a Christian as 't is a Pilgrimage of the Body from Earth to Earth for Dust thou art and unto Dust shalt thou return said God to Adam and a Pilgrimage of the Soul from Heaven to Heaven for the Spirit shall return to God that gave it saith the Royal Ecclesiastes so as truly is it a warfare of Soul and Body in conjunction whereof That fights for Heaven and This for Hell The former under God's Banner and the later under the Devil 's The Flesh and the Spirit are so unequally match'd that however nearly wedded they are incessantly falling out Each may say unto the other nec possum vivere cum te nec sine te For however unwilling they are to part they are seldom or never at Agreement There is a Law in the members so continually warring against the Law of the mind that the Flesh still lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh And these are contrary the one to the other Now 't is the nature still of Contraries very earnestly to indeavour a mutual overthrow And they must Both be well beaten brought down and refracted ere they can peaceably cohabit under one and the same Roof Which kind of Peace may be effected betwixt another sort of Contraries for Heat and Cold may agree together in a Lukewarmness white and black in mixt Colours Day and Night in a Crepusculum however These two last are but privatively oppos'd but in this moral Contrariety 'twixt the Spirit and the Flesh it never can be the reason is because when the Spirit is most indulgently at Peace with the Flesh the Flesh is then the most dangerous and fatal Enemy to the Spirit Exactly such an Enemy as Joab was to Abner when he took him aside and slew him peaceably Or as the very same Joab to Captain Amasa when he saluted him as a Brother inquir'd after his health as a kind Physician offer'd to kiss him as a Dear Friend that so he might civilly and sweetly smite him under the fifth Rib. Or as the two Sons of Rimmon to Righteous Ishbosheth when making as if they would fetch some Wheat they kill'd him slylie in his own House and quietly resting upon his Bed Or as Judeth to Olofernes when she pleas'd him into Destruction and maliciously made him in love with her Conversation when she ravish'd him with her Beauty that she might kill him with the fruit of his kindness to her stole his Heart whilst he was waking that whilst he slept she might take his Head too And exactly such an Enemy is the Flesh unto the Spirit when the Spirit gives no disturbance but dwells in quietness with the Flesh For then the Lusts of the Flesh do give the Spirit such wounds as it cannot feel Wounds indued with such a numming Narcotick Quality as hurts the Spirit without offense and by killing it very pleasantly sends it insensibly to Hell Nor are any whit the less but the more certainly destroy'd for being laid into a sleep by an over-great Dose of Opium Hence those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 invisible Wars and indiscernable Insurrections from which the antient Greek Liturgies were wont to pray for a Cessation For when the Soul is so degenerate as even to doat upon the Body Then does the Body with most advantage insensibly war against the Soul The treacherous Lusts of the Flesh like the treacherous Assassinates of Olofernes and Ishbosheth assault the Spirit in its own House and which is the worst of all Supercherie as they find it fast asleep in the Bed of Carnal Security Nor is it onely not awak'd by the Blows they give it but it rather sleeps the faster for being struck just as if it were struck by the Rod of Hermes That when at last it shall awake either in This or another World it may not be to escape but to see its Ruin § 14. So that the War I now speak of is more than Civil or Domestick For there we war against others but here against our own selves A Man's Enemies saith the Prophet are those of his own House And indeed the greatest Enemies excepting those of his own Heart This especially being the Field wherein the Lusts of the Flesh do still incamp against the Spirit and give it Battle and strive to bring it into Captivity to the Law of Sin And because the whole Man does consist of these two Flesh and Spirit Body and Soul matter and form as essential Parts of his Composition it cannot but follow that we our selves are incessantly warring against our selves To wit our selves as we are Animals against our selves as we are Men. Our selves as we are Men against our selves as we are Christians Our selves as we are Carnal against our selves as we are Spiritual Again it follows that we our selves are the greatest Enemies to our selves because we arm our vile Members against our Mind For what our English Translation does call the Instruments is in S. Paul's own language the Armour of unrighteousness And by the help of this Armour we Arm our base Appetites against our Wills and our brutish Affections against our Reasons We use our selves as unmercifully as Samson's Enemies did Him We strive to pluck out our inward Eyes and to deliver our selves bound to Sin and Satan We side with the old man against the new Abet the outward man in us against the inward are such Enemies to our selves as to despoil our selves of Grace whereby as much as in us lies and without Repentance we make our selves incapable of Bliss and Glory § 15. But when I speak of a War between the Flesh and the Spirit I do not mean onely the visible and gross Body of Flesh which of it self is but passive and cannot fight No 't is the animated Flesh the Flesh that is capable of Lusting It is a fleshliness of Spirit and a carnality of Reason which is arm'd with a Wisedom fetch'd up from Hell and stands in hostile opposition to that which cometh down from Heaven Jam 3. 14 15 16. And accordingly when God had upbraided Israel with their being a foolish and sottish People and void of all understanding he gave the reason of it in this That they were wise to do evil Jer. 4. 22. Observe the pithy Brevity of That Expression Because they were Wise they were therefore Foolish Their Wisedom did not onely consist with Folly but in That sort of Wisedom their Folly and Sottishness did consist This is that Wisedom of the Flesh which exalteth it self against the Knowledge of God 2 Cor. 10. 5. It is an Earthy Sensual Devilish wisdom as God Himself by his Apostle is pleas'd to call it And 't is with very great reason he calls it Devilish because the Lust of the Flesh which is its Wisedom is a direct Devil within us as having a faculty to intice us and to draw us quite away from fighting under Christ's Banner Therefore 't is that Lust and
seeing the same God that saith Thou shalt not worship a Graven Image does also say at the same time as well as in the same Decalogue Honour thy Father and thy Mother whether private or publick Ecclesiastical or Civil It is by consequence as Immediate a Sin against God to shew a contempt of That Authority which God hath commanded us to obey as 't is to worship a graven Image or to take God's Name in vain § 29. Now might I speak without Censure even by speaking with submission to all Superiours as well as to others of more Research and better Discretion than my self I would adventure to affirm it as the Conclusion of the whole matter That when Peace cannot be had by such a reciprocal Self-denial as I have now pleaded for in Them that are vested with Authority and in Them that live under it by Compassion in the former and by Compliance in the later by Condescension in the one and by Submission in the other but each will have his whole Will and not admit of a Composition nothing but Power Irresistible can succour such as make Laws against the Violence and Incursions of such as are stouter than to Obey them Nor will a wise man expect to have protection under the Laws and the Makers of them any longer than they Both shall be so protected § 30. But I return to that Point from which I have made a very pertinent because a profitable Digression nor yet a Digression from my Text but from the Thread of my Discourse touching the Nature and the Necessity of Peace and Holiness Which being both of such Importance as that our Happiness does depend upon the earnestness of our Pursuit How can we choose but be perswaded to do a thing which is so Natural as that a man would think it should be hard not to do it For find we any thing more Natural than to be Lovers of our selves and so to covet those things which we believe to be the most for our own Advantage A little Rhetorick one would think should be sufficient to perswade us to choose our Interest and so to follow even with earnestness the necessary means of our being Happy Be we never so illiterate or be we never so perverse yet through the little which hath been spoken of Peace and Holiness whether as separate or in conjunction we cannot be ignorant of their Nature or unconvinc'd of their Necessity § 31. If then in respect of their Common Nature They are as 't were the two Armes which do imbrace the whole Decalogue or Ten Commandments of the Law we must never flatter our selves that we are Christians good enough until we find our Obedience to be impartial that is as well to the first as to the second Table and no less to the second than to the first Nor may we ever give our selves Rest until we See we have attain'd to this Comparative perfection I mean a singleness of Heart and a love of obedience without reserve Our respect like that of the Psalmist must be to All God's Commandments and we must study to live a peaceable and quiet life in All Godliness and Honesty 1 Tim. 2. 2. We must not be kinder or more indulgent to one Commandment than to another whether byass'd by Custom or Education but rather keep our selves in Awe by chewing on That of the Apostle Whosoever offends in one point is guilty of All. Jam. 2. 10. Thus we must argue from the Nature of Peace and Holiness And after a manner not unlike we ought to argue from their Necessity For if in respect of their Necessity they are as 't were the two Hinges upon which the very Door of Salvation turns or if you please the Two Wings as S. Bernard calls them wherewith the Soul of a Christian soar's up to Heaven Lord how nearly does it concern us to follow them both as is here requir'd and to pass the whole Time of our sojourning here in fear What manner of men ought we to be in the future Course of our Conversation To follow Holiness and Peace concerns us as much as Salvation comes to that is as much as our Souls are Worth Fail of these if we dare unless we are so stout that we dare be damn'd But yet how many of our Fiduciaries do miss of heaven meerly by thinking they cannot miss it because forsooth to the Regenerate 't is a Thing perfectly unavoidable And what numbers of Solifidians do make it difficult to be sav'd by making it easier than God will have it by thinking Salvation is to be had at a cheaper Rate than that of following Peace and Holiness Now can there be any thing more adviseable than that other mens mischiefs should keep us safe and we receive the whole benefit without the least danger of their unhappiness Mark well the reason which here is urg'd for the fixing of the Act on the double Object I shall but paraphrase the Text in a broader English Follow Peace and Holiness if for no other reason at least for This because ye are happy if ye doe and damn'd for ever if ye do not Less than This we must not preach and more than this we need not learn But if This of it self cannot find sufficient Place in our Consideration yet if we have any the least respect to our Secular Interest and Advantage as we desire to be free from the Charge and Costliness of Sin and to thrive by God's Blessing upon All we set our hearts and our hands unto or if we have any the least respect to our own good Name and Reputation as we desire to leave behind us a fair Report and to be honourably mention'd by them that dwell round about us or if we have any the least respect to our inward Quiet and Tranquillity as we desire to have the Peace of a cleansed Conscience which is in Solomon's Accompt a Continual Feast or if all these together cannot ingage our Resolutions yet if to these we add That which before was hinted If we have any the least respect to the Righteous Judge of all the World as we desire to escape from the Wrath to come and to enter with an Euge into the Joy of our Lord Let us think of these Things when the Sermon 's ended And the God of Peace and Holiness sanctifie us throughly That the whole of every one of us both Body Soul and Spirit may be kept blameless unto the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ To Him be Glory for ever and ever Amen OF ABSTAINING FROM ALL APPEARANCE OF EVIL 1 THESS 5. 22. Abstain from all Appearance of evil § 1. IT was the Fancy of a wise and an honest Heathen that all a rational man's Duty might be express'd in two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bear and Forbear the first implying Patience under the evil of Affliction the second Abstinence from the evil of Sin Now in this Precept of our Apostle we have one of
Satan have the very same Character in holy Scripture A man is tempted saith S. James when drawn away of his own Lust and inticed More than which cannot be said of the Devil himself who cannot drive us by force into any Sin but onely draw us by Flattery or morally drive us by panick Fears Now the very same Warrier which sometimes is call'd by the name of Flesh is elsewhere termed the carnal Mind which is as much as to say the fleshly Spirit The carnal Mind saith S. Paul is enmity against God for it is not subject to his Law nor indeed can it be It is so naturally a Rebel that it can never be any other so long as it remaineth a carnal Mind A very natural thing it is for the Son of the Bond-woman even in Abraham's own house to hate and persecute the Son of the free And even in Abraham's own Person it was as natural for the Flesh to war against the Spirit Esau kick'd against Jacob whilst both were yet in their Mother 's Womb. And even Jacob himself although as peaceable as he was plain had yet a Law in his Members as it were lifting up the heel against the Law in his Mind The best of Men are but Men and therefore at their best will still be subject to Corruption Some Canaanites will be left in the holiest Land S. Paul himself had fears and fightings as well within as without And notwithstanding his Abundance as well of Grace as of Revelations he had a thorn in the Flesh which did exceedingly terrifie and wound his Spirit Nor was David more afflicted by envious Saul than his inward man was vexed by the hostilities of the outward When our Spirits are most willing to do the will of our Lord we are forced to complain that our Flesh is weak and in that very weakness does one of its chiefest strengths lie Even then when we can say Lord we believe we have great reason to add help thou our unbelief Let the Flesh like the Thief I mean the unconverted Thief on our Saviour's Cross be bound up and Crucified yet like the very same Thief it will continue to resist or revile the Spirit As when the Taylor in the Apologue had stopt the mouth of his scolding Wife She was able still to rail with her finger's ends An Apologue not so light as the moral of it is grave and serious For the Spirit and the Flesh are in Aristotle's Comparison as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. as the Husband and the Wife and so the moral of the Apologue may be affirmed to be This. Whilst Fleshly Lusts have a Being are unmortified and alive let congruous Grace do what it can so long as it is not irresistible there will be Hostilities against the Spirit For were it possible for the Flesh to cease from warring against the Spirit a Man might possibly be innocent on this Side Heaven Which because he cannot be the Carnal mind by sound Consequence must needs be at enmity with God Hence it is that Rank Atheists are very commonly Rank Wits too full of Artifices and Tricks very skilfull to destroy Themselves and others And 't is an Enmity so much the worse even because it is Spiritual as well as Carnal or to use S. Paul's language a Carnal mind For the Spirit of a man which by nature goeth upwards when like the Spirit of a beast it tendeth downwards quite against its own nature and as it were clings unto the Earth by being Carnal it is not onely a strong but a subtil Enemy It wageth war against the Soul that is itself as well by stratagem as by force It is a Treacherous cologuing deceiptfull Thing And though it seems to be but one of those three Brigades whereof the Devil 's whole Army is said by S. John to be compos'd the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life yet has it all the lower World to serve for its Armory or Magazin Profit and Pleasure and Pomps and Vanities Beauty and Honour and Strength and Greatness and to express it in a word All the Darts of the Flesh which it does shoot after the measure that the Devil gives Aim against the Spirit are commonly drawn out of that one Quiver that is to say the Carnal mind § 16. Since then our Enemies are such as have been describ'd so strongly so subtilly so incessantly warring against the Soul A Soul adorn'd with God's Image and indu'd with his Spirit and redeem'd with his Blood and sustein'd with his Grace and in a capacity of his Glory our very Dangers may serve for Orators to incourage and incite us in our Encounters And our Dangers are to be measur'd by the preciousness of the Subject or Prize we fight for And this is here expressed to be the Soul That 's the Helena 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ball or Apple of contention thrown as 't were between us and our Fleshly Lusts We asserting it to God and They to Satan We contending for its Safety and They contriving its Destruction Now so infinite is the difference between the values to be put upon Souls and Bodies that He who rejoyced in those Afflictions which did but war against the Body did groan and tremble under the Lusts which still did war against his Soul And in comparison of the hurt which may happen unto the Soul we are forbidden to fear them that can kill the Body For what is the Body in its original but Dust and Ashes what at the best of its Consistence but a fair Nursery of Diseases And what when parted from the Soul but the food of Worms whereas the Soul is That Spouse which God hath betrothed to himself Hos 2. 19 20. Not a Citizen onely of Heaven but Heaven it self as S. Gregory and S. Bernard are pleas'd to call her And therefore if the Warriers or Fleshly Lusts I now speak of do fight against our immortal Souls it concerns us as much as our Souls are worth to war against by abstaining from Fleshly Lusts By which if ever we are conquer'd we are undone As being dead whilst we live to use S. Paul's Oxumoron and which is a great deal sadder as being to live when we are dead too although it be onely to die for ever or rather to be for ever dying These are some of those foolish and hurtfull Lusts which drown the Soul in misery and perdition They transform the whole man into a State of Brutality They cast us out of his presence in whose presence is life and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore For when 't is said by the Apostle That if we live after the Flesh we shall die his meaning cannot but be This That we shall certainly be damn'd For They that live after the Spirit must die the first Death and Therefore This
other must needs me meant of the Second Thus our Dangers do incourage us in our Encounters § 17. Another Incouragement which we injoy whilst we are prosecuting our War against Fleshly Lusts lies in the Goodness and the Nobleness and as the consequence of Both in the Pleasure of it For what can be better in it self than to side with the Spirit against the Flesh with the Rational part in us against the Brutal what more honourable or noble than to win a Victory over our selves It was not near so great a Glory to the Young man of Macedon to have brought into Subjection all the Provinces of Asia as it had been to have subdued at once his Avarice and his Ambition For 't is not the greatness of the Conquest but the goodness of the fight which yields an happiness to the Victor and solid glory to his success When Paul was ready to be offer'd and at the Approach of his Departure his chiefest Comfort and Honour stood both in This That he had fought the good fight that he had finished his Course and had kept the Faith that he had prosperously ingaged against Fleshly Lusts which however they had warred had not prevailed against his Soul Many are worsted in their Warfare for want of distinguishing as they ought between the Acts and the Effects of their Self-denials 'T is true the Act of Self-denial will affect the best of us with pain or trouble but how much more will it delight us by our Injoyment of its Effects as the drawing of a Tooth is painfull and troublesom for a moment although in order to perfect ease We know the Soul is the life and so the happiness of the Body as God himself is both the happiness and the life of the Soul And as there is no greater pleasure than that which affects the very Soul of a Pious man for 't is a Proverbial Antimetabole and in every man's mouth that the Pleasure of the Soul is the Soul of Pleasure so the Pleasure of the Soul can hardly be greater or more refin'd than in despising and rejecting the grosser Pleasures of the Body Nor need we fear that such a Pleasure is not attainable at all because it does not grow up like a worthless Mushrom in a night but rather like the goodly Rose requires a certain Tract of Time to give it Ripeness For a Left-handed Conscience like a Left-handed Man by abstaining long enough from the use of the Left and by continuing long enough the use and practice of the Right will perform the same Actions with ease and pleasure which at present may be difficult and painfull to him Habitual Sicknesses of Soul being like to those inveterate diseases of the Body which cannot possibly be cur'd by one or two Tasts of a Noble Med'cin but must submit to whole Methods and Courses of it Many Sciences and Arts are extremely tedious to such as are but new beginners and learners in them which yet will yield them the greatest Comfort Content and Pleasure as soon as Vse and Vnderstanding hath bred a very good Acquaintance and Friendship with them Will any Man who is not mad break off the finger of his Watch as an useless Thing because he cannot perceive it moving or leave off the practice of a generous abstinence from his Debauches because his very first Indeavours of Self-denial and Pious life are not so pleasant or so easie as he expected let him have patience and That Finger will most apparently though insensibly make a progress from this to another hour So let him stay his due time and his practice of Reformation will pass from difficult to easie from easie to usefull and familiar from familiar to delightfull and joyous also Let a vitious man get but the knack of Virtue which without Custom he cannot have and he will wonder how he could once have been pleas'd with Vice But he who stays 'till it is pleasant to leave his gross pleasures will never leave them because the pleasure of leaving such cannot begin 'till they are left From whence it follows that He who will not be perswaded to persevere in abstaining from Fleshly Lusts until his Abstinence is easie and pleasant to him is like the natural Fool of Greece whom Hierocles in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does merrily call his Athenian Scholar who determin'd within Himself never to go into the Water until before hand he might be sure that he could Swim Or like the overwary Messenger of whom we read in the Spanish Story who having been threaten'd under a Poenalty by him that sent him not to return without an Answer would not part with his Letter to the Person to whom 't was sent until he might first have an Answer to it For a man not to abstain from Fleshly Lust till he finds it pleasant is just as sensless and as absurd as for a man to be impatient of ever learning the use of Books 'till he can read and understand them with ease and pleasure or to grumble at the labour of taking a Pencil into his hand until he finds he can use it like some Apelles If there is any man that hears me who is conscious to himself of so great a Folly I have no more to beg of him than barely This That he will not come with Praejudice to the Amendment of his Life as the Israelites did to the Land of Promise in fear of Anakims and Lions to be incounter'd in the way and that he will not distrust a vertuous course 'till he has try'd it That he will weigh Vice and Virtue in equal Scales before he cleaves unto the First or rejects the Second That he will have so much Justice both for God and Himself as to make an essay whether a Customary Abstinence from Fleshly Lusts will not yield him more pleasure than all his Customary Injoyments have ever done That he will once have the courage to make a Trial of new obedience I mean an incorrupt and impartial Trial. And that being once ingag'd in the practice of it he will not poorly start back at its first uncouthness for difficilia quae pulchra the goodliest things in their Injoyment are ever difficult in their acquist but that imitating the Bravery of Caleb and Josua he will deferr to make a Judgement or final Aestimate of the Thing 'till he has had a Sound proof and experience of it For if the Savour and the Tast he shall have of Virtue be but as much and as long as his Tast of Vice he will sooner swallow the Stings and the Gall of Asps than vouchsafe the licking up of his nauseous Vomit § 18. But besides this Incouragement which of it self is very great from the Fight it self a fight for God against Satan and for the Interest of the Soul against Fleshly Lusts there is a Third arising to us from the consideration of our support For 't is the powerfull Spirit of God which helpeth our
which have not a fallacy lurking in them Now by such a way of arguing or at least by one as good if Pontius Pilate was not a Saint because his Name is in the Creed at least the Scribes and the Pharisees must pass for very good men because they have their Names writ in the Book of life But for the men who thus argue and are circumspect in their walking not as wise men but fools we can in charity call them no worse than Hypochondriacs in religion men whose Souls are directed by the Infirmities of their Bodies and are fitter for the Pity than Indignation of their Superiours because the Distempers of their spleen may be sincerely thought by Them to be the Scruples of their Conscience Thus the jealous Mithridates stood in such fear of being poison'd that even his Meals were all Antidote and so his Body in tract of time became a walking Pharmacopoeia This indeed is a great but an heedless Caution Such as does cross and confute the Proverb because abundance of this is hurtfull Some heed therefore is to be taken not to be heedless and imprudent in the extravagant excess of our taking heed and that we do not deceive our selves with too immoderate a fear of our being deceiv'd § 6. But This is certainly a Caution to which a small portion of Rhetorick will be sufficient to persuade us So unapt we are to erre on the farther side of This Duty that our usual fault is we are too much behither it Our greatest danger commonly is our opinion that there is none and we are most likely to be unsafe by our too great aptness to be secure Indeed in matters of little moment concerning the Body or the Purse we need no Sermons against Security or excitations to Circumspection Very few there are that travell in times of danger without a Pistol or a Sword or that in places of infection will walk the streets without an Amulet Few Families go to bed till they have made fast their Doors and in the morning when they arise their first care is to shut out Nakedness and Hunger So that if it were a Sin to be in Poverty or a scandalous matter to suffer Pain there would be nothing so difficult as not to abound in this Duty of Circumspection But alas we do not consider heedless Creatures as we are how it fares with our Souls as with so many Ships wherein the very least Crevices if undiscover'd are too sufficient to drown us all And yet how partially we prefer the care of our Bodies and Estates before the Care and Concernment we ought to have of and for our Souls we may conjecture by the Practice of the Physician and the Lawyer above That of the Divine For one Scruple in the Conscience how many are there in the stomach How many Empiricks are sought to for here and there a single Confessor and how many reall Patients are in all places to be met with for one true Penitent Be there never so slight an Vlcer in any part of the Body we straight desire the grim Artist to use his Corrosive and his Probe perhaps his Lance and his Caustick too But be the Soul never so ulcerous we are content either with none or a palliate Cure So again it is in the other Instance That though we have little or no sollicitude about the making of our Calling and Election sure which in my Text is expressed by walking circumspectly as Wise and not as Fools nor trouble our heads with an Inquiry what shall become of us hereafter what kind of Interest we may have in the Bloud of Christ what kind of Title we can pretend to the inheriting of a Kingdom a joyfull Aeternity in Reversion and how we shall plead it at the Assizes which will one day be held in the Court of Heaven Yet be there never so small a flaw in any Title to an Estate Lord how sedulous we are to have the matter made up How many Counsellors are consulted and set on work for one Casuist How many Cases are try'd in Law for one in Conscience I will not call it the universall but usuall Custom that when Luke the good Physician has little hope of our Bodies we send for Gamaliel the able Lawyer to take care of our Estates And That being done Then for Barnabas the Divine who is a Son of Comfort too to make provision for our Aeternity § 7. Thus we see the most of men have Circumspection very sufficient but 't is sufficiently misapply'd too And in the Misapplication lies all the Mischief Just as the Pharisee in the Parable was very free of his Confessions But he apply'd them to his Vertues and not his Sins He made confession of his righteousness to wit his fasting twice a week and paying Tithes to a Pin's-worth of Mint and Cummin He very ambitiously confess'd that he thought himself holier than other men for which he gave God thanks too and not himself But of his manifold impieties we do not hear a word from him So the greatest numbers of men are very circumspect and wary But they are wary of their Duties as of dangerous things things which probably will betray them to the disfriendship of the world esteeming Him an imprudent man who dares adventure on what is strait when the Times are crooked and to stand his old Ground when new is temporally safer and more in vogue too Men are wary of loving Enemies or doing good to such as hate them very wary how they part with a sinfull Pleasure or send a bill of divorce to a beloved Passion Extremely heedfull they are and cautious how they fall from a station of wealth and honour how they beat down their Bodies and bring their Flesh into subjection how they crucifie the world unto themselves and themselves unto the world as if there were nothing more ridiculous than That primitive Criterion by which a Christian was distinguish'd from Jew and Gentile nor any thing more to be avoided by one of Quality and Parts than such a seriousness of life and such a tenderness of Conscience as may expose him to the Censure of his being little more than a well-bred Quaker And as 't is commonly observ'd of the Lacedaemonians that they stated the guilt of Stealth not so much in the Act as the Apprehension and therefore reckon'd it a Sin not to steal but to be caught So the greatest heed taken by the Majority of Professors is not so really to be innocent as not to be censur'd for being guilty As if their Prayer were like That of the famous Hypocrite in the Poet Pulchra Laverna Da mihi fallere da justum sanctúmque videri Noctem peccatis fraudibus objice Nubem O my Goddess give me the Grace to seem as religious as the best and to be as deceitfull as may be possible The greatest Mischief to be avoided in most mens judgments if yet their Judgments may be judged of by their Practice
a witness and were partakers with their Fathers in the blood of the Prophets and so were far from being Followers of Peace and Holiness unless as Worldlings follow their Traffick for filthy Lucre dealing as Hucksters in Religion and Trading in Godliness as 't is an Instrument onely of Gain For they were call'd by our Saviour even then when at the Top of their painted holiness not onely Serpents and Vipers but Brands of Hell too such as could not escape Damnation Matth. 23. 33. Nor are there wanting amongst us Christians who are religiously carefull to sprinkle themselves with holy-water to say a chapletfull of Ave Maries to visit the Sepulchers of the Saints to cross their Foreheads and their Breasts and to salute ye every Morning in nomine Domini Nay some there are amongst us Protestants for 't is fit we should be just in our Observations who place a great deal of vertue in an exact coming to Church in daily reading so many Chapters in lifting up to heaven both hands and eyes in walking softly and looking sadly and hanging down the head now and then like a Bull-rush and so we may say they have attain'd to an handsom Outside of Religion that they are well-fashion'd Christians as addressing themselves to God with a Civil Carriage such as well behav'd Enemies do seldom fail of But so far from being Followers of Peace and Holiness that they want the very Body much more the Soul of Christianity whilst they will rather sow the Seeds of the most execrable Rebellion than comply vvith Superiours in things Indifferent vvhich cannot but be lawfull because Indifferent and not onely lawfull but binding too as soon as the signature of Authority is stamp'd upon Them Do These men think there is a God or a Devil a Corruption of the Body or Immortality of the Soul an Hour of Death or a Day of Judgment vvho vvill rather break Peace vvith all their Governours than submit to the use of a Publick Liturgy vvhich is not onely lawfull but transcendently good so long as establish'd by Law and Canon I vvish that all sorts of men vvho are immediately concerned in vvhat I say vvould but take this obvious Truth into their serious Consideration That as there vvere Things under the Law such as the Rite of Circumcision and Forbearing Swines Flesh vvhich however commanded by God himself vvere not commanded for being Good but vvere Therefore onely good because commanded so things Indifferent under the Gospel though they are not commanded for being Necessary do yet become Necessary by being commanded and are mediately commanded by God himself as far as commanded by That Authority which God hath commanded us to obey From whence it follows unavoidably That what may lawfully be done before commanded as soon as commanded cannot lawfully be omitted For Rebellion against the Second Table is as bad as Rebellion against the First And so they cannot be followers of Peace or Holiness who in a meer pretense of Holiness do hinder Peace An hearty Follower of Peace will follow the Things that make for Peace He will not be so much as a Non-conformist but press with earnestness after Vnity by Vniformity in the Church And if his Conscience hath any Scruples arising meerly from the weakness not from the wilfulness of the man he will infinitely rather forsake his City or his Country than stay in either to its Disturbance § 23. Such was the pious Exhortation of Clemens Romanus to the Corinthians which he also made good by his own Example Who says he is there among you of tender Bowels and Generosity let him sacrifice if he is such his private Interest to the publick And say If I am either the Author or the Fautor of any Difference I divest my self of All the Wealth and Honour which I injoy and inflict upon my self a most gratefull Exile Now that S. Clemens made good his Exhortation by his Example I am induced to affirm from this particular Consideration That I can find no better way to reconcile the several Authors who will have Clemens to be the Second and the Fourth Bishop of Rome than by saying with Epiphanius till we can find a better reason That Clemens laid down his Bishoprick during the Empire of Tiberius and took it up again in the Time of Nero. The first of which he did freely and the second by compulsion but Both in order to the Vnity and Peace of Christians Such was also the publick Spirit of the renowned Gregory Nazianzen who gladly threw the Archbishoprick of Canstantinople behind his Back for the composing of the strife that arose about it God forbid said he at parting to all the Prelates there met in the General Council that we vvhose Office 't is to teach and to bring Peace to others should scandalously break it amongst our selves Rather let Me forsake my Throne and be cast out of the City than not contribute all I can to the publick Peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Like to this spake S. Chrysostom in one of his Homilies to the People That if He were thought the Cause or the Occasion of their Divisions he would recede from his Arch-Bishoprick and be gon whither they pleas'd vvould suffer any thing rather than Schism which he protested he thought a Sin as great and damning even as Heresie and which rather than administer occasion to he would strip himself of the Rich and Splendid Preferment which he possess'd A Charity like That of the Prophet Jonas who for the quieting of the Tempest chose to be cast into the Sea And to preserve a whole Ship was easily content with a private Ruin Which Example of S. Chrysostom and other Fathers more Primitive every honest man will follow in these our Days if he is earnestly a follower of Peace and Holiness And this is one of the chiefest Touchstones whereby to difference a weak from a wilfull Brother They who do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pursue with eagerness the Things which do make for Peace do not serve God solidly in the Duties of the First and the Second Table in Piety and Probity in Godliness and Honesty in loving God with all their Hearts which is to serve him in Holiness and their Neighbour as themselves which is to follow Peace with all men and so they want the two Hinges on which the Door of Salvation does chiefly turn and whereupon does clearly hang All the Law and the Prophets § 24. I cannot follow Peace enough in the Discourse I am upon for the following of it till I observe how the Prosperity does most especially depend on the Peace of Christians and also say by what means as well as by whose Instrumentality we may attain to so much Peace and good Agreement amongst our selves as may redeem some of the Credit which we cannot but have lost by our foul Divisions There being no greater Stumbling-block either to Those that are without or within the Church than
as if the holy Angels were not fit to be intrusted with such Temptations not onely Philo and Josephus but divers Fathers of the Church Justin Martyr Tertullian Clemens Alexandrinus and Lactantius have understood by the Sons of God who could not innocently gaze upon the Daughters of men Gen. 6. 2. Not the Potentates of the Earth but even the Angels of Heaven Now though I think with Theodoret and most of the ancient Commentators that the Fathers were in an Errour who so expounded yet it assures us of their Opinion how much Temptations are to be shun'd and how carefully we should fly the Occasions of them Igni cum Foeno non bene convenit said Martinian to a Beauty whom he had pull'd out of the Sea but would not trust himself with when she came to Land But more remarkable were the words of the pious Presbyter Vrsinus when a good Woman came to help him as he was giving up the Ghost one whom he lov'd too as a Sister but yet avoided as an Enemy Recede à me Mulier adhuc vivit Igniculus Paleam tolle As if he fear'd that That Stricture or Spark of life remaining in him might have grown into a Flame at the sight of Chaff § 19. Now since it cannot but be inferr'd from the whole Tenor of my Discourse That the way to become able to abstain from all evil is to abstain from all approach and appearance of it from all that does lead and allure us to it from all that has a Tendency and Byass towards it Nothing remains but that we labour in every Instance of Temptation and Ghostly danger if we are willing to use the means whereby our Abstinence may be completed to frustrate the Malice of the Devil to baffle the Arguments of the Flesh and to tread under our feet an insulting World even by carrying our selves wisely in all our ways and by keeping constant watch over all our Walkings and that we never suffer our selves either by stratagem or by force to be diverted or drawn aside from this saving Method until our well-meant Indeavours shall all expire into perfection our Contendings with the Flesh into Triumphs over it our rigid Abstinences from Evil into the ravishing Injoyments of all that 's Good our Temporary Lent into an Everlasting Jubile our short Self-denials into the Pleasures of Aeternity our Days of Mourning and Mortification into endless Fruitions of Bliss and Glory Which thou O God of thy Mercy vouchsafe unto us for the Glory of thy Name and for the Worthiness of thy Son To whom with thee O Father in the Unity of the Spirit be all Honour and Glory both now and forever Amen OF ABSTAINING IN GENERAL FROM Fleshly Lusts 1 PET. 2. 11. Dearly Beloved I beseech you as Strangers and Pilgrims abstain from fleshly Lusts which war against your Soul Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles that whereas they speak against you as evil Doers they may by your good works which they shall behold glorifie God in the day of Visitation § 1. SAint Peter as a good Builder a Spiritual Workman who needed not to be asham'd having prudently laid the first Foundation of his Discourse in the former Chapter to wit the Holy Spirit of God efficaciously working by his word And having erected thereupon the three grand Pillars of Christianity Faith Hope and Charity does straight proceed in this Chapter to superstruct on those Pillars by way of general Exhortation Which though particularly directed unto the Christians of the Dispersion in several Provinces of Asia yet 't was equally intended and is as applicable to Vs too on whom the ends of the World are come Now his general Exhortation is briefly This. First of all that we lay aside all kind of Malice and Hypocrisie and the malignity of the Tongue v. 1. Secondly That as Infants do suck the nourishment of their Bodies from the same Mother's Breast from whom they had newly receiv'd their Being so also We being regenerate by the good word of God and thereby reputed as new-born Babes should from the same word of God suck out a nourishment for our Souls and thereby grow unto perfection v. 2. This word as he calls by the name of milk so he commends it to our Palats as sweet and wholesom v. 3. After which he goes on with his Exhortation but steps aside from his Metaphor and addresseth himself to a new scheme of Rhetorick Calling Christ a Living-Stone v. 4. and the Members of Christ a Spiritual House v. 5. and proving Both out of Esa v. 6. Next he shews the opposition betwixt the Obedient and the Rebellious representing Jesus Christ as a support unto the former but to the later a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offence v. 7 8. Then having said how God had taken us from out the men of this world and made us a chosen generation a royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar People a People called out of darkness into his marvellous light v. 9 10. He here proceeds to exhort us with somewhat a greater degree of warmth that we behave our selves suitably to our Vocation Dearly beloved I beseech you as Strangers and Pilgrims abstain c. § 2. A very pertinent Exhortation to all the Duties of the Lent to Christian Purity and Strictness and to Abstinence from Enormities of every kind Abstain from Fleshly Lusts that is as S. Paul does explain S. Peter from Rioting and Drunkenness from Chambering and Wantonness from Strife and Envy from Malcontentedness and Sedition from Revengefulness and Rebellion from Schism and Haeresie For that These are all equally the Lusts of the Flesh or the Fleshly Lusts I shall necessarily shew in the proper Places of my Discourse The Exhortation taken in gross does consist of two Parts The material part of it is express'd in these words Abstain from Fleshly Lusts and have your Conversation honest The formal part of it in these Dearly beloved I beseech you Thus we see the Exhortation is usher'd in with an Intreaty and This with such a Compellation as shews an Earnestness of Affection in him that speaks His Exhortation is so important so perswasive his Intreaty and so meltingly obliging his Compellation that hardly any thing can be added to give an energy or weight to S. Peter's Preaching Though he desires no more of them than to have mercy upon themselves yet he begs for it as heartily as if he were begging for his Life Dearly beloved I beseech you I come unto you as a Petitioner that ye will not be so transported out of your Interest and your Wits as madly to ruin your selves for ever I make it my humble Supplication that ye will rather live happy to all Eternity If there is any thing in the World with which you are willing to oblige me do not wilfully run upon Swords and Halberts Seek not to dwell with devouring Fire Be not so foolish as to catch at everlasting Burnings But be of
an honest Conversation and abstain from Fleshly Lusts which war against the Soul Thus S. Peter's Exhortation is very Affectionate and Earnest And taking our selves to be the Persons to whom the Exhortative does belong We have it inforced upon our hearts by Five strong Arguments or Motives All the worthier of our Attention because arising out of the Text. The First Argument is taken from the Condition of the Persons to whom the earnest Exhortation is here directed We are Citizens of Heaven and but Strangers upon Earth and therefore we must live as becometh Strangers Nor are we Strangers onely but Pilgrims Not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of our own Country but withall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Travellers in a strange one For this I take to be the difference between these Two 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strangers and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pilgrims That though they are Both out of their Country yet the former have an Aboad but the later none Those have some kind of Rest but These are always in a Journy Those inhabit a foreign Country whilst These are onely passing through it And seeing this is our Condition that we relate to this World not as Strangers onely but Passengers Men whose Houses are but as Inns and whose Life is but a Pilgrimage it concerns us to walk as becometh Pilgrims that is to manage our Conversation with so much wariness and fear as not to lie open to just Reproof The Second Argument is taken from the Quality of the Things in opposition to which our Apostle's Exhortation is here contriv'd These are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such Fleshly Lusts as are very pleasant Flatterers but no true Friends For though they are fawning upon the Flesh yet they are not at all the less but the greater Enemies to the Spirit And how desirable soever they may appear unto the Body yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are implacably though invisibly ever warring against the Soul The Third Argument is taken from the Consideration of our Credit with the Enemies of Christ amongst whom we live Our Conversation is to be honest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the Gentiles And that for this reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That however they do maliciously they may not deservedly speak against us Whereas in case we live dishonestly and indulgently to our Lusts we shall help them to excuse if not to justifie their Malignities against our Persons and our Profession And they will have a just ground whereupon to defame us as Evil-Doers The Fourth Argument is taken from the Consideration of our Enemies Welfare To wit their present Conversion and future Safety In whose sight if we converse as becometh Christ's Servants by our abstaining from Fleshly Lusts and having an honest Conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Text They then will look upon us with reverence and judge of our Principles by our good Works We shall not onely stop their Mouths but weaken the violence of their Hands and help to mollifie their Hearts and become happily instrumental to the salvation of their Souls The Fifth Argument is taken from the Glory of God and its great Advancement We must indeavour so to live as to adorn the Doctrine of Jesus Christ Our Conversation must be such as becomes the Gospel Our way of Walking must be exemplary and our Behaviour must be exact that Christ's Religion being credited his Kingdom also may be inlarged whilst by the Allective of our Example men will be won from their corruptions and shew forth the Praises of our God who hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light And this as 't is the last so 't is the best and chiefest Argument for our punctual abstaining from Fleshly Lusts and having an honest Conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Men by seeing our good works may not glorifie Vs but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may glorifie God in the Day of Visitation § 3. These are all S. Peter's Arguments Nor have I stept either beyond or beside the Text for the finding of them And for the pressing of the Duty He here injoyns never were there more or better Arguments in the world by any Pen-man contriv'd into fewer Words Before I insist upon any Argument whereby to inforce the Exhortation I must first of all explain the Exhortation it self First observing the importance of Fleshly Lusts and then what is meant by abstaining from them In order to the First two Things are to be known How we ought to understand the moral use of the word Flesh especially as it is taken in Several parts of the New Testament and what is meant by the Lustings of it By the word Flesh in the New Testament is very commonly meant the Appetite This is the seat of our Affections the subject matter of Vice and Virtue Our Affections are ever conversant in pursuing or eschewing in injoying or in suffering their several Objects Their Objects in the general are Good or Evil. And both are consider'd in Themselves or in relation to the Circumstances wherewith they happen to be cloath'd Good consider'd in it self is at once both the Object and Cause of Love But in relation to its Circumstances it is productive of other Passions For if present it causeth Joy and if absent it breeds Desire Again the Good which is Absent is either attainable or it is not If the former it causeth Hope and if the later it breeds Despair In like manner an evil Object is to be taken in its absolute or in its relative Consideration In the former 't is productive of simple Hatred but in the later it produceth either Sorrow or Aversation The First if it is present and if absent then the Second Again the evil that is absent is either avoidable or it is not If the former it causeth Boldness but if the later it causeth Fear Thus we briefly see the Rivulets of all our Passions or Affections together with the Fountain from whence they flow Now so many of our Affections as are reducible to Desire may be called not improperly our several Lusts Things so necessary and natural and indifferent in themselves that being abstractively and precisely and antecedently consider'd they are equally in an aptitude of becoming both the matter of Vice and Virtue But when extravagant as to the Object or exorbitant as to the Measure Then they are and are justly call'd either the Lusts of the Flesh or the Fleshly Lusts § 4. Now 't is observable in the Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament that Lust is many times Synonymous both with Avarice and Desire The Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latin concupiscere does equally Signifie them all And thence it is that all Three have been promiscuously us'd in our English Bibles For there we meet as well with lawfull as with unlawfull Lusts and as well with a good as an evil Avarice and with Both as they are taken in the innocent
them is like a very stout Champion who salls to grapple with a man that is arm'd with Sickness I mean the Leprosie or the Plague or other diseases of Infection Because notwithstanding he throws the man far enough it will be hard to clear himself from all contagion of his Disease Many are led into Captivity to the Law of Sin by not distinguishing as they ought and as holy men of old were wont to do betwixt Temptations and Temptations of several sorts I mean the Temptations they ought to fight with and the Temptations they ought to fly To make it profitable and plain I will illustrate what I say by one or two Scriptural Examples § 9. When nothing but the Patience of Job was tempted by the loss of his Estate and the destruction of his Children Tunc surrexit saith the Text Then Job arose rouz'd up himself like a sturdy Lion and as it were girded himself with strength He was so far from drawing back from the face of Danger that he arose and stood to it and bravely baffl'd both the wit and the strength of Satan But when the same Job was tempted by the Allurements of the Flesh Then he manifested his valour like Fabius Maximus or the Parthians by taking the Courage to use his Prudence And he manifested his Prudence by the timeliness of his Flight He made a Covenant with his Eyes not to look upon an Object which might indanger him by Delight It was then his chief Wisedom when not his Constancy or his Patience but his Chastity was concern'd not to make trial of his Mastery in containing from a pleasant forbidden Object but rather wholly to abstain from the Presence of it The different way of incountring the different sorts of Temptation may be collected from the difference wherewith the Scripture doth direct us to deal with the Devil and the Flesh Resist the Devil is the Precept of S. James but fly Fornication is the Caveat of S. Paul For other Vices saith Anselm upon that Caveat to the Corinthians are easily conquerable by Conflict whereas This of Fornicacation is onely conquerable by Flight Now to fly Fornication is not onely to be continent which implies a kind of Combat though 't is not follow'd with consent a being somewhat affected although not drawn but 't is totally to abstain from all commerce with the Temptation 'T is to defeat it in such a manner as King Edward the Sixth and the most excellent Bishop Wainflet are said by Budden to have defeated the Armed Rebells under Jack Cade vel non pugnando by not fighting with them at all but onely by praying against their Wickedness The total abstinence I speak of is not onely from the Objects of Fleshly Lust but from the Vicinities and the occasions yea from all the very memories and mentions of them For so Aquinas and Cajetan do expound S. Paul's Caveat 1 Cor. 6. 18. § 10. It follows then that we are likelier to be secure from such dangers by timely flight than to beat them quite down by a stout Resistance And though the later must be imploy'd when we are actually ingag'd yet to anticipate such ingagements it will be our best method to use the former For how much safer 't is to fly than to incounter such Allurements though incounter them we must when we cannot fly them we may illustrate by the examples of Joseph and Sampson who were as various in their Behaviours as they were different in their Success Joseph fled from his Mistriss by whom he was tempted day by day He was so far from discoursing about the matter in design as that he would not be with her but sprang from her presence and got him out Gen. 39. 10. 12. Whereas Sampson on the contrary was no sooner come to Gaza than he saw there an Harlot nor did he onely See but he went unto her Judg. 16. 1. Again no sooner was he come to the Valley of Soreck where he adventur'd to converse with another Woman v. 4. but one of the next Things we read of is His telling her all his heart v. 17. And the very next to That is His sleeping upon her knees v. 19 And the consequent of This the loss of his Liberty and his Eyes v. 21. It was not then without reason That so great and good a Prophet as the Prophet Elijah who had so bravely withstood King Ahab did quickly after fly away from the Face of Jezebel And that Abimelech should have fled at the sight of Sarah is very evident even from hence That no sooner had he taken her than he was fain to put her away Gen. 20. 3. 7. Nor did he part onely with Her but with a thousand pieces of Silver v. 16. And that in velamen Oculorum for a Covering of the Eyes And that not onely unto Her but to all that hereafter should look upon her as Gerundensis and Hamerus explain the Text. Or in the Gloss of Tertullian for the buying of veils enough wherewith to cover both her own and her Maiden's Beauty and this to the end they might not easily either See or be Seen by the other Sex § 11. But I have largely enough explain'd the moral use of the word Flesh and what is meant by the Lustings of it and what it is to Abstain from all These as well according to the Object as Act of Lusting and as well in a divided as compound Sense Besides that in so spacious a Field of matter and so fruitfull of meditation as That I am entring now upon there will be need of some Care that none be surfeited even with Abstinence For though an Abstinence not from Flesh but from Fleshly Lusts is both the Best and the most wholesom and the most suitable to the Season in its primitive Vse and where the Guests are all Christian the most desirable Entertainment to be imagin'd yet a Satiety of the best things is apt to become the worst Satiety in the world And therefoâ—e rather than exceed the Time allow'd for This Service I will begin and end too with That one Argument or Motive which here is taken from the Nature and perpetual Employment of Fleshly Lusts which are not onely no Friends but most Implacable Enemies nor onely Enemies to our temporal but aeternal Interest § 12. It is not onely here said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they fight which may imply nothing more than a Single Battle but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they war which imports a continued State of fighting So far from being capable of a firm and solid Peace that they allow us not a Truce or time to breath in Nor do they terminate their malice upon the Body for then we needed no more to fear them than Armed Enemies from without but which is nearer and dearer to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they ever war against the Soul too § 13. Thus the life of
Infirmities Yea when our Infirmities are so potent as to disable us even from praying and from crying out for help the Spirit interceedeth for us with Groans which cannot be uttered And at the intercession of such a Spirit our Spiritual Enemies will fly as the walls of Jericho did fall at the sound of a Trumpet 'T was by the help of This Spirit that though the Enemies of David were still in hand to swallow him up yet he was able still to say He would not fear what Flesh could do unto him Whilst the weapons of our warfare are not Carnal but Spiritual They are mighty through God to the pulling down of strong Holds casting down Imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against God and bringing into captivity every Thought to the obedience of Christ Our weapons indeed are mighty but 't is through God who does not onely guide our Feet but also lifts up our Hands and directs our Blows and often strikes for us Himself too And yet the Victory which he wins his Goodness placeth to our Accompt His is the Glory of the Conquest but Ours the Comfort And This accordingly was the Incouragement our Saviour gave to his Apostles Be of good Comfort I have overcome the World The Sting of Death which is Sin He hath pluck'd out for us The strength of Sin which is the Law He hath weaken'd in our behalf He hath routed our common Enemy and looks that We should follow the chase Which the Apostle well considering did seem with one and the same Breath to turn his out-cry into an Eulogy his complaint into a Jubily his Temptations of Despair into Joy and Triumph For no sooner had he said O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death But in the next words he added I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Nay farther yet He does not onely say in another place Thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ But also invents a new Word to shew the greatness of our Victory above that of others Through Him that loved us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the Text we do not onely overcome but are more than Conquerors Indeed without Him our strength is weakness our Wisedom Folly and accordingly the Apostle does very appositely exhort us to be strong in the Lord and in the Power of His might Eph. 6. 10. And when 't is said by S. John Ye are of God little Children and have overcome them he gives this Reason Because greater is He that is in You than he that is in the World For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the World and this is the Victory that overcometh the World even our Faith 1 Joh. 5. 4. This must therefore be our Prayer That Christ may dwell in our Hearts by Faith And this will then be our Incouragement That being strengthned with might in the Inward man we shall be able to stand in the evil Day § 19. But we have yet another Incouragement to wrestle with and to fight against Fleshly Lusts from the exceeding great Richness of our Reward For when we can say with the Apostle we have fought the god fight we may also say with him in the same Assurance because upon the same Ground Henceforth is laid up for us a Crown of Righteousness Betwixt which two there is so vast a Disproportion that the Fight is for a moment and the Sufferings growing from it do quickly wither whereas the Crown is immarcescible such as cannot but injoy an eternal Spring And therefore S. Paul vvas not out in his Reckoning vvhen he reckon'd that the Sufferings and amongst Them the Self-denials of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us Rom. 8. 18. Which kind of Sufferings and Self-denials do not onely praecede but even work for us a weight of Glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. And the reason of This expression may be argued even from hence That to fight against the Flesh so far forth as to mortifie and put it to Death which are the literal importance of the Apostles two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to make our selves Partakers of the sufferings of Christ Which sufferings of Christ do not onely occasion but clearly work for us a weight of Glory And for this very end do we partake of Christ's sufferings by Self-denials on his Accompt That when his Glory shall be revealed we may also rejoyce with exceeding Joy 1 Pet. 4. 13. Yea the bare consideration of such an unspeakable Reward did put S. Paul upon Rejoycing not onely after but in his Sufferings and Self-denials Col. 1. 24. A Reward great enough to make a Coward turn Fighter For who would not fight even for fear that he shall lose such a Reward The onely thing we have to fear is our not fighting enough to win the Prize we fight for Now every Fighter says our Apostle and so say all Agonistick Writers is to keep a strict Diet. S. Paul's words are He must be temperate in all Things Alluding plainly to the Olympicks in which the Combatans were dieted for forty Days Every Man had his Lent whereby to fit him for his Encounter and his Abstinence was his Armour whereby to guard him from a Defeat And if They were so Abstemious to gain a corruptible Crown how much more should we abstain for the gaining of a Crown which is not liable to corruption not onely an exceeding but an aeternal weight of Glory Such was the Logick with which S. Paul argued and such was the Rule of his Acting too For saith He I so run not as uncertainly So fight I not as one that beateth the Air. But I keep under my Body and bring it into subjection His own words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I fight as a Pancratiast that is as a Cuffer and Wrestler too I beat my Body black and blue I make an arrant Slave of it lay upon it both the Yoke and the Cross of Christ subdue my Flesh unto my Spirit deny my self the use of my Christian Liberty suffer the loss of many things which I might lawfully injoy that by any means I may attain to the Resurrection of the Dead that by any means possible I may apprehend That for which I am also apprehended of Christ Jesus All which I take to be imported by those two words 1 Cor. 9. 27. Where by the way we may observe of our Apostle S. Paul He did not war against Another's but against his own Body For he knew his own Body was the worst Enemy to his Soul and that to save himself from it was to keep it under He knew the Flesh to be so sturdy and so implacable a Rebel that if he should suffer it to thrive and to get an Head he would
Governours That human Laws where e're the matter of them is lawfull are the Laws of God too And that for this cogent irresistible reason which I have several times urged and think I can never urge it enough because commanded by that Authority which God has commanded us to obey § 7. Shall I exemplifie and illustrate what I say by plain Scripture on either side God forbids us by Moses to worship Idols And He bids us by S. Peter submit our selves to every Ordinance of man Again He bids us by S. Paul Obey them that have the Rule over us Now is not God's Law as binding in what he bids as in what he forbids his peculiar People I know the former binds Semper and the later ad Semper But when they Both bind they cannot but bind with an Aequality Or is not his peremptory Command as obliging under the Gospel as it was under the Law Is not the Message of God as good when dispatch'd to us Christians by S. Peter and S. Paul and by Christ himself as when sent unto the Jews by a single Moses Is not God the same Jehova to Them and Vs and his Word as authentick in these last Times as in the First Why then do not Christians make it a matter of as much Conscience to obey the Laws of Men whom God has commanded them to obey as not to worship a graven Image which God has commanded them not to worship That Each is equally God's Command was never deny'd by any Christian nor ever can be And is not His Command that we do a Good thing as valid as his Command that we abstain from what is evil Yea 't is as much a Christian's Duty to obey his lawfull Governours and by consequence their Laws Ecclesiastical and Civil as it is not to worship a graven Image The first is as conducible to our Salvation as the second And Damnation is as much threatened to the Breach of the one as the other Precept § 8. Now in my slender judgement and such as it is 't is the best I have there can be no likelier way whereby to win over our weak and dissenting Brethren from the ways of Separation they have espous'd than that of labouring to convince them by all good means from the Pulpit and from the Pew and in the privacy of the Closet by publick Preaching and Catechizing and private Conferences especially which we shall find to be ever the most effectual that saving the Dignity and Priority of the first and great Commandment as the Ground and Foundation of all the rest our Obedience to our Governours and human Laws in force amongst us is as really an essential or Fundamental of Christianity and of as absolute Necessity to our Salvation as the Belief of one God or any other that can be nam'd It being as rigidly commanded by God in Scripture under the very same Promises of Reward if we obey and under the very same Threats of endless Punishment if we rebel 'T is not enough that This Doctrine be like the Homily of the Church against Rebellion which is commanded by Law and Canon to be read once a year in every Parish nor is it enough that it be preached up of course upon the Thirtieth of January and the Fifth of November But 't is of absolute necessity to be riveted and ingrain'd first of all into the Heads and after That into the Hearts of People committed to our charge that they must needs be Subject that is Obedient to human Magistrates and Laws not onely for fear of the Magistrates Wrath or for hope of worldly Profit no nor onely for fear of Hell or for hope of Heaven but as S. Paul goes on to tell us for Conscience sake I say for Conscience towards God and for Conscience towards our selves because 't is part of the Law of Nature and simply Good in it self not consequentially as every positive Law is but antecedently obliging and without any the least relation to God's particular written Law so often repeated in the Scriptures though This does make our Disobedience to be the more unexcusable and the Person disobeying fit for the greater Condemnation I know the Custom of Disobedience and the great Numbers of the Refractary and their Impunity thereupon and the seemingly-good morals of some Dissenters and their giving out themselves for the Godly Party These five Fallacies put together have bred an opinion in many weak and unwary Christians that they need not be subject to the Higher Powers upon Earth though S. Paul says they Need Rom. 13. 5. That the Powers spoken of are not the Ordinance of God though S. Paul says they are v. 1 2. That they may not submit to every Ordinance of Man though S. Peter says they must 1 Pet. 2. 13. And so they imagin that it consists with a Godly life to slight the Authority of their Governours and scorn their Laws unless when their Governours and their Laws are to protect Them and Theirs both in their Livelihoods and their Lives from fraud and violence in which one case they will readily submit to every Ordinance of man though not for the Lord's sake as S. Peter would have it yet for their own In a word they think it lawfull to live in Schism if not in Sacrilege still in Sacrilege where they are able and so to tear in pieces not the Seamless Coat onely but the Body of Christ crucified in a mystical sense § 9. To frame an Amulet in proportion to the Contagion of this Disease wherewith a world of easie Souls of catching Complexions have been infected I humbly conceive it may be made of these Six Ingredients First that no Form of Godliness can be other than Pharisaical which is not attended with common Honesty Next that none can be truly honest who do not render to All their Dues Tribute to whom Tribute is due Custom to whom Custom Fear to whom Fear Honour to whom Honour Rom. 13. 7. Thirdly that nothing can be more due from any one to any other than from the Subject to the Soveraign and all in Authority under Him To wit the Tribute of Obedience as well as Money the active Custom of Conformity as well as passive Subjection to Laws in force and as well to Those Laws which tend to the publick Peace and Safety as those others which maintain us in the private injoyment of our Estates The Fear of offending as well as of suffering for our Offences lastly the Honour of inward Reverence as well as of outward Complaisance Not as Men-pleasers but as the Servants of Christ Fourthly that a Dishonest man is ipso facto and eo ipso an ungodly man and Disobedience to the Fifth Precept as bad as Rebellion against the seventh or the eighth or rather worse And so a Common Nonconformist to Laws establish'd is to speak within compass as Scandalous in his life as a Common Drunkard Fifthly that such a Subject as will no longer allow the
People Israel To hear the voice of God speaking from out the midst of the Fire Did ever People hear the like in any Time or at any Place First for Time Ask the days that are past since the day wherein God created Man upon the earth Secondly for Place Ask from the one side of heaven unto the other whether there hath been any such thing as This or hath been ever heard like it In the two next passages Moses strictly injoyns the People to addict themselves wholly to the words of God's Law to be conversant with them both Day and Night to have them always upon their Hands and in their Mouthes between their Eyes and in their Hearts Whereupon we are to argue à minori ad majus If such attention was to be given to what was spoken onely by Moses to all the People how much more to what is spoken by Jesus Christ for Christ was counted worthy of more glory than Moses in as much as He that built the House hath more honour than the House Heb. 3. 3. And by how much a Son is above a Servant v. 5 6. And therefore if the Words which God had spoken by his Servant much more are the Words which He hath spoken by his Son very fit to be written upon our Gates and our Door-posts to be fixt as Frontlets between our Eyes to be set as a Seal upon our Hands and as a Signet upon our Hearts We ought to teach them unto our Children and to be ruminating on them on all Occasions in season out of season when we sit in our Houses and when we walk by the way when we lie down and when we rise up And thus we have the first of the four Inforcements by which the Warning of our Apostle may be set home upon our Souls § 5. Secondly Let us consider after the Quality of the Speaker the Nature of the Things that are spoken by him They are not any such hard and insupportable sayings as once were heard from Mount Ebal Cursed is he that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them no nor such as were spoken long before at Beersheba and to be put in Execution on Mount Moriah Take now thy Son thine onely Son whom thou lovest and offer him for a Burnt-offering upon one of the Mountains which I shall tell thee of No he does not require of us any such Terrible Expressions of our Obedience He commands us to kill and slay not our Children but our Sins And yet our Sins are our Children too the fruit of our Bodies very often and still the fruit of our Souls Nay many times these ugly Children I mean our Sins are dearer to us than Sons or Daughters Agamemnon found it easier to kill a Daughter than a Lust But they are viperous Darlings we so much doat on such miscreant Children as will kill their own Parents if not prevented by being kill'd And these alone are the Children which God requires us to sacrifice to his Displeasure Not our Isaacs but our Ishmaels I mean our wild and furious illegitimate Off-spring are to be slain We must sacrifice our Dishonesty by doing Justice we must sacrifice our Avarice by shewing Mercy and we must sacrifice our Pride by walking humbly with our God Mic. 6. 8. Well ye have heard what it is not will ye now know what it is which God in Christ doth speak to us he speaks the best and the happiest Tidings that any wounded or broken Spirit can hope or pray for So God loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have life ever lasting Joh. 3. 16. God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be sav'd v. 17. If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink Joh. 7. 37. He that believeth in me there shall flow out of his Belly Rivers of living water v. 38. If a man keep my saying he shall never see Death Joh. 8. 51. Come unto me all ye that travel and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Mat. 11. 28. And if ye ask any thing in my name I will do it Joh. 14. 14. Thus we find God the Father speaking to us by his Son Now observe how God the Son is speaking to us by his Servants If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous who is the propitiation for all our sins 1 Joh. 2. 1. He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things Rom. 8. 32. And here I cannot but call to mind what was said unto Naaman the churlish Syrian Who coming to Elisha to be cured of his Leprosie was prescribed by the Prophet no harder Medicine than to wash seven times in the River Jordan When He being Angry in stead of Thankfull ask'd if Abana and Pharpar Rivers of Damascus were not better than all the Waters of Israel An Ingratitude so excessive that his own Servants took him up I know not whether with a more melting or a more cutting kind of Rebuke saying to him My Father if the Prophet had bid thee do some great thing wouldst thou not have done it how much rather when he saith to thee wash and be clean After the very same manner may I say here If God had sent us a Message by his Arch-Angel Michael who is said by the Rabbins to be the Messenger of his Justice and so to bring news of the saddest nature should we not have entertain'd him as a Messenger from Heaven with Fear and Reverence And then with a greater force of reason when a Messenger so glorious and one withall so obliging is sent unto us as God manifest in the Flesh and sent unto us in such a Message as is not onely the word of God but the word of Reconciliation sure the least we can render for so much Mercy is not onely very willingly but very thankfully to receive it And therefore as for the former so for this reason also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh § 6. Thirdly let us consider after the Quality of the Speaker and the Nature of what is spoken the Condition of the Persons to whom he speaks Even to us who were Gentiles that had long sat in Darkness and the shadow of Death To us who were so diseased and sick of sin as that we could not be cur'd but by the Death of our Physician this Sun of Righteousness did arise with healing in his Wings and translated us out of Darkness into his marvellous light We had nothing but Sin and Misery to make us capable of his compassion and nothing more than his own compassion to make us capable of his Love For had he not lov'd us whilst we were
I need not say more Committing therefore what I have said to due and serious Consideration I shut up all with That Prayer which is the fittest to compleat and conclude the Sermon That what we have heard at this time with our outward Ears may by the powerfull Grace of God be so grafted inwardly in our Hearts as to bring forth in us the fruit of good Living to the Honour and Praise of his Name through Jesus Christ our Lord. To whom with the Father in the unity of the Spirit be Glory and Thanksgiving both now and for ever Amen THE APPENDIX § 1. OUr steddy Adherence or Assent to the Two last Articles of the Creed and indeed to the other Ten cannot possibly subsist without our Assent unto the First We cannot certainly believe that we shall rise from the Dead unless it be by believing that Christ is risen And as little can we believe that Christ is risen unless it be by believing first that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself This implies and presupposes the First Article of our Creed which is as well the Foundation as the Support of all the Rest But since the breaking loose of Hell in This last Age of a loathsome World we have met with such Enemies not onely to ours but to All Religion as from their wishing and woulding there were no God no Resurrection of the Body no life after Death no Day of Judgment have proceeded so far as to say and teach There is no God nor any one of those Things which have been regularly built upon This Foundation And if we suffer This Foundation to be either undermin'd or but shaken in us All the Fabrick of our Faith will fall to nothing in an Instant An Error here is like one in the first Concoction which cannot be mended in the second If we do not believe in God the first Article of our Creed we cannot choose but be Infidels in All that follow Nor are we onely to believe him as Belief is opposed unto a comprehensive knowledge But we must knowingly believe him as Belief is consistent with knowledge meerly Apprehensive And so as to say with as much Truth as S. Paul to Timothy every man for himself in whatsoever Temptations and Times of Trial For I know whom I have believed § 2. A Text which serves well for a double purpose to ascertain our Knowledge and to establish our Belief as well as to shew the just measure and use of Both in our Religion A Text accordingly to be consider'd not onely in its Relative but in its Absolute importance First the words in their Relation to Those that follow and go before them will be most easily understood by being paraphrased Thus. I am a Preacher and an Apostle and therefore now a Prisoner of Jesus Christ Even for this very cause of my being sent forth by the Will of God and made a Teacher of the Gentiles I suffer these Bonds and Persecutions of the Jews But I am not asham'd of my Bonds or Office I am not sorry for my Preaching though 't is the Cause of my Imprisonment For He on whom I have depended will never forsake me I am sure In His hands I can with chearfulness repose my Life by whom my Death will be a Door to my Resurrection For I have not believ'd I know not whom Nor do I nakedly believe whom I love and adore and rely upon but I perfectly Know whom I have believed and have a plentitude of Perswasion that He for whom I now suffer will never fail me on Him my Cares are all cast who careth for me With Him I have intrusted the whole Depositum of my Labours in the preaching of the Gospel and the Depositum of my Sufferings for having preach'd it And whatsoever I have intrusted or shall intrust to His keeping be it my Body or my Soul my Body in Peace or my Soul in Patience I am assur'd he is Able and am perswaded he is Willing to lay it up for me against That Day A Day expressed to us in Scripture by such Periphrases as These The Day wherein the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming Fire The day wherein God shall judge the Secrets of men by Jesus Christ The Day when all that are in the Grave shall hear his Voice and come forth The Day of Discrimination when He will make up his Jewels and a Book of Remembrance shall lie before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his Name All my Concerns are left with Him who will keep them in safety against That Day Thus lies the Text in its relation to the Context § 3. But being consider'd in it self and without such Relation 't will be as easily understood by this other Paraphrase I know Him perfectly as to his Being whom I believe as to his Essence or whom as to his Essence I know in part onely I can demonstrate his Existence although I can but most firmly believe his Word For at one and the same time as also in one and the same respect I cannot know and believe him too because what I know I do more than believe or am past believing And what I do but believe I have not yet attained the knowledge of Knowledge and Belief do move in two distinct Spheres and That of Knowledge is so much higher than This of Faith that 't is the Perfection of a man's Faith wholly to perish and expire to be drown'd and swallow'd up into perfect Knowledge St. Paul expresseth his Believing by his knowing in part And the Top of his comfort does stand in This that when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away Here we can but see darkly as through a glass but the time is now coming when we shall see face to face Here we onely can Believe the Three Subsistences of the Godhead in but one and the same Substance whereas in That Day of Revelation and Restitution we shall Know this great Mystery even as also we are Known Here we can but Believe the Resurrection of our Bodies but in the great Day of Recompence our Fruition and Experience will make us Know it We do not know more exactly that Five and Five do make Ten or that a part of any Dimension is unequal to the whole than we do Know and can demonstrate against the Enemies of a Deity the uncontroulable existence of the Deity we adore But This I say onely of God's Existence and of his Essence onely in part For in our deepest Contemplation of certain Mysteries in our Religion such as a Trinity of the Persons in the Vnity of the Godhead the Generation of the Second the Procession of the Third and yet the Coessentiality of Both-together with the First I say in This contemplation our Childish understandings become so froward they cannot be quieted but by
in unrighteousness v. 18. And That which may be known of God is manifest in them for God hath shew'd it unto them v. 19. And again They did not like to retain God in their Knowledge v. 28. So very hard a thing it is in the Judgement of our Apostle to be a speculative Atheist even for one who desires to be so and is unwilling to acknowledge what he cannot but Know § 8. But not to put the least stress upon the Authority of S. Paul which Antiscripturists will not allow and 't is for Their sakes especially that I am faln on This Subject I shall Secondly prove by Reason touching the Being of a Deity not onely that we are furnish'd with as much Evidence of its Truth as such a thing is capable of but that 't is capable of as much Evidence as the light we see and see by or rather more For as a mental Demonstration is more cogently convincing to any Skeptick than an Ocular so That which shews the Godhead to us is of mental Demonstrations the most convincing For the most cogent Demonstration which can be made by a Logician is that which argues from the Cause to the Effect and is call'd with good reason Demonstratio Potissima But God Almighty being the Fountain of All things knowable in the World and so the Cause of All Causes which are the Grounds of Demonstration the effect of which is true knowledge whose Ratio formalis formal Reason is Assurance 'T is plain his Being must carry with it so clear an Evidence of it self that if we were not sure of That we could be sure of nothing else We are much surer of it than of any thing we can see by how much the inward light we have is more infallible than our outward For This may easily deceive us and indeed so often does that much Experience has taught us to distrust our own Eyes in several Cases and in some to disbelieve them Whereas a man's Vnderstanding of Objects adaequate to it self can never either fail him or be suspected because 't is an Eye whose Sight is Knowledge And Knowledge properly so call'd is so infallible in its nature that without infallibility it cannot possibly be Knowledge but must needs be somewhat else a shrewd Conjecture or strong Belief an obstinate Confidence or Presumption each of which is true or false as it is well or ill grounded Whereas to Knowledge as it is Knowledge Infallibility is essential Shall I make the Case clear and undeniable by an Example We know a man having been blind from his very Birth may have as absolute a knowledge that 5 and 5 do make 10 as the best Ey'd Lynceus And a man the most illiterate is as far from being able to be deceiv'd in this point as one of the greatest Erudition or deepest Reach Which strongly vindicates our Apostle from the possible Reproach of a Contradiction when he says Things invisible are clearly seen and that Moses saw him who is invisible For God's Existence though invisible to the Eye of the Body is yet to That of the Soul most clearly seen even as clearly as the Assertion that 5 and 5 do make 10 is ascertain'd to a man without Eyes or Learning Not at all seen by the light without but so much the more by the light within him The Learned and the Illiterate the Blind and the Quick-sighted are very equally undeceivable in these Particulars And therefore when 't is said by the pert and dull Scoffer as pert and dull as the Japonians of the Jenxuan Haeresie that He is too foolish who thinks he knows any thing he cannot see and He too credulous who is able to believe what he cannot reach He may be presently made asham'd of his Vnderstanding by an argument ad hominem that He is void of all Reason and can have no Soul within him much less a rational because he neither can see it nor can it possibly be seen So 't is an Argument to the Scoffer beyond all Answer that nothing by nature can be more excellent than a Beast because a Beast cannot reach it or comprehend how it should be There have been some in all Ages whose shamefull Ambition it has been to make their Ignorance Monumental Hercules by his Pillars with a Nihil plus ultra inscrib'd upon them and Mr. Hobs by his Hypothesis that there is no Spirit at all nor any thing else above the Sphere of his low Capacity have but built obelisks to the Memory of their most eminent Imperfections their Incomparable Pride and their Incurable Stupidity The man is fitter to be despis'd than to be sadly disputed with who takes his narrow Vnderstanding to be commensurate with the Vniverse and the adequate Standard of all Existence who will have All to be but Fiction which is to Him Incomprehensible and nothing really to exist which is above or beyond his Soul's Horizon He is worthier of our pity whose perfect ignorance in Astronomy makes him ready almost to swear the Sun is no bigger than a Bonfire because the Distance of the Object and the Deceiptfulness of the Organ do conspire Both at once to give it a Littleness of Appearance 'T is hard to say which is greater our uncertainty of some things which we do every day see or the Certainty of other things which cannot possibly be seen § 9. Now amongst the many ways of proving a God by Demonstration some of which cannot be made but to good Logicians and very hardly if at all in the English Tongue Two especially are the fittest for the Capacities of the Vulgar whilst unassisted by Erudition The first of which will be the easier though the second will be more cogent and more imperative of our Assent The first and the most obvious is à Posteriori as proving the Cause by its Effects Which is as true a Demonstration and as prevailing as any the Mathematicks pretend to and many times more proportionable to Capacities unimprov'd than Demonstration à Priori which proves an effect by its Cause or Causes As 't is many times easier to prove the Tree by its Fruit than the Fruit by its Original the Tree that bears it Yea there are things as the four Elements whose inward Forms are unknown and therefore they cannot be demonstrated to be what they Are but à posteriori such as Fire by its properties of heat and light and lightness and the like which yet do beget as great a Certainty of its Existence and Disposition as could be had if we could know the whole Essence of it And thus our common Masters of Musick do know the forces and the effects of all the Musical proportions of Sound and Number perhaps to much better purpose than either Froschius or Gafforel or Boetius himself whilst yet the Reason of effects is a Stranger to them Now that God is demonstrable à Posteriori I mean as to his Being and his Nature in Part which is
the flight of our Comprehension And though evidently credible are not evidently True how True soever in Themselves They have evidence enough to require our Faith though not enough to beget our Knowledge Thus the Trinity in Vnity is as evident in it self as the Godhead is but not so evident unto us And humane Faith may be so strong as to exclude from the Agent all kind of doubting though not from All Objects a Possibility that they are false For nothing can exclude This but Knowledge properly so call'd to which a Certainty is as essential as Credibility is to Faith And the absolute impossibility that the Mysteries of God should admit of falshood ariseth onely from the Verity and Veracity of the Godhead not from the steadiness or the strength much less from the Nature of our Belief But there are other things in Religion which though they are not more True than the Trinity in Unity are yet for all that more Truly Known Thus the Evidence I have of God's Existence is so much greater than my Evidence of his being Three in one or the Scriptures being his Word that I am certain of the former because I know it and I doubt not of the later because I stedfastly believe it My Assurance of the one makes me infallible in my assent which I cannot say I am through my Confidence of the other unless I have it by a miraculous and immediate Illumination as fully as the Apostles their Gift of Tongues Thus the Ground of the Difference of the things spoken of in our Religion is the Difference of the Ground upon which they stand to wit a greater or lesser Evidence to our short sighted Souls not a greater or lesser Truth and Reality of their Beings For neither our Knowledge nor our Belief have any influence on the Things we Believe or Know. § 17. This Distinction being premis'd I proceed thus to argue and thereby to answer the Quaere made Every man's Vnderstanding is too too sawcy with his Will in pretending it is its Priviledge to give a judgement universally of Truth and Falshood an Error not the less grievous for its having been occasion'd by a very great Truth For though 't is the office of the Intellect in the Intellect's own Court to pass a verdict upon Things within its Cognizance yet in such Transcendentals as are very much without and above its verge or by a natural Right and Title beyond all humane Comprehension a good understanding will confess It must not determine but obey For to know things exactly does onely denominate us Learned but not Religious good Philosophers indeed but not good Men. The word Religion and the Thing being well consider'd as 't is by few and but seldom Its ratio formalis will be found not to stand in proud Knowledge but meek Obedience And in Obedience of the whole Man as well of the Soul as of the Body And in the Soul too we owe an absolute Obedience of all our Faculties to God of our Appetites our Wills our Vnderstandings Science and Religion do herein differ more especially that in the first our Understandings direct the Will but in the second they concur in submission with it in That our Reason may command as a proud Dictatrix but in This she must obey as a most Teachable Disciple And for This there is very great reason For 't is so natural to Religion to have its Mysteries or Objects peculiar to Faith alone that neither the Greeks nor the Barbarians could ever indure to be without them And if there are few Mechanick Arts which have not their Mysteries and Secrets unknown to All who are not Artists what an unnatural thing were it if the Mystery of Godliness God manifest in the Flesh or the Religion of the True God who is Incomprehensible should have nothing conteined in it beyond the fathom or flight of a finite reason What man knows the things of a man save the Spirit of man which is in him even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2. 11. And truly if it were otherwise where were the Merit or the Mystery or the Necessity of Believing on which so great a stress in Scripture is every where laid by our Lord Himself We find in our Gospel these two rational Expressions The Obedience of Faith Rom. 16. 26. and the Law of Faith Rom. 3. 27. 'T is the Obedience of our Faith which is so pleasing unto God as that without This it is impossible for us to please Him Heb. 11. 6. If Faith it self were not Obedience unto That which is called the Law of Faith and to the Lawgiver himself who hath commanded us to Believe It would not be so meritorious or so rewardable in its Nature as now it is For herein chiefly does consist the excellent Nature of Religion and of all religious Worship and withall the rationability of the immensity of our Reward that 't is attended with Self-denial and a Resignedness of the All that is most excellent in our Souls unto the Will of that Object we thus adore Whereas if we absolutely Knew whatsoever by our Religion we are obliged to Acknowledge or were we obliged to acknowledge what we see or feel onely there could not be possibly such a Thing as real Virtue in our Assent when 't would be impossible not to assent to what we should distinctly Know and as impossible not to acknowledge what with our brutish and common Senses we see or feel Necessity and Vertue are incompatible in All but in God Himself And even in Him speaking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they differ too Our Knowledge indeed may be call'd a Physical but not a religious or moral Virtue There are Virtues indeed which do lead to Knowledge and Knowledge truly so call'd does dispose to Virtues But naked Science is a meer Intellectual Habit wherein the Devils themselves excel and was never yet reckon'd an Ethick Virtue The reason of all which is plain and obvious For the Object of a Man's Knowledge does compel his assent whereas the Object of his Faith does but invite it To matters of Faith our Assent is due but to matters of Knowledge 't is unavoidable Our Knowledge shews onely we are intelligent in our nature but our Faith shews in us also the Grace of Meekness That indeed infers the Conspicuity of the Object but This which is more the Flexibility of the Will To sum up the difference in a word by light of knowledge it appears that we are a reasoning sort of Creatures but by the Obedience of our Faith that we are Religious ones § 18. From these Premises I infer we ought not to trouble our selves at all that we cannot fully Know so far forth as we can Believe For God has given us Knowledge enough if we live not up to it to greaten our future Condemnation and the knowledge which He denies us is not necessary at all to our future safety
And seeing 't is one of God's Attributes to be by Nature Incomprehensible who were he not so could not be God 'T is fit the learnedst of his Creatures should be contentedly in the Dark as to many things the firm Belief of which things they stick not to testifie with their Blood If we believe the Will of God to be revealed in his Word and therein the Three Subsistences in but one and the same Substance we may not be vext with the Experience of our being yet unqualify'd to comprehend how it should be For whatsoever things they are we are commanded but to Believe it cannot possibly be a Sin not to be able to know exactly But 't is a Sin to be disquieted that the sublimest Things of God do exceed our Reach and that whilst we are finite Infinite Things will be above us To comprehend what is finite a finite Intellect is sufficient and as sufficient also it is to Apprehend what is Infinite though not at all to comprehend it so great and wide the difference is between an Apprehensive and a Comprehensive knowledge but an Adaequate knowledge of God is onely competent to God As for Certainty and Knowledge God has wisely dealt to us such fit Proportions that we have Ground enough given us in God's own Word to want with comfort what we have not and to injoy what we have with Moderation 'T is there we are assured of a threefold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Full assurance A Full assurance of Faith Heb. 10. 22. A Full assurance of Hope Heb. 6. 11. A Full assurance of Vnderstanding Col. 2. 2. The last imports a full Knowledge of what is Knowable in God and fit or good for us to Know which leads us on to an Acknowledgement of the Mysteries of God in whom are hid all the Treasures of Wisedom and Knowledge And this does prompt me to observe S. Paul's Distinction between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Things of God which may be known Rom. 1. 19. and the other Things of God which are Hidden from us Col. 2. 3. As for God's Existence from everlasting to everlasting his omnipresence his omnipotence his all-sufficience and his omniscience his Truth and Justice his Love and Goodness and the like in respect of all These we perfectly Know whom we Believe We have literally speaking a Full assurance of Vnderstanding But for the Trinity of Persons the Incarnation of God the Son his Circumcision his Crucifixion his Satisfaction for all our Sins the Resurrection of our Bodies and Immortality of our Souls in respect of all These we rather Believe whom we have known We have in These a Full assurance of Faith and Hope onely And the perfection of our knowing the things of God which may be known is Ground enough for our Believing the things of God which are Hidden from us § 19. Of what has hitherto been said Two good Vses may here be made The one of Confutation the other of Comfort That belongs to Those men who are affectedly Vnbelievers This will redound unto our selves when in meer humane frailty we sometimes waver And Both together will be an Answer to the Third Quaere which I propos'd touching the Powers and the Effects and the great Benefits of Believing as well as of knowing whom we believe clearly implied in the Text by the Causal For as That imports S. Paul's Reason why he was not asham'd of the things he suffer'd For this Cause says He to Timothy I suffer these things But I am not asham'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For I know whom I have believed § 20. First to the Wilfull Vnbeliever who does affect being Incredulous and casts about for all Colours to nourish the humour in himself I shall argue Thus. That He who is so thick-headed as to alledge he is not sure there is a Life after Death and a Day of Judgement must needs confess himself so Dull too as not to be surer that there is None And 't is sufficient to oblige a prudent Person to live exactly upon the account of Prudence onely that a life after Death and so a Judgment if he does not yet fully know it may happen to him for ought he Knows And that Aeternity of Punishments as well as of Rewards is barely Possible And that the Negative is not Demonstrable any more than the Affirmative Yea that the Negative cannot be possibly because a Negative but the Affirmative as it is such has a passive power at least which the Negative has not of being the subject of Demonstration For thus the Existence of a Deity may be demonstrated by a Person who is of greater Perspicuity than the man who Doubts of it though not by Him who is so stupid and in a manner so unman'd as to be able to make a Doubt in so clear a Case Whereas the Negative to This that a Deity does not exsist can be demonstrated by None how acute soever nor was ever yet pretended to be Demonstrable by Any The most insipid of Fools is able to say there is no God and it can be but said by the wittiest Atheist But to return to That Instance which was of an Article of our Faith and of Faith alone to wit a Punishment Aeternal or a Life after Death or a Day of Judgment I say an Evil which is uncertain and by consequence so contingent as that it may or may not be must be provided against in Policy if not in Conscience or Religion by one who would not be a Fool as well as an Epicure or an Atheist A Lazarus may be sent out of Abraham's Bosom though de facto none is and a Dives out of the Deep too to certifie the Truth of an Heaven and Hell upon a supposal that such there are But on a supposal that there are not nor an Existence after Death 'T is plain that None can be sent to us with a Certificate that there is None From whence 't is evident that the Believer must needs be much on the safest side because the Object of his Belief is under an evident Possibility of Demonstration whereas the Contrary to This is flatly Impossible to be prov'd Besides there is This great Difference too that if the Believer is deceiv'd he does but lose the short pleasures of vitious living but if the Incredulous is deceiv'd He incurs the long Torments or rather endless and so not long which will be one day the Wages of it § 21. But in dealing as I now do with the obstinate Skeptick or the affected Vnbeliever I onely argue from his own Principles of carnal Reason and common Sense And have spoken onely of Faith as the Child of Fear which is of the Flesh Not a word of That Faith which is the Fruit of Spirit and is not acquired but infus'd nor the product of Art but a work of Grace The Faith imported in my Text is of a far more sublime and transcendent