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
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
Satisfaction and necessarily renders us by so many Degrees miserable as it exceeds the real worth and value of Things BESIDES which also it is to be considered that all these lesser Goods which are the Objects of our Extravagant Affections are things which we must ere long be for ever deprived of For the lesser Goods are those which are only good for the worser Part of us that is for our Body and Animal Life the proper Goods whereof are the Outward Sensitive Enjoyments of this World All which when we leave this world we must leave for ever and go away into Eternity with nothing about us but only the Good or Bad Dispositions of our Souls So that if our Soul be carnalized through our immoderate Affection to the things of this World we shall carry that Affection with us but leave the things which we thus vehemently affect behind us for ever For that which is the prevailing Temper of Souls in this Life will doubtless be so in the other too and so far is that of the Poet true Quae gratia currûm Armorúmque fuit vivis quae cura nitentes Pascere equos eadem sequitur tellure repostos For though the coming into the other world will questionless improve those Souls which are really good before yet it is not to be imagined how it should create those good who are habitually bad and if we retain in the other world that Prevailing Affection to these sensitive Goods which we contracted in this it must necessarily render us unspeakably miserable there For every Lust the Soul carries into the other world will by being eternally separated from its Pleasures convert into an Hopeless Desire and upon that account grow more furious and impatient For of all the Torments of the mind I know none that is comparable to that of an outragious Desire joined with Despair of Satisfaction which is just the case of sensual and worldly minded Souls in the other Life where they are full of sharp and unrebated Desires and like starving men that are shut up between two Dead Walls are tormented with a fierce but hopeless Hunger which having nothing else to feed on preys and quarries on themselves and in this desolate condition they are forced to wander to and fro tormented with a restless Rage an Hungry and Unsatisfied Desire craving food but neither finding nor expecting any and so in unexpressible Anguish they pine away a long Eternity And though they might find content and satisfaction could they but divert their Affections another way and reconcile them to the Heavenly Enjoyments yet being irrecoverably preingaged to sensual Goods they have no Savour or Relish of any thing else but are like Feaverish Tongues that disgust and nauseate the most grateful Liquors by reason of their own overflowing Gall. So impossible is it for men to be happy either here or hereafter so long as their Affections to the lesser Goods of this World do so immoderately exceed the worth and value of them ONE Essential Part therefore of the Christian Life which is the Great Means of our Happiness is the Virtue of Moderation the peculiar Office whereof is to bound our Concupiscible Affections and proportion them to the Intrinsic Worth of those outward Goods which we affect and desire For though the word Moderation according to our present Acceptation of it be no where to be found in the New Testament yet the Virtue expressed by it is frequently enjoined as particularly where we are forbid to set our Affections upon the Things of the Earth Col. iii. 2 To love the World or the Things that are in the World 1 John ii 15 Which Phrases are not to be so understood as if we were not to love the Enjoyments of the World at all for they are the Blessings of God and such as he has proposed to us in his Promises as the Rewards and Encouragements of our Obedience and to be sure he would never encourage us to obey him by the Hope of such Rewards as are unlawful for us to desire and love The meaning therefore of these Prohibitions is that we should so moderate our Affections to the world as not to permit them to exceed the Real Worth and Value of its Enjoyments For it is not simply our loving it but our loving it to such a Degree as is inconsistent with our Love of God that is here forbidden For he that loveth the world saith St. John the Love of the Father is not in him i. e. he that loves it to such a Degree as to prefer the Riches Honours and Pleasures of it before God and his Duty to him hath no real Love to God i. e. He loves not God as God as the Chiefest Good and Supream Beauty and Perfection And hence Covetousness which is an immoderate Desire of the world is called Idolatry Col. iii. 5 because it sets the world in the place of God and gives it that supream Degree of Affection which is only due to him And this the Apostle there calls Inordinate Affection because it extravagantly exceeds the Intrinsic Worth and Value of its Objects Wherefore we are strictly enjoined to take heed and beware of Covetousness Luke xii 15 And to let our Conversation be without Covetousness Heb. xiii 5 By all which and sundry other Commands and Prohibitions of the Gospel the Moderation of our Concupiscible Affections is made a necessary part of the Christian Life NOW that this also mightily contributes to our Acquisition of the Heavenly Happiness is evident not only from what hath been already said but also from hence that till our Affections are thus moderated we can have no Savour or Relish of the Heavenly Enjoyments For in this corrupt State of our Nature we generally understand by our Affections which like coloured Glass represent all Objects to us in their own Hue and Complexion When therefore a mans Affections are immoderately carried out towards worldly things they will be sure by Degrees to corrupt and deprave his Judgment and render him as unfit to judge of divine and spiritual Enjoyments as a Plowman is to be a Moderatour in the Schools For when a mans thoughts have been employed another way and the Delights of Sense have for a long while preoccupied his Vnderstanding he will judge things to be Good or Evil according as they disgust or gratifie his lower Appetites And this being the Standard by which he measures things 't is impossible he should have any Savour of those Spiritual Goods in which the Happiness of Heaven consists For though in his Nature there is a Tendency to Rational Pleasures yet this he may and very frequently does stifle and extinguish by addicting himself wholly to the Delights and Gratifications of his Sense which by degrees will so melt down his Rational Inclinations into his Sensual and confound and mingle them with his Carnal Appetites that his Soul will wholly sympathize with his Body and have all Likes and Dislikes in common with
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
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
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
upon it by putting in practice these Initial Duties of it You who have been hitherto warring against God and striving against your Duty and your Happiness be at last persuaded to make a Stand for a while and to listen to the voice of Reason and Religion which do both call aloud to you to face about to desert the Party wherein you are ingaged and come over to the Side of Virtue And that I may if possible prevail I do here earnestly beseech you even by all that is dear and precious to you by the Love of God and by the Lives of your Souls and by all your Hopes of Happiness in the world to come seriously to consider with me these following Motives 1. That there is a vast Necessity of beginning this our Spiritual Warfare one time or other 2. That 't is unspeakably most secure and advantagious for us to begin it now 3. That the final Success of it doth very much depend upon the well Beginning of it 4. That when once we have well begun it the main Difficulty of it is conquered I. CONSIDER the vast Necessity there is of beginning this Spiritual Warfare one time or other For that which is necessary for us to accomplish at last is necessary to be undertaken by us one time or other Now it is as necessary for us to oppose and vanquish the Temptations of the World and the Corruptions of our own Nature as it is not to go to Hell or not to miss of Heaven For in this great Battel the everlasting Fate of our Souls is to be decided and if we come off Victors we are made if vanquished we are undone to eternity So that in this spiritual Warfare we do not contend like the Warriors of this World for a Triumphal Wreath that will wither upon our Brows or for Fame and Renown which is nothing but the Breath of a company of talking People or for the enlarging of our Empire over the next handful of a Turf but we are contending with Enemies that are pursuing us to Hell and binding us in Chains of everlasting Darkness We are to fight for our Immortality for all our hopes of Happiness and Well-being in a never-ending Life a nd when so much depends upon the Success of our Conflict and we must conquer and be crowned or die win the Field and Heaven or yield our selves captive to eternal Misery I leave you to judge whether we are not obliged under the vastest Necessity one time or other to begin And if we must begin one time or other why not now as well as hereafter and to what purpose should we defer entring upon that Work which we all confess we must at last not only begin but accomplish For to have accomplished a necessary Work especially when it is difficult and important is a great Satisfaction to the Mind and whereas while it is yet to do the prospect of the pain and labour of it creates in us a great deal of Trouble and Anxiety when once it is done or the main Difficulty of it is over every Reflection on our past pains sweetens our present Repose and crowns it with Joy and Triumph And thus it is in our Entrance into the Christian Life which we all confess to be both necessary and difficult and it being so what do we else by our delaying it but only prolong the pain and trouble of it And whereas by one brave Attempt we might ease our selves and set our Souls at Rest for ever we languish away our life in misery and are sick with the Fear of our Remedy Just like poor men that are under the torment of the Stone they know they must be cut or die but out of a frightful Apprehension of their Remedy they put it off from time to time they promise they will endure it rather than lose their Lives but when they come to the Trial their Hearts fail and they must needs have a little longer Respit but all the while they endure not only the pain of their Disease but also the Apprehensions of their Cure which at last they must also actually endure or Death which is much more terrible to them Whereas had they been cut at first they might have saved themselves all that Torment and Fear of farther Torment which they endured in the time of their Delay And just thus it is with those who defer their Repentance which had they begun at first when they fell into their sinful Courses their Hearts might have been at Ease a great while ago and they might have saved themselves all those Gripes and Twinges of Conscience and all those painful Apprehensions of the Smart and Difficulty of repenting at last which they have been forced to endure in the several periods of their Delay But alas Repentance is a sad Remedy Well be it never so sad you know you must endure it or that which is a thousand times worse Why then you will endure it that you are resolved upon but fain you would have a little longer Respite Ah foolish Souls why will you prolong your Misery and linger out your Lives in Torment when as by enduring now what you must endure at last you might be presently at Ease not only from the Pain of your past Guilt but from the Fear of your future Repentance II. CONSIDER that 't is unspeakably most secure and advantagious for us to begin our Christian Warfare now For this Life is the only time of our Trial and Probation the Field in which our spiritual Warfare is to be fought and from which we must all go off triumphing Conquerors or eternal Slaves And alas such a slippery and uncertain thing is this our present Existence that there is no one part of it we can call our own but what is present For all our Futurity is in Gods Hand and Disposal and how he will shorten or prolong it we are not able to prognosticate So that for ought we know the next moment may finally determine our everlasting Fate and the Hopes of eternity which are now in our hands may slip through our fingers before to morrow morning and leave us desperate for ever What a dreadful Venture therefore do those men run that delay from time to time the securing their Salvation by a timely Repentance When 't is now in their own Power would they but lay hold on the present Opportunity to secure their Victory and Crown they rather chuse to go to cross or pile for them and to stake them upon a Contingency that is not in their Power to dispose of BUT suppose they could secure that hereafter to themselves to which they do so venturously defer their Repentance yet still there is another Venture of which they can never be secure and that is whether when that hereafter comes God will not out of a just Resentment of their present Despite to and Contempt of his Grace withdraw it from them Which if he should they would be left in as
the Inspection of their own Estates or to overlook and govern their Families and such to examine the Complaints of their Tenants or the Necessities of their Neighbours or to reconcile Differences or conciliate Love and good Neighbourhood among those that are near or under them in these and such like Employments they may innocently exercise their active Minds and thereby not only divert themselves from sinful Courses but also render themselves very useful to the World BUT whatsoever our Condition in the World may be it must doubtless be of very dangerous Consequence to our Religion not to be innocently and usefully imployd For as the wise Cato hath observed nihil agendo male agere disces i. e by accustoming your self to do nothing you will most certainly learn to do ill For your busie Mind like Nature will admit of no Vacuum but must be always full of one thing or other and it can no sooner dismiss its pious or honest thoughts but vicious and unlawful ones will be swarming about it For religious lawful and sinful Objects are the only Companions our Minds have to converse with and therefore since they must and will be conversing with one thing or other we ought to take great care that as soon as ever they have done entertaining religious Objects they be presently supplyed and presented with lawful ones with some honest Business or innocent Diversion that so we may not be at leisure to attend to those sinful Objects which in the others Absence will be perpetually crouding and thrusting themselves upon us For when we are neither honestly nor religiously imployed we shall be perfectly at leisure to attend to any Invitation to Sin and since we must still be doing one thing or other our having nothing else to do will be a strong inducement to do that which is evil and to spend our restless Activity in some irregular Course or other accordingly as we are tempted and inclined If we are of a busie and pragmatical Temper our leisure will presently invite us to be intermedling with other Folks Business to be tampering with State Affairs and casting new Models of Government and censuring the Wisdom of those publick Administrations of which we do not understand the Reasons If we are of a froward peevish and untractable Temper we shall be apt when we have nothing else to do to be venting our Activity in factious and turbulent Zeal in seditious Pratings and Conspiracies in backbiting our Adversaries and fetching and carrying scandalous Reports to create Jealousies and Animosities between Neighbour and Neighbour In a word if we are of sanguin and jovial Dispositions our idle hours will be so many tempting Opportunities to Intemperance and Wantonness Profaness and Scurrility and all the other Wickednesses of a lewd and dissolute Conversation If therefore we mean to be secured from sinful Actions we must allow our selves no leisure from religious or honest ones which for the above named Reason we shall find utterly unpracticable if we be not diligent and industrious in some honest Calling BUT whilst mens Minds are honestly imployed they will not be at leisure to listen to Temptation and 't will be difficult for any of those Inducements to Sin which the Devil and outward Objects do perpetually suggest to us to obtain Admittance to speak with our Thoughts whilst they are thus taken up with wiser and better Company But as soon as we dismiss these we do in effect beckon Temptations to our selves and invite the Devil and the World to invite us to be wicked For as we say Opportunity makes the Thief i. e. it tempts him to steal and so when we give the Devil the Opportunity of an idle Hour we do thereby tempt him to tempt us and importunately invite him to steal away the Treasure of our Innocence by putting the Key of it into his hand and giving him a free Access to it And though we should be firmly resolved not to sin yet t is impossible we should be safe so long as we are at leisure to be tempted because while we are at leisure we shall be very often disputing and holding Argument with the Tempter who by his Quirks and Sophistries will many times circumvent such Novices as we before we are aware But when we are not only resolved against him but are also so imployed as that we are not at leisure to attend to him it is past his skill to fasten any Temptation upon us Wherefore if we would be secure in the Course of our Christian Warfare we must follow St. Jeroms Counsel to his Friend Rusticus Semper boni aliquid operis facito ut Diabolus te semper inveniat occupatum be always doing one good Work or other that so the Devil may always find thee busie IX TO our Course and Progress in the Christian Warfare it is also necessary that we should indeavour so far as in us lyes to keep up a constant Chearfulness of Spirit in our Religion It is doubtless a great Disgrace to our Religion to imagin as too many superstitious Christians do that it is an Enemy to Mirth and Chearfulness and a severe Exactor of Pensive looks and solemn Faces that men are never serious enough till they are mope'd into Statues and cloisterd from all Society but that of their own melancholy Thoughts that 't is a Gospel-Duty to whine or to be silent and retire themselves from the most innocent Pleasures and Festivities of Conversation and in a word that all kind of Mirth and facetious Humour is to be rankt among those Idle Words which our Saviour tells us shall be brought to Judgment As if Religion were a Caput mortuum a heavy stark insipid thing that had neither Heat nor Life nor Motion in it or were intended for a Medusa's Head to transform men into monuments of Stone By which false Conceptions of it they render it much more burthensome than it is in its own Nature For to make Religion forbid us any thing that is humane and natural is to render it a real grievance unto humane nature 't is to make our Duty run a tilt at the Principles of our Being and set our Conscience and our Nature at Variance with one another And therefore since to be risible and sociable is as natural to us as to be reasonable to make our Religion an Enemy to our Mirth and Conversation is to represent it as a tyrannical Invader of the essential Liberties and Properties of humane Nature 'T is true indeed though it denies us not the freedom of an innocent Humour nor disallows those little Plaisances and inoffensive Raileries of Fancy which are somtimes requisite to sauce our Conservation and give it a quicker Relish yet hath it taken care to bound our Merriments with the necessary Precepts of Sobriety and Gravity that so by too much whifling up and down in the little levities of Fancy our Minds may not grow vain and light and trifling and be thereby indisposed to serious
Delay as soon as we had strayed from our Duty we might have soon recovered the Ground we had lost by it and by a little more Diligence have gotten as far onward as if we had never interrupted our Progress at all by deferring our Repentance we set our selves farther and farther back and shall every day be more and more indisposed to return For in the Course of our Religion there is no standing still but either we are progressive or retrograde going backward or forward as long as we live so that when once we are out of our Way we are still going farther out till such time as we return again and consequently the longer we are out the harder 't will be to return and the farther we shall have to the end of our Way For when I first sin and the Wound of my Innocence is yet green fresh it may easily be cured by the timely Application of a sorrowful Confession and new Resolution of Amendment but if I neglect it 't will rot and putrifie my Sense of it will be hardned and my Inclination to it grow every day more inveterate and then if it be not lanc'd and corroded by a sharp a long and a painful Repentance it will turn into an incureable Gangrene Hence the Apostle bids us exhort one another daily while it is called to day that is to repent while it is called to day lest any of us be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin Heb. iii. 13 So that when we have wilfully sin'd we run a mighty Hazard of our final perseverance if we don't repent immediatly For all the while we delay our Conscience grows more sear'd and our Lust grows more confirm'd and God knows where it will end but 't is fearfully to be suspected that that neglected Bruise which we got by our Fall will grow worse and worse and determine at last in final Impenitency Wherefore as we intend to persevere in wel-doing it concerns us in the first place to take all possible Care not to give way to any wilful Sin nor suffer our selves by any Hopes or Fears to be tempted from our good Resolution but if at any time our wicked Inclinations should prevail against it to betake our selves immediately to a serious Repentance to make a sorrowful Confession of it to our offended God and solemnly renew our Resolution against it that so we may stop the growing evil betime before it 's capable of indangering our final Apostacy III. TO our final perseverance it 's necessary that to prevent the like Falls and Miscarriages for the future we should indeavour to withdraw our Affections from the Temptations of the World but more especially from those Temptations which were the Occasions of our Fall For thus we are strictly prohibited to set our affections upon things on the earth Col. iii. 21 to love the World and the things that are in the World Joh. i ii 15 to lay up for our selves treasures upon earth Mat. vi 19 and 't is the proper Character of a true Christian to be crucified to the World Gal. vi 14 and to converse as a Stranger and a Pilgrim in it Heb. xi 13 As on the contrary to mind earthly things and to be lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God are made the proper Characters of Infidels and Apostates Phil. iii. 19 compared with Tim. ii 3.4 And so inconsistent is an inordinate Affection to the World with our perseverance in the Christian Warfare that St. James expresly tells us that the friendship of the World is enmity with God Jam. iv 4 and 't is to the Excess of our friendship to it that the Scripture frequently attributes our Apostacy Tim. ii 4.10 and the Apostle tells us that they that will be rich that is immoderately covet to be so fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in perdition and destruction and that the love of money is the root of all evil 1 Tim. vi 9 10. From all which it 's apparent how necessary it is in the accounts of Christianity in order to our perseverance that we should indeavour to wean and abstract our selves from the World FOR this world is the Magazine of all those Temptations by which our Vertue and Innocence is importuned and assaulted and 't is either the Hope of some worldly Pleasure Profit or Honour that allures or the Fear of some of the contrary Evils which are incident to us in the Course of Religion that affrights us from our Duty Whilst therefore we immoderately love those Goods and Evils which are the Solicitours of Vice we are in very great danger of being conquered and led captive by it For 't is not for the sake of sinning that men sin but for the sake of those Goods or to avoid those Evils which are appendent to their sinning or not sinning and consequently the more a man loves those Goods which cling and adhere to a sinful Action the more propense he will be to the Commission of it and the more he dreads those Evils which he can most easily avoid by a sinful Action the more prone and inclinable he will be to it Wherefore to secure our perseverance in this Warfare against sin it is absolutely necessary that we rectifie our Opinion of the Goods and Evils of this World and moderate and abate our Affection towards them especially towards those that have been most prevalent with us For the Temptation that prevails upon us discovers the weak Side of our Nature and instructs the Devil what Good or Evil it is that is most apt to allure or affright us and to be sure that subtil Tempter who hath been so many thousand Years studying the Arts of seducing us will not fail to assault us again where he hath been already successful and therefore it concerns us to fortifie our selves there where we have so much reason to expect the Enemy will assault us and to rectifie our Opinions of and mortifie our Affections to those things which have already so much imposed upon our Virtue and Innocence For 't is our Imagination that gives Life and Efficacy to the Charms and Terrors of the World and renders them so successful against us we fancy that to be in them which is not and so are affected not so much with the things themselves as with the false Representations we make of them FOR it's plain the Goods of the World are beholden to our selves for the greatest part of those Beauties with which they tempt and allure us and 't is our Fancy that gives the Paint and Fucus with which they charm and inamour our Affections and so for the Evils of the World 't is our own Imagination that disguises them into such Bugs and Scare-crowes and puts those gastly Vizors on them with which they fright and amaze us If therefore we would but take care to rectifie our Opinions of them both and to strip them out of their imaginary
Terrors and Allurements we should thereby disarm them of their main Strength and render them much less able to seduce us for the future And this methinks we might easily do if we would but fairly represent to our selves the present State and Posture of our Affairs For we are a sort of Beings that are every Moment travailing from hence to an eternal World where an unexpressible Happiness or Misery attends us and all that we enjoy or suffer in this Life is only the Convenience or Inconvenience of a short Journey to a long Home but can have no other Influence upon our everlasting Condition than as it is the Occasion either of our Virtue or Vice which are the only Goods and Evils that will accompany us to Eternity and make us happy or miserable there for ever But as for Poverty or Riches Pain or Pleasure Disgrace or Reputation they are things which probably within these ten or twenty Years will be as perfectly indifferent to us as our last Nights Dream was when we awoke in the Morning And this methinks duly considered were enough to render us very unconcerned at any Good or Evil that can happen to us here For what a mighty Matter is it whether I fare well or ill for twenty or thirty Years who when that is expired must be happy or miserable for Millions of Millions of Ages and what will these little Goods or Evils signifie to me when my Body is in the Grave and my Soul in Eternity When I am stript into a naked Spirit and set ashore upon the invisible World then all these things will be as if they never were and in the twinkling of an Eye I shall lose Sight of them for ever and of all that I enjoyed or suffered in this Life I shall have nothing remaining but my Virtue or Vice whose Issues will prove my eternal Happiness or Misery Doubtless would we but accustom our Minds to such Reflections as these they would effectually restrain us from the immoderate Love or Fear of the things of this World and reduce us to a constant and efficacious Persuasion that there is no Good in this World comparable to that of doing our Duty nor any Evil incident to us in this Life that is not infinitely less formidable than Sin And when once our Affection to this World and our Opinion of the Goods and Evils of it are thus moderated and rectified the Temptations to Sin will quite lose their hold of us and be no more able to fasten upon our Resolution So that now we may pass safely through them whilst they are sparkling about us there being no Tinder in our Breasts for them to catch fire and kindle upon Now they will be no longer capable to allure or affright us those bosom Orators being silenced that were wont to contend for them and to magnifie their Charms and Terrors and when we neither immoderately love nor fear them 't will be no hard matter to defend our Virtue and Innocence against all their Assaults and Importunities IV. TO our final Perseverance it is necessary that we should more curiously search into the smaller Defects and Indecencies of our Nature in order to our reforming and correcting them Hence we are commanded to hate even the garments spotted by the flesh Jude 23. i. e. to take care of the Beginnings of Sin of any thing that hath the least Spot or Infection of it and accordingly we are obliged not only to take care to rub out the greater Stains of our Nature but to be diligent that we may be found of our Lord in peace without spot and blameless 2 Pet. iii. 14 i. e. to indeavour to reform those smaller and more indiscernable Defects of our Nature which though they do not totally stain yet very much spot and blemish it that so at the coming of our Lord we may be found not only sincere and upright but as near as may be innocent and blameless For so Phil. ii 15 we are bid to be blameless harmless and without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation i. e. to endeavour so to demean our selves in this World as that we may appear not only honest for the main but so near as is possible spotless and unreproveable And indeed there is nothing doth more frequently occasion mens final Miscarriage in Religion than their not being careful and diligent in this matter When they first enter into the Christian Warfare they very industriously set themselves against that Course of wilful Sin in which they formerly lived and this were wondrous well if they did not stop here and go no farther but alas in the mean time while they are thus industriously busied in subduing their old Sins there are a great many lesser Flaws and Defects in their Nature which by a timely Care and Inspection they might easily correct but these they take no Notice of but quietly permit them to grow and increase till at last they become as hurtful dangerous to them as their old Sins were against which they have all this while so zealously contended As for Instance when they first entered upon a Resolution of Amendment they were profane it may be or sensual or vehemently adicted to Fraud and Oppression and against these they opposed themselves with great Zeal and Animosity and so far they did well but in the mean time perhaps there was Pride and Ostentation Envy and Peevishness Self-will and Censoriousness secretly budding and sprouting up in their Natures all which they might have easily cured by timely Applications but alas in the Heat of their Contest against their other Sins they never so much as minded or regarded these but e'en left them alone till they grew up into obstinate and inveterate Habits and became every whit as fatal and destructive to their Souls as those were which they have been all this while subduing and mortifying So that after all they have only changed their Sins and have been conjuring up one Devil while they have been laying another and whilst the Tide of their Wickedness hath been ebbing on this Shore it hath been flowing on the contrary and as it hath sunk in Sensuality it hath swelled into Devilishness Perhaps whilst you are zealously carrying on your Warfare against your old Sins you may find your selves too apt to be tickled with Applause and puff'd with vain Ostentation have a Care now that while you are starving one Vice you do not pamper another For if you do not correct this little Irregularity of your Nature betimes 't will soon be as dangerous and mischievous to you as ever any of those Vices were against which you are contending 't will by degrees so insinuate into your good Intentions and so sophisticate the Purity of them that at last you will intend nothing else but Applause and so your whole Religion will be converted into dead Shew and empty Pageantry and your spiritual Warfare will prove only a passage out of Profaneness
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
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