satisfaction before all the world unless I could chose to be miserable and delight to be unhappy 3. This very Consideration supposing the uncertainty of another World would yet strongly engage me to the service of Religion for all it aims at is to banish sin out of the world which is the source and Original of all the troubles that disquiet the mind for 1. Sin in its very Essence is nothing else but disordered distempered passions affections foolish and preposterous in their choice or wild and extravagant in their proportion which our own experience sufficiently convinces us to be painful and uneasie 2. It engages us in desperate hazards wearies us with daily toils and often buries us in the ruins we bring upon our selves and lastly it fills our hearts with distrust and fear and shame for we shall never be able to perswade our selves fully that there is no difference between good and evil that there is no God or none that concerns himself at the Actions of this life and if we cannot we can never rid our selves of the pangs and stings of a trembling Soul we shall never be able to establish a peace and calm in our bosomes and so injoy our Pleasure with a clear and uninterrupted freedome But if we could perswade ourselves into the utmost height of Atheism yet still we shall be under these two strange inconveniences 1. That a life of Sin will be still irregular and disorderly and therefore troublesome 2. That we shall have dismantled our Souls of their greatest strengths disarm'd them of that Faith which only can support them under th' afflictions of this present Life Not to mention that after all the sad Stories of another Life will not be strait way nonsense because we think them so they will continue at leastwise disputable and who would but a desperate-Sot commit his Soul to such a venture Sect. 2. 4. But when I consider that the immortality of the Soul is a perswasion which generally obtain'd in the Heathen world That the more wise and virtuous any of 'em were the more deeply were they possess'd by the belief and hopes of it that the reasons Plato Cicero c. founded this assertion in deriv'd from the nature of the Soul its operations its little affinity to any visible matter its resemblance of the Deity c. have rendred it so highly probable that it hath shed a very powerfull influence upon the Lives of many 5. But especially and above all when I consider that the Holy Scripture whose Divine Authority is clear'd by as strong evidences as any matter of that nature is capable of assures me that this Soul whether in its own nature immortal or no I 'le not now examine shall not perish in the Dissolution of this Earthly Tabernacle as Eccles 12.7 Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God who gave it and Mat. 10.28 Fear not them which kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul The Soul it seems is not liable to the injuries of a Disease or the violence commited on the Body but doth subsist when the Body is dissolv'd into its dust When I consider all this I can never so far renounce my Reason and harden my self against all the tenderness and passion I have for my self as to be content that this Soul should be lost in that other State provided I be fortunate and successeful in this for what satisfaction can I then reap from a patrimony or purchase wide as the world it self in a state wherein I shall be depriv'd of all means and opportunity of enjoyment What can the Wealth or Power or Beauty of the World signifie to me when the Body which is the proper instrument of earthly pleasure shall lie stark dead and cold in the Grave shall have no passions no appetites nor can all the Rhetorick or wanton charms on Earth awaken in it one languishing desire or one imperfect act of Life and as to the Soul it must dwell in the Mansions of a new world far far remote from this wherein every thing will be strange wonderful unalterable and eternal But I must pursue this thought a little further and not stopping in the contemplation of the uselessness of the World after the Souls departure from it go on to consider the Soul in its intermediate state between Death and the Resurrection that I may know the utmost if I can that the loss of a Soul imports and here I would suppose my self surprised in the midst of gavety and pleasures of Love and Honour by a violent inexorable disease I resign up my dear objects and my dotage together I am torn from my possessions and my hopes and when the storm hath burst the Cable and shatter'd the Hulk of this frail Bark the Body it casts my Soul that is all that remains of me upon an unknown strand naked and poor and desolate without interests or friends or hopes it must dwell in the dismal blackness of eternal night and Melancholly rackt by despair and guilt scourg'd by shame and rage tortur'd with envy and vexation stab'd by regret and repentance not a calm and soft but a tempestuous and painful one then like some sick body which rowles and tumbles for an easie posture rather out of an inability to suffer pain than any hope of finding rest it sometimes languishes and looks back upon the world vanisht like a dream and repeats ineffective wishes for the Body but it shall return to its dear wealth and beauty no more for ever Sometimes like Dives in the flames it looks towards that Region where Light and holy Souls do dwell but the unpassable gulph of the Almighty's Decree cuts off all hopes of that so that that Light onely augments its envy and despair and Heaven it self adds misery to the wretched Souls hell This is the natural and unavoydable state of a wretched Soul dislodg'd from the body despair and rage and shame and guilt and fear and grief and anguish gnaw and devour the miserable creature and for ever must encrease Blessed God! need there any chains to sink it lower than its own weight hath done Needs there any other darkness cover that Soul which such a cloud of sorrows hath benighted Tell me no more of pleasures these thoughts are enough to make me tremble and grow pale at the approach of a temptation rather than my Soul should dwell in such a state a thousand years may shame and poverty be my portion in this life may the hatred of powerful enemies or what is worse the scorn of my dearest friends persue me may my Body be but a Scene of Diseases and so incapable of the least gust of pleasure and more than this may an awakened tender Conscience every moment flash Death and Hell into my face or if there be any thing worse let me suffer it so it but preserve my Soul from Sin here and from that inexpressible
state of torments afterward And yet all this while I have taken no notice of those additional sufferings which Divine Vengeance will no doubt inflict upon the Soul nor of the nature of the Soul the exaltedness of whose Essence heightens and sharpens the pain for the more delicate the Being the more subtle its perception and the more exquisite the torment Sect. 3. There is a third State wherein misery swels to the highest marke it can possibly when the Body being rais'd again shall follow the Fate of the Soul and both shall be condemn'd to inextinguishable flames O Hell where only the Enemies of God and Goodness dwell where wretched men undergo all that sullying the Divine Glory and trampling on the blood of Christ can merit But I have reserv'd a place for a further survey of this state I am sufficiently convinc'd that the gaining of the whole World cannot recompence the loss of my Soul since its loss implies all this and more for what would I take to be miserable or rather what would I take to be eternally so is it a rational question if I lose my self what can be gain to me the world peradventure will continue amiable many ages after I am gone but what is that to me And if to gain the whole world at so dear a price be so ill a Bargain how fatal a purchase should I make who am like to gain so little being none of the worlds greatest Favourites My Soul is not so cheap yet that I can set it at so low a rate as a few hundreds a year I am as immortal as any Monarch in Christendome and my pretensions to the Almighties favour may grow equal to that of any of the Sons of men and I should be a Profligate and Reprobate a Brute indeed if I should abandon my poor Soul to Misery and renounce the interest I have in the God of Heaven and Earth for I know not what Let who will therefore sweat and toil for wealth and greatness I have but this one business to do to insure this dear dear Soul of mine in its voyage to eternity let who will gain the Reputation of a wise man by a clearer fore-sight and thriftier management of affairs by an unwearied Attendance and insinuating applications I shall think my self wise enough if I can but be sav'd and great enough if I enjoy but the Smiles of Heaven Let who will applaud themselves for the contempt of intrigue and sullen business whilst they thaw and dissolve in soft and delicate pleasures or waste and spend themselves in course and toilsome Lusts If I may enjoy the pleasure of a manly rational life spent in a constant course of Religion and virtue without Superstition or frowardness of a mind unharass'd by desires and fears of a peaceful assur'd conscience of the contemplation of glorious Truths and the hopes of a blessed immortality I shall envy none the happiness of the most luscious pleasure or kindest fortune the World affords A Prayer reflecting on the precedent Discourse BLessed God give me grace to prefer the interest of my Soul to the World and Flesh the things eternal to the things temporal that amidst the pleasures of Prosperity and Peace and the flatteries of Reputation I may not forget to think what will be the condition of my future State and that amidst the troubles which besiege this mortal Life I may be supported by the blessed hopes of a better world that the confident belief of the Souls immortality may render me industrious to lay up a good foundation for the time to come so that when I shall have put off this Tabernacle of clay I may be cloath'd with a building of God not made with hands eternal in the Heavens all this I beg through Jesus Christ our Lord. CHAP. II. Of the Nature of Christianity Sect. 1. CHristianity may be considered either in Relation to Faith or Practice I will first consider the Christian Faith and that in the most practical manner I can In my Creed I have regard to three things especially 1. To the use and end of Faith which is certainly to guide and influence our lives 2. To the peace of my own Breast And 3. To the preservation of Charity My Reason for the first is evident of it self for the two later is this Tho I may doubt whether I believe aright all that is necessary to my eternal salvation and yet that doubt not prove injurious to my happiness at the last day because I did both believe aright and live conformably to it and the scruple arose only from the Disputes and Contests of men and the weakness of my own understanding not from any iniquity of my will yet this doubt will disquiet and disturb my repose damp my cheerfulness and vigour and may peradventure unsettle my faith and end if not in Atheism in coldness and indifferency And tho 2. I may believe Another in a damnable Errour when he is not without prejudice to my own Soul because I may make this judgement in the Simplicity of my heart by the best light and Rule I have yet peradventure this opinion may improve it self insensibly upon my affections to a very ill consequence and invite me to an uncharitable and unfriendly deportment 1. If I consider the Christian Faith with regard to the great end of it Holyness I observe that the Gospel contains two great things the Knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ This is Life eternal Joh. 17.3 To know thee the onely true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent This knowledge contains in it all the Obligations imaginable to a Holy Life and secures the hopes and comforts of Christians upon an unmovable foundation and this knowledge agrees perfectly with the Nature and Ends of Religion 1. First With the Nature of Religion Religion is nothing else but the true and spiritual worship of the only true God who is a Spirit Now all the worship we are capable of paying him consists either in the Affections of the Soul or Actions of the Body so that that Belief or Knowledge which tends to render these proper and acceptable to God is directly conformable to the Nature of Religion The Gospel therefore hath discovered God to us 1. One infinite in Wisedom Power Holyness Goodness c. And secondly as he stands more particularly related to us in the Work of Creation Providence Redemption All this put together proves him to be God and to be Ours it evinces his Excellency and his Supremacy it represents him infinitely Lovely and Adorable in himself and entitles him to all the service and affection which Dominion Love and Munificence can lay a just claim to all which is enforcement enough which is the use of Faith to our Duty when we are acquainted with it Which that we might be and that we might have assistance to enable us to performe it and that there might be a Provision made for the pardon of our errors God in
relye upon Christ And it will highly oblige him to both or 2. In a state of Regeneration and then according to that experience and proof a man hath of the truth and sincerity of his Conversion such is the proportion and degree of his assurance and hopes which doth not exclude but suppose Faith in Christ for this is no more then to believe that now his sins are pardon'd his prayers heard his services accepted and he shall at last bere warded if he persevere unto the end in and thorough Christ Or 3. In a state of Relapse and even here he hath yet hopes if he repent thorough the blood of Christ For this is frequently asserted in Scripture I 'le urge but one place 1. Jo 2. 1 2. My little Children regenerate certainly These things write I unto you that ye sin not and if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins c. that by these sins are not understood the unavoidable frailties and imperfections of the best men but plain and manifest transgressions of the Law is plain 1. From hence that this is the general notion of sin in this Epistle 2. from the manner of speaking that ye sin not if any man sin which cannot be sense if applied to the unavoidable errours and imperfections of the best of men 3. They are here said to be of the number of those sins for which Christ shed his blood and are equall'd with the sins of the rest of the World And besides these Three uses of Faith I know none nor what more can be attributed to or desir'd from the blood of Christ I cannot see unless men will wilfully abuse their Faith into an impunity and patronage for sin or what disparagement it can reflect upon this sacrifice of Christ That it obligeth us to Holiness and rescues us from the power as well as guilt of sin I am not able to comprehend as to the silly scandal of trusting in works they that know what these words or terms Justified by works and justified by Repentance and Faith mean know that the one implies a perfect contradiction to the other for the former denyes any sin or iniquity and the latter doth directly suppose it 4. Without some degrees of Faith it is impossible that a wicked man should be awaken'd into any serious sence of his condition or should be induc'd to set himself in good earnest to please and obey God without a good measure of this Faith the very regenerate will never be able to conquer the World and subdue the flesh and enter into their rest I mean with th' Apostle a Rest from sin for their endeavours will be but weak and languishing their prayers cold and faint the Acts and instances of Religion will be undertaken as a Duty of necessity not delight the whole Progress of their Christian warfare will like the driving of Pharoahs Charriots when the Wheels were off beslow and uneasie they will be liable to frequent relapses their Life will not be a firm Peace but an unstedy truce with conscience and their Death will be mixt and checker'd with jealousies Distrusts and faint hopes like a sky spotted with numerous Clouds But if we arrive at a good degree of this precious Faith we shall be more than Conquerors o're the World and ourselves we shall be plac'd above the Reach of Temptations preserv'd thorough the power of Faith unto Salvation we shall be too great to be swoln with vanity in prosperity or to be cast down in affliction we shall find all the wayes of wisedome wayes of pleasantness and all her paths peace in one word we shall rejoyce always with joy unspeakable and full of Glory and when our glass is run and our Lives spent we shall be translated to the blesed Seats of Perfection and Peace 5. For the obtaining and improving and confirming of this holy Faith it is necessary that our Religion be not meer Credulity or Custome but that we seriously weigh those two great witnesses our Saviour appeals to for the proof of his coming from God his Works and Doctrine the Power of the one and Holiness of the other being sufficient evidences of his Commission from above To which we must add the Testimonies God himself gave him from Heaven his resurrection from the Dead and ascention into glory and all those mighty works perform'd by his followers in the virtue of Faith in his name and to be firmly rooted and grounded in Faith through these arguments is that which St. Peter exhorts Christians to 1 Pet. 3.15 To be ready alwayes to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you 2. By frequent retirements and sosolemn and devout Meditation to acquaint our selves as intimately as we can with the glorious Truths of the Gospel of Christ to draw the representations of them as lovely as may be and to dwell and gaze on the things we believe till the light of the understanding hath shed it self thorough the inferiour Soul warm'd all our passions and the Body it self seem to relish and partake of the pleasure of the mind The most useful matter of our Meditations will be 1. The Nature of the the God we worship I mean the glorious Attributes Mankind is most concern'd in His Truth and Wisedom his Power and his Goodness And 2. The Sufferings and the Glory of our blessed Redeemer as the sole ground of inexpressible comfort as the most indearing Obligation to Holiness as the most perfect pattern of Virtue and the most lively instance of its reward 3. We must add to both these means incessant prayers offer'd up with a fervent Spirit at the Throne of Grace for considering the darkness and indisposition of our Natures we have altogether need of the assistances of the Divine Spirit and therefore The Prayer O Eternal God the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Author of all good gifts enlighten my understanding that I may believe thy Gospel set at liberty my will that I may approve and love the things that are excellent that the belief of the Gospel of the blessed Jesus may engage me to Love Obey and Relie upon him give me such a lively sight and firm belief of the things not seen as may raise me above all the corruptions which are in the world through Lust and make me partake of the Divine Nature that so my Life may be full of Joy my latter end of Peace my Soul in its Separation of Rest and my whole man in the Resurrection full of Delight and Glory Amen Amen Blessed Jesus Section 2. Of Love 1. Of God 2. Of our Neighbour Of the Love of God Love is not a meet Approbation of the understanding but also an affection of the Will or Heart in Scripture phrase And therefore Coldness and Indifferency in Religion and warmth and passion for the world cannot be justified by
thou hast done in all Meekness and Charity and Faith and Hope that I may be fitted for those Mansions thou art gone before to prepare for me Amen Amen SECT IV. Cantaining the fourth Motive to Holiness i. e. the Consideration of the vanity of all those things which tempt us to sin A Man who should have seriously laid to heart the strength and importance of these Motives to Holiness which I have considered would be apt to think that nothing less than some unimaginable temptation or some unavoidable necessity in the contrivance of our natures could provoke men to cast off all these Obligations and break thorough all these obstructions that he might sin and die but on the quite contraty which doth strangely reproach the folly of the sinner 1. Those things which are the allurements to fin have little or no temptation in them 2. Sin it self is a silly base thing And 3. Man hath strength enough offer'd to enable him to avoid it 1. The first I shall have occasion to consider fully in the third part of this Treatise and thither I refer the Reader only by the way we must take notice there is no more sttess to be laid upon this Argument than it will bear and that this Argument hath still respect to the joys and punishments of another life the sensual satisfactions of Man are very little and trifling compar'd with the pleasures of Heaven and it can never be worth a mans while to be damn'd for them yet sure if there were no life to come it would behove every man to be content with and make the most of this nor do I at all doubt but that men may manage their lusts so as that they may not be able to infer Reason enough to relinquish them from any influence they have upon their interest or if any one should think it necessary to purchase a pleasure by the shortning of his life or the lessening of his Estate I cannot see why he may not have reason on his side for a short life and a merry one and my mind to me a Kingdom is would upon the former supposition be a wise Proverb for upon this supposition the pleasure of the mind would be very narrow and faint and the checks of Conscience would be none or insignificant But as the case stands now though there be pleasure in sin and deceitfulness in lust granted in Scripture to abandon the hopes of Heaven for some carnal pleasures upon Earth is like Esau to sell his Birth-right for a Mess of Pottage and on the other hand to renounce all present enjoyments for the sake of Heaven is like Peter to forsake a worn Fisher-boat and broken Nets a troubled Lake and uncertain Hopes for the assurance of a Crown and Kingdom which is surely very reasonable And now I pass on to the second thing and fifth Section SECT V. Containing a fifth Motive to Holiness from the Nature of Vertue and Vice IN 1 Ep. Jo. 1. this is set down as the great Message which Christ came to acquaint the world with that God is light and in him is no darkness at all and therefore they who walk in the light have fellowship with him and they that walk in darkness have none where it is plain that S. John founded the necessity of Holiness in the Divine Nature because God is holy therefore he must first renounce his own Nature e're he can establish any other contrary Laws or love or hate on any other condition than Holiness and sin This being so I think the best way to discover the Nature of Vertue and Vice is to consider how the one renders us like God and the other unlike him The Account we have of the Nature of God is that he is a Spirit of Eternal Life Infinite Power Wisdom Goodness Justice and Truth these are the chief of his Attributes and such as Reason it self acknowledges to be the highest perfections and excellencies imaginable If Holiness therefore tend to implant and improve some resemblances of them in men and Vice to efface and extinguish them it will easily appear how the one makes us like God and the other unlike him 1 God is a Spirit it is true that Vertue and Vice do not change the substances of things and make Spirit Flesh or Flesh Spirit yet because they do so wonderfully transform things by instilling new qualities and so altering the operations of beings they are in Scripture said to do so Thus because Vertue raises and refines the Soul frees it from those Fogs which a sensual dotage casts about it scatters a new light upon it and mortifies those affections which reign in the body and render it more obedient to the mind so that the man lives the life of Faith as becomes a wise and an immortal being therefore it is said in the Language of the Holy Ghost to have render'd him a spiritual man and on the other side because sin doth stupifie and sensualize the mind imbolden and pamper the body so that the soul seems to have chang'd its nature into flesh and relishes nothing of those pleasures which are properly spiritual but is wholly taken up with those enjoyments which are the proper and natural entertainments of flesh and blood not a Spirit therefore sin is said to have rendred the man a natural man 2. Eternal Life is the second Attribute of God Life in man is either of the Body or Soul as to the former Temperance Imployment and a chearful spirit are the great Preservatives of Health and the best supports of such crazy beings as our bodies are Religion injoyns the two former for no man can be holy without being temperate and imploid at least in doing good and it contributes very effectually to the later i. e. chearfulness of spirit by begetting in us a peaceful Conscience a resign'd mind and glorious hopes but sin shortens our hasty days by exposing us to diseases violence the Law and by the ill influence which a distemper'd mind hath upon the body as to the Soul Righteousness is the life of it it is the nourishment and pleasure the freedom and the security of it but sin is the death and plague of it non est vivere sed valere vita it is not the meer existing but the welfare and happiness of a being which is its life and if so how can a soul which is sick of passions daily tortur'd and distracted by an ill Conscience be said to live Besides sin doth impair the faculties o'recast the light and fetter the powers of the mind so that it neither understands nor wills nor commands as it ought to do it is rendred a poor sickly despicable being and therefore the sinner is said to be dead in trespasses and sins or at least because the Metaphor is not to be press'd too far as appears from the Text following if it hath any life it is as imperfect as that of a Lethargick drowsie body all 's a thick night
bearing our selves in hand that we do nevertheless Love God because we do prefer him in our thoughts above all things and because we will not do what will displease him for the former of these may be an unavoidable consequence of a clear understanding and the latter of an innate Self-love which may be able to restrain us from the Commission of those sins which we believe will do us an unspeakable mischief These do well in their place and are presuppos'd to the love of God for no man can love God unless he know him nor will any man make any distinction of Good and Evil i. e. lovely or hateful by consequence unless he love himself but yet these are apparently distinguishable from and can stand separately and alone without the love of God and therefore let none deceive themselves for To love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our Soul and with all our strength and with all our mind is something more than to entertain an honourable opinion of him or to avoid affronting him because he is able to punish us the Scripture expresses this love by Delight and Joy by Desire and Longing Hungring Thirsting Seeking and the like and more fully if we love God above all things our hearts will be where our Treasure is our affections will be fasten'd on things above and our Conversation will be in Heaven because our God is there Now we cannot converse with Heaven but by Faith and Hope Meditation and Prayer c. And therefore it must follow that they who love God must be industrious to improve these Graces and be frequent in the exercise of these Duties as the Means and Instruments of enjoyment And 2 If we love God we shall hunger and thirst after Righteousness and Holiness which beautifies the Souls and renders us like God and therefore amiable in his eyes and we shall delight in all those good and virtuous actions which are the proofs of an inflam'd affection and indear us to God he that loves him keeps his Commandments and we shall hate nothing so mortally as sin because it stains and sullies the beauty of our Souls distastes the God we love and interrupts our peace and joy and extinguishes our hopes and if this be the frame and habit of our Souls towards God then because we cannot love or serve two such contrary Masters as God and the World therefore 3. These temporal things which are seen will appear very cheap and inconsiderable to us and our concern for them will be so cold and indifferent that no change which betides them no imaginary excellency that is in them will be able to raise our Passions to distract our thoughts to abate our diligence to divide our affections and overthrow our Faith for the love of God the prospect of a more glorious life will have disarm'd the Glory Beauty and Wealth of this World of all their Charm and Temptation and if so how can we then be led captive by what we do not in the least admire How can we be afflicted at the loss of what we do not value or Why can we not be calmly divided from what our affections have renounc'd already Vain World adieu I am above either thy Menaces or Flatteries I fear nothing because I am at peace with the God I love and I despise thy guilded dreams because the love of my God swallows up all my desires and I am content to have no portion but him alone How my Heart pants after thy Courts O God the Holy of Holies the Heaven of Heavens where I shall for ever behold thy face and Reign in the Kingdom of my blessed Saviour for ever and ever Now with St. Paul I long to be set at liberty to be dissolved from this body and to be with Christ nor should I willingly stay longer here on Earth but in Obedience to thy holy Will and a design of spending this life in doing Service to thy glory and in expressions of my love in Longings and Watchings and Sufferings c. And when I consider this merhinks my Life 's too short and I shall go to Heaven too soon and I could wish my Sun would stand still a little that I might do and suffer something for my Lord before I go to enter into his joy and to receive a Crown It is true these are heights of Love which all do not tho it were to be wished all could attain to for we have need of sanctified passions to enable us to do our duty with delight and vigour But none are from the want of such degrees of Ardour to conclude themselves either wholly void of the Love of God or deserted by him for God is a Being infinitely above our conceptions and that of him which we do conceive as Power Wisedom and Goodness tho amiable yet are spiritual and not the objects of sense and therefore do not move us with the same violence that sensible things do whence it is easie to conclude that our love of God is of a different nature from that we pay the creature 't is a more spiritual affection mixt with Adoration 't is an awful desire of pleasing and enjoying him not alwayes terminating in so vehement and sensible a passion as visible objects beget in us and therefore the safest way is to judge of our state not by transports but by the firmness of our Resolutions and by the constancy and cheerfulness of our Obedience But because as there is a more peculiar presence of God as I humbly conceive evident by Scripture so by consequence there may be a withdrawing and retirement of that presence therefore when I find my understanding dim and clouded or distracted and shaken with suggestions to unbelief my desires lukewarm and groveling my Devotion faint and drowsie and my communion without gust and relish I am weary of my self and I have no rest by reason of thy absence O blessed Lord. Then first I lay before me my Life and review my Actions which are late and fresh in memory since this ill temper hath seiz'd me and examine what it is hath displeas'd my God and if I find the accursed thing that drove away a holy God I cast my self down before him and abhor and renounce it But secondly if sin do not appear to me to be the cause of this indisposition and listlessness then perhaps I have not been as watchful and industrious to improve my Graces as I should or if this be not it perhaps 't is but an alteration in my body that clogs and benights this Soul and then I groan at the miseries of my Pilgrimage and bemoan the infelicities of my Nature but if none of these appear the cause Then thirdly I rest humbly patient waiting till God please to return to his resting place it were Pride and Sawciness in me to expect my Heaven here to be impatient unless I live alwayes in extasies caus'd by the divine pretence I will meekly
as well as theirs engages us to Charity for we are become both Criminals and Judges at once and whilst we forgive others we are merciful to ourselves and whilst we revenge and hate others we are cruel and barbarous to ourselves 3. The Gospel establisheth a closer Relation between mankind than that of Nature by the communion of the same Faith the same Spirit the same Sacrament whereof one is but a holy league of Charity and so in one word we are incorporated and become all but members of the same body and therefore as in Joseph nature prevail'd above the sense of wrongs and remembring not that they were his enemies but that they were his Brethren he fell upon their necks and kissed them and wept through joy and tenderness towards those Brethren who without the least softness or relenting had expos'd him if not to a certain death to banishment and slavery so must we Christians remembring by what ties we are fastened and united no more harm or hate one another than we would our own limbs our own Bodies 4. The Gospel convinces us of the meanness and worthlesseness of all things here below not only of Wealth but even of Reputation and Life too of the Body the Soul 's secur'd beyond the reach of man and so makes it both the easier task to part with them in the service of Religion and not so easie to ground the subject of a quarrel on them 5. It annexes precious promises to the performance of this duty i. e. an assurance of Reward in this Life and in the other of happiness in overflowing measures By this time it is easie to discern 1. What kind of thing true Charity is How sweet and gentle how kind and meek a temper it is how beneficial to mankind how delightsome to our selves and how like God and acceptable to him it makes us 2. What a Stress God layes upon this duty how dear a value he hath for it that Charity is the very Life and Soul of Religion and that to be a Christian without Charity is an unnatural contradiction And therefore It cannot choose but raise my wonder to observe thar there are a sort of people who tho' they do no harm do no good neither who study nothing but their proper interest and pleasure and so if just which is the most are far from Charitable and yet they hope to be sav'd Much more am I amaz'd to observe that there are another sort who are meer Lyons in their families Bears and Wolves in the Neighbourhood and it may be worst in the State who are bad Neighbours worse Husbands and Masters worse Subjects and yet they call themselves Christians which is for men who are not fit to live on earth to hope for Heaven And yet I still wonder more when I observe that there is another sort of men who are great Devotionists long and sometimes passionate too in their prayers unless the passion be meerly threatical which is not a settled affection but the meer sally of a sudden heat severe and grave in their outward deportment and huge zealots for this or that cause or particular doctrine and yet they are froward and peevish sower and sullen and censorious and covetous and proud and insosolent and disobedient and yet these men are so far from calling into question their Salvation that they count themselves spiritual and the especial Favourits of God despising the rest of mandkind as carnal moral blind things by what means they arrive at this dangerous state I will not now examine but I will beseech all such to lay to heart these general truths that he who Loves his God must Love his neighbour too he that prayes must do good and communicate too he that is devout and zealous must be meek and humble and charitable and obedient too or else their Religion is unnatural their devotion a meer humour or melancholly or any thing but holiness they are so far from being Christians that they want some degrees of humanity to perfect them into Men. The Prayer O Most gracious and Merciful God enlighten my understanding that I may know thee and discern the loveliness and beauty of all thine attributes especially thy goodness towards the Sons of Men and shed forth thy spirit of Love in my heart that I may seek thee and delight in thee and make it my business to contemplate and to serve thee And may the example of thy Mercy toward Mankind and me in particular and the example of my blessed Saviour laying down his life for his enemies enkindle in me such a true affection towards my neighbour that I may Love him as my self or as Christ Loved me that I may walk as the blessed Jesas did in abundance of kindnesses and meeknesses and patience and in all instances of a Heavenly Charity and so may at last enter into that Heaven which is the eternal abode of peace and Love Amen Amen blessed Lord. Sect. 3. Of Temperance By Temperance is meant such an abstinence from the pleasure of the body as the Gospel requires and therefore I will enquire 1. What rules of Temperance it prescribes us 2. What motives to the duty it makes use of and 3. What method it enjoyns for the attainment of this grace 1. Of the Rules of Temperance The common Rule and Standard which most have made use of to conduct men in eating and drinking c. is the end of those Acts that is the health and strength the welfare of the body but I have great reason to dislike of this Rule for if extended any further than to eating and drinking it is apparently false and I hope none will affirm that all those pleasures which are not inconsistent with the welfare of the body are therefore not inconsistent with Religion being applyed to eating and drinking c. in a strict and close sense it layes a snare for mens consciences and must reduce all to the meer necessities of Nature and so many enjoyments which are innocent enough nay sometimes upon some emergences necessary will be utterly sinful and Religion will be made a meer burden and mens minds be fill'd with endless scruples if taken in as wide a sence as some men I see understand it it opens a gap to sensuality and unchristian freedomes for I do not question but that any man without prejudice to the happiness of his body may be guilty of intemperance in that notion that I have of it that is any man may eat or drink to the enraging of his lust to the softening and sensualizing of his mind c. without the hazard of a Fever or a head ach On these accounts I cannot but look upon this Rule as very useless and improper if not dangerous for a Christian and a proper rule of nature only in such a state which hath no prospect of another life and therefore I think my self oblig'd to inquire in the Gospel for better I think then we shall easily find what
it is the Gospel means by temperance by enquiring 1. What is the end it aims at in enjoyning this Duty 2. By what words it describes and expresses it 3. The examples of our Saviour and his followers in this point Likewise the motives it adds and the method it prescribes will serve to clear up its intention to us The great end St Paul suggests to me 1 Cor. 9.25 Every man who striveth for the Mastery is temperate in all things intimating that the means are then proper when they are suited and fitted for the attainment of their end and by the allusion implying that the end of our Temperance is a striving for the Mastery that is a Conquest over the World and the body for the Gospel represents the World and the Flesh as those enemies against which the Christian is to be engag'd in a continual warfare and tells us that the lusts and pleasures of them do War against the Soul Religion being nothing else but the Love of God and heavenly things the Gospel endeavours all that it can to wean us from all fondness for or delight in the world and the flesh it being impossible to serve two such contrary interests By a clear consequence from all this I conclude that we are to endure hardship as good Souldiers of Jesus Christ that we are to abstain from fleshly lusts as strangers and pilgrims in plainer words that that abstinence from sensual pleasures which renders the body tame and governable serviceable to the soul and chearful in the exercise of Religion which doth enfranchise the mind of men from its captivity to sense which doth establish its dominion over the brutish part so that the man lives the life of faith and not of sense is disengag'd from the World and so ready to depart is that Temperance which the Gospel of Christ requires and by consequence on the other hand that that indulgence to worldly pleasures which tends to pamper and enrage the body to awaken our passions for this present state to endear and recommend the World to us to make the minds of men soft and feeble heavy and sensual to make our temper delicate and wanton unable to suffer and froward if our appetite be not satisfied is flatly contradictory to the Temperance of the Gospel of Christ This is a Rule which if well consider'd and conscientiously applyed to every particular will sufficiently conduct man in the paths of this great duty and answer all scruples concerning the enjoyment of pleasures whether they be real or phantastick ones For is any man such a stranger to himself that he doth not understand the working of his own soul that he cannot give an account of the passions which he feels nor know by what methods he is betray'd into the Love of the World and a decay of his Religion Doth not every man feel what kind of eating and drinking clogs the soul and emboldens the body what kind of sights or dalliance doth dart the poison of lust and ambition into our very souls Or what doth thaw and melt us and make us Love and hate delight or grieve hope and fear like the Children not of Light but of the World certainly unless a man will impose upon himself he must needs discern the birth and growth of his own Passions and discover the methods by which he doth insensibly degenerate into a loose or cold or senceless Spirit 2. This Temperance is in general express'd in Holy Writ by Mortification and Holyness the former imports such a change in the body as flattens and deads its appetites for the World I am crucified to the World and the World is crucified to me The latter imports an excellent and Godlike nature a transformation of mans into a spiritual a frame as man in this imperfect State is capable of arriving at And certainly men thus qualified can not place their delight in the sensual enjoyments of this life how innocent soever they might be the World hath nothing agreeable to souls of this Heavenly nature nor nothing worthy of them Temperance in the particular branches of it is call'd Purity Sobriety Abstinence Modesty c. all which are to be interpreted according to the method of the Spirit in a sense which doth not onely restrain the outward Acts but also the inward passions of man in a sense which doth not onely forbid the commission of gross sins but also all tendencies towards them in the body and in the soul Conformable to this Doctrine were 3. The lifes and examples of the Holy Jesus and his followers tho' peradventure it would not be altogether errational to suppose that the extraordinary measures of the Divine Spirit in his immediate Disciples and their conversation with the blessed Jesus and afterwards the fresh memory of all his Power and Glory might render a corporal discipline the less necessary I will not deny but that our blessed Master did often accept of entertainments nor did I ever design to forbid any such thing on particular occasions which may warrant them but it is easie to observe how course and plain and sparing his constant Diet with his Disciples was how frequent in his fastings and his watchings he was As for his Disciples after his departure their lives were but a constant warfare and the World and the flesh their enemies they Liv'd like strangers and Pilgrims upon earth and their pleasures were altogether Spiritual and Holy These were the paths that they trod towards conquest and a glorious Crown and I can easily conceive how their Life was fill'd with such spiritual ravishments how they long'd for the appearance of Christ and how they left the World with such glorious assurances as that I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith all which may have regard not only to his sufferings but also to his conflict with the flesh too henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge shall give me at that Day and not to me onely but unto them also that Love his appearance But how that softeness of conversation that full and luxurious feeding and drinking that garishness and wantonness of dress that sloth and lazyness of Spirit which is so universal in the world can become the life of a Souldier of Christ I am not wise nor lucky enough to comprehend But I can now easily discern from whence it proceeds that Religion seems so unpleasant a thing and that men are so unwilling to depart hence into another life it is because we are such imperfect Christians and we live sensually It will therefore behove us to lay to heart the great motives by which the Gospel engages us to this duty as 1. The nature of our present State in this World the poor soul lives in a treacherous body and a tempting World both which conspire its ruin and therefore it must be upon its watch upon its guard it is not a time
not true Faith it is as broad as long for not to dispute whether in the place mention'd the reasons of unfruitfulness was in the seed or in the ground whether it be true Faith or not I 'me sure it is not saving Faith so that the Rule given us whereby to discern and judge of our state is a very plain and easie one viz. He that overcometh the World is born of God If it should be further inquir'd how a man shall know whether he overcomes the World tho he may with as much sense ask me how he shall know what he loves and hates what he shuns and persues the answer is very plain his Servants ye are to whom you obey So that the whole State of this question may be in few words reduc'd to this no man can be a stranger to his own actions nor to the operations of his own soul what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him which words if I have any logick contain two things 1. That a man knowes his own mind or if he do not then 2. That no man else can therefore since a man knows his own actions and his own affections what he doth and out of what principles he doth it he cannot chuse but know who it is he obeyes but if his Life be so various so made up of vice and virtue and the flesh and spirit be so evenly pois'd that which hath the preheminence whom he obeyes be a matter very doubtful and disputable to himself then whether he shall be saved or no must remain to himself and much more to all others God alone excepted equally doubtful and I can guess at no other expedient for him if he hath a mind to rid himself of this scruple than entirely to compleat his conquest over sin and to shake off that empire over sin which it seems to me hath been too long and deeply settled and established and to go on from one degree of grace unto another till he arrives at Perfection which is the only method to obtain that full assurance of hope mention'd Heb 6 11. With which I intend now to close this first part of my discourse of the Nature of Christianity because tho it be not a particular grace it is a particular state and therefore deserves a particular consideration and tho we be not oblig'd to it upon pain of Damnation yet we are invited and encourag'd to it by several glorious motives and enforcements as shall presently appear and therefore it is a Gospel duty by Perfection in the sense I now consider it the Gospel implies a State of Grace arriv'd at its full maturity and strength grown into Nature and consummated into a vigorous and delightful habit it being in this as in all other qualities they grow up into habit and nature that is Perfection by degrees According to this the Gospel describes this State by Manhood and a perfect Stature and calls our procedure to it growing encreasing and going on so that perfection is nothing else but Faith Love Temperance and Humility in their greatest lustre and strength The effect of this State is that the Life be not onely constant firm even and like it self but also pleasant and delightful too not only that the man abstain from evil and do good but that also he do both with desire and earnestness of spirit with ease and with delight not onely that he do good but what is in its kind most so This is a State which is attainable in this Life for the Gospel calls and invites men to it and if any deny it it is because they frame to themselves another kind of notion of perfection than the Gospel delivers us which requires of Man no other perfection than such as is suitable to his Nature and the assistances promis'd by God and to this present State never as much as dreaming that perfection is the same thing in man as in an Angel and what ever men may talk it doth not reckon the unavoidable imperfections and frailties of men for sins at leastwise such as can hinder man from being denominated perfect witness the whole First Epistle of St. John The motives to this duty may be compriz'd under Four heads all deriv'd from the nature of the State it self Perfection is a State 1. More pleasing to God 2. Of greater security 3. Of greater pleasure 4. Entitled to greater glory in the Life to come 1. More pleasing to God if God Loves holiness which no body can doubt then every degree of holiness is a new charm and what is most Holy is most lovely and if so every one that professes to Love God must be oblig'd to aim at perfection because he cannot but be oblig'd to please God as much as he can and he that doth not may justly suspect his conformity to the divine precepts to be rather policy than Religion and to proceed from a desire of his own safety rather than the Glory and pleasure of God unless a spiritual prudence shall restrain him from attempts or vowes of more Heroical instances of obedience for Reasons which Religion may approve of in which case it will be alwayes necessary to observe this caution that his choice of a better good do not proceed from any desire of gratifying the body or from want of Love to God and holiness 2. Perfection is a state of greater security the more strong Faith and Love grow the more faint and flat are all temptations that beset us a soul which is devout and rais'd is not easily lur'd down by any of the flatteries of lust the soul being long accustomed to rule and the body to obey the soul being us'd to spiritual delights and the body being now perfectly crucified the man is become a quite different being from what he was and therefore that World which did before take him hath now no grace nor allurement in it I am crucified to the World and the World is crucified to me This State is call'd in Scripture Wisdom and Knowledge and Strength which doth intimate to us that that World which did before gain upon us only by our blindness and our weakness can now no longer prevail besides this the more like God we grow the more dear are we to him and become the more near and peculiar charge of Heaven which St. Paul Heb. 6 9.10 alledges for a reason why he was perswaded better things of them than Apostacy and things that accompany Salvation that is perseverance because God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of Love c. 3. It is a State of greater pleasure a State of Peace and Rest from sin for the Man having establish'd an entire conquest over himself is not frequently alarm'd by the lusts of the body because it is crucified the soul being rais'd and Heavenly is now too much exalted to be reach'd by the blasts of every temptation 2. It is the nature of a habit
this present State would be good and even pleasure and interest would not peradventure be the same thing then that now for the soul would not challenge so distinct a consideration or provision as now for it would not be onely lawful but wise for it to become sensual and worldly and so the same pleasure and interest would minister to the happiness of both Body and Soul But now that we are assur'd that we are to live to all Eternity and that every action of ours hath an influence on that other life we must needs conclude that every action is good or bad wise or foolish as it serves or hinders our happiness in that State to come that this motive may have its full force it will behove every man to take as lively a survey as he can of the joys and miseries of another Life And 1. Of Heaven It must be confest that to be able to speak properly of Heaven we have need like St. Paul to be rapt up into it for the richest fancy would be but flat and barren in its framing any resemblance of the joyes and glory of that place they are unconceiveable Heaven is like the God of it there is no searching of him out unto perfection but yet there is enough of him manifested to prove him to us strangely aimable and therefore I 'le consider what is manifested to us of Heaven 1. The place 2. The persons for the objects they will fall in with these which constitute the happiness of Heaven 1. As to the Place Heaven it is the sacred abode of God and Angels and therefore it must as much exceed this World as they do us for no doubt on 't the wise Architect of all things made each Pallace proper and fit for the entertainment of that family it was to receive and indeed it appears to be a place fit for the Favorits of God to live in for Heaven is a place of everlasting life and everlasting happiness Heaven is the end and consummation of all things all things will there be in their highest perfection which they are capable of we are now the rough draught of what the great Artificer intends us imagine to what glory we may be rais'd we once were dirt and clay see now what comely glorious beings yet we are to be refin'd much more above what we are now than flesh and blood is above dirt and clay what difference there is between Time and Eternity between corruption and incorruption so much we differ in our existence and essence now from what we shall be afterwards for mortality must be swallowed up of immortality and corruption of incorruption If Heaven be a state wherein all things are consummated an end which hath none beyond it then I infer 1. That there will be nothing more for us either to hope or fear all will be full of quiet and peace no passions there but Love and Joy and Wonder there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain Rev. 21. 2. Having obtain'd our end we shall have no further need of means there will be nothing which is to be done meerly for the sake of something else as here below the covetous man suffers hardship and the toil of constant business not because he loves trouble but because he would be rich the Religious man offers violence to his own body not because it is actually pleasant to do so but because it is in order to a greater good therefore there being nothing of this to be done in Heaven all the business and imployment of that Life will be delight and pleasure hence it is every where in Scripture describ'd as a State of Peace and Rest and Joy and Pleasure 2. As to the Persons I a poor creature of this World below I who have felt the troubles of this mortal State been tortur'd by the passions of Flesh and Bloud Fears and Cares Despairs and Hopes even I am going to a Heaven where none of these can enter where I shall be made happy with those enjoyments which make God and Angels so I shall be made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to the Angels in Heaven how far above them in my happiness for what a value will the experience of this World make me set upon the joyes of another the sense and memory of misery will make my Heaven double I consider that in that Life to come we shall have Soul and Bodies tho not such as we have now our Souls will be strangely rais'd and refin'd in their nature and endow'd with strange measures of knowledge this compar'd to the other Life being like Childhood to Manhood 1 Cor. 13.9 10 11 12. We know in part but when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away when I was a Child I spake as a Child I understood as a Child I thought as a Child but when I became a Man I put away Childish things for now we see tborough a glass darkly but then face to face now I know in part but then shall I know even as also I am known I am not willing to infer what kind of measures of knowledge this Text imports to determine how well we shall be vers'd in the Philosophy of Grace and Nature and the World above how experienc'd we shall be in the Annals and History of this Life and the other 't is enough to say as the Text doth that what we do see we shall see plainly not darkly and what can we see in another Life but God c. How rich a pleasure this will be only ingenious and excellent spirits are capable of fancying all may be able to guess that it will be a most unspeakable pleasure because knowledge is one of the Excellencies of God and Angels and the delight of the wiser part of Mankind As for the Souls Affections they will surely be settled on God or whatever other objects there may be subordinate they will be such as will become so pure and holy a Being for the Appetite of each Being flows from the Constitution and Nature of it it now indeed derives mean and degenerous inclinations from its communion with the Body whose contrivance is proper for the state it lives in But then the Body will be rais'd a spiritual glorified Body which is to be understood in opposition to a carnal natural one 1 Cor. 15. a Body proper to be an Inhabitant of such a place and to be a suitable companion to such a Soul fit to comply with its desires and in some measure sure to partake of its joyes which I may place as the first ingredient of the happiness of the Body in that Life to come i.e. As it here grieves and joyes in the pain or pleasure of the Soul so there it will much more if the satisfaction of the Soul now do by a happy influence impart health and chearfulness and pleasure to the body it will
there much more do so because being rais'd spiritual it seems to me that it will be knit in a closser union and be more capable of those influences but besides this 2. It will have pleasures agreeable and natural to it self which it will reap 1. From the glory and perfection it possesses which will be one peculiar to it self and of a different nature from that of the Soul thus in our Saviour on the Mount from whose transfiguration we may receive a little light they were two different things which made up the beauty of his mind and of his body Wisdome Love Holiness c. were the charmes and graces of his Soul but light and glory and proportion the Majesty and Beauty of his body and since this body will be in its nature distinct from the soul for though spiritual it will not be intelligent therefore too it will have objects fit to entertain it what those objects will be that I 'le not endeavour to discover the Scripture doth in the general tell us that the place it self will be fill'd with a mighty glory that our conversation will be strangely delightfull that there are things prepar'd for us which are not therefore God himself which the eye hath not seen c. if that place be to be understood of the entertainments of another life but least any should mistake me I doe not in the least dream of any gross pleasure not the pleasure of the glorified body will be as spiritual a the body and no more from all that I have said I infer 1. That the joy and pleasure of the Life to come is most perfect and Excellent for the more excellent the being the more delicat and refin'd its pleasure or else there could be no difference between the happiness of an Angel that 's ravisht with the enjoyment of Heaven and an Hog that fattens in is stie and grunts at a full meal and if so how unconceiveably great will our pleasures be in that State wherein the worse and meaner part of us our very bodies shall be spiritual and incorruptible 2. That there is no reason that we should be the less mov'd and captiv'd by the promises of such pleasures in another life because they are pourtrayed to us in such an excellence and lustre as doth rather dazle and amaze than take and please us for tho now we are as far beneath them as we are at a distance from them yet then our natures will be made equal to them and when we stand upon the same level with Angels what makes up their Heaven will constitute ours too And now what can man fancy more than this that our natures should be rais'd to the highest perfection they are capable of and be entertain'd by the most glorious objects imaginable there is only one thing more to be added that this State be Eternal that we not only have all which our hearts can desire but also that we have all this for ever and ever and this is one property of Heaven too the things which are seen are Temporal the things which are not seen are Eternal now Eternity is a duration that never passes a stream of time which still glides on and yet never runs quite away a day that never sets in any Cloud or night a State of Life which shall never grow old by time nor decay by age a pleasure which will alwayes delight and never surfeit us a meeting of the dearest friends never to part again O my God how unconceiveable is the Glory thou dost design me for I cannot comprehend what I am going to be and what can be the influence of all this but that I should count all the advantages of this present Life dung and dross in comparison of the happiness of the Life to come that I should count all the afflictions of this present life not worthy to be put in the balance against the glory that is to be reveal'd how is it almost possible for me to resist the charms of such a Heaven or not to despise this World who have the prospect of such a one to come I need but cast an eye of Faith upon the joyes of Heaven and it will be enough to confront and baffle all the allurements of flesh and blood and all the gawdy nothings of this fading World one thought a day of Heaven will raise me so far above all the fears and troubles which distract and disquiet this present State that I could sit with unconcernment and see all my hopes and interests lost and shipwrackt on the billowes of an inconstant Word whilest I knew that my Heaven my Eternity were sure nay death it self would be the onely thing on this side Heaven which would be an object fit for my desires and wishes what is it then can tempt a man to sin who is thus arm'd who is proof against the flatteries or menaces of the World against the soft addresses of a Wanton or the impatiences and querulency of a weak tender body what conflict if possible can be difficult which is to be thus rewarded who can faint or languish in his race who hath his eye fixt upon such a Crown The Prayer O Most glorious God strengthen my Faith in the belief of the invisible things of another World that it may inable me to conquer this imprint in my Soul such a lively Image of that future State as may make me run with patience and chearfulness the race which is set before me O let me not chuse my portion in this Life Let me not exchange the Crown and Glories of Eternity for the pomp and vanity of this Life Let me not forfeit the pleasure and peace of that State of bliss for the dull momentary Lusts of this mortal earthly State but let me who have this hope purifie my self Let me make it my business to be doing thy Will for which way can I so advantagiously lay out my time and strength as for an infinite reward O my God let these considerations prevail with me to Live so that when I come to dye I may have nothing to do but to receive a Crown Amen Amen Blessed Jesus Of Hell Now tho a meer exile from this Heaven were Hell enough and there needed no flames nor darkness to make that State miserable for that there should be an eternal day whose light should never shine on me that there should be full tides of pleasures which I should never taste of this is Hell enough Yet besides all this there are real and endless torments to be inflicted upon all impenitent sinners when Christ shall come to take vengance on all them who know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ The place is a Lake of Fire and Brimstone of flame and darkness which together with a worm that never dies imports the excess of that torment which shall produce weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth The Company is the Devil and his Angels the fearful
Practical Christianity Or an Account of the HOLINESSE WHICH THE Gospel Enjoyns WITH The MOTIVES to it AND THE REMEDIES it proposes AGAINST TEMPTATIONS With a Prayer concluding each distinct Head Imprimatur Ex Aedib Lambethanis 23. Decemb. 1676. GEO. HOOPER LONDON Printed by S. and B. G. for R. Pawlet at the Sign of the Bible in Chancery-lane 1677. TO THE READER Reader I Have endeavour'd in this following Discourse to endear Holiness to the Love and Practice of Mankind which is a design neither so trifling nor criminal as to stand in need of an excuse But because a very worthy design may miscarry in the contrivance and method of its prosecution therefore I think my self oblig'd to give you some account of that which is thus I have endeavour'd to represenâ— Religion in its true and natural Character purified from the sensual Freedomes which some and the frantick and conceited Whimsies which others deform it by I have propos'd the glorious Motives to Holiness and the powerful Remedies against Temptation which it contains I have perform'd this as near as I could in an easie Method and familiar Stile I have not intermixt either Fancy or Passion which seems to me too light and garish a dress for Divine thoughts but writ them in as natural a plainness and Majesty as I could give them hoping all from the conquering power and influence of clear truth and therefore it will be necessary to him who shall design any advantage to himself from this Treatise to read it deliberately and allow each sentence a proper Consideration for being forc'd to crowd many Truths into a narrow compass I have wove the matter a little closser and chose a conciser Stile than otherwise I should have done and therefore do not expect to be betray'd by me into a wise Love of Religion at unawares or to be heated into a Romantick Passion for Vertue the former is impossible and the latter of little use but if you bring an honest and attentive mind I hope you may find something in this Discourse which may be of very important service to your Soul And besides this I had one inducement more to the Publication of this Treatise that is I am sufficiently assur'd that no kind of Discourses contribute more to the peace and welfare of Church and State than those practical ones which aim at implanting a real goodness in the minds of men for the want of this goodness is it which hath betraid us into Errors so numerous and so fatal to the publique Peace and Charity and to the very vitals of Religion for if our minds were possess'd with that Charity and Meekness and true Zeal for the Divine Glory which becomes Christians we should consider more calmly and see more clearly and act more sincerely we should discern a more manifest contradiction to Religion in those unnatural Feuds which are carried on by so much passion in such irreligious methods and made use of to such unchristian purposes than in any thing which is the subject of our contests and we should follow after peace by a compliance if not to all yet to all we could and then I am confident we should soon put an end if not to our Mistakes yet to our Divisions If I have contributed my endeavours to this in my degree and capacity I hope for pardon at least here and am assur'd of a Reward hereafter Farewell ERRATA PAge 15. l. 26. after all which add gives us an excellent notion of God and. p. 48. l. 11. r. Thee or four l. 13. r. Faith Love Temperance and Humility p. 98. l. 2. r. his happiness or glory p 102. l. 14. r. unkind p. 123. before the prayer adde Sect. 3. As to the means of attaining Temperance I refer my Reader to the Section of Fasting p. 138. l. 14. for better r. lesser p. 164. l. 11. for word r. world p. 223. l. 9. for are of r. use p. 249. l. 23. r. or universal yet THE CONTENTS PART I. Chap. 1. THe great Motive to Religion 1. The Salvation of the Soul Chap. 2. Of the Nature of Christianity in general in relation to Faith pag. 13 Chap. 3. Of Christianity with respect to practice in general p. 29 Chap. 4. Of Christianity with respect to practice in particular Of Faith 65 Of the Love of God 82 Of the Love of our Neighbour 91 Of Temperance 112 Of Humility 124 Of Perfection 133 PART II. OF the Motives to Holiness contain'd in the Gospel Of the Reward and punishment in another Life 152 The Second Motive the Consideration of Divine Nature 172 The Third the Consideration of Jesus Christ 179 The Fourth the Vanity of Temptations 193 The Fifth the Nature of Virtue and Vice 195 The Sixth the assistance of the Divine Spirit 206 The Seventh the Nature of the Gospel Covenant 207 PART III. OF Temptations to Sin Of Pleasure 220 Of Pain 241 Of some particular Methods by which we are betraid into Sin 265 Of the Instruments of Holiness the Sacraments Prayer and Fasting 280 The Conclusion 296 Practical Christianity CHAP. I. Shewing the necessity of being Religious because the Salvation of our Souls depends on it Sect. 1. 1. WHat is a Man profited saith our Blessed Saviour Mat. 16.26 if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own Soul That I have in this state I am now in a Soul as well as a Body whose interest concerns me is a truth my own sence sufficiently discovers for I feel Joyes and Sorrows which do not make their abode in the Organs of the Body but in the inmost recesses of the Mind pains and pleasures which Sence is too gross and heavy to pertake of as the peace or trouble of Conscience in the Reflexion upon good or evil Actions the delight or vexation of the mind in the contemplation of or a fruitless inquiry after excellent and important Truths 2. And since I have such a Soul capable of Happiness or Misery it naturally follows that it were sottish and unreasonable to lose this Soul for the gain of the whole World For my Soul is I my self and if That be miserable I must needs be so outward circumstances of Fortune may give the World occasion to think me happy but they can never make me so Shall I call my self happy if Discontent and Sorrow eat out the life and spirit of my Soul if lusts and passions riot and mutiny in my bosome if my sins scatter an uneasie shame all o're me and my guilt apales and frights me what avails it me that my Rooms are stately my tables full my attendanrs numerous and my attire gawdy if all this while my very Being pines and languishes away These indeed are rich and pleasant things but I nevertheless am poor and miserable Man Therefore I conclude that whatever this thing be I call a Soul tho it were a perishing dying thing and would not out-live the Body yet it were my wisdome and interest to prefer its content and
worthy of Christs descent into Earth which promotes the Glory of God and the Happiness of Man and that is only Goodness or Holiness concerning which I will 1. Enquire what kind of Goodness or Holiness that is which the Gospel of Christ requires And 2. Prove that it tends to advance the Glory of God and Happiness of Mankind which will serve not onely as a proof of its being the scope and drift of Christianity but also for a strong enforcement and motive to it Of the 1. Holiness is compriz'd in three things living soberly righteously and godly in this present world Tit. 2.12 That hereby is forbid all plain and open violations of the Commandements such as are 1. All debasing of God in our imaginations and deprav'd Acts of worship consequent to this and all unthankfulness to him 2. All sorts of Falshood and Injustice 3. All kind of unnatural Lusts and Excess destructive to our Health or Reason is too plain to be prov'd All this being nothing else but that ungodliness and Worldly Lusts which we are to deny and the very Heathens by the Light of Nature Rom. 1.32 Knowing that they who do such things are worthy of death But whether Christian Holiness imports any thing more than the mere avoiding those Sins upon the principles and assistances of Religion whether the positive part of the command in the later part of the Verse doth not intend something more than the negative in the former part of it is very well worth our Consideration because it is plain that the Scripture speaking with respect to the Life of Gentiles which was deprav'd even below the Light of Nature doth by mortification mostly intend an abstinence from those actions amongst them which were manifest transgressions of the Law Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the Earth Fornication Vncleanness c. Col. 3.5 And because most men do by interpreting the Gospel to this sense embrace Christianity themselves and recommend it to others under the Character of a Debonnair and Complaisant Religion so that the way to Life seems to me so exceeding broad and the Gate so very wide that unless a Man be born with a most villainous temper and that be improv'd by a loose and undisciplin'd Education a Man may make a shift to enter in without much striving or strugling which seems to me very opposite to the meaning of our Saviour I will therefore answer to this Quere by degrees Having first remov'd the Objections by telling you 1. That Mortification is but one part of Christian Holiness and that Abstinence from gross Sin is but half of Mortification And 2. That I hope they who speak such soft things of Christianity do intend it of a spiritual pleasure or else of that more perfect State wherein they who are arriv'd at it know how to abound because having obtain'd a more compleat conquest over the Body and the world they are not so easily ensnar'd as new Converts And I proceed now to the Query it self 1. Acts of Sobriety and Justice perform'd without any deliberation by the meer inclination of Nature if such may be are meerly natural Actions neither good nor evil neither rewardable nor punishable 2. Acts of Sobriety and Justice perform'd upon the sole instigation of pleasure and conveniency which attends such a Life in this present world are very proper and natural effects of Reason but under the Gospel they do not constitute any parts of the Righteousness of the Kingdom because our Actions are to proceed from nobler Motives not that I deny but that to us Christians Worldly Happyness may be a very lawful incentive to Holiness but then it must be in its place not the sole and great but a subordinate inducement Thus tho the Apostle invites us to goodness by Praise and a Good Report yet he who is vertuous meerly that he may be fam'd for it is a vain-glorious Sinner so though the promises of this Life annext to Godliness may encourage us to embrace it yet if any Man be godly meerly for present pleasure and happiness of this Life he is but a Worldly Man nor do I here only mean that worldly pleasure must not be the sole but that it must not be the great the principal allurement to Religion something it may contribute but it must be in its place and its Degree and thus far I have treated the Quere with more favour than I should by making use of the words Acts of Sobriety and Justice which is not taken for granted in the Question and now I must premise once for all that a meer abstinence from evil is not a Doing or Being good and then I proceed to resolve 3. That to deny any Sin upon the account of Religion i. e. The Fear and Love of God and Hopes of Salvation is certainly an acceptable Sacrifice but because in all our Actions there are generally many motives twisted together and because Man out of fondness for himself is very apt to attribute the work to that motive which it is his interest should be uppermost therefore it will very nearly concern every one to examine seriously the degrees and strength of this Faith he pretends to for peradventure tho this Faith be strong enough to restrain him from wild and unnatural Lusts because it leaves him enjoyments and pleasures enough to entertain him with more delight in their stead and gives him up to a Life no less sensual tho the instances of sensuality be more regular Yet it may not be powerful enough to crucifie all worldly and carnal affections and to force him to do perfect violence to his Inclinations His fondness for the pleasures of this Life may be too stubborn to give way to a Faith which is not more deeply rooted nor arm'd and wing'd with holy passion and the Body may be too high fed to surrender up all its satisfactions upon the demands of a drowsie Faith so that the Man doth not intirely deny himself because Religion commands it but thus far he thinks fit to comply with Religion because it doth him no harm it doth not intrench upon his sensual injoyment and if this be his Case tho the Man may have call'd in Faith to the assistance of Reason yet he doth not suffer it to reign and by consequence his Life is still the Life of Sense and not of Faith Faith comes in but slantingly and collaterally into his Life it is not the main and chief inducement to his Actions 4. And lastly A Life lead in meer abstinence from evil and yet an allowance of the utmost freedomes we can with innocence injoy upon supposal that such a Man could so love God and Heaven as to be able to renounce all when call'd thereto a supposition I can very difficultly be reconcil'd to is but the minimum morale if Holiness yet the lowest degree of it and the Gospel seems to me to have a further aim to propose a greater height and to expect from its
Votaries a nobler perfection which will easily appear to any one who shall diligently consider 1. The great Motives to Holyness which it contains that is a declaration of the Divine Nature Jo. 1.18 The infinite Love of God to Mankind manifested in the blessed Jesus and the full Discovery of Life and Immortality or Secondly the mighty assistances it promises that is the blessed Spirit of God and Divine Providence employed either in preventing us from falling into temptations too big for this imperfect state or else in finding a way to our escape out of them Or Thirdly the immediate end of Christian Religion that is whilst we are here on Earth to fit us for Heaven He that shall seriously lay to heart these three things will be forc'd to conclude that in all reason the Gospel must require of us something proportionable to the extraordinary motives the powerful assistances and the glorious end it assures and proposes to its Children and this must be something more than a meer negative righteousness for it is unreasonable that this Light should beget in us no greater degrees of Love and Fear for God than what natural Reason might or if it doth that the instances of our Obedience now under the Gospel should be only such as the strength of nature might have enabled men to comply with under Gentilism tho it must be confest not so easily as now Agreeable to this Doctrine our Holy Saviour in his Sermon on the Mount which is the Rule and Standard of the Christian Life sets us as a more exalted patern Not onely to be True in our words and Just in our dealings with our Neighbour but to be Charitable Gentle Patient and to return good for evil to our very Enemies not only to avoid all unnatural Lusts and wild Excesses but also to be pure and holy to admit of no sensual Fancy or unchast Looks or idle words to fast and afflict our selves the Blessed are they which mourn he forbids us all Ambition and Covetousness and Vainglory not on the account of injustice for that doth not alwayes unavoidably cleave to them but as they are the Acts of a worldly mind which is perfectly contrary to poverty of Spirit and to laying up our Treasures in Heaven and to the taking up of the Cross of Christ so powerfully and sweetly recommended Our duty to God is couch'd all along in the whole Discourse but the Acts of worship more plainly express'd are Loving him as a Father praying to him endeavouring to promote his Glory and chearfully to obey his will relying upon him for assistance in our spiritual warfare for Provision Protection and Deliverance in this Life and add to all this this one circumstance that all this is to be done with delight constancy and vigour implied in those general Precepts Blessed are they that hunger and thirst c. Lay up c. for where your treasure is there will your Heart be also seek you first c. and strive to enter in at the strait Gate c. and then you have our Saviours Sense of Christian Holiness If we consult his Disciples the best Expositors of their Masters Text we shall find the whole of Religion compriz'd in two things The Mortification of the outward Man and the Resurrection of the inward by which they mean as appears from Colos 3. a setting our affections upon things above and not upon things on the Earth from whence I will infer two conclusions 1. That our affections are an essential part of Holiness that it is not enough to approve of invisible things in our understanding and then act not as Men who love God and Heaven and Goodness but as men who see it unavoidably necessary to do something and therefore go as far as is consistent with that carnality they yet resolve to gratifie but that we must love them also and this to that degree may be able to extinguish our passion for the World and therefore 2. The Life we are to lead must be such a one as may most tend to enkindle in us holy passions for the things above a delight in the survey of our hopes and defires of entring into the presence of God all which cannot be attain'd but by requent Prayer Meditation Hearing and Reading of Gods Word the holy Communion and heavenly Discourses and on the other side to take off our Affections from the world and beget in us a generous contempt of it which can never be effected but by repeated acts of self denyal fasting watching meditating on the example of a crucified Saviour the glories and pleasures of another Life the vanity and yet bewitcheries of this fadeing one I may be confident that a constant caressing the senses with feasting drinking wanton dalliances the pomp and vanities of Life cannot be a proper method to the mortification of the outward man or vivification of the inward So that if a very abstenious Life as to the general course of it be not requir'd as an essential part of Holiness yet it is necessary as the means and instrument of it conformable to this whole discourse is that of St. Paul 1 Cor. 7 29.30 But this I say Brethren the time is short it remaineth that both they that have wives be as tho they had none and they that weep as tho they wept not and they that rejoice as tho they rejoyced not and they that buy as tho they possess'd not and they that use this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away where we are not only interdicted unlawful pleasures but forbidden to give our selves up to lawful ones and commanded to use such moderation as may become men fully perswaded of the shortness and vanity of this Life and possess'd by the expectations of a better The Sum of all is this The Christian State is a State of extraordinary Holiness and Purity 't is a new nature wrought by principles motives assistances different from those of the natural man 't is in one word to be Heavenly minded and therefore that course of Life which can best serve to encrease this blessed temper is the Christians Duty and that course which quenches it which softens and sensualizes us is inconsistent with Christianity and inconsistent with Regeneration for if we be risen with Christ we shall not onely Love but seek those things which are above it being impossible for any man to live when he can choose quite contrary to his own desires so that he who loves God need not be told that he must Pray and Meditate and Communicate and be doing good c. When he knows he can enjoy him here below no way else he that hates Sin and loves Holiness needs not be told that he must lead an abstemious Life when he knows that feasting and drinking c. do feed the Body into wantonness and lust and quench the holy flame of Love and indispose it for Religious Duties From all this it is plain
look for my reward from God not man and therefore I am not at all concern'd that he doth not requite my kindness by gratitude in his behaviour I am the Disciple of Christ who laid down his life for his enemies and the Child of that God who is kind even to Rebels and sinners and why should I think it enough to divide my kindnesses only amongst my friends I am press'd by the Conscience of a duty and I do not so much mind an injury as in what manner I am oblig'd to receive it least I transgress as much by impatience as mine enemy hath done by injustice I love my own peace and rest and would not be disorder'd and breed a storm and tempest in my bosome for why should I be so foolish as to transform another mans sin into my punishment and lastly I am now upon my journey and am hastening toward my Heaven and I would not be stopp'd and detain'd in my way much less turn'd out of it by the silliness and impertinency of a trifling sinner And besides all this I consider that these men who wrong me tho thus kind and unjust they are yet my brethren the workmanship of my Fathers hands the purchase of my dear Lord and Masters blood partakers of the same promise and salvation unless they receive the Grace of God in vain and how can I do any thing to them but pray for 'em and bless them Yet after all being still but mortal but flesh and blood some little aptnesnesses to impatience and revenge may remain in me and therefore if at any time my blood begin to Chafe my Choler boil my Spirits chill with envy or mutiny with despight I retire from the provoking object to my God and am not at rest till I have laid the evil spirit till I have stifled the sin in its first throws and pangs I bemoan my unhappy nature and blush at my own weaknesses and strive and meditate and read and pray till my Tears refresh me and my repentance ease me and upon this sometimes I find an extroardinary calm and lightsomeness ensue such as I fancy that of a demoniack when the ill spirit was cast out or of one suddenly cur'd of a disease by th' Almightiness of our Saviours word sometimes I continue a little heavy and oppress'd as when the ill spirit went out yet so as to rend the man and then not leaving off but in ejaculations repeating my instances to God I betake my self to something which may divert my thoughts and deceive my pain Secondly In the survey of my daily Deportment which I make each night I drag forth the Crime into the awful preence of an holy God and there araigning it of all the mischiefs it hath done me of all the troubles it hath given me and laying before my self seriously and devoutly all the obligations I have to the practice of the contrary virtue I condemn it with an holy indignation I cover my self with shame and sorrow and renew most solemn resolutions against it and earnestly beg of God his assistance against his and mine enemy This is a method which will undoubtedly lead us to a most certain conquest for it doth naturally tend to soften and calm the mind to possess it with greater degrees of meekness and deeper aversions for causeless wrath and it sets the soul upon its Watch and Guard so that it cannot be frequently surpriz'd into passion and lastly it engages the Divine Spirit in the quarrel which sure is no impotent assistance And therefore I cannot for my life reconcile this deportment each night with a repeated frowardness and peevishness each day much less with anger digested into a sullen hatred such I am afraid do not strive and therefore they do not conquer they neglect the means God prescribes them and therefore he doth not vouchsafe to relieve them either they do not at all examine and repent in the presence of God or else they do it transiently and perfunctorily or else they Love the sin and therefore conceal and shelter it or else they are fond and partial to themselves and therefore cover and excuse it and any of these falts is enough to undo them Having taken this survey of Charity it is now time in the last place to consider by what powerful motives the Gospel obligeth us to this duty 1. The first may be taken from the nature of Charity it self it is remarkable that St. Paul 1 Cor. 13. Designing to prove the excellence of Charity above any other spiritual gifts thought it enough to describe it for no body can know what it is and not presently discern how useful and serviceable it is to the happiness of mankind the pleasures of the Rich and comforts of the Poor the safety of Government the peace of Families and the delight of Friendships are all built up upon it Next Charity fails not but abides for ever ver 8. of this same Chap. It is a vertue that constitutes a part of Heaven and helps to make up the enjoyments of that state of most perfect bliss and certainly if we could but imitate the virtue and perfections of Heaven we should in the same degrees and proportion pertake of its happiness too and that which is one of the great ingredients of the pleasure of the other World would if practic'd be no small addition to that of this These being the glorious consequents of Charity it is but natural and reasonable that we should love it as we do our selves and persue it with the same eagerness we do our pleasure our happiness 2. From the nature of God who hath sufficiently manifested himself to the world in all his works to be Love God is Love Of which what more amazing instance can we have in him than his giving his Son to die for us and pardoning us freely thorough his blood and in his Son than in offering up himself for us And because uncharitableness bears such a contradiction to his Nature he therefore resolves that no such monstrous and ill-natur'd Creature shall enter into Heaven and hath frequently assur'd us that our deportment towards one another shall be the Standard and measure of his towards us If ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you but if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses Mat. 6.14 15. The natural influences deducible from hence are that he who loves God must love his Neighbour also because he cannot be the Child of God nor acceptable to him without sharing of that blessed affection which God hath for the world and tho the provocation of a Neighbour may have very justly incens'd him into hatred and desire of revenge yet he cannot refuse his pardon to the requests of a God who hath done so much for him and of Jesus who hath died for him And Secondly if we cannot be pardon'd our selves unless we pardon others it seems our own necessities
dark chamber and mark how thou must lie in thy bed of sickness and of Death consider how all thy hopes and comforts all thy designs and purposes as far as they concern this world must vanish like a dream and think what need thou wilt then stand in of all the strength and comfort which Reason and Religion the Ministry and Prayers of thy Spiritual guide and Friend and the Conscience of a well spent Life can furnish thee with then thou wilt need a strong Faith and a vigorous Love and an entire Humility to enable thee to bear thy agonies patiently and part with the world chearfully and meet thy God compos'dly 4. Do not indulge thy self in the Enjoyment of the utmost liberty which is consistent with Innocence vice borders very closely upon vertue he that will not be burnt must not approach so nigh the fire as to be sing'd besides such freedomes do insensibly instill sensuality into the soul at leastwise if so thick an aire do not sully the soul it is too gross and mixt to whiten and clear it 5. Catch at every opportunity of a holy discourse and learn to raise from every thing a heavenly thought and to mannage every Accident to some spiritual purpose embrace all examples of an Excellent vertue and search after all occasions of doing good declining by all the Arts of prudence and Religion what ever either company or discourse whatever either sight or entertainement may soften thy temper thaw thy Resolutions discompose thy calm or alay thy heavenly mindedness or endear the world to thee sin steals in thorough the eye or ear c. dressed up in Beauty Mirth Luxury c. but it wounds whilst it delights and it stains where it touches and it captives what it once possesses 6. Be sure that thy Religion be plac'd in substantial and weighty things not fancyful and conceited for example 1. As to matters of Faith make it thy business to know God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent the riches of divine Love and the merit of Christs sacrifice and do not mispend thy time nor weary and disturb thy Soul with Curiosities and vain disputes which usually grow out of interest and pride or an impertinent and trifling spirit 2. As to practice let thy Religion be made up of Fundamental Duties not conceits or will worship of Charity and Humility Obedience Mortification and Purity pure Religion and undefiled is this to visit the Fatherless and the Widowes and to keep ones selfe unspotted from the world Religion is not a devout whimsey a sullen Austerity or a blind and giddy passion but all that promotes the Honor of God the good of Mankind and the peace of our own Souls The Prayer O Most glorious and Eternal God guide me I beseech thee in the paths of Holyness I am the purchase of thy Sons blood I have known the truth of thy glorious Gospel and receiv'd the earnest of thy Love thy Holy Spirit O grant that I may not receive thy Grace in vain that I may not suffer wreck in the sight of my Haven But assist me by the might of thy Spirit in the inward Man to perfect Holyness in the fear of God to go on to the full assurance of Hope mortifying each day more and more the outward man and growing in all godliness and vertue and every thing that is praise worthy that so the nearer I approach Eternity the fitter for it I may be that my state here being a state of spiritual delight and pleasure each day may give fresh vigour to my Devotion so that I may not faint till I enter into the Joyes of my Master and receive a Crown Amen Amen Holy Jesus I have consider'd 1. Our Obligation to Religion upon the account of our own Souls which can neither be happy in this Life nor that to come without it 2. The Nature and Substance of that Religion we profess as it regards either Belief or Practice from all which it appears that the Christian Philosophy is nothing else but a Systeme of most exalted Holyness such as may become Men who are design'd for another life it remains now 3. To consider by what powerful motives the Gospel engages us to duties which are so far above our natural state and strengths Practical Christianity Part II. CHAP. I. Of the Motives which the Gospel proposes to Holiness THe Motives by which the Gospel obliges us to Holiness are 1. The Reward of Vertue and Punishment of Vice in another World 2. The Consideration of the Divine Nature 3. The Consideration of the whole History of our Saviour 4. The consideration of the vanity of all those things which are the temptations to sin 5. The nature of virtue and of vice 6. The assistance of the Divine spirit and 7. The consideration of the nature of the Gospel Covenant which leaves a place for Repentance 1. Of the first Motive Upon what account Life and Immortality is said to be brought to light thorough the Gospel I 'le not determine but it is certain that the Gospel shews us how Death is abolish'd and how Life and Immortality may be attain'd 2 that it hath manifested this to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews and that 3. The Discovery of it is in full and clear words laid down in almost every Page of it The Wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment and the Righteous into Life eternal Mat. 25. and Ro. 2.5 there is a day mention'd which is call'd The Day of the Revelation of the righteous judgement of God because he will then render to every man according to his Deeds to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory and honour and immortality eternal Life but unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile but glory honour and peace to every man that worketh good to the Jew first and also to the Gentile This being so to sin must needs be so silly and weak a thing no man of common sense would be guilty of for can any man of reason be at a loss in such a choice as this whether he will live eternally or die whether he will be happy for ever or for a moment upon supposal that sin could make me live one happy moment 'T is true if there were no prospect of another Life no account to be taken in another world the case would be much alter'd for the Law of our nature being I humbly conceive nothing else but the Law or Dictates of Reason and the business of Reason being in this respect at least only to distinguish between good and evil our Reason would talk to us at another rate because it would proceed by different principles good and evil would then peradventure be different things for whatever would make for the pleasure and interest of
and unbelieving the abominable and Murtherers Whoremongers and Sorcerers Idolaters and Lyars and all the Enemies of God and Goodness The Duration of this State is for ever as Eternal as the Joys of Heaven an Everlasting Punishment the Worm never dies and the Fire cannot be quenched And though the Almighty may not be bound up to fulfil his threats which whether so applicable to God as Man I 'le not dispute yet certainly our Saviour and his Apostles in giving us a Narrative or History of the different Issues of things are bound to speak truth Hell then is a fixt state of misery wherein men have bid adieu to the pleasures of Earth and to all hopes of Heaven the memory of past pleasures doth but increase their pain and what 's beyond all the misery of this world they enjoy not as much as the deceitful Dreams of flattering hopes Hell where there 's no light nor ease nor God nor any harmless pleasure to divert the pain a moment Hell where only the wretched Objects of an Incens'd God do for ever weep and wail Is this the Death which is the wages of Sin Can Sin offer me any pleasure that can countervail this Eternity of miseries or is there any thing in poverty or shame or banishment or death equal to this Hell if not what blind brutish madness pusheth me on to sin Can I dwell with Everlasting Burnings Can I be content to live in an endless Night of pains and horrours Adieu my fatal pleasures I had rather starve and macerate this Body into sobriety than by Indulgence betray it to the rage and fury of Almighty Vengeance I 'le shut my eyes against all forbidden Fruits rather than for ever deprive 'm of the sight of Heaven and close them up in an Eternal Night Welcom whatever Penances Religion may impose upon me whatever the World may threaten me with for the discharge of a good Conscience I 'd watch and fast till Death rather than be Damn'd I 'd be the scorn and hate of Mankind rather than of God Are not these terrible Truths Are they not arm'd with Lightning and Thunder enough to startle the most harden'd sinner Good God what makes the World so dead so callous that such dreadful Objects cannot rouze nor pierce them It must needs be because they put that evil day so far off that the biggest terrours of it look but like Moats at such a distance But surely we mistake our selves in our computation we are now in Time how narrow is the Isthmus which parts Time from Eternity or is there any Partition at all but one groan that the frame of our Nature cracks with but one parting moment wafts us over upon the shore of another world Heaven and Hell they are not at the distance of so many years from this world but just of so much time as will serve us to die in And is this so much that we should frolick and wanton in our sins as if we were not within ken of danger there 's scarce a moment in the day wherein some Soul or other in some part of the world doth not make its Exit into another life and shall I sin as securely as if my time and death were at my own disposal I came but a few years ago into the world and within a few more I must go out on 't how soon this day will come I know not I 'm sure that the Sentence of Death is past upon me already I only wait the hour of Execution which any trifling cause can be the instrument of I may die of pleasure or of pain I may die of want or fulness I may die of desire or enjoyment what is it then which cannot give Death the very heighth of health is a degree of sickness my Scull is weak my skin and flesh thin and soft my heart tender and my passions easie my inner part is full of strange mazes vessels curiously contriv'd and subtilly dispos'd what a little will ravel this intricate contexture and discompose this delicate frame and shall I be as secure as if my strength were Iron and my sinews Brass and the position of my parts fixt as the Decrees of Heaven No no I 'le live in continual expectation of my Death I 'le examine my Soul each Evening and close my eyelids as if I were to awake next morning in another world I 'le often take my leave of this world and fancy I shall see this or that pleasant object no more no more and I 'le address my self to my God as if my Soul were ready to take wing and I 'le soberly consider the Nature of my God the value of Christs Sacrifice and the Truth of my Faith and so I shall learn to disingage my self from this world and to die handsomely and comfortably if not in rapture The Prayer O Most gracious God who hast hedg'd about our ways that we may not stray and wander into ruine who hast endeavour'd to frighten us into happiness by the dread and terrours of a Hell O grant that this fear may be fixt in my very flesh and produce in me a cautious and a wary depormtent that I remembring that our God is Consuming Fire may not dare to provoke thee to wrath and indignation against me And grant O most merciful Father that I may not put the day of death far from me and flatter my self into security and misery but live each day as if it were my last because I do not know but that it may be so that I may enter at last into that state where there shall be no more conflict with sin nor fear of death through Jesus Christ our Lord. SECT II. Of the second Motive to Holiness i.e. the consideration of the Divine Nature THe knowledge of the Nature of God is so powerful an inforcement to Vertue and a determent from Vice that Religion and the knowledge of God and Irreligion and a want of that knowledge are made use of by the Spirit of God as expressions of the same import as 1 Cor. 15.34 Awake to righteousness and sin not for some have not the knowledge of God And this not without reason for the knowledge of God will 1. Discover to us the Nature of Holiness and of Sin 2. It will convince us how reasonable it is that we should serve him And 3. It will confirm in us a full perswasion of the Reward of Vertue and Punishment of Vice To this purpose therefore let us consider the Nature of God as it is taught us in the Gospel of that Son of God who lay in the Bosom of his Father and hath declar'd him to us And the first thing is that God is a Spirit Jo. 4.24 and those Attributes which the Gospel assigns him and which are a fuller discovery of his Nature are Knowledge Wisdom Holiness under which may in the opinion of some be comprehended Goodness Justice and Power and Dominion Now from that resemblance which Religion
implanted in the heart hath to these it is call'd the Divine Nature and the Image of God and it is highly reasonable that the worship should be suitable to the God it is paid to and therefore the Rule and Standard of Holiness is the Divine Nature and nothing else the beauty of Holiness and the deformity of sin is not to be deriv'd at least primarily from the conveniency or inconvenieney of the one or other in this present life but from a tendency to imprint or efface this Divine Image in us This is the way of our Saviour's and his Apostles arguing from the Divine Nature to our Duty thus because God is a Spirit therefore he is to be worshipp'd in Spirit and in Truth because he is pure therefore they must purifie themselves who approach him because he is holy therefore his worshippers must be holy too and because he is love therefore they who abide in him must abide in love all his Children must imitate the perfections of the Divine Nature Be ye perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect From hence it is easie to discover why the God of Heaven hath such an Everlasting Quarrel against sin and why he delights so much in Holiness and Righteousness Sin embases the man and depraves the spirit which is in him into a sensual natural man and sets him at the farthest distance from and contradiction to God but Holiness is a reflexion of his own Beauty and Excellency it is the exalting man into a spiritual and heavenly Nature This is a plain account of the Nature of Holiness and Sin how the one is so lovely and the other so ugly how the one is so dangerous and the other so advantagious 2. The knowledge of the Divine Nature convinces us of the reasonableness of serving God There can be but two reasons for service either 1. An Obligation to the person we serve and then our service is either Duty or Gratitude or else 2. A regard to our own interest or pleasure In the knowledge of the Divine Nature we shall find all these Obligations to his services If we consider God as that Principle in whom we live and move and have our being Act. 17.28 or as one who doth us good gives us rain from Heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness Act. 14.17 What can be more reasonable than that we should be thankful to him but if we consider him further as Redeeming us by the Blood of his Son instructing us by the Light of his Gospel assisting us by the Power of his Spirit and adopting us into the hopes of an Incorruptible Crown what can be more reasonable than that we should devote our selves to his service and offer up our selves a holy living and acceptable Sacrifice to him If we consider him as our Creator and the Lord of Heaven and Earth what can be more reasonable than that we his Creatures should obey his Laws If we have regard to our own Interest all our present enjoyments and future hopes depend upon him to be guided by Infinite Wisdom to be protected by Infinite Power to be blest by him who is above all things and can make us as happy as he pleases are things which a wise love of our selves would make us earnestly desire As for pleasure besides that which flows from the perswasion of all these advantages which accrue to us from his service and besides the peace and true freedom which Devotion gains us there is a strange pleasure in the contemplation of the most Excellent Being in whom is united all that is any way taking with a Rational and Immortal Soul 3. This knowledge of God will confirm us in a firm perswasion of the reward of Vertue and punishment of Vice for whilst it discovers sin so exceeding hateful not only upon the account of its contradiction to the Divine Nature but also its base ingratitude and folly and discovers the Excellency and Loveliness of Holiness it doth at the same time manifest the reason why God who is a holy God doth incourage the one by such glorious promises and deter us from the other by such amazing threats for whether we consider him in himself the purity of his own nature makes him love goodness and hate vice and how contemptible were either his love or hate if happiness be not the effect of one and misery of the other or if you consider him as the Governour of this world it is inconsistent with his Majesty to suffer the violation of his Laws without punishing the bold Offender So that now there 's nothing further necessary to work this perswasion in us but that 1. We should be perswaded that neither our good nor evil actions can be conceal'd from him And 2. That he is arm'd with sufficient power to bless and reward the righteous and avenge himself of the sinner and both these Truths we learn from his infinite Knowledge and infinite Power both which we are abundantly taught in the Gospel of Christ to belong to God God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell Mat. 10.28 And this God thus knowing and thus powerful without any respect of persons judgeth according to every mans work 1 Pet. 1.17 All this now amounts to thus much that Vertue and Vice are not indifferent things but that the one is most lovely the other most loathsom to God therefore the one is most fatal and the other most benificial to its Votaries for there is an infinitely glorious Being who is most deeply concern'd and every way able to poure forth blessings on the righteous and vengeance on the sinner The Prayer O Glorious God let my knowledge of thy Nature teach me to deny all iniquity and to be holy as thou art holy Let thy goodness make me love thee and thy Power and Justice make me fear thee and let both wing my Devotion and clog and damp my Lusts Let thy Truth and thy Power beget in me a perfect affiance in thee Let thy Wisdom and thy Love perswade me to submit quietly to thy Will that I may walk before an Almighty God and be perfect and so may enter into thy joys in the life to come thorough Jesus Christ our Lord. SECT III. Of the third Motive to Holiness i.e. the Consideration of the whole History of the Son of God Jesus Christ OUr Lord and Saviour may be consider'd either in his Life his Death or Glory beginning in his Resurrection the knowledge of him in each of these is a strong ingagement to Holiness and a determent from Vice 1. In his Life and here we may look upon him with reference to his Doctrine or Example both which conspire in this one aim to implant Holyness in the world and to root out sin for look upon him with reference to his
and steep about it Hence is the address of the Spirit Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead c. Eph. 5.4 3. Power is the third Attribute of God Religion promotes even this in us by inspiring the mind with courage and by the addition of strength conjoyn'd to it Innocence makes a man bold as a Lyon it makes one dare and hope well Religion is a confederacy with th' Almighty and he becomes the good mans strength Ps 18.1 19.4 it creates an awe and reverence for him amongst men and it makes him approach as near to self-sufficiency as the state of a Creature will let him he is independent on the world and hath not half the hopes nor fears nor cares that the wicked man hath for this man hath an ill Conscience and is therefore timerous he that fears not God dreads every thing besides he hath many passions that are to be gratified and therefore he is very dependent on the world he lives ill and therefore is the scorn of Man and the hate of God 4. Wisdom The fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom and therefore this is easily prov'd for Religion is nothing else but the knowledge of the most Excellent Truths the contemplation of the most glorious Objects and the hope of the most ravishing Pleasures and the practice of such Duties as are most serviceable to our happiness and to our peace our health our honour our prosperity and our eternal welfare but sin on the other hand besots and infatuates the man it makes him passionate and foolish consult ill and execute worse he is blind to the most glorious Truths and hath no taste or relish of those glorious Objects of another world and he lives as if he were in love with ruine and though he see death and confess it in the way he is spurr'd on by his passions and dares not shun it he covets meer trifles vanishing fading pleasures meer apparitions and dreams of happiness and he flies from real and substantial delights and satisfactions that would never have an end he trembles where no fear is and yet is steeled and senseless against Almighty Vengeance and if this be not to be foolish I know not what is The fifth and last now is Goodness by which I mean kindness and serviceableness to others this Religion so far advances that each man is so far Christian as he is thus good this goodness or love is the meer substance of the Gospel so that where ever the Spirit of Christianity hath planted it self the man is not only just but good and kind he doth not only put off revenge and frowardness and hard-heartedness but he puts on the contrary Vertues Meekness Tenderness Charity his goods and life are not too dear a price to pay for the welfare of a Brother but sin on the quite contrary arms man against another and sows nothing but dissention and ruine amongst mankind injustice cruelty rapin murther covetousness hard-heartedness are the Characters which constitute a sinner Justice and Truth are as Essential parts of Holiness as Goodness and therefore need not be spoken to Thus you see how Vertue and Holiness perfect and exalt the man how it makes him more spiritual gives him power life wisdom goodness allies him to the Angels and makes him like God but sin defaces all those Excellencies makes him a meer heap of Rubbish and Ruines a silly empty Creature that the Spirit might well say of such Rev. 3.17 That they are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked And who can now look upon sin as a little harmless indifferent thing He that should rob the ambitious man of his Honour the covetous of his Wealth the vain person of his trifling gaity should be thought to have committed an unpardonable offence against them and yet sure power and wisdom and goodness are things of far greater Excellency than wealth or honour or gaity they are the Attributes of God the things that make him God and when he pleases to communicate and impart to his Creatures some tho slender proportions of these what can be a more fatal Enemy to the Creature than that sin which spoils and rifles him of these he that should stab the body and through as many gashes as those of Caesar in the Senate let out the imprison'd Soul commits no murther like that of sin which quenches in man the spiritual life and robs him of Eternity O my Soul doth every intemperate draught every sensual pleasure quench the light and damp the spirit within me and yet shall I still go on Is it so inconsiderable a loss to change from Spirit into Flesh Doth all my sinful passions for this world Ambition Covetousness Dotage c. deface all Power Wisdom and Goodness in me and make me weak and wicked impotent and foolish and yet shall I still go on to dote Is it so little desirable to be like God Is it so inconsiderable a change like the unhappy Angels to fall from light to darkness forgive me O my God I now begin to see a horrour in my sins I see its poysonous nature and the mighty wounds it gives and I will shun it hereafter more than Death and Ruine more than the Sword the Plague or Famine for I am well convinc'd that there is nothing so excellent as Spiritual Life Peace Power Wisdom and Goodness and nothing can wound or blast these but sin And if secondly Life and Goodness Power and Wisdom are such excellent things how dear must they be to God and how contradictory to his Will must be all those Methods which men take to deface them and this he hath sufficiently taught in that he hath thought it worthy the Incarnation Life and Passion of his own Son to root out and banish iniquity and transgression from the Earth being things contradictory to his Nature and to his Design too in the Creation From all this you see that Holiness is agreeable to the Divine Nature sin is contradictory to it and by consequence that he who works Righteousness is born of God and he who commits sin is of the Devil and that it is as necessary to be really holy as it is to be in the favour of God for he cannot love the unholy unless he can renounce his own Nature The Prayer O Thou God who art light and in whom there is no darkness at all a holy and pure Spirit how infinitely are the sons of men oblig'd to thee that thou hast givee them Immortal Spirits and dost travel by thy Word and Spirit to form and fashion them into thy glorious Image to make them share in thy Perfections that they may do so in thy Happiness too O grant that I may hunger and thirst after Righteousness that I may labour day and night to water and improve those Resemblances of thy Divine Perfections which thou hast imparted to me by thy Spirit that so I may through Christ increase in favour with God and Man
And grant that I may abhor those sins which efface thy Image and debase my Nature which render me a burthen to my self the hate of God and scorn of Man which make me unhappy here and miserable hereafter Grant this I beseech thee through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour Amen SECT VI. Containing the sixth Motive to Holiness the assistance of the Divine Spirit I Do not think that in a Discourse of this Practical Nature it will behove me to enter into any Dispute about the strengths of laps'd Nature about the nature and necessity of Supernatural Grace I may in short affirm that we find in Scripture sometimes the birth sometimes the growth sometimes the perfection of the New Creature assign'd to the Holy Spirit as the great Author of it all which doth not yet discharge Man from the necessity of exerting all the strength and endeavour that he can for by those frequent Exhortations address'd to Man we may justly infer some ability suppos'd in him and by the frequent promises of the assistance of the Divine Spirit we may as reasonably infer an impotence which stands in need of this relief and from altogether we may conclude that the Spirit of God is so far forth dispens'd as serves the end of the Gospel and the necessities of mankind Our blessed Saviour after he had deliver'd upon the Mount a System of the most refin'd Precepts of Devotion and Purity Mortification and Charity as if he had foreseen that his Hearers would be dazled by the brightness of this Divine Image and look upon the Pattern as too high for the attainments of Humane Nature doth close the discourse first with an assurance of a Supernatural assistance of the Spirit of God And then secondly with asserting the necessity of a real and actual conformity of our lives to those holy Precepts Matth 7. v. 7. c. Ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be open'd unto you for every one that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be open'd Where our Endeavours and the Divine Assistance are joyn'd together as being both necessary towards the great Work of Sanctification in the 9 10 11. verses he goes on to confirm them in the belief of this Promise from the example of Natural Parents who though evil have that Natural Affection for their Children that if a Son ask bread they will not give him a stone or if he ask a Fish they will not give him a Scorpion Much more is it inconsistent with the goodness of the Divine Nature to refuse Man that assistance which is indispensably necessary to the propagation of Holiness inconsistent with his Paternity to deny his craving Children that which is as necessary to their spiritual life as food is to their natural If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts to your Children how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things his holy Spirit as appears from parallel places to them that ask him And when he had acquainted them with this I do not wonder that he concludes all with averring the necessity of Obedience to all those Excellent Precepts from verse 13. to the end for in vain do men quarrel at the purity of the Christian Doctrine as if it were a Religion fit for Angels rather than men in vain do they complain of the prevailing passions of flesh and blood and of the soft insinuations of a flattering World our ability to obey the Gospel is not to be measur'd by the strength of Nature but of the Spirit that God who hath call'd us to the profession of such Exalted Vertue hath allotted us an assistance suitable to so glorious an end so that these complaints are not the groans of a Penitent but the excuses of a fond and carnal mind All this certainly amounts to a very clear proof of the necessity and Excellency of Real and Inherent Holiness for to what purpose should we call down an assistance from Heaven to what purpose should the Divine Spirit be powred forth upon men if either there were no need or no use of such a Holiness which he is the Divine Principle of or if this Holiness were so impure and imperfect that it were not acceptable to God thorough Christ And which way now shall the impenitent sinner escape Divine Justice what Excuse can he frame for the defence of his Impiety he sins and dies not because he cannot do otherwise but because he will do so he perisheth not through impotence but obstinacy and what punishment think we can sufficiently avenge a contempt of or despight done to the Spirit of God! The Gentile is unexcusable because he did not obey those Laws which his Conscience did dictate to him though the Characters they were publish'd in were dark the Motives to and the Principles of his Obedience weak and feeble at least comparatively what tribulation and wrath and anguish then will punish our disobedience who have not only our duty openly publish'd by the Son of God and inforc'd upon our hopes and fears by glorious promises and dreadful threats but also the Spirit of God promis'd to enlighten our understandings to enfranchise and strengthen our wills to imprint the Motives of the Gospel in more sensible Characters on our spirits c. We must expect that our tribulation in the world to come will be proportion'd to our obstinacy in this and the anger of Almighty wrath will boil to a heat answerable to that infinite love and goodness we have despis'd The Prayer O My God how reasonable is it that I should obey thee since thou commandst me nothing but what thou giv'st me strength to perform I feel the weakness of my Nature and the strength of Temptations but this shall never discourage me thorough the might of thy Spirit I shall be sure to conquer it must be a weakness indeed which Omnipotence cannot relieve it must be a strange assault made by the world which can storm that Fort which the Spirit of the Almighty defends and that Law must be more than Seraphick which is exalted above the imitation of a Soul inspir'd and actuated by thee No no if thou vouchsafe but one Ray of thine Infinite Power I shall soon subdue the World and mortifie the Flesh I shall do the things which please thee here and I shall obtain everlasting life afterwards which grant for thy Mercies sake and thy Son Christ Jesus sake Amen SECT VII Of the Gospel-Covenant as it is a Motive to Holiness THe Covenant of Works was Do this and live Life was the reward of an unerring obedience and Death the punishment of every transgression of the Law so that by vertue of this Covenant none could expect to be Justified but he who had no sin to be charg'd with and therefore since there never was any such Man but Christ Righteousness could not be by the Law but now the
place i. e. Sacraments Prayer and Fasting each of which may be consider'd in a threefold respect 1. As Parts of Divine Worship or of Holiness in general 2. As Instruments of advancing Holiness 3. As Remedies and Antidotes against Temptation In each of which Relations I will consider each of them a little And 1. Of Baptism COnsider'd in the first sense of the three it contains a Solemn Profession of the Christian Faith an actual Renunciation of those Enemies of Christianity the World the Flesh and the Devil and a listing ones self into the service and obedience of Christ And because I cannot think that there is any Essential part in the System of Christianity meerly Ceremonial I cannot think but that besides the Admission into the Church which is the Body of Christ and consequently a Title to all the glorious priviledges of its Members our blessed Saviour doth endow the Person baptized with power from on high to perform all those great ingagements he takes upon him as will appear to any one who shall consider the Nature of Christianity which doth alway annex a Grace to the external Mean or Instrument or 2. The great things spoken or this Sacrament or 3. The value all understanding Christians have had for it or the effects which follow'd it when practis'd in the Infancy of the Church and I humbly conceive this to be the sense of the Church of England which supposes the thing signified by the outward Ceremony of Baptism to be a Death unto sin and a New-birth unto Righteousness But whatever become of this motion it is certain that it is a strange Obligation to a Holy Life and a Remedy against Sin as being a most solemn ingagement of our selves to the obedience of Christ from which we cannot start back without drawing upon our selves the guilt and punishment of Perjury and forfeiting all those advantages we partake of by it and I wish all would lay this to heart who plead the Obligations of Civility and Friendship Custom and Fashion in defence of their sins as if any trifling Ceremony were sufficient to supersede our Obligation to Christ and acquit us of that guilt which the breach of the most sacred Covenant brings upon us The Prayer BLessed and holy Saviour give me grace to remember my Baptismal Vow to remember that I am a sworn Enemy to the World the Flesh and the Devil and inable me to fight the good fight of Faith under thy Banner the Cross Let me have no truce entertain no friendship with thine and my Enemies Let them flatter me if they will with smiles and promises I am sure they mean nothing to me but death and ruine how shall any fantastick Obligations Cancel my duty to thee resulting from so solemn a Covenant In vain doth the World disguize its temptations under the forms of Civility and Honour I know no Civility which can oblige me to renounce my Vows no Honour that can excuse my Perjury in vain doth the World assault me by Greatness and Wealth and Glory these are the very things I resolv'd against when I took up the Cross of my Crucified Saviour in my Baptism Grant O blessed Lord that I may have mortified affections and a Victorious Faith an humble meek Spirit and glorious Hopes that after this troublesome life is ended I may rest with thee in Everlasting Glory Amen Amen Of the Lords Supper THe Supper of our Lord may fall under the same forms of Consideration which Baptism did that is it may be consider'd 1. As a part of Divine Worship 2. As an Instrument of Holiness 3. As a Remedy against Temptation I will look upon it briefly under each of these notions and herein I will guide my self by that incomparable Office of this Church which hath admirably express'd and reduc'd to a method the whole mind of the Gospel relating to this matter for which I have often bless'd God whilst I beheld and reverenc'd that Primitive plainness and truly Christian Spirit visible in it First then our Lords Supper consider'd as an act or part of Religious Worship or Holiness contains in it these four things 1. An humble acknowledgment of our sins 2. A devout Profession of our Faith in Christ that we are the Disciples of a Crucified Saviour and expect Salvation by no other way than that Sacrifice of his Body and Blood offer'd upon the Cross 3. A solemn Oblation of most humble and hearty thanks to God for this inestimable benefit his bestowing his Son upon us to die for us and to our Master and only Saviour Christ for his exceeding great love in dying for us 4. A most solemn Oblation of our selves souls and bodies to be a holy lively and acceptable Sacrifice unto God so that this Sacrament consists of a whole Constellation of Graces Repentance Faith Hope Charity It is a nearer approach into the presence of God and more solemn exercise of the Graces of the Gospel and this gives a very fair account of the reason of its frequent practice for nothing can be Secondly A more effectual instrument of Holiness upon these and the following accounts 1. That the preparation necessary as a condition of our worthy Reception doth awaken our Souls and refresh all our Graces and mortifie all our sensual Lusts and draws us nearer to Heaven and the necessity of such a preparation as the Church-office prescribes appears from hence that Repentance and Faith and Charity are absolutely necessary to inable a man to exert those acts before-mention'd which constitute this Sacrament consider'd as a part of Divine Worship and therefore to approach that holy Table without a Soul so qualified is to affront and mock the Majesty of Heaven 2. That the exercise of our Graces in receiving doth increase and improve them that act of humble Adoration and profound Prostration of our selves before God under a sense of his Purity and Majesty and our sinfulness and meanness that lively Acts of Faith whereby the Soul doth profess its firm belief of and dependance upon the Death and Passion of its dear Lord and Saviour for Salvation that love whereby the Soul offers its praises and its self a Sacrifice to God do leave such lively and lasting impressions upon mens minds as are not quickly nor easily effac'd and the Soul by the delight it finds in its exerting these Graces is inkindled with a desire of repeating the same Acts. 3. That the Sacrament it self hath a natural tendency to promote Holiness 1. By its sensible Representations of a Crucified Saviour the Symbols themselves being fit to bring into our minds the pain and sufferings of our dear Lord and Master 2. By that inward Grace inseparable from the worthy Reception of it bestow'd upon us to refresh and strengthen our Souls to root and confirm our Faith to inflame our Love and perfect our Hopes 3. By being a Pledge and Assurance to us of the pardon of our sins thorough the Blood of Christ 4. That it is