Case you would do And Secondly So absolutely depend and rely upon the alone Merits of Jesus Christ for your Justification and Salvation as if you never had performed an Act of Obedience in all your Life This is the right Gospel-frame of Obedience so to work as if you were only to be saved by your own Merits and withal so to rest on the Merits of Christ as if you had never wrought any thing It is a difficult thing to give to each of these its Due in our Practice When we Work we are too apt to neglect Christ and when we rely on Christ we are too apt to neglect Working But that Christian hath got the right skill and art of Obedience that can mingle these two together that can with one Hand work the Works of God and yet at the same time with the other Hand lay fast hold on the Merits of Jesus Christ Let this Antinomian Principle be for ever rooted out of the Minds of Men that our working is derogatory to Christs Work Never more think Christ hath done all your Work for you for that is unbecoming the free Spirit of the Gospel but labour for that Salvation that he hath purchased and merited Could ever such senseless Objections prevail with those Men who ever seriously read that Scripture in Tit. 2.14 Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purify to himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works Were this place seriously ponder'd over by Men they would be ashamed to Object any longer that our Duties and Works are derogatory to the purchase of Christ for he gave himself for this end that he might purchase such a People that might be zealous of good Works But truly when Sloth and Ignorance meet together if you tell Men what Powers their Natures have to work and how necessary Obedience is to Salvation that thereby we might excite and quicken their Hearts to Obedience they with the Sluggard fold their Arms in their Bosom doing nothing telling us these Doctrins are Arminianism and flat Popery whereas in Deed and in Truth they are as far distant from either of them as Light is from Darkness it is their Ignorance and Sloth only that makes them think so But deceive not your selves this Doctrin is such that whether it take hold on your Judgments and Understandings now I know not but this I know assuredly it shall take hold of your Consciences either here or hereafter and then it will not suffice you to make this Excuse either that you had no Power to do any thing or that Christ hath already done all Things for you And so much for the Second Objection Object 3 Thirdly Others may Object That this Duty of working out of our Salvation is inconsistent with and prejudicial to the freeness of Gods Grace by which alone we are saved If God save them only that work for Salvation how then doth he save them freely and that by Grace we are saved Answ 1 First In general I answer That Salvation upon our Working and Obedience is free Salvation and that for four Reasons 1. Working for Salvation is our Duty and so not meritorious First Because all our working is a natural Duty that we owe to God as Creatures to their Creator Had God required the same Things of us that now he doth and never propounded a Reward to incourage us he had been just and we had been as absolutely and as indispensably obliged to obey as now we are We have not so great a Right to Salvation as God hath to our Obedience God can challenge our Service and Obedience from us because of our natural Bond and Obligation as well as from that voluntary Covenant where into we have entred with God to be Obedient but we can only plead for Salvation because God hath made a Promise that he will save those that Obey Whether God had made that Promise or not yet he might have required the same Obedience from us that now he doth because we owe it to him naturally by our Creation And is it not now free Grace and Mercy that when God might have required Obedience without a Reward that yet he will bestow Salvation according to that Obedience See what our Saviour saith in Luke 17. Luke 17.9 10. Doth the Master thank the Servant because he did the things that he was commanded to do I trow not So even ye likewise when you have done all those things that are commanded you say we are unprofitable Servants for when we have done all we have but done that which was our Duty to do Yea and our Duty it was to do it though God had never made a Promise to reward what we have done We are unprofitable Servants and deserve not so much as Thanks Doth the Master thank the Servant because he did the things that were commanded I trow not And if we do not merit Thanks when we have done our utmost how then can we merit Salvation 2. Our Obedience is imperfect in this Life Secondly Our Obedience is imperfect in this Life it is full of cracks and flaws And if to accept and reward the most perfect Obedience with Salvation be an Act of Mercy and free Grace as it is because it is our Duty if there were no Salvation promised how much more is free Grace magnified and glorified in accepting and rewarding a weak and imperfect Obedience with that Salvation which the most perfect Obedience cannot deserve For when we have done all we have done but that which was our Duty to do and if we could say so doth the Master thank the Servant No But alas in many things we offend all Now to reward that with eternal Salvation that deserves eternal Damnation to reward that Work with Life that deserves to be rewarded with Death what is this but the effect of rich and glorious Grace What is this but to bestow Heaven not according to Merit but rather according to our Demerit 3. There is no comparison between Salvation and our Obedience Thirdly Because there is no comparison betwixt Salvation and our Obediences and therefore free Grace shines forth still It is free Grace though we do obey We obey as Creatures God rewards as a God our Obedience is Temporal but our Reward is Eternal our Obedience is mixed with Rebellion but the Reward hath no mixture to take off the fulness and sweetness of it Therefore it is free Grace still to give an infinite Reward to so mean an Obedience betwixt which Obedience and Reward there is no comparison or proportion Fourthly Though we are commanded to obey 4. Grace whereby we obey is the Gift of God yet that Grace whereby we do obey is the Gift of God It is he that works in us this Obedience which he rewards with Salvation And must not this then be wholly of free Grace To save upon an Obedience wrought in us by God himself it is to save
B P HOPKINS's Fourth and Last VOLUME OF Discourses and Sermons The Fourth and Last VOLUME OF DISCOURSES OR SERMONS ON Several Scriptures By EZEKIEL HOPKINS Late Lord Bishop of London-derry LONDON Printed by H. Clark for J. Robinson A. and J. Churchill J. Taylor and J. Wyat 1696. THE PREFACE GIVING An Account of these Discourses and of the Excellent Author thereof Christian Reader AN old Friend and Acquaintance of the very Reverend Author of the following Sermons and Discourses in honour of his Name and Memory though he accepteth no Man's Person neither can give flattering Titles saith upon the occasion of their being Printed and Published as followeth viz. That there have been Three Volumes of Sermons and Discourses sent forth into the Publick before these have appeared and not any one of them unprefaced to but in none of these Prefaces hath he met with any thing to convey down the just Character of this our great Man and his Manner and Ministry to Posterity He will make an Experiment therefore if any thing may be said he saith not aded for hitherto nothing hath been said to render the account of this Amiable Person and his Vseful Labours amongst us to after Ages besides the Testimony of his Gifts and Graces in his Books so familiar amongst us for by these though he be dead he yet speaketh his Works praise him in the Gates and his Remembrance shall be blessed Many will bear Witness the Name of our Author was not unknown but celebrated in this our great City in its Suburbs in our Lines of Communication and within our Bills of Mortality when he for several Years lived and laboured with great acceptance and success in these places Ask in the Town and Parish of Hackney how much Good was done by Mr. Hopkins's Lectures especially amongst the richer sort of Inhabitants and the younger sort at the Schools there and especially those that were descended from good Families If you believe me not ask from Jerusalem to Illyricum from Oxon to London from London to Exon if you please from one London to another even unto London-derry in Ireland where was his Top-preferment and I have been assured his last Works were more than the first So that we have found him that faithful and wise Servant his Lord had made Ruler over his Houshold to give them their Meat in due season Indeed by his exalted Name I ever took him to be none of our smaller Prophets nor of the Patres minorum Gentium In his first education and at his first appearance in the Grammar-School he soon signalized himself none of his Age and Stature being well able to keep pace with him at his coming unto the Vniversity it was by times taken notice of his Stock of Grammar and all good Learning especially in the learned Languages and his Studies and Manners were such that he rendred himself in the College both much a Scholar and much a Gentleman and was chosen out from amongst others to Instruction and Government therein and particularly the Instruction and Government of some of several Young Gentlemen and some descended from some of our Noble and most Honourable Families in our Kingdom and Nation In the Churches of Christ unto the Service whereof he was never slack when invited and called his very First-fruits were promising and his First-fruits being holy the Lump was also holy The Crouds in Hackney-Church in St. Mary Woolnoth Lombard-street at Exon at Dublin at Raphoe at London-derry and last at St. Mary Aldermanbury in our own City declare him a Master-workman the Preacher that was wise and that sought out acceptable words And his Words were as profitable as they were acceptable By the Subjects of the Four Volumes of Sermons you will be able to do more than make a Conjecture you will take some Measures of his Parts and the disposition of his Mind of his Studies and Ministerial Endeavours with the blessed Seals which were put thereunto I will only further as to my part here in his Honour commend to your perusal in special this Fourth Volume of his Sermons and Discourses The Contents will give you the Account of what Materials they consist and to what Vses and Improvements they were directed and applied But I further take liberty to say Here are in these Discourses now handled by him both the Commoda and the Accommoda things profitable in themselves and seasonable to our present Times and Debates Verba super Rotas some of the Author 's Golden Apples in Pictures of Silver They never knew our Author that knew him not to be as acute and solid in his Polemick Discourses as he was accurate and fervent in his Practical and Ordinary Sermons And let but the Christian Reader take the first Discourse in this Book on Phil. 2.12 13. and read but with due Caution and Observation and he will soon think there will not need more be said to stay and quiet the Minds of Men on the controverted Points of Liberty or the Power of Nature and the Interests of the Grace of God in our Salvation He hath also happily herein taken up the Question and proved Repentance and Faith are neither prejudicial to the free Grace of God and the Father nor in any-wise derogatory unto the Merits of Jesus his Son As also fully proved we are far from being justified as soon as elected or redeemed In the Second Part he hath happily added and proved that a temperament of the fear of a Just and Sin-revenging God is consistent with and necessary to be joined unto our highest Attainments in the joyful Sense of the Love and Favour of God and the fullest Assurances of Heaven and Salvation we have in this Life and hath herein cut the Sinews of the Antinomian Errour on the contrary part and without any Noise or Clamour In the Third Part you will find and be much pleased with and I hope equally benefited by his very Pious and Plain Treatise of the Nature and Offices of Conscience the rather because the Corruptions and Defilements of it being so distinctly opened and what it is and of what Importance to get and to keep a clear Conscience with many necessary Directions and Helps in order thereunto very proper to the Times wherein so many have made Shipwrack of Faith and of a Good Conscience The next Discourse is of Instancy and Constancy in Holy Prayer not only as a Negotium cum Deo but Heaven in ordinary and perfect Hearts-ease whil'st we are here upon Earth And the last is an elaborate though short Exercitation and Treatise of the Divine Omnipresence a Meditation prepared to render all the foregoing Parts of the Book more beneficial to us no Argument being in its own Nature more awakening and awful to an intelligent and diligent Reader The rest you are beholden to Providence and the Pen of a ready Writer for but what is written was unquestionably spoken and with a great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a very Reverend
learned Predecessors for with such has that See been blessed ever since the Reformation And undoubtedly his Death will be extreamly lamented in that Country and sure I am the Poor will have great reason to bewail it for to them he was exceeding generous and charitable and gave great Sums every Year amongst them besides the Tenth of his Revenues which he constantly laid by for such uses and did also allow good Yearly Pensions to Students in the University to Ministers Widows and other distressed Persons and did put Children to Trades and largely contribute to the Building and Repairing of some Churches and designed greater things if God had spared him to return But alas he is gone and our poor unsetled Church has an extraordinary loss in him 'T is a sharp Stroke an additional Judgment to lose him now But to God's Holy Will we must submit as he willingly and chearfully did when Death approached He resigned all with great Christian Courage and discoursed Philosophically and Divinely of the Vanity and Uncertainty of all Sublunary Things and setled all his Desires upon the Things above and not long before his death he discoursed of the Necessity and Sincerity of Repentance and Uniform Obedience in such a manner and inveighed with such any Holy Zeal against the Sins of these Nations as might make the greatest Debauchees of our Age quake and tremble to have heard him And then with reflecting on himself he did with great Grief and Sorrow with Sighs and Tears bewail the least Failures of his Life and spent his Last Days in Self-examination in Repentance and Prayer and with great Devotion received the Holy Sacrament in which he found much Joy and Comfort and had such Inward Peace and Antepasts of Bliss that he longed to be dissolved and to be with Christ and did very often beg of God to take him And on Thursday last his Prayer was heard and God in his Mercy took him out of the Troubles of this Life and called him up amongst the Blessed and changed his Fading Mitre into a Crown of Eternal Glory What then remains but that we imitate his Virtue honour his Memory and commit his Body to his Dormitory there to sleep till the Resurrection when he and all who have been diligent and industrious painful and laborious in the Ministry and have been Precedents of Piety and Holiness of Justice and Integrity will meet their Flocks with Joy and Comfort and for turning them to Righteousness shall shine as Stars for ever and ever Which God grant we may all do c. A TABLE OF THE Discourses Sermons IN THIS VOLUME PRactical Christianity Recommended urg'd and Encourag'd in working out our own Salvation Or A Discourse on Philippians 2.12 13. Wherefore my Beloved as ye have always Obeyed not as in my Presence only but now much more in my Absence work out your own Salvation with Fear and Trembling For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good Pleasure The Assurance of Heaven and Salvation a powerful Motive to serve God with Fear In a Discourse on Hebrews 12.28 29. Wherefore we having received a Kingdom that cannot be moved let us have Grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear For our God is a Consuming Fire A Discourse of the Nature Corruption and Renewing of the Conscience With Accounts of the Moment of having a Conscience void of Offence to God and Men from Acts 24.16 Herein do I exercise my self to have always a Conscience void of Offence towards God and towards Men. A Discourse upon Perseverance in Prayer With Exhortations thereunto On 1 Thess 5.17 Pray without ceasing A Discourse upon the Omnipresence of God With the Improvements thereof From Psal 139.7 8 9 10. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit Or whither shall I flee from thy Presence If I ascend up into Heaven thou art there If I make my Bed in Hell behold thou art there If I take the Wings of the Morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea even there shall thy Hand lead me and thy right Hand shall hold me BOOKS Printed for Jonathan Robinson A. and J. Churchill John Taylor and John Wyat. A Practical Exposition on the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer in two Volumes in Quarto The Vanity of the World with other Sermons in 8 vo Sermons or Discourses on several Scriptures in Four Volumes in Octavo The Almost Christian discovered in some Sermons on Acts 26.28 All these written by the Right Reverend Father in God Ezekiel Hopkins late Lord Bishop of London-derry Bishop Vsher's Life and Letters By Dr. Parr in Folio 's Body of Divinity or the Sum and Substance of the Christian Religion Folio 's 22 Sermons on several Subjects Fol. Josephus's History of the Jews Folio Dr. Bates's Harmony of the Divine Attributes Octavo Charron of Wisdom in three Books All Dr. Anthony Walker 's Works viz. The Sinfulness and Danger of delaying Repentance The Vertuous Woman or the Life of the Countess of Warwick The Vertuous Wife or the Life of Mrs. Eliz. Walker His Sermons of Water-drinking Preached at Tunbridge-wells c. The Worthy Communicant a Treatise shewing the due Order of Receiving the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper The 17th Edition By Jeremiah Dyke The Poor Doubting Christian drawn unto Christ By Thomas Hooker Ovid's Metamorphosis in English Verse By George Sandys Aesop's Fables in Prose with Cuts Solitude improved by Divine Meditation By Nathaniel Ranew late Rector of Felsted in Essex Practical Discourses concerning Death and Heaven By Nathaniel Ranew Correction Instruction or a Treatise of Afflictions By Tho. Case The Principles of Christian Religion with a brief Method of the Doctrine thereof By Bishop Vsher The sinfulness of Sin and the fulness of Christ In two Sermons By W. Bridge Practical Christianity RECOMMENDED Urg'd Encourag'd In working out our own SALVATION OR A DISCOURSE ON Philippians ii 12 13. By EZEKIEL HOPKINS Late Lord Bishop of London-derry LONDON Printed for Jonathan Robinson A. and J. Churchill John Taylor and John Wyat. 1696. Practical CHRISTIANITY Recommended Vrged and Encouraged In Working out our own SALVATION Phil. ii 12.13 Wherefore my Beloved as ye have always Obeyed not as in my Presence only but now much more in my Absence work out your own Salvation with Fear and Trembling For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good Pleasure THE whole Sum of Christianity is Comprehended in two Points in Knowledg Introduction and in Obedience The one is Conversant about things Supernaturally Revealed and the other about Duties Supernaturally Performed Now although there be so wide a difference between these two yet where they are suffered to run on in a course they will one fall into the other and Gospel Revelations will make way for and lead unto Gospel Obedience Yea indeed there is no Divine Truth how Abstracted how Sublime and Speculative soever it may
Reason Possibly it might seem rather to a Carnal Judgment an incouragment to Sloath than an incouragment to working and Obedience For if God work in us both the Will and the Deed What need we then be so solicitous about the accomplishment of our Salvation which not so much we our selves as God works out for us It would rather seem to be a greater Motive for us to work if the Apostle had said God will not assist you and therefore look to your selves But yet there are two ways without torturing the Words whereby we may make them confess wherein their great Strength lies The one is by reducing this Reason to the Duty And the other is by referring it to the manner of Performing of the Duty Objection First If we refer it to the Duty of working out Salvation then the Force and Strength of it lies in the Consideration of that Aid and Assistance that God by working in us affords us to the working out of our own Salvation Work Why Alas may some say How can we Work Are not the Duties of Obedience Divine and Supernatural And is it not an Almighty Power alone that can inable us to do what is Supernatural Are we Omnipotent Doth not God herein plainly seek Advantages against us in bidding us thus to Work who have no Hands nor Strength to Work with Answer No by no means for what God Commands us to do he will assist us in the doing of it And though Obedience be Supernatural and we are Weak and Impotent yet God is Omnipotent Work therefore for this Omnipotent God works in you both to Will and to Do. And thus appears the force of the Reason if you apply it to the Duty Now if you thus refer it then Observe That all Ability in and all Incouragement to Obedience proceeds from God's working in us what he requireth from us And thus as Christ said my Father worketh hitherto and I work So may a Weak Christian say what I do is above my own Strength indeed but my God and my Father worketh hitherto in me and therefore it is that I am inabled thus to work Secondly If we refer this Reason to the manner of performing of Obedience that it must be with Fear and Trembling as if the Exhortation run thus Be humble and awful in your Obedience For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do and then it carries a double force with it First That the due Consideration of Gods working in us is the greatest inducement imaginable to a Self-Debasing Humiliation There is nothing that will sooner take down Pharisaical Pride and Boasting than sometimes to be Catechising our selves with those two or three Questions and Interrogatories of the Apostle Who made thee to differ 2 Cor. 13.7 What hast thou that thou didst not receive Now if thou hast received it Why dost thou Boast as if thou hadst not received it Why dost thou Boast and Glory O vain Weak Man when all thou hast and all thou dost is from God's free and arbitrary working in thee Alas there is nothing of all thy Graces or Duties to be ascribed unto thy self unless it be the Imperfections and Weaknesses of them And this should cause us when we are most strongly carried out in the ways of God and in the Duties of Holy Obedience most of all to renounce our selves and our own sufficiency and look upon it as an evident Argument that of our selves we are able to do nothing because through God we are inabled to do so much yea to do all things Secondly Since all we do is wrought in us by God this should cause us to obey with a Holy Fear and Reverence lest by our Miscarriages we should provoke God to withdraw from us on whom depends all the Ability and Power we have to obey It is God that worketh in you and therefore work out your own Salvation with Fear and Trembling This now shall suffice for the opening and explaining of the Words That which I shall press upon all is the Duty of this Exhortation of the Apostle And the Proposition I shall lay down from them is this Doctrine That it is the Duty of every true Christian to work out his own Salvation with Fear and Trembling Or thus Every Christian nay every Man ought to work for his living even for an Eternal Life To mention places for the proof of this were to transcribe the Bible we can no where open this Blessed Book but we find this Truth proved to us either directly or by consequence for it is the very Genius of the Scripture And yet it is strange in these Days to see how dubiously some Men who would be thought admirers of Free Grace speak of obedience and working as if it were the brand of a legal Spirit and as great a Stranger to a Christians Warrant as it is to their practice Oh it is a soft and easie Doctrin to bid Men sit still and believe as if God would Translate Men to Heaven upon their Couches to tell them that all that they have now to do is but to labour for more assurance to Praise God and to Sing Hallelujahs unto him And so also it conduces much to their abundant Comfort does it not to tell them that God sees no Sin in them nor requires no Duty from them That Repentance and Humiliation are legal things belonging only to younger Persons and not to the Heirs of the Promises Oh! Who could think it possible that such Dreams and Fantastick delusions could possess so many Mens Hearts that ever heard the Scripture speak in its own Language or that ever read what Christ himself the Holy Ghost or the Blessed Apostles have written who bid us to work the works of God To give all Diligence to abound in all the Fruits of Righteousness Is it possible that these Notions should be dispersed by some and entertained by others but because it always hath been the policy of the Devil wherein he hath sped so well still to vent those Doctrines that indulge the Flesh under the Name and Patronage of Free Grace and Gospel attainments But of this more hereafter Let us now consider the Reasons of this Truth And Reason 1 Luke 13.24 1 Cor. 9.22 Ephes 6.11.12 1 Tim. 6.12 Heb. 12.3 Gal. 6.5 First Wherefore is it that we are commanded to strive that we may enter in at the strait Gate So to run that we may Obtain So to Wrestle that we may be able to Stand So to Fight that we may lay hold on Eternal Life Not to faint in our Minds Nor to grow weary of well doing Do not all these Expressions imply great labour and pains Can you strive and run and wrastle and fight and all this by doing nothing or were it needful to be taught not to grow Faint nor to be weary when we have no work to do Therefore it is the genius and sum of the Scripture to excite Men to be always
active and laborious in the ways of Holiness and Obedience Reason 2 Secondly Consider wherefore is it that Salvation is set forth to us under the notion of a Reward is it not to imply that we must work for it A Reward not indeed merited by our works but yet a Reward measured out to us and conferred upon us according to our works Rom. 2.6 7. God will render to every one according to his works to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory and Immortality he will render Eternal Life And indeed it were very strange if that God who will reward us with Eternal Life according to our works should yet lay a check upon the ingenuity of the new Creature thereby to account Eternal Life too low a Motive to excite unto Eternal Life Reason 3 Thirdly Consider is it not to this end that God hath implanted such an Active Principle of Grace in the Hearts of his Servants that thereby they might be inabled to work out their own Salvation If God would save you without working why then hath he given you such an operative Principle that you might work Nay I might affirm it he might as well save you without Grace as without works for that is not Grace that doth not put forth it self in working Grace if it be true it will be working it will rise in the Thoughts it will work in the Affections it will breath in Desires appear in good works and be very Active and Busie in the whole Life and Conversation Now not to work is that which puts a check and restraint upon this Active Principle it is to curb it in when it would freely break forth into Action upon every occasion given to it Reason 4 Fourthly Why hath God so often promised us Assistance if it be not that thereby we should be incouraged to work He stands by us to confirm our Hearts to strengthen our Hands to help our Weakness to quicken our Deadness to recruit our Graces by continual Supplies and wherefore is all this but that we might work God rather than we shall not work he himself will set us at work nay he will maintain us at our work and in our work upon his own cost He gives us Aid and promises Assistance only for this end that we might work out our own Salvation 2 Cor. 3.5 We are not sufficient of our selves says the Apostle as of our selves to think any thing What then must we therefore sit still because we are not sufficient No says he for God who finds us Imployment will also find us Strength our sufficiency is of God And therefore it is that God gives in Assistances and Supplies that we might work the Works of God And thus I have confirmed the Doctrin why we ought to work and that we ought to work But here before I can proceed any further there are some Objections that must be answered that seem to oppose the Truth of this Doctrin Object 1 First Some may cavil against this Command of working out of our Salvation as a thing impossible Object 2 Secondly As derogatory unto Christ and his Merits Object 3 Thirdly Others as prejudicial to the free Grace of God by which alone we are saved and not by our own Works Object 4 Fourthly Others look upon it as vain and needless since God will certainly bring to salvation all those whom he hath Elected and foreknown according to his purpose which purpose of his neither their not working with it no nor their working against it shall ever make void or frustrate Object 1 I begin with the First Say some with what Justice and Equity can God require this Duty of working out of our salvation when he knows we have no power to perform it Either say they it concerns those that are spiritually inclined and have their salvation already begun that they perfect it by working of it out and if so alas to what purpose is it when they themselves can act no further than they are acted They cannot so much as Will their own salvation unless God give them to Will much less then can they work out their salvation Or else it concerns all that live under the sound of the Gospel though Reprobates and cast-aways though dead in Trespasses and Sins And is it rational is it just and equal to bid dead Men work Or doth it become that God who would be thought by us to be infinitely merciful and compassionate to mock and deride humane Miseries in requiring of them things that are impossible Had he commanded us to bring Light out of Darkness Had he bid us pull the Stars out of their Orbs or with one of our Hands to stop the Sun in its course All these Impossibilities we might as well do as perform these divine Duties without divine Assistance we can as soon glorify our selves as sanctify our selves Exhort and command never so long with as great Authority and Vehemency as you please yet till God move on us and work in us you may as well expect Stocks and Stones should move at your speaking as we And if God doth but once begin to move and work in us we shall work and move without your Exhortations It is therefore say such as these altogether in vain to press Men to Duty till God works in them for all your Exhortations are not sufficient till he works and when he works all your Exhortations will be fruitless Answ To this I Answer and because it is the common Plea of Sinners why they do not work and it is that which questionless doth too often rise in the Hearts and Thoughts of most Men whereby they are greatly discouraged and their Hands weakned in their Obedience I shall therefore the more largely and particularly Answer this Objection And Answ 1 First This serious and pressing Exhortation to Obedience and Working doth not suppose in us nor is it necessary that it should suppose in us a Power to obey I mean it of a present and actual Power neither doth our want of Power take off our Obligation to obey It may and will be granted that there is no Command of God but doth suppose a Power once bestowed Whether or no his absolute uncontroulable Sovereignty might have required that from us that is above our Power ever to perform may rather modestly be doubted than peremptorily concluded Yet this is certain that those very Duties that now we complain we have no Strength and Power to perform were once as subject to our Power and the Freedom of our own Wills as now natural and moral Actions are Subject I say to our Power either to perform them or not to perform them not as though we came now into the World with this Power for we are all dead and still-born in respect of Grace but as having this Power in our first Parent who was our Representative for in him we must be consider'd as existent even when he existed and what he
received it was for us and what he did was done by us and what he lost we lost in him Now if we have lost this Power of Obeying must God also lose his Priviledge and Sovereignty of Commanding Must he lessen his Authority as we lessen our Ability Truly had Adam once thought of this slight he might have sinn'd himself quite from under the command and dominion of his Creator and might soon have become thus free Do not you your selves think you may if a Debtor of yours through his own default becomes a Bankrupt require your Debt of him So stands the Case here between God and us we are all disabled to pay the Debt of Obedience that we owe to God but yet it is through our own default and the Power that we had is not so much lost as wilfully thrown away and may not God justly come upon us for our Debt Our want of Power takes not off our obligation to Obedience because it is through a wilful defect that we are deprived of that Power If a Servant throw away his Tools with which he should work may not his Master justly expect his Work from him though he knows he cannot work without them God's Commands respect not the Impotency that we have contracted nor do they therefore abate any thing of their Severity but they respect that Power and Ability that was once conferred and bestowed upon us Yea were it so that God could with Justice require no more from us than what at present we have Power and Ability to perform this would make the Grace of God First vain and fruitless and Secondly dangerous and destructive First This would make void the pardoning Grace of God For according to this Doctrin nothing could be required of us if we could do nothing but without Grace we can do nothing and therefore if Grace be not bestowed on us nothing can justly be required from us and if nothing be required nothing is due from us and then we do not sin in not performing any thing and where there is no sin certainly there can be no place for pardoning Grace and Mercy And so these wise Men who think they do so much befriend the Grace and Mercy of God in all haste in affirming that God requires nothing from us but what at present we have Power to perform are injurious to the Mercy of God in making of it void as to Pardon and Remission Secondly this Doctrin makes the sanctifying Grace of God destructive and pernicious If God can require justly no more of us than we can perform wherefore is it that Men are justly damned Is it not because they will not do what they are able to do And whence is it that they have this Ability Is it not from the Grace of God's Spirit And therefore if they have not Grace to make them able to do more than their own corrupt Wills are willing to do God could not justly condemn them and consequently that of the Apostle should stand no longer true Eph. 2.5 Through Grace ye are saved but through Grace ye perish These two Consequences will follow if God could justly require no more from us than what we have Power now to do So that tho' we have not Power and Ability to work out our own Salvation yet we are not thereby excused from our Obligation to do it But Answ 2 Secondly Though we cannot of our selves work out our own Salvation Yet God doth not mock us as some do thence infer neither doth he only upbraid us with our own Weakness but hath serious and weighty ends why he Commands us to Obey Those that are so ready to cast this Odium upon the Doctrin of Special Grace making God a derider of Human Frailty and Miseries when he Commands Obedience from them to whom say they himself denies that Power and Grace that should inable them to obey I would only ask these Persons this Question Whether do they grant or whether or no can they deny that God antecedently before he Commands knows who will obey and who will not obey If they say God knows who will not obey will they say God mocks them when he Commands them to obey though he knows they will not What they Answer to this the same may we Answer to their Objection But now there are two Ends why God Commands us thus to work though we are not able according to which God is very serious in commanding us thus to work And God doth this First That he may hereby convince us of our own Weakness and that wretched Estate into which our Sins have brought us that he might humble and abase us when we reflect how far we are fallen from our first Perfection and Excellency When we consider on the one Hand that God requires nothing from us now but what we once had a Power to perform and then on the other Hand consider how little yea how much of that nothing it is that now we have Power to perform this convinces us how miserably great our Fall is that makes those things impossible to us that once were both easie and delightful Secondly God loves to deal with Men as with rational Creatures that have free Faculties capable of moral Influences fit Subjects to be wrought upon by Precepts Counsels Commands and Exhortations as well as by Internal and Efficacious Grace that Arguments and Motives may persuade without as Grace sways within that so by both he might render them a willing People in the Day of his Power And therefore they are not in vain neither to those that shall be saved nor to those that Perish First To those that shall be saved these are the Instruments which the Spirit of God makes use of to incline their Wills and conquer their Affections into the Obedience of Christ and therefore they are not in vain In conversion ordinarily if not always the Moral work goes before the Physical That is there is first the rational Persuasion before there is the efficacious and determining Motion For God when he works on Man he accommodates himself suitable to the Nature of Man that as he is a Creature so he may be and is the Subject of Gods efficacious Motions and as he is Rational so he may be guided by Counsels lead by Persuasions over-awed by Convictions and therefore when God Converts any he takes both these ways inwardly he works by effectual Grace powerfully subduing the Will as a Creature subject unto it and outwardly he works by moral Suasions and Authoritative Commands whereby he inclines the will sweetly and freely to consent to the Power of that inward Grace which indeed he shall never nay indeed he cannot resist and both these together do concur as I said before to make a willing People in the Day of Gods Power And Secondly For those that Perish these Commands have a double end and use First They are Instruments in the Hand of the common work of the Spirit of God to
inoffensively that neither the World nor his own Conscience may have much to accuse him of besides common Infirmities Mark the Reason of this because wicked Men commonly make choice of Sin this Sin they will live in and that Sin they will not live in The Drunkard is not Covetous and the Covetous Man is not a Drunkard and so I may say of other Sins Now it is from the Power of Nature that wicked Men refrain from the commission of any one Sin and not from the Power of Grace And therefore if one Sinner hath Power to keep from this Sin and another Sinner hath Power to keep from the commission of another and a third from a third Sin then every Sinner may by the Power of Nature keep from all those Sins that any of those Sinners do keep themselves from because there is the same Power in each Sinner to lay the same restraint upon this or that Sin that others keep from 4. Sinners may continue constantly in the performance of Duty Fourthly There is no Man how great a Sinner soever but if he will he may with constancy yea to the end and period of his Life continue thus in the performance of Duties and in the avoiding of Sins by the Power of Nature only For if it be possible that Men should do it at any time then it is possible for them to do it continually No more Power is required to inable them this Day than was required the Day past nor no more Power is required for the Day to come than was for this Day now present therefore having Strength to avoid them one time they might also avoid them another time yea and continually persevere in so doing if they would keep a daily constant Watch against them Fifthly 5. Through Perseverance Sinners may attain to habitualness and facility in Duty There is no Man but through this perseverance and continuance may attain to Habitualness and thereby to a facility and easiness in performance of Duties and in avoiding of Sins When Men are accustomed to a road and round of Duties it is a trouble to them to omit them So if Men did but set themselves to their utmost to perform Duties in a more hearty and cordial manner those Duties would become easy to them and if Men would but ingage themselves perseveringly to oppose their Corruptions this would bring them to that pass that it would be their Delight to keep from Sin and to perform Duty and all this the Power of Nature would bring them to Now Sinners you see what a large Tenor you have you are not staked down fast that you can do nothing no it is much yea very much that you may do in order to your Salvation But here some may possibly say We hope that these Words are not true for they would not be able to do so much as all this comes to because they are willing to do nothing at all But let such know that that which will condemn them at the last Day will be that they have not done what they might have done in performing of Duties and in opposing of Sins and therefore they wilfully fall short of Happiness and Salvation Object But may some say If we should put forth to our utmost the Power of Nature what would that avail us We cannot thereby work Grace in our selves and without Grace no Salvation is to be had Answ To this I Answer Consider you do not know but whilst you are thus doing what you can God may come in and by his Grace inable you to do what you cannot do God is not wont to be wanting in this particular unto any He is found of those that seek him not and much more will he be found of those that seek him and enquire after him though it be but by the weak Endeavours of Nature Object But may some say Hath God obliged himself to convert and save those that do to the utmost what Nature inables them to do in desiring Salvation and in seeking to obtain it Answ To this I Answer God hath not bound himself but usually he doth so God is neither bound to give Grace upon the Endeavours of Nature neither is he wont to deny it Can you say that ever you knew or heard of any careful conscientious industrious Soul that diligently and conscientiously exercised it self in performing of Duties and in avoiding of Sins that was not at last truly converted and eternally saved and why then should you doubt or think that you shall be the first Cast your self therefore upon God trusting to his rich and free Grace doing the utmost of your Endeavours However suppose the worst that thou art never converted nor saved which Supposition is very dreadful and terrible and if thou art careful and conscientious to improve thy Abilities to the utmost it is altogether improbable but suppose the worst First Thou livest here then more according to the Rule of Nature and Reason than others do for when others wallow in Sin thou shewest thy self to be more like a rational Man thou art sensible thou hast a Soul of more Worth than to be lost for want of Care and Diligence And then Secondly Thy Pains and Punishments hereafter shall be greatly mitigated Possibly thou mayest slight this because at best it is Damnation yea but consider there are several degrees of Torments in Hell Now thy Workings and Endeavours may free thee from many degrees of Torment and therefore they free thee from many Hells and is not this worth thy Labour Nay and not only so but it is very probable you may altogether escape those Torments if you be conscientious in doing your utmost Endeavours And now methinks every one that hath but Reason to judge and a Soul to save must needs see so much strength and force in the Arguments that have been propounded that the next Question should be John 6.26 What must we do to work the Works of God In every Trade and Profession there is some kind of Mystery that gives to them that have attained to it a quicker dispatch in their Business than other Men have And so is it in the Work and Profession of a Christian there is an Art and Mystery that he that is Master of shall make good dispatch in his great Work and possibly we may have some insight into it by these following Directions First Direct 1. If you would work out your own Salvation then digest and dispose your Work into a right Order and Method Immethodicalness breeds Confusion and makes that a Tumult and a heap of Business that would otherwise become a Trade in Christianity one attainment makes way for and opens into another and to attempt any thing in Christianity by Leaps and Jumps as it were is fruitless unprofitable and vain No wise Man will try to mount up the highest Round of a Ladder at the first step But yet many such preposterous Endeavours there are found among Men in
Conscience when it is under searching Convictions O the Smart and Anguish of a wounded Spirit when God instead of Balm shall only chafe it with Brimstone And yet this is the common method that God useth to prepare Souls for himself he seems to arm himself in all his Terrors against them singling them out to the Conflict and when they give up themselves for lost lying gasping for Hope scarcely at length is administred some few reviving Comforts It is with these as it was with the Children of Israel upon Sinai first they were astonished with a confused noise of Thunder the Air full of Lightning the Mountains all on a Flame and the Earth trembling under them before they heard that comfortable Voice in Exod. 20.2 I am the Lord thy God So is it with convinced Sinners God dischargeth his Threatnings against them that speak more dreadfully to them than a Voice of Thunder he speaks to them out of the midst of Flames and every Word scorcheth up their Hearts and when they stand trembling and despairing once at length they hear those reviving Words I am the Lord thy God What Hearts are there now that such a dreadful Mercy as this is would not over-aw Those Discoveries of Gods Love that break in upon the Soul in the midst of a doleful and gloomy Night of Despair and Despondency work naturally a sweet kind of Terror and a shivering Joy and that 's the first Consideration The dreadful method that God takes to procure Mercy for us even by the death of his Son and to apply Mercy to us even by the Terrors of a convinced Conscience is a sufficient Ground to affect our Hearts with Fear Reas 2. We ought to fear God tho' he be our God because it is possible to lose his Love and the Sense of it though we stand fully possess'd of his Favour Secondly Though God be our God yet to consider that it is possible to lose his Favour and the Sense of it this is enough to affect the Heart with a holy fear even of a reconciled God It is true God's Original and Fountain Love can never be dried up Whom he loves he loves unto the End Psal 89.33 John 1.13 And my loving Kindness will I never utterly take away from him Psal 89.33 But yet the Streams of this Fountain Love may be very much obstructed from flowing freely down upon us though we shall never again be Children of Wrath yet we may be Children under Wrath every presumptuous Sin we commit raiseth God's displeasure against us he is angry with us upon every more notorious and known Sin we commit and since then we are in danger every Day of falling into gross and foul Sins and are kept only by his almighty and free Grace from the worst what cause have we to fear lest we forfeit his Favor and turn his Displeasure against us Yea again though we should be preserved from Sin and continue in his Love yet we cannot assure our selves that we shall continue in the Sense and comfortable Apprehension of it Comfort is most arbitrary and at God's free Dispose neither hath he ingaged himself to bestow it upon any by any absolute Promise though now his Lamp shined clearly upon thy Tabernacle and thou rejoycest in his Smiles yet how quickly may he wrap thee up in a dark Night of Desertion and turn all thy Songs into Mourning Thou therefore that art now assured that God is thy God fear lest ere long thou mayest not think him to be so certain thou art he is so now yet before it be long possibly through thy Miscarriage thou mayest not think him to be so and it is all one as to Comfort or Discomfort whether God be thy God or not if thou dost not apprehend him to be so and therefore fear him Thirdly Reas 3. Why we should fear God because every Frown of our God touches to the quick Consider every Frown and Stroke toucheth to the Quick that cometh from a reconciled God and a loving Father and therefore the rather fear because he is thy God Every little Blow from a Father strikes deeper and causeth more Smart than greater Blows from other Persons others strike the Body but when a loving Father strikes he wounds the Heart So is it here the nearness of the Relation betwixt God and us puts an Anguish and Sting into every Correction As the Psalmist speaks in his own Case Psal 55.12 It was not an Enemy that reproached me neither was it he that hated me then I could have born it but it was thou a Friend mine Equal my Guide and mine Acquaintance These are sad Accents and so is it here The Blood of a Sin-revenging God may indeed break the Back but the Blows of a gracious and reconciled Father break the Heart Fear therefore lest through some Miscarriage of thine and such Miscarriages thou art every Day guilty of thou shouldest provoke thy God to lay some heavy Stroke upon thee which will be the more smart from the aggravation that provoked Love puts upon it And thus you see now in these three Particulars what ground there is from the consideration of God as our God to enforce a holy Fear of his divine Majesty upon our Hearts He is our God therefore fear him because the way that he became ours is most dreadful he is our God as yet fear lest we may not apprehend him so long he is our God therefore fear him because every Stroke and Frown from a God in Covenant comes with an aggravated smart and sting Why now this holy Fear as it is no Enemy to full assurance as I have shewed you so neither Secondly 2. Holy Fear is not contrary to the Love of God Is it any way prejudicial to a most ardent love of God Filial Love and Filial Fear are two Twins but not such as Jacob and Esau that strive to supplant one another The pure Flame of divine and heavenly Love is like other Flames the higher it mounts the more it vibrates and trembles Indeed St. John tells us 1 Joh. 4.18 opened 1 John 4.18 That perfect Love casteth out Fear It should seem then that all Fear of God is swallowed up in those Hearts that are once brought into an holy Love But the Apostle doth very well explain himself in the reason that he gives of this Assertion in the next Words Perfect Love casteth out Fear because Fear hath Torment in it Hence therefore we may distinguish of a twofold fear of God The one is tormenting causing unquiet rollings and estuations in the Heart in a sad suspense of what our future and eternal State may prove and this is slavish Now this Fear perfect Love casteth out and expells for where divine Love is perfected in the Soul there are no more such Suspences Hesitations and Doubtings what will become of it to Eternity Now by perfect Love may be meant either that state of Perfection to which we shall
that are branded for infamous both by God and Man as Murder Adultery Blasphemy and the like at which even natural Conscience recoils such carnal Sins as affright Conscience and make it look pale and ghastly A Crime I also call any sin that is consubstantiated by an access of Guilt by the dreadful Aggravations of being committed knowingly and wilfully By Faults I mean Sins of daily Infirmity and Surreption such as do frequently surprize the best and the holiest Christians from which no Man's Piety nor Watchfulness can secure him Why now though we be over-taken with Faults and every Day and Hour contract new and fresh Guilt upon our Consciences yet we may have clear and good Consciences while we are careful to keep our selves from Crimes from all Sins that are so in their own Nature by the horridness of the Fact and from all Sins that are made so by greatning Circumstances of being deliberate and wilful while we keep our selves from these we have good Consciences notwithstanding Sins of ordinary Weakness That Man hath a good Conscience who preserves himself from all infamous and gross Sins and from all other wilful and deliberate Sins Now this clearness of Conscience is a thing possible to be attained Men may with care and caution keep themselves free from all self-condemning Crimes and live so evenly that when their Consciences are most peevish and toutchy yet they shall have nothing to accuse them of but what is common to all Men of such Men as these this we may affirm that they have been able with Joy to reflect back upon their past Lives in a dying hour that possibly never knew any Guilt by themselves than what the Sins of common and daily Infirmity hath exposed them unto This now is to keep good Consciences We live well says St. Austin if we live without Crimes to live without Fault is impossible and he that thinks he doth it keeps himself not from Sin but from Pardon Secondly Another way to keep our Consciences clear is by cleansing them when they are defiled He keeps his Garments clean that keeps himself from falling and next degree he who being fallen hastes to cleanse himself from his contracted Filth And thus at least we may keep our Consciences clear both from Crimes and from Faults also while we labour to cleanse them from their Defilements and to rub out and wash away those Spots with which at any time we are occasionally bespatter'd There is a twofold Blot Sin leaves behind it there is a Blot of Discredit and a Blot of Defilement the former is indelible As the Scar remains when the Wound is healed so this Blot remains upon the Soul when the Guilt of Sin is removed It is a Discredit to a Malefactor though pardoned that ever he should do that which deserv'd Death And so it is a kind of Blot upon a Christian's Name for ever to have committed those Sins that have deserved eternal Death though through the free Mercy and unspeakable Grace of God he hath obtained the Pardon of them But then there is another Blot a Blot of Defilement that renders Men loathsom and deformed in the Eyes of God and thus every Sin we commit leaves a Blot and a Stain upon the Soul a Stain that defaceth God's Image and that defiles our own Consciences and when this Stain and Blot is cleansed then are we said to have clear Consciences when we have taken off that Blot and Defilement that Sin hath left whereby we are rendred deformed in the sight of God and whereby the Image of God is defaced upon the Soul Thus you see in general there are two ways to keep a clear Conscience Directions for the getting and keeping of a clear Conscience the one by preventing its Defilement and the other by cleansing of it when it is defiled Now to help you in both these Cases I shall lay down several Particulars First 1. Get Conscience rightly informed If you would have your Consciences clear get them rightly informed How can Conscience be clear so long as the Fogs and thick Mists of Ignorance and Error possess it Labour therefore to let in spiritual Light into it that you may see how to cleanse it It is as much Vanity to go about to cleanse an ignorant Conscience as it is in vain to sweep a dark Room An ignorant conscientious Man that knows not the Limits of Sin and Duty may after a great deal of pudder with his Conscience leave it much worse than he found it and cast out Jewels instead of Rubbish Indeed it is impossible for an ignorant Man to have a good Conscience whether we respect Duty or Comfort in point of Duty I have shewed you formerly that Ignorance will make Conscience unnecessarily scrupulous or daringly presumptuous Now neither can an ignorant Conscience be good in respect of Comfort because through Ignorance Conscience oftentimes quarrels at that which is a true Ground of Rejoycing Conscience is that Glass whereby we may both view our selves and also our Actions Now as a Glass when falsly framed represents a beautiful Face monstrous and frightful so Conscience when falsly informed makes even lovely Actions appear mishapen and terrifying by distorted Representations of those Things that are lawful and perhaps our Duty also Therefore in the first place get an enlightned Conscience if you would get a good Conscience for what says the wise Man Prov. 19.2 Prov. 19.2 That the Soul be without knowledge it is not good or as some Translations have it a Soul without knowledge is not good it is indeed good for nothing unless it be to make Men sin conscientiously and to embolden them to commit the greatest Wickedness in the World with Peace and Comfort Thus says our Saviour John 16.2 John 16.2 Whosoever killeth you shall think that he doth God good Service through the Error and Mistake of their Conscience So in 1 Cor. 2.8 Had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory Knowledg betters the Conscience two ways Knowledge betters the Conscience two ways First 1. By instructing of it to discern betwixt Good and Evil. It gives its direction what to choose and what to avoid it instructs it to discern betwixt Good and Evil. Ignorant Persons often mistake the one for the other and eschew what they should follow or if they chance to do that which is good as it is not of great worth to do good only by chance and hazard so they sin also in doing good while the Judgment is in suspence the Conscience must needs be under Guilt If I know not whether I ought to do an Action or to forbear which way soever I take I am entangled in Sin for whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin That is whatsoever is done with a wavering Conscience that I know not whether it be sinful or not that thereby becomes Sin and whatever a Man doth doubtingly he is damned if he doth it