so wholly of another mind that he thinks of this man with nothing but contempt and hath no relish of any thing but real and useful knowledge and a thousand more such differences might be produced the reasons of which are placed in the particular Genius of the persons to whom they belong that is in their particular constitutions in which the seeds or causes of all these either excellencies or defects are contained And according to the different proportions of care industry and study the different happinesses or infelicities of Fortune or Education so may these defects be amended or encreased these aptitudes improved or utterly destroyed for men are not only as to these matters very different from one another but by Company or Diet or different Education they may be altered from themselves a man is scarce the same thing when he is full and when he is fasting when he is fresh in the morning and weary after the toyl and labour of the day he hath not the same apprehension and doth not make the same judgment of things when he is in drink and when he is sober When he is sick and oppressed with a too heavy load of Melancholly and oppressive matter when his blood does not circulate freely or his stomach doth not perform its office or the due and usual separations are not made by sweat or siege or urine he cannot discern things so clearly as at other times he suspects persons without reason and fears those things of which he is in no danger and he needs only to purge or bleed or enter into a Diet as a Physician shall prescribe to bring him to a sound sense and a right understanding both of himself and of the things about him and so to conclude this matter this is the account that is to be given why he that was a brisk and an active man in his youth shall perhaps be a stupid Fellow and a dotard in his old age others very dull and phlegmatick in their youth do as they grow in years improve in briskness and in gayety too why one that had a good understanding shall lose it by an accidental fall upon his head and he that was dull and slow of apprehension being soundly purged by a sickness of the Small Pox shall grow more nimble and sagacious then before Wherefore this is the great duty incumbent upon men they are very carefully to watch as over all their evil inclinations and unreasonable desires so particularly over that which they find to be most reigning and constitutional in them because in this there is the greatest danger from this there is a strong and a perpetual sollicitation upon this all opportunities and temptations from without have a manifest advantage to this they find the most easie and favourable access and against this it is whatever it be that the Devil himself who uses his utmost diligence in watering the tares and cockle of our minds that he may choak the wheat and stifle the good seed employes his most assiduous stratagems and devices and with the most assured hopes of success It concerns us therefore highly in opposition to so many and so great Enemies from within and from without to stand perpetually upon our guard and as we are to lay aside every weight and to subdue as much as in us lies every thought and affection to an obedience to reason and religion so because there is always the greatest danger and we are always the most strongly sollicited and assaulted on that side we are therefore to have a more particular regard to the sin that doth so easily beset us that is to that particular sin or folly whatsoever it be which is most constitutional and complexional in us Secondly as there are constitutional infirmities or vices so there are also of the same kind certain natural perfections or useful inclinations which it ought to be every mans business for his own particular carefully to observe and having observed to cultivate and improve because in the improvement of this talent which is so natural to him he will find himself most happy he will be able to make the most considerable progress and will be most serviceable to himself and to Mankind And though he be certainly the most happy man and the most highly favoured of God and nature whose constitutional talent shall consist in that which is of greatest use and advantage to the World as if a man have a natural gravity and wisdom in his looks joyned to a natural sobriety and a strong power of perswasion which if employed in exhorting the world to virtue and calling it to repentance and in spurring men on to a vigorous pursuit after things that are useful praise-worthy and of good example will briug great authority and reputation to himself and be of the most signal benefit and advantage to others Yet there are other Talents likewise which though they are not altogether of such absolute necessity or such universal use yet ought they wherever they are found to be with no less care and industry improved then the other as if a mans parts lye for the improvement of Husbandry Trade Navigation Mechanick arts or any thing whereby life may be rendered more happy society more ornamental Cities more wealthy correspondence more diffusive and the world by every mans having wherewithall to subsist more safe these are dispositions wherever they are found which are to be looked upon as the stock of nature with which we are to set up as Citizens of the World and for the improvement of which we must be accountable to God from whom every good and perfect gift proceeds To which Considerations for I went no farther upon that occasion it is to be added in the third place that the reflecting upon this that our very virtues and excellencies themselves are in so great a measure constitutional things ought to be a natural remedy against all manner of insolence and pride for though it be a great shame to abuse and adulterate an happy constitution and the greatest commendation that can be to improve it yet to be proud or insolent because our Bodies are better made either for the practice of virtue or for the attainment of wisdom then our neighbours is to be proud of that which we could not avoid and which it was not in our power to order otherwise then it is and by consequence is a very foolish and very non-sensical pride And then fourthly and lastly the reflecting upon the constitutional frailties and imperfections to which the nature of man is differently exposed which it is so hard and perhaps utterly impossible perfectly to conquer and which are a degree of necessity superinduced upon us from without by the unmanageable temperament of our bodily part ought to affect us all with a sence of charity and pity for each other and to stir us up to a mutual forbearance of the several infirmities to which our natures are subject that is to say we must
acceptable and perfect will of God For why should he exhort us to so great purity both of Body and Mind if God Almighty in the work of Justification had no manner of regard to those as the Conditions of his Favour or if indeed we cannot so much as endeavour to be transformed or renewed of our selves by the exercise of the natural Faculties and Powers of our own minds but all must be oweing to an irresistible Grace by which we are carried away as by a mighty Torrent without any the least ability or strength to stemme so rapid and so impetuous a stream Whereas if we go a middle way betwixt these two extreams it will be very easie to reconcile these places of St. Paul to themselves and to one another to the faculties of men and the nature of things and to the rest of the Evangelical and Apostolical writings Follow peace with all men saith the Authour to the Hebrews c. 12. v. 14. and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. But now if a man should say that the true and genuine sense of that place is this that no man shall see the Lord but he that cannot help it or he that must see and enjoy him whether he will or no this would certainly be looked upon by all men as a most absurd and impious Interpretation and yet this is no other than the necessary consequence of the Calvinistical Doctrine if Holiness be meerly owing to an irresistible Grace and if it be not then nothing can be plainer than that there is something of Endeavour or self-activity required on our parts But you will say then how comes it to pass that St. Paul tells us so often that we are justified only by Faith and by Grace and not by works why this with a very little attention upon what hath been said already will become very plain and easie For it is one thing to say that Repentance and good works are necessary to Salvation by way of merit and another to affirm that they are required as an indispensible Condition without which God will not impute Righteousness or make application of the passion of his Son to the person of a Sinner The first of these is manifestly false because as hath been said already all we can possibly do is no more than our Duty and our best performances are accompanied with so many and so great imperfections that instead of expiating for our grosser Crimes they themselves do stand in need of an Atonement But yet after all it is true that without Holiness and without Repentance no man shall see the Lord and it is so true that even in those to whom God is pleased to extend his Mercy at the very instant of Death which we have reason to believe to be but very few yet in these there is at least required an hearty sorrow and contrition for what is past out of a due sense of the foul nature of Sin or of the heinous malignity of Disobedience and ingratitude to so good and gracious a God and there is required also such a serious and devoutly fixt resolution of living better for the future if in case it shall please God to grant us a longer Life as may be not an obligation but a motive or inducement to his infinite Goodness which in such cases as these hath great latitude of operation to accept the will for the deed Neither does it follow in the least because Repentance and Obedience are required that therefore we are not justified by Grace or by Faith only for since our Repentance and our good works have no manner of merit or Atonement in themselves it is certain that that Atonement must be wholly oweing to something else and the Scripture tells us plainly what that is namely to the sufferings of Christ upon the Cross for our Sins the merit of which sufferings is by the Grace and favour of God without any pretence or title which we have otherwise to them appli'd to every true Believer as the reward of his Faith in him by whom that expiation is wrought which Faith though it can never be unaccompani'd with good works yet it implies in its very nature so perfect a reliance upon the merit and satisfaction of Christ for Justification and Redemption as does at the same time amount to an absolute Renunciation or an utter disowning of all kind of claim and title in our selves It is almost the same case as if a Malefactor having committed something worthy of Death should yet notwithstanding in pity to the innocence of his past Life before the commission of this offence have a Reprieve allowed him to put him upon a new Tryal and see how he would behave himself for the future and though neither his past nor future deportment be so absolutely blameless as that no advantage can be taken of them yet since he endeavours to make up in his Repentance what in his obedience is defective and since he plainly acknowledges himself a debter to the justice of the Law and reposeth his only confidence not in his own uprightness or sincerity but in the goodness of his Prince or Judge he is upon these Considerations pardoned which pardon though without such Considerations and Circumstances it had not been past yet the very nature of a pardon implies a guilt in him to whom it is given and a right of punishment in him that gives it so that notwithstanding these Conditions the offender's Life is merely and entirely an effect of Mercy because notwithstanding them he might very justly have been Condemned to Die This may be sufficient to have said concerning the first of those six accounts which I have promised to give of the first rise of the Predestinarian Doctrine that it is grounded upon a mistaken Interpretation of those places of St. Paul which are opposed only to those who had too high an opinion of themselves or were not so sensible as they ought to be of the grace and favour of God towards them by sending his Son into the world to be the propitiation for their Sins and of the necessity of that Grace in order to their Justification but were by no means intended to destroy the necessity of Obedience and a good Life or to discourage our honest endeavours at Perfection how short soever they be of that mark at which they are directed but it is rather on the contrary a new obligation to watchfulness and diligence in all our Conversation that God has been pleased to apply so mercifull and so effectual a remedy to those Diseases and Dangers to which either the frailty of our natures or the perversness of our wills assisted by the malicious and crafty insinuations of degenerate Spirits do continually expose us and I dare confidently appeal to any man let him be who he will who is not enslaved past all possibility of redemption to a Spirit of Bigotry and prejudice for a party without having patience to attend to
which is the only Effectual and certainly productive principle of Godly Fervour and Zeal Such a zeal as no Predominancy of Lust or Evil Concupiscence from within no allurement of any Temptation from without can withdraw from its wistly intention and devout prospect upon that Glorious Object to which it is directed such a zeal as having burnt up all the tares and cockle of the fleshly Life is fruitful in pious and virtuous Resolutions and effectual for the bringing them to their intended Issue Now it being very rarely if ever seen that such extraordinary influences of the Divine Spirit are bestowed upon such as have no manner of preparation in their Hearts to Receive them and have not made some sincere at least though weak and ineffectual attempts towards the Conquest of themselves from hence it comes to pass that the whole Action resulting from the common Efficiency of humane Endeavours assisted by the Divine Spirit may in some Sense be attributed wholly to the first of these Causes as being the Causa sine quâ non as the Schools love to speak without which the other would not have exerted it self and the whole Action is acceptable to God on our behalf for the sake of that part of it which is owing to our selves or for the sake of those Virtuous dispositions of Mind to which the influences of Gods holy Spirit which are always carried forth in Streams of Love and Goodness towards the whole Creation have such an unalterable Congruity that they will never fail to be inseparably united to them nither will they ever forsake us till we have first deserted and forsaken our selves Besides that in those good Actions or those pious Inclinations of ours in which the Holy Spirit has the greatest share there may yet notwithstanding be more of our own then we are usually wont or then we ought with any thing of Arrogance or self Conceit to attribute to our selves for a man without this Assistance endeavouring to make a perfect Conquest of his inordinate Appetites and Desires would find them so unruly and ungovernable and Springing with such perpetual Fruitfulness one out of another that he would give over the Conflict out of meer Despair and yield himself tamely into an utter Vassalage and Captivity to them but when assisted by so potent Aydes this wonderfully Excites the natural Chearfulness and Vigor of his own Mind and he Exerts those Faculties and Powers which God has given him with more Alacrity and with better Success it being the same Case as if coming to lift a Burthen which is plainly too heavy and unwieldy for us we find a strange unwillingness so much as to attempt it but when encouraged by the assistance of another we then with Chearfulness apply our Hands and Shoulders to it and each man puts forth so much strength and Vigour as is almost sufficient to surmount the whole difficulty by its self and this is plainly the meaning of that Phrase which we Translate by helping our Infirmities The Spirit also helpeth our Infirmities in the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is it bears a part of the Burthen together with us Neither is it true only of Prayer to which this Text has a more immediate Relation that the Spirit of God helpeth our Infirmities in the performance of it but it is the same case in all other Duties of the Christian Life that these also in their utmost Beauty and perfection are owing to a Concurrence and Cooperation of the same Blessed Spirit as is very reasonable to believe from this that Prayer is only a means for the better attainment of that great End the regular and steady performance of all other Duties in order to Eternal Happiness By calling off the mind from Objects of a more gross and Earthly Nature and by engaging our thoughts in a pursuit after and insinuating them into a Communion with God it Creates in us those Calm Peaceable and quiet Dispositions which put us in the best Condition both to know our Duty and to practise it by a perpetual but humble importunity before the Foot-stool of his Mercy It calls down those Graces and Influences upon us whose design and Business is to guide us into all Truth and to encourage us in every good and Virtuous Undertaking and it is still further to be considered that the performance of our Duty its self is in the nature of a perpetual Prayer and carrys along with it a most powerful intercession on our behalf and therefore may Expect and will Receive the Encouragements of Divine Assistance upon the same Account upon which they are afforded to our very Prayers themselves Another way by which it comes to pass that the whole Action of a virtuous and good Man becomes well-pleasing and acceptable to God on his behalf though in its utmost Integrity and perfection it be owing to a concurrence of the Divine Spirit is from hence that his mind is not only in some degree of preparedness to receive those Blessed irradiations from above but that when he has received them he affords them a wellcome and suitable Entertainment he Improves and Thrives under the Influences of Grace he Warmes and Cherishes his Virtue by that Heavenly Fire and makes himself every day by an improvement of inward Purity and outward Cleanness a more agreeable receptacle for the Holy Ghost and he that does not quench and resist the Influences of the Spirit by slothful Negligence or willful Sin he that when it was in his power to obstruct and hinder it does on the contrary promote its Operations and conspire with it for the Accomplishment of the same Ends and Designs may not improperly be said to be the Author of those either good Actions or pious Thoughts or virtuous Intentions in which he has so great a share and which it was in his power utterly to have Obstructed And from hence it is that we are exhorted in Scripture to be Watchful and Diligent and Sober to be frequent in Prayer and Holy Meditation because these are natural means to preserve us in that temper of Mind which fits us best for the performance of our Duty and for the preserving an uninterrupted Intercourse and Communion with the Spirit of God Again it is to be observed that the Spirit helps the Infirmities of a good Man not only by Warming his Affections but by Enlightening his Understanding and so far as his Actions or his Inclinations depend only upon this latter Cause they are as properly his own as if no such illumination had been the case being the same as if in any matter of Difficulty or Moment in which I am not so throughly versed my self I should take the Advice of another more skilful than I am and if being convinced in my self of the reasonableness of that Course which he propounds to me I shall afterwards follow his Advice yet the Action is nevertheless mine for having done it by the direction of another for so soon
as what he says appears reasonable to me and till it does my understanding is not Enlightened so soon his understanding becomes mine I am really of the same mind which he is himself and I act upon Principles of my own though I have received those Principles from him But after all it must be confessed that of our selves we are a sort of frail and imperfect Creatures and that our best Actions even when they receive the greatest Advantages from the Divine Assistance if they are not Imperfect in themselves yet they are interwoven with those that are that so long as we continue here below we are still in danger of relapsing from our best and firmest Resolutions and that when ever we give any the least imaginable Ground we are still exposed to further and less avoidable Dangers that we are never wholly out of the reach of Temptation and that nothing but the alone Merits and Mediation of Jesus Christ can make our Persons or Actions so effectually acceptable and wellpleasing to God as is necessary in order to our Justification What hath been said of all our good Actions and desires in this Fourth Consideration that in their utmost Beauty of Holiness and Perfection they are owing to a Concurrence and Cooperation of the Spirit of God the same is much more true in the Fifth place of an habitual course of Virtue through all or any of the parts and Stages of our Lives that this is under a vast degree of moral Impossibility of being ever effected without the same Assistance If one single instance of our Duty be so difficult to be performed as it ought to be a constant perseverance in the ways of Virtue and Goodness must of Necessity be much more for by perseverance nothing else is meant but an uninterrupted Series or Complexions of many of those single Instances together to make a Man's Life appear of the same Grain and Colour and to be in all its parts consistent to its self and to the Beauty of every single Action to add a Beauty of Uniformity resulting from them alltogether And this difficulty will appear stigreater if we consider that we are not only in danger from our selves but from the Temptations of others and from the malicious Insinuations of Apostate and degenerate Spirits besides that our very Virtues themselves do border upon Vice and the best Actions which we do are placed upon the brink of dangerous Extreams how near a Resemblance hath frugality to Covetousness Liberality to Profuseness Zeal to Superstition Humility to a mean and sordid Temper Prudence to Affectation Patience to Cowardise a Generous contempt of Power and Riches to a Scorbutick Idleness and Sloth and how are Temperance and Sobriety themselves divided only by a Mathematical Line which is supposed to have no Latitude in its self from the opposite immoralities of Gluttony and Excess It was but necessary therefore for St. Paul to advise his Philippians and consequently us and all Mankind as he did to work out their Salvation with Fear and Trembling that is with their utmost Care and Circumspection because of those many and great Dangers with which this Warfare of ours is perpetually attended to which it is impossible any so effectual remedy should be applyed as by keeping a constant and sollicitous Guard upon our selves by examining the reasonableness of all our Actions before we do them and of all our designs before we enter upon them by entering every Morning into new Engagements of a virtuous Life and by calling our selves to a strict Account every Night for the behaviour and management of the day according to the excellent Discipline of the old Pythagorean School 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But yet that we may not be discouraged from attempting to be good by a too fearful apprehension of those Dangers and Temptations to which we are exposed St. Paul adds immediately as a Reason why we should earnestly endeavour after Holiness and Virtue For it is God that worketh in you both to Will and to do of his good Pleasure that is if we use that Diligence and Sincerity in our Endeavours which is requisite God will not fail to superadd the Assistances of his Holy Spirit to enable us effectually to perform his Will and our Duty In the Alexandrine Copy it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is God that worketh those Powers and Abilities in you which you have not or at least not so entirely and perfectly in your selves And in another MS. Which Grotius refers to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is God that worketh powerfully in you for the bringing your good intentions and designs to pass to the utter Mortification of your Lusts and Passions and to the making you wellpleasing and acceptable in his sight to the making you pure even as he is pure and holy as he which hath called you is holy and perfect even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect Sixthly It is very reasonable to believe that though God Almighty do afford to all especially those who are in the Communion of the Christian Church sufficient Assistances of his Grace to mortifie and subdue themselves and to persist in a regular and steady course of Virtue if they be not wanting to themselves and though it be likewise true that the improvement of those Talents which we have already received is still accompanied with further Assistances from above yet in the dispensations of Divine Grace there is also somewhat which is Arbitrary and founded upon no reason but the uncontroulable determination of the will of God St. Paul tells us in his time that there was diversity of Gifts though they were all of them owing to the same Spirit and it is certain that in that Age and some that Succeeded it the effusions of the Holy Ghost were more plentiful and of a more extraordinary Nature then they are now though that indeed depended upon particular Reasons and was necessary to support the Church in its Infancy against the heat and fury of so many dreadful Persecutions but yet notwithstanding why may we not allow since God is the sole Proprietor and for that reason the unaccountable dispencer of his own Grace and Favour that he does sometimes by arbitrary Measures allot a greater share of it to one man then another or why may not this be a very allowable Interpretation of that place which I have newly produced For it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good Pleasure that is that though he afford sufficient Grace to all yet he does notwithstanding make some unequal distributions of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is pro arbitrio by Arbitrary and unaccountable Measures Seventhly and Lastly As to Faith in Christ and the belief of the Gospel if we mean only an Historical Faith it may certainly be attained by any considering Man without any particular Assistance of