Secondly, Why this should be our great care ?
1. This is the end why all creatures were made : Eom. xi. 36, ' For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things.' When God did make the world, he did not throw it out of his hands, and leave it alone to subsist of itself, as a thing that had no further relation to him ; but so guides it and governs i it, that as the first production and continued subsistence of all things is from himself, so the ultimate resolution and tendency of all things might be to him. The whole world is a circle, and all the motions of the creatures are circular ; they end where they began ; as rivers run to the place whence they came. All that issueth out of the fountain of his goodness must fall again into the ocean of his glory, but man especially. If God had made us to live for ourselves, it were lawful ; but Prov. xvi. 4, ' The Lord hath made all things for himself ; ' all things are made ultimately and terminatively for God, but man immediately. Creatures are made immediately for us, and submit to our dominion, or are created for our use.
2. From God's right and interest in us : Eom. xiv. 7, 8, ' For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord ; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's;' we are his, and therefore for him. All that you have is God's, and by giving it to you he did not divest himself of his own right. God scatters his benefits as the husbandman doth his seed, that he may receive a crop.
VeR. 4.] SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. 183
His glory is not due to another ; he made us out of nothing, and bought us: 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20, *Ye are not your own, ye are bought with a price ; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.' If we had anything our own, we might use it for ourselves.
3. We shall be called to an account: Luke xix. 23, 'Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required my own with usury ? ' We must give an account, what honour God hath had by us in our relations, as magistrates, ministers, masters of families, servants, husbands, wives, parents, chil- dren ; what honour by our estates, relations, &c. We are obliged so deeply by preceding benefits, that if there were no account to be given, we should be careful to use all things for his glory. Oh ! but much more when there will be so strict and severe an account : ' The Lord of those servants will reckon with them.' What we enjoy is not donum, a gift, but talentum, a talent, to be improved for our master's use. Beasts are liable to no account, because they have not reason and con- science, as man hath, and are merely ruled with a rod of i^'on : they are to glorify God passively ; but we are left to our choice, and there- fore must give an account.
4. Because of the great benefit that cometh to us by it. God noteth it, and rewards it. He noteth it : John xvii. 10, ' And all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them.' Our Kedeemer speaketh well of us behind our backs, and maketh a good report of us in heaven. And he rewards it in the day of his royalty. Christ will not be ashamed of his poor servants : Mat. xix. 28, ' Ye which have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.'
5. The end ennobleth a man, and still the man is according to his end. Low spirits have low designs, and a base end is pursued by base actions : /Eat. vi. 22, 23, ' The light of the body is the eye : if there- fore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light ; but if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.' Men are properly such as the end that they aim at ; he that pursueth any worldly interest or earthly thing, as his end is earthly, he becometh himself earthly ; the more the soul directeth itself to God, the more God-like ; their inclinations are above the base things of this world : Ps. xvii. 14, ' From men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasures.' The. noblest soul is for the noblest object ; others do but provide for the flesh, they drive on no greater trade ; they may talk of heaven, wish for it rather than hell, when they can live no longer, but their lives are only for feathering a nest, which will quickly be pulled down. To rule a kingdom is a nobler design than to play with children for pins or nuts. A man that designeth only to pamper his body, to live in all plenty, what a poor life doth he lead ! A beast can eat, drink, sleep, as they do : Phil. iii. 19, 20, ' Whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things ; but our conversation is in heaven,' &c. They make a great pother in the world about a brutish life, which will soon have an end.