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
Bustle that is in the World about the World it self who shall have the greatest Share of it and make the greatest Figure in it Do we not see Men all set and intent upon the World that lay themselves out wholly upon it and that can relish nothing but what has relation to it Men that seem to grow into the Soil where they dwell and to have their Heads and Hearts fastened to the Ground with as many Cords and Fibres as the Root of a Tree and that seem to be staked down and nailed fast to the Earth and that can no more be moved from it than the Earth it self can from its Center In one word Men of whom it may be said without Censure that the World is their God and its Pleasures Honours and Profit their Trinity Nor is this matter of Practice only but of Opinion too for we know there have been some among the Antient Philosophers who have expressly taught that the End of Man the Totum Hominis lies in the Good of the Animal Life in the Pleasure of the Grosser Senses Thus we know did Aristippus Cyrenaeus and a whole Sect of Philosophers after him called Cyrenaici which Opinion is also charged upon Epicurus by Cicero and by many of the Fathers of the Church And the Charge is still believed and entertained among many Persons of sufficient Learning and Worth notwithstanding the favourable and plausible Plea Monsieur Gassendi has offered in the behalf of his Master But the best Plea is that these are Pardonable in comparison of those who enjoy the Advantages of a Revealed Religion and that in its last Perfection and Consummation too and yet take no higher aim than at the Good of this World and in direct Contradiction to our Saviours Aphorism think that the Life that is the true Interest and Happiness of Man does consist in the Abundance of things which he possesses To our Experience we may add the Attestations of Scripture which gives several intimations of this low-sunk wretched and deplorable Degeneracy of Soul To instance in a few does not Job say in vindication of his Integrity If I have made Gold my Hope or have said to the Fine Gold thou art my Confidence Implying that some there were that did so And does not the Psalmist say Lo this is the Man that took not God for his Strength but trusted in the multitude of his Riches and strengthened himself in his Wickedness And does not the Apostle tell us of some whose God is their Belly and of others whose Godliness is their Gain And what else does the Apostle mean when he says of Covetousness that it is Idolatry Does he not thereby intimate that the Covetous Wretch not only delights in his Possessions and loves to count over his Heaps for this a Man may do without being an Idolater but that he places his End and chief Happiness in his Treasures that he falls down and adores his Golden Calf and in the forementioned Phrase of Fob makes Gold his Hope and says to the Fine Gold Thou art my Confidence But the Minds of Men thanks be to God are not all under this Eclypse nor is this Darkness spread over the whole Face of the Deep Light and Darkness divide the Moral as well as the Natural World though with the difference of unequal Proportions the Darker is here the bigger side There are however though not so many yet there are Secondly a sort of Men who are Children of Light whose Minds are more Illuminated and their Eye more clear and single who look beyond the Veil of the Material World the Beauty of which can neither charm nor its Thickness detain their piercing Sight and propose to themselves the Beatitudes of another Life as their true and last End This many do in Profession and some in Reality In Profession all Christians do it to whom therefore the Title of Children of Light is promiscuously given by the Apostle Ye are all the Children of Light and the Children of the Day We are not of the Night nor of Darkness That is as far as concerns Profession and Solemn Undertaking But that which all Christians profess some do really do proposing to themselves Habitually at least the Happiness of the other World as their last End being by repeated Experiences as well as rational Reflections upon the Nature of things abundantly convinced of the vanity of this And these indeed aim at the right Mark though all of them have not a Hand steddy enough to hit it But to return again to the Children of this World 't is implied in the Third Place that these do not act according to the Measures of true Wisdom for our Lord does not say absolutely that they are Wise but only that they are Wiser in their Generation which implies that absolutely speaking and upon the whole they are not Wise. Indeed they think themselves Wise and the World for the most part is of their Opinion They are generally esteemed not only Wise but the only Wise Men Men of Reach and Design Policy and Conduct and he that does not play his Game so as to thrive in the World is generally pitied more for his Folly than for his Poverty Nay hence and hence only are taken the Measures of Wisdom and Prudence and this is made the Rule and Standard of all Policy and Discretion a Man is counted so far Wise and no farther than he knows how to get an Estate to raise a Family to give Birth to a Name and make himself great and considerable in the World He that can do this is a Shrewd Man and he that can't is either Pitied or Laught at according to the Humour the World 's in by those that can Neither is it any Allay or Abatement of their Character to say that all this is brought about by Sinister and Indirect Means by Fraud and Cousenage by Deceit and Corrupt Proceedings This rather Commends the Parts and Ingenuity of the Man shews him to be a Man of Art and Contrivance and that he owes his Success more to good Management than good Fortune nay he that can do thus is the Topping Wise Man and is thought worthy not only to have but so far to ingross the Name that a Shrewd Cunning Man even in their own Language is but another Word for a Knave This is the general Sense of the World But whatever the Opinion of Men may be we are assured by the Apostle who had Conversed in the other World as well as in this that the Wisdom of this World is Foolishness with God and if so to be sure `t is Foolishness in it self since the Intellect of God is the Measure of all Truth And the Psalmist speaking of Worldly-Minded Men that think their Houses shall continue for ever and call their Lands after their own Names says expresly This is their Foolishness And this Censure he boldly charges upon them how singular soever it might
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
and if we will follow Christ we must forsake the Multitudes and ascend up to the Mount of Solitude and Holy Separation And that we may be the better incouraged to undertake this Religious Singularity let us to the Reason of the thing add two very remarkable Scripture Examples The First that invites our Consideration is that of Lot who happened to live in a City so prodigiously wicked and beyond all Measure or Example Debauched that though a very Populous Place it could not afford so much as Ten good Men they were so universally seiz'd with the Pest and Contagion of Vice And yet this good Man though he breath'd in so corrupt an Air was not at all infected with it the health and cleanness of his Soul like that of Socrates's Body was too strong for the Contagion and preserved him from the Malignity of a Plague that was more infectuous and more mortal too than that of Athens Indeed the filthy Conversation of that wicked Place disturb'd his quiet but it could not sully his Innocence it vex'd his Righteous Soul as the Text says but it could not Debauch it He dwelt like the Church of Pergamos where Satan's Seat was in the very Metropolis the Imperial City of the Devil's Kingdom but he Convers'd there like an Angel of Light among Fiends and evil Spirits He was surrounded with the works of Darkness but he had no Fellowship with them his Company was Devilish but his Conversation was Angelical though he could not make them better yet they could not make him worse he lived with them but he lived against them This indeed was great and extraordinary but there is an Example of Religious Singularity beyond this and that is in Noah who lived in a World that was as corrupt and more than the other's City the whole World then was but one Greater Sodom nay it was much worse than that Seat of Wickedness Sodom indeed was so given up to Debauchery that it could not yield Ten Righteous Persons but the whole World in Noah's time could not afford so much as Two he himself was the only good Man then in the World as may reasonably be concluded from that Reason expressed by God why he excepted him from the general Deluge For thee have I seen Righteous before me in this Generation Now 't is impossible to imagin that Vice should ever be more in mode and fashion than it was then when as the Text says all Flesh had Corrupted his way upon the Earth and the whole Earth it self was fill'd with Violence And yet in this allover-wicked World Noah maintained his Innocence and his Integrity shin'd forth as a Light in the midst of this Crooked and Perverse Generation and was not only a Doer but a Preacher of Righteousness In other Ages of the World though never so Corrupt Religion and Vertue has had some Party and the Singularity of Living well is shared and divided among several and one is a Countenance and Incouragement to another but here poor single Noah was sain to Live as Athanasius was to Dispute against the World and the whole Singularity lodged and center'd in his single Person which puts it beyond all Example or Parallel And thus have I gone through the several Stages of my Undertaking I shall now make one or two brief Reflections upon the whole and conclude In relation therefore to the First Supposition it may be inferr'd That the Multitude is no safe Guide and that the Measures of Right and Wrong are not always to be concluded from the consent of Majority for you see here that Vice has by much the Majority of its side and yet 't is Vice still From the Second it may be inferr'd That those who have already a Majority for their way ought not to think their Cause any whit the better for having new Proselytes every day brought over to them and because Men flock to their Standard from every Quarter For as it has been discoursed this is no more than what is to be expected from the ordinary course of things Men are naturally apt to imitate that which is most prevailing and to conform to the course and way of the World Those therefore that value themselves or their Cause the better for this seem not to understand the World but to be meer Strangers to the Inclinations of Human Nature for did they consider that they would quickly perceive that this does not reflect any Credit upon their Cause but rather upbraids the levity and weakness of Mankind and is no argument that they themselves are Wise but only that other Men are Fools Lastly from the Caution it self we may justly infer that the Censure of Preciseness and Singularity which the Men of this World commonly charge upon good Men and the Hatred and Spite wherewith they prosecute them upon that very account are both of them utterly senseless and extreamly absurd This has been an old Grudge Thus the Sinners in the Book of Wisdom Let us lie in wait for the Righteous because he is not for our turn and he is clean contrary to our doings He upbraideth us with our offending the Law and objecteth to our infamy the transgressings of our Education And again He was made to reprove our Thoughts He is grievous to us even to behold for his Life is not like other Mens his Ways are of another Fashion A very high Charge indeed and as notable an Inference he lives otherwise and better than we do and therefore we must hate and persecute him But this I say is a very absurd and unreasonable way of Proceeding for the ground of the business if sifted to the bottom comes to no more than this They are angry with a Man for not loving their Company so well as to be content to be Damned for the sake on 't But I think we may with great Civility beg their excuse in this matter if they will have us do as they do then let them take care to do as they should do But for a Man to make himself a Beast utterly unfit to be convers'd with and then to call me Singular and Unsociable because I won't keep him Company is hard measure And as these Men are guilty of an unreasonable Charge so shall we be guilty of an inexcusable Folly and Weakness if we depart from our Duty and our greatest Interest upon such a trifling inconsiderable Discouragement For then 't is plain that we are of the number of those low and unconsidering Spirits that love the Praise of Men more than the Praise of God Let us not therefore be led away with Noise and Popularity nor be frighted from our Duty by those empty Anathema's of the Multitude the Censure of Unsociableness Preciseness and Singularity Let us be sure by doing our Duty to satisfy our own Consciences whatever others do or think Let us not be carried away in the Polluted torrent of the Age nor be Fools for Company Let us for once
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
the Wisdom of God Thus again as to the Government of the Christian Church even those who have received the Christian Faith are not altogether satisfied with that for many of us are apt to think that Christ would have made much better Provision than he has for the good of his Church if he had constituted in it an Infalliable Gnide and Visible Judge of Controversies by whom all Difficulties might be cleared and all Disputes ended which now so confound and divide the Christian World I say many who do not believe that there is any such Constitution are yet apt to think and say that t were a thing much to wish'd it had been so and that 't would have been a great deal better so than otherwise and yet God we see in his Wisdom has not thought fit to have it so Thus again as to the condition of Human Life we commonly imagin it would be mightily for our Advantage to have a prospect of Futurities and to foresee what shall happen to us hereafter and accordingly we are very curious to tast of the Fruit of this Tree of Knowledg and to pry into the obscure Manuscript of Destiny and some are so impatient that they will have recourse to the Devil for such Discoveries rather than fail And yet we see God in his manifold Wisdom has thought fit to Seal up this Book of Futurities from our Eyes and will not trust us with so dangerous a piece of Knowledge Thus again Lastly We many of us think it a great Point of Wisdom to heap up Wealth to get Honours and Preferments to raise Families to perpetuate a Name and we are hugely satisfied with our good Policy and Discretion if we can secure to our selves a little Portion of this dirty Planet this little Spot this Point though we pay for it not only the Price of Labour and Care Contempt and Disgrace Danger and continual Fear but even the great Price of our Future Inheritance and part with our Religion and our very Souls in the Exchange This we oftentimes think Wisdom to do for a little of the World whereas in the Judgment of God to gain the whole upon such Terms would be but an ill Bargain What shall it Profit a Man says our Saviour to gain the whole World and lose his own Soul Yes but there are some and never so many as in this Age that think this no such unprofitable Merchandize but are very well content to sell Heaven for Earth Happiness for Vanity and will readily part with the great Reversion of another World for a Turf of Ground in present Possession This is the way of them and they think they do well and that they may say of themselves all the while what the Wise King did in the midst of all his sensual Indulgencies Also my Wisdom remained with me But however these Men applaud themselves in their extraordinary Reach and Policy God in the mean time has another Opinion of their Conduct and will say to every one of them what he did to the Rich Man in our Parable Thou Fool. And now whereas the Judgment of God is ever Infallible and according to the truth and reality of things I am hence led in the Second Place to consider the great Folly of what God here condemns as such the thing condemned is the Conduct of the Rich Man which he himself thought Wise but God thought very Foolish and the First ground of the Charge wherewith God taxes him was the Sinfulness of it he was a Fool because a Sinner I shall therefore in the First place reflect a little upon the Folly of Sin in general Sin and Folly Sinner and Fool are Words in Scripture especially in the Writings of Solomon of a parallel Signification and are indifferently used one for the other And the Schools of Morality insinuate the same in that common Aphorism of theirs every Sinner is ignorant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the Socratical Proverb Indeed Sin has its Birth in Folly and every Step of its Progress is Folly and its Conclusion is in Folly there is its Rise there is its Advance and there is its End But this will appear more distinctly from the consideration of these Two things First The absurdity and madness of the Choice which every Sinner makes Secondly The Error and Mistake that must necessarily precede in his Judgment before he makes it These Two things wherein is comprized the whole Folly of Sin have been by me already considered elsewhere but because it is a Consideration of such an uncommon importance I shall rather present it here again to the Reader with a little Alteration than refer him to it As for the Absurdity of the Sinners Choice 't is the greatest that can be imagined for what is it that he chuses 't is to do that which he must and certainly will repent of and wish he had never done either in this World for its Illness and Sinfulness or in the next for its sad Effect's and Consequences 'T is to despise the Authority Power Justice and Goodness of God 't is to transgress his Commands which are good and equitable and in keeping of which there is present as well as future Reward 't is to act against the frame of his Rational Nature and the Divine Law of his Mind 't is to disturb the Order and Harmony of the Creation and by extra-lineal motions to violate the Sacred interest of Society 'T is lastly to incur the Anger of an Omnipotent and Just God and to hazard falling off from his Supream Good and the last end of his Being and the being ruin'd in his best Interest to all Eternity All this the Sinner partly actually incurs and partly puts to the hazard in the Commission of any one Sin And for what is all this Is it for any considerable Interest for any thing that bears something of Proportion and may pretend to Competition and a rival weight in the opposite Scale of the Ballance No 't is only for a Shadow for a Trifle for the gratisication of some baser Appetite for the acquirement of some little Interest which has nothing to divert us from adhering to that which is truly our Best but only that poor Advantage of being present though at the same time its Vanity be present with it And now is this a Choice for a Wise Man for a Man of common Sense Nay is it a Choice for a Man of any Sense at all for one in his right Wits to make Is there a better Demonstration to be had of a Man's being a Fool or Mad than this No certainly and were it not for the Customariness of the thing and that too many are concern'd this would be thought a sufficient Reason why a Man should be begg'd for a Fool or sent to Bedlam For if Absurdity of Choice be any Argument of Folly the Sinner is certainly no common Fool there being no Choice so absurd so unaccountable as his But