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
Consciences have not these been the foolish Reasonings of your own Hearts Have you not often thus promised God and your own Consciences And doth not all this imply that you thought you had a Power to do it Why did you delay and put it off if you thought you had no Power to do it at last Wherefore thou art inexcusable O Man whoever thou art that wilt not work it is in Vain to plead thou wantedst Power God will confute thee by thy self and out of thy own Mouth What wilt thou say thou hadst no Power Why thou thoughtest that thou hadst Power and yet wouldst not work nor endeavour so to do and therefore thy Ruin if thou perishest is as wilful and thy Condemnation will be as Just as if thou hadst Power and wouldest not work And this is the Fourth Answer to this Objection Men do really believe that they have Power to work and therefore they are inexcusable if they will not endeavour to put it forth Fifthly Men will not plead so Foolishly no not in matters of far lower concernment than the Salvation of their Souls is Would a Master when he Commands his Servant to work take this as a sufficient Excuse for his Sloth and Idleness that he hath no Power to work till God Acts and Moves him Why this is a Truth that he cannot do it unless God inable him and it may as well be Objected by your Servants to you and with more Reason too than by you unto God Pray tell me what Power have I to Speak one Word or you to Hear one Word more unless God concurs to it Nay we are not sufficient to think as of our selves yet we do not make this an Excuse to forbear those Actions that are necessary Do we therefore resolve to do nothing because it is impossible for us to do any thing unless God concur What Stupid and dull Folly is this No but we put it plainly and hourly to the Trial and never could any one produce that Man that could ever say God was wanting to him in his concurrence when he would have done an Action What a miserable ridiculous Task would it be if in every Action of our Lives wherein we can do nothing without God we should still be questioning Gods concurrence with us When you Sit do you dispute whether God will inable you to Arise When you Walk do you every Step you take question whether God will concur to another Step No Men put these things to the Trial and though it be impossible that they should live move or stir till God act and move them yet this hinders not Mens endeavours no nor is it any matter of discouragment to them Now why should we not do so in Spirituals as well as in Temporals Are they not of greater Concernment Do they not more deserve the Trial It is true we can do nothing without God's concurrence yet let us put it to the trial whether or no God will not concur when we endeavour Certainly that Man must be for ever nameless that can say he was truly willing and did sincerely endeavour to do any good Thing and God did not inable him Sixthly Consider this altho' wicked Men had Power to work out their Salvation yet they would never do it and therefore it is a vain and most unreasonable pretence for Sloth to plead want of Power for had wicked Men Power they would never Obey But how can any one tell that What not obey if we had Power Why no and the Reason is this because there is no wicked Man in the World that hath done so much or that doth so much as he is able to do no not so much as he is able to do without special Grace and Assistance and therefore it is not Inability but wilful Sloth that destroys Men. Sinners ask your own Consciences this Question Was there not one Duty more that you could have performed Was there not one Temptation nor one Corruption more that you could have resisted Could you not have prayed and read and heard and meditated more upon Heavenly Things even then when your Hearts and Thoughts have been vain and worldly yea sinful and devilish Might not that time have been spent in holy Converse that you have trifled away in Idleness and in doing nothing or that which is worse than nothing What Force or Restraint is laid upon you Is there any Violence used to you Can you not think And if you can can you not think of God as well as of the Things of the World or think upon your Lusts Can you not Speak And if you can can you not speak of God of Heaven and the Concernments of another Life as well as of your Trade and Bargainings and other trivial Matters which are below a Man much more below a Christian What force is there put upon Sinners Doth the Devil screw open the Drunkards Mouth and pour down his intemperate Cups whether he will or no Doth the Devil violently move the black Tongue of the Blasphemer and Swearer to rend and tear the holy Name of God by horrid Oaths and Blasphemies Doth the Devil strike Men dumb when they should Pray or Deaf when they should Hear or Senseless when they should understand and ponder Is there any such force or violence used unto any Can you not avoid the one And can you not do the other if you will Yes you can but you will not and therefore neither would you work out your own Salvation if you could do it Is there any hopes that you would ever willingly do the greater who will not do the less Let your Impotency and Weakness be what it will your Damnation lies not upon it but upon your Wilfulness so long as your Wilfulness is greater than your Weakness No it is not upon your Impotency that your precious and immortal Souls perish eternally but it is only for lack of a Will to pity them and to save them Sinners wherefore then will you perish Why will you sleep away your Souls into Hell Will you go on drowsily to Destruction Shall your Souls be ready to burn as a Brand in unquenchable Fire and will you not stretch forth your Hand to snatch it out Is it more painful for you to Work than to be Damned Endeavour therefore to do what you can labour and sweat at Salvation rather than fail of it Let it not grate and fret your Consciences in Hell that you lie there for a wilful Neglect Object But should I labour should I endeavour should I work to my utmost should I do all that I am able to do I cannot work Grace in my self by all this to what purpose then should I work Answ However try God in this particular Did you ever know any who thus laboured and thus wrought that did not give very good Evidence of a Work of Grace wrought upon their Hearts And why then should you suspect that you should be the first What reason have you
Case you would do And Secondly So absolutely depend and rely upon the alone Merits of Jesus Christ for your Justification and Salvation as if you never had performed an Act of Obedience in all your Life This is the right Gospel-frame of Obedience so to work as if you were only to be saved by your own Merits and withal so to rest on the Merits of Christ as if you had never wrought any thing It is a difficult thing to give to each of these its Due in our Practice When we Work we are too apt to neglect Christ and when we rely on Christ we are too apt to neglect Working But that Christian hath got the right skill and art of Obedience that can mingle these two together that can with one Hand work the Works of God and yet at the same time with the other Hand lay fast hold on the Merits of Jesus Christ Let this Antinomian Principle be for ever rooted out of the Minds of Men that our working is derogatory to Christs Work Never more think Christ hath done all your Work for you for that is unbecoming the free Spirit of the Gospel but labour for that Salvation that he hath purchased and merited Could ever such senseless Objections prevail with those Men who ever seriously read that Scripture in Tit. 2.14 Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purify to himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works Were this place seriously ponder'd over by Men they would be ashamed to Object any longer that our Duties and Works are derogatory to the purchase of Christ for he gave himself for this end that he might purchase such a People that might be zealous of good Works But truly when Sloth and Ignorance meet together if you tell Men what Powers their Natures have to work and how necessary Obedience is to Salvation that thereby we might excite and quicken their Hearts to Obedience they with the Sluggard fold their Arms in their Bosom doing nothing telling us these Doctrins are Arminianism and flat Popery whereas in Deed and in Truth they are as far distant from either of them as Light is from Darkness it is their Ignorance and Sloth only that makes them think so But deceive not your selves this Doctrin is such that whether it take hold on your Judgments and Understandings now I know not but this I know assuredly it shall take hold of your Consciences either here or hereafter and then it will not suffice you to make this Excuse either that you had no Power to do any thing or that Christ hath already done all Things for you And so much for the Second Objection Object 3 Thirdly Others may Object That this Duty of working out of our Salvation is inconsistent with and prejudicial to the freeness of Gods Grace by which alone we are saved If God save them only that work for Salvation how then doth he save them freely and that by Grace we are saved Answ 1 First In general I answer That Salvation upon our Working and Obedience is free Salvation and that for four Reasons 1. Working for Salvation is our Duty and so not meritorious First Because all our working is a natural Duty that we owe to God as Creatures to their Creator Had God required the same Things of us that now he doth and never propounded a Reward to incourage us he had been just and we had been as absolutely and as indispensably obliged to obey as now we are We have not so great a Right to Salvation as God hath to our Obedience God can challenge our Service and Obedience from us because of our natural Bond and Obligation as well as from that voluntary Covenant where into we have entred with God to be Obedient but we can only plead for Salvation because God hath made a Promise that he will save those that Obey Whether God had made that Promise or not yet he might have required the same Obedience from us that now he doth because we owe it to him naturally by our Creation And is it not now free Grace and Mercy that when God might have required Obedience without a Reward that yet he will bestow Salvation according to that Obedience See what our Saviour saith in Luke 17. Luke 17.9 10. Doth the Master thank the Servant because he did the things that he was commanded to do I trow not So even ye likewise when you have done all those things that are commanded you say we are unprofitable Servants for when we have done all we have but done that which was our Duty to do Yea and our Duty it was to do it though God had never made a Promise to reward what we have done We are unprofitable Servants and deserve not so much as Thanks Doth the Master thank the Servant because he did the things that were commanded I trow not And if we do not merit Thanks when we have done our utmost how then can we merit Salvation 2. Our Obedience is imperfect in this Life Secondly Our Obedience is imperfect in this Life it is full of cracks and flaws And if to accept and reward the most perfect Obedience with Salvation be an Act of Mercy and free Grace as it is because it is our Duty if there were no Salvation promised how much more is free Grace magnified and glorified in accepting and rewarding a weak and imperfect Obedience with that Salvation which the most perfect Obedience cannot deserve For when we have done all we have done but that which was our Duty to do and if we could say so doth the Master thank the Servant No But alas in many things we offend all Now to reward that with eternal Salvation that deserves eternal Damnation to reward that Work with Life that deserves to be rewarded with Death what is this but the effect of rich and glorious Grace What is this but to bestow Heaven not according to Merit but rather according to our Demerit 3. There is no comparison between Salvation and our Obedience Thirdly Because there is no comparison betwixt Salvation and our Obediences and therefore free Grace shines forth still It is free Grace though we do obey We obey as Creatures God rewards as a God our Obedience is Temporal but our Reward is Eternal our Obedience is mixed with Rebellion but the Reward hath no mixture to take off the fulness and sweetness of it Therefore it is free Grace still to give an infinite Reward to so mean an Obedience betwixt which Obedience and Reward there is no comparison or proportion Fourthly Though we are commanded to obey 4. Grace whereby we obey is the Gift of God yet that Grace whereby we do obey is the Gift of God It is he that works in us this Obedience which he rewards with Salvation And must not this then be wholly of free Grace To save upon an Obedience wrought in us by God himself it is to save
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
the working out of their Salvation In respect of Doctrinals St. Paul tells us some built Hay and Stubble upon a Foundation of Gold 1 Cor. 8. But in respect of Practicals it is frequent that many Men endeavour to build Gold upon a Foundation of Hay and Stubble These Mens Buildings will soon totter fall and come to nothing but Ruin Shame and Disappointment Now the right disposing of your great Work lies thus First You are to work from Nature for Grace and then from Grace unto the holy and spiritual performance of Duty by which Grace is much confirmed and strengthned and so continuing in Duty to arrive at Assurance and from this the next step is Salvation From Nature to Grace and from Grace to Duty See this Method laid down by the Apostle Let us Heb. 12.28 says he have Grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with Reverence and godly fear This is the Ladder of Heaven whose bottom Step is below Grace in Nature and whose utmost Step is above it in absolute Perfection and Glory First there must be Grace before any Duty can be performed acceptably unto God But now most Men pervert and disturb this Method and the ordinary way of Disturbance is this they are frequent in Duties but they perform them not either for Grace or from Grace neither that they may attain Grace by them nor that they may exercise Grace in them And yet notwithstanding these Men think and hope to work out Salvation by such Duties as these are making a Leap from Duties to Salvation neglecting to obtain that Grace that can make their Duties acceptable and saving and hence it is that they make no quicker dispatch and riddance in their great Work Now such Attempts as these are First Discouraging and disheartning And Secondly They are vain and fruitless First They are very discouraging Duties never flow freely from the Soul where Grace is not like a continual Fountain to supply it Job speaking of the Hypocrite Job 27.10 asks this Question Will he delight himself in God will he always call upon him No he will not It is not possible that he should do so tho' for a time he may drive at a high rate praying both with Fervency and Affection yet will he soon decay and faint because he hath no Life of Grace to carry him through Duties but he finds them to flow stubbornly from him and therefore through Weariness and Discontent at last he gives them over The good Works of graceless Persons may be as flourishing as if indeed they were true Saints but they have not a Root to supply them the Root of the Matter as Job speaks is not in them and therefore they are soon nipt and fade away It is simply impossible that a Person without the Life and Power of Grace should persevere in a cordial affectionate performance of good Works Interest Credit Respect and natural Conscience are too weak Wheels for so great a Burthen it is Grace only that can over-ballance all outward Discouragements yea and which is more that alone can remove all inward also This can make Obedience sweet to a Child of God which to a wicked Man must needs be irksome and that because he hath no relish in them Mat. 16.23 St. Matth. 16.23 Thou savourest not the things that are of God this may be much more said of graceless Persons because they have not Salt in them Col. 4.6 for so Grace is called that should make holy and heavenly Things to be favoury to them What a Torment is it to be still chewing an unsavory Prayer and an unsavory Meditation to hear and speak those Words that their Ears cannot relish Must I always says the Sinner offer this force to my self Must I still strain and pump for Tears and Sighs Were Holiness as easie to me as it is to some no Life would I chuse sooner than that but I am straitned and pinched up and all good Things come out of me like the evil Spirit which rends and tares me and is a torture and anguish to my Heart and Bowels And it is so because in the performance of them there is a neglect of that Grace that should make Duties become easy and therefore such a one will shortly give over Duties themselves which he finds to be so troublesome yea and also give over all hopes of attaining any good at all by them Secondly Such Works are also as to the obtaining of the last and main End vain and fruitless and that upon two Accounts First Because the acting of Grace is the Life and Spirit of all our Works without which they are all but Carkasses and dead Things and only equivocally called good Works even as the Picture of a Man may be called a Man We are says the Apostle his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good Works As after the first Creation God took a survey of all the Works of his Hands and pronounced them all very good so there is no Work of ours that God will pronounce to be a good Work but what is the effect of his creating Power that is the product of his second Creation Eph. 2.10 Created says the Apostle to good Works Good Works are no otherwise necessary to Salvation but as they are the exercises of Grace by which we express the life and likeness of God so only are they necessary unto Salvation How should Grace be seen and known but by Works First God imprinted his own Image upon our Souls in Regeneration and stamps us Feature for Feature Grace for Grace and Glory for Glory But now because this is hid and concealed therefore are we to copy forth this Image in a holy Conversation and to express every Grace in some Duty or Work of Obedience or other As those that we call falling Stars dart from Heaven and draw after them long Trains of Light so God would have us to shoot up to Heaven but yet to leave a Train of Light behind us our Graces must shine always we must go on in good Works and these good Works are of no value or account with God of which Grace is not the End or Principle What says the Apostle 1 Cor. 13.3 Though I bestow all my Goods to feed the Poor and have not Charity it profiteth me nothing Can a Man bestow all his Goods upon the Poor and not be charitable Indeed the Word that we translate Charity might for the avoiding of some Mistakes better have been translated Love but however we must take Charity for a disposition to relieve the Wants and Necessities of others with respect of Love to God and his Image if this good Work be not from Grace through a Principle of Love to God and Obedience to his Command it is but the empty Shell and Husk of a good Work and it avails a Man nothing Yea further if after this I give my Body to be burned and have not Charity it profiteth me nothing If
my Soul burn not as clear and bright in Love as my Body in the Flames it availeth me nothing I burn only what was dead before and offer a Carkass instead of a Sacrifice There is no Work or Duty how specious soever that is of any profit to the Soul if that Work or Duty hath not the Life and Power of some Grace or other expressed in it Well then this is the first Ground why Works without Grace are fruitless because they are empty and liveless Grace is the Life and Spirit of good Works Secondly All Works and Duties whatever without Grace leave the Heart in the same estate of Sin and therefore the Person in the same estate of Wrath and Condemnation as before For First All of them are not a sufficient expiation for the guilt of any one Sin Should such Men pray and sigh till their Breath were turned into a Cloud and covered the Face of the whole Sky Should they weep till they drown'd themselves in their own Tears yet if all this could be supposed to be only the remorse of Nature and not true and godly Sorrow they would still be under the same state of Condemnation as the most feared Sinner in the World The Prophet Micah tells of some that bid very high for Pardon and Forgiveness as if they were resolved to carry it at any rate whatever Wherewith say they Micah 6.6 7. shall we come before the Lord and bow our selves before the most-high God Shall we come before him with burnt Offerings and with Calves of a Year old Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams and with ten thousands of Rivers of Oil Shall we give our First-born for our Transgressions the Fruit of our Bodies for the Sin of our Souls What high Rates are here bidden and yet all this falls short There is but one Grace and that is Faith that can give us a Right and Title to that Righteousness that shall be a sufficient Expiation and Attonement for all our Sins Secondly All Attainments and Attempts all Endeavours and Duties without Grace can never mortifie and subdue the Power and Dominion of any one Lust or Corruption Men may divert and chain and restrain their Corruptions and impale in their Lusts so that they shall not break forth into any outragious Wickedness but yet without Grace they can never subdue them because it is Grace alone that can lay the Ax to the Root of this evil Tree Well then notwithstanding all that hath been said concerning the Power of Nature what Men may do thereby and how far they may go yet here you see what Impotency there is in Nature without Grace and what it cannot reach to perform But now this is not spoken that hereby any should be discouraged from Working and because some doubt of the Truth of their Graces that therefore they should desist from a course of Holiness and Obedience this were plainly to thwart the whole design of this Subject No all that hath been said is to persuade Men not to rest satisfied in any Work of Obedience or Religion in which some Grace is not breathed or exercised nor to look upon them at all as inductive to Salvation as in themselves but as in reference to true Grace How many poor Souls are there who because they run on in a round of Duties because they do something that they call good Works think that Salvation is as sure their own as if all the Promises in the Scripture were sealed and delivered to them by God himself And yet poor Creatures never examine or regard from what Principle this their Obedience flows whether from a Principle of Grace or from the old corrupt Principle of Nature new-vampt from some new Operations of the common Spirit Believe it this is not that Obedience that God requires nor that he will accept an inward Groan if breathed by Grace is of more account with God and will be more available to the Soul than the most pompous and specious Services of unregenerate Men. What is it to God when you offer not only the Blind and the Lame but the Dead also Is it not rather an Abomination than Obedience The Apostle tells us Without Works Jam. 3.20 Faith is dead And it is as true on the other side also that Works without Faith and other Graces of the Spirit are not only dead but rotten and noisome Every Duty Men perform in a graceless State and Condition God must needs loath it and them for it The Prayer of the Wicked is an Abomination unto the Lord. Prov. 28.9 It is as hateful unto God as Vapors that ascend up out of Tombs from putrified Bodies are unto us What then must such Persons give up themselves to Sin therefore God forbid No rather let such think thus if our Duties and our Righteousness be so loathsome what are our Sins and Iniquities Though every Sinner be dead in Sins and Trespasses yet is it less offensive to have a dead Carkass embalmed than to have it lie open Still therefore continue working but in your working First aim at the obtaining of Grace before you aim at the obtaining of Heaven and Salvation let it at no time content you that such and such Duties you have performed but look what Grace have you acted in them what is there of God breathing in this Prayer that I now put up How am I in Hearing in Meditation in Discoursing of the Things of God Is my Heart holy and spiritual Are my Affections pure and fervent Are my Graces active and vigorous And are they vigorous in this Work of Obedience Else to perform Duties and to neglect Grace that alone can inable us to perform Duties acceptably is only to go to Hell a little more cleanly Secondly Direct 2. If you would work out your own Salvation as you must look to the actings of Grace as well as to the performance of Duties so you must labour to grow and increase in those Graces that are most active and working and they are Two the Grace of Faith and the Grace of Love To grow strong in these Graces is the most compendious way for a Christian to dispatch his great Work I may call them the two Hands of a Christian and he that is most active in these works out his Salvation with both Hands earnestly First The actings of Faith is of mighty advantage to the working out of our Salvation Two Senses there are in which Salvation may be said to be wrought out First In Title And Secondly In actual Possession and Enjoyment Now Faith is a working out of the one and a compendious furtherance towards the working out of the other First Upon our believing Salvation is already wrought out for us in Right and Title He that believeth shall be saved here is the Title The great Work is then done and finished when once Faith is wrought And therefore when the Jews came to enquire of our Saviour John
B P HOPKINS's Fourth and Last VOLUME OF Discourses and Sermons The Fourth and Last VOLUME OF DISCOURSES OR SERMONS ON Several Scriptures By EZEKIEL HOPKINS Late Lord Bishop of London-derry LONDON Printed by H. Clark for J. Robinson A. and J. Churchill J. Taylor and J. Wyat 1696. THE PREFACE GIVING An Account of these Discourses and of the Excellent Author thereof Christian Reader AN old Friend and Acquaintance of the very Reverend Author of the following Sermons and Discourses in honour of his Name and Memory though he accepteth no Man's Person neither can give flattering Titles saith upon the occasion of their being Printed and Published as followeth viz. That there have been Three Volumes of Sermons and Discourses sent forth into the Publick before these have appeared and not any one of them unprefaced to but in none of these Prefaces hath he met with any thing to convey down the just Character of this our great Man and his Manner and Ministry to Posterity He will make an Experiment therefore if any thing may be said he saith not aded for hitherto nothing hath been said to render the account of this Amiable Person and his Vseful Labours amongst us to after Ages besides the Testimony of his Gifts and Graces in his Books so familiar amongst us for by these though he be dead he yet speaketh his Works praise him in the Gates and his Remembrance shall be blessed Many will bear Witness the Name of our Author was not unknown but celebrated in this our great City in its Suburbs in our Lines of Communication and within our Bills of Mortality when he for several Years lived and laboured with great acceptance and success in these places Ask in the Town and Parish of Hackney how much Good was done by Mr. Hopkins's Lectures especially amongst the richer sort of Inhabitants and the younger sort at the Schools there and especially those that were descended from good Families If you believe me not ask from Jerusalem to Illyricum from Oxon to London from London to Exon if you please from one London to another even unto London-derry in Ireland where was his Top-preferment and I have been assured his last Works were more than the first So that we have found him that faithful and wise Servant his Lord had made Ruler over his Houshold to give them their Meat in due season Indeed by his exalted Name I ever took him to be none of our smaller Prophets nor of the Patres minorum Gentium In his first education and at his first appearance in the Grammar-School he soon signalized himself none of his Age and Stature being well able to keep pace with him at his coming unto the Vniversity it was by times taken notice of his Stock of Grammar and all good Learning especially in the learned Languages and his Studies and Manners were such that he rendred himself in the College both much a Scholar and much a Gentleman and was chosen out from amongst others to Instruction and Government therein and particularly the Instruction and Government of some of several Young Gentlemen and some descended from some of our Noble and most Honourable Families in our Kingdom and Nation In the Churches of Christ unto the Service whereof he was never slack when invited and called his very First-fruits were promising and his First-fruits being holy the Lump was also holy The Crouds in Hackney-Church in St. Mary Woolnoth Lombard-street at Exon at Dublin at Raphoe at London-derry and last at St. Mary Aldermanbury in our own City declare him a Master-workman the Preacher that was wise and that sought out acceptable words And his Words were as profitable as they were acceptable By the Subjects of the Four Volumes of Sermons you will be able to do more than make a Conjecture you will take some Measures of his Parts and the disposition of his Mind of his Studies and Ministerial Endeavours with the blessed Seals which were put thereunto I will only further as to my part here in his Honour commend to your perusal in special this Fourth Volume of his Sermons and Discourses The Contents will give you the Account of what Materials they consist and to what Vses and Improvements they were directed and applied But I further take liberty to say Here are in these Discourses now handled by him both the Commoda and the Accommoda things profitable in themselves and seasonable to our present Times and Debates Verba super Rotas some of the Author 's Golden Apples in Pictures of Silver They never knew our Author that knew him not to be as acute and solid in his Polemick Discourses as he was accurate and fervent in his Practical and Ordinary Sermons And let but the Christian Reader take the first Discourse in this Book on Phil. 2.12 13. and read but with due Caution and Observation and he will soon think there will not need more be said to stay and quiet the Minds of Men on the controverted Points of Liberty or the Power of Nature and the Interests of the Grace of God in our Salvation He hath also happily herein taken up the Question and proved Repentance and Faith are neither prejudicial to the free Grace of God and the Father nor in any-wise derogatory unto the Merits of Jesus his Son As also fully proved we are far from being justified as soon as elected or redeemed In the Second Part he hath happily added and proved that a temperament of the fear of a Just and Sin-revenging God is consistent with and necessary to be joined unto our highest Attainments in the joyful Sense of the Love and Favour of God and the fullest Assurances of Heaven and Salvation we have in this Life and hath herein cut the Sinews of the Antinomian Errour on the contrary part and without any Noise or Clamour In the Third Part you will find and be much pleased with and I hope equally benefited by his very Pious and Plain Treatise of the Nature and Offices of Conscience the rather because the Corruptions and Defilements of it being so distinctly opened and what it is and of what Importance to get and to keep a clear Conscience with many necessary Directions and Helps in order thereunto very proper to the Times wherein so many have made Shipwrack of Faith and of a Good Conscience The next Discourse is of Instancy and Constancy in Holy Prayer not only as a Negotium cum Deo but Heaven in ordinary and perfect Hearts-ease whil'st we are here upon Earth And the last is an elaborate though short Exercitation and Treatise of the Divine Omnipresence a Meditation prepared to render all the foregoing Parts of the Book more beneficial to us no Argument being in its own Nature more awakening and awful to an intelligent and diligent Reader The rest you are beholden to Providence and the Pen of a ready Writer for but what is written was unquestionably spoken and with a great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a very Reverend
to procure it not to implant Grace but to purchase it You cannot therefore sit down and say what need is there of my working Christ hath already done all my Work for me to my Hands No Christ hath done his own Work he hath done the Work of a Saviour and a Surety but he never did the Work of a Sinner If Christ by meriting Grace had bestowed it upon thee and wrought it in thee then indeed there was no more required of thee to become Holy but to cast back a lazy Look to the purchase of Jesus Christ then thy Sloth would have had some pretence why thou dost not labour But this will not do our Saviour commands all Men To seek first the kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof Mat. 6.33 Acts 8.22 And the Apostle exhorts Simon Magus himself though in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity yet pray says he if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee Do not therefore cheat your own Souls into Perdition by lazy Notions of Christ's Merits What though Christ hath merited yet God requires that you should work and labour to change your own Hearts and reform your own Lives but if you sit still expecting till the meriting Grace of Christ drop down into your Souls and of its own accord and change your Hearts truly it may be before that time you your selves may drop down into Hell with your old unchanged Hearts And this is the first thing Christ requires Secondly 2. Those that have Grace must Labour for Salvation Christ expects and requires that those that have Grace should put forth the utmost Strength and Power thereof in labouring after that Salvation that he hath purchased for them He hath merited Salvation for them but it is to be obtained by them through their own Labour and Industry Is not that which Christ hath already done sufficient for them Is it not enough that he hath reconciled them to God by the Blood of the Covenant that he hath made their Peace and procured their Pardon for them But must Christ Repent and Believe and Obey for them This is not to make him a Saviour but a Drudg He hath done what was meet and fit for a Mediatour to do He now requires of us what is meet for Sinners to do namely to Believe to Repent to be Converted and to Obey He now bids you Wash and be Clean and what would you have more Would you have the great Prophet come and strike off your Leprosy and you only mark the Cure and do nothing thereunto Or is it indeed enough that Salvation and Happiness is purchased that the way to Heaven is made passable that the Bolts and Bars of the new Jerusalem by Christ are broken off Alas what of all this thou mayest still be as far from Heaven and Glory as ever if thou dost not walk in the way that leads to it Still thou art as far from entring into Heaven as ever if thou dost not strive at the entrance into the strait Gate It is therefore in vain that Christ died it is in vain that thou art Justified it is in vain that thou art Adopted it is in vain that Heaven is prepared for thee Christ may keep Heaven and Glory and his Crowns and Robes for ever to himself unless as he hath purchased these great things for his People so also he hath purchased to himself a peculiar People Zealous of good Works A People who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory and Immortality and by that way obtain it Thus we see Christs doing all for us is no excuse for our doing nothing He hath indeed done all for us that belongs to him as a Mediatour meriting and procuring Grace and Salvation but he never intended to do all for us as to the conveying of them to us and making of them ours No that is still to be done by us And therefore tho Christ's Works alone were meritorious yet by the actings of Faith we must apply his Merit and by the acting of Obedience confirm them to our selves I might add also when Christ is said to obey the Law in our stead as well as to suffer in our stead Though his bearing the punishment of the Law by Death doth excuse and exempt us from suffering yet his obeying of the Law doth not excuse our Obedience unto the Law Christ obeyed the Law in a far different respect to the Obedience which is now required from us He obeyed as a Covenant of works we only as a Rule of Righteousness If he had failed in the least tittle he could not have purchased Life that was promised but we though we fall infinitely short in our Obedience may yet inherit that Life that Christ hath purchased Christ's Obedience was fully perfect yet ours is not derogatory thereunto because it proceeds from other grounds than Christ's did But I will not proceed further in this only conclude this Answer with two practical things in reference to this Question First So work with that Earnestness Constancy and Unweariedness in well doing as if thy Works alone were able to justifie and save thee Look with what Affection and Fervency you would pray if now God with a Voice from Heaven should tell you that for the next Prayer you make you should be either Saved or Damned Look with what Reverence and Attention you would Hear with what Spiritualness of Heart you would Meditate if your eternal State and Condition were to be determined and fixed by the next of those Duties that in this kind you were to perform with the same Fervency Affection and Spiritualness perform all the Obedience that you do Why should you not do so Are not Gods Commands as peremptory and as Authoritative for Obedience under the Covenant of Grace as they were under the Covenant of Works Is not Obedience of as absolute necessity now as ever though not to the same end and purpose And since the end of our Obedience is graciously changed doth not this chang lay a farther obligation of Gratitude upon us to obey God who requires it from us not as Merit but as Duty Still there is as great an obligation to obey now under the condition of the Covenant of Grace as ever there was while Mankind stood under the tenour of the Covenant of Works Certainly Christ's Merit was never given to slacken our Obedience and it is the most unworthy nay let me say it is the most accursed use that any Christian can make of them that from the Merit of Christ he shall take encouragement to grow more remiss and slack in Obedience Would you not therefore turn the Grace of God into Wantonness Would you not abuse the infinite Mercy of a Mediator Think with your selves how would I strive and struggle were I to stand or fall upon the account of my own Works and Duties use the same Diligence put forth the same Endeavours as indeed in that
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
much Work to be done in so little time No far be it from us to say thus Though our Work be great yet our Time is long enough to perform it in if it were well improved We do indeed consume away our precious Days and waste our Life and Light exhaust our Strength and lay out our Endeavours upon Vanities and Trifles on nothing but Emptiness and Folly And that Life which the Prophet tells us is but as a Tale truly we spend it as a Dream We sleep and drowse and suffer our precious Minutes to run and waste away doing nothing to any good purpose till the Night is shutting in till the Night of Darkness come upon us and then the greatness of our Work will confound us and cause Despair rather than excite Endeavours Have you never known any who at the close of their Lives having neglected their great Work have spent that little time that they had then left them in crying out for more time And thus it may be with you also if your Consciences be not awakned sooner than by the Pains and Disquiets of a sick Bed then with Horror you may cry out More Time Lord more Time But it will not then be granted the Term is fixed the last Hour is struck the last Sand is run and as you and your Work shall then be found so you must go together into Eternity This is such a Consideration as must needs prevail with all Men if they would but lay it to Heart My Time is but short and momentany I am but of Yesterday and possibly I may not be to Morrow and God hath suspended Eternity upon the Improvement of this moment a few Hours will determine my everlasting State and Condition according as these few are spent so will my Doom be either for Eternal Happiness or for Eternal Misery And why should my precious Soul be so vile in my own Eyes as to lose it for ever through Sloth and Negligence Why should I hearken to the Allurements of my own Corruptions or to the Enticements and Persuasions of Satans Temptations No stand off for I am working for Eternity an Eternity that is but a few Days hence a boundless a bottomless an endless Eternity into which I know not how soon I may enter and Woe to me yea a thousand Woes to me that ever I was born if my great Work be not done before the Days of Eternity come upon me This is such a Motive as methinks should make every Man that hears it and hath but a sense what Eternity is presently to bestir and rouse up himself and give God and his Soul no rest till his Immortal Soul be secured and well provided for for Eternity To me there is no greater Argument of the Witchcraft and Sorcery that Sin and Satan useth to besot the Reason and Judgment of rational Creatures than to hear of such Truths Truths that are not to be denied or doubted of and yet Men to live at such a rate as they do so vainly so fruitlessly so lazily so securely and presumptuously as if their Eternity were to be expected and enjoyed here or that there was none to come hereafter Secondly The consideration of the shortness of our Life may serve as a great Incouragement to work The consideration of the burthensomness and trouble of working for Salvation may doubtless fright many from engaging therein Oh! it is a Work very painful and laborious and this discourageth them But know O Sinner though it be grievous yet it is but short Work it is to last no longer than our frail short Life doth last And O! how unreasonable is it to complain as most do of our Work being too long and too tedious and of our Lives as being too short and brittle for our Work is to be no longer than our Lives A Child of God doth not at least he should not desire to live longer than his great Work is done And truly when it is finished it is a great piece of Self-denial in him to be content to abide here in this World any longer And in the mean while this may support him that it shall not be long that he shall thus wrestle with Temptations and thus struggle with Corruptions Death will come in to his Help and put an end to his Toil and Labour and though he brings a Dart in one Hand yet he brings a Reward and Wages in the other Hand and this may be his great Encouragement Fourthly My next Argument to press this Duty of working out of our own Salvation shall consist of three or four Gradations And First Consider we are all of us very busy active Creatures 1. We are all busy active Creatures the frame and constitution of our Natures is such as we must be working some Work or other And therefore since we must be working why should we not work the Works of God We do not simply exhort Sinners to work neither indeed need we You have active Faculties and stirring Principles within you that must and will be still in Imployment and when your Hands cease yet then your Hearts and Thoughts are at work Your whole Lives are nothing but Actions yea when your Thoughts themselves are most unbent and most remiss when they are most vanishing and glimmering so that your selves scarce know what they are yet then are they visibly working though you perceive it not Now what is it that God requires of you It is not that you should be more imployed than you are that you should do more than you do for that is impossible because you never are idle doing nothing but it is that what you do should be done in order unto Heaven and Salvation and how reasonable is such a Command as this It is not more Work that God expects from you only other Work your Thoughts need not be more than they are but they must be more Spiritual than they are your Desires no more but only more Gracious your Actions no more but only they must be more Holy than now they are Let but Grace regulate what Nature doth and the Art of working out of your Salvation is attained The Wheels of a Watch move as fast and as quick when it goes false as when it goes true and if the Watch be but at first set right and true the same activity that makes it go false will make the Motions go right and orderly Truly you your selves are like your Watches your Faculties are the Wheels of your Souls and they move and click as fast when they go false as when they go right and if Grace doth but once set them right the same activity of Nature that makes them work falsly and go amiss will also continue their Motion orderly and regular when once they are set right Well then whatever your Trade be whether it be a Trade of Sin or whether it be a Trade of Holiness you must be working at it And let me tell you Religion and Holiness
follow them They rest from their Labours First They rest from their Labour in working under Affliction 1. No Affliction in Heaven Sometimes Afflictions are Spurs and Incentives and sometimes they are Burthens and Discouragements to Obedience But when we arrive at Heaven we shall no longer need the Spur to quicken us nor shall we any longer bare that Burthen to oppress us but cast it down at Heavens Gate where never Sorrow nor Suffering durst yet appear And 2. No Desertion in Heaven Secondly In Heaven you shall rest from your Labour in working under Desertion Now though you do work yet it may be you apprehend God frowning upon you and finding fault with all that you do Now it may be though God doth cause the clear Light of his Precepts and Spirit to shine before you to direct you what your Work is that you should do yet he makes it dismal Darkness behind you and shuts up the Light of his Comfort that you cannot see what Work you have done and this is your great Trouble you work and labour and yet you know not whether you shall be accepted Obedience were easy and pleasant Work says the Soul if I knew that God did regard me but alas I pray and he shuts out my Prayer from him I lay hold upon him but he shakes me off in displeasure I obey but he rejects all my Services and this is the Anguish and Torture of my Life This indeed is Matter of great Grief and Trouble But know Oh Soul thou shalt not long work thus in the dark shortly thou shalt be above these Clouds and then thou shalt see that those Prayers that thou thought'st were vainly scatter'd and lost in the Air are become a Cloud of sweet Incense hovering before the Throne of God And those Tears that thou thought'st were dropt in vain upon the Earth are all gathered up and preserved in God's Bottle And those poor Duties of thine that for their own meanness and vileness thou thought'st God would scorn yet thro' that worth that is put upon them by the Intercession of Christ are ranked in the same degree of Acceptation as the most perfect Services of the Angels themselves are Have but patience a while and continue working and thou shalt see a happy Issue when the Clouds of Darkness and Desertion that now lie upon thy Spirit shall be all scattered and blown away 3. In Heaven there is Rest from Sin Thirdly You shall also rest from your Labour in working against the continual Workings of your own Corruptions which shall then at once both cease to act and cease to be And this indeed is the great Thing that makes it such a blessed Rest to the People of God Indeed God cuts you out your Work in his Commands but it is the old Man within you that makes it to be tedious irksome and difficult unto you God makes it not so but your Corruption makes it so and this it doth two ways First By deadning your Heart to it And Secondly By turning your Heart against it Deadness and dulness to and averseness from the ways of holy Obedience are the greatest cause of all that Toil and Pains that most take in the Work and Service of God if ever they will bring it to a good issue Now both these shall shortly cease and be removed if you but wait and continue striving against them 1. In Heaven there is Rest from labouring with a dead heart in the ways of God First You shall rest from all that Labour that you take with a dead and heavy Heart in the ways of God Now you are continually calling upon it Awake awake my Glory now you are continually tugging of it to get it a little more forward lifting of it up to get it a little higher towards God and Heaven Now you stand in need of continual quickning Grace to actuate and excite those Lumps of Lead that lie heavy within your Breasts and it is the greatest disquietment of your Lives that you find your Hearts so heartless and listless to what is holy and spiritual It is with them as with some great Bells that you must pull long at the Rope before you can make them sound Is not this the daily Complaint of God's Children that their Hearts are dull and heavy and they cannot raise them and this makes the ways of Obedience yea this makes their very Lives become burthensome Well have but patience for a while and continue still to struggle against this sad Indisposition and it will not be long before you shall rest from this Labour also Though now you are as Birds whose Bodies are too heavy for their Wings when you stretch them forth and would fain be soaring up to Heaven you can only run up and down and flutter upon the Earth yet shortly these heavy and cloggy Bodies shall fall off and you shall be all Wing free from all Deadness and Straitness Distraction and Weariness in the Ways of God that now afflict you Then shall your Affections be always intent and not languish always burning and yet never waste nor consume every Motion of your Soul shall then shoot themselves to God as quick as the Lightning and yet constant as the Sun-beams And those who are now out-stript by weak and underling Christians shall then be able to keep pace in their Obedience even with the Holy Angels themselves 2. In Heaven there shall be a resting from the opposition of our Heart against Duty And then Secondly In Heaven there shall be a resting from all that Labour that the People of God now take in the ways of holy Obedience through the averseness of their Hearts from them and the opposition of their Hearts against them There is that contradiction in the carnal part against what is holy and spiritual that the Godly cannot bring themselves to the performance of it without much Strife and Contention the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and when the spiritual part calleth for holy Thoughts and heavenly Affections the corrupt and fleshy part sends forth noisome and stinking Vapours obstructing the Good that we would do and infecting that little Good that we do perform So that as if working were not a sufficient Imployment a Christian must Fight that he may Work and this is it that makes working for Salvation so laborious because we must Fight and Work at once But it shall not be long before that which hinders shall be removed and then as you are not under a sad necessity of offending God so also you shall be under a most blessed necessity of serving God and shall find no more trouble in that Service than in those Actions which you now cannot but do And thus shall you have a happy Rest from all that Labour and Pains that your Corruptions here made you take And therefore be incouraged to persevere in well-doing perfect the Work you have undertaken in spight of all opposition from your own corrupt Hearts
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-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
Helpers to you in this great Work of working out of your Salvation And therefore they are called Helpers of your Faith and Joy 2 Cor. 1.24 They are said To watch for your Souls as those that must give an account Heb. 13.17 They are said to be Co-workers with Jesus Christ yea Jude 23. they are said To save your Souls Ministers are set in the Church to admonish with all Meekness to beseech with all Earnestness to rebuke with all Authority yea and we have done it Have we not called upon you Sinners Sinners why will you die The Way wherein you now walk leads down to the Chambers of Death and Destruction the Wages of that Work you are now doing is Shame Death and Hell Have we not thus often call'd upon you Yes so often have we thundred Terrors in Mens Ears that they now disregard them out of custom and when we speak of Sin and Death and Hell and Judgment to come Men think we are fallen into a common Peace and we must talk dreadfully to keep in our Road. These are the Apprehensions Men have of the great and fearful Denunciations that are daily discharged in their Ears by the Ministers of the Gospel And have we not also display'd Jesus Christ in all his Excellencies so far forth as his infinite Excellencies can be display'd with a few short-breath'd Words Have we not set forth Holiness in its Beauty and Lustre and done as much as we could do to reconcile you to the ways of Obedience and to remove the unjust Prejudices that Men have taken up against them What could we have done more than we have done to inform Mens Judgments to satisfie their Consciences to answer all their Doubts to allay their Fears to supply them with quickning Considerations to Duty and with deterring Considerations from Sin We appeal to your selves and yet we speak not this to ingratiate or to commend our selves we profess we care not much for the good Opinion of any Man in the World farther than it may be of some advantage to do your Souls good but do you think God expects not some great Thing from you Give me leave â—o deal truly and faithfully with you if your Works do not in some measure answer the Labours of God's Servants that have many Years follow'd you with Line upon Line and Precept upon Precept here a little and there a little still warning and intreating with all Bowels of Tenderness alluring you to pity your own Souls and to save your selves from that Wrath and Vengeance that shall shortly overcome the disobedient World They who have thus exhorted you believe it shall within a while be Witnesses against you Well then since you are daily called upon and warned to flee from Wrath to come since you have such clear Convictions of your Duty that a bribed Conscience can hardly evade since you have such abundance of Examples of others who have gone before you and have done what God requires of you why will not you be hereby persuaded and encouraged to work These Things you must acknowledge are great Helps to further your Salvation and believe it they will prove dreadful Aggravations of your Condemnations if they do not prevail with you But these are only outward Helps 2. Inward Helps Secondly There are other Helps and they are inward and of far greater Force and Efficacy of which I shall name Two 1. The Dictates of Conscience First The Dictates of your own Consciences they are still prompting and exciting of you to work Conscience it is God's Deputy and Vicegerent in the Soul that rules and governs in his Name and by his Authority Now of all the Faculties in Man this was the least corrupted by his Fall though the Will be wholly corrupted and perverse that it will not obey the Commands of Conscience yet Conscience still continues the performance of its Office still it informs and urgeth and threatens and tormenteth and thus may you see it busily working even in those that never had the Law of God to direct Conscience The Gentiles says the Apostle to the Romans that have not the Law Rom. 2.14 15. do by Nature that is by natural Conscience the things contained in the Law their Consciences bearing witness and their Thoughts in the mean while accusing and excusing one another And because they had not the Law therefore Conscience in them was like an Officer walking in the Dark apprehending the Innocent and letting the Guilty escape But yet this was from the beginning so deeply implanted in the Heart of Man that something must be done and avoided for to obtain Happiness which could never yet be obliterated Tho' our knowledge of what is Duty and what is Sin be in a great part defaced yet this knowledg the Scripture doth abundantly supply to us and gives Conscience a perfect Draught of all the Duties that God requires and bids it be Overseer and look that the Work be done How is it not a great Help when you have somewhat within you that stands for and takes part with what is Good and what is your Duty Conscience secretly bids you beware of such and such Sins that will bring Ruin Destruction and Vengeance upon you and perform such and such Duties Pray Hear Meditate and be more fervent and affectionate in all your Services this is the way that tends to Life and Happiness Thus Conscience daily and hourly is following of you with Counsels and Chidings and with Threatnings denouncing Wrath and Vengeance against you and though it speaketh these Things with so low a Voice that others though they lay their Ears to your Soul cannot hear it yet in your Ears it speaks as loud as Thunder and no less terrible it is in vain to wound it it is in vain to stop its Mouth for that will but make it break out with the more violence and out-rage nothing can appease it but Duty and Work Why should you not then since you have that within you that stands for and prompts you to work why should you not as well follow and obey the Dictates and Commands of your Consciences that prompt you to Work and Duty as obey the Propensions of your sensual part to the contrary Secondly 2. God himself helps a Christian to work God himself helps us by working all our Works in us and for us by working in us the will to work and by working for us the work when we have willed And therefore while there is no part of our Work too hard for God there should be no part of it too hard and difficult for us Christ tells us His burthen is not heavy yet were it heavy we might well undergo it since he himself helps us to bear it The frequent experience of every Child of God doth abundantly confirm this Did you never begin a Duty with your Hearts listless and dead with Affections cold and flat with Thoughts very wandring and distracting that
at the very entrance of it you concluded you should never make good Work of it you should never bring the Duty to a good Issue And yet have you not in the midst of these your Distempers found a mighty assistance and influence shining down from Heaven into your Hearts filling them with holy and divine Affections transporting them beyond all that deadness that did oppress them enlarging them with sweet and heavenly Enlargements so that no Duties were ended with more Comfort and Revivings than those that were begun with such dead Hearts and cold Affections Have you not often found it so And what is this but a sensible feeling of Gods working in you that in the same performance you see your own weakness when you are left to your selves and you see the Power of Gods Assistance when he comes in to help you and there is no Duty but this divine Assistance may be hoped for and expected by you to enable you in the performance of it Are you to do Isa 43.2 God works in you the Will and the Deed. Job 5.19 Are you to suffer When you pass through the Fire and through the Water he will be with you he will deliver you in six Troubles and in seven there shall no Evil touch you Are you to pray His Spirit maketh Intercession for us Rom. 3.26 God doth not as the Scribes and Pharisees did lay heavy Burthens upon others and not touch them with the least of his Fingers no he is pleased to become a Co-worker with you he begins he carries on and he also perfects whatever concerns your Duty here and your Happiness hereafter and is not this a mighty Encouragement to Obedience Will you any longer delay since God affords you such Assistance as this Why do you not presently attempt this Work But you will say how shall I know that God will assist me Why put it to the Trial. Was it ever known that God ever failed any that resolutely ventured Dispute not concurrence but believe and by looking for it and depending upon it you ingage God to help you It was the consideration of the all-sufficient Assistance of God that made one of the Ancients cry out Da Domine quod jubes jube quod vis Give Lord what thou commandest and then command what thou wilt Sixthly 6. God looks at Sincerity more than Perfection Consider for your Incouragement it is not so much the absolute and legal perfection of the Work as the perfection of the Worker that is the perfection of the Heart that is looked at and rewarded by God And is not this a great Incouragement There is a twofold perfection the perfection of the Work and the perfection of the Workman The perfection of the Work is when the Work doth so exactly and strictly answer the holy Law of God that there is no irregularity in it The perfection of the Workman is nothing but inward Sincerity the uprightness of the Heart towards God which may be where there are many Imperfections and Defects intermingled If God should accept and reward no Work but what is absolutely perfect in respect of the Law this would be such a sadning Discouragement that it would take off the Wheels of all Endeavours for all our Obedience falls far short of legal perfection in this Life We our selves are conscious of many failings and imperfections in our best Services and God knows far more and since we can do nothing without Infirmities who would venture to do any thing upon the account of those Infirmities lest God should cast back all again as Dung into our Faces No but we do not stand upon such Terms as these are with our God it is not so much what our Works are as what our Heart is that God looks at and will reward Yet know also lest any should too soon lay hold on this if our Hearts are perfect and sincere we shall endeavour to the utmost of our Power that our Works may be perfect according to the strictness of the Law I speak not this therefore to incourage ignorant sottish Sinners that though they live in a constant course of Sin and neglect of Duty yet sooth up themselves with this God knows their Hearts are good sincere and upright Let me cut off the foolish Hopes of these Men in a Word It is impossible the Heart should be sincere where there is the allowance and liking of any one sin in the Life But I speak what I have said to those who upon the sight and sense of their many Failings of the deadness and untowardness of their Hearts of their averseness and indisposition of their wandrings and formality in the performance of what is holy and good upon the sense of these things are ready to be dejected and discouraged and to give over doing of any thing because they can do nothing well Let such know though their Works have not this legal Perfection yet if they do proceed from a sincere upright perfect Heart they shall be accepted and rewarded by God Hezekiah had his Failings and the Prophet sharply reproves him for his Pride c. making a glorious and boasting Ostentation of his Treasure to the King of Babylon yet he prays and appeals to God Remember O Lord how I have walked before thee in Truth and with a perfect Heart Isa 38.3 There may therefore be a perfect Heart where there are imperfect Works and if you can make this Plea let me tell you the perfection of your Hearts will swallow up the imperfections of your Works that they shall never come up in remembrance against you before God 7. Success in working for Salvation is certain Seventhly and Lastly Consider for your Incouragement though your Work be great yet the success of it is certain The greatest check to Industry is fear of Disappointment from which you have no security while you labour for any thing besides your own Salvation All Worldly Affairs are moved by such invisible Wyers and turned upon such small Pins that if the Finger of Providence displace but one of them the whole Fabrick of our Design is thereby disordered and our Hopes defeated and God sometimes delights to frustrate Mens Attempts about Worldly Concernments Hab. 2 13. It is not of the Lord of Hosts says the Prophet that the People labour in the Fire and that the People weary themselves for very vanity To labour in the Fire signifies two Things First Great Pains Secondly Great Disappointment They work in the midst of scorching Flames and what they do produce with so much Anguish they enjoy it not but it consumes betwixt their Fingers When Men have weaved a curious Web of earthly Contrivances and think to wrap up themselves therein and to keep them warm God breaths secret Flames into it that singe it that it can no more hold together than so much Tinder And wherefore doth God blast Mens Endeavours but that seeing the vanity of all their
inoffensively that neither the World nor his own Conscience may have much to accuse him of besides common Infirmities Mark the Reason of this because wicked Men commonly make choice of Sin this Sin they will live in and that Sin they will not live in The Drunkard is not Covetous and the Covetous Man is not a Drunkard and so I may say of other Sins Now it is from the Power of Nature that wicked Men refrain from the commission of any one Sin and not from the Power of Grace And therefore if one Sinner hath Power to keep from this Sin and another Sinner hath Power to keep from the commission of another and a third from a third Sin then every Sinner may by the Power of Nature keep from all those Sins that any of those Sinners do keep themselves from because there is the same Power in each Sinner to lay the same restraint upon this or that Sin that others keep from 4. Sinners may continue constantly in the performance of Duty Fourthly There is no Man how great a Sinner soever but if he will he may with constancy yea to the end and period of his Life continue thus in the performance of Duties and in the avoiding of Sins by the Power of Nature only For if it be possible that Men should do it at any time then it is possible for them to do it continually No more Power is required to inable them this Day than was required the Day past nor no more Power is required for the Day to come than was for this Day now present therefore having Strength to avoid them one time they might also avoid them another time yea and continually persevere in so doing if they would keep a daily constant Watch against them Fifthly 5. Through Perseverance Sinners may attain to habitualness and facility in Duty There is no Man but through this perseverance and continuance may attain to Habitualness and thereby to a facility and easiness in performance of Duties and in avoiding of Sins When Men are accustomed to a road and round of Duties it is a trouble to them to omit them So if Men did but set themselves to their utmost to perform Duties in a more hearty and cordial manner those Duties would become easy to them and if Men would but ingage themselves perseveringly to oppose their Corruptions this would bring them to that pass that it would be their Delight to keep from Sin and to perform Duty and all this the Power of Nature would bring them to Now Sinners you see what a large Tenor you have you are not staked down fast that you can do nothing no it is much yea very much that you may do in order to your Salvation But here some may possibly say We hope that these Words are not true for they would not be able to do so much as all this comes to because they are willing to do nothing at all But let such know that that which will condemn them at the last Day will be that they have not done what they might have done in performing of Duties and in opposing of Sins and therefore they wilfully fall short of Happiness and Salvation Object But may some say If we should put forth to our utmost the Power of Nature what would that avail us We cannot thereby work Grace in our selves and without Grace no Salvation is to be had Answ To this I Answer Consider you do not know but whilst you are thus doing what you can God may come in and by his Grace inable you to do what you cannot do God is not wont to be wanting in this particular unto any He is found of those that seek him not and much more will he be found of those that seek him and enquire after him though it be but by the weak Endeavours of Nature Object But may some say Hath God obliged himself to convert and save those that do to the utmost what Nature inables them to do in desiring Salvation and in seeking to obtain it Answ To this I Answer God hath not bound himself but usually he doth so God is neither bound to give Grace upon the Endeavours of Nature neither is he wont to deny it Can you say that ever you knew or heard of any careful conscientious industrious Soul that diligently and conscientiously exercised it self in performing of Duties and in avoiding of Sins that was not at last truly converted and eternally saved and why then should you doubt or think that you shall be the first Cast your self therefore upon God trusting to his rich and free Grace doing the utmost of your Endeavours However suppose the worst that thou art never converted nor saved which Supposition is very dreadful and terrible and if thou art careful and conscientious to improve thy Abilities to the utmost it is altogether improbable but suppose the worst First Thou livest here then more according to the Rule of Nature and Reason than others do for when others wallow in Sin thou shewest thy self to be more like a rational Man thou art sensible thou hast a Soul of more Worth than to be lost for want of Care and Diligence And then Secondly Thy Pains and Punishments hereafter shall be greatly mitigated Possibly thou mayest slight this because at best it is Damnation yea but consider there are several degrees of Torments in Hell Now thy Workings and Endeavours may free thee from many degrees of Torment and therefore they free thee from many Hells and is not this worth thy Labour Nay and not only so but it is very probable you may altogether escape those Torments if you be conscientious in doing your utmost Endeavours And now methinks every one that hath but Reason to judge and a Soul to save must needs see so much strength and force in the Arguments that have been propounded that the next Question should be John 6.26 What must we do to work the Works of God In every Trade and Profession there is some kind of Mystery that gives to them that have attained to it a quicker dispatch in their Business than other Men have And so is it in the Work and Profession of a Christian there is an Art and Mystery that he that is Master of shall make good dispatch in his great Work and possibly we may have some insight into it by these following Directions First Direct 1. If you would work out your own Salvation then digest and dispose your Work into a right Order and Method Immethodicalness breeds Confusion and makes that a Tumult and a heap of Business that would otherwise become a Trade in Christianity one attainment makes way for and opens into another and to attempt any thing in Christianity by Leaps and Jumps as it were is fruitless unprofitable and vain No wise Man will try to mount up the highest Round of a Ladder at the first step But yet many such preposterous Endeavours there are found among Men in
6.24 29. How they should do to work the Works of God Our Lord tells them This is the Work of God that you believe on him whom he hath sent Nay further as a Faith of Adherence or Acceptance gives a Right and Title to Salvation so a Faith of full Assurance is this Salvation it self Heb. 11.1 For Faith is the substance of Things hoped for the Evidence of Things not seen In its justifying Act it gives a Title to Salvation in its assuring Act it gives the substance of the Thing it self for it is much at one to a strong Faith to believe Heaven and to enjoy it Secondly Faith doth compendiously further and promote the working out of our Salvation in actual possession and that because Faith is that Grace which fetcheth all that ability and strength from Christ whereby a Christian is inabled to work Faith is not only a Grace of it self but it is Steward and Purveyor for all other Graces and its Office is to bring in Provision for them while they are working and therefore as a Mans Faith grows either stronger or weaker so his Work goes on more or less vigorously When other Graces are in want and cry Give Give then Faith betakes it self to Christ and saith Lord such a Grace stands in need of so much Strength to support it and such a Grace stands in need of so much Support to act it and I have nothing to give it my self and therefore I come to fetch Supplies from thee And certainly this Faith that comes thus empty-handed unto Christ never goes away empty-handed from Christ What is it that you complain of Is it that the Work stands at a stay and you cannot make it go forward Is it that Temptations are strong and violent that Duties are hard irksome and difficult Why set Faith on work to go to Christ and there you may be sure to have Supply because Faith is an omnipotent Grace All things are possible to him that believeth and that because all things are possible to that God and to that Christ on whom Faith is acted There is no Grace nor no Supply nor Mercy laid up in the Lord Jesus Christ but it is all in the Hands of a Believer's Faith and he may take from thence whatsoever he needs to supply the present Wants and Necessities of his Soul Secondly Another working Grace is the fervent actings of Love Love is the great Wheel of the Soul that sets all the rest a moving and makes it like the Chariots of Aminadab to run swiftly towards its desired Object There is a mutual dependence between Faith and Love in their working Love depends upon Faith to strengthen it and Faith depends again upon Love to act it As we love not that which we do not know and our knowledge of God and of the Things of Eternity is by Faith not by Vision so those Things which we do know and which we do believe yet if we love them not we shall never endeavour after them The Apostle therefore tells us that Faith worketh by Love Now there is a threefold spiritual Love required to expedite our great Work First A transcendent Love of God Secondly A regular Love of our selves Thirdly A complacential Love unto and Delight in our Work it self Now when the Affections go out after these Objects of Love this will much facilitate our great Work First The Love of God is a great help to our Duty Our Saviour therefore urgeth Obedience upon this very account If ye love me keep my Commandments John 14.15 1 John 5.3 And says the Apostle this is the Love of God that is this is a certain Sign or it is the constant effect of our Love to God that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous they are not grievous because they are his Commandments who is the Love and Joy of our Souls Divine Love always conforms it self to divine Precepts and that for two Reasons First Because this Grace as it desires the beatifical Union to God in Glory hereafter for Love is the desire of Union so now it causes an unspeakable Union of Will and a supernatural simpathy of Affection betwixt God and the Soul which Union cannot be a Union of Equality or Entity as is in the Persons of the blessed Trinity and therefore it is a Union of Subordination of a Christians Will to the Will of God Now what is this Will of God Why the Apostle tells us 1 Thes 4.3 This is the Will of God says he even your Sanctification And the same Apostle tells us in another place Eph. 2.10 We are his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good Works that God hath before ordained that we should walk in them And is this Gods Will and shall it not be our Work Hath God ordained that we should walk therein and shall we be averse from or slothful thereunto How can we pretend we love God while we neglect the only Thing he requires from us Holiness and Obedience God wills our Holiness because there is no better a thing that he can Will next unto himself the Image of God next to himself is the most excellent and chiefest Good every thing the nearer it approacheth unto God the more desirable it becomes in it self Now that which comes most near unto God and advanceth the Soul in some resemblance and similitude to him is Holiness and Endeavours after Obedience whereby we become conformable unto God and attain some faint Shadows and Essays of the divine Perfections The Soul wills in order unto Gods Will God now wills Holiness because it is most desirable and we must will our own Holiness because if we love God as we pretend to do our Wills must be conformable to his holy Will Secondly Love to God is a Help to Duty because it is in and by Duty that we enjoy the Presence of God and have Communion and Fellowship with him These are the Lattices through which God appears to the longing Soul and though he many times vouchsafes but half Smiles and little Glances yet in these reserved Communications the Soul finds so much sweetness as ingageth it to a constant performance of Duties all its Days Here says the Soul God was wont to walk in his Sanctuary here have I heard his Voice here have I seen his Face his Spirit hath here breathed upon me his Consolations have here refreshed me and therefore here will I wait upon him as long as I live I remember well says the Soul when in Prayer and Meditation my Heart hath been filled by him poured out to him and accepted with him I remember when he filled me first with Sighs and then with Songs and both alike unutterable and therefore I will keep to the performance of these Duties waiting for the further Discoveries and Manifestations of my God unto me Secondly As Love to God so a regular Self-love will much help and further our Obedience and Duty And then is