are let alone to enjoy our Sins is a Contradiction and so not the Object of any Power no not of Omnipotence it self For Sin it self is the greatest Misery that human Nature is liable to 't is this that convulses all its Faculties that racks and stretches them out of Joint and distorts them into an unnatural Figure and Position 't is this that makes us our own Reverse transposes our Head with our Feet and makes our Reason truckle to our Sense our intellectual Faculties that were made to govern to serve those brutish Passions and Appetites which Nature designed to be their Vassals which is such a barbarous Violence to the very Frame and Constitution of our Nature as will whensoever we recover out of our lethargick Stupidity be as sensibly dolorous to our Souls as Racks or Wheels or Catasta's to our Bodies So that for God to save us from Misery whilst he suffers us to continue in our Sins is altogether as impossible as it is to save us from burning whilst he suffers us to continue weltring in the Flames of Fire and to make us well in Sickness or easie in Diseases are not more repugnant to the Nature of Things than 't is to make us happy in our Sins and yet this is the only Matter we complain of that God will not allow us a free Dispensation to be wicked in that which is the Condition of our Salvation O blessed God! How is it possible thou shouldst ever please such froward peevish and ungrateful Creatures who will never be satisfied unless thou performest Impossibilities and makest Contradictions to be true for their sakes For shame therefore let us no longer complain that the Condition of our Salvation is too hard and rigorous but since God hath been pleased to condescend so low to us as to indulge us whatsoever is consistent with our Salvation let us admire and adore his Goodness and with our Souls inflamed with Love and Gratitude to him chearfully undertake what he hath so mercifully enjoyned us JOHN III. 16 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life I Am now upon the latter Part of this Text that whosoever believeth in him c. In which there are two great Instances of God's Goodness to us First his imposing upon us such a gentle and merciful Condition that whosoever believeth in him Secondly his proposing to us so vast a Reward upon the Performance of it should not perish but have everlasting Life The first of these I have handled already and now I proceed to the second viz. the vast Reward he hath proposed to us upon the Performance of this merciful Condition And in this you have First the negative Part of it that whosoever believeth in him might not perish Secondly the positive One but have everlasting Life I. I begin with the first of these that whosoever believeth in him might not perish In prosecution of which Argument I shall do these three Things 1. Shew you what is meant by perishing here 2. By what Right we were concerned in and obliged to it 3. What unspeakable Goodness God hath discovered to us in freeing and absolving us from this Obligation 1. What is meant by perishing here or not perishing That whosoever believeth in him should not perish that is that whosoever believes in him might be pardoned or absolved from the obligation of perishing for ever to which his Sins have rendred him justly liable For that by this Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he should not perish or be destroyed is not meant the Annihilation or Destruction of our Beings as the Socinians and some others imagin is evident by its being opposed to everlasting Life which as I shall shew you hereafter doth not denote our mere Continuance in Life and Being for ever but our Continuance in a most blissful and happy Life for ever and consequently the Destruction that is here opposed to it must not denote our eternal Discontinuance to be and live but our living most wretchedly and miserably for ever And indeed wheresoever Death or Destruction is spoken of in Opposition to eternal Life this is apparently the Sense of it So Rom. vi 23 The wages of Sin is death but the Gift of God is eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now that by Death here is understood a State of endless Misery and Suffering in Opposition to that State of endless Happiness which eternal Life implies is evident because he cannot mean the first Death which consists in the Separation of the Soul from the Body for though this were originally the Wages of Sin yet in it self it is not so now but the necessary Condition of our Nature for whether we Sin or no we must undergo it being obliged to it by the irreversible Decree of our Maker But the Death here spoken of is the Effect of our own personal Sin without which we are not liable to it as you may plainly see v. 21. What fruit had ye then in those things i. e. those Sins whereof ye are now ashamed For the end of those things or Sins is Death Wherefore since it cannot be meant of the first it must be meant of the second Death which St. John makes mention of Rev. 2.11 He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second Death And what that is the same Author tells you Rev. 20.14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire This is the second Death that is this Lake of Fire or the Torments and Miseries which condemned Sinners endure in it is the second Death for so he explains himself v. 10. And the Devil that deceived them was cast into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone where the Beast and the false Prophet are and shall be tormented Day and Night for ever and ever And this is that Death which is opposed to the immortal Rewards of the Blessed as you may see Rev. 21.7 8. He that overcometh shall inherit all things that is all those immortal Recompences which God has prepared for virtuous Souls But the fearful and unbelieving c. shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstrone Which is the second Death And as Death when opposed to eternal Life denotes a State of endless and continued Misery so doth Destruction also So Mat. 7.13 14. Broad is the way that leadeth to Destruction Narrow is the way which leadeth unto Life By the later of which it is granted on all hands he means Life eternal and that by Destruction he means a State of endless Misery is evident from Matth. 10.28 but fear him which is able to destroy both Soul and Body in Hell which according to St. John's Exposition Rev. 20.10 is to torment them Day and Night for ever and ever And this destroying in Hell our Saviour elsewhere expresses by casting into Hell into the fire that never shall be quenched where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched which is as plain
For he that hath Heaven for his Haven must be infinitely peevish if he quarrels at a rough Sea and doth nor bless the Storms and Winds that are driving him thither And thus I have proved to you at large that the Commands of God are not grievous and that both because they are easie in their own Nature and are made much more easie by our Blessed Lord and Saviour But after all that hath been said I do foresee a material Objection that will be made against this Discourse and that is this That it contradicts the universal Experience of Mankind For do not the Generality of those Men that have attempted a religious Life find by Experience a great deal of difficulty Are they not forced to strive and wrastle with themselves and to do the greatest Violence to their own Inclinations Are they not forced to keep themselves under a severe Discipline to pray earnestly and watch diligently to prevent the Surprises and Incursions of those Temptations that continually way-lay them wheresoever they are and whatsoever they are about And do they not many times find the difficulties so great as that they are quite beaten off and utterly disheartned by them All this I confess is very true and may very well be so without any Prejudice to the Argument in hand for we have not been discoursing of what Religion may accidentally be but of what it really is in it self The Light in it self is pleasant to the Eye but yet it may accidentally be grievous if the Eye be sore or weak and not able to endure its Splendor And so Religion though in its self extremely easie yet it may and often doth become accidentally difficult to us by Reason of those sinful Prejudices against it which we do too often contract in the Course of a sinful Life But 't is an unreasonable Thing for Men to measure the Easiness of God's Laws not by their own intrinsick Nature but by the Reluctancy and Opposition which they find in their own Hearts against them For to a Man in a Fever every Thing is bitter but yet the Bitterness is not in the Honey he tasts but in the Gall that overflows his own Palate And so to a vicious Man every Virtue is a Burthen but the Burthensomness is not so much in the Virtue as in his own Repugnancy to bear it For I have already proved at large that Religion is every way agreeable to humane Nature and therefore there can be no other Reason why it should not agree with us unless it be that we disagree with our selves We spoil our own Natures and do degenerate from the humane Nature into the brutal or diabolical and what wonder is it that the Religion of a Man should be a Burthen to the Nature of a Beast or a Devil But if we would take but a little Pains to retrieve our selves and weed out those unnatural Habits with which our Nature is over-grown we should find that our Religion and That would very well accord and then that which is our Burthen would become our Recreation I confess before this can be accomplished we must take a great deal of Pains with our selves we must watch and pray and strive and contend and undergo the severe Discipline of a sorrowful Repentance if ever we mean to recover our Natures again But for God's sake consider Sirs there is now no Remedy for this and you may thank your selves for it for you must undergo great Difficulties take which side you please If you resolve to continue as you are you must be most wretched Slaves to your own Lusts you must tamely submit to all their tyrannical Commands and run and go on every Errand they send you and though they countermand each other and one sends you this Way and another the quite contrary though Sloth pulls you back and Ambition thrusts you forwards and Covetousness bids you save and Sensuality bids you spend though Pride bids you strut and Flattery bids you cringe and there is as great a Confusion in their Wills and Commands as there was in the Language of the Brick-layers of Babel and though in such a Huddle of Inconsistencies you are frequently at your Wits end and know not what to do yet you must be contented to endure the Hurry and if you cannot do all at once you must do what you can and when you have done so 't is a thousand to one but there will be as many of your Lusts dissatisfied as satisfied And in the mean time while you are thus hurried about in the Crowd of your own sinful Desires your wretched Conscience will ever and anon be alarming you with its ill-boding Horrors and griping and twinging you with many an uneasie Reflection Thus like miserable Gally-Slaves you must tug at the Oar work against Wind and Tyde and row through the Storms and Tempests of your own Conscience and all this to run your selves upon a Rock and invade your own Damnation So that considering all I dare say the Toil of being wicked is much more insupportable than that of a holy Life and which is sad to consider it hath no other Issue but eternal Ruin for the wages of Sin saith the Apostle is death Rom. vi 23 And methinks it should be very uncomfortable for a Man to work so hard for nothing but Misery and even to earn his Damnation with the sweat of his Brows especially considering that the Toil and Drudgery of a sinful Life hath no End For though Custom and Habit renders all other Things easie yet by accustoming our selves to do Evil we add to our Toil and render those cruel Taskmasters our Lusts more tyrannical and imposing for still the more we gratify them the more craving they will be and the more impatient of denyal and so by working for them we shall but increase our own Toil and still acquire new Degrees of Labour and Drudgery But as for the main Difficulty of Religion it chiefly lies in the Entry to it for there we must shake hands with all our darling Lusts and bid them adieu for ever and to persuade our selves throughly to this is the main Difficulty of all for then to be sure they will cling fastest about us and use their utmost Oratory to stagger our Resolution and the old Love we have born them and the dear Remembrance of the Pleasures which they have administred to us will make our Hearts relent and our Bowels yearn towards them But if with all those mighty Arguments wherewith our Religion and our Reason furnishes us and all those divine Assistances which we are encouraged to ask and if we do are assured to obtain we can but conquer our Reluctancies and heartily persuade our selves to part with them this is the sharpest Brunt in all our spiritual Warfare for now if we do but keep the ground that we have gotten and maintain our Resolution against the Temptations that assault it our Lusts will every day grow weaker and
because Life is the Root of all our Sense of Pleasure and Happiness For without Life we are nothing else but a Lump of stupid and insensible Flesh incapable of perceiving either Pleasure or Pain So that all Sensation being founded in Life and all Pleasure a sweet and grateful Sensation by a very easie Figure the natural Effect and Operation of Life is expressed by Life And indeed all the Advantage of living consists in living in a Sense of Pleasure and therefore it hath been very much disputed among Philosophers whether this temporary State of ours in which there is so great an Intermixture of Pain with Pleasure and Misery with Happiness doth not better deserve the Name of Death than Life and those of them who thought it more liable to Misery than Happiness affirmed it to be a State of Death and strictly maintained this Paradox that at our Birth we die into a worse State than Non-existence and at our Death are born into a true and proper State of Life But they who counted our present Life to be intermixt with more Pleasure than Misery esteemed our present Existence a Priviledge deserving the Name of Life which is an Argument that both placed all the Priviledge of living in those pleasant Perceptions that are founded in it And thus also according to the Scripture Philosophy to live as it imports Advantage to us is to live in a State of Joy and Pleasure so Psal. xxii 26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied They shall praise the Lord that seek him your Heart shall live for ever that is you shall so abound with Matter of Joy and Praise that your Hearts shall be satisfied and contented for ever So Joh. xiv 19 Because I live ye shall live also that is because I rise from the Dead and live for ever ye shall rejoyce and be glad So also 1 Thes. iii. 8 For now we live if ye stand fast in the Lord that is we rejoyce in your Constancy and Perseverance for so it follows immediately after For what thanks can we render to God again for you for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before God How properly therefore may the future State be expressed by Life since 't is the proper Scene of Happiness where Joy and Pleasure doth for ever abound where there is an inexhaustible Spring of pure unmingled Delights issuing forth in Rivers of Pleasure from God's right Hand for ever So that if there be any Thing worthy of the Name of Life it is the blisful State of those happy Souls above who live in the continued Sense of all those unspeakable Joys and Comforts that an everlasting Heaven imports 3 dly And lastly it is called Life because Life is the Principle of all Activity 'T is this that inlivens all our Instruments of Action and communicates Motion to all our Faculties and Powers And hence the State of Heaven may well be called the State of Life because 't is a State of the highest Activity wherein all our Faculties act with unspeakable Vigour are freed from all that Weight of Sin and Matter that here do continually clog and incumber them and entertained with such agreeable Objects as do perpetually imploy and exercise them to the utmost of their Strength and Activity Where infinite Truth and infinite Goodness being always in our View and Prospect will continually draw forth the utmost Force of our Vnderstandings Wills and Affections in the most rapturous Contemplation Fruition and Embracements of that all-glorious Object in which we behold them So that we shall not only Act suitably to the Genius of our rational Natures but in every Act shall exert our utmost Activity and know and love and rejoyce and delight as much as ever we are able Wherefore since in that blessed State we shall be all Life and Spirit and Wing since all our rational Faculties shall be most incessantly and vigorously imployed about the most agreeable and consentaneous Objects we being converted as it were into pure Acts of Knowledge and Love and Joy and Satisfaction our State and Condition may be very well expressed by Life which is a most vigorous Principle of Activity So that as Life is the most inestimable Jewel we have as it is the Root of all our Sense of Pleasure and the Principle of all our Activity it doth most properly express the infinite Value Pleasure and Activity of that blisful State which God hath prepared to reward our Obedience And so I have done with the First Thing proposed which was to shew you for what Reason the eternal Rewards of the Blessed are so frequently expressed by everlasting Life 2. I proceed now to shew you in the second Place how unspeakably good God hath been to us in proposing such a vast Reward upon the Performance of such an easie Condition In the Management of which I shall first discourse of this Reward absolutely and shew you how great it is in it self Secondly comparatively and shew you how great it is in Respect of the Condition upon which it is promised 1. We will consider it absolutely how great it is in its self And here I do not pretend to give you a perfect Map of all the Beatitudes of that heavenly State for that is a Talk fit only for an Angel or a glorified Spirit all I aim at is to give you such an imperfect Account of it as God hath thought fit to impart to Mortals in the Scripture which though it fall infinitely short of the Thing it self yet is doubtless the best and utmost that our narrow Capacities can bear In short therefore concerning this blessed State God hath revealed to us that it includes these six Things 1. A perfect Freedom from Evil and Misery 2. A most intimate Enjoyment of himself 3 A most endearing Fruition of our glorified Saviour 4. A most delightful Conversation with Angels and glorified Spirits 5. The infinite Glory and Delightfulness of the Place wherein all these Felicities are to be enjoyed 6. The endless Duration of this most blessed and happy State 1. Everlasting Life includes a most perfect Freedom from Evil and Misery For so we find the State of the Blessed in Heaven described that they hunger no more neither thirst any more that the Sun lights not on them nor any heat that is that they are no longer liable to the scorching Heats of Persecution but that God hath wiped away all tears from their Eyes Rev. vii 16.17 And hence also Heaven is called a State of Rest Heb. iv 9 11. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest Which denotes this State to be a perfect Sabbath and Jubile of Redemption from all Evil and Misery For as soon as the Souls of good Men depart out of this corporeal State in which they now live they are immediatly released from all those bodily Passions of Hunger and Thirst and Pain and Diseases whereunto they
hardly bear the Proportion of a single Vnite to an infinite Sum for what are twenty or thirty Years but a moment to Ten Thousand Thousand and what are Ten Thousand Years but a moment to an endless Eternity So that methinks when I consider that after Ten or Twenty or Thirty Years Service I shall be allowed an Eternity to spend in the most ravishing Joys and Pleasures and live as happily for ever as God and an everlasting Heaven can make me the Bounties of my blessed Master appear in such a prodigious Bulk to me that I am even confounded at the Prospect of them and all this Time I have to spend in Religion in Prayer and Watchfulness in subduing my Passions and Appetites and contending with my own Inclinations seems nothing to me but like a little Rivulet is swallowed up in that boundless and bottomless Duration where it loses it self and is no more remembred by me 6 thly In the Performance of the Condition there are great Intermixtures of Pleasure with our Labour but in the Reward there is not the least Intermixture of Misery with Happiness That Man must be very much unexperienced in a Christian Life who thinks it a melancholy sower and rigorous Thing for besides that it freely indulges to us all the innocent Gratifications of our Senses and all the Refreshments of honest Mirth and moderate Recreation it hath so many choice and peculiar Pleasures of its own as are sufficient to endear it unto all wise Men though it had no other Reward to recommend it For all the Acts and Functions of it being most agreeable to humane Nature must needs be highly grateful to it For what can be more agreeable to a reasonable Nature than to adore and love to praise and confide in the Fountain of its Being and Happiness And being so agreeable how can they but abound with Pleasure and Delight What can be more suitable to a sociable Nature than to be kind and obliging courteous and beneficent to all we converse with and being so suitable how is it possible but it should be sweet and delightsome In a word what can be more convenient to a Nature that is compounded of an immortal Spirit and a mortal Body than to keep the Body in Subjection to the Mind and Govern its Appetites and Passions by the Rules of Reason and Sobriety and being so convenient what Content and Satisfaction must there needs accrue from it For the Pleasure of every Being consists in acting agreeably to its own Nature and therefore since to act religiously is so agreeable to the Nature of Man it is impossible but it must be pleasant especially considering how much it conduces to the Tranquility of our Minds and the Peace of our Consciences and the Advancement of our Interests in both Worlds All which being considered I dare boldly affirm that if there were no other Reward of a religious Life but only its own appendent Delights yet this were enough to recommend it unto any wise Man and that there never was any Man whatsoever that made a through Experiment of it but found it far more pleasant and agreeable to him than the most jovial Course of Wickedness and Impiety And yet to this pleasant Life it is that the good God doth tempt and invite us by the Promise of a Heaven of Pleasures and though the Life he wooes us to hath Joy and Bliss enough in it to compensate all the Toil and Labour of it yet to oblige us hereunto he hath made it a most certain Passage to a Life of pure and unmingled Bliss that hath not the least Alloy of Misery in it For from that most blissful Region all Pain and Sorrow Trouble and Vexation are banished for evermore There are no Winter-Frosts of Grief to nip or blast its everlasting Spring of Joy no Clouds to darken or overcast its Light but we shall know without Mistake love without Jealousie obey without Reluctancy praise without Complaint or Murmuring and rejoice for ever without Sighing or Disturbance Lord what amazing Bounty is this that thou shouldst crown the most pleasant Life upon Earth with a most pure and unmingled Life of Pleasures in Heaven and make one Paradise the Reward of another How deeply art thou concerned in our Welfare that to oblige us to live happily here hast prepared a Heaven of pure and endless Happiness to entertain us hereafter 7 thly and lastly The Condition admits of Intermissions of Labour but in the Reward there are no Intermissions of Happiness The Performance of the Condition doth not so wholly take up our Lives as to admit of no Interruptions for besides that it not only permits but requires us to mind our secular Business and Affairs and is so far from interfering with the Work of our Callings that it promotes and furthers it it doth not so wholly ingross our Time as not to allow us a sufficient Season for our Rest and Recreation so that we may perform all that it includes or requires without breaking of a Nights Rest or abridging our selves a Meals Meat or retrenching from our Mirth and Diversions any further than Reason and Sobriety requires and consequently abstracted from the Work of our Callings which though it be included in this Condition yet even our temporal Interest obliges us to follow 't is by so much the smallest Portion of our Lives which we are obliged to spend in the Exercise of our Religion And if we would make but moderate Retrenchments from that Time we spend either in doing nothing or nothing to the Purpose and together with that reprieve those precious Moments we squander away in serving and pampering of our Lusts we might serve God faithfully every Day and yet have as much Time remaining to do our Business and enjoy our Pleasures as now We might every Morning say our Prayers renew our Resolutions and arm our selves with Considerations against the Temptations of the Day and every Night review the Actions of the Day confess and lament the Defects of them and recommend our selves to God's Grace and Protection for the future and when all this is done have as much Time as ever we had before to mind our Affairs and divert our selves Nay so far would this be from any ways hindring our Business or Diversion that the sweet Sense of having done our Duty would make us much more chearful in the one and give us a far sweeter Relish of the other So far is Religion from inslaving us to an uninterrupted Toil and Labour that it doth not only allow us all the Intermissions that our secular Business Reflection and Pleasure requires but also sweetens them to us and renders them much more grateful But as for the Reward which Religion draws after it that excludes all Intermissions of Happiness For in that most blissful State our Life will be all but one continued Act of Joy and to eternal Ages there shall not be one Moment wherein we shall either be sensible of
Pain or insensible of Pleasure and Happiness For as our Happiness will always abound with fresh Pleasures so our Faculties will never be cloyed with the Enjoyment of them for those Pleasures being pure rational and spiritual will be so far from spending and weakning our Powers that they will every Moment strengthen and improve them So that whereas our Pleasures here consisting in a vehement Motion are very transient and quickly slip away and we must rest a while before we can renew them and begin the Motion again those heavenly Pleasures are such as will indeed most vehemently affect and move but never weary the Faculties of the Enjoyer For still the more we know the more we shall love and the more we love the more we shall rejoice and the more we rejoice the more we shall know and love And so in this sweet but endless Circle we shall move round for ever without Weariness and be so far from spending our Vigour that every Moment of Eternity we shall improve it by Exercise and Motion So that as our Happiness will always abound with new Pleasures without any Discontinuance or Intermission so our Faculties will always renew their Strength and Vigour by Enjoyment And as there will be no Pause between one Joy and another but they will come so thick upon us for ever that the Follower will always tread on the Foregoers Heels so one will still make Room for another and those that are present will inlarge our Capacity to receive all those that are immediately to follow And thus shall we spend an Eternity without the least Intermission of Joy and Pleasure for we shall always know and always love and always praise the Author of our Happiness and always have a fresh Sense of his Goodness soothing and ravishing our Hearts and filling them with ineffable Joys without any Ceasing or Interruption O blessed God! what an amazing Demonstration is this of thy Love and Goodness to thy Creatures that for a Work in which there are so many Pauses and daily Intermissions of Labour thou shouldst crown us with a Reward that to all Eternity is one continued Scene of Happiness without the least Gap or Interruption So that whether you consider this Reward absolutely and in its self or comparatively with the Condition whereunto it is annexed you see it is a most glorious Instance of God's unspeakable Goodness towards us And now I shall conclude this Argument with a few practical Inferences from the whole I. I infer how much Reason we have to be contented and satisfied under all the present Afflictions of this Life For shall we receive so much good at the Hands of God as Everlasting Life implies and not be contented to receive some Evil when our good Father hath provided for us a Crown of endless Bliss and Glory hereafter With what Conscience or Modesty can we complain of those little paternal Castigations he inflicts on us here especially considering that the great Design of all his present Severities is to prepare and discipline us for that heavenly State that by all these dismal Providences he is only training us up for a Crown fitting instructing and disposing us to reign with him in Glory for ever Can any Thing be unwelcom to us that is in Order to so blessed an End Can any Physick be nauseous or distastful that is prescribed to recover us into such an happy Immortality No doubtless every Thing that leads Heaven-wards though never so grievous is a Blessing and all those kind Severities that tend to our eternal Welfare are Favours for which we are bound to praise and adore the Goodness of Heaven for ever When therefore we find our selves inclined to complain under our present Pressures and Afflictions let us lift up our Eyes to yonder blessed Regions and consider the Joys and Pleasures the Crowns and Triumphs that do there await us and how necessary these bitter Trials are to prepare us for and wast us to them And if this doth not stop our Mouths and silence our Complaints for ever nay if it doth not cause us to rejoice in our Tribulations and to thank God for them on our bendid Knees if it doth not make us chearfully submit and say Vre Seca Vulnera Lord cut or wound or burn me if thou seest fit strip me of all my dearest Comforts handle me as severely as thou pleasest so I have my Fruit unto Holiness and my end everlasting Life we are infinitely foolish and ungrateful For 't is but a little while e're all these Storms will clear up into an everlasting Calm e're all these dismal Clouds will vanish and an everlasting Day break forth upon us whose Brightness shall never be obscured with the least Spot or Relique of Darkness And when that blessed Time comes Lord how trifling and inconsiderable will all our present Griefs appear With what Contempt shall we reflect upon our present Cowardise and meanness of Spirit that would not bear without Murmuring with a few Inconveniences on the Road to such an immortal Heaven of Pleasure Wherefore if our Voyage be not so pleasant as we would have it yet let us remember 't is not long we have but a short Days Sail to an Eternity of Happiness and when once we are landed on that blessed Shore with what ravishing Content and Satisfaction shall we look back on the rough and boisterous Seas we have past and for ever bless the Storms and Winds that drave us to that happy Port Then will the Remembrance of these light Afflictions serve only as a Toil and Anti-mask to our Happiness to set off its Joys and render them more sweet and ravishing Let us therefore comfort our selves with these Things and when at any Time our Spirits are sinking under any worldly Trouble or Affliction consider that while we have a Heaven to hope for we can never be miserable for so long as we are guarded with this mighty Hope our Mind will be impregnable against all foreign Events and maugre all Afflictions from without its Serenity will shine as undisturbedly as the Lights of Pharos in the midst of Storms and Tempests II. Hence I infer what a vast deal of Reason we have to slight and contemn this World For it is plain that we are born to infinitely greater Hopes than any this World can propose to us even to the Hopes of everlasting Life And being so methinks our Ambition should soar as high as our Hopes and disdain such low and ignoble Quarries as the Pleasures and Profits and Honours of this Life Certainly Sirs we mistake the Scene of our Eternity or imagine that it is removed from Heaven to Earth and so we are to enjoy our everlasting Life below or else we are most strangely besotted who when we are born to live for ever above in the most ravishing Glory and Happiness can suffer our selves to doat upon this World and to be so strangely bewitched as we are by its deluding Vanities O!
much in discovering his Loveliness as in affecting our Hearts with the Sense of it and in raising our gross and carnal Affections to a Love proportionate to those Discoveries and 't is this that creates us so much Toil and Labour in the Progress of our Obedience to the Law of Perfection but when once we are arrived into the blessed Regions of Immortality our Affection being perfectly subdued to the Reason of our Minds and dreined and clarified from all its gross and carnal Love will as naturally flame out more and more towards God upon every new Discovery of his Beauty as Fire doth when more combustible Fuel is layd upon it and so without any Toil or Difficulty the more we know the more we shall Love and so more and more for ever If therefore we would know what Measures of Love to God we are obliged to by this Law of Perfection the Answer is easy viz. that to all Eternity we are bound to love him as much as we are able and always to love him more and more as our Ability increases And this I take to be the Sense of that comprehensive Law of our Saviour Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength Mar. 12.30 that is thou shalt imploy thy Faculties thy Mind thy Will and thy Affections to the utmost of thy Strength and Power in loving delighting and taking Complacency in the Goodness Beauty and Perfections of God But 2 ly What Degree of Love to God is required by the Law of Sincerity which is the Law by which we must stand or fall for ever So that the Sense of the Enquiry is this what Degree of Love to God is necessary to put us into a State of Salvation the indispensable Condition of our Salvation being nothing else but our Obedience to this Law of Sincerity Now as to this particular of our Love of God there are two Things which this Law exacts of us First it requires the Being and Existence of this heavenly Virtue in us that is it requires not only that we should not hate God or be indifferent between Love and Hatred in our Affection to him but that we should really cordially and sincerely love him And hence those eternal Glories and Beatitudes in which our Salvation doth consist are said to be prepared by God for them that love him 1 Cor. 2.9 which is a plain Evidence that it is one of the Conditions or Qualifications upon which our Salvation doth depend and consequently an indispensable Duty of the Law of Sincerity and St. James expresly tells us that the Lord hath promised the Crown of Life to them that love him Ja. 1.12 And therefore since that Law of Sincerity contains the Condition of that Promise it hence necessarily follows that our Love to God is a Part of it since that Promise is made to those that love him Nay so necessary a Part of that Law is this excellent Virtue that the Apostle tells us without this the most vertuous Actions whatsoever are insignificant Cyphers in the Account of God for though saith he I bestow all my Goods to feed the Poor and though I give my Body to be Burned and have not Charity it profiteth me nothing 1 Cor. 13.3 where it is plain he takes Charity in the largest Sense for our Love to God and one another He therefore that doth not really love God who is not heartily touched and affected with the Sense of his Goodness and Perfections stands condemned by the Law of Sincerity and without Repentance and Amendment shall have no Part or Portion in the Kingdom of God But then Secondly This Law of Sincerity requires such a Degree of Love to God as doth together with the other Motives of Christianity effectually render us obedient to his Will For as I have shewed you the Scripture every where makes our keeping his Commandments the most essential Property of our Love of him for if a man love me saith our Saviour he will keep my Words Joh. 14.23 And whoso keepeth his Word saith St. John that is his Commandments in him is the love of God perfected that is in him it is real and cordial and sincere 1 Joh. 2.5 When therefore our Love to God hath that Power over us as together with the other Motives of Christianity to restrain us from the wilful Omission of any known Duty or Commission of any known Sin it is then perfected to that Degree which the Law of Sincerity exacts But before we dismiss this Argument it will be necessary to give a more particular Account of it 1. Therefore this Law of Sincerity requires that some Degree of true Love to God should be intermingled with the other Parts of our Obedience to him because this as I have shewn you is one great and essential Part of that Obedience which it requires and therefore if out of mere Fear of God we should obey him in all other Instances yet so long as we are defective in this our Obedience will be lame and partial and want a great Part of that Intireness which the Law of Sincerity exacts For since it requires us to love God under the same Penalty of eternal Death that it requires all its other Duties we can no more be saved by it without this Virtue than without Justice Temperance and Chastity yea considering how necessary this is both to quicken our Obedience here and qualify us for Happiness hereafter we may much better spare any Virtue of Religion than this of the Love of God This therefore is indispensably necessary according to the Tenor of the Law of Sincerity that there should be some Degree of true Love to God intermingled with the other Parts of our Obedience 2 ly This Law of Sincerity exacts of us only such a Degree of Love to God as in Conjunction with the other Motives of Christianity is actually sufficient to enforce our Obedience It doth not require us to love God in that heroic Degree as not to need any other Motive to engage us to obey his Will for if it did no Man could be in a good State till he were able to obey God purely for his own Sake without any Respect either to those glorious Advantages he promises or those endless Torments he denounces which requires such an ardent Degree of Love to him as I doubt few good Men arrive to in this Life I know 't is usually said by those that handle this Argument that to love God above all Things is the Degree of Love to which the Law of Sincerity obliges us but either this must be a Mistake or no Man can be good till he is so perfect a Lover of God as not to need any other Motive but that of his own Love to oblige him to Obedience For Men need no Motives to persuade them to chuse what they love best and therefore if Men loved God above all they
prevalent Repugnancy and Antipathy to the divine Nature Wherefore if ever we would be sincere and hearty Lovers of God we must resolve to betake our selves to the constant Practice of all those eternal Laws of Goodness that are founded in his blessed Nature which if we do and persist in our Resolution we shall find the Practice of them will by Degrees render them first tollerable then easie then delightful then natural to us And when once the Laws of God's Nature are thus transcribed and copyed into ours when our Hearts and his stand bent the same Way and are for the main alike inclined and disposed then we are prepared for divine Love made proper and convenient Fuel to receive that heavenly Flame For as when God sees himself in us his Goodness Purity and Holiness stampt and impressed upon our Natures he is inclined by his own Self-love to be pleased with and take Complacency in us so when we come to see our selves in God to see all that in him for which we value our selves and to see it all in the utmost Perfection in him which is yet so imperfect in our selves our own Self-love will endear him to us and wing our Souls with an active vigorous Love to him Wherefore if we would love God let us live in the Practice of all god-like Virtues till by accustoming our selves thereunto we have conquered our own Repugnancies and Antipathies to his blessed Nature and then our Hearts will stand open to his Love and we shall feel it enter into us and insinuate it self into our Wills and Affections like a sprightful and active Flame till it hath all inflamed them with Love and converted them into its own Substance 5 thly And lastly If we would acquire this heavenly Virtue to all the foregoing Directions we must add constant and earnest Prayer to God For when we have done all it is most certain that without the Assistance of this Grace we cannot love him but if we do all and then implore and Supplicate his Assistance we have as much Assurance of it as the Promise of Truth it self can give us If therefore we have a hearty Mind to love him we shall both do our own Part towards it and earnestly implore him to do his For so when we petition for our daily Bread we do not say our Prayers and then sit down with our Hands in our Bosoms expecting that Bread should drop from Heaven into our Mouths but we presently betake our selves to some honest Imployment and therein diligently endeavour to obtain what we pray for And the same Course we shall take if we desire to love God with the same Sincerity as we desire Food We shall pray and endeavour and endeavour and pray we should be diligent in doing what is in our Power and be importunate with God to do what is only in his And certainly did we but know the Worth of this heavenly Virtue this Soul and Queen of all other Graces we should count no Prayers no Tears no Endeavours too much to purchase and obtain it Did we but consider how useful and delightful it is how at once it entices and inlivens Men what a powerful Byass it claps upon their Hearts to incline them to their Duty and with what Joy and Chearfulness it carries them through the greatest Difficulties and turns their Toils into Recreations how it clears and smooths their Countenance revives and elevates their Hearts Did Men I say but consider this they would give neither themselves nor Heaven Rest till they felt their cold and slugish Souls inspired and animated with it Wherefore to all our Endeavours after it let us joyn our earnest Prayers to God that he would kindle our stupid Hearts and touch our cold Affections with an outstretched Ray from himself that he would conquer our Repugnance to him and represent his Love and Beauty to our Souls in such affecting and attractive Forms as may not fail to captivate our Hearts and subdue our obstinate Wills that have so long held out against all the Storms and Batteries of his endearing Goodness And if we thus pray and thus endeavour and persevere in both we shall at length most certainly feel this heavenly Grace springing up within us and growing on to Maturity by insensible Degrees till at last it hath gotten an entire Possession of our Souls and subdued all our Powers and Affections to it's sweet and blessed Empire And then we shall feel our selves acted in Religion by a new Soul and carried on through all its weary Stages with an unspeakable Life and Vigour then all our Duty will be naturalized to us and we shall do God's Will upon Earth with almost the same Chearfulness and Alacrity as it is done by our blessed Brethren in Heaven Which God of his infinite Mercy grant To whom be Honour c. PSALM xi 7 For the Righteous Lord loveth Righteousness BY Righteousness here some Expositors understand the Righteousness of Punishment because in the foregoing Verse it is said upon the wicked he shall rain snares Fire and Brimstone c. and then it follows why he shall do it for the Righteous Lord loveth Righteousness But considering the whole I rather believe that by Righteousness here is meant Righteousness of Life and Manners For it seems more probable that the Text is a Reason of the two former Verses than of that immediately foregoing but the whole that is asserted is this the Lord tryeth the Righteous but the wicked and him that loveth Violence his Soul hateth Vpon the wicked he shall rain snares c. As if he should have said there is a vast Difference between Gods dealing with the Righteous and the Wicked for though sometimes he afflicts the Righteous yet 't is only to prove and try them and to render their Virtue more exemplary and illustrious but as for the Wicked when he rains down Punishments on them it is out of a just Hatred and Indignation against them And the Reason why he is thus differently affected towards these different Persons is because of the different Affection he bears towards their contrary Qualifications he loves the Righteousness of the Righteous and that makes him chasten them in love and for kind and merciful Ends and Purposes but he hates the Wickedness of the Wicked and that makes him proceed against them with so much Wrath and Severity So that by Righteousness here he means that Goodness and Virtue which is inherent in righteous Persons is evident from what follows the righteous Lord loveth righteousness his countenance doth behold the upright that is he looks upon them with a most gracious and benevolent Aspect which latter Words being only a fuller Exemplification of the former plainly shew that by the Righteousness mentioned in them is meant the Righteousness of righteous Persons and consequently that it doth not signify the Righteousness of Punishment but the Righteousness of Manners By which we are not to understand that single Virtue
should be such as did clearly argue and evince his righteous Severity for otherwise it would have no Force in it to prevent our Presumption And what Motive of Pardon could better evince his Severity than the Suffering of some other in our Room especially the Suffering of his own Son the greatest and dearest Person in the whole Creation For not to be moved to grant a publick Pardon to us upon our hearty Repentance unless this blessed Person would engage to die for us whose infinite Greatness gave such an inestimable Value to his Sufferings as rendred them adequate to what we had deserved to suffer was as great an Argument of his inflexible Severity against Sin as if he should have destroyed at one Blow the whole World of Sinners So that as he hath expressed an infinite Mercy to us in admitting his own Son to die for us so in refusing to pardon us upon any less Motive than his precious Death he hath expressed an infinite Hatred to our Sins and so that very Death which moved God to pardon us moves us to stand in Awe of his Severity the Death of the Son of God upon which we are pardoned being the most terrible Instance that ever was of the Desert of our Sin and God's Displeasure against it Thus our blessed Lord hath not only given us the greatest Encouragement by procuring our Pardon to return from our Iniquities but by procuring it in such a formidable way he hath given us the most dreadful Warning of God's Severity against them So that now we cannot think upon the Reason for which our past Offences are forgiven without being vehemently moved to future Obedience And thus the main Design you see both of Christs Life and Death was to recal us from Sin to the Practice of Righteousness And hence he is said to have given himself for us to redeem us from all Iniquity and to purify to himself a peculiar people zealous of good Works Tit. ii 14 And then he arose again from the Dead to confirm that righteous Doctrine which he had revealed to the World and visibly ascended into Heaven to give us an ocular Demonstration of the heavenly Rewards of Righteousness and there he now sits at the right Hand of God to assure us that if we persevere in Righteousness we shall be continually befriended in the Court of Heaven through his all-powerful Intercession and hath assured us that at the End of the World he will come to Judgment and faithfully distribute those Rewards and Punishments which here he promised and threatned to righteous and unrighteous Persons Thus the main Drift you see of all these great Transactions of our Saviour was to advance the Interest of Righteousness and true Goodness What a mighty Evidence therefore is this of God's great Love of Righteousness that he should send his own most blessed Son upon its Errand to transact such mighty Things on its Behalf For by sending Christ into the World and exposing him to Misery for Righteousness Sake he did in Effect declare that he valued the Interest of Righteousness more than the present Happiness and Enjoyment of his most dearly beloved and only begotten Son and we may most certainly conclude that had not Righteousness been infinitely dear to him he would never have authorized his dearest Son to take such infinite Pains to promote it 4 thly Another supernatural Indication of God's Love of Righteousness is his promising such vast Rewards to us upon it and denouncing such fearful Punishments against us if we despise and neglect it For besides all those temporal Rewards he hath proposed to us if we seek the Kingdom of Heaven and the Righteousness thereof he hath erected a Heaven of immortal Joys and Felicities to crown and entertan it a Heaven that contains in it all the Beatitudes that humane Nature is capable of all that Truth that the most capacious Mind can comprehend and all that Good that the vastest Affections can either crave or contain In a word a Heaven whose Blisses are all as large as our immense Desires and all as lasting as our immortal Beings For 't is a Heaven which consists in an eternal Fruition of the Fountain of infinite Truth and Goodness whose everflowing Streams are abundantly sufficient to quench the Thirst and make glad the Heart of every Being that understands and loves How much therefore God loves Righteousness you may easily guess by these vast Preparations he hath made to entertain it For he built Heaven on purpose to lodge righteous Souls and that they may see he thinks nothing too dear for them he is himself their Feast there as well as their Entertainer He feeds them with his own Perfections and they live for ever as happily as their Hearts can wish upon the Sight and Love and Imitation of his Beauties So vehemently is his Heart set upon Righteousness that he will have every righteous Soul dwell with him and live upon him and partake of all those heavenly Joys in which his own Beatitude consists But as for Vnrighteousness how much his Soul abhors it is evident by those dire Punishments he hath denounced against it by those dark and dismal Abodes which he hath condemned unrighteous Souls to to languish out a woful Eternity to burn in Flames there that never consume and be gnawn with Worms which never devour them to be scared and haunted with Devils without and Furies within and perpetually worried Day and Night without any Ease or Intermission with all the Horrors Griefs and Vexations that an everlasting Hell imports O thou merciful Father of Beings How couldst thou have found in thy Heart to condemn thy Creatures to so wretched a State had not their unrighteous Practices been infinitely odious in thine Eyes No certainly the good God would never have made Hell for a Trifle for the sake of any Thing that his Nature could have endured or dispensed with nor would he ever have cast any unrighteous Creature into it were it not for the implacable Abhorrence he hath to all Unrighteousness And therefore since he hath not only made Hell but warns us of and threatens us with it we may be sure he infinitely abominates that for which he made and threatens it and consequently that he is infinitely concerned for the Cause and Interest of Righteousness 5 thly And lastly Another supernatural Indicaton of God's Love of Righteousness is his granting his blessed Spirit to us to excite us to and assist us in our Endeavours after Righteousness First he sent his Son to propagate Righteousness by his Ministry his Life and Death and upon his Return to Heaven he sent his Spirit to supply his Room and carry on that dear Design of which his Son had already laid the Foundation For in Christ's personal Absence his Spirit acts in his Stead and was sent down from the Father by Virtue of his Intercession to be his Vicegerent in the World to promote and inlarge his heavenly Kingdom to conquer our