it 's not seeking Gods face in vain 1 Cor. 15.58 Alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as you know your labour is not in vain Oh it 's comfortable to be found alwayes doing Gods work for we are sure that will have a good end there will come eternal profit by it To clear this Consider First That there are no persons be they never so mean so poor so contemptible but they are in their way and calling to do Gods work Do not think that onely Ministers and men in publique place Onely rich men and great men they have the Lords work to do Thou deceivest thy self herein For the service of God is required of a poor man of a coâ—tager as well as those in great places Matth. 20. and Matth. 25. you have two excellent Parables to this purpose to shew That God gives to every one more or lesse Talents none are to stand idle but to labour in Gods vineyard God at the day of Judgement will call these labourers together and see how they have improved all things and the idle servant or unprofitable hath a dreadfull sentence upon him To be cut in pieces and to have his portion with hypocrites All idlenesse is a kind of hypocrisie because it deceiveth the expectation as it were of God who looked for fruitfulnesse and behold barrennesse Know then whosoever thou art thou art called to labour in Gods vineyard thou hast thy peculiar service whether married or single bond or free rich or poor and thou must abound in this work Secondly There is a two fold doing of Gods work either the work of his providence as passive instruments or the work of his commands as active instruments This is a necessary distinction God hath raised up many men as instruments to bring about the works of his providence but because they did not know God or propound godly ends in doing so therfore though they did the work of the Lord yet they shall meet with no reward in Heaven You have a notable instance for this Isa 10.5 6 7. where the King of Assyria is called a rod or a staff in Gods hand God did use him as an instrument to scourge the Israelite howbeit he meaneth not so he thinketh it not in his heart here he was a passive instrument he did Gods work without any heart or love to God and therefore vers 12. When I have performed my whole work saith God against Jerusalem I will punish him Here you see a man may do Gods work and yet be punished for it So Jehu he was immediately raised up by God to destroy Ahab and his whole family and God tels him He had done all that was in his heart a great expression yet Hos 1.4 God saith he will be avâ—nged upon the house of Jehu for all that blood he had shed For though he did the work of Gods providence yet because he did it upon ambitious and sinfull grounds not keeping close to Gods way therefore was he punished Thus you see there is a great difference between doing the work of Gods providence and the work of his command out of faith and obedience to him For this later is when we do not only the matter God commands but out of love and obedience to him with that godly frame of heart that is acceptable unto him In the next place therefore let us consider What is the acceptable doing of Gods work which will be rewarded And First That onely is Gods work which is commanded and willed by him We are often commanded to understand the good and acceptable will of God Many think they are doing Gods work when it 's the Devils because they look not for warrant of it in Scripture By the knowledge of Scripture a man is made perfect or prepared for every good work 2 Tim. 3.17 So then that is Gods work which is appointed by him approved and commanded by him of which a man can bring Scripture and say Thus saith the Lord. All that superstitious worship which the Pharisees so multiplied and for which they thought to be more accepted with God than others It was none of Gods work It was not acceptable coin it had none of Gods superscription upon it And our Saviour speaks of cruel persecutors that they would think they did God service in killing his own sheep John 16.2 This is an heavy and a dreadfull delusion for men to take the works of the flesh and the works of the Devil for Gods work If therefore thou wouldst not be deprived of a reward be sure out of the Scripture that it be Gods work for the matter of it Secondly It 's acceptable labouring when it is done in such a manner For God doth not accept of any labour for him meerly from the painfulnesse of it For if a man give his body to be burnt and have not love to God it 's nothing worth Not I say from the painfulnesse or length of time but from other quaâ—iâ—â—cations and they are these 1. It 's profitable working when the persons are first made the Lords when they are justified and sanctified Make the tree good and then the fruit will be good The person must be first sanctified ere any work can be acceptable He is an unclean person till then and all things are unclean To the defiled all things become defiled Tit. 1.15 Oh that people would attend to this They only look to the good matter of the work they pray they give alms they live soberly but they have no knowledge about the root thereof Are their persons justified their natures sanctified without which no work of God can be done acceptably 2. A Reward is due to that work only which is done for Gods sake out of love to him The Pharisees praying and other acts of Religion have a terrible verdict by Christ upon them Verily I say unto you they have their reward Mat. 6.2 O words of terrour and horrour They did all those acts to be seen of men to be applauded by men and they have their reward this is all they shall have our Saviour useth that affirmation Verily I say unto you when he speaks earnestly and would have men diligently mind what he saith Verily they have their reward Oh what will the praise and glory of men avail thee when thou and thy duties shall be cast away Know then this worm will devour thy gourd vain glory carâ—al ends and designs upon Gods works will make all to be thrown away When the Devil cannot keep thee in the works of darknesse and of wickednesse that thou wilt do them then he indeavours to marre thy good works by throwing some dead flie in this box of ointment vain-glory and self-advantage 3. That work will onely have a reward which is done with that measure and degree of love and fervency that it ought to be Every Sacrifice was to be offered up with fire and every duty is to be performed with much zeal and
much without Prayer to read much without Prayer is like the stomack that eats much but wants natural heat for digestion But you will say How is â—â—aâ—s word a fire How doth that reveal when many very expâ—rt in Scripture do yet runne into very many errours Do not those that build hay and stubble bring many texts of Scripture How can these be said to reveal Answer 1. The defect is not in the Scripture but in men themselves The Owle and Bat is made blinder by the Sunne-beames not through any defect in the Sunne A diseased stomack groweth worse by the good meat it eateth The Papists call the Scripture The Heretiques Book and Luther did so also but upon different grounds For the Papists they say the blame on the Scripture making it insufficient imperfect a nose of wax but Luther on mens corruptions that prophanely and presumptuously put that sense on it which it doth not own But Secondly Men swallow down first the sweet poison of errours from false Teachers and then they think every place in the Scripture makes for them And this is the main cause of errours They have mens persons in admiration they do not judge of persons by their Doctrine but their Doctrine by their persons and when they are thus prepossessed then they easily perswade every text is for them or at least not contrary to them A man that hath a noise of wind in his ears thinketh he heareth the like abroad and the distempered palate thinketh every sweet thing bitter Thirdly They do not attend to the whole Scripture They compare not place with place Mark any errours they fasten upon some places of Scripture and they do not wisely consider other texts as well If we take that place We are no more under the Law but under grace Rom. 6.14 here you would think the Law were quite laid aside but take â—â—other place The law is good if a man use it lawfully 1 Tim. 1.8 And â—â— we make void the Law God forbid Rom. 3.31 So then you see the Law hath its use still Lastly It 's not enough to have Scripture to have many texts but we are also to make use of those helps for the understanding of them which God hath appointed The Scripture is the only Rule but not the only Means for else there needed no praying there needed not the Spirit of God nor the Ministry but God hath appointed Ministers in his Church who by way of Office are to interprete and explain Scripture They are called eyes and Shepherds And the neglect of this may lead a man though perfect in the Scripture into errours I come to the second way Afflictions are Gods fire they will discover mens works by of preparation and fiting the heart to receive even as the plowing and harrowing of the ground makes it fit for the seed Many Psalms have this Inscription Maschil a Psalm of David that is a Psalm that giveth Instruction Now many have afflictions for their subject Hence is that old saying Schola crucis est Schola lucis We are careless proud wanton negligent and will not hear what the Word saith till God hath câ—â—stized us and therefore the Church of God was most Orthodox and the purest Virgin in times of persecution but in the times of prosperity then the most damnable heresies did overflow As in Summer the Snakes and Adders are busie but in Winter they do not stirre Vse of Instruction How much we are to blesse God for his Word and the pure preaching of it It 's that which preserveâ—h thee from swallowing down the damnable poison of thy soul It is that which keepeth thee from falling into the dâ—tch though now we are grown wanton under it We are weary of this Manna Yet when at first they came up out of Aegyptian Popery the pure preaching of the Word was accounted the greatest mercy There was a solemn day of rejoycing in Germany when the Bible was translated into the vulgar native tongue Observe the Devils methods when for a long time he destroyed men through ignorance and horrid blindnesse afterwards he did it through too much knowledge or rather abuse of that knowledge and light which shined upon them But let not the building though of hay and stubble be accounted a light matter it will cost fire It will not be a small matter to endure the burning in this Text. Verse 14. If any mans work abide which he hath built thereupon he shall receive a reward THe Apostle you heard hath in a general manner treated of the time and manner how all the works of the builders in the Church shall be tryed which persisting in his Metaphor he cals fire He now comes to the application of this Allegory and to shew the particular disparity And 1. He beginneth with the wise builder and herein you have the good work supposed And 2. The good reward promised The good work supposed is If it abide If it can endure the fire and be not consumed by it for so all truth will The good thing promised is He shall receive a reward By the reward here promised to understand only that honour and dignity he shall have in the Church is to limit it too much we may take it for all the honour and blessing God will bestow on him here and eternal life hereafter Now why it 's called a Reward and the improvement of that hath been already considered we shall therefore pitch on the matter supposed If any mans work abide Now this must be understood supposing all the other conditions likewise required to salvation For if a man preach truth never so truly if he be never so Orthodox yet if his life be wicked he shall loose heaven for all that Therefore those who are Orthodox in their judgments and do not walk exactly in their lives are like those posts in the high-way as Austin said that direct passengers to go the right way but they themselves stand still The meaning then of the Apostle is That on his Doctrines part there shall be no impediment to his salvation If his life and if his aims and ends be gold likewise as well as his Doctrine he is sure to have a glorious Reward Now though this be a necessary point to shew that it 's not enough for such Officers to preach that which is truth but they ought to have such aims and ends and such an holy conversation also as the Word requireth else they but make Crowns of glory for others and they themselves shall be cast into eternal darknesse yet because it 's not intended here I wave it Again when it 's said If a mans work abide By work is meant Doctrine That you may not suck that poison which a Papist from hence inferreth That there are some works so pure that they can abide Gods tryal David thought otherwise when he said Enter not into judgment with thy servant O Lord c. Psal 143.2 From the matter then supposed
up these eminent persons as heads of factions or that he did only by supposition attribute these things to themselves as may seem seem 1 Cor. 4.6 I shall therefore wave that Question and handle it when I come to consider these divisions in the heads of them and whether it be lawful for Christians to name themselves after the names of any men whereas then you see the Corinthians blamed for setting up these names though men of great worth and repute in the Church I observe That although it's the duty of people to have a great and high esteem of the Ministers of the Gospel yet they are not sinfully and inordinately to admire or rest meerly upon any mens persons You that are the sheep of Christ have a great duty required of you you are to abound in all love and ready submission unto the doctrine of your faithfull Shepherds and yet also not so to admire any person as thereby to be drawn into errours or falshoods they may possibly maintain The Apostle Jud. 12. makes one great cause of the errours these men followed he speaks of that they had mens persons in admiration That is when men love the truth for the persons sake not the person for the truths sake when men are of such an opinion or such a faith because those that they admire are so though they understand nothing in it whereas it is an excellent rule of Tertullian lib. de prescript Non fidem ex personis but personas ex fide dignoscimus This truth may much heal the disease of the times for men beleive much as they affect and admire and few have a sound mind and judgement to discerne of things that differ qui credit quod vult non quod est cupit errare but I shall speak little of this to this auditory Two parts there are in the Doctrine First That great and high respect is to be shewed to the faithfull Ministers of the Gospel Secondly Yet this respect must not degenerate into sinful admiration so as factiously to set up one Minister against another Let us consider the first part and here I shall not speak of that temporal respect and honour which Gods Word in several places commands lest by captious men we should be thought to plead for our own selves but for that spiritual respect and entertainment of the Ministery which is for your good not for ours people are apt to think if they come to hear us if they commend our Sermons that this is for an advantage No the powerfull receiveing of divine truths is for their good The wearied traveller that drinks of the spring by the way doth not benefit the fountain but advantageth himself now the spiritual respect or entertainment of the Ministery lieth in these particulars 1. Highly to account of the office and the work of the Ministery as being the divine institution and appointment of Christ in his Church Thus the Apostle Chap. 4.1 Let a man account of us as the stewards of Christ They are the officers set up in Christs house to give the food of life and God hath set in his Church pastors and teachers 1 Cor. 12.28 and Eph. 4.11 Act. 20.28 The Elders of the Church are said to be made overseers by God to feed the Church So that if any man set himself against the office of the Ministery to slight it or contemne it he doth immediately oppose the institution of Christ God hath set it and wilt thou endeavour to pull it down so that prophane and carnal men who argue against it know not what they talk of they consider not the Scripture nor the Word of God and if thy heart were not much hardened thou wouldst have an awfull reverence and fear of this divine office Even the very Heathens have exalted the office of their Priests that drew nigh to God and Aristotle well observeth that all religion yea and the notion of the gods themselves would be vilified when they that were imployed in that office were contemned 2. Your spiritual respect lieth in the hearing of the Word preached and the receiving the Word with all gladness of heart Thus Christ saith He that heareth you heareth me Luk 10.16 and therefore they are compared to Embassadours that do in Christs stead entreat you to be reconciled unto God 2 Cor. 5.20 Indeed prophane and ungodly Ministers or erroneus and superstitious Ministers they falsifie their trust they alter their embassage and therefore the Scripture compareth them to unsavoury salt that is fit for nothing but to be cast on the dunghill and God speaking of the corrupt Levites saith Mal. 2 3. I will spread dung upon your faces Thus God dealeth with those Ministers that walk unworthily but as for those that diligently and faithfully preach the Gospel such are to be heard and received withall joy How beautifull are the feet of those that bring the glad tidings of the Gospel Rom. 10.15 and there is nothing that God doth so much curse as the prophane rejecting of his Word and Ministery Jerusalem was quite off and there was no more remedy left for her when she refused the Prophets rising early and delivering the message of God to them 2 Chron. ult The tree that had often culture and cost bestowed upon it and yet barren was at last to be cut down and burnt in the fire so then as the Ministers are to pray God would give them an open mouth so you hear also open eares and open hearts Shall the advice of the Physician for thy body and the advice of the Lawyer for thy estate be accepted and not the advice of the Minister of God for thy soul Hence they are called guides Now what disobedience is it when they would guâ—d thee in the way of holiness they would lead thee out of the dangerous bogs and precipices thou venturest on yet thou will not follow Oh how will this cut thy heart one day that the Ministers of God would have guided thee in other wayes have lead thee to other actions but thou wouldst willingly fall in the ditch even into hell 3. You are not only to give them respectfull hearing and diligent waiting upon their Ministery but to obey and submit unto that work of the Lord which they enjoyn â—ou out of Gods Word Therefore twice in one Chapter Heb. 13.17 the Apostle calls on them To obey and submit themselves to such as watch for their souls and makes one of his Reasons this is good for you Prophane and proud men they are apt to scorn the truths we preach they will not submit to the doctrine we hold out but if they did rightly consider this is good for them how readily would they obey If therefore you become our living Sermons and turn the things you hear into practice though we shall rejoyce in it yet the advantage will be yours Oh then take heed how ye refuse to submit unto those things that out of Gods Word we enjoyne you If
it but Faith would quickly dispossess these and make it clean for Christ to dwell in And then thy life How pure is that Dost thou talk of believing in Christ when thou hatest purity makes a scoff and a taunt at it I tell thee if thou didst believe thou wouldst be pure and strict also As Saul that went with no good will to the Prophets when he came to them the Spirit of God sell on him and he prophesied also Thus thou that art a malicious enemy a prophane scoffer at purity and holiness should the Spirit of God once fall upon thee thou wouldst become pure and strict also Know then a man can no more carry faith in his heart and this not reforme his life then oyntment about him and that not discover it self Secondly Where there is a true lively Faith that will make a stout though wise confession of the truth when God doth require it Rom. 10.10 With the heart man believeth with the mouth confession is made to salvation and the Apostle We believe therefore we speak 2 Cor. 4.13 Indeed there is a faith about some disputable poinâ—s in Religion that are not essential to salvation that the Apostle bids a man have it to hâ—mself Rom. 14. but for the main points the owning or not owning whereof is the owning or not owning of Christ Our Saviour speaks terribly to the not confession herein He that shall not confesse me before men though before a croâ—ked and perverse generation him will not I confesse before my Father nor the holy Angels Mark 8.38 Thirdly Where faith is there it will carry a man out to the ready performance of all obedience justice temperance liberaâ—ity equity and every good worke The Apostle James Jam 2. doth at large shew That that man is but a vain man and an hypocrite one who cousens his own soul that thinketh by faith to be saved when this is not incarnated and manifested in all godly conversation Yea faith puts all graces on working as Heb. 11. That seemeth to be the great wheel that sets all others on going Lastly He that doth truly believe is not discouraged from his duty because of any trouble or persecution in the world Christ prayed for Peter That his faith might not fail him No danger no fears could have drawn him into sinne had faith been active It was faith made Moses chuse reproaches and persecutions rather than the glory of Aegypt A man that liveth by sense and by worldly advantages he cannot but with the Chamelion turn into every colour of that object which is by him because worldly fear reigneth and ruleth in his heart but Faith that overcomes the world If it conquer Devils and Hell much more the world Yea it makes a man rejoyce in tribulations Vse of Examination Hath the Ministry had this effect to make you believe Oh you will say Who doubts of that Are we Atheists Do you make Pagans and Infidels of us Consider there is a great difference between the Title Name and Profession of a Believer and the reall Efficacy of it It 's said Simon Magus believed because he outwardly professed so yet he was in the state of gall and bitterness It 's said John 2. ult That many believed but Christ would not commit himself to them because he knew what is in man Therefore Do you really believe all that the Scripture saith And if so How darest thou lie swear deal unjustly No you flatter your selves The Faith of these things would make you tremble yea roar out Oh! What shall I do to escape this great wrath Therefore set Faith more on work from day to day I am no Atheist I am a Christian I believe a Day of Judgment Why then live I thus But Ministers by whom ye belived even as the Lord gave to every man We are come to the last Particular observeable in this Verse and that is the Efficient Cause of this Ministry and Service in the Church with the variety of the Gifts of those that are employed therein Even as the Lord gave to every man This the Apostle addeth still to take off all from the Instruments and give it to God They are indeed Pipes to conveigh Gods grace but they can no longer runne then this Fountain fils them They are indeed spiritual Trumpets to give warning of Gods wrath approaching but they cannot breathe forth any sound but what the mouth of the Lord doth first breathe into them So that although the Church of God in respect of the several Gifts God bestoweth on her Officers be like the Queens Daughter cloathed all in needle and embroidered work Even as the Kings Daughters were wont to go in parti-coloured cloathes Yet all this Ornament and comeliness is put upon her by God alone So that every Minister hath a peculiar Gift yet so as all comes from above from God to him Doct. That God hath given several Gifts and Abilities to the Ministers of the Church and thereby makes use of them all for his glorious ends The Apostle doth in many places delight to compare the Church to a mans body where there are several parts and every part hath its peculiar Office There is the eye the hand the foot and though all are not equally eminent yet all are equally necessary But 1 Cor. 12.4 5. you may see this excellently described I here are diversities of Gifts and of Administrations but all from the same Spirit the same Lord and all is for the same end The manifestation of the Spirit is to profit withall Whatsoever Abilities and Gifts God hath given they are not for vain ostentation They are not for humane applause but for use to profit withall Insomuch that if any man should should use his parts his abilities to propagate errour or to strengthen men in wickedness they did greatly abuse the good Gifts of God and turn wholesome meat into poyson To open this Doctrine you may consider That the Gifts of God to the Church are as to our purpose of two sorts Sometimes the very Office and Function it self is called a Gift To be an Apostle to be a Pastour to be a Teacher is a Gift Thus Ephes 3. Yea Christs Ascension He gave Gifts to men As Kings at their Coronations distribute large and plentifull gifts And what are these Gifts Apostles Evangelists Pastours and Teachers Thus the very Office is a Gift and that a great one too More then all temporal mercies though the ungratefull world cannot think so Thus the Psalmist speaking of the Word of God and the Ministry given to the Jews he addeth He hath not done so to every Nation Psal 147.20 Alas for temporal mercies he had he gave them peace quietness and plenty all aboundance and filled them with good things but this was nothing to the Ministry of the Word And certainly no plenty no quietness no abundance is a mercy equall to the Gospel Therefore Amos threatned the famine of the Word as more terrible
it sometimes again to pull it up Oh fear lest that curse fall upon you yea that sentence be already come out Cut that unprofitable tree down and cast it into the fire Appolo watered This is the second main particular of the ministerial imploiment of Church-Officers To water 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he doth a little alter the metaphor for that is properly to give beasts water yet as those that have plentifully drunken are said irrigari so to give to drink may be said to water The Metaphor is taken from plants to mans soul as the Garden is of a wildernesse planted with sweet and precious herbs but this is not enough it is afterwards to be watered else all will immediately decay So it is here Though we have received the principles of Christianity and are setled therein yet if there be not continual watering and pains taking the Church of God will presently become like a wildernesse No Church is like Paradise at first which being once planted needed not any water from Heaven but rivers came from the midst of it to water it and make it fruitfull So that to water is no more then to use all those ministerial helps that Christ hath appointed that the spiritual seed once sown may grow up to a plentifull crop God Isa 5. compared his Church to a Vineyard which when he had bestowed much cost on and for their unfruitfulnesse was resolved to destroy it then among other things he commanded That the clouds should not rain on it So that for God to deny spiritual watering to a people once planted is a sad forerunner of future desolation The Doctrine is That it is not enough for a people once to receive the true Faith and principles of Religion but they need a further watering and quickning them up to grow If the Husbandman should sow his seed and never have any rain to drop fatnesse his seed would rot under the ground And the Gardener who hath set his plants hath had his water-pot to cherish and refresh his dried plants Now as the Apostles they planted so there were Evangelists who did either accompany the Apostles or went where they had already planted and further instructed them Sometimes we read Paul himself watering where he had planted And it 's the constant imployment of Ministers in a Church already setled to water that is to endeavour the further growth of their knowledge and graces First Let us consider Wherein this spiritual watering consists and then the grounds First It lieth in a more explicite and distinct instruction about the principles of Religion already received For there is no vessel that receiveth all this heavenly liqour at first Apollo himself was an eloquent man and potent in the Scriptures yet he that watered others did once need watering himself Priscilla and Aquila did further instruct him in the wayes of God Act. 18 26. As the Sunne doth not come to the vertical point immediately but by degrees so neither do a Church or people presently arrive to the fullness of knowledge in the things of Christ but they still grow in more understanding Thus the Apostle prayeth Eph. 1. for the Ephesians already converted and enlightened that they might have the Spirit of revelation and wisdome and may be able still further to know the depth and breadth of Gods love in Christ And the Apostle Peter commends Believers that they did still give heed to the Scripture till the day-starre did arise in their hearts 2 Pet. 1.19 Oh then Who can bewail the imperfect and defective knowledge that is every where The eyes that should have grown clearer and clearer are become blinder and blinder You consider not that much more even about the very principles of Religion is yet to be understood then most do understand The Heathen even dying would still desire to learn and know more how much rather should Believers seeing the objects to be known are so heavenly spiritual and necessary The Philosopher thought a little natural knowledge about the Heavens better then a great deal of knowledge about the nature of sublunary things how much then is the supernatural knowledge of heavenly things in a practical way to be esteemed which will bring us to life everlasting Know then it 's your great duty to come up to more understanding in Religion Shall a David that had more knowledge then his Teachers pray yet to have his eies opened Psal 119. What fervent and earnest prayers should thou then have that thou die not and be damned in ignorance Secondly This watering lieth not only in advancing our knowledge but in giving further and clearer Arguments to confirm our faith and to make us unshaken and stedfast Oh we see for want of this particular how many reeds there are that be shaken with every wind They were indeed planted but not well rooted and what hath not a deep root will immediately wither Thus the Apostle exhorteth often to stand stedfast and immoveable in the work of tho Lord How can that be but by being strengthened more and more in believing We read of the Disciples that sometimes when any great miracle was wrought by our Saviour it 's said His Disciples believed Joh. 2.11 Why did they not believe before Yes but now they were more confirmned establishment and confirmation either in the truth or in godliness is a great matter yea it is all in all We read of a glorious likely building but because it was upon the sands therefore it fell down immediately and the fall was great Mat. 7.27 The third kind of ground miscarryed after all the hopes it gave because it had no deep root Mat. 13. So that a choice part of the Ministers work is to see that whatsoever faith whatsoever holiness there is this be so confirmed that it waver or wither not We read of the Apostle going even to those places that were already planted that they might confirme those that believed Alas the things of Christ meet with so much subtilty to undermine them and so much open violence to prostrate them that there needs daily confirmeing and following them We are subject to many strong winds and violent blasts that unless deeply rooted we cannot subsist Thirdly This watering containeth direction about the beauty and order of Churches in the government thereof when once planted As Rome so neither Jerusalem is not built on a day The Church at her Infancy is not a prepared subject for those many duties that are required of her especially the Church being a society of men orderly knit together there is need of governement without which men instead of being Saints and Christians would be wild beasts and this must come in by degrees it 's an essential Church before it can be a political one Thus the Apostle Paul after he had planted this Church yet had not setled all things concerning the order of it especially he bewailed that irreverent and prophane receiving of the Sacrament which was amongst
no increase Oh! consider thy account is drawing on Thy decay and the Day of Judgment is approaching God will not let his Word fall to the ground It will be for life or for death Sigh then and strike upon the breast and thigh Cry out Oh! my leanness my leanness My barrenness my barrenness Help Lord for I am perishing Pray to God that the Blessing upon man kind to Increase and multiply may be fulfilled on every Sermon for thy good But God gave the increase We have out of the former part handled the two-fold ministerial Imployment of Church-Officers to Plant and Water We continue a further amplification of the peculiar Operation attributed unto God in all this with that opposite distinction But God gave the increase The Metaphor as you have heard is taken from natural things where though the industry and skill of the Gardener and Husbandman is required yet God gives all the Increase As is more to be shewed Now this followeth à minori ad majus If in natural things the Husbandman cannot make an Apple or Cherry or the least grain of Corn much less in spiritual things can he make the nature of Grace and goodness He cannot work the heart to believe though he make a sound in the ear Yea it 's good to observe that God in this spiritual industry doth more give the Increase then in natural For in all the fruit and profit of natural things God doth not exclude nature from some kind of co-efficiency as the earth hath some inward power to help to the producing of the fruit thereof But in this spiritual increase God doth wholly exclude all natural ability Grace doth not fructify by the Ministry as Herbs and Corn do in the ground for the ground is the Mother and hath a kind of vivifical influence into them But here God works all and solely So that neither the Ministry without or the natural power and freewill of man within hath any joynt efficacy with God And although the Apostle saith We are workers together with God 2 Cor. 6.1 that is not to be understood of the immediate efficiency of grace for that cometh from him only as the Beames of light comes immediately from the Sunne But in respect of the outward Ministry they make the external application of the remedy but the power of grace giveth the quickning Even as men may say on the contrary by sinne Original corruption that plants sinne temptations they water it and the Devil he giveth the increase So then it 's not the learning the eloquence the efficacy of the Ministers words but Gods secret and invisible power which doth accompany it that makes a glorious change From whence observe what was formerly taken notice off but further to be enlarged That it is God only who makes the Ministry and all Spiritual Meanes of Grace successfull and prosperous If God cloathe the grass of the field and make the Lillies to grow how much more doth he cause the Ministry to fructify and bear fruit At the first creation God gave the word of Command which worketh to this very day Increase and multiply So it is here God doth all from the beginning to the end of Grace If we cannot turn the colour of an hair much less the torrent and custom of lives If this had been in the Prophets power Jeremy Isay and others they had not made such complaint for their barren Ministry as they did To clear this Consider Wherein this work of God to give Increase doth consist And First In that spiritual Revelation and Illumination or opening of the eyes whereby the mind understands and perceiveth the things of God The word is compared to light only God by this works above all light For the Sunne though it gives light yet it doth not give a blind man eyes He that cannot see the Sunne the Sunne though never so visible will not give him eyes But now God by the Word doth not only propound light but gives inward light That the soul cryeth out with more joy then that blind man cured by Christ For now it knoweth what it did not know Now he seeth terrible objects before his eyes as Balaam at last did If he had gone further he had perished in the pit irrecoverably A greater work then it is and mighty from God the Father of Spirits when a man can say O Lord I was as blind as senseless as obstinate as any Yet Oh! the glorious light of the Gospel that hath shined in my dark heart This then is a part of Divine Increase when God maketh the morning Starre to rise in thy soul Thou that once didst not perceive thy own misery or Gods mercy Thou didst not either know thy Disease or the Remedy Hast now found God saying Let there be light upon the dark confusion of thy soul Should thou hear a thousand and thousand of powerfull Sermons yet thou perceivest knowest and understandest nothing at all experimentally till God give this seeing eve Therefore you must know the Scripture speaks a strange Paradox to humane reason Having eyes they see not ears they hear not hearts they perceive not That which the Scripture attributes to dumb Idols it applieth to every natural man Hath God given thee a spiritual sight Art thou not rather like the Owle that seeth in the night but not in the day Thou hast understanding in worldly earthly things Thou canst tell how to make thy wealth and earthly advantages to good but thou hast no knowledge in spiritual things Who would think it possible under so many Instructions Informations Convictions that thou shouldst be so blind so sottish but God hath not given any Increase to thee Oh! though God give thee outward increase he maketh the Lands and the Cattell and the Corn to yeeld increase but if not the Ministry to be likewise so to thee though thou blessest thy self yet God curseth thee Secondly Gods giving increase lyeth in removing the negative incapacity and the positive contrariety in all mens heart to the Word preached As the Husbandman he first prepareth the ground by stocking up all those Bryers and thornes and removing all the stones that lie in the way whâ—ch would hinder the Corns growth So it is here God takes away all that cursed and serpentine nature which is in thee Thou art naturally a Beast a Devil and till God change thy nature thou shewest thy self no better to the Meanes of Grace Look upon the Prophets and Apostles in their Ministry Were men any better then mad Dogs and Lyons against them till God changed them The Prophets did plough and sow upon rocks till God made their Hearers the good ground The Ministers of God cannot do otherwise All mens hearts are rocks You may sooner get water out of hard flints then any godly sorrow or compunction out of their hearts No wonder then if God only give the increase because he only can alter the nature of mens hearts He maketh the stony
thy own self Those that at first believed Christ upon the woman of Samaria's report did afterwards believe Christ for his own sake The Ministry is that by which we do believe but we doe not believe in it Now that is the reason many do so stagger and know not what to say or do They are not stedfast and immoveable in faith The just shall live by his faith by his faith in particular And then though the whole world should turn Sceptick yet he would be as resolute as a Stoick in the matters of God 4. Humble your selves under these differences when they goe not the same way when they preach not the same things Let these things fear and wound thy heart as much as they do the Churches peace Say as he did Why do we fall out seeing we are Brethren Say Oh Lord it 's for our sins that are the hearers our unprofitablenesse our barrennesse and vanity that God hath raised up such a contentious spirit amongst us But because this is more necessary for us than you though necessary for both let us see what Use you ought to make of it And First Is the Ministry thus one Then when any doth set upon this maine worke they meddle not with other things they preach not about other thins How inexcusable will you be if you answer not God thus calling of you You cannot plead Lord we heard nothing but disputes nothing but controversies we were puzzled with one side and with another side Oh no! The plain and necessary things without which thou couldst not be saved have every day sounded in thy eares Preaching hath not distracted hath not filled you with troublesome Disputations but wholesome Exhortations It will therefore be thy greater wickednesse if thou refuse Oh then as all the Ministry are to be one in this way so that all that hear were one also that their thoughts affections study and utmost endeavours were for the main necessary things Oh consider you frustrate the Ministry of the proper end it hath your edifying your conversion For this God hath appointed us to labour in preaching to you and if you fail here all is lost Vse 2. Ought all ministerial abilities to be imployed in one way Then no wonder if the Devil when he cannot destroy preaching yet makes it uselesse and unprofitable and that is by raising divisions and enmity And thus he takes the old Rule Divide impera while he divides others he himself reigneth alone and his Kingdom is advanced Vse 3. Are they all to agree in one in the same ends in the same Doctrine Then take heed of itching after sinfull novelties Faith is but one faith and if thou art weary of it it is as if a man should be weary of the Sunne because it 's not a new Sunne Why do you not desire a new Scripture and a new Bible as well Oh it 's a grievous thing to be weary of old truths because thou knowest them already This is to despise Manna and God in judgement giveth thee up to an inconstant spirit to have Reubens curse Vnstable like water And every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour The former part of the verse was an Argument against Divisions amongst Teachers and People When all are one there they ought not to be divided Now this later part is a kind of an anticipation or answer to an Objection thus How can they be one who are so different in their parts abilities and labour The Apostle therefore doth by way of explication adde this although they are one in their Office Institution and End yet there is a diversity of Gifts and Labour as also a diversity of Reward So that the words contain a Proposition wherein you have 1. The Subject with the Note of Universality Every man If you take it strictly in relation to what went before then the meaning is of Teachers and Officers Every Church Officer shall receive according to his labour But it is also a truth concerning every man in any way God hath appointed him to work 2. You have the Predicate or Attribute He shall receive a Reward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here the Popish Writers triumph pleading for the merit and causality of works it 's a reward but the Scripture speaks of a two-fold reward 1. Of Debt Rom. 4.8 To him that laboureth the reward is of debt and that is when a man by his own power doth those things which have an inward condignity and proportion with the reward as it is in the paiment of a day-labourer 2. There is a Reward of Grace and meer Promise When such a reward is a sure consequent of such an antecedent not that it was a Cause or Merit but God hath appointed such a necessary order and connexion as between grace and glory glory necessarily followeth not by causality of our works though from grace but by the fidelity of the promise Hence God is said to be Debitor sibi not nobis reddit debita nulli debens and therefore this eternal life which is called a reward is in other places called a gift and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Inheritance very frequently in allusion to the Land of Canaan where several Tribes had their several portions of Land by lot not according to any worth and that the Ancients did meane no more by Meritum our learned men shew at large 2. Consider the Appropriation and Distinction of this Reward He shall receive his reward implying by this that there are degrees of reward and glory in Heaven There are some learned men that think there are no degrees of glory in Heaven but all are alike And certainly there are many places which are usually brought to prove it which when throughly understood do not convince it yet I believe the different Degrees of glory to be a truth and this Text among others may confirm it where you have an excellent Appropriation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not here opposed to a contrary species as in other places He shall receive according to his works good or evil but to degrees in the same kind one labours in the good work of the Lord more and another lesse now according to this gradual diversity shall be gradual differences of glory Lastly There is the Measure and rule of this reward According to his labour he speaks it of the Minister he doth not say According to his successe according to the fruit of his Ministry If he labour and take pains God will reward him though no man hath believed the Word preached I shall consider this Proposition generally and not limited to the ministerial labour Observe That according to a mans labour and working for God he is sure to have a proportionable reward Although the Wiseman inscribes this Motto upon all the labour under the Sunne That it is vanity and wearisomnesse yet spiritual labour hath a sure recompence It 's not praying in vain
inflamed affections to God Fervent in spirit serving the Lord Rom. 12.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 boyling over that argueth the fire of zeal is under every duty I have something against thee saith Christ because thou hast left thy first love Revel 2 5. she had not lost all her love she was not bereaved of all but yet because she had not such degrees such fervency as she had God reproveth her Have not many of Gods own people lost their first praying first hearing their first zeal and affections to good things Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord negligently Jer 48.10 Here is no reward but a curse to such who in Gods work are negligent and carelesse and it 's a great dishonour to God that thou shouldst be fervent and active in the pleasures of sinne in the service of Satan and not in Gods work 4. The work to be rewarded is that which is constantly done with perseverance holding out to the end Mat. 24.13 He that endureth to the end shall be saved If a righteous man leave his righteousnesse and commit iniquity c. all his righteousnesse that he hath done shall not be remembred Ezek. 33.13 There are those who begin in Gods work and end in the Devils There are those who by the knowledge of God escape the pollution of the world and then return again to their vomit The later end of such is worse than their beginning 2 Pet. 2. Take Judas for a dreadfull instance he leaveth all and followeth Christ he preacheth the Gospel he worketh miracles he casts out Devils from others but he proveth an Apostate himself the Devil enters into him at last and so all those seeming good works perish Oh that those who have an aguish goodnesse some good fits in time of danger of diseases Then they will call upon God then they will speak of God and do what is good Oh that such had an heart alwayes to do so Blessed is he whom his master when he cometh shall find so doing Matth. 24.46 5. The work to be rewarded is that which is done fully and plenarily There is a full measure of grace to be heaped over The Scripture speaking of Caleb as one that followed the Lord heartily saith in the Hebrew He fulfilled to go after the Lord Deut. 1.36 that denoteth his whole heart was in it Now there must be a three-fold fulnesse in the work of the Lord 1. A fulnesse of the Subject The united strength of the heart must be joyned together not to serve God with distractions an heart for him and an heart for the creature 2. A fulnesse of the Object every work of the Lord. They are to be prepared for every good work You read of many that did many good things Joash Amasiah Herod but because they were not fully for every good work they lost this reward Now of all works those that do more immediately relate to God to the Gospel his truth any work looking this way will be rewarded Hence a Cup of cold water given to a Prophet in the name of a Prophet Mat. 10.41 in reference to this work shall have a Prophets reward And lastly Fulnesse of degree They are to abound in the work of the Lord to adde one grace to another to be rich in faith and other graces Vse Will a good work thus circumstantiated be sure to be rewarded Then take heed of two contraries to this work of the Lord 1. Of idlenesse unprofitablenesse and unfruitfulnesse The way to Heaven is a way of labour the work of faith the labour of love and the patience of hope saith the Apostle 1 Thes 1.3 Every grace is laborious and therefore we are commanded to strive to enter in at the straight gate Luke 13.24 Oh set it down for a principle such a jolly loose and secure life that I live can never be happy Christianity is compared to running in a race 1 Cor. 9.26 27. to fighting and wrestling the subduing of sinne to mortifying and crucifying of the flesh What then will become of thy carelesnesse thy negligence Oh fear lest God curse thee as the barren fig-tree lest he say Cast that unprofitable servant into everlasting flames 2. Take heed of the other contrary upon which the greater wrath of God will fall and that is To do the Devils work Our Saviour told the Pharisees They are of the Devil and his works they did John 8.44 What were those works To oppose Christ in the Ministry to rebell against that glorious light of the world Men are possessed with the Devil in their souls as well as in their bodies Thus the Devil is said to enter into Judas heart and to fill Ananias heart and when they are thus then they only serve him and fulfill his lusts Lying that is the Devils work Malicious opposing of godliness and good men that is the Devils work Yea all sinne is in some sense the work of the Devil 1 Joh. 3.8 Therefore Christ is said to come into the world to dissolve the works of the Devil Take heed then lest while thou share with him in his works that thou do also in his punishments Lâ—st it be said Depart into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels as also his fellow workers Having considered what the work is now let us consider and admire at the Reward And before we come to shew what Reward it is take notice of a distinction or two First There is an Essential Reward and that is The enjoyment of God in full Assurance and Delight This all that work for God are sure to have All that are made happy have the same God and the same Christ They all agree in this The dwarf and the gyant are both equall in this as the Apple of the eye in a Child as well as in a grown man is able to see the same great Mountain Secondly There is an Accidental Reward and that is Some Degrees of Glory Because of greater labour and sufferings for Christ one may partake of more Glory then another For though all the glorified Saints are compared to Stars yet as one Star differeth from another in Glory so it 's here In Justification all the godly are equall though some men have more sinnes pardoned then others yet the acceptation of them through Christ is equall So that intensively though not extensively all are alike justified But in salvation there are Thrones prepared for some above others Neither in that ambitious Petition of the Mother of Zebedees Children did our Saviour deny there were chiefer places then other in his Kingdom but he rebuked their carnal apprehensions about such things Mat. 20.33 Thus you have a Prophets Reward spoken of as a greater Reward then others because of their choice work for God and the manifold contradictions they endure from sinners because of their labour Secondly It 's lawfull to encourage a mans self in working for God by this that there is a Reward There is a lawfull
they shall have more gracious strength that they shall grow up into further Communion with Christ that their hearts and graces shall be better Oh! How heartily doth the soul pray for these things and grieve when it finds a defect Now God hath promised this to those that abour in his work Lastly They are sure to have Gods Protection and Presence to support them in all their labour The Apostle cals it labour and that which is accompanied with painfulnese And indeed the whole work of grace is very troublesome to flesh and blood their Combates and Conflicts within and then very troublesome to man without in the world which makes the world hate and oppose them Now then the work of God being thus opposed within and without did not God protect did not he draw nigh with his support and deliver or strengthen none were able to abide Thus you see a three-fold encouragement the godly have to labour for the Lord even in this life Oh! Why then should any be so diffident as to think they shall lose by God that godliness will be an hinderance to them Do but be sure that thy work is Gods work and thou doest it in Gods manner and never fear the issue of things God is not unrighteous saith the Apostle to forget your sufferings Heb. 6.10 You read that God put up all Davids teares into his bottle As Christ would not have the least fragment of bread lost so God will not let thee lose one mite for him Thou shalt never say God hath hindered thee When Abraham for Gods glory would take none of the King of Sodoms wealth God presently said to him I am thy exceeding great reward Gen. 15. In the next place consider What is the eternal Reward and how eye hath not seen nor hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive If the Queen of Sheba's spirit fainted within her to see all the glory of Solomon what then would it do to behold all the glory of God laid up for those that love him This is like Ezekiel's waters that rise up higher and higher God by reason of the sovereignty he hath over us and because we are his creatures having all from him might have commanded all our work and labour and given us nothing when we had done yea he might have annhilated us immediately into our first nothing for we were his servants more then any can be servants to men And our Saviour saith What Master though his Servant hath been at work will bid him sit down presently and not rather command him to wait on him Doth he thank that servant after he hath done what is commanded Luk. 17.9 Now then if God who might have given us no reward shall yet out of his bounty give us a recompence and that not only in this life but so glorious an one in the life to come Here the soul may be amazed and cry out It 's streightned It 's streightned within it self not able to speak of the bounless love of God! For consisider how great a Reward it is First It is God himself communicating his goodness and comfort to him that hath done his work Then shall we be with the Lord for ever This is called seeing of God and seeing him as he is 1 Joh. 3.2 No longer as in a glass It 's disputed Whether formal Happiness consists in the acts of the understanding as knowing of God or in the acts of the will loving of him and embracing of him But we conclude in both So that this reward being God himself as he told Abraham it is infinite as he is and as God himself is inestimable Et tunc dignè eum aestimans quando inaestimabilem dicimus quicquid de Deo dici potest eo ipso est indignum quia dici potest Thus it is of the reward The great mercy covenanted in the Promise is That God will be our God and this is compleated in Heaven Secondly This reward lieth in the full glorification of the soul in all the faculties thereof and body in all the parts thereof The spirits of just men made perfect Heb. 12. There needs no more grace no more holiness There is no more sin or remorse about it It 's like the higher Region where no troublesome meteor's are Oh! What a bottomless subject is this That thy understanding should have no more darkness in it Thy will no more disobedience in it Thy heart no more dulness or sluggishness in it Oh! you would think we were speaking of some Platonical Idea or metaphysical abstraction and not of a reallity indeed But yet the Scripture assures the godly of this Reward And then for the body it 's made a glorious body all vileness and loathsomeness is removed It 's an immortal body No more death paines or any distempers This Honour will God put upon those that labour for him Thirdly The Eternity of this happiness that is astonishing also We shall be with the Lord for ever 1 Thes 4.17 Come ye blessed inherit everlasting glory Oh! Who would think much of the present service or labour for God when it will bring an eternal weight of Glory Think what eternity is if we poor mortals that measure all things by time can tell how to think about it Fourthly The fulness of this happiness an aggregation of all things that may make happy either within or without Therefore in the Scripture it 's represented by all those things that are glorious in the world a Kingdom a Crown a great Feast Jerusalem from above is paved with all precious stones This is only to lift up our hearts and to say of all earthly glory Alas what is this to heavenly If the taste of this if drops be so much what then is the Ocean Fifthly Consider the vast disproportion of this to those works thou dost for God What equality is there between God and all those glorious Priviledges and those duties thou doest How can any plead merit or worth Where can there be any trusting in our selves Oh! you that think to be saved for your Prayers Alms-deeds you know not what a great and glorious thing salvation is If a man should have all the world given him for lifting up a straw it 's no such disproportion as here is For 1. The one is infinite and thou art a finite limited creature The Angels are not found pure in his sight and what hope hast thou 2. What work thou doest for God God he first works it in thee so that thou labourest for him of his own and yet he rewards it 3. What thou doest for him it 's accompanied with much evil and many imperfections Bona meaneque mea sunt neque purè bona sunt There is four leaven still abiding in thee 4. Thou hast formerly been a servant to Satan done his work so that God might damn thee upon the old score though thou wert now able to do all things perfectly 5. Whatsoever thou hast
to worship God any way a man pleaseth And the more waies he multiplyeth the worship of God may it not be the more acceptable to him Do not men hereby shew their good affections and zeal to hâ—m Can a man worship him too much Can we exceed in any way of worship of him As we cannot love him too much nor delight in him too much so neither can we worship him too much This doth satisfie some men in their multiplyed waies of worship The Answer is this There can be no excess in the formality of true and lawfull worship so a man is to worship God witâ— all his might and strength but in the matter of the worship there may be an excess That is a man may take up more means and parts of worship then God hath appointed and so thereby there is a sinfull excess So that all thy good intentions and zealous devotions they have no acceptance with God and whilest thou thinkest to honour him thou doest dishonour him Even a Platonist Philosopher said That a superstitious man was Gods flatterer not his friend Now this is the rather to be observed because there are few whom the simplicity of God pleaseth Oh that Text Joh. 4. My Father seeketh such as worship him in spirit and truth is worth the gold of Ophir See all Christs Institutions the administration of Baptism of the Lords Supper though they be full of majesty and gravity yet also full of plainness and simplicity Now instead of this true foundation there are three rotten ones First The imagination of a mans heart This God doth often and often forbid Oh it 's not enough to say Methinks this is very good worship Methinks this is excellent There must be more then a methinks Secondly A desire to satisfie and please the sense The Prophet cals them Their goodly Images As Eve saw the fruit that it was comely and good to eate O miserable delusion All worship of God is the exercise of thy faith to draw out spiritual Meditations not to please the eye Yet all those goodly Images and curious Ornaments were only to satisfie the eye Thirdly Antiquity Custom and tradition of Fathers Austin complained much of this Vah tibi flumen moris humani quis resistet Our father worshipped here saith the woman That of Cyprians is commended Antiquas mihi Jesus Christ and Christ said he was truth not Custom saith the Father This Argument all Jews Turks and Heathens pleaded against the Christians Vse of Instruction How necessary is it to be well setled in this foundation of Gods worship Oh where shall we find a spiritual people that delight in the simple pure and plain Institutions of Christ That say Hitherto I must go and no further That as the possessed party said Paul I know and Peter I know but who are you Thus this worship I know and that I know but who brought in this Who appointed this As a wise master-builder I have laid the foundation c. The third Foundation every faithfull Minister is to lay in the hearts of his people is for Comfort and Salvation But this I shall reserve as more properly to be handled in vers 11. The last therefore I shall insist on is The foundation for outward practice of holy actions It 's not enough to pray to hear It 's not enough to exercise the acts of any grace but we are still to consider upon what foundation these are built I shall therefore first lay down the foundation of all practised holinesse then the Necessity of this The foundation therefore of every good duty or work we do hath these parts First There is a foundation by way of a Direction or Rule to which every thing we do must be commensurate and by which it must be regulated now that is the Word of God For Gods word is not only a Rule of Faith but of Manners And as thou must be of no other Religion than the Word directs to so thou must do no other actions or live any other life than that guides thee too Therefore when it 's commended for a lamp or a light it is to a mans feet that they do not slip or fall By them thy servant is forewarned Psal 19. And as many as walk by this Rule peace on them Gal. 6.16 So that we shall never come to doe any truly good action all our life time unlesse we do it according to this Rule which doth not onely informe about the Duty but the manner end and all other qualifications So then whosoever doth not pray as the Scripture speaks of praying who doth not repent as the Scripture speaks of it he faileth in a very foundation he hath not laid as yet so much as an hopefull beginning for his salvation A second part of that foundation we must lay for the practice of holiness is The Justification and Reconciliation of our persons with God through Christ For till our persons be thus accepted of though we should give our bodies to be burnt for the Truth of Christ it would not be accepted of Thus God had respect to Abel and then to his offerings Heb. 11. We are by faith to be planted in Christ and then as his branches we are able to bring forth fruit Now this truth is very transcendent to our thoughts Who doth not think it is in Divinity as they speak in moral Philosophy Just a agendo sumus justi by doing good actions we come to be made good and acceptable with God This is that dangerous Position which the Apostle doth so often oppose shewing grace and works can never be brought together in the same subject We must therefore in this matter wholly goe out of our own selves we must attend to the acceptation of our persons first otherwise all our best workes are damnable and loathsome to God we are stubble and he is fire Though the Papists thinks it hard Doctrine yet it is sure enough that every man unjustified doth sinne and provoke God in every thing he doth Thirdly Another foundation he must lay is To receive power and strength from Christ onely both in the beginning and progresse of all good actions Without me ye can do nothing saith Christ John 15. The branch separated from the Vine is dried and withered James 1.17 Every good and perfect gift comes from God alone As all light is from the Sunne I can doe all things through Christ that strengthens me saith Paul Phil. 4.13 He is the Head and the Member receiveth all its vertue and power from it So then whosoever thinketh to set upon any good work by his own ability is like Samson when his hair was cut off alas those Philistims of lusts are too strong for him he cannot goe out against those Goliahs of temptations but in the Name of the Lord. Now here is the ignorance of most people they that should not resolve to say so much as that they will go to this or that
of the Father of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost Mat. 28.19 To be baptized into the name of one argueth that one to be a Person And how absurd would it be to say the Father and the Sonne are Persons but the holy Ghost is an attribute or operation So There are three that dear witnesse in Heaven the Father the Sonne and the Spirit 1 John 5.7 Three he doth not say three things but three viz. Persons as appeareth by the personal operations These bare witnesse in Heaven Some reade The Spirit of God descended in the shape of a Dove which plainly denoteth a thing subsisting not an attribute We are said To sin against him which must needs imply a person Thou hast lied to God Act 5.4 That which is here said to be God is called the holy Ghost vers 3. Thou hast lied to the holy Ghost And the sinne against the holy Ghost shall never be forgiven Matth. 12.31 Lastly There is attributed understanding and will to him Vnderstanding the Spirit of God searcheth the deep things of God and the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.11 And Will 1 Cor. 14. where he reckoneth up several operations Even as the same Spirit giveth to whom he pleaseth So that you see the Texts are so clear that were not men sadly forsaken by God they could not deny these things In the second place Let us prove that it 's not a chief spirit among Angels but in deed and in truth of the same Nature with God Now some choice Arguments to prove this may be reduced into these heads First The Name of God is directly and properly not metaphorically attributed to him Thus God is said to speak by the holy Prophets which have been ever since the world begun And if you ask What Person it is in the God-head 2 Pet. 1.21 The Prophets spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost So that the holy Ghost was that God who enlightened and moved all the Prophets that were from the beginning of the world Thus Acts 5.4 Why hath Satan filled thy heart thou hast not lied to man but to God Ananias he thought he had only to do with men but mark the opposition not man but God especially 1 Cor. 12.3 4. There are diversities of gifts but the same spirit the same Lord the same God Spirit Lord and God So that by what Texts we can prove God the Father to be God the same we can prove the holy Ghost to be God Secondly The holy Ghost hath those works attributed to him which do onely belong unto a God Such as God only can do as Creation Sanctification and Redemption and miraculous operations These things do demonstrate and prove a God Creation Psal 33 6. By the word of the Lord the Heavens were made and by the Spirit or breath of his mouth thâ—y were created Job 33.4 The Spirit of God made me Thus in the Creation at first The Spirâ—t moved on the waters as the Hen on the eggs giving vivifical influence For Redemption the holy Ghost concurreth to that in preparing and fitting the body of Christ and sanctifying it to be an oblation Hence Christ is said To be conceived of the holy Ghost which could not be an Angel for then an Angel would have been greater than Christ And secondly In the application of the Benefus of the Redemption to the godly The holy Ghost both applieth them and assureth thereof The Spirit of God that heareth witnesse with our spirit Rom. 8.16 And we are sealed by the holy Spirit of God Ephes 4.30 Thirdly In the works of miraculous operations So 1 Cor. 12. all those extraordinary and miraculous gifts are attributed to the holy Ghost Hence he is called The finger of God Luke 11.12 by which Christ is said to cast out Devils And on the Feast of Pentecost He descended in a mighty rushing wind and cloven tongues of fire filling all the Apostles with miraculous gifts Acts 2.3 4. Lastly The works of Sanctification Faith Repentance and all other graces are wrought by him Yea he is called The holy Spirit because that is his peculiar Office to work holinesse and to sanctifie men by the Ministry Now Divines say It is a farre greater work and argueth more power to sanctifie the natures of men then to make a new world yet this is constantly applied to the holy Ghost though not so as to exclude the other Persons in their order Hence likewise all the means of Sanctification viz. the Ministry and the gifts thereof are also given to the same Spirit Acts 25. Over which the holy Ghost hath made you overseers Thirdly The attributes and properties of a God as well as the works of a God are also in Scripture given to the holy Ghost omnipresence filling the whole world Whither shall I go from thy Spirit None can flie from it Psal 139.7 His Omniscience in that he searcheth the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2.11 His Omnipotency as you heard His Eternity called the Eternal Spirit Heb. 9 14. Though some understand that of Christs Divine Nature and being before the world in that he made it Unity with the other Persons These three are one So that having the properties of God he must needs be God Lastly The religious worship that is given to the Holy Ghost doth not onely argue he is a Person but a Divine Person equal with God And 1. We have the Angels giving worship unto him whereas John when he would have worshipped the Angel he is forbidden Worship thou God Revel 19.10 So that religious worship is only to be given to God And thus the Angels in that glorious vision sang Holy holy holy unto God Now it 's worth your observing that this vision is attributed both to the Father to the Sonne and to the holy Ghost To the Father that is without doubt Isa 6. for there he is described as a glorious Judge in all Majesty To the Son John 12.41 This spake Esaias when he saw his glory and spake of him viz. of Christ as the Evangelist applieth it Lastly To the holy Ghost Act 28.25 That men also are to give religious worship to the holy Ghost appeareth in their baptismal profession Being baptized into the Name of the holy Ghost As also by that form of prayer and blessing The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God and communion of the holy Ghost sometimes â—sed in the Epistles Thus you see the Scripture clearly determining this matter of faith And if we cannot comprehend how there should be one God and three Persons eveâ—y one of them God and yet but one God you must remember That faith is the captivating of the understanding unto a meer tâ—stimony It 's not science but faith that Christians professe In humane things Argumentum facit fidem in divine things Fides facit argumentum Neither is it any wonder that we cannot in the creatures find an exact comparison to
Castles and strong holds are said to be taken Numb 21.32 And thus it denoteth such who by their worldly craft lift up themselves and grow insolent in their counsels against God such God doth beseige as it were and straigthen them taking them at his pleasure 2. The word is sometimes used in a judicial sense to take men in their sinnes as Joshua 7. Acha◠is said to be taken in his theft And thus God takes the wise men of the world in all their hidden and secret counsels of malice and brings them to light to their confusion 3. The word is sometimes applyed to nets or fetters in which Malefactors are bound Thus God he binds and ensnareth men by their own counsels and thoughts as so many chains that they cannot stirre 4. Some make it a Metaphore from Hunters that use to lay snares and nets to take their beasts in Josh 44. Thus God layeth snares and pits in the way which the most Argus eyed in the world do not see or escape All these expressions have their peculiar efficacy In the Greek Erasmus makes the word properly to be used of the laying hold upon one that is running away from us and making him to turn back again Thus all he thoughts and purposes of crafty men whereby they runne from God and his waies thinking to accomplish contrary to his will God layeth hold on them and brings them back whereby the things done contra voluntatem are not yet preter Thus you have Gods Efficiency the next thing is the Subject of this The wise in their craft 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though the word sometimes be used in a middle or indifferent sense yet here it is in an evil one It 's called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because crafty subtile men turn themselves into all shapes and formes and they are commonly very active and busie they sleep not till they have accomplished mischief Now when he saith God takes them in their craft that may be taken either as the matter in which God overpowereth them and destroyeth them Or it may be taken instrumentally as sometimes the word is by their very craft and wisdome God layeth hold upon them and overwhelmeth them Thus you have the words explained Observe That God delights to take the earthly wise men of the world in their own craft These Spiders are hung in their own webs See Isa 19.13 a notable instance of the wise men of Aegypt Now many waies doth God take the wise ones of the world First In dissipating their counsels that they cannot attain their ends They attempt again and again and are alwaies repulsed As 2 King 46.11 the King of Syria had many times intended to intrap the King of Israel in such a place and he was alwaies disappointed which made the heart of the King troubled saith the text It 's not as mens counsels or purposes are but the counsel of the Lord that shall stand The hearts of Kings of the greatest of powers in the world Julian's great purpose was to root out the Christian Religion he would not have them named Christians but Galileans he would not have them brought up in humane learning he put all the discouragements upon them would let them enjoy no benefits of the Law or the Courts of Justice and yet he was taken in his own craft He was so strangely killed that to this very day Historians cannot tell the true manner of it Thus God scatters all their counsels and their plots whereby they are confounded Secondly God when he doth ruine them he doth it no other way but by their own wisdome by their own craft And this is the greatest conquest that can be when God overcometh them by their own weapon as it was said of Goliah's sword None like that because by that he cut off Goliah's head whose sword it was So there are no Providences of God so remarkeable and glorious as those which make the very craft and wisdome wicked men have to bring about their confusion We see this fulfilled first in the Devil who is called the old Dragon or Serpent Rev. 12.9 because of his great subtilty as well as poisonous enmity Now wherein was he overcome by his own craft even in this respect He used all the Instruments he had to bring Christ to be crucified He enters into Judas his heart and he had filled the hearts of the Jews and Priests before and so at last obtaineth his plot Christ is crucified but then he riseth again and is ascended and thereby he conquers the Devil and all his power So that by that very death which the Devil so much laboured for the works of the Devil were destroyed We see this also in Joseph's Brethren how politique and crafty were they in their malicious designes against Joseph and all was That he might not reign over them And all those means they took to hinder it were ordained by God to further it Thirdly He takes the wise men of the world so that they are entangled in their own counsels and are brought to such snares that they cannot go forward or backward Nullum magnum ingenium sine aliquâ mixturâ dementiae There is no great wit without some mixture of madnesse Thus you heard the original did imply That they were taken in their counsels as so many fetters and chains They were as a wild Bull in a net Eliphaz speaks admirably to this Job 5.14 They meet with darknesse in the day time and grope at noon day as at midnight See here into what a wildernesse and perplexity they are brought And so Isa 19.14 They are said to be drunk and reel up and down Are drunken men fit for to advise to counsel to carry on any work of consequence and yet such are the wise men of the world delivered up unto I might instance in more Particulars but the next words will have the same occasion I come to answer an Objection How is this true you will say that God taketh the wise in their craft Doth not David often make mention of his bloody and deceilfull enemies How often doth he complain of their lying in wait to shoot at the upright in heart And doth not the experience of all Ages both in prophane and sacred Histories shew that earthly crafty and wicked policy hath accomplished many destructive things and that to Gods own Church and people Hath not Antichrist by subtile deceiveable waies prevailed over the Church of God Do not the crafty Foxes and subtile Wolves many times worry and devoure the poor innocent Sheep All this must be granted and yet the observation is true For First This is many times done and we through our ignorance take no notice thereof The works of the Lord are great and sought out of those that have pleasure therein Psal 111.2 We many times take not such delight in observing the works of God in the world and so for want of consideration we come not to admiration The
redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 Seeing therefore that in Christ is all fulnesse and in us nothing but sinne and emptinesse no marvael if we be his more than our own Now this is of admirable comfort to the godly as well as it inferreth duty For seeing thou art Christs the Question is not in matter of Justification What thou art but what Christ is Not what sinne thou hast but what righteousnesse Christ hath Therefore if the Law come and demand perfect obedience say I am Christs If thy conscience accuse thee say I am Christs If the Devil tempt thee and arraign thee still say I am Christs To be Christs must needs answer all Objections Who shall impeach Christ Who shall accuse Christ So that it is an excellent evangelical life when we can by faith fill our souls with this assurance We are Christs Then as farre as the fulnesse and sufficiency of Christ will bear us out and bear down all oppositions so long may we be confident This is a great Gospel sinne that we live in our selves and upon our selves in our works in our righteousnesse or are slavishly dejected because of sinnes when humbled for them whereas we should live by faith in Christ as Christ dwels in our hearts by faith so we should dwell in him How is the Apostle ravished alwayes with the grace that comes by Christ The priviledges of Justification and Adoption and Sanctification that we have by him are to be more than meat or drink unto us Fifthly We are Christs Because we are wholly to be disposed by him in all conditions in all exercises and temptations For Christ being made a Lord and King over us he orders us in all things he ruleth and governeth us according to his will Sometimes he cals us to labour and worke for him sometimes to suffer for him Now in what ever condition or exercise we are in this should teach us patience and submission we should not think much of suffering for his Name Truth and Glory Our Saviour doth not think such a Disciple worthy of him that doth not love his father mother and life it self lesse than him Thus we see the Apostles and all the Martyrs because they were Christs their bodies their estates all they had they did not grudge to give all to him when he called for them Seeing therefore we are Christs he is our Lord all is in reference to him we should not repine at any labour or suffering for him Thou art worth ten thousand of us said the people to David thou shalt not any more endanger thy selfe in battel Thus shouldest thou say Christs Name his Truth his Glory is ten thousand times better than all my wealth or life it self But as we see God hath made all things for men the beasts of the field and the birds of the air are killed for man and there is no pity therein because they were created for this end and this is their perfection So are we made for Christ our wealth our health our estates our parts they are all to be sacrificed for Christ and this is the proper perfection of them this is the best improvement They doe then attaine that glorious end for which they were given us Oh how would this make us deny our selves and preferre Christ more that as God hath given him the preheminence in all things so we should Now in the next place let us consider Some Characters or Properties of such as are Christs And First They desire more knowledge of him more acquaintance with him they prize him above all worldly things Paul Phil. 3.8 accounts all things dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ The Church in the Canticles is inamoured with his beauty all which Song is to be understood spiritually of that spiritual fulnesse and excellency which is in him Hence the godly are said To have their conversation in Heaven because there is Christ whom they look for Phil. 2.31 Thus faith represents the Lord Christ in all lovelinesse and excellency So that the voluptuous man is not more taken up with the love of pleasures than the Christian is with Christ There are the treasures of wisdom and grace in him all which the godly soul is searching into 2. Those that are Christs they abhorre and have no communion with any sinne or wickednesse because that only Christ hateth Though we be poor and miserable Christ may love us but if sinfull then Christ abhorreth us 2 Cor. 6. What concord between Christ and Belial What agreement between light and darknesse Christ indeed conversed with sinners but it was as the Physician with diseased persons to make them better even to heal them and thus may we But no fellowship of approbation are we to have with the works of darknesse but rather to reprove them You may reade then in the very fore-head and life of many whether they belong to Christ or no. For would Christ defile himself with such ungodly wayes Oh blasphemy to think so Now he that is Christs he labours to be like him he hath his Image upon him They are said to put on Christ as men do a garment nothing but Christ appeareth in them and on them 3. Those that are Christs they live not to themselves but to him They please not themselves or others in a sinfull way If I should please men I were not the servant of Christ Gal. 1.10 Thou canst not give content to the world please them and please Christ too And therefore as Christ so Christians are alwayes hated opposed by the world It doth not look upon them as their own for then they would love them The Disciple must not thinke to be above his Master And truly no wonder at this for if Christ sought not his own glory and greatnesse but humbled himself in that despicable way of a servant how much more ought we not to exalt our selves but to be debased that he may be magnified Vse of Exhortation to those who are Christ's to be self-denying to take up Christs crosse to love him more than all they have for Christ is not for thee but thou for Christ as man was not for the Sabbath but the Sabbath for man and therefore the duties of that day were to yeeld to mans necessity so Christ and his Truth and his Gospel they are not for thy life or thy credit but these are for them Let then the lesse give place to the greater It 's not so necessary that thou shouldst be rich great and honoured in the world as that Christ and all things of Christ should be preserved How ungodly then is it to pretend Christ or make use of the Name of Christ for thy carnal advantages This is to make the head be under the feet Vse 2. Of Terrour to all those who live in the constant practice of wickedness they are none of Christs and so they have no portion in his blood no share in his mediation How miserably did Esau cry out because he