SECT. 1.

THE particle [For] in the front of the Text, suggests the conne­ction thereof with the precedent Discourse; which is a Parable of a Man travelling into a far Coun­try, and delivering several Ta­lents to his Servants to trade withall, with the issue thereof upon his return. Whether we are to conceive the words of the Text as Christs [Page 2]own words, upon the recitation of the Para­ble, inferring from it, [...], a moral for our Instruction; or as the words of the Lord of the Servants, mentioned in the Parable, upon the Sentence he passed against the sloth­ful, to the advantage of the faithful Servant; is a matter of some Doubt, but of no Mo­ment. 'Tis certain, our Saviour us'd the same words upon various occasions, and that with such a signal Emphasis, that they are recorded by three of the Evangelists, and more than once by two of them, (Matt. 13, 12. Luk. 8, 18. and 19, 29. Mark 14, 25.) and 'tis plain, that the [...], to him that hath in the Text, is an allu­sion to the Participle [...], to him that hath ten talents, in the former Verse; and the taking away from him that hath not, refers to the taking away of the Talent from him that hid it; and con­sequently, that the words are our Saviours Red­dition or Application of the Parable to the thing fignified by it.

Sect. 2. The words in their general sense are proverbial, and are here translated from a civil to a mystical sense. And 'tis usual with God to apply himself to us Men in such a way as hath agreement with our Natures, as guided and act­ed by innate principles of Reason, Judgment, and Righteousness, and to observe in his deal­ings with us, such Rules and measures as we our selves think reasonable and necessary to observe [Page 3]and conform unto, in the transaction of com­mon affairs amongst our selves. As men which are directed by the prescripts of common pru­dence, do not commit the highest Trusts to un­tryed Persons, but first commit a lesser pro­portion of their Concerns, and then a greater, only in case of approved faithfulness and Dili­gence; and on the contrary, in case of Negli­gence and unfaithfulness in lesser matters, will not intrust greater, but remand former trusts: so God walketh by a rule of like sympathy towards us, first, he bestows a meaner measure of good Gifts upon us, and then a richer pro­portion, only in case of a regular and faithful management of them; and on the contrary, if the gifts of a lower account be not well managed, he denieth such as are of an higher, and will not think us worthy of those already conferred.

Sect. 3. And this is the design of my Text, to represent from our ordinary practice, [...], the equity of that decree and method which God hath established, and ordinarily observeth in the dispensation of his Gifts to us, and how unquestionably reasonable the distri­bution of his Rewards and Punishments is. My Text being applyed to persons of contra­ry dispositions and deportments, and of oppo­site states and conditions before God, contains a Thesis and an Antithesis; the former promisso­ry, [Page 4]signifying the good portion of the faithful and diligent; the other minatory, declaring the evil portion of the unfaithful and negli­gent.

• 1. A Thesis, Ʋnto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance.
• 2. An Antithesis; But from him that hath not, shall be taken away, even that which he hath. The first will be the Subject of my Discourse.

1. Here is a Thesis, Ʋnto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance. That my Discourse may be the more distinst and sa­tisfactory, I will first consider the [...], the natural sense of the words, as they pro­pound a Truth to affect our Understand­ings; and then the [...], the rational force of them, as they propound an Argument to affect our practical Judgments, and are de­signed to sway our choices, and excite our en­deavours.

Sect. 4. First, we will consider the [...], the natural sense of the words, as they pro­pound a truth to affect our Understandings. And here note;

1. A Subject, Ʋnto every one that hath. In which let us examine

1. The nature of the Subject simply consi­dered, [...], what is meant by [Having] according to the notion and intent of the Text. A man may be said to have a thing two ways.

1. Simply, and absolutely. In a Grammati­cal and Literal sense, every one which hath an occupancy or propriety, is said to have a thing. This way of [Having] barely considered, is not here meant. For so the wicked and sloth­ful Servant from whom the Talent was taken, was said to have a Talent as well as the good and faithful Servant. So the Gentiles are said [...], to have God in their knowledge, Rom. 1.28. and the Jews are say'd to have the Law and the Prophets, Luk. 16.29. and having eyes see not. Mar. 8.18. What Aristotle affirmeth of the Man which hath the true Notices of righteous­ness but is disturbed with unruly and muti­nous passions, may be say'd of him that thus Hath only, [...], he hath as if he had not. We may be said to [Have] a thing

2. Effectively and relatively. In a Moral and Theological sense, They only are said to have a thing, which have it upon worthy and comely terms, and carry themselves suitably to what they have: which is done,

• 1. When they esteem and value what they have, answerably to the worth and excellency thereof.
• 2. When they are careful to keep and pre­serve what they have, as a Trust they are to account for: as they do not make light of what they have, so neither do they prodigally waite what they have.
• [Page 6]3. When they use and employ what they have to the uses and purposes for which they have it: when they receive not the grace of God (that is, the gifts of grace) in vain, as the A­postle exhorts 2. Cor. 6.1.
• 4. When they declare and make it appear by their exemplary practice that they have what they have. Our Saviour much affected to speak after the manner of the Hebrews, and with them a thing is often said to be when it appear­eth to be. That this is the genuine notion and import of the [Having] in the Text, is evident from the tenour of the precedent Parable; for the Servants received not the Talents to be Pro­prietaries but Stewards of them: they were de­livered to them as Deposita, stocks of Trust to be traded withal, and increased by a publick commerse. Let us examine,

Sect. 5. 2. The Extensiveness and universali­ty of this Subject, 'tis [...], to all, or eve­ry one (at least under the Gospel) which hath, without exception or limitation. God is no re­specter of persons, but to every person in every na­tion which so hath, it shall be given, and he shall have abundance. For God having constituted and declared this as the Law and way of his pro­ceedings towards the Children of men, he is under a bond of engagement to his own Wis­dom, Goodness, Justice, and Faithfulness, con­stantly to give to every one that so Hath, and [Page 7]will at no hand depart from the terms he hath imposed on himself respectively to our advan­tage. Note we,

Sect. 6. 2dly, The Attributes here affirmed and ascribed unto every one that Hath; and they are two, first, shall be given; secondly, he shall have abundance.

1. Shall be given. This may be understood two wayes, either

• 1. In opposition to the taking away spoken of in the Antithesis, and then the meaning is, He that Hath, Hath what he hath to Have and to Hold it, as we say in our Law, the Gifts he hath shall be ensured to him upon terms of continuance and establishment. This is not the whole truth here intended; for a gift properly being something imparted to the advantage of the Receiver, and then made the Receiver's when first given (Data eo tempore quo dantur, fiunt accipientis, sayth the Law) by giving to him that Hath, I conceive is meant something which is given.
• 2. In contradistinction to what is already received, if not of a different kind, yet at least of different degrees. Adimplebit & cu­mulabit quod dedit, He will fill up and increase to higher measures that which he hath given, saith St. Austin. All Gifts which are used according to the mind and Will of God, become through his blessing like the Bread with which our Sa­viour [Page 8]fed his Disciples, which multiplyed in the using (Mat. 14.20.) and like the Widowes Oyl, which increased in the spending.

Sect. 7. 2dly, Shall have abundance. [...], Shall be given in all abundance, as the most learned Annotator renders it. Whether this refer to a greater proportion of Gifts in the same kind, or to an addition of Gifts of ano­ther kind and of greater worth and excellency than the former improved ones, is a matter of doubt with some: but it seems-plain to me by the purport of the Parable, that a variety of more choice and excellent gifts rather than a plenty in the same kind is here meant. for the expression [Shall be given in all abundance] re­fers to the advantagious sentence passed on the behalf of the good and faithful Servant, decla­ring how just it was upon the improvement of his Five Talents, that he should obtain such acceptation and success as he did; that is, that he should be judged meetly qualifyed to enter into his Masters joy, and the wicked and sloth­ful Servants loss should be His gaine. And that which makes it most evident is this, as the cast­ing the unprofitable Servant into outer dark­ness, where there is weeping and gnashing of Teeth, is an Emblem and representation of hellish damnation and destruction (which is de­scribed divers times in the same words) Mat. 8.12.22.13.24.51. and denotes the great [Page 9]wrath and severity of his Lord towards him, so the good and faithful Servants entering into his Masters joy, is a type and representation of an exaltation to a state of heavenly glory (which is also sometimes described in words of Affinity with it (Ps. 16.11. Heb. 12.2.) and denotes his Lords singular delight in him, and the transcedent favours and priviledges with which he graced and honoured him. So that, by giving in all abundance is meant, a bestowing, upon the employment of what he hath, the most enriching endowments, such Gifts and graces which capacitate for the Highest attain­ments we can desire. He that so Hath shall have that Life which Christ came that he might have, and that he might have it more abundantly, Joh. 10.10. And thus I have finished what I had to say concerning the [...] or literal sense of the words.

Sect. 8. 2dly, We will consider the [...], the rational force of the words as they pro­pound an Argument to affect our practical Judgments, and are designed to sway our choi­ces and to excite our endeavours; and that is this: That every man which sincerely bestirs him, and faithfully to his power acteth and manageth in a regular way those abilities and Gifts with which he is invested, of what kind soever they are, natural or supernatural, com­mon or special, acquired or infused, weak or [Page 10]strong, many or few, he shall not only better his say'd estate of abilities and Gifts, but is also in a ready way to receive abilities and Gifts of a nobler nature and higher concerne. The drift of our Saviour in this and the former Pa­rable, which begins the Chapter, is to provoke us to Watchfulness and Diligence in our duties, that we may be prepared for the coming of our Lord to judgment. And the argument urged in the Text shews the necessity of this Watch­fulness and diligence in order to our standing in judgment before him, and that we may be accounted worthy to escape the punishment which shall be inflicted on the careless and slothful, from the rule and order which he ob­serves in his distribution of rewards and pu­nishments. If we obtaine acceptation with our Lord in the day of Account, and partake of the benefit and comfort of the approving and justifying Award and remunerating grace of that day, we must unfeignedly and impar­tially stir up our selves to the utmost of what we are able, for the Improvement of the abi­lities and Gifts we have receiv'd, for the honour of God and good of Men.

Sect. 9. I find upon diligent inquiry and ex­amination, that Commentator do not concur in judgment concerning the nature of these Talents to which the Text refers. Some un­derstand by them the Gifts of Nature; others, [Page 11]others, the principles of reason; others, common grace; others, the gifts of the Spirit; others, mi­nisterial abilities; others, the publication of the Evangelical Doctrine according to mens vari­ous capacities: but they are generally agreed so far as I have inquired, that the Talents were of the same nature, and consequently equally ca­pable of improvement, and upon improvement equally capable according to their proportion of the like acceptation and success.

Sect. 10. I think 'tis easily discerned, that the Talents were not in their immediate na­tures and appropriate qualities, of a regene­rating and saving import: for the Parable de­scribeth the state of Mankind in general, and shews how it is eventually both with good and bad; and 'tis expressly said of him which had the one Talent, that he was statu quo, whilst he had the Talent, a wicked and slothful Ser­vant, and therefore these Talents had not a necessary conjunction with an heavenly condi­tion of a saving consequence. And if it should be granted that these Talents were in their proper and immediate natures regenerating and sanctifying graces, then it will unavoida­bly follow, that regenerating and sanctifying grace may be totally and finally lost, which some men will by no means believe to be possi­ble. What is premised seems to me a sufficient inducement to conclude, that the Talents were [Page 12]in themselves of indifferent Nature; not things absolutely good, but things of good or bad abode, as they were used by them which had them. Yet be pleased to observe, as the non­improvement of the Talent was an equitable consideration on which to exercise an act of vindictive Justice, so the improvement thereof would have been an equitable consideration on which to exercise an act of remunerating Grace. I do not mean, that the improvement would deserve ex condigno, a reward of grace as the non-improvement did deserve a reward (if I may so say) of punishment; but that the improvement by the just ordination of God (who will have mercy upon whom and upon what terms he pleaseth) would have had even­tually a gracious acceptation and a bountiful reward, as the non-improvement heavy displea­sure and punishment. For as he which hid his Talent was severely punished, so they which improved their Talents were bountifully re­compensed. From whence we may very ratio­nally infer, That God is propitious to our faith­full endeavours, and doth so bless us with the presence of his grace when we lay out our power to our utmost to serve him in our pla­ces and callings, that he will derive to us the most inriching Gifts and Graces.

Sect. 11. Donteclok against Castellio con­cludes, That all the care, study and diligence [Page 13]which men can use to promote their salvation, is vain and to no purpose, rather hurtful than profi­table, before Faith (he means justifying Faith) and the Spirit of renovation. And the Divines of Hassia with others of the Dort confederacy suffrage to the same effect. Which Assertion seems to me to have a most malignant aspect on all the ministries of Religion: for it cramps all rational and manlike endeavours, indeed cassates the very bonds of Duty from all irre­generate men, and frustrates the grace of God which hath appeared to the world to the pur­poses of salvation.

Sect. 12. I do not affect to make the Pulpit look like a Cockpit: but yet such is my zeal for every Doctrine which is according to god­liness, and aversation to all pernitious errours, especially such as have directly an ill influence on a good Life, and discourage men which are bad from endeavouring to be good, as the afore­recited assertion doth, that I shall propugne and justifie to my power that Doctrine which my Text suggests against these men of interest which have opposed and condemn'd it, and withal endeavour to rescue those unregenerate men which have received the forementioned Doctrine from those prejudices they are under against working out of their salvation. And this I shall do so practically, that you shall have no just reason to blame and censure me for preach­ing [Page 14]of a controversie upon such an occasion as this is, which is not designed to instruct us in the Science of Controversies, but to make us honest Men, good Christians, and most exem­plary Ministers.

Sect. 13. That Position which I infer and shall discourse from my Text in opposition to that ill-natured Doctrine, taught by the afore­named Doctors, and too too many also here amongst us in England, is this: That whosoe­ver under the Gospel faithfully imploys and improves the abilities and gifts of Nature and common Grace, (though his works are not pleasant to God. Yet) he shall find such a de­gree of acceptation with him (though compa­ratively low and imperfect) that he shall be in a ready way to obtain from him Spiritual, and Special abilities and graces. &c.

For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance. That is, He which ex­erciseth himself in the employment of the Gifts already received, and maketh it appear that he hath what he hath by using it faithfully to the ends and purposes for which he hath it, he shall not only have what he hath continued and multiplyed to him, but shall also have gifts of a superiour, and of a more excellent and per­fective Nature conferred upon him. This is the genuine sense of the Text, and my Positi­on a legitimate deduction from it, and as natu­rally [Page 15]flowes from it as a Stream from a Foun­tain. Hierocles tells us, that he which will be made a [...], a Godlike-person, he ought first to be made an [...], a Man, that is, he ought to live [...], as a reasonable Creature. And a greater than he, the Apostle speaking of the last Resurrection saith, that was not first which is Spiritual, but that which is Natural, and then that which is Spiritual. 1 Cor. 15.46. So 'tis in the spiritual Resurrection (for the [...], the word used by the Pythagoreans to express the Souls return to another Body after its depar­ture from a dead one, the Regeneration, as we English it, or the translation of a man from un­der the power of Satan into the Kingdom of Christ, is called the First Resurrection, Rev. 20.16. a making alive to God, Rom. 6.11. and such a making alive as the making alive from the dead, Rom. 6.13. I say here too) there is first that which is Natural, and then that which is Spiritual: we must first be fit to do the works of men, before we can be fit to serve the ends of God. I mean God will not preferr us to his heavenly Kingdom, till we have first learn­ed [...], to live according to the con­duct of a reasonable Soul, as Saint Clement speaks.

Sect. 14. Because the Grecian learning a­bounds with strict precepts and directions a­gainst unruly Passions, and brutal Appetites, [Page 16]chargeth man to restore Reason to her Scepter, to consult her as an Oracle, and to attend her motions as the [...], the supreme dire­ctive faculty, and to obey her as a Law, to live temperately, righteously, lovingly, dis­cerning betwixt good and evil, contemning the world, and exercising the mind in excursions towards God, expecting a reward in case of well-doing and fearing a punishment in case of evil-doing, and to be [...], like a cube or dye, a square and upright man under the alternative, and interchangeable courses of fortune, as Reason suggests we should. St. Basil exhorts Scholars to the study of it, and giveth this Reason for it, that they may be prepared [...], to those things which are from above. Albaspinus observes, Antiquitùs fieri non nasci Christianos, that anciently Christians were made not born. Made so by long and laborious steps and degrees. First they were made Catechumeni, instructed in the first principles of Religion, in the reasonableness and goodness of Christs in­stitutions; and upon a conviction of judgment and reformation of manners they became com­petentes, suitors and petitioners for Baptism, the laver of Regeneration, Tit. 3.5. and so were forced by slow paces and approaches (or as the first general Constantinopolitan Councell expresseth it) [...], to creep on with time and leisure into the bosome of [Page 17]the Church; and sometimes, many years pre­paration was the Preface to their admission in­to the society of the Faithful; but the more they improved themselves in their attention and obedience unto the Reason of men, the sooner and easier were they brought to give as­sent and obedience to the faith of Christians. for the understanding of a man (as Solomon speak­eth) is the candle of the Lord (Prov. 20.27.) that is, a most excellent candle set up within us to shew us our way and work. This is that [...], that superintendent power the Stoicks and Platonists so often speak of, which God hath given to every man to be the Guide and overseer of his Life; and as this Candle is light­ed and kindled originally from God, so it still shines in his beam, directing us to distinguish betwixt good and evil, and finally tendeth and leadeth unto God as the prototype of all truth and goodness which can either perfect our minds or satisfie our wills. Here the Apostle speaking of the Gentiles who had no other Candle to guide them but this, saith, that they do by Nature the things contained in the Law, and so shew the work of the Law written in their hearts. (Rom. 2.14.15. That is from the natural no­tions of good and evil suggested to them from the exercise of Reason, they were convinced, that it was meet and right that they should practise those things which God in his written [Page 18]law had commanded: the matter and substance of that which was effected by the written Law was wrought by the dictate of natural Reason, and consequently as the one so the other in its primary designment and proper use was an apt means to lead unto God, and to captivate all the reasonings and thoughts of mens hearts un­to the obedience of the Faith of Christ.

Sect. 15. St. Augustine (who was no friend to Pelagianism) observes in his Book De Vera Re­ligione, that he which is furnished with the knowledg of Philosophy plurimùm juvari, is ve­ry much helped for the understanding of the Christian Faith. And tells us, that many of the Platonists, who were much addicted to the study of Philosophy, and the practice of morall Virtues, very readily became Christians in his time. 'Tis said the Sect of the Epicureans were better fed than taught; and perhaps some amongst other Sects were better taught then manner'd: but certainly diverse of them were so well taught and manner'd too, that there was a very great alliance betwixt their Do­ctrines and Practices, and those of Christians; which made Octavius think Philosophers and Christians to be terms convertible, and to say, that the Christians were now Philosophers, or the Philosophers were then Christians. The humane na­ture being [...], a systeme of rational notions, as Clemens speaketh, and Philo­sophick [Page 19]studies and endeavours the manurance and improvement of them. I think he said not amiss when he called Philosophy [...], the elementary principle or first inlet of the Christian Faith. For the Religion of Christ being the most reasonable Religion in the world, is so well suited to the constitution of our rational Beings, that (adventitious pre­possessions and prejudices being lain aside, which a Philosophick ingenuity and deport­ment will provoke, and in some measure help us to do) when 'tis presented to our view and propounded to our choice, we shall be ready to say of it, as Adam of Eve when God first brought her to him. This is flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone, and instantly desire and em­brace it. And I am confident in the point of morality, there is scarce any thing so peculiar to the Church of Christ: but it was liked and recommended to us by the Schooles of the an­cient Philosophers; which is a plain argument, that our Christian prescripts for morality are not meerly from external imposition, or arbi­trary obligation, or to be found only in those sacred volumes we call the Bible, but are na­tures own Tables of the Law in another editi­on and promulgation, and in truth a fair Co­py of the impressions of Reason upon our own Souls, and discoverable and legible within our selves. And because the moral precepts of [Page 20]Christ are thus underprop'd with the stedfast Reason and approbation of mankind, and do on every side square with the common princi­ples and sentiments of every mans Soul, they must needs gain hugely upon the minds and hearts of Philosophick temper'd men, who have a great reverence for the dictates of Reason, and from an honest moral integrity hate whatsoe­ver they apprehend will debauch their Natures as they are reasonable Creatures. And there­fore Origen called Celsus to consider, if it were not the agreeableness of the principles of the Christian Faith [...], with common no­tions, the correspondency of them with the u­niversal Reason of the world, which rendred the preaching of the Christian Faith so preva­lent and successful with all candid and ingenu­ous hearers.

Sect. 16. Therefore (saith the Apostle, of the Be­raeans) many of them believed: wherefore? because (as he tells you in the former verse) they were more noble than those of Thessalonica. Act 17.11.12. [...], the comparison refers not so much to their civil pedigree and extraction as to their moral temper and disposition. They were more generous and ingenuous. The Greek Fathers (saith Grotius) interpret the word by [...], more moderate and equitably minded. They were a people of a proper becoming tem­per; of a rational, affable, pliable deportment [Page 21]towards all; full of candour and equanimity towards the Apostles; inquisitive after the truth, free and loyal to it: they were a sort of people which proportioned their regards suitably to the nature of Things, Persons, and Doctrines, and consequently judged of, and affected the Apostles preachments answerably to the weigh­tiness and concernment of them, and accord­ing to the evidences of Truth they discerned in them; all which appears, in that they received the words with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so. The Beraeans were not biassed with unreasona­ble passions and interests, as the Jews of Thes­salonica were, as you may see in the fifth Verse; but acquitted themselves (if I may so speak) like noble Gentlemen; hearkened to the promul­gation of the Truth attentively and patiently; examined matters carefully and diligently, and judged thereof impartially; all which are acts of Reason, Labour and Industry, and as the A­postle intimates, preparatory to the entertain­ment of the Christian Faith.

Sect. 17. I doubt not but you observe, that the reason generally assigned why the Jews re­jected the Christian Faith, is, because their Wills and Appetites had the predominancy of their Ʋnderstandings and Judgments, Joh. 5, 40. Mat. 23, 27. Joh. 4, 48. their Reasons and Consci­ences were oftentimes perswaded and convin­ced, [Page 22]but because their carnal affections and se­cular inclinations were not accommodated and gratified, they repented not that they might believe. Matt. 21, 32. Joh. 8, 43, 44, 45. When the Turks (as an Honourable Person reports) de­sign to drink to drunkenness, they first make a very great and unusual noise, to drive down their rational Souls (as they pretend) to the remotest parts of their Bodies, that being at a great distance from their intoxicating cups, they may not observe and be conscious of their brutish Intemperance. Thus it is in a man­ner with all men which addict themselves to habituate wickedness, and make provision to fulfill the lusts of the flesh; they dethrone and assassinate their Understandings, and as it were, drive and force their rational faculties out of their coasts, and give themselves over to the Empire and government of their sedi­tious Appetites and sawcy Passions; which is such an irrational and brutish way of acting, that with Trismegistus it is [...], a sort of drunkenness, yea, [...], an appearance or species of Madness; and we may truly say of such a man, as Jacob when he saw Josephs Coat; It is my sons coat, but evil beasts have de­voured him, Gen. 37.33. Here is the outward garment and habit of a Man, but evil Beasts have devoured the Man; he hath the outward shape, and unweildy body of a Man, but he [Page 23]hath not the inward form, the proper diffe­rencing Essence of a Man: those evil Beasts his Passions and Lusts, have torn in pieces and devoured his reasonable Soul: he hath the name of a Man, and still retains the unprofi­table and troublesome Carcass of a Man, but the informing and active part of the Man is departed: his Vices have so corrupted and tainted him, that he is quite unman'd and be­come like Babylon, an habitation of Devils, and the Hold of every foul Spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird, Rev. 18, 2.

Sect. 18. Questionless you observe, That before the Prodigal Son in the Parable return­ed home to his Father, or was resolved so to do, he is said to come to Himself, Luke 15, 17. that is, he returned to a sober and regular use of his Understanding and Reason; he acquit­ted himself like a Son of Reason, before he ac­quitted himself like a Son of God. Whilst a man departs from God he is beside himself, distracted and mad, a fugitive from a Ratio­nal, as well as a Divine Life, and a meer exile from his own original Essence and Being. So­lùm hoc animal Naturae fines transgreditur. Man is the onely Creature which transgresseth the bounds of Nature, said one, of sinning man. Other Creatures are conducted by the instinct of Na­ture, but sinning Man contradicts it; and how can man return to the God of Nature, who [Page 24]returneth not to the Order of Nature? you shall therefore find, that when God most passi­onately desires and pursues the Reformation and welfare of a people, he exhorteth and wisheth them to awaken and stir up those noble Principles of Understanding and Reason which are within them, as a means to it. O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their later end, Deut. 32, 29. Consider your wayes, saith God, by the Prophet Haggai, once and again, Hag. 1.5, 7. and the Prophet concludes, that the Rebellion of Ju­dah and of Jerusalem, proceeded from their defectiveness this way, the Ox knoweth his own­er, and the Ass his masters crib, but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider (Isa. 1, 3.) Did men (under the Gospel especially) exercise their Understandings and reasoning Faculties, as they should and might do, and comport with their Dictates and Instigations as other Creatures do with their Instincts and and In­clinations, they would be as serviceable to God in their relations to him, as other Crea­tures are to their Owners and Benefactors. For, when God speaketh of his Peoples forsa­king him, that is, Objects, Ways, and Engage­ments, which are Spiritual and Heavenly, and effective to their Perfection and Happiness, and their turning to Objects, Wayes, and Engage­ments which are Temporal, Carnal and Earth­ly [Page 25]and Ineffective to any good, he represents it as a thing very monstrous and quite beside the tendency and course of Nature. Be asto­nished O ye Heavens, and be ye horribly afraid; be ye very desolate, saith the Lord; for my people have committed two Evils, they have forsaken Me the Fountain of living Waters, and hewed them out Cisterns, broken Cisterns that will hold no wa­ter. Jer. 2.12.13. q. d. this fact of yours be­speaks you so far degenerated from the spirit and actions of men, that you are grown quite out of kind, and the whole course of Nature upbraids this as a most stupendious exorbitan­cy, and a most enormous and intolerable pra­ctice.

Sect. 19. 'Tis remarkable that the man to whom our Saviour said, thou art not far from the Kingdom of God, (Mar. 12.34.) is said to an­swer Discreetly; [...], from [...], saith E­rasmus on the place. He answered like a man accustomed Secundum intellectum vivere, as St. Austin speaks. Like a Man which had his wits a­bout him, as we say: he was (to use Ennius his Phrase) egregiè cordatus homo, a man of an en­larged Soul and great freedom of Mind: he was in a great measure rescued from a sensual vassalage, and acted by the generous principle of Understanding and Reason. He answered skilfully, wisely, learnedly, for so the word of­ten signifieth amongst the Greeks. From which [Page 26]we may collect with St. Hierome, that Ignorance is farther from the Kingdome of God than Know­ledge; and that they which shew themselves Men, as the Prophet exhorts the Jews, in order to their reformation and reconciliation with God (Isa. 46.8.) and faithfully comport with the dictates of Reason, abstaining from the things which that prohibits, and practising the things which that requires; they are in the suburbs of religion, and near borderers on the Kingdom of God; and may seem to say to Religion as Ruth to Booz, spread the skirt of thy Garment over us, for thou art our near kinsman, and are not far from the Kingdom of God.

Sect. 20. I confess I think the habits and acts of moral Vertues and some common Graces to be materially the same with the habits and acts of Spiritual and Evangelical Graces, and to dif­fer only as the less perfect from the more per­fect: but yet I take them to be specifically di­stinct. For such is the Nature of these things, that a gradual perfection constituteth a speci­fical difference. As in Numbers, a variation of Degrees alters the species and makes one num­ber formally distinct from another. e. g. the number Ten differs only by the addition of de­grees from the number Five, and yet Ten is not only individually but specifically a distinct number from Five. And though Nine be spe­cifically distinct from Ten as well as Five, yet [Page 27]Nine is nearer and may more easily be brought up to Ten, than Five can. So though moral Vertues and common Graces are things of a di­ctint Kind and Nature from Divine and Evan­gelical Graces, yet they have more alliance and sympathy with evangelical Graces than habi­tual Vices have. 'Tis true, he which is in the Church-yard is formally and indeed out of this Congregation as well as he which is distant from it a thousand miles; yet the one is nearer and may more easily come into this congrega­tion than the other can: so a moral man and one endowed with common Graces, I mean, a man which doth follow the conduct of Reason so far and as much as an unregenerate man can do, in shunning the Vices his Reason condemns, and in practising the Vertues his Reason com­mends, which hath an honest integrity of heart as Abimeleck had Gen. 20.6. and keepeth all the known commandements of God, as the young man which came to Christ had done, (Matt. 19, 20.) which feareth God, worketh Righteousness, and giveth Alms to the Poor as Cornelius did, (Act. 10, 37.) and hath a Zeal for the worship of God, as the Jews had, (Rom. 10, 2.) and intends well as to lower inferiour ends, as Paul before his conversion did, (Act. 23.1.26, 5.) I say, though such an one be re­ally, and in truth out of the Kingdom of God, as well as the man debauched with Vice, and [Page 28]distracted with the perturbation of his Passions, and Lusts, yet he is not so far from the King­dom of God as the other is: (Mark 12, 34.) he hath not so much to do; so many hinderan­ces to remove, and so many inducements to gain, so much preparation to make, so many degrees of enmity against God and Religion to abate, and so many steps towards a resolu­tion of reformation to take, as a lewd Ruffian hath. I know that God is able of Stones to raise up Children to Abraham: but I know also that God will not do all that he is able to do; for God doth not administer and manage the affairs of his heavenly Kingdom as a Physical Agent in a way of Natural power, but as a So­vereign Lord, by a Rectoral Power, determin­ing how things shall be effected according to the Council of his own Will; and 'tis the Will of God as affected and inclined by potent Considerations, and congruous motives sug­gested to him by his Wisdom and Righteous­ness, which directs and draws forth his Power into Action, when he regenerates a man. And though he may in some extraordinary cases now and then occurring, to subserve his own Glory and the general good of Mankind, trans­late a Man from under the power of Satan into the Kingdom of his Son, without respect had to previous workings to harbinger and make the way ready for it; yet ordinarily 'tis [Page 29]not so, there is a mediation of initial Graces and preparatory Dispositions, [...], to forward and fit the subject for it. Hence 'tis said of those Gentiles which believed upon St. Pauls preaching to them, that they were ordain­ed to eternal life, Acts 13.48. [...], mar­shalled or trained up, orderly disposed and in a ready posture, that is, prepared according to Gods order and appointment, to obtain eter­nal Life. The progresses of Grace imitate the methods of Nature, bring the designed effects to pass by degrees, and do not pass from one extreme to another, without the mediation. of some preparatory Dispositions. Not that these initial preparatory Dispositions do efficiently cooperate with Gods Spirit to the production of habitual, sanctifying, and saving Grace, as temperate Endeavours produce in Morality an habitual Temperance, or Natural Qualities dispose to Natural Forms, by a natural and ne­cessary Connection, or as if by a supervening adjutorial power of Gods Spirit, moral Vertues and common Graces did lose their specifick Forms, and were materially wrought up in­to an higher Species, and transformed into Spiritual and special Graces: but these imper­fect things through the ordination and assist­ance of God, and by a moral connection, are blessed and crowned with Perfection, and are ordinarily conditions presupposed in us to ren­der [Page 30]us capable Subjects of habitual and special Graces, and concur to the production of them, like Sacramental Causes to their Effects, only from Gods Institution, and the conjunction of his Gracious Presence with them. And 'tis manifest from the Parable of the indebted ser­vant, who obtained forgiveness because he asked, that an act which doth not proceed from an ac­cepted justifyed person, though it be not accept­able and pleasing, may yet be the condition or occasion moving God to an act of special Grace. And I am sure of this, if acts of moral Ver­tues and common Graces do not Please God as acts of special and sanctifying Graces do, yet they do not Provoke him as acts of habituate Vices do; and the further we are from Provo­king God, the nearer we are to Please him.

Sect. 21. Methinks our Saviours reddition of and inference from the Parable of the Stew­ard which wasted his Lords goods, fully evin­ceth, that the faithful employment of the abi­lities and Gifts of Nature, and common Grace, and Providence, will be propitious, and contri­bute influence towards a capacity for spiritual and special abilities and Graces. Make (saith he) to your selves friends of the unrighteous Mam­mon, that when you fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations. He then that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in that which is another mans, who shall give you that which is your [Page 31]own? Luk. 16. from 9. to 13. That is, lesser Gifts well improved are a means to befriend us to obtain greater: and if we are faithful in smal­ler matters, the same Principle will incline us to be so in greater: but if we are unfaithful in les­ser, God will not commit to us greater Trusts. If we abuse Gifts of a present temporal concern, God will not intrust us with Gifts of a future spiritual concern: for if men abuse those Gifts which they have as Stewards, only for a time, there can be no engaging motive offered to confer upon them those Gifts which men are to have as Proprieties for ever. So that it seems most plain and evident to me, that there is a certain connexion betwixt the collation of su­periour Gifts and the good use of Gifts of an inferiour nature. And when Christ commands us to strive to enter in at the strait gate, (Luk. 13.24. to labour for the meat which endureth to eter­nal Life, Joh. 6, 24. and promiseth that he which cometh to him, he will in no wise cast out. Joh. 6.37. that is, will certainly receive and accept; I say in these Scriptures Christ plainly intimateth, that God will not ordinarily give spiritual and heavenly Graces without the mediation of our faithful Endeavours; and if we do engage our selves in good earnest, and lay out the utmost All within us to seek after Spiritual and Heavenly Gifts and Graces, our labour in probability shall not be in vain. The Reasons of my Position are these:

Sect. 22. Reas. 1. Because the faithful em­ployment of the abilities and Gifts aforesaid is by God decreed and ordained to this end. And God who is infinitely wise, great and good, brings every thing to that period and perfection to which he doth design and deter­mine it. God doth not impose Duty upon us only in Sovereignty, as a meer Task to try and exercise our Subjection and Obedience, but in Goodness and Mercy also, as a means in order to our Benefit and Comfort, Deut. 8, 16. and 6.24. and 10.13. Joh. 3.17. Tit. 2.11. Hence that Maxim in the Schools, omne officium est propter beneficium. And accordingly when we do a thing which God commands, 'tis not accepted and rewarded simply and meerly be­cause commanded, but because in doing it we act becomingly, acquit our selves agreeably to the ducture of that Reason and Judgment which God hath planted and inlightened within us to direct us to the acknowledgment of our de­pendance upon him, subjection to him, and the pursuit of those things which make for our own perfection and Happiness. Though we do a thing in it self very good, and strictly com­manded of God, yet if we do it not from con­science of duty to God, and perhaps as com­modious and profitable to our selves, it will not be accepted with God: for every command implyeth a promise, and consequently every [Page 33]duty implyeth a reward, and therefore 'tis al­most if not quite as essential to a duty to re­spect Gods Bounty, as his Soveraignty, Heb. 11.6. And to look to the End for which, as well as to the Warrant from which it is to be done. And certainly God which encoura­geth our hope in case we perform a Duty, will accomplish to us the end we hope for by a Duty.

Sect. 23. Indeed the connection (as we for­merly intimated) betwixt our faithful employ­ment of the abilities and Gifts of Nature and common Grace, and our obtaining an estate in spiritual and special abilities and Graces, doth not arise from any Merit or considerable worth and obligingness in our faithful Diligence, nor is it strictly and properly the natural producti­on or the result and force of any strength and virtue in the faithful exercise of our natural and common abilities and Graces: but it is from Gods gracious vouchsafement, and from the mighty and irresistable force and virtue of Gods decree which do here interpose them­selves for our good, and unto which God will subject himself as to Laws and Rules of his own making and establishment in his dispensations towards us. Hence that of the Psalmist, thou hast magnifyed thy word above all thy name. (Psa 138.2. that is, God hath and will subject all his glorious Attributes to his gracious Promise [Page 34]to that word of his which is gone forth out of his mouth to serve and bless the children of men, which walk uprightly before him. Ps. 84.11. I do not believe that Gods dispensations of Grace are allured by mans moral goodness, or that his gracious purposes are so bound up to mans good behaviour that he can do good to no man upon other terms: but ordinarily, and according to Gods revealed will, his stated rule and promise of communicatings to us, such a Demeanour and qualification as we have been speaking of, sits man to receive higher Grace, and puts God into an honourable capacity, if I may say so, to bestow Grace upon man. And if God will perfect and crown our faithful mo­ral Diligence, and imperfectly good Endea­vours, with such a blessed success, who shall say unto him why do'st thou so? God hath said, that the diligent hand maketh rich, Prov. 10.4. and may not God grant in Spiritual matters as well as in Temporal, what Privi­ledges and Prerogatives to Diligence He plea­seth?

Sect. 24. Reas. 2. Because God in love to Judgment measures his Rectoral Administrati­ons by the rules of Equity, and proportioneth his Acceptance and Rewards of Service done him answerably to the Abilities of those which perform it. This is the purport of several texts of Scripture; unto whomsoever much is given, of [Page 35]him shall much be required. Luk. 12, 48. God giveth to all, but not in the same measure: some have five talents, others two, others one. And the Accounts of each shall be answerable to his Receipts. He that hath received but one Ta­lent, shall be accountable but for one; for God doth not expect to reap where he strewed not, as 'tis in this Parable: but he layeth judgment to the Line, and righteousness to the Plummet, Isa. 28.17. and will summa equitate jus reddere, render to every one in a rational way; according to an equitable proportion. That is, God ex­pects much from him to whom he hath com­mitted much, and but little from him to whom he committed but a little. And an­swerably in this distribution of Favours and Rewards he proceeds by a Geometrical and not by an Arithmetical proportion: he which by his diligence improved two Talents to four, found as favourable an acceptance as he which improved five to ten: there was the same Consideration and as much Reason, that he which had improved two Talents should be commended and rewarded, as there was that the other should, who had impro­ved five; for, all things considered, the one had done as much as the other.

Sect. 25. Our Saviour said of the poor Wi­dow which cast two mites into the Treasury, that she cast in more than all they which cast in much. Mar. 14.42, 43, 44. What she cast in [Page 36]was not simply and absolutely in it self, and ac­cording to Arithmetical proportion more than all that which they cast in, nor yet so much: but considering her Ability and the readiness of her mind and according to Geometrical pro­portion it was more; for they could have gi­ven greater matters out of their greater estates but she that gave all could give no more; and therefore she gave More, respectively to Gods Acceptance and commendation, than all the rest. The Apostle speaks full to our purpose, If there be first (saith he) a willing mind (that is, if a man be sincerely willing either actively or pas­sively to perform a signal service to God, and be ready to go forward with the work, but through a deficiency of strength, means or op­portunity cannot actually accomplish it, he shall not be rejected for such a deficiency but God will accept the Will for the Deed; for as it followeth, a man is accepted according to that which he hath, and not according to that which he hath not. Cor 8.12. that is, God mea­sureth and regardeth a man proportionably to the employment of his particular ability, and if he go as far as he can towards performance of service to him, he finds as favourable accep­tance with him as he would have done, if he had actually performed it in circumstances of more abilities, assistances and opportunities.

Sect. 26. The frequent appeals which God makes to our reasoning Faculty, to judge and [Page 37]determine of the Rational Equity of his way of dealing with us, is a convictive evidence, That in all his Administrations towards us, he observes a rational Equity and Proportion, and never doth any thing which bears any way hard upon the Principle of Reason, and Rule of equitable Dealings: so that, when men, plac'd under the Gospel, and assisted by God, do their utmost to please God in a way of Na­ture and common Grace, faithfully comport with, and follow the light and ducture of their natural Understandings and Reasons, and dili­gently and conscienciously go along with God in the use of the Means of Spiritual and special Grace prescribed and enjoyned by him, they do that which is of such consideration and ac­count in the sight of God, that they are in a ready way to obtain from him, answerably to their capacities, Spiritual and special Abilities and Graces.

Sect. 27. Men that dye in their sins, and are damned for their sins, are so far from doing their best, that they seem to do the worst they can to hinder their Conversion: they hated knowledge, the fear of the Lord they chused not, they would none of my counsel, they despised all my rebuke, Prov. 1.20, 30. Though their estate be never so bad, they like and love it as if it were best of all, Jer. 5.31. and prefer it before a state of Grace, John 3.19. And accordingly [Page 38]you shall find, the Equity of Gods Justice in rejecting men from Grace, and condemning them to Punishment, is no where said to be founded on any natural or invincible want of power in them to attain Grace and prevent Destruction; but 'tis alwayes charged on the faultiness of their Wills, Prov. 1.24. to 32. Luk. 13, 34. Joh. 5.40. Act. 7.5. Implying, that if men did awaken those Principles of Light, Understanding and Judgment which God vouchsafeth to them, and stir up their ex­ecutive powers to joyn issue with the gracious assistances of Gods Spirit for the pursuance of that Grace and mercy which God offereth to them, they might have avoided the evil porti­on of Sinners, and have partaked of an inheri­tance amongst the Saints in Light.

Sect. 28. Reas. 3. Because God delights to discover the kindness and bountifulness of his disposition towards the children of men. There is in God [...], a goodness and love towards Men, as the Apostle tells you, Tit. 3.4. The Nature of which affections dispose him to communicate favours and Gifts to us. From hence he preventeth us with the blessings of Good­ness, as the Psalmist speaketh, Ps. 21.3. And so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son &c. We are all the off-spring of God, said the Apostle, from the Heathen Poet, Act. 17.28. And nothing is more natural to him than to [Page 39]support and cherish the productions and free effluxes of his own omnipotent Love and good­ness. Hence St. Peter calleth him faithful Crea­tor, and willeth us upon that account to commit our selves to him in well-doing. 1 Pet. 4.19. Im­plying, that Gods relation to us as our Creator, is a kind of natural promisory engagement up­on him to protect, preserve, and do us good when we deport our selves towards him as be­cometh rational Creatures. And we find that Job represented and complained of it as a very incongruous thing, as a thing unbecoming the relation of a Creator to a Creature, to make it as it were purposely to destroy it, without the consideration of any notable unrighteous­ness in it, or provocation from it. Thine hands have made me and fashioned me round about, and yet thou dost destroy me Job 10, 8. q. d. Thy Making of me promised Preservation, provisi­on, and goodness from thee, and wilt thou [yet] notwithstanding the natural obligation of that relation ruine me for thy meer pleasure? and you shall find that God doth often insist upon the consideration of his Relation to his people as their Creator, to suggest and inculcate to them from thence his regular and due care, yea, his tender love and abundant goodness and bounty towards them Isa. 44.2.45.11.46.3, 4.49, 15. God is not only merciful and gracious, but he is the Father of Mercies, [Page 40]1 Cor. 1.3. and waiteth to be gracious. Isa 30, 18. that is, 'tis natural to God to be ready to acts of mercy, and Mercy so pleaseth him, Mic. 7.18. that he looketh out and seeketh for, yea, watcheth and waiteth for a fair opportunity to exalt his mercy in the gracious succour and re­lief of poor miserable sinners endeavouring all they can to seeek and find him.

Sect. 29. Our Saviour exhorting his Hearers in his Sermon on the Mount, to pray for the Spi­rit, (that is, the good Gifts and Graces of the Spirit our Discourse relateth unto) encoura­geth them to believe that their Prayer shall be prevalent and effectual, from the consideration now before us, viz. that God is their Father; that is, because their Beings are originally from Him as Children are from a Father. And the strength of his Argument standeth in a com­parison, and is drawn from the less to the greater; If ye then (saith he) being evil (that is, degenerated in a great measure from that kindness and benignity which was once im­pressed upon your Natures: for Evil here is opposed to a Liberal Disposition, and a for­wardness to Help and Relieve when requested) know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good gifts (another Evangelist saith, His Spirit, Luke 9.13.) unto them that ask him, Matt. 7.11. For as the Psalmist reasoneth in [Page 41]another case, He that made the eye, shall not he see? and he that planted the ear, shall not he hear? Psal: 94.9. So, shall not God, who hath only copied out his own Bowels, Love, and Good­ness, in dark Characters upon Men, investing their Natures with such Principles which in­cline and carry them forth to acts of Kindness and Bounty, shew Himself to be much more full of Kindness and Bounty; and answerably bestow upon all such as diligently and faith­fully serve him, according to the utmost of their Capacities and Circumstances, that which is best for them?

Sect. 30. Optimus & Maximus, Most Good or Bountiful, and Most Great or Powerful, were two Attributes which the ancient Gentiles most especially ascribed unto God, and they ever gave, from the dictate of Nature, his Goodness or Bounty the precedency of his Greatness or Power, implying, That God principally looks after the manifestation and acknowledgment of That. And the truth is, God never acts more like himself, with greater Royalty and Magnificence, than when he gives ample Gifts unto Men, and rewards their Services above the strict Worth and natural Value of them; for hereby, as in a Glass, is represented a Scheme of his excellent Greatness, and the de­sign he hath to affect us with awful apprehen­sions of his Greatness and Excellency. We say, [Page 42] There is no service to the service of a King, be­cause such a service is not recompensed in pro­portion to its proper worth, but in proportion to the Greatness and Munificence of the Prince which gives the Recompense. As Alexander said when he gave one a greater gift than he desired or expected, Non quaero quid te accipere deceat, sed quid me dare. He considered more what was fit for him to give, than what was fit for the other to receive. So 'tis here, when we obtain from God spiritual and special, up­on the faithful employment of natural and and common Abilities and Graces, God gives in a way of proportion to his own unbounded Goodness and Majestick Munificence, rather than in a way of suitableness to the nature and value of the thing rewarded. That of God to St. Paul may be applyed to the case in hand, My strength is made perfect (that is, declared to be perfect) in weakness, 2. Cor. 12.9. And elsewhere, we have this treasure in earthen Ves­sels, that the Power might be (that is, clearly appear to be) of God, and not of Ʋs. 2 Cor. 4, 7. so here, God hath engaged himself to such a dispensation as we have under consideration, that his Love and Goodness, Care and Provi­dence, Greatness and Munificence towards us, may appear and be made know to the World in greater exaltation and splendor.

Sect. 31. Reas. 4. Because God will justifie himself most triumphantly in all the judgments and punishments which he inflicts on obstinate sinners. Let God be true (saith the Apostle) and every man a lyar, as it is written, that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and overcome when thou art judged, Rom. 3.4. The place re­fers to Psalm 51.4. where it is thus read, That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest, Psal. 51.4. which words are to be understood in a forensick sense; for [...] used by the Apostle for the Hebrew word Titzdak in Kal, signifieth that thou may'st appear to be just, as one ac­quitted upon Tryal doth: and [...], signi­fieth such a contention as a Party in a Law­suit maketh when Judgment ensueth. And [...], such a fort of overcoming and victory as a contending Party obtains when he carries the Cause in Judicature. And the import of the words is this; Suppose God should be questioned concerning his proceedings in his condemnation of impenitent and obdurate Sinners, he will so manage his Cause, and make such provision against all Indite­ments and Impleadings, that he will be sure to have the better of the day: and whatsoever Bills of Inditements he prefers against his Adversaries, whatsoever Rebelli­ons he chargeth upon them, whatsoever Sentence he passeth against them, whatsoe­ver [Page 44]penalty and torments he inflicteth upon them, and of what nature soever his proceed­ings against them be, they shall be managed on such unquestionable terms and rules of E­quity and Justice, that they shall not be able to plead any matter of Defence, Apology, or Excuse for themselves.

Sect. 32. Now nothing will render Sinners more inexcusable in the day of Judgment for deserting and refusing the Service of God, and more clearly illustrate and justifie the righte­ousness of that punishment thereupon inflict­ed on them, than this consideration; That God had plainly declared, that he would not in any degree by any Person whatsoever be served for nought, but did constantly from time to time assure them, either by his Words, or Works, or both, that their meanest Servi­ces, the most imperfect and weak, should be rewarded with a liberal and full hand, exceed­ingly above the just value of them and (did not his Decree, promise, or bountifulness of his Disposition intervene in his consideration) above all reasonable expectation concerning them. If men could plead that they had not an Interest of their own to account upon, and carry on in their tradings with their Talents, or employing their Abilities and Gifts to the purposes for which they have received them, they might have some pretence for hiding and suppressing them; for Rational Creatures will [Page 45]not think it good for them to be engaged in doing that which will do them no good when it is done: but God having inseparably linked our interest to our duties, and animated our hopes by our diligence, we can find no matter of excuse, but shall be speechless in the day of God. Have I been a Wilderness unto Israel (saith God) or a Land of darkness? wherefore say my people then, we are Lords: we will come no more unto thee? Jer. 2, 31. q. d. If when they served me I had done them no good, but hurted them rather, then they might have some provocati­on and pretence to assume to themselves pow­er to dispose of themselves and services to the neglect and contempt of my interest in them, and expectation of service from them.

Sect. 33. And God seems contented that men should renounce him and his service if men could find out a way to employ themselves to purposes of greater Advantage to themselves, than that they are already possessed of, by keeping to him and his service, as that of God by his Prophet Elijah intimateth, when he said, How long halt ye between two? (that is, why are you so indifferent, neutral, and undetermin­ed in your inclinations to whom and whose service to adhere unto and abide by? why, like a man which halts, do you bend and incline some­times on the right hand, and sometimes on the left; now are for one Religion, and anon are [Page 46]for another; sometimes for the worship of Ba­al, the Idol of the Zidonians, and sometimes for the worship of the true God, the God of Israel?) if Baal be God then follow him (that is, if he be the author of your Protections and Mercies, and if you have sufficient grounds and reasons to induce you to expect from him great­er rewards by serving him than you can expect by serving the true God, than deal with him as faithful servants with their Lord and Ma­ster, who follow him wheresoever he goes, and do whatsoever he requires, be resolved men and determine your Service and Worship unto him, and be for him and not for another:) but if the Lord be God then follow Him, 1 King. 18.21. That is, if there be none so good in him­self, and so good to you as the true God, as there is not: if the service of the same God be the best Service, more agreeable to your rati­onal Principles and most subservient to your truest and biggest interest; then let the Lord be your God and follow him fully, and for­saking all other cleave only to him, and to his Worship and Service, or else you will be con­demned of your selves. So that, the bounti­fulness of Gods disposition towards his servants and the experience the world hath of the rich­ness of those rewards which he offereth unto, and confers upon men, to encourage them to serve him, will with an high hand justifie the ven­geance [Page 47]he taketh and executeth on the disobe­dient and impenitent.

Sect. 34. Could the unfaithful servant which hid his Talent spoken of in this Parable, to which my Text refers have pleaded, that he had not a competent ability or such a sufficien­cy of power to employ and improve his Talent as his fellow Servant had, or that it was impos­sible for him to please and content his Lord and Master by the employment and improve­ment of it as they did, or that he should have lost his labour to all such like advantages as his fellows hoped for and were rewarded with, he could have made a rational apology and justifi­able excuse for his sloth and negligence: but that every mouth may be stopped and all the World (that is, of impenitent and obstinate sinners) may become guilty before God, [or be subject to the Judgment of God] as the old translation rendred it) upon justifiable and equitable terms, Rom. 3, 19. God hath given assurance that the lowest sort of reasonable services, if men serve him with a moral sincerity, do their best en­deavour to please him, they may be enabled to do that which will in some degree be accep­table to him, and useful to themselves.

Sect. 35. Reas. 5. Because otherwise the ex­press and literal promulgation of the Gospel­dispensation; could not be such a peculiar fa­vour and special mercy to a people as it is. [Page 48]For, not working upon us physically, by a na­tural influx, as fire warmeth us or meat nou­risheth us, but morally, by a rational influx, as it represents intelligible and alluring objects of Truth and goodness to affect our understan­ings and Wills, it is no otherwise a ministration of Salvation to us, than it is that instrument or means by which Gods Spirit moveth and ex­citeth our understandings and hearts, and con­veyeth influence and efficacy to rectifie our mi­stakes, estimations, choices, affections and pro­secutions, which is done by an active interpo­sition and exercise of our own natural Abili­ties and common Graces: for unless our facul­ties and gifts be awakened, stirred up, and ex­ercised, unless we have Eyes to see, Ears to hear, Understandings to apprehend and at­tend, Memories to receive and retain, Judg­ments to discern and consider, Wills and Affe­ctions to embrace and pursue, the revelations of Duty, Grace and Mercy propoundeth to us, no saving Effect can thereby be impressed and wrought upon us. All the Powers of the Gospel are like sanative Medicines, which lye by a sick man unapplied, ineffective to any sa­ving good to us, till we apply our selves to the use of them, and do what we can to subject our selves to the workings of them.

Sect. 36. The weightiest matters in the World, yea, those which most nearly concern [Page 49]us, which are most necessary, profitable, de­lightsome and contentful, do not affect us if we think not of them: the noblest Rewards of infinite Grace, Heaven and Happiness, do no more allure us, than the smiles of a Varlet, if we think not of them: the highest Punish­ments of infinite Justice, the Horrours and Tor­ments of Hell and Damnation, do no more af­fright us, than the frowns of a dying wretch, if we think not of them: the Commands and Example of Christ have no more force with us, and do no more encourage and quicken us to Obedience, and the pursuit of Glory, than those of the Great Mogul, which we never saw or heared of, unless we think of them. Our Souls indeed are active Principles, and will be working on something or other, and the end of our Reason is to put us upon the con­sideration of such matters as are most excellent, and necessary, and which do chiefly concern our Eternal welfare: but our thoughts are so much under the power and command of our Wills, that we ordinarily employ them about what Objects we please: we send them hi­ther and thither, busie them about this thing and that, call them off, and bring them on, determine and fix them how and where we please; so that, the faithful employment of our natural Abilities and common Graces is a con­dition presupposed to the reaping of a saving [Page 50]benefit from the promulgation of the Gospel to us. Perceive ye not yet (said our Saviour to his Disciples upon their unbelieving reason­ings) neither understand? having eyes see ye not? having Ears hear ye not? and do ye not remem­ber? Mar. 8.17.18. q. d. If you do not make a regular use of your Understandings and Sen­ses, all that I say and do, both my Words and Works will be as a thing of naught with you: the Doctrine which I preach to you unless you attend and consider it, and the miracles which I work to confirm it, and to convince you of the truth of it, unless you observe and remember them, cannot be transferred to their proper use, and work any good upon you: and when your rational Faculties and Sen­ses are not thus employed, they are to you as if you had them not, vain and useless Matt. 13.13.

Sect. 37. In this consists the great advan­tage the Christian part of the World hath from the Preaching of the Gospel, that by it, Life and Immortality is brought to Light, 2 Tim. 1.10. That is, to partake of a divine Life, and to attain immortal Felicity, and Glory is distinctly, plainly, and evidently, discovered and manifested by it: and withal it is the mi­nistration of the Spirit, 1 Cor. 3.8. That is, containeth such spiritual Powers, such quick­ening Influences from the Spirit, such effica­cious [Page 51]Arguments, and perswasive Motives, as are most apt to affect and incite our Spirits or rational Faculties to the exercise of their pro­per offices and acts for to embrace and pur­sue that divine Life and immortal Glory, which is so clearly discovered and offered to us by it. God knew that Sin had unman'd us, lost us the use of our Reason, where we had most use for it; and therefore he contrived this means both to pardon our Sin, and to recover to us our Reason, and to make us men againe. Yea, the ve­ry graces of the Spirit, are to make us more un­reasonable. For those inherent Graces of the Spirit which we call sanctifying and saving Graces, are a rectifying of our natural rati­onal Faculties, and make such impressions on them as bring them into a due order, subor­dinate our Understandings and Reasons to God, and our Wills, Appetites, Affections, Passions and Senses to our Understandings and Reasons, and that which facilitateth or maketh them fit and ready to operate suita­bly to the Nature of their proper Objects: for all habits whatsoever, both Spiritual and Moral, are nothing else almost but a facili­tation of our rational Faculties, and are scarce otherwise distinguished from the natural Pow­ers in which they are, than the straitness of a stick from the stick it self, or the expansi­on and contraction of the hand from the hand [Page 52]it self, not by a positive absolute Being and Existence of its own, but as the modification or odering of a Being after such a manner, is distinguished from the Being it self. So that, the literal Promulgation of the Gospel to us, car­rieth with it a peculiarity of Favour and Mer­cy, because it is the most excellent Instrument to excite us to a regular use of our natural Fa­culties, and the most efficacious Organ of the Spirit to derive to us a Divine and Heaven­ly Life.

Sect. 38. Reas. 6. Because God hath reward­ed those which have been serviceable to him only for the execution of his Will of Purpose to punish, and such as have only hypocritically fulfilled his Will of Command, with the high­est temporal Rewards; and therefore we have good ground to hope more comfortably and confidently that he will reward those more a­bundantly and excellently, even with Spiritual and Special Gifts and Graces, which with a moral Sincerity do to the utmost of their Power accomplish and fulfill his Will of Com­mand. Behold, your heavenly Father (saith Christ) feedeth the Fowls of the Aire! are ye not much better than they? he cloatheth the grass of the Field, and will he not much more cloath you? Mat. 6.26.30. q. d. If things of lesser worth partake of his Care and Bounty, things of a greater Excellency shall much more, in a high­er [Page 53]measure. Which speech is reducible to that which is under our Consideration, and may in my apprehension be as fitly applyed to it as to that to which it was immediately referred.

Sect. 39. Nebuchadrezzer King of Babylon and his Army of Caldaeans, were the worst of the Heathen, as the Prophet saith, Ezek. 7.24. And they, comparatively, but bruta Instru­menta in Gods hand: they did not knowing­ly and designedly, from any Conscience of Obedience to God, or aim at his Honour and Service, execute his Judgments upon his Ene­mies, but did what they did from their own impetuous Lusts, to serve their own evil Pur­poses and Ends; and yet because they were subservient to Gods Providence in executing the Punishment he had decreed against Tyrus, he rewarded them very highly, gave them one of the greatest and richest Kingdomes in the World. Son of man, Nebuchadrezzer King of Babylon, caused his Army to serve a great Service against Tyrus: every Head was made bald, and every Shoulder was peeled; yet had he no wages nor his Army for Tyrus, for the Service that he had served against it. For when the Ty­rians saw their imminent danger, they trans­ported, as St. Hierome relates, their choisest Goods to Carthage, and other neighbouring Islands, and at length deserted their City, and left nothing but empty and ruinated houses [Page 54]and Walls to their Enemies. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold I will give the Land of Aegypt unto Nebuchadrezzer King of Baby­lon, and he shall take her Multitude, and take her Spoil, and take her Prey, and it shall be the Wages for his Army. I have given him the Land of Aegypt for his labour wherewith he served a­gainst it, because they wrought for me, saith the Lord. (Ezek. 29.18, 19, 20.) Howbeit they meant not to fulfill Gods Will, and to execute his Purpose, neither did their Hearts think so: they had no Apprehensions that they were working for God and serving his design: but it was in their Hearts to destroy and cut off, as 'tis elsewhere. Isa. 10.5. yet because they were instrumental to execute Gods decreed Punishment, and to serve his Ends upon the Tyrians, they shall not lose their Labour.

Sect. 40. So, although Cyrus King of Per­sia were an Heathenish Idolater, yet because he performed all Gods Pleasure, accomplished all that he purposed as necessary for the Re­demption of his People from the Babylonish captivity, he held his right hand to subdue Na­tions, and loosed the loins of Kings before him —and gave him the Treasures of Darkness and hidden Riches of secret Places. Isa. 44.28.45.1, 2, 3, 4.

Jehu was none of the best, for he never de­parted from the Sins of Jeroboam, from the Ido­latrous [Page 55]Worship of the Golden Calves in Be­thel and Dan, and took no heed to walk in the Law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart; yet because he pretended a Zeal for the true God, in executing the Command of God to destroy Ahabs Family and the Idolatrous Wor­ship and Priests of Baal, God rewarded him largely, and his Posterity too for his sake; Be­cause thou hast done well in executing that which was Right in mine Eyes (that is, in part that which was Right, a thing good in its Kind and Nature, being materially agreeable to my law) and hast done unto the house of Ahab all that was in my Heart, thy Children of the fourth Generation shall sit. upon the Throne of Israel. 2 King. 10.30. And what God graciously promised was faithfully accomplished in the successions to the Throne of Jehoahaz, ch. 31.1. Joash, ch. 13.9. Jeroboam, ch. 14.16. and Za­chariah ch. 14.29.

Sect. 41. Now may we not rationally infer, that if God so graciously and bountifully re­warded such as ignorantly and preterintenti­onally, without having any respect at all to God and his Ends, became serviceable to him in the execution of his Will of Purpose, in a particular Instance, to gratifie their own car­nal Appetites and Ends; and such as hypocri­tically and partially yield an outward confor­mity to his Will of Command, to serve their [Page 56]own Lusts and interest upon his bounty, that he will much more amply and liberally re­compense those which knowingly, purposely, universally and uprightly endeavour, as much as meer natural men in a state of declension can, a conformity to His holy, just and good Will of command. With the Upright man God will shew himself Upright; God will not altogether neglect a plain, honest, faithful exercise of Mo­ral Virtues, and common Graces, as he does not neglect the practice of true Piety, but he will give the Labourers their hire, to every man his proper penny, Matt. 20.8.9. will as we may reasonably infer, bless, and prosper the one, as he certainly does the other after their kind, not according to their own worthiness, but, according to his abundant Goodness and Mer­cy; and his Liberality in rewarding the one which hath laboured less worthily than the other shall be no prejudice to his Faithful­ness, Goodness, or Righteousness, in reward­ing the other.

Sect. 42. If the humiliation of a Ninive, Jon. 3.7, 10. of an Ahab, 2 King. 30.30. be a consideration for the removal and adjour­nal of Judgments and the collation of tempo­ral Blessings, may not that man have encou­ragement to hope for Spiritual and Special Blessings from God who seriously resolves in all good Conscience to avoid and shun all [Page 57]gross, wilfull, and habituate Wickedness, and to apply himself with all his might to keep every one of Gods Commandements? if God said to a bloody Cain, if thou do'st well shalt thou not be accepted? Gen. 4.7. and heard a scoffing Ismael when he cryed unto him; Gen. 21.17. and told a brutish Nebuchadrezzer, that if he brake off his Sin by Righteousness, and his Iniquities by shewing Mercy to the Poor, it should be a lengthening of his Tranquillity; Dan. 4.27. will he not hear and accept every per­son in every Nation which feareth him and work­eth Righteousness? Act 10.39.

Sect. 43. I am not willing (my Conscience is witness, and God which is greater than my Conscience, and knoweth more by me than it) to impose upon the Faith or Reason of any, the meanest Person in the world; but methinks, when I thus consider Gods ordina­ry practice of Grace in conferring rewards upon the lowest sorts of Service imaginable done for him, that it is not illogical, or a far fetcht Inference to conclude from thence, that he will more liberally and honourably re­ward those Services which are done from bet­ter Principles to better Ends, and more agree­ably to his holy Will and Pleasure, and which do ex natura rei, repress in some measure the Exorbitancy of mens Lusts and Passions, and materially Dispose, and prepare them for great­er [Page 58]Blessings, even for those Spiritual and Special Gifts and Graces our discourse re­fers unto.

Before I shall draw any inferences from my Position I shall endeavour to remove two Objections which are by some men made a­gainst it.

Sect. 44. First. Some will not have unre­generate men encouraged to moral Vertues and common Graces, because they are apt to be proud of, and to rest in them; and from thence assert, that there is more hope of the Conversion and Salvation of the most de­bauched Ruffian, than of such men. When men (say they) by the external Practice of moral Vertues have obtained good Accep­tance, and a great Reputation in the World, and by the internal workings of common Gra­ces, which have the semblance of Faith and Repentance, have got a good Opinion of themselves, and conceit their present course commendable, and in Probability safe, they from hence trust in their own Righteousness, and so lay the strongest and most dangerous barr in the way to a through Conversion and the true Power of Godliness, that can be; and therefore (say they) to excite to endeavour after moral Vertues and common Graces, is to perswade them to become like the Proselytes to the Pharisees, more the [Page 59]Children of the Devil than they were be­fore.

Sect. 45. Ans. This kind of reasoning hath more of noise and clamour in it than of Sub­stance and Strength; for Pride and carnal Confidence is neither an Effect, or necessary Adjunct, but a meer accidental thing to moral Vertues and common Graces; for nothing can be more contrary to the dictates of Reason and the common restaints of Grace, than such Pride and Confidence. What is more unrea­sonable than Pride and Self-conceitedness? and what tendency hath a sense of Sin and Mise­ry, and an hope of Grace and Mercy, which are the effects of common Grace, to a trust­ing and a reposing of our selves in our own Worth and Righteousness? that moral Ver­tues and common Graces are sometimes a dan­gerous temptation doth not proceed ex natu­ris rerum, from the natures of the things them­selves, but ex vitiis personarum quibus insunt, from the immoral Corruptions of the persons which partake of them. So that, 'tis a ca­sual contingent argument and may altogether as plausibly be urged against Spiritual and Special Abilities and Graces, because men are apt to take occasion to be proud of them and to trust in them, as the Instances of David, Hezekiah, Peter and others, evince.

St. Austin, and after him the Schoolmen, [Page 60]when they define Gratia gratum faciens, that Grace which we are speaking of, regenera­ting or sanctifying Grace, they teach us, that it is such, Quâ nemo malè utitur, which no one useth amiss. But 'tis of easie apprehensi­on, that they speak of Grace efficiently and not objectively considered: for though san­ctifying Grace cannot in its exercise be abused to evil Purposes, yet it may accidentally by its presence and practice both be an occasion of drawing out of those Lusts which war a­gainst our Souls, and so may objectively be misused. But suppose it were constantly and necessarily true, that moral Vertues and com­mon Graces were accompanied with Pride and carnal confidence, is it not more easie to cast out one or two Devils than to cast out a whole Legion? and are not one or two Ene­mies more easily vanquished than an whole Army?

Sect. 46. Secondly, Some others, because the Apostle saith, where Sin abounded Grace did much more abound, Rom. 5.20. Infer a­gainst our Position, that therefore Quò scele­ratior eò gratiae vicinior, by how much the more any man is a Sinner, by so much the nearer to the Grace and Mercy of a Saviour. And because Jesus Christ told the Priests and Elders, that the Publicans and Harlots did go in­to the Kingdom of God before them, Mat. 21.31. [Page 61]Therefore say they, the excess of wickedness is a better qualification to make men capable Subjects of regenerating Grace, than moral Vertues and common Graces.

Sect. 47. Ans. This Objection seemeth to intimate to us, that God doth Love that which Nature it self doth Loath; and as if that were nearest to God which is furthest from Good­ness; and that they which are more like De­vils than men, were most likely to become Christians; and Heaven were beholding to Hell for Saints. I cannot but think, that A­grippa, who was almost perswaded to be a Chri­stian, was better disposed towards Christiani­ty than Saul was when he breathed out threat­nings and slaughters against any that professed it. Acts 9.1.2. and certainly the Scribe which was not far from the Kingdom of God, Mar. 12.34. was fitter for and nearer to an entrance in­to it, than those Scribes, Pharisees and Hypo­crites were who did shut the Kingdom of Heaven against others, and would not go in themselves, nor suffer those who were entring, to go in. Mat. 23.13. And the Young man which had observ­ed all the Commandements of God from his youth up, and yet lacked one thing, Mar. 10.21. was not so much indisposed to the Power of Reli­gion, and so unmeet for the Kingdom of God, as Ahab was when he sold himself to work Evil in the sight of the Lord; 1 King. 21.20. or [Page 62]any other which wanteth more things and rejecteth the Commandements of God, and hath no fear of God before his eyes, and speaketh against the Holy Ghost. Hos. 4.6. Rom. 3.18, Mat. 12.32. or as he who hath troden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctifyed an unholy thing, and hath done despight unto the Spirit of Grace. Heb. 10.29. For my part I cannot be­lieve, that he is ever likely to become a Saint who lives as if he were a Devil, renouncing the dictates of Nature and the restraints of Grace. Surely a just and an honest man is more nearly related to a Christian than a Thief, or an Oppressor, or a Deceiver; and he that walketh humbly, meekly, soberly, charitably, instructing the Ignorant, relieving the Poor, extending compassions to the Pri­soners, and captives, acknowledging his un­worthiness by reason of Sin, begging Pardon of God, and falleth down and worshippeth God in hope of Reconciliation and Salvation, as every one man doth which liveth in the practice of moral Vertues and common Gra­ces, is more likely to become a sound Belie­ver, than he which walketh proudly, stub­bornly, riotously, faring deliciously every day, without regard to the hungry and needy, scorning at Godliness and Honesty, and de­spising the means of Grace and Mercy. I shall [Page 63]conclude with the recital of the concurrent suffrage of the Profound Bradwardine, A ser­vile fear (saith he) a sight of some inconveni­ence and the moral habit of Vertue, do very much withhold from Sin, incline to good Works, and so prepare and dispose to Charity, and Grace, and Works truly pleasing and acceptable. Bradw. De Gausa Dei. l. 16. c. 37. With whom Mr. Robert Bolton consented, who saith, that mo­ral Honesty and outward Religiousness are in them­selves good and necessary, and a good step to Chri­stianity. I now proceed to consider what In­ferences and Consequences are deducible from my Position.

Sect. 48. First then, the Reason why so few are spiritually converted and saved, is, because few do faithfully employ their Natu­ral Abilities and common Graces; or in the words of our Saviour, because they seeing see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand; and in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaias, which saith, by hearing they shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing they shall see and not perceive: for this peoples Heart is waxed gross, and their Ears are dull of hearing, and their Eyes have they closed, lest at any time they should see with their Eyes, and hear with their Ears, and should understand with their Hearts, and should be converted, and I should heal them. Mat. 13.13, 14, 15. q. d. They have [Page 64]Faculties and Powers naturally capable of ob­serving and understanding the Miracles I have wrought amongst them, and the Doctrine I have preached to them, and of receiving bles­sed Advantages from them; but they have not stirred up themselves to the use of them this way, but have carryed it as if they had neither Ears to hear what was said, nor Eyes to see what was done, nor reasonable Souls to perceive the End unto which both as Means referred; and they are just such another sort of People as they were which the Pro­phet speaks of, who were so judicially be­sotted by the predominancy of an obstinate stubborn Will, that they wilfully stop their Ears, and shut their Eyes, and run on like mad Men upon their Ruine and Destruction: they so perversely abuse their natural Abili­ties and common Graces, as if they purposely signed to render themselves in disposed for, and uncapable of Conversion and Salvation; and by the just Judgment of God for their neglect and contempt of the means of Conversion and Salvation, are so confirmed and hardened in their brutish Stupidity and Sensualities, that they are never likely to become stirring and active in the use of their natural Abilities and gracious Assistances, and therefore never likely to be converted and saved.

Sect. 49. There was never any man in the [Page 65]World, (at least under the Gospel) who dy­ed in his Sins and was damned for them, which endeavoured the best he could to be saved. When God commandeth men to repent and to be converted, that their Sins might be blotted out, Act. 3.19. and to make a new Heart and a new Spirit, and to turn themselves that they may not dye but live: These Commands suppose that they have Powers naturally capable of yield­ing Obedience to them; for otherwise these Commands would be grievous to them; and God would tempt them above what they are able, which his Justice and Goodness will not suffer him to do: and being given to unre­generate men, which are morally weakened by sinful corruptions, and with an express re­ference to their corruptions, which render them averse from and hinder the performance of Obedience to Gods Commands, they also suppose such a supereffluence of gracious Pow­er from God as is sufficient to remove this weakness, and to conquer this Hinderance of obedience; for otherwise they would not be capable Subjects of these and the like Laws, and God would exact from them that which they could not do, and would promise them forgiveness of Sin and Life upon an impossi­ble condition, which his Graciousness and Wisdom will not suffer him to do. This (as I conceive) is the purport of the New Cove­nant [Page 66]founded upon Christs Mediatorial Obe­dience, to relieve Man respectively to his Mo­ral Impotency; I mean, to vouchsafe him suf­ficient Means to remove the hindrances he had brought upon himself by his Wicked­ness, to perform the Obedience he owed to his Maker and Ruler, and to restore him to a Capacity of attaining Salvation from Sin and Misery, and to stand possessed of the Image, Favour, and Fellowship of God. And an­swerably, what God here commands them to do for themselves, he elsewhere promiseth that he himself will do for them, Acts 3.26. and 5.31. and 11.18. 2 Tim. 2.25. Jer. 31.33. and 32.39. Ezek. 36.26. Which plainly im­plyeth, that God gives men sufficient Abilites and Helps to do that which he commands them to do, and when they faithfully use their Ta­lents, Abilities and Helps in order to their Conversion and Salvation, he will concurr and Work with them, and in the end derive to them, and bestow upon them, that which they laboured and wrought for. So that, if Men did go so far, and do so much as they are ina­bled to do, their Conversion and Salvation might certainly be accomplished.

Sect. 50. When Christ upbraided the Chief Priests and Elders for not believing St. John the Baptist, as the Publicans and Harlots did, Mat. 21.32. He clearly intimated, that they [Page 67]were aswell appointed and fitted by Nature and Grace to believe, as the other were, and that it was meerly from their own Obstinacy that they believed not: for if they had not been in capable circumstances of believing, had not been as well furnished with Abilities, Graces, and Aids for the work as the other were, it would have been no disparagement to them not to believe as the other did. A man is not to be blamed and upbraided for that which necessarily and irresistibly befalls him: where there is no room for a Choice, there can be no just or warrantable matter of Blame and Disparagement. Actus voluntatis est actus hominis. In a legal and moral Constru­ction that is not done which is not willingly done. It was therefore their Wilfulness, and not any invincible Impotency natural or mo­ral which kept them from believing, that is, there was no hinderance to their Believing but such as was conquerable (together with Gods assistance) by the endeavours and Means they might have used.

Sect. 51. And when God commands men to save themselves, Act. 2.40. I presume the words are not to be understood formaliter but consecutivè, the meaning is not, that they must be the Authors of their own Salvation, or that they must do that from which Salvation will by a natural emanation result and issue [Page 68]as an effect from its proper cause, but that if they did to their utmost sincerely comport with those Abilities, Graces, and Means for Salvation which they at that time enjoyed, Salvation should undoubtedly be the necessa­ry Consequent of it; because God by his ir­resistible Decree hath determined, that Salva­tion shall be the necessary Consequent and issue of such faithful endeavours.

Sect. 51. God considered simply and abso­lutely in himself is agens liberimum, under no Obligation as a Debtour to any Creature whatsoever gives what Favours, when, and to whom he pleaseth: but God considered relatively to his own internal Determinations and external Administrations, may and hath brought upon himself an Obligation respe­ctively unto Us. Divina voluntas (saith the great Schoolman) licet simpliciter libera sit ad extra, ex supplicatione tamen unius actus liberi, potest necessitari ad alterum. Although the Will of God be simply or entirely free, respectively to all external administrations towards his Creatures, yet upon the supposition of one free Act towards them, he may be necessitated to another. Thus, God having commanded Sinners to pursue the Salvation of their Souls by endeavouring con­version from Sin, and engaging themselves in the service of the Gospel, and walking worthy of him, unto all well-pleasing, he hath oblig­ed [Page 69]himself to furnish them with sufficient Abi­lities, Assistances, and Means for the expedi­ting and fulfilling of their Duties. And having encouraged them to their Duties by propound­ing a Reward to their Hopes, he hath bound himself upon the performance of their Duties to accomplish to them what they aim and hope for. So that, God by an act of Sove­raignty obligeth himself to an act of Grace, and by one act of Grace obligeth himself to another. Thus some interpret that of the E­vangelist, of His fulness have all we received, and Grace for Grace. Joh. 1.16. That is, God through Christ dispenseth to us one Grace in order to another: he doth not bestow Gifts and Graces upon us sparingly, or for once, or one turn only, but accumulateth Grace to Grace; that is, when former Graces are well dispensed and rightly used, he addeth others to them, to fill up the measure of a Christian Sta­ture, a perfect man in the fulness of Christ, as the Apostle terms it. Eph. 4.13.

Sect. 53. 'Tis the observation of a Rabbin mentioned by Casaubon, that Merces praecepli est praeceptum, & merces transgressionis est trans­gressio. The meaning is this, that when a man keepeth one commandement he obtaineth such a reward of Grace from God, that he is made able and ready to keep another, and as his diligence in obedience is increased, so his [Page 70]Graces are multiplyed and perfected: so on the contrary, he which transgresseth one of Gods Commands, by Gods just Judgment is disposed to transgress another, and as his ne­gligence to Obedience increaseth, so his aver­sation from Obedience is heightened.

Sect, 54. Surely, God which hath appoint­ed a course of Means in order to Conversion and for the acquisition of Salvation, and strict­ly commanded the use of them, he doth so honour and bless them with his gracious Pre­sence, that they cannot be in vain to any man which useth them as well as he can: but he which seriously and diligently applyeth him­self though with a lesser disposition to Subje­ction and Obedience to God, shall be blessed with a greater by the Use of them, till he be throughly disposed and duly prepared for the End of them; for he that waiteth on the Lord and keepeth his way, shall not be ashamed but sav­ed. Psa. 25.3, 37, 34. That so few therefore are converted and saved in a great measure, is, because so few do faithfully employ their na­tural Abilities and common Graces: few use as well as they should and could the Gifts al­ready received, and therefore better are with­held from them; for he that is unjust in the least, is unjust also (that is, praeparatione animae) in much. Luk. 16.10. and he must not expect Special Favours who is unworthy of Common ones.

Sect. 55. Inference 2. Then Employment is Gods way to Improvement, and if we then in­tend to better our estates of Abilities, Gifts, and Graces, let us make the best Use of them we can, refer them to their proper Ends, and combine with them to prosecute those Ends with all our might, and the enterprise will certainly prosper in our hands. To him that [Thus] hath it shall be given, and he shall have abundance. The Talents of Abilities and Gra­ces are from an act of Almightiness in God, but the faithful Management and Use of those Talents is an act of Duty and Obedience in us: as the former depend upon Gods Grace, so the latter upon Our Industry; for all matters of Duty and Obedience are appropriately ours, and properly belong to Us, as all matters of Grace are appropriately Gods, and properly belong to him. And therefore we are to ac­count, that the Employment, and consequent­ly the Improvement of our particular Talents, is our own proper work, unto which we are to exercise our selves with all Care and Diligence. Certainly, God would not have condemned the slothful Servant for hiding his Talent, if it had not been his proper Work and Duty to have Employed and Improved it. Do not then in favour to your carnal Ease infer, That because God worketh in you to will and to do, Phil. 2. that you cannot bury his [Page 72]Talent, nor contradict his motion; that you must only have a Passive capacity to Receive from God, and must Do nothing, but God must do all: for according to the Spiritual Logick of the Apostle, that Principle is a pre­mise to a quite contrary Conclusion; for, he thence infers our sollicitous Care and wary Industry, saying, Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, Phil. 2.12, 13. St. Chryso­stome on the place well observes, that 'tis not simply said [...], work, but [...], work out, implying, that we must be Workers together with God, till the work of Salvation be brought to a full Perfection; and all the way we must fear and tremble, lest by inward Reluctations or outward oppositions, the Work miscarry, and so God be offended, and we destroyed.

Sect. 56. Chamier well observes, That when many Causes concur to produce one and the same Effect, the Scriptures sometimes ascribe the Effect to one of these Causes, and sometimes to another. This is the Case here under consideration, God worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure; and yet you are commanded from thence to work out your Salvation: which im­plyes, that if the Abilities and Graces impart­ed to us from God, be in the end and issue actually Operative and Effective to our Salva­tion, it is in concurrence with our faithful En­deavours; [Page 73]and that our Endeavours subordi­nately to the Superintendency and Instigation of the Grace of God, contribute Influence to­wards Salvation. Hence Men are said to save Themselves, 1 Tim. 4.16. Act. 2.40. and in or­der to that, are said to Recover Themselves out of the snare of the Devil, 2 Tim. 2.25. and are said to keep Themselves pure, 1 Tim. 5.22. and to keep Themselves in the Love of God. Jude 21. and to guide their Hearts in the way. 1 John 3.3. Prov. 23.9. All which expressions teach us, that we are not saved by a meer passive Reci­piency of saving Impressions, but by an active industrious Cooperation with the powerful Aids of Grace. 'Tis said, that the blessing of God maketh rich; and yet in the same Chapter 'tis also said, that the Diligent Hand maketh rich. Prov. 10. the meaning undoubtedly is this, there must be Diligence on our part, or else there will be no Blessing on Gods part. Be content therefore to believe, that some thing belongs to you, that you have a Talent to manage, a Gift to exercise, Assistances to comport with and use, a Diligence to main­tain, and a work of Salvation to do.

Sect. 57. It is with the generality of men in the matter of Conversion or cleansing from Sin (as 'tis sometimes called in Allusion to the le­gal Cleansings) Eph. 5.26. Jam. 4.8. 2 Cor. 7.1. as it was with Naaman in the matter of [Page 74]his cleansing from his Leprosy, who when the Prophet counselled him to go and wash seven times in Jordan in order to it, he presently fell into a great Passion, and said, I had thought he would have come to me, and have called on the name of his God, and laid his hands on me, and so I should have been healed. 2 King. 5.11. that is, he would have been healed his own way, he would contribute nothing of Submission, Obedience and Endeavour towards it, but would only be the Subject recipient of it: God and the Prophet must do all. So, many pretend they are willing to be converted or cleansed from the leprosy of Sin, but 'tis upon their own terms; if God by his omnipotent Impulse will over-power and irresistibly deter­mine their Wills to chuse the better part, they must submit; for who hath or can, resist his Will? but for their parts they will be at no ex­pense of Study, Care, or Pains for it: God and his subordinate Instruments must do it without them, if he will have it done. It is not (say they from the Apostle) of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth Mer­cy, Rom. 9.16. And therefore the Work of Salvation is Gods work only, and not at all theirs, and if it be wrought it shall cost them nothing. Thus many abuse the Grace of God to Wantonnes; because the terms and conditions of Justification are only of Gods prescribing, & no other qualifications whatsoever but those [Page 75]specified and limited by his Law can admit us to a participation of it, (to which that spoken of by the Apostle, only refers) there­fore they, by a perverting of the Apostles words, conclude, that the work of Con­version is a work which God is to do upon them without them. That is, because God enacteth and imposeth Laws and Terms of Ju­stification and Salvation without our Consent, therefore also Submission and Obedience to them shall be yielded and performed too without our consent. If I understand the force and design of such Reasonings, the scope and import of them is this, that God doth his own part and mans too, maketh and im­poseth Laws upon us, and obeyeth and fulfill­eth them himself for us too, and so acteth the part both of the Soveraign and the Subject.

Sect. 58. That famous saying of St. Augu­stine so much celebrated in the practical dis­courses of Divines, is a manifest and weighty Truth, That he which Made thee without thee, doth not Justifie thee without thee. Qui fecit te sine te, non te ju­stificat si­ne te. Aug. Tom. 10. De verbis Apostoli Ser. 15. p. 335. You could not concur to the one be­cause you were not, but you ought and must concur to the other because you are what you are; I mean, crea­tures of a proper capacity to do it, by the constitution of your Natures to be conducted unto God and all [Page 76]perfective enjoyments knowingly and ele­ctively. Conversion is an act of duty as well as of Grace, and mans share is so great in all acts of Duty, that they are properly deno­minated Mans act only, and not Gods. Would it not be absurd, if not worse, to say, that God ceaseth to do Evil and Learneth to do well; that God turneth from Sin to God; that God repenteth unto Life and Salvation; that God believeth and bringeth forth fruits worthy of a­mendment; which are all Scripture-Phrases, importing the same with Conversion and Rege­neration? Although the Fire burns not with­out Gods concurrence, yet 'tis not God (ac­cording to a strict propriety of Speech) which burns, but the Fire; because notwithstanding Gods concurrence, the Fire acteth according to the essential properties of its Nature. God concurreth with the Water as well as with the Fire, and yet that burns not but cooleth, aye, and can quench the Fire; and therefore notwithstanding Gods concurrence with things they act and move according to the intrinsecal properties of their Natures. So though Conversion or Regeneration be Gods workmanship, and no man quickeneth his own heart to turn it from Sin to God, with­out Gods concurrence, yet man converteth and turneth himself from Sin to God, because notwithstanding Gods concurrence man act­eth [Page 77]according to the essential Properties of his Nature, knowingly, judiciously, volun­tarily, freely; and is not divorced from Sin, and contracted unto God without his own Knowledg, Election and Consent. Why should those Truths which are directive to Conversion be propounded to our Under­standings, and we be obliged to consider and meditate upon them? and why should those motives which are exciting to Conversion be propounded to our Wills, and we be obliged to comply and close with them, if we had nothing to do, and were not to bear a part with God in the Work?

Sect. 59. God which gave the Waters of the Pool Bethesda an healing Virtue, Joh. 5.2. and sent an Angel at a certain time to trouble the Waters, to draw forth their Sana­tive Vertue, did not send an Angel too to drag the impotent from all quarters of the Country into the Pool, but if they obtained cure thereby they must either come them­selves and go in, or else be brought and put in by others, that is, were to get into the Pool in an ordinary way of such endeavours as they were capable of using. So, God which hath given the Waters of the Sanctu­ary an healing Virtue, and at certain Seasons sends his Angels to stir these Waters for your healing, expects that you come to them, and [Page 78]exercise the Powers you have to obtain heal­ing from them, or else you are never like to be the better for them. For the Ministers of Religion do not cure the diseases of our Souls as a Charm or a Medicine the Diseases of our Bodies, without the interposition or use of our reasonable Faculties, but produce and work in us hatreds of Sin, and fruits in all Good­ness, Righteousness, and Truth, by pro­pounding efficacious arguments and motives to perswade our Reason, incline our Will, excite our Affections, and to ingage our ear­nest and vigorous endeavours. Be not deceiv­ed (saith the Apostle) God is not mocked, as a man soweth so shall he reap. Gal. 6.7. q. d. You may by your fair Pretenses and plausi­ble Reasonings impose upon and deceive your selves, but you cannot do so by God, for he knoweth and will judge of things as they are; and as the Crop which the husbandman reapeth at harvest is answerable to the Na­ture of the Seed sown, so, such as your Endea­vours are shall your Successes be, and you shal eat the Fruit of your own proper do­ings, be they what they will, and of none other. And as the husbandman cannot reap without sowing, nor sow without Labour and Industry, so neither can you reap in Mercy without sowing in Righteousness, par­take of Gods Blessing without doing his [Page 79]Work, nor can you do his Work without exercising your selves in painful Endeavours.

Sect. 60. When the Apostle beseecheth us not to receive the Grace of God in Vain. 2 Cor. 6.1. and to look diligently lest any of us fail of the Grace of God. Heb. 12.13. He plainly in­sinuates that our Study, Cares, and Indu­strie are concern'd in the good Issues and Ef­fects of it upon us; that we may by the Pow­er of our Wills, hinder and prevent the Pow­ers of Gods Grace from prevailing to that de­sirable End and Issue to which God hath de­signed them. Certainly, had not the Eunuch addicted himself to reading of the Scriptures for to inquire after the mind of God concern­ing the things of his eternal Peace and Sal­vation, Philip had not been sent unto him to instruct him, and if Philip had not instru­cted him he had not understood them, nor consequently believed them, or ever receiv­ed any advantage from them. And here I shall bring to your Remembrance a passage full to our purpose, in the Second part of the Homily of our Church, exhorting to the knowledg of Holy Scriptures, the words are these. And whosoever giveth his mind to Holy Scriptures, with diligent Study, and burning Desire, it cannot be (saith St. Chrysostome) that he should be left without help. For either God Almighty will send him some Godly Doctor to [Page 80]teach him, as he did to instruct the Eunuch, a Noble man of Ethiope and Treasurer unto Queen Candice, who having affection to read the Scrip­ture (although he understood it not) yet for the desire that he had to Gods word, God sent his Apostle Philip to declare unto him the true Sense of the Scripture that he read: or else if we lack a learned man to instruct and teach us, yet God himself from above will give Light unto our minds and teach us those things which are necessary for us and wherein we be ignorant. If we read once, twice, and understand it not, let us not cease so, but still continue Reading, Praying, asking of others, and so by still Knocking, at the last the door shall be opened, as Saint Augustine saith. And that blessed Martyr Bishop Hooper in his Sermon, glossing on that Text in St. Joh. ch. 6.44. No man commeth unto me except my Fa­ther draw him: saith thus, Many understand these words in a wrong Sense; as if God required no more in a reasonable man than a dead post, and mark not the words which follow, every man that heareth and learneth of the Father commeth unto me, &c. God draweth with his Word and Holy Ghost, but mans Duty is to hear and learn: that is to say, to receive the Grace offered, con­sent to the Promise, and not to impugn the God that calleth.

Sect. 61. You have formerly heard that there was no difference betwixt the Talent [Page 81]employed and that hid: and the seed sown in the High-way and in good Ground were of the same kind too: but yet these did not produce the same Effect. It was not from any natural defect in the Talent hid that it was not employed and improved, nor from any imperfection of the Seed sown that it did not fructifie and increase, but the fault was whol­ly in the owner of the Talent, and in the Ground. Each Parable sheweth, that the different Success of the Gifts and Graces of God dispensed to Men, is not to be ascribed to the different Nature, Degree, and Ten­dency of them but to the different Constitu­tions, Dispositions, and Behaviours of those that partake of them. The Lord (saith Atha­nasius) soweth liberally, but the fructification is [...], according to the Subject recipient of the Seed: when the Seed doth not fructifie, 'tis not because there is [...], an impotency of the Seed, [...], but an ill habit or indisposition of the Ground. The Seed of God hath sometimes lively Effects, and worketh kindly towards a lively Faith and a Life according to Godli­ness, and yet through mens Faultiness miscar­ryeth and comes to naught. The Spirit is not said to force our Powers, but to help our Infirmities. Rom. 8.26. [...], Helpeth together. It is in re quapiam suscepta, [Page 82]auxilio adesse laboranti, to assist with help one labouring in any undertaking, saith Erasmus. and accordingly, Adjuvari non dicitur qui ni­hil spontè conatur, He is not said to be helped who doth nothing of his own, saith Saint Augu­stine. The word (saith the Assemblies Anno­tations) properly implyeth such an help as when another man of Strength and Ability steppeth in to sustain the burthen that lyeth upon our Shoul­ders, setting his Shoulders under, to lift up and bear part with as. We must be employed or the Spirit will not help us, we must be upon our feet and in a readiness to go on in our way, or the Spirit will not succour and lead us: we must work or we cannot be workers together with him. I laboured (saith the A­postle) more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the Grace of God which was with me. 1 Cor. 15.10. That is, non solus, sed gratia Dei mecum, ac per hoc, nec gratia Dei sola, nec ipse solus, sed gra­tia Dei cum illo, Not I alone, but the Grace of God with me, and by reason hereof, neither the Grace of God alone, nor I my self alone, but the Grace of God with my self, is St. Austin's Paraphrase of the Place. That is, Gods pre­venting Grace enabled him to labour, and his subsequent Grace cooperated with his la­bourings, and brought them to a good Effect.

Sect. 62. And because men can do that which God by his preventing Grace enableth [Page 83]them to do, the Grace of God is represented as our Duty as well as Gods Gift, Let us have Grace [that is, let us exert and put forth that ability God hath given to us to take hold of and retain, to comport with and use in a regular manner the Grace of God bestow­ed upon us] that we may serve God acceptably with Reverence and Godly Fear. Heb. 12.28. and answerably to this Truth let me exhort you in the words of the Apostle, watch ye, stand fast, quit your selves like men, be strong. 1 Cor. 16.13. wait for Seasons and Oppor­tunities to employ your Talents, and do not by a drowsy sluggishness miss a Seed-time of Grace: when God knocks, open, and do not stubbornly repulse but carefully entertain and pursue, to the utmost issue, the good mo­tions of the Spirit: do not give place to thy Spiritual Enemies, but keep thy ground a­gainst the World, the flesh, and the Devil: let not Difficulties and Dangers emasculate thy Spirit, and weaken the succours of thy Soul, but set out and keep on in a way of well-do­ing: shew the strength you have by the Op­positions you conquer, the singular exploits you do against Sin, and the advantage-Ground you gain to further the Perfecti­on and Salvation of your Souls: and so the actions of Nature shall pass into the relations of Grace, and that which was im­perfect [Page 84]shall be raised up to greater perfe­ction.

Sect. 63. A Stoical lazy dependence on a fatal predestination is an instrument effective enough to produce a strong carnal Presump­tion, and to infer upon us the guilt of Damna­tion: but Salvation and Happiness is an inte­rest too great, and good to be secured by faint Velleities, confident groundless persua­sions, and weak sickly endeavours. If ever we enter in at the strait Gate, we must strive for it. Strive to enter in at the strait Gate [ [...], Strive like an Olympick Agonist contending for Masteries] for many I say un­to you will seek to enter in and shall not be able. Luk. 13.24. He which valueth slightly, prayeth coldly, and labours carelessly to en­ter in at the strait Gate, he is not disposed for it according to the conditions of God, and therefore shall not enter.

Sect. 64. In secular and temporal matters we are wise enough to proportion our Affe­ctions and Endeavours suitably to the Nature of the things we aim at and pursue: to the biggest Interests and the most difficult Ends we appropriate the most careful Attendances and vigorous Prosecutions. We rise early and go to bed late, and eat the bread of carefulness that we may be Rich and Honou­rable, and live in Pleasures: but in matters of a [Page 85]Spiritual and of an eternal Interest who stir­reth up himself? here for the most part we deal very foolishly, we do not proceed ac­cording to those steps and degrees the Nature of things requires. We do not measure the pains we are at, and the means we use, and the strength we exercise by the worthiness of the End we aim at and Pursue, but presume to obtain and secure the most important con­cern of our Souls by the slenderest Provisions and lowest Degrees of Care and Industry. What a strange Folly is it to think, that a pro­vision for a temporal Life is to be gotten and secured with much Labour and Cost, and yet a provision for an eternal Life is to be obtain­ed and secured upon very cheap and easie terms? What a doleful case is it, that the Ob­jects of our Sense should prevail so much with us, and the Objects of our Faith so lit­tle? That we should cherish so fond an indul­gence to the Appetites of the Flesh, and so perversely disregard the immortal Capacities of our precious Souls? That men in their Witts should prefer matters comparatively of no moment, in their Estimations, Choices, Resolutions, and Endeavours, before matters of an everlasting Consequence? That they should be careful and troubled about many things, and neglect the One thing needful? How can we pretend to be the masters of [Page 86]Reason and not set our hearts upon the bet­ter part? shall not that which is best have greatest Interest in us and sway most with us? let us then awaken our sluggish careless Faculties of Understanding, Judgment, and Reason, and employ most of our Strength in the Pursuit of that which is most necessary, profitable, and useful for us. Labour not (saith our Saviour) for that meat which perish­eth: but for that which endureth to everlasting Life. Joh. 6.27. 'Tis a supposed and pre­tended rather than an absolute and a real Necessity which provokes you to think that you have other Matters to look after, besides this; for if you faithfully mind and follow this, God himself hath undertaken for all o­ther supplies which are needfull and proper for you; seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Mat. 6.33.

Sect. 65. I pray remember, when God giv­eth you temporal and earthly Gifts 'tis in or­der to Spiritual and Eternal Purposes, and answerably our Saviour commands you so to use them, make to your selves friends of the un­righteous Mammon, that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations. Mat. 16.9. Use temporal things in such a manner as agreeth with the design of Gods Trust, and then you shall secure to your selves eter­nal [Page 87]things by the use of them. Wisdom (saith Solomon) is good with an Inheritance. Eccl. 7.11. That is, an Estate governed by the rules of Wisdom is good, because then 'tis referred unto and concludes in our Spiritual and E­ternal Good. And indeed nothing that we have or can have is good further than 'tis re­lated and used as a means to this End. Brutes are as capable of sensual good things as we; they can eat, and drink, and play, and sa­tisfie such Lusts as are proper to the Flesh, as well as we: but herein we excell them, in having and using these things we can possess and use them as the Gifts of God, and enjoy God in them, and so refer them to higher ends than the pleasing of the Flesh, even as­cend by them unto God, and extract out of them an heavenly treasure for our Souls. And this is the use you must make of them if you ever reap any true Good from them. And thus a little, a matter very small and inconsi­derable in it self, faithfully managed and em­ployed will turn to a great advantage. Two Mites are not much, and a cup of cold Wa­ter is less, and yet such a stock as this, well used, shall abound to our account, Mar. 12.43. Mat. 10.42. Phil. 4.17. Where little is given, little is expected; for God accepts according to what a man hath: but he that hath least and can do least, may do that which [Page 88]shall be with the Lord, and for which the Exchequer of Heaven shall be accountable, and is as good an Estate as if it were in his hands.

Sect. 66. The learned and judicious Came­ro saith, that where there is [...] ad Vir­tutem, an inchoate disposition to Goodness and Vertue (for that is the design of his assertion) that man is not Planè improbus, altogether or quite and clean wicked, as we say. For when a mans Nature is cultivated or improved by moral Vertues and common Graces, as he doth things vel sapienter vel sanciè, either dis­creetly or religiously, as Saint Hierome speaketh in this Case, he may be termed in a Sense not to be despised by considering men, a Good man, secundum quid & in tantum, so far as he hath performed part of his duty, and is in some measure made ready and prepared for those Gifts and Graces which denominate a man Evangelically Good. If he that acknow­ledged there is one God, doth well, as Saint James teacheth, James 2.19. Then he that frameth and ordereth himself and actions so far as Nature and common Grace can carry him, according to that acknowledgment, doth better; as the young man in the Gospel did, and the man we are speaking of doth, and therefore he may analogically and compara­tively be termed a Good Man. Yet I must [Page 89]tell you, if this temper and deportment be the utmost any man aimeth at and pursueth, and any of you shall chance to come so far, and rest here, and go no further, you will be of the number of those which are not far from the Kingdom of God, and strive to en­ter into it, but shall not be able to enter. This was the Reason why God was so angry with the Angel of the Church of the Laode­ceans and threatned to spue him out of his mouth, Rev. 3.16. because he rested in this intermedial State; whereas it is not a State desirable for it self, but to be endeavoured after and obtained in order to a better. For Vallesius upon the place tells us, that most think, that men of a certain remiss and im­perfect kind of Vertue are called Lukewarm, and are more blamed than others, not be­cause they are simply in themselves worse, but because they do not endeavour to be better than they are, by using their present imperfect State as a passage to a more perfect. And 'tis certain, that if men think too well of themselves for the sake of such an imper­fect State of Mediocrity, and are less careful to repent and aspire after a perfect Vertue than others of lower attainments (though it do not arise properly from the Nature of the thing, but accidentally from the mistake and corruptions of the Persons) they will for the [Page 90]sake thereof be loathsome and abominable unto God, and make themselves obnoxious to an utter Rejection from God, like those Saint Jude speaks of, who were twice dead, and plucked up by the Roots.

Sect. 67. Application. Every man (saith the Apostle) hath his proper Gift of God, 1 Cor. 7.7. and answerably, every Man hath his proper Work to do for God, Mar. 13.34. One must be serviceable unto God after this manner, another after that, according to the diversity of Gifts received from God. E­very man hath a stewardly Work to do, and therefore must be faithfull as one that must give an account of his stewardship.

Sect. 68. First, Have you the Gift of Go­vernment? then make it appear by exerci­sing your selves as the Ministers of God for the good of those you govern. Rom. 13.4. ac­quit your selves as ordained and sent of God for the Punishment of evil-doers, and for the Praise of them that do well. 1 Pet. 2.14. I must suit my discourse to the present Occa­sion, which wholly refers to matter Ecclesia­stical, and therefore shall exhort you to the use of your Talent that way. Decem praece­ptorum Custos Carolus, Charles the Keeper of Ten Commandements, was the Motto writ­ten on the Sword of Charles the Great. and Defender of the Faith, is the Honorary Title [Page 91]and Engagement of King Charles the Second, of England. And so far as Authority is deri­ved from him to you, are you concerned in the same Title and engagement. For we must not only pray for Kings, but also for all in Au­thority under them, that we may lead a quiet Life in all Godliness and Honesty, 1 Tim. 2.2. Which supposeth that your Government must in­fluence and subserve our Religious and Spi­ritual as well as our Civil and Moral Af­fairs. You are called Gods, Psalm 82.1. John 10.34. and you were Catachrestical­ly and Abusively so called on Purpose; you were despicable terrestrial Animals if your Authority were not to be concern­ed in the matters of God, and for the pre­servation of mens Souls as well as Bodies and Estates.

Sect. 69, I know that Donatus and his Sectarian Followers are still crying in your Ears, Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesiis, what hath the Magistrate to do with the Churches? but I hope you will answer them from the Prophet crying aloud to you as a trumpet, that you are to be as nursing Fathers to the Church, Isa. 49.23. Which you cannot be, if you permit Seducers to poyson her by He­retical Doctrines, or Schismaticks to destroy her by Divisions.

Sect. 70. Give me leave to mind you, That Religious Dissentions amongst all sorts of Persons, in all Ages, have been transacted with vehement Passion and Violence, and have proved most Fatal and Bloody. For this Cause (saith our Saviour) the Brother shall betray the Brother to Death, Father the Son, and Children shall rise up against their Parents, and shall cause them to be put to Death, Mar. 13.12. For Religion being the greatest Interest in the World, Religious Affections are strongest, and more prevalent than Natural, and conse­quently Men will resist with greatest Earnest­ness whatsoever tends to subvert and destroy it, and they will spare the Destruction of no man to preserve it. This was the ground of Campanella's Speech to the Spanish King, Religio semper vicit, praesertim armata, Religion, especially being armed, hath alwayes conquered. And therefore Innovations in Matters of Re­ligion must needs be of dangerous conse­quence to the publick Peace: for he that pretends one thing false, may easily question the truth of another, and so by degrees bring the whole under suspicion. And if once the People apprehend that their Ru­lers have abused them in a matter of dear­est Concern, and that they do not Rule them from Principles of Conscience, and Reasons of Religion, but from Design, and Reason of [Page 93]State, they will soon become as weary of them as of their Religion, and answerably will seek out other Rulers as well as another Religi­gion; as your own experience hath taught you.

Sect. 71. It is therefore a Prudential way, for the securing the Ends of Government, that the Penalties inflicted on the Violaters of Ecclesiastical Orders respectively to Gods publique Worship, have respect, not so much to the simple Nature and Merit of the Of­fence in it self considered, as to the malignant destructive Influences and dismal Consequen­ces of it, respectively to the publick safety of Church and Common-wealth. Behold, how great a matter a little Fire kindleth! saith Saint James, James 3.5. small matters in Na­ture, Art, Providence, and Religion too in their progress and ultimate Issue become very great. You know the immediate Issue of a departure from uniformity is diversity, and because every man is well affected to that which is his own, thinks his own Opi­nions and Practices best, he that worship­peth God one way dislikes, censures, and condemns him which worshippeth God ano­ther way, and most commonly the lesser the difference, the greater and more severe the mutual Animosity and Censure, because then each concludes that 'tis Humour, Pride, Fa­ction, [Page 94]Faction, and Interest and not constraints of Conscience and Religion which is the ground of the Distance and Separation. And from this spring Debates, Rancors, Enmities and Oppositions in the Church, and thence by a most natural progress Factions, Seditions, Tumults and Rebellions in the State. For they that will not patiently admit and sub­mit unto other mens Opinions, Impositions and Practices, they cannot endure that their own should be neglected, contradicted, and rejected.

Sect. 72. Factious minded men are al­ways proud, and erroneous Opinions being fermented with Pride, efferate the hearts of men, make them touchy, fierce and contentious, Prov. 13.10. And finally ur­ge them to go in the way of Cain, as the expression is, Jude 11. The instances of the Circumcellions, Arrians, Donatists of old, and of the Sectaries of latter time both at home and abroad attest, that false Doctrines and new ways of Worship and Discipline which are weak in themselves, cannot be support­ed without Blood and Cruelty. And when once men pretend to be so certain of the Truth of their conceits as if immediately in­spired by God, and arrive to an infallibility, they that can judge and do nothing amiss being most fit to sway all, they presently by [Page 95]a very easie step of advance, arrogate to themselves a Supremacy too, and then 'tis their unquestionable prerogative to throw down and destroy all that oppose them. Pre­sumptuous are they, (saith the Apostle) self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of digni­ties, 2 Pet. 2.10. And when men are so bold and insolent, as to speak contumeliously, how easily are they induced to proceed from words to blows, and to act rebelliously?

Sect. 73. It is therefore certainly the Magi­strates Interest as well as Duty, to restrain open and professed Dissentions and Divisions in the Church, and by Coercion and Pe­nalties to compell those which profess the same Religion to Glorifie God with one mouth, Matt. 14.23. Rom. 15.6. Thus Josi­ah, 1 Chron. 38.2. Asa, 2 Chron. 14.13. Solo­mon did, 1 King. 8.1. 2 Chron. 8.14. and 18. and herein they did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. And the reasons from whence they did it, to wit, in Zeal to Gods Honour, and for the prevention of Infection by Evil Examples, for the curing of Offend­ers, and the preventing or removing of Judg­ments, Deut. 13.5. and 11.16, 17. 1 Tim. 1.20. Zech. 13.6. are reasons of Immutable Equity and Moral Obligation, and extend to Magitrates indifferently in all Times and A­ges. And you shall find when Artaxerxes de­creed, [Page 96] that whosoever will not do the Law of God, and of the King, that Judgment shall be executed speedily upon him, whether it be unto Death or unto Banishment, or to confiscation of Goods, or to Imprisonment, Ezra blessed God, that he had put such a thing into the Kings heart, Ezra 7.26, 27. This being done by an Ethnick Prince, 'tis easie to collect from it, that there is a Naturalness in the thing, and belongs to Magistrate, as such, to com­pell men professing a Religion, publickly to own, and observe the Institutions and Ordi­nances of it, and consequently 'tis not a Per­secution of the Professors of Religion, as such, but a just Prosecution of them as Evil Doers, Enemies and Rebells against the Government of Jesus Christ, to punish them for refusing to attend and observe the Ordinances of that Religion they profess.

Sect. 74. And let me beg the liberty to tell you, that 'tis not the contriving and Enacting, but the Execution of good Laws which gives them a Real and an Effective Being to the purposes of Government. Our large Volumes of good Statutes, without a due Execution, and their Penal Enforce­ments, are like a Picture curiously drawn, only to shew the skill of the Limner, or a bundle of antiquated Almanacks, or the Laws of an Ʋtopian State, matters of meer Form, [Page 97]farther than to be a [...], a reproach­ful Sarcasm to us, that though we had the Authority and wit to make good Laws we had not the Honesty and Prudence to use them.

Sect. 75. I have conceited that our late In­dulgence or Toleration was designed by some politick Statesmen (and if it were not so, I hope it will prove so) to be to us as the [...], Stobaeus speaks of, the five Days lawless Liberty was to the Persians upon the death of their King, in which every man might do as he pleased without fear of Pu­nishment, that seeing the mischievous Con­sequences of being lawless, we might prize the more highly, and yield Obedience the more chearfully to those Laws which are compulsive to Uniformity in Gods Worship.

Sect. 74. Our Saviour, who had no design of cruelty either upon mens Bodies or Con­sciences, when he apprehended men profes­sing Religion, upon religious Pretences per­verting the institutions thereof, he did not only severely reprove them but disgraceful­ly whip'd them, and violently drave them out of the Temple. Deut. 14.24, 25, 26. Exod. 30.13, 14, 15. comp. with Jo. 2.13. to 18. Our Saviour presumed, that they which had been instructed in Religion all the Days of their Lives understood it, and [Page 98]therefore doth not enter into a dispute with them to convict their Judgments, and change their Hearts before he proceeds to Punish them, but bitterly reprehends them in Words, and then falls to Blows, and forceth them from their irreligious disorders. And those Chri­stian Magistrates, that are inspired and acted by the same Principle and Spirit of Zeal their Lord and Master was, whose Vicegerents they are, will not tamely endure but coura­giously revenge all publick Doctrines and Practices which tend to the subversion of Religion and the desolation of the Church.

Sect. 76. Secondly, Is it given to thee to be a Steward of the Mysteries of God? then, 'tis required (saith the Apostle) that thou be found faithful. 2 Cor. 4.2. And the faithful­ness of the Servants in the Parable relating to my Text, consisted in the diligent em­ployment and improvement of their Talents to those Purposes their Lord designed them. though you are [...] to the People, and are authoritatively to instruct, rebuke, exhort and rule them, yet you are [...] to Christ, and Servants to God, and must manage and discharge the Office intrusted with you, just as he hath appointed and no otherwise, do all in his Name with respect to his Ends. As Agents therefore for God communicate to them what you have received from the Lord, [Page 99]1 Cor. 11.23. And that in due season as their Needs require, and opportunity offers; and remember, that 'tis not enough barely to mi­nister to the needs of your People; for God expects that you do it with Care, Labour, and Diligence. Study to approve thy self a Work-man, 2 Tim. 2.15. do not distribute to them that which comes next to hand; Ja­cob's Venison which was soon got, was not al­together of the best, but consider what is most suitable to their Conditions, and what likely will be most serviceable to the End of your Ministry. the Preacher sought to find out acceptable words. Eccl. 12.10. He that designs to be useful to the Church will not grutch to be at some Pains to find out what will be most effective to her Edification. I am willing (saith the Apostle) to spend my self and to be spent for you, 2 Cor. 12.15. [...], for your Souls, according to the Pythagorean Dialect [...], thy Soul is Thou. Love of mens Souls should be a greater constraint than fear of Punishment. Feed the flock of God which is among you, tak­ing the over-sight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly: not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. 1 Pet. 5.2. And I will be bold to tell you, that a willing and ready Mind rarely wants a fit and fair opportunity to do Good. Saint Paul's advice is, that we be instant in Season [Page 100]and out of Season. 2 Tim. 4.2. That is, that we do not only take hold of those Opportu­nities which are most fairly offered, and most especially probable and hopeful to conduce to the furtherance of the Purposes of our Ministry, but we must watch for Opportuni­ties, and make attempts to do Good, when our Corruption, Laziness, and secular Re­gards would fain serve a Writ of Ease upon us, and when outward circumstances are not so fair and promising as we could wish they were. Non fieri potest, ut non aliquando suc­cedat, multa tentanti, said the Cynick in Sene­ca. And a wiser than he saith, in the Morn­ing sow thy Seed, and in the Evening with-hold not thy hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good. Eccl. 11.6, For God, on whom all our Labours and Successes depend, however uncertain events are to us, may bring all we do to a good Effect and Issue. Whatever come of the thing you do, if you do it willingly, as unto the Lord, you shall have your Reward, 1 Cor. 9.17.

Sect. 77. And now, that my discourse may end agreeably to the design of this our so­lemn Assembling, let me beseech you, my Reverend Fathers and Brethren, to commend to your Peoples acceptance that you dispense to them, by your own Practice and Example. [Page 101]When your Ministrations and Sermons are [...], animated and quickened by your Practice, they are more operative and impressive, more amiable and apt to affect your people than when only nakedly transacted and delivered, because then they have a material and active demon­stration that the design of them is possible and practicable. But let me tell you, if you exact more from your People than you do your selves, men will say of you as our Savi­our in the like case, that you bind burdens on the Peoples shoulders, which you your selves will not touch with the top of your fingers, Mat. 23.4. Luk. 11.46. And consequently, that you secreetly mock and laugh at them for stoop­ing down, like Issachars Asses, to take up unnecessary burdens from which you excuse your selves. You cannot be such strangers to the humour of some People, but you must know, that nothing is more agreeable to their temper than Comedies, Satyres and Sar­casmes dealt out against the Clergy as Holy-Cheats, and he that is most ready to justifie his own Omissions of Duty from his Parsons neglects, and is most witty in his Comments and Reflexions on the Follies and Miscaria­ges of his Ghostly-Father, whether real or imaginary, he is the most agreeable Compa­nion. Take heed, that you do not act a [Page 102]part in such Raileries against your selves. Let them be only a Narration of the malevo­lent Images of their own vitiated Phantasies, and not a Representation of your Actions.

Sect. 78. Aristophanes attempted to make Socrates ridiculous, when he represented him upon the Stage, measuring the leaps of a Flea: but never so bitterly exposed him as when he brought him gravely discoursing and pre­scribing the measures of Justice and Honesty, and in the mean time stealing a piece of Plate from his Neighbour. You may be contemn­ed, but never will be contemptible till you Love and Practise that your selves, which you forbid and declaim against. For when you partake of the same Guilts you reprove in others, you upbraid your selves, and give a strong Evidence that you are exceeding weak or very wicked. And if you despise your own Ministries, will not others do so too? will others approve and receive from you that which you dislike and reject? and be sure of this, the People are not so metaphysi­call as to despise your Offices abstractedly from your Persons: and if they have no re­spect for you, they will insult over you ra­ther than obey you. 'Tis well known, that you have so many good Friends about you, that there is one Woe they will certainly se­cure and save you from, Woe be to you when [Page 103]all men shall speak well of you, Luk. 6.24. Be perswaded to deliver your selves from that Woe too which our Saviour denounced against the Pharisees, because they Said, but Did not, Mat. 23.4. Let Soundness of Doctrine be se­conded by an unblameable Conversation, and then whatever entertainment you meet withal from the World, you shall surely ob­tain a farther improvement in your Gifts and Graces, a comfortable Conscience within your own Breast, a good report in Gods Church, a gracious Protection from God in this World, and a Crown of Righteousness in the World to come.