not true Faith it is as broad as long for not to dispute whether in the place mention'd the reasons of unfruitfulness was in the seed or in the ground whether it be true Faith or not I 'me sure it is not saving Faith so that the Rule given us whereby to discern and judge of our state is a very plain and easie one viz. He that overcometh the World is born of God If it should be further inquir'd how a man shall know whether he overcomes the World tho he may with as much sense ask me how he shall know what he loves and hates what he shuns and persues the answer is very plain his Servants ye are to whom you obey So that the whole State of this question may be in few words reduc'd to this no man can be a stranger to his own actions nor to the operations of his own soul what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him which words if I have any logick contain two things 1. That a man knowes his own mind or if he do not then 2. That no man else can therefore since a man knows his own actions and his own affections what he doth and out of what principles he doth it he cannot chuse but know who it is he obeyes but if his Life be so various so made up of vice and virtue and the flesh and spirit be so evenly pois'd that which hath the preheminence whom he obeyes be a matter very doubtful and disputable to himself then whether he shall be saved or no must remain to himself and much more to all others God alone excepted equally doubtful and I can guess at no other expedient for him if he hath a mind to rid himself of this scruple than entirely to compleat his conquest over sin and to shake off that empire over sin which it seems to me hath been too long and deeply settled and established and to go on from one degree of grace unto another till he arrives at Perfection which is the only method to obtain that full assurance of hope mention'd Heb 6 11. With which I intend now to close this first part of my discourse of the Nature of Christianity because tho it be not a particular grace it is a particular state and therefore deserves a particular consideration and tho we be not oblig'd to it upon pain of Damnation yet we are invited and encourag'd to it by several glorious motives and enforcements as shall presently appear and therefore it is a Gospel duty by Perfection in the sense I now consider it the Gospel implies a State of Grace arriv'd at its full maturity and strength grown into Nature and consummated into a vigorous and delightful habit it being in this as in all other qualities they grow up into habit and nature that is Perfection by degrees According to this the Gospel describes this State by Manhood and a perfect Stature and calls our procedure to it growing encreasing and going on so that perfection is nothing else but Faith Love Temperance and Humility in their greatest lustre and strength The effect of this State is that the Life be not onely constant firm even and like it self but also pleasant and delightful too not only that the man abstain from evil and do good but that also he do both with desire and earnestness of spirit with ease and with delight not onely that he do good but what is in its kind most so This is a State which is attainable in this Life for the Gospel calls and invites men to it and if any deny it it is because they frame to themselves another kind of notion of perfection than the Gospel delivers us which requires of Man no other perfection than such as is suitable to his Nature and the assistances promis'd by God and to this present State never as much as dreaming that perfection is the same thing in man as in an Angel and what ever men may talk it doth not reckon the unavoidable imperfections and frailties of men for sins at leastwise such as can hinder man from being denominated perfect witness the whole First Epistle of St. John The motives to this duty may be compriz'd under Four heads all deriv'd from the nature of the State it self Perfection is a State 1. More pleasing to God 2. Of greater security 3. Of greater pleasure 4. Entitled to greater glory in the Life to come 1. More pleasing to God if God Loves holiness which no body can doubt then every degree of holiness is a new charm and what is most Holy is most lovely and if so every one that professes to Love God must be oblig'd to aim at perfection because he cannot but be oblig'd to please God as much as he can and he that doth not may justly suspect his conformity to the divine precepts to be rather policy than Religion and to proceed from a desire of his own safety rather than the Glory and pleasure of God unless a spiritual prudence shall restrain him from attempts or vowes of more Heroical instances of obedience for Reasons which Religion may approve of in which case it will be alwayes necessary to observe this caution that his choice of a better good do not proceed from any desire of gratifying the body or from want of Love to God and holiness 2. Perfection is a state of greater security the more strong Faith and Love grow the more faint and flat are all temptations that beset us a soul which is devout and rais'd is not easily lur'd down by any of the flatteries of lust the soul being long accustomed to rule and the body to obey the soul being us'd to spiritual delights and the body being now perfectly crucified the man is become a quite different being from what he was and therefore that World which did before take him hath now no grace nor allurement in it I am crucified to the World and the World is crucified to me This State is call'd in Scripture Wisdom and Knowledge and Strength which doth intimate to us that that World which did before gain upon us only by our blindness and our weakness can now no longer prevail besides this the more like God we grow the more dear are we to him and become the more near and peculiar charge of Heaven which St. Paul Heb. 6 9.10 alledges for a reason why he was perswaded better things of them than Apostacy and things that accompany Salvation that is perseverance because God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of Love c. 3. It is a State of greater pleasure a State of Peace and Rest from sin for the Man having establish'd an entire conquest over himself is not frequently alarm'd by the lusts of the body because it is crucified the soul being rais'd and Heavenly is now too much exalted to be reach'd by the blasts of every temptation 2. It is the nature of a habit
place i. e. Sacraments Prayer and Fasting each of which may be consider'd in a threefold respect 1. As Parts of Divine Worship or of Holiness in general 2. As Instruments of advancing Holiness 3. As Remedies and Antidotes against Temptation In each of which Relations I will consider each of them a little And 1. Of Baptism COnsider'd in the first sense of the three it contains a Solemn Profession of the Christian Faith an actual Renunciation of those Enemies of Christianity the World the Flesh and the Devil and a listing ones self into the service and obedience of Christ And because I cannot think that there is any Essential part in the System of Christianity meerly Ceremonial I cannot think but that besides the Admission into the Church which is the Body of Christ and consequently a Title to all the glorious priviledges of its Members our blessed Saviour doth endow the Person baptized with power from on high to perform all those great ingagements he takes upon him as will appear to any one who shall consider the Nature of Christianity which doth alway annex a Grace to the external Mean or Instrument or 2. The great things spoken or this Sacrament or 3. The value all understanding Christians have had for it or the effects which follow'd it when practis'd in the Infancy of the Church and I humbly conceive this to be the sense of the Church of England which supposes the thing signified by the outward Ceremony of Baptism to be a Death unto sin and a New-birth unto Righteousness But whatever become of this motion it is certain that it is a strange Obligation to a Holy Life and a Remedy against Sin as being a most solemn ingagement of our selves to the obedience of Christ from which we cannot start back without drawing upon our selves the guilt and punishment of Perjury and forfeiting all those advantages we partake of by it and I wish all would lay this to heart who plead the Obligations of Civility and Friendship Custom and Fashion in defence of their sins as if any trifling Ceremony were sufficient to supersede our Obligation to Christ and acquit us of that guilt which the breach of the most sacred Covenant brings upon us The Prayer BLessed and holy Saviour give me grace to remember my Baptismal Vow to remember that I am a sworn Enemy to the World the Flesh and the Devil and inable me to fight the good fight of Faith under thy Banner the Cross Let me have no truce entertain no friendship with thine and my Enemies Let them flatter me if they will with smiles and promises I am sure they mean nothing to me but death and ruine how shall any fantastick Obligations Cancel my duty to thee resulting from so solemn a Covenant In vain doth the World disguize its temptations under the forms of Civility and Honour I know no Civility which can oblige me to renounce my Vows no Honour that can excuse my Perjury in vain doth the World assault me by Greatness and Wealth and Glory these are the very things I resolv'd against when I took up the Cross of my Crucified Saviour in my Baptism Grant O blessed Lord that I may have mortified affections and a Victorious Faith an humble meek Spirit and glorious Hopes that after this troublesome life is ended I may rest with thee in Everlasting Glory Amen Amen Of the Lords Supper THe Supper of our Lord may fall under the same forms of Consideration which Baptism did that is it may be consider'd 1. As a part of Divine Worship 2. As an Instrument of Holiness 3. As a Remedy against Temptation I will look upon it briefly under each of these notions and herein I will guide my self by that incomparable Office of this Church which hath admirably express'd and reduc'd to a method the whole mind of the Gospel relating to this matter for which I have often bless'd God whilst I beheld and reverenc'd that Primitive plainness and truly Christian Spirit visible in it First then our Lords Supper consider'd as an act or part of Religious Worship or Holiness contains in it these four things 1. An humble acknowledgment of our sins 2. A devout Profession of our Faith in Christ that we are the Disciples of a Crucified Saviour and expect Salvation by no other way than that Sacrifice of his Body and Blood offer'd upon the Cross 3. A solemn Oblation of most humble and hearty thanks to God for this inestimable benefit his bestowing his Son upon us to die for us and to our Master and only Saviour Christ for his exceeding great love in dying for us 4. A most solemn Oblation of our selves souls and bodies to be a holy lively and acceptable Sacrifice unto God so that this Sacrament consists of a whole Constellation of Graces Repentance Faith Hope Charity It is a nearer approach into the presence of God and more solemn exercise of the Graces of the Gospel and this gives a very fair account of the reason of its frequent practice for nothing can be Secondly A more effectual instrument of Holiness upon these and the following accounts 1. That the preparation necessary as a condition of our worthy Reception doth awaken our Souls and refresh all our Graces and mortifie all our sensual Lusts and draws us nearer to Heaven and the necessity of such a preparation as the Church-office prescribes appears from hence that Repentance and Faith and Charity are absolutely necessary to inable a man to exert those acts before-mention'd which constitute this Sacrament consider'd as a part of Divine Worship and therefore to approach that holy Table without a Soul so qualified is to affront and mock the Majesty of Heaven 2. That the exercise of our Graces in receiving doth increase and improve them that act of humble Adoration and profound Prostration of our selves before God under a sense of his Purity and Majesty and our sinfulness and meanness that lively Acts of Faith whereby the Soul doth profess its firm belief of and dependance upon the Death and Passion of its dear Lord and Saviour for Salvation that love whereby the Soul offers its praises and its self a Sacrifice to God do leave such lively and lasting impressions upon mens minds as are not quickly nor easily effac'd and the Soul by the delight it finds in its exerting these Graces is inkindled with a desire of repeating the same Acts. 3. That the Sacrament it self hath a natural tendency to promote Holiness 1. By its sensible Representations of a Crucified Saviour the Symbols themselves being fit to bring into our minds the pain and sufferings of our dear Lord and Master 2. By that inward Grace inseparable from the worthy Reception of it bestow'd upon us to refresh and strengthen our Souls to root and confirm our Faith to inflame our Love and perfect our Hopes 3. By being a Pledge and Assurance to us of the pardon of our sins thorough the Blood of Christ 4. That it is
and devotion do I behold the amazing instances of my Saviours Love whilst with so much affection and sweetness he laid down his life for me whilst his enemy and his persecutor O how I long to do something for such a Saviour as this to execute my lusts to bring his and mine Enemies before his face and slay them and now tho a survey of my sins hath filled me with amazement and shame yet since Christ hath died I look up with comfort and an humble hope Since he hath died did I say yea rather since he is risen again for By Faith I see him breaking forth with Power and great Glory out of his Sepulchre I behold him ascending in Triumph up to Heaven I see with Stephen the Heavens open'd and my Prince and Saviour sitting at the right hand of Power with one hand despencing his Graces with the other holding never fadeing wreaths to crown the patience of his Saints And now how I am exalted above Nature transported above the world and flesh how this prospect hath disarm'd the Beauties and glories of this life of all their Killing charms and Temptations how my soul leaps for joy to see a way open'd into the holy of holies and to consider the mighty interest I have in Heaven As for Earth I am so far from admiring it I value it not I know I must sojourn here a while and therefore I must be fed and cloath'd but my heavenly Father knows I have need of these things and his is the Earth and the fulness thereof and therefore he cannot want means and ability to provide for me and he is a wise and a good God and he hath promis'd by his Son to take care of me and all this will invite him to design and accomplish what is best for me Upon these grounds I think I could hope like Abraham even against hope I could relie upon God without any flattering appearances of promises Friends nay or any visible probabilities I am to seek the righteousness of the Kingdome and permit the Government of the World to the God of it I am his child and he is my Heavenly Father to obey is my Duty and with Reverence be it said to provide for me is his By this time it is easie to be discern'd what kind of Faith it is must save or justifie us one that enlightens our understanding and ravisheth our Heart one that prayes and watches that contends and struggles and fights and conquers one that makes us too great for Earth and fit for Heaven one that fears and loves and worships and seeks and relies and hopes And then 3. When it hath done this when I find my Faith made perfect in Love when through this belief I find my self a conqueror over the World and Flesh and have crucified those lusts I did before serve and gratifie then I am full of Joy and peace Then I feel that pledge of his Love that spirit which he hath given me assuring me of the pardon of my sins thorough the blood of Christ Then I have a foretaste of the powers of the world to come and I do in some measure anticipate my Heaven And not till then For this perswasion of the pardon of my sins call it what you please Faith Peace Hope Assurance is always proportionable to the success I have in my fight of Faith if I have either falsly betrayed or weakly deserted a good cause i.e. my virtue under a temptation which is in Scripture call'd a Tryal if I have turn'd my back in the day of battel then my own conscience condemns me and because I know that God is greater than my Conscience and knoweth all things therefore I cannot expect to stand when I am judged unless I rally and repair my fault But if upon a serious reflection upon my life each evening my conscience acquit me as a Conqueror through Faith and Love then I rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory what a beautiful morning doth this Faith shed upon any soul How I long that thy Kingdome O God may come And how I disdain all that this vain World can flatter me with Then like Peter tho all men should be offended fall through temptation yet will not I. Give me a temptation equal to this Faith till the sense of my frailty as in Peter do lower my confidence and yet heighten my resolutions And yet all this doth not in the least imply any reliance or confidence in my own Righteousness or works phrases of the same sense in Scripture But that I know Repentance and Faith are propos'd as the sole conditions of Justification thorough the bloud of Christ And that these fruits or effects of Righteousness I mean a holy life are the onely evidence of these habits and therefore I can never perswade my self that I believe and repent till I live well nor ever flatter my self with Peace Peace through his bloud till I thus believe and Repent to do otherwise is presumption not Faith 't is the fond and groundless confidence of foolish Virgins which shall be for ever shut out from the Bridegrooms presence There is not in the book of God any one plainer Doctrine than this Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdome of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven which is not every one that professes me to be Lord and so far relies upon me as to knock at the gates of Heaven with presumption of admission shall enter c. If we walk in the light as he God is in the light we have fellowship one with another and truely our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ v. 3. and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin Where walking in the light that is Holiness is suppos'd as a necessary condition to our purification by the blood of Christ and tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope and hope maketh not asham'd c. These are the steps or stages by which the Christian maketh his progress into assurance Tribulation being conquer'd worketh patience and Patience experience i.e. a conviction or proof of our Love of God and this experience worketh hope which contains in it th' assurance of pardon and the expectance of a better world and by the same method doth he who is attack'd by the temptations of pleasures proceed to a particular assurance The Sum of all is this man may be consider'd in Three states 1. Of unregeneration and then he is to be convinc'd of the truth of the Gospel if that be suppos'd this belief will easily convince him of his unrighteousness and shew him the wrath of God reveal'd from Heaven against all ungodly and impenitent sinners and on the other hand the blood of Christ who became a propiation for the sins of the World will encourage him to hope for reconciliation and pardon if he repent and
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
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
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
a new and repeated Engagement of our selves to the service of Christ to an obedience to his Laws and a Renunciation of those Enemies of the Christian the World the Flesh and the Devil From all this it is easie to infer 3. That it is a strong Fence and Antidote against Temptations for these fresh impressions of our Saviours love the new strengths of Divine Grace the vigour of a new and solemn Ingagement to Obedience fill the Soul with a holy zeal against sin and with a glorious contempt of sensual pleasures The Prayer ANd now O my God what should make me so prodigally venturous of my own safety as to neglect the frequent use of this holy Sacrament Have I not need frequently to examine my self Are not thy Graces apt to wither and decay unless thus water'd and refresh'd Doth not my converse with the World and my communication with Flesh and Blood render it necessary for me to renew my resolutions against them as often as I can or is there not a holy delight in the exercise of all this that surpasses all the pleasures of a sensual life and is it not a Sacrifice that my Lord and Saviour is highly pleas'd with and is it not reasonable that I should oblige him who died for me with this frequent acknowledgment of his infinite love evidenc'd in his death Pardon me O my God that I have been so ungrateful to thee so sensless of my own welfare and advantage for the time to come I will delight in this holy Communion I will often offer up my self a Sacrifice to thee and profess my Faith in a Crucified Saviour and there beg thy assistance and conduct through the difficult paths of this present life And O my God accept thou of my addresses and praises thorough thine infinite Mercies and the Blood of Christ Amen Of Prayer PRayer may be consider'd under those three Heads I before mention'd And 1. As a part of Holiness It is an acknowledgment of God's being our God a confession of his Majesty and our meanness being a solemn Adoration and Worship of him 't is a Sacrifice of praise to him 't is an act of Humiliation and of Repentance and of Faith and Reliance upon him And from hence we may infer what preparation of the Soul is necessary to a right discharge of this Duty that extempore Addresses are the most improper and the most unwelcom to God for these are at best but imagin'd to raise those passions or dispositions in the Soul which ought to be presuppos'd in it before-hand to the rendring of our Prayers acceptable for we draw near in prayer to offer up a Sacrifice which we had prepar'd before And we may secondly conclude that what ever the gifts of Prayer be the Spirit of Prayer is that which doth dispose and prepare the mind by such qualities as are fit to exert the acts I nam'd before and I am apt to think that a Soul which thus prepar'd and fixing it self in the immediate presence of God dwells with an inward devotion upon those acts of Adoration and Praise Humiliation and Faith without expressing these actings of the mind in words I speak of private prayer doth in S. Pauls sense Rom. 8.26 pray by the Spirit and consequently in publick those prayers are most spiritual which share most of this preparation 2. As an Instrument of Holiness it doth exercise all our graces and refresh and improve them by exercising the breathings of the Divine Spirit which is in an extraordinary manner assistant in this holy exercise fill the minds of men with joy and peace and hope which confirms them in their Christian Warfare and makes them disrelish all the pleasures of a sinful life Lastly Prayer hath extraordinary promises annext to it of receiving whatsoever we ask with Faith Mat. 7.7 Ask and it shall be given to you 3. It is an Antidote against Temptation for it possesses the Soul with an Awe of the Divine Majesty with a sense of his unspeakable love and with a horrour against sin whilst we enumerate his benefits and our sins with all their aggravating circumstances And certainly no man can be so sensless as to repeat those sins which he did just now bemoan and abhor renounce and resolve against before God nor will it be easie for him to fall who comes forth forewarn'd and arm'd to encounter a Temptation Lastly Prayer convinces a man of the loveliness and happiness of a holy life for he finds that his peace and reliance grows up or decays together with his Vertue If I did pray earnestly and often how humble how holy how heavenly and exalted would my Soul be with what glorious Notions of the Divine Majesty what dreadful apprehensions of sin what an unquenchable thirst of Holiness what fears and jealousies of the World and Flesh would my Spirit be possess'd by and what a mighty influence would all this have upon my Conversation how humbly how warily how fervently should I walk But when I do not pray often or with this care and preparation how lazy and careless is my life how dim and imperfect my conceptions how stat and tastless my relish of spiritual things how doth a worldly sensual temper grow and increase upon me and the Divine Life within droop and languish The Prayer O Therefore my God give me grace to be frequent and fervent in Prayer assist me by thy Spirit to dress and prepare my Soul for this more solemn approach to thee and then I shall experience this to be the high way of Commerce with Heaven I shall feel the wind blowing upon the Garden of my heart and the Spices flowing forth I shall feel the Spirit fanning that spark of holy life it kindled into a flame and I shall feel my self transported and ascending up above this vain world and all the allurements of it O therefore grant me O my God thy holy Spirit that I may pray with understanding and fervency with a prepar'd and a devout Soul that my prayer may not be the sacrifice of Fools and turn'd into sin but an acceptable Sacrifice to thee an Instrument of Holiness and a Guard against sin enabling us to fight the good fight of Faith that I may receive an Everlasting Crown and all for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen I should now add something concerning Fasting which the Universal practice of the Church besides our Saviours Rules prescrib'd to it do plainly suppose to be a Duty of Christianity but yet such a one as is a Free-will offering and so dependent of various circumstances that the practice of it cannot be fixt by particular Rules and therefore as I did on purpose omit speaking to it when I had a fair offer under that Head the means to obtaining Temperance consider'd as a habit in the mind so now I 'le only consider it very briefly 1. Who ever shall consider the constant practice of the devoutest men the Nature of this Body we are cloathed
Practical Christianity Or an Account of the HOLINESSE WHICH THE Gospel Enjoyns WITH The MOTIVES to it AND THE REMEDIES it proposes AGAINST TEMPTATIONS With a Prayer concluding each distinct Head Imprimatur Ex Aedib Lambethanis 23. Decemb. 1676. GEO. HOOPER LONDON Printed by S. and B. G. for R. Pawlet at the Sign of the Bible in Chancery-lane 1677. TO THE READER Reader I Have endeavour'd in this following Discourse to endear Holiness to the Love and Practice of Mankind which is a design neither so trifling nor criminal as to stand in need of an excuse But because a very worthy design may miscarry in the contrivance and method of its prosecution therefore I think my self oblig'd to give you some account of that which is thus I have endeavour'd to represenâ— Religion in its true and natural Character purified from the sensual Freedomes which some and the frantick and conceited Whimsies which others deform it by I have propos'd the glorious Motives to Holiness and the powerful Remedies against Temptation which it contains I have perform'd this as near as I could in an easie Method and familiar Stile I have not intermixt either Fancy or Passion which seems to me too light and garish a dress for Divine thoughts but writ them in as natural a plainness and Majesty as I could give them hoping all from the conquering power and influence of clear truth and therefore it will be necessary to him who shall design any advantage to himself from this Treatise to read it deliberately and allow each sentence a proper Consideration for being forc'd to crowd many Truths into a narrow compass I have wove the matter a little closser and chose a conciser Stile than otherwise I should have done and therefore do not expect to be betray'd by me into a wise Love of Religion at unawares or to be heated into a Romantick Passion for Vertue the former is impossible and the latter of little use but if you bring an honest and attentive mind I hope you may find something in this Discourse which may be of very important service to your Soul And besides this I had one inducement more to the Publication of this Treatise that is I am sufficiently assur'd that no kind of Discourses contribute more to the peace and welfare of Church and State than those practical ones which aim at implanting a real goodness in the minds of men for the want of this goodness is it which hath betraid us into Errors so numerous and so fatal to the publique Peace and Charity and to the very vitals of Religion for if our minds were possess'd with that Charity and Meekness and true Zeal for the Divine Glory which becomes Christians we should consider more calmly and see more clearly and act more sincerely we should discern a more manifest contradiction to Religion in those unnatural Feuds which are carried on by so much passion in such irreligious methods and made use of to such unchristian purposes than in any thing which is the subject of our contests and we should follow after peace by a compliance if not to all yet to all we could and then I am confident we should soon put an end if not to our Mistakes yet to our Divisions If I have contributed my endeavours to this in my degree and capacity I hope for pardon at least here and am assur'd of a Reward hereafter Farewell ERRATA PAge 15. l. 26. after all which add gives us an excellent notion of God and. p. 48. l. 11. r. Thee or four l. 13. r. Faith Love Temperance and Humility p. 98. l. 2. r. his happiness or glory p 102. l. 14. r. unkind p. 123. before the prayer adde Sect. 3. As to the means of attaining Temperance I refer my Reader to the Section of Fasting p. 138. l. 14. for better r. lesser p. 164. l. 11. for word r. world p. 223. l. 9. for are of r. use p. 249. l. 23. r. or universal yet THE CONTENTS PART I. Chap. 1. THe great Motive to Religion 1. The Salvation of the Soul Chap. 2. Of the Nature of Christianity in general in relation to Faith pag. 13 Chap. 3. Of Christianity with respect to practice in general p. 29 Chap. 4. Of Christianity with respect to practice in particular Of Faith 65 Of the Love of God 82 Of the Love of our Neighbour 91 Of Temperance 112 Of Humility 124 Of Perfection 133 PART II. OF the Motives to Holiness contain'd in the Gospel Of the Reward and punishment in another Life 152 The Second Motive the Consideration of Divine Nature 172 The Third the Consideration of Jesus Christ 179 The Fourth the Vanity of Temptations 193 The Fifth the Nature of Virtue and Vice 195 The Sixth the assistance of the Divine Spirit 206 The Seventh the Nature of the Gospel Covenant 207 PART III. OF Temptations to Sin Of Pleasure 220 Of Pain 241 Of some particular Methods by which we are betraid into Sin 265 Of the Instruments of Holiness the Sacraments Prayer and Fasting 280 The Conclusion 296 Practical Christianity CHAP. I. Shewing the necessity of being Religious because the Salvation of our Souls depends on it Sect. 1. 1. WHat is a Man profited saith our Blessed Saviour Mat. 16.26 if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own Soul That I have in this state I am now in a Soul as well as a Body whose interest concerns me is a truth my own sence sufficiently discovers for I feel Joyes and Sorrows which do not make their abode in the Organs of the Body but in the inmost recesses of the Mind pains and pleasures which Sence is too gross and heavy to pertake of as the peace or trouble of Conscience in the Reflexion upon good or evil Actions the delight or vexation of the mind in the contemplation of or a fruitless inquiry after excellent and important Truths 2. And since I have such a Soul capable of Happiness or Misery it naturally follows that it were sottish and unreasonable to lose this Soul for the gain of the whole World For my Soul is I my self and if That be miserable I must needs be so outward circumstances of Fortune may give the World occasion to think me happy but they can never make me so Shall I call my self happy if Discontent and Sorrow eat out the life and spirit of my Soul if lusts and passions riot and mutiny in my bosome if my sins scatter an uneasie shame all o're me and my guilt apales and frights me what avails it me that my Rooms are stately my tables full my attendanrs numerous and my attire gawdy if all this while my very Being pines and languishes away These indeed are rich and pleasant things but I nevertheless am poor and miserable Man Therefore I conclude that whatever this thing be I call a Soul tho it were a perishing dying thing and would not out-live the Body yet it were my wisdome and interest to prefer its content and
satisfaction before all the world unless I could chose to be miserable and delight to be unhappy 3. This very Consideration supposing the uncertainty of another World would yet strongly engage me to the service of Religion for all it aims at is to banish sin out of the world which is the source and Original of all the troubles that disquiet the mind for 1. Sin in its very Essence is nothing else but disordered distempered passions affections foolish and preposterous in their choice or wild and extravagant in their proportion which our own experience sufficiently convinces us to be painful and uneasie 2. It engages us in desperate hazards wearies us with daily toils and often buries us in the ruins we bring upon our selves and lastly it fills our hearts with distrust and fear and shame for we shall never be able to perswade our selves fully that there is no difference between good and evil that there is no God or none that concerns himself at the Actions of this life and if we cannot we can never rid our selves of the pangs and stings of a trembling Soul we shall never be able to establish a peace and calm in our bosomes and so injoy our Pleasure with a clear and uninterrupted freedome But if we could perswade ourselves into the utmost height of Atheism yet still we shall be under these two strange inconveniences 1. That a life of Sin will be still irregular and disorderly and therefore troublesome 2. That we shall have dismantled our Souls of their greatest strengths disarm'd them of that Faith which only can support them under th' afflictions of this present Life Not to mention that after all the sad Stories of another Life will not be strait way nonsense because we think them so they will continue at leastwise disputable and who would but a desperate-Sot commit his Soul to such a venture Sect. 2. 4. But when I consider that the immortality of the Soul is a perswasion which generally obtain'd in the Heathen world That the more wise and virtuous any of 'em were the more deeply were they possess'd by the belief and hopes of it that the reasons Plato Cicero c. founded this assertion in deriv'd from the nature of the Soul its operations its little affinity to any visible matter its resemblance of the Deity c. have rendred it so highly probable that it hath shed a very powerfull influence upon the Lives of many 5. But especially and above all when I consider that the Holy Scripture whose Divine Authority is clear'd by as strong evidences as any matter of that nature is capable of assures me that this Soul whether in its own nature immortal or no I 'le not now examine shall not perish in the Dissolution of this Earthly Tabernacle as Eccles 12.7 Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God who gave it and Mat. 10.28 Fear not them which kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul The Soul it seems is not liable to the injuries of a Disease or the violence commited on the Body but doth subsist when the Body is dissolv'd into its dust When I consider all this I can never so far renounce my Reason and harden my self against all the tenderness and passion I have for my self as to be content that this Soul should be lost in that other State provided I be fortunate and successeful in this for what satisfaction can I then reap from a patrimony or purchase wide as the world it self in a state wherein I shall be depriv'd of all means and opportunity of enjoyment What can the Wealth or Power or Beauty of the World signifie to me when the Body which is the proper instrument of earthly pleasure shall lie stark dead and cold in the Grave shall have no passions no appetites nor can all the Rhetorick or wanton charms on Earth awaken in it one languishing desire or one imperfect act of Life and as to the Soul it must dwell in the Mansions of a new world far far remote from this wherein every thing will be strange wonderful unalterable and eternal But I must pursue this thought a little further and not stopping in the contemplation of the uselessness of the World after the Souls departure from it go on to consider the Soul in its intermediate state between Death and the Resurrection that I may know the utmost if I can that the loss of a Soul imports and here I would suppose my self surprised in the midst of gavety and pleasures of Love and Honour by a violent inexorable disease I resign up my dear objects and my dotage together I am torn from my possessions and my hopes and when the storm hath burst the Cable and shatter'd the Hulk of this frail Bark the Body it casts my Soul that is all that remains of me upon an unknown strand naked and poor and desolate without interests or friends or hopes it must dwell in the dismal blackness of eternal night and Melancholly rackt by despair and guilt scourg'd by shame and rage tortur'd with envy and vexation stab'd by regret and repentance not a calm and soft but a tempestuous and painful one then like some sick body which rowles and tumbles for an easie posture rather out of an inability to suffer pain than any hope of finding rest it sometimes languishes and looks back upon the world vanisht like a dream and repeats ineffective wishes for the Body but it shall return to its dear wealth and beauty no more for ever Sometimes like Dives in the flames it looks towards that Region where Light and holy Souls do dwell but the unpassable gulph of the Almighty's Decree cuts off all hopes of that so that that Light onely augments its envy and despair and Heaven it self adds misery to the wretched Souls hell This is the natural and unavoydable state of a wretched Soul dislodg'd from the body despair and rage and shame and guilt and fear and grief and anguish gnaw and devour the miserable creature and for ever must encrease Blessed God! need there any chains to sink it lower than its own weight hath done Needs there any other darkness cover that Soul which such a cloud of sorrows hath benighted Tell me no more of pleasures these thoughts are enough to make me tremble and grow pale at the approach of a temptation rather than my Soul should dwell in such a state a thousand years may shame and poverty be my portion in this life may the hatred of powerful enemies or what is worse the scorn of my dearest friends persue me may my Body be but a Scene of Diseases and so incapable of the least gust of pleasure and more than this may an awakened tender Conscience every moment flash Death and Hell into my face or if there be any thing worse let me suffer it so it but preserve my Soul from Sin here and from that inexpressible
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
imployment of our selves for the advantage of others is of more absolute necessity The world is one intire Body and each member must be serviceable in its place nor can any part withdraw it self from the whole at its pleasure hence it is that the greater part of the Law of our blessed Saviour are Rules of Society of Justice Charity c. and he himself the best example made his Retirements by night but by day he went about doing good Nature hath founded a cognation amongst us as we pertake of the same form shape reason But the Christian Religion hath cemented us in closer unions made us the Members of the same Body tied us together by faith and love by the same Sacraments the same Promises and the same hopes and therefore we cannot in reason think we do one another all the good we are bound to by a meer abstinence from doing wrong and by sequestring our selves from the service and concerns of our Brethren 2. Because the Glory of God is more concern'd in the deportment of whole Societies than a few private persons as much as the safety of a multitude is more valuable than that of a very few and goodness redounds more to his honour when publique and almost universal than when cloystered up in the Bosomes of a few therefore all good men must needs be obliged to promote the interests of Holiness and goodness in the publique because the Divine Glory is so deeply concern'd in it 3. Which ought well to be consider'd The nature of Goodness is such that it cannot well be conceiv'd how the being good is separable from doing good God tho his own Heaven and Happiness did yet found a World to which he might be an universal Benefactor his Goodness was certainly the most powerful motive to his Creation not any considerable accession that his happiness was to receive from it This Goodness therefore in Man ought to be a Vigorous and Active Principle and render 'em the Benefactors of Mankind It is indeed hardly conceivable how men should be zealous Patrons of virtue and goodness and yet not concern'd to protect and own them to promote and incourage 'em in the world or how men can be inflam'd with a very strong Love of God and yet not indeavour to establish a true sense of his Beauties and excellencies in the minds of Men or how lastly any can be possess'd with a passionate kindness for a Brother and yet never mingle with the concerns of his Soul or Body Lastly The great motives of the Gospel are The example of our Lord and Saviour whose Disciples we profess ourselves whom we are bound to imitate and he went about doing good The glorious rewards annex'd to all those who any wayes benefit Mankind either by instructing the mind or relieving the body The Character of the Children of God at the last Judgement is compos'd wholly of Acts of Charity all which suppose an active life Conformable to this Doctrine is that of Heb. 13.15 16. By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of Praise to God continually that is the fruit of our Lips giving thanks to his Name But to do good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased we must pray but prayer without doing good is an unpleasing sacrifice without Charity our very Devotion is unchristian and our Religion unnatural This let those mind who are long in their Prayers severe in their outward deportment frequent hearers of the Word and yet we can discern in them no fruits of Meekness or Charity let 'em consider whether they do not mistake the nature of Religion whether they do not choose the more easie Sacrifice because it costs them nothing whether they have not a secret reserve of Covetousness or Frowardness c. Having spoke this much of the Necessity of doing good and the Motives to it I 'le propose three or four Rules and submit 'em to your Consideration 1. That we must judge of our call to do good by the capacities and fitnesses with which God hath endow'd us and here I cannot but proclaim our own glorious priviledge That tho to do good be so great and glorious a thing that it is a kind of imitation of God himself a thing our blessed Saviour came down on earth for yet it hath pleas'd God so to multiply the instances and opportunities of goodness that there is none so unfortunate as to be uncapable of doing good The happy by their wealth the wise by their knowledge even the miserable themselves may by their patience and courage and prayer comfort and relieve the world and we are to judge by our Parts and Fortunes the way that God hath mark'd out for our Charity and be content to obey him in his own methods 2. Let Meditation and Prayer administer to our good actions and like oil to a Lamp give our Charity fresh Spirits and Flame for as private Religion is deficient without publique Charity so Charity unless often refresh'd by Retirement Devotion and Heavenly Reflexions will cool and languish our Hearts will be tough and insensible and our doing good will be onely the effect of Custome or Prudence or Activity of Spirit not of Religion or Charity and if which is the best can be suppos'd the man consecrates the whole Mass of his Actions by purity of intention and continues an obstinate observer of Prayer as far as he thinks strict duty obliges him to yet for want of more leasurely Meditation and more serious Reflexions his addresses will lose their warmth his Soul will abate much of its Love and whilst his Religion loses so much of its pleasure and sweetness what wonder if his Charity relish more of drudgery than delight 3 That we may not be discourag'd from doing good by any difficulty or misfortune which may attend us in it in our nightly Reflexions let us judge not the hapiness of our success but the integrity of our endeavour and let us think it sufficient reward that we have obeyed God or if we will measure our success let us examine how much our experience hath improv'd our Meekness our Patience our Reliance or Charity for scarce any action but will exercise some of these graces 4. Look upon doing good as truely your Business as Prayer or Hearing the Word or Meditation c. And therefore never think your time mispent which is laid out in visiting the imprison'd or sick relieving the necessitous comforting the afflicted and reducing those that erre into the paths of Sobriety and Truth tho this time be par'd off from our Meditations Prayer and Sacrament He is a good man indeed who prefers meek attendance and ministry and importunate addresses to the Souls of men before much knowledge passionate disputes and high pretences O Charity how lovely must thou needs be in the eye of Heaven for wert thou planted in all our hearts Earth would resemble that place above I will be pleased therefore with
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-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
it is the Gospel means by temperance by enquiring 1. What is the end it aims at in enjoyning this Duty 2. By what words it describes and expresses it 3. The examples of our Saviour and his followers in this point Likewise the motives it adds and the method it prescribes will serve to clear up its intention to us The great end St Paul suggests to me 1 Cor. 9.25 Every man who striveth for the Mastery is temperate in all things intimating that the means are then proper when they are suited and fitted for the attainment of their end and by the allusion implying that the end of our Temperance is a striving for the Mastery that is a Conquest over the World and the body for the Gospel represents the World and the Flesh as those enemies against which the Christian is to be engag'd in a continual warfare and tells us that the lusts and pleasures of them do War against the Soul Religion being nothing else but the Love of God and heavenly things the Gospel endeavours all that it can to wean us from all fondness for or delight in the world and the flesh it being impossible to serve two such contrary interests By a clear consequence from all this I conclude that we are to endure hardship as good Souldiers of Jesus Christ that we are to abstain from fleshly lusts as strangers and pilgrims in plainer words that that abstinence from sensual pleasures which renders the body tame and governable serviceable to the soul and chearful in the exercise of Religion which doth enfranchise the mind of men from its captivity to sense which doth establish its dominion over the brutish part so that the man lives the life of faith and not of sense is disengag'd from the World and so ready to depart is that Temperance which the Gospel of Christ requires and by consequence on the other hand that that indulgence to worldly pleasures which tends to pamper and enrage the body to awaken our passions for this present state to endear and recommend the World to us to make the minds of men soft and feeble heavy and sensual to make our temper delicate and wanton unable to suffer and froward if our appetite be not satisfied is flatly contradictory to the Temperance of the Gospel of Christ This is a Rule which if well consider'd and conscientiously applyed to every particular will sufficiently conduct man in the paths of this great duty and answer all scruples concerning the enjoyment of pleasures whether they be real or phantastick ones For is any man such a stranger to himself that he doth not understand the working of his own soul that he cannot give an account of the passions which he feels nor know by what methods he is betray'd into the Love of the World and a decay of his Religion Doth not every man feel what kind of eating and drinking clogs the soul and emboldens the body what kind of sights or dalliance doth dart the poison of lust and ambition into our very souls Or what doth thaw and melt us and make us Love and hate delight or grieve hope and fear like the Children not of Light but of the World certainly unless a man will impose upon himself he must needs discern the birth and growth of his own Passions and discover the methods by which he doth insensibly degenerate into a loose or cold or senceless Spirit 2. This Temperance is in general express'd in Holy Writ by Mortification and Holyness the former imports such a change in the body as flattens and deads its appetites for the World I am crucified to the World and the World is crucified to me The latter imports an excellent and Godlike nature a transformation of mans into a spiritual a frame as man in this imperfect State is capable of arriving at And certainly men thus qualified can not place their delight in the sensual enjoyments of this life how innocent soever they might be the World hath nothing agreeable to souls of this Heavenly nature nor nothing worthy of them Temperance in the particular branches of it is call'd Purity Sobriety Abstinence Modesty c. all which are to be interpreted according to the method of the Spirit in a sense which doth not onely restrain the outward Acts but also the inward passions of man in a sense which doth not onely forbid the commission of gross sins but also all tendencies towards them in the body and in the soul Conformable to this Doctrine were 3. The lifes and examples of the Holy Jesus and his followers tho' peradventure it would not be altogether errational to suppose that the extraordinary measures of the Divine Spirit in his immediate Disciples and their conversation with the blessed Jesus and afterwards the fresh memory of all his Power and Glory might render a corporal discipline the less necessary I will not deny but that our blessed Master did often accept of entertainments nor did I ever design to forbid any such thing on particular occasions which may warrant them but it is easie to observe how course and plain and sparing his constant Diet with his Disciples was how frequent in his fastings and his watchings he was As for his Disciples after his departure their lives were but a constant warfare and the World and the flesh their enemies they Liv'd like strangers and Pilgrims upon earth and their pleasures were altogether Spiritual and Holy These were the paths that they trod towards conquest and a glorious Crown and I can easily conceive how their Life was fill'd with such spiritual ravishments how they long'd for the appearance of Christ and how they left the World with such glorious assurances as that I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith all which may have regard not only to his sufferings but also to his conflict with the flesh too henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge shall give me at that Day and not to me onely but unto them also that Love his appearance But how that softeness of conversation that full and luxurious feeding and drinking that garishness and wantonness of dress that sloth and lazyness of Spirit which is so universal in the world can become the life of a Souldier of Christ I am not wise nor lucky enough to comprehend But I can now easily discern from whence it proceeds that Religion seems so unpleasant a thing and that men are so unwilling to depart hence into another life it is because we are such imperfect Christians and we live sensually It will therefore behove us to lay to heart the great motives by which the Gospel engages us to this duty as 1. The nature of our present State in this World the poor soul lives in a treacherous body and a tempting World both which conspire its ruin and therefore it must be upon its watch upon its guard it is not a time
dark chamber and mark how thou must lie in thy bed of sickness and of Death consider how all thy hopes and comforts all thy designs and purposes as far as they concern this world must vanish like a dream and think what need thou wilt then stand in of all the strength and comfort which Reason and Religion the Ministry and Prayers of thy Spiritual guide and Friend and the Conscience of a well spent Life can furnish thee with then thou wilt need a strong Faith and a vigorous Love and an entire Humility to enable thee to bear thy agonies patiently and part with the world chearfully and meet thy God compos'dly 4. Do not indulge thy self in the Enjoyment of the utmost liberty which is consistent with Innocence vice borders very closely upon vertue he that will not be burnt must not approach so nigh the fire as to be sing'd besides such freedomes do insensibly instill sensuality into the soul at leastwise if so thick an aire do not sully the soul it is too gross and mixt to whiten and clear it 5. Catch at every opportunity of a holy discourse and learn to raise from every thing a heavenly thought and to mannage every Accident to some spiritual purpose embrace all examples of an Excellent vertue and search after all occasions of doing good declining by all the Arts of prudence and Religion what ever either company or discourse whatever either sight or entertainement may soften thy temper thaw thy Resolutions discompose thy calm or alay thy heavenly mindedness or endear the world to thee sin steals in thorough the eye or ear c. dressed up in Beauty Mirth Luxury c. but it wounds whilst it delights and it stains where it touches and it captives what it once possesses 6. Be sure that thy Religion be plac'd in substantial and weighty things not fancyful and conceited for example 1. As to matters of Faith make it thy business to know God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent the riches of divine Love and the merit of Christs sacrifice and do not mispend thy time nor weary and disturb thy Soul with Curiosities and vain disputes which usually grow out of interest and pride or an impertinent and trifling spirit 2. As to practice let thy Religion be made up of Fundamental Duties not conceits or will worship of Charity and Humility Obedience Mortification and Purity pure Religion and undefiled is this to visit the Fatherless and the Widowes and to keep ones selfe unspotted from the world Religion is not a devout whimsey a sullen Austerity or a blind and giddy passion but all that promotes the Honor of God the good of Mankind and the peace of our own Souls The Prayer O Most glorious and Eternal God guide me I beseech thee in the paths of Holyness I am the purchase of thy Sons blood I have known the truth of thy glorious Gospel and receiv'd the earnest of thy Love thy Holy Spirit O grant that I may not receive thy Grace in vain that I may not suffer wreck in the sight of my Haven But assist me by the might of thy Spirit in the inward Man to perfect Holyness in the fear of God to go on to the full assurance of Hope mortifying each day more and more the outward man and growing in all godliness and vertue and every thing that is praise worthy that so the nearer I approach Eternity the fitter for it I may be that my state here being a state of spiritual delight and pleasure each day may give fresh vigour to my Devotion so that I may not faint till I enter into the Joyes of my Master and receive a Crown Amen Amen Holy Jesus I have consider'd 1. Our Obligation to Religion upon the account of our own Souls which can neither be happy in this Life nor that to come without it 2. The Nature and Substance of that Religion we profess as it regards either Belief or Practice from all which it appears that the Christian Philosophy is nothing else but a Systeme of most exalted Holyness such as may become Men who are design'd for another life it remains now 3. To consider by what powerful motives the Gospel engages us to duties which are so far above our natural state and strengths Practical Christianity Part II. CHAP. I. Of the Motives which the Gospel proposes to Holiness THe Motives by which the Gospel obliges us to Holiness are 1. The Reward of Vertue and Punishment of Vice in another World 2. The Consideration of the Divine Nature 3. The Consideration of the whole History of our Saviour 4. The consideration of the vanity of all those things which are the temptations to sin 5. The nature of virtue and of vice 6. The assistance of the Divine spirit and 7. The consideration of the nature of the Gospel Covenant which leaves a place for Repentance 1. Of the first Motive Upon what account Life and Immortality is said to be brought to light thorough the Gospel I 'le not determine but it is certain that the Gospel shews us how Death is abolish'd and how Life and Immortality may be attain'd 2 that it hath manifested this to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews and that 3. The Discovery of it is in full and clear words laid down in almost every Page of it The Wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment and the Righteous into Life eternal Mat. 25. and Ro. 2.5 there is a day mention'd which is call'd The Day of the Revelation of the righteous judgement of God because he will then render to every man according to his Deeds to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory and honour and immortality eternal Life but unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile but glory honour and peace to every man that worketh good to the Jew first and also to the Gentile This being so to sin must needs be so silly and weak a thing no man of common sense would be guilty of for can any man of reason be at a loss in such a choice as this whether he will live eternally or die whether he will be happy for ever or for a moment upon supposal that sin could make me live one happy moment 'T is true if there were no prospect of another Life no account to be taken in another world the case would be much alter'd for the Law of our nature being I humbly conceive nothing else but the Law or Dictates of Reason and the business of Reason being in this respect at least only to distinguish between good and evil our Reason would talk to us at another rate because it would proceed by different principles good and evil would then peradventure be different things for whatever would make for the pleasure and interest of
there much more do so because being rais'd spiritual it seems to me that it will be knit in a closser union and be more capable of those influences but besides this 2. It will have pleasures agreeable and natural to it self which it will reap 1. From the glory and perfection it possesses which will be one peculiar to it self and of a different nature from that of the Soul thus in our Saviour on the Mount from whose transfiguration we may receive a little light they were two different things which made up the beauty of his mind and of his body Wisdome Love Holiness c. were the charmes and graces of his Soul but light and glory and proportion the Majesty and Beauty of his body and since this body will be in its nature distinct from the soul for though spiritual it will not be intelligent therefore too it will have objects fit to entertain it what those objects will be that I 'le not endeavour to discover the Scripture doth in the general tell us that the place it self will be fill'd with a mighty glory that our conversation will be strangely delightfull that there are things prepar'd for us which are not therefore God himself which the eye hath not seen c. if that place be to be understood of the entertainments of another life but least any should mistake me I doe not in the least dream of any gross pleasure not the pleasure of the glorified body will be as spiritual a the body and no more from all that I have said I infer 1. That the joy and pleasure of the Life to come is most perfect and Excellent for the more excellent the being the more delicat and refin'd its pleasure or else there could be no difference between the happiness of an Angel that 's ravisht with the enjoyment of Heaven and an Hog that fattens in is stie and grunts at a full meal and if so how unconceiveably great will our pleasures be in that State wherein the worse and meaner part of us our very bodies shall be spiritual and incorruptible 2. That there is no reason that we should be the less mov'd and captiv'd by the promises of such pleasures in another life because they are pourtrayed to us in such an excellence and lustre as doth rather dazle and amaze than take and please us for tho now we are as far beneath them as we are at a distance from them yet then our natures will be made equal to them and when we stand upon the same level with Angels what makes up their Heaven will constitute ours too And now what can man fancy more than this that our natures should be rais'd to the highest perfection they are capable of and be entertain'd by the most glorious objects imaginable there is only one thing more to be added that this State be Eternal that we not only have all which our hearts can desire but also that we have all this for ever and ever and this is one property of Heaven too the things which are seen are Temporal the things which are not seen are Eternal now Eternity is a duration that never passes a stream of time which still glides on and yet never runs quite away a day that never sets in any Cloud or night a State of Life which shall never grow old by time nor decay by age a pleasure which will alwayes delight and never surfeit us a meeting of the dearest friends never to part again O my God how unconceiveable is the Glory thou dost design me for I cannot comprehend what I am going to be and what can be the influence of all this but that I should count all the advantages of this present Life dung and dross in comparison of the happiness of the Life to come that I should count all the afflictions of this present life not worthy to be put in the balance against the glory that is to be reveal'd how is it almost possible for me to resist the charms of such a Heaven or not to despise this World who have the prospect of such a one to come I need but cast an eye of Faith upon the joyes of Heaven and it will be enough to confront and baffle all the allurements of flesh and blood and all the gawdy nothings of this fading World one thought a day of Heaven will raise me so far above all the fears and troubles which distract and disquiet this present State that I could sit with unconcernment and see all my hopes and interests lost and shipwrackt on the billowes of an inconstant Word whilest I knew that my Heaven my Eternity were sure nay death it self would be the onely thing on this side Heaven which would be an object fit for my desires and wishes what is it then can tempt a man to sin who is thus arm'd who is proof against the flatteries or menaces of the World against the soft addresses of a Wanton or the impatiences and querulency of a weak tender body what conflict if possible can be difficult which is to be thus rewarded who can faint or languish in his race who hath his eye fixt upon such a Crown The Prayer O Most glorious God strengthen my Faith in the belief of the invisible things of another World that it may inable me to conquer this imprint in my Soul such a lively Image of that future State as may make me run with patience and chearfulness the race which is set before me O let me not chuse my portion in this Life Let me not exchange the Crown and Glories of Eternity for the pomp and vanity of this Life Let me not forfeit the pleasure and peace of that State of bliss for the dull momentary Lusts of this mortal earthly State but let me who have this hope purifie my self Let me make it my business to be doing thy Will for which way can I so advantagiously lay out my time and strength as for an infinite reward O my God let these considerations prevail with me to Live so that when I come to dye I may have nothing to do but to receive a Crown Amen Amen Blessed Jesus Of Hell Now tho a meer exile from this Heaven were Hell enough and there needed no flames nor darkness to make that State miserable for that there should be an eternal day whose light should never shine on me that there should be full tides of pleasures which I should never taste of this is Hell enough Yet besides all this there are real and endless torments to be inflicted upon all impenitent sinners when Christ shall come to take vengance on all them who know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ The place is a Lake of Fire and Brimstone of flame and darkness which together with a worm that never dies imports the excess of that torment which shall produce weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth The Company is the Devil and his Angels the fearful
Doectrine and we shal find this was the great business of his Life to instruct men in the will of God to acquaint them with a true and spiritual holyness for as the Law came by Moses so grace and truth came by Jesus Christ in regard of which he calls himself the way the truth and the Life and all this by Commission from the Father Jo. 15.15 All that I have heard of the Father I have manifested unto you From hence I may infer That the planting the world with Holyness was an undertaking becoming the Son of God a Design worthy of his Incarnation the Jewes vainly expected that he should have built them up into a glorious Empire and secured to them the Enjoyment of Honour and pleasure in this Life but since the meek and humble Jesus despis'd this as a trifling design it manifestly appears that Mortification in him self denial is above all the Romantick gallantry of ambitious spirits That to be Good is somewhat more noble than to be Great to despise the world is more than to conquer it to subdue the flesh a richer happyness than to be able to caress it with all the flatteries of Luxury and greatness and to know God and obey his will a greater honour and happyness than to command the Lives and fortunes of Mankind How can this consideration chuse but beget in the minds of men a strange veneration for Religon and a Love of Holyness why should we with a prepostrous ambition affect those fooleries of the world and neglect true honor and happiness true greatness perfection tho we our selvs should not be able to discover it yet we may very reasonably collect both the beauty and necessity of Holyness from the value an infinitly wise God hath of it which he doth sufficently express in labouring the reformation of the world with so much earnestness in imploying so much care and so much wisdome about it in makeing use of so glorious an instrument as his own Son the brightness of his Fathers Image c. The works of nature and providence together with that light he shed upon our nature being sufficient to work in us a natural Religion had left our disobedience inexcusable when he added so many other miraculous manifestations of his glory and his will and the instruction of Prophets authoriz'd by Miracles and foreknowledge of things to come all this must needs render them to whom it was address'd much more inexcusable and what shall we think of our selves to whom he hath in the dispensation of the fullness of time sent Jesus Christ declared to be the Son of God by Power by the spirit of Holiness by the Resurrection from the Dead God might well expect as the Lord in the Parable Surely they will reverence my Son The greatness of his Person is very fit to beget an Awe and Belief too therefore as the Grace is greater so must the punishment of its rejection This is the conclusion S. Paul draws from the Divinity of his Person prov'd in the first Chapt. to the Heb. Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard lest at any time we should let them slip for if the word spoken by Angels was stedfast And every transgression and disobedience receiv'd a just recompence of reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great a Salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord c. Heb. 2. If we secondly consider the Life of Jesus only as a great example of the most exalted Holiness of obedience towards God charity towards his Neighbour purity and self-denial towards himself we shall not only find in it a clear light to direct us in the practice of vertue but also powerful motives to ingage us to it for if our great Lord and Master the Son of God did thus deny himself and renounce the world what kind of Humility and Mortification will become us who are so far beneath him and in whom are such violent propensions to sin how will it become us to walk who profess our selves the Disciples of so holy and so excellent a Master we cannot be his Disciples unless we walk as he walk'd for this was it he aim'd at to set us an example and the thing we are to learn of him is his Holiness If ye continue in my word then are ye my Disciples indeed c. Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest to your souls He that saith he abides in him ought himself also to walk so even as he walked All which imports a necessity of our imitation of him and implies our straying from his example to be an interpretative Renunciation of our Discipleship Secondly In the example of his Life we may discern the Beauty and the Happiness of a Holy Life how lovely how great how Majestick was that Goodness and Innocence which shin'd in him and as a consequence of this Holiness with what serenity and calmness of affections did he enjoy himself with what assurance of mind did he encounter all afflictions and look forward towards another life these are pleasures which all must needs value who can understand them and all may enjoy them who will lead godly lives Thirdly from him we learn how wise and reasonable a thing it is to prefer all the hardships which accompany Religion to the vanities of this world since he who was best acquainted with the happiness of another life and could have commanded all the advantages of this despis'd all the flattering pleasures of this life and chose the Cross and the afflictions of Righteousness that he might obtain an Everlasting Crown Let us chuse as he did and we shall never be mistaken nor let us be frighten'd at any difficulty the same Spirit which strengthen'd him shall make us too Conquerours nor can the World menace us with any thing worse than what he endur'd Want and Scorn and Travel and Death a shameful and a painful death which is that which constitutes the Second part of the History of our Saviour and is a very passionate invitation to Holiness considered either as an Expiatian of our sins or as an act of his obedience to God as an Expiation it must 1. Plainly convince the world of the fatal deadly nature of sin for when I see the Son of God strugling with the torments of the Cross groaning under the pain of his Wounds pale and gastly breathing forth his Soul in the agonies of Death I cannot think that the goodness as well as wisdom of the Divine Nature could have thought fit for sin to have been atton'd by so bitter a Sacrifice unless the weight and horrour of it had call'd for such an Expiation and shall I play and fool with sin as a harmless thing when its guilt can't be cleans'd but by the Blood of the Son of God Surely the greatness of the Sacrifice was intended to intimate to mankind the
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
worthy of Christs descent into Earth which promotes the Glory of God and the Happiness of Man and that is only Goodness or Holiness concerning which I will 1. Enquire what kind of Goodness or Holiness that is which the Gospel of Christ requires And 2. Prove that it tends to advance the Glory of God and Happiness of Mankind which will serve not onely as a proof of its being the scope and drift of Christianity but also for a strong enforcement and motive to it Of the 1. Holiness is compriz'd in three things living soberly righteously and godly in this present world Tit. 2.12 That hereby is forbid all plain and open violations of the Commandements such as are 1. All debasing of God in our imaginations and deprav'd Acts of worship consequent to this and all unthankfulness to him 2. All sorts of Falshood and Injustice 3. All kind of unnatural Lusts and Excess destructive to our Health or Reason is too plain to be prov'd All this being nothing else but that ungodliness and Worldly Lusts which we are to deny and the very Heathens by the Light of Nature Rom. 1.32 Knowing that they who do such things are worthy of death But whether Christian Holiness imports any thing more than the mere avoiding those Sins upon the principles and assistances of Religion whether the positive part of the command in the later part of the Verse doth not intend something more than the negative in the former part of it is very well worth our Consideration because it is plain that the Scripture speaking with respect to the Life of Gentiles which was deprav'd even below the Light of Nature doth by mortification mostly intend an abstinence from those actions amongst them which were manifest transgressions of the Law Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the Earth Fornication Vncleanness c. Col. 3.5 And because most men do by interpreting the Gospel to this sense embrace Christianity themselves and recommend it to others under the Character of a Debonnair and Complaisant Religion so that the way to Life seems to me so exceeding broad and the Gate so very wide that unless a Man be born with a most villainous temper and that be improv'd by a loose and undisciplin'd Education a Man may make a shift to enter in without much striving or strugling which seems to me very opposite to the meaning of our Saviour I will therefore answer to this Quere by degrees Having first remov'd the Objections by telling you 1. That Mortification is but one part of Christian Holiness and that Abstinence from gross Sin is but half of Mortification And 2. That I hope they who speak such soft things of Christianity do intend it of a spiritual pleasure or else of that more perfect State wherein they who are arriv'd at it know how to abound because having obtain'd a more compleat conquest over the Body and the world they are not so easily ensnar'd as new Converts And I proceed now to the Query it self 1. Acts of Sobriety and Justice perform'd without any deliberation by the meer inclination of Nature if such may be are meerly natural Actions neither good nor evil neither rewardable nor punishable 2. Acts of Sobriety and Justice perform'd upon the sole instigation of pleasure and conveniency which attends such a Life in this present world are very proper and natural effects of Reason but under the Gospel they do not constitute any parts of the Righteousness of the Kingdom because our Actions are to proceed from nobler Motives not that I deny but that to us Christians Worldly Happyness may be a very lawful incentive to Holiness but then it must be in its place not the sole and great but a subordinate inducement Thus tho the Apostle invites us to goodness by Praise and a Good Report yet he who is vertuous meerly that he may be fam'd for it is a vain-glorious Sinner so though the promises of this Life annext to Godliness may encourage us to embrace it yet if any Man be godly meerly for present pleasure and happiness of this Life he is but a Worldly Man nor do I here only mean that worldly pleasure must not be the sole but that it must not be the great the principal allurement to Religion something it may contribute but it must be in its place and its Degree and thus far I have treated the Quere with more favour than I should by making use of the words Acts of Sobriety and Justice which is not taken for granted in the Question and now I must premise once for all that a meer abstinence from evil is not a Doing or Being good and then I proceed to resolve 3. That to deny any Sin upon the account of Religion i. e. The Fear and Love of God and Hopes of Salvation is certainly an acceptable Sacrifice but because in all our Actions there are generally many motives twisted together and because Man out of fondness for himself is very apt to attribute the work to that motive which it is his interest should be uppermost therefore it will very nearly concern every one to examine seriously the degrees and strength of this Faith he pretends to for peradventure tho this Faith be strong enough to restrain him from wild and unnatural Lusts because it leaves him enjoyments and pleasures enough to entertain him with more delight in their stead and gives him up to a Life no less sensual tho the instances of sensuality be more regular Yet it may not be powerful enough to crucifie all worldly and carnal affections and to force him to do perfect violence to his Inclinations His fondness for the pleasures of this Life may be too stubborn to give way to a Faith which is not more deeply rooted nor arm'd and wing'd with holy passion and the Body may be too high fed to surrender up all its satisfactions upon the demands of a drowsie Faith so that the Man doth not intirely deny himself because Religion commands it but thus far he thinks fit to comply with Religion because it doth him no harm it doth not intrench upon his sensual injoyment and if this be his Case tho the Man may have call'd in Faith to the assistance of Reason yet he doth not suffer it to reign and by consequence his Life is still the Life of Sense and not of Faith Faith comes in but slantingly and collaterally into his Life it is not the main and chief inducement to his Actions 4. And lastly A Life lead in meer abstinence from evil and yet an allowance of the utmost freedomes we can with innocence injoy upon supposal that such a Man could so love God and Heaven as to be able to renounce all when call'd thereto a supposition I can very difficultly be reconcil'd to is but the minimum morale if Holiness yet the lowest degree of it and the Gospel seems to me to have a further aim to propose a greater height and to expect from its