Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n
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A52773
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Six Sermons preached (most of them) at S. Maries in Cambridge / by Robert Needham.
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Needham, Robert, d. 1678.; Calamy, Benjamin, 1642-1686.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing N410; ESTC R26166
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88,797
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240
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diligence add to your Faith Vertue and to Vertue Knowledge and to Knowledge Temperance and to Temperance Patience and to Patience Godliness and to Godliness Brotherly Kindness and to Brotherly Kindness Charity For so an entrance shall be ministred unto you effectually into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Now these and the like Exhortations would be of no force at all to persuade us if these promises could be attained without the performance of these conditions In a word in all the descriptions of a Judgment to come there is nothing plainer than this that I now plead for that God will reward every one according to what he hath done I shall mention but two places more Rom. ij 6. God will render to every man according to his deeds to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentiles For there is no respect of persons with God The other place is Mat. xxv where our Saviour having given us a large description of those good Works which shall then be rewarded and having there represented the vanity of those mens excuses who had not wrought them he concludes with this sentence these shall go away into everlasting punishment and the righteous into life eternal There remains onely to draw some inferences from what hath been said that may be of use to us for the government of our lives 1. If there be a Judgment to come wherein men shall receive rewards and punishments according to their actions whether good or bad it is easie then to understand how much those men deceive themselves who hope to be saved by vertue of any absolute and inconditionate decree For if God have from eternity fore-ordained such and such particular persons to eternal life and others to eternal damnation without any consideration of their actions whether good or bad then certainly God cannot proceed in judgment according to the method before described nor could the promises and threatnings of the Gospel have any force of persuasion to engage men in the practice of Vertue or to discourage them from Sin and Wickedness In vain would the Apostle here make use of the terrours of the Lord to persuade men if God have before determined that such a certain number of them shall not escape the wrath to come whatsoever diligence they use on their parts On the contrary the promises of the Gospel cannot have any reasonable force to engage men to obedience if once they knew and believed that their future state was from everlasting unalterably fixed so that they could not fall short of it by any neglect Nay upon this supposition all the various methods of persuasion which God uses in Scripture to bring men to repentance and a better life prove nothing else but illusion and hypocrisie For that God should so often by his holy Prophets and Apostles invite and exhort and beseech all men that they would turn from their evil ways and live when in the mean time he hath excluded many myriads of men from any possibility of salvation by an absolute and irresistible decree which no endeavour of theirs can revoke or cancel this way of proceeding cannot by any means consist with that truth and sincerity and goodness which is inseparable from the divine nature We must therefore conclude that if there be a Judgment to come when all men shall receive rewards and punishments according to what they have done then certainly no man shall ever be excluded from those rewards but by his own fault nor yet any man obtain the same but by a due diligence in working out his salvation and performing those conditions upon which they are promised 2. From what hath been said concerning the method of Gods proceeding at the Judgment of the last Day we may also observe that those men do extreamly mistake the conditions of salvation who talk of being saved by Faith as it is distinguished from good works and obedience who take so much pains to cry down the value of our good works as though they had little or no influence in the justification or salvation of a Christian For surely if we shall be judged according to what we have done Faith alone cannot be the whole condition required on our parts in order to our salvation It is true indeed glorious things are spoken of Faith in holy Scripture but these things must not be understood of a bare assent to the truth of the Gospel which is the proper importance of that word Faith but of such a Faith as is a principle of life and action such a Faith as hath influence upon the whole course of our lives and is not contradicted by our practice and conversation a Faith that worketh by love and is fruitful of good works and obedience Thus it is not to be considered as a single Vertue and separate from the rest but as being the fruitful parent of all other Christian Vertues and including them in it For if we understand Faith in a more strict sense as distinct from an holy conversation it is no more than the Devils themselves may pretend to and yet this is so far from being any relief to them that it is the great aggravation of their misery To know and be assured of the glorious things revealed in the Gospel and to know withal that they themselves are finally excluded from the benefit of them this doubtless is a mighty aggravation of their horrour and we may well conclude as S. James doth that they believe and tremble nay that this belief doth make them tremble 3. If we shall be judged according to what we have done in the body it then follows that all that is to be done by us in the great work of our Salvation must be performed in our life time whilest we are in the body Now must we give all diligence to make our calling and election sure and not leave any thing to be done after our death either by our selves or others This I observe in opposition to that Doctrine of the Church of Rome which supposes that some sins are expiated after death and purged away by the fire of Purgatory and by the Prayers and Sacrifices of those that are left alive But this is not onely a vain and groundless opinion but certainly doth much tend to the hindrance of Piety and lessening mens care of their future state As the Tree falleth so it lieth As a man goeth out of this World such will be his future state and he will be judged according to what he was when he left the body according to what he had done in the body 4. If it be thus certain that we must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body this certainly ought to awaken our diligence in the business of our Salvation that to day while it is called to day we break off our sins by a sincere and hearty repentance that knowing the terrours of the Lord we pass the time of our so journing here in fear For surely did men seriously consider that there is a day coming when all the hidden works of darkness shall be made manifest when the secrets of all mens hearts shall be revealed when all the close impieties which had passed here undiscerned should be laid open before God and all the World they would not now so fondly flatter themselves with hopes of secresie or impunity Did men seriously reflect upon the terribleness of that great day when God shall appear with ten thousand of his Saints to take vengeance on them that have not feared his name did they often think upon that dreadful sentence which will then be pronounced against all impenitent sinners Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels this certainly if any thing would put a check to the bold impiety of this Age. Men would not then dare so openly to defie Heaven and blaspheme the Majesty of the great God who will at that day appear so terrible nor would they continue by their hardness and impenitent hearts to treasure up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous Judgment of God On the contrary as the terrours of that day ought to make us sensible of our danger if we continue in disobedience so the glorious reward which shall at that day be given to those that have lived obediently to the will of God ought to be a most effectual motive to persuade us thereunto For what greater encouragement to our duty than the consideration of those great and glorious things which God hath prepared for them that love him Who would not willingly forsake all the flattering joys and transitory pleasures of this life that he may secure to himself such an inheritance incorruptible undefiled that fadeth not away which God the righteous Judge shall give him at that day Or who would not despise all the sufferings of this life which may possibly attend him in the practice of his duty when he remembers that these light afflictions which endure but for a moment work out for him a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Now the great God grant us all his grace that we may have the judgment of the last day always present to our minds that denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts we may live soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ that when we come to stand before that great Tribunal we may be presented pure and unblamable in his sight and that not for any merits of our own but through the mediation of our blessed Saviour To whom with the Father and Eternal Spirit be ascribed as is most due all power praise thanksgiving and obedience for evermore FINIS
more fit and expedite for the race set before us viz. that we be more particularly careful to arm our selves against those temptations to lay aside those lusts to which we perceive our selves by nature or custom most inclined This I conceive is meant here by the sin which doth so easily beset us Every man who gives himself the leisure to examine his own heart impartially will find that some temptations have a great deal more easie access to him than others and our great adversary the Devil is very diligent and watchful to set before us such objects and lay such snares in our way which are most likely to prevail upon us The sins we are naturally inclined to oft-times creep upon us insensibly and get possession of our hearts before we are well aware of them Sometimes they disguise themselves under the pretence of Piety and seeming holiness and a great zeal against the contrary extream Sometimes they plead Nature and Custom for their continuance that these cannot be overcome sometimes we have ways to extenuate them and make them seem small and venial and if men take time to deliberate about parting with them there is great hazard but they will keep possession So apt are we to be vanquished when we have a mind to it when our Adversaries from without have their correspondents in our own bosom when we have so many treacherous Guests so many deceitful Lusts within us which are ready to betray us and to yield up our hearts to a subtle and powerful enemy Here then is our greatest danger here we must exert our greatest care and vigilance here we must shew our courage and resolution in throwing off these darling and beloved Lusts the sins that do so easily beset us This is that which our Saviour elsewhere requires of us when he bids us cut off our right hands and pluck out our right eyes when they make us to offend And thus much for the first part of the Exhortation Having according to our power laid aside every weight having freed our selves from our evil habits and customs and from our most secret and beloved Lusts we are not to rest here Thus much is required as a preparation to be Christs Disciples but when we are admitted into the number we must then set our selves upon an active obedience to his Laws A negative holiness will not serve our turn We must not onely eschew evil but we must do what good we can in the several places and stations to which God hath called us They who run in a Race when they have stript themselves and laid aside all unnecessary weights and incumbrances have yet the whole Race before them which they must run through if they expect their Crown and Prize and therefore in proportion to what is required of them we also are exhorted in the 2. Second place to run the Race set before us Now the positive duties required of all Christians answer to that part of the similitude and to discharge them faithfully is meant by running the race set before us And this is elsewhere expressed in plainer Exhortations Work out your salvation with fear and trembling giving all diligence add to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any praise or if there be any vertue think on and do these things Now these and the like Exhortations and Precepts often repeated in holy Scripture being all in general terms the particular instances of duty required by them must be left to each mans private consideration and they are various according to mens several abilities and opportunities according to their several relations in which God hath placed them God the supream 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath by his wise and good providence allotted every man his course It is not of our choosing but it is a race set before us He hath likewise distributed among men various gifts and abilities whereby they are severally fitted to do good and according to these every man must judge of his duty in particular what it is that the Lord requires of him and no man who doth not want will and resolution to do the will of God can ordinarily be ignorant what he ought to do and therefore I shall not descend to any particular instances of duty only from the similitude here used I shall crave leave to suggest these two things 1. That our obedience to God ought to be vigorous and chearful 2. That it ought to be constant and uninterrupted 1. The similitude of Running imports great vigour and alacrity in the discharge of our duty They who run with hopes of Victory must not be faint-hearted and languish but must be chearful and couragious full of hope and eager expectation of the desired triumph Thus must a Christian behave himself in the race set before him He must go about his duty with chearfulness and freedom as one that doth it with a willing mind and hopes for success by so doing He must always have in his eye the great recompence of reward the joy set before him the Crown of Glory laid up for him and in prospect of that he must chearfully undertake whatever difficulties he meets with in his way And indeed if we have once obeyed the former part of the Exhortation if we have once freed our minds from the low and sordid cares and incumbrances of this life present there can then remain nothing to hinder or retard our motion or to abate our courage in running the Race set before us And this holy David seems to express saying I will run the way of thy commandments when thou hast set my heart at liberty When we are once at liberty from the World and have weaned our affections from things below and placed them on a better and more enduring substance then though we meet with dangers and inconveniences we shall joyfully go on and every days progress in our course of piety will render our task more easie and delightful We shall apprehend our selves every day more and more approaching to the end of our hopes and to the Crown of our labours and out of prospect of so sure a reward so nigh at hand and out of a fore-taste of that happiness shall be able to say of Religion from our own experience that her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths Peace 2. Another thing represented by this similitude of Running is that our course of Piety our religious conversation ought to be constant and uninterrupted He that runs in a Race cannot find leisure to stop and divert himself or salute his friends by the way A little needless ceremony at such a time may hazard the loss of the whole