do they are afraid it would be answer'd That they must cease to do evil and learn to do good That they must seek Iudgment relieve the Oppressed help the Fatherless and plead for the Widow That they must mortifie the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts. That they must crucifie the world unto themselves and themselves unto the world That if an Eye or a Hand or a Foot offend them they must pluck out the one and cut off the other That they must not take any thought for the morrow but sell all they have and give it to the Poor deny themselves take up Christ's Cross and follow him They will be sav'd with all their hearts provided it may be gratis either upon none or on easy Terms But dare not ask what they must do with a serious purpose to be doing whatsoever shall be answer'd to be a Requisite to Salvation for fear the answer should be harder than they are able to indure As That they must hate their own Lives and Love their Enemies That they must fast as well as pray but feed their Enemies when they hunger That they must turn the right Cheek to him that strikes them on the left That when they are persecuted and rail'd at they must not only rejoyce but leap for Ioy. That they must pray without ceasing rejoyce evermore and in every thing give Thanks Make a Covenant with their Eyes not to look upon a Maid and abstain from all appearance of Evil. But now the Iailour in my Text although he had hardly yet the knowledge had the true Courage of a Christian. Upon Condition he might be sav'd he did not care on what Terms 'T is true Salvation was the End but the Means of its Attainment did make the Object of his Inquiry For he did not simply beg that he might be sav'd as if he thought he might be sav'd without the least cooperation or any endeavour of his own But as if he had concluded within himself as St. Augustin did some Ages after That God who made us without our selves will never save us without our selves He ask't how much he was to contribute towards the Means of his Salvation And This he ask'd in such a manner as to imply his being ready to contribute whatsoever could be exacted For he did not thus ask What must I say or what must I believe what Opinions must I hold or what Sect must I be of what must I give or whither must I go but in a manner which implyed all This and more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what must I Do that I may be sav'd But though this is praise-worthy 't is very far from being enough For 't is one thing to ask what things are to be done that we may be sav'd and effectually to do them is quite another The wealthy Quaerist in the Gospel could easily ask what he should do that he might inherit eternal Life and as easily learn the Things ask't after But when he was answer'd that he must sell all he had and give it to the poor he could not so easily fall to practise what he had learnt by putting the Precept in execution So the Multitude of Jews could easily ask our Blessed Saviour what they must do that they might work the work of God Joh. 6. 28. But being told they must believe that He was the Bread that came down from Heaven Then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they murmur'd v. 41. nay they despised him for his Parentage v. 42. It was an hard saying v. 60. Nay so far they were from doing the work of God who had so lately and so readily ask't him what they must do that they might work it that from thence they drew back and would no longer walk with him v. 66. Such a peevishness there is in the minds of men that though they love to be asking the Will of God they cannot indure to be told it much less to be employ'd in the Doing of it no not though they are also told that This alone is the Price at which Salvation is to be had Men may come to be baptiz'd as the Multitude did to Iohn the Baptist And yet may be at That Instant a generation of Vipers Luke 3. 7. A Generation of Vipers and yet have Abraham for their Father v. 8. that is their Father after the Flesh In which respect God is able out of arrant Stocks and Stones to raise up Children unto Abraham But when 't is ask't what we must do to be his Children after the Spirit The Answer is we must inherit at once the Faith and the Works of Abraham And accordingly the Baptist did proportion his Directions to such as ask't them He did not tell them what they must Teach whereby to be Orthodox Professors or what they must hold whereby to be Orthodox Believers But as they ask'd what they must do so he told them those Things that were of necessity to be done Begin not to say within your selves we have Abraham to our Father for so have They who are Sons of Belial But bring forth fruits worthy of Repentance v. 8. If ye are Publicans exact no more than is appointed you v. 13. If ye are Soldiers do violence to no man neither accuse any one falsly and be content with your wages v. 14. If ye are Christians of any Calling Let him that hath two Coats impart to Him that hath none And He that hath Meat let Him do likewise v. 11. Still 't is our Doing the things ask'd after not our Asking what we must do which is effectually the way to our being sav'd And accordingly when 't is said by the Apostle St. Iames That Faith without Works is dead and nothing worth It is intimated to us by that expression That a Rectitude of Iudgment is nothing worth but as it stands in conjunction with a like Rectitude of Life As if our Faith and our Knowledge and good Professions could amount unto no more than the meer Body of Religion whilst the Soul that enlivens it is still the sanctity of our Actions Thence a Good man is called not an Hearer or a Believer But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Doer of the Word Jam. 1. 22 23. And when it pleas'd our blessed Saviour to give a general Description in the fifth Chapter of St. Iohn as well of the Few that belong to Heaven as of the Many that go to Hell He did not give them their Characters from their being of this or that Country of this or that Calling of this or that Church or Congregation of this or that Faith not to say Faction in Religion But only from their being qualified with such and such Practice with such and such Works with such and such Habits of Conversation Our Saviours words are very plain but in my apprehension of great Remarque And such as being well consider'd would teach us how to pass a Iudgment without any prejudice
Always yet our obedience unto the Gospel or Law of Christ by which alone we are to work out our own Salvation is to be qualified and season'd with Fear and Trembling The first of these I have consider'd in a former Subject of Meditation when I enlarged upon the Matter of which our working is to consist I now am come to that Part of my General Method and Design which obligeth me strictly to the consideration of the Second as touching the Manner or Qualification wherewith our working is to be cloath'd whereby to make it become effectual for the receiving of our Reward To wit with Meekness and Humility with Diligence and Solicitude with Awefulness and Horror or holy Dread the threefold Importance of Fear and Trembling which must first be considered in the Gross and after that in the Retail First consider'd in the Gross it shews us a ready and easy way of reconciling and understanding those parts of Scripture which being taken but in the letter do seem to differ and contradict For there is not any One Passion or Affection of the Mind either more rigidly forbidden or more earnestly commanded than that of Fear It is so rigidly forbidden that the fearful and unbelieving have their part in the Lake of Fire and Brimstone Rev. 21. 8. where St. Iohn making a Muster of such as are listed under the Devil and bound for Hell sets the Fearful and Unbelieving as it were in the Front of the whole Battalia with which the desperate Prince of Darkness is wont to wage War against the Father of Lights As for The Murderers and Whoremongers The Sorcerers and Idolaters They all march after in Rank and File Implying the Fearful and Unbelieving to be the Ringleaders in Hell and as it were in the Van of the Devil's Army Unbelief is so commonly the Cause of Fear and Fear is commonly such a Tempter to Unbelief that we find them often yok't together if not so as to signifie one the other Woe be to fearful Hearts and faint Hands and the Sinner that goeth two ways woe be to him that is faint-hearted for he believeth not therefore shall he not be defended Ecclus. 2. 12 13. It seems that Fear is a Thing of which we ought to be sore afraid Because it is apt to make us sinners going two ways at once One in our Principles and quite another in our Practice Very fit to be compar'd unto wandering Stars which are carried towards the West by the Primum Mobile whilst They are stealing towards the East by their proper motion When Peter was frighted upon the Sea and cryed Lord save me as he was just ready to sink although it was a good Prayer yet because it proceeded from Carnal Fear rather than Faith our Saviour presently took him up with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Thou of little Faith wherefore didst thou doubt And so it was fitly said by Zachary in his Divine Benedictus That God did Therefore deliver us out of the hands of our Enemies that we might serve him without Fear Luke 1. 74. With which agrees That of St. Paul to Timothy He hath not given us the spirit of Fear but of Love 2 Tim. 1. 7. To which it is added by St. Iohn That there is no Fear in Love for perfect Love casteth out Fear 1 John 4. 18. Thus we see how this Passion is very rigidly forbidden throughout the Scriptures And yet for all that it is so earnestly commanded that we cannot serve God acceptably unless we serve him with Fear as well as Reverence Heb. 12. penult Nor can there be any such thing as the working out of our Salvation unless we do it with Fear and Trembling For the fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdom Prov. 1. 7. Nay as Solomon goes on in the fourteenth Chapter v. 27. The fear of the Lord is a Fountain of Life the attainment of which is the end of Wisdom And thence 't is set by our Apostle as the highest accomplishment of a Christian To perfect holiness in the Fear of God 2 Cor. 7. 1. What then may be the meaning of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these so seeming Contradictions that we must serve God with Fear and that we must serve him without Fear that there is no fear in love yet no true love without some fear The Reconcilement of These is extremely obvious It is no more but to distinguish betwixt that which is Carnal and that which is Spiritual betwixt the spirit of Bondage and the spirit of Adoption betwixt a servile and filial Fear As 't is true in one sense that perfect Love doth cast out Fear so 't is true in another that perfect Love doth carry fear along with it When I say with St. Iohn It casteth out Fear I mean that childish unmanlike Fear which betrayeth those Succours that Reason offereth especially that heathenish and carnal fear the fear of Poverty and Pain and other effects of Persecution the fear that made so many Sinners going two ways at once And so it casteth out one fear with another the fear of them that can kill the Body but are not able to hurt the Soul with the fear of Him who is able to cast them both into Hell In this sense 't is said we must serve God without Fear But when I say the same Love doth carry fear along with it I mean the fear of offending God the fear of quenching or grieving his holy Spirit the fear of never doing enough whereby to please him the fear of falling into Temptation the fear of a treacherous deceitful heart that is the fear of Unsincerity in the performance of our Service the fear of falling from our own steadfastness and so of receiving the Grace of God in vain In this sense 't is said by the Royal Prophet Serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce unto him with Reverence And thus 't is said by the Royal Preacher Happy is the man that feareth always As a meer carnal fear is a fear of that which is carnal so a godly fear is the fear of God First a fear of his Majesty in respect of which he is a Soveraign next a fear of his Mercy in respect of which he is a Father for so 't is said by the Prophet David There is Mercy with thee ô Lord therefore shalt thou be Feared Lastly a fear of his Wrath and Iustice in respect of which he is a Iudge and also an Executor of Vengeance This Fear of God is so necessary for the Qualification of our obedience that all without it is nothing worth and even this of it self is wont to supply the place of all For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is men fearing God is an expression made use of by God himself whereby to signifie conscientious and pious men men who live in obedience to all his Precepts Iob was said to be an upright and perfect man because he was one that feared God And the words of
make us sure to miss of Heaven by making us dream it is unavoidable For as God in his Iudgment is no Respecter of Persons so neither was he in his Decrees As his Rule is in Time to judge us according to our works so he decreed from all Aeternity to proceed in Time by that Rule He did determin the end of men with a special respect to their Qualifications from whence his Decree is call'd respective But he did absolutely determin that men who are thus or thus qualified should come to this or that end And I could wish that this Distinction since 't is sufficient of it self might find so much favour in all mens Eyes as to appease and reconcile dissenting Brethren That as the Decrees of the Almighty are said to be Absolute in one sense so they may candidly be granted to be Respective in Another This methinks should be the Judgment of all Mankind being so visible in it self and of so necessary Importance to the well-ordering of our Lives That God did absolutely decree a most indissoluble Connexion betwixt Repentance and Salvation as betwixt Impenitence and Condemnation Which proves the end to have been decreed with a special respect unto the means Let this one thing be granted as well for the Comfort of the good as for a Terror to evil Doers And I for my part shall ask no more For the Decree which is respective in sensu diviso may so be proved to be Absolute in sensu composito as to afford a Demonstration That God's Decree of the several Ends was in respect to the several Means For if in sensu composito He did absolutely decree that all who are faithful and repent should belong to Heaven and that all who are faithless and impenitent should in like manner belong to Hell Then his Decree was respective in sensu diviso of that Repentance or Impenitence by which Professors do belong to Heaven or Hell From whence it follows unavoidably that if we are faithless and impenitent be it in a greater or lesser measure we ought to be affected with fear and trembling in the literal sense of this expression and never to give our selves Rest until we be faithful and do repent But faithful and penitent we cannot be till by the power of God's Grace after our Prayers and Tears shall have given him no Rest he shall be pleas'd to work in us and with us too not only to will but to do his work That by the power of his Grace we may all endeavour and by the power of his Grace on our Endeavours we our selves may have a Power too whereby to work out our own Salvation And work for it we must with a sacred horror because of the Dreadfulness of our Doom if we work remissly For as on one side God himself cannot condemn us although our sins past have been very great if we immediately repent and amend our lives because he is faithful who hath promised and he hath promised forgiveness to all that repent and turn unto him so withal on the other side Let our Righteousness past have been what it will yet if we return from Righteousness to Sin God himself cannot save us without our Repentance and Reformation because he hath sworn that the Impenitent shall not enter into his Rest. Not that God can be overpower'd by any Quality in the Creature whether Repentance in the first Case or Impenitence in the second But because his Power in the first is suspended by his Mercy as it stands in conjunction with his Truth For in his Mercy he made a Promise to give us pardon if we repent and in his Truth he must perform it Just so his Power in the second is suspended by his Iustice as it stands in conjunction with his Truth too For in his Iustice he made an Oath to be revenged on the Impenitent and in his Truth he must make it good Now since each of these Cases concerns us All be we never so good or be we never so evil I need not shew by another Medium how the love of God's Mercy doth consist with a fear of his Indignation and how whilst we love him as a Father we ought to fear him as a Judge But to conclude with such a Caveat as may best of all become an Ingenuous People Take we heed that our Fear do not swallow up our Love for fear it swallow up us too in the Bottomless Pit of Desperation We must serve God with Fear but so as to fear him also for Love Ever saying with the Psalmist There is mercy with thee ô Lord therefore shalt thou be feared The Psalmist did not thus argue There is Mercy with Thee ô Lord Therefore shalt thou be rely'd upon Therefore we shall make the bolder with thee we shall break thy Commandments without the fear of being damn'd because we know thou art slow to anger and being angry art quickly pleas'd But because of thy mercy thou shalt be feared And there is good reason for it For by how much the kinder a Father is a well-natur'd Son will fear to offend him so much the more And the more our Father which is in Heaven does even delight to please us by heaping his Mercies and Favours on us by so much the more shall we be afraid if we are well-natur'd Children to exasperate our Father which is in Heaven What then remains but that we ponder these things and lay them up in our hearts and draw them forth into our Actions and daily repeat them in our Lives And reap the comfort of so doing in the hour of Death and the Day of Iudgment Which God of his Mercy prepare us for even for the glory of his Name and for the worthiness of his Son To whom with the Father in the Unity of the Spirit be ascribed by us and by all the World Blessing and Glory and Honour and Power and Wisdom and Thanksgiving from this time forward for evermore THE GRAND INQUIRY To be made In these Inquisitive Times Taken from the Mouth of The Frighted Iailour OF PHILIPPI THE GRAND INQUIRY To be made in These Inquisitive Times ACTS XVI 30. What must I do that I may be saved THus the Iailour at Philippi sought to his Pris'ners for a Deliverance Not his ordinary Pris'ners who at once were in Bondage to Him and Satan And were bound up in Misery as well as Iron who had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spirits so gross and so incrassat and so manacl'd to the Flesh that together with their Bodies their Souls were put into the Stocks as knowing no better Liberty than what consisted in the Freedom of Hands and Feet But the Pris'ners in the Text were Pris'ners only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men whose Liberty did consist in the ubiquity of their Thoughts and in being made free of the New Ierusalem Men who by living the Life of Faith maintain'd an Intercourse with God and his glorious Angels And though their Carkasses
are able to run apace And let us kneel as He did before our Knees are grown stiff And having kneeled down to Christ let us call him Good Master with our Inquirer And let the Subject of our Inquiry be only This What shall we do that we may be sav'd If no man can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven unless it be as a little Child what then shall We do who are stricken in years and have long since outliv'd our littlechildhood that We also may Inherit Aeternal Life This is the use we are to make of the first Qualification of our Inquirer and These are the Reasons on which it stands Next our Rich men must learn from the example of this Inquirer that the greater their Riches are the greater Necessity lyes upon them to fly for Sanctuary to Christ. It being as difficult for a Rich man to enter Heaven as for a Camel to find a passage through the Eye of a Needle And so there is need that they run to Christ that Christ may shew them the Danger of being Rich and by his Counsel defend them from it That he may teach them the Christian Method whereby they may safely attain to Riches or how they may honestly possess them or how they may usefully put them away How they may profitably be rid of those pleasant Enemies unlade themselves of such heavy thick Clay as the Prophet calls it and run to Christ so much the nimbler for being light for being emptied and disburden'd of so much white and red Earth How they may reap the greater Harvest by casting their Bread upon the waters How they may make themselves Friends of the Mammon of Unrighteousness and help to save themselves by That which helps to damn so many others How they may lay up a Treasure in Heaven and provide themselves Bags which wax not old where the Worm of Time doth not corrupt nor the Thief of Sequestration break through and steal If there are any amongst our selves who have Riches in possession either dishonestly acquir'd or uncharitably kept we ought to start away from them like a man who unaware hath chanced to tread upon a Serpent and to fling them far enough from us like the Emperour Sigismund and to go running after Christ like the Rich Votary in my Text saying What shall we do who are men of great Plenty and so are tempted more strongly than others are and therefore every day walk in greater Ieopardy of our Lives We for whom it is so hard to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven even as hard as for a Camel to enter through a Needle 's Eye what shall such as We do that We also may Inherit Aeternal Life This is the use we are to make of the second Qualification of our Inquirer and This is chiefly the reason on which 't is built Lastly our Great men must learn from the Example of This Inquirer to lay their Greatness at Christ's Feet and to tread it under their own Or to express it in the words of the Son of Sirach the greater he is to humble himself so much the more Ecclus. 3. 18. And the Reason There is though other reasons are to be given because the Mysteries of God are only revealed unto the Meek v. 19. The humble Soul is God's Temple if not his Heaven too For what was said heretofore by the Heathen Oracle in Hierocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that God delights himself as much in a pious Soul as to dwell between The Cherubim in Heaven it self may be evinced to be True from out the Oracles of Iehovah who saith by the Mouth of his Prophet Esa that the man upon whom he delights to look and in whom he is pleas'd to dwell is the man of a poor and a contrite Spirit who even trembles at his word And what said St. Paul to his Corinthians Ye see your Calling Brethren how that not many Wise men after the Flesh not many Mighty not many Noble men are called But the foolish and base and despised things of the World and the things which are not are made choice of by God to bring to naught things that are and that as for other so for This reason also that no flesh may glory in His presence This is That Nobleness indeed wherewith the Nobleness of the World cannot be worthy to be compar'd unless as the Child or the Parent of it For Secular Nobleness or Nobility consider'd simply and in it self has ever been reckon'd to arise from one or more of These Three Grounds 'T is either merited by Prudence Secular Wisdom and Erudition or purchased by Wealth or earn'd by Courage I mean the Courage which is exerted in a generous defense of ones King and Country But He is a man of the Noblest Courage who is afraid of the fewest Things Only afraid of an impious Act or indeed afraid of Nothing unless of not fearing God The vitious Warrier or Dueller who seems to breath nothing but Courage such Courage as is common to the stout Horsman with his Horse when carrying Thunder in his Throat he madly rusheth into the Battel I say a man of such an Animal or Brutal Courage who will rather be Damn'd than be thought a Coward is yet for all his brave Pretences most cowardly afraid of Reproach and Obloquie and of Twenty other objects of carnal Fear Whereas a man that fears God fears nothing else fears not what man can do unto him Psal. 56. 11. And He who does not fear God is not a Valiant but stupid Sinner To meet with Nobleness indeed we must not consult the Herald's Book unless we take along with it the Book of The Acts of the Apostles Chap. 17. vers 11. where the People of Beroea are said to be Nobler than those of Thessalonica Not because they were descended from greater Parents nor because they were advanced to greater Places But because with greater readiness they heard the Word of God preach't that is because they were meeker and of more Teachable Dispositions That alone is true Nobleness which is sometimes The Daughter and still the Mother of Humility That 't is sometimes the Daughter is very evident for 'T was the Lowliness of Mary which made her the Mother of our Lord. And so when Abigail made David That winning Complement from the heart of her being The humble Handmaid to wash the feet of the Servants of her Lord Her Humility did so advance her in David's Mind that he made her his Queen if not his Mistress The King was so captivated and charm'd by the powerful Magick of so much meekness as he could not have been more by any Philtrum to be imagin'd Thence St. Peter thought fit to call it The Ornament of a meek and a quiet spirit as being That that does dress and set off a Beauty more than any Recommendations of Art or Nature Nor is True Nobleness more the Daughter than 't is the Mother of Humility For as the