-362 SERMONS UrON EPHESIANS V. [SeR. XIX.
of cold water stays the boiling of the hot), and to mortify the flesh and rule the senses. Where nature hath disabled the body, there is some- what the less for grace to do. The scriptures always call for a present obedience : ' To-day, if you will hear his voice,' Heb. iii. 7. A man cannot set forth too soon in his journey to heaven. There is little love to God, to think of repenting when we can sin no longer ; you can be contented that God should be longer dishonoured and disobeyed, pro- vided that at length you may be saved, No ; it is best and most acceptable when you seek the Lord betimes, and give him the kindness of your youth. We have the whole duration of God to reflect upon for our comfort : Ps. xc. 2, ' Before the mountains were brought forth, ■or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world : even from ever- lasting to everlasting thou art God,' compared with Ps. ciii. 17, ' But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him ; and his righteousness unto children's children.' And shall we adjourn and put off God to an odd corner of our lives, to the decrepitness of old age ; and when the devil hath feasted on your youth, give him the fragments of the table ? It is an honour to us as well as to God to begin betimes. We read of Mnason of Cyprus, 'an old disciple,' Acts xxi. 16, and of Epenetus, 'the first-fruits of Achaia unto Christ,' Kom. xvi. 5 ; and of Andronicus and Junia, ' who are of note (honourable) among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me,' Kom. xvi. 7, It is good to have the priority and precedency in grace. When some believe in Christ sooner, others later, it is the mighty efi'ect of God's goodness to us, and no small privilege, that we believe sooner than others, that we are freed from the slavery of Satan and our own lusts, and have our great concernments the sooner put out of hazard. The apostle took notice of those 'who first trusted in Christ,' Eph. i. 12, as having a prerogative and degree of honour above others.
[2.] After you are once admitted into the evangelical estate, your whole time should be redeemed and spent for God : Luke i. 75, ' In holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our lives.' Not now and then only ; your whole time is God's, though not to be spent in one sort of duties ; not only in duties of immediate worship, but in the duties of your callings also, but still to God : Ptom. vi. 10, the example of Christ is urged, ' in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.' God must be ultimately and terminatively at the end of every action, though some things that we do may nextly and immediately concern ourselves or others. Acts of direct worship concern God immediately, other acts of our callings, yea, and recreations, concern God ultimately. A christian's end is the measure of all his actions, and he must_ do •nothing impertinent thereunto, or inconsistent therewith. If christians ■did mind this, what a spirit of holiness would it awaken and breed in us ! So Gal. ii. 20, ' The life that I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.' I must not only hear or pray in faith, but trade in faith, yea, take food and physic in faith, and eat and drink in faith. Grace must still act, and elevate, and raise the intention to Ood, and overrule the rational life to higher ends : Zech. xiv. 20, 21, ' In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, Holiness to ihe Lord ; and the pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls
YeR. 16.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. 363
before the altar. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts.' Not only sacred, but common actions must have God's impress upon them. Thus figuratively doth ■he describe the holiness of the gospel. We are never sincere and upright with God till we turn all our second- table duties into first- table duties, and perform all our actions in the fear and love and for the glory of God : 1 Peter i. 17, ' Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.' Our whole conversation must be seasoned with grace. As God discovereth his divine power in the least of his creatures, in the framing of a gnat as well as in the sun, so must a christian show himself a christian in all his actions, in his devotions, in his business, iind in his recreations : Acts xxvi, 7, ' Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come.' But could they always serve God ? There is something else to be done, eating, drinking, caring for our bodily interests, industry in our •callings. The expression noteth the constancy of their worship ; they •did every day and every night consecrate some part of their time to the worship of God, and kept themselves in an aptitude for prayer and other holy duties as occasion did require. But also it showeth not only their constancy, but their integrity ; when employed in works of charity, or their vocation, they did in all their actions study to honour God : 1 Cor. x. 31, ' Whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, let us do all to the glory of God.' Eating and drinking is an offering ; but it is not a meat-offering and drink-offering to the belly, or sensual appetite, but a service to God : ' Do all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,' Col. iii. 17. In all these actions we must study to approve ourselves to God. A christian hath many works to do, to examine his title and right to eternal life, to be much in penitent exercises, to be bewailing sin and begging mercy, to instruct his children and servants, in the sanctified labours of his outward calling ; but night and day he is serving God.