Ioy at the Return of Good Friday upon which they were to celebrate their Master's Suffrings on the Cross as that the sense of Their suffrings seem'd to be wholly swallow'd up by the far greater sense which they had of His. Though they were scatter'd and dispers't as far asunder as the Ingenie of Malice could well contrive some imprison'd upon the Land some under Hatches upon the Sea some in Caves of the Wilderness and some condemn'd upon the Scaffold Yet as the Angles of a Pyramid however distant at the Basis do still come nearer as they Ascend and at last Concenter in the Conus so how distant soever the one from the other those Christians were in respect of their Bodies here below They met together in their Affections at the same Throne of Grace And though Our Church like Theirs in the late ill Times was truly Militant when with the Burden she labour'd under she sadly hung down her Head yet Sursum Corda she lifted up her Heart to the Lord of Glory And by an union of Affections kept all her Holy Days and Feasts with the Church Triumphant It would be certainly a voluminous if not an Endless Undertaking thô otherwise easy enough to prove by way of Induction or by a Catalogue of the Particulars how many Myriads have been enabled to run with Patience the Race that was set before them by meerly looking unto Iesus the Author and Finisher of their Faith so far forth as for the Ioy that was set before him he endured the Cross and despised the shame and so sate him down at the right hand of God Nor indeed can it be otherwise with such as Love and believe in the Lord Jesus in sincerity And give an Evidence of Both by their new obedience For so long as we are such the Spirit it self saith St. Paul beareth witness with our Spirits that we are children of God And if Children then Heirs Heirs of God and joynt Heirs with Christ if so be we suffer with him that we may also be glorified together with him And suffer with him we shall with the greater ease if not Ambition because we shall reckon with St. Paul That the Suffrings of this present Time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be revealed in us and because the whole Trinity is clearly ingaged in our behalf For so St. Paul tells us in the following Parts of the same Chapter God the Father gave us his Son and all good things together with him God the Son gave us Himself not only that he might dye but also rise from the Dead and be an Advocate for us incessantly at the right hand of God Thirdly God the Holy Ghost ingageth for us as much as either both by helping our Infirmities through which we know not what we should pray for as we ought And by making Intercession for us with Groans not to be utter'd And whilst so great a Care is taken both of us and our Interest by God Himself It cannot but follow that all the Crosses which shall be laid upon us by others will work together for our Comfort in this life present as well as for our Glory in that to come § 19. Lastly the Burden of Christ is light when freely taken upon our selves as in particular when he Commands us somewhat like what the Ammonites commanded the men of Iabesh Gilead to pluck out an Eye a right Eye too and to cast it from us For First it is not an Absolute but a Conditional Command We are to pluck out an Eye upon a supposal that it offends us that is to say If it is scandalous and makes us stumble into Sin and into such wasting Sin as makes us fall headlong into Hell for so our Saviour does infer in his very next words In such a formidable Case and for the preventing of such a Mischief It is not only not grievous but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith our Saviour It is profitable for thee that one of thy Members perish and not that thy whole Body be cast into Hell So that Secondly 't is not a Positive but a Comparative Command And 't is the Dictate of Common Sense That of two evils of Punishment we are in Prudence to choose the least As rather to lose one Eye than Both and rather Both than the whole Body and rather the Body than the Soul To suffer any thing rather than Death and Death it self rather than Hell A man having a Gangraene in any Limb of his Body will not only permit but hire the Artist to cut it off And by consequence will confess it very much better and more desirable to Pluck out his Eye and to cast it from him than by keeping it in his Head to be Cast into Hell Better suffer under Them who can destroy the Body only than under Him who can destroy both Body and Soul Yea Thirdly 't is the Dictate of Sanctified Reason That of any two evils whereof the one is of Sin the other of Affliction we must choose to Suffer the greatest rather than wilfully Do the least Our first Care must be to make a Covenant with our Eyes not to look upon a Maid Next in order to That Design we should not look round about us in the Streets of the City for fear our Eyes become our Enemies Or if our Eyes chance to wander beyond the Bounds of That Counsel our third degree of Care must be not to gaze upon a Woman lest we fall by those things that are pretious in her v. 5. 8. Or if This cannot be done 't is better to out them whilst they are innocent as Virginius did his Daughter than continue them as Inlets to Sin and Hell Nor should we be griev'd at our Advantage though it be bought with great Pain whilst it is for the Prevention of a very much greater Last of all this Commandment which is so grievous to us in Sound is very far from being such in its intrinsick signification For in our Saviour's gratious sense 'T is but the Vanity of the Eye which we are bound to pluck out 'T is but the Violence of the Hand which we are bound to cut off And the obliquity of the Foot which we are bid to cast from us as is shewn more at large in an other Place Several vices of the Soul being fitly enough expressed by so many Members of the Body And That severest of our Lord's Precepts If thy Right Eye offend thee pluck it out if thy Right hand offend thee cut it off if thy Right Foot offend thee cast it from thee may very well admit of this Serene Signification That we must pluck out a Lust thô as dear to us as a right Eye And we must cut off an Avarice thô as dear to us as a right Hand And we must cast away an Ambition of greater things than are good for us thô perhaps as dear to us as
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
Reck'ning how his Talent of Authority has been employ'd and what Good he has done with his Jurisdiction What poor Orphans he has righted what Widows Causes he has pleaded what injur'd Innocence he has protected what Vertuous Persons he has incouraged with Rewards what vile Offenders he has discountenanced and punish't what Great mens oppressions he has resisted what Rising Mutinies and Rebellions He has indeavoured to repress For a man's Honour and Authority his Power and Greatness as well as Wealth are things of which he must give Accompt Thô for a King to be accomptable to any Tribunal upon Earth implies indeed a Contradiction yet Kings Themselves do stand accomptable to God even for their high Privilege of unaccomptableness to Men. And therefore the Greater any man is he is to humble himself the more and then as it follows in the Text he will find favour of the Lord. This is the use we are to make of the Third Qualification of our Inquirer and These especially are the Reasons inducing to it But now the Case in my Text is one of the strangest we ever heard of For would we not think it exceeding strange if the chief Magistrate of a City forgetting the Mace that is born before him should run to meet the poorest Cottager and throw himself down upon his Knees too and lifting up his trembling Hands should intreat him so humbly as to call him Master and so earnestly intreat him as to call him Good Master 'T is true that Christ was no Cottager because according to his Manhood He was very much poorer as having not where to lay his Head Yet the Man in my Text who had Great Possessions and was a Ruler in the pride and glory of his Youth too did thus come running after Christ and kneeled down to him thô in the Form of a Servant and call'd him Master thô born of Mary Spouse to Ioseph the Carpenter As if through That Veil of the Carpenter's Son he had had an Eye of Faith to see The Wisdom of the Father The Son of That Almighty Architect who indeed was The Builder of All the World Heb. 11. 10. This Jewish Convert without a Name hath somewhat more strange and more remarkable in his Conversion than The Iailour of Philippi who was but frighted into his wits and sought for Salvation in that Fright only and rather in the negative than positive sense of that word For That which He sought directly was a Deliverance out of his Dangers Not an Inheritance of Aeternity but only an Escape from the Wrath to come So that the Quaerist we are upon is more Didactical than the former as affording us many more and more Noble Lessons Three whereof we have had already And Three if well minded are enough for One Lecture as if slighted they are too many And therefore the Prospect of Life Aeternal which is a very great Deep enough to exercise the freshest and the most vigorous of our Thoughts is the fitter to be reserved for another Opportunity THE Excellent Nature OF THE INQUIRY MARK X. 17. And when he was gone forth into the way there came one Running and kneeled to him and asked him Good Master what shall I do that I may Inherit Aeternal Life § 1. HAving done with the Person who here Inquires and dismiss't the Three Lessons arising thence together with the Reasons on which those Lessons were chiefly Grounded I am in order to proceed to the second General observation The excellent Nature of his Inquiry which was not carnal and temporal but wholly spiritual and eternal He did not ask as an ordinary Youth what he should do that he might compass the greatest measure of Sensuality nor as an ordinary Worldling or man of Wealth what he should do that he might purchase the greatest Treasure of Gold and Silver nor as an ordinary Ruler what he should do that he might climb to the highest Honour upon Earth But casting These Things as it were behind his Back or treading them down under his Feet he was intent upon Inquiring as no ordinary Christian even before Christianity had got its Name what he should do to get an interest and share in Heaven How much soever he did abound in the things that are seen which are temporal He wholly directed his Ambition to the things that are not seen which are Eternal As the faster he ran to salute his Master by so much the better he was in Breath so the Lower he kneeled down he lifted his Thoughts so much the Higher Being mounted on the wings of an holy Zeal His Soul had now taken a nobler Flight than to Pearch upon any thing on this side Heaven As if he had lost the consideration of all his Secular Concernments such as Houses and Lands Goods and good Name Wife and Children if he had any and other things here below All the subject of his Inquiry was what he should do that he might be sav'd not only saved in the negative but in the positive sense of that word Not only so as to be rescued from a Bottomless Lake of Fire and Brimstone But also so as to be drown'd or swallowed up in a Boundless Ocean of Bliss and Glory Nothing would satisfie him but Life and no other Life than one Eternal Good Master what shall I do that I may Inherit Eternal Life § 2. From him therefore let us learn how to regulate our Ambitions and where to fasten our wild Desires We ought to tread upon the Glories of such a World as This is which besides that 't is a perishing and fading World is also the Instrument of Satan whereby to betray us to our Destruction and level the Gaspings of our Souls at Things Invisible and Future Things expressed to us in Scripture by a City having Foundations Heb. 11. 10. and by a Kingdom which cannot be moved Heb. 12. 28. and here in this Text by Aeternal Life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was St. Paul's Precept to his Colossians Set and settle your affections on things above And that for this Reason because your Christ is there sitting at the right hand of God Set them not upon the Earth For Iesus Christ is not here but is long since Risen as the Angel once said to his weak Disciples And if we are risen together with Christ let 's make it appear that we are Risen by our seeking those things that are above Since we were born out of due time to injoy the wish of St. Austin by seeing our Saviour in the Flesh let us look for him where he is and at least behold him in the Spirit Since I say we were not living when Christ was Conversant upon Earth Let us redeem the whole Time by a Ghostly Conversation with Christ in Heaven He who desires in Curiosity to see the Pope or the King of Spain and all the Rarities to be met with throughout their Countries will inquire as he is going which is the ready way thither and
can no longer continue powerful than God is pleas'd to be patient of him The roaring Lyon can no more hurt us without God's leave than the hungry Lyons could hurt Daniel or than hunger it self could hurt Elias or than the burning fiery Furnace could hurt the Three Loyal Iews who were cast into it Nay upon such as serve God the second Death has no power which yet is known to be so strong as to have power over the Devil For the time will one day come when God will tye him up close in his Chains of Darkness and will not suffer him any longer to dispose of any thing in the World much less of the Kingdoms and Glories of it But will sink him into the Depth for I cannot say the Bottom of the Lake which burns with Fire and Brimstone Nay though the Devil was so impudent as to tempt our blessed Lord to the committing of Idolatry yet in saying All things are delivered to me he was seemingly so modest or else so weak as to confess that he has nothing which he has not received And that as great as he is he has one above him one to whom he is a Pris'ner one who as he can freely give so he can easily take away too one who does suffer but for a time what he will certainly revenge unto all Eternity In a word he does confess that all he has to dispose of is but derivative and precarious 'T is at the most but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if his own word were to be taken deliver'd to him by his Iudge the proper Owner of all the World to whom at last he is to render a sad and terrible Accompt § 13. Thus we see the Devil's words Luke 4. 6. have but a little Truth mixt with a world of Falshood Nothing is True in them but This That God does suffer or permit him to be many times liberal to such as serve him But now with This little Truth which is but sufficiently imply'd we have Three or Four Falshoods which are sufficiently express'd For first 't is false what he saith if it be literally taken That the Things of this World are Deliver'd to him For not to hinder or to permit or to suffer him to take and dispose of Things is very much less than to deliver or put them to him to dispose of even as much as to be passive must needs be less than to be active in whatsoever thing it is which is brought to pass 'T is true the Devil was permitted to take our Saviour not only once but again and to carry him whither he pleas'd too as first into The City and after That unto The Mountain But 't is false to say our Saviour was deliver'd up to Satan by God the Father Next 't is but figuratively true and therefore literally false That he gives the World's Kingdoms to such as serve him For being no more than an Usurper and therefore void of all right he is not properly said to Give but rather to procure them to all Usurpers Thirdly 't is false that he procures them to whomsoever he pleaseth which yet he confidently adds for he procures them no farther than God sees good to permit or suffer Last of all he saith falsly That ALL the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them are so much as permitted to his Disposal if he means all at once For God disposeth of many Kingdoms wherein he suffers not the Devil to have the least thing to do 'T was God alone who gave his People the Land of Canaan although the Devil took it from Them and helpt to procure it for the Assyrians 'T was God alone who gave Iob his store of Cattle although the Devil prompted his Labourers the Chaldaeans and Sabaeans to take them from him 'T was God alone who gave Naboth a pleasant Vineyard although the Devil by God's permission helpt Ahab to it 'T was God alone who gave a Kingdom or rather Three Kingdoms which made a World together with all the Glory of it to our late Martyr'd Soveraign of Glorious Memory although the Devil was permitted by the help of his Tools to bereave him of it In a word if it is true what is proverbially asserted and upon very good Grounds That half the World at the least does live by cheating all the rest and by imposing on one another Then is it easy to discern and to state the Difference betwixt the Right and the Possession of things on Earth betwixt the Blessings and the Curses convey'd to men by their Prosperities betwixt the Instruments or Bounties of God and Satan § 14. Having hitherto shew'd the Truth of my Proposition and withal clear'd it from the Objection I am next to give the Reasons at least as many as I can think of or can fairly conjecture at why God is pleas'd in this World to indure with so much patience so great a confusion upon the Earth and leaves to the Devil so great a power in the perverting and debauching the ways of men For whilst we look at nothing else but what is present and before us we seem to see nothing but Disorder in most Events under the Sun If none but good men did prosper and none but evil men miscarry A method then would be acknowledg'd and men would probably be better than now they are Of if all that are good were in Affliction and all that are evil in Prosperity still there would be some method however men in probability would be very much the worse for the knowledge of it But as now the world goes There seems to be no method at all Things fall out in such a blended promiscuous manner For though the wicked are found to prosper a great deal more than the righteous as has been shew'd yet 't is as clear that many righteous do also prosper with the wicked and many wicked ones even here are as much afflicted as the righteous In which respect it was said by the Royal Preacher That all things come alike to all There is one event to the wicked and to the righteous to the clean and to the unclean to him that sacrificeth and him that sacrificeth not As is the good so is the sinner and he that sweareth as he that feareth an Oath The Race is not to the swift nor the Battle to the strong neither Bread to the Wise nor Riches to men of Understanding nor yet Favour to men of Skill but Time and Chance happeneth to them all In so much that some are tempted by the seeming Confusion of Events the Prosperities of the worst men and the Calamities of the Best to distrust the very Providence yea to suspect the very Iustice yea to deny the very Being of God Himself They think they are born at all adventure and that they shall dye as they are born That their spirits shall vanish into the Air and be as if they had never been § 15. Now