its strength You must not think it is with you as it is with a ruinous house where the mending of here and there a little will make up all again no but the old building must be quite book down and the foundation stone laid anew in a sound repentance from dead works and through conversion unto God Till this be done you must know that God hath no pleasure in you neither will accept an offering at your hand Mal. 1. 10. as he doth from those that are his friends 2. That there be the Acceptation of your persons through faith in Christ Iesus For in him alone it is that God will be well-pleased Matth. 3. last so that without faith interessing us in him it is impossible to please God Heb. 11. 6. For the better understanding both these Particulars know that there are two Attributes of God to which you must bear a conformity or else you cannot please him 1. The holiness of God for he is not a God that hath pleasure in iniquity He heareth not sinners The foolish shall not stand in his sight He hateth all the workers of iniquity Psal. 5. 4 5. Iohn 9. 31. God can no more take pleasure in the unsanctified then we in swine or serpents 2. The Iustice of God for he will by no means clear the guilty Exod. 34. 7. Could we have inherent holiness in us in our unpardoned state yet justice could not but be infinitely offended while guilt lyeth unremoved as you may see in Christ. For though he were perfectly holy yet being under the guilt of our sins imputed to him the severity of Gods justice broke out against him Now man being naturally an offence both to the holiness and justice of God there must of necessity pass upon him in order to his pleasing God this two-fold change 1. The real change of Sanctification I call this a real change because by this there is a real change infusing of new qualities and dispositions making him of proud humble of carnal spiritual and heavenly c. 2. The relative change of Iustification I call this a relative change because this is not a change in a mans nature but in his condition making him to stand in a new relation to the Law with reference to which he was before guilty and condemned but now the Law pronounces the same man clear and acquitted and this is not for any righteousness infused into him but for the satisfaction and payment of another laid down for him satisfaction there must be and a righteousness must be tendered or else God cannot be at peace We have nothing to pay Luke 7. 42. Oh sinner away to Christ for it Hide thee in the Clifts of that Rock Run to the Fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness Appear not before God but in the Robes of Christs Righteousness He sends you to Jesus as he did them to Iob Chap. 42. the last Go to my servant Job he shall pray for you him will I accept Get out of your selves fly to Christ labour to be found in him else all your endeavours in wrinsing and washing your selves will be to no effect 2. With reference to our Principles And here it is necessary that some corrupt principles be unlearnt and some holy principles be received and retained Some corrupt Principles must be unlearnt As 1. That it is enough if we serve God on the Lords day and we may serve our selves all the rest of the week Though God hath reserved one day in seven wholly for his immediate service which is therefore in a peculiar sense called the Lords day yet we must know that every day is his and that he hath not allowed us one hour nor inch of time but only for his service Indeed he hath service of more sorts then one but we must know that the business of our ordinary affairs if rightly done is a serving of the Lord Christ Col. 3. 24. God is as truly served by you in the working days labour as the Sabbath days rest if you do it in a right manner and to holy ends There are a generation whose Religion is but a Sundays Religion which they put on and off with their Sundays Cloaths and then they think God is fairly served for the week although God knows that little they do then is but poorly done neither Never think God will accept it at thy hands when thou livest six days to the world and thy self for one that thou spendest for him This shews thee to be under the unmortified power of self-love and not to be the Lords for none of his liveth to himself Rom. 14. 7. You must remember that you are but to learn upon the Sabbath how to serve God all the week and not think when the Lords day is ended his work is done 2. That if God be served morning and evening it is enough though we serve our selves the rest of the day God must be served every day and all the day Prov. 23. 17. You must be serving him not only in your Fasts but at your Meals not onely on your Knees but in your Callings Some think that if they keep up religious duties they may do what they list at other times that if they be intermperate lascivious unrighteous it is but to make even again with God at night and all will be well Like the whore in the Proverbs that having made her offering was presently ready for new wickedness Prov. 7. 14. as if she had paid off the old score and might now boldly run upon a new These are not the Children of God but of Belial Others think that though they may not serve the Devil at any time yet giving God his dues morning and evening they may serve themselves the rest of the time But in vain do they lay claim to God who live more to themselves then they do to him This will be found horrible sacriledge to put off God but with the tenth God is to be eyed and served in all that you do and this is that I drive at that we may not divide our selves between God and the world between his service and our own ends and so put off him with a partial service but that we may do all in obedience to him and we may be intirely the Lords That he in all things may be glorified by us and we may not lose our Reward 2. Some holy Principles must be received and retained As Pr. 1. That the pleasing of God is our only Business and our highest Blessedness First our only Business what is it that we call or count our Business 1. That is a mans Business which his livelihood and subsistence depends upon The Lawyer counts the Law his Business And the Tradesman counts his Trade his Business because upon this their livelihood and subsistence depends Brethren our whole depends upon the pleasing of God Do this and do all miss in this and you marr all please him and you are made for ever if he
that knows he is shortly to be removed into another Country be careful to transport all that he can that he may enjoy it at his coming Beloved if you do believe indeed that you must be for ever in another world will it not be your best course to be doing that the fruit whereof you shall enjoy for ever Were not he a mad man that having but a very short term upon a Living should yet go to building and planting there when he had Land of Inheritance to build upon Infinite is the mischief that comes of self-seeking and self-pleasing You are eternal losers by it God will say you have your reward Matth. 6. 5. Something you may have in hand but the eternal reward is lost Brethren I am ambitious for you that what you do you should do for ever that all you do should meet you in the other world and that there you should reap the everlasting fruit of what you are a doing now A wise Builder will build for ever and not only that which shall last for a day or for a year O that you would be wise Builders Do all for God and you shall have eternal advantage Learn but this Lesson to set your selves in all things to please God and you will be promoting and advancing your selves in all that ever you do always laying up a treasure in heaven still adding to the heap And O what riches will you come to when by every day and every hour and every action you are gainers For God will not let the least thing that is done for him no not a cup of cold water go without an everlasting reward Matth. 10. 42. not your labour be in vain 1 Cor. 15. 58. Pr. 3. That when you have done all if God be not pleased you have done nothing Settle it upon your hearts That all is in vain that is not done for God when you do not please God you do not profit your selves When men offer never so richly and freely if not in such a manner as is pleasing to God all is but a vain oblation Isa. 1. 13. If men will do more then ever God required and be zealous in things that God hath not commanded it is but in vain that they worship him Matth. 15. 9. Beloved so much time as you have lived to your selves you have lived in vain because it was quite besides your end O it is a heart-cutting consideration to a tender Christian to think of this that when his life is so short and time so little in all yet he must be fain to cut off so much why man so many hours must thou cut off from thy dayes and so many years from thy life as thou hast lived not to God but to thy self They are all lost as to the ends of life and time If on repentance thou be forgiven thou art not rewarded for them Beloved You must count that you have lived no longer then you have lived unto God Phil. 1. 21. To me to live is Christ. I should account I did not live if I did not live to him 'T is the only employment of my life to serve him I should not tell what to do with my life unless it were to spend it for him Christian Thus thou must reckon so much time as I have lived to Christ so much have I lived and so much as I have lived to my self so much I have lost 'T is not the Man but the Beast that lives while we live below our reason which distinguishes the humane life from that of Bruits Now while we live not to God we live utterly below our reason it self which is sufficiently discovered in that God is the Author and End of Man Doth not reason dictate that God should have the glory of his own work and the Vessel should be to the Potters use Doth any plant a Vineyard or keep a Flock and not expect the Fruit or the Milk 1 Cor. 9. 7. God hath made thee O man for himself Prov. 16. 4. And hast thou the face of a man and dost not blush at this to think that God should make and maintain thee in vain If thou hast one grain of ingenuity thou wilt abhor the thought of this that thou shouldst be in vain Why so much as thou art for thy self thou art for nothing It may be thou livest a very busie life but if thou actest not for God thou art all this while but busily doing nothing Thou mayst sit down in the evening and say I have been all this day doing nothing Thou wilt find a blank in Gods Book for that day nothing upon thine account on this sad record such a day spent and nothing done God hath his Day-book and takes notice of all your carriages how you rise and how you go forth to your labours how you speak how you eat and whether you eye him and his glory in all or look no higher then your selves Luke 5. 5. We have been toyling all night and caught nothing May not this be the sad complaint of many a man I have been toyling all my life and yet I have done nothing because what I did was not done unto the Lord. How would you take it of your servants if coming home in the evening you should find every one of them minding their own business and pleasure and your work left undone Is it not sad sirs that so many hours and days should pass over us and we no nearer our end then ever we were before Your little Children are busie from morning to night and yet all the while have been doing nothing And so are you when you are but seeking your carnal selves and not serving and pleasing God in what you undertake Pr. 4. That the favour all of the world can nothing stead you if God be not pleased with you and by you If there were any that could save you from his wrath you need not be so solicitous to please him but if he be not pleased we are all undone Thou even thou art to be feared and who shall stand when once thou art angry Psal. 76. 7. Isa. 43. 13. When men have slight thoughts of Gods anger and the fear and dread of him is not upon their hearts no wonder if they be not careful to please him you must be convinced that the displeasure of God is the most formidable thing in the world or else you will never learn this great Lesson Beloved if you should please men and all the world should be on your side what would this avail while God is your enemy If all men should bless you and speak well of you what would this profit when God should rise up in judgment against you and condemn you It is not at mans Bar but Gods that you must stand It is not at mens Votes that you must be cast or quitted It will not go by most voices but God himself is the Judge Psal. 75. 7. In his Breast it is whether you
be not pleased you are undone for ever How careful is the selfish Courtier to please his Prince how will he crouch and flatter and if he can but divine what will gratifie and please him he thinks himself happy And why but because all his dependance is upon his Princes favour Much more do we depend upon the favour of God Blessed is the man whom he chooseth Psal. 65. 4. In his favour is life Psal. 30. 5. But wo to them that have God against them these are perfectly miserable Reprobate silver shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected them Jer. 6. 30. If the Lord do but say to a man as he did to Moses Thou hast found grace in my sight and I know thee by name Happy is that man But if he thus say I have no pleasure in thee you may cover the face of that man as they did Hamans and carry him away miserable must his end be if he so continue 2. That is a mans Business which he hath his Stock and Talents for If a Man be entrusted as a Steward or a Factour his Business is to buy in the Commodities that are useful Beloved all our Time Parts Interests Food Rayment and whatever Mercies spiritual or temporal are the Stock wherewith God hath entrusted us and all for his own use and service And is it not a sad and fearful case that God should have so great a Stock going as lies in the hands of all the Sons of Men and yet have if I may so so speak so little profit of it I mean so little glory by it That he should sow so much and reap so little strew so much and gather so little Is it not sad that men should have so much in vain Hast thou health or wealth and dost not use in for God it is all in vain Hast thou understanding and yet improvest it but for contriving thine own affairs and worldly designs thy reason and understanding are become in vain Oh how wilt thou answer it that thou hast had so great a stock in thine hands and made so little improvement of it It had been good for some men if they had never had a foot of Land or an hours ease if they had never had the understanding of men because they have not used their Talents for God and for the ends for which they were put into their hands 3. That is a mans Business which his capacities do call for It is a mans Business if in the capacity of a Iudge to do justice or of a Servant to do his Masters will Brethren all your capacities do evidence it to be your business to please God you are his Friends you are his Servants therefore must please him well in all things Titus 2. 9. His children And therefore must set your selves to honour him Malach. 1. 6. his Spouse and therefore it is your business to please your Husband 1 Cor. 7. 34. 4. That is a mans Business which he hath his maintenance for If a man be maintained in the place of a Schoolmaster it is his Business to teach if of a Souldier it is his Business to fight Beloved do you not know at whose finding you are And do you think God keeps so many servants to be idle or to mind their own designs and pleasures God hath cut you out every one his work every man his hands full So much work is to be done within door and so much without door so much towards God towards your Neighbour towards your own selves that you have no time to be idle in And you shall dearly reckon for it if you will eat his Bread and will not do his work And as pleasing God is our chiefest Business Secondly So it is also our highest Blessedness For mans happiness lies in Gods favour Psal. 4. 6. Our happiness is in attaining the end of our being and therefore the great quaery amongst the Philosophers still was What was the end or the happiness of man Now the true end of our Being is that we may please God for his pleasure we are and were created Rev. 4. 11. And for this end also we were new created that we should yield our selves unto God Rom. 6. 13. and being built up a spiritual house should offer up to him spiritual sacrifice acceptable through Christ 1 Pet. 2. 5. This is the end of our Redemption that we should serve not our selves but him in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives Luke 1. 75. And that we should not henceforth live to our selves but to him that died for us 2. Cor. 5. 15. 'T is the end likewise of our Iustification that our consciences being purged we should acceptably serve the living God In a word 't is the end of our Glorification that being translated into Heaven we should perfectly please God and serve him night and day is his Temple Rev. 7. 15. and 22. 3. So that the pleasing of God is the whole end or whole happiness of Man Eccles. 12. 13. And this will be clear because We do then promote our selves most when we please God best For by this you shall have this two-fold advantage First You shall be the favourites of God O glorious promotion Haman thought himself no little man when he was Abasuerus his right hand and yet he was at length but preferred to the Gallows Esther 5. 11. and 7. 10. But what shall be done to the man whom God delights to honour Oh blessed is that man wo to him that toucheth him It had been better for him that a milstone had been hanged about his neck and he drowned in the midst of the sea then that he should offend such a one Luke 17. 2. God is infinitely chary of his favourites The apple of his eye is touched when they are injured Zechariah 2. 8. Whosoever toucheth them shall not be innocent Psal. 107. 15. God hath a blessing for those that shew them a kindness Gen. 12. 3. He will render vengeance upon the ungodly for every hard speech they utter against them Iude 15. O man doth not thy soul say Happy is the people that is in such a case will not thy condition be most Blessed when God shall be thus infinitely tender of thee to take all the kindnesses done to thee as done to himself Matth. 25. 45. and all the injuries done to thee as affronts to himself Acts 9. 4. This is the happy Case of his Favourites Secondly Every thing you do shall be found upon your account with God Brethren are you Believers or are you not Do you believe the Immortality of the Soul and the Life to come or do you not The ways of the most do declare them to be real Infidels though professed Christians If you think there be an eternal State to come will it not be your highest wisdom to be providing for it and laying up what possibly you can that you may inherit it in the other world Will not every wise man
you not only how you must fast but how you must eat to wit with watchfulness and temperance not as those who have nothing to do but to fill their paunches but with an eye to his glory as those that are feeding and relieving the servants of Jesus Christ. He hath shewed you not only how you should rest on the Lords Day but how you must follow your Calling on the rest to wit with diligence and discretion minding him as your end as those that herein serve the Lord Christ. He hath told you how you must manage your dealings with equity and charity doing the very same to others that your consciences tell you you would have them in the like case to do unto you how you must sleep even as those that know he compasseth your path and your lying down and how you must wake to wit so as to be still with him Fourthly God hath given you special helps to this end You have the mind of Christ 1 Cor. 2. 16. and you have the Spirit of Christ 1 Cor. 2. 12. Indeed they that are in the flesh cannot please God but you are not in the flesh but in the spirit Rom. 8. 8 9. You that are Believers have not the Law only in your Bibles but in your hearts Heb. 8. 10. II. It is very profitable Glorious advantages shall you have by this course First this is the most speedy and certain way to assurance for want of which many of you complain but henceforth you must complain no more For either you will follow this course and then you will have it or you will not and then cease your hypocritical complaints when it is through your own wilful disobedience that you are without it When once you are habituated to this course and do find it to be the chief of your care and that which your very hearts are set upon above all things else to glorifie and please God and approve your selves in his sight you cannot want assurance unless through your own ignorance For this is the most undoubted evidence in the world that you are the children of God whatever unallowed failings you may be guilty of Secondly Hereby you shall be certain of Gods gracious and favourable presence always with you See the Text He that sent me is with me for I do always those things that please him Thirdly By this means you shall be always laying up a Treasure in Heaven Brethren what are you for Are you men for Eternity or are you for present things Is your design for Glory Honour and Immortality Are you for riches in the other world or of dunghil spirits preferring your part in Paris before a part in Paradise If you are for true riches here is your way By this you shall be daily and hourly encreasing the stock of your own glory my vehemency is only that fruit may abound to your account that all you do might meet you in Heaven and Christ may shew your good works another day as the Widows did Dorcas her Garments Acts 9. 39. CHAP. III. A Fourth Case of Conscience WHat weariness in and unwillingness to duties may stand with grace and what not For the resolving this some Distinctions must be premised and then some Conclusions elicited Distinct. This weariness and unwillingness must be distinguished 1. According to the degrees of it and so it is either partial and gradual or else prevalent and plenary 2. According to the subject of it and so this weariness is either of the Members or else of the mind 3. According to the prevalency of it and so it is either transient and occasional or else setled and habitual 4. According to the sense we have of it and so it is either matter of Allowance to us or matter of annoyance 5. According to the cause of it and so it is either from a fixed dislike of the food or else from an Accidental distemper of the stomach 6. According to the effects of it for either it is victorious and makes us give over duties or else abhorred and repulsed by grace the Christian still holding on in the way of Duty Conclu 1. Where the weariness is only in the Members or at least chiefly but there is still a willingness of the mind this is no matter of questioning our Estates where the mind out-goes and out-does the body and the appetite to duties continues in vigour though there be a languishing of the natural strength and weariness of the bodily organs this is not our sin but affliction But too commonly the body hath so much influence upon the mind and causeth a listlesness and sluggishness there and makes it negligent in its office Yet when this doth proceed from the failing of the spirits tired with bodily labour and exercise and from the distemper of the parts our most pitiful Father considers our frame and remembers we are but dust and our merciful High Priest that is not untouched with the sense of our infirmities is ready to frame our excuse that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak 2. Where our weariness in and unwillingness to duties is only gradual and partial not plenary and prevalent it is not sufficient to conclude our selves graceless While the twins are together in the womb and two Nations within our bowels there will be contrary inclinations The flesh will never say Amen to a good motion as such but will be lusting against the spirit and will hang back when the spirit puts forwards and pull down when the spirit bends upwards So that while corruption remaineth there will be always a dissenting party and continual conflicts from whence it is no wonder there should arise some weariness yet the spirit is the prevailing interest and though oft-times fayled yet hath mostly the mastery in the combate and carries it against the flesh though not without much resistance and reluctancy from the rebel opponent 3. Where this weariness is only transient during the present temptation or defection which assoon as the tired soul can get out of it returns to its former temper and pleasure in holy duties there is only matter of humiliation But when it is the setled permanent and babitual frame of the mind it is matter of questioning our conditions The holy Psalmist under a dissertion was even almost perswaded to give over with Religion but when he is himself nothing is so sweet nothing so lovely and desirable to him as the duties of holiness But for them who have in their ordinary setled course and frame no mind to duties but are halled to them by conscience or engaged by company or custom or the like their case is fearful in that measure that duty is unpleasing and not loved 4. Where this weariness of and unwillingness to Duties is paniful and grievous as a sore in the eye as a sickness in the heart the state is good But where it is naturally allowed and meets with little or no resistance it is a black mark
sheet for the Ministry against the Malignants of all sorts 15. A Winding-sheet for Popery 16. One sheet against the Quakers 17. A second sheet for the Ministry c. 18. Directions to Justices of the Peace especially in Corporations to the discharge of their duty to God c. 19. The crucifying of the World by the Cross of Christ c. in quarte 20. A call to the Unconverted to Turn and Live and accept of mercy while mercy may be had as ever they would find mercy in the day of their extremity From the Living God To be read in Families where any are unconverted in twelves 21. Of saving Faith That it is not only gradually but specifically distinct from all Common Faith The Agreement of Richard Baxter with that very Learned consenting Adversary that hath maintained his Assertion by a pretended Confutation in the end of Serjeant Shepheards Book of Sincerity and Hypocrisie in quarto 22. Directions and Perswasions to a sound Conversion c. in octavo 33. The Grotian Religion discovered at the invitation of Mr. Thomas Pierce in his Vindication with a Preface Vindicating the Synod of Dort from the calmnies of the new Tilenus and David Peter c. and the Puritans and Sequestrations c. from the censures of Mr. Pierce in octavo 24. Confirmation and Restauration the necessary means of Reformation and Reconciliation in octavo 25. Five Disputations of Church Government in quarto 26. A Key for Catholicks to open the jugling of the Jesuits and satisfie all that are but truly willing to understand whether the cause of Roman or Reformed Churches be of God and to leave the Reader utterly unexcusable that after this will be a Papist in quarto 27. A Treatise of Self-denial in quarto 28. His Apology against the Exceptions of Mr. Blake Kendal Crandon Eires L. Moulin in quarto 29. The unreasonableness of Infidelity in four parts c. in octavo 30. The Worcester-shire Petition to the Parliament for the Ministry of England defended c. in quarto 31. 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The Vain Religion of the Formal Hypocrite c. in several Sermons preached at the Abbey in Westminster in twelves 46. Two sheets for poor Families c. 47. Short instructions for the sick a sheet 48. A Saint or a Bruit c. in quarto 49. The mischief of Self-Ignorance and benefit of Self-acquaintance in octavo 50. Universal Concord c. in octavo 51. The last work of a Believer c. in twelves 52. The Divine Life in three Treatises The first of the Knowledge of God The second of Walking with God The third of Conversing with God in Solitude in quarto 53. The reasons of the Christian Religion c. 54. Directions for weak distempered Christians to grow up into a confirmed state of Grace c. 2. The Characters of a sound confirmed Christian written to imprint on mans mind the true Idea or Conception of Godliness and Christianity in octavo 55. Now or Never in twelves 56. The Life of Faith in three parts in quarto 57. 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The Church Told of Mr. Edward Bagshaws Scandals and warned of the dangerous snares of Satan now laid for them in his Love-killing principles in quarto 62. The Duty of Heavenly Meditation in quarto 63. How far Holiness is the Design of Christianity in quarto 64. Gods goodness Vindicated with respect to the Doctrine of Reprobation and Damnation in twelves 65. The Divine Appointment of the Lords Day in octavo 66. More Reasons for the Christian Religion and no Reason against it in twelves * And they have a false notion of Heaven it self else they might justly desire it as the end of their present holiness it being the fruition of God in perfect holiness