on Earth too It is enough for poor Lazarus to have his Good things hereafter And enough for Rich Dives to have his proportion of Good things here But the good men I speak of will needs be happier than Lazarus and yet much richer than Dives too They will have their good things as well in this as another World All the subject of their Inquiry is not how to be better than other men in Acts of Iustice and Works of Mercy But how to be greater and more regarded which is call'd a being better in point of Quality and Degree And after these very things do the Gentiles seek They of Iava and the Molucco's They of Tartary and China whether as greedily as Christians I cannot tell But our Saviour spake only of Food and Rayment as of things which the Gentiles are wont to seek And well it were for Real Christians if Nominal Christians would seek no more If Food and Rayment would serve the turn Christians then like other Creatures might quietly live by one another But it seems they have no more than the Name of Christians who chiefly seek with the Gentiles the low concernments of the Flesh. For as many as are Christians in very good earnest will bestow themselves in seeking the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof supposing such things as These will be added to the rest as a good Appendix Man not living by Bread alone as our Saviour said to Satan but by bread as it is blessed by the good Word of God Nor indeed is he worthy to live by Bread who is not able to live without it who is not able to subsist upon better things When we reckon Food and Rayment among the Necessaries of Life which we do with good reason we only speak of such a painful and dying life as is not worthy our caring for unless in order to life Aeternal And for the nourishing of That the very famishing of the Body may pass for food unto the Soul From all which together it seems to follow That they who arrogate to themselves not only the greatest both Faith and Hope but the perfectest Assurance of life Aeternal do prove themselves unaware the greatest Infidels in the World whilst neglecting the grand Inquiry they ought to make after Heaven they let the Tide of their Affections run out wholly upon the Earth For did they really look for a Day of Iudgment as much as they do for an Hour of Death they would as certainly provide against the one as commonly they do against the other They would take as much Care to be just and honest as universally they do to be rich or healthful And make as much of their Souls by Mortification and Self-denial as now they do of their Bodies by a plentiful Injoyment of Creature-Comforts 'T is true indeed Life Aeternal is a thing which is quickly talk't of nor are there any so uncivil as not to afford it a friendly mention It is no hard thing to be another mans flatterer much less is it difficult to be ones own To be secure and praesumptuous is cheap and easy Yea 't is pleasant to flesh and blood to be carnally set free from that fear and trembling wherewith a man is to work out his own Salvation Thence it is that we abound with such an Herd of Fiduciaries and Solifidians who having persuaded themselves to fancy that Life Eternal is a thing which cannot possibly escape them and that all the next world is irresistibly their own They think they have nothing to do in This but to make a Trial whether it hath not been decreed that all shall be theirs that they can get and whether it hath not been decreed that they shall get all they try for and whether it hath not been decreed that they shall try to get All. When men are season'd with such a Principle they cannot think it concerns them to give all Diligence for the making of their Calling and Election sure by ceasing to do evil and by learning to do well or by adding to Faith Vertue and one Vertue unto another But supposing their Election so sure already as to be pass't the possibility of being miss't It is natural for them to give all diligence to make themselves sure of somewhat else For let them say what they will and let them think what they please and let them do what they can they cannot possibly give diligence to seek a thing in their possession or to secure what they believe it is impossible for them to lose No man living will light a Candle to look about for those Eyes which he believes are in his Head nor will he search after his head which is he doubts not upon his shoulders Our Saviour's two Parables of the lost Sheep and the lost Groat cannot but seem an arrant Iargon unto a man of such Principles as now I speak of For will He send about the Country to find a Sheep which is in his Fold or sweep the House for a Groat which he praesumes is in his Pocket No being poyson'd with an opinion that he was justified from Eternity and hath Grace irresistible and therefore cannot fall totally much less finally from Grace he will esteem it a thing impertinent for a man of his Talents to be so anxious as to Inquire what Good things he ought to do that he may inherit Eternal Life § 6. The great unhappiness of it is what I am sorry I have reason to believe I say truly That there are few Congregations wherein there are not such Professors as now I speak of who as long as fermented with such a Leven cannot possibly be profited by all our Preaching And therefore They above others must be inform'd That by the Nature of our Inquiries we ought to try as by a Touchstone of what sort we are whether Silver or Alchymy whether true and solid Gold or but polished Iron with double Gilt. By this we may explore from whence we came and whither 't is that we are going of whom we are and whom we are for For that Saying of our Saviour Matth. 24. 28. which historically refers to the Roman Army Wheresoever the Carkass is there the Eagles will be gathered together must needs be applicable and true in This sense also which is our Saviour's own Sense Luke 12. 34. Where your Treasure is there your Heart will be also From whence it follows unavoidably That if we are men of another world and have our Treasure laid up in Heaven we shall behave our selves as Pilgrims and perfect Sojourners here on Earth We shall be commonly looking Upwards with our Backs upon Egypt and our Faces towards Canaan Our Souls will be athirst for God Psal. 42. 1 2 3. our Hearts will pant after Eternity as the Hart panteth after the Water-Brooks crying out with holy David in an Exiliency of Spirit O when shall we appear before the Presence of God How low soever both our Bodies and
it follows as unavoidably as that God cannot lye That we must All without exception be first well Doers we must first of all be good and Faithful Servants before the Iudge can say to us well done good and faithful Servants And yet again he must be able to say That to us before he can possibly bid us Enter into the Ioy of our Lord. He cannot say well done to an Evil Doer He cannot call him a Faithful who is an unfaithful Servant He cannot say Come ye blessed and Enter ye into the Ioy of your Lord to whom the Sentence of Go ye Cursed into everlasting Fire does of right belong § 17. And if these things are so then as we tender the greatest Interest both of our Bodies and of our Souls Let no man cozen us to Hell by making us believe we are sure of Heaven Beware of Comfortable Preachers as they that love to be flatter'd do fasly call them who either write or speak much in the Praise of Faith But in Disparagement of obedience to the Commandments of our Lord. And often quarrel at the necessity of being rich in good works as if Salvation were to be had at a cheaper Rate Let me put the case home as well to others as to myself in the fewest words Have we an earnestness of Desire to live for ever in Bliss and Glory or are we careless and indifferent what shall become of us hereafter Do we seriously believe an Immortality of our Souls a Life after Death and a Day of Iudgment Or do we but talk of these things in civility to the men amongst whom we live if we are in good earnest in the Rehearsal of the Creed of the two last Articles in particular the Resurrection of the Body and the Life everlasting Then let the Condition of the New Covenant abide forever in our Remembrance And seeing this is the Condition on which the promise of Salvation is given unto us that we receive and own Christ as our Lord and Master as our Saviour and our Prince as our Advocate and our Iudge too And that we so own him in our Lives as well as in our Beliefes as well in our practice as speculation Let us not flatter ourselves for shame as so many Traytors to our own Souls that Salvation will be found upon easier Termes For to such as cannot pretend to be Babes or Ideots or never to have liv'd within the sound of Christ's Gospel the words of the Apostle are very positive and Express That without Holiness and Peace that is to say without our Duties both to God and to our Neighbour No man living shall see the Lord Hebr. 12. 14. And this I think may suffice us to have learn't at this time from the Text in hand For thô I say not that these are All yet these Especially are the Lessons we are concern'd to draw from it and such as willingly flow to us from its most rational Importance Now to him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we are able to ask or think according to the power that worketh in us unto him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all Ages world without end THE Yoke of Christ Easier than That of MOSES AND HIS Burden a Refreshment to such as Labour MATTH XI 30. For my Yoke is Easy and my Burden is light A Text not unsuitable to all the Severities of the Lent which is if St. Ierome may be believ'd and other Fathers more antient of Apostolical Institution A Time sequester'd by That Autority for the Exercise and Practice of Christian Strictness expressed pithily in my Text by our bearing both the Burden and Yoke of Christ. § 1. The Affinity and Connexion is as obvious as it is close betwixt my present and former Text. For it was the last Service which I perform'd in this Place to shew how Christ is our Lord and Master Such as he was pleas'd to assert himself in the thirteenth of St. Iohn at the thirteenth verse It now remains that we Contemplate the Moderation of the Laws whereby our Lord is exceeding Gratious and our Master extreamly Good For it seems not sufficient that he is known to be a Lord in Exacting obedience to his Commandments unless he be as well known to be good and gratious in that his Commandments are not grievous Nothing neer so insupportable as they were thought by those Gnosticks St. Iohn alludes to 1 Iohn 5. 3. who fell away from Christianity and disown'd Christ himself for fear their Loyalty and obedience should cost them dear living then as they did in Times of Trial and Persecution He is our Lord and our Master in respect of the Yoke with which he binds and in regard of the Burden wherewith he loads us But this our Master is Good and our Lord Gratious in respect of the Easiness which he gives unto the one and in regard of the Lightness wherewith he qualify's the other But § 2. Our Translation however True is so far short of the Original that as before so now also the Greek must come in to assist the English or else we shall miss of its whole Importance For 't is not only my Yoke is Easy But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my Yoke is Good My Yoke is profitable and useful My Yoke is an indearing and delectable Yoke For all this and more is imported by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Lexicographers and Glossaries do make apparent That is to express it without a Metaphor The Service of Christ is a most gratious and Desirable Service What he commands us to perform is not only very possible but facil and easy to be perform'd Nor only so but sweet and pleasant in the performance It is not only our Bounden Duty but 't is our Interest our Delight our Reward to serve him § 3. And such as the Yoke is with which he binds such is also the burden wherewith he loads us Whatsoever his Burden may here import If the Burden of his Precepts then 't is absolutely light For then the Burden and the Yoke are Terms aequivalent The lightness of the one explains the Easiness of the other and the later clause of the Text is but an Exegesis of the former Or admit that by his Burden is meant the Burden of his Cross yet even then we must confess it is comparatively light And so indeed it is in two considerable respects First in respect of the endless punishment which will fall upon Them that refuse the Burden and again in respect of that unspeakable Reward which will be given unto them that shall take it up The Cross of Christ at its heaviest is but a Burden of Afflictions which St. Paul accompts light for these two reasons First because it is but for a moment next because it works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory For as the same Apostle saith to the same Corinthians what seems at first
and Cross of Christ If he be but once brought to an inviolable Belief without all Scruples or Peradventures That every man shall live eternally either in Heaven or in Hell And that 't is clearly for his Interest to do or suffer as Christ commands him because in order to his Escape from all the miseries of the one and in order to his Attainment of all the Beatitudes in the other He will presently break off his Sins by Righteousness as Daniel charged Nebuchadnezzar He will be ready for Restitution to every one whom he hath injur'd as Zachee the Publican when He repented He will bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance as the Jews were admonished by Iohn the Baptist. He will be glad to be thought worthy to suffer shame for Christ's sake as the Apostles at Ierusalem Acts 5. 41. The Consideration of his Interest will give an high Relish to all his suffrings making his Torments and his Tormentors to become his great Instruments and means of pleasure § 22. Thus we see in all cases both Temporal and Spiritual every man is for himself and intends his own Interest in whatsoever it is which he undertakes either the Interest of his Profit or of his Pleasure and Reputation The Interest of his Flesh or of his Spirit his present Interest or his future still 't is one Interest or other which leads him on unto the best or the worst Performances in the World Is any man Covetous and extremely close sisted He thinks it is for his Interest as being the way to be Rich in mony which is the only Grand Project that he is driving Or is he Free and open-handed He thinks it for his Interest because it is the ready way to make him Rich in good Works which is the highest and noblest end at which he ayms in this World Is there any man running headlong into a Customary Contempt of his Saviour's Yoke He thinks it is for his Interest as being the way to live merrily and in Prosperity here on Earth which is the Soveraign Allective of his Desires Or does any man take pleasure in supporting both the Burden and Yoke of Christ He thinks it is for his Interest as being the way to dye safely and to live after Death a life of Bliss and Immortality which is the utmost Atchievement his heart is set on Lastly would ye know the Reason why I have meditated so much upon this kind of Subject why I have struck so many Blows upon this great Anvil made so many long Discourses though on occasion of divers Texts touching the Equity and the Law of our Saviour's Gospel and indispensable Necessity of our obedience unto the end The Reason of it is truly This Because I have thought it most mine own and other men's Interest so to do And till we are able to be so happy as to convince our selves and others that 't is most for our Interest to bear the Yoke of Christ's Law and the Burden of his Cross when 't is laid upon us 'T is very sure that neither of us shall bear the one or the other as is requir'd Whereas 't is as sure on the other side That as we never neglect our Interest in what is Secular or Carnal as touching our Credits or our Estates or our Temporal Preservation so as little shall we indure to start aside from the Burden or Yoke of Christ if indeed we do believe it our greatest Interest to bear them as He requires For can the very same man who is sollicitously careful to get a Trifle be as perfectly careless to gain a Talent or stand in very great Dread of a lesser Punishment But of an infinitely greater in none at all If we are strict in our conforming to the Commandments of men with whom the Penalties are but Temporal and the Recompenses but finite we cannot sure be Non-Conformists to the Commandments of Christ on a Supposal that we believe it as great a Truth as any is That his Punishments and Rewards are both Immortal and Immense Nor can I think of a more rational or a more satisfactory Accompt why the Commandments of men should be so commonly heeded by us with more circumspection than those of Christ but that we fear Them more and believe Him less or value the Interest of our Bodies above the Interest of our Souls or prefer the seeming certainty of what is Present before the Hope and Expectance of what is future And had rather become the owners of Earthly Contentments in Possession than to be dealing for Reversions in Heaven it self § 23. And therefore to the end we may be able even to feel and by consequence to arrive at the Conviction of Experience That the Yoke of Christ's Law is really Easy in it self and the Burden of his Cross is in comparison very light And that they have Both a secret vertue of giving Rest unto the Souls of Them that labour and of Refreshing the heavy laden for so our Saviour tells us expresly in the two next Verses before the Text let us be Conversant incessantly in all the means of attaining to a True Christian Faith That so by cordially believing we may passionately love the Lord Jesus Christ. And that loving him as we ought we may by consequence delight in doing that which he requires and by consequence may attain to that Reward which he hath Promis'd For as our Faith and our Love do what we can will beget obedience if the first is unfeigned and the second without Dissimulation So 't is sure that our obedience will end in bliss Not in bliss whilst we are Passengers but when we shall arrive at our Iourneys end For here we are Dead saith our Apostle and our life is yet hid with Christ in God But when the Lord Iesus Christ who is our life shall appear Then shall We also appear with Him in Glory Which God the Father of his mercy prepare us for through the working of his Spirit and for the worthiness of his Son To whom be Glory for ever and ever THE INDISPENSABLE NECESSITY OF Strict Obedience Under the GOSPEL THE INDISPENSABLE NECESSITY OF Strict Obedience Under The GOSPEL HEB. XII 28 29. Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved let us have Grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with Reverence and godly Fear For our God is a Consuming Fire THere is something Difficult in the Text which will I think be best explain'd by way of Answer to an Objection For why is it said here Let us have Grace It may seem at first hearing a strange expression whether we have it or have it not For if we have it it seems superfluous and if we have it not it seems as vain We need not say Let us have what 't is plain we have already before we say it And we say to no purpose Let us have this or that which whilst we have not it is not in our power to have For Is
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
assent unto the Creed do still confute their own Belief of the two last Articles The Resurrection of the Body and the Life Everlasting For is it possible that a man should very seriously believe he shall last for ever and not be vehemently solicitous whether in Heaven or in Hell or that he really should believe there is a Heaven and a Hell without a minutely concernment to which of the two he must needs belong If a man's Neck be but obnoxious to the Gallows or the Block or his Goods but in danger of Confiscation sleep it self will not be strong enough to give him rest until he has us'd his whole strength to purchase a Pardon or a Reprieve And did he as really believe that he shall rise after Death to a Day of Iudgment when evil Doers shall be cast into a Bottomless Asphaltites a Lake which evermore is burning with Fire and Brimstone ô with what Horror and Indignation would he look back upon his Sins with what Remorse and Self-Revenge would he afflict himself for them in Soul and Body with what a vehement desire would he demonstrate his Repentance by Change of Life ô with what Carefulness and Concernment would he endeavour to make his Peace with abused Iustice with what strong crying and Tears would he sue for Mercy Not in the language of St. Peter when transported out of his wits by his great Amazement Depart from me ô Lord for I am a sinful man But rather with Christ upon the Cross where he recited in Syriac those words of David My God my God why hast thou forsaken me How much rather would he choose to do it now to some purpose and that but once than at last to no purpose and that for ever Say then good Reader and say without Partiality Can a man in good earnest believe his own Immortality whilst he so seldom or never mindes the future condition of his Soul and is not solicitous what to do that he may be sav'd There can be nothing more incredible than that a man of such a Faith should be so destitute of Fear For what accompt can be given why a man should shrink at Death a great deal more than at Damnation and more provide against the pains of a dying Life than the Torments of a Death which will live for ever that is more against the first than the second Death but that he steadily believes the first may easily come to pass whilst he hopes that the second is but a Fable They who hitherto have thought they were True Believers whilst yet their Infidel Lives have strongly prov'd that they were none will confess what I say if they ever shall have Patience enough to meditate and shall meditate long enough to comprehend the whole force of my present reason Now in order to my purpose which is to rouze up some or other out of the Lethargie they are in and to set them on work in this Grand Inquiry I shall reason a little farther with the Paganish Professors of Christianity And first of all let it be granted what ought not yet to be suppos'd That what they have not in Themselves an active Power to demonstrate cannot have a passive Power of being demonstrated by others that so they may not be offended at the uncivil possibility of other mens being deeper or quicker sighted than Themselves For some are so strongly of opinion that their particular Comprehension is the Adaequate measure of all Existence that they are apter to deny and to disbelieve that there is any thing in the World beyond the Horizon of their Conceipt than to suspect or confess that their Souls are short-sighted Not vouchsafing to consider how great a number of Things there are about the Body of a Flea which are invisible to their Eyes whilst unassisted and yet are evident unto any who shall behold them through a Microscope And if to the natural Eye of Reason we add the Telescope of Faith which is the Evidence of Things not seen we shall have an easy Prospect of that Salvation which the Iailour of Philippi enquired after And discern the true reason why the Sciolists of the Age who are call'd the Wits do first contend there are no Spirits and thence infer there is no Hell and so conclude they need not ask what it is they must do that they may be saved even because they have too much and too little wit For if they had less they would not raise their Objections and if they had more they would be able to refute them But be it so that they themselves are not able to demonstrate there is a Hell to be saved from Dare they say they are better able to demonstrate that there is none Can they say that they have dyed to make a Decision of the Question And been restored again to life to declare the Negative by Experience Do they suspect the Galilaean whom we commonly call Iesus in what he saith of an outer Darkness and therein of a Worm which never dyes and of a Fire which is not quenched And do they so far suspect him that they resolve to make an Essay of his Veracity and therefore trust not his Doctrin till they have try'd it will they admit of no Philosophy but what they call Experimental and therefore stay till they are dead for a Determination of their Doubt because forsooth until the time that they have tasted the first Death they know not if they can feel a second I say admit they do not know that there are Torments after Death to indure for ever Should not this suffice to Awe them that such there are for ought they know Or are their Souls so wholly drown'd and swallow'd up in Sensualities as that they have not any leisure wherein to consider their latter End Have they not Melancholy enough in their Constitutions to fix their volatil spirits no not so much as for an hour upon that which concerns them the most that may be even the Subject of a joyful or sad Eternity Or have they the leisure to consider their latter end but only want sufficient Courage and Resolution to indure it as being a pungent and a dismal and not only a sad but an insupportable Consideration This methinks is as absurd as whatsoever it is that hath been alledg'd For if they have not the patience to think or meditate upon Hell for a little season How much less will they be able to undergo it with Patience to all Eternity If the wages of Sin is such whilst it is yet but in the earning Lord how terrible will it be at the Time of Payment And what a strange Contradiction does this imply in some mens humours That they should dare incur the danger of induring those Torments of Hell it self whereof they dare not indure so much as a deep consideration no not long enough to inquire what they must do to be saved from them But all this is no more than an
the New Ierusalem And what shall we do to be walking in it Which is the way to escape a Hell And what must we do to obtain a Heaven For this is certainly the Scope of the young man's Inquiry we have in hand What shall I do that I may Inherit Aeternal Life § 3. All the Kingdoms of the Earth can neither satisfie nor justifie all our Appetites and Desires But the Kingdom of Heaven expressed here by eternal life will be sure to do Both. For if we are Covetous Here are Riches to make it lawful If we are Amorous Here is Beauty to make it Vertuous If we are Ambitious Here is Glory to make it Good For we must know that our Affections receive their Guilt or Vitiosity not from their strength but from their blindness when they are either double-sighted and look asquint or else are short-sighted and cannot see a far off they embrace those things for fair or pleasant which like Ixion's watery Iuno do only mock them with their Injoyment Whereas were our Affections so Eagle-sighted as to see through the Creatures discerning Happiness in its Hypostasis and flying at it where it is our only fault would then be This That our Ambition is too low and our Avarice too little and that we are not Amorous enough For they are poor-spirited persons of thick Heads and narrow Hearts whose thoughts are groveling upon the Creature and aspiring to nothing but what is Finite It is an impotent Ambition a feeble Avarice and a very flat Love which makes a stoop at such low Trifles as Crowns and Kingdoms here on Earth He alone is of a Noble and erected mind who can say and say heartily with Christ to Pilate his Kingdom is not of this World Alas the Kingdoms here Below are less than Grass-Hoppers to the very least Mansion in the Kingdom of Heaven Nor are they genuine but degenerate and bastard Eagles which will greedily catch at such little Flies The Soul of man was created for the highest Purposes and Ends. And therefore we may not only be lawfully but even dutifully ambitious provided our Ambitions are great enough and every whit as high as our Soul's Extraction we are not only permitted but even obliged to be Covetous upon condition that it be but of solid Riches which are not liable to Plunder or to impairment We ought in Conscience to be inamour'd if it be of real Beauty and not of that which depends upon human Fansie not of handsome Dirt or well-complexion'd Clay not of Beauty so call'd whose Foundation is in the Dirt which saith to Corruption Thou art my Father and to the Worm Thou art my Mother But if we choose a right object like the Spouse in the Canticles we shall never be so well as when with that Spouse sick of Love For our Bowels ought to yern after the Bridegroom of our Souls we ought to pant after Goodness and in the phrase of Espensaeus to languish after him who is the Fountain of that Goodness and so to thirst after that Fountain as never to be satisfied 'till swallow'd up In this one sense the Italian Proverb is to be verified Bello fin fà chi ben amando muore He makes a good end that dyes a Lover to wit a Lover of Him who is the great Lover of Souls We should not vouchsafe to love our selves unless because we love Him or because he loves us the only measure of loving whom is to love him without measure § 4. Seeing therefore we have met with an easy way whereby to bridle a Passion and at the same time to let it loose how at once we may abjure and yet injoy our Sensuality or to speak more exactly how 't is the Duty of a Christian not to evacuate not to invalidate not to extenuate his Affections but only to regulate and to direct them to place them there where true Injoyment is to be found let no man say within himself what shall I do to get a Fortune to raise a Family to erect a Temple unto Fame what shall I do to be a man of this World of some Authority and Power able to mischief or to oblige to beat down mine Enemies and raise my Friends what shall I do to be a man of great Knowledge a famous Chymist an exact Mathematician a remarkable Lawyer or an eminent Divine for the best of These Inquiries has something in it of Carnality But let every man say within Himself what shall I do to get an Interest in Jesus Christ and to be sure I am a Member not only of his Visible but of his Mystical Body what shall I do for a Demonstration that my Faith is truly such as does work by Love and that it does work by such a Love as does bring forth obedience to the Commandments of Christ And such a kind of obedience as Christ will graciously accept what shall I do that I may repent and repent in such a manner as to bring forth fruits meet for Repentance what shall I do to see the secrets of my Heart and to know by some Token which will not fail me whether the Good which I do is well enough done I mean well enough to deserve Acceptance What shall I do whereby to work out mine own Salvation and yet for all that to serve my God without fear all the days of my life what shall I do whereby to make my Election sure and to make my self sure of my Election so as to be able to say in Truth with St. Paul Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness what shall I do or what shall I not do or what shall I suffer either for doing or not doing that by distress or persecution by nakedness or famin by peril or sword by banishment or bonds by sickness or death by any means whatsoever however troublesom or costly or any way terrible to the Flesh I may but finally inherit eternal Life § 5. But now how little there is to be found of real and solid Christianity even in that part of Christendom where Christ and his Gospel are always preach't least of all amongst Them who are the great Monopolizers of Life Aeternal 't will not be difficult to guess by the solemn Theme of their Inquiries what shall we eat and what shall we drink and wherewithal shall we be cloath'd which shews the Zeal and the Devotion wherewith they Sacrifice to the Flesh. And therefore well said our Saviour to shew the Religion such men are of After all these things do the Gentiles seek Matth. 6. 25 Thereby intimating unto us That Christians must seek for diviner things than such as perish in the using for in the seeking of such as these they do not differ from the Gentiles who know not God And yet if we look upon those Professors who do pretend to an Inclosure of all the good things in Heaven we may observe them still inclosing as many good things as they can
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
not only so but above them too The Compellation having been handled in both its parts I must proceed unto the matter and the manner of the Quaestion together with the manner of attaining to the End or the final Cause The matter is imply'd in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the manner in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From both together there ariseth this Doctrinal Proposition That in duty and gratitude to such a Good Master as This we must accompt our selves obliged to two Returns To wit a Readiness of obedience and a Resignedness of Wills First a Readiness of Obedience even because he is our Master Next a Resignedness of Wills because he is a Good Master Our Christian Tribute to both together to wit his Authority and his Goodness must be at once Universal and Unconstrain'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what shall I do that is to say I will do any thing I am ready to perform whatsoever thou shalt appoint be it never so harsh or be it never so difficult For Life Eternal is such a prize as for which I can never do enough I say not therefore what I will do but humbly ask what I shall This I take to be the Scope of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by consequence the ground of my Proposition When I contemplate on God Almighty as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to use the phrase of the Pythagoreans both as a God and as a Creator In his Essence and in his Attributes in the Unity of his Nature and in the Variety of his Works I know not whether I should conclude him to be more simple in Himself or else more different in his Dispensations And though this Difference does appear in the whole oeconomy of the Creation yet is it no where so conspicuous as it is betwixt us and our Fellow-Creatures Which if we have leisure but to compare we shall find in other Creatures so many Traces of God's Divinity But withal in our selves such great Remarques of his special Favour that though to Them he is a just and a gracious God I may say that to us he is a Partial one They acknowledge him a Soveraign But we have the honour to call him Father They are the objects of his Almightiness But we of his Indulgence and tender Love Them indeed he created But us he created in a Similitude with Himself Them he hath confin'd unto the Dictates of an Appetite But hath turn'd us loose unto the Liberty of a Will. Them he condemn'd to be infallible for want of reason To us he gives the use of reason and so the privilege to be led into Truth or Error As they are never unfaithful so are they ever press'd Soldiers in God's great Host. But we have the honour to be capable either of Blame or Commendation by our being either Rebels or Voluntiers And according to this Diversity of Endowments in the Creature 'T is very just he should expect a like Diversity of Obedience From Them a fatal obedience from us a filial They are to suffer their Maker's will But we properly to do it They to serve him out of necessity But we from choice They are to submit to his Good Pleasure But we to love it Or to sum up the Difference with greater praeciseness as well as brevity The other Creatures may be said not to resist his Commands But we only to obey them Obedience properly being That which proceeds from Option And That the best of our obedience which is the Production of our Love But see how much the Scene is shifted since first we enter'd upon the Theatre and how oppositely we act to God's Great Design For the Ox knoweth his owner and the Ass his Master's Crib God's other Creatures will but only his People will not obey him The Sun was not too high nor the Sea too unruly Hell was not too guilty nor the Grave too strong For we know the very Devils obey'd our Saviour in his Life and Death it self at his Resurrection But as if the partiality of God to man by which he made him as the youngest so the dearest Child of his Creation had only given us that sad and accursed Privilege of becoming more obliged and by consequence more miserable because more ingrateful than all the Rest we the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Chrysostom even the Pride of his Workmanship and the prime Business of his Providence are the sole Remnant of his Creation who turn the Instances of his Goodness into Unnatural Instruments of his Dishonour The only sublunary Creatures that Understand his will And yet the Devils alone excepted the only Creatures that dispute it Some there are who will obey him by all means possible But with a tacit Proviso that he will first obey Them So far forth as they are pleas'd with the condition of his Service they are ready to serve him in what he pleaseth If Christ but once say the word they will quickly follow him to Mount Tabor or if need be they will go before him But when he goes to Mount Calvary they will be sure to stay behind or they will follow him then too that is they will not come near him Move after him they will but will think it good manners to do it at a great and an humble Distance like the Catharists of old who of late are call'd Puritans the more Unclean in God's Eyes for being so righteous in their own on a praesumption they shall dye the Death of the righteous they do not much scruple what life they lead The Promises of their good Master they swallow down very glibly But his Praecepts they cannot digest They had rather idly gape after Life Eternal than by a rigid obedience take the pains to go towards it Or if perhaps they are content with the working out of their Salvation yet their Assurance of their Election will not suffer them to do it with fear and trembling They so abominate the Popery of coming thither ex condigno and so hate the Pelagianism of seeming worthy as not to take any care of becoming fit 'T is most agreable with the privilege which they pretend to to be with Christ at his Ascension from whence they leave him all his life to converse with Publicans and look upon him at his Death as fit to be companied only by Thieves There are others of a less Sanguin and so a less credulous constitution who do not throw themselves so wholly or rather so supinely into the Arms of Christ Jesus or so expect to be carried upon his shoulders as not to make use of their Eyes and Feet too Only the worst of it is this that having cheerfully follow'd him through all the passages of his Life they at last forsake him at his Cross And if they betray him not like Iudas yet like Peter they will not own him Keep him company they will to the Brink of Happiness But there affrightedly start back like
Mouths to confess him our Heads to believe him our Hands and Feet to serve him our Wills to be ruled and our Wits to be captivated by him our Hearts to love him and our Lives to dye for him All which though it is All is still too little if we impartially consider the Disproportion of our Reward that blessed Parallel drawn out for us by God's own Compass Life and Aeternity A man you know would do any thing whereby to find Life though in our Saviour's Oxymôron it is by losing it Matth. 10. 39. And as a man will part with any thing to save his life so with life too to eternize it If therefore our Saviour does bid us follow him let us not venture to choose our way And if we can but arrive at Heaven it matters not much though we go by Hell For comparing his Goodness with his Mastership his Promises with his Precepts and the Scantling of our Obedience with the Immenfity of our Reward we shall find that our work hath no proportion with our wages but that we may inquire when all is done Good Master what shall we do And this does prompt me to proceed to my last Doctrinal Proposition That when all is done that can be we are unprofitable Servants Our Obedience is not the Cause but the meer Condition of our Reward And we arrive at Eternal Life not by way of Purchase as we are Servants but of Inheritance as we are Sons It is not here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to deserve but to inherit Eternal Life As Christianity like Manhood hath its several steps and degrees of growth so the Soul as well as the Body doth stand in need of Food and Raiment And agreable to the Complexion of immaterial Beings she is not only bedeck't but sustain'd with Righteousness Now as none can inherit Eternal Life but He that is born of the Spirit And as he that is born of the Spirit must also be nourished with the Spirit before he can possibly live an holy and spiritual Life so it is only God the Spirit that gives us Birth God the Son that gives us Breeding and God the Father that gives us the privilege of Adoption The Spirit feedeth us as his Babes the Son instructs us as his Disciples the Father indows us as his Heirs It is the Spirit that fits us for our Inheritance the Son that gives us a Title to it And 't is especially the Father who doth invest us with the Possession But now of all God's External and Temporal Blessings which have any Resemblance unto his Spiritual methinks the Manna that fell from Heaven is the liveliest Embleme of his Grace Of which though some did gather more and some less yet they that gather'd most had nothing over and they that gather'd least had no lack Thus as Manna like Grace is the Bread of Heaven so Grace like Manna is also measur'd out by Omers For even they that have least of the Grace of God have enough if well us'd to inherit Heaven and even they that have most have not enough to deserve it But still the Parallel goes on For the reason why the Manna which God sent down to the People Israel would not indure above a Day was saith Philo upon the Place lest considering the Care by which their Manna was preserv'd more than the Bounty by which 't was given they might be tempted to applaud not God's Providence but their own Thus if God had bestow'd so full a measure of his Grace as to have left us altogether without our Frailties perhaps our very Innocence might have been our Temptation We might have found it an Inconvenience to have been dangerously Good Like those once happy but ever-since unhappy Angels whose very excellency of Nature did prove a kind of Snare to them even the purity of their Essence did give occasion to their defilement Their very Height and Eminence was that that helpt to pull them down and one reason of their falling was that they stood so firmly For though they were free from that Lust which is the Pollution of the Flesh yet they were lyable to Ambition which is the Filthiness of the Spirit As if their Plethory of Goodness had made them Wantons or the Unweildiness of their Glory had made them Proud 't was from a likeness to their Creator that they aspir'd to an Equality and so they were the first of all the Creatures as well in their Fall as their Perfections Now adding to this the consideration that Ingratitude does gather Increase of Guilt from a greater abundance of Obligations so as the Angels falling from Heaven could not fall less than as low as Hell we may perhaps find a reason for which to congratulate to our selves that Dimensum or Pittance of God's free Grace which hath left us our Infirmities as fit Remembrancers to Humility That being placed in a condition rather of Trembling than of Security every Instance of our defect may send us to God for a Supply God hath given us our Proportion that we may not grumble or despair but not such a Perfection as once to Adam and the Angels before their Fall that we may not like Them be either careless or presume So that making a due comparison of that faint measure of Goodness which now we possibly may have by the Grace of God with that full measure of Glory which now at least we hope for we must be fain to acknowledge when all is done that the greatest measure of our obedience is far from deserving the least of Bliss For as the Sun appears to us a most glorious Body and yet is look't upon by God as a spot of Ink so though the Righteousness of men doth seem to men to be truly such yet compar'd with our Reward it is no more than as filthy Rags That other promise of our Lord Never to see or to taste of Death had been sufficiently above our merits But to inherit Eternal Life too though I cannot affirm it above our wishes yet sure it is often above our Faith Had we no more than we deserv'd we should not have so great Blessings as Rain and Sunshine and God had still been Iust to us had he made our best wages to be as negative as our work For as the best of us all can boast no more than of being less guilty than other men so we can claim no other Reward than to be somewat less punish't that is to be beaten with fewer stripes As the Ox amongst the Iews being unmuzzl'd upon the Mowe by the special appointment of God himself at once did eat and tread the Corn whereby he received his Reward at the very same Instant in which he earn'd it so the Protection of such a Soveraign is Reward enough for our Allegiance and the present Maintenance of a Servant is the usual Recompence of his labour Whatsoever God
his Reason For of this sort are they who creep into Houses and lead captive silly women laden with Sins and led away with divers lusts Ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the Truth After this they are compared to Iannes and Iambres withstanding Moses men of corrupt minds or men of no judgment and Reprobate concerning the Faith 2 Tim. 3. from the first verse unto the ninth This is St. Paul's Exact Description of wicked Doers in the last Days and that in the Bosom of The Church too as learned Beza expresly words it Now whether the last Days refer to the Destruction of Ierusalem or to the End of the World or have an Aspect upon Both which I conceive to be the Best of the Three Opinions we cannot but say it suits well a great deal too well with the Days we live in For § 4. If we consider the Faith of Christ in the first general sense I lately mention'd How is it totally rejected or most wretchedly depraved by the Mahomedans in the Eastern and by the Multitude of Fanaticks in the Western parts of the World what with Heathens and Iews arrant Atheists and empty Theists modern Arrians or Socinians what with Dogmatists and Scepticks and the more brutish Acatalepticks and damnable Hypocrites in Religion who if it is possible may be thought worse than the worst of These How few in Christendom are Christians or more than Professors of Christianity And even of Professors how many are there who in their words do own Christ whilst in their works they quite deny him like Those concerning whom St. Paul saith to Titus They are Abominable Disobedient and to every good work Reprobate Do not the Turks use our Saviour with much more reverence and respect thô they believe him but a meer Prophet than many Thousands of Verbal Christians who do profess him to be a God The Turks chastize their Christian Slaves whensoever their Anger or Impatience moves them to swear or to blaspheme A Turkish Sultan could afford a good Admonition to a Pope and a Christian Emperour that Iesus Christ had commanded them to put up Injuries and Affronts but not to offer or to revenge them How like an Heathen did Iustinian break his Contract with the Mahomedans and how sadly did they make an Example of him How did Nicephorus do the like with the Turkish Aaron and how was he made a like Example A whole victorious Christian Army dead in Drunkenness and Sleep was so cut off by the Saracens during the Reign of Michael Ducas that only a man was left alive to carry home Tidings of that Calamity The Christian Emperour Diogenes found as much Faithfulness and Humanity from the most admirable Axan a Turkish Sultan and an Enemy who took him Pris'ner as he found Falsness and Barbarity from his own Christian Subjects at his Enlargement Lord the wonderful difference between these Two His Turkish Enemy sav'd his life his Christian Subjects took it away And the most Scandalous * Violation of Christian Faith with the Mahomedans to which the impious Pope Eugenius had most unchristianly exhorted the King of Poland cost Ladislaus the signal loss of more than Thirty thousand Soldiers whom their good Father of the Papacy may well be esteemed to have slain To deal impartially with our selves as well as honestly with our Enemies and religiously with our Saviour whose Praediction in my Text I am now justifying and proving what Incouragement have the Turks to joyn themselves with the Christians whilst they observe so many Christians wearing Religion as a Cloak a Cloak to cover Irreligion a Cloak of Maliciousness and Hypocrisie to be put off and on as occasion serves a Cloak for Knavery and Sedition and Violation of Oaths What Invitations or Inducements have the Worshippers of Mahomed to be converted to Christianity whilst for one Drunkard in Turky They see there are Multitudes in Christendom or whilst they fear by turning Christians they shall be under the Persecution of Fellow Christians whereas continuing to be Turks the Christians can do them but little Hurt or whilst they find Christian Princes buying Peace of the Great Turk that they may break it with one another or whilst they hear that Prosperity is avowed by many Christians to be a Mark of the True Religion or whilst they read that a most gracious and religious Christian King Charles the First of Great Britain was cruelly kill'd in cold Blood by his Christian Subjects and by the best sort of Christians as some esteem them at least as They esteem Themselves Dissenting Protestants and Reformers Refiners of The Reformation and even Menders of the Magnificat Now what says The Mahomedan within himself and to others on this occasion If such as These are the Characters whereby Christians are to be known and Christians of the purer sort too Christians tenderer in Conscience than others are Christians scrupling at a Surplice or Cross in Baptism sit Anima mea cum paganis The Turkish Musulman will say Let my Soul be with Theirs who never once heard of the Christian Creed O my Soul says the Infidel come not Thou into their Secret to their Assembly mine Honour be not Thou united For in their Anger they slew a Man and in their self-will they digged down a strong Wall Him who was to His People for Walls and Bulwarks Cursed be their Anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruel Such is the Infidel's Indignation thô expressed in the words of a most Faithful dying Iacob concerning two of his own Sons Unto which may be added That other Prophecy of the same Iacob touching the same combining Sons as Sons of Violence and Bloodshed that sooner or later God will divide them in Iacob and scatter them in Israel § 5. But let us consider whether The Iews have greater incouragement than The Turks to unite with Those Christians in point of Faith who hold that None is to be kept with their Fellow-Christians if forsooth they are not fully of their Perswasion and for That reason only are called Hereticks The Italian Iews at this day do hate Adultery to the Death whilst they observe Italian Christians do hardly accompt it a greater Crime than to eat Flesh upon a Friday The Iews are so much at unity within themselves that as covetous as they are and how much soever scatter'd abroad they have a kind of Community of Goods and Fortunes in that they leave not their Poor ones without Relief nor their Captives without a Ransom Whereas the Christians they observe and as well Protestants as Papists are full of Enmity and Strife and perhaps of somewhat more than Vatinian Hatreds from whence arise their Departures and Separations from one another They will not meet to serve God under one and the same Roof with their Christian Brethren for fear they should obey Man and the Laws in force Now the Iews cannot
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
Temporal Father He that spareth his Rod hateth his Child is often true of the Eternal who intends to disinherit those Incorrigible Children whom he does not in mercy vouchsafe to strike And in consequence of This § 18. A Fourth Reason is to be taken from the obligingness of the Severity of the Heavenly Father towards his Children whom he disciplines in This World that he may not condemn them in the Next For whom he loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth We have had Fathers of our Flesh who corrected us and we gave them Reverence saith the same Holy Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews though they chastised us for their pleasure Whereas the Father of Spirits does only chastise us for our profit And for our profit many ways To wit for the exercise of our Faith for the proof of our Patience for the Improvement of our Humility for the begetting in all our Hearts both a Contempt of This World and a Desire of That to come for the convincing us of his Iustice which is so far from partiality that he does hate and punish Sin where e're he finds it as well in his Friends as in his Enemies As he causeth the Sun to shine so he lays his Rod too both on the just and the unjust For even they that are poenitent do feel its smart for a Time And They that abide in their Impoenitence shall feel it infinitely more to all Eternity Again He chastiseth us for our Profit because for the hight'ning of our Reward perhaps in This present life perhaps in That which is to come perhaps in This and That too And of This we have Iob for a new Example For had not He been more Afflicted as well as more Righteous than other men He had not been so Proverbial as now he is as well for his Patience as his Integrity In the first Chapter of Iob God permitted the Devil to take all from him But in the last Chapter of Iob God gave him twice as much as he had before Nay the Almighty had so mollified the Marble-hearts of his Acquaintance that every man gave him a piece of money and every one an ear-ring of Gold His later end saith the Text was more blessed than his beginning He regain'd his seven Sons and his Daughters were the fairest amongst the Children of men Yea that nothing might be wanting to make him amends for his Adversity He liv'd and prosper'd after This no less than an hundred and forty years seeing his Sons and Son's Sons even to four Generations Such was his Reward in the present life But infinitely more in the life to come Such as none can conceive much less describe but He who is himself as Infinite as That Reward is Inexpressible To sum up all in a word and in the word of the same Apostle God corrects us for our profit to make us partakers with him in Holiness and that to no lesser end than to make us also sharers with Him in Heaven § 19. The very mention of which does prompt me to give a fifth and last Reason A Reason to be fetch 't from the Life after Death and the Day of Iudgment Without which Topick all the rest are worth nothing and were there no other than This it would be equal to a Thousand If in this life only we had hope we should be saith St. Paul of all men the most miserable From whence I gather That having an Hope in the life to come we are of All sorts of men by much the happiest The Psalmist sweetned all his Sorrows with this single Consideration That the Rod of the wicked shall not evermore rest upon the Back of the Righteous For verily saith He there is a Reward for the Righteous doubtless there is a God that judgeth the Earth The Devils may very well be said to believe and tremble For they do tacitly acknowledge by that their Question put to Christ Art thou come to torment us before the Time That however they are permitted their time of Pleasure yet they tremblingly expect their time of pain too Whatsoever things are taken from Good men here St. Peter tells us There is a Time of Restitution Whatsoever Good men do suffer here in the Body the Prophet Hosea puts our thoughts upon Days of Recompence Isaiah calls it The year of Recompence and the Day of the Lord's Vengeance How could Moses have preferred the Reproach of Christ as much greater Riches than the Treasures in Egypt if he had not had respect unto the Recompence of Reward How could David himself have been kept from fainting if he had not thus expected to see the Goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living Wherefore lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees In every shock of Temptation from suffering wrongs let us take up the words of the Prophet Ieremy for our support The Lord God of Recompences shall surely requite Words most worthy of our daily if not of hourly Consideration that we may not faint in well-doing or in suffering for doing well It is indeed a great Temptation and apt to make ones feet slip to see the Possessions of the World in the Devil's Power and Disposal But our Remedy is at hand if we shall constantly bear in mind the other part of my Proposition That 't is All by God's Patience and wise Permission And that there will a Day come when God will make up his Iewels putting a very signal difference between the wicked and the righteous between the men that serve God and Them that persecute their Brethren for having serv'd him Here the Tares and the Wheat grow up together till the Harvest yea the Tares do overgrow and bear down the Wheat and many times do choak it up too That grand Leviathan the Devil is suffer'd here even to swim in the Tears of the Righteous to bathe himself in That Brine and many times in their very Blood too But 't is a Corrosive to the former no less than a Cordial to the later That God is said to have a Book of Remembrance That the Devourers of the Righteous are established for Iudgment And that they who wax fat with the Spoils of Innocence are prepar'd like Sheep for the day of slaughter And that He who at present goeth on his way weeping whilst he beareth forth good Seed shall doubtless come again with Ioy and bring his Sheafs with him And that in due time we shall reap if we faint not Add we to this our due Reflexions on the Patience of Iob and the Afflictions of Ioseph Take we the Prophets for an Example and Him expecially who indured such Contradictions of Sinners against himself lest we be wearied and faint in our minds I say let us but read such parts of Scripture and but remember what we read and but believe what we remember
in Prosperity Polycrates of Samos was sure the man Who yet was so far from being the happier for his felicities that his felicities did afflict him more than any thing else could It did not trouble him a little That he had nothing to vex him and that the Goods he would part with he could not lose Nor was it strange or without reason that his Felicities were so irksom and grievous to him For his Friend Amasis King of Aegypt had told him the danger of his Successes and that he took them for the Prognosticks of he-knew-not-what Miseries in time to come He told Polycrates in Effect the same that Solon told Croesus and what is now a By-word in our Ethick Systemes Ante obitum nemo supremáque funera felix None can be certain of his Happiness before his Death He said he never knew any so over-fortunate in his life who did not come to some dismal End And as he chose for himself an wholsom Mixture of Adversity with good Success so he durst not continue Friendship with one condemn'd to have his Portion of Good things Here with one who was doom'd to a praeproperous untimely Bliss He having a dread and an abhorrence of too much Happiness upon Earth as that which he thought provok'd the Anger and the Iealousy of Heaven if not the Envy Now 't is observable in Herodotus who gives us the History of it at large That what was prophesy'd by Amasis was by Oraetes made good For all the Felicities of Polycrates did justly end in his Crucifixion So true is That of the Philosopher however most persons may think it strange Res inquieta felicitas est ipsa se exagitat movet Cerebrum non uno genere alios in Cultum irritat alios in potentiam alios inflat alios mollit If English can express it perhaps it may be thus rendred Worldly Greatness is a restless unquiet thing a Plague and Affliction unto it self and to all that own it It exagitates the Heads and Hearts of men several ways some it intoxicates with Cruelty and some with Pride some it stirs up to Luxury and some to Lust some it swells up and some it softens As the Sun at the same time does harden Clay and melt Wax some it makes so obdurate as to turn them into a Rock and some it dissolves into arrant loosness § 7. Which by the way suggests to us a Third Reason for the Dissuasive from any man's seeking Great Things for himself and for God's Prohibition Seek them not They being treacherous and deceiptful not only to the outward but inward man not only in a Secular but moral Sense not only to the Bodies but Souls of men They are corruptive even of Principles as making their owners to imagin that Honour Intitles them to Ambition that Pride belongs to men of Power that Greatness gives them a Right to Arrogance From which Corruption of Judgment it comes to pass that many others as well as Baldwin That most famously devout Cistercian Monk have been observ'd by Historians to lose their Sanctity with their Obscureness and after the measure of growing Greater to grow in all kinds the worse In so much that Pope Urban directed his Letters very fitly to Baldwin Thus Monacho ferventissimo Abbati calido Episcopo tepido Archiepiscopo remisso Salutem plurimam impertimus It is so common for men to change from good to bad or from bad to worse with the change of their Conditions from bad to good or from good to better and when they are lifted up in Honour to be elevated in Mind too that Titus Vespasian is the one Emperour at least within my present memory who was moulded by his Empire from bad to better from having been both a proud and a cruel Subject to his being both a mild and an humble Soveraign Of most other Emperours it may be said as 't was by Tacitus but of one Imperio digni nisi imperâssent They might have been worthy of their Empires if they never had been Emperours Temporal Happiness having This of malignant in it in the Judgment of Agur the Son of Iakeh that it makes men forgetful of Him that made them Deut. 32. 15 18. It breeds ingratitude disaffection and at last a disbelief of their Soveraign Good Prov. 30. 8 9. 'T was the Opinion of St. Chrysostom upon St. Paul to the Ephesians that as nothing can so highly provoke the Wrath of the Almighty as the Sin of breeding Factions in Church and State So there is nothing that can so easily beget such Factions in either of them as the Seeking of Preferments and Greatness in it For where the most of men are seeking Great Things for Themselves there are Few to take care of the Common Good either in relation to Church or State And the way to Advancement through such an excess of Self-seeking becomes too Narrow which 't is the Interest of the Publick to make as Broad as it is possible that so the Candidates going towards it may not tread on one another for want of Room to go by or at least for want of Room to go by quietly and without jostling Lord what Armies have been defeated if not destroy'd too by the chief Officers great Envy and malignant Aemulations of one another We need not go far abroad for Examples of it if we are not utter Strangers to things which have happen'd here at Home And Christians one would think should All take warning by Christ's Disciples who were impertinently disputing which of Them should be the greatest when nothing but Pains and Persecutions and Death it self did await them All. There was a Time when great Numbers did take fair warning by That Example But not to spend time in the Enumeration of Particulars for the enumerating of which my time would fail me it shall suffice me to say in general and by the Authority of St. Austin that most of the better sort of men who had the Happiness to live in those better Times did suffer violence and force in their vast Promotions For being exceedingly afraid of the great Dignities they were offer'd and much more ready to quit their Country than to run the great risque of Advancement in it they were fain to be press'd and kept in Prison 'till they could bring their Wills down to admit of Greatness Thus the most Modern of our Great Doctors of the most Primitive Simplicity a man as wise as he was learned and as good as good Nature by Grace could make him was truly afraid to live so long as to see the happy Day he had daily pray'd for partly for his own sake lest the bettering of the Times should possibly make him grow worse than he was before and lest Advancement should corrupt him whom the contrary Condition had kept Intire partly for the sake of the Publick also lest a Deluge of Prosperity overflowing all the Borders of Church and State might
by Snatches but that the Residue of his Time might be wholly God's Many others might here be nam'd Seven at least I am sure who eas'd themselves as being weary of the Great Seal of England in order to their advancement unto far greater things in a World to come And thô it cannot be deny'd but that being Persons of most incorruptible Integrity they might safely have continued in their Great Iudicatures on Earth without the danger of being cast in the Court of Heaven yet they resolv'd to take the Way which they thought the surest as knowing it better to make it easy than meerly possible to be sav'd For they consider'd what they well knew as well by Scripture as by Reason as well by History as by Experience as well by other men's Experience as by their own that thô it is not quite impossible yet'tis a difficult thing on Earth for the very same man to be Great and Innocent to be a Favourite both of This and the other World to fare as deliciously as Dives all his Days here below and yet at last to lye with Lazarus in Abraham's Bosom I am sure Sir Thomas Randolph thought it a thing so rare and difficult to be a man of much Publick and Secular Business and at the same Time to be fit to dye that by Letters he exhorted his intimate Friend Sir Francis Walsingham to bid adieu to all the Wiles of a Principal Secretary of State as He himself had newly done to all the Frauds or an Embassadour for the Number of his Embassies had been no less than Eighteen and to prepare himself by a penitent and private life for the life to come An Admonition very seasonable in regard of Both Persons concerned in it Walsingham to whom and Randolph himself by whom 't was given For they had long liv'd together as eminent Ministers of State and neither of them liv'd long from after the time of This Advice Nor did the one outlive the other above a Month or two at most What induced Queen Mary the Royal Sister of Charles the Fifth to quit her Government of Belgium in Exchange for a private and quiet Life 't is very easy to conjecture but hard to tell Perhaps 't was chiefly out of Reverence to the Example of her Brother as 't was done the same Day wherein He laid down his Empire and Crown of Spain and even wept out of Compassion to his poor Brother and his Son Philip whose feeble Shoulders were now to sink under two such Loads to wit the Kingdom of Spain and the German Empire I say whatever was Her Inducement to do a thing above the Rate of her Sex and Breeding sure we are that Queen Etheldred was wholly induced by her Devotion to forsake the Pomps and Pleasures she might have liv'd in all her days as the Daughter of one King the Widow of another and the Wife of a Third had she not thought it an happier choice to live retiredly in an Abby which she had built and indow'd and was the Abbess of till her Death And not to mention Queen Christina of Sweden or Bambas of Spain unless it be thus by a Paralipsis no fewer than Nine of our own Saxon Kings within the Space of Two hundred years did freely relinquish their Crowns and Kingdoms To which I add That when Ionadab impos'd That strict Command upon his Sons to drink no Wine to build no House to sow no Seed to plant no Vineyard and all their days to dwell in Tents in little despicable Huts by the River Iordan He did not only so command them to shew his Dominion and his Will or only to exercise their Obedience and Self-denial But because he did esteem it the safest state and condition to help enable them for an Innocent and Pious Life § 21. Another Use of This Text is with a Distinction to contradict it We must not seek Great Things for our selves because we must Not Great Things because the Greatest For what can be Greater than a Kingdom and what so Great Kingdom as the Kingdom of God to the seeking of which our Lord excites us Matth. 6. 33. So by St. Paul we are commanded to seek those things that are above Col. 3. 1. Not above us here on Earth but above every thing that is Earthy Nor are we only to seek God's Kingdom thô vastly Great But what is infinitely Greater we are to seek God himself who is The Great Rewarder of Them that diligently seek him and The Rewarder of None besides Heb. 11. 6. Thus the Dehortative Seek not is strongly inforced and urged on by a vehement Exhortation Seek Those Things that are Above Seek the Greatest Things imaginable and Seek them for your selves too Ye have not here a continuing City and therefore Seek one to come For what says the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews The life we have is worth Nothing compar'd with That we hope for Which being yet hid with Christ in God we must seek and seek on till we find it out Some things are Great which are not Good and some are Good but not Great But These are the Good and Great Things which alone are worth seeking and which we are not only allow'd but bid and bound to seek after In comparison with These The Life which is hid with Christ in God The Kingdom of God and God Himself we ought to slight the arrant Nothingness of the Things here below which by a pitiful Catachresis the World calls Great and as devoutly seeks after as after an Heaven upon Earth So every Hillock is a Great thing with a Community of Emmets wherewith 't is Peopled thô 't is not determin'd by Philosophers whether like Bees they are a Kingdom or like some other Insects a Commonwealth But yet as Great as That Hillock does seem to Them we know 't is no bigger in respect of all the Earth than All the Earth in respect of Heaven And yet so it is notwithstanding their littleness and their contemptibility we do no more excel Them in point of Quantity and Strength than they do us in the good Qualities of Peace and Prudence For all Communities of Emmets are still at Agreement among Themselves are never indanger'd much less destroy'd by any Intestine or Homebred either Divisions or Insurrections Whereas We have a Kingdom so sadly divided against It self that wicked men hope and wise men fear and there is ground for a suspicion it cannot long stand § 22. Now to shew the Real Littleness the Prophet Esa calls it the Nothingness of the Great Things below being weighed in the Ballance with Those Above It will not probably be amiss to put them Both into the Scales that so we may see how much the later weigh down the former First the Great Things below are but figuratively such and secundum quid somewhat Great in Appearance but not indeed or only Great in their relation to what is very much less and