and unprofitableness under the means of Grace and that for ever Remember Christians that Death that is a Trap door to let some down into hell shall be a Portal or Gate to let you into heaven That that stroke of the King of terrors that shall separate your souls from your bodies shall separate sin likewise from you souls Your sorrowes now are mixt with your joyes your darknesse with your light you have indeed some rest while you labour how full then will your rest be when you shall rest from your labours and work no more this is your day of working hereafter is your day of rewarding this is your seed-time hereafter is your harvest Si Deus tam bonus sequentibus quam bonus fuerit consequentibus though here you sigh and mourn yet hereafter you shall sing and rejoyce though here you are as Pearles hid in and besmeared with durt yet hereafter you shall shine as the Sun Then you shall see the fruit of the travels of your souls then you shall not repent of your mortification and repentance Then finally will it appear that that man is happier that hath had Saint Pauls Coat with his heavenly graces then the Purple Robes of Princes with all their Kingdomes Fifthly By way of Advice to all That they may so carry themselves while they live that their works may gloriously follow them when they die To which purpose First Bee importunate at the Throne of Grace that ye may be made the workmanship of God which you must be before you can do the work of God Fiamus opus Dei ut facimus opus Dei your natures must be renewed before you can doe new actions A bad man can never Theologically do good works morally he may but he that doth a moral work only shall have a moral reward only as the wheele turns round not to the end it may be made round But on the contrary as the stemms must first be grafted on the stock before they can bring forth fruit so we must be Branches in Christ united to and made one with him before we can be fruitful in good works The Church in the Canticles is described no where by the beauty of her hands or fingers though oft by the beauty of other parts of her body because a Christian should abound in good works and yet in silence without boasting Or Secondly because it is Christ alone that works all our works in us and Grace is not our Creature but the manufacture of Christ Bona opera non praecedunt Justificandum sed sequntur Justificatum Secondly If you would have your good works to follow you send them before you Now Repent now Believe and hereafter you shall have the reward of your Repentance and of your Faith and as for Charity part with that you cannot keep that you may obtain that you cannot lose When the world shall leave you your good works shall follow you your gracious actions your good works are an inexhaustible fountain that shall never be dryed up a durable spring that shall never fail they are acts of time short in performance yet eternal in their recompence Non transeunt opera nostra sicut transire videntur sed velut aeternitatis semina jaciuntur Though they are sown in this world they shall spring in the next that which you lay out for Christ on earth you lay up for your selves in Heaven the hand of the poor is the Treasury the Gazophylacium of Christ and by charity in a Gospel sense you make your Maker your Debter and surely if thou be the Creditor of the Almighty it will not be long ere he come out of thy Books How foolish are they that fear to lose their wealth by giving it and fear not to lose themselves by keeping it He that lays up his Gold may be a good Jailor but he that lays it out is a good steward Merchants traffick thither with a commodity where 't is precious in regard of scarcity We do not buy Wines in England to carry them to France Spices in France to carry them to the Indies so for labor and work repentance and mortification there is none of them in Heaven there is Peace and Glory and the favor of God indeed Their works in my Text go with them they dare not go without their fraught A Merchant without his Commodity hath but a sorry wellcome God will ask men that arrive at Heaven Gates ubi opera Rev. 22.12 His reward shall be according to our works Thou hast riches here and here be objects that need thy riches the poor in Heaven there are riches enough but no poor therefore by faith in Christ make over to them thy monies in this world that by Bill of Exchange thou mayest receive it in the world to come that onely you carry with you which you send before you Do good while it is in your power relieve the oppressed succor the fatherless while your Estates are your own when you are dead your riches belong to others one light carryed before a man is more serviceable then twenty carryed after him In your compassion to the distressed or for pious uses let your hands be your Executors and your eyes your Overseers and that I may not be mistaken let your Charity have these two Qualifications 1. Let your works be done in Faith as without works we cannot profit men so without Faith we cannot please God we must be marryed to Christ or our children are not Legitimate our works are not right All our surviving out of the Ark will not save us from the deluge of Gods wrath As Isaac said to Abraham Father here is the Altar and the wood but where is the sacrifice so at last day when you shall knock at Gods door and seek to enter and hold up your Lamps and cry Lord we are Virgins we are Christians we were hospitable and charitable according to thy command let our neighbors be witnesses of our good works but will the Lord reply True here are your duties and your works but where is my grace of Faith Are these a satisfaction to my Justice where is my Benjamin the righteousness of my Son to plead for you My Beloved There seems to be less glory in Faith then in any other Grace it seemed but a sorry Grace a Grace of no great vertue Holiness is acceptable because it honors God Charity is noble because it profits men Thankfulness is melodious because its the tune of Angels Other works seem to make God a Debter to give as it were something to God but ad quid fides What is Faith good for Yes it is good for every good purpose it s the root of all the Graces it s the richest Grace because its the inriching Grace if Faith go before Works will follow Vbi Christus non est boni operis fundamentum ibi nullum est bonum aedificium 2. As works of Charity must be qualified with Faith or else our haec ego
degree of Glory It was height of Pride that made a Jesuit say Coelum gratis non accipiam the value of Faith grows non ex persona credente vel ex natura fidei sed ex pacto contrahenti not so much from our condition as from Gods Covenant He that believes shall be saved There is no inconsistency between these two Propositions He that believes and he that repents shall be saved For though we are justified by Faith onely yet not by Faith alone that is Works justifie not with Faith and Faith justifies not without Works Good Works qualifie the subject believing but Faith is the proper instrument of receiving the Covenant of Grace Faith is an evidence to us of our righteousness before God and Works are an evidence of the truth of our Faith before men Out of the point of Justification Works cannot be sufficiciently justified or commended but in the point of Justification Works are not to be admitted How hard is it to joyn together what God would not have seperated Faith and Works so to work and repent as if we were to be saved q. d. without Faith and so to believe as if we were to be saved without Works How difficult is it for a man a moral man to see the necessity of Faith to cry out What though I am righteous before men if yet I should want the righteousness of Christ before God My righteousness is but as rags my duties but as dung my tears need Christs blood Lord without thy free Grace and a Plaister of the merits of Christ notwithstanding all my Prayers and Performances I am undone Luther well observes how much the believing and the begetting Abraham differs the begetting Abraham was a worker the believing Abraham was righteous his Faith was on Christ the object of Faith and we are blessed not with the working but with the believing Abraham Vse 2. Is for the information about the aim and end of men in their Works It is curiously questioned whether it be not a sordid way of obedience for a man to eye his reward in his obedience but it is more becoming a Philosopher then a Divine I judge to provoke his Auditors to vertue without the least reflection of a future reward If that be true which is affirmed by many that Grace and Glory differ not specifically but gradually and that be true which is affirmed by all That mans Happiness and Gods Glory be indisputably conjoyned in Heaven then certainly we may have our eye to the Star while we have our hand at the Helm we may have one eye to our Reward as well as the other to the Work As it is no Prerogative act for God to damn the Hypocrite at last day but an act of Justice sin being the antecedent cause of wrath so the salvation of the Vpright will not appear to be the product onely of Gods Arbitrary Grace but according to his revealed truth the manifestation of his remunerative righteousness Grace in us being though not the cause yet the antecedent of Glory Hence it is that the Gospel deters us from sin by arguments formed out of Hell as the unquenchable fire and the terrors of the Lord so it animates us to duty by arguments made out of Heaven and Glory How doth it embolden a Believer to sail through Storms and Tempests when he thinks on his Harbor to resist unto blood and rather to die for then deny Christ when he ponders on his Crown Let us endure the cold frosts let us be content though we are buffeted for a while cryed the Martyrs of old for Heaven will make amends for all There may be amor mercedis a love of the Reward as well of the Rewarder and yet no mercinary love no amor mercenarius When I will not love God without this world when I love or respect God onely for riches and honors c. this is a mercinary love but not when I love God for the hoped perfection of my Graces for the moral obolition of my sins for the contemplation of his presence in light for if the enjoyment of God be the essential Heaven then to love the enjoyment of God is to love Heaven and I am no more mercinary for loving of God the more for Heaven then for loving of the enjoyment of God Some have applauded the strength of direct obedience without eyeing the reward by an Emblem of a Lady with a Water-pot in one hand and a Fire-brand in the other saying She would serve God though with the water Hell-fire were quenched and there were no torments to punish her for sin though with the fire Paradice were consumed and there were no everlasting happiness to reward her Yet methinks though good use may be made of such Hyperbolies they do not so fully speak to a Christian under tryals they teach us how to run but they obscure the Garland they teach us how to shoot but in the mean time take away the mark It s true God is principally to be beloved for himself vix queritur Deus propter deum and so he may be and yet be loved for Heaven We may pray and wrestle against sin for the love of our King and yet have the hope of a Kingdom to be enjoyed after the battel The Doctrine of the Resurrection is the foundation of Religion and he that considers not of the Resurrection of the flesh will hardly be drawn to mortifie the flesh I know no such suggestion in the Bible Sinners Would you deny the lusts of the flesh and the pomp and vanity of the World if there were no Resurrection no Salvation And it s a dangerous temptation to a perplexed conscience to have his sincerity tryed by this touchstone if you can't serve God without a reward in Heaven you are an Hypocrite Vse 3. Is for terror unto two sorts of Workers 1. Evil workers 2. Idle workers 1. To Evil workers Shall the works of Gods Children follow them then by just consequence your evil works your lying your scoffing at Religion shall follow you As righteousness shall follow the righteous so wickedness shall follow the wicked Those that will not now finde out their sins Morientes divitias hic dimittunt peccata sua secum portant their sins shall one day finde out them and judgement shall finde out their sins Even as Destruction said to Pride they being both invited to a Feast contending who should go before and who should follow said Pride Go you before no replyed Destruction I prae sequar Go you before and I will follow after So here impenitency goes before to Hell and the impenitent sinner follows after their sins reached to Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accumulata pervenerunt as one Mountain laid on the top of another the same word as in my Text so one sin follows another until the sinner and his sins meet together in Hell The wicked shall not carry their goods but their evils with them They shall leave
not suffer him to go in with him So in a sense Faith guards us to Heaven Gates and when it hath done its office there it leaves us Faith follows a Christian as the shadow doth the Sun from one point of the Compass or Dyal to another until it comes to the Miridian and there it leaves it but love is a Royal Grace an Heavenly Peer with State and Majesty it enters into Glory and dwells with the King of Glory himself to all Eternity As Dr. Preston said when a dying I shall change my place but not my company his Graces followed him Thirdly Their Works follow them in respect of the comfort of them as the wicked onely leave their duties behinde them and carry their sins with them so the godly leave their sins behinde them and carry their graces with them they put off their garments when they go to bed And here 1. After death a childe of God is comforted with the success of his works How comfortable at the last day will it be for a Master of a Family to present his servants at the Tribunal Bar before the Lord and to say Lord Here am I and my servants with me that not onely wear my Livery but also obeyed thy commands For the Ministers of the Gospel that have been faithful to present their flocks before the great Bishop and Shepheard of souls and to say Here are the purchase of thy blood the travail of our souls the fruit of our labors and tears As the Ancient sweetly brings in the Apostles like so many File-leaders severally bringing up their Converts to the Judgement-Seat Peter attended with the converted Jews John leading up the Asiatiques Thomas the Indians and Paul the Gentiles Et nos hic Pastores vocati sumus ibi greges non ducemus And it is the perswasion of many great Divines That the spiritual Fathers in Christ shall know their children in Christ at that day Their success will advantage their comfort and therefore it is part of our duty to labor for success though it must be acknowledged that God rewards us not according to the success of our labors properly but according to our labors for success Let none be discouraged that their faithful works have not their success with men for as the good Physician always heals not so the good Preacher always converts not The success of our labors is his work not ours and God rewards us not according to his own work simply and abstractly taken by the leave of that yet true and famous affirmation God crowns his own works in us but according to our works He shall give to every man according to his works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we had better have one work writ in Heaven then a thousand on Earth and though men may forget labors of love on earth yet the comfort is they shal be reminded rewarded by Christ in heaven those that convert souls and run like stars on Earth shall at last be Crowned and shine like stars in Heaven Dan. 12.3 4. 2. After death a childe of God shall be comforted with the Testimony of his Conscience And thus 1. His Integrity shall follow or accompany him Miserable is he whose conscience condemns him though all the world acquit him but thrice happy is he whose conscience acquits him though all the world accuse him A man may have hypocrisie in him and yet be no Hypocrite he may slumber and sleep with the foolish Virgins yet be no foolish Virgin while we are on this side our Fathers house we cannot but trip and stumble though we keep the way while we are on this side Paradice we cannot behold a Pomgranate that hath no rotten grain in it This may support that if we bring our Graces to the Touch-stone the Lord himself will never bring them to the Balance the charge of Hypocrisie is familiar and easie the proof is laborious and hard We are not made Lord Judges of mens Consciences and therefore notwithstanding private suspitions we must forbear and refer the censure of the full and final estate of man to God It s the work of God to discover Hypocrites not of man while a man goes about to discover an Hypocrite let him beware lest in seeking to finde out one he discover two the searched and the searcher Quam immensa est laetitia de recordatione transacti operis Possibly it may be said concerning many Christians who never studied to be conformable to the Critical Religion of the World as it was said of Father Paul the Venetian because men knew not how to convince him either in his Profession or Life they had onely this common plea against him That he was an Hypocrite But what a testimony will Samuel bring with him at that day to say in the audience of Men and Angels Whose Ox have I stoln For blessed Paul to manifest at that day This is the testimony of my conscience that in godly simplicity I have behaved my self in the world My Beloved get a good conscience for that is a thousand witnesses and a thousand witnesses will not at that day be so good as a good conscience How amiable will the face of true Grace be then How abominable will the vizor and counterfeit be 2. His Charity and Love shall witness for him Many have no greater sensible evidence of their loving Christ then by the love they bear to his servants that wear his Livery to his Children that bear his Image But then the scruples of the upright shall be dissolved resolved and they shall not need so to puzle their brains to finde the love of the Brethren in their hearts How refreshing will it be then for a Believer to have occasion to say by way of Praise and Testimony the Lord gave me the loaf and I grudged not to give others the crums God made my cup full and I made it to run over for the relief of others It will I am sure it will be more comfortable for a man to say I have been good and I have done good in the World then to say I had all the goods of the World Good works are a Treasure and will follow you good and cordial Prayers are a Treasure and they will go before you and Faith and Hope are a Treasure and they will go with you It is strange to consider how many bad words men have for good works as if to be charitable were to be Popishly affected but if charity be Antichristianism Christ is the Pope and Rome is at Jerusalem Rev. 14.13 Acts 7.59 Luke 23.43 Make to your selves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations Luke 16.9 Not by way of merit but by way of concomitancy every acting of every Grace will stand us in stead a charitable act as well as a repenting act Quicquid pauperibus spargimus nobis colligimus I shall not impose on your belief But it is reported that
acquittance Men said he speak evil of me but they are evil men that do so and an argument for us from an adversary is not to be neglected though wicked men curse the Saints while they live yet they shall bless and justifie them in the day of Visitation as the Apostle speaks 1. Either when pangs of conscience seize on them Or Secondly When they come to die as one said O that I might be Craesus living and Socrates dying Or as the Proverb is Let me live in Italy but let me die in Spain So Balaam though he lived the life of the wicked yet he loved the death of the righteous though men live Hypocrites yet they would die sincere though many live by a form of godliness yet they would fain die by the power Or Thirdly They shal respect and honor them at the Judgement-day Oh will Pharaoh say then that I were Moses Wil Cain say that I had been but suffering Abel Who would be a Rake-hell or a Ranter then when many of those that have been Judges shall be judged and the judged many of them I mean shall be Judges when Paul that once stood at the Bar shall sit on the Bench for the Apostle telleth us That the Saints shall judge the world That time is a coming though now the world judgeth the Saints and one Saint judgeth another that is shall be q. d. Coassessors with Christ at the last day consenting to and applauding of his Judgement of the world when the Judge shall say to the Cursers Go ye cursed the Saints shall say Amen Lord when Rabshekah shall be thrown down to Hell and Hezekiah taken up to Heaven Who would rise in that estate of wrath he was born lived and dyed in Those that now accuse the godly for dissemblers and Hypocrites will then publikely confess their sincerity Christians Be not discouraged in your more strict profession of Christianity it is no matter what now they say of you behinde your backs but what they shall be forced to speak of you to your faces at that day Fifthly Even the Spirit of God will bear a testimony to his works What though all men and Angels should condemn us now God himself will not condemn but acquit us as he hath a bottle for our tears so he hath a file for our Prayers and a Book for our Works Wicked men look on the infirmities of Gods people their mole-hills as mountains their motes as beams as sins of the greatest magnitude and on their own mountains and beams as mole-hills and motes Men are merciless in their censures but God hath more equitable scales and can give Grains of allowance to his Gold Even as God seemed to stand Neuter for a time while there was a dispute held between Job and his Friends concerning his integrity at length God steps from behinde the curtain and pleads his cause Who saith my servant Job is an Hypocrite you charge desperately on my servant but you have not spoke of me the thing that is right as my servant Job hath done Job 42.7 Gods people oft in their temptations speak that against themselves that God never spake we are but Hypocrites we are cast out of Gods presence these miscarriages of ours have dissolved the Covenant between God and us are inconsistent with integrity or true Grace but God Revel 2.2 knows their works their patience their labors of love their gold notwithstanding some dross their sincerity amidst many failings and will make them known to themselves all the World at the last day the Lord will say concerning this and that man I know them to be cleansed by the blood of my Son however men have cast dust on them Others have surveyed their lives and seen some spots which they themselves have lamented and I know them to be Holy and to have feared my Name Now if God shall justifie who shall condemn at that day Fifthly and lastly Their works shall follow them in respect of a guerdon and reward In Scripture the word Work signifieth three things 1. The very act of Labor so Solomon tells us that in the Grave there is no wisdom no work that is no working for Heaven Eccles 9.10 2. For the effect of labor that which is wrought we call his work as well as the act of his labor thus the fire will try every mans work 1 Cor. 3.13 3. For the reward of a Christians Labor Work is taken for wages it is usual to put Prayer for the thing prayed for or for the thing obtained by Prayer so Hannah 1 Sa. 1.27 The Lord hath given me my petition that is The childe for which I did Petition It is usual to put sin for the reward or punishment of sin Gen. 4.13 My sin that is my punishment for sin is greater then I can bear so also its usual to put the work as for the reward of the work and that 1. In malo as Jer. 4.18 Thy way hath procured this unto thee this is thy wickedness that is this is the reward of thy wickedness 2. In bono as in my Text their works followed them that is the reward of their works they had done their work and now God rewards them through Grace Their works die not with them as Hortensius his labors did A cup of cold water shall be produced Matth. 25. They forget their good works When saw we thee an hungry or naked But Christ remembers them inasmuch as you did it to one of these little ones you did it unto me those that have done well shall have a well done those that have sown to the Spirit shall of the spirit reap everlasting life Glory and Honor and Peace shall be to every man that worketh good to the Jew first and also to the Gentile if in this life onely we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable as in Adam all dyed so in Christ shall all be made alive as sure as we are gracious so sure shall we be glorious as sure as Heaven enters into a man in this world so sure shall that man enter into Heaven in the world to come To be brief in this as certainly as now the Crown of immortality and Glory shines in the eyes of Gods people so certainly shall it one day sit gloriously on their heads It s easier to tell what Heaven is not then what it is We may talk of the greatness of our future reward but we shall never know the weight of that Crown till we have it on our heads the worth of that Livery till we have it on our backs the greatness of that Glory till it rest in and shine into our hearts The reward of good works shall be great Q. But why doth the Gospel chiefly mention or more apparantly note the reward of works of mercy pity and charity at the last day A. Upon four accompts 1. Because good works are the fruits of Faith There may be charity without Faith but there can