of a Burning-glass and made more warm and active by their Union When therefore Men have contracted particular Friendships and espoused their Souls and Minds to one another there doth from thence arise a new Relation between them beyond what common Charity createth from which new Relation there accrue new Rights to the related Parties For mutual Friendship is not a Metaphysical Nothing created merely for Contemplation for such as are contracted in its holy Bands to stare upon each other's Faces and make Dialogues of News and Prettinesses or to look Babies in one another's Eyes but a substantial and important Vertue that is fitted for the noblest purposes to be an Alloy to our sorrows an Ease to our Passions a Discharge of our Oppressions a Sanctuary to our Calamities a Counsellor of our Doubts a Repository of our Secrets and an Improvement of our Meditations a Champion to our Innocence and an Advocate for our Interest both with God and Men to these brave Purposes serveth every real Friendship and without these it is only the empty Name and Shadow of Friendship When therefore Men combine and unite together in this close and near Relation they give each other a Right to themselves to all the above-named Uses and Purposes to be Guides and Comforts to each other in their Doubts and Sorrows Monitors and Remembrancers in their Errors and Oblivions Shelters and Refuges in their Oppressions and Calamities and faithful Trustees and Secretaries to each other's Confidencies and Thoughts These are the great Rights of Friendship which whosoever detaineth or with-holdeth from his Friend is a false and unjust Correspondent in that brave and noble Relation For when we mutually contract particular Friendships with one another it is to these great purposes or it is not Friendship and when to these purposes we have once joyned hands and struck particular Amities with one another we are bound by the tyes of common Honesty and Iustice so far as we are able to make good our Contract to all those Intents and Purposes it extendeth to VI. THERE is the Relation of Masters and Servants for between Master and Servant there are mutual Engagements which are either expressed in their Contract or implyed in their Relation and whether there be any formal Contract between them or no their very Relation is an implicit Bargain and supposeth a mutual Engagement to one another By being a Servant to another I put my self into his hands and disposal and devote my Time and Pains and Labour to him by vertue of which he acquireth a just Right to my time and service my fidelity and chearful Obedience and therefore if either by Gaming Loitering or Company-keeping I alienate my Time from him or if by my Sloth and Idleness I rob him of my Pains and Labour or by my hypocritical Eye-service or betraying his Trusts or wasting or embezzeling his Goods I deprive him of my Truth and Fidelity or if lastly by my Stubborness and Obstinacy I purloin from him my Duty and Obedience I am a dishonest and unjust Servant and however I may escape now must one day expect to give an Account to my Just and All-seeing Master in Heaven And accordingly in Scripture Servants are enjoyned to obey their Masters in all things Col. iii. 22. And to do service to them with good will Eph. vi 7. To serve them with singleness of heart not to purloin their Goods or answer them again in a froward and surly manner Tit. ii 9 10. Since then they stand obliged to these Duties both by Precept of Scripture and the natural Engagement of their Relation it is plain they cannot act contrary thereunto without openly transgressing the Laws of God and trepassing on the Rights of Men. And so on the other hand by being a Master to another I stand engaged to maintain and protect him in my service to pay him the Wages or teach him the Trade for which he serveth me not to out-task his Ability nor impose any thing on him but what is tolerable and merciful to Correct him with gentleness prudence and mercy and not to restrain him too rigidly from fitting and healthful Recreation and above all to admonish him of his Faults instruct him in his Duty and give him all chearful Encouragements to Well-doing For I ought to consider that I am Master of a Man of the same kind with my self that hath Right upon that account to be treated humanely which if I do not instead of being a just Master I am a savage Tyrant and also I should consider that I am Master of an immortal Man who upon that account hath a Right to be treated religiously that hath a Soul to be saved and an eternal Interest to be secured which if I take no care of I treat him rather as my Dog than my Servant as a Beast that perisheth than as a Man that is to live for ever So that if any of these ways I am wanting to my Servant I am a Transgressor of that Rule of Righteousness that is founded in my Relation to him and though the crying Necessities of his Soul and Body cannot penetrate my Ears nor move my Adamantine Bowels to a more just and pious Treatment yet the Cry of those Wrongs and Injuries I do him by my unjust inhumane and irreligious Usage will certainly penetrate the Ears of God and provoke his Vengeance to a dire Retribution of it VII THERE is the Relation of Trustees to those that trust them for he who trusteth another doth thereby create a very near and intimate Relation to him so far forth as he trusteth him he putteth his case into his hands and depositeth his Interest in his Disposal and thereby createth him his Proxy or his second self So that when I accept of the Trust that another offereth me whether it be to be an Arbitrator in his Cause or an Executor of his Will or a Guardian to his Children or a Keeper of any Pledge or Depositum he committeth to me I do thereby enter into a close Alliance and Relation with him I put on his Person engage to supply his place to act as his Representative or alter ego and so far as he trusteth and confideth in me to do for him as if the case were my own to determine his Cause to execute his Will and dispose of his Children and secure his Pledges to him as if I were himself and those were all my own And by entring into this near Relation to him I give him a Right so far forth as he intrusteth me to my Skill and Care Fidelity and Industry all which by putting on his Person I have listed and engaged in his Service So that if by my own Carelesness or Neglect I suffer any of his Trusts to miscarry I am highly dishonest and injurious to him because I undertook to do for him all that I can suppose he would have done for himself had he been Master of my Skill and Ability But if for a Bribe
as so many Sacrifices to the Devil Wherefore we stand obliged not only in Fidelity to God who hath committed their Souls to our charge and will one day require an account of them at our Hands but also in Mercy to them that they may not perish eternally for lack of knowledge to take all possible care to instruct their minds in the Duties and Obligations of Religion And as Mercy obliges us to instruct our Children and Servants who are in our power and disposal so it also obliges us to instruct others whom we know to be ignorant of God and their Duty to take all fair opportunities to insinuate the Knowledge of Divine Things to them and to cultivate their rude and barbarous Minds with the Principles of Vertue and Religion or at least where we cannot be admitted to do them this good Office our selves or our endeavouring it may be looked upon as a piece of Sauciness or Pedantry to recommend their miserable Case to others who have more Authority with them or from whose hands it may be better taken For sure if we have any Mercy or Compassion in us we cannot sit still and see a miserable Wretch wandring in the dark upon the Confines of eternal Ruin without endeavouring by some way or other to reduce and light him back to Heaven Hence 2 Tim. ii 25 26. 'T is made a necessary act of Mercy Meekly to instruct those that oppose themselves that is out of ignorance of the Gospel if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the Truth that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil who are taken captive by him at his will IV. ANOTHER of the Miseries which affect Mens Souls is Malice and Obstinacy of Will in mischievous and destructive courses which is doubtless one of the greatest Infelicities that can happen to a Man on this side Hell For to be obstinate in mischievous courses is but one remove from the forlorn Condition of a damned Soul which being fixed and determined to Evil by the invincible Obstinacy of its own will lies under a fatal Necessity of being its own eternal Hell and Devil so that every degree of Obstinacy in Wickedness is a nearer Approach to eternal Damnation and will at last inevitably center in it if it be not stopped in its Course and Progress and cured by a timely Application Now what a deplorable sight is this to see a wretched Soul obstinately pursuing his own destruction and even forcing his way to Hell through all the resistances of his Religion and Reason and Conscience together Should you see a mad Man break loose from his Chain and run his Head against a Wall or catch up a Knife or Dagger and thrust it into his own Breast and repeat Stab after Stab in despight of all your Counsels and Dissuasives would you not pity and lament his Case and heartily wish him deprived of all that Liberty which he employs only to his own Destruction And is it not a much more lamentable spectacle to see a wild and desperate Soul break loose from those ties of Religion and Conscience which bind it to its Duty and Happiness and in a deaf and obstinate Rage seize on the Weapons of Perdition and plunge them into its own Bowels and by repeated Acts of Wickedness imbrue its hands in its own blood whilst the blessed Spirit with its own natural sense of God are strugling with it in vain and fruitlesly endeavouring to disarm its desperate Fury that it may not wound it self to eternal Death What merciful Heart can forbear wishing O would to God this miserable Soul had no Will that it had not the Liberty to choose or act Would to God it were a Stone or a Tree that have no power to dispose of or determine their own Motions rather than be thus left at liberty as it is only to murder and destroy it self But since to wish thus would be in vain who that hath any Pity can sit still and see a miserable Wretch thus outrage himself without endeavouring to hold his Hands and bind him down with Reason and good Counsel And this is the proper Act of Mercy which the miserable Case in hand requires viz. When we see an obstinate Sinner resolutely pursuing his own Destruction to endeavour by prudent and seasonable Reproofs by pious and compassionate Counsels and Admonitions to reclaim him from the Error of his way For thus our Holy Religion directeth us to exhort one another daily while it is called to day least any of us should be hardened i. e. irrecoverably hardened through the deceitfulness of sin Heb. iii. 13. And how acceptable a work this is to God St. Iames informeth us Chap. v. 19 20. Brethren if any of you err from the truth and one convert him let him know that he who converteth a Sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins Whereas by permitting Men to run on in their sins without any check or disturbance under a pretence of Complaisance and Civility is as much as to say Sir you are going headlong to destruction and go you are like for me for my part whether you are damned or saved is much at one to me if you are minded to make an experiment of damnation much good may it do you I know should I attempt to hinder or disturb you you will think me rude and troublesome and therefore rather than I will run the hazard e'en let the Devil take you And would it not be a high Complement if you saw a Man plunging a Sword into his Bowels to cry Sir I would hold your Arm but that I am afraid you will be angry with me 'T is true this merciful Work of Reproof and Admonition ought to be managed with a great deal of Caution if the Person we reprove be out of our power we ought to observe the mollia tempora fandi to forbear him till his Passion is down or his intemperate Draught digested till his Mind is sedate and calm and best disposed to attend to and receive a pious Admonition for he who reproves a Man when his Mind is disordered by Passion or Intemperance doth but Preach Patience to a Northern Wind which the more he endeavours to resist the lowder it will storm and bluster But then when he is fit to receive a Reprehension we ought to give it with the greatest Privacy If he offend in publick Conversation where there are other Witnesses of it besides our selves unless the matter be highly scandalous it is sufficient for the present that we express our Dislike of it by the Severity of our Looks and the Seriousness of our Behaviour and afterwards between him and our selves to remonstrate to him the Folly and Danger of his Sin For to reprove Men publickly looks more like Malice then Mercy especially till we have first made Trial of private Reprehensions and found them ineffectual But
unavoidable Weakness of our own Natures since it is so plain that our Sin is resolveable into no other Principle but our own wretched Wilfulness and Obstinacy But let us betake our selves to a serious and hearty Endeavour of doing our Master's Will and if when we have done all that we can we should then fall short of our Duty and miss the Reward of it we may then with good Reason call him an austere Man for imposing tyrannical and impossible Commands and expecting to reap where he hath not sown Seventhly and Lastly WE may perceive from hence the Inexcusableness of Sinners if they go on in their Wickedness For God you see doth vouchsafe to us such plentiful Measures of his Grace and Assistance that in the Strength of it we may mortify our Lusts if we will and work out our own eternal Salvation but if we will be negligent and rather choose to perish in our Sin than take the pains to subdue it by the Grace of God our Folly is inexcusable and no one can be charged with our Ruin but our selves For what could God have done more for us than he hath already done He hath solicited us to forsake our Sin with the most important Arguments and Motives tempted our Hopes with a Heaven of immortal Ioys and alarmed our Fears with the Horrors of an endless and intolerable Damnation so that we cannot go on in our Sin without leaping over Heaven into Hell and wading through an infinite Ocean of Happiness into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone He hath plainly told us what the Event and Issue of our Folly will be and warn'd us before-hand that if we will be wicked we must be miserable So that if after this we do go on in our Sin we run our selves upon a foreseen Damnation and leap into Hell with our Eyes open He hath promised that if we will seriously attempt our own Recovery his Grace shall be sufficient for us to back our Endeavours and crown them with Success So that if after this we do persist in our Folly we choose Destruction and rush headlong into a Ruin which we might easily avoid In a word he hath again and again suggested good Thoughts to our Minds and by an importunate Iteration of them hath frequently courted us to repent and live So that if still we persevere in our Impenitence we stop our Ears to the Addresses of Heaven and do in effect tell God that we will not hearken to him though our Souls are at stake and 't is no less than an everlasting Ruin that he dissuades us from And what Remedy or Excuse is there for such intolerable Obstinacy So that it is a plain Case God hath done so much for us that there is not any thing wanting to our everlasting Salvation but only our own Wills and if we will not comply with his Grace and Assistance he will not save us whether we will or no. So that when Inquisition shall be made for the Blood of our Souls the utmost we can charge God with is this that he did not tie up our hands to keep us from murdering our selves with the Cords of an irresistible Fate and by his invincible Power drag us to Heaven whether we would or no. But if we have so little Regard of our selves as to spurn at our own Happiness it is not fit that God should force it upon us and it would be a mean and unreasonable Condescension in him to prostitute the Rewards of Virtue to those that wilfully refuse them Wherefore if we perish in our Sin after God hath done so much for us he may fairly wash his Hands in Innocency over us and charge our Blood upon our own heads And how deplorable soever our Condition proves in the future State God's Iustice will triumph for ever in our Ruin and our own Consciences in Consort with all the Rational World will pronounce him to be most just and righteous in all his ways CHAP. V. Of the Eternal Reward of Mortification and Holiness THE Apostle having declar'd for our Encouragement Rom. viii 13. that if we mortify the deeds of the body we shall live I shall now insist upon these two Propositions First THAT there is a State of Everlasting Life and Happiness prepared for good men Secondly THAT this their Everlasting Happiness depends upon their mortifying their Lusts. I. THAT there is a State of Everlasting Life and Happiness prepared for good Men The Truth of which I shall Endeavour to prove by some plain and easy Arguments I. BECAUSE the Law of our Natures hath not a sufficient Sanction without it That there is in us such a Law of Nature by which Things and Actions are distinguished into good and evil is every whit as evident as that we have within us a Principle of Reason For no Man using his Reason can ever think it indifferent in it self whether we obey our Parents or contemn them whether we lye or speak Truth whether we be grateful or disingenuous to our Benefactors For between these Things there is such an essential Difference that they can never be equal Competitors to a Rational Approbation And accordingly among all Mankind we may observe that there are some Vices which have as much the universal Judgment of Reason against them as any false Conclusion in the Mathematicks and some Virtues whose Goodness has been as universally acknowledged as the Truth of any Principle in Philosophy Wherefore since God hath created us with such a Faculty as doth necessarily make such a Iudgment of Good and Evil this Iudgment must be God's as well as the Faculties which made it And that which is God's Iudgment in us must necessarily be a Law to us God therefore having put such a Law into our Natures we cannot but suppose that he hath taken Care to enforce the Observation of it by rewarding and punishing us according as we obey or violate it For without the Sanctions of Rewards and Punishments to induce Men to observe them Laws are insignificant and that Lawgiver doth but petition his Subjects to obey that doth not promise such Rewards nor denounce such Penalties as are sufficient to oblige them to it And no Reward can be sufficient to oblige us to obey that doth not abundantly compensate any Loss or Evil we may sustain by our Obedience no Punishment sufficient to deter us from disobeying that doth not far surmount all that Benefit or Pleasure we can hope to reap from our Disobedience Since therefore God hath implanted a Law in our Natures we must either suppose that he hath not sufficiently secured it by Rewards and Punishments which is to blaspheme his Wisdom and Conduct Or else we must acknowledge that he hath established it with such Rewards and Punishments as do make it far more adviseable to obey than to transgress it which that he hath done in all Instances can never be proved without granting the Rewards and Punishments of another World For if there be
Savage Herds of the Wilderness II FROM hence we may learn how vigorous and industrious we ought to be in discharging the Duties of our Religion For how can we think any Pains too much when an everlasting Heaven is the Reward of our Labour What a poor thing is it that we should grudge to spend a few Moments here in the severest Exercises of Holiness and Vertue when within this little little while in consideration of our short Pains we shall have nothing else to do throughout a long and blessed Eternity but to enjoy a Heaven of pure Pleasures and hath our Faculties for ever in fresh Delights to converse with the Fountain of all Love and Goodness and warble eternally Praises to him and in the Vision of his Beauty and Goodness to live in everlasting Raptures of Ioy and Love O my Soul What though thou toilest and labourest now to climb the everlasting Hills Yet be of good Heart for it will not be long before thou art at the top where thou wilt find such pleasant Gales and glorious Prospects as will make thee infinite Amends for all yea though the Toil thou undergoest were abundantly more than it is though instead of the Labour of mortifying thy Lusts and living soberly righteously and godly thy Task were to row in the Gallies or dig in the Mines for a thousand years together yet methinks the Consideration that Heaven will be at last thy Reward should be enough to sweeten and endear it O would we but often represent to our Minds the glorious Things of another World what holy Fervours would such charming Thoughts kindle within us And with how much Spirit and Vigour would they carry us through the weary Stages of our Duty what Lust is there so dear to us that we should not willingly sacrifice to the Hopes of Immortality What Duty so difficult that we should not chearfully undergo while the Crown of Glory is in our Eye Surely did we but look more frequently to the recompence of Reward we should be all Life and Spirit and Wing our sluggish Souls would be inspired with an Angelical Vigour and Activity and we should run with Alacrity as well as Patience the race that is set before us but alas We look upon our Reward as a Thing a great way off and 't is I confess reserved for us within that invisible World whereinto our dull Sense is not able to penetrate which is the Reason that we are not so vigorously affected with it Wherefore to make Amends for this Disadvantage let us often revive the Considerations of Eternity upon our Minds and inculcate the Reality and Certainty of our future Weal or Woe together with the great Weight and Importance of them let us thus reason with our selves O my Soul If it be so certain as it is that there are such unspeakable Ioys reserved for good Men and such intolerable Miseries for the wicked why should not these things be to me as if they were already present Why should I not be as much afraid to sin as if the gates of Hell stood open before me and I saw the astonishing miseries of those damned Ghosts that are weltring in the flames of it and why should I not as chearfully comply with my Duty as if I had now a full prospect of the Regions of Happiness and I saw the great Iesus at the right Hand of God with Diadems of Glory in his Hand to crown those pure and blessed Spirits who have been his faithful Servants to the death And doubtless would we but inure our Minds a little to such Thoughts as these they would wonderfully actuate all the Powers of our Souls and be continually inspiring us with new Vigour in the ways of Holiness and Virtue for what Difficulties are there that can daunt our good Resolutions while they are animated with this Persuasion that if we have our fruit unto holiness our end shall be everlasting life Rom. vi xxii III. FROM hence we may perceive how upright and sincere we ought to be in all our Professions and Actions For if there be such an Happiness reserved for us in Heaven then doubtless if we intend to partake of it we must be sincerely good because he that is the Donour of this glorious Reward is a God that searcheth the heart and tryeth the reins and is a curious Observer of our secret Thoughts and most retired Actions and consequently will reward us not according to what we seem to be but to what we really are We may possibly cheat Men into a fair Opinion of us by disguising our selves in a form of Godliness and facing our Conversation with specious Pretences of Piety but that God with whom we have to do sees through all the Dawbings and Fucus's of Hypocrisie and can easily discern a rotten Core through the most beautiful Rind that can be distended over it So that we can never hope to obtain His Blessing as Iacob did his blind Father's by a counterfeit Voice or exteriour Disguise of Religion for all the fair Vizards of Hypocrisie are so far from hiding our Blemishes from God that they lay them more open to his all-seeing Eye and make them appear more monstrous and deformed Wherefore unless we are really good we were better not to seem to be so for mere Pretences of Piety will be so far from procuring Salvation for us that they will but enhanse and aggravate our Condemnation and sink and plunge us deeper into Hell instead of obtaining any Entrance for us into the Kingdom of Heaven Since therefore there is such an immortal Reward prepared for us in the World to come if we love our selves or have any regard for our most important Interest we cannot but be in good earnest for Heaven and if we are so we shall be sincere and upright in all our Actions and the great Design of our Lives will be to approve our selves to God and our own Consciences If by giving Alms we hope to increase our Stock in that great Bank of Bliss above we shall not care so much to blow a Trumpet when we do it that so the World may take notice of and praise our Bounty but our rejoycing will be this that we have approved our selves to God from whom we expect the Reward of our Obedience If we abstain from Sin with respect to the future Recompence we shall do it in private as well as in the View of the World knowing that wherever we are we are under God's Eye who alone can make us happy or miserable for ever In a word if we seriously mind the Glory that is set before us we shall be as curious of our Thoughts and secret Purposes as if they were to be exposed upon an open Theatre considering that they are all open and naked to that God with whom we have to do and upon whom the Hope of our immortal Happiness depends For to what purpose should we dissemble and play the Hypocrites unless we could