2. For the manner, Whether the children of God may not be sur- prised sometimes with perfunctory deadness, and wicked men may not by some high impulses be raised to some extraordinary quickness and zeal in duties of worship ?
3. For the end. Whether the children of God may not reflect some- times upon a carnal end in the duties of worship, and how far this is a note of insincerity ?
Case 1. For the principle, AVhether or no it be not a mere natural act to perform duty with an eye to punishments and rewards ? The reason of the inquiry is because I pressed before, that duties, for the principle of them, should be acts of faith, love, and obedience, and not merely done out of the enforcement of conscience; and many press men to acts of religion upon conceits abstracted from all respects to rewards or punishments.
I shall answer this case — (1.) By laying down several spiritual observations ; (2.) By stating the question.
The spiritual observations are these —
1. To act in holy duties with respect to terrors and punishments is a far lower principle than to act with an eye to the recompense of reward. Why ? because it comes nearer to the rack and enforcement of natural conscience. Hope is a better principle than fear. Bare reason will show that fallen man is liable to judgment, and natural credulity doth more easily suit with the threatenings than the promise ; for guilt sitting heavy upon the conscience makes the soul to be more presagious of that which is evil than of that which is good ; and the punishment of sin is far more credible than the reward of grace. The heathens that had committed sin knew themselves to be worthy of death ; so the apostle, Eom. i, 32. And we see by common experience those doctrines that concern the conviction of sin, make a greater impression upon the soul than gospel promises.
2. I observe, that the consideration of threatenings and punishments are more proper for the avoiding of sin than for the practising of duty ; for as nature doth more hearken to threatenings, so nature is more sen- sible of sins of commission than of omission. Duty is an act of life, and tendeth to life ; and therefore the proper respect that draws on the
458 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL [SeR. XIV.
soul to duty is the i-eward, and the proyier dissuasive from sin is the thieatenini:^ and punishment: Rom. viii. 13, ' It" you hve after the flesh, you shall die ; but if ye, through the Si)irit, mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.' When the apostle would dissuade them fiom sin, he lays death before them ; when he would draw them to the piac- tice of holiness, then he pi'opounds encouragements of life and peace.
3. That fear which is culpable is rather an impression than a volun- tary act of the creature. It is not a fear begulten by the exei'cise of our faith or thoughts upon the threatening of the word ; but a .slavish terror is enforced ujjon the soul by the spirit of bonrlage and the evi- dence of a guilty conscience. When the children of God do make use of terrois, they act their own thoughts upon them ; as Paul : 2 Cor. V. 11, 'Knowing the terror of the Loid. we per.suade men.' The apostle in his own thoughts graciously considered the severity of the process Jesus Christ would use at the day of judgment. But now the thoughts of the curse in wicked men ai-e but involuntary impressions ; they care not for duty, and they would not willingly fear tiie threat- ening. Non peccare mehmnt, sed ardere, sailh Austin, they are not afraid to sin and offend God, but they are afraid to be danmed. There is impressed upon them, against their will, a fear of damnation, so that they act out of a mere constraint of terror ; when they dare not do otiierwi.se, then 'they come with their flocks and with their heids to seek the Lord,' Hos. v. 6. That they do not willingly fear the threat- ening is j)lain, because they are so apt to take all advantages to enlarge themselves, and to get free of this awe ; for their desire is not so much to please God as to dissolve the bonds of conscience, and allay their own piivale fears.
4 When natural men look after the rewards and recompenses of religion, they have wrong notions and. apprehensions both of heaven and duty: of heaven as the end. and of duty as the means. (1.) Of heaven; they have nothing but loose, sudden, indistinct desires of hap- piness. Nature poiseth us to an eternal good, for our own ease and ])leasure ; therefore natural men may have loose desires of happiness: Num. xxiii. 10, ' Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end belike his,' and John vi. 34, ' Lord, evermore give us of this bread.' They look upon heaven as a place of ease and pleasure, and therefore conceive some loose sudden wishes. There needs some grace to desire that which is truly the heaven of christians, which is to enjoy God in an eternal and gracious communion ; this will require some exercise of faith, and some spiritual esteem. (2.) They have wrong thoughts of duty ; they look upon it as a work by wln'ch they must earn the wages of heaven. A natural spiiit can never be evangelical. Therefore the sure notes of undue reflections upon the recompenses and punishments whicli God hath propounded are these two — merit and slavish fenr. When natural men look u])on terror, the spirit is altogether servile, and vexed with such scruples as do not become the liberty of the gosj)el or haunted with such thoughts as do not become the tenourof the gospel. Saith Christ, Luke xvii. 10, ' When ye have done all, say, We are unpro- fitable servants.' Though we look to the reward, yet we should not look for it as a salary from a master, but as a gift from a father. It is mer- cenary to act for hire and wages, and establi.sh merit in our private thouofhts.