self and His Will to mankind in the Holy Scripture given by His inspiration, to testify and confirm that our profession by our constant attendance at His public worship, to adore and pray to Him, and Him alone, for what we want, and to praise His holy Name for the wondrous works that He hath done and still doth in the world; to frequent that Holy Sacrament which He hath ordained in memory of the death He suffered in our nature, and for our Salvation; to vindicate and defend His Church, wherein alone He is truly served and glorified against all its enemies, that according to His promise, "the gates of Hell may never prevail against it." [Matt. 16. 18.] To do what we can that His Name may be known, and His Gospel propagated all the world over; that all kings may fall down before Him, and all nations serve Him; to erect, support, endow, and adorn places where He may be duly and devoutly worshipped, and to see that His worship be accordingly performed by all that we have any power over, especially by ourselves; to instruct young and ignorant people in the principles of the Christian religion, that they may know the true God and Jesus Christ, whom He hath sent, and what He would have them to believe and do, that they may serve Him and be happy; to instruct those also in meekness who oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance, to the acknowledging of the truth; to reprove and rebuke such as blaspheme or profane God's holy Name, or dishonour His Gospel by any lewd and immoral practices; to use all means to bring them to a sense of their sin, and so turn them to righteousness and true holiness; to administer justice truly and indifferently to the punishment of wickedness and vice, and to the maintenance of God's true religion and virtue; to compose any differences that arise in Church or State, or between private persons, and so make peace; to succour, help, and comfort such as are in danger, necessity, or any tribulation; to defend and provide for the fatherless children and widows, the sick and needy, desolate or oppressed, and all for His sake, who hath promised to take care of such; to be true and just in all our dealings with men, that they may see we prefer our duty before any worldly interest; to choose resolutely to suffer the loss of all we have, even of life itself, rather than do any SERM. thing whereby we may seem to deny God, dishonour His L. holy Name, or wilfully break His laws: these and such like, which appear at first sight to tend to the honour and glory of the Most High God, are the good works unto which we are created in Christ Jesus, and which we are therefore all bound to do, according to our several abilities. Which I therefore add, because it is implied in the following words of my text. The Apostle here saying, that “we are created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained," or, as the word signifies, "prepared, that we should walk in them." For as He hath prepared us to walk in good works, so He hath prepared good works for us to walk in. They who are created in Christ Jesus, are thereby restored to a sound mind, and every way qualified and disposed to do what their Creator would have them. They are enlightened, renewed, sanctified, and led by His good Spirit, and therefore as naturally do good works, as a good tree bringeth forth good fruit. But as every good tree bringeth forth its own proper fruit, such as God designed it should when He made it, so every one that is created in Christ Jesus, doth such good works as He hath fore-ordained or prepared for them to do. None of them can do all, but every one doth all he can in that place and state of life, in which God is pleased for that purpose to set him. Some He advanceth to an higher degree, to greater authority and larger estates than others, and for them He therefore hath prepared greater and more good works to do, than for those which He confines to a lower rank and narrower circumstances. But there is no condition that a man can be in, be it never so mean, but he hath some good works or other prepared for him, which he may do if he will, and will too if he be created in Christ Jesus. Otherwise, he may conclude himself not to be created in Him. He in the parable that had but“ one talent,” was bound to improve that one, as he who had " five," improved all his five, for his master's And because he did it not, he was adjudged to be a Matt.25.26, "wicked” and “slothful servant,” and punished accordingly. Wherefore it highly concerns us who believe in God, “to be careful to maintain good works." Not only some few, but all which God hath prepared that we should walk in 30. Tit. 3. 8. use. 66 them. Not only do them now and then by the by, but walk in them through the whole course of our life, keeping always as close as we can to the steps of our great Master, "who Acts 10. 38. went about doing good;" so should we who profess ourselves to be His disciples, and created in Him unto good works. We should be always doing, or at least contriving how to do good in the world, that we may not live in vain and to no purpose, as most people do, but to the great end for which we were created. I am very sensible, that we can never set about any good work, especially if it be more than ordinary, but we shall meet with many rubs and difficulties in the way, raised by the common adversary of mankind, or such as he employs to hinder all good, and carry on his wicked designs. But we must not regard that, but still go on, trusting and depending upon Him who sets us on work, to carry us through it. "We can do all things through Christ which strength- Phil. 4. 13. eneth us." As it is in Him that we are created unto good works, in Him we have strength to do all that He requires of us, who requires no more than what we can do by His assistance. And if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted, "according to that a man hath, not according to that he 2 Cor. 8. 12. hath not." It is accepted, not for any worth or merit in what we do, but through Him by whom we do it, who doth not only supply us with grace to obey the will of God, as far as is required in this our imperfect state, but makes up the defects of our obedience with the merits of His own. For He having in our nature been obedient through the whole course of His life unto death, as God is pleased to accept of His death instead of ours, so He accepts of our obedience for the sake of His, whatsoever is wanting in our persons, being abundantly supplied by the infinite merits of what He did and suffered in our nature. And hence it is, that they who are created in Christ Jesus unto good works, really do the good work unto which they are created. For though the works they do be not perfectly in themselves good, yet God is pleased to look upon them as good, through Him in whom they are created; otherwise they could not be called good works, as they are in this and many other places of Holy L. SERM. Scripture. Wherein we are also assured, that all the spiritual sacrifices we offer, all the good works we do, although in 1 Pet. 2. 5. themselves imperfect, "yet are acceptable to God by Jesus Christ," which therefore that ours may be, whensoever we have done any good work, we must lift our hearts to Christ in Heaven, and trust on Him to perfume it with the incense of His merits, and then we need not doubt but God will be well pleased with it. The premises being thus briefly laid down, it is easy to observe, that as none can do good works, but they who are created in Christ Jesus; so to manifest ourselves to be created in Him, it is absolutely necessary that we do all the good works we can, in our several vocations and callings; and that they who do so, are the most happy persons upon earth, whatsoever their outward condition may be, and howsoever other people may say or think of them. For they do the will of God upon earth, as it is done in Heaven: they shine as lights in the world: they have the honour to 1Sam. 2.30. “honour God," and to “be honoured by Him." They have the pleasure of pleasing Him that governs the whole world, who therefore takes them into His own particular care and Prov. 16. 7. protection, makes "their enemies to be at peace with them;" [2 Pet.1.3.] supplies them with all things necessary both for life and godliness; directs and prospers them in all their undertakings; makes all things work together for their good while they live, and then saith to every one of them, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." [Rom. 8. 28.] [Matt. 25. 21.] Heb. 13.20, 21. "Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting Covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His Will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever.” SERMON LI. STEADFASTNESS TO THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH 1 COR. XV. 58. Therefore, my beloved Brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the Work of the Lord, for as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. As certain as we are now alive, it is not long but we shall be all dead; and as certainly as we ever die, we shall one day rise again; that is, the same bodies out of which our souls depart, howsoever they are dissolved in the meanwhile, and their parts dispersed and scattered about, shall be put together again, and shall be quickened and informed by the same souls which departed from them; and so the same individual persons that died before, shall live again, yea, so live as never to die more. This is that great article of our Christian faith, which the Apostle in this chapter doth not only assert and prove from many undeniable arguments, but likewise discourses at large concerning the cause, the manner and the effects, or consequences of it, especially with reference to those who die in the true faith of Christ, real and sound members of that body whereof He is Head, concerning whom He assures us, that every one of their bodies, though it be as seed sown and rotting in the ground, it shall afterwards grow up and flourish more than ever. "It is sown," saith He, "in corruption, it 1 Cor. 15. is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is 42-44. |