in God and takes him for his Rest and exceeding great reward waiting on him as his all-sufficient shield with resignation for life or death Contented to live but willing to die and to be with Christ he is the only fixt Star in this lower firmament His feet stand fast be the pavement never so slippery In the term of Mans life there is a vicissitude of good and evil a mixture of labour and rest joy and sorrow there is a seed-time and an harvest a sowing in tears and reaping in joy He that now goeth on his way weeping and beareth forth good seed shall doubless come again with joy and bring his sheaves with him But we may not expect Summer in the Winter season an harbour in the main Ocean our portion before we are of Age a reaping in joy 'till we have sown in tears The Traveller cannot think to find home in his Inn nor Heaven upon Earth The Children of Israel had the Wilderness and the Red-Sea to pass through before they could arrive at the Land of Canaan the place of their Rest They were all labourers that were sent into the Vineyard and could not expect their Peny 'till the day and their work was done let us therefore pray the Lord of the Harvest that our Labour and Travel may happily be turned at last into ease and Rest that when the six days of our life are at an end we may cease from our works as God did from his and enjoy with him an everlasting Sabboth of eternal Rest And the rather is this Rest hereafter to be laboured for now because whilst we are here upon Earth we have nothing pure and unmixt our very joys are mingled with sorrow and Solomon tells us even in laughter the heart is sad Expences here wait upon honour care of Education goes along with the blessing of Children and our most comfortable hopes are mixt with perplexing fears But when we come to Rest in the holy City that City which is above we shall have a perpetual day without night light without the Sun Our hunger shall be satisfied without food No need of Clothing there to cover our shame for shame and sin shall cease together then all sad doubtings what shall be our condition and state hereafter shall vanish away and we shall agree together with one heart and mind to sing Halelujahs and perpetual Prayers to God in the highest There will be no dissenters there no seperatists to break or interrupt that harmonious everlasting concord What wise Man then will set his heart upon the World when all things in it are but for so short an abode so unstable and so unsatisfactory and not rather on that abiding City above where the joys and pleasures are durable and eternal Christians of all others ought to remember what St. Paul saith Heb. 13.14 Here we have no abiding City but we seek one to come Our very profession exposeth us to all affliction and obliges us to live as strangers and pilgrims upon Earth What is Canaan or Jerusalem below to that above whereof the other was but a Type Things that are seen and perceptible by any bodily Eye are temporal transitory subject to changes every day and sure to be abolisht at length they will be taken from us or we from them when death comes which may come every day and therefore not worthy to be looked upon by such an immortal Soul or Spirit as constitutes Man which being made for eternity cannot be satisfied with ought that is temporal how long soever it may abide much less when 't is sure to continue no longer as to us than this uncertain short life and therefore in respect of our own and the Worlds end we may be truly said to have no abiding City here and are therefore the more carefully to seek and expect our eternal Rest and habitation from above While the World continues and we in it we have no continuing City here because neither habitation nor goods health nor wealth honours nor pleasures or any contentment is or can he assured us for our lives How many Villages Towns and Cities have Fires and Earthquakes and Wars destroyed How many Kingdoms and Common-wealths have civil disorders and foreign invasions overthrown Or rather what one in any Nation have they not The Histories or Records of all Ages all places besides the infallible Oracles of God which we have in our hands will give us a full induction and proof of this truth This Island wherein we live hath given us not only many Historical but experimental sensible proofs that from the King to the meanest Subject we have no continuing City here nor setled Rest and true happiness But besides these publick revolutions vicissitudes and changes every Family every private Person lies continually exposed to casualities to variety of sickness invading their health variety of molestations from those above them from those below them from those about them and also from their own follies lusts and passions from within them in so much that whatsoever Men fix their hearts upon in this World to take their greatest contentment in they cannot be sure on reasonable grounds that it shall continue with them one year longer The felicity and satisfactory happiness of this City above in which this eternal Rest is to be found ought to be valued so much the more because St. Paul tells us 1 Cor. 2.9 That Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor hath entered into the heart of Man to conceive the fulness of those good things which God hath prepared for those that love him A grateful and pleasant taste of these good things God affords the Souls of the faithful here in this life how transcendently then unutterable and unconceivable will be the full fruition of all that which the Gospel reveals to us but as in a glass when enjoy'd to the height in the highest Heavens through all eternity when we shall see God as he is with everlasting overflowing satisfaction to all the faculties of the Soul The Eye of Mart hath seen here admirable things in Art and Nature the Ear hath heard and the Tongue hath tasted delicious things and Mans heart can conceive much more than Art or Nature could ever present our senses with The very pleasure of natural knowledge in the judgment of Persons exercised therein exceeds whatsoever sensuality vain glory or covetousness pursues or enjoys and yet the knowledge and love of God in Christ incomparably surpass St. Paul tells us whatsoever the heart of the natural Man advanced to the height can conceive as pleasant or delightful to it How much more doth this City to come and its endless unconceivable pleasures where this everlasting Rest is to be had exceed even our expressions and conceptions when they are at the highest If God hath provided such good things for Mankind here below in this World which was not made for the place of our happiness but only to give us a transitory glimpse of his
to fall short of it So run that ye may obtain is the command and all precepts of Scripture are back'd with threats for ill or not doing as well as promises for doing well and are intended by God as so many arguments and strong motives to hold us to our duty do we our part and God will certainly do his and we cannot lose the reward of Well done good and faithful Servant enter into thy Master's joy The last judicial sentence of Christ of which we read Matt. 25. Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the World is an invitation of so much mercy and loveing kindness that none can give nor can any expect or require more What can the eloquence of Man add to it or what better assurance can be desired than the gratious promise of so powerful so faithful a Lord Or what greater reward can any hope to receive than that which the Author and dispenser of all good assures us by letting us know what ever we do to the poor and needy he will interpret it as done to himself and so reward our labour of love as to Crown it with eternal Rest an inheritance of that Kingdom and all its joys as well as honours which fade not away But we must not understand this award of eternal life this glorious inheritance to be the reward of the righteous for the merit of their good works as everlasting fire is to the wicked for their demerits what ever the Romish Church pretends to from those words of our Saviour in the forenamed 25th of St. Matt. The particle for say they is as truly causal by way of merit and efficiency in the one as in the other the form of Speech in both sentences the same Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire For I was hungry and ye gave me no meat Come ye blessed inherit the Kingdom for I was hungry and ye fed me In answer to this 't is clear enough that though the particle for be granted to signifie causality in both sentences yet need it not signifie the same kind or degree of causality in both and if it need not then it must not unless they resolve to contradict many other plain Scriptures rather than depart from their own vain and proud conceit of meriting Heaven in strict justice For first The word or particle for may signifie only the cause of our or others knowledge that the Kingdom of Heaven is their inheritance by true title of gracious promise or the Covenant of grace and mercy in Christ Jesus which accepts and rewards repentance and faith working by love whereof these works of Charity are the fruits and signs For every Authentick Declaration or Revelation of any truth before unknown is the true cause of our knowledge of it though not of the real truth which is so known Now among such as profess Christ and call him Lord 't is hidden to us who are the true heirs of the Heavenly Kingdom and who not untill at the day of final judgment when all Men shall be judged by their works The first infallible certain knowledge which shall be had of this difference is from the declarative sentence of that infallible righteous Judge who hath declared he will proceed with one and the other according to their several works when all must appear before the Judgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in the Body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5.10 The ones performance of good works declared and testified by the Judge shall be the true cause by which Men and Angels shall know them to be the heirs of that Heavenly Kingdom which here they sought and longed after with faithful desires and endeavours such as prepared and fitted themselves for it The others omission of good works testified by the same Judge shall be the true cause by which we shall know them to be utterly unworthy of Gods everlasting favour and mercy most worthy of death eternal We shall then truly know that the one are Crowned as saith St. Cyprian according to Gods grace which graciously accepts of faithful sincerity in stead of strict legal perfection and that the other are condemned according to justice because they neither fulfilled the law nor embraced the Gospel upon its gracious terms and conditions That the ones omission of good works and commission of evil ones is the true meritorious cause of their condemnation And that the others performance of good works at least in faithful resolution and that hearty inward faith hope and love which would have produced them if time and space had been granted is the testimony or declaration that they are the Sons of God heirs of everlasting life though not the meritorious cause of their Salvation and life eternal We commonly come to know the cause by the effect and therefore this word for may and doth often point out not the cause of the thing it self but the effect and our knowledge of the cause by it That 's the Major 't is commonly said for the Mace is borne before him Let no Man think that the bearing of the Mace before him is the cause of his being Major his lawful Election was the cause of his Majoralty and his Majoralty the cause of the Mace being carried or borne before him but the bearing the Mace before him is the true cause of many Mens knowing him to be the Major And this answer to the question may serve with greater probability than ought our adversaries bring for themselves But with more clearness and evidence of reason agreeing with the Analogy of Faith and the current of Scripture I answer That the particle for implys a causality in both the sentences but in one that of the wicked the strict meritorious sole cause of their condemnation whereas in the Godly and Charitable Persons the heirs of Heaven the for implys such a causal influence as that which they call conditio or causa sine quâ non good works or that faith working by love of God and Man whence they spring and the necessary conditions without which no Man shall inherit the Kingdom yea the necessary qualifications without which he hath not only no worthiness but no capacity no fitness to prepare himself for that Kingdom whose happiness is to see God with mutual complacency And no Man can so see the holy merciful gracious God the God of Love and Father of Mercies the faithful righteous unchangeable fountain of all that is pure loving or lovely unless he be like him and bear the Image of those his perfections though imperfectly as to degrees yet impartially and sincerely as the transcript and resemblance of that Wisdom which comes from above first pure then peaceable Unless his religion be that undefiled one before God which visits the Fatherless and the Widow in affliction and keeps himself vnspotted from the World These and the like graces
with their fruits if time be granted to bring them forth are not only described and required clearly and frequently in holy Scripture as the necessary conditions without which no Man shall but as the necessary qualifications without which no Man can see the Lord with holy eternal love and joy And therefore no doubt the for hath a rational inference in it as to the acceptance and reward of the godly and righteous person Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you for I was hungry and ye fed me c. For ye have perform'd the conditions which I in my Gospel or gracious covenant required of you with promise to accept and reward them for ye are qualified with those graces and holy dispositions which are my own Image and likeness the impress of my holy Spirit which renders you capable of enjoying me and my Father with endless delight which makes you though not in strict justice worthy of my Heavenly Kingdom yet in my gracious mercy and bounty and through my merits not utterly unworthy that is not wholly unmeet to inherit it for these all have confest and forsaken their evil ways fled with penitent believing hearts to that propitiation which God had set forth in his only Son through faith in his blood By doing so they have received that holy Spirit by whose direction and assistance they have mortified the flesh with its lusts and affections conquered the World with its temptatations resisted the Devil and quenched the fiery darts of the wicked fought the good fight of faith till they finished their course and though the remainders of sin and the flesh abide lusting and strugling against the Spirit yet no sin hath reigned over them and the very remainders of sin they have bewailed watcht over and resisted betaking themselves to Christs intercession for their pardon therefore they are heirs of the Kingdom through the merits of Christ imparted to them whereby they are entituled to it as the meritorious cause on his part whereby they have an actual plea title and interest in Christs merit as the condition and qualification on their part And thus the Kingdom and eternal Rest is theirs though not by right of justice or merit but by right of gracious promise And may not all this be thought sufficient to justifie the truth of the for or causal particle unless it be granted that it signifie meritoriously in strict justice on their part as strictly and fully as in the other Depart ye cursed for ye did no good works but many ill ones without repentance and reformation without faith and love to me The goodness and justice of Gods Majesty will not suffer him to sentence any Man to any punishment much less to eternal intolerable sorrow and pain unless it hath been strictly and fully deserved or demerited But the goodness and bounty and mercy of God may without wrong to any perfection or attribute of his accept and reward any Man that is not utterly incapable of it but in some sincere degree qualified for it with such an abundant measure of happiness as he thinks fit although no ways merited by him The Lord Jesus hath satisfied his Fathers justice and honour in his Government and holy Laws and made it a righteous thing with him to save the penitent sinner upon condition of reformation and holy obedience They that are saved have performed these conditions and therefore they are admitted with a for Come ye blessed c. For I was hungry If a gracious Prince of his own free goodness proclaim a general merciful pardon to all Rebels Traytors and Theeves provided they will by such a day acknowledge their fault and profess and resolve to do so no more and make their peace with their Neighbours whom they have wronged Suppose all accept the pardon in outward shew but some of them secretly practice the same wickedness against their Sovereign and their Neighbours when as the others perform faithfully the conditions of their pardon If at the General Assizes the Judge upon notice of their demeanours should say to the one I restore you to your former condition state and dignity for or because since your pardon proclaimed ye have so demeaned your selves as penitent loyal faithful Subjects And to the other You I condemn to death and torments for or because ye have abused your Sovereigns clemency No Man of sober reason or common sence I think can deny that either the condemnation of the one were entirely to be ascribed to their own willful choise and vile misdemeanours as due in justice to their demerits or that the restoring or saving the other were to be attributed not to the merit of their demeanour but to the Kings gracious mercy and bountiful favour Their good demeanour could be at most but the necessary condition or qualification of their pardon or restoration without which it could not consist with the wisdom or honour of the Prince his Laws or Government so to use them with which it might well consist with his wisdom and honour so to do and that with advantage to the glory of his mercy without disparagement to his Justice especially in case his Justice and honour had been satisfied for their former misdemeanours by the merits and intercession of the Prince his Royal Son Now just so it is in this case of which we now speak They whom our Lord calls here to eternal life and that with a for For ye have fed clothed lodged me are so far from this proud conceit of Romish merit by their works that they are ready to disclaim them as nothing worthy of such acceptance ready to blame their sluggish backwardness Lord say they when saw we thee hungry thirsty naked or a stranger or prisoner and relieved thee Nor is it amiss what is observed and acknowledg'd by Jansenius though a Romanist and too far engaged in this error what Saint Chrisostom had long since observed before him that our Saviour saith to those on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father but to those on his left hand he saith only depart ye cursed but adds not Of my Father implying that God the Father is the Author and gracious donor of life everlasting but every Man that doth wickedly and dies in his wickedness without repentance is the only Author and cause of his own accursed estate The one are blessed freely and mercifully by God the Father for his Son Christs sake in whom alone he is well pleased with all that come by him with such a faith as works by love But the other are accursed most justly because they sought not or refused when it was offer'd them that grace and mercy which would have blessed them first with grace to do good works then with glory a superabundant weight of glory for doing them And this is consonant to that of St. Paul Rom. 6. v. the last For the wages of sin is death but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or gift
powers Kings themselves are twice called by this very word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ministers of God Rom. 13. The Angels are called Ministring Spirits yet are still Principalities and Powers Thrones and Dominions Nay our Lord himself whilst he was yet on Earth in the form of a Servant is called by this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Minister of the Circumcision for the truth of God This must teach those in this high place humility and diligence but others it must teach obedience and thankfulness to esteem them highly for their works sake to obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves because they watch for your Souls as they that must give an account He that desires the Office of a Bishop desires a good work saith St. Paul Good indeed and a work indeed To govern and guide so many flocks and their Pastors with zeal to God and Charity to Man with unwearied patience and humility without corruption or partiality through favour or fear of high or low small or great poor or rich to govern and teach wisely and diligently to look so carefully to ordination that all the truth and none but the truth be constantly preached and the service of God be constantly performed with all reverence free from prophaness with all purity free from superstition That the Sacraments and discipline of the Church be administred in their power and beauty all this is a work indeed as full of labour and care as of honour Even the lower Administrations those of Presbyters and Deacons have not they their work too They have sure in their several places enough to spend their time and Spirits wholly in if they do their duty The Presbyter hath a great share of all The Bishops work is in a great part committed to him and would the People make that use of Gods Ministers which their Eternal Rest and Salvation requires it would quickly be found that preaching were not half of the Ministers work and care And yet Preaching is no small work To instruct clearly in all the Mysteries of Faith to exhort earnestly and affectionately to all the duties of life and practice to convince so many numerous errors as daily arise to rebuke and reprove so many sins and sinful Persons without fear of the great or the many to comfort the feeble minded to humble the haughty to stir up the slothful and temper the furious to uphold the falling and relieve the wavering and reduce the wandering to stop the mouths of so many and subtil gainsayers from the Atheist to the Schismatick from the Prophane to the Superstitious to clear those Obscurities to answer those difficulties remove those scandals which so many Men in weakness or wilfulness are subject to and to second all this with a life unblameable this certainly is a work of great variety study and pains and yet a work so necessary it is that better for us we had no gifts nor Ministry at all than not to perform it and the more it behoves the rest of the World not to hinder not to discourage not sacrilegiously to rob not to perplex us in this our work but to strive to make it as comfortable to us and as fruitful to your selves as you can seeing the end of these Ministeries these services these works the end of all our labour is to bring you to endless Rest All our abilities all our gifts are from the same Spirit all our works are wrought by the same Lord who worketh all in all that is well wrought both in him that writes and him that reads both in him that speaks and him that hears in him that is governed and in him that governs if this be so let us banish all pride If our gifts and places and works be never so high never so many Envy if our gifts and places seem never so few and low for what are the highest amongst us but the instruments and servants of this supreme donor and mover receiving all from him accountable for all to him And how can the lowest and meanest murmur or object any thing against it since they that have the lowest and meanest have it a gift and could not challenge it as due but have it by the wise disposal of that Lord whose wisdom knoweth what is fittest for each and whose goodness bestows that which is most fit and the meaner or less gifts and places any one hath the more easily is both his work and his account Away then with haughty Pride or mutinous Envy Let not one say with repining regret I am slow in apprehension weak in memory shallow in judgment whilst others are quick tenacious and solid I have neither wealth to buy voluminous Authors nor arts nor parts as others have to dive into those difficulties and obscurities and gain a clear solution of them as others have Nor let others say in haughty contempt of their inferiors or meaner Brethren how mean are such and such compared with me in graces and places I can lead my amazed Auditors whither I will with my eloquent Tongue whilst others freez in their Pulpits and tire their Auditors into wearisomness and drowsiness But let the one and the other say These are gifts freely bestowed where it pleaseth the giver and who shall say unto him what doest thou with thy own He owes nothing to any who can demand any thing of him as his due He is the supreme Wisdom who shall direct him in his Counsel where and how to dispose and bestow his gifts The supreme Lord who shall command him where and how to dispose and order his Administrations He is the only Almighty God who shall accuse his work of weakness or defect Let the lowest and meanest remember to say Though God hath denied me this or that which others have yet hath he given me something which others want He hath not given me an high place but he hath given me that retirement and safety of which those that are in high places are bereaved He hath denied me promotion but given me that health which they that are preferred before me would willingly purchase On the other side let those that have highest gifts and places say to themselves Why should we boast of our Lords bounty and not rather tremble to think of ascribing that to our selves which is his free gift and dispensation least he take it away when he sees it abused or if he continue it condemn us the heavier for being unthankful Since it is thus ordered by the wise disposer of all things let one and the other remember that all are the Spirits Almsmen in their gifts The Lord's Ministers in their Offices Gods Workmen in their works and thus when every one shall be contented with his Talent each one shall find peace and quiet and Rest within him here and be qualified for eternal Rest hereafter The World hath many pretenders to this Rest and those so contrary one to another that their very pretences to