but because they will not trust God for their reward they have none at all they lose their labour and themselves Many others there be that complain that their affairs and necessary employments abroad keep them from minding what is good by depriving them of their inward peace but the things that disturb the tranquillity of the Soul are from within because we will not break with our selves because we are too sensual and too much seek our ease and advantage From hence proceeds that inward and vexatious war betwixt the Spirit and the Flesh which can never cease till Reason and Religion reign in us and the inferior appetites be brought to obedience and perfect subjection to the higher rational faculties 3. If a man had a friend so dear and intimate that he could not eat nor rest nor live one day without him and a faithful and creditable Monitor should tell him that his pretended friend is false and treacherous and designs to ruin and to murther him would not his love presently cease and be turned to hatred and thoughts of revenge Christian Reader such a friend is our flesh we gratifie and indulge it and use it with the greatest kindness and at the same time under pretence of friendship it deceives us and designs to deprive us of immortal life and to bring to Eternal death Yet this false friend sleeps in our bosome we are not to war with strangers and with far distant Enemies but with one that dwells with us at home and accompanies us wherever we go and always lies in wait to take advantage of us and do us mischief Let a man forsake himself and come out of himself and then he will find no obstacles in his way to Heaven CHAP. V. How we must fight our corrupt nature and depraved affections 1. WE must be very careful to observe what is the object of our love or fear and what of our joy or sorrow for these four affections have the absolute power of our heart and God by them is the master of it when we love and fear nothing but him and for him and when he is the cause and the measure of our joy or sorrow When these motions of our mind are disorderly and tend where they should not we become unruly like beasts but when they are ordered and directed right then they are highly serviceable and they make us holy and happy like Angels For in this consisteth the perfection and happiness of man to have his affections and desires guided by truth and reason for then his love and his joys become instruments of bliss and virtue whereas the same affections when guided by corrupt nature alone become pernicious and vexatious degenerate into wild lusts monsters which we must always fight and with our utmost strength indeavor to conquer 2. But to this purpose it will not suffice that we in general indeavour to reform and keep under our appetites and unruly passions for corrupt nature is well enough pleased with all the apparel and formalities of mortification self-denyal and victory over sinful passions and Philosophers grow in love with the fair Ideas of virtue in this pompous attire and many in this have deceiv'd themselves and boasted of conquest over their evil inclinations because they find not in themselves an aversion to vertue and good desires But when it comes to tryal indeed and they are no longer to fight with the notion of sin in general but with a present urging lust with a pressing uneasiness and necessity with some provocations to anger or to impatience then it appears how vain how weak and insignificant were their great thoughts and fine resolutions Better it is therefore carefully attend to every particular occasion of vanquishing our selves and restraining our depraved appetites and to do it seriously and to purpose for so by degrees we shall rectifie and amend every defect and bring all our passions and desires under the power of right reason or Christian Religion 3. But this is not to be done without an ever-watching diligence an unwearied patience a great application and a persevering courage and labour that by offering a perpetual violence to our evil propensities as they shew themselves we may go to the root of them and quite pull them up For now in our state of depravation every holy affection and the lifting up of our Soul to God is violent being against nature against the bent of our sensual appetites so that we must renew our indeavours and add new vigor to them every moment else we fall down and nature easily prevails and we soon return to our selves 4. As weeds in gardens may be pull'd up and yet not hindred from growing again of themselves so by care and by keeping a strict hand over our vicious affections we may so keep them under that we shall think they are quite destroy'd but do what we can the ground of our corrupt nature will always be apt to produce ill weeds and sin of it self will be growing again so that we must never give over fighting never cease to mortifie and purifie our selves whilst we live And yet if by God's assistance we can once do some one noble act of Christian vertue report one noted victory over our selves that alone may be sufficient to assert and enlarge our liberty and obtain us grace whereby we shall afterwards easily overcome all our aversions to vertue Some holy men have been so encouraged and strengthned by one great and difficult triumph that afterwards without fear and with little trouble or danger they have overcome all enemies and oppositions So great a thing it is to fight with fortitude and maintain once a noble contention till we have conquer'd CHAP. VI. Of the right use and moderation of our outward Senses 1. BEcause the eyes commonly are an inlet to sin we ought to turn them from tempting objects with the same care and quickness as a man would remove out of a house infected with the Plague Now human eyes wherewith created things are beheld may be said to be of three sorts The first altogether Sensual or natural when viewing the outward beauty of an object we are pleased with it and consider no farther The second may be call'd Rational or Philosophical when we making reflections upon the symmetry and other properties of things visible are moved thereby to search and to know the nature of them And the third we may say are Christian or Religious when by the beholding of creatures we raise up our Souls to the love and contemplation of the Creator With these eyes pious Souls viewing the beauties of the universe are led to the consideration of its glorious maker who is the fountain of all beauty and perfection as the author of all subsistence and being 2. Now as the life of the body depends upon its union with the Soul so doth in some manner the life of our senses depend on the presence of their proper objects as things visible to the eyes
the cause why so many are not so perfect and holy as their Christian faith requires and would enable them to be that they are not sincere but want truth in the inward parts The false opinions of the World are of greater power with them than the precepts and the examples of Christ and those moral virtues which nature it self recommends are commonly made sin or subservient to it by the depraved judgments and customs of men We therefore that live in a crooked and perverse generation among corrupt and deceived persons ought seriously and often to make this inquiry whether we our selves do know the right way and whether we truly follow it Now that way which is the way of truth is one and altogether unchangeable and they that will keep it without change must not look to the World but up to Heaven must not follow the example of men but must directly follow God who alone is the way the truth and the life CHAP. XXV That a hearty affection is the life of good actions 1. WE must have a special care that the sensitive part of us have not the principal concern in our good works and that we be not led by sense in our actions for sense is the great deceiver the fountain of error therefore 't is said that the mortification of sense is the life of truth And hence it is that we cannot be confident ever to have done any thing perfectly good and without defect because that we bear a part in our best works and as far as they proceed from us they are stain'd with imperfection although they be done upon Gods account and by the impulse and assistance of divine Grace Thus it was said to the Angel or Bishop of Sardis Rev. 3.2 I have not found thy works perfect before God and thus it might be said to any other For our Prayers Fastings and Alms and such like good works though they may appear complete before men who see nothing but the outside yet before God who searcheth the heart they are defective and cannot be acceptable in the least except they be done with a pure and sincere intention to please him 2. Of ten Virgins mentioned in the Gospel five foolish were excluded from the wedding not but that they were Virgins and had lamps that is works but because they wanted the oil of good intentions and holy affections This may well be the case of every one of us our works will be dead before God and unpleasing to him except we breath life into them by our inward sanctified spirit and fervent love to God In outward acts and appearance all Christians are almost alike but as the hand of a watch is mov'd by the hidden springs and as the colour of the face depends on the secret constitution of the body so the good are distinguisht from the bad by their inward spirit or the hidden man of the heart for the Kingdom of God is within us CHAP. XXVI Whence the goodness of our works proceeds 1. AS many that eat much yet are feeble and infirm and lean because they overcharge their stomach so that their nourishment is not well concocted and as many that eat very moderately yet because they digest well are strong and healthy and long-liv'd So likewise some Christians there are that do many good things and yet themselves become little better because they go not the right way to work They think that by doing much they must become great proficients though they do it remisly and incuriously whereas to do our duty every day with greater fervency and exactness is the right way to perfection a few things well done profit more than heaps of works done negligently 2. For so there are others that compared to these first do but little and yet increase much in the love of God because they endeavour always to work with greater affection and a more upright intention so that at the end of every good action they may in some manner use that expression of Christ on the Cross Joh. 19.30 It is finished I have in this as far as was possible done what God required of me as perfectly as my infirmity would allow and his free grace enabled me who gives us to will and to do and without whom we can do nothing They so spend each day that at night they can say It is finished and they so spend their whole life that when 't is ended they can say with an holy and humble confidence I have now perfected that work which God had appointed me to do He that lives so lives like a Christian and he shall not fear in the evil day CHAP. XXVII How useful and comfortable is the consideration of God being always present 1. NOthing will more prevail to make perfect our works as much as is possible than to consider that God is present every where and that from him and in him all things have their being power and motion This is the most pressing Argument why we should always act with the greatest circumspection that God sees the things that are in secret and we can never be hid from his eyes that in him we live and move and have our being and that he never forsakes us till we forsake him to turn our affections upon the creatures For this is the unhappy effect of our original corruption that our senses are so affected and pleased with material things present that our mind is drawn from the contemplation of Gods presence and things as yet invisible whereas if the love of this world did not bear too great a sway in our heart we could see God in every place holy affections would always see him who is the Author of all holiness according to the saying of our Blessed Saviour Mat. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God 2. For indeed 't is not to be exprest how sweet and comfortable is the goodness of God which he hath laid up for them that fear him but laid up it is none have a sense of it but they that love God they alone taste and see how gracious the Lord is For 't is not enough to have a treasure we must know we have it before we can be rich and we must know the use and the worth of it Now such a treasure we have within us as is of an inestimable infinite value and yet we seem not to know it for we run after motes and shadows and catch at painted drops that cannot quench our thirst as the Psalmist saith O ye sons of men how long will ye love vanities and seek after lies Thus we are cheated and understand not our own happiness for God is present to us every moment and we could always enjoy him we are rich and we know it not 3. We could if we would anticipate the joys of Heaven we could now have a taste of the felicity of beatified Saints but that we indulge Sense to the prejudice of the Soul we
oblig'd to observe The Divine are contain'd in the Ten Commandments and in the New Testament which contains the precepts of Faith Hope and Charity Faith obligeth all the Faithful to believe the doctrines of Christianity as they are sum'd up in our Creed By Hope we trust by the grace of God and our own sincere endeavour to obtain and use all necessary means of Grace and Eternal Life at last all which in this assurance we heartily beg in the Lord's Prayer And Charity requires of us to love God above all things and our Neighbour as our selves A Christian by these three virtues is made a new and holy creature Faith inlightens and directs his understanding Hope raiseth him up and sets his will at work for God and to God Charity unites him wholly It is also necessary to understand the necessity of Baptism and the Lord's Supper and true Repentance which are all Divine Institutions indispensably necessary to all that will be saved For except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Joh. 3.5 And Except we eat the flesh and drink the bloud of Christ we have no life in us Joh. 6.53 And as for Repentance it is the only remedy we have for the sins committed after Baptism that by it we may be made clean again 2. Lastly there are also Human Laws Enacted by the Church or the State we live in and them we are also to know and to observe with meekness and humility and for Conscience sake But no man of himself is able to keep all these Laws which God hath bound upon us none can obey them without the true light from above enlighten and guide him as it is written Psal 94.12 Blessed is the man whom thou chastnest O Lord and teachest him in thy Law For ever since sin came into the World men without the light of Faith sit in darkness and the shadow of death and take an account of good and evil not by the measures of truth but by their lusts and depraved passions We must therefore earnestly beg the divine assistance that he that commands what he wills would enable us to do what he hath commanded healing our blindness and impotency destroying self-love and filling our hearts with devout love to him for the end of the Commandment is Charity and he that truly loves God keepe his Commandments without hypocrisie or reservation CHAP. XXXIV The difference betwixt the outward and the inward man 1. OUR Christian hope is not for this World nor for this present time and we were not created to enjoy that Earthly happiness which the World only seeks but God made us for that Eternal Bliss which he hath promised and whose excellency we cannot as yet understand For eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither is it entred into the heart of man what things God hath prepared for them that love him We therefore that are called to the possession of that Kingdom which was prepared for us from the beginning of the World ought not to govern our selves only by human reasons and live by natural instincts after the common manner of men who are unacquainted with the ways of Eternity and the motions of Divine Grace But happy are they that wisely dive into the depth of things who live to God and commune with him in their hearts and suffer not their thoughts and affections to range and dwell abroad 2. These men live an inward life they are recollected and dwell at home always disposed to hear Gods voice within them and to understand his secrets Whereas they live an outward life that are most affected with outward things having fair pretences for their worldly-mindedness being greedy of news and curious sights and sensual pleasures walking saith the Apostle Eph. 4.17 in the vanity of their minds alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them For the more a man profits in carnal wisdom the more ignorant he becomes in the things of God As much as we love the creatures as much we lessen our love to the Creator CHAP. XXXV How dangerous it is to be governed by opinion and false apprehension of things 1. HE is a wise man that weighs things justly and then esteems them according to their intrinsick value for every thing in the world hath a twofold aspect or a double face the one natural and real and the other disguised and fallacious The first is what God judgeth and hath revealed it to be and the second depends on mens passions and false opinions Thus for Example the Dignity of a Bishop is in effect and according to Gods appointment a high and Angelic office of such a weight as should make human strength tremble and shrink under it it is a place of great honour but also it requires the greatest labour and diligence to watch for the Souls intrusted with the dignified Prelat who shall give a strict account for them in the day of judgment But in the Worlds account a Bishoprick is only a degree of honour in the Church which promotes the owner of it to riches and greatness and temporal advantages Hence it is that they that rightly apprehend what the office is fear and avoid it and are so far from seeking that they refuse it when offer'd and it is much to be feared that they follow the worlds judgements and seek themselves that seek it and make it their aim and the object of their passionate desires The same may be said of all other dignities and places of trust in Church and State Generally men have a wrong notion of them and understand not their definition and hence the confusions and malvorsations that are in the world that men mistake things and hate truth and will not see nor follow divine light but the darkness of their own perverse hearts 2. Such names are commonly used amongst men as are consecrated by the Bloud of Christ and the highest virtues of his greatest Saints as that some be called Bishops Priests Deacons Monks or Hermits Some Kings Princes and Magistrates and all together Christians but who is there that duly considers the great worth the strength and true significations of those names what virtues what perpetual care what duties they require from such as bear them the bare Titles with a vain shadow of the things remain but the reality and significancy of them is vanish'd few men are in truth what they call themselves few live according to the name of Christian because few make it their first care to follow the example of Christ This unhappy deceit is also an effect of the first and worst of evils Self-love the most crafty deceiver hardly found out by the wisest and seldome quite conquer'd by the best of men 3. The truth is that the good and evil things of this present life are so mixt and confused that if we take an exact view of the nature of them we shall hardly discern the one
with shame and confusion of face to be ready to make all satisfaction and amends possible for past offences to restrain and mortify all sinful appetites carefully to avoid all the ways and allurements to sin to humble our selves and willingly to bear contempt frequently to examine our conscience and search the secrets of our hearts to root out as much as is possible all vicious desires and inclinations and to set in their stead all virtuous and holy affections 2. They that make this their serious and constant employment have their own sins before their eyes but have no eyes for the sins of others they grieve for their own offences and punish their own follies but they pass by or excuse the faults of others they see their own danger and are always afraid of falling and always watchful not to fall For our necessary converse with the World our ill customs and our dwelling with baits and temptations exposeth us to sin and yet takes the sense of it from us especially our evil inclinations which being born with us have a strong party in our hearts and begin by times to deprave or harden Conscience that it shall hardly have any feeling of sins daily committed And then this is the unhappiness of contracting ill habits that the oftner we act by them the more we confirm them and the less we observe our faults and errors CHAP. XXXIX Remedies against ordinary failings and greater sins 1. TO fall into those sins which some call Venial or sins of daily incursion is hardly to be avoided and yet even those sins cannot be said to be little that are committed against a great God and for which we must suffer Eternal Torments if we our selves were to make expiation for them But though there is pardon for those unavoidable errors which without a special grace we cannot but commit at some time yet ought we to endeavour with all our power daily to lessen the number of them and to prevent them by acts of contrary virtues one by one To that end we should be as careful as men are in contagious times who not only avoid infected persons but also all that hath toucht and been about them so should we in the case of those sins that are counted light avoid and stop all the ways and avenues that lead to them Lest we falling frequently at last fall into the pit of death 2. Every moment almost we have some temptation to vain talk or vain inquisitiveness to anger or unseemly jesting to contention or impatience to idle thoughts and distraction or to such like sins which are the more difficult to be avoided that being mixt with all our worldly affairs they are hardly to be discern'd Therefore we must at least secure this that however our nature stands affected to any of those lesser sins yet our hearts may not entertain any love for them lest our own affections hinder us carefully to watch and strive against them Without this our after-Repentance and our Sacramental vow will signifie little to obtain remission of them or victory against them I know that 't is said of these failings that the just man falls seven times a day but yet certain it is that the just man endeavours against it and that he never falls but by frailty or by sudden surprise 3. Likewise for vices or greater sins to conquer them you must stifle them in the birth suppress the first motion to them and meet the temptation with an act of virtue contrary to it As for example if you be abused and provok'd refrain the first stirring of Anger and then busie your mind with some act of Patience and Humility considering that you suffer that and less than that you deserve praying for him that doth you wrong and resolving to do him any kindness you can For thus we best avoid evil by studying to do that which is good and the last is as much our duty as the first and that servant deserves no great reward who doth not strike and revile his master if he doth not withal faithfully serve and obey him In this many deceive themselves who think to have made sure work of their Salvation because they have not been wicked when yet they have neglected positive duties and have not done those good works which God requir'd from them Cease to do evil learn to do good both are equally commanded not to transgress by omission no more than commission CHAP. XL. Clergy-men have some especial obligations though all are bound to endeavour after perfection 1. THough the same institutes of Christian perfection be delivered to all and all are to walk by the same rule as has been shew'd before Chap. 7. Yet it cannot be denyed but that Clergy-mens obligations to a strict devout life are much inforced upon them by their particular calling For they are not only oblig'd to be holy themselves but also by their life and doctrine to set forth the glory of God and set forward the Salvation of all men In order to which they must be very careful so to follow after virtue and all things that are honest and of good report so to live and so to converse with men that their words and actions may speak them and others may acknowledge them to be indeed the sons of God and ministers of Christ and to this the least neglect and remissness will be very prejudicial because they are observ'd by all and men generally are apt to judge and to follow the worst 2. They must remember that as all Christians are but Stewards and have nothing of their own and must use the World as not possessing it and as being ready to part with it so they more especially are to count nothing their own and that little they have as well as themselves must be subservient to the design of their function They must remember that they are not only as others oblig'd to live by the Gospel-Rules but that besides they have devoted themselves to the service of the Church and have vow'd obedience to its constitutions and so far are barr'd from their own will which must comply with that order and commission they have taken And most of all let them remember that Christ himself whose servant they are humbled himself came in the form of a servant became of no reputation became poor for us though he were Lord of all and became obedient to the death Professing he was not come do his own will but the will of him that sent him 3. What will it avail to read the instructions and examples of Christ and his Saints if we follow them not those things were written for our learning and are set before us for our imitation It hath been said by some that no Christian comes to Heaven that is not a Martyr we must all be prepar'd for it and indeed that mortification and self-denyal which all Christians especially spiritual guides are oblig'd to use is a kind of Martyrdom without bloud is
he knows the more that desire increaseth and then he rejoyceth in himself and is much delighted with his great learning when he thinks he knows much and hath a great insight into the profoundest of divine mysteries and so he comes to love his knowledge more than God the object of it Thus the Philosophers as St. Paul reproves them when they knew God yet they glorified him not as God but became vain in their imaginations much admiring themselves and their discoveries And thus also many Christians value more what they know and what they can discourse of God and Religion that they value both him and it They speak great things of the love of Christ and they love themselves for so speaking In that knowledge they have of God as in a mirror they view themselves especially and take little notice of the glass they admire the vision their own act more than the object which is seen But God must be lov'd and worshipt in spirit and in truth in singleness and simplicity without any respect to our selves 2. As a Country-man plain and unlearned who daily sees the Sun is more in love with the light of it than a blind Philosopher who can talk many things concerning the nature and the causes and effects of light so an honest pious man without Scholarship by an active practical Faith shews more love to God than the profound Divine by his subtleties and high speculations And as a learned man in Northern Countries where no Vines can grow may learnedly discourse of their fruit and the properties of it and yet not have such an intimate acquaintance with the nature and strength of the wine as the plain vine-dresser that drinks it daily so may a Religious illiterate man have a greater insight into divine mysteries and a more relishing apprehension of them than many a man of great fame and learning For experience goes beyond all theory and love passeth knowledge and we much sooner come to God by affection than by studious inquiries 3. We must not only therefore inform our understanding but if we desire to love God fervently we must ingage our affections and give our selves to Prayer Proficiency in goodness will make us know more of God and to better purpose than proficiency in knowledge Goodness will make us love and love will bring us into Gods secret place where we shall see more and with more delight than all notional learning can shew us What we can know of God in this our exile is but little but we may love him as much as we will he grants us that power and as our love increaseth our labour will grow less and our obedience more perfect But many had rather seek God whom they never find than love and thereby enjoy him CHAP. XLII That by Love Holiness is to be perfected 1. IT is a commandment of God both in the Law and the Gospel be ye Holy for I am Holy That is that we should be pure and without the unclean mixture of the creatures For as Lead in Silver and dirt upon white robes will debase and stain so if we ingage our Souls to the world to things beneath them we make them vile and unclean whereas if we list them up to God by a hearty love we make them pure and beautiful A heart whence all sensual and earthly things are excluded and whose affections cleave to God by the unions of love may with joy and confidence say with the Apostle Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famin or nakedness or peril or sword Nay in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us For I am perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Rom. 8.35 2. Fasting and Alms and Corporal Austerities the use of Sacraments and all such means are great helps towards Sanctity but they all profit nothing without Charity No not Martyrdom it self saith St. Paul 1 Cor. 13.3 The exercise of some other vertues may be sometimes dispenc'd withall as the poor from Alms-giving and weak and sickly people from fasting and rigorous discipline but to love God and our neighbour which is the end of all other precepts and the fulfilling of the Law every one is always oblig'd no man at no time can be any ways hindred or excused obstacles and difficulties may stop the progress of other vertues but they increase Love Love is within in the heart and will there God hath placed it there God looks for it and there nothing can obstruct or stifle it except we will our selves Love alone is necessary and alone sufficient to make us holy It is the first and great Commandment pleasant and easie beyond all others for what more pleasant than to love and who dares say I cannot love 3. He that heartily loves God who is one loves all things in one and one in all things for he loves not God truly that loves any thing which he loves not in God and for God There is nothing above there is nothing equal to God and if at any time we turn our affections from him they fall upon inferior objects upon earthly things whose weight doth sink and press them down and our hearts are never at rest and liberty till they return to God from whom they ungratefully departed That we may therefore be truly sanctified we must forsake our selves and all created things and return as high as to that first principle of sanctity that God from whom we had our origin and then cleaving stedfastly to him by a devout love we shall become one with him in life and holiness and felicity CHAP. XLIII That the Consideration of the fewness of the Chosen ought to make us very wary and diligent 1. NOthing can sooner startle a man out of his slumber and security and â—edge him on to amend and order his life by the Gospel Rules than the due pondering of the dreadful saying of Christ Mat. 20.16 That many are called but few are chosen For no man knows whether he be called by that secret election which intitles him to glory and justification No man knows either love or hatred by all that is before him all promises for the life to come are conditional nothing but our sincerity in fulfilling the conditions can give us any ground of assurance And yet how defective are we in this how uncertain is it that we shall persevere and who can search and see into the deep secret of his Election here the Apostle who had been once in Paradise cryes out and wonders O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out Rom. 11.33 In this great danger and