make us sure to miss of Heaven by making us dream it is unavoidable For as God in his Iudgment is no Respecter of Persons so neither was he in his Decrees As his Rule is in Time to judge us according to our works so he decreed from all Aeternity to proceed in Time by that Rule He did determin the end of men with a special respect to their Qualifications from whence his Decree is call'd respective But he did absolutely determin that men who are thus or thus qualified should come to this or that end And I could wish that this Distinction since 't is sufficient of it self might find so much favour in all mens Eyes as to appease and reconcile dissenting Brethren That as the Decrees of the Almighty are said to be Absolute in one sense so they may candidly be granted to be Respective in Another This methinks should be the Judgment of all Mankind being so visible in it self and of so necessary Importance to the well-ordering of our Lives That God did absolutely decree a most indissoluble Connexion betwixt Repentance and Salvation as betwixt Impenitence and Condemnation Which proves the end to have been decreed with a special respect unto the means Let this one thing be granted as well for the Comfort of the good as for a Terror to evil Doers And I for my part shall ask no more For the Decree which is respective in sensu diviso may so be proved to be Absolute in sensu composito as to afford a Demonstration That God's Decree of the several Ends was in respect to the several Means For if in sensu composito He did absolutely decree that all who are faithful and repent should belong to Heaven and that all who are faithless and impenitent should in like manner belong to Hell Then his Decree was respective in sensu diviso of that Repentance or Impenitence by which Professors do belong to Heaven or Hell From whence it follows unavoidably that if we are faithless and impenitent be it in a greater or lesser measure we ought to be affected with fear and trembling in the literal sense of this expression and never to give our selves Rest until we be faithful and do repent But faithful and penitent we cannot be till by the power of God's Grace after our Prayers and Tears shall have given him no Rest he shall be pleas'd to work in us and with us too not only to will but to do his work That by the power of his Grace we may all endeavour and by the power of his Grace on our Endeavours we our selves may have a Power too whereby to work out our own Salvation And work for it we must with a sacred horror because of the Dreadfulness of our Doom if we work remissly For as on one side God himself cannot condemn us although our sins past have been very great if we immediately repent and amend our lives because he is faithful who hath promised and he hath promised forgiveness to all that repent and turn unto him so withal on the other side Let our Righteousness past have been what it will yet if we return from Righteousness to Sin God himself cannot save us without our Repentance and Reformation because he hath sworn that the Impenitent shall not enter into his Rest. Not that God can be overpower'd by any Quality in the Creature whether Repentance in the first Case or Impenitence in the second But because his Power in the first is suspended by his Mercy as it stands in conjunction with his Truth For in his Mercy he made a Promise to give us pardon if we repent and in his Truth he must perform it Just so his Power in the second is suspended by his Iustice as it stands in conjunction with his Truth too For in his Iustice he made an Oath to be revenged on the Impenitent and in his Truth he must make it good Now since each of these Cases concerns us All be we never so good or be we never so evil I need not shew by another Medium how the love of God's Mercy doth consist with a fear of his Indignation and how whilst we love him as a Father we ought to fear him as a Judge But to conclude with such a Caveat as may best of all become an Ingenuous People Take we heed that our Fear do not swallow up our Love for fear it swallow up us too in the Bottomless Pit of Desperation We must serve God with Fear but so as to fear him also for Love Ever saying with the Psalmist There is mercy with thee ô Lord therefore shalt thou be feared The Psalmist did not thus argue There is Mercy with Thee ô Lord Therefore shalt thou be rely'd upon Therefore we shall make the bolder with thee we shall break thy Commandments without the fear of being damn'd because we know thou art slow to anger and being angry art quickly pleas'd But because of thy mercy thou shalt be feared And there is good reason for it For by how much the kinder a Father is a well-natur'd Son will fear to offend him so much the more And the more our Father which is in Heaven does even delight to please us by heaping his Mercies and Favours on us by so much the more shall we be afraid if we are well-natur'd Children to exasperate our Father which is in Heaven What then remains but that we ponder these things and lay them up in our hearts and draw them forth into our Actions and daily repeat them in our Lives And reap the comfort of so doing in the hour of Death and the Day of Iudgment Which God of his Mercy prepare us for even for the glory of his Name and for the worthiness of his Son To whom with the Father in the Unity of the Spirit be ascribed by us and by all the World Blessing and Glory and Honour and Power and Wisdom and Thanksgiving from this time forward for evermore THE GRAND INQUIRY To be made In these Inquisitive Times Taken from the Mouth of The Frighted Iailour OF PHILIPPI THE GRAND INQUIRY To be made in These Inquisitive Times ACTS XVI 30. What must I do that I may be saved THus the Iailour at Philippi sought to his Pris'ners for a Deliverance Not his ordinary Pris'ners who at once were in Bondage to Him and Satan And were bound up in Misery as well as Iron who had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spirits so gross and so incrassat and so manacl'd to the Flesh that together with their Bodies their Souls were put into the Stocks as knowing no better Liberty than what consisted in the Freedom of Hands and Feet But the Pris'ners in the Text were Pris'ners only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men whose Liberty did consist in the ubiquity of their Thoughts and in being made free of the New Ierusalem Men who by living the Life of Faith maintain'd an Intercourse with God and his glorious Angels And though their Carkasses
in vain Philip. 2. 16. that we do not faint as we are running and possibly miss of the Prize within a stride of the Goal For though we work for Salvation whole years together and work for it never so hard yet whilst we are in the Body and compass'd about with a Tempting world we cannot say we have work'd it out So that That is a Thing to be still in doing and to be done with Fear and Trembling For as there are a sort of Labourers who do not come into the Vineyard until the ninth or tenth hour so there are that fall off in the very Evening and lose the benefit of their Labour during the heat of the Day For when they cease from being Righteous all their pass't Righteousness shall not be mention'd Ezek. 18. Had not Iudas been worthy Christ had not made him an Apostle and had he not been a good Apostle he had hardly been trusted with the Bag much less had he been sent to dispense the Gospel 'T is very late e're we read the Devil enter'd into Iudas hardly sooner than a day or two before his Death And though our Saviour said he chose twelve whereof one was a Devil yet did he not say He chose a Devil For Iudas was not a Devil that is a Traytor 'till some time after he had been chosen Which fitly serves to put us in mind that if we know what we are we are not sure of what we shall be What our last days will be we cannot tell till we have liv'd them We may speak out of Hope but out of Certainty we cannot I know who they are who breath nothing but Assurance of Life eternal as if That were the english of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as if their Rebellions were meritorious mistake the sturdiness of their Presumption for the stability of their Faith So little or nothing are they concern'd in St. Paul's Exhortation to Fear and Trembling that supposing they are sure they think it below them to be solicitous I would to God that such Professors had but the patience to consider that St. Peter doth not exhort us to make our selves sure of our Election but to make our Election sure The vvord is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not meant in an Active but Passive sense nor of the Person but of the Thing St. Paul had sure as much reason not to doubt of his Election to life Eternal as any meer mortal before or after And yet vvith vvhat a deal of fear and trembling did he run the Race that was set before him how did he strive for the Mastery And in order thereunto how very temperate was he in all things How did he keep under his body how did he bring it into Subjection and all for fear left whilst he was preaching unto others He himself might be a Castaway How did he suffer the loss of all things and count them but Dung for the winning of Christ who was at once his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at once his Rewarder and his Reward the setter out of the Prize and the Goal it self 'T is true indeed He wins that loses who loses All to win Christ. But in order unto this end with what fear and trembling did he press towards the Mark and reach forth to those things that were before him embracing a fellowship with the Sufferings of Christ and being conformable unto his Death if by any means he might attain to the Resurrection of the Dead if by any means he might apprehend That for which he was also apprehended of Christ Iesus And here to anticipate an Objection which very easily may be made by a sort of men I think it of use to be observ'd That He first had fought the good Fight and finished his Course before he durst presume to say in the following words Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness It was not till after his Perseverance with Faith and Patience unto the end that is but a little before his Death when the Axe and the Headsman stood ready for him at least when both were within his Prospect that he was able to speak with so great Assurance For before that Season whilst he was yet but in his Course and had not fought to a perfect Victory he flatly told his Philippians He did not speak of his Proficiency in the School of Christ as if he counted himself to have apprehended or as if he thought he were already made perfect But on the contrary He did so work out his Salvation with Fear and Trembling as that he macerated himself and what with fasting and watching and other Austerities of Life he did bear in his body the Dying of the Lord Iesus lest whilst he preach'd to save others he himself might not be sav'd He had not yet endured unto the end and so he was not yet free from Fear For he that endureth unto the end the same is he saith our Saviour who shall be sav'd Matth. 24. 13. It was the voice of God himself reveal'd from Heaven five several Times He that overcometh shall inherit all things Rev. 21. 7. He that overcometh is He that shall eat of the Tree of Life Rev. 2. 7. He that overcometh is He that shall not be hurt with the second Death v. 11. He that overcometh is He that shall eat of the hidden Manna v. 17. And who is he that overcometh but he that keepeth God's works unto the end v. 26. To Apply this now unto our selves If we can say with St. Paul that our Battle is quite fought against the World the Flesh and the Devil And that our Course is quite finished in so much that we are able to lay our hands upon the Goal we then may say with him too Henceforth is laid up for us a Crown of Righteousness We may say we have a Right to the Tree of Life That God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a righteous Iudge who will not be so Unfaithful having given us a Promise as to forget our work and labour of love Heb. 6. 10. And so being sure to be with Christ we may desire to be dissolv'd too But whilst we are upon the way and we cannot tell how far from our Iourneys end Nor what may happen 'twixt This and That sure the use we are to make of our present standing is to take great heed that we do not fall We must beware if we are righteous that we do not return from righteousness to sin The higher we stand in God's Favour we must beware so much the more that we be not high-minded but rather fear lest for having like Capernaum been lifted up to Heaven we be the rather like Capernaum cast down to Hell There was a Proverb among the Iews The Sow is turned being wash't to her wallowing in the Mire And St. Peter applys it to certain Christians who have made it good in the Application even by
Fortunes are our Conversation will be above 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. we shall behave our selves as men who are free of God's City Our Hearts will evermore be There unless our Treasure is somewhere else If the Kingdom of Heaven is that Pearl of great Price to which our Lord in his Parable thought fit to liken it And if we are those Merchants that traffick for it we cannot choose but be busy in our Inquiries after the Price still resolving upon the Purchase at any Rate that can be ask't and ever asking what we shall give or as here what we shall do that we may any ways inherit Eternal Life So it follows again on the other side That if we are commonly looking downwards and behave our selves here as men at home as if we did not intend any farther Iourney If the Burden of our Inquiries is such as This What shall we do to live long upon the Earth and not see the Grave or what shall we do to escape going to Heaven 'till such time as we are pass't the pleasant Injoyments of the Earth how shall we put the evil Day afar off how shall we be saved without Repentance or repent without Amendment or amend no more than will serve our turn what shall we do to be good enough and yet no better than needs we must what shall we do to serve two Masters and reconcile the two Kingdoms of God and Mammon and so confute what is said by our blessed Saviour in the Sixteenth of St. Luke what for a Religion wherein to live with most pleasure and one to dye in with greatest safety what shall we do to live the Life of the sensual'st Epicure and yet at last dye the Death of the strictest Saint If I say our Affections are clinging thus unto the Earth It is an absolute Demonstration that all our Treasure is here below and that we are men of the present world in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds For our Saviour's famous Rule is at once of universal and endless Truth Wheresoever the Carkass is there the Eagles will be gathered together wheresoever our Treasure is there our Hearts will be also And whither our Hearts are gone before the Case is evident and clear our Tongues and our Actions will follow after § 7. Now since these are the Inquiries of several Seekers to wit of Them who do affect to dwell here and of them that look out for a better Country that is an heavenly And since we may judge by their Inquiries to which kind of Master they do belong to God or Mammon 'T is plain the Lesson or the Use we are to take from it is This that when we find our selves beset with a twofold evil the one of Sin and the other of Affliction in so much as we know not which way to turn there being on the right hand a fear of Beggery or Disgrace and on the left hand a fear of Hell when I say we are reduced to such an hard pinch of our Affairs we must not carnally cast about and tacitly say within our selves what shall we do to keep our Livelyhoods or what shall we do to hold fast our Lives But what shall we do to keep a good Conscience and to hold fast our Integrity And since 't is nobler to be led by the hope of a Reward than to be frighted into our Duties by the fear of being punish't if we neglect them let us not ask like the Children of Hagar in the spirit of Bondage which is unto fear what shall we do that we may not inherit a Death Aeternal But as the Children of Sarah in the spirit of Adoption which is unto hope what shall we do that we may inherit Aeternal Life Which Life being hid with Christ in God as St. Paul speaks to the Colossians for God's sake whither should we go either to seek it when it is absent or to find it when it is hid or to secure it when it is found unless to Him who hath the words of Eternal Life that is the words which are the means by which alone we may attain to Eternal Life The words which teach us how to know it the words which tell us where to seek it the words which shew us how to find it the words which afford us those Rules and Precepts by our conformity unto which we cannot but take it into possession There is no other Name to make us Inheritors of Eternity but only the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ Acts 4. 12. And considering what is said by our blessed Saviour That This and this only is Life Eternal to know the only true God with a practical knowledge and Iesus Christ whom he hath sent John 17. 2. we should religiously resolve not to know any thing else Not I mean in comparison of Iesus Christ and him crucified nor yet to any other end than to serve and assist us in that one knowledge Look what carking and caring any Covetous man useth to get his wealth look what industry and labour an Ambitious man useth to get his Honour look what vigilance and solicitude any Amorous man useth to get his Idol the same solicitude and diligence is each Religious man to use for the getting of an Interest in Iesus Christ. Which gives me a passage from the second to the third Observable I proposed from the Nature and Quality of the young man's Inquiry to the condition of the Oracle inquired of As he sought for nothing less than Eternal Life so did he seek it from Him alone who is the way to that Life and the Life it self He did not go to take Advice from the Witch of Endor for the madness of Saul had made him wiser or more at least in his wits than to knock at Hell-door for the way to Heaven Nor did he ask of Apollo Pythius or go to Iupiter Ammon to be inform'd about the way to Eternal Life for all the Oracles of the Heathen were put to silence by our Messias as Plutarch and others of their own great Writers have well observ'd and should they speak never so loudly he very well knew they could not teach him Nor did he go to Aaron's Ephod to ask the Urim and Thummim about the means of his Salvation for he knew that That Oracle was now grown Dimm and that in case it had been legible it could not help him Nor did he betake himself to Moses the Iewish Law-giver much less to the Scribes the learned Interpreters of the Law for he found Mysterious Moses had still a Veil upon his Face which the Scribes and Pharisees were not able to Remove much less durst he go to the Law it self for a Relief there being nothing more plain than that the Law worketh wrath Those Tables of Stone are as the Hones or the Grindstones at which the Sting of Death is whetted and made more sharp For as the sting of Death is Sin so
good things then For so said Abraham out of Heaven to the Rich man in Hell Son remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things But now he is comforted and Thou art tormented And when agreably to this our Blessed Lord denounc'd a Woe unto Them that were Rich He gave this Reason Because they had received their Consolation They had already been possess'd of their Lot and Portion of Felicity The Scales hereafter would be turn'd and the Scene quite chang'd when They should have their full Share of Afflictions too And in this respect at least 't was fitly said by those Voluptuaries the Hectors of their Times in the Book of Wisdom Let none of us go without his Part of Voluptuousness Let us leave Tokens of our Ioyfulness in every Place For this is our Portion our Lot is This. § 9. Now the Reasons of this unhappiness That the good things of this World are the goodliest Snares and Temptations and such as our Adversary the Devil does put his chiefest Trust in are these that follow First 't is hard in the use of Riches to steer a safe and equal Course betwixt the Rock and the Whirl-pool Avarice on the one side and Prodigality on the other Very hard not to offend either in laying up Riches or at least in laying them out § 10. As for the former He whose Treasure is not his Slave is clearly made a Slave by it and is extremely more stupid than the Beast on which he rides because he is ridden by a Beast that is to say by The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Fourfooted Beast which reigns within him He does not more possess his Riches than he is possess'd by them and may be called not improperly his Mammon's Mule Our Lord ingeminated his Caveat against the Daughters of the Horse-Leech as if 't were That against which a Man could never be too much warn'd Take heed saith He and beware of Covetousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See and be kept safe Take heed and take heed A thing which looks like a Battology But is indeed nothing less a Caution purposely redoubled for the securing us from an Affection which is the Root of all Evil. So very far is a man's life from consisting in the Abundance of the things which he possesseth so very far from being able to add a Cubit to his Stature a Minute to his Duration or a Grain to his Contentment that they give him a Poverty to be pitied in that they make him not rich towards God or Himself Rich towards God he cannot be who layeth up Treasure for himself No nor Rich towards Himself who layeth it up for he-knows-net-whom whether his Son or his Son's Guardian or for One who will be able to squeeze them Both. There being commonly one or other to whom the rest are but Spunges nor can they tell either how soon or by what kind of Hand they may all be squeez'd Now 't is a very great Punishment as well as Sin for a man to bereave himself of Good that no-body-knowswho may fare the better and as likely his Enemies as his Friends It was the Character of a Fool which David gave of the Niggard He heapeth up Riches and cannot tell who shall gather them And the Niggard as I think is the only man on whom our Lord fastens the name of Fool. Dost thou talk of pulling down and of building up and of making provision for time to come Thou fool this Night thy Soul shall be required of thee Then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided Not thy Childrens perhaps but thy Children's Tyrants Thy Riches are not in Their power who are Themselves in the Power of somewhat else either without them or within them They have lost their Propriety in all their Legacies and Estates if a Vespasian or a Copronymus shall chance to Rule them much more if they shall live under the Tyranny of their Lusts. For if they pay Tribute to their Ambition and Contributions to their Gluttony and large Excise to their other Vices such as is their childish dotage upon the Vanities and the Pomps and chargeable Customs of the World alas the main of their Revenue goes out in Taxes For a man 's own Lusts are the greatest Oppressors to be imagin'd Besides A man's * Enemies commonly are they of his own House Even the Fruit of his Body is the fullest of bitterness to his Soul The more he heapeth up Treasure in Intuition of his Children the more he tempts them to be his Enemies if They at least may be thought Enemies who do not only wish his Death but many times contrive it too A poor man's Child will love the life of his Parents because he lives by their labour whilst the wealthier sort of Parents are apt to be troublesom to their Children because they stand betwixt them and Plenty 'twixt them and their Liberty to live as deliciously as they list But because a Man is ignorant who or what shall be after him his heaping up is nothing else but being prodigal to his Purse all his carking and caring is that his Purse may never be in want He is content for his own part to fare very hardly and to eat the Bread of Scarceness so that his dearly beloved Purse may be but plentifully fed So great a friendship there is betwixt Him and It. And thus it was with the wealthy Niggard in the Gospel who wanting Room enough wherein to lay up his Crop in a plenteous Harvest did not rationally say I will sell away my Overplus and bestow it upon my Friends in Hospitality upon my Beadsmen in Alms upon my Self or my Family in Food and Rayment but I will pull down my Barns and build greater and There will I bestow all my fruits and my goods The English word in the Translation proves very emphatical and seems to import the Niggard's Largess It is not translated I will gather my Goods together or lay them up as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might well have been but I will bestow them or lay them out Although he was sordid to himself and as close-fisted to his Family and to all other Persons an arrant Churl yet to his Storehouses and Barns he was very free-hearted he gladly bestowed upon Them even as much as they could hold To those his Favorites and Darlings he could not be liberal enough and therefore widen'd their Vacuities that he might fill them The Reason of which is very obvious For as where a man's Treasure is there is his Heart so wherever his Heart is there he loves to lay his Treasure Had the Rich man's heart been either in Heaven or upon Christ he had bestowed all his Goods upon Heavenly things had fed Christ in his hungry Members or cloathed him in his naked ones or redeemed him in his Captive imprison'd Members He had erected