§ 1. THat we may see how well the Text may be made suitable to the Time, both to the Day of the Month, and to the Buis'ness of the Day, we shall do well do bear in mind, throughout the Tenor of my Discourse, that our Saviour's last Supper did consist of two [Page 2] parts. There was a Coena, and a Post-Coenium: which we may fitly enough express, by cal­ling them the first, and the second Course. Our Saviour rose from the first, to wash and wipe his Disciples Feet, (v. 5.) which as soon as he had done, he sat him down unto the second, (v. 12.) And then designing to insti­tute the tremendous Sacrament of his Body, he prepared his Communicants with these words following, (v. 13.) Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say well, for so I am.

The word Lord, and the word Master do so agree in the Translation, and yet in the Original do so much differ, that we must bring in the Greek to explain the English, or else we shall miss of its full Importance.

§ 2. [...] is a word which refers to Pow­er. [...] a word which relates to Know­ledge. [...] is from [...], which properly signifies Authority; but [...] from [...], which properly signifies to Teach. Our blessed Saviour is the first in his Kingly Of­fice, and the second in his Prophetical. He is [ [...]] a Lord, to protect and govern; He is [ [...]] a Master, to direct and teach us; And Both he is [...], in such a degree of supereminence, as is not common to him with [Page 3] others; [...], THE Lord, and [...], THE Master. In as much as he is the Lord, we are to serve in his House; And in as much as he is the Master, we are to learn in his School. He is [...] the Lord, to stretch his Scepter over our Hearts; And [...] the Master, to light his Candle within our Heads. As a Master, he instructs us to know our Du­ties; but as a Lord, he commands us to do them also. He is proposed to us as Both, for our Observance and Imitation. That looking on him as our Lord, we may be humble; and taking after him as our Master, we may be wise.

§ 3. And this which helps us to Under­stand, may help us also to divide, and apply the Text. For

First of all, If he is [...], which proper­ly signifies a Lord, whose Prerogative it is to Command and Rule us; then must we pay him a strict obedience, in as much as we are his Subjects, or as being his Soldiers, and Servants too. (Such as promised in our Baptism to fight manfully under his Banner.)

Secondly, If he is [...], which pro­perly signifies a Master, whose property it is to instruct and teach us; then do we owe him [Page 4] obedience too, as being his Followers and Dis­ciples, placed under his Discipline, and trained up in his School.

Thirdly, It follows by way of Inference from two expressions in the Text, (towit the first, and the last,) that he is not only to be called our Lord and Master, but to be serious­ly received and own'd as such. For mark the manner in which he speaks.

Ye call me Lord, and ye call me Master; and in that ye say well, because what ye call me, I truly am. But to say well, is one thing; and to do well, another. And therefore be­cause I truly am what ye call me, be you as truly what you pretend. If I your Lord and your Master have washed your feet, re­member then to do as ye have me for an Ex­ample, and see that ye wash oneanothers feet. If they have called me Belzebub, who am the Master of the House; how much more should such as You (who are but some of my Houshold) be content to be called as bad, or worse?

In the two first of these Particulars we have the Doctrin of the Text; and in the last we see the Use. Not an Use of my framing, but such as the Author of the Text was pleas'd [Page 5] himself to draw from it for our Instruction.

§ 4. The Result of the Doctrin is briefly this. That we must not expect to live as Li­bertines under Christ, who is not only our Elder Brother, to make us partakers of his In­heritance; but our Lord and our Master, to make us obedient to his Commands. Not our Lord only to Save us, but especially our Lord to be served by us. Nor our Master only to teach us by the Veracity of his Doctrin, but more especially to reform us by the convin­cingness of his Life. Our Lord and Master in the Text hath such a twofold Importance, as comes to one and the same end in the Ap­plication. We may distinguish the Notions, but must not separate or divide them. They must be coupled in my Discourse, as here they are in the Subject of it. For as Scholars of Christ, we ought to imitate his Example; which how can we do, unless as Servants of Christ, we obey his Will? When Acts 1. 1. Iesus be­gan both to do, and to teach, he taught accord­ing to what he did. As were his Precepts, and his Doctrin, such exactly was his Life, and his Conversation. He led his Life by the Rule of the Moral Law; by his perfect obedi­ence unto which, he was pleased to blunt the [Page 6] edge, and to abate the Rigour of it. So that 'tis absolutely Impossible for us to follow his Example, unless by yielding our Obedience to his Commands. We cannot embrace him as a Master, unless we receive him as a Lord too.

§ 5. And with this I am desirous to fill my Readers so much the rather, because I take it to be a point, concerning which as it is dangerous, so it is easie for us to err. And so much the easier, because it is acceptable and pleasant to the natural Appetites of the flesh, to look on Christ as a Redeemer, but no­thing else. To entertain him as a Lamb, fit to be fed upon at his Table, whereby we may be nourished to Life Eternal; But not at all as a Shepherd to guide and govern us, and by the strictness of his Discipline, to keep us from straying out of his Pastures. For let us look a little within us, and examin our own hearts by our own experience. Do we not natural­ly esteem it an happy Thing, to have as much of this World as we know what to do with? as much as we can sacrifice to all our Senses? to live in as great a superfluity of Sports and Pleasures, as a Tiberius can in joy, or a Petronius think of? And (when we are deeply run in debt by our expenseful Sen­sualities) [Page 7] to have all our Debts paid out of Another man's purse, all our recknings made even, Acquittances put into our hands, and nothing more required to be done on our parts, than to believe we owe nothing, and that if by continuing in our Exorbitant expences we plunge our selves in new Debts, they shall all be discharged out of the very same Trea­sure? Nay, is it not yet a more pleasing Er­ror, a more delicious kind of mistake and mad­ness, to think our Debts were all remitted be­fore we were able to contract them? And then with a greater force of Reason, Are we not apt to look on Them (I do not say as the most rational, but) as the most comforta­ble Preachers, who bring us Tidings even from Heaven, that all our Duties are done already by Another man's obedience in our be­half? that all our Sins are discounted by Ano­ther man's Sufferings? all our Punishments inflicted upon Another man's Shoulders? And that 'tis safe for us to Sin, upon con­dition we despair not of being pardon'd, but believe without doubting that we were justified from Eternity, and that our Sins were all for­given before they could possibly be commit­ted? not only all the Sins that are, but all that shall be?

[Page 8]§ 6. I need not say who they are, by whom this Carnal Christianity is preach't and printed; Nor can we choose but confess, that to the men who have embraced this pre­sent world, as did Demas, (the men who are afraid there is a Heaven, because it infers there is a Hell too, the men who live after the flesh, and most pretend unto the Spirit, the men who pray and despise dominion, the men who praise God and defraud their Neigh­bour,) it is an admirably pleasant and glad­som Doctrin. And this I take to be the Reason, why so much of the Libertine doth shew it self with bare face in the Christian world. For what the Sons of Disobedience do think most pleasant, they do passionately desire to have most true. All their Wits are set on work to find our Arguments and Reasons, whereby to evince it, and make it good. What soever they feed upon is so exceedingly fer­mented by this four Leven, that the wholsom­est of meats is made to nourish their Disease; and none so much, as the Bread of Life. Even Sermons and Sacraments are most per­verted to their destruction. And therefore the Tendency of Opinions ought to be dili­gently Weigh'd. For when men's Opinions [Page 9] in Religion are gratifications to the Flesh, and when they are Servants to those Opini­ons, and transported with the pleasure of be­ing Such, there is hardly any passage in all the Scriptures, which they will not prevail with to sound that way.

But seeing the Ioy and Contentment which is wont to arise from a pleasing Falshood, is but like the Ioy of Hypocrites, exceeding Job 20. 5. short, and cannot last any longer than a Natural man's life, (which, if it continue till he is old, is much too young to be but the childhood of Aeternity,) we ought to look upon Them as our surest Friends, who are so curteously severe, as to awaken us out of our Reverie; not permitting us to go on in our merry Dream, for fear it prove a dead sleep by long continuance, whose danger will not be discern'd, until we awake in Another world.

§ 7. They indeed do say truth, who say that Christ is our Saviour, our Sacrifice, our Elder Brother, and our Advocate, and that by him we are redeemed from the Curse of the Law; (Gal. 3. 13.) But nothing hurts more than Truth it self, when 'tis not solidly and wholly, but only partially deliver'd. And they [Page 10] say not the whole Truth, until they add this unto all the rest, that Christ is our Joh. 13. 13, 14. Master, our Joh. 13. 34. Gal. 6. 2. Lawgiver, our Rev. 19. 16. King, and our Mic. 5. 1. Iudge; and that he came not to abrogate, but to perfect the Law. To fulfil it, saith the Eng­lish; To fill it up, saith the Greek; for [...] is the word, Matth. 5. 17. Hence there­fore I shall argue the obligation lying upon us, that we exceed the Iews as much, by our obeying the moral Law, as They did us, by their obeying the Ceremonial. And this I shall do by three such steps or Degrees, as may serve for three Rounds of a Iacob's Lad­der; whose Bottom, although it touch the Earth, yet it reacheth at the Top within the Heavens.

§ 8. First, If Christ were nothing more than our Lord and Master, we must be con­cluded to be his Servants; because they are Relative and Correlative, which do mutual­ly infer the one the other. And were we no­thing more to him than hired Servants, we could not sure but be obliged to do his work: which is not only to believe he is true, and righteous, and will pay us the wages which he hath promis'd; But (over and above) it is to [Page 11] come when he calls, to go when he sends, and to do what he bids us, without exception, or delay. For was it ever yet the work of an hired Servant, to believe that his Master is an honest meek man, who first will suffer himself with patience to be abused by his Servant, and then besides his forgiveness, will give him al­so a great Reward? No. 'Tis the keeping of his Commandments which is the Doing of his work; And that is strictly recommended by Christ himself, as the [...] or touchstone whereby to judge what we are; whether lo­ving, or faithful, or knowing Servants. If lo­ving Servants, we will keep his Command­ments, Iohn 14. 15. If faithful Servants, we will be sure to do whatsoever he commands us, Iohn 15. 14. If knowing Servants, and such as know that we know him, his best beloved Servant tells us, we will keep his Commandments, 1 Iohn 2. 3. Still the keeping his Command­ments is as 'twere the great Vein, carrying spirits and life throughout the Body of the Gospel, that is, Health and Salvation to them that read it. Let men write never so much; let them Dispute never so well for the cause of Christ; or let them preach never so often; this [Page 12] at last will be the product and Sum of All, Fear God, and keep his Commandments. And there­foreEccles. 12. 13. the keeping of his Commandments, which is the doing of his work, is every where set be­fore us as the only-sufficient Proof, or Demon­stration, that we do not only call him our Lord and Master, but that we practically re­ceive him as truly such. But this is not all.

§ 9. For he is such a Lord and Master, as deserves more of us than bare obedience; in as much as he hath not only hired us, but hath bought us out-right. So said St. Paul to his Corinthians, We are not our own, for we are 1 Cor. 6. 19, 20. bought with a Price. And therefore if he had been pleas'd, he might justly of Servants have made us Slaves. Lord! how exactly should we be dutiful to this our Master, if we would only do for him, as we would that our Servants should do for us? we look for absolute, impartial, universal obedience, from a Servant only hired from year to year. And sure much more from such a Servant, as is bound in an Apprentiship for six or seven. Much more yet from such a Servant, as we have bought out of the Gallies, and dearly paid for, and made as much our Peculium, as ei­ther [Page 13] our Sheep, or our Oxen, or as the Fur­niture of our House. But now the blessed Lord and Master speaking to us in my Text, hath bought us all from what is worse than the Turkish Gallies; even as much as a Lake of Fire and Brimstone is worse than a Sea of Salt and Water. Nor must we serve him the less (with the Antinomians,) but rather the more for our being bought: because being bought, we cannot possibly be our own; And sure the less we are our own, the more we must needs be his that bought us; He having bought and deliver'd us out of the hands of our Enemies, as well to the end that we might Luke 2. 74. serve him, as to the end that we might be safe. He bought us for his own sake, as well as ours. We indeed were deer to him, but he was deerer unto himself. The very Disgraces which he suffer'd as having a Tendency to our Good, were first and chiefly suffer'd by him as having a Tendency to his Glory. And however he intends our present Good, in or­der to our Future Glory; yet he intends our Glory too, so far forth as 'tis in order, and sub­ordination unto his own. So that if when he bought us, and made us His, he aymed [Page 14] sooner at his own Glory, than our Salvati­on, it cannot but follow from that supposal, he aymed sooner at our Salvation from the Tyranny of Sin, than from the Torments of Hell as the wages of it. And this he did as for his own sake, so very particularly for ours. I say for ours; because the Tor­ments of Hell could not possibly come neer us, were it not for the Tyranny and Filth of Sin. When men do sin as with a Isa. 5. 18. Cartrope, (to use the Phrase of the Prophet Esa,) with the strength of the Cartrope, they draw Hell to them. But especially for his own; because the Tyranny of Sin is an impudent Rebellion against his Will, and immediately tendeth to his Dishonour; whereas the Torments of Hell are great Discouragements from Sin, and executions of vengeance on them that do it. Hell is God's Bridewell, or House of Correcti­on; but Sin is that Tyrant which drags us thither. Hell is God's Creature, but Sin is Satan's. The Torments of Hell are extream­ly useful, as well to satisfie the Iustice, as to set forth the Glory of our Creator; whereas the Tyranny of Sin doth oppose itself against Both. In so much that the Reasons are great, [Page 15] and many, why we are bought with a Price by our Lord and Master, that we might live in obedience to Him that bought us. Sin was the object of his Hatred, for being the subject of his Dishonour; And therefore the Scope of our Saviour's Purchase, was rather to purifie, than to forgive us, although it was to forgive us too. To forgive in the second place, thô to purifie in the first. According to the Method St. Peter us'd in his Preaching; Re­pent and be converted, that your Sins may be blot­ted out, (Acts 3. 19.) Without Repentance and Conversion, no such Blessing as Forgiveness can ever be.

§ 10. But neither is This the greatest Ti­tle, our Saviour hath to his being our Lord and Master. For as he hath not only hired, but bought us out-right, so neither hath he bought us with any Corruptible things, as Sil­ver, or Gold, or pretious Stones, but with his own most pretious Blood, 1 Pet. 1. 18, 19. Now had we been People never so lovely, or been worth never so much, he could not have bought us with more expense; He could not have paid at a Deerer Rate; even Almightiness it­self could not have given more for Us. For [Page 16] he that bought us was the Word, the Word that was in the Beginning, the Word that was with God, the Word that was God, the Word by whom all things were made, (John 1. 3.) And sure the Word that was God, was Almightiness itself; Add He it was who gave himself for us, (Tit. 2. 14) And more than Himself he could not give. For of him, and through him, and to him are all things, Rom. 11. 36. & Heb. 2. 10.

§ 11. Lord! by how many Rights and Titles, may He pretend to our obedience when he commands us? All the Relations of sub and supra are made use of in Scripture for our Conviction. Not only here in This Text, is he said to be our Lord, and we his Servants; He our Master, and we his Scholars; But he is every thing to us (in other passages of Scrip­ture) which may oblige us to the Love, and the Service of him. He (for Example) is our Head, and we his Members. He our Bridegroom, and we his Spouse. He is our Shepherd, and we the Sheep of his Pasture. He our Everlasting Father, and we his Chil­dren. He our King, and we his Subjects. He is our God, and we his People. He our [Page 17] Potter, and we his Clay. He our Creator, and we the work of his hands. And as if all this together were hardly enough to indear him to us, He is also our Redeemer, and we the Price of his Blood. Now to what purpose, or for what reason, should our Saviour be said to be All this to us throughout the Scriptures, unless it were to afford us this general Lesson, That whatsoever can be due, in any measure, from any Inferiour to a Superiour, of any Quality or Degree, the same is due in perfection, and out of all measure, from Us to Christ. In one Capacity our Love, our Fear in ano­ther, our veneration in a third, our meek submission in a fourth, our delectation in a fift, our admiration in a sixt, our perfect dependence in a seventh, and our absolute obe­dience in every one. 'Twould be a profitable Impertinence (if an Impertinence) to insist on this Last, from every one of our Saviour's Relations to us. But not to run out be­yond the time which is allow'd for this Ser­vice, I shall press it no farther, than the Text and the Context will give me warrant.

§ 12. First then let us consider, that see­ing our Saviour is [...], a Master to [Page 18] Teach, and to Instruct us; nor only so, but also [...] a Lord, to Command, and Govern us; It is not only our Duty, to learn the knowledge of his Doctrin, as his Disciples; but withal as his Servants, we must yield obedi­ence to his Commands. For if we follow him as a Master sent to principle, and teach us, and nothing else; so that as Scholars of his School we hold his sentiments or tenets, and entertain his Propositions as sure and certain, but go no farther; what then do we more by way of Reverence to Christ, than the se­veral Sectaries of the world to the several Authors of their Opinions, whether their o­pinions are true, or false? shall we be fol­lowers only of Christ, as they of Geneva are of Calvin, or as they of Helvetia do follow Zuinglius, or as they of Saxony follow Lu­ther, or as the brethren of Scotland do fol­low Knox? shall we be factious only for Christ, as the Franciscans are for Scotus, and the Dominicans for Aquinas? Nay shall we follow Christ no otherwise, than as the Sto­icks did Zeno, or the Academicks, Plato? or as Iulian did Iamblicus, and the old Ma­gi, Zoroastres? shall we think we are Chri­stians [Page 19] good enough to serve turn, for having been baptiz'd in the name of Christ, and for historically believing his holy Gospel? the very Scholars of Pythagoras were most exactly of his Creed, and great Admirers of his Philosophy, and perfectly led by his [...]. His Mouth was their Oracle; his words their Text; what he said, they were sworn to, because He said it. And shall we who are Christians give no more Reverence unto Christ, than the old Pythagoreans were wont to give unto Pytha­goras? or than the Turks at this day do give to Mahomed? shall we live as if we believ'd, that Christianity is but a Sect, if not a Fa­ction? And that nothing is to be done, but to be orthodox Professors, embracing the [...] (as the Heathen call'd it,) that is, the Doctrin, or Tenet, or Faith of Christ? whilst at the very same time we do abjure him by our neglects, revile him by our Oaths, spit upon him by our uncleanness, buf­fet him by our Blasphemies, strip him by our Sacriledge, and even Murder him by our Rage? methinks the Blindness of the Heathen may be of some vertue to clear our Eyes. For the Disciples of Pythagoras did not only [Page 20] give assent to their Master's Dictates, but also did imitate his Example, and were obe­dient to his Commands. Just as Alexander's Soldiers did so ambitiously affect to be like their General; that they were loath to speak plainly, because He stutter'd. Or as the Scholars of Plato were so exceedingly con­cern'd to have a similitude with their Master, that they espoused his Deformities, and prided themselves in his Imperfections. They would have Cushions under their Dublets, because he was Gibbous, or too thick Back't. So de­voted they were to their Master Plato, that because he was not strait, they would reckon none hansom who were not Crooked.

§ 13. Lord! what a shame it is for Chri­stians, to be less conformable to a Master, who is infinitely fairer than the Children of Psal. 45. 2. men, most accomplished and perfect in every kind? And yet we know without Obedience we cannot possibly be conformable, either to his Precepts, or his Example. For notwith­standing he was a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffer'd, (Heb. 5. 8.) And being made perfect through suffrings, he thereupon became the Author of Eternal [Page 21] Salvation, (not to them that believe him on­ly, but) to them that obey him also, (v. 9.) not to any Believing Rebels, not to Treacherous Believers, of which the world is too full; but to them who have Faithfulness, as well as Faith; who so believe, as to serve him, and do his Will. He is not the Author of Salva­tion to them that know it, but do it not; or to them who do promise, but not perform it. (For almost All do know his Will, and all do promise to perform it, not only in their Baptism, but over and above on their Bed of Sickness.) No to Them, and Them only, is he the Author of Salvation, who live accord­ing to what they know; and justifie their Promise, by their Performance. Our Savi­our intimates by a parable (Matth. 21. 28, 29, 30, 31.) that the obedient Churl is much better, than the mealymouth'd Rebel. It is a vain thing to say, we are Sons of God, and Servants of Christ, unless we practically Shew, as well as Say it. A Son honoureth his Father, and a Servant his Master (said God hereto­fore by the Prophet Malachi;) If I then be a Mal. 1. 6. Father, where is mine honour? if I be a Ma­ster, where is my Fear? Now what was thus [Page 22] said to others, by God the Father under the Law, is as effectually said to us, by God the Son under the Gospel. Luke 6. 46. Why call ye me Lord Lord, and do not the things that I say? To say, Sir your Servant, is either a Complement, or a Ieer, when we say it with our Lips, but with­out our Actions. And this doth seem to be intended by the words of my Text, if we compare it with the Inference deduced from it. Ye call me Lord and Master, and ye say well. But to say very well, is not sufficient; For the Mat. 8. 29. Mar. 5. 6, 7▪ Luk. 8. 28, 30. Devils said well, in saying that Christ was the Son of God. And the World­ling Mat. 19. 20. said well, in that he said unto our Sa­viour of the Commandments of the Law, All these things have I kept from my Youth. But not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord, Mat 7. 21. shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; for the Life of Christianity consists in Practice. And therefore the Inferences are These, which☞ are drawn from the Text by Him that spake it. If I then your Lord and Master have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash oneanother's feet, (v. 14.) If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them, (v. 16.) And by the same Logick he argues in the very next [Page 23] Chapter, which is another part of his Fare­well-Sermon: If any man love me, he will keep my words, (v. 23.) and He that loveth me not, keepeth not my words, (v. 24.) which is as if he should have said, [He that loves me will o­bey me, and do the Things that I appoint him; which if any man does not, let him say what he will, he does not Love me.] For no good Tree can bear ill Fruit, (that's an Aphorism of Christ, Matth. 7. 18.) there is not any thing more impossible, than that sincere Love, and a solid Faith, should ever bring forth Rebellion, and Disobedience. (Or so much as consist with that which does.) No, no moreLuk. 6. 43, 44, 45, 46. Jam. 3. 12. than a Vine can bring forth Thorns, or no more than a Fig Tree can bring forth Thistles. From whence the Sequel is Unavoidable, That if we do not justly Obey our Master, we neither heartily Love him, nor do we cordially believe him. For let our Faith and our Love be what they can be, they are no more than a Couple of Trees, which must be known by their Fruit. That's the great Diagnostick commended to us by our Saviour, whereby to judge of ourselves and others, Matth. 7. 20. If the Fruit is Disobedi­ence [Page 24] to the Commandments of our Lord; then the Love that is pretended is but a Thorn, and the Faith so much talk't of, an arrant Thistle. Let the Lover or the Believer be commonly call'd what he will, either a Vine, or a Fig Tree, A Godly man, or a Saint; And let the Leaves or the Branches be ne­ver so specious to the Eye, (I mean Professi­ons, and Shews, and Forms of Godliness,) YetMatth. 3. 10. our Master's Affirmation is still as true, as it is Terrible, Every Tree [without exception] which bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down, and cast into the Fire, (Matth. 7. 19.)

Lord! what a change of men's manners ☞ would this one word produce, were it but throughly Understood, or but sufficiently con­sider'd? had it the happiness to be taken, as well into the Hearts, as the Ears of men? behold the only sure way whereby to judge without Sin of our selves or others. If we are fraudulent persons, or Drunckards, if we are Schismaticks, or Rebels, if we are Slanderers, or Railers, or fals Accusers, or any other­ways abounding in the fruits of the Flesh, (Gal. 5. 19.) 'tis plain that God, when he cuts us down, will also cast us into the Fire. I [Page 25] say he will and must do it, because of his Iustice and Veracity, unless Repentance step in timely 'twixt Us, and Death. And still, by Repentance, I mean Amendment. Not an empty confession that we have sin'd, nor yet a cheap wishing we had not sin'd; no nor expressions of Attrition for having sin'd; but a bringing forth fruits meet for Repentance; A Renovation of the outward and inward man; such a thorow Reformation as does make a 2 Cor. 5. 17. New Creature; A Change of mind, and of manners, even the fruits of the spirit, Gal. 5. 22. In a word; If we are not our own, but are bought with a Price, and bought out right by our Lord and Master, and that as to the whole of us, both Soul and Body; Then (as St. Paul does well infer) let us glorify him that bought us both in our Bodies and in our Souls, because they are not truly ours, but his that bought them, 1 Cor. 6. 20.

§ 14. But there is yet another Lesson to be derived from this Doctrin, and such as our Master in the Text has taught us how to draw from it by his Example. For it being to be praemised, that the Disciple is not above his Matth. 10. 24. John 13. 16. Master, nor the Servant above his Lord; we [Page 26] must not only do as our Master did, But (when God shall call us to it,) it is our Duty also to suffer, as he hath suffer'd. First we must do as our Master did; For 'tis his own way of arguing in the next verse after my Text; If I your Lord and Master have washed your feet, ye ought also to wash oneanother's feet; for I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done. Here he argues from his being our Lord and Master, the ob­ligation lying upon us to give an active obe­dience to his example, and (by way of con­secution) to his Command. And this being so, what manner of men ought we to be in the 2 Pet. 3. 11. course of our Lives and conversations? we ought to Love oneanother, as He did Us; not only unto the Death, but to the fulfilling of the Law too. And how far are they from that, who are ( [...], that is) Inventors of evil things? of Lyes, and Slan­ders, and most malitious Accusations, a­gainst a People more Innocent, and better Reputed than themselves? This is not to do as we would be done by. Much less is it to love our Neighbour as ourselves. Much less yet to love our friends, as our Lord loved us [Page 27] when we were his Enemies. To be Imita­tors of Christ, (which men must be, if they will be Christians,) we ought to [...]. Chry­sost. serve one­another, as he did us; yea to serve our In­feriours, as he did His; and that with such a kind of Service, as is the washing of their feet. And his reason to inforce it is chiefly this, [the Disciple is not above his Master, the Servant is not above his Lord, and I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done.] But now besides that this Ar­gument does evince the moral Necessity of our Active obedience and conformity to his Ex­ample and Command; it also shews us our obligation of having a fellowship with his Philip. 3. 10. suffrings, and a conformity to his Death, which connotates our Passive obedience also; and is the main thing intended in this second Lesson the Context yields us.

§ 15. For when he had said to his Dis­ciples, that he would shortly send them out as so many Sheep amongst Wolves, from whom their usual entertainment should be to be per­secuted, and hated, and to be scourged in their Synagogues, and all for the sake of him that sent them, (Matth. 10. 17. &c.) he labour'd [Page 28] to give them an acquiescence in all their Suffrings, from this one single Considera­tion, that 'tis enough, for the Disciple, if he be as his Master, and the Servant as his Lord, (v. 24.) If they have called the Master of the House Belzebub, how much more shall they call them of his Household? (v. 25.) There he argues from his being our Lord and Ma­ster, the obligation lying upon us, to suffer the evils which he hath suffer'd. Then if at any time we shall fall into the Enmity of the World, into a Cross or Disgrace which is un­deserved; we may relieve ourselves enough with this one Remembrance, That 'tis the friendship of the world which is enmity with God, (James 4. 4▪) and that 'tis well for the Servant, if he be as his Lord; we must not be ambitious to be above him▪ It will be use­ful to expostulate and reason the matter with­in ourselves. Shall we be such mad Disciples, as to expect, or but desire, to fare any bet­ter than our Master? shall we be such over­nice, or such delicate Servants, as to repine at those hardships, which were the Portion of our Lord? shall we expect to be applaud­ed, and well reported by all the world, not [Page 29] only by the Best, but by the worst of men also, when our Blessed Lord and Master is call'd a winebibber, a Glutton, an Hypocrite and a Deceiver, a Blasphemer, and a Boute­feux, a Conjurer, and a Demoniack? or shall we shamelesly be seeking great things for our­selves, whilst our Master is the outcast and Scorn of men? (when he who is at once the King, and also the Bishop of our Souls, is trod­den down into the Dust, It may seem a thing improper, an Absurdity, and a Soloecism for us to prosper.) Shall we who are not our own, but are bought out right by our Master Christ, be either so arrogant, or so stately, as to be stretching our selves on Couches, and Beds of Ivorie, whilst he our Lord, and our Lawgiver, our King, and our Head, our Advocate and our Iudge too, is either grov'ling upon the Earth in a bloody sweat, or stretched out upon the Cross in Tears of blood, as well as Brine? shall we be drinking wine in Bowles, (like theAmos. 6. 6. Wantons of whom we read in the Prophet Amos,) whilst our Master cry's out, he is a thirst, and has nothing wherewith to quentch it, but the Cup of Trembling and Astonish­ment, not only sharp as vineger, but bitter as [Page 30] Gall too? shall we be crowning our selves with Wisd. 2. 8. Rosebuds, (like the Atheists of whom we read in the Book of Wisdom,) whilst our Lord and Master's Diadem is made of Thornes? shall we be dancing to the sound of the Viol, whilst His Ears are bored through with the most sharp-pointed Sarcasms, that the Wit of Insul­tation can well invent? Let us look upon the Case in another colour, and admit it were our own. Would we not wonder at such a Servant, and think him mad, who should affect to eat finer, and take less pains, to be much better clad, and to lye softer than his Master? It is enough then for us, that we fare at least as well as our Master Christ; that we suffer no more, than to be spit upon, and buffeted, and scourg'd, and Crucified. If a Christian is but beggar'd, or if but rail'd at, and slander'd for conscience sake, he fares a great deal better than his Master Christ did; if he is Crucified, or hang'd, he fares no worse. The Thought of which will be suf­ficient, (if we are qualified with Faith,) to make us smile upon our suffrings when they are wrongfully cast upon us, and to furnish us with Patience (if not with Pleasure) in all [Page 31] our Pains. I say with Pleasure, because our Master taught his Disciples, to Rejoice in that Case, and to leap for Ioy; for that is the English of our Saviour's [...], Matth. 5. 12. Rejoice (saith he to his Disciples) and leap for joy, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all manner of evil against you falsly, for my Sake.

§ 16. Thus having seen the obligation, laid upon us by Iesus Christ as our Lord and Master, both to imitate his Example, and to yield obedience to his Commands, as well by doing him Passive, as Active Service; I shall conclude with the Necessity, the Indispensa­ble Necessity we all are under, either of rising to life eternal, if we accomplish this Conditi­on; or of incurring (if we do not) by so much the greater Condemnation. For let our Professions be what they will, of Faith in Christ as a Redeemer; we cannot own him as a Master, Unless we are Followers of his Life; nor without sincere obedience, can we Recive him as a Lord. And yet unless we so receive him, He will not then receive us, in the great day of Discrimination, when he shall solemn­ly put a Difference betwixt the Wheat, and the [Page 32] Chaff, taking the one into his Garner, and burning up the other with Fire unquentcha­ble. For not to him, who hides his Talent in the Earth; much less to him, who vainly throws it into the Aire; But to him who does employ and improve his Talent, the righteous Judge of all the world will use that Sentence of Approbation, (Matth. 25. 21.) Well done thou good and faithful Servant, Enter thou in­to the Ioy of thy Lord. From whence it fol­lows as unavoidably, as that God cannot lye, That we must All without exception be first well Doers, we must first of all be good and Faithful Servants, before the Iudge can say to us, well done good and faithful Ser­vants. And yet again he must be able to say That to us, before he can possibly bid us Enter into the Ioy of our Lord. He can­not say well done, to an Evil Doer; He can­not call him a Faithful, who is an unfaithful Servant; He cannot say Come ye blessed, and Enter ye into the Ioy of your Lord, to whom the Sentence of Go ye Cursed into everlasting Fire does of right belong.

§ 17. And if these things are so; then as we tender the greatest Interest both of our [Page 33] Bodies and of our Souls. Let no man cozen us to Hell, by making us believe we are sure of Heaven. Beware of Comfortable Preachers (as they that love to be flatter'd do fasly call them,) who either write or speak much in the Praise of Faith, But in Disparagement of obedience to the Com­mandments of our Lord. And often quarrel at the necessity of being rich in good works, as if Salvation were to be had at a cheaper Rate. Let me put the case home, as well to others as to myself, in the fewest words. Have we an earnestness of Desire to live for ever in Bliss and Glory? or are we careless and indifferent what shall become of us hereafter? Do we seriously believe an Immortality of our Souls, a Life after Death, and a Day of Iudgment? Or do we but talk of these things in civility to the men a­mongst whom we live? if we are in good earnest in the Rehearsal of the Creed, of the two last Articles in particular, the Resurrecti­on of the Body, and the Life everlasting; Then let the Condition of the New Covenant abide forever in our Remembrance. And seeing this is the Condition on which the promise of [Page 34] Salvation is given unto us, that we receive and own Christ as our Lord and Master, as our Saviour, and our Prince, as our Advo­cate, and our Iudge too; And that we so own him in our Lives, as well as in our Beliefes, as well in our practice, as specula­tion; Let us not flatter ourselves for shame (as so many Traytors to our own Souls,) that Salvation will be found upon easier Termes. For to such as cannot pretend to be Babes, or Ideots, or never to have liv'd within the sound of Christ's Gospel, the words of the Apostle are very positive and Express, That without Holiness and Peace, (that is to say, without our Du­ties both to God, and to our Neighbour,) No man living shall see the Lord, Hebr. 12. 14.

And this I think may suffice us to have learn't at this time from the Text in hand. For thô I say not that these are All, yet these Especially are the Lessons we are con­cern'd to draw from it, and such as wil­lingly flow to us from its most rational Importance.

[Page 35] ‘Now to him who is able to do ex­ceeding abundantly above all that we are able to ask or think, according toEphes. 3. 20, 21. the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the Church by Christ Je­sus, throughout all Ages, world with­out end.’

(A Text not unsuitable to all the Se­verities of the Lent, which is (if St. Ierome may be believ'd, and o­ther Fathers more antient,) of Apostolical Institution. A Time sequester'd by That Autority, for the Exercise and Practice of Christian Strictness, expressed pithily in my [Page 38] Text, by our bearing both the Burden and Yoke of Christ.)

§ 1. The Affinity and Connexion is as obvi­ous, as it is close, betwixt my present, and former Text. For it was the last Ser­vice which I perform'd in this Place, to shew how Christ is our Lord and Master. Such as he was pleas'd to assert himself, in the thirteenth of St. Iohn, at the thirteenth verse. It now remains that we Contemplate the Moderation of the Laws, whereby our Lord is exceeding Gratious, and our Master extreamly Good. For it seems not sufficient that he is known to be a Lord, in Exacting obedience to his Commandments, unless he be as well known to be good and gratious, in that his Commandments are not grievous. (Nothing neer so insupportable as they were thought by those Gnosticks St. Iohn alludes to, 1 Iohn 5. 3. who fell away from Chri­stianity, and disown'd Christ himself, for fear their Loyalty and obedience should cost them dear; living then, as they did, in Times of Trial, and Persecution;) He is our Lord, and our Master, in respect of the Yoke with which he binds, and in regard of the Burden [Page 39] wherewith he loads us. But this our Master is Good, and our Lord Gratious, in respect of the Easiness which he gives unto the one, and in regard of the Lightness wherewith he qualify's the other. But

§ 2. Our Translation, however True, is so far short of the Original, that (as be­fore, so now also,) the Greek must come in to assist the English, or else we shall miss of its whole Importance. For 'tis not only my Yoke is Easy, But [...], my Yoke is Good. My Yoke is profitable and useful. My Yoke is an indearing and delectable Yoke. For all this and more is imported by the word [...], as Lexicographers and Glossa­ries do make apparent. That is, (to express it without a Metaphor) The Service of Christ is a most gratious, and Desirable Service. What he commands us to perform, is not only very possible, but facil and easy to be perform'd. Nor only so, but sweet and pleasant in the performance. It is not only our Bounden Duty, but 'tis our Interest, our Delight, our Reward to serve him.

§ 3. And such as the Yoke is with which he binds, such is also the burden wherewith [Page 40] he loads us. Whatsoever his Burden may here import. If the Burden of his Precepts, then 'tis absolutely light. For then the Bur­den and the Yoke are Terms aequivalent. The lightness of the one explains the Easiness of the other; and the later clause of the Text is but an Exegesis of the former. Or admit that by his Burden is meant the Bur­den of his Cross; yet even then we must confess it is comparatively light. And so in­deed it is in two considerable respects. First in respect of the endless punishment, which will fall upon Them that refuse the Burden; and again in respect of that unspeakable Re­ward, which will be given unto them that shall take it up. The Cross of Christ at its heaviest is but a Burden of Afflictions, which St. Paul accompts light for these two reasons. First because it is but for a moment; next be­cause it works for us a far more exceeding and 2 Cor. 4. 17. eternal weight of glory. For as the same A­postle saith to the same Corinthians, (what seems at first hearing a contradiction,) [...], that That which was glorious was not glorious at all, in respect of the 2 Cor. 3. 10. glory which excelleth. So 'tis as true That [Page 41] our Afflictions are no Afflictions, in comparison with the Beatitudes which they work for us as our Reward.

§ 4. This is the meaning of the Text consider'd simply in it self. Wherein are two Things especially which offer them­selves to our Consideration.

First the Greatness of Christ in the Extent of his Authority; and

Secondly his Goodness, in the merciful use or employment of it.

First his Greatness is very evident, in that he has the power to impose a Yoke, and a Burden. A Yoke of Injunctions upon our Necks, and a Burden of Suffrings upon our Backs.

Next his Goodness is as apparent, from the easiness of the one, and from the lightness of the other. For besides That Eternal and exceeding weight of Glory, which gives an easiness to the Yoke, however hard; and a lightness to the Burden, however heavy; The one is so easy in it self, and the other in it self is so truly light, (considering that dolor, si gravis, brevis, is just as much, as si longus, le­vis,) that even the Yoke of his Injunctions does [Page 42] give us Freedom, and the Burden of his Suf­frings affords us strength.

If we put them both together, they make a Text without length extremely copious; for it exhibits to us at once the Law and E­quity of the Gospel. The Yoke and the Bur­den do prove the first, as the easiness and the lightness infer the second. It serves to keep us in the Fear, and the Faith of Christ. For first the nature of a Yoke implies a Bridle to our Presumption; and then the easiness of this Yoke does also forbid us to despair. Christ is here both in his Kingly, and Priestly Office; at once to rule, and to bless us too. He is an Absolute Soveraign, because to Him it does belong to put a Yoke upon our Necks, But yet withal he is a good and a Gratious So­veraign, because It is not only easy, but gives us ease too. And though it may some­times vex the Body, yet it brings Vers. 29. Rest unto the Soul.

The Reason of which is wrapt up in the causal For, being consider'd in its Retrospect on the Verse going before. Where no sooner had he said, Take my Yoke, and ye shall find rest; but immediatly it follows, [Page 43] For, or Because my Yoke is easy. And this again affords us a double Reason, for which we should come at his Invitation, (v. 28.) First because my Yoke is easy, Therefore come un­to me; Next because it is so gratious as to give Rest unto your Souls, Therefore come unto me all ye that labour. And this is the meaning of the Text in its relation to the Context.

§ 5. To Contract my meditations with­in the compass of the time, and withal to go forwards with the design I have in hand, (which is not only to shew the Law, but also the Equity of the Gospel,) I must not now consider Christ in the extent of his Authority, as he is [...], (that is to say) an Absolute unaccomptable Master, to whom of right it does belong to impose a Yoke, and a Burden; (for That was properly the Sub­ject of the last Service which I perform'd;) But only in the exercise and usage of it, as he is [...], (that is to say) a Mild, and a Gratious Master; whose Commands are so far from being burdensom and grievous, that e­ven his Yoke makes us able to bear his Bur­den, and his Burden does enable us to wear [Page 44] his Yoke. At which Paradox to Nature if any Natural man stumble, he may illu­strate it to himself by the Wings of an Ea­gle, which are indeed a Real Burden, and of Considerable Weight to the Eagle's Body, but such a Burden as by which she soars up loftily towards Heaven, which for want of That Burden would be a Groveler on the Earth. Or he may clear it by the weights of a Vulgar Clock, which, the heavier they are, do make it go so much the faster.

§ 6. A Subject upon which I do the ra­ther indulge my Thoughts, (thô better handled I doubt not by other men, and somewhat often by my self upon Ezek. 18. 31. Ch. 3. § 9. Mar. 10. 17. Serm. 3. Joh. 14. 15. Ch. 2. & 4. § 10. and 1 Cor. 16. 22. Ch. 3. other Texts,) because we have Libertines in our days, as there were Gnosticks in St. Iohn's, who make the Law by which we live (I mean Rom. 3, 27. Jam. 2. 8. 12. 1 Cor. 9. 21. [...] the Law of Christ's Gospel) to need our Apologies and Defensatives, by bringing up an ill Report of the Christian Yoke, as if it were as hard as the Yoke of Moses, which neither we, nor our Fathers, neither the Pro­phets, nor the Apostles, were ever able well to bear, (Acts 15. 10.) Just as They who went to spy out the Land of Canaan, giving [Page 45] it out to be a Land which did eat up its In­habitants; Num. 13. 16, 27, 30, 32, 33. a Land full of Gyants, the Sons of Anak, in comparison with whom Themselves were Grashoppers. Yet they confessed it was a Land which even flow'd with milk and hony, excellent Figs, and Pomegranates, and such Gygantaean Grapes too, (in full proportion to the Inhabitants) that one single Cluster was fain to be carried on two men's shoulders. And Caleb thought it not impossible to take Pos­session of the Land, in order whereunto he pressed earnestly for an Essay; implying that All the Explorators, excepting Iosua andNum. 14. 6, 7, 8, 9. Himself, deceiv'd the People with their own Fears; thereby tempting them to murmur against the means of their Redemption, and to think hardly of their Redeemer, as if he had put them upon the doing of things im­possible to be done. So there are Multitudes even in Christendom, (and at this very day) Antinomians and Solifidians, who having not courage enough as Christians to make a Trial of their Ability, how far forth they are im­powred to wear the Yoke of Christ's Com­mands, or bear the Burden of his Cross; And being unwilling that other Christians should [Page 46] be less cowardly than Themselves, have gi­ven it out among the People, that Christ commands Impossibilities. Which is as much as to say, that His Yoke is too hard, and his Burden too heavy, and that by consequence their Rebellions are but the Infirmities of their Nature, which might have been possi­bly in their Wishes, but not at all in their Abilities to be avoided. Whereas the Truth is, they are resolv'd to sit still, to be at peace with their Temptations, and not to make the best use of the Powers within them; So that the Devil becomes strong, in that they make themselves weak; and 'tis in stead of Wisdom to him, that he finds men foolish. If at any time He conquers, it is because they do not fight; yea if he does not fly from them, it is because they do not re­sist him; for so saith St. Iames expres­ly,Jam. 4. 7. Resist the Devil and he will fly from you. But Cowards call their mean Submissions, their Inabilities to resist, that so they may Sin without Scruple, or at least stop the Mouth of a clamorous Conscience. For building (as they do) upon a very great Falshood, that Christ commands Impossibilities; [Page 47] They make their Error the more Incurable, by adding to it as great a Truth, [that ha­ving done all we can, in our submission to the Burden and Yoke of Christ, we shall ne­ver be accountable for All we cannot; be­cause where our utmost obedience Ends, our Saviour's begins to be reckon'd to us.]

Thus Truth and Falshood are tyed toge­ther by the Necks, (as Iupiter in Plato serv'd Ioy and Sorrow,) that if they will not be friends, they may be made to be Compani­ons; and even forced to conspire against their Wills, to make us tamely submit our Necks to the Yoke of Satan, in Pretence that our Saviour's is too ruggid for us to bear. And Truth it self becomes hurtful, by being dis­honestly tack'd on to as great a Falshood.

§ 7. But God be thanked there are others of Caleb's brave Judgment and Disposition; who think of Christ with more Reverence, than to believe that His Yoke is insupportable, or that he looks for harder Services than he enables us to perform. They judge that Christ commands nothing but what is rea­sonable, and congruous, and therefore Possible to be done; at least in That sincere measure [Page 48] wherein he mercifully exacts it, and with all those Assistances which He continually af­fords▪ and with those Equitable Grains, which as a Saviour he allows for human Frailty. And therefore they strive so much the har­der to put his Commands in Execution; to wear the Yoke of his Precepts in all parts equally. They think the Difficulties are such as by the strength of his Grace they are impowred to overcome; more Invited by the Pomgranates and Grapes of Canaan, than discouraged with the Gyants, which are to be grapl'd with in the way. And thence it is that they neglect not the Visible means of being happy to all Eternity, for fear of a temporary unhappiness 'twixt Them and It.

§ 8. Indeed the Sons of Disobedience, who court the Friendship of the World, and thence are said by St. Iames to be The Ene­mies Jam. 4. 4. Phil. 3. 18. of God, may make an Objection of their Experience against the Saying of our Savi­our touching the Easiness of his Yoke, and against St. Iohn's Exposition of it, when he1 Joh. 5. 3. saith of Christ's Commandments, they are not grievous. For hath not Christ commanded [Page 49] all men to love their Enemies? and is not That a Grievous Precept unto Them who forsake and detest their Friends? Hath not Christ commanded all men to be content with their Own, nor so much as to covet their Neighbours Goods? and is not That a Grievous Precept, to such as live upon Plunder, or Defraudation? Hath not Christ commanded all men the rigid Duty of Self­denial? and is not That a Grievous Precept to our Proverbial Apolausticks, who deny themselves nothing that Heart can wish, but indulge themselves in all that either their Appetites can crave, or their Fancies call for? Nay hath not Christ commanded all men to take up his Cross, and to bear That after him? and is not That a Grievous Pre­cept, to such as love to lay it heavily up­on other mens Shoulders? How then are his Yoke and his Burden easy, when the great­est part of men do slip their Necks out of the former, and cast the later (not upon, but) be­hind their Backs?

§ 9. Thus in the person of a Demas, who hath embraced this present world for want of a2 Tim. 4. 10. Confidence in the next, I have objected a­gainst [Page 50] my Text as strongly at least as I am able, and against the Exposition St. Iohn made of it against the Gnosticks: And I think I have done it with very great Rea­son. For as an Objection is never stronger, than when it is borrowed from Experience; So Truth is never more Glorious, than Oppositions and Objections (by being well answer'd) are apt to make it. Nor can an Objection be better answer'd, or more to the Snarler's satisfaction, than when Experience as well as Reason, even in the Greatest and Best of men, is opposed to the Experience and Wants of Reason in the Worst. The An­swer cannot be Categorical, but must be adaequate to the Objection, and so proceed by several Steps; First in general, and then in some of the choisest or the most difficult of the Particulars. First I answer in general, That when 'tis said by our Lord, his yoke is easy, and burden light, it is not meant in re­lation to That inveterate rank of Sinners, in whom the God of this World (as St. Paul 2 Cor. 4. 4. 2 Tim. 4. 2. calls the Devil) hath blinded the Minds; whose Consciences are callous, and cau­teriz'd,Acts 7. 51. who (like Them in the Acts) do al­ways [Page 51] resist the Holy Ghost, and have not on­ly1 Thess. 5. 19. grieved, but even quench'd the Spirit of Grace. It is not meant of Those Profligates, who shake Christ's Yoke from off their Necks, Heb. 10. 29. and tread his Burden under their Feet. But as 'tis meant that his Yoke is smooth and easy in it self, or easy to Them who are wont to wear it, (whereby they have fitted it for their Necks, and their Necks for It,) so 'tis meant that his Burden is not absolutely and simply, but comparatively light; in respect of That Glory, whereof it works for us a weight unspeakable; and in respect of That Burden, of God's heavy Vengeance, from which it frees us. In like manner when St. Iohn affirms of Christ as a Legislator, that his Commandments are not grievous, it is not meant with respect to the Rom. 8. 7. Carnal minded, who are said by St. Paul to be at Enmity with God; (for to men of sore Eyes the glorious Boun­ty of the Sun is the greatest Nuisance, and so to men of sick Palates the very best meat is the most unsavorie;) But 'tis meant that his Commandments are not grievous in Them­selves, nor to such as have the Patience to try them throughly, nor have forfeited or lost [Page 52] the moral honesty of their Nature, which The God of good Nature implanted in them. Shall sore Eyes object against the soundest, that of All noxious things, Light it self is the most hurtful? or shall a Blind man infer, (and that from the Topick of Experience,) that the Sun in his Meridian is in reality but a Shadow? Or shall a man of the most depraved and paved Palate, be al­low'd to argue well from his own Experience, that Salt it self has no Savour? nor any thing else that is season'd with it? and is thereforeLuk. 14. 35. fit for nothing but to be cast unto the Dung­hill? No, the Objection lyes clearly against the Soreness of the man's Eyes, and the Sick­ness of his Palate, Not at all against the Sun, and as little against the Salt, which are e­vinced by the Experience as well of the Most as the most judicious, (indeed of All mortals who are not mad,) to be as good and useful Creatures, as any are in the up­per, and lower world.

This is the Monogram of the Answer I purpose in general to the Objection, (be­fore I descend to the most difficult of the Particulars,) And I am now to fill it up [Page 53] with as good a Zographesis as I am able.

§ 10. First then to strengthen our Reso­lutions of accustoming our selves to Law and Discipline, And not to wear the Yoke of Christ, just as the Ox wears his Master's, meer­ly for fear of being goaded, but from a prin­ciple of Love to the Yoke it self; let us con­sider how those Commandments, which do make up the Law or the Yoke of Christ, do but exact the things of us which are agreea­ble to our Reason, and therefore suitable to our Nature, and therefore consonant to our Desires. I mean our Rational Desires, which we Injoy, as we are Men; though not our brutish ones, which we suffer, as we are A­nimals, and which (without any difference) are common unto us with the Beasts that pe­rish. Psal. 49. 12, 20. It should be natural for us (as Men, indued with Reason,) to Love the Beauty of our Lord, and to fear his Power. Because we naturally incline to the Means of Safety, at least as far as we do know them, or believe them to be such. Now all that tends unto our Safety may be reduc't to two Heads, Seeking God, and Eschewing Evil. And Ra­tional Job 1. 1, 8. 1 Pet. 3. 11. Nature does incline, as well to the first, [Page 54] as to the Second. Nay as Things which are good, and have a Tendency to our Safety, are more or less excellent, and useful to us; so Nature, whilst it is Rational, must needs incline to That of the Higher, more strong­ly than to That of the Lower Value. And that which saves a man for ever, being of much an higher value, than that which saves him but for a Time, 'Tis plain that Nature, being Rational, does most incline towards the former: And all the Commandments of our Lord having a Tendency unto That, are by consequence agreeable to human Nature. Especially when our Nature is also rectified by Grace, which does not fail to work with a­ny, who do not fail to work with It; And however insufficient to make us Sinless, is yet abundantly sufficient to make us single and sincere. Less than which in our Ser­vice our Master's Iustice cannot exact, And the Equity of his Gospel exacts no more.

§ 11. The Truth of which may be evin­ced, from the Absurdity which would follow its being supposed to be False. For the Moral Commands of Christ, like the Moral commands of Moses, must be acknowledged [Page 55] to be Rom. 7. 12. Holy, Iust, and Good. Which yet I know not how they could be, were they not adequate to the Faculties of Grace and Rea­son. For what Goodness can there be, in an Impossibility of doing the Good that is requi­red? or what holiness can there be, in una­voidable transgressions for want of strength? Or what Iustice can it be, that any Rational Agent should be accomptable for the Things he could never help? To command Impossi­bilities is not agreeable to Reason, in Him who threatens an Endless Punishment for not performing what is commanded. And therefore no such hard Yoke can be imposed by our Lord on the Neck of Any. No such heavy and grievous Burden can be laid by a Saviour on any Shoulder. For though 'tis true that the Reprobates, (both men, and Devils,) being left, and forsaken, and finally given over by the Iudge of all the world, areGen. 18. 25. Rev. 22. 11. Ezek. 24. 13. under a sad Impossibility of doing Good; yet it is as true too, that they drew upon them­selves such a deplorable Necessity of doing evil, They were not created in That Condi­tion. For God created them upright, and made them capable of Duty; But they found [Page 56] out and follow'd their own Inventions, whereby to lose the Capability which God had given them, Eccles. 7. 29. If men are so wilful in using the Liberty of their Wills, as to make an absolute Covenant with Death, and with Hell to be at Agreement; if theyIsa. 28. 15. will Sin with both hands, (as one Micah 7. 3. Prophet words it) and draw Iniquity as with a Cart­rope, (as it is in Isa. 5. 18. Another) No wonder if in the words of the Book of Wisdom, they Wisd. 1. 12. pull Destruction upon Themselves with the work of their hands. And in These considerations, All who are Lovers of Christ indeed, and think ingenuously of him, and are not grosly injurious to him, nor have an evident pique at him, must either say that he commands us in proportion to our Talents of Grace and Reason, or will not punish us for the Not doing what is impossible to be done. Thus as the Antinomian Error may be sufficiently confuted by Arguments leading ad Absur­dum, so the Truth of Christ's Doctrin is as sufficiently confirmed, by the Absurdity which would follow its being supposed to be false.

§ 12. Again if we are not out of our [Page 57] Wits, nor have cast off the Gentleness and Humanity of our Nature, we are not able to give an Instance in any one of Christ's Com­mands which is truly grievous; we cannot pitch on That precept which is not agreeable to our Nature. For what other is the Sum of all his Commandments put together, than that we do to all others, as we would that Quod Tibi non vis fieri, Alteri ne feceris. Quam Senten­tiam usque ad­eo dilexit, ut in Palatio & in publicis operibus praescribi jube­ret. Aelius Lam­pridius in Alex▪ Severi Vitâ. all others should do to us? And what is That, but the Law of Nature? not only written by Severus (a meerly Heathen Emperour) in all his Plates, and publick works, But by the invisible finger of God, in the natural Heart and Conscience of man as man, till Tract of Time and Evil Custom (in some de­praved persons) have raz'd it out? Let us keep but This precept, and break the rest, if we are able. For what does our Lord re­quire of us in any one or more parts of his Royal Law, which is not easily reducible to this one Head? Deal we as righteously with men, as by men we would be dealt with; And let us do the Will of God, with as much single­ness and Zeal, as we desire that God himself will be pleas'd to do ours; And then we have at once fulfill'd the Law of Nature, and ofMatth. 7. 12. Christ too.

[Page 58]§ 13. Now if the Yoke of Christ's Pre­cepts is thus easy in it self, how smooth and easy is it to Them, who have inur'd them­selves to it by their Obedience? an Argument taken from Experience will be as cogent as any can be. David found, after a great and a long Experience, that the Command­ments of God were sweeter to him, than the Ho­ny, and Hony-comb, Psal. 19. 10. where the word Hony being us'd, by a kind of a Pro­verb among the Hebrews, for all imaginable objects of Sensual Pleasure, 'tis plain the meaning of the Prophet must needs be This; that the Pleasure arising to him from the Rectitude of his Actions, and an uniform obedience to Gods Commands, was as much greater than any pleasure which he had ever yet injoy'd in the Breaches of them, as the Pleasure which smites the Soul, is greater than That which affects the Body. Betwixt which two there is so signal and wide a Dif­ference, that (by an obvious Antimetabole) the Pleasure of the Soul is the Soul of Plea­sure; to which the pleasure of the Body is in comparison nothing more than a putrid Carcass. And as the Pleasures of the Soul are [Page 59] by much the greatest, so 'tis the Soul's great­est Pleasure, to arrive at an Ability to despise That of the Body. Such was the Savour and the Gust which David had of God's Precepts, and such was his Accompt of the Delight he took in them. And surely All People of Vertue in all the Ages of the World, have ever said the same thing from the same Ex­perience. So that if any body is not of David's Mind, 'tis meerly for want of his Experience. For the Proof of sweet things lyes in the Trial, and the Taste. As the Psal­mist cry'd out in one place, Lord how sweet Psal. 119. 103. are thy words unto my Taste! yea sweeter than Hony unto my Mouth! So he prayed in ano­ther, Lord open thou my lips. For he knew he could not Taste that Food from Heaven, whilst carnal prejudice and perversness had shut his Mouth. First therefore having pray'd that God will open our lips, (as the Psal­mist did) we must indeavour (as He did too) to taste, and see, how gratious the Lord is, and not only in his Promises, but Precepts also. Which the oftner we taste, with the more Appetite shall we desire them. But we know not how they taste, before we taste them. As [Page 60] he who covets, knows not the sweetness of Contentment. Nor he the Delights of living chastly, who has Eyes full of Adultery. Nor he the deliciousness of Temperance, who hath made himself a Slave to Debauch and Sur­fet. Fraudulent Persons could not be Frau­dulent, if they experimented the Pleasure of upright Dealing; But they must actually be upright in all their Dealing, before they can find out the Pleasure of it. The Royal Prophet therefore said well, That WHEN Psal. 119. 167. he had KEPT the Commandments, he loved them exceedingly; Not that he loved them exceedingly before he kept them. What else was it which induced him to speak so kindly of his Afflictions, to say that God of very Faithfulness had caused him to be troubled, but that he was thereby much Ps. 119. 72, 75. assisted in the keeping of the Commandments, which, he knew by much experience, are naturally apt to rejoyce the Heart, Psal. 19. 8. and that in the very keeping of them is great Reward, Psal. 19. 11. But where a Cloud of Vitious Ha­bits doth incessantly interpose bewixt the Eye and the Object, how can the Beauty of the Commandments be rightly seen, or ap­prehended? [Page 61] The Prophet David was sain to pray, not only that God would open his lips that he might taste, But also his Eyes, that he might SEE the wondrous things of his law, Psal. 119. 18. And by the help of his Grace, (which we must pray for, as well as David,) we are to cast out the mote, (per­haps the Beam) out of our Eyes, before our Eyes can be ravish't with the Charming Beau­ty of Christ's Commands. And the way to do That, is ipso facto to obey them. For they are Pure (saith the Psalmist) and inlightning the Eyes, (Psal. 19. 8.) they give wisdom unto the Simple, are altogether undefiled, and con­verting the Soul; moreover by Them is thy Ser­vant Taught, (v. 7, 11.) From which expres­sions of the Psalmist it plainly follows, that the Commands of the Law Moral (which are common to Moses with Christ and Na­ture,) do make an excellent Collyrium, a So­veraign Oyntment or Eyesalve, to clear our Sight of those Mists, which the Devil and the World have cast before them.

§ 14. Say then Thou Demas, Thou Crude, and unexperienced Christian, or whoever thou art who hast a share in the [Page 62] Objection. Dost thou find within thy self nothing of Appetite or Love to the Yoke of Christ? It is because thou dost not know, how pleasant a thing it is to wear it. And wilt thou know the true Reason why thou dost not know That? It is because thou art not us'd to the wearing of it. For how can any man find the Pleasure of keeping close to Christ's Precepts, before he keeps them? Do but live a strict life, (and begin now in Lent) till thou hast got into an Habit of li­ving strictly, and my life for thine thou wilt find it Pleasant. But He who will not live exactly, till he arrives at those Pleasures, which nothing less than Experience can bless him with, is neither more nor less foolish, than the meer Scholar in Hierocles his [...], who would not adventure into the Water, until he was certain that he could swim; or one who utterly refuseth the putting of meat into his Mouth, until he shall have tasted the Goodness of it. For as thou canst not taste meat, till thou hast put it into thy Mouth, nor find its goodness, till thou hast chew'd it, and (by digesting it into Blood) hast made it a parcel of thy self too; so thou [Page 63] canst never discern the sweetness of the Com­mandments of Christ, until for some time they have been thy Diet. Do but feed up­on them enough, and digest them into thy Soul by obedience to them, and Then how soon wilt thou resemble the men in Homer? who having eaten a while of Lotum gustâsse non inconcinnè dicantur Illi, qui simul atque voluptatem re­ctè vivendi de­gustârunt, ad pristina studia revocari non possunt. Lotos, were as much captivated in Love with the Place it grew in, as our Ecstatical St. Peter with the Delights of Mount Tabor.

Wer't thou but wonted, and inur'd, as much to the keeping of Christ's Commands, as now thou art to the breaking of them, Thou wouldst find as great a change, as from Hell to Heaven. And if from this Instant where­in I speak, Thou wilt but serve The Lord Christ with as much Zeal and Assiduity, and as long as thou hast served thy Master Satan; ( [...],) I dare lay a Wager of Gold to Brass, Thou wilt not change Masters for all the World.

§ 15. But here perhaps it may be said, [Page 64] that the main Aking Tooth is not drawn out of the Obection. For thô the Yoke of Christs Precepts is thus evinced to be easy, yet the bur­den of his Cross is not hence proved to be light. Nor does it follow his Yoke is easy in That ruggidest part of it, wherein both his Yoke and his Burden meet. For so we know they Both do in his Precept of Self­denial, and of bearing his Cross after him, whether laid upon us by others, or freely ta­ken upon our selves.

§ 16. To which I answer by these fol­lowing Degrees, (beginning with the least and lowest.) First when laid upon us by o­thers, there is matter of Comfort in it, from the Consideration of its bare Nature For we know 'twas the Prerogative of Goodly men heretofore above other Mortals, that they were able out of choice to be bravely Miserable, (if such a Latinism as That may be us'd in English.)

Many Examples of which we have, not on­ly in the Christian, but Heathen World. It [Page 65] was for no other reason, that Hierocles flung his Blood in his Lictor's face; that Zeno spit out his Toung into the Teeth of his Tormentor; that the Indians in Valeri­us did chose to suffer the Extremities of Heat and Cold; that the Brachmans and the Gymnosophists maintain'd their Paradox e­ven to Victory, Nihil jucundius esse quàm pa­ti; I say for no other reason, than to de­monstrate that their Souls were above the Infirmities of their Bodies. Somewhat like the Brave Martyrs in the Eleventh Chapter to the Hebrews, (thô not from the same reli­giousIleb. 11. 35. Principle,) who having been tortur'd, would not accept of a Deliverance. In the midst of all their Agonies, they would not admit of a Relaxation. And we know that an Army of Frogs and Lice (as in Egypt) may have the power to do Mischief, But are ut­terly incapable of being Injur'd. They are the Great and the Good, who are most of all subject to suffer wrong. Regium est & Magnificum, bene facere, & male pati. We may explain it out of St. Peter; If ye do 1 Pet. 2. 19, 20, 21. & Matth. 5. 12. well, and suffer for it, Happy are ye. For this is thankworthy, This is acceptable with God. [Page 66] And hereunto are ye called, because Christ also suffer'd for us, leaving an Example that we should follow His steps. God himself is most capable of insolent Usages and Affronts, by the Transcendency of his Being, and the Prae­rogative of his Omnipotence; most obnoxious to Indignities, by his being All Goodness; and the most lyable to Dishonours, by his be­ing All Glory. So next and immediately un­der God, the most susceptive of Abuses are His Vicegerents? Whose highest priviledge it is, and that which makes them most like their Maker, (whose Lieutenants they are on Earth,) that All the Subjects put together are not obnoxious to the wrongs which their Soveraigns suffer. In so much that we should scorn to need a more Effectual Mo­tive, to make us an Obedient and Loyal People, than our resentment of the hard­ships they suffer for us. Besides that All Crowns are so lin'd with Crosses, and All Crown'd Heads so apt to ake, (even ab­stracting from all the injuries which they are ever subject to as the Butts of Envy,) that they deserve the Ease and Comfort of their Best Subjects good Affections, if but to make [Page 67] them some Amends for All the Malignities of the Worst; and in Requital of their Cares for the Common Safety. And here I am tempted to a Digression I cannot easily for­bear: For if it is profitable and short too, it will be pertinent enough. It is but This; that if the People of these Realms will either All travel abroad into Foreign Parts, or at least take the pains to be taught at home, how much like Princes rather than Subjects, they live in the Land of their Nativity, (being compar'd with other Subjects throughout the habitable World,) they will say of our British Soveraign, what No other People can say of Theirs, that his Yoke is very easy, and his Burden exceed­ing light.

§ 17. Another Comfort the Cross af­fords, when laid by the Guilty upon the In­nocent, does lye in This; that the Iudge up­on the Bench can but condemn a Malefactor; The King himself can but reprieve him; 'Tis GOD only who can forgive him. So that Mischievous men have This common to them with the Devil, that they are able to wrong the Innocent; whereas the Innocent man [Page 68] hath This derived to him from God alone, that he is able (as to himself) to acquit the Guilty. Here then we may demand withPsal. 52. 1. the Royal Psalmist, Why boastest Thou thy self, ô Tyrant, that thou canst do mischief? so can a Toad, so can a Spider, so can a Pest, or an Imposthume. Why dost thou glory in thy ability of blasting thine Enemy with a Lye, or of bearing False witness against thy Neighbour? so can the Father of Lyes the Devil, who thence is call'd by way of Eminence [...], the Detractor, and [...], The Accuser of the Brethren. Nay why dost thou pride it in thy power of being skilful to destroy, either the Livelyhoods or the Lives of a world of men? so can the Palmer-worm, or Mildew, so can a Deluge, or a Drouth. Which if seriously consider'd by him who suffers, as well as by him who does an Inju­ry; 'twill yield the First matter of Comfort, and the Second matter of Terror. For Qui tulit injuriam ignoscere potest; Qui fecit, nun­quam: whilst he who suffers Injury has a divine Opportunity of giving Pardon, He who does it has nothing left as the Issue of it, but Bitter Repentance, or Condemnation.

[Page 69]Hence therefore we must learn to discrimi­nate two Things, which most commonly are confounded, and apprehended to be the same. For 'tis one thing, to Insult, or to do­mineer; And quite another, to gain a Victory. Just as 'tis one thing, to be wrong'd; And quite another, to be worsted. The Devil and Pilate (for example) did Domineer over our Saviour, who yet (we know) had the best of Both. Dives insulted over Lazarus, (as 'tis expressed by way of Parable,) though Lazarus in the end had the better of him. Anytus and Melitus could not hurt Socrates, though they could kill him. And though St. Paul could be beheaded by the Emperor [...]. Epict, Nero, yet he could not be conquer'd or worst­ed by him. The Mode or Fashion of a Vi­ctory does not detract from the Essence of it. It does not cease to be a Victory because 'tis got by not fighting; as That against Cade by King Henry the Sixth. Nor does it cease to be a Victory, in case 'tis purchased by Delays; as that against Hannibal by Fabi­us Maximus. Nay 'tis a Victory, though it be won even by flying out of the Field; which was the way by which the Parthians were [Page 70] wont to Conquer. And so 'tis Victory never­theless, though obtain'd by suffering; as by the noble Army of Martyrs against the whole Heathen world. It being impossible that a thing should cease to be what it is, through the Nature of the means, by which it is so. It is so far from being necessary, that Conquest should consist in making Ha­vock of an Enemy by wounds and slaughter, That 'tis but one sort of Conquest, and that the Meanest. Let us therefore set it down as a Truth unmoveable, upon which we may ad­venture to lean with safety; That to be mightily overborn, whilst by Impiety, must needs be either none at all, or a glorious O­verthrow. Because 'tis clear that God's Mercy is overborn by men's Impenitence; And even his greatest Longanimity may be quite beaten out by our Provocations.

§ 18. Thirdly the Burden of the Cross, when 'tis laid upon us by others, is made ex­ceedingly lighter to us than I have hitherto shew'd it to be, by our looking up to Him, who hath born it for us, and before us; and by our reflecting on the Reward, towards which it does lead us, and lift us up. [Page 71] Eusebius tells us of some in Egypt, who, how­everEuseb. Hist. Ec­cl. l. 7. c. 17. groaning at once under Three sorts of Tyranny, that of Poverty, and Pestilence, and Persecution, did yet express so great a Ioy at the Return of Good Friday, upon which they were to celebrate their Master's Suffrings on the Cross, as that the sense of Their suffrings seem'd to be wholly swallow'd up, by the far greater sense which they had of His. Though they were scatter'd and dispers't as far asunder, as the Ingenie of Malice could well contrive, (some impri­son'd upon the Land, some under Hatches upon the Sea, some in Caves of the Wilder­ness, and some condemn'd upon the Scaf­fold,) Yet, as the Angles of a Pyramid, how­ever distant at the Basis, do still come near­er as they Ascend, and at last Concenter in the Conus; so how distant soever the one from the other those Christians were, in respect of their Bodies here below, They met together in their Affections at the same Throne of Grace. And though Our Church, like Theirs, in the late ill Times, was truly Militant, when with the Burden she labour'd under she sadly hung down her Head, yet Sursum Corda, [Page 72] she lifted up her Heart to the Lord of Glo­ry, And by an union of Affections kept all her Holy Days and Feasts with the Church Tri­umphant. It would be certainly a volumi­nous, if not an Endless Undertaking, (thô otherwise easy enough) to prove by way of Induction, or by a Catalogue of the Par­ticulars, how many Myriads have been ena­bled to run with Patience the Race that was set before them, by meerly looking unto Iesus the Author and Finisher of their Faith, so far forth as for the Ioy that was set before him, he endured the Cross, and despised the shame, Heb. 12. 1, 2. and so sate him down at the right hand of God. Nor indeed can it be otherwise, with such as Love and believe in the Lord Jesus in sincerity, And give an Evidence of Both by their new obedience. For so long as we are such, the Spirit it self (saith St. Paul) beareth witness with our Spirits, that we are children of God. And if Children, then Heirs; Heirs of Rom. 8. 16, 17. God, and joynt Heirs with Christ; if so be we suf­fer with him, that we may also be glorified toge­ther with him. And suffer with him we shall with the greater ease, (if not Ambition,) be­cause we shall reckon with St. Paul, That the Vers. 18. [Page 73] Suffrings of this present Time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be re­vealed in us; and because the whole Trinity is clearly ingaged in our behalf: (For so St. Paul tells us in the following Parts of the same Chapter.) God the Father gave us hisVers. 32. Son, and all good things together with him. God the Son gave us Himself, not only that he might dye, but also rise from the Dead, and be an Advocate for us incessantly at the right hand of God. Thirdly God the Holy Ghost in­gagethVers. 34. for us as much as either; both by helping our Infirmities, through which we know not what we should pray for as we ought, And by making Intercession for us with Groans Vers. 26. not to be utter'd. And whilst so great a Care is taken both of us, and our Interest, by God Himself, It cannot but follow that all the Crosses which shall be laid upon us by others, will work together for our Comfort in this life present, as well as for our Glory in that to come.

§ 19. Lastly the Burden of Christ is light, when freely taken upon our selves; as (in particular) when he Commands us (some­what like what the Ammonites commanded [Page 74] the men of Iabesh Gilead) to pluck out an Eye, (a right Eye too,) and to cast it from us. For

First it is not an Absolute, but a Conditional Command. We are to pluck out an Eye, up­on a supposal that it offends us; that is to say, If it is scandalous, and makes us stum­ble into Sin; and into such wasting Sin, as makes us fall headlong into Hell; for so our Saviour does infer in his very next words. In such a formidable Case, and for the preventing of such a Mischief, It is not only not grievous, but [...] (saith our Saviour) It is profitable for thee, that one Matt. 5. 29, 30. & Matt. 18. 8. of thy Members perish, and not that thy whole Body be cast into Hell. So that

Secondly 'tis not a Positive, but a Com­parative Command. And 'tis the Dictate of Common Sense, That of two evils of Pu­nishment, we are in Prudence to choose the least. As rather to lose one Eye than Both, and rather Both than the whole Body; and ra­ther the Body than the Soul. To suffer any thing, rather than Death; and Death it self, rather than Hell. A man having a Gan­graene in any Limb of his Body, will not [Page 75] only permit, but hire the Artist to cut it off. And by consequence will confess it very much better and more desirable, to Pluck out his Eye, and to cast it from him, than, by keeping it in his Head, to be Cast into Hell. Better suffer under Them who can destroy the Body only, than under Him who can destroy both Body and Soul. YeaMatth▪ 10. 28.

Thirdly 'tis the Dictate of Sanctified Rea­son, That of any two evils, whereof the one is of Sin, the other of Affliction, we must choose to Suffer the greatest, rather than wil­fully Do the least. Our first Care must be, to make a Covenant with our Eyes, not to look Ecclus. 9. 7. upon a Maid. Next in order to That De­sign, we should not look round about us in the Streets of the City, for fear our Eyes become our Enemies. Or if our Eyes chance to wander beyond the Bounds of That Coun­sel, our third degree of Care must be, not to gaze upon a Woman, lest we fall by those things that are pretious in her, (v. 5. & 8.) Or if This cannot be done, 'tis better to out them whilst they are innocent, (as Virginius did his Daughter,) than continue them as Inlets to Sin and Hell. Nor should we be [Page 76] griev'd at our Advantage, though it be bought with great Pain, whilst it is for the Preven­tion of a very much greater.

Last of all, this Commandment which is so grievous to us in Sound, is very far from being such in its intrinsick signification. For, in our Saviour's gratious sense, 'Tis but the Vanity of the Eye which we are bound to pluck out; 'Tis but the Violence of the Hand which we are bound to cut off; And the ob­liquity of the Foot which we are bid to cast from us, (as is shewn more at large in an See the third Sermon on Mar. 10. 17. Part 2. § 5, 6, 7. other Place.) Several vices of the Soul be­ing fitly enough expressed by so many Mem­bers of the Body. And That severest of our Lord's Precepts, If thy Right Eye offend thee, pluck it out; if thy Right hand offend thee, cut it off; if thy Right Foot offend thee, cast it from thee; may very well admit of this Se­rene Signification: That we must pluck out a Lust, thô as dear to us as a right Eye. And we must cut off an Avarice, thô as dear to us as a right Hand. And we must cast away an Ambition of greater things than are good for us, thô perhaps as dear to us as both our Feet.

[Page 77]§ 20. Thus we see this very Precept, which seems a very rough Part of our Savi­our's Yoke, and a very heavy part of his Bur­den too, does upon serious Consideration ap­pear as Easy, and as Light, as any Servant can expect from so kind a Lord. For this Maxim being praemis'd as most unquestion­able, and cogent, That without the pursuing Heb. 12. 14. of Peace and Holiness, no man living shall see the Lord; And that no unclean Thing can e­ver enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but does inevitably belong to the Commonwealth of Hell, how could our Master have obli­ged us with better expressions of his love, than by Commanding us to flee from the wrath to come? and to forbear the least evil which may possibly lead unto the greatest? rather to crucifie the Flesh, than permit it to defile and destroy the Spirit? even to pluck out our right Eye, rather than suffer it to pol­lute us? to lose any thing, rather than Hea­ven? to indure any thing, rather than Hell? And rather to smart for some Time, than to all Eternity?

§ 21. Say then again thou Habitual Sin­ner, or who ever else thou art who hast a [Page 78] Share in the Objection. Since 'tis thy Duty and thy Interest to bear the Yoke of Christ's Precepts and the Burden of his Cross with Faith and Patience, by whomsoever 'tis laid upon thee, whether spitefully by others, or pious­ly by thy self; what pretense canst thou in­vent for thy unkindness to those Command­ments, which are not only not grievous, but very agreeable to thy Nature, if at least thou retainest and hast not rooted out that Nature, which the God of Good nature implanted in thee? or what Apologie canst thou make for thy starting aside from the Cross of Christ, which alone can exalt thee to wear a Crown? nor that a meer Earthly and Perishing Crown, but one which fadeth not away, eter­nal in the Heavens. So that admitting the Cross of Christ were heavy or grievous in it self, yet in respect of thy Reward it should cease to be so. Shall any Thing be call'd grievous, which does evidently tend to thy greatest Good? All the Apologie Thou canst make, and all the Reason thou canst give, is, that thou art not yet arrived at a True Christian Faith, nor by consequence at a Love of the Lord Jesus in Sincerity. For do but ima­gin [Page 79] (honest Friend) thou wert just falling from a Praecipice, or from the Pinacle of a Temple; And a Neighbour standing by should thrust his hand to thy Rescue, and catching hold of thine Arm should snatch thee back with such a vehement and sudden Twinge, as either to dislocate or break a Bone; would'st thou be angry with thy Neighbour for so much rudeness? And in stead of be­ing thankful for springing in to thy Deliver­ance, would'st thou accuse him of being ha­sty, and quarrel the roughness of his motion, asking why he did not use thee with greater softness, and would not deliberate before he acted? would'st thou not rather kneel down before him, and make an offer of obedience, as well as thanks, and look upon him thence­forwards as dearer to thee than thy life? And in case thou art a rich man, as He a poor one, would'st thou not give him an yearly Pension for such an obliging act of Friendship, as that ransoming of Thy life with the utmost hazard of his own? Apply this now to the Case in hand. Imagin as strongly as thou art able, that thou art e­ven now falling into the Bottomless Pit of [Page 80] Hell, (a Lake eternally burning with Fire and Brimstone,) And suppose in this Case that God the Son shall spring forth from the Bosom of God the Father; ascend the Cross with set purpose, to fetch thee down; and descend into the Grave, for no other end than to raise thee up; And go purposely in­to Hell, to fetch thee back from thence to Heaven. Wilt thou repine at That Deliver­ance, in case the violence of the Twitch shall happen to cost thee a little pain? or be dis­pleas'd with thy Deliverer, in case he should not set thee Free at a cheaper rate, than that of taking off the Weights that kept thee down, (that is) by mortifying the Flesh, with the Affections and Lusts; by Commanding thee to be clean, and pure, and holy; And that for this obliging reason, because thy happiness does depend on thy being Such? Wilt thou grumble at thy Physician, for be­ing severely Faithful to thee, in using the means of thy Recovery? Or wilt thou not rather bethink thy self, with the Royal Psal mist, Quid Retribuam? What shall I render unto the Lord for all his Benefits and Blessings bestow'd upon me? If this Redeemer of thine [Page 81] is poor, (as in his Members indeed he is,) wilt thou not give him an yearly Pension, (devote a Part of thy Revenue to Pious uses,) as a small Token that thou resentest his Goodness to thee? or admit that He is Great, (as in Him­self he is immensly and unspeakably such,) wilt thou not Sacrifice unto him the con­stant Tribute of thy obedience, though he should rigidly command thee to fight with Anakims and Lyons, to fetch him Water from Bethleem, or Grapes from Canaan? Suppose he orders thee, (as he does,) to pluck out an Eye of Lust or Vanity; To cut off an Hand of Fraud or Violence; To cast away a Foot which is swift to shed blood; rather than keep them to thy undoing; wilt thou not execute those orders for the Love of thy Sa­viour, and of thy self too, rather than thine Eye shall find the right Rode to Hell, Thine Hand work out thine own damnation, Thy Foot carry thee in the Broad way which lead­eth to Destruction? Imagin strongly that thy Saviour does long as much for thy obedience as King David did to drink of the Well of Beth­lem; 2 Sam. 23. 15. Christ as Perfectly out of kindness, as David out of Curiosity. Wilt thou not do [Page 82] as much for Christ, as David's Soldiers did for Him? what They did to please David, was at the Peril of their Lives. But what thou dost to please Christ, is for the Safety of thine own. And 'tis so natural for a man to pursue his own Interest, that there is no better way to make a Rebel become Obedi­ent, than by convincing him of This, That 'tis his interest to be so, as well as Duty. Al­though a man be such a passionate Idolizer of his Wealth, that he will part with his Blood, a great deal sooner than with his Mony, yet a desperate fit of Sickness will make him send for the Physician, And He conceiving it for his Interest, will give him very large Fees too. The tenderest Person and the most delicate, who values his Body above his Soul, if he e­steems it for his Interest to have a Member saw'd off, being infested with a Gangraene, will (as I said a little before) even hire the Chirurgion to use his Tool. And (after the very same manner, as well as on the same ground,) He who is now the greatest Ene­my, both to the Counsels, and Commandments, and Cross of Christ, If he be but once brought to an inviolable Belief, (without [Page 83] all Scruples, or Peradventures,) That every man shall live eternally either in Heaven, or in Hell, And that 'tis clearly for his Interest to do or suffer as Christ commands him, be­cause in order to his Escape from all the mi­series of the one, and in order to his Attain­ment of all the Beatitudes in the other; He will presently break off his Sins by Righteous­ness, as Daniel charged Nebuchadnezzar. HeDan. 5. 27. will be ready for Restitution to every one whom he hath injur'd, as Zachee the Publican when He repented. He will bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance, as the Jews were admo­nished by Iohn the Baptist. He will be glad to be thought worthy to suffer shame for Christ's sake, as the Apostles at Ierusalem, Acts 5. 41. The Consideration of his Interest will give an high Relish to all his suffrings, making his Torments and his Tormentors to become his great Instruments and means of plea­sure.

§ 22. Thus we see in all cases, both Tem­poral, and Spiritual, every man is for him­self, and intends his own Interest, in what­soever it is which he undertakes; either the Interest of his Profit, or of his Pleasure, and [Page 84] Reputation; The Interest of his Flesh, or of his Spirit; his present Interest, or his fu­ture; still 'tis one Interest, or other, which leads him on unto the best, or the worst Performances in the World. Is any man Covetous and extremely close sisted? He thinks it is for his Interest, as being the way to be Rich in mony, which is the only Grand Pro­ject that he is driving. Or is he Free, and open-handed? He thinks it for his Interest, be­cause it is the ready way to make him Rich in good Works, which is the highest and no­blest end at which he ayms in this World. Is there any man running headlong into a Cu­stomary Contempt of his Saviour's Yoke? He thinks it is for his Interest, as being the way to live merrily, and in Prosperity here on Earth, which is the Soveraign Allective of his Desires. Or does any man take pleasure in supporting both the Burden and Yoke of Christ? He thinks it is for his Interest, as being the way to dye safely, and to live af­ter Death a life of Bliss and Immortality; which is the utmost Atchievement his heart is set on. Lastly would ye know the Rea­son, why I have meditated so much upon this [Page 85] kind of Subject? why I have struck so ma­ny Blows upon this great Anvil? made so many long Discourses (though on occasion of divers Texts) touching the Equity and the Law of our Saviour's Gospel? and in­dispensable Necessity of our obedience unto the end? The Reason of it is truly This, Be­cause I have thought it most mine own, and other men's Interest so to do. And till we are able to be so happy, as to convince our selves and others, that 'tis most for our In­terest to bear the Yoke of Christ's Law, and the Burden of his Cross when 'tis laid upon us; 'Tis very sure that neither of us shall bear the one, or the other, as is requir'd. Where­as 'tis as sure, on the other side, That as we never neglect our Interest in what is Secular, or Carnal, (as touching our Credits, or our Estates, or our Temporal Preservation;) so as little shall we indure, to start aside from the Burden or Yoke of Christ, if indeed we do believe it our greatest Interest to bear them as He requires. For can the very same man who is sollicitously careful to get a Trifle, be as perfectly careless to gain a Talent? or stand in very great Dread of a lesser Punish­ment? [Page 86] But of an infinitely greater, in none at all? If we are strict in our conforming to the Commandments of men, with whom the Penalties are but Temporal, and the Re­compenses but finite.; we cannot sure be Non-Conformists to the Commandments of Christ, on a Supposal that we believe it as great a Truth as any is, That his Punish­ments and Rewards, are both Immortal, and Immense. Nor can I think of a more ratio­nal or a more satisfactory Accompt, why the Commandments of men should be so com­monly heeded by us, with more circumspecti­on than those of Christ, but that we fear Them more, and believe Him less; or va­lue the Interest of our Bodies above the In­terest of our Souls; or prefer the seeming certainty of what is Present, before the Hope and Expectance of what is future; And had rather become the owners of Earthly Contentments in Possession, than to be deal­ing for Reversions in Heaven it self.

§ 23. And therefore to the end we may be able even to feel, and by consequence to arrive at the Conviction of Experience, That the Yoke of Christ's Law is really Easy in it [Page 87] self; and the Burden of his Cross is in com­parison very light; And that they have Both a secret vertue of giving Rest unto the Souls of Them that labour, and of Refreshing the hea­vy laden; (for so our Saviour tells us ex­presly in the two next Verses before the Text,) let us be Conversant incessantly in all the means of attaining to a True Christian Faith, That so by cordially believing, we may passionately love the Lord Jesus Christ. And that loving him as we ought, we may by consequence delight in doing that which he requires, and by consequence may attain to that Reward which he hath Promis'd. For as our Faith and our Love, do what we can, will beget obedience, (if the first is unfeigned, and the second without Dissimulation,) So 'tis sure that our obedience will end in bliss. Not in bliss whilst we are Passengers, but when we shall arrive at our Iourneys end. For here we are Dead (saith our Apostle,) and Coloss. 3. 3, 4. our life is yet hid with Christ in God. But when the Lord Iesus Christ who is our life shall appear, Then shall We also appear with Him in Glory.

Which God the Father of his mercy pre­pare [Page 88] us for, through the working of his Spirit, and for the worthiness of his Son; To whom be Glory for ever and ever.

THere is something Difficult in the Text, which will (I think) be best explain'd by way of Answer to an Objection. For why is it said here, Let us have Grace? It may seem at first hearing a strange expression, whether we have it, or have it not. For if we have [Page 92] it, it seems superfluous; and if we have it not, it seems as vain. We need not say Let us have, what 'tis plain we have already be­fore we say it: And we say to no purpose, Let us have this or that, which whilst we have not, it is not in our power to have. For, Is the Grace of God Almighty at our Disposal? Can we confer it upon our selves, that it should hear be said to us, [...], Let us have grace? we cannot have grace till we re­ceive it, nor can we possibly receive it, till God most freely bestows it on us. What is this that he saith then, let us have grace?

To answer this it must be known, that in many places of Scripture Grace doth signifie the Gospel. Whether as being the chief In­strument or Means of Grace; or as contain­ing and exhibiting the Covenant of Grace, which does often stand oppos'd unto the Co­venant of Works; or else as being the great Message of Grace and Favour from Heaven to Earth. Whether for these, or for other Reasons, so it is that the word Grace doth of­ten signifie the Gospel; especially then, when 'tis oppos'd unto the Law. A clear Exam­ple of which we have, Iohn 1. 17. The Law [Page 93] came by Moses, but Grace and Truth from Ie­sus Christ: that is, The Gospel of Grace and Truth. For there was truth in the Law, as well as in the Gospel; and grace was given unto the Iews, as well as to the Gentiles, of whom we are. And therefore the meaning of it must be, That as the Law came by Moses, so the Gospel of grace came down from Heaven by Iesus Christ; and so it is called by St. Paul, Acts 20. 24. Another Instance of it we have Rom. 6. 14. We are not under the Law, but under Grace: that is, the Gospel of Christ which is the Word of his Grace; and so St. Paul calls it again, Acts 20. 32. For it cannot be meant concerning the grace of Sanctification; because even They were under that, who were under the Law that was gi­ven by Moses; else would Caleb and Ioshua, and Moses himself have been void of Grace. Which being eminently Impossible, 'tis plain the Gospel must be the thing which is there opposed unto the Law.

And as in other places of Scripture, so par­ticularly in This which now is under consi­deration, the Grace of God is so set, as to signifie nothing but the Gospel. And (the word [Page 94] [...] very often being put for [...]) to Have it in this place, is nothing else but to hold it fast. So that the Scope of the Exhortation, is, that we hold fast the Gospel or Law of Christ, described to be the Instrument, whereby we may perform a Service acceptable to God. But acceptable Service it cannot be, unless attend­ed with Fear and Reverence. To wit with a reverence of his Mercy in the beginning of the Text, and with a fear of his Wrath in the later end. The Duty therefore is here in­forced both before and behind; and that with such Reasons, as 'tis not easy to resist. For first the Reason going before is drawn from the richness of our Reward, in case we serve God as he here requires. And then the Reason coming behind is from the Grievousness of the Punishment, in case we serve him not at all, or not at all with due Reverence and godly Fear. Our reward, if we do, is no less than a Kingdom, and a Kingdom not to be moved. But our punishment (if we do not) is to pe­rish by the hand that should make us whole; to feel the God of our life a consuming fire. The one affords us an Allective, whereby to draw us to the Duty; the other an Impellent, [Page 95] to drive us on. It is the Wisdom and the Care of the holy Penman, to place our Duty in the midst of a double motive, that if the one cannot engage us, the other may. He be­gins with a Promise, to feed our Hope; and concludes with a Threat, to excite our Fear. The first as a Spur does provoke to Vertue; the second, as a Bridle, withholds from Vice. And he is sure a dull Beast, whom such a Spur cannot excite, or at least a very wild one; whom such a Bridle cannot re­strain.

The whole circuit of the Text being thus explain'd, there are five things especially to be inferr'd.

First that the Liberty of a Christian doth carry its Yoke along with it. It being a liberty from Moses, but not from Christ; the Condition of whose Gospel is our obedi­ence unto the Law. I do not mean the Mo­saical, whether Iudicial or Ceremonial, which were but positive Laws at best, but the Na­tural, or Moral, which is withal the Aeternal Law; The Law, of which our Saviour saith, that he came not to abrogate, but to fulfil it: Not to evacuate, but fill it up. Rather [Page 96] to strengthen, than to destroy it. [...], let us have Grace, that is, [...], let us hold fast the Gospel or Law of Christ. And let us hold it as an Instrument where­by to serve him. And let us serve him [...], so as our Persons and our Service may be accepted. But yet

Secondly, we cannot Serve him so, as to be accepted; (we cannot do it [...], so as to satisfy and please him in what we do,) unless we serve him with Reverence and godly Fear With a reverence of his Mercy, whereby we are capable of a Kingdom; and with a fear of his Wrath, whereby he becomes a consuming fire. So that the Reverence has a Retrospect on the beginning of the Text; and the fear has a Prospect upon the End. And there­fore

Thirdly, here is a reason for each of these Qualifications, by which our Service is to be such, as to be accepted. A reason why it must be with reverence, and a reason why it must be with fear. Let us serve God with reve­rence, because thereby we receive a Kingdom, (a Kingdom of Grace and Glory too; the first being as 'twere an Inchoation of the second; [Page 97] and Both as I conceive, alluded to in this Text;) Again let us Serve him with godly fear; Because he is else a consuming fire. And then

Fourthly, it is obvious to infer even from hence, that the Fear of God, as a Destroyer, may nevertheless be a godly fear; because it is coupled here with Reverence, and by con­sequence with love. For Reverence is a Compound, which hath love as well as fear for a chief Ingredient. And the Fear here ex­pressed by godly Fear, is not only a fear of God's Power and Majesty, in respect of which he is a Severaign, who hath an absolute Do minion over the work of his hands; nor on­ly a fear of his love and mercy, in respect of which he is a Father, who by his Children must be revered: but especially a Fear of his Wrath and Iustice, in respect of which he is a Iudge, and so an Executor of Vengeance. It is a fear indeed of God, but under the notion of a Consumer. A fear enforced with a Reason all arm'd with terrour; (for nothing strikes terror so much as Fire.) Lastly a fear whereof the Terror is ushered in with the Causal For, which shew's the Tendency of the [Page 98] Terror towards the Godliness of the fear: for thus lyes the order and the coherence of the words. Let us serve him with Re­verence and Godly fear, For our God is a Consuming Fire.

Last of all we may infer from the Pro­nounRom. 2. 6. to v. 11. our, That God is no such Accepter of Persons, as to connive at Sin in us, whilst he does punish it in others. No, the times of their ignorance God winked at, (saith the A­postle,) But now commandeth all men every where to repent. To us indeed, if we repent, he is a God ready to pardon; swift to shew mer­cy, and slow to wrath. But to us being Im­penitent he is a Terrible, See Deut. 4. 24. where a consuming Fire is explained by a jealous God. Which com­pare with Ex­od. 24. 17. where the glory of the Lord was like de­vouring fire upon the top of the Mount. a jealous, and an avenging God. From whence 'tis inferr'd by the holy Writer, That we, as well as the People Israel are bound to serve God with Fear and Reverence; Because Our God as well as Theirs is a consuming Fire. That is, the same God is such, as well to Us, as to Them. For here 'tis worthy to be observ'd, That as Moses exhorting his people Israel to take heed unto themselves, that they forget not the Covenant of the Lord their God, gave his rea­son in these words, For the Lord Thy God is [Page 99] a Consuming Fire; So our Apostle in this Chapter, having first of all compared the Law with the Gospel, Moses with Christ, and a Contemner of the one with a Despiser of the other; and having exhorted us to the Duty incumbent on us as we are Christians; gives the very same reason in the very same words, (with no more than the change of a Mono­syllable,) for OUR God is a consuming Fire. Such he is, as the God of All; but above all, as he is OURS; because we sin, when we sin, against greater light; and against great­er obligations to cease from sinning.

Having now done with the explication and with the division of the Text, 'twill be most useful as well as natural to begin with the first of the five Illations, Because the greatest numbers of men do stand in need of a conviction, That Christianity is a Ser­vice requiring our Industry and Care. A Service consisting of Obedience, as well as Faith; in as much as the Promises of the Gospel are clog'd with Precepts. Thô the Yoke of Christ is easy, yet 'tis a Yoke; and thô his Burden is light, yet 'tis a Burden To stand fast in that Liberty wherewith Christ [Page 100] hath made us free, is to hold fast the Gospel or Law of Christ, and to hold it as an Instrument whereby to serve him: and to serve him [...], so as our Persons and our Service may be accepted.

A Doctrin the rather to be Imprinted in all our memories and our minds, (as either a method for prevention, or means of cure,) because throughout the whole catalogue of damning Haeresies, whether as that Catalogue was begun by Irenaeus, or as continued by Epiphanius, or as perfected by St. Austin, (and other Writers of the Church,) none hath shed a more killing Influence upon the minds and manners of Christian People, (so far at least as I am able to conjecture,) than the mistaken, but pleasant notions, of Iustification, and Faith, the imputed Righte­ousness of Christ, and Christian Liberty. Hard­ly any four things are more needful to be believ'd; or more subject to be mistaken. Never was Poyson more pernicious, or more to be antidoted than that, to which I oppose the main drift of the well intended project I have in hand.

There were Gnosticks, and Nicolaitans, [Page 101] Carpocratians, and Valentinians, whilst yet the day of the Gospel began to dawn; whom the Tempter had betrayed into such a Lust, That Lust had blinded with such an Igno­rance, That Ignorance was the Mother of so many and great Errors, and those Errors brake forth into such execrable Sins, that 'twere perhaps another Euseb. Hist. l. 2. c. 12. p. 57. Sin to make men acquainted with their nature, or but to tell them their very names. For there are Sins (saith St. Paul) which 'tis a shame even to speak of. So as Tertullian passed them by with a Referre eru­bescimus, &c. Tertul. de prae­scrip. advers. Haeret. cap. 46. profession of his Bashfulness; he wanted the confidence and the courage, to name those things which were done in se­cret. To such as these we can award no fitter punishment, than that to which the Ephesians condemn'd Herostratus; when, ha­ving burnt Diana's Temple (just as Pausanias kill'd King Philip,) for no other end than to be talk't of, He was decreed by that Se­nate to be forgotten. (And forgotten he had been, if one single Theopompus had not put him into his Story.) And therefore there was need of Epiphanius his Epiphan. Hae­ret. l. 1. Tom. 2. p. 11, 82. Apology, for having given us a Narrative of those [Page 102] Tacenda, although he did it in detestation.

Now as often as I consider within my self, how the oldest and the worst of all those Haeresies do walk about in new names through our English Streets; that though the Scenes are somewhat different, yet still the Actors do all agree; That the Irenae. p. 58. Gnosticks, and Clem. Alex. l. 1. Paedag. p. 107. Nicolaitans, and Carpocratians of the First times are repeated as 'twere by a Me­tempsychosis, in the Antinomians, and Soli­fidians, and sanguin Fiduciaries of Ours; that we have had, if not as false Christs as Euseb. l. 4. c. 6. quem locum confer cum l. 2. c. 10. Barch [...]hebas, yet as false Prophets as Barje­sus; who have so preached up the Gospel, and so cry'd down the Law, (I only mean the Evangelical or Christian Law,) And made obedience so cheap a thing by en­hauncing the price of Faith, as to have turn'd Christian Liberty into Libertinism, and the Grace of God into wantonness; I am tempt­ed to wish the Gospel were sometimes preach'd, as the Law of God was first publish'd, in thundring and lightning. That God were sometimes represented, as well by us un­to the English, as by St Paul to the Hebrew Christians, not only, as in his nature, a [Page 103] quickning light; but as he is also in his Ef­fects, a consuming Fire. If not in hope to raise some who seem to be dead in their Secu­rity, yet at least to awaken others, who (it is to be hoped) are yet but drowzy.

For as 'tis the custom and the craft of some cunning Pleaders, by citing the Au­thority of Laws and Statutes, to patronize the Breach of them; or as Ausonius could compile the most loathsom Fescenine, out of Virgil Himself, the Parthenian Poet; or as a Spider sucks poyson from the very same flower, from which a Bee doth extract the most soveraign hony; so I know not which hath drawn the more deadly Venom from the wholsom Omnia ad­versus verita­tem de ipsa ve­ritate constru­cta sunt: ope­rantibus opera­tionem spiriti­bus erroris. Tertul. Apol. c. 41. p. 78. In veriver­bium abiit apud Italos. Con l'Evangelio si diventa Haere­tico. Letter of the Gospel, the Gnosticks heretofore, or the Libertines now; whether the former were worse corrupters of the Third Vid. Epiph. l. 1. Tom. 2. p. 89. Chapter of St. Iohn, or the later of the Fourth of St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians. For as the Gnosticks in those times, so the Libertines in These, are wont to cocker up themselves (with the she Temp­ter in Epiphanius) that they are all the cho­sen Vessels; not vessels of a Respective, but of an absolute election. They think it much [Page 104] below Them, to look upon God as a consuming Fire. It is for men of their Perfection, not to serve him with fear, but with Familiari­ty. Thence they commonly do so startle at the legal obedience of the Iews, the mo ral honesty of the Gentiles, and the pretend­edly meritorious good works of the Romanists, as to fortifie themselves against these, with the naked Faith of the Antinomians. And so like him in Spartianus, who poyson'd himself with too much antidote, (not considering that there is poyson, as well in the Quan­tity of the best meats, as in the Quality of the worst,) they prevent a less Disease with a greater, and kill themselves with their Pre­servative. For men to sweeten their malady, and make their sickness pleasant to them, they think it better than to cure it; and so the Humor be not painful, it is no matter how peccant 'tis. They think they have met with the great Purchace Timotheus brag'd of in Athenaeus, [...]: All the Fortu­nate I stands are caught forsooth in their Net. They dream they have found the new skill of the old Athletae, [...], to conquer the Devil without a Combat. And though [Page 105] St. Paul (poor man) was fain to work out his Salvation with fear and trembling; to beat down his Body, and bring his Flesh into sub­jection; to crucify the world unto himself, and himself unto the world, always bear­ing about in his Body the dying of the Lord Jesus; lest whilst he preached unto o­thers, He himself might become a Castaway; yet the Professors I allude to are so much happier than St. Paul in their own opinion, that their Victories cost Them neither Dust, nor Sweat. They imagin they have got a peculiar knack of being sav'd; and without any more ado can so believe themselves to Heaven, that it seems to Them as easy to Dye like the Thief on our Saviour's Cross, as it is to Live like him. For they have set up a New Faith upon Mount Sion, as Ma­nasses and Sanballet did erect a New Tem­ple upon Mount Ierezim; that the most Scandalous Malefactors, who have been any way obnoxious for breach of Law, may Fly for Refuge to That Asylum, and so be­come of their Party. Their Vices many times do so border upon Vertue, (or appear at least in that Visard,) that conceiving they [Page 106] are Sanctified with that Unclean Spirit, with which indeed they are possest; mistaking the corruptions of Common Nature, for the se­cret suggestions of Special Grace; an hypo­critical Sigh, for a sincere Repentance; a stur­dy Presumption for an unshaken Faith; and a carnal Security, for an assurance of Salva­tion; they make no doubt but to enter at the very striat Gate, meerly by walking in the very broad way; supposing that the chiefest reason why so very few do find it, is their seeking to acquire it with too much Pains. And therefore for their own parts, That they may not be in danger to put their Trust in good works, they live as if they took care to have them bad enough. Hence they swallow the greatest Camels, and never feel them going down; Sacriledge, and Schism, and the Sin that is as bad as the Sin of Witchcraft, Deposing of Kings, and Sub­version of Kingdoms. For if (say They) they are once Regenerate, none of these things can ever hurt them. Humbly sup­posing it the priviledge of Freeborn Christians, not to need the common honesty of Moral men.

[Page 107] These especially are the Persons who stand in need of a conviction, that to be such, as they would be thought, they must be some of God's Servants, as well as Sons. And withal, they must be shew'd wherein The Service is to consist. For most agree upon the word, but many differ about the thing. Our Saviour tells us of certain Jews, who took the killing of his Apostles to be doing God Service. And Saul did seek to serve God, by madly blaspheming against his Son. How many Professors of Christianity, with­in our knowledge, and observation, have thought it a Service to the Bridegroom, to offer violence to the Bride? most inhuman­ly to deprive her of all her Ornaments and Jewels? and to expose her stark naked, to the derision of her Enemies on every side? How many Refiners upon Religion have ve­rily thought to serve God, by shedding the Blood of his Vicegerent? just as certain old Heathens did worship Hermes, by throwing Stones at the Image of him. It is not there­fore so much my business, to prove that God is to be serv'd, As to shew what we must do whereby to serve him [...], so far [Page 108] forth as to please him by it, and so as our Service may be accepted. The single word [...] is of Invaluable Importance; It seems to be one of the main Hinges, on which the Door of our Hope and Salvation turns. It concerns us more than the World is worth, to know exactly how much it means; And so to be able to demonstrate (at least to our selves, if not to others) what kind of Service it is to be, which God will reckon to be sufficient. For considering those words of our blessed Saviour, Seek to enter in at the strait Gate, for many shall seek and shall not enter; how can we quiet our Under­standings, or safely set our Hearts at rest, before we know what it is, which will please our Master? and when our Service will be accepted? Now a Service only consisting of naked Orthodoxy and Faith, (as it is an Assent of the Understanding,) is not the acceptable Service commended to us in the Text. But (as appears by the Context) The chiefest re­quisite is obedience to the Commandments of our Master, whereof our Faith is a special Instance. 'Tis an Employing of our selves in our Master's business; a careful observance [Page 109] of his Will, in whatsoever he commands us to do, or suffer. Our Saviour tells us the way to life is Matth. 7. 14. [...], not only narrow, but craggy too; (for that's import­ed by the Original, though not exprest in our English Bibles;) A way so incumber'd with Christian Precepts, and so block't up with strict Commands, that as nothing but Faith can open the Door, so nothing but Obedience can clear the way.

So that Faith and Obedience are to a Chri­stian, (as the two Comets to a Mariner, whereof the one is call'd Castor, the other Pollux,) never auspicious but in conjunction. By Faith indeed we may have the Gospel; but we hold it not fast, without Obedience. Without them both in conjunction, we cannot have Grace, as the Text injoyns. For naked faith without obedience (like either of those Comets without the other,) is apt to raise up a Tempest of God's displeasure, e­nough to shipwrack the Soul of man. I can­not set them both off with a better colour, than if I compare them to Iacob's Gen. 29. 17. &c. two Wives; whereof the One was very beauti­ful, but barren too; the other was fruitful, [Page 110] but yet deform'd. For as Faith (like Rachel) is wholly barren without obedience, so Obedi­ence (like Leah) is but deform'd without Faith. Again, as that without this is void of Eyes, so this without that is utterly destitute of Feet. And though I take it to be impossible, for any follower of Christ to arrive at Heaven, until obedience take up Faith upon her shoul­ders, that the one may traverse the way thi­ther, and the other direct it; yet because I conceive it less impossible of the two, for an Honest blind Heathen to shew me his Faith by his vertuous works, than for a knavish and knowing Christian to shew me his works by his naked Faith, (a thing esteemed by St. Iames the greatest Absurdity in the World,) were Iacob's option mine, I should rather choose Leah with her blere Eyes, than Rachel with her barrenness, that is, obedience with­out faith, rather than faith without obedience. And do think it by so much a safer thing, to be a very strict Moralist, than a very loose Christian, by how a likelier thing it is, for a Traveller to arrive at his Journey's End, by being a Baiard that can go, than a Cripple that can but see.

[Page 111]They who know not, must be instructed; and they who know, but are wilful, must be con­vinc'd; and we who acknowledge as well as know, must be for ever put in mind, That when we are said in any Scripture to be sav'd, or justified by Faith, it can be meant of no other Faith, than what is the Mother of Obedience, and evermore attend­ed with it. Which may appear as by other Arguments, so particularly by this; That as faith and disobedience are set as Terms of opposition, (I Pet. 2. 7, 8.) so faith and obedi­ence are set as Terms aequipollent, (Rev. 14. 12.) From whence 'tis obvious to infer, that our Lord is not an absolute, but a condi­tional Redeemer. How else can That God who is a comfortable Light, be said to be in This Text a consuming Fire? It is the pro­perty of Satan, to be an Abaddon, or [...]. And how can an Attribute of Hell, be in any sense apply'd to the God of Heaven, but that it is spoken by a Metonymie of the effect for the efficient, and imply's God Al­mighty his deportment towards us, after the measure of ours to Him? A fire to puri­fie and preserve, if we are Gold; but a fire to [Page 112] consume, if we are stubble: A case to be easi­ly illustrated by the waters of Iealousy; which if a woman were chast, would make her fruitful; but if adulterous, they made her thigh to rot, and her belly to swell. Just so said Simeon of the holy Child Iesus, that he is set for the fall, and for the rising again of ma­ny in Israel. For the fall of the rebellious, and for the rising again of his loyal Subjects; for the fall of such Persons as will not serve him [...], but for the rising again of such, as will serve him with Reverence and Godly fear. Which proves by a consequence unavoida­ble, That as he is not an absolute, but a conditional Saviour; so the Condition on which he saves us, is our being true Subjects and Servants to him. 'Tis our repentance from dead works, and our bringing forth fruits meet for Repentance. It is an heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, and a conscience void of of­fence towards God and towards men. It is our having no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, and the keeping of our Selves un­spotted from the World. Lastly the condition on which he saves us, is the Denying of our selves, and the taking up of his Cross; not to [Page 113] put it out of the way, but to follow Him with it whithersoever he shall lead us; nor to lay it upon other mens shoulders, but meekly to bear it upon our own. This is the acceptable Service pointed at in my Text. Less than this is too little, because it is less than will be accepted. And if we come short of the [...], the [...] in the Text will be nothing worth.

Of this I must labour so much the rather to convince my self, and such as hear me, because the best of us all is apt to have something of the Fiduciarie, and (without a continual watch) will have a smack of the Antinomian. For let us examin our selves throughly, and sift our selves unto the Bran; and then speak freely as honest men unto our selves. Do we not flatter our selves often, that we are good enough to serve turn? and that we must not be Righteous overmuch? that 'tis improper for us to live as in the Common­wealth of Plato, whilst we are in the Dregs of Romulus? and that we need not be bet­ter than other men, of whose Salvation we suppose it is not Charity for us to doubt? Have we not often sinn'd the more, if not that [Page 114] Grace may abound, yet because it hath al­ready so much abounded? and the rather ad­ventur'd to be evil, because of our know­ledge that God is good? Do we not generally conceive, (like Him in Zosimus) that we may sin the more safely for being Christians? And have a priviledge to be wicked above the rest of mankind, because we are Worship­pers of a God who is a God ready to pardon? Are we not much the more careless of fal­ling headlong into Sin, and much the less careful of getting out, because we read, that if we sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, who is the propitiation for all our Sins? Compare the lives of most Christians, (I mean Professors of Christianity,) with what we read of Unbelievers, (whether ignorant Gentiles, or stubborn Iews,) And you will say they have need to be all instructed, or atleast to be put in mind, that Believers being the men with whom the best of God's Talents have been entrusted, are by consequence the men too, of whom the best Service will be requir'd.

This I shall briefly make appear from two general Topicks, or Heads of Arguing. [Page 115] From the principal end or final cause of our Saviour's coming hither, and from his Principal business which took him up when he was here.

First for the end of his coming hither, it was rather to redeem us from Sin, than Hell. Rather to sanctifie our Nature, than meerly to justifie our Persons; rather to make us truly Righteous, than only to reckon or count us Iust. And this may appear, as by other Reasons, so more especially by These. First that Sin is by nature far worse than Hell, Be­cause our sins can serve for nothing, but to Injure and Incense the Righteous Iudge of all the World; whereas Hell is good for some­thing; even to satisfie the Iustice which Sin hath Injur'd, and to glorifie the Iudge whom it hath Incens'd. From whence it follows, that 'tis much more conformable to the Ho­liness of God, and more advanceth his Glory too, To have sent his Son into the world, rather to purifie, than to forgive it. To for­give it indeed by a secondary intention, but to purifie it by the first; (for purity by nature being better than Pardon, by a very good se­quel was sooner meant,) To reduce us to our [Page 116] obedience as the chief purpose of his coming, and to give us Heaven as the Accession. For real happiness consisting in being holy as God is holy, 'Tis plain that Heaven can be no more, than a good Appendix of our fe­licity. For can we imagin, that God him­self can be any whit the happier for being in Heaven? No; 'Tis Heaven which is the hap­pier for being God's Throne: which should he fix upon the Earth, Heaven would pre­sently be his Footstool. As it is not the Court which gives Majesty to the King; But where­soever the King is, there's the Court. To be in Heaven without holiness, (like the lost Re­giment of Angels) would be to make it a second Hell. And therefore They, at the Day of Judgment, who shall intreat the Hills to cover them, and the Mountains to fall upon them, will have no other reason for that In­treaty, than to be hid from the face of him that sitteth upon the Throne. From whence it is obvious to infer, that to a man of impure Eyes, nothing smarts more than the Sight of Bliss. And therefore our Saviour's coming hither was first to fortifie our eyes, or to make them pure, and then to procure us the Blessed Vision.

[Page 117]Besides, Secondly, Had he been sent into the world, only to amplify our Charter, but not our Statutes; to free us as really from the Moral, as from the Ceremonial Law; or from the observance of the Law moral, as well as from the curse, and the rigour of it; And so to make us no whit holier, but on­ly happier than before; (if yet a man can be happy who is not holy, which rather implys a contradiction,) he might have been buri­ed before he was born; (buried, I mean, in his Mothers womb;) or he might have been born, only to be buried; He might have been murder'd as commodiously by Herod in the Cradle, as by Pilate upon the Cross; and with as great a convenience, have dyed a Saviour at a year old, as in living till three and thir­ty. For what better reason can we imagin, why he should live so long a Saint, before he dyed a publick Sacrifice, but that as 'twere by the Aequator, or standing Rule of his life, we might reform and regulate all the obliquities of our own? that he might free us from Sin's Dominion, by his Precepts and Example, his Life and Doctrin, as well as from the wages of it by his Death and Resurrection?

[Page 118]For 3^dly, let us expostulate and reason a little within our selves. Can there be any thing more irrational, more dishonourable to God, or more disgraceful to our Religion, than to think that our Saviour came down from Heaven, only to open, and so to shut up the Gates of Hell? To be a Friend of Publicans and Sin­ners in the same ill Sense, in which his Matth. 11. 19. E­nemies spake him to be so? 'Tis true indeed in one sense, there can be nothing more Or­thodox, than was the malice of those Blas­phemers. Christ indeed was the friend of Publicans and Sinners, the greatest Friend to be imagin'd. But 'twas by Saving them from their Sins, as he did Matthew, and Zachaeus, Mary Magdalen, and the like; not by Saving them for all their Sins however indulgent­ly lived in. Not by making it safe for them to be Sinners without Amendment. Could he come for nothing else but to proclaim a Iubilee for Malefactors, and so to make them more voluptuous, not more vertuous than before? Can we imagin that the Law was so a Schoolmaster to Christ, as that the end of his coming should be to turn us from our Books? to beg us a kind of an endless [Page 119] Playday, and so to send us out as Truants in­to a Mahomet's Paradise? Can it be possibly consistent (I say not with Scripture only and Reason, but indeed) with common Sense, that he should purifie to himself a peculiar peo­ple, not by bridling Sin, but by letting it ride? That the [...] in Zosimus should be (asZosim. l. 2. p. 61. the Spaniard there calls it) [...]; (that is to say in plain English) that the meer Christianity of our Opinions should abundantly expiate for all the Atheism of our Lives? and so that the Gospel should be intended, not for a Rule, but a Dispensati­on? 'Tis true this Fallacy of the Tempter is too too commonly swallow'd down; al­though not only the Stream of Reason, but all the Current of the Scripture runs quite against it.

For in the third of the Acts, at the twen­tieth Verse, God having raised up his Son Ie­sus sent him to bless us, (saith St. Peter;) but how? even [...], &c. That bles­sing altogether consisted in his turning us away every one from our Iniquities. So in the second to Titus, at the eleventh Verse, The Grace of God which bringeth Salvation hath [Page 120] appeared indeed to all men. But to what end? 'Twas [...], &c. that de­nying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we may live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Again in the fourteenth Verse of the same Chapter, Christ is said indeed to have given himself for us; But immediately it follows, [...], &c. The gist consisteth in his Redeeming us from all Ini­quity. To which at least we may accom­modate what is said of our Saviour, Matth. 8. 17. where the [...], which is in Beza's Translation he bare their Sicknesses (or their Sins,) is in Tertullian's he took them a­way. And let the Translation be what it will, sure I am that the reason is very good. It being the noblest benefaction, and much most worthy of a Saviour who came from Heaven, rather to cure the lame, than to give them crutches; rather to rid us of our sins by reducing us to obedience, than by ac­quitting us only of punishment, to make our sins the more supportable.

And as the prime end of his coming hi­ther, was to correct and reform our practice, so his prime business when he was here was [Page 121] (as our Lord) to prescribe us Precepts, and to press for a due obedience to all the Pre­cepts which he prescrib'd. Though 'tis the custom of the world, to look upon him as a Saviour, and nothing else, in his Priestly Of­fice only, which is to bless us, and to in­sist upon his being our Elder Brother; yet Rev. 19. 16 the name written upon his Garment, and on his Thigh, is King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. His name is Christ as well as Iesus. Moses was his Type, as well as Ioshua. And ob­serve in what order. He is our Moses in the first place, to make us fit for a blessed Canaan; and then our Ioshua to give us pos­session. The general Title of the Gospel [ [...]] which we love to call the New Testament (and nothing else) would (by a more genuine Translation of the word) be expressed by The new Covenant, that is to say, the new Compare Rom. 3. 27. with Rom. 8. 2. Law. For so it is called by St. Paul, [...], the Law of Faith, (Rom. 3. 27.) And as the whole Moral Law was published by Christ, as well as Moses, (which any man may see who will not wink, in the fifth, sixth, and seventh Chapters of St. Matthew,) so Christ, as well as Moses, [Page 122] thought fit to give it upon a Matth. 5. 1. Mountain. Nor is it unworthy our observation, That throughout the New Testament, though there is many times a Precept without a Pro­mise annexed to it; yet there is not one Promise which is not clogg'd with some Pre­cept. As if our Saviour had esteemed it an easier thing, to make us believing and ortho­dox Christians, than obedient and sincere ones. According to which he elsewhere tells us, that they only shall enter into the Kingdom of his Father Matth. 7. 21., not that call upon his Name, but that do his Will. Nay (as there he goes on in the following Verses,) Though a man may have Faith to the working of Miracles, yet if it be built upon the Sand, (as most certainly it is, when 'tis not seconded with obedience,) he foretells what he will say unto men of that sort at the Day of Judgment, [...], I never knew you. (Not thatVers. 26. 23. Christ can be ignorant of their persons, or their works, to whom he will say, I never knew you. For even that very saying im­ports he knew them well enough, that is, he knew them to be such, as did deserve that such words should be spoken to them. And [Page 123] therefore the meaning must needs be this, I never knew you to be members of my Body, or to be sheep of my Fold; that is, I know you to be Persons I cannot own. For as to know in the holy Dialect does often signifie to ap­prove; so not to know does very often import no more than to disown.) I must confess we might think it exceeding strange, but that our Oracle does assure us 'tis very true, That as Believers we may be able to cast out De­vils, and yet as Disobedient may be our selves possess't with them▪ We may preach to save others, and yet be Castaways our selves. For be we never so zealous Preachers, or Profes­sors of the Gospel; and at the very same time Indulgent Transgressors of the Law; our very Advocate will say, when he shall come to be our Iudge, [...], Depart from me ye workers of Iniquity.

And therefore our blessed Saviour being about to leave the world, and to teach his Disciples (before he left them) how to serve him [...], in such a manner as he would like; did not speak in this stile, If ye love me, cast all your Care upon my Promises; or If you love me, stoutly rely upon my merits; (althô [Page 124] there is a place for each of these too,) But, as preparatory to Both, If ye love me, keep my Commandments, John 14. 15. which was as if he should have said, shew me your Faith by your works, and your Love by your obe­dience. Plainly implying to Them and Us, that our Sonship does not give us any Ex­emption from our Service; our Service being the only thing by which we are able to prove our Sonship. As Christ hath a Priestly, and a Prophetical, so hath he also a Kingly Office. Nor may we kick at the Scepter and Throne of Christ, and think it sufficient to declare we are his Majesty's most humble and loyal Sub­jects. Some Earthly Potentates have been thus mock'd, but the King of Kings will ne­ver be so. We cannot honour our Lord by disobeying him; or shew our selves kind, by being undutiful; For we see that our obedi­ence is both the Argument and the Badge of a True Affection. Our Saviour saith, Matth. 10. 38. He that follows me not, is unworthy of me. Where to follow him, is to be like him; To conform our selves to him more than a Parasite to his Patron; not to walk in his Path only, but to tread in his very Footsteps. [Page 125] According to that of the Pythagoreans (which deserves for its worth to be Christi­aniz'd, however writ by that Hierocles who writ a Book against Christ,) [...]. Thou shalt honour God the better, the more thou studiest to be like him. For him we love most, whom we most imi­tate; and he honours God best, who doth best resemble him; And what kind of Resem­blance he most requires, St. Iohn hath told us twice together in his first Epistle and third Chapter; to wit, our being pure as he is pure, (v. 3.) and our being Righteous as he is Righ­teous, (v. 7.) And our Saviour to the same purpose, having mustred up his Precepts with the several Promises annext, makes a kind of a Corollarie or rather Abridgment of the whole, not at all with a command, that we be happy as God is happy, but with an [...], be ye perfect as he is perfect. Matth. 5. ult.

Thus as briefly, and yet as fully as I could possibly contrive, I have shew'd the chiefest end of our blessed Saviour's coming hither, and his principal Business when he was here. It was not only as a Saviour, to propose Promises to our Faith; nor only as a Teacher, to [Page 126] fiill our heads with new knowledge, but as a So­veraign, and a Prince, (as St. Peter calls him) to exact obedience to his Commands. And to place it without dispute, He made it part of his business, when he was here, to let us know, why he came hither. For as he tells us in one place (enough to keep us from de­spair) that he came not to destroy mens lives,Luke 9. 56. but to save them; so he tells us in another, (enough to keep us from presumption,) thatMatth. 5. 17. he came not to destroy the Law, but to save and preserve That also: and that in each sense of the word [...], not by fulfilling it only, but by Ita Meletius Monachus, con­cra Isphacanem Persam Musul­manum. Et Tertullianus c. 3. de poenit. Christus, inquit, susterstruit Ad­jectionem Legis. Idem de Pati­ent. c. 6. p. 131. filling it up too. For thô nothing could be completer than the Law Moral in it self, yet did he fill up those vacuities which Moses left in his Delivery. From all which it follows (do what we can) that Unless our Righteousness shall exceed the Righteousness of the Iews, we shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

For can there be any thing more agree­able to the judgment of common Sense, (I had almost said of Carnality it self) than that where God hath afforded a greater Stock, he should expect a greater Increase; that where [Page 127] he hath strengthened the Shoulders, he should in proportion increase the Burden? And that as he hath shrunk up the Mosaical Law, so he should also extend the Moral? Of Moses we know, that he had a Vail upon his Promises, as well as upon his Face; and was as obscure upon Mount Nebo, as before he had been upon Mount Sinai. Whereas our Antitype of Moses hath been graciously pleas'd to Vetus dicitur Testamentum quia promissio­nes terrenas habet. August. de Civ. Dei. l. 18. uncover Both. The Iews beheld Christ as in a Glass, but we (in comparison) face to face. They walk't by Twilight, but we by the Sun in his Meridian. They were us'd like little Children, but we like Men. They had a Sen­sible Vid. Grot. Dis­cus. Apol. Ri­vet. p. 30, 31. good propos'd, but we an Intellectual. They as 'twere an Apple, but we an Inheri­tance. They a transitory Kingdom, but we a Kingdom not to be moved. They were pro­mis'd a Redemption indeed from Egypt, but we from Hell. They to be fed with milk and hony, but we never to hunger or thirst. They a long life, but we an Eternal one. They a Canaan, but we a Heaven. And that God will exact the Luke 10. 13, 14, 15. with which compare Matth. 10. 15. most strict accompt of our wanderings, to whom he hath held the great­est light for the better clearing of our ways, [Page 128] we may infer from our Saviour's words in the eleventh Chapter of St. Matthew, where Tyre and Sidon are more excusable than Co­razin and Bethsaida, because the later had been obliged with greater Means of Convi­ction, but all in vain.

This affords a Lesson for our Humiliati­on, That however our Reward is extremely Great, even a Kingdom which cannot be moved, (a Kingdom of Grace and of Glory too,) yet God hath placed it very high, and the way to it is very steep. We must not flatter our selves therefore, that we are able to fall upwards; that with a yawning Relyance we can ever climb up the Hill of Sion, and drop as 'twere into Heaven with a drowzy Confi­dence. We have no incouragement from our Apostle, to believe we shall go thither, by meerly believing we are Regenerate, and cannot fail of our being there. He does not here press on his Hebrew Christians, to receive their Salvation with Faith; but to serve for it with Reverence. Not to expect it only with confidence, but strictly to endeavour it with godly Fear. For our God is a Consuming Fire.

To Him be Glory for ever and ever.

THe words (in general) are a Command, delivered by St. Paul, in the Name of God the Great Master, to the Ser­vants of God, in the Church at Philippi. In which there are chiefly four things to be con­sider'd.

First the quality of the Servants. Next the wages which they expected. Thirdly the work, with which the wages was to be earn'd. And lastly the manner, or qualification, with which the working was to be cloath'd.

[Page 130]First for the Quality of the Servants, They were such as had been diligent in the per­formance of their Duty. They had not only been sometimes dutiful; they had not only been good by fits; but [...], they had always obeyed; They had evermore liv'd in the fear of God.

Next for the Wages which they expected, That is expressed by [ [...]] to be Salvati­on; both as it signifies a deliverance from the tremendous Pains of Hell, and as im­porting an Advancement to the ravishing Ioys of Heaven

Then Thirdly for the Work, with which the Wages was to be earn'd, That is evi­dently obedience to the Lord Iesus Christ Very significantly implyed in the [...], as that looks back upon the [...]. As ye have always obey'd, so now much more obey the Gospel. Continue the Course of your o­bedience. Go on to finish the work which ye have begun; [...], work, and work out your own Salvation.

Last of all, for the Manner or Qualification of the working, whereby to make it become effectual for the receiving of the Reward, [Page 131] There must be [...], our Salvation is to be wrought for, with Fear and Tremb­ling; And that according to the threefold Signification of this expression.

First with Meekness and Humility. We must not put the least Trust in the greatest Performances of our own; nor must we be puff't or lifted up with the Gifts and Graces which God hath given us.

Next with Diligence and Solicitude. That we may not for want of Perseverance, finally miss of the Prize that is set before us, and for which we have hitherto as it were contended by our obedience.

Thirdly with Awefulness, and Horror, or ho­ly Dread; Because as God is (in one Cafe) a quickning Light, so he is (in another) a con­suming Fire. He who purposely created us to do him service, is He who will turn us to De­struction, unless we serve him as he Requires.

And now to anticipate an Inquiry, how Hu­mility, and Solicitude, (as well as Awefulness and Dread, are comprehended under the notion of Fear, and Trembling, I think it is easy to make it clear from the consideration of the Con­text; without recourse to those other Scrip­tures, [Page 132] wherein we meet with the same expres­sion. For

First in vain should we indeavour the working out of our Salvation, but that it is God who worketh in us both to will, and to do. And therefore we must do it with all Hu­mility of Mind, because in our selves (as of our selves) there dwelleth no good thing; no not so much as Inclination to any thing that is good, no not so much as Aversation from any thing that is evil. But every good and perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights. If we can triumph over the Law, as the strength of Sin, by treading Sin under our Feet, as the sting of Death, All the Thanks must be to God, who hath given us the Victory through our Lord Iesus Christ. And yet

Secondly; Although it is God that worketh in us both to will, and to do; yet the Apostle makes it a Reason, why we our selves are to work out our own Salvation. And therefore we must do it with Care and Diligence, lest whilst God by his Grace is not wanting unto us, we finally miss of his Glory, by having been wanting unto our selves.

[Page 133]Thus we see there is pregnant Reason, for the Double Importance of the Phrase as 'tis meerly rational. And of the literal Significa­tion I suppose there cannot be any Doubt. For

We must work out our Salvation with Fear and Trembling, (in as much as that sig­nifies the greatest Awefulness and Dread,) be­cause of the Dreadfulness of our Doom, in case we work not at all, or not at all to that purpose that God requires. And thus I hope I have so divided, as withal to have explain­ed, and clear'd the Text.

The first three Parts of the whole Divisi­on may well be thrust up together into this Doctrinal Proposition. [That our Salvation is not attainable by a meer Orthodoxy of Iudgment in point of Faith, or a bare Re­ctitude of Opinions concerning God; But by obedience to the Gospel or Law of Christ.] For what is expressed by obedience, in the for­mer part of this Verse; is also expressed in the later, by the working out of our own Salva­tion. And as Salvation is a Thing which re­quires our working; So 'tis not any kind of working will serve our Turn. For

[Page 134]The last Particular of the four affords us a second Proposition, which is as apt to defend us from Carnal Security, as the First. To wit, [That however Unavoidable our State of Bliss may seem to us, by our having (with the Philippians) obeyed Always, yet our obedience unto the Gospel or Law of Christ, by which alone we are to work out our own Salva­tion, is to be qualified and season'd with Fear and Trembling.]

The first of these I have consider'd in a former Subject of Meditation, when I en­larged upon the Matter of which our work­ing is to consist. I now am come to that Part of my General Method and Design, which obligeth me strictly to the conside­ration of the Second; as touching the Man­ner or Qualification wherewith our working is to be cloath'd, whereby to make it be­come effectual for the receiving of our Re­ward. To wit, with Meekness and Humi­lity, with Diligence and Solicitude, with Awefulness and Horror, or holy Dread; the threefold Importance of Fear and Trembling; which must first be considered in the Gross, and after that, in the Retail.

[Page 135]First consider'd in the Gross, it shews us a ready and easy way of reconciling and understanding those parts of Scripture, which being taken but in the letter, do seem to differ, and con­tradict. For there is not any One Passion or Affection of the Mind, either more rigidly forbidden, or more earnestly commanded, than that of Fear.

It is so rigidly forbidden, that the fearful and unbelieving have their part in the Lake of Fire and Brimstone, (Rev. 21. 8.) where St. Iohn making a Muster of such as are listed under the Devil, and bound for Hell, sets the Fearful and Unbelieving (as it were) in the Front of the whole Battalia, with which the desperate Prince of Darkness is wont to wage War against the Father of Lights. As for The Murderers, and Whoremongers, The Sorcerers and Idolaters, They all march after in Rank and File; Implying the Fearful and Unbe­lieving to be the Ringleaders in Hell, and as it were in the Van of the Devil's Army. Un­belief is so commonly the Cause of Fear, and Fear is commonly such a Tempter to Unbe­lief, that we find them often yok't toge­ther, if not so as to signifie, one, the other. [Page 136] Woe be to fearful Hearts, and faint Hands, and the Sinner that goeth two ways; woe be to him that is faint-hearted, for he believeth not, therefore shall he not be defended, (Ecclus. 2. 12, 13.) It seems that Fear is a Thing, of which we ought to be sore afraid; Be­cause it is apt to make us sinners going two ways at once. One in our Principles, and quite another in our Practice. Very fit to be compar'd unto wandering Stars, which are carried towards the West by the Primum Mobile, whilst They are stealing towards the East by their proper motion. When Peter was frighted upon the Sea, and cryed [Lord save me] as he was just ready to sink; although it was a good Prayer, yet because it proceed­ed from Carnal Fear, rather than Faith, our Saviour presently took him up with an [...], O Thou of little Faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And so it was fitly said by Za­chary in his Divine Benedictus, That God did Therefore deliver us out of the hands of our Enemies, that we might serve him without Fear, (Luke 1. 74.) With which agrees That of St. Paul to Timothy; He hath not given us the spirit of Fear, but of Love, (2 Tim. 1. 7.) [Page 137] To which it is added by St. Iohn, That there is no Fear in Love, for perfect Love casteth out Fear, (1 John 4. 18.)

Thus we see how this Passion is very ri­gidly forbidden throughout the Scriptures. And yet for all that it is so earnestly command­ed, that we cannot serve God acceptably, un­less we serve him with Fear, as well as Reve­rence, (Heb. 12. penult) Nor can there be any such thing as the working out of our Sal­vation, unless we do it with Fear and Tremb­ling. For the fear of the Lord is the Begin­ning of Wisdom, (Prov. 1. 7.) Nay (as Solo­mon goes on in the fourteenth Chapter, v. 27.) The fear of the Lord is a Fountain of Life; the attainment of which is the end of Wisdom. And thence 'tis set by our Apostle as the highest accomplishment of a Christian, To perfect holiness in the Fear of God, (2 Cor. 7. 1.)

What then may be the meaning of these [...], these so seeming Contradictions, that we must serve God with Fear, and that we must serve him without Fear? that there is no fear in love, yet no true love without some fear?

[Page 138]The Reconcilement of These is extreme­ly obvious. It is no more but to distinguish betwixt that which is Carnal, and that which is Spiritual; betwixt the spirit of Bondage, and the spirit of Adoption; betwixt a servile, and filial Fear. As 'tis true in one sense, that perfect Love doth cast out Fear, so 'tis true in another, that perfect Love doth carry fear a­long with it.

When I say with St. Iohn, It casteth out Fear; I mean that childish unmanlike Fear, which betrayeth those Succours that Reason of­fereth; especially that heathenish and carnal fear, the fear of Poverty, and Pain, and o­ther effects of Persecution; the fear that made so many Sinners going two ways at once. And so it casteth out one fear with another; the fear of them that can kill the Body, but are not able to hurt the Soul, with the fear of Him who is able to cast them both into Hell. In this sense 'tis said, we must serve God without Fear.

But when I say the same Love doth carry fear along with it, I mean the fear of offending God, the fear of quenching or grieving his holy Spi­rit; the fear of never doing enough whereby to [Page 139] please him; the fear of falling into Tempta­tion; the fear of a treacherous deceitful heart; that is, the fear of Unsincerity in the per­formance of our Service; the fear of falling from our own steadfastness, and so of receiv­ing the Grace of God in vain. In this sense2 Cor. 6. 1. 'tis said by the Royal Prophet, Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoyce unto him with Reverence. And thus 'tis said by the Royal Preacher, Hap­py is the man that feareth always. As a meer carnal fear is a fear of that which is carnal, so a godly fear is the fear of God. First a fear of his Majesty, in respect of which he is a Soveraign; next a fear of his Mercy, in respect of which he is a Father; (for so 'tis said by the Prophet David, There is Mercy with thee, ô Lord, therefore shalt thou be Feared.) Lastly a fear of his Wrath and Iustice, in respect of which he is a Iudge, and also an Executor of Vengeance.

This Fear of God is so necessary for the Qualification of our obedience, that all with­out it is nothing worth; and even this, of it self, is wont to supply the place of all. For [...]; (that is) men fearing God, is an expression made use of by God himself, whereby to signifie conscientious and pious [Page 140] men; men who live in obedience to all his Precepts. Iob was said to be an upright, andJob 1. 1. perfect man, because he was one that feared God. And the words of Moses to Israel have a remarkable Importance; What doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but only to fear the Lord thy God? (Deut. 10. 12.) And what is it to fear him, but (as it follows in the next words) to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve him, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul? Without this Fear, we shall easily fall into presumption, or into carnal security. We shall not strive to enter in at the strait Gate; Nor give all diligence to make our Calling and Election sure. We shall not give an earnest heed unto the things which we have heard, (Heb. 2. 1.) If we do not fear, lest a promise being left of entring into his Rest, any of us should seem to come short of it, (Heb. 4. 1.) we shall not labour to enter into that Rest, (v. 11.) For who will labour to get a thing, which he verily thinks he hath as good as in possession? Or who will labour to keep a thing, which he verily thinks he can never lose? I will not here stand to shew the ma­nifold danger of their Opinion, who say [Page 141] they were justified from Eternity, and their Sins so forgiven, before committed, That they cannot fall totally, much less finally from Grace; although my Text would bear me out in such a profitable Severity. Nor dare I otherwise be severe to any difference in opi­nion, than as I find it corruptive of Christian Practice. The case is clear, that our Apo­stle having commended his Philippians, for having always obey'd the Gospel, does not there make a stop, as if they had done enough already, or needed no more of his Admoniti­ons; but immediately adds, that they must work for their Salvation; and work so far, as to work it out; and work it out in such a manner, as to do it with Fear and Trembling; and that according to the threefold Importance of this Expression; which having thus con­sidered in the Gross, I shall now consider in the Retail too.

First we must work it out with meekness, and humility of mind, because it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure. All we have is but little, and all that little is but receiv'd. All the good we have received, we have received as intrusted, [Page 142] or lent unto us; And whatsoever God lends us, he lends us purposely to Employ. Of all that is lent us to be imploy'd, we are every one to render a strict Accompt. And this a­lone may serve to keep us in all humility of mind, that the more we have, the more we owe, and for so much the more we are ac­comptable. And for the more we are unable to render a satisfactory Accompt, by so much the more we shall be appal'd at the Day of Reck'ning.

'Tis true indeed (vvhat St. Iohn saith) that by keeping the Commandments we may come to have a Rev. 22. 14. right to the Tree of Life; And by suffering for God, may be counted wor­thy of the Kingdom of God. Affliction suffer'd in such a Case is said to 2 Cor. 4. work for us a weight of Glory. 'Tis true indeed we may be profitable Servants in God's Accompt; be­cause the unprofitable was commanded to be cast into utter Darkness, Matth. 25. 30. And the Joys of Heaven are express'd by a Col. 1. 10. 2 Thess. 1. 5. Rev. 3. 4. Crown of Righteousness; as if Eternity of Life were become our due. But all this only by the force of God's Promise who cannot lye; or by the Tenor of the Covenant which God [Page 143] was pleas'd to make with us; Not by vertue of our Obedience, as that that is equal to our Reward. Which, when it is in its Apogaeo, at the utmost Top of its Exaltation, is not wor­thy to be compar'd with the Glory which shall be Rom. 8. 18. revealed in us. For however St. Paul had preach'd the Gospel, and preach'd it too with­out 1 Cor. 9. 16. Vers. 15. 18. charge, not living of the Gospel, (which yet by right he might have done,) but ma­kingVers. 14. his own hands to serve and minister to his Necessities, that he might not be burdensom unto any; yet he professed he had nothing to glory of, for so gratuitous a preaching the Word of God; because a moral Necessity was laid upon him, and woe had been to him if he had not preach'd it, (1 Cor. 9. 16.) Our blessed Saviour so puts the Case, as to illu­strate it with a Colour, Luke 17. 7, 8, 9, 10. Admit a Servant is very diligent in the per­formance of his Duty; ever going when he is sent; ever coming when he is call'd; and ever doing as he is bid. Does the Master give Thanks to that diligent Servant, for do­ing the things that were commanded him? I trow not (saith our Saviour.) Even so ye, (as our Lord goes on to Application,) when ye [Page 144] shall have done all those things that are com­manded you, say, we are unprofitable Servants, we have done but our Duty; and had been lyable to wrath, if we had not done it.

Away then with those Philosophers St.August. Epist. 52. Austin speaks of, qui sibi vitam beatam fabri­care vellent, who design'd themselves a Hea­ven of their own skill and industry. And a­way with those Pharisees, not only of our Saviour's, but of these our own Times; whose custom 'tis to thank God, for that they are not like other men. And confining Sanctity to the men of their Sect, do separate from the rest of the Christian World, as from Publi­cans and Sinners; Sinners not to be approach­ed by men of their Purity. Stand farther off (is their language) for we are holier than you, (Isa. 65. 5.) Conform we rather to St. Paul, the special Badge of whose Saintship was the profoundness of his Humility. For as the chief­est of Sinners do call themselves (by an impi­ous Antiphrasis and Hyperbole) the chief of Saints; so That Apostle on the contrary, al­though Chieftain among the Saints, doth call Himself (by an holy M [...]osis) The chief of Sinners. When therefore our obedience hath [Page 145] led us to Christ, and Christ is leading us to Heaven, Let us remember the New Ierusalem, though a vastly great City, yet (contrary to Myndus) hath a very low Gate. And seeing the lowness of the Gate, stoop we down to en­ter in. Let us love Good works, but let us not lean too hard upon them. Let us love them as things, without which we cannot be saved; but let us not hope to be saved by them. Let us not labour with an ambition of being more meritorious, but less unworthy than heretofore. Claim we Heaven by a Right, not of Purchace, but of Donation. Having added Obedience to our Faith, add we Meekness to our Obedience. Having done Iustice, and lov'd Mercy, let us walk humbly with our God. And so expect our Salvation with Faith, and Hope, as withal to work it out, with Fear and Trembling. And that accord­ing to the first Importance of this Expres­sion.

Again we must do it with fear and tremb­ling, in as much as that signifies the greatest anxiety and solicitude, that we do not run in vain, nor labour in vain, (Philip. 2. 16.) that we do not faint as we are running, and possi­bly [Page 146] miss of the Prize within a stride of the Goal. For though we work for Salvation whole years together, and work for it never so hard, yet whilst we are in the Body, and compass'd about with a Tempting world, we cannot say we have work'd it out. So that That is a Thing to be still in doing, and to be done with Fear and Trembling. For as there are a sort of Labourers who do not come into the Vineyard, until the ninth or tenth hour; so there are that fall off in the very Evening, and lose the benefit of their Labour during the heat of the Day. (For when they cease from being Righteous, all their pass't Righteousness shall not be mention'd, (Ezek. 18.) Had not Iudas been worthy, Christ had not made him an Apostle; and had he not been a good Apostle, he had hardly been trusted with the Bag, much less had he been sent to dispense the Gospel. 'Tis very late e're we read the Devil enter'd into Iudas, hardly sooner than a day or two before his Death. And though our Saviour said, he chose twelve, whereof one was a Devil; yet did he not say, He chose a Devil. For Iu­das was not a Devil, that is, a Traytor, 'till [Page 147] some time after he had been chosen. Which fitly serves to put us in mind, that if we know what we are, we are not sure of what we shall be. What our last days will be, we cannot tell till we have liv'd them. We may speak out of Hope, but out of Certainty we cannot.

I know who they are, who breath nothing but Assurance of Life eternal, as if That were the english of [...] And as if their Rebel­lions were meritorious, mistake the sturdiness of their Presumption, for the stability of their Faith. So little or nothing are they con­cern'd in St. Paul's Exhortation to Fear and Trembling, that supposing they are sure, they think it below them to be solicitous.

I would to God that such Professors had but the patience to consider, that St. Peter doth not exhort us to make our selves sure of our Election; but to make our Election 2 Pet. 1. 10. sure. The vvord is [...], not meant in an Active, but Passive sense; nor of the Person, but of the Thing. St. Paul had sure as much reason, not to doubt of his Election to life Eternal, as any meer mortal, before, or after. And yet vvith vvhat a deal of fear [Page 148] and trembling, did he run the Race that was set before him? how did he strive for the 1 Cor. 9. 4. Mastery? And in order thereunto, how ve­ry temperate was he in all things? How did he keep under his body? how did he bring it into Subjection? and all for fear, left whilst he was preaching unto others, He himself might be a Vers. ult. Castaway? How did he Philip. 3. 8, 11, 12, 13, 14. suffer the loss of all things, and count them but Dung for the winning of Christ, who was at once his [...], and his [...], at once his Re­warder, and his Reward; the setter out of the Prize, and the Goal it self? 'Tis true indeed, He wins that loses, who loses All to win Christ. But, in order unto this end, with what fear and trembling did he press towards the Mark, and reach forth to those things that were before him, embracing a fellowship with the Sufferings of Christ, and being con­formable unto his Death; if by any means he might attain to the Resurrection of the Dead; if by any means he might apprehend That, for which he was also apprehended of Christ Ie­sus?

And here to anticipate an Objection which very easily may be made by a sort of men, [Page 149] I think it of use to be observ'd, That He first had fought the good Fight, and finished his Course, before he durst presume to say (in the following words,) Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness. It was not till after his Perseverance with Faith and Patience unto the end, that is, but a little be­fore his Death, when the Axe and the Heads­man stood ready for him, (at least when both were within his Prospect,) that he was able to speak with so great Assurance. For before that Season, whilst he was yet but in his Course, and had not fought to a perfect Vi­ctory; he flatly told his Philippians, He did not speak of his Proficiency in the School of Christ, as if he counted himself to have ap­prehended, or as if he thought he were al­ready made perfect; But on the contrary, He did so work out his Salvation with Fear and Trembling, as that he macerated himself, and (what with fasting, and watching, and other Austerities of Life,) he did bear in his body the Dying of the Lord Iesus; lest whilst he preach'd to save others, he himself might not be sav'd. He had not yet endured unto the end, and so he was not yet free from Fear. [Page 150] For he that endureth unto the end, the same is he (saith our Saviour) who shall be sav'd; (Matth. 24. 13.) It was the voice of God him­self, (reveal'd from Heaven five several Times) He that overcometh shall inherit all things, Rev. 21. 7. He that overcometh is He that shall eat of the Tree of Life, (Rev. 2. 7.) He that overcometh is He that shall not be hurt with the second Death, (v. 11.) He that overcometh is He that shall eat of the hidden Manna, (v. 17.) And who is he that over­cometh, but he that keepeth God's works unto the end, (v. 26.)

To Apply this now unto our selves; If we can say with St. Paul, that our Battle is quite fought, (against the World, the Flesh, and the Devil,) And that our Course is quite fi­nished, (in so much that we are able to lay our hands upon the Goal,) we then may say with him too, Henceforth is laid up for us a Crown of Righteousness. We may say, we have a Right to the Tree of Life; That God is [...], a righteous Iudge, who will not be so Unfaithful (having given us a Pro­mise,) as to forget our work and labour of love, (Heb. 6. 10.) And so being sure to be with [Page 151] Christ, we may desire to be dissolv'd too.

But whilst we are upon the way, and we cannot tell how far from our Iourneys end; Nor what may happen 'twixt This and That; sure the use we are to make of our present standing, is to take great heed that we do not fall. We must beware, if we are righteous, that we do not return from righteousness to sin. The higher we stand in God's Favour, we must beware so much the more, that we be not high-minded, but rather fear; lest for having (like Capernaum) been lifted up to Heaven, we be the rather (like Capernaum) cast down to Hell.

There was a Proverb among the Iews, The Sow is turned being wash't to her wallowing in the Mire. And St. Peter applys it to cer­tain Christians, who have made it good in the Application; even by growing Unrighte­ous after Regeneration, (2 Pet. 2. ult.) For having been wash'd from the Mire of Sin Original by the Laver of Baptism, and from the Mire of Sins Actual by the blood of Iesus Christ, in the other Sacrament of Eucharist, they have committed the very Sins, of which they had solemnly repented, and so their [Page 152] latter end hath been worse than their beginning. Now▪ putting the Case unto our selves, we know not what may arrive betwixt the Cup and the Lip, much less betwixt This and the Day of Iudgment; especially if we meet with a Time of Trial. We cannot be confident of our strength upon any better Ground than St. Peter stood on. And having not Grace at our own Disposal, we must not boast (as he did) what we will do above others, when Christ is under a Condemnation. If we have fol­low'd him to Golgotha, we must religiously fear to forsake him there. For let our En­during be what it will, it will be found to no purpose, unless we endure unto the end. And thence it follows, that 'till we have Happi­ness in Possession, we are to live by such a Faith, as doth admit an holy mixture of fear and trembling. This Mode or Manner of our obedience being as rigidly requir'd by God Almighty, as the Matter, and Mea­sure, and Method of it. Not only Faith, and Repentance, and Amendment of Life, but also Perseverance in each of These, is the Condition of the Promises which God in Christ hath made to us. Whose House we are (saith the Epistle [Page 153] to the Hebrews) if we hold fast the confidence, and the rejoycing of the hope firm unto the end, (Heb. 3. 6.) Take heed therefore Brethren (as it follows a little after) lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God, (v. 12.) But exhort one ano­ther daily, whilst it is call'd, To Day, lest any of you be harden'd through the deceitfulness of Sin, (v. 13.) For we are made partakers of Christ, (not absolutely, but with an If,) If we hold the beginning of our Confidence steadfast un­to the end, (v. 14.)

Now what needed the holy Penman to have crowded and throng'd so many Caveats so thick together in that one Chapter, (and in other Chapters of that Epistle,) if the Peo­ple of God are so sure of Heaven, that there is not place left for a fear of Hell? If some at least who were enlightned, and by true Grace sanctified, do turn Mammelucks and Apostates, as Lycerus hath observ'd, and asLycerus in Harm. Evang. p. 1562. the Apostle doth take for granted, (Heb. 6. 6.) we ought to fear, and take heed, that We be none of their Number. For God's promises to us of a Spiritual Canaan, are no more ab­solute than those of a Temporal Canaan, [Page 154] which he made heretofore to his People Is­rael. And since he swore to the Heb. 3. 15, 16. Provokers which came with Moses out of Aegypt, that notwithstanding his promise, (which appears by that to have been conditional,) they should not enter into his Rest, (Heb. 3. 18.) the Apo­stle tells us we ought to fear, lest (if we do as they did) we come short (as they did) of the conditional promise proposed to us, (Heb 4. 1.) And conformably to this, St. Iohn doth ear­nestly exhort us, to look to our selves, that we lose not the things which we have wrought, but that we may receive a full Reward, (2 Joh. 8.) And he that saith here for our Consolation, [It is God that worketh in us to will and to do of his good pleasure,] doth also say for our greater Caution, that we our selves are to work out our own Salvation. Plainly intima­ting unto us, (for he is not guilty of Con­tradictions,) That God's working in us to will and to do, is not after an irresistible, but con­gruous manner; not as with natural, but as with voluntary Agents; not by physically inforcing, but by morally persuading our pee­vish Wills. He doth so work with us, as to require that we also do work with Him. It [Page 155] is evinced even from hence, that as God hath his part, so we have ours, in the great Busi­ness of our Salvation, Because we are many times threatned with falling short of the pro­mise, in Case we depart from the living God. For God cannot threaten to be reveng'd up­on his Creatures, for what Himself doth ei­ther do, or not do, but for what is either performed, or not performed, by his Creatures. It being not possibly imputable to the Crea­ture, that God hath made it Thus, or Thus; any more than God himself can be accompta­ble to his Creature, why he made it Thus, or Thus. God indeed doth [...], most divinely work in us both to will, and to do, the work required to our Salvation. But 'tis that we may [...], work out that work which he is pleas'd to work in us. And by consequence we must do it with fear and trembling, lest when God hath done his part, we finally miss of Salvation, for having been wanting in doing ours.

And this doth lead us to consider the third Importance of the expression, the very great Awefulness or Dread, with which we are to work out our own Salvation. The two [Page 156] first were rational, this third is Literal. And indeed the third may be deduced out of the second. For if we may fall as well as o­thers, we may be lyable to vengeance, as well as others. That which calls for our solicitude, deserves our Fear. And that which was St. Paul's reason, may well be ours, even because our God is a Consuming Fire.

I may say in some sense, that God made Hell for the use of all; as well of the best, as the worst of men. For a Torment only to These, who have hated knowledge, and will Prov. 1. not choose the fear of the Lord; But for a Ter­ror also to Them, whom he would therefore have to fear, that they may not feel it. That working out their Salvation with fear and trembling, they never may come to the place of Torment. The same Spirit that saith, Fear not them that can kill the Body only, (which is a fear proceeding from the spirit of Bondage,) doth also say at the same Time, But rather fear Him who can cast both Body and Soul into Hell. Implying This to be such a Fear, as doth very well consist with the spirit of Adoption. It's true indeed, we may be brutishly valiant, and over-daringly en­counter [Page 157] the wrath of Heaven, without the least fear of the pains of Hell. But this (I say) is a beastly courage; an arrant [...] that is to say, A fool-hardiness rather than va­lour. True Valour being That, that is built on Reason. Nor can we Reasonably be free from the fear of Hell, until we come to be sure of Heaven. And sure of Heaven we cannot be, until we have fought the good fight to a final victory, and perfectly finish'd our Christian Course.

We must not suffer the novel Fancy of unconditional Election to flatter us out of all fear of the wrath of God, and make us sure to miss of Heaven, by making us dream it is unavoidable. For as God in his Iudg­ment is no Respecter of Persons, so neither wasRom. 2. he in his Decrees. As his Rule is in Time, to judge us according to our works; so he de­creed from all Aeternity, to proceed in Time by that Rule. He did determin the end of men, with a special respect to their Qualifica­tions, (from whence his Decree is call'd re­spective,) But he did absolutely determin that men who are thus or thus qualified, should come to this or that end. And I [Page 158] could wish that this Distinction (since 'tis suf­ficient of it self) might find so much fa­vour in all mens Eyes, as to appease and re­concile dissenting Brethren. That as the Decrees of the Almighty are said to be Abso­lute in one sense, so they may candidly be granted to be Respective in Another. This methinks should be the Judgment of all Mankind, (being so visible in it self, and of so necessary Importance to the well-ordering of our Lives,) That God did absolutely decree a most indissoluble Connexion betwixt Repentance and Salvation, as betwixt Impenitence and Condemnation. Which proves the end to have been decreed with a special respect unto the means. Let this one thing be granted, (as well for the Comfort of the good, as for a Terror to evil Doers,) And I, for my part, shall ask no more. For the Decree which is respective in sensu diviso, may so be proved to be Absolute in sensu composito, as to afford a Demon­stration, That God's Decree of the several Ends was in respect to the several Means. For if in sensu composito, He did absolutely decree, that all who are faithful and repent should belong to Heaven, and that all who [Page 159] are faithless and impenitent should in like manner belong to Hell; Then his Decree was respective (in sensu diviso) of that Repen­tance, or Impenitence, by which Professors do belong to Heaven, or Hell. From whence it follows unavoidably, that if we are faithless and impenitent, (be it in a greater, or lesser measure,) we ought to be affected with fear and trembling, (in the lite­ral sense of this expression,) and never to give our selves Rest, until we be faithful, and do repent. But faithful and penitent we cannot be, till by the power of God's Grace, (after our Prayers and Tears shall have given him no Rest) he shall be pleas'd to work in us, and with us too, not only to will, but to do his work. That by the pow­er of his Grace we may all endeavour, and by the power of his Grace on our Endea­vours, we our selves may have a Power too, whereby to work out our own Salvation. And work for it we must with a sacred horror, because of the Dreadfulness of our Doom, if we work remissly. For as (on one side) God himself cannot condemn us, (al­though our sins past have been very great,) [Page 160] if we immediately repent and amend our lives, because he is faithful who hath promi­sed, and he hath promised forgiveness to all that repent and turn unto him; so withal (on the other side) Let our Righteousness past have been what it will, yet if we return from Righteousness to Sin, God himself can­not save us, without our Repentance and Reformation, because he hath sworn that the Impenitent shall not enter into his Rest. Not that God can be overpower'd by any Quality in the Creature, whether Repentance in the first Case, or Impenitence in the second; But because his Power (in the first) is suspended by his Mercy, as it stands in conjunction with his Truth. For in his Mer­cy he made a Promise to give us pardon if we repent, and in his Truth he must perform it. Just so his Power (in the second) is suspended by his Iustice, as it stands in conjunction with his Truth too. For in his Iustice he made an Oath to be revenged on the Impeni­tent, and in his Truth he must make it good.

Now since each of these Cases concerns us All, (be we never so good, or be we ne­ver so evil,) I need not shew by another [Page 161] Medium how the love of God's Mercy doth consist with a fear of his Indignation, and how whilst we love him as a Father, we ought to fear him as a Judge.

But (to conclude with such a Caveat, as may best of all become an Ingenuous People) Take we heed that our Fear do not swallow up our Love; for fear it swallow up us too in the Bottomless Pit of Desperation. We must serve God with Fear, but so as to fear him also for Love. Ever saying with the Psalmist, There is mercy with thee ô Lord, therefore▪ shalt thou be feared. The Psalmist did not thus argue, There is Mercy with Thee ô Lord, Therefore shalt thou be rely'd upon, Therefore we shall make the bolder with thee; we shall break thy Command­ments without the fear of being damn'd, be­cause we know thou art slow to anger, and being angry art quickly pleas'd; But because of thy mercy thou shalt be feared. And there is good reason for it. For by how much the kinder a Father is, a well-natur'd Son will fear to offend him so much the more. And the more our Father which is in Heaven does even delight to please us, (by heaping his [Page 162] Mercies and Favours on us,) by so much the more shall we be afraid, (if we are well-natur'd Children) to exasperate our Father which is in Heaven.

What then remains, but that we ponder these things, and lay them up in our hearts, and draw them forth into our Actions, and daily repeat them in our Lives, And reap the comfort of so doing, in the hour of Death, and the Day of Iudgment.

Which God of his Mercy prepare us for, even for the glory of his Name, and for the worthiness of his Son; To whom, with the Father, in the Unity of the Spirit, be ascri­bed by us, and by all the World, Blessing, and Glory, and Honour, and Power, and Wisdom, and Thanksgiving, from this time forward for evermore.

THus the Iailour at Philippi sought to his Pris'ners for a Deliverance. Not his ordinary Pris'ners, who at once were in Bondage to Him and Satan; And were bound up in Misery as well as Iron; who had [...], spirits so gross, and so incrassat, and so manacl'd to the Flesh, that together with their Bodies, their Souls were put into the Stocks, as knowing no better Liberty than what con­sisted in the Freedom of Hands and Feet. But the Pris'ners in the Text were Pris'ners [Page 166] only [...]. Men whose Liberty did con­sist in the ubiquity of their Thoughts, and in being made free of the New Ierusalem. Men, who by living the Life of Faith, maintain'd an Intercourse with God and his glorious An­gels. And though their Carkasses or Outsides were contiguous to the Earth, yet their Commerce and Conversation was still in Heaven. They were at once such a Free and such a Dreadful sort of Pris'ners, as by their Liber­ty to pray, and to sing praises unto God, (v. 25.) may be said to have taken their Prison Cap­tive. For their Midnight Devotions were sud­dainly follow'd with an Earthquake; in so much that the Foundations of the Prison were shaken, the Doors flew open of themselves, and the Bands of the Pris'ners were all unloos'd, (v. 26.) Nor indeed is it a wonder, that such a Miracle should be seen in so blind a Dunge­on, whilst the Pris'ners that were in it were Paul and Silas. For These were two of that little number, by whom the world had been turned upside down, Acts 17. 6. not in that malitious sense, in which the words were there us'd, by the certain leud fellows of the baser sort, who had assaulted the House [Page 167] of Jason, and set the City in an uproar, (v. 5.) They having turn'd it upside down, not for the worse, but for the better. The Confu­sion which they made did tend to Harmony, and Order. They made men Antipodes to themselves, by their contrary walking to what they hitherto had done. And so in effect, They turn'd a Chaos upside down, more properly than a World. Or if it must needs be call'd a world, it was the world lying in wickedness, 1 Joh. 5. 19. The world compos'd of three Ingredients, which made it fit to be cleans'd by another Deluge. For all that is in the world (as the same St. Iohn saith) is the Lust of the Flesh, the Lust of the Eye, and the Pride of Life. And this alone was That world, which by Precept, and Example, by Life, and Doctrin, these first Preachers of Christ were to turn upside down. And this accordingly they did in a great many re­spects. As in opening the Eyes of the Ig­norant Gentiles, and in mollifying the Hearts of the stubborn Iews, and in breaking down the Partition-wall, which God himself had built up betwixt the Iew and the Gentile. They turn'd the world upside down, by beat­ing [Page 168] Swords into Plough-shares, and warlike Spears into peaceful Pruning-hooks. By ma­king the Lamb to lye down with the Wolf, and the Kid with the Hyaena. By making Friend­ship and Peace between the Greek and the Iew, as between the Iew and the Samaritan. By turning Infidels into Believers; Idolaters into Christians; and the rebellious Sons of Darkness into Children of the Light. Thus without Archimedes his Postulatum or Hypo­thesis, [...], or (as it is in the Dorick Dialect) [...], an easy way was found out, to turn the world up­side down.

Sure I am that in my Text there was some­what like it. For Paul and Silas who were yesterday as the off-scowring of the Earth, are now on a suddain entertain'd as two Inhabi­tants of Heaven. They who yesterday had been drag'd, both in their Persons, and in their Names, through the publick Market­place of Philippi, (v. 19.) who had had their Cloaths rent, and been beaten with Rods, (v. 22.) who had been thrown into a Dungeon as a Couple of pernicious and insufferable men, (v. 24.) are now revered and sought unto, as [Page 169] the very Oracles of God. That very Iailour who was yesterday putting their Feet into the Stocks, and thrusting them into the inner Prison, (v. 24.) is now awak'd by their Mu­sick, and stands affrighted at their Liberty, and is ready to kill himself with his Sword, for fear of dying by their Escape; when, be­ing hinder'd by his Pris'ners from offering violence to Himself, he even springs into their Presence with fear and trembling, and (by Faith coupl'd with Fear) falls down pro­strate at their Feet with this short Inquiry, (an Inquiry very plain, but yet sufficiently mysterious, and as copious in the sense, as it is short in the letter,) What must I do, that I may be saved? Which is as if he should have said, (that I may paraphrase his words,) See­ing I cannot but acknowledge, that the Doctrin you Teach is the Truth of God, and the Truth of That God who now hath testifi­ed it by Miracle, in shaking my Prison by its Foundations, in compelling its Doors to do you Reverence, and in making your Fetters afraid to hold you; And seeing I cannot but acknowledge, That such a God is to be served by every one who will be sav'd; I be­seech [Page 170] you Sirs inform me wherein his Ser­vice is to consist, and how I may attain to so great Salvation. It is not Silver, or Gold, or Security for your Persons, that I demand▪ I do not earnestly intreat you to confine your Heads within the Dungeon, or to return your Feet into the Stocks, (though That is as much as my Life is worth;) But if there is any Thing in the World which you will do for my sake, Tell me what I must do, that I may be saved.

And here I am sorry that I must say, (what yet I must, if I deal uprightly,) That we who pass for very prudent and sober Chri­stians, may very well be sent to School to this frighted Heathen. We may learn from this Iailour in his time of exigence and distress, how our Souls should be employ'd at our Times of leisure. Not in progging for Ri­ches, or worldly Greatness, asking what we must do to get a fortune when we have none, or to increase it when it is gotten, or to keep it when 'tis increas't, or to recover it when it is lost, or to secure it if recover'd from running the risque of a Relapse; Nor yet in progging (with Eudoxus) for Ease and Plea­sure, [Page 171] without either End, or Interruption, asking what we shall eat, or what we shall drink, or wherewithal we shall be cloath'd. We must not be carefully contriving with the unjust Steward, (Luke 16. 3.) in his What shall I do to put a cheat upon my Lord, and to oblige his Debtors to me, that when I am put out of my Stewardship, they may receive me into their Houses. Nor may we ask with the wealthy Miser, (Luke 12. 17.) What shall I do for sufficient Treasuries and Barns, wherein to bestow all my Fruit and my Goods; (as if his Life had consisted in the Abundance of the Things which he possessed, v. 15.) But our Inquiry must be rather like that of the Multitude to our Saviour, What shall we do that we may work the work of God? (that is to say in plainer Terms,) what course shall we take, that we may do what thou bidst us? thatJohn 6. 27. we may labour for the meat which will never perish, but indure unto Life everlasting? or as the Publicans and Souldiers, and other Pro­selytes to the Baptist, who had warn'd them to flee from the wrath to come, (Luke 3. 7, 10.) What shall we do whereby to anticipate our Destruction, and to avert the sad effects of the [Page 172] fatal Axe, which now is laid to the Root of the Tree? what shall we do, as to the bearing good fruit, to prevent hewing down, and be­ing cast into the Fire? or as the Iailour of Phi­lippi Vers. 9. to Paul and Silas, (in the words which are now before us,) what must we do that we may be sav'd?

In which Inquiry of the Iailour there are Four Things observable. First the End of the Inquiry; Next the Means conducing to it; Then the necessary Connexion between the one and the other; And lastly the Person here In­quiring, together with the Persons inquired of.

First the End of the Inquiry is here ex­pressed to be Salvation. 'Tis [...], That I may be sav'd.

Next the Means of its Attainment (which make the Object of his Inquiry) are here im­ply'd to consist in Practice. For it is not thus ask't, what must I outwardly Profess? or what must I inwardly believe? But [...]; what must I Do, that I may be sav'd?

Thirdly the necessary Connexion between the Means and the End, is very significant­ly [Page 173] imply'd in the little word Must. For 'tis not only [...]; what shall I do? (though That is also comprehended,) but [...]; what Must I do that I may be sav'd?

Lastly The Person here Inquiring, toge­ther with the Persons inquired of, are The Iai­lour and his two Pris'ners, Paul and Silas. These He earnestly consulted about the Bu­siness of his Salvation. Yet not as Pris'ners, or Private men, but as attested by the Mira­cle to be Embassadors from God. For as God the Son had His mission from God the Father, so had They Theirs from God the Son. As my Father sent me, so send I you, was the saying of Christ to his Twelve Apostles. And He that receiveth you, receiveth me, As he that receiveth me, receiveth also him that sent me. They were not only The Nuntio's, but Re­presentatives of Christ. He alone was the Oracle, at which Salvation was to be ask't; But Paul and Silas were two of those sa­cred Mystae, by whom the Responses were to be given. And so of Them in That Notion our Neophyte Iailour did fitly ask,

What must I do, that I may be saved?

This indeed is the Division, But it is not [Page 174] nice enough to be the measure of my In­tent in the Tractation of the Text. Where­in I purpose to consider, not so much the Matter, as the Condition of the Question. No nor That, in a Dogmatical, but in an Applicatory way. Nor so, in general, or at large, but as particularly relating unto the Terrors in the Context, whereby the Iailour of Philippi was happily frighted into Devo­tion. It being chiefly my present Aim, (not to touch on those Notions which I have used on a Text of some Affinity with This in another Place, but) to fill up the Vacuities of my former Design, by supply­ing That Here, which was there omitted. For the accomplishing of which,

As in all Moral Subjects of Meditation and Discourse, The Method is still to be Analytical; so in This (above All) which now does call for our Attention, I must begin with the End of the Iailor's Quaere. For

He who is so great a Sluggard, as not to open his Lips for the way to Heaven, will hardly be so industrious, as to labour with his Hands, or so much as pluck them out of his [Page 175] Bosom, whereby to lay 1 Tim. 6. 12, 19. hold on Eternal Life. How very far are They from striving to enter in at the strait Gate, who are not anxious enough to ask, whereabout the Gate lyes, or which is the way to get it open? How little can we expect they should give all di­ligence, to make their Calling and Election sure, who have not the Courage or Curiosity to learn of what sort it is? who are too Lazy to contemplate, or too delicate to inquire, either into the End, or the Nature of it? Can they be heartily employ'd in working out their Salvation with fear and trembling, who will not trouble themselves to ask, (no not so much as this Heathen-Iailour) what it is they must do that they may be sav'd? 'Tis very strange that so it should be, but very clear that so it is: That of the All which concerns us as Men or Christians, though nothing makes a greater Noyse than the Salvation of the Soul, yet there is nothing in the World of any considerable accompt, (whether for Profit, or Pleasure, or Reputation,) which is so little look't after, or labour'd for. For

This is sure the sole reason, (or at least [Page 176] one of the chief) why a far Matth. 7. 13, 14. lesser number of men belongs to Heaven than to Hell; And why the Harvest of Satan will be veryMatth. 3. 12. much greater than That of Christ; because Men commonly are industriously and expen­sively wicked, They sin as with a Cart-rope, and drink iniquity like water, they think they can never bid enough, whilst they are pur­chasing a Mansion in the Territories of Dark­ness; And therefore in the words of the Prophet Isaiah, (though spoken by Him in Mortem vo­cat Hostem mortiferum. Ut sensus sit, sperabant se, blandiendo, sa­lutem repertu­ros apud Sen­nacharibum. Grot. in locum. Micah 7. 3. Wisd. 1. 12, 16. another sense,) They make a Covenant with Death, and with Hell are at Agreement, (Isa. 28. 15.) or, (as the excellent Book of Wisdom does more designedly express it,) They even call Death to them, and pull Destruction upon themselves with the works of their Hands. They are as studious of variety, and as wit­tily inventive of evil things, as if the Bur­den of their Inquiry were none but. This, What must we do that we may be damn'd? But now so far are most men from being either as expencefully or as elaborately vertuous, that they rather are afraid of being righteous o­vermuch; (as they love to misinterpret the words of Solomon;) Their strictest Care is, [Page 177] not be taken for Praecisians; And they are really asham'd to be holy indeed, for fear it should make them look like Hypocrites. They are so far from taking pains, and making a Business of Religion, that they do not so much as say, with the [...]. Pythag. [...]. Pythagoreans, (who summon'd the Actions of every Day before the Tribunal of every Night,) [...]; What evil have I done since I rose this morning? or what Good Deed have I omitted? whither goes the way that I am now walking in? goes it to Egypt? or to Canaan? leads it to Heaven? or to Hell? Much less do they ask with this fright­ed Iailour in the Text; What must we do that we may be sav'd?

Now the reason of this Reason doth seem to be chiefly A want of That, which was re­quired of the Iailour as a chief means of his being sav'd; even a cordial Beliving in the Lord Iesus Christ, and a Belief of That Sal­vation which in the Text is inquired after. Of which I doubt there are but few that are True Believers, even of Them who do not doubt of their own Belief. So that there is not a greater Instance of the Deceitfulness of [Page 178] a man's Heart, than his Treacherous Belief that he does Believe; when yet he proves by all his Practice that he is either no Believer, or else no better than a Gamester when he believes that he shall win. How many Pro­fessors of Christianity who daily assent unto the Creed, do still confute their own Belief of the two last Articles, The Resurrection of the Body, and the Life Everlasting? For is it possible that a man should very seri­ously believe he shall last for ever, and not be vehemently solicitous, whether in Hea­ven, or in Hell? or that he really should believe there is a Heaven, and a Hell, with­out a minutely concernment, to which of the two he must needs belong? If a man's Neck be but obnoxious to the Gallows or the Block, or his Goods but in danger of Con­fiscation, sleep it self will not be strong e­nough to give him rest, until he has us'd his whole strength to purchase a Pardon, or a Reprieve. And did he as really believe, that he shall rise after Death to a Day of Iudgment, when evil Doers shall be cast in­to a Bottomless Asphaltites, a Lake which e­vermore is burning with Fire and Brimstone, ô [Page 179] with what Horror and Indignation would he look back upon his Sins? with what Remorse and Self-Revenge would he afflict him­self for them in Soul and Body? with what a vehement desire would he demon­strate his Repentance by Change of Life? ô with what Carefulness and Concernment would he endeavour to make his Peace with abused Iustice? with what strong crying and Tears would he sue for Mercy? Not in the lan­guage of St. Peter, when transported out of his wits by his great Amazement, Depart Luke 5. 8. from me ô Lord, for I am a sinful man; But rather with Christ upon the Cross where he recited in Syriac those words of David, My Matth. 27. 46. Psal. 22. 1. God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me! How much rather would he choose, to do it now to some purpose, and that but once, than at last to no purpose, and that for ever? Say then, good Reader, and say without Parti­ality; Can a man in good earnest believe his own Immortality, whilst he so seldom or never mindes the future condition of his Soul? and is not solicitous what to do, that he may be sav'd? There can be nothing more incredi­ble, than that a man of such a Faith should [Page 180] be so destitute of Fear. For what accompt can be given, why a man should shrink at Death, a great deal more than at Damnation, and more provide against the pains of a dy­ing Life, than the Torments of a Death which will live for ever, (that is, more against the first, than the second Death,) but that he steadily believes the first may easily come to pass, whilst he hopes that the second is but a Fable? They who hitherto have thought they were True Believers, whilst yet their Infidel Lives have strongly prov'd that they were none, will confess what I say, if they e­ver shall have Patience enough to meditate; and shall meditate long enough, to comprehend the whole force of my present reason.

Now in order to my purpose, which is to rouze up some or other out of the Lethar­gie they are in, and to set them on work in this Grand Inquiry, I shall reason a little far­ther with the Paganish Professors of Christiani­ty. And first of all let it be granted, (what ought not yet to be suppos'd,) That what they have not in Themselves an active Power to demonstrate, cannot have a passive Power of being demonstrated by others; that so they [Page 181] may not be offended at the uncivil possibi­lity, of other mens being deeper or quicker sighted than Themselves. For some are so strongly of opinion, that their particular Comprehension is the Adaequate measure of all Existence, that they are apter to deny, and to disbelieve, that there is any thing in the World beyond the Horizon of their Conceipt, than to suspect, or confess, that their Souls are short-sighted. Not vouchsafing to consi­der, how great a number of Things there are about the Body of a Flea, which are invisible to their Eyes, whilst unassisted, and yet are evident unto any, who shall behold them through a Microscope. And if to the natural Eye of Reason, we add the Telescope of Faith, which is the Evidence of Things not seen, we shall have an easy Prospect of that Salvation, which the Iailour of Philippi en­quired after. And discern the true reason, why the Sciolists of the Age (who are call'd the Wits) do first contend there are no Spi­rits, and thence infer there is no Hell, and so conclude they need not ask, what it is they must do that they may be saved; even be­cause they have too much, and too little [Page 182] wit. For if they had less, they would not raise their Objections; and if they had more, they would be able to refute them. But be it so that they themselves are not able to demonstrate, there is a Hell to be saved from; Dare they say they are better able to demon­strate that there is none? Can they say that they have dyed, to make a Decision of the Question? And been restored again to life, to declare the Negative by Experience? Do they suspect the Galilaean whom we com­monly call Iesus, in what he saith of an outer Darkness, and therein of a Worm which never dyes, and of a Fire which is not quenched? And do they so far suspect him, that they resolve to make an Essay of his Veracity, and therefore trust not his Doctrin, till they have try'd it? will they admit of no Philoso­phy, but what they call Experimental? and therefore stay till they are dead for a Deter­mination of their Doubt, because (for­sooth) until the time that they have tasted the first Death, they know not if they can feel a second? I say admit they do not know, that there are Torments after Death to in­dure for ever. Should not this suffice to [Page 183] Awe them, that such there are for ought they know? Or are their Souls so wholly drown'd and swallow'd up in Sensualities, as that they have not any leisure wherein to consider their latter End? Have they not Melancholy e­nough in their Constitutions, to fix their volatil spirits (no not so much as for an hour) upon that which concerns them the most that may be, even the Subject of a joyful or sad Eternity? Or have they the leisure to consider their latter end, but only want suf­ficient Courage and Resolution to indure it▪ as being a pungent, and a dismal, and not only a sad, but an insupportable Consideration? This methinks is as absurd, as whatsoever it is that hath been alledg'd. For if they have not the patience to think or meditate upon Hell for a little season; How much less will they be able to undergo it with Patience to all Eternity? If the wages of Sin is such, whilst it is yet but in the earning; Lord! how terrible will it be at the Time of Pay­ment? And what a strange Contradiction does this imply in some mens humours, That they should dare incur the danger of indu­ring those Torments of Hell it self, whereof [Page 184] they dare not indure so much as a deep conside­ration? no not long enough to inquire, what they must do to be saved from them?

But all this is no more than an empty Mormo, to Them whose Faculties are pos­sess't with a spirit of slumber, being benumn'dRom. 11. 8. by those foolish and hurtful Lusts, which 1 Tim. 6. 9. drown the Soul in Misery and Perdition. Some are either so intangled with worldly Cares, or else so transported with carnal Pleasures, they do so hunger after some sins, and so thirst af­ter others, and are so satisfied in the misery of injoying God's Anger, (by being at a full a­greement with Sin and Hell,) that they areIsa. 28. 15. still too much diverted by offering Sacrifice to their Senses, to be able to reflect, or to look before them. Either they do not at all remember, in the midst of their Injoyments, that for all these things God will bring them to Eccles. 11. 9. Iudgment; or if some times they do, they straight contrive how to forget it. And if no­thing else will, either Wine, or Women, or Sleep, or Musick, or all these together, will put it out of their Remembrance. Prospe­rity is a weapon, which hardly one in Ten Thousand hath ever known how to wield. [Page 185] No not Solomon the wise, in a state of Grace; no nor Adam the uncorrupt, in a state of In­nocence; no nor Lucifer the Beatified, in a state of Glory. They that have so much Peace without, as to beget a stupefaction, call'd Peace within, who live at ease in their Posses­sions, and have a great Friendship with the World, will be rather lifted up, like the menHos. 13. 6. of Ephraim, or fall a kicking, like Iesurun, orDeut. 23. 15. stretch themselves upon their Couches and drink Wine in Bowls, like the wantons in Zion ofAmos 6. 4, 6. whom we read in the Prophet Amos, than let it enter into their Thoughts, That the Feet of those Darlings do lead to Death, and that their Hands take hold of Hell. They will be otherways employ'd, than in con­triving how to stand in the Day of wrath, or in studying what to do, that they may be sav'd?

It concerns us therefore to pray, with the Poenitent Emperour Mauritius, That God will use us as he did here the frighted Iai­lour of Philippi, even terrifie and scare us out of our carnal Security, (into which our successes are apt to cast us,) and awaken us into a sense of the great Concernment of our Souls. That he will fetch us unto Himself, [Page 186] although it be by the sharpest and dreadful'st Methods. That he will use us as severely, as once he did Nebuchadnezzar; even drive Dan. 4. 25, 32, 33. us from the Comforts of Human Society and Converse, And give us our Dwelling with the Beasts of the Field: That he will make us eat Grass as an Herd of Oxen, and let our Bodies be wet with the Dew of Heaven; until we come to consider, as well as know, That the most high God ruleth in the Kingdoms of men, And that the great year of Recompence will shortly come, when he will put a vast difference between the Wheat and the Chaff, taking the one into his Garner, and burning up the other with Fire unquenchable. If af­ter all his fair warnings both by his Prophets and by his Rod, after his shaking the very Foundations both of a Kingdom and of a Church, (as here he shook Those of the Jai­lour's Prison,) And now if after his shooting at us, not only with his venom'd, but invi­sible Arrow, the Plague of Pestilence, we are not quicken'd into a sense of our Sin and Misery, It is but high time to pray for what we most of all deprecate; That to the end we our selves may be some way better'd, He [Page 187] will make a much worse thing happen to us. That He will make us as the [...], the Dung, and Refuse of the Earth. That he will load us at once with Disgrace and Torment, whilst from the Pleasures, and the Plenty, he reduces us to the Beggary and Byles of Iob. That he will do to us in Mercy, what St. Paul decreed in Iustice to his Incestuous Corinthi­an; 1 Cor. 4. 5. even deliver us up to Satan for the Destru­ction of the Flesh, that our Spirits may be saved in the Day of the Lord Iesus. That finding This to be a cruel, and an inhospitable World, we may live in it as Pilgrims and Sojourners on the Earth. That our weariness of This, may make us long and look out for a better Country. That being brought to the Extremity of lying with Lazarus and the Dogs at the Rich man's Door, we may be thereby instructed, if not compell'd to cast a­bout, how we may lodge also with Lazarus in Abraham's Bosom. This, I say, is our In­terest, and so it should be our option, There­fore our wish and our Contrivance, and by Consequence our Prayer, That if we can­not be brought to God but by the Buffet­tings of Satan, nor be made in love with [Page 188] Heaven without a Foretast of Hell, (which hath been to most Patients the wholsom'st Med'cin,) that then he will make our very Torments a means of Bliss; that he will make our very Destroyer become an Instru­ment of our Safety, and even give us up to Satan, to deliver us from him. That he will bless us with the Miseries of a sinful World; and wean us utterly from the Flesh, by ma­king it loathsom to our Remembrance. For That God who at the first commanded Light out of Darkness, and an Harmony of Creatures out of an indigested Chaos, can by the same creative Power, so over-rule and dispose of our three Grand Enemies, the World, the Flesh, and the Devil, as to make them three Antidotes against the Venom of Themselves. To give an Instance in each of These; The terrible Buffettings and Roarings of the Lyon or the Dragon, (that is the Devil,) are made an excellent kind of Antidote against the ser­pentine Wiles and Allurements of him. The many Deceiptfulnesses and Frauds and cruel Usages of the World, do make the fittest Prophylactick against its Vanities and its Pomps. The natural rottenness and stench, and noysom [Page 189] Diseases of the Flesh, become the best [...] against its Lusts. Just as the Bitings of the Scorpion are said to be cured by the skin; or as the Fire of the Chymist in Spi­rits of Wine, is most anodynous, and asswaging, to whosoever hath been burned, or scalded with it. Or as the Root Piso in medi­cinâ Brasilien­si, l. 3. Mandihoca, though of it self a rank Poyson, does (with no greater praeparation than that of its be­ing well press't,) afford a Meal to make Bread for many great Nations in America. And shall we not pray that by any means, (be they never so pungent) by any Method, (be it never so sharp) we may be made to per­form our Vow in Baptism, by forsaking the Devil and all his works, the Pomps and Va­nities of the World, with the sinful Lusts of the Flesh? If hardly any thing but Ship­wracks will make us pray, we are deeply con­cern'd to pray for Shipwracks. If we are grown so Atheistical, as not to cry out to God and the Lord Iesus Christ, but in a Fit of the Strangury, or the Stone; well may we pray for such Fits, as St. Basil once did for a Relapse into his Feaver, as soon as he found his Soul the worse for the Recovery of [Page 190] his Body. If nothing but Dangers can keep us safe, (as indeed all Dangers contribute to it, unless the Danger of Security be of the number) we have most reason to fear, what we commonly most affect, such a full flow­ing Tide of Good Things here, as made our Saviour's Description of Dives his Heaven up­on Luke 16. 25. Earth. If we find in our selves that Heb. 11. 8. Scrip­tural Character of a Bastard, a being suffer'd to live in Sin without the chastisement of Vers. 7. Sons, we well may wish for those Terrors which take so much from our Felicities, as to give us good hope that we may be Sons.

We can never better discern the great Advantages coming to us by Frights and Ter­rors, (such as These in my Text,) than by reflecting upon them in some Examples. When God himself would gain Reverence both to his Majesty and his Law, and beget in his People a fear to break it, it pleas'd his Wisdom to deliver it with many Circum­stances of Terror; even with Thundring and Lightning, with Fire and Tempest, with the sound of a Trumpet, and the voice of words, Heb. 12. which voice was so terrible, that they who [Page 191] heard it intreated they might not hear it any more. And so terrible was the sight, that Mo­ses said, I exceedingly fear and quake, (Heb. 12. 18, 19, 20.) And St. Paul having pre­mis'd a [...], we must all appear before the Iudgment-seat of God, does pre­sently2 Cor. 4. 10. add thereupon an [...], Knowing therefore the Terrors of the Lord we persuade men. Which is as if he should have said, That the Due Consideration of a Iudg­ment to come should be the strongest of all Incitements to the Amendment of our Lives. This in reason should prevail, when all things else are ineffectual. Nor does any thing more dispose us for such a sad consideration, than the happy Interruptions of our Prosperi­ty. David boasted in his Prosperity, He should Psal. 30. never be removed, Psal. 30. 6. But when God hid his Face, it presently follows, that he was troubled, v. 7. Then he cried unto the Lord, and piously made his Supplication, v. 8. Just so it was with the whole People Israel. The more they were compass'd about with Blessings, they presently sinn'd so much the more, (Psal. 78. 17.) But when he slew them, Psal. 78. they sought him, and inquired early after God, [Page 192] (v. 34.) Nor was it otherwise in the Times of the Prophet Ieremy, and Amos; Wo be to them that are at ease in Zion, (Amos 6. 1.) For they put far off the evil Day, (v. 3.) But in the Time of their Trouble, men are ready to say, Arise, and save us, Jer. 2. 27. Exactly thus it was with the very Disciples of our Lord. For whilst all was well with them, and that their Ship injoy'd a Calm, Their Blessed Master was asleep, and They as per­fectly secure, as if his Eye had been watching over them. But behold a great Tempest, which made the Sea cover the Ship, made them also cry out, and awake their Master out of his sleep, with a [...], Lord save us, Matth. 8. 25. we perish. 'Tis true indeed they so spake of a meer Temporal Destruction; And of That they spake too from a Panick Fear. But how many in the World do hardly come to [Lord save us, or what must we do that we may be sav'd,] until they are like the poor Sy­rian, just ready to perish? Yet even This be­comes an Argument to prove the Danger of our Felicities, and the benefit growing to us from seeing the Terrors of the Lord, That They who are Scoffers at Religion during the [Page 193] Time of their Health and Plenty, are uni­versally on their Death-Beds of the Religion of the Clinicks; and being brought down to the Brink of Hell, will commonly lift up their Hands and their Eyes to Heaven; crying out in the language, though not in the Spirit of Christ's Disciples, Lord save us we perish. And sometimes too, (although very seldom) not only in the language, but in the sense and syncerity of the poor Seeker in my Text, what must we do that we may be sav'd? Belshazzar had not in all his Life so much as a Fit of true Devotion, until the fingers of a man's Hand coming forth out of a Dan. 5. 5▪ 6. 25. 29. wall of their own accord, (or invisibly helpt by an hand from Heaven,) and setting his Judgment before his Eyes in Mene Tekel upharsin, had even loosed the Ioynts of his Loins and Knees, and together with his Countenance had chang'd his Heart too. And (to conclude with That Instance which is afforded out of the Text, as being That that gave Occasion to all the rest) we see the Iailour of Philippi was never truly in his wits, until thus frighted. Until the Miracle of the Earthquake had struck his Prison into [Page 194] a Palsie, and Himself into a Trembling, it never entred into his Thoughts, what should become of him hereafter. But when he saw by signs and wonders which fill'd him with Ecstasie and Astonishment, That there was Punishment for the Wicked, Reward for the Righteous, and a God that judgeth the Earth, and Quite another kind of God than what He had hitherto adored; A God that could bow down the Heavens, and make the Earth be­come Quaker; A God that gave Light to the blackest Dungeon, shook the Prison by its Foundations, conveighed Liberty to the Cap­tives, and fill'd the Hearts of the Despised with unspeakable Ioy in the Holy Ghost; He very easily inferr'd, that they had hitherto been but Idols, which he had paid Devotion to; and That in requital of his Idolatries, he was lyable to the wrath of the only True God: That Paul and Silas were apparently two of his Emissaries or Heraulds, as might be gather'd from the Miracles which had been wrought for their sakes: That They by consequence could inform him, touching the means of his Escape: And therefore in­stantly he resolv'd to lay himself at their Feet, [Page 195] (though They were Pris'ners of the Dungeon, and He the Master of the House,) saying, [...], Sirs, (so the English) or rather Masters and Lords, (so the Greek,) What must I do that I may be sav'd? And this does lead me from the End, to the proper Object of his Inquiry, or the Means inquired after for its Attainment. The second Part of my Division, and now in order to be consider'd.

The End of the Inquiry being Future, and Invisible, is only the object of our Thoughts, or at the most of our Desires. But the Means of its Attainment, are (as I noted) here imply'd to consist in Practice. And therefore This is That part, whereof the most of Mankind can least indure the Con­sideration. Of the few who are concern'd to wish and supplicate for the End, fewer yet are contented to trouble themselves about the Means. They will readily ask, that they may be sav'd; But not so readily inquire, what they must do that they may be sav'd. For should they ask what they must do, they are afraid it would be answer'd, That they must cease to do evil, and learn to do good; That they must seek Iudgment, relieve the Oppressed, Isa. 1. 16, 17. [Page 196] help the Fatherless, and plead for the Widow. That they must mortifie the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts. That they must crucifie the world unto themselves, and themselves un­to the world. That if an Eye, or a Hand, or a Foot offend them, they must pluck out the one, and cut off the other. That they must not take any thought for the morrow, but sell all they have, and give it to the Poor; deny them­selves, take up Christ's Cross, and follow him. They will be sav'd with all their hearts, pro­vided it may be gratis, either upon none, or on easy Terms: But dare not ask what they must do, with a serious purpose to be doing whatsoever shall be answer'd to be a Requi­site to Salvation, for fear the answer should be harder, than they are able to indure. As That they must hate their own Lives, and Love their Enemies. That they must fast as well as pray, but feed their Enemies when they hunger. That they must turn the right Cheek to him that strikes them on the left. That when they are persecuted and rail'd at, they must not only rejoyce, but [...] Matth. 5. 12. leap for Ioy. 1 Thess. 5. 16, 17, 18. That they must pray without ceasing, re­joyce evermore, and in every thing give Thanks. [Page 197] Make a Job. Covenant with their Eyes, not to look upon a Maid; and 1 Thess. 5. 22. abstain from all ap­pearance of Evil.

But now the Iailour in my Text, al­though he had hardly yet the knowledge, had the true Courage of a Christian. Upon Condition he might be sav'd, he did not care on what Terms. 'Tis true Salvation was the End, but the Means of its Attainment did make the Object of his Inquiry. For he did not simply beg that he might be sav'd, as if he thought he might be sav'd▪ without the least cooperation or any endeavour of his own; But as if he had concluded within himself, (as St. Augustin did some Ages after,)Qui creavit te sine te, non sal­vabit▪te sine te. That God who made us without our selves, will never save us without our selves, He ask't how much he was to contribute towards the Means of his Salvation. And This he ask'd in such a manner, as to imply his being ready, to contribute whatsoever could be exacted. For he did not thus ask, What must I say? or what must I believe? what Opinions must I hold? or what Sect must I be of? what must I give? or whither must I go? but (in a man­ner which implyed all This, and more,) [...] [Page 198] [...], what must I Do, that I may be sav'd?

But though this is praise-worthy, 'tis ve­ry far from being enough. For 'tis one thing to ask, what things are to be done that we may be sav'd; and effectually to do them, is quite another. The wealthy Quaerist in the Gospel could easily ask what he should do, that he might inherit eternal Life; and as easily learn the Things ask't after: But when he was answer'd, that he must sell all he had, and give it to the poor, he could not so ea­sily fall to practise what he had learnt, by putting the Precept in execution. So the Multitude of Jews could easily ask our Bles­sed Saviour, what they must do that they might work the work of God, Joh. 6. 28. But being told they must believe, that He was the Bread that came down from Heaven, Then [...] they murmur'd, v. 41. nay they despised him for his Parentage, v. 42. It was an hard say­ing, v. 60. Nay so far they were from doing the work of God, who had so lately and so readily ask't him what they must do that they might work it; that from thence they drew back, and would no longer walk with him, v. 66. Such a peevishness there is in the minds of [Page 199] men, that though they love to be asking the Will of God, they cannot indure to be told it, much less to be employ'd in the Doing of it; no not though they are also told, that This alone is the Price at which Salvation is to be had. Men may come to be baptiz'd, as the Multitude did to Iohn the Baptist, And yet may be at That Instant a generation of Vipers, Luke 3. 7. A Generation of Vipers, and yet have Abraham for their Father, v. 8. that is, their Father after the Flesh; In which respect God is able out of arrant Stocks and Stones to raise up Children unto Abraham. But when 'tis ask't what we must do, to be his Children after the Spirit; The Answer is, we must inherit at once the Faith and the Works of Abraham. And accordingly the Baptist did proportion his Directions to such as ask't them. He did not tell them what they must Teach, whereby to be Orthodox Professors; or what they must hold, whereby to be Orthodox Believers; But as they ask'd what they must do, so he told them those Things that were of necessity to be done. Begin not to say within your selves, we have Abraham to our Father, (for so have They [Page 200] who are Sons of Belial,) But bring forth fruits worthy of Repentance, v. 8. If ye are Publicans, exact no more than is appointed you, v. 13. If ye are Soldiers, do violence to no man, neither accuse any one falsly, and be content with your wages, v. 14. If ye are Christians of any Cal­ling, Let him that hath two Coats impart to Him that hath none; And He that hath Meat, let Him do likewise, v. 11. Still 'tis our Doing the things ask'd after, not our Asking what we must do, which is effectually the way to our being sav'd. And accordingly when 'tis said by the Apostle St. Iames, That Faith with­out Works is dead, and nothing worth, It is in­timated to us by that expression, That a Rectitude of Iudgment is nothing worth, but as it stands in conjunction with a like Recti­tude of Life. As if our Faith, and our Knowledge, and good Professions, could a­mount unto no more than the meer Body of Religion, whilst the Soul that enlivens it is still the sanctity of our Actions. Thence a Good man is called, not an Hearer, or a Believer, But [...], a Doer of the Word, Jam. 1. 22, 23. And when it pleas'd our blessed Saviour to give a general Descrip­tion [Page 201] (in the fifth Chapter of St. Iohn,) as well of the Few that belong to Heaven, as of the Many that go to Hell, He did not give them their Characters from their being of this or that Country, of this or that Calling, of this or that Church, or Congregation, of this or that Faith (not to say Faction) in Re­ligion; But only from their being qualified with such and such Practice, with such and such Works, with such and such Habits of Conversation. Our Saviours words are very plain, but (in my apprehension) of great Remarque, And such as being well consi­der'd would teach us how to pass a Iudg­ment (without any prejudice to our Charity) touching the Safety, or the Danger, the un­worthiness, or the worth, of our selves, or others. For when All that are in the Graves shall hear the voice of the Son of Man, and shall come forth, our Saviour adds both their Qualities, and the Ends of their coming forth, They that have done good shall infallibly come forth unto the Resurrection of Life, And They that have done evil, unto the Resurrection of Damnation, John 5. 29. Now certainly He who is the Saviour, can best of all tell [Page 202] us what belongs to Salvation, and to whom it does belong; who they are that must be saved, and what we must do that we may be sav'd. It is not meerly the priviledge of being received into the Church, and of be­ing admitted to all her Publick Dispensations, but especially the Abstaining from so much evil, as would denominate Evil-Doers, and the Doing so much Good, as does denominate a Good and a Faithful Servant, by which a man hath just Ground to think himself in God's Favour, and that he is doing what he must do, that he may be sav'd.

And if this is the Exegesis of what is said by Paul and Silas, (and that by way of An­swer to the Inquiry of the Iailour) Believe in the Lord Iesus Christ, and thou shalt be sav'd, so as it cannot be understood concerning Faith without Works, but of such a Faith on­ly as worketh by Love, and so fulfilleth the Law of Christ, (The proof and evidence of which we have in part seen already, and shall see more at large upon the next op­portunity,) Then let us not so mistake the words in the next Verse after my Text, or take them so by the wrong handle, as to [Page 203] imply that Paul and Silas were but a Cou­ple of Antinomians; Or that nothing is to be done as of necessity to Salvation, but barely to believe in the Lord Iesus Christ, (which being abstracted from obedience, is nothing better than Presumption; But rather let us work out our own Salvation, and let us do it with fear and trembling. Let us give all dili­gence, by adding to Faith Vertue, and one Ver­tue unto another, to make our Calling and Ele­ction sure. Let us not look upon our selves as having already apprehended, or as being already made perfect, but forgetting those things that are behind, let us reach forth to those things that are before; ever pressing towards the Mark, for the Prize of the high Calling of God in Christ Iesus. And leading a life of Self-denials, by frequent watchings, and fa­stings, and other warrantable Austerities, which are found in holy Scripture to be fit Instances of Attrition, let us beat down our Bodies, and bring our Flesh into Subjecti­on; if by any means we may attain to the Re­surrection of the Dead, if by any means we may apprehend That, for which we are also appre­hended of Christ Iesus. That so when Time [Page 204] it self shall be lost into Eternity, and all days shall be ended in that one great Sabbath which never Ends, we may also lose our hopes, and our endeavours of being sav'd, in­to the ravishing experience and presence of it: There with Angels and Arch-Angels, and with all the Company of Heaven, singing Hosannahs, and Halleluiahs, to Him that sit­teth upon the Throne, and unto the Lamb for ever more.

§ 1. THere are such shallownesses and depths too in this little short passage of the Isa. 55. 1. Heb. 2. 1. Rev. 21. 6. Rev. 22. 1, 17. Waters of Life, (as I am prompted out of Scripture to call the Gospel,) that I may say of this Rivulet, what St. Austin once spake of the whole Ocean of holy Writ, The tenderest Lamb may here wade, and the tallest [Page 208] Elephant may swim. It is a small Current of words, But such as opens and will ingage us in a full Sea of matter. A Sea as hospitable and easy, as That which is now call'd The Euxine, But yet as hazardous, and as diffi­cult, if not as proverbial as The Aegaean; and so as famous for danger, as 'tis for safety. A Sea we all are to sail in, if bound for Hea­ven; And yet for want of good steerage, How many Adventurers unaware have been imbark'd in it for Hell? and been even split upon the Rock of their own Salvation? The Antinomians, Fiduciaries, and Solifidians, (be­twixt whom there is a nice, but a real Dif­ference,) do not more differ in the ground, and the occasion of their Error, than they a­gree in the danger, and issue of it. For ma­king use of the literal against the rational Importance of many Scriptures, and blend­ing many great Truths with the greatest Falshoods, (so as the latter do pass for cur­rant by their vicinity with the former,) they commonly reason within themselves in this following manner.

§ 2. Sure we need not live so rigidly byThe Objection of several Hae­reticks. Rules and Praecepts, as some Arminian and [Page 209] Legal Divines would have us. For Rom. 6. 14. we are not under the Law, but under Grace. And Rom. 3. 28. we are justified by Faith) without the Deeds of the Law. Nor are we justified from some things, whilst we are answerable for others; but (as St. Paul taught at Antioch, where he is written to have preached Forgiveness of Sins,) Acts 13. 39. All that believe are justified from all Things, from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses. Then why should we busie our selves with Martha about many Things of little moment, when 'tis so easy for us with Mary to choose the One that is needful? for can any Thing be easier, than to believe without doubting that Iesus is the Christ? yet 1 John 5. 1. whosoever so believeth is born of God. And Verse 4. whosoever is born of God, over­cometh the world. Nor indeed is it a won­der, considering the Vertue of such Belief▪ For our Saviour tells us expresly, Mark 9. 23. That all Things are possible to Him that believeth. From whence it follows that to believe, is The unum Necessarium, which a Christian is to provide in his way to Heaven. And ac­cordingly said our Saviour unto the Ruler of the Synagogue, not only [...], believe, but [Page 210] [...], Mark 5. 36. Luke 8. 50. Only believe. Nor can this be thought the Priviledge of but here and there one; for 'tis indefinitely extended to all in general; John 6. 47. He that believeth in me hath eternal life. Where the word He, being indefinite, is tantamount to whosoever, and every one. And so indeed it is express't in other passages of Scripture; As when 'tis said to Cornelius, and others with him, Acts 10. 43. whosoever believeth in Him, shall receive remission of sins. And in the Epistle to the Romans we find it said of the Gospel, Rom. 1. 16. That 'tis the Power of God unto Salvation to every One that believeth. Where the Gospel cannot be meant as being inclusive of the Law, because 'tis said of our Lord in the same Epistle, Rom. 10. 4. He is the End of the Law to every one that believeth. Besides, need we care to be Better, or better advised than St. Paul, That great Apostle of the Gentiles, and pretious Vessel of Election? Do we not find him confessing, and that in the time of his Apostleship, That Rom. 7. 14, 18, 19. He was carnal, and sold un­der sin? That the Good he would, he did not; But the evil which he would not, That he did, whereby he sinn'd against God and his Consci­ence too? That no good Thing did inhabit in [Page 211] him, and that he was brought into Captivity to the Vers. 23. Law of Sin which was in his Members? Well therefore did he desire, in his Epistle to the Philippians, Philip. 3. 9. to be found only in Christ, not having his own righteousness which is of the Law, but That which is through the Faith of Christ, The righteousness which is of God by Faith. Why then should we be going such a long way about, whilst behold in the Scriptures so much a neerer way home? what need we shut up our selves from a thousand Pleasures and Contentments, by our endeavour of li­ving up to the Moral Law, by a Contempt of this World, by mortifications of the Flesh, by daily contendings against the Devil, by bear­ing both the Yoke and the Cross of Christ, by frequent watchings and fastings, and other Denials of our selves, by making Prayers, and hearing Sermons, and by a world of good works, (which are commonly very chargeable, or at least troublesom in the per­formance,) I say what need of all This, whilst Salvation may be had upon easier Terms? We cannot certainly be wiser, nor need we probably be warier, than Paul and Silas in the Text. Who being ask'd as Ghostly Fa­thers, [Page 212] and that by a newly-converted Hea­then, what he was to do that he might be sav'd, gave him no other Answer of Direction or Advice, than That He must believe in the Lord Iesus Christ.

§ 3. Which, in the sense of the Solifidi­ans, The Objection laid open as to the Venom contained in it. Antinomians, and Fiduciaries, (for whom I have hitherto been objecting, if not as well as they can wish, at least as strongly as I am able,) is just as if they had answer'd Thus.