viz. Those of Magistrates Ministers and People and shew how far each are more than others obliged and have more immediately set their Hand to the Plough 1. As to Magistrates A state of Government among Men is appointed by the Light of Nature as well as by the Law of God and since those that are Governours ought to be Copies and Patterns for the Governed therefore are Those more especially concern'd in directing others by wholesom Laws and just Sanctions whereby the Honour of God and the present and future Good of Mankind may be supported Magistrates are the Representatives of God and if they will not render themselves altogether unlike the Majesty of Heaven and unfit for and unworthy of the Character they bear they must more especially imitate God in bestowing Favours and Encouragements on the Vertuous and by inflicting Punishments on the Vicious 'T is their more immediate Duty to enact and execute such Laws as may be for the suppressing of Sin and encouraging Holiness And since the highest Magistrate in this our happy form of Government I mean our Sovereign on whose Head the Almighty pour down streams of Mercy is obliged by the solemnity of an Oath to administer Justice in Mercy unto all his People I hope all those that are delegated by him to be his Substitutes are and will be so conscientious in the performance of their Duty that That Justice which we owe to God in obeying his Laws as well as That which we owe to Men in preserving their Right may be truly and impartially executed according to St. Peter's Rule 1 Pet. 2.14 For the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well Since they cannot bear the Sword in vain but it must be drawn forth by them to establish Righteousness or else will be drawn forth on them to strike themselves into eternal Confusion And since God has called Magistrates to such an high degree of Honour that they are his Vice-gerents they therefore by virtue of the acceptation of their Office have put their Hands to this good Work being called to be nursing Fathers of the Church and they bear the Sword of God for this very purpose not to be a terror unto good Works but unto the Evil. And if Any should remain idle and negligent or take up this Office for any sinister Ends to serve themselves rather than the Publick to sit down in sloth rather than to cultivate the field of God's Church such Persons become guilty of a most wretched Sacrilege and have the greatest Cause to fear that their Swords which have not been imploy'd in the Cause of Vertue Justice and Piety shall be turn'd into Darts and level'd against themselves in the day of eternal Wrath and Vengeance All Magistrates therefore whose business it is to put in execution those excellent Laws which are enacted for the propagation of Godliness and correction of Sin Those on the account of their Honour and Office have put their Hands to the Plough of God 2. Another sort of Men who are more especially engag'd to this good Work are Ministers Those I mean who are called to preach the Gospel and to declare the glad tidings of Reconciliation between God and Men by the Man-Christ Jesus And We indeed of all Men are more immediately concern'd since our whole Life ought to be dedicated to this heavenly Work to labour for the Conversion and eternal Salvation of Mens Immortal Souls to shew them the danger and the fatal event of an ill-spent Life and a Conversation imploy'd in the works of Sin The Lord has shewn us our Dignity and Duty by the Prophet Ezekiel ch 33.7 O Son of Man I have set thee a Watchman unto the House of Israel therefore thou shalt hear the word at my Mouth and warn them from me And if we who are called to this Sacred Dignity of hearing the Word at the Mouth of God of having his Oracles committed unto us who are made Ambassadors of Jesus Christ to declare God reconciled to the World on the Terms of the Gospel If we fail of rebuking reproving and exhorting with all Gentleness Meekness and Love if we fall under the Character of idle Shepherds neglecting the Flock thro our want of Zeal in the Cause of Jesus Christ and by ceasing to declare the whole Counsels of God for Mens Salvation we shall find our Account so heavy at the great and general Audit of the World that no Doom will be equal to the Condemnation of such who have thus prevaricated and wretchedly slighted their Office and Business Ezek. 33.8 It 's the greatest Honour we are capable of in being brought nigh to God and intrusted with the Ministration of the Word of Life to be appointed principal Labourers in raising the glorious Building of the Church of Christ to be dignified with the Character of the Legats of Heaven sent in the blessed Errand of inviting Men to become reconciled to God And as the Reward of such shall be infinitely great who shall with Conscience and Zeal discharge this Duty they shall shine as the Stars in the Firmament for ever and ever So the Punishment also of those that neglect this Duty shall be inconceivably great the Blood of Souls shall be required at their hands and the Smoke of their Torments shall ascend up for ever and ever Ministers therefore are another sort of Persons who have peculiarly engag'd themselves to labour in God's Field to carry on the Design and Interest of Holiness who have put their hand to the Plough of God 3dly Not only Magistrates and Ministers but every Private Christian by the Ties of Humanity and the Obligations of Religion is bound to this Work For since the Cause of Religion is the common Cause of every Member of the Church of Christ Since we are obliged by our Baptismal Vow to fight against Sin the World and the Devil and are bound by virtue of our Allegiance to our Redeemer to endeavour to exalt his Kingdom and to increase the number of his Subjects Every Man therefore is concern'd for his Neighbour is obliged for his Brother to do what is possible to pluck him out of the Power of Satan and to bring him into a state of Mercy through obedience to Jesus Christ And since there 's a principle of Love and natural Compassion in all Mankind which is wonderfully improv'd and sanctified by Grace so that every one that comes to consider the worth of his own immortal Soul will have a concern of Charity for the Soul of another Therefore we ought to be and indeed we shall be if we are our selves regenerate solicitous for the Salvation of all Mankind and every Man will become a friendly Monitor unto his Neighbour and will come to him in Prudence in Kindness and Secrecy if he see him negligent in the important Concern of his eternal Welfare and will request him to beware of his heedless Condition that he 'd take some cognizance of
and put off the time And a 3d seeming willing to be his Disciple yet would excuse himself from the immediate attendance on his Service Lord I will follow thee but let me first bid them farewel which are at home To whom our Lord replies in the words of the Text No Man having put his hand to the Plough and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of God i.e. No Man having engag'd himself to my Service and after turning back to his secular Concerns with a regard had first to those is fit for the Kingdom of God The words are allegorical pressing a constancy to the Service of Christ from the diligence of him that tills the Ground As if our Lord had said He that holds the Plough must keep to his Business not look behind him or neglect his Work to trifle about other things that come into his head if he does he 's unfit for such an Imployment as requires a constant attendance on it So those that enter into my Service they must put on Resolution and not make vain and trifling Excuses to return back to the Affairs of the World but be constant and sedulous otherwise they are not qualified to be my Disciples and so by consequence are unfit for the Glories of my Kingdom which are only design'd as the blessed Rewards of the sincerely Faithful and constantly Laborious The Text appears to be a severe Reproof levell'd against the coldness and negligent carriage of too many who profess to be Disciples of Jesus Christ who having engag'd themselves by their Character and Vows by their Office and Order by their Profession and Pretensions to be his Followers to espouse the Cause of Religion and Piety and the Interest of Holiness and yet after all these solemn Declarations by a sad Tergiversation return to the World and the things thereof and to a remiss and loose state of Life And like Lot's Wife by Sodom tho they were once by themerciful hand of convincing Grace brought out of that supine and sinful Condition in which by Nature they lay after all those Enlightnings and Lectures of their own Consciences do return again like the Dog to his Vomit to their former Corruptions or at least with longing Desires and incurved Hearts look back to that state which will become a Prey to Fire and Brimstone In speaking therefore on this Subject I shall endeavour to do these following things I. To shew what it is to put our Hands to the Plough II. To shew what it is to look back III. To shew the Danger and sad Consequence of such a dreadful Retrospection after we have been engag'd in so good a Work which is That such Persons are not fit for the Kingdom of God I. For the first What it is to put our Hands to the Plough Since our Lord himself is pleas'd to make use of this so plain and homely a Metaphor I hope it cannot savour of Clownishness or Rusticity to follow his Example and since he applies it to those who make a Profession of being his Disciples and afterwards withdraw themselves from his Service I am sure it 's safe and easy too to follow such an Expositor The Plough we know is an Instrument of Husbandry and they that hold it render the Ground fit for Seed and this apply'd spiritually signifies all those that labour to make the World fit to bring forth fruits of Peace that strive to reform the deplorable state of Mankind and to render Mens Hearts capable to receive the Seed of the Word To put our hands to the Plough therefore is to declare against Sin and the Kingdom of Satan and to act against it in our Station It is to engage in the service of Jesus Christ to endeavour to render the Church fruitful of good Works 't is to commence an holy Warfare against the state of Darkness to suppress Vice and encourage Holiness and to do what in us lies to carry on the Cause and Interest of Religion 'T is with an holy Zeal and an undauntedness of Mind to make opposition against that torrent of Vice which is breaking in upon the face of the Church and not only to reform our selves and bring our own Lives into a conformity to the Divine Pleasure but also strenuously endeavour to reform others to break up that Soil which is crusted over with a Callus of Sin and to render it fit for the ingrafted Word of the Gospel to enter 'T is in a word publickly to espouse the Cause and Honour of Religion and to give a check to the growing Progress of the Synagogue of Satan And since the Church of God in holy Scripture is compar'd to a Field as our Lord himself delivers it in that Parable Mat. 13. of the Wheat and the Tares let us consider how much every particular Person is concern'd in the Tillage and Cultivation of it in order that a bountiful Crop of Righteousness may be brought forth to the Glory of God and the Salvation of those that labour in this holy Imployment 1st Every Man by Nature is a barren Ground in which only the Seeds of Sin spring up and fructify to the dishonour of God and destruction of himself And since by that infinite Love of God in giving Jesus Christ and contracting with us on conditions of Love he has render'd us capable of bringing forth Fruits meet for Repentance and reaping as the effect of such a gracious Harvest eternal Life And since on our entring into this contract of Peace I mean the Covenant of the Gospel we have sworn to our great Master to become his Subjects and Servants to labour in his Vineyard to be diligent in his Work the neglect and breach of which awful Vow will terminate in Destruction Every one therefore that is baptized into Christ and has put on Christ and has received the Seal of the Covenant of Grace confirm'd by our Redeemer between God and Us has put his Hand to the Plough He has vowed himself to be the obedient Servant of Jesus Christ and has declar'd himself an irreconcileable Enemy to all Ungodliness he has promis'd according to the Prophet Jer. 4.3 To break up the fallow Ground of his Heart and not to sow among Thorns and agreeable to Hosea 10.12 To sow to himself in Righteousness and thereby to reap Mercy to break up the fallow Ground since it's time to seek the Lord till he come and rain Righteousness upon him But 2dly Since we are not design'd by our great Creator for our selves alone but made for Society and therefore for the Good and Comfort of others And since in this regard there must be a discrimination of Persons in respect of Superiority and Inferiority it will be fit to consider how far we have put our Hand to this good Work in the behalf of others and who those are that are more particularly concern'd in it And in doing this I shall briefly consider the three great Divisions into which all Men are rank'd
nothing dear in comparison of the Love of their Master whom they serve and the Crown of Glory which is propos'd as their Eternal Reward For those that draw back at any little Difficulty and faint in the hour of Trial and time of Temptation that have not spiritual Strength nor Courage sufficient to buoy them up against some Shocks and Oppositions which they must expect to meet with here in the World Such Persons shall never at the great Day of Account be adjudged faithful or worthy of that incomprehensible Felicity which shall be the Portion of all those that are truly the Servants of Jesus Christ Religion carries with it such a Grace and Loveliness it appears even to the common Persons of the World with such a Majesty and Advantage that he must be strongly engaged in the Work of Sin and closely fetter'd even from his Infancy in the slavery of Satan that never had any Purpose or Resolve to be one of its followers And I am apt to believe that the far greatest number of Mankind have at some particular times in their wisest and most considerate hours being convinced of its Worth and Excellency made Resolutions to set about Godliness and to walk in the Paths of Vertue and Religion But when they have found it a Business of difficulty to quit their Sins to deny their Lusts and that the power of Holiness would abridg perhaps their Profit and worldly Advantage and deny them the Excursions of sensual Gratifications that the way of Piety would sometimes be attended with Taunts and Reproaches and the Thorns and Briars of Affronts and Indignities Then like those whom our Saviour describes by receiving Seed on stony Ground They are presently offended their Warmth decays their Zeal grows cold and they falter and stumble and at last desist from their good Resolutions And tho they have often on a new fit of Zeal springing from a restored sense of the Excellency Benefit and absolute Necessity of a holy Life renewed their Attempts to proceed in Piety Yet Satan and the World returning again with strong Allurements to the ways of Sin All their good Purposes like an evening Cloud have vanished away and they have easily return'd to their former Follies put on their old Fetters and been bassled and beat off from all their Religious Undertakings Like the Children of Israel when deliver'd out of Egypt and pursuing their Journey to the promised Land yet by and by their Appetite tho they fed upon Angels Food gave them an hankering for Melons and Cucumbers and Garlick and Onions and this tho an Argument of prodigious Folly yet made them in their hearts return back to the House of Bondage So These not being constant in heavenly Resolutions have look'd back with eyes of Affection on the Pleasures of Sin and the Delights of the World and could not keep up to the just tenour of their own good Purposes But yet notwithstanding being still perhaps under the sense of Conviction and the strugglings of Conscience in order therefore to silence That and to rebate its edg they have at last fall'n on the same Project with those Strangers planted by Shalmaneser the King of Assyria in the Cities of Israel who when Lions were sent among them because they feared not the Lord 2 King 17.13 in order to remove the Plague and yet not wholly quit their Idolatry they made a mixture of Religion and serv'd God and their Idols And so the Persons which fall under the Character which I have been now describing will endeavour to reconcile their temporal and spiritual Interest and carry on both mix the Concerns of Time and Eternity and be moderately religious and moderately wicked And reply to the inward Arguings and Reproofs of their own Mind when that checks them for the decays of their former Zeal and their state of Lukewarmness and declining their first Love Why should I attempt a Degree of Holiness above others by appearing in a singular Zeal in the Cause of Religion And not only concern my self for my own Salvation but also for the Salvation of the Souls of my Neighbours as if I were made my Brother's Keeper And perhaps after all my Zeal may be no better than folly in procuring the Frowns of Superiors the Loss of a Customer the Coldness of a Friend the Shyness of an Acquaintance because I am now still on the Rebuke and pressing the Duties of a rigid Piety on all occasions And it may savour of Presumption too and a sond conceit of my own Abilities to attempt the Reformation of the Age and to amend the World My Zeal may be too hot as well as too cold and Moderation and Self-preservation too is good in all things And therefore since Piety ought to be mix'd with Prudence let me not exceed the Rules of Discretion Such Returns as these to the Calls of Conscience are very apt to stifie it when the Will and Affections remain unsanctified or in a meer moral State And Men may please themselves that all shall do well and that Heaven and Eternity may still be gain'd and Salvation secur'd without so much ado as some Persons make and that they themselves have been more warm than wise in the Business of Religion And worldly Interest and mundane Designs and sinful Pleasures egging on such thoughts and urging such false and sinful Arguments it becomes a snare and a stumbling-block to multitudes who still may think their eternal Welfare secure enough under the decays and apparent wanings of their former Zeal and Holiness But that such Persons as these are in a dangerous state and altogether unfit for the Service of Jesus Christ and the Glory of his Kingdom and to have their Names inserted in the Book of Life our Lord informs us here in this Chapter by the observation which he himself made on the comportment of some who pretended a great desire to be his Disciples In the 57th Verse of this Chapter we read that a certain Person appli'd himself unto our Lord with very great seeming Zeal and Affection to his Service Lord I will follow thee whither soever thou goest But on our Lord's telling him that if he would engage in that Undertaking he must not expect any secular advantage but rather the contrary in regard that tho the Foxes had Holes Dens wherein to lodg and the Birds of the Air bad Nests places to retreat to to roost in all the night Yet he tho Lord of all things here in the World had no where to lay his Head no House no Bed no place of his own to receive him and therefore none were to expect the Advantages of this World by an entrance into his Service on which we read no farther and hear no more of this great Pretender And calling to another v. 59. to come and follow him he desires first that he might have leisure to bury his Father He did not absolutely refuse to obey our Lord's Command but he was willing to procrastinate
the way in which he is walking whither it tends and where 't will end that he 'd not rush into the Gulph of everlasting Destruction thro' folly and incogitancy but consider the Weight of Eternity the Worth of his Soul and the Love of God and the Value of Heaven and the dreadful State of Eternal Vengeance and that he 'd labour earnestly to obtain the one and avoid the other And this is a Duty which we owe to Mankind both as we are of the same Nature and as we are commanded by the Divine Word Lev. 19.17 Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour and not suffer Sin upon him And so St. Paul Heb. 3.13 Exhort one another daily while it is called To day And in another place let us provoke one another to Love and to good Works And farther We are not only to Perswade our Neighbours and to use all the Methods of Love and Kindness to engage them to their Duty but also since some are so abominably vicious that nothing but the terror and punishment of the Magistrate can restrain them from the open violation of the Law of God therefore it 's the Duty of every Man to detect Such unto the Magistrate that where the Force of Perswasion cannot prevail there the Power of the Sword may restrain And that 't is our Duty thus to discover all such Persons who are the Open and Notorious Opposers of Piety and endeavour to bring upon them legal Inflictions not only appears from the nature of the thing but also from a consideration of that general Duty which lies upon us to labour for the support of the Kingdom of Christ and the suppression and destruction of the Power of Satan And since there are Many so deplorably wicked that the whole Bent and Stream of their Conversation is scandalous and vicious offensive to God destructive to Themselves and pernicious to Others Therefore every Man is bound in Conscience to God and in Honour to Vertue to make such Persons publick Examples by labouring to inflict those Penalties upon them which our good and wholsom Laws have determined 'T is our great happiness that we live under a Government where Iniquity is so far from being established by a Law or so much as left Neutral that 't is not only forbidden but also punished But our Laws are nothing but dead Letters and Justice holds but a wooden Sword without execution for 't is that which is the Life of the Law it self and the Honour of that People which enjoy such wholesom Constitutions And since Magistrates to whom the execution of our Laws are committed cannot do it without information of the Persons and Crimes of Offenders therefore 't is every Man's Duty as he tenders the Honour of God and the Glory of the Gospel the Increase of the Church and the Good of the Weal-Publick and as He would not be a partaker of other Mens Sins in hiding and concealing them to detect such as openly and commonly affront the Majesty of God and the Authority of Man by notorious Vices and those scandalous Impieties which make us stink in the Nostrils of the Almighty and bring down his Plagues and Judgments upon us But this Point having been formerly so well prov'd in this place and on this occasion in former Discourses I shall therefore proceed towards a conclusion of the first head of the Text That Magistrates by their Power Ministers by their Office and every Christian by his Character as such has put his Hand to the Plough of God has given in his Name as a Labourer in the Field of the Church of Christ in order to root out the Weeds of Impiety and to sow and cherish the good Seed of Grace that we may all grow up to Eternal Life But besides all this more particularly God has stirr'd up the Hearts of Some in and about this Great City whose Numbers God of his Mercy increase and whose Zeal God of his Goodness augment who have united themselves in Religious Fraternities for the more effectual carrying on of This Glorious and never to be enough commended Work of giving a check to Vice and reforming if possible the corrupt and depraved Manners of the unhappy Age in which we live And You who are enter'd into this Noble Design whose Hearts God has more especially touch'd with a sense of your Duty You have in a more than ordinary manner put your hand to the Plough And to encourage you in it I shall truly affirm that this Work and the Undertakers of it are the great springing Glory of our Church and a comfortable Testimony that God has not utterly left us off to Judgment This is a Design worthy of Men as we are the Image of God and worthy of Christians as we are the Disciples of Jesus Christ 'T is the Cause of God that you have undertaken in opposition to the Devil and the Cause of Vertue in opposition to Vice and of Religion in opposition to Atheism 'T is an Enterprize that is every way praise-worthy and I may speak it with a sufficient degree of Reverence 'T is worthy of God to own and Men to prosecute and I hope it 's carried on by Means that are agreeable unto the noble End which it designs And certainly no Man can oppose it or become an Enemy unto it that does not first by his own Life render himself obnoxious to it But now my Brethren if after you have thus begun in a Divine Work and have increas'd your Numbers and diffus'd your Design throughout the Parts of this mighty City and you have seen many good Fruits of these your Endeavours In cleansing many Augean Stables of Lust and Filthiness In making many who made no conscience of profaning the Name of God to set a bar before their Lips In repressing the Disorders which are too frequently committed on the Lord's Day And in charity one may hope of bringing several to a sense of their Sin and to a sincere Repentance and to bless the Almighty for this your Undertaking Now if after all this Satan should become so mischievously successful as to stifle your Zeal and to baffle you in your Work by the little Mocks Scoffs and Taunts of those that are his Agents If you faint at the opposition that you must expect to meet with from the Frowns of Some and the Threats of Others If this beat you out of the Field into which you have entred in order to work It would not only be a sad Omen of your own Spiritual Decay but be also a great Discouragement unto Others and would give the greatest blow unto the Cause of Religion by adding the Trophies and Ensigns of Success to the black Triumphs of the Prince of Darkness But this I shall farther insist on in the next part of the Text which is II. To shew what 't is to look back As the putting our Hand to the Plough intends the ingaging our selves in the Cause and Interest of Holiness and