with Perseverance unto the End in conjunction with it Then the Answer of Paul and Silas is the short Summary of the Gospel and they might well promise Salvation to whosoever should accomplish the purpose of it That this indeed is the Importance may appear by the words of our blessed Saviour who having been asked by a Iew as Paul and Silas by a Gentile what Course was to be taken whereby to inherit Eternal Life gave him an Answer which some may censure as too much savouring of the Law but yet it seems not unsuitable to the oeconomy of the Gospel If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments Now in as much as Paul and Silas did not teach another Doctrin but the same in other words with their Master Christ they must needs be understood to have given This Answer That if the Jailour should so believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as to imitate his Example and yield obedience to his Commands and continue so to do all the days of his life he should not fail in that Case of his being sav'd And though the Rule is very true That nothing is wanting in any Sentence which is of necessity understood which well might justifie Paul and Silas in the conciseness of their expression Yet not contented with this excuse they rather chose not to want it by speaking largely to the Jailour the Word of God After the very same manner § 13. That the People may not wrest the outward Letter of the Scripture to their Damnation we must carefully explain and disentangle it to their Safety If any of Us shall be consulted by either Believers or Unbelievers about the means of their being sav'd we have two ways of Answer and both exact but both are to be taken cum grano salis and with a due Interpretation We may answer with our Saviour They are to keep the Commandments or else with Paul and Silas that they are to believe in the Lord Iesus Christ. But if the former we must add This is the chief of the Commandments that we believe on the Name of the Lord Iesus Christ 1 Joh. 3. 23. And although we must have an inherent righteousness in part yet there is need that That of Christ be imputed to us if but to make up all the wants and the vacuities of our own For our own is no better than filthy Rags if impartially compar'd with our double Rule to wit The Doctrin and Life of Christ. We must negotiate indeed with the Talents of Grace that we may not be cast into outer Darkness yet so as to judge our selves at best to be unprofitable Servants weigh'd with the Greatness of our Redeemer and with the Richness of our Reward Or if we give them the second Answer we must also speak to them the Word of God We must explain what it is to believe in Christ and by the help of some Distinctions duly consider'd and apply'd teach them to see through all the Fallacies and flatten the edge of all objections which are oppos'd to the Necessity of strict obedience and good works When any Iustifying Vertue is given to Faith we must tell them it is meant of Faith unfeigned When we speak of the Sufficiency of Faith unfeigned we must shew them how Love is the Spirit of Faith Whether because in the Active it works by Love or else because in the Passive in which the Syriac and Tertullian translate the word by works of Charity and Obedience Faith is wrought and made perfect When we celebrate the force of a lively Faith we must season it with a Note that Faith is dead being alone When 't is said out of St. Paul that we are justified by Faith without the Deeds of the Law 't is fit we add out of St Iames that we are justified by Works and not by Faith only For to shew that St. Iames does not either contradict or confute St. Paul The Works excluded by St. Paul are no other than the Deeds of the Ceremonial Law And those included by St. Iames are no other than the Works of the Moral Law So we are justified by Faith as the Root of Works and we are justified by Works as the Fruit of Faith Not by Faith without Works for then St. Iames would not be Orthodox nor yet by Works without Faith for then we could not defend St. Paul but by such a Faith as worketh and by such Works as are of Faith By Both indeed improperly as being but necessary Conditions But very properly by Christ as being the sole meritorious Cause Again because 't is very natural for Carnal Professors of Christianity so to enhaunce the Price of Faith as to depretiate good Works and make obedience to pass at the cheaper Rate They must be told that when our Saviour ascribes the moving of Mountains and other Miracles to Faith He does not speak of That Faith which is a Sanctifying Grace Gal. 5. 22. but of that Faith alone which is an Edifying Gift 1 Cor. 12. 9. by which a man may do wonders and yet be damn'd Matth â— 22 23. So when he said unto the Ruler who had besought him to heal his bed-rid Daughter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Only Believe He only meant it was sufficient for the healing of her â—ody without alluding in any measure unto the saving of her Soul So far he was in that place from giving any ground of hope to a Solifidian And therefore briefly let it suffice me to say once for all That when we find men Believers without good Life we must shew them how many ways a man may be a Believer without true Faith may be justified in the Praemisses yet not sav'd in the Conclusion may get no more by his Knowledge than to be beaten with many stripes and have no more of a Saviour than to be damn'd by We must instruct them to distinguish betwixt the Act and the Habit of their Believing But above all betwixt a Speculative and a Practical Belief A Belief in the Heads and the Hearts of men A Belief which does consist with a drawing back unto Perdition and That by which a man believes unto the saving of the Soul § 14. Stand forth therefore Thou Antinomian or Thou Fiduciary or whosoever else Thou art who art a sturdy Believer without true Faith and ever namest the Name of Christ without departing from Iniquity Try thy self by this Touchstone which lyes before thee and examin whether thy Heart be not as apt to be deceiptful as 't was once said to be by the Prophet Ieremy Let the Tempter that is without make thee as credulous as he can And let the Traytor that is within make thee as confident as he will of thy Faith in Christ yet Thou wilt find when all is done there is exceeding great Truth in the Spanish Proverb That 't is a very hard Thing to believe in God And so very few there are who attain unto it
it follows as unavoidably as that God cannot lye That we must All without exception be first well Doers we must first of all be good and Faithful Servants before the Iudge can say to us well done good and faithful Servants And yet again he must be able to say That to us before he can possibly bid us Enter into the Ioy of our Lord. He cannot say well done to an Evil Doer He cannot call him a Faithful who is an unfaithful Servant He cannot say Come ye blessed and Enter ye into the Ioy of your Lord to whom the Sentence of Go ye Cursed into everlasting Fire does of right belong § 17. And if these things are so then as we tender the greatest Interest both of our Bodies and of our Souls Let no man cozen us to Hell by making us believe we are sure of Heaven Beware of Comfortable Preachers as they that love to be flatter'd do fasly call them who either write or speak much in the Praise of Faith But in Disparagement of obedience to the Commandments of our Lord. And often quarrel at the necessity of being rich in good works as if Salvation were to be had at a cheaper Rate Let me put the case home as well to others as to myself in the fewest words Have we an earnestness of Desire to live for ever in Bliss and Glory or are we careless and indifferent what shall become of us hereafter Do we seriously believe an Immortality of our Souls a Life after Death and a Day of Iudgment Or do we but talk of these things in civility to the men amongst whom we live if we are in good earnest in the Rehearsal of the Creed of the two last Articles in particular the Resurrection of the Body and the Life everlasting Then let the Condition of the New Covenant abide forever in our Remembrance And seeing this is the Condition on which the promise of Salvation is given unto us that we receive and own Christ as our Lord and Master as our Saviour and our Prince as our Advocate and our Iudge too And that we so own him in our Lives as well as in our Beliefes as well in our practice as speculation Let us not flatter ourselves for shame as so many Traytors to our own Souls that Salvation will be found upon easier Termes For to such as cannot pretend to be Babes or Ideots or never to have liv'd within the sound of Christ's Gospel the words of the Apostle are very positive and Express That without Holiness and Peace that is to say without our Duties both to God and to our Neighbour No man living shall see the Lord Hebr. 12. 14. And this I think may suffice us to have learn't at this time from the Text in hand For thô I say not that these are All yet these Especially are the Lessons we are concern'd to draw from it and such as willingly flow to us from its most rational Importance Now to him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we are able to ask or think according to the power that worketh in us unto him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all Ages world without end THE Yoke of Christ Easier than That of MOSES AND HIS Burden a Refreshment to such as Labour MATTH XI 30. For my Yoke is Easy and my Burden is light A Text not unsuitable to all the Severities of the Lent which is if St. Ierome may be believ'd and other Fathers more antient of Apostolical Institution A Time sequester'd by That Autority for the Exercise and Practice of Christian Strictness expressed pithily in my Text by our bearing both the Burden and Yoke of Christ. § 1. The Affinity and Connexion is as obvious as it is close betwixt my present and former Text. For it was the last Service which I perform'd in this Place to shew how Christ is our Lord and Master Such as he was pleas'd to assert himself in the thirteenth of St. Iohn at the thirteenth verse It now remains that we Contemplate the Moderation of the Laws whereby our Lord is exceeding Gratious and our Master extreamly Good For it seems not sufficient that he is known to be a Lord in Exacting obedience to his Commandments unless he be as well known to be good and gratious in that his Commandments are not grievous Nothing neer so insupportable as they were thought by those Gnosticks St. Iohn alludes to 1 Iohn 5. 3. who fell away from Christianity and disown'd Christ himself for fear their Loyalty and obedience should cost them dear living then as they did in Times of Trial and Persecution He is our Lord and our Master in respect of the Yoke with which he binds and in regard of the Burden wherewith he loads us But this our Master is Good and our Lord Gratious in respect of the Easiness which he gives unto the one and in regard of the Lightness wherewith he qualify's the other But § 2. Our Translation however True is so far short of the Original that as before so now also the Greek must come in to assist the English or else we shall miss of its whole Importance For 't is not only my Yoke is Easy But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my Yoke is Good My Yoke is profitable and useful My Yoke is an indearing and delectable Yoke For all this and more is imported by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Lexicographers and Glossaries do make apparent That is to express it without a Metaphor The Service of Christ is a most gratious and Desirable Service What he commands us to perform is not only very possible but facil and easy to be perform'd Nor only so but sweet and pleasant in the performance It is not only our Bounden Duty but 't is our Interest our Delight our Reward to serve him § 3. And such as the Yoke is with which he binds such is also the burden wherewith he loads us Whatsoever his Burden may here import If the Burden of his Precepts then 't is absolutely light For then the Burden and the Yoke are Terms aequivalent The lightness of the one explains the Easiness of the other and the later clause of the Text is but an Exegesis of the former Or admit that by his Burden is meant the Burden of his Cross yet even then we must confess it is comparatively light And so indeed it is in two considerable respects First in respect of the endless punishment which will fall upon Them that refuse the Burden and again in respect of that unspeakable Reward which will be given unto them that shall take it up The Cross of Christ at its heaviest is but a Burden of Afflictions which St. Paul accompts light for these two reasons First because it is but for a moment next because it works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory For as the same Apostle saith to the same Corinthians what seems at first
and Cross of Christ If he be but once brought to an inviolable Belief without all Scruples or Peradventures That every man shall live eternally either in Heaven or in Hell And that 't is clearly for his Interest to do or suffer as Christ commands him because in order to his Escape from all the miseries of the one and in order to his Attainment of all the Beatitudes in the other He will presently break off his Sins by Righteousness as Daniel charged Nebuchadnezzar He will be ready for Restitution to every one whom he hath injur'd as Zachee the Publican when He repented He will bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance as the Jews were admonished by Iohn the Baptist. He will be glad to be thought worthy to suffer shame for Christ's sake as the Apostles at Ierusalem Acts 5. 41. The Consideration of his Interest will give an high Relish to all his suffrings making his Torments and his Tormentors to become his great Instruments and means of pleasure § 22. Thus we see in all cases both Temporal and Spiritual every man is for himself and intends his own Interest in whatsoever it is which he undertakes either the Interest of his Profit or of his Pleasure and Reputation The Interest of his Flesh or of his Spirit his present Interest or his future still 't is one Interest or other which leads him on unto the best or the worst Performances in the World Is any man Covetous and extremely close sisted He thinks it is for his Interest as being the way to be Rich in mony which is the only Grand Project that he is driving Or is he Free and open-handed He thinks it for his Interest because it is the ready way to make him Rich in good Works which is the highest and noblest end at which he ayms in this World Is there any man running headlong into a Customary Contempt of his Saviour's Yoke He thinks it is for his Interest as being the way to live merrily and in Prosperity here on Earth which is the Soveraign Allective of his Desires Or does any man take pleasure in supporting both the Burden and Yoke of Christ He thinks it is for his Interest as being the way to dye safely and to live after Death a life of Bliss and Immortality which is the utmost Atchievement his heart is set on Lastly would ye know the Reason why I have meditated so much upon this kind of Subject why I have struck so many Blows upon this great Anvil made so many long Discourses though on occasion of divers Texts touching the Equity and the Law of our Saviour's Gospel and indispensable Necessity of our obedience unto the end The Reason of it is truly This Because I have thought it most mine own and other men's Interest so to do And till we are able to be so happy as to convince our selves and others that 't is most for our Interest to bear the Yoke of Christ's Law and the Burden of his Cross when 't is laid upon us 'T is very sure that neither of us shall bear the one or the other as is requir'd Whereas 't is as sure on the other side That as we never neglect our Interest in what is Secular or Carnal as touching our Credits or our Estates or our Temporal Preservation so as little shall we indure to start aside from the Burden or Yoke of Christ if indeed we do believe it our greatest Interest to bear them as He requires For can the very same man who is sollicitously careful to get a Trifle be as perfectly careless to gain a Talent or stand in very great Dread of a lesser Punishment But of an infinitely greater in none at all If we are strict in our conforming to the Commandments of men with whom the Penalties are but Temporal and the Recompenses but finite we cannot sure be Non-Conformists to the Commandments of Christ on a Supposal that we believe it as great a Truth as any is That his Punishments and Rewards are both Immortal and Immense Nor can I think of a more rational or a more satisfactory Accompt why the Commandments of men should be so commonly heeded by us with more circumspection than those of Christ but that we fear Them more and believe Him less or value the Interest of our Bodies above the Interest of our Souls or prefer the seeming certainty of what is Present before the Hope and Expectance of what is future And had rather become the owners of Earthly Contentments in Possession than to be dealing for Reversions in Heaven it self § 23. And therefore to the end we may be able even to feel and by consequence to arrive at the Conviction of Experience That the Yoke of Christ's Law is really Easy in it self and the Burden of his Cross is in comparison very light And that they have Both a secret vertue of giving Rest unto the Souls of Them that labour and of Refreshing the heavy laden for so our Saviour tells us expresly in the two next Verses before the Text let us be Conversant incessantly in all the means of attaining to a True Christian Faith That so by cordially believing we may passionately love the Lord Jesus Christ. And that loving him as we ought we may by consequence delight in doing that which he requires and by consequence may attain to that Reward which he hath Promis'd For as our Faith and our Love do what we can will beget obedience if the first is unfeigned and the second without Dissimulation So 't is sure that our obedience will end in bliss Not in bliss whilst we are Passengers but when we shall arrive at our Iourneys end For here we are Dead saith our Apostle and our life is yet hid with Christ in God But when the Lord Iesus Christ who is our life shall appear Then shall We also appear with Him in Glory Which God the Father of his mercy prepare us for through the working of his Spirit and for the worthiness of his Son To whom be Glory for ever and ever THE INDISPENSABLE NECESSITY OF Strict Obedience Under the GOSPEL THE INDISPENSABLE NECESSITY OF Strict Obedience Under The GOSPEL HEB. XII 28 29. Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved let us have Grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with Reverence and godly Fear For our God is a Consuming Fire THere is something Difficult in the Text which will I think be best explain'd by way of Answer to an Objection For why is it said here Let us have Grace It may seem at first hearing a strange expression whether we have it or have it not For if we have it it seems superfluous and if we have it not it seems as vain We need not say Let us have what 't is plain we have already before we say it And we say to no purpose Let us have this or that which whilst we have not it is not in our power to have For Is
assent unto the Creed do still confute their own Belief of the two last Articles The Resurrection of the Body and the Life Everlasting For is it possible that a man should very seriously believe he shall last for ever and not be vehemently solicitous whether in Heaven or in Hell or that he really should believe there is a Heaven and a Hell without a minutely concernment to which of the two he must needs belong If a man's Neck be but obnoxious to the Gallows or the Block or his Goods but in danger of Confiscation sleep it self will not be strong enough to give him rest until he has us'd his whole strength to purchase a Pardon or a Reprieve And did he as really believe that he shall rise after Death to a Day of Iudgment when evil Doers shall be cast into a Bottomless Asphaltites a Lake which evermore is burning with Fire and Brimstone ô with what Horror and Indignation would he look back upon his Sins with what Remorse and Self-Revenge would he afflict himself for them in Soul and Body with what a vehement desire would he demonstrate his Repentance by Change of Life ô with what Carefulness and Concernment would he endeavour to make his Peace with abused Iustice with what strong crying and Tears would he sue for Mercy Not in the language of St. Peter when transported out of his wits by his great Amazement Depart from me ô Lord for I am a sinful man But rather with Christ upon the Cross where he recited in Syriac those words of David My God my God why hast thou forsaken me How much rather would he choose to do it now to some purpose and that but once than at last to no purpose and that for ever Say then good Reader and say without Partiality Can a man in good earnest believe his own Immortality whilst he so seldom or never mindes the future condition of his Soul and is not solicitous what to do that he may be sav'd There can be nothing more incredible than that a man of such a Faith should be so destitute of Fear For what accompt can be given why a man should shrink at Death a great deal more than at Damnation and more provide against the pains of a dying Life than the Torments of a Death which will live for ever that is more against the first than the second Death but that he steadily believes the first may easily come to pass whilst he hopes that the second is but a Fable They who hitherto have thought they were True Believers whilst yet their Infidel Lives have strongly prov'd that they were none will confess what I say if they ever shall have Patience enough to meditate and shall meditate long enough to comprehend the whole force of my present reason Now in order to my purpose which is to rouze up some or other out of the Lethargie they are in and to set them on work in this Grand Inquiry I shall reason a little farther with the Paganish Professors of Christianity And first of all let it be granted what ought not yet to be suppos'd That what they have not in Themselves an active Power to demonstrate cannot have a passive Power of being demonstrated by others that so they may not be offended at the uncivil possibility of other mens being deeper or quicker sighted than Themselves For some are so strongly of opinion that their particular Comprehension is the Adaequate measure of all Existence that they are apter to deny and to disbelieve that there is any thing in the World beyond the Horizon of their Conceipt than to suspect or confess that their Souls are short-sighted Not vouchsafing to consider how great a number of Things there are about the Body of a Flea which are invisible to their Eyes whilst unassisted and yet are evident unto any who shall behold them through a Microscope And if to the natural Eye of Reason we add the Telescope of Faith which is the Evidence of Things not seen we shall have an easy Prospect of that Salvation which the Iailour of Philippi enquired after And discern the true reason why the Sciolists of the Age who are call'd the Wits do first contend there are no Spirits and thence infer there is no Hell and so conclude they need not ask what it is they must do that they may be saved even because they have too much and too little wit For if they had less they would not raise their Objections and if they had more they would be able to refute them But be it so that they themselves are not able to demonstrate there is a Hell to be saved from Dare they say they are better able to demonstrate that there is none Can they say that they have dyed to make a Decision of the Question And been restored again to life to declare the Negative by Experience Do they suspect the Galilaean whom we commonly call Iesus in what he saith of an outer Darkness and therein of a Worm which never dyes and of a Fire which is not quenched And do they so far suspect him that they resolve to make an Essay of his Veracity and therefore trust not his Doctrin till they have try'd it will they admit of no Philosophy but what they call Experimental and therefore stay till they are dead for a Determination of their Doubt because forsooth until the time that they have tasted the first Death they know not if they can feel a second I say admit they do not know that there are Torments after Death to indure for ever Should not this suffice to Awe them that such there are for ought they know Or are their Souls so wholly drown'd and swallow'd up in Sensualities as that they have not any leisure wherein to consider their latter End Have they not Melancholy enough in their Constitutions to fix their volatil spirits no not so much as for an hour upon that which concerns them the most that may be even the Subject of a joyful or sad Eternity Or have they the leisure to consider their latter end but only want sufficient Courage and Resolution to indure it as being a pungent and a dismal and not only a sad but an insupportable Consideration This methinks is as absurd as whatsoever it is that hath been alledg'd For if they have not the patience to think or meditate upon Hell for a little season How much less will they be able to undergo it with Patience to all Eternity If the wages of Sin is such whilst it is yet but in the earning Lord how terrible will it be at the Time of Payment And what a strange Contradiction does this imply in some mens humours That they should dare incur the danger of induring those Torments of Hell it self whereof they dare not indure so much as a deep consideration no not long enough to inquire what they must do to be saved from them But all this is no more than an
with Silas in soothing up the poor Iailour and sowing Pillows under his Elbowes which is no better than to dawb with untemper'd Morter to lead their Convert into a Paradise wherein there lurks both an old and a cunning Serpent A Serpent apt to persuade him and by the help of this Text That though there are in the Gospel which is the Garden of God a great many sorts of forbidden fruit yet 't is so far from being deadly that 't is not dangerous to taste it as the best of God's Children have ever done so long as he can eat of the Tree of Faith too which is not only better tasted but also wholsomer by far than the Tree of Knowledge by being grafted on the stock of the Tree of Life What I say might be the Motive which induced Paul and Silas to give this Answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Believe and be sav'd Is there more than This needful or is there not If any thing more than this is needful for the attainment of Salvation why then did They conceal it and that from one who even thirsted after a full Draught of Knowledge What was the All he was to do that he might be sav'd Or if This is so sufficient that nothing more than this is needful what Necessity is there of preaching or of learning any thing else For as when it was said by our Blessed Saviour It is easier for a Camel to pass the Eye of a Needle than for a Rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven his Disciples ask't presently Who then can be sav'd so when to One that had inquired what he must do that he might be sav'd no other Answer was given by Paul and Silas than that he must believe in the Lord Iesus Christ It may be ask't with as good reason who then can be damn'd For thus we see the way to Heaven is not only made Broader but less incumber'd than That to Hell The Flock of Christ is made a great and a numerous Flock So as The Kingdom of Heaven is but improperly compar'd unto a Pearl of great Price which a Merchant sold all that he had to purchase since one may have it for a Believing in the Lord Iesus Christ. All which being Absurdities and very profanely inconsistent with the Veracity of our Saviour may seem to speak Paul and Silas to be a Couple of gross Casuists for having given the Jailour's Quaere so lame and partial a Resolution But This again is an Absurdity as little allowable as the former For besides that All Scripture is of Divine Inspiration and Paul and Silas in particular had been acknowledged by The Daemoniack in the 17th Verse of this Chapter to be The Servants of the most high God who shew unto us the way of Salvation The Text which now lyes before us may be justified by a Parallel out of our Saviour's own Mouth For having been asked by the People who flock't about him at Capernaum what they should do that they might work the work of God John 6. 28. This reply'd our blessed Lord is the work of God That ye BELIEVE on Him whom He hath sent v. 29. In so much that to obviate and to satisfie all Objections we must not quarrel or suspect but meekly study to understand and explain the Text. Which I shall first attempt to do by a full Division and after That not by a curious but by a pertinent and useful Tractation of it § 5. First to Divide the Text aright and so as that it may contain an Explication of its Importance we must view and review it in its double relation to the Context I mean in its Dependance on the words going before and its Cohaerence with the two Verses which do immediately follow after The words before are an Inquiry touching the Thing of all the World which is to every man living of greatest moment even the Necessary Means of his being sav'd This is the Ground and the Occasion and Introduction to the Text. The Text it self is an obscure because a short Resolution of That Inquiry And the two Verses coming after do very happily though briefly and so indeed the less plainly expound it to us The Inquiry was made by the frighted Iailour of Philippi The Resolution is given by Paul and Silas The Exposition is St. Luke's to whom we also owe the Narrative and the Contexture of the whole The Text abstractively consider'd does afford at first view but a single Act and a single Object Yet in relation to the Context each of these is twofold one whereof is express'd and the other imply'd First the Object here express'd is in sensu composito The Lord Iesus Christ. And this is Objectum formale Quod. It is not Christ without Iesus nor is it Iesus without The Lord. For That were the gross and common Fallacy A benè conjunctis ad malè divisa which yet the Flesh of most Professors is apt to impose upon their spirits He is in all his Three Offices to be the Object of our Belief And in his Three special Titles his Threefold Office is here included His Prophetical in the first his Priestly in the second and his Kingly in the third If Salvation is the end and if we aspire to have it also the event of our Belief we must impartially believe in the whole Messias Not as Iesus only a Saviour no nor only as Christ a King but undividedly and at once as the Lord Iesus Christ. This is the Object of our Faith which is here express'd Next the Word of God preach'd is the object of our Faith which is here imply'd And as the men of the Schools do love to word it This is Fidei objectum formale Quo. For as Faith cometh by Hearing and Hearing by the Word of God which Word cannot be heard without a Preacher so no sooner was it said by Paul and Silas that the Jailour must believe in the Lord Iesus Christ but in the next breath it follows They spake unto him the WORD of God v. 32. They had in vain told him he must had they not taught him how he might And therefore they did not only possess him with the necessity of his believing But in tenderness to his Soul they straight afforded him the means too They did not train up their Convert like the Catechists of Rome only to believe as the Church believes that is to say by a blind and implicit Faith making Ignorance and Credulity the only Parents of Devotion But they built up his Faith on the Foundation of the Scriptures That by the knowledge of some Praemisses which he might easily comprehend he might attain to a Belief of what was yet Incomprehensible To beget in him a solid and a well-grounded Faith such as whereof he might be able to give a rational Accompt they both exhorted him to believe in and also preached to him the WORD of the Lord Jesus Christ the object of our Faith which
consequence be inferr'd to be but the Daughter of Praesumption § 8. No the saving Faith is That which comprehends Both the former and more than Both. It is indeed the very Pandect of all that is requisite to Salvation by being the Substance and the Epitome even of all other Duties required of us In so much that we must learn how to expound it when alone by what we find spoken of it when it stands in conjunction with other Duties For when our Saviour gave Commission for the preaching of the Gospel to every Creature he did not only say He that believeth shall be sav'd But he that believeth and is Baptèzed He 's the man that shall be sav'd Mark 16. 16. And so when He preached first in Galilee He did not only say Believe But Repent and Believe the Gospel Mark 1. 15. And still by Repentance is meant amendment as St. Peter hath explain'd it by his Preaching at Ierusalem in Solomon's Porch Where he did not only say Repent and Believe Nor only Repent and be Baptized as he had said a while before but Repent and be Converted that your sins may be blotted out Acts 3. 19. Again in other places of Scripture we find it coupl'd with Confession without the company of which it is nothing worth And of this I gave examples in the Division of the Text. Nay we read in other Scriptures touching the work and the Law and the Obedience of Faith Nay in one place especially I observe the two phrases To Believe and To Obey are clearly us'd as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the very same breath importing both the same Thing and promiscuously expressing the one the other The Place I speak of is Rom. 10. 16. But they have not obey'd the Gospel For Esaias saith who hath Believed our Report now if obeying in the first clause did not signify Believing it must have been in the second who hath obeyed our report because it is in the first But they have not obeyed the Gospel And if Believing in the second clause did not signify obeying it must have been in the first But they have not Believ'd the Gospel because it is in the second who hath Believed our report else what means the Causal For by which the second Clause is proved to give a reason of the first for this is evidently the Logick which our Apostle there useth To Believe the report of the Evangelical Prophet Isaiah is to Obey the holy Gospel which he prophetically preached But they have not Believ'd the former Therefore they have not obey'd the latter But neither have we yet the utmost of saving Faith For as it signifies an obedience to all the Commandments of the Law in that it worketh by Love which is indeed the fulfilling of it so it does many times imply a Perseverance in Love and in Obedience unto the end As when 't is said by the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews We are not of Them that draw back unto Perdition But of Them that Believe to the saving of the Soul We read of some who had a Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ but such as was utterly overthrown by Hymenaeus and Philetus whose words did eat into their Faith as doth a Canker and so however for a time it might have justified yet for want of perseverance it could not save them For let the Nature of our Faith be what it can still 't is a Requisite to Salvation That we indure unto the End Matth. 24. 13. § 9. Now when the Faith of a Believer is arriv'd at such a pitch as hath been describ'd by Repentance and Conversion and Perseverance unto the end or to use St. Paul's words 1. Thess. 1. 3. by his work of Faith his labour of Love and his Patience of Hope that is to say in terms yet plainer by the obedience which his Faith and by the Industry which his Love and by the Constancy which his Hope in the Lord Jesus Christ hath effected in him so that the Righteousness of God hath been successfully revealed from Faith to Faith as St. Paul expresseth a Perseverance in Faith Rom. 1. 17. It is then indeed the Substance of things hoped for and the Evidence of things not seen and virtually the Praesence of things yet future A steady Dependance upon God for the Performance of his Promise and a confident expectation of the Glory to be reveal'd A being convinc'd that That is true by a mental Demonstration which does not fall under an ocular And as in other respects Faith is said to be the Hand so in This is it the Eye of a pious Soul wherewith looking up to Iesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith we may easily see our way through any Night of Tribulation that can befall us Thus we see how saving Faith does carry Hope in its Importance as well as Charity as may appear by the Duplicity of the Apostle's Definition which seems to have a twofold Genus and a twofold Differentia For first he saith it is the Substance and then the Evidence In as much as 't is an evidence it is objected on Things invisible But in as much as 't is a Substance so it is of Things which are hoped for A Definition very fitly against the Method and the Rules of Art and Nature because it is of such a Quality as is exceedingly above them And yet it is a Definition whereof I think it will be easy to give a rational Accompt For this Faith being an Act or rather an Habit of the Intellect And yet determin'd to its object by the Empire of the Will which is at last its Subject too That as expressed by the word Fides and This as well by the word Fiducia 't is plain its object must be consider'd both as True and as Good As the object of the Intellect the Injoyments of Heaven are still consider'd by us as True and so are properly contemplated as Things not seen whereof there is yet no other Evidence than that of Faith But as the object of the Will they are consider'd by us as Good and so are properly here expressed by Things hoped for and Faith of such may be call'd the Substance Though not in a logical or physical or metaphysical Sense yet in a moral and metaphorical as that which is first in every kind and either radically or vertually contains the rest in it is said to be the Substance of all the rest as the Contents are the substance of the following Chapter or as Adam was the Substance of all Mankind or as there is said to be a Substance and Body of Sin which very Body is also said to have a strength and a sting And then with a greater force of reason may Faith be said to be the Substance of things hoped for because it hath an amazing power of presentiating the things which are wrapt up in Futurity and represents them all at once as
Unprofitable Repentance Were we at leisure to survey the several Orders and Ranks of men from Him that whistles at the Plough to Him that treads upon Crowns and Scepters we should find them all Byass't by Secular Interesses and Aims most incessantly pursuing their Carnal Projects and Designs Poor Boôtes will needs be asking so low and humble is his Ambition what He shall do to maintain a Teem The same Boôtes growing Rich will as willingly be able to keep a Coach Here a man is ambitious of some great Office in the Court whilst perhaps the great Courtier is at least as ambitious of being Greatest The only Subject of His Inquiry is what he shall do to wear a Crown But having waded as far as That through Blood and Rapine he thinks his Crown is too light and his Territory too narrow and therefore makes it his next Inquiry what he shall do for the inlarging the straitned Borders of his Dominion His next Project is how to be Monarch of the West And if perhaps he climbs thither his inlarged Ambition does want more Room from whence ariseth another Quaestion What he shall do to Subdue the World that Kings and Princes may bow down to him and that whole Nations may do him service Nay if he arrives at That too his Unlimited Desires are more imprison'd than before And so his last Quaestion is like That of the Great Macedonian Robber what he shall do for more Worlds wherewith to satisfie his Hunger and not to quench but to exercise his cruel Thirst. Thus is every man a scambler for some kind of Happiness here on Earth at least for the shadow and picture of it But there is not the like solicitude for the getting of a Kingdom and Crown in Heaven Where shall we meet with a man of Youth who joyns his Heart unto his Head and asks about the great Business for which he came into the World where shall we meet with a man of Riches who makes it the great Contrivance and Design of his Life to be advis'd in what manner he ought to live where shall we meet with a man of Power who will indure to be looking so far before him as to consider and contemplate his latter end or who will look so far within him as to examin the state of things betwixt his Saviour and his Soul as whether he hath made his Election sure or whether he hath not rather received the Grace of God in vain where is He that crys out with the frighted Iailour at Philippi What must I do that I may be saved that makes a strict and impartial search after the Requisites of his Salvation that sends as 't were an Huy and Cry after things future and invisible and makes it the Burden of his Inquiry with this young man this Rich man this Ruler in the Text Good Master what shall I do that I may Inherit Eternal Life A Text as worthy to be consider'd by every one who does believe an Immortality of his Soul and prepares for an Arrest at the hour of Death and expects to be try'd at a Day of Iudgment perhaps as any one Text in all the Scriptures A Text so fruitful of Particulars and of Particulars so pregnant for Meditation that 't is not easy to resolve with which of the many we should begin They do not come in such order as the Creatures once did into Noah's Ark two by two but they press in upon us all together in a Crowd as it were striving with one another which shall have the first Place in our consideration Here is a Servant a Master work and wages Here is an excellent Inquiry made by the Servant to the Master And here are both their Qualifications to make them pleasing to one another For the Servant is diligent the Master good Here is the manner also and matter and final cause of the Enquiry And here are divers other particulars growing out of the Body of these particulars as the lesser Branches of a Tree are wont to grow out of the greater But dismissing all the rest until we meet them in the Division I here shall fasten upon the Servant as fit to direct and assist us in it There being nothing more proper to entertain us till we come thither than the several looser Circumstances both of his Person and his Approach As for his Person we may observe him so qualified in three respects as one would think should ill dispose him for such an Inquiry as here he makes For in St. Matthew He is a Young man A Rich man in St. Mark In St. Luke a Ruler And it may seem a thing strange as the World now goes that being a young man he should inquire after life or that being a Rich man he should inquire after Heaven that being also a Ruler he should inquire after Subjection It is not easy to be believ'd so far it is from being usual that he who lately began to live should be solicitous for Aeternity that he who had purchased the present world should pursue an Inheritance in the next too And that a Person of Command should readily set himself to Service Yet thus he did and did with vehemence For whether we look upon his motion whilst he was hastening towards Christ or on his Posture when he was at him his Salutation in the Entrance or his Inquiry in the end we may by his Running guess his Readiness by his Kneeling his Humility by his Compellation his Zeal and by the manner of his asking the great Resignedness of Spirit wherewith he asked For when Iesus saith the Text was gone forth into the way there came one running and kneeled to him and asked him Good Master what shall I do that I may inherit Eternal Life Words which are partly The Evangelists and partly The Quaerist's of whom He speaks The Evangelist's own words have three Particulars of Remarque First The Person who here inquires Next The Nature of his Inquiry Thirdly The Oracle inquired of The Quaerist's words at first View consist of Three general Parts which again at the second View do afford us Six more Here is first a Compellation Secondly a Question Thirdly the End or the Motive or Cause of Both. In the first we have to consider Not only the Subject of the Quaerist's Compellation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Master But also the Adjunct or Qualification 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Good Again in the second we have two Things observable to wit The Matter of the Inquiry in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Manner in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is what and what shall I do In the third we have also two First the Object to be obtained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eternal Life And then the Manner of obtaining it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is by Inheriting But this is not all For I observe the Compellation hath a twofold Aspect upon the Question and seems to give us a pregnant
on Earth too It is enough for poor Lazarus to have his Good things hereafter And enough for Rich Dives to have his proportion of Good things here But the good men I speak of will needs be happier than Lazarus and yet much richer than Dives too They will have their good things as well in this as another World All the subject of their Inquiry is not how to be better than other men in Acts of Iustice and Works of Mercy But how to be greater and more regarded which is call'd a being better in point of Quality and Degree And after these very things do the Gentiles seek They of Iava and the Molucco's They of Tartary and China whether as greedily as Christians I cannot tell But our Saviour spake only of Food and Rayment as of things which the Gentiles are wont to seek And well it were for Real Christians if Nominal Christians would seek no more If Food and Rayment would serve the turn Christians then like other Creatures might quietly live by one another But it seems they have no more than the Name of Christians who chiefly seek with the Gentiles the low concernments of the Flesh. For as many as are Christians in very good earnest will bestow themselves in seeking the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof supposing such things as These will be added to the rest as a good Appendix Man not living by Bread alone as our Saviour said to Satan but by bread as it is blessed by the good Word of God Nor indeed is he worthy to live by Bread who is not able to live without it who is not able to subsist upon better things When we reckon Food and Rayment among the Necessaries of Life which we do with good reason we only speak of such a painful and dying life as is not worthy our caring for unless in order to life Aeternal And for the nourishing of That the very famishing of the Body may pass for food unto the Soul From all which together it seems to follow That they who arrogate to themselves not only the greatest both Faith and Hope but the perfectest Assurance of life Aeternal do prove themselves unaware the greatest Infidels in the World whilst neglecting the grand Inquiry they ought to make after Heaven they let the Tide of their Affections run out wholly upon the Earth For did they really look for a Day of Iudgment as much as they do for an Hour of Death they would as certainly provide against the one as commonly they do against the other They would take as much Care to be just and honest as universally they do to be rich or healthful And make as much of their Souls by Mortification and Self-denial as now they do of their Bodies by a plentiful Injoyment of Creature-Comforts 'T is true indeed Life Aeternal is a thing which is quickly talk't of nor are there any so uncivil as not to afford it a friendly mention It is no hard thing to be another mans flatterer much less is it difficult to be ones own To be secure and praesumptuous is cheap and easy Yea 't is pleasant to flesh and blood to be carnally set free from that fear and trembling wherewith a man is to work out his own Salvation Thence it is that we abound with such an Herd of Fiduciaries and Solifidians who having persuaded themselves to fancy that Life Eternal is a thing which cannot possibly escape them and that all the next world is irresistibly their own They think they have nothing to do in This but to make a Trial whether it hath not been decreed that all shall be theirs that they can get and whether it hath not been decreed that they shall get all they try for and whether it hath not been decreed that they shall try to get All. When men are season'd with such a Principle they cannot think it concerns them to give all Diligence for the making of their Calling and Election sure by ceasing to do evil and by learning to do well or by adding to Faith Vertue and one Vertue unto another But supposing their Election so sure already as to be pass't the possibility of being miss't It is natural for them to give all diligence to make themselves sure of somewhat else For let them say what they will and let them think what they please and let them do what they can they cannot possibly give diligence to seek a thing in their possession or to secure what they believe it is impossible for them to lose No man living will light a Candle to look about for those Eyes which he believes are in his Head nor will he search after his head which is he doubts not upon his shoulders Our Saviour's two Parables of the lost Sheep and the lost Groat cannot but seem an arrant Iargon unto a man of such Principles as now I speak of For will He send about the Country to find a Sheep which is in his Fold or sweep the House for a Groat which he praesumes is in his Pocket No being poyson'd with an opinion that he was justified from Eternity and hath Grace irresistible and therefore cannot fall totally much less finally from Grace he will esteem it a thing impertinent for a man of his Talents to be so anxious as to Inquire what Good things he ought to do that he may inherit Eternal Life § 6. The great unhappiness of it is what I am sorry I have reason to believe I say truly That there are few Congregations wherein there are not such Professors as now I speak of who as long as fermented with such a Leven cannot possibly be profited by all our Preaching And therefore They above others must be inform'd That by the Nature of our Inquiries we ought to try as by a Touchstone of what sort we are whether Silver or Alchymy whether true and solid Gold or but polished Iron with double Gilt. By this we may explore from whence we came and whither 't is that we are going of whom we are and whom we are for For that Saying of our Saviour Matth. 24. 28. which historically refers to the Roman Army Wheresoever the Carkass is there the Eagles will be gathered together must needs be applicable and true in This sense also which is our Saviour's own Sense Luke 12. 34. Where your Treasure is there your Heart will be also From whence it follows unavoidably That if we are men of another world and have our Treasure laid up in Heaven we shall behave our selves as Pilgrims and perfect Sojourners here on Earth We shall be commonly looking Upwards with our Backs upon Egypt and our Faces towards Canaan Our Souls will be athirst for God Psal. 42. 1 2 3. our Hearts will pant after Eternity as the Hart panteth after the Water-Brooks crying out with holy David in an Exiliency of Spirit O when shall we appear before the Presence of God How low soever both our Bodies and
doing of what he commands as for the suffering of what he inflicts Thy will be done not only upon us but by us too Let it be done here on Earth with the same Alacrity as in Heaven Let it be done by thy Children with as much Impartiality as by thy Servants Let it be done by us Men as unconstrainedly as by Angels If thou wilt have us to buy Salvation let us not choose our own Price If thou wilt have us to work it out let us not choose our own Task If thou wilt have us to do it presently let us not choose our own Time Give us Resignedness of Spirits and with That what thou pleasest Be thy Injunctions never so hard or thy Cross never so heavy be it the giving up our Livelyhoods or be it the parting with our Lives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thy will be done 'T is true we may pray with our Blessed Saviour Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from us But then we must pray with our Saviour too Nevertheless not our will but thy will be done I remember Herodian reports of Alexander the Cousin German to Pseud Antonine He was so perfectly at the Devotion of his Mother Mammaea as to obey her in those things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which he was most of all displeased Not disobeying her even in those in which Disobedience had been a Duty And 't was Pythagoras his Theology not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Iamblicus but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hierocles not only not to repine at God's oeconomy but with all gentleness to embrace it Nor only to observe and to do his will even then when it thwarted theirs but to accommodate and conform their will to His. I am sorry I must say what yet I must that were Pythagoras his Metempsychosis now to be verified in Himself and He again to teach Philosophy in these our days I know not which were the more probable either for us to be the better for his Christian-like Principles or for Him to be the worse for our Heathen-Practice And because Reason by many Auditors is more attended to than Scripture let me bespeak you in the Person not so much of a Christian as of a Philsopher Is there any thing in the World I do not say more impious but more unpolitick than for a Lump of Infirmities to enter the Lists with the Almighty or for a thing of a Span long to resist Immensity Our Disobedience to such a Master will be found aequally ridiculous whether we hope to thrive in it by Opposition or Avoidance For dare we stand against Him who is Omnipotent Or can we fly from Him that 's every where Do we live in fear of Them that can hurt the Body and are we undaunted only at Him who can kill the Soul Iacob could not wrestle with him though he did it for a Blessing without the Disjoynting of his Thigh and shall we struggle for a Curse even at the price of a Damnation If Ausonius could say of the Roman Emperour That 't was not safe scribling against a Man who had the Power to proscribe And Phavorinus of Hadrian That 't was not good to dispute with such a Person as had the command of thirty Legions Then with a greater force of reason Is it not Wisdom as well as Duty to yield obedience unto a Master who is infinitely Great as well as Good and has the power to compel as well as the sweetness to invite and that not only our Obedience but our Assent too We count it prudence in other things to make a vertue of Necessity And being convinc'd we are unable to prevail against our Master why do we not strive to be unwilling and at least make a vertue of so much weakness If we duly contemplate Inferiour Nature we shall find but too much reason even to aemulate and strive with the things below us Which yet in this respect at least are so much higher than our selves by how much the more they are conformable to the Blessed Will and Pleasure of him that made them Not only the Beasts which have no Understanding but the Elements which have no Sense do silently preach to the Christian World at once Obedience and Self-denial For what more contrary to Nature than for the Earth to give Rain or what are the Clouds more unwilling to than they are to rain Earth And yet Obedience to their Maker is a thing so natural as that they obey him against their Nature What is the Sun more averse to than either going back or standing still And yet in obedience to God's Command He did not only stand still in Gibeon but withal went back upon the Dial of Ahaz Hereupon it will be useful thus to reason within our selves Are God's Drudges so inclinable to his Commands and shall we his Darlings be so averse They are only obliged to their Creator for being made Our Obligation is far greater by our being made men and greater yet by our being remade We are not only the Work but the Breath of God saith Tertullian Nay farther yet whereas he spake only for Them for Us he died And if they are so thankful for being the work of his Hands shall not we be much more for being the price of his Blood yes sure As 't is our privilege above them to have a Saviour and a will so our obedience must be more and it must be more willing It must not only be Universal for so is Theirs but also free and unconstrain'd As other Creatures are obedient because they cannot resist so ought we because we will not We must not obey him only in fear because he is a great Iudge but because he is a Saviour we must take Pleasure in our Obedience We ought to look upon his Praecepts with as kind eyes as on his Promises and the employment of such a Master should as much incourage us as our pay We ought to think the Day lost which is not spent in his Service and execute his Precepts with so much readiness as wishing at least we could prevent them We should not only be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only ready with the Praescriptions but Freewill-Offerings of our Obedience It being a Gallantry of Devotion and most worthy of a Christian to be most of all afraid of offending Him not whom we find a meer Master very inclinable to punish But whom we find a good Master most apt to pardon Let us hasten to him therefore preaching to us from the Mount and let us give him our Attention in the spirit of the two Emblemes of the Law and the Prophets which had the honour to attend him upon Mount Tabor Undergoing his meanest Offices in the humility of a Moses and with the greatest earnestness performing them in the zeal of an Elias Let us render him every Faculty both of our Souls and of our Bodies our
Mouths to confess him our Heads to believe him our Hands and Feet to serve him our Wills to be ruled and our Wits to be captivated by him our Hearts to love him and our Lives to dye for him All which though it is All is still too little if we impartially consider the Disproportion of our Reward that blessed Parallel drawn out for us by God's own Compass Life and Aeternity A man you know would do any thing whereby to find Life though in our Saviour's Oxymôron it is by losing it Matth. 10. 39. And as a man will part with any thing to save his life so with life too to eternize it If therefore our Saviour does bid us follow him let us not venture to choose our way And if we can but arrive at Heaven it matters not much though we go by Hell For comparing his Goodness with his Mastership his Promises with his Precepts and the Scantling of our Obedience with the Immenfity of our Reward we shall find that our work hath no proportion with our wages but that we may inquire when all is done Good Master what shall we do And this does prompt me to proceed to my last Doctrinal Proposition That when all is done that can be we are unprofitable Servants Our Obedience is not the Cause but the meer Condition of our Reward And we arrive at Eternal Life not by way of Purchase as we are Servants but of Inheritance as we are Sons It is not here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to deserve but to inherit Eternal Life As Christianity like Manhood hath its several steps and degrees of growth so the Soul as well as the Body doth stand in need of Food and Raiment And agreable to the Complexion of immaterial Beings she is not only bedeck't but sustain'd with Righteousness Now as none can inherit Eternal Life but He that is born of the Spirit And as he that is born of the Spirit must also be nourished with the Spirit before he can possibly live an holy and spiritual Life so it is only God the Spirit that gives us Birth God the Son that gives us Breeding and God the Father that gives us the privilege of Adoption The Spirit feedeth us as his Babes the Son instructs us as his Disciples the Father indows us as his Heirs It is the Spirit that fits us for our Inheritance the Son that gives us a Title to it And 't is especially the Father who doth invest us with the Possession But now of all God's External and Temporal Blessings which have any Resemblance unto his Spiritual methinks the Manna that fell from Heaven is the liveliest Embleme of his Grace Of which though some did gather more and some less yet they that gather'd most had nothing over and they that gather'd least had no lack Thus as Manna like Grace is the Bread of Heaven so Grace like Manna is also measur'd out by Omers For even they that have least of the Grace of God have enough if well us'd to inherit Heaven and even they that have most have not enough to deserve it But still the Parallel goes on For the reason why the Manna which God sent down to the People Israel would not indure above a Day was saith Philo upon the Place lest considering the Care by which their Manna was preserv'd more than the Bounty by which 't was given they might be tempted to applaud not God's Providence but their own Thus if God had bestow'd so full a measure of his Grace as to have left us altogether without our Frailties perhaps our very Innocence might have been our Temptation We might have found it an Inconvenience to have been dangerously Good Like those once happy but ever-since unhappy Angels whose very excellency of Nature did prove a kind of Snare to them even the purity of their Essence did give occasion to their defilement Their very Height and Eminence was that that helpt to pull them down and one reason of their falling was that they stood so firmly For though they were free from that Lust which is the Pollution of the Flesh yet they were lyable to Ambition which is the Filthiness of the Spirit As if their Plethory of Goodness had made them Wantons or the Unweildiness of their Glory had made them Proud 't was from a likeness to their Creator that they aspir'd to an Equality and so they were the first of all the Creatures as well in their Fall as their Perfections Now adding to this the consideration that Ingratitude does gather Increase of Guilt from a greater abundance of Obligations so as the Angels falling from Heaven could not fall less than as low as Hell we may perhaps find a reason for which to congratulate to our selves that Dimensum or Pittance of God's free Grace which hath left us our Infirmities as fit Remembrancers to Humility That being placed in a condition rather of Trembling than of Security every Instance of our defect may send us to God for a Supply God hath given us our Proportion that we may not grumble or despair but not such a Perfection as once to Adam and the Angels before their Fall that we may not like Them be either careless or presume So that making a due comparison of that faint measure of Goodness which now we possibly may have by the Grace of God with that full measure of Glory which now at least we hope for we must be fain to acknowledge when all is done that the greatest measure of our obedience is far from deserving the least of Bliss For as the Sun appears to us a most glorious Body and yet is look't upon by God as a spot of Ink so though the Righteousness of men doth seem to men to be truly such yet compar'd with our Reward it is no more than as filthy Rags That other promise of our Lord Never to see or to taste of Death had been sufficiently above our merits But to inherit Eternal Life too though I cannot affirm it above our wishes yet sure it is often above our Faith Had we no more than we deserv'd we should not have so great Blessings as Rain and Sunshine and God had still been Iust to us had he made our best wages to be as negative as our work For as the best of us all can boast no more than of being less guilty than other men so we can claim no other Reward than to be somewat less punish't that is to be beaten with fewer stripes As the Ox amongst the Iews being unmuzzl'd upon the Mowe by the special appointment of God himself at once did eat and tread the Corn whereby he received his Reward at the very same Instant in which he earn'd it so the Protection of such a Soveraign is Reward enough for our Allegiance and the present Maintenance of a Servant is the usual Recompence of his labour Whatsoever God