Malice and Obstinacy and its Conscience oppressed with Loads of Guilt sussicient to sink it to the nethermost Hell yet we seem for the Generality to be no more concerned at it than if its Ruin or Recovery were equally indifferent to us We can see it perishing before our Eyes without any Remorse or Compassion we can pass Day after Day without making the least Offer or Attempt to recover it without offering up a Prayer for it or entertaining a serious Thought what will become of it for ever O insensible Creatures that we are thus to neglect and abandon the most precious Part of our selves The Part that makes us Men and by which alone we are capable of being happy or miserable for ever Let me therefore beseech and conjure you even by all that is sacred and serious by every thing that is dear and precious to you by your best Hopes and the most important Concern of your everlasting Fate to take pity upon your perishing Souls to consider the amazing Dangers whereunto you have exposed them and to consult the Means of their Recovery to prick and affect your Hearts with the Sense and Consideration of their impending Ruin till you have forced them to cry out what shall we do to be saved to bath their Wounds with the Tears of Repentance and to pour into them that most sovereign Balm of a serious Purpose and Resolution of Amendment to pray earnestly for them and keep a continual Guard about them and to strive vigorously with those sinful Inclinations that threaten to sink and ruin them And if we will be but content to undergo these necessary Cares and Pains to secure them we shall be sure when they leave these Bodies to reap the Fruits of all in the Possession of an unspeakably happy and glorious Eternity II. I proceed now to the Second Proposition contained in these Words that our precious Souls may be lost And this our Saviour here plainly supposes If he gain the whole World and lose his own Soul The Greek Word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifies to receive a Mulct or to suffer Damage and therefore it is here opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if he shall gain So that the Word doth not denote the absolute Loss or Extinction of the Soul but its undergoing some dreadful Mulct or suffering some irreparable Damage For as Hierocles hath observed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Immortal Substances cannot so die as to lose their Being but so as to lose their Well-being they may And accordingly our Saviour himself calls the Punishment of the Wicked in Hell Fire destroying them Mat. x. 28. Fear not them which kill the Body but fear him which is able to destroy both Soul and Body in Hell Where by destroying he doth not mean putting a final End to their Being but putting them into an irrecoverable State of Ill-being for in this State of Destruction they still continue to act to weep and wail and gnash their Teeth as Christ elsewhere tells us Mat. xiii 42. which Actions plainly suppose their Continuance in Being though in a most wretched and deplorable Ill-being So that by the Loss of the Soul here is not meant the Destruction of its Being but its being exposed to an irreparable Damage in the other World And to prove that in this Sense a Soul may be lost I shall endeavour these two Things First To shew you what Damages the Soul is liable to in the other World Secondly Upon what Accounts it is liable to and in Danger of them I. What Damages the Soul is liable to in the other World To which I answer that there is a seven-fold Damage whereunto the Soul of Man may be exposed hereafter 1st It is liable to be deprived of the highest Happiness it is capable of 2ly It is liable to the most dreadful Punishment and Correction of the Father of Spirits 3ly It is liable to the Fury and Violence of Devils and other malignant Spirits 4ly It is liable to be consmed to the most dismal and uncomfortable Abodes 5ly It is liable to the perpetual Vexations of its own cross wild and furious Passions 6ly It is liable to the intolerable Anguish of its own guilty Conscience 7ly It is liable to indure all these dismal Things for ever 1st The Soul of Man is liable to be deprived of the highest Happiness it is capable of The highest Happiness that a Soul is capable of is to enjoy God that is to know and love and resemble him and to be admitted into the noble Society of those pure and blessed Spirits that do thus enjoy him of all which Happiness a Soul may be for ever deprived by its own vicious and depraved Temper For besides that by such a Temper it may provoke the just and holy God who hath the Disposal of the fate of Souls to deprive it of and banish it from this Happiness for ever it may thereby also utterly incapacitate it self from ever enjoying it it may promote and raise that Temper to such a Degree of Aversation and Antipathy to God and â—anker it into such an inveterate Enmity to all the Perfections of his Nature as that at last it may be utterly incapable of any such beatifical Knowledg of them as can any ways incline it to love and imitate him For the Apostle tells us that the carnal Mind is enmity to God Rom. viii 7. From whence it is evident that in every Degree of Sin there is a Degree of Aversation to God which Aversation may be improved into such an implacable Malice against him as that our Knowledg of him instead of endearing him to us or ingaging us to imitate him may only avert us from provoke and irritate us against him and by presenting to us those immense Perfections for which he deserves our dearest Love and deepest Adoration may only fill our Minds with the greater Rage and more invincible Horror And when the Soul is arrived to such a Degree of Malignity against God it is as impossible for it to injoy him as to be recreated with Torment or delighted with the Objects of its own Antipathies And for the same Reason also it must be incapable of enjoying the Society of blessed Spirits because it hath acquired a Temper that is infinitely repugnant to their Heavenly Genius so that if such a prejudiced Soul should when it is arrived into Eternity find the Gates of Heaven open to receive it it would doubtless be so offended at every thing that is Heavenly so startled at the Sight of God and the Displays of his hated Perfections and seized with such a Horror against those god-like Beings that dwell there and are perpetually contemplating and adoring loving and imitating him that it would fly away of its own Accord from that blisful Habitation as Bats and Owls do from the Light of the Day and rather chuse to banish it self into eternal Darkness and Despair than be shut up for ever in a
and dolorous Perception so extreamly sharp that it will pierce our very Hearts and cause us to roar out with Anguish for ever And alas what a poor Compensation is it for a Man that must e're long be enduring the Tortures of a tedious Famine to be entertained a few Moments with the Picture of a Feast or the Story of Cleopatra's Banquet Or what Man in his Wits would ever forfeit himself for the mere Fancy of a Pleasure to the lingering Torments of a Rack And yet O wretched Sinner thou actest a thousand times more extravagantly who by thy unlawful Pursuits of the imaginary Pleasures of this World betrayest thy Soul to the bitter Torments of Hell 2dly The Good that is in the Gain of this World is narrow and particular but the Evil that is in the Loss of a Soul is large and universal 'T is but a Part of our selves and that the worst Part too that this World's Goods can benefit and advantage they can only clothe our Bodies more splendidly and feed them more deliciously and furnish them with more Plenty of outward Accomdations but alas for the Soul they are as insignificant to her as Musical Sounds are to the Eye of the Body or magnificent Shews to the Ear They cannot improve the meanest Faculty about her nor make her in any respect either the better or the wiser And as for the Body it self wherein all their Lines do center there are a thousand Cases in which they are perfectly useless for they cannot give Health to it in any Sickness nor Ease in any Pain they cannot recover a lost Sense nor restore a withered Limb nor rectify a deformed Feature nor is it in their Power to reprieve it from the Grave one moment beyond the natural Period of its Mortality So extreamly narrow are these worldly Goods which we are so greedy of that they can extend their Benefits no farther than the Body nay and even to that they are vastly inadequate there being a thousand bodily Necessities whereunto they cannot extend themselves So that if to purchase these we expose our selves to eternal Perdition we shall have in comparison but a drop of Good to compensate our selves for an Ocean of Misery For the Misery of Hell is as vast and extensive as our Capacity of Suffering and hath in it an appropriate Torment for every sensible Part of our Natures It racks the wretched Soul in every Faculty and fills up all its Capacities of Misery with Anguish and Vexation It afflicts its Mind with horrid Apprehensions wounds and gashes its Conscience with dismal Reflections it festers its Will with black and venomous Passions and starves its Desires with everlasting Famine And as it leaves no part of the Soul untormented but covers it over from Head to Foot with Wounds and Bruises and putrifying Sores so when the Body at the Resurrection is reunited to it the Misery of Hell will extend to this also for then it will have superadded to its Spiritual Plagues the most exquisite Instrument of Corporeal Torment viz. the dark and noisom and scorching Flames of a burning World which will seize upon the Bodies of Reprobate Sinners they being finally abandoned to them by the last and final Sentence and stick close to and burn through them for ever And their Bodies being thus wrapped and clothed in flaming Sulphur must needs be exquisitely vexed in every Part and Member and feel as many Torments as they have Senses to indure them Thus the Miseries of Hell you see are â—ar more extensive than the Goods of this World for whereas thâ—se extend only to our Bodies and can relieve them but in a few of their Necessities those over-spread both the Body and Soul and are both co-eternal and co-equal with their utmost Capacities of Suffering So that when by our unlawful Pursuits of the Goods of this World we forfeit our selves to eternal Perdition we plunge our whole Nature into intollerable Misery for the Ease and the Pleasure of one particular Part. Now would any Man in his Wits do you think eat Rats-bane for no other Reason but only because it is sweet Would he to please his liquorish Palate diffuse a tormenting Poison over all his Parts and Members Or would he think the Pleasure of one sweet Gust a sufficient Compensation for all the succeeding Spasms and Convulsions Surely no none but a Mad-man could ever admit of such an Extravagance And yet O wretched Sinner thou art far more wild and extravagant for for a particular Good thou throwest thy self headlong into an universal Misery and to gratify thy Body in a few little things dost utterly ruin both thy Body and Soul To please thy self in one part thou punishest thy self in all and for the gratifying one Sense derivest a tormenting Venom over all the Senses of thy Nature and so in sine wilt have nothing but the Pleasure of a Taste or a Touch to compensate thee for all the Agonies and Torments that thy Body and Soul together are able to sustain And what a poor Compensation this is I leave you to judg 3dly The Good that is in the Gain of this World is convertible into Evil but the Evil that is in the Loss of a Soul is never to be improved into Good When we are arrived to the Possession of those outward Goods which at present we do so greedily gasp after it is a very uncertain thing whether they will prove Goods to us or no whether even as to this Life we shall be the better or the worse for them For it is very often seen that these worldly Goods prove the worst of Plagues to those that are the Owners of them and that those things which we account the Blessings of this Life do prove the Curses and Miseries of it When by a thousand Lies Flatteries and Circumventions a Man hath raised himself up to that Pinacle of Preferment which his Ambition aspired to how often hath that Height proved the Occasion of his Fall by exposing him to those Storms of Envy and Misfortune which would have blown over his Head had he sat quietly below and been contented to injoy himself in a more private Fortune And so when by an infinite number of Rapines and Oppressions Frauds and dishonest Compliances a Man hath amassed together a vast deal of Wealth how often hath that proved the Occasion of his Undoing Sometimes by exposing him to the rapacious Covetousness of others but most commonly to the ill Effects of his own extravagant Luxuries For usually when Fraud is the Procurer of Wealth Wealth is the Baud of Luxury this being the best Expedient to drown the Cry of the Guilt of our Dishonesty And then by that time Luxury hath produced its natural Effects it commonly leaves the wealthy Possessor in a far worse Condition than Poverty it leaves him so rackt with the Gout or the Stone so over-whelmed with Catarrhs or Dropsies that the miserable Man would be heartily contented to part with all
the only agreable Objects are Truth and Goodness and therefore the more Truth there is in the Mind and the more Goodness there is in the Will the more vigorously will they imploy and exercise themselves about them and consequently the more they will be pleased and ravished Since therefore every new Discovery of Truth and every new Degree of Goodness gives new Life to our Minds and Wills and renders both more sprightly and vigorous it hence necessarily follows that our Souls are capable of as much Pleasure as they are of Truth and Goodness and how vastly Capable they are of both these I have already shewed you So that it is not to be imagined by us who have here so little Experience what Heavens of Joy a Soul is Capable of only at present we find by Experience that the more we improve in Knowledge and Goodness the more pleasant chearful we find and feel our selves and that our Faculties still grow more active and lightsom the more we disburthen them of that Ignorance and Sin that cloggs and incumbers them And upon great Proficiencies in Knowledge and Vertue we find a strange Alacrity within our selves we are as it were in Heaven upon Earth and do feel a Paradise springing up within us the Fragrance of whose Ioys grows many times so strong that our frail Mortality can hardly bear them When therefore such Souls do cast off this Mortality which now doth only fetter and intangle them and have made their Entrance into the invisible Regions of Blessedness how sprightly and active how lightsom and chearful will they feel themselves For in the first Moment of their Admission all that Mist of erroneous Prejudice which now interrupts their Prospect of Truth and all those Remains of irregular Affection that check and distract them in their Choice of Goodness will be forever chased from their Minds and Wills by the clear Light of the Heavenly State and their Faculties having thus disburthen'd themselves and shaken off every Clog with what unspeakable Vigour will they move and act especially in the Presence of such suitable Objects as the Heavenly State will present before them When infinite Truth and infinite Goodness shall be always present to their free Minds and undistracted Wills and nothing shall interpose to hinder them either in seeing the one or in chosing the other here will be work enough for both to all Eternity and both being freed from all Incumbrance the one will be discovering every Moment farther and farther into that infinite Truth which it loves and admires and the other will be improving every Moment more and more in that infinite Goodness which it chooses and adores And then every new Discovery and new Improvement will spring new Heavens of Joy in the Soul and by reason of those new Acquests of Truth and Goodness which we shall every Moment make we shall every Moment be entertained with new Pleasures and so before we have spent one Joy another will succeed and another that and so on forever For when a God of infinite Truth and Goodness becomes the Objective Happiness of a finite Nature which cannot comprehend and enjoy him but in an infinite Succession every new Delight the Injoyment of him creates in us must necessarily raise a new Desire and every new Desire immediately find a new Delight and so round again to all Eternity Of what a vast Capacity therefore is this Soul of ours in which there is room enough successively to entertain all the ravishing Joys and Pleasures that make an Everlasting Heaven That can drink in those deep Rivers of Pleasure as fast as they spring up and flow from God's right hand for evermore What Tongue can express the innumerable Joys that such a Soul can hold whose Capacity is so large as Heaven and so near to infinite as to be able to contain all those Joys and Pleasures that infinite Truth and Goodness can create 4. And lastly The Soul of Man is of vast Worth in Respect of its Capacity of Immortality For by its Operations it is evident that the Soul is not composed of Corruptible matter but is a spiritual and immaterial Substance for if it were Matter it would act and move only when other Matter presses upon it and not be able to determine the Course of its own Motion but would be forced to move backwards or forwards according as it was thrust on by that outward Matter that continually moves and presses upon it and all its Motions would be as necessary as that of a Stone in the Air when it is thrust up by an impressed Force and pressed down again by the weight of the Air above it Whereas in this Soul of ours we sensibly feel and experience a natural Liberty of acting a Power to move it self and to determine its own Motions which way it pleaseth when it is pressed forward never so vigorously by the strong Impulses of outward Objects it is in its Power to go on or retreat and to divert the Current of its Thoughts into a quite contrary Channel to that whereinto it is thrust and directed by all the Impressions of its Sense For thus in the midst of the Alarums and Shoutings of an Army of the Noises of Drums and Trumpets ringing in our Ears our Soul can recollect it self and reduce its scattered Thoughts into profound Contemplations of a sweet and Blessed Peace and when it is pressed from without with never so much Importunity to this or that particular Choice it is in its Power to reject the Motion and to choose the quite contrary By all which it is apparent that the Soul hath an innate Liberty of acting thaâ— she is not necessitated from without by the different Concourses and Motions of the several Particles of Matter but that all the Diversity of her Wills and Opinions is principally owing to her own Freedom and Power of self-determination and to make the least doubt of it is to question the common Sense and Experience of Mankind Since therefore the Soul is not determined in its Motions by the different Pressures of material things as all other Matter is but hath power to swim against the Torrent and move quite counter to all foreign Impressions it hence necessarily follows that it is immaterial And indeed considering how much its Operations do exceed the utmost Power of dull and passive Matter I cannot but wonder that any Man should be so forsaken of his Reason as to rank it among material Things for how is it possible that a Piece of dull unactive Matter that a little Grass or Dirt or Mire after all the Refinings Macerations and Maturations that can be performed by the help of Motion should ever be able to make a thinking Being or grow up into the Soul of a Philosopher That a Company of dead Atoms which cannot move unless they are moved can ever be capable of framing Syllogisms in Mood and Figure and disputing pro and con whether they are Atoms
they think it a sufficient Recompence for all their painful and mischievous Devices for St. Peter tells us that they go about like roaring Lyons seeking whom they may devour And to be sure those malignant Spirits would never be so impertinently mischievous as to spend their time in catching Flies and did they not know our Souls to be noble Preys they would never go so far about as they do nor take so much Care and Pains to Catch and insnare them So that from their unwearied Diligence to seduce and ruin us we may most certainly conclude either that they are very foolish Devils or that our Souls are very precious Beings but howsoever their Diligence to destroy them is a plain Argument that they esteem them precious it being by no means to be supposed that such Wise and intelligent Beings as they are would so much concern themselves as they do about things which they had little or no Esteem for And thus you see at what a vast Rate our Souls are valued by the whole World of Spirits how from the highest to the lowest those best and wisest Judges of the just Worth of Souls do all unanimously concur in a great and high Estimation So that whether we value them by their own natural Capacities or by the Estimation of those who are best able to judg of their Worth and Excellency we have abundant Reason to conclude them most precious and inestimable Beings And now I shall conclude this Argument with some Inferences 1. From hence I infer by what it is that we ought to value our selves and estimate the Dignity of our own Natures viz. by our rational and immortal Souls those excellent Beings that are so invaluable in themselves and so highly esteemed by the best and wisest Judges 'T is this intelligent and immortal Nature within us that is the Crown and Flower of our Beings 't is by this that we are exalted above the Level of meer Animals by this that we are allyed to Angels and do border upon God himself And he that values himself by any thing but his Soul and those things which are its proper Graces and Ornaments begins at the wrong End of himself forgets his Jewels and estimates his Estate by his Lumber And yet good God what foolish Measures do the Generality of Men take of themselves Were we not forced by too many woful Experiments it would be hard to imagine that any Creature that believes a rational and immortal Soul to be a Part of its Nature should be so ridiculous as to value it self by the little trisling Advantages of a well-coloured Skin a suit of fine Cloths a Puff of popular Applause or a few Baggs of white and red Earth and yet God help us these are the only things almost by which we value and difference our selves from others You are a much better Man than your Neighbour he alas is a poor contemptible Wretch a little creeping despicable Thing not worthy to be looked upon or taken notice of by such a one as you Why in the Name of God what is the Matter Where is this mighty Difference between you and him Hath not he a Soul as well as you a Soul that is capable to live as long and to be as happy as yours Yes yes 't is true indeed but notwithstanding God be thanked you are another-guess Man than he for you have a much handsomer Body your Apparel is much more fine and fashionable you live in a more splendid Equipage and have a larger Purse to maintain it and your Name forsooth is more in Vogue and makes a far greater Noise in the World And is this all the Difference between your mighty selves and your pitiful Neighbours Alas poor Men A few Days more will put an End to this and when your rich Attires are reduced to a Winding-sheet and all your vast Possessions to six Foot of Earth what will become of all those little Trifles by which you value your selves Where will be the Beauty or Wealth the Port or Garb which you are now so proud of Alas Now that lovely Body looks as pale and ghastly that lofty Soul is left as bare as poor and naked as your despised Neighbours Should you now meet his wandering Ghost in the wide World of Spirits what would you have to boast of more than he now your Beauty is withered your Wealth vanished and all your outward Pomp and Splendor shrouded in the Horrors of a silent Grave Now you will have nothing distinguish you from the most Contemptible unless you have wiser and better Souls and by so much as you were more respected for your Beauty and Wealth your Garb and Equipage in this World by so much you will be more despised for your Pride and Insolence your Covetousness and Sensuality in the other Let us therefore learn to value our selves by that which will abide by us by our immortal Souls and by those heavenly Graces which do adorn and accomplish them by our Humility and Devotion by our Charity and Meekness by our Temperance and Iustice all which are such Preheminences as will servive our Funerals and distinguish us from base and abject Souls forever But for a rational and immortal Creature to prize it self by any such temporary Advantages is altogether as vain and ridiculous as it was for the Emperor Nero to value himself for being an excellent Fidler 2ly From hence also I infer how much we are obliged to live up to the Dignity of our Natures Should a stranger to Mankind be admitted into this busy Stage of humane Affairs to survey our Actions and the paltry Designs we drive at certainly he would hardly imagine that we believed our selves to be such a noble sort and strain of Beings as we are If you saw a Man seriously imploying himself in some sordid and beggarly Drudgery could you imagine that he believed himself to be the Son of a King and the Heir of a Crown And when it is so apparent that the main of our Design is to prog for our Flesh and make a comfortable Provision for a few Years Ease and Luxury who would think that we believed our selves to be immortal Spirits that must live forever in an inconceivable Happiness or Misery When we consider the high Rank which we hold in the Creation the vast Capacities which there are in our Natures and the noble Ends which we were made and designed for are we not ashamed to think how poorly we prostitute our selves and vilify our own Faculties by the sordid Drudgeries wherein we exercise and imploy ' em When we think what a Reputation we have throughout all the World of Spirits what a vast Rate we are valued at by God and Angels and Devils are we not confounded to think how we under-value our selves by those low and inglorious Ends which we pursue and aim at O good God that thou should'st give me a Soul of an immortal Nature a Soul that is big enough for all
the Joys which thy everlasting Heaven is composed of and I be such a Wretch to my self such a Traytor to the Dignity of my own Nature as to give up my self and all my Faculties to the Pursuit of such vain and wretched Trifles That I who am akin to Angels should make my self a Muck-worm and chuse Nebuchadnezzar's fate to leave Crowns and Scepters and live among the salvage Herds of the Wilderness That having such a great and noble Nature I should content my self to live like a Beast and aim no higher than if I had been born only to eat and drink and sleep and wake for thirty or forty Years together and then retire into a silent Grave and be insensible forever Wherefore in the Name of God let us at last remember what we are and what we are born to Let us consider that we have Faculties that are capable of exerting themseves for ever in the most inravishing Contemplation and Love of the eternal Fountain of Truth and Goodness of copying and transcribing his most adorable Perfections his Wisdom Goodness Purity and Iustice from whence the infinite Happiness of his Nature derives and thereby of glorifying us into living Images of God and rendring us like him both in Beauty and Happiness in a word that we have Faculties to converse with Angels and with blessed Spirits to bear a Part in the eternal Comfort of their Joys and Praises and to relish all those unknown Delights of which their everlasting Heaven doth consist And having such great and noble Powers in us is it not a burning shame that they should be always condemned to an endless Pursuit of Shadows and Impertinencies Let us therefore rouse up our selves and shake off this sordid and degenerate Temper that sinks and depresses us and makes us act so infinitely unbecoming the Dignity of our immortal Natures And since we are descended from and designed for the Heavenly Family let us learn to demean our selves upon Earth as becomes the Natives of Heaven Let us disdain all base and sordid all low and unworthy Ends of Action as Things beneath our illustrious Rank and Station in the World of Beings and live in a continual Tendency towards and Preparation for that Heavenly State which is the proper Orb and Sphere of our Natures 3ly From hence also I infer how much they undervalue themselves that fell their Souls for the Trifles of this World For since we know before-hand that the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all Unrighteousness and Ungodliness of Men and he hath plainly assured us that our Souls must smart for ever for our Sins it necessarily follows that when ever we knowingly suffer our selves to be inticed into Sin we make a wilful Forfeiture of our Souls He that knows that such a Draught however sweetned and made palatable is yet compounded with the Juice of deadly Nightshade and notwithstanding that will have the poisonous Draught is wilfully bent to Murder and Destroy himself And when we see that the Pleasure of our Sin draws after it the Ruin of our Souls and yet will Sin notwithstanding we do in effect stake our Souls against it and with our Eyes open make this desperate Bargain that upon Condition we may injoy such a sinful Pleasure we will willingly surrender up our immortal Spirits to the Pains of an endless and intollerable Damnation And if so O blessed God how do the Generality of Men depreciate and undervalue themselves For how often do we see Men in their little Frauds and Cozenages sell their Souls for a Penny gain in their lascivious and intemperate Humours barter their Souls for a Moments Mirth or Pleasure in their ambitious Projects and Designs part with their Souls for a Blast of vulgar Breath and popular Noise For in every Temptation to Sin the Devil cheapens our immortal Souls bids so much Pleasure or so much Profit for them and in every Compliance with the Temptation we take his Offer and strike the fatal Bargain So that if we will Sin we had need Sin for something since we must pay so dearly for it But alas there is no Proffer the Devil can make us that is a â—elerable Price for the Blood of our Souls though he should offer us the whole World for it our Saviour assures us that he would bid us infinitely to our Loss and if so what wretched Sales do we make of our Souls when we Sin for Trifles lie and cheat to get a Penny consent to a wicked Motion for a Pleasure that will wither while we are smelling to it and expire in the very Injoyment For so much we value our Souls at and do in effect declare that in our Esteem these precious Beings which God and Angels set so high a Price on are worth no more than what that Profit or Pleasure for which we Sin amounts to O good God! What cheap and worthless Things then are our Souls in our Esteem who sell and barter them every Day for such mean and worthless Trifles How do we part with our Gold for Dross and exchange our Iewels for Pebbles What sordid Thoughts what wretched vile Opinions have we of our selves that are so ready upon all Occasions to sell our selves for nought or which is next to nought for the sorry Proffers of every base and infamous Lust O would to God we would at last make but a just Estimate of our selves and thereupon resolve as it is most reasonable we should never to comply with any sinful Motion till we can get more by it than our Souls are worth and then I am sure we should be for ever Deaf to all the Proffers which the Devil or World can make us 4ly And lastly from hence also I infer how much we are obliged above all things to take Care of our Souls For since they are Beings of such vast Capacities in themselves and of such an high Estimation in the World of Spirits methinks we should all be convinced that to take leave of their Welfare and prevent their everlasting Miscarriage is the highest Concern and Interest of a Man And yet God forgive us if we consult the common Practice of Mankind we shall find that there is scarce any thing in which we have any Interest at all that is more slighted and disregarded by us Our Body is the Darling that hath our Hearts and takes up all our Care and Thoughts and to entertain its Appetite and accommodate it with Pleasures and Conveniencies there is no Expence either of Labour or Time grudged or thought much of but as for the Soul that precious and immortal Thing which will be living and perceiving unspeakable Pleasures or Pains when this Body is dead and insensible that is overlooked as a Thing not worthy our serious Notice or Regard And though we cannot but be sensible how much it is diseased in all its Faculties how much its Vnderstanding is overloaded with Error and Ignorance its Will festered with unreasonable
Cruelties which those barbarous Villains were about to practise upon him how they would scourge his Body with knotty Whips and nail his Hands and Feet to the Cross and thrust a Spear into his Heart he saw how they would triumph over his Misery mock at his Calamity and dance to the Musick of his dying Grones And now one would have thought such a Prospect as this would have for ever enraged his Soul against them and made him rejoyce to see that sweeping Destruction that was coming upon them but such was the incomparable Sweetness of his Temper that while he foresaw them plotting his Ruin he could not but sigh over theirs and while he beheld their Malice all reeking in his Blood and sporting it self with his Torments and Agonies yet at the Sense of their approaching Destruction his very Bowels earned and his Heart melted with Commiseration and he could not forbear weeping to think that those cursed Instruments of all his Miseries must e're long be so wretched and miserable themselves earnestly wishing that they who so greedily thirsted for his Blood had known in that their day the things which belong to their Peace And though one would have thought the barbarous Entertainment he met with here upon Earth would have for ever quenched all his Affections to Mankind yet still it lives and in despite of all the Affronts and Outrages he endured burns as vigorously in his Breast as ever So unconquerable was his Love to his Subjects that all the bloody Cruelties they practised upon him when they chased him out of the World were never able to alienate his Heart and Affections from them but after all their Cruelties he still retained his Fatherly Bowels towards them and when he could endure their Torments no longer breathed out his loving Soul in an earnest Prayer for their Pardon Father forgive them for they know not what they do And now that he is in Heaven among Angels and glorified Spirits where he cannot but remember how unkindly we treated him when he was upon Earth and perhaps doth still bear upon his glorified Body those very Wounds which he received from our Hands which one would think were sufficient to incense him against us for ever yet his Heart is the same towards us full of all those kind and tender Resentments that first brought him down from Heaven and render'd his Conversation among us so full of Sweetness and Endearments And now being so infinitely kind as he is why should we be disheartned from serving him Methinks the Sense of his Love to us if there were no other Argument in the World should be sufficient to bind us to his Service for ever For O my Soul how can I do too much for so kind a Friend How can I be too submissive to so good a Master That is so infinitely tender of all his Servants and loves them a thousand times more than they love themselves Sure if we had any Spark of Ingenuity in us the Sense of his matchless Kindness towards us would be sufficient to turn all our Duty to him into Recreation to make us thirst after his Service and catch at all Opportunities of expressing our Loyalty and Obedience to him We should embrace his Commands as Preferments to us and wear them as the greatest Favours and think our selves more honoured in being the Servants of Iesus Christ than in being made mighty Kings and Potentates 2. Consider as he is full of Grace in Respect of his own Personal Disposition so he is also in Respect of his Laws in which as I have already shewed you he requires nothing of us but what is for our Good nothing but what tends to the Perfection of our Natures and the Consummation of our Happiness All that our Saviour requires at our Hands is only that we should act according to the Laws of a Reasonable Nature and constantly pursue the great End of our Creation which can never be obtained by us unless we regulate our Actions by those wise and excellent Rules which he hath prescribed us and which he hath prescribed us upon no other Inducement but only to oblige us to be happy For as to any Advantage that will accrue to him from our Actions 't is altogether indifferent to him whether we obey him or no for he was always infinitely happy within himself and would have always been so though we had never had a Being so that his Felicity depends not upon us and were it not that the superabundant Goodness of his Nature doth for ever incline him to make us happy as well as himself he would never have concerned himself about us but would have let us alone to do as we list and abandoned us to the Fate of our own Actions He therefore being infinitely happy within himself can have no self-Ends to serve upon his Creatures because within the Circle of his own divine Being he hath all that he needs and all that he desires but being infinitely good as he is infinitely happy we are sure that our Good must be the only End of his intermedling with our Actions and his giving Laws to direct them And if we consult the particular Lawss which he hath given us we shall find they all of them most naturally tend to perfect and rectiâ—ie our disordered Natures to exalt and spiritualize our Affections and inspire us with all those divine Dispositions that are requisite to qualify us for the Happiness of the World to come And now methinks if we had any Sense of our own Interest this Consideration should mightily encourage us to Obedience to think that while we are serving our blessed Master we are serving our selves to the best Purposes and that his Service and our Interest are so combined and united that by the same Actions we may gratify him and do our selves the greatest Kindness in the World that he exacts nothing from us but what he was obliged to do by the infinite Care and Concern he hath for us and that he had been less kind should he have required less and must necessarily have subtracted from us some Degree of our Happiness should he have abated us any Part of our Duty O Blessed Iesus who can complain of thy Service when thy very Commands are Tokens of thy Love when all the Duty thou requirest of us is only to be kind to our selves in doing those things which if thou hadst never commanded our own Interest would have obliged us to had we but understood it as well or regarded it as much as thou dost 3. But then consider again as He is full of Grace to us in his own personal Temper and in those mild and gentle Laws which he hath given us so Thirdly He is full of Grace to us also in respect of that gracious Pardon and Forgiveness which he hath procured for and promised to us if we will heartily repent and amend I confess though his Personal Temper should be never so sweet and his
had preached to the Corinthians he thus pronounces By which also ye are saved if ye keep in Memory what I preached unto you unless ye have believed in vain 1 Cor. 15. 1 2. But how could they be saved by that Gospel he preached to them unless it contained in it all Things necessary to Salvation And this very Gospel which the Apostles in their constant Ministry proposed to the World St. Iames calls the ingrafted Word which is able to save our Souls Iam. 1. 21. And for the same Reason it is also called the Word of Reconciliation 2 Cor. 5. 19. The Word of Salvation Acts 13. 26. And the Word of Life Acts 5. 20. And the Savour of Life unto Life 2 Cor. 2. 16. And also the Power of God unto Salvation to every one that believes Rom. 1. 17. Neither of which it could be justly stiled supposing it to be defective in any Things necessary to the eternal Happiness of Men. 3. And lastly That all those necessary Truths which they preached are comprehended in those Writings of theirs of which the Holy Scripture consists It is true before the Christian Doctrine was collected into those Scriptures of which the New Testament now consists it was all conveyed by Oral Tradition from the Mouths of the Teachers to the Ears of the Disciples but in a little Time those holy Men who first preached it found an absolute Necessity of committing it to Writing as a much surer Way of preserving it uncorrupted and transmitting it down to all succeeding Generations for thus Eusebius tells us That the Romans not being satisfied with St. Peter ' s preaching of Christianity to them earnestly desired St. Mark his Companion that he would leave them in Writing a standing Monument of that Doctrine which St. Peter had delivered to them by Word of Mouth which was the Occasion says he of the writing of St. Mark ' s Gospel Which thing St. Peter understanding by a Revelation of the Spirit being highly pleased with their earnest Desire he confirmed it by his own Authority that it might afterwards be read in the Churches It seems in those Days the Romans did not think oral or unwritten Traditions a sufficient Conservatory of divine Truths nor did their Bishop then forbid the reading of the Scriptures to the Laity in their own Language After which he tells us that St. Matthew and St. John were the only Disciples of our Lord who had left written Commentaries of the Things which they had preached behind them and it was says he Necessity that impelled them to write For Matthew having preached the Faith to the Hebrews and intending to go from them to other Nations wrote his Gospel in his own Country-Language that thereby he might supply the Want of his Presence to those whom he left behind him And afterwards when Mark and Luke had published their Gospels John who had hitherto only preached the Gospel by Word of Mouth being at length moved by the same Reason betook himself to write And the Three former Gospels says he arriving to the Knowledge of all Men and particularly of St. John he approved them and with his own Testimony confirmed the Truth of them From which Relation it 's evident that that which moved those holy Men to commit their Gospels to Writing was this that they judged it necessary for the Conservation of the Christian Doctrine that so these in their Absence might be standing Monuments of the Faith to preach that Gospel to Mens Eyes which they had preached to their Ears And if they wrote to preserve the Faith to be sure they would leave no necessary or essential Part of it unwritten There are several Propositions in these Gospels which though very useful are far from being essential Parts of Christianity and can we imagine that those holy Men who wrote on purpose to conserve Chrictianity should take so much Care to write many Things which are not necessary Parts and in the mean time omit any Things that are Eusebius tells us of St. Mark in particular 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. he took great Care of this more especially not to pretermit any of those Things which he had heard even from St. Peter nor to affix any thing to them that was false And if he were so careful not to omit any Thing to be sure he would be particularly careful not to omit any Thing which he judged necessary to the eternal Happiness of Men. But what need we depend upon humane Authority when as if we consult those Sacred Writings themselves which so far as they go all Christians allow to be the Word of God we shall find they give this Testimony of themselves that they comprehend in them all Things necessary to eternal Life For thus the Writers of the New Testament testify of the Old That they are able to make us wise unto Salvation through Faith which is in Iesus Christ 2 Tim. 3. 15. And if the Old Testament alone was able to do this then much more the Old and New together but how could they make Men wise to Salvation if they were defective in any Article that is necessary to Salvation And then the same Author goes on and tells us that all Scripture is given by Inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works v. 16. 17. And if the Old Scriptures were sufficient to make the Man of God perfect and to furnish him throughly unto all good Works one would think that the New and Old together should not be defective For that the Scriptures of the New Testament as well as of the Old contain in them all Things necessary to eternal Life they themselves do plainly testify of themselves For thus St. Luke in the Beginning of his Gospel tells his Theophilus to whom he writes that forasmuch as many had set forth a Declaration of those things that were surely believed among Christians it seemed good unto him also having had a perfect understanding of all things from the first to write them down in order that he might know the Certainty of those things wherein he had been instructed From whence I infer that supposing St. Luke performed what he promised his Gospel must contain a full Declaration of the Christian Religion For First by promising to give an Account of those Things which were surely believed among Christians he engaged himself to give an entire Account of Christianity unless we will suppose that there were some Parts of Christianity which the Christians of that Time did not surely believe Secondly In promising to give an Account of those Things of which he had a perfect Understanding from the first and in which his Theophilus had been instructed he also engages himself to give a compleat Account of the whole Religion unless we will suppose that there were some Parts of this Religion which St. Luke did
Faith hath not this Effect upon us St. Iames assures us that it is a dead Faith and will profit us nothing But how is it possible that our believing such and such Propositions should move and persuade us if we do not know what those Propositions are and what is the true Sense and Meaning of them What Man can be persuaded by such Proposals as he doth not understand and of which he hath no Manner of explicite Knowledge An Heathen that believes that whatsoever God teaches is true doth implicitly believe that Iesus Christ came from God to reveal his Will to Mankind because it is certain that God teaches this but what is he the better for this his implicite Belief What Influence can it have upon his Heart and Manners who perhaps never heard of Iesus Christ nor of any one Proposition which he revealed to the World And so he who believes that whatsoever the Church teaches is true doth implicitly believe that there shall be a future Iudgment a Resurrection of the Dead and an everlasting State of Happiness or Misery after Death because all these Things the Church teaches but if he never hear of them or hath no explicite Knowledge and Belief of them how is it possible they should operate on his Will and Affections or ever persuade him to be the better Man or the better Christian And the same is to be said of all the other Articles of Christianity So that either we must believe to no Purpose and content our selves with an insignificant Faith that will not at all avail us or take up our Faith upon Trust from fallible Teachers who may mislead us into damnable Errors and if they should we must be liable to answer for it in our Persons and at our own eternal Peril or which is the Truth of the Case we must be allowed to enquire and judge for our selves at least in all Things necessary to our eternal Salvation Seeing therefore there are many Things in Scripture which the Scripture it self obliges me upon Pain of Damnation to believe it hence necessarily follows that so far forth as the Scripture obliges me to believe what it teaches it obliges me to understand what it teaches otherwise I must believe I know not what which is impossible and so far as the Scripture obliges me to understand what it teaches it must oblige me to search enquire and judge what it teaches because I cannot understand without enquiring and judging But how can I enquire what the Scripture teaches if I cannot be admitted to read and consult the Scripture And so again there are many Duties in Scripture which the Scripture it self obliges me to practise upon pain of eternal Damnation but how can it oblige me to Practise what it doth not oblige me to Understand or how can it oblige me to Understand what it doth not oblige me to enquire after But how can I enquire what it is that the Scripture obliges me to Practise when I am forbid all access to it and it is lockt up from me in an unknown Tongue In short therefore seeing the Things contained in Scripture are of the highest Moment to the People and it is as much as their Souls are worth not to Believe and Practise what it Teaches and seeing they can neither Believe nor Practise what they do not understand it is of infinite concern to them so far at least to Read Consult and Understand the Scripture as they stand obliged to Believe and Practise its Doctrines and Precepts 6. And lastly From the Vniversal Sense of the Primitive Church in this matter it is also evident that the People are obliged to read or acquaint themselves with the Holy Scripture For the Primitive Church for above six hundred years were so far from debarring the People the Use of the Scripture that it continually urged and press'd it upon them as a matter of indispensable Obligation For so Origen wishes That all would do as it is written viz. Search the Scriptures So also Clemens Alexandrinus Hearken ye that are afar off hearken ye that be near the Word of God is hid from no man it is a Light common to all Men and there is no Darkness in it So also St. Austin Think it not sufficient that ye hear the Scriptures in the Church but do you also read the Scriptures your selves in your own Houses or get some other to read them to you So also St. Ierom The Lord hath spoken to us by his Gospel not that a few but all should understand And elsewhere speaking of the Women that were at Bethlehem with Paula It was not lawful saith he for any one of all the Sisters to be ignorant of the Psalms nor to pass over any day without learning some part of the Scriptures And elsewhere We are taught saith he That the Lay-People ought to have the Word of God not only sufficiently but also with abundance that so they may be able to teach and counsel others So also St. Chrysostome Hear me O Layty get ye the Bible the most wholsom remedy for the Soul and if ye will no more at least get the New Testament St. Paul's Epistles and the Acts that they may be your continual and earnest Teachers And elsewhere he affirms That it is more necessary for the Lay-People to read the Scriptures than either for the Monks or Priests or any others And to cite no more of the infinite Authorities of the Fathers to this purpose St. Basil observes The Scripture of God is like an Apothecary's Shop full of Medicines of sundry sorts that so every Man may there choose a convenient Remedy for his Disease And that the People as well as the Priests were then allowed the Use of the Bible is evident from a notorious matter of Fact for when the Roman Emperors endeavoured to force the Christians by Persecution and Torments to deliver up their Bibles to be burnt that so by extinguishing those Sacred Records they might extinguish Christianity they examined not only the Bishops and Clergy but also the People of all Degrees and both Sexes many of whom as well Women as Men owned that they had Bibles but rather chose to die than to deliver them up and many others who to avoid Death delivered up their Bibles and are therefore branded with the ignominious Name of Traditors for which they were excluded the Communion of the Church and could not be readmitted without a long and severe Penance But it is impossible the People could have been Traditors if they had had no Bibles to deliver up and therefore being so is an undeniable Argument that the People were then allowed the Use of the Scripture as well as the Priests And by the way it 's very strange that any Community of Christians should think that a proper Way to extinguish Heresie which those Heathen Persecutors made use of to extinguish Christianity But that in those first Ages the People were allowed the
soever you shall find it Put the Question to your selves over and over O my Soul here are such Advantages and such Calamities before you importuning you to change your present discountenanced Religion for a more thriving and prosperous One Are you now resolved fairly and impartially to examine the Merit of the Cause And if thereupon you still find Reason to believe that your present Religion is the very Truth of Iesus will you rather renounce those Advantages and incur those Calamities than forgoe it Will you follow the Truth wheresoever you find it and whithersoever it shall happen to lead you though it be from Preferment into Persecution Are you resolved by the Grace of God to prostrate all your temporal Hopes and Fears before it and rather to lose any Good or suffer any Evil than desert it For let me tell you if you find your Heart shrink at this Proposal or that you have any reserved Intention if the worst come to the worst rather to part with your Religion right or wrong than to shake hands with your temporal Interest you are in a very unfitting Temper to examine on which side the Truth lies For it is a plain Case your Mind is under a prevailing Byass of temporal Hopes and Fears which will be sure to incline it to favour that side of the Question which is most for your Interest and 't will be impossible for you to examine fairly and judge impartially whilst your Judgment is thus bribed and corrupted by your Interest For your Will hath already determined upon the Matter before ever your Understanding hath heard the Cause and it is your secret Intention right or wrong to forgoe your Religion rather than your Interest if ever they come in Competition So that now you will be obliged in your own Defence to use your utmost Art to set the fairest Colours upon the Evidences against your Religion and to stifle and enervate those that assert and maintain it lest they should so confirm you in the Belief of it as that when Occasion requires you will not be able to surrender it up without committing an horrible Outrage and Violence upon your selves Wherefore before you suffer your worldly Hopes and Fears to summon your Religion upon a new Tryal be sure you fix this Resolution in your Souls By the Grace of God I will now lay aside all Interest and Affection and strictly examin the Evidence on hoth Sides with an equal and unbyass'd Iudgment I will attend to nothing but the Reasons of Things and the pure Merits of the Cause and where-ever I find the Truth lies whether on the Side of my Interest or against it I will be sure to follow it whatsoever shall be the Event and Issue For if upon the Temptation of any worldly Interest you bring your Religion to a new Tryal with this secret Intention that though it should still approve it self to your Judgment yet you will rather part with it than abandon that Interest this very Intention will be apt to blind and mislead your Judgment to arm your Wit and Reason against your Religion and to set all your Faculties at work to argue you out of it and pervert you from ii to a contrary Faith and Persuasion which if it should accomplish you will certainly be found guilty of a wilful Apostacy when you come to be tryed before the Tribunal of God to whose all-seeing Eye the most secret Motions of your Souls are as visible as if they were written on your Foreheads with a Sun-beam who sees your treacherous Heart and false Intention rather to forsake his Truth than your Interest and knows very well that it is this that seduces you and gives Force to those false Reasons and Convictions that impose upon your Judgment and betray your Faith 6. And lastly When you fall under any Temptation to change your Religion consider whether before you were inclined to change you did conscientiously comply with the Obligations of it We have too many Men that pretend to be mighty inquisitive after the true Church and the true Religion and yet live as if there were no such Thing as true Religion in the World and quietly allow themselves in such impious Courses as do openly affront the common Principles of all Religions There is nothing they dread so much as Heresy and if you will believe them are monstrously concerned to examine whether the Church with which they now communicate be Catholick or Heretical and yet all this while they persist without any Concern or Remorse in the most damnable Heresy in the World and that is a wicked and immoral Life So that upon comparing their Atheistical Lives with the loud Cry they make about the true Catholick Faith and Church one would be tempted to think that their Christianity began at the wrong End of their Creed and that they believed in the Holy Catholick Church before they believe in God the Father Almighty or in Iesus Christ his only Son our Lord Which is such a gross and fulsom Piece of Hypocrisy as one would think any modest Man should be ashamed of For in the name of God Sirs What have you to do to wrangle and make a Noise about Religion whose prostigate Manners are a Shame and Scandal to common Humanity It is a Reproach to any Religion for you to name it and Shame to any Church for you to pretend to it and therefore when such as you raise a Cry after the true Church and true Religion it is a plain Case that whatever Pretence you bring upon the Stage you are prompted by some base Interest behind the Curtain And is it not a pleasant Thing to hear such Profligates as these pretend to be Converts who only turn from one Opinion to another but still continue as wicked and unreformed in their Manners under the Opinion they turn to as they were under that they turned from These are such Converts as there is no Church is the World that advances true Piety above worldly Interest but would glory to lose and blush to gain And what Diogenes said of a wicked Fellow that praised him that the Religion may say which those Men turn to What Hurt have I done what wicked Principles am I guilty of that such vile Wretches as these should commend and embrace me For for God's sake what is it that they are converted to Is it to any Thing that renders them wiser or better Men No The contrary is too notorious through the whole Course of their Actions Well then it seems they are converted to something that doth them no manner of Good that serves them to no true End of Religion that is to a meer empty Notion that only gingles about their Understandings but hath no good Influence on their Hearts and Manners Had their Conversion proceeded upon pure Principles of Conscience that would have obliged them to change their Manners as well as their Opinions there being very few Opinions in Religion so