And again Oh taste and see how good the Lord is once I confess in the Paroxism of a sore Temptation he spake like one of the foolish world I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency Psalm 73.13 But will ye believe what a man saith when his head is hot and light in the fit of a Fever rather than when he is in his true and right temper No sooner was this fit off but he befools and be beasts himself and blesseth himself in his approaching happiness Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me unto Glory verse 24. And from this hope takes faster hold of God and his Holy ways But it is good for me to draw near to God ver 28. And surely one affirmative testimony of a Saint in vindication of God and Religion is of more weight than a thousand negative testimonies of the wicked world to the contrary who speak evil of what they understand not condemn Religion before they have tryed it and disgrace that service they were never in Whereas the godly man hath served both Masters and speaks from his own experience where most is to be got professing that he hath nothing to shew of his gettings in the service of sin but shame But in the Lords service present fruit unto Holiness and a hope of Eternal life afterward In a word needs there any more to make this appear a false slander than to observe how these very wretches upon a sick-bed when they apprehend themselves on the marches of death do Court Religion which in their jollity they Cart and Scourge with their reviling Tongues Oh how glad would they then be to creep into a Saints cloaths and go by his name how desirous to dye the Righteous mans death and to have an end like his Oh how afraid to look into another world or to think of going hence as they are Doth not all this speak that they themselves secretly think there is more reality in Religion and the Eternal consequences of it than they will in their Prosperity confess The truth is God hath their Conscience on his side but their Lusts have their Hearts and these are they which gag their Conscience that it may not speak what it would but at last Conscience is even with them and revengeth the violence offered to it upon them And for stoping its mouth a while opens it the wider at last both in accusing them for this their past wickedness and terrifying them with the fearful expectation of the Dismal Tempest of Fire and Brimstone ready now to pour down upon them Thus as the hardest Frosts when they break leave the deepest slugs behind them so doth the greatest Dedolency and insensibility in an Irreligious life leave sinners when Conscience recovers its sense and feeling sticking fast in the deepest horror and desperation Secondly This convicts the carnal world of gross folly in refusing the service of God where the reward of their labour is so sure and incomprehensibly great and for misplacing their pains and labour for that which is neither sure to be obtained nor much worth the having if it be gotten and so in both respects labour in vain First the sinner labours for what he is not sure to obtain The world hath not to this day been able to give a certain rule whereby the covetous Worldling can be sure after all his toyl and drudgery that he shall be rich nor the ambitious that he shall get up the hill of honour and not catch a fall in climbing it the world is too like a Lottery where men know not whether they shall draw a Prize or Blank Though all come with heads full of hopes and projects into the world yet most go out with hearts full of shame and sorrow for their disappointments But in Religion there is such a certain rule laid down in the good Word of God that whoever walks by it Peace is upon him say ye to the Righteous it shall be well with him Mark the Perfect man and behold the Vpright for the end of that man is Peace Psalm 37.37 They that wait on the Lord shall not be ashamed because not disappointed of their hope but some carnal men will tell you whatever the world is to others yet they can say their labour is not in vain This worldling who hath prospered in his way can shew you his filled bags and tell you how many hundreds a year he puts up as clear gain into his Purse The Voluptuous person will tell you stories of the many merry Meetings he hath been at Months and Years of Pleasure he hath enjoyed saying with the carnal Jews These are the rewards our Lovers have given us Hosea 2.12 How then say you that we labour upon such uncertainties In the second place therefore the prize that sinners get by all their Labour it is not so much worth as to save them from losing their Labour For First What they have got will ere long leave them Secondly It will deceive them Thirdly It will damn them First It will leave them It is not in the power of mans wit to devise a way how the Ambitious man should keep his honour long except his preferment could change his Nature and make him immortal he is alas still of the same clay with other men as he was before The Rainbow is a common watry Cloud no more durable than the rest though painted for a time with gayer colours That which hath been is named already and it is known that it is man Eccles 6.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lump of red earth that must return ere long to his first dust As impossible it is for the Covetous man to make his estate sure to him his Riches will make wings to themselves though he doth not as the Prodigal make wings for them fly away they will and that toward Heaven also to accuse him and be a witness against him at the last day If he should not see them flown from him while he lives yet to be sure when Death's Gun goes off these and all the sinners joys will flye away at once And how near a step it is to Death the very Heathens can tell you by their Hyroglyphick of an open eye for life and an eye shut for death intimating that death may come ictu oculi mans life may be closed up as soon as an eye can be shut And is it not folly and madness to bestow all a mans Labour to raise the hopes of his Felicity on such loose ground where his building may fall as soon as it is up this made Solomon hate all his labour under the Sun Eccles 2.17 Because when he had done all he must leave all Secondly What Carnal men labour for will deceive them Satan and the World are both very free of their Promises to their Vassals and Servants All these things will I give thee said he if thou wilt fall down and
is But where may some say dwell these Men I am now directing my speech unto I wish they did not swarm every where and made not the greatest number in most of our Towns and Congregations I shall point at a few First He that conceits himself a Christian and nourisheth in him an hope of Salvation even whilst his life is prophane he no doubt thinks it too easie to be a Christian when a man shall think Christ will own him as his meerly for his Christian name and not reject him for his Heathenish Practices thinks that his heart is good though his life be wicked whereas his life could not be wicked if his heart was not so for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh when men shall think they are Gods Servants though they be the Devils Labourers that God is their Friend when they declare themselves every day his Enemies In a word to think they shall leap at death è coeno in coelum out of Delilahs lap into Abrahams bosom is not this to make it an easie thing to be a Christian and no hard matter to be saved and where is any one who hath not first been convinced from some work of the Spirit so bad that is not yet thus kind to himself yea have they not commonly the strongest Faith who have the weakest Grounds for it they build up Sion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity yet will they lean upon the Lord and say is not the Lord amongst us none evil can come upon us Who knocks more boldly at Heaven Gate to be let in than they whom Christ will reject as workers of iniquity O what a delusion is this Caligula never made himself more ridiculous than when he would be honoured as a God while he lived more like a Devil Before you would have others take you for Christians for Gods sake prove your selves men and not beasts as you do by your bruitish lives Talk not of your hopes of Salvation so long as the marks of Damnation are seen upon your flagitious lives If the way to Heaven were thus easie I promise you the Saints in all Ages have been much over-seen to take so great pains in mortifying their lusts in denying to satisfie their sensual appetite ad quid perditio haec to what purpose did they make so much waste of their sweat in their zealous serving God and of their tears that they could serve him no better if they might have gone to Heaven as these men hope to do That Fryar was far more sound in his judgment in this Point who Preaching at Rome one Lent when some Cardinals and many other great ones were present began his Sermon thus abruptly and Ironically Saint Peter was a Fool Saint Paul was a Fool and all the Primitive Christians were Fools for they thought the way to Heaven was by Prayers and Tears Watchings and Fastings severities of Mortification and denying the pomp and glory of this World Whereas you here in Rome spend your time in Balls and Masks live in Pomp and Pride Lust and Luxury and yet count your selves good Christians and hope to be saved but at last you will prove the Fools and they will be found to have been the Wise men Did ever any man arrive at London by going from it every sin is a step from God and the more we sin the further we depart from God Doth not he then take a wise course to come at last to the full enjoyment of God in Heaven who by a lend wicked life runs as far from him as his legs can carry him Secondly They who think they are good Christians and fair enough for Heaven though they have no more then a Negative Holiness the best that can be said of them is they are not so bad as the worst they do not take so much pains for Hell as others but none for Heaven they labour not so much in the Devils work but work not at all for God like those in the Gospel they stand idle all the day long and yet hope for a peny at night though they never entred into Christs Vineyard they are so far from labouring in the work of the Lord that they will not touch his work with one of their fingers Do not these think it very easie to be Christians as if God was bound to save them but they not bound to serve them Is not Heaven called a reward and what reward can be expected where no work is done if some that work shall be denyed all reward because they did not labour at it and some seek that shall not be able to enter because they do not strive then miserable must thy condition be who fallest short of those who themselves fall short of Heaven Thirdly Formalists and slothful Christians and how many are these who will not be Atheists to live without all Religion but resolve not to be Zealots They are more then key-cold but are afraid to be too hot in their work they are not idle but cannot be perswaded to be diligent they love such a temper in Religion for their Souls as they do a Climate for their Bodies to live in it must be a very temperate one afraid to exceed only in Piety and Holiness in which alone there can be no excess Oh what a delusion is this he that will chuse another temper for his Religion than God hath commanded had need provide another Heaven for himself than God hath prepared for that is given to the zealous Labourer not the lazie Loiterer The violent are they which take this Kingdom by force a man may be sure of Hell with a little pains but Heaven will certainly be lost without our labour and diligence and the reason is because every man is born in a state of sin and damnation and so needs no more than to fit still in that state to bring inevitable destruction upon him to Hell he will come soon enough though he gallop not so fast as others in riot and excess But alas we are born afar off from God and Heaven much labour is required to get into the way that leads to life Eternal and when we are in it many a weary step to take abundance of work to dispatch sins to mortifie temptations to resist afflictions to endure impaired Graces to repair weak to strengthen and to persevere in all this labour till death it self takes us off This we must do or else as Saint Paul said of their abiding in the Ship we cannot be saved It is with the Christians Spiritual Life in this respect as with his natural his body hath within it self that which is sufficient to cause the death of it but not to maintain its life This provision is without as a man he will dye though he make no use of knife or halter to dispatch himself not taking food or not using physick will do it alone Thus the Christian hath enough within him to procure his Spiritual death and
is the gift of God Ephes 2.8 And this Faith is called a Faith of the operation of God Colos 2.12 't is wrought in us not by us Not only the light of truth which the Christian sees is Divine but the eye of Faith by which he sees this light is Divine also how certain must that knowledge be which in the light of Gods Spirit beholds the light of Gods Truth now from this Word of God the Christian is assured of this reward many ways First He is assured of it by Jesus Christ who himself came from Heaven and makes report thereof In my Fathers house are many Mansions if it were not so I would have told you John 14.2 As if he had said you may belief me for I speak it that cannot lye and who loves you too well to put a cheat upon you That there are such Countries as France and Holland you do not doubt though you never saw them because some that have assure you it is true and shall the Saint be blamed for relying on Christs own faithful Word who cometh from Heaven is above all and what he hath seen and heard that he testifyeth John 3.32 Secondly The Christian knows it by the purchase Christ hath made of Heaven for Believers Mans sin had shut Heaven door against him and opened Death and Hells door upon him now before God would or indeed could set open again this door of life to poor sinners it was necessary that his Glory should first be secured which to do this admirable expedient the Divine Wisdom contrived that Christ should dye for sinners by which both Death the punishment of mans sin might be abolished and life and immortality which man had lost might be restored and brought to light again 2 Tim. 1.10 Hence it is said It became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many Sons unto Glory to make the Captain of their Salvation perfect through sufferings Heb. 2.10 Mark that it became him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there was a condecency for God thus to do God never doth any thing that doth not become him in all his works he acts like himself every work declaring his Glory but not all alike Now God in the Redemption of the world intending to make the greatest manifestation of his Glory that ever he did It became him to pitch on such a means as was sutable to such an end and this of bringing his People to Glory by the abasement of his own Son to an ignominious and cursed death was the expedient he resolved upon as every way condecent to this design and indeed never did all the Divine Attributes appear in all their Glory so as they do here According therefore to this Eternal Council of Gods Will and Love in the fullness of time the Son of God was cloathed with our Flesh laid down his life took it up again and further to shew he had got a full triumph over death and had opened Heaven gates for Believers He opened the Graves of many of the dead Saints and raised them to life as a pledge that he would do the same in due time for the rest So that now to doubt whether there be an Eternal life for the Saints after death is to make the whole Gospel a fiction Thirdly They know it by the actual possession which Christ hath already taken of Heaven for them A Child thinks himself sure of an Estate when his Father not only purchaseth it but also taketh it up for him Thus did Christ ascend to Heaven not only to sit down on his own Throne but to take and keep possession of Heaven for the behoof and benefit of Believers Hence they are said to sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus that is in him as their head which is a certain pledge to them they shall one day sit with him there in their own persons Because I live saith Christ ye shall live also Indeed he lives there to make Intercession for them and will never leave praying till he hath prayed them up unto himself I may say to Believers as once Naomi to Ruth sit still for the man will not cease till he hath finished the thing Christ will not cease his Mediatory work till he hath finished his peoples happiness and got his betrothed Spouse home to him in his Fathers house 4 ly He knows the certainty of this happy estate by the many express Promises made to Believers of it I cannot number them they are so many neither need I name them there being no Child of God so little I hope acquainted with his Saviours Will and Testament as not to be able to turn on a sudden to many places where this Inheritance is setled on them The greatest Heir that lives is the Saint He is heir to both Worlds having Promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come But the grand promise of all is that which gives him title to his Heavenly Inheritance In one place they are called Heirs of Promise in another Heirs of Salvation because this is the Crowning Promise Heaven it is called their Hope till this comes he hath not his Portion all he hath here is the least of what is promised But when Heaven comes then all is paid the Bond then is delivered in Faith and Hopes work is done The Christian who on Earth believes and expects Promises shall in Heaven inherit Promises there Faith shall be turned into Vision and Hope swallowed up in Fruition Now though nothing can make Heaven more sure to the Believer than Gods Promise no not the Oath of God it self because it is as impossible for God to lye without an Oath as with it for being he can swear by no greater he sweareth only by himself and so the strength even of his Oath lyeth in his Veracity which is engaged in his Promise as well as Oath yet he is graciously pleased ex abundanti consulting therein with our frailty to superadd all those things to his Promise by which men in contracts amongst themselves do conceive a further confirmation and security to to be given for performance of their Promises one to another as witnesses Seal Oath and Earnest that having these Securities which are wont to satisfie us in Humane Promises the sin of distrusting Gods performance of his might appear the more unreasonable in us and injurious to him as indeed it is beyond all expression when those Securities will not assure our hearts concerning the performance of Gods Promises than which we cannot exact more from those men that are most unresponsable or deceitful Secondly The Saints reward is described by its Transcendency your labour is not in vain in the Lord. In the explication of which Phrase I shewed that there is more implyed than is exprest That the Christians labour shall be highly unspeakably rewarded the place where the reward is laid up proves the transcendency of it and that is
worship me But alas when the promised Feast comes to be served in it proves as we say nothing between two dishes They spend their Money for that which is not Bread they labour for that which doth not profit yea 't is worse than nothing For Bread they have Stones for Fish Scorpions given them instead of content they have vexation and a sting in their Conscience Hence the wicked are said to work a deceitful work Prov. 11.18 Deceitful because it deceiveth the worker would not he be deceived who labours hard all day in hope of a good reward at night from his Master but is then paid with nothing but a good Cudgel upon his bones This is the reward which Sinners have even in this life many a blow and stripe laid upon him by his Conscience which others do not see but he feels he expects a Paradise but finds a Purgatory and not only so but sometimes God testifying openly against him in his Judgments No doubt Gehazi pleased himself with his Plot whereby he might get in one day more than he was like to do in many years service of his Master Oh how brave should he be when his new Cloaths were on his back but alas he did not think of that other Garment of Leprosie which God would bestow on him a Garment not like others to cover his shame but to discover and proclaim his sin a Garment that should last him to wear and his Children from Generation to Generation Thirdly That which the Sinner labours for will not only leave and deceive but also everlastingly damn him they do not only labour for vanity but they labour in the fire for it Habak 2. Hell fire I am sure will be the end of their labour what the Apostle saith of one sort of Sinners They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition is as true of the rest He that will have Pleasures or he that will have Honour an Heart set violently on any thing here below that makes it his Treasure to enjoy and therefore his chief Labour to obtain this man must needs fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and hurtful lusts which without Gods merciful hand snatching him out of their Clutches are sure to drown them in Eternal Perdition Was Shimei unwise who by going out of his Precincts to recover his run-away Servants lost his own life How much more folly and madness is it by hunting after the run-away Vanities of the Creature that are but thy servants to lose the life of thy Soul Cur ea quae ad usum diuturna esse non possunt ad supplicium diuturna deposces Why wilt thou oh man make that which is but temporary in the use eternal is thy punishment Who would crave the sweetest morsel in the world which after the short Pleasure in swallowing of it down would cause intollerable gripes in his Bowels for but a month and wilt thou devour that which thou must be digesting in Hell with Torments as endless as easless Secondly Of Exhortation to all that are at present in the service of Sin to be perswaded to change your Master Oh come now into the Lords service that at death you may enter into your Lords joy enter into his Vineyard now that you may have your penny at night amongst his Faithful Labourers labour for God in this world that you may rest with God from your labours in the other It is said of Caesar that when he had brought his Army so near Rome that they might see it before them he bad his Souldiers look upon it wishly saying What think you is not yonder brave City worth Fighting for I have been speaking of another guess place Let me desire you to look once again up to the Heavenly Jerusalem the City and Chamber of the great King where is laid up this goodly reward spoken to is it not worth the labouring for and going to though every step of the way were to be trod on points of Swords Is it not a blessed thing to behold God face to face to be ever with the Lord to bathe thy self in those Pleasures that are at his right hand to drink the wine of the Kingdom in the Kingdom of Heaven it self Wilt thou lose it as Lysimachus did his worldly Kingdom by staying to drink a draught of puddle water the muddy pleasures of Sin for a season long thou canst not stay here Doth it not behove thee to make sure of an house above to receive thee when thou art turned out of thy Earthly Tabernacle here and if it doth must thou not become his Servant do his work or never look for his reward And if thou wilt do it when mean'st thou to set about it if not now Heaven is won or lost here now and ever now or never When death takes thee off the stage think not to have leave to return that thou mayst act thy part better Times loss is the most irrecoverable thou mayst lose thy Ring and find it again thy House may be burnt and built again but if time be lost that never can be recovered Death is a change that puts into an unchangeable state the Saint into a state of Bliss the Sinner into a state of Misery Heaven the reward of Gods Labourers and Hell the wages of wicked Workers and Loiterers Oh think and think again before it be too late what rapping there will be at Heaven Gate what calling and crying to be let in yea even by those who now when it stands open may and will not and therefore then shall have no other answer than that of our Saviour I never knew you depart from me ye that work iniquity let him pay you that set you on work Sinners you think that at present you have the odds and advantage of the Saints they are Macerating themselves with Fasting while you are pampering your selves with Feasting they are Mourning for their Sins while you are Pleasurably committing yours they are Afflicted and you are at Ease you get the World and they lose it But then the Tables will be turned they will recover all their losses here and thou lose all thy gain their sorrows will take leave of them never to trouble them more but thy joys will be at end and thy sorrows come in the room of them In a word they shall be comforted and you tormented 2. To the Saints Walk in the view of this your reward and make an holy improvement of it in your lives That which is the end of our Faith viz. Salvation should be propounded as the end of all our actings and have an influence into our whole course Finis principium est omnium operationum it should have the nature of a Direction what to do and of a Motive to inforce and invigorate us in all we do As the Bird is guided by its Train and the Ship by its Rudder
Actions now thou thinkest thy self Religious enough with thy infrequent Devotions if thou canst get to the Church once in a week and into thy Closet for a few moments once in a day it is well But when thou comest to dye thou wilt then complain how thou hast starved thy Soul and robbed thy God of much time which might and ought to have been imployed in Communion with him and working out thy own Salvation Now a few Pence out of thy great Estate passeth for Charity but when death comes to sweep all away at once then thou wilt complain thou hast been a niggard of thy Purse and didst not honour God with thy Substance Now though thou speakest but once or twice in a Moon of God and Heaven in thy Family and very seldom dost Catechise thy Children and that but formally without any affection or with little desire to affect them with the concernment of those Truths thou instructest them in yet thou pleasest thy self in having done thy duty to them so well But when death's cold sweat shall warn you of your approaching Dissolution then thou wilt bewail that Religion was so seldom the subject of thy discourse in your Family that you did not more constantly instruct your Children and Servants and when you did that you did not more passionately endeavour to move their affections and draw their hearts to the love and liking of Religion in its Truths and the practice of them Thirdly Improve the hope thou hast for this reward to make thee live above this present world Truly thou mayst well be content with a little here who lookest for so much hereafter If the Labourer hath but meat and drink at his work he asketh no more but stays willingly for the rest till night when he is to receive his wages If thou hast Food and Rayment here and Heaven at the end doth not God deal well with thee Oh 't is for want of Faith in the Promise and activity in our Hope to exercise it self on this Blessed Object that we are so having and craving after the things of this world and so dissatisfied with our portion here We read of Solomon that he made Silver to be in Jerusalem as stones Cedars as the Sycomore trees 1 Kings 10.27 The Christian might do more had he a lively Faith and Hope he might make all this worlds Glory Pleasures and Treasures to be but as dirt and dung in his valuation from what he expects to be preferred to within a while in Heaven And he is the happier man that can live above the world than he that swims in all its abundance It is for want of better Metal that Leather and Copper are stamped for Coin and for want of Faith or exercising it on the Promise that we set too high a price of the things of this world This would and nothing else can take off our Hearts from present things Our Affections are too great a stream to be dryed up but turned they may be into another Chanel and truly the world is too narrow a Chanel to contain them But here is roomth enough and more than enough for them all here is a place of broad-water no fear of wanting Sea-room If we would launch out into the Meditation of this blessed place oh how should we find our Hearts inflamed with longing desires to be there and no more envy the Carnal world for what we leave them here to enjoy than you would the Swine his swill if you were going to Feast at a Princes Table which minds me of the next particular Fourthly Improve this Glorious Reward to reconcile death to thy thoughts and make thee rather desire than fear to be dissolved Many were the Arguments which the Philosophers among the Heathens mustered up to expel the fear of this King of Terrors but the wisest of them were baffled in all their attempts therein As it is said of Cicero a little before his death that he confessed the remedies which he had prepared against this Enemy proved he knew not how but too weak and feeble for that purpose And one was bold to tell Plato when he spake much of the contempt of death Fortius loqueris quà m vivis that he spoke higher than he lived and no wonder if we consider in how dark a light they saw the existence of a future state and much more at what a loss they were for finding the right way which leads to the happiness of it Neither do I wonder that any wicked man under the Gospel should be terrified at an approaching death and go down to the grave as they say Bears go down an Hill backward afraid to see or think of that state they are going into For the more any knows of Heaven without a well grounded hope of arriving there the greater must his dread needs be He that increaseth knowledge here will be sure to increase his sorrow but why any of the People of God that have a hope of Heaven should not in some measure overcome the prevalency at least of this fear of death is strange and indeed casts a reproach upon Christianity The Turks I have heard some of them should say they did not think Christians believed there was an Heaven because they saw them so loth to go to it Labour Christian to wipe of this reproach which these Infidels cast upon our Religion First Look thou buildest thy hope of Heaven deep and strong upon a good ground which is Regenerating Grace for a dead Soul cannot have a lively Hope Then labour to hold fast the rejoycing of thy Hope unto the end to which it would much conduce to preserve a right notion of death in thy thoughts What else Christian is death to thee but what Jordan was to the Israelites a passage from an howling Wilderness of a sinful miserable World where thou hast been pinched with Wants and stung with fiery Temptations to a Land of Promise where is safety to security and fullness to Felicity where thou wilt find the absence of nothing but sin and sorrow Look upon it as the uncovering of the Ark of thy body wherein thou hast been tossed and tumbled sorely upon the waves of a restless life to set thee on shore on Heavens firm and peaceable Land Is the betrothed Spouse afraid of her Marriage day or a Prince loth to cross a narrow Sea to take possession of a wide Kingdom and a rich Crown that wait only for his coming No Christian fear not thou death but rather let thy heart revive with old Jacobs at the sight of this Wagon or Chariot which is sent to bring thee over to thy Heavenly Fathers house Fifthly Let it moderate your sorrow for the death of your Pious Friends and useful Instruments in their Generations Indeed the loss of such is great to those that are left behind and therefore God allows us to mourn when such breaches are made upon us but withal he sets bounds to our sorrow that we sorrow