the chief purpose of his coming and to give us Heaven as the Accession For real happiness consisting in being holy as God is holy 'T is plain that Heaven can be no more than a good Appendix of our felicity For can we imagin that God himself can be any whit the happier for being in Heaven No 'T is Heaven which is the happier for being God's Throne which should he fix upon the Earth Heaven would presently be his Footstool As it is not the Court which gives Majesty to the King But wheresoever the King is there 's the Court. To be in Heaven without holiness like the lost Regiment of Angels would be to make it a second Hell And therefore They at the Day of Judgment who shall intreat the Hills to cover them and the Mountains to fall upon them will have no other reason for that Intreaty than to be hid from the face of him that sitteth upon the Throne From whence it is obvious to infer that to a man of impure Eyes nothing smarts more than the Sight of Bliss And therefore our Saviour's coming hither was first to fortifie our eyes or to make them pure and then to procure us the Blessed Vision Besides Secondly Had he been sent into the world only to amplify our Charter but not our Statutes to free us as really from the Moral as from the Ceremonial Law or from the observance of the Law moral as well as from the curse and the rigour of it And so to make us no whit holier but only happier than before if yet a man can be happy who is not holy which rather implys a contradiction he might have been buried before he was born buried I mean in his Mothers womb or he might have been born only to be buried He might have been murder'd as commodiously by Herod in the Cradle as by Pilate upon the Cross and with as great a convenience have dyed a Saviour at a year old as in living till three and thirty For what better reason can we imagin why he should live so long a Saint before he dyed a publick Sacrifice but that as 't were by the Aequator or standing Rule of his life we might reform and regulate all the obliquities of our own that he might free us from Sin 's Dominion by his Precepts and Example his Life and Doctrin as well as from the wages of it by his Death and Resurrection For 3 dly let us expostulate and reason a little within our selves Can there be any thing more irrational more dishonourable to God or more disgraceful to our Religion than to think that our Saviour came down from Heaven only to open and so to shut up the Gates of Hell To be a Friend of Publicans and Sinners in the same ill Sense in which his Enemies spake him to be so 'T is true indeed in one sense there can be nothing more Orthodox than was the malice of those Blasphemers Christ indeed was the friend of Publicans and Sinners the greatest Friend to be imagin'd But 't was by Saving them from their Sins as he did Matthew and Zachaeus Mary Magdalen and the like not by Saving them for all their Sins however indulgently lived in Not by making it safe for them to be Sinners without Amendment Could he come for nothing else but to proclaim a Iubilee for Malefactors and so to make them more voluptuous not more vertuous than before Can we imagin that the Law was so a Schoolmaster to Christ as that the end of his coming should be to turn us from our Books to beg us a kind of an endless Playday and so to send us out as Truants into a Mahomet's Paradise Can it be possibly consistent I say not with Scripture only and Reason but indeed with common Sense that he should purifie to himself a peculiar people not by bridling Sin but by letting it ride That the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Zosimus should be as the Spaniard there calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say in plain English that the meer Christianity of our Opinions should abundantly expiate for all the Atheism of our Lives and so that the Gospel should be intended not for a Rule but a Dispensation 'T is true this Fallacy of the Tempter is too too commonly swallow'd down although not only the Stream of Reason but all the Current of the Scripture runs quite against it For in the third of the Acts at the twentieth Verse God having raised up his Son Iesus sent him to bless us saith St. Peter but how even 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That blessing altogether consisted in his turning us away every one from our Iniquities So in the second to Titus at the eleventh Verse The Grace of God which bringeth Salvation hath appeared indeed to all men But to what end 'T was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we may live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Again in the fourteenth Verse of the same Chapter Christ is said indeed to have given himself for us But immediately it follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The gist consisteth in his Redeeming us from all Iniquity To which at least we may accommodate what is said of our Saviour Matth. 8. 17. where the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is in Beza's Translation he bare their Sicknesses or their Sins is in Tertullian's he took them away And let the Translation be what it will sure I am that the reason is very good It being the noblest benefaction and much most worthy of a Saviour who came from Heaven rather to cure the lame than to give them crutches rather to rid us of our sins by reducing us to obedience than by acquitting us only of punishment to make our sins the more supportable And as the prime end of his coming hither was to correct and reform our practice so his prime business when he was here was as our Lord to prescribe us Precepts and to press for a due obedience to all the Precepts which he prescrib'd Though 't is the custom of the world to look upon him as a Saviour and nothing else in his Priestly Office only which is to bless us and to insist upon his being our Elder Brother yet the name written upon his Garment and on his Thigh is King of Kings and Lord of Lords His name is Christ as well as Iesus Moses was his Type as well as Ioshua And observe in what order He is our Moses in the first place to make us fit for a blessed Canaan and then our Ioshua to give us possession The general Title of the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we love to call the New Testament and nothing else would by a more genuine Translation of the word be expressed by The new Covenant that is to say the new Law For so it is called by St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Law of Faith
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
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
make us sure to miss of Heaven by making us dream it is unavoidable For as God in his Iudgment is no Respecter of Persons so neither was he in his Decrees As his Rule is in Time to judge us according to our works so he decreed from all Aeternity to proceed in Time by that Rule He did determin the end of men with a special respect to their Qualifications from whence his Decree is call'd respective But he did absolutely determin that men who are thus or thus qualified should come to this or that end And I could wish that this Distinction since 't is sufficient of it self might find so much favour in all mens Eyes as to appease and reconcile dissenting Brethren That as the Decrees of the Almighty are said to be Absolute in one sense so they may candidly be granted to be Respective in Another This methinks should be the Judgment of all Mankind being so visible in it self and of so necessary Importance to the well-ordering of our Lives That God did absolutely decree a most indissoluble Connexion betwixt Repentance and Salvation as betwixt Impenitence and Condemnation Which proves the end to have been decreed with a special respect unto the means Let this one thing be granted as well for the Comfort of the good as for a Terror to evil Doers And I for my part shall ask no more For the Decree which is respective in sensu diviso may so be proved to be Absolute in sensu composito as to afford a Demonstration That God's Decree of the several Ends was in respect to the several Means For if in sensu composito He did absolutely decree that all who are faithful and repent should belong to Heaven and that all who are faithless and impenitent should in like manner belong to Hell Then his Decree was respective in sensu diviso of that Repentance or Impenitence by which Professors do belong to Heaven or Hell From whence it follows unavoidably that if we are faithless and impenitent be it in a greater or lesser measure we ought to be affected with fear and trembling in the literal sense of this expression and never to give our selves Rest until we be faithful and do repent But faithful and penitent we cannot be till by the power of God's Grace after our Prayers and Tears shall have given him no Rest he shall be pleas'd to work in us and with us too not only to will but to do his work That by the power of his Grace we may all endeavour and by the power of his Grace on our Endeavours we our selves may have a Power too whereby to work out our own Salvation And work for it we must with a sacred horror because of the Dreadfulness of our Doom if we work remissly For as on one side God himself cannot condemn us although our sins past have been very great if we immediately repent and amend our lives because he is faithful who hath promised and he hath promised forgiveness to all that repent and turn unto him so withal on the other side Let our Righteousness past have been what it will yet if we return from Righteousness to Sin God himself cannot save us without our Repentance and Reformation because he hath sworn that the Impenitent shall not enter into his Rest. Not that God can be overpower'd by any Quality in the Creature whether Repentance in the first Case or Impenitence in the second But because his Power in the first is suspended by his Mercy as it stands in conjunction with his Truth For in his Mercy he made a Promise to give us pardon if we repent and in his Truth he must perform it Just so his Power in the second is suspended by his Iustice as it stands in conjunction with his Truth too For in his Iustice he made an Oath to be revenged on the Impenitent and in his Truth he must make it good Now since each of these Cases concerns us All be we never so good or be we never so evil I need not shew by another Medium how the love of God's Mercy doth consist with a fear of his Indignation and how whilst we love him as a Father we ought to fear him as a Judge But to conclude with such a Caveat as may best of all become an Ingenuous People Take we heed that our Fear do not swallow up our Love for fear it swallow up us too in the Bottomless Pit of Desperation We must serve God with Fear but so as to fear him also for Love Ever saying with the Psalmist There is mercy with thee ô Lord therefore shalt thou be feared The Psalmist did not thus argue There is Mercy with Thee ô Lord Therefore shalt thou be rely'd upon Therefore we shall make the bolder with thee we shall break thy Commandments without the fear of being damn'd because we know thou art slow to anger and being angry art quickly pleas'd But because of thy mercy thou shalt be feared And there is good reason for it For by how much the kinder a Father is a well-natur'd Son will fear to offend him so much the more And the more our Father which is in Heaven does even delight to please us by heaping his Mercies and Favours on us by so much the more shall we be afraid if we are well-natur'd Children to exasperate our Father which is in Heaven What then remains but that we ponder these things and lay them up in our hearts and draw them forth into our Actions and daily repeat them in our Lives And reap the comfort of so doing in the hour of Death and the Day of Iudgment Which God of his Mercy prepare us for even for the glory of his Name and for the worthiness of his Son To whom with the Father in the Unity of the Spirit be ascribed by us and by all the World Blessing and Glory and Honour and Power and Wisdom and Thanksgiving from this time forward for evermore THE GRAND INQUIRY To be made In these Inquisitive Times Taken from the Mouth of The Frighted Iailour OF PHILIPPI THE GRAND INQUIRY To be made in These Inquisitive Times ACTS XVI 30. What must I do that I may be saved THus the Iailour at Philippi sought to his Pris'ners for a Deliverance Not his ordinary Pris'ners who at once were in Bondage to Him and Satan And were bound up in Misery as well as Iron who had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spirits so gross and so incrassat and so manacl'd to the Flesh that together with their Bodies their Souls were put into the Stocks as knowing no better Liberty than what consisted in the Freedom of Hands and Feet But the Pris'ners in the Text were Pris'ners only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men whose Liberty did consist in the ubiquity of their Thoughts and in being made free of the New Ierusalem Men who by living the Life of Faith maintain'd an Intercourse with God and his glorious Angels And though their Carkasses
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
that it may rationally be doubted whether when the Son of Man shall come a second time from Heaven he will come with such success as to find Faith upon the Earth Examin therefore whether Thy self may'st well be reckon'd to be one of that little Number Examin whether thy Belief is really such as Thou believ'st it and try whether thy Confidence is not the Thing to be distrusted the most of any For § 15. Of this I can convince thee by a mental Demonstration which is more cogent than an ocular That if thou hast not such respect unto the Recompence of Reward as to choose rather with Moses to spend thy short and dying life in Mortisications and Self-denials and to suffer Tribulation with the People of God than with the brutish Sons of Belial to injoy the Pleasures of Sin for a season If thou dost not esteem the Reproach of Christ to be much greater Riches than all the Treasures of Egypt Or if thou canst basely fear Them that can kill the Body only but are not able to hurt the Soul more than Him that can cast both Soul and Body into Hell And hast often done more to escape the former than ever thou wilt do to eschew the latter Thou hast not yet the first Degree of a Saving Faith Thou dost not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not so much as believe the Lord Jesus Christ. Thou dost not assent to his veracity or look upon him as a True Speaker Thou dost not so far confide in the Truth of his Promises and his Threats as to adventure any great matter upon the meer Reputation and Credit of them For most undoubtedly if thou didst Thou wouldst prefer that which leads to all the Pleasures that he hath promis'd before the Things that will betray thee to all the pains that he hath Threaten'd Thou wouldst pursue with more vehemence what will end in an eternal and exceeding weight of Glory than what will terminate in a worm which never dyes and in a Fire which is not quenched That thou dost now affect to walk rather in the broad than the narrow way is not so much that thou espousest a way which leads thee to Destruction or hast Averseness unto That by which thou mayst enter into Life as that thou dost not quite believe the Lord Jesus Christ when he would fright thee from the one and allure thee to the other That thou dost now take the Course to dwell with everlasting Burnings rather than That which hath a tending to Ioys unspeakable cannot possibly be from hence that thou preferr'st a very short to an endless Pleasure but rather from hence that thou preferr'st thy present experience of the first to the uncertainty and the doubtfulness which thou retainest of the second Not at all that thou preferrest the Miseries of Hell to the Ioys of Heaven But that thou dost not believe what is said of either § 16. Again admit thou dost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 believe the Truth and the Veracity of the Lord Jesus Christ Yet if thou are destitute of the Faith which is consummated by Love and by such a Love too as doth cast out Fear nor only the fear of all that may be inflicted but so far also the Feeling of all that is as to be able to rejoyce and to leap for joy when thou art persecuted and rail'd at for righteousness sake If thou canst not say heartily in the language of St. Paul I take pleasure in Insirmities in Reproaches in Necessities in Persecutions and in Distresses for Christ his sake If in a word Thou art not able to conquer all thine own weakness by Ghostly strength so as to hold fast thy Union and good Intelligence with Christ in spight of Nakedness or Famin or Peril or Sword or Life or Death or Angels or Devils or Principalities or Powers or things present or things to come And all by vertue of that Faith which overcometh the World which is not only the means of Conquest but the Victory it self Thou dost not heartily believe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is In or Upon the Lord Jesus Christ. 'T is very evident that thou doubtest either his Power or his Propensity Thou dost not so depend and rely upon him as that I can assure thee thou shalt be sav'd § 17. Again if thou hast not such a Faith as does denominate thee a good and a faithful servant such a justifying Faith as in the literal sense of it does make thee Iust Iust I mean in that notion in which 't was said of holy Iob that he was a just and an upright Man If thou hast not such a Faith as by which thou art qualified in part both with Holiness and Righteousness with Godliness and Honesty with the Duties of the first and the second Table whereby the Righteousness of Christ may be so wholly imputed to thee as to instate thee in the Pardon of all thy Sins it being impossible that thy Saviour should ever justifie thy Person and not sanctifie thy Nature in some proportionable degree If besides thy Assent to the veracity of his Doctrin and besides thy Dependance on the Almightiness of his Power Thou dost not pay so great a Reverence unto the Iustice of his Will too as to serve and obey him with godly fear Thou dost not practically believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thou dost not own him in his Authority dost not receive him in his Commands dost not embrace and entertain him as he comes to thee a Legislator as one who hath a Name written both on his Vesture and on his Thigh King of Kings and Lord of Lords And by consequence though thy Head may be as full as it can hold of the Christian Science or however thou mayst have Faith whereby thou canst remove Mountains Yet thou dost not so Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as that I can assure thee thou shalt be sav'd § 18. Again if thou hast not such a Telescope as by which thou art inabled to look on the other side the Veil such a Faith as is the Evidence of things not seen and the substance of things that are hoped for hast not any praepossession of things invisible and future nor any glimmerings and foretasts of the Glory to be reveal'd hast no ground for an Assurance whether of Faith Hope or Understanding that thy Pardon is seal'd and thy Peace ratified Art not inwardly sustained in all thy Agonies and Conflicts with spiritual Ioy in the Holy Ghost hast not any the least Intelligence through the secret whispers of the Spirit of a Ravishing Mansion praepared for thee in the Land of the Living And art not placed by that Intelligence above the Level of Temptations exempted from the Fear of what Men or Devils can do unto thee If thou canst not reflect with comfort upon the Day of Discrimination when the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming Fire taking
Unprofitable Repentance Were we at leisure to survey the several Orders and Ranks of men from Him that whistles at the Plough to Him that treads upon Crowns and Scepters we should find them all Byass't by Secular Interesses and Aims most incessantly pursuing their Carnal Projects and Designs Poor Boôtes will needs be asking so low and humble is his Ambition what He shall do to maintain a Teem The same Boôtes growing Rich will as willingly be able to keep a Coach Here a man is ambitious of some great Office in the Court whilst perhaps the great Courtier is at least as ambitious of being Greatest The only Subject of His Inquiry is what he shall do to wear a Crown But having waded as far as That through Blood and Rapine he thinks his Crown is too light and his Territory too narrow and therefore makes it his next Inquiry what he shall do for the inlarging the straitned Borders of his Dominion His next Project is how to be Monarch of the West And if perhaps he climbs thither his inlarged Ambition does want more Room from whence ariseth another Quaestion What he shall do to Subdue the World that Kings and Princes may bow down to him and that whole Nations may do him service Nay if he arrives at That too his Unlimited Desires are more imprison'd than before And so his last Quaestion is like That of the Great Macedonian Robber what he shall do for more Worlds wherewith to satisfie his Hunger and not to quench but to exercise his cruel Thirst. Thus is every man a scambler for some kind of Happiness here on Earth at least for the shadow and picture of it But there is not the like solicitude for the getting of a Kingdom and Crown in Heaven Where shall we meet with a man of Youth who joyns his Heart unto his Head and asks about the great Business for which he came into the World where shall we meet with a man of Riches who makes it the great Contrivance and Design of his Life to be advis'd in what manner he ought to live where shall we meet with a man of Power who will indure to be looking so far before him as to consider and contemplate his latter end or who will look so far within him as to examin the state of things betwixt his Saviour and his Soul as whether he hath made his Election sure or whether he hath not rather received the Grace of God in vain where is He that crys out with the frighted Iailour at Philippi What must I do that I may be saved that makes a strict and impartial search after the Requisites of his Salvation that sends as 't were an Huy and Cry after things future and invisible and makes it the Burden of his Inquiry with this young man this Rich man this Ruler in the Text Good Master what shall I do that I may Inherit Eternal Life A Text as worthy to be consider'd by every one who does believe an Immortality of his Soul and prepares for an Arrest at the hour of Death and expects to be try'd at a Day of Iudgment perhaps as any one Text in all the Scriptures A Text so fruitful of Particulars and of Particulars so pregnant for Meditation that 't is not easy to resolve with which of the many we should begin They do not come in such order as the Creatures once did into Noah's Ark two by two but they press in upon us all together in a Crowd as it were striving with one another which shall have the first Place in our consideration Here is a Servant a Master work and wages Here is an excellent Inquiry made by the Servant to the Master And here are both their Qualifications to make them pleasing to one another For the Servant is diligent the Master good Here is the manner also and matter and final cause of the Enquiry And here are divers other particulars growing out of the Body of these particulars as the lesser Branches of a Tree are wont to grow out of the greater But dismissing all the rest until we meet them in the Division I here shall fasten upon the Servant as fit to direct and assist us in it There being nothing more proper to entertain us till we come thither than the several looser Circumstances both of his Person and his Approach As for his Person we may observe him so qualified in three respects as one would think should ill dispose him for such an Inquiry as here he makes For in St. Matthew He is a Young man A Rich man in St. Mark In St. Luke a Ruler And it may seem a thing strange as the World now goes that being a young man he should inquire after life or that being a Rich man he should inquire after Heaven that being also a Ruler he should inquire after Subjection It is not easy to be believ'd so far it is from being usual that he who lately began to live should be solicitous for Aeternity that he who had purchased the present world should pursue an Inheritance in the next too And that a Person of Command should readily set himself to Service Yet thus he did and did with vehemence For whether we look upon his motion whilst he was hastening towards Christ or on his Posture when he was at him his Salutation in the Entrance or his Inquiry in the end we may by his Running guess his Readiness by his Kneeling his Humility by his Compellation his Zeal and by the manner of his asking the great Resignedness of Spirit wherewith he asked For when Iesus saith the Text was gone forth into the way there came one running and kneeled to him and asked him Good Master what shall I do that I may inherit Eternal Life Words which are partly The Evangelists and partly The Quaerist's of whom He speaks The Evangelist's own words have three Particulars of Remarque First The Person who here inquires Next The Nature of his Inquiry Thirdly The Oracle inquired of The Quaerist's words at first View consist of Three general Parts which again at the second View do afford us Six more Here is first a Compellation Secondly a Question Thirdly the End or the Motive or Cause of Both. In the first we have to consider Not only the Subject of the Quaerist's Compellation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Master But also the Adjunct or Qualification 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Good Again in the second we have two Things observable to wit The Matter of the Inquiry in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Manner in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is what and what shall I do In the third we have also two First the Object to be obtained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eternal Life And then the Manner of obtaining it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is by Inheriting But this is not all For I observe the Compellation hath a twofold Aspect upon the Question and seems to give us a pregnant
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
next Verses before my Text who were not Elected without a Praescience as well of their Faithfulness as of their Faith How can it be that when He comes He shall not find Faith upon the Earth But if we attentively consider the Text before us as it stands in relation to all the Verses going before and more especially to the first This Objection will quickly vanish and we shall find a good Connexion between the praecedent and praesent words For our Lord having exhorted The Neophyte-Disciples to whom he spake Not to faint in their Prayers but to pray-on with Perseverance v. 1. excites them to it with an Assurance that their Prayers shall not be fruitless And that their Prayers shall not be fruitless He convinceth them by an Argument à minori ad majus This appears by his whole Parable touching the Widows Importunity praevailing over the Heart of an hardned Iudge From whence the Argument is as natural as it is logical and convincing For if the Prayer of the distressed and importunate Widow returned at last into her Bosom with good Success thô from a most corrupt Iudge who had no fear of God nor regard of Man v. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with how much a greater force of reason shall all the Prayers of The Faithful receive an acceptable Return from the Father of Mercies and God of all Consolation who is not only no unjust or obdurate Judge but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Rewarder by way of Eminence of them that diligently seek him either sooner or later as he sees fit Yes the time is now coming when They shall be freed from their Afflictions and when the Vengeance due from God shall speedily fall on the Authors of them To which He adds by way of complaint and by a Compassionate Erotésis or Expostulation cohaering with what he said before by a Conjunction Adversative that when He shall come in the later Days to be an Avenger of his Elect The Apostasie will be so general He will find but Few of them Of the many who are Called He will find but few Chosen Amongst a Multitude of Flatterers he will find but few Friends In a world of Praetenders He will find but Few Faithful and with very much Profession very little True Faith They alone being Elect who persevere unto the End in The Faith of Christ and whose Faith is efficacious as well as sufficient to make them Faithful § 2. We see The Cohaerence of the Text which will help us not to err in the Meaning of it For in that our Lord asks When the Son of Man cometh shall He find Faith upon the Earth It is as if he should have said in plain and peremptory Terms That at his second Coming from Heaven to judge the Inhabitants of the Earth He shall not find Many Christians who will pray with that Faith which alone can inable them to pray without ceasing and not to faint When He shall come to save Believers He will find but few such in the Gospel-sense Not none simpliciter but none secundum quid Comparatively none or none to speak of The greatest part of men will perish even for want of That Faith whereby men's Prayers become effectual 'T is not through any defect of Goodness and longanimity in God that so few will be safe in the Day of Judgment But through a miserable defect of Christian Faithfulness and Faith The great Condition of the Covenant which God in Christ the only true Shechinah was pleas'd to make with the Sons of Men. Historical Faith there is in many such as is common to men with Devils who are said by St. Iames to believe and tremble A sturdy Praesumption there is in Many which they mistake for the perfection and strength of Faith A Carnal Security is in Many which they take to be the Product and Fruit of Faith There is in many such a Carnal and Human Faith concerning the Being of Heaven and Hell a Life after Death and a Day of Judgment as that there is such a Place as Constantinople or Eutopia whereof thô This is as fictitious as That is real yet by Ignaroes in Geography they are believed Both alike Thus in one sense or other Faith is as common as Infidelity a Weed which grows in most mens Gardens But very few have That Faith of which our Lord does here speak to wit a Faith which is attended with Hope and Charity a Faith coupl'd with Fear to offend our Maker a Faith productive of obedience unto That which is called The Law of Faith a Faith importing all faithfulness in the discharge of that Service we owe our Master a Faith expressed by a submission first to God rather than Man and then to Man for God's sake lastly a Faith joyned with Patience and Perseverance unto the End in the work of Prayer to which our Saviour had exhorted in the first Verse of This Chapter and which indeed is the Scope of this whole Paragraph § 3. Thus we have clearly a Praediction that the last Times will be the worst or that the World towards its End will be most dissolute and debauch't that 't will not be only an Iron-age but that the Iron will be corrupted with Rust and Canker This is the Doctrine of the Text and this must be divided into two distinct Branches as the word Faith may here be taken in two distinct Considerations For in which sense soever we understand the word Faith in the Text before us whether for a firm Adhaerence unto the Truth of Christ's Gospel in all its Doctrines or for a faithful punctuality in All Commerce and Transaction 'twixt Man and Man whether in That as the Cause of This or in This as the Fruit of That for 't is not pertinent now to mention all the other acceptions of Faith in Scripture we shall have reason to suspect The World is drawing towards its End in that the Praediction of our Saviour is drawing so near its Completion Before I come to prove or apply the Doctrine it will perhaps be worth while to take a view of the Description of the last and worst Days as St. Peter and St. Paul have drawn it up for us in their Epistles the one in Gross and the other in the Retail First St. Peter tells us in general There shall come in the last days Scoffers walking after their own own Lusts. St. Paul acquaints us in particular what the several Lusts are This know also saith he to Timothy that in the last days perilous times shall come For men shall be Lovers of their own selves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to Parents unthankful unholy without natural affection truce-breakers make-bates otherwise called false Accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good Traitors heady high-minded Lovers of Pleasures more than Lovers of God having a form of Godliness but denying the Power thereof From These saith He turn away And presently after he gives
the faith of what concerns the praesent world but they stagger in the faith of a world to come They have an ordinary relish of sensual Pleasure But ghostly Pleasure is a Iargon they know not how to make sense of They think it meerly a piece of gibbrish of Ecclesiastical Investigation They make no doubt but they shall dye and that their Bodies being buried shall all be moulder'd into Dust. But they secretly suspect they shall never Rise they are Infidels in the point of a Resurrection They either doubt and make a Quaestion or else they utterly disbelieve both a Life after Death and a Day of Judgment This is the only reason assignable why men are more afraid of Them who can kill the Body only but are not able to hurt the Soul than of Him who can cast both Soul and Body into Hell No other reason can I imagin why men do commonly run counter to that known Maxim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why when 't is every man's wisdom to choose the least of two Evils men in avoidance of the least do choose the greatest even to dwell with Eternal Burnings And therefore well may it be said as here it is in my Text that when the Son of Man cometh he shall not find Faith upon the Earth He shall not find Evangelical and Saving Faith He shall not find it at least in many nay he shall find it in few or none in comparatively None or None to speak of Let men pretend what they will and let them will what they please ye shall know them by their Fruits saith our Blessed Saviour And the Fruits of True Faith whereof the Professors are True Believers are no where better to be seen than in the Eleventh Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews wherein we have Faith commended to us in four principal Respects and all within the narrow compass of the Six first Verses First in respect of its Definition which is to be the Substance of Things hoped for and the Evidence of Things not seen Secondly in respect of its great and wonderful Effects whereof we have there Two choice Examples the one in Abel the other in Enoch Thirdly in respect of its greatest Benefit as being That Qualification by which we please God Lastly in respect of its indispensable Necessity as being That without which it is impossible to please him How could so many in the old Testament of whom we have an accompt in the later parts of That Chapter have chosen Poverty rather than Wealth and Disgrace rather than Glory and Pain it self rather than Pleasure if they had not had Respect and that a strange respect too unto the Recompence of Reward if by the Telescope of Faith as 't is the Evidence of Things not seen they had not seen Him who is Invisible if they had not been enabl'd to spy Reward afar off and to look clearly through the Veil which interposed as a Skreen 'twixt It and Them if they had not had a Prospect of the several blessed Mansions prepared for them in the City of God whereof they had been made Denisons and in the House of That Father of whom they were the adopted Sons if they had not had an Eye upon their particular Resurrections and such an Eye too so full so clear so more than Lyncean or Eagle-sighted that even Then when they were tortur'd they would not accept of a Deliverance to the end they might injoy by so much a better Resurrection § 9. This is a truly Salvisick Faith and such as necessarily signifies amongst other Vertues a firmer Adhaerence and Assent unto the Truth of Christ's Gospel in all its Doctrines than any man can ever have by any human means possible either to Seneca's or Cicero's or Caesar's Works This is That for want of which men will do and suffer more to save their Bodies or Estates and that for a little space of Time than they will either do or suffer to save their more pretious Souls and that for ever It was for want of This Faith that the Iews were broken off and by This only we Gentiles stand This is That Faith the Iust shall live by This is That on which depends our Bliss or Misery for ever according to the words of our Blessed Saviour whereof it is an Explication Mark 16. 16. He that believeth shall be saved but He that believeth not shall be damned Here is short work indeed and such as might have sav'd the labour of many Controversial Volumes which have been written and made publick between the Molinists and the Iansenians the Franciscans and the Dominicans or the Scotists and the Thomists between the Lutherans and the Calvinists the Arminians and the Gomarists the Remonstrants and Antiremonstrants concerning the Nature of God's Decrees and Quaestions depending thereupon Our Saviour tells us very succinctly in words most plain and most univocal who are Vessels of Election and who of Wrath Who were decreed from All Aeternity to Heaven and Hell even Believers and Unbelievers No more but so He that believeth shall be saved and He that believeth not shall be damn'd Which cannot possibly be meant concerning every human Faith whereof the World is too full It cannot be meant of such a Faith as makes a man abhor Idols but not abstain from committing Sacrilege Nor can it be meant of such a Faith as is strong enough to remove Mountains to wit The Laws and the Land-Marks of Church and State to pull down Kings and unsettle Kingdoms But not strong enough to bring forth Obedience to Christ's Commands and by a consequence unavoidable to God's Vicegerents upon Earth It cannot be meant of the Antinomian or the Fiduciarie's Faith which sets it self into a kind of opposition unto Good works and so by consequence is the Parent of nothing but practical Infidelity But 't is meant of That sanctifying and saving Faith which whosoever hath overcometh the world 1 John 5. 5. 'T is meant of Iustifying Faith not only in the mystical but literal notion of the word a Faith which so justifies that in a competent degree It does evermore make its Possessor Iust. It makes him an upright and honest man Saving Faith being a Grace which as it is the most commonly talk't of so it is I am afraid the least commonly understood of any one thing in the Christian Code We could not else so much abound with Knaves and Hypocrites as we do in the Christian World That which we call Divine Faith which is a justifying and sanctifying and saving Faith and upon which The Word of God does every where lay so great a stress must be an Habit of the Will as well as of the Understanding not only flourishing in the Head but deeply rooted in the Heart It must be such as does contain a full and generous Belief he dares to dye for a full and Practical Belief that Iesus Christ is the Messias a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a full
and absolute Belief both in his words and in his works both in his Counsels and his Commands both in his Promises and his Threats For He who Thus is believing is ipso facto and eo ipso at once an Obedient and Loving Christian. A Christian so loving that the longer he lives the more he lives the Life of Faith the more he is weaned and sequestred from the things here below the more he is wedded and betrothed unto those things that are above His Affections are taken off from the beggarly Elements of the World and fix't entirely upon God as his soveraign Good I mean they are set upon God in Christ reconciling the World unto Himself And overcome The world he does as St. Iohn must needs mean by overcoming its Temptations its Pomps and Vanities its Smiles and Flatteries nor only the Pleasures but Terrors of it He overcometh That world which St. Iohn has comprized under three general Heads to wit the lust of the Flesh the lust of the Eye and the pride of Life For a sincere Faith in Christ in his Death and Resurrection and in the Consequences of Both gives us a much greater Byass a stronger Bent and Inclination to all good Things than the whole World can to the contrary by all its flatteries or its frights It possesseth us immediately with Inward Ioy in the Holy Ghost and praepossesseth us with an Antepast of The Glory to be reveal'd It praesentiates unto us such Joys to come as do exceedingly over-weigh the frowns and favours of the world It is expressed by St. Iohn in the place before-cited not only as the means whereby we grow Victors But as the Victory it self This saith he is The Victory which overcometh the world even our Faith As if it were not only the Instrument but Essence of it § 10. It follows then that we must distinguish with exceeding great Care and every minute of our Lives between two things which do extremely much differ like Heaven and Hell and yet are commonly confounded to admiration I say we must carefully distinguish not only between an Idle and an Operative Faith a Faith which works and a Faith which works not But withal between a working and working Faith between a Faith which only works by the Love of a man's self and a Faith which duly works by the Love of others For when the Son of Man shall come with his holy Angels in flaming Fire taking Vengeance of them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of Iesus Christ He will find enough idle unactive Faith which either works not at all or not at all by Love or else by none but Self-love which is the worst and greatest Evil that can possibly come to pass in the last and worst Times St. Paul sets it down in his long Catalogue of Impieties which shall be in the last Days as The Ring-leader and Head of All the Villanies which ensue as the first and greatest Link of that Chain of Darkness which draws the other Links after it and reacheth as far as from Hence to Hell In the last days says he to Timothy perilous Times shall come For men shall be Lovers of their own selves and in consequence of That All the Devilish Things that follow from the First Verse unto the Ninth of that Third Chapter of the Second Epistle to Timothy A Chain of Darkness almost as long as That the Devils themselves are held in and reserved saith St. Iude until the Iudgment of the Great Day Nor is it my opinion only But that of Estius Simplicius and Strigelius that the Sin of Self-love is set down First in The Black List as The Head-spring and Fountain of all the Rest. For I think I may challenge any man living without immodesty to Name any one Actual and Damning Sin which has not the Sin of Self-love for its most execrable Original It was meerly Self-love which turned Luciser into a Devil and made the Son of the Morning The Prince of Darkness It was the Sin of Self-love which turned those Protoplasts Adam and Eve out of their Innocence and by consequence out of their Paradise which they held and possessed by That one Tenure It was at first the Love of Self and of Self-preservation which moved Peter to renounce and abjure his Master And it was first a Self-love which produced in Iudas a love of Mony wherewith he was tempted to betray and to slay his Master Thence it was that Self-denial or Self-abnegation was the very first Lesson our Saviour taught his first Disciples And 't is the first we are to learn in the School of our Master Iesus Christ. It being the Causa-sine-qua-non of all other Duties in a Christian. For whosoever has once attain'd a good Degree of Self-denial or of Self-hatred for Sins committed can fast from eating when he is hungry and even from drinking when he is dry from stealing when he is Poor and from coveting when he is Rich from repining when he is low and from oppressing when he is lofty and so from every thing else which either is sinful in it self or so much as a Temptation inducing to it How did St. Peter when he repented revenge himself upon himself for his having so basely out of Self-love not only disown'd but forsworn his Lord He did not only deny Himself in opposition to his Denial of Jesus Christ But abhorr'd himself too in opposition to his Self-love which betray'd him to it How triumphant was his Faith and his Self-denial how triumphant over Himself and his former Cowardize how did he preach up Christ Crucified for which he was Crucified with his Head downwards and in All he did or suffer'd how did he bear down all before him not only all the World but the Flesh and the Devil too as mighty Cataracts and Torrents do sticks and straws So did Peter as well as Paul courageously sight the good sight of Faith Such in Him was That Faith which overcometh the World And when the Son of Man cometh to be the Judge of Quick and Dead Lord how much or rather how little shall he find of such fighting and conquering Faith upon the Earth § 11. This is infinitely far from That Carnal Faith which only works by Self-love All the Degrees of Disobedience to Christ's Commands No The Faith which He shall find in comparatively None that is to say in very few at his second Coming is such a Faith as strongly works by a Love of others which is said with great reason to be The fulfilling of the Law in Both the Tables of The Decalogue which our Blessed Lord came to fulfil and perfect not to abrogate or to destroy because 't is hard if not impossible for us to name any one Duty incumbent on us as Men or Christians which is not the Necessary Production of such a Love as Faith works by For as immoderate Self-love which consists with an human and worthless Faith is the Root
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
being made perfect through suffrings he thereupon became the Author of Eternal Salvation not to them that believe him only but to them that obey him also v. 9. not to any Believing Rebels not to Treacherous Believers of which the world is too full but to them who have Faithfulness as well as Faith who so believe as to serve him and do his Will He is not the Author of Salvation to them that know it but do it not or to them who do promise but not perform it For almost All do know his Will and all do promise to perform it not only in their Baptism but over and above on their Bed of Sickness No to Them and Them only is he the Author of Salvation who live according to what they know and justifie their Promise by their Performance Our Saviour intimates by a parable Matth. 21. 28 29 30 31. that the obedient Churl is much better than the mealymouth'd Rebel It is a vain thing to say we are Sons of God and Servants of Christ unless we practically Shew as well as Say it A Son honoureth his Father and a Servant his Master said God heretofore by the Prophet Malachi If I then be a Father where is mine honour if I be a Master where is my Fear Now what was thus said to others by God the Father under the Law is as effectually said to us by God the Son under the Gospel Why call ye me Lord Lord and do not the things that I say To say Sir your Servant is either a Complement or a Ieer when we say it with our Lips but without our Actions And this doth seem to be intended by the words of my Text if we compare it with the Inference deduced from it Ye call me Lord and Master and ye say well But to say very well is not sufficient For the Devils said well in saying that Christ was the Son of God And the Worldling said well in that he said unto our Saviour of the Commandments of the Law All these things have I kept from my Youth But not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven for the Life of Christianity consists in Practice And therefore the Inferences are These which are drawn from the Text by Him that spake it If I then your Lord and Master have washed your feet ye also ought to wash oneanother's feet v. 14. If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them v. 16. And by the same Logick he argues in the very next Chapter which is another part of his Farewell-Sermon If any man love me he will keep my words v. 23. and He that loveth me not keepeth not my words v. 24. which is as if he should have said He that loves me will obey me and do the Things that I appoint him which if any man does not let him say what he will he does not Love me For no good Tree can bear ill Fruit that 's an Aphorism of Christ Matth. 7. 18. there is not any thing more impossible than that sincere Love and a solid Faith should ever bring forth Rebellion and Disobedience Or so much as consist with that which does No no more than a Vine can bring forth Thorns or no more than a Fig Tree can bring forth Thistles From whence the Sequel is Unavoidable That if we do not justly Obey our Master we neither heartily Love him nor do we cordially believe him For let our Faith and our Love be what they can be they are no more than a Couple of Trees which must be known by their Fruit. That 's the great Diagnostick commended to us by our Saviour whereby to judge of ourselves and others Matth. 7. 20. If the Fruit is Disobedience to the Commandments of our Lord then the Love that is pretended is but a Thorn and the Faith so much talk't of an arrant Thistle Let the Lover or the Believer be commonly call'd what he will either a Vine or a Fig Tree A Godly man or a Saint And let the Leaves or the Branches be never so specious to the Eye I mean Professions and Shews and Forms of Godliness Yet our Master's Affirmation is still as true as it is Terrible Every Tree without exception which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the Fire Matth. 7. 19. Lord what a change of men's manners would this one word produce were it but throughly Understood or but sufficiently consider'd had it the happiness to be taken as well into the Hearts as the Ears of men behold the only sure way whereby to judge without Sin of our selves or others If we are fraudulent persons or Drunckards if we are Schismaticks or Rebels if we are Slanderers or Railers or fals Accusers or any otherways abounding in the fruits of the Flesh Gal. 5. 19. 't is plain that God when he cuts us down will also cast us into the Fire I say he will and must do it because of his Iustice and Veracity unless Repentance step in timely 'twixt Us and Death And still by Repentance I mean Amendment Not an empty confession that we have sin'd nor yet a cheap wishing we had not sin'd no nor expressions of Attrition for having sin'd but a bringing forth fruits meet for Repentance A Renovation of the outward and inward man such a thorow Reformation as does make a New Creature A Change of mind and of manners even the fruits of the spirit Gal. 5. 22. In a word If we are not our own but are bought with a Price and bought out right by our Lord and Master and that as to the whole of us both Soul and Body Then as St. Paul does well infer let us glorify him that bought us both in our Bodies and in our Souls because they are not truly ours but his that bought them 1 Cor. 6. 20. § 14. But there is yet another Lesson to be derived from this Doctrin and such as our Master in the Text has taught us how to draw from it by his Example For it being to be praemised that the Disciple is not above his Master nor the Servant above his Lord we must not only do as our Master did But when God shall call us to it it is our Duty also to suffer as he hath suffer'd First we must do as our Master did For 't is his own way of arguing in the next verse after my Text If I your Lord and Master have washed your feet ye ought also to wash oneanother's feet for I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done Here he argues from his being our Lord and Master the obligation lying upon us to give an active obedience to his example and by way of consecution to his Command And this being so what manner of men ought we to be in the course of our Lives and conversations we ought to Love oneanother as
He did Us not only unto the Death but to the fulfilling of the Law too And how far are they from that who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Inventors of evil things of Lyes and Slanders and most malitious Accusations against a People more Innocent and better Reputed than themselves This is not to do as we would be done by Much less is it to love our Neighbour as ourselves Much less yet to love our friends as our Lord loved us when we were his Enemies To be Imitators of Christ which men must be if they will be Christians we ought to serve one-another as he did us yea to serve our Inferiours as he did His and that with such a kind of Service as is the washing of their feet And his reason to inforce it is chiefly this the Disciple is not above his Master the Servant is not above his Lord and I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done But now besides that this Argument does evince the moral Necessity of our Active obedience and conformity to his Example and Command it also shews us our obligation of having a fellowship with his suffrings and a conformity to his Death which connotates our Passive obedience also and is the main thing intended in this second Lesson the Context yields us § 15. For when he had said to his Disciples that he would shortly send them out as so many Sheep amongst Wolves from whom their usual entertainment should be to be persecuted and hated and to be scourged in their Synagogues and all for the sake of him that sent them Matth. 10. 17. c. he labour'd to give them an acquiescence in all their Suffrings from this one single Consideration that 't is enough for the Disciple if he be as his Master and the Servant as his Lord v. 24. If they have called the Master of the House Belzebub how much more shall they call them of his Household v. 25. There he argues from his being our Lord and Master the obligation lying upon us to suffer the evils which he hath suffer'd Then if at any time we shall fall into the Enmity of the World into a Cross or Disgrace which is undeserved we may relieve ourselves enough with this one Remembrance That 't is the friendship of the world which is enmity with God James 4. 4 and that 't is well for the Servant if he be as his Lord we must not be ambitious to be above him It will be useful to expostulate and reason the matter within ourselves Shall we be such mad Disciples as to expect or but desire to fare any better than our Master shall we be such over-nice or such delicate Servants as to repine at those hardships which were the Portion of our Lord shall we expect to be applauded and well reported by all the world not only by the Best but by the worst of men also when our Blessed Lord and Master is call'd a winebibber a Glutton an Hypocrite and a Deceiver a Blasphemer and a Boutefeux a Conjurer and a Demoniack or shall we shamelesly be seeking great things for ourselves whilst our Master is the outcast and Scorn of men when he who is at once the King and also the Bishop of our Souls is trodden down into the Dust It may seem a thing improper an Absurdity and a Soloecism for us to prosper Shall we who are not our own but are bought out right by our Master Christ be either so arrogant or so stately as to be stretching our selves on Couches and Beds of Ivorie whilst he our Lord and our Lawgiver our King and our Head our Advocate and our Iudge too is either grov'ling upon the Earth in a bloody sweat or stretched out upon the Cross in Tears of blood as well as Brine shall we be drinking wine in Bowles like the Wantons of whom we read in the Prophet Amos whilst our Master cry's out he is a thirst and has nothing wherewith to quentch it but the Cup of Trembling and Astonishment not only sharp as vineger but bitter as Gall too shall we be crowning our selves with Rosebuds like the Atheists of whom we read in the Book of Wisdom whilst our Lord and Master's Diadem is made of Thornes shall we be dancing to the sound of the Viol whilst His Ears are bored through with the most sharp-pointed Sarcasms that the Wit of Insultation can well invent Let us look upon the Case in another colour and admit it were our own Would we not wonder at such a Servant and think him mad who should affect to eat finer and take less pains to be much better clad and to lye softer than his Master It is enough then for us that we fare at least as well as our Master Christ that we suffer no more than to be spit upon and buffeted and scourg'd and Crucified If a Christian is but beggar'd or if but rail'd at and slander'd for conscience sake he fares a great deal better than his Master Christ did if he is Crucified or hang'd he fares no worse The Thought of which will be sufficient if we are qualified with Faith to make us smile upon our suffrings when they are wrongfully cast upon us and to furnish us with Patience if not with Pleasure in all our Pains I say with Pleasure because our Master taught his Disciples to Rejoice in that Case and to leap for Ioy for that is the English of our Saviour's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 5. 12. Rejoice saith he to his Disciples and leap for joy when men shall revile you and persecute you and speak all manner of evil against you falsly for my Sake § 16. Thus having seen the obligation laid upon us by Iesus Christ as our Lord and Master both to imitate his Example and to yield obedience to his Commands as well by doing him Passive as Active Service I shall conclude with the Necessity the Indispensable Necessity we all are under either of rising to life eternal if we accomplish this Condition or of incurring if we do not by so much the greater Condemnation For let our Professions be what they will of Faith in Christ as a Redeemer we cannot own him as a Master Unless we are Followers of his Life nor without sincere obedience can we Recive him as a Lord. And yet unless we so receive him He will not then receive us in the great day of Discrimination when he shall solemnly put a Difference betwixt the Wheat and the Chaff taking the one into his Garner and burning up the other with Fire unquentchable For not to him who hides his Talent in the Earth much less to him who vainly throws it into the Aire But to him who does employ and improve his Talent the righteous Judge of all the world will use that Sentence of Approbation Matth. 25. 21. Well done thou good and faithful Servant Enter thou into the Ioy of thy Lord. From whence