Minds to the Infinity of the Divine Perfection would as easily constrain us to the Love of God And so much for the advantages of setting God always before us as the Supream Good let us now consider in the Second Place how we may be advantaged by setting him before us as a Pattern We all know and feel the great force and power of Example and how naturally disposed Men are to Imitation and that we are much the better or the worse for those with whom we Converse And there is this great differencce between Example and a Rule that a Rule only directs but Example does also incline a Rule instructs the Judgment but Example moves and reconciles the Affections the former shews us the right Point to which we are to steer but the latter supplies us also with Wind and Sail. And there is no reason to doubt but that the Example of God would be as prevailing with us as any other and much more as being of infinitely greater Authority if we did but equally propose him to our imitation and set him before us as a Pattern Can then a Man consider the Universal Sanctity of the Divine Nature and not find himself strongly inclined to work over anew the defaced Image of his Creator and to be Holy as he is Holy St. John assigns this for a Reason why we shall be like God hereafter because we shall see him as he is We shall be like him says he for we shall see him as he is And if the clear and open Vision of God will so far affimilate us as to make us perfectly conformable to him certainly the Contemplation of his Moral Perfections though through a Glass darkly must needs inspire us with Desires and Endeavours to be like him Is it then possible for a Man seriously and constantly to contemplate the infinite Love Bounty and Goodness of God and either be ungrateful to him or uncharitable to his Neighbour to be selfish and strait-laced niggardly and covetous reserved and uncommunicative Much less can he be envious and spiteful cruel and unmerciful and delight in Barbarity and doing Mischief it would be a Miracle if he should The Psalmist thought it so and therefore says he Why Boastest thou thy self thou Tyrant that thou canst do Mischief whereas the Goodness of God endureth yet daily He thought it strange that any Man should value himself for being able to do Mischief when God thought it his Glory to do Good He might have reproved his Folly and Wickedness from the very nature of the thing by laying open the great unreasonableness of it but he chose rather to convince him of the strangeness and absurdity of such a temper from the Consideration of the Divine Goodness Which before I leave I shall mention one more very excellent advantage which it has in the Practice of Religion in that it is apt to remove from us all servile fear and to inspirit us with a generous and ingenuous Principle of serving God For all Slavish and Superstitious Fears of God proceed from a wrong notion of him we Fear him and are Jealous of him because we misapprehend him and we misapprehend him because we do not sufficiently contemplate him The way therefore to be afraid of him less is to be more Conversant and better acquainted with him When the Disciples saw Jesus walking upon the Sea and knew not who it was they were scared with the Appearance and therefore our Lord to take off their Fear only made himself better known to them It is I says he be not afraid 'T was enough to dismiss their Fears to let them know who he was Nor need we at any time any other Remedy against servile Apprehensions and disingenuous Fears of God than barely to contemplate the Goodness and Benignity of his Nature expressed in those two Emphatical Descriptions given of him in Scripture God is Love and God is Light And thus 't were easie to give instances throughout all the other Moral Perfections of God but I shall insist only upon one more as being more particularly fit and useful to be considered in the Age we now live in Can then a Man duly contemplate the Truth and Sincerity of God how candid open and ingenuous he is in his dealings with the Sons of Men and how far removed from all Tricks Juggles and Deceits and that he can no more deceive than he can be deceived Can a Man I say consider this consider it well and be a Hypocrite And that not only in an instance or two but in a long series of Action not only for a few Hours or Days but for a course of several Years not only in the common concerns of Life but in the most saered of all things and where we owe the tee greatest plainness and Sincerity both to God and Man Religion Is Charity itself able to believe that such a Mysterious Intricate Sinner as this has made the Sincerity and Truth of God any part of his Meditations No I fear if the truth were known such a one would be too much concerned in that Charge wherewith the Psalmist taxes the Proud Man that God is not in all his Thoughts that he does not think of him at all or else that he has a wrong notion of him and takes him to be altogether such a one as himself But let such a one know that God will reprove him and set before him the things which he has done for God does not only give us a Pattern of Truth and Sincerity but does also strictly observe whether we follow it or no Which leads me to consider in the last place the advantage of setting God always before us as an Observer 'T is most certain whether we will consider it or no that God is every where Essentially and Substantially Present and that as there is no Place that includes him so there is none that excludes him a notion of God so very natural that even the Jews as gross and unmetaphysical as they were could not but imbrace it Which was the occasion of that Custom of theirs in their Sacrifices taken notice of by Dr. Outram out of Maimonides of waving the Victim towards the Six Parts of the World upwards and downwards East West North and South whereby to express the Consecration of the Sacrifice to God as every where Present and possessing all Places 'T is also most certain whether we will consider it or no that God sees and knows all things and that as the Author to the Hebrews expresses it there is no Creature that is not manifest in his Sight and that all things are naked and open to the Eyes of him with whom we have to do This we have most maguificently described by the Psalmist in the 139 Psalm O Lord thou hast searched me out and known me thou knowest my down-sitting and mine up-rising thou understandest my Thoughts long before Thou art about my Path and about my Bed and spiest
and things seem otherwise than they are Thus the Affability and free Conversation of our Saviour which was really the effect of his great Humility and condescending Goodness and of his earnest desire to benefit Mankind was hardly Censured by the Maligning Jews and misconstrued as a piece of Levity and Dissoluteness Behold say they a Man Gluttonous and a Wine bibber a Friend of Publicans and Sinners By this means we shall mis-rate both Persons and Things and often deny those our good word who it may be if better known deserve even our Reverence and Admiration By this means private Grudges will be entertain'd and open Quarrels will be broach'd Mens Affections will be groundlesly and unaccountably estranged from one another the Bands of Friendship will be untyed and Men will be jealous and afraid of their dearest well-wishers good Constitutions will suffer for Personal Miscarriages good Churches for unworthy Members good Religions for ill Professors good Counsels and good Causes for their ill Success and lastly that good Reputation which all Men exceedingly value and which some Men have a fair Right to and which the Wisest of Men prefers before great Riches will be wounded by the Roving Shot of every Gossiping Tongue To which I may add in the last place that when Men have once accustomed themselves to hard Censures upon small Appearances they will be apt to inlarge their Court of Judicature and from Censuring the Actions of Men proceed to Question and Condemn the Dispensations of Providence and say with the Impious House of Israel the way of the Lord is not equal It concerns us all therefore to use that Faculty with great Discretion upon the right or wrong use of which so much depends to judge with Caution and Circumspection and Mercy here lest we find Judgment without Mercy hereafter A DISCOURSE CONCERNING Religious Singularity Rom. 12. 2. Be not Conformed to this World ONE of the greatest Supporters of Absurdity in Speculation and of Immorality in Practice is Authority that of Doctrin in the former and that of Example in the latter It misguides and perverts the whole Man puts a false Bias upon the whole motion of the Soul imposes both upon our Understandings and upon our Wills corrupts both our Sentiments and our Practices and leads us out of the way both of Truth and of Vertue But it has a greater and more prevailing influence upon our Actions than upon our Sentiments and our Lives suffer more by it than our Opinions For besides that there are more Examples of ill Living than of ill Thinking and a well-moralized Conversation is a greater Rarity than an Orthodox Head there being not such Temptations and Occasions to Error as there are to Vice there is also this further difference that in our Opinions we more usually follow those Authorities which stand off at a great distance from us and which Antiquity by I know not what Artifice recommends to us as Sacred and Venerable But in our Actions we take a quite contrary measure and are rather apt to conform our selves to the Genius and Mode of the Age we live in which being present shines upon us with a direct and perpendicular Ray and more strongly influences and provokes our Imitation and Compliance And truly this is the greatest Mischief that is derived upon the Minds of Men from Authority and the chiefest Head of Complaint that lies against it were it only a Stop to the advancement of Learning or a Misleader of our Understandings in Speculative Inquiries were it only a Bar to Notional Improvements or a Betrayer of our Orthodoxy it might be thought to have done Pennance enough under the Chastisement of a Satyr or Declamation For the greatest stock of Knowledge which upon the best advantages we can attain to is so inconsiderable that 't is hardly worth while to be very angry and fall out with what stands in our way and hinders our little Progress There is no great Mischief done 't is like spoiling what was spoil'd before and which otherwise would come to little But since 't is the great Enemy to all Righteousness as well as to all Truth since it debauches our Morals as well as our Understandings and spoils the Christian as well as the Philosopher 't is fit it should be arraigned before an higher Court and be Condemned by the Censure of an Apostle And so it is and that upon great and weighty Reasons in the Words of the Text Be not Conform'd to this World In the Words we may consider a Supposition and a Caution The Supposition is two-fold First That the general course of the World is very bad and that Vice has by much the Majority of its side Secondly That we are naturally apt to imitate that which is most prevailing and to conform to the course and way of the World Lastly the Caution is against this Inclination that we should not be Conformed to the modes and usages of this World which I shall first state as to its Measures and Limits and then Justify as to its Equity and Reasonableness and so conclude with some Practical Remarks upon the whole And in the First place 't is here supposed that the general course of the World is very bad and that Vice has by much the Majority of its side This though at first sight it looks like a Common Place a matter of frequent obvious and familiar Consideration is yet a thing that is not often thoroughly considered and there are but few that have a true lively and affectionate Sense of it 'T is not easy for those that are good themselves to imagin how bad others are and how much Wickedness there is in the World and as for evil Men they don't use to trouble their Heads with such serious Reflections So that neither of them are like to have a just sense and resentment of this matter The World we commonly compare to a Theatre and truly for the number of Actors and the variety of Action 't is the most Pompous and Magnificent of any but the Parts that are acted upon it are for the most very Tragical and its Scenes full of Horrour and Confusion For not to mention unjust and causless Wars Massacres Rebellions and Murthers which like Earthquakes make the frame of Nature to tremble and threaten the fall of the Stage upon which they are Acted who can reckon up the open Oppressions and the secret Frauds the Violences and the Deceits the Extortions and the Over-reachings with all the Arts of Falshood and Subtilty which are every where and every day made use of among Men to dispossess one another of their Rights and Fortunes And who is there that can imagine what private Insinuations what fly Contrivances what spiteful Whisperings what treacherous Arts there are daily used even among those that prosess Dearness and Kindness to one another to undermine one anothers Interests and blast one anothers Honours and Reputations I need not go to the Courts of
the People of God had almost reduced themselves again to the state of Darkness and shadow of Death and defaced the Characters of the Mosaic Table as much as their Forefathers had done those of the Law of Nature But then again perhaps it will be said that this was at a time when God had not made any clear and express Revelation of Heaven or Hell and therefore though Men had a written Law to walk by yet it being supported by no other Sanctions than of Temporal Rewards and Punishments they wanted a sufficient Counterpoise against the violence of Temptations and then no wonder that Wickedness should so universally prevail when the Allurements to Vice were strong and the ingagements to Duty but weak and unconstraining But when once Obedience comes to be inforced by better Promises and by Severer Threatnings this certainly will introduce a new way of Living Men will consider more and live better and will never be so mad and silly as to spend a few days in Wickedness and Folly and then in a moment go down to the Grave and be Damned for ever Let us see therefore how 't is with the Moral World under the Revelation of the Great Mystery of Godliness and now Life and Immortality are brought to light by the Gospel this I think fully answers the Objection Now therefore certainly one would expect at least a state of Millennial Happiness that Men should be and live like Angels that we should see the Tabernacle of God come down and abide among Men with a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousuess But alas the Mystery of Iniquity began to work assoon as the Mystery of Godliness and altho the Primitive Christians were for a while kept bright and shining in the Furnace of Persecution yet no sooner was the heat of their Affliction over but their Zeal cool'd with it and they left their first Love For then it was that the great Dragon being wroth that the Woman was delivered of a Man-child that Constantine the Great was Converted by the Church to the Christian Faith thought to overwhelm her by casting out of his Mouth that mighty Flood of Arianism And altho' the Earth helped the Woman by opening her Mouth and swallowing up the Flood which was done when the First Council of Nice declared against that Pestilent and Prevailing Heresy yet 't was not long before the same Dragon cast forth two other mighty Floods out of his Mouth and the Christian World suffered almost an inundation by the breaking in of Popery and Mahumetism We have indeed by the Blessing of God and the Zealous Endeavours of good Men dried up one of those great Floods from a good part of the Christian World and restored the Doctrin of the Gospel to its Primitive Purity and Simplicity But has the Reformation gon on so prosperously in our Manners as it has in our Faith Are we as Good as we are Orthodox I doubt not for if we look abroad into the World how little true Goodness and Vertue shall we find in it How rare is it to meet with a Man that lives up within some tolerable measure to the Obligations of his Profession And how much more rare is it to see one that 's truly Serious and Confiderate Circumspect and Recollected that considers thoroughly and effectually the End of his coming into the World the shortness and uncertainty of his stay in it and what shall become of him when he is to go out of it and accordingly lives under a constant and lively sense of God and of his Duty to him walks with him and gives up himself wholly to him makes Religion and the care of his Soul the main business and concern of his Life works with all his Might while 't is Day and is utterly resolved whatever it costs him to mind and secure the One thing necessary This one would think were no more than what common Sense would prompt any Man to that would allow himself to think but one Minute in a Year and yet how few such Men shall we find in the World Do we not rather see Men drink down Iniquity like Water and commit Sin with Greediness Do not the generality of Men live as if they were resolved to Sin as much as they could in a little time and thought it not only safe but necessary to do ill Do they not live as if they were to be nothing after this Life or as if they were to be saved by their Vices rather than by their Vertues or lastly as if they thought Hell a better Place than Heaven and were in love with Damnation and Everlasting Burnings But to come a little nearer to our selves does not the present Age abound with a sort of Men who are Crafty and Designing False and Treacherous Rotten and Hypocritical Men that seem to have their Eye fixed upon and terminated with the Horizon of this World that make Gain their Godliness and Interest their Measure that will betray the Church for Preferment sell their Religion and their Souls for Mony that will depart from the way of Truth for the Wages of Unrighteousness and be Damned hereafter to be Rich and Great here Never was there more Religion pretended than now and never less in truth and reality never more noise about it and never a less hearty concern for it What Straining about the Knat of a Ceremony with those who can in the mean while Swallow down whole Camels of profitable Abominanations This we may talk of and lament but we can't help it 'T will be ever so with the general course of the World Vice will always have the Cry of her side and we are told that in the latter days Iniquity shall abound and the love of many shall wax cold And all this we may learn from the final issue and event of things we may measure the state of this World from the final distribution of things in the next Our Saviour tells us that broad is the Way that leads to Destruction and many there be that go in thereat And that strait is the Gate and narrow is the Way which leads to Life and few there be that find it And this we shall the less wonder at if we consider the universal pravity and corruptness of Human Nature the Multitude of Temptations we are all exposed to and the peculiar unhappy circumstances of Living that many Men are ingaged in To which if we add the great Strength Cunning and Malice of the Invisible Powers that the same Envy of the Devil that first brought Sin into the World is still concerned to uphold and increase it that there are two different Interests carrying on that there is a Kingdom of Darkness as well as a Kingdom of Light and a Mystery of Iniquity as well as a Mystery of Godliness we can't think any other but that the course of the World must needs be very bad And the wonder will fall yet lower if we further
are only to take care that our Compliance prove not a Snare to us an occasion of falling into Sin that we do not offend God out of Civility towards Men. In all other cases we would do well to consider and follow that of the Apostle I am made all things to all Men And again 1 please all Men in all things Neither again Secondly is this Caution to be so rigorously understood as if we were forbidden to conform to the several indifferent Modes of Ages or of Countries either as to Customs or Ceremonies whether Religious or Civil or Habits or manner of Address or way of Diet or the like For however these may not possibly be ordered according to the best convenience or measure of Discretion yet 't is according to the publick Wisdom of the Place and Nation for the Wisdom of a Nation is seen as much in their Customs as in their Proverbs and therefore the matter of them being supposed indifferent 't is not civil or modest to contradict them And there is this further to be considered that besides the pride and rudeness of such an opposition all the advantage or convenience a Man can get by it will not compensate for the Odium and Censure of Affectation and Singularity And accordingly we find that the Wisest of Men in all Ages have ever thought it Prudence to conform to the Innocent though otherwise not so convenient Customs of the Age and Place wherein they lived And 't is observed concerning our Blessed Saviour himself who was the Wisdom of the Eternal Father that when he condescended to put on Flesh and live among Men he condescended yet further and complied with all the received Customs and manners of the Jewish Nation And indeed he became in all things like unto his Brethren Sin only excepted Innocence was his only Singularity And this in one Word is our measure we may and ought to be conformable as far as the bounds of Innocence usque ad Aras is the measure of our civil Conversation as well as of our Friendship and dearer Intimacies For why should we shew so much disrespect to our Company as to quit the Road they have taken if we may safely travail in it The Conformity therefore which we are here cautioned against is that of Imitating the general Practice of the World as to Actions not of a Civil but of a Moral Nature We must not be Conform'd to the general Morals of this World the Reason and Equity of which Caution I come now to justify And the first Reason why we must not be Conform'd to this World is because this is not such a World as we may safely imitate 't is not a World for us to be Conformed to it never was so even in the Best and Purest times much less is it now in these last and worst days 'T is not safe following the Multitude at any time much less now nor in any thing but least of all in the ordering our Life and Conversation 'T is a very ill Guide in matters of Opinion but much worse in matters of Practice for the World is a meer Theatre of Folly a Stage of Vice and Debauchery one great Aceldama of Blood and Cruelty and to use the Description of St. John the whole World lieth in Wickedness the Words are Emphatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it has not only fallen into the Gulph of Sin but it lies there contentedly and quietly 'T is not only slightly dipt or stained with the Waters of Impurity but it lies as it were Moated round or rather all over drench'd and soak'd in them like the Earth in the Universal Deluge But this I need persue no further having already made it a distinct Member of my Discourse Again Secondly another Reason why we must not be Conformed to this World is because by so doing we shall confirm and strengthen the cause of Wickedness and give it Settlement Succession and Perpetuity For we shall countenance and imbolden those whom we imitate and cause others to imitate us and they again will be a President to others and so on till Vice pretend to the Right of Custom and Prescription and Iniquity be established by a Law This is one great Reason why the World is so bad now and 't is the best expedient the Devil has to make it yet worse for by this the Vices of the former Ages descend upon the future Sin becomes Hereditary Children transcribe their vicious Parents and actual like Original Sin is intail'd upon Posterity Fill ye up the Measure of your Fathers said our Saviour by way of Prophecy to the Jews implying that they would do so for our Lord very well knew the Temper of those to whom he said it and I question not but that most of the wickedness of that Nation was owing to this that they were so generally possessed with this Superstitious Humour of Conformity and were resolved to do as their Fore-fathers had done before them Again Thirdly another Reason why we Christians must not Conform to this World is because both the Precepts and the Rewards of our Religion require a very different method of Life from what is ordinarily practised the Precepts are strict and severe and the Rewards high and noble such indeed as cannot be conceived for their greatness and they both call for a very excellent and extraordinary way of Conversation for after the common way of Living we shall neither obtain the one nor fulfil the other Indeed our Religion obliges us to great Strictness and Singularity and a Christian cannot be like himself if he be like other Men. To be a Christian indeed is to be a New Creature to be New in Nature and New in Life and Conversation he must not be like his former self much less like the rest of the World The Argument is the Apostle's Ye are all the Children of Light and the Children of the Day that is Christians Professors of an holy and excellent Religion whose Precepts are excellently Good and whose Promises are excellently Great And what then Therefore let us not Sleep as do others but let us Watch and be Sober Again Fourthly and Lastly we Christians have one more peculiar Reason not to be Conformed to this World we have renounced it in our Baptism with all its Pomps and Vanities By which are meant not only the Heathen Games and Spectacles their vain Shews and loose Festivities their lewd Bacchanals and Saturnals which we renounce Absolutely and the Wealth and Glory and Grandeur even of the Christian world as often as they prove inconsistent with the ends of our Holy Institution but also the promiscuous Company the general Practices and the popular Examples of this World which are generally so very corrupt and wicked that we renounce them not upon supposition as in the other instance but at a venture The very first step to a Christian Life is to dye to the World and to its general Usages and Customs
dare to be Wise and be guilty of the great Singularity of doing well and of acting like Men and Christians and then if we can have the liking and approbation of the World well if not the comfort is we shall not much want it And we shall gain something by our Singularity which the others cannot by their Numbers the Favour of God and deliverance from the Wrath to come A DISCOURSE CONCERNING The Excellency of Praise and Thanksgiving Preach'd in All-Souls College Chapel in Oxford upon the Founder's Commemoration Day Psal. 50. 23. Whoso offereth Praise glorifieth me Or as in the other Translation Whoso offereth me Thanks and Praise he honoureth me To Honour and Glorifie God as 't is the End of the whole so is it the Duty and Priviledge of all the Rational and Intellectual part of the Creation God indeed has made all things for his Glory and he fails not to glorifie himself one way or other by all things that he has made but there are some things which he has made to glorifie him by free and proper acts of Worship and Homage And these as he has more inabled so has he more obliged to the Performance of this Divine Office by distinguishing them as well by Favours and Benefits as by Order of Being and degrees of natural Excellence from the rest of the Creation Among these is Man who though at present not so capable of this Divine Imploy as some of the other Intellectual Orders yet he has as much perhaps more Obligation to it than any of them all since God has not only favour'd him with peculiar Benefits such as the Grace of Repentance the Honour of being Personally united to the Divinity c. but has also placed him in such a Sphere where he is the only Creature that can acknowledge and pay Religious Service to the common Creator All other Creatures praise God only Passively as far as they carry in them the Characters of the Divine Perfections which must be considered and acknowleded before they redound to the actual glory of the Creator Like a Lute which though never so Harmonically Set and Tuned yields no Musick till its Strings be artfully touched by a Skilful Hand But Man can freely command and strike the Strings of his own Heart and Affections and is the only Creature here below that can Actively praise and honour his great Maker and Benefactor Man therefore is concern'd to honour and glorifie God both for himself and for all the Creatures round about him and as the whole World is the Temple of the great God so Man is as it were the Priest in this Region of it where he must undertake the Office of honouring and glorifying God not only in his own but also in the name of all this brute and uncapable part of the Creation And he is here taught how to do it in these Words of the Psalmist whoso offers me Thanks and Praise he Honours me or he Glorifies me By Honour or Glory here I suppose is meant whatever comes within the Notion of Religious Service or Divine Worship and when 't is said that he who offers God Thanks and Praise he it is that Honours him I suppose 't is spoken Emphatically and by way of Eminence importing as much as if 't were said He it is that honours him more particularly and performs a more special piece of Religious Service So that from the Words I shall in the First place collect this Proposition That the most principal and most acceptable part of Religion consists in Praise and Thanksgiving Secondly I shall consider what are the things we are concern'd chiefly to thank God for among which I shall particularly insist upon that Providential disposal of Men in such outward Conditions and Circumstances of Life as may be of advantage to further their Eternal Interest Thirdly I shall briefly represent to you that the Circumstances of your Life are such Whence in the last place I shall commend this Inference to your Consideration that you are therefore highly obliged to the Duty of Praise and Thanksgiving The First thing to be spoken to is that the most principal and most acceptable part of Religion consists in Praise and Thansgiving I confess I am not very fond of making Comparisons between acts of Religion being not ignorant of what Religion it self has suffered upon this very account among a certain Generation of Men who set up one Duty of Religion against another as Preaching against Praying Nor should I do it here but that I have for some time observed that the Price of this Duty is generally beaten down and the Duty it self but seldom and but coldly practised even among them who make great account of all the rest and are more particularly addicted to a Life of Piety and Devotion The Parable of the Ten Lepers is a true Draught and Image of Mankind all Ten Prayed being under a great necessity to do so but there was but one who bethought himself and gave Thanks And so 't is in the World where to ten that Pray 't is well if there be one that gives Thanks and even that one shall perhaps Pray ten times before he gives Thanks once And when he does it shan't be perhaps with half the Zeal and Affection wherewith he is wont to Pray which procedure by the way I know not how to resolve into any other Principle than this that when we Pray 't is for our selves and our own Interest to procure some good or to avoid some evil but when we give Thanks 't is to God and for God without any Self-regard as I shall further shew by and by This I conceive is it that makes Men generally more frequent and more zealous in their Prayers than in their Praises Whereas indeed the latter calls for greater Affection and Elevation of Spirit than the former Praise being a greater glorification of God than Prayer and indeed than any other Act of Religion This I might make appear from several grounds of Argument but not to burthen my Discourse or your Patience with unnecessaries I shall confine my self to this single Consideration That to Praise and give Thanks to God is the most unselfish and disinteressed act of Religion we can possibly honour him with and consequently the most noble and generous of all The Consequence I suppose will readily be acknowledged that if it be really the most dis interessed act of Religion 't is also the most noble and excellent for the less there is of Self and the more there is of God in any Religious Performance the more perfect 't is allowed to be and though we do not with some make it necessary to the goodness of an Action that it be unmercenary and done without any prospect of Reward yet the Reason is because 't is too high a mark for a Mortal aim We think it a Measure hardly Practicable by any and therefore not necessary to all not denying in the mean while but
rather supposing that if we could act by such a Measure it would be an higher and more noble pitch of Vertue Taking therefore the Argument for granted I shall think my self further concern'd only to justify the Vnder-Proposition by shewing that 't is really the most disinteressed part of Religion Now that it is so will be sufficiently evident from this that it respects the Benefits of God meerly as they are past it has indeed the Goodness of God for its Object as well as many other acts of Religion but with this Difference that whereas other acts of Religion respect the Benefits of God as they are to come this respects them as past and consequently can have no Eye upon future Advantage He indeed that gives Thanks may but not as and so far as he gives thanks It may be the End of the Agent but not of the Action For observe though to give thanks for Blessings received be really a Means to procure more as well as other Religious acts yet there is this difference that other acts are not only Means to Blessings but may be used as such to that end without destroying the nature of the acts themselves But now Gratitude towards God though it be really in it self as much a Means in order to future Blessings yet it can't be used and intended to that purpose without so far undoing the very Nature as well as Excellency of the Action For if I give Thanks meerly to get more if that be my design this is not Gratitude but only another way of Begging and so my Praising will indeed fall in and be confounded with Praying which are supposed to be distinct So that the very notion of Thanksgiving excludes all regard to Self-interest and what some highflown Theorists have asserted of Vertue in general that it loses its very Being and Perfection by being Mercenary or done upon motives of Interest is strictly true of this particular Vertue whose very Idea shuts out all respect to self-advantage The short is this vertue of Thankfulness though it be conversant about the goodness and beneficialness of the Divine Nature which is also supposed to be actually exercised upon us yet it does not respect it in order to our Interest but as 't is a Moral Perfection of the same Divine Nature and so is rather an humble acknowledgment of something excellent in God whose Perfections we adore and bear witness to than an Address to him for something of advantage to our selves which as I said before its very idea excludes and cannot at all comport with But now this is more than can be said of any of the other acts of Religion when we Pray 't is for the Relief of our Wants our Faith Jeans upon some future Good and our Hope is a comfortable expectation of it and even Charity it self as it respects God has a mixture of self-regard in it I say as far as it respects God For it must be yielded whatever some pretend to the contrary that there is some sort of Love which may be dis-interessed and pure from any selfish Principle namely Love of Benevolence whereby we may wish well and do well to our Neighbour purely for his Good without projecting any Advantage to our selves But then this is not that Love wherewith we love God who is not capable of our Benevolence but only of our Desire For when we love God we don't pretend to wish any good to him who is already possess'd of all but only wish him as a Good to our selves which is the same as to desire him Charity therefore as it respects God is the same with desire of him and all love of Desire is founded upon Indigence and proceeds from Self-interest So inconsistent and unprincipled is the Discourse of those who talk of Loving God purely for himself and his own absolute Perfections without regarding our own advantage therein We may indeed love our Neighbour so but so we cannot love God for to love God is to desire him to desire him as our Good and Happiness and all love of Desire proceeds from Want and ends in Fullness And if Love it self must give the Precedency to Thanksgiving I suppose none of the other acts of Religion will offer at a competition with it But you 'll say does not our Saviour call Love the First and the Great Commandment To this I answer that by Love there is meant either Love of Benevolence or Love of Desire if Love of Benevolence that is no immediate act of Religion God not being capable of being so loved as was urged before And therefore we may allow this to be the principal Commandment without any contradiction to the present Discourse which proceeds wholly concerning Acts of Religion But if the love here spoken of be love of Desire then this is said to be the First and the Great Commandment not because it excells all the rest by its own proper value but because it vertually contains and is productive of them all there being nothing so difficult or naturally displeasing which he that truly loves that is Desires God will refuse to do for his sake And therefore 't is that in another place Love is said to be the fulfilling of the Law that is vertually and potentially as 't is a general Mother Vertue and the principle of a more particular and special Obedience And in this respect indeed Love is the first and the great Commandment but if we consider the proper dignity and excellence of the action he that praises God honours him more and expresses himself more generously than he that Loves him For he that loves God loves him for his own good in order to his Happiness and well-being but he that Praises him so far as he does so does it not upon any self-end but meerly because he thinks it just and equitable that a Creature should acknowledge and adore the Excellency of his Creator which certainly is the noblest as well as the justest thing a Creature can do Indeed Love is the only Divine or Religious Vertue that can with any pretence vye with Praise and Thanksgiving and accordingly 't is observable that of all the vertuous acts and habits that are now requisite to quality a Man for Heaven none shall be thought worthy to be retained in it but only these Two Praise and Love all the rest shall be Super-annuated and cease as having no further occasion for their Exercise these two only shall remain to be the entertainment of Angels and Angelical Spirits to all Eternity But though Divine Love be equal with Praise as to this respect in point of Permanence and Duration yet in point of Generosity it comes far short of it for indeed to speak properly Love is no further excellent than as it partakes of the nature of Praise no further than as 't is one way of acknowledging the Divine Perfections For what commendation is it for me to Love what is my good and makes for my
ingaged in such unhappy Circumstances as do almost necessitate them to be Vicious while others again are so advantagiously placed as if God had laid a Plot for their Salvation The ground of this unequal Dispensation 't is neither easie nor at present necessary to account for and I believe we may put it among those Difficulties whose Solution is reserved to the Coming of Elias as the Jews love to speak of all desperate Problems In the mean time however this is certain that those who are distinguished from the Multitude by such advantagious circumstances have great reason to bless God for making the work of their Salvation so Easie and the Issue of it so Secure for thus disposing them and setting them in order for Eternal Life For however the glory of doing well be inhanced by circumstances of disadvantage as 't is spoken to the credit of the Church of Pergamos that she held fast the Faith even where Satan's Seat was yet of such vast moment is the business of our Salvation that a Wise Considering Man would prefer such circumstances as add rather to the Security than to the Weight of his Crown 'T is too great a stake to be hazarded for the glory of a greater Excellence whether of Vertue or of Reward and therefore though a Life of Temptation may possibly serve to that yet our Saviour in consideration of our state and danger has taught us to pray that we may not enter into it And for the same reason that we deprecate such circumstances of Life as are apt to hinder we are concerned to Pray for such as are apt to further us in the way of our Salvation and our Saviour could intend no less by his Lead us not into Temptation than that we should pray that God would lead us into such circumstances of Living as may not only be no hindrance but an advantage and furtherance to our Salvation And if it concerns us to Pray for such then also to give Thanks for them We ought indeed to Bless God for every thing that contributes never so little to so great an End much more for disposing us in such a state and way of Life where we have few Temptations but to do well and are as it were under a Course of Salvation And this my Brethren I take to be very much your case and that the circumstances of your Life are in a great measure such as I have now described for not to mention your grand though common Priviledge of Christianity which divides you from above half the World and your more peculiar Priviledge of being Members of a Reformed Church and that too the Best of those which are Reformed where there is such excellent Provision made for all the Purposes of a Christian Life where you have not only all the Substantials of Christian Religion but those also most excellently Ordered and Disposed according to the best measures of Human Wisdom particularly where you have such an excellent Liturgy so Wisely and so Divinely Composed as might be used even by the Angels in Heaven were there any need of Praying there I say not to insist upon these things I shall proceed to what is more Personal and Peculiar and briefly represent to you the advantagiousness of your present Circumstances upon these Two Considerations First That you here enjoy all the Advantages of Serving God in the way of a Contemplative Life Secondly That you here enjoy also all the Advantages of fitting and qualifying your selves to serve both him and the Publick in an Active Life whenever you shall be called to it And First as to a Contemplative Life This is immediately and properly a Life of Religion and Devotion and absolutely considered is the most perfect of any This the School-men and Mystical Divines commonly represent under the Figure of Martha and Mary the former of which they suppose to be the Picture of an Active Life and the latter of a Contemplative And whereas Mary is said to have chosen the Better part this they think a Warrant to give the preference to a Contemplative Life Whether it be or no I will not dispute but I think the preference it self is just and that a Contemplative Life absolutely considered has the greater Perfection For though there be great excellency in an Active Life yet 't is meerly with relation to the present Exigence and though the Habit of Charity shall as the Apostle discourses remain for ever yet these present instances and expresses of it are calculated purely for this Life and shall utterly cease in the next But now the Contemplative Life is to last for ever and to be the Entertainment of that state where there is nothing but meer Excellence where all that is imperfect shall be done away And this is that Life which your present circumstances both invite you to and further you in here your Thoughts are your own and so is your Time too wherein to employ them here you live a Life free and dis-ingaged from all Worldly Incumbrances and Secular Avocations and blest with all possible Advantages for a Contemplative and Affectionate Religion Here you have Solitude Retirement and Leisure and so may serve God without Distraction and without Disturbance And you can hardly well imagin till you have tried it of how great advantage this last thing is to a Devotional Life He that has little Business shall be Wise says he that was so I may add and shall be good too Leisure is a great Friend to Meditation and that to Religion But Business is an Enemy to both for believe me 't is very hard to keep up the Spirit of Devotion in Multiplicity of Affairs He that is thus troubled about many things is not in the way of Extra-ordinary Religion 'T is well if such a one can mind the One thing necessary and discharge the offices of Common Life But this is not your case you have Time and you have Leisure in abundance you have little else to do but to trim your Lamps to adorn your Interiour and to perfect Holiness in the Fear of God In short your very Profession is to be Religious you live in a place where the Order of the Morning and Evening Sacrifice is duly observed where you have stated Hours of Prayer and Thanksgiving to serve God in Publick and all the rest of your Time is one continued Opportunity of Serving him in Private So that you may be said considering the advantagiousness of your Circumstances to be in the very Emphasis of the Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stand in order and rightly disposed for Heaven and your whole Life may be properly called a Day of Salvation And as you here enjoy all the Advantages of serving God in the way of a Contemplative Life so Secondly you have here also all the Advantages of fitting your selves to serve both him and the Publick in an Active Life whenever you shall be called to it For besides that what makes
the one as well as to mean us from the other Nay to speak the truth it will not so much support us under these Evils as take them away and render them slight and inconsiderable For suppose the worst that can be Death and a Painful Death he that has his Conversation in Heaven views the Glory that shall be revealed there and at once sees that the sharpest Sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with them no more than the Point of a Circle is with its Circumference He contemplates the Joy that is set before him and so indures the Cross and despises the Shame and the Pain too For a view of Heaven will mitigate any Cross upon Earth and help us to incounter any Affliction as St. Stephen did his Martyrdom He is one of those steddy Men the Psalmist speaks of who are not afraid at any evil Tidings but his Heart stands fixed in the Lord. Much less will he for the dread of any Persecutions or Worldly Losses deny his Religion or by a Trimming and Hypocritical Mode of Behaviour court the Favour of those in Power or by any sinful compliance part with a good Conscience He sees nothing so great or so terrible in this World as to fright him into any such unworthinesses no they that do so have not their Conversation in Heaven but are Earthly Sensual and Devilish and for all their Pretences to Self-denial deny nothing of themselves that I know of but their Understandings He that truly converses in Heaven sees infinitely more there than he can either get or lose here and can therefore never be guilty of such a Foolish Exchange as to gain not the whole but a little of the World and lose his own Soul Thirdly This Dispensation of Life is the best Preparatory for Heaven that can possibly be for besides that the greatness of that Happiness makes him that Contemplates it despise any good or evil that may here stand in competition with it he further considers the Nature and Quality of that Happiness that it is an union of the Soul with her best and last end that it is a clear Vision and an ardent Love of God who cannot be seen by him that Lives much less by him that Lives ill and this must needs put him upon thinking that a Holy and Divine frame of Spirit is absolutely requisite not only as a Condition to our Admission into Heaven but also as a Condition of Enjoyment without which there is no being Happy even when we are there And from this Consideration he naturally passes to fit himself for the enjoyment of his Maker to Purify himself as he is Pure to Purge Refine and Spiritualize his Nature that so he may be qualified for the refined Joys of Heaven The short is there are Two things that must and will be considered by him that has his Conversation in Heaven the Greatness of the Happiness there and the Nature of it and each of these has a particular influence for the preparing him for it The former will make him Temptation-Proof against any present good or evil that shall stand in his way to his great Prize and the latter will contribute to form and fashion the frame of his Mind into a likeness and affinity with the end which he proposes But both together will so strongly influence the Man that he will become perfectly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dead to himself and to all the Luscious Relishes of the Corporeal Life and the Life of God will be triumphantly seated in him so that now he has but one only Will in the World which is to have none at all of his own but to annihilate himself that God may be all in all in him And thus while like Moses he converses with God on this holy Mount his Face shine with a Divine Glory and he is transfigured into the likeness of him whom his Soul loves Fourthly and Lastly This is a dispensation of Life that affords the greatest Pleasure and Satisfaction of any in the World to ascend the top of the Mystical Pisgah and thence to take a survey of the Happy Land to contemplate the infinite Perfection of God and the Happiness of those Blessed Spirits that enjoy him the Order of Angels and that noble and blessed Communion of Saints to contemplate the last and richest Scene of Providence and the Discovery of all the rest that went before when the reason of all difficult and perplexing Appearances shall be made plain and the manifold Wisdom of God set in a clear Light to have our Minds imployed about the greatest and best things to walk with God and keep a constant Communication with Heaven must needs be the sweetest as well as the noblest and most worthy Entertainment on this side of it Intellectual Pleasures are certainly greater than Sensual even by the Confession of the greatest Sensualists as may appear from this single instance in that Men will abstain from the greatest Pleasures of Sense that they may not lose a good Reputation which is an Intellectual good and as Intellectual Pleasures are greater than Sensual so this is the greatest of those that are Intellectual Concerning this the same may be said that is of Wisdom that her Ways are Ways of Pleasantness and that all her Paths are Peace that she is a Tree of Life to them that lay hold upon her and happy is every one that retaineth her That they who eat of her shall yet be Hungry and they that drink of her shall yet be Thirsty For there is a certain inexhaustible Well of Pleasure a fathomless Abyss of Delight in this Heavenly Conversation which they only who have experimented it can conceive and which even they want Power to describe This I know will be far from satisfying some Voluptuaries who are sunk so low into the contrary Life that of Sense and Carnality that they will think a Man Mad that shall either Talk or Live at this Abstracted rate but to these I have Two things to say First That their having no notion of the Pleasure of this Dispensation is no Objection against it the thing may be true for any thing they know or can say to the contrary for they are not during the quick sensibility and invigoration of the lower Life proper Judges in the case any more than the Sense it self is of an Intellectual Object for these things are spiritually discerned by a certain Divine Tast and Sensation which is a Faculty which these Men want The other thing I shall commend to the Sensualist is this that since he is too scrupulous and sceptical to take our word for it he would endeavour after such a degree at least of Spiritual Purification as to try the Experiment that as the Psalmist speaks he would Tast and See how good and pleasant this Heavenly Conversation is and then I 'm much mistaken if he does not find that all the Madness lay on his side if