IT follows in the text, 'Prepared an ark.' As his fear was the fruit of his faith, so this was a fruit of his fear. Faith by the affections hath an influence upon the practice and conversation. I look upon this act of Noah in several regards.
1. As an act of great obedience. Though it were a matter of high difficulty and charge, and likely to be entertained with scoffs in the world, yet Noah prepared an ark. Observe that God must be obeyed, whatever it cost us. Though duties cross interest and affections, and blast our repute in the world, yet God must be obeyed. Noah was now put to trial, and so in all difficult cases we are put to trial. Now, that we may not deny and retract our obedience, I shall show you upon what grounds we are to obey in difficult cases. Partly, because we have entirely given up ourselves, and all that is ours, to God; and when we have given a thing to another, he may do with it what he pleaseth. When thou art given up to God, thou art the Lord's, Rom. xiv. 7, 8. At first conversion there was a perfect resignation. God had right in thee before, but thou then gavest up thyself by the consent of thine own will. We did not then indent with God to say, Thus far I will obey, and no farther; we reserved no part of our will, no interest, and no concernment of ours. Now unless we will retract our own solemn vows, and our spiritual resignation, God must be obeyed. Christ bids us at first to sit down and count the charges; can you part with all for him? And partly, because we have no cause to repent of our bargain, whether we consult with our experiences or our obligations to God. With our experiences, God is not a hard master; we never lost anything by God; we were gainers when we were the greatest losers. God puts his people to the question: Jer. ii. 5, 'What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me?' Have I broken contract? Have I been worse than your expectation? So again: Micah vi. 3, 'O my people! what have I done unto you, and wherein have I wearied you? testify against me.' When Israel was grown weary of God, and began to stray and go off from God, saith God, What cause have I given you? Ignatius was an old and ancient servant of God, and saith he, These eighty-six years have I served God, and he never did me any harm. Certainly in those persecuting times that gracious soul met with a great deal of injury in the world, yet saith he, God never did me harm; he made it up again with consolation. And much more if we consult with our obligations to God. God doth not repent of the bargain made with Christ, and Christ doth not repent of the bargain made with God the Father; and why should we repent of our part of the covenant? God doth not repent of the bargain made with Christ: Ps. cx. 4, 'The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.' Though the world abuseth mercy, and puts many affronts upon grace, and abuseth the doctrine of the gospel, yet saith God, I have sworn, my word is past, Christ shall yet be a mediator. So Jesus Christ repented not; he did not only freely offer himself when the matter was propounded and broken to him at the first in the eternal treaty between God and him: Ps. xl. 7, 8, 'Lo, I come; I delight to do thy will, O my God,' but when he was about to engage in suffering, his love was hottest: John xiii. 1, 'Jesus therefore having loved his own, he loved them to the end.' The meaning is to the end of his own life, though it was exceeding difficult, for then came his torment and agonies for sinners. It is true indeed he said, 'Let this cup pass,' to show his natural abhorrency; yet he said, 'Not my will, but thy will be done,' to show his voluntary submission: Luke xxiv. 42, 'The cup which my Father gave me shall I not drink it,' John xviii. 11. When he was despitefully used by men, he did not repent of the bargain; so we should never repent of our solemn contract made with God.
2. I look upon this again as an act of obedience, as a means in order to his own safety; and then the note will be - Though a man be certain of safety, yet he must use the means. God had promised to save Noah and his household, he had made a covenant with him, Gen. vi. 18; but still Noah was to provide an ark; the covenant was upon this condition, that he should use those means. If Noah had made no ark, he must have taken his lot and share with the ungodly world. And as Noah had a promise of his own life and the life of his household, so Paul had a promise of the lives of all the men in the ship; yet, Acts xxvii. 31, 'Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved;' he had told them before, ver. 22, 'Be of good cheer, there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship,' yet 'except these abide,' &c. - not as if the accomplishment of the promise did depend upon second causes, and hang upon the endeavours of men, but only thus, he that hath appointed the end hath appointed the means, and we tempt God by putting that asunder which he hath joined together. This being observed, it will be a check to libertinism; we cannot be saved if we live as we list. And assurance is no idle doctrine; though we be under a sure covenant with God, yet we are to mind our duty. Elijah, that had foretold rain, yet prays for it as earnestly as if the thing had been utterly uncertain and unlikely.
3. I observe again, that this means was instituted and appointed by God, not devised and invented by Noah. He might have been saved some other way; but he received a commandment concerning the matter, the proportion, the measure, and the fashion of the ark. And it is said, Gen. vi. 22, 'Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.' The ark seemed an unlikely way to preserve him, being a dark receptacle, likely to be dashed in pieces against rocks; yet so did he as God commanded. The note is - we must use the means which God hath instituted in order to salvation, and that both with faith and obedience.
[1.] Use them in obedience. It is enough that God hath commanded them. All ordinances are simple in appearance, therefore the creature is apt to carp at them. In baptism there is but a little common water; yet baptism saves. As in the ark eight souls saved by water - 'The like figure whereunto baptism saves,' &c, 1 Peter iii. 20, 21. So in the Lord's supper there is a little morsel of bread and a small draught of wine, yet they are high and mysterious instruments of our comfort and peace and grace. And so in the means that seem to be more rational, and to have some ministerial efficacy, as in the ordinance of the word 1 Cor i. 21, 'It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.' The world thinks it a foolish way. Men will say, for substance, We know as much as they can teach us, and we can bring nothing sublime and new; and yet this way the Lord is pleased to work. Though there be no carnal allurements, yet mere obedience must keep up our respect to the institutions and ordinances of Jesus Christ.
[2.] We must use them in faith. It is a great part of the life of faith to live by faith in the use of ordinances; when we come to use them, and can refer ourselves to the mercy of God for a blessing, for edification, and strengthening in comfort and grace; nay though we want comfort a great while, yet when we will try again, because it is an ordinance that God hath appointed. There is more grace in waiting upon God, though there be more comfort in receiving. There is a command to keep up endeavours, and a promise to encourage expectation; and upon the bare command of God we must keep up our endeavours, though we have been discouraged by former experiences; as Peter: Luke v. 5, 'We have toiled all night, and caught nothing; yet at thy command we will let down the net;' Lord I have come again and again, and found no profit; yet I will come once more. Noah knew this was the instituted means, that he and his should be saved in the ark; and therefore he waited in the ark many months, ere the rain ceased and the flood was dried up.
4. I observe again that the only instituted means was the ark, which was a type of Christ, by whose resurrection, saith the apostle, we are saved: 1 Peter iii. 21, 'The like figure whereunto even baptism doth now save us, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.' All God's dispensations to the fathers happened by way of type: 1 Cor. x. 11, 'All these things happened unto them - tupoi - as ensamples.' Observe, the faith of the fathers and the obedience of the fathers was conversant about a double object: spiritual good things promised to them, and in common to all believers - and then particular blessings which were proper to themselves, and were types of good things yet to come. So here was a temporal salvation in an ark, which was a figure of our spiritual deliverance by Christ. There is a great deal of similitude between Christ and the ark. The ark was the only means of salvation, and so is Jesus Christ: Acts iv. 12, 'Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.' If they had builded towers, and gone up to the tops of mountains, though they were of a giant-like stature, they could not escape the flood that overwhelmed them. So all other things are but vain confidences; though you are strict and severe in life, and practise many duties, yet out of Christ they signify nothing. So again, all without the ark perished in the waters. Many saw the ark; but unless they entered into it, they were not safe. So, though you hear of Christ, and are of this opinion that there is a Christ, yet unless you be in Christ it will not avail you anything; there is salvation in no other, and you must be in him before you can have any benefit by him. Therefore say as the apostle, 'Oh that I might be found in him,' Phil. iii. 9; that I may not only know Christ outwardly, but that there might he a real union between him and me. And look, as all that were gathered into the ark, so all that shall he saved shall be added and gathered to the church: Acts ii. 47, 'The Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.' Those that were out of the ark, though many of them had large possessions and a great deal of money, yet that would not avail them. So 'riches profit not in the day of wrath,' Prov. xi. 4. When God comes to take us away in judgment, our estates which we idolise will be our greatest burden, and sit heavy upon our consciences; they will be a trouble and no profit to us. Again, those that were once in the ark were sure and safe, and could not miscarry. So there is a sure salvation in Christ; once in Christ, and salvation forever; all the floods of calamity can never overwhelm them, they will be your safety, and not your ruin. The flood mounted the ark higher, and made it safe from rocks. There is a notable expression of the apostle, 1 Peter iii. 20, ' They were saved by water,' the water that drowned others saved them, by hoisting up of the ark from the hills and mountains; so all those conditions of life which to the wicked are a snare, shall be to you a blessing. When floods arise, this will be a great advantage; afflictions and outward blessings are all faithful administrations.
Again, as Noah was buried alive in the ark for a good while, then had a joyful deliverance; so we are 'buried with Christ in baptism,' Rom. vi. 4, mortified with affliction; and we should live as if we were dead to the pomps of the world, and then the end will be glorious as it was to Noah. He came out and enjoyed the whole world; so shall we when we are delivered from the prison of the body; when our souls go forth as Noah out of the ark, we shall reign and triumph with Christ for evermore. Oh then, get into the ark, get an interest in Christ. Noah prepared the ark himself; but the Lord hath prepared an ark for us; all things are ready, there wants nothing but our faith. The ark is built to our hands, and Christ is a complete saviour, fit to shelter us and save us. Oh, let us enter into this ark!
To go on - 'To the saving of his household.' It is meant of a temporal salvation, though thereby the spiritual salvation was typified and figured; for indeed some of Noah's house that were saved in the ark, are represented in the scripture 'as accursed from the Lord:' Gen. vi. 16, and vii. 1, 'Come thou and all thy house into the ark.' There was Ham in the ark, as well as Shem and Japhet; wretched Ham, in whose line the cursed offspring or malignant race was continued. Hence note -
Doct. Bad children of good parents are partakers of some temporal blessings for their father's sake. Saving grace doth not descend from parents to their children, yet many temporal blessings may for their parents' sake. We read that Ishmael was blessed for Abraham's sake: Gen. xvii. 20, 'I have heard thee for Ishmael; and behold I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes he shall beget, and I will make him a great nation.' Though he did not continue the blessed line, yet he had much of the outward part of the covenant; he lived and had some common privileges, the principal blessing was settled on Isaac. So when Solomon had warped and turned aside from God, the Lord tells him, 1 Kings xi. 11, 12, 'I will rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant, nevertheless, in thy days I will not do it for David thy father's sake, but I will rend it out of the hand of thy son.' There is mercy to one child for his father's sake, and there is judgment to the next child for his immediate parent's sake. See how various the dispensations of God are to children by reason of their parents; for that is the reason given, because of his promise made to David - not for Solomon's merit. The Lord doth not speak of Solomon's building the temple, and those costly sacrifices that he offered; no, but for David's sake. To instance in such a blessing as is parallel to the text of temporal deliverance, preservation, and safety: Gen. xix. 12, 'And the men said unto Lot' - that is, the angels in men's appearance, 'Hast thou here any besides? sons-in-law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, bring them out of this place.' God would extend mercy for Lot's sake to all his relations; not only to his sons and natural children, but to his sons-in-law; nay, their relation at that time was exceeding loose, for Lot's daughters were but espoused, for they are called virgins elsewhere. Yea, to express the largeness of his grace, God hath saved a whole nation for their sakes, and therefore they are called 'the chariots and horsemen of Israel,' 2 Kings ii. 12. And if ten righteous persons had been found in Sodom, God would have spared all Sodom, Gen. xviii. 32, much more their kindred and their near relations.
To apply this -
Use 1. For encouragement to godly parents concerning their children.
1. Consider the mercy of the covenant, how it overflows; it is not only stinted to their persons, but runs over to their children; they are beloved for our sake. Oh, fear the Lord not only for your own sakes, but for your children's sake! this will be the best way to provide for your children; not to heap up wealth and honour for them, but to leave them the honour and wealth and privileges of the covenant. It is true, the election shall obtain; sanctification and regeneration doth not descend from the parents to their children; yet in outward mercies they have their share, if they have nothing else. Though you have nothing to leave them, yet leave them God's love, and that will be enough. It is a usual observation, many parents go to hell in getting an estate for them, and their children go to hell afterward in spending that estate. In Exod. xx. 5, 6, the commandment which forbids idolatry and compliance with outward false worship, hath a promise annexed concerning children. What should be the reason of this? Because parents are drawn to comply with things against their conscience out of an aim to maintain their children and preserve the interest of their families; therefore God hath made a special providence; walk in the fear of the Lord, and the Lord will provide for them; keep in God's ways and then you will leave them to his blessings.
2. Instruct your children; you have more encouragement to do so than others, because they are born within the covenant, and by this means you make way for the blessing: Gen. xviii. 19, 'I know Abraham, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord.' Instruction makes way for a blessing; and so saith David to Solomon, 1 Kings ii. 3. 4, 'Keep the charge of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways, that the Lord may continue his good word which he hath spoken concerning me, saying, If thy children take heed to their way to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail thee a man on the throne of Israel.' Hereby you open the dams and obstructions, that grace may have its free passage.
Use 2. If children are beloved for their parents' sake, then it serves to shame and terrify them that are born of godly parents, yet are not godly, but by their luxury and riot have forfeited all their blessings, their spiritual privileges in the covenant, and many times the outward blessing too. Or if you have temporal blessings, they do but harden you to greater torment, especially when you are so wicked to mock and reproach your parents because of their strictness and holy life. God looks for more from you than from others; the natural branches are more easily grafted into the good olive-tree. You are natural branches of the covenant, and you might plead the promises made to your parents with God; you have had a greater sufficiency of outward means; the example of your parents, frequent instruction, and many prayers have been laid out for you, and you have been more acquainted with the ways of religion.
Use 3. It may press us to admire the grace of God to his children. He cannot satisfy himself in doing good to you, but he must do good to your children too. How should we entertain this with reverence! When God told Abraham, I am thy God, and the God of thy seed, 'Abraham fell upon his face,' as humbly adoring the goodness of God, Gen. xvii. 3; so David, when God spake concerning his house and his children: 2 Sam. vii. 18, 19, 'What am I, O Lord, and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?' And this was yet a small thing in thy sight, O Lord God; for thou hast spoken also of thy servant's house for a great while to come;' he stands wondering at this mercy of God.
Use 4. We learn hence that we are to save ourselves, and others committed to us. Noah prepared an ark 'for the saving of his household;' 2 Tim. iv. 16, 'In so doing, thou shalt save both thyself and them that bear thee.' It is good to instruct and teach our families: Gen xviii. 18, 'I know Abraham; that he will command his children and his household after him, that they shall keep the way of the Lord.' And this is to be done morning and evening: Deut. vi. 6, 7, 'And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.' All religion at first was in families, and to this we are bound by all the bonds of nature and religion.
I go on to another fruit and consequent of Noah's faith - 'By which he condemned the world.' By the world is meant all mankind, except the family of Noah, But how did Noah condemn the world? It may be conceived in two ways: by his preaching, by his obedience. Let us see which will most suit this place.
1. By his preaching. That Noah was a preacher, it is clear from 2 Peter ii. 5, where he is called 'a preacher of righteousness.' All the while the ark was preparing he warned the wicked of their approaching danger, and admonished them to repent in time and turn to God, seeking the forgiveness of their sins through faith in the promised Messiah, or else they should perish: which is there meant by 'a preacher of righteousness.' Thus he might be said to condemn the world that admonisheth them by pronouncing the sentence of God upon the wicked world in case they did not repent. From hence I might observe -
Doct. That men receive their first sentence in the ministry of the word. There they are condemned first: John iii. 18, ' He that believeth not is condemned already;' that is, he that after warning and sufficient light stands out against the gospel, he can expect no other sentence from God. So John xx. 23, 'Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted: and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.' The sentence is first pronounced on earth, and then ratified in heaven. When we go to work according to the doctrine of faith and repentance, clave non errante, God will verify and make good that sentence. So Rom. ii. 16, 'In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel;' according as it is declared in the gospel, so will the process of that day be. Mat. xii. 32, it is there said concerning the sin against the Holy Ghost, 'It shall never be forgiven in this world' - by the ministry of the word - 'nor in the world to come' - by Christ at the last day, when the pardon of the elect shall be pronounced and ratified before all the world out of Christ's own mouth; therefore we have need to regard the present voice of the gospel. The church is the seminary of heaven. In the angel's song the word was, 'Peace upon earth,' Luke ii. 14. According as you make your peace with God upon earth, so it will be with you for ever. Those that obstinately stand out against the word, and put it away from them, they condemn themselves by their own fact; they pass a sentence upon their own souls, 'and judge themselves unworthy of everlasting life,' Acts xiii. 46. It is not we that condemn you, but you yourselves; you condemn yourselves interpretatively when you do such actions as will end in certain ruin; and the ministers of God condemn declaratively when they declare the mind of Christ; and Christ will do it authoritatively in the great and terrible day.
2. He condemned the world by his obedience. This sense is most proper: the words 'by which' are to be referred to his preparing the ark, not to his faith, which is a more remote antecedent. A man is said to condemn another when he doth by his own actions and obedience declare what they should do, which they not doing are left inexcusable, and liable to the greater blame. So it is said, Mat xii. 41, 42, 'The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment against this generation, and condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and behold a greater than Jonas is here. The queen of the south shall rise up in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it; for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold a greater than Solomon is here.' The pains and diligence of others in a good course, unless it be imitated, serves but to aggravate men's sins to a greater judgment; and therefore it is said, the men of Nineveh and the queen of the south shall condemn that generation. So Noah condemned the world; that is, by his care, and pains, and cost, in preparing the ark; it was a means to aggravate their carelessness and security, and to leave them liable unto a greater judgment. Noah was a preacher of righteousness; but if he had spoken nothing, there had been sermon enough in his very building the ark to convince, condemn, and leave them without excuse. I shall prosecute this sense: the point is this -
Doct. That the carelessness and the security of the wicked is aggravated and condemned by the faith and obedience of God's servants. The pains which they take in their lives to escape wrath will be an argument by which your carelessness will be upbraided in the day of judgment. Indeed God condemned the world; but divine justice taketh notice of this argument whereby to make the process against sinners the more righteous, and by consequence the more dreadful.
To prove this point, the main reason is because we are responsible for every talent. Now the example of the godly is one of the talents. They that live among humble and mortified christians have more advantage than others have; they are entrusted with another talent for which they are to be responsible to God. That you may be sensible of it, I shall show how many advantages you have by the examples of the godly.
1. It is a means of grace appointed by God, and as all other means, it hath a ministerial, natural efficacy. The word is a means, and the word hath a ministerial efficacy. It is a rational way to deal by counsel, and the voice hath a natural force to work on the affections. So the conversation and example of the godly is a means God hath appointed, and it doth naturally provoke and draw us forth to imitation. Saith the apostle, 1 Peter ii. 12, 'Having your conversation honest among the gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evil-doers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.' The first visit that God giveth the soul may be by their example. It is an ordinance of God that a man should seek to work upon his neighbours, by an innocent and comely carriage to draw them to God and religion. There is agathè eris, an innocent emulation planted in our nature, by which we are moved, not only to imitate others, but to excel them; therefore God would have us display the lustre of a godly conversation. So it is an ordinance of God that a woman should seek to gain an unbelieving husband: 1 Peter iii. 10, 'That if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives.' The wife, by lying in the bosom, and by the intimacy of converse, and as being void of suspicion of partiality, hath an excellent advantage to instil the knowledge of God and a care of religion, or at least to take off his prejudices by her holy conversation. For the apostle means there by 'winning,' not a formal conversion, but to gain them to a good liking and better opinion of the ways to God, that so they may wait upon the word, by way of preparation to receive further manifestations and discoveries of God. We are provoked by their endeavours; example hath a natural force this way; we love to do as others do, and to follow the track.
2. It confuteth atheism, and those prejudicate and hard thoughts which men have against religion. Godly men are God's witnesses to the world that there is a reality in religion; they give a testimony to it by the strictness and mortifiedness of their lives. Certainly when men can abjure and renounce all the pleasantness of their lives, and all their dear contentments for the interest of religion, there is somewhat more in it than a mere notion and imagination, or a mere naked pretence. As the primitive christians, when they were so just, temperate, willing to suffer for the cause of God, the heathens cried out, It is impossible but that these men must be moved by some reasonable principle. Isa. xliii. 12, 'Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God.' Now miracles are ceased, God will leave the world no other confirmation of the truth of religion, but the efficacy of the word upon the conscience and the conversation of believers: John xvii. 10, 'I am glorified in them,' and ver. 17, 'Sanctify them by thy truth; thy word is truth.' By their innocency, strictness, and sanctification, they discover the truth of the word unto the world; which certainly should make christians very strict in their lives, for the honour and glory of the Lord Christ lies at stake. There is no such dangerous temptation to atheism as the scandalous lives of professors. They that pretend to special nearness to God, when they fall, it makes the world believe that christianity was a fancy; as when one surprised a christian in a filthy act, he cried out, Christiane! ubi Deus tuus?' - Christian, Christian! where is thy God? And as it confutes the privy atheism of the heart, so it confutes those devised scandals by which they would blot and stain the glory of religion. Worldly men cannot endure to be outshone; and because they have no mind to be as good as others, they would fain make others to be as bad and as vile as themselves; therefore they are full of hard thoughts and hard speeches against good men. Now nothing convinceth the world so much as the godly life of professors. As the apostle speaks of the gravity of church-meetings: 1 Cor. xiv. 25, 'Falling down on his face, he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.' When he shall see the christian assemblies managed with such awe and reverence, and all things disposed in a comely manner, it would be a means of conviction, and bring him to fall down on his face, and say, Surely God is here. So, if christians did not let fall the majesty of their conversation, the prejudices of the world would soon vanish, and those that live about you would be forced to say, Certainly God is with these men. Of all apologies, the real apology is the best: 1 Peter ii. 15, 'That with well-doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men;' what we translate 'put to silence,' in the original, is fimoun, that you may muzzle or bind up the mouth of a wicked man, that he cannot bark against religion. I like apologies well that are made to take off the prejudices of the world; as those of Tertulhian and Justin Martyr for christians, and others for reformed churches. But there is no apology like your own lives to put an end to all the reproaches of the world, for works are a visible evidence of our sincerity; and so far the world seeth that the ways of God are to be approved and respected.
3. The examples of God's children are but the word exemplified, the rule drawn out into practice. The word is the means of conversion, wherever it is written, preached, or lived, and every christian is as it were a walking bible. As it was said of a learned man that he was mouseion periaptoun, a walking library; so a child of God that walks in innocency and strictness of life is a walking and a living reproof; therefore his life must needs convince and condemn the world. There are some whose special office it is to preach; but every christian may live a sermon. You may be all preachers in this kind: 2 Cor. iii. 3, 'Forasmuch as you are declared to be the epistle of Jesus Christ.' Mark, Christ doth by his servants, as it were, declare and write his mind to the world; they are a living rule. You that are believers are to make out the glory of Christ, the efficacy of his Spirit, and the strictness of his doctrine to the world; you are to show forth - tas aretas - 'the virtues of him that hath called you,' 1 Peter ii. 9, to declare what manner of person Christ is, and what is his glory; he sends you out as so many lively copies and stamps of his image. The gospel is called the image of God, and a christian is the image of God too. The gospel is the glass wherein we behold his glory: 2 Cor. iii. 18, 'We all as in a glass beholding the glory of the Lord,' &c; it is the picture which Jesus Christ hath sent to his bride. As you know there is Caesar's image upon his coin, and Caesar's image upon his son, he is his living image; so the scriptures are the image of God, where he hath displayed the excellency and perfection of his nature as we are capable to understand it; but christians who are his sons and children are his living image that must discover his glory.
4. The example of the godly shows the strictness and severity of religion is possible; so that by that means it condemns the world of their negligence. Men think the rules of the gospel, because they exceed the power and force of nature, are only calculated for angels. But now when men that live in the flesh, that live such a kind of life as we do, yet live above the flesh, the world is left without excuse, and their negligence and carelessness is hereby condemned. 1 Peter iv. 4, 'They think it strange,' saith the apostle, 'that you run not with them to the same excess of riot.' Carnal men think that there is such a felicity in their kind of lives that they wonder others are not as greedy of it as they; but now they are condemned in their thoughts when they behold the strictness, the mortification, the self-denial that is in the lives of christians. You may do it, it is possible; for there are many about you that have done it; and if you do not, 'you are left without excuse: Heb. vi. 12, 'Be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.' When the apostle speaks of resisting of Satan, and maintaining the spiritual life against the assaults of the powers of darkness, he gives this as one reason: 1 Peter v. 9, 'Knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.' Your brethren in the flesh - that have bodies as you have, that need the common supports of life as you do, that have not divested themselves of the interests and concernments of flesh and blood - they can resist a busy devil and a naughty world, and can wrestle with the corruptions of their own hearts: they that are of the same lump and nature that you are, they can do these things.
5. Because the examples of others make conscience work whenever you see it. Natural conscience doth homage to the image of God which is stamped upon his children. When they see their works and their strictness raised to such a height and proportion as nature cannot reach it, then they tremble; it makes their conscience to work: 1 Peter iii. 1, 2. 'They that obey not the word may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives, while they behold your chaste conversation, coupled with fear.' The word 'coupled' is not in the original, and the sense is perfect without it; it may be read thus, 'When they behold your chaste conversation with fear.' A wicked man cannot look upon a strict christian without trembling; when they behold the strictness and severity of their lives, it makes them to quake. It is said of Herod, Mark vi. 10, that 'he feared John;' not so much because he was a severe preacher, one that would rub truth upon his conscience; he did not only fear him as a prophet, but as a 'just man.' Innocency and strictness beget fear; they are objects reviving guilt, and make conscience return upon itself; when they see their holy and godly conversation, it makes them to think of their own carelessness and sin; it is like a blow upon a sore, which makes the heart ache. The presence of God is dreadful to sinners anywhere, be it in eminent providences or in ordinances; but in the lives of his children it begets secret fear and some nips of conscience: Deut. xxviii. 10, 'All the people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of thee;' when they behold the graciousness of conversation which the godly hold forth. That is the reason why wicked men are in prison when they are in good company; they are taken with a fit of trembling. How despicable soever the godly are in their eyes, yet there is one of their judges present that condemns them for the present, and will pass judgment upon them hereafter. Ignatius, speaking of the bishop of the Trallians, saith, that he was of such severity of life, that I think the greatest atheist that is would even be afraid to look upon him. Mortification shines effectually into the conscience of a wicked man. The strictness of God's children darts itself into their breasts, and begets a veneration and reverence.
Use 1. To press christians to walk so that they may even preach in their conversations, that you may condemn the world, not by your censures, - that is not the christian way, it is forbidden in the gospel - but by your lives, especially ministers to second their doctrine with practice. It concerns all christians, especially when we have to do with them that are without. 'Walk wisely' saith the apostle 'toward them that are without,' Col. iv. 5. There needs a great deal of wisdom and care, whenever we are cast upon the company of wicked and carnal men. Of all things, be careful of your conversations before wicked men; you are one of God's witnesses that must reprove and condemn them; therefore be careful that thou dost not disparage thy testimony. That you may do so, take these directions and motives.
First, For the directions.
1. Be sure to show forth those graces which they approve in their consciences, though they are loth to practise them; as strictness of life, which naturally strikes a veneration into the heart of a sinner: Mark vi. 20, 'Herod feared John, because he was a just man, and holy.' A loose christian that walks like the men of the multitude is a disgrace to his profession, and hardens carnal men in their wicked ways. Then diligence in the means of salvation. Certainly the world will see that there is somewhat in it when men are so busy and in earnest; when they see the children of God, that are wise and discreet, so diligent in the means of godliness. It is somewhat answerable to that which is spoken of in the text: Noah's preparing an ark, and providing beasts to enter therein. So when you work out your salvation with fear and trembling, the world will think there is somewhat in it, or else you would not be so busy and careful. So for charity: James i. 27, 'Pure religion, and undefiled before God and the Father, is this, to visit the fatherless and the widow.' The world is mightily taken with these things: so that, Rom. v. 7, 'For a good man one would even dare to die.' A man that is only of a rigid and severe innocency, a sour man, it may be he may have little love in the world; but he that is good and charitable, the world esteems him exceedingly. So also for suffering and constancy in the matters of religion. Venture somewhat upon your hopes, that the world may know they are worthy hopes. So for a contempt of the world; it doth mightily affect a natural conscience, for they are transported with a greedy desire of earthly things; therefore they wonder when they see christians deny their interests and overlook their concernments upon just and convenient reasons; this hath a marvellous influence upon a natural conscience. I do the rather instance in this, because worldliness is a corruption that is incident to men that are serious, and of that kind of temper which is fit for religion. When you are full of cares, and covetous as the men of the world, you do exceedingly disparage and stain your profession, and you do not condemn the world.
2. What you do, do it in such a way as morality cannot reach it. There are many corruptions which nature discovers, and we may avoid them upon such arguments as nature suggests. Now you are 'to show forth, the virtues of Christ,' 1 Peter ii. 9, and the influences of the Spirit of Christ, and not 'walk only as men,' 1 Cor. iii. 3. When men only content themselves with the civil and orderly use of reason, they may be just and temperate; this is but to act as men. Your way should be above the rate of the world; you should be holy, and maintain an aweful reverent fear of God; this is such a way as the world cannot reach: Mat. vi. 46, 'If you love them that love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same?' You should do somewhat above that which is enforced by the light of nature; as in giving, forgiving, and righteous dealing, a christian should be a point above others; so in loving enemies, in providing for the glory of God, and laying out himself for good uses. A christian should not be contented with the proportions of nature, but do somewhat to answer the self-denial of Christ, who when he was rich in the glory of the godhead, became poor for our sakes. There is a height becoming religion, above the size and pitch of morality; and this you should aim at.
3. Let all things come from the force of religion, and not from by-ends. There is nothing amiable but what is genuine and native. Forced actions lose their lustre and grace, and do not prevail with the world. It is said of the children of God, that they were altogether bent for the heavenly recompenses: Heb. xi. 16, 'They declared plainly that they sought a country.' You should declare plainly you have no designs but for heaven. Do all things for the love and fear of God; by-ends will never hold out. It is said of the hypocrite, Prov. xxv., 26, 'His wickedness shall be showed before the whole congregation.' Varnish will off; and whenever it happens, it will be much to the prejudice and disgrace of religion.
Hebrews
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