in this I beseech you bestow such a blessing upon that poore Towne and the poore Inhabitants that they may be occasioned and we for them to blesse you again and pray to God to restore that which you shall give in the riches of grace here and of glory hereafter FINIS PSAL. 106. 19 20. They made a calfe in Horeb and worshipped the molten Image c. I Began to handle these words the last Lords day There are three things in them First the Idoll a calfe or young Oxe or Bullock Secondly their sin in this calfe in three things First in making of it Then in worshipping of it And then in changing their glory into the similitude of it They made a calfe in Horeb They worshipped the molten Image They changed their glory c. The third thing is the roote of this sin the cause of it whence it grew it grew from forgetfulnesse of God and his works The God they forgat was their Saviour The works they forgat were First great works Secondly wonderfull works Thirdly terrible works They forgat God their Saviour that had done great things for them in Egypt wondrous things in the land of Ham terrible things by the Red sea Of the Idoll I have spoken and of their first work in making of it wherein I considred three circumstances First who made it Secondly where they made it Thirdly of what they made it I now go on to the second thing They worshipped the molten Image This was the end for which they would have it made and so consequently they turned the glory of God into this similitude Here was their sin which was not so much in making of it they might have made it without sinne but to make it to that end to worship it this was abominable Now because these are dangerous dayes wherein we live and there are a generation of men that will compasse Sea and Land to make a proselyte Out of my desire to stablish your hearts in the true and sincere worship of God I shall besides my custome fall upon a matter of Controversie and discusse the question betweene the Church of Rome and us about worshipping of Images There is a great dispute betweene them and us about this peoples Idolatry in worshipping this calfe We do beleeve the sin was sinfull above measure but yet they would make it somewhat worse then it was because they would not be thought to be Idolaters as these were The thing will ask a little time to discusse it more then I have to day I shall but make an entrance into it I shall tell you what order I will take in the handling of it First I will shew you That the making of an Image is not simply forbidden except it be in way of Religion to worship and to serve God by it That is the first They made it and they worshipped it A second thing I will shew is this That all application of divine honour to any Image whatsoever is Idolatry I will shew you thirdly That all Idolaters do change their God they change their glory into the similitude of that they worship I will shew you fourthly That the Church of Rome doth commit as grievous Idolatry in worshipping their Images as this people did in worshipping of this Calfe Lastly I will shew what use we are to make of the whole I say I cannot do all to day I shall but begin it but have patience till I can end it And if in the handling of these things I alledge either Fathers or Councels or Traditions of the Church or History more then I use or more then I think is fit in popular Sermons I pray beare with me and consider whom I deale with with unreasonable men such as will not be satisfied with the meere authority of holy Scripture For the first point The making of an Image is no act of Idolatry except it be by way of Religion to worship God by it that is my first proposition God doth never in the Scripture simply forbid the making of an Image He saith in the second Commandement Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any graven Image It is true but you must know that that is a Commandement of the first Table Now the first Table concernes the worship of God so you must understand it by way of relation to the worship of God Thou shalt not make an Image If you will heare God expounding his owne Law that it is thus looke in Levit. 26. 1. Ye shall make you no Idols nor graven Image neither shal ye set up any Image of stone in your land to bow downe unto it So it is not the making of the Image that is forbidden but the bowing downe to the Image we have made or the making it to that end to bow downe that is Idolatry If the making of an Image were simply and absolutely evill then surely the same Art and skill and cunning that some men have in carving and graving of Images should never be attributed to the Spirit of God as the author of it Now you shall finde what God saith I have filled Bezaleel and Aholiab with the spirit of wisdome and understanding and knowledge to work all such rare curious inventions whereof some were Images as you shall heare anon God allows the making of Images to foure uses which I shall name unto you First he allows us to make an Image for the distinction of coines The first coines almost that I can finde in all the Scriptures mentioned they were stamped with a Lamb upon them and were called for that cause Lambs You reade in Gen. 33. 19. that Jacob did purchase a field a parcell of ground of Hamor the son of Shechem and he purchased it for an hundred pieces of silver a hundred pieces of money so it is called there but the Hebrew phrase is with an hundred Lambs He bought it with money so Stephen saith But why doth he say with an hundred Lambs It was money stamped with a Lamb. So in Job ult every one of Jobs friends brought to him a piece of money our Translation reads it so but the Hebrew phrase is a Lamb a piece of money so stamped As we call that piece of gold that is stamped with an Angel an Angel so the Scripture called that piece of money that was stamped with a Lamb a Lamb. This was the ancient coine I finde Then that same shekell that we reade oft of in Scripture it had two figures upon it it had the likenesse of the pot of Manna on the one side and the likenesse of Aarons Rod on the other side Our Lord said to the Herodians Shew me a penny Whose Image hath it Caesars Our Lord disliked not to have Caesars Image upon a penny but saith he Give to Caesar that which belongeth to Caesar and to God that which is Gods God allows us Images for distinction of coins that is one Secondly God allows Images for ornament Solomon made a throne of Ivory that
Land and may it be the good pleasure of God to continue this glory among us till Jesus Christ come in glory with all his Saints But brethren doth not this glory of God seeme to remove doth it not seeme to fleet a little O should God withdraw his word from us and the profession of it Should God remove the candlesticke out of his place should God withdraw this gracious presence of his in all his Ordinances then I tell you Mothers what you should name your children that are borne next Ichabod Where is glory when God is gone from you I read of some foolish Nations that were wont to fetter and chaine their gods that they might not depart from them Surely our God cannot be chained nor fettered but yet there is a way to hold him still when hee seemes to be departing I gat hold on him saith the Church and would not let him goe Cant. 3. 4. I will not let thee goe till thou blesse mee saith Jacob Genes 32. v. 26. When our blessed Lord seemed to the two men that were travelling to Emaus that hee would leave them the Scripture saith They constrained him to stay with them We may constraine our God there is a holy violence we may offer to our God by repentant teares and importunate prayers by which wee may stay our God with us still and this is as Tertullian calls it A holy violence pleasing and acceptable to God But I stand no more upon the words now I come to the thing They changed their glory that is their God How may a people change their God They may change their God two waies First when they forsake him and set up and worship some other God in his stead as the people forsook the Lord and served Baal and Ashtaroth Judges 2. 13. This is the grossest kind of Idolatry This is a breach of the first Commandement Or secondly a people may change their God when they change the truth of God into a lie when they represent and worship God in an Image when they represent God in a corporeall a visible a finite a circumscribed Majesty this is to change a God this is against the second Commandement And you must know that thus the people changed their God here at this time for wee doe not thinke that they made this calfe to be their god Their sin was bad enough let not us make it worse then it was They had cast off now all Religion and the feare of God let not us thinke they had cast off sense and reason with it Can wee imagine that this people were such calves as to think that the calf that they themselves had made yesterday was the very God that brought them out of Egyt three months before the calfe was made Never imagine that they took not this calfe to be their god What then They tooke it to be a figurative signe of their god I know they call it their god These are the gods that brought thee out of the land of Egypt Or as it is in Nehemiah chap. 9. verse 18. This is thy God O Israel that brought thee out of the land of Egypt But as this Image is called a calfe in my Text They made a calfe in Horeb though it was no calfe but the Image of a calfe So they called it their god but they did not thinke it to be their god they tooke it as an Image of their god as a figurative signe of their god therefore Aaron proclaimes To morrow is an holy day to Jehovah not to the calfe but to Jehovah whom they worshipped in the calfe I pray marke this rule that I shall give you The truth of God is turned to a lie and God is changed to the Image that is worshipped though God himselfe and none but hee be worshipped in that Image I say God is changed into that Image that is worshipped for him though the true God and none but he be worshipped in that Image Here is the reason of it The rule of Divine worship is not the will of the worshipper but it is the will of him that is worshipped Now it was never Gods will to be worshipped in an Image Take a similitude Suppose a subject a vassall should devise an honour of his owne braine to his Soveraigne to his King and hee should set up a toad and hee will have it in a glasse and come every morning and bow to that toad and being asked why hee did so hee should say O I doe it not to the toad but to the honour of my Soveraigne and Prince doe you think this Prince will like well to be resembled by a toad I tell you brethren there is a thousand times a greater disproportion between Almighty God and an Image set up for him then there is between a Prince and a toad Not to speake of that infinite inequality and distance that is between God and a mortall man there is a great distance even between a toad and an Idoll a great difference For The toad is the workmanship of God an Idoll as is an Idoll it is the workmanship of man A toad it is a living creature it hath sense and motion the Image is a senselesse block it hath neither life nor motion Therefore heare how it pleaseth the Spirit of God in Scripture to call consecrated Images hee calls them sometimes lies sometimes vanities sometimes nay oft abominations sometime Dung-hill-gods sometimes Divels You worshipped divels What divels Idols the worke of their owne hands Revel 9. 20. I pray heare how the Spirit of God in Scripture shewes his detestation of all Images in his service Hearken how hee thunders in the second Commandement Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any graven Image thou shalt not bow downe and worship it Hearken what the Prophet Esay saith Confounded be all they that worship Images Hearken what the Apostle saith in the New Testament Babes take heed of Idols 1 John c. ult v. ult I pray looke over the Bible and see if ever you finde any of Gods children except at such times as they had corrupted their waies worshipping of Images Enough out of Scripture against Images Now because wee are in this controversie to deale with such men whom the authority of Scripture doth not satisfie such unreasonable men as are not content with the authority of Scripture and because they say this stands upon tradition the worshipping of Images in the Church I pray give mee leave a little besides my custome to shew you the testimony of the Fathers the determination of Councels and the long tradition of the Church against Images Of every one a word and some few of many There is no point that a man may be so copious in as in this First for Fathers Fieri non potest c. so Origen It is not possible that a man should know God and be a suppliant to an Image There is no doubt saith Lactantius but there is no Religion where there is a worshipping
thy glory be eclipsed Then fourthly hee puts him in mind of their progenitors Abraham Isaac and Jacob Lord these be the children of those Fathers Didst thou love the tree and wilt thou cast away the fruit Didst thou love the Fathers and wilt thou cast away the children Then another is from the promise of God confirmed with oathes thou swarest to them that thou wouldest give them the Land shall not thy promise hold Not thy promise confirmed with oathes Here is his pleading for the people as before you heard how hee pleaded Gods cause with the sword yea how earnestly hee pleaded Gods cause in that very day that hee brake the Calfe Yet notwithstanding all this the good man feared though God might repent of the evill yet it may be he will not be thorowly reconciled to the people there will not be a thorow reconciliation therefore he goes to God againe Lord quoth hee If thou wilt pardon this people It was a vehement pathos If thou wilt pardon it hee saith no more but if thou wilt not put mee out of the booke of life So desirous was hee of Gods glory together with the salvation of the people that hee was carelesse of the salvation of his own soule Lord either forgive them or blot me out of the book of life Here is a vehement prayer and with this he slacks the wrath of God quencheth it It was slacked with the bloud that he cast on it it was quenched with the teares Wee reade of many more in Scripture that stood in the breach Samuel God is wont by Jeremy to joyne him and Moses together If Moses and Samuel stood before mee Then Ezekiel stood in the breach another time Josiah another time And not to heape other examples God complaines Ezek. 13. 5. that the Prophets would not stand in the breach the false Prophets But there is an excellent place worth your observation in Ezek. 22. ver 30. God had spoken of the sins of the people thorow that Chapter and shewed how those sins had made way for Divine justice to breake in among them Then in verse 30. marke what hee saith I sought for a man among them that would make up the hedge and stand in the gap before mee for the land that it should not be destroyed I found none see I sought for a man When our sinnes have opened such a gap whereby divine justice may come in to the destruction of a whole land then God looks for a man he looks about to see if he can find a man that will come and stand in the gap to keep him that he might not destroy them Brethren hee that doth not see what a wide gap what a wide breach the manifold sins of this land have made whereby divine justice may breake in and hath begun to breake in already hee that sees not this gap this breach sees nothing I pray you brethren doe but remembet Did not God a few yeares agoe make us turne our backes twice or thrice upon our enemies Did hee not make us a very derision and scorne to them that are round about us Doth not God come in now among us as the Prophet Habakuk shewes his manner of coming when hee comes to judgement to wit with the pestilence before him and burning coales going forth at his feet Hab. 3. verse 5. Doe you not see beloved brethren what a number of new upstart heresies there be in the world It bodes no good surely new heresies broached every day and old heresies renewed Doe you not see what miserable rents and schismes there be in the Church while some hold of Paul some of Apollo some of Cephas some of all of them and some of none of them Doe you not see the aspect one upon another is like the aspect of malignant planets Is not Christ divided Then doe you not see what jealousies and discontents there are in the secular state Brethren surely God is looking for a man to come to the breach Help men fathers and brethren come to this breach help Magistrates it is not enough for you to looke upon our miseries though with teares in your eyes unlesse your hands be put to the redresse of it Are there no houses of correction for these vagrant persons that live under no Magistracy under no Ministry Have you no carts for bauds No whips for harlots No pecuniarie mulcts for others No punishments for transgressors It is for us too that are Ministers to runne to this breach If ever wee did preach with power and evidence and demonstration not of nature or art but of grace and of the spirit it is time for us now to preach and to preach againe in season and out of season O that wee could be Boanerges sons of thunder and crie downe those sins that crie for vengeance And hearken Masters Fathers and Governours of families run to the breach In cleansing of the City if every man sweep before his own door the streets will be kept cleane Why doe you suffer revelling and swearing and quarrelling and drinking in your families Your houses should be Churches for God Where be your old exercises of Religion in your housholds Where be your prayers and your reading of Scriptures and your singing of Psalmes Where is your catechising I say no more but high and low rich and poore let us all run to the breach by earnest intercession to God privatly by continuall teares of repentance I conclude now as I did the last day Who knowes yet whether the Lord will have mercy on us and turne from his fierce wrath that wee perish not FINIS PSAL. 106. 24 25 c. Yea they despised the pleasant land they beleeved not his Word But murmured in their tents and hearkned not unto the voice of the LORD c. WE have two things in the Text The sinnes of the people And their punishment The sins of the people are set down in the two former verses And the punishment in the two later Their sinnes are foure The first is their unthankfulnesse in despising the pleasant land They despised the pleasant land The second is their infidelity that was the cause of that same unthankfull despising of the land They did not beleeve his Word The third sin was their accustomed sin of murmuring They murmured in their tents The fourth sin was their rebellion and disobedience They hearkned not to the voice of the Lord. They despised the pleasant land they beleeved not his Word they murmured in their tents they hearkened not to the voice of the Lord. You see their sinne see their punishment The Lord threatens that hee will punish them for this you heard before my Text The Lord said hee would destroy them Now hee sweares it Hee lift up his hand against them The lifting up of the hand was a ceremony among them used in swearing and God is said to doe it to lift up his hand when hee sweares He swore against them now And what did hee
us And let us take heed that the pleasures of this land make us not forget him I pray marke When ever God shewes to his people the commodities of this pleasant land of Canaan that hee would give them as in Deuter. c. 8. hee gives them this charge When thou art come into that good land and findest it a land of springs and fountaines of wheat and barley of pomegranats and vines and fig-trees a land the stones whereof are Iron and out of whose mountaines thou mayest dig brasse When thou hast eaten and art full then take heed that thou forgettest not the Lord thy God that gave thee that good land It is an easie matter to forget God in abundance Nimia bonorum copia ingens malorum occasio too too great plenty of good is too too great an occasion of ill That same abundance of good things that should make us remember our good God makes us forget him Then take another lesson with you and I have done with it that is Take heed that wee defile not this good land Were a land never so pleasant were it a more pleasant land then this land of Judea were it the very Eden the garden of God if it once come to be defiled with sinnes of an high nature Gods soule can take no pleasure in it I conclude this point with that exhortation that David a little before his death gave to the Over-seers of the people assembled together And now quoth hee here before the Congregation of Israel and in the Audience of your God I give you this charge That you seeke the Commandements of God and keepe them that you may enjoy the good things of this land and continue them to inherite to your children and to your childrens children for ever 1 Chron. 28. 8. This is the first thing the sinne of theirs in despising this land it was a fearefull sinne in regard the land was a pleasant land The sin was yet a little more fearefull I can but touch this point if you consider how they despised this land in regard of the house of bondage whence they came They knew their usage in Egypt well enough they knew how they were loaden there with burthens and blowes and injuries so loaden that their very lives were bitter to them as the Scripture saith all the while they were in Egypt yet forsooth they will forsake this pleasant land to goe back againe to the house of bondage If they had despised this pleasant land in regard of something that had been better it had been well done If a man despise the faire beautifull wife that lies in his bosome out of love to Christ and the Gospell from the which that wife would seeke to draw him hee should doe well to despise her Hearken what our Lord saith Hee that forsakes not father and mother and wife and children and all for my sake and the Gospels he is not worthy of mee hee cannot be my disciple Luke 14. 26. But if a man despise this faire beautifull wife out of love to a foule baggagely strumpet this is a sin an untolerable abominable sin If this people had despised this good land this pleasant land in regard of heaven of an heavenly country O they had done well in that their fathers are commended for doing that Abraham Isaac and Jacob the Apostle saith of them They regarded not that good land of Canaan they tooke themselves there to be like pilgrims and strangers they regarded not that They sought for a better country the heavenly one Hebrews 11. ver 16. If I say they had despised this pleasant land in regard of heaven they had done well in it but to despise it in regard of Egypt though it was a fruitfull land wee deny it not though it was a plentifull land yet in regard it was the land of their servitude and bondage wherein they had been so ill used and out of which God brought them with such a mighty hand and out-stretched arme to despise this pleasant land in regard of this O that wee had died in Egypt this was a thing that made God lift up his hand that for this they should never come to the land of Promise This was the sin of them And brethren is it not our sinne too You heard how the people despised the good land God promised them and you thinke this was a great sin of them to doe it and you will say more when you heare the words following But are not wee guilty of the same sin too Hath not God promised us a country a better country then this That same better country that the Apostle speakes of when hee saith Abraham Isaac and Jacob sought a better country Hath not God promised us a Canaan not a terrestriall but a celestiall Canaan a Kingdome of heaven And we say of the fruits of the land O they are glorious fruits O what a blessed country is that O how happy are they that are in heaven Wee all say it is a goodly country If some of these countries upon earth are such Paradises O what a Paradise is that in heaven What a country is that Yet though God hath promised us that country when wee are told it is hard coming by it and we must fight for this country before wee come to it and that not with flesh and bloud those sons of Anak those mighty men but with Principalities and powers with the divell with the world with the flesh that we must forsake our selves and forsake all that stands in the way father and mother and wife and children and through many afflictions come to it O then we despise this good land nay wee despise it in regard of the earth Shall I saith the worldling looke after an uncertainty in heaven and lose my certainty here upon earth Must I forsake such a sin that brings me in profit Must I forsake such sins as bring me pleasure upon earth No let others seek heaven if they will let me have earth Thus they crie for earth and thus they preferre the spirituall Egypt of this world before the celestiall Canaan the Kingdome of heaven Thus wee preferre a mess of pottage before our birth-right and our swine with the Gergasens before Christ and these vaine transitory joyes before the joyes of the Kingdome of heaven that cannot be conceived and shall never be ended To which eternall joyes the Lord for his mercies sake and for his Christs sake bring us FINIS PSAL. 106. 24 25. Yea they despised the pleasant land they beleeved not his Word But murmured in their tents and hearkned not unto the voice of the LORD c. YOU have in these verses foure sins of this people Wee have done with the first of them which was this They despised the pleasant land I now goe on to the next sinne which is their Unbeliefe They beleeved not his Word That word was a word of promise that promise was a particular promise of the land they did not beleeve
God take this question Looke in the next verse The Lord heard it and his wrath was kindled against Jacob and the fire burned against Israel because they beleeved not the word of the Lord. What will not men beleeve upon experience Experience breedeth hope Among men if I had experience of a mans goodnesse if I have bought and sold with him and have ever found him a just and an honest man that never brake his day with mee Dare not I trust this man upon experience May a man be trusted upon experience a good man and shall not God take it ill that hee cannot be trusted upon experience You see the sin of this people Let mee now come and make use of it Let mee tell you It was not onely their sin it is our sin too It is the sin of us all The best of Gods children have need to mourne every day over their unbeliefe They that doe not find this unbeliefe in themselves surely are strangers to themselves If a man were not a stranger to himselfe hee would finde such a deale of unbeliefe as would make him mourne continually under it and strive against it It is a wondrous hard thing brethren to beleeve Gods word to beleeve a promise Let mee give you but an instance in one promise Hebrews 13. 5. Let your conversation saith the Apostle be without coveteousnes Be content with those things that you have Why For hee hath said it this is the promise hee hath said I will not faile thee I will not forsake thee He hath said it Who is that hath said it Pythagoras his scholars were wont to attribute so much to their Master that when in their Disputes it came to Ipse dixit He said it there was no more talking of it all was well they beleeved it Behold a greater then Pythagoras is here Ipse dixit Hee hath said it and I thinke hee never said a thing more earnestly then hee said that There are in the Greek five negatives in that sentence I doe not remember the like in all the Scripture besides The Grecians when they are wont to deny a thing earnestly double the negative The Spirit of God here is pleased not only to double it but also to treble it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing cannot be spoken with more earnestnes Wee know not how to expresse it in our English but wee translate it thus I will never leave thee nor forsake thee It is well so It is as if hee should say Beleeve mee upon my word I will never leave thee no no no I will not leave thee It is so earnest God never promised a thing with more earnestnes then that And besides wee have found in experience the truth of this promise many a time Wee are here some of us twenty yeares old and some of us fourty and some sixty and some above and in all this time wee have found how true this was upon twenty or fourty or sixty yeares experience wee may say God never left us yet he never forsook us Wee have been sometimes in sicknesse and sometimes in danger and sometimes in want God never left us yet hee never forsook us yet notwithstanding all this wee dare not beleeve that same word wee dare not beleeve it Doe not tell mee that thou doest certainly thou doest not beleeve it Even as Saul would needs justifie himselfe to Samuel when hee reserved the best of the cattle contrary to Gods command I have kept Gods commandement quoth hee O thou blessed of the Lord. Hast thou so saith Samuel Then what meanes the bleating of these sheep in mine eares and the lowing of these oxen Mee thinkes I might say so thou sayest thou beleevest the promise of God that hee will not leave thee nor forsake thee Doest thou so Doest thou beleeve it Then what meane those false weights those false measures and those false oathes And what meanes that cunning over-reaching of thy neighbour in bargaining and that secret undermining of him in his estate And what meanes thine inordinate carking and caring That same losing of many a sweet sleep and losing many a sweet Sermon for the things of this life Surely if thou didst beleeve that God would not leave thee nor forsake thee thou wouldest indeed use those meanes whereby the providence of God might be served thou wouldest never be thus worldly thou wouldest never be thus covetous thou wouldest never use this sharking nor these dishonest trickes if thou didst beleeve As sure as the Lord liveth thou beleevest not that promise I will not leave thee nor forsake thee I could shew the like in many other promises Good Lord how slow of heart are we to beleeve any promise that God hath made to us either concerning this life or concerning a better considering with mee these things that I tell you First considering how much seed of unbeliefe there is in the nature of every man upon the earth even in the best of Gods children and considering what a deep root this seed takes in all our hearts Then considering that the time that God hath set for the performance of promises is First uncertaine And many times long before a promise be performed Then consider againe that same wonderfull working of God when his workes goe against his promise as many times it seemes God promiseth many times a blessing and hee seemes to goe against his word Then considering how busie and subtile the divell is labouring still as hee did with Eve to discredit the truth of Gods promise Then considering how ready we are to listen as Eve to the whisperings and suggestions of that subtile serpent Certainly brethren we should never please our selves in any measure of faith but labour still for a greater measure thereof and never think we can lay hold fast enough upon the promises of God O that is a safe course that Mr Luther gave In all temptations and conflicts and combates and agonies still urge the promise whatsoever the divell can object against it still hold the promise That that we would hisse at in schools in disputes among men is a good course in disputing with Satan When wee cannot answer the Premisses deny the Conclusion hold to the promise The Covenant of day and night may be altered that there may be neither day nor night any more in their season but there is never a promise in the Covenant of grace but it shall stand for ever Lord I beleeve it helpe mine unbeliefe So much shall suffice concerning the second sin They beleeved not his word I come to the third They murmured in their tents There is a three-fold murmuring There is murmur displicentiae a murmur of displeasure of dislike and discontent that is against God when things goe with us otherwise then wee would have them Then there is murmur inobedientiae a murmur of disobedience against our Superiours when wee thinke that they command us something that wee conceive to be unreasonable Then there is murmur
if hee should not give heaven to our good works hee were uniust if hee should not yeild heaven to our good works This is the onely place wherein they can find the name of merit onely because the vulgar Latine hath it and they doe in this place stand to prove the Doctrine of Merit upon that word merit Give mee leave a little to shew you that good works cannot be meritorious I will give you these reasons One principall condition in a meritorious work is this It must be done by a mans selfe How can a man be said to merit any thing by a work that himselfe doth not but another doth it by him or in him Now you know there is no good work that wee doe of our selves God works all our good works in us Hark how the faithfull pray in the Prophet Lord thou hast wrought all our works in us Isai 26. 12. Our new translation reads in us our old for us The word in the Originall will beare either the one or the other take it as you will in us or for us God hath wrought the work Lord thou hast wrought all our works in us and for us First of all it is from Gods grace that we are enabled to doe good works what works soever they be it is grace that enableth us to doe them And then when we are enabled it is from grace that wee are willing to doe them both our ability and our willingnesse to doe good are from God Look how the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 8. saith he there I would have you know the grace that is bestowed on the Church of Macedonia The grace that was bestowed on them what grace was that You may see in the two next Verses nothing else but their willing bounty even above their power to doe good For saith the Apostle Vers 3. to their power I beare them record yea quoth hee above their power There was the grace that was bestowed on them they were willing to doe good So then have wee ability to doe good it is of grace have wee willing hearts to doe good it is of grace Doe we then any good wee must shout as the people Zech. 4. 2. and cry Grace grace unto it Double the word Grace Grace Grace in enabling us and grace in making us willing too All is of God So if a man doe a good work hee is more indebted to God for it God is not indebted to him but hee to God in making him able and he is indebted to grace for making him willing hee can merit nothing Then mark a second Reason how good works cannot be meritorious Merit is Opus indebitum it is above a mans desert it is a work that is not due that a man is not bound to doe for a man can merit nothing by doing that that hee is bound to doe already hee should transgresse if hee did not doe it but hee merits nothing by doing that that hee stands bound in many bonds to doe already Doth the Master thank his servant for doing that that is commanded Luke 17. 9. Even so saith hee when you have done all you can say We are unprofitable servants If wee will merit any thing at Gods hands wee must doe somewhat that wee are not bound to doe I but how farre short come wee in the things we doe of that that wee are bound to doe we are so farre from doing more that when we have done all wee can wee are unprofitable servants How much more unprofitable saith Ierome when wee come short of that which God hath commanded Thirdly good works cannot be meritorious I prove it thus There must be some proportion between the work that is done and the reward that is given of condignity Now I pray consider but what that reward is that God hath promised not according to the worthinesse of our works you must not think so but of faith of free mercy hee hath promised a reward And what is it Look in 2 Cor. 4. 17. see what it is the Apostle calls it there a farre more exceeding eternall weight of glory These light momentany afflictions saith hee procure to us a farre more exceeding eternall weight of glory Mark First it is glory that God hath promised for a reward Secondly it is more then so it is a weight of glory Nay yet more then so it is an eternall weight of glory Nay yet further an exceeding eternall weight of glory So farre our English can carry it but our English cannot carry it so farre as the Greek for there it is an exceeding exceeding The Apostle could not tell what to make of it it was so much He made as much as he could A glory a weight of glory an eternall an exceeding eternall weight of glory an exceeding exceeding weight of glory Now I would ask I pray what proportion can be between a little poore temporall service that wee doe and such an eternall exceeding exceeding eternall weight of glory I will say no more concerning this point of merit Let us never talk of merits they were all lost in the first Adam we lost all merit in him Let grace alone reigne in Christ Let us say with Bernard My merit is the Lords mercy Let me have no merit that will exclude grace and saith hee there is no place for grace to enter in when merit hath taken up all the roome before it comes Therefore that is no right end Thirdly there is a third end that some propound of doing good that is glory from men Vaine men seek vain-glory Thus did the Pharisees they would doe a great deale of good but they would doe it so that they might be seen of men to doe it And indeed it is lawfull for men to be seen to doe good and our Lord would have us so to doe good that wee may be seen of men to doe it to let our light so shine before men that they may see our good works and glorifie our Father which is in heaven If you be afraid of Spectators you shall have no Imitators If there be none to see you there will be none to follow you It is lawfull for a man to be seen to doe good but men must not doe good to be seen for then they shall have their reward of men they shall have none of their Father God There belong two things to every good work There is the Glory of the work There is the Reward of the work The reward God is pleased out of his free mercy to us in Christ to allow us that hee allowes us the reward but not the glory of the work that must be his owne and hee will not give that to another as hee saith If we deprive God of the one we must look that God should keep us from the other If wee keep from him the glory of the work God will keep us from the reward of it These are ill ends of good works We must not do them to satisfie the