:fiIN$ IV OUR WORKS. I 45,9 . ness of the doer. Every man's work is so far his own, that he is related to it, and by it, either as laudable, or as culpable ; as it is Gal. vi. 4, 5. "Let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another ; for every man shall bear his own burthen." God himself will judge men according to their works ; and so will men ; and so must we (much) do by ourselves ; for it is the rightest judging which is likest God's. This subordinate honor God grants to his servants : If their works were not an honor to them, as the next agents, they could be none to him in their morality, as man's acts ; though they might, as acts in general; be ordered to good by his own good- ness. If God's natural works of creation (sun, and moon, and earth, &c.) were not praiseworthy in themselves, God would not be praised for them.as their Maker. There are works that God is said to be dishonored by ; (Rom. ii. 23, 24.) and what are they but such as are really bad, and a dishonor to the authors ? It is so far from being true, that no praise, or honor, or comfort from good works, is to be given to man ; that God himself is not like else tobe honored by them as morally good, if the actors be not honored by them ; the worldmust first be convinced that Christians . are farbetter than other men, and the righteous more excellent than his neighbor, before they will glorify God as' the Author of their goodness. in God's own judgment, "Well done" is the first word, and " Good and faithful servant," is the second, and " Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord," is the third. Two sorts of scandalous persons rob God of his honor in his saints. 1. Those that, professing Christianity, livewickedly, or, at least, no better than other men ; whose lives tell the world that Christians are but such as they. 2. Those that slander and belie true believers, and would hide their goodness, and make them odious to the world. As {or them that say only that we have no righteousness in our- selves by which we can be justified, I shall not diffee with them, if they do but grant that all shall be judged according to their works; and that he that is accused as an infidel, impenitent, an hypocrite, or an unregenerate, ungodly person, must against that accusation be justified by his own faith, repentance, sincerity, and holiness, or be unjustified forever. 3. The next thing to the work and the person that is hereby honored, is the. Christian religion itself, with the Spirit's operations on the souls of. Christians ; the outward doctrineand example of Christ, who teacheth his servants to be better than the world and the inward sanctification of the Spirit, which maketh them better.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=