relye upon Christ And it will highly oblige him to both or 2. In a state of Regeneration and then according to that experience and proof a man hath of the truth and sincerity of his Conversion such is the proportion and degree of his assurance and hopes which doth not exclude but suppose Faith in Christ for this is no more then to believe that now his sins are pardon'd his prayers heard his services accepted and he shall at last bere warded if he persevere unto the end in and thorough Christ Or 3. In a state of Relapse and even here he hath yet hopes if he repent thorough the blood of Christ For this is frequently asserted in Scripture I 'le urge but one place 1. Jo 2. 1 2. My little Children regenerate certainly These things write I unto you that ye sin not and if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins c. that by these sins are not understood the unavoidable frailties and imperfections of the best men but plain and manifest transgressions of the Law is plain 1. From hence that this is the general notion of sin in this Epistle 2. from the manner of speaking that ye sin not if any man sin which cannot be sense if applied to the unavoidable errours and imperfections of the best of men 3. They are here said to be of the number of those sins for which Christ shed his blood and are equall'd with the sins of the rest of the World And besides these Three uses of Faith I know none nor what more can be attributed to or desir'd from the blood of Christ I cannot see unless men will wilfully abuse their Faith into an impunity and patronage for sin or what disparagement it can reflect upon this sacrifice of Christ That it obligeth us to Holiness and rescues us from the power as well as guilt of sin I am not able to comprehend as to the silly scandal of trusting in works they that know what these words or terms Justified by works and justified by Repentance and Faith mean know that the one implies a perfect contradiction to the other for the former denyes any sin or iniquity and the latter doth directly suppose it 4. Without some degrees of Faith it is impossible that a wicked man should be awaken'd into any serious sence of his condition or should be induc'd to set himself in good earnest to please and obey God without a good measure of this Faith the very regenerate will never be able to conquer the World and subdue the flesh and enter into their rest I mean with th' Apostle a Rest from sin for their endeavours will be but weak and languishing their prayers cold and faint the Acts and instances of Religion will be undertaken as a Duty of necessity not delight the whole Progress of their Christian warfare will like the driving of Pharoahs Charriots when the Wheels were off beslow and uneasie they will be liable to frequent relapses their Life will not be a firm Peace but an unstedy truce with conscience and their Death will be mixt and checker'd with jealousies Distrusts and faint hopes like a sky spotted with numerous Clouds But if we arrive at a good degree of this precious Faith we shall be more than Conquerors o're the World and ourselves we shall be plac'd above the Reach of Temptations preserv'd thorough the power of Faith unto Salvation we shall be too great to be swoln with vanity in prosperity or to be cast down in affliction we shall find all the wayes of wisedome wayes of pleasantness and all her paths peace in one word we shall rejoyce always with joy unspeakable and full of Glory and when our glass is run and our Lives spent we shall be translated to the blesed Seats of Perfection and Peace 5. For the obtaining and improving and confirming of this holy Faith it is necessary that our Religion be not meer Credulity or Custome but that we seriously weigh those two great witnesses our Saviour appeals to for the proof of his coming from God his Works and Doctrine the Power of the one and Holiness of the other being sufficient evidences of his Commission from above To which we must add the Testimonies God himself gave him from Heaven his resurrection from the Dead and ascention into glory and all those mighty works perform'd by his followers in the virtue of Faith in his name and to be firmly rooted and grounded in Faith through these arguments is that which St. Peter exhorts Christians to 1 Pet. 3.15 To be ready alwayes to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you 2. By frequent retirements and sosolemn and devout Meditation to acquaint our selves as intimately as we can with the glorious Truths of the Gospel of Christ to draw the representations of them as lovely as may be and to dwell and gaze on the things we believe till the light of the understanding hath shed it self thorough the inferiour Soul warm'd all our passions and the Body it self seem to relish and partake of the pleasure of the mind The most useful matter of our Meditations will be 1. The Nature of the the God we worship I mean the glorious Attributes Mankind is most concern'd in His Truth and Wisedom his Power and his Goodness And 2. The Sufferings and the Glory of our blessed Redeemer as the sole ground of inexpressible comfort as the most indearing Obligation to Holiness as the most perfect pattern of Virtue and the most lively instance of its reward 3. We must add to both these means incessant prayers offer'd up with a fervent Spirit at the Throne of Grace for considering the darkness and indisposition of our Natures we have altogether need of the assistances of the Divine Spirit and therefore The Prayer O Eternal God the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Author of all good gifts enlighten my understanding that I may believe thy Gospel set at liberty my will that I may approve and love the things that are excellent that the belief of the Gospel of the blessed Jesus may engage me to Love Obey and Relie upon him give me such a lively sight and firm belief of the things not seen as may raise me above all the corruptions which are in the world through Lust and make me partake of the Divine Nature that so my Life may be full of Joy my latter end of Peace my Soul in its Separation of Rest and my whole man in the Resurrection full of Delight and Glory Amen Amen Blessed Jesus Section 2. Of Love 1. Of God 2. Of our Neighbour Of the Love of God Love is not a meet Approbation of the understanding but also an affection of the Will or Heart in Scripture phrase And therefore Coldness and Indifferency in Religion and warmth and passion for the world cannot be justified by
bearing our selves in hand that we do nevertheless Love God because we do prefer him in our thoughts above all things and because we will not do what will displease him for the former of these may be an unavoidable consequence of a clear understanding and the latter of an innate self-Self-love which may be able to restrain us from the Commission of those sins which we believe will do us an unspeakable mischief These do well in their place and are presuppos'd to the love of God for no man can love God unless he know him nor will any man make any distinction of Good and Evil i. e. lovely or hateful by consequence unless he love himself but yet these are apparently distinguishable from and can stand separately and alone without the love of God and therefore let none deceive themselves for To love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our Soul and with all our strength and with all our mind is something more than to entertain an honourable opinion of him or to avoid affronting him because he is able to punish us the Scripture expresses this love by Delight and Joy by Desire and Longing Hungring Thirsting Seeking and the like and more fully if we love God above all things our hearts will be where our Treasure is our affections will be fasten'd on things above and our Conversation will be in Heaven because our God is there Now we cannot converse with Heaven but by Faith and Hope Meditation and Prayer c. And therefore it must follow that they who love God must be industrious to improve these Graces and be frequent in the exercise of these Duties as the Means and Instruments of enjoyment And 2 If we love God we shall hunger and thirst after Righteousness and Holiness which beautifies the Souls and renders us like God and therefore amiable in his eyes and we shall delight in all those good and virtuous actions which are the proofs of an inflam'd affection and indear us to God he that loves him keeps his Commandments and we shall hate nothing so mortally as sin because it stains and sullies the beauty of our Souls distastes the God we love and interrupts our peace and joy and extinguishes our hopes and if this be the frame and habit of our Souls towards God then because we cannot love or serve two such contrary Masters as God and the World therefore 3. These temporal things which are seen will appear very cheap and inconsiderable to us and our concern for them will be so cold and indifferent that no change which betides them no imaginary excellency that is in them will be able to raise our Passions to distract our thoughts to abate our diligence to divide our affections and overthrow our Faith for the love of God the prospect of a more glorious life will have disarm'd the Glory Beauty and Wealth of this World of all their Charm and Temptation and if so how can we then be led captive by what we do not in the least admire How can we be afflicted at the loss of what we do not value or Why can we not be calmly divided from what our affections have renounc'd already Vain World adieu I am above either thy Menaces or Flatteries I fear nothing because I am at peace with the God I love and I despise thy guilded dreams because the love of my God swallows up all my desires and I am content to have no portion but him alone How my Heart pants after thy Courts O God the Holy of Holies the Heaven of Heavens where I shall for ever behold thy face and Reign in the Kingdom of my blessed Saviour for ever and ever Now with St. Paul I long to be set at liberty to be dissolved from this body and to be with Christ nor should I willingly stay longer here on Earth but in Obedience to thy holy Will and a design of spending this life in doing Service to thy glory and in expressions of my love in Longings and Watchings and Sufferings c. And when I consider this merhinks my Life 's too short and I shall go to Heaven too soon and I could wish my Sun would stand still a little that I might do and suffer something for my Lord before I go to enter into his joy and to receive a Crown It is true these are heights of Love which all do not tho it were to be wished all could attain to for we have need of sanctified passions to enable us to do our duty with delight and vigour But none are from the want of such degrees of Ardour to conclude themselves either wholly void of the Love of God or deserted by him for God is a Being infinitely above our conceptions and that of him which we do conceive as Power Wisedom and Goodness tho amiable yet are spiritual and not the objects of sense and therefore do not move us with the same violence that sensible things do whence it is easie to conclude that our love of God is of a different nature from that we pay the creature 't is a more spiritual affection mixt with Adoration 't is an awful desire of pleasing and enjoying him not alwayes terminating in so vehement and sensible a passion as visible objects beget in us and therefore the safest way is to judge of our state not by transports but by the firmness of our Resolutions and by the constancy and cheerfulness of our Obedience But because as there is a more peculiar presence of God as I humbly conceive evident by Scripture so by consequence there may be a withdrawing and retirement of that presence therefore when I find my understanding dim and clouded or distracted and shaken with suggestions to unbelief my desires lukewarm and groveling my Devotion faint and drowsie and my communion without gust and relish I am weary of my self and I have no rest by reason of thy absence O blessed Lord. Then first I lay before me my Life and review my Actions which are late and fresh in memory since this ill temper hath seiz'd me and examine what it is hath displeas'd my God and if I find the accursed thing that drove away a holy God I cast my self down before him and abhor and renounce it But secondly if sin do not appear to me to be the cause of this indisposition and listlessness then perhaps I have not been as watchful and industrious to improve my Graces as I should or if this be not it perhaps 't is but an alteration in my body that clogs and benights this Soul and then I groan at the miseries of my Pilgrimage and bemoan the infelicities of my Nature but if none of these appear the cause Then thirdly I rest humbly patient waiting till God please to return to his resting place it were Pride and Sawciness in me to expect my Heaven here to be impatient unless I live alwayes in extasies caus'd by the divine pretence I will meekly
set my self to my duty and submit to his blessed Will whether he think fit to Crown my Cup with over-flowing joy and to reward my labour by inward transports or not And is it not fit I should thus Love my God whatever there be which can take and endear a rational and excellent spirit is to be found in him all the notions I can possibly frame to my self of a spiritual perfection and Beauty I conceive united in him Goodness Wisdome Power Truth Constancy are the Characters by which the Gospel discovers him to us and these have unspeakable charms upon all ingenious minds and they are intelligible enough to any that will consider them it is true he is a spirit and so incomprehensible to us in his essence and therefore I cannot frame to my self an Image for my Love as one friend doth of another but the time will come when I shall be spiritual enough to see him as I am seen and then my delight and Love will be proportionable in some measure to his beauty and perfection in the mean time my Reason as well as the Gospel assures me that he is infinitely aimable tho that beauty be now a Light that is inaccessible But besides this that great Character of Love and Mercy manifested in its most excellent lustre in the Gospel is enough to endear him to us He is not now our Father only upon the account of Creation and Providence because he hath made us fed and cloathed us these are Common and trivial mercies compar'd to the obligations of the Gospel i. e. the Redeeming us from our evil conversation by the blood of Chriâ—â— and the power of his Spirit into that holiness which is his own Image and resemblance the designing us for the joys and pleasures of his own Heaven his readiness to pardon our transgressions his care employ'd upon us against temptations his delight in us c. If the World could shew us such evidences of Love or could assure us of such an Eternity if it could tell us as the Serpent did Eve eat and ye shall be as God then indeed there were temptation in it but till it does there 's none really Besides these two considerations of the aimableness of the divine nature in himself his goodness to us including his infinite power too there is but one thing more which can be a proper motive to engage our affections that is that such an object be lasting and this is the great prerogative of God alone that he never changes nor dies he will for ever be what he is now most perfect and most gracious The Prayer O Glorious God it is the sole excellence of my Nature that I am capable of loving thee and it is my glorious priviledge that thou art pleas'd to suffer and admit of the addresses of my Soul in this only I am a kin to Angels In those talents which serve only to the end of a corporal life I am out done by Brutes O therefore give me grace to dwel as often as I can in the divine contemplations of thy nature to look forward to that glory which thy bounty hath reveal'd and promis'd me to consider by what methods of infinite Love thou dost prepare me for it and let all this make me love thee above all things and desire to know nothing but Thee my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and him crucified Amen Amen 2. The Second part of Charity is the Love of our Neighbour of which now Charity is in short the Love of our Brethren or a kind of Brotherly affection one towards another the Rule and Standard by which we are to examine and regulate this Habit is that love we bear Ourselves or that which Christ bore us that is that it be unfeigned constant and out of no other design but their happyness The Apostle 1. Cor. 13. taking Charity in a most comprehensive sense as it animates all other graces and influences all our actions which relate to our Neighbour doth thus divinely describe it Charity suffereth long and is kind Charity envieth not Charity vaunteth not it self is not puffed up doth not behave it self unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evil rejoyceth not in iniquity or wrong but rejoyceth in the truth faithfulness or fair dealing beareth all things or rather covereth or concealeth i. e. others Error believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things But now to reduce all to fewer heads and to consider Charity in a closser sense it contains two things 1. The doing good to and 2. Forgiving one another The things which are capable of receiving any benefit by our Charity are our Neighbours Reputation Body Soul and therefore 1. Charity secures mans credit by denouncing a Hell to the Slanderer and Whisperer and Evil speaker c. This Charity obligeth us not to give way to weak surmises but to be forward to believe the best in favour and excuse of an Error not to proclaim anothers faults though true and real unless the discovery may serve a better end than the concealment which is that thinkest no evil beareth all things that believeth all things in the Apostle and if it forbid these sins much more those blacker of open Slanders and private whispers Nor doth this Charity oblige us only not to wrong our Neighbours credit but as far as we can not to suffer it to be wrong'd to protect and generously rescue their Reputations from the jaws of the Persecutor to awe and check the Slanderer by the Majesty of an holy Anger into shame and Confusion for otherwise we become accessary to those slanders we entertain and give ear to If we consider that to blast a mans Reputation is to render him the Scorn and Hate of others and a Burden to himself it cannot be that we should be willing to heap such killing mischiefs upon the Head of one we Love and Charity is suppos'd to love all 2. Charity ministers to the Body of our Neighbour if we will act like men possess'd by that Charity which suits with the Spirit of the Gospel our Hearts and Hands must be alwayes open to our Brothers necessities our Souls must delight to do good and to be kind And if we are not able to redress their grievances or relieve their pressures by our wealth or interest we must ease them by our compassion comfort 'em by holy advice and succour them by our Prayers ' All that profess Christianity believe this a Duty and yet how great and numerous are the sufferings of the needy and distressed and more great and numerous are the luxuries and the wantonnesses of the Rich but it happens thus all acknowledge the duty but shift it off by two pretences 1. Their own inability 2. The demerit or unworthiness of the needy person In answer to the first pretence it must be confess'd that it is not only Lawful but our duty to make provision first for our selves and those who are more
nearly related to us but then 1. The measure of this provision must be our necessities not wantonness for if we refuse relief to the poor on this pretence that we cannot support our vanity and gaiety and their poverty together undoubtedly we shall perish under the guilt of uncharitableness 2. The present time not the vain fears of the future must determine this necessity for if we deny an alms out of our present plenty upon an idle fear of future want it is so far from being a just excuse that it is a double crime distrust in God as well as hard heartedness to our Brother contradictory to Faith as well as Charity I will answer to the Second pretence by degrees and therefore 1. Suppose the worth or worthlesness or what 's more unworthiness of the distress'd person be only doubtful and suspected then certainly it is not agreeable to Charity to give up a Brother to ruine upon a vain surmise we are not to dispute their deserts but to regard their wants I 'me sure this is the safest side Charity may be mistaken but shall never be unrewarded we are herein I think to imitate that Wisdome and Goodness which dispenses th' Alms of our Heavenly Father he hath no doubt on 't particular favours as well as a particular kindness for the good and holy but as he is the God of all so those his benefits which all stand in absolute need of are common to all but 2. Suppose the distress'd person be really as Evil as Needy unless I am sure that my Charity will feed his vices I cannot tell tho' God hath pleas'd to pass a sentence of affliction upon him whether he hath appointed me to be the Executioner of it by withholding that aid which may reprieve his life how know I but that in those moments I lend him he may return to himself and to his God nay more whether my Charity may not be a motive to reduce him and happy I if I may so cheaply bestow a double life of body and of soul if I may so easily retrieve a soul my Saviour died for and whilst I give an alms in some sence bestow a Heaven too But if those I relieve should be the Children of my Father the fellow heirs of Salvation how happy an opportunity is light into my hands of obliging those who are so dear to Heaven whose interest is so powerful with the God I worship Yet Lastly in general whatever the occasion be whatever the persons blest be the hour wherein I have an opportunity to evidence my Love to God and to part with something for the sake of my dear Saviour Blest be the hour wherein I can lay out the very superfluities of my trifling stock for a Mansion in Heaven for an abode in everlasting bliss where in I can honestly buy the Prayers of the poor i. e. it may be the intercession of the blessed spirit for me however they are prayers which are very seldome insignificant for if God hears when they curse in bitterness of Spirit when certainly 't is his goodness not their piety which makes their Prayers heard how much more shall his goodness invite him to hear when they bless in the cheerfulness and refreshment of their soul Lastly how comfortable will my reflexions on my Charity be at the hour of Death and in the day of Judgement for be it with an humble reverence spoken tho in imitation of my Saviour how will that Jesus whom I have fed when hungry cloath'd when nak'd visited and comforted when sick and imprison'd ever give me up to an Eternity of flames 3. But yet this is not the whole of the object of our Charity there are whose souls are poor diseas'd and destress'd as well as their bodies and can an ulcer'd Leg or withered Arm deserve my pity more than a leprous soul can I chuse but melt and soften at a sight which speaks a present and boades a future misery is the eternal welfare of my Brother grown so contemptible in my fight that I 'le not spend an hour or word to ensure it Alass how then dwells the same spirit in me which was in Christ Jesus Well then I will go and visit sick souls I will prescribe and presse and Watch and Court and if I see them profligate beyond the hopes of recovery I 'le recommend them as I do departing friends in Prayers and Tears to God and whatever the success prove to them it will be kind and favourable to me Angels will offer up the incense of my Prayers and bottle up my Tears as well as those spent on my own sins and my God will multiply and encrease my Talents when he sees that I spend them well and the World will Love me and the very wicked will praise and justifie my God for these effects of his good spirit Sect. 2. But nature it self seems to encline us to these Acts of Charity as far as they concern the Relief of the necessitous the comfort of the afflicted and Ministry to souls nor can we share in humanity but that we must pertake of some degrees of and aptnesses to Christianity the most difficult part of Charity is still behind i.e. the forgiving injuries or more the returning good for evil and yet if we will be the followers of our blessed Saviour the Children of our Heavenly Father This is it that we must labour after that our souls may be so exalted and heavenly so good and holy that they may not be easily ruffled into peevishness and frowardness much less rankle into a settled malice and a resolv'd revenge but that they may be all calm and smoothness all Love and sweetness Then indeed we may think our selves the Children of God when we can look upon injuries done us with the mildness which arises from a sense of our own frailties with a meekness which is grounded upon our own worthlesness with a compos'dness of midn which remits all to an Almighty and wise God and with a compassion which the consideration of their folly and sin doth awaken in us when we can have the Charity to believe a just cause of mens actions conceal'd tho we can discover none or if the malice be as plain and evident as the wrong then if we can pray for those who curse us honour and Love those who treat us with despight and scorn if we can support the interest and buoy up the reputation of those who have us'd us shamefully and ungratefully after we have Lov'd and after we have serv'd them if we can do this then indeed the spirit of the Gospel a Spirit of Peace and Love abides in us And that I may arrive at this perfection I reason thus with my self 'T is true he hath wrong'd me but unless it were for conquering wrongs what need have I of Christian patience Where is the meekness of the Christian spirit if I am hurried away by the same passion with an Heathen and Infidel I
Covenant of Grace is Believe and repent and you shall be saved our sins cannot exclude us from Heaven if we forsake them for the time to come and relye upon the Mercy of God thorough the Blood of Christ for he died to this purpose that every one which believeth in him might not perish but have everlasting life Which Mercy extends it self not only to the sins which precede Conversion p. 76. but to those also which follow it as I have before prov'd Now the result of all this is 1. That the overture of pardon incourages us to repentance 2. That the sense of the love and goodness of God obliges us to love and obey bim Despair clips the wings and cramps the vigour of the Soul no man would be good if he knew it were to no purpose to be so for why should he deny his sensual satisfactions if he could expect no fruits of his Mortification but when the Almighty makes a tender of Mercy and invites the sinner to be reconcil'd what will not he do who is sensible of the advantage of his favour or the dreadfulness of his anger that he may avoid the one and gain the other The trouble of a wounded Conscience is an uneasie thing to bear and who would not rid himself of it and possess his Soul of an entire peace when he sees that he may who can be willing to be all his life in bondage who may be translated into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God who would feed the slavish fears of an approaching Death in his bosom who may extinguish and dispel them if he will Salvation is not so inconsiderable a matter but that every one makes this naturally his enquiry What shall I do to be sav'd and therefore when to do ones best is to do all and to be sorry for our sins is to attone them in the acceptance of God who would slight the happiness of the Divine Favour and Heaven tender'd upon these terms O my Saviour thou hast indeed brought Life and Immortality to light thou hast freed me from the curse of the Law and thou hast open'd a plain and easie way to Reconciliation and Heaven thorough thy Body upon the Cross without this the Contemplation of Gods Justice would have o'rethrown all those hopes which I could have deriv'd from the Contemplation of his Mercy and Goodness and I could never without an affront to his Holiness have flatter'd my self from his Clemency into the hopes of pardon for those numerous sins I have committed against my Conscience For ever blessed be thy Name that thou hast taken the weight and burden of my sins upon thee that thou hast suffer'd that I might be justified through thy Blood I will no longer deliberate whether I shall ease me of my sins and guilt whether I shall be happy or no! I come I come blessed Lord I renounce all the sins and vanities of my former life and desire to devote my self a holy living and acceptable Sacrifice to God for the time to come for why should I any longer sin against so much love and goodness When I had broken the Laws of God and given manifest affronts to that glorious Being who created and doth preserve me when I had trampled upon all his Obligations and abus'd all his Mercies into wantonness without any temptation to it besides the baseness of my own Nature I might have expected that a just Wrath would have reveal'd it self in Thunder and Lightning in Judgments and Death but instead of that he continues the overtures of his Mercy and Courts me with the tenderness of an Indulgent Father O my God thou hast conquer'd me by thy patience and long-suffering thou hast taken me by thine infinite love and goodness I adore thy Clemency and Wisdom and am asham'd of the wildness and extravagancy of my own folly O pardon me and my mourning and revenge shall witness what resentments I have of thy sweetness and tenderness I will serve and love thee much because thou hast forgiven me much Farewel my sloth and ease I have devoted my self to my great Creator and I must redeem the time that I have spent amiss Farewel my sinful pleasures and my vain diversions I will no longer indulge that Body which hath betray'd my God which hath made me a Rebel against a gracious Father Farewel my ambitious and vain-glorious aims these are not the Ornaments which become an Humble Penitent These and such like Resolutions are I think the natural results of a serious consideration of the Divine Goodness manifested in this Covenant of Grace no man can believe himself in a capacity of Pardon and Salvation but he must naturally desire to be rid of those fears which accompany his guilts and to be secur'd of Heaven no man can see the Majesty of Heaven contending for Conquest over us by love and goodness but he must blush at his ingratitude and melt at the sense of the Stupendious Mercy The Prayer O Glorious Ood grant that these may be the effects of my knowledge of thy Covenant of Grace that thy goodness may lead me to Repentance and that I may not by the contempt of thy Mercy treasure up to my self wrath against the day of wrath Lord what should make me backward if thou art forward to a Reconciliation what should make me refuse thy pardon when thou art willing to bestow it Is it not worth my while to be sav'd or can I be sav'd in despight of God! Lord I cannot be so blind to think so grant me then the Grace to repent to day whilst it is call'd to day to mind the things which belong to my peace before they are hid from mine eyes Amen Amen blessed Jesus And now I have finish'd the second part of this Discourse and consider'd all or at least the main Motives to Holiness which the Gospel contains nothing is here wanting that can justly beget our love or hate nothing wanting that can work upon our hopes or fears nothing more to be desir'd which can invite or incourage us all the Arguments of interest and pleasure of necessity and possibility of obligations and duty are here combin'd and twisted to make the Cords that should draw us strong enough that one might justly wonder how any man can resist the power of such Arguments and how it is possible to be damn'd And yet we cannot see what effect Christianity hath upon the generality of mankind they are as loose as Heathens as covetous as Jews and in a word as much addicted to the pleasures of the world and flesh as if neither Life and Immortality had been brought to light nor there were any promises of Supernatural assistance It will become us therefore in the third place to enquire into the reason of this and to discover those Temptations which detain men captive to sin notwithstanding all the Son of God hath done to redeem them Practical Christianity Part. III. Of Temptations to Sin THe
Votaries a nobler perfection which will easily appear to any one who shall diligently consider 1. The great Motives to Holyness which it contains that is a declaration of the Divine Nature Jo. 1.18 The infinite Love of God to Mankind manifested in the blessed Jesus and the full Discovery of Life and Immortality or Secondly the mighty assistances it promises that is the blessed Spirit of God and Divine Providence employed either in preventing us from falling into temptations too big for this imperfect state or else in finding a way to our escape out of them Or Thirdly the immediate end of Christian Religion that is whilst we are here on Earth to fit us for Heaven He that shall seriously lay to heart these three things will be forc'd to conclude that in all reason the Gospel must require of us something proportionable to the extraordinary motives the powerful assistances and the glorious end it assures and proposes to its Children and this must be something more than a meer negative righteousness for it is unreasonable that this Light should beget in us no greater degrees of Love and Fear for God than what natural Reason might or if it doth that the instances of our Obedience now under the Gospel should be only such as the strength of nature might have enabled men to comply with under Gentilism tho it must be confest not so easily as now Agreeable to this Doctrine our Holy Saviour in his Sermon on the Mount which is the Rule and Standard of the Christian Life sets us as a more exalted patern Not onely to be True in our words and Just in our dealings with our Neighbour but to be Charitable Gentle Patient and to return good for evil to our very Enemies not only to avoid all unnatural Lusts and wild Excesses but also to be pure and holy to admit of no sensual Fancy or unchast Looks or idle words to fast and afflict our selves the Blessed are they which mourn he forbids us all Ambition and Covetousness and Vainglory not on the account of injustice for that doth not alwayes unavoidably cleave to them but as they are the Acts of a worldly mind which is perfectly contrary to poverty of Spirit and to laying up our Treasures in Heaven and to the taking up of the Cross of Christ so powerfully and sweetly recommended Our duty to God is couch'd all along in the whole Discourse but the Acts of worship more plainly express'd are Loving him as a Father praying to him endeavouring to promote his Glory and chearfully to obey his will relying upon him for assistance in our spiritual warfare for Provision Protection and Deliverance in this Life and add to all this this one circumstance that all this is to be done with delight constancy and vigour implied in those general Precepts Blessed are they that hunger and thirst c. Lay up c. for where your treasure is there will your Heart be also seek you first c. and strive to enter in at the strait Gate c. and then you have our Saviours Sense of Christian Holiness If we consult his Disciples the best Expositors of their Masters Text we shall find the whole of Religion compriz'd in two things The Mortification of the outward Man and the Resurrection of the inward by which they mean as appears from Colos 3. a setting our affections upon things above and not upon things on the Earth from whence I will infer two conclusions 1. That our affections are an essential part of Holiness that it is not enough to approve of invisible things in our understanding and then act not as Men who love God and Heaven and Goodness but as men who see it unavoidably necessary to do something and therefore go as far as is consistent with that carnality they yet resolve to gratifie but that we must love them also and this to that degree may be able to extinguish our passion for the World and therefore 2. The Life we are to lead must be such a one as may most tend to enkindle in us holy passions for the things above a delight in the survey of our hopes and defires of entring into the presence of God all which cannot be attain'd but by requent Prayer Meditation Hearing and Reading of Gods Word the holy Communion and heavenly Discourses and on the other side to take off our Affections from the world and beget in us a generous contempt of it which can never be effected but by repeated acts of self denyal fasting watching meditating on the example of a crucified Saviour the glories and pleasures of another Life the vanity and yet bewitcheries of this fadeing one I may be confident that a constant caressing the senses with feasting drinking wanton dalliances the pomp and vanities of Life cannot be a proper method to the mortification of the outward man or vivification of the inward So that if a very abstenious Life as to the general course of it be not requir'd as an essential part of Holiness yet it is necessary as the means and instrument of it conformable to this whole discourse is that of St. Paul 1 Cor. 7 29.30 But this I say Brethren the time is short it remaineth that both they that have wives be as tho they had none and they that weep as tho they wept not and they that rejoice as tho they rejoyced not and they that buy as tho they possess'd not and they that use this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away where we are not only interdicted unlawful pleasures but forbidden to give our selves up to lawful ones and commanded to use such moderation as may become men fully perswaded of the shortness and vanity of this Life and possess'd by the expectations of a better The Sum of all is this The Christian State is a State of extraordinary Holiness and Purity 't is a new nature wrought by principles motives assistances different from those of the natural man 't is in one word to be Heavenly minded and therefore that course of Life which can best serve to encrease this blessed temper is the Christians Duty and that course which quenches it which softens and sensualizes us is inconsistent with Christianity and inconsistent with Regeneration for if we be risen with Christ we shall not onely Love but seek those things which are above it being impossible for any man to live when he can choose quite contrary to his own desires so that he who loves God need not be told that he must Pray and Meditate and Communicate and be doing good c. When he knows he can enjoy him here below no way else he that hates Sin and loves Holiness needs not be told that he must lead an abstemious Life when he knows that feasting and drinking c. do feed the Body into wantonness and lust and quench the holy flame of Love and indispose it for Religious Duties From all this it is plain
as such And as insignificant would this opinion render it to the happiness of Man for of what use will all the excellent rules of Justice Charity Meekness Temperance c. prove if we continue peevish and revengeful intemperate and lustful c. to what purpose are the fuller discoveries of another World Life and Immortality and the Belief of Jesus being the Son of God if they do not enable us to conquer the world and mortifie the flesh and if I walk according to the Laws of the Flesh i. e. Violate the Laws of the Spirit can I choose but dread a God whom I have wrong'd and will not unruly Passions and a troubled Conscience make a Christian as miserable as a Jew or Heathen If Goodness now be the end and drift of the holy belief of Christians then I infer 1. That the best Man is the best Son of the Church and he whose affections are more rais'd and heavenly and hath least of the mixture of sensuality is of the highest form in the School of Christ because he doth best answer the design of his Lord and walks in some measure as he walk'd 2. That the most infallible characters of a true Faith are to be taken from the government of our Passions our conquest o're the world and the increase of our inward joy and peace and hope Good Lord how apt are we to put a a cheat upon the World and our selves to perswade it and our selves that we believe tho there be no change in our Souls and Conversations and therefore consequently we do nothing less I shall hereafter never think that I believe aright till I have a Love for all his Commandments till I can meditate delightfully pray vigorously relie constantly obey readily suffer patiently rejoyce humbly expect reverently and happy is me if I attain that height earnestly too the hour of my death or the appearance of my Lord. I shall never hereafter think that I have studied or known divine truth to any purpose till the Truth hath made me free rescued me from the bondage of Sin and fears of Death The Prayer THou Holy Pure and Eternal Spirit who canst not indure iniquity who dost so love goodness that thou hast sent thy Son into the world to promote it his Life and his death his Pains and his blood were spent in this Cause O enable thy poor Servant who names the name of Christ to hunger and thirst after righteousness and to depart from iniquity Lord let thy truth and thy Spirit be powerful in me to the subduing all of evil inclinations I believe that all things are naked and bare before thee and therefore that thou canst not be mock'd or impos'd upon by specious pretences or formalities That I am not to expect to appear any other in thy Eyes than such as I am in my self inable me therefore to confess thee in my practice as well as words to live like one who believ'd thy holy Truths Let my heart be fixt in Honesty and uprightness to obey all thy Commandments Let the Belief of things not seen have the same influence upon me they had upon all thy holy Saints Martyrs and Confessors i. e. Perswade me to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and holily in this present world through Jesus Christ Sect. 2. Of doing Good There are a sort of People who indeavour all they can to withdraw from the world and rid their hands of business and think it abundantly sufficient if they can discharge their duty towards God in their Retirements This is Lawful nay commendable only upon two accounts 1. If my Temper or Circumstances be such that my Conversation cannot be publick and safe too for then the Salvation of my own Soul is naturally the most near and dear concern or 2. If my qualifications are such that my retirement is likely to prove more advantagious to the publick than my filling any other Post for then I act according to the Rules of Charity There are two other Inducements to a retir'd Private Life The one founded in a vice the other in a mistake 1. The First is when Men withdraw from the Business as from the trouble of the World and their Pleasure not Religion is their first and chief motive They meet with many rubs and oppositions in a busie Active Life and then they grow soft and weak and lasie and they want Courage and Industry and the frequent interruptions of their private peace and enjoyment is uneasie and they would withdraw to enjoy themselves and this is unchristian and unmanly 't is Epicurism not Contempt of the World 2. The mistake is when we look upon a Monastical kind of life as the whole of Christianity and the meer Perfection of the Regenerate state and place Piety so wholly in acts of solitary Devotion as to seclude the doing good and communicating c. It will behove such to consider 1. That true and apparent Motives Pretence and Religion are sometimes so twisted together that it is hard for a man to distinguish 'em and therefore some secret weakness or reserve may be the real whilst zeal is made the pretended cause of this choice 2. That the Busie and Active Life is the more Excellent and the more necessary 1. the more excellent as being fuller of hazards and troubles and temptations there is a larger field for virtues for Patience Courage Meekness Reliance c. in an active than speculative life and such will receive more Crowns And when I consider the Nature of God and necessities of Mankind I cannot but think acts of Charity as prevalent to the wiping off our guilt as the severest penances A vigorous and active life spent in promoting the welfare of others is a more perfect instance of self denial speaks a greater contradiction to our ease and pleasure commits more violence upon our inclinations than any acts of private Austerity can pretend to do for besides the Pains the watching and the fasting incident to both a like the trouble of Contrivance the industry of addresses the uneasiness of refusals c. sufficiently weigh down the one side Besides this Confinement imprisons our light under a bushel it is a Cover a Napkin for our Talents to conceal them and render them useless to others and therefore our reward will be less in another world and our graces the fainter in this For to him what hath i. e. useth shall be given Grace like the Widows Oile increases by being charitably imparted That Flame which warms my Neighbour reflects back with a double heat upon my self and that Goodness which cherishes his heart softens and sanctifies my own And over and above all this I enjoy a strange delight in doing good and in beholding the fruits which my own hands have planted And my assurance and the confidence of my hopes encreases by the conscience of that Love which my works convince me I have for my Brethren 2. That a busie
fatal nature of sin the blood of Bulls and of Goats purified the flesh indeed but to purge the Conscience another kind of Sacrifice was needful even the Blood of the Son of God I can easily read in these sufferings of my Saviour that the wages of sin is death and sin is not grown less ugly or less hateful to God since the Death of his Son before the strength of i. e. that which gives the fatality to sin was the Law but now much more the Gospel I mean not as the one was a Covenant of Works and the other is of Grace but as the one i. e. the Law had the Majesty of God stamp'd upon it and so each transgression was an affront to the Divine Glory this other i. e. the Gospel arms its Laws with a double Obligation of infinite Glory and inexpressible goodness so that the death of the Son of God doth exceedingly enhance the guilt and aggravation of sin and makes sin become exceeding sinful For 2. To lay down his life thus for our sakes to expiate our sins by his blood was an act of such amazing love as should transport us into a chearful and ready obedience The love of Christ should constrain us to live not to our selves but to him who died for us and rose again That the belief of his bitter passion for our sakes should beget in us no tenderness nor affection towards him at all is unnatural and unpardonable or that we should love him and not obey him is as unnatural but that we should be so far from loving him that we should hate and persecute him is a baseness I want words to express and yet not only Apostacy but any course of sin doth crucifie him afresh and put him to an open shame for whoever is an Enemy to Holiness and Goodness is so to him too If we look upon his Death as an Act of Obedience to his God then we learn from it the indispensable necessity of parting with life it self for the sake of those truths we profess that nothing ought to be so dear to us as obedience to God We learn the great Lesson of Mortification call'd in Scripture being crucified with him made conformable to his Death in the subduing all our carnal affections it being highly unreasonable that we should expect an entrance into Glory by any other path than that of suffering and unreasonable to expect a share in the Resurrection to Glory if we do not first die with him 3. His Glory is the third and last part of our Saviours History which is a powerful inducement to Holiness this begins in his Resurrection Now the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead is a very clear proof of our Resurrection as S. Paul argues 1 Cor. 15. and so the great Argument to a good Life i.e. a Resurrection being demonstrated to the very senses of Mankind leaves no excuse for sin the wicked cannot flatter their Consciences into confidence by denying it nor can the hopes of good men droop and languish thorough doubting of it No if Christ be risen then there is a Resurrection from the Dead and the same power which rais'd him will raise us too at his coming and they who have done well shall enter into that glory which Christ now enjoys at the right hand of God as a reward of his obedience unto death Phil. 2. and all who imitate his Life shall in their several degrees and proportions partake of a reward of the same nature for we shall reign with him we shall sit with him in his Throne And surely this example of the reward of goodness cannot but commit a kind of pleasing violence upon the affections of man and transport him above temptations this was that Prospect which ravish'd the first Martyr into an Extasie though on the brink of dangers and death Act. 7.56 Behold I see the Heavens open'd and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God And if we could often lift up our eyes and fasten them upon this pleasing sight it would unavoidably raise us above this present world we should not be discourag'd at the poverty or reproach of our Saviours Life at the pain or the anguish of his death if we did but often contemplate the peace and the glory and the happiness which now Crowns his Conquests It is very true that a life led in Prayers and Meditation and Sacraments and an Abstinence from sensual pleasures doth not appear very gaudy or taking to a carnal man but if the same man could but behold one who had liv'd thus translated into Heaven how would he adore the wisdom and happiness of the Saints and how devout and holy how pure and mortified would be his life afterwards It is said of the Disciples who saw our Saviour carried up into Heaven that they return'd to Hierusalem with great joy and were continually in the Temple praising and blessing God a clear proof that there would be no painfulness in the industry and fervency of a spiritual life if we did often reflect upon the joys such a life prepares us for there would be nothing harsh unpleasant or dishonorable in the modesty and mortification of a Christian state if we did but look forward to the Crown and Kingdom it doth gain for us who that had seen our Blessed Lord received up with glory into Heaven would not have wish'd it had been his turn too that he had liv'd and died suffer'd and conquer'd with him and had been to ascend with him out of a troublesome sinful World with joy and triumph into Heaven And thus now it evidently appears that every part of our Saviours History is full of very powerful Motives to Holiness that all he did and suffer'd tended to destroy the works of the Devil and to implant goodness and Holiness in the world and we must not think that a Design carried on by God in such a wonderful manner can be otherwise than strangely dear to him and that we must not think that if we through our obstinacy and unnatural disobedience defeat this Design we can ever escape utter Damnation a Damnation more unsufferable than that of sinful Heathens c. Therefore The Prayer O Blessed and holy Jesus grant me thy holy Spirit that I may lay to heart the instruction of thy Doctrine and thy Life and may not only know but do thy will when I look up on thy Crucified Body on the Cross may I tremble at the guilt and weight of my sins which stood in need of so bloody a Sacrifice and may thy bitter Agonies for me melt me into love and passion for thee and this love constrain me to obey thee O may I be willing to sacrifice all my pleasures to thy Commands who hast laid down thy Life for me and being made conformable to thy Death then I may look up with pleasure on thy Glory and Lord grant that the hope of partaking in it may make me purifie my self and walk as
Temptations to Sin are very numerous yet they may be reduc'd to two Heads Pleasure and Pain for these are the great Springs of Love and Hate of Hope and Fear and consequently of all Humane actions I will begin with Pleasure CHAP. I. Of Pleasure consider'd as a Temptation PLeasure is the Idol of Mankind and not without reason for it is impossible to love our selves and not love our pleasure and never any man denied himself yet any the least portion of it but in order to a greater therefore though I first premise That he cannot be a true Christian who is not willing to forego all his present enjoyments for the hopes of Heaven because it is inconsistent with a true Faith of the things not seen but yet eternal to prefer these temporal ones because seen before them and inconsistent with the truth of our love to God to obey him no longer than he commands pleasant things Yet because a misperswasion about this matter may prove a snare and a burden to some in the practice of Religion and deter others from it I will enquire 1. How far Religion is an Enemy to our Sensual Pleasures 2. What Remedies it prescribes against them 3. What Motives it lays down to Abstinence As to those instances of enjoyments which are forbidden the case is plain all unnatural lusts are a Species of pleasure if they may deserve that name utterly interdicted the Christian As to our degrees of enjoyment in all the instances of pleasure which are allowed us and such are all our natural appetites it is first plain that all kind of excess is forbidden us and in this sense the Precepts of the Gospel are generally to be understood the Body we are to mortifie is describ'd to have such members as these Col. 3.5 Fornication uncleanness which involve too an unnaturalness in them inordinate affection evil concupiscence and covetousness which is Idolatry and to walk after the way of the Gentiles or according to the world is to have our conversation in lasciviousness lusts excess of Wine revellings banquetings which is call'd afterwards excess of Riot 1 Pet. 4.3 4. 2. It is not to be question'd but that the great design of Religion is to raise our hearts upwards to make us spiritually minded and therefore all Sensuality which is contrary to this is contrary to the Analogy of the Gospel and by consequence I humbly conceive that an immoderate love of any thing though an allowed instance of pleasure is contrary to the Gospel of our Lord accordingly I find that that enjoyment of this present life which it permits to us is such a one as is cool and moderate not warm and passionate 1 Cor. 7.29 But this I say Brethren the time is short it remains that both they that have Wives be as though they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyc'd not and they that buy as though they possess'd not and they that are of this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away And now thirdly by consequence whatever tends to the betraying of us into excess or dotage is unlawful consider'd purely as the means to such an end From hence we may learn how little injurious Religion is to mens present pleasures we are allowed all things but dotage unnatural lusts and excess and all these are contradictory to our present happiness as for excess and unnatural lust there 's no question as for dotage whoever shall consider the emptiness and uncertainty of this world must needs conclude that the greatest security of our pleasure is a moderate affection and bating now all these the Gospel of Christ is so far from injoyning us misery and trouble that we are expresly invited to it by this Motive amongst others that it hath the Promises of this life as well as that which is to come and we are permitted to look upon peace and prosperity as great blessings and we are allowed the delight of Friendly Conversation love without hypocrisie and to love our Wives even as our selves So that whatever is necessary to make our lives comfortable is not only permitted but promised us but if we would make this Earth our Heaven 't is this that is to be Sensual and Carnal it is easie to apply these Rules to our Cloathing Eating Drinking Conversation c. and they will make us wise and prudent Christians and Religion will appear pleasant and delightful There is one more limit affix'd to our enjoyments and that is by Charity we must take care our satisfactions by our examples do not betray or tempt others Brotherly affection is not very hot in his breast who rather than deny himself any little liberty will contribute to the damnation of his Neighbour 2. The Remedies against pleasure 1. A loose and a dissolute spirit a gay and inconsiderate temper is that which commonly betrays us into excess and vanity into softness and dotage and therefore Religion endeavours to possess our souls with sobriety and awe by the presence of a holy God by the Judgment to come by the value and preciousness of our souls and the manifold dangers and enemies they are incompass'd by and therefore ingages us to pass the time of our sojourning in fear to walk circumspectly to be upon our guard and watch always 2. Because the body is apt to grow wanton it prescribes us watchings fasts and frequent prayers as the great instruments that do most tame and mortifie it and at the same time improve and exalt the mind Besides these that I may at once conquer my pleasures and live pleasantly too I have drawn these other Rules from Scripture 1. I never frame to my self rich Idea's nor fancy I know not what Heaven in any object but am content with an indifferent pleasure and hope for no more than what befits mankind in this state on earth 2. I train up my self to endure hardship as a good Souldier of Jesus Christ by passing thorough some chosen difficulties by checking even a lawful passion by calling off my humour from too much freedom and by accustoming my outward man to endure a bridle and thus my temper grows strong and my mind stanch and firm 3. I observe that the Herd which aims at Sensual Pleasure either seldom meets it and what a misery is it to be damn'd for Lusts they never satisfied or else they know not how to use it or they are so soft and unmanly they droop in every interval wherein they want it and therefore I compose my self on the quite contrary to meet a Storm and to stem the Tide and to arrive at my Port through boystrous Seas and so a small blast doth not move me a great one doth not sink me and a Calm like an unexpected blessing is receiv'd the more thankfully and us'd the more moderately 4. I labour that my Conversation may be above and I endeavour to look beyond this dark
Horizon and expect the breaking forth of the Sun of Righteousness Sometimes in my Contemplation I die and strip my self of all and bid farewel to my dearest friends and my fancy wraps my body in its winding sheet and wafts my Soul to God and I enter as far as I can into Heaven and I dwell there and so the taste of another world like the eating of Manna makes my Palat too nice for the Garlick and Onyons of Egypt 3. The great Motives of the Gospel whereby we are incourag'd to despise worldly pleasures are 1. The Love of God manifested in his loving us and in the sending his own Son into the world for our sakes that we might be the Sons of God whence the Apostles every where infer That the love of God should constrain us to obey him as dear Children and Sons of the most High God and consequently not to walk as those who know not God in the lusts of the flesh and the fashions of the world but being renewed in the spirit of our minds to please him in holiness and purity and the inexpressible Love of the Blessed Jesus dying for us on the Cross will not suffer us to be guilty of such a baseness as to betray him at the sollicitation of a Sensual Lust and that blessed Spirit of Love which dwells in the Children of Obedience is quench'd and griev'd by carnal lusts and therefore they must deny all impurity that the Lord may delight to live amongst them Nothing will seem difficult to us if we but consider these things the Majesty of God and the vanity of man the height of his love and imperfection of mans obedience 2. Our own Exeellency We are the Temple of the Holy Spirit we are the Children of the living God the Children of Light the Purchase of the Blood of Christ the Delight of God and the care of Angels and shall we wallow in bruitish lusts like those who have no knowledge no hopes 3. Our rewards here joy and peace and hope do constantly dwell in that Soul which works Righteousness and continues in patience and well doing and can any of the fulsom pleasures of the body be compar'd to the calm and transport of a holy Soul and yet these are but imperfect dawnings of an Eternal Day there are things laid up for those who love God which the heart cannot conceive nor the tongue express and these precious promises must needs inable us to live above the corruption which is in the world through lust So that now though the pleasures which Christians are commanded to renounce were very full and satisfactory yet the love of God who injoyns this Abstinence the love of Jesus who suffer'd for us and the love of that Spirit which is tender'd in the Gospel to purifie our minds and fill them with delight and pleasure would render our compliance with these Commands very reasonable and easie and if we add the consideration of the peace and satisfaction which flow from an entire Mortification and the glorious promises which are annex'd to it it will be almost impossible to resist the united force of such powerful Arguments and how much more if we consider 4. The emptiness and vanity of all those pleasures by which the sinner is insnar'd The world hath nothing in it which is truly great and satisfactory it s most exquisite entertainments are strangely empty mixt and alloy'd and fleeting 1. Empty Every mans practice is a daily confession of this for how taking soever a pleasure may appear in fancy and prospect yet 't is common that men soon disrelish what they enjoy and disdain what they possess and if men daily change and contrive new pleasures is it not a plain confession of being dissatisfied with the old And what shall the poor Epicure do if Enjoyment it self prove fatal is it not an evident proof that the choice is foolish the object empty the faculties weak and the world a Cheat It were easie to prove this if I should run oâ—e particulars What is Greatness it is so much nothing I know not what it is it is a slippery height it is a glorious slavery a pretty Pageantry and fantastick formality What is Wealth this should not be reckon'd as an enjoyment 't is but the mean to one what is Lust but an outragious ferment of the blood a sudden mutiny of spirits it is a sudden blaze that flashes and then dies the delicacy and flavour of Meats and Drinks is scarcely perceptible to most it is so much nothing gaity of attire is the pleasure only of Children and of Fools it is an imaginary prettiness But the truth on 't is pleasure here below is not to be measur'd by the weight and substance of the Objects but by the quickness and strength of Fancy or Imagination for 't is with Men as 't is with Children 't is not the rattle or the toy but 't is the silliness of the fancy which creates the pleasure and therefore I 'le consider this a little If the Imagination be childish nice and fond it frames and creates Art and delicacy in the object and begets passions tender impotent and warm possession now one would fancy would certainly make one thus qualified happy but the mischief on 't is these are the characters only of a raw unexperienc'd sinner who admires what he never tryed like a man come into a new world the strangeness only begets the wonder success will make him unhappy when he hath tryed all objects he will find all but vanity for as soon as Experience hath defeated him of the Imagination it robs him of the pleasure too and a weather-beaten sinner derives his temptation only at last from custom and he sins not so much because 't is pleasant as because he is us'd to do so This is the whole state of the case Imagination and Fancy is the pleasure not enjoyment and that cannot last without this nor with it but besides there is such an uneasiness accompanies a violent desire of any thing that it more than punisheth the pretty pleasures which Fancy frames hear a man essaying to discover what he feels and he 'll express his passion by flames and feavers wounds and diseases pleasing smarts and killing pleasures so sick are they of their passions and languish of their desires and die of enjoyment 't is in all pleasures as in those of eating and drinking the painful appetites of hunger and thirst fore-run them and feeding and drinking extinguish the appetite and pleasure too This is the case of those who pretend to the greatest gallantry and wit in the choice and contrivance of their sins what shall we think of those who drudge for bafer metals and more dreggy course vices the toilsom pleasures of gluttony and drunkenness of pride and covetousness the malicious pleasures of frowardness faction and disobedience Surely these are worse than vanity the Soul of man must be light and airy and silly and unballasted e're it can
he that will eject a receiv'd truth out of its possession must do it by a greater force and clearness of Arguments than those are which establishâ—d it and being firmly perswaded of this that Jesus is the Son of God c. it will be hard for any temptation to get much ground upon your minds and therefore it were well and wisely done every morning to repeat our Creed soberly musingly and thoughtfully and confirm our selves in the belief of it Sect. 2. Late Repentance But why should I resolve to amend after this sin rather than before it Are my Accounts too little that I would add this to the score before I state them Or hath my God and Saviour deserv'd so little of me that I think a short life too much to be spent in his service though he should give me a Heaven or am I sure that I shall have a keener appetite to Holiness after I have tasted the lusciousness of sin or will sin be the more easily put off the more habitual it is grown or do I hope to find God the more merciful the more I provoke him or if the sin be now too sweet too taking to be rejected which is in truth the reason how do I know it will not be so always or if my body decay how shall I know when it is weakness or repentance whether a change in my temper or my mind or how do I know that some other sin will not grow up in its stead not only Youth but every quarter of our life hath some baits or other ripe and in season and how know I what limits the Almighty hath prefixt to his patience he cuts off some sooner than some and the measure of one mans iniquities is finished before anothers or how know I that God will allow me more strength who make so ill an use of this O let us remember our selves and sin no more we are blind and do not see our danger the hazard we run of hardning our hearts and forfeiting Gods Grace and provoking his wrath and being cut off in a moment when we think not of it Sect. 3. It is a little sin he is a very ill Casuist who deliberating upon a temptation forms that foolish distinction of Mortal and Venial sins for he proceeds upon a supposition which is wholly false i. e. that there are some sins which do not interrupt the love of God God cannot approve of sin in the least degree however but if as some think this Veniality or pardonableness is not founded in the nature of the sins themselves but in the good will and kindness of God it will behove him who will act securely to prove that God hath any where declar'd that he will not be displeas'd with him for those sins which he hath nevertheless forbidden upon pain of eternal wrath or if this be nonsense let him prove that God will not be angry with him for that very sin he is about to commit In few words the true use of distinguishing sins by the several degrees of mortality or pardonableness is not to direct men how to sin safely or how to chuse what sins they may commit but to direct the man who hath committed them concerning the nature and degrees of his repentance for in plain terms no sin can be justly call'd little which we deliberate and consult about sin receiving its aggravation not so much from the matter of the sin it self as from the strength of our passion and the Excellency of that God whose Law it is a violation of for though the instance of the sin may be a little one yet if we sin as far as we think we safely may it is a foul argument of the baseness of our temper and the imperfection of our love like Judas we betray our Saviour for a contemptible Piece a smile a word prevails more than the love and bounty of my Creator and do we not then deserve to perish if we will be so foolish to chuse thus why may not God be so just as to punish us 2. That sin is generally most fatal which looks most Innocent for the Devil is never more apt to insinuate himself than when transform'd he appears in a shape of Innocence Let but a man allow himself the utmost liberty he thinks lawful and he shall be soon betraid into what 's unlawful and he that shall indulge himself in any little vanity shall be shrewdly tempted into greater besides the strange danger of growing sensual and undiscerning and besides that the least sin even in the sense of those who most favour the distinction grows mortal by frequent Commission Therefore in opposition to this temptation we are taught 1. To grow in Grace and to go on to Perfection as being a state of the greatest security and this requires the most careful and circumspect walking the most intire denial of our own wills and affections all which is inconsistent with the admission of the most Venial sin for how can it consist with an ardent love of God to chuse to displease him a little what ever a little trifling injury may seem to an unconcern'd Spectator yet if it pass between two who mutually love it will seem great to both 2. We are exhorted to shun not only every sin but every appearance of it not to dwell within the Confines or Suburbs of Temptations not to act the least thing which we but doubt may be unlawful and therefore surely nothing that we know is not to dispute nicely what we may without danger do but to do all that is Noble and Praise-worthy 3. When we have done all we are but unprofitable servants and therefore let us who I am confident shall never do all we ought endeavour to do all we can when we have watch'd and when we have pray'd when we have contended and when we have fought when we have done all we can there will be still sins enough to exercise the mercy and goodness of God sins secret which we know not of sins of sudden surreptions imperfections mixt with our holy duties and innumerable evil motions which unless the Blood of Jesus our own Repentance and the mercies of God intervene would unavoidably damn us Sect. 4. When these ways fail he sets upon us by other Engines by our Friends by some or other who have an Ascendant over us and it is not seldom seen that the Friends of our Bosoms are the greatest Enemies of our Souls For the truth is Friendship is the dearest and most pleasant thing in the world whence it often happens that men of the most excellent tempers and the most generous Principles have been often induc'd by Friendship to do or suffer what neither their proper pleasure nor pain could ever have ingag'd them to and in all honest and allowable instances to prefer a Friend before our selves is if not a Duty yet certainly an Heroick and commendable action But here as to our purpose in hand the case is thus