but the Simple pass on and are punished They are rash and confident in their Undertakings and so they pass on and are punished Fear makes a Christian circumspect and considerative with himself how he may keep from Miscarriages in the performance of his great Work If God call me to such a Duty how shall I perform it If to bear such a Cross and Affliction how shall I glorifie him under it If to conflict with such Temptations how shall I resist and overcome them Yea how shall I do to break through all Difficulties Duties and Oppositions that I who am but a weak and feeble Christian may meet withal and how shall I do to bear up And thus pondring what may be his Duty and forecasting what Duties God may call him unto he is inabled to do what is his Duty at present and what also may by Providence hereafter become his Duty Nothing overtakes such a Man unexpected nor doth any thing surprize him unprovided for it And thus a careful Fear enables him in the performance of his great Work Secondly A Fear of Humility and holy Reverence of God induceth much to the working out of our Salvation and that in three Particulars First It much helps us in our great Work to fear God as our Lord and Master that sees and overlooks all our Works observing both what we do and how we do it also That Servant must be desperately bold that will dare to be idle or slight and perfunctory in his Work while his Masters Eye is upon him Why Christians should consider Gods Eye is always upon them in Praying in Hearing and in every Duty that they perform yea in every Action of their whole Lives And if the Eye of a Master that is but a Fellow Creature nay but a Fellow Servant can have such awe and influence upon his Servant as to make him careful how he works and what he works and to make him diligent in his Work Should not much more the consideration of Gods Eye being upon us who stands at an infinitee distance from us cause a holy Fear and Diligence in us in doing what our Lord and Master commands us Secondly Fear God also as him from whom you have all your Power and Ability to work Fear him lest at any time through any neglect or miscarriage of yours he should be provoked to suspend his Influence and withdraw his Grace from you and to leave you to your own Weakness and Impotency upon whose influence all your Obedience doth depend This is the Apostles Argument in the Text Work with Fear for God works in you both to Will and to Do. Holy diligence in Obedience cannot be more strongly enforced on an ingenious Spirit than by considering all that Strength and Ability that we have to work is received from God and therefore should be improved for God lest for our Sloth he deprives us of that we make no use of Thirdly In working fear God also as he that will be the Judge and Rewarder of your Works for ever You perform them unto him who is to pass Sentence upon them and upon you for them and will you then dare to do them slothfully and negligently God will try every Mans Work with Fire and will call every Action to a severe and strict account every Mans Work shall be seen through and through and then it shall be known who hath wrought the Works of God and who hath fulfilled the Will of Satan and the final Doom and irreversible Sentence shall then be pronounced according to Mens Works God will Rom. 2.7 8 9. says the Apostle render unto every Man according to his Works to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory and Immortality to them he will render Eternal Life but to them that are contentious and obey not the Truth but obey Vnrighteousness he will render unto them Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish upon every Soul that doth Evil. Now would you but thus fear God as an upright and impartial Judge that will render unto every one according to his Works How would this prevail with you so to work that at last you might be found of God in well doing and receive the blessed Reward and Sentence of the diligent and faithful Servant To enter into your Master's joy Fourthly and Lastly If you would work for Salvation successfully then work speedily without delay and constantly without cessation First Work speedily without delay Delays in all Affairs are dangerous but in Soul Affairs usually they are damnable For First The longer you procrastinate and delay the greater and more difficult will your Work be at last Corruption will be grown more tuff ill Humours will be grown more stubborn your Heart will be more hardned your Affections being more habituated will be more firmly engag'd to Sin the Devil will plead right to you by Prescription and it is hard keeping an Enemy out that hath had long Possession Secondly Consider what a desperate Folly it is to put off your Work till to Morrow you are not sure that you shall live to see another Day And oh what Hazards do those Men run whose hopes of Heaven depend upon no better a bottom than their hopes of Life and whose eternal Salvation is subject to as many Casualties and Accidents as their present Beings in this World are subject to Mans Breath is in his Nostrils and yet how do Men suffer their Souls and their everlasting Happiness to depend upon nothing surer than their Breath that Breath that every moment goes forth from them and they know not whether ever it shall return to them again But suppose your Life and Days should continue and you should reach unto that time whereof you have boasted and promised to mind the concernments of your Souls eternal Happiness in yet consider Thirdly The Grace of God is not at your disposal for then either First The outward Call may cease or it may grow more faint and low you may not be so daily importun'd and solicited for Heaven as now you are Ordinances and Opportunities may cease or you for your contempt may be given over to a contempt and neglect of them Secondly The inward Dictates of your own Consciences and the motions of the holy Spirit may cease Conscience may be brib'd to a silence and the holy Ghost may be commissionated to depart after this present opportunity and never more may you have its Breathings and Movings upon your Hearts if you do not now listen to them Thirdly If inward Motions do continue are you sure after this moments refusal that you shall obtain that Grace from God that may make you willing to close with those Motions Leave not therefore the eternal Salvation of your precious and immortal Souls at such Hazards and Delays Now is the acceptable time now is the day of Salvation to day therefore if you will hear his voice even while it is called to day harden not your Hearts for this
altogether as freely as if we were saved without any Obedience at all And so much in Answer unto the Third Objection Fourthly Others may say That it is a vain and most needless thing to press this Doctrin of working for Salvation upon them What! they work If they are Elected to Salvation they shall be saved whether they work or not and if they are not Elected all their working will be to no purpose for they shall never be saved by it To this I Answer We are to look to God's Commands not to his Decrees to our Duty not to his Purposes The Decrees of God are a vast Ocean whereinto many possibly may have curiously pry'd to their own Horror and Despair but few or none have ever pry'd into them to their own Satisfaction This Election in particular is not written in the Word of God but this Duty is plainly written If thou performest thy Duty thereby thou shalt come to know thy Election It is but a preposterous Course and that which will both discourage all Endeavours and fill the Soul with Despair to look first to Gods Decrees and then to its own Duty whereas indeed the right Method is first to perform thy own Duty and thereby to be led into the knowledge of God's Decrees Question not therefore whether thou art Elected or not but first work for Salvation and if thy Work be good and thy Obedience true thereby thou mayest come to a certain Knowledge that thou art Elected And know this also farther that God who Elects to the End Elects also to the Means Now Obedience is the means and way to Salvation and therefore if thou art Elected to Salvation thou art also Elected to Obedience Say not therefore if I am Elected I shall be saved whether I work or not there is no such thing I may boldly say if thou art Elected and doest not work it is impossible that thy Election should save thee 2 Thess 2.13 What says the Apostle 2 Thess God hath chosen us there 's Election chosen us to Salvation there 's the End But how through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the Truth Chosen us to Salvation as to the End but it is not an End to be obtained without Sanctification There is indeed an absolute Election to Salvation whereby God without respect of Works hath chosen some to Salvation but there is no Election to Salvation absolute whereby God hath chosen any to Salvation without Works that is whether they work or not If therefore you believe heartily and obey sincerely then your Election to Salvation stands firm nay the Scripture makes Election to be terminated as well in Obedience as Salvation Elect says the Apostle unto Obedience through sanctification of the Spirit In the former place it was Elect to Salvation through Sanctification but in this it is Elect to Obedience through Sanctification Noting thus much to us That none are Elected to Salvation but those that are Elected to Obedience and therefore it is unreasonable yea it is contradictory to say If I am Elected I shall be saved whether I obey or not for none are thereunto Elected but thro' Obedience And now having as I hope satisfactorily Answer'd all Objections and Scruples that may arise in the Hearts of Men against this Doctrin I now proceed to press this Duty of working for Salvation upon their Consciences and I shall do it in a Use of Exhortation Be perswaded then Oh Sinners to cast off your Sloth and Laziness and to rouse your selves from that drowsy Slumber that you have long lain in and to work for Salvation But truly when I consider how powerful an Orator and how mighty a Charmer Sloth is how easily it can stupify and benumb Reason and lull Men asleep on the top of a Mast and on the brinks of Hell and though God and Man call upon them Sinners Sinners bestir your selves work for your Lives you perish eternally if you do not labour to lay hold on eternal Life for you are falling and hell-Hell-fire is under you Yet truly when we call and cry thus earnestly how easily can a careless yawning wretched Sinner slight all these Admonitions baffle all these Arguments Motives and Persuasions though urged upon them with all vehemency and tenderness of Affection that can be and turn about like a Man besotted falling fast asleep again When I consider this truly I am apt to conclude that it is but a desperate attempt to press Men any more against their Natures and against so many Disadvantages that can soon frustrate the Efficacy of weaker Words and to give over in Despair with that of the Prophet He that will be Righteous let him be Righteous and he that will be Wicked let him be Wicked still And truly were it not more for Conscience of Duty than for any Hope of Success I would not speak one Word more upon the Subject Success I mean upon those who are altogether carnal whose Hearts Satan hath filled and whose Ears Satan hath stopt we may call long enough and loud enough ere these Men will awake or if they do sometimes give a Look upwards they soon close their Eyes again and slumber away into Destruction And yet truly if variety of Motives if Strength of Arguments and Persuasions would prevail we might hope for this seldom-seen Success why then let us consider these following Particulars 1. To work for Salvation is a great and weighty Work First Consider Sinners you have a great and weighty Work to do and therefore it is time yea high time that you were up and doing Believe it Sirs God hath not placed you here in this World as the Leviathan in the great Waters only to play and sport were it so you might take your Ease hold your Arms in your Bosoms and follow your Delights and Pleasures and let him be blam'd that ever should disturb or discourage you I know not whether some may not think that we Ministers are Task-Masters and that we make more ado than needs No Sirs it is God that hath set you your Work we do only tell you how great it is and of how great concernment it is to you that it be done and if you will not do it who can help it We have no Scourges or Scorpions to drive you to your Work but God hath to punish you if you neglect it and why is it so generally neglected but because Men do not seriously consider how great it is Most Men acknowledg that it must be done but because they look upon it as that which may speedily and quickly be dispatched they drive it before them from Day to Day and think to huddle it up at the end of their Lives Then when they are fit for no other Imployment and least of all fit for this Imployment then they think to do the Works of God I shall here lay down three Particulars to convince Sinners of the greatness of this Work and because it is so
are so far from increasing of your Work that they rather lessen and contract it What says our Saviour Martha Martha Luke 10.41 thou art careful about many things but one thing is necessary So may I say Sinners you are careful and busy your selves about many things but there is but one thing that is necessary many things indeed you trouble your selves with the Cares of the World the Temptations of Satan the Corruptions of your own Hearts these distract you yea very Trifles and Impertinencies themselves give you full Imployment this Lust storms and rageth that Lust flatters and enticeth this is impetuous that is insinuating the one impells the other allures and it may be after all Conscience begins to grow terrible giving the Sinner no quiet in doing of that which Lust would let him have no rest till he had done So that betwixt them of all Mens Lives in the World his is the most toilsome and vexatious Since then you can save no Labour by being as you are why will you not change your Work You are now in constant Imployment as you are and no more is required of you in the ways of Obedience nay you are now divided distracted and even torn in pieces betwixt divers Lusts and Pleasures all which cry give give and all are eager and importunate so that you know not which to turn to first But in working for Salvation your Imployment is but the one thing necessary which though indeed it calls for the same Endeavours and Industry which now you use in the Service of Sin yet by reason of its Uniformity is less distractive and less cumbersome And that is the first Gradation Secondly Consider this 2. All Men work either in Gods Service or the Devils Drudgery You must work either in Gods Service or in the Devils Drudgery And choose you whether you had rather be Satan's Slaves or God's Servants nay indeed choose whether Is it a matter of Choice with Men who have rational and immortal Souls Do you not all profess your selves to be the Servants of the living God Do you not all wear his Livery Would not the vilest and most profligate Sinner willingly lurk under the Name and Badge of a Christian and count it a great Wrong done him should any so much as doubt of his Salvation And wherefore is this but because they are ashamed of their Service and of their own black Master But alas it is in vain to renounce him in Words for if your Works be not for God if they be not such as Religion exacts as the Holy Ghost inspires as Grace performs and as Salvation calls for from you his Slaves you are and though you profess to deny him yet in your Works you own him 3. Those that work for Satan work for their own Damnation Thirdly If you work for Satan you do but work for your own Damnation For work you must and will and this is all the Reward and Wages that you can justly expect from the Service of Sin and Satan and of this a just God and a malicious Devil will look that you shall not be defrauded but as your Ephah hath been full of Iniquity and Abominations so shall your Cup be full of Wrath and Indignation Think Oh Sinner think how these Masters whom thou now servest will in Hell insult over thee and upbraid thee Is this he our faithful and industrious Servant He who preferred our Misery before his own Happiness whose precious Soul was not precious to him for our sakes And is he now come whither his ways lead him Prepare a Place quickly for him let his Darkness be horrid and dismal his Works were so let his Chains be strong and massy the Bonds of his Iniquities were so let his unquenchable Fire be piercing and vehement let his Torment be next unto my self this this will be the insulting of your Master then Oh Sinners consider Is this the Reward and Preferment that you work for God forbid Mercy prevent you will say nay believe it Mercy will not prevent God will not forbid unless you your selves labour to prevent it all this must be your Condemnation as unavoidably as if God had no such Attribute of Mercy belonging to his Nature This Sinners know and are persuaded of the Truth of it unless they are Atheists and if you are truly it will not be long before your own Sense and Feeling will convince you of the Truth of these things to your eternal Grief and Sorrow And if you do believe this why do you not rowse up your selves and fall to work If you are resolved for Hell for a foreseen and forewarned Hell who then can stop you And unless you are resolved for Hell methinks I might have done and need proceed no further Tell me therefore Oh Sinners are you not all persuaded by these Terrors Will you not from this moment labour and struggle and strive and take any Pains in the ways of Obedience rather than ruin your own Souls and thrust them down into the Pit of Destruction I might be confident Sinners thus resolve to do were I speaking now to Men that were themselves But Men's Reasons are besotted and their Ears are open only to the Devil and to the base Allurements of the Flesh And when we have done our utmost in persuading Sinners in the end we must turn our Exhortations to them into Prayers to God for them that he would snatch them as Brands out of the Fire and burning into which they like drunken Men are casting themselves and lying down in 4. The same pains that some take to damn their Souls might eternally save them Fourthly Once more the same Pains that possibly some take to damn their own Souls might suffice eternally to save them The same Toil and Labour that some undergo for Hell and Destruction might have brought them to Heaven and Happiness had it been but that way laid out Isa 5.18 The Prophet tells us of some That draw Iniquity with Cords of Vanity and sin as it were with Cart Ropes That is they are so inslaved to the work of the Devil that he puts them into his Team and makes them draw and strain for their Iniquities and he doth them a Courtesy when their Sins come easily to them for so the Phrase imports And we read of some in another Prophet Mic. 7.8 That sin with both Hands greedily And the Psalmist tells us of those Psal 36.4 Psal 7.4 That devise mischief upon their Beds and that travel with Iniquity That is they are in as much Pain and Torment till their wicked Designs be accomplished as a Woman in Travail is till she be delivered Now Sinners since the work of Sin is so toilsome why will you not work the Works of God Doth that Salvation that follows Obedience fright you or is Heaven and Glory become terrible to you Is not this it that all Men desire Do not your Hearts leap at the mention
they were at the first Think with your selves how long and how tedious a little time seems to you when you are in Pain you complain then that Time hath leaden Feet and wish that the Days and Hours would roll away faster Oh! what will it be then when you shall lie Sweating Sweltring and Frying in Hell when the intolerableness of Pain shall make every Hour seem an Age and every Year seem a long Eternity it self and yet you must lie an Eternity of those Years there This makes their Torments doubly everlasting Methinks the dreadful Thoughts of this eternally consuming Fire should make the stoutest Heart to quake or at least to cause a cold Fit of Fear before this burning and scorching Torment begins 4. God is such a consuming Fire as will prey upon the Soul Fourthly God is such a consuming Fire as will prey upon the Soul that tender and spiritual part of Man The more gross the Subject is the more dull are the Pains that it suffers but where the Subject is spiritual there the Anguish must needs be extream the sharpest Torments that the Body is capable of is but a dull Thing in comparison of what the Soul can feel when God himself shall lash the Soul that more refined part drawing Blood at every stroke all comparisons falls short of expressing of the Anguish of it To shoot poison'd Darts inflamed into a Man's Marrow to rip up his Bowels with a Sword red hot is as nothing to this Think what it is to have a drop of boiling scalding Oil or melting Lead fall into your Eyes and make it boil and burn till at last it falls out of your Heads such Torments yea infinitely more than this is it to have the Wrath of God fall upon your Souls The Soul it is the Principle of all Seats the Body is a kind of Fence to it it damps and deadens the Smart as a Blow upon a cloathed Man is not so painful as upon one that is stark Naked why now if the Soul sometimes feels such Smart and Pain through the Body what shall it feel when God shall pour his Wrath upon it stark Naked 5. The longer we live in Sin the more we prepare our Souls to be Fuel for this consuming Fire Fifthly Consider the longer thou livest in thy Sins impenitently the more dost thou prepare thy Soul to be fit Fuel for this consuming Fire to devour This is but like the Oiling of a Barrel of Pitch which of it self was apt enough before to burn Those whom the Wrath of God snatches away in the beginning of their Days are made Fuel for that consuming Fire and if it be done so to the green Tree what will be done to the dry and rotten Tree Thou that hast stood many Years rotting in the World when God shall come and cut thee down and cast thee into unquenchable Fire how soon will thou kindle and how dreadfully wilt thou burn having no Sap left in thee to allay and mitigate those Flames Certainly would but the most hardned Sinner here present call his Thoughts aside awhile and seriously bethink himself what he hath been doing ever since he came into the World this must needs strike him as cold as a Stone making him to Fear and Tremble to consider that all this time he hath by his Sinning been treasuring up Wrath against the Day of Wrath heaping up Coals yea burning Coals upon his own Head Every time you sin what do you else but cast in another Faggot to that Pile of much Wood prepared to burn you for ever Oh! that these dreadful and amazing Considerations might at length rouze and awaken your Hearts to fear this consuming Fire and to tremble at that Wrath that is now kindling in God's Breast against you and which will if you repent not ere long kindle upon you Question But you will say to fear God only because he is a consuming Fire meerly because of his Wrath and fiery Indignation is but at best a slavish Fear it is but to fear him as the Devils do for they believe and tremble and of what use and benefit will such a Fear as this is be Answ 1 I Answer It is true First to fear God meerly upon the account of Wrath is but a slavish Fear It is better to fear God slavishly than to perish securely but yet it is far better to fear God slavishly than to perish securely that will come with redoubled Terror which comes unexpectedly How intolerable will Hell be to those especially that never fear it till they feel it When Sinners shall see themselves surrounded with Flames of Fire before ever they thought themselves in any danger when they shall awake with the Flames of Hell flashing and flaming about them what Screechings and Yellings will this cause This is to perish as a Fool perisheth to go on securely in Sin till unexpectedly a Dart suddenly strikes through his Liver Whatever the Event be yet it becomes the Reason of a Man to be affected with Fear proportionable to the Evil that he lies obnoxious to therefore whether this slavish Fear ends in Torment or not yet it is more rational to fear that we are exposed to it than to be secure and go down into Torments and never to fear them till we feel them 2. Slavish Fear will deter Men from scandalous Sins Secondly This Fear though a slavish Fear is of great efficacy to deter Men from the outward Acts of more gross and scandalous Sins He that puts Hell betwixt him and his Sins will scarce be so daring as to venture through a Lake of Fire and Brimstone to commit them God thought he had set a sufficient Guard upon the Tree of Life when he placed Cherubims and a flaming Sword to keep Men from it but to keep Men from Sin he hath placed a Guard far more dreadful than Angels or a flaming Sword he hath placed himself a consuming Fire to deter Men from Sin and they certainly that have any Fear or Dread of God upon their Hearts will judge it too too hot a Work to break through this Fire to their Lusts The Thoughts of Hell and those everlasting Torments due to Sin have doubtless been often used with good success to repel Satan's Temptations when no other Arguments possibly could prevail yet when the Devil hath cast fiery Darts at them they have cast Fire-brands again at him and so have overcome him Thirdly 3. Slavish Fear will mitigate Wrath. Where the fear of Wrath doth prevail to restrain Men from Sin this is a good Effect for it doth lessen and mitigate that Wrath that they fear Those that add Iniquity to Iniquity without Fear upon them God will heap Plague upon Plague without measure he proportions Mens Punishments to their Sins and those that Fear most shall feel least that Fear of theirs that kept them from the gross Acts of Sins that others boldly rush into that Fear shall likewise keep