make us sure to miss of Heaven by making us dream it is unavoidable For as God in his Iudgment is no Respecter of Persons so neither was he in his Decrees As his Rule is in Time to judge us according to our works so he decreed from all Aeternity to proceed in Time by that Rule He did determin the end of men with a special respect to their Qualifications from whence his Decree is call'd respective But he did absolutely determin that men who are thus or thus qualified should come to this or that end And I could wish that this Distinction since 't is sufficient of it self might find so much favour in all mens Eyes as to appease and reconcile dissenting Brethren That as the Decrees of the Almighty are said to be Absolute in one sense so they may candidly be granted to be Respective in Another This methinks should be the Judgment of all Mankind being so visible in it self and of so necessary Importance to the well-ordering of our Lives That God did absolutely decree a most indissoluble Connexion betwixt Repentance and Salvation as betwixt Impenitence and Condemnation Which proves the end to have been decreed with a special respect unto the means Let this one thing be granted as well for the Comfort of the good as for a Terror to evil Doers And I for my part shall ask no more For the Decree which is respective in sensu diviso may so be proved to be Absolute in sensu composito as to afford a Demonstration That God's Decree of the several Ends was in respect to the several Means For if in sensu composito He did absolutely decree that all who are faithful and repent should belong to Heaven and that all who are faithless and impenitent should in like manner belong to Hell Then his Decree was respective in sensu diviso of that Repentance or Impenitence by which Professors do belong to Heaven or Hell From whence it follows unavoidably that if we are faithless and impenitent be it in a greater or lesser measure we ought to be affected with fear and trembling in the literal sense of this expression and never to give our selves Rest until we be faithful and do repent But faithful and penitent we cannot be till by the power of God's Grace after our Prayers and Tears shall have given him no Rest he shall be pleas'd to work in us and with us too not only to will but to do his work That by the power of his Grace we may all endeavour and by the power of his Grace on our Endeavours we our selves may have a Power too whereby to work out our own Salvation And work for it we must with a sacred horror because of the Dreadfulness of our Doom if we work remissly For as on one side God himself cannot condemn us although our sins past have been very great if we immediately repent and amend our lives because he is faithful who hath promised and he hath promised forgiveness to all that repent and turn unto him so withal on the other side Let our Righteousness past have been what it will yet if we return from Righteousness to Sin God himself cannot save us without our Repentance and Reformation because he hath sworn that the Impenitent shall not enter into his Rest. Not that God can be overpower'd by any Quality in the Creature whether Repentance in the first Case or Impenitence in the second But because his Power in the first is suspended by his Mercy as it stands in conjunction with his Truth For in his Mercy he made a Promise to give us pardon if we repent and in his Truth he must perform it Just so his Power in the second is suspended by his Iustice as it stands in conjunction with his Truth too For in his Iustice he made an Oath to be revenged on the Impenitent and in his Truth he must make it good Now since each of these Cases concerns us All be we never so good or be we never so evil I need not shew by another Medium how the love of God's Mercy doth consist with a fear of his Indignation and how whilst we love him as a Father we ought to fear him as a Judge But to conclude with such a Caveat as may best of all become an Ingenuous People Take we heed that our Fear do not swallow up our Love for fear it swallow up us too in the Bottomless Pit of Desperation We must serve God with Fear but so as to fear him also for Love Ever saying with the Psalmist There is mercy with thee ô Lord therefore shalt thou be feared The Psalmist did not thus argue There is Mercy with Thee ô Lord Therefore shalt thou be rely'd upon Therefore we shall make the bolder with thee we shall break thy Commandments without the fear of being damn'd because we know thou art slow to anger and being angry art quickly pleas'd But because of thy mercy thou shalt be feared And there is good reason for it For by how much the kinder a Father is a well-natur'd Son will fear to offend him so much the more And the more our Father which is in Heaven does even delight to please us by heaping his Mercies and Favours on us by so much the more shall we be afraid if we are well-natur'd Children to exasperate our Father which is in Heaven What then remains but that we ponder these things and lay them up in our hearts and draw them forth into our Actions and daily repeat them in our Lives And reap the comfort of so doing in the hour of Death and the Day of Iudgment Which God of his Mercy prepare us for even for the glory of his Name and for the worthiness of his Son To whom with the Father in the Unity of the Spirit be ascribed by us and by all the World Blessing and Glory and Honour and Power and Wisdom and Thanksgiving from this time forward for evermore THE GRAND INQUIRY To be made In these Inquisitive Times Taken from the Mouth of The Frighted Iailour OF PHILIPPI THE GRAND INQUIRY To be made in These Inquisitive Times ACTS XVI 30. What must I do that I may be saved THus the Iailour at Philippi sought to his Pris'ners for a Deliverance Not his ordinary Pris'ners who at once were in Bondage to Him and Satan And were bound up in Misery as well as Iron who had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spirits so gross and so incrassat and so manacl'd to the Flesh that together with their Bodies their Souls were put into the Stocks as knowing no better Liberty than what consisted in the Freedom of Hands and Feet But the Pris'ners in the Text were Pris'ners only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men whose Liberty did consist in the ubiquity of their Thoughts and in being made free of the New Ierusalem Men who by living the Life of Faith maintain'd an Intercourse with God and his glorious Angels And though their Carkasses
do they are afraid it would be answer'd That they must cease to do evil and learn to do good That they must seek Iudgment relieve the Oppressed help the Fatherless and plead for the Widow That they must mortifie the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts. That they must crucifie the world unto themselves and themselves unto the world That if an Eye or a Hand or a Foot offend them they must pluck out the one and cut off the other That they must not take any thought for the morrow but sell all they have and give it to the Poor deny themselves take up Christ's Cross and follow him They will be sav'd with all their hearts provided it may be gratis either upon none or on easy Terms But dare not ask what they must do with a serious purpose to be doing whatsoever shall be answer'd to be a Requisite to Salvation for fear the answer should be harder than they are able to indure As That they must hate their own Lives and Love their Enemies That they must fast as well as pray but feed their Enemies when they hunger That they must turn the right Cheek to him that strikes them on the left That when they are persecuted and rail'd at they must not only rejoyce but leap for Ioy. That they must pray without ceasing rejoyce evermore and in every thing give Thanks Make a Covenant with their Eyes not to look upon a Maid and abstain from all appearance of Evil. But now the Iailour in my Text although he had hardly yet the knowledge had the true Courage of a Christian. Upon Condition he might be sav'd he did not care on what Terms 'T is true Salvation was the End but the Means of its Attainment did make the Object of his Inquiry For he did not simply beg that he might be sav'd as if he thought he might be sav'd without the least cooperation or any endeavour of his own But as if he had concluded within himself as St. Augustin did some Ages after That God who made us without our selves will never save us without our selves He ask't how much he was to contribute towards the Means of his Salvation And This he ask'd in such a manner as to imply his being ready to contribute whatsoever could be exacted For he did not thus ask What must I say or what must I believe what Opinions must I hold or what Sect must I be of what must I give or whither must I go but in a manner which implyed all This and more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what must I Do that I may be sav'd But though this is praise-worthy 't is very far from being enough For 't is one thing to ask what things are to be done that we may be sav'd and effectually to do them is quite another The wealthy Quaerist in the Gospel could easily ask what he should do that he might inherit eternal Life and as easily learn the Things ask't after But when he was answer'd that he must sell all he had and give it to the poor he could not so easily fall to practise what he had learnt by putting the Precept in execution So the Multitude of Jews could easily ask our Blessed Saviour what they must do that they might work the work of God Joh. 6. 28. But being told they must believe that He was the Bread that came down from Heaven Then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they murmur'd v. 41. nay they despised him for his Parentage v. 42. It was an hard saying v. 60. Nay so far they were from doing the work of God who had so lately and so readily ask't him what they must do that they might work it that from thence they drew back and would no longer walk with him v. 66. Such a peevishness there is in the minds of men that though they love to be asking the Will of God they cannot indure to be told it much less to be employ'd in the Doing of it no not though they are also told that This alone is the Price at which Salvation is to be had Men may come to be baptiz'd as the Multitude did to Iohn the Baptist And yet may be at That Instant a generation of Vipers Luke 3. 7. A Generation of Vipers and yet have Abraham for their Father v. 8. that is their Father after the Flesh In which respect God is able out of arrant Stocks and Stones to raise up Children unto Abraham But when 't is ask't what we must do to be his Children after the Spirit The Answer is we must inherit at once the Faith and the Works of Abraham And accordingly the Baptist did proportion his Directions to such as ask't them He did not tell them what they must Teach whereby to be Orthodox Professors or what they must hold whereby to be Orthodox Believers But as they ask'd what they must do so he told them those Things that were of necessity to be done Begin not to say within your selves we have Abraham to our Father for so have They who are Sons of Belial But bring forth fruits worthy of Repentance v. 8. If ye are Publicans exact no more than is appointed you v. 13. If ye are Soldiers do violence to no man neither accuse any one falsly and be content with your wages v. 14. If ye are Christians of any Calling Let him that hath two Coats impart to Him that hath none And He that hath Meat let Him do likewise v. 11. Still 't is our Doing the things ask'd after not our Asking what we must do which is effectually the way to our being sav'd And accordingly when 't is said by the Apostle St. Iames That Faith without Works is dead and nothing worth It is intimated to us by that expression That a Rectitude of Iudgment is nothing worth but as it stands in conjunction with a like Rectitude of Life As if our Faith and our Knowledge and good Professions could amount unto no more than the meer Body of Religion whilst the Soul that enlivens it is still the sanctity of our Actions Thence a Good man is called not an Hearer or a Believer But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Doer of the Word Jam. 1. 22 23. And when it pleas'd our blessed Saviour to give a general Description in the fifth Chapter of St. Iohn as well of the Few that belong to Heaven as of the Many that go to Hell He did not give them their Characters from their being of this or that Country of this or that Calling of this or that Church or Congregation of this or that Faith not to say Faction in Religion But only from their being qualified with such and such Practice with such and such Works with such and such Habits of Conversation Our Saviours words are very plain but in my apprehension of great Remarque And such as being well consider'd would teach us how to pass a Iudgment without any prejudice
been sweeten'd and made delicious by nothing else but the Foretasts of Life Eternal Were Life Eternal nothing better than a kind of perpetual Youth an unmovable station upon the point of One-and-twenty we may guess how much admir'd and how much coveted it would be by the Care which People take of their Embonpoint How many use their Thrid of Life as prudent Penelope did her Web when being wound up to a Real Age they unravel it again to a seeming Youth So very willing they are to live and yet so very unwilling to outlive Beauty that they will needs court Eternity by a Nursery of Colours So that when fifty or threescore years begin to be legible in their Faces characters there dug by the Plough of Time A Dash or two of their Pencil will strike off Twenty And therefore the years which they have liv'd though scarce the Childhood of Life Eternal may yet assist them in its Discovery as far as a little imperfect Guess They who fain would never dye can tell me best how sweet is life And They who fain would ne're be old can best inform me of Eternity § 17. But I must not here make a Panegyrick of Life Eternal as well because I insisted on it in considering the nature of the young man's Inquiry as because I must hasten to make Advantage of what already hath been deliver'd Since therefore Christ is so much a Master as to beget our greatest Reverence And yet a Master so full of goodness as to merit our greatest Love a Master to challenge our obedience and a Good Master to invite it A Master to keep us from Contempt and yet withal a good Master whereby to give us Familiarity A Master to set us on work and a good Master to reward us Since I say he is so good as to be willing to Allure what he is so much a Master as to be able to compel Since our Imployment is not only very proportionable to our strength but very conformable to our Nature not only tending to our Interest but even agreeable to our Desires Since our Master is Goodness it self our Service Freedom as well as Pleasure and our Wages Eternal Life Let us not serve him only for fear but let us fear him only for love Rather as a Good Master who will Reward than as a Master who can punish Let not our obedience be meerly servile and only paid to the Law of a Carnal Commandment Heb. 7. 16. But filial rather and ingenuous to the Law that is Spiritual Rom. 7. 14. Iob was objected against by Satan that he serv'd God for something and that the source of his obedience was but a mercenary Devotion Now though we cannot but have something for serving God yet that Hell may not upbraid us let us serve him for nothing more than the honour and happiness to serve him Shall we serve our Good Master from the same base Principle from which the very worst Servants will serve an ill one For shame let us not serve him as vanquish't People do serve their Tyrants or as some poor Indians do serve the Devil only to the end that he may not hurt us Will he accept of our Service think ye when we do make him our shelter but not our choice a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a meer Plank after a shipwrack He is little beholding to such a Proselyte whom only his Enemy hath made his Friend and may rather thank Hell for our Obedience when we come to him but in a Fright I would not with the Woman who was met in the way by Bishop Ivo with a Firebrand in one hand and a Bucket of Water in the other either burn up the Joys of Heaven or extinguish the Fire of Hell But so much I am of that Woman's mind that if I might have mine own wish I would have all Christian Servants to love This Master a great deal more than the Ioys of Heaven And I would have them fear his Anger a great deal more than the Pains of Hell If He did empty himself of Glory and as it were go out of Himself to give us Grace How should we empty our selves of all that is dear unto us and even go out of our selves too by Self-denials to advance his Glory O let us therefore be such generous and disinteressed Servants as to vye Obedience with his Commands In an humble kind of Contention let us indeavour to out-do and if occasion ever serve to out-suffer what he commands us Since Heaven it self is the Merchandize which in the Parable of our Lord must be sold for sweat let us more out-bid the Pharisees than the Pharisees did the Law And that our Master may say to us in his Kingdom of Glory Well done good Servants Say we to him in this of Grace Good Master what shall we do Let us not admit of Ignobler Motives for the present exciting us to our Duties than the bare doing them in this world and an Inheritance in the next A good life here and hereafter an Eternal Now the Earnest of our Service and then the Wages The very Earnest of such an Estimate but so inestimable the Wages that 't is not so fit to be describ'd as to be press'd and urg'd home on a Congregation For the Knowledge of This unlike That of other things dwells in the Heart not in the Head The way to understand the Joys of Heaven with St. Paul is with St. Paul to be rapt up thither Rapt up in zeal and affection not in fancy and speculation In the yerning of the Bowels not in the working of the Brains Let the Scepticks therefore dispute themselves to Heaven whilst we in silence are walking thither Let the Schoolmen take it in subtilty and we in deed Let the Pelagians or Socinians try to purchase Eternal Life whilst we inherit it Let the Sanguin Fiduciary possess himself of Bliss whilst we contend for it Let the Philosopher injoy it as well as he can in his Contemplations we shall best contemplate it in our Injoyment Which God of his Mercy vouchsafe unto us even for the Glory of his Name and for the worthiness of his Son our great and good Master the Lord Jesus Christ. To whom with the Father in the Unity of the Spirit be Honour and Glory both now and for ever THE INHERITANCE OF ETERNITY IS God's Free Gift After all our WORKING MARK X. 17. Good Master what shall I do that I may Inherit Aeternal Life A Quaestion set forth in such happy Terms that I conceive it will be easy to resolve it out of it self For the way to inherit Eternal Life is to receive and own Christ both as a Master and as a Good Master to obey him as the first and to love him as the second and to revere him as both together and when All is done still to ask what we shall do to believe he will reward us according to our Doings and
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
Temporal Father He that spareth his Rod hateth his Child is often true of the Eternal who intends to disinherit those Incorrigible Children whom he does not in mercy vouchsafe to strike And in consequence of This § 18. A Fourth Reason is to be taken from the obligingness of the Severity of the Heavenly Father towards his Children whom he disciplines in This World that he may not condemn them in the Next For whom he loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth We have had Fathers of our Flesh who corrected us and we gave them Reverence saith the same Holy Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews though they chastised us for their pleasure Whereas the Father of Spirits does only chastise us for our profit And for our profit many ways To wit for the exercise of our Faith for the proof of our Patience for the Improvement of our Humility for the begetting in all our Hearts both a Contempt of This World and a Desire of That to come for the convincing us of his Iustice which is so far from partiality that he does hate and punish Sin where e're he finds it as well in his Friends as in his Enemies As he causeth the Sun to shine so he lays his Rod too both on the just and the unjust For even they that are poenitent do feel its smart for a Time And They that abide in their Impoenitence shall feel it infinitely more to all Eternity Again He chastiseth us for our Profit because for the hight'ning of our Reward perhaps in This present life perhaps in That which is to come perhaps in This and That too And of This we have Iob for a new Example For had not He been more Afflicted as well as more Righteous than other men He had not been so Proverbial as now he is as well for his Patience as his Integrity In the first Chapter of Iob God permitted the Devil to take all from him But in the last Chapter of Iob God gave him twice as much as he had before Nay the Almighty had so mollified the Marble-hearts of his Acquaintance that every man gave him a piece of money and every one an ear-ring of Gold His later end saith the Text was more blessed than his beginning He regain'd his seven Sons and his Daughters were the fairest amongst the Children of men Yea that nothing might be wanting to make him amends for his Adversity He liv'd and prosper'd after This no less than an hundred and forty years seeing his Sons and Son's Sons even to four Generations Such was his Reward in the present life But infinitely more in the life to come Such as none can conceive much less describe but He who is himself as Infinite as That Reward is Inexpressible To sum up all in a word and in the word of the same Apostle God corrects us for our profit to make us partakers with him in Holiness and that to no lesser end than to make us also sharers with Him in Heaven § 19. The very mention of which does prompt me to give a fifth and last Reason A Reason to be fetch 't from the Life after Death and the Day of Iudgment Without which Topick all the rest are worth nothing and were there no other than This it would be equal to a Thousand If in this life only we had hope we should be saith St. Paul of all men the most miserable From whence I gather That having an Hope in the life to come we are of All sorts of men by much the happiest The Psalmist sweetned all his Sorrows with this single Consideration That the Rod of the wicked shall not evermore rest upon the Back of the Righteous For verily saith He there is a Reward for the Righteous doubtless there is a God that judgeth the Earth The Devils may very well be said to believe and tremble For they do tacitly acknowledge by that their Question put to Christ Art thou come to torment us before the Time That however they are permitted their time of Pleasure yet they tremblingly expect their time of pain too Whatsoever things are taken from Good men here St. Peter tells us There is a Time of Restitution Whatsoever Good men do suffer here in the Body the Prophet Hosea puts our thoughts upon Days of Recompence Isaiah calls it The year of Recompence and the Day of the Lord's Vengeance How could Moses have preferred the Reproach of Christ as much greater Riches than the Treasures in Egypt if he had not had respect unto the Recompence of Reward How could David himself have been kept from fainting if he had not thus expected to see the Goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living Wherefore lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees In every shock of Temptation from suffering wrongs let us take up the words of the Prophet Ieremy for our support The Lord God of Recompences shall surely requite Words most worthy of our daily if not of hourly Consideration that we may not faint in well-doing or in suffering for doing well It is indeed a great Temptation and apt to make ones feet slip to see the Possessions of the World in the Devil's Power and Disposal But our Remedy is at hand if we shall constantly bear in mind the other part of my Proposition That 't is All by God's Patience and wise Permission And that there will a Day come when God will make up his Iewels putting a very signal difference between the wicked and the righteous between the men that serve God and Them that persecute their Brethren for having serv'd him Here the Tares and the Wheat grow up together till the Harvest yea the Tares do overgrow and bear down the Wheat and many times do choak it up too That grand Leviathan the Devil is suffer'd here even to swim in the Tears of the Righteous to bathe himself in That Brine and many times in their very Blood too But 't is a Corrosive to the former no less than a Cordial to the later That God is said to have a Book of Remembrance That the Devourers of the Righteous are established for Iudgment And that they who wax fat with the Spoils of Innocence are prepar'd like Sheep for the day of slaughter And that He who at present goeth on his way weeping whilst he beareth forth good Seed shall doubtless come again with Ioy and bring his Sheafs with him And that in due time we shall reap if we faint not Add we to this our due Reflexions on the Patience of Iob and the Afflictions of Ioseph Take we the Prophets for an Example and Him expecially who indured such Contradictions of Sinners against himself lest we be wearied and faint in our minds I say let us but read such parts of Scripture and but remember what we read and but believe what we remember
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
Vengeance on Them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of Iesus Christ Or if thou canst not think undauntedly upon the opening of the Books out of which thou must be judged and that from this consideration that the Father judgeth no Man but hath committed all Iudgment unto the Son I say if thou hast not attained to This Thou dost not perfectly believe in the Lord Iesus Christ Dost not fully lay hold on his golden Scepter Dost not receive him as a Saviour by whose Blood thou art cleansed from all thy sins Dost not look upon Christ as an Elder Brother or behave thy self as one having the spirit of Adoption Dost not behold him in his High-Priesthood after the Order of Melchisedech and all for want of that Eye of Faith by help of which with St. Stephen Thou mightst see the Heavens opened and Iesus sitting at the right hand of God ever making Intercession with groanings not to be uttered and rendring his Father propitious to thee § 19. I will not say Thou shalt be damn'd if thou arrivest not exactly at this Perfection because I know there are Degrees of Salvisick Grace in proportion to the Degrees of the Beatisick Glory And though thou art not of Their Magnitude who shall shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father Matth. 13. 43. yet Thou mayst possibly be of Theirs who are to shine as the stars for ever and ever Dan. 12. 3. But when I consider how great a stress is laid by God in the New Testament upon the Habit of Believing in the Lord Iesus Christ And weigh the stress of those things that are laid upon it with all the Requisites in Scripture that hold it up I cannot in faithfulness to my Text or in Iustice and Charity to my Readers say less than This That whosoever they are amongst us who are solicitous with the Iailour to know the Minimum quod sic of a Christian's Duty and how much they must do that they may be sav'd If they do not so assent to the veracity of a Saviour so depend upon his Power and his Propensity to save them so submit unto his Pleasure and so conform unto his Praecepts and on the Grounds before mention'd so apply unto Themselves their Saviour's Merits and Mediation as that in lieu of forsaking Christ to serve The Flesh and the Devil They do forsake them both at once for the Service of Christ And reckon their Happiness even on Earth to consist in those Pleasures which Minds the most uncorrupted do most approve of such as are The Love of Christ The Satisfaction of an unblameable and a well-ordered life The Testimonial of a Pure and so a Peaceable Conscience The finding out of God's Will revealed to them in his Word The generous Pleasure of abstaining from all sorts of false and forbidden Pleasures A real Carelesness and Contempt of all the Vanities of this World and A well-grounded Expectation of all the Glories in the next so as no kind of outward or temporal Sufferings can deprive them of their inward and spiritual Ioys but still they hold fast their Confidence and the Rejoycing of the hope firm unto the End I say if Christians rest satisfied with less than This I cannot say that their Election is yet so sure in it self as the Apostle St. Peter shews how to make it Nor can I say They do believe in the Lord Iesus Christ so as to answer the whole Design of Paul and Silas in the Text or so as that I can assure them they shall be sav'd § 20. Why then should we suffer our Eyes to sleep or the Temples of our Heads to take any rest 'till we are owners of such a Faith as will infallibly serve our turn That is such a Faith as a man may live by such a Faith as by which we may be sure to please God or at least without which it is impossible to please him For however it is the free and the sole Gift of God yet 't is for us not to resist it but rather to give it a good Reception and to retain it when it is given not to squander it away or to keep it useless which is expressed by our receiving the Grace of God in vain 2 Cor. 6. 1. Nay farther yet it is for us by diligent search into the Scriptures and constant practice of Self-denials and Importunity added to Prayer and by watching thereunto with all Perseverance not only to receive and to retain the Grace of God but over and above to abound more and more 1 Thess 4. 1. That is to say we must employ and improve our Talent not hide it under a Bushel of worldly Cares or smother it in a Bed of unlawful Pleasures And seeing 't is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good Pleasure we as Labourers with God are bound to work out our Faith in the very same sense in which we are to work out our own Salvation Philip. 2. 12. never ceasing to make a Progress from Faith to Faith 'till we attain unto The Evidence of Things not seen and the Substance of Things hoped for even a Practical and a Cordial and an Habitual Belief in the Lord Jesus Christ Not as a Prophet only to teach us Nor as a Prince only to rule us But as an Advocate and a Priest too who is incessantly procuring and pouring his Benefits upon us To whom accordingly with the Father in the Unity of the Spirit let us evermore ascribe as is ever due Blessing Glory Honour and Power from this Time forwards for evermore AN IMPROVEMENT OF THE INQUIRY Taken from the Mouth of A Iewish Convert AND Containing in its Parts A Resolution unto it self AN IMPROVEMENT OF THE INQUIRY c. MARK X. 17. And when he 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 BEHOLD the only great Scruple to be discussed and resolv'd the only Necessary Quaestion to be proposed and laid to heart by all that live in these Sceptical and Disputative Times Wherein there is hardly perhaps a Family much less a Parish much less a City or a Town in which the shape of mens Iudgments and by consequence of their Souls is not almost as various as that of Faces For though the most of men are travelling to the same Iourneys End yet it is saith Boêthius diverso tramite they love to walk towards it in several Paths Happiness is a Thing which the worst men aym at But they discover by their Inquiries what variety of ways they take to miss it with how much Industry and Expence with how much Carelesness and Care too they do not only arrive at this to have their Labour for their Pains but also purchase to themselves a most costly Ruin at once a most pudendous and most
Information being given will be sure to take the way which leads to Italy or Castile not that which will carry him either to Muscovy or Poland After the very same manner but with a greater force of reason if we desire either in kindness or in a Religious Curiosity to have a sight of the New Ierusalem praepared as a Bride adorned for her Husband of which we hear such strange things from the Traunce and Rapture of St. Paul as well as from St. Iohn in his Revelations where for want of a better and a more lively way of Comparison he is contented to express that holy City by things so cheap and so homely as Gold and Crystal and Pearl and Saphir and Emerald Chalcedony and Iaspar Sardonyx and Chrysolite Sardius and Topaz Amethyst and Iacinth A River of Life and Immortality planted round and beset with Trees of Health as well as Pleasure and shin'd upon by the Lustre not of such obscure things as Sun and Moon but of God and the Lamb in comparison with whom the Sun and Moon are nothing more than as a Couple of Black Spots in the Face of Heaven which though the Richest hypotyposis St. Iohn could make of his Vision and exceedingly beyond the goodliest Things that are visible in the beautifullest parts of the neather world are yet incomparably short of that New Ierusalem which is above If we long to be fulfilling our double Heat and Curiosity the one proceeding from our Youthfulness and the other from our Devotion by an immediate conversation with Adam and Eve and righteous Abel in a pleasanter Paradise than that of Eden by keeping Company with Noah in a safer Ark with Caleb and Ioshua in a better Canaan with David and Samuel in a diviner Sion than that wherein they delighted whilst they were sojourning here below If we desire to see Lazarus in Abraham's Bosom or in what kind of Robes of Bliss and Glory that noble Army of Martyrs is now apparell'd of whom the world was not worthy when they wander'd about in Sheep-Skins and Goat-Skins in Dens and Desarts being destitute afflicted tormented not because they could not reach but would not accept of a Deliverance to the end they might obtain by so much a better Resurrection Or if we desire to be recovering what we so many years have lost our dear deceased Friends and Parents or would converse with those Children and Children's Children which by a Succession of Generations will descend from our Bodies when we shall be gather'd to our Fathers If we do long to be acquainted with those obliging and friendly Spirits whom we deservedly revere as our Guardian Angels to whom the Custody and Conduct of our particular Persons is peculiarly committed by God Almighty and would receive their meanings whilst we communicate our own not by Language but Intuition without the deceitful and poor Assistance of such articulate and successive Discourse as Ours Or if we would be able to read all Hearts without the detecting of any Secrets because in a place not to be habited by Shame or Envy or private Interest If we think it a fine thing to have the wings of a Cherub not only of a Dove which was the subject of David's wish and to be mounted by those wings to such an exalted kind of Zenith or height of Bliss as shall lift up our Souls above our glorified Bodies whence looking down upon the Sun as a thing exceedingly below us we shall discern the very Epicycle by which he moves slowly from West to East even whilst he moves swiftly from East to West and comprehend all Truths without the Motherhood and Pregnancy of such a dull thing as Time which yet is the swiftest-wing'd Flyer on this side Heaven by grasping all things at once not one thing first and then another In a word not to be endless in this beginning of my Discourse if we inwardly do pant and even gasp after a Day when fulfilling at once the Appetites of Grace and good Nature we shall be able to conceive and hear and see what neither Eye hath seen nor Ear heard nor hath ever enter'd into the Heart of man to conceive when we shall not only see but tast of Bliss nor only tast but be filled with it nor only fill'd but overflown nor only overflown but swallow'd up too when we shall drink and drink deep of the Waters of Joy and of such pure Ioy as shall not be mingl'd with any Drop either of Sorrow or Interruption when we shall be as 't were inebriated with the plenteousness of God's house as the Psalmist in his Rapture was bold to speak by drinking of it as out of a River Or to express it in plainer Terms when our Glory shall be greater than the greatest Ambition of our Desires and our Ioys far more than our hearts can hold when we shall be giddy as 't were with happiness and drown'd in pleasures shall have Raptures and Transports and Exiliencies of Spirit more than David himself in his sacred Ecstasie by which was drawn from him that strange expression And very much greater than that of Esa when being cast into a Traunce he did presentiate to himself the last and general Resurrection with an Awake and sing ye that dwell in the Dust when we whose Heads do now ake in comprehending and grasping the shallowest things shall happily loose all our Doubtings into the clearest Demonstration our Conjectures into Assurance our Expectations into Injoyment and Faith it self into Experience when the three Triads of holy Orders which make up the Hierarchy of Heaven of which it is said by the Prophet Daniel A fiery stream issued out and came forth from before him Thousand Thousands ministred unto him ten Thousand times ten Thousand stood before him Dan. 7. 10. shall open those Books whereout the Dead are to be judged Rev. 20. 12. And when with them the holy Elders casting their Crowns before the Throne of him that liveth for ever and ever Rev. 4. 10. shall all salute us and bid us welcome into the Ravishing Converse of those Glorious Courtiers when that Life and that Eternity which in my Text are inquired after shall not only present themselves with their Retinue and Attendants unto the Faculties of our Souls but shall withal take up their Lodgings in our glorified Bodies If I say we are desirous to injoy a great deal more than we are here ever able to ask or think even all that we can and that we cannot imagin And would meet with all That in the very Life whereof the Word of God hath given us but a very faint Picture Then whilst others like Martha are busying themselves about many things let us apply our selves with Mary to the one thing that is needful Let us make it the very Centre of all our Projects and Designs Let our Studies and Disputes our Aims and Ambitions our Controversies and Questions end all in This Which is the way to
For when he was transfigur'd upon Mount Tabor a bright Cloud overshadow'd him and behold a voice out of the Cloud This is my beloved Son Hunc Audite Hear Him Matth. 17. 15. It is the Top of that Wisdom which we are capable of on Earth to sit with Mary at his Feet and to hear his Word Luke 10. 39 42. Fifthly if we inquire for the only true way which leadeth unto life and to life Eternal He alone is the Way the Truth and the Life John 14. 6. Are we affrighted at the Law He alone hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us Gal. 3. 13. In a word He is the true Noah's Ark whereby to escape the Inundations of Sin and Hell He hath broken the Ice and made way for us that we may enter into the Gate Micah 2. 13. He is our Ionathan after the Spirit who first hath scaled in his Person the heavenly Mountain that we the Bearers of his Armour may follow after 1 Sam. 14. 1. The Ministration of his Word is the Spiritual Chariot by which he carries us with himself into the outward Court of the Temple and thence at last within the Veil into the Sanctum Sanctorum He alone is the Gate both of Grace and Salvation None can go unto the Father unless by Him John 14. 6. He alone is the Iacob's Ladder whose Top reacheth into the Heavens that is to say the True 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which as by a Bridge or Isthmus Heaven and Earth are tyed together Angels and Men pass to and fro Angels to Men and Men to Angels By Him hath the Father reconciled all things unto Himself Coloss. 1. 20. He it is that invites us when we are weary and heavy laden to come unto him for a Refreshment Matth. 11 28. From Him the Spirit and the Bride say Come And let him that heareth say Come And let him that is athirst Come And whosoever will let him come and take freely of the water of life Rev. 22. 17. All which being consider'd we thus may Argue within our selves If the great Queen of Shebah did choose to take so long a Iourney as from Shebah to Ierusalem and all to hear a wise man speak Matth. 12. 42. Or if Socrates though an Heathen was such a Lover of Wisdom as to travel for his Improvement through several Countries and put himself to learn of every great Master that he could hear of with how much a greater force of reason should we travel far and near to find out the Wisdom of the Father to learn of that Good as well as Great Master who alone hath the words of Eternal Life But some perhaps may here object That the Man in the Text met with Christ in the way whilst here on Earth How shall we find him out since his Ascension into Heaven The Psalmist tells us He is in Heaven and in Hell too If we go up into Heaven he is there And if we go down into Hell he is there also But to Heaven we cannot and to Hell we dare not go To which the Answer is very obvious That if Christ is in Hell because he is every where by the necessity of his Godhead he is by consequence here on Earth too for the very same reason And that we may not say with Seneca Qui ubique nusquam that he who is every where is no where for that he is every where invisible and so as difficultly found as if he were not The Righteousness which is of Faith speaketh on this wise Say not in thine heart who shall ascend into Heaven that is to bring Christ down from above Or who shall descend into the Deep that is to bring up Christ again from the Dead For Christ in his word is very nigh thee even in thy Mouth and in thine Heart that is the word of Faith which we preach We need not go to Compostella or travel in Pilgrimage to other places where they pretend at least to shew us his Seamless Coat and his Cross and his Crown of Thorns We need go no farther than to his Word and his Sacraments his Ministers and his Members And having thus found him out we must not content our selves with Herod to gaze upon him in Curiosity but with Zachaeus out of Devotion Nor must we grow old in our setting out but rather hasten to him betimes and as fast as we can run too And as humbly as it is possible we must go kneeling to him and ask him Good Master what shall we do or with the Disciples upon the Sea Master Master we perish That is we perish of our selves without thy stretched out Hand to support and save us And therefore lift we up our voices with those Ten Lepers in the way Iesus Master have Mercy on us For indeed he will never have Mercy on us unless we have mercy upon our selves that is to say unless we take him upon his own most righteous Terms not only as a Iesus who came to save us but withal as a Master who does expect to be served by us And this does lead me to consider the Compellation of our Inquirer concerning which I shall discourse upon the next Opportunity Now to the King Eternal Immortal Invisible the only wise God be Honour and Glory for ever and ever THE Goodness of Christ AS A LEGISLATOR MARK X. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Good Master what shall I do that I may Inherit Aeternal Life § 1. HAving done with the Person who here inquires and with the excellent Nature of his Inquiry and with the only true Oracle inquired of It now remains that I proceed to the significant Compellation wherewith the Person who here inquires praepares the way to his Inquiry The Compellation as hath been said does consist of two Parts first the Subject 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Master next the Adjunct or Qualification 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Good § 2. From the first being compared with the matter of the Question that is to say with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is very obvious to draw forth this Doctrinal Proposition That the Son of God Incarnate who at present is our Advocate and will hereafter be our Iudge and who purposely came to save us from the Tyranny of our Sins is not only a Saviour to offer Promises to our Faith but also a Master to exact Obedience to his Commands We must not only believe him which is but to have him in our Brains nor must we only confess him which is but to have him in our Mouths no nor must we only love him which were it possible to be done were only to have him in our hearts But farther yet we must Obey him and do him Service which is to have him in our Hands and our Actions too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Master what shall I do § 3. A Proposition of such Importance to all that are Candidates for