Certainty the greatest Consent and the greatest Necessity will honour it self and its Author in the world if it be rightly represented in the Lives of them that do profess it But when mens over-doing shall pretend that all this is too little and shall seek to raise it as to more perfection by their own Inventions or uncertain Opinions in Doctrine Worship Church-Discipline or Practice they presently cast it as a Foot-ball before the Boys in the Streets and make it a matter of doubtful endless Disputations of multiplied Sects of pernicious Contentions and cruel Persecutions And then the Reverence and Glory of it is gone and every Philosopher will vie with it in subtilty and every Stranger will presume to censure it if not to blaspheme it and deride it And thus Over-doers are the Scandals of the World II. The Christian that will glorifie God and his Profession must be conscionable in the smallest matters but he must ever describe and open the Nature of his Religion as consisting in great and certain things and not talk too much of smaller matters as if it were those that men were to be saved by Tell men of the necessity of believing fearing obeying trusting and loving God and of coming to him by Jesus Christ the Great Mediator between God and Man Tell them of the intrinsick evil of sin and of God's Justice and of Man's Corruption and of the Nature and Excellency of Holiness and of the necessity of being New-born of the Holy Spirit and of mortifying the desires and deeds of the Flesh and tell them of Judgment Heaven and Hell especially the certainty and excellency of the everlasting promised Glory perswade them to believe all this to think much of all this and to be true to what they know and to make it the work of Life to be always prepared for Death Let this be your discourse with sinners as I told you in the first Character it must be your own Religion and then men will perceive that Religion is a matter that doth indeed concern them and that they are indeed great and necessary things in which you differ from ungodly men But the Scandalous Christian talketh most of external Church-orders and Forms and Opinions and Parties and thereby maketh the ignorant believe that the difference is but that one will sit when the other kneeleth and one will pray by the Book and the other without Book and one is for this Church Government and another for that and one for praying in White and the other in Black And talking too much of such things as these deceiveth the hearers some it maketh formal hypocrites who take up this for their Religion and the rest it hardeneth and maketh them think that such people are only more humourous and self-conceited and giddy and factious than others but no whit better III. The Genuine Christian hath an humble and cautelous understanding sensible when he knoweth most how little he knoweth and how much he is still unacquainted with in the great mysterious matters of God His Ignorance is his daily grief and burden and he is still longing and looking for some clearer Light Not a new word of Revelation from God but a clearer understanding of his Word He knoweth how weak and slippery Man's understanding is and he is humbly conscious of the darkness of his own Therefore he is not conceitedly wise nor a boaster of his knowledge but saith as Paul 1 Cor. 8.2 He that thinketh that he knoweth any thing that is is proudly conceited of his own knowledge knoweth nothing as he ought to know And hence it is that though he daily grow in the firmer apprehension of necessary Truths yet he is never confident and peremptory about uncertain doubtful things And therefore he is not apt to be Quarrelsome and contentious nor yet censorious against those that differ from him in matters of no greater moment And hence it is that he runneth not into Sects nor burneth with the scaverish dividing Zeal nor yet is scandalously mutable in his Opinions because as one that is conscious of his Ignorance he doth not rashly receive things which he understands not but suspendeth his judgment till Evidence make him fit to Judge and joyneth with neither of the contending Parties till he is sure or know indeed which of them is right And thus he avoideth that dishonouring of Religion which the scandalous Christian is wofully guilty of who with an unhumbled understanding groweth confident upon quick and insufficient information and Judgeth before he understandeth the case and before he hath heard or read and considered what on both sides may be said and what is necessary to a true understanding And thus either by audacious prating of what he never understood or reviling and censuring Men wiser than himself or by making himself a Judge where he hath need to be many years a Learner or making a Religion of his own mistakes and setting up dividing Sects to propagate them or else by shameful mutability and unsettledness he becometh a scandal to harden unbelievers and a Disease to the Church and a shame to his profession Read James 3. Conceited Wisdom kindleth a contentious Zeal and is not of God but from beneath v. 15.16 17. IV. The Christian who Glorifieth God by his Religion is one that so Liveth that men may perceive that his carnal Interest is not the End and Ruler of his Life but that God is his End and to please him is his Work and his Reward in which he is comforted though the Flesh and World be never so much displeased And that the perfect Light and love of God in the unseen Glory of another Life is the satisfying sum of all his hopes for which all the World must be forsaken To talk much of Heaven and to be as much and as eager for the World as others is the way by which the scandalous Hypocrite doth bring Religion into Contempt It is no high nor very honourable Work to talk of the vanity of the World but to Live above it and to be out of the power of it Nor is it any great matter to speak honourably of Heaven but to Live as believing-seekers of it and as those that have there their Treasure and their hearts Mat. 6.20 21. and are comforted more by the Hopes of the Life to come than by all their possessions or pleasures in the World If we will glorifie God our Lives must perswade Men that he will certainly be our Everlasting Portion and the sure and plentiful Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11.6 It is much of the use of a true Christian's Life to convince Unbelievers that there is a Heaven for Saints and the scandalous worldling perswadeth them that there is none Mat. 5.5 11 12. Phil. 3.26 21. Col. 3.1 2 3 4 5. V. Therefore it Glorifieth God and our Religion when Christians Live in greater Joy or at least greater contentedness and Peace than other Men when they can answer
you lay foundations right and deep How can it be imagined much less expected that unprepared and estranged Souls from God and Christ should face the challenges and terrors or escape the dangers of a dying day vvhat can support the confidence of that man vvho is dispirited by the deserved rebuke buffettings of an exasperated because a guilty conscience for conscience is the mouth of God and speaks his mind and vvhat speaks othervvise in point of charge or censure is rather ignorance than conscience and by his order and commission and in his name and Majesty vvhips the careless soul It is impossible to still the cryes of guilt and vvrath It is far more easie for us to charm and stupifie the man than truely cure him He that is negligent of the main affair is like to bear the smartings of his ovvn voluntary vvounds and the more voluntary our negligence appears to be to our awakened consciences when startled by gripes and fears of death the less cause will there be for help and pity All fears arising from an unconverted state have God to back and sharpen them because they are truly grounded on God's professed resolution and legal comminations to bring those fears on them by vvhom they are deserved So that our only vvay to cure and quell these fears is to remove their Cause by giving up our selves to God the Father to knovv him love him and live to him and to delight our selves in God's Image Presence and Favour in his Son Jesus Christ more than in all the treasures and delights of lovver things to knovv the Lord that bought us and to serve him in righteousness peace and joy in the holy Ghost vvith confidence to commit our selves to his tendred conduct government and protection and entertain him vvith all sutableness of apprehension affection and conversation to all his excellencies offices and appearances to ansvver all his kindnesses cost and care with all such faithful fruitful chearful conversations as God Christ determined and designed in man's Redemption Eph. 1.4 Yea to be ruled assisted and refreshed by vvhat the Spirit of Grace and Holiness and Wisdom hath done for us and is sent from the Father and the Son to perfect and compleat in us to live the Life of Faith and Holiness and endeavour to spend our daies in the delightful hopes and fore-tasts of and ripenings for and hasting to or hastning as the vvord imports * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Pet. 3.12 your everlasting state of Joys and Glory to make the unseen vvorld the exercise poise and spring of your most vehement desires most vigorous pursuit and most inviolable satisfaction and in a vvord to vvalk in all due conscience of your trust and charge to God the Father Son and Holy Spirit to others and your selves in all things to think and speak and do as in the sight of God relation to him and special interest and delight in him and not through ignorance enmity and sloth to let the Devil Flesh or World mortifie your delight in God your motions tovvards affections to and resolutions for God And hearken not to those discouraging thoughts and jealousies of God and Christ vvhich your grand enemy the Prince of lies and darkness is ready to abuse you vvith Where hath God told you that the vvilling thoughtful painful Soul though much distemper'd and imperfect shall be rejected by him For vvhen the Son protests so solemnly against rejecting such as come he speaks his Father's heart Jo. 6.37 40. And I profess vvhen I most seriously consider the terms tenour of the covenant of Grace I am much confirmed in this that all grounded jealousies suspitions discouragements as to our hopes of everlasting happiness can only fix upon our voluntary rejecting of God and Christ and holiness and Heaven And though many things may humble us and ought to do it yet nothing can implead our Title to the purchased possession nor our comfortable hopes at death vvhen once our vvills are sixt on Christ and vvell resolved for him and prevail upon our lives for vvalking vvorthy of our great Vocation We have no impossible conditions imposed on us especially if vve consider Gospel-assistances indulgence and encouragements for vvhen vve knovv our vvay as God hath shevved it us in Christ and have our hearts inclined and fixt for God vve are but to exert vvhat strength and povver vve have to serve and please our God and proportionably to our abilities and advantages to vvait upon God for more according to his instituted vvays and methods Improvements are but required to be proportionable to our Talents and he that brought ten Talents to his Lord had more than one or tvvo at first to make improvement of I do indeed believe the Lavv * By the Law of the Nature I â— ean God's revealed will as Ruler objectively signified in the nature of things within us and without us concerning our Duty and Rewards or Punishments and this Law is written upon and discovered by our own capacity constitution our relations to God and others and our fâ—rniture and advantages from what we are encompâ—ssed and intrusted with in the whole firme of Nature of Nature yet in force though novv incorporated into the Lavv of Christ and that the Decalogue is yet in force to bind and rule us and never look to see its abrogation proved till they that hold this abrogation can demonstrate that the Father lost his Right Throne of Government by the appearance of his Son and that Christ acted not as his Fathers Delegate and for his Glory and that Grace vvas not designed and directed to the reparation of declined Religion in the vvorld but that God was so prodigal of his Pardon and Indulgence as to grow regardless of his Government But yet that Law is one thing and this Covenant another thing For the Covenant of Grace respected those distempers perplexities disadvantages and supposed them and was suited to them in its Tenders and Provisions for which it did design Relief And now our terms of Life are not so strict as those on vvhich God dealt vvith healthful sound and innocent Adam for novv sincere and prevalent Faith and Love and Holiness shall reach those Consolations after Death vvhich once viz. antecedently to Christ's undertaking and compleating satisfaction they could not do and therefore if your insincerity and fundamental unpreparedness for your change be that which starts and feeds your fears labour to be sincere and faithful in Covenant-making and Covenant-keeping and you may be sure of this that Death will lose its sting and victory and thereupon its fearful looks when Sin hath lost its Throne and when God and Christ have got your hearts and life-to come concernments influence and rule your purposes projects and pursuits It is with relation to our manifold temptations wants and weaknesses and all despondencies and discouragements consequent thereupon that Christ hath undertaken to be our great High
keep out Jealousie that bane of marriage comfort will keep the thoughts fixt and the heart chaste for it is not the Having an Husband or Wife but the Loving of them that preserves from Adultery This will prevent or soon quiet those storms within doors as we see the Mother that dearly loves her Child though it cry all night and disturb her quiet yet Love to it makes them very good friends in the morning If Love be eclipsed for a day or an hour between husband and wife they are (c) Mr. Baxter's Direct p. 520. like a bone out of joynt there is no ease nor order nor work well done till it be restored again 3. Mutual Fidelity especially to the Marriage-bed and also in each others secrets And this is directed 1 Cor. 7.2 Let every man have his Own wife and let every woman have her Own husband By which Rule the thoughts desires and actions of each of them are confin'd to their (d) Choose whether Adam thou wilt imitate the Old or the New the one hath but one Wife the other hath but one Church Hierome cited by Gataker own lawful yoke-fellow as the dearest sweetest and best Object in the world and this by vertue of the Covenant of their God The least Aberration herein if it be not speedily and sincerely mortified will strangely get ground and fester in the Soul and never rest till it come to plain Adultery (e) See of this largely and excellently Lud. Viv. de Christ foemin p. 699. And then the Comfort of their lives the quiet of their consciences and the credit of their families lye bleeding and without true Repentance their eternal happiness shipwrack't Yea this virtually dissolves the Bond of marriage and if the (f) Deut. 22.22 Divine Law were executed brings the offender to a severe Death And though some greater Shame and other Inconveniences do follow the unfaithfulness of the Wife yet man and wife being One flesh and equal power granted to them over the bodies of each other the guilt of this sin is equal unless the wisdom and strength of the man do make his fault the greater And therefore all possible care must be used to avoid all occasions and incentives of wandring desires from home and the rather because he or she that is not content with one will not be content with more for sin is boundless and nothing but Grace and the Grave can limit the desires of the Heart The same Faithfulness is necessary in the wise concealment of each others secrets whether Natural Moral or Civil unless in such cases wherein a superior Obligation doth release them For there cannot be a more unnatural treachery than when Husband or Wife the nearest of Friends make one another obnoxious to shame or harm Bad when it is done by Inadvertence worse when in their Passion worst of all when it is through ill will and malice 4. Mutual Helpfulness Hence they are called Yokefollows And of the Woman it was said at her Creation that she should be an (g) Gen 2.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Help meet for him which may be rendred an Help like him for they should be both of them Helps to each other There are Three Yokes which they must joyntly carry 1. The Yoke of Cares This all people must expect to bear in a married condition and for the most part that of Labour also And these lying always on one shoulder will overload but when some help comes in the husband takes care without the wife takes care within the husband travels abroad the wife is busie at home then the burden is easier To this end it behoves the Wife to read often the last Chapter of Proverbs and the husband the rest of that Book for their quickning hereunto 2. The Yoke of Crosses and troubles For such as are married though they expect nothing but pleasure yet (h) 1 Cor. 7.28 must have trouble in the flesh losses in their estates afflictions in their children crosses both from friends and enemies Now every man and woman should chuse such yoke-fellows as may be Friends as well as Relations and may comfort support and advise each other with all faithfulness and sympathy 3. The Yoke of Jesus Christ For they should (i) 1 Pet. 3.7 live as heirs together of the Grace of Life And it is the highest end of their Relation to promote one the others everlasting happiness The Knowledg of the husband must help the wife and the Zeal of the wife must help the husband When (k) Cael. Rhodig l. 28. the Sun shines the Moon absconds when that is set this appears When the husband is at home then it is his work to instruct and pray with his Family and sanctifie the Sabbath but in his absence the wife is his stated Deputy and must look to it And both must study both in Prudence and Conscience to be of One mind incouraging reproving or correcting their Inferiors lest their Authority be weakened their spirits distempered and their indeavours frustrateâ— 5. Mutual Patience c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quomodo probabit homo animam suam si pâ—ssit tolerare uxorem malam Buxt ex Miphcah Happen This Grace we are bound to exercise towards all men how much more to such near and dear Relations Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away with all malice And be kind one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another as God doth for Christ's sake forgive us Eph. 4.31 32. Innumerable are the l Occasions that may minister Contention in the daily affairs wherein they are concerned and Satan is ever ready to blow the coal and they have corrupt and froward Natures and therefore there is a flat necessity of this blessed Grace Alas a civil War within doors is the most intolerable The soul the body the worship of God the affairs the Family are all disordered by it No good can come of it passion reforms nothing but (m) Magis vâ—remur prudâ—ntes quam i acundos plus cogit qu etum imperium quam vehemens imperiosior concitatione quies Lu. Viv. de Christ Foem p. 729. patience may the wrath of man works not the righteousness of God The married Couple therefore must study and pray for a meek and quiet spirit mortifie pride learn self-denial and sometimes wisely (n) Thus Albuâ— us lived with his Terentiana 25 years and P. Rubrius Celer with his Ennia 44 years without a quarrel So Mr. Smith in his Sermons tels of a cholerick couple that kept the peace by each keeping silence when the other was angry withdraw till the storm be over and hold their peace to keep the peace They must consider as Holy Mr. Bolton saith that two Angels are not met together but too sinful children of Adam from whom little can be expected but weakness and waiwardness They must reckon the greatest worth and honour to be first in Overtures of Peace
gracious Redeemer that you would be reconciled and that you would befriend your selves and accept of the forgiveness of all your sins I intreat you that you would not through neglect of pardon and perseverance in a sinful course irrecoverably ruine and damn your Souls methinks my heart doth yearn over you and Bleed for you who are wounding your selves and rushing on inconsiderately towards the place of everlasting weeping and wo from whence there is no coming back no coming out for ever Sinners why should you be so hard to be perswaded without any further delay to be reconciled unto God Why do I need to use so many intreaties May I at length prevail with you that you would not be miserable and prove your own Murderers that you would be blessed here and hereafter through your ready acceptation of pardoning mercy What answer must I carry back to my Master who sent me this day to proclaim in your ears the blessedness of forgiveness and to use intreaties with you in his name that you would become thus blessed Must I complain Lord there are a company of obstinate sinners whom I have intreated to accept of pardon but there is not the least spark of ingenuity amongst them nor the least sense of their sins upon them had I been to preach to Beasts or Fowls to the Earth or Stones they would have been as much moved as these sinners Lord I spent my strength and pains my voice and lungs for nought I know not how to perswade I know not which way to prevail with them I thought thy beseechings would have taken with them that the intreaties of God like a sweet flame would have melted their hearts as Wax within them I thought that when thou didst vouchsafe by me to request them to leave their sins and be reconciled unto thee that this would marvellously have affected them and that they would readily have complied in a thing so necessary for them and so much for their own happiness I did begin with terror to them and yet they were not affrighted but I hoped when I came to end with Mercy and to speak in the soft and sweet Language of thine entreaties and to urge th s most winning Argument of thy Requests unto them that then they would immediately have yielded and most thankfully have accepted so gracious proffers made unto them But alas Lord I found it far otherwise than I expected if their ears were open their hearts were shut up and they would not receive my message which from thee in faithfulness and tenderness I delivered unto them And what may I farther hope will prevail with them if thy intreaties be thus disregarded Must I thus complain or may I have occasion to say Lord I have been preaching the blessedness of forgiveness which I backed with thine intreaties of sinners that they would accept of it and through thy blessing the Arguments I used were not altogether in vain some sinners that had stouted it out a long time against thee began at length to relent and yield when they heard thine intreaties of them to be reconciled Lord I heard scalding sighs break forth from such and such whose hearts were breaking within them for their sins I saw brinish tears trickling down from some eyes proceeding from a spring of godly sorrow within newly given them by the Spirit how did they look and seem to long after thy Salvation how greedily did they hearken even like the condemned Malefactor when he hath first tidings of a pardon I hope they are gone home to intreat that of thee which thou hast by me been intreating of them to accept of O Lord grant them their desires be reconciled to that Drunkard and unclean wretch forgive the iniquities of that Swearer Sabbath-breaker and profane Sinner What do you say Sinners will you send me back to my Master sadned or rejoyced Accept of my Message and it will be the joy of my heart yea it will be the joy of Angels in Heaven and however it will cost you some grief and tears in your repentance of sin at the first yet if you so seek after this blessedness of forgiveness as to obtain it the issue will be joy to your selves you will have the beginnings of joy here and in the other world your joys will be full ineffable and eternal Methinks some of you seem almost perswaded O that you were quite perswaded without further delay to put in practice the Directions given for the obtaining the blessedness of forgiveness How we may overcome inordinate love of Life and fear of Death Serm. XXX Acts 20.24 But none of these things move me neither count I my life dear to my self that I may finish my course with joy c. THE Context tells us that the Apostle was now at Miletus v. 17. and from hence he sends to Ephesus and calls for the Elders of the Church Now these Elders were not Timothy and Trophimus for they were in his company already v. 4. and had been with him in his journey hither but rather those twelve men on whom he laid his hands and bestowed the Holy Ghost in order to their Ministry at Ephesus Acts 19.1 2 6 7. and the rest whom Timothy had ordained whilst he was there From v. 18. of this Chapter we have the Apostle's Farewel Sermon wherein he clears himself by close and smart addresses to their Consciences and Experiences as to all charges and surmises of ministerial miscarriages among them v. 18.27 and works them all within the Conscience of their ministerial charge and trust from God to imitate his Ministerial faithfulness by urging such significant and cogent Arguments as were apt and proper to startle and engage them to and in their work And these Arguments are drawn from the present and instantly succeeding circumstances and concernments of the Church of God They were in danger of Wolves breaking in upon them and seducers arising from amongst them They were the Church of God the price of his Blood committed to the care and guidance of these Ministers to whom the Apostle spake and therefore the interest and worth of Souls and their relation to them and all those sad and dangerous exercises underminings and obstructions which they were sure to meet with in their Pastoral work did call aloud upon them for all possible circumspection activity and resolution in and for their work of all which the Apostle was an exemplary and awakening instance and example My Text is the Generous Heroicism of an awakened and prepared heart occasioned by the Tidings that were brought him by the Spirit v. 23. Who told him there that bonds and afflictions did abide him in every City Here you may see those sinews cut of hopes and fears which might obstruct his Faith Diligence and Perseverance he is mortified to all that love of Life and fear of Death which possibly might controll his better prospect hopes and work In the Words we have the Apostle concerned in reference to
a double state 1. As to this mortal Life it is implied in the Text and express'd in the Context that it is a Theater of smart contentions and miseries and that he was concerned in the agonistical exercises thereof 2. As to the other Life he had the prospect of transcendent joys exhibited to his views and hopes as the determined and proposed reward of his well-managed exercises the influences and impressions whereof did strangely invigorate and fix his resolutions to maintain such a Masculine frame of spirit as should entertain and answer all the challenges of danger difficulties and temptations and to preserve that necessary liberty from and useful indifferency to the hopes and love of Life and fears of Death and Danger which might secure the spirit and prowess of a resolved and successful valour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I make no reckoning of any thing and he grows regardless of his life and hath mortified the vigour of all the arguments and inducements that can be fetcht therefrom for the utmost reach of rage and villany is to effect no more and can extend no farther than the loss of Life Mat. 10.28 And all those Comforts which are liable to the casualties and sequestrations of transient time and cannot run parallel with our capacious souls beyond the limits of a dying breath cannot be valued beyond the value of their end and therefore he that conquers and subdues the estimation of his Life hath so far overcome all the disturbing and ensnaring influences of hopes and fears relating to it and derived from it Well we have here an instance and example in this great and gracious Apostle of a resolved and proficient Christian yea and a visible practical demonstration of what Blood and Spirits are in the veins of Christianity and are bred there and what an energy and force there is in one right believing look and glance at things to come 2 Cor. 4.16 18. Heb. 12.2 And if it be objected that as the Apostles course was ministerial so were his joys which fix'd his eye and therefore in neither can he be proposed to others as their imitable pattern or exact encouragement seeing all are not Ministers neither can all expect his Exercises Furniture Encouragements and Attainments and so that we pluck not the fruit from the right tree I answer This doth not prevent his being our pattern argument and encouragement if but these few things be seriously considered 1. The Apostle had a double Course to run he had the trust and business of a Christian as well as of a Minister to discharge he had a God to please a Soul to save an Hell to escape an Heaven to reach an Heart to cleanse and Sins to mortifie unruly Passions and impetuous Affections to be curbed and managed by their proper Discipline as well as others he was a man subject to like Passions with our selves he dwelt in flesh and was opposed by the Devil as well as others he had Corruptions to be mortified and pardoned and loved his Life and what might make it comfortable saving where Inordinacies were to be corrected and subdued because of inconsistency with better work and joys yea he had such forcible inclinations to desire and beg some intermissions of and respite from his tedious Exercises as forced him to repair to Prayer and Arguments to get support so that he might not Oneri succumbere and thus I understand that Thorn in the flesh 2 Cor. 12.7 10. And so the Sense seems facil and it amounts to this The Apostle had been labouring in the fire for God and for the interest of Christianity and managed all his Exercises in the face of danger and growing aged he was tempted to desire of God that he might spend the residue of his declining age in liberty and quietness but when the flesh so weather-beaten by the storms grew so desirous of some respite from the severity of Travel Chains and Labours the messenger Satan comes again threatning and acquainting him with designed and determined repetitions of former Buffetings and the renewals of Reproaches Necessities Persecutions c. for Christ's sake Which when he understood and apprehended that Christ and his Gospel were so concerned in them he thought and took them as the matter of his Glory in that they might be serviceable to the Interest of Christ and great occasions of some special Illustrations of the remarkable Power and Grace of Christ but this pace aliorum The truth is Sirs he had such Exercises and Temptations as that had not the expectations and perswasions of these joys above which succeeded the Course well finished interposed to fortifie and compose his spirit this world had never been conquered nor so easily forsaken and disclaimed by him nor Death so tamely entertained nor Hopes and Fears so managed and subordinated as they were 1 Cor. 15.19 31 32 58. Now thus far he stands on equal grounds with other Christians and hath the same Exercises Arguments Encouragements Interest and Obligations that every Christian hath and if it was possible for him to finish his course under the powerful Influences of this Prospect and Design it is as possible for us for no impossibility whilst such can be our duty 2. His Ministerial Work and Trust was as to its full discharge a necessary and essential part of his saving Christianity No Minister of Jesus Christ by office can be a sound and faithful Christian that is unfaithful in his Ministry it is in so doing that he must save himself as well as those that hear him 1 Tim. 4.15 16. 3. Our accommodations being made answerable to Trust and Work our faithful management thereof is of equal necessity in much or little for we must be answerable to Relations Trust and Places and other Circumstances as God hath placed us in and under them for we must be judged and are to act accordingly to what we have received No man is commanded and encouraged faithfully to discharge his Ministry but upon some supposition that the Ministry is his lawful Calling and where that is unfaithfulness will damn him that is guilty of it for it is his place of Service even as faithful service of all Servants in general is their Duty Yet places of Service and the matter and measure of their service may be different according to the master's pleasure and affairs 4. The close connection of his whole Course and Comforts clears the Case For 1. It is not imaginable that any man can be a faithful Minister whose heart is alienated from the true powerful Principles Sentiments and Impressions of Christianity For how can any man be separated cordially to this most costly painful Calling and regularly bear the heat and burden of his Place and Day who hath not well concocted the Substance Evidence and Importance of this great Mystery of Salvation which is the indispensable and adequate exercise of his Function into deep perswasions warm affections and most unconquerable resolutions Who can unweariedly pursue
the Souls of others with close and pressing importunities to prize and prosecute that Element and State of Joys and Holiness which is not credited relished and valued by himself And further 2. Were it supposed also that the regular faithfulness of a Minister was separable from the spirit faithfulness of a Christian either in themselves or in the Subject yet how can we imagine such operative influential apprehensions and true relishes of the joy reported and proposed as shall prevail against all oppositions and discouragements and competitions from the frowns and flatteries bribes and stroaks of Earth and Hell to animate a Minister's brest so as to make him through in all the Enterprizes and Employments of his Function whil'st his own Work and Interest as a Christian is neglected and those influences of this joy entailed upon a course well finished though they be powerful to make him faithful in the one shall yet be found too languid to issue in the same diligence and success as to the other And 3. We must conclude that this Eagle-eyed Apostle saw and reckoned on it that a Christian Minister and an Apostle must be a through-Christian and something yea much more or else he could not possibly conclude his Course would bring him to his Joys 1 Cor. 9.24 27. Therefore the Sense and Errand of the Text amounts to this Doctr. That the comforts of a well compleated course will make all discerning serious Christians to be above the regard of Life or fear of all afflictions bonds or death to compass them Rom. 8.18 and Phil. 1.20.23 The very instance argument and errand of my Text and Doctrine grounded thereupon imply and include several things as that 1. there is a state of future joys and retributions for we have no reason to imagine that our Apostle was so blind as to be deceived himself nor so wicked as to deceive others No man that knows and credits the existence of a Deity but he must take him to be the strongest wisest the best of beings and so that he must needs be omnipotent omniscient and all-sufficient and if so then it is beyond all controvesie that omnipotence can at such a rate address it self to Creatures as to make them happy or miserable as it best becomes it self He that ordained and framed this state cannot be thought to have acted to the utmost of his strength for what can stint omnipotence and doth it suit the wisdom of God to make a Creature capable of an everlasting state and of the hopes and prospect of it and to implant in it an expectation of it and rule him by those hopes and fears which do and must derive their influences from an eternal state and after all to make it evident that man was only made to be imposed on or ruled and managed by mistakes and meer fallacious arguments and errours or hath God afforded us the least intimation of his mind in nature providence or scriptures that this is the way of conciliating that love and honour from his Subjects or of implanting and maintaining those necessary fears in man which government requires for the attainments of its ends to make them live in expectation of what is no ways fit to reach its ends because it is either false or mean and therefore I need not go about to prove what here is granted and improved and what so many incomparably better pens have proved before me 2. this state hath sufficient force as to argument and motive to press us to do and suffer all that we can meet with or be called to in our whole Christian course All those severe perplexities which our religion calls us to as to obedience in sufferings and duty are not beyond the compensations of these approaching expected joys and if they obstruct the influences and eclips the light and glory of what is proposed and promised as our great argument and encouragement 't is utterly only our own fault that makes what is sufficient to be ineffectual 3. The comforts of a course well finished cannot be had without the regular management finishing of our course this can never be without resolution and preparation of the heart by which it must be born and kept above immoderate love to life and fear of sufferings and death Faith is the spirit of religion the spirit of faith is hope and the spirit of hope is love and these are all the most successful preparations of the heart Had faith its liberty power and prospect in the heart of all professors it would make them too sagacious concerned to be imposed on by plausible delusions and bold pretences in all these sublunary trifles to that substantial solid satisfaction and excellency which are expected by ductile mortals to be experienced therein or hoped for therefrom Did we but look beyond the grave and wilderness and search and see that land of promise which is beyond them we might be entertained and allured with such clusters from it as would afford us more grateful relishes and spirits than all the feculent extractions of these transient comforts could amount to All our delights and pleasures in and great sollicitudes about these lower things would be effectually mortified and conquered 2 Cor. 4.17 18. what breasts of consolation are evidence substance Heb. 11.1 sense and presence do strangely invigorate strengthen the dangerous influences of this Worlds comforts and concernments in their addresses to the heart of man 2 Tim. 4.10 And because the gain and comforts of true Religion are invisible and distant therefore their certainty and transcendent excellency must be concocted into deep and sound Perswasions and be digested into answerable Affections Resolutions and Pursuit and all those Arguments and Motives which must prevail upon us to run and finish the course and race which is set before us must be derived from and are to be reduced to this deep perswasion of these certain and transcendent comforts nor is it possible that Religion should live or thrive but in the power of and true proportion to our apprehensions and perswasions of those fundamental truths and principles of God's existence and rewarding excellency Heb. 16.6 Man must be ruled as God hath made him and as fear and love are the commanding passions and affections of every subject capable of moral government so something there must be reported and determined fit for the exercise and discipline thereof and if transcendency in what must influence â—oth be not credible and demonstrable their influences must of necessity prove too languid to attain their end Equality spoils choice as far as iâ— extends and if the comforts of another state do not exceed what we can meet with here sure powerful Godliness would lose its life and brests together nor could it be existent in its practice without its arguments and motives and with submission to better judgments I think that impossibility of pleasing God without faith spoken of Heb. 11.6 Results not only