my self only in proportion to what I share of thee for I know this is the Standard by which God now value me and will hereafter judge me If this be the end of Religion onely to implant goodness and charity amongst us to make us holy and like God and kind and beneficial one to another what is it that the World hates it for I may say concerning those who persecute Christianity as St. Peter did of those who Crucified its Author I wot that through ignorance ye did it Act. 3 17. Surely it is because you do not discern its beauty that you do not Love it If any retir'd life promote the end I have mention'd as well as an Active once I would not be thought to condemne it The Prayer O God the Heaven and Earth are full of thy goodness the faculties of our souls and the senses of our bodies are all imploy'd in the contemplation and enjoyment of it O make us who worship thee to imitate thee too that we may be thy children indeed make our souls delight to do goood and imprint in us such tender and compassionate Bowels towards one another as our dear Lord and Master had towards us Amen Amen blessed Jesus CHAP. IV. Of Chrictian practice in particular HAving consider'd the Nature of Christianity in respect to practice in the general I am now to speak of it more particularly but not pretending to give an account of every single virtue I will dwell upon Three Which contain the substance of the Christian duty i.e. Faith Love and Humility I will not apologize for the unphilosophical placing of Faith amongst practical duties the following discourse will clear the reason of it I place humility in the last place not because there is not an humility which is precedent to and disposes men for the reception of faith but because I look upon that humility which is consequent to and caus'd by it and which must always accompany it to render it acceptable in a more peculiar and proper sense an Evangelical grace 1. Of Faith When I read the glorious Achievements of a true Faith Heb. 11. That it subdued Kingdomes wrought Righteousness obtained promises c. and in one word supported men under the greatest miseries and arm'd them against the most taking pleasures of this World I cannot sufficiently wonder that a fuller and clearer discovery of a Heaven confirm'd to us by the strongest evidences i. e. the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power should have so weak an influence upon us Christians we take no more pains for Heaven than if we did not believe there were such a place and we have the same cares and fears in respect of the things present which Heathens and Infidels have so that tho' we talk much of Faith we make little or no use at all of it Therefore least any man delude and fool himself with a perswasion of being endowed with that Faith which he hath not I 'le give such an account of it as agrees with the Gospel of the Kingdom as suits with and serves the necessities of mankind and the end and Aims of God Faith saith the blessed Apostle is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen the substance or presence the evidence or Proof 't is not a slight transient glance drowsie imperfect assent a staggering wavering opinion but 't is a lively representation an affective vision a full perswasion of the glorious truths of the Gospel when the Objects are so fully and clearly evident that they not onely convince but take us too it is having the mind enlightn'd and so looking upon things with the eys of Angels and judging by the light of the blessed Spirit It is not only to see that the things invisible are but to see them in some measure such as they are Eternity as Eternity and Heaven as Heaven that is a state of truely great and glorious happiness on this account the things present may have a different face and aspect when regarded by the eyes of Faith and when of Sense for sense stops in the things themselves and regards their usefulness to the pleasure or profit of this present life but Faith carries its sight forward and compares the things which are seen with those hoped for the things temporal with those eternal and then all below appears but meer vanity This whole account of Faith we may find in the 13 verse of Heb. 11. These all died in Faith and what it is to dye or live in Faith the following words explain not having reciev'd the promises i.e. the accomplishment of them but having seen them a far off i. e. by divine Revelation were perswaded of them and embraced them and the natural consequence of this was and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth Now Faith is unalterable as to its essence but its objects may vary they may be more or fewer clearer or darker according to the Nature of divine revelation Heb. 1.1 its evidence may be fuller or weaker but still it must be such as may suffice to convince man of the Divine authority of the Revelation As to the Christian Faith 2. Its objects are the whole Gospeâ—â— of Christ God the Father such as he is reveal'd by the Son God the Son incarnate crucified c. The Rewards and punishments contain'd in it and all in order to engage us to an entire obedience to its holy and righteous Precepts By Faith I see that God who is invisible who tho he dwels in Heaven doth yet humble himself to behold all that is done upon Earth nor doth he only behold but govern all things too And whilst I contemplate his Wisedom Power Truth Goodness Holiness Justice c. manifested to me in the Gospel I adore and worship him I love and fear him I call on and relie upon him I endeavour to walk before him and be perfect I know nothing like him and therefore I desire nothing beside him or equal to him in Heaven or in Earth By Faith I see the Son of God abandoning the bosome and the Glory of his Father descending upon Earth and assuming the form of a Servant that by his doctrine and example he might propagate Righteousness and holiness in the world I trace him thorough all the Stages of his sufferings and travel till I behold him fasten'd to the Cross and bleeding out his meek and holy Soul at those painful wounds the nails had made and all this for my sins and the sins of the whole World and then with what a strange mixture of Passions that sight fills me with grief and shame and yet with love and hope too How I am amaz'd to see what indignation a holy God hath discover'd against Sin and how my heart bleeds to think that my sins have treated thus despitefully and cruelly my dear Lord and Master and with what a melting passion and vigorous resolutions of a fervent industrious service and an everlasting zeal
state of torments afterward And yet all this while I have taken no notice of those additional sufferings which Divine Vengeance will no doubt inflict upon the Soul nor of the nature of the Soul the exaltedness of whose Essence heightens and sharpens the pain for the more delicate the Being the more subtle its perception and the more exquisite the torment Sect. 3. There is a third State wherein misery swels to the highest marke it can possibly when the Body being rais'd again shall follow the Fate of the Soul and both shall be condemn'd to inextinguishable flames O Hell where only the Enemies of God and Goodness dwell where wretched men undergo all that sullying the Divine Glory and trampling on the blood of Christ can merit But I have reserv'd a place for a further survey of this state I am sufficiently convinc'd that the gaining of the whole World cannot recompence the loss of my Soul since its loss implies all this and more for what would I take to be miserable or rather what would I take to be eternally so is it a rational question if I lose my self what can be gain to me the world peradventure will continue amiable many ages after I am gone but what is that to me And if to gain the whole world at so dear a price be so ill a Bargain how fatal a purchase should I make who am like to gain so little being none of the worlds greatest Favourites My Soul is not so cheap yet that I can set it at so low a rate as a few hundreds a year I am as immortal as any Monarch in Christendome and my pretensions to the Almighties favour may grow equal to that of any of the Sons of men and I should be a Profligate and Reprobate a Brute indeed if I should abandon my poor Soul to Misery and renounce the interest I have in the God of Heaven and Earth for I know not what Let who will therefore sweat and toil for wealth and greatness I have but this one business to do to insure this dear dear Soul of mine in its voyage to eternity let who will gain the Reputation of a wise man by a clearer fore-sight and thriftier management of affairs by an unwearied Attendance and insinuating applications I shall think my self wise enough if I can but be sav'd and great enough if I enjoy but the Smiles of Heaven Let who will applaud themselves for the contempt of intrigue and sullen business whilst they thaw and dissolve in soft and delicate pleasures or waste and spend themselves in course and toilsome Lusts If I may enjoy the pleasure of a manly rational life spent in a constant course of Religion and virtue without Superstition or frowardness of a mind unharass'd by desires and fears of a peaceful assur'd conscience of the contemplation of glorious Truths and the hopes of a blessed immortality I shall envy none the happiness of the most luscious pleasure or kindest fortune the World affords A Prayer reflecting on the precedent Discourse BLessed God give me grace to prefer the interest of my Soul to the World and Flesh the things eternal to the things temporal that amidst the pleasures of Prosperity and Peace and the flatteries of Reputation I may not forget to think what will be the condition of my future State and that amidst the troubles which besiege this mortal Life I may be supported by the blessed hopes of a better world that the confident belief of the Souls immortality may render me industrious to lay up a good foundation for the time to come so that when I shall have put off this Tabernacle of clay I may be cloath'd with a building of God not made with hands eternal in the Heavens all this I beg through Jesus Christ our Lord. CHAP. II. Of the Nature of Christianity Sect. 1. CHristianity may be considered either in Relation to Faith or Practice I will first consider the Christian Faith and that in the most practical manner I can In my Creed I have regard to three things especially 1. To the use and end of Faith which is certainly to guide and influence our lives 2. To the peace of my own Breast And 3. To the preservation of Charity My Reason for the first is evident of it self for the two later is this Tho I may doubt whether I believe aright all that is necessary to my eternal salvation and yet that doubt not prove injurious to my happiness at the last day because I did both believe aright and live conformably to it and the scruple arose only from the Disputes and Contests of men and the weakness of my own understanding not from any iniquity of my will yet this doubt will disquiet and disturb my repose damp my cheerfulness and vigour and may peradventure unsettle my faith and end if not in Atheism in coldness and indifferency And tho 2. I may believe Another in a damnable Errour when he is not without prejudice to my own Soul because I may make this judgement in the Simplicity of my heart by the best light and Rule I have yet peradventure this opinion may improve it self insensibly upon my affections to a very ill consequence and invite me to an uncharitable and unfriendly deportment 1. If I consider the Christian Faith with regard to the great end of it Holyness I observe that the Gospel contains two great things the Knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ This is Life eternal Joh. 17.3 To know thee the onely true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent This knowledge contains in it all the Obligations imaginable to a Holy Life and secures the hopes and comforts of Christians upon an unmovable foundation and this knowledge agrees perfectly with the Nature and Ends of Religion 1. First With the Nature of Religion Religion is nothing else but the true and spiritual worship of the only true God who is a Spirit Now all the worship we are capable of paying him consists either in the Affections of the Soul or Actions of the Body so that that Belief or Knowledge which tends to render these proper and acceptable to God is directly conformable to the Nature of Religion The Gospel therefore hath discovered God to us 1. One infinite in Wisedom Power Holyness Goodness c. And secondly as he stands more particularly related to us in the Work of Creation Providence Redemption All this put together proves him to be God and to be Ours it evinces his Excellency and his Supremacy it represents him infinitely Lovely and Adorable in himself and entitles him to all the service and affection which Dominion Love and Munificence can lay a just claim to all which is enforcement enough which is the use of Faith to our Duty when we are acquainted with it Which that we might be and that we might have assistance to enable us to performe it and that there might be a Provision made for the pardon of our errors God in
this present State would be good and even pleasure and interest would not peradventure be the same thing then that now for the soul would not challenge so distinct a consideration or provision as now for it would not be onely lawful but wise for it to become sensual and worldly and so the same pleasure and interest would minister to the happiness of both Body and Soul But now that we are assur'd that we are to live to all Eternity and that every action of ours hath an influence on that other life we must needs conclude that every action is good or bad wise or foolish as it serves or hinders our happiness in that State to come that this motive may have its full force it will behove every man to take as lively a survey as he can of the joys and miseries of another Life And 1. Of Heaven It must be confest that to be able to speak properly of Heaven we have need like St. Paul to be rapt up into it for the richest fancy would be but flat and barren in its framing any resemblance of the joyes and glory of that place they are unconceiveable Heaven is like the God of it there is no searching of him out unto perfection but yet there is enough of him manifested to prove him to us strangely aimable and therefore I 'le consider what is manifested to us of Heaven 1. The place 2. The persons for the objects they will fall in with these which constitute the happiness of Heaven 1. As to the Place Heaven it is the sacred abode of God and Angels and therefore it must as much exceed this World as they do us for no doubt on 't the wise Architect of all things made each Pallace proper and fit for the entertainment of that family it was to receive and indeed it appears to be a place fit for the Favorits of God to live in for Heaven is a place of everlasting life and everlasting happiness Heaven is the end and consummation of all things all things will there be in their highest perfection which they are capable of we are now the rough draught of what the great Artificer intends us imagine to what glory we may be rais'd we once were dirt and clay see now what comely glorious beings yet we are to be refin'd much more above what we are now than flesh and blood is above dirt and clay what difference there is between Time and Eternity between corruption and incorruption so much we differ in our existence and essence now from what we shall be afterwards for mortality must be swallowed up of immortality and corruption of incorruption If Heaven be a state wherein all things are consummated an end which hath none beyond it then I infer 1. That there will be nothing more for us either to hope or fear all will be full of quiet and peace no passions there but Love and Joy and Wonder there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain Rev. 21. 2. Having obtain'd our end we shall have no further need of means there will be nothing which is to be done meerly for the sake of something else as here below the covetous man suffers hardship and the toil of constant business not because he loves trouble but because he would be rich the Religious man offers violence to his own body not because it is actually pleasant to do so but because it is in order to a greater good therefore there being nothing of this to be done in Heaven all the business and imployment of that Life will be delight and pleasure hence it is every where in Scripture describ'd as a State of Peace and Rest and Joy and Pleasure 2. As to the Persons I a poor creature of this World below I who have felt the troubles of this mortal State been tortur'd by the passions of Flesh and Bloud Fears and Cares Despairs and Hopes even I am going to a Heaven where none of these can enter where I shall be made happy with those enjoyments which make God and Angels so I shall be made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to the Angels in Heaven how far above them in my happiness for what a value will the experience of this World make me set upon the joyes of another the sense and memory of misery will make my Heaven double I consider that in that Life to come we shall have Soul and Bodies tho not such as we have now our Souls will be strangely rais'd and refin'd in their nature and endow'd with strange measures of knowledge this compar'd to the other Life being like Childhood to Manhood 1 Cor. 13.9 10 11 12. We know in part but when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away when I was a Child I spake as a Child I understood as a Child I thought as a Child but when I became a Man I put away Childish things for now we see tborough a glass darkly but then face to face now I know in part but then shall I know even as also I am known I am not willing to infer what kind of measures of knowledge this Text imports to determine how well we shall be vers'd in the Philosophy of Grace and Nature and the World above how experienc'd we shall be in the Annals and History of this Life and the other 't is enough to say as the Text doth that what we do see we shall see plainly not darkly and what can we see in another Life but God c. How rich a pleasure this will be only ingenious and excellent spirits are capable of fancying all may be able to guess that it will be a most unspeakable pleasure because knowledge is one of the Excellencies of God and Angels and the delight of the wiser part of Mankind As for the Souls Affections they will surely be settled on God or whatever other objects there may be subordinate they will be such as will become so pure and holy a Being for the Appetite of each Being flows from the Constitution and Nature of it it now indeed derives mean and degenerous inclinations from its communion with the Body whose contrivance is proper for the state it lives in But then the Body will be rais'd a spiritual glorified Body which is to be understood in opposition to a carnal natural one 1 Cor. 15. a Body proper to be an Inhabitant of such a place and to be a suitable companion to such a Soul fit to comply with its desires and in some measure sure to partake of its joyes which I may place as the first ingredient of the happiness of the Body in that Life to come i.e. As it here grieves and joyes in the pain or pleasure of the Soul so there it will much more if the satisfaction of the Soul now do by a happy influence impart health and chearfulness and pleasure to the body it will
and unbelieving the abominable and Murtherers Whoremongers and Sorcerers Idolaters and Lyars and all the Enemies of God and Goodness The Duration of this State is for ever as Eternal as the Joys of Heaven an Everlasting Punishment the Worm never dies and the Fire cannot be quenched And though the Almighty may not be bound up to fulfil his threats which whether so applicable to God as Man I 'le not dispute yet certainly our Saviour and his Apostles in giving us a Narrative or History of the different Issues of things are bound to speak truth Hell then is a fixt state of misery wherein men have bid adieu to the pleasures of Earth and to all hopes of Heaven the memory of past pleasures doth but increase their pain and what 's beyond all the misery of this world they enjoy not as much as the deceitful Dreams of flattering hopes Hell where there 's no light nor ease nor God nor any harmless pleasure to divert the pain a moment Hell where only the wretched Objects of an Incens'd God do for ever weep and wail Is this the Death which is the wages of Sin Can Sin offer me any pleasure that can countervail this Eternity of miseries or is there any thing in poverty or shame or banishment or death equal to this Hell if not what blind brutish madness pusheth me on to sin Can I dwell with Everlasting Burnings Can I be content to live in an endless Night of pains and horrours Adieu my fatal pleasures I had rather starve and macerate this Body into sobriety than by Indulgence betray it to the rage and fury of Almighty Vengeance I 'le shut my eyes against all forbidden Fruits rather than for ever deprive 'm of the sight of Heaven and close them up in an Eternal Night Welcom whatever Penances Religion may impose upon me whatever the World may threaten me with for the discharge of a good Conscience I 'd watch and fast till Death rather than be Damn'd I 'd be the scorn and hate of Mankind rather than of God Are not these terrible Truths Are they not arm'd with Lightning and Thunder enough to startle the most harden'd sinner Good God what makes the World so dead so callous that such dreadful Objects cannot rouze nor pierce them It must needs be because they put that evil day so far off that the biggest terrours of it look but like Moats at such a distance But surely we mistake our selves in our computation we are now in Time how narrow is the Isthmus which parts Time from Eternity or is there any Partition at all but one groan that the frame of our Nature cracks with but one parting moment wafts us over upon the shore of another world Heaven and Hell they are not at the distance of so many years from this world but just of so much time as will serve us to die in And is this so much that we should frolick and wanton in our sins as if we were not within ken of danger there 's scarce a moment in the day wherein some Soul or other in some part of the world doth not make its Exit into another life and shall I sin as securely as if my time and death were at my own disposal I came but a few years ago into the world and within a few more I must go out on 't how soon this day will come I know not I 'm sure that the Sentence of Death is past upon me already I only wait the hour of Execution which any trifling cause can be the instrument of I may die of pleasure or of pain I may die of want or fulness I may die of desire or enjoyment what is it then which cannot give Death the very heighth of health is a degree of sickness my Scull is weak my skin and flesh thin and soft my heart tender and my passions easie my inner part is full of strange mazes vessels curiously contriv'd and subtilly dispos'd what a little will ravel this intricate contexture and discompose this delicate frame and shall I be as secure as if my strength were Iron and my sinews Brass and the position of my parts fixt as the Decrees of Heaven No no I 'le live in continual expectation of my Death I 'le examine my Soul each Evening and close my eyelids as if I were to awake next morning in another world I 'le often take my leave of this world and fancy I shall see this or that pleasant object no more no more and I 'le address my self to my God as if my Soul were ready to take wing and I 'le soberly consider the Nature of my God the value of Christs Sacrifice and the Truth of my Faith and so I shall learn to disingage my self from this world and to die handsomely and comfortably if not in rapture The Prayer O Most gracious God who hast hedg'd about our ways that we may not stray and wander into ruine who hast endeavour'd to frighten us into happiness by the dread and terrours of a Hell O grant that this fear may be fixt in my very flesh and produce in me a cautious and a wary depormtent that I remembring that our God is Consuming Fire may not dare to provoke thee to wrath and indignation against me And grant O most merciful Father that I may not put the day of death far from me and flatter my self into security and misery but live each day as if it were my last because I do not know but that it may be so that I may enter at last into that state where there shall be no more conflict with sin nor fear of death through Jesus Christ our Lord. SECT II. Of the second Motive to Holiness i.e. the consideration of the Divine Nature THe knowledge of the Nature of God is so powerful an inforcement to Vertue and a determent from Vice that Religion and the knowledge of God and Irreligion and a want of that knowledge are made use of by the Spirit of God as expressions of the same import as 1 Cor. 15.34 Awake to righteousness and sin not for some have not the knowledge of God And this not without reason for the knowledge of God will 1. Discover to us the Nature of Holiness and of Sin 2. It will convince us how reasonable it is that we should serve him And 3. It will confirm in us a full perswasion of the Reward of Vertue and Punishment of Vice To this purpose therefore let us consider the Nature of God as it is taught us in the Gospel of that Son of God who lay in the Bosom of his Father and hath declar'd him to us And the first thing is that God is a Spirit Jo. 4.24 and those Attributes which the Gospel assigns him and which are a fuller discovery of his Nature are Knowledge Wisdom Holiness under which may in the opinion of some be comprehended Goodness Justice and Power and Dominion Now from that resemblance which Religion
satisfaction before all the world unless I could chose to be miserable and delight to be unhappy 3. This very Consideration supposing the uncertainty of another World would yet strongly engage me to the service of Religion for all it aims at is to banish sin out of the world which is the source and Original of all the troubles that disquiet the mind for 1. Sin in its very Essence is nothing else but disordered distempered passions affections foolish and preposterous in their choice or wild and extravagant in their proportion which our own experience sufficiently convinces us to be painful and uneasie 2. It engages us in desperate hazards wearies us with daily toils and often buries us in the ruins we bring upon our selves and lastly it fills our hearts with distrust and fear and shame for we shall never be able to perswade our selves fully that there is no difference between good and evil that there is no God or none that concerns himself at the Actions of this life and if we cannot we can never rid our selves of the pangs and stings of a trembling Soul we shall never be able to establish a peace and calm in our bosomes and so injoy our Pleasure with a clear and uninterrupted freedome But if we could perswade ourselves into the utmost height of Atheism yet still we shall be under these two strange inconveniences 1. That a life of Sin will be still irregular and disorderly and therefore troublesome 2. That we shall have dismantled our Souls of their greatest strengths disarm'd them of that Faith which only can support them under th' afflictions of this present Life Not to mention that after all the sad Stories of another Life will not be strait way nonsense because we think them so they will continue at leastwise disputable and who would but a desperate-Sot commit his Soul to such a venture Sect. 2. 4. But when I consider that the immortality of the Soul is a perswasion which generally obtain'd in the Heathen world That the more wise and virtuous any of 'em were the more deeply were they possess'd by the belief and hopes of it that the reasons Plato Cicero c. founded this assertion in deriv'd from the nature of the Soul its operations its little affinity to any visible matter its resemblance of the Deity c. have rendred it so highly probable that it hath shed a very powerfull influence upon the Lives of many 5. But especially and above all when I consider that the Holy Scripture whose Divine Authority is clear'd by as strong evidences as any matter of that nature is capable of assures me that this Soul whether in its own nature immortal or no I 'le not now examine shall not perish in the Dissolution of this Earthly Tabernacle as Eccles 12.7 Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God who gave it and Mat. 10.28 Fear not them which kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul The Soul it seems is not liable to the injuries of a Disease or the violence commited on the Body but doth subsist when the Body is dissolv'd into its dust When I consider all this I can never so far renounce my Reason and harden my self against all the tenderness and passion I have for my self as to be content that this Soul should be lost in that other State provided I be fortunate and successeful in this for what satisfaction can I then reap from a patrimony or purchase wide as the world it self in a state wherein I shall be depriv'd of all means and opportunity of enjoyment What can the Wealth or Power or Beauty of the World signifie to me when the Body which is the proper instrument of earthly pleasure shall lie stark dead and cold in the Grave shall have no passions no appetites nor can all the Rhetorick or wanton charms on Earth awaken in it one languishing desire or one imperfect act of Life and as to the Soul it must dwell in the Mansions of a new world far far remote from this wherein every thing will be strange wonderful unalterable and eternal But I must pursue this thought a little further and not stopping in the contemplation of the uselessness of the World after the Souls departure from it go on to consider the Soul in its intermediate state between Death and the Resurrection that I may know the utmost if I can that the loss of a Soul imports and here I would suppose my self surprised in the midst of gavety and pleasures of Love and Honour by a violent inexorable disease I resign up my dear objects and my dotage together I am torn from my possessions and my hopes and when the storm hath burst the Cable and shatter'd the Hulk of this frail Bark the Body it casts my Soul that is all that remains of me upon an unknown strand naked and poor and desolate without interests or friends or hopes it must dwell in the dismal blackness of eternal night and Melancholly rackt by despair and guilt scourg'd by shame and rage tortur'd with envy and vexation stab'd by regret and repentance not a calm and soft but a tempestuous and painful one then like some sick body which rowles and tumbles for an easie posture rather out of an inability to suffer pain than any hope of finding rest it sometimes languishes and looks back upon the world vanisht like a dream and repeats ineffective wishes for the Body but it shall return to its dear wealth and beauty no more for ever Sometimes like Dives in the flames it looks towards that Region where Light and holy Souls do dwell but the unpassable gulph of the Almighty's Decree cuts off all hopes of that so that that Light onely augments its envy and despair and Heaven it self adds misery to the wretched Souls hell This is the natural and unavoydable state of a wretched Soul dislodg'd from the body despair and rage and shame and guilt and fear and grief and anguish gnaw and devour the miserable creature and for ever must encrease Blessed God! need there any chains to sink it lower than its own weight hath done Needs there any other darkness cover that Soul which such a cloud of sorrows hath benighted Tell me no more of pleasures these thoughts are enough to make me tremble and grow pale at the approach of a temptation rather than my Soul should dwell in such a state a thousand years may shame and poverty be my portion in this life may the hatred of powerful enemies or what is worse the scorn of my dearest friends persue me may my Body be but a Scene of Diseases and so incapable of the least gust of pleasure and more than this may an awakened tender Conscience every moment flash Death and Hell into my face or if there be any thing worse let me suffer it so it but preserve my Soul from Sin here and from that inexpressible
Religion is in its essence an inward and spiritual Holiness outward actions can be considered but two wayes either as the means and instruments or else as the fruits and effects of Holiness and both ways a sober temperate Life as to the general course of it is indispensably necessary tho I cannot here deny but that there must be an allowance made for the variety of Tempers and the different strengths of grace c. proportionable to each mans different case Having thus given an Account of the nature of the Holiness which the Gospel requires I come 2. To shew that it tends to promote Gods Glory and Mans Happiness 1. Gods Glory 1. Though a right understanding be wholly necessary to yet it self is no part of Divine worship it is not meer knowledge or belief of a truth but Love and Fear and Obedience by which we honour God and devote our selves to him there is no where more light of knowledge Heaven excepted than in those Regions of darkness where the most impious Spirits dwell but no body will say that they there worship God 't is true an understanding illuminated is certainly a beautiful thing but then if it be joyn'd to an unsanctified will the Man in the whole is the most deform'd and loathsome thing imaginable for he is made up of two the most disproportionable and contradictory things as if he were formed as the Poet fancies men growing out of the slime of the Deluge the upper parts enlivened flesh and bloud the lower mud and clay the light of the understanding enhaunces the guilt of malice and degeneracy in the Will for to see God and not love and obey him is strangely malicious but if his beauty be not ador'd by things that have no eyes to see it 't is not to be wondred at If you had been blind then had you had no sin 2. The Heavens saith the Psalmist declare the glory of God c. Their brightness and vastness whilst they engage our wonder invite us to the contemplation of the Power and Infiniteness and Majesty of their Architect so Holy and Good men declare his glory too for being renewed after his Image in Holiness and righteousness they represent to the World an imperfect draught of some of the glorious attributes 〈◊〉 God they worship thus as the power of Miracles imported to the Apostles forc'd the Beholders to glorifie God who had given such gifts unto men so too Christ exhorts his Disciples to let their Light shine before men that when they see those good works they may glorifie God who is in Heaven induc'd by the loveliness of that Goodness deriv'd from him as the other were by his power 3. It is Goodness by which we own a God and acknowledge him to be ours Divine worship is the confession of our meanness and his Majesty and conformity to his Laws is the fullest proof we can give of our Allegiance and his Supremacy and therefore they who live irreligiously let 'em pretend to believe and think what they will are said to be without God in the world and to deny him in their works 4. Holiness or Goodness is really Divine worship and therefore it is in Scripture defin'd to be Religion and Wisdome and Knowledge To know God this is Wisdom and to depart from evil this is understanding To do Justice to releive the Poor and Needy is not this to know God saith the Lord pure Religion and undefiled is this to visit the Fatherless and Widows in their affliction and to keep ones self unspotted from the world more plainly what is worship but the cleaving to God with purity and earnestness of Affections acting in conformity to his Law as those Affections shall invite and inable us and this is the very same thing with Holiness So that it is plain that Holiness and Goodness contribute to Gods Glory the two only wayes we are only capable of glorifying him that is by our own particular worship and by the influence our example hath upon others § 2. It is most serviceable to the Happiness of Man here and hereafter 1. Here. 1. All the advantage of peacefu Governments friendly Neighborhood I comfortable and closer unions and pleasant Retirements depend on and arise from Goodness But suppose the World planted with Covetousness instead of Justice Pride instead of Meekness Cruelty instead of Compassion Revenge and Malice instead of Mildness and Charity falshood and lying instead of Constancy and Truth c. and imagine if you can whether all Societies would not be torn into as many Factions as there are cross interests and opposite passions whether any Commerce could be just and smooth any tie lasting and delightful whether it were possible to find security or pleasure either in a private or a publick Life 2. It is Holiness which best secures a mans inward peace guards and arms him against those impressions which outward temptations make prescribes bounds to our Desires scatters our Fears confirms our Hopes raises our Affections to things of true and lasting Excellency that is in few words it not only settles our peace by establishing the empire of the mind over the inferiour Appetites but also provides for our pleasure by filling the mind with spiritual Joyes and Peace and Hope 2. Hereafter 3. Goodness is wholly necessary 1. To recommend us to the Love of God whose infinite purity and excellency cannot approve of any thing that is sinful and unholy This is the Message that we have received of him that God is Light c. Where you see that the Law is founded in his Nature hath an intrinsick resemblance to his own Holiness and by consequence he can neither alter it nor dispence with its Observation 2. To qualifie us for Heaven for it is Goodness which weans the Soul from all fondness for the Body and the World and possesses it with an intense Love of God and Holiness which two things do first capacitate it for that world wherein God and holy Spirits dwell and Secondly recommend it to greater degrees of Glory and Happyness in it Besides all this the Scripture speaks This Doctrine in express terms the grace of God which hath appear'd unto all men teacheth us c. This was the great business of our Saviours Life he was still instructing men in the doctrine of the Kingdome that is Godliness Righteousness and Sobriety His Miracles did confirm the Divinity of his Person and this too was carefully secur'd to gain authority to his Doctrine I will conclude this Chapter with the absurdity of the contrary Doctrine Of what use would the Gospel be in relation either to God's Glory or Mans happiness if it were onely to be believ'd and not obeyed To what purpose is light come into the world if men may still love darkness to what purpose did the Son who lay in the bosome of the Father reveal him more gloriously to us if knowing him as God it be yet lawful for us not to glorifie him
nearly related to us but then 1. The measure of this provision must be our necessities not wantonness for if we refuse relief to the poor on this pretence that we cannot support our vanity and gaiety and their poverty together undoubtedly we shall perish under the guilt of uncharitableness 2. The present time not the vain fears of the future must determine this necessity for if we deny an alms out of our present plenty upon an idle fear of future want it is so far from being a just excuse that it is a double crime distrust in God as well as hard heartedness to our Brother contradictory to Faith as well as Charity I will answer to the Second pretence by degrees and therefore 1. Suppose the worth or worthlesness or what 's more unworthiness of the distress'd person be only doubtful and suspected then certainly it is not agreeable to Charity to give up a Brother to ruine upon a vain surmise we are not to dispute their deserts but to regard their wants I 'me sure this is the safest side Charity may be mistaken but shall never be unrewarded we are herein I think to imitate that Wisdome and Goodness which dispenses th' Alms of our Heavenly Father he hath no doubt on 't particular favours as well as a particular kindness for the good and holy but as he is the God of all so those his benefits which all stand in absolute need of are common to all but 2. Suppose the distress'd person be really as Evil as Needy unless I am sure that my Charity will feed his vices I cannot tell tho' God hath pleas'd to pass a sentence of affliction upon him whether he hath appointed me to be the Executioner of it by withholding that aid which may reprieve his life how know I but that in those moments I lend him he may return to himself and to his God nay more whether my Charity may not be a motive to reduce him and happy I if I may so cheaply bestow a double life of body and of soul if I may so easily retrieve a soul my Saviour died for and whilst I give an alms in some sence bestow a Heaven too But if those I relieve should be the Children of my Father the fellow heirs of Salvation how happy an opportunity is light into my hands of obliging those who are so dear to Heaven whose interest is so powerful with the God I worship Yet Lastly in general whatever the occasion be whatever the persons blest be the hour wherein I have an opportunity to evidence my Love to God and to part with something for the sake of my dear Saviour Blest be the hour wherein I can lay out the very superfluities of my trifling stock for a Mansion in Heaven for an abode in everlasting bliss where in I can honestly buy the Prayers of the poor i. e. it may be the intercession of the blessed spirit for me however they are prayers which are very seldome insignificant for if God hears when they curse in bitterness of Spirit when certainly 't is his goodness not their piety which makes their Prayers heard how much more shall his goodness invite him to hear when they bless in the cheerfulness and refreshment of their soul Lastly how comfortable will my reflexions on my Charity be at the hour of Death and in the day of Judgement for be it with an humble reverence spoken tho in imitation of my Saviour how will that Jesus whom I have fed when hungry cloath'd when nak'd visited and comforted when sick and imprison'd ever give me up to an Eternity of flames 3. But yet this is not the whole of the object of our Charity there are whose souls are poor diseas'd and destress'd as well as their bodies and can an ulcer'd Leg or withered Arm deserve my pity more than a leprous soul can I chuse but melt and soften at a sight which speaks a present and boades a future misery is the eternal welfare of my Brother grown so contemptible in my fight that I 'le not spend an hour or word to ensure it Alass how then dwells the same spirit in me which was in Christ Jesus Well then I will go and visit sick souls I will prescribe and presse and Watch and Court and if I see them profligate beyond the hopes of recovery I 'le recommend them as I do departing friends in Prayers and Tears to God and whatever the success prove to them it will be kind and favourable to me Angels will offer up the incense of my Prayers and bottle up my Tears as well as those spent on my own sins and my God will multiply and encrease my Talents when he sees that I spend them well and the World will Love me and the very wicked will praise and justifie my God for these effects of his good spirit Sect. 2. But nature it self seems to encline us to these Acts of Charity as far as they concern the Relief of the necessitous the comfort of the afflicted and Ministry to souls nor can we share in humanity but that we must pertake of some degrees of and aptnesses to Christianity the most difficult part of Charity is still behind i.e. the forgiving injuries or more the returning good for evil and yet if we will be the followers of our blessed Saviour the Children of our Heavenly Father This is it that we must labour after that our souls may be so exalted and heavenly so good and holy that they may not be easily ruffled into peevishness and frowardness much less rankle into a settled malice and a resolv'd revenge but that they may be all calm and smoothness all Love and sweetness Then indeed we may think our selves the Children of God when we can look upon injuries done us with the mildness which arises from a sense of our own frailties with a meekness which is grounded upon our own worthlesness with a compos'dness of midn which remits all to an Almighty and wise God and with a compassion which the consideration of their folly and sin doth awaken in us when we can have the Charity to believe a just cause of mens actions conceal'd tho we can discover none or if the malice be as plain and evident as the wrong then if we can pray for those who curse us honour and Love those who treat us with despight and scorn if we can support the interest and buoy up the reputation of those who have us'd us shamefully and ungratefully after we have Lov'd and after we have serv'd them if we can do this then indeed the spirit of the Gospel a Spirit of Peace and Love abides in us And that I may arrive at this perfection I reason thus with my self 'T is true he hath wrong'd me but unless it were for conquering wrongs what need have I of Christian patience Where is the meekness of the Christian spirit if I am hurried away by the same passion with an Heathen and Infidel I
God and inform'd by man and therefore on all these accounts an humble Man can never be enthusiastical obstinate or seditious for he can never arrive at that height of Spiritual pride as to conceit himself the onely favourite of Heaven and fit for extroardinary illuminations nor at that height of carnal pride as to be a buisie body a stiff asserter of his own humour or judg of his superiours on earth and so think himself more fit to Reign than to suffer In one word Humilities whole deportment is sweet and gentle its very zeal is modest its reprehension soft and timerous its Prayers awful its reflections mournful and its hopes of Heaven softly growing it is neither severe nor peevish obstinate nor hasty bold nor selfish insolent nor querulous it can suffer its wounds to be prov'd and search'd and kisses the hand whilest it loaths the filth it doth not insult o're anothers errours nor excuse its own nay rather its modesty conceals its beauties and blushes at the discovery of its own excellencies it never prostitutes to beg praises nay if it accidentally meet them it is rather burden'd and oppress'd than puff'd up by them I will then account my self to have attain'd to some degree of this grace when I can possess my soul at rest when I delight in the milk of Gods word more than its heights and entricacies in obedience more than disputes and fancies when I can receive evil from the hand of God as well as good when I can sacrifice my own will to the caprice of a Superiour the obstinacy of an inferiour or the humour of an equal when I can suffer wrongfully and yet meekly when I can look upon the glories and the power of this World and contentedly say I am not born for these I am not call'd to the enjoyment of these but of the Cross here and Glory hereafter I am to tread in the steps of my dear Lord and Master and nothing shall make me have any other designs than those he had and when I have done all this and am assur'd that I love and serve my God I relie onely upon the merits and sufferings of my Saviour for Salvation and a Crown This duty of Humility is the most useful and the most difficult in Christianity the most useful for it recommends us to God indears us to men and establishes a Peace and calm in our own bosomes the most difficult for it is to renounce what is most near and dear to us our interest and pleasures our reputation nay our very selves our understanding will and affections There are two mighty motives wich are most insisted on by the holy Spirit the one is that Humility is the way to the increase of Grace here and to greater measures of Glory hereafter God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted the other is the example of our Saviour who tho so great as to be the Son of God and to think it no Robbery to be equal to God so innocent that he had no guilt upo him none could accuse him of sin so dignified as to be Prophet Priest and King did yet debase himself to the meanest services on purpose that he might leave his Disciples a pattern to imitate tho he were adorn'd by all that might give him a just claim to Honour as Birth Virtue and the Dignity of the most illustrious functions yet he was as much the humblest as he was the greatest as much the most meek as the most innocent of the Sons of Men and if he our Lord and Master stoopt so low what can we who are at that vast distance beneath him do or suffer that is capable of disparaging us Besides these considerations it will be very useful towards implanting humility in us to know God and our selves his Dayes are without Beginning or Ending his perfections have no bounds he is Independent and immutable he is his own Heaven and his own happiness but we are dust and the Sons of Corruption born yesterday and we shall dye to morrow our bodies heavy sluggish crafie beings of a few spans long our souls are blind and ambitious passionate froward jealous inconstant foolish things those are the seat or abode of numerous pains and diseases These of as numerous and as painful passions the World we live in is a meer phantasm and cheat that first invites and then deludes our appetites for enjoyment it self is but a dying itch and the mockery of a waking dream the time past reflects our sins and follies the present is troubled with regret and desires and vexations and the future will be what the present now is for when all is nothing what can be the end of our hopes and cares but disappointment And all this consider'd is not God most fit to Govern and we to obey he to be exalted and we to be humbled but why do I compare Man to God! let us compare him but to the Angels of God and how inconceiveably more excellent is their being and their state than ours how wise and knowing how refin'd and pure their substances we see but thorough a Cloud and are clad with an earthy body they dwell in the Circles of Glory in the Sun-shine of the Almighty's presence and in a numerous Choire of the most pleasant and delightful company We in long Nights and cold Winters and barren Soils and lonesome-shades tir'd with sullen toilsome business and dull insipid conversation and only wait for the approaching day and the rendevouz of blessed Spirits in Heaven Lord what is Man The Prayer O Thou God who resistest the Proud and givest grace to the Humble possess me with a meek and humble Spirit teach me to tread in the steps of my blessed Saviour to serve and Minister to obey and suffer teach me to know Thee my God and my self that the sence of thy incomprehensible glory and my meanness may level all my foolish conceits of my self and cloath me with humility through Jesus Christ our Lord. O my God make me resign'd and obedient to thee Subject to my Superiours modest towards my equals and meek to my Inferiours make me to despise the praise and honour of man being content with the conscience of doing good make me see the imperfections of my best actions and relye upon thy mercy for Salvation thorough the blood of Christ that my Soul may here find rest and hereafter Glory Amen Amen Blessed Jesus Sect. 5. Of Perfection It is an opinion generally receiv'd that the least degree of true Faith will save the soul but I hope men mean such a degree of it as overcomes the World and subdues the Flesh for otherwise I should very much question whether it be not that seed which becometh unfruitful thorough the cares of the World and deceitfulness of riches and the lusts of other things Mar. 4.19 If they say that that Faith which doth not overcome the World and the Flesh is
Horizon and expect the breaking forth of the Sun of Righteousness Sometimes in my Contemplation I die and strip my self of all and bid farewel to my dearest friends and my fancy wraps my body in its winding sheet and wafts my Soul to God and I enter as far as I can into Heaven and I dwell there and so the taste of another world like the eating of Manna makes my Palat too nice for the Garlick and Onyons of Egypt 3. The great Motives of the Gospel whereby we are incourag'd to despise worldly pleasures are 1. The Love of God manifested in his loving us and in the sending his own Son into the world for our sakes that we might be the Sons of God whence the Apostles every where infer That the love of God should constrain us to obey him as dear Children and Sons of the most High God and consequently not to walk as those who know not God in the lusts of the flesh and the fashions of the world but being renewed in the spirit of our minds to please him in holiness and purity and the inexpressible Love of the Blessed Jesus dying for us on the Cross will not suffer us to be guilty of such a baseness as to betray him at the sollicitation of a Sensual Lust and that blessed Spirit of Love which dwells in the Children of Obedience is quench'd and griev'd by carnal lusts and therefore they must deny all impurity that the Lord may delight to live amongst them Nothing will seem difficult to us if we but consider these things the Majesty of God and the vanity of man the height of his love and imperfection of mans obedience 2. Our own Exeellency We are the Temple of the Holy Spirit we are the Children of the living God the Children of Light the Purchase of the Blood of Christ the Delight of God and the care of Angels and shall we wallow in bruitish lusts like those who have no knowledge no hopes 3. Our rewards here joy and peace and hope do constantly dwell in that Soul which works Righteousness and continues in patience and well doing and can any of the fulsom pleasures of the body be compar'd to the calm and transport of a holy Soul and yet these are but imperfect dawnings of an Eternal Day there are things laid up for those who love God which the heart cannot conceive nor the tongue express and these precious promises must needs inable us to live above the corruption which is in the world through lust So that now though the pleasures which Christians are commanded to renounce were very full and satisfactory yet the love of God who injoyns this Abstinence the love of Jesus who suffer'd for us and the love of that Spirit which is tender'd in the Gospel to purifie our minds and fill them with delight and pleasure would render our compliance with these Commands very reasonable and easie and if we add the consideration of the peace and satisfaction which flow from an entire Mortification and the glorious promises which are annex'd to it it will be almost impossible to resist the united force of such powerful Arguments and how much more if we consider 4. The emptiness and vanity of all those pleasures by which the sinner is insnar'd The world hath nothing in it which is truly great and satisfactory it s most exquisite entertainments are strangely empty mixt and alloy'd and fleeting 1. Empty Every mans practice is a daily confession of this for how taking soever a pleasure may appear in fancy and prospect yet 't is common that men soon disrelish what they enjoy and disdain what they possess and if men daily change and contrive new pleasures is it not a plain confession of being dissatisfied with the old And what shall the poor Epicure do if Enjoyment it self prove fatal is it not an evident proof that the choice is foolish the object empty the faculties weak and the world a Cheat It were easie to prove this if I should run oâ—e particulars What is Greatness it is so much nothing I know not what it is it is a slippery height it is a glorious slavery a pretty Pageantry and fantastick formality What is Wealth this should not be reckon'd as an enjoyment 't is but the mean to one what is Lust but an outragious ferment of the blood a sudden mutiny of spirits it is a sudden blaze that flashes and then dies the delicacy and flavour of Meats and Drinks is scarcely perceptible to most it is so much nothing gaity of attire is the pleasure only of Children and of Fools it is an imaginary prettiness But the truth on 't is pleasure here below is not to be measur'd by the weight and substance of the Objects but by the quickness and strength of Fancy or Imagination for 't is with Men as 't is with Children 't is not the rattle or the toy but 't is the silliness of the fancy which creates the pleasure and therefore I 'le consider this a little If the Imagination be childish nice and fond it frames and creates Art and delicacy in the object and begets passions tender impotent and warm possession now one would fancy would certainly make one thus qualified happy but the mischief on 't is these are the characters only of a raw unexperienc'd sinner who admires what he never tryed like a man come into a new world the strangeness only begets the wonder success will make him unhappy when he hath tryed all objects he will find all but vanity for as soon as Experience hath defeated him of the Imagination it robs him of the pleasure too and a weather-beaten sinner derives his temptation only at last from custom and he sins not so much because 't is pleasant as because he is us'd to do so This is the whole state of the case Imagination and Fancy is the pleasure not enjoyment and that cannot last without this nor with it but besides there is such an uneasiness accompanies a violent desire of any thing that it more than punisheth the pretty pleasures which Fancy frames hear a man essaying to discover what he feels and he 'll express his passion by flames and feavers wounds and diseases pleasing smarts and killing pleasures so sick are they of their passions and languish of their desires and die of enjoyment 't is in all pleasures as in those of eating and drinking the painful appetites of hunger and thirst fore-run them and feeding and drinking extinguish the appetite and pleasure too This is the case of those who pretend to the greatest gallantry and wit in the choice and contrivance of their sins what shall we think of those who drudge for bafer metals and more dreggy course vices the toilsom pleasures of gluttony and drunkenness of pride and covetousness the malicious pleasures of frowardness faction and disobedience Surely these are worse than vanity the Soul of man must be light and airy and silly and unballasted e're it can
that thou hast secured our happiness by the Revelation of glorious truths by the encouragement of precious promises and by the sanction of wise Laws Grant most gracious God that I may be daily conversant in thy most glorious Gospel to this End that the pleasures of the world and the flesh may not ensnare and entangle me but that I may be enabled through thy word and Spirit to live above the corruptions of Lust to possess my vessel in purity and honour and to enjoy thy blessings moderately and thankfully that I may at last be received into an Eternity of Rest and Peace and Joy thorough Jesus Christ my Lord. CHAP. II. Of Pain consider'd as a Temptation to Sin BY Pain I mean every thing which is troublesome All troubles may be reduc'd under two Heads Imaginary and Real ones by Real I mean such as do actually injure the mind or bodies of men by Imaginary I mean such as could have no influence at all upon men but through the assistance of prejudice or fancy I 'le begin with the latter and in speaking to both I must premise this that I will not bring home every Argument by a close Application for then this very Head would swell into a vast proportion but content my self with proving That there is no pain which can be a just warrant for sin because the Gospel hath provided such Remedies as may render it supportable and such Rewards as may countervail all our sufferings There is no Temptation which befals us but what is common to men and God is faithful and will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able the strengths he allows us but will with the Temptation make a way to escape that we may be able to bear it There are many things which are not really harsh and unsufferable in themselves but they become such because it is the custom of the world to think them so For example a shallow Fortune but sufficient for the necessary comforts of life an inglorious solitude or privacy the Opinions of others concerning us these things have no real influence either upon mind or body they cannot make the Soul less rational nor the body less healthy a man may be happy here and go to Heaven afterwards without much fame or wealth that all the misery that is deriv'd from these things depends upon Opinion is plain because some have made that Poverty retirement and contempt their choice which is such a Bug-bear to others and so the same thing which is ones affliction becomes anothers pleasure So that it is plain fancy gives us the wound not the things themselves or else if misery were an inseparable Companion to the things themselves it were impossible that Content should ever sojourn in Cells or Cottages or ever be a stranger to Wealth and Honour Of this sort of troubles are all those other passions which are inkindled in us by the impressions of things from without for even Beauty Grandure Gaity c. though in their own nature innocent things are sharpen'd and arm'd by our fancies with trouble and danger to our repose Now though it be true that as the cold or heat of Climates are things innocent enough to bodies inur'd to them and yet are fatal to others so here though all temptations of the world are in themselves harmless things yet 't is plain that upon Beings so dispos'd and temper'd as ours are they make dangerous impressions Therefore in the Gospel of Christ the remedies prescrib'd by him do all tend to the removal of these ill dispositions and the reforming our false Opinions and the suppressing our inclinations As 1. Our first care must be to frame our Opinions of things by the Rule of Faith and to root out all false Notions of things to this end the holy Gospel doth every where insinuate the emptiness the transitoriness the uncertainty of all things here below the Excellency of Holiness and Righteousness and the little tendency which the things of the world have to promote it And lastly the Weight and Eternity of happiness in another world all which contribute to our happiness as they arm us against the impressions of outward objects by possessing us with a contempt of them and with desires far greater and nobler and contradictory to those other 2. The Gospel of Christ injoyns us to shun and fly temptations all that we can we are to block up all the Avenues by which the world may make its approaches the lustful must not gaze upon Beauty nor the ambitious on greatness c. and because sin usually gains by Parley we are carefully to shun the least appearance of evil not to entertain thoughts c. 3. We are to labour earnestly to mortifie all the lusts of the Body by Fasting and Watching and Prayer and a constant temperance incourag'd to it by the example of our Lord and a whole Cloud of Witnesses gone to Heaven before us and the promise of rewards annexed to the careful performance of and unwearied perseverance in these duties And 4. The assistance of the mighty Spirit of God and a certain Victory is promis'd to him who thus contends and unless men will willingly deprive themselves of such an Auxiliary by not contending or not begging him of Christ or grieving him it is not to be doubted but we shall obtain him and together with him sufficient strength and glory honour and immortality will be the end of our warfare These are the Means these are the Motives this is the Assistance which our blessed Jesus hath prescribed and offer'd us by which we may be inabled to live above those miseries which they are intangled in who obey not his Gospel and defeat those Airy Apparitions which would fright us into sin Therefore in whatever condition I am I will still ask what would my blessed Saviour have done or said or thought in this case what opinion of or value for this or that thing or condition hath God and I shall soon find that no condition can make me truly miserable but that wherein I cannot love God I cannot pray or cannot do good For if I can I am both great and happy If a man love me Joh. 14.23 my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him Happy abode what can my Soul desire more I cannot think my self mean who am his Favorite nor can I be poor who possess that God whose presence makes up Heaven My God how happy should I be could I be content to make thee alone my Portion but because I cannot be content to be poor and contemptible because I seek my comforts from without because I am not at leisure to entertain thee only therefore thou dost not dwell so ravishingly with me But I will seek thee more diligently hereafter vain world adieu I have Nobler hopes than thou canst feed and I shall have comforts thou canst not rob me of How can I be miserable if I be
circumstances and is fear'd only by the vain and gay and scorn'd by fools for to be truly humble is to be truly honourable and to suffer Christianly is the infallible Character of a great mind Lord I know that I am here but a stranger and Pilgrim and I will not propose to my self rest and lushious pleasures I am now in a state of warfare and I expect not my ease and a Kingdom till I have vanquish'd I am the Servant of the Holy Jesus and I will take up my Cross and follow him and if he calls me to walk upon the waters I cannot believe that he will let me perish I have in this discourse of Pleasure and Pain had an eye to two things not only to shew that there can be no reasonable ground for a Temptation to Sin in either but also to demonstrate the Excellency of the Christian Principles by shewing how they serve to all the ends and necessities of this mortal life to regulate our Pleasures and alleviate our Pains for else it had been enough for me to have said that there is no reason to quit an Eternity of pleasure for a moment's and that no pain can be equal to that of Hell and therefore that no man can be seduced from his duty by either Pleasure or Pain if he do really believe the Gospel The Evils which disquiet the Minds of men as far as concerns this Head of Pain may be reduc'd to two 1. Doubting or uncertainty when we have no sure knowledge of matters of the greatest moment 2. Amazement and fear proceeding from guilt and the apprehension of future vengeance The first of these is now sufficiently remov'd by the Gospel of Christ which hath brought Life and Immortality to Light and discover'd all those glorious and important Truths which relate to our Eternal Welfare and our belief is herein founded upon Divine Revelation for God bore witness to the Authors of this Gospel by Miracles and by his holy Spirit by the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead c. and such is the purity and excellency of this holy Doctrine that no man who believes a God can chuse but see that an obedience to such holy Precepts must be acceptable to him The second proceeds from the Conscience of our sins and a dread of the Divine Nature either of which if they drive man into despair must necessarily plunge him into profaneness and immorality or into melancholly and madness The Gospel hath remov'd both these Evils 1. By the glad tidings of Reconciliation thorough the Blood of Christ whom he hath set forth to be a Propitiation for the sins of all who will believe and repent to deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Heb. 2.15 2. By a clear Revelation of the goodness and mercifulness of the Divine Nature which Courts our return beseeches us to be reconcil'd to him and waits for an opportunity to shew Mercy Whence the Gospel Characters of him now are that of a Father the God of Hope the God of Comfort and Consolation and Mercies and Love so that the minds of Christians are fill'd with joy and peace in believing and abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost From all which it follows that no man can have any temptation to sin from any rational suggestions from any rational fears or doubts for this discovery of the Divine Nature and this Death of Christ invites men to Holiness by the Obligations of Divine Love and their own interest But of this I have treated before The Prayer O Thou God of Hope of Love and Mercy thou art become exceeding gracious to thy people thou hast turn'd away our captivity and refresh'd us by an Eternal Redemption though this world be a Wilderness compar'd to the other yet thou here feedest us with Manna those bright Truths and that glorious assistance which are able to scatter all the melancholly Clouds of afflictions and sorrow which gather upon the face of this present life Lord grant that I may make this use of them to raise my self above the weaknesses and passions of this present life that the tryal of my Faith may be to praise and glory and to my everlasting felicity in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ Amen Amen blessed Jesus CHAP. III. Of some other particular sorts of Temptations THough these Pain and Pleasure are the great Magazines from whence the Devil brings forth all his Arms and Temptations yet there are some peculiar ways whereby he doth insnare and intangle us for he doth not assault us openly unless he hath before corrupted the Guards he deals with us as with Eve Ye shall not surely die for if he had told her plainly the fruit is fair and pleasant 't is worth your while to die for 't certainly she would have bid open defiance to him and scorn'd the temptation Thus he deals with us he cheats and deludes us into vain hopes and false presumptions we wound our selves to death and yet flatter our selves with life we forfeit our Innocence and yet impudently promise our selves a Heaven I will therefore conclude this Part with a particular Chapter concerning Temptations which are mostly 1. Infidelity This is the general way the Devil takes to destroy the Souls of men and to seduce them from their duty for it will necessarily follow that it is the most notorious folly imaginable to oppose our inclinations or to deny our selves any thing if there be no reward for holy souls and therefore against this we are exhorted to take up the Shield of Faith Eph. 6.16 to possess our hearts with a firm belief of the truth of the Gospel of Christ For this Reason the Evangelists and Apostles are so full and frequent in the proof of the Fundamentals of Christianity as the Resurrection c. and of this one Proposition That Jesus is the Son of God proving it from his Power and Holiness and Wisdom and his Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven and from the descent of his Spirit upon his Followers in such a publick manner and I heartily wish that all that profess the Name of Christ would 1. Lay seriously to heart the clearness and evidence of these proofs and not perfunctorily pass over all the passages of the Gospel which are written on purpose that we may believe without weighing them 2. That they would examine themselves what are the first Motives which prompt them to Infidelity Do they not love darkness because their deeds are evil and do they not rather wish the Gospel false than believe it so 3. That they would not stifle their Reason and refuse Audience to those Pleas the Gospel offers in its own defence when they cannot answer them do not think its enough to divert your Conscience awhile from its clamours and importunity but satisfie it and do not rest till you bring stronger proofs against the truth of the Gospel than those are which Patronize it for
place i. e. Sacraments Prayer and Fasting each of which may be consider'd in a threefold respect 1. As Parts of Divine Worship or of Holiness in general 2. As Instruments of advancing Holiness 3. As Remedies and Antidotes against Temptation In each of which Relations I will consider each of them a little And 1. Of Baptism COnsider'd in the first sense of the three it contains a Solemn Profession of the Christian Faith an actual Renunciation of those Enemies of Christianity the World the Flesh and the Devil and a listing ones self into the service and obedience of Christ And because I cannot think that there is any Essential part in the System of Christianity meerly Ceremonial I cannot think but that besides the Admission into the Church which is the Body of Christ and consequently a Title to all the glorious priviledges of its Members our blessed Saviour doth endow the Person baptized with power from on high to perform all those great ingagements he takes upon him as will appear to any one who shall consider the Nature of Christianity which doth alway annex a Grace to the external Mean or Instrument or 2. The great things spoken or this Sacrament or 3. The value all understanding Christians have had for it or the effects which follow'd it when practis'd in the Infancy of the Church and I humbly conceive this to be the sense of the Church of England which supposes the thing signified by the outward Ceremony of Baptism to be a Death unto sin and a New-birth unto Righteousness But whatever become of this motion it is certain that it is a strange Obligation to a Holy Life and a Remedy against Sin as being a most solemn ingagement of our selves to the obedience of Christ from which we cannot start back without drawing upon our selves the guilt and punishment of Perjury and forfeiting all those advantages we partake of by it and I wish all would lay this to heart who plead the Obligations of Civility and Friendship Custom and Fashion in defence of their sins as if any trifling Ceremony were sufficient to supersede our Obligation to Christ and acquit us of that guilt which the breach of the most sacred Covenant brings upon us The Prayer BLessed and holy Saviour give me grace to remember my Baptismal Vow to remember that I am a sworn Enemy to the World the Flesh and the Devil and inable me to fight the good fight of Faith under thy Banner the Cross Let me have no truce entertain no friendship with thine and my Enemies Let them flatter me if they will with smiles and promises I am sure they mean nothing to me but death and ruine how shall any fantastick Obligations Cancel my duty to thee resulting from so solemn a Covenant In vain doth the World disguize its temptations under the forms of Civility and Honour I know no Civility which can oblige me to renounce my Vows no Honour that can excuse my Perjury in vain doth the World assault me by Greatness and Wealth and Glory these are the very things I resolv'd against when I took up the Cross of my Crucified Saviour in my Baptism Grant O blessed Lord that I may have mortified affections and a Victorious Faith an humble meek Spirit and glorious Hopes that after this troublesome life is ended I may rest with thee in Everlasting Glory Amen Amen Of the Lords Supper THe Supper of our Lord may fall under the same forms of Consideration which Baptism did that is it may be consider'd 1. As a part of Divine Worship 2. As an Instrument of Holiness 3. As a Remedy against Temptation I will look upon it briefly under each of these notions and herein I will guide my self by that incomparable Office of this Church which hath admirably express'd and reduc'd to a method the whole mind of the Gospel relating to this matter for which I have often bless'd God whilst I beheld and reverenc'd that Primitive plainness and truly Christian Spirit visible in it First then our Lords Supper consider'd as an act or part of Religious Worship or Holiness contains in it these four things 1. An humble acknowledgment of our sins 2. A devout Profession of our Faith in Christ that we are the Disciples of a Crucified Saviour and expect Salvation by no other way than that Sacrifice of his Body and Blood offer'd upon the Cross 3. A solemn Oblation of most humble and hearty thanks to God for this inestimable benefit his bestowing his Son upon us to die for us and to our Master and only Saviour Christ for his exceeding great love in dying for us 4. A most solemn Oblation of our selves souls and bodies to be a holy lively and acceptable Sacrifice unto God so that this Sacrament consists of a whole Constellation of Graces Repentance Faith Hope Charity It is a nearer approach into the presence of God and more solemn exercise of the Graces of the Gospel and this gives a very fair account of the reason of its frequent practice for nothing can be Secondly A more effectual instrument of Holiness upon these and the following accounts 1. That the preparation necessary as a condition of our worthy Reception doth awaken our Souls and refresh all our Graces and mortifie all our sensual Lusts and draws us nearer to Heaven and the necessity of such a preparation as the Church-office prescribes appears from hence that Repentance and Faith and Charity are absolutely necessary to inable a man to exert those acts before-mention'd which constitute this Sacrament consider'd as a part of Divine Worship and therefore to approach that holy Table without a Soul so qualified is to affront and mock the Majesty of Heaven 2. That the exercise of our Graces in receiving doth increase and improve them that act of humble Adoration and profound Prostration of our selves before God under a sense of his Purity and Majesty and our sinfulness and meanness that lively Acts of Faith whereby the Soul doth profess its firm belief of and dependance upon the Death and Passion of its dear Lord and Saviour for Salvation that love whereby the Soul offers its praises and its self a Sacrifice to God do leave such lively and lasting impressions upon mens minds as are not quickly nor easily effac'd and the Soul by the delight it finds in its exerting these Graces is inkindled with a desire of repeating the same Acts. 3. That the Sacrament it self hath a natural tendency to promote Holiness 1. By its sensible Representations of a Crucified Saviour the Symbols themselves being fit to bring into our minds the pain and sufferings of our dear Lord and Master 2. By that inward Grace inseparable from the worthy Reception of it bestow'd upon us to refresh and strengthen our Souls to root and confirm our Faith to inflame our Love and perfect our Hopes 3. By being a Pledge and Assurance to us of the pardon of our sins thorough the Blood of Christ 4. That it is