2. Knowing without doing God's will, will make one's case worse; 'twill heat hell the hotter, Luke xii. 47., " The servant which knew his Lord's will, and did not ac- cording to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes." IMany a man's knowledge is a torch to light him to hell. Thou who hast knowledge of God's will but does not do it, wherein dost thou excel an hypocrite ? nay, wherein dost thou excel the devil, ' who transforms himself into an angel of light?' 'Tis improper to call such Christians, who are knowers of God's will but not doers of it. 'Tis improj)er to call him a tradesman who never wrought in his trade ; so to call him a Christian, who never wrought in the trade of religion. Let us not rest in the knowing of God's will. Let it not be said of us, as Plutarch speaks (»f the Grecians, " They knew what was just, but did it not." Let us set upon this, the doing of God's will, " Thy will be done."
Quest. 3. Why is the doing of God's will so requisite ?
Ans. 1. Out of equity. God may justly claim a rijiht to our obedience ; he is our founder, and we have our being from him ; and 'tis but equal that we should do his will, at whose word we were created. God is our benefactor, 'tis but just that, if God give us our allowance, we should give him our allegiance.
2. The great design of God in the word is, to make us doers of his will. \. All God's royal edicts and precepts are to bring us to this, to be doers of his will ; what needed God been at the pains to give us the copy oi his law, and write it out with his own fin ger else ? The word of God is not only a rule of knowledge, but of duty. Dent. xiii. 4., and xxvi. 16., " This day the Lord thy God hath commanded thee to do these sta- tutes ; thou shalt therefore keep and do them." If you tell your children what is your mind, it is not only that they may know your will, but do it. God gives us his word, as a master gives his scholar a copy, to write after it ; he gives it as hia will and testament, that we should be the executors to see it performed. — 2. This is the end of all God's promises, to draw us to God's will ; the promises are loadstones to obedience, Deut. xi. 27., " A blessing if yo
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obey ;" as a father ^ves his son money to bribe him to obedience, Deut. xxviii. 1, 3. *' If tliou shalt hearken to the voice of tlie Lord thy God, and do all his command- ments, the Lord thy God will set thee on liio^li above all the nations of the earth ; blessed shalt thou be in the city and in the field." The promises are a royal charter settled upon obedience. — 3. The minatory part of the word, the threatenings of God, stand as the angel with a flaming sword to deter us from sin, and make us doers of God's will, Deut. xi. 28., " A curse if ye will not obey." Ps. Ixviii. 21., " God shall wound the hairy scalp of such a one as go- eth on still in his trespasses." These threat- enings do often take hold of men in this life : they are made examples, and hung up in chains to scare others from disobedience.
4. All God's providences are to make us
doers of his will. As God makes use of all the seasons of the year for harvest, so all Ills various providences are to bring on the harvest of obedience.
(1.) Afflictions are to make us do God's will, 2 Chi'on. xxxiii. 12., When Manasseh was in affliction, he besought the Lord, and humbled himself gieatly. The rod hath this voice, ' be doers of God's will.' Afflic- tion is called a furnace, Isa. xxxvii. 19. Tlie furnace melts the metal, and then it is cast into a new mould. God's furnace is to melt us and mould us into obedience.
(2.) God's mercies are to make us do his will, Rom. xii. 1., "I beseech you by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice." Body is, by synecdoche, put for the whole man ; if the soul should not be presented to God as well as the bo- dy, it could not be reasonable service ; now, saith the apostle, " I beseech you by the mercies of God, present yourselves a living sacrifice." Mercies are the strongest obli- gations to duty, IIos. xi. 4., " I drew them with the cords of a man;" that is, with golden cords of my mercy. In a word, all that is written in the law or gospel tends to this that we shall be doers of God's will, ** Thy will be done."
3. By doing the will of God, we evidence sincerity. As Christ said in another sense, John X. 25., " The works whicli I do in my father's name, they bear witness of me :" so,