this Rest of Faith for justification St. Paul shews in the next words that they rather confirm and ratifie the pardon than question or lessen it through that experience of Gods wise and faithful love in making all things work together for good to those that love him above all Who shall seperate us from the love of God in Christ shall Tribulation or Distress Persecution or Nakedness Famin or Sword in all these we are more than Conquerors through him that loved us If weak Christians coming to Christ with faithful desires and resolutions to weare his Yoke and bear his Burthen meekly and humbly find not this Rest of justification with such a degree of Peace and Joy as St. Paul expresseth 't is not because Christ giveth them not what he promiseth but because he giveth it them gradually according as they are able and fit by their Faith to receive it for he saith to every Soul now as to them in St. Matt. 9.24 Be it unto you according to your Faith if your Faith be strong and lively both in believing my promise and merit and in undertaking that Yoke of his Yoke though they find not as yet that Rest and Peace which their Souls desire pray and stay for Blessed is he that stayeth and waiteth with humble Prayer Gods leisure since he hath promised who cannot fail that he will not break the bruised Reed but give in time the Garment of joy for the Spirit of heaviness and Isai 57.15 16. I will dwell with the contrite humble Spirit to revive it for I will not contend for ever neither will I be always wrath lest the Spirit should fail before me and the Souls which I have made Thus you have seen the first Rest which true believers enter into even here in this life the Rest of Pardon and Justification upon their Repentance and Faith in Christ The second is a Rest from the Tyrannous reign of sin by those Motives of Hope and Fear Love and Gratitude which faith propoundeth from Christs Gospel and the Spirit of grace holiness and comfort which faith procureth by earnest Prayer Now this is so necessarily joyned with the other the Rest of Pardon that 't is its ordinary standing evidence and the means to obtain it more and more For we may not come to Christ for Pardon to give us the Rest of justification from sins guilt and condemning power by his Blood unless we so value that pardon and its price as sincerely to hate and be heartily willing to forsake that sin which the wisdom and holy justice of God could not or would not remit or forgive but at such a price as his own eternal infinite Sons humiliation to and in that humane nature which had offended We must feel as well the burthen of sins loathsom filth and hateful disorder as well as that of its guilt and punishment before we are those weary and laden those poor and humble ones in Spirit who have a Title to rely on Christ for Rest from both but to those who so come unto him our gracous Lord never denies what he invites to Rest from the slavish service of sin as well as from its intolerable guilt and condemnation His blood and spirit are never sever'd where-ever the one is actually imputed to justification the other is always imparted also to sanctification and therefore St. Paul joyns them together 1 Cor. 6.11 Such were some of you but ye are washt but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God And Rom. 8.2.9 The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath set me free from the Law of sin and death But if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ he is as yet none of his though he may be his by repentance and faith And indeed this Rest from sins dominion you will easily see to be a necessary and great part of the Souls happiness in this life if you will but consider the burthensome drudgery that wicked Men lie under until they obtain it and enter into it by such a faith in Christ Jesus as works by obedience For every person living in any course of impiety unrighteousness intemperance is a self-accusing self-condemning divided creature a terror and shame unto himself He cannot choose but wish and desire eternal Rest yet is customarily drawn by his lusts and passions to do that which certainly leads to eternal anxiety and tribulation His reason invites him to that good which is Spiritual immortal infinite and therefore a satisfactory Rest to his Soul to the only God who made him at first and who alone can make him happy But his lust and passions draw him away to that which is earthly sensual devilish Not only finite and fading and so disappointing him but filthy and base and so distracting and vexing his Soul with foul disorder and guilty shame His Spirits and conscience often tells him that he ought to maintain an humble holy communion with God by Faith and Hope and Love Prayers and Praises that so he may be prepared to see him in that immediate clear revelation of his glory but his lusts and passions so burthen and oppress him that he cannot lift up his heart to God nor draw near his holy presence with any delight but studies to shun him and live without the remembrance of his goodness and mercies that he may forget his power and justice To behold the Creator in the Creature and love the giver in his gifts to contemplate his power wisdom and goodness shining in his word and works to be thankfull for his past benefits rejoycing in his present favour and panting after his blessed presence to all eternity to fit himself for that presence by purifying himself as he is pure by being righteous holy and merciful as he is to govern himself and those that are under him in such order as God prescribes this is the Rest as well as the Labour of rational Souls in this life a pleasure and honour as well as a taske But sin is such a burthenous Tyrant and oppressor that it makes the sinner imploy his reason made to serve know love and enjoy God It makes him imploy this reason in the drudgery of covetousness in the brutishness of lusts and sensuality in the devillishness of malice envy revenge pride and ambition His reason was given to study God and his Will to please and delight in him here that he may for ever see and enjoy him with mutual complacency to help others to do so by word and deed and who is there that hath not quite unchristian'd and unman'd himself but in sober retirement thinks this a work that hath pleasure in it and Rest as well as Labour But sin is such a wearisom Tyrant and oppressor that it makes the reasonable immortal Soul that heavenly breath that Image of God a sneaking Pandor to his lusts a drudging purveyor to his belly and appetite a fawning
that of losing his rest of incurring his endless intolerable displeasure this is a wise and gracious fear not only the beginning of Wisdom and Grace but its safety and preservation its watchful Monitor Exciter and Furtherer all along for it makes us examine and prove our selves whether we are as yet in the faith well settled and grounded such a faith as works by love and sincere obedience not a groundless or fruitless credulity perswasion confidence of all being well on a bare profession and when we have found that we are sincere in faith repentance love obedience it awakes our care to continue so by growing in grace and persevering against whatever allurements or terrors lest we fall from our own steadfastness and hold not fast the ground of our confidence to the end It works on our memory and revives our humility for sins past it works on our reason and stirs up our care against sin for the future The fear of missing or falling short of Gods rest of incurring intolerable eternal trouble anguish and pain restrains us from running on in the ways of destruction In the restraint some hope of pardon shews it self in this hope we see the mercy and love of God and then at last perceive the horrour and ugliness of sin not onely in its punishment but in it self This last hath more of love than fear in it and the fear is now become filial for a good Son will fear the anger of his Father so much the more because he knows the greatness and sweetness of his love and by that fear preserves and increases his filial obedience Our Saviour commands his Apostles themselves who sure were Sons and had the Spirit of Adoption to fear him that can destroy both body and soul in hell fire that they might not fear but choose to suffer all that Man could inflict on their bodies rather than hazard the loss of his favour for what 's the fire of persecution to that of Gods wrath or the pains of a Rack for an hour or two to the torments of hell for evermore The Fathers call this fear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bridle of lusts or disorderly appetites and not onely the entrance to Piety but the Guardian of all Virtue S t Jerom confesses he owed the strictness of his life to this fear and S t Ambrose says Love it self is upheld by it Some would confine fear to Mount Sinai as if Mount Sion did exclude it whereas the Apostle having compared the Law on the one and the Gospel on the other Heb. 12.18 22. adds presently ver 25. See ye refuse not him that speaketh for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaks from heaven And then concludes the whole Chapter with these words Wherefore let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire I know that of S t Aug. is true Brevis differentia legis Evangelij Timor Amor. But 't is the fear of temporal punishment which is proper to the Law wherewith as also with hope of temporal promises they were in that Nonage allured or terrified first to outward then to inward spiritual obedience We should indeed for the great kindness and enamouring amiableness of our Redeemer and Redemption be all on fire with thankful love but we must consider not onely what 's the height of our duty we owe to our Lord but what 's that which at first entrance into his School we can perform and what afterwards through the remainders of corruption we still need and what he will be pleased to accept Thus to be frighted and chased to happiness is an Argument indeed of our imperfection but since our state is as yet imperfect 't is our Wisdom to use all such helps as our Lord allows of And yet even in the state of innocency our first Parents needed this motive and had not fell if they had used it they fell with this thought that they should not fall They who in this lapsed imperfect estate require such Christians onely as are made up of all love do but Votum accomodare non Historiam nec qualis est sed qualis esse deberet describunt They tell us what their wish is and our duty but consider not the real History of what is and what is likely to be effected Thus Tully says of Cato that optimo animo summâ fide utens nocet interdum Reipublicae with an honest and good meaning he did sometimes much hurt to the Commonwealth by imposing that strictness of Laws and Manners which 't was not able to reach or keep Tanquam in Platonis Republicâ non tanquam in faece Romuli fitting his sentence rather to Plato's phansied Utopian Commonwealth than to the real state of Rome So I may say of these Perfectionists they do not remember that they have to do with Men in whom some remainders of the old Man will still be lusting against the Spirit and those lustings must be check'd and chil'd and supprest sometimes with this fear of falling short of God's Rest and falling into intolerable Troubles And yet suppose they were as St. Paul and feared Sin more than Hell yet the height of some Mens grace is no ground for a general Doctrine nor because Love is the best of all therefore may Fear be made unlawful as if that were a Sin which God propounds to keep us from Sin Hell I am sure is a part of our Creed as well as Heaven and God hath propounded both a Tribunal and a Mercy-seat and if we may serve God as Moses did with an eye of hope to the recompence of reward why not with an eye of fear towards him who though a Father will-judge every man according to his works Our Saviour indeed Luke 12.32 bids his flock how little soever not fear because it is their Fathers pleasure to give them the kingdom but the fear he forbids is the fear of distrustfulness in him or his promises or assistances as if he would not or could not defend his obedient Children against the numerous Herd of the wicked not the fear of incurring his holy and just displeasure in case they should do what must displease him We do not fear as the Jews did present punishment to restrain us from that lust which otherwise we love and would willingly follow Our greatest motives of obedience are not from that spirit of bondage which looks chiefly on temporal things and thinks it self rejected for ever if chastised here or tried with afflictions for the Gospel directs us to things invisible and eternal much more clearly than the Law and makes afflictions patiently endured the sign of Gods favour rather than hatred nor is it contrary to the Spirit of Adoption to fear offending him that adopted us lest thereby he disinherit us Though we are received into the family of
faith and the merits and intercession of Christ Jesus receives and imbraces with peace and joy by that Rest from the power disorder and tyranny of Sin which faith procuring Gods Spirit and looking upon the certainty and weight of his promises and threats the beauty and excellency of his precepts together with the great obligation of God's mercy in sending his Son to die for our sins and rise again for our justification effects and enjoys Thus believers if such believers as rely on the promises of God's Rest with faithful resolutions and endeavours to perform its conditions do enter into it initially and shall enter into it eternally But how proves the Apostle this the proof of it is in these words He said I have sworn in my wrath that they shall not enter my Rest who shew themselves obstinately unbelieving and disobedient The Argument is taken à contrario from the nature of contrary things If infidelity and disobedience be that alone which excludes from the promise of God's Rest then faith and obedience or such a faith as produceth obedience is that which entitles us to enter into it for God's promise cannot be satisfied nor wholly norutterly disappointed or made to become of none effect And therefore though they who would not believe it nor keep its conditions fell short of it yet they who believe and perform its conconditions must enter into it Yea his very wrath and oath against the one for their unbelief and disobedience implies and inferrs his complacency and love towards the other his undefeasible decree and oath that they persevering in faith and obedience shall enter and fully enjoy his Rest And this Rest was not the Rest of Canaan For if Joshua or Jesus the Son of Nun had given them Rest then would not David afterwards have spoken of another Rest from whence the Apostle inferrs what he began with there Remains therefore a Rest to the People of God another manner of Rest than that of Canaan eternal and perfect with God in Heaven to which the true Joshua or Jesus the Son of God must give us entrance by faith in him of whom Joshua the Son of Nun was but an imperfect transitory Type as that Rest of Canaan and of the Sabboth was of the perfect eternal Rest which still remains for Gods People the whole Church of true persevering obedient believers From what the Apostle hath said we may make this observation That Man hath no true and perfect Rest in ought but God His Rest is Mans Rest because he is the Rest and happiness of Man the ultimate compleate satisfactory object of reasonable creatures To Rest in any thing but in him as our happiness without dependance on him as the Author and reference to him as the end thereof is sinful vanity and vexation sure to end in eternal trouble without repentance Canaan it self was not to be the final Rest and happiness of the Israelites nor must any thing in this World any thing less than God be ours What God hath said to the Jews of old he much more clearly hath said and proved to us Christians Arise and depart for this is not your Resting place The Heavenly Rest and eternal life of seeing God as he is was but obscurely and imperfectly revealed to them who lived before or under the law till Christ came in whom the promise of it was made when man had lost all hope of it It was till then wrapt up as it were in the seed and bloome of Types and Prophesies implied and intimated in the Sabboth and Canaan and Temporal blessings attending Piety in this life rather than manifested and brought to light in its clearest evidences and strongest assurances as now our Lord Jesus hath done who hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel and therefore if they were obliged only in God through Christ Jesus to place their happiness in nothing below but to look on him through the vaile of Types and Temporal blessings how much more are we obliged as well as enabled to do so to whom Christ hath been exhibited with all the fulness of Truth and grace revealing the whole counsel of God our Rest in him and the way to attain it without obscurity and beyond dispute If David foresaw and foretold this Rest to be remaining when he not only enjoy'd Canaan and its blessings as the other Israelites did but the very height thereof as a prosperous King If he could say Deliver me O Lord from the Men of this World whose portion is in this life I am a stranger and sojourner here as all my Fathers were How much more are we obliged to think and say so who have not such Types and Temporal blessings to vaile the Object of our Rest and interrupt our sight of it to whom the Son and Lord of David hath been exhibited exemplifying and teaching us our only Rest to be in God the Father through him the Son by his holy Spirit dying to purchase an entrance to it rising and ascending and sitting down in a Glorious Rest at Gods Right Hand to assure us of it It is no less than the sin of Idolatry to place our Rest confidence or happiness in pleasures or honours possessions or riches or any thing else that this World can gratifie us with it is the bitter spring or Root of all sins It contradicts the design of God in giving us any Temporal blessings he gave them to help us unto him that reflecting upon him as their Author and end we might be perswaded to love him incomparably above all if we fall in love with them instead of raising our love to him we quite pervert the intent of his favours and turn them into hinderances to his dishonour and our own ruine He gave them to comfort us in our journy and shall we so mistake his meaning as to set up our dwelling in the Inn and Travaile no farther towards our Country but forget the giver because of that gift which was sent us on purpose to mind us of him This were to bring that curse on our selves which the Prophet foretold rather than prayed might fall on Gods enemies Let their Table be made a snare and that which should have been for their wealth be an occasion of falling to them This were indeed to provoke God either to withdraw those favours which thus he sees rested in instead of him or else to embitter and curse them from yeilding any content and if he should suffer us still to rest in them to his dishonour 't would prove the greatest surest curse of all others to live and die in this false deceitful transitory Rest which leads to and ends in eternal trouble and sorrow of body and soul That which is Mans true Rest must be able to give him full and perpetual satisfaction But all things below do neither satisfie us while we have them nor can continue with us longer to yield us that Rest or Pleasure which we fancy We
ornament of a quiet Spirit very pretious in Gods sight and therefore ought to be so in ours I appeal to the reason and experience of any Man whether it be not rest and ease to forgive an injury rather than be provoked to revenge and to lay aside the consideration of other Mens malice envy and peevishness rather than imitate it and suffer the vexing remembrance of it to boil and ferment in our watchful minds until it hath conquered and transform'd us into the same troublesom evil Is it not Peace and a blessed Rest to sit still and lift up no hands but those of Charity and Charitable prayer rather than labour in fighting and wounding one another To hold ones peace than to rail and revile Which hath more Rest in it to study to be quiet and do ones own business or to be prying and intermedling with other Mens office faults or secrets To speak evil of no Man or to be always finding fault and speaking the worst we can of any who differ from us in any respect Which is the greatest trouble and burthen meekly to obey our Lawfull Governours in Church and State where God hath not commanded the contrary or be allways disputing against a few harmless indifferent ceremonies untill we have quarre'ld our selves and others into a causeless scandalous pernitious separation Then for humble contented patience that precept of the Old Testament but wisdom and mystery of the New Thou shalt not covet but be content patiently with thy own portion what is it but a Rest rather than burthen a purchase or priviledge rather than duty when once learnt Let the Carnal or Worldly Man with his bored tub of insatiable desires cry as the Horseleach give give and seek after wealth as he should after God without bounds Yet the Heathen Philosopher could resolve it the only way to true Rest not to seek to raise our fortunes to our desires but to bring down our desires to our fortunes and present condition The one is not onely uncertain because not in any Mans power but impossible because his desires increase with his purchases as fire with fewel whereas the other is possible and certain Contentment and patience glorifies God by placing its wealth in his favours who having promised him necessaries here and a Kingdom hereafter hath taught and obliged him to be contented with any fare upon the way because he sees his being so confirms and increaseth his future happiness Nullo egere Dei est quà m paucissimis Deo proximum As for sobriety temperance chastity reason secondded by experience assures any Man that to drink to the quenching of ones thirst or at most to the moderate cheering one Spirits to eat to the satisfying ones hunger or at most to the gratifying of festival joy hospitality friendship and thankful delight in what God hath bountifully given is all the good that is to be had from Meat and Drink that 't is a trouble as well as a sin to swill as if one were in a Feaver or till one brings himself to a Feaver or Dropsy to Eat and Drink till reason is drowned smothered and buried under the load and till the Phantastick forced pleasure of two or three mispent hours end in the pain of head and stomach for whole days after if not in some villainous lust or passion and bloudy quarrel in sickness and death both of Soul and Body The conscience finds all trouble in it and the Body it self for gratifying of which God and Conscience was despised find no Rest within some hours And what comparison between the rest safety health and honour of either virginal or conjugal chastity which keeps the desires of the flesh under the power of reason and faith lives in the hope of seeing God preserves the bond of love in Families inviolated and the unclean shameful excesses of wandring lust which are conceived with fear and anxiety brought forth and finisht with shame and sorrow begin in disorder of Soul and Body end in loathing begin in trouble end in worse burn at first and consume at last the peace of the mind if not the health of the Body also besides the confusions tumults quarrels it breeds in Families and all for the sneaking brutish delight of a few minutes There is indeed one grace which seems to have little Rest in it The suffering persecutions to death rather than disown the Truth or violate duty But God hath made so many promises to mitigate and temper all temptations to the strength which we either now have or shall receive upon our prayers of his turning to good whatsoever seems most evil And of his rewarding our courage and patience with so much the greater weight of glory that these promises being believed we are enabled as well as obliged not only to be contented but joyful also in tribulations for truth and righteousness sake and therefore no wonder if suffering miseries for the honour of God and our Lord Jesus for the furtherance of our own salvation and other Mens hath more rest than trouble in it without this Rest a flow of all other good things which this world can give will leave a Man but a miserable wearied Traveller under a heavy load and burthen of discontents and sorrows and with this Rest all labour and sorrow is inconsistent and though we may not expect to have this promised eternal Rest endless felicity as our deserved wages yet we may and ought to hope for it as our promised reward Angels and Saints departed this life they have it allready the Devils and damned are past all Hope Great pains and labour do the Men of this World take but not in order to this Rest and therefore a Multitude of mistaken sinners lay out the chief of their days and time in pursuance of pleasures and honours and profits of this World as if Heaven and Salvation were easy atchievments as if they might with a wish only at the last come to die the death of the righteous who had so notoriously lived the life of the wicked 'T is not only the doing of evil but the not doing of good which shall be punished at the last day the judge shall then condemn for not feedings for not clothing Go ye cursed into everlasting fire for I was hungry and ye fed me not for I was naked and ye clothed me not Not doing of good is none of the least evils He that sits still and moves not one step towards this Rest by wearing Christs Yoak and bearing his burthen shall lose Heaven as infallibly as he that runs from it who so hides his Talent shall receive no other wages save that of the slothful Servant The way to Heaven is narrow the Gate straight it must be striving that gives us entrance not only the hopes of Heaven but the escaping of Hell makes it our duty to be doing of good and by so doing we express our fear lest a promise of Rest being left any of us should seem
with their fruits if time be granted to bring them forth are not only described and required clearly and frequently in holy Scripture as the necessary conditions without which no Man shall but as the necessary qualifications without which no Man can see the Lord with holy eternal love and joy And therefore no doubt the for hath a rational inference in it as to the acceptance and reward of the godly and righteous person Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you for I was hungry and ye fed me c. For ye have perform'd the conditions which I in my Gospel or gracious covenant required of you with promise to accept and reward them for ye are qualified with those graces and holy dispositions which are my own Image and likeness the impress of my holy Spirit which renders you capable of enjoying me and my Father with endless delight which makes you though not in strict justice worthy of my Heavenly Kingdom yet in my gracious mercy and bounty and through my merits not utterly unworthy that is not wholly unmeet to inherit it for these all have confest and forsaken their evil ways fled with penitent believing hearts to that propitiation which God had set forth in his only Son through faith in his blood By doing so they have received that holy Spirit by whose direction and assistance they have mortified the flesh with its lusts and affections conquered the World with its temptatations resisted the Devil and quenched the fiery darts of the wicked fought the good fight of faith till they finished their course and though the remainders of sin and the flesh abide lusting and strugling against the Spirit yet no sin hath reigned over them and the very remainders of sin they have bewailed watcht over and resisted betaking themselves to Christs intercession for their pardon therefore they are heirs of the Kingdom through the merits of Christ imparted to them whereby they are entituled to it as the meritorious cause on his part whereby they have an actual plea title and interest in Christs merit as the condition and qualification on their part And thus the Kingdom and eternal Rest is theirs though not by right of justice or merit but by right of gracious promise And may not all this be thought sufficient to justifie the truth of the for or causal particle unless it be granted that it signifie meritoriously in strict justice on their part as strictly and fully as in the other Depart ye cursed for ye did no good works but many ill ones without repentance and reformation without faith and love to me The goodness and justice of Gods Majesty will not suffer him to sentence any Man to any punishment much less to eternal intolerable sorrow and pain unless it hath been strictly and fully deserved or demerited But the goodness and bounty and mercy of God may without wrong to any perfection or attribute of his accept and reward any Man that is not utterly incapable of it but in some sincere degree qualified for it with such an abundant measure of happiness as he thinks fit although no ways merited by him The Lord Jesus hath satisfied his Fathers justice and honour in his Government and holy Laws and made it a righteous thing with him to save the penitent sinner upon condition of reformation and holy obedience They that are saved have performed these conditions and therefore they are admitted with a for Come ye blessed c. For I was hungry If a gracious Prince of his own free goodness proclaim a general merciful pardon to all Rebels Traytors and Theeves provided they will by such a day acknowledge their fault and profess and resolve to do so no more and make their peace with their Neighbours whom they have wronged Suppose all accept the pardon in outward shew but some of them secretly practice the same wickedness against their Sovereign and their Neighbours when as the others perform faithfully the conditions of their pardon If at the General Assizes the Judge upon notice of their demeanours should say to the one I restore you to your former condition state and dignity for or because since your pardon proclaimed ye have so demeaned your selves as penitent loyal faithful Subjects And to the other You I condemn to death and torments for or because ye have abused your Sovereigns clemency No Man of sober reason or common sence I think can deny that either the condemnation of the one were entirely to be ascribed to their own willful choise and vile misdemeanours as due in justice to their demerits or that the restoring or saving the other were to be attributed not to the merit of their demeanour but to the Kings gracious mercy and bountiful favour Their good demeanour could be at most but the necessary condition or qualification of their pardon or restoration without which it could not consist with the wisdom or honour of the Prince his Laws or Government so to use them with which it might well consist with his wisdom and honour so to do and that with advantage to the glory of his mercy without disparagement to his Justice especially in case his Justice and honour had been satisfied for their former misdemeanours by the merits and intercession of the Prince his Royal Son Now just so it is in this case of which we now speak They whom our Lord calls here to eternal life and that with a for For ye have fed clothed lodged me are so far from this proud conceit of Romish merit by their works that they are ready to disclaim them as nothing worthy of such acceptance ready to blame their sluggish backwardness Lord say they when saw we thee hungry thirsty naked or a stranger or prisoner and relieved thee Nor is it amiss what is observed and acknowledg'd by Jansenius though a Romanist and too far engaged in this error what Saint Chrisostom had long since observed before him that our Saviour saith to those on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father but to those on his left hand he saith only depart ye cursed but adds not Of my Father implying that God the Father is the Author and gracious donor of life everlasting but every Man that doth wickedly and dies in his wickedness without repentance is the only Author and cause of his own accursed estate The one are blessed freely and mercifully by God the Father for his Son Christs sake in whom alone he is well pleased with all that come by him with such a faith as works by love But the other are accursed most justly because they sought not or refused when it was offer'd them that grace and mercy which would have blessed them first with grace to do good works then with glory a superabundant weight of glory for doing them And this is consonant to that of St. Paul Rom. 6. v. the last For the wages of sin is death but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or gift
ought appears for though he thought himself better than the Publican yet he acknowledged both his abstinence from sinful works and his perseverance in good ones to be from God God I thank thee for this and for that he saith not as they God I thank thee thou hast given me the first grace only to restrain me from such sins as the Publican walks in whereas my proficiency in doing of good is from my own meritorious choice but I thank thee for one and the other Yet because he so glories in Gods graces as if they had not been received from free mercy because he is not truly humbled by that grace which in words he confesseth to have received from God alone therefore is he less justified than the Publican for the use of all the graces which God bestows in this life is to teach us true humility not to glory in our selves but in him to whom all grace and glory belongs And if we make not this use of it if we say not with Jacob Lord I am less than the least of thy mercies towards me If when we have done justice and loved mercy we walk not humbly with our God and say not as our Lord hath taught us forgive us our trespasses we have been but unprofitable servants in respect of what we might and should have been we turn his grace into pride and vain glory and are worthy to lose the acceptance and reward which was promised for Christs merits not ours though not without sincere performance of those conditions to which his mercy and grace enableth us Our good works are acceptable to God a sweet Sacrifice but still it is through Jesus Christ Better is it for us to hear one Saint from Heaven one of those Spirits made perfect than thousands of daring sinful Disputants here below For what are all the Chairs and Schools of Men on Earth to the suffrage of Heaven where not only one but all the Saints and perfected Spirits cast down their Crowns before him that sits on the Throne at the feet of the Lamb. Rev. 7.5 Saying aloud To him that hath loved us and washt us from our sins in his blood and made us Kings and Priests to God and his Father be glory and power for evermore Thus have we seen that 't is not merit that will bring us to this promised eternal Rest and yet they that will attain to it must imploy their Talent well they must come unto Christ as Christ came unto us by charity and by humility To obtain this Rest will cost some care and pains and therefore we must expect it but this care and pains will be highly rewarded and therefore 't will be our wisdom to undergo it The Men of this world are apt to think Christianity and coming to Christ a joyless thing because it speaks so much of holy living of presenting our bodies a living Sacrifice of mortifying and Sacrificing its lusts and affections as if they were no longer to enjoy themselves who voluntarily deny themselves in all these but they are but false hearted Spies that would bring this bad report upon a good land for the mortifying the lusts of the flesh the presenting our bodies a living Sacrifice is not the destruction of our joys but the increase of them and gives assurances of this eternal Rest For let the body be never so backward to be presented unto God and offer'd up in Sacrifice to him though it shrinke at the sight of the Altar and tremble to see the Sacrificing Knife yet are we not to hearken to its foolish tenderness no cruelty like such indulgence the life and safety and Rest of the Soul depends upon this disciplining this mortifying the body For he that mortifies and kills and slayes his lusts doth but Sacrifice that which would hurt destroy and ruine himself 't is but a carnal worldly Man that is killed at most nay 't is but a beast 't is but the unreasonable appetite that is slain reasonable Man is saved alive and made more reasonable by so doing and exalted thereby to a Spiritual life He that leaves this beast alive and is led by his unruly passions is hurried even in this life to more sorrows cares and vexations than any Saint or Martyr endures in his passage to Heaven when he offers himself up unto God by an holy life and patient death Therefore who so desires in good earnest not to fail of this promised eternal Rest must crucify the whole body of sin must subdue and bring into subjecton every vnruly member thereof The lustful covetous disdainful evil Eye which hath made thee blind or ill sighted to all that is good must be closed up and put out and the charitable peaceable contented good Eye set open and then God will one day ravish that Eye with Objects of eternal joy and Rest and delight in Heaven Our Ears must be closed up and deaf to all ungodly prophane discourses and unsavoury communication but open to all that is harmless and good sober and wise rational or Christian If the ungodly wanton cruel Ear that itches after falseshood and wrong be cut off and the religious believing chast merciful Ear remain then thou hast made thine Ears the gates of Heaven and Life and Rest for the Spirit of truth to enter in being thus opened thou shalt hear the joys of Heaven sounding in thy Ears such joys as God hath prepared for them that love him The Lips also must be closed and the Tongue tied up from Oaths and Curses prophane allusions to holy Scripture bitter revilings strife and clamour open slanders and secret detractions but they must be opened and the Tongue loosed to all holy duties of Prayers and Prayses towards God wholsom counsel admonition and instruction towards Men. If the prophane seducing contentious provoking bitter Tongue be tied up and silenced and the wise pure and peaceable and faithful Tongue be loosened and set on work thou art no loser by this change because thou hast exchanged folly for wisdom shame for honour strife for peace the discord of infernal Spirits for the musick of Angels thou hast exchanged the Tongue of an Atheist for the Tongue of a Prophet or a Saint Next the hand must be withheld from violence and oppression from theft and sacriledge fraud and deceit but open to all the works of Piety and Charity If the injurious griping bloody hand be cut off and the innocent holy pure hand be lifted up to God in Prayer and stretcht out to Man in Charity what hast thou lost but the hand of a Murtherer a Thief an Usurer or Adulterer and hast for it the holy hand of a Priest the Royal hand of a Benefactor Holy and acceptable unto God pleasing and beneficial unto Men The feet also must be restrained from wandering into the ways of wickedness where we meet with temptations and vanity snares and dangers they are to carry us from the seducing assemblies of Schismaticks the bloody Conspiraces