parts of his life being like jewels, which, though indeed most commonly kept locked up in the cabinet, yet are then most admired and valued, when shewn and set forth by the brightness of the sun, as well as by their own.

How poor a thing secrecy is to corrupt a rational man's behaviour, has been sufficiently declared already, by the survey which we have taken of those several ways whereby the most wise and just Governor of the world is pleased to defeat and befool the confidence of the subtilest and the slyest sinners. We have seen also what paper walls such persons are apt to inclose themselves with; and how slight, thin, and transparent all their finest contrivances of secrecy are; while, notwithstanding all the private recesses and dark closets, which they so much trust in, the windows of heaven are still open over their heads: and now, what should the consideration of all this do, but every minute of our lives remind us so to behave ourselves as under the eye of that God, who sees in secret, and will reward us openly?

To whom be rendered and ascribed, as is most due, all praise, might, majesty, and dominion, both now and for evermore. Amen.

The recompence of the reward :

A SERMON

PREACHED IN CHRIST CHURCH, OXON,

BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY,

SEPT. 11, 1698.

ON

HEBREWS XI. 24, 25, 26.

By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.

THIS chapter exhibits to us a noble and victorious army of saints, together with an account of those heroic actions and exploits, which they were renowned for in their several ages; and have been since transmitted such to posterity: as, that they subdued kingdoms, wrought wonders, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire; and, in a word, triumphed over the cruellest and bitterest persecutions. And the great spring or principle, which (in spite of all their enemy's power and their own weakness) bore them up to these high achievements, is not obscurely intimated in the person of Moses, to have been a respect to the recompence of reward. Thus, as it were, fastening one hand upon the promise, and turning about the world with the

other.

A due consideration of which ground and motive of action, in so great a person and so authentic an example of sanctity as Moses was, may justly make us wonder at that strange proposition, or rather paradox, which has, for so long a time, passed current with too many, namely, that a Christian, in all acts of duty, ought to sequester his mind from all respect to an ensuing reward, and to commence his obedience wholly and entirely upon the love of duty itself, abstracted from all regard to any following advantages whatsoever: and that to do otherwise is to act as a slave, and not as a son; a temper of mind which will certainly embase and discommend all our services to the acceptance of Almighty God.

This is a glorious speech, I confess, and to the angels, to the cherubims and seraphims, perhaps practicable; whose natures being so different from and so much superior to ours, may (for ought we know) have as different and superior a way of acting too. But then we are to consider, that even that known and so much celebrated aphorism, which this assertion is manifestly founded upon, to wit, that virtue is its own reward, will, upon examination, be found true only in a limited sense; that is to say, in respect of a sufficiency of worth in it to deserve our choice, but not in respect of a sufficiency of power actually to engage our choice. For such a sufficiency it has not; and consequently, if taken in this sense, and applied to men in their natural estate, though under any height or elevation of piety whatsoever, it is so far from being the true and refined sense of the gospel, (as some pretend,) that it is really absurd in reason; and, I suppose, that to demonstrate it not to be evangelical, there needs no other course to be taken, than to prove it to be irrational. And this, by God's assistance, I shall endeavour to do in the following discourse. The foundations of which I shall lay in these four previous propositions.

I. That the gospel, or doctrine of Christianity, does not change, and much less destroy or supersede the natural way of the soul's acting.

II. That it is natural for the soul, in the way of inclination and appetite, to be moved only by such objects as are in themselves desirable.

III. That as it is natural for the soul to be thus moved only by things desirable, so it is equally natural to it to be moved by them only in that degree and proportion in which they are desirable: and consequently, in the

Fourth and last place, that whatsoever is proposed as a motive or inducement to any action, ought for that reason to be in an higher degree desirable, and to have in it a greater fitness to move and affect the will, than the action itself, which it is proposed as a motive to.

For otherwise it would be superfluous, and indeed no additional motive to it at all; forasmuch as the bare action, so considered, would be as strong an argument to a man to perform it, as such a motive (being but in the same degree desirable) could be to induce him to it.

Now these four propositions fully weighed and put together, will amount to a clear proof of that which I first intended to prove. For to be moved

by rewards, belongs not to a man properly as corrupt or depraved in his nature through the fall, but simply as he is a man; a creature endued with the faculties of understanding and will: and therefore, since the gospel (as we have shewn) entrenches not upon the natural way of the soul's working, it follows, that neither under the gospel can it be unlawful to engage in duty from a respect to a future recompence. And moreover, since it is natural to the will to be more moved by that which is in itself more desirable; and since that which is given as a motive to any action, ought to be in itself more desirable than that action; and lastly, since God proposes rewards as such motives to the actions of duty and obedience, it roundly follows, that it is not only lawful, in the matter of obedience, to have respect to the recompence of reward, but also, that according to the natural order of human acting, the soul should have respect to that in the first place; and then, being animated and enlivened thereby, should respect the works of duty and obedience in the next.

But to bring things into a narrower compass, and so both to prosecute the subject more fully, and to represent it more clearly, I shall reduce what I have to say upon it into these two propositions.

I. That in the actions of duty, considered barely as duty, or as morally good, and fit to be done, there is not a sufficient motive to engage the will of man in a constant practice of them.

II. That the proposal of a reward on God's part, and a respect had to it on man's, are certainly necessary to engage men in such a course of duty and