embracing the most desirable Goods then is the whole Rational Nature Happy Now if you cast abroad your thoughts over the whole extent of Being you will presently find that there is nothing in it so worthy to be known and chosen as God whose Power being the source and fountain of all Truth that is of all that either is or is possible and whose Nature being the subject of all rational Perfection wherein it originally resides and from whence'tis derived to all the Rational Creation you must upon these accounts necessarily allow Him to be infinitely the most worthy Object in all the World of Beings for our Vnderstanding to contemplate and our Will to chuse And if so then the very Life and Quintessence of the Heaven of a Man considered as a Reasonable Being must needs consist in a close and intimate Knowledge of God and a Free and Uncontroverted Choice of Him BUT that we may more fully comprehend the Nature of this Happiness it will be needful that we should more distinctly explain what these two Essential Acts of it do import and what Happiness is included in them And I. THE Happiness of a Man consists in a free and intimate Knowledge of God For our Vnderstanding hath naturally as strong an Appetite to Truth as our Stomach hath to Food and as grateful a relish of it when it hath once discovered it as an Hungry-man hath of a pleasant morsel And though in this life its Appetite is many times pall'd and deadned partly through the difficulty of knowing occasioned either by the natural indispositions of its Organs or the inveterate prejudices of a bad Education and partly by being continually employed in secular cares and pursuits which do perpetually divert and so by degrees wean it from its natural inclination to Truth Yet when we go from this World and leave these causes behind us which give such a check to its Appetite doubtless its hunger after Knowledge will immediately revive and there will be no possibility of ever satisfying it without it SUPPOSE we then the future World to be inhabited with a company of Intellectual Beings that do all most vehemently gasp after the knowledge of Truth What can there be imagined more grateful to them than to be admitted to the very Fountain of all Truth and Reality there to quench their Thirst and satisfie their infinite Desires with the free and easie but still fresh discoveries of his infinite Glories and Perfections Where will they be able to fix their greedy Eyes with comparably that Pleasure and Delight as upon the Mysterious Trin-un-Divinity which is the eternal Author of all Being the Root of all Good and the Rule and Source of all Perfection But then supposing what is the case of these Blessed Contemplators that their Minds are so raised and their Apprehensions are rendred so unspeakably quick and sagacious as that they can All know whatsoever they have a mind to without the difficulty of Study and presently discern the Dependence and Connexion of Things without any puzling Discourse or laborious Deduction with what incomparable satisfaction must they needs peruse that infinite Volume of the Divine Being and Perfections NOW that in that Blessed State they have unspeakably clearer and more perspicuous apprehensions of Things than ever they had here that noble passage of St. Paul assures us 1 Cor. xiii 12 For now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face now I know in part but then I shall know even also as I am known that is now our Knowledge of Divine things is very obscure and imperfect they being shewn us as it were through a glass on purpose to give us but a glympse of them but when we come to Heaven we shall look close upon them and have a far clearer and more distinct Apprehension of them Then we shall know God as truly as He knows us and have as real and certain Apprehensions of his All-glorious Being as He hath of Ours So that in Heaven you see the Eyes of those Blessed Minds that inhabit it are so invigorated that they can gaze upon the Sun without dazling contemplate the pure and immaculate Glories of the Deity without being confounded with their brightness and their Understandings being thus exalted they must needs apprehend more at one single view than we can do in volumes of Discourse and tedious long trains of Deduction AND then enjoying as they do a most perfect repose both from within and without them they are never disturbed in their eager contemplations which having such an immense Horizon of Truth and Glory round about them are still discovering farther and farther and so continually entertain'd with fresh Wonders and Delights What an infinite deal of Pleasure then must that All-glorious Object afford to such raised and elevated Minds as these which like transparent Windows let in without any Labour or Difficulty all that Divine and Heavenly light which freely offers it self unto and shines for ever round about them and which by every new Discovery of God and of these bottomless secrets and mysteries of his Nature are still enlarged to discover more and still have new Discoveries offering themselves as fast as they are enlarged to receive them This of it self is so great a part of Heaven that St. John himself seems to be at a loss how to imagine any Heaven beyond it 1 Joh. iii. 2 Beloved now we are the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like him that is in Glory and Happiness for we shall see him as he is But then II. THE Heaven or Happiness of a Man consists also in a free and undistracted choice of God that is in chusing him for the Rule and Pattern of our Natures and for the object of our Love Adoration and Dependence all which as I shall shew hereafter are Beatifical Acts and do abundantly contribute to the Happiness of Reasonable Creatures For Happiness as hath been premised consists not in Rest but in Motion and there is no Motion can contribute to the Happiness of any Being but what is suitable to its own Nature Now what motion can be more suitable to the nature of a Reasonable Creature than to Love and Adore the Author of its Being and Well-Being to bow to the will of the Almighty Sovereign and to imitate the Perfections of the Supreme Standard and Pattern of all Reasonable Beings to rely and depend on his infinite Power that is always conducted by his infinite Wisdom and Goodness All which are founded upon so many strong evident and undeniable reasons that the very naming of them is sufficient to justifie them to our Faculties and demonstrate them to be infinitely agreeable to the most fundamental Principles of our Reasonable Nature And being so it is impossible but that of themselves they should be exceeding joyous and blissful for as the sensitive nature is most gratified with
is it to take so much pains as we do to recommend our selves to men to men that must stand at the same Tribunal and undergo the same Judgment with our selves For what will their good Opinion avail us if the Judg disaprove us in whose hands our Lives and Souls are If he think well of us we are safe though all the World should condemn us but if he condemn us though every Creature should acquit they cannot rescue us from his Sentence But alas how differently soever God and Men may think of us now yet when he comes to discover his Thoughts of us in his publick Judgment and Sentence all the World will be of his Mind and if we stand right in his Opinion we shall be applauded by the whole Universe howsoever we may be vilified now as on the contrary if he condemn us we shall be sure to be hissed at throughout all the Congregation of Spirits how gloriously soever we may be thought of at present And by how much the better we are esteemed of now by so much the more we shall be hissed at then when the Cheat is discovered and the hypocritical Vizor is pluckt from our Devils faces THIS if men duly considered and fixt it in their Minds would effectually cure them of all their Hypocrisie For alas what Hypocrisie can so cunningly disguise them as to render them Incognito to Omniscience If men will be wicked therefore they were e'en as good put on a bold Face and be wicked openly for 't is to very little purpose for them to sneak into Corners unless they could find one dark enough to conceal them from God and cover them from his All-seeing Eye For why should that man be ashamed or afraid to let a Boy or Neighbour be conscious to his Wickedness that never scruples to commit it in the open View of the dreadful Majesty of Heaven by whose final Sentence his everlasting Fate must be decided AND so on the other hand to what purpose should we study to be more devout and temperate sober and charitable in the view of the World than we are in our Retirements when we have no other Eye but God's upon us That which we are mainly concerned in is to approve our selves to him and if we can do this what great matter is it though our Closet be all our Stage and Heaven our only Spectator God hears the softest Whispers of our Souls and sees through all our honest Intentions and our most secret Vertues are as legible to his Eye as if they were written on our Foreheads with a Sun-beam We need no Trumpet to proclaim our Alms in his Ears for he knows by whom such a poor man was relieved such a starving family succoured though we should not superscribe our Names upon our Charity nor let our left hand know what our right hand hath done And if by the sincere Discharg of our Duty we have approved our selves to God what need we concern our selves any farther since 't is not from Men but from God that we expect the Recompence of our Obedience No doubtless did we but live under the constant sense of God Presence with and Inspection over us we should regard him much more in every good Action and the good Opinion of the World much less than we do and the more secret our good Deeds were the more we should rejoice in them because they would give us a stronger Testimony of our Simplicity and Sincerity For what should move us to be good when God only sees us but pure Respect to his Authority and an honest Intention of obeying him And if Obedience be our Design the more private our good Deeds are the more Pleasure they will afford us because those good Deeds have most of Obedience in them that have least of the Theatre VI. To prosper our Course and Progress in the Christian Warfare it is also necessary that we should frequently examin and review our own Actions For this our Religion injoins as a necessary Part of the militant Life of a Christian So 2 Cor. xiii 5 Examin your selves whether you be in the faith prove your own selves and particularly it is injoined as a proper Preparation to the Sacrament Let a man examin himself and so let him eat 1 Cor. xi 28 So also Gal. vi 4 Let a man prove or examin his own work where the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in all these Texts we render to prove or examin hath two Significations First to call our selves to Account to try our past Actions by the Rule whether they be good or evil Secondly to take such a due Care of our Actions as that upon a strict Tryal of them we may be able to approve them to God and our own Consciences In the first of which Sences the New-Testament doth most commonly understand it namely to call our selves to Account and make a strict Survey of our Actions and pass an impartial Judgment upon them whether they are good or evil and accordingly 1 Cor. xi 31 instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 28th Verse i. e. let a man examin himself the Apostle uses as a synonimous Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. if we judg our selves if we summon our past actions before the Tribunal of our Consciences and try and examin them by the Rule whether they are good or evil and according as we find them to approve or condemn our selves for them AND this is a Duty of great Necessity to the successful Prosecution of our Christian Warfare For unless we do frequently reflect upon our selves and take a strict Account of our past Actions and Behaviour we shall incur a thousand Errors and Immoralities in the Hurry of our secular Occasions without taking any Notice of them and those sins which we heedlesly commit and never think of afterwards though at first perhaps they may have little or no Malice in them do yet leave a malicious Infusion behind them and infect the will with bad Inclinations and insensibly dispose it to wilful and deliberate Sins For the Pleasure of one bad Action will be still inviting us to another and that to a third and so we shall be inconsiderately tolled on from Sin to Sin in the course of a heedless and unreflecting Life till before ever we are aware our Inclination to the Sin which we have so heedlesly repeated becomes too strong for our pious Resolution For when we have carelesly permitted one Sin to break through our Fence that will open a gap for another to follow and if this be not presently stopt by Repentance 't will make the Breach yet wider for others and those again for others till at last they have quite trodden down our good Resolution and made a Through-fare in our Wills for a Custom of sinning But if we frequently reflect upon and examin our selves 't is impossible our Faults should long escape our Discovery and we shall be sure to see them time
than these worldly things which are continually pressing upon our Senses we should as oft as we have Opportunity withdraw our Thoughts from these sensible Objects and retire into the immaterial World and there entertain our selves with the close View and Contemplation of the Joys and Glories it abounds with For we are a sort of Beings that being compounded of Flesh and Spirit are by these opposite Principles of our Nature ally'd to two opposite Worlds and placed in the middle between Heaven and Earth as the common Center wherein those distant Regions meet By our spiritual Nature we hold Communion with the spiritual World and by our corporeal with this earthly and sensible one whose Objects being always present with us and striking as they do immediately upon our Senses we lye much more bare and open to them than to those of the spiritual World So that unless we now and then withdraw our selves from these sensible things which hang like a Cloud between we can never have a free Prospect into that clear Heaven above them And hence it becomes necessary that we should now and then make a solemn Retirement of our Thoughts from earthly Objects and Enjoyments that so we may approach near enough to Heaven to touch and feel the Joys and Pleasures of it which while we transiently behold in this Croud of worldly Objects is plac'd at such a Distance from us that it looks like a thin blew Landskip next to nothing and hath not apparent Reality enough in it to raise our Desires and Expectations AND hence we are commanded to set our affections upon or as it is in the original to mind those things that are above Col. iii. 2 and that by these things above he means the Enjoyments of Heaven it 's plain from v. 1. where he expresly tells us that by the above in which these things are he means Heaven where Christ sits at the right hand of God So that the Sence of the Precept is this that we should fix in our Minds such lively Representations of the Glory and Reality of the Celestial State as may raise in our Hearts a longing Desire and earnest Expectation of being made partakers of it Which Hope and Expectation he elsewhere injoyns us to put on for an Helmet i. e. for a necessary Piece of defensive Armour against the Difficulties and Discouragements of our Christian Warfare 1 Thes. v. 8 and Heb. vi xix this hope which enters into that within the veil i. e. into Heaven is said to be the Anchor of the soul both sure and stedfast i. e. 't is that which stayes and secures the Soul in the midst of those many Storms of Temptation it meets withall in its Voyage to Heaven and it being so we are bid to look to and imitate our Blessed Lord who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is now sat down at the right hand of God Heb. xii 2 The meaning of all which is that we should earnestly indeavour to fix in our minds a vigorous Sense and Expectation of that immortal Happiness with which God hath promised to crown all that come off Conquerors from this spiritual Warfare that all along as we march we should keep Heaven in our Eye and incourage our selves with the Hope of it to charge through all those Difficulties and Temptations that oppose us in the way in a word that we should frequently awaken in our minds the glorious Thoughts of a blessed Immortality and possess our selves with a lively Expectation of injoying it if we hold out to the End WHICH is a Duty of a vast Consequence to us in the Course of our spiritual Warfare For Heaven being the End and Reward of our Warfare must needs be the grand Encouragement thereunto and consequently if once we lose Sight of Heaven and suffer earthly things to interpose and eclipse the Glory and Reality of it our Courage will never be able to bear up against those manifold Temptations that do continually assault us But whilst we continue under a lively Sense of that blessed Recompence of Reward that will so spirit and invigorate our Resolution that nothing will be able to withstand it and all the Terrors and Allurements that Sin can propose will be forced to fly before it and to retreat like so many impotent Waves that dash against a Rock of Adamant For while we are under a lively Sense and Expectance of the Happiness above we live as it were in the Mid-way between Heaven and Earth where we have an open Prospect of the Glories of both and do plainly see how faint and dim those below are in comparison with those above how they are forced to sneak and disappear in the presence of those eternal Splendors and to shroud their vanquisht Beauties as the Stars do when the Sun appears And whilst we interchangeably turn our eyes from one to t'other how fruitlesly do the Pleasures Profits and Honours below importune us to abandon the Joys and Glories above and with what Indignation do we listen to the proposals of such a senseless and ridiculous Exchange And could we but always keep our selves at this stand we should be so fortified with the Sight of those happy Regions above that no Temptation from below would ever be able to approach us and the sense that we are going on to that blessed State would carry us through all the weary Stages of our Duty with an indefatigable Vigour For what may a man not do with Heaven in his Eye with that potent I had almost said Omnipotent Encouragement before him To pull out a right Eye to cut off a right hand to tear a darling Lust from his Heart even when 't is wrapt about it and twisted with its Strings what an easie Atchievement is it to a man that hath a Heaven of immortal Glories in his View The Hope of which is enough to recommend even Racks Torments and turn the Flames of martyrdom into a Bed of Roses For 't was this blessed Prospect that inabled the Good old martyrs to triumph so gloriously as they did in the midst of their Sufferings they knew that a few Moments would put an End to their Miseries and that when once they had weather'd those short storms they should arive at a most blessed Harbour and be crowned at their landing and that from thence they should look back with infinite Joy and Delight upon the dangerous Sea they had escaped and for ever bless those Storms and Winds that drave them to that happy Ports for as the Author to the Hebrews tells us they sought a heavenly Countrey Heb. xi 14.16 XI AND lastly To the successful Progress of our Christian Warfare it is also necessary that we should live in the frequent use of the publick Ordinances and Institutions of our Religion namely in the religious Observation of the Lords Day and in frequent Communion with one another in the Holy Sacrament both which
Happiness not only to co-habit but be acquainted with and in Heart and Will united to this Blessed and Glorious Company For what Soul that has any Spark of Cordial Love to Jesus the best Friend of Souls that ever was any grateful remembrance of what he did and suffered for our sakes would not esteem it a mighty Felicity to be admitted into his Presence and to be an Eye-witness of the happy Change of his past woful Circumstances To see him that was so cruelly treated so barbarously vilified tortured and butchered for our sakes raised to the highest pitch of Splendour and Dignity to be Head and Prince of all the Hierarchy of Heaven to be worshipped and celebrated throughout all the noble Choir of Archangels and Angels and Spirits of just men made Perfect Verily methinks had I only the Priviledge to look in and see my dear and blessed Lord surrounded with all this Circle of Glories it would be a most Heavenly Consolation to me though I were sure never to partake of it The very Communion I should have in the Joyes of my Master would be a kind of Heaven at Second-hand to me and my Soul would be wondrous Happy by Sympathizing with him in his Felicity and Advancement But Oh! when that Blessed Person shall not only permit me to see his Glory but introduce me into it and make me Partaker of it when I shall not only behold his Beloved Face but be admitted into his Dear Conversation and dwell in his Arms and Embraces for ever when I shall hear him record the wondrous Adventures of his Love through how many woful Stages he passed to rescue me from Misery and make me Happy and in the mean time shall have a most ravishing Feeling of that Happiness how will my Heart spring with Joy and burn with Love and my Mouth o'reflow with Praises and Thanksgivings to him AND as our Acquaintance with and Choice of the Blessed Jesus must needs contribute vastly to our Happiness so must also though not in so high a Degree our being intimately acquainted and united with Saints and Angels Who being not only endowed with large and comprehensive Vnderstandings but also with perfect Good-nature and most generous Charity must needs make excellent Company For as their Goodness cannot but render their Conversation infinitely free and benign so their great Knowledge must necessarily render it equally profitable and delightful And then being so Knowing as they are they must needs be supposed to understand all the wise Arts of Endearment and being so Good they must be also supposed to be continually practising them And if so what a Heavenly Conversation must theirs be the Scope whereof is the most glorious Knowledge and the Law whereof is the most perfect Friendship Who would not be willing to leave a foolish froward and ill-natured World for the blessed Society of these wise Friends and perfect Lovers And what a Felicity must it be to spend an Eternity in such a noble Conversation Where we shall hear the deep Philosophy of Heaven communicated with mutual Freedom in the Wise and Amicable Discourses of Angels and of Glorified Spirits who without any Reserve or affectation of Mystery without Passion or Interest or peevish Contention for Victory do freely Philosophize and mutually impart the treasures of each others Knowledge For since all Saints there are great Philosophers and all Philosophers perfect Saints we must needs suppose Knowledge and Goodness Wisdom and Charity to be equally intermingled throughout all their Conversation and being so what can be imagined more delightful When therefore we shall leave this impertinent and unsociable World and all our good old Friends that are gone to Heaven before us shall meet us as soon as we are landed upon the shore of Eternity and with infinite congratulations for our safe Arrival shall conduct us into the Company of the Patriarchs and Prophets Apostles and Martyrs and introduce us into an intimate Acquaintance with them and with all those brave and generous Souls who by their glorious Examples have recommended themselves to the World when we shall be familiar Friends with Angels and Arch-Angels and all the Courtiers of Heaven shall call us Brethren and bid us Welcome to their Masters Joy and we shall be received into their glorious Society with all the tender indearments and Caresses of those Heavenly Lovers what a mighty Addition to our Happiness will this be THERE are indeed some other additions to the Happiness of Heaven such as the Glory and Magnificence of the Place which is the Highest Heaven or the upper and purer Tracts of the Aether which our Saviour calls Paradise Luke xxiii 43 and St. Paul the Third Heaven 2 Cor. xii 2 both which in the phrase of that Age bespeak it to be a place of unspeakable Glory for so the Jews do commonly call this blessed Seat the Third or Angel-bearing Region of Heaven by which they denote it to be the Palace of the King of the whole World where his most glorious Courtiers do reside and they also call it Paradise in allusion to the Earthly Paradise of Eden because as that was the Garden of this lower World so this is of the whole Creation And though we have no exact description of this place in Scripture and that perhaps because no humane language can describe it yet since God hath chosen it for the Everlasting Theatre of Bliss and Happiness we may thence reasonably conclude that he hath most exquisitely furnished it with all accommodations that are requisite to a most happy and blissful Life BESIDES which also there is the everlasting Duration of it which is another great Accession to its Happiness That such is the Nature of its Enjoyments as that they do not like all other Pleasures spend and wast in the Fruition that though it will be always feeding our Faculties with new Delights yet it will never be exhausted but be always equally because infinitely distant from a Period So that its Happiness consisting of an infinite Variety of Pleasure extended to an infinite Duration it will be impossible for those that enjoy it to be either cloyd with the repetition of it or tormented with the fear of losing it BUT these Two last I only mention because they do not so properly belong to our present Argument which is only to explain the Nature of Heaven so far as is necessary to the right understanding of the Nature of those Means by which it is to be attained NOW from what hath been said concerning this great End of the Christian Life these Two things are to be inferr'd concerning the Nature of it I. THAT the main of Heaven consists not so much in any outward Possession as in an inward State and Temper For though Heaven be doubtless a most glorious Place and all its blessed Inhabitants do possess and hold it by an everlasting Tenure yet 't is a great mistake to imagine that the main happiness of Heaven consists in living
Revolt forsook the Blessed Abodes as not enduring to abide any longer amongst those Blessed Orders whom he so inveterately hated and envied and so with his revolted Legions descends into this Aery Region where ever since he hath persisted in open Hostility against God and Heaven And accordingly it is said of Him and his Accomplices that they kept not their first Station that is they would needs have a higher Station in Heaven than that wherein God had placed them which because they could not obtain they left their own Habitation i. e. forsook Heaven their Native Country and Abode and came down into these lower Parts of the World upon Design to strengthen their Party against Heaven by seducing Mankind into the same Revolt with themselves Jude 6. THUS 't was the Devils Pride you see that made him Envious his Envy that made him Spiteful and Malicious all which together made him a Devil And thus it would be with us if we could be admitted into Heaven whilst we are under the Power and Prevalence of Pride and Self-Conceit For while we think better of our selves than God does we shall never be contented with his Retributions who will be sure to deal with every man according to his works and that excessive value we should have of our selves would cause us to undervalue the Degree and Rank of Glory and Happiness wherein we should be placed by the just Rewarder of Souls as a Station much beneath our imagined Excellency and Perfection And hence we should proceed to think hardly of God and to repine against him as a partial and unequal Distributer of his Favours and to envy and malign those that were placed higher in Glory than our selves and so at last out of an implacable Vexation and Discontent to leave our Habitations as the Devils did and fly away to their Revolted Party So impossible is it for a Soul that is under a prevailing Habit of Pride and Self-Conceit to be happy either here or hereafter AND therefore to remove this Obstacle Christianity imposes the Practice of Humility as a necessary means of our Happiness and requires us to put on humbleness of mind Col. iii. 12 to be clothed with humility 1 Pet. v. 5 to walk with all lowliness and meekness Ephes. iv 1 2. and in lowliness of mind to esteem others better than our selves Phil. ii 3 In a word to follow the Example of our Blessed Lord who was meek and lowly Mat. xi 29 and in honour to prefer one another Rom. xii 10 The sense of all which is that we should labour as much as in us lies to think very meanly and modestly of our selves and not to be discontented if others think meanly of us too i. e. that we should neither be proud nor vainglorious neither too much exalted in our own opinions nor endeavour to insinuate into others a higher opinion of us than we do really deserve In short that we should so effectually represent to our selves the little Reason we have to be proud of any Personal Accomplishment whether it be of Body or Mind to strut like Esop's Crow in these borrowed Feathers which we could neither give to our selves nor merit of God but are wholly owing for to the Divine Bounty so to inculcate upon our Minds the Folly and Ridiculousness of being proud of any Outward Goods we possess such as fine Cloths great Estates or Popular Reputation all which are so far from either making or speaking us wiser or better men that they are too often the Fruits and Testimonies of our Folly and Knavery And in fine that we should so impartially reflect upon the many Follies and Indiscretions Errors and Ignorances Irregularities of Temper Defects of Manners and Deviations from Right Reason that we are guilty of as to shame our selves out of all those proud and arrogant Conceits that do so swell and impostumate our Minds AND when by these and such like humbling Reflections we have laid our selves low in our own Eyes and so far abased our Pride and Self-Conceit as to be effectually convinced of the Folly of it and throughly persuaded to abhor and hate it to watch and strive against it and to be habituated for the main to mean and lowly thoughts of our selves though we should not here arrive to an absolute Perfection in Humility having none here to converse or compare our selves with but such as our selves such as are many of them our Inferiours many our Equals and many but few Degrees our Superiours yet as soon as we go off from this lower Form in which we may seem so considerable into the Class and Society of those Glorious Inhabitants above in whose bright Presence we shall appear but like so many Glow Worms in the midst of a Firmament of Stars all the little Remains of Pride and Self-Conceit in us will immediately vanish from our Minds For if at the sight of an Angel the Beloved Apostle could not forbear prostrating himself how prostrate and lowly must we be when we see not only the whole Choir of Angels together but God himself too the Prince and Father of Spirits For even here we find that the nearer we approach God the more we shrink and lessen in our own Eyes and if in the Presence of Angels we are but Dwarfs in the Presence of God we shall be Nothings But Oh! when we shall not only discern how infinitely he outshines us in Glory but shall also continually feel by the most sensible Communications of his Goodness how we hang upon him and derive every Breath and Joy and Glory from him how our Being and Well-Being are the meer Alms and Pensions of his Bounty how every Grace and Beauty in us is but the Reflection and that a faint one too of his out-stretched Rays when I say we shall feel all this as we shall do in Heaven every moment by a quick and sensible Experience how must it needs wean us from all self-arrogating Thoughts and perfectly abase and humble us in our own Eyes And when this is done our minds will be perfectly tempered and prepared for the Enjoyment of a Perfect Happiness For now such a modest opinion we shall have of our selves that whatsoever Degree of Glory we are placed in we shall look upon it as far beyond our Desert and upon that account be unspeakably satisfied and contented with it and freely acknowledge it to be a thousand Degrees beyond what we could desire or hope for And so far shall we be from grudging at or envying those above us that out of an humble sense of our own Unworthiness we shall readily prefer them before our selves and freely acknowledge that we are only so many Degrees inferiour to them in Glory as they are superiour to us in Divine Graces and Perfections Upon which we shall not only acquiesce but heartily rejoice in their Advancement and be abundantly pleased that their Reward is as much greater than ours as we do acknowledge their Virtue to
be In a word so far shall we be from repining and murmuring at God for not rewarding us as liberally as others that we shall be thoroughly sensible that he hath been bountiful to us infinitely beyond our Desert or Expectation that 't was not out of a fond Partiality ot blind Respect of Persons that he raised others to higher Degrees of Glory than our selves but out of a Principle of strict Justice that exactly ballances and adjusts its Rewards according to the Degrees of our Desert and Improvement The sense of which will not only compose our Minds into a perfect Satisfaction but also continually excite us to those Beatifical Acts of Love and Praise Thanksgiving and Adoration Thus Humility you see tunes and composes us for Heaven and only casts us down like Balls that we may rebound the higher in Glory and Happiness THUS you see how all those Virtues which appertain to a man considered as a Reasonable Animal conduce to the Great Christian End viz. The Happiness of Heaven 'T is true indeed the immediate product of this sort of Virtues is only at least chiefly priâ—ative Happiness or the Happiness of Rest and Indolence which consists in not being miserable or in a perfect cessation from all such Acts and Motions as are hurtful and injurious to a Rational Spirit For as I have shewed you in the Beginning of this Section the proper office of Humane Virtue consists in so regulating all our Powers of Action as that we do nothing that is hurtful or injurious to our Rational Nature and thus you plainly see these Five aforenamed Virtues do most effectually perform But besides this Priâ—ative there is as I shewed you a Positive Part of Happiness which consists not in Rest but in Motion in the Vigorous Exercise of our Rational Faculties upon such Objects as are most suitable to them And to the obtaining of this Part of our Happiness there are other kinds of Vertues necessary to be practised by us of which I shall discourse in the two following Sections But though the immediate Effect of these Humane Virtues we have been discoursing of be only the Happiness of Rest yet do they tend a great deal farther even to the Happiness of Motion and Exercise For it is impossible so to suppress that Active Principle within us as to make it totally surcease from Motion and therefore as every intermission of its sober and regular Actings does but make way for wild and extravagant ones so every abatement of its hurtful and injurious motions makes way for beatifical ones And so the Humane Virtues by giving us rest from those Motions that are afflictive to our Natures incline and dispose us to such Motions and Exercises as are most pleasant and grateful to it SECT II. Concerning those Divine Virtues which belong to a Man considered as a Reasonable Creature related to God shewing that these also are comprehended in the heavenly part of the Christian Life and that the practice of them effectually conduces to our future happiness I PROCEED now to the second kind of Virtues viz. Divine to which I told you we are obliged in the capacity of reasonable Creatures related to God who being not only endowed with all possible perfections with infinite Truth and Justice Wisdom and Goodness and Power with all that can render any being most highly reverenced admired loved and adored who being not only the Author of our Being and Well-being as he is Creator and Preserver of all things but also our sovereign Lord and King as he is God almighty the supream and over-ruling Power of heaven and earth hath upon all these accounts a just and unalienable claim to sundry duties and homages from his Creatures all which I shall reduce to these six particulars 1. That we should frequently think of and contemplate the beauty and perfection of his nature 2. That upon the account of these perfections we should humbly worship and adore him 3. That we should ardently love and take complacency in him 4. That we should attentively and unweariedly imitate him in all his imitable perfections and actions 5. That we should intirely resign up our selves to his conduct and disposal 6. That we should chearfully rely and depend upon him All which as I shall shew are included in the heavenly part of the Christian Life and do most effectually contribute to our future happiness I. AS we are rational Creatures related to God we are obliged to be often contemplating and thinking upon him For the natural use of our understanding is to contemplate Truth and therefore the more of Truth and Reality there is in any knowable object and the farther it is removed from Falshood and Non-entity the more the Understanding is concerned to contemplate and think upon it God therefore being the most true and real object as he stands removed by the necessity of his existence from all possibility of not-being must needs be the most perfect Theme of our Understanding the best and greatest Subject on which it can employ its Meditations And besides that he is the most true and real of all beings he is also the source and spring of all Truth and Reality his Power conducted by his Wisdom and Goodness being the cause not only of all that is but of all that either shall be or can be And is it fit that our Understanding which was made to contemplate should wholly overlook the fountain of it But besides this too that he is the greatest Truth himself and the cause of every thing else that is true and real he is the Sovereign of Beings and the most amiable and perfect as he includes in his infinite Essence all possible perfections both in kind and degree And what a monstrous Irreverence is it for minds that were framed to the contemplation of Truth to pass by such a great and glorious one without any regard or observance as if he stood for a cypher in the world and were not worthy to be thought upon Nay and besides all this which one would think were enough to oblige our Understandings to the strictest attendance to him he is a Truth in which above all others we are most nearly concerned as he is not only the Father and Prop of our Beings and the Consolation of our lives but the sole Arbiter of our Fate too upon whom our everlasting well or ill being depends And what can we be more concerned to think and meditate upon than this great being from whom we sprang in whom we live and breath and of whom we are to expect all that evil or good that we can fear or hope for All which considered there is no doubt to be made but that our Understanding was chiefly made for God to look up to him and contemplate his Being and Perfections And though in this imperfect State it is too often averted from him by this vast variety of sensual things that surround it and intercept its Prospect yet as our Soul
Reverence and Veneration For there we shall have far greater and clearer apprehensions of his Majesty than ever we had in this imperfect state which will improve our pre-acquired sense of it to such a degree of Respect and Veneration as will for ever over-rule our Faculties and keep our Understandings Wills and Affections in close and strict attendance to him And as our sense of his Majesty will sweetly command so our sense of his infinite Beauty and Beneficence will invincibly allure us to exert and exercise our faculties upon him For he that hath an affectionate sense of the Beauty and Goodness and Bounty of God hath a heart ready tuned for the Musick of heaven ready set and composed for everlasting Praises and Halelujahs So that when he goes away from hence into the other world and is there admitted to a more intimate view of the perfections and a more abundant participation of the blessings of God than ever his predisposed mind will immediately be seized with such a strong pathetick sense of both as that he will not be able to withhold expressing and venting it in the most rapturous strains of Admiration and Praise and Thanksgiving And this will be his business and employment for ever to admire and extoll the Perfections of God of which he will every moment make new and glorious Discoveries and to celebrate with grateful acknowledgments the infinite riches of his Bounty of which he will every moment have fresh and sweet experiences So that whilst by continual acts of Praise and Thanksgiving we endeavour to affect our minds with a due sense of the Goodness and Bounty of God we are practising before-hand the Musick of Heaven and taking out the Songs of Zion that so when we go from hence we may be qualified and prepared to bear a part in the Celestial Choir So that true devotion you see which consists in a quick and lively sense of the infinite Majesty Beauty and Benignity of God doth most effectually dispose the mind to all those divine and heavenly exercises wherein the state of heaven consists III. AS we are rational Creatures related to God we are obliged to an unfeigned love of and complacency in him And that both upon the account of what he is in himself as he is the most lovely and amiable of beings in whom there is an harmonious concurrence of all imaginable Beauties and Perfections of Wisdom and Goodness of Justice and Mercy and every other amiable thing that can claim or attract a reasonable Affection all which in infinite degrees are contempered together in his nature and also upon the account of his infinite Kindness and Beneficence to us For besides that he hath compassed us round like so many fortunate Islands with a vast Ocean of external Blessings in which there is all that is either necessary convenient or pleasant for our bodily use and enjoyment besides that he hath inspired us with immortal Minds and stamped them with those fair impresses of his own Divinity the knowledge of Truth and the love of Goodness which are both of them very forward capacities of the highest Perfection and most exalted Happiness in a word besides that to supply and gratifie these our noble Capacities he hath prepared for us an immortal Heaven and furnisht it with all the Pleasures and and Delights that a Heaven-born Mind can desire or enjoy besides all this I say he hath sent his own Son from heaven to reveal to us the Way thither and to encourage us to return into it by dying for our sins and thereby obtaining for us a publick Grant and Charter of Mercy and Pardon upon Condition of our return yea and as if all this were too little he hath sent his Spirit to us in the room of his Son to abide amongst us and as his Vicegerent to drive on this vast design of his love to us to excite and persuade us to return into that sure way to heaven which he hath described to us and to assist us all along in our travel thither So wondrous careful hath he been not to be defeated of this his kind intention to make us everlastingly happy And now what Heart can be so hard and impenetrable as to resist such powerful Charms and Endearments Methinks if we had but the common Sense and Ingenuity of men in us it would be impossible for us to reflect upon such miracles of Beauty and Love as these are without being intimately touched and affected with them But till we are so it will be impossible for us to enjoy Heaven for how can we freely exert our Faculties upon an Object that we do not love and if we cannot how can we without loving God enjoy Heaven which consists in the free and cheerful out-goings of all our Faculties upon him For if when we go into Eternity we love him not either he will be indifferent or hateful to us if the former we shall altogether neglect and take no notice of him if the latter we shall either flie away from him and banish our selves from his presence or be forced to abide and endure it with extream regret and torment For whilst our minds are averse and repugnant to him whatsoever we see in him will but the more enrage and canker our malice against him and even the sight of those his glorious Perfections which so enravish the hearts of the blessed inhabitants of Heaven will only provoke and boil up our Dislike of him to a higher degree of Hatred and Aversation For so we find by experience in this life that while our minds are unreconciled to God it is a Pennance to us to come near him to admit any Thoughts of or Conversation with him And this is the reason why we take so much pains as we do to misrepresent him to our selves to draw such Pictures and Ideas of him upon our Minds as best correspond with our own Tempers that so having thus transformed the Notion of him into the Image of our selves Narcissus-like we may fall in love with him or at least more easily endure his blessed Presence and Conversation When therefore we shall go into the other world where all these Disguises of the divine Idea shall be taken off and we shall see him as he is circled about with his own Rays of unstained and immaculate Glory we shall never be able to abide him but being all affrighted and confounded at the Glory of his Presence we shall be forced to run away and if possible to hide our selves from him in everlasting Darkness and Despair For our Wills being poisoned and infected with an habitual Enmity against him it must needs be torment to us to see him because we must always see him happy which is so great an eye-sore to those damned Spirits that hate him that I am apt to think that next to being delivered out of their own Misery the chiefest Good they desire or wish for is to be delivered from the tormenting Sense of
and Pleasures and in every act of our celestial Behaviour we should have some Foretast of the celestial Happiness So that now we shall no longer need external Arguments to convince us of the Truth and Reality of that blessed State for we shall feel it within our selves and be able to penetrate into its blessed Mysteries by the light of an infallible Experience Now we shall have no Occasion to search the Records of Heaven to assure our selves of our Interest in it for by a most sensible Earnest of Heaven within us we shall be as fully satisfied of our Title to it as if one of the winged Messengers of Heaven should come down from thence and tell us that he saw our Names inrolled in the Book of Life And with this sweet Experience of Heaven within us we shall go on to Heaven with unspeakable Triumph and Alacrity being tolled all along from step to step with the alluring Relishes of its Joys and Pleasures and in every vigorous Exercise of every Virtue of the Heavenly Life we shall have such lively tasts and sensations of Heaven as will continually excite us to exercise them still more vigorously and still the more vigorously we exert them the more of Heaven we shall tast in them and so the Vigour of our Virtue shall increase the Pleasure of it and the Pleasure of it shall increase its Vigour till both are perfected and grown up into the blessed State of Heaven Wherefore as we do love Pleasure which is the great Invitation to Action let us be persuaded once for all to make a through Experiment of the heavenly Life and if upon a sufficient Trial you do not find it the most pleasant kind of Life that ever you led if you do not experience a far more noble Satisfaction in it than ever you did in all your studied and artificial Luxuries I give you leave to brand me for an Impostor V. CONSIDER the great Repose and Ease of a Heavenly Life and Conversation In every sensual and devilish Course of Life we find by Experience there is a great deal of Vneasiness and Disquiet For the Mind is disturbed the Conscience galled the Affections divided into opposite Factions and the whole Soul in a most diseased and restless Posture And indeed it is no Wonder it should be so since 't is in an unnatural State and Condition For whilst 't is in any unreasonable Course of Action the very Frame and Constitution of it as it is a rational Being suffers an unnatural Violence and is all unjointed and disordered And therefore as a Body when its Bones are out is never at Rest till they are set again so a rational Soul when its Faculties and Powers are dislocated and put out of their natural i. e. rational Course of Action is continually restless and disturbed and always tossing to and fro shifting from one Posture to another turning it self from this to t'other Object and Enjoyment but finding no ease or satisfaction in any till 't is restored again to its own rational Course of Motion and that is to act and move towards God for whom it was made and in whom alone it can be happy And if its Reason were not strangely dozed and stupified with Sense and sensitive Pleasure it would doubtless be a thousand times more restless and dissatisfied in this its preternatural State than it is it would feel much more Distraction of Mind Anguish of Conscience and Tumult of Affections than 't is now capable of amidst the numerous Enjoyments and Diversions of this World For as a musical Instrument were it a living thing would doubtless be sensible of Harmony as its proper State as a great Author of our own ingeniously discourses and abhor Discord and Dissonancy as a thing preternatural to it even so were our Reason but alive and awake within us our Souls which according to their natural Frame were made Vnison with God would be exquisitely sensible of those divine Virtues wherein its Consonancy consists as of that which is its proper State and native Complection and complain as sadly of the vicious Distempers of its Faculties as the Body doth of Wounds and Diseases 't would be perfectly sick of every unreasonable Motion and never be able to rest till its disjointed Faculties were rectified and all its disordered Strings set in tune again Which being once effected as it will quickly be in a continued Course of heavenly Action we shall presently find our Souls disburthened of all those malignant Humours that do so perpetually disease disquet and disturb us For by relying upon God we shall totally quit and discharge our selves of all those restless Cares and Anxieties which circle and prick us like a Crown of Thorns by our hearty Submission to his heavenly Will we shall ease our Consciences of all that Horror Rage and Anguish which proceeds from the invenomed Stings of our Guilt by loving admiring and adoring him our Affections will be cured of all that Inconsistence and Inordinacy that render them so tumultuous and disquieting And these things being once accomplished the sick and restless Soul will presently find it self in perfect Health and Ease For now all her jarring Faculties being tuned to the musical Laws of Reason there will be a perfect Harmony in her Nature and she will have no disquieting Principle within her nothing but calm and gentle Thoughts soft and sweet Reflections tame and manageable Affections nothing but what abundantly contributes to her Repose and Satisfaction So that do but imagine what an Ease the Body enjoys when after a lingering Sickness it recovers a sound Constitution and feels a lively Vigour possessing every Part and actuating the Whole such and much more is the Ease and Quiet of the Soul when by the diligent Practice of the heavenly Life it feels it self recovered from the languishing Sickness of a sensual and devilish Nature Now she is no more tossed and agitated in a stormy sea of restless Thoughts and guilty Reflections no more scorched with Impatience or drowned with Grief or shook with Fear or bloated with Pride or Ambition but all her Affections are resigned to the blessed Empire of a spiritual Mind and cloathed in the Livery of her Reason Now all the War and Contest between the Law in her Members and the Law in her Mind is ended in a glorious Victory and happy Peace and those divided Streams her Will and Conscience her Passions and her Reason are united in one Channel and flow towards one and the same Ocean And being thus jointed and knit together by the Ties and Ligaments of Virtue the Soul is perfectly well and easie and enjoys a most sweet Repose within it self Wherefore as you value your own Rest and Ease and would not be endlesly turmoiled and disquieted be persuaded heartily to ingage your selves in the Course of a heavenly Conversation and then though at first you must expect to find some Difficulty in it by reason of its Contrariety to
from Virtue to Vice or from Vice to Virtue he will still be ready to face about with it and be always veering like a Weathercock to a contrary Point upon every Change of Wind. Whereas when a mans Intention purely respects God 't will be immovably fixt among all the Changes and Alterations from without For there is no outward Change or Capricio of Fortune can hinder a man from pleasing God whose Love to us depends not upon our being poor or rich pleased or pained depressed or advanced but upon our being truly virtuous and religious And therefore if our Aim be purely to please him we shall be sure to continue so which side soever Fortune smiles upon WHEREFORE to our successful Progress in Religion it is highly necessary that so far as in us lies we should abstract and separate our religious Intentions from all these worldly respects and this must be done by looking frequently up to God and actually referring and dedicating our Actions to him by shutting our eyes when we are entring upon any Duty to all worldly Considerations and determining with our selves this I will do purely because 't is Godlike or because God hath commanded it whether I shall be commended or disgraced for it whether I shall get or lose by it I will not now regard it is sufficient that it is good and that God hath commanded it and therefore for this Reason only I will do it without any other Respect or Consideration By which means we shall by degrees so purifie our Intentions and refine them from worldly Aims that we shall be able to act vigorously in Religion without any other Respect but that of pleasing God and conforming our selves to his Will and Nature And when once we can do thus we are in a great forwardness in Religion For now the Will of God hath got such an Ascendant over ours that as we can cheerfully obey him without external Inducements so we can freely contemn all Inducements to the contrary and it being our great and chief Aim to please and be like him the things that are without us will have very little Power to move us one way or ' tother Because now our great Aim is above them and our eyes are so stedfastly fixt upon God that we are not at leisure to regard them And our Mind being thus indisposed to listen to the restless Importunities of external Goods and Evils our Innocence is safe and we may pass triumphantly through all their Temptations 'T is a noble Saying of Epictetus lib. 2. c. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. there is no other way for a man to eject sorrow and fear and lust from his soul but by looking up to God alone and resigning our selves to him only and devoting our lives to the Obedience of his Commandments And elsewhere he tells his Scholars that the main thing which he drove at was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. to make them free and blessed by persuading them to look up to God in every thing whether it be small or great lib. 2. c. 19. For whilst in our religious Intentions we do too much respect the things that are without us we do in a great measure intrust them with our Virtue and Religion and so far as we make them Inducements to our Duty so far it is in their Power to secure or betray it As for Instance so much as I aim at Profit in any religious Action so much Power Profit hath over my Religion and if the same Profit should invite me to a wicked Action it will have as much Power to betray my Religion as it had to secure it for the same Gain will have the same Influence on me when it tempts me to sin as it hath when it tempts me to obey What a dangerous thing therefore is it for men to intrust such a treasure as their Innocence and Religion in such irresponsible hands and to give those outward things which are the Temptations of Vice a power to dispose of their Virtue What is this but to commit the keeping of our Sheep to a Wolf or of our Chastity to a Goat Wherefore as we would be safe in our religious Progress it highly concerns us to purifie our good Intentions so far as we are able from all worldly Respects and to level them directly and immediately at God And in order hereunto V. To render the Course and Progress of our Christian Warfare successful it is also necessary that we possess our Minds with an awful Apprehension of Gods Presence with and Inspection over us Among the many excellent Rules which the Heathen Moralists have given for the Conduct of mens Lives this is one that in the whole Course of their Lives they should imagin some excellent person for whom they have a great Veneration to be present with 'um as a Witness and Spectator of all their Actions And it was wholesome Advice that one gave his lewd Friend that he should hang the Picture of his grave and serious Father in the Room where he was wont to celebrate his Debauches imagining that the severe eye of the good old Man though but in Effigie would give a mighty check to the wanton Sallies of the intemperate Youth And if the bare Fiction of a Mans being present with us or his being present only in a dead Picture may be rationally supposed to have so strong an Influence on our Actions of how much greater Force must our firm Belief and Sense of Gods Presence with us be to regulate our Lives and Actions And that he is thus present with us we have sufficient reason to conclude not only from the infinite Plenitude of his Essence which being Self-existent could not be bounded or limited by any Cause from without and therefore must necessarily be boundless and immense but also from express Assertions of Scripture which assures us that his eyes are in every place beholding the evil and the good Prov. xv 3 That he is a God at hand and not a God afar off and that no man can hide himself in secret places that he shall not see him and that he fills heaven and earth Jer. xxiii 23 24. and that we can go no whither from his presence Psal. cxxxix 7 8. and that all things are naked and open to his eyes Heb. iv 13 that is that the World is surrounded and filled with his Being which is both the Womb that contains and the Soul that pervades the Creation and that being thus present with us wherever we are he must needs be supposed to have a constant Inspection over us and a clear Sense and Perception of whatsoever we do AND he being thus present with us in Reality and not in Fiction or Picture it must doubtless be of mighty avail to the Well-government of our Lives to be continually inspired with an actual and vigorous Sense of it And therefore our Saviour commands us to do good from a
are able do you but your Part which is only what you can and then doubt not but God will do his put forth but your honest hearty Endeavour and earnestly implore his Aid and Assistance and if then you miscarry let Heaven answer for it But if upon a Pretence that your Work is too difficult and your Enemies too mighty for you you lay down your Arms and resolve to contend with them no longer let Heaven and Earth judg between God and you which is to be charged with your ruine God that so graciously offer'd you his Help that stretch'd out his Hand to raise ye up tenderd you his spirit to guard and conduct ye through all Oppositions to eternal Happiness or you that would not be persuaded to do any thing for your selves but rather chose to perish with Ease than take any Pains to be saved V. CONSIDER that the Practice of these Duties is not so difficult but that it is fairly consistent with all your other necessary Occasions When men are told how many Duties are necessary to their successful Progress in Religion what Patience and Constancy what frequent Examinations and Tryals of themselves what lively Thoughts and Expectations of Heaven c. they are apt to conclude that if they should ingage to do all this they must resolve to do nothing else but even shake hands with all their secular Business and Diversions and Cloister up themselves from all other Affairs Which is a very great Mistake proceeding either from their not considering or not understanding the nature of these religious Exercises the greatest part of which are such as are to be wholly transacted in the Mind whose Motions and Operations are much more nimble and expedite than those of the Body and so may be very well intermixt with our secular Employments withour any Let or Hindrance to them For what great Time is there required for a man now and then to revolve a few wise and useful Thoughts in his Mind to consider the Nature of an Action when it occurs and reflect upon an Error when it 's past and hath escap'd him I can consider a Temptation when it 's approaching me and with a Thought or two of Heaven or Hell arm my Resolution against it in the twinkling of an eye I can look up to Heaven with an eye of earnest Expectance and send my Soul thither in a short Ejaculation without interrupting my Business and yet these and such as these do make up a great Part of those religious Exercises wherein the proper Duty of our Christian Warfare consists And though to the due performance of these Duties it will be sometimes necessary that our Minds should dwell longer upon them yet it is to be considered that when once we are entered upon the Practice of them our Mind will be much more at Leisure to attend to them for then 't will be in a great measure taken off from its wild and unreasonable Vagaries from its sinful Designs and lewd Contrivances from its Phantastick Complacencies in the Pleasures of Sin and anxious Reflections on the Guilt and Danger of it and when all this Rubbish is thrown out of the Mind there will be Room enough for good Thoughts to dwell in it without interfering with any of our necessary Cares and Diversions For would we but give these our religious Exercises as much Room in our Minds as we did heretofore freely allow to our Sins they would ask no more but leave us as much at Leisure for our other Affairs as ever I confess there are some of these Duties that exact of us their fixt and stated Portions of Time such as our Morning Consideration and Prayer our Evening Examination and Prayer our religious Observation of the Lords Day and our preparing for and receiving the Holy Sacrament but all this may be very well spared without any Prejudice to any of our lawful Occasions For what great matter of Time doth it ask for a man to think over a few good Thoughts in the Morning and fore-arm his Mind with them against the Temptations of the Day to recommend himself to God in a short pithy and affectionate Prayer and repeat his Purpose and Resolution of Obedience what an easie matter were it for you to borrow so many Moments as would suffice for this Purpose from your Bed and your Comb and Looking-glass And as for the Evening when your Business is over it 's a very hard case if you cannot spare so much time either from your Company or Refreshments as to make a short Review of the Actions of the Day to confess and beg Pardon for the Evils you have faln into or to bless God for the Good you have done and the Evils you have avoided and then to recommend your selves to his Grace and Protection for the future And as for your religious Observation of the Lords Day it is only the seventh Part of your Time and can you think much to devote that or at least the greatest Part of that to him who gives you your Being and Duration And lastly as for your receiving the Lords Supper 't is at most but once a Month that you are invited to it and 't is a hard Case if out of so great a proportion of Time you cannot afford a few Hours to examine your Defects and to quicken your Graces and to dress and prePare your selves for that blessed Commemoration Alass how easie were all this to a willing Mind and if we had but half that Concern for our Souls and everlasting Interest that we have for our Bodies we should count such things as these not worth our mentioning How disingenuous therefore is it for men to make such tragical Out-cries as they do of the Hardship and Difficulty of this spiritual Warfare when there is nothing at all in it that intrenches either on their secular Callings or necessary Diversions when they may be going onward to Heaven while they are doing their Business and mortifying their Lusts even in the Enjoyment of their Recreations and so take their Pleasure both here and hereafter VI. CONSIDER that the Difficulty of these Duties is such as will certainly abate and wear off by Degrees if we constantly practise them For in all Undertakings whatsoever it is Vse that makes Perfectness and that which is exceeding hard to us at first either through want of Skill to manage or Inclination to practise it will by degrees grow easier and easier as we are more and more accustomed and familiarized to it And this we shall find by Experience if we constantly exercise our selves in these progressive Duties of our Religion which to a Mind that hath been altogether unacquainted with them will at first be very difficult 'T will go against the grain of a wild and ungoverned Nature to be confined from its extravagant Ranges by the strict Ties of a religious Discipline and to reduce a roving Mind to severe Consideration or a fickle one to Constancy and Resolution
to him our sincere willingness to do not only what we should have been obliged to if we had not been injurious but also what we are obliged to since we have been injurious Now as actual Reparation so far as we are able is necessary to evidence this when we remember the Injuries we have done so an extraordinary Charity is no less necessary to evidence this when we have forgotten them And this I suppose is the meaning of that Parallel Passage of St. James c. v. v. 20. he that converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins i. e. by such an illustrious Act of Charity to the Soul of his Brother he shall obtain Pardon of God for many of those forgotten Injuries which he hath formerly done and is now no otherwise able to repair So that if we would make sure Work of our Christian Warfare and ascertain its being finally Crowned with Success as in general we must indeavour to redeem the past Time we have spent in vicious Courses by abounding in the Practice of the contrary Vertues so in particular if for the time past we have lived in any of those injurious Courses which do naturally fix a more lasting Guilt upon the Mind we must take care not only to repair so far as we are able those Injuries we remember but also to wipe off the Guilt of those we have forgotten by an extraordinary Charity and Beneficence by laying hold of all Opportunities to do Good and indeavouring in our several Stations according as God hath inabled us to reduce the Souls relieve the Bodies and vindicate the Reputation of our Brethren X. AND lastly To our final Perseverance in wel-doing it is also necessary that we should labour after a Rational and wel-grounded Assurance of Heaven I put this in the last Place because 't is usually the last attain'd and is not to be presently expected and catch'd at as soon as we are entered into a religious State For there are a great many Stages of Religion to be past before we can modestly expect to arrive at Assurance In the Beginning of our Religion when we are just recovered out of a vicious State we cannot but be sensible if we do at all understand our selves that we are as yet in a great deal of Danger and do border so very near upon that bad State we are escap'd from that 't is almost impossible to distinguish whether we are in or out of it For though we are fully purposed and resolved against it yet we cannot well divine what will be the Issue of it Our Resolution is yet so young so raw and unexperienced and besieg'd with so many powerful counter-striving Inclinations that we cannot confide in it without great Folly and Presumption For till sufficient Trial hath been made of it for all that we know it may prove to be only a Godly Mood or a short Lucid Interval between the raving Fits of our Lust and extravagant Affections which in a few days perhaps may return again and utterly alienate and distract us from all our sober Counsels and Purposes And if it should so happen that which we now look upon as our Cure and Recovery will prove but an Intermission of our Disease And when for sometime we have tryed our Resolution and found that hath bravely resisted those Temptations that have hitherto assaulted it yet we cannot presently be reasonably assured of it considering the fickleness and Inconstancy of our Nature For it may be it hath not been yet assaulted on the weak Side or it hath not been nick'd with a seasonable Temptation or it may be we may be more remiss and careless another time or more vehemently inclined to a vicious Complyance and then those Temptations which we have hitherto conquered may captivate and subdue us And if it thus happen that which we now look upon as an everlasting Breach between us and our Lusts may prove only a Pet or short Distast and like the Fallings out of Lovers end in the renewing of Love And till we have made some considerable Progress in the mortification of our sinful Inclinations and the Acquisition of their contrary Habits our Religion will have so many Flaws Defects and Imperfections in it as will give us great Reason if we have any modesty in us to be very fearful and jealous of it But since without Sincerity in Religion we can have no Title to Heaven it hence follows that without a clear Sense of our Sincerity we can have no Assurance of our Title to it and such a clear Sense as is necessary to found such an Assurance on is not to be acquired you see without a thorough Tryal of our Resolution in a long and vigorous Course of Religion So that for men to be immediatly snatching at Assurance as soon as ever they are entred into a good Life argues them not to be so sensible as they should be of their own Imperfection and Frailty they ought in Modesty to expect a while and not conclude too soon for themselves till they have made a through Tryal of their Resolution and in the mean time to strive on in Hope that by the Blessing of God concurring with their Endeavours they shall at last attain such a certain Sense and Feeling of their own Sincerity as will be sufficient to infer a firm and rational Assurance For Assurance being the Top of Christian Attainment we must ascend to it gradually by the intermediate Staves and Rounds of a tryed and lasting Obedience and not leap up in an Instant before we have taken all the Steps and Degrees that lead thither BUT though we ought not to be too forward in our Assurance yet we are bound to labour after it in a due and regular Way that is to persist in our Obedience till we have reduced our inward and outward Motions to such a Degree of Conformity to the Standard of the Gospel as that upon comparing our selves with it we may be able without Flattery or Presumption to conclude our own Sincerity and Vprightness I know there is a much shorter Passage to Assurance which some of late have pretended to and that is by certain unaccountable Incomes and Manifestations of Gods Spirit who as they pretend doth immediatly whisper and reveal to them their Title and Interest in Heaven But this alas is too much like the North-east Passage to the Indies which is shorter indeed if it could be found but so very dangerous that I doubt there are but few that attempt it but miscarry and 't is well if they do not finally perish in the Discovery Not that I do in the least doubt but God doth many times suggest and whisper unspeakable Comforts and Assurances to the Minds of good men but then it is to be considered that this is an arbitrarious Gift which he seldom if ever bestows but in extraordinary Cases when 't is necessary to encourage
Nature but still it hangs upon me and sinks and weighs down my Soul as oft as 't is aspiring towards thee O my God have pity upon me deliver me from this Body of Sin ease my weary and heavy laden Soul of this grievous Burthen under which it labours and groans and suffer not this spark of divine Life which thou hast kindled in me to be opprest and extinguisht by it but so cherish it I beseech thee with the continual Influences of thy Grace as that it may at length it may break through all this Rubbish that suppresses it and finally rise into a glorious Flame Then shall I always approach thee with Joy and breath up my Soul to thee in every Prayer then shall my Heart be firmly united to thee in a devout and chearful Affection and my Prayers shall come up as incense before thee and breathe a sweet-smelling savour into thy Nostrils Hear me therefore O my God I beseech thee and strengthen me with all might in the inward man that for the future I may contend more vigorously and successfully against these vile Inclinations of my Nature which do so miserably hamper and depress my soul that so at last I may be a conqueror and more than a conquerer through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen If through any bodily Infirmity such as Melancholy Weariness Drousiness or Sickness you find your self indisposed to divine Offices indeavour to quicken your sluggish Mind with the Consideration of some one of the most moving Arguments of your Religion such as the Love of God and of your Saviour the Majesty of Gods Presence in which you are or the blessed Immortality you hope for and then address your self to God in this following Prayer O Blessed God thou art a most pure and active Spirit who doest always move with an uncontrolable Freedom and art never hindred or wearied in thy Operations have pity upon me I beseech thee thy poor infirm Creature who am cumbred with this Body of death and so deprest by its manifold Frailties that I cannot lift up my Heart unto thee Thou knowest O Lord my spirit is willing though my flesh is weak my labouring Soul aspires towards thee it stretches forth the Wings of its Desires toward thee and would fain mount up above all earthly things and unite it self with thee in eternal Love but alas its Fervours are dampt and its Endeavours tired by this clog of Flesh that hangs upon it and perpetually sinks and weighs it down again O my God draw near unto me and touch my Mind with such a powerful sense of thee as in despight of these my bodily Indispositions may attract and draw up my Soul unto thee And if it be thy blessed will release me from these fleshly Incumbrances and fit my Body to my Mind that I may serve thee as I desire to do with a fervent and a chearful Spirit But if it shall seem good in thine Eyes to leave me strugling under these bodily Oppressions Lord give me Patience and Submission to thy heavenly Will that so when I cannot approach thee with that Pleasure and Satisfaction I desire I may be heartily content to serve thee upon any Terms and that what I want of Vigour and Chearfulness in my Religion I may make up in Truth and in Reality And O let the Sense of these my present Indispositions cause me more vehemently to long after that free and blessed State wherein with fixt and steady Thoughts with flagrant Love and an entire Devotion of Soul I shall for ever worship praise and glorifie thy name Amen If through present Worldly-mindedness or Vanity of Spirit you find your self cold and apt to be distracted in your Religious Offices indeavour to stir up your Affections by representing to your self the Greatness and Urgency of your spiritual Wants the Vanity of all outward things and the Reality and Fulness of heavenly Enjoyments And do what you can to recollect your wandring Thoughts by setting your self in the Presence of the great God to whose All-seeing Eye every Thought and Motion of your Soul is open and naked And when by thus doing you have composed your Mind into a more serious Frame present this following Prayer O Thou ever blessed Majesty who fillest Heaven and Earth with thy Presence and art always listening to the Supplications of a world of Creatures that hang upon thee open I beseech thee thine Ears of Mercy to me who am unfit and unworthy to approach thee who by setting my Affections upon things below and plunging my self into the Cares and Pleasures of this Life have estrang'd and alienated my Mind from thee and lost that delightful Relish of thee with which I was wont to draw near unto thee And now that I am retired from the World to converse with thee and spread my wants and my desires before thee those worldly Cares and Delights with which I have been too too conversant are importunately thrusting themselves upon me to divert my Thoughts distract my Intentions and carry away my Affections from thee by reason whereof my Mind wanders my Hope droops and my Desires are frozen and whilst I am drawing near thee with my lips my heart is running away from thee O my God have pity upon me pluck my Soul out of this deep mire quicken raise and spiritualize these my groveling Affections Possess this Heart which opens it self to thy gracious Influences with such a strong and vigorous Love to thee as may lift me up above all earthly things and continually carry forth my Soul in vehement Desires after thee that so I may always approach thee with a joyful Heart being glad to leave the company of all other things to go to thee my God my exceeding Joy Give me a sober diligent and collected spirit that is neither choaked with Cares nor scattered with Levity nor discomposed with Passion nor estranged from thee with sinful Prejudice or Inadvertency but fix it fast to thy self with the Indissoluble Bands of an active Love and pregnant Devotion that so when-ever I prostrate my self before thee I may presently be born away far above all these sensible Goods in a high Admiration of thee and a passionate Longing after thee And now O Lord while I am addressing to thee gather in I beseech thee my wandering Thoughts and fix and stay them upon thy self And O do thou touch my cold and earthy Desires with an out-stretched Ray from thy self and cause them to rise and flame up to thee in Fervours answerable to my pressing Wants that I may so ask as that I may receive so seek as that I may find so knock as that it may be opened unto me through Jesus Christ my blessed Lord and Redeemer Amen If after this you find your Heart is very much enlarged and your Mind and Affections vigorously disposed towards God and heavenly things fix your Mind a little while upon the Beauty and Excellency of his Nature or upon some of the most