ariseth from our being completely justified freely by the grace of God
through Christ; and by the same means alone brought to glory; and may
be framed thus:—but seeing we are freely justified, and brought to
glory by free grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ;
and seeing the glory that we shall be possessed of upon the account of
the Lord Jesus, is both full and complete, both for happiness and
continuing therein, what need will there be that our work should be
rewarded? Nay, may not the doctrine of reward for good works be here
not only needless, but indeed an impairing and lessening the
completeness of that glory to which we are brought, and in which we
shall live inconceivably happy for ever, by free grace?
Answer. That we are justified in the sight of the Divine Majesty, from
the whole lump of our sins, both past, present, and to come, by free
grace, through that one offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for
all, I bless God I believe it, and that we shall be brought to glory by
the same grace, through the same most blessed Jesus, I thank God by his
grace I believe that also. Again, that the glory to which we shall be
brought by free grace, through the only merits of Jesus, is unspeakably
glorious and complete, I question no more than I question the blessed
truths but now confessed. But yet, notwithstanding all this, there is a
reward for the righteous, a reward for their works of faith and love,
whether in a doing or a suffering way, and that not principally to be
enjoyed here, but hereafter; ‘great is your reward in heaven,’ as I
proved in the answer to the first objection. And now I shall answer
further:—
1. If this reward had been an impairing or derogation to the free grace
of God that saveth us, he would never have mentioned it for our
encouragement unto good works, nor have added a promise of reward for
them that do them, nor have counted himself unfaithful if he should not
do it.
2. The same may be said concerning Jesus Christ, who doubtless loveth
and tendereth the honour of his own merits, as much as any who are
saved by him can do, whether they be in heaven or earth; yet he hath
promised a reward to a cup of cold water, or giving of any other alms;
and hath further told us, they that do these things, they do lay up
treasure in heaven, namely, a reward when their Lord doth come, then to
be received by them to their eternal comfort.
3. Paul was as great a maintainer of the doctrine of God’s free grace,
and of justification from sin, by the righteousness of Christ imputed
by grace, as any he that ever lived in Christ’s service, from the
world’s beginning till now: and yet he was for this doctrine; he
expected himself, and encouraged others also to look for such a reward,
for doing and suffering for Christ, which he calls ‘a far more
exceeding and eternal weight of glory’ (2 Cor 4:17). Surely, as Christ
saith, in a case not far distant from this in hand, ‘if it were not so,
he would have told us’ (John 14:1-3). Now could I tell what those
rewards are that Christ hath prepared, and will one day bestow upon
those that do for him in faith and love in this world, I should therein
also say more than now I dare or ought; yet this let me say in general,
they are such as should make us leap to think on, and that we should
remember with exceeding joy, and never think that it is contrary to the
Christian faith, to rejoice and be glad for that which yet we
understand not (Matt 5:11,12; Luke 6:23). ‘Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be,’ &c. But ‘every
man that hath this hope in him,’ namely, that he shall be more than
here he can imagine, ‘purifieth himself even as he is pure’ (1 John
3:2,3). Things promised when not revealed to be known by us while here,
are therefore not made known, because too big and wonderful. When Paul
was up in paradise, he heard unspeakable words not possible for man to
utter (2 Cor 12:3,4). Wherefore, a reward I find, and that laid up in
heaven, but what it is I know not, neither is it possible for any here
to know it any further, than by certain general words of God, such as
these, praise, honour, glory, a crown of righteousness, a crown of
glory, thrones, judging of angels, a kingdom, with a far more exceeding
and eternal weight of glory, &c. (1 Cor 4:5; 1 Peter 1:7; 2 Tim 4:8; 1
Peter 5:4; Matt 25:34-36). Wherefore, to both these objections, let me
yet answer thus a few words. Though thy modesty or thy opinion will not
suffer thee to look for a reward for what thou dost here for thy Lord,
by the faith and love of the gospel; yea, though in the day of judgment
thou shouldst there slight all thou didst on earth for thy Lord,
saying, When, Lord, when did we do it? he will answer, Then, even then
when ye did it to the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto me
(Matt 25:37-40).
The Third Objection. But is not the reward that God hath promised to
his saints, for their good works to be enjoyed only here?
Answer. 1. For concerning holy walking, according to God’s command,
yieldeth even here abundance of blessed fruits, as he saith, ‘in
keeping of them there is great reward,’ and again, ‘this man shall be
blessed in his deed,’ that is, now, even in this time, as he saith in
another place; for indeed there is so much goodness and blessedness to
be found in a holy and godly life, that were a man to have nothing
hereafter, the present comfort and glory that lieth as the juice in the
grape, in all things rightly done for God, it were sufficient to answer
all our travail and self-denial in our work of faith and labour of
love, to do the will of God.[25]
2. Dost thou love thy friends, dost thou love thine enemies, dost thou
love thy family or relations, or the church of God? then cry for
strength from heaven, and for wisdom, and a heart from heaven to walk
wisely before them. For if a man be remiss, negligent, and careless in
his conversation, not much mattering whom he offends, displeases, or
discourages, by doing this or that, so he may save himself, please his
foolish heart, and get this world, or the like, this man hath lost a
good report of them that are without, and is fallen into reproach and
the snare of the devil (1 Tim 3:7). He is fallen into reproach, and is
slighted, disdained, both he, his profession, and all he says, either
by way of reproof, rebuke, or exhortation: physician, cure thyself, say
all to such a one; this man is a sayer, but not a doer, say they; he
believeth not what he says; yea, religion itself is made to stink by
this man’s ungodly life. This is he that hardens his children, that
stumbleth the world, that grieveth the tender and godly Christian; but
I say, he that walketh uprightly, that tenders[26] the name of God, the
credit of the gospel, and the welfare of others, seeking with Paul, not
his own profit, but the profit of others, that they may be saved; this
man holds forth the Word of life, this man is a good savour of Christ
amongst them that are saved; yea, may prove, by so doing, the
instrument in God’s hand of the salvation of many souls.
3. This is the way to be clear from the blood of all men, the way not
to be charged with the ruin and everlasting misery of poor immortal
souls. Great is the danger that attends an ungodly life, or an ungodly
action, by them that profess the gospel (Jer 2:33). When wicked men
learn to be wicked of professors, when professors cause the enemies of
God to blaspheme, doubtless sad and woeful effects must needs be the
fruit of so doing (2 Sam 12:14). How many in Israel were destroyed for
that which Aaron, Gideon, and Manasseh, unworthily did in their day?
(Exo 32:25; Judg 8:24-27). A godly man, if he take not heed to himself,
may do that in his life that may send many to everlasting burnings,
when he himself is in everlasting bliss. But on the contrary, let men
walk with God, and there they shall be excused; the blood of them that
perish shall lie at their own door, and thou shalt be clear. ‘I am pure
from the blood of all men,’ saith Paul (Acts 20:26). And again, ‘your
blood be upon your own heads, I am clean’ (Acts 18:6). Yea, he that
doth thus, shall leave in them that perish an accusing conscience, even
begotten by his good conversation, and by that they shall be forced to
justify God, his people, and way, in the day of their visitation; in
the day when they are descending into the pit to the damned (1 Peter
2:12).
4. This is the way to maintain always the answer, the echoing answer of
a good conscience in thy own soul. Godliness is of great use in this
way; for the man that hath a good conscience to Godward, hath a
continual feast in his own soul: while others say there is casting
down, he shall say there is lifting up; for he shall save the humble
person (Job 22:23-30). Some indeed, in the midst of their profession,
are reproached, smitten, and condemned of their own heart, their
conscience still biting and stinging of them, because of the
uncleanness of their hands, and they cannot lift up their face unto
God; they have not the answer of a good conscience toward him, but must
walk as persons false to their God, and as traitors to their own
eternal welfare; but the godly upright man shall have the light shine
upon his ways, and he shall take his steps in butter and honey. ‘The
work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness,
quietness and assurance for ever’ (Isa 32:17). ‘If our heart condemn
us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things; beloved, if
our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God’ (1 John
3:20-22).
5. The godly man that walketh with God, that chiefly careth to do the
work that God hath allotted him to do for his name in this world, he
hath not only these advantages, but further, he hath as it were a
privilege of power with God, he can sway much with him; as it is said
of Jacob, as a prince he had power with God to prevail in times of
difficulty (Gen 32:28). And so again, it is said of Judah, being
faithful with the saints, he ruled with God (Hosea 11:12). How many
times did that good man Moses turn away the wrath of God from the many
thousands of Israel; yea, as it were, he held the hands of God, and
staved off the judgments not once nor twice; the effectual fervent
prayer of a righteous man availeth much (2 Sam 5:10). One man that
walketh much with God, may work wonders in this very thing; he may be a
means of saving whole countries and kingdoms from those judgments their
sins deserve. How many times, when Israel provoked the Lord to anger,
did he yet defer to destroy them? and the reason of that forbearance,
he tells them it was for David’s sake; for my servant David’s sake I
will not do it. As the Lord said also concerning Paul, ‘Lo, God hath
given thee all them that sail with thee’; that is, to save their lives
from the rage of the sea (Acts 27:24). Yea, when a judgment is not only
threatened, but the decree gone forth for its execution, then godly
upright men may sometimes cause the very decree itself to cease without
bringing forth (Zech 2:1-3). Or else may so time the judgment that is
decreed, that the church shall best be able to bear it (Matt 24:20).
6. The man that is tender of God’s glory in this world, still ruling
and governing his affairs by the Word, and desirous to be faithful to
the work and employment that God hath appointed him to do for his name;
that man shall still be let into the secrets of God; he shall know that
which God will reserve and hide from many; ‘Shall I hide from Abraham
that thing which I do,’ saith the Lord?—‘For I know him, that he will
command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep
the way of the Lord,’ &c. (Gen 18:17,19). So again, ‘The secret of the
Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant’
(Psa 25:14). ‘And to him that ordereth his conversation aright, will I
shew the salvation of God’ (Psa 50:23). Such a man shall have things
new as well as old. His converse with the Father, and the Son, and the
Spirit, shall be turned into a kind of familiarity; he shall be led
into the Word, and shall still increase in knowledge: when others shall
be stinted and look with old faces, being black and dry as a stick, he
shall be like a fatted calf, like the tree that is planted by the
rivers of water, his flesh shall be fresh as the flesh of a child, and
God will renew the face of his soul.
7. If any escape public calamities, usually they are such as are very
tender of the name of God, and that make it their business to walk
before him. They either escape by being mercifully taken away before
it, or by being safely preserved in the midst of the judgment, until
the indignation be overpast. Therefore God saith in one place, the
‘righteous are taken away from the evil to come’ (Isa 57:1). But if not
so, as all be not, then they shall have their life for a prey (Jer
39:15-18). Caleb and Joshua escaped all the plagues that befel to
Israel in the wilderness, for they followed God (Num 14:24). Somewhat
of this you have also in that scripture, ‘Seek ye the Lord all ye meek
of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek
meekness, it may be, ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger’
(Zeph 2:3). According to this is that in Luke, ‘Watch ye, therefore,
and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these
things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man’
(Luke 21:36). When a man’s ways please the Lord, he will make his
enemies to be at peace with him. Marvellous is the work of God in the
preservation of his saints that are faithful with him, when dangers and
calamities come; as Joseph, David, Jeremiah, and Paul, with many
others, may appear. ‘He shall deliver thee in six troubles; yea, in
seven there shall no evil touch thee. In famine he shall redeem thee
from death; and in war from the power of the sword. Thou shalt be hid
from the scourge of the tongue; neither shalt thou be afraid of
destruction when it cometh’ (Job 5:19-21).
8. If afflictions do overtake thee, for whom the Lord loveth he
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth, yet those
afflictions shall not befal thee for those causes for which they befal
the slothful and backsliding Christian; neither shall they have that
pinching and galling operation upon thee, as on those who have left
their first love and tenderness for God’s glory in the world.
(1.) Upon the faithful upright man, though he also may be corrected and
chastised for sin, yet, I say, he abiding close with God, afflictions
come rather for trial and for the exercise of grace received, than as
rebukes for this or that wickedness; when upon the backsliding
heartless Christian these things shall come from fatherly anger and
displeasure, and that for their sins against him. Job did acknowledge
himself a sinner, and that God therefore might chastise him: but yet he
rather believed it was chiefly for the trial of his grace, as indeed,
and in truth, it was (Job 7:20, 23:10). ‘He is a perfect man,’ saith
God to Satan, ‘and one that feareth God, and escheweth evil, and still
he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to
destroy him without cause’ (Job 2:3). God will not say thus of every
one when affliction is laid upon them, though they yet may be his
children; but rather declareth and pronounceth that it is for their
transgressions, because they have wickedly departed from him (Psa
39:11, 38:1-4).
(2.) Now, affliction arising from these two causes, their effects in
the manner of their working, though grace turns them both for good, is
very different one from the other; he who hath been helped to walk with
God, is not assaulted with those turnings and returnings of guilt when
he is afflicted, as he who hath basely departed from God; the one can
plead his integrity, when the other blusheth for shame. See both these
cases in one person, even that goodly beloved David. When the Lord did
rebuke him for sin, then he cries, O blood guiltiness, O ‘cast me not
away from thy presence’ (Psa 51:11). But when he at another time knew
himself guiltless, though then also sorely afflicted, behold with what
boldness he turns his face unto God; ‘O Lord, my God,’ saith he, ‘if I
have done this; if there be iniquity in my hands; if I have rewarded
evil unto him that was at peace with me; [yea, I have delivered him
that without cause is mine enemy] let the enemy persecute my soul, and
take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine
honour in the dust. Selah,’ &c. (Psa 7:3-5).
This, therefore, must needs be a blessed help in distress, for a man to
have a good conscience when affliction hath taken hold on him; for a
man then, in his looking behind and before, to return with peace to his
own soul, that man must needs find honey in this lion, that can plead
his innocency and uprightness. All the people curse me, saith Jeremiah,
but that without a cause, for I have neither lent nor taken on usury;
which it seems was a sin at that day (Jer 15:10).
9. When men are faithful with God in this world, to do the work he hath
appointed for them, by this means a dying bed is made easier, and that
upon a double account. (1.) By reason of that present peace such shall
have, even in their time of languishing. (2.) By reason of the good
company such shall have at their departure.
(1.) Such souls usually abound in present peace; they look not back
upon the years they have spent with that shame as the idle and slothful
Christian does. ‘Remember now, Lord,—how I have walked before thee in
truth, and with a perfect heart’ (Isa 38:3). Blessed is the man that
considereth the poor, the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The
Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive, and he shall be blessed
upon the earth; and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his
enemies. The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing; thou
wilt make all his bed in his sickness (Psa 41:1-3).
Ah! when God makes the bed,[27] he must needs lie easy that weakness
hath cast thereon; a blessed pillow hath that man for his head, though
to all beholders it is hard as a stone. Jacob, on his deathbed, had two
things that made it easy:—(a) The faith of his going to rest, ‘I am to
be gathered unto my people’; that is, to the blessed that have yielded
up the ghost before me (Gen 49:29). (b) The remembrance of the sealings
of the countenance of God upon him, when he walked before him in the
days of his pilgrimage: when Joseph came to see him, before he left
this world, Israel, saith the Word, ‘strengthened himself and sat upon
his bed’; and the first word that dropt out of this good man’s mouth, O
how full of glory was it! ‘God Almighty appeared unto me,’ saith he,
‘at Luz, in the land of Canaan, and blessed me,’ &c. (Gen 48:1-3). O
blessed discourse for a sick bed, when those can talk thus that lie
thereon, from as true a ground as Jacob; but thus will God make the bed
of those who walk close with him in this world.
(2.) The dying bed of such a man is made easy by reason also of the
good company such shall have at their departure; and that is, (1) The
angels; (b) Their good works they have done for God in the world.
(a) The angels of heaven shall wait upon them, as they did upon blessed
Lazarus, to carry them into Abraham’s bosom (Luke 16:22). I know all
that go to paradise are by these holy ones conducted thither; but yet,
for all that, such as die under the clouds for unchristian walking with
God, may meet with darkness in that day—may go heavily hence,
notwithstanding that (Job 5:14). Yea, their bed may be as uncomfortable
to them as if they lay upon nothing but the cords, and their departing
from it, as to appearance, more uncomfortable by far. But as for those
who have been faithful to their God, they shall see before them, shall
know their tabernacles, ‘shall be in peace’ (Job 5:24), ‘the
everlasting gates shall be opened unto them,’ in all which, from earth,
they shall see the glory (Acts 7:55,56).[28] I once was told a story of
what happened at a good man’s death, the which I have often remembered,
with wonderment and gladness. After he had lain for some time sick, his
hour came that he must depart, and behold, while he lay, as we call it,
drawing on, to the amazement of the mourners, there was heard about his
bed such blessed and ravishing music as they never heard before; which
also continued till his soul departed, and then began to cease, and
grow, as to its sound, as if it was departing the house, and so still
seemed to go further and further off, till at last they could hear it
not longer. ‘Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man, the things that God hath prepared for them that
love him’: behold, then, how God can make thy sick bed easy! (1 Cor
2:9).
(b) A dying bed is made easy by those good works that men have done in
their life for the name of God: ‘Blessed are the dead which die in the
Lord: yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and
their works do follow them’; yea, and go before them too (Rev 14:13).
No man need be afraid to be accompanied by good deeds to heaven. Be
afraid of sins, they are like bloodhounds at the heels; and be sure thy
sins will find thee out, even thee who hast not been pardoned in the
precious blood of Christ; but as for those who have submitted
themselves to the righteousness of God for their justification, and who
have, through faith and love to his name, been frequent in deeds of
righteousness, they shall not appear empty before their God, ‘their
works,’ their good works, ‘follow them.’ These shall enter into rest,
and walk with Christ in white. I observe, when Israel had passed over
Jordan, they were to go to possess between Mount Ebal and Mount
Gerizim, from whence was to be pronounced the blessing and the cursing
(Deut 27). The gospel meaning of which I take to be as followeth: I
take Jordan to be a type of death: and these two mountains, with the
cursing and blessing, to be a type of the judgment that comes on every
man, so soon as he goes from hence—‘and after death the judgment’—so
that he that escapes the cursing, he alone goes into blessedness; but
he that Mount Ebal smiteth, he falls short of heaven! O! none knows the
noise that doth sound in sinners’ souls from Ebal and Gerizim when they
are departed hence; yet it may be they know not what will become of
them till they hear these echoings from these two mountains: but here
the good man is sure Mount Gerizim doth pronounce him blessed. Blessed,
then, are the dead that die in the Lord, for their works will follow
them till they are past all danger. These are the Christian’s train
that follow him to rest; these are a good man’s company that follow him
to heaven.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Solemn indeed is the responsibility of a Christian minister, and
every follower of the Lamb bears that office privately, and should be
earnest in prayer that public ministers may do the work of evangelists,
not only by insisting upon the necessity of the new birth and its
solemn reality, the happiness of a close walk with God, and the
glorious rest that remaineth, but to visit the poor and rich at their
own habitations, in sickness and health, and watch over their people as
those that must give an account.—Ed.
[2] ‘With a curse,’ is from the Puritan version.—Ed.
[3] Wretched are the persecutors, like a troubled sea, casting up mire
and filth, vainly opposing the sinner’s duty of personal inquiry for
salvation, and harassing him if he refuses to submit to human dogmas,
creeds, catechisms, and liturgies—the inventions of men. Although the
power is curtailed, the disposition remains the same; restless and
unwearied, they stick at nothing to glut their revenge upon the
disciples of Christ. But all in vain; the gospel spreads although the
persecutor kicks; it is against the sharp goads; he rushes upon
Jehovah’s buckler and crushes himself; is wretched in this life and
lost to all eternity; unless, as in the case of Saul, unspeakable mercy
arrests him—Ed.