128 SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V. [Ser. XXL
have faculties suited to this purpose ; we have an understanding that we may know him. Surely such an understanding nature, such an immortal soul, was never made for corruptible things. God was pleased to stamp man with the character of his own image ; he beareth his superscription ; ' Now give unto C^sar the things that are Cfesar's, and unto God the things that are God's.' We may find out his track and foot-print in the creatures, but man had his image. Other creatures glorify God necessarily, — we voluntarily and by choice ; they know not the first cause, but are over-ruled by the government of providence, but we have, or should have, an under- standing to know him, and an heart to love him ; therefore the duty properly belongeth to us. Other creatures glorify God passively, we actively ; they are the harp, man makes the music, Ps. cxlv. 18, ' All thy works praise thee, thy saints bless thee.' Man is the mouth of the creatures ; the creatures by us glorify God.
[2.] As new creatures. The people of God are most bound of all men to seek the glory of God ; you are ' created again in Christ Jesus,' Eph. ii. 10. It concerns you to ask, Why am I made ? to what use and purpose do I serve, but to glorify God, and admire his grace, and to live answerable to his love, and in a thankful obedience to his pre- cepts, and to promote his kingdom and interest in this world ? By regeneration we have new faculties and dispositions. The great efiect of grace is to beget a tendency towards God, to restore and incline the heart of man to his proper end. To know the end distinguisheth a man from a beast, but to choose the end, and seek the end, distin- guisheth one man from another ; to make God's glory the chief scope and end of all our lives and actions is the great fruit and effect of grace. Naturally we are either ignorant or mindless of our great end, and the way that leadeth to it : ' All of us are gone astray like lost sheep,' Isa. liii. 6 ; and Ps. xiv. 2, ' They are all gone out of ;,the way ; ' or that path which will lead us to the end for which we were created. And naturally we spend our time in serving our lusts, and are taken up with other business, have no heart or leisure to live unto God and for God, but employ our souls only to please our bodies, and to serve and please the senses, and are slaves to all the creatures, who by original institution were put under man's feet. But now ' Christ died to bring us to God,' 1 Peter iii. 18, and by his Spirit doth change the heart, that we may be to the praise of his glorious grace, Eph. i. 13, not only as passive objects, but as active instruments. Indeed there is objectively a greater impression of God upon the new creature, than there is upon anything else, which hath passed God's hand. This work sets forth more of his attributes, of his goodness, wisdom, and power, than all things else. The very being of the new creature sets forth more of the praise of God to all beholders ; though the man himself were silent, yet the work would speak for itself. But we are not speaking of that now, how the new creature objectively and passively sets forth the praise of God, but how as active instruments they should glorify God both in word and deed ; not only as the praise of his glory is to be manifested in them, but as it is to be manifested and intended by them, having renewed faculties to enable them how they should live unto God and bring forth fruit unto God. Yea,
VeR. 13.] SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V. 129
besides the renewino^ of their natures, they have the actual influences of his grace ; and therefore since they have all from God, they should use all for him, and live to the glory of God, whose grace enableth them to do everything. It is by the grace of God they are what they are, and therefore it is for the glory of God that they do what they do : ' All the fruits of righteousness wrought in them, are by Jesus Christ, to the praise and glory of God,' Phil. i. 11. God's glory, and not any by-respect, must be the main scope and end of the new creature ; otherwise he perverts the influences of grace, and would serve himself of the supply of the Spirit.
[3.] We by the providence of God are disposed in all our relations for this end, that we might have some sphere wherein to glorify God ; some as magistrates, some as ministers, some as masters, some as servants ; so that the glorifying of God concerneth every man in all that he doth, in all that relation wherein God hath placed him. Every man is sent into the world for some end ; for no wise agent worketli at random. God hath made nothing in vain, but hath assigned to every creature its own use and operation. To do a thing to no purpose will not agree with the wisdom of a considering man. There- fore God, who is a God of judgment, hath certainly in every work of his some scope and end; therefore every man hath his service and employment ; if he were made for nothing, then hath he nothing to do in the world. Surely life and reason was given us for something, not merely to furnish and fill up the number of things in the world, as stones and rubbish do ; nor merely to grow in stature, as life was given to the plants to grow bulky or increase in length and breadth ; nor merely to taste sensitive pleasures, as that is the happiness of the beasts, to enjoy pleasures without remorse. God gave man those liigher faculties of reason and conscience, to manage some profitable work and business for the glory of his creator, and his own eternal happiness ; and by some honest labour and vocation, as instruments of God's providence, to serve their generation, Acts xiii. 26. The world was never made to be a hive for drones and idle ones ; if any man might be allowed to be idle and serve for no use, then God would make one rational creature in vain ; and one member would be useless in the body politic. We see in the body natural, there is no member but hath its function and use, whereby it becometh serviceable to the whole ; all have not the same office ; that would make confusion ; but all have their use, either as an eye, or as a hand, or as a foot, or as a sinew, or as a vein, or as an artery. So in human society, no member may be useless ; they must have one function or another wherein to employ themselves, otherwise they are unprofitable burdens of the earth. Every man more or less hath some relation, which he is to improve for the glory of God and the good of others. Every one hath his talent, which must not be hid in a napkin ; he is accountable to God for that state of life wherein God hath set him. The Mediator hath his work, and he givetli up his account to God : John xvii. 4, ' I have finished the work thou gavest me to do.' The courtier hath his work : Neh. i. 11, ' The Lord show me favour in the sight of this man ; for I was the king's cupbearer ; ' — he useth this as an argument, that he had improved his place for God. The minister hath his work :