as promises for all the Goods of this world knowing how useful the flesh of the Viper was to cure its poison the torments attending upon sin to check its temptations the apprehension of a Fever or other distemper annexed by consequence to restrain from those pleasant forbidden fruits which courted his Senses and sollicit his Phansie the deadly hook to keep from venturing on the bait the Sea from the Syren Thus when the Apostle exhorts the Hebrews to fear Lest any of them should seem to fall short of this Rest The word seem signifies not only an outward appearance of the things without a reality of the danger or misery forewarn'd of but in Let us take heed is also meant a real incurring the same without taking heed to the counsel given or it may be the Apostle chose to speak so to mitigate the sharpness of that which he spake of to the Hebrews that he might not be thought to conclude them Apostates but only to fear they may be so unless they look'd in good time warily to it Such charitable Rhetoric we read him using Heb. 6.9 But beloved we are persuaded better things of you and things that are near or accompany Salvation though we thus speak It may be also he saith Seem to stir up their fear and caution the more against such coldness sloth and inconstancy of mind as began to appear among the Hebrews which if not in time bewailed and rectified might hazard the prize set before them and fall to peremptory infidelity Thus he is charitably suspicious of them and jealous over them with a godly jealousie as he speaks 2 Cor. 11.2 and gives withall to understand that 't is not enough for a wise and thankful Christian to abhor and avoid utter Apostacies and final missing of Gods Rest but 't is their safety duty and honour to keep from the very approaches to it and appearances of it and not to give any occasions to others to hear or see or think that we are fallen or falling away Abstain from all appearance of evil 1 Thes 5.22 lest while you indulge your selves to sloth and give your selves over as far as you may with any hopes of attaining Heaven to the pleasures and cares or other concerns of this Life you do not only seem to fall short but do so indeed and plainly appear to do so And this is the last sence of the word lest ye seem that is appear and give too great undeniable evidence that you are of those that apostatize and fall short of Gods Rest So when it is said v. 2. The Gospel was preach'd as well to us as unto them It does not imply that the Gospel was preach'd as clearly and fully to them as unto us but that it was preach'd sufficiently to them in such a manner and measure revealed as was most suitable to those times by types and Prophesies spiritual and eternal things under the vail of external and visible temporal things yet so that the light shone through the vail on all their hearts who were attentive to the drift and true aim the grounds and reasons of them and to the Prophesies that went before and along with them to make them the clearlier understood The Apostle by saying As well to us speaks by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or intimation of so well at least and much better for to us the Gospel is preach'd without intervention of Types and Prophesies in its clear full actual exhibition unveiling those Types fulfilling those Prophesies revealing the whole Mystery of Godliness and Counsel of God much plainer dispensing the Light and Grace of Gods Spirit more generally and plentifully So that the Argument runs thus If they that had Gods Rest promised to them more obscurely and in a lower degree and measure yet fell short of it for want of being sound and constant in Faith and Obedience how much more shall they do so who having the Gospel preach'd unto them in its clearest fullest degree of light and power yet do not receive believe and obey it with faithful sincerity and perseverance Now by faith for want of which the Word preach'd did not profit them is meant such a firm well-grounded persuasion of Gods unchangeable all sufficient Wisdom and Truth as to adhere and cleave thereto against whatever appearing difficulties or temptations For the ancient Israelites they had most of them once believed God and Moses when they slew the Passover and sprinkled their Doors with the bloud thereof went out of Egypt though Pharaoh was ready to pursue them and went through the Red Sea into the Wilderness towards Canaan following the conduct of the Cloud and Pillar of Fire but when there arose any new difficulty or temptation Moses his absence for 40 days want of Water Bread for a while nay want of Flesh the Allurements of Women though Heathenish Idolaters the news of Gyants and high Walls they strangely forget the former evidences of Gods Faithfulness Power Goodness and Truth question and tempt him repine and murmur and turn back in their hearts to Egypt Wherefore 't was want of consideration and serious attentive frequent minding what they had formerly known and believed which continually exposed them to fall away to unbelief and disobedience Such are the grounds and motives of Faith propounded in Scripture that they who attend impartially and seriously cannot with any true reason deny their assent and approbation of that Doctrine which they prove and and blind the heart that final impenitency and infidelity is the issue in too too many Let no man then deceive himself with presumptious Hopes of entring Gods Rest on bare profession of his Gospel for that may be counterfeit and void of any well grounded faith sure to fail in time of Trial. Thus we see the word and means of grace though never so wisely and powerfully dispenced may prove very generally ineffectual for want of being mixt with faith in the partakers And that they who enjoy the means of grace and yet are not wrought upon by them to faith and obedience sincere and durable their call and profession of being the People of God does them not onely no good but hastens and aggravates their condemnation is it not time then for those who live in the light of the Gospel as never I think any Nation did for Hundreds of Years if this hath not to look to their hearts and lives impartially and thence discover what grounds and stability of faith there is in the one what fruits and good effects in the other and if they find themselves at a loss to take the blame intirely and wholly to themselves not to the want of means and motives Pastors or Teachers skillful and faithful but to the want of their own attention and consideration their taking up their profession of Christianity on no better or surer grounds than that which a Pagan or Mahometan relies on for their wicked errors Or if they have taken it up on better and know
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
no true Rest to be expected But our pretenders to the Spirit who call the Scriptures a dead letter boast of new inspirations and endanger greatly the bringing in confusion amongst Men and disturbances into States and Kingdoms the Governours whereof having no other authority than what is either founded or agreeable to the word or will of God it will still be in the power of each pretender to deliver Oracles out of his own breast as the immediate dictates of Gods Spirit quite contrary to the safety and interest of that Government which any where is or may be established And so the peace of Kingdoms must be as uncertain and changeable as the phansies of Men and the Laws as alterable as Testaments are while the Testator lives every illuminate breast pretending to come like Moses from God in Sinai with new Tables of divine Commandements which must abolish and exclude the old but it is our great comfort blessed be God that the publick Doctrine established in the Church of England is at this day such that it is not chargeable with any one thing contrary to any part of that duty which a Christian owes either to God or Man Let these pretenders consider what the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 12.7 The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every Man to profit withal As if he should have said let no Man pretend to the Spirit for any other end or purpose save for what it was given and that was not to procure himself glory not to separate from his Brethren not to pride and puff up himself by despising and scorning others but to advance the glory of God and promote his own and others salvation If what thou hast or pretends to have be given the honour is the givers and the receiver must give an account how he hath used what he hath received Now in order to the procuring this eternal Rest there are indeed in the Church several gifts in several men different Offices and divers operations which look at first as if they proceeded from several principles and tended to division but as all this variety tends to unity so all indeed proceeds from unity Unity in Trinity one and the same God truly distinguisht into three Persons but always united into the same God-head But what Rest may those Men expect who dig at the foundation of our Religion and stick not to deny that blessed Trinity into whose worship and in whose name we are Baptized The name of the Father the Son and Holy Ghost To which three Sacred Persons we so often say Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost These are the Three which said to each other when they made Man Gen. 1. Let us make Man after our Image in our likeness These are they which manifested themselves at our Lords Baptisme joyning again to renue that Image in which we were made The Father in the voice the Son owned by that voice the Spirit in the Dove abiding on him These are that Holy Holy Holy to whom the Seraphims in Isaiah under the old Testament gave all glory These are they to whom the Angels and Saints in Heaven sing that Anthem of praise in the Revelations This is the sum of Christian Religion and that which brings Rest and peace eternal to all that well understand and receive it And therefore the Council of Nice ordained that the Literae formatae or Commendatory Letters which were the solemn warrants of entertainment and hospitality between Christians should be subscrib'd by these Letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denoting the Trinity and their faith who carried those Letters There are three saith St. John that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Spirit and these three are one and the same God blessed for ever One Essence according to what our Lord hath said I and the Father are one Thus to believe highly concerns us all because of all errors none so pernicious none so intolerable as those which concern the first fountain whence all things flow and the last end to which all things tend Derive all from the blessed Trinity ascribe and refer the glory of all to the blessed Trinity and then we shall come to enjoy him in blessed rest and happiness whom we thus believe adore and honour St. Paul tells us 1 Cor. 12.8 That there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit differencies of administrations but the same Lord diversities of operations but it is the same God that worketh all in all This should stand as a great argument of Unity and Charity amongst our selves Humility and Thankfulness to God who hath made us partakers in several measures and degrees of these gifts these administrations these operations that though our gifts and places and works are very different and unequal yet they come all from the same Spirit Lord and God who wisely governs and orders all things by his Council here below The Apostle tells us v. 8. To one is given the word of wisdom a special ability of understanding To another the word of knowledge to interpret the mystical senses and veiled meanings of holy Scripture To another Faith or a firm belief to work all miracles To another the gift of healing a peculiar power to cure diseases without the help of Physick To another the working of Miracles such as was the delivering Hymineus and Philetus to be afflicted by Satan the striking Elymas blind and Ananias and Saphira dead To another diverse kinds of Tongues the gift of speaking several and strange Languages which he was never taught And all this worketh that one and the same Spirit who divides his several gifts to several Men according to his good pleasure Other Scriptures tell us the same as that of St. Matt. 25.15 The Master of the house gave to one Servant five Talents to another two to another one to every one according to his several ability He gives such and so much as he sees every Man is fit to make use of to Gods glory and the Common good Thus God will shew himself both a free donor and a wise disposer of all things For if one Man should have all abilities and others few or none of any worth the World might seem to be guided either by blind fortune or fatal necessity but now that Men have their several Offices and their several abilities by which they are each fitted for anothers service and all for the beauty and benefit of the whole frame the hand of divine providence appears in the disposing of them God would have Men take notice of their gifts and of their defects that by the one they may learn humility and by the other thankfulness For if any one had all parts he would be too proud of his perfections and begin to think he needed not the supply of Gods farther favours who had so much of his own already Again if any Man were destitute of all Gods gifts and mercies he would want