Lord where we have first the Act serve and the Object about which it is conversant The Lord. The Act Serve The word Service as applyed to God or Christ is taken either more strictly for that service we perform when we are upon some part of his instituted worship as prayer hearing c. and so is enjoyned in the second Commandement and is so taken Acts 26. 7. Or else it is taken more largely for any duty of Christianity any action of mans life which he performes in obedience to the will of God and subordination to his glory and so it takes in all the other 9. commandements and is thus used Rom. 12. 11. And as I conceive also in the Text. Then for the Object The Lord. In the Heb. Jehovah And whether it is God the Father here spoken of or Christ who is the King mentioned before that was set up and the Son that is to be kissed though it is somwhat controverted among Expositors yet I think it not material to spend time about it seeing we cannot serve one aright but we must serve both the Son as in the Father and the Father as in the Son And then for the persons that are thus more particularly admonisht to serve the Lord they are Kings and Judges men that sit at the upper end of the world The eminency of their place doth not the more acquit them but rather the more ingage them to service Though they be Kings yet there is a King eminently above them from whom their power is derived upon them and therefore they must serve If they be Judges yet there is a Judg higher then they before whose tribunal they must stand and be judged and therefore they must be serving So that the main propositions from hence resulting which I shall insist upon is this Doct. That the great work that every man hath to do in this world especially those that are set down in places of power and seat of judgement is To be serviceable to the Lord. This is the work we come into the world for and if this be not done we shall give but a sad account of our lives to the Lord. God made all creatures for service the Sun Moon and Stars for service the Clouds the Air the Fire the Earth for service c. but much more Man And it is a monster in nature for the creature not to serve its end As for the Sun and Stars above to confine their light within themselves and not to send it down upon the world for the clouds to hold in their moisture and not to resolve it upon the earth for the earth to imprison its fatness and virtue within its selfe and not send it forth in grass corn and fruit for the use of man and beast would not this be a monstrous thing in the world So for man to be serving himself with those powers and abilities that God hath put into him and not the Lord is a thing as absurd and anomalous Look through the whole Creation you shall not find any creature that was made for it self every creature is serving some end without it self So is man much more made for an end without himself which is to serve the Lord. So that Right Honourable my work I come upon this day amongst you is to put you in mind of your Debt I mean that Homage Duty Service and Subjection which you all do owe to the Lord and which must be paid by every one of you for though the Debt of Satisfaction which through sin we owe to the justice of God he remit it for Christs sake to his people yet the Debt of Service which we owe to his glory he neither hath remitted it or ever will remit it to any of the sons of men But that we may a little understand what it is to serve the Lord take this twofold distinction There is a serving God either mediately or more immediately First As to the Mediate Service The whole Creation serveth God by and through man the creatures without reason without sence and without life do serve their Creator as they hold forth to man such footsteps of his glory wherein he may admire praise and glorifie him The greatness of the works of God shew forth his greatness their beauty his beauty their perfection his perfection their order and workmanship his infinite wisdom their course and motion his providence in the world Or else they serve God through man as they serve to maintain him in his Life and Being which being maintained are to be subordinated to the Lord and to his service The Sun sends down its influence that man might live the clouds distil their moisture that man might live the Sea sends forth its waters that man might live the Earth brings forth its fruit that man might live all do serve the life of man that the life of man might serve the Lord. 2. There is a more immediate serving God and so there are but two sorts of creatures Angels and Men whose service can immediaâ—ely refer to God For no other creatures are capable of an immediate application of themselves to him They have not understanding to know him Wills to close with him and so not capable of applying themselves to him or looking at him in any thing they do The second Distinction is this There is a serving the Lord ex Intentione and praeter Intentionem 1. Praeter Intentionem or accidental as to him that serveth and so wicked men who thought of nothing less then serving God yet have eminently served him As Nebuchadnezar King of Babylon served a great service for God against Tyrus Ezek 29. 18 19 20. and God gave him the land of Egypt for his wages though he intended nothing less then to serve God in that Designe And so the King of Assyria was employed by God to execute his vengeance upon the hypocritical Nation of the Jews Howbeit saith the Text he meaneth not so neither doth his heart think so as you read Isa 10. 6 7. And so when Baasha executed the vengeance threatned upon the house of Jeroboam 1 King 15. 29. and when Zimri executed the vengeance threatned upon Baâ—sha 1 Kings 16. 12. and when Jehu executed the judgement of God upon the house of Ahab it was service done for God though they did not do it with an intention of serving him yea the most eminent Prophesies upon Record have been fulfilled besides the intention of the instruments As that of Christ's being crucified for the redeeming of the world Pilate and the Jews thought of nothing less then the fulfilling the counsel of the Lord in what they did or in serving his decrees or his glory therein though they were eminently served hereby 2. There is a serving God ex Intentione when the mind and heart of man respect God in what he doth And this is the service that God calls for and the Text calls for and doth alone find acceptance with God Now to this
found out in the whole Creation that any creature which God had made maintained and shewed his power and goodness in should rebel against him O Heavens Is there any such thing to be found with you O Earth Is there any such thing to be found in thee May not the Heavens and the Luminaries above rise up against man and say We have observed our place kept our distances runs our race poured down our influences according to the Law set us in our Creation May not the Earth rise up and say I have stood firm upon my Basis I have brought forth my increase I have been serviceable to man's being and man's dâ—light by those varieties of fruits I have brought forth to him sweet to his taste fragrant to his smâ—ll and beautiful to his fight and that with a new Edition every year Here are now the creatures serving thee O man and what art not thou serving the Lord Do they hand up that service which they owe to thee and wilt not thou hand up that service which thou owest to God Shall the work stick at thee What at thee It is observable that which we read in Gen. 1. That God did not say of the works that he had made that they were very good until he had made man he saw them to be good before but now very good for God had now made a creature that was to be the lord of the Creation and that was made capable of bringing in to him the glory of his works and so took the greater pleasure in them upon that account and therefore man ought to be careful that God be not disappointed in him Thirdly It is mans Excellency and Glory to serve the Lord. The excellency of every thing lies in its serving its end as of a knife in cutting a pen in writing c. Now man being made for the Lord as his end it is his excellency to be serving him It is natural to man to seek after Excellency Omne desiderium ad superiora tendit Some men seek for it in a great estate others in Rule and Dominion others in Wisdom and Learning c. according to mens several Constitutions and Apprehensions so they seek after several excellencies but true excellency consists in a mans upright and faithful serving his End He that doth most eminently serve the Lord in his generation this man doth most excel Solomon saith Prov. 12. 26. The righteous is more excellent thâ—n his Neighbour and this is the thing wherein he excels because it is he only that is serving the Lord. In other things his neighbour may excel him The commendation that God gives to Moses at his Funeral was this that he was the servant of the Lord Gen. 34. 5 6. So Moses the servant of the Lord died and he buried him in a Valley in the land of Moab c. The Spirit of God might have stiled him Moses the Honourable Moses the Prince Moses the Scholar Moses the Beautiful But this was Moses his chief excellency that he was the Servant of the Lord. Though other excellencies may commend man more to the world yet this is that which commends man to God Fourthly Consider this not to serve the Lord is the highest Injustice We with-hold that from God which is his Due For service is a debt that we owe him and shall we dare to rob God What saith the Prophet Malachy chap. 3. ver 8. Will a man rob God Scarce could there be found among the Heathen any so profane and sacrilegious as to dare to rob their gods though they were but dumb Idols and shall any man dare then to rob the living God To give away that service to Mammon to Satan to encroaching lusts which of due belongs unto him Give unto Caesar the things which are Caesars and unto God the things that are Gods Caesar expects to have his due if men do not give it Caesar will take it and what then shall not God much more have his due And will he not severely require it at their hands that do with-hold it Parliaments are the Supreme Courts of Justice the Fountains from whence Justice and Judgement are to run down like a stream throughout the Nation and shall you Right Honourable you that are Fountains of Justice be guilty of that high Injustice your selves as not to resign up your selves and all that you are and have to the service of God which is the debt you owe him and the Due he expects from you Fifthly Again Consider this for I yet speak to you as men if ye do not serve the Lord this is that which will destroy you for if a thing will not serve its end we cast it away If a Pen will not write if a Knife will not cut if a Needle will not sowe we cast them away for what are they good for when they do not serve their End So when we plant a Tree to bring forth Fruit and it become barren we cut it down and make fuel of it for the fire it doth not answer our end So hath God made man to be as a Tree of Righteousness to bring forth the fruit of service and obedience to him and if he proves barren and serves not God's end Will he not say as Christ of the barren Fig-tree Cut it down Why cumbreth it the ground Luke 13. 7. Those men shall become fuel to God's Justice that will not be servants to his will and glory Was not this that which destroyed the old World The Lord had made man to serve himself but when the Lord saw that mankind was degenerated and that they were become a generation of Rebels the Lord repented that he made him as we repent of any work we have done when therein we do not attain our end And hereupon it was that God destroyed him from off the face of the Earth It is a true saying In nihilum valet quod non valet in finem suum That is good for nothing that doth not avail to its end So that as we would not be cast away and cut down and destroyed it doth concern us to be careful that we serve our end which is to serve the Lord. Sixthly In the next place consider If a man doth not serve the Lord he is spending his money for that which is not bread and his labour for that which satisfieth not For if a man doth not serve the Lord the fruit that he will reap of all his other service will not satisfie him Every man expects when he comes to receive the fruit of his travel to find somthing that may be as bread for his foul to feed upon and be satisfied now no travel no labour but that which is expended in serving God will bring in that fruit which may give rest to the soul of man because it can fetch him in but some Finite good which is too narrow to satisfie the soul Solomon in the Book called the Ecclesiastes gives us a Catalogue
so deeply interested that our motion may not be Retrograde and we loose the things that we have wrought As also for the carrying on your affairs at Sea and the war wherein you are ingaged with Spain wherein you would ask counsel from Heaven this day it is not for me to advise any thing in these things they being so much out of my sphaere I shall only say The Lord direct you Yet only this I shall say that the Monarchy you have to do against is deeply defiled with blood and with that blood which hath the loudest cry and when its iniquity is at the full and its defence taken off it shall be as Caleb said of the Canaanites but as bread for those Instruments that God shall employ to take vengeance Only let me bold humbly to advise you as that which is of the greatest concernment to the success of your Affairs That you would Interest God as much as may be in them all For seeing you are men that do pretend to God in what you do and have his Name upon you you are to expect your success to come in not in a common way of Providence but in a way of prayer faith and sincere serving him in all your undertakings This is the third Inference Fourthly I shall infer somthing by way of Tryal in a word or two that we may a little know our own hearts and whom we are serving whether our selves or the Lord. You may know it First by this If you serve the Lord in what you do then you expect your Reward principally from him for the thing or the person that man is serving from the same doth he expect his reward He that is serving man expects his reward from man He that is serving mammon from mammon he looks for his reward And he that is serving the Lord he expects also his chief reward from the Lord And the sence of that reward which he shall have from God is the motive that quickens him more in his work then any he may receive from man Secondly He that serves the Lord in what he doth hath his eye upon him as his ultimate end He that looks no farther then himself this man is serving himself let his work be what it will be as I said before But when the Lord is Finis operis the end of the work or at least Finis operantis the end of him that worketh then is the Lord served Lastly He that serves the Lord he endeavours to manage his work so as it may be most serviceable to him If a Minister uprightly serve the Lord he will preach the Word and manage the whole course of his Ministry not in such a way as may be most pleasing to men but most to the good of souls and the honour and service of Christ And so I may say of Magistrates and of private Christians if they are serving the Lord they then will so endeavour to act and so steer the whole course of their life as that the Lord may be most served and honoured by them Vse 5 The last thing I infer from the Doctrine is encouragement and comfort to the good and faithful servant The service of the Lord though we may suffer reproach in it yet it is the most honourable and loss in it yet it is the most gainful and pain and trouble in it yet it is the most pleasant service in the world Ah much honoured Senators you that are in the integrity of your hearts serving the Lord besides all that peace and pleasure that you may have at present there is a day coming wherein all your service and labour of love will be returned into your Bosoms an hundred fold Oh how honourably doth that man live and how blessedly shall that man die that hath been doing the Lord's work in the world Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord c. for they rest from their labours and their works follow them Rev. 14. 13. their works are ceased as to the labour of them but follow them and will be with them for ever as to the reward of them The rich mans riches shall not follow him the voluptuous mans pleasures shall not follow him nor the honours of the honourable shall not follow them but the faithful servants works shall follow him and be with him for ever It is said of David that after he had served his generation according to the will of God he fell asleep Acts 13. 36. How sweetly may that man lay himself down in the sleep of death that hath in his life been serving his generation according to the will of God The Lord himself will give Testimony to such a man as he doth to the faithful servant in the Parable VVell done thou good and faithful servant For a Magistrate for a Minister Mat. 25. 21. for a Christian to have an Euge from Christ for the Lord himself to give an honourable Testimony to a man and his service is the truest honour and the highest commendation And though he be but a servant yet his Master will make him sharer with himself and that in the best thing which he hath which is his joy Enter thou into thy Masters joy And is not this enough to encourage you But yet if a bigger word then this can be spoken we have an expression or two falling from Christ's own mouth and recorded by Luke chap. 12. which I cannot think of without wonder The one you find in the 43 44. verses Blessed is that servant whom the Lord when he cometh shall find so doing Of a truth I say unto you that he will make him Ruler over all that he hath Can any thing be spoken more Yes in ver 37. we have a greater word then this which I durst not have spoke if Christ had not spoken it himself Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching Verily I say unto you he shall gird himself and make them to sit down to meat and will come forth and serve them In the former expression he saith That all that he hath shall be at their service and that is very much But in this latter he saith a great deal more That he himself will gird himself and put himself as into the posture of a servant and come forth and serve them And now Beloved who would not be the Lord's servant And thus I have spoken to the matter of the counsel here given to the Kings and Judges of the Earth which is to Serve the Lord. I shall next in a word speak to the manner how the Lord is to be served and that the Text saith is with Fear Serve the Lord with fear Though they are Kings and Judges and are a Terror to others yet even they must serve the Lord with fear and though they are men that usually have the greatest defence about them yet lie as open and naked to God as any others and therefore must serve with fear Quest But
THE FAITHFUL And Wise Servant Discovered in a Sermon preached to the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England Scotland and Ireland at their late private Fast in the Parliament House Jan. 9. 1656. By Matthew Barker a Servant of Christ and his Church in the work of the Ministry at Leonards Eastcheap London And his Lord said unto him Well done thou good and faithful servant Matth. 25. 21. Keep therefore and do my STATVTES and JVDGEMENTS for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the Nations which shall hear all these Statutes and say Surely this great Nation is a wise and understanding People LONDON Printed by J. Macock for Luke Fawn and are to be sold at his Shop at the Signe of the Parrot in Pauls Church-yard 1657. To the Truly Honourable the Parliament of the Common-wealth of England Scotland and Ireland THE Great Lesson that the Lord hath been teaching man in all Ages which alas he hath yet but a little learned is That he is nothing without God David sought to teach his Son Solomon this in that Psalm that he composed on purpose for him Except the Lord build the House they labour in vain that build it Except the Lord keep the City the Watchman waketh but in vain Salomon he knew was to succeed him in his Throne and to have affairs of a Publique and weighty Import in his hands and therefore would have him well digest this first and best Rule in Christian Policy That the creature acts in all things in vain wherein it acts without God No rule is more needful for Magistrates to learn and which when once well learned and well practised will of all other things if the world could but once believe it most avail to the prosperity and success of their Affairs When God called Gideon forth to a Publique Work he first tells him he would be with him and then adds Go forth in This thy might If the Creature goes forth in any might but this it is a poor weak thing It is Recorded in Sacred Story that the Israelites followed Saul trembling when he went to Battel against the Philistims They thought they should be strong and victorious when they had gotten a King and no sooner had they him but they follow him trembling Such will all creature strength be to us it cannot deliver us from Fear and Falling or be a Rock to the heart of Man Your deep sense of this Right Honourable was that which I suppose moved you to set apart a day for a more solemn seeking Aid and Counsel from God and wherein you was pleased to call for my poor Service in that days work together with two others far more able That we might do for you according to what Jonathan did to David when he was in streights in the Wilderness of Ziph strengthen your hands in God You were then as in a Wilderness and you did not clearly see your way but have your hands been since more strengthned in God You was pleased to command for so is your Desire to me that I should speak somthing from the Lord to you and what I spake as it was calculated for your Meridian so I intended it for no wider a Sphaere then the Walls of your own House But seeing you are pleased to call for it to walk abroad I have obeyed you though not without some reluctance The Work you met upon was Serious and the Day Solemn so that I durst not but preach plainly as those will find that read Only I must acquaint you that the latter end of the Sermon I preached not because I was prevented by the time chusing rather to be abrupt then tedious Which indeed was a further Motive to me to yeild it to the Press and that I might present that to your Eyes which I could not then present to your Earâ— And here and there I have added somthing above what I spake as being then compelled to shorten where I could with least loss So that this I can say I have presented you with a fuller expression of what was in my thoughts and papers in the Sermon as Printed then the Sermon as Preached VVhat-ever it is though it shews forth much of my weakness yet I assure you it shews forth my hearty willingness to serve Christ and to serve you in a subordination unto him One generation passeth to make way for another and so men serving their generations have past away that others might come in Moses was taken off that Joshua might come in and David to make way for Salomon And so other Powers and Parliaments have past away to make room for you And now ye are upon the Stage and therefore endeavour to Act Nobly to Act Gallantly as standing in the view not of men only but of God and that when you go off you may go off with the Applause I will not say of men but of God himself There is a Providence that orders in what Generation every man shall be brought forth and therefore every man should be enquiring why was I brought forth in this generation and not another And what is the work of this Generation wherein the Lord expects that I should come forth and serve him And it is Satans design and policy to amuse men about other work that concerns them not that so he might divert them from that which is their proper work And shall I be bold here Honoured Gentlemen to put you in mind of that which I hear hath been some time already under your consideration and that is to do something toward the payment of the debts that are yet behind upon the Publique faith especially to the poorer sort Many poor honest people live yet in hope that that Faith will not fail I know the wants and expences of the Nation are great yet Mercy and Justice never to this day did any wrong to a State The condition also of poor Prisoners that would pay if they could as I was solicited to present it before you so I humbly leave it to your Justice and Wisdom to consider of it I know also your work is great and God may cut out more work for you and for his people in this Nation ere long then they are â—â—t aware of Oh it is an happy thing to have Spirit fitted to what work God will engage us in And let us take heed that calm times do not make us secure and settle in the world You know when Sampson slept in Delilah's lap then he lost his strength and lost God and when he went to rouse up himself as at other times then he felt his weakness So if through security and lying in the lap of any beloved Delilah we do fall asleep we hazard the loss of our strength and the departing of God and then when we may be called forth to any work we may arise and think to prevaile as in the days of old when alas our strength is gone Oh be watchful faithful low
the World may offer yet God doth infinitely out-bid them what they offer is but a piece of light and fading vanity but what God offers is a weight an eternal weight of glory The Reward must needs be great because God rewards not only according to mans work but according to the riches of his own grace and bounty A great King accounts it his shame to give a mean reward he must do all things like himself It is said Heb. 11. 16. of those believing Patriarchs God was not ashamed to be called their God why for saith the Text he hath prepared for them a City that is if God had not well provided for them if he had not prepared a glorious habitation for them somewhat like himself he might have been ashamed to be called their God so This Reward excels in the sureness of it It will certainly come Though we may fail of success in our work yet we shall not misse the reward of it as the Prophet Isaiah speaks Isai 49. 4. I have laboured in vain there he mist his success yet my judgment is with the Lord and my works with my God there he finds the reward And it is the Apostles argument 1 Cor. 15. ult let us abound in the work of the Lord and the Argument is not only because there is a reward but the reward is sure as knowing that our labour is never in vain in the Lord. It is true God doth defer it at least the greatest part of it but why is it that he might learn us to live upon Trust He having given us such a sure promise he may presume that we have enough to support and encourage us though the reward be for a season deferred Therefore saith the Apostle Heb. 10. 35 Cast not away your confidence which hath great recompence of reward Oh but we do not see the recompence we possess it not therefore he adds yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry and the just shall live by faith 2. The second work of the spirit is a work of mortification Mans selfish nature must be mortified else he will be serving himself and not the Lord. That life in a believer that serves the Lord springs out of the death of his carnal life as man ceaseth to be his own so doth he come to serve the Lord and live to him The message that Moses carried to Pharaoh from the Lord was this Let my people go that they may serve me they must go out of the Land of Egypt and from under the power of Pharaoh that they might serve the Lord. So must man go out of that selfish nature that keeps him in bondage and out of the power of the infernal Pharaoh before he can be capable of serving God And this is done in us by the Spirit that smites those enemies that held us in bondage that we might go forth into the liberty of serving God pride must be smitten and self-love must be smitten and unbelief must be smitten c. before any man doth indeed enter into the Lords service No man saith Christ can serve two Masters especially two Masters whose commands are contradictory now every lust is a Master which man is serving and till the Spirit crucifie them man cannot be serving Jesus Christ 3. The third work is a work of renovation The faculties of the soul must pass under a spiritual renovation before they can be fit to serve the Lord. For I am not of their opinion who think that if lust be mortified the soul would of it self return into its primitive course as a river that is stopt if you remove the dam it runs of it self or a stone that hangs in the ayr by a string if you cut the string of it self it falls to the centre but there must be aliquid divinitus infusum a principle infused from above to act it towards the Lord and in his service Lust it is a confining thing it makes man dwell at home and serve himself but grace is enlarging it lets man out of himself and brings him home to the Lord and to the service of the Lord. He that is a fit servant for a Prince must have many accomplishments to fit him for it And so would I dwell here I might shew you how many things are necessary to accomplish a man for the Lords service as Faith Love Hope Humility Self denyal c. are all necessary that he may be a vessel of honour prepared for his Masters 2 Tim. 2. 21. use For natural accomplishments may fit a man for the service of man but man must be accomplisht from Heaven to fit him for the Lords service But I passe Use 2 That which I infer next from the Doctrine as more suitable to the day is matter of Lamentation Ah may we not mourn over our selves mourn over the City mourn over the Nation yea mourn over the world that that which is mans great work is laid aside as if it was none of his work at least other work hath the praeeminence Oh that the Devil that hath no true right to us for he neither made us nor bought us and that payes no wages but death and misery and that the lusts of the flesh to which as the Apostle saith we are no debtors yet these should have more real more free more chearful service then God then Christ to whom we are indebted by so manifold ingagements and obligations This is true but ah is it not sad Hath not Christ think you better deserved of the World Hath he not Might not Jesus Christ promise himself that after he had manifested such stupendious love as to lay down his life for an undone world that they should be so amazed so ravisht with this love as to be ambitious who should love him most and honour him most and serve him most that the very naming the name of Christ should be argument enough to provoke them to ingage in any service for him Yea and after he had laid down the price of his blood the greatest price that Heaven or Earth could give to purchase us might he not promise himself that the Sons of men would no longer be their own but his wholly his But alasse we see nothing lesse then this in the world Men after all this are their own live to themselves serve themselves and Christ and his service both are despised and rejected of men may not Heaven and Earth even tremble and be astonisht at this Or when men are serving Christ do they serve him with the best do they serve him with such life and vigour as they serve themselves and the world do not they bring him the lame the blind the torn the maymed as if any thing was good enough for Christ as Jeroboam made Priests of the lowest of the People so do men think the lowest of their affections the very dreg of their time and strength good enough for God Was there ever
such love as that which Christ shew'd to the world and was there ever any carriage so unworthy and so unsufferable as that which Christ receives from the World We have the Type of this in the Nation of the Jews You know God did wonderfully for that people brought them out of Egypt by an out stretched arm and carried them through the wilderness by a continual miracle and then setled them in a pleasant land such a land as could not for all things be matched by any upon earth might not now God expect think you eminent love and service from such a people but when they come into the good land they presently defile it with their Idolatries they forget the workes of God and as the Prophet Jeremy expresseth it They say not where is the Lord that brought us out of the Land of Egypt that led us through the wilderness c. So after all the wonderfull works of power and love that Christ hath wrought for the redemption of man and for the setling him in an heavenly inheritance Oh how much is this Christ forgotten How few are there that say where is this Jesus that hath done these things Oh where is he that we may adorn him that we may embrace him that we may devote our selves and all that we are and have to him Ah must not this be for a Lamentation this day may we not lament upon Christs account that he should be so much despised and his service neglected and upon the worlds account that they should no better understand their own Interest then to be serving other Masters and cast him off But to come a little nearer home May not we particularly mourn over our selves and the Nation this day Oh the mercies that England hath received But have we not too soon too soon forgotten them Hath God been served under his mercy and served with his mercy as he should have been Do we ask after the God of our mercies and say Where is the God of all these mercies Where is that God that delivered us from the Bondage of Popery and Superstition in Queen Marys days and from those ensnaring Ceremonies and superstitious Innovations in the late Prelats days Where is that God that appeared for us at Keintâ—n Newberry Naseby Dunbar Worcester c Might not God promise himself that when he had delivered us out of the hands of our enemies we would serve him without fear in righteousness and holiness all the days of our life But do we so And that when he had delivered us from those innovations that were intruded into his Worship he should have a pure worship and pure Ordinances set up amongst us and a joyful and holy walking in them But is it thus And that when once the danger of Saints meeting together called Conventicling was removed they would fall into a sweet and blessed communion and fellowship among themselves But alas is it thus As also might not God expect that those which suffered together and were delivered together should joyn heart and hand together to promote the common Interest of Christ against the Common Enemy But is this found amongst us God told the Jews Zach. 8. 19. that he would deliver them and turn the Fasts of the fourth fifth and seventh moneth into joy and gladness and cheerful Feasts and that therefore they should love the Truth and Peace God hath done much toward our deliverance we must not we dare not deny it we inherit the fruit of the Prayers and blood of many of his precious Saints But after all Do we love the Truth and Peace Is Truth embraced Is Peace preserved Nay Is not the light of Truth darkned by pernicious Errors and the beauty of Peace sadly defaced by unhappy divisions And must not these things be for a Lamentation this day I remember when the Book of Sports came out in the late Kings days there was a general lamentation among the good people of the Land and a holy zeal for the spiritual observation of the Christian Sabbath But now How many have set their Consciences free from any such duty and others are running back to the Jewish Sabbath and that more then every one is aware of And the first step to fall to the latter must be the casting off the former Vse 3 That which I shall next infer from the Truth in hand is with all seriousness to exhort and beseech that that which is our greatest work may be most minded And seeing that Honoured in the Lord you have appointed us to be this day your SPEAKERS to speak to God for you and to speak from God to you give me leave to enjoy that which is the Priviledge of this House to speak freely And I shall be bold to speak to you as standing before the Lord this day in a threefold capacity 1. As Men. 2. As Christians 3. As Magistrates and the TRVSTEES of the three Nations First I shall speak to you as men and as men you are engaged to serve the Lord For First Have you not received your Beings from him Hath not he made you and not you your selves Doth not then the Law of Creation engage you to serve him by whom you are or else you had never been There are certain Duties which Divines call Natural Worship which the light of Nature doth dictate to men and are due to him by the very Law of Creation as to love God fear him trust him so also to serve him and refer our actions to him which God never did nor never will dispense with to the sons of men So that he that lives in the world and is not truly serving God in the world this man sins against the very Dictates of natural light and against the Original and Fundamental right which God claims to us as being his creatures and the work of his hands Shalâ— the thing that is formed say to him that formed it What hast thou to do with me And wherein am I indebted to thee Shall not God enjoy his own Creature And doth he enjoy it if it is not serving him Secondly As man was made by the Lord so he was made peculiarly for the Lord He made the rest of the Creation to serve man but he made man to serve himself He furnish'd him with such Faculties of mind that rendred him capable of knowing praising and serving his Creator and is there but this one creature in this lower world that God made peculiarly to serve him and shall he be disappointed in that one Nay shall the rest of the Creatures keep their station and serve their end and man not serve his When God would Arraigne a people that was rebellious against him he calls Heaven and Earth to hearken Isa 1. 2. Hear O Heavens and hearken O Earth Why What strange thing hath God to bring forth Why this I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me As if he had said Is there such a thing to be
of the several vanities that he had observed under the Sun and one is this which he mentions chap. 6. vers 7. All the labour of man is for his mouth and yet the belly is not filled Man labours and toyls and yet he hath not out of all his labour that which can fill his appetite His appetite is capable of more then his labour can bring him in which was a vanity he observed But now he that is in sincerity serving the Lord when he comes to enjoy the fruit and the reward of his service he shall find that which will be satisfaâ—tion to his soul for he shall find God himself both in that service and especially at the end of the service As the good servant in the Gospel that had faithfully served the Lord was bid to enter into his Masters joy Other servants that are serving the World and serving their Lusts may enter into the joy of the creature and the joy and pleasure of sin but not into the joy of the Lord which is only that joy that can satisfie the heart of man Lastly consider this If a man doth not serve the Lord he doth not Live I say again he doth not live It is true take life in a large sense so it is the whole activity of the Reasonable Soul displaying it self in the several actions of man in the world But take life in a stricter and Theological sense and so it is the activity of the soul displaying it self by the power of the holy Ghost in the service of God So that when the service of God is the Sphaere and the Spirit the Principle of the souls activity this is most truly and properly life The Apostle saith of the Widdow that liveth in pleasure She is dead while she liveth The Widdow indeed She serveth God day and night as he 1 Tim. 5. 6. said before But she that liveth in pleasure not serving God is dead whiles she liveth I suppose you have heard the story of him that was converted in the latter end of his days and therefore would have this Inscription upon his Tomb after his death Diu fui in Mundo parum vixi I have been long in the world but I have lived but a little For that life which man lives whiles he is serving himself and acting his lusts and promoting his own carnall interests is so far differing from that life which he at first reveived from God in innocency that it is quite another and not that life as if he that had lived the life of a man should come to live the life of a beast as Nebuchadnezar did you would say this is another and not the same life So that when a man is in sincerity serving the Lord this is his original life and his only true life Thus I have spoken to you as men and the ingagements you see that lie upon you on that lowest account are very strong to be serving the Lord but those that follow are yet stronger wherein I shall speak to you 2. Secondly as Christians Christians I mean not in the largest sence as Baptized only into the name of Christ but in a stricter sence as Baptized into his Spirit for I believe I speak to many such at this time and as such you are peculiarly ingaged to serve the Lord. For 1. First you are those that the Lord hath bought peculiarly bought for though Christ in a more general sence hath purchased all men yea the whole creation for his Lordship and dominion over all creatures comes in upon him upon the account of his death yet his death and the purchase of it doth more peculiarly relate to his people Being the Saviour of all men yet especially of those that believe Now the Apostle argues 1 Cor. 5. last concerning the believing Corinthians Ye are not your own why For ye are bought with a price What then Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are the Lords As a servant that is but hired is ingaged to serve his Master how much more if bought with his money as those servants under the Law So that the Lord hath a stronger title to you then others as being not only his by the more common right of Creation but the more peculiar right of purchase And the price that purchased you is not Silver and Gold which yet are accounted the most precious things in nature but the blood of Christ the blood of God which is indeed the greatest that Heaven or Earth could yeeld So that Gods expectation cannot but be greater upon his people then upon any others that whoever deny him service yet that they should yeild it to him And so saith the same Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. If one died for all then were all dead c. that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him that died and rose again As if he should say we were indeed all dead but we are purchased from death into life by Jesus Christ and this life now we are not to live it to our selves but unto him by whose death we come to live 2. As Christians you are Married to the Lord. He hath divorced you from your first Husband which is the Flesh which you were in League with and obedient to and he hath married you to himself Now why are you thus married the Apostle tels you Rom. 7. 4. We are married to him that is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit to God We are married to Christ Crucified that we might be dead to sin and to Christ raised from the dead that we might live a new life which is to bring forth fruit to God As we know in Marriage a man marries a wife that she might bring forth her fruit as by himself and not by another so to himself and not to another also Now this is to serve the Lord when the fruit we bring forth we bring it forth not to our selves but unto him And we know also by the Law of marriage the wife is not her own but her Husbands and hath not power over her own body but the Husband as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 7. 4. So is the case here ye that are married to the Lord the Law of that spiritual Relation doth take you off from being your own or having a power over your selves so as to be serving your selves and doth ingage you to be the Lords and to be serving him 3. As Christians and Saints he hath bestowed more cost and workmanship upon you then upon others he hath formed you for himself He hath Created you again So saith St. Paul Eph. 2. 10. We are his workmanship why So are all Creatures but he adds Created in Christ Jesus we have a new creation in him but to what are we created To good works that we should walk in them and what is that but to be serving the Lord Why was it that the Lord did so expect fruit
what fear is this they are to serve with and of what Answ For the former question the Apostle resolves it in that parallel Scripture Heb. 12. 28. Let us have grace whereby we may serve God with Reverence and Godly Fear There is a base slavish fear that makes a man run from God and have hard thoughts of him and binds him up from serving him As the unprofitable servant if he speak his heart was bound up from employing his Talent by this base fear Matth. 25. 24 25. Lord saith he I knew thee that thou art an hard man reaping where thou hast not sown c. and I was afraid But the fear wherewith we are to serve God is an ingenuous Son-like fear Such a fear as 1. Springs from Love and that Honourable esteem we have of God which in Hebr. 12. is called Reverence which Moralists tell us is an affection compounded of love and fear and is wrought in the heart by a due sense of that greatness and goodness which is in God 2. Which quickens a man in service For this true Fear is a strong Incentive to action The Apostle to quicken those dull Hebrews in their travel to the true Rest doth endeavour to possess them with this holy Fear Heb. 4. 1. Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entring into his rest any of us should seem to come short of it Security rocks the soul asleep but Fear awakens it and sets it a work Quest 2. But what are they to be in fear of Answ The verse after this Text doth in general tell us and that is the Lords displeasure lest he be angry and you perish saith the Text and that if his wrath be kindled but a little what then if he should stir up all his wrath as the Psalmist speakes This fear is to possesse every mans heart and is to run through all the Actiâ—ns of his life 1. For natural actions as eating drinking c. we are to manage these with an holy fear of displeasing the Lord. 2. For Civil and Political actions as buying selling trading and commerce in the world him we are also to fear least we displease him 3. As for Religious actions praying or hearing c. we are to mannage these with this holy fear least we displease the Lord by formality distraction of thoughts hypocrisy carelesness or the like But especially Magistrates for they are the persons particularly spoken to in the Text. They are to mannage the whole course of their Government with this fear of displeasing the Lord. They are all subordinated to him and are to give up their accounts to him and therefore are to be exceeding careful that nothing in the constitution or course of their Government be displeasing unto him And they do displease Christ 1. When they oppose his interest in the world when Christ hath a work upon the wheeles for the advance of his Kingdom the establishing of Jerusalem c. then when they oppose their power to this interest then they displease him As when Maximilian the Emperour and some other Princes opposed Luther in that great work he was upon 2. Secondly when they neglect his interest when they do not come forth to serve it with what ever ability or opportunity is in their hand but are wholly swallowed up into a more private interest of their own As Meroz was cursed not coming forth to help the Lord Judg. 5. 2. 3. 3. When they subordinate his interest to their own when they are carrying on an interest of Christ but it is that they may serve some private end of their own upon it when they ingraft a selfish design upon Christs stock that it may the better thrive And thus did Jehu in taking vengeanoe upon the false Prophets of Baal and Ahabs house which was but to confirm the Kingdom to himself 2 Kings 10. 4. When they deal injuriously with his Saints then they do highly displease him Though they are a poor despised people in the world yet their Redeemer is mighty and when they cry he will hear them I find two principal places in the prophesie of Isaiah wherein the Lord is presented in a strange heat of wrath the one is 34. Isaiah the beginning of it The indignation of the Lord is upon all Nations and his fury upon all their Armies verse 2. Their mountains shall be melted with blood vers 3. And the Host of Heaven shall be dissolved vers 4. And my sword shall be bathed in Heaven vers 5. And the sword of the Lord is filled with blood vers 6. Now if you ask me What means the heat of this great wrath he tels you vers 8. It is the day of the Lords vengeance and the yeer of recompence for the controversie of Sion The other place is 63. Isaiah beginning Where the Lord is set forth in his red Apparel and his garment died in blood and treading the Wine-presse of wrath And the reason of all this you read in the 4. vers For the day of Vengeance is in mine heart and the yeer of my redeemed is come We cannot touch God in a tenderer part then in his people for they are the Apple of his eye Justin Martyr in his Apology for the Christians tells the Roman Emperours that whiles they persecuted the Saints the Empire was afflicted with Floods Earth-quakes Pestilence c. It was not their tolerating but their persecuting them that brought those calamities upon them Nothing will sooner bring down wrath upon a people then this And on the other hand to protect and Cherish the Saints is that which God takes kindly at the hands of Magistrates and which is likely eminently to conduce to the prosperity of their affaires according to the promise in the 122. Psal 6. They shall prosper that love thee Only I would be understood as speaking of true Saints and they walking as Saints But I hasten to a Conclusion And therefore I come now to the last part of the Text as I divided it at the beginning and that is the Argument whereby this Counsel is enforced for so I shall make use of it upon the Kings and Judges of the Earth This will be their Wisdom and their understanding Be wise now therefore or And now be wise O ye Kings be instructed ye that Judg the Earth God having before shewd them that their opposition against his Son would be their undoing and break them to pieces he therefore doth advise them as they would appear to be wise men and men well instructed to serve him whereby they should save themselves from that destruction that else would unavoidably fall upon them Every man will be pretending to wisdom and it is a thing so desirable that even fools that have no wisdom yet they will be wise in their own conceit O Sapientia as he said sed ubi es but where is wisdom to be found The Graecians they pretended to it 1 Cor. 1. 22. The Greeks seek after