you think to allay their fears, to supply them with quickening considera tions to duty and with deterring considerations from sin? We appeal to yourselves. And yet we speak not this, to ingratiate or to commend ourselves: we profess that we care not much for the good opinion of any man in the world, farther than it may be of some advantage to do your souls good. But do God expects not some great thing from you? Give me leave to deal truly and faithfully with you. If your works do not, in some measure, answer the labours of God's servants, that have many years followed you, with line upon line and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, still warning and entreating with all bowels of tenderness, alluring you to pity your own souls, and to save yourselves from that wrath and vengeance that shall shortly overcome the disobedient world; they, who have thus exhorted you, believe it, shall, within a while, be witnesses against you. Since, then, you are daily called daily called upon and warned to flee from wrath to come; since you have such clear convictions of your duty, as a bribed conscience can hardly evade; since you have such abundance of examples of others, who have gone before you, and have done what God requires of you; why will not you be hereby persuaded and encouraged to work? These things, you must acknowledge, are great helps to further your salvation: and, believe it, they will prove dreadful aggravations of your condemnation, if they do not prevail with you. But these are only Outward Helps. [2] There are other helps; and they are Inward, and of far greater force and efficacy of which I shall name Two. 1st. The Dictates of your own Consciences: they are still prompting and exciting you to work. Conscience is God's deputy and vicegerent in the soul, that rules and governs in his name and by his authority. Of all the faculties in man, this was the least corrupted by his Fall: though the will be wholly corrupted and perverse, that it will not obey the commands of conscience; yet conscience still continues the performance of its office still, it informs, and urges, and threatens, and torments; and thus may you see it busily working, even in those that never had the Law of God to direct conscience: The Gentiles, says the Apostle to the Romans, which have not the Law, do by nature, that is by natural conscience, the things contained in the Law.....their conscience bearing witness, and their thoughts, in the mean while accusing and excusing one another : Rom. ii. 14, 15: and, because they had not the Law, therefore conscience in them was like an officer walking in the dark, apprehending the innocent and letting the guilty escape. But, yet, this was from the beginning so deeply implanted in the heart of man, that something must be done and avoided to obtain happiness, which could never yet be obliterated. Though our knowledge of what is duty and what is sin be in a great part defaced; yet this knowledge the Scripture doth abundantly supply to us, and give conscience a perfect draught of all the duties that God requires, and bids it be overseer and look that the work be done. Now is it not a great help, when you have somewhat within you, that stands for and takes part with what is good, and what is your duty? Conscience secretly bids you beware of such and such sins, that will bring ruin, destruction, and vengeance upon you; and perform such and such duties: "Pray, hear, meditate, and be more fervent and affectionate in all your services: this is the way that tends to life and happiness." Thus conscience daily and hourly is following you, with counsels and chidings; and, with threatenings, denouncing wrath and vengeance against you: and, though it speaketh these things with so low a voice, that others, though they lay their ears to your soul, cannot hear it; yet in your ears, it speaks as loud as thunder, and no less terrible. It is in vain to wound it: it is in vain to stop its mouth; for that will but make it break out with the more violence and outrage: nothing can appease it, but duty and work. Why should you not, then, since you have that within you that stands for and prompts you to work, why should you not as well follow and obey the dictates and commands of your consciences that prompt you to work and duty, as obey the propensions of your sensual part to the contrary? 2dly. God himself helps us, by working all our works in us and for us; by working in us the will to work, and by working for us the work when we have willed. And, therefore, while there is no part of our work too hard for God, there should be no part of it too hard and difficult for us. Christ tells us that his burden is not heavy; yet, were it heavy, we might well undergo it, since he himself helps us to bear it. The frequent experience of every child of God doth abundantly confirm this. Did you never begin a duty, with your hearts listless and dead, with affections cold and flat, with thoughts very wandering and distracting; so that, at the very entrance of it, you concluded you should never make good work of it, you should never bring the duty to a good issue? and, yet, have you not, in the midst of these your distempers, found a mighty assistance and influence shining down from heaven into your hearts, filling them with holy and divine affections, transporting them beyond all that deadness that did oppress them, enlarging them with sweet and heavenly enlargements; so that no duties were ended with more comfort and revivings, than those, that were begun with such dead hearts and cold affections? Have you not often found it so? And what is this, but a sensible feeling of God's working in you? so that, in the same performance, you see your own weakness when you are left to yourselves, and you see the power of God's assistance, when he comes in to help you; and there is no duty, but this divine assistance may be hoped for and expected by you to enable you in the performance of it. Are you to do? God works in you the will and the deed. Are you to suffer? When you pass through the fire and through the water, he will be with you: Isa. xliii. 2. He shall deliver you in six troubles; and, in seven there shall no evil touch Job you: v. 19. Are to you pray? His Spirit maketh intercession for us: Rom. viii. 26. God doth not, as the Scribes and Pharisees did, lay heavy burdens upon others and not touch them with the least of his fingers: no; he is pleased to become a co-worker with you: he begins, he carries on, and he also perfects whatever concerns your duty here, and your happiness hereafter. And is not this a mighty encouragement to obedience? Will you any longer delay, since God affords you such assistance as this? Why do you not presently attempt this work?" But," you will say, "how shall I know that God will assist me?" Put it to the trial. Was it ever known, that God failed any, that resolutely ventured? Dispute not his concurrence; but believe: and, by looking for it and depending upon it, you engage God to help you. It was the consideration of the all-sufficient assistance of God, that made one of the ancients cry out, Da, Domine, quod jubes; & jube quod vis: "Give, Lord, what thou commandest; and then command what thou wilt." (6) Consider, for your encouragement, that it is not so much the absolute and legal Perfection of the Work, as the Perfection of the Worker, that is the perfection of the heart, that is looked at and rewarded by God. And is not this a great encouragement? There is a twofold perfection; the perfection of the work, and the perfection of the workman: the perfection of the work is, when the work doth so exactly and strictly answer the holy Law of God, that there is no irregularity in it: the perfection of the workman is nothing but inward sincerity, the uprightness of the heart towards God; which may be, where there are many imperfections and defects intermingled. If God should accept and reward no work but what is absolutely perfect in respect of the Law, this would be such a saddening discouragement, that it would take off the wheels of all endeavours; for all our obedience falls far short of legal perfection in this life. We ourselves are conscious of many failings and imperfections in our best services, and God knows far more; and, since we can do nothing without infirmi ties, who would venture to do any thing, upon the account of those infirmities, lest God should cast back all again as dung into our faces? No: but we do not stand upon such terms as these with our God: it is not so much what our works are, as what our heart is, that God looks at and will reward. Yet know, also, lest any should too soon lay hold on this; if our hearts are perfect and sincere, we shall endeavour to the utmost of our power, that our works may be perfect according to the strictness of the Law. I speak not this, therefore, to encourage ignorant sottish sinners, who, though they live in a constant_course of sin and neglect of duty, yet sooth up themselves with this, that God knows their hearts are good, sincere, and upright: let me cut off the foolish hopes of these men in a word: it is impossible that the heart should be sincere, where there is the allowance and liking of any one sin in the life. But I speak what I have said, to those, who, upon the sight and sense of their many failings, of the deadness and untowardness of their hearts, of their averseness and indisposition, of their wanderings and formality in the performance of what is holy and good, are ready to be dejected and discouraged, and to give over doing any thing, because they can do nothing well: let such know, that though their works have not this legal perfection, yet if they do proceed from a sincere, upright, perfect heart, they shall be accepted and rewarded by God: Hezekiah had his failings, and the Prophet sharply reproves him for his pride, &c. making a glorious and boasting ostentation of his treasure to the king of Babylon; yet he prays and appeals to God, Remember now, O Lord.....how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart: Isa. xxxviii. 3. There may, therefore, be a perfect heart, where there are imperfect works: and, if you can make this plea, let me tell you, the perfection of your hearts will swallow up the imperfections of your works, so that they shall never come up in remembrance against you before God. (7) Consider, for your encouragement, that, though your work be great, yet the Success of it is certain. The greatest check to industry, is fear of disappointment; from which you have no security, while you labour for any thing besides your own salvation. All worldly affairs are moved by such invisible wires and turned upon such small pins, that, if the finger of Providence displace but one of them, the whole fabric of our design is thereby disordered and our hopes defeated: and God, sometimes, delights to frustrate men's attempts about worldly concernments. Is it not of the Lord of Hosts, says the Prophet, that the people shall labour in the very fire, and that the people shall weary themselves for very vanity? Hab. ii. 13. To labour in the fire signifies two things: first, great pains; secondly, great disappointment: they work in the midst of scorching flames; and, what they do produce with so much anguish, they enjoy not, but it consumes betwixt their fingers, When men have weaved a curious web of earthly contrivances, and think to wrap up themselves therein and to keep themselves warm, God breathes secret flames into it, that singe it; so that it can no more hold together, than so much tinder. And wherefore doth God blast men's endeavours; but that, seeing the vanity of all their labour under the sun, how wavering, how uncertain, and how unsuccessful things are, how means run one way and the end another, they might hereby be induced to turn their labours into another channel, and to work for their souls and for eternal happiness and salvation; that are as far above the reach of disappointment, as they are far above the rate of earthly concernments? Mine elect, says God, shall long enjoy the work of their hands: Isa. lxv. 22: they shall not labour in vain. And this is the great argument urged by the Apostle upon the Corinthians: Be stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord: and why so industrious and constant? knowing this, says he, that your labour is not in vain in the Lord: 1 Cor. xv. 58. Two things there are, that make a labour to be in vain. |