more fit and expedite for the race set before us viz. that we be more particularly careful to arm our selves against those temptations to lay aside those lusts to which we perceive our selves by nature or custom most inclined This I conceive is meant here by the sin which doth so easily beset us Every man who gives himself the leisure to examine his own heart impartially will find that some temptations have a great deal more easie access to him than others and our great adversary the Devil is very diligent and watchful to set before us such objects and lay such snares in our way which are most likely to prevail upon us The sins we are naturally inclined to oft-times creep upon us insensibly and get possession of our hearts before we are well aware of them Sometimes they disguise themselves under the pretence of Piety and seeming holiness and a great zeal against the contrary extream Sometimes they plead Nature and Custom for their continuance that these cannot be overcome sometimes we have ways to extenuate them and make them seem small and venial and if men take time to deliberate about parting with them there is great hazard but they will keep possession So apt are we to be vanquished when we have a mind to it when our Adversaries from without have their correspondents in our own bosom when we have so many treacherous Guests so many deceitful Lusts within us which are ready to betray us and to yield up our hearts to a subtle and powerful enemy Here then is our greatest danger here we must exert our greatest care and vigilance here we must shew our courage and resolution in throwing off these darling and beloved Lusts the sins that do so easily beset us This is that which our Saviour elsewhere requires of us when he bids us cut off our right hands and pluck out our right eyes when they make us to offend And thus much for the first part of the Exhortation Having according to our power laid aside every weight having freed our selves from our evil habits and customs and from our most secret and beloved Lusts we are not to rest here Thus much is required as a preparation to be Christs Disciples but when we are admitted into the number we must then set our selves upon an active obedience to his Laws A negative holiness will not serve our turn We must not onely eschew evil but we must do what good we can in the several places and stations to which God hath called us They who run in a Race when they have stript themselves and laid aside all unnecessary weights and incumbrances have yet the whole Race before them which they must run through if they expect their Crown and Prize and therefore in proportion to what is required of them we also are exhorted in the 2. Second place to run the Race set before us Now the positive duties required of all Christians answer to that part of the similitude and to discharge them faithfully is meant by running the race set before us And this is elsewhere expressed in plainer Exhortations Work out your salvation with fear and trembling giving all diligence add to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any praise or if there be any vertue think on and do these things Now these and the like Exhortations and Precepts often repeated in holy Scripture being all in general terms the particular instances of duty required by them must be left to each mans private consideration and they are various according to mens several abilities and opportunities according to their several relations in which God hath placed them God the supream 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath by his wise and good providence allotted every man his course It is not of our choosing but it is a race set before us He hath likewise distributed among men various gifts and abilities whereby they are severally fitted to do good and according to these every man must judge of his duty in particular what it is that the Lord requires of him and no man who doth not want will and resolution to do the will of God can ordinarily be ignorant what he ought to do and therefore I shall not descend to any particular instances of duty only from the similitude here used I shall crave leave to suggest these two things 1. That our obedience to God ought to be vigorous and chearful 2. That it ought to be constant and uninterrupted 1. The similitude of Running imports great vigour and alacrity in the discharge of our duty They who run with hopes of Victory must not be faint-hearted and languish but must be chearful and couragious full of hope and eager expectation of the desired triumph Thus must a Christian behave himself in the race set before him He must go about his duty with chearfulness and freedom as one that doth it with a willing mind and hopes for success by so doing He must always have in his eye the great recompence of reward the joy set before him the Crown of Glory laid up for him and in prospect of that he must chearfully undertake whatever difficulties he meets with in his way And indeed if we have once obeyed the former part of the Exhortation if we have once freed our minds from the low and sordid cares and incumbrances of this life present there can then remain nothing to hinder or retard our motion or to abate our courage in running the Race set before us And this holy David seems to express saying I will run the way of thy commandments when thou hast set my heart at liberty When we are once at liberty from the World and have weaned our affections from things below and placed them on a better and more enduring substance then though we meet with dangers and inconveniences we shall joyfully go on and every days progress in our course of piety will render our task more easie and delightful We shall apprehend our selves every day more and more approaching to the end of our hopes and to the Crown of our labours and out of prospect of so sure a reward so nigh at hand and out of a fore-taste of that happiness shall be able to say of Religion from our own experience that her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths Peace 2. Another thing represented by this similitude of Running is that our course of Piety our religious conversation ought to be constant and uninterrupted He that runs in a Race cannot find leisure to stop and divert himself or salute his friends by the way A little needless ceremony at such a time may hazard the loss of the whole
diligence add to your Faith Vertue and to Vertue Knowledge and to Knowledge Temperance and to Temperance Patience and to Patience Godliness and to Godliness Brotherly Kindness and to Brotherly Kindness Charity For so an entrance shall be ministred unto you effectually into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Now these and the like Exhortations would be of no force at all to persuade us if these promises could be attained without the performance of these conditions In a word in all the descriptions of a Judgment to come there is nothing plainer than this that I now plead for that God will reward every one according to what he hath done I shall mention but two places more Rom. ij 6. God will render to every man according to his deeds to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentiles For there is no respect of persons with God The other place is Mat. xxv where our Saviour having given us a large description of those good Works which shall then be rewarded and having there represented the vanity of those mens excuses who had not wrought them he concludes with this sentence these shall go away into everlasting punishment and the righteous into life eternal There remains onely to draw some inferences from what hath been said that may be of use to us for the government of our lives 1. If there be a Judgment to come wherein men shall receive rewards and punishments according to their actions whether good or bad it is easie then to understand how much those men deceive themselves who hope to be saved by vertue of any absolute and inconditionate decree For if God have from eternity fore-ordained such and such particular persons to eternal life and others to eternal damnation without any consideration of their actions whether good or bad then certainly God cannot proceed in judgment according to the method before described nor could the promises and threatnings of the Gospel have any force of persuasion to engage men in the practice of Vertue or to discourage them from Sin and Wickedness In vain would the Apostle here make use of the terrours of the Lord to persuade men if God have before determined that such a certain number of them shall not escape the wrath to come whatsoever diligence they use on their parts On the contrary the promises of the Gospel cannot have any reasonable force to engage men to obedience if once they knew and believed that their future state was from everlasting unalterably fixed so that they could not fall short of it by any neglect Nay upon this supposition all the various methods of persuasion which God uses in Scripture to bring men to repentance and a better life prove nothing else but illusion and hypocrisie For that God should so often by his holy Prophets and Apostles invite and exhort and beseech all men that they would turn from their evil ways and live when in the mean time he hath excluded many myriads of men from any possibility of salvation by an absolute and irresistible decree which no endeavour of theirs can revoke or cancel this way of proceeding cannot by any means consist with that truth and sincerity and goodness which is inseparable from the divine nature We must therefore conclude that if there be a Judgment to come when all men shall receive rewards and punishments according to what they have done then certainly no man shall ever be excluded from those rewards but by his own fault nor yet any man obtain the same but by a due diligence in working out his salvation and performing those conditions upon which they are promised 2. From what hath been said concerning the method of Gods proceeding at the Judgment of the last Day we may also observe that those men do extreamly mistake the conditions of salvation who talk of being saved by Faith as it is distinguished from good works and obedience who take so much pains to cry down the value of our good works as though they had little or no influence in the justification or salvation of a Christian For surely if we shall be judged according to what we have done Faith alone cannot be the whole condition required on our parts in order to our salvation It is true indeed glorious things are spoken of Faith in holy Scripture but these things must not be understood of a bare assent to the truth of the Gospel which is the proper importance of that word Faith but of such a Faith as is a principle of life and action such a Faith as hath influence upon the whole course of our lives and is not contradicted by our practice and conversation a Faith that worketh by love and is fruitful of good works and obedience Thus it is not to be considered as a single Vertue and separate from the rest but as being the fruitful parent of all other Christian Vertues and including them in it For if we understand Faith in a more strict sense as distinct from an holy conversation it is no more than the Devils themselves may pretend to and yet this is so far from being any relief to them that it is the great aggravation of their misery To know and be assured of the glorious things revealed in the Gospel and to know withal that they themselves are finally excluded from the benefit of them this doubtless is a mighty aggravation of their horrour and we may well conclude as S. James doth that they believe and tremble nay that this belief doth make them tremble 3. If we shall be judged according to what we have done in the body it then follows that all that is to be done by us in the great work of our Salvation must be performed in our life time whilest we are in the body Now must we give all diligence to make our calling and election sure and not leave any thing to be done after our death either by our selves or others This I observe in opposition to that Doctrine of the Church of Rome which supposes that some sins are expiated after death and purged away by the fire of Purgatory and by the Prayers and Sacrifices of those that are left alive But this is not onely a vain and groundless opinion but certainly doth much tend to the hindrance of Piety and lessening mens care of their future state As the Tree falleth so it lieth As a man goeth out of this World such will be his future state and he will be judged according to what he was when he left the body according to what he had done in the body 4. If it be thus certain that we must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body this certainly ought to awaken our diligence in the business of our Salvation that to day while it is called to day we break off our sins by a sincere and hearty repentance that knowing the terrours of the Lord we pass the time of our so journing here in fear For surely did men seriously consider that there is a day coming when all the hidden works of darkness shall be made manifest when the secrets of all mens hearts shall be revealed when all the close impieties which had passed here undiscerned should be laid open before God and all the World they would not now so fondly flatter themselves with hopes of secresie or impunity Did men seriously reflect upon the terribleness of that great day when God shall appear with ten thousand of his Saints to take vengeance on them that have not feared his name did they often think upon that dreadful sentence which will then be pronounced against all impenitent sinners Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels this certainly if any thing would put a check to the bold impiety of this Age. Men would not then dare so openly to defie Heaven and blaspheme the Majesty of the great God who will at that day appear so terrible nor would they continue by their hardness and impenitent hearts to treasure up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous Judgment of God On the contrary as the terrours of that day ought to make us sensible of our danger if we continue in disobedience so the glorious reward which shall at that day be given to those that have lived obediently to the will of God ought to be a most effectual motive to persuade us thereunto For what greater encouragement to our duty than the consideration of those great and glorious things which God hath prepared for them that love him Who would not willingly forsake all the flattering joys and transitory pleasures of this life that he may secure to himself such an inheritance incorruptible undefiled that fadeth not away which God the righteous Judge shall give him at that day Or who would not despise all the sufferings of this life which may possibly attend him in the practice of his duty when he remembers that these light afflictions which endure but for a moment work out for him a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Now the great God grant us all his grace that we may have the judgment of the last day always present to our minds that denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts we may live soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ that when we come to stand before that great Tribunal we may be presented pure and unblamable in his sight and that not for any merits of our own but through the mediation of our blessed Saviour To whom with the Father and Eternal Spirit be ascribed as is most due all power praise thanksgiving and obedience for evermore FINIS
allowing those that differ from them any probable hopes of salvation He that considers this must necessarily suppose one of these two things Either that the way of obtaining the knowledge of divine truth is not sufficiently plain and certain so that all that use a due diligence in the search after it may reasonably hope to obtain it Or secondly that the generality of Christians that maintain so wide differences about matters of Religion do not seek for knowledge after a right manner The former of these viz. that the way of salvation is not sufficiently plain and that all who use a due diligence in the search of it may not reasonably hope to find it this cannot be granted without injury and affront to the divine goodness and justice For since the eternal welfare of all Christians doth depend upon their due performance of the condition of Christianity and this cannot be performed without a competent knowledge of those things that are revealed in the Gospel if these things were so dark and obscure that even the plainest Christian might not attain to as great a degree of knowledge as is necessary for him it would then follow that God had not taken sufficient care of his people to make the way of salvation known to them and withall that he dealt very hardly and unmercifully with the greatest part of them in excluding them from the means of knowledge when yet he hath annexed so great a penalty to the want of it as their falling short of that eternal inheritance to which they are called in the Gospel The true reason therefore why so many enquirers after knowledge do miscarry in their design and are led away into strange and dangerous opinions is not because the knowledge of the truth is so hard to be obtained but because there are but few that apply themselves to the search of it after a due manner It cannot therefore but seem necessary that while we all pretend to seek after knowledge and to desire to be informed in those important truths revealed in the Gospel that we first of all endeavour to satisfie our selves concerning the true way and method by which the knowledge we seek after is to be obtained and this our Saviour hath directed us to in these words If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of my self In the fore-going Verses of this Chapter we read that there was great murmuring among the people concerning our Saviour who about that time begun to shew himself to Israel and there was great variety of opinions concerning him Some said he is a good man others said nay but he deceiveth the people Now to decide this controversie concerning himself and the doctrine he taught he gives them this plain direction if any man will do his will intimating thereby that they who thus disputed concerning him had not that true frame of mind that was fit for his reception that they were not willing to obey God whatever they pretended and therefore that it was in vain for them to be so inquisitive about him For to what purpose should they look for further revelations and instructions from God when they refused obedience to that doctrine they had already received and which they knew to be divine For to this purpose he upbraids them v. 19. Did not Moses give you the Law and yet none of you keepeth the Law So then had the Jews been obedient observers of the Law as they pretended great admiration of it they could not have found so many difficulties in their owning our Saviour for the true Messias they would then easily have understood that he came from God and that the doctrine he taught was truly divine and heavenly and that he did not endeavour to destroy the Law and the Prophets as they were wont to object against him but that he did eminently and exactly fulfil them But not to insist on this strict connexion of the words with the foregoing and following Verses I shall now consider them not as having any peculiar respect to the Jews but as they are a general rule for all enquirers after divine truth If any man whosoever he be Jew or Gentile will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of my self In handling of these words I shall first endeavour to explain the nature of the condition which our Saviour here requires in order to the search of divine truth 2. I shall shew the certainty of success to all such as seek for knowledge after this manner here required 1. For the condition it self If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of my self This condition implies in it these four things 1. A previous sense of the divine Soveraignty over us and our obligation to do whatsover God commands This belief of the Supreme Authority of God is antecedently necessary to all enquiries after divine truth For he that would be satisfied concerning the truth of any particular kind of Religion must in the first place suppose that some religious worship is due from men to God and this is of so natural an evidence and obligation that there neither is nor hath been any Nation of the World wherein they have not had a sense of the Being of God and of his supreme right to give Laws to Mankind and that our well-being and happiness doth depend upon our doing those things which are well-pleasing to him and therefore we find that how far soever the Nations of the World had erred concerning the Nature of God oft-times attributing to him those unworthy passions and practices which a wise man would be ashamed of yet still they thought it necessary to find out some way of expressing their homage to him And though the ways of Worship devised by the Heathens were commonly very absurd and ridiculous yet thus much is abundantly evident from their practice that they owned an obligation to a religious worship of God and had a sense of his soveraignty and right to govern them and to dispose of them as he pleaseth And this sense of his divine Soveraignty is necessarily supposed in this condition If any man will do his will For no man can intend to do the will of God who is not before persuaded that he ought to do it whensoever it is made known to him 2. This condition if any man will do his will implies or presupposes a serious desire to know the will of God in order to practice and a diligent use of those means of instruction which God hath afforded us as viz. a search of the Scripture a sober use of our Reason in the examination of it a diligent attendance on those spiritual Guides which God hath set over us for our instruction in the way of righteousness and prayer to God for the guidance and assistance of
his good Spirit to enable us to understand and do those things which are necessary for us and to lead us into all truth For we are not to understand this promise of our Saviour as though God would infuse the knowledge of divine truth by a miracle but that those that will do the will of God shall be blest by him in the diligent use of those ordinary means which he hath appointed for their instruction And therefore in the old Oeconomy the Jews were referred to Moses for their instruction what they ought to do And under the Gospel God hath given some Apostles some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ and to these men and their successors we must have recourse in order to instruction and satisfaction in matters of Religion To these themselves we may have recourse in the Books of the New Testament which they have left behind them as a certain guide to us in all things necessary if we be not wanting to our selves To their Successors we have recourse in our attendance upon the publick Ministry who derive their commission by a continued succession from the Apostles who were impowered by Christ to ordain others for the continuance of their Office to the end of the World And to these persons thus impowered all private Christians ought to apply themselves with humility and diligence for their instruction and in the diligent use of those means of knowledge above-mentioned he that will do the will of God by vertue of this promise of our Saviour shall know of the doctrine 3. This condition if any man will do his will implies further that in our search after divine truth and in our use of those means of knowledge which God hath afforded us we must propose to our selves the doing the will of God as the ultimate end of our knowledge This is that which is more particularly expressed in the Text. Many there are who are very inquisitive after truth but they have oft-times very different and undue ends in their enquiry sometimes they do it to gratifie their curiosity sometimes that they may be able to maintain their Party they are ingaged in with some plausible shew of reason sometimes they do it for ostentation and vain-glory that they may appear wiser and more learned than their neighbours and sometimes they seek for knowledge as other men do their Merchandise that they may make a gain of it and provide for their subsistence in the World Now Now all these several sorts of Enquirers may possibly attain the several ends they propose to themselves they may grow learned and wise in the ordinary account of men they may grow rich and gain esteem and applause among men and in this they have their reward but still they may want the true knowledge and satisfaction which our Saviour here speaks of which is not attainable by any that do not intend and resolve to do the will of God according to their knowledge this alone makes them capable of a full and sensible conviction of the divine authority and excellency of those revelations which are contained in the Gospel For it is not every one that can talk superficially about religious matters or that can give a tolerable account of the rational grounds upon which the truth of the Gospel is conveyed to us not every one that can dispute learnedly about points of Faith and decide Controverfies not every one that is thus accomplished is properly said to know of the doctrine in our Saviours sense No he that is resolved to do the will of God absolutely and entirely such a one shall receive a more full and ample satisfaction concerning those things that are necessary for him than can be gained by the strongest reasonings and most convincing demonstrations He shall find in his soul a lively sense of the excellency of those truths which the Gospel delivers such as shall leave no room for doubtfulness or disputing 4. We must not onely intend and resolve to do the will of God and propose to our selves this as the great end of our enquiry but we must actually endeavour to discharge those duties we already know if we hope to attaim to a sufficient satisfaction in our Religion for he that neglects to do the will of God as far as he already knows he cannot be presumed to have a sincere resolution of submitting to those further instructions which he may find in the Gospel And indeed in this place our Saviour may well be understood to exact this qualification of those who came to hear him that they should practise those duties they already knew if they would be satisfied concerning the truth of his Religion for otherwise it may seem an improper and preposterous way of proceeding to persuade men first to obey the Gospel and then to promise them satisfaction about the truth of it Men are not willing to enter upon a way of living so strict and severe as the Gospel enjoyns without being satisfied before hand of the truth of it that that is truly the will of God which is there required and that it is their great duty and interest to obey it Nay it is manifest by sad experience that many who are convinced of the truth of the Gospel are yet very backward to practise the precepts of it but how much more unwillingly would they undertake this practice if they were not capable of satisfaction about the truth of the Gospel till they had obeyed it So that it is most reasonable to suppose that the doing the will of God here spoken of must in part be understood of those previous instructions in the will of God which those who came to hear our Saviour had before received The Jews to whom our Saviour here directs his discourse had the instructions of Moses and the Prophets from whom they might have understood the principal rules of good living and their obedience to Moses and the Prophets would doubtless have been a great preparation for their reception of the Gospel and then for those Enquirers after truth who have been bred up in a Christian Commonwealth they cannot be supposed to be wholly ignorant of their duty No man can ordinarily grow up in a Christian Society to an age capable of such enquiries but must have been competently instructed in the general rules of good living in the substantial and necessary parts of Religion Those three great branches of Duty which S. Paul teaches us to be the summe of the Gospel the living righteously soberly and godly in the World are in themselves of so evident an obligation that no man who hath come to the use of Reason especially in a Christian Common-wealth can be ignorant that it is his duty to live so Suppose we then a man competently instructed in the general rules of good living whether by the Law of Nature written in his