the one or the other and the State of Heaven and Hell consists in perfect Holiness and Wickedness and proportionably as we do improve in either of these so we do approach towards Heaven or Hell For as Heaven is the Center of all that is vertuous pure and holy and every thing that is good tends thither by a natural Sympathy so Hell is the Center of all Impiety and Wickedness and whatsoever is bad doth naturally press and sink down thither as towards its proper Place and Element And should not the divine Vengeance concern it self in excluding wicked Souls out of Heaven yet their own Wickedness would do it for that is a Place of such inaccessible Light and Purity that nothing that is impure or wicked can approach it but must of Necessity be beaten off by the perpetual Lightnings of its Glory and tumbled headlong down as oft as ever it essays to climb up into it As on the other hand should not God by an immediate Vengeance precipitate wicked Souls into Hell yet their own Sin and Wickedness hastened by the mighty Weight of its own Nature would necessarily hurry them down thither with a most swift and headlong Motion And if this be so then questionless it is as necessary for us not to continue in our Sin as it is not to be excluded out of Heaven nor thrust down into the flames of Hell and did we but know what this meant doubtless we should run away from our Sins in a greater Fright and Maze than ever we did from the most astonishing Danger For consider O Man by those short Pleasures with which thou treatest thy lusts thou excommunicatest thy self from eternal Ioy and wouldst thou be but so wise as to deny thy self the Pleasure of a Moment thou mightst be pleased for ever and millions of Ages hence be rejoycing among Angels and blessed Spirits because thou wouldst not gratify thy self with those fulsom Delights which would have died away in the Enjoyment And is it possible thou shouldst be so besotted as to exchange the Pleasures of an immortal Heaven for those of an intemperate Draught to sell the Joys of Angels for the Embraces of an Harlot and pawn thy Part in Paradise for a little Money of which e'er long thou wilt have no other Use but only to purchase six foot of Earth and a Winding-sheet O most prodigious Folly What account canst thou give for such an extravagant Bargain at the Tribunal of thy own Reason But it may be you will say What doth the loss of Heaven signify since as you have told us already if we could be admitted to it it could be no Heaven to us And why should we think much of losing that which we cannot enjoy To which I answer 'T is true you cannot enjoy it unless you part with your Lusts because Heaven and they are inconsistent but you may part with your Lusts if you will and being quit of these you may and shall enjoy it for ever Your Sin is the only Wall of Separation between you and Heaven which being once demolished you may enter into it without any Interruption and take Possession of all its Glories So that if you think the Loss of Heaven will be no Trouble to you in the other World because it is such a Heaven as your depraved Souls will be averse to you are infinitely mistaken for though you will be averse to it yet your own Consciences will tell you that if you would you might have conquer'd that Aversation as well as those blessed Spirits that do enjoy it and that if you had done so you might have been infinitely happy as well as they Whereas now you are condemned to wander for ever in a woful Eternity tormented with a restless Rage and hungry unsatisfied Desire after these sensual Goods you have left behind you and to which you shall never return more the Consideration of which will render the Loss of Heaven as grievous to you as if it were a Heaven over-flowing with sensual Delights and abounding with such Ioys as you will then hunger after but can never enjoy For how will it sting you to the heart when you shall thus ruminate with your selves as you are wandring through the Infernal Shades Ah besotted Fool that I am now I see too late that Heaven is a state wherein a Soul may be infinitely happy look how yonder blessed Spirits are imparadised how they exult and triumph how they sing and give praise and are rapt into extasies of love and joy whilst I through my own Sensuality and Devilishness am utterly incapable of those sublime Delights whereof their Heaven is composed and like a forlorn Wretch am left for ever destitute of those sensual pleasures which are the only Heaven I can now enjoy And therefore as you would not spend an Eternity in such direful Reflections and have those dismal Thoughts like so many Vulturs preying upon you for ever be persuaded to set persently upon this great and necessary Work of Mortification For assure your selves God will as soon let Hell loose into Heaven and people the Regions of immortal Bliss with the Inhabitants of the Land of Darkness as crown a wicked Soul with the glorious Reward of eternal Life For God hath reduced us to this issue either our Sins or our Souls must die and we must shake hands with Heaven or our Lusts so that unless we value eternal Happiness so little as to exchange it for the sordid and trifling Pleasures of Sin and unless we love our Sins so well as to ransom them with the blood of our immortal Souls it concerns us speedily to shake off our sins by Repentance for this is an eternal and immutable Law that if we will be wicked we must be miserable III. FROM hence we may perceive what is the only true and solid Foundation of our Assurance of Heaven namely our mortifying the Deeds of the Body for if they that mortify the deeds of the body shall live then if we do or have mortified them we are sure that we are entitled to eternal Life So that to be assured of Heaven we need not go about to spell out our Names in the Stars or to read them in the secret Volumes of eternal Predestination for if our Wills be but so subdued to the Will of God that we do not live in any wilful Violation of his Laws we may be as certainly persuaded of our Interest in eternal Life as if one of the winged Messengers from above should come down and tell us that he saw our Names enrolled in the Volumes of Eternity For besides that God hath promised Heaven to us upon condition of our Mortification we shall when our Lusts are throughly subdued feel Heaven opening it self within us and rising up from the center of our Souls in a Divine Life and God-like Nature so that we shall not need to seek for Heaven without us because we shall find it already come down into us
concluded that doubtless he was employed upon some great Design of Love to communicate from the Almighty Father some mighty Blessing to the World and accordingly we find that though the holy Angels did not comprehend the particular Intention and Mystery of Christ's Incarnation yet they concluded in the general that it was intended for some great Good to the World as is apparent by the Anthem they sung at his Nativity Glory be to God on high on Earth peace good will towards Men. Now the greatest Expression of God's good Will towards Men is to rescue them from all Iniquity and restore them to the Purity and Perfection of their Natures for without this all the Blessings of Heaven and Earth are not sufficient to make us happy While our Nature is debauch'd and overgrown with unreasonable Lusts and Passions we must be miserable notwithstanding all that an Omnipotent Goodness can do for us for Misery is so essential to Sin that we may as well be Men without being reasonable as sinful Men without being miserable Since therefore the End of Christ's coming into the World was to dispense God's greatest Blessings to Mankind and since the greatest Blessing that we can receive from God is to be redeemed by his Grace from our Iniquities and to be made Partakers of the Divine Nature we may reasonably conclude that this was his main Design in the World and the great End of that everlasting Gospel which he revealed to it And hence the name Iesus was given him by the Direction of an Angel because he should save his people from their Sins Matth. i. 21. and indeed I cannot imagine any Design whatsoever excepting this that could be worthy the Son of God's coming down into the World to live such a miserable Life and die such a shameful Death Had it been only to save us from a Plague or War or Famine it had been an Undertaking fit for the lowest Angel in the heavenly Hierarchy but to save us from our sins was an Enterprize so great and good as none in Heaven or Earth but the Son of God himself was thought worthy to be employed in This therefore was the Mark of all his Aims while he was upon Earth the Center in which all his Actions and Sufferings met to save us from our Sins and to inspire us with a divine Life and God-like Nature that thereby we might be disposed for the Enjoyment of Heaven and made to be meet Partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light 'T is true he died to procure our Pardon too but it was with respect to a farther End namely that we might not grow desperate with the Sense of our Guilts but that by the Promise of Pardon which he hath purchased for us we might be encouraged to repent and amend But should he have procured a Pardon for our Sin whether we had repented of it or no he would have only skinned over a Wound which if it be not perfectly cured will rankle of its own accord into an incurable Gangrene Christ therefore by the offering of himself is said to purge our consciences from dead works that we might serve the living God Heb. ix 14. and the great Apostle makes the ultimate Intention of his giving himself for us to be this that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. ii 14. And until his Death hath had this Effect upon us it is not all the Merit of his Blood and Vertue of his Sacrifice that can release us from the direful Punishments of the other Life For unless he by his Death had so altered the Nature of Sin as that it might be in us without being a Plague to us it must necessarily if we carry it with us into the other World prove a perpetual Hell and Torment to us So that it is apparent that the great and ultimate Design of Christ was not to hide our filthy sores but to heal and cure them and for this End it was that he revealed to us the grace of God from Heaven to teach us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world Tit. ii 12. Let us not therefore cheat our own Souls by thinking that the Gospel requires nothing of us but only to be holy by Proxy righteous by being cloathed in the Garments of another's Righteousness as if its Design was not so much to cure as cover our filthy Sores not to make us whole but to make us accounted so For can any Man imagin that Christ would ever have undertaken such a mighty Design and made so great a noise of doing something which when it is all summed up is nothing but a Notion and doth not at last amount unto a Reality As if the great Design of his coming down from Heaven to live and die for us was only to make a Cloak for our sins wherein we might appear righteous before God without being so But do not deceive your selves it is not all the Innocence and Obedience of Christ's Life nor all the Virtue and Merit of his Death that can render you pure and holy in God's eyes unless you really are so and you may as well be Well with another's Health or wise with another's Wisdom as righteous before God with the Righteousness of Christ while you abide in your Sins For God sees you as you are and the most glorious Disguise you can appear in before him will never be able to delude his all-seeing Eye so as to make him account you righteous when you are not and if it were possible for you to impose upon God yet unless you could also impose upon the Nature of Things and by fancying them to be otherwise than they are make them to be what they are not it will be to no purpose For if you could be cloathed in Christ's Righteousness while you continue wicked it would signifie no more to your Happiness than it would to be cloathed in a most splendid Garment while you were pining with Famine or tortured with the Gout or Strangury Wherefore as we love our own Souls and would not betray our selves into an irrecoverable Ruin let us firmly conclude with our selves that the great Design of our Religion is internal Holiness and Righteousness and that without this all that Christ hath done and suffered for us will be so far from contributing to our Happiness that it will prove an eternal Aggravation to our Misery and that all that precious Blood which he shed in our behalf will be so far from obtaining Pardon and eternal Happiness for us that it will arise in Iudgment against us and like the innocent blood of Abel instead of interceeding for us will cry down Vengance from Heaven upon us For how can we imagine that the pure and holy Iesus who hated our Sins more than all the Pangs and Horrors of a woful Death should all of a
Inclination from them that their Nearness ceases to be a Temptation to us These are the Parts of that wise and prudent Discipline which we are to exercise upon our selves as a Mean and Instrument to mortifie our Lusts. V. ANOTHER Instrument of Mortification is frequent Receiving of the Sacrament And indeed I do not know any one more effectual Cause or more fatal Symptom of the Decay of Christian Piety among us than is the common and woful Neglect of this solemn Ordinance which were it but frequented with that wise and due Preparation that it ought to be would doubtless be highly instrumental to reform the World and to make Men good in good earnest For besides that those sacred Elements are by God's Institution become moral Conveyances of the Divine Grace whereby our good Resolutions are nourish'd and confirm'd there we have represented openly to our Senses one of the greatest Arguments against Sin in all our Religion viz. the Passion and Sacrifice of our blessed Saviour There he is represented to my Eyes in all his Wounds and Agonies bruised and broken for my Sin and bleeding to expiate my Transgressions And O my obdurate Soul canst thou behold this tragical Spectacle without Indignation against thy Sins which were the Cause of it Does not thy Heart rise against thy Sins whilst thou here beholdest him weltering in his Blood and hearest those gaping Wounds it issueth from proclaiming them his Assassines and Murderers But if thou hast not Ingenuity enough to prompt thee to revenge thy Saviour's quarrel upon these his mortal Enemies yet methinks Self-love would move thee not to be fond of thy Sins when thou here beholdest how much the Son of God endured to expiate them For how canst thou think of sinning without Trembling and Astonishment who hast here before thine Eyes such a dreadful Example of God's Severity against it Does it not strike thy Soul into an Agony to behold this bloody Tragedy wherein the all-merciful Father is represented so inexorably incensed against thy Sins that he that was the most innocent Person that ever was upon Earth and also the greatest Favourite that ever was in Heaven could not with all his Prayers and Tears obtain thy Pardon without undergoing for thee the bitter Agonies of a woful Death Sure if thou hast any one Spark of Love in thee either towards thy Saviour or thy self this solemn Commemoration of his Passion cannot but affect thee with Horror and Indignation against thy Sins But then as in this great Solemnity we do commemorate our Saviour's Passion so we do also renew the Vows of our Obedience to him which as I have shewed you is very instrumental in it self to the subduing of our sins but much more when it is done in so sacred a manner For as Feasting upon Sacrifices was always used as a federal Rite both among the Iews and Heathens whereby God and Men by eating together did mutually oblige themselves to one another so the Lords Supper being a Feast upon the Sacrifice of Christ's Body and Blood when we come thither we eat and drink of his Sacrifice and do thereby devote our selves in the most solemn manner to his Service We swear Allegiance to him upon his own Body and Blood and take the Sacrament upon it that we will be his faithful Votaries When we take the Consecrated Symbols into our hands we make this solemn Dedication of our selves to God Here we offer and present unto thee O Lord our selves our Souls and Bodies to be a reasonable holy and lively sacrifice unto thee and here we call to witness this sacred Blood that redeemed us and those vocal Wounds that interceded for us that from henceforth we oblige our selves never to start from thy service what Difficulties soever we may encounter in it and what Temptations soever we may have to forsake it Now what can be a greater Restraint to us when we are solicited to any Evil than such a solemn and sacred Obligation Methinks the Sense of that dreadful Vow that is upon us should so over-awe us that we should not be able to think of sinning without Horror For Lord how shall I dare to cheat and defraud my Neighbour when 't was but the other day that I vowed to be honest and took the Sacrament upon it with what Conscience can I now hate or design revenge against my Brother when I so lately swore unto God upon the Body and Blood of my Saviour that I would love and forgive all the world Surely if Men had any Sense of God any Dram of Religion in them they would not be able after such engagements to look upon any Temptation to sin without Trembling And whatsoever Pretences of Unworthiness Men may make to keep themselves from this Ordinance I doubt not but the great Reason of their Neglect is this that they love their Lusts and are resolved whatsoever comes of it they will not part with them and so they will not come to the Sacrament because they must be obliged to renounce their Lusts there which they are extreamly unwilling to do And if this be their Reason as I fear it is they are unworthy indeed the more Shame for them but it is such an Unworthiness as is so far from excusing their Neglect that it is a foul Aggravation of it For he that will not receive the Sacrament because he will not renounce his Lusts makes one Sin the Reason of another and so pleads that for his Excuse which will be the Cause of his Condemnation But if we are honestly resolved to part with all our Sins and can but willingly devote them as Sacrifices to the Altar we are sufficiently prepared for this great Solemnity and shall be welcome Guests to the Table of our Lord If we can sincerely pay our Vows at his Altar we may confidently take the Cup of Salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord. And having thus chained up our Lusts by the Vows of Obedience we have paid there it will be hard for them to shake off such mighty Fetters or ever to get loose again from so strict a Confinement especially if we take care to repeat this our Sacramental Vow as often as conveniently we can For as I have already shewed you the frequent Renewal of our holy Vows and Resolutions does mightily tend to strengthen and reinforce them And therefore it is worth observing how much care Christ hath taken in the very Constitution of his Religion to oblige us to a constant Repetition of our Vows and good Purposes For at our first Entrance into Covenant with him we are to be baptized in which Solemnity we do renounce the Devil and all his Works and religiously devote our selves to his Service But because we are apt to forget our Vows and the matter of it is continually to be performed and more than one World doth depend upon it therefore he hath thought fit not to trust to our first Engagement but so to methodize
and do Reign by his Authority they have also an inseparable Right to be obeyed in all things wherein they do not interfere with the Commands of God for in obeying them we obey God who commandeth by their Mouths and willeth by their Laws and Edicts and as he who refuseth to obey the Vice-Roy's command doth in so doing disobey the King himself unless he commandeth the contrary so he who disobeyeth his Sovereign who is God's Vice-Roy doth in so doing disobey God unless it be where God hath countermanded him So that while he commandeth only lawful things he hath an undoubted Right to be obeyed because his Commands are stamped with Divine Authority and are thereby rendered sacred and inviolable Again since Sovereigns are the supreme Representatives of God's Power and Majesty upon Earth as being his immediate Substitutes they have also an unalienable Right to be honoured and reverenced by their Subjects because they bear God's Character and do shine with the Rays of his Majesty before which every Creature in Heaven and Earth ought to bow and lye prostrate and therefore for Subjects to contemn and vilifie their Sovereigns to expose their faults and uncover their nakedness and Lampoon and Libel their Persons and Actions is an Affront to God's own Majesty and an unjust and impious Prophanation of that Divine Character they bear about them Once more since Sovereigns are substituted by God for the Common Good to protect the Innocent and avenge the Injured and guard the Rights of their People against Foreign and Intestine Fraud and Violence they must hereupon have an undoubted Right to be aided and assisted by their Subjects because without their Aid it will be impossible for them to accomplish the Ends of their Sovereignty And therefore for Subjects to refuse to Aid their Sovereign with their Purses or Persons when legally required or by any indirect means to withdraw themselves from his Assistance whenever his Necessities call for it is to detain from him a just Right that is owing to his Character and Relation And as these Rights are all implyed in the Relation of a Sovereign so are there others implyed in the Relation of a Subject for Sovereign Power being ordained by God for a publick Good to guard and defend the Innocent to shelter and relieve the Oppressed to fence and propagate true Religion and adjust and ballance private Rights and Interests Every Subject hath a Right to be protected by it so far as it is able in his Person and Legal Rights in his just Liberties and Privileges and sincere Profession of true Religion and that Sovereign who doth not employ his power to these purposes but through wilful and affected Error or Ignorance imposeth a false Religion on his People or betrayeth oppresseth or inslaveth them himself or permits others to do it either out of Malice or Carelesness is an injurious Invader of their Rights and Properties and though he be not accountable to any Earthly Tribunal shall one day answer for it at the Tribunal of God II. THERE is the Relation of Subordinate Magistrates to the Sovereign and People such are the Judges and Justices the Governours of Towns Cities and Provinces and the like who by vertue of that Authority which is stamped upon them and which they derive as I told you from God who is the Head and Spring of all Power and Dominion have by vertue of that a Right to be honoured and reverenced and obeyed by the People according to the Degree and extent of their Authority For wherever it is placed Authority is a Sacred thing as being a Ray and Impress of the Divine Majesty and as such may justly claim honour and reverence from all Men and whoever contemneth the lowest Degree of it offereth an Affront to the highest He who contemneth Subordinate Magistrates who are vested with the King's Authority doth therein contemn the King and he who contemneth the King who is vested with God's Authority doth therein contemn God Whatsoever therefore the personal faults and defects of Magistrates may be Men ought to consider that their Authority is a Sacred thing and as such challengeth their Reverence and Obedience by an unalienable Right and that therefore to behave themselves frowardly stubbornly or irreverently towards a lawful Magistrate is to detain from him his Rights and offer an unjust Affront to his Character which how good soever they may be in other Instances doth in this bespeak them highly dishonest and injurious And as the Relation of Subordinate Magistrates intitleth them to the Peoples Reverence and Obedience so the Relation which the Prince and People bear to them intitleth them both to their Fidelity Vigilance and Iustice. For Subordinate Magistrates are the King's Trustees for himself and his People and in their hands he depositeth the Honour Security and Rights of his own Crown and Dominion together with the Safeguard and Protection of the Just and Legal Rights of his People So that upon their acceptance of this Trust by which they engage themselves faithfully to discharge it the King acquireth a Right to their faithful and vigilant Care to see that his Authority be Reverenced his Laws Obeyed his Person Government and Properties Secured the People acquire a Right to be Protected by them in their Persons Reputations Liberties and Estates and so far as they are wilfully failing either towards the King or the People in any of these Matters they do unjustly detain the King's or the Peoples Rights or both they betray the Trust committed to them falsifie their own Engagements and under the Mask of Authority are publick Robbers of Mankind III. THERE is the Relation of Pastors and People for since out of his tender care to the Souls of Men God hath instituted an Order of Men to Administer to them those holy Ordinances by which he conveyeth his Grace and Spirit to instruct them in their Duties admonish them of their Errors and warn them of their Dangers and guide them to eternal Happiness there doth from hence arise a near and sacred Relation between the People and their respective Guides and Pastors They are joined together by the Tyes and Obligations of Religion which giveth them a mutual Right in one another and which giveth the Pastor a Right to be diligently attended to by the People in his religious Ministrations to be Construed in the best Sense and fairly treated and complyed with in all his pious Reproofs and Admonitions to be honoured and reverenced for his Work 's sake to partake with the People in their Temporals as they do with him in his Spirituals and to be supported by them according to their Ability with a fair and honourable Maintenance and they who are wanting to their Pastor in any of these particulars deprive him of that which is as much his Right in Conscience as any thing can be theirs in Law And then as for the People They have also a Right to have holy Things duly and regularly Administred to them
that amiable Character the Psalmist gives of him Psal. cxix 68. Thou art good and thou dost good So that in relieving the Necessities of others we act the Part and the best Part too of the Almighty Father of Beings who sits at the upper End of the Table and carves to his whole Creation Hence St. Gregory Nazian speaking of the Charitable Man saith that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. A God to the unfortunate imitating the Mercies of God for Man hath in nothing so much of God as in doing good which is doubtless the most divine and Godlike thing that a Creature is capable of What then can be more honourable or more becoming a Creature than to tread in the Footsteps of God to transcribe his Nature and Actions and be a kind of Vice-God in the World Surely did we but understand and consider how divinely magnificent it is to supply the Necessities and contribute to the Happiness of others we should court it as our highest Preferment and bless God upon our bended Knees for deeming us worthy of such an illustrious Employment and that among the numerous Blessings he hath heaped upon us he hath vouchsafed to admit us to share with himself in the Glory of doing Good AND as the Example of God doth highly recommend to us relieving of the poor and miserable so also doth the Example of our Saviour For it was for this that he left his Father's Bosom and came down from Heaven into our Nature that he might relieve a poor perishing World and rescue it from Eternal Ruin And what a glorious Recommendation of Charity is this that the Son of God chose rather to do good upon Earth than to reign over Angels in Heaven And while he was here the sole Employment he thought worthy of himself was to relieve the Miserable to feed the Hungry to cure the Blind and the Lame to restore the Sick to instruct the Ignorant and reclaim the Rebellious This was the Drift of all his Actions this the Subject of his Miracles and this the Scope of all his Doctrines So that his whole Life was nothing else but a continued Train of Beneficencies for the Apostle telleth us in the x. of the Act. 38. that he went about doing good Consider this therefore O thou hard-hearted Christian that stoppest thy Ears against the poor Man's Cries What would thy blessed Lord have done had he been in thy Case and Circumstances Would He who had so much Compassion on the Multitude as to work a Miracle to feed them have turned that miserable Wretch away as thou dost without the least Dram of Comfort and Relief Would He whose Heart and Hand was always open to the Poor and Miserable have despised the poor Man's Moans as thou dost or shut his Bowels of Compassion against him Do but peruse the Pattern of his Life and scan over his whole Behaviour and see if there be any one Action in all that great Exemplar that doth not upbraid thee and cry Shame upon thee for entitling thy narrow cruel and stingy Self a Disciple to such a merciful generous and liberal Master and if so learn for the future either to be so honest as to follow his Rule and Example or else so modest as to disclaim thy Relation to him III. CONSIDER that giving of Alms is a most substantial Expression of our Love and Gratitude to God and our Saviour How much we are obliged to express our Gratitude to God for these our outward Enjoyments and Abilities to do good to others is evident from hence because we receive them from him and do hold in vertue of his Donation For to suppose our selves independent Possessors of them is in effect to devest God of his Dominion and to strip him into an insignificant Cypher that only sits above in the Heavens like an Almighty Sardanapalus with his Arms folded in his Bosom and no further concerning himself in the Affairs of this lower World than to look down from his Throne and please himself to see Men scrambling for their several Shares of it But if we suppose him as we have infinite Reason to do the Almighty Author and Supream Disposer of all things then we must acknowledge that 't is from his overflowing Bounty that we derive whatever we possess that 't is the Gold of his Mines that enriches us the Crops of his Fields that feed us the Fleeces of his Beasts that cloath us and that every Good Thing we enjoy is handed to us by the Ministry of his all-disposing Providence And since we owe all to his Bounty and in our greatest Flourish are but his Alms-men and Pensioners how deeply are we obliged to return upon him in the Oblations of Love and Thanksgiving And since Love and Gratitude consist either in the Affection of the Mind or in the verbal Signification of it or in the effectual Performance of good things to the Person whom we thank and love this last is the most compleat and substantial Expression of the Reality of our Words and Affections For though Good-Will is indeed the Root of Love and Gratitude yet that lying under Ground and out of sight we cannot conclude its Being and Life without visible Fruits of Beneficence to the Person whom we thank and love And as for good Words they are at best but the Leaves of Love and Gratitude but 't is good Works that are the real Fruits of them by which their Sincerity is demonstrated For as no Man doth ever impress a false Stamp upon the finest Metal so costly Thanks and Love are seldom counterfeit It is to decline spending their Goods or their Pains that Men do so often forge and feign pretending to make up in wishing well the Defects of doing so and paying down Words instead of Things But where Works are wanting there is no Expression of our Love or Gratitude can either be real in it self or acceptable to God So that we may spare our Breath if we keep back our Substance for our close Hand giveth the lye to our full Mouth and all our verbal Praises of God when we will part with nothing for his sake are only so many empty Compliments and down-right Mockeries But then do our Love and Gratitude to God discover their Reality when it appears by our Actions that we think nothing too dear for him when for his sake who hath fed and clothed us and abundantly supplied our Necessities we are ready upon all Opportunities to feed and cloath and supply the Necessities of others And can we think any Thing too dear by which we may express our Gratitude to Him upon whose overflowing Bounty we depend for every Blessing we have or hope for who hath provided not only this Temporal World for our Bodies but also an Eternal Heaven for our Souls and hath sent his Son to us from his own Bosom to tread out our Way to it and conduct us thither Or can we think any Thanks too costly for
that blessed Son who never grudged to come down from Heaven into this Vale of Miseries and pour out his Blood for our sakes Was it not much harder for Him to part with Heaven than 't is for you to part with a little Mony And can you think it much to bestow an Alms for his sake who never grudged to lay down his Life for yours This is the Argument of the Apostle 2 Cor. viii 9. For ye know the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes the became poor that ye through his poverty might be rich IV. CONSIDER that giving of Alms charges an high Obligation to us upon the Accounts of God and our Saviour For God lends the poor Man his Name and allows him to crave our Succours for his sake He gives him Credit from himself to us for what he stands in need of and bids him charge what he receives upon his own Account permitting to reckon Himself obliged thereby and to write Him down our Debtor So that when we stop our Ears to the Cries of the Poor he reckons himself repulsed by us and interprets it as a rude Affront offered to his own Person it being offered to one that bears his Name and wears his Livery For the poor Man's Rags are the Badges of his Relation to God and his Wants are the Mouths by which God himself intreats our Relief and Succour assuring us that he will reckon it to our selves and accept it as kindly at our hands as if we had relieved Him in his own Person For he that hath pity upon the poor saith the Wise Man lendeth unto the Lord Prov. xix 17. in which one Sentence methinks there is more Rhetorick than in a whole Library of Sermons And surely did we but understand and consider it in its full Emphasis we should not need such Volumes of Instructions but might easily learn to be charitable by an Epitome O blessed God! that thou should'st own thy self my Debtor only for repaying thee a Part of what thou hast lent me and of what is still thine own by an unalienable Propriety that thou who art the great Landlord of the World should'st thus acknowledge thy self indebted to thy poor Tenant for paying thee a small Quit-rent a Pepper-corn of Homage for what I hold in thy Right and by thy Bounty And yet thus it is he lends us our Estates and then writes himself our Debtor for that small Part which we repay him in Works of Piety and Charity And as God putteth our Alms to his own account so doth our Saviour also For so Matth. xxv 40. In as much saith he as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me that is I account my self obliged by it and do receive it at your hands with the same Kindness and Acceptance as if you had been with me in my state of Humiliation and shewed me all this Mercy in my own Person And when both God and my Saviour do send a poor Wretch to me in their own Name and Person and desire me for their Sakes and upon their Accounts to relieve him Can I be either so ungrateful to them to whom I am indebted for all that I have or do hope for or so wanting to my own Interest as to neglect so fair an Opportunity of making them some Return of their Favours and thereby obliging them to heap more Favours upon me For when in giving to the Poor I give to God and my Saviour what glorious Compensations may I expect from such kind and liberal Pay-Masters he that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully saith the Apostle speaking of Alms 2 Cor. ix 6. for he soweth in the richest Soil in the fruitful Hands of God and his Saviour where the Seed being nourished with infinite Bounty never faileth to increase and multiply a thousand-fold For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love which ye have shewed towards his name in that ye have ministred to the Saints and do minister Heb. vi 10. Though he may sometimes defer yet he never forgets to return a charitable Work So that you may safely reckon upon it that so much as you have bestowed in Works of Charity so much with vast Increase and Interest you have secured to you in the Hands of God who will either return it to you hither in Temporal Blessings or which is a thousand times better repay it to you with infinite Interest in the weight of your Eternal Crown For so our Saviour promises the young Man that if he would give what he had to the poor he should have treasure in heaven Matth. xix 21. So that by giving Alms we make Earth tributary to Heaven and in a nobler sense than the new System of Astronomy teaches advance it into a Celestial Body and consequently enrich not only our Selves but our Wealth too by thus transmitting it to Heaven before us as it were by Bills of Exchange to be repaid us when we come there in an everlasting Treasure of Happiness And when by relieving the poor Man 's needs we may thus transmute our Dross into Gold and which is more our perishing Gold into immortal Glory What Man in his Wits would refuse any fair Opportunity of making such a blessed Exchange CHAP. IV. Of the Natural Reasons and Grounds of Mercy HAVING shewn at large what Mercy is and to what particular Duties it extends I shall now proceed to the second thing viz. the Eternal Reasons upon which it is founded and rendred morally Good Which I shall reduce to these five Particulars First THE Suitableness of it to the Nature of God Secondly THE Convenience of it with the Frame and Constitution of Humane Nature Thirdly THE near and intimate Relation of those Persons to us upon whom our Mercy is to be exercised Fourthly THE Equitableness of it to our own State and Circumstances Fifthly THE Necessity of it to the tolerable Well-being of Humane Society I. ONE eternal Reason upon which Mercy is founded and rendered morally Good is the Suitableness of it to the Nature of God which abounding as it doth with all the possible Kinds and Degrees of Perfection is an infinitely full and everlasting Fountain of Happiness to it self so that it cannot wish for any Kind or any Degree of Blessedness beyond the Enjoyment of it self and those infinite Complacencies it takes in its own essential Beauties and Perfections And having such an inexhaustible Treasure of Happiness within it self it can have no Need of or Dependence upon any thing without it nor consequently be liable to any temptation to oppress or render others miserable either for the Security or Augmentation of its own Revenues And as he who is infinitely happy can have no Temptation to render others miserable so his own Happiness cannot but incline him to render the miserable happy For so from a Natural Principle of Self-Love every
that they are only so many Exceptions to a General Rule and therefore ought rather to be looked upon as so many Monsters of Men than as the Standards of Humane Nature For as we do not look upon it as natural to Men to be born without Hands or Feet though there have been Instances of such monstrous and unnatural Births so neither ought we to think it natural to Men to be cruel and unmerciful because of a few Devils in Humane Shape that have pulled out their own Bowels of Compassion If we would understand what is humane and natural we must take our Measures from those who in all other cases do live most conformably to the Laws of Nature and to be sure the more regular Mens Natures are the more you will find them abounding with Pity and Compassion For hence it is that Mercy and Compassion are called Good Nature and Humanity and their contraries Ill Nature and Inhumanity because as the former are inseparable Properties of well-formed and regulated Natures so the latter are such hideous Deformities of Nature as do in effect devest us of our Manhood and render us a kind of Monsters among Men. By all which it is evident that the great Creator hath framed and composed our Nature to Mercy and implanted in it a tender Sympathy and fellow-feelling of each others Miseries by which as by a Voice from Heaven he doth eternally call upon us to let out these our natural Compassions into Acts of Mercy towards one another For the Voice of Nature is a genuine Eccho and Repetition of the Voice of God who by creating in us such a tender Sympathy with one another doth most expresly signifie that it is his Will that we should mutually succour and relieve each other For to what other end should he create in me such a Feeling of my Brother's miseries but only to provoke me by it to ease and succour him why should he cause me to partake as I do of other Mens Pains and Pleasures but to excite me thereby to use my best endeavour to asswage their Pains and advance their Pleasures Since therefore the God of Nature hath made my Neighbour's Misery my Pain and his Content my Pleasure and by the indissoluble Bands of mutual Sympathy hath linked our Fortunes and Affections together so that 't is for my own Ease to ease him and for my own Pleasure to please him this is an eternal and immutable Reason why I should be merciful to him III. ANOTHER eternal Reason upon which Mercy is founded and by which it is constituted morally Good is the near and intimate Relation of those Persons to us upon whom our Mercy is to be exercised For there is between Men and Men a most intimate Kindred and Relation as being all derived from one common Root whose prolifick Sap hath sprouted into infinite Branches which like the Boughs of Nebuchadnezzar's Tree have spread themselves to all the ends of the Earth And as we are all Children of the same Parents and consequently Brethren by Nature so we do all Communicate of the same Nature as being compounded of the same Materials and animated with the same Forms having all the same Faculties Inclinations Appetites and Affections and being only so many several Copies transcribed from the same Original and there is no other Difference between us but what is made by things that are extrinsick and accidental to our Natures So that in short we are all but one and the same Substance attired in a diverse Garb of Circumstances divided into several Times and Places and diversify'd by the little Accidents of Colour and Stature Figure and Proportions in all which perhaps within a little while we shall differ as much from our selves as we do now from other Men. For do but compare your selves in your Youth or in your Health or in your Prosperity with your selves in your Age or in your Sickness or in your Adversity and you will find as much Difference between your selves and your selves as you do now between your selves and others so that in reality other Men are as much you now as you are your selves in other Circumstances we being all the same in every stable essential Ingredient of our Natures and being only diversified by such Accidents from one another as will in a little time diversifie us from our selves Thus the Apostle saith Acts xvii 26. He hath made of one blood that is of one Nature all nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth There being therefore such a close Conjunction such a strict Union of Natures between Men and Men so that every other Man is every other Man's self a few trifling Circumstances excepted this is an everlasting Reason why we should treat them as we do our selves with all Compassion and Humanity For to commiserate one who is my other self is that which I am obliged to by own Self-Love which God hath made an eternal Law to my Nature 't is to feed a Member of my own Body and nourish a Branch of my own Root yea 't is to feed and succour my own Nature that is only individuate from mine by I know not what Metaphysical Principle and cloathed in different Accidents and Circumstances So that now the very same Self-Love which doth so importunately instigate us upon all occasions to redress our own miseries ought in all reason to provoke us to relieve and succour other Men since all the Miseries they endure are the Miseries of our own Nature insomuch that we run their Fortunes and by a natural Communion are Partakers of their Pains and Pleasures For the Humane Nature which is common to us and them endures the smart of their afflictions and bleeds through every wound that is given them so that by pouring into those Wounds the Balsam of our Mercy we do an Act of kindness to our selves and wisely consult our own Preservation As on the contrary by dealing cruelly and unmercifully by other Men we do affront and violate our own Natures and most unnaturally thwart that Principle of self-love which God hath implanted in us for our own Preservation For he whom thou treatest with so much Contempt and Cruelty is thy own self individuated into another Person and wears thy Nature under other Circumstances he is Man of thy Manhood Flesh of thy Flesh and Bone of thy Bone and no man ever yet hated his own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it Eph. v. 29. Wherefore thou canst not deal cruelly by him without wounding thy self through his sides and committing an unnatural Outrage upon the Humane Nature whereof he is equally Partaker with thee IV. ANOTHER eternal Reason upon which Mercy is founded and rendered morally Good is the Equitableness of it to our own State and Circumstances for no Man ever was or ever can be so happy as not to have need of Mercy for himself The best of Men are Sinners before God and for that are liable
our Minds and render them unfit especially for the most perfect Exercise of our Reason Thus Drunkenness dilutes the Brain which is the Mint of the Understanding and drowns those Images which are stamp'd upon it in a Deluge of unwholsome Moistures Thus Gluttony cloggs the Animal Spirits which are as it were the Wings of the Mind and renders them incapable of performing the noblest and sublimest Flights of Reason Thus Anger and Wantonness force up the boiling Blood into the Brain and by that disorders the Motions of the Spirits there confounds the Fantasms and disturbs the Conceptions and shuffles the Ideas of the Imagination into an heap of inarticulate and disorderly Fancies And how is it possible our Minds should strike true Harmony when its Instrument is thus disorder'd and all the Strings of it are so out of Tune How should we understand well while our Brains are overcast with the thick Fumes of sensual Lusts and those Spirits which should wing our minds are grown so listless and unactive that they rather hamper and entangle them For what Clearness is to the Eye that Purity is to the Mind As Clearness doth dispose the Eye to a quick and distinct Perception of Material Objects so Purity from Lust and Passion disposes the Mind to a more clear Apprehension of Intellectual ones and the more any Man's Soul is cleansed from the Filth and Dregs of Sensuality the brighter it will be in its Conceptions and the more nimble and expedite in its Operations For Purity doth naturally fit the Body to the Mind it puts its Organs all in Tune and renders its spirits fine and agil and fit for the noblest Exercises of Reason which they can never be whilst they are subject to disorderly Passions and drenched in the unwholsome Reeks of Sensuality and Voluptuousness But besides this Mischief which Sin doth to our Understandings by rendering our Bodies unapt to all Intellectual Purposes it also dyes the mind with false Colours and fills it with Prejudice and undue Apprehensions of Things For while our Souls are under the sway of any disorderly Passion or Appetite they will naturally warp our Iudgments into a Compliance with their own Interest and bribe us to judge of things not according to what they are but according to what we would have them And when our Iudgments are thus bribed by our Interest and swayed by our Passions it is impossible we should judge truly of Things For our Passions will discolour the Objects of our Understandings and disguise them into such Shapes as are most agreeable to our Humor and Interest and so our Opinions of Things will alter upon every Variation of our Humours and our Thoughts like Weather-cocks will be wheeling about upon every Change of Wind. So that while we are encompassed with the Mists of sinful Prejudice they will necessarily hinder the Prospect of our Reason and obscure the Brightness of our Understandings and the Clearness of our discerning Faculties And thus you see how natural it is to Vice to spoil and wast our Understandings and to choke up those Fountains of Light within us with Clouds and Darkness And that it doth so is very apparent in Fact for how much wicked Men have lost their Reason is apparent by the ridiculous Principles upon which they generally act which generally are so very weak and absurd that it would be impossible for Men to assent to them were not their Understandings perished and the Reason of their minds wofully impaired and wasted As for instance the desperate Atheist wishes that there were no God upon this Principle that it is better for Men to be without a God than to be without their Lusts then which there can be nothing more wild or extravagant For it is plain that without our Lusts we can be happier than with them whereas it is the common Interest of Mankind that the World should be governed by infinite Goodness conducted by infinite Power and Wisdom and no Man or Society of Men can be happy without it For take God out of the World and you take away all Hope from the miserable all Comfort from the sorrowful and all Support from the dejected and calamitous and at one blow cut in sunder all the Bands of Society rase the Foundations of Virtue and confound all Distinction between Good and Evil. And yet the besotted Wretch for the sake of a paltry Lust that betrays him with a Kiss and stings him in the Enjoyment would fain banish God out of the World though it is apparent that in so doing he would do Mankind more Mischief than if he should blow out all the Lights of Heaven or pull down the Sun from the Firmament And in the general what more ridiculous Principles can there be thought than such as these That Sense is to be preferred before Reason Earth before Heaven Moments before Eternity that the short-liv'd pleasures of sin which expire in the fruition are sufficient to ballance the loss of an immortal Heaven and the sense of an eternal Hell that 't is time enough to repent when we can sin no more and that God is so fond a Being as that rather than ruin those that wilfully spurn at his Authority and trample upon his Laws he will accept a few Tears and Promises to live well when we can live no longer in exchange for all the Duty we owe him and that we may sit all the day in the lap of our Lusts and enjoy them without controul and then at night when we can enjoy them no longer fly up to Heaven upon the Wings of a Lord have mercy upon us And yet a wicked Life is either built upon no Principles at all or upon such as these which are ridiculous beyond all the extravagant Conceits of Fools or Madmen 'T is no wonder therefore that the Scripture so frequently brands the Sinner with the infamous Character of a Fool for if you measure him by the Principles he acts upon there is not a greater Fool in Nature which is a plain Evidence how much Vice doth besot the Understandings of Men and like those Barbarous Philistines puts out their Eyes only to sport it self with their Follies and Extravagances So that methinks had we any Reverence for our own Reason by which we are constituted Men and distinguish'd from the Beasts that perish we should never endure those Lusts within our Bosoms that do so much impair and wast it II. SIN subverts the natural Subordination of our Faculties For the natural Order and Politie of our Natures consists in the Dominion of our Rational Faculties over our sensitive Passions and Appetites so that then only we live according to the Law of our Nature when we eat and drink and love and hate and fear and hope and desire and delight according as right Reason prescribes For the noblest Principle of Humane Nature is Reason by which it is that we are constituted Men and advanced into a Form of Beings above all sublunary
Supply but there is nothing in the world that we have more Need of and if we faithfully seek it nothing that we can have more Assurance of than the gracious Influence of the Holy Ghost We have as much Need of it as of our daily Bread because our Souls will starve and famish without it And we have as much Assurance of it as the sacred Word of the God of Truth can give us because He hath promised it to us who can as soon cease to be as to be faithful And therefore if after so much Need and Encouragement we do neglect our Prayers and turn our backs upon the Throne of Grace it is a plain Argument that either we are wretchedly insensible of our Need of God's Grace or causelesly suspicious of the Truth of his Promise And doubtless he that can pass day after day without putting up one Prayer to Heaven that can venture himself among the infinite Snares and Temptations of this world without imploring the Divine Aid and Protection is a very bold and fool-hardy Sinner one that declares he regards neither God nor his own Soul and that he cares not what becomes of him either here or hereafter Methinks did we but soberly consider how much we want God's Grace and how ready He is to afford it us we should as soon venture to rush naked into a Battle among Squadrons of Swords and Spears as to go at any time into the World without God to hazard our immortal Souls in the midst of such a numberless Battle of Temptations without arming our selves by Prayer with the Divine Grace and Assistance Wherefore since we have so much Need and if we seek it so much Assurance too of the Spirit of God let us take that excellent Counsel of the Author to the Hebrews Heb. iv 16. Go boldly and importunately to the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help us in the time of need V. FROM hence we may perceive the indispensable Necessity of our faithful and sincere Endeavours in order to the mâ—rtifying our Lusts. 'T is a strange Principle which some Men have taken up that if their Names are recorded in the eternal Roll of Election they shall in time be made good by an irresistible Grace and that if they are not they shall never be good at all though they should endeavour it with their utmost Power and Diligence And so they think their best way is to lye still in the Harbour and expect the Event concluding it in vain to begin their Voyage towards Heaven without an irresistible Gale from thence A Doctrine which I doubt too many Men have improved to their own everlasting Ruin though it hath no Foundation at all in Reason and hath nothing to support it self but a few mistaken Phrases of Scripture But he that shall impartially consult the whole Current of God's Word will find that the ordinary Language and Sense of it is this that God desireth not the death of a sinner but would have all men to be saved but because he would save us in such a Way as is congruous to free Agents and not by fatal and necessary Means therefore he indispensably exacts the Concurrence of our Endeavours that we should run the Race that is set before us and strive to enter into the strait gate and that by patient continuance in well-doing we should seek for honour and glory and immortality And from any thing that God hath said to us we have as much Reason to hope to be nourish'd without Eating as to be sav'd without Endeavour 'T is true God hath promised by his Grace to cooperate with us to joyn in with our Faculties and bless our virtuous Essays but he is by no means obliged to work for us while we sit idle to mortify our Lusts while we feed and pamper them or to purify our Minds while we go on to pollute them with all the Filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit No if we would that God should assist us we must do what we can for our selves We can attend upon the ordinary Means and Ministries of Salvation we can ponder and consider the great Motives of our Religion and abstain at least from the outward Acts of Sin and implore the Divine Aid to prosper and succeed our Endeavours And if we will do but this and what else is in our Power let us then blame God if we are not successful and if we die in our Sins let us charge his Decrees with our Ruine But if we will disregard the publick Ministries of Religion and wilfully excommunicate all good Thoughts from our minds if we will comply with every Temptation to sin and refuse to crave Assistance from Heaven against it we have none to blame for our Ruin but our selves For God hath told us before-hand that He will not save us without our selves and therefore he that is to go a long Journey hath as much Reason to sit down in hope to be snatched up into the Air by Whirlwind and so to be carried on the wings of it to his appointed Stage as we have to neglect our Endeavours for Heaven in expectation to be haled and snatched up thither by the Almighty Pulleys of an irresistible Grace Let us not therefore upon this vain Presumption sit still any longer with our hands in our bosoms lest we perish in our Sloth and expose our own Souls to everlasting Ruin by an idle Expectation of being irresistibly saved VI. FROM hence we may discern the Possibility of keeping the Commands of God in that God by his Spirit doth so powerfully aid and assist us For supposing we cannot keep the Divine Law by our own single Strength and Power yet it is apparent that we can do that which will oblige the Divine Spirit to assist and enable us to keep it that is we can do our Endeavour which being done entitles us to the Promise of Divine Grace and Assistance And though we cannot do all our selves yet since we can do so much as will certainly oblige God to impower us to do the rest it is already in our Power to do all if we will He that is strong enough to carry a Burthen of an hundred weight but is required to carry two may carry both supposing that by bearing as much as he can he shall certainly be enabled to carry the whole Now God hath promised us by the Assistances of his Grace whatsoever is wanting in the Power of our Nature and therefore if we fall short of our Duty and consequently of the Rewards of it we can reasonably blame no one but our selves For though we cannot do all in our own Strength yet that we do not do all is as much our Fault as if we could since we may do all through Christ who would strengthen us would we but do what we can Let us therefore no longer cry out of the Impossibility of God's Commands nor charge our Disobedience to them upon the
impose upon the Almighty and make Him believe that we are good when we are not and so steal to Heaven in a Vizard Fourthly and Lastly FROM hence 't is visible what great reason we have to be chearful under the Afflictions and Miseries of this World considering what Glories and Felicities there are prepared for us in the World to come Indeed all the Miseries of this World are more or less as we have more or less reason to be supported under them but when we consider that our Time here is but a Moment compared with our everlasting Abode in the World to come our present Happiness and Misery will appear to be very inconsiderable We are now upon our Iourney towards our heavenly Countrey and it is no great matter how rough the Way is provided that Heaven be our Journey 's End for though here we want many of those Accommodations which we may expect and desire yet this is but the common Fate of Travellers and we must be contented to take things as we find them and not look to have every thing just to our Mind But all these Difficulties and Inconveniencies will shortly be over and after a few days will be quite forgotten and be to us as if they never had been and when we are safely landed in our own Countrey we shall look back from the Shore with Pleasure and Delight upon those boisterous Seas which we have escaped and for ever bless the Storms and Winds that drove us thither Wherefore hold O my Faith and Patience a little longer and your work will soon be at an end and all my Sighs and Groans within a few moments will expire into everlasting Songs and Hallelujahs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now our days are dark and gloomy but the bright glorious day is dawning which Night shall never interrupt for God himself is the eternal Sun that enlightens us with the bright Rays of his own Glory And what is a little cloudy Weather compared with an everlasting Sun-shine Doubtless these light Afflictions which are but for a moment are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us Let us therefore comfort our selves with these things and while we are groaning under the Miseries of this Life let us encourage our selves with this Consideration that within a little little while all our Tears shall be wiped from our Eyes and there shall be an everlasting Period put to all our Sorrows and Miseries when we shall be removed from all the Troubles and Temptations of a wicked and ill-natur'd World be past all Storms and secured from all further danger of Shipwrack and be safely landed in the Regions of Bliss and Immortality And can we complain of the Foulness of a way that leads into a Paradise of endless Delights and not chearfully undergo these short though bitter Throws which like the Virgin-Mother's will quickly end in Songs and everlasting Magnificats Chear up therefore O my crest-fallen Soul for thy bitter Passion will soon be at an end and though now thou art sailing in a tempestuous Sea yet a few Leagues off lyes that blessed Port where thou shalt be crowned as soon as thou art landed and then the Remembrance of the Storms thou hast passed will contribute to the Triumphs of thy Coronation and all the bad Entertainments thou meetest with in this life will but make Earth more loathsome to thee while thou art here and Heaven more welcome when thou comest there and these thy light Afflictions which are but for a moment will work for thee a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory 2 Cor. iv 17. CHAP. VI. Of the Necessity of Mortification to the obtaining of Eternal Life I COME now to the Second thing proposed namely that the eternal Life and Happiness of good Men depends upon their mortifying the Deeds of the Body and that it doth so I shall endeavour to prove First FROM God's Ordination and Appointment Secondly FROM the Nature of the Thing I. FROM God's Ordination and Appointment God who is the supreme Governour of the World hath proposed Eternal Life as an Encouragement to those who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality And supposing that wicked Men could enjoy the Happiness of the other World yet it would be inconsistent with the Wisdom of his Government to admit them to it For should he reward Offenders with eternal Happiness who would be afraid of offending him And if once he rules with such a slack and indulgent Rein as to take away all reason of Fear from his Subjects his Government must immediately dissolve into Anarchy and Confusion And therefore to prevent this he hath fairly warned us by his reiterated Threats that if we live in Disobedience to his Laws we shall be for ever banished from that Kingdom of Happiness which he hath prepared for those that love and fear him So in Rom. viii 13. we are assured that if we live after the flesh we shall die And in Gal. v. 19 20 21. we are told that the works of the flesh are manifest which are these adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness idolatry witchcraft hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions heresies envyings murders drunkenness revellings and such like of which I tell you before as I have also told you in times past that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God And so 1 Cor. vi 9 10. Know ye not saith the Apostle that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God be not deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God And to the same purpose the same Apostle tells us that no whoremonger nor unclean person nor covetous man who is an idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of God Ephes. v. 5. All which dreadful Denunciations must be supposed to be conditional for else they are not consistent with the Promise of Pardon to those that truly repent So that the meaning of them is plainly this that if we persevere in these Lusts of the Flesh and do not mortify them we shall have no Part nor Portion in the Kingdom of God Hence the Apostle exhorts us Col. iii. 5 6. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication uncleanness inordinate affection evil concupiscence and covetousness which is idolatry for which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience which plainly implies that if they did mortify these Lusts the Wrath of God should not come upon them but if they did not they should be liable to the divine Indignation among the Children of Disobedience By all which it is apparent that according to God's free Ordination and Appointment our eternal Happiness and Welfare depends upon our mortifying the deeds of the Body since God hath so ordained that if we do
and transcribed into our own Natures And as we grow in Grace from one degree to another so Heaven will break forth clearer and clearer upon us and the nearer we approach to the top of the Hill the fuller View we shall have of the Horizon and extended Sky till at last we come to walk all along in sight of Heaven and to travel towards it in a full View and Assurance of it But if we secure our selves of Heaven before we have mortifyed our Lusts we do but entertain our Fancies with a golden Dream which when we awake will vanish away and leave us desperate and miserable If therefore we would be assured of our future Happiness let us not trouble our selves with numerous Signs of Grace nor go about to erect Schemes of our spiritual Nativity to cast a Figure to know whether we have Grace or were converted secundùm artem but let us impartially examine whether our Wills are so subdued to the Will of God as universally to choose what he enjoins and refuse what he forbids For if they are our Condition is good and our Hope secure by what Means or Motives soever it was effected and whether they are or no we need no Marks or Signs to resolve us for our Thoughts and Resolutions and Intentions are Signs enough to themselves and we need no Marks to know what it is that we choose and refuse this our Soul can easily discern by that innate Power she hath of reflecting upon our own Motions by which she doth as naturally feel her own Deliberations and Volitions as the Body doth its Hunger and Thirst. 'T is true indeed holy Dispositions like all other Motions the weaker they are and the more they are interrupted by contrary Motions and Inclinations the less they will be perceived which is the Reason why Beginners in Religion cannot be so sensible of the Grace that is in them because their good Inclinations are checked and hindred by the strong and vehement Counter-Motions of their Lusts but the more their good Inclinations prevail and free themselves from these contrary Inclinations which clog and incumber them the more their Souls will be sensible of them For this we find by Experience that as we perceive our own motions the more vigorous they are the more we perceive them especially when they are advised and deliberate as all vertuous Motions and Inclinations are For that a Man should be insensible of a Motion which he exerts advisedly or not be able to know that he is so disposed when he is knowingly so disposed implies a Contradiction and indeed if we are not able to know when we choose and refuse as we should when we resolve well and intend aright we cannot discern when we do right or wrong but are left to a Necessity of acting at random like Travellers in the dark that go on at a venture without knowing whether they go backward or forward If we cannot know when we do well it is impossible we should know how to do well but must necessarily leave the Conduct of our Actions to Chance and Fortune must determine us unto Right or Wrong Since therefore our Soul is not a senseless Machin that hath no Perception of her own Motions but is naturally sensible of whatsoever is transacted within her let us no longer excuse our Ignorance of our own Condition with that common Pretence that our Hearts are deceitful and hypocritical for our Hearts are our selves and if they are deceitful and hypocritical we our selves are so And yet I know not how it comes to pass it passes among some Men for a great Sign of Grace and Sincerity to complain of the Falseness and Hypocrisie of their own Hearts not considering that Men are as their Hearts are and that if these are Hypocritical they themselves are Hypocrites If therefore our Complaint be true the more Shame for us this is so far from being a Sign that we have Grace that it is a plain Confession that we are graceless Dissemblers If our Complaint be false we falsely accuse our selves in it which is also so far from being a Sign of Grace that it is an Argument only of our own extravagant Folly But if we mistake in our Complaint and think that to be Hypocrisie which is not we should seek to be better informed and if when you are so you still complain of your Hypocrisie I doubt you have too much Reason for it and if you fear that you are Hypocrites I fear you are so too For why should one that knows what an Hypocrite is fear that he is an Hypocrite were he not conscious to himself that he doth dissemble with God and under an open Pretence of submitting to him disguise some secret Purpose of rebelling against him Let us therefore lay aside all our impertinent Scrupulosity and fairly examine our own Souls whether we do submit to God without any reserve and are willing to lay down all our beloved Lusts at his Feet for whether we are or no we may easily discern if we will If we are then are the Foundations of Heaven already laid within our own Bosoms and if upon this Principle we grow in Grace and add one Degree of Vertue to another we may be sure the Superstructure will go on until the whole Fabrick of our Happiness is compleated For as Nature by its powerful Magick is continually drawing every thing unto its proper Place and Center so Heaven attracts to it self and freely imbosoms every thing that is heavenly and thrusts off nothing but what is unfit for and heterogeneous to it If therefore our Souls be of a pure and heavenly Temper Heaven is the Center of our Motions and the proper Place whereunto we belong and whither at last we shall safely arrive in despite of all those dismal Shades of Darkness that would beat us back and interrupt our Progress towards it but on the contrary if we secure our selves of Heaven while we are enslaved to any Lusts we presume unreasonably and embark our Hopes in a leaky Bottom which in stress of Weather will certainly founder under us and sink us into utter Despair For how can we hope to be admitted into Heaven whilst we retain that within our own Bosoms which kindles Hell and is the Spring of the Lake of Fire and Brimstone This would be a confounding of utter Darkness with the Regions of Light a blending of Heaven and Hell together Fourthly and Lastly FROM hence it appears what is the great Design of the Christian Religion We may be sure God would not have sent his Son into the World had not the Embassy upon which he was employed been of the highest Moment and Concernment to us And what other End besides doing the greatest Good could a good God propose in so great a Transaction Surely had we been in Heaven when the Holy One descended thence into the World though we had not known the Particulars of his Errand yet we should have