as the Weather and 〈◊〉 Temptations are presented apt to 〈◊〉 fir'd with Carnal Desires or frozen wâ—â—â— Carnal Fears and to desert our Dutâ— Therefore 't is necessary to fix them by repeated Vows of Obedience We 〈◊〉 directed to arm our selves with the same Minds that is with firm Resolutions to cease from Sin The girdle of Truth is a principal part of our spiritual Armour that fastens it upon us Stedfast Engagements to obey God are powerful to excite every Grace in its season to rise up in defiance against our spiritual Enemies David says I have sworn and will perform it that I will keep thy Precepts By the solemn and frequent renewing our Vows of Obedience the Tempter is discourag'd and flyes from us Let us every Morning next our Hearts resolve to walk with God all the day 4. God is well pleased with our sincere Resolutions to keep close to him Who is this that engages his Heart to close with Men He is the Inspector and Judge of our Hearts and notwithstanding ouâ— Infirmities accepts our sincerity 5. There are peculiar Circumstances that enforce the inviolable observation of our Sacramental Vows Our original and permanent Obligation that we contracted in our Baptism in the presence of the Church when we were listed under our Redeemer's Colours to oppose his Enemies and ours Satan in combination with the Flesh and the World should have a strong and constant influence into our Lives Our understanding and voluntary renewings of this at the Lord's Supper makes it more binding 'T is mentioned before that God is pleased by an admirable Condescension to be a party in the Covenant and binds himself to bestow his most free Favours and takes pleasure in performing what is promised 'T is becoming his Wisdom to glorifie his Moral Perfections in his Transactions with Man not only his Mercy but his Truth in saving us The Lord thy God he is God the faithful God which keepeth Covenant and Mercy with them that love him and keep his Commandments The Attribute of Faithfulness is set next the Deity as very dear and pleasing to him He engages himself partly for our Comfort to dispel the Clouds of Fear that are apt to rise in our Bosoms from the sense of our many and mighty Sins therefore his Mercy is secur'd to us by a Covenant and that Covenant establish'd by an Oath the sure evidence 't is irrevocable and seal'd by the Blood of the Mediator and partly to instruct us by his Example to maintain our Integrity which we engage in sealing our part of the Covenant 'T is said of God that he cannot Lye from the Veracity of his Nature and the unchangeableness of his Will and he reckons of his People they will not Lye from that Divine Disposition that is proper to them Now that God is pleased in that Ordinance to give us the clearest and strongest Assurance of his Pardoning Mercy should make us very observant and exact in performing the Condition of it What our Saviour said to the Man heal'd Miraculously of his Lameness is vertually signified in every Pardon we receive Go away sin no more lest a worse thing befal you Sin is extremely aggravated when Perfidiousness and Ingratitude are mix'd with Disobedience Our Resolutions against Sin are preventing Physick but in breaking them the Remedy increases the Disease and accelerates Death more painfully and suddenly I will hear what God the Lord will speak he will speak peace to his people but let them not return to folly To sin against the Law is a high provocation but to sin against special Love grieves the Holy Spirit and deeply wounds our Spirits Now since our hearts are deceitful above all things and since our Resolutions are fleet and fading let us earnestly pray for Divine Grace to Establish them and entirely depend upon it 'T is more easie to raise a Fortification in time of Peace than to defend it in time of War In the absence of a Temptation we readily purpose to abstain from Sin but when they assault us how often are we surpriz'd and vanquish'd David resolves I will keep thy Statutes but to keep his Resolution inviolate he prays O forsake me not utterly He Promises I will take heed to my ways that I sin not with my tongue I will keep my mouth as with a bridle but he Addresses himself to God for assistance Set a watch before my mouth and keep the door of my lips Our Resolutions are Light and Feathery soon scatter'd by a storm of Fear 't is as dangerous to trust in a Heart of Flesh as in an Arm of Flesh. Nothing is more unstable than Water but when pour'd into a strong Cistern 't is as sure as that that contains it Thus Divine Grace preserves our unstable Heart from slipping 4. The Religious observation of the Lords Day is an Excellent means for the increase of Holiness 'T is worthy of our serious Observing that the Fourth Commandment is enforc'd with a Note of Excitation Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath day to impress the sense of our Duty upon Conscience and to coâ—fine our transgressing Nature that is so apt to alienate that time that is Sacred to God and the Interest of our Souls to Carnal and Profane Uses 'T is sanctified and set apart by the Lord of our Persons and Time for the celebrating the most Excellent Works of his Power and Goodness in Creation and Redemption He that gave us our Beings and rais'd us from the Dust to an Honour little lower than the Angels those Heavenly Spirits and has ransom'd us from our woful Bondage he that dignified us with the Impression of his own Image and the Assumption of ours The Morality of the Command is perpetual that one day of seven be Consecrated and Separated for Divine Worship but the designation of the Day to the Jewes was in remembrance of their Deliverance from Egypt and to Christians in remembrance of our Deliverance from the Tyranny of the spiritual Pharaoh Satan and his infernal Army Benefits exceeding those of Creation and rescuing from the Bondage of Egypt Indeed every Day we should Redeem Time from business and pleasures for the immediate Service of God but on the Lord's Day we must be entirely Conversant in Holy Duties Publick and Private and abstain from Common Works unless of Necessity and Mercy The Religious Rest of the Fourth Commandment is to be observed by Christians so far as 't is requisite for our attendance on the Service of God 'T is not only our Duty but our heavenly Priviledge that being tir'd in the dust and toil of the World we have a freedom and are call'd to draw near to God with the promise that he will draw near to us that when we pay our Homage we shall receive infinite Blessings for then in the Communion of Saints we present our requests with a filial freedom to God and we receive his Precepts for the ordering our Lives to please him
to what a Man has and not according to what he has not A covetous Man though rich will pretend the smallness of his Estate to excuse and palliate his illiberal giving and makes himself doubly guilty of feigned Poverty and real Avarice in God's sight But a liberal Man deviseth liberal things He duely considers the Circumstances of Persons in want and esteems a just Occasion of Charity to be a golden Opportunity and will be noble and magnificent 2. I will consider the difficulty of the Cure This will be evident from the causes of the Disease and the frequent unsuccessfulness of the means in order to it There is no kind of Sinners more inconvincible and incureable than the Worldly-minded 'T is a Rule without exception those Sins which have the greatest appearance of Reason and the least of Sensuality are the most plausible and prevailing So long as there are remains of Reason in Mankind there will be Modesty and brutish Lusts will expose to Shame The high birth and honourable rank of the unclean cannot varnish and disguise their Impurities but renders them more infamous and odious Besides unless Men are not prodigiously bad if they are not free from Fault they will not defend their Intemperance and Incontinency If there be any spark of Conscience alive it discovers and condemns those Sins and assists a faithful counsellor in their Cure But the Covetous by many fair pretences justifie themselves The Apostle expresses them by the cloke of Covetousness to hide its filthiness They pretend to be frugal but not covetous They alledge the example of those who are reputed wise who prosecute the gains of the World as the main scope of their actions They will tell you 't is necessary Prudence to improve all Opportunities to increase their Estates to secure them from Evils that may happen and to neglect providing for our Families is worse than Infidelity Thus Reason is ingaged to joyn with the Affection From hence the Covetous are not only inamour'd with the unworthy Object but averse from the Cure of the vicious Affection The love of Money smothers the Mind with Ignorance and darkens its serenity that the filthiness of the Sin is indiscernible The Covetous are like Persons sick beyond the sense of their Disease and near Death without feeling the presages of it Besides those corrupt Affections which in their rise and degrees depend upon the humours of the Body that are mutable are sometimes with force and violence carried to their Objects but when the disposition of the Body is altered they flag and distasts succeed But the root and principle of Covetousness is in the Will and when that is depraved 't is diabolical in obstinacy The most fierce and greedy Beasts when they have glutted their ravenous Appetites do not presently seek after new prey but Covetousness like a Dropsie-thirst is inflam'd by drinking and inrag'd by increasing Riches And whereas other vicious desires are weakened and broke by tract of time Covetousness derives new life and vigour from age The thoughts and affections of the Covetous are never more deeply tainted with the Earth than when they draw near to their fatal period and their Bodies must be resolved into their original Elements 2. The difficulty of the Cure is evident from the inefficacy of the means used to effect it The Divine Authority of the Scripture the clearest Reason the plainest Experience are often used in vain to reform the Covetous Of a thousand Persons in whom Covetousness is the regent Lust scarce ten are cleansed and changed from covetous to be liberal 1. The Word of God has no commanding perswasive power upon them The Word declares that Covetousness is Idolatry for it deposes God and places the World the Idol of Mens Heads and Hearts in his Throne It deprives him of his Regalia his Royal Prerogatives which he has reserved to himself in the Empire of the World He is infinitely jealous of our transferring them to the Creature Our highest Adoration and Esteem our Confidence and Trust our Love and Complacency our Dependance and Observance are entirely and essentially due to him Who in the Heaven can be compared to the Lord Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened to him Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth I desire in comparison of thee The Lord is my portion saith my Soul The name of the Lord is a strong Tower the righteous fly to it and are safe Behold as the eyes of Servants look to the hands of their Masters so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until he have Mercy upon us These Scriptures are declarative of those eternal respects that are due to God from reasonable Creatures and he is highly dishonoured and displeased when they are alienated from him Now the Covetous deifie the World The rich Man's Riches are his strong City and as an high Wall in his imagination He will trust God no farther than according to visible supplies and means He takes not God for his strength but trusts in the abundance of his Riches His Heart is possessed and polluted with the love of the World and God is excluded Therefore we are commanded not to love the VVorld nor the things of it If any Man love the VVorld the love of the Father is not in him He is provok'd to Jealousie the most severe and sensible Attribute by the coldness of Mens Love From hence it appears how this comprehensive Sin is injurious to God The Psalmist tells us that the Covetous are not only the objects of God's Anger but abhorrence Thus he brands them The covetous whom the Lord abhors The words are of the most heavy signification If his Loving-kindness be better than Life his Hatred is worse than Death 'T is the root of all Evil in Persons of all conditions civil and sacred This bribes those that are in the Seat of Judgment to clear the guilty and which is a bolder Crime to condemn the innocent Of this there is recorded a cruel and bloody Instance in the death of Naboth occasioned by Ahab's Covetousness This corrupts the Preachers of the Word to speak to the Lusts not the Consciences of Men upon whom they have a servile dependance And as the Spirit of Delusion is never more the Spirit of Delusion than under the appearance of an Angel of Light so his Ministers are never more his Ministers than when they pervert the Word of God to support sinful Practices by corrupt Principles Covetousness makes Men faint and false in the time of tryal They will save the World with the loss of their Souls In short it was the impulsive cause of a Sin of the greatest Guilt that ever was committed in betraying the Son of God and his suffering the most cruel and ignominious Death A Sin never to be expiated but by the Flames that shall consume this World the place wherein he suffered Covetousness excludes all in whom
Faith contemplate the Judge upon a white Throne the Emblem of his Holiness whom none can surprise or resist Let Faith make that day as present when there will be no place for Repentance when the Fountain of Mercy to Sinners will be sealed for ever when the Books of Eternal Life and Death shall be opened and all Men shall receive an irrevocable Judgment a Judgment so fearful that Sinners how great and terrible so ever they were in this World to others shall call to the Mountains to fall on them and the Hills to cover them from the Wrath of the Lamb For his day is come A Judgment so strict that the Righteous shall scarcely be saved Now what impressions of tormenting Fear or reviving Hopes will the strong Belief of the Eternal Judgment and the Consequences of it make in us when Heaven and Hell shall divide all Men according as we are prepared or unprepared for the Tryal of that deciding Day How will it make us circumspect and cautious to avoid Evil active and ardent in doing Good for every thing must be brought in Judgment How ambitious and diligent to be accepted of our Judge Let Faith open a Window into Heaven and represent the Saints in their Sun-like Brightness their Glory and Joy and triumphant Felicity in the Eternal Kingdom where God is all in all How will the believing view of this rectifie our Minds and convince us that nothing deserves our high Esteem and Love but the Favour and Fruition of the blessed God Let Faith open the fatal Gates of Hell that are never shut upon the Damned and discover the Scenes of Woe the Sights of Horror the tormenting Passions of Reprobates their desperate Sorrow for the loss of Heaven and fierce indignation that others enjoy it both which are implyed in their weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth How powerful will this representation be to keep us in awe and order to controle the Lusts and Licentiousness of Carnal Appetites How would this double Vision make us esteem all the good things here as vile as dross and all the evil as light as Feathers in comparison of eternal things How would this inspire us with resolutions to take Heaven by violence and to fly from the Wrath to come 3. The efficacy of Faith proceeds from the serious and frequent application of Eternal Objects to our Minds and Hearts All that are Christians in Profession prefer in the Idea and Speculation Eternal Things before Temporal but in Practice and Choice the most prefer Temporal before Eternal Present and sensible things strongly affect the Carnal Faculties and excite the Natural Inclinations that were dormant in the absence of alluring Objects but when awaken'd they distract and scatter the Mind from a just comparing of things present and things future and the Will applyes the Thoughts to what is delightful to the carnal part and the application determines the choice The interposition of Earthly things eclipse the Light of Faith and weakens the reflections of that Light upon the Mind A strong Temptation defaces the impression of things future though infinitely great and consequently the Passions prevail and Faith is vanquish'd What Man that has Heaven and Hell in his view and considers that the Day of Death and Judgment are equally uncertain as to the fix'd time and equally certain as to the event and that this short Life must issue either into rivers of Pleasure for ever or into an abyss of endless Misery can be doubtful a moment what to choose and what to avoid Yet 't is evident that vast numbers of Men that are between two Eternities are indifferent and unconcerned into which their Lot shall be determined The inchanting World darkens the remembrance and damps the desire of Heaven and extinguishes the fear of Hell Transient Thoughts of future things cannot excite and influence the Affections nor regulate the Will and Actions according as the moment of them requires Moses despised the Pomp and Pleasures of the Egyptian Court and chose Afflictions with the People of God because he had an intent and fix'd Eye upon the future Reward Paul had a Heavenly Vision the Idea of which was always bright in his Memory and a Heavenly Conversation Now Faith supplies the want of Vision and if its acts are not interrupted by Earthly Objects deadness will continually inspire us with suitable affections to eternal things Above all other means let us fly to Prayer that the Holy Spirit by his illuminating guidance would direct our Minds and actuate our Faith We have received the Spirit that we may know the things given us of God That the Spirit would be our Remembrancer and strongly impress eternal things upon us Without his Influence our Consideration will be cold and ineffectual 2. There is a justifying Faith The Apostle declares Being justified by Faith we have Peace with God This is very clearly open'd in the Gospel yet there have been lately publish'd some Contentious Writings about it mix'd with such Railleries and Contumelies that have opened a Scandalous Scene and exposed Religion to the Derision of Libertines and profane Spirits and affected the Godly with sorrowful impressions and with earnest longings after the Kingdoms of Light and Love where Ignorance and Strife are abolish'd for ever Injurious Language convinces none but renders the Minds of Men more averse from Instruction We are not likely to discover the Truth in a mist of Passion but when Truth is calmly convey'd the Mind is more attentive to receive it and its convincing and perswasive Power insinuates into us Christian Love would lessen the number and allay the heat of our Controversies I have discours'd elsewhere concerning Justifying Faith and shall now very briefly glance at some things wherein its Nature and purifying Vertue consists Justification is an Act of God as supreme Judge invested with the Relation of a Father wherein his Majesty and Mercy are equally illustrious in pardoning our Sins and conferring upon us a right to Eternal Life for the Satisfaction and Merits of Christ's Righteousness imputed to us and received by Faith Faith is the Condition that qualifies us to have Pardon applyed to us and its Nature consists in receiving Christ upon the terms of the Gospel that is our unfeigned accepting him as our Prince and Saviour and intire relyance upon him The general belief of the Gospel is not Justifying Faith but our regular trust in the pardoning Grace of God necessarily includes our performing the Condition of the Promise that is a relyance on Christ joyn'd with a sincere resolution to obey him A particular perswasion that our Sins are pardoned is not Justifying Faith We are commanded to believe that we may be pardoned Many sincere Believers have distracting Doubts about their Pardon The matter being of infinite importance they are fearful in the inquiries of their Title to it And others are deceived with Presumption in stead of Faith in Christ and Security in stead of
the same Spiritual Family This Affection proceeds from the upper springs of Grace the exercise of it is immediately terminated on Men but ultimately respects the Glory of God for whose sake 't is performed To do good and distribute forget not for with such Sacrifice God is well-pleased In short our Love to God must be supream and for himself our Love to Men and other things only in the degrees he allows and not for themselves but for God who commands to love them as they bear his Image or are instrumental in the performance of our Duty Otherwise we are in danger of being alienated from the Love of God when any person or thing becomes a Temptation to us to do any thing either to obtain or preserve them against his Will But if we love them only for his sake we shall readily part with them as a Snare or offer them as a Sacrifice if his Will requires it As if we love some particular Meat because 't is healthful and not because 't is pleasant upon the first discovery that 't is hurtful we shall reject it The properties of this Love are specified in the Command 1. It must be sincere The Apostle directs Let Love be without dissimulation Love is essentially sincere 't is seated in the Heart and express'd in real actions 't is cordial and operative There is an empty noise of Love and Respects that proceeds from a double Heart not entire and ingenuous Some by fair Promises work and wind Men to obtain their Ends and then slip through them How often are the sincere deceiv'd by the liberal expressions of Love untryed and untrue mistaking a shining Counterfeit for a real Ruby But though the Humane Eye cannot see through the disguise he that commands sincere Love pierces into the Heart and if it be wanting there his Anger burns against the vain pretenders to it Some will seem to grace others with a flourish of words that they may tax them more freely and without suspicion To praise without a ground of real worth is sordid Flattery but to commend with a mischievous intent is the worst Treachery Some will assist the Sick day and night and seem to sympathize with them in their Pains and Sorrows but their design is to obtain a rich Legacy They appear like mourning Doves but are real Vulturs that smell a Carcass to feed on There are others less guilty who esteem empty Complements to be Courtly Decencies and though 't is not their design to be injurious to those whom they caress yet their Love is only from the Tongue which in the Apostle's expression is but a tinkling Cymbal Their pretended Friendship is like Leaf-Gold very extensive but soon worn off for want of depth Others are Mercenaries that like the Heathens do Good to those from whom they receive Good their Love degenerates into Traffick and does not proceed from a Divine Principle Ingenuous and Christian Spirits have not such crooked Inclinations always reflecting upon their own Interest 'T is true Christian Love declares it self in alternate acts of Kindness but is also exercised where there are no such inducements This is to imitate our Heavenly Father who does good to all without any desert in the receivers and beyond all requital Affliction is the Furnace wherein sincere Friends are tryed and discern'd from the deceitful their Afflictions are common their Compassions and cordial assistance are common This is the most certain and significant Character of unfeigned Love not to fail in a calamitous season Job aggravates his Sorrows by this reflection that his Friends dealt deceitfully as Brooks that run in a full stream in Winter when Snow falls and there is no want of refreshing Waters but when 't is hot they are dryed up and vanish We may securely rely on their Friendship who afford us undesir'd supplies in time of trouble The Observation of the wise Philosopher is verified in every Age That Men in a flourishing condition are surrounded with Friends but in an afflicted are forsaken This Consideration should inflame us with a holy ambition of the friendship of God for his sincere Love is most tenderly express'd in our distress The Psalmist enforces his Request by this motive Be not far off for trouble is near 'T is often seen that Men fly from their Acquaintance when the clearest tryal is to be made of their Affection but then the blessed God draws nearest to us and affords Relief and Comfort 2. Our Love must be pure Seeing you have purified your Souls in obeying the Truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the Brethren see that ye love one another with a pure Heart fervently The purity of Love either respects the cause of it or the exercise and effects of it The cause of pure Love is the Divine Command and the Divine Pattern set before us The Love of God to Men is a leading Rule to us He loves them according to the resemblance of his imitable Perfections in them and consequently the more holy and heavenly the more righteous and gracious Men are the more they should be endear'd to our Affections This is to love God in them and according to their true lovelyness This is to love them by the impression of that Love wherewith God loves himself Our Saviour tells us They that do his Father's Will are his Brothers Sisters and Mothers There is an impure Love that proceeds from the similitude of vicious Affections and is entertain'd by sinful Society that is fatally contagious The Tempter most forcibly allures when he is least suspected He conceals the Serpents Sting in the Tongue of a Friend The Friendship of the World is contracted and cemented by sensual Lusts and the end of it will be the tormenting the Corrupters and the Corrupted together for ever The exercise and effects of pure Love principally respect the Soul the more excellent and immortal part of our Friends We are commanded to exhort one another while 't is called to day and to provoke one another to love and good works Exhortation includes Instruction and Admonition The giving Counsel how to preserve the Purity and secure the Salvation of the Soul how to prevent Sin or to cure it by the conviction of Conscience when ignorant of its Duty by the excitation of the Affections when cold and sluggish and direction to order the Conversation aright The performance of this Duty is inseparable from pure and unfeigned Love and the neglect of it is an argument of deadly Hatred Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy Heart nor suffer Sin to lye upon him If you discover any prognostick or symptom of a Disease growing in a Friend that threatened his Life what a cruel neglect were it not to advise and urge him to apply the best means for his preservation Much more are we obliged to rectifie the Errors in Judgment and Miscarriages in Conversation which they are guilty of especially since Spiritual
guilt Now the more we are conform'd to our meek and forgiving Saviour the more we approach to Perfection And the more the Corrupt Nature in us is provokt and fierce upon Revenge the doing Good for Evil is the more sure proof of excellent Vertue and clear Victory over our selves 8. The more receptive persons are of Spiritual Counsel and Admonition for the preventing or recovery from Sin they are the more Holy 'T is David's desire Let the righteous smite me it shall be a kindness and let him reprove me it shall be an excellent oil which shall not break my head There is no Counsel so truly valuable as that which proceeds from Wisdom and Love in matters of Importance If a Friend discovers by indications and symptoms a disease that insensibly has seiz'd on us does not his compassionate Advice endear him to us How much rather should we meekly and thankfully receive a prudent and seasonable reproof of a Spiritual Friend for the healing our Souls whose Diseases are far more dangerous and less discernable than those of the Body 'T is the most sacred and beneficial Office of Friendship and like the Compassionate Love of the Angel to Lot in leading him out of Sodom And as the most Excellent Metal Gold is most pliant and easily wrought on so the most Excellent Tempers are most receptive of holy Counsels Yet the Natural Man is very averse from a meek submission to reproof for Sin A vicious self-Self-love of which Pride is the production makes us to overvalue our Reputation now to reprove implies a Superiority which occasions Impatience and Disdain Though the Duty be perform'd with Prudence and Tenderness and respective Modesty yet 't is usually very unacceptable Men will excuse and extenuate and sometimes defend their Sins nay sometimes recoil with Indignation upon a faithful Reprover 'T is as dangerous to give an Admonition to some proud Spirits as 't is to take a Thorn out of a Lions Foot 'T is therefore evident that when a just Reproof is receiv'd with Meekness and Acceptance there is a great Love of Holiness as when one takes a very unpleasant Medicine it argues an earnest desire of Health He is an Excellent Saint that when Conscience has not by its directive Office prevented his Falling into Sin and a sincere Friend endeavors to restore him is not angry at the Reproof but sorry he deserves it Lastly The deliberate desire of Death that we may arrive at the state of perfect Holiness is the effect of excellent Grace There is no desire more natural and strong than of the enjoyment and continuance of Life There is no fear more insuperable than of certain and inevitable Death Those who do not fear it at a distance are struck with Terrors at the aspect and approaches of it Carnal Men whose Heaven is here at the fearful apprehensions and foresight of it are ready to sink into Despair Nay holy Men who have the prospect of Coelestial Happiness beyond Death and believe that the pangs of Death are throws for their deliverance to Eternal Life are apt to shrink at the thoughts of their Dissolution If the change from an earthly to a heavenly state were not by our being uncloth'd but to be cloth'd upon with Glory which St. Paul declares to be the desire of Nature the hopes of seeing Christ in his Glory and being transformed into his Likeness would so inflame their Affections that they would be impatient of being absent from him But the necessity of dying that we may ascend into his reviving presence is so bitter that Divine Grace is requisite to induce us to consent to it St. Peter was an ardent lover of Christ and appeals to our Saviour's omnisciency for a testimony of it Lord thou that knowest all things knowest that I love thee yet our Saviour immediately tells him When thou shalt be old thou shalt stretch out thy hands and another shall carry thee where thou wouldst not signifying his Death The circumstance when thou arâ— old implies an unwillingness to dye when the natural term of Life was near expiring Yet Peter had been a spectator of our Saviour's glorious Transfiguration and of his triumphant Ascent to Heaven from Mount Olivet The best of us have reason to joyn in the language and desire of the Spouse Draw us to thy blessed presence and we will run after thee So strong is the band of natural Love that fastens the Soul and Body and such a reluctancy there is against a Dissolution But St. Paul declares I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better He was contented to live for the Service of Christ but desirous to dye to enjoy his Presence in the Sanctuary of Life above This was his fixed and unsatisfied desire How few are arriv'd to such a heigth of Spirituality This desire is the fruit of Faith with respect to the Reality and Glory of the Eternal State and our interest in it According as the revelation of the invisible Kingdom is in our Minds such is its attractive power in our Hearts 'T is the effect of Divine Love in a degree of eminence To vanquish the Terrors of Death that are insuperable to Humane Resolutions and with a clear and chearful Spirit to leave the Body in the Grave that we may for ever be freed from Sin and made like to Christ in Purity and Glory is the effect of Love stronger than Death 2. Use is to excite us to follow Holiness to make it the great design study and endeavour of our Lives to grow in Grace 'T is true the beginning the prosecution and perfection of Holiness is from God but 't is by the subordinate concurrence of the renewed Mind and Will the leading Faculties that we are advancing towards Perfection God gives Vertue to the Seeds Temper to the Seasons and Form to the Fruits but Men are to plant and water the Fruits of the Earth Without God our Endeavours are weak and ineffectual but by his Blessing are successful I will first set down Directions how we should follow Holiness Secondly Answer the Carnal Allegations against our striving after Perfection Thirdly Proceed to add other Motives to enforce the Duty Fourthly Propound the Means that may be effectual for this excellent End 1. We must in our early Age follow Holiness Men commonly deceive Conscience and elude their Duty by delays They are unwilling to be holy too soon and in an excellent degree They presume there will be time enough hereafter for to reform themselves after their Voluptuous Affections are satisfied after their Worldly Acquisitions they will forsake their Sins and become holy But this is unaccountable Folly rather a Delirium than Discourse There are innumerable Contradictions of which the Lives of Men are compounded they complain as if Time were intolerably short and waste it as if it were intolerably long They use all Arts that Months may seem as Hours and Years pass as Days But in no
brings to our remembrance the Death of Christ in that lively Sacramental Representation and seals the pardoning Mercy of God to our Souls and conveys all the precious Fruits of it to us A lively Faith on our suffering Saviour makes him ours by an intimate and inseparable union and fruition We dwell in him and he in us How many drooping Souls have been raised how many wounded Spirits have been healed how many cloudy Souls have been inlightened in that Ordinance Here the comforting Spirit breaths our Saviour shews his reviving Countenance God speaks Peace to his People A Believer tasts the hidden Manna and the Love of Christ that is sweeter than Wine The bruised Reed becomes a strong Pillar in the Temple of God the smoaking Flax is cherish'd into a purer and more pleasant Light than springs from the Sun in its brightness 3. Love to Christ is increas'd by partaking of this Ordinance wherein his bloody Death is represented Greater Love could not be express'd than in his dying for us and lesser Love could not have saved us from perishing for ever He dyed not only to satisfie his Father's Justice but his own Love to us 'T is said by the Prophet He shall see of the travel of his Soul and be satisfied The travel of his Soul implies his Affection and Affliction the strength of his Love and his immense Sorrows Now nothing is more repugnant to the Principle so deeply engraven in Humane Nature than not to return Love for Love Our Saviour by the dearest titles deserves our Love not only for his high Perfections but his deep Sufferings He was without Form and Comeliness in the Eyes of the Carnal VVorld when disfigured by his Sufferings But can he be less lovely in his Sufferings wherein he declar'd his dearest Love Astonishing Love appeared in his dying Countenance flam'd in his quenched Eyes flowed from his pierced Side To a spiritual Eye he is as amiable with his Crown of Thorns as with his Crown of Glory Our Love to Christ like Fire out of its sphere must be preserved by renewing its Fewel or it will decline Now there is nothing more proper to feed it than Christ's Love to us and in this Ordinance the sacred Fire is maintained The Eye affects the Heart The mournings the longings and delights of Love are most sensible in spiritual Communion with our Saviour at this Feast The inflamed Spouse in a Rapture of Admiration and Complacency breaks forth I am my beloved's and he is mine St. Paul who was rap'd up to the third Heavens and heard unspeakable things declares Christ crucified to be the most excellent Object of his Knowledge his most precious Treasure and dearest Joy 'T is true the carnal receiver of the Elements is a stranger to this Love and Joy that is only felt by Faith and Experience There are many Christians in title that never felt any vital emanations from Christ in this Ordinance The most content themselves with Sacramental Communion without Spiritual and feel no correspondent Affections to his extream Sufferings for us But if there be a spark of Life in the Soul if all be not cold and dead within the remembrance of Christ's bleeding and dying Love will inexpressibly endear him to us Now our Sanctification was a principal end of his Death The Apostle declares that Christ loved his Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it by the washing of the water and by the word That he might present to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Can we allow any Sin in our Hearts and Lives and defeat the design of his Love and disparage the vertue of his Sufferings Can we endure any Sin to reign in us that was the cause of his Death so full of Ignominy and Torment He has declared how precious our Sanctification is in his esteem 't is one of the richest Veins in the whole Mine of Grace and can we slight it Can we imagine that his Death obtain'd for us an impure Indulgence for our Lusts when the end of it was our absolute Purity Can we content our selves with low degrees of Holiness when he paid so dear a Price for our Perfection The comfortable assurance that he was crucified for us arises from our being crucified with him to all the Vanities of the world Indeed the external receiving this Ordinance is not beneficial to an Unbelieveâ— no more than that the setting a Feast before a dead Body that is uncapable of feeding and nourishment Men must believe before they can receive spiritual nourishment by it and have the Life of Grace before they can feed on the Bread of Life But the unfeigned Believer finds his inward Man renewed by it I will add to what has been said that in this Ordinance the Covenant of the Gospel is sealed by the contracting Parties God ratifies his Promise of Grace and we seal our Duty of Obedience 'T is true we are bound by an antecedent right and higher obligation than our own consent the Command of God binds us to take this Covenant and to keep it We are bought with a price and are not our own Now if the Blood of the Son of God be our Ransom from the bondage of Sin and Death and we in the Sacrament partake of his Blood and by that solemn Right dedicate our selves to him That whether we live we live to the Lord or whether we dye we dye to him how constraining is this to make us diligent in accomplishing the sacred ends of Christ's Institution How just is it that since he dyed for our Salvation we should live to his Glory and when we renew our Right in the Blessings of the Covenant we should sincerely renew our Obligations to the Duties of it If after our holy Engagement we renounce our Allegiance to our Prince and Saviour by entertaining his Enemies the Lusts of the Flesh we incur a double Guilt not only by transgressing the Law of God but by violating our Oath of Fidelity and double Guilt will bring double Damnation That the renewing our Coâ—â—â—ant aâ— the Lord's Supper may be more effectual let us consider 1. That holy Resolutions and Engagements are the immediate Principle of Obedience Till the Convictions of our Duty are wrought into Resolutionâ— they are of no efficacy 2. They must proceed from the dâ—liberate Judgment and determin'd Will. The Apostle declares The love of Chriâ—â— constrains us we thus judge if one dyed for all then were all dead and the consequence is strong that we should live 〈◊〉 him who dyed for us Empty valleitâ—â—â— are no volitions faint and waveâ—â—â—â— Purposes have no force Believers aâ—â— exhorted with full purpose of Hâ—art 〈◊〉 â—leave to the Lord. 3. The renewing our holy Engaâ—â—ments are very necessary for perseveraâ—â—â— in our Duty Our Hearts are false 〈◊〉 foolish and apt to fly from God thâ—â— are as changable
them from the power of Sin The wise observer tells us I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets and her hands are as bands whoso pleases God shall escape from her but the sinner shall be taken by her Behold this have I found saith the preacher counting one by one to find out the account but I find not one man of a thousand have I found but a woman among all these have I not found 'T is astonishing that for a short dream of pleasure men should despise Heaven and Hell what is most desireable and most fearful How just is the reproach mixt with Compassion and Indignation How long ye simple ones will you love simplicity and fools hate knowledge 'T is worth the inquiry how men are sottishly seduced to live unchastly and intemperately against the reason and rest of their Minds 1. The great Temptation to Sin is the love of Pleasure accordingly the degrees of sensual Pleasure being more intense in those carnal Faculties that are for the preserving and propagating Life especially when heightned by the carnal Fancy the love of the Members prevails against the love of the Mind 'T is said of unclean persons whose Eyes are full of the Adulteress they cannot cease from Sin they cannot dis-entangle themselves from the embraces of the circling Serpent 2. Carnal pretences are made use of to defend or at least excuse the sin of Intemperance which makes it more easily indulg'd and pernicious in effect Men if it were possible would sin without sin without discovering the guilt and turpitude of it that they may enjoy their pleasures without accusing recoiling thoughts which will turn the sweetest Wine into Vinegar Now since Meats and Drinks are necessary for our vital support and the measure is uncertain and various according to the dispositions and capacities of mens bodies Intemperate persons feed high and drink deep without reflection or remorse and pretend 't is for the Refreshment of Nature 3. Fleshly Lusts steal into the Throne by degrees An Excess of Wickedness strikes at first sight with Horror No Prodigal design'd to waste a great Estate in a day yet many from immense Riches have fall'n into extream Poverty This Expence is for his Pleasure this for his Honour this will not be ruinous thus proceeding by degrees till all be squander'd away he becomes voluntarily poor An Intemperate Person begins with lesser measures and is not frequently overtaken Conscience for a time resists and suspends the entireness of his consent to the Temptation He drinks too much for his Time for his Health and Estate but he will not totally quench his Reason Yet by degrees he becomes hardned and freely indulges his Appetite till he is drown'd in Perdition A Lascivious person begins with impure Glances tempting Words and Actions and proceeds to unclean mixtures 4. Sensual Lusts stupify Conscience they kill the Soul in the Eye and extinguish the directive and reflexing Powers Wine and Women take away the Heart that 't is neither vigilant nor tender Chastity and Temperance joined with Prayer to the Father of Lights clarifie and brighten the Mind and make it receptive of sanctifying Truths but carnal predominant Passions sully and stain the Understanding by a natural Efficiency and by a moral and meritorious Efficiency When the Spirits that are requisite for intellectual operations are wasted for the use of the Body the Mind is indisposed for the severe exercise of Reason Although the dispositions of the Body are not directly operative upon the Spirit yet in their present state of union there is a strange simpathy between the Constitution of the one and the Conceptions and Inclinations of the other Luxury and Lust fasten a rust and foulness on the Mind that it cannot see Sin in its odious Deformity nor Vertue in its unattaintable Beauty They raise a thick mist that darkens Reason that it cannot discern approaching dangers The Judicative Faculty is by the righteous Judgment of God impaired and corrupted that it does not seriously consider the descent and worth of the Soul its duty and accounts for all things done in the Body but as if the Spirit in Man were for no other use but to animate the organs of Intemperance and Lust they follow their Pleasures with greediness 'T is said of the young Man enticed by the flatteries of the Harlot that he goes after her like an Ox crown'd with Garlands that insensibly goes to be sacrific'd He looks to the present Pleasure without considering the Infamy the Poverty the Diseases the Death and Damnation that are the just consequents of his Sin The sensual are secure The effects of Carnal Lusts were visible in the darkness of Heathenism Lusts alienates the thoughts and desires of the Soul from Converse with God His Justice makes him terrible to the Conscience and Holiness distastful to the Affections of the unclean We read of the Israelites they were so greedy of the Onions and Garlick and Flesh-pots of Egypt that they despised the Food of Angels the Manna that drop'd from Heaven Till the Soul be defecate from the dregs of Sense and refin'd to an Angelick Temper it can never taste how good the Lord is and will not forsake sensual Enjoyments The conversion of the Soul proceeds from the inlightened Mind and the renewed Will ravish'd with Divine Delights that overcome all the Pleasures of Sin There are for our caution recorded in Scripture two fearful Examples of the inchanting Power of Lust. Sampson inticed by his Lust became a voluntary slave to a wretched Harlot that first quench'd the Light of his Mind and then the Light of his Body and expos'd him to the cruel scorn of his Enemies Solomon by indulging his sensual Appetite lost his Wisdom and was induced by his Idolatrous Concubines to adore Stocks and Stones and became as very an Idol as those he worship'd that have Eyes and see not Ears and hear not He rebell'd against God who had made him the richest and wisest King in the World and miraculously revealed his Goodness to him Dreadful Consequence of Sensuality 5. There is a special Reason that makes the recovery of the sensual to Sobriety and Purity to be almost impossible The internal Principle of Repentance is the inlightened Conscience reflecting upon past Sins with heart-breaking sorrow and detestation This is declared by God concerning Israel Then shall ye remember your evil ways and your doings not good and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your iniquities and your abominations The bitter remembrance of Sin is the first step to reformation Now there are no Sinners more averse and uncapable of such reflections than those who have been immerst in the Delights of Sense The unclean wretch remembers the charming Objects and exercise of his Lusts with Pleasure and when his instrumental Faculties are disabled by Sickness or Age for the gross acts he repeats them in his Fancy renews his Guilt and the Sin
Majesty I have laid the Foundations thereof on the centre of the Earth and raised its Towers to the Heavens This Pride is attended with relyance and confidence in their own direction to contrive and ability to accomplish their designs and with assuming the glory of all their success intirely to themselves The proud manage their affairs independently upon the Providence of God who is the Author of all our Faculties and the efficacy of them and totally neglect the two essential parts of Natural Religion Prayer and Praise or very slightly perform the external part without those inward Affections that are the Spirit and Life of them 'T was the wise Prayer of Agar Give me not Riches lest I be full and deny thee God strictly cautions his People against this dangerous Sin Beware thou forget not the Lord and say in thy Heart my power and the might of my Hand hath gotten me this Wealth Remember 't is he that gives the power to get Riches And 't is equally dangerous lest Men should attribute Victories or Prosperity in any kind to their own Counsel and Resolution their Prudence and Power without humble and thankful observing and acknowledging the Divine Providence the fountain and original of all our Blessings 2. Whatever the kinds of Sin be when committed against knowledge with design and deliberation they proceed from Insolence and Obstinacy The Israelites are charged with this aggravation in their sinning They dealt proudly and harden'd their necks and harken'd not to the Commandments and refused to obey Proud Sinners are introduced boasting Our Tongues are our own who is Lord over us They will endure no restraints but are lawless and loose as if they were above fear and danger 'T is true there are few so prodigiously wicked as to speak thus but Mens Actions have a language as declarative as their Words And sinning presumptuously with a high hand is constructively a denyal and despising of the Dominion and Power of the Law-giver as if he had no right to command nor strength to vindicate the Honour of his despised Deity In the last Judgment the Punishment of rebellious Sinners will be according to the Glory of God's Majesty and the extent of his Power that was contemned and vilified by them 3. When Divine Judgments are sent to correct the dissolute disorders of the World and Sinners should with tenderness and trembling hear the Voice of the Rod and who has appointed it yet they proceed in their Wickedness as if God were not always Present to see their Sins nor Pure to hate them nor Righteous to exact a severe Judgment for them nor Powerful to inflict it this argues intolerable Pride and Obstinacy God and Sinners are very unequal Enemies The effects of his Displeasure should be received with obsequiousness not with obduration Therefore the Apostle puts that confounding Question Do you provoke the Lord to jealousie are you stronger than he Can you encounter with offended Omnipotence To despise his Anger is as provoking as to despise his Love 'T is astonishing that Dust and Ashes should rise to such an incorrigible heighth of Pride as to fly in the Face of God Who ever hardned himself against him and prospered All that are careless of God's design to reform them by Afflictions that seek for relief in diverting Business or Pleasures provoke God to more severe inflictions of his Anger But those surly proud Natures that are exasperated by Sufferings and wrestle with the strongest Storms are in combination with the stubborn Spirits of Hell and shall have their portion with them Lastly When Men have a vain presumption of the goodness of their spiritual state of the degrees of their Goodness and their stability in Goodness not sensible of their continual want of renewed supplies from Heaven they are guilty of spiritual Pride Of this there are two Instances in Scripture the one in the Church of lukewarm Laodicea the other in the Pharisee mentioned by our Saviour The first said I am rich and increased in goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and poor and miserable and blind and naked The Pharisee to raise the esteem of his own Goodness stands upon comparison with others whose Vices may be a foil to his seeming Graces He said I am not as other Men are Extortioners Adulterers or even as this Publican 'T is true he superficially thanks God but the air of Pride transpires through his Devotion by valuing himself above others worse than himself as if his own Vertues were the productive cause of his distinguishing Goodness If Humility be not mix'd in the exercise of every Grace 't is of no value in God's esteem The humble unjust Publican was rather justified than the proud Pharisee This spiritual Pride is very observable in the superstitious who measuring Divine Things with Humane from that mixture of imaginations introduce carnal Rites into the Worship of God and value themselves upon their opinionative Goodness They mistake the swelling of a Dropsie for substantial growth and presume themselves to be more holy than others for their proud singularity Superstition is like Ivy that twines about the Tree and is its seeming ornament but drains its vital Sap and under its verdant Leaves covers a Carcass Thus carnal Ceremonies seem to adorn Religion but really dispirit and weaken its efficacy Pharisaical Pride is fomented by a zealous observance of things uncommanded in Religion neither pleasing to God nor profitable to Men. On the contrary some Visionaries pretend to such a sublimity of Grace and eminent Sanctity that they are above the use of Divine Ordinances They pretend to live in immediate Communion with God as the Angels and dazled with specious Spiritualities they neglect Prayer hearing the Word and receiving the Sacrament the means of growing in Grace as if they were arrived at Perfection This is the effect of spiritual Pride and Delusion For the mortifying this vicious Disposition consider that Pride is in a high degree injurious and provoking to God An ordinary Malefactor breaks the King's Laws but a Rebel strikes at his Person and Crown The first and great Commandment is to honour God with the highest Esteem and Love with the most humble Adoration consequently the greatest Sin is the despising his Majesty and obscuring his Glory There is no Sin more clearly opposite to Reason and Religion For the most essential duty and character of an understanding Creature is dependance and observance of God as the first cause and last end of all things receiving with thankfulness his Benefits and referring them all to his Glory Pride contradicts natural Justice by intercepâ—ing the grateful affectionate ascent of the Soul to God in celebrating his Greatness and Goodness A proud Man constructively puts himself out of the number of God's Creatures and deserves to be excluded from his tender Providence The Jealousie of God his most severe and sensible Attribute is kindled for this revolture of the
Creature from its Duty and the depriving him of his proper Glory 'T is true Gods declarative Glory is not profitable to him But he will not give his glory to another nor permit another to usurp it his Concession and Consent would be directly contrary to the Eternal Rule of Righteousness and therefore impossible without the denial of himself Pride is in the Front of those Sins which God hates and are an Abomination to him A proud look that is seldom disjoin'd from a proud Heart God looks upon the proud afar off with a holy Disdain He resists the Proud Pride is the most pernicious of all Vices for whereas any single Vice is opposite to its contrary Vertue Uncleanness expels Chastity Covetousness Liberality Pride like an infectious Disease taints the sound parts Corrupts the Actions of every Vertue and deprives them of their true Grace and Glory Pride is so offensive to God that he sometimes permits his Children to fall into sins of another kind to Correct Pride And he is an unskilful Physician that Cures one Disease by a worse When the Apostle was liable to the temptation of Pride for his Coelestial Visions Satan was permitted to buffet him A strange Dispensation that the Prince of Pride was let loose to instruct him in Humility The fearful Examples of God's Wrath upon the Proud most convincingly prove how odious they are in his sight The Angels fell by Pride and are the most cursed creatures of the Creation and bound with Chains of Darkness to the Judgment of the Great Day Adam was sick of the same Disease which involv'd him and his Progeny under the Sentence of the first and second Death How many great Kings for the insolent forgetfulness of their frail Condition were by Divine Vengeance cast down from the heighth of their Glory and made spectacles of ignominious Misery The proud and stubborn Pharaoh that defy'd the Almighty and said Who is the Lord that I should obey him and let Israel go that threatned I will pursue I will overtake I will divide the spoil Like the raging Sea that roars and foams and swells threatning to drown the Land but when 't is come to its appointed Limits the weak Sand as if its Fury were turn'd into Fear retires into its own Channel that proud King was tam'd by Frogs and Flies and at last drown'd with his Army in the Red Sea Senacherib so high flown with the Conceit of his Irresistible Strength that he Challeng'd Heaven Who is your God that he should be able to deliver you out of my hands found there was a just power above that in one Night destroy'd his mighty Army and afterward cut him off in his Idolatry Nebuchadnezzar the Head of Gold in the Figure representing the Empires of the World was for his Pride turn'd a grazing among the Beasts and by his Fall was the Argument of the Insultation Thou saidst in thy heart I will ascend into Heaven I will exalt my Throne above the Stars of God I will ascend above the heighth of the Clouds I will be like the most high How art thou fallen from heaven O Lucifer Son of the morning how art thou cut down to the ground that didst weaken nations Herod for usurping Divine Honour was devour'd by Worms In every Age there are instances of God's terrible Wrath upon the Proud 2. Pride is very odious in the sight of Men therefore it often borrows the mask of Humility to obtain its ends but 't is always odious to God who sees the most intimate workings of it in the heart A proud Man is an Enemy to the more Excellent and Worthy he is pleas'd with the Vices and Infelicities of others as they afford an advantage to exalt himself above them and grieved at their Vertues and Happiness which render them more valuable than himself Pride is the Parent of Contention it exasperates the Sense of a small Offence puts an edge upon Anger and has often afforded tragical Subjects that have fill'd the Scenes with Tears and Blood Humility produces Patience for it makes a Man lower in his own Eyes than he is in the opinion of others Pride treats others with Contempt and Censure and thereby provokes them to turn Reverence into Despising and Love into Hatred When a proud Man falls into Misery he is the least lamented That the Cure of this Lust is very difficult will be evident by a Complexion of Considerations 1. Pride is the Sin to which Angels and Men in their best state were peculiarly liable The Angels intermitting the vision of the Divine Glory and reflecting upon their Excellencies were intoxicated with Self-admiration 'T is strange to Amazement that they should so suddenly unlearn their Natures and disclaim their Maker who had prevented them with his excellent Benefits and rais'd them to that Bright Eminence above other Creatures Man in the state of unstain'd Innocence when all Perfections of Body and Mind enter'd into his Composition with all his Luminaries and Graces was Corrupted by Pride You shall be like Gods was the Temptation that corrupted him Prodigious disorder His Pride begins when his true Glory Ends and his Humility ends when his Shame begins In the depraved Nature of Man Pride is the Radical Reigning Sin that first Lives and last Dies 'T is call'd the Pride of Life Pride springs up in the Heart of a Child and continues to extreme Age. Other Vices have their Seasons which being expir'd they wither and decay Carnal pleasures change their Natures and become distastful but Pride flourishes and grows in every Age. Now 't is usually in vain to give Counsels of Wisdom to those who are sunk into Holly the proper Season is to Instruct and Caution when it may be preventive of Folly The difficulty of the Cure is increas'd in that like a Hectic Feaver 't is not easily discerned till 't is almost incurable Some Vices are odious from the visible matter of them Intemperance Uncleanness and Injustice by defrauding and oppressing others but Pride is often excited and drawn forth by the same things wherein Vertues are exercised and distinguished only by the end which is often concealed from our own sight The Pharisee is a signal Instance of this A Man may visibly despise the Pomp and Vanities of the World and this may raise his osteem in the minds of real Saints and the outward practice of Goodness will be productive of the praise of Goodness in others This will afford a strong temptation of Pride All the operations of Vertues even the exercise of Humility that are the matter and argument of Praise may be incentives of Pride and those Diseases are extreamly dangerous which are nourish'd by that Food that is necessary to support Life The old Serpent when he cannot seduce Men by carnal Temptations which are easily discovered inspires with so soft a breath the opinion of their own Vertues that they are insensibly tainted The desire of external Honour and Power beyond
Lawgiver and Judge to Call them to an Account for their Actions can doubt of his Eternal Existence Now that there is a God being proved the necessary Consequence from that Principle is that he must be honour'd and serv'd according to his own Will and that it becomes his Wisdom and Goodness to reveal his Will to Men the Rule of their Duty and that this be done in the most instructive and permanent way in Writing that is less liable to Corruption than Oral Tradition and that the Holy Scripture has in it such Conspicuous Characters of its descent from Heaven besides the most undoubted Testimony that it was written by Men Divinely Inspired and Infallible that without violating the Rules of sound Discourse we must yield our Assent to its Divine Authority and supernatural Doctrines reveal'd in it I shall not here amplifie and illustrate these particulars having in some Discourses formerly publish'd of the Existency of God and the Immortality of the Soul and the Divinity of the Christian Religion manifested how desperate the Cause of the Atheists and Deists is to unprejudic'd Minds Now though the deduction specified be according to the true rule of Ratiocination yet there are some that account it a slavery to fix their belief upon any Authority but will be free in believing as they are in their actions I will therefore briefly produce some proofs of the Truth of Christian Religion that carry an uncontroulable Evidence in them The abolishing Idolatry in the Pagan World in the time foretold by the Prophets is a palpable proof that Christian Religion was from the true God The Instruments of this great Work were a few Fishermen that had neither Learning nor Arms nor Treasures Patience was their Strength Poverty their Choice Disgrace their Honour that without any Force but of Illumination and Perswasion of Humility and Charity and enduring the most terrible Sufferings they should vanquish the Pride of Philosophers the Tyrannous power of Princes the Rebellious Opposition of Mens Carnal Lusts is not Conceivable without the assistance of Divine Strength that convinc'd the most obstinate Enemies that the Doctrine was Divine by the Miracles done in Confirmation of it Besides that which the wise Men in all Ages were searching for that is the perfection of the Law of Nature at first engraven in the Hearts of Men by the Author of it but in vain for although Philosophy affords some notices of Good and Evil sufficient to check many notorious Vices yet 't is not sufficient to direct Men in their universal Duty towards God others and themselves but the Gospel is an instructive Light of our full Duty it speaks to the Heart and changes its Thoughts and Affections and reforms the Life according to the pure and perfect Rule reveal'd in it Now could an Imposture produce such a perfection of Vertue in the wicked World The true interpretation of the Moral Law in the Gospel is from God alone Vâ—x hominem non sonat Could such a change be made without visible Miracles If the Christian Religion was planted and propagated without the Confirmation of Miracles it were a transcendent Miracle And though we saw not the Miracles done by the Apostles yet we see the permanent effects of them in the belief and Lives of True Christians Infidels are apt to reply if they saw Miracles performed to assure them of the Divinity of the Christian Religion they would believe it 'T is a vain pretence that Men would submit to the power of God declar'd by Miracles who deny his Authority made known in that eminent degree of Evidence in his Word Abraham answer'd the Rich Man who desir'd a Messenger from the Dead might be sent to Convert his Brethren They have Moses and the Prophets and if they hear not them they would not be perswaded though one rose from the dead In short those who resist so strong a Light as shines in the Scripture the delusion of their Mind is from their depraved Hearts Speculative Truths obtain the present and easie Assent of the Mind but Truths directive of Practice if opposite to Mens Lusts though their Evidence be unexceptionable yet the carnal Mind is very averse from receiving them This account is given of the Pharisees Infidelity they repented not that they might believe in him When the Will is ingag'd in the love of Sin and Rebels against the Sanctity and Severity of the Gospel Commands 't is congruous to reject it The corrupt Affections hinder the due application of the Mind to consider the motives of Credibility and stain the Mind that it does not sincerely judge of them Though Infidels pretend to be the only discoursing Wits of the Age to have the Oracles of Reason in their Breasts and despise others as Captives of a blind Belief yet their Folly is palpable and penal for having provoked God by their Infidelity they are left to the power of their Lusts and of the Tempter and sink deeper into darkness and become more hardned and presumptuous Those who Embark with these distracted Pilots in such dangerous Seas have a mind to perish for ever 2. Hyprocrisie is a Spiritual Pollution In its Theological Consideration it implyes a Counterfeiting Religion and Vertue an affectation of the Name join'd with a disaffection to the Thing The having a form of Godliness with denying the power of it Accordingly 1. Every Titular Christian who professes Subjection to Christ and lives in Habitual Disobedience to his Commands is an Hypocrite The actions are the incarnate issues of the Heart wherein they are form'd and the clearest discovery of it A Rebellious Course of Sin declares a person to be an Infidel notwithstanding his owning Christ to be our King His Life is a continual Lye He vainly presumes that God is his Father when his Actions declare him to be a Child of the Devil 2. Hypocrisie in a stricter sense is when Men presume their spiritual condition to be good upon false grounds 'T is observable no Man is a Hypocrite to himself out of choice he does not deliberately deceive himself But one may be a Hypocrite without his knowledge by Ignorance and Error He may think his inclination to some Vertues and his aversion from some Vices to be Divine Grace But sympathies and antipathies proceed often from Natural Temper and not from the renewed Mind and Will from Judgment and Choice A tame Dog is as truly a beast as a wild Wolf A Man that performs only some good things and abstains from some evil from natural Conscience is as truly in the state of polluted Nature as one that is wholly careless of his Duty and freely indulges every carnal Lust. One may be exact in light matters as the Pharisees in tithing Mint and Cummin and neglect substantial Duties he may be zealous in the outward parts of Religious Worship and neglect Righteousness and Mercy and think to compensate his defects in the Duties of one Table by strict observing the Duties
is inseparable from the Being of it This includes first a Conformity in the Heart and Life to God As a good Complexion fluorishes in the Countenance from the Root of a good Constitution within so real Holiness shining in the Conversation proceeds from an Internal Principle of Life seated in the Mind and Heart The Understanding esteems the Precepts of God's Law as best in themselves and best for us the Will Consents to the Sanctity and Royalty of the Law David declares I esteem all thy Commandments to be right and I hate every false way If the Divine Will be the reason of our Obedience it will be impartial Many elude Duty and deceive Conscience by partial respects to the Law They will make amends for Delinquencies in some things by Supererogating in others that are suitable to their Carnal Ease and Interest Thus the Pharisees were mighty Sons of the Church very accurate in Sanctimonious Forms great pretenders to Piety but stain'd Religion with Injustice and Uncharitableness They pretended to love God but hated their Neighbour they Fasted twice a Week but Devour'd Widows Houses they were very nice in observing the numerous Rites of Religion but neglected the Duties of substantial Goodness There is not a more exact resemblance between the immediate sight of the Face and the sight of it by reflection in a clear and true Glass than the spirit of the Old Pharisees is like the Formalist in every Age. Thus among the Papists how many under the Vail of Virginity conceal the grossest Impurities and under the appearance of Poverty are Covetous and Rapacious But our Saviour tells us unless our righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees we cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven If our Obedience be not of equal Extent to the Rule if there be an Indulgence to Contravene any Precept the Words of St. James are decisive and convincing Whoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in own instance he is guilty of all In one allowed sin of Omission or Commission there is a Universal Disobedience to the Authority of the Lawgiver Although the best Saint on Earth is not without Sin yet the least is without Guile 2. Sincerity produces Constancy There is a strict Connexion between the leading Faculties and their inward Operations with the outward Actions According to the renewed Temper of the Mind and Will such is the tenor of the Life Pure Religion and undefiled before God that is exercis'd from Divine Principles and Eternal Motives will fortifie a Christian against all Temptations he will neither be allur'd nor terrifled from his Duty Some when Religion is in publick Esteem are forward Professors but if the Testimony of Truth exposes them to Reproach as Seditious and Disloyal and the Consequences of that Reproach they will Comply with the temper of the Times to secure their secular Interest And as there are Change of Garments Summer and Winter Garments according to the seasons of the Year so they have Change of Religions as the times vary Persecution discovers them to have been formal Professors without the spirit and depth of Religion in their Hearts But sincere Christians are conspicuously such in the Fiery Tryal 'T is observ'd in digging Wells in the hot Months of July and August if a Vein of Water flows 't is a sign of a lasting Spring thus if in the Burning Heat of Persecution the Profession of the pure Religion is declar'd 't is an Argument it proceeds from sincere Grace that will be springing up to Everlasting Life There are numerous Examples of the Holy Martyrs who despised the enraged World as a swarm of angry Flies and turn'd Persecution into a Pleasure and with undeclining Fervor and Courage persever'd in the Confession of Christ till they obtain'd the Crown of Eternal Life Unfeined Faith and Sincere Love are the strongest security against Apostacy he that is sound at the Centre is unshaken by Storms The double-minded whose Hearts are divided between the inlightned Conscience and their Carnal Affections are unstable in all their ways Some have short expiring fits of Devotion while they are in afflicting Circumstances either by Terrors of Conscience or Diseases in their Bodies or disasters in their Estates they resolve to be regular and reform'd in their Lives to walk circumspectly and exactly but when they are releas'd from their Troubles they degenerate from their designs and falsify their resolutions and like a Lion slipt from his Chain that returns to his fierceness with his Liberty so they relapse into their old Rebellious Sins The reason is they were not inwardly cleansed from the Love of Sin nor chang'd into the likeness of God In all their Miseries they were in the state of unrenewed Nature though restrain'd from the visible Eruptions of it But real Saints have their Conversation all of a Colour in Prosperity and Adversity they are Holy and Heavenly In short Sincere Christians study the Divine Law to know the extent of their Duty and delight in the discovery of it they do not decline the strictest Scrutiny 'T is David's Prayer Lord search me and try me and see whether there be any way of wickedness in me and discover it to me that I may forsake it Conscience will be quick and tender like the Eye which if any dirt be in it weeps it out There may be Rebels in a Loyal City but they are not conceal'd and cherisht the Loyal Subjects search to discover them and cast them out But the Hypocrites hate the light because their deeds are evil they cherish a wilful Ignorance that they may freely enjoy their Lusts. The sincere Christian aims at Perfection he Prays Resolves Watches Mourns and Strives against every Sin This is as necessary to uprightness as 't is impossible we should be without spot or blemish here but the Hypocrite though he Externally complies with some Precepts of easie Obedience yet he will not forsake his sweet Sins Now if any sin be entertain'd or unrenounc'd by a Person he is unregenerate and a Captive of Satan as if a Bird be insnar'd by one Leg 't is as surely the prey of the the Fowler as if it were seiz'd by both Wings I shall onely add Sincerity commends us to God it gives value to the meanest Service and the want of it Corrupts the most eminent Service Jehu's Zeal was a bloody Murther though the destruction of Ahab's Family was Commanded by God The Consciousness of Sincerity rejoices the living Saint with present Comfort and the dying with the hopes of future Happiness The Apostle when surrounded with Calamities declares this is our rejoycing the testimony of Conscience that with simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our Conversation in this World Hezekiah having receiv'd a Mortal Message by the Prophet addrest himself to God Remember O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth with a perfect heart Truth and Perfection are equivalent this was a reviving Cordial
universal Providence in the regular disposal of Natural Causes superiour middle and lowest in such a union that from the insuperable Discord of Natures the insuperable Concord of Operations proceeds for the preserving of the World The Afflictions of the Saints are medicinal to prevent or recover them from Sin And what Man of Understanding does not esteem his Physician that prescribes bitter Remedies for his Health before a Cook that prepares things pleasant to his Taste Faith sees the Love of a Father through a Cloud of Tears and that he is as gracious when he corrects us for our Transgressions as when he incourages us in his Service In the Sufferings of his People from the wickedness and wills of their Enemies his Wisdom and Power appear in ordering them for excellent Effects For the same things that increase the Guilt and Punishment of their Enemies increase the Graces and Reward of the Saints These light Afflictions that are but for a moment work out for them an exceeding eternal weight of Glory When all the Folds of Providence shall be opened we shall clearly understand every Dispensation was as it ought to be and for the best The belief of this is the reason of those Commands Be careful for nothing but in every thing by Prayer and Thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God And the Peace of God that passes understanding shall keep your Hearts and Minds through Jesus Christ. An unbelieving Heart anticipates future Evils exasperates present Evils and makes sharp reflections on past Evils It makes Men dead with Fear drunk with Sorrow mad with Oppression Faith in the gracious Providence of God frees us from vain fears sad prognosticks and the miserable perplexities that torment the Minds of Men. Musing on our Miseries is like chewing a bitter Pill that is readily swallowed by resignation to the blessed Will of God the Rule of Goodness Faith inlightens us to consider things with a rectified Judgment and not with the partiality of the Passions In the Churches extremity when the conspiring Enemies are great in numbers and power Faith raises the drooping Spirits If God be for us who can be against us When Antigonus was ready to ingage in a Sea-fight with Piâ—lomy's Armada and the Pilot cryed out How many are they more than we The couragious King replyed 'T is true if you count their numbers but for how many do you value me One God is All-sufficient against all the combin'd Forces of Earth and Hell We are therefore commanded to cast all our care on him for he cares for us 'T is very dishonourable to God to distrust him in doing our Duty For it proceeds either from a jealousie of his Goodness or low thoughts of his Power as if he were unable and unwilling to save us A prudent use of Means is requisite otherwise we do not trust but tempt his Providence There is a vicious Carelesness and a vertuous Care but diffident and anxious Cares as if all things run at random without the ordering of our Heavenly Father is not only fruitless but pernicious The Apostle tells the believing Hebrews Ye have need of Patience that after ye have done the Will of God ye may inherit the Promise Some Evils would admit of no Consolation without the Promise But the just shall live by Faith of God's presence with them to support and relieve them in their Sorrows and of a perfect and gracious deliverance out of them God will shortly put an end to the Malice of the Wicked and the Patience of the Saints In the next State when he has clear'd our sight we shall justifie his Wisdom and discover that all Events were divinely ordered and are beautiful to admiration Now in the Churches distress we are apt to say with Gideon If the Lord be with us why then is all this befallen us But then we shall turn the current of our wonder upon our Ignorance and Infidelity that notwithstanding the Evidence of the Word and the Experience of the Saints prove that God turns all Temporal Evils to their Spiritual Good yet we are unbelieving CHAP. VIII Love the leading Affection Men are distinguish'd by their Wills rather than by their Understandings Holy Love has the supremacy among other Graces The excellencies of Love specified Love to God the first Command in order and dignity The Causes and Properties of it considered The absolute and relative Perfections of God the motives of our Love The Benefits received from God in the order of Nature Creation and Preservation The Love of God appears in its full force in our Redemption We must learn of Christ how to love him Love must descend from God to our Neighbour 'T is commended in Scripture The extent and qualifications of it It must be sincere pure and fervent The forgiving Injuries an excellent effect of Love THE second particular Grace that we should strive to increase is Love 'T is the Apostle's Prayer for the Philippians That their Love may abound more and more in knowledge and all understanding Love is the affection of Union Of this we have an illustrious Instance recorded in Scripture That the Soul of Jonathan was knit with the Soul of David and Jonathan loved him as his own Soul Love is to be directed to a double Object God and our Neighbour I will consider the excellency of this sanctified Affection and its exercise and reference to the supreme and subordinate Objects of it 'T is requisite to premise that Love is the leading Affection that draws the whole train with it not only Desire and Joy that are of near alliance with it but Anger and Hatred between which Affections and Love there is a repugnance and entire opposition are inseparable from it For aversion and flight from Evil proceeds from the love of some Good that the Evil deprives us of From hence it follows that 't is a matter of the highest Consequence by Wisdom discreet and severe to direct our Love to worthy Objects Love is the principle of all the Passions and either sanctifies and refines them from the reliques of carnal infection or seduces and corrupts them The Mind is so clouded by Carnal Love and over-rul'd by pleasant Error that it prefers sensual Happiness before spiritual that is suitable to the nature and dignity of the Soul If the Light that is in thee be Darkness how great is that Darkness The Angels of Light are distinguish'd from the Angels of Darkness not so much by Knowledge and Power as by Love and Holiness The Devils are immortal Spirits but under the tyrannous power of Hatred and Revenge of Envy and Malice which are their Sins and Torment Men are not distinguish'd so much by their Understandings as their Wills not meerly by Knowledge but Love the first act of the Will the Faculty that rules in Man and obeys God There may be knowledge of the Divine Law and an approving it by those who do not practise it For the
Contemplation of its Goodness and Equity constrains the Mind to assent to it From hence we may infallibly inferr that the radical difference and distinguishing character between a Saint and one in the state of polluted Nature is the affection of Love with respect to its objects and degrees Love to God as our sovereign Happiness is the immediate Cause of our Conversion and Re-union with him Love to vicious Objects or when with an intemperate current it descends to things not deserving its ardent degrees alienates the Heart from God Holiness is the order of Love The excellency of holy Love will appear in the following Considerations 1. Love has the supremacy among all the Graces of the Spirit This in the most proper sense is the Fire our Saviour came to kindle on the Earth The Apostle declares that Charity is greater than Faith and Hope which are Evangelical Graces of eminent usefulness For 1. 'T is the brightest part of the Divine Image in us God is Love 'T is the most adequate Notion of the Deity and more significant of his blessed Nature than any other single Attribute The most proper and honourable Conception we can form of the Deity is Love directed by infinite Wisdom and exercised by infinite Power Faith and Hope cannot be ascribed to God they imply imperfection in their Nature and necessarily respect an absent Object Now all things are present to the Knowledge of God and in his Power and Possession But Love is his Essential Perfection the productive Principle of all Good Love transforms us into his likeness and infuses the divinest temper into the Soul In the acts of other Graces we obey God in the acts of Love we imitate him This may be illustrated by its contrary There are Sins of various kinds and degrees Spiritual and Carnal Spiritual such are Pride malignant Envy irreconcilable Enmity delight in Mischief which are the proper Characters of the Devil and denominate Men his natural Sons Carnal Sins which the Soul immerst in Flesh indulges all riotous Excesses Intemperance Incontinence and the like of which a meer Spirit is not capable denominates Men the Captives and Slaves of Satan Now Spiritual Sins induce a greater guilt and deeper pollution than Carnal The exacter resemblance of the evil one makes sinful Men more odious to God 2. Love is more extensive in its influence than Faith and Hope their operations are confin'd to the Person in whom they are The Just lives by his own Faith and is saved by his own Hope without communicating Life and Salvation to others But 't is the spirit and perfection of Love to be beneficial to all Love comforts the afflicted relieves the indigent directs those who want Counsel 'T is the vital cement of Mankind In the Universe Conversation and reciprocal Kindness is the Blood and Spirits of Society and Love makes the circulation 3. Love gives value and acceptance to all other Gifts and Graces and their operations The Apostle tells us Though I have the gift of Prophestes and understand all Mysteries and all Knowledge though I have all Faith and could remove mountains and have not Charity I am nothing And though I bestow all my Goods to feâ—d the Poor and though I give my Body to be burned and have not Charity it profiteth me nothing Without Charity Faith is but a dead assent Hope is like a Tympany the bigger it grows the more dangerous it proves The most diffusive Beneficence without Love is but a sacrifice to Vanity 'T is not the richness of the Gift but the love of the giver that makes it accepted and rewarded in Heaven The Widows two Mites cast into the Treasury of the Temple were of more value in our Saviour's account than the rich Offerings of others For she gave her Heart the most precious and comprehensive Gift with them The giving our Bodies to be burned for the truth and glory of the Gospel is the highest expression of Obedience which the Angels are not capable of performing yet without Charity Martyrdom is but a vain-glorious blaze and the sealing the Truth with our Blood is to seal our Shame and Folly Sincere Love when it cannot express it self in suitable effects has this priviledge to be accepted in God's sight as if it were exuberant and evident in outward actions for God accepts the Will for the Deed If there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to what a Man hath and not according to that he hath not 4. Love is the perfection of the Law the sum and substance of every Precept All particular Duties though distinguished in the matter are united in Love as their principle and centre St. Austin observes That all other Vertues Piety Prudence Humility Chastity Temperance Fortitude are Love diversified by other names Liberal Love gives supplies to the Poor patient Love forgives Injuries Love is the end and perfection of the Gospel Now the end of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure Heart and a good Conscience and Faith unfeigned Some restrain the word Commandment to the Law thinking that the Gospel is only compounded of Promises But they misunderstand the difference between the two Covenants 'T is not in that the one commands and the other does not command but in the nature of the Duties commanded The Law commands to do for the obtaining of Life the Gospel commands to believe for Salvation This is the command of God that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by the Apostle used for the Doctrine of the Gospel As the end of a Science or Art is the perfection of the Understanding in those things which are the proper subject of the Science The end of Philosophy is Knowledge and Moral Vertue the end of Rhetorick is Eloquence Thus the end of the Gospel the Divine Doctrine of our Salvation is Love a Coelestial Perfection Faith in the redeeming Mercy of God is the product of the Gospel not of the Law and Love is the end of Faith Now the end is more excellent than the means to obtain it In this respect Love is greater than Faith Briefly Love is stil'd the Bond of Perfection as it unites and consummates other Graces comprehends and fastens them Love to God draws forth all the active powers of the Soul in Obedience He that with a full and fervent Will applyes himself to his Duty will more easily pleasantly and exactly perform it The Love of God will form the Soul into a more entire conformity to his Nature and obedience to his Law and raise it to a greater eminency of Holiness than the clearest knowledge of all Precepts and Rules can do 4. Love never fails The Gifts and Graces of the Spirit are dispensed and continued according to our different states Some are necessary in the present state of the Church with respect to our Sins and Troubles from which there is no perfect freedom here Repentance is
from the Curse of the Law he intercepted the heavy stroke of Vengeance that had sunk us into the Centre of Sorrows and restor'd us to the Favour and Fruition of God Our Misery was extreme and without End if Misery though intolerable has a determin'd issue the passing of every day lessens it but if it be above all Patience to endure and without Hope of Remission or Release this thought strikes deadly inward A Brute has some Memory of past pains and a feeling of present but no apprehension of future pains 't is the woful Prerogative of the Reasonable Nature to exasperate the sense of Misery by the foresight of its continuance and to feel the weight of Eternity every Moment Lost Souls are dead to all the vital sweetness of Being to all sense of Happiness and live to the quickest feeling of Misery for ever Our Rescue from this Misery is more affecting if we consider that without our Saviour's interposing our state was desperate to pass from death to life is a double life We are translated from the guilty wretched state of Rebels into the blessed state of the Children of God and are Heirs of Eternal Glory The duration is as valuable as the Felicity and doubles the Gift Immortality and Immutability are inseparable in Heaven God has made all his Goodness to pass before us in our Salvation Goodness how amiable how attractive and endearing To dye for another is the most noble kind of Love but there are degrees in that kind to die for an Enemy for a Rebel is the highest degree of that Love Now the Son of God assum'd to the Supreme Excellencies of the Divine Nature the tender Infirmities of the Humane Nature that he might be a propitiatory Sacrifice for our Sins In this God commended his love to us that when we were Sinners he gave his Son to die for us Astonishing Love it passes all understanding The Jews askt our Saviour with wonder how is it that thou being a Man makest thy self God We may imagine with equal wonder how being the Son of God he descended from the Throne of Majesty in heaven and stoop'd so low as to become Man St. Peter illuminated by divine Revelation Confest Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God But presently after when our Saviour foretold that he must go to Jerusalem and be kill'd there Peter began to rebuke him saying Be it far from thee this shall not come unto thee He could not conceive how such distant and discordant extremes as the Son of the Living God and Death could meet in Christ but his love to us united them A Love above all comparison but with the love of his Father to us In the Sacrifice of Isaac there was a faint resemblance of this Abraham carried the Knife and the Fire and Isaac carried the Wood and himself the Sacrifice and with equal steps they ascended the Mount A Type of the concurrent Love of the Divine Persons to us in the process of Christ's Sufferings The Father laid upon him the iniquity of us all surely he has born our griefs and endur'd our sorrows Admirable Excess of Love The Father gave up his innocent and only Son the bright Image of his Glory to Cruel Sufferings This Immaculate Lilly was pierced with Thorns The Son gave such Life for us as no Creature can give and suffer'd such a Death for us as no Creature can suffer He descended to our lowest Misery to raise us to the highest degrees of Happiness Who can resist the force of these Reflections It may seem that only the Reprobates in Hell that have sinn'd beyond the intended vertue and application of his Sufferings can be unaffected with them From hence this Corollary regularly follows that 't is our Duty to consecrate our highest Esteem and Love to our Redeemer Supreme Love is due to Supreme Excellencies and for the greatest Benefits In our Saviour all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge are hid and all the Treasures of Grace and Mercy are open'd to inrich us What Indignity what Ingratitude is it to be coldly affected to him who by the dearest Titles infinitely deserves our love How unreasonable and unnatural is it to look upon him with an indifferent Eye who died for us and whom the Angels continually behold in a double extasie of Admiration and Joy 'T is most just that our Love should ascend to him in thankfulness as his descended to us in benefits But our Poverty must excuse the not entire payment of our Immense Debt and our fervent desires to love him better If we content our selves with luke-warm Affections 't is most dishonourable to him the coldness of Love as well as the heat of Enmity is very provoking to our Saviour It should be our constant practise by discursive and reflexive Meditation to increase the holy heat of our Affections to Christ. He requires a love of Judgment and Choice The love of Natural Inclination is indeliberate without Counsel and needs no Excitations the stream runs downward freely But love to Christ is Supernatural both with respect to the Object and the quality of the Affection The Love of God is the principal obligation of the Law and the principal Duty of the reasonable and renewed Creature the most just and amiable Duty yet so monstrous is the depravation of the humane Nature that Divine Grace is requisite to recover its Life and Liberty The preventing pleasures of Sin possess the Soul We must therefore earnestly Pray that the Holy Spirit would illuminate our Minds and direct us in the Love of God that he will purifie our Affections and raise them to Heaven The Exercise of our Thoughts is too weak and faint to make indelible impression of Love in our Hearts Love is an eminent Fruit of the Spirit The love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the holy Spirit given to us There is a strong tide of Sensual Desires that carries us downward which we cannot stem without the gales of the Spirit to make our way to Christ. But 't is inconsistent with the Wisdom and Will of God for Men to expect an Inspiration from Heaven and neglect the proper means the considering the powerful Incentives of Love to our Redeemer his alluring Excellency and unvaluable Benefits St. Paul declares The Love of Christ constrains us for we thus judge if one dyed for all then wereall dead and that he died for all that they might live to him If all be not cold and dead within this will increase the sacred Fire and inflame the Affections But as the light of the Sun diffus'd in the Air fires nothing but the Beams contracted in a Glass kindle proper Matter so the considering of the common Salvation will not be so affecting nor so warm and soften the Heart as the serious applicative Thoughts of it to our selves the Apostle expresses it Who loved me and gave himself for me The appropriating by a clear Faith
and serious Thoughts his Dying Love to the Soul will cause an irresistible Affection to him stronger than Death We must learn of Christ how to love him His Love was express'd in the most real Actions and convincing Evidence it was an incarnate Love a beneficent Love productive of our Salvation our love must be productive of Obedience This is the surest Trial of it If ye love me you will keep my words saith our Saviour The Frost of Fear will hinder the breaking forth of Carnal Lusts into notorious Acts as the Cold of Winter binds the Earth that noxious Weeds cannot spring up but the heat of Love is productive of all the Fruits of Righteousness Love to Christ will make every Command pleasant and the exactest Obedience to be voluntary liberal and ingenuous Fear may enforce Constancy for a time but Love is a Vital Principle continually operative in all the Transitions of this Life This secures Obedience Christ has fasten'd us to his Service by a Chain compos'd of his most precious Benefits by the pardon of our innumerable sins and to whom much is forgiven they love much Fear tries in vain to make an alliance between the Flesh and Spirit obeys some Commands and transgresses others but Love respects all Fear induces a desertion of our Duty when Evils nearly threaten us but Love encounters them with such a Character of Assurance as becomes those who esteem it a Favour and Honour to Suffer for Christ. Some are harden'd against Afflictions and endure with Courage Persecutions for the Cause of Christ but yield to pleasant Temptations like the Manna that would endure the Fire but melted in the heat of the Sun but Love to Christ by an overcoming delight renders the pleasures of Sin nauseous and insipid In short the properties of natural Love are united in the Love of Christ. Love will transport us to Heaven and transform us into his likeness Love will make us Zealous in constant and excellent Endeavours to be compleatly conform'd to him Resemblance is the common Principle of all unions in Nature 't is preparative to Love and the effect of it Experience is a sensible demonstration of this For the love of Friends if in a degree of Eminence Causes a perfect sympathy an exact correspondence in their Tempers The exercise of Love in the most precious Esteem of him in burning desires after a Propriety in him in the sweetest complacency in Communion with him are intimate and inseparable Qualities in all the Lovers of Christ. Love to him is always joyn'd with an irreconcileable hatred of Sin that cost him so dear to expiate its guilt Our love intirely and intensely is due to him and no lower degree is accepted For 't is a disparagement and infinitely unworthy of him To content our selves with a less Affection is not only far distant from Perfection but from the first disposition of a Saint The tenderest and strongest Affections in Nature must be regulated and subordinate to the Love of Christ. Our Love to him must be Singular and Supreme Briefly his Love to us is Beneficent ours is Obedient He values no Love without Obedience and no Obedience without Love 2. Love must descend from God to our Neighbour This Duty is so often Commanded and Commended in the Gospel that we may from thence understand its Excellency The beloved Disciple that lay in the Bosom of Christ from that Spring of Love derived the Streams that flow in his Writings He declares that God is Love and he that loves dwells in God and God in him 1 Joh. 4. 11. He makes it an Evidence that we are born of God of our renewed state and that we are past from death to life Our Saviour injoyns it with a note of Eminency as his new Command as the distinctive Character of his Disciples as the special Qualification of those at his right hand in the Day of Judgment to recommend it to our Love and Obedience He tells us that to love our neighbour as our selves is like the most divine Precept of loving the Lord our God We read in that Solemn Proclamation of God's Name when his Glory past before Moses that to the Title of Lord God there was immediately annext Merciful and Gracious abundant in Goodness to signifie that Goodness is his dearest Glory and in the Divine Law next to Piety to God Charity to our Neighbour is Commanded to signifie how pleasing it is to him The Gospel Eclipses all other Institutions by the Precept of Universal Love and inspiring a delightful disposition in Christians to exercise it This adorns the Gospel and recommends it to the Esteem and Affections of Men. A Person innocent and pure but of a severe and harsh Temper condemns by his Holy Conversation the Profane and Scandalous but a Good Man charms and captivates the Hearts of others that one would dare to dye for him This Duty is prescrib'd in the Extent and Qualifications of it 1. In the Extent it reaches to all within the compass of Humanity to Strangers and Enemies in all our dealings Let all things be done with Charity The Relation of Consanguinity is the Natural Cause of a Benevolent Affection to all Men. The likeness of kind prevents mischief between the most fierce and hurtful Creatures We never heard that Lyons devour Lyons or Vipers bite Vipers and unless we add Beneficence to Innocence we are but in the rank of Brutes The Love of good Will is express'd by promoting their Good and preventing Evils by rejoycing in their Prosperity and relieving them in their Afflictions This Love is more radicated in the breasts of Men by considering the condition of Nature wherein they are equal whether the original happy state of their Creation or their miserable wretched state since their Fall Similitude either in Happiness or Misery unites Mens Affections How low and despicable so great a part of Mankind is at present yet the remembrance that all Men were equal in their first honourable and happy Condition Inhabitants of Paradise and by deputation Lords of the World will raise our esteem and be an incentive of kind Affections to them And since the Fall the calamitous Condition of Mankind is a proper motive of mutual assistance to one another Society in Miseries endears the Sufferers and produces a tender sympathy between them None are so merciful as those who by Experience know what it is to be miserable The Consideration of the common Evils to which all are exposed in the present state induces a strong obligation to the offices of Love and Kindness But the principal and divine cause of Love is the Law of Christ that enjoyns us to do good to all but especially to the houshold of Faith for the spiritual Relation is more intimate and excellent than the natural That we are the off-spring of the same Heavenly Father united as Members to the same glorious Head renewed to a Divine Life by the same Holy Spirit incorporated into
the Gospel it produces earnest inclinations and hopes of partaking of it 2. 'T is very congruous to our present state Love in its perfection is the Grace of Heaven where God exhibits his Brightness and Beauty without a Veil to the Saints This is above our Conception and Capacity here Fear sometimes degenerates and has a servile aspect on Punishment which is consistent with the love of Sin Hope of the Happiness to which we aspire is not so elevated as Love nor so low as Fear but very becoming the Breast of a Christian We are now in a state of expectancy in a middle state between the two Worlds Hope is the proper Grace to be exercised here This gives us the foretaste of the Fruits of Paradise 'T is of no use to those who are possess'd of Happiness and those are incapable of it who are Miserable without Remedy As Shadows vanish at Mid-day and at dark-night so Hope ceases in Heaven for 't is accomplish'd in full Fruition it never enters into Hell for 't is extinguish'd in Despair In the Glorious Light above the Perfection of Hope is obtain'd the blackness of Darkness below excludes the least glimmering of Hope to refresh the Horrors of the Place 3. 'T is a necessary Grace in our present State of Tryal We are surrounded here with many Temptations some Inviting and Alluring some Forcible and Terrifying the Pleasures of Sin and the Terrors of the Persecuting World to make us desert our Duty and be unfaithful to God and our Souls Now Hope is our helmet and breast-plate the principal parts of defensive Armour to preserve us invulnerable in the heat of Battle 'T is the Anchor of the Soul sure and stedfast that enters within the veil and is fix'd on the immortal Shore though we are liable to Storms it secures us from Shipwrack It gives Cordial Spirits and Coelestial Vigour to a Christian. The Apostle who had seen the Glory of Heaven and had suffer'd the Rage of the perverted World in Combination with Satan to Extinguish the Light of the Gospel declares I reckon that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us The hope of the Reward was so Comfortable to St. Peter he slept securely when Condemn'd to dye next day the brightness of an Angel could not wake him without a blow on the side It sweetens all the sharp and bitter Accidents that befal us and mixes reviving drops with our deepest Sorrows We rejoyce in the hope of glory Joy is the affection of Prosperity Hope of all the joyful Affections is consistent with the most afflicting Evils and makes us happy here Our Saviour pronounces Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven This chang'd the Persecutions of the Martyrs into Pleasures Those who are encouraged by this blessed Hope no Loss can make Poor no Disease can make Sick no Disgrace can make Contemptible no Misery can make Miserable It has a Soveraign Strength to support us under all the Evils Malice can do and Innocence suffer Now if the hope of Heaven can make all the Evils of this World tractable and easie much more will it make all its good things despicable for we are far more capable of afflicting Impressions than of joyful Set the Beam right and put into one Scale all the Treasures and Honours and Delights of the present World and in the other the lively Hope of Heaven they are of no more value or moment in Comparison than Feathers in one Scale against Talents of Gold in another 'T is true Carnal Men feel not the attractive Force of the blessed Rewards above for 't is Spiritual and Future but when they shall be releas'd from the narrow Confinement of Flesh and shall understand things by another way than the report of the Senses their inlightned active Spirit will tear and torment them for preferring vanishing shadows before Substantial and Eternal Blessedness the Sense of it will cause extreme Sorrow for their loss of Heaven and Indignation for others obtaining it Our Saviour tells the Infidel Jews When ye shall see Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God and your selves thrust out there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth In short Hope is of excellent use to encourage our faint languishing Affections when we are assaulted with Evils and to compose and order the impetuous Passions when they are strongly excited by the Temptations of what is pleasant to the Fleshly Lusts. 2. Divine Hope is distinguish'd from Carnal Presumption by its inseparable Effect our Purifying Hope is an exciting Principle that draws forth all the Active Powers for the obtaining a desir'd Good 'T is the inward Spring of fervent Desires and reviving Joys and consequently of Zealous Endeavours We are begotten to a lively hope 't is a substantial vigorous Grace I press forward for the high price of our Calling saith the Apostle Vain and Groundless Hopes are inspirations of Wind loose and ineffective The principal effect of Christian Hope is specified he purifies himself I shall but glance upon this having largely discours'd of it already He purifies himself by the assistance of the Holy Spirit from whom the Spiritual Life and all the Operations of it proceed The extent of this Purifying is comprehensive of the outward and inward Man from sinful Inclinations and vitious Acts from Carnality and Hypocrisie The continuance of this purifying must be till we are cleansed from every spot and become glorious in holiness We are contracting defilements every day and need the constant influence of Divine Grace to preserve and restore our Purity Our Saviour tells Peter He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet but is clean every whit and ye are clean but not all 'T is an allusion to the Custom in the Eastern Countrys where they Travell'd in Sandals and had their Feet soil'd with the Dust or Sand that requir'd washing upon their coming into a House In the Renovation of a Sinner all the Faculties are purified though not perfectly and 't is requisite he should daily cleanse himself from the Reliques of Sin The Regular Hope of Heaven has a cleansing Efficacy from the quality of the Object the Enjoyment of the Holy God Now whoever has a prospect of a desireable Good in future Expectation will endeavour if possible to have present Possession and consequently he that hopes to be intirely like to Christ in Heaven will strive to be as like him as he is capable in this Life If we did expect a Paradise of Sensual Pleasures we might without Contradiction by an impure Indulgence gratifie our Carnal Appetites but the State of future Blessedness is signified by the Apostle that God shall be all in all The Communication of God to the blessed may in some degree be conceiv'd by those Titles that are attributed to him indistinctly to the
nearness of an Evil and the apprehensions of it the stronger is the Fear In the turning of Sinners the impressions of it are different Stronger degrees are requisite to rouse the obdurate and to make them fly from the Wrath to come The Jaylor surprised with Terrors cryes out Sirs what shall I do to be saved 'T is said The Lord open'd the heart of Lydia as with an oyl'd Key but an Earthquake was necessary to open the Jaylors Till there is felt something more tormenting than carnal sweets are pleasing Men will not mortifie their Lusts. One will not suffer a part of his Body to be cut off unless an incureable Gangrene threatens speedy Death The World is present and sensible and continually diverts men from the consideration of their Souls unless Eternal things are by a strong application impress'd on their Minds Till urged by the Terrors of Everlasting Death they will reject the offers of Everlasting Life While Carnal Men are in Prosperity they hate Instruction to prevent Sin and despise Reproof to correct Sin they slight the fearful report of Thunder and do no more tremble at the Torments of Hell threaten'd in the Word of God than at Squibs and Crackers the sport of Boys But in sharp Afflictions and the approaches of Death when Conscience draws near to God's Tribunal it becomes bold and resumes the Government and calls them to an account for all their Rebellions and forces them to Confess what they would fain Conceal their fears of Eternal Judgment 2. Holy Fear preserves and increases Religion This may be consider'd as it includes Reverence of God with Circumspection and Caution The Fear of Reverence is an inseparable Affection and Character of a Saint Hear the prayers of thy servants who desire to fear thy name The desires include the sincerity of this Grace in opposition to Hypocrisie and pretences for they are the unfeigned Issues of the Soul and the freeness of the Affection in opposition to Violence and Constraint The Name of God implies his Excellent Attributes the proper Motives of Holy Fear His Majesty is ador'd by the Angels in their humble posture before his high Throne His Purity wherein God does so excel and we are so defective excites the most awful respects of him Who would not fear thee for thou art holy Holy and reverend is his name His Goodness to a Holy ingenuous Soul is a motive of fear they shall fear the Lord and his goodness If Fear declines and slumbers there is present danger of losing the purest sweetness of Love and Joy that proceed from intercourse and Communion with God His Omniscience and the recompences of his Justice and Power keeps the Soul Cautious lest we should offend him What Stupidity what fury to provoke so dreadful an Adversary who can dispatch a Sinner to the Grave and Hell in a Moment Some object that 't is unsuitable to the gracious dispensation of the Gospel for the Children of God to reflect upon his Terrible Attributes But are they wiser than God who uses this Discipline as Medicinal either to prevent Sin or to correct them into their Duty Are they more Evangelical than our Saviour who counsell'd his Disciples I say unto you my friends be not afraid of them that can kill the body and after that have no more that they can do But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear fear him which after he hath kill'd hath power to cast into hell I say unto you fear him Are they more Spiritual than St. Paul who from the Consideration of our being accountable for all things done in the Body before the inlightned Tribunal of Christ infers Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we perswade men This Influenc'd him to a zealous discharge of his Duty It may seem very difficult to reconcile the exercise of holy Fear with Faith and the Sanctified Affections of Love Hope and Joy But it will appear they are very consistent 1. Fear is the product of Faith and assurance of God's Favour is preserved by the Fear of his Displeasure Fear is not contrary to Faith but to Presumption Be not high-minded but fear A jealousie of our selves lest we should provoke God is joyn'd with a more entire and pure Trust in his Grace and Mercy 2. The Love and Fear of God have a mutual Causality on each other The Love of God excites Thoughts of his continual Presence and Perfections that cause an awful esteem of him by which Love is maintain'd Desires proceed from Love and 't is express'd in the forecited place thy Servants who desire to fear thy Name The fear of the Lord is their Treasure not their Torment for their fear to Offend him is from their pure Love to Please him Indeed servile Fear that is meerly from the consideration of his Anger and Power is consistent with the Love of Sin and inconsistent with the Love of God 't is a judicial and violent impression on Conscience that Carnal Men would sain deface that they might freely enjoy their desir'd Objects and 't is by Fits for God sometimes thunders in the Conscience as well as in the Air. But filial Fear is the Habitual Constitution of a Saint he is voluntary and active to preserve it in continual Exercise 3. The Fear of God and Hope are joyn'd in Scripture and in the Hearts of Believers The Lord delights in those that fear him and hope in his mercy Fear and Hope contemper each other Fear without Hope is slavish and Hope without Fear is secure As the growth of things in Nature Flowers and Fruits is from the heat of the Days and the cold moisture of the Nights so growth in Grace is by the warm encouragements of Hope and the chilling influence of Fear A regular Hope in the Promises is joyn'd with an humble Fear and Subjection to his Commands 4. Holy Fear is mixed with Joy Serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling Carnal Joy and Carnal Fear and Sorrow are contrary Extremes that proceed from contrary Causes A prosperous State in this World and the Satisfaction of the Sensual Desires is the root from whence carnal Joy springs and is nourisht and the being deprived of Temporal good things disabled by Sickness to enjoy them or the prospect of some imminent Disaster are the cause of Fear and Guilt But the exercise of Spiritual Joy and Holy Fear are consistent at the same time for the serious reflection on the Divine Attributes excite both those Affections We read that when Mary Magdalen with the other Mary came to the Sepulchre of Christ at the bright appearance of an Angel that declar'd his Resurrection they went away with fear and great joy Sinful Affections are opposite to Grace but Gracious Affections are inseparable The fear of offending God is a preservative of our Joy in him as a Hedge of Thorns is a Fence to a Garden of Roses In the Kingdom of Love and Joy the Reverent Fear of God is in
By inquiring whether we are proceeding to Perfection 2. Propound Directions how we should follow it 1. I shall lay down some Rules whereby we may discern whether we are proceeding to Perfection 'T is requisite to premise there may be an easie mistake in the Judgment about the truth and strength of Grace in Mens Souls Indeed there are clear and plain Rules in Scripture to judge of our Spiritual State but the dark and crooked Hearts of Men misapply them Carnal Men are apt to mistake Presumption for Faith and think the bolder they are in presuming without a Promise the stronger they are in believing They mistake a fruitless sorrow for Sin to be Repentance They sin and repent and after Repentance they sin and walking in a circle of Repentings and Relapsings take not one step towards Heaven But real Saints are often complaining of their want of Grace and condemning themselves for their not improving the Means of Grace Their desires are ardent and ascending to Perfection and they judge of their defects by that Measure He that Sails before the Wind in a River and sees men walking on the Shore to his Eye they seem to stand still because of the swift motion of the Boat Thus the Saints judge of their Imperfections by the swiftness of their desires after compleat Holiness I shall lay down two general Rules of Trial concerning growth in Grace and proceed to particular discoveries 1. The Vanquisting of Sin is a certain indication of the Power of Grace During the present Life from its first rise to its last fall the Corruption of Nature in some degrees remains in the Saints The flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh that we cannot do the things we would Now the strength of Sin is discover'd by the readiness of the heart to a Temptation Some are entangled at the first sight of a pleasant Object The Tempter needs not raise a battery against them for the treacherous Party within opens the Gates of the Senses to receive his Temptations Others though unrenewed by Sanctifying Grace yet there is in them such a resistance between the Law of the Mind and the Law of the Members such a conflict between Conviction and Corruption that they resolve to forsake Sin and by Restraining Grace are in some Instances kept from doing it but ordinarily when Temptations are very inviting they consent and commit Sin Nay the Saints are sometimes surpriz'd and soil'd by the Tempter David by a sudden glance was overcome and fell into a Sin of a very foul Nature Petâ—â— at the challenge of a Servant denied his Master and was almost frozen to death with Fear 'till the compassionate Eye of our Saviour warm'd and melted him into tears of Repentance To prevent Mistakes it must be consider'd that the ceasing from the acts of Sin does not always proceed from victorious Grace In the absence of alluring Objects there is a ceasing from the vicious acts but the sinful Affections may be then most intense as Hunger is more sharp in a time of Famine when there is no Food to satisfie it and Thirst in a Wilderness where there are no Springs or Fruits to refresh it is more burning and tormenting Sometimes through Impotence or Age Men are disabled from doing the Sin they still Love As a Disease causes such a distast of pleasing Meats and Drinks that an intemperate Person is forced to abstain from them Sometimes a Man from his Constitution may be averse from a particular lust without a Spiritual Change in the Heart Some are frightned from Sin by the Terrors of Conscience they dare not drink the pleasant Wines from an abhorrence of the dregs at the bottom and others are allur'd from a Sin by a new Temptation But Spiritual Mortification consists in this the Carnal Affections are Spiritualiz'd Sensual Love is fastâ—ed upon the Beauty of Holiness Covetous Desires change their Objects and are ardent after the Treasures of Heaven and the dearest Lusts are kill'd Now the more easie frequent and clear the victory over Sin is in proportion Grace is advanc'd in the Soul and its power is seen Every Renewed Person is a Soldier under the illuminating Conduct and Empire of the Spirit and acquires new strength by every new Victory over the Carnal part Sometimes the Carnal Appetite so strongly sollicits the Will to consent to a proposal that 't is wavering and although the Inclination does not proceed to the act of Sin and the Conception be Abortive the Victory is then imperfect and oâ—tain'd with difficulty There are lingering Inclinations still woâ—king in our Hearts towards present and sensible things but when Grace is in the Throne it enables a Man freely and readily to resist those enticing Objects that ravish the Carnal Affections We have an admirable Instance of this in Joseph when tempted to Folly by his Mistress he presently and constantly rejected her Importunity and repeated Sollicitations and as Paul easily shook the Viper from his Hand into the Fire without hurt so he preserved his Purity untainted This argued the dominion Grace had over the sensual Appetite The more frequent our prevalency over Temptations is argues the strength of Sin is broken and the firmer radication and vigour of the Divine Nature As the house of Saul grew weaker every day the house of David grew stronger As the old Man decays the new Man increases in strength The more compleat the victory is over Sin the more clear indication we have of the power of Grace The compleatness either implies the extent of the victory over the whole body of Sin all the Lusts of the desiring and angry Appetites when no Sin is indulged though pleasant and profitable and though it may seem never so small for the Command of God is strict and severe against every Sin as it was against the Amalekites all must be destroyed Indeed no Sin is truly subdued but all are in some degrees mortified Or the compleatness of the victory implies not only the abstaining from the outward act but the mortifying of the inward Affections the first seeds of Sin In short the excellent degree of Grace is most evident in destroying the select and superiour Lust that leads and animates many other as the honour and greatness of a Victory is from the strength of the Enemy that is vanquished And the power of Grace is discovered in securing us from being foil'd by sudden unexpected Temptations We read of the Tempter He came to our Saviour but found nothing in him and could not fasten any impression on him 'T is true 't is morally impossible to attain to this Perfection to be always watchful in this state of frail Flesh then militant Holiness would be triumphant But it should be our earnest endeavour to be so fortified by holy Resolutions and so vigilant that though we are surrounded by innumerable Enemies we may not be surprised by them The present reward of subduing Carnal Lusts exceeds all
Instance is this Folly more visible than in neglecting the working out their own Salvation till Time and Grace are past when no person can assure himself of the next Minute They presume upon such a remote possibility that after the best of their days are spent in the Vanities and Business of the World there will be time to do the one thing necessary How many are dispatch'd to the Grave and Hell in the midst of their hopes of long Life and their resolutions of future Repentance Death often steals upon Men unobserv'd and sometimes unfelt Now since Time is so short and slippery and Life is dying every day it is astonishing that so many are careless of securing future Blessedness But suppose their Time is lengthened out how is the difficulty increas'd of their being renewed and reformed in their Hearts and Conversations The natural vicious Inclinations by custom in Sin are confirm'd Habits their Passions are more violent the power and liberty of the Mind is broken and cannot reduce them under the empire of Reason Men think there will be an ebbing and retiring of their Carnal Affections in Age when the sensitive Faculties are disabled from the gross acts of Sin but vicious desires are not cur'd by Impotence The love to Sin increases by the repeated pleasure of it Can the Aethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye that are accustomed to do evil do well By Custom Mens Lusts are more rebellious to Reason more untractable to Discipline more a verse from holy Counsel The good or the evil Habits of one Age are with their Vertues and Vices transfus'd to the next 'T is extraordinary when an evil Child becomes a sober modest Youth or a dissolute Youth becomes a religious Man Childhood is as the Seed in whose Vertue the Tree of Life is contain'd The Characters that are cut in the Bark when the Tree grows deeply and visibly remain 'T is as painful as Death to change a sinful Life of many Years and begin a contrary course of Actions There are two branches of Folly visible in the World Men will not do when they can and afterwards cannot do when they would Besides the Holy Spirit is griev'd and quench'd by their resisting his pure motions and if he be withdrawn 't is impossible they should be renewed by a serious Repentance 'T is as reasonable to expect that the Sun should cross the order of Nature and rise in the West as that the Sun of Righteousness should arise with healing in his wings upon an habitual obstinate Sinner in the hour of Death They are usually left to hardness and stupidity to presumption or to despair Some are as insensible some presume to obtain an easie entrance into the Kingdom of Life and their disappointment exceedingly exasperates their sad exclusion others who were fearless of the last Enemy when afar of in his approaches they remember what they have been and apprehend what they must be without a miraculous change and Conscience like a Pulse beats quick and faint the prognostick of Eternal Death The Consideration they are come to the end of their days and shall lose the end of their desires and hopes Eternal Happiness cuts them more terribly than the pangs of Death The reflection on their wasting the treasure of Time without any improvement for their Souls is a pricking thorn in their Eyes and forces out just but unprofitable tears How doleful is the separation of Soul and Body here and how woful will their union be at the last day O that Men were wise to consider their latter end that they would call Death to counsel with what evidence and efficacy would it convince them of the necessity of a timely preparation for Eternity 'T is too late to go to buy Oyl when the Bridegroom is coming 2. Let us follow Holiness zealously Desires without consequent Endeavours are pretences ineffectual Resolutions contradict themselves What fire vigour and activity does the Apostle express If by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead I follow after it that I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ. Brethren I count not my self to have apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting those things that are behind and reaching forth unto those things that are before I press forward to the mark for the prize of the high calling in Christ. I follow as the Huntsman pursues the Game with full speed It should excite Compassion and Indignation to see the Love of this vain perishing World to be more active and zealous than the Love of the blessed eternal World That the Tempter with such wretched wages the trifles of Time should induce Men to be his Slaves and God with the glorious Reward of an everlasting Kingdom should not perswade them to be his Sons to be like him in Holiness That Men should so violently run down the Hill to the Earth and be so remiss and slow in their motion upward to Heaven The vain-glorious excited by the edge of Ambition will venture on present Death with fond hopes of future Fame Strange purchase The covetous with the most eager application of means strive to heap up uncertain Riches The voluptuous with vehement Affections follow Pleasures But to obtain the highest Honour Coelestial Treasure to enjoy the purest Delights Men think lazy formality and slack endeavours sufficient Whereas the most serious Thoughts flagrant Desires steddy Resolutions and all possible Industry are requisite in our holy Calling that we may have an abundant entrance into the Kingdom of God 3. Let us follow Holiness with alacrity and chearfulness Our Saviour tells us 'T is his meat and drink to do his Father's will The practise of Holiness is vital and nourishing and pleasant to the taste There is a high relish in Victory of any kind but especially over our most dangerous Enemies it replenishes with cordial Contentment what Joy arises from subduing unruly Passions Suppose Anger has often foil'd me and like an unmanaged and unbridled Horse has hurried me into dangers if by Divine Grace by Circumspection and Care by Resolution and Striving I finally overcome it and all its former Victories what a spring of Joy rushes into the Soul If the Graces of the Spirit are more radiant and vigorous in their exercise the Reward is such a clear serenity of Mind as is the reflection of Paradise a Heaven upon Earth Prosperity in a Calling makes Men diligent and delightful in it But when the practise of Religion is constrain'd and tedious God receives no Honour and Man receives no Praise nor Joy as the Reward of it 4. Let us with unfainting perseverance strive after perfect Holiness There are tinctures of Original Sin cleaving to the best Saints defects in their Graces and best Duties There are many degrees of ascent before we come to the highest point of Perfection Let us strive with our utmost possibility to anticipate Heaven We must not be satisfied
Appetites and pretend they cannot resist the attractiveness and unbind the charms that fasten them to the Objects of their impure Desires let it be considered that a little contempt or coldness of the Person by whom they are charmed a favourable aspect upon a competitor will turn their Love into Disdain and break all society between them And shall one Carnal Passion vanquish another and the Terrors of the Lord the Torments of an Everlasting Hell be ineffectual to restrain them The remembrance of this will cover them with Eternal Confusion in the next World The Traveller complain'd of the roughness of the way when a Thorn in his Foot made it uneasie Carnal Men complain 't is a sad task to obey the Gospel but their Lusts make it so 3. 'T is alledged that the striving after perfect Holiness is unnecessary by the Covenant of Grace a Man may be saved without it Before I discover the falseness of this pretence I shall observe that Carnal Men that they may live easily endeavour to make their Principles correspondent with their Practices they bend the Rule to their depraved Appetites and will not order their Life by the holy Rule The cursed and crafty Serpent will assist them in drawing false Conclusions from true Premisses and in opposing the Grace of the Gospel to its Precepts When the Carnal Affections corrupt the Judgment the Mind will give license to the Affections the case of such is dangerous if not desperate Thus the loose Opinion That Men may be saved without absolute Perfection therefore striving after it is unnecessary makes Men remiss in Religion and produces vain delusive hopes that end in fearful disappointments To undeceive Men the following Considerations may be effectual 1. 'T is true we must distinguish between the Preceptive Moral part of the Covenant of Works and of Grace and the Foederal They agree in the former and differ in the latter The Gospel injoyns perfect Obedience as well as the Law but the first makes it the Condition of the Covenant whereas the second makes provision for our Imperfections According to the tenor of the first the transgressing of one Command was a violation of the Covenant and Death was the unavoidable consequence of Sin for entire Obedience was the Condition of it Adam sin'd once and must dye for ever But to sin against the command of the Gospel and the Covenant is not the same The Mediator interposes between the Righteous Judge and the Sinner and Faith in him notwithstanding the killing Law and the accusing Conscience secures us from revenging Justice Only final Impenitence and Unbelief cut off from the benefit of the Gospel 2. Tho' the Gospel allays the severity and rigor of the Law and pardons our defects yet it as strictly requires our sincere earnest endeavours after Perfection as the Law requir'd exact Obedience We are commanded to grow in Grace 't is direct matter of Duty we are obliged to be holy as God is holy in all manner of Conversation the Rule is inflexible and none can by dispensation or priviledge be exempted from serious and constant endeavours to be intirely like God Those who are pleas'd with the pretence that perfect Holiness is unattainable here and indulge their imperfections are in the state of unrenewed Nature They are sure they shall be bad always and therefore will not labour to be better But the Consideration that we cannot attain to the highest pitch of Holiness is a spur and incitation to the Saints to greater diligence as appears by the example of St. Paul before cited 'T is true there are different ages of the Children of God some are as new born Babes in a state of Infancy and Infirmity others in their Minority others are arrived to more maturity and as the crying of an Infant discovers life as well as active mirth so mourning for our Imperfections discovers the truth of Grace And Saints of different Degrees are receiv'd into Glory but none are who did not aim and endeavour to â—leanse themselves from all pollutions of flesh and spirit and to perfect holiness For without sincerity we are not capable of the present favour of God nor future blessedness and sincerity is inconsistent with the wilful neglect of our Duty Grace is a plant of Heaven productive of Fruits suitable to its quality and 't is proper to its nature to be tending to Perfection A Tree that ceases to grow before 't is come to its perfection and brings not forth Fruit in its season withers and dyes A Christian that is unfruitful has no Life but is expos'd to the just threatning of Excision and the Fire He that limits himself in Religion is in a state of Death I have insâ—sted the longer upon this matter that by clearness and Conviction Men may be dis-enchanted from that pernicious perswasion that without using sincerâ— endeavors to be perfectly Holy they may safely go to Heaven 3. I shall add to what has been discours'd of before some other Arguments and Motives to excite us to be intentive to this great work I shall first consider the perfection of the Rule laid down in the Gospel 1. The Moral Law in its purity and perfection that forbids Sin in every kind and degree Thou shalt not Covet and Commands Holiness in the most Spiritual Sublimeness Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy mind heart soul and strength is the Rule of our Duty prescrib'd in the Gospel 'T is true that Personal perfect Obedience as the Condition of Life is abolish'd as was before observed if that lives we must dye for ever But the command binds without relaxation There is no permission of the least Sin by the Gospel The looking to the Brazen Serpent did not alter the deadly quality of the poison of the Fiery Serpent but stopt its deadly operation Faith in Christ does not change the nature of Sin to make it Lawful but hinders its deadly malignity in Working Our Saviour tells us He came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it And that heaven and earth should pass away before one tittle of it shall fail that is lose its binding Authority 'T is as unalterable as the Law-giver whose purity it represents Not only the Mysterious and Supernatural Doctrines the Objects of Faith but Moral Duties the matters of Practice are fully reveal'd only in the Gospel The Humane Understanding was Darkness to Supernatural Truths and dim with respect to the Rules of Life Our Saviour has clear'd the Law from the false Glosses of the Pharisees who by favourable Explications and Correctives of its strictness instead of curbing their Lusts did cherish and foment them But the Oracle speaks without ambiguity the Interpretation of our Saviour is clear and decisive that the purifying the Heart as well as the cleansing the Hand is an Indispensable Duty Holiness must be so pure that we must not only abstain from polluting acts but quench all polluting thoughts and desires we must not only
Saints that eminently distinguish them from others and these we should especially regard Enoch walked with God His Life was a continual regard of God therefore he was translated into his glorious Presence Abraham's Faith was illustrious in that without reluctancy he address'd himself to offer up his beloved Son a Command so heavy that God would not permit his performing it Moses Self-denial was truly admirable in choosing to live in a solitary naked Desert rather than in the Egyptian Court wherein was the heigth of Pomp and the centre of Pleasure Job's Patience was unparallel'd when encompass'd with the sharpest Affliction Daniel prefer'd a Den of Lyons to Darius's Palace rather than neglect one day his desired Duty of Prayer to God Whom would it not inflame to read the Narrative of the Tryals of the excellent Saints recorded in the 11th to the Hebrews They were persecuted and patient afflicted and resign'd they were victorious over the blandishments of the alluring World and the terrors of the enraged World From those Instances the Apostle exhorts us to run our race with Patience looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our Faith The Knowledge that is in our view from the practice of others will make Obedience more easie and best lead us to practice These excellent Examples should make us blush with Shame and bleed with Grief that notwithstanding there is a more copious communication of Grace by the Gospel than under the Law and a more clear revelation of the glorious Reward we are so many degrees below them Nothing will convince us more of our Negligence than comparative and exemplary Instruction There is an envious Emulation among those that are in Publick Places 't is not so pleasing to see many below them as 't is uneasie and grievous to see any above them This seems to be one of those Plants that in its native Soil is poisonous but transplanted into another Climate and under another Heaven is not only innocent but healthful 'T is a noble Emulation worthy the breast of a Saint to strive to excel others in Holiness 5. Our present Joy and future Glory are improved according as we rise to Perfection here The Life of a Saint may be compar'd to the Labour of the Bees who all the day either fly from their Hives to the Flowers or from the Flowers to their Hives and all their art and exercise is where there is fragrancy or sweetness In divine Worship the Soul ascends to God by holy thoughts and ardent desires and God descends into the Soul by the communication of Grace and Comfort 'T is true the Carnal Man cannot see nor taste the divine delight that a Saint has real Experience of for a lower Nature is incapable of the perceptions and enjoyments of an higher A Plant cannot apprehend the pleasure of Sense nor a Beast the pleasures of Reason and Reason must be prepared and elevated to enjoy the pleasures of Holiness which makes all the charming Contents of this World insipid and nauseous For according to the excellency of the Objects and the capacity and vigour of the Faculties exercised upon them such is the delight that results from their union The holy Soul is a Heaven inlightened with the Beams of the Sun of Righteousness a Paradise planted with immortal Fruits the Graces of the sanctifying Spirit and God walks in it communicating the sense of his Love Are not Life and Light and Liberty productive and preservative of Joy And consequently as the natural Life the more lively and vigorous the more pleasant it is so the spiritual The more we are like God the more we are loved of him and the more clear revelations of his Love are communicated to us The more we are freed from the chains of Sin and bondage of Satan the more joyful and glorious is our Liberty Indeed the Saints are sometimes in darkness but their Sorrows are from their defects in Holiness from their not improving the means of Grace whereby they might rise to Perfection For as when Sadness oppresses us the vital Spirits retire to the Heart and are shut up in their springs that Nature does not perform its operations with delight so when the Holy Spirit the Eternal Comforter is grieved by our quenching his pure Motions he withdraws his comforting Influences and the Soul is left desolate The Experience of all the Saints is a demonstration that Religion the more it fastens us to our Duty and to God by the bands of Love the happier we are and that the state of a renewed Christian is so far from being gloomy and melancholy that 't is the joyful beginning of Heaven By excelling in Holiness our future Glory will be increas'd The life and order of Government consists in the dispensing Rewards and Punishments God will recompence the wicked according to the Rule of Justice and their Desert and the future Happiness of the Saints will be in degrees according to the degrees of their Holiness Not as if there were any Merit in our Works to procure the Eternal Reward which is the Gift of his most free Love but his Love rewards us according to his Promise that they who sow bountifully shall reap bountifully and in proportion as the Graces of the Saints are exercised here their Glory will be in Heaven In this the Goodness of God is admirable he works all in us and rewards his own work His Service is the best for he that commands works and he that obeys reigns If we respect the Glory of God and our own let us endeavour to be compleat in Holiness 'T is true God bestows his Favours as a free Lord and liberal Benefactor variously but he distributes Rewards in the next Life as a Governour according to the inviolate Rule establish'd by his Wisdom in his Word As the quality of the Reward is according to the kind of our Works so the degrees are according to the measure of them To imagine that a Carnal Man may be saved without Holiness is as unreasonable as to think that a Man may be made miserable without Sin It is to attribute an irregular Clemency to him We must distinguish between the desert of the Reward and the order of dispensing it There is no possibility or shadow of Merit for the Grace of Obedience is antecedent to the Grace of the Reward CHAP. XII The effectual means to rise to Perfection in Holiness Unfeigned Faith in our Saviour who is the efficient and exemplary cause of inherent Holiness Prayer a means to obtain an increase of Holiness Frequent and attentive hearing reading and meditation of the Word a means of growth in Grace The Word must be mix'd with Faith and an earnest desire to improve Grace by it It must be laid up in the Mind and Memory It must be sincerely received The Religious Use of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper an excellent means to increase Grace Repentance Faith and Love are improved by it The renewing our
most reverent observance is due 'T is revocable in its Nature but not to cease without the Will of the Legislator either expresly declar'd or vertually by the ceasing of the end of it As the Ceremonial Law is abolish'd by the same Authority that ordain'd it the end of the Institution being obtain'd But this Ordinance is by our Saviour commanded to continue till his Second Coming in Glory the end of it being the revival of the memory of his Death I will not insist upon the several Conformities between the Natural Food and the Spiritual for the principal Comparison and resemblance is in the End for which food is necessary and appointed without which there can be no subsisting Life but consider how the Life of the Soul is strengthened in this Ordinance which is not a naked sign of his Sufferings for us but the seal of the Covenant of Grace and wherein our Saviour though his bodily Presence be confin'd to Heaven yet does really and spiritually exhibit himself with all his saving Benefits to sincere Believers Consider how Repentance Faith and Love are increas'd by this Ordinance 1. Repentance is a Vital Operative Grace not only in mortifying Sin but in bringing forth many excellent Fruits suitable to it All the Terrors at Mount Sinai in giving the Law cannot make such an impression on the Conscience of the righteous and fearful Anger of God for Sin as the infliction of Wrath upon our dying Saviour He receiv'd into his Breast the Arrows of the Almighty that drank up his Blood and Spirits though in himself he was perfectly Holy Surely he has born our griefs and carried our sorrows he was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are heal'd We read that Nathan was sent from God to David when insensible of his Guilt of Murder and Adultery to awaken him to review his Sin he for that end us'd a very moving Parable of a Rich Man that had many Flocks yet to entertain a Stranger rob'd a Poor Man of his only Lamb and drest it for him This David so resented that he threatned the severest Revenge for such an unrighteous and unmerciful action And when Nathan turned the point of the Parable against his Breast charging him Thou art the man in what Agonies and Confusion was he surpriz'd as his mournful Complaint declares When we read in the Narrative of our Saviour's Sufferings of the Treachery of Judas the Malice of the Priests the Fury of the People the Cowardise of Pilate and the Cruelty of the Soldiers how apt are we to conceive Indignation against his Murderers but when Conscience like the true Prophet shall with a piercing Reproach charge us that our Sins Condemn'd and Crucified him how will this open the Springs of Godly Sorrow and looking on him whom we have pierced cause us to Mourn as those that mourn for a first-born How will the Contemplation of him in his Sufferings excite Indignation with Zeal and Revenge against our selves for our choosing and committing those Sins that were the meritorious Cause of his Sufferings Since he bore our Sins 't is just we should simpathize in his Sorrows How instructive and exemplary was insensible Nature as if capable of Knowledge and Affection in the time of his Sufferings It was disorder'd in the Heavens and simpathiz'd in the Elements The Sun was obscur'd against all possibility of Nature for the Moon was opposite and in the Full and in the twinkling of an Eye past half the Circle of the Heavens and being empty of Light towards the Earth by its interposition hid the body of the Sun behind it The Air was as dark at mid-day as at mid-night The Earth trembled the Rocks rent Have the Rocks softer Bowels than obdurate Sinners 'T is a greater prodigy that those whose Sins made his Death necessary are unaffected with it than that Nature seemed to have changed its Principles and Properties to signifie its resentment of it God's Anger darkens the Sun and shakes the Earth and shall sinful Men be unrelenting If by Faith and Consideration we transport our selves to Mount Calvary and with the blessed Virgin stand at the foot of the Cross when our Saviour was dying we shall feel the working of her Affections when a Sword pâ—erc'd through her Soul Now in the Sacrament there is a representation of Christ Crucified before our Eyes which is the most powerful motive of Godly Sorrow and the inseparable consequent of it the destructive hatred of Sin and of holy Resolutions that as he dyed for Sin we will dye to it 2. Faith that is the Root from whence other Graces spring and flourish is increas'd and confirm'd by the use of this Ordinance As by the looking on the mysterious Brazen Serpent there was an Antidote conveyed to heal the Israelites stung by the Fiery Serpents so by the looking on Jesus in his Sufferings our wounded Spirits are healed The dignity of his Person the depth of his Sufferings and his voluntary yielding of himself to them are the supports of Faith The Sin-Offerings under the Law were entirely consumed in their Consecration to Divine Justice and no part was reserved to be eaten by the Offerers To signifie their Imperfection and Inefficacy to reconcile God to Sinners and to pacifie their accusing Consciences The Beasts by substitution suffer'd Death for those who offer'd them but could not purchase Life for them Our Saviour is as truly given to us to communicate Life as he was given for us in his Death When he offer'd himself the most solemn Sacrifice on the Cross he was not consum'd His Body and Blood are the Feast of Love upon his Sacrifice the clearest assuring sign of God's being reconcil'd to us The Blood of the Lamb the true Winâ— has rejoic'd the Heare of God and Man Our High Priest continually presents his Father in the Coelestial Sanctuary his bloody Sacrifice of which there is a Commemoration on the Holy Table If God remember our Sins we remember his anointed Priest to expiate them If the timerous Conscience be in anxiety for the number and heinousness of Sins and the number of Sinnerâ— who must perish for ever without this Miracle of Mercy as if one Sacrifice were not sufficient to abolish their Guiâ—â— let it be consider'd that his Death is of infinite value and what is infinite cannot be divided he was intirely offer'd for every penitent unfeigned Believer The weakest has as full an Interest and Benefit in it as if it had been offer'd solely for him and may apply and appropriate it to himself with as true solid Comfort as if he had been present at our Saviour's Crucifixion and heard him speaking the words of Life I give my self for thee His Blood cleanses from all Sin and is a propitiation for the Sins of the world These are no fictions of Fancy but the real operations of the Holy Spirit who