Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
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A53095
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Ultimum vale, or, The last farewell of a minister of the Gospel to a beloved people by Matthevv Nevvcomen ...
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Newcomen, Matthew, 1610?-1669.
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1663
(1663)
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Wing N914; ESTC R8564
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50,710
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never have gone on in our sins and impenitencie we would certainly have laid hold upon the offers of Grace and wayes of Life The Devil and his angels will be able to say Lord thou didst never provide nor propound for us a way of reconciliation and recovery since we first sinned against thee as thou didst for man after his transgression if thy Son had taken our nature as he did the nature of man and had provided for us such a Covenant of Peace and Reconciliation as he did for man and the glad Tidings thereof had been published to us by the Gospel as it was to man possibly we had not persisted so obstinately in our rebellion against thee These and the like pleas may even the Devils have for themselves in the day of Judgment wither true or no that is not our question But now thou who hast lived all thy dayes under the Word of Grace and never got any saving good by it but livest and diest an ignorant prophane impenitent unbelieving creature as the Lord knows too many do When thou shalt appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ thou wilt not have this nor any thing else to plead for thy self If Christ should say to thee as Judges here upon the Bench to Malefactors What canst thou say for thy self why sentence of condemnation should not pass upon thee Poor creature thou wilt not have one word to say but must be as that man in the parable Mat. 22. Altogether speechless When the Judge shall say to you How is it that you appear here in the guilt of all your sins were you never told of these sins of yours were you never exhorted to repentance were you never directed the way to get your sins pardoned were you never invited perswaded intreated that you would be saved did I not send my Ministers and did not they in my Name and in my Stead beseech you that you would be reconciled to God and did not they tell you what you must do that you might be reconciled did you not live under the dispensations of that Word of Grace that was able to work Grace in you that did work Grace in others and was as able to work it in you why then are ye found in a graceless condition this day O when Jesus Christ shall in the presence of all his Saints and Angels thus expostulate with the souls of such as live and dye without any saving good how inexcusable how intolerable will their condemnation be O think of it and as you desire to escape the confusion of that day and the condemnation of Hell O labour yet to get Grace wrought in your hearts by the power of this Word of Grace In the fourth place Is it so that the Word of God is the Word of Grace O then study this Word of Grace Secondly Love this Word of Grace Thirdly Cleave close to this Word of Grace make that the Man of your counsels Psal 119.24 make it the Rule of your lives Gal. 6.16 But these and the like Duties I have heretofore spoken largely of both in my Sermons upon James 1.25 as also when I shewed you how the Word of God is the only true and adequate Rule of Godliness And lastly in my Catechistical Sermons wherein I handled largely the Divine Original Authority and Perfection of the holy Scriptures I pass by these things therefore now And go on to the Eulogie or Praise which the Apostle here gives The Word of Grace which is able to build you up A Metaphor taken from Builders where you know first men lay the Foundation and then by degrees set up the whole Frame of the Building one piece after another to this Paul alludes here as if he should say as to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 3.10 According to the Grace given unto me I as a wise Master-builder have laid the Foundation I have by my Ministry setled you upon the rock Christ Jesus Indeed the work is not yet finished and yet I must leave you but I resolve to leave you in a sure hand who is able to carry on what I have begun I commend you to God and the VVord of his Grace which is able to build you up Three things we may observe from these words for our instruction The first is this That true Believers those that are in the state of Grace have need to be further edified and built up Secondly That true Believers have need of the Word of God for their building up and edification Thirdly That the Word of God is able to build up true Believers First That true Believers those that are in the state of Grace have need to be further edified and built up And this I prove to you First By those places of Scripture that do enjoyn the edification or building up of the Saints as a Duty so 1 Thess 5.11 Wherefore comfort your selves together and edifie one another Secondly By those places that suppose it the practice of the Saints as in 1 Thess 5.11 Edifie one another as also you do so Jude 20. But you Brethren building up your selves in your most holy Faith Praying in the Holy Ghost keep your selves Col. 2.6 7. As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him rooted and built up in him Thirdly This is proved by those places that propound the edification or building up of the Saints as the end and scope of Gospel-Ordinances and Church-Administrations Ephes 4.11 12. All the Officers that Christ hath given to his Church and all Ministerial gifts bestowed upon those Officers what is the end and scope of them The perfecting of the Saints the edifying of the Body of Christ So the power of Censures in the Church what is the end and scope of them see 2 Cor. 13.10 According to the power which the Lord hath given me to edification this ought to be the end and scope of all Church-Administrations 1 Cor. 14.26 Let all things be done to edifying Fourthly This is that that ought to be the end and scope not only of all Publick Administrations but of all a Christians private actions Rom. 14.19 Let us therefore follow the things that make for peace and things wherewith one may edifie another So again Rom. 15.2 Let every man please his neighbour for his good to Edification Where First We have the Duty enjoyned pleasing our neighbour Secondly We have the universality of this Duty Let every man please his neighbour Thirdly You have the restriction and rule of this Duty for his good to edification Let every man please his neighbour for his good to Edification It is not simply said Let every man please his neighbour it would please the Drunkard well to have other men go to the Ale-house with him the Heretick and Superstitious person would like it well to have every one speak and do as they do but we must not please others in these things but only so far as may be for their real and true good and for
Love and Obedience which the Son yeelds to the Father So the Hapiness and Glory of the Life to come is not only a sufficient but a superabundant Recompence of all that the Saints of God either do or suffer for him Fourthly Because often in Scripture the phrase or denomination of an Inheritance is used pro quavis regratâ et acceptâ So Psal 16. The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places and I have a goodly Heritage Now the Hapiness and Glory of the Life to come may be called an Inheritance because it is the most acceptable desirable delightful thing that God himself could bestow upon the Creature Fiftly An Inheritance it is a free gift No Son can claim the Inheritance at his Fathers hands by way of merit indeed a man may by his demerit forfeit his Inheritance and deserve to be disinherited but no child can challenge the Inheritance of men but must receive it of free gift And the Child yet ows all love and all service and all duty to his Father though he have never a peny of Inheritance to leave him and though he hath and should not leave it to him but leave it to some other yet still the child ows all Love and Duty to his Father and the Inheritance that is left him it is his Fathers love and good-will and not his desert So the Happiness and Glory of the Life to come though as I said before in the third Particular it is a sufficient super-abundant reward of all the Love Duty Service and Sufferings of Believers yet it is not the wages of their Service but it is the Grace of God the free Gift of the good Will and Pleasure of God And that leads me to the second Doctrine That the Heavenly Inheritance it is a Gift So Scripture expresly speaks Luke 12.32 It is your Fathers good Pleasure to give you the Kingdom Rom. 6.23 The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Death indeed is due wages deserved wages but eternal Life the Heavenly Inheritance is a Gift a free gift a meer gift so in many other places and needs it must be so I will but use the Apostle's disjunction Rom. 4.4 Either it must be of Grace or of Debt of debt it cannot be And therefore it must needs be of Grace That the Heavenly Inheritance or Reward cannot be of Debt I prove First That what ever it be that makes another indebted unto me it must be in debitum unto him For by doing that which is a due debt in me and which I am obliged to do I can never make him for whom I do it indebted unto me Now all our Service and Obedience to God it is but due debt in us unto God it is that we are obliged to and therefore all our Service can never oblige God or make him indebted unto us Upon this account it is our Saviour teacheth us Luke 17.10 When ye have done all these things which are commanded you say We are unprofitable Servants we have done that which was our duty to do Secondly This cannot be of debt because there must be a proportion between the Work and the Reward to make the Reward due of debt A man that works in your Fields for you a day why he may come at night and claim twelve or fourteen pence for a dayes work as a due debt but if he should challenge an hundred or a thousand pound for one dayes work you would look upon him as unreasonable and impudent There is infinitely more difference between all our Service and the heavenly Inheritance than there is between a pound for a dayes hedging or ditching in your Fields It cannot be that Heaven should be a debt it must then be a Gift not of Debt but of Grace Seeing then that Heaven is an Inheritance and therefore of Gift not of Merit because an Inheritance Let this teach us to abhor that proud Popish doctrine of Merit and admire and adore the free Grace of God in Jesus Christ The Reward of Heaven and Glory it is not a Purchase but an Inheritance Among men there is a great deal of difference between a Purchase and an Inheritance For a Purchase a man layeth down a valuable price but an Inheritance comes to him freely it costs nim nothing possibly it might cost another man much that purchased it for him but if it descend unto him by Inheritance it costs him nothing O my Brethren Heaven the Happiness and Glory of the Life to come it is not our Purchase but our Inheritance we pay nothing for it indeed it cost Christ our elder Brother dear to purchase it not for himself for He was Heir by birth but to purchase this Inheritance for us it cost him dear but it cost us nothing Christ bequeathed it unto us of free Gift it is to us not of purchase but Inheritance therefore it is not of Merit but of Grace Yea Heaven is not only said to be our Inheritance but we are said to be made Heirs So Tit. 3.7 We are not born Heirs of Heaven but born Heirs of Hell but we are made Heirs of Heaven by the Grace of Adoption yea we are not only made Heirs of Heaven by the Grace of Adoption but we are made fit for Heaven by the Grace of Sanctification unto Acceptation So that here all is of Grace The Inheritance of Grace our Right and Tittle to it is of Grace our Fitting and Preparing for it is of Grace all of Grace nothing of Merit all of God nothing of our selves Secondly this That Heaven is an Inheritance which God freely gives This should teach all of us 1. To set our minds upon this Inheritance A man that hath but possibilities or expectations of an Inheritance to befal him by the death of such or such a one though it be but a poor slender paltry matter yet how hardly can he keep his mind from running upon it from thinking long till he come to the possession of it from even almost wishing sometimes the party dead whose the present possession is Filius ante diem Patrios inquirit in annos Many a graceless Child is even weary of his Father and sick of his Mother only because his mind runs so much upon the Patrimony the Inheritance and he thinks so long for it Pupillumice utinam quem proximus Haeres Impello ex pungam saith another O my Brethren did we look upon the state and happiness of the life to come as an Inheritance as our Inheritance it would be so with us we could not keep our minds from running out upon the happiness and glory of the life to come our thoughts would be running upon it our hearts would be longing and wishing for the possession of it and here we may give our thoughts and desires line scope to the utmost Indeed in our thoughts of and desires after earthly inheritances we had need set bounds to our