vation-work so easy? Can a man be saved by a leap? Can he leap out of the Devil's arm into Abraham's bosom? Oh no, there must be offering violence. Some think free-grace will save them; but it must be in the use of means. Watch and pray. Others say, the promises will bring them to Heaven; but the promises of the word are not to be separated from the precepts. The promise tells us of a crown, but the precept faith, So run, 1 Cor. ix. 24. The promises are made to encourage faith, not to cherish sloth. But say others, Christ hath died for sinners; and so they leave him to do all for them, and they will do nothing. Then the text is out of date, and all the exhortations to striving, and fighting the good fight of faith, are in vain. Our salva. tion cost Christ blood; it will cost us sweat. The boat may as well get to shore without rowing, as we can to Heaven without offering violence. 2. It shews us the great mistake of ignorant people, who think the bare doing of du, ties, though in never so slight superficial a manner is enough. The text tells us of offering violence. 1. In the business of Prayer: They think it is enough to utter over a few words, though the heart be asleep all the while: what offering of violence is here? Christ was in an agony at prayer, Luke xxii. 44. Many when they pray are rather in a lethargy than in an agony. Jacob wrestled with the Angel in prayer, Gen. xxxii. 24. The incense was to; be laid upon burning coals, Lev. xvi. 22.Incense was a type of prayer, and the incense upon coals, was a type of fervency in prayer. Few know what the spirit of prayer means; or what it is to have the affections boil over. When they are about the world they are all fire; when they are at prayer they are all ice. 2. In Hearing of the Word: Many people think it is enough to bring their bodies to the assembly, but they never look to their hearts. They satisfy themselves that they have been at church, though they have not been with God there. Others go to a sermon as to the Exchange to hear news; new notions that please their fancy, but do not attend to the word as about a matter of life and death.They do not go to meet with Christ in an ordinance; to have the breathings of his spirit, and the infufions of his love. Alas, what little violence for Heaven is to be seen in most peoples worship! In all the sacrifices of the law there was fire. How can those duties be accepted, which have no fire in them; no offering of violence. 3. If there must be this offering of violence to Heaven, then it shews us how dangerous. moderation in religion is. Violence and mo deration are two different things. Indeed mo deration in the things of the world is commendable. We should moderate our desires here; and use the world as if we used it not, 1 Cor. vii. 32. We may as Jonathan, dip the end of the rod in honey, but not thrust it in too far in this sense moderation is good: but moderation in matters of practical piety is sinful it is contrary to offering violence. Moderation in the world's sense is for one not to be too zealous, not to be too fierce for Heaven. Moderation is not to venture further in religion than may stand with self-preservation. As the king of Navarr told Beza, He would launch no further into the sea, than he might be sure to return safe to land. To keep on the warm side of the hedge, is a main article in the politician's creed. Moderation in the world's sense is neutrality. The mode rate person hath found out a medium between strictness and profaneness; he is not for debauchery, nor yet for purity. It was the advice Calvin gave Melancthon, that he should not so affect the name of moderate, that at last he lost all his zeal. To be lukewarm in mat、 ters of religion, is far from offering violence to Heaven, Rev. iii. 19. Be zealous and repent. If any should ask us why we are so violent, tell them, it is for a Kingdom. If any shall ask us why we make such haste in the ways of religion, tell them, we are running an heavenly race, and a softly moderate pace will never win the prize. hath made many lose Heaven; made haste enough; they have Moderation they have not come too late (like the foolish virgins) when the door hath been shut. Out of this text I may draw forth several arrows of reproof. 1. It reproves slothful Christians who are settled on their lees: they make a lazy profession of religion, but use no violence.They are like the lillies, which toil not, neither do they spin. The snail by reason of its slow motion, was reckoned among the unclean. Levit. xi. 30. St. Austin calls idleness, the burial of a man alive. There are some faint wishes, oh that I had Heaven! but a man may desire venison, and want it, if he doth not hunt for it, Prov. xiii. 4. The soul of the sluggard wisheth and hath nothing. -Neque mola, neque farina Men could be content to have the kingdom of Heaven; but they are loth to fight for it. They choose rather to go in a feather-bed to Hell, than to be carried to Heaven in a fiery chariot of zeal and violence. How many sleep away, and play away their time; as if they were made like the Leviathan, to play in the sea! Psalm civ. 26. It is a speech of Seneca, "No man is made wise by chance." Sure it is no man is saved by chance, but he must know how he came by it, namely, by offering violence. Such as have accustomed themselves to an idle lazy temper, will find it hard to shake it off, Cant. v. 3. I have put off my coat, how shall I put it on? The spouse had laid herself upon the bed of sloth, and though Christ knocked at the door, she was loth to rise and let him in. Some pretend to be believers, but are idle in the vineyard. They pretend to make use of faith for seeing, but not for working: this faith is fancy. O that Christians had a spirit of activity in them, 1 Chron. xxii. 16. Arise and be doing, and the Lord be with thee. We may sometimes learn of our enemy. The Devil is never idle; he walketh about, 1 Peter v. 8. The world is his diocess, and he is every day going his visitation. Is Satan active? is the enemy upon his march coming against us? and are we asleep upon our guard? As Sa tan himself is not idle; so he will not endure that any of his servants should be idle.When the Devil had entered into Judas, how active was Judas! he goes to the high priest, from thence to the band of soldiers, and with them back to the garden, and never left till he had betrayed Christ. Satan will not endure an idle servant; and do we think God will?-How will heathens rise up in judgment against slothful Christians! What pains did they take in the Olympian games; they ran for a garland of flowers, and do we stand still who run for á crown of immortallity? Certainly, if only the violent take heaven, the idle person will never come there. God puts no difference |