The Christians labour and reward, or, A sermon, part of which was preached at…

he doth not Gods work that doth not obey him, and he doth not obey him, that doth not love him, that only being true obedience, which is hearty obedience. Ye have obeyed him from the heart;¹ and that only hearty obedience, which is loving; for love hath the regency of the heart, and it goes only whither love carrieth it. O how hard is this, where there is so much of the slave, even in those that are children? where Hagar so oft overtops Sarah's servile fear, our filial affection; Secondly, it must be to a right end; it is in vain to wind up the watch, if it be not set to the right figure, or to draw the Arrow (though to the head) if the Archers eye direct it not to the right mark; Zeal winds up and draws forth the powers of the soul, it makes the Christian act vigorously, and forcibly: but if sincerity (which is the singleness of the souls eye) be not present ⟨p. 20⟩to direct it ultimately to the glory of God, the labour is in vain; the faster a man goes, (when out of his way) the worse; for the faster he goes, the further he hath to come back: he that is slothful in the Lords work doth displease him, but he that makes a great bustle in Religion, and by this his activity calls others eyes to behold his zeal, yet secretly intends his own, not Gods praise, provokes him more, because more hypocritical in what he doth: hypocrisy being to sin, what putrefaction is to diseases; the more of this in a disease, the more dangerous it makes it; the more of that in a sin, the more abominable it makes it: nay further, though the aim be not false, yet if that which God allows to be our inferior end, be made our ultimate, it depraves the action; if I aim at the comfort and relief of a poor mans necessity in my alms (which I may and ought) yet if this be the highest I look, and my eye passeth not through this, to the glorifying of God, it becomes unacceptable; ⟨p. 21⟩a man may lose the prize by shooting short, as well as wide of the mark; now how hard to keep our eye fixed on this ultimate end? truly even as hard as to keep our eye sixth on a single object, through an Optic Glass, held by a trembling hand. Fourthly, Every Duty must be timed aright; the Christians life is full of duties, and those very various; now he is called to exercise himself in one, then in another; now to pray, anon to meditate; now to be in his Closet, then to be in his Shop about his worldly calling;