Psalmists Example Psal 119.59 I thought on my ways I doubt not but they should also imitate the course he did take I made haste and delayed not to keep thy commandments But men consider not what they are doing and so no wonder though they perish no wonder that they prefer darkness to light and despise Holiness as a thing of no value Let us therefore humbly and heartily invoke the Father of Lights to open the Eyes of men whom the God of this world hath blinded that they may flee from the wrath to come by cleansing themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God Holy Devotions OR A COLLECTION OF PRAYERS AND THANKSGIVINGS Fitted to the main uses of a Christian Life PHILIP 4.6 Be careful for nothing but in every thing by Prayer and Supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God London Printed for Rob. Sollers at the Kings Arms and Bible in St. Pauls Church-yard 1683. HOLY DEVOTIONS OR A Collection of Prayers A Prayer for Families on the Lords day in the Morning O Most holy and eternally blessed The heavens and the heaven of heavens is thine the earth also with all that therein is Thou art everywhere and canst not be excluded from any place but art present to the greatest secrets of our Souls and seest the closest and most retired thoughts of our Hearts Thou knowest very well with what designs and Affections we now bow our selves before thee and canst not be deceived by any words that we are able to speak in thy praise whilst our Hearts are far from thy fear and love Behold O Lord our Hearts are full with desires to be possessed with a mighty reverend sense of thee and all the benefits thou hast bestowed on us and be lifted up to Heaven in Love to thee and Joy in thee whilst we bless and praise thee and speak good of thy Name We here remember with all humility and thankfulness that thou art our Creator and acknowledge thy care and providence over thy antient People in blessing and Sanctifying a day wherein thou thy self restedst from thy works that they might cease from all other employments and admire thy wonderful works extol thy Power bless thy Goodness and be astonished at thy Wisdom in making preserving adorning and governing this excellent frame of the World The Heavens declare thy glory O God and the Firmament sheweth thy handy-work The Sun the Moon and all the Host of Heaven proclaim the greatness and splendour of thy Majesty The whole Earth is full of thy rich goodness so is the great and wide Sea wherein are things moving innumerable both small and great living Creatures There is nothing but what speaks of thee and above all the Children of men whom thou hast wonderfully made curiously wrought and impressed with thy own Image that they might understand thee and love thee in all and above all things The variety the order the stedfastness of all thy works in this great World abundantly utter thy adorable perfections But thou O Lord by thy goodness in giving thy Son for us and then raising him up from the Dead and setting him at thy right hand hast given us new matter of wonder and praise and consecrated a better rest and holy day of rejoycing wherein we should behold the glories of another World and have before our Eyes the happiness thou intendest for us there together with all the excellent means which lead unto it Thou givest us occasion not onely to reflect upon all the good things thou hast provided for our bodies which we can never acknowledge enough the very Health and Ease of one day deserving the thankfulness of many but we must also remember that we are thy redeemed ones and that thou hast done great things for our Souls in thy Son Jesus who is entred into the Heavens for us and gone to prepare a resting place for all those that follow him This exceeding riches of thy grace infinitely surpasses all our acknowledgments since all the praises we are able to render thee are less than is due for thy temporal blessings To this Love we owe the knowledge of thee the true and onely God our freedom from Idolatry and a vain Conversation the true principles of Holy living the benefit of repentance the promise of a pardon the assistance of thy Holy Spirit the ministry of thy Angels the hope of immortal Life and the pledges our Lord hath left us of his endless love To this we owe thy forbearance in the days of our ignorance thy unwearied patience towards us in a continued Rebellion and thy earnest intreaties of us when we were passionately bent upon our own destruction Thou hast sent us in much love many Holy Instructors and Guides to blessedness we have had the benefit of sundry Pious Sermons good Examples holy Admonitions and serious Councels of the Power of the Holy Ghost and divers restraints of Fear and Shame and Love and thou still pursuest us with thy merciful kindness and beseechest us to attend to thy gracious invitations and receive thy blessings and make thee our choice and be Eternally happy in thy divine favor and likeness What shall we render to the Lord for all his benefits towards us O help us to manifest our real and unfeigned desires to make some worthy returns to thee by our careful improvement of the Holy opportunity which thou this day puttest into our hands O that our mindes may be more enlightened to understand the Truth as it is in Jesus that our wills may be more stedfastly resolved to cleave unto it that our Affections may be excited to a stronger and more ardent Love to thee and a greater delight in thee and all the powers of our Souls disposed to serve thee at all other times more cheerfully and readily in all the Duties of Piety Soberness Righteousness and Mercy So that every day may become an Holy rest to the Lord by ceasing to do Evil and constantly doing well that we may Glorifie thee throughout our whole life in all our actions shewing forth thy praise who hast called us out of Darkness into thy marvellous Light And enlighten good Lord the whole World with the beams of thy Glorious Gospel and dispose the Hearts of all Christian People among whom the Son of righteousness hath shone so long to walk as Children of the Light that so they may offer unto thee this day most acceptable Sacrifices for themselves and for all mankind and be fitted and prepared by serving thee in Righteousness and true Holiness here to shine for ever in his Heavenly Kingdom with Christ Jesus our Saviour by whom thou hast given us good hope in thee that thou will hear our Prayers and do for us above all that we can ask or think which we humbly beg in those Holy words which he hath taught us saying Our Father c. Another for the Lords-day at Night O Most blessed for
Sir Joseph Copâ—ley Baâ—â— Without holiness no man shall see the lord Heb 12 14 Sold by R Sollers at the kings Armes Bible in St Pauls C yard F. H. Van Houe Sculp THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS WRITTEN By the Author of the Whole Duty of MAN c. To which is Added HOLY DEUOLIONS UPON Several Occasions Fitted to the Main Uses of A Christian Life 1. Chron. 16.29 Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness Heb. 12.14 Without Holiness no Man shall see the Lord The Fourth Impression LONDON Printed for Benjamin Crayle at the Lamb in Fleetstreet next White-Fryers-Gate 1684. THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. OF the Nature of Holiness page 7. CHAP. II. Of the Rule of Holiness 11 CHAP. III. Motives and inducements to the practice of Holiness 48 Sect. 1. The noble pattern of Holiness 49 Sect. 2. Holiness the condition of future happiness 74 Sect. 3. Holiness the onely safe way to escape the wrath to come 82 Sect. 4. Holiness the main designe of the Gospel and the end of all Christs sufferings 87 Sect. 5. Holiness the most proper and effectual means for obtaining length of days 91 Sect. 6. Holiness that which makes men honourable Vice rendering men mean and ignoble 96 Sect. 7. Holiness attended with the most solid and real Pleasures 106 Sect. 8. Holiness accompanied with peace 114 Sect. 9. Holiness the best evidence of true Wisdom and real Worth and Courage 119 Sect. 10. Holiness universally profitable and above all things most advantageous 124 CHAP. IV. Frivolous Cavils and Objections removed 142 THE INTRODUCTION MAN in his original condition when he first came out of the hands of his Maker was a very noble and venerable Creature adorned with many peculiar excellencies and as the Psalmist observes Onely made a little lower than glorious Angels But of all his perfections Holiness as it was the principal and most oriental so did it also give a beauty and lustre to the rest It made his Authority and Power lovely and desirable his Wisdom and Knowledge venerable and every other attribute which without this is terrible and dreadful to be comely and praise-worthy This was that single perfection that raised Man above the beasts that perish and made him Heavens great favourite and darling which if it had been carefully preserved had undoubtedly secured our first Parents in Paradise and prevented that dreadful calamity that hath seized upon their Posterity But alas how are we fallen from Heaven to Earth from a Paradise of pure pleasures to a miserable and painful Prison We have lost that divine Image that was impressed upon Man in his primitive state which indeed compleated and alone preserved its beauty and comeliness and with it have also lost every thing that did then contribute to make us happy and are now become vile and abominable and as miserable as we were formerly happy How much a serious view of that primitive felicity Man in his innocent state enjoyed would contribute to plant in us a holy life I know not but I am sure it could not but mightily inhaunce the value of Holiness and make it lovely and desirable That man that reflects upon the dismal miseries he is exposed to in this lapsed estate to what an infinite number of inexpressible evils of insupportable pains he lies upon how he is hurried from a state of perfect bliss to a woful hell of extream torments How exceedingly amazing is this The very Poet could say Miserum est suisse heatum But God knows this is out very seldom and if ever but faintly reflected upon we are to our sharow become contented slaves and satisfied to bear Fetters and Chains we continually live in the midst of all evil never enjoy a moments solace or comfort notwithstanding of which like mad-men we are content with our state and like the Sow take pleasure to puddle in the mire And although that same diffusive and boundless goodness that first breathed in us the breath of life and framed us in his own likeness and image again pitied us in our low estate and provided the most valuable and Soveraign remedie to recover us from this mortal disease though he has procured a compleat Ransom to liberate us from the insupportable slavery and tyranny of sin has offered to restore our former beautie to repossess us of that happiness we had lost and to make us again Favourites and Freemen yet how insolently have we rejected this kinde offer how impiously have we cut those cords of love asunder and refuse to be healed 'T is indeed matter of great sadness to consider the lofty and intolerable affronts that are now cast upon Holiness how men are arrived at that pitch of impietie to scorn and deride Religion which former ages were at some pains to advance as if Holiness were inconsistent with the principles of Generosity and onely becoming mean and morose spirits How transcendent a folly and madness this is will easily appear by what I shall afterwards lay down Methinks the naked representation of Holiness should be motive enough if not to court it yet to engage men to correct their unreasonable prejudices they entertain against it and even force its greatest Antagonists to become its Advocates But alas vice hath cast such a dark shadow upon mens Judgements that they are become as unfit Judges of its beauty as blind men are of colours otherwise we might yet expect to see contemned Vertue much more in vogue than ever Vice was To excite our desires Scripture has represented it under the most comely dress has discovered its beauty and excellencie and recommended it by the most endearing motives which are apt to work both upon our hope and fear Vpon our hope by proposing an infinitely valuable reward to the righteous besides the present advantages that attend it Vpon our fear by opening to our view the powers of the world to come and discovering the insupportable misery that the damned suffer day and night so that if men would but so far actuate their Reason as soberly to consult their own interest and happiness I doubt not but this alone should be motive enough to excite them to the practise of Holiness and scare them from those ways of sin that lead down to the chambers of death It would make one would think the greatest Sensualist to relinquish the momentary pleasures he enjoys here to be possest of those eternal joys that the pure in spirit shall reap in the Kingdom of their Father and the most hardned and impregnable sinner tremble to think of dwelling with devouring flames Now the onely infallible way to attain those coelestial felicities and to evite the miserable consequences of vice and those pains and tortures that it exposeth its votaries to is to abandon every lust be it never so impetuous and to cleanse our selves as the Apostle adviseth us from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit and to perfect holiness in the fear of God For the better directing our present
Now the precepts of Christianity which point us our duty may for brevity be reduced to these three general Heads For first they are either such as enjoyn Piety towards God Secondly or such that require the good government of our selves Or thirdly those that prescribe our carriage and be haviour towards others Of these I shall take a brief survey and as I go along excite men to the practice of every particular duty by rational motives and inducements and withal discover the perfection and compleatness of the Christian Rule above all the Institutions that ever were or can be devised First amongst those Laws of Christianity which enjoyn Piety towards God we find Love to him standing in the front and claiming the precedency This is as our blessed Saviour informs us the first and great Commandment it being indeed the scource and original of all acts of obedience To excite our Love let us but present to our view his infinite and transcendent perfections the undeserved favours he every minute bestows upon us the innumerable dangers and accidents we are daily preserved from Arguments forcible enough to draw Love from the most rocky and obdurate heart 'T is indeed an amazing thing to see those into whom he has breathed the Breath of Life on whom he has rained so many floods of favours to remain notwithstanding as frozen as ground which the Sun-rays never touch T is an odd and strange operation that streams of Love onely meet with contempt and disdain Sure I am there is a concurrence of all sorts of motives and arguments to engage us to love God and those indeed so charming and endearing that it is strange any body should fail in it Methinks the work it self is so sweet and delectable so ravishing and lovely that men need not be courted to it by perswasion O what a great deal of satisfaction of ineffable delight does the devout soul find in those actings of love towards God! And if the Voluptuous and Sensualist would but abandon those sinful delights he now findes so charming and bewitching and betake himself to the practice of holiness If he would change the object of his love and place it where it ought to be I doubt not but he should quickly perceive there is more pleasure more contentment and satisfaction in the love of God than in the enjoyment of all carnal pleasures That man that shall make a just estimate of things shall be easily convinced there is nothing worthy of love in comparison of God Alas the pleasures of this world are but shadows and fancies which will soon disappearâ— It s beauty and splendour is but gilded and delusory and is it reasonable nay is it not extream madness to place the strength of our affections on such uncertain and quickly-removed vanities The usual arguments of love amongst men are Relation Interest or the Beauty and Excellency of the Object Now all these lay much stronger obligations upon us to love God For Relation is he not our Lord and Maker who gave us life and being who as a tender Father kindely compassionates our condition and in our low estate has carefully minded us when our other Relations have accounted us aliens and strangers This the Royal Psalmist experimented and I make no question but many good men have been and are living instances of this truth And indeed that man that consults his own interest cannot but be strongly excited to love that God who is the best benefactor and equally willing and able to bestow favours upon him It is an argument of a very base and mean spirit to despise our benefactors but thus have we requited God who daily loadeth us with mercies and reneweth his blessings every morning we have God knows most insolently carried our selves even then when he has been displaying a banner of love over us As for Beauty and Excellency what in the world can compete with him who is glorious in holiness and whose Name is excellent in all the earth How quickly are all created beauties winked into darkness At the best they are but streams derived from this glorious being and is it not hugely reasonable that he who is the original of these should be the chief object of our love and make us with the Psalmist say Whom have I in the heaven but thee and there is none upon the earth I desire besides thee I know there is no man would take it well nay who would not be highly incensed and think himself much wronged to have his Love called in question but God knows how little reason the far greater part of Mankinde have to pretend love who stand not to break his Laws to cast behinde them and lightly esteem his precepts the obedience of which is made the best and surest character of Love Would God it were as easie to perswade as it is to propose our duty But how hard is it to convince men of the folly the extream and strange madness of being lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God But the truth is there is such a mire and puddle of pollution in our hearts that it quite choaks extinguisheth all sparks of Love makes us violate the principles of humanity and become more ungueate than the beasts who have no understanding But if this Divine flame be kindled in our Hearts if it be sincere and superlative as it ought to be it will easily employ all the faculties of our Soul in his service it will engage and enable us too to perform the several Duties of Piety the Laws of Christianity enjoyn which because they are some of the particular branches of Holiness I shall briefly mention with their encouragements and for method and order reduce to four Heads First it will instruct and enable us to trust and depend upon God Secondly to submit and obey his Will Thirdly to honour and reverence his great and sacred Name And Lastly to worship and adore him according to the method he hath himself prescribed I begin with the first namely That Love where it is sincere is a noble and generous passion apt to excite and enable us to depend on God This is I confess a duty very useful and never out of season the Psalmist wisely adviseth us to trust in him at all times when we are in the midst of all trouble as well as when our condition is serene and wholly exempt from outward fears When the divine Providence hath placed us in the most dismal circumstances even in this sad and comfortless state our fears ought to give place to faith we would do well to repose a special confidence in him who is hereby become engaged to secure and defend us This method the excellent Psalmist observed and resolved constantly to heed in times of imminent danger What time I am afraid I will trust in thee Psal 56.3 and we find that faithful men in former times took this course also We know not what to do onely our eyes are to thee 2
who neglect it are said to sin against the Law Now if this rule of Charity were welâ— observed it would help to correct first all undue Thoughts and Wishes Secondly all injurious Words and Speeches And thirdly all unjust Actions and Dealings towards our Neighbours First it would very much conduce to the regulating of our wishes and to the keeping of our mindes in a meek and peaceable temper towards others Charity if sincere is a noble and generouâ— vertue which believeth and hopeth the best of all men It thinketh no evil as the Apostle amongst many of its other good properties observeth 2 Cor. 13.5 It eradicates and supplants all censoriouâ— thoughts and is incompatible with those tormenting passions of Malice and Revenge which as the Wise man describes suffer not men to sleep except they have done mischief Prov. 4.16 And indeed this is but the least part of a Christians duty 't is but an evidence of the lowest degree of Charity to retrench those irregular and undue wishes which oftentimes do more prejudice to our selves than others If it be sincere it will have a further and more important influence it will help us to govern our tongues also that we may as the great Apostle adviseth us speak evil of no man Tit. 3.2 to lay aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisie and evil speaking 1 Pet. 2.1 and according to this precept did primitive Christians walk But alas we have degenerated in nothing more conspicuously from their practise than in this In place of their love we have substituted an industrious search into the iniquities of others Psal 64.4 and have fully verified the Apostles description of the tongue Jam. 3.8 that it is an unruly evil which no man can tame a world of iniquity that sets the whole creation on fire Neither Majesty nor innocency can now guard against its darts its malignity reacheth through all the earth nay indeed it were good if it were bounded by this May not the Majesty of Heaven resume that same complaint he expresseth Mal. 3.14 Your words have been stout against me and charge the prophane Atheists of this age for opening their mouths against the Heavens As for Innocency although it is truely in it self a strong fence yet it cannot escape the assaults of a licentious tongue but with the Psalmist may complain Behold they belch out with their mouths swords are in their lips Psal 56.7 and I think there are few men so happy who cannot with the same holy man regret They lay to my charge things I know not but how much this violates all the obligations of Charity and Justice also every mans reason will easily instruct him To secure men from being culpable in this it were enough onely to represent the meanness of it but as a more noble enforcement the Gospel prescribes the strictest rules against it Matth. 7.1 2. Judge not that ye be not judged for with what judgement ye judge ye shall be judged A sentence which methinks should even strike terrour in the consciences of the guilty and sure if men would but minde their own concern and interest they should more attentively hearken to the counsel of the Apostle Eph. 4.31 32. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice And be ye kinde one to another tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you But our love must not consist in word onely but in deed and in truth as the blessed Apostle exhorts the primitive Christians 1 Joh. 3.18 It is a vain thing to pretend love when we refuse to evidence it by our deeds If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food and one of you say unto them Depart in peace be you warmed and filled notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body what doth it profit Jam. 2.15 16. We must make our actions and dealings the test whereby we may evidence our love otherwise the sincerity of it may be justly suspected and therefore in the first place we must actually endeavour to supply the wants of our indigent Brethren This is above all things recommended to Christians 1 Pet. 4.8 especially to those who have received a large allowance of outward blessings v. 10. and it is noted as an evidence that the love of God dwelleth not in those persons who having this worlds goods shut up their bowels of compassion from those that have need 1 Joh. 3.17 Alas little do men know how quickly the balance may change how soon the richest may be in poverty and stand in need of that supply that they now in the days of their plenty deny others the instances to prove this are more numerous than that they can be doubted or need to be related Indeed the performance of this duty passeth not without a temporal reward God who accounts it a lending to himself hath promised to repay it and sure there cannot be better security than his promise And I question not but all ages can attest the truth of what the wise man observeth Prov. 11 24. There is that scattereth and yet increaseth and there is that witholdeth more than is meet but it tendeth to poverty I confess I know no vertue more becoming a Christian than Charity and scarce any more scandalously neglected and I am sorry to think that those good men who compassionate the wants of the indigent should be so unworthily scandalized as if they were but lukewarm Protestants and established the Popish Merit but this is a piece of madness I shall rather pity than inveigh against and although I be no friend to merit yet I cannot but speak honourably of those whose charity and good works make them lovely in the sight of God who has accounted it pure religion and undefiled to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction Jam. 1.27 In the next place the Christian rule requires Justice in our intercourse and commerce and that in our dealings we be exactly conscientious according to that great rule of equity Matth. 7.12 All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them for this is the law and the prophets Injustice is a vice so mean and ignoble that I cannot but admire how great men should court it and if men would but actuate their Reasons I am sure they should never become guilty of that which if charged with they cannot patiently endure nor be reconciled with the persons which freely reprove them There is no man I think that would be satisfied to be called a Cheat and is it not unreasonable to think they shall evite this character who practise injustice The great bait and allurement to Injustice is gain and advantage but how visibly hath Almighty God by a wise providence defeated mens designs in this There is as Eliphaz observed a fire that consumeth the tabernacles of bribery Job 15.34 and
Holiness which of all things is the most noble most excellent and the most lovely should even abstracted from the considerations of its utility and advantages conquer our esteem But God knows how much our depraved natures in this lapsed estate stand in need of encouragements to excite us to our duty and I wish common experience did not make it too certain that all motives are little enough to form us to Holiness In the former Chapters I have onely laid a foundation to this for I thought it fit to tell men what I understand by Holiness before I should excite them to it In this dark age of the world we want not instances God knows too many of mens too frequent mistaking vice for vertue to prevent which errour it was thought necessary to shew men their duty and having done this the next thing I proposed was to lay down several motives and inducements to engage men to the practise of Holiness founded solely upon this that all those endearing arguments that prevail with us to perform any duty or action relating to our secular concerns do more powerfully oblige us to be holy This is I confess a subject which for its nobleness deserves a better judgement a more clear wit and a more enlivened and quick fancy to handle it than I can pretend to yet if I can but prevail with others to perfect what I have begun I shall not think I have much mis-employ'd my time in writing this Discourse This Chapter is like to be somewhat disproportionable to the rest in length it being at first the onely designed subject to be discoursed on I shall therefore divide it into several Sections SECT 1. The Noble Pattern of Holiness The great inclination of Mankinde to Imitation gave ground I doubt not to that old Maxime Plus docent exempla quà m praecepta our depraved natures are very apt to contemn Precepts and to court forbidden objects The tye of a Commandment is become by our increased guilt too weak to binde us to our duty is made as light of as Sampson made of those ropes with which he was bound before his locks were cut But O what a secret and powerful influence have Examples on the spirits of men I have seen Servants and Children who have contemned Commands yet shamed to their duty by the Example of their Masters and Parents The courage and valour of a Captain proves frequently more powerful to inspirit inferiour Souldiers than the most forcible injunctions and helps to make even cowards stout whileas a timerous Commander disheartens the bravest Souldiers and by his flight will make them who feared no danger turn their backs Common experience makes it past doubt that the patrociny and example of great men is enough to render any thing fashionable We daily have proofs of this before our eyes nay so powerful do examples sometimes prove that not onely the silly modes and gestures of men have been imitated but also their natural imperfections as Nero's wry Neck was at Rome It is the Poets observation Regis ad exemplum totus componitur orbis Vpon which account I heartily wish the Nobles and Great men of this age would illustrate Holiness by their Examples and I doubt not but contemned Holiness should be as fashionable as they have now made Vice by their patrociny In sacred Writ we read that when the Rulers of Judah and Israel were religious and examples of Vertue that the whole people imitated their footsteps and worshipped the Lord God of their Fathers But when the Rulers became patrons of Vice then the whole people sacrificed in the high places and worshipped their Calves at Dan and Bethel It is indeed a case that well deserves to be regretted with flouds of tears that the footsteps of those who transgress should prove more efficacious and effectual and have a greater influence on men than the presidents of good men but more lamentable is it that despised vertue lies like the contemned ashes on the level and has so few to raise up its esteem by their examples And now seeing Examples have so much force methinks I hear the Captain of our salvation saying as Abimeleck said to the men that were with him Judg. 9.48 Make haste and do as I have done Christ Jesus hath by his example taught us our duty 1 Pet. 1.15 16. As he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation because it is written Be ye holy as I am holy Upon which account we are seriously exhorted in Scripture to look unto Jesus and to walk as he walked and can any consideration more abundantly serve to inspirit and excite us to live holy than this Methinks our having so brave an example should provoke us to follow his footsteps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth There are two chief reasons that greatly prevail with us to imitate other examples First the dignity and greatness of the person Secondly Interest and advantage Now both these motives should most powerfully prevail with us to make Christ the copy of our lives For first if we consider the dignity and worth of his person is he not the Son of the living God who in the days of his humiliation thought it no robbery to be called equal with God He was not a person of a mean and low extraction how meanly soever he lived here but one of extraordinary worth who by partaking of humane nature elevated it to the highest degree of honour He was not onely the chiefest among stten thousands but the delight of Heaven and Earth before whom the Princes of the Earth must appear and the great men to give him an account of their works And as for Interest I shall afterwards make it plain that we in nothing more cross our advantage than in walking contrary to Christ But alas how little are we moved by this noble president to minde Holiness how seldom do we express in our actions the vertues of our spiritual King although there is nothing more rational more equitable and just than to follow his footsteps who hath called us to his Kingdom and Glory nothing more honourable nor can advance our happiness more than to be conform to the image of Christ yet in opposition to the most endearing encouragements we have as much set at nought his example as Herod and his men of war did his person Luke 23.11 Alas what tears are sufficient to express and set forth this exceeding great madness and insolency Methinks I hear our blessed Prince speaking thus in his own vindication Ye unwise and foolish sons of men how long will ye prefer imperfect and ignoble patterns to one that is every whit perfect and compleat In your secular concerns ye judge more rationally prove a thousand times wiser for who amongst you does not make diligent enquiry for the most exact pattern that ye may conform what ye designe according to it but in matters of everlasting moment
men seriously believe the threatnings of the Gospel I am sure they would not for the fullest enjoyment of carnal felicity run the hazard of dwelling with everlasting burnings That man that soberly considers that the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men will I think easily be scared into reformation and be thereby excited to be diligent in the pursuit of substantial Holiness which is the safe course to escape that wrath Alas that men who are so wise and diligent in their secular concerns should prove so foolish so remiss and careless in matters of the greatest weight and which require the utmost diligence That rational creatures should so willingly purchase their own misery and be at so much pains to damn themselves 'T will surely be an aggravating circumstance of their misery to think that they might have been happy if they had but taken as much pains to live holily as they took in the pursuit of sinful pleasures How astonishing a consideration will it be to the damned to think of their treading under foot the Son of God and their counting the blood of the Covenant whereby they were sanctifiâ—d an unholy thing Heb. 10.29 to think that the time was when they enjoyed not onely a possibility but a fair probability also of escaping the fury and indignation of God! But men will not believe that a merciful God will thus torment his creatures that he who delights not in the death of sinners will execute his vengeance upon them Alas what delusory imaginations arethese for although fury is not in God yet his honour calls for the execution of Justice upon ungodly sinners who obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus He has waited long upon sinners and has fully testified that he is a God long suffering and slow to wrath He has not instantly resented every injury offered to him but day from day has been intreating sinners to turn from the evil of their ways and now seeing they set at nought all his counsel and will not hearken to his reproof what wonder is it though he laugh at their calamity and mock when their fear cometh Prov. 1.25.26 How heavy is that threatning Deut. 28.63 As the Lord rejoyced over you to do you Good so the Lord will rejoyce over you to destroy you To compleat the misery of the damned besides the intolerable and eternal pains they endure we may also adde that celestial felicity they are for ever excluded from How tormenting will it be to think of an everlasting separation from the divine Presence and instead of a holy Society to keep a continual correspondency with impure Spirits Would God that this brief discovery of the powers of the world to come might prevail with men to be holy in all manner of conversation But methinks I hear the over zealous Professor too ignorantly objecting that it is servile mercenary and legal to be holy for love of Heaven or fear of Hell Truly if it were so as these men teach I know not what can be the intent and designe of all the promises and threatnings of the Gospel And although I question not but it is a generous and Christian principle to serve God out of pure love yet I can never be induced to think that to be holy for love of Heaven and fear of Hell can be separate from that principle of love to God God knows how much in need men stand both of arguments to work upon their hope and fear to excite them to duty And since he who knows our natures has used promises to allure us and threatnings to awaken us we must not pretend to be wiser than God and reject those motives he has thought fit to prescribe and indeed if it were not for the fear of evil and the hope of good 't is to be feared the pressing of other motives should be but a mere beating of the Air. But that this is not servile and mercenary needs no other argument to prove it but our Saviour's enduring the Gross and despising the Shame for the joy that was set before him a Scripture sufficient enough to stop the mouths of all opponents SECT 4. Holiness the main design of the Gospel and the end of all Christs sufferings Subjects who know the intent and design of those Laws issued forth by their Prince will be loath to contemn his Authority especially when the whole intent of these is to make them by their obedience the more happy and sure 't is the most unaccountable thing that can be if they notwithstanding despise his Laws and quite counter-act his design Now the main designe of the Christian precepts is the promoting of Holiness and planting a good life in men This also was the onely intent of our Soveraign and Law-giver and it is certain the whole advantage redounds to us How impious then is it to despise the Authority of Heaven If God had made Holiness a matter of indifferency the want of such a qualification had not been criminal but since sacred Writ has declared That this is the will of God even our sanctification and that we must be holy as he is holy if we rebel the indignity and contempt we cast upon him is insufferable I have already shewed that it is the great design of the Gospel-Precepts Promises Threatings to exalt Holiness Hence the Apostle very aptly calls it A doctrine according to godliness and he tells us that the design of it is to teach men to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world and the Character of its nature is to turn men from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgivness of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in Christ I wish the effect were answerable to the designe I doubt not but the Gospel has had a kindly influence upon some to form them to Holiness I would fain wish upon all But alas the perverse and corrupt conversations of men plainly tell us that there are but a few who have answered its design In the next place it were easie to demonstrate that to plant Holiness amongst men was the end of Christs descending from Heaven to Earth and of all that he suffered This the Apostle plainly enough holds forth Tit. 2.14 He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purisie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Now what argument should be so powerful and prevalent to engage Christians to be universally holy as the due consideration of Christ's redeeming them for that end Men who are endu'd with any sparks of ingenuity cannot but be inspirited to be separate from the pollutions of this world when they reflect what their Redeemer hath suffered in order to the purchasing of their pardon and reconciliation For when poor Man had cast himself headlong from Heaven to Earth had