Nature but still it hangs upon me and sinks and weighs down my Soul as oft as 't is aspiring towards thee O my God have pity upon me deliver me from this Body of Sin ease my weary and heavy laden Soul of this grievous Burthen under which it labours and groans and suffer not this spark of divine Life which thou hast kindled in me to be opprest and extinguisht by it but so cherish it I beseech thee with the continual Influences of thy Grace as that it may at length it may break through all this Rubbish that suppresses it and finally rise into a glorious Flame Then shall I always approach thee with Joy and breath up my Soul to thee in every Prayer then shall my Heart be firmly united to thee in a devout and chearful Affection and my Prayers shall come up as incense before thee and breathe a sweet-smelling savour into thy Nostrils Hear me therefore O my God I beseech thee and strengthen me with all might in the inward man that for the future I may contend more vigorously and successfully against these vile Inclinations of my Nature which do so miserably hamper and depress my soul that so at last I may be a conqueror and more than a conquerer through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen If through any bodily Infirmity such as Melancholy Weariness Drousiness or Sickness you find your self indisposed to divine Offices indeavour to quicken your sluggish Mind with the Consideration of some one of the most moving Arguments of your Religion such as the Love of God and of your Saviour the Majesty of Gods Presence in which you are or the blessed Immortality you hope for and then address your self to God in this following Prayer O Blessed God thou art a most pure and active Spirit who doest always move with an uncontrolable Freedom and art never hindred or wearied in thy Operations have pity upon me I beseech thee thy poor infirm Creature who am cumbred with this Body of death and so deprest by its manifold Frailties that I cannot lift up my Heart unto thee Thou knowest O Lord my spirit is willing though my flesh is weak my labouring Soul aspires towards thee it stretches forth the Wings of its Desires toward thee and would fain mount up above all earthly things and unite it self with thee in eternal Love but alas its Fervours are dampt and its Endeavours tired by this clog of Flesh that hangs upon it and perpetually sinks and weighs it down again O my God draw near unto me and touch my Mind with such a powerful sense of thee as in despight of these my bodily Indispositions may attract and draw up my Soul unto thee And if it be thy blessed will release me from these fleshly Incumbrances and fit my Body to my Mind that I may serve thee as I desire to do with a fervent and a chearful Spirit But if it shall seem good in thine Eyes to leave me strugling under these bodily Oppressions Lord give me Patience and Submission to thy heavenly Will that so when I cannot approach thee with that Pleasure and Satisfaction I desire I may be heartily content to serve thee upon any Terms and that what I want of Vigour and Chearfulness in my Religion I may make up in Truth and in Reality And O let the Sense of these my present Indispositions cause me more vehemently to long after that free and blessed State wherein with fixt and steady Thoughts with flagrant Love and an entire Devotion of Soul I shall for ever worship praise and glorifie thy name Amen If through present Worldly-mindedness or Vanity of Spirit you find your self cold and apt to be distracted in your Religious Offices indeavour to stir up your Affections by representing to your self the Greatness and Urgency of your spiritual Wants the Vanity of all outward things and the Reality and Fulness of heavenly Enjoyments And do what you can to recollect your wandring Thoughts by setting your self in the Presence of the great God to whose All-seeing Eye every Thought and Motion of your Soul is open and naked And when by thus doing you have composed your Mind into a more serious Frame present this following Prayer O Thou ever blessed Majesty who fillest Heaven and Earth with thy Presence and art always listening to the Supplications of a world of Creatures that hang upon thee open I beseech thee thine Ears of Mercy to me who am unfit and unworthy to approach thee who by setting my Affections upon things below and plunging my self into the Cares and Pleasures of this Life have estrang'd and alienated my Mind from thee and lost that delightful Relish of thee with which I was wont to draw near unto thee And now that I am retired from the World to converse with thee and spread my wants and my desires before thee those worldly Cares and Delights with which I have been too too conversant are importunately thrusting themselves upon me to divert my Thoughts distract my Intentions and carry away my Affections from thee by reason whereof my Mind wanders my Hope droops and my Desires are frozen and whilst I am drawing near thee with my lips my heart is running away from thee O my God have pity upon me pluck my Soul out of this deep mire quicken raise and spiritualize these my groveling Affections Possess this Heart which opens it self to thy gracious Influences with such a strong and vigorous Love to thee as may lift me up above all earthly things and continually carry forth my Soul in vehement Desires after thee that so I may always approach thee with a joyful Heart being glad to leave the company of all other things to go to thee my God my exceeding Joy Give me a sober diligent and collected spirit that is neither choaked with Cares nor scattered with Levity nor discomposed with Passion nor estranged from thee with sinful Prejudice or Inadvertency but fix it fast to thy self with the Indissoluble Bands of an active Love and pregnant Devotion that so when-ever I prostrate my self before thee I may presently be born away far above all these sensible Goods in a high Admiration of thee and a passionate Longing after thee And now O Lord while I am addressing to thee gather in I beseech thee my wandering Thoughts and fix and stay them upon thy self And O do thou touch my cold and earthy Desires with an out-stretched Ray from thy self and cause them to rise and flame up to thee in Fervours answerable to my pressing Wants that I may so ask as that I may receive so seek as that I may find so knock as that it may be opened unto me through Jesus Christ my blessed Lord and Redeemer Amen If after this you find your Heart is very much enlarged and your Mind and Affections vigorously disposed towards God and heavenly things fix your Mind a little while upon the Beauty and Excellency of his Nature or upon some of the most
consists in Virtue and true Goodness it hence follows that all the Religion of the Means is insignificant to our Reconciliation with God if it doth not render us truly virtuous So that till this is effected there is so vast a Gulph between God and Us that neither We can go to Him nor He come to Vs and unless he alter his Nature by becoming impure as we are impure or we alter ours by becoming pure as He is pure there will be so immense a Distance between Him and Us as that it is impossible we should ever meet and agree So that what the Prophet saith of Sacrifice may be truly affirmed of all Religion of the Means Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or with ten thousands of Rivers of Oyl will He be reconciled upon our bare believing praying or receiving Sacraments c. No no He hath shewed thee O man what is good And what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Mich. vi 7 8. II. THIS Religion of the Means is of no farther Use as to the perfecting our Natures than as it is instrumental to produce and promote in us those Heavenly Virtues which are implied in the Religion of the End For doubtless to be a Perfect Man is to live up to the Highest Principle of Humane Nature which is Reason and till we are once released from the slavery of Sense and Passion and all our Powers of Action are so subdued to this superiour Principle as to be wholly regulated by it and we chuse and refuse and love and hate and hope and fear and desire and delight according as right Reason directs we are in a maimed and imperfect Condition Now what else is Virtue but a Habit of Living according to the Laws of Reason or of demeaning our selves towards God our selves and all the World as best becomes Rational Beings placed in our Condition and Circumstances And till we are in some measure arrived to this our Nature is so far from being perfect that it is the most wretched and confused thing in the whole world A more undistinguished Chaos where Frigida cum Calidis Sense and Reason Brute and Man are shuffled together without any order like a confounded Heap of Ruines And therefore as for this Religion of the Means it will be altogether insignificant to the Perfection of our Natures unless by the Practice of it we do acquire a Habit of acting according to the Law of our Reason which Habit includes all Heavenly Virtue For constantly to know and do what is best and most reasonable is the very Crown and Perfection of every reasonable Nature and therefore so far as our Faith and Consideration our Sorrow for Sin and the other Instrumentals of Religion promote this Heavenly Habit in us so far are they perfective of our Nature and no farther III. THIS Religion of the Means is of no farther Use to Us as to the Entitling us to Heaven than as it is productive of those Heavenly Virtues which the Religion of the End implies For our Title to Heaven depending wholly upon Gods Promise must immediately result from our performance of those Conditions upon which he hath promised it which till we have done we can have no more Claim or Title to it than if he had never promised it at all But the sole Condition upon which he hath promised it is Universal Righteousness and Goodness for so without Holiness we are assured that no man shall see God and Mat. v. our Saviour intails all the Beatitudes of Heaven upon those Heavenly Virtues of Purity of Heart Benignity of Temper c. So also Rom. ii 7 the Promise of Eternal Life is limited to our Patient Continuance in well doing And that we may know before hand what to trust to our Saviour plainly tells us that not every one that cries Lord Lord that makes solemn Prayers and Addresses to me shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven And this is the will of God saith the Apostle even our Sanctification that is our being purged from all Impurities of Flesh and Spirit and inspired with all Heavenly Virtues And the Apostle expresly enumerates those Virtues upon which our Entrance into Eternal Life is promised 2 Pet. i. 5 6 7 8. Add to your Faith Virtue and to Virtue Knowledge and to Knowledge Temperance and to Temperance Patience and to Patience Godliness and to Godliness Brotherly Kindness and to Brotherly Kindness Charity For if these things be in you and abound saith he they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the Knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ that is That you shall receive the proper Fruit of that Knowledge which is Eternal Life for thus v. xi he goes on For so or upon this Condition an Entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. So that unless our Faith purifies our Hearts and works by Love unless our sorrow for Sin works in us Repentance or a Change of Mind unless our Prayers raise in us Divine and Heavenly Affections that is unless we so practise the Duties of the Religion of the Means as thereby to acquire the Virtues of the Religion of the End it will be all as insignificant to our Title to Heaven as the most indifferent Actions in the World IV. THIS Religion of the Means is of no farther Use to the disposing and qualifying us for Heaven than as it is an effectual means of the Religion of the End Which is a perfectly distinct Consideration from the former For it would be no advantage to us to have a Right to Heaven unless we were antecedently qualified and disposed for it Because Pleasure which is a Relative thing implies a Correspondence and Agreement between the Object and the Faculty that tasts and enjoys it But in the Temper of every wicked Mind there is a strong Antipathy to the Pleasures of Heaven which being all chast and pure and spiritual can never agree with the vitiated Palat of a base and degenerate Soul For what concord can there be between a spiteful and devilish Spirit and the Fountain of all Love and Goodness between a sensual and carnalized one that understands no other Pleasures but only those of the Flesh and those Pure and Virgin Spirits that neither eat nor drink but live for ever upon Wisdom and Holiness and Love and Contemplation Certainly till our Mind is contempered to the Heavenly State and we are of the same disposition with God and Angels and Saints there is no Pleasure in Heaven that can be agreeable to us For as for the main we shall be of the same Temper and Disposition when we come into the other World as we are when we leave this it being unimaginable how a Total Change should be wrought in us meerly
Object and always love him as much as we are able and be able to love him a thousand times more than we can now imagine For the longer we view the more we shall know him and the more we know the better we shall love him and so through everlasting ages our Love shall be stretching and extending it self upon his infinite Beauty and Loveliness Now Love is naturally a most sweet and grateful Passion a Passion that sooths and ravishes the Heart and puts the Spirits into a brisk and generous motion For it wholly consists in a fixed complacency or well-pleasedness of Mind arising from the apprehended Goodness and Congruity of the thing beloved and it is meerly by accident that it hath any disquieting or ungrateful Emotion mingled with it Either the Person beloved is absent which fills it with unquiet Desire or he is unhappy or unkind which mingles it with Grief and Sorrow or he is fickle and inconstant which imbitters it with Rage and Jealousie but consider it separately from all these Accidents and it is nothing but pure Delight and Complacency But now in Heaven our Love of God will have none of these disquieting Accidents attending it for there he will never be absent from us but continually entertaining our amorous Minds with the Prospect of his infinite Beauties there we shall ever feel his Love to us in the most sensible and endearing Effects even in the Glory of that Crown which he will set upon our Heads and in the ravishing Sweetness of those Joys he will infuse into our Hearts there we shall experience the continuation of his Love in the continued Fruition of all that an everlasting Heaven means and be convinced as well by the Perpetuity of his Goodness to us as by the Immutability of his Nature that he is an unchangeable Lover in a word there we shall find him a most happy Being happy beyond the vastest wishes of our Love so that we shall not only delight in him as he is infinitely lovely and amiable but rejoice and triumph in him too as he is infinitely blessed and happy For Love unites the Interests as well as the Hearts of Lovers and mutually appropriates to each each others Joys and Felicities So that in that blessed State we shall share in the Felicity of God proportionably to the Degree of our Love to him For the more we love him the more we shall still espouse his happy Interest and the more we are interested in his Happiness the happier we must be and the more we must enjoy of it Thus Love gives us a real Possession and Enjoyment of God it makes us Copartners with him in himself and derives his Happiness upon us and makes it as really ours as his So that Gods Happiness is as it were the common Bank and Treasury of all divine Lovers in which they have every one a Share and of which proportionably to the Degrees of their Love to him they do actually participate to all Eternity And could they but love him as much as he deserves that is infinitely they would be as infinitely blessed and happy as he For then all his Happiness would be theirs and they would have the same delightful Sense and Feeling of it all as if it were all transplanted into their own Bosoms God therefore being an infinitely lovely infinitely loving and infinitely happy Being when once we are admitted to dwell for ever in his blessed Presence our Love to him can be productive of none but sweet and ravishing emotions for the immense perfections it will then find in its Object must necessarily refine it from all those Fears and Jealousies Griefs and Displeasures that are mingled with our carnal loves and render it a pure Delight and Complacency So that when once it is grown up to the Perfection of the heavenly State 't will be all Heaven 't will be an eternal Paradise of Delights within us a living Spring whence Rivers of Pleasures will issue for evermore O blessed State in which my heart shall be brim-full of Love and my Love shall triumph alone within me and be all Joy and Ravishment being removed for ever out of the Noise and Neighbourhood of all those disquieting Affections which here are wont to mingle with and continually disturb and incommode it IV. AS we are rational Creatures related to God we are obliged attentively to imitate him in all his imitable Perfections and Actions For this is an allowed Maxim Perfectissimum in suo genere est mensura reliquorum that is that which is most perfect in its kind is to be the rule and measure of all those Individual natures that are contained under it For Perfection is the measure of Imperfection even as a straight line is of a crooked and every Individual of a kind must needs be so far defective in its nature as it falls short of that which is most perfect in its kind God therefore being the most perfect of all in the whole kind of reasonable Beings must needs be the supream Pattern of all those Individuals that are under it and so far as any of them disagree with him so far they are defective in their Natures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. lib. 2. pag. 132. i. e. God is the Archetype of every reasonable Nature and Man is his Imitation and Image For he is a Being that is infinitely reasonable in all his Volitions and Actions that hath not the least intermixture either of Humour or Folly or Prejudice in his Choices but is always and in every thing governed by his own pure and all-comprehending Wisdom Upon which account he ought to be owned and looked upon by every reasonable Being as the sovereign Standard and Pattern of their Natures and so far as any reasonable Nature moves or acts counter to his which is the most perfectly reasonable so far it ought to be looked upon as monstrous and unnatural in its kind For as it is monstrous in a humane Body to have its parts displaced its Mouth opened in its Belly or its Legs growing out of its Shoulders because these are unnatural positions that are directly contrary to the true Idea Form and Figure of a humane body so every reasonable Nature that doth not imitate and take after Gods but chuseth and acts contrary to him is so far monstrous and mishapen because 't is wrythed and distorted into a Figure that is directly contrary to its natural Pattern and Exemplar And while it continues so it is not capable of true Happiness For that which renders God so infinitely happy in himself is not so much the Almighty Power he hath to defend himself from foreign Hurts and Injuries as the exact Agreement of all his Motions and Actions with the all-comprehending Reason of his own Mind For he always sees what is best and what he sees is best he always chuses and affects and this makes him perfectly satisfied with himself and fills him with infinite Joy and Complacency because
Happiness not only to co-habit but be acquainted with and in Heart and Will united to this Blessed and Glorious Company For what Soul that has any Spark of Cordial Love to Jesus the best Friend of Souls that ever was any grateful remembrance of what he did and suffered for our sakes would not esteem it a mighty Felicity to be admitted into his Presence and to be an Eye-witness of the happy Change of his past woful Circumstances To see him that was so cruelly treated so barbarously vilified tortured and butchered for our sakes raised to the highest pitch of Splendour and Dignity to be Head and Prince of all the Hierarchy of Heaven to be worshipped and celebrated throughout all the noble Choir of Archangels and Angels and Spirits of just men made Perfect Verily methinks had I only the Priviledge to look in and see my dear and blessed Lord surrounded with all this Circle of Glories it would be a most Heavenly Consolation to me though I were sure never to partake of it The very Communion I should have in the Joyes of my Master would be a kind of Heaven at Second-hand to me and my Soul would be wondrous Happy by Sympathizing with him in his Felicity and Advancement But Oh! when that Blessed Person shall not only permit me to see his Glory but introduce me into it and make me Partaker of it when I shall not only behold his Beloved Face but be admitted into his Dear Conversation and dwell in his Arms and Embraces for ever when I shall hear him record the wondrous Adventures of his Love through how many woful Stages he passed to rescue me from Misery and make me Happy and in the mean time shall have a most ravishing Feeling of that Happiness how will my Heart spring with Joy and burn with Love and my Mouth o'reflow with Praises and Thanksgivings to him AND as our Acquaintance with and Choice of the Blessed Jesus must needs contribute vastly to our Happiness so must also though not in so high a Degree our being intimately acquainted and united with Saints and Angels Who being not only endowed with large and comprehensive Vnderstandings but also with perfect Good-nature and most generous Charity must needs make excellent Company For as their Goodness cannot but render their Conversation infinitely free and benign so their great Knowledge must necessarily render it equally profitable and delightful And then being so Knowing as they are they must needs be supposed to understand all the wise Arts of Endearment and being so Good they must be also supposed to be continually practising them And if so what a Heavenly Conversation must theirs be the Scope whereof is the most glorious Knowledge and the Law whereof is the most perfect Friendship Who would not be willing to leave a foolish froward and ill-natured World for the blessed Society of these wise Friends and perfect Lovers And what a Felicity must it be to spend an Eternity in such a noble Conversation Where we shall hear the deep Philosophy of Heaven communicated with mutual Freedom in the Wise and Amicable Discourses of Angels and of Glorified Spirits who without any Reserve or affectation of Mystery without Passion or Interest or peevish Contention for Victory do freely Philosophize and mutually impart the treasures of each others Knowledge For since all Saints there are great Philosophers and all Philosophers perfect Saints we must needs suppose Knowledge and Goodness Wisdom and Charity to be equally intermingled throughout all their Conversation and being so what can be imagined more delightful When therefore we shall leave this impertinent and unsociable World and all our good old Friends that are gone to Heaven before us shall meet us as soon as we are landed upon the shore of Eternity and with infinite congratulations for our safe Arrival shall conduct us into the Company of the Patriarchs and Prophets Apostles and Martyrs and introduce us into an intimate Acquaintance with them and with all those brave and generous Souls who by their glorious Examples have recommended themselves to the World when we shall be familiar Friends with Angels and Arch-Angels and all the Courtiers of Heaven shall call us Brethren and bid us Welcome to their Masters Joy and we shall be received into their glorious Society with all the tender indearments and Caresses of those Heavenly Lovers what a mighty Addition to our Happiness will this be THERE are indeed some other additions to the Happiness of Heaven such as the Glory and Magnificence of the Place which is the Highest Heaven or the upper and purer Tracts of the Aether which our Saviour calls Paradise Luke xxiii 43 and St. Paul the Third Heaven 2 Cor. xii 2 both which in the phrase of that Age bespeak it to be a place of unspeakable Glory for so the Jews do commonly call this blessed Seat the Third or Angel-bearing Region of Heaven by which they denote it to be the Palace of the King of the whole World where his most glorious Courtiers do reside and they also call it Paradise in allusion to the Earthly Paradise of Eden because as that was the Garden of this lower World so this is of the whole Creation And though we have no exact description of this place in Scripture and that perhaps because no humane language can describe it yet since God hath chosen it for the Everlasting Theatre of Bliss and Happiness we may thence reasonably conclude that he hath most exquisitely furnished it with all accommodations that are requisite to a most happy and blissful Life BESIDES which also there is the everlasting Duration of it which is another great Accession to its Happiness That such is the Nature of its Enjoyments as that they do not like all other Pleasures spend and wast in the Fruition that though it will be always feeding our Faculties with new Delights yet it will never be exhausted but be always equally because infinitely distant from a Period So that its Happiness consisting of an infinite Variety of Pleasure extended to an infinite Duration it will be impossible for those that enjoy it to be either cloyd with the repetition of it or tormented with the fear of losing it BUT these Two last I only mention because they do not so properly belong to our present Argument which is only to explain the Nature of Heaven so far as is necessary to the right understanding of the Nature of those Means by which it is to be attained NOW from what hath been said concerning this great End of the Christian Life these Two things are to be inferr'd concerning the Nature of it I. THAT the main of Heaven consists not so much in any outward Possession as in an inward State and Temper For though Heaven be doubtless a most glorious Place and all its blessed Inhabitants do possess and hold it by an everlasting Tenure yet 't is a great mistake to imagine that the main happiness of Heaven consists in living
for ever in a glorious Place which separated from all the rest of Heaven would be but a poor and hungry kind of Happiness For Life is no otherwise a Happiness than as it is the Principle of all our pleasant and grateful Perceptions and if we could live for ever without perceiving it would be the same thing to us as if we were nothing but a Company of everlasting Stones and Trees and what great matter would it signifie to live for ever in a glorious Place unless we could be for ever affected by it with a delightful sense and perception which is impossible because all delightful sense as hath already been proved arises out of the vigorous exercise of our Faculties about such Objects as are suitable to them but what can there be in the most glorious Place so suitable to a Rational Mind and Will as to keep them for ever vigorously employed and exercised about it It may indeed for a while employ the Mind in an eager Contemplation of its new and surprizing Beauties but how soon would the Mind dis-relish it were it to be its only Entertainment for Eternity And as for the Will what would a fine Place signifie to it if it were not replenished with such Objects as are suitable to its own Options And indeed there is nothing that can everlastingly gratifie a Rational Mind and Will but what has in it such an Infinity of Truth as is everlastingly Knowable and such an Infinity of Goodness as is everlastingly Desireable or which is the same thing nothing but what hath Truth enough in it for the one to be vigorously contemplating for ever and nothing but what hath Goodness enough in it for the other to be as vigorously loving adoring and imitating for ever And such an Infinitude of Truth and Goodness is no where to be found but in God But God as well as the Place and Duration of Heaven being an Object that is external to us neither is nor can be a Happiness to us unless we act upon him and freely exercise our Faculties about him unless we Know him and Love him c. So that that which Felicitates all is our own Internal Act 't is by this that we enjoy Heaven and perceive all the Pleasures of it 'T is not by being in Heaven that men are constituted Happy but by vigorously exerting their Faculties upon the Heavenly Objects For without this to be in Heaven or out of it would be altogether indifferent to us The Happiness of Heaven therefore consists in a State of Heavenly Action in being so attempered and connaturaliz'd to the Objects of Heaven as to be always acting upon and chearfully employing our Faculties about them For as there is no Pleasure in Acting coldly upon suitable Objects so there is Pain and Trouble in acting vigorously upon unsuitable ones And therefore to make Heaven it self a Happiness to us t is necessary not only that we should act vigorously upon the Objects of it but that we should so act from a suitableness of Temper to them That we should contemplate God submit to his Will adore and imitate his Perfections from a God-like Temper and Disposition For otherwise these Acts will be Penances instead of Pleasures to us and the more intensely we exert them the more painful they will be And if we were in Heaven all that Heavenly Exercise in which the Happiness of it consists would be but a Torment and Vexation to us unless we had a Heavenly Temper For as the Parts of Matter can never rest but do move about in a perpetual Whirl-pool till they are hit into a place or Interstice that is of the same Form and Figure with them so there is nothing can rest in Heaven but what is Heavenly All that is otherwise rebounds and flyes off of its own accord and can never acquiesce there till 't is of the same Form and Temper and Disposition with it From hence therefore it 's evident that the Happiness of a Man in Heaven consists not so much in the outward Glory of the Place as in the inward State of his own Mind which from a suitableness of Temper to the Heavenly Objects doth always freely employ and exercise its Faculties about them II. THAT the Heavenly State is nothing else but the Perfection of all Heavenly Vertue For it hath been already proved That Heaven consists in a clear and intimate Knowledge and a free and uncontested Choice of God and of those Blessed Beings that resemble him and these Two comprehend all Heavenly Virtue So that the difference between the state of Grace and Glory is not in Kind but in Degree For Grace is the Seed of Glory and Glory is the Maturity of Grace 'T is Knowledge exalted above all Error and Prejudice above all Difficulty or Obscurity of Apprehension 't is Love strained from all repugnancies of Flesh and Spirit and refined into a pure Celestial flame t is Obedience to and Imitation of God perfectly separated from all sinful Defects and freed from the Clog of counter-striving Principles 't is Adoration of and Dependency upon him without the least degree of Indisposition or Despondency in a word 't is a free and uncontrolled Motion of all the Heavenly Virtues together in which they are every one most vigorously exerted without the least Check or Impediment This therefore being the State of Heaven as is evident from what hath been discoursed it hence follows that the main difference between Virtue and Heaven is only Gradual that Virtue is the Beginning of Heaven and Heaven is the Perfection of Virtue And if so then as the lowest Degree of true Virtue is a step Heaven-wards so every farther Degree is a nearer Approach towards the Heavenly state So that as we grow in Grace and proceed from one Degree of Virtue to another we draw nearer and nearer to that blessed Condition in which we shall be all pure Virtue without any sinful Alloy or Intermixture And this is the true State and Condition of HEAVEN CHAP. II. Concerning the Means by which this Great End of the Christian Life is to be attained IT is to be considered that the great Design of Christianity being to advance our Natures to such a sublime Degree of Purity and Perfection as is requisite to capacitate us for the Enjoyment of a Heavenly Bliss it was necessitated in order hereunto to strain our Duty to a greater Height than any preceding Law had done before it For the End of all Gods Laws is the Happiness of his Subjects and therefore that they may be effectual Means to promote this End it 's necessary that the Duties they enjoyn should be such as the Nature of our Happiness requires Now in the first state of our Nature which was that of Innocence we seem to have been design'd only for a Terrestrial Paradise that is to enjoy a Sensual Animal Happiness in a state of Earthly Immortality And to serve and promote this end God gave us
Reverence and Veneration For there we shall have far greater and clearer apprehensions of his Majesty than ever we had in this imperfect state which will improve our pre-acquired sense of it to such a degree of Respect and Veneration as will for ever over-rule our Faculties and keep our Understandings Wills and Affections in close and strict attendance to him And as our sense of his Majesty will sweetly command so our sense of his infinite Beauty and Beneficence will invincibly allure us to exert and exercise our faculties upon him For he that hath an affectionate sense of the Beauty and Goodness and Bounty of God hath a heart ready tuned for the Musick of heaven ready set and composed for everlasting Praises and Halelujahs So that when he goes away from hence into the other world and is there admitted to a more intimate view of the perfections and a more abundant participation of the blessings of God than ever his predisposed mind will immediately be seized with such a strong pathetick sense of both as that he will not be able to withhold expressing and venting it in the most rapturous strains of Admiration and Praise and Thanksgiving And this will be his business and employment for ever to admire and extoll the Perfections of God of which he will every moment make new and glorious Discoveries and to celebrate with grateful acknowledgments the infinite riches of his Bounty of which he will every moment have fresh and sweet experiences So that whilst by continual acts of Praise and Thanksgiving we endeavour to affect our minds with a due sense of the Goodness and Bounty of God we are practising before-hand the Musick of Heaven and taking out the Songs of Zion that so when we go from hence we may be qualified and prepared to bear a part in the Celestial Choir So that true devotion you see which consists in a quick and lively sense of the infinite Majesty Beauty and Benignity of God doth most effectually dispose the mind to all those divine and heavenly exercises wherein the state of heaven consists III. AS we are rational Creatures related to God we are obliged to an unfeigned love of and complacency in him And that both upon the account of what he is in himself as he is the most lovely and amiable of beings in whom there is an harmonious concurrence of all imaginable Beauties and Perfections of Wisdom and Goodness of Justice and Mercy and every other amiable thing that can claim or attract a reasonable Affection all which in infinite degrees are contempered together in his nature and also upon the account of his infinite Kindness and Beneficence to us For besides that he hath compassed us round like so many fortunate Islands with a vast Ocean of external Blessings in which there is all that is either necessary convenient or pleasant for our bodily use and enjoyment besides that he hath inspired us with immortal Minds and stamped them with those fair impresses of his own Divinity the knowledge of Truth and the love of Goodness which are both of them very forward capacities of the highest Perfection and most exalted Happiness in a word besides that to supply and gratifie these our noble Capacities he hath prepared for us an immortal Heaven and furnisht it with all the Pleasures and and Delights that a Heaven-born Mind can desire or enjoy besides all this I say he hath sent his own Son from heaven to reveal to us the Way thither and to encourage us to return into it by dying for our sins and thereby obtaining for us a publick Grant and Charter of Mercy and Pardon upon Condition of our return yea and as if all this were too little he hath sent his Spirit to us in the room of his Son to abide amongst us and as his Vicegerent to drive on this vast design of his love to us to excite and persuade us to return into that sure way to heaven which he hath described to us and to assist us all along in our travel thither So wondrous careful hath he been not to be defeated of this his kind intention to make us everlastingly happy And now what Heart can be so hard and impenetrable as to resist such powerful Charms and Endearments Methinks if we had but the common Sense and Ingenuity of men in us it would be impossible for us to reflect upon such miracles of Beauty and Love as these are without being intimately touched and affected with them But till we are so it will be impossible for us to enjoy Heaven for how can we freely exert our Faculties upon an Object that we do not love and if we cannot how can we without loving God enjoy Heaven which consists in the free and cheerful out-goings of all our Faculties upon him For if when we go into Eternity we love him not either he will be indifferent or hateful to us if the former we shall altogether neglect and take no notice of him if the latter we shall either flie away from him and banish our selves from his presence or be forced to abide and endure it with extream regret and torment For whilst our minds are averse and repugnant to him whatsoever we see in him will but the more enrage and canker our malice against him and even the sight of those his glorious Perfections which so enravish the hearts of the blessed inhabitants of Heaven will only provoke and boil up our Dislike of him to a higher degree of Hatred and Aversation For so we find by experience in this life that while our minds are unreconciled to God it is a Pennance to us to come near him to admit any Thoughts of or Conversation with him And this is the reason why we take so much pains as we do to misrepresent him to our selves to draw such Pictures and Ideas of him upon our Minds as best correspond with our own Tempers that so having thus transformed the Notion of him into the Image of our selves Narcissus-like we may fall in love with him or at least more easily endure his blessed Presence and Conversation When therefore we shall go into the other world where all these Disguises of the divine Idea shall be taken off and we shall see him as he is circled about with his own Rays of unstained and immaculate Glory we shall never be able to abide him but being all affrighted and confounded at the Glory of his Presence we shall be forced to run away and if possible to hide our selves from him in everlasting Darkness and Despair For our Wills being poisoned and infected with an habitual Enmity against him it must needs be torment to us to see him because we must always see him happy which is so great an eye-sore to those damned Spirits that hate him that I am apt to think that next to being delivered out of their own Misery the chiefest Good they desire or wish for is to be delivered from the tormenting Sense of
his Happiness For what greater torment can our Mind endure than to be an everlasting Spectator of the Bliss and Happiness of one whom it hates How then will it fret and gall our meagre and envious Spirits to see that blessed Being whom we cannot endure surrounded with an infinite Happiness with a Happiness so vast as that it can admit of no Increase and yet so secure as that it can never suffer a Diminution So that 't is impossible you see for the Mind of Man to live happily upon God in the other life unless it be inspired before-hand with an hearty Love and Affection to him AND hence it is that our holy Religion doth so strictly require us to love the Lord our God with all our heart with all our soul and with all our mind Mat. xxii 37 to love him because he loved us first to delight our selves in the Lord Psal. xxxvii 4 and to rejoice in the Lord Phil. iii. 1 and to rejoice in the Lord always Phil. iv 4 i. e. to be habitually complacent or well pleased with the infinite Beauty Goodness and Perfection of the divine Nature Nay of such vast import is the Love of God in the account of the Gospel that 't is there recommended as the proper Principle of Christian Life For so Rom. xiii 10 we are told that love is the fulfilling of the law that is the adequate Principle of all Christian Obedience and Gal. v. 6 we are told that neither Circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing in Christ Jesus but faith which worketh by love that is there is nothing of any account with Christ buch such a Belief of the Gospel as begets in us a hearty Love to God and doth thereby work and exert it self as by that which is the only genuine Principle of Christian Life and Action 'T is true beside this principle of Love the Gospel acts us both by our Fear and Hope exciting the one by Threatnings of the greatest Evils and animating the other with Promises of the greatest Goods but yet it is certain that neither these nor any other Principles of religious Action can be acceptable to God whilst they are totally separated from Love to him For there is no Principle of Obedience can be acceptable to God that is not a Principle of Universal Obedience but to love God being a great and main instance of Obedience that can be no principle of Universal Obedience which doth not effectually excite us to love him 'T IS true the Religion of most men begins upon the Principles of Hope and Fear and it cannot be denied but these are good Beginnings but yet till by these we are excited to love God as well as to do the other Parts of our Duty our Obedience is lame and partial and consequently unacceptable So that though Hope and Fear are good Ingredients to compound an acceptable Principle of Obedience yet without an Intermixture of Love they are by no means sufficient There may be indeed and at first there generally is much less of Love in this internal spring of our Obedience than of Hope or Fear whilst yet the whole Composition is truly pleasing and acceptable to God For the lowest degree of cordial Love intermixed with our Hope and Fear is sufficient to leaven and consecrate them into an acceptable Principle of Obedience but still the less of Love there is in it the more weak and languid and imperfect it is and in all its progresses towards Perfection its ripeness and maturity is to be measured by the degrees of Love that are in it And till our Love is arrived to that degree of Fervour and Ardency as to become the predominant Motive and Master Ingredient of this our compounded Principle of Obedience our state in Goodness is very low and imperfect So that in short the Principle that acts and moves us in Religion is still more and more perfect the more of Love there is in it and the less of Hope and Fear and when Hope and Fear are both swallowed up in Love and this is become the sole Spring of Action in us then 't is the Principle of Heaven the Soul that acts and animates the Religion of just men made perfect SO that if ever we design to grow up to their blessed State we must endeavour to kindle and blow up the Love of God in our Hearts And in order hereunto we must be frequently representing to our own Minds the infinite Reasons we have to love him and pressing our selves with the vast Obligations he hath laid upon us spreading them fairly before our Thoughts in all their endearing Circumstances We must ever and anon set our cold and frozen Souls before those melting Flames of his Love and Beauty and never leave chafing them at 'em urging and pressing them with the Consideration of them till we feel the heavenly Fire begin to kindle in our Bosoms And above all things we must take care by the constant Practice of what is agreeable to Gods Nature to reconcile our Minds and Tempers to him for till this is done we can never be habitually pleased or delighted in him but when once by the Practice of those eternal Rules of Goodness that are founded in his blessed Nature we have so far reconciled our Natures to him as that our Hearts and his stand bent the same way and are for the main alike inclined and disposed then we are prepared for and made proper and convenient Fuel to receive this heavenly Flame of Love to him and when this is once so throughly kindled in our Hearts as that we are habitually well pleased and delighted in him so as to rejoice in his Happiness acquiesce in his Will and meditate on his Beauty and Goodness with an unfeigned complacency of Soul we are then in the same State that is in Kind though not in Degree with the blessed People of Heaven And though in this Life we may not be able to raise our selves to that Height of Love as we desire and much less as that blessed Object deserves our present Knowlege being short our Thoughts unsteady and our Affections entangled in Sense and sensual things yet when we go from hence into the other World and are there admitted to a more intimate View of his Nature Works and Perfections our imperfect Love will be immediately improved into an high Seraphick Flame For now we shall not only know him better having him always in our View and continually shining full in our Eyes but we shall be removed from all other Objects that are apt to divert our Thoughts or divide our Affections from him So that now our Love being kindled and fed with the purest Light with the ever out-streaming Rays of the most perfect Beauty and Goodness will always exert its utmost Vigour and spend it self without Decay in one continued everlasting Rapture AND then how unconceivably happy will our State be when we shall always live in view of the most lovely
God we are in a natural Tendency to Heaven that perfect Element of Love and when we go from hence shall consort our selves with unspeakable Joy and Alacrity with those great and blessed Lovers that inhabit it Who being all of them most amiable and Godlike Souls that are every one of the same Temper with our selves being touched at the same Loadstone and made partakers of the same Divine Nature we shall immediately close and join with them in the strictest Unions of Love For those heavenly People being all of them most flagrant Lovers of God are so united in him who is the common Center of Love that no Saint or Angel can enjoy his Love without possessing a proportionate Degree of theirs and their Love of one another being all subordinate to their common Love to God and grounded upon it though their strongest Inclination like that of excited Needles be still towards him the blessed Magnet at which they have every one been touched yet do they all stick fast to one another being clung inseparably together by those attractive Virtues which they have all derived from him And in this state of perfect Friendship they converse together with unspeakable Pleasure and all their Conversation is a perpetual Intercourse of wise and holy Endearments And now what a blessed Society must this be wherein perfect Love and Friendship reigns and hath an All-commanding Empire where every Heart mingles with every one and all like precious dusts of Gold are melted together into one solid Ingot where infinite Myriads of blessed Spirits by interchangeably clasping and twining with one another are so inseparably united and grown together that they are all but one compounded Soul And when from the highest Angel to the lowest Saint they are all so tied together by the Heart-strings that every one is every ones dear Friend what inexpressible Content and Complacency must they needs take in one another When I shall pass all Heaven over through ten thousand millions of blessed Beings and meet none but such as I most dearly love and am as dearly beloved by O! what unspeakable Rejoicings and Congratulations will there be between us Especially when I shall find no Defect either of Goodness or Happiness in them nor they in me to damp our mutual Joy and Delight in each other but every one shall be what every one wishes him a perfect and a blessed Friend For perfect Lovers have all their Joys and Griefs in common between them but the Heavenly Lovers having no Griefs among them do only communicate their Joys to one another For where they love so perfectly as they do in Heaven there can be no such thing as a private or particular Happiness but every one must have a share in every ones and consequently in this their mutual Communication of Blisses every ones Happiness will by his Friendship to every one be multiplied into as many Happinesses as there are Saints and Angels in Heaven and so every Joy of every Member of the Church Triumphant runs round the whole Body in an eternal Circulation For that blessed Body being all composed of consenting Hearts that like perfect Unisons are tuned up to the same Key when any one is touched every one ecchoes and resounds the same Note and whilst they thus mutually strike upon each other and all are affected with every ones Joys it is impossible but that in a State where there is nothing but Joy there should be a continual Consort of ravishing Harmony among them For such is their dear Concern for one another that every ones Joy not only pays to but receives Tribute from every ones so that when any one blessed Spirit rejoices his Joy goes round the whole Society and then all their rejoicings in his Joy reflow upon and swell and multiply it and so as they mutually borrow one anothers Joys they always pay them back with Interest and by thus reciprocating do everlastingly increase them II. AS we are rational Creatures related to one another we are obliged to be just and righteous in all our Intercourses with each other To yield to every one whatsoever by any Kind of Right whether natural or acquired he can demand or challenge of us For there are some things to which every Man hath a Right by Nature as he is a Part or Member of Humane Society As for instance Life which is the Principal of all our Actions and Perceptions is freely lent us by God who is the Source and Fountain of Life and consequently till God resumes his Loan or we forfeit it by our own Actions we have all a natural Right to live and for any man to attempt to deprive us of our Life or of our Means of living is the highest Injury and Injustice Again Words being instituted for no other End but to signifie our Meaning and to be the Instrument of our Intercourse and Society with one another every one who is a Member of Humane Society hath a Right to have our Meaning truly signified to him by our Words and whosoever lies or equivocates to another doth thereby injuriously deprive him of the natural Right of Society Again a good Name being the Ground of Trust and Credit and Credit the main Sinew of Society till men have forfeited their good Name they have a natural Right to be well reputed and spoken of and whosoever either by false Witness publick Slanders or private Whisperings endeavours to attaint an innocent Mans Reputation doth thereby injuriously attempt to exclude him from the Conversation of Men and shut the Door of Humane Society against him Once more Promises being the great Security of our mutual Intercourse and Society with one another every Man that hath a Right to Society hath a Right to what another promiseth him provided it be but lawful and possible and therefore for any man to promise what he intends not to perform or to go back from his Promise when he lawfully may and can perform it is an Act of unjust Rapine and I may every whit as honesty rob another Man of what is his without my Promise as of what I have made his by it he having an equal Right to both by the fundamental Laws of Society In fine the great Design of our Society being to help and assist one another every Man has a Right to be aided and assisted by every one with whom he hath any Dealing or Intercourse to have some share of the Benefit of all that Exchange Traffick and Commerce which passes between him and others and therefore for any man in his Dealings with others to take Advantage from their Necessity or Ignorance to oppress or over-reach them or to deal so hardly by them as either not to allow them any share of the Profit which accrues from their Dealings or not a sufficient share for them to subsist and live by is an injurious Invasion of that natural Right which the very End and Design of Society gives them But then besides these natural
know is a Sin he refuses to do that which he knows is a Duty So that whether that which the Church imposes be lawful or no 't is apparent Rebellion in him to refuse it because for all that he knows it is lawful and though it should be unlawful yet that cannot be the Motive of his Non-compliance with it who doth not understand the Reasons that make it so He therefore that separates from the Communion of the Church for Causes that he cannot judg of must necessarily separate without Cause or Reason he can have neither true nor false Pretence for his Separation because the Arguments pro and con are beyond the Sphere of his Cognizance and consequently if he thereupon withdraw from the Churches Communion 't is not because he cannot comply with her sinful Impositions but because he will not submit to her just Authority Whereas by modestly submitting our Judgment to the Churches in Cases where we cannot judg for our selves we take an effectual Course to secure our Innocence For though that which the Church injoins us should be materially sinful yet to us who neither do nor can understand it to be so it will be imputed only as an innocent Error because by following the Churches Reason where own cannot guide us we take the best Course we can not to be mistaken and if we should be mistaken we have this to excuse us that 't was by following an Authority which God himself hath set over us whereas if we are mistaken on the other side we are left altogether inexcusable BUT then there may be other Conditions of Church Communion of whose unlawfulness a Communicant may be very doubtful though he be not confidently persuaded of it and what is to be done in this Case To which I answer First that 't is doubtless our Duty not Rashly to determin any thing to be false or unlawful which our spiritual Governors have determined to be true or lawful For we are bound by the Law of Christian Modesty to conclude that they having a larger Prospect of things than we and greater Advantages of enquiring into them are far more capable Judges of what is true and lawful and consequently though we may possibly have some little Probability that their Opinion is false or their Command unlawful yet we ought not to determin it so unless it be in such plain and evident Cases as do not only outweigh the Probability of their Opinions but the Authority of them to Wherefore in Cases of a doubtful Nature 't is both modest and safe to subscribe to the Judgment of our Superiors because in so doing we have not only our own Ignorance to excuse but their Authority to warrant us and if we should happen to be in the Wrong through our Modesty and Humility 't will be safer for us than to be in the Right through our Pride and Self-conceit But perhaps the Probability of our side may be so great or at least seem so to us that notwithstanding we give all due Respect and Deference to her Authority we cannot forbear doubting of the Lawfulness of her Conditions of Communion If so then Secondly 't is to be considered that 't is as much our Duty to Obey her Commands in things that are lawful as not to Obey them in things that are unlawful and therefore if we only doubt whether her Commands be lawful or no our Doubt ought to make us as fearful of disobeying as it doth of obeying them because the Danger of sinning is on both sides equal And therefore in this Case wherein I am necessitated to determin my self one way or t'other it is doubtless my Duty to determin on that side which makes most for the Churches Security and Peace which next to the Honour of God and the Salvation of Souls ought to be preferred above all things and which consequently if it be of any Weight with me must necessarily turn the Scale of my Choice when it is before in Aequilibrio and whither to obey or disobey be most for the Churches Peace is very easie to be determin'd THE Sum of all therefore is this that 't is our Duty to continue in strict Obedience to and Communion with that Particular Church whereof we are Members so long as it injoyns us nothing that is plainly and apparently sinful that if either we cannot judg of the Sinfulness or Lawfulness of her Conditions of Communion or do only doubt of their Lawfulness we are obliged to submit to her Judgment and Authority and not to separate from her till upon an impartial Enquiry into the Reasons of both sides we are fully convinced that they are sinful NOW that this is an indispensable Duty of our Religion is evident not only from the above-named Scriptures by which the Bishops of particular Churches are constituted the Overseers and Governours of them and the Subjects and Members of those Churches are required to yield them Obedience but also from those Texts which forbid Divisions in the particular Churches such as 1 Cor. i. 10 I beseech you by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that there be no divisions among you and which bid us mark them that cause divisions among us and avoid them Rom. xvi 17 and also which Schisms and Divisions to be Fruits of the flesh as particularly 1 Cor. iii. 3 and St. Jude xix and in a word which require us to indeavour to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace Eph. iv 3 to be of one mind 2 Cor. xiii 11 and to stand fast in one Spirit with one Mind Phil. i. 27 all which was spoke to Christians as they were Members of particular Churches to oblige them by no means to dissent and separate from those Churches unless they were forced to it by just and manifest Reasons and methinks 't is a most pathetical Conjuration of the Apostle If there be any Consolution in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the spirit if any bowels and mercies fulfil ye my joy that ye be like minded being of one accord and of one mind 2 Phil. 1 2. which Exhortation he gives them as they were a particular Corporation of Christians under Epaphroditus their Head and Bishop by whom he sent this Epistle to them The sense of all which is to oblige us not to disunite our selves from the Church of which we are Members so long as we are permitted to continue in her Communion without doing any thing that is apparently unlawful Or if we suppose those Divisions which the Apostle speaks of and forbids to be meant of Factions within the Church without actual Separation then much more is Separation which is the highest Faction and Breach of Unity to be lookt upon as wicked and unlawful So that for men to separate from the Churches Communion upon little Piques uncertain Scruples and blind Prejudices is a very great and dangerous Sin against the Gospel 't is a manifest Violation of the Laws
Endeavour So that unless thou wilt still go along with me and still quicken and animate me by thy blessed Spirit my Work is so great and my Strength so little that it will be in vain for me to proceed any farther These importunate Temptations that surround me will quickly conquer my present Resolution and I shall do as I have too often done already resolve and sin and sin and resolve and so increase my Guilt by the Treachery of my Vows and Engagements Wherefore for Jesus Christ his sake withdraw not thy self from me but continue to assist my weak Endeavours by thy powerful Grace till thou hast crown'd them with a perfect Victory For which End I beseech thee inspire me more and more with Patience and Constancy of Mind that I may stand fast in my good Resolution in despite of all Temptations to the contrary Suggest to my Mind those holy Examples thou hast set before me especially that of my blessed Saviour and incline my Heart to coppy and imitate them Direct me to some wise and faithful Guide that may be willing and able to assist me in all my spiritual Necessities and by frequently exciting me to dedicate my Actions to thee do thou purifie my Intentions from sinful and from carnal Aims that so I may always live to thy Glory And since thou art present with me wherever I am and dost always behold me whatsoever I am doing O do thou inspire me with such a strong continual and actual Sense of it as may be a constant Check to my sinful Inclinations and render me afraid of offending thee Let thy blessed Spirit be my constant Monitor to put me in mind to consider my Ways and frequently to examine my Actions that so whenever I go astray I may be immediatly convinc'd of it and by my speedy Repentance recover my self before I have wandered too far from my Duty And grant I beseech thee that the sense of my past Failings may still render me more watchful and circumspect for the future that whensoever I have been carelesly or wilfully faulty I may from thenceforth be more cautious of my Actions and more vigilant against the Temptations that betrayed me And that I may not run my self unnecessarily into Temptation for the future preserve me O Lord from sloth and idleness and from intermedling with matters that do not belong to me and do thou still put me in mind to do my own Business and to be faithful and diligent in the State and Calling wherein thou hast placed me And that I may always serve thee with Freedom and Alacrity remove from me I beseech thee all unprofitable Sadness and Melancholy and help me to acquire an equal Tranquillity of Mind and a becoming Chearfulness of Spirit For which end Good Lord do thou inspire me with a lively Sense and earnest Expectation of that blissful State towards which I am travelling that having this glorious Prospect always in my Eye I may go on with Joy and Triumph over all the Difficulties and Temptations that oppose me And that by all these means I may be more and more strengthened and confirmed in the good Resolution I have made do thou stir up my slothful mind to a dilligent Attendance on thy publick Ordinances that so in the solemn Assemblies of thy Saints I may constantly hear thy Word with Reverence and Attention offer up my Prayers with Fervency and Devotion and approach thy Table with all that Humility and Love Gratitude and Resignation of Soul that becomes this solemn Remembrance and Representation of my dying Saviour In these things and whatsoever else is needful to secure my Resolution of Obedience assist me O Lord for Jesus Christ his sake to whom with thy self and eternal Spirit be render'd all Honor Glory and Power from his time forth and for evermore After this Prayer bethink your self a little what Temptations you are like to meet with in the ensuing Business of the Day and briefly recollect those powerful Arguments which the Gospel urges to fortifie you against them and apply them particularly to the Sin or Sins you are most inclined to and then renew your Resolution to God in the following Prayer O God who art my Hope and Strength upon whose Aid and Assistance I depend look down I beseech thee upon a poor helpless Creature who am going forth into a busie World that is full of Snares and Temptations Blessed be thy Name my Heart continues still resolved upon a through Course of Amendment and therefore here in thy dreadful Presence I do again most solemnly promise and ingage my self that whatsoever Temptations I meet with this Day I will not wilfully commit any Sin no not the Sin I am most inclined to nor omit any Duty how contrary soever it may be too my Nature and that I will faithfully indeavour to keep such a constant Guard upon my self as that I may not be surprized and overtaken through my own Inadvertence and Vnwariness But this O Lord I promise not out of any Confidence in my own Strength but in Dependence upon thee and in Hope that out of thy tender Pity to a poor impotent Wretch thou wilt not be wanting to me in any necessary Assistance but that either thou wilt remove from me all great and importunate Temptations or inable me by thy Grace to repel and vanquish them and this I do most earnestly beseech in the Name and Mediation of Jesus Christ with whose Prayer I conclude this my morning Sacrifice Our Father c. In the Evening when you find your self best disposed for religious Exercise set apart such Portions of your Time as you can conveniently spare from your necessary Refreshment and Diversion to call your self to Account concerning the Actions of the Day and enquire whether they have been agreeable to your Morning Promise and Resolution and upon Enquiry you will find either that you have faithfully discharged what you promised or that you have sinned unawares or through Carelesness and Self-neglect or that you have sinned wilfully and against your own Conscience If upon Enquiry it appear that you have been faithful to your Morning Engagement represent to your self the great Reason you have to rejoice in it and to praise God for it and then offer up this following Thanksgiving BLessed be thy Name O most gracious and merciful Father for those great and numberless Favours which from time to time thou hast heaped upon me who am less than the least of all thy Mercies particularly for the signal Mercies of this Day for that thou hast not shut thine Ears against my Prayers nor withdrawn thy self from me but hast accompanied me with thy Grace through all those Snares and Temptations to which I have been exposed Praised be thy Name that thou hast not suffered me to be tempted above what I was able that thou hast so powerfully assisted me against those Temptations I have been ingag'd with and by putting so many good Thoughts into my
against the Dissuasions of thy Grace the Checks of my Conscience and the fairest Warnings of my Danger Had I done it Ignorantly or unawares or under a Surprize it had been pittiable but O my Guilt my Guilt 't was knowingly wilfully basely and maliciously that I did this evil in thy sight whereby I have forfeited my Soul my Innocence and thy Love and have got nothing in exchange but the Pleasure of a Minute and a lasting Shame and Repentance O vile Wretch O desperate Fool that I am what have I done whither am I fallen I have grieved thy Spirit contemn'd thy Authority trampled on thy Goodness and wounded my own Conscience and by one base Act have thrown my self headlong from all those glorious Hopes whereunto thou hadst raised me And now O God what can I say in my own behalf my Sin being so great my Folly so utterly inexcusable O I am asham'd I am asham'd of my self I lament and abhor the Madness and Wickedness of my own Choice and O that it were in my power to recall it But woe is me it is past into Act and by that Act my Innocence is already stained my Soul forfeited and it is no more in my Power to undo what I have done than to recall the Hours of yesterday What then shall I do or whether shall I turn my self 'T is against thee O Lord against thee I have sinned and now I have none but thee to flee to I have nothing of my own to plead in my own behalf my Conscience condemns me and my Sin my Sin cries aloud against me so that unless thou wilt be pleased to listen to the interceding Blood of thy Son and to consult thine own Bowels and Compassions and from thence to fetch Arguments of Mercy I am undone for ever by my own Folly Wherefore for Jesus Christ his sake for thy own Goodness and Mercies sake have pity have pity upon me heal my Soul for I have sin'd against thee be merciful to my Sin for it is great Thou hast promised to receive returning Sinners to blot out their Iniquities and to heal their Backslidings I desire O Lord to return unto thee I hate and renounce my Sin and do here abhor my self for it in Dust and Ashes before thee Wherefore for thy Praise sake O try me this once more and do not presently cast me away from thy Presence nor take thy holy Spirit from me but restrain me by his Grace from all presumptuous Sins and suffer them not to have Dominion over me And quicken me O Lord for thy Names sake that for the future I may watch more carefully resist more vigorously and walk more circumspectly than I have hitherto done And that from henceforth I may be intirely devoted to thee and serve thee without Interruption do thou so confirm me by thy Grace in my holy Resolution as that I may choose rather to die than to offend thee any more And now O Lord though by my Rebellion against thee this Day I have rendered my self most unworthy of thy fatherly Care and Protection yet I beseech thee to watch over me this Night for good and give me a safe Repose in the Arms of thy Providence that I may have yet a farther Space to repent of mine Iniquity And grant I beseech thee that when I awake in the Morning I may be warn'd by the woful Remembrance of this Days Fall to take more Care of my Steps and to shun or refuse those Snares and Temptations that lie all around me All which I do most humbly and earnestly beg of thee even for Jesus Christ his sake in whose name and words I farther pray Our Father c. Directions for the Exercise of our private Religion in the state of our Progress and Improvement in the Christian Life with Forms of private Devotion fitted for this State When you enter into your Closet in the Morning indeavour to affect your self with Gratitude and Thankfulness to God for his Grace by representing to your self the Danger and Misery of that sinful State out of which you are recovered and the great Incapacity you were in to recover without his Assistance and then make this thankful Acknowledgment to him O Most gracious and most merciful Father thou art a liberal Benefactor to thy Creation a never-failing Friend to Mankind and a most tender Lover of Souls for whose everlasting Welfare thou hast been always consulting and hast left no method of Love unattempted to rescue them from Sin and Misery O blessed for ever blessed be thy great Name for the Experience I have had of this thy fatherly Goodness I am a monument of thy Goodness a living Instance and Wonder of thy Mercy for me hast thou quickned who was dead in Trespasses and Sins and who had long ago perish'd in mine Iniquities hadst thou not been infinitely patient and long suffering I had forfeited my Soul to thee and thou mightest justly have cut me off and given me my Portion with Hypocrites and considering how I provok'd thee to it by my daily Rebellions I cannot but admire thy Forbearance towards me But that thou shouldest not only forbear me but follow me with thy Kindness and never cease importuning me to return to my Duty and Happiness till thou hadst conquered me by thy Gracious Persuasions O incomparable Love O amazing Goodness never to be sufficiently admired and adored Wherefore praised for ever praised be thy Grace which hath redeemed my Life from eternal Death and my Soul from the neathermost Hell which hath rescued me from the Snare of the Devil and the pernicious Bondage of my Lusts and implanted in my Nature these heavenly Graces and Dispositions and hitherto improv'd and advanc'd them towards my eternal Happiness This O my God all this I owe to thy free and undeserved Goodness that I that was dead am now alive that I that was lost am found that I that was a slave to my Lusts am made free from Sin and translated into the glorious Liberty of the sons of God is purely the Effect of thy free Grace and to be intirely ascribed to thy all-powerful Goodness Go on O Lord go on I beseech thee and perfect thine own Work that so the Glory of it may be for ever redounding to thee and that as I have been hitherto a signal Instance of thy Goodness so I may be an happy Instrument of thy Praise to eternal Ages And grant I beseech thee that the sense of thy unspeakble Kindness towards me may so captivate my Soul and all my Faculties as that I may be most intirely thine as that my Reason and Will my Fear and Hope and Love and Desire may from henceforth be all resign'd up to thee and for ever devoted to the Honour and Worship of thy infinite Glories and Perfections and this I most humbly beg for Jesus Christ his sake to whom with thy self and thy eternal Spirit be rendred all Honour Glory and Power from this time forth
and for evermore Amen After this Thanksgiving consider briefly with your self the indispensible Necessity of your Perseverance to the End and how not only vain and fruitless but also hurtful and mischievous to you all your past Labour in Religion will be without it and then conclude your morning Devotion with this Prayer for Perseverance O God who art unchangeably holy and blessed who art the same yesterday to day and for ever and dost never swerve or vary from the essential Goodness and Purity of thy own Nature look down I beseech thee upon me a fickle weak and mutable Creature whom thou hast redeemed to thy self and hitherto conducted by thy Grace and Spirit Thou knowest O Lord the Weakness of my Nature and how unable I am without thy Strength and Assistance to finish the Race which thou hast set before me thou knowest what Temptations I must struggle with and what Difficulties I must yet overcome before I am seiz'd of the blessed Prize I am contending for wherefore since thou hast hitherto been my constant Support and Defence forsake me not now for thy Names sake but as thou hast begun a good Work in me so I beseech thee to finish and compleat it to uphold my feeble Soul by thy free Spirit under all Temptations and Difficulties that so by patient continuance in well-doing I may seek for and at last obtain honour and glory immortality and eternal life For which end O Lord preserve me from being over-confident of my own Abilities and inspire me with a holy Jealousie of my self that whilst I stand I may take heed lest I fall And if at any time I should be so base and so unhappy as to offend thee wilfully which I beseech thee to prevent for thy Mercy and Compassion sake O suffer me not to sleep in my Sin but recal me instantly by the Checks of my Conscience and the Convictions of thy Spirit lest while I add Sin to Sin and one degree of Wickedness to another my Lusts should regain their Dominion over me and thou shouldest be angry with me and reject me from thy Covenant for ever And that I may every Day serve thee more freely and stedfastly wean me I beseech thee more and more from those Temptations to Sin that are round about me and give me such a true understanding of the Nature of all the Goods and Evils of this World as that neither the Flatteries of the one nor the Terrors of the other may ever be able to withdraw me from my Duty And lest while I am mortifying my old Sins I should carelesly permit new ones to spring up in my Nature good God do thou mind me to search and try my own Heart and take a severe Account even of the smallest Defects and Imperfections within me that so I may correct and reform them in time before they are improved into inveterate Habits And grant that I may be always so sensible of my own Imperfection as that I may never rest in any present Attainment but may still be pressing forward to the mark of my high calling in Jesus Christ. Suggest to me I beseech thee frequent Thoughts of my Mortality that so while I have Time and Opportunity I may be preparing for my Departure hence and making provision for a dying hour In order whereunto assist me O Lord I beseech thee strictly to examin and review my past sinful Courses that so if there be any remains of Guilt abiding upon my Conscience I may purge them away by proper Acts of Repentance before I go hence and be no more seen And grant that as I have formerly abounded in Sin so I may now redeem that precious Time I have lost by abounding in the contrary Vertues that so as far as in me lies I may revoke and undo the multitude of my past Sins by doing all the Good I am able for the future And that I may hold out and persevere to the end preserve and continue me in the Communion of thy Church and suffer me not to be led away by the errors of the wicked and to fall from my own stedfastness And finally I beseech thee to grant that in the use of these blessed Means I may so far prevail over the Infirmities and Corruptions of my Nature as that at last I may have a clear and certain Feeling of my own Integrity and Vprightness towards thee that so being from thence assur'd of thy Love and of my Title to eternal Happiness I may run the ways of thy commandments more chearfully and at last finish my Course with unspeakable joy And now O Lord I resign my self to thee take me I beseech thee into thy Care and Protection this Day preserve me from all Evil but especially from Sin and quicken me by thy Spirit unto every good work that so I may serve thee with a free and cheerful Mind and make it my meat and drink to do thy blessed will All which I humbly beg for Jesus Christ his sake in whose Name and Mediation I further pray Our Father c. In the Evening when you enter into your Closet consider what is the present Frame and Temper of your Mind and upon Enquiry you will perceive either that through the present Prevalency of your corrupt Nature you are averse to divine Offices or that through bodily Infirmity you are indisposed to them or that through Worldly-mindedness and Vanity of Spirit you are cold and apt to be distracted in them or lastly that your Heart is very much enlarged and your Mind and Affections vigorously disposed towards divine and heavenly things If upon Enquiry you find that through the present Prevalency of your corrupt Nature you are averse to divine Offices indeavour to affect your self with Shame and Sorrow for it by representing to your Mind the great Impiety and Baseness the monstrous Folly and Ingratitude of this your present Temper and then offer up this following Prayer O My most gracious God and most kind and merciful Father thou art the best Friend I have in all the World and hast shewn a thousand times more Love to me than ever I shew'd to my self but after all the vast and most indearing Obligations thou hast laid upon me this vile and ungrateful Heart of mine still retains some Dregs of its antient Enmity against thee Had I but the common Sense and Ingenuity of a Man in me how could I think of thee without Raptures of Love how could I draw neer unto thee without Transports of Delight and Complacency But vile and ungrateful that I am I can think of all thy Goodness with cold and frozen Affections and can come into thy Presence not only with Indifference but Reluctancy Good God what am I made of what an insensible Soul do I carry about me O I am asham'd of my self I am confounded with the sense of my own Baseness and yet woe is me I cannot help it I strive to shake off this Clog of my corrupt
affecting Instances of his Love or upon the blessed State above and then go on with this following Prayer O Thou most excellent Being thou infinitely amiable and adorable Majesty thou Pattern of Beauty and Standard of Goodness who art glorious beyond all Praise and dost out-reach all Wonder and comprehend all perfection blessed be thy Name thou hast touch'd my soul with a lively sense of thy Glory I feel it shining through me and like an active Flame insinuating into my Heart it fires my Love cherishes my Hope wings my Devotion and diffuses a vital Warmth over all my Faculties it raises me up into a heavenly State and fills me with joy unspeakable and full of glory it captivates every thought into Obedience to thy Will and brings every Power of my soul into Subjection to thee Blessed be thy Name thou hast conquered me by thy Love and I resign my self to thee with a chearful Heart I am intirely thine I am thy Servant truly I am thy Servant and in this Title I glory more than in all the Honours of the World But though I am highly advanc'd and exalted by serving thee yet thou art so infinitely happy in the boundless perfections of thy own Nature that thou canst reap no other Advantage from it but only the pleasure of seeing thy poor Creature blessed and made happy by it What then shall I render unto thee O thou Joy of my Life thou Treasure of my Love thou supream Felicity of my Nature Alas I have nothing but my self to give thee nothing but this poor Heart that burns with Love to thee that pants and breaths after thee and desires above all things in the world to be eternally united to thee in perfect Love If I had ten thousand Hearts to love thee ten thousand Tongues to praise thee I would devote them all to thee as freely and chearfully as I do my self For whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee O God thou art my God and my Portion for ever In thee I am blest and in the Light of thy Countenance I rejoice more than in all the Joys and Pleasures of the World I am ravisht with thy Beauty I admire thy Love and from the bottom of my Soul adore thy Wisdom and Goodness My heart is ready O Lord my Heart is ready I will sing and give praise Awake up my Glory awake all the Powers of my Soul I my self will awake and celebrate thy praises Praised be the God of Glory praised be the God of Love praised be the Father of Mercies praised be the best Friend of Souls for thy Goodness reaches to the heavens thy Glory shines throughout the Creation and thy Mercy is spread over all thy works Who can comprehend thine infinite Beauties who can rehearse thy noble Acts who can shew forth all thy Praise I do confess my Thoughts are infinitely too short my Affections too narrow my Expressions too scanty to comprehend and sufficiently admire and celebrate thy Glory But O my God thou knowest that I love thee and blessed be thy Name I feel infinite reasons so to do O that I could love thee more that I could love thee but as much as Angels and glorified Spirits do who yet cannot love thee as much as thou deservest because thou deservest to be belov'd infinitely But my soul thirsts for thee and longs after thee O when shall I be admitted into thy blessed Presence there to see and admire and love and adore thee for ever when shall I shake off this clog of sinful Mortality that sinks and depresses me and flee to those happy Regions of perfect Love where I shall continually feed upon thee with inexpressible Delight and be filled with a strong and everlasting Sense of thy goodness O thou that art the beginner and finisher of every good work be pleased to assist my holy Endeavours to withdraw my Mind more and more from these sensible things that it may have a clearer sight of its heavenly Country from whence it came and whither it desires to return that so having my Eye always fixt on that blessed recompence of reward I may live above this World and in despight of all its Terrors and Allurements persevere to the end in a steady and even Course of Obedience And now O Lord since thou hast been graciously pleas'd to inspire my Mind with these delightful Thoughts of thee and to enlarge my Heart with such sweet Transports of Love to thee grant I beseech thee that they may not only please but better me that they may lift me up above all the Temptations of this World and revive my Strength and quicken my Endeavours and compose my distrustful Heart into a stedfast Dependence upon thee that so I may be fruitful in all good works and my heart may be establisht unblameable in holiness before thee unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Amen Amen After you have used one or more of the foregoing Prayers according as they suit with the present Temper of your Mind take a short view of your Defects and Imperfections and especially of those that cleave most to your Nature and briefly represent to your Mind the intrinsick Evil and Vileness of them and how they clog your Religion blemish your Nature and obstruct your Happiness and then conclude with the following Prayer for Growth in Grace O God who art the most excellent Nature the Perfection of all Beauty and the Fountain of all Graces who doest infallibly understand what is best to be chosen and invariably chuse by the best and purest Reason look down I beseech thee upon me thy poor defective Creature who am ashamed of my self to see how unlike thee I am how I am laden with Imperfections and how after all my religious Endeavours my Nature is still vitiated with unreasonable Lusts and Affections how much Vanity and Impertinence there yet remains in my Mind how much Perverseness in my Will how much spiritual and carnal Iniquity in my Affections and Appetites Lord I have been long a contending with this corrupt Nature and yet upon all Occasions I find my self too too prone to be Wo is me even my fairest Graces have their Spots and Blemishes my purest Dispositions their sinful Intermixtures and my best Works their Flaws and Imperfections O my God have pity upon me who here lie sighing at thy Feet under a miserable diseased Nature and as thou hast begun the blessed Cure in me so for Christ his sake I beseech thee to compleat it that being intirely recovered and raised up unto newness of Life I may in the perfect Health and Vigour of my Soul serve and glorifie thee for ever For which end I beseech thee confirm me more and more in the Belief of those immortal Pleasures beyond the Grave which thou hast treasur'd up for those that love and obey thee that by the strength of a lively Faith and vigorous Hope my Soul may be rais'd above this World and learn to despise and trample upon all its gilded Vanities whensoever they present themselves either to allure or to terrifie me from pursuing the heavenly Enjoyments Excite in me such a vehement Thirst after those Rivers of Pleasures above as may every day render me more cool and indifferent towards earthly things more contented and satisfied under all the Events and Issues of thy Providence and more active and vigorous in my heavenly Calling And I beseech thee to inspire me with such clear and lively Apprehensions of thy essential Beauties and Perfections and of thy bountiful Love and boundless Benevolence to all thy Creatures as may every day more and more raise and improve my Love to thee that this being the great Spring and Principle of all my Actions may continually excite me to a chearful Obedience to thy Will and a vigorous Imitation of thy Perfections O cause me to love thee for thy self and Religion for thee and the Instruments of Religion in order to thy Glory and my own Happiness that so founding my Content upon thee and the blessed Interests of a virtuous Life I may grow in Grace and be rich in good Works and go on with a satisfied and triumphant Spirit from Imperfection to Strength from Acts to Habits and from Habits to Confirmation in Grace and may be still more and more confirmed in all the heavenly Graces till they are finally consummated into everlasting Glory And when by thy Grace and Assistance I have perfectly conquered the corrupt Nature within and the Temptations without me and am arrived into the State of everlasting Triumph I will lay all my Victories at thy Feet and with Palms in my hand and Halelujahs on my lips celebrate thy praises to Eternity Hear me O my God in this and whatever else thou knowest to be needful for me even for Jesus Christ his sake in whose Name and Words I further pray Our Father c. FINIS Plat. Phaed. pag. 398. Ibid. Pag. 386. Paedag. l. 2. c. 1. pag. 141. Ibid. Pag. 139. * Dr. Stillingfleets Origines Dr. Patricks Translation of Grotius Sir Charles Wolsely * Here make a particular Confession of all those sinful Courses you have lived in together with all their aggravating Circumstances of Impudence Obstinacy and Ingratitude c. * When you renew your Vow in the Sacrament add * Here name the sinful Act you have committed * Here name the particular Infirmities that stick closest to your Nature