Reason Possibly it might seem rather to a Carnal Judgment an incouragment to Sloath than an incouragment to working and Obedience For if God work in us both the Will and the Deed What need we then be so solicitous about the accomplishment of our Salvation which not so much we our selves as God works out for us It would rather seem to be a greater Motive for us to work if the Apostle had said God will not assist you and therefore look to your selves But yet there are two ways without torturing the Words whereby we may make them confess wherein their great Strength lies The one is by reducing this Reason to the Duty And the other is by referring it to the manner of Performing of the Duty Objection First If we refer it to the Duty of working out Salvation then the Force and Strength of it lies in the Consideration of that Aid and Assistance that God by working in us affords us to the working out of our own Salvation Work Why Alas may some say How can we Work Are not the Duties of Obedience Divine and Supernatural And is it not an Almighty Power alone that can inable us to do what is Supernatural Are we Omnipotent Doth not God herein plainly seek Advantages against us in bidding us thus to Work who have no Hands nor Strength to Work with Answer No by no means for what God Commands us to do he will assist us in the doing of it And though Obedience be Supernatural and we are Weak and Impotent yet God is Omnipotent Work therefore for this Omnipotent God works in you both to Will and to Do. And thus appears the force of the Reason if you apply it to the Duty Now if you thus refer it then Observe That all Ability in and all Incouragement to Obedience proceeds from God's working in us what he requireth from us And thus as Christ said my Father worketh hitherto and I work So may a Weak Christian say what I do is above my own Strength indeed but my God and my Father worketh hitherto in me and therefore it is that I am inabled thus to work Secondly If we refer this Reason to the manner of performing of Obedience that it must be with Fear and Trembling as if the Exhortation run thus Be humble and awful in your Obedience For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do and then it carries a double force with it First That the due Consideration of Gods working in us is the greatest inducement imaginable to a Self-Debasing Humiliation There is nothing that will sooner take down Pharisaical Pride and Boasting than sometimes to be Catechising our selves with those two or three Questions and Interrogatories of the Apostle Who made thee to differ 2 Cor. 13.7 What hast thou that thou didst not receive Now if thou hast received it Why dost thou Boast as if thou hadst not received it Why dost thou Boast and Glory O vain Weak Man when all thou hast and all thou dost is from God's free and arbitrary working in thee Alas there is nothing of all thy Graces or Duties to be ascribed unto thy self unless it be the Imperfections and Weaknesses of them And this should cause us when we are most strongly carried out in the ways of God and in the Duties of Holy Obedience most of all to renounce our selves and our own sufficiency and look upon it as an evident Argument that of our selves we are able to do nothing because through God we are inabled to do so much yea to do all things Secondly Since all we do is wrought in us by God this should cause us to obey with a Holy Fear and Reverence lest by our Miscarriages we should provoke God to withdraw from us on whom depends all the Ability and Power we have to obey It is God that worketh in you and therefore work out your own Salvation with Fear and Trembling This now shall suffice for the opening and explaining of the Words That which I shall press upon all is the Duty of this Exhortation of the Apostle And the Proposition I shall lay down from them is this Doctrine That it is the Duty of every true Christian to work out his own Salvation with Fear and Trembling Or thus Every Christian nay every Man ought to work for his living even for an Eternal Life To mention places for the proof of this were to transcribe the Bible we can no where open this Blessed Book but we find this Truth proved to us either directly or by consequence for it is the very Genius of the Scripture And yet it is strange in these Days to see how dubiously some Men who would be thought admirers of Free Grace speak of obedience and working as if it were the brand of a legal Spirit and as great a Stranger to a Christians Warrant as it is to their practice Oh it is a soft and easie Doctrin to bid Men sit still and believe as if God would Translate Men to Heaven upon their Couches to tell them that all that they have now to do is but to labour for more assurance to Praise God and to Sing Hallelujahs unto him And so also it conduces much to their abundant Comfort does it not to tell them that God sees no Sin in them nor requires no Duty from them That Repentance and Humiliation are legal things belonging only to younger Persons and not to the Heirs of the Promises Oh! Who could think it possible that such Dreams and Fantastick delusions could possess so many Mens Hearts that ever heard the Scripture speak in its own Language or that ever read what Christ himself the Holy Ghost or the Blessed Apostles have written who bid us to work the works of God To give all Diligence to abound in all the Fruits of Righteousness Is it possible that these Notions should be dispersed by some and entertained by others but because it always hath been the policy of the Devil wherein he hath sped so well still to vent those Doctrines that indulge the Flesh under the Name and Patronage of Free Grace and Gospel attainments But of this more hereafter Let us now consider the Reasons of this Truth And Reason 1 Luke 13.24 1 Cor. 9.22 Ephes 6.11.12 1 Tim. 6.12 Heb. 12.3 Gal. 6.5 First Wherefore is it that we are commanded to strive that we may enter in at the strait Gate So to run that we may Obtain So to Wrestle that we may be able to Stand So to Fight that we may lay hold on Eternal Life Not to faint in our Minds Nor to grow weary of well doing Do not all these Expressions imply great labour and pains Can you strive and run and wrastle and fight and all this by doing nothing or were it needful to be taught not to grow Faint nor to be weary when we have no work to do Therefore it is the genius and sum of the Scripture to excite Men to be always
active and laborious in the ways of Holiness and Obedience Reason 2 Secondly Consider wherefore is it that Salvation is set forth to us under the notion of a Reward is it not to imply that we must work for it A Reward not indeed merited by our works but yet a Reward measured out to us and conferred upon us according to our works Rom. 2.6 7. God will render to every one according to his works to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory and Immortality he will render Eternal Life And indeed it were very strange if that God who will reward us with Eternal Life according to our works should yet lay a check upon the ingenuity of the new Creature thereby to account Eternal Life too low a Motive to excite unto Eternal Life Reason 3 Thirdly Consider is it not to this end that God hath implanted such an Active Principle of Grace in the Hearts of his Servants that thereby they might be inabled to work out their own Salvation If God would save you without working why then hath he given you such an operative Principle that you might work Nay I might affirm it he might as well save you without Grace as without works for that is not Grace that doth not put forth it self in working Grace if it be true it will be working it will rise in the Thoughts it will work in the Affections it will breath in Desires appear in good works and be very Active and Busie in the whole Life and Conversation Now not to work is that which puts a check and restraint upon this Active Principle it is to curb it in when it would freely break forth into Action upon every occasion given to it Reason 4 Fourthly Why hath God so often promised us Assistance if it be not that thereby we should be incouraged to work He stands by us to confirm our Hearts to strengthen our Hands to help our Weakness to quicken our Deadness to recruit our Graces by continual Supplies and wherefore is all this but that we might work God rather than we shall not work he himself will set us at work nay he will maintain us at our work and in our work upon his own cost He gives us Aid and promises Assistance only for this end that we might work out our own Salvation 2 Cor. 3.5 We are not sufficient of our selves says the Apostle as of our selves to think any thing What then must we therefore sit still because we are not sufficient No says he for God who finds us Imployment will also find us Strength our sufficiency is of God And therefore it is that God gives in Assistances and Supplies that we might work the Works of God And thus I have confirmed the Doctrin why we ought to work and that we ought to work But here before I can proceed any further there are some Objections that must be answered that seem to oppose the Truth of this Doctrin Object 1 First Some may cavil against this Command of working out of our Salvation as a thing impossible Object 2 Secondly As derogatory unto Christ and his Merits Object 3 Thirdly Others as prejudicial to the free Grace of God by which alone we are saved and not by our own Works Object 4 Fourthly Others look upon it as vain and needless since God will certainly bring to salvation all those whom he hath Elected and foreknown according to his purpose which purpose of his neither their not working with it no nor their working against it shall ever make void or frustrate Object 1 I begin with the First Say some with what Justice and Equity can God require this Duty of working out of our salvation when he knows we have no power to perform it Either say they it concerns those that are spiritually inclined and have their salvation already begun that they perfect it by working of it out and if so alas to what purpose is it when they themselves can act no further than they are acted They cannot so much as Will their own salvation unless God give them to Will much less then can they work out their salvation Or else it concerns all that live under the sound of the Gospel though Reprobates and cast-aways though dead in Trespasses and Sins And is it rational is it just and equal to bid dead Men work Or doth it become that God who would be thought by us to be infinitely merciful and compassionate to mock and deride humane Miseries in requiring of them things that are impossible Had he commanded us to bring Light out of Darkness Had he bid us pull the Stars out of their Orbs or with one of our Hands to stop the Sun in its course All these Impossibilities we might as well do as perform these divine Duties without divine Assistance we can as soon glorify our selves as sanctify our selves Exhort and command never so long with as great Authority and Vehemency as you please yet till God move on us and work in us you may as well expect Stocks and Stones should move at your speaking as we And if God doth but once begin to move and work in us we shall work and move without your Exhortations It is therefore say such as these altogether in vain to press Men to Duty till God works in them for all your Exhortations are not sufficient till he works and when he works all your Exhortations will be fruitless Answ To this I Answer and because it is the common Plea of Sinners why they do not work and it is that which questionless doth too often rise in the Hearts and Thoughts of most Men whereby they are greatly discouraged and their Hands weakned in their Obedience I shall therefore the more largely and particularly Answer this Objection And Answ 1 First This serious and pressing Exhortation to Obedience and Working doth not suppose in us nor is it necessary that it should suppose in us a Power to obey I mean it of a present and actual Power neither doth our want of Power take off our Obligation to obey It may and will be granted that there is no Command of God but doth suppose a Power once bestowed Whether or no his absolute uncontroulable Sovereignty might have required that from us that is above our Power ever to perform may rather modestly be doubted than peremptorily concluded Yet this is certain that those very Duties that now we complain we have no Strength and Power to perform were once as subject to our Power and the Freedom of our own Wills as now natural and moral Actions are Subject I say to our Power either to perform them or not to perform them not as though we came now into the World with this Power for we are all dead and still-born in respect of Grace but as having this Power in our first Parent who was our Representative for in him we must be consider'd as existent even when he existed and what he
against it and made wide Breaches in it they have heretofore entred and taken possession and still the passage is as open for you and the Conquest as easie as for them and you may see them beckoning out of Heaven to you and hear them calling to you Fellow Soldiers bend your Force hither there is your Labour here is your Rest there are your Enemies here is your Crown and Victory believe it there are no more Dangers for you to pass through no more Difficulties for you to meet with than what we have passed through yea and passed with so much safety as not so much as one Soul of us miscarried not a Soul left dead on the place we strugled against the same Corruptions that you do and overcame them against the same Temptations and baffled them against the same Devils and routed them against the same Flatteries and Oppositions of a base World and despised them Believe it upon our Experience all these Things are but Scare-Crows set in the ways of Obedience on purpose to affright you but there is no danger at all in them unless you fear them this they tell you with one consent And therefore if Examples are any Incouragement as indeed they are almost the greatest if Imitation hath any force to Obedience as too often we find it hath great force to sin why should we not hereby quicken our selves Why do you not arise and press upon the Footsteps of them who have gone before you and shew'd you that the way is both certain and passable Are you called to exercise Self-denial Abraham looks down from Heaven upon you and tells you that he was ready to sacrifice his beloved Isaac Are you afraid of the Scoffs and Jears of a flearing World Why Noah builded an Ark Moses relinquish'd the Honours of Pharoah's Court and met with as many Persecutions and Afflictions and underwent as many Taunts and Flouts as you are like to do Are you called to lay down your Lives for the Testimony of Jesus and a good Conscience Why Stephen tells you a Storm of Stones fell upon him and brake open the Prison and set the Prisoner free his Soul escaped that broke out of the Cage and as a Bird took Wing and flew to Heaven Are you assaulted with Temptaons St. Paul looks down and tells you that he had much stronger Temptations than you have and yet he got safe to Heaven Yea our great Master and Pattern Jesus Christ wrought out all Obedience and what were the Motives that put him upon this mighty Undertaking It was not for his own Salvation and Happiness but it was for ours Nay the Scripture goes yet lower it was 1 Pet. 2.21 To lead us an Example that we should follow his Steps Now shall Christ do all this not for himself but for us and shall we sit still and do nothing for our selves Shall Christ take so much Pains to set us an Example and shall not we follow that Example We who have so great a Happiness to work for and so a great a Pattern to work by Shall we be slothful in procuring our own Good since Christ was so laborious and expensive not in procuring Good to himself but in procuring Good for others Methinks these Things should add some Spurs to our Endeavours and excite us to follow the Examples of those that are gone before us yea and to leave an Example unto them that are to come after us and though we do come after the Examples of others who are gone before us yet the consideration of their Examples who have gone through this Work may excite us not to come behind them in any good Work Secondly God holds out to us the Light of his gospel-Gospel-Truth and Ordinances whereby to help us in our Work What Christ saith of himself is applicable unto all John 9.4 We must work the Works of God while it is Day the Night cometh wherein no Man can work You are not shut up in Darkness you are not muffled up in the Clouds of Error and Ignorance or if you are it is not because you have not Light shining about you but because you shut it out when it is breaking in upon you It is not a double Labour that is put upon you first to find out your Duty and then to perform it no the Light shines about you and unless you will seal up your Eyes against it it is impossible but that it will sometime flash in upon you and discover both what you have mis-done and what you ought to do The Mahometans have a Tradition among them That Moses Law and Christs Gospel were written at first with Ink made of pure Light This Conceit of theirs though it be fond and ridiculous yet it carries a mystick Truth in it the Scripture is as plain for matter of Duty as if it had been written with a Sun-beam Ordinances are dispensed freely and powerfully so great a throng of Teachers and such variety of Gospel-Administrations that Men must take almost as much Pains to keep themselves ignorant of their Duty as would suffice to perform their Duty And wherefore think you is all this glorious Light given you Is it not that you might work by it Doth a Master light up a Torch or Candle only that his Servants might play about it And wherefore doth God light up the Sun of Truth in the Firmament of his Church Is it only that you should dally and trifle with it No it shines that you may work by it and truly work by it you do but alas how many do work the Works of Darkness by the glorious Light of Truth How many have Light enough to see that they are notoriously wicked and prophane Swearers Drunkards Despisers of Ordinances Revilers at Religion and the Professors of it Enemies to what is sober and sacred in Christianity This Light they have flashing in their Faces from the clear Evidence of the word of God and yet still they continue to work the Works of Darkness What shall I say to such as these are Truly I can say nothing worse to them than what their own Consciences already thunder against them for they are self-condemned Persons But truly this Complaint may too too justly be taken up against all that do not walk worthy of the Light vouchsafed to them their Sins are revealed clearly and Duties are revealed as clearly as the Scripture can possibly express them and yet they live in a gross neglect of them Well believe it this Light will not always shine to be gazed at only the Day is drawing to an end the Night is hastning upon us the darkness of the Night of Death and the darker Night of Judgment and oh that then it may not be any of our Condemnations That Light is come into the World but we loved Darkness and the Works of Darkness better than Light because our Deeds were evil Thirdly God hath to this end set apart his Ministers that they might be
is powerfully swayed to Faith and Obedience for the converting Grace of God is not given to make Men capable to believe and to be converted but it is given to make them actually believing and actually converting The most wicked Man that is without the converting Grace of God is capable to be converted even in his state of Unregeneracy and converting Grace gives not any new Power to inable us to be converted but it gives us an actual Conversion Some shall never believe and why not because they are under an impossibility but because they will not believe it is not because they cannot but because they will not unless we would so gratifie their Sloth as to call their obstinacy an impossibility It is true they are obstinate and that obstinacy can never be cured without efficacious Grace but yet that obstinacy is not properly called an impossibility Well since Salvation is a thing possible why do you not labour for it that your Souls may be eternally happy Christ hath the Key of David and he opens and none shuts and he hath opened the everlasting Gate to you all and bids you all enter and take Possession there stand no grim Guards to keep out you or you you cannot complain that you are excluded by a forcible Decree no you shut the Doors upon your selves and refuse to enter And this is the first Reason why Salvation is not Labour in vain because the end is possible to be attained Secondly There are also right means made known to you for the obtaining of this End Jacob in his Dream saw a Ladder reaching from Earth to Heaven Certainly there is a Jacob's Ladder reaching up from Earth to Heaven that is more than a Dream every Round in it is either a Grace or a Duty it is not hid from you what Grace you must act what Duties you must perform that you may obtain Happiness these are direct and proper means to it nay not only means to it but the initials and beginnings of it The glimering Light of Nature could discover that there was a future Happiness but it could not discover to us the right means thither it could not direct us to believe in a crucified Saviour and therefore to write by this dim Light of Nature had been Labour in vain But now we know the way of Salvation is by Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ now we know that Holiness and Obedience do as certainly lead to Heaven as Sin and Disobedience drag down to Hell and therefore while we continue believing and working is there any fear Nay is there any possibility of disappointment in our great End It is as impossible that Faith and Obedience should not lead unto Glory as it is that Faith should or Obedience not continue in Glory And therefore O Soul be confident of success Hast thou any good Evidences that thy Graces are genuine and true though but weak that thy Duties are sincere though but imperfect and that thou doest work the Works of God with a steady Heart though with a trembling Hand Give this Assurance one lift higher and as thou art already assured of the Truth of thy Grace and of the Sincerity of thy Obedience so henceforth be as much assured of thy future Glory as if it were no longer future but now actually in thy present Possession thy dawning shall break forth into a most perfect Day the Womb of thy Morning Twilight shall be delivered of a Noon-tide Brightness thy Spark shall become a Sun thy Seed of Grace shall sprout till it be fit for transplantation into Paradise and there shall flower into Glory Object But may a poor Soul say Though the means that I now use for the obtaining of Salvation be right to effect it if still persisted in yet I fear lest the many Corruptions Temptations and Hardships that I meet with may turn me off from following my Work defeat me of my End and make all I have done as so much Labour in vain and therefore I could have this confidence and assurance that you speak of did I not fear this that I should desist in my Work Would you have good security against this Well then in the Third place the laborious Christian as he useth right means so he shall continue and persevere in the use of them till he hath wrought out his own Salvation by them and therefore he shall certainly accomplish his End and his Labour shall not be in vain It is true if you desist from working all that you have hitherto done will be in vain your Faith in vain your Tears in vain your Prayers in vain all in vain And therefore this should cause you to work with Fear and Trembling lest the Wiles of Satan and the deceitfulness of your own Hearts should intice you from your Work and cheat you of your Reward Let us therefore fear says the Apostle lest a Promise being made us of entring into his Rest any of us should fall short Yet as this may cause holy Fear so it may be matter of spiritual Joy and Rejoycing that notwithstanding the deadness of our Hearts the slackness of our Hands the many Avocations from without the many Interruptions from within yet none of us shall forsake our Work till we have brought it to Perfection our Obedience shall be crowned with Perseverance and our Perseverance with Glory and Immortality See for this that of the Apostle We are confident of this thing Phil. 1.6 that he that hath begun a good Work in you will perform it till the day of Jesus Christ Let therefore the Mouth of Calumny be for ever stopt that accuseth this comfortable Doctrin of the Saints Perseverance through Grace unto Glory that accuseth of patronizing Sloth and Idleness Some do fasten this Viper upon it let Christians live as they list though careless of good Works yea though continually imployed in evil Works yet being Christians they need not fear that they shall fall short of Glory But though we do affirm that every true Christian shall certainly inherit Heaven and Glory yet we shake off this pernicious confidence for he is no true Christian who is not zealous and careful of good Works whose knowledge of his own Estate doth not provoke him to walk worthy of that Vocation wherewith he is called whose hope of Heaven doth not inable him to purify himself and to perfect Holiness in the fear of God What a contradiction is it to say we patronize sinful Sloth in Men when we tell them if they are true Christians that they shall continue working Is it Sloth to continue working Or do we incourage Men to be idle by assuring them if they are Christians they must and shall work Yet this is the natural strain and tendency of our Doctrin What greater Incouragement can you have to Obedience than this If you will work you shall not fail of your End because the End it self is possible because the Means to
great a Work it requires that they should presently without delay set upon it 1. Working for Salvation is the undoing our former Works First It is a Work in which Sinners must undo all that they have wrought in their whole Lives before Oh Sinner think what hast thou been doing this twenty thirty forty Years or more Hast thou not instead of working out thine own Salvation with Fear and Trembling been working out thine own Condemnation without Fear or Trembling Hast thou not been working the Works of Darkness Hast thou not been working the Works of thy Father the Devil as our Saviour tells the Jews Truly this is not so much working as making of Work all this must be undone again or you your selves must be for ever undone you must unrip and unravel your whole Lives by a deep and bitter Repentance you are gone far in the way that leads to Death and Destruction and you must tread back every Step and at every Step shed many salt and briny Tears before ever you come into the Way that leads to Life and Happiness and is it not yet time to begin Can the Work of so many Years be undone think you in one moment No Sin and Satan make their Works more durable and lasting than to be so easily and speedily spoiled It were the Work of an Age yea of Eternity it self if possibly we could so spend it rather than of a few faint late Thoughts to get an Humiliation deep enough and a Sorrow sad enough to bear any the least proportion to any of the least Sins that we have committed Do not hope or think that your many great and sinful Actions shall ever be blown away with a slight and general Confession or that ever they shall be wash'd away with a slight and overly Repentance What says holy David Psal 56.8 Thou tellest my Wanderings put thou my Tears into thy Bottle Thou hast my Wandrings by Number but thou hast also my Tears by Measure There must be some proportion betwixt the Humiliation and the Sins great Sins call for great Sorrow and long continuance in Sin requires a continued and prolonged Repentance Is it not then yet high time to begin Have you not already made Work enough for your whole Lives should they be longer than they are like to be Nay and will not every Day of your Lives make Work enough for it self What says our Saviour Mat. 8.34 Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof Truly the Evils that we every Day commit is sufficient Work for the Sorrow and Repentance of that Day to undo Now then begin this undoing Work the longer you delay still the more will lie upon your Hands still the more Sins you have to repent of We already complain That the Work God hath set us is too hard and too grievous and yet such foolish Creatures are we that we make it more and more difficult by our Delays adding to the strictness of Gods Commands the necessity of a severe Repentance And therefore it is Prudence as well as Duty to begin this repenting this undoing Work betimes that so the greatness of the Work and the shortness of the time to do it in may not at last dismay and confound us 2. Variety of Duties to be perform'd in working out of Salvation Secondly Consider the great variety of Duties that must be gone through in the working out of Salvation and this will evince how great a Work it is A Christian's Work is a Life full of Actions and Imployments there should be no gap nor void space at all in it but all should be filled up with Duties ranked in their several Orders that as soon as he passeth through one he should enter upon another that where one leaves him another may find him Thus a Christian should go from one Duty to another from hearing the Word to Meditation from Meditation unto Prayer from Prayer to the acting of Grace and in all there should be much striving and strugling with the Heart and much carefulness and circumspection over the Way and Life Now there are Four great and usual Duties every Man hath to do Four Duties incumbent on all Christians which is enough to fill up all the time of his Life were it stretched and tenter'd out to the end of our time First 1. To get the Truth of Grace He is to get the Truth and Reality of Grace wrought in him this is his first and general Work And this will cost a Man much Sweat and Anguish for this he must suffer many Pangs and Throws of the New Birth and shall lye under many Fears and Jealousies lest Hypocrisy and Presumption should cause him to mistake in a Matter of such infinite Concernment Secondly He is to draw forth 2. To act Grace and to act this Grace when once it is wrought in him This is the next Work of a true Christian continually to act Faith Love Patience Humility and to let all have their perfect Work And there is no moment of a Man's Life so idle but all may administer some Occasion or Object for the exercise of Grace 3. To grow in Grace Thirdly A Christian's next Work is continually to grow and increase in Grace To go from Strength to Strength to be changed from Glory to Glory Still to be adding Cubits to his spiritual Stature till he is grown to such a height and tallness in Grace that his Head shall reach into Heaven and be Crowned there in absolute Perfection with a Crown of Glory and Immortality Here is that Work that will keep you in Imployment all your Days and if you can find one spare minute in your whole Lives wherein you have not some Duty to perform then give over and sit still But besides all this 4. Christians must labour for Assurance of Grace Fourthly Another Work of a Christian is earnestly to labour after the Evidence and Assurance of Grace in himself Give all diligence says the Apostle to make your Calling and Election sure Still a Christian must be ascending ascending from a probable Conjecture to a good Persuasion from a good Persuasion to a full Assurance from that to a Rejoycing with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory These now are the general Works that should take up the Lives of Christians and to these are subservient almost an infinite number of Particulars some whereof are means whereby these great Things are obtained others are Concomitants or the Effects and Fruits of them but I will not so much as mention any of them now For shame then O Christians since that your Work is so great why will you sit still as if you knew not how to imploy your selves Besides there is great variety in your Work and this usually breeds some kind of Delight You are not always to be toiling and drudging at the same thing But as Bees fly from one Flower to another and suck sweetness from each of them
but the Simple pass on and are punished They are rash and confident in their Undertakings and so they pass on and are punished Fear makes a Christian circumspect and considerative with himself how he may keep from Miscarriages in the performance of his great Work If God call me to such a Duty how shall I perform it If to bear such a Cross and Affliction how shall I glorifie him under it If to conflict with such Temptations how shall I resist and overcome them Yea how shall I do to break through all Difficulties Duties and Oppositions that I who am but a weak and feeble Christian may meet withal and how shall I do to bear up And thus pondring what may be his Duty and forecasting what Duties God may call him unto he is inabled to do what is his Duty at present and what also may by Providence hereafter become his Duty Nothing overtakes such a Man unexpected nor doth any thing surprize him unprovided for it And thus a careful Fear enables him in the performance of his great Work Secondly A Fear of Humility and holy Reverence of God induceth much to the working out of our Salvation and that in three Particulars First It much helps us in our great Work to fear God as our Lord and Master that sees and overlooks all our Works observing both what we do and how we do it also That Servant must be desperately bold that will dare to be idle or slight and perfunctory in his Work while his Masters Eye is upon him Why Christians should consider Gods Eye is always upon them in Praying in Hearing and in every Duty that they perform yea in every Action of their whole Lives And if the Eye of a Master that is but a Fellow Creature nay but a Fellow Servant can have such awe and influence upon his Servant as to make him careful how he works and what he works and to make him diligent in his Work Should not much more the consideration of Gods Eye being upon us who stands at an infinitee distance from us cause a holy Fear and Diligence in us in doing what our Lord and Master commands us Secondly Fear God also as him from whom you have all your Power and Ability to work Fear him lest at any time through any neglect or miscarriage of yours he should be provoked to suspend his Influence and withdraw his Grace from you and to leave you to your own Weakness and Impotency upon whose influence all your Obedience doth depend This is the Apostles Argument in the Text Work with Fear for God works in you both to Will and to Do. Holy diligence in Obedience cannot be more strongly enforced on an ingenious Spirit than by considering all that Strength and Ability that we have to work is received from God and therefore should be improved for God lest for our Sloth he deprives us of that we make no use of Thirdly In working fear God also as he that will be the Judge and Rewarder of your Works for ever You perform them unto him who is to pass Sentence upon them and upon you for them and will you then dare to do them slothfully and negligently God will try every Mans Work with Fire and will call every Action to a severe and strict account every Mans Work shall be seen through and through and then it shall be known who hath wrought the Works of God and who hath fulfilled the Will of Satan and the final Doom and irreversible Sentence shall then be pronounced according to Mens Works God will Rom. 2.7 8 9. says the Apostle render unto every Man according to his Works to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory and Immortality to them he will render Eternal Life but to them that are contentious and obey not the Truth but obey Vnrighteousness he will render unto them Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish upon every Soul that doth Evil. Now would you but thus fear God as an upright and impartial Judge that will render unto every one according to his Works How would this prevail with you so to work that at last you might be found of God in well doing and receive the blessed Reward and Sentence of the diligent and faithful Servant To enter into your Master's joy Fourthly and Lastly If you would work for Salvation successfully then work speedily without delay and constantly without cessation First Work speedily without delay Delays in all Affairs are dangerous but in Soul Affairs usually they are damnable For First The longer you procrastinate and delay the greater and more difficult will your Work be at last Corruption will be grown more tuff ill Humours will be grown more stubborn your Heart will be more hardned your Affections being more habituated will be more firmly engag'd to Sin the Devil will plead right to you by Prescription and it is hard keeping an Enemy out that hath had long Possession Secondly Consider what a desperate Folly it is to put off your Work till to Morrow you are not sure that you shall live to see another Day And oh what Hazards do those Men run whose hopes of Heaven depend upon no better a bottom than their hopes of Life and whose eternal Salvation is subject to as many Casualties and Accidents as their present Beings in this World are subject to Mans Breath is in his Nostrils and yet how do Men suffer their Souls and their everlasting Happiness to depend upon nothing surer than their Breath that Breath that every moment goes forth from them and they know not whether ever it shall return to them again But suppose your Life and Days should continue and you should reach unto that time whereof you have boasted and promised to mind the concernments of your Souls eternal Happiness in yet consider Thirdly The Grace of God is not at your disposal for then either First The outward Call may cease or it may grow more faint and low you may not be so daily importun'd and solicited for Heaven as now you are Ordinances and Opportunities may cease or you for your contempt may be given over to a contempt and neglect of them Secondly The inward Dictates of your own Consciences and the motions of the holy Spirit may cease Conscience may be brib'd to a silence and the holy Ghost may be commissionated to depart after this present opportunity and never more may you have its Breathings and Movings upon your Hearts if you do not now listen to them Thirdly If inward Motions do continue are you sure after this moments refusal that you shall obtain that Grace from God that may make you willing to close with those Motions Leave not therefore the eternal Salvation of your precious and immortal Souls at such Hazards and Delays Now is the acceptable time now is the day of Salvation to day therefore if you will hear his voice even while it is called to day harden not your Hearts for this