Mouths to confess him our Heads to believe him our Hands and Feet to serve him our Wills to be ruled and our Wits to be captivated by him our Hearts to love him and our Lives to dye for him All which though it is All is still too little if we impartially consider the Disproportion of our Reward that blessed Parallel drawn out for us by God's own Compass Life and Aeternity A man you know would do any thing whereby to find Life though in our Saviour's Oxymôron it is by losing it Matth. 10. 39. And as a man will part with any thing to save his life so with life too to eternize it If therefore our Saviour does bid us follow him let us not venture to choose our way And if we can but arrive at Heaven it matters not much though we go by Hell For comparing his Goodness with his Mastership his Promises with his Precepts and the Scantling of our Obedience with the Immenfity of our Reward we shall find that our work hath no proportion with our wages but that we may inquire when all is done Good Master what shall we do And this does prompt me to proceed to my last Doctrinal Proposition That when all is done that can be we are unprofitable Servants Our Obedience is not the Cause but the meer Condition of our Reward And we arrive at Eternal Life not by way of Purchase as we are Servants but of Inheritance as we are Sons It is not here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to deserve but to inherit Eternal Life As Christianity like Manhood hath its several steps and degrees of growth so the Soul as well as the Body doth stand in need of Food and Raiment And agreable to the Complexion of immaterial Beings she is not only bedeck't but sustain'd with Righteousness Now as none can inherit Eternal Life but He that is born of the Spirit And as he that is born of the Spirit must also be nourished with the Spirit before he can possibly live an holy and spiritual Life so it is only God the Spirit that gives us Birth God the Son that gives us Breeding and God the Father that gives us the privilege of Adoption The Spirit feedeth us as his Babes the Son instructs us as his Disciples the Father indows us as his Heirs It is the Spirit that fits us for our Inheritance the Son that gives us a Title to it And 't is especially the Father who doth invest us with the Possession But now of all God's External and Temporal Blessings which have any Resemblance unto his Spiritual methinks the Manna that fell from Heaven is the liveliest Embleme of his Grace Of which though some did gather more and some less yet they that gather'd most had nothing over and they that gather'd least had no lack Thus as Manna like Grace is the Bread of Heaven so Grace like Manna is also measur'd out by Omers For even they that have least of the Grace of God have enough if well us'd to inherit Heaven and even they that have most have not enough to deserve it But still the Parallel goes on For the reason why the Manna which God sent down to the People Israel would not indure above a Day was saith Philo upon the Place lest considering the Care by which their Manna was preserv'd more than the Bounty by which 't was given they might be tempted to applaud not God's Providence but their own Thus if God had bestow'd so full a measure of his Grace as to have left us altogether without our Frailties perhaps our very Innocence might have been our Temptation We might have found it an Inconvenience to have been dangerously Good Like those once happy but ever-since unhappy Angels whose very excellency of Nature did prove a kind of Snare to them even the purity of their Essence did give occasion to their defilement Their very Height and Eminence was that that helpt to pull them down and one reason of their falling was that they stood so firmly For though they were free from that Lust which is the Pollution of the Flesh yet they were lyable to Ambition which is the Filthiness of the Spirit As if their Plethory of Goodness had made them Wantons or the Unweildiness of their Glory had made them Proud 't was from a likeness to their Creator that they aspir'd to an Equality and so they were the first of all the Creatures as well in their Fall as their Perfections Now adding to this the consideration that Ingratitude does gather Increase of Guilt from a greater abundance of Obligations so as the Angels falling from Heaven could not fall less than as low as Hell we may perhaps find a reason for which to congratulate to our selves that Dimensum or Pittance of God's free Grace which hath left us our Infirmities as fit Remembrancers to Humility That being placed in a condition rather of Trembling than of Security every Instance of our defect may send us to God for a Supply God hath given us our Proportion that we may not grumble or despair but not such a Perfection as once to Adam and the Angels before their Fall that we may not like Them be either careless or presume So that making a due comparison of that faint measure of Goodness which now we possibly may have by the Grace of God with that full measure of Glory which now at least we hope for we must be fain to acknowledge when all is done that the greatest measure of our obedience is far from deserving the least of Bliss For as the Sun appears to us a most glorious Body and yet is look't upon by God as a spot of Ink so though the Righteousness of men doth seem to men to be truly such yet compar'd with our Reward it is no more than as filthy Rags That other promise of our Lord Never to see or to taste of Death had been sufficiently above our merits But to inherit Eternal Life too though I cannot affirm it above our wishes yet sure it is often above our Faith Had we no more than we deserv'd we should not have so great Blessings as Rain and Sunshine and God had still been Iust to us had he made our best wages to be as negative as our work For as the best of us all can boast no more than of being less guilty than other men so we can claim no other Reward than to be somewat less punish't that is to be beaten with fewer stripes As the Ox amongst the Iews being unmuzzl'd upon the Mowe by the special appointment of God himself at once did eat and tread the Corn whereby he received his Reward at the very same Instant in which he earn'd it so the Protection of such a Soveraign is Reward enough for our Allegiance and the present Maintenance of a Servant is the usual Recompence of his labour Whatsoever God
and Cross of Christ If he be but once brought to an inviolable Belief without all Scruples or Peradventures That every man shall live eternally either in Heaven or in Hell And that 't is clearly for his Interest to do or suffer as Christ commands him because in order to his Escape from all the miseries of the one and in order to his Attainment of all the Beatitudes in the other He will presently break off his Sins by Righteousness as Daniel charged Nebuchadnezzar He will be ready for Restitution to every one whom he hath injur'd as Zachee the Publican when He repented He will bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance as the Jews were admonished by Iohn the Baptist. He will be glad to be thought worthy to suffer shame for Christ's sake as the Apostles at Ierusalem Acts 5. 41. The Consideration of his Interest will give an high Relish to all his suffrings making his Torments and his Tormentors to become his great Instruments and means of pleasure § 22. Thus we see in all cases both Temporal and Spiritual every man is for himself and intends his own Interest in whatsoever it is which he undertakes either the Interest of his Profit or of his Pleasure and Reputation The Interest of his Flesh or of his Spirit his present Interest or his future still 't is one Interest or other which leads him on unto the best or the worst Performances in the World Is any man Covetous and extremely close sisted He thinks it is for his Interest as being the way to be Rich in mony which is the only Grand Project that he is driving Or is he Free and open-handed He thinks it for his Interest because it is the ready way to make him Rich in good Works which is the highest and noblest end at which he ayms in this World Is there any man running headlong into a Customary Contempt of his Saviour's Yoke He thinks it is for his Interest as being the way to live merrily and in Prosperity here on Earth which is the Soveraign Allective of his Desires Or does any man take pleasure in supporting both the Burden and Yoke of Christ He thinks it is for his Interest as being the way to dye safely and to live after Death a life of Bliss and Immortality which is the utmost Atchievement his heart is set on Lastly would ye know the Reason why I have meditated so much upon this kind of Subject why I have struck so many Blows upon this great Anvil made so many long Discourses though on occasion of divers Texts touching the Equity and the Law of our Saviour's Gospel and indispensable Necessity of our obedience unto the end The Reason of it is truly This Because I have thought it most mine own and other men's Interest so to do And till we are able to be so happy as to convince our selves and others that 't is most for our Interest to bear the Yoke of Christ's Law and the Burden of his Cross when 't is laid upon us 'T is very sure that neither of us shall bear the one or the other as is requir'd Whereas 't is as sure on the other side That as we never neglect our Interest in what is Secular or Carnal as touching our Credits or our Estates or our Temporal Preservation so as little shall we indure to start aside from the Burden or Yoke of Christ if indeed we do believe it our greatest Interest to bear them as He requires For can the very same man who is sollicitously careful to get a Trifle be as perfectly careless to gain a Talent or stand in very great Dread of a lesser Punishment But of an infinitely greater in none at all If we are strict in our conforming to the Commandments of men with whom the Penalties are but Temporal and the Recompenses but finite we cannot sure be Non-Conformists to the Commandments of Christ on a Supposal that we believe it as great a Truth as any is That his Punishments and Rewards are both Immortal and Immense Nor can I think of a more rational or a more satisfactory Accompt why the Commandments of men should be so commonly heeded by us with more circumspection than those of Christ but that we fear Them more and believe Him less or value the Interest of our Bodies above the Interest of our Souls or prefer the seeming certainty of what is Present before the Hope and Expectance of what is future And had rather become the owners of Earthly Contentments in Possession than to be dealing for Reversions in Heaven it self § 23. And therefore to the end we may be able even to feel and by consequence to arrive at the Conviction of Experience That the Yoke of Christ's Law is really Easy in it self and the Burden of his Cross is in comparison very light And that they have Both a secret vertue of giving Rest unto the Souls of Them that labour and of Refreshing the heavy laden for so our Saviour tells us expresly in the two next Verses before the Text let us be Conversant incessantly in all the means of attaining to a True Christian Faith That so by cordially believing we may passionately love the Lord Jesus Christ. And that loving him as we ought we may by consequence delight in doing that which he requires and by consequence may attain to that Reward which he hath Promis'd For as our Faith and our Love do what we can will beget obedience if the first is unfeigned and the second without Dissimulation So 't is sure that our obedience will end in bliss Not in bliss whilst we are Passengers but when we shall arrive at our Iourneys end For here we are Dead saith our Apostle and our life is yet hid with Christ in God But when the Lord Iesus Christ who is our life shall appear Then shall We also appear with Him in Glory Which God the Father of his mercy prepare us for through the working of his Spirit and for the worthiness of his Son To whom be Glory for ever and ever THE INDISPENSABLE NECESSITY OF Strict Obedience Under the GOSPEL THE INDISPENSABLE NECESSITY OF Strict Obedience Under The GOSPEL HEB. XII 28 29. Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved let us have Grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with Reverence and godly Fear For our God is a Consuming Fire THere is something Difficult in the Text which will I think be best explain'd by way of Answer to an Objection For why is it said here Let us have Grace It may seem at first hearing a strange expression whether we have it or have it not For if we have it it seems superfluous and if we have it not it seems as vain We need not say Let us have what 't is plain we have already before we say it And we say to no purpose Let us have this or that which whilst we have not it is not in our power to have For Is
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
Information being given will be sure to take the way which leads to Italy or Castile not that which will carry him either to Muscovy or Poland After the very same manner but with a greater force of reason if we desire either in kindness or in a Religious Curiosity to have a sight of the New Ierusalem praepared as a Bride adorned for her Husband of which we hear such strange things from the Traunce and Rapture of St. Paul as well as from St. Iohn in his Revelations where for want of a better and a more lively way of Comparison he is contented to express that holy City by things so cheap and so homely as Gold and Crystal and Pearl and Saphir and Emerald Chalcedony and Iaspar Sardonyx and Chrysolite Sardius and Topaz Amethyst and Iacinth A River of Life and Immortality planted round and beset with Trees of Health as well as Pleasure and shin'd upon by the Lustre not of such obscure things as Sun and Moon but of God and the Lamb in comparison with whom the Sun and Moon are nothing more than as a Couple of Black Spots in the Face of Heaven which though the Richest hypotyposis St. Iohn could make of his Vision and exceedingly beyond the goodliest Things that are visible in the beautifullest parts of the neather world are yet incomparably short of that New Ierusalem which is above If we long to be fulfilling our double Heat and Curiosity the one proceeding from our Youthfulness and the other from our Devotion by an immediate conversation with Adam and Eve and righteous Abel in a pleasanter Paradise than that of Eden by keeping Company with Noah in a safer Ark with Caleb and Ioshua in a better Canaan with David and Samuel in a diviner Sion than that wherein they delighted whilst they were sojourning here below If we desire to see Lazarus in Abraham's Bosom or in what kind of Robes of Bliss and Glory that noble Army of Martyrs is now apparell'd of whom the world was not worthy when they wander'd about in Sheep-Skins and Goat-Skins in Dens and Desarts being destitute afflicted tormented not because they could not reach but would not accept of a Deliverance to the end they might obtain by so much a better Resurrection Or if we desire to be recovering what we so many years have lost our dear deceased Friends and Parents or would converse with those Children and Children's Children which by a Succession of Generations will descend from our Bodies when we shall be gather'd to our Fathers If we do long to be acquainted with those obliging and friendly Spirits whom we deservedly revere as our Guardian Angels to whom the Custody and Conduct of our particular Persons is peculiarly committed by God Almighty and would receive their meanings whilst we communicate our own not by Language but Intuition without the deceitful and poor Assistance of such articulate and successive Discourse as Ours Or if we would be able to read all Hearts without the detecting of any Secrets because in a place not to be habited by Shame or Envy or private Interest If we think it a fine thing to have the wings of a Cherub not only of a Dove which was the subject of David's wish and to be mounted by those wings to such an exalted kind of Zenith or height of Bliss as shall lift up our Souls above our glorified Bodies whence looking down upon the Sun as a thing exceedingly below us we shall discern the very Epicycle by which he moves slowly from West to East even whilst he moves swiftly from East to West and comprehend all Truths without the Motherhood and Pregnancy of such a dull thing as Time which yet is the swiftest-wing'd Flyer on this side Heaven by grasping all things at once not one thing first and then another In a word not to be endless in this beginning of my Discourse if we inwardly do pant and even gasp after a Day when fulfilling at once the Appetites of Grace and good Nature we shall be able to conceive and hear and see what neither Eye hath seen nor Ear heard nor hath ever enter'd into the Heart of man to conceive when we shall not only see but tast of Bliss nor only tast but be filled with it nor only fill'd but overflown nor only overflown but swallow'd up too when we shall drink and drink deep of the Waters of Joy and of such pure Ioy as shall not be mingl'd with any Drop either of Sorrow or Interruption when we shall be as 't were inebriated with the plenteousness of God's house as the Psalmist in his Rapture was bold to speak by drinking of it as out of a River Or to express it in plainer Terms when our Glory shall be greater than the greatest Ambition of our Desires and our Ioys far more than our hearts can hold when we shall be giddy as 't were with happiness and drown'd in pleasures shall have Raptures and Transports and Exiliencies of Spirit more than David himself in his sacred Ecstasie by which was drawn from him that strange expression And very much greater than that of Esa when being cast into a Traunce he did presentiate to himself the last and general Resurrection with an Awake and sing ye that dwell in the Dust when we whose Heads do now ake in comprehending and grasping the shallowest things shall happily loose all our Doubtings into the clearest Demonstration our Conjectures into Assurance our Expectations into Injoyment and Faith it self into Experience when the three Triads of holy Orders which make up the Hierarchy of Heaven of which it is said by the Prophet Daniel A fiery stream issued out and came forth from before him Thousand Thousands ministred unto him ten Thousand times ten Thousand stood before him Dan. 7. 10. shall open those Books whereout the Dead are to be judged Rev. 20. 12. And when with them the holy Elders casting their Crowns before the Throne of him that liveth for ever and ever Rev. 4. 10. shall all salute us and bid us welcome into the Ravishing Converse of those Glorious Courtiers when that Life and that Eternity which in my Text are inquired after shall not only present themselves with their Retinue and Attendants unto the Faculties of our Souls but shall withal take up their Lodgings in our glorified Bodies If I say we are desirous to injoy a great deal more than we are here ever able to ask or think even all that we can and that we cannot imagin And would meet with all That in the very Life whereof the Word of God hath given us but a very faint Picture Then whilst others like Martha are busying themselves about many things let us apply our selves with Mary to the one thing that is needful Let us make it the very Centre of all our Projects and Designs Let our Studies and Disputes our Aims and Ambitions our Controversies and Questions end all in This Which is the way to