line Precept upon Precept Treasures of Instruction heap'd one upon another a scanty penurious Increase will not be accepted much less a total and intire Barrenness excus'd For so St. Paul Heb. 6.7 8. The Earth that drinketh in the Rain that cometh upon it and bringeth forth Herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed receiveth Blessing from God but that which beareth Thorns and Briars is rejected and nigh unto Cursing whose End is to be burn'd And our Lord in very plain and express Terms says the same Luk. 12.48 Unto whomsoever much is given of him shall much be required and to whom Men have committed much of him they will ask the more But because all Men are not of Abilities alike nor have the same Opportunities of Instruction and Improvement where there is any Defect either in the sowing of the Seed or in the Capacity of the Soil God will proportionably abate in his Expectations of Increase But though he will not expect the same Degree of Increase from every Man yet he will expect some if not an Hundred-Fold yet Sixty or if not Sixty yet at least Thirty And if this be true in what a miserable Condition are Myriads of the Hearers of the Word who receive the Seed in great Plenty and Abundance and are able likewise to bring forth a considerable Increase and yet are as unfruitful as if their Souls had lain always fallow and were never cultivated and impregnated by the Means of Spiritual Instruction Let such be entreated by the Love of God and their own immortal Souls to look about them and shake off that stupid Numness and Insensibility that so fatally besets them and bethink themselves how sad their Condition will be when at the great Harvest the End of the World when God will gather the ripe Fruits and dispose them in his heavenly Garner when at that great Day our Lord shall expect Fruit from the Seed that he hath sown upon their Hearts and shall find nothing but Briars and Thorns Wickedness and Impurity Let them bethink themselves what a sad Condition they will be in when their Unfruitfulness shall be punish'd with everlasting Burnings and the Number and Sharpness of the Torments of Hell increas'd upon them because when they knew their Lord's Will they did not prepare themselves to do according to it Let them consider that though God bears long with them and frequently importunes them to a more serious Reflection upon their Ways that they would turn their Feet unto his Testimonies and be no longer unprofitable Hearers but Doers of his Word yet it will not be always so there will be an End of this Day of Grace and Forbearance and how soon God alone can tell and perhaps this Discourse may be the last Invitation to a new Life which some that hear it may ever have or at least the last that shall be attended with that Divine Grace and Assistance which alone can make it fruitful Wherefore now while it is call'd to day harden not your Hearts lest God should swear in his Wrath that you shall never enter into his Rest Consider what our Lord says upon this Account in this of Mat. 13.12 Whosoever hath to him shall be given and he shall have more Abundance but whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away even that which he hath The plain Meaning of which is this He that hath made good Use of the Grace he hath already receiv'd and the Instructions he hath already heard shall receive abundantly more Grace far greater Assistances and much larger and more frequent Showers of the divine Blessing than ever formerly he did Christ will come in to him and sup with him and he with him as 't is express'd Rev. 3.20 that is will freely communicate to him of his divine Favours and Refreshments and there shall be mutual Festivity and Joy between them his Saviour will take him into the nearest Relation to himself for he hath told us that whosoever shall do the Will of his Father which is in Heaven the same is his Brother and Sister and Mother that is as tenderly regarded by him as those dearest Relatives And how must that Soul thrive and flourish which is thus plentifully water'd with Showers above and enrich'd with Streams issuing from the Fountain of Goodness But on the contrary How intolerable will be his Misery that neglects and disregards these Sermons of the Gospel and is not a Doer of the Word but a careless Hearer only deceiving sadly
sows these Tares because he is the busy Prompter to Vice and Hypocrisy and the great Encourager of it by his sly and wheedling Insinuations and wicked Injections He is that great Enemy of God and all things heavenly and good and whose constant Endeavour it is to oppose and weaken the Kingdom of Righteousness and upon the Ruins of it to establish his infernal Dominion The End of the World is compared to the Harvest because then is the Time of Gods gathering all Men from off the Face of the Earth and disposing them according to their Deservings into a new State of endless Happiness or Misery as good Corn at Harvest is taken from off the Ground and carryed-away and laid up in Repositories of Safety but the Tares and other noxious Weeds sever'd from the rest and bound up in Bundles to be burnt And the Angels are said to be the Reapers at this great Harvest because 't is by their Ministry that God will execute his most equal Sentence whether of Absolution or Condemnation the Righteous shall by them be caught up into the Clouds to meet their Lord in the Air and like good Corn be laid up and that for ever in God's heavenly Garner for they shall ever be with the Lord And the wicked and hypocritical shall by them be separated from the good and like vile Tares be thrown into a Furnace of Fire unquenchable And thus much in short for the Aptness of this Parable to express the Sense that our Lord conceal'd under it I shall now proceed to consider its several Parts And it will inform us of six things First it will inform us of the State of the Christian Church in this World that there will be both good and bad under the general Name of Christians as Tares and Wheat together go under the Name of one Field of Corn and that the Two first Planters of this Good and Evil respectively are Christ and the Devil That there will be both good and bad in this World under the general Name of Christians will be no wonder to any Man that considers how many there are that are Christians by Custom and Education only because their Fathers were so before 'em and in their tender Years procur'd their Reception into that Communion but seldom look any further into the Reasons and Inducements to such Belief and trouble themselves but very little to be inform'd in much less to practise the Duties that are bound upon them by that holy Profession And for the same Reason would have been Mahometans or Jews had their Parents been so and educated them in that Way and therefore are Christians by Chance not Choice And this those would do well to consider who spend the whole Six Days of the Week in drudging for the World from Morning until Night and then like tir'd Beasts when they have fill'd their Bellies without any further Thoughts lay them down to rest and when the Lord's Day comes which is design'd for the Nourishment and Improvement of their Souls in Piety and Goodness and their Instruction in the Religion they profess to be of make little better Use of it than their Horses do in the Stable rest from bodily Labour and saunter and prate and drink away the Day but seldom come at the Places of divine Worship and Instruction and if they do are as little the better for it as if they were absent Let such consider before it be too late whether this Sort of Christianity will bring 'em to Heaven or no Whether their being baptized in their Infancy will save 'em without any more to do Whether their telling our Lord at the Day of Judgment that they happen'd to be born in a Country where his holy Religion was profess'd and of such as call'd themselves Christians and were by them presented to a Minister of Christ who receiv'd them into the Pale of the Catholick Church and that they continued to call themselves Christians all their Lives and now and then came to Church as other Christians did Let them consider whether at that great Day such an empty Plea will be accepted when the Judg comes to enquire into what Obedience they have paid to his Commandments If it will be accepted Mat. 7.21 why does our Lord say not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven Mat. 7.14 And why is the Way said to be narrow and the Gate strait that leads to Life and that few there be that find it but if it will not be accepted as most certainly it will not Doubtless it highly concerns such Men to consider more seriously of Religion than they have done hitherto unless they think their Souls not worth taking care of or that the everlasting Pains of Hell are not so great as those of Repentance and living a new Life And tho' for the Reason assign'd above it is no Wonder that many ill Men here go under the common Name of Christians and that Title be all the Christianity they can boast of yet 't would be a very great Wonder indeed if such empty Tares as these should be laid up with the good Wheat and get to Heaven as much by Chance as they became Christians Further 't is no strange thing to find ill Men amongst a Society of Christians because Men are free Agents and Religion does not force but only by proper Methods incline and perswade And those who in their Infancy were devoted to the Service of God and educated in his Discipline in their tender Years may yet through the Predominancy of their Lusts and vile Affections and the Temptations of the wicked one together with their own careless Inadvertency be when grown up inclined to live at quite another Rate than Christianity allows And though for Fashion's sake they may retain the Name of Christians yet choose to be indeed the Servants of their own Passions and of the Prince of Darkness And therefore 't is very unreasonable for the Enemies of Religion to conclude as they do that because many that profess Christianity live in direct Contradiction to it therefore the whole is a Cheat Because did they believe what that Religion teaches to be true they would not dare to live in such continual Opposition to it Indeed this should make all Christians very careful and circumspect in their Conversation lest they bring so great a Scandal as this upon their holy Religion remembring our Lord's Words Woe be to him by whom the Offence or Scandal cometh But it will not at all follow that because some of a Profession live contrary to its Precepts and Doctrin that therefore the whole is a Forgery For believing and doing are Two very different things and a Man may habitually assent to the Truth of a thing and yet not actually attend to it As a Man may be very well assured that there is a dangerous Pit in his Way and
yet be so taken up with minding other things as not to attend to the Danger and heedlessly fall into it And so a Man may habitually believe that there is a Pit of Bottomless Destruction which will at length swallow up the incorrigibly wicked and yet be so deeply engag'd in the Pleasures and Follies of the World as not to attend to it till 't is too late But suppose some that call themselves Christians do not at all believe any thing of the Christian Religion there are innumerable more that do believe and live accordingly and the Harmony of their Belief and Practice methinks should be a better Argument in the Affirmative than the Infidelity and Debauchery of a few titular Christians should be in the Negative And though to a Man that stiles himself a Christian and yet believes not a Word of the Matter to him the Whole of Religion 〈◊〉 is as nothing yet certainly it cannot be from thence concluded that therefore 't is really and indeed a Fiction For that may be assuredly true and that to their Cost which some Men don't care to believe Thus we see 't is no strange thing that there should be both good and bad that go under the general Name of Christians in this World and that though some are much scandaliz'd at it and raise an Objection from it against the Truth of the Religion yet there is no Reason so to do for 't is not the Name that makes a Christian he only is a Christian indeed that to a right Belief adjoins good Works The first Planters of the good Seed or the Tares the bad or good Professors of Christianity respectively are Christ and the Devil Christ by teaching a holy Reliligion to the World such as shall conduct Men to Glory and Immortality and by the good Motions and Inspirations of his holy Spirit inclining 'em to imbrace it does endeavour to make all Men happy to deliver 'em from the Miseries of this World for if Sin were weeded out of it there would be no Misery in it and to prepare 'em for the eternal and ineffable Felicities of the Kingdom of Glory in which after a persevering Righteousness here they shall be actually instated The Devil on the contrary that great Enemy both to God and Man makes it his great Endeavour by all Sorts of Wiles â—nd Stratagems to obliterate the divine Impressions of this holy Religion upon Mens Souls to divert 'em from attending to its great Beauty and Excellency and the Nature and Duration of its Rewards and Punishments to perswade 'em that here lies the only Scene of Happiness and that a future Felicity or Misery is only fit to amuse and frighten Children withall that the Desires of the Body are given us that we might gratify them to the full and that to deny and mortify our selves is the most unnatural Cruelty in the World that we must make our selves happy while we have Opportunity and not trust too much to uncertain Reversions And when he can't wholly blot out the Belief of another World then he endeavours to corrupt it by perswading us that a very little Religion will serve turn seeing we have to do with so merciful a God And if by these Means or the like of which he has great Variety he can incline Men if not intirely to apostatize from Christianity yet like Tares to rest satisfyed with the Name and Appearance of Christians and live at loose and random and follow the Stream of their own Passions and Desires and his sly Insinuations and tempting Delusions then he has his End and will at length cheat 'em of the Happiness that Christ design'd 'em and decoy 'em into his own Possession and so bring them to the Portion of Tares and noxious Weeds that Furnace of Fire prepar'd for himself and his Angels And therefore as we tender our eternal Welfare we must be very watchful and observant that we may discover the sly Insinuations of this our great Enemy Whatever would disparage Religion or lessen the Obligation to a good Life comes certainly from that infernal Tempter The Temptations to an excessive Gratification of our bodily Appetites assuredly come from him the Opportunities of Vice are of his disposing and 't is he that ingages us in so great a Love and earnest Persuit of the World And therefore every thing of this Nature must be rejected with the greatest Abomination as the Endeavours of our great Enemy to deprive us of our Happiness and involve us in his own Ruin And on the contrary those blessed Motions that we all of us often feel to a more pious and holy Conversation must be thankfully embrac'd and chearfully follow'd as the Directions and Excitations of our dear Saviour to what is conducive to our eternal Happiness They are those heavenly Dews which will refresh our Souls and improve their Growth and Increase in Holiness and if sincerely cooperated with will at length bring the Fruits of our holy Religion to Perfection And thus much for the first thing this Parable informs us of namely That the State of the Gospel in this World is such that there will be both bad and good under the general Name of Christians as good Corn and Weeds together go under the Name of one Field of Corn and that the first Planters of this Good and Evil respectively are Christ and the Devil together with the Improvement of each Consideration to the Interest of Religion But before I quite leave this Particular I shall from what has been said of the promiscuous Mixture of bad and good Men in the Christian Church and God's suffering it to be so without any extraordinary Discrimination From this I shall observe how unreasonable 't is for some to object as too many do against the Reception of the Lord's Supper in our Church because as they say we admit any that will come even those that have been scandalous Livers and by that Means the Solemnity is prophan'd and made less beneficial to the good But now supposing though not granting that we admit any that will come though Men of ill Lives I say not granting this for the thing is evidently false as appears from the Exhortations to the Communicants before and at the Solemnity and from the Rubric of that Office And from the 26 27 and 28th Cannons of our Church in which Ministers are expresly forbidden to admit notorious Offenders Schismaticks and Strangers to the Communion But supposing this which is so evidently false as to the Church to be true as to some particular Ministers why must communicating with such Ministers and as we think in such prophane Company be unchristianly abstain'd from and the Ministers declaim'd against with so much Bitterness At this rate they may as well desert the Communion of the whole Church of Christ and refuse to join in any part of divine Worship for no Doubt but ill Men are intermxi'd in all though they may not be discover'd and if their Company
the World And which is the wisest Man he that ruins his Soul for the Gain of even the whole World or he that counts all these sublunary things as Dung in Comparison with Religion and is ready to part with all that this Earth can afford him for the Joys of a good Conscience here and the Glories of Heaven hereafter He that prefers the World in his Choice deprives himself of the greatest Comfort of this present Life and parts with the certain Reversion of eternal Happiness in Heaven for Pleasures that don't deserve that Name they are so empty and unsatisfying he brings most exquisite and everlasting Misery upon his whole self Soul and Body for a very short liv'd imperfect Gratification of his brutal Part only and purchases the Torments of the other World by making himself unhappy in this In a Word therefore as much as to be like God in Holiness and Happiness is to be preferr'd before being like the Devil in Sin and Misery as much as Satisfaction is better than Disappointment Peace and Quietness and Content than Vexation and continual Disturbance and Perplexity of Mind a confirm'd Health and long Life than the Diseases and hasty Death that follows Debauchery and the comfortable Expectation of being for ever happy with Saints and Angels and the blessed God in the Coelestial Paradise than the confounding Dread of the Judgment of the great Day As much as Immortality is more to be prized than a Life of a Span long and the Enjoyment of the chief Good than the Pleasures of a Swine of so much gerater Value is Religion than all that this World can afford and indeed the only desirable Treasure and a Pearl of inestimable Price And now if what has been hitherto discours'd be true the Application is easy If Religion be of all things the most precious let us make it more and more our Endeavour to inrich our Souls with this Treasure to adorn our rational Nature with this Pearl of great Price and with the Merchant in the Parable think nothing too much to part with that we may purchase that Heavenly Wisdom which will make us wise to Salvation For sound Wisdom as the wise King expresses it Prov. 3.18 is a Tree of Life to those that lay hold upon her and happy is every one that retaineth her She shall give to thine Head an Oranment of Grace Prov. 4.9 and a Crown of Glory shall she deliver to thee But he that would have this Wisdom and find this Pearl must not only wish and desire but with the Merchant in the Parable diligently seek it seek and ye shall find says our Lord Pro. 2.4 5. and Solomon assures us That if we seek Wisdom as Silver and search for her as for hid Treasure then shall we understand the Fear of the Lord and find the Knowledge of God Religion is not acquired without Diligence for though it be the Gift of God yet the Soul must be prepared to receive it all evil Habits must be broke and rooted up and pious Dispositions planted in their Room and the Temper of the Mind changed by Repentance and all the Powers of the whole Man become pliable to the Motions of the Spirit of Holiness before the divine Likeness can be formed in the Soul And though 't is the Grace of God that enables us to go thus far for without it we can do nothing yet our own Concurrence and Co-operation with his Grace is necessary to bring the blessed Work of Regeneration to Perfection An obstinate Resistance of preventing Grace will grieve and quench that Life-giving Spirit and such a Soul shall know no more of Religion than that it was invited to it but rejected the Offer and might have been happy in the Enjoyment of so great a Treasure but it would not But when a Soul with Joy embraces the Motions of the holy Spirit to a new Life and makes it her great Endeavour to remove all Obstacles out of the Way that they may make a due Impression and hungers and thirsts after new Degrees of Righteousness This Soul shall be fill'd with the Treasures of the divine Grace and the Power of Godliness will be visible in all Manner of holy Conversation But this can't be perform'd without a watchful persevering Diligence there is so much Opposition from within and without to this great Business that like Nehemiah's Labourers Neh. 5.17 we must work with our Swords in our Hands and fight and strive that we may carry on the Building of a living Temple for our God and make our Souls Houses of Prayer adorn'd with religious Affections and sit to receive him that hates Iniquity He that is thus diligent shall grow rich towards God and daily increase in the Knowledge and Love of him 'till Mortality shall be swallow'd up of Life and then all the Labours of Religion shall for ever be at an End and nothing remain for the happy Soul to do but to enjoy to all Eternity the glorious Rewards of it Let us all therefore be stedfast unmoveable and always abound in this Work of the Lord for as much as we know our Labour shall not be in vain and to our diligent Pursuit of this inestimable Treasure of Religion let us add frequent and earnest Prayer to God who is the only Giver of every good and perfect Gift that he would send down Wisdom from his holy Heaven that being present she may labour with us that we may know what is pleasing in his Sight and set our selves to do it with all Alacrity running with Diligence and Patience the Race that is set before us looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith who for the Joy that was set before him endur'd the Cross despising the Shame Heb. 12.1 2. and is set down at the Right Hand of the Throne of God remembring that we also shall reap in due Season if we faint not And if we part with all the vile Affections for the Sake of Religion in this World and are ready in Preparation of Mind to suffer any worldly Loss even to that of Life it self for the Sake of Jesus and his Truth we shall find such a Recompence of Reward in the Kingdom of Heaven as will abundantly compensate all our Sufferings here for our light Affliction which is but for a Moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal Weight of Glory Happy is the Exchange of all that this World can afford for a Jewel of so great Price as Religion and for such inexhaustible Treasures of Bliss as are reserved to Reward it in the Presence of God What is our greatest Interest therefore let us before all things persue and where our Treasure is there let our Hearts be also The PRAYER I. O Mercifull Jesu Who hast prepared for us a Treasure in Heaven and taught us the Way to attain it and warn'd us of the Emptiness of this World 's Good that we may not be
Bubble because it shines and glitters So utterly without Excuse are those who despise and reject the Offers of the Gospel and the Invitations to Religion upon Account of the Riches and Pleasures of the World or indeed upon any other Account whatever For Religion is our cheif Interest and therefore nothing can stand in Competition with it Those that put by the Thoughts of it till a more convenient Time that is till they are fit for nothing else are no doubt very highly displeasing to the great Author of it but those are much more so who totally and insultingly reject it To defer the great Business of Religion is a very heinous Provocation but atheistically to oppose and vilifie it is certainly much worse Which leads me to the Fourth thing express'd in this Parable namely the Sadness of their Condition who when they have heard of either totally reject this holy Religion and abuse those that invite them to embrace it or else though they profess it are negligent of its Duties and live not agreeably to it The first of these is represented by the King 's being Wroth with those that made light of and complyed not with his Invitation to the Marriage of his Son and pronouncing them unworthy of that Favour and that they should not taste of his Supper and sending his Servants to invite others to the Wedding and commanding his Armies to go and destroy those Murderers that had spitefully entreated and slain his Servants who brought the gracious Invitation to them and to burn up their City And indeed well may God's Wrath be kindled against those that reject these wondrous Expressions of his Love and trample under Foot the Son of God and despise and vilifie his holy Religion and undervalue all his Condescentions and use his Ambassadors despitefully and call the whole a Trick a State Juggle and glory in their Infidelity and too often blaspheme that blessed Jesus by whom alone cometh Salvation These Men will do well to consider that if it should prove true that there is no other Name by which we can be sav'd but that of Jesus their Case will be infinitely miserable who have not believ'd in that Name but made it their Business to prophane and ridicule it as much as was possible but should it prove not true their Belief in it will not at all be injurious to them either in this world or in the next should there be any after this And therefore since the wittiest Infidel in the World cannot prove but that 't is possible and may be true that Jesus is the only Saviour of the World and the Consequence of not believing in him being so sad should it at length prove indeed to be true certainly it must be the most prudent Course to be of the surest Side and embrace that Faith which if true is the only Way to Happiness and if false will not however leave a Man in any Respect in a worse Condition than it found him How sad the Consequence will be of not believing in Jesus as the only Saviour of the World and of rejecting the Religion he taught is express'd in this Parable by the King 's pronouncing those that would not come to the Marriage of his Son to be unworthy of that Favour and resolving that they should not taste of his Supper and sending his Servants to invite others to the Wedding Which was literally verifyed upon the obstinate Jews and will be as effectually upon all other Infidels That is Men's obstinate Infidelity shall at length be repay'd with God's withdrawing that Favour which he so long tender'd them and they refus'd and putting an End to their Day of Grace and Salvation and sealing 'em up as irreclaimable to Destruction Because I have called and ye refused says Solomon personating Christ or the Divine Wisdom I have stretch'd out my Hand and no Man regarded but ye have set at nought my Counsel and would have none of my Reproof I also will laugh at your Calamity and mock when your Fear cometh when your Fear cometh as Desolation and your Destruction as a Whirlwind when Distress and Anguish cometh upon you then shall they call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me Prov. 1.24 The things that belonged to their Peace which once were tender'd and made known to them shall then be hid from their Eyes And no Condition can be so miserable as theirs who by obstinate Infidelity put themselves out of all Possibility of Salvation The sad Consequence of using those spiritual Persons contumeliously and despitefully who come as Ambassadors from God with these glad Tidings of Salvation is express'd in the Parable by the King 's sending forth his Armies to destroy those Murderers and to burn up their City which was likewise literally fufilll'd in the Destruction of Jerusalem and shall be as effectually verify'd upon those wicked Men who vent their Spleen against the Religion upon those that preach it and vilifie and abuse and trample upon the one because they hate the other But Vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord and a fiery Destruction even that of Hell shall without a deep Repentance which we beseech God to grant them be the Portion of those whose Malice was so inveterate against Men sent from God to invite them to Salvation This is the Case of such as when they have heard totally reject this holy Religion and abuse and vilifie those that perswade them to embrace it And theirs is as bad who though they profess it are negligent of its Duties and live not agreeably to it Which is express'd in the Parable by a King 's finding a Man at the Marriage Supper that had not on a Wedding Garment and saying unto him Friend how camest thou in hither not having on a Wedding Garment And the Man's being speechless upon it and the King 's commanding his Servants to bind him Hand and Foot and take him away and cast him into outer Darkness where shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth This is in Allusion to what was customary in those Eastern Countries the having peculiar florid Sort of Garments on purpose to grace such festival Solemnities and none being permitted to taste of those Feasts but who had such Garments on So in Christianity Repentance and Reformation of Life are the Wedding Garment without which none let them make never so specious Professions shall taste of that Happiness which is propos'd as the Reward of believing in Jesus Faith without Works is dead the Soul without Repentance is polluted whatever it professes to believe and without real and substantial Holiness no Man shall see the Lord. And when at the great Scrutiny in the last Day God shall take a View of every Man of the State and Condition of his Soul that every Man may be disposed of according to his Deserts and shall ask those formal Professors who have liv'd like Heathens or as if Faith
Duty of a good Steward is thus represented in the 42d Verse of this 12th of Luke Who then is that faithful and wise Steward whom his Lord shall make Ruler over his Houshold to give them their portion of Meat in due season That is To give the Family their Portion in due Season is the Duty of a Faithful and Good Steward Now the Race of Mankind is God's great Family in the World and some of the Members of this his Family he has made Choice of as his Stewards and Purveyors to provide for the rest and has according entrusted them with such a share of his Revenue to some more to some less as in his infinite Wisdom he has thought most fit and order'd them to expend it to the Advantage of his Houshold that every one be provided for according to his Needs and that no Man be suffer'd as much as in them lies to be miserable and perish And this he requires should be done faithfully after a moderate Provision first made for themselves and Relatives as they shall answer it at that great Audit when every Man must give Account of his Stewardship The Rich Man then in the Gospel being as every other Rich Man is God's Steward to provide for such as were in Necessity and Want according to the Abundance God had given him 't is an easie Matter to answer the Question he propos'd to himself upon his great Increase What shall I do because I have no room where to lay my fruits Why act like a good Steward for thy great Master and let the Houses of the Poor be the Granaries for the Abundance of thine Increase Charity to the Necessitous is the best Way of bestowing Abundance and as many Ways as there are of expressing that Charity which are innumerable so many Ways are there of disposing of what is more than needful for our own comfortable Support To Feed the Hungry to give Drink to the Thirsty Harbour to distressed Strangers Cloaths to the Naked Visits of Comfort and Relief to the Sick and Freedom to Prisoners to be a Father to the Fatherless and a Husband to the Widow and the like this is to discharge a good Stewardship this is what every Rich Man ought to do with his Abundance And Blessed is that good Servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing Of a truth saith our Lord his Master will make him Ruler over all that he hath he will commit still more of his Reuenue to his Management bless him with greater Prosperity and Increase and at last he shall be received into the Joy of his Lord and Reign with Christ his Great Master in Glory for ever Whoever therefore has Abundance needs not much to perplex himself how he shall bestow it for the Poor are always with us and for the Relief of their Necessities not the Gratifying our own Luxurious Desires must God's Extraordinary Blessings be laid out Let us now in the Fourth Place consider the great Wisdom of not setting our Hearts upon nor eagerly pursuing Riches and disposing of them as Religion directs if it shall please God in an extraordinary Manner to bless us with them If Riches increase set not your Heart upon them is excellent Advice of the Royal Psalmist Psal 62.10 and very true is that of St. Paul to Timothy Ephes 1.6 10. that while some have coveted after Mony they have err'd from the Faith and pierc'd themselves through with divers Sorrows and that Godliness with Content is great Gain and therefore wise indeed is that Man that knows how to be content with his present Portion and by setting his Affections upon more noble Objects escapes the Snare of coveting after Wealth He is free from the most dangerous Passion the Love of Mony being the root of all Evil and is secure of Quiet and Satisfaction amidst all the Turns and Varieties of Fortune the great Uncertainties of a false and fickle World If Poverty should become his Lot he is prepar'd for 't he knows there is no Stability in this World 's Good and therefore values it accordingly and remembers that he has a much greater Treasure in a better Place of which none can deprive him and which he shall enjoy to Eternity and upon that fixes his Affections and longs for the Happy Time when he shall take Possession of it While he hath a plentiful Fortune he acts like a good Steward of his great Lord and enjoys the Comforts of it by letting those share with him that want a Supply and thanks God that he is so blessed as to give rather than receive and in every respect makes the best use he can of what he has to the Advancement of the Glory of his great Patron and the Good of his Brethren and then can step securely though Dangers and Misfortunes threaten if God thinks fit to divert them and continue to him what he has he knows he can do it if not he knows that all will end for the best at last and so chearfully resigns what God before had lent him he is satisfied that Happiness does not consist in Abundance and that a good Conscience is a continual Feast and therefore his main Endeavour is to preserve a good Conscience a Soul clear and unspotted and with that coarse Fare will relish well and a homely Garment sit easie upon him and such Necessaries as these he that feeds the Ravens and cloaths the Lillies will surely provide for him And he that is thus dispos'd must needs be in perpetual Tranquility and Peace and very wise consequently in taking that Course which helps him to those inestimable Blessings As for the Wisdom of disposing of abundance when God thinks fit to bless a Man with it according to the Direction of Religion in the Relief of the Poor and Needy there needs nothing more to recommend it to Christians than for them to read the latter Part of Mat. 25. where we are informed that the Expresses of Men's Charity shall at the great Day of Judgment be particularly enquir'd into and the Charitable rewarded infinitely with Glory and Happiness in Heaven and the Uncharitable doom'd as accursed Persons to depart from God the Fountain of Bliss into Everlasting Torments prepar'd for the Devil and his Angels And if so to direct our Steps in this World as to avoid the Miseries of Hell and arrive at the unspeakable Happy Kingdom of Heaven be the greatest Wisdom then is it the greatest Wisdom by a Charitable Disposal of Mens Abundance to the Poor to make Provision against that great Day of final Retribution when Charity shall be so particularly enquired into and so highly rewarded There remains nothing now to be done but to urge what has been said upon Mens Practice We have seen in this Discourse how great Folly 't is eagerly to desire and pursue Abundance of Wealth that 't is very uncertain whether ever such Desire shall be gratified or no and that there is no Satisfaction in
Ruin and the Wages of Sin this eternal Torment and Death we would be above all things careful to avoid this Place of everlasting Torments and make use of our Time and Opportunity while we have it in providing for a happy Eternity The End of every Man's Life is the Beginning of Eternity to him then Time shall be no more no more Space for Repentance and working out our Salvation and after the great Change that Death will make in our Condition no more Changes from thence forward for ever no intermediate Purgatory to cleanse our remaining Filthiness but as Death leaves a Soul so shall Judgment find it and an irreversible Sentence be pass'd upon it And this great Truth can never be too often call'd to Remembrance and there is so much of Terror in it to a wicked Liver that whoever thinks at all must needs be inclin'd by it to husband well this his only Opportunity of making himself for ever Happy and immediately endeavour to clear himself from that Guilt which if he dies in will make him for ever miserable and that without the least Alleviation The last thing this Parable informs us of is That every Man may be sufficiently assur'd of this great Truth that reads the Scriptures and powerfully enough inclin'd to avoid that future Misery and secure his eternal Happiness without any more extraordinary Ways of Conviction in this Matter or Perswasives to act accordingly And that those who are not satisfied with what has already been reveal'd of future Rewards and Punishments in all Probability will never be satisfied though one should come from the Dead to assure them of it This is express'd in the Parable by the Rich Man's desiring after he was sadly assur'd by Abraham that there was no Remedy for himself that he would send Lazarus to his Father's House for I have five Brethren says he that he may testifie unto them lest they also come into this Place of Torment To this Abraham answers They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them But this would not satisfie the miserable Rich Man and he said nay Father Abraham but if one went to them from the Dead they will repent To this Abraham gives this final Answer If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one arose from the Dead As if he had said There is all the Assurance given to Men by the Holy Writings of the Truth of these things that any reasonable Man can desire and the same Obstinate and Atheistick Infidelity and Debauchery of Manners that makes Men disbelieve what the Scriptures affirm of another Life would make them still disbelieve it though one arose from the Dead to assure them of it And if this was true before the Gospel when these things were but darkly reveal'd in comparison of what they are now and the Jews might then be sufficiently assur'd of them by attending to the Writings of Moses and the Prophets it is a much more confirm'd Truth to us Christians the Scriptures of the New Testament assuring us of it in the most plain and express Terms that can be According to what the Apostle says 2 Tim. 1.8 that our Lord has brought Life and Immortality to light by the Gospel And yet some are so unreasonable as when we discourse about Judgment to come and the Rewards and Punishments of another Life not to tremble at it as Foelix did but with perverse Infidelity question the Truth of the thing and ask us how we can be sure it is and shall be so and whether we have been told it by one that came from the other World and has experienc'd what we say to be true And that nothing less than such a Proof shall ever make them believe it And when they are urg'd with the Testimony of Moses and the Prophets and of the Son of God himself they have the Confidence to laugh at this as an Invention of Church-Men and no better than a Religious Cheat. They are not ignorant they say that the Writings which we affirm were divinely inspir'd do very plainly and expresly assert That there shall be a Judgment to come and that every Man shall be rais'd from the Dead and plac'd before the Almighty Judge and consign'd to eternal Happiness or Misery according to what they have done in this Life whether it be good or evil But they deny the Truth of those Writings and consequently the Reality of what they assert of this Nature Our Business therefore must be to prove the Truth and Divine Authority of those Holy Scriptures and then 't will follow that he that still disbelieves the Doctrine of future Rewards and Punishments and is not inclin'd to live accordingly will neither be convinc'd nor perswaded in this Instance though one rose from the Dead The Opposition Anti-scripturists make against the Holy Writings is in short this Either they will deny that those Books were written by the Men whose Names they bear or if they are forc'd to grant that they will deny the Truth of the Matters of fact which they set down and endeavour to pick out Inconsistencies and Contradictions in their Relation and if beaten from that Post they 'll deny that the Writers were Men divinely inspired and affirm that the Doctrine they wrote was meerly the Product of their own Brains and what strange Occurrences they record of their Master Jesus as of his Resurrection from the Dead as an Argument that there shall be another Life after this is ended and all Men then arise likewise and be call'd to give account of their Works that this and the like strange Passages they record of Jesus supposing them to be true were not done by a Divine Power but by Art Magick and the Power of the Devil And this could it be made good would be a shrewd Blow indeed and all reveal'd Religion soon sink into Ruine But in short for to inlarge here would far exceed the Bounds of a single Sermon a Christian's Defence of the Truth and divine Authority of the Holy Writings may be this First Though some have deny'd that the Books of the Old and New Testament were written by the Men whose Names they bear yet no Man ever yet could prove it nay on the contrary they have been receiv'd as Genuine for many Hundreds of Years and by Men of very different Religions and Perswasions and that were bitter Enemies to the Religion there taught and the Professors of it and would have been extreamly glad to have prov'd the Whole a Forgery if they could But since they did not when 't was so much for their Interest to have don 't 't is plain they could not and since they are to this Day approv'd by all Sorts of Religions as genuine 't is as much as can be said in the Case and as much as can be said for any other Book in the World And we must either throw aside all Books as spurious or believe this which we