תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]

The Common Principles of the Chriftian Religion clearly proved, and fingu larly improved: or, a practical Ca techifm, &c.

Of the chief End of Man.

Rom. xi. 36. Of Him, and through Him, and for Him, are all things: To whom be Glory for ever. And 1 Cor. x. 13. Whatsoever ye do, do all to the Glory of God.

A

LL that Men have to the Conclufions of Art are reduced; fo know, may be comprised the Principles of true Religion are few, under these two Heads, and plain. They need neither burden what their End is, and your Memory, nor confound your Un what is the right Way to derftanding; that which may fave you is attain to that End: And nedr Hand, fays the Apostle, Rom. x. all that we have to do, is, by any Means in thy Mouth: It is neither too far above: to seek to compass that End. These are us, nor too far below us. But alas! the two cardinal Points of a Man's Know Your not confidering of thofe common, ledge and Exercife; Quo, & qua eundum and few and eafie Grounds, makes them eft, Whitber to go, and what way to go. both burdenfome to the Memory, and If there be a Miftake in any of thefe Fun- dark to the Understanding. As there is damentals, all is wrong. All Arts and nothing fo eafy, but it becomes difficult, Sciences have their Principles and Grounds, if you do it against your Will, nibil eft that must be prefuppofed to all folid Know- tam facile, quin difficile fiat, fi invitus ledge and right Practice; fo hath the true feceris: So there is nothing fo plain, fo Religion fome fundamental Principles, common, but it becomes dark and hard, which must be laid to Heart, and imprint- if you do not indeed confider it, and lay ed into the Soul, or there can be no Su- it to Heart, perftructure of true and faving Knowledge; and no Practice in Chriftianity that can lead to a bleffed End. But as the Principles are not many, but a few common and eafie Grounds, from which all

That which is in the firft Place to be confidered, is, our End. As in all other Arts, and every petty Bufinefs, it hath the firft Place of Confideration, fo efpecially in the Chriftian Religion. It is the first A

Cause

1

Caufe of all humane Actions, and the first God is independent altogether, and selfPrinciple of all deliberate Motions. Ex-fufficient: This is his royal Prerogative, cept you would walk at random, not wherein he infinitely tranfcends all created knowing whither you go, or what you Perfection: He is of bimfelf, and for do, you must once eftablish this and fix bimfelf, from no other, and for no other, it in your Intention, what is the great End but of bim, and for him are all Things. and Purpose wherefore I am created, and He is the Fountain-Head; you ought fent into the World? If this be not either to follow the Streams up to it, and then queftioned, or not rightly conftituted; to reft: For you can go no farther. But you cannot but fpend your Time, Vel the Creature, even the most perfect Work nibil agendo, vel aliud agendo, vel male belides God, it hath thefe two Ingredients agendo, you must either do nothing, or of Limitation and Imperfection in its nothing to Purpose, or, that which is Bofom: It is from another, and for a worfe, that which will undo you. It is nother. It hath its Rife out of the Founcertainly the wrong establishing of this tain of God's immenfe Power and Goodone Thing, that makes the moft Part of nefs, and it must run towards that again, our Motions, either altogether irregular, till it empty all its Faculties and Excel or unprofitable, or deftructive and hurt-lencies, into that fame Sea of Goodness. ful: Therefore, as this Point hath the firft Place in your Catechism, so it ought to be first of all laid to Heart, and pondered as the one neceffary Thing. One thing is needful, fays Chrift, Luk. x. 42. And if any thing be in a fuperlative Degree needful, this is it. O that you would chufe to confider it, as the Neceffity and Weight of it requires.

We have read two Scriptures, which fpeak to the ultimate and chief End of Man, which is the glorifying of God by all our Actions, and Words, and Thoughts. In which we have thefe Things of Importance: 1. That God's Glory is the End of our Being. 2. That God's. Glory fhould be the End of our Doing. And 3. The Ground of both thefe, because both Being and Doing are from Him, therefore they ought to be both for Him. He is the firft Cause of both, and therefore he ought to be the last End of both. Of him, and through bim, are all Things, and therefore all Things are also for Him, and therefore all Things bould be done to Him.

Dependence is the proper Notion of a created Being: Dependence upon that infinite independent Being, as the first immediate Caufe, and the laft immediate End: You fee then, that this Principle is engraven in the very Nature of Man. It is as certain and evident, that Man is made for God's Glory, and for no other End, as that he is from God's Power, and from no other Caufe: Except Men did violent their own Confcience, and put out their own Eyes, as the Gentiles did, Rom. i. 19. &c. That which might be known of Mans chief End, is manifeft in them, fo that all Men are without Excufe. As God his Being is independent, fo that he cannot be expreffed by any Name, more fuitable than fuch as he takes to himself, I am that I am : Importing a boundless, ineffable, abfolute, and tranfcendent Being, befide which, no Creature deferves fo much as to have the Name of Being, or to be made Mention of in one Day with his Name; because his glorious Light makes the poor derived Shadow of Light in other Crea tures, to disappear, and to evanish our of

the

the World of Beings: So it is the glori- | and poils others Excellencies, to cloath it ous Perfection of his Nature, that he doth felf withal; and then boafts it felf in these all Things for himself, for his own Name, borrowed Feathers. But our bleffed Lord Prov. xiv. 4. and his Glory is as dear to is then doing moft for our Advantage, him, as himself, Ifa. xlii. 8. I am the Lord, when he does all for his own Glory; that is my Name, and therefore my He needs, not go abroad to feek PerfectiGlory will I give to no other, and on, but to manifeft what he is in Himviii. 11. This is no Ambition. Indeed, felf: He communicates of Himself to us. for a Man to feek his own Glory, or O bleffed Self-feeking, that gave us a Being Search into it, is no Glory, Prov. xxv. and Well-being, that makes no Advan27. but rather a Man's Shame: Self-feek- tage by it, but gives Advantage. He ing in Creatures, is a monftrous and in- hath the Honour of all, but we have the congruous Thing; it is as abfurd, and unbe- Profit of all. feeming a Creature, to feek its own Glory, as to attribute to ir felf its own Being. Shall the Thing formed, fay to the Potter, Thou haft not made me? That were ridiculous: And hall the Thing formed fay 'Tis made for itfelf? That were as ridiculSelf-denial is the Ornament and Beauty of a Creature, and therefore Humity is an Ornament and Cloathing, 1 Pet. v. 5. And Honour upholds the bumble in Spirit, Prov. xxix. 23. But God's Self-feeking, and feeking of his own Glory, is his eminent Excellency: It is indeed his Glory, becaufe. he is, and there is none else, there is nothing befide Him, but that which hath iffued forth from his incomprehenfible Fulnefs: And therefore it is all the Reafon of the World, that as he is the Beginning, fo he should be the End of all Things, Rev. i. 8. And there is the more Reason of it, that his Majever the Works of thy Hands, and put fty's feeking of his own Glory, is not prejudicial to the Creature's Good, but the very Communication of his Fuliefs goes along with it: So that in glorifying Himfelf, he is moft beneficial to his own Creatures. Poor Creatures, indigent at Home, yet are proud of nothing, and endeavour in feeking of themfe.ves, to ingrofs all Perfections into their own Bofoms: Ambition, and Vain-glory, robs

All Things are of Him, and for Him; but Man in a peculiar and proper Way. As God in making of Man, he was pleafed of his Goodness, to ftamp him with a Character of his own Image, and in this he puts a Difference between Man and other Creatures; that he should have more plain and diftinct Engravings of Divine Majefty upon him, which might thew the Glory of the Work-man: So it appears that he is in a fingular Way made for God, as his laft End. As he is fet nearer God, as the Beginning and Cause than other Creatures; fo he is placed nearer God as the End. All Creatures are made ultimo, laftly for God, yet they are all made proxime, nextly for Man: Therefore David falls out a wondring, O Lord what is Man that thou magnifieft bim, and haft given him Dominion o

all Things under bis Feet! Pfal. viii. 6. The Creature comes out in a direct Line from God, as the Beams from the Body of the Sun, and it is directed tcwards the Ufe and Service of Mankind, from whom all the Excellency and Perfection that is in it should reflect towards God again. Man is both proxime & ultime for God. We are to return immediately to the Fountain of our Being; A 2

and

and thus our Happiness and Well-being is perpetuated. There is nothing Interveening between God and us, that our Ufe and Service and Honour should be directed towards: But all the Songs and Perfections of the Creature, that are among the reft of the Creatures, meet all in Man as their Centre, for this Purpose, that he may return with them all to the glorious Fountain from whence they iffued: Thus we ftand next God, and in the middle between God and other Creatures. This, I fay, was the Condition of our Creation; we had our Being immediately from God, as the Beginning of all, and we were to have our Happiness and Well-being by returning immediately to God as the End of all. But Sin coming in between God and us, hath difplaced us, fo that we cannot now ftand next God, without the Intervention of a Mediator, and we cannot ftand between God and Creatures, to of fer up their Praises to him; but there is one Mediator between God and Man, that offers up both Mans Praifes and the Creatures Songs which meet in Mani

God's glorifying of us, and fanctifying of us, and our glorifying and fanctifying of him: God calls Things that are not, and makes them to be; but we can do no more, but call things that are, and that far below what they are. God's glorifying is creative, ours only declarative. He makes us fuch, we do no more but declare him to be fuch: This then is the proper Work that Man is created for, to be a Witnefs of God's Glory, and to give Teftimony to the Appearances, and Outbreakings of it, in the Ways of Power, and Juftice, and Mercy, and Truth. Other Creatures are called to glorify God, but it is rather a Proclamation to dull and fenfelefs Men, and a Provocation of them to their Duty. As Chrift, faid to the Pharifees, If thefe Children bold their Peace, the Stones would cry out: So may the Lord turn himfelf from ftupid and fenfelefs Man, to the Stones, and Woods, and Seas, and Sun, and Moon, and exhort them to Mans Duty, the more to provoke and ftir up our Dulnefs, and to make us 'confider, that it is a greater Wonder, that Man whom God hath made fo glorious, can fo little ex-.. prefs God's Glory; than if stupid and fenfelefs Creatures fhould break out in fing

Now feeing God hath made all Things for himself, and efpecially Man for his own Glory, that he may fhew forth in bim the Glory and Excellency of his Power, Goodness, Holiness, Juftice, and Mercying, and praifing of his Majefty. The It is not only moft reasonable that Man hould do all Things that he doth to the Glory of God, but it is even the Beauty and Perfection of a Man, the greateft Acceffion that can be to his Being, to glo rify God by that Being. We are not our own, therefore we ought not to live 10 our felves, but to God whofe we are. But you may ask, What is it to glorify God? Doth our Goodness extend to him? Or, is it an Advantage to the Almighty, that we are righteous? No indeed: And herein is the vaft Difference between

Creatures are the Books wherein the Lines of the Song of God's Praifes are written, and Man is made a Creature capable to read them, and to tune that Song. They are appointed to bring in Brick to our Hand, and God has fashioned us for this Imployment, to make fuch a Building of it: We are the Mouth of the Creation, but e're God want Praifes when our Mouth is dumb, and our Ears deaf, God will open the Mouths of Affes, of Babes and Sucklings, and in them perfect Praifes, Pfal. viii. 1, 2. Epictetus faid well, Si

Luscinia

« הקודםהמשך »