they will never be able to reach the Price thereof Besides Christians whatever we do or suffer for God Luke 17.10 it 's no more than what we are obliged unto and surely in doing our duty we can never lay the (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost ad Rom. Homil. 7. Foundation of Merit for Eternal Glory Nor may we think to make a Purchase of the New Jerusalem by paying an old Score WOULD we ever Merit Heaven and Eternal Glory of God we must present him with some acceptable (d) Debemus enim deo et nos ipsos et nostra omnia Cha. n. Tom. 3. lib 14. cap. 20. pag. 497. Services which we owe him not but how shall we give him any thing wherein he hath not already a full propriety when there is nothing that we are or have there is nothing that we can do or suffer in a way of Obedience but is due unto God from us by every kind of Right Had we any thing of our own wherewith to come before the Lord there might then be some ground of pretence for the Merit of good Works (e) Ex gratia enim datur non solum justificatis vita bona sed etiam glorificatis vita aeterna Fulgent ad Monim l. 1. p. 18. But since all that we have is due to God because it came from him and bears his Image and Superscription upon it we cannot rationally think it possible for us to Merit any thing thereby of God unless we can think it rational that God should be obliged in point of Justice by giving us one Mercy to give us another by giving us Grace to put us at length in Possession of Eternal Glory That whereby Christians you differ from others from the vilest of Sinners from the Damned themselves that are now roaring out in Hell is not of Merit but of Grace not of Debt but a free Donative 't is nothing in your selves but the free distinguishing love of God dropping the Pearl of Grace into your hearts whilst others are left to perish in their Sins that hath made the difference And surely by those graces which you freely receive from God you may not think to Merit Life and Eternity of Glory at the hands of God For certainly whatever grace you have it obligeth you to Duty so that your Graces and your Obligations of Obedience to God they grow up together and the more grace you receive from God the more deeply do you stand engaged to abound in the fruits of Righteousness towards God How then can you once have a thought that that Grace and Holiness which God hath freely wrought in you and whereby he hath laid you under the strongest engagements to all holy and upright walking before him should make God your Debtor obliging him in point of Justice to render you the Reward of eternal Glory Indeed to whomsoever the Lord gives Grace he will also give Glory and whomsoever he now makes Holy he will Crown them at length with Eternal Happiness But this you must know not an act of Justice founded upon Man's Merit but an act of free Grace bottomed upon the Remunerative goodness of God in the Blood of Christ Rom. 6.23 (f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost 'T is an act of Justice in God to punish Sin which is wholly our own and purely Evil and therefore Death is here called the Wages of Sin But to Reward the good Works of Believers which are neither their own nor purely good is an act of free Grace and therefore we find the Apostle to exclude all opinion of Merit calling Life Eternal in this place the gift of God (g) Non dixit similiter stipendia justitiae quia non est antequam remuneratur in nobis non enim nostro labore quaesita est Jerom. So that we see though it be of Justice that the Wicked are Punished yet it is of Grace that the Righteous are Crowned (h) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost And if it be of Grace then not of any Merit in our own good Works otherwise grace were no more grace if not every way free and gratuitous Rom. 4.4 For how can we count it a point of grace to give a Man his due Or what need he sue for Mercy who requireth no more than his own at the hands of God Admit but of Merit and you leave no place of entrance for the grace of God (i) Non est quo gratia intret ubi jam meritum occuparit Bernard Cant. 67. So likewise the grace of God in Christ it leaves no place for the Merit of our good Works For Grace and Merit are altogether inconsistent and mutually destructive one of another Rom. 11.6 So that if you pull down the Merit of good Works you set up Grace and if you go about to establish Merit you do utterly destroy the Grace of God and make it of none effect Let us not then Christians look in our Obedience to have that of Debt which God hath decreed to be of Grace nor go about to seek Heaven and Glory by way of Purchase which the Lord hath intended to be a Donative and of free Gift Whilst others trust to the Merit of their own good Works let us wholly rely upon the free Grace of God in Christ Jesus looking for the Recompence of Eternal Life not from the Justice of a Judge but from the Mercy of a Father not from the worth and dignity of our own Performances but from the free Bounty and Remunerative Goodness of the Lord our Redeemer You may do good Works and walk in ways of Obedience with an Eye to the Recompence of the Reward But yet none of these things must be done with respect to the Meriting of Eternal Life by them For though as (k) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Tom. 8. Serm. 15. Chrysostome sweetly saith we had done ten thousand good deeds yet it is of Grace that we must look to be saved and of Loving-kindness not of any desert in ourselves that we must seek to obtain Eternal Glory (l) Totis licet animae et corporis laboribus desudemus totis licet obedientiae viribus exerceamur nihil tamen condignum merito pro coelestibus bonis compensare et offerre valebimus Euseb Emissen homil 3. ad Monarch We stand so infinitely indebted to the God of Heaven that though we should with all the strength of Body and Mind exercise ourselves in Obedience to God all our Life long though with bitterness and anguish of Spirit we should bewail our own Sins mourn in some Wilderness till Doom's-day and dissolve our Souls with weeping into (m) Flaccescant licet membra vigilijs pallescant licet ora jejunijs non erunt tamen condignae passiones hujus temporis ad futuram gloriam Idem Rivers of Tears though we should live like Angels of Light shine like the Sun in it's Noon-day Brightness and exercise ourselves unto Godliness continually with all
plunge the Soul in remediless intolerable Misery 2 Be sure that you quit your own Righteousness giving diligence to see the Insufficiency of it to Life and Salvation Such is the Corruption of our Nature that though the Covenant of Works be violated and the Condition thereof unperformable to Man lapsed Yet still we would Trade for Heaven in a way of working building our Hope for eternaâ— Life upon the sandy Foundation of a Self-opiniative Righteousness If at any time Men are startled by the powerful Impressions of a Soul-searching Ministry and begin to feel the Sting of Sin in their Consciences you may presently see them have recourse not to Christ but to Moses not to the Righteousness which is of God by Faith but to the Righteousness which is of the Law placing their whole Affiance in the supposed Worth and Merit of their own good Works as if these could save them But know you must that those who put Confidence in their own Righteousness will as surely fall short of Heaven and Glory as those who make no Conscience of Righteousness at all Good Works when rested in and made the Matter of our justification before God are as infallibly Damning as evil Works when never Repented of (p) Gal. 3.10 For as many as be of the Works of the Law trusting in and expecting Salvation by them are under the Curse The Law at first was an easie way to Righteousness and from thence to Salvation But now every step thereof sinks as low as Hell It 's written within and without with Curses which way soever a Man stirs he finds nothing but Death before him One Man's way by the Civility of his Education the Ingenuity of his Disposition the Engagement of other ends or Relations may seem more smooth and plausible than anothers but by Nature they all run into Hell as all Rivers though never so different in other Circumstances run into the Sea And the Reason of all this the Apostle hath subjoyned in the following words taken from that everlasting Inability that we lie under to fulfil all Righteousness which the Law in its utmost rigour and latitude doth require at our Hands as pronouncing all those Accursed that continue not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law (q) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 M. Eremita to do them So then though Sin and Death go together as Work and Wageâ— yet eternal Life must never be expected as the Purchase of our own good Works but as the free Gift of God in Christ Jesus The Ways of Sin (r) Rom. 6.23 is Death saith the Apostle But the Gift of God saith he purposely changing the manner of his Speech is eternal Life Say therefore the Papists what they will of their Merit of Condignity proportionate in worth and excellency to eternal Glory Yet would you not for ever be shut out of Heaven and fall short of Glory you must Renounce all Opinion of your own Merit laying hold on eternal Life as the free Gift of God For can we rationally think that our imperfect Obedience should justly deserve with God the Reward of eternal Glory Do we fail coming short in every Duty and shall we yet look for Heaven and not of Debt and not of Mercy If the (s) Rom. 8.18 Sufferings of this present Life are not worthy to be compared with the (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oecum in loc Glory that shall be revealed in us what little reason can we have to think by any inferior act of Obedience to merit such a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost in Philip. Homil. 11. The Reward of eternal Life is the gift of God and therefore not to be sought by Works of Righteousness as infinitely exceeding in Worth and Dignity all our performances how glorious soever Misinterpret me not as if I were declaiming against the necessity of inherent Righteousness when indeed the meritoriousness and condignity thereof proportionate to eternal Life is all that we here deny We do not cry down Obedience and good Works as they stand in subordination to â—â—ace and are the genuine Fruits of Sanctification as they of the Romish Faction have maliciously traduced the Reformation But only as they stand in opposition to the free Grace of God in our Justification and are made by Pharisaical self-justitiaries the Foundation whereupon to bottom their hopes for eternal Life We of the Church of England do maintain the necessity of good Works pressing earnestly to the practise of them as antecedaneous to Life Eternal without which no Man can be saved But that wherein we dissent from the Church of Rome is about the causality of good Words with whom we dare not affirm (a) Si propriè appellentur ea quae decimus nostra merita Spei quidem Seminaria sunt charitatis Incentiva occultae praedestinationis Judicia futurae foelicitatis Praesagia Via regni non causa regnandi Bern. lib. de Grat. liber Arbitr but deny them to be meritorious of Eternal Life as if a Man should be saved for them We do allow them with Bernard to be the preservatives of Hope the Incentives of Charity the marks of hidden Predestination the Presages of future Happiness the Way that leads to the Kingdom of Heaven but not the meritorious causes of our reigning with Christ there Take heed then that you think not of your own Righteousness above what you ought to think 'T is your duty to fulfil all Righteousness but will certainly be your undoing if you trust in any Beware therefore oh Man of this sugared Poyson within thee let there be no depending upon thy good Heart thy good Life thy good Performances But remember the proud Pharisee who stands upon his own bottom as well as ungodâ—â— Sinners whose lives are notoriously infamous for all manner of abominable impieties will fall short of Heaven Whoever thinks to find Life in his own Righteousness and Glory in his own Graces will be sunk through such carnal Confidence to lose Life and Eternal Glory for ever Oh then let not any Man be found cloathed in his own Righteousness that would ever be cloathed upon with the Garments of Salvation For Men to despair in themselves counting all their Righteousness but loss for the excellency of Heaven This is the best way to obtain the reward of Eternal Glory in the Kingdom of Heaven He that here cries out as a Man lost and undone in himself will hereafter be found in Christ to the saving of his Soul Never did any Man yet get to Heaven by trusting in his own Righteousness Nor shall any Man fall short of Heaven who renouncing his own Righteousness trusteth wholly to the Mercy of God in Christ Jesus 3 GET renewed Natures making sure of a principle of Grace within (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macar Hom. 30. A Wicked Man in his unregeneracy is no more capable of an
patient waiting upon God in all the ways of Obedience that whatsoever the Lord shall call us out to do or suffer we may with chearfulness undergo it all This is that I confess which some will not endure telling us that as we are to give looking for nothing again so we are to walk in all dutiful Obedience before God doing and suffering Whatever he calls us out to without taking any incouragement at all thereto from the Recompence of Reward But certainly the Holy Ghost hath given us in Holy Writ such abundant satisfaction concerning the lawfulness of taking incouragement from the Recompence of Reward to follow hard after God in all the ways of Obedience that no Christian need perplex himself upon that account (g) Justitiae operanti dabitur Corona Ne qui justitiam operatur segnescens oneri laboris succumbat For is not this the great design of God in making Promises of Life Happiness and Eternal Glory to those that obey him thereby to incourage us to all dutiful and obedient walking before him God hath tyed our Work and our Wages together that expecting to receive from him at death the Wages of Eternal Glory we might work the more chearfully for him all our life And that we may not look upon the way of Duty as tedious nor count his Commandments grievous he hath set up a Crown of Life at the end of Duty and assured us That in keeping his Commandments there is great Reward Psal 19.11 GOD is not so austere a Task-master as to envy his People their Comforts in a way of Duty nor will he ever impute it to them as their ruin that in keeping his Commandments they had an eye for their own incouragement to the Recompence of the Reward And truly if to be incouraged in a way of Obedience by the Recompence of Reward may be construed a just forfeiture of a Mans ingenuity as some would bear us in hand I see not for my part how we shall be able to excuse any of God's dearest Children no nor our Blessed Lord himself but must confess them to have been acted by a slavish and servile Spirit which yet to do were the first-born of all horrid Blasphemies For though it should have been written in Capital Letters with a Pen pluckt from the wing of a glorious Seraphim yet it could not have been more plain and legible than the Holy Ghost hath already expressed it that the most holy of all God's Children our Blessed Redeemer himself not accepted had an eye for their incouragement in all the ways of Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward WHAT else did holy Moses but incourage himself to suffer Affliction with God's People by the consideration of Life and eternal Glory in Heaven prepared of God from Eternity for all that Love him Was not this also the Paradice of those Primitive Martyrs who took joyfully the spoiling of their Goods having this as their great Incouragement thereto that they knew themselves to have in Heaven a better and more enduring Substance Heb. 10.34 THE like we may say of those other Worthies who scorned all earthly Injoyments that their Persecutors could offer as Allurements to insnare them not accepting Deliverance from them upon any base and unrighteous Terms but were endued with such a Gallantry and Christian Resolution that rather than dishonour God in the least rather than cast a little Incense upon the Altar in honour of the Idol for the saving of their Lives they would dye the Death they would be Slain with the Edge of the Sword they would be Stoned they would be Burned and Sawn asunder having this strong and everlasting Consolation incouraging them with Patience to undergo all this barbarous and inhumane Cruelty that they hoped to obtain a better Resurrection even a Resurrection to Life and eternal Glory in the Kingdom of Heaven Heb. 11. BUT waving these and the like Instances I shall give you an Instance against which none can except but those whose proud Spirits would make them seem more Holy than Holiness it self and that is of Our blessed Redeemer concerning whom it is thus Written That for the Joy which was set before him he endured the Cross despising the Shame Heb. 12.2 I shall not hence take occasion to determine whether the Sorrow the Cross and the Humiliation of Christ were the Meritorious Cause or only the Antecedent of his Joy his Crown and his Exaltation at the Right Hand of God in Glory as being wholly Excentrick to my present Design But let the decision of that famous Controversy from this Text be what it will yet I think the Apostle's words do concludingly Evince thus much That Christ having an eye to his Mediatory Glory and Exaltation at God's Right Hand in Heaven was incouraged thereby with Patience to undergo that most execrable painful and ignominious Death of the Cross for our Sakes DO not then Question the Lawfulness of this holy Practice any longer but having an Eye stedfastly fixed upon the Recompence of the Reward be incouraged thereby to all diligent and upright walking before God in wayes of Obedience whatever it cost you IF the Men of the World for your Integrity Frown upon you and hate you let this incourage you to hold it fast that God himself will Smile upon you and afford you his Loving-kindness which is better than Life (h) Affecit te aliquis ignominia Quiu tu ad eam suspice gloriam quae reposita est in coelis Jactura rerum tuarum adijsti Oculos imprime fixius coelestibus divitijs Patrione solo exclusus es At patriam habes coelestem Hierusalem If because you cannot comply with the Men of the World in their sinful and ungodly Practises they should cast you into Prison yet let this incourage you still to keep close with God that he will shortly knock off your Fetters and take you up into Mansions of eternal Glory If you meet with any Cross in Heaven's way let this incourage you with Patience to undergo it that e'er long you shall receive from Christ a Crown of Righteousness If in a word any subtil Persecutors should promise you injoyment of Life and Liberty on condition that you will but comply with them and do as they do why let the Hopes of obtaining a better Resurrection that is to say a Resurrection to eternal Life and Glory in the Kingdom of God let this incourage you to scorn the motion not accepting Deliverance from them upon any such dishonourable and unrighteous Terms For when for the Joy which is set before us we can do any thing part with any thing and suffer any thing with Patience that God calls us to chosing rather to indure the most exquisite Torments than in the least to Dishonour our God why then we have an Eye indeed to the Recompence of the Reward 6. TO design in all your Obedience the Salvation of your own Souls making this the great end of your Lives that at