the will of God 2. The second follows and 't is this That it is not enough to doe the will of God Opere operato but they must doe it as it should be done or els it will never reach to the Satis est in the Text Now this Satis est hath respect to two things in doing the will of God First The manner of doing it Secondly The extent of it The first requires that it be done well The second that it be done home they both are included in the Word Zealous I have been Zealous for the Lord God of Hosts Zeale is a vehement affection composed of Love and Anger and Actions flowing from these two are ever done in earnest they are done home and throughly and so ought we to doe all things that we doe for God The Opus operatum the work done will not serve the turne but it must be rightly qualified in all the circumstances of it and done in a right manner If we love the Lord our God we must love him with all our heart with all our soule with all our mind and with all our strength If we serve him we must serve him with reverence and godly seare If we worship him we must worship him in Spirit and in Truth Luther said well That God loves Advers rather then Verbs the manner of doing more then the work done the will more then the deed the mind more then the matter we must not serve God negligently nor we must not serve him by halves either of these make our obedience fall short of Elijah's Satis est in the Text To say we beleeve in God we love God and we feare God and not to obey him to shew our faith by our works and our fear by our worship Non satis est it is not enough but to our faith to joyne our obedience and to our fear to joyne our worship and to our love our care to keep his Commandements Satis est it is enough To profess that we know God to confess his Name to draw neer unto him with our lips and in all outward deportment to have a forme of godliness Non satis est it is not enough but to know God in Christ reconciling the world unto himselfe to draw neer unto him with our hearts and dearest affections and with the forme of godliness to shew forth the power of it Satis est it is enough To cry Lord Lord as in the Gospel and Templum Domini Templum Domini The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord as the Jews did in Jeremy Non satis est it is not enough but to doe the will of our Father which is in Heaven and in his Temple to speak of his Honour and to worship him aright Satis est it is enough To make our boast of God and of his Law to heare every day a Sermon to know the Mistery of the Gospel to have a mouth full of Scripture ready at all times to throw at an adversary in dispute or discourse Non satis est it is not enough but to know the truth as it is in Jesus to receive the truth with the love of the truth to answer the end of the Evangelicall Law which is Love out of a pure heart a good Conscience and Faith unfeigned Satis est it is enough To bring multitudes of sacrifices and oblations unto the Lord to stretch out our hands before him and to make many Prayers Non satis est it is not enough but to wash us to make us cleane to take away the evill of our works from before his eyes to cease to doe evill and learne to doe well Satis est it is enough To come before the Lord with thousands of Rams and ten thousand Rivers of Oyle to give the fruit of my body for the sin of my soule Micha 6.6.7 Non satis est it is not enough but to doe Judgement to love Mercy and to walk humbly before the Lord Satis est it is enough To conclude this point to be admitted into the visible Church to be matriculated into it by Baptisme to live in a professed subjection to the Gospel of Christ to come to Church to heare Sermons to sit out the Service and at the appointed times to receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper though this be more then we can gaine of many among you Non satis est it is not enough but to make it our care all the dayes of our life to make good the Covenant which we made in our Baptisme to become Members of the invisible Church incorporated into it and united unto it by the bonds of faith and of the spirit to express the power of the Word Sacraments and Spirit working by them in a constant holy walking before the Lord as becomes the Members of that holy Society Satis est it is enough And so we have made good the second Inference drawn out of Elijah's third Satis est in reference to what he had done Satis Feci I have done enough But stay a little before we take our leave of this Satis est it is necessary we should answer an Objection that lyes in our way and must be removed before we can proceed any further Obj. Quid audio What is that I heare Satis feci I have done enough Who can say so be he a Prophet be he an Apostle an Evangelist be he the holiest of Saints that ever lived can he say of himselfe Satis feci I have done enough Is there a Satis in our obedience unto which we may arrive and then say It is enough Our Saviour tells us That when we have done all that we can we are unprofitable servants How then can any say It is enough or I have done enough Sol. To this I answer by a double distinction First thus There is a Satis ad Justificationem and there is a Satis ad Testificationem there is a Satis as to Justification and there is a Satis as to Testification As to the former there is no man can say He hath done enough Enter not into judgement with thy servant O Lord for in thy sight shall no man living be justified Psal 143.2 But as to the later there is a Satis ad testificationem to testification that is To testifie the truth of our faith the sincerity of our obedience and the uprightness of our hearts in the Service of God When Abraham was so ready upon Gods command to offer up his Sonne Isaac in sacrifice to him as to bring him to Mount Moriah there to build an Altar to lay the Wood in order upon it and binde his Sonne to the Wood to take the Knife in his hand and to stretch forth his hand to Slay him God staies his hand bids him hold his hand proceed no further Satis est It is enough for now I know that thou lovest me seeing thou hast not refused to offer up thine onely Sonne in sacrifice to me at my
they lived and they that did not so they were reproach't as In utile pondus terrae an unprofitable burden to the Earth Fruges consumere nati as if they were borne onely to devoure the good things of the Earth He was an honest Moralist that spake it Mortem non timore quia ita vixi ut frustra me natum non existimem I am not afraid to dye because I have so lived as that no man may think that I was born in vaine a testimony that may shame many Christians that so live and dye as if they were born in vain improfitable burdens to the Earth Terrible is the doome of the unprofitable servant in the Gospel Take the unprofitable servant binde him hand and foot and cast him into utter darkness He doth not charge him as being an hurtfull servant but as an unprofitable servant not with wasting his Talent but with not improving it Beloved God looks we should be profitable servants that we should bring glory to his name honour to the Gospel and that we should doe good in our Generation that the world should be the better for our comming into it not the worse Can any man imagine or can it stand with reason to think That the most holy God and wise Creator of all things should Create such a Creature as Man is for nought and not look for service from him and glory out of him Why there is no Creature that he hath made though never so mean and despicable but he looks for glory by it and service out of it in it's kind Natura nihil facit frustra The God of Nature hath made nothing in vain And shall Man the most excellent piece of the Creation next unto the Angels be unserviceable and bring in nothing to the glory of the Creator Man endued with such rare gifts and abilities to doe good withall both to himself and others Did the Creator endue him with such rare excellencies above the rest of the Creatures such as Understanding Will Memory Affections Reason Judgement Knowledge Conscience for nought No surely To whom much is given of him much will be required great receipts will make men liable to great accounts A time will come when they shall give an account both of their Time and of their Talents how they have used and improved them what good they have done with them Beloved That man shall never dye comfortably which hath not in his life time in some sort answered the end of his Creation The end of his Creation is to glorifie God to doe good to men in his Generation and to further the salvation of his own soule Blessed is that servant whom when his Master cometh he shall finde so doing Vses 1. It reproves all carnall careless and secure Christians if I may call them such and not rather Epicure or Atheist that make no Conscience at all of doing good sure they think salvation will come of course and God will drop down happiness into their laps while they sit still and never look after it What shall we eat or what shall we drink or where withall shall we be cloathed are the things that take up their care and thoughts but the Vnum necessarium that one thing that is necessary wholly layd aside Surely a great part of the world are very Atheists they either think there 's no heaven at all or they are much mistaken in the way to it and the means of attaining it We must work walk runne fight the good fight of Faith Strive to enter in at the streight gate through many tribulations many sufferings many cumbatings there are corruptions to be mortified Lusts to be crucified Temptations to be resisted afflictions to be suffered spirituall wickednesses to be wrastled withall Qui cupit optatam cursu contingere metam multa tulit fuitq pius sudovit alsit Christianity is no idle Calling it will take up the whole man and the whole time it will keep us doing in the practise of all Christian duties and the exercise of all Christian graces 2. This reproves the Scâ—pticks and â—nosticks of these times whose Religion lyes all in their Braine and in their Tongue the Practique part of Christianity they lay by and place it all in Theory and speculation they have found out a neerer way to Heaven then ever our Fathers knew an easier and a cheaper they can talk themsâ—lves thither and dispute themselves thither and all this while sit still and neither work nor walk for it at all the good works which Christianity calls for they pay with good words their devotion is turn'd into disputing their faith into faction and their charity into contention the mayne of Religion they place in hearing of Sermons Pliny writes of a certain Serpent Aure concepit Ore parit That it conceives in the Eare and brings forth at the Mouth as fit an Embleme for such professors as can be They conceive by the Eare in an insatiable desire of Hearing and bring forth at the Mouth by endless disputing and discoursing But as to the Hand by working or the Foot by walking their Religion reacheth not without which all the rest is but vain as St. James tells us Therefore Set me as a Seale upon thine heart and as a Bracelet upon thine Arme saith the Church to Christ Cant. 8.6 Upon which St. Bernard thus Glosseth In corde sunt cogitationes in brachiis sunt operationes ergo super cor super brachium The heart is the seat of affections the Arme the Instrument of actions Set me therefore as a Seale upon thy heart and as a bracelet upon thine arme that with the one I may ever affect and with the other effect the things that please thee Beloved Not onely the Law but the Gospel every where calls for good works at our hands Be zealous of good works Titus 2.14 Fruitfull in good works Col. 1.10 And let ours also learn to shew forth good works What though they be not Causa Regnandi The cause why we shall reigne yet they are Via Regni The way to the Kingdome and the way which God hath appointed we should walk in thither What though they doe not justifie nor merit yet they are profitable for necessary uses By them is our Heavenly Father glorified the Gospel of Jesus Christ honoured and adored they are evidences of the soundness of our Faith the sincerity of our profession they bring comfort to the Conscience here and there is a certain reward for them in Heaven though not Propter opera yet Secundum opera according to our works to be given unto us Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord even so saith the spirit for they rest from their labours and their works follow them And happy is he which hath store of them in that day to prayse him in the gates And thus much of the first inference drawn from Elijah's third Satis est that is I have done enough Those that are for God must doe
command Gen. 22. Here 's a Satis ad testificationem enough to testifie his love and obedience and so though none of Gods Saints and servants can reach to a Satis in reference to justification yet as to the testification of the soundness of their faith the sincerity of their obedience and the uprightness of their hearts in his Service there is a Satis which they may reach to and of which God himselfe will testifie and say Satis est It is enough The second distinction in Answer to this Objection is this There is another two-fold Satis First Satis ad perfectionem Secondly Satis ad acceptationem First enough In reference to perfection And Secondly enough In reference to acceptation As to the former Nunquam satis est we can never arrive enough as to perfection Our Saviour hath set us a Coppy that we can never come neer Mat 6. Be you perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect Alas our highest perfection is to acknowledge our imperfection and the best of us all when we have done our best to acknowledge We are unprofitable servants To confess with the Centurion Domine non sum dignus O Lord I am not worthy the least of thy mercies and with the Publican to pray Lord be mercifull to me a sinner so that if we look at perfection Nunquam satis est we shall never arrive to that degree or height of obedience as to say Nunc satis est It is now enough But if we look at acceptation blessed be God there is a Satis whereunto the Saints and servants of Almighty God may and doe arrive even in this life through the mercy of God and the indulgence of our Heavenly Father which where he sees a willing mind accepts of the will for the deed and of what we can doe instead of what we should doe which accepts according that a man hath and not according to that he hath not And so this rubb being removed we pass to the third Inference which is this That thus to have so done the will of God will be our greatest comfort in an evill day when we shall stand in most need of it Hezekiah found it so when the Message came to him by the Prophet Isay from the Lord That he should set his house in order for he must dye O Lord remember I have walked before thee with an upright and a perfect heart and have done that which was good in thy sight Isay 38.1 3. Nehemiah found it so who having done worthily for the people of God in obteining Commission from the King of Persia for the redeeming of the Jews out of the Babylonish Captivity and building the Walls of Jerusalem often comforts himselfe with the remembrance of it Nehemiah 13.14 Remember me O my God in this and blot not out the kindness that I have shewed to thy house And verse the 22. Remember me O my God concerning this also and pardon me according to thy great mercy And again verse 31. Remember me O my God in goodness Indeed he needed not have put God in mind to remember him the Lord would have remembred him and his kindness shewed to his people though he should forget it God is not unfaithfull that he should forget the labour and love shewed unto his Saints We see in Matthew 25 how he did remember it when they had forgotten it that shewed it ver 42.43 When I was hungry you gave me to eate when I was thirsty you gave me to drink when I was naked you cloathed me sick and in prison you visited me and ministred unto me this they had forgotten and therefore asked Lord when saw we thee hungrty or thirsty or naked or sick and in prison and ministred unto thee he remembred it when they had forgotten it and doth not onely remember it but reward it too and now they finde the comfort of it With such a remembrance doth Saint Paul comforts himselfe 2 Tim. 4.7 I have fought the good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith Henceforth is layd up for me a crowne of righteousness He was not afraid to sing out his Cupio dissolvi I desire to be dissolved Nor our Prophet in the Text to make it his suite to the Lord To take away his soule when he remembred how zealous he had been for the Lord God of Hosts while he was in the body The very Heathens were sensible of this and it was a great incitement to them to justice and honesty and all morall vertue Conscientia benè acta vitae multorumque benefactorum recordatio jucundissima est The Conscience of a life well spent and the remembrance of much good done in his life time O what a Cordiall it is to an old man a dying man And so is the contrary the remembrance of a life ill spent and of much evill done in a mans life time as great a corrasive at such a time Thou writest bitter things against me and makest me to possess the sins of my youth saith Jâ—b cap. 12.25 and he none of the worst of men Beloved there will come a time when Conscience awakened and enlightened will be serious with us in calling us to account for things done in our life time how we have spent our life our time and our Talents what good we have done with them ever since we came into the world And what a sad account is this when a man can give no better account to God nor his own Conscience but thus That he hath lived upon earth forty or fifty or sixty or seventy years or more to doe nothing but eate and drink and sleep and play or worse and spent his life Aut nihil agendo in doing nothing Aut aliud agendo in doing things impertinent which is as good as nothing Aut malè agendo or in doing evill which is worse then nothing and now is going out of the world before ever he hath thought of his errand wherefore he came into it If this be not to be an unprofitable servant what is and what his doome is we have heard and may reade Matthew 25. Beloved Let this Meditation teach us wisedom so to lay out our selves while we live in this world so to improve our time and our Talents as that we may be able to give some account of them to God and to our own Consciences so to live that we need not be afraid to dye to be doing some good here in our life time the remembrance whereof may yeeld us comfort in our sickness and hope in our death so to lay out our selves in this world that we may have somewhat to take to in the other world when we shall leave this and all that we have in it and so shall we be great gainers by the change And so we have done with this third Inference also deduc'd out of the Prophets third Satis est It is enough spoken in reference to what he had done Satis feci I
world and to lose his foule Vse 1. It should teach all men to value their souls according to the worth of them and not to destroy them nor to pass them away so carelesly and inconsiderately as ordinarily men doe to their eternall undoing Some desperately wound them to death by desperate willfull and presumptuous sins Heale my soule for I have sinned against thee implying that by sinne he had wounded it Some sell their souls and that for triflles that are worth nothing for pleasures of sinne which are but for a season for treasures of wickedness which profit nothing for satisfying some sinfull lusts which are worse then nothing Some give away their souls for nought for sins in which there is neither pleasure nor profit as Cursing Swearing idle and lewd Communication and the like these make the worst bargains of all Others pawne their souls they will give themselves liberty to walk in the sight of their own eyes and in the wayes of their own heart and to serve their lusts but for such a time and then they will take up and repent and recover themselves and their souls again as if it were in their own will and power to come in when they will All these make ill bargains and pass away their pretious souls for a thing of nought which all the Kingdoms of the world cannot buy again We see this we heare it and we condemne them for it yet are there dayly amongst us that are guilty of the same folly and by Covetousness Voluptuousness Ambition Malice Perjury and the like sell themselves and their souls for less and pass them away upon worse termes then they have done Adam sold himselfe for an Apple Esau for a Mess of Pottage Achan for a Wedge of Gold Ahab for a Vineyard Judas for thirty pieces of silver How many are there to be found amongst us which for less matters will lye will sweare will forsweare will steale deceive cheate and cosen and what not That to satisfie their base sinfull and unreasonable lusts and humours will part with a good Conscience forfeit the favour of God their hope of Heaven their interest in Christ and in the Gospel sell themselves and soules and all for less then a Mess of Pottage The resolution of Balaam was good and honest just and religious if he had kept it as well Numb 24.13 If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold I would not goe beyond the Word of the Lord to doe more or less Let it be the resolution of every soul and God give us grace and power to keep it 2. Are souls so pretious Then let us look to them carefully preserve them charily as we would doe our chiefest Jewells Keep thy soule with all diligence examine the state of it see it want nothing of that which should be for the happiness and the prosperity of it Our care is much for the body What shall we eate what shall we drinke wherewithall shall we be clothed in the meane while the soule is neglected set by and least look't after but as our Saviour saies in a like case Mat. 6.25 Is not the body better then the rayment So say I Is not the soule better then the body Is there any comparison between the Jewell and the Cabinet that it is layd up in It was Martha's reproofe That she cared for many things more then she needed And for the one thing that was more necessary less It is our just reproofe in this case We enquire after the health and welfare of our friends and after their prosperity how they thrive in this world but without any regard to their spirituall estate and the wellfare and prosperity of their souls St. John in his Epistle to Gaius with a more spirituall salutation hath a more speciall eye to the prosperity of his soule Beloved I wish chiefly that thou doe prosper as thy soule prospereth 3 John 1.2 David did more rejoyce in the good the Lord had done for his soule then for all the good he had done to him and for him in his body in his estate or in any other his relations Hearken to me saith he all you that feare God and I will tell you what the Lord hath done for my soule The Lord had done great things for him otherwise and he could have given them a large narrative of them but in his remembrance of his great favours to him he passes by all these and mentions the other as farr greater then all the rest I wil tell you what the Lord hath done for my soul So the care of all those holy men dying which I have mentioned was chiefly for the safety of their souls Lord Jesus receive my spirit Acts 7.59 Father into thy hands I commend my spirit And in the Text Lord take away my soul Though the bodies of the Saints dying are not to be neglected but decently to be inter'd as in hope and expectation of a blessed Resurrection as the body of St. Stephen was and the body of our blessed Lord yet the care they had of their souls swallowed up all the care of their bodies so that it is not so much as mentioned by them nor by our Prophet in the Text but onely his soul Lord take away my soul 3. Are souls so pretious Then this is a severe admonition to us that have undertaken Curam animarum the care of souls to look well to our charge as such as must give an account of the greatest trust in the world even the souls of Gods people committed to our charge I cannot but tremble when I reade St. Paul giving up his account to God to his Peoplae and to his own Conscience in this matter Acts 20.26 I am free from the blood of all Men. What blood doth St. Paul here speak of he was no Sword Man there was no fear of his shedding any mans blood by violence How comes he to clear himself from blood Bel. the blood here meant is more pretious then the life-blood of man can be it is the blood of souls implying That if he had not faithfully and conscionably performed the duties of his Pastorall charge amongst them he had been guilty of the blood of souls Oh let this sink deep into our hearts that we may not become guilty of the blood of souls How earnestly ought we to endeavour the salvation of our people as of our selves and at the hour of death to Pray That the Lord would be mercifull to them and take away their souls Quest But here now ariseth a great question a grand inquiry not without great caution and sobriety to be resolved Touching the state of souls separated and taken out of the body What becomes of them afterward Whether upon their separation they doe presently enter into that state in which they are to remain and continue during this vast space of Eternity without all change or alteration of their condition Ans I answer no For the soule of man