good propos'd but we an Intellectual They as 't were an Apple but we an Inheritance They a transitory Kingdom but we a Kingdom not to be moved They were promis'd a Redemption indeed from Egypt but we from Hell They to be fed with milk and hony but we never to hunger or thirst They a long life but we an Eternal one They a Canaan but we a Heaven And that God will exact the most strict accompt of our wanderings to whom he hath held the greatest light for the better clearing of our ways we may infer from our Saviour's words in the eleventh Chapter of St. Matthew where Tyre and Sidon are more excusable than Corazin and Bethsaida because the later had been obliged with greater Means of Conviction but all in vain This affords a Lesson for our Humiliation That however our Reward is extremely Great even a Kingdom which cannot be moved a Kingdom of Grace and of Glory too yet God hath placed it very high and the way to it is very steep We must not flatter our selves therefore that we are able to fall upwards that with a yawning Relyance we can ever climb up the Hill of Sion and drop as 't were into Heaven with a drowzy Confidence We have no incouragement from our Apostle to believe we shall go thither by meerly believing we are Regenerate and cannot fail of our being there He does not here press on his Hebrew Christians to receive their Salvation with Faith but to serve for it with Reverence Not to expect it only with confidence but strictly to endeavour it with godly Fear For our God is a Consuming Fire To Him be Glory for ever and ever HOW A Man is to work out HIS OWN SALVATION PHILIP II. 12. Work out your own Salvation with Fear and Trembling THe words in general are a Command delivered by St. Paul in the Name of God the Great Master to the Servants of God in the Church at Philippi In which there are chiefly four things to be consider'd First the quality of the Servants Next the wages which they expected Thirdly the work with which the wages was to be earn'd And lastly the manner or qualification with which the working was to be cloath'd First for the Quality of the Servants They were such as had been diligent in the performance of their Duty They had not only been sometimes dutiful they had not only been good by fits but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they had always obeyed They had evermore liv'd in the fear of God Next for the Wages which they expected That is expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be Salvation both as it signifies a deliverance from the tremendous Pains of Hell and as importing an Advancement to the ravishing Ioys of Heaven Then Thirdly for the Work with which the Wages was to be earn'd That is evidently obedience to the Lord Iesus Christ Very significantly implyed in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that looks back upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As ye have always obey'd so now much more obey the Gospel Continue the Course of your obedience Go on to finish the work which ye have begun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 work and work out your own Salvation Last of all for the Manner or Qualification of the working whereby to make it become effectual for the receiving of the Reward There must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Salvation is to be wrought for with Fear and Trembling And that according to the threefold Signification of this expression First with Meekness and Humility We must not put the least Trust in the greatest Performances of our own nor must we be puff't or lifted up with the Gifts and Graces which God hath given us Next with Diligence and Solicitude That we may not for want of Perseverance finally miss of the Prize that is set before us and for which we have hitherto as it were contended by our obedience Thirdly with Awefulness and Horror or holy Dread Because as God is in one Cafe a quickning Light so he is in another a consuming Fire He who purposely created us to do him service is He who will turn us to Destruction unless we serve him as he Requires And now to anticipate an Inquiry how Humility and Solicitude as well as Awefulness and Dread are comprehended under the notion of Fear and Trembling I think it is easy to make it clear from the consideration of the Context without recourse to those other Scriptures wherein we meet with the same expression For First in vain should we indeavour the working out of our Salvation but that it is God who worketh in us both to will and to do And therefore we must do it with all Humility of Mind because in our selves as of our selves there dwelleth no good thing no not so much as Inclination to any thing that is good no not so much as Aversation from any thing that is evil But every good and perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of Lights If we can triumph over the Law as the strength of Sin by treading Sin under our Feet as the sting of Death All the Thanks must be to God who hath given us the Victory through our Lord Iesus Christ. And yet Secondly Although it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do yet the Apostle makes it a Reason why we our selves are to work out our own Salvation And therefore we must do it with Care and Diligence lest whilst God by his Grace is not wanting unto us we finally miss of his Glory by having been wanting unto our selves Thus we see there is pregnant Reason for the Double Importance of the Phrase as 't is meerly rational And of the literal Signification I suppose there cannot be any Doubt For We must work out our Salvation with Fear and Trembling in as much as that signifies the greatest Awefulness and Dread because of the Dreadfulness of our Doom in case we work not at all or not at all to that purpose that God requires And thus I hope I have so divided as withal to have explained and clear'd the Text. The first three Parts of the whole Division may well be thrust up together into this Doctrinal Proposition That our Salvation is not attainable by a meer Orthodoxy of Iudgment in point of Faith or a bare Rectitude of Opinions concerning God But by obedience to the Gospel or Law of Christ. For what is expressed by obedience in the former part of this Verse is also expressed in the later by the working out of our own Salvation And as Salvation is a Thing which requires our working So 't is not any kind of working will serve our Turn For The last Particular of the four affords us a second Proposition which is as apt to defend us from Carnal Security as the First To wit That however Unavoidable our State of Bliss may seem to us by our having with the Philippians obeyed
He did Us not only unto the Death but to the fulfilling of the Law too And how far are they from that who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Inventors of evil things of Lyes and Slanders and most malitious Accusations against a People more Innocent and better Reputed than themselves This is not to do as we would be done by Much less is it to love our Neighbour as ourselves Much less yet to love our friends as our Lord loved us when we were his Enemies To be Imitators of Christ which men must be if they will be Christians we ought to serve one-another as he did us yea to serve our Inferiours as he did His and that with such a kind of Service as is the washing of their feet And his reason to inforce it is chiefly this the Disciple is not above his Master the Servant is not above his Lord and I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done But now besides that this Argument does evince the moral Necessity of our Active obedience and conformity to his Example and Command it also shews us our obligation of having a fellowship with his suffrings and a conformity to his Death which connotates our Passive obedience also and is the main thing intended in this second Lesson the Context yields us § 15. For when he had said to his Disciples that he would shortly send them out as so many Sheep amongst Wolves from whom their usual entertainment should be to be persecuted and hated and to be scourged in their Synagogues and all for the sake of him that sent them Matth. 10. 17. c. he labour'd to give them an acquiescence in all their Suffrings from this one single Consideration that 't is enough for the Disciple if he be as his Master and the Servant as his Lord v. 24. If they have called the Master of the House Belzebub how much more shall they call them of his Household v. 25. There he argues from his being our Lord and Master the obligation lying upon us to suffer the evils which he hath suffer'd Then if at any time we shall fall into the Enmity of the World into a Cross or Disgrace which is undeserved we may relieve ourselves enough with this one Remembrance That 't is the friendship of the world which is enmity with God James 4. 4 and that 't is well for the Servant if he be as his Lord we must not be ambitious to be above him It will be useful to expostulate and reason the matter within ourselves Shall we be such mad Disciples as to expect or but desire to fare any better than our Master shall we be such over-nice or such delicate Servants as to repine at those hardships which were the Portion of our Lord shall we expect to be applauded and well reported by all the world not only by the Best but by the worst of men also when our Blessed Lord and Master is call'd a winebibber a Glutton an Hypocrite and a Deceiver a Blasphemer and a Boutefeux a Conjurer and a Demoniack or shall we shamelesly be seeking great things for ourselves whilst our Master is the outcast and Scorn of men when he who is at once the King and also the Bishop of our Souls is trodden down into the Dust It may seem a thing improper an Absurdity and a Soloecism for us to prosper Shall we who are not our own but are bought out right by our Master Christ be either so arrogant or so stately as to be stretching our selves on Couches and Beds of Ivorie whilst he our Lord and our Lawgiver our King and our Head our Advocate and our Iudge too is either grov'ling upon the Earth in a bloody sweat or stretched out upon the Cross in Tears of blood as well as Brine shall we be drinking wine in Bowles like the Wantons of whom we read in the Prophet Amos whilst our Master cry's out he is a thirst and has nothing wherewith to quentch it but the Cup of Trembling and Astonishment not only sharp as vineger but bitter as Gall too shall we be crowning our selves with Rosebuds like the Atheists of whom we read in the Book of Wisdom whilst our Lord and Master's Diadem is made of Thornes shall we be dancing to the sound of the Viol whilst His Ears are bored through with the most sharp-pointed Sarcasms that the Wit of Insultation can well invent Let us look upon the Case in another colour and admit it were our own Would we not wonder at such a Servant and think him mad who should affect to eat finer and take less pains to be much better clad and to lye softer than his Master It is enough then for us that we fare at least as well as our Master Christ that we suffer no more than to be spit upon and buffeted and scourg'd and Crucified If a Christian is but beggar'd or if but rail'd at and slander'd for conscience sake he fares a great deal better than his Master Christ did if he is Crucified or hang'd he fares no worse The Thought of which will be sufficient if we are qualified with Faith to make us smile upon our suffrings when they are wrongfully cast upon us and to furnish us with Patience if not with Pleasure in all our Pains I say with Pleasure because our Master taught his Disciples to Rejoice in that Case and to leap for Ioy for that is the English of our Saviour's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 5. 12. Rejoice saith he to his Disciples and leap for joy when men shall revile you and persecute you and speak all manner of evil against you falsly for my Sake § 16. Thus having seen the obligation laid upon us by Iesus Christ as our Lord and Master both to imitate his Example and to yield obedience to his Commands as well by doing him Passive as Active Service I shall conclude with the Necessity the Indispensable Necessity we all are under either of rising to life eternal if we accomplish this Condition or of incurring if we do not by so much the greater Condemnation For let our Professions be what they will of Faith in Christ as a Redeemer we cannot own him as a Master Unless we are Followers of his Life nor without sincere obedience can we Recive him as a Lord. And yet unless we so receive him He will not then receive us in the great day of Discrimination when he shall solemnly put a Difference betwixt the Wheat and the Chaff taking the one into his Garner and burning up the other with Fire unquentchable For not to him who hides his Talent in the Earth much less to him who vainly throws it into the Aire But to him who does employ and improve his Talent the righteous Judge of all the world will use that Sentence of Approbation Matth. 25. 21. Well done thou good and faithful Servant Enter thou into the Ioy of thy Lord. From whence
Fortunes are our Conversation will be above 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. we shall behave our selves as men who are free of God's City Our Hearts will evermore be There unless our Treasure is somewhere else If the Kingdom of Heaven is that Pearl of great Price to which our Lord in his Parable thought fit to liken it And if we are those Merchants that traffick for it we cannot choose but be busy in our Inquiries after the Price still resolving upon the Purchase at any Rate that can be ask't and ever asking what we shall give or as here what we shall do that we may any ways inherit Eternal Life So it follows again on the other side That if we are commonly looking downwards and behave our selves here as men at home as if we did not intend any farther Iourney If the Burden of our Inquiries is such as This What shall we do to live long upon the Earth and not see the Grave or what shall we do to escape going to Heaven 'till such time as we are pass't the pleasant Injoyments of the Earth how shall we put the evil Day afar off how shall we be saved without Repentance or repent without Amendment or amend no more than will serve our turn what shall we do to be good enough and yet no better than needs we must what shall we do to serve two Masters and reconcile the two Kingdoms of God and Mammon and so confute what is said by our blessed Saviour in the Sixteenth of St. Luke what for a Religion wherein to live with most pleasure and one to dye in with greatest safety what shall we do to live the Life of the sensual'st Epicure and yet at last dye the Death of the strictest Saint If I say our Affections are clinging thus unto the Earth It is an absolute Demonstration that all our Treasure is here below and that we are men of the present world in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds For our Saviour's famous Rule is at once of universal and endless Truth Wheresoever the Carkass is there the Eagles will be gathered together wheresoever our Treasure is there our Hearts will be also And whither our Hearts are gone before the Case is evident and clear our Tongues and our Actions will follow after § 7. Now since these are the Inquiries of several Seekers to wit of Them who do affect to dwell here and of them that look out for a better Country that is an heavenly And since we may judge by their Inquiries to which kind of Master they do belong to God or Mammon 'T is plain the Lesson or the Use we are to take from it is This that when we find our selves beset with a twofold evil the one of Sin and the other of Affliction in so much as we know not which way to turn there being on the right hand a fear of Beggery or Disgrace and on the left hand a fear of Hell when I say we are reduced to such an hard pinch of our Affairs we must not carnally cast about and tacitly say within our selves what shall we do to keep our Livelyhoods or what shall we do to hold fast our Lives But what shall we do to keep a good Conscience and to hold fast our Integrity And since 't is nobler to be led by the hope of a Reward than to be frighted into our Duties by the fear of being punish't if we neglect them let us not ask like the Children of Hagar in the spirit of Bondage which is unto fear what shall we do that we may not inherit a Death Aeternal But as the Children of Sarah in the spirit of Adoption which is unto hope what shall we do that we may inherit Aeternal Life Which Life being hid with Christ in God as St. Paul speaks to the Colossians for God's sake whither should we go either to seek it when it is absent or to find it when it is hid or to secure it when it is found unless to Him who hath the words of Eternal Life that is the words which are the means by which alone we may attain to Eternal Life The words which teach us how to know it the words which tell us where to seek it the words which shew us how to find it the words which afford us those Rules and Precepts by our conformity unto which we cannot but take it into possession There is no other Name to make us Inheritors of Eternity but only the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ Acts 4. 12. And considering what is said by our blessed Saviour That This and this only is Life Eternal to know the only true God with a practical knowledge and Iesus Christ whom he hath sent John 17. 2. we should religiously resolve not to know any thing else Not I mean in comparison of Iesus Christ and him crucified nor yet to any other end than to serve and assist us in that one knowledge Look what carking and caring any Covetous man useth to get his wealth look what industry and labour an Ambitious man useth to get his Honour look what vigilance and solicitude any Amorous man useth to get his Idol the same solicitude and diligence is each Religious man to use for the getting of an Interest in Iesus Christ. Which gives me a passage from the second to the third Observable I proposed from the Nature and Quality of the young man's Inquiry to the condition of the Oracle inquired of As he sought for nothing less than Eternal Life so did he seek it from Him alone who is the way to that Life and the Life it self He did not go to take Advice from the Witch of Endor for the madness of Saul had made him wiser or more at least in his wits than to knock at Hell-door for the way to Heaven Nor did he ask of Apollo Pythius or go to Iupiter Ammon to be inform'd about the way to Eternal Life for all the Oracles of the Heathen were put to silence by our Messias as Plutarch and others of their own great Writers have well observ'd and should they speak never so loudly he very well knew they could not teach him Nor did he go to Aaron's Ephod to ask the Urim and Thummim about the means of his Salvation for he knew that That Oracle was now grown Dimm and that in case it had been legible it could not help him Nor did he betake himself to Moses the Iewish Law-giver much less to the Scribes the learned Interpreters of the Law for he found Mysterious Moses had still a Veil upon his Face which the Scribes and Pharisees were not able to Remove much less durst he go to the Law it self for a Relief there being nothing more plain than that the Law worketh wrath Those Tables of Stone are as the Hones or the Grindstones at which the Sting of Death is whetted and made more sharp For as the sting of Death is Sin so
the strength of Sin is the Law 1 Cor. 15. 56. The Law does thunder out a Curse as well as a Rigid Obligation the one from Mount Ebal as well as the other from Mount Sinai upon every Soul of man who shall but fail in the least Iota For it is written saith St. Paul who only saith it out of the Law Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them Or to consider it yet more distinctly admit Aeternal Life had been expected from the Law by this Inquirer yet sure it may sooner be ask't than answer'd To which of the Laws he should have had recourse for it Certainly not to the Ceremonial for That was but a shadow of things to come whereof the Body is Christ Coloss. 2. 17. The very Sacrifice of the Law was not able to expiate but only to commemorate the Peoples Sins Heb. 10. 3. Therefore in vain would he have sought to the Ceremonial Law And as vainly to the Iudicial For that was a Politick Constitution peculiar only to the Iews and reaching no farther than to a Civil Iurisdiction Much less yet could he seek to the Moral Law of Moses for Life Eternal For the Moral Law exacted so Universal an obedience and also denounced so great a Curse as I said before on the least omission that he could look for nothing thence but the justest matter of Despair For first our Nature is so corrupt and our Persons so much corrupter since our having found out many Inventions that if we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the Truth is not in us 1 John 1. 8. And secondly if Righteousness come by the Law then is Christ dead in vain Gal. 2. 21. What then remain'd to this inquisitive Iew but that the Law should be his Schoolmaster to bring him unto Christ Gal. 3. 24. The Law being adapted by the infinite Wisdom of God's oeconomy either to lead or to drive him thither For requiring more from him than he was able to perform and yet denouncing a Curse on his Non-Performance it could not but make him stand affrighted at the ugly Condition he was in I mean his desperate Impossibility of ever attaining to Life Eternal by the meer perfection of his obedience Hence he saw it concern'd him to seek somewhere else He found it clear by Demonstration and by the woful Demonstration of sad Experience he stood in need of a Saviour and of such a Saviour too as might deliver him from the Curse and from the Rigour of the Law by being made both a Curse and a Ransom for him Again he saw both by the Doctrins and by the Miracles of Christ that He was most likely to be That Saviour to wit a Saviour from whom he was to look for such a Clue as might be able to conduct him out of the Labyrinth he was in And therefore just as this Saviour was gone forth into the way This kind of Neophyte in my Text came running to him and asked him meekly kneeling upon his Knees Good Master what shall I do that I may inherit Eternal Life Now if Christ was His Oracle who only liv'd under the Law How much more must he be ours who were born and bred under the Gospel Shall men of our Dignity and Profession of our Proficiency and Growth in the School of Christ an holy Generation a Royal Priesthood a Peculiar People shall such as We go in Inquest of Life Eternal to such deceivable Oracles as either Zuinglius or Calvin Piscator or Erastus or Iohn of Leyden to the Sepulchres of Martyrs to the Discipline of Monasteries to daily Ave Maries and Masses to Papal Indulgences or Bulls or to the outward Scarrifications and Buffettings of the Flesh shall we lean upon such Reeds as will but run through our Elbows or shall we inlighten our selves by Candles when behold the Sun of Righteousness is long since Risen in our Horizon or to fly for Refuge to the Saints when behold a Saviour Christ is called very fitly the Sun of Righteousness Mal. 4. 2. to whom the Apostles are but as Stars in the Firmament of the Gospel which only shine forth with a borrowed light and have no other brightness than what He lends them Now all the Stars in the Firmament cannot make up one Sun or afford us one Day without his Presence Just so All the learned and the good men on Earth All the Angels Saints in Heaven cannot make up one Saviour or but light us the way to Eternal Life without the Influence and Lustre of Jesus Christ. Iairus a Ruler of the Synagogue a man that wanted no worldly means whereby to Cure his only Daughter did yet despair of her Recovery until he fell down at the Feet of Christ Luke 8. 41. And so the Woman who had been sick of a bloody Flux no less than twelve years together and had spent all she had in Physicians Fees was not the better but the worse until she crowded towards Christ and touch't the Hemm of his Garment Luke 8. 43. That we are every one sick of a bloody Flux too appears by our scarlet and crimson Sins Which Flux and Fountain of our Sins can never possibly be cur'd unless by Him who is the Fountain for Sin and for Uncleanness Zach. 13. 1. For as Red wine is good for a bloody Flux in the Body so is That which gushed out of our Saviour's Body who called himself The True Vine the only Good thing for this Disease in the Soul And of this Wine we drink in the Cup of Blessing which we Bless in the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. To him alone must we fly as to the Physician of our Souls who saith to us under the Gospel as once to Israel under the Law I am the Lord God that healeth thee Exod 15. 26. He alone saith St. Peter is the Head-stone of the Corner nor is there Salvation in any other Acts 4. 11 12. It pleased the Father that in him should all Fulness dwell Coloss. 1. 19 And of his Fulness have all we received Grace for Grace John 1. 16. All things necessary to life and to life Eternal are delivered to him of the Father Matth. 11. 27. And this 't will be easy out of Scripture for I am speaking to Believers I should not else produce a Text to make apparent by an Induction For first if we are hungry He alone is the Bread of Life which whoso eateth shall live for ever John 6. 58. Next if we are thirsty He alone is the living Water which whoso drinketh shall never thirst John 4. 13. Thirdly if we are foul He alone has that Blood by which we may be cleansed from all our Sins 1 John 1. 7. Fourthly if we are foolish He is the Wisdom of the Father who hath laid up in Him all the Treasures of Knowledge Coloss. 2. 3. He is Doctor Catholicus and only He.