received it was for us and what he did was done by us and what he lost we lost in him Now if we have lost this Power of Obeying must God also lose his Priviledge and Sovereignty of Commanding Must he lessen his Authority as we lessen our Ability Truly had Adam once thought of this slight he might have sinn'd himself quite from under the command and dominion of his Creator and might soon have become thus free Do not you your selves think you may if a Debtor of yours through his own default becomes a Bankrupt require your Debt of him So stands the Case here between God and us we are all disabled to pay the Debt of Obedience that we owe to God but yet it is through our own default and the Power that we had is not so much lost as wilfully thrown away and may not God justly come upon us for our Debt Our want of Power takes not off our obligation to Obedience because it is through a wilful defect that we are deprived of that Power If a Servant throw away his Tools with which he should work may not his Master justly expect his Work from him though he knows he cannot work without them God's Commands respect not the Impotency that we have contracted nor do they therefore abate any thing of their Severity but they respect that Power and Ability that was once conferred and bestowed upon us Yea were it so that God could with Justice require no more from us than what at present we have Power and Ability to perform this would make the Grace of God First vain and fruitless and Secondly dangerous and destructive First This would make void the pardoning Grace of God For according to this Doctrin nothing could be required of us if we could do nothing but without Grace we can do nothing and therefore if Grace be not bestowed on us nothing can justly be required from us and if nothing be required nothing is due from us and then we do not sin in not performing any thing and where there is no sin certainly there can be no place for pardoning Grace and Mercy And so these wise Men who think they do so much befriend the Grace and Mercy of God in all haste in affirming that God requires nothing from us but what at present we have Power to perform are injurious to the Mercy of God in making of it void as to Pardon and Remission Secondly this Doctrin makes the sanctifying Grace of God destructive and pernicious If God can require justly no more of us than we can perform wherefore is it that Men are justly damned Is it not because they will not do what they are able to do And whence is it that they have this Ability Is it not from the Grace of God's Spirit And therefore if they have not Grace to make them able to do more than their own corrupt Wills are willing to do God could not justly condemn them and consequently that of the Apostle should stand no longer true Eph. 2.5 Through Grace ye are saved but through Grace ye perish These two Consequences will follow if God could justly require no more from us than what we have Power now to do So that tho' we have not Power and Ability to work out our own Salvation yet we are not thereby excused from our Obligation to do it But Answ 2 Secondly Though we cannot of our selves work out our own Salvation Yet God doth not mock us as some do thence infer neither doth he only upbraid us with our own Weakness but hath serious and weighty ends why he Commands us to Obey Those that are so ready to cast this Odium upon the Doctrin of Special Grace making God a derider of Human Frailty and Miseries when he Commands Obedience from them to whom say they himself denies that Power and Grace that should inable them to obey I would only ask these Persons this Question Whether do they grant or whether or no can they deny that God antecedently before he Commands knows who will obey and who will not obey If they say God knows who will not obey will they say God mocks them when he Commands them to obey though he knows they will not What they Answer to this the same may we Answer to their Objection But now there are two Ends why God Commands us thus to work though we are not able according to which God is very serious in commanding us thus to work And God doth this First That he may hereby convince us of our own Weakness and that wretched Estate into which our Sins have brought us that he might humble and abase us when we reflect how far we are fallen from our first Perfection and Excellency When we consider on the one Hand that God requires nothing from us now but what we once had a Power to perform and then on the other Hand consider how little yea how much of that nothing it is that now we have Power to perform this convinces us how miserably great our Fall is that makes those things impossible to us that once were both easie and delightful Secondly God loves to deal with Men as with rational Creatures that have free Faculties capable of moral Influences fit Subjects to be wrought upon by Precepts Counsels Commands and Exhortations as well as by Internal and Efficacious Grace that Arguments and Motives may persuade without as Grace sways within that so by both he might render them a willing People in the Day of his Power And therefore they are not in vain neither to those that shall be saved nor to those that Perish First To those that shall be saved these are the Instruments which the Spirit of God makes use of to incline their Wills and conquer their Affections into the Obedience of Christ and therefore they are not in vain In conversion ordinarily if not always the Moral work goes before the Physical That is there is first the rational Persuasion before there is the efficacious and determining Motion For God when he works on Man he accommodates himself suitable to the Nature of Man that as he is a Creature so he may be and is the Subject of Gods efficacious Motions and as he is Rational so he may be guided by Counsels lead by Persuasions over-awed by Convictions and therefore when God Converts any he takes both these ways inwardly he works by effectual Grace powerfully subduing the Will as a Creature subject unto it and outwardly he works by moral Suasions and Authoritative Commands whereby he inclines the will sweetly and freely to consent to the Power of that inward Grace which indeed he shall never nay indeed he cannot resist and both these together do concur as I said before to make a willing People in the Day of Gods Power And Secondly For those that Perish these Commands have a double end and use First They are Instruments in the Hand of the common work of the Spirit of God to
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