Majesty doth so out of respect to them as such but as they have promises but especially threatnings annexed to them For to be sure he that performs the one and forbears the other from any Lovely notion he hath of Obedience and any hateful one he hath conceived of disobedience will also make Conscience of those and the like Duties in regard of the goodness becomingness and Excellency he discerns in them and will abstain from these and the like Sins because of the intrinsick Evil Turpitude and Deformity he apprehends in them For those are no whit less manifestly lovely and Worthy of Mankind than is Obedience to the Divine Will considered in an abstracted notion nor these less apparently vile and abominable than is Disobedience For that very Reason that makes it an intolerable thing to disobey a Law of God viz. because it is highly Unjust so to do makes it so also to Commit the forementioned and such like Sins and so on the Contrary Now this Proposition That it is a base thing to do unjustly is one of those which I call first principles than which there is nothing Man-kind doth more naturally assent to And those Sins with many other are alike plain instances and expressions of that shameful vice Injustice though not of an equal degree of it The summe of what we have said in this account of the Nature of True Holiness is this viz. That it is such a Disposition and Temper of the inward man as powerfully enclines it carefully to regard and attend to affectionately to embrace and adhere to to be actuated by and under the Government of all those Good Practical Principles that are made known either by Revelation Nature or the use of Reason Now though Nothing is more natural to the Souls of Men considered in their pure Essentials and as they came out of their Creatour's hands than this most Excellent Temper yet by their Apostacy from God and sinking into Brutish sensuality did they sadly disposses themselves of it and so became like the Beasts which perish But it pleased the Infinite Goodness of the Divine Majesty not to give us over so For when we had destroyed our selves in him was our Help found He greatly concerned himself for the Recovery of Fallen Mankind by various means and Methods and when the world was at the very worst did he make use of the most Sovereign and effectual Remedy He who at Sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets did in these last days send his dearly Beloved and onely Begotten Son to us And to prove that the Great Errand he came upon was the effecting of our Deliverance out of that sinful State we had brought our selves into and the putting us again into possession of that Holiness which we had Lost is now our Next Business CHAP. II. A General Demonstration that the Holiness Described is the Design of Christianity by a Climax of Seven particulars IN the first place in order to the proof of this it is worthy our observation that S. Iohn the Baptist being sent to prepare the way before our Saviour did so by teaching the Doctrine of Repentance and Baptizing men thereunto And that we no sooner read of his appearing in Publique and entring upon his Office of Harbinger or Fore-runner but we find him Preaching this Doctrine and making use of the News of the Messiah's Approach as a Motive to perswade them to that Duty Matth. 3. 1 2. In those days came Iohn the Baptist preaching in the Wilderness of Iudea and saying Repent ye for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand And this was that which the Angel foretold Zacharias he should do when he gave him the first notice that he should be the Father of such a Son Luk. 1. 16 17. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God and he shall go before him in the power and Spirit of Elias to turn the Hearts of the Fathers to the Children and the disobedient to the Wisdom of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord That is He shall make way for the Messiah with the same zeal against all wickedness as was expressed by Elias and likewise with an immediate Commission from Heaven as he had in order to the working of a General Reformation among the Jews This sheweth that Christ's Great errand into the world was mens thorow-conversion from Sin and the making them truly Holy seeing that the only preparation necessary for the entertainment of him consisted in having this work begun in them Secondly Upon the first news of Christ's near Approach brought by Malachi the last of the Prophets this is expressed by him as that which should be his Grand Business when he was come Mal. 3. 1 2 3. The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his Temple even the Messenger of the Covenant whom ye delight in or have a longing expectation of Behold he shall come saith the Lord of Hosts But who may abide the day of his coming Or who shall stand when he appeareth For he is like a Refiner's fire and like Fuller's Soap And he shall sit as a Refiner and purifier of Silver and he shall purifie the Sons of Levi and purge them as Gold is purged c. Thirdly Immediately after his conception in the womb of the Blessed Virgin this was foretold to Ioseph Concerning him by an Angel Matth. 1. 21. She shall bring forth a Son and thou shalt call his Name Jesus for He shall save his people from their sins This Blessing of making men Holy was so much the design of Christ's coming that He had his very Name from it Observe the words are He shall save his people from their sins not from the punishment of them And as will fully appear hereafter that is the primary sence of them which is most plainly expressed in them That he shall save his people from the punishment of sin is a true sence too but it is secondary and implied only as this latter is the never failing and necessary consequent of the former Salvation This again was foretold by Zacharias betwixt his Conception and Birth He saith Luke 1. 72 c. That God performed his covenant in sending Christ which covenant consists in this That He would grant us that We being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear in Holiness and Righteousness before him all the days of our Life Fourthly We likewise find this expressed by Simeon immediately upon his Birth Luke 2. 32. Where having called him God's Salvation which He had prepared before the face of all people he adds that He is a Light to lighten the Gentiles whereby is meant that he should bring them into the way of Righteousness and true Holiness Holiness is in not a few places expressed by the Metaphor of Light and Wickedness by that of Darkness Turning from Darkness to Light is
And as it was the business of all his Discourses to teach vertue so was it also of all his Actions He Preach'd holiness to mens Eyes no less than to their Ears by giving them the most stupendious Example in his own Person of all the parts of it His whole Life was one Continued Lecture of the most Excellent Morals the most Sublime and exact Vertue For instance He was a Person of the Greatest Freedom Affability and Courtesie there was nothing in his Conversation that was at all Austere Crabbed or Unpleasant Though he was always serious yet was he never sowr sullenly Grave Morose or Cynical but of a marvellously conversable sociable and benign temper Those who had Checks from his Disciples as rude and troublesome were never accused by Him for being so but were most kindly listned to and lovingly received even little Children as unwelcome as they were to them were tenderly embraced and blest by him He never blamed any for interrupting him in his Discourses or other business Nor was put into the least Chafe by their so doing but ever patiently heard them and sent none of them from him supposing they had no ill design in coming to him without Satisfaction When he was invited to mens Tables as little as their chear could tempt him he readily went nor did he esteem it as disbecoming his gravity to make one at a Marriage-feast nor to contribute to it himself neither He did not think himself defiled by bad company nor baulked the Society of Publicans and Sinners themselves as loathsome as they were to worse men the Pharisees but freely in order to the reforming of them sate down when there was occasion and conversed with them His first entertainment of the woman of Canaan as uncivil as it might seem was nothing less than so for the unkind and contemptuous Language he gave her though it was but the same which the Iews always bestowed upon those people proceeded from no Contempt of her nor was it designed as the event shewed in the least to discourage her but on the Contrary to give her occasion to shew the Greatness of her Faith in the answer she returned to it The ever and anon infirm imprudent and impertinent talk of his Disciples and others could not at any time put him out of his good temper but only gave him an opportunity of imparting to them seasonable Instructions and Wise Counsels The Candour also and Ingenuity of his Spirit did to great admiration discover it self Whereof take this one Instance Where as he as was said forbad censorious judging of other men and commanded consequently to put the best constructions upon those actions of others that are capable of various interpretations he hath given us no small encouragement so to do by his behaviour towards those three Disciples whom he could not perswade for a little while to forbear sleeping no not in his Agony as infinitely great obligations as he had laid upon them to do any thing he should please to desire of them That their sleeping at such a time looked as exactly as could be like an infallible argument of extreme unconcernedness for their blessed Lord and of excessive coolness of affection to him especially he having I say before desired them to Watch with him and given them the reason why he did so Yet for all that would he impute it to no worse a cause than meer infirmity nor entertained any ill opinion of them upon that account and when they themselves had nothing to say to excuse their fault he makes this Apology himself for them The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak Nay though for all this and notwithstanding that friendly expostulation of his with Peter Couldest thou not watch with me one hour they fell asleep again yet did he not at his last return to them pass any censure upon them but carried it towards them as he was wont to do And the Gentleness and meekness of his Disposition was very marvellous When Iames and Iohn in a great heat would have perswaded him to call for fire from Heaven after the Example of Elias to consume the Samaritans for their inhospitable and barbarous refusal to give him entertainment he rebuked them immediately for that revengful motion and gave them this reply â—…e know not what manner of Spirit ye are of For the Son of Man is not come to destroy mens lives but to save them Luke 9. 55. and so silently went his ways without giving them so much as a lash of his Tongue for so rude an affront Never had any one so strong provocations to Wrath and Revenge as the Blessed Jesus but never were either so undiscernible in any as they were in him In his carriage indeed towards the Pharisees he might seem to some to be once or twice transported with a fit of unordinary passion but it would not have become the zeal he had for God and true Goodness to behave himself otherwise towards such Monstrously immoral wretches and most hatefully conceited and proud Hypocrites Nor was his overturning the Tables of the Money-changers or Whipping the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple any other than a very befitting and seemly expression of his just displeasure against those Sacrilegious and Prophane people But he was never so concerned for himself for his own Reputation or ought else that belonged to him as to be put into the least heat by all the ignominious Language that was from time to time given him and the vile reproaches and unsufferable abuses that were heap'd upon Him When he was acosted with a never-to-be-parallel'd impudence by his Old Disciple Iudas in the Front of an Armed Multitude who could have forborn to receive such a villainous and intolerably base Traytor with the most Emphatical Expressions of an Exasperated and Enraged mind But with what wonderful Mildnes was that Monster of Ingratitude Dissimulation treated by our Dear Lord The worst words he bestowed upon him being these Iudas betrayest thou the Son of man with a Kiss Nor did he more angrily bespeak the wicked Followers than he did their Leader when they rudely assaulted and apprehended him And so far was he from revenging himself upon them as able as he was to do it effectually and notwithstanding as he gave them to understand that he could if he listed have no fewer than twelve Legions of Angels imployed in his service that he wrought a miracle for the healing of the wound that one of them received from the Sword of Peter and withal charged him to put up that Weapon Nor was it ever in the Power either of the Calumniating and black Tongues or rude and Cruel hands of his bitterest Enemies to draw from him so much as a reviling or fierce word But of so rarely moderate a temper and serene spirit was he that as S. Peter saith When he was reviled he reviled not again When he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that
do Were it possible that Christ's Righteousness could be imputed to an unrighteous man I dare boldly affirm that it would signifie as little to his happiness while he continueth so as would a gorgeous and splendid garment to one that is almost starved with hunger or that lieth rackt by the torturing diseases of the Stone or Cholick And could we suppose such a man to be never so much an object of the Divine Benevolence nay Complacency too as there is nothing than this latter less supposeable this could not make him he continuing wicked so much as not miserable He being rendered by his wickedness utterly uncapable of such effects of the love of God as could have upon him so good an influence Nay farther were our Phansies so very powerful as that they could place him even in Heaven it self so long as he continueth unturned from his iniquities we could not imagine him happy there nay he would carry a Hell to Heaven with him and keep it there It is not the being in a fine place that can make any one cease to be miserable but the being in a good state and the place Heaven without the Heavenly state will signifie nothing An unhealthful and diseased body will have never the more ease for residing in a Princes Court nor will a sick and unfound soul have an end put to its unhappiness though it should live for ever in the presence of God himself That saying to this purpose doth well deserve our repeating which I find in the excellent book called The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety Alas what delight would it be to the Swine to be wrapped in fine linnen and laid in odours his senses are not gratisied by any such delicacies nor would he feel any thing besides the torment of being withheld from the mire And as little complacency would a brutish soul find in those purer and refined pleasures which can only upbraid not satisfie him It is not to be doubted that such habits of soul as men carry hence with them they shall keep in the other state and therefore if we leave this earth with any unmortified and reigning lusts they will not only make us uncapable of the happiness of Heaven but also of any happiness For there will be as was but now intimated no satisfaction or so much as gratification of carnal and brutish and much Iess of devilish appetites in the coelestial Mansions and therefore they cannot be otherwise than very grieviously painful to the person that is fraught with them though I say we could suppose him to be safely possessed of those glorious habitations To summ up all I shall say on this argument I fear not to assert that Omnipotency it self cannot make a wicked person happy no not so much as negatively so except he should be annihilated any otherwise than by first giving him his Grace for the subduing and mortification of sin in him And that to deliver one from all misery while sin is vigorous in his soul and bears the sway there is not an object of any power and implieth in it a palpable and apparent contradiction For misery is no less of the essence of sin and wickedness than is light of the Sun so that it is impossible they should ever be separated from one another but that they must like the Twins of Hippocrates live and die together CHAP. XII The Fourth Argument viz. That Holiness being perfected is Blessedness it self and the Glory of Heaven consists chiefly in it This no new notion some observations by the way from it BUt in the last place well may we call Holiness the greatest of Blessings for when it is perfected it is Blessedness it self and the Glory of Heaven is not only entailed upon it but doth chiefly consist in it Beloved saith S. Iohn Now are we the Sons of God but it doth not appear what we shall be but this we know that when he appeareth we shall be like him c. As if he should say I cannot tell you particularly and distinctly what the blâ—…ness of the other life will be but thiâ—…â—… am sure of that likeâ—… to God is the 〈◊〉 notion of it and that it consists for the substance thereof in a perfect resemblance of the Divine Nature The happiness of Heaven doth not lie in a mere fixing of our eyes upon the Divine perfections and in admiring of them but mainly in so beholding and contemplating them as thereby to be changed into the express and lively image of them And in having so affecting a sense of Gods infinite justice and goodness purity and holiness as will make the deepest impressions of those most amiable qualities in our own souls The Glory that Heaven conferreth upon its inhabitants consists nothing so much in an external view of God and Christ as in a real and plentiful participation of their glorious excellencies whereby are chiefly to be understood those that are implyed in that general word Holiness For as for their other attributes such as Knowledge Power c. the devils themselves who are most of all creatures unlike them have a large measure of them This Blessedness principally implyeth a rapturous love of God a feeling as well as understanding the goodness that is in him an inseparable conjunction of all the faculties of our souls with him and a perfect assimilation of our natures to him The felicity of Heaven is an operative thing full of life and energy which advanceth all the power of mens souls into a sympathy with the Divine Nature and an absolute compliance with the will of God and so makes him to become all in all to them So that the happiness of Heaven and perfect holiness are by no means to be accounted things of a different nature but two several conceptions of one and the same thing or rather two expressions of one and the same conception All that happiness as said the Learned and Pious Mr. Iohn Smith which good men shall be made partakers of as it cannot be born up upon any other foundation than true goodness and a God-like nature within us so neither is it distinct from it Neither are we to look upon this as any upstart or late notion for our antient Divines have long since taught it in this saying that was frequently used by them viz. Grace is Glory begun and Glory is Grace perfected And I cannot but by the way observe that those which have considered this will need no other argument to satisfie and convince them That that talk of some That it is mere servile obedience and below the ingenuity and Generosity of a Christian Spirit to serve God for Heaven as well as for the good things of this life only is very grossely ignorant very childish prattle For to serve God in hopes of Heaven according to its true notion is to serve him for himself and to express the sincerest and also the most ardent affection to him as well as concernment for our
Image and the Statues of their Gods and cursed Christ did affirm That this was the Greatest fault or Errour they were guilty of that they were wont upon a set day to assemble together before it was light and to sing a Hymn to Christ as to a God and to bind themselves by a Sacrament not to any wickedness but that they would not commit Thefts Robberies Adulteries that they would not be worse than their words that they would not deny any thing instrusted in their hands when demanded of them which done it was their custome to depart and to meet again ad capienduÌ„ cibuÌ„ promiscuuÌ„ tamen innoxiuÌ„ to eat a common but innocent and harmless meal which was doubtless the Agape or Feast of Charity which was in the primitive times in use among the Christians after the Celebration of the Lord's Supper This was an excellent account of them and much too good to be expected from wicked Apostates such having been ordinarily observed to be of all others the most deadly enemies of Christianity and the professors of it But to return to our Author he a few lines after adds that he put two Maid-servants upon the Rack to extort from them as full a discovery as he could of the Christians Crimes but he could not find any they were guilty of except obstinate and excessive superstition So he called their constant perseverance and diligence in observing the Precepts of their most excellent Religion And the Emperour Antoninus Pius as much an enemy of Christians as he was writes thus in an Epistle to the People of Asia which is to be seen in Iustin Martyr and affixed to the Apology he directed to him viz. That they could make no proof of the Crimes they laid to the Christians charge and that they overcame them by chusing to lay down their lives rather than to do the things they required of them And that he thought it sit to advertise them that the Christians when Earth-quakes happened were not under such dreadful fears as they were and that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indued with a firmer confidence and trust in God And there next followeth another Epistle of the Emperour Antoninus Philosophus to the Senate and People of Rome wherein he gave them an account of an eminent danger that he and his Army were in in the Heart of Germany by the sudden approach of nine hundred and seventy thousand Barbarians and Enemies And how that finding his strength to oppose them very small he commanded all those to appear before him who were called Christians as suspecting 't is like either their sidelity or courage and perceiving there were a great number of them very sharply inveighed against them Which saith he I ought not to have done in regard of the vertue which I after found to be in them whereby they begâ—… the fight not with Darts and Weapons and sound of Trumpets which thing they approved not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of respect to God whom they bear in their conscience Wherefore proceeds he it is meet that we should know that those whom we suspect for Atheists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have God willingly inclosed or of his own accord inhabiting in their Conscience For laying themselves flat upon the earth they prayed not only for me but also for my whole Army which was then present that they might be a means of solace and comsort to us in our present hunger and thirst for we could not come by any water for five days together But as soon as they were postrate upon the Ground and prayed to a God whom I knew not immediately there fell Rain from Heaven upon us very cool and refreshing but upon our Adversaries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fiery Hail-storm And their prayer was instantly accompanyed with the presence of God as of one invincible and insuperable Therefore let us permit these people to be Christians lest they praying to have the like weapons imployed against us they should obtain their desire And a few lines after the Emperour declared it his Will and Pleasure That whosoever accuseth a Christian as such for the time to come he shall be burnt alive What better satisfaction can be desired by us concerning the truth of the forementioned Fathers account of the Christians that lived in their days than that which the Pens of these their enemies have given to us There is one thing more I will adde concerning the primitive Christians viz. That the most calm meek peaceable gentle and submissive temper recommended in the Gospel did mightily discover its self in them And thereby we may judge what kind of people they were as to the other parts of Christianity it being impossible that such an excellent spirit should be alone and unaccompanied with the other Vertues Though they were for the most part very sorely persecuted yet as Tertullian saith in his Book ad Nationes Nunquam conjuratio erupit there was never any uproar or hurly-burly among them And having in his Apology ask'd the two Emperors and the rest this Question If we are commanded to love our Enemies whom have we then to hate He thus proceeds How often do you your selves rage against the Christians who are obedient unto you and moreover suffer them to be stoned and burnt by the rout of common people but yet what Revenge did ye ever observe them repaying for the injuries done unto them as stout hearted as they are even to death it self If it be objected as it is by some that this might be attributed not to their good temper but to mere necessity seeing they knew themselves too weak to succeed in any rebellious or violent attempt Let the same Tertullian give an answer and he doth it in the very next words In one night saith he with a few Firebands they could revenge themselves sufficiently upon you if they thought it lawful to render evil for evil Nay and not only so but he tells them plainly that they were in circumstances to manage the parts of hostes exerti open enemies against them as well as of vindices occulti â—…ly and secret revengers and that they could raise an Army if it pleased them numerous and powerful enough to cope with them and withal he thus proceeds Hesterni sumus vestra omnia implevimus c. Though we are but as it were of yesterday yet you have no place but is full of us your Cities your Islands Castles Towns Council-houses your fortresses Tribes Bands of Souldiers Palace Senate Court Sola vobis relinquimus templa Your Temples onely are empty of us And he goes on Cui bello non idonei c. What battles are not we able to wage with you who are so willingly slain by you but according to the Laws of our Religion we esteem it better to be killed than to kill Nay he next tells them poâ—…uimus inermes nec rebelles c. We need not take arms and rebel to
be most truly and properly called sins There is no one duty more affectionately recommended in the Gospel to us than is Alms-giving but to give alms to be seen and praised by men is no better than base Hypocrisie as Christ hath told us so far is it from an expression of Christian Charity And whatsoever materially vertuous actions proceed not from the principle of love to vertue though I cannot say that all such are hateful to God yet they want that degree of perfection that is requisite to make them truly Christian. And it is a plain case that he is not the Christian that is much employed in the Duties of Prayer Hearing God's Word Reading the Bible and other good Books c. but he that discovereth a good mind in them in whom the end of them is effected and who is the better for them This is the business for the sake of which Prayer is enjoyned We are therein to acknowledge God's Infinite Perfections and our obligations to him that we may express our hearty sense of them and in order to our being the more affected with those and our having the more grateful resentments of these We are in that duty to address our selves to the Divine Majesty in the name of Christ for what we want that we may by this means both express and encrease our dependance on him and trust in him for the obtaining thereof And to confess and bewail our sins to exercise Godly sorrow and contrition of Soul and that by so doing we may be so much the more deeply humbled for them and have the greater averseness in our wills against them The communion which we are to enjoy with God in Prayer is such as consisteth in being enamoured with the Excellencies that are in him and in receiving communications of his Nature and Spirit from him Therefore also are we commanded to Hear and Read God's Word that we may come thereby to understand and be put in mind of the several Duties he requires of us and be powerfully moved to the doing of them And the like may be said concerning all the other Exercises of Piety and Devotion the end of them is more and more to dispose our Hearts to the Love and our wills to the obedience of our Blessed Creatour and Redeemer And busying our selves in any of them without this Design may well be counted in the number of the fruitless and unaccountable actions of our lives Thus to do is prodigally to wast and mispend our time as the Jews were upbraided by one of their adversaries with doing upon the account of their Sabbath saying That they lost one day in seven And those that are most constant in their Addresses to the Majesty of Heaven both in the Publique and Private worship of him if they go into his presence with the entertainment and allowance of any sinful Affection they have never the more of the Divine Approbation upon that account If I regard saith David iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me God esteemeth no better of such as do so than as Hypocritical Fawners upon him and false-hearted Complementers of him and hath declared that their Sacrifices are an Abomination to him The Generality of the Jews were such a people God by his Prophet Isaiah speaks thus concerning them They seek me dayly and delight to know my ways as a Nation that did Righteousness and forsook not the Ordinance of their God They ask of me the Ordinances of Iustice they take delight in approaching to God They were a people that loved to fast and pray and afflict their Souls and to make their voice to be heard on high But giving liberty to themselves in plain immoralities God declared that all this was even hateful to him As may be seen in the Fifty eighth of Isaiah And he there likewise telleth them that the Fast which he took pleasure in consisteth in loosing the bands of wickedness in undoing the heavy burthens and letting the oppressed go free in breaking every yoke in dealing their bread to the Hungry and bringing the poor that are cast out to their houses in covering the Naked and the exercise of strict justice mercy and kindness And in the first Chapter he asks them To what purpose the multitude of their Sacrifices were though they were no other than he himself by the Law of Moses required and charged them to bring no more vain oblations to him told them that their Incense was an Abomination to him their New-moons and Sabbaths and calling of Assemblyes he could not away with that their Solemn Assembly was iniquity that their New-Moons and appointed Feasts his Soul hated and that he was weary to bear them And all this because these were the onely or main things they recommended themselves to him by their Religion chiefly consisted in them and they gave themselves leave to be unrighteous cruel and unmerciful as may there be seen God abhorrs to see men come cringing and crowching before him bestowing a great heap of the best words upon him and the worst upon themselves and with dejected countenances bemoaning themselves and making lamentable complaints of their wickedness to him imploring mercy and favour from him c. when they resolvedly persist in disobedience So far are such things as these from being able to make amends for any of their sins that God accounts them no better than Additions to their most heinous impieties as by the Sixty sixth of Iâ—…aiah it further appeareth It is said there He that killeth an Ox is as if he slew a man he that sacrificeth a Lamb as if he cut off a Dog's neck he that offereth an 〈◊〉 as if he offered Swines blood â—…e that burneth Incense as if he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And how came this to pass it follows They have chosen their own ways and their Soul delighteth in their Abominationâ—… So that if he had such an opinion of the goodliest and most acceptable Sacrifices when offered by Disobedient and Immorall Persons under the Law it is impossible that he should have one jot a better of the most affectionate Devotions of those that take no care to be really and inwardly righteous and holy under the Gospel And in being so consists as was said the Soul and Life of Christianity Not that a true Christian can have undervaluing and slight thoughts of the External worship and service of God nor that he can contemn or neglect praying to him singing his Praises Hearing or Reading his Word c. Nothing less For by the serious and diligent performance of these and the like Duties he comes to acquire and encrease that good temper of Soul that gives him the denomination of such a one through the assistance of the Divine Grace He is one to speak in the words of Hierocles as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joyns Endeavours to 〈◊〉 and Prayers also with the other parts of Divine Worship to his other Endeavours And besides the solemn acknowledgements of God
own souls And therefore it could do no other than infinitely become the Son of God himself to endure the Cross and despise the shame for the joy that was set before him taking that joy in no other sence than hath been generally understood viz. for the happiness of Heaven consisting in a full enjoyment and undisturbed possession of the Blessed Deity nor is there any reason why we should enquire after any other signification of that word which may exclude this And on the other hand to be diligent in the service of God for fear of hell understanding it as a state perfectly opposite to that which we have been describing is in a like manner from a principle of love to God and true goodness as well as self-love and is no more unworthy of a Son of God than of a mere servant And thus the truth of this proposition That to make men Holy is to confer upon them the greatest of blessings by the little that hath been said is made plainly apparent CHAP. XIII The Second Account of our Saviour's preferring the business of making men holy before any other viz. That this is to do the best service to God An objection answered against the Author's Discourse of the Design of Christianity IT remains secondly to be shewn That to promote the business of Holiness in the world is to do God Almighty the best service And this will be dispatcht in a very few words For is it not without dispute better service to a Prince to reduce Rebels to their Allegiance than to procure a pardon under his Seal for them This is so evidently true that to do this latter except it be in order to the former business is not at all to serve him nay it is to do him the greatest of disservices I need not apply this to our present purpose And therefore to be sure the work of making men holy and bringing over sinners to the obedience of his Father must needs have been much more in the eye of our Blessed Saviour than that of delivering them from their deserved punishments simply and in it self considered For his love to him will be I hope universally acknowledged to be incomparably greater than it is to us as very great as ' t is None can question but that by our Apostacy from God we have most highly dishonoured him we have robbed him of a Right that he can never be willing to let go viz. The obedience that is indispensably due to him as he is our Creator continual Preserver our infinitely bountiful Benefactor and absolute Soveraign And therefore it is as little to be doubted that Christ would in the first place concern himself for the Recovery of that Right And but that both works are carried on together and inseparably involved in each other he must necessarily be very greatly and far more solicitous about the effecting of this Design than of that of delivering wicked Rebels from the mischiefs and miseries they have made themselves lyable to by their disobedience So that laying all these considerations together what in the world can be more indisputable than that our Savious chief and ultimate design in coming from Heaven to us and performing and suffering all he did for us was to turn us from our iniquities to reduce us to intire and universal obedience and to make us partakers of inward real righteousness and true holiness And we cannot from this last discourse but clearly understand that it is most infinitely reasonable and absolutely necessary that it should be so But now if after all this it be objected that I have defended a notion concerning the Design of Christianity different from that which hath hitherto been constantly received by all Christians viz. That it is to display and magnifie the exceeding riches of God's Grace to fallen mankind in his Son Jesus I answer that he will be guilty of very great injustice towards me that shall censure me as labouring in this discourse to propagate any new notion For I have therein endeavoured nothing else but a true explication of the old one it having been grossly misunderstood and is still by very many to their no small prejudice Those therefore that say that the Christian Religion designeth to set forth and glorifie the infinite Grace of God in Jesus Christ to wretched sinners and withall understand what they say as they speak most truly so do they assert the very same thing that I have done For as hath been shewn not only the Grace of God is abundantly displaied and made manifest in the Gospel to sinners for this end that they â—…ay thereby be effectually moved and perswaded to forsake their sins but also the principal Grace that is there exhibited doth consist in delivering us from the power of them Whosoever will acknowledge sin to be as we have proved it is in its own nature the greatest of all evils and holiness the chiefest of all blessings will not find it easie to deny this And besides as we have likewise shewn men are not capable of God's pardoning Grace till they have truly repented them of all their sins that is have in will and affection sincerely left them And also that if they were caPable of it so long as they continue vile slaves to their lusts that Grace by being bestowed upon them cannot make them happy nor yet cause them to cease from being very miserable in regard of their disquieting and tormenting nature in which is laid the foundation of Hell it self The free Grace of God is infinitely more magnified in renewing our Natures than it could be in the bare justification of our persons And to justifie a wicked man while he continueth so if it were possible for God to do it would far more disparage his Iustice and Holiness than advance his Grace and Kindness Especially since his forgiving sin would signifie so little if it be not accompanied with the destruction of it In short then doth God most signally glorifie himself in the world when he most of all communicates himself that is his Glorious perfections to the souls of men And then do they most Glorifie God when they most partake of them and are rendered most like unto him But because nothing is I perceive more generally mistaken than the notion of Gods Glorifying himself I will adde something more for the better understanding of this and I am conscious to my self that I cannot do it so well as in the words of the Excellent man we a while since quoted Mr. Iohn Smith sometimes Fellow of Queens College in Cambridge When God seeks his own Glory he doth not so much endeavour any thing without himself He did not bring this stately Fabrick of the universe into being that he might for such a monument of his mighty Power and Beneficence gain some Panegyricks or Applause from a little of that fading breath which he had made Neither was that Gracious Contrivance of restoring lapsed men to himself a