little nearer to Conscience and Practice These very Men that thus make their impotency a pretence for their Sloth they do not indeed believe what they pretend and assert here they do not believe that they are thus impotent no it is in the inward and secret Thoughts of them all that they have a Power to work out their own Salvation and therefore whether they have or have not Power yet still they are inexcusable if while they think they have Power yet they will not strive and endeavour to put it forth Those Men who thus plead impotency and want of power to Obey and work out their Salvation though they speak these things yet they believe not a word of what they say and therefore they are inexcusable if they strive not to put forth that Power that they suppose they have into Act. Although a Man's Feet be chain'd and fetter'd that he cannot walk nor stir yet if he thinks himself at Liberty and yet will sit still judge you whether the Fault be not wholly to be imputed to his want of Will and not to his want of Power for he thinks himself free and able to move but will not try So is it here wicked Men do think they have Power to Work however they speak otherwise sometimes and therefore they are utterly inexcusable if they do not Work this is as clear as the Light and their Slothfulness therefore proceeds not from their Weakness but from their Wilfulness And I shall endeavour by some Arguments to convince Sinners that they do indeed think and believe that they have this Power to work out their own Salvation whatever they may pretend to and therefore they are inexcusable if they do not strive and endeavour for to do it And First Did you never when God hath shaken his Rod over you promise and resolve to work By his Rod I mean either some Convictions or Afflictions have not these made you to enter into Ingagements with God that you would obey him and walk more holily and strictly for the future And did you not really thus resolve to do Few I believe there are but have some time or other under some Fit of Sickness or some pang of Conscience thus done And what did you resolve all this and yet at the same time think and believe you could do nothing at all Did you only mock God Did you only dally and play with your own Consciences No certainly Conscience was too much provoked too much inraged and too broad awakened to be so jested withal We find this very Temper in the Israelites when they were affrighted with the terrible Voice of God from Mount Sinai in the 5th of Deutronomy See how confidently under that Conviction Deut. 5.27 they promised and resolved Speak thou unto us what the Lord our God shall say unto thee and we will do it And so the Jews also when they were in great Distress and Calamity when the Whip and the Rod was over them then they take up large Resolutions and make great Promises what they will be and do Jer. 42.2 Whether it be good or whether it be evil say they we will obey the voice of the Lord our God And oh how many pious Purposes and holy Resolutions have the Dangers Fears and sick Beds of many Men been Witnesses unto Have they not heard Sinners cry out Lord spare a little give us some space try us once more Lord and we will reform our sinful Lives and perform neglected Duties never more will we return to Folly And are not these Resolutions and Promises evident Convictions that you thought you had Power to do what you thus resolved to do Who is there but hath some time or other under some Trouble and Affliction taken up such Resolutions of Obedience as these And certainly you dare not so much mock God and dally with your own Consciences under such Convictions as to make such Promises but that you think you can perform what you promise And that is one Argument Secondly Did you never in your whole lives perform a Duty to God Did you never pray to him Are there any so desperately Prophane so utterly lost as to any shews and appearances of Goodness as not to have prayed or performed one Duty unto God in his whole Life Why now to what end have you prayed and performed these Duties that you have done Was it not for Salvation And did you work for Salvation and at the same time believe you could not work No this is impossible that ever any Mans Practice should maintain such a contradiction What ever Mens Opinions are yet their works shew that they think they have Power for somthing must be done though it be but formally though but a slight cold heartless Lord have Mercy on me or a customary Lord forgive me yet something Conscience requires and this Men reckon and account the working out Salvation Thirdly Wherefore is it that you trust to and rely upon your works if indeed you think you have no Power to work out your own Salvation by them Would it be so hard and difficult to take Men off from leaning too much upon their Works if they did not believe they had a Power to work out their own Salvation by them Men do apprehend some worth some value and sufficiency in what themselves do in order to Eternity For bid them forgo and renounce their own Works their own Righteousness this is a hard saying and they can as easily renounce and forgo all Hopes of Happiness and Salvation as renounce their own Works Now whence is it that Men are so difficultly brought unto the renouncing their own Works Why it is because by them they Hope to obtain Salvation And can there be such a Principle in Men and yet at the same time believe and think that they cannot work out their own Salvation It is very evident therefore whatever Notions Men may take up to stop the Mouth of a clamorous Conscience when it calls them to working and labouring yet they do not themselves believe what they say concerning their impotency but do really think they have a Power to work out their own Salvation Fourthly Did you never when the Spirit of God hath been dealing with your Hearts and Consciences when it hath been persuading you to enter upon a Course of Obedience did you never procrastinate and use Delays Did you never stifle the Breathings and resist the Motions of the Holy Spirit thinking it time enough to do what it puts you upon hereafter What need I begin so soon to vex Flesh and Blood What deny the Pleasures of my Life as soon as I come to relish and taste them When Sickness and gray Hairs admonish me and tell me I am near Eternity when old Age promiseth me that the severity and strictness of Religion shall not last long to trouble me then will I repent and believe and work out my own Salvation Speak truly and deal plainly with your own
Body of Sin and Death shall never enter with you into Life the Motions of Sin shall for ever cease in that Eternal Rest Are you here oppressed with Sorrows Do Afflictions overwhelm you Why there God shall kiss your blubbered Eyes dry again and wipe with his own Hands all Tears from your Eyes Are you pester'd here with Temptations and doth the evil One without intermission haunt you with black and hellish Thoughts with dreadful and horrible Dejections There you shall be quite beyond the Cast of all his fiery Darts and instead of these you shall have within you an ever-living Fountain bubling up spiritual and sprightly Contemplations and holy Raptures for ever such as you never knew when you were here upon Earth no not when you were in the most spiritual and heavenly Frame Are you here clouded and cast down with Desertions and doth God sometimes hide his Face from you in Displeasure In Heaven there shall be an everlasting Sun-shine God shall look freely and stedfastly upon you and you shall no more see him through a Glass darkly but Face to Face without any interruption or obscurity Think O Soul and then think of any Thing else if thou canst What is it to see the Father of Lights in his own Rays What is it to see the Sun of Righteousness lie in the Bosom of the Father of Lights What is it to feel the eternal Warmth and Influence of the Holy Ghost springing from both these Lights What is it to converse with Holy Angels and the Spirits of just Men made perfect to join with them in singing the same Hallelujahs for ever And when you have thought all this think once more Heaven is all this and more also Well then since Heaven is such and since such a Heaven as this is may be yours what should I say more but only with the Apostle 2 Cor. 7.1 Having these Promises dearly Beloved Promises of so certain and vast a Glory as this is let us cleanse and purify our selves from all filthiness and pollution both of Flesh and Spirit and perfect Holiness in the fear of God Is this Heaven attainable upon your Working Will God give it into Wages after working Will he share Stars nay will he share himself and his Christ among you Truly methinks Christians should not have patience to hear any more methinks it is too much dulness to indure another Motive besides this Why do you not interrupt me then Why do you not cry out What shall we do that we may work the Works of God Why do you not say and pray Lord work in us both to will and to do of thy good pleasure Why is there not such a holy Tumour and Disturbance among you some Questioning some Praying some Resolveing all some way or other testifying a sense of Salvation upon you But alas there is a general Silence Men and Women set as quiet in their Seats as if their Seats were filled rather with Monuments than with Men as if Heaven and eternal Salvation were of no Concernment for them to look after And wherefore is all this but because their Sight is short and their Faith weak They do not see afar off nor believe a far off Heaven they look upon as at a great distance and very unwilling they are to go so long upon Trust and sensual Persons as they are they look for present Reward and present Wages and will not stir till they have received it And this is the Reason why the Consideration of this great and infinite Glory affects Men no more they look for something present Well be it so Will God's Work bring in no present Profit The Reward in working for Salvation is great Yes it will and that such as you your selves shall acknowledge to be great And therefore Secondly Besides those set Wages that are to be received at the end of our Lives there are many Vails and occasional Incomes that accrew to God's Servants in the performance of their Work As First 1. God will provide for us while we are working Such are assured that God will provide for them while they are doing of his Work he hath assured them of the Mercies and good Things of this Life by Promise I do not say of the troublesome abundance of them but of the Enjoyment of them so far forth as they are Mercies and good Things Godliness says the Apostle is profitable for all things 1 Tim. 4.8 having the promise of the Life that now is and of that which is to come It hath the Promises of this Life and that is a large Charter by vertue whereof God feeds them and cloaths them and provides Sustenance and comfortable Enjoyments for all those that work in his Service And therefore that I may note it by the way most Men are greatly mistaken that labour and toil in the World to get Riches and great Estates this is not the right thriving Course if you would grow Rich First seek the kingdom of Heaven and the Righteousness thereof work out your own Salvation Labour for the true Riches and this will not only increase and improve your inward Graces but inincrease and improve your outward Mercies also It is true indeed Earth Worms may by carking and caring by pinching and drudging increase their heap of Dirt but let who will for my part I will not nor cannot call that Man a rich Man that hath more Curses than Enjoyments Well thus we see what great Vails God gives his Servants he gives them not only those of another Life but those of this Life so far as they are Mercies and that is one Vail Secondly As God provides for his Servants while they are working so their very Work is Wages and Reward enough for it self If God should only give us our Labour for our Pains as we use to say and never bestow a Penny more upon us than what we get in his Service we were even in that sufficiently rewarded It was certainly a violent Pang of distempered Zeal in that Person that carried Fire in the one Hand and Water in the other and being demanded a Reason of it his Answer was He would burn up Paradise and quench Hell-fire that so God might be served and Holiness embraced upon no other Motives than themselves This was a violent Pang and cannot be allowed this Fire was strange Fire and this Water was too much muddied to be Water of the Sanctuary But yet certainly that Man who abstracting from the Consideration of Heaven and Hell eternal Rewards and Punishments would not rather choose the Works of God and the Ways of Holiness than the Works of Sin and the Ways of Iniquity let that Man know he never yet had much Acquaintance with that Way and with that Work What says holy David concerning the Commandments of God In keeping them there is great Reward not only after keeping them when those Commands that have here been the Rule of our Holiness and Obedience
shall in Heaven become the Measure of our Reward and Happiness but in the very keeping of them while we are observing and obeying there is so great a Reward that we should have no cause to complain should God bestow no more upon us than to suffer us to obey his Law For 1. By working for Salvation we enjoy Communion with God First Herein we uphold Communion with God and Christ through the holy Spirit What is Communion but only a mutual Intercourse of Grace and Duty when Grace received reflects back again in the returns of Duty Then is Communion maintained between God and the Soul when we return Duty for Grace Now is this nothing to enjoy Fellowship and Communion with the great God of Heaven and Earth to be admitted to him to walk and converse familiarly with him and to enjoy him to see him who is invisible to lean upon him who is Almighty to enjoy him who is infinite Is all this nothing Will not the Souls of those who have by Experience tasted the sweetness of these Things cry out They are so excellent and transcendent that there is but one Thing more desirable and that is immediate Enjoyment What is Heaven it self but Communion with God at a nearer Hand Here it is by Faith there by Vision here by Ordinances there by immediate Influences here it is by Duty there by Union And therefore if the Consideration of a future Heaven be not cogent and prevailing with you behold here is a Heaven at present here is Happiness for your Work as well as for your Reward It was nobly spoken of Galleacius Carriciolus Cursed says he be that Man who preferreth the whole World before one hours Communion with Jesus Christ And certainly they who have once tasted the sweetness of this Communion will subscribe to that Anathema Secondly 2. Peace of Conscience an effect of working for Salvation There is usually great Peace and Tranquility of Conscience attends and accompanies this working for Salvation that fills the Soul with as great a Calm as the World had the first Morning of its Creation when there was no Wind or Tempest to discompose it Never is the Soul more at rest than when it is most at work I dare appeal to the Experience of the People of God in this Case Doth not your most solemn Feasts come in by your Obedience Doth ever Conscience look so friendly and pleasantly upon you as when it finds you active in the Ways of God It then wears not a Wrinckle or Frown upon its Face as Sin ruffles it so Duty smooths it out again and this causeth such Peace and Quietness in the inward Man as yields more satisfaction than all the noise and ruffling Gallantry and Jollity in the World can This is our rejoycing the Testimony of our Consciences that in simplicity and godly Sincerity we have had our Conversation in the World So that if Men care not for the Enjoyment of God yet if they love the Enjoyment of themselves if they would avoid Discords and Civil Wars in their own Breasts this were enough to excite them to this pacifying Work that attones and reconciles Conscience unto themselves 3. In working for Salvation God gives in many Testimonies of his Favor Thirdly In this working for Salvation God gives in many evident Testimonies of his special favour and acceptation unto the Souls of his Servants Thou meetest him says the Prophet that rejoyceth and worketh Righteousness Thou meetest him how not to contend with him as with Jacob not to slay him as thou didst Balaam but to embrace him to reveal and manifest thy self unto him If you have any comfortable Evidences that God is yours in a strict Bond of an everlasting and unalterable Covenant and that you are accepted of him in the well-beloved Examine how you attained to this Evidence Was it not through Obedience and Working This is the way whereby God manifests himself unto the Souls of his and should your comfortable Persuasions not come in thus by Obedience and Working They are but Enthusiastical and groundless Presumptions and not true and divine Assurance The Apostle in Pet. 2. exhorts us To make our Calling and Election sure But how is that to be done Why it is by giving diligence What is it Men desire and wish for next to Heaven Is it not Assurance of it Would you not have the Terrors and Torments of Conscience apprehending and pre-occupating your own Condemnation eased and removed Would you not have the unquiet tossings and fluctuations of your Minds because of the uncertainty of your future State and Condition setled and confirmed Why then be persuaded to Work believe it this Evidence is never received in any other way than in a way of Duty God will not hold his Light of Assurance to them who will not work the Works of Obedience 4. Obedience accompanied with Joy Fourthly Those that are diligent in working for Salvation many times have high Spring-tides of Joy Joy that is unspeakable and glorious that rusheth in upon the Soul and ravisheth it with a sweet and potent Delight while it is in ways of Obedience Now this tho' it be not ordinary with every Christian yet God sometimes vouchsafes it especially to the most laborious working Christians as a Cordial to revive and quicken them that they should not faint and grow weary in their Work He gives them many times such prelibations of future Glory such bright Glimpses of himself passing before them that they scarce know wherein their state differs from the state of the Glorified unless it be that it is shorter in the duration lasting not so long as theirs Well then should you be asked as they were in the Parable Why stand you here idle all the day long You could not return the same Answer as they did because no Man hath hired us for God hath hired you and that at no less a rate than all these great and glorious Things that have been propounded to you do amount unto A glorious Heaven a blessed Work that is accompanied with Communion with God Peace of Conscience Assurance of divine Favour and Joy in the Holy Ghost and if all this will not persuade you certainly you set a mighty price upon your own Sloth only let me say this beware that these Souls of yours that you will not part with to God for Salvation beware you do not sell them to the Devil for nothing Thirdly 3. There is an eternal Rest after working Consider your Incouragements after your Work is done there is an eternal Rest that waits you I have already consider'd Heaven as a Reward for working let us now consider it as a Rest after working And so the Apostle tells us there remains a Rest for the People of God And in Rev. 14. Heb. 4.9 we read Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit for they rest from their Labours and their Works do
6.24 29. How they should do to work the Works of God Our Lord tells them This is the Work of God that you believe on him whom he hath sent Nay further as a Faith of Adherence or Acceptance gives a Right and Title to Salvation so a Faith of full Assurance is this Salvation it self Heb. 11.1 For Faith is the substance of Things hoped for the Evidence of Things not seen In its justifying Act it gives a Title to Salvation in its assuring Act it gives the substance of the Thing it self for it is much at one to a strong Faith to believe Heaven and to enjoy it Secondly Faith doth compendiously further and promote the working out of our Salvation in actual possession and that because Faith is that Grace which fetcheth all that ability and strength from Christ whereby a Christian is inabled to work Faith is not only a Grace of it self but it is Steward and Purveyor for all other Graces and its Office is to bring in Provision for them while they are working and therefore as a Mans Faith grows either stronger or weaker so his Work goes on more or less vigorously When other Graces are in want and cry Give Give then Faith betakes it self to Christ and saith Lord such a Grace stands in need of so much Strength to support it and such a Grace stands in need of so much Support to act it and I have nothing to give it my self and therefore I come to fetch Supplies from thee And certainly this Faith that comes thus empty-handed unto Christ never goes away empty-handed from Christ What is it that you complain of Is it that the Work stands at a stay and you cannot make it go forward Is it that Temptations are strong and violent that Duties are hard irksome and difficult Why set Faith on work to go to Christ and there you may be sure to have Supply because Faith is an omnipotent Grace All things are possible to him that believeth and that because all things are possible to that God and to that Christ on whom Faith is acted There is no Grace nor no Supply nor Mercy laid up in the Lord Jesus Christ but it is all in the Hands of a Believer's Faith and he may take from thence whatsoever he needs to supply the present Wants and Necessities of his Soul Secondly Another working Grace is the fervent actings of Love Love is the great Wheel of the Soul that sets all the rest a moving and makes it like the Chariots of Aminadab to run swiftly towards its desired Object There is a mutual dependence between Faith and Love in their working Love depends upon Faith to strengthen it and Faith depends again upon Love to act it As we love not that which we do not know and our knowledge of God and of the Things of Eternity is by Faith not by Vision so those Things which we do know and which we do believe yet if we love them not we shall never endeavour after them The Apostle therefore tells us that Faith worketh by Love Now there is a threefold spiritual Love required to expedite our great Work First A transcendent Love of God Secondly A regular Love of our selves Thirdly A complacential Love unto and Delight in our Work it self Now when the Affections go out after these Objects of Love this will much facilitate our great Work First The Love of God is a great help to our Duty Our Saviour therefore urgeth Obedience upon this very account If ye love me keep my Commandments John 14.15 1 John 5.3 And says the Apostle this is the Love of God that is this is a certain Sign or it is the constant effect of our Love to God that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous they are not grievous because they are his Commandments who is the Love and Joy of our Souls Divine Love always conforms it self to divine Precepts and that for two Reasons First Because this Grace as it desires the beatifical Union to God in Glory hereafter for Love is the desire of Union so now it causes an unspeakable Union of Will and a supernatural simpathy of Affection betwixt God and the Soul which Union cannot be a Union of Equality or Entity as is in the Persons of the blessed Trinity and therefore it is a Union of Subordination of a Christians Will to the Will of God Now what is this Will of God Why the Apostle tells us 1 Thes 4.3 This is the Will of God says he even your Sanctification And the same Apostle tells us in another place Eph. 2.10 We are his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good Works that God hath before ordained that we should walk in them And is this Gods Will and shall it not be our Work Hath God ordained that we should walk therein and shall we be averse from or slothful thereunto How can we pretend we love God while we neglect the only Thing he requires from us Holiness and Obedience God wills our Holiness because there is no better a thing that he can Will next unto himself the Image of God next to himself is the most excellent and chiefest Good every thing the nearer it approacheth unto God the more desirable it becomes in it self Now that which comes most near unto God and advanceth the Soul in some resemblance and similitude to him is Holiness and Endeavours after Obedience whereby we become conformable unto God and attain some faint Shadows and Essays of the divine Perfections The Soul wills in order unto Gods Will God now wills Holiness because it is most desirable and we must will our own Holiness because if we love God as we pretend to do our Wills must be conformable to his holy Will Secondly Love to God is a Help to Duty because it is in and by Duty that we enjoy the Presence of God and have Communion and Fellowship with him These are the Lattices through which God appears to the longing Soul and though he many times vouchsafes but half Smiles and little Glances yet in these reserved Communications the Soul finds so much sweetness as ingageth it to a constant performance of Duties all its Days Here says the Soul God was wont to walk in his Sanctuary here have I heard his Voice here have I seen his Face his Spirit hath here breathed upon me his Consolations have here refreshed me and therefore here will I wait upon him as long as I live I remember well says the Soul when in Prayer and Meditation my Heart hath been filled by him poured out to him and accepted with him I remember when he filled me first with Sighs and then with Songs and both alike unutterable and therefore I will keep to the performance of these Duties waiting for the further Discoveries and Manifestations of my God unto me Secondly As Love to God so a regular Self-love will much help and further our Obedience and Duty And then is
but the Simple pass on and are punished They are rash and confident in their Undertakings and so they pass on and are punished Fear makes a Christian circumspect and considerative with himself how he may keep from Miscarriages in the performance of his great Work If God call me to such a Duty how shall I perform it If to bear such a Cross and Affliction how shall I glorifie him under it If to conflict with such Temptations how shall I resist and overcome them Yea how shall I do to break through all Difficulties Duties and Oppositions that I who am but a weak and feeble Christian may meet withal and how shall I do to bear up And thus pondring what may be his Duty and forecasting what Duties God may call him unto he is inabled to do what is his Duty at present and what also may by Providence hereafter become his Duty Nothing overtakes such a Man unexpected nor doth any thing surprize him unprovided for it And thus a careful Fear enables him in the performance of his great Work Secondly A Fear of Humility and holy Reverence of God induceth much to the working out of our Salvation and that in three Particulars First It much helps us in our great Work to fear God as our Lord and Master that sees and overlooks all our Works observing both what we do and how we do it also That Servant must be desperately bold that will dare to be idle or slight and perfunctory in his Work while his Masters Eye is upon him Why Christians should consider Gods Eye is always upon them in Praying in Hearing and in every Duty that they perform yea in every Action of their whole Lives And if the Eye of a Master that is but a Fellow Creature nay but a Fellow Servant can have such awe and influence upon his Servant as to make him careful how he works and what he works and to make him diligent in his Work Should not much more the consideration of Gods Eye being upon us who stands at an infinitee distance from us cause a holy Fear and Diligence in us in doing what our Lord and Master commands us Secondly Fear God also as him from whom you have all your Power and Ability to work Fear him lest at any time through any neglect or miscarriage of yours he should be provoked to suspend his Influence and withdraw his Grace from you and to leave you to your own Weakness and Impotency upon whose influence all your Obedience doth depend This is the Apostles Argument in the Text Work with Fear for God works in you both to Will and to Do. Holy diligence in Obedience cannot be more strongly enforced on an ingenious Spirit than by considering all that Strength and Ability that we have to work is received from God and therefore should be improved for God lest for our Sloth he deprives us of that we make no use of Thirdly In working fear God also as he that will be the Judge and Rewarder of your Works for ever You perform them unto him who is to pass Sentence upon them and upon you for them and will you then dare to do them slothfully and negligently God will try every Mans Work with Fire and will call every Action to a severe and strict account every Mans Work shall be seen through and through and then it shall be known who hath wrought the Works of God and who hath fulfilled the Will of Satan and the final Doom and irreversible Sentence shall then be pronounced according to Mens Works God will Rom. 2.7 8 9. says the Apostle render unto every Man according to his Works to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory and Immortality to them he will render Eternal Life but to them that are contentious and obey not the Truth but obey Vnrighteousness he will render unto them Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish upon every Soul that doth Evil. Now would you but thus fear God as an upright and impartial Judge that will render unto every one according to his Works How would this prevail with you so to work that at last you might be found of God in well doing and receive the blessed Reward and Sentence of the diligent and faithful Servant To enter into your Master's joy Fourthly and Lastly If you would work for Salvation successfully then work speedily without delay and constantly without cessation First Work speedily without delay Delays in all Affairs are dangerous but in Soul Affairs usually they are damnable For First The longer you procrastinate and delay the greater and more difficult will your Work be at last Corruption will be grown more tuff ill Humours will be grown more stubborn your Heart will be more hardned your Affections being more habituated will be more firmly engag'd to Sin the Devil will plead right to you by Prescription and it is hard keeping an Enemy out that hath had long Possession Secondly Consider what a desperate Folly it is to put off your Work till to Morrow you are not sure that you shall live to see another Day And oh what Hazards do those Men run whose hopes of Heaven depend upon no better a bottom than their hopes of Life and whose eternal Salvation is subject to as many Casualties and Accidents as their present Beings in this World are subject to Mans Breath is in his Nostrils and yet how do Men suffer their Souls and their everlasting Happiness to depend upon nothing surer than their Breath that Breath that every moment goes forth from them and they know not whether ever it shall return to them again But suppose your Life and Days should continue and you should reach unto that time whereof you have boasted and promised to mind the concernments of your Souls eternal Happiness in yet consider Thirdly The Grace of God is not at your disposal for then either First The outward Call may cease or it may grow more faint and low you may not be so daily importun'd and solicited for Heaven as now you are Ordinances and Opportunities may cease or you for your contempt may be given over to a contempt and neglect of them Secondly The inward Dictates of your own Consciences and the motions of the holy Spirit may cease Conscience may be brib'd to a silence and the holy Ghost may be commissionated to depart after this present opportunity and never more may you have its Breathings and Movings upon your Hearts if you do not now listen to them Thirdly If inward Motions do continue are you sure after this moments refusal that you shall obtain that Grace from God that may make you willing to close with those Motions Leave not therefore the eternal Salvation of your precious and immortal Souls at such Hazards and Delays Now is the acceptable time now is the day of Salvation to day therefore if you will hear his voice even while it is called to day harden not your Hearts for this
B P HOPKINS's Fourth and Last VOLUME OF Discourses and Sermons The Fourth and Last VOLUME OF DISCOURSES OR SERMONS ON Several Scriptures By EZEKIEL HOPKINS Late Lord Bishop of London-derry LONDON Printed by H. Clark for J. Robinson A. and J. Churchill J. Taylor and J. Wyat 1696. THE PREFACE GIVING An Account of these Discourses and of the Excellent Author thereof Christian Reader AN old Friend and Acquaintance of the very Reverend Author of the following Sermons and Discourses in honour of his Name and Memory though he accepteth no Man's Person neither can give flattering Titles saith upon the occasion of their being Printed and Published as followeth viz. That there have been Three Volumes of Sermons and Discourses sent forth into the Publick before these have appeared and not any one of them unprefaced to but in none of these Prefaces hath he met with any thing to convey down the just Character of this our great Man and his Manner and Ministry to Posterity He will make an Experiment therefore if any thing may be said he saith not aded for hitherto nothing hath been said to render the account of this Amiable Person and his Vseful Labours amongst us to after Ages besides the Testimony of his Gifts and Graces in his Books so familiar amongst us for by these though he be dead he yet speaketh his Works praise him in the Gates and his Remembrance shall be blessed Many will bear Witness the Name of our Author was not unknown but celebrated in this our great City in its Suburbs in our Lines of Communication and within our Bills of Mortality when he for several Years lived and laboured with great acceptance and success in these places Ask in the Town and Parish of Hackney how much Good was done by Mr. Hopkins's Lectures especially amongst the richer sort of Inhabitants and the younger sort at the Schools there and especially those that were descended from good Families If you believe me not ask from Jerusalem to Illyricum from Oxon to London from London to Exon if you please from one London to another even unto London-derry in Ireland where was his Top-preferment and I have been assured his last Works were more than the first So that we have found him that faithful and wise Servant his Lord had made Ruler over his Houshold to give them their Meat in due season Indeed by his exalted Name I ever took him to be none of our smaller Prophets nor of the Patres minorum Gentium In his first education and at his first appearance in the Grammar-School he soon signalized himself none of his Age and Stature being well able to keep pace with him at his coming unto the Vniversity it was by times taken notice of his Stock of Grammar and all good Learning especially in the learned Languages and his Studies and Manners were such that he rendred himself in the College both much a Scholar and much a Gentleman and was chosen out from amongst others to Instruction and Government therein and particularly the Instruction and Government of some of several Young Gentlemen and some descended from some of our Noble and most Honourable Families in our Kingdom and Nation In the Churches of Christ unto the Service whereof he was never slack when invited and called his very First-fruits were promising and his First-fruits being holy the Lump was also holy The Crouds in Hackney-Church in St. Mary Woolnoth Lombard-street at Exon at Dublin at Raphoe at London-derry and last at St. Mary Aldermanbury in our own City declare him a Master-workman the Preacher that was wise and that sought out acceptable words And his Words were as profitable as they were acceptable By the Subjects of the Four Volumes of Sermons you will be able to do more than make a Conjecture you will take some Measures of his Parts and the disposition of his Mind of his Studies and Ministerial Endeavours with the blessed Seals which were put thereunto I will only further as to my part here in his Honour commend to your perusal in special this Fourth Volume of his Sermons and Discourses The Contents will give you the Account of what Materials they consist and to what Vses and Improvements they were directed and applied But I further take liberty to say Here are in these Discourses now handled by him both the Commoda and the Accommoda things profitable in themselves and seasonable to our present Times and Debates Verba super Rotas some of the Author 's Golden Apples in Pictures of Silver They never knew our Author that knew him not to be as acute and solid in his Polemick Discourses as he was accurate and fervent in his Practical and Ordinary Sermons And let but the Christian Reader take the first Discourse in this Book on Phil. 2.12 13. and read but with due Caution and Observation and he will soon think there will not need more be said to stay and quiet the Minds of Men on the controverted Points of Liberty or the Power of Nature and the Interests of the Grace of God in our Salvation He hath also happily herein taken up the Question and proved Repentance and Faith are neither prejudicial to the free Grace of God and the Father nor in any-wise derogatory unto the Merits of Jesus his Son As also fully proved we are far from being justified as soon as elected or redeemed In the Second Part he hath happily added and proved that a temperament of the fear of a Just and Sin-revenging God is consistent with and necessary to be joined unto our highest Attainments in the joyful Sense of the Love and Favour of God and the fullest Assurances of Heaven and Salvation we have in this Life and hath herein cut the Sinews of the Antinomian Errour on the contrary part and without any Noise or Clamour In the Third Part you will find and be much pleased with and I hope equally benefited by his very Pious and Plain Treatise of the Nature and Offices of Conscience the rather because the Corruptions and Defilements of it being so distinctly opened and what it is and of what Importance to get and to keep a clear Conscience with many necessary Directions and Helps in order thereunto very proper to the Times wherein so many have made Shipwrack of Faith and of a Good Conscience The next Discourse is of Instancy and Constancy in Holy Prayer not only as a Negotium cum Deo but Heaven in ordinary and perfect Hearts-ease whil'st we are here upon Earth And the last is an elaborate though short Exercitation and Treatise of the Divine Omnipresence a Meditation prepared to render all the foregoing Parts of the Book more beneficial to us no Argument being in its own Nature more awakening and awful to an intelligent and diligent Reader The rest you are beholden to Providence and the Pen of a ready Writer for but what is written was unquestionably spoken and with a great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a very Reverend
much Work to be done in so little time No far be it from us to say thus Though our Work be great yet our Time is long enough to perform it in if it were well improved We do indeed consume away our precious Days and waste our Life and Light exhaust our Strength and lay out our Endeavours upon Vanities and Trifles on nothing but Emptiness and Folly And that Life which the Prophet tells us is but as a Tale truly we spend it as a Dream We sleep and drowse and suffer our precious Minutes to run and waste away doing nothing to any good purpose till the Night is shutting in till the Night of Darkness come upon us and then the greatness of our Work will confound us and cause Despair rather than excite Endeavours Have you never known any who at the close of their Lives having neglected their great Work have spent that little time that they had then left them in crying out for more time And thus it may be with you also if your Consciences be not awakned sooner than by the Pains and Disquiets of a sick Bed then with Horror you may cry out More Time Lord more Time But it will not then be granted the Term is fixed the last Hour is struck the last Sand is run and as you and your Work shall then be found so you must go together into Eternity This is such a Consideration as must needs prevail with all Men if they would but lay it to Heart My Time is but short and momentany I am but of Yesterday and possibly I may not be to Morrow and God hath suspended Eternity upon the Improvement of this moment a few Hours will determine my everlasting State and Condition according as these few are spent so will my Doom be either for Eternal Happiness or for Eternal Misery And why should my precious Soul be so vile in my own Eyes as to lose it for ever through Sloth and Negligence Why should I hearken to the Allurements of my own Corruptions or to the Enticements and Persuasions of Satans Temptations No stand off for I am working for Eternity an Eternity that is but a few Days hence a boundless a bottomless an endless Eternity into which I know not how soon I may enter and Woe to me yea a thousand Woes to me that ever I was born if my great Work be not done before the Days of Eternity come upon me This is such a Motive as methinks should make every Man that hears it and hath but a sense what Eternity is presently to bestir and rouse up himself and give God and his Soul no rest till his Immortal Soul be secured and well provided for for Eternity To me there is no greater Argument of the Witchcraft and Sorcery that Sin and Satan useth to besot the Reason and Judgment of rational Creatures than to hear of such Truths Truths that are not to be denied or doubted of and yet Men to live at such a rate as they do so vainly so fruitlessly so lazily so securely and presumptuously as if their Eternity were to be expected and enjoyed here or that there was none to come hereafter Secondly The consideration of the shortness of our Life may serve as a great Incouragement to work The consideration of the burthensomness and trouble of working for Salvation may doubtless fright many from engaging therein Oh! it is a Work very painful and laborious and this discourageth them But know O Sinner though it be grievous yet it is but short Work it is to last no longer than our frail short Life doth last And O! how unreasonable is it to complain as most do of our Work being too long and too tedious and of our Lives as being too short and brittle for our Work is to be no longer than our Lives A Child of God doth not at least he should not desire to live longer than his great Work is done And truly when it is finished it is a great piece of Self-denial in him to be content to abide here in this World any longer And in the mean while this may support him that it shall not be long that he shall thus wrestle with Temptations and thus struggle with Corruptions Death will come in to his Help and put an end to his Toil and Labour and though he brings a Dart in one Hand yet he brings a Reward and Wages in the other Hand and this may be his great Encouragement Fourthly My next Argument to press this Duty of working out of our own Salvation shall consist of three or four Gradations And First Consider we are all of us very busy active Creatures 1. We are all busy active Creatures the frame and constitution of our Natures is such as we must be working some Work or other And therefore since we must be working why should we not work the Works of God We do not simply exhort Sinners to work neither indeed need we You have active Faculties and stirring Principles within you that must and will be still in Imployment and when your Hands cease yet then your Hearts and Thoughts are at work Your whole Lives are nothing but Actions yea when your Thoughts themselves are most unbent and most remiss when they are most vanishing and glimmering so that your selves scarce know what they are yet then are they visibly working though you perceive it not Now what is it that God requires of you It is not that you should be more imployed than you are that you should do more than you do for that is impossible because you never are idle doing nothing but it is that what you do should be done in order unto Heaven and Salvation and how reasonable is such a Command as this It is not more Work that God expects from you only other Work your Thoughts need not be more than they are but they must be more Spiritual than they are your Desires no more but only more Gracious your Actions no more but only they must be more Holy than now they are Let but Grace regulate what Nature doth and the Art of working out of your Salvation is attained The Wheels of a Watch move as fast and as quick when it goes false as when it goes true and if the Watch be but at first set right and true the same activity that makes it go false will make the Motions go right and orderly Truly you your selves are like your Watches your Faculties are the Wheels of your Souls and they move and click as fast when they go false as when they go right and if Grace doth but once set them right the same activity of Nature that makes them work falsly and go amiss will also continue their Motion orderly and regular when once they are set right Well then whatever your Trade be whether it be a Trade of Sin or whether it be a Trade of Holiness you must be working at it And let me tell you Religion and Holiness
and Honour and Power to him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for evermore Always are they beholding admiring and adoring of God and burning in Love to each other and mutually rejoycing in God and in one another And this is the Work of that Eternal Rest a Work never to be intermitted nor to cease And therefore it is worth our observing that both those Places that do chiefly speak of the future Rest of the People of God do also intimate a Work in that Rest So the Apostle to the Hebrews tells us Heb. 4.9 There remains a Rest for the People of God the Word is There remains a Sabbath for the People of God Look now you are to be imployed on a Sabbath such shall be your Imployment in your Eternal Rest Is it not your Work now upon a Sabbath-day to raise your Thoughts and Affections to Heaven to fix and terminate them upon God to maintain Communion with him to admire him in all his Works both of Grace and Providence to stir up your own Hearts and to quicken the Hearts of others to praise and adore him Why this shall be the Work of your Eternal Sabbath And when you are at any time lifted up to a more than ordinary Spiritualness in these Things then may you give some guess what your Work shall be in Heaven and what the frame of your Hearts shall be in your eternal Rest And so that other place in the Revelations Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their works follow them Which may be meant not only of the Reward of their Works that they shall then receive but of the Works themselves that here they performed on Earth these shall follow them and enter into Heaven with them and as they were done by them weakly and imperfectly here so there the very same Works shall be done by them with absolute and consummate Perfection all those Works I mean that for the Matter and Substance of them do not connote a sinful State and Condition Now then since you must be imploy'd in such a Work as this is to Eternity why do you not accustom your selves to it while you are here Col. 1.12 The Apostle to the Colossians Blesseth God who had made them meet to be made Partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Were it a meet thing that those that spend their whole time in Sin should be abruptly snatcht up into Heaven to spend an Eternity there in Holiness And therefore God accustoms those whom he saves in an ordinary way and manner to work those Works here on Earth that they are to be imployed in hereafter in Heaven here they are Apprentices as it were that they may learn the Trade of Holiness that when that time comes they may become fit Citizens of the New Jerusalem here God is trying their Eyes with more qualified and allayed Discoveries of himself that when they come to view him Face to Face they may be able to bear the exceeding Brightness of his Glory And therefore though you profess Heaven to be your Country and that you are Strangers and Pilgrims here on Earth yet say not with the Captive Jews Psal 137. How shall we sing the Song of Sion in a strange Land Yes you must accustom your selves to that Song you must mould and warble it here on Earth that you may be perfect in it when you come to join with Saints and Angels in their eternal Hallelujahs You must try your Eyes by seeing of God and your Voices by singing that Song that you must continually sing in Heaven And were it only for this disposing and fitting of your selves for the Work of Heaven this were Motive enough to persuade to begin it now 5. A Christian hath many helps to work for Salvation Fifthly Another encouraging Consideration to persuade you to work out your own Salvation is this as your Work is great so the Helps and Assistances that God gives for the performance of this Work are many So that your Work is not greater than your Aids are nor is it more difficult than they are potent And therefore though you are weak in your selves and so weak that were you left to your own Strength you would faint in the most easy Service yea the weight but of one holy Thought would sink you for we are not sufficient says the Apostle as of our selves to think any good thing Yet when we consider those mighty Auxiliaries that are afforded and promised as Comfort when we Droop Support when we are Weak that we shall Rise when we Fall Recruits when we are Worsted Omnipotency to supply our Impotency All-sufficiency to make up our Defects When we consider these Things then may we triumphantly say with the Apostle When we are Weak then are we Strong and tho' of our selves we are nothing and therefore can do nothing yet through these mighty Assistances we are able to do all Things Now I shall rank these Auxiliary Forces into Two Bands Some are External others are Internal External Helps are various I shall only instance in Three First You have the exciting Examples of others who have already happily gone through this Work You are not commanded that which never yet was imposed upon any of the Sons of Men nor that whoever undertook failed in the performance and sunk under the burthen of it No there are Hundreds and Thousands gone before you from whom God required as much as he doth from you and these have demonstrated that the Work is possible and the Reward certain And therefore as Israel followed the Cloud for their Conduct into the Land of Canaan So may you be led into a Land of better Promise by a Cloud of Witnesses of those who have already passed through the same Faith Patience and Obedience wherein you are to follow them It is Superstition heightned to Idolatry to make use of the departed Saints as substituted Mediators and under Advocates unto Christ that Christ may be our Advocate unto God the Father what their present Prayers for us are we know not but this we are certain of their past Example ought to be propounded and improved by us for our Incouragement in the ways of Holiness and Obedience Hence the Apostle exhorts us that we should be diligent not slothful and he grounds it upon this because in so doing we should be followers of them who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises In difficult and hazardous Enterprizes every Man is apt to stand still and see who will lead the way and according to the Success of the first Attempters so either to be incouraged or dismayed Now what says our Saviour Mat. 11.12 The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force You are not the forlorn Hope you are not the first Assailors no whole Armies of Saints have in former Ages storm'd Heaven they have heretofore planted strong Batteries
Labour under the Sun how wavering how uncertain and how unsuccessful Things are how Means run one way and the End another they might hereby be induced to turn their Labours into another Channel and to work for their Souls and for eternal Happiness and Salvation that are as far above the reach of Disappointment as they are far above the rate of earthly Concernments Mine Elect says God Isa 52.22 shall long enjoy the Work of their Hands they shall not labour in vain And this is the great Argument urged by the Apostle upon the Corinthians Be stedfast 2 Cor. 15.58 unmoveable always abounding in the Work of the Lord and why so industrious and constant knowing this says he that your Labour is not in vain in the Lord. Two Things there are that make a Labour to be in vain First When it doth not accomplish its End Secondly When that End it doth accomplish is not worth the Cost and Pains Now in neither of these respects is your Labour in vain For First It shall not fail to accomplish the end to which it is ordained and that is eternal Salvation Three Things there are that make Men come short in the accomplishment of an End propounded First When Men propound to themselves Ends that are in themselves simply impossible Secondly When though the End be possible yet the Means that are used are unfit and improbable Thirdly When though the Means are rightly suited to the attainment of the end yet we do not persevere in the use of them Now none of these ways shall a laborious Christian fail of his end For First The End Christians work for is not impossible The End that you work for is not in it self simply impossible Should you propound to your selves to become Angels should you strive to sublimate your selves into spiritual Essences your attempts herein were all but vain because it is impossible you should ever be refined into Angels But if your end be to be like Angels to be equal to Angels this is possible and may be attained When they arise from the dead Mark 12.25 they are as the Angels that are in Heaven which another Evangelist renders Luke 20.36 they are equal to the Angels If in this Life you propose to your selves a state of perfection and freedom both from Sin and Sorrow a state of consummate Bliss and Happiness this End is impossible But if you make it your End to enjoy such a state as this is hereafter this is attainable and Labour may atchieve it yea aim at what degree of Glory you please next below God and Christ be it as high as Cherubims and Seraphims I cannot say you think of an impossibility your Labour may raise you to such a pitch and advance you to such Glory as shall dazle the Sun in its brightness It is true there was once a time when Salvation might well be reckoned among those Things that were impossible and that was in that sad interval between the Fall and the Promise of Christ when all Mankind lay in the shadow and in the valley of Death under the Breach and yet under the Bond of the Covenant of Works when it had indeed been in vain so much as once to have thought of Happiness or to have laboured for it But since Christ's undertaking We who were once without Hope have now obtained good Hope through Grace the Partition-Wall that then we could neither climb over nor break through is now taken away the Gate of Heaven is now set open and with striving we may enter for our Saviour Jesus Christ hath abolished Death and brought Life and Immortality to Light through the Gospel And therefore though it may seem an impossibility to dejected and despairing Souls that ever such vile Wretches should receive so great a Dignity that those who are sunk so low in Misery should ever be raised to Happiness that those who are so loaden with Sin and Iniquity should ever feel the weight of Mercy and beaten Glory that those whose best Works deserve the lowest Hell should though not for yet upon the performance of those Works obtain the highest Heavens Though this may seem to be an impossibility yet believe it while you think of any Glory lower than the Glory of the Godhead you think of nothing above a possibility and the reach of Industry There are none of you excluded from a possibility of being saved the Covenant of Grace runs in most large and comprehensive Terms Who ever believeth shall obtain eternal Life The Death of Christ and his Blood is a most sovereign Medicine applicable not only to all Maladies but to all Men if they will believe Tho' it is true none shall be saved but the Elect yet is it true also that a possibility of Salvation extends farther than Election Election gives the infallibility of Salvation as Reprobation doth the infallibility of Damnation but yet as there is a possibility for those that shall infallibly be saved to perish if they do not believe so is it possible for those that shall infallibly perish to be saved if they will believe The possibility of Salvation therefore stands not upon Election but upon two other Grounds First The meritorious and all-sufficient procurement of Christ whereby he hath procured Salvation for all the World and for all in the World upon condition of their Faith for that must still be taken in for were it not so how could we preach Remission of Sins in his Name to every Creature were not his Death applicable to all Then though some should believe yet for want of a Sacrifice offered up and a Price paid down for them they should not be saved though they should believe How then is it that we seriously call all Men to repent and believe that their Sins may be pardon'd and their Souls saved Certainly unless the death of Christ hath procured Salvation for all Men upon condition of Faith and Repentance such Calls would be false in us and vain to them for so we should promise Salvation upon believing to those to whom though they should believe Salvation should be denied because they want a Covenant made with them and a Surety to undertake for them Therefore I say Christ's procurement is general so far that whoever believes shall receive the Benefit of his Death Secondly As the Death of Christ is applicable to all for Salvation if they believe so Faith that alone applies this Death is attainable by you all if you be not wanting to your selves you are none of you under an impossibility of believing and therefore not under an impossibility of Salvation Though it be certain that some shall infallibly persevere in Infidelity yet there is none that hears the sound of the Gospel and the outward Call of God in his Word but may believe and obey if they be not wanting to themselves Neither is this Doctrin Arminianism nor is it prejudicial to the efficacious Grace of God whereby the Will
Self-love truly regular when Men love their own Souls as God loves them Now Gods love to the Souls of Men is such that though He wills all Men to be saved yet he wills that none shall be saved but through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the Truth And whilst we love our selves if we observe the same method and order this Self-love is always commendable and necessary Desires after eternal Happiness and Salvation are natural to that Soul that is truly conscious of its own Immortality and eternal unalterable State and Condition and when these Desires are directed to future Happiness through present Holiness then are they regular and become gracious We are not so straitly limited by Gods Sovereignty over us but while we fix one Eye upon our Work we may fix the other on our Reward God is not so strict in his Prerogative over us as to require Service from us from what we have already received from him He is not as a cruel Lord and Master to say Obey me though afterwards you perish see to it that you love and glorifie me though I eternally punish you though considering that infinite distance we stand at from God we could object nothing against the Equity of his Proceedings No but God hath so graciously twisted his Glory and our Duty together that while we promote the one we do also promote the other and while we work for God we do but work for our selves Now are there any that need to be persuaded to love themselves Is it not the great and general Sin that all Men love and seek themselves And do not Men by becoming Self-lovers become Self-destroyers Yes they do so but it is because they seek themselves out of Gods way that therefore they lose themselves for ever Religion and Holiness are not such severe things as to exclude Self-love nay right Self-love is that which is no where to be found separate from true Grace Ministers call upon Men to exercise Self-denial and Self-abhorrence and this the foolish World mistakes as if so be they exhorted them to divorce themselves from themselves to lay aside all respect and consideration of Self and to offer violence to the most common Principles of Self-preservation No would to God we all sought our selves more earnestly and constantly than we do and that we all knew wherein our greatest Interest and Concernment did lie then should we not leave our great Work undone nor gratifie the Sloth of our corrupt Humors and the sinful propensions of our carnal part nor should we think what we do for Sin and Satan we do for our selves no all this is to hate our selves And wicked Men at the last Day shall know they have been their own most bitter and most implacable Enemies that they would not be content with any thing less than their own eternal Ruin A true Christian is the only selfish Man in the World all others they are not Self-lovers but Self-destroyers What shall I say more than this The Apostle asks Did ever any Man hate his own Flesh Did ever any Man delight to gash and burn to wrack and torture himself Truly I may ask the quite contrary Do almost any love their own Spirits their spiritual part their Souls This they wound and gash by many a bloody Sin this they burn and fear by hardness and impenitency this they go about to torture and torment in Hell for ever Oh therefore be persuaded at length to take pity on your selves considering you are but destroying while you think you are embracing of your selves and that will be found but Self-murder at last which you now call Self-love Thirdly A complacential Love to 3. Love to our Work makes it easie and Delight in your Work is a great furtherance of it A wicked Man serves God grudgingly he murmurs at Duties and looks upon them only as Tasks and Burthens thinking every thing he doth for God too much too heavy and weighty The Commands of God are all of them hard Sayings and grievous Impositions that he cannot bear he could believe Christ sooner in any thing than when he tells him Mat. 11.28 My Yoke is easy and my Burthen is light Here he cannot believe Christ Thus much time saith the slothful Sinner must I spend in Prayer and there must I humble my self to God whom I hate and confess before him those Sins that I love and beg that Grace that I have slighted so much time must I spend in reading the Law that I never mean to observe perusing over only the Sentence of my Condemnation and so often must I fix and dwell upon holy and spiritual Thoughts which never at any time darted into or passed intransiently but they did discompose me and leave me a damp and sadness upon my Spirit behind them and therefore because there is not a holy complacency and delight in the Service of God all such Mens Endeavours are both faint inconstant and languish while they are about them and seldom do they re-assume them again But a true Christian works with abundance of Delight and Chearfulness in the Service of God in every Duty his Soul is filled full of holy Affections by which it soars up to Heaven Duties are Meat and Drink to him spiritual Manna in which he takes more satisfaction and contentment than wicked Men do in their Sins and therefore he performs these Duties so earnestly because he doth it with complacency All that he repines at is that natural Necessity sinful Weakness and Infirmities and worldly Employments that do purloin so much of his time from this great Work Now when once the Heart is brought to such a frame and temper as this thus to delight in Obedience and in the Work and Service of God then will this working for Salvation go on with Power Thirdly 3. Working for Salvation must be with Fear and Trembling Another Direction is that in the Text Work for Salvation with Fear and Trembling A trembling Hand best performs a Christians Work Now this Fear is not a Fear of distrust or dispondency for that is so contrary to this Duty of working for Salvation as that it stupifies and benums all Endeavours and is a great Enemy to the performance of this Duty But First It is a Fear of Solicitude and Carefulness as it stands opposed to carnal security and that presumption that is the common and ordinary Destruction of most Men. This holy Fear is the best preservative of true Grace The Apostle therefore tells us Thou standest by Faith Rom. 11.20 be not high-minded but fear implying they would not stand long though they stood by Faith unless they were upheld with godly Fear And the Reason is because it is the property of Fear to foresee and forecast Dangers and to put the Soul in a posture of defence and security before they approach For as the wise Man tells us The prudent Man foreseeth the Evil and hideth himself Prov. 20.3
careful flight and aversion of it 1. There is in Fear a doubtfulness and uncertainiy of the Event Three things in Fear and this is a Torment when a Man is wrackt in Suspense and Doubt what to expect 1. A doubtfulness of the Event whether or no the Vengeance of God will not fall heavy upon him whether or no he be not Fuel on which this consuming Fire will for ever prey Now this is not that Fear to which the Apostle in this Text exhorts us to serve God withal no to Serve God with Reverence and godly Fear is not to serve him with a doubtful anxious and solicitous Fear of what the Event may prove nay such a Fear as this is is inconsistent with actual Assurance and those who are perplexed with it cannot say we have a Kingdom nor cannot fear their God as a consuming Fire There may be a genuine awful Fear of God as a consuming Fire where there is not the least doubt remaining concerning our final State where the Soul is fully assured that God will be to him not a Fire to consume him but a Sun to cherish him for ever I will give you one or two remarkable Scriptures to this purpose Heb. 4.1 In Heb. 4.1 Let us fear says the Apostle lest a Promise being left us of entring into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it Here the Apostle quickens them to the exercise of Holiness from the fear of falling short of Heaven yea though they had assurance by Gods Promise of it lest a Promise being left us of entring into his Rest yet you should fall short of it And so the Apostle triumphs in his Assurance 2 Cor. 5.1 in 2 Cor. 5.1 We know that we have an House eternal in the Heavens and yet in Verse 11. he quickens himself to the discharge of his Ministerial Office from the Fear of Gods Wrath Knowing the Terrors of the Lord we persuade Men. Though he was assured of Glory yet he quickens himself to the discharge of his Ministeral Function by the Fear of Gods Wrath. So that it is evident there may be a Fear of Gods Wrath exciting unto Duty where yet there is a full Assurance beyond all doubting and hesitation of escaping Wrath. So that this is not that Fear that the Apostle excites them that have assurance unto 2. There is a Fear of Terrour 2. There is in Fear a Terror arising from the Evil feared a shivering in the Soul upon the apprehension of the greatness of the Evil feared but avoided too and this is consistent with full Assurance Thus the Terror of past Dangers sometimes causeth as much Terror as if we were again to encounter with them So when Believers look back upon that Wrath and fiery Indignation that they have narrowly escaped upon that Lake of Brimstone that boils and burns behind them wherein thousands of others are for ever swallowed up this cannot but affect them with a holy Horror and Fear of Gods Wrath against Sinners though they have full assurance of his Love 3. There is also in Fear a flight and aversation from the Evil feared 3. There is in Fear a flight and aversation of the Evil feared and this also is consistent with full assurance Noah had full assurance from the Promise of God for his preservation from the Deluge and yet it is said That Noah being moved with fear built him an Ark. Full assurance to escape Evil is far from hindring as some calumniate it the use of means to prevent that Evil yea the assurance that we have to escape Hell and Wrath is of the greatest and most effectual influence to make us careful to use those means whereby we may escape it See this in 2 Cor. 7.1 Having these promises 2 Cor. 7.1 let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the fear of God So in Tit. 2.11 12. The Grace of God that bringeth Salvation teacheth us to deny Vngodliness and worldly Lusts looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ So in 1 John 3.3 Every one that hath this Hope in him purifieth himself as God is pure Thus you see what Fear it is the Apostle exhorts Believers to who have a Kingdom not a Fear of perplexing Doubtfulness but such as is consistent with their full assurance that is so to fear the Wrath of God as to have our Hearts affected with Terror at the greatness and insupportableness of that Wrath though they have escaped it and to fear so as to avoid all Sin and all that exposeth to that Wrath in these two Senses they that are assured that God is their God ought to fear him as a consuming Fire Secondly 2. Why Believers who are assured of Gods love ought to fear him as a consuming Fire Let us now see upon what Grounds and Considerations a Believer who is assured of Gods love and favour to him ought yet to fear him as a consuming Fire And First The consideration of that mighty and dreadful Power that God puts forth in the punishing and afflicting of the damned 1. Because of that Power that he puts forth in punishing of the damned this may strike Fear into the Hearts of those that are fully assured of Gods love and favour to them Such a Fear as this is the holy Angels themselves have tho' they are secured by Christ in that blessed State and Condition that they enjoy yet to see God stripping and making bare his Arm to lay on weighty strokes of everlasting Vengeance upon their Fellow Angels that are fallen makes them to tremble and stand astonished at the Almighty Power of God and this keeps them at a due distance in their Thoughts and Apprehensions of his dreadful Majesty And should it not much more make us to tremble with an awful respect of the Power of God to consider how he crusheth and breaks the Damned in Hell by his own Almighty Arm stretched out in the full Power of his Wrath to their everlasting Destruction It is from this Power of God that Christ himself enforceth the Fear of God Mat. 20.28 Fear him who is able to destroy both Body and Soul in Hell Though God should assure you that he would never destroy you in Hell yet because he is able to do it therefore you should fear him 2. Because of Gods Wrath and Severity Secondly This Fear may arise in the Hearts of the Children of God who are most assured of his Love from the consideration of the Wrath and dreadful Severity of God as well as of his Power If a Father corrects his Slave in his Wrath this will cause Fear and Dread in the Son though he knows that Wrath shall never fall upon him So when a Child of God who is assured of the tender love and favour of God to himself yet when he sadly considers that Wrath and Indignation that is in
God against the damned when he sees his heavenly Father angry though it be not against him yet this must needs strike a reverential Fear and Aw into his Soul Now this reverential Fear will remain for ever The Fear of the Lord endureth for ever yea when the Children of God shall be made for ever happy in Heaven yet this Fear shall be then encreas'd and not at all diminished the more they see of the Power of the Wrath and Severity of God executed upon the damned the more they fear and reverence this powerful this Sin-revenging God and this kind of Fear is no prejudice to their full Assurance and Joy nor shall it be prejudicial to their compleat and perfect Happiness in Heaven Thirdly 3. Because of the desert of their Sins The consideration of the desert of Sin should cause a holy Fear of God even in those that are fully assured of his Love When a Child of God looks upon Sin and sees what Wrath and Torment he hath deserved by it tho' he be assured by the Testimony of the Spirit of God that he is pardoned yet it cannot but fright him to consider that he should deserve so great Condemnation As a Malefactor though he be pardoned yet if he be present at the Execution of his Fellow Offenders it must needs strike him with Fear and Horror that he should be guilty of the same Crimes that they are to suffer such sharp and cruel Punishments for What the Thief on the Cross said unto his Fellow Thief Dost thou not fear God seeing thou art in the same Condemnation The same may I say to Believers Do not your fear God seeing you deserve at least to be in the same Condemnation with those Wretches that lie frying and howling in Hell 4. Because in it self it is possible all this Wrath might have been their Portion Fourthly Another Ground of fear is that it is in it self possible that all this Wrath should be your Portion for ever even you who are most assured of Glory And is not this just cause of Fear if not of Expectation yet at least of Terror Indeed as God hath been graciously pleased to bind himself in a Covenant of Grace and Mercy to you so it is impossible that this Wrath should fall upon you but yet such a Supposition as this is is enough to cause Fear in the most assured Heart to think that if God had not engaged himself by Promise to deliver him from that Wrath what then would have been his Condition to all Eternity Would not such Thoughts as these are make you tremble Suppose a Man were fast chained to the top of some high Rock hanging over a bottomless Gulf though he knew and was assured that he should not fall into it being immoveably fasten'd there yet when he looks down that deep and dangerous Precipice and fees the Gulf foaming and raging under him will not a cold Fear drill through his Heart to think O! if I were not here fastned by a strong Chain to this immoveable Rock what would become of me Even so Believers you that are most assured to escape Hell this is your Condition you are fastned to the Rock of Ages by the unchangeable Promise of God that will ever hold you fast but yet every time you look down into the bottomless Gulf that is under you where thousands are swallowed up to all Eternity doth not such a Thought as this is fright you to think O! if I were not fastned to this immoveable Rock if God had not made an everlasting Covenant with me ordered in all things and sure I should also have been swallowed up with the rest of the World and have gone down quick into Hell Why alas we are all of us held over the Lake of Fire and Brimstone in the Hands of God some he holds in the left Hand of his common Providence and others of them he holds in the right Hand of his special Grace those whom he holds only in the Hands of his Providence he le ts fall and drop one after another into Hell where they are swallowed up and lost eternally those that he holds in the Hands of his Grace it is true it is impossible upon that Supposition that ever they should fall into Hell yet when they think O if we were not upheld yea how possible it was that they should not have been upheld this apprehension must needs strike them with Fear and Terror though not with a perplexing Doubtfulness concerning the safety of their Condition yet with a doubtful apprehension of the possibility of what would have been their Condition if God had held them over Hell only by the Hand of his common Providence 5. Because they escape very narrowly Fifthly Consider though you are assured that you shall escape this eternal Death yet it will be a narrow escape and that may cause Fear It will be an escape with very much Labour and Difficulty tho' you are held in the Hands of God yet he leads you along to Heaven by the Gates of Hell and this is sufficient to cause Fear Our way to Heaven is so strait the Rubs in it so many our Falls by them so frequent our Enemies so potent that though our assurance may make us not to fear but that in the end we shall escape Hell yet it will be high presumption for us not to fear how we may escape it The Apostle brings in the Salvation of the Elect themselves with a scarcely 1 Pet. 4.18 1 Pet. 4.18 If the Righteous scarcely be saved Why now this scarcely doth not imply that there is any uncertainty in the End but only it implies the great difficulty in the means of obtaining of it So then the End is certain that is a Believers Salvation from Hell and that is just cause of rejoycing but the Means are very difficult and laborious and that is just cause of Fear Well then briefly to apply it in one Word Though you are assured through Faith of the Pardon of your Sins yet tremble at the thought of that Wrath and Hell that you have escaped It is observed that those are the fixed Stars that tremble most So Christians who are fixed immoveably in the unchangeable love of God as Stars fixed to the Heavens in their Orbs yet they are most of all in Trepidation and Trembling when they reflect upon themselves and think that instead of being Stars in Heaven they might have been Firebrands in Hell Those to me are suspicious Professors that make a great blaze with their Joys in the apprehensions of their Right to Heaven but never tremble under the apprehensions of their Deserts of Hell What there is in the consideration of God as our God that may cause us to fear him Having shewed you upon what account God is to be feared as he is a consuming Fire in the next place I shall shew you what there is in the consideration of God as our God that
may enforce a holy Awe and Fear of him and indeed if ever it was necessary to press Men to a due Fear and Awe of God it is so now since on the one Hand the open Prophaneness of ungodly Men and on the other Hand the pert Sauciness of some notional Professors are apt to think that Communion with God consists in a familiar Rudeness doth plainly testifie to all the World that there is little Fear or Reverence of him in their Hearts And now whilst I am shewing what reason there is that Gods dearest Children should fear him as a reconciled Father let wicked Men in the mean while sadly consider with themselves what great cause then they have to fear him who is their sworn Enemy if God's Smiles are tempered with that Majesty that makes them awful surely his Frowns then must needs carry in them an astonishing Terror that makes them insupportable We may observe how unexpectedly sometimes from the Goodness and Mercy of God that is the sweetest and most natural attractive of Love the Scripture draws an Inference to fear God Psal 130.4 Psal 130.4 There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared Not only a Sin-revenging but a Sin-pardoning God is here set before us as the Object of our Fear these two Sister Graces Fear and Love are nourished in the Soul by the same Attribute God's pardoning Mercy The great Sinner in the Gospel is said to love much because much was forgiven her and here much Fear as well as much Love is the result and issue of God's pardoning Grace And so you have it in Hos 3.5 Hos 3.5 They shall fear the Lord and his goodness And in Exod. 15.11 Moses describing the most glorious Attributes of God tells us That he is glorious in Holiness fearful in Praises even then when we are to praise God for his Mercy yet are we to fear him as being fearful in Praises And therefore Nehemiah Neh. 1.5 in Nehem. 1.5 praying to God says he O Lord the great and the terrible God Wherein Is it in overwhelming Kingdoms in bringing upon them decreed Destruction Is it in the fierce execution of his Wrath against Sinners No says he O Lord the terrible God that keepest Covenant and Mercy for them that love him So again in Chap. 9.32 O God the mighty and terrible God that keepest Covenant and Mercy Let us now consider what there is in the Mercy and Favour of God as he is a reconciled God unto us and in Covenant with us that may justly render him to be the Object of our Fear 1. That dreadful way that God took to manifest his mercy to us may justly cause us to fear him First The consideration of that dreadful way and method that God took to manifest his Mercy towards us is sufficient to affect our Hearts with Fear though we stand fully possessed of his favour In Gen. 28. when God had made many gracious Promises all along that Chapter unto Jacob of blessing of him and keeping him in all his ways of multiplying his Seed as the dust of the Earth you would think this was no terrible Thing and yet because God reveals this Mercy to him in an awful and amazing manner a Gap is opened in Heaven a bright Ladder reaching from Earth to Heaven God on the top of it Angels on every Round of it though the Message was joyful yet the strange kind of delivering of the Message makes Jacob cry out How dreadful is this place it is no other than the Gate of Heaven The very Gate of Heaven becomes dreadful when it is represented in such a Majestical manner But now the way that God took for his Mercy to arrive at us is much more dreadful than any such Dream or Vision and therefore we should be the more deeply affected with Fear and Trembling even then when God speaks Peace and Pardon to us for if we consider either the Terms upon which he is become ours or the way by which he discovereth himself to be ours both of them are full of Dread and Terror 1. The terms upon which God becomes ours are full of Terror First It cannot but strike our Hearts with Fear to reflect upon those dreadful Terms upon which God is contented to be induced to become our God His Mercy towards us is procured upon Terms of infinite Justice and Severity Divine Vengeance arrests our Surety and exacts from him the utmost Satisfaction that Curse that would for ever have blasted and withered the Souls of all Mankind seizeth upon Christ in all its malignity that Wrath some few Drops of which scalds the Damned in Hell was given him to drink off in a full and overflowing Cup He did bear the chastisement of our Peace and by his Stripes we are healed nor would God upon lower Terms have consented to a Reconciliation betwixt wretched Man and himself than the precious Blood of his only Son As of Old Friendship betwixt two Persons was wont to be attested and sealed by a Sacrifice as we find it both among Heathen Authors and also in Scripture an Instance of which we have of Laban in Gen. 31.54 where Laban and Jacob returning to Amity make a Ratification of it by a Sacrifice So the Attonement that God made betwixt us and himself is solemnized by a Sacrifice even the Sacrifice of his own Son As a Lamb without spot or blemish in this Blood the Treaty betwixt God and Man stands ratified and confirmed Oh! dreadful Mercy that clasps and embraces us about with Arms died red in the Blood of Jesus Christ But now is not this Ground enough to cause a holy Fear of God to seize upon every Soul that shall but seriously consider this sad Tragedy of pardoning Grace If a King resolve to forgive a Malefactor upon no other Terms than a Pardon writ with the last drop of the Heart-blood of his dearest Friend who is there that is so hardned that will not tremble at such a Mercy as this is though it save him So is the Case betwixt God and us the Contents of the Pardon are joyful but it is written all with the Blood of Jesus Christ reaking warm from his very Heart 2. The way by which God discovers himself to be ours is dreadful and may make us to fear him and who then would not fear even a forgiving God Secondly Consider the way and method that God takes with us when he becomes our God and that is most dreadful and must needs make the most confirmed Heart to shake with Fear and Trembling Indeed God deals not with us in such Rigour as he dealt with Jesus Christ his Son but yet usually when he becomes our God when he enters upon us as his Possession first he shakes all the Foundations of our Hearts breaths in Flames of Fire into our very Marrow cramps our Consciences and unjoints our Souls O the Tempests and Storms of Wrath that God pours into a wounded
from him He that asks timorously only begs a Denial from God But yet that this boldness may not degenerate into rudeness and irreverence he requires that our Freedom with him be tempered with an awful Fear of him We must come in all Humility and Prostration of Soul with broken Hearts and bended Knees to touch that golden Scepter that he holds forth to us Thus you see in these five Things how consistent the Grace of Fear is with other Graces of the Spirit it is no Impediment to a full Assurance it s no Hinderance to Love it s no Impediment to a Spirit of Adoption nor to a holy Rejoycing no nor to a holy Boldness Wherein slavish and filial Fear differ Now because I have made frequent mention of filial and slavish Fear that you may the better understand what each of these means I shall briefly give you the difference betwixt them In their Concomitants and in their Effects Now they differ in their Concomitants and in their Effects 1. In their Concomitants First Slavish Fear hath always two dreadful Concomitants and they are Dispair and Hatred or Enmity against God 1. In slavish Fear there is always some degree of Dispair In slavish Fear there is always some degree of Dispair Now this slavish Fear is joined with dreadful expectations of Wrath. A Slave that hath committed a Fault expects no other than to be punished for it without Mercy So those that lie under this slavish Fear apprehend and account of God no otherwise than the slothful Servant as a severe Lord and a cruel Tyrant that will exact Punishment from them to the utmost of their Deserts they expect no other but that certainly God's Wrath will kindle upon them and burn them eternally and this makes them live as the Apostle speaks in Heb. 10.27 In certain fearful Expectations of Wrath and Indignation that shall devour them as Adversaries This kind of horrid Fear I doubt not but is common to most wicked Men and though they brave it out and most of them speak high Matters of their hopes of Heaven and Salvation yet at the same time their own Hearts and Consciences tell them sad and misgiving Stories of Hell and everlasting Wrath. But now a true and filial Fear of God looks at the Wrath of God with Dread and Terror but not with Expectation there 's the Difference Slavish Fear looks upon the Wrath of God and expects it Filial Fear looks upon it as due but not with Expectations that it should be inflicted upon it 2. Slavish Fear is accompanied with hatred of God 2. Slavish Fear is always accompanied with some degree of Enmity and Hatred against God It is natural for us to hate those that we fear with a slavish Fear He that thinks God will certainly punish him must out of self-love needs be provoked to hate God Hence is it that the Soul that lies under the Terrors of the Law wisheth that there was no such thing as Hell and eternal Damnation nay that there was no God to inflict this upon it This proceeds from this slavish Fear of God But now a reverent Fear of God is joined with a holy Love as Children who love their Parents but yet stand in awe of them So much for the Concomitants of this Fear 2. They differ in their Effects Secondly For their Effects and that both as to Sin and as to Duty 1. As to Sin 1. As to Sin Slavish Fear dreads nothing but Hell and Punishment but godly Fear dreads Sin it self The one fears only to burn the other fears for to sin As Austin saith well He fears Hell only who fears not to sin but fears to burn but he fears to sin who hates sin as he would hate Hell 2. Slavish Fear usually restrains only from external and those also the more gross and notorious Acts of sin but holy Fear over-awes the Heart from inward and secret Sins yea from the least Sins whatsoever And then as for Duty also 2. As to Duty in two Things briefly First A slavish Fear of God makes Men to consult how they may fly from God As Adam did when he had brought Guilt upon his Conscience by his Fall he hides himself from God in the Garden Guilt loves not the presence of its Judge But godly Fear is still exciting the Soul to approach near to God in Duty And therefore David saith Psal 5.7 In thy Fear will I worship towards thy holy Temple The Fear of God encourageth the Soul in the performance of Duty Secondly Slavish Fear contents it self with external Performances Just so much as will serve the turn to satisfie the Demands of Conscience but holy Fear sanctifies the Lord in Duty as well as satisfies Conscience And therefore you have it in Isa 8.13 Sanctify the Lord of Host in your Hearts and let him be your Fear and your Dread Thus much briefly for the difference betwixt filial and slavish Fear Use 1 I come now to the Application And the first Use shall be by way of Corollary If the consideration of God as a consuming Fire ought to affect the most assured Christian with a holy Fear and Dread of God how much more then may it shrink and shrivel up the Hearts of ungodly Sinners If it make God's own Children to tremble to look into Hell and to see those heaps of miserable Wretches that are there burning for ever shall it not much more make you to tremble who are liable every moment to be bound in Bundles and to be cast in to burn among them When a City is on Fire it is terrible to see it rage afar off to see it spue up Smoak and Flames tho' at a distance and he that is not affected with it is Inhuman but he is more than stupid that doth not tremble to see it devour whole Streets before it ruining all till it approach near his own Dwelling Why Sirs this consuming Fire hath already seized upon Millions of others and burnt them down into the lowest Hell Do not you hear Dives in the Gospel cry Fire Fire The greatest part of the World is already burnt down and if their Case makes not your Hearts to shake and tremble yet methinks your own should This Fire is catching and kindling upon your Souls and the next moment may make you Brands in Hell But alas what hope is there to affright Men that are fast asleep Such a dead Security hath seized upon the Hearts of most that it is almost impossible to rouze them and but little hope but that they will be burnt in this their Sleep Yet if it may be possible to awaken you consider 1. God's Wrath against Sinners makes him terrible to his Saints First That it is only God's Wrath against Sinners that makes him terrible to his Saints They are afraid of that fiery Indignation that burned against the Wicked and shall not the Wicked then much more be afraid that must
The Fear of being judged by God at the Tribunal of Christ at the last Day engaged the Apostle to labour to please God and to be accepted by him 5. The Fear of God is an excellent Corrective of the base and degenerous Fear of Men. Fifthly The Fear of God is an excellent Corrective of the base and degenerous Fear of Men. Our Saviour says Luke 12.4 Be not afraid of them that can kill the Body and after that have no more that they can do but fear him who after he hath killed hath power to cast into Hell yea I say unto you fear him It is well observed by a learned Author that Men may be considered either as they bear upon them some resemblance and impress of the divine Majesty as they are invested with Authority and Power and constituted Magistrates and Rulers over us This resemblance is so great that the Scripture stiles them Gods I have said ye are Gods and so we are to fear them with a Fear of Reverence and Obedience and to obey them in that which is lawful And they may be considered also as standing in opposition to God abusing their Power by commanding things that are unlawful and by Persecution endeavouring to terrifie Men from the Ways and Service of God And so they may be feared with a Fear of flight and eschewal When ye are persecuted in one City flee you to another Matth. 10.23 We may so fear them as to labour to avoid their Rage and to consult our own Safety But the Fear that is here forbidden is Fear not them that can kill the Body that is with a distrustful perverting Fear such a Fear as causeth Men for the securing of their temporal Life to desert the Profession and Practice of Godliness with such a Fear Fear not Men. He will not that truly fears God thus fear Men no the Fear of God lays a check upon this sinful Fear of Men he that truly fears God will not immoderately fear Men for it is the property of holy Fear to represent the displeasure of God as an infinitely greater Evil than the loss of Estate Liberty nay of Life it self or whatever the Rage and Power of Man can either inflict or threaten and this makes them choose Affliction rather than Sin See this fearless Spirit in those three Heroick Champions Dan. 3.16 Dan. 3.16 who though they saw a burning fiery Furnace before them into which they were threatned to be cast yet all the Terrors of it did not fright them to an Idolatrous Worship with what a holy Contempt and Slighting did they answer King Nebuchadnezar We are not careful say they to answer thee in this matter And whence proceeded this undaunted Courage but only because they were more afraid of God who is a consuming Fire than they were of a fiery Furnace A Man that truly fears God reputes with himself that to gain the favour of Men with the displeasure of God to redeem a temporal Life by an eternal Death is the foolishest Bargain that can be made he knows the rage of Man is under the restraint of God and that a Hair of his Head shall not fall to the Ground without his heavenly Father's Knowledge and Permission and if God doth suffer wicked Men to inflict the utmost that their Rage and Spight can prompt them unto yet it reacheth only their earthly part the dull part of Man the Body they may persecute torment and kill us but yet they cannot hurt us one momentany Gripe of Hells Torments is infinitely more intolerable than all the Cruelties that Men can possibly invent or inflict one Frown from an angry God hath more Dread and Terror in it than all the Rage and Threatnings of the most barbarous and cruel Tyrants and that Christian that makes such an account as this is can never certainly so fear Torment or Death as to be drawn to Sin against God whose Displeasure he more fears than he fears either Torment or Death Now to shut up this whole Subject What there is in God that may affect us with an Awe and Fear of him I shall only briefly mention a few Particulars to you whereby you may take a brief View of what there is in the Nature of God that may justly affect us with a holy Fear and Awe of him First 1. His glorious Majesty The Consideration of God's glorious Majesty may strike us into a holy Dread and Terror And therefore says Job 33.22 With God is terrible Majesty Job 33.22 This is that which daunts the holy Angels in Heaven they cover their Faces with their Wings as not being able to bear the piercing Rays of that Glory wherewith he is cloathed An earthly Prince when he is set forth in the Royalty and Grandeur of his State casts an awe upon those that approach near him And how much more ought we to fear the great and glorious Majesty of Heaven who is always clad with Light as with a Garment that Light which no mortal Eye can approach being always surrounded with an innumerable Host of glittering Attendance each of which maintains more Pomp and State than the greatest Potentate on Earth 2. His Almighty Power Secondly God's Almighty Power should cause us to fear before him He is the uncontroulable Sovereign of all the World to whose Beck all things in Heaven and in Earth yea and in Hell too are subject and therefore says Job 25.2 Job 25.2 Dominion and Fear are with him not that God hath any Fear or stands in Fear but the Dominion and Sovereignity of God causeth Fear it strikes the Heart with an awful Fear when we consider that Dominion and Fear are with God That Power and Authority of God by which he exerciseth his Dominion causeth a Fear of him 3. His severe Justice Thirdly The severe and impartial Justice of God whereby he renders to every one according to his Works this should kindle in us a holy Fear of God So the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.10 11. 2 Cor. 5.10 11. We must receive says he according to what we have done in the Body Whence he infers That knowing the Terrors of the Lord we persuade Men. It is terrible to receive from God's Justice according to what we have done in the Body Fourthly 4. His Omnisciency and Omnipresence The Consideration of God's Omnipresence and Omnisciency may cause in us a holy Fear of him His Eye is always upon us his Presence is always with us where-ever we are and he sees and observes what-ever we do and therefore let us fear him his Eye is awful Fifthly 5. Our absolute dependance upon him The consideration of our absolute dependance upon God should cause us to stand in Fear of him left by provoking him who maintains our Souls in Life in whom we live and move and have our beings in whose Hands are our Breath our Life and all our Ways he should turn his Hand upon us and deprive
any thing from the piercing discovery of his Eye He knows our Thoughts those Nimble and those Spiritual Things that are so quick in their flight that they cannot be seized upon by any Creature in the World God knows them the Devil cannot know them nor can an Angel know them yet God discerns our Thoughts more clearly than we can discern the Faces of one another he sees our Thoughts afar off as the Psalmist tells us he sees our Thoughts in their first Conception when they first begin to heave in our Breasts he knows the least Windings and Turnings of our Souls Now would not this compose us to an habitual and holy Awe of God to be continually thinking that whatsoever we do God's Eye is now upon us Let every one say within himself Where-ever I am or whatever I do I am in the Presence of the Holy God who takes notice of all my Carriages there is not a Glance of mine Eye but his Eye observes it there is not an irreverent or unseemly Gesture but he takes notice of it there is not a Thought of mine can escape but he knows that Thought and he knows my Down-lying and Vp-rising c. Let this Consideration season your Lives and Conversations be still pondering in your Minds That whatsoever you are doing his Eye is upon you and he is present with you Secondly Consider That God not only sees into all you do but he sees it to that very end that he may examine and search into it He doth not only behold you with a common and indifferent Look but with a searching watchful and inquisitive Eye he pries into the Reasons the Motives the Ends of all your Actions Psal 11.4 it is said The Lord's Throne is in Heaven his Eyes behold his Eye-lids try the Children of Men. Rev. 1.14 where Christ is described it is said His Eyes are as a Flame of Fire You know the Property of Fire is to search and make trial of those things that are exposed unto it and to separate the Dross from the pure Metal So God's Eye is like Fire to try and examine the Actions of Men he knows and discerns how much your very purest Duties have in them of mixture and base ends of Formality Hypocrisie Distractedness and Deadness he sees through all your Specious Pretences that which you cast as a Mist before the Eyes of Men when yet thou art but a Juggler in Religion all your Tricks and Sleights of Outward Profession all those things that you use to cozen and delude Men withal they cannot possibly impose upon him he is a God that can look through all those Fig-leaves of Outward Profession and discern the Nakedness of your Duties through them In the last place Thirdly God tries all your Cases and Actions in order to an Eternal Judgment and Sentence to be passed upon them This Consideration might damp the stoutest Sinner's Heart in the whole World Believe it Sirs God doth not only see your ways but he sees them so as to remember them against you another day though you have forgot what you have thought and what you have spoken and what you have done yet God for ever remembers them and at that day he will sadly recall all these things again to your remembrance Oh! that therefore this might prevail with you so to do every thing as being now already under the Eye of God and shortly must be under his Doom and Sentence Now if God should send an Angel to stand at our Backs and tell us whatever we are doing this Action of ours we must be judged for it should make us fearful of sinning as that Angel himself True we have no such Monitor but our Conscience performs to us the same Office Therefore charge it upon your Consciences that they still put you in mind of God that he sees you that he will judge you and that he always looks upon you and writes down in those Eternal Leaves of his Memorial-Book whatsoever proceeds from you either in Duties of Religion or the Actions of your Ordinary Course and Conversation Therefore because he is Omnipresent and sees all things stand in awe of his Omnisciency whereby he sees whatsoever we do and whereby he will try and judge us at the last day FINIS Books Printed for Jonathan Robinson ANnotations on the Holy Bible as also a Survey of the same by way of Supplement to the Annotations By S. 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follow them They rest from their Labours First They rest from their Labour in working under Affliction 1. No Affliction in Heaven Sometimes Afflictions are Spurs and Incentives and sometimes they are Burthens and Discouragements to Obedience But when we arrive at Heaven we shall no longer need the Spur to quicken us nor shall we any longer bare that Burthen to oppress us but cast it down at Heavens Gate where never Sorrow nor Suffering durst yet appear And 2. No Desertion in Heaven Secondly In Heaven you shall rest from your Labour in working under Desertion Now though you do work yet it may be you apprehend God frowning upon you and finding fault with all that you do Now it may be though God doth cause the clear Light of his Precepts and Spirit to shine before you to direct you what your Work is that you should do yet he makes it dismal Darkness behind you and shuts up the Light of his Comfort that you cannot see what Work you have done and this is your great Trouble you work and labour and yet you know not whether you shall be accepted Obedience were easy and pleasant Work says the Soul if I knew that God did regard me but alas I pray and he shuts out my Prayer from him I lay hold upon him but he shakes me off in displeasure I obey but he rejects all my Services and this is the Anguish and Torture of my Life This indeed is Matter of great Grief and Trouble But know Oh Soul thou shalt not long work thus in the dark shortly thou shalt be above these Clouds and then thou shalt see that those Prayers that thou thought'st were vainly scatter'd and lost in the Air are become a Cloud of sweet Incense hovering before the Throne of God And those Tears that thou thought'st were dropt in vain upon the Earth are all gathered up and preserved in God's Bottle And those poor Duties of thine that for their own meanness and vileness thou thought'st God would scorn yet thro' that worth that is put upon them by the Intercession of Christ are ranked in the same degree of Acceptation as the most perfect Services of the Angels themselves are Have but patience a while and continue working and thou shalt see a happy Issue when the Clouds of Darkness and Desertion that now lie upon thy Spirit shall be all scattered and blown away 3. In Heaven there is Rest from Sin Thirdly You shall also rest from your Labour in working against the continual Workings of your own Corruptions which shall then at once both cease to act and cease to be And this indeed is the great Thing that makes it such a blessed Rest to the People of God Indeed God cuts you out your Work in his Commands but it is the old Man within you that makes it to be tedious irksome and difficult unto you God makes it not so but your Corruption makes it so and this it doth two ways First By deadning your Heart to it And Secondly By turning your Heart against it Deadness and dulness to and averseness from the ways of holy Obedience are the greatest cause of all that Toil and Pains that most take in the Work and Service of God if ever they will bring it to a good issue Now both these shall shortly cease and be removed if you but wait and continue striving against them 1. In Heaven there is Rest from labouring with a dead heart in the ways of God First You shall rest from all that Labour that you take with a dead and heavy Heart in the ways of God Now you are continually calling upon it Awake awake my Glory now you are continually tugging of it to get it a little more forward lifting of it up to get it a little higher towards God and Heaven Now you stand in need of continual quickning Grace to actuate and excite those Lumps of Lead that lie heavy within your Breasts and it is the greatest disquietment of your Lives that you find your Hearts so heartless and listless to what is holy and spiritual It is with them as with some great Bells that you must pull long at the Rope before you can make them sound Is not this the daily Complaint of God's Children that their Hearts are dull and heavy and they cannot raise them and this makes the ways of Obedience yea this makes their very Lives become burthensome Well have but patience for a while and continue still to struggle against this sad Indisposition and it will not be long before you shall rest from this Labour also Though now you are as Birds whose Bodies are too heavy for their Wings when you stretch them forth and would fain be soaring up to Heaven you can only run up and down and flutter upon the Earth yet shortly these heavy and cloggy Bodies shall fall off and you shall be all Wing free from all Deadness and Straitness Distraction and Weariness in the Ways of God that now afflict you Then shall your Affections be always intent and not languish always burning and yet never waste nor consume every Motion of your Soul shall then shoot themselves to God as quick as the Lightning and yet constant as the Sun-beams And those who are now out-stript by weak and underling Christians shall then be able to keep pace in their Obedience even with the Holy Angels themselves 2. In Heaven there shall be a resting from the opposition of our Heart against Duty And then Secondly In Heaven there shall be a resting from all that Labour that the People of God now take in the ways of holy Obedience through the averseness of their Hearts from them and the opposition of their Hearts against them There is that contradiction in the carnal part against what is holy and spiritual that the Godly cannot bring themselves to the performance of it without much Strife and Contention the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and when the spiritual part calleth for holy Thoughts and heavenly Affections the corrupt and fleshy part sends forth noisome and stinking Vapours obstructing the Good that we would do and infecting that little Good that we do perform So that as if working were not a sufficient Imployment a Christian must Fight that he may Work and this is it that makes working for Salvation so laborious because we must Fight and Work at once But it shall not be long before that which hinders shall be removed and then as you are not under a sad necessity of offending God so also you shall be under a most blessed necessity of serving God and shall find no more trouble in that Service than in those Actions which you now cannot but do And thus shall you have a happy Rest from all that Labour and Pains that your Corruptions here made you take And therefore be incouraged to persevere in well-doing perfect the Work you have undertaken in spight of all opposition from your own corrupt Hearts
my Soul burn not as clear and bright in Love as my Body in the Flames it availeth me nothing I burn only what was dead before and offer a Carkass instead of a Sacrifice There is no Work or Duty how specious soever that is of any profit to the Soul if that Work or Duty hath not the Life and Power of some Grace or other expressed in it Well then this is the first Ground why Works without Grace are fruitless because they are empty and liveless Grace is the Life and Spirit of good Works Secondly All Works and Duties whatever without Grace leave the Heart in the same estate of Sin and therefore the Person in the same estate of Wrath and Condemnation as before For First All of them are not a sufficient expiation for the guilt of any one Sin Should such Men pray and sigh till their Breath were turned into a Cloud and covered the Face of the whole Sky Should they weep till they drown'd themselves in their own Tears yet if all this could be supposed to be only the remorse of Nature and not true and godly Sorrow they would still be under the same state of Condemnation as the most feared Sinner in the World The Prophet Micah tells of some that bid very high for Pardon and Forgiveness as if they were resolved to carry it at any rate whatever Wherewith say they Micah 6.6 7. shall we come before the Lord and bow our selves before the most-high God Shall we come before him with burnt Offerings and with Calves of a Year old Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams and with ten thousands of Rivers of Oil Shall we give our First-born for our Transgressions the Fruit of our Bodies for the Sin of our Souls What high Rates are here bidden and yet all this falls short There is but one Grace and that is Faith that can give us a Right and Title to that Righteousness that shall be a sufficient Expiation and Attonement for all our Sins Secondly All Attainments and Attempts all Endeavours and Duties without Grace can never mortifie and subdue the Power and Dominion of any one Lust or Corruption Men may divert and chain and restrain their Corruptions and impale in their Lusts so that they shall not break forth into any outragious Wickedness but yet without Grace they can never subdue them because it is Grace alone that can lay the Ax to the Root of this evil Tree Well then notwithstanding all that hath been said concerning the Power of Nature what Men may do thereby and how far they may go yet here you see what Impotency there is in Nature without Grace and what it cannot reach to perform But now this is not spoken that hereby any should be discouraged from Working and because some doubt of the Truth of their Graces that therefore they should desist from a course of Holiness and Obedience this were plainly to thwart the whole design of this Subject No all that hath been said is to persuade Men not to rest satisfied in any Work of Obedience or Religion in which some Grace is not breathed or exercised nor to look upon them at all as inductive to Salvation as in themselves but as in reference to true Grace How many poor Souls are there who because they run on in a round of Duties because they do something that they call good Works think that Salvation is as sure their own as if all the Promises in the Scripture were sealed and delivered to them by God himself And yet poor Creatures never examine or regard from what Principle this their Obedience flows whether from a Principle of Grace or from the old corrupt Principle of Nature new-vampt from some new Operations of the common Spirit Believe it this is not that Obedience that God requires nor that he will accept an inward Groan if breathed by Grace is of more account with God and will be more available to the Soul than the most pompous and specious Services of unregenerate Men. What is it to God when you offer not only the Blind and the Lame but the Dead also Is it not rather an Abomination than Obedience The Apostle tells us Without Works Jam. 3.20 Faith is dead And it is as true on the other side also that Works without Faith and other Graces of the Spirit are not only dead but rotten and noisome Every Duty Men perform in a graceless State and Condition God must needs loath it and them for it The Prayer of the Wicked is an Abomination unto the Lord. Prov. 28.9 It is as hateful unto God as Vapors that ascend up out of Tombs from putrified Bodies are unto us What then must such Persons give up themselves to Sin therefore God forbid No rather let such think thus if our Duties and our Righteousness be so loathsome what are our Sins and Iniquities Though every Sinner be dead in Sins and Trespasses yet is it less offensive to have a dead Carkass embalmed than to have it lie open Still therefore continue working but in your working First aim at the obtaining of Grace before you aim at the obtaining of Heaven and Salvation let it at no time content you that such and such Duties you have performed but look what Grace have you acted in them what is there of God breathing in this Prayer that I now put up How am I in Hearing in Meditation in Discoursing of the Things of God Is my Heart holy and spiritual Are my Affections pure and fervent Are my Graces active and vigorous And are they vigorous in this Work of Obedience Else to perform Duties and to neglect Grace that alone can inable us to perform Duties acceptably is only to go to Hell a little more cleanly Secondly Direct 2. If you would work out your own Salvation as you must look to the actings of Grace as well as to the performance of Duties so you must labour to grow and increase in those Graces that are most active and working and they are Two the Grace of Faith and the Grace of Love To grow strong in these Graces is the most compendious way for a Christian to dispatch his great Work I may call them the two Hands of a Christian and he that is most active in these works out his Salvation with both Hands earnestly First The actings of Faith is of mighty advantage to the working out of our Salvation Two Senses there are in which Salvation may be said to be wrought out First In Title And Secondly In actual Possession and Enjoyment Now Faith is a working out of the one and a compendious furtherance towards the working out of the other First Upon our believing Salvation is already wrought out for us in Right and Title He that believeth shall be saved here is the Title The great Work is then done and finished when once Faith is wrought And therefore when the Jews came to enquire of our Saviour John