Thirdly, let your end be divine as well as your rule, if ye would walk and work as Gods among men.1 The Moralists tell us that actions are much specified from their ends. If your actions are materially good, yet if finally evil, they are denominated wicked. If they are according to Gods Word for the matter, yet if ye make not Gods glory your end, they are evil. Therefore if ye would have the arrows of your actions to fly right, let your eyes take right aim at this mark. Do all for God.2 Quicquid agas, propter Deum agas, saith Luther. As ye are men, ye were created to serve him; as Magistrates, doubly bound to honour your great Master. Gods free grace is the fountain of your power, and therefore Gods glory must be the end. It is reported of Tamerlane, that warlike Scythian, that having overcome Bajazet the great Turk, he asked him, Whether he had ever given God thanks for making him so great an Emperor? The great Turk confessed ingenuously that he never thought of it; to whom Tamerlane replied, That it was no wonder so ungrateful a wretch was made a spectacle of misery; For you saith he, being blind of one eye, and I lame of one leg, was there any worth in us, why God should set us over two great Empires of Turks and Tartars? So truly may you think, It was mere mercy which advanced you more then others, and therefore it is your duty to advance God more then others. If ye love your souls, take heed of self. O how many millions by seeking themselves have lost themselves! by seeking their own glory, pleasure, and profit for a time, have brought themselves to shame, pain, and loss to all eternity! O Beware ⟨p. 265⟩of this root of bitterness, Self. Do not like Demetrius, pretend to be zealous for the Goddess, when in truth it was for his gain. Or like watermen, row one way towards God and Christ, and Heaven, and look another way, towards the world, and the flesh; but give up thy self wholly to him; Lay out thy talents altogether for him; esteem it thy felicity and privilege that thou hast more advantages then others, whereby thou mayst exceed others in serviceableness to thy Maker, Preserver, and Redeemer.
Thirdly, let your end be divine as well as your rule, if ye would walk and work as Gods among men.1 The Moralists tell us that actions are much specified from their ends. If your actions are materially good, yet if finally evil, they are denominated wicked. If they are according to Gods Word for the matter, yet if ye make not Gods glory your end, they are evil. Therefore if ye would have the arrows of your actions to flie right, let your eyes take right aim at this mark. Do all for God.2 Quicquid agas, propter Deum agas, saith Luther. As ye are men, ye were created to serve him; as Magistrates, doubly bound to honour your great Master. Gods free grace is the fountain of your power, and therefore Gods glory must be the end. It is reported of Tamerlane, that warlike Scythian, that having overcome Bajazet the great Turk, he asked him, Whether he had ever given God thanks for making him so great an Emperour? The great Turk confessed ingenuously that he never thought of it; to whom Tamerlane replyed, That it was no wonder so ungrateful a wretch was made a spectacle of misery; For you saith he, being blind of one eye, and I lame of one leg, was there any worth in us, why God should set us over two great Empires of Turks and Tartars? So truly may you think, It was meer mercy which advanced you more then others, and therefore it is your duty to advance God more then others. If ye love your souls, take heed of self. O how many millions by seeking themselves have lost themselves! by seeking their own glory, pleasure, and profit for a time, have brought themselves to shame, pain, and loss to all eternity! O Beware ⟨p. 265⟩of this root of bitterness, Self. Do not like Demetrius, pretend to be zealous for the Goddess, when in truth it was for his gain. Or like watermen, row one way towards God and Christ, and Heaven, and look another way, towards the world, and the flesh; but give up thy self wholly to him; Lay out thy talents altogether for him; esteem it thy felicity and priviledge that thou hast more advantages then others, whereby thou mayst exceed others in serviceableness to thy Maker, Preserver, and Redeemer.
- 1Actiones specificantur ab objecto, fine, & circumstantiis. Eustath.
- 2Omnibus operationibus nostris, coelestis intentio adjungi debet.
