faith and the merits and intercession of Christ Jesus receives and imbraces with peace and joy by that Rest from the power disorder and tyranny of Sin which faith procuring Gods Spirit and looking upon the certainty and weight of his promises and threats the beauty and excellency of his precepts together with the great obligation of God's mercy in sending his Son to die for our sins and rise again for our justification effects and enjoys Thus believers if such believers as rely on the promises of God's Rest with faithful resolutions and endeavours to perform its conditions do enter into it initially and shall enter into it eternally But how proves the Apostle this the proof of it is in these words He said I have sworn in my wrath that they shall not enter my Rest who shew themselves obstinately unbelieving and disobedient The Argument is taken à contrario from the nature of contrary things If infidelity and disobedience be that alone which excludes from the promise of God's Rest then faith and obedience or such a faith as produceth obedience is that which entitles us to enter into it for God's promise cannot be satisfied nor wholly norutterly disappointed or made to become of none effect And therefore though they who would not believe it nor keep its conditions fell short of it yet they who believe and perform its conconditions must enter into it Yea his very wrath and oath against the one for their unbelief and disobedience implies and inferrs his complacency and love towards the other his undefeasible decree and oath that they persevering in faith and obedience shall enter and fully enjoy his Rest And this Rest was not the Rest of Canaan For if Joshua or Jesus the Son of Nun had given them Rest then would not David afterwards have spoken of another Rest from whence the Apostle inferrs what he began with there Remains therefore a Rest to the People of God another manner of Rest than that of Canaan eternal and perfect with God in Heaven to which the true Joshua or Jesus the Son of God must give us entrance by faith in him of whom Joshua the Son of Nun was but an imperfect transitory Type as that Rest of Canaan and of the Sabboth was of the perfect eternal Rest which still remains for Gods People the whole Church of true persevering obedient believers From what the Apostle hath said we may make this observation That Man hath no true and perfect Rest in ought but God His Rest is Mans Rest because he is the Rest and happiness of Man the ultimate compleate satisfactory object of reasonable creatures To Rest in any thing but in him as our happiness without dependance on him as the Author and reference to him as the end thereof is sinful vanity and vexation sure to end in eternal trouble without repentance Canaan it self was not to be the final Rest and happiness of the Israelites nor must any thing in this World any thing less than God be ours What God hath said to the Jews of old he much more clearly hath said and proved to us Christians Arise and depart for this is not your Resting place The Heavenly Rest and eternal life of seeing God as he is was but obscurely and imperfectly revealed to them who lived before or under the law till Christ came in whom the promise of it was made when man had lost all hope of it It was till then wrapt up as it were in the seed and bloome of Types and Prophesies implied and intimated in the Sabboth and Canaan and Temporal blessings attending Piety in this life rather than manifested and brought to light in its clearest evidences and strongest assurances as now our Lord Jesus hath done who hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel and therefore if they were obliged only in God through Christ Jesus to place their happiness in nothing below but to look on him through the vaile of Types and Temporal blessings how much more are we obliged as well as enabled to do so to whom Christ hath been exhibited with all the fulness of Truth and grace revealing the whole counsel of God our Rest in him and the way to attain it without obscurity and beyond dispute If David foresaw and foretold this Rest to be remaining when he not only enjoy'd Canaan and its blessings as the other Israelites did but the very height thereof as a prosperous King If he could say Deliver me O Lord from the Men of this World whose portion is in this life I am a stranger and sojourner here as all my Fathers were How much more are we obliged to think and say so who have not such Types and Temporal blessings to vaile the Object of our Rest and interrupt our sight of it to whom the Son and Lord of David hath been exhibited exemplifying and teaching us our only Rest to be in God the Father through him the Son by his holy Spirit dying to purchase an entrance to it rising and ascending and sitting down in a Glorious Rest at Gods Right Hand to assure us of it It is no less than the sin of Idolatry to place our Rest confidence or happiness in pleasures or honours possessions or riches or any thing else that this World can gratifie us with it is the bitter spring or Root of all sins It contradicts the design of God in giving us any Temporal blessings he gave them to help us unto him that reflecting upon him as their Author and end we might be perswaded to love him incomparably above all if we fall in love with them instead of raising our love to him we quite pervert the intent of his favours and turn them into hinderances to his dishonour and our own ruine He gave them to comfort us in our journy and shall we so mistake his meaning as to set up our dwelling in the Inn and Travaile no farther towards our Country but forget the giver because of that gift which was sent us on purpose to mind us of him This were to bring that curse on our selves which the Prophet foretold rather than prayed might fall on Gods enemies Let their Table be made a snare and that which should have been for their wealth be an occasion of falling to them This were indeed to provoke God either to withdraw those favours which thus he sees rested in instead of him or else to embitter and curse them from yeilding any content and if he should suffer us still to rest in them to his dishonour 't would prove the greatest surest curse of all others to live and die in this false deceitful transitory Rest which leads to and ends in eternal trouble and sorrow of body and soul That which is Mans true Rest must be able to give him full and perpetual satisfaction But all things below do neither satisfie us while we have them nor can continue with us longer to yield us that Rest or Pleasure which we fancy We
matter to bless God for But now that God hath given to Men a measure of good things and hath temper'd their gifts with many defects they may easily see they are both indebted to God for all they have and depending on God for all they want And so this dividing Gods gifts should teach us to think humbly of our Selves and thankfully of God and to set up our Rest in those gifts and graces which his bounty hath so freely conferred upon us Not inwardly to repine and envy nor outwardly to disturb and pervert that order which God hath made but to let God alone with his wise and gracious dealing with us and to rest satisfied with our own portion and to prize and esteem the gifts of others acknowledging their due worth and value where ever we find them for if the holy Spirit of God divide his gifts as he will and his will is always gracious and wise then either to deny or envy or debase them is no better than to thwart God in one especial work of his wisdom and goodness Some Men indeed would have greater gifts and most Men would have greater callings and places in the Church and State all secretly grudging against God and envying one another and if it were not the mercy of God to over rule such secret swellings they would burst out to the overthrow of peace and order and would prove no less destructive to our temporal quiet and Rest here than to our eternal Rest hereafter 'T was good Counsel which Joseph gave to his Brethren when they were returning with their Sacks of Corn to their Father in Canaan See ye fall not out by the way We are all Travellers returning to our Fathers house the Heavenly Canaan in which are many mansions enough certainly for all the Sons of Adam and God hath given to every Man such gifts and graces such guides and assistances for their conduct that were they not wanting to themselves they need not doubt their safe arrival But such are our fallings out by the way such our jarrings and dissentions our lingrings delays and backslidings that we may have cause to fear the greater part of these Travellers will fall short of these mansions and never take up their Rest in their Fathers house It is an ancient and true saying Unum quodque est propter operationem suam God hath made all that he made ordered all things that he ordained and there is nothing but what he made and set in order for that work and operation to which its nature place and faculties are fitted The work and operation therefore is the first in order of intention or design though the last in order of execution and accomplishment But nothing can operate or work aright except it be gifted or endued with some faculty or hability to that work And that this faculty or hability may produce its work in due order it must have its due place and office appointed by him who orders all things Now as this is true and certain in the universal body of the World and in the particular natural body of all Men so it is chiefly to be observed in the Spiritual body of Christ's Church First there are gifts to enable Men to perform the work for which God hath appointed them Then there are Offices 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or administrations to authorize them and give them Commission in their several places to exercise those gifts with which they are endued and perform those works for which they are gifted and authorized Then there are works which must be performed by Men endued with those gifts and those Commissions This is the wise method and order which he that hath made all things in number measure and weight hath prescribed and observed himself in all his works and prescribed us in his word to observe Gifts are first mentioned because they are first necessary for the qualifying of the Person both for his office and his work What ever we have what ever we are by nature or grace in our worldly condition or in our spiritual is a gift For what are or what have we in any respect if good it be that we have not received from that God who is the only self-subsisting all-sufficient fountain and fulness of all being and life For in him we live and move and have our being From him and through him and to him are all things He spake the word Let it be thus and thus by that eternal word his only Son and it was so His Spirit moved upon the Waters and all things that he pleased to have done through this word by this Spirit were produced for by the word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the host of them by this Spirit or word of his mouth All then is his gift Ab unissimo Deo manant multiformia ab aeterno temporalia All diversity comes from Unity all times and temporal things from the eternity of this Trinity It is God alone that hath made and order'd the dull Earth and the active Sun distinguished the World into such diversity of Creatures in order to serve one another the Elements for the mixt bodies herbs and grass for the living unreasonable Creatures those for Man and Man for his own service and glory If God had made but one Creature that one had proved him an infinite God as to his power for nothing but an Almighty power can bring forth any thing though but an Atom or dust or sand out of nothing But now that he hath made and appointed so many Creatures in such a just and excellent order this makes the riches of his wisdom and bounty clearly appear to the Eye of reason and then he demands of Man who hath this reason in all humility and thankfulness that he adore and revere that God who hath made so many divers Creatures to serve him that he may learn thereby to serve and love his Creator and gracious benefactor and so at last come to enjoy him whom he hath thus served and loved in eternal joy and rest If any one should ask why was I made a liveless Element a senseless Plant an unreasonable though a living Creature but a reasonable Man above all these able to see and consider what I see and know to the honour of God There can no account or reason be given but the free bounty of his gift who thus distinguisht and ordered all things And so also amongst Men why one is noble another obscure one rich another poor one beautiful witty and strong another weak dull or less comely what account can any one give but that there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit Lord God who thus orders them And this must teach us contentedness without envying Superiors and Charity without despising or neglecting inferiors But besides these gifts these Offices and administrations which God hath placed in the World for its Temporal Government there are gifts supernatural and spiritual which God hath
with their fruits if time be granted to bring them forth are not only described and required clearly and frequently in holy Scripture as the necessary conditions without which no Man shall but as the necessary qualifications without which no Man can see the Lord with holy eternal love and joy And therefore no doubt the for hath a rational inference in it as to the acceptance and reward of the godly and righteous person Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you for I was hungry and ye fed me c. For ye have perform'd the conditions which I in my Gospel or gracious covenant required of you with promise to accept and reward them for ye are qualified with those graces and holy dispositions which are my own Image and likeness the impress of my holy Spirit which renders you capable of enjoying me and my Father with endless delight which makes you though not in strict justice worthy of my Heavenly Kingdom yet in my gracious mercy and bounty and through my merits not utterly unworthy that is not wholly unmeet to inherit it for these all have confest and forsaken their evil ways fled with penitent believing hearts to that propitiation which God had set forth in his only Son through faith in his blood By doing so they have received that holy Spirit by whose direction and assistance they have mortified the flesh with its lusts and affections conquered the World with its temptatations resisted the Devil and quenched the fiery darts of the wicked fought the good fight of faith till they finished their course and though the remainders of sin and the flesh abide lusting and strugling against the Spirit yet no sin hath reigned over them and the very remainders of sin they have bewailed watcht over and resisted betaking themselves to Christs intercession for their pardon therefore they are heirs of the Kingdom through the merits of Christ imparted to them whereby they are entituled to it as the meritorious cause on his part whereby they have an actual plea title and interest in Christs merit as the condition and qualification on their part And thus the Kingdom and eternal Rest is theirs though not by right of justice or merit but by right of gracious promise And may not all this be thought sufficient to justifie the truth of the for or causal particle unless it be granted that it signifie meritoriously in strict justice on their part as strictly and fully as in the other Depart ye cursed for ye did no good works but many ill ones without repentance and reformation without faith and love to me The goodness and justice of Gods Majesty will not suffer him to sentence any Man to any punishment much less to eternal intolerable sorrow and pain unless it hath been strictly and fully deserved or demerited But the goodness and bounty and mercy of God may without wrong to any perfection or attribute of his accept and reward any Man that is not utterly incapable of it but in some sincere degree qualified for it with such an abundant measure of happiness as he thinks fit although no ways merited by him The Lord Jesus hath satisfied his Fathers justice and honour in his Government and holy Laws and made it a righteous thing with him to save the penitent sinner upon condition of reformation and holy obedience They that are saved have performed these conditions and therefore they are admitted with a for Come ye blessed c. For I was hungry If a gracious Prince of his own free goodness proclaim a general merciful pardon to all Rebels Traytors and Theeves provided they will by such a day acknowledge their fault and profess and resolve to do so no more and make their peace with their Neighbours whom they have wronged Suppose all accept the pardon in outward shew but some of them secretly practice the same wickedness against their Sovereign and their Neighbours when as the others perform faithfully the conditions of their pardon If at the General Assizes the Judge upon notice of their demeanours should say to the one I restore you to your former condition state and dignity for or because since your pardon proclaimed ye have so demeaned your selves as penitent loyal faithful Subjects And to the other You I condemn to death and torments for or because ye have abused your Sovereigns clemency No Man of sober reason or common sence I think can deny that either the condemnation of the one were entirely to be ascribed to their own willful choise and vile misdemeanours as due in justice to their demerits or that the restoring or saving the other were to be attributed not to the merit of their demeanour but to the Kings gracious mercy and bountiful favour Their good demeanour could be at most but the necessary condition or qualification of their pardon or restoration without which it could not consist with the wisdom or honour of the Prince his Laws or Government so to use them with which it might well consist with his wisdom and honour so to do and that with advantage to the glory of his mercy without disparagement to his Justice especially in case his Justice and honour had been satisfied for their former misdemeanours by the merits and intercession of the Prince his Royal Son Now just so it is in this case of which we now speak They whom our Lord calls here to eternal life and that with a for For ye have fed clothed lodged me are so far from this proud conceit of Romish merit by their works that they are ready to disclaim them as nothing worthy of such acceptance ready to blame their sluggish backwardness Lord say they when saw we thee hungry thirsty naked or a stranger or prisoner and relieved thee Nor is it amiss what is observed and acknowledg'd by Jansenius though a Romanist and too far engaged in this error what Saint Chrisostom had long since observed before him that our Saviour saith to those on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father but to those on his left hand he saith only depart ye cursed but adds not Of my Father implying that God the Father is the Author and gracious donor of life everlasting but every Man that doth wickedly and dies in his wickedness without repentance is the only Author and cause of his own accursed estate The one are blessed freely and mercifully by God the Father for his Son Christs sake in whom alone he is well pleased with all that come by him with such a faith as works by love But the other are accursed most justly because they sought not or refused when it was offer'd them that grace and mercy which would have blessed them first with grace to do good works then with glory a superabundant weight of glory for doing them And this is consonant to that of St. Paul Rom. 6. v. the last For the wages of sin is death but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or gift
powers Kings themselves are twice called by this very word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ministers of God Rom. 13. The Angels are called Ministring Spirits yet are still Principalities and Powers Thrones and Dominions Nay our Lord himself whilst he was yet on Earth in the form of a Servant is called by this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Minister of the Circumcision for the truth of God This must teach those in this high place humility and diligence but others it must teach obedience and thankfulness to esteem them highly for their works sake to obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves because they watch for your Souls as they that must give an account He that desires the Office of a Bishop desires a good work saith St. Paul Good indeed and a work indeed To govern and guide so many flocks and their Pastors with zeal to God and Charity to Man with unwearied patience and humility without corruption or partiality through favour or fear of high or low small or great poor or rich to govern and teach wisely and diligently to look so carefully to ordination that all the truth and none but the truth be constantly preached and the service of God be constantly performed with all reverence free from prophaness with all purity free from superstition That the Sacraments and discipline of the Church be administred in their power and beauty all this is a work indeed as full of labour and care as of honour Even the lower Administrations those of Presbyters and Deacons have not they their work too They have sure in their several places enough to spend their time and Spirits wholly in if they do their duty The Presbyter hath a great share of all The Bishops work is in a great part committed to him and would the People make that use of Gods Ministers which their Eternal Rest and Salvation requires it would quickly be found that preaching were not half of the Ministers work and care And yet Preaching is no small work To instruct clearly in all the Mysteries of Faith to exhort earnestly and affectionately to all the duties of life and practice to convince so many numerous errors as daily arise to rebuke and reprove so many sins and sinful Persons without fear of the great or the many to comfort the feeble minded to humble the haughty to stir up the slothful and temper the furious to uphold the falling and relieve the wavering and reduce the wandering to stop the mouths of so many and subtil gainsayers from the Atheist to the Schismatick from the Prophane to the Superstitious to clear those Obscurities to answer those difficulties remove those scandals which so many Men in weakness or wilfulness are subject to and to second all this with a life unblameable this certainly is a work of great variety study and pains and yet a work so necessary it is that better for us we had no gifts nor Ministry at all than not to perform it and the more it behoves the rest of the World not to hinder not to discourage not sacrilegiously to rob not to perplex us in this our work but to strive to make it as comfortable to us and as fruitful to your selves as you can seeing the end of these Ministeries these services these works the end of all our labour is to bring you to endless Rest All our abilities all our gifts are from the same Spirit all our works are wrought by the same Lord who worketh all in all that is well wrought both in him that writes and him that reads both in him that speaks and him that hears in him that is governed and in him that governs if this be so let us banish all pride If our gifts and places and works be never so high never so many Envy if our gifts and places seem never so few and low for what are the highest amongst us but the instruments and servants of this supreme donor and mover receiving all from him accountable for all to him And how can the lowest and meanest murmur or object any thing against it since they that have the lowest and meanest have it a gift and could not challenge it as due but have it by the wise disposal of that Lord whose wisdom knoweth what is fittest for each and whose goodness bestows that which is most fit and the meaner or less gifts and places any one hath the more easily is both his work and his account Away then with haughty Pride or mutinous Envy Let not one say with repining regret I am slow in apprehension weak in memory shallow in judgment whilst others are quick tenacious and solid I have neither wealth to buy voluminous Authors nor arts nor parts as others have to dive into those difficulties and obscurities and gain a clear solution of them as others have Nor let others say in haughty contempt of their inferiors or meaner Brethren how mean are such and such compared with me in graces and places I can lead my amazed Auditors whither I will with my eloquent Tongue whilst others freez in their Pulpits and tire their Auditors into wearisomness and drowsiness But let the one and the other say These are gifts freely bestowed where it pleaseth the giver and who shall say unto him what doest thou with thy own He owes nothing to any who can demand any thing of him as his due He is the supreme Wisdom who shall direct him in his Counsel where and how to dispose and bestow his gifts The supreme Lord who shall command him where and how to dispose and order his Administrations He is the only Almighty God who shall accuse his work of weakness or defect Let the lowest and meanest remember to say Though God hath denied me this or that which others have yet hath he given me something which others want He hath not given me an high place but he hath given me that retirement and safety of which those that are in high places are bereaved He hath denied me promotion but given me that health which they that are preferred before me would willingly purchase On the other side let those that have highest gifts and places say to themselves Why should we boast of our Lords bounty and not rather tremble to think of ascribing that to our selves which is his free gift and dispensation least he take it away when he sees it abused or if he continue it condemn us the heavier for being unthankful Since it is thus ordered by the wise disposer of all things let one and the other remember that all are the Spirits Almsmen in their gifts The Lord's Ministers in their Offices Gods Workmen in their works and thus when every one shall be contented with his Talent each one shall find peace and quiet and Rest within him here and be qualified for eternal Rest hereafter The World hath many pretenders to this Rest and those so contrary one to another that their very pretences to
THE WEARY TRAVELLER HIS Eternal Rest BEING A DISCOURSE of that Blessed Rest here which leads to endless Rest hereafter By H. H. D. D. Rector of Snaylwell and Canon of Ely Matt. 11.29 Take my Yoak upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find Rest unto your Souls There remains therefore a Rest to the People of God Heb. 4.9 LONDON Printed by A. G. and J. P. for R. Clavell at the Peacock in St. Paul's Church-yard 1681. TO THE Right Reverend Father in God And my ever honoured Lord PETER Lord Bishop of Ely MY LORD MANY have laboured and wearied themselves in a restless enquiry after a perpetual Motion whose thoughts might have been employed to better purpose in finding out perpetual Rest There is no Man living but would have Rest all our labours all endeavours tend that way Your Lordships unwearied Active Motion in the high place and calling in which Divine Providence hath set Your Lordship leads undoubtedly in a direct line to this desired Rest and as all natural Motions make more hast as they come nearer their Center so Your Lordships more vigorous and cheerful moving in this holy Function makes us jealous lest Your Lordship should make more hast to an Eternal Rest in the Church Triumphant than stands with the interest of the present Church Militant in which Your Lordships Care and Government have been so eminent and are still so necessary To no other therefore could I more advisedly address these Meditations of Rest than to the blessed hand of a Patron whose indefatigable labours have so fairly entituled him to all the promises of this most glorious and blessed Rest Nor comes this under Your Lordships Protection without design for having once taken Sanctuary there and past the dread it hath of Your Lordships view I shall not need for ever after be sollicitous what Eye it may be exposed unto for its censure But if it be asked why I after so many pious devout excelling discourses of this nature should cast my Mite at last into this Sacred Treasury the poor Widow in the Gospel shall answer for me who at the same time when she beheld the richer Offerings of the wealthy thrown frankly in before her Eyes yet held she not her self thereby excused And that this though the meanest of all oblations that have gone before it may yet contribute something towards the safe conducting some drooping Travellers that are weary and heavy laden to their long home their last and happy Eternal Rest hath been sincerely in the desires and shall for ever be in the Prayers of MY LORD Your Lordships most devoted obedient Son and most obliged humble Servant HEN. HARRISON ERRATA PAge 25. Line 26. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 45. l. 22. f. satisfied r. falsified p. 77. l. 11. Comma at sees and l. 13. the sense to go on without any new Paragraph p. 87. l. 15. f. watchful r. wrathful p. 114. l. 20. f. modesty r. in modesty p. 143. l. 7. f. up r. it up p. 144. l. 5. f. dwell r. duel p. 152. l. 24. f. descend r. descended p. 153. l. 20. f. cease r. to cease p. 180. l. 13. f. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p 184. l. 25. f. easily r. easy p. 213. l. 17. f. natural r. mutual p. 218. l. 17. f. Wifes r. Wives ADVERTISEMENT THE general Catalogue of Books Printed in England since the Year 1666. And a Catalogue of School-books As also a Catalogue of Latin Books Printed in Foreign Parts and in England since the Year 1670. Brutum Fulmen or the Bull of Pope Pius V. concerning the Damnation Excommunication and Deposition of Q. Elizabeth as also the Absolution of her Subjects from their Oath of Allegiance with a Peremptory Injunction upon pain of an Anathema never to obey any of her Laws or Commands c. Both Printed for R. Clavel at the Peacock in St. Paul's Church-yard THE WEARY TRAVELLER HIS ETERNAL REST. MAN goeth forth to his Work and to his Labour until the Evening saith the Royal Prophet Psal 104.23 The day of his Life is spent in a painful and weary Travel 'till the Evening come 'till his declining Sun be fully set and he fitted to lie down in Peace and enjoy the happy Rest of a long ensuing night But that Man in this his day might not disquiet himself in vain that he might not bear the heat and burthen of the day and yet miss of this Rest at night the holy Apostle St. Paul writing to the Hebrews and in them to all Christians begins his fourth Chapter with an Exhortation to Fear lest a Promise being left them of entering into God's Rest any of them should seem to come short of it Wherein he layes down the Ground and Motive of Hope plainly implied in the same words A promise being left them of entring into his Rest concluding the whole Chapter with a most cogent endearing invitation to come boldly to the Throne of Grace to obtain Mercy and to find Grace to help in time of need That so he that went on his way weeping and bearing forth good seed might doubtless come again with joy and bring his sheaves with him That he that went sighing and groaning under the weight and burthen of his heavy load might have no cause to faint or despond in the way nor start aside through the sad affrightments of hopeless fear Hope and Fear well temper'd together are the two preservatives of our Safety or Spiritual Life they are that which keep our Faith and Love from despair on the one side and from presumption on the other from slothful security on this hand and tormenting distrustful anxiety on the other Fear as the Rudder of the Ship diverts our Souls in their sailings to Heaven the Haven of their eternal Rest from the Quick-sands and Rocks that are in the way while Hope as the Sails filled with the breathings of God's Spirit his faithful promises carries us forward against the tide or stream of the World our earthly desires and carnal inclinations Wherefore the wise Apostle here as every where else throughout this and his other Epistles seeks to temper and mix these two in the Souls of Christians And having exemplified the possibility both of attaining and also of losing God's Rest in the ancient Israelites ch 3. v. 7. to the end now repeats and presseth the motives of Fear and Hope upon the Hebrews and in them on all Christians Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into his Rest any of you should seem to come short of it Were the promise of Rest unconditional and absolute unto some and not at all propounded to others with any feazibleness of attaining it by a true possibility of performing its conditions the former should have no reason to fear nor the latter to hope But the promise being conditional and general excluding none
that of losing his rest of incurring his endless intolerable displeasure this is a wise and gracious fear not only the beginning of Wisdom and Grace but its safety and preservation its watchful Monitor Exciter and Furtherer all along for it makes us examine and prove our selves whether we are as yet in the faith well settled and grounded such a faith as works by love and sincere obedience not a groundless or fruitless credulity perswasion confidence of all being well on a bare profession and when we have found that we are sincere in faith repentance love obedience it awakes our care to continue so by growing in grace and persevering against whatever allurements or terrors lest we fall from our own steadfastness and hold not fast the ground of our confidence to the end It works on our memory and revives our humility for sins past it works on our reason and stirs up our care against sin for the future The fear of missing or falling short of Gods rest of incurring intolerable eternal trouble anguish and pain restrains us from running on in the ways of destruction In the restraint some hope of pardon shews it self in this hope we see the mercy and love of God and then at last perceive the horrour and ugliness of sin not onely in its punishment but in it self This last hath more of love than fear in it and the fear is now become filial for a good Son will fear the anger of his Father so much the more because he knows the greatness and sweetness of his love and by that fear preserves and increases his filial obedience Our Saviour commands his Apostles themselves who sure were Sons and had the Spirit of Adoption to fear him that can destroy both body and soul in hell fire that they might not fear but choose to suffer all that Man could inflict on their bodies rather than hazard the loss of his favour for what 's the fire of persecution to that of Gods wrath or the pains of a Rack for an hour or two to the torments of hell for evermore The Fathers call this fear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bridle of lusts or disorderly appetites and not onely the entrance to Piety but the Guardian of all Virtue S t Jerom confesses he owed the strictness of his life to this fear and S t Ambrose says Love it self is upheld by it Some would confine fear to Mount Sinai as if Mount Sion did exclude it whereas the Apostle having compared the Law on the one and the Gospel on the other Heb. 12.18 22. adds presently ver 25. See ye refuse not him that speaketh for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaks from heaven And then concludes the whole Chapter with these words Wherefore let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire I know that of S t Aug. is true Brevis differentia legis Evangelij Timor Amor. But 't is the fear of temporal punishment which is proper to the Law wherewith as also with hope of temporal promises they were in that Nonage allured or terrified first to outward then to inward spiritual obedience We should indeed for the great kindness and enamouring amiableness of our Redeemer and Redemption be all on fire with thankful love but we must consider not onely what 's the height of our duty we owe to our Lord but what 's that which at first entrance into his School we can perform and what afterwards through the remainders of corruption we still need and what he will be pleased to accept Thus to be frighted and chased to happiness is an Argument indeed of our imperfection but since our state is as yet imperfect 't is our Wisdom to use all such helps as our Lord allows of And yet even in the state of innocency our first Parents needed this motive and had not fell if they had used it they fell with this thought that they should not fall They who in this lapsed imperfect estate require such Christians onely as are made up of all love do but Votum accomodare non Historiam nec qualis est sed qualis esse deberet describunt They tell us what their wish is and our duty but consider not the real History of what is and what is likely to be effected Thus Tully says of Cato that optimo animo summâ fide utens nocet interdum Reipublicae with an honest and good meaning he did sometimes much hurt to the Commonwealth by imposing that strictness of Laws and Manners which 't was not able to reach or keep Tanquam in Platonis Republicâ non tanquam in faece Romuli fitting his sentence rather to Plato's phansied Utopian Commonwealth than to the real state of Rome So I may say of these Perfectionists they do not remember that they have to do with Men in whom some remainders of the old Man will still be lusting against the Spirit and those lustings must be check'd and chil'd and supprest sometimes with this fear of falling short of God's Rest and falling into intolerable Troubles And yet suppose they were as St. Paul and feared Sin more than Hell yet the height of some Mens grace is no ground for a general Doctrine nor because Love is the best of all therefore may Fear be made unlawful as if that were a Sin which God propounds to keep us from Sin Hell I am sure is a part of our Creed as well as Heaven and God hath propounded both a Tribunal and a Mercy-seat and if we may serve God as Moses did with an eye of hope to the recompence of reward why not with an eye of fear towards him who though a Father will-judge every man according to his works Our Saviour indeed Luke 12.32 bids his flock how little soever not fear because it is their Fathers pleasure to give them the kingdom but the fear he forbids is the fear of distrustfulness in him or his promises or assistances as if he would not or could not defend his obedient Children against the numerous Herd of the wicked not the fear of incurring his holy and just displeasure in case they should do what must displease him We do not fear as the Jews did present punishment to restrain us from that lust which otherwise we love and would willingly follow Our greatest motives of obedience are not from that spirit of bondage which looks chiefly on temporal things and thinks it self rejected for ever if chastised here or tried with afflictions for the Gospel directs us to things invisible and eternal much more clearly than the Law and makes afflictions patiently endured the sign of Gods favour rather than hatred nor is it contrary to the Spirit of Adoption to fear offending him that adopted us lest thereby he disinherit us Though we are received into the family of
Gods children and must love God above all as our Father love our Redeemer so much more than all Relations than life it self and its dearest contentments as to forsake and renounce them for ever rather than him Yet we are still exhorted and enjoyned to pass the time of our sojourning here in fear not to fear what Man but God can do unto us To love him as a Father and fear to lose his love by offending him to love the Son and kiss him with reverence lest he be angry to love the Holy Spirit of God and fear to grieve resist and quench him lest we turn his grace into wantonness and make him withdraw his gracious presence that would enable us in holiness and righteousness to serve him without fear of any evil that can befall us so doing or of any enemy that can hurt us and yet to fear him whom we serve as our Lord and King A good Son may fear to incur his Father's wrath by ceasing to be so and yet cry Abba Father Tertullian interprets that of Saint John Perfect love casts out fear of lazy fear that will not go on in the way of grace for fear of a Lion in the way some hazard and difficulties likely to meet him not the fear of Gods wrath possible to be incurred by sin and backsliding but of temporal dangers and persecutions If our love be perfect though with the perfection of sincerity that is habitually prevailing over all other loves 't will cast out such fear and make us lay down our lives for the Brethren to glorifie God and encourage others by the evidence of our faith content to adventure any thing for Christs sake even death it self but sure not the displeasing of God and the torments of Hell that were too prodigal an alms too wild a valour directly contrary to the love as well as fear of God in Christ Charity again casteth out all fear but by degrees as that increaseth so fear abateth If our Sanctification were as perfect for degrees as universal for its parts were our obedience like that of Angels which cannot fail we should need neither hope to encourage our love nor fear to guard it but while it is only in part the best Christians in this state of imperfection may have use of a Deaths Head and make Gods threats as well as promises subordinate means to concur with the principal Buttresses to keep the Building from swerving while the foundation of Faith and Love keeps it from sinking Fides spes tuta si cauta secura si sollicita Tert. Fear makes our love reverent our hope wary our faith discreet If the Sails be too full they may endanger us as much as a Rock for Fear as a Rudder guides and steers our Faith and Hope between the gulph or sands of Despair and the rock of Presumption or proud Security Serve we the Lord then in love but in fear too and rejoyce unto him with trembling as David speaks fear him as Lord love and rejoyce in him as Jesus yea and fear him as Jesus too fear to offend so gracious a Saviour to vilifie and hazard such precious Salvation sit timor innocentiae Custos saith St. Cyp. ut Deus qui in mentes nostras clementer influxit in animi hospitio justâ operatione teneatur If God hath entered into our hearts through his Son by his Spirit let us be glad and rejoyce in his presence for thankful joy is his entertainment but let fear keep the door that nothing enter that may displease so holy a presence Aiunt quidam saith Tert. se salvo metu vel fide peccare some say they can venture on sin without any prejudice to faith or fear sic ergo ipsi salvâ veniâ detrudentur in Gehennam dum salvo metu peccant so shall such who say and do so be thrust into Hell without any prejudice to God's mercy or Christ's merit and intercession Whether we consider the infinite eternal worth and weight of this Rest the intolerable endless troubles of missing it or the absolute necessity of hating and shunning all evil of loving and following all duties and graces in order to attaining the one and escaping the other Whether we look upon the weakness inconstancy treachery of the flesh within us or upon the variety of temptations alluring and terrifying us from the world without set on by the Devil with all the vigilance of subtil malice or on the shortness or uncertainty of the time wherein this Rest must be secured or lost for ever Whether we look on the love and infinite mercy of God in offering purchasing inviting drawing us to this Rest at such a price by such powerful obliging variety of means or motives or on the deceitfulness of mans heart willing to think the conditions of it fewer and easier than they are and to satisfie it self in the hopes of it on an outward profession a speculative faith or a partial obedience Or lastly whether we consider the possibility of falling away through sloth or impatience from the sincere repentance and faith love and obedience which was begun All and every one of these call for an humble watchful fear and godly jealousie over our selves solicitous cautions and diligence lest we fall short of it Take heed then of thinking this fear of missing it either unnecessary or unbeseeming Christian Professors or true Believers since many Professors are no true Believers and they that are may cease to be so unless they watch and pray assiduously and work out their own salvation with fear and trembling Look not upon it as too slavish for Persons regenerate and Children of light since sure it is that the Spirit of God and the holy Apostles made choice of no Arguments but such as were fit to be made use of by Christians and the motives of fear are more than once the Arguments they chose even to those who had been made partakers of Christ and were of the House and Family of God such as had received the Kingdom that could not be moved Heb. 12.28 Who yet are there exhorted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have Grace or to hold it fast by making an humble diligent use of that pretious Talent Or if you will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be thankful to God the munificent donor of such a benefit and this duty raised to the height to the serving of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether that refer to the Persons and signifie serving with cheerful alacrity for fear and chearfulness are very consistent the former the Guardian the Conservator of the latter Or whether it refer to God as we render it serving him acceptably with reverence and godly fear you have still in this Apostle the motives of fear annexed to this duty for our God is a consuming fire 'T was wisdom then and sober piety in him that said He would not leave his part in Hell meaning the benefit he found in meditating on God's threats as well
of God is eternal life Again the same Janfenius also observes That our Saviour in the sentence of condemnation doth not say depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for you but for the Devil and his Angels Whereas in the sentence of the righteous it runs thus Come ye blessed inherit the Kingdom prepared for you By this saith he it is implied That the Salvation of the righteous must be ascribed to the mercy of God who hath prepared the Kingdom and the damnation of the unrighteous not to God but to their own iniquity How this will consist with his and his Mother Romes proud Tenent of meriting Heaven I cannot see nor is it much material to see save only that this may be seen thereby That Wisdom and Truth is often justified not only by her Children but by her enemies forced by that light sometimes to own what by their prejudices they study and labour to deny Such was also that final extorted confession of Bellarmine himself after all his disputes against the truth Tutissimum est in solâ Dei misericordiâ totam fiduciam reponere but that more common and owned saying of all their Schools and Divines Fundamentum meriti non cadit sub merito The Foundation of merits or the first grace by which Man is first justified cannot be merited and although granting this yet they earnestly contend that by the good use of this first grace life eternal is properly merited but they say it without and against Scripture and reason For reason tells us whatsoever any Man hath interest in by mercy and grace and gracious promise it must be expected sued for and humbly accepted on the same terms that it is granted or else it is forfeited But not only the first grace but all increase of grace whatsoever must be grace and freely bestowed not merited The preparations of this heavenly Kingdom for us and us for it are the fruits of mercy No Man can do well unless he be first enabled by God to do so and the more he is enabled by Gods gifts and graces bestowed upon him the more obliged he is to God The least increase of grace given after the first use of grace exceeds the measure of our service and thankfulness and that which creates new title of debt unto God cannot possibly be any ground or title of merit from God to be adopted in Christ Jesus or made the Sons of God by grace who were by nature the Children of wrath strangers and enemies is a blessing for which we become so deeply indebted Servants to God our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier that should we do abundantly more and better than we do we could not make the least recompence for that he hath done for us and yet we cannot continue to will or do well but by the free undeserved continuance and increase of that grace and holy Spirit which first prevented us Yet who is there that doth all that good so well and constantly as that Spirit did or would have enabled him The manner of the Apostles question Rom. 11.35 Who hath first given to him includes an universal denial no Man hath no Man can give any thing to him and therefore none can receive any thing from him none to be sure that are not only his meer creatures but sinful creatures can receive any thing from him by way of merit but of free mercy and bounty If we view and scan the Tenor of all Gods promises made in Scripture from the first grace to the increase and perseverance and final accomplishment of them in glory we shall find that he promiseth only this to be merciful and bountiful unto us and if mercy and bounty be the compleat object of all his promises then may we not expect their accomplishment as the merit of our service but as the fruit of his mercy and loving kindness If a loving earthly Father should give his Son a liberal pension before he could modesty ask or discretion expect it and promise him also that if he employed this present years allowance well he would allow him more liberally the next year in this case how well soever the Son used his present pension yet seeing the profit is wholly his own not his Fathers the more bountifully his Father useth him the next year the more still he is obliged and bound unto him Although this good use of his Fathers bountiful allowance were the condition and some kind of motive or reason why and on which he was treated A gracious and ingenious Son would not challenge the second or third years pension as due to him by right of merit more than the first although he had his Fathers promise for these two years which he had not for the first For his Fathers promise was only to be good and bountiful unto him so he would be dutifully thankful for his bounty Now to expect and challenge that by right of merit which was promised out of favour and loving kindness although a condition of dutiful demeanour and faithful diligence especially if that demeanour or diligence came after former misdemeanours and be not such in all respects as it should be neither is an high degree of unthankful undutiful pride especially from a Son to a Father a Son that was once a rebel and enemy On our Heavenly Fathers part no debt of doing us good can be laid It was his meer free goodness to give our first Parents such being as once they had having lost that goodness wherein we were made 't was more than meer goodness 't was abundance of mercy to make us any promise at all of restauration to our lost inheritance the eternal life of his favour and after this promise made it is the continuance and increase of the same mercy to adopt us and to increase his grace upon us daily and lastly to Crown all this with an exceeding great reward which is himself the endless vision of him from whom we have all we enjoy here or hereafter Non fuisti factus es Malus fuisti liberatus es quid Deo dedisti We may deserve the diminution or withdrawing of Gods mercy favours and blessings but we cannot merit or deserve their increase Merit supposeth such an inducement as may not only prevail but such as must oblige and tie in strict Justice whereas no such tie or obligation can be laid upon the fontal original goodness much less upon free mercy which yet multiplies it self to all that provoke not its withdrawing or abatement Methinks Men should be afraid of this proud opinion of their own merit because 't is so like that of the Pharisee's when even that Publican whom he condemned will rise up in judgment against them for he went away justified rather than the other Luke 18.4 The Pharisee absteined from many gross sins and wanted not many good works to alledge for himself He gave Tythes of all he had fasted and prayed and seemed also more humble than the Romanist for
of Rebels the riotous assemblies of gluttons and drunkards they must be ready and forward to go to the place where Gods honour dwelleth where his word and Sacraments are dispensed to the house where the Widow and Fatherless inhabit If the wicked perverse sinful foot be cut off and the holy charitable foot be left thee to carry thee to thy duty towards God and Man what hast thou lost but the disconsolate walk of a wilderness amongst briers and thorns and serpents the path of dismal darkness and death and error where no Rest is to be found For that of truth light and life and eternal happiness Last of all we must be sure to keep the heart for God that of all the rest he chiefly expects without which the putting out of the Eye the cutting off the hand and setting a watch over our Tongue and offering up our dearest and only Isaac in obedience to Christs Command will be thought but an Hypocritical mockery of God who knows the heart and cannot be mocked My Son give me thy heart Prov. 20.26 That he asks and that he will have and surely no Son will withhold that from his Father The heart is the Throne of the great King where he sits and rules the whole Man this is the most holy place of the Temple where the Spirit of truth and holiness inhabits and therefore he that gives him not this gives him nothing that he will accept or that will make for our everlasting Rest If the heart be first presented the rest will and must follow a wise and holy Tongue a diligent and liberal hand a watchful and attentive Ear a wary foot obedient sober chast flesh will not stay behind but will all conduce to the carrying us on in peace to this desired Rest Every part and member of the body looks to be at Rest and in perfect happiness in Heaven and therefore every part must look to praise and glorify him on Earth 't is not enough that the Tongue be holy and chast if the hand be covetous nor that the Ear be diligent and attentive at holy duties if the Tongue speak not and the hand act not according to what the Ear heard Every member must do its office the head was made to know God the heart to love him the Tongue to praise him the feet to follow him wherefore withhold no part from him remember he made the whole Man and redeemed the whole if any thing be withheld no Rest no happiness to be expected 't is in our choice whilst we are here what we will do and which we will chuse whether to take part with Satan whose work it is to destroy us or come when Christ calls us to him who will assuredly save us one of these we must do there 's no neutrality between both either we must be the Members of Christ the Children of God and Heirs of Heaven or else we must be the Children of Satan and Heirs of intolerable endless condemnation Remember the dreadful misery of their choice who take hell for their portion and remember that a short delight here unrepented will cost a lasting sorrow hereafter Shall the Son of God become the Son of Man to present us unto God his Father to give us eternal Rest and shall we refuse and flee from our own happiness and become profoundly miserable in despight of all his mercy and tender care over us If Christ say Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you Rest Shall we stop our Ears at this gracious call of Christ and continue in wilful sins What do we else then but knowingly prefer the whispers of Satan before the loud cries and calls of Christ We chuse hell and death and the company of infernal Spirits before Heaven and life and the Society of Saints and Angels If we refuse to come now when Christ calls us at the last day he will refuse to receive us If we appear with hearts filled with iniquity and hands full of blood with feet that walked in the counsel of the ungodly and stood in the way of sinners he will not know us for his Children having lost his Image in which we were made he will say unto us Depart from me ye cursed I know ye not But if we carry with us the resemblance of our Maker that Image and likeness of him which he once stamped upon us if we can present him with a wise and pure heart if we can lift up unto him holy hands if we can see him with chaste Eyes and if our feet have walked in his Commandements and trod his Courts if our feet have stood in thy Gates O Jerusalem then shall the Gates of Heaven open unto us then our Heavenly Father will take us for his obedient Sons such as heard his voice and such as shall hear it again when he will say Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the begining of the World for I was hungry and ye fed me in Prison and ye visited me c. All the Sons of God from the first born to the last are all heirs to a Kingdom all his invitations are to a Crown his Sons are inheritors of those joys which fade not away and of that Rest which never shall have end Whereas the sinful Person 's immoderate desires of the things of this World are but his torment till he be satisfied and then his satisfaction is his torment because there 's no Rest nor quiet in it and proves so much less than his expectation Thus is the restless sinner always sick one while of too much another while of too little now of loving then of loathing now of want then of satiety for he never ceaseth to want till he cease to desire and Man is always desiring either the presence of somthing he cannot have or the absence of somthing he cannot remove or else the continuance of somthing he cannot keep Hence the sinner appears to be as the Prophet Esaiah speaks Isa 57.20 Like the troubled Sea when it cannot Rest whose waters cast up mire and durt The Winds within him and the Waves and Tide without him give him no Rest and when his delights are at the highest floud they do bring him the sad news of an approaching ebb Ask but the unclean Adulterer and let him tell you what Rest and Peace he finds in his vice compare but his short pleasure with the tormenting fire of his lusts joyn'd with the worm of his guilty conscience Have but patience to look upon him in his nasty diseases and rotten bones his wasted flesh as well as estate for that is often the event always the hazard and he will have little to boast of but will find himself really to endure more misery in the way to eternal death than many a holy chast Christian finds to eternal life Ask the Glutton or the Drunkard whose highest thoughts are for the cloying not satisfying
the bane of private Families publick Societies Church and State and all that is profitable or comfortable to Man When the World is out of frame peace establisheth the pillars of it brings every part to its own place the sensual under the rational the flesh under the beck of the Spirit It draws the Servant under the Master the Subject under the Magistrate The peace of Families and Kingdoms makes every part to dwell together in unity it keeps every Man in his right place the Master on Horseback the Servant on the ground the King on the Throne the Subject in his private station the pastors in their place of teaching and the people in theirs of attention and devotion Like an intelligence it moves the lesser Sphere of a Family and the greater Orb of a Commonwealth or Kingdom composedly and orderly in its happiness Peace is so necessary in all conditions to rest and happiness that without it ones Family is a prison or sad confinement to trouble and molestation Neighbourhood gives but the opportunity of vexing and injuring one another Towns and Cities are but so many wildernesses of wild beasts The Church no Church more like Babel than Jerusalem A Kingdom or State a disorderly Chaos yea an Aceldama or field of blood By peace at home good Laws and Orders are made and kept Magistrates respected Subjects relieved according to their necessities By peace and agreement in the Church Gods ordinances are duly observed good discipline executed Pastors and Teachers maintained and encouraged the People edified Gods houses preserved and beautified Who is there then that would not seek his eternal Rest hereafter by seeking peace and ensuing it here Christian Religion that leads and conducts us to this eternal Rest is also the wisest and most powerful preserver of peace in order to it It commands us to study and pray for it to follow it with all diligence till we overtake it we are commanded to lose our right for the sake of peace to part with Coat or Cloak or any thing tolerable rather than it Peace levels the hills and raises the vallies and casts an healthful peaceable influence on all conditions and qualities of Men That as it was prophesied Isa 11.6 The Wolf may dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard lie down with the Kid. And if it be not so with Christians it is because they are so in word but not in heart have received the Gospel of peace in their Ears and heads perhaps but not in the love thereof For were they indeed the Sons of peace in whose hearts the peace of God takes place were they Members of that body of which Christ is the head then every Member of such a Kingdom or Church would keep its place with subordinate dependance the rich by supplying the poor the poor by blessing the rich the wise by teaching the ignorant the ignorant by hearkening to the wise every Man being as an Angel or ministring Spirit to another But the restless unpeaceable person counts it his honour to speak and do what he list To pursue his enemies till he take them and beat them as small as the dust before the wind to stand in the vally and touch the Mountains till they smoak reach at that which is above and pull it down divide that which is united shake that which is establisht violate that which should not be toucht and are ever moving and heaving upward to gain a name though it be by firing a Temple or setting a Kingdom or Church in combustion Thus are honours valued and sought among Men the Sons of Belial that would be yokeless Honourable Schismaticks descend from Jeroboam who made Israel to sin from Corah Dathan and Abiram who rose up against Moses and Aaron till they perished in their contradiction Honourable Hypocrites Pharisees and the Sons of Pharisees whose name and profession was to separate as more holy though the Baptist and Christ himself condemned them as more wicked Honourable Murtherers of their Father the Devil who was so from the beginning of sins entrance into the World ambitious covetous discontented revengful humorous unpeaceable persons and these would be accounted the Honourable grandees of the World but in the Court and Heraldry of Heaven we find no such Titles of Honour An Honour it is to be at peace and rest cease from strife Prov. 20.3 The peaceable Man he is the Honourable Man in Scripture and in Gods account By peaceableness and following peace Men procure to themselves a sure Title to everlasting peace and rest knowing that the merciful shall obtain mercy the peaceable peace and Rest at the last But there are amongst us unquiet restless persons who pretend to inspirations and boast themselves of the Spirit but we are exhorted by St. John 1 Ephes 4.1 Not to believe every Spirit but to try the Spirits whether they are of God or no because many false Prophets are gone out into the World And our Saviour's direction for the discovery of them we have Matt. 7.16 Ye shall know them by their fruits Our Saviours meaning could not be only nor chiefly the fruits of their lives in their outward conversation for falsehood is often set off by Hypocrisy and a shew of sanctity goes for great purity and pretences of Religion and Reformation serve to delude and mislead unstable Souls This is the Wool which the Wolf wraps about him when he means to do most mischief with least suspition The old Serpent is not so silly as to think that his Ministers whilst they are working the works of darkness should be able to draw a considerable party into their communion should they appear in their dismal colours therefore he puts them into a new dress before he send them abroad in the World transforming them as if they were the Ministers of light therefore our Saviour could not mean the fruits of their lives so much as the fruits of their Doctrine that is to say the necessary consequences of their Doctrines If what is spoken and Taught by them upon examination do plainly appear inconsistent with any one branch or duty of a Christian life the words we may be sure are not wholsom words It can be no Heavenly Doctrine that teacheth Men to be earthly sensual and devilish that tends to make Men unjust in their dealings uncharitable in their censures undutiful to their superiours It was not the purpose of God in publishing the Gospel and thereby freeing us from the rigor and curse of the Law so to turn us loose and lawless to do as when there was no King in Israel what seemed good in our own Eyes follow our own crooked will gratify any corrupt lust but to oblige us the faster by these new benefits and heavenly promises and to bind us to our good behaviour the more strictly allowing no liberty to the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof but to exact of us sincere sanctity and purity both of inward affection and outward conversation otherwise
in God and takes him for his Rest and exceeding great reward waiting on him as his all-sufficient shield with resignation for life or death Contented to live but willing to die and to be with Christ he is the only fixt Star in this lower firmament His feet stand fast be the pavement never so slippery In the term of Mans life there is a vicissitude of good and evil a mixture of labour and rest joy and sorrow there is a seed-time and an harvest a sowing in tears and reaping in joy He that now goeth on his way weeping and beareth forth good seed shall doubless come again with joy and bring his sheaves with him But we may not expect Summer in the Winter season an harbour in the main Ocean our portion before we are of Age a reaping in joy 'till we have sown in tears The Traveller cannot think to find home in his Inn nor Heaven upon Earth The Children of Israel had the Wilderness and the Red-Sea to pass through before they could arrive at the Land of Canaan the place of their Rest They were all labourers that were sent into the Vineyard and could not expect their Peny 'till the day and their work was done let us therefore pray the Lord of the Harvest that our Labour and Travel may happily be turned at last into ease and Rest that when the six days of our life are at an end we may cease from our works as God did from his and enjoy with him an everlasting Sabboth of eternal Rest And the rather is this Rest hereafter to be laboured for now because whilst we are here upon Earth we have nothing pure and unmixt our very joys are mingled with sorrow and Solomon tells us even in laughter the heart is sad Expences here wait upon honour care of Education goes along with the blessing of Children and our most comfortable hopes are mixt with perplexing fears But when we come to Rest in the holy City that City which is above we shall have a perpetual day without night light without the Sun Our hunger shall be satisfied without food No need of Clothing there to cover our shame for shame and sin shall cease together then all sad doubtings what shall be our condition and state hereafter shall vanish away and we shall agree together with one heart and mind to sing Halelujahs and perpetual Prayers to God in the highest There will be no dissenters there no seperatists to break or interrupt that harmonious everlasting concord What wise Man then will set his heart upon the World when all things in it are but for so short an abode so unstable and so unsatisfactory and not rather on that abiding City above where the joys and pleasures are durable and eternal Christians of all others ought to remember what St. Paul saith Heb. 13.14 Here we have no abiding City but we seek one to come Our very profession exposeth us to all affliction and obliges us to live as strangers and pilgrims upon Earth What is Canaan or Jerusalem below to that above whereof the other was but a Type Things that are seen and perceptible by any bodily Eye are temporal transitory subject to changes every day and sure to be abolisht at length they will be taken from us or we from them when death comes which may come every day and therefore not worthy to be looked upon by such an immortal Soul or Spirit as constitutes Man which being made for eternity cannot be satisfied with ought that is temporal how long soever it may abide much less when 't is sure to continue no longer as to us than this uncertain short life and therefore in respect of our own and the Worlds end we may be truly said to have no abiding City here and are therefore the more carefully to seek and expect our eternal Rest and habitation from above While the World continues and we in it we have no continuing City here because neither habitation nor goods health nor wealth honours nor pleasures or any contentment is or can he assured us for our lives How many Villages Towns and Cities have Fires and Earthquakes and Wars destroyed How many Kingdoms and Common-wealths have civil disorders and foreign invasions overthrown Or rather what one in any Nation have they not The Histories or Records of all Ages all places besides the infallible Oracles of God which we have in our hands will give us a full induction and proof of this truth This Island wherein we live hath given us not only many Historical but experimental sensible proofs that from the King to the meanest Subject we have no continuing City here nor setled Rest and true happiness But besides these publick revolutions vicissitudes and changes every Family every private Person lies continually exposed to casualities to variety of sickness invading their health variety of molestations from those above them from those below them from those about them and also from their own follies lusts and passions from within them in so much that whatsoever Men fix their hearts upon in this World to take their greatest contentment in they cannot be sure on reasonable grounds that it shall continue with them one year longer The felicity and satisfactory happiness of this City above in which this eternal Rest is to be found ought to be valued so much the more because St. Paul tells us 1 Cor. 2.9 That Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor hath entered into the heart of Man to conceive the fulness of those good things which God hath prepared for those that love him A grateful and pleasant taste of these good things God affords the Souls of the faithful here in this life how transcendently then unutterable and unconceivable will be the full fruition of all that which the Gospel reveals to us but as in a glass when enjoy'd to the height in the highest Heavens through all eternity when we shall see God as he is with everlasting overflowing satisfaction to all the faculties of the Soul The Eye of Mart hath seen here admirable things in Art and Nature the Ear hath heard and the Tongue hath tasted delicious things and Mans heart can conceive much more than Art or Nature could ever present our senses with The very pleasure of natural knowledge in the judgment of Persons exercised therein exceeds whatsoever sensuality vain glory or covetousness pursues or enjoys and yet the knowledge and love of God in Christ incomparably surpass St. Paul tells us whatsoever the heart of the natural Man advanced to the height can conceive as pleasant or delightful to it How much more doth this City to come and its endless unconceivable pleasures where this everlasting Rest is to be had exceed even our expressions and conceptions when they are at the highest If God hath provided such good things for Mankind here below in this World which was not made for the place of our happiness but only to give us a transitory glimpse of his
wickedness can blot it out it necessarily follows as necessarily and as surely as that the reason and conscience of Man was not made in vain nor given him to make him the most abused deluded miserable Creature in the World even in that which is the very dignity and excellency of his nature that there must be a life wherein these notions and apprehensions so natural and so general must be verified Thus far Reason by natural light may enable and hath in effect empowred many to believe that there is a resting place for the virtuous not to be found here but hereafter Commorandi locum natura nobis non habitandi domicillium dedit No abiding City here but one to come Heaven is the proper Country for Mans Soul which came from thence inspir'd by God Divina quaedam particula aurae and thither tends But because this light is obscure and imperfect compared with that of Revelation therefore the main irrefragable evidence both that there is another state to come and of its transcendent happiness blessed Rest and tranquility as to Soul and body is to be fetcht from the holy Oracles and there we have it indeed as fully and as cleerly revealed as this our Mortality is capable of proved by all the demonstrations of the Spirit which attentive reason can desire For there we have the Son of God descending from Heaven to take our Nature and in that nature to teach and exemplify the only way that leads thither and purchase our admission to it to this Crown of life to this resting place to this City to come by his death thereby procuring for us an inheritance incomparably more worthy than all our labours and sufferings here can come to This Rest is not allotted for sluggards drowsy slothful Persons who squander away their precious hours in earthly trifles and think not this glorious eternal City and Rest there which Christ hath bought with his own blood worth their seeking untill they have nothing else to seek Yea when this eternal Rest is offered them by Gods preventing grace have no heart to give him his price when the price is only to part with that which is vain and temporal for that which is satisfactory and eternal The way to this Rest saith our Lord is streight and narrow through temptations without and corruptions within and therefore cannot be found but by those that seek it with attentive heed God indeed seeks us first shews us this City where this happiness and Rest is to be found and the way to it invites and enables us to obtain it by walking in holiness and righteousness which qualify us for it Even the things of this transitory life here below its riches and honours such as they are are seldom attained but by diligent seeking and can we think this heavenly inheritance with all its joys and riches and honours should be attained without a constant studious diligence And the more we labour and suffer here the more sweet and pleasant will be our Rest when it comes Grata quies fessis Rest we know is welcome to the weary Traveller And now Courteous Reader I have by this time possibly wearied and tired thee out in a long and tedious walk but it was only the better to fit and prepare thee for an happy seasonable and lasting Rest that I have thus carried thee through a rough unbeaten path the path of Faith Hope and Charity Meekness Patience Temperance Humility Chastity and Obedience all which come but as so many faithful guides safely to conduct thee to the gates of Heaven and give thee even in this life by anticipation a tast of the joys of that other even of that place where Saints and Angels shall be thy Companions and where thou shalt see God Face to Face who is Wisdom Purity Holiness and all perfections I cannot leave thee better than where thou hast so near an approach to this glorious prospect of eternal Rest Only one thing I have at parting to remind thee of viz. Go ye cursed into everlasting fire or Come ye blessed inherit the Kingdom one of these two must be thy doom and the final sentence of all flesh Let it therefore be thy Wisdom as well as Duty to chuse that better part which can never be taken from thee to chuse God and eternal life before riches and honours and pleasures and all that this World can give And to prefer an eternal boundless good before uncertain transitory vanities sure to end in eternal sorrow that so thy toilsom weary Travel here may have its accomplishment in eternal Rest hereafter Amen Amen Amen FINIS Dr. Templer 1676.