2. The vanity of the itch of humane scribling and wearisomness of reading such writing such as are the Popes Canons and Decretals and other Popish Trumpery as likewise idle vitious and corrupting Plays and Romances which makes men neglect at least if not nauseate divine truths Of Carolostadius it is reported by Luther that he was eight years Dr. in Divinity before he had read One Word in the Scripture Mens Col. So that the most of Students among the Papists were well by one compared to a man knawing of a Flint when he had good bread by him which he neglected to make use of Solomon having thus laid down the excellency of God's and vanity of man's writings He now comes in the close of this book the words of my Text to lay down The Sum End Conclusion the Recapitulation the Epitome Compendium and Abridgment of what ever was written by God in this or other books of Scripture or was read or heard by man The scope at which all tended too Fear God and keep his Commandements All the lines that may be drawn from the whole circumference of divine truths written and revealed in this and all other books of Scripture which holy men of God which were moved by the Holy Ghost did or had or should write did all meet in this Center Fear God and keep his Commandements You may not expect then Right Worshipfull and Beloved a full and compleat handling of them on which a Minister might with great ease and more profit preach his whole life time than that German Professor of Divinity did who was Twenty-five Years Reading in his Publique Lectures on the First of Isaiah and had not finisht it There being nothing in the whole compass of Divinity but what may be reduced to the Fear of God and keeping His Commandements The one as the Root the other as the Fruit The one as the Fountain the other as the Streams of our practical complyance with Gods will it being as our Translators supply it the whole duty of man Which Translation the best of all Translations was by the incomparable Piety of King James and the indefatigable pains and accurate care of the most Learned Bishops Doctors and Divines of that age most happily performed and may not without great presumption be slightly spoken off Or as the Spanish toda eccellentia Or as Piscator Hoc est omnium Hominum this belongs to all men Many directions in Scripture are bounded and limited by several circumstances to particular persons but this concerns all and therefore to be regarded by all as that which is the alone Cynosure to guide us through the waves of a tempestuous Sea of troubles dangers labyrinths in this world unto the Port and Haven of heavenly happiness Text Let us hear the Conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandement for this is the whole duty of man As the skilfull and provident husbandman first rids his ground of Thorns and then sowes his Seed So doth Solomon in this book of which the words read are the Compendium labour to remove from the hearts of men the love and study and endeavour after vanity by which the minds of all by nature are preoccupied and forestalled especially by this mistaken apprehension that they may at the same time embrace the Study of Earthly Vanity and Heavenly Piety There are none that do not by natural instinct desire the avoiding of eternal pains and the enjoyment of everlasting happiness It being the property of natural affection to desire its own preservation And by the same natural instinct are men carried after the pursuit of worldly things vanities indeed though the only substantial realities in their conceit Prov. 10.15 The Rich mans wealth is his strong Tower in his own conceit Some hasten after Pleasures others after Riches a third after Honour and so far the Doctrine Profession and external Practise of Piety shall be complyed with as they cross not those Appetites and much may be and is often done according to Gospel prescriptions as was by Herod who reverenced John Baptist heard him gladly and did many things Yea many times some will suffer much so they may enjoy their carnal desires But alas These foolishly perswade themselves to joyn those things together that are inconsistent Sooner will Heaven mingle with Earth the Fire with Water coalesce and remain at peace together than the study and love of Piety with the study and love of Earthly Vanity True it is that men may and do by their eager prosecution of earthly vanity deprive themselves of the happiness both of this and the future life But to enjoy both together let them use what diligence and skill they can they shall never attain it For no man can serve two so contrary Masters No man can serve God and Mammon Phil. 3.19 1 Joh. 2.14 No man can serve God and his Belly No man can love God and the World For God is a jealous God and will admit no rival He is as the true Mother who will have all or nothing Solomon then having in all the fore-going part of this book endeavoured to perswade men from the love and study of earthly vanities In these two last verses he shews us the sum and end of the whole of all our learning and hearing the right method and course of happiness both here and hereafter In which words we have to consider 1. The direction laid down Fear God and keep his Commandements 2. This direction prest by three arguments 1. It 's the conclusion of the whole matter 2. It 's the whole of man 3. God will bring all to judgment I shall speak to all these particulars first by way of Doctrine and then by way of Application 1. The direction laid down Fear God and keep his Commandements This compendious sum of Gods Counsel discovers Gods admirable Wisdom in revealing his mind so fully and yet so succinctly in reference to our duty and way to happiness It was the wonderfull wisdom of God to comprehend in the Decalogue all that is to be done by us in relation to God and our selves and our Neighbours More wonderfull in his contracting these ten words into two Love to God and Love to our Neighbour neither is it less wonderfull when the Gospel is sum'd up in this short expression Repent For the Kingdom of God is at hand Now the use that we are to make of this short sum is this That as Travailers have an eye to their Geographical Charts which they carry about with them unto which they often look to direct them in their way so ought Christians often to mind this Sum and Compendium of their duty unto which they must have respect to guide them in their way to the Heavenly Kingdom and which as another Jethro might direct them through the Wilderness of this World to their Heavenly Canaan Such an other Compendium of our duty we have in the description of Job He feared
Saviour himself prescribed concern all Christians in all Countries And therefore the circumstances of the Christian Divine Worship could not be prescribed in general but were of necessity to be left to the appointment of the Apostles and their Successors in all ages And this is agreeable to the Scriptures and the Doctrine of the Church of England Established by Law Concerning which were men rightly Principled there would not be so much Clamour against the innocent Ceremonies Established by authority and to be observed for Conscience sake in Obedience to the Magistrate who as he is Gods hand to weild his Sword so is he his mouth in such cases of indifferent circumstances to declare his mind But what St. Austin writes concerning Faustus is true of the generality of Dissenters from the Church of England Vel non intelligendo reprehendit vel reprehendendo non intelligit Sententiam Ecclesiae non intelligit sed amat suam non quia vera est sed quia sua est That is either not understanding he reprehends or reprehending doth not understand He doth not understand what the Sentiments of the Church are but loves his own not because they are true but because his own So hard is the lot of the Church of England that by the Romish Synagogue it is condemned for having so few and by Dissenters cryed out on for having so many VVhereas in the eyes of sober men it is valued according to its excellent temper not exceeding to a burdensome oppression nor defective in due comeliness by a slovenly rudeness And no wonder since a decent and necessary subordination of inferiours to superiours as in a well Disciplined Army keeps all in a due correspondency of subjection and Government and renders Our Church Glorious as an Army with Banners Not as the Congregations of Dissenters who are like Pliny his Acephali all body and no head Or As the Popish Parasites have rendered their Synagogue like the Toadstool all head and no body VVhilst they ridiculously affirm Papa virtualiter est Tota Ecclesia VVell then It is not some but all Gods Commandements thus made known Those which are necessary and moral by the Law Engraven in the heart and written in the Scriptures Those which are circumstantial and in themselves indifferent till determined by the mouth of God's Deputies All these the fear of God will direct and encline to and enable for Psal 119.6 Then shall I be upright when I have respect to all thy Commandements Natura facit unum ad unum But Grace makes us as a Delphick Sword prepared for every good work 2 Tim. 2 21. Nature will permit the complyance with Gods will and the doing and it may be suffering many things till it crosseth our own wills and so long we may seem to yield a ready obedience as Herod did who did many things and heard John gladly while VVind and Tyde go all one way we sayl readily in our begun voyage which standing contrary we think best to take harbour or return whence we came So when Gods Love and the VVorlds Lust appear in contrary quarters we shall soon see whom we shall follow VVhat we take up as a cloak in a storm for a shelter or a disguise as a Covert to hide in time of Danger will be laid aside when the storm is past and the danger over But that respect to Gods command which flowes from a true fear of him will continue and not be as an upper and loose Garment which we put on when we go abroad in the sight and company of others but hang upon a pin when we come into our own houses But as our shifts to lye down in yea as our skin never to put off Thus must we keep Gods Commands all of them and always and as and because they are Gods Commands out of a pure Conscience and not out of self respect Jehu slew Ahab and Baals Priests not out of respect to Gods command but out of design in so doing to establish his own Throne For he still kept up the Golden Calves and their Idolatrous worship to Gods dishonour and a clear evidence of his own hypocrisie Men are very apt to have more tender resentments of things as they check and clash with their proper interest than that they are â—ontrary to Gods command As that Father gravely told that Arrian Emperour who reproved him for shewing to his Son no more Reverence That he had more respect to his Sons honour then to the honour of the Son of God whom he suffered to be dishonoured by Hereticks Thus Demetrius left all the other Idols which to him were Gods Act. 19.24 25. to shift for themselves but Diana which brought great gain merited the engagement of all their powers in defence of her Not for her self but the gain they had by her So the Pope in his Taxa Camerae Apostolicae rates the absolution for falsifying his Apostolical Letters at Nineteen groats when incest with ones own Mother is taxed but at five groats only But the true Christian acted by Gods fear keeps Gods Commandements all of them and as his commands without any sinister aims or self respect They follow not Christ for the loaves but for himself They comply with all Gods Commands not because thereby they themselves shall be benefited but God honoured And this is that which is acceptable to God and profitable to man Which Solomon presseth in this Text by three powerfull arguments and motions 1. It is the conclusion of the whole matter Summa rei omnis auditae 2. It is the whole of man Totus homo Totum hominis His duty and dignity 3. God will call all to an account For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil 1. It 's the Conclusion of the whole matter We should fear God and keep his Commandements for it is the conclusion of the whole matter So our Translation La summe le fin de tout le propos La but a que tend ce que te enseigne en ce lesure So the French Translation In the Original the word rendered Conclusion End Scope Sum and But the word thus variously rendered and all agreing to the mind of the Holy Ghost I say the Hebrew word hath the first Letter in it bigger than the rest to stir up our greater attention to what follows And indeed it is worthy our chiefest regard as containing in it the sum of all Divinity as to our practise Whatsoever was written from the beginning of this book of Scripture yea of all the Holy Scriptures tends to this purpose All other books were written to mind the books of Conscience And so are as goads to stir up and nails to fasten us in the practise of this direction The sum of all Teachers the end of all Learning Solomon having through this whole book discoursed the vanity and vexation of the creatures enjoyments and from his own
not take the person of a Friend but be as Levi that knew neither Father nor Mother We usually paint Justice with a Ballance in one hand and a Sword in the other to weigh and execute If Justice in passing and care in executing the Sentence passed be wanting Knowledge and Power will be to no purpose But God will do what is just Job 8.3 and will not pervert Justiee With him a pure heart is better than a smooth word and a good Conscience than a good Purse 2. The certainty of it as to the thing the uncertainty as to the time He will he shall To lay down arguments in this Auditory to prove what we profess an Article of our Faith would be very impertinent The Scripture positively asserts it and all Gods Attributes undeniably evince it As his 1. Power God will have it so for the manifestation of his infinite Power 2 Cor. 5.10 He will bring all to Judgment We must all appear And that is a work of Almightyness to raise and revive the dead But there is nothing impossible to an Omnipotent Arm. 2. Wisdom It 's a poynt of Wisdom to bring a thing to its appoinâ—ed end Now the end that God made man for was not to live in this World for ever but to serve him here and afterwards enjoy him to all Eternity which cannot be done without a judgment first determining of us 3. Truth He hath spoken and cannot but fulfill it he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the World Act. 17.31 Men may break their words God will not He knows his appointed day and will keep it His Justice and Mercy doth enforce it It is the property of Justice to recompense to every man his own Mercy to whom Mercy Psal 101.1 and Judgment to whom Judgment appertaineth Now here in this World we see it not done The wicked many times flourish when the righteous suffer Naboth is stoned Joseph is in Prison If the World should always last where were Gods Justice and Mercy and therefore for the manifestation of these there must be a day of Retribution Dives must have his evil things Lazarus must have his good which here they have not All Gods attributes require that God should bring every thing and every man to judgment as most certainly he will and therefore we should as St. Hierome tells us he did what ever he was a doing remember and imagine that he heard that voice Arise ye dead and come to Judgment Math. 24.31 3. The Generality and Exactness of it VVe must all we must every one for every thing There is no answering as in Humane Courts by a Proxy God doth not deal in a lump by passing sentence on all men and all things together Condemn all or Acquit all No but he makes a Separation and distinguisheth between good and bad Here indeed Solomon tells us they fare all alike but hereafter there will be a distinction made and manifested Math. 25.32 Now Goats and Sheep feed and sold together then will be seperated Tares must be let alone and grow with the Corn till the day of Harvest but at last their will be a separation Chaff and VVheat lye in the same floor till the fan cometh Here men as Travaillers in a journey pass together lodge together but in the Morning part â—ood and bad are here mingled together But then it will be known which were Jacob's which were Labans Flock Masks and Vizards and Paint will be then stripped of then all shall appear as they are 4. The Righteous proceeding He will bring to judgment God will not sentence first and judge afterwards but first weigh judge and then sentence Neither will he sentence ex proprio motu by his own will and pleasure but according unto evidence and good proof For the Books shall be opened and by them shall men be tryed Rev. 20.12 Now there are three Books by and out of and according to which the judgment shall be 1. Rom. 2.14 Of Nature By this the Gentiles shall be tryed 2. Of the Scriptures by this those that lived in the Church shall be tryed The Books of the 1. Law who lived under the Law shall be judged by the Law 2. Gospel So St Paul tells the Christians God should judge the secrets of all hearts by the Gospel he preacht 3. Conscience So both shall be judged by the Books of their own Conscience for what they have Transgressed against the Books of Nature or Scriptures which will then witness what is now recorded in them Conscience may be now as a book clapsed which men do not read in Gen. 44. and so not mind their sins as Joseph's Brethren did not theirs till in their distress and then will they not they must read all And Lastly 5. The Sentence will be past distinctly As on all good and bad So whether it be good or whether it be bad God will not involve all promiscuously for that is far from him who is the great Judge of all the Earth and therefore he will do right Gen. 18.23 and not make the Righteous as the VVicked as Abraham in his Prayer pleads with God But God will then say 1. Come ye Blessed to his Sheep that hear his Voice Fear him and keep his Commandements 2. Go ye Cursed to the Goats who have said depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy Law And thus Honourable Right VVorshipfull VVorshipfull and Beloved I have laid before you with what brevity I could what the Doctrinal part of these words acquaint us with and have put Oyl in your Lamps by Doctrinal Instruction what now remains but that I put Fire to it by some practical APPLICATION VVhich shall be only in a word of Exhortation Humbly to beseech you as your Orator and earnestly to require you as Gods Embassador to see to it that whatever you do in all your Transactions whether publique or private in your politique and personal capacities as Magistrates Ministers Christians I say that whatever you do you be carefull that for all your Thoughts VVords and VVorks there may be nothing which may not Comply with Gods fear Correspond with Gods Command Comport with man's dignity duty and happiness Stand approved through Gods mercy and gracious acceptation in Gods judgment Certainly these reflections would have powerfull influence on us to regulate all our carriage Seneca gave his Friend Lucilius this Counsel that what ever he was doing He should imagine some of the Roman â—orthies did behold him and then he would do nothing dishonourable So let us say with Hagar Thou Lord seest me and with David I have set the Lord alwayes before me Of whom it is most true what the Poets feign of Minerva's Picture that it was drawn with that Art that look what way so ever a man turned himself her eyes were still upon him For he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all eyeâ— vvho seeth and vveigheth and tryeth and