And,

i. Wherefore is it, that we are commanded, to STRIVE that we may enter in at the straight gate? Luke xiii. 24. so to RUN, that we may obtain? 1 Cor. ix. 24. so to WRESTLE, that we may be able to stand? Eph. vi. 11, 12. so to FIGHT, that we may lay hold on eternal life? 1 Tim. vi. 12. not to faint in our minds? Heb. xii. 3. nor to grow weary of well doing? Gal. vi. 9.

Do not all these expressions imply great labour and pains? Can you strive, and run, and wrestle, and fight, and all this by doing nothing? or, were it needful to be taught not to grow faint, nor to be weary, when we have no work to do? Therefore, it is the genius and sum of the Scripture, to excite men to be always active and laborious in the ways of holiness and obedience.

ii. Wherefore is it, that salvation is set forth to us under the notion of a REWARD? Is it not to imply that we must work for it? A reward, not indeed merited by our works; but yet a reward measured out to us and conferred upon us, according to our works. God will render to every one according to his works: To them, who, by patient continuance in well doing, seek for glory.... and immortality, he will render eternal life: Rom. ii. 6, 7. And, indeed, it were very strange, if that God, who will reward us with eternal life, according to our works, should yet lay a check upon the ingenuity of the new creature, thereby to account eternal life too low a motive to excite unto eternal life.

iii. Is it not to this end, that God hath implanted such an ACTIVE PRINCIPLE OF GRACE in the hearts of his servants, that thereby they might be enabled to work out their own salvation?

If God would save you without working, why then hath he given you such an operative principle that you might work? Nay, I might affirin that he might as well save you without grace, as without works; for that is not grace, that doth not put forth itself in working: grace, if it be true, will be working : it will rise in the thoughts: it will work in the affections: it will breathe in desires, appear in good works, and be very active and busy in the whole life and conversation. Now, not to work, is that, which puts a check and restraint upon this active principle: it is to curb it in, when it would freely break forth into action, upon every occasion given to it.

iv. Why hath God so often promised us ASSISTANCE, if it be not that thereby we should be encouraged to work?

us,

He stands by us, to confirm our hearts, to strengthen our hands, to help our weakness, to quicken our deadness, to recruit our graces by continual supplies; and wherefore is all this, but that we might work? God, rather than we shall not work, himself will set us at work: nay, he will maintain at our work and in our work, upon his own cost. He gives us aid and promises assistance only for this end, that we might work out our own salvation. We are not sufficient of ourselves, says the Apostle, as of ourselves to think any thing : 2 Cor. iii. 5. what, then, must we therefore sit still, because we are not sufficient? no, says he, for God, who finds us employment, will also find us strength: our sufficiency is of God. And therefore it is, that God gives in assistances and supplies, that we might work the works of God.

And thus I have confirmed the doctrine, Why we ought to work, and That we ought to work.

II. But, here, before I can proceed any further, there are some OBJECTIONS that must be answered, THAT SEEM TO OPPOSE THE TRUTH OF THIS DOCTRINE.

Obj. 1. Some may cavil against this command of working out our salvation, as a thing Impossible.

Obj. 2. Others, as Derogatory unto Christ and his Merits. Obj. 3. Others, as Prejudicial to the Free Grace of God, by which alone we are saved, and not by our own works.

Obj. 4. Others look upon it as Vain and Needless; since God will certainly bring to salvation all those whom he hath elected and foreknown, according to his purpose: which purpose of his, neither their not working with it, no nor their working against it, shall ever make void or frustrate.

OBJECT. i. Say some, "With what justice and equity can God require this duty of working out our salvation, when he knows we have no power to perform it? Either," say they," it concerns those, that are spiritually inclined and have their salvation already begun, that they perfect it by working it out: and, if so, alas to what purpose is it, when they themselves can act no further than they are acted? they cannot so much as will their

own salvation, unless God give them to will; much less then can they work out their salvation. Or, else, it concerns all, that live under the sound of the Gospel, though reprobates and castaways, though dead in trespasses and sins. And is it rational, is it just and equal, to bid dead men work? Or doth it become that God, who would be thought by us to be infinitely merciful and compassionate, to mock and deride human miseries, in requiring of them things that are impossible? Had he commanded us to bring light out of darkness: had he bid us pull the stars out of their orbs; or, with one of our hands, to stop the sun in its course: all these impossibilities we might as well do, as perform these divine duties, without divine assistance, We can as soon glorify ourselves, as sanctify ourselves. Exhort and command never so long, with as great authority and vehemency as you please; yet, till God move on us and work in us, you may as well expect stocks and stones should move at your speaking as we. And, if God doth but once begin to move and work in us, we shall work and move without your exhortations. It is therefore," say such as these, “altogether in vain to press men to duty, till God works in them: for all your exhortations are not sufficient, till he works; and, when he works, all your exhortations will be fruitless."

Because this is the common plea of sinners, why they do not work; and that, which questionless doth too often rise in the hearts and thoughts of most men, whereby they are greatly discouraged, and their hands weakened in their obedience; I shall, therefore, the more largely and particularly answer this objection.

And,

Answ. 1. This serious and pressing exhortation to obedience and working, doth not suppose in us, nor is it necessary that it should suppose in us, a power to obey; I mean a present and actual power: neither doth our want of power take off our obligation to obey.

It may and will be granted, that there is no command of God, but doth suppose a power once bestowed. Whether or no his absolute uncontrollable sovereignty might have required that from us, that is above our power ever to perform, may rather modestly be doubted, than peremptorily concluded. Yet this is certain, that those very duties, that now we complain we have

no strength or power to perform, were once as subject to our power and the freedom of our own wills, as now natural and moral actions are subject, I say, to our power, either to perform them or not to perform them: not as though we come now into the world with this power, for we are all dead and still-born in respect of grace; but as having this power in our First Parent, who was our representative: for in him we must be considered as existent, even when he existed; and, what he received was for us, and what he did was done by us, and what he lost we lost in him. Now if we have lost this power of obeying, must God also lose his privilege and sovereignty of commanding? must he lessen his authority, as we lessen our ability? truly, had Adam once thought of this flight, he might have sinned himself quite from under the command and dominion of his Creator, and might soon have become thus free. Do not you yourselves think you may, if a debtor of yours through his own default becomes a bankrupt, require your debt of him? so stands the case here between God and us: we are all disabled to pay the debt of obedience that we owe to God, but yet it is through our own default; and the power, that we had, is not so much lost, as wilfully thrown away: and may not God justly come upon us for our debt? our want of power takes not off our obligation to obedience, because it is through a wilful defect that we are deprived of that power: if a servant throw away his tools with which he should work, may not his master justly expect his work from him, though he knows he cannot work without them? God's commands respect not the impotency that we have contracted, nor do they therefore abate any thing of their severity; but they respect that power and ability, that was once conferred and bestowed upon us.

Yea, were it so that God could with justice require no more from us than what at present we have power and ability to perform, this would make the grace of God, First, vain and fruitless, and, Secondly, dangerous and destructive.

(1) This would make void the pardoning grace of God.

For, according to this doctrine, nothing could be required of us, if we could do nothing: but, without grace, we can do nothing; and, therefore, if grace be not bestowed on us, nothing can justly be required from us; and, if nothing be required, nothing is due from us; and, then, we do not sin in not performing any thing; and, where there is no sin, certainly there can be no place for pardoning grace and mercy. And so these

wise men, who think they do so much befriend the grace and mercy of God in all haste, in affirming that God requires nothing from us but what at present we have power to perform, are injurious to the mercy of God, in making it void as to pardon and remission.

(2) This doctrine makes the sanctifying grace God destructive and pernicious.

If God can require justly no more of us than we can perform, wherefore is it, that men are justly damned? is it not, because they will not do what they are able to do? And whence is it, that they have this ability? is it not from the grace of God's Spirit? And, therefore, if they have not grace to make them able to do more than their own corrupt wills are willing to do, God could not justly condemn them; and, consequently, that of the Apostle should stand no longer true, Through grace ye are saved, (Eph. ii. 5.) but through grace ye perish.

These Two Consequences will follow, if God could justly require no more from us, than what we have power now to do, So that, though we have not power and ability to work out our own salvation, yet we are not thereby excused from our obligation to do it.

But,

Answ. 2. Though we cannot, of ourselves, work out our own salvation, Yet God doth not mock us, as some do thence infer; neither doth he only upbraid us with our own weakness: but hath serious and weighty ends why he commands us to obey.

Those, that are so ready to cast this odium upon the doctrine of special grace; making God a derider of human frailty and miseries, when he commands obedience from them, to whom, say they, himself denies that power and grace that should enable them to obey; I would only ask these persons this question: Whether do they grant, or whether or no can they deny, that God, antecedently, before he commands, knows who will obey and who will not obey? If they say God knows who will not obey, will they say God mocks them when he commands. them to obey, though he knows they will not? What they an swer to this, the same may we answer to their objection.

But, there are Two Ends, why God commands us thus to work, though we are not able; according to which, God is very serious in commanding us thus to work.

And God doth this,

(1) That he may thereby convince us of our own weakness,