The Profit of Godliness, Sermon 4
Serm. 4. Preached November 24. 1661.
CHAP. XI.
I Shall now resolve some Questions concerning the promises of the things of this life.
Quest. 1 Why doth God promise to his own people the things of this life? Why hath this great King promised to his children poor earthly cottages, seeing they are heirs of the Kingdome? these things contribute nothing to the happiness of the godly.
There are many reasons hereof;Resp. some that respect God, some that respect his people.
Reasons respecting God are;
Reason 1 That he may declare that he hath care of our bodies, as of our souls: they are both his by right of Creation, and by right of Redemption; therefore he will provide for both; grace and glory for our souls, and food and rayment for our bodies: Hence Christ in Matth 6. in sundry verses, forbids us to take carking care for our bodies, because God takes care of them. Take ye no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, and what ye shall drink, and what ye shall put on, for your heavenly Father knoweth you have need of these things. God is the Father of your bodies, therefore he will take care of them; and he knoweth your need, therefore he will provide for you. A Father stands obliged not only in point of honour, but also by the Law of nature to provide for his children. Tam Pater nemo, saith Bernard; no Father mo…e loving, more careful of his children, than God is of his people.
Reason 2 Because God will have all know, that he is the fountain of all good things, not only of spiritual good, as the Marcionites and Manichees of old held: but of all temporal and earthly good things. James 1.17. Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights: All we have are free gifts: it is the bounty of Heaven to you; it is not your right of Inheritance, nor the labour of your hands that brings in any thing ye have in your stores, on your tables, on your backs, but all descendeth from God above. We are taught to beg of God our daily bread. The Psalmist tells us, That the eyes of all things look up to God; thereby acknowledging that in all these things we must as Chickens, sip and look upwards: We give away the glory of God to the Creature, when we attribute any thing to the means, or our endeavours: God del…ghteth in this honour, in being the sole Author of all our good, and will not brook any Rival. It is a childish thing to thank the Taylor for the new Coat, when it is the Father that gives it: It is hellish Impiety to make the gifts of God (as too many do) instruments of rebellion against God; there are many of great estates that live in open enmity against God, who gives them all they have.
Reason 3 That by the promises of these earthly things, he may the more draw us to serve him, and to abound more in every good …k: God hath respect to the weakness of men, who, l…ke children, are more won upon by shewing and giving them an Apple for the present, than by the promise of a great Inheritance for the future: So childish are all men, that we are sooner drawn to duty toward God by his promises of outward things, than by promises of future happiness: What shall we have if we pray unto him? is the general question What profit is there in serving the Almighty we have more serious thoughts for the present life, than for the life to come. Visible mercies are more taking with our carn… hearts, than invisible; temporal mor… taking than eternal. God is pleased to promise outward things of this life, that h… may invite us to follow after Holiness; th… as the Apostle saith of the Law, so we m… say of outward things, these are a Schoo… master to bring us to Christ, to true Go… liness: Externae promissiones subservi… spiritualibus; outward promises are su… servient to spiritual things.
Reasons in respect of man are,
Reas. 1 Because hereby we are taught that o… whole dependance is on God, as the bea… dependeth on the Sun, as the stream d… pendeth on the fountain: Christians a… to live by faith in temporal, as in etern… promises; and trust God for bodily pr… vision, as for our souls salvation; he th… trusteth not God for food and raymen… trusteth him not for the salvation of his soul.
Reas. 2 Because they are the necessary support of life: God having given to us life, hath promised to give all the necessary supports of it, till our appointed time of death come: Hence some Divines affirm, that we may ask of God the necessaries of this life absolutely,N. B. and that the promises of necessary supports are absolute, not conditional: the Petition in the Lords Prayer for the necessaries of this life runs in an absolute manner, as all other Petitions, [Give us this day our daily bread] and outward necessaries of the life that now is, are good for us; so that in praying for them (say they) we may not say, Lord give me this day my daily bread, if good for me, but Lord give it, because it is good for me. But I will not take upon me to determine this.
Reas. 3 It is to convince the world that Godliness is profi…able; there is no loss either of time, or of profit which is spent in holy …xercises: the worldling, like Pharaoh, is …eady to say to such as give themselves up …o a diligent and constant exercise of Re…gious duties; Ye are idle, ye are idle; …herefore ys say, Let us go that we may serve God in the wilderness. Exod 5.17. Oh know thou O worldling, praying times are gaining times; that men doth not idle away his time who spends it in Religious service; Believers do gain by kneeling on their knees to God, as by working w…th their hands in shop or field; they get the best and most p…ofit who get it by prayer: that is no profitable gain that is gotten by labour without prayer: it is Mammon of iniquity that is obtained without Godliness. Oh that men would set up the trade of Godliness! then they would never say or think in their hearts, as those worldly wretche… in Amos 8.5. When will the New Moo… be gone, that we may sell Corn; and th… Sabbath be over, that we may set fort… Wheat! that we may trade in buying an… selling, and get gain. If thou art godly and makest Godliness thy one thing necessary, the Sabbath shall be no hinderance but the holy keeping thereof shall be … great furtherance of thy earthly profits.
CHAP. XII.
SECT. 1.
Quest. 2 IF Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is, Why doth not God make good his promises to godly men? we would think that every godly man should be as Job, the richest in the places where they live; yea, none should be rich and honourable, and enjoy long life, but godly men, seeing the promises of these things are made unto them. I know no question more necessary to be resolved than this; …or there is nothing makes men to keep off …rom Godliness, and hardens men in their …ins and unlawful wayes of getting more, …han their beholding how ill it goes with …he outward estate of godly men, and how …rosperously all things succeed with the wicked. When men see the hand of pro…idence to cross the promises and threat…ings of God, that it is with the godly as … all the threatnings of this life were made …o them; and it is with the wicked as if …l the promises of this life were made unto …hem; the wicked flourish like green Bay…rees, and the godly are withered like the Tree which Christ cursed; hence they make such conclusions.
1. That either both promises and threatnings are not Gods, but mens words.
2. Or that Godliness is not gainful; tha… there is no profit in serving the Almighty Or,
3. That God loves them, though the… do not keep such ado as others in religio… affairs.
4. That seeing they thus thrive an… prosper, they shall have Heaven hereafter and that their present prosperity is an ev… dence of their future happiness.
5. Hence it is that wicked men hard… themselves in their wickedness, nor regar… ing gracious promises, nor terrible thre… nings: Such like impious conclusions do c… nal hearts make of providential premise…
SECT. 2.
NOw then in answer to the Questio… concerning Gods performance … tempora… promises; I will first lay dow… some Positions; then I will give reaso… why God doth not give to all godly m… all the good things of this life according … his own promise.
Position 1.
Position 1 The happiness of godly men in this life, consists more in having the promises of them, than in the possession of the things promised: It is very observable how the words run in my Text: It is not said, Godliness hath the possession of the things of the life that how is,N. B. but hath the promises of the life that now is. Lazarus had the promises of all this worlds good things, yet had not the possession of them: So when it is said, All things are yours; it is by promise, not by possession: So Paul said of himself, That he had nothing, yet he possessed all things in respect of the promise; he was rich in bonds and bills, though poor in possessions: The very promises are rich possessions: the promises of wealth is riches; the promises of honour and long life, is an honour and long life: Hence Prosper Prosper.said, Fideli homini totus mundus divitiarum est, infideli ne quidem obolus. This Position is a very Paradox to worldly men, who value a Messe of Pottage in the hand, more than the priviledges of godly birth-right for the future.
Position 2 God hath reserved to himself a liberty of disposing outward things according to his pleasure, how much, and how little, to whom he pleaseth.
Position 3 The performance of temporal promises is then made to us, when the having of outward things is a furtherance to our eternal salvation: God doth not promise to any to give them what is good in it self, but what is good for them, and tends to their greater good. The salvation of ou… souls being the great end which God intendeth, he wisely orders all things there unto: So that as the Apostle speaks in another case, may be said in this: All thing… are lawful, but all things are not expedie… for us. All meats are good, but all are no… expedient for some crazy bodies: Kniv… are useful things, but hurtful in the hand… of a child, who hath not wit enough t… use it; to keep Knives from children, … more beneficial to them: Wealth, honou… health, life, liberty, are good, but are n… expedient for every godly man; so th… want of them may be more expedient fo… some godly men than the possession … them.
Position 4 Whether the having of outward thing be necessary and expedient for us, Go… himself can only judge; none of us, do … can know what is best for us. Mat. 6.3… Your heavenly Father knoweth what thin… you need; you do not know: We think great estate best for us; God knoweth it is not; we think health and life is best for us; God knoweth that sickness and death is more expedient for us: If Parents should leave Children to their own choice, they would soon undo themselves: the Father knoweth what is best for the Child: Should God leave us to our choice, to take what we think is good for us, we should do as the young Prophet, who was sent abroad to gather Herbs; he not knowing all Herbs were wholesome, gathered poisonous weeds, and so put death in the pot; so would all believers deal with their own …ouls, were they to carve out their own worldly estates. It is our duty to refer all …o the wisdome of God: God could give …o his people earthly riches, and make them …he Grandees of the world, but he doth …ot, because he knoweth a meaner portion …f the things of this life is better for them …han a large. Lazarus's poverty was bet…er for him than riches; to have lectum stra…ineum, & cibum gramineum, Straw for …ur Beds, and Herbs for our Food, may be …etter than fine Linnen, and delicious Fare: …n the up-shot every one shall say, That estate I had was best for me, and the poor Christian shall say as Luther, Luther.It was better for me that I was Christianus Rusticus non Alexander Ethnicus, a poor Rustic… and a Christian, and not great Alexander and an Heathen.
Position 5 God doth make good the promises of th… life that now is to all and every godly man but with difference.
1. To some he hath given a measure o… outward things full, pressed down, an… running over; as Abraham, David, Sol… mon, Job, had great portions of the thing of this life: No King so rich as Solomon none in all the East was to be compared t… Job for riches; and in all ages some god… are noble and rich, but not many, saith th… Apostle: Now in that God giveth to som… riches and honours in abundance, it is … if he had given them to the whole body … the Elect.
2. To others he giveth a lesser measu… of these things; as earthly Fathers do n… give to all their children alike portion the elder Brother goes away with a gre… estate, and the younger Brothers have a… nual pensions allowed them: so God … pleased in the dispensation of outwa… things to his people, to give to some t… portion of the first-born, and to othe… less.
There is not a godly man but hath some health, food, and rayment, and life: Lazarus had so much as served him to carry him to his Journeys end, to Heaven: Having food and rayment, foreign.let us be therewith content. 1 Tim. 6.8. [Having food] any nourishment, be it course, let us be content: and rayment] having any covering of our nakedness (so the Greek word there importeth) let us be content: We have as much as God knoweth we need, and we have more than we deserve: Dost thou deserve a drop of water to quench thy thirst, or crumbs of bread to feed thy hungry belly? God doth give to all HIS daily bread, convenient for them.
Position 6 As long as God gives us all things which are absolutely necessary to our eternal salvation, as grace, pardon, &c. it is enough; it is too low to say, that these are equivalent to temporals, they are transcendently more excellent than all temporal goods: the whole world is nothing to pardon and grace; if riches were as necessary as grace and pardon, every godly man should have them: We have therefore great cause of contentment, if God for hidden reasons from us, doth deny us the things of the life that now is. That Christian is not poor, that is rich in grace; that godly man is not unhappy, that hath Christ for his portion; though he hath no food for his body, yet he hath Manna for his soul; though he hath no rayment for his body, yet his soul is cloathed with glorious Robes; a great Potentate in all his glory, is not arrayed like a sanctified soul.
Position 7 The fault of non-performance of the promise of the life that now is, is in us, not in God; we fail in the condition of the promise, we fail in our duty: Your iniquities have with-held good things from you, saith the Prophet: Either we fail in our duty, or we are unthankful for what we have, or we are not wise stewards of Gods blessings, or God seeth that we would wax proud and wanton; therefore God sometimes inflicteth poverty as a correction of our sins and negligence in our duties. Did ever… man rise up to the condition of the promises, we should find God making good a… temporal promises; did every godly ma… walk in the steps of Abraham, they might b… as rich as Abrabam. Certè si beneficiorum D… essemus capaces, liberaliùs nobiscum ager… Deus, saith Calvin: Calvin.Assuredly, if we we… fit and meet to receive Gods benefits, … would open his hand, and deal mo… liberally: Oh therefore in thy want of many outward mercies, search and try thy wayes; it may be sin is the cause, and do not blame God with unfaithfulness in his promises: for know, that though God hath promised outward things to Godliness, yet in case we fail in our duty, he will withhold from us the good things promised: outward things are promised upon condition of walking in, and keeping his statutes and ordinances.
SECT. 3. The Reasons why God doth not give to all godly men the good things of this life, are;
Reason 1 TO try whether his people will live the life of faith in outward things, as in spiritual and eternal things; the having abundance of outward things is an impediment to this living by faith, which is most exercised in wants: Many godly men had not been so rich in faith, had they not been so poor in this worlds goods: It is one reason why God turneth his people as he did Job, out to the dunghill, claps wings on their estates, and makes them to fly away, that he may inure them to live by faith.
Reason 2 For conviction: 1. That the love of God in Christ in us, is not to be gathered from having outward things; for if they were tokens of his electing and pardoning love, none should have these outward things but the godly: but we see prophane sinners, and such as are very enemies to all goodness, to abound in outward wealth; therefore they are no love-tokens. 2. To convince us that no part of the blessedness o… Saints is in having outward things; they are as much blessed without them, as with them: True blessedness lies only in the fruition of grace now, and glory hereafter, not in riches: no wicked man shall taste of the true blessedness of Saints; yet they eat and drink abundantly of the milk and hony of this world: if having these outward things were part of the blessedness o… Saints, they should have them: in Heaven there is none of these things, but there is all blessedness.
Reason 3 Because God would have his children t… mind and desire Heaven, and nothing else▪ God in wisdom will not let his people have an Heaven upon Earth, lest they shoul… mind Heaven less: It was a grave speech t… the Emperour Charls the fifth to the Dul… of Venice, shewing his treasury; haec su… quae nos invitos faciunt mori; these are th… things which make us unwilling to dye. God led Israel thorow a vast howling wilderness, that they might desire Canaan; he makes the world a wilderness to h…s people, that they may the more long after the heavenly Country.
CHAP. XII.
Quest. 3 IT may now be demanded, Whether there be any promise made to wicked men?
Some give this answer,Resp. that they are made to wicked men, but they are not made good unto them, but to the godly; as threatnings are made to the godly also, but made good upon wicked men; I w…ll not quarrel with this word, that they are made unto wicked men; yet I will give for answer these further things.
1. That all the promises of the life present and to come, are revealed and proposed to wicked men as so many urgent invitations to faith and holiness: the Scriptures use all arguments to perswade them to Godliness; arguments drawn from mercies, from judgments, from promised rewards, and threatned judgments, from the worst of evils [damnation] and from the best of good things [salvation] Go, saith Christ to his Apostles, and preach the Gospel to every creature, and make this promise and threatning, That whosoever shall believe shall be saved, and whosoever believeth not shall be damned: Offer the promise of salvation to every creature; hence the great promises run indefinitely and universally without exception and limitation.
2. Every wicked man is commanded to believe the promises, and to come up to the duties annexed to the promises; they are commanded to repent, to believe, to be holy in all manner of conversation; it is their duty to repent; and upon their repentance and turning from their evil ways, the promises shall be made good to them: it is their going on in sin that keeps them off from having interest in the promises; while such they are, they can lay no more claim to any one promise of God, than a beggar to a Kingdom.
3. Notwithstanding the promises are proposed and offered to wicked men, yet in statu quo, while they continue wicked, they are under all Scripture woes, threatnings, and curses: our Saviour speaks terrible words, that they are condemned already, and that the wrath of God abideth on them, which is meant in respect of threatnings: Whiles we lye under the threatnings of God, we lye under the wrath of God: Divine threatnings are Gods wrath, as well as divine plagues. Consider this ye that are Drunkards, while you are such, ye lye under that threatning, No Drunkard shall inherit the Kingdom of God, and of Christ; how dare you then lie one hour more in that sin? did wicked men consider Gods threatnings, how could they be secure, and sleep (as Peter) amidst a quaternion of direful threatnings.?
SECT. 2.
Quest. SEEing the promises pertain not to wicked men, Why then doth God bestow the things of this life upon them? Why did he give the rich glutton delicate fare, and fine Linnen, seeing he had not a promise of so much as of a drop of water, or of a ragg; yet Lazarus had the promise, but wanted these things?
Reas. 1 Because God delighteth in the manifestation of his Philanthrophy, his general love and goodness; for he is kind to the just and unjust; he is good to the evil, kind to the unthankful, and bountiful to such as abuse his gifts to their lusts, because he is good, and do…h do good freely, as the Sun shineth upon dungh lls and M…rb…e walls.
2. Because God will rewa…d that good that i… in them: Many wicked men are just in their dealings, diligent in their Callings, and externally virtuous in their lives. The hand of the diligent maketh rich, saith Solomon. God crowns even the diligence of wicked men with a great increase; God will be indebted to no man; where external goodness is, he giveth external rewards; to temporal service, temporal rew…rds: Men shall not have to plead wha… they did, how they lived; their mouth will be stopt with th s, Son, thou received … good things for what thou hast done.
3. To allure them to follow af…er Godl…ness: outward temporal rewards are motives to spiritual and eternal: how may they argue from the effects of Gods general love! if God bestows so many and s… grea… favours on me for my civil honesty morality, justice, diligence, what favou… will he besto… on me repenting, believing and walking in true Godliness? If Go… thus reward me for my external servic… what glorious rewards will he freely giv… me, if I do serve him in spirit and in truth …
4. Because these outward things are all the good they shall have from a good God; it is all the Heaven that wicked and ungodly men shall have; they have their portion in the things of this life; so Abraham told the rich glutton in Hell torments, Son, remember thou in thy life time hadst thy good things.
More reasons might be given, but I will rather shew some difference between Gods giving the things of this life to the wicked and to the godly.
1. God giveth these things to his own, as their Father in Christ; he gives them to wicked men, as he is the common Father of all by right of Creation; so he provideth for the beasts, and all creatures in the world.
2. The good things of this life are given to the godly, as the fruits and effects of his redeeming love and special goodness; but to the wicked they are the fruits and effects of his common bounty.
3. Godly men have them as the fruit of Gods promise; wicked men have them as the fruit of Gods providence, and so other creatures have them.
4. They are given to the godly as helps and furtherances of their eternal salvation; but these very things to the wicked (through their own default) are furtherances of their damnation, and will be great aggravations of their torment. Ungodly men (how great soever they are now) shall one day wish they had never been rich, great, honourable: one drop of water hereafter will be more desired by them, than all their present profits can now comfort them: Woe be to you that laugh now, ye shall mourn; woe be to you that are ful now, ye shall be hungry and thirsty, and beg for a drop of water to cool your tormented souls.