the most indisposed to render to one another For as Aristotle de Repub. lib. 1. pag. 298. hath observed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As man in his perfect state is the best of all Animals so separated from Law and Right he is the worst For out of Society we see his Nature presently degenerates and instead of being inclined to assist grows always most salvage and barbarous to his own kind Since therefore we have so much need of each others help Society is absolutely necessary to cherish and preserve in us our natural Benevolence towards one another without which instead of being mutually helpful we should be mutually mischievous For as the same Philosopher hath observed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. ibid. He that cannot contract Society with others or through his own Self-sufficiency doth not need it belongs not to any Commonwealth but is either a wild Beast or a God We being therefore so framed for Society and under such necessities of entring into it it hence necessarily follows that being associated together we are all obliged in our several Ranks and Stations so to behave our selves towards one another as is most for the Common Good of All and that since the Happiness of each particular Member of our Society redounds from the Welfare of the Whole and is involved in it we ought to esteem nothing good for our selves that is a Nuisance to the Publick Because whatsoever this suffers I and every man suffer and unless I could be happy alone that can never be for my Interest in particular that is against my Interest in common Now in such a mutual Behaviour as most conduces to our common Benefit and Happiness as we are in Society with one another consists all Social Virtue the proper Use and Design of which is to preserve our Society with one another and to render it a common Blessing to us all And hereunto five things are necessary viz. 1. That we be charitably disposed towards one another 2. That we be just and righteous in all our Intercourses with each other 3. That we behave our selves peaceably in our respective States and Relations 4. That we be very modest towards those that are Superiour to us in our Society whether it be in Desert or Dignity 5. That we be very treatable and condescending to all that are Inferiour to us Under these Particulars are comprehended all those Social Virtues upon which the Welfare and Happiness of Humane Society depends Now that the Practice of all these is included in the Christian Life and doth effectually conduce to our everlasting Happiness I shall endeavour particularly to prove And I. AS rational Creatures associated and so related to one another we are obliged to be kindly and charitably disposed towards each other For the end of our Society being mutually to aid and assist one another it is necessary in order hereunto that we should every one be kind and benevolent to every one that so we may be continually inclined mutually to aid and do good Offices to one another And so far as we fall short of this we fall short of the End of our Society For to be sure the less we love one another the less prone we shall be to promote and further each others Welfare and consequently the less Advantage we shall reap from our mutual Society But if instead of loving we malign and hate each other our Society will be so far from contributing to our Happiness that it will be only a means of rendring us more miserable For it will only furnish us with fairer Opportunities of doing Mischief to one another and that mutual Intercourse we shall have by being united together in Society will supply us with greater Means and Occasions to wreak our spight upon each other For Society puts us within each others reach and by that means if we are enemies renders us more dangerous to one another like two adverse Armies which when they are at a Distance can do but little hurt but when they are joined and mingled never want opportunities to destroy and butcher one another So that Hatred and Malice you see renders our Society a Plague and we were much better live apart poorly and solitarily and withdraw from one another as Beasts of Prey do into their separate Dens than continue in one anothers reach and be always liable as we must be while we are in Society to be baited and worried by one another AND as Hatred and Malice spoils all our Society in this Life and renders it worse than the most dismal Solitude so it will also in the other For whensoever the Souls of men do leave their Bodies they doubtless flock to the Birds of their own Feather and consort themselves with such separate Spirits as are of their own Genius and Temper For besides that good and bad Spirits are by the eternal Laws of the other World distributed into two separate Nations and there live apart from one another having no other Communication or Intercourse but what is between two Hostile Countries that are continually designing and attempting one against another so that when wicked Souls do leave this Terrestrial Abode and pass into Eternity they are presently incorporated by the Laws of that invisible State into the Nation of wicked Spirits and confined for ever to their most wretched Society and Converse besides this I say Likeness doth naturally congregate Beings and incline them to associate with those of their own Kind Now Rancour and Malice is the proper Character of the Devil and the natural Genius of Hell and consequently 't is by a malicious Temper of Mind that we are naturalized before-hand Subjects of the Kingdom of Darkness and qualified for the Conversation of Furies So that when we go from hence into Eternity this our malignant Genius will render us utterly averse to the friendly Society of Heaven and naturally press and incline us to consort with that wretched Nation of spightful and rancorous Spirits with whom we are already joined by a Likeness and Communion of Natures But O! much better were it for us to be shut up all alone for ever in some dark Hole of the World where we might converse only with our own melancholy Thoughts and never hear of any other being but our selves than to be continually plagued with such vexatious Company For though we who are spectators only of Corporeal Action cannot discern the manner how one Spirit acts upon another yet there is no doubt but Spiritual Agents can strike as immediately upon Spirits as bodily Agents can upon Bodies and supposing that these can mututually act upon one another there is no more doubt but they can mutually make each other feel each others Pleasures and Displeasures and that according as they are more or less powerful they can more or less aggrieve and afflict one another And if so what can be expected from a company of spightful and malicious Spirits joined in Society together but that their
Terrors and Allurements we should thereby disarm them of their main Strength and render them much less able to seduce us for the future And this methinks we might easily do if we would but fairly represent to our selves the present State and Posture of our Affairs For we are a sort of Beings that are every Moment travailing from hence to an eternal World where an unexpressible Happiness or Misery attends us and all that we enjoy or suffer in this Life is only the Convenience or Inconvenience of a short Journey to a long Home but can have no other Influence upon our everlasting Condition than as it is the Occasion either of our Virtue or Vice which are the only Goods and Evils that will accompany us to Eternity and make us happy or miserable there for ever But as for Poverty or Riches Pain or Pleasure Disgrace or Reputation they are things which probably within these ten or twenty Years will be as perfectly indifferent to us as our last Nights Dream was when we awoke in the Morning And this methinks duly considered were enough to render us very unconcerned at any Good or Evil that can happen to us here For what a mighty Matter is it whether I fare well or ill for twenty or thirty Years who when that is expired must be happy or miserable for Millions of Millions of Ages and what will these little Goods or Evils signifie to me when my Body is in the Grave and my Soul in Eternity When I am stript into a naked Spirit and set ashore upon the invisible World then all these things will be as if they never were and in the twinkling of an Eye I shall lose Sight of them for ever and of all that I enjoyed or suffered in this Life I shall have nothing remaining but my Virtue or Vice whose Issues will prove my eternal Happiness or Misery Doubtless would we but accustom our Minds to such Reflections as these they would effectually restrain us from the immoderate Love or Fear of the things of this World and reduce us to a constant and efficacious Persuasion that there is no Good in this World comparable to that of doing our Duty nor any Evil incident to us in this Life that is not infinitely less formidable than Sin And when once our Affection to this World and our Opinion of the Goods and Evils of it are thus moderated and rectified the Temptations to Sin will quite lose their hold of us and be no more able to fasten upon our Resolution So that now we may pass safely through them whilst they are sparkling about us there being no Tinder in our Breasts for them to catch fire and kindle upon Now they will be no longer capable to allure or affright us those bosom Orators being silenced that were wont to contend for them and to magnifie their Charms and Terrors and when we neither immoderately love nor fear them 't will be no hard matter to defend our Virtue and Innocence against all their Assaults and Importunities IV. TO our final Perseverance it is necessary that we should more curiously search into the smaller Defects and Indecencies of our Nature in order to our reforming and correcting them Hence we are commanded to hate even the garments spotted by the flesh Jude 23. i. e. to take care of the Beginnings of Sin of any thing that hath the least Spot or Infection of it and accordingly we are obliged not only to take care to rub out the greater Stains of our Nature but to be diligent that we may be found of our Lord in peace without spot and blameless 2 Pet. iii. 14 i. e. to indeavour to reform those smaller and more indiscernable Defects of our Nature which though they do not totally stain yet very much spot and blemish it that so at the coming of our Lord we may be found not only sincere and upright but as near as may be innocent and blameless For so Phil. ii 15 we are bid to be blameless harmless and without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation i. e. to endeavour so to demean our selves in this World as that we may appear not only honest for the main but so near as is possible spotless and unreproveable And indeed there is nothing doth more frequently occasion mens final Miscarriage in Religion than their not being careful and diligent in this matter When they first enter into the Christian Warfare they very industriously set themselves against that Course of wilful Sin in which they formerly lived and this were wondrous well if they did not stop here and go no farther but alas in the mean time while they are thus industriously busied in subduing their old Sins there are a great many lesser Flaws and Defects in their Nature which by a timely Care and Inspection they might easily correct but these they take no Notice of but quietly permit them to grow and increase till at last they become as hurtful dangerous to them as their old Sins were against which they have all this while so zealously contended As for Instance when they first entered upon a Resolution of Amendment they were profane it may be or sensual or vehemently adicted to Fraud and Oppression and against these they opposed themselves with great Zeal and Animosity and so far they did well but in the mean time perhaps there was Pride and Ostentation Envy and Peevishness Self-will and Censoriousness secretly budding and sprouting up in their Natures all which they might have easily cured by timely Applications but alas in the Heat of their Contest against their other Sins they never so much as minded or regarded these but e'en left them alone till they grew up into obstinate and inveterate Habits and became every whit as fatal and destructive to their Souls as those were which they have been all this while subduing and mortifying So that after all they have only changed their Sins and have been conjuring up one Devil while they have been laying another and whilst the Tide of their Wickedness hath been ebbing on this Shore it hath been flowing on the contrary and as it hath sunk in Sensuality it hath swelled into Devilishness Perhaps whilst you are zealously carrying on your Warfare against your old Sins you may find your selves too apt to be tickled with Applause and puff'd with vain Ostentation have a Care now that while you are starving one Vice you do not pamper another For if you do not correct this little Irregularity of your Nature betimes 't will soon be as dangerous and mischievous to you as ever any of those Vices were against which you are contending 't will by degrees so insinuate into your good Intentions and so sophisticate the Purity of them that at last you will intend nothing else but Applause and so your whole Religion will be converted into dead Shew and empty Pageantry and your spiritual Warfare will prove only a passage out of Profaneness
into naked Spirits yet if we go away into the other World with these Affections unmortified in us they will not only be far more violent and outragious than now and we shall not only have a far quicker Sense of them than now but this our sharp sense of them shall be pure and simple without any intermixture of Pleasure to soften and allay it And if so Good Lord what exquisite Devils and Tormentors will they prove when an extreme Rage and Hate Envy and Revenge shall be all together like so many hungry Vultures preying on our Hearts and our Mind shall be continually baited and worried with all the furious Thoughts which these outragious Passions can suggest to us When with the meagre Eyes of Envy we shall look up towards the Regions of Happiness and incessantly pine and grieve at the Felicities of those that inhabit them when through a sense of our own Follies and of the miserable Effects of them our Rage and Impatience shall be heightned and boiled up into a Diabolical Fury and when at the same time an Inveterate Malice against all that we converse with and a fierce desire of Revenging our selves upon those who have contributed to our Ruine shall like a Wolf in our Breasts be continually gnawing and feeding upon our Souls what an insupportable Hell shall we be to our selves Doubtless that Outward Hell to which bad Spirits are condemned is very terrible but I cannot imagine but that the worst of their Hell is within themselves and that their own Devillish Passions are severer Furies to them than all those Devils that are without them For Wrath and Envy Malice and Revenge are both the Nature and the Plague of Devils and though as Angels they are the Creatures of God yet as Devils they are the Creatures of these their Devillish Affections they were these that transformed them from Blessed Angels into Cursed Fiends and could they but once cease to be envious and malicious they would cease to be Devils and turn Blessed Angels again If then these rancorous Affections have such a malignant Influence as to blacken Angels into Devils and make them the most miserable who were once the most happy Creatures how can we ever expect to be happy so long as we indulge and harbour them WHEREFORE to remove this great Impediment of our Happiness Christianity strictly enjoins us to practise this necessary Virtue of Fortitude which consists in the due Regulation of all these our Irascible Affections in moderating our Anger and Impatience suppressing our Envy and extinguishing all our unreasonable Hatred and Desire of Revenge For hitherto tend all those Evangelical Precepts which require us to put away all bitterness and wrath all clamor and evil speaking and malice Ephes. iv 31 to lay aside all malice and to be children in malice 1 Pet. ii 1 1 Cor. xiv 20 to be strengthned with all might unto all patience and long suffering Coloss. i. 11 And accordingly all the Virtues which are comprehended in this of Fortitude are reckoned among the Fruits of that Blessed Spirit by which we are to be guided and directed Gal. v. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is peace long-suffering gentleness goodness and meekness all which are nothing but this great Virtue of Fortitude severally exerting it self upon those several Irascible Affections that are in us and guiding and regulating them according to those Laws and Directions which right Reason severally prescribes them and setting such Bounds and Limits to each of them as are necessary to the Peace and Happiness of our Rational Natures That so when Outward Dangers or Evils do excite them they may not start out into such wild Excesses as to become Plagues and Diseases to our Minds NOW how much the Practice of this Virtue conduces to our Heavenly Happiness is evident from hence That all the Diseases and Distemperatures which our Mind is capable of are nothing else but the Excesses of its Concupiscible and Irascible Affections but it s being affected with Good and Evil beyond those Limits and Measures which Right Reason prescribes Did we but love outward Goods according to the value at which true Reason rates them we should neither be vexed with an Impatient Desire of them while we want nor disappointed of our Expectation while we enjoy them And when our Desires towards these outward Goods are reduced to that Coolness and Moderation as neither to be impatient in the Pursuit nor dissatisfied in the Enjoyment of them it is impossible they should give any Disturbance to our Minds And so on the other hand did we but take care to regulate our Resentments of Outward Evils and Dangers as Right Reason advises they would never be able to hurt or discompose our Minds For Right Reason advises that we should not so resent them as to increase and aggravate them that we should not add the Disquietude of an anxious Fear to the Dangers that threaten us nor the Torment of an Outragious Anger to the Indignities that are offered us nor the Smart of a Peevish Impatience to the sufferings that befall us In a word that we should not aggravate our Want through an invidious Pining at anothers Fulness nor sharpen the Injuries that are offered us by a malicious and revengeful Resentment of them And he that follows these Advices of Reason and conducts his Irascible Affections by them has a Mind that is elevated above the Reach of Injury that sits above the Clouds in a calm and quiet Aether and with a brave Indifferency hears the rowling Thunders grumble and burst under its Feet And whilst Outward Evils fall upon timorous and peevish and malicious Spirits like Sparks of Fire upon a heap of Gunpowder and do presently blow them up and put them all in Combustion when they happen to a dispassionate Mind they fall like Stones on a Bed of Down where they sit easily and quietly and are received with a calm and soft Complyance When therefore by the continual Practice of Moderation and Fortitude we have tamed and civilized our Concupiscible and Irascible Affections and reduced them under the Government of Reason our Minds will be free from all Disease and Disturbance and we shall be liable to no other Evil but that of Bodily Sense and Passion So that when we leave our Bodies and go into the World of Spirits we shall presently feel our selves in perfect Health and Ease For the Health of a Reasonable Soul consists in being perfectly Reasonable in having all its Affections perfectly subdued to a well-informed Mind and clothed in the Livery of its Reason And while it is thus it cannot be diseased in that Spiritual State wherein it will be wholly separated from all bodily Sense and Passion because it has no Affection in it that can any way disturb or ruffle its calm and gentle Thoughts And then feeling all within it self to be well and as it should be every String tuned into a perfect Harmony every Motion and
Affection corresponding with the most perfect Draughts and Models of its own Reason it must needs highly approve of and be perfectly satisfied with it self and while it surveys its own Motions and Actions it must necessarily have a most delicious Gust and Rellish of them they being all such as its best and purest Reason approves of with a full and ungainsaying Judgment And thus the Soul being cured of all irregular Affection and removed from all corporeal Passion will live in perfect Health and Vigor and for ever enjoy within it self a Heaven of Content and Peace IV. ANOTHER Virtue which appertains to a man considered meerly as a Rational Animal is TEMPERANCE which consists in not indulging our Bodily Appetites to the Hurt and Prejudice of our Rational Nature Or in refraining from all those Excesses of Bodily Pleasure of Eating Drinking and Venery which do either disorder our Reason or indispose us to enjoy the pure and spiritual Pleasures of the Mind For besides that all Excesses of Bodily Pleasures are naturally prejudicial to our Reason as they indispose those Bodily Organs by which it operates For so Drunkenness dilutes the Brain which is the Mint of the Understanding and drowns those Images it stamps upon it in a Floud of unwholesome Rheums and Moistures and Gluttony cloggs the Animal Spirits which are as it were the Wings of the Mind and indisposes them for the Highest and Noblest Flights of Reason so Wantonness chafes the Bloud into Feverish Heats and by causing it to boil up too fast into the Brain disorders the motions of the Spirits there and so confounds the Phantasms that the Mind can have no clear or distinct Perception of them by which means our Intellectual Faculties are very often interrupted and forced to sit still for want of proper Tools to work with and so by often loitering grow by degrees listless and unactive and at the last are utterly indisposed to any Rational Operations Besides this I say which must needs be a mighty prejudice to our Rational Nature by too much familiarizing our selves to bodily Pleasures we shall break off all our acquaintance with spiritual ones and grow by degrees such utter strangers to them that we shall never be able to rellish and enjoy them and our Soul will contract such an Vxorious Fondness of the Body that being the Shop of all the Pleasure it was ever acquainted with that 't will never be able to live happily without it For though in its separate state it cannot be supposed that the Soul will retain the Appetites of the Body yet if while it is in the Body it wholly abandons it self to Corporeal Pleasures it may and doubtless will retain a vehement hankering after it and longing to be re-united to it which I conceive is the only sensuality that a separated Soul is capable of For when such a Soul arrives into the Spiritual World her having wholly accustomed her self to bodily Pleasure and never experienced any other will necessarily render her incapable of enjoying the Pleasures of pure and blessed Spirits So that being left utterly destitute of all her dear Delights and Satisfactions which are such as she knows she can never enjoy but in conjunction with the Body all her Appetite and Longing must necessarily be an outragious Desire of being Embodied again that so she may be capable of repeating her old sensual Pleasures and acting over the brutish Scene anew AND this as some think is the Reason why such gross and sensual Souls have appeared so often after their separation in the Churchyards or Charnel-Houses where their Bodies were laid because they cannot please themselves without them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The soul that is infected with a great Lust to the Body continues so for a great while after Death and suffering great Reluctancies hovers about this visible place and is hardly drawn from thence by force by the Demon that hath the Guard and Care of it Where by the visible Place he means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is About their Monuments and Sepulchres where the shadowy Phantasms of such Souls have sometimes appeared For being utterly unacquainted with the Pleasures of Spirits they have nothing in all the spiritual world to feed their hungry Desire which makes them when they are permitted to wander to hover about and linger after their Bodies the Impossibility of being re-united to them not being able to cure them of their impotent Desire of it but still they would fain be alive again and reassume their old Instruments of Pleasure Iterumque ad tarda reverti Corpora Quae lucis miseris tam dira Cupido And hence among other Reasons it was that the Primitive Christians did so severely abstain from Bodily Pleasures that by this means they might gently wean the Soul from the Body and teach it before hand to live upon the Delights of separated Spirits that so upon its separation it might drop into Eternity like ripe Fruit from the Tree with Ease and Willingness and that by accustoming it before to spiritual Pleasures and Delights it might acquire such a savoury Sense and Relish of them as to be able when it came into the spiritual world to live wholly upon them and to be so intirely satisfied with them as not to be endlesly vext with a tormenting Desire of returning to the Body again For so Clemens Alexandrinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We that are hunting after the Heavenly Food must take heed that we keep our Earthly Belly in subjection and to keep a strict Government over those things that are pleasant to it For saith he a little before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither saith he is Food our Work nor Pleasure our Aim but we use them only as necessaries to our present Abode in which our Reason is instituting and training us up to a Life incorruptible i. e. They did so use them as that as much as in them lay they might wean their Souls from the pleasures of them that so they might have the better Appetite to that Spiritual Food upon which they were to live for ever AND therefore thus to temperate and restrain our selves in the Use of bodily Pleasures is one of the necessary Virtues of the Christian Life For hitherto tend all those Precepts concerning abstaining from fleshly lusts which war against our Souls I Pet. ii 11 and mortifying the deeds of the Body Rom. viii 13 and keeping under the Body 1 Cor. ix 27 and putting off the body of the sins of the Flesh Coloss. ii 11 And we are strictly enjoined to be temperate in all things to watch and be sober and walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in excess of wine revellings and banquettings The sense of all which is That we should not indulge our bodily Appetites to the vitiating and depraving of our spiritual that we should not plunge our selves so far in
or Authority sufficiently warrants him so to do And being thus rightfully enthroned by the infinite Preeminence of his own Power and Majesty all other Beings so far as they are capable stand immutably obliged to submit and resign themselves up to his Government BUT besides that we are obliged to him as he is God we are also bound to him as he is our Creatour For there is always a Power acquired by Benefits where there is none antecedently especially where the Benefit confer'd is no less than that of our Being which is the case between us and God And this is such a Benefit as is sufficient to entitle him to us by an absolute and unalienable Propriety though he had no antecedent right of Dominion over us by virtue of his own infinite Greatness So that though before he created us or any other Being he had free Power to act any thing that lay within the compass of just and lawful which just and lawful was undefineable by any other Law but that of his own Nature and though since his Creation his Power is no more than so so that he hath not acquired to himself any new Power by creating us but only made new Subjects whereon to exercise that ancient Power and Dominion which was eternally inherent in him yet doubtless by giving us our Beings he hath laid new Obligations upon us to obey him For now deriving our selves as we do from him we are bound by all the ties of Equity and Justice to render back our selves to him and to submit those powers to his Dominion which are the effects and off-spring of his Bounty For what can be more just and equal than that that Will which is the Cause of our Beings should be the Law and Rule of our Actions then that we should serve him with those Powers we derived from him and render him back the fruits of his own Plantation For now we are not our own but Gods and He alone hath power to dispose of us and whensoever we dispose of our selves contrary to his Will and Pleasure we do not only invade his Property but employ the spoils of it against him And whilst we continue thus doing it is impossible we should ever be happy For besides that while we continue in Rebellion against him we are in an actual Confederacy with Hell for so when we are told that Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft that is Rebellion against God the meaning is that like Witches we are in League with the Devil and are listed Volunteers under those infernal Powers who for blowing the Trumpet of Rebellion in Heaven were banished thence six thousand years ago and have ever since been raising Forces in this lower World against God so that whilst we continue with them in Defiance to God we are in the Devils Muster-Roll who is Captain General of all the revolted Legions and so are of the quite opposite Party to the Loyal people of Heaven and consequently can never hope while we continue such to be admitted to their Society and Happiness besides all this I say Rebellion against God doth naturally draw a Hell of Miseries after it For it cannot be supposed that the wise Sovereign of the World should be so unconcerned for his own Authority as to suffer his Creatures to spurn at and affront it without ever manifesting his Displeasure against them in some dire and sensible Effects And therefore though in this Life which is the time of our Tryal and Probation he mercifully forbears us to lead us to Repentance yet if we leave this Life with our Wills unsubdued and unresigned to him we must not expect to be thus gently dealt with in the other For it is as easie for him who is the Father of our Spirits to correct our Spirits as 't is for the Parents of our Flesh to correct our Flesh. And though our Souls are no more impressible with material stripes than Sun-beams are with the blows of a hammer yet are they liable to have horrid and dismal thoughts impress'd upon them and to be as much aggrieved by them as sensible Bodies are with the most exquisite Torments So that if God be displeased with us there is no doubt but he can imprint his Wrath upon our Minds in black and ghastly thoughts and cause it perpetually to drop like burning sulphur on our Souls And it being in his Power thus to lash our Spirits to be sure when once he is implacably incensed against us as he will be in the other World if we go Rebels thither he will more or less let loose his Power upon us and make us feel his wrathful Resentments by infusing supernatural Horrours into our Souls and scourging our guilty and defenceless Spirits with inspirations of dire and frightful Thoughts Now though this be not a natural and necessary Effect of our Rebellion against God because it depends upon his Will who is a free Agent yet considering that he is a wise Agent and that as such it is necessary he should one way or other manifest his Displeasure against such as are unreclaimable Rebels to his authority it is next to a natural one and at least the fearful Expectation of it in such rebellious spirits which is a misery next to the enduring it is necessary and unavoidable For God hath imprinted a dread of his own Power and Majesty so deeply on our Natures that we are not able with all our arts of Self-deceit wholly to obliterate and deface it and though in this life we may sometimes suppress and stupifie our Sense of God yet even here in despight of our selves 't will ever and anon return upon us And if when we have done what we know is offensive to that invisible Majesty we stand in aw of we do but suffer our selves seriously to reflect upon it there presently arises in our minds a swarm of horrid Thoughts and dismal Expectations and if in this present State in which we have so many Salvo's for our wounded spirits so many Pleasures and Self-delusions to charm our natural dread of God our overcharged Consciences do notwithstanding so often recoil upon us and alarm us with such dismal abodings what will they do hereafter when all those Pleasures are removed and all those Self-delusions baffled with which we were wont to sooth and divert them Then doubtless we shall be continually stung with sharp and dire Reflections and our Consciences like tragick Scenes be all hung round with the Ensigns of Horrour then shall the dread of God perpetually haunt us like a grim Fury and the terrour of his offended Majesty strike us into an everlasting Trembling and Agony For so S. James tells us that the Devils themselves do believe and tremble James ii 19 they believe that there is an Almighty Being above them and are conscious that they are in actual Rebellion against him which makes them horribly afraid of his vengeance and yet such is the inveterate devilishness of their
Endeavour So that unless thou wilt still go along with me and still quicken and animate me by thy blessed Spirit my Work is so great and my Strength so little that it will be in vain for me to proceed any farther These importunate Temptations that surround me will quickly conquer my present Resolution and I shall do as I have too often done already resolve and sin and sin and resolve and so increase my Guilt by the Treachery of my Vows and Engagements Wherefore for Jesus Christ his sake withdraw not thy self from me but continue to assist my weak Endeavours by thy powerful Grace till thou hast crown'd them with a perfect Victory For which End I beseech thee inspire me more and more with Patience and Constancy of Mind that I may stand fast in my good Resolution in despite of all Temptations to the contrary Suggest to my Mind those holy Examples thou hast set before me especially that of my blessed Saviour and incline my Heart to coppy and imitate them Direct me to some wise and faithful Guide that may be willing and able to assist me in all my spiritual Necessities and by frequently exciting me to dedicate my Actions to thee do thou purifie my Intentions from sinful and from carnal Aims that so I may always live to thy Glory And since thou art present with me wherever I am and dost always behold me whatsoever I am doing O do thou inspire me with such a strong continual and actual Sense of it as may be a constant Check to my sinful Inclinations and render me afraid of offending thee Let thy blessed Spirit be my constant Monitor to put me in mind to consider my Ways and frequently to examine my Actions that so whenever I go astray I may be immediatly convinc'd of it and by my speedy Repentance recover my self before I have wandered too far from my Duty And grant I beseech thee that the sense of my past Failings may still render me more watchful and circumspect for the future that whensoever I have been carelesly or wilfully faulty I may from thenceforth be more cautious of my Actions and more vigilant against the Temptations that betrayed me And that I may not run my self unnecessarily into Temptation for the future preserve me O Lord from sloth and idleness and from intermedling with matters that do not belong to me and do thou still put me in mind to do my own Business and to be faithful and diligent in the State and Calling wherein thou hast placed me And that I may always serve thee with Freedom and Alacrity remove from me I beseech thee all unprofitable Sadness and Melancholy and help me to acquire an equal Tranquillity of Mind and a becoming Chearfulness of Spirit For which end Good Lord do thou inspire me with a lively Sense and earnest Expectation of that blissful State towards which I am travelling that having this glorious Prospect always in my Eye I may go on with Joy and Triumph over all the Difficulties and Temptations that oppose me And that by all these means I may be more and more strengthened and confirmed in the good Resolution I have made do thou stir up my slothful mind to a dilligent Attendance on thy publick Ordinances that so in the solemn Assemblies of thy Saints I may constantly hear thy Word with Reverence and Attention offer up my Prayers with Fervency and Devotion and approach thy Table with all that Humility and Love Gratitude and Resignation of Soul that becomes this solemn Remembrance and Representation of my dying Saviour In these things and whatsoever else is needful to secure my Resolution of Obedience assist me O Lord for Jesus Christ his sake to whom with thy self and eternal Spirit be render'd all Honor Glory and Power from his time forth and for evermore After this Prayer bethink your self a little what Temptations you are like to meet with in the ensuing Business of the Day and briefly recollect those powerful Arguments which the Gospel urges to fortifie you against them and apply them particularly to the Sin or Sins you are most inclined to and then renew your Resolution to God in the following Prayer O God who art my Hope and Strength upon whose Aid and Assistance I depend look down I beseech thee upon a poor helpless Creature who am going forth into a busie World that is full of Snares and Temptations Blessed be thy Name my Heart continues still resolved upon a through Course of Amendment and therefore here in thy dreadful Presence I do again most solemnly promise and ingage my self that whatsoever Temptations I meet with this Day I will not wilfully commit any Sin no not the Sin I am most inclined to nor omit any Duty how contrary soever it may be too my Nature and that I will faithfully indeavour to keep such a constant Guard upon my self as that I may not be surprized and overtaken through my own Inadvertence and Vnwariness But this O Lord I promise not out of any Confidence in my own Strength but in Dependence upon thee and in Hope that out of thy tender Pity to a poor impotent Wretch thou wilt not be wanting to me in any necessary Assistance but that either thou wilt remove from me all great and importunate Temptations or inable me by thy Grace to repel and vanquish them and this I do most earnestly beseech in the Name and Mediation of Jesus Christ with whose Prayer I conclude this my morning Sacrifice Our Father c. In the Evening when you find your self best disposed for religious Exercise set apart such Portions of your Time as you can conveniently spare from your necessary Refreshment and Diversion to call your self to Account concerning the Actions of the Day and enquire whether they have been agreeable to your Morning Promise and Resolution and upon Enquiry you will find either that you have faithfully discharged what you promised or that you have sinned unawares or through Carelesness and Self-neglect or that you have sinned wilfully and against your own Conscience If upon Enquiry it appear that you have been faithful to your Morning Engagement represent to your self the great Reason you have to rejoice in it and to praise God for it and then offer up this following Thanksgiving BLessed be thy Name O most gracious and merciful Father for those great and numberless Favours which from time to time thou hast heaped upon me who am less than the least of all thy Mercies particularly for the signal Mercies of this Day for that thou hast not shut thine Ears against my Prayers nor withdrawn thy self from me but hast accompanied me with thy Grace through all those Snares and Temptations to which I have been exposed Praised be thy Name that thou hast not suffered me to be tempted above what I was able that thou hast so powerfully assisted me against those Temptations I have been ingag'd with and by putting so many good Thoughts into my
and for evermore Amen After this Thanksgiving consider briefly with your self the indispensible Necessity of your Perseverance to the End and how not only vain and fruitless but also hurtful and mischievous to you all your past Labour in Religion will be without it and then conclude your morning Devotion with this Prayer for Perseverance O God who art unchangeably holy and blessed who art the same yesterday to day and for ever and dost never swerve or vary from the essential Goodness and Purity of thy own Nature look down I beseech thee upon me a fickle weak and mutable Creature whom thou hast redeemed to thy self and hitherto conducted by thy Grace and Spirit Thou knowest O Lord the Weakness of my Nature and how unable I am without thy Strength and Assistance to finish the Race which thou hast set before me thou knowest what Temptations I must struggle with and what Difficulties I must yet overcome before I am seiz'd of the blessed Prize I am contending for wherefore since thou hast hitherto been my constant Support and Defence forsake me not now for thy Names sake but as thou hast begun a good Work in me so I beseech thee to finish and compleat it to uphold my feeble Soul by thy free Spirit under all Temptations and Difficulties that so by patient continuance in well-doing I may seek for and at last obtain honour and glory immortality and eternal life For which end O Lord preserve me from being over-confident of my own Abilities and inspire me with a holy Jealousie of my self that whilst I stand I may take heed lest I fall And if at any time I should be so base and so unhappy as to offend thee wilfully which I beseech thee to prevent for thy Mercy and Compassion sake O suffer me not to sleep in my Sin but recal me instantly by the Checks of my Conscience and the Convictions of thy Spirit lest while I add Sin to Sin and one degree of Wickedness to another my Lusts should regain their Dominion over me and thou shouldest be angry with me and reject me from thy Covenant for ever And that I may every Day serve thee more freely and stedfastly wean me I beseech thee more and more from those Temptations to Sin that are round about me and give me such a true understanding of the Nature of all the Goods and Evils of this World as that neither the Flatteries of the one nor the Terrors of the other may ever be able to withdraw me from my Duty And lest while I am mortifying my old Sins I should carelesly permit new ones to spring up in my Nature good God do thou mind me to search and try my own Heart and take a severe Account even of the smallest Defects and Imperfections within me that so I may correct and reform them in time before they are improved into inveterate Habits And grant that I may be always so sensible of my own Imperfection as that I may never rest in any present Attainment but may still be pressing forward to the mark of my high calling in Jesus Christ. Suggest to me I beseech thee frequent Thoughts of my Mortality that so while I have Time and Opportunity I may be preparing for my Departure hence and making provision for a dying hour In order whereunto assist me O Lord I beseech thee strictly to examin and review my past sinful Courses that so if there be any remains of Guilt abiding upon my Conscience I may purge them away by proper Acts of Repentance before I go hence and be no more seen And grant that as I have formerly abounded in Sin so I may now redeem that precious Time I have lost by abounding in the contrary Vertues that so as far as in me lies I may revoke and undo the multitude of my past Sins by doing all the Good I am able for the future And that I may hold out and persevere to the end preserve and continue me in the Communion of thy Church and suffer me not to be led away by the errors of the wicked and to fall from my own stedfastness And finally I beseech thee to grant that in the use of these blessed Means I may so far prevail over the Infirmities and Corruptions of my Nature as that at last I may have a clear and certain Feeling of my own Integrity and Vprightness towards thee that so being from thence assur'd of thy Love and of my Title to eternal Happiness I may run the ways of thy commandments more chearfully and at last finish my Course with unspeakable joy And now O Lord I resign my self to thee take me I beseech thee into thy Care and Protection this Day preserve me from all Evil but especially from Sin and quicken me by thy Spirit unto every good work that so I may serve thee with a free and cheerful Mind and make it my meat and drink to do thy blessed will All which I humbly beg for Jesus Christ his sake in whose Name and Mediation I further pray Our Father c. In the Evening when you enter into your Closet consider what is the present Frame and Temper of your Mind and upon Enquiry you will perceive either that through the present Prevalency of your corrupt Nature you are averse to divine Offices or that through bodily Infirmity you are indisposed to them or that through Worldly-mindedness and Vanity of Spirit you are cold and apt to be distracted in them or lastly that your Heart is very much enlarged and your Mind and Affections vigorously disposed towards divine and heavenly things If upon Enquiry you find that through the present Prevalency of your corrupt Nature you are averse to divine Offices indeavour to affect your self with Shame and Sorrow for it by representing to your Mind the great Impiety and Baseness the monstrous Folly and Ingratitude of this your present Temper and then offer up this following Prayer O My most gracious God and most kind and merciful Father thou art the best Friend I have in all the World and hast shewn a thousand times more Love to me than ever I shew'd to my self but after all the vast and most indearing Obligations thou hast laid upon me this vile and ungrateful Heart of mine still retains some Dregs of its antient Enmity against thee Had I but the common Sense and Ingenuity of a Man in me how could I think of thee without Raptures of Love how could I draw neer unto thee without Transports of Delight and Complacency But vile and ungrateful that I am I can think of all thy Goodness with cold and frozen Affections and can come into thy Presence not only with Indifference but Reluctancy Good God what am I made of what an insensible Soul do I carry about me O I am asham'd of my self I am confounded with the sense of my own Baseness and yet woe is me I cannot help it I strive to shake off this Clog of my corrupt
Nature but still it hangs upon me and sinks and weighs down my Soul as oft as 't is aspiring towards thee O my God have pity upon me deliver me from this Body of Sin ease my weary and heavy laden Soul of this grievous Burthen under which it labours and groans and suffer not this spark of divine Life which thou hast kindled in me to be opprest and extinguisht by it but so cherish it I beseech thee with the continual Influences of thy Grace as that it may at length it may break through all this Rubbish that suppresses it and finally rise into a glorious Flame Then shall I always approach thee with Joy and breath up my Soul to thee in every Prayer then shall my Heart be firmly united to thee in a devout and chearful Affection and my Prayers shall come up as incense before thee and breathe a sweet-smelling savour into thy Nostrils Hear me therefore O my God I beseech thee and strengthen me with all might in the inward man that for the future I may contend more vigorously and successfully against these vile Inclinations of my Nature which do so miserably hamper and depress my soul that so at last I may be a conqueror and more than a conquerer through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen If through any bodily Infirmity such as Melancholy Weariness Drousiness or Sickness you find your self indisposed to divine Offices indeavour to quicken your sluggish Mind with the Consideration of some one of the most moving Arguments of your Religion such as the Love of God and of your Saviour the Majesty of Gods Presence in which you are or the blessed Immortality you hope for and then address your self to God in this following Prayer O Blessed God thou art a most pure and active Spirit who doest always move with an uncontrolable Freedom and art never hindred or wearied in thy Operations have pity upon me I beseech thee thy poor infirm Creature who am cumbred with this Body of death and so deprest by its manifold Frailties that I cannot lift up my Heart unto thee Thou knowest O Lord my spirit is willing though my flesh is weak my labouring Soul aspires towards thee it stretches forth the Wings of its Desires toward thee and would fain mount up above all earthly things and unite it self with thee in eternal Love but alas its Fervours are dampt and its Endeavours tired by this clog of Flesh that hangs upon it and perpetually sinks and weighs it down again O my God draw near unto me and touch my Mind with such a powerful sense of thee as in despight of these my bodily Indispositions may attract and draw up my Soul unto thee And if it be thy blessed will release me from these fleshly Incumbrances and fit my Body to my Mind that I may serve thee as I desire to do with a fervent and a chearful Spirit But if it shall seem good in thine Eyes to leave me strugling under these bodily Oppressions Lord give me Patience and Submission to thy heavenly Will that so when I cannot approach thee with that Pleasure and Satisfaction I desire I may be heartily content to serve thee upon any Terms and that what I want of Vigour and Chearfulness in my Religion I may make up in Truth and in Reality And O let the Sense of these my present Indispositions cause me more vehemently to long after that free and blessed State wherein with fixt and steady Thoughts with flagrant Love and an entire Devotion of Soul I shall for ever worship praise and glorifie thy name Amen If through present Worldly-mindedness or Vanity of Spirit you find your self cold and apt to be distracted in your Religious Offices indeavour to stir up your Affections by representing to your self the Greatness and Urgency of your spiritual Wants the Vanity of all outward things and the Reality and Fulness of heavenly Enjoyments And do what you can to recollect your wandring Thoughts by setting your self in the Presence of the great God to whose All-seeing Eye every Thought and Motion of your Soul is open and naked And when by thus doing you have composed your Mind into a more serious Frame present this following Prayer O Thou ever blessed Majesty who fillest Heaven and Earth with thy Presence and art always listening to the Supplications of a world of Creatures that hang upon thee open I beseech thee thine Ears of Mercy to me who am unfit and unworthy to approach thee who by setting my Affections upon things below and plunging my self into the Cares and Pleasures of this Life have estrang'd and alienated my Mind from thee and lost that delightful Relish of thee with which I was wont to draw near unto thee And now that I am retired from the World to converse with thee and spread my wants and my desires before thee those worldly Cares and Delights with which I have been too too conversant are importunately thrusting themselves upon me to divert my Thoughts distract my Intentions and carry away my Affections from thee by reason whereof my Mind wanders my Hope droops and my Desires are frozen and whilst I am drawing near thee with my lips my heart is running away from thee O my God have pity upon me pluck my Soul out of this deep mire quicken raise and spiritualize these my groveling Affections Possess this Heart which opens it self to thy gracious Influences with such a strong and vigorous Love to thee as may lift me up above all earthly things and continually carry forth my Soul in vehement Desires after thee that so I may always approach thee with a joyful Heart being glad to leave the company of all other things to go to thee my God my exceeding Joy Give me a sober diligent and collected spirit that is neither choaked with Cares nor scattered with Levity nor discomposed with Passion nor estranged from thee with sinful Prejudice or Inadvertency but fix it fast to thy self with the Indissoluble Bands of an active Love and pregnant Devotion that so when-ever I prostrate my self before thee I may presently be born away far above all these sensible Goods in a high Admiration of thee and a passionate Longing after thee And now O Lord while I am addressing to thee gather in I beseech thee my wandering Thoughts and fix and stay them upon thy self And O do thou touch my cold and earthy Desires with an out-stretched Ray from thy self and cause them to rise and flame up to thee in Fervours answerable to my pressing Wants that I may so ask as that I may receive so seek as that I may find so knock as that it may be opened unto me through Jesus Christ my blessed Lord and Redeemer Amen If after this you find your Heart is very much enlarged and your Mind and Affections vigorously disposed towards God and heavenly things fix your Mind a little while upon the Beauty and Excellency of his Nature or upon some of the most
consists in Virtue and true Goodness it hence follows that all the Religion of the Means is insignificant to our Reconciliation with God if it doth not render us truly virtuous So that till this is effected there is so vast a Gulph between God and Us that neither We can go to Him nor He come to Vs and unless he alter his Nature by becoming impure as we are impure or we alter ours by becoming pure as He is pure there will be so immense a Distance between Him and Us as that it is impossible we should ever meet and agree So that what the Prophet saith of Sacrifice may be truly affirmed of all Religion of the Means Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or with ten thousands of Rivers of Oyl will He be reconciled upon our bare believing praying or receiving Sacraments c. No no He hath shewed thee O man what is good And what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Mich. vi 7 8. II. THIS Religion of the Means is of no farther Use as to the perfecting our Natures than as it is instrumental to produce and promote in us those Heavenly Virtues which are implied in the Religion of the End For doubtless to be a Perfect Man is to live up to the Highest Principle of Humane Nature which is Reason and till we are once released from the slavery of Sense and Passion and all our Powers of Action are so subdued to this superiour Principle as to be wholly regulated by it and we chuse and refuse and love and hate and hope and fear and desire and delight according as right Reason directs we are in a maimed and imperfect Condition Now what else is Virtue but a Habit of Living according to the Laws of Reason or of demeaning our selves towards God our selves and all the World as best becomes Rational Beings placed in our Condition and Circumstances And till we are in some measure arrived to this our Nature is so far from being perfect that it is the most wretched and confused thing in the whole world A more undistinguished Chaos where Frigida cum Calidis Sense and Reason Brute and Man are shuffled together without any order like a confounded Heap of Ruines And therefore as for this Religion of the Means it will be altogether insignificant to the Perfection of our Natures unless by the Practice of it we do acquire a Habit of acting according to the Law of our Reason which Habit includes all Heavenly Virtue For constantly to know and do what is best and most reasonable is the very Crown and Perfection of every reasonable Nature and therefore so far as our Faith and Consideration our Sorrow for Sin and the other Instrumentals of Religion promote this Heavenly Habit in us so far are they perfective of our Nature and no farther III. THIS Religion of the Means is of no farther Use to Us as to the Entitling us to Heaven than as it is productive of those Heavenly Virtues which the Religion of the End implies For our Title to Heaven depending wholly upon Gods Promise must immediately result from our performance of those Conditions upon which he hath promised it which till we have done we can have no more Claim or Title to it than if he had never promised it at all But the sole Condition upon which he hath promised it is Universal Righteousness and Goodness for so without Holiness we are assured that no man shall see God and Mat. v. our Saviour intails all the Beatitudes of Heaven upon those Heavenly Virtues of Purity of Heart Benignity of Temper c. So also Rom. ii 7 the Promise of Eternal Life is limited to our Patient Continuance in well doing And that we may know before hand what to trust to our Saviour plainly tells us that not every one that cries Lord Lord that makes solemn Prayers and Addresses to me shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven And this is the will of God saith the Apostle even our Sanctification that is our being purged from all Impurities of Flesh and Spirit and inspired with all Heavenly Virtues And the Apostle expresly enumerates those Virtues upon which our Entrance into Eternal Life is promised 2 Pet. i. 5 6 7 8. Add to your Faith Virtue and to Virtue Knowledge and to Knowledge Temperance and to Temperance Patience and to Patience Godliness and to Godliness Brotherly Kindness and to Brotherly Kindness Charity For if these things be in you and abound saith he they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the Knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ that is That you shall receive the proper Fruit of that Knowledge which is Eternal Life for thus v. xi he goes on For so or upon this Condition an Entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. So that unless our Faith purifies our Hearts and works by Love unless our sorrow for Sin works in us Repentance or a Change of Mind unless our Prayers raise in us Divine and Heavenly Affections that is unless we so practise the Duties of the Religion of the Means as thereby to acquire the Virtues of the Religion of the End it will be all as insignificant to our Title to Heaven as the most indifferent Actions in the World IV. THIS Religion of the Means is of no farther Use to the disposing and qualifying us for Heaven than as it is an effectual means of the Religion of the End Which is a perfectly distinct Consideration from the former For it would be no advantage to us to have a Right to Heaven unless we were antecedently qualified and disposed for it Because Pleasure which is a Relative thing implies a Correspondence and Agreement between the Object and the Faculty that tasts and enjoys it But in the Temper of every wicked Mind there is a strong Antipathy to the Pleasures of Heaven which being all chast and pure and spiritual can never agree with the vitiated Palat of a base and degenerate Soul For what concord can there be between a spiteful and devilish Spirit and the Fountain of all Love and Goodness between a sensual and carnalized one that understands no other Pleasures but only those of the Flesh and those Pure and Virgin Spirits that neither eat nor drink but live for ever upon Wisdom and Holiness and Love and Contemplation Certainly till our Mind is contempered to the Heavenly State and we are of the same disposition with God and Angels and Saints there is no Pleasure in Heaven that can be agreeable to us For as for the main we shall be of the same Temper and Disposition when we come into the other World as we are when we leave this it being unimaginable how a Total Change should be wrought in us meerly
Country and live a great way off from the Heavenly City have as yet no Domicilium in Vrbe no actual Possession of any of its blessed Mansions are notwithstanding Free Denizens of it and have by Covenant a Right to all those blessed Priveledges which its Inhabitants do actually enjoy From whence it is evident that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that Text referrs to their being Citizens of Heaven and as such it earnestly exhorts them to behave themselves to live as those who being now in a remote Country are yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle expresses it Ephes. ii 19 i. e. Fellow-Citizens with the Saints above that are connaturalized with them into that Heavenly Commonwealth And being thus understood the Apostles Advice will comprehend in it both those kind of Means which I have before described For to live as Cittizens of Heaven is First to live like those who are the Inhabitants of Heaven to imitate their blessed Manners and Behaviour in doing the Will of God upon Earth as it is done by them in Heaven and this takes in the Practice of all those Heavenly Virtues of which the Religion of the End consists Secondly To live like those that have a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Citizenship in Heaven that are entitled by Covenant to the Priviledges and Immunities of it but are as yet to win its Possession by a continual Warfare and Contention with those manifold Difficulties and Oppositions which lie in our way to it and this takes in the Practice of all those Duties in which the Religion of the Means consists So that to live like Christians or as becomes the Gospel is to live in the continual Use of both kinds of the Means of Happiness So that the Christian Conversation consisting of these Two is the only full and adequate Means by which Heaven can be obtained BUT that I may make this more fully appear I shall consider these two parts of it distinctly and indeavour to shew how effectually each of them doth contribute in its kind to our obtaining the Happiness of Heaven And First I shall begin with the Proximate Means viz. The Practice of all those Heavenly Virtues which are implied in the Religion of the End and do make the Heavenly Part of the CHRISTIAN LIFE CHAP. III. Concerning the Heavenly Part of the Christian Life which is the Proximate Means of obtaining Heaven shewing what Virtues it consists of and how much every Virtue contributes to the Happiness of Heaven VIRTUE in the general consists in a suitable Behaviour to the State and Capacities in which we are placed Now Man who is the Subject of that Virtue we are here discoursing of is to be considered under a threefold Capacity The First is of a Rational Animal the Second of a Rational Animal related to God the Third of a Rational Animal related to all other Creatures And these are the only capacities of Virtue that are in Humane Nature So that all the Virtues we are obliged to and capable of consist in behaving our selves suitably to the State and Condition of Rational Animals that are related to God and their Fellow Creatures BY which three Capacities of our Nature the Virtue or Suitableness of Behaviour which we stand obliged to is distinguished into three kinds viz. The Humane The Divine and The Social Humane Virtue consists in behaving our selves suitably to the State and Capacity of mere Rational Animals Divine Virtue consists in behaving our selves suitably to the Condition of Rational Animals related to God Social Virtue consists in behaving our selves suitably to the Capacity of Rational Animals related to their Fellow Creatures but especially to Rational Creatures that are of the same Class and Society with us THAT I may therefore proceed more distinctly in this Argument I shall endeavour to shew what those Vertues of the Christian Life are which are proper to a man in each of these Capacities and how much each of those Virtues contributes to the Happines of Heaven SECT I. Concerning those Humane Virtues which belong to a Man as he is a Reasonable Animal shewing that they are all included in the Heavenly Part of the Christian Life and that the Practice of them effectually conduces to our future Happiness FIRST we will consider Man in the Capacity of a meer Rational Animal that is compounded of contrary Principles viz. Spirit and Matter or a Rational Soul and Humane Body by which Composition He is as it were the Buckle of both Worlds in whom the Spiritual and Material World are clasped and united together and partaking as he does of both Extreams of Spirit and Matter Angel and Brute there arise within him from those contrary Natures contrary Propensions viz. Rational and Sensual or Angelical and Brutish And in the due Subordination of these his Sensual to his Rational Propensions consists all Humane Virtue For his Reason being the noblest Principle of his Nature must be supposed to be implanted in him by God to rule and govern him to be an Eye to his blind and bruitish Affections to correct the Errours of his Imagination to bound the Extravagancies of his Appetites and regulate the whole Course of his Actions so as that he may do nothing that is destructive or injurious to this excellent Frame and Structure of his Nature But now in this compounded Nature of a Man there are his Concupiscible and Irascible Affections with the first of which he desires and pursues his Pleasures and with the second he shuns and avoids his Dangers and there are also Bodily Appetites such as Hunger Thirst and Carnal Concupiscence and together with these a Self-Esteem and Valuation all which are the natural Subjects of his Reason and indeed the only Subjects upon which it is to exercise its Dominion So that in the well and ill Government of these consists all Humane Virtue and Vice To the perfect well governing therefore of a mans self there are Five things indispensably necessary 1. That He should impartially consult his Reason what is absolutely best for him and by what means it is best attainable and and then constantly pursue what it proposes and directs him to For so far as he is wanting in this he casts off the Government of his Reason 2. That he should proportion his Concupiscible Affections to the just value which his Reason sets upon those things which he affects For every Degree of Affection which exceeds the merit of Things is irrational and consequently injurious to our Rational Nature 3. That he should not suffer his Irascible Affections to exceed those Evils and Dangers which he would avoid For if he doth they will prove greater Evils to him than those Evils or Dangers are which raise and provoke them 4. That he should not indulge his Bodily Appetites to the Hurt and Prejudice of his Rational Nature For if he does he will violate the nobler for the sake of the viler Part of Himself And 5. That upon the
Satisfaction and necessarily renders us by so many Degrees miserable as it exceeds the real worth and value of Things BESIDES which also it is to be considered that all these lesser Goods which are the Objects of our Extravagant Affections are things which we must ere long be for ever deprived of For the lesser Goods are those which are only good for the worser Part of us that is for our Body and Animal Life the proper Goods whereof are the Outward Sensitive Enjoyments of this World All which when we leave this world we must leave for ever and go away into Eternity with nothing about us but only the Good or Bad Dispositions of our Souls So that if our Soul be carnalized through our immoderate Affection to the things of this World we shall carry that Affection with us but leave the things which we thus vehemently affect behind us for ever For that which is the prevailing Temper of Souls in this Life will doubtless be so in the other too and so far is that of the Poet true Quae gratia currûm Armorúmque fuit vivis quae cura nitentes Pascere equos eadem sequitur tellure repostos For though the coming into the other world will questionless improve those Souls which are really good before yet it is not to be imagined how it should create those good who are habitually bad and if we retain in the other world that Prevailing Affection to these sensitive Goods which we contracted in this it must necessarily render us unspeakably miserable there For every Lust the Soul carries into the other world will by being eternally separated from its Pleasures convert into an Hopeless Desire and upon that account grow more furious and impatient For of all the Torments of the mind I know none that is comparable to that of an outragious Desire joined with Despair of Satisfaction which is just the case of sensual and worldly minded Souls in the other Life where they are full of sharp and unrebated Desires and like starving men that are shut up between two Dead Walls are tormented with a fierce but hopeless Hunger which having nothing else to feed on preys and quarries on themselves and in this desolate condition they are forced to wander to and fro tormented with a restless Rage an Hungry and Unsatisfied Desire craving food but neither finding nor expecting any and so in unexpressible Anguish they pine away a long Eternity And though they might find content and satisfaction could they but divert their Affections another way and reconcile them to the Heavenly Enjoyments yet being irrecoverably preingaged to sensual Goods they have no Savour or Relish of any thing else but are like Feaverish Tongues that disgust and nauseate the most grateful Liquors by reason of their own overflowing Gall. So impossible is it for men to be happy either here or hereafter so long as their Affections to the lesser Goods of this World do so immoderately exceed the worth and value of them ONE Essential Part therefore of the Christian Life which is the Great Means of our Happiness is the Virtue of Moderation the peculiar Office whereof is to bound our Concupiscible Affections and proportion them to the Intrinsic Worth of those outward Goods which we affect and desire For though the word Moderation according to our present Acceptation of it be no where to be found in the New Testament yet the Virtue expressed by it is frequently enjoined as particularly where we are forbid to set our Affections upon the Things of the Earth Col. iii. 2 To love the World or the Things that are in the World 1 John ii 15 Which Phrases are not to be so understood as if we were not to love the Enjoyments of the World at all for they are the Blessings of God and such as he has proposed to us in his Promises as the Rewards and Encouragements of our Obedience and to be sure he would never encourage us to obey him by the Hope of such Rewards as are unlawful for us to desire and love The meaning therefore of these Prohibitions is that we should so moderate our Affections to the world as not to permit them to exceed the Real Worth and Value of its Enjoyments For it is not simply our loving it but our loving it to such a Degree as is inconsistent with our Love of God that is here forbidden For he that loveth the world saith St. John the Love of the Father is not in him i. e. he that loves it to such a Degree as to prefer the Riches Honours and Pleasures of it before God and his Duty to him hath no real Love to God i. e. He loves not God as God as the Chiefest Good and Supream Beauty and Perfection And hence Covetousness which is an immoderate Desire of the world is called Idolatry Col. iii. 5 because it sets the world in the place of God and gives it that supream Degree of Affection which is only due to him And this the Apostle there calls Inordinate Affection because it extravagantly exceeds the Intrinsic Worth and Value of its Objects Wherefore we are strictly enjoined to take heed and beware of Covetousness Luke xii 15 And to let our Conversation be without Covetousness Heb. xiii 5 By all which and sundry other Commands and Prohibitions of the Gospel the Moderation of our Concupiscible Affections is made a necessary part of the Christian Life NOW that this also mightily contributes to our Acquisition of the Heavenly Happiness is evident not only from what hath been already said but also from hence that till our Affections are thus moderated we can have no Savour or Relish of the Heavenly Enjoyments For in this corrupt State of our Nature we generally understand by our Affections which like coloured Glass represent all Objects to us in their own Hue and Complexion When therefore a mans Affections are immoderately carried out towards worldly things they will be sure by Degrees to corrupt and deprave his Judgment and render him as unfit to judge of divine and spiritual Enjoyments as a Plowman is to be a Moderatour in the Schools For when a mans thoughts have been employed another way and the Delights of Sense have for a long while preoccupied his Vnderstanding he will judge things to be Good or Evil according as they disgust or gratifie his lower Appetites And this being the Standard by which he measures things 't is impossible he should have any Savour of those Spiritual Goods in which the Happiness of Heaven consists For though in his Nature there is a Tendency to Rational Pleasures yet this he may and very frequently does stifle and extinguish by addicting himself wholly to the Delights and Gratifications of his Sense which by degrees will so melt down his Rational Inclinations into his Sensual and confound and mingle them with his Carnal Appetites that his Soul will wholly sympathize with his Body and have all Likes and Dislikes in common with
it And there is nothing will be capable of pleasing the One but what does gratifie the unbounded Liquorishness of the Other NOW to such a Soul the spiritual World must needs be a barren wilderness where no Good grows that it can live upon none but what is nauseous and distastful to its coarse and vitiated Palate where there are noble Entertainments indeed for Minds that are contempered to them that have already tasted and experienced them but not one Drop of Water to cool the Tip of a Sensual Tongue or gratifie the Thirst of a Carnal Desire So that were we admitted to that Heavenly Place where the Blessed dwell yet unless we had acquired their Heavenly Disposition and Temper we could never participate with them in their Pleasures For so great would be the Antipathy of our sensual Affections to them that we should doubtless flie away from them and rather chuse to be for ever Insensible than be condemned to an everlasting Perception of what is so ungrateful to our Natures So that till we have in some measure moderated our Concupiscible Affections and weaned them from their excessive Dotages upon sensual Good it is impossible we should enjoy the Happiness of Heaven For such perfect Opposites are a Spiritual Heaven and a Carnal Mind that unless This be spiritualized or That be carnalized it is impossible they should ever meet and agree III. ANOTHER Virtue that belongs to a Man considered meerly as a Rational Animal is FORTITUDE which in the largest sense consists in not permitting our Irascible Affections to exceed those Evils or Dangers which we seek to repel or avoid in keeping our Fear and Anger our Malice Envy and Revenge in such due subjection as not to let them exceed those Bounds which Reason and the Nature of Things prescribe them For I do not take Fortitude here in the narrow sense of the Moralists as it is a Medium between Irrational Fear and Fool-Hardiness but as it is the Rule by which all those Irascible Passions in us which arise from the sense of any Evil or Danger ought to be guided and directed That by which we are to guard and defend our selves against all those troublesome and disquieting Impressions which outward Evils and Dangers are apt to make upon our Minds And in this Latitude Fortitude comprehends not only Courage as it is opposed to Fear but also Gentleness as it is opposed to Fierceness Sufferance as it is opposed to Impatience Contentedness as it is opposed to Envy and Meekness as it is opposed to Malice and Revenge All which are the Passions of weak and pusillanimous Minds that are not able to withstand an Evil nor endure the least Touch of it without being startled and disordered that are so softned with Baseness and Cowardise that they cannot resist the most gentle Impressions of Injury For as sick Persons are offended with the light of the Sun and the freshness of the Air which are highly pleasant and delightful to such as are well and in health Even so Persons of weak and feeble minds are easily offended their Spirits are so tender and effeminate that they cannot endure the least Air of Evil should blow upon them and what would be only a Diversion to a Couragious Soul troubles and incommodes Them And whatsoever Courage such persons may pretend to it 's meerly a Heat and Ferment of their Bloud and Spirits A Courage wherein Game-Cocks and Mastives out-vy the greatest Heroes of them all But as to that which is truly Rational and Manly which consists in a firm Composedness of Mind in the midst of Evil or Dangerous Accidents they are the most wretched Cowards in Nature For the true Fortitude of the Mind consists in being hardened against Evil upon Rational Principles in being so fenced and guarded with Reason and Consideration as that no dolorous Accident from without is able to invade it or raise any violent Commotions in it In a word in having such a constant Power over its Irascible Affections as not to be overprone either to be timorous in Danger or envious in Want or impatient in Suffering or angry at Contempt or malicious and revengeful under Injuries and Provocations And till we have in some measure acquired this Virtue we can never be happy either here or hereafter FOR whilst we are in this world we must expect to be encompassed with continual Crouds of Evil Accidents some or other of which will be always pressing upon and justling against us So that if our minds are sore and uneasie and over-apt to be affected with Evil we shall be continually pained and disquieted For whereas were our Minds but calm and easie all the Evil Accidents that befall us would be but like a Shower of Hail upon the Tiles of a Musick-House which with all its Clatter and Noise disturbs not the Harmony that is within our being too apt to be moved into Passion by them uncovers our mind to them and lays it open to the Tempest And commonly the greatest Hurt which these outward Evils do us is their disturbing our Minds into violent Passions and this they will never cease doing till we have throughly fortified our Reason against them For if our Reason commands not our Passions to be sure outward Accidents will and while they do so we are Tenants at will to them for all our Peace and Happiness and according as they happen to be Good or Bad so must we be sure still to be Happy or Miserable And in this Condition like a Ship without a Pilot in the midst of a Tempestuous Sea we are the sport of every wind and wave and know not till the Event hath determined it how the next Billow will dispose of us whether it will dash us against a Rock or drive us into a quiet Harbour SO miserable is our Condition here while we are utterly destitute of this Virtue of Fortitude But much more miserable will the want of it necessarily render us hereafter For all those Affections which fall under the Inspection and Government of Fortitude are in their Excesses naturally vexatious to the Mind and do always disturb and raise Tumults in it For so Wrath and Impatience distracts and alienates it from it self and confounds its Thoughts and shuffles them together into a heap of wild and disorderly Fancies so Malice Envy and Revenge do fill it with anxious biting Thoughts that like young Vipers gnaw the Womb that bears them and fret and gall the wretched Mind that forms and gives them Entertainment And though in this world we are not so sensible of the mischief which these black and rancorous Passions do us partly because our sense of them is abated with the Intermixture of our Bodily Pleasures and partly because while we operate as we do by these unwieldy Organs of Flesh our Reflexions cannot be comparably so quick nor our Passions so violent nor our Perceptions so brisk and exquisite as they will doubtless be when we are stript
the Pleasures of the Flesh as to drown our Sense and Perception of Divine and Heavenly Enjoyments but that we should so far subdue and mortifie our Sensuality as that it may not have the Dominion over us nor be the prevalent Delight and Complacency of our Souls but that the commanding Biass and swaying Propension within us may be towards Divine and Heavenly Enjoyments that so when we leave this Body we may not be so wedded to the Pleasures of it as not to be able to be Happy without them but that we may carry with us into Eternity such a quick Sense and lively Rellish of the Pleasures above as to be able to live upon and be for ever satisfied with them SO that at first View it is evident how much the Practice of this Virtue conduces to our Future Happiness For by taking us off from all excess of bodily Pleasure it disposes us to enjoy the Pleasures of Heaven and connaturallizes our Souls to them So that when after a long Exercise of Temperance we come to leave the Body our Soul will be so loosned from it before hand and rendred so indifferent to the Delights of it that we shall be able to part both with It and Them without any great Regret or Reluctancy and to live from them for ever without any disquieting Longings or Hankerings after them For as when we are grown up by Age and Experience to a sense of more manly Pleasures we despise Nuts and Rattles which when we were Children we accounted our Happiness and should have reckoned our selves undone had we been deprived of them So when by the Practice of a severe Temperance we have acquired a thorough sense of the Pleasures of Virtue and Religion we shall look upon all our bodily Pleasures as the little Toys and Fooleries of our Infant State with which we pleased our childish Fancies when we knew no better And whereas had we been deprived of them then we should have cried and bemoaned our selves as little Children do when they lose their Play-Games and reckoned our selves undone and miserable upon the Experience we have had of the Nobler and more Generous Pleasures of Religion we shall be able to despise these little poor Entertainments of our Infancy to take our leave of them without a Tear in our Eyes and to live eternally without missing them For our Minds being for the main reconciled to Rational and Spiritual Pleasures we shall put off all Remains of bodily Lust with our Bodies and so flie away into the spiritual world with none but Pure and Spiritual Appetites about us where meeting with an infinite Fulness of Spiritual Joys and Pleasures of which we had many a foretast in the Body our predisposed Mind will presently close with and feed upon them with such an unspeakable Content and Satisfaction as will ravish it for ever from the Thoughts of all other Pleasures So that now we shall not only be able to subsist without Fleshly Delights but to despise and scorn them our Faculties being treated every moment with far nobler Fare and better Joys V. ANOTHER of those Virtues which belong to a man considered meerly as a Rational Animal is HUMILITY which consists in a modest and lowly opinion of our selves and of our own Acquisitions Merits or Endowments Or in not valuing our selves beyond what is due and just upon the account of any Good we are possessed of whether it be Internal or External For Pride or an over-weening Self-Conceit is the Bane of all our Virtue and Happiness It causes us to overlook our Defects and thereby hinders us from making farther Improvement and it possesses us with an opinion that we deserve more than we have and thereby renders us dissatisfied with our present Enjoyments For by how much any man over-values himself by so much he under-values what he enjoys because while he compares what he enjoys with the fond opinion that he hath of himself he always finds it short of his Desert and so can never be satisfied with it Yea such is the cross and capricious Humour of a proud Spirit that the more it possesses the bigger it swells with the opinion of its own Desert and the more it is opiniated of its own Desert the less it is satisfied with that which it possesses and enjoys For when a man is exceeding apt to flatter and cokes himself he will catch at any Pretence to exalt his own Merit and Desert and be ready to measure it not only by what he is but by what he has too and then reckoning his outward Possessions to be the Rewards or Products of his Inward Worth the more he has the more he will still imagine he deserves to have So that his Opinion of his own Desert will still run on so fast before his Enjoyments that though they should follow it never so close as the Hinder Wheels of a Coach do the Fore ones yet it would be impossible for them to overtake it And so long as he conceives his Enjoyments to be behind his Desert he will be always discontented and dissatisfied with them and while he continues of this Humour the utmost Bliss and Glory that Heaven affords would not to be able to satisfie him For if he were set equal in Glory with the highest Saint he would be so puffed and exalted by it in his own Conceit that he would fancy he merited the Glory of an Angel and if from thence he were advanced to the Throne of an Arch-Angel he would flatter himself into a conceit that he deserved the Glory and Dignity of a God And so long as he fancied his Advancement to be below his Merit he would never be contented with it how high soever it were but be continually vexing and repining that he was raised no higher AND this I verily believe was the Temper of the Devil and that which finally ruined and undid him For when he was an Angel of Light he was doubtless placed by the Father of Spirits in such an Order or Degree of Dignity as became the Dignity of his Nature But he reflecting on his own Indowments and the Glorious Condition wherein he was placed began first to swell with an arrogant and overweening conceit of himself and to set too high a value upon his own Angelical Graces and Perfections and as the natural Effect of this to imagine that he was not high enough advanced in the Scale of the Heavenly Hierarchy and that his Station in the Common-wealth of Angels was beneath the Grandeur and Dignity of his Nature This made him look up with envious Eyes upon the Glorious Orders above him into whose sublime Rank he being forbid to aspire by God the Prince of Spirits he proceeded by Degrees to malign and hate both Him and Them And this he first expressed by entring into a Conspiracy against him with some of his Fellow-Angels whom he found most apt to be wrought upon by him together with whom he made an open
Conversation should be a continual Intercourse of mutual Mischiefs and Vexations especially considering how they here laid the foundation of an eternal Quarrel against one another For there all those Companions in Sin will meet who by their ill Counsels wicked Insinuations and bad Examples did mutually contribute to each others Ruine and being met in such a woful State how will the tormenting sense of those irreparable injuries they have done each other whet their Fury against and incite them to play the Devils with one another And what can be expected from such a Company of waspish Beings so implacably incensed against one another but that being shut up together in the infernal Den they should be perpetually hissing at and stinging each other But then besides those mutual plagues which these furious Spirits must be supposed to inflict upon one another they will be also nakedly exposed to the powerful Malice of the Devils those fierce Executioners of Gods righteous Vengeance who as we now find by Experience have power to suggest black and horrid Thoughts to us and to torture our Souls with such dreadful Imaginations as are far more sharp and exquisite than any bodily Torments And if now they have such Power over us when God thinks fit to let them loose what will they have hereafter when our wretched Spirits shall be wholly abandoned to their Mercy and they shall have free Scope to exercise their Fury upon us and glut their hungry Malice with our Griefs and Vexations It seems at least a mighty probable Notion that that horrid Agony of our Saviour in the Garden which caused him to shriek and grone and sweat as it were great Drops of Blood was chiefly the effect of those preternatural Terrours which the Devils with whom he was then contesting impressed upon his innocent Mind And if they had so much Power over his pure and mighty Soul that was so strongly guarded with the most perfect and unspotted Virtues what will they have over ours when we are abandoned to them and thrown as Preys into their Mouths With what an Hellish Rage will they fly upon our guilty and timorous Souls in which there is so much Tinder for their injected Sparks of Horror to take fire on SINCE therefore Rancour and Malice doth so naturally incline and hurry our Souls towards the wretched Society of Devils and damned Spirits the Gospel which so industriously consults our Happiness takes all possible Care to train us up in Charity and mutual Love and makes it a Principal as well as necessary Part of our Christian Life heartily to love one another For this as our Saviour tells us is the Darling Precept which lay next to his Heart this is my Commandment that ye love one another Joh. xv 12 And accordingly we are bid not only to follow after Charity 1 Cor. xiv 1 and to do all things with Charity 1 Cor. xvi 14 but also to put on Charity above all things Col. iii. 14 and to dwell in Love which the Apostle tells us is to dwell in God who is Love 1 Joh. iv 16 The intent of all which is to oblige us to bear an universal good Will to all and to take an hearty Complacency in all that are truly lovely to be ready to contribute to and rejoice in every ones Good and Welfare and in a word to live in the continual exercise of all those charitable Offices which our present State and Condition requires and calls for To be courteous and affable and to treat all those we converse with with an obliging Look a gentile Deportment and endearing Language To be long-suffering mild and easie to be entreated not to break forth into Rage and Storm upon every petty Provocation and when we are justly provoked not to suffer our Displeasure to fester into Malice and Rancour but to be forward and easie to be reconciled To be of a compassionate and sympathizing Temper and to rejoice with those that rejoice and weep with those that weep To be candid Interpreters of Men and their Actions to be ready to mitigate and excuse their Faults and put fair Comments on their Actions and to be so far from making malicious Glosses on their innocent Meaning from proclaiming their Miscarriages and rejoicing in their Falls as not to believe ill of them but upon undeniable Evidence and when we are forced to do so to pity and lament them and endeavour and pray and hope for their Reformation In short to be benign and bountiful to the necessitous and distressed and to endeavour according to our Ability to allay their Sorrows remove their Oppressions support them under their Calamities and counsel them in their Doubts to be ready to every good Work and like Fields of Spices to be scattering our Perfumes through all the Neighbourhood and all this out of an honest and sincere purpose to promote their Good and not meerly to acquire to our selves a popular Vogue and Reputation All which are essential Parts of that Charity which the Gospel enjoins us to exercise towards one another For so the Apostle assures us 1 Cor. xiii 4 5 6 7. Charity suffereth long and is kind charity envieth not charity vaunteth not it self is not puffed up doth not behave it self unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evil rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things NOW though there be several Acts of Charity that will cease for ever in Heaven such as long-suffering giving of Alms and forgiving of Injuries and the like because among the People of Heaven there will be none of the Faults or Miseries about which these Acts are conversant yet even the Practice of these is indispensably necessary to temper and dispose our Minds to heavenly Charity which till we are disposed to by universal Love we shall never be capable of exercising but since all virtuous Dispositions are acquired by Acts it is impossible we should acquire the Disposition of universal Love unless we universally practise it 'T is by giving Alms that that we must acquire cordial Charity to the poor and needy and by forgiving Injuries that we must dispose our selves to love those that offend us For these Acts are Causes as well as Signs of a charitable Temper and are necessary not only to signifie it where it is but also to produce it where it is not When therfore by acting all those Parts of Charity which are proper to this as well as the other State we have acquired this blessed Disposition of universal Charity our Minds are fairly framed and tempered for the Society of Heaven And though in the perpetual Justle and Tumult of this World some little Piques and Displeasures should now and then arise in our Minds yet if in the cool and standing Temper of our Souls we are hearty Well-wishers to all Men and hearty Lovers of all that do in any measure love and resemble
prudent considering what a treacherous and ill-natured World we have to deal with to be what we seem and not to paint ill Meanings with smiling Looks and smooth Pretences to notifie our Intentions and unfold our Hearts and so far as innocent Prudence will admit to turn our selves inside outwards to all we converse with to give to every one his due and not to intrench upon other mens Rights whether it be to their Lives or Liberties Reputations or Estates in a word to weigh to our Neighbours and our selves in the same Balance and to do to them whatsoever we could reasonably wish they should do to us if we were in their Persons and Circumstances By the Practice of which excellent Rules our Mind will by degrees be refined and purified from all Disposition to Fraud and Injustice and then when we go from hence into Eternity we shall carry thither with us such a just and righteous Frame of Mind such an honest Plainness and Integrity of Temper as will immediately qualifie and dispose us for the Society of just men made perfect who finding us already united to them in Disposition and Nature will joyfully receive us into their blessed Communion And now O! the blessed State we shall be in when being stripped of all Partiality and unjust Desire of all Insincerity and Craftiness of Temper we shall be admitted into a Nation of just and righteous People where every one has his appropriate Seat and Mansion of Glory and is so perfectly contented with it that he never covets what another enjoys so that every one possesses what is his own without the least suspicion of being ejected by a subtiler or more powerful Neighbour where being perfectly assured of each others Integrity they converse together with the greatest Openness and Freedom and in all their Language whatsoever it be do read their Hearts and convey their Intentions to one another where their Souls converse face to face and do freely unbosom themselves to one another without the least Disguise or Dissimulation so that in all their Society there is no such thing as a Secret or Mystery but they are all Bosom Friends to one another and every one has a Window into every ones Breast O! blessed God what a most happy Conversation must such just Souls as these enjoy with one another from whose Society all Fraud and Falshood Violence and Oppression is for ever banished For whilst they live together as they do in the continual Exercise of perfect Righteousness and Integrity they can neither design upon nor suspect one another and so consequently must needs converse together with infinite Security and Freedom And being all of them thus inviolably safe in each others Sincerity and Justice every one enjoys his proper Rank and Degree of Glory without Fear or Disturbance and freely communicates his wise and excellent Thoughts to every one without any Strangeness or Reserve Thus all Heaven over there is a most perfect Freedom of Conversation among those righteous People that inhabit it and every one is every ones Neighbour and every ones Neighbour is as Himself For in all their Communication and Intercourse they mutually exchange Persons with one another and there is no one doth that to another which he would not gladly have done to himself in the same Condition and Circumstances So that none of them all can possibly be aggrieved because they are every one dealt by just as they would be most fairly most righteously and faithfully And hence there can be no Grudges among them no Whisperings Backbitings or spightful Misrepresentations because every one likes what every one does and so they are all perfectly satisfied with one another And thus you see in the Exercise of perfect Righteousness and Integrity all the Society of Heaven is rendred perfectly happy III. AS we are rational Creatures related to one another we are obliged to behave our selves peaceably in our respective States and Relations For Society being nothing but an united Multitude it is indispensably necessary to the preservation of its Union that every Individual Member of it should peaceably comport himself towards every one in that Degree and Order wherein he is placed Because as the Health of natural Bodies depends upon the Harmony and Agreement of their Parts so doth the Prosperity of Societies or political ones For 't is Peace and mutual Accord which is the Soul that doth both animate and unite Society and keep the Parts of it from dispersing and flying abroad into Atoms which nothing but Force and Violence can hinder them from when once they are broken into Discords and Dissentions So true is that of our Saviour A Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand For besides that Division impairs the strength of a Society which like an impetuous Stream being parted into several Currents runs with far less force and is much more easily forded for the several Factions that are in it are like the several Nations in a Confederate Army which though they be all united into one Body have several contrary Interests and Designs which divides their Councils and sows Jealousies among them and so renders them not only less able to withstand the Force of an unanimous Enemy but also less willing to aid and assist one another besides this I say Faction and Discord naturally disunite and separates Society as it dissolves the Bond of Peace which holds it together For a Society without Peace is but an aggregated Body whose Parts lie together in a confused heap but have no Joints or Sinews to fasten them to one another for want of which instead of mutually assisting they do but mutually load and oppress each other which must necessarily divide their Wills and their Interests and when that is done 't is only external Force that hinders them from dividing and separating their Society Upon this account therefore every man is obliged as he is a Member of Humane Society to comport himself peaceably with all men because otherwise he will necessarily render himself a publick Pest and Nuisance For so long as he is of an unquiet and turbulent Spirit instead of being an Help he must necessarily be a Disease to every Community of which he is a Member and if those with whom he is joined were all of his Humour and Spirit it would be much better for them all to live asunder in the most solitary Condition than to continue in Society together because instead of helping and assisting they would be sure to be continually vexing and plaguing one another IF therefore we go into the other World with an unquiet and quarrelsome Temper we shall be thereby inclined to and prepared for the most wretched and miserable Society even the Society of those factious Fiends that could not be quiet even in Heaven it self but raised a Mutiny before the Throne of God and for so doing were driven thence and damned to keep one another Company in endless Misery and Despair The Souls of men therefore
and Pleasures and in every act of our celestial Behaviour we should have some Foretast of the celestial Happiness So that now we shall no longer need external Arguments to convince us of the Truth and Reality of that blessed State for we shall feel it within our selves and be able to penetrate into its blessed Mysteries by the light of an infallible Experience Now we shall have no Occasion to search the Records of Heaven to assure our selves of our Interest in it for by a most sensible Earnest of Heaven within us we shall be as fully satisfied of our Title to it as if one of the winged Messengers of Heaven should come down from thence and tell us that he saw our Names inrolled in the Book of Life And with this sweet Experience of Heaven within us we shall go on to Heaven with unspeakable Triumph and Alacrity being tolled all along from step to step with the alluring Relishes of its Joys and Pleasures and in every vigorous Exercise of every Virtue of the Heavenly Life we shall have such lively tasts and sensations of Heaven as will continually excite us to exercise them still more vigorously and still the more vigorously we exert them the more of Heaven we shall tast in them and so the Vigour of our Virtue shall increase the Pleasure of it and the Pleasure of it shall increase its Vigour till both are perfected and grown up into the blessed State of Heaven Wherefore as we do love Pleasure which is the great Invitation to Action let us be persuaded once for all to make a through Experiment of the heavenly Life and if upon a sufficient Trial you do not find it the most pleasant kind of Life that ever you led if you do not experience a far more noble Satisfaction in it than ever you did in all your studied and artificial Luxuries I give you leave to brand me for an Impostor V. CONSIDER the great Repose and Ease of a Heavenly Life and Conversation In every sensual and devilish Course of Life we find by Experience there is a great deal of Vneasiness and Disquiet For the Mind is disturbed the Conscience galled the Affections divided into opposite Factions and the whole Soul in a most diseased and restless Posture And indeed it is no Wonder it should be so since 't is in an unnatural State and Condition For whilst 't is in any unreasonable Course of Action the very Frame and Constitution of it as it is a rational Being suffers an unnatural Violence and is all unjointed and disordered And therefore as a Body when its Bones are out is never at Rest till they are set again so a rational Soul when its Faculties and Powers are dislocated and put out of their natural i. e. rational Course of Action is continually restless and disturbed and always tossing to and fro shifting from one Posture to another turning it self from this to t'other Object and Enjoyment but finding no ease or satisfaction in any till 't is restored again to its own rational Course of Motion and that is to act and move towards God for whom it was made and in whom alone it can be happy And if its Reason were not strangely dozed and stupified with Sense and sensitive Pleasure it would doubtless be a thousand times more restless and dissatisfied in this its preternatural State than it is it would feel much more Distraction of Mind Anguish of Conscience and Tumult of Affections than 't is now capable of amidst the numerous Enjoyments and Diversions of this World For as a musical Instrument were it a living thing would doubtless be sensible of Harmony as its proper State as a great Author of our own ingeniously discourses and abhor Discord and Dissonancy as a thing preternatural to it even so were our Reason but alive and awake within us our Souls which according to their natural Frame were made Vnison with God would be exquisitely sensible of those divine Virtues wherein its Consonancy consists as of that which is its proper State and native Complection and complain as sadly of the vicious Distempers of its Faculties as the Body doth of Wounds and Diseases 't would be perfectly sick of every unreasonable Motion and never be able to rest till its disjointed Faculties were rectified and all its disordered Strings set in tune again Which being once effected as it will quickly be in a continued Course of heavenly Action we shall presently find our Souls disburthened of all those malignant Humours that do so perpetually disease disquet and disturb us For by relying upon God we shall totally quit and discharge our selves of all those restless Cares and Anxieties which circle and prick us like a Crown of Thorns by our hearty Submission to his heavenly Will we shall ease our Consciences of all that Horror Rage and Anguish which proceeds from the invenomed Stings of our Guilt by loving admiring and adoring him our Affections will be cured of all that Inconsistence and Inordinacy that render them so tumultuous and disquieting And these things being once accomplished the sick and restless Soul will presently find it self in perfect Health and Ease For now all her jarring Faculties being tuned to the musical Laws of Reason there will be a perfect Harmony in her Nature and she will have no disquieting Principle within her nothing but calm and gentle Thoughts soft and sweet Reflections tame and manageable Affections nothing but what abundantly contributes to her Repose and Satisfaction So that do but imagine what an Ease the Body enjoys when after a lingering Sickness it recovers a sound Constitution and feels a lively Vigour possessing every Part and actuating the Whole such and much more is the Ease and Quiet of the Soul when by the diligent Practice of the heavenly Life it feels it self recovered from the languishing Sickness of a sensual and devilish Nature Now she is no more tossed and agitated in a stormy sea of restless Thoughts and guilty Reflections no more scorched with Impatience or drowned with Grief or shook with Fear or bloated with Pride or Ambition but all her Affections are resigned to the blessed Empire of a spiritual Mind and cloathed in the Livery of her Reason Now all the War and Contest between the Law in her Members and the Law in her Mind is ended in a glorious Victory and happy Peace and those divided Streams her Will and Conscience her Passions and her Reason are united in one Channel and flow towards one and the same Ocean And being thus jointed and knit together by the Ties and Ligaments of Virtue the Soul is perfectly well and easie and enjoys a most sweet Repose within it self Wherefore as you value your own Rest and Ease and would not be endlesly turmoiled and disquieted be persuaded heartily to ingage your selves in the Course of a heavenly Conversation and then though at first you must expect to find some Difficulty in it by reason of its Contrariety to
which End it will be needful that we should read and impartially consider some of the Apologies for the Christian Religion of which we have sundry excellent ones in our own Language and if we will but take the pains to instruct our selves in the plain and easie Evidences of Christianity we shall quickly see abundant cause to assent to it and then our Faith being founded on a firm Basis of Reason will be able to bid defiance to the World and to out-stand the most furious Storms of Temptation II. TO our good Beginning of this our Christian Warfare it is also necessary that we should duly consider the Motives of our Religion and ballance them with the Hardships and Difficulties we are to undergo For thus our Saviour makes Consideration a necessary Introduction to our Christian Warfare Luke xiv 28 where he compares mens rushing headlong into the Difficulties of the Christian Life without Consideration to a mans resolving to build a Tower without computing the Charge of it or a Kings going to War without ever considering before-hand whether with his Army of ten Thousand he be able to encounter his Enemy with Twenty By both which Comparisons he intimates to us the unprosperous Issue of mens listing themselves under his Banner to combat the Devil the World and their own Lusts without ever considering before-hand either their own Strength or their Enemies the Arguments with which they must fight or the Difficulties that will trash and oppose them So that when they come to execute their rash Resolutions there start up so many Difficulties in their way which they never thought of and against which they took no care to fore-arm themselves that they have not the Heart and Courage to stand before them but after a few faint Attempts are presently sounding a cowardly Retreat FOR indeed Consideration is the Life and Soul of Faith that animates and actuates its Principles and elicits and draws forth all their natural Power and Energy And let the Truths we believe be never so weighty and momentous in themselves never so apt to spirit and invigorate us yet unless we seriously consider and apply them to our Wills and Affections and take the pains to extract out of them their native Vigour and Efficacy and to infuse it into our Faculties and Powers they will lie like so many dead Notions in our Minds and never impart to us the least Degree of spiritual Courage and Activity And accordingly our Saviour attributes the ill Success of Gods Word in the Hearts of men which he compares to the high-way the stony and thorny Ground either to their not considering it at all or to their not considering it deeply enough or to their not considering it long enough Either the divine Truths which they heard went no farther than their Ears and so lay openly exposed like so many loose corns upon the high-way to be picked up by the Fowls of the Air or if it entred into their Mind and Consideration it was so slightly and superficially that like corn sown in a rocky ground it had not Depth enough to take root to fasten and grow into their minds and digest into Principles of Action or if they at present received it into their deeper and more serious Consideration it was but for a little while for by and by they permit their worldly Cares and Pleasures like Thorns to spring up in their Thoughts and Choak it before it was arrived to any Maturity But that which rendred it so prosperous and fruitful in good and honest Hearts was that having heard the word they kept it i. e. retained it in their Thoughts and Consideration and so brought forth fruit with patience Luk. viii 12 13 14 15. So that to the making of a good Beginning in Religion it is not only necessary that we should ponder the Motives and Arguments of Religion and ballance them with the Difficulties of it but that we should revolve and repeat them on our minds till we have represented to our selves with the utmost Life and Reality whatsoever makes for and against our Entrance into the Christian Warfare and upon our having weighed them over and over in the Scales of an even and impartial Judgment we have brought the Debate to this Result and Conclusion that there is infinitely more Weight in the Arguments of Religion to persuade us to it than in all the Difficulties of it to dishearten us from it For unless we enter into Religion fore-armed with the Motives and forewarned of the difficulties of it we shall never be able to stand our Ground but finding more Opposition than we expected and having not a sufficient Strength of Argument to bear up against it we shall quickly repent of our rash Undertaking and be forced to retreat from it with Shame and Dishonour For this is usually the Issue of those rash and unsetled Purposes which men make in the heats of their Passion when they have been warmed by some pathetick Discourse or startled by some great Danger or chafed into a Displeasure against their Sins by the sense of some very dolorous Accident whereinto they have been betrayed by them in these or such like Cases its usual with men to make hasty Resolutions of Amendment without considering either the Matters which they resolve upon or the Motives which should support their Resolution and so finding when they come to Practice more Difficulty in the Matter than they were aware of and having not sufficient Motives to carry them through it their Resolution flags in the Execution and very often yields to the next Temptation which encounters them NOW though I do not deny but that those Heats of Passion are good Opportunities to begin our Religion in and if wisely improved will very much contribute to our Voyage heavenwards and like a brisk Gale of Wind render it much more expedite and easie yet if in these Heats we resolve too soon without a due Consideration of all Particulars and of the Difficulties on the one side and the Arguments on the other it is hardly possible that our Resolution should ever prove a lasting Principle of Goodness For when we resolve inconsiderately we resolve to do we know not what and our Resolution includes a thousand Particulars that we are not aware of most of which being repugnant to our vicious Inclinations will when we come to practise them be attended with such Difficulties as will easily startle our weak Resolution which having not a sufficient Foundation of Reason to support it will never be able to outstand those boisterous Storms of Temptation whereunto it will be continually exposed If therefore we mean our Resolution should hold out and commence a living Principle of Goodness we must found it in a through Consideration both of the Duties and Difficulties of Religion and of the Motives which should ingage us to embrace it we must set before our Minds all the Sins we must part with and all the Duties we must submit
Religion we should hate them and so turn the Current of our Activity into the contrary Channel he hath placed us in such Circumstances wherein we have frequent Opportunities to rest our wearied Minds from these abstracted Exercises in such innocent Employments as are necessary to our comfortable Subsistence in this World So that by putting us under the necessity of imploying our selves in secular Trades and Callings he hath taken care to intercept our Minds that they may not fly off from the pure Acts of Religion into the contrary Impieties and that when they are not divinely they may be innocently imployed and by diverting our Activity with honest when it is weary of spiritual Exercise he hath taken a wise Course to confine and bound it and leave it less Scope and Liberty to rove and make Incursions into sinful and prohibited Actions And therefore as Aristotle commends Archytas for his Invention of Rattles because Children by playing with them are kept from breaking Vessels of use so ought we to admire the Wisdom and Goodness of God for thus necessitating us to exert our Activity in secular Acts and Trades because by this innocently imploying our corrupt and busie Natures he hath taken an admirable Course to divert us from mischievous Actions AND he having thus obliged us by our Necessities to follow some honest Calling for a comfortable Livelihood he expects that we should be diligent and industrious in that particular Calling wherein his Providence hath placed us For otherwise he looses his End which was to restrain us from being sinfully active by necessitating us to be innocently so And now that by putting us into those Necessities by which we are put upon furnishing one another with those several Conveniences of life for the supply of which our respective Trades and Callings are intended we by being diligent therein approve our selves faithful Servants in the great Family of God and by industriously discharging those particular Offices wherein he hath placed us we act as dutiful Ministers of his Providence towards one another Because by so doing we supply those Wants and Necessities which God hath made and which he hath made to be supplyed by our Office and Ministries So that now to mind our own Business is a Part of our Religion and 't is that particular Part to which Gods Providence hath called us If therefore we are idle and neglective in this we are undutiful Servants to the common Master of the World how officious soever we may be in other matters For this is the proper Work of our Office and therefore if we are unfaithful in this we can be faithful in nothing Should the Bayliff of a Family neglect letting his Masters Lands and gathering in his Rents he would be thought a bad servant how diligent soever he might be in the Kitchen or the Stables and so if we are remiss in our particular Offices and Employments we are bad Servants to God how sedulous soever we may be either in the Offices of other Men or in the common Services which we all owe him and he that neglects his own Calling to serve God in his Closet or in the Church is like an unfaithful Steward that neglects providing for the Family to dress the Garden and water the Flowers 'T IS true as we ought not to devote to the common Service of God that Time and Attendance which by the rules of Prudence and good Husbandry are appropriated to our particular Callings so neither ought we to permit our particular Calling so to ingross our Time and Attendance as to leave none for our Prayers and those common Services whether private or publick which as Creatures and Christians we are obliged to render to our Creator For as he that to serve God neglects his Calling is a religious Truant so he that to attend his Calling neglects to serve God is a prophane Drudge But for a truly pious and industrious Man it is not at all difficult so to keep his Business and his Religion apart as that they may not interfere with one another and faithfully to discharge whatsoever his Calling exacts of him and yet leave void Spaces enough in his time to do all that his Religion requires NEITHER are we obliged to be so industrious in our Calling as to deny our selves any moderate Refreshments or Recreations which are not only useful but sometimes necessary to breath our Spirits after they have been almost stifled in a Croud of Business and divert our wearied Thoughts which like the strings of a Lute by being slackned now and then will sound the sweeter when they are wound up again But then we ought to take care that we do not turn our Physick into Food and make that our Business which should be only our Diversion that our Recreations be short and apt to refresh but not to steal away our Minds from severer Employments For long Sports and Recreations are like a large Entry to a little House they take up so much Room in the narrow Compass of our Time that there is not Space enough left in it for the more useful Apartments and so far as our Sports do exceed the Measures of necessary and convenient Recreation they are unwarrantable Encroachments upon our Calling and Religion 'T is true as for the Measures of Convenience they are not alike to all for as for those whose large Fortunes have placed them beyond the Necessities of the World they may conveniently allow themselves larger Portions of Recreation than those of meaner Circumstances who having not yet made a competent provision for their Families are obliged in Justice to a more constant Industry lest they fall under St. Pauls Censure of being worse than Infidels But how plentiful soever our outward Condition may be it will by no means warrant us either to live idely or to make our Recreations our continual Employments but the more Leisure we have from secular Business the greater Portions of our Time we ought to consecrate to Religion and since our Bodies and our Families are so liberally provided for to be so much the more industrious in supplying the Necessities of our Souls that so these may not be the only miserable things about us But then our Natures being so depraved as that they cannot dwell long on the severe Exercises of Religion and yet so active as that if in the Intervals of our Religion they be not Innocently imployed they will be apt to run into Mischief 't is in our own Defence necessary how prosperous soever our outward Condition may be that we should find out some honest Business or other to keep our Activity regularly Exercised And this will be no hard matter for us to do considering how many generous liberal and ingenuous Employments there are fit for persons of the highest Rank and Condition They may dedicate such Portions of their Time to the useful Studies of Philosophy or History or of the Laws and Customs of their own Countrey and such to
Thoughts and Reflections But so long as we keep within the Bounds of Sobriety and do not sally out into malicious or scurrilous or prophane Jesting our Religion doth not only connive at our Mirth but commend and approve it and so remote is it from cramping those Strings and Sinews of the Mind Chearfulness and Action that it recollects their scatterd Vigour and winds up their Slackness to a true Harmony FOR it requires that our speech should be alway with grace Col. iv 6 i. e. as some Expositors understand the Phrase that it should not be whining and melancholy but sprightly and chearful it bids us rejoice evermore 1 Thes. v. 16 and rejoice in the Lord alway and again rejoice Phil. iv 4 that is to indeaver to be chearful in all Conditions and to bear all Events with a serene and lightsome mind And therefore the Apostle reckons this among the blessed Fruits and Effects of that Divine Spirit which accompanies and animates Christianity viz. Joy or Chearfulness Gal v. 22 and this is one of the Particulars in which the same Apostle makes the Christian Laws to consist as they stand opposed to the Ritual Laws of the Jews the Kingdom of Heaven i. e. the Laws of the Christian Church is not meat and drink i. e. consist not of Injunctions or Prohibitions of things that are of a Ritual or indifferent Nature but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. xiv 17 which three Particulars being opposed to things that are unnecessary must by the Law of Oppositions denote things that are necessary and therefore as by Righteousness and Peace must be meant Justice and Peaceableness so by Joy in the Holy Ghost must be meant Chearfulness and Alacrity in doing the will of God because Joy can be in no other Sense Matter of Necessary Duty By all which its evident that Chearfulness of Temper is so far from being discountenanced by our Religion that 't is required and injoined by it so far as 't is in our Power and Choice And indeed it highly becomes us who serve so good a Master to be free and chearful and thereby to express a grateful sense of his Goodness and of those glorious Rewards which we expect from his inexhaustible Bounty but as for a gloomy Look and dejected Countenance it better beseems a Gally-slave than a Servant of God And as Chearfulness is a Duty that very well becomes our State so it is highly necessary to support and carry us on in our Christian Warfare FOR Chearfulness is Natures best Friend it removes its Oppressions enlivens its Faculties and keeps its Spirits in a brisk and regular Motion and hereby renders it easie to it self and useful and serviceable to God and Man It dispels Clouds from the Mind and Fears from the Heart and kindles and Cherishes in us brave and generous Affections and composes our Natures into such a regular temper as is of all others the most fit to receive religious Impressions and the breathings of the Spirit of God For what the Jews do observe of the Spirit of Prophesie is as true of the Spirit of Holiness that it dwells not with Sadness but with Chearfulness that being it self of a calm and gentle Nature it loves not to reside with black and melancholy Passions but requires a composed and serene Temper to act upon And hence Tertul. in his de Spectac Deus praecepit Spiritum sanctum utpote pro Naturae suae bono tenerum delicatum Tranquillitate Lenitate Quiete Pace tractare non Furore non Bile non Ira non Dolore inquietare i. e. God hath commanded that the holy Spirit who is of a tender and delicate Nature should be entertained by us with Tranquility and Mildness with Quietness and Peace and that we should take care not to disturb him with Fury and Choler or with Anger and Grief And indeed Melancholy naturally infests the holy Spirit and disturbs him in all his operations it overwhelms the Fancy with black Reeks and Vapours and thereby clouds and darkens the Understanding and intercepts the holy Spirits Illuminations and like red coloured Glass before the eye causes the most lovely and attractive Objects to look bloody and terrible It distracts the Thoughts and renders them wild roving and incoherent and thereby utterly indisposes them to Prayer and Consideration and renders them deaf and unattentive to all good Motions and Inspirations It freezes up the Heart with dispairing Fears and Despondencies and represents easie things as difficult to us and difficult as impossible and thereby discourages us from all those vertuous Attempts to which the blessed Spirit doth so importunately excite and provoke us In a word it naturally benums and stupifies the Soul obstructs its Motions and makes it listless and unactive and so by indisposing it to co-operate with the holy Spirit renders it an incapable Subject of his divine Grace and Influence Thus melancholy you see by its sullen and malevolent Aspects doth obstinately resist and counter-influence the holy Spirit without whose Aid and Assistance we can never hope to prosper in our spiritual Warfare WHEREFORE if we mean to succeed in this great Affair it concerns us to use all honest and innocent Means to dispel this black and mischievous Humour and to beget and maintain in our Minds a constant Serenity and Chearfulness of Temper and when ever our Spirits begin to droop and languish to betake our selves to such natural Remedies such harmless Diversions Refreshments and Recreations as are fit and proper to raise them up again and not to suffer them to sink into a Bog of Melancholly Humours whilst 't is in our Power by any honest Art or Invention to support them Which if we can but effect will be of vast Advantage to us in the whole Course of our Religion For in an even Chearfulness of Temper our Spirits will be always lively strong and active and fit for the best and noblest Operations they will give Light to our Understandings Courage to our Hearts and Wings to our Affections so that we shall be able more clearly to discern divine and heavenly things more resolutely to practise and more vehemently to aspire after them and our Considerations will be more fixt our Devotions more intent and all our spiritual Endeavours more active and vivacious For a chearful Temper will represent every thing chearfully to us 't will represent God so lovely Religion so attractive the Rewards of it so immense and the Difficulties of it so inconsiderable and thereby inspire us with so much Life and Courage as that none of all those spiritual Enemies we war and contend against will be able to withstand our Resolution X. TO our Course and Progress in this our spiritual Warfare it is also necessary that we maintain in our Minds a constant Sense and Expectation of Heaven that since the things of the other World are future and invisible and consequently less apt to touch and affect us
are of great Use to us in the Course and Progress of our spiritual Warfare For as for the Lords Day it is instituted and ever since the Apostles Time hath been observed in the Christian Church as a Day of publick Worship and weekly Thanksgiving for our Saviours Resurrection in which the great Work of our Redemption was consummated And certainly it must needs be of vast Advantage to be one day in seven sequester'd from the World and imployed in divine Offices in solemn Prayers Praises and Thanksgivings and be obliged to assist and edifie one another by the mutual Example and Vnion of our Devotions to hear the Duties of our Religion explained the Sins against it reprehended and the Doctrins of it unfolded and reduced to plain and easie Principles of Practice what a mighty advantage might we reap from all these blessed Ministries if we would but attend to them with that Concern and Seriousness which the matter of them requires and deserves Especially if when the publick Offices are over we would not let loose our selves all the rest of the Day as we too frequently do to our secular Cares and Diversions and thereby choak those good Instructions we have heard and stifle those devout and pious Affections which have been raised and excited in us but instead of so doing we would devote at least some good Portion of it to the Instruction of our Families and to the private Exercise of our Religion to Meditation and Prayer to the Examination of our selves concerning our past Behaviour and the reinforcing our Resolution to behave our selves better for the future if I say we would thus spend our Lords Day we should doubtless find our selves better Men for it all the Week after we should go into the World again with much better Affections and stronger Resolutions with our Graces more vigorous and our bad Inclinations more reduced and tamed and whereas the Jews were to gather Manna enough on their sixth Day to feed their Bodies on the ensuing Sabbath we should gather Manna enough upon our Sabbath to feed and strengthen our Souls all the six days after BUT to this we must also add frequent Communions with one another in the Holy Sacrament which is an Ordinance instituted on purpose by our blessed Saviour for the improving and furthering us in our Christian Warfare For besides that herein we have one of the most puissant Arguments against Sin represented by visible Signs to our Sense viz. the bloody Sacrifice of our blessed Lord to expiate and make Atonement for it besides that those bleeding Wounds of his which are here represented by the breaking of the Bread and pouring out of the Wine do proclaim our Sins his Asassines and Murderers the thought of which if we had any ingenuity in us were enough to incense in us the most implacable Indignation against them besides that his Sufferings for our Sins of which this sacred Solemnity is a lively Picture do horribly remonstrate Gods Displeasure against them who would not be induced to pardon them upon any meaner Expiation than the Blood of his Son than which Hell it self is not a more dreadful Argument to scare and terrifie us from them in a word besides that his so freely submitting and offering up himself to be a Propitiation for us of which this holy Festival is a solemn Commemoration is an expression of Kindness sufficient to captivate the most ungrateful Souls and extort Obedience from them besides all this I say as it is a Feast upon the Sacrifice of his Body and Blood it is a Federal Rite whereby God and we by feasting together do accordingly to the antient Customs both of Jews and Heathens mutually oblige our selves to one another whereby God by giving us the mystical Bread and Wine and we by receiving them do mutually ingage our selves to one another upon those sacred Pledges of Christs Body and Blood that we faithfully perform each others Part of that everlasting Covenant which was purchased by him And what can be a greater Restraint to us when we are solicited to any Sin than the sense of being under such a dreadful Vow and Obligation With what face dare we listen to any Temptation to Evil when we remember lately we solemnly ingaged our selves to the contrary and took the Sacrament upon it And verily I doubt 't is this that lies at the bottom of that seeming modest Pretence of Vnworthiness which men are wont to urge in Excuse for their Neglect of the Sacrament namely that they love their Lusts and cannot resolve to part with them and therefore are afraid to make such a solemn Abjuration of them as the eating and drinking the consecrated Elements implies And I confess if this be their Reason they are unworthy indeed the more shame for them but 't is such an Vnworthiness as is so far from excusing that it only aggravates their Neglect For for any man to plead that he dares not receive the Sacrament because he is resolved to sin on is to make that which is his Fault his Apology and to excuse one Sin with another Wherefore if we are heartily resolved by the Grace of God to reform and amend let us abstain no longer from this great Federal Rite upon Pretence of Vnworthiness For 't is by the use of this among other Means that we are to improve and grow more and more worthy For the very Repetition of our Resolution as I have shewed above is a proper Means of strengthning and confirming it and certainly it must needs be much more so when 't is renewed and repeated with the Solemnity of a Sacrament And therefore it is worth observing how much Care our Lord hath taken in the very Constitution of our Religion to oblige us to a constant solemn Repetition of our good Resolutions For at our first Entrance into Covenant with him we are to be baptized in which Solemnity we do openly renounce the Devil and all his Works and religiously devote our selves to his service But because we are apt to forget this our baptismal Vow and the Matter of it is continually to be performed and more than one World depends upon it therefore he hath thought fit not to trust wholly to this first Engagement but hath so methodized our Religion as that we are ever and anon obliged to give him new Security For which End he hath instituted this other Sacrament which is not like that of Baptism to be received by us once for all but to be often reiterated and repeated that so upon the frequent Returns of it we might still be obliged to repeat over our old Vows of Obedience For he hath not only injoyned us that we should do this in remembrance of him Luk. xxii 19 i. e. that we should celebrate this sacred Festival in the Memory of his Passion but by thus doing the Apostle tells us we are to continue the Memorial of it to the end of the World or to shew his death till he
infests us all over with continual Anguish and Pain how when he hath tired and exhausted us with his continued Batteries and worn out our Strength with a succession of wearisom Nights to sorrowful Days he at last storms the Soul out of all the Out-works of Nature and forces it to retire into the Heart and how when he hath marked us for dead with a Baptism of clammy and fatal Sweats he summons our weeping Friends to assist him to grieve and vex us with their parting Kisses and sorrowful Adieus and how at length when he is weary of Tormenting us any more he rushes into our Hearts and with a few Mortal Pangs and Convulsions tears the Soul from thence and turns it out to seek its Fortune in the wide World of Spirits where 't is either seized on by Devils and carried away to their dark Prisons of Sorrow and Despair there to languish out its life in a dismal Expectation of that dreadful Day wherein it must change its bad Condition for a worse or be conducted by Angels to some blessed Abode there to remain in unspeakable Pleasure and Tranquillity till 't is Crown'd with a glorious Resurrection Now since 't is most certain that we must all one time or other experience these things but most uncertain how soon how much doth it concern us to think of them before-hand and to forecast such Provisions and Preparations for them as that whensoever they happen we may not be surprized For besides that the frequent Meditation of death will familiarize its Terrors to us so that whensoever it comes our Minds which have been so long accustomed to converse with it will be much less startled and amazed at it besides that it will wean us from the inordinate Desire and over-eager Prosecution of the things of this World which as I told you before are the Snares with which our Vices do too often intangle us besides all this I say it will put us upon laying in a Store of spiritual Provisions against that great day of Expence For he that often considers the dreadful Approaches the concomitant Terrors and the momentous Issues and Consequents of Death must be strangely stupified if he be not thereby vigorously excited to fore-arm and fortifie himself with all those Graces and Defences that are necessary to render it easie safe and prosperous VIII To our final perseverance in the Christian Warfare it is also necessary that in order to the putting our selves into a good Posture to die we should discharge our Consciences of all the Reliques and Remains of our past guilt For so we are commanded to take care that our hearts be sprinkled from an evil conscience Heb. x. 22 and to hold faith and a good conscience 1 Tim. i. 19 and to make this our rejoycing the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world 2 Cor. i. 12 in a word to live in all good conscience Acts xxiii 1 and to have a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men Acts xxiv 16 Which though they are General Duties do necessarily imply this Particular that we should very nicely and curiously examin our Consciences those faithful Records and Registers of our Actions and where-ever we find the least Item of an uncancel'd Guilt immediately cross it out by a hearty Sorrow for and moral Revocation of it For notwithstanding we may have in the general repented of all our past Sins yet there are some Siins which notwithstanding we react no more do leave a lasting Guilt upon the Mind which nothing can cancel but our actual revoking and unsinning them As supposing that I have heretofore either by my bad Counsels or Example seduced other men into wicked Courses it is not sufficient for the Expiation of my Fault that I my self abstain from those wicked Courses for the future but I must indeavour to undo the Mischief which I have done to others by them and by a solemn Recantation of my past Follies by Persuasion and good Counsel and the Application of all other pious and prudent Means indeavour to reduce those whom I have formerly perverted For till I have done this I wilfully permit the mischievous Effect of my Sin to remain and if when I have wounded another I suffer him to perish without taking any care of his Cure I am guilty of his Murder though I never wound him more Suppose again that I have injured another by any malicious Slander or Calumny it is not enough to acquit me of the Guilt of it that I cease to scandalize him for the future but I must also indeavour by a free Retractation to vindicate his injur'd Name from the ill Surmises of those to whom I have asperst him for so long as his Reputation suffers through my not Retracting the Calumnies I have cast upon it I wilfully persist to defame and calumniate him and so long the Guilt of it must stick and abide upon my Conscience Once more suppose I have injur'd another in his Estate either by Theft or Fraud or Oppression it will not be sufficient to acquit me that for the future I forbear defrauding forcing or stealing from him any more but if it be in my Power I must make Restitution of all that I have wrongfully deprived him of and that to himself if he be living or if not to those that succeed him in his Rights and for want of such to the Poor who by Gods Donation have the Propriety of all such Wefts and Strays as have no other Owner surviving For it 's certain that my wrongful Seizure of what is another Mans doth not alienate his Right to it so that he hath the same Right to it while I keep it from him as he had at first when I took it from him and consequently till I restore it back to him I continue to wrong him of it and my detaining it is a continued Repetition of that Fraud or Theft or Oppression by which I wrongfully seized it and whilst I thus continue the Sin 't is impossible but the Guilt of it must still abide upon me In these Cases therefore it concerns us to be very nice and curious in examining our Accounts to see if there be any of these Scores yet uncancel'd any of these bad Effects of our Sin yet remaining For if any such matter appear in our Accounts it concerns us as much as our everlasting Interest amounts to to use all present Care and Diligence to discharge it that so before Death summons us to give up our Accounts to the great Auditor of the World all Scores between him and us may be even'd and adjusted And indeed if we would be safe it vastly imports us to leave as little as may be to do upon a Death-bed for that is most commonly a very improper State for religious Action since for all we know we may be distracted in it by a Feaver or stupified by an Apoplexy or deprived
against the Dissuasions of thy Grace the Checks of my Conscience and the fairest Warnings of my Danger Had I done it Ignorantly or unawares or under a Surprize it had been pittiable but O my Guilt my Guilt 't was knowingly wilfully basely and maliciously that I did this evil in thy sight whereby I have forfeited my Soul my Innocence and thy Love and have got nothing in exchange but the Pleasure of a Minute and a lasting Shame and Repentance O vile Wretch O desperate Fool that I am what have I done whither am I fallen I have grieved thy Spirit contemn'd thy Authority trampled on thy Goodness and wounded my own Conscience and by one base Act have thrown my self headlong from all those glorious Hopes whereunto thou hadst raised me And now O God what can I say in my own behalf my Sin being so great my Folly so utterly inexcusable O I am asham'd I am asham'd of my self I lament and abhor the Madness and Wickedness of my own Choice and O that it were in my power to recall it But woe is me it is past into Act and by that Act my Innocence is already stained my Soul forfeited and it is no more in my Power to undo what I have done than to recall the Hours of yesterday What then shall I do or whether shall I turn my self 'T is against thee O Lord against thee I have sinned and now I have none but thee to flee to I have nothing of my own to plead in my own behalf my Conscience condemns me and my Sin my Sin cries aloud against me so that unless thou wilt be pleased to listen to the interceding Blood of thy Son and to consult thine own Bowels and Compassions and from thence to fetch Arguments of Mercy I am undone for ever by my own Folly Wherefore for Jesus Christ his sake for thy own Goodness and Mercies sake have pity have pity upon me heal my Soul for I have sin'd against thee be merciful to my Sin for it is great Thou hast promised to receive returning Sinners to blot out their Iniquities and to heal their Backslidings I desire O Lord to return unto thee I hate and renounce my Sin and do here abhor my self for it in Dust and Ashes before thee Wherefore for thy Praise sake O try me this once more and do not presently cast me away from thy Presence nor take thy holy Spirit from me but restrain me by his Grace from all presumptuous Sins and suffer them not to have Dominion over me And quicken me O Lord for thy Names sake that for the future I may watch more carefully resist more vigorously and walk more circumspectly than I have hitherto done And that from henceforth I may be intirely devoted to thee and serve thee without Interruption do thou so confirm me by thy Grace in my holy Resolution as that I may choose rather to die than to offend thee any more And now O Lord though by my Rebellion against thee this Day I have rendered my self most unworthy of thy fatherly Care and Protection yet I beseech thee to watch over me this Night for good and give me a safe Repose in the Arms of thy Providence that I may have yet a farther Space to repent of mine Iniquity And grant I beseech thee that when I awake in the Morning I may be warn'd by the woful Remembrance of this Days Fall to take more Care of my Steps and to shun or refuse those Snares and Temptations that lie all around me All which I do most humbly and earnestly beg of thee even for Jesus Christ his sake in whose name and words I farther pray Our Father c. Directions for the Exercise of our private Religion in the state of our Progress and Improvement in the Christian Life with Forms of private Devotion fitted for this State When you enter into your Closet in the Morning indeavour to affect your self with Gratitude and Thankfulness to God for his Grace by representing to your self the Danger and Misery of that sinful State out of which you are recovered and the great Incapacity you were in to recover without his Assistance and then make this thankful Acknowledgment to him O Most gracious and most merciful Father thou art a liberal Benefactor to thy Creation a never-failing Friend to Mankind and a most tender Lover of Souls for whose everlasting Welfare thou hast been always consulting and hast left no method of Love unattempted to rescue them from Sin and Misery O blessed for ever blessed be thy great Name for the Experience I have had of this thy fatherly Goodness I am a monument of thy Goodness a living Instance and Wonder of thy Mercy for me hast thou quickned who was dead in Trespasses and Sins and who had long ago perish'd in mine Iniquities hadst thou not been infinitely patient and long suffering I had forfeited my Soul to thee and thou mightest justly have cut me off and given me my Portion with Hypocrites and considering how I provok'd thee to it by my daily Rebellions I cannot but admire thy Forbearance towards me But that thou shouldest not only forbear me but follow me with thy Kindness and never cease importuning me to return to my Duty and Happiness till thou hadst conquered me by thy Gracious Persuasions O incomparable Love O amazing Goodness never to be sufficiently admired and adored Wherefore praised for ever praised be thy Grace which hath redeemed my Life from eternal Death and my Soul from the neathermost Hell which hath rescued me from the Snare of the Devil and the pernicious Bondage of my Lusts and implanted in my Nature these heavenly Graces and Dispositions and hitherto improv'd and advanc'd them towards my eternal Happiness This O my God all this I owe to thy free and undeserved Goodness that I that was dead am now alive that I that was lost am found that I that was a slave to my Lusts am made free from Sin and translated into the glorious Liberty of the sons of God is purely the Effect of thy free Grace and to be intirely ascribed to thy all-powerful Goodness Go on O Lord go on I beseech thee and perfect thine own Work that so the Glory of it may be for ever redounding to thee and that as I have been hitherto a signal Instance of thy Goodness so I may be an happy Instrument of thy Praise to eternal Ages And grant I beseech thee that the sense of thy unspeakble Kindness towards me may so captivate my Soul and all my Faculties as that I may be most intirely thine as that my Reason and Will my Fear and Hope and Love and Desire may from henceforth be all resign'd up to thee and for ever devoted to the Honour and Worship of thy infinite Glories and Perfections and this I most humbly beg for Jesus Christ his sake to whom with thy self and thy eternal Spirit be rendred all Honour Glory and Power from this time forth
being by the Laws of the Invisible State always assigned to that Society of Spirits whereunto they are most connaturalized in their Temper we must expect if we go into Eternity with turbulent and contentious Minds to be thrust into the Society of Devils and damned Ghosts with whom we are already joined in a strict Communion of Natures And O! what a dreadful thing must it be to be forced to spend an Eternity in such wretched Company Verily methinks the most horrid and frightful Idea I can form in my own Mind is that of a company of snarling and quarrelsome Spirits crouded like so many Scorpions and Adders into a Den together and there forced by the Venomousness of their Temper to live in continual Mutiny and be perpetually hissing and spitting Poison at one another For though those words of our Saviour Mat. xii 25 26. imply that Satans Kingdom is not divided yet they are not to be so understood as if there were any such thing as Peace or Concord among those rancorous Spirits for that is impossible to be imagined no doubtless they would be divided eterdally if they could being such continual plagues as they are to one another and think it a mighty Happiness to be shut up all alone in separate Dens where they might never see nor hear of one another more but being chained together as they are by an adamantine Fate which they cannot withstand they consent in this and in this only to oppose all good Designs and do the utmost Mischief they are able But as to all their other Intercourses they are continually embroiled and do live in an eternal Variance with one another So that their Society is like that Monster Scylla whom the Poets talk of whose inferiour parts were a company of Dogs that were perpetually snarling and quarrelling among themselves and yet were inseparable from one another as being all of them parts of the same substance WHEREFORE since to be united by indissoluble Ligaments to this wretched Society will be the certain Fate of all factious and contentious Souls our blessed Religion whose great Design is to advance our happiness hath taken abundant care to educate our Minds in Quietness and Peace For hither tend all those Precepts of it which require us to follow peace with all men Heb. xii 14 to be at peace among our selves 1 Thess. v. 13 to follow after the things that make for peace Rom. xiv 19 to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Eph. iv 3 to be of one mind and to live in peace 2. Cor. xiii 11 and if it be possible and as much as in us lies to live peaceably with all men Rom. xii 18 in a word to mark them that cause divisions among us and avoid them Rom. xvi 17 and to do our part that there be no divisions among us but that we be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgement 1 Cor. i. 10 The Design of all which is to bind us over to the Study and Practice of Vnity and Concord and restrain us by the strictest Obligations from all schismatical factious and turbulent Behaviour in those sacred or civil Societies whereof we are Members And unless we do sincerely endeavour to fulfil these Obligations however we may monopolize Godliness to our own Party and claw and canonize one another we are Saints of a quite different strain from those blessed ones above and are acted by the factious Spirit of the Devil whose Business it is to foment Divisions and kindle Disturbances and Commotions wherever he comes This therefore must be our great Care if we design for Heaven to root out of our Tempers all Inclination to Contention and Discord and to compose our selves into a sedate and peaceable calm and gentle frame of Spirit and not only to avoid all unnecessary Quarrels and Contentions our selves but so far as in us lies be Peace-makers between others and preserve a friendly Union with and among our fellow members And if through humane Frailty and Infirmity through our own Ignorance or the plausible Pretences of Seducers through the too great Prevalence of our worldly Interest or the Principles of a bad Education it should be our Misfortune to be insensibly misled into unwarrantable Dissents and Divisions yet still to keep our Minds in a teachable Temper and our Ears open to Truth and Conviction to be desirous of Accommodation and willing to hear the Reasons on both sides and as soon as we are convinced of our Error to repent of our Division and immediately return to Vnity and Peace WHICH if it be our constant Practice and Endeavour we shall by Degrees form our Minds into such a peaceable and amicable Temper that when we go into the other World where we shall be perfectly disengaged from all temporal Interests and throughly convinced of all our erroneous Prejudice our Souls will be effectually contempered to the quiet and peaceable Society of the Blessed who having no private Interests to pursue no particular Affections to gratifie no Ends or Aims but what are common to them all which is to adore and imitate and love that never-failing Spring whence all their Felicity flows it is impossible there should be any Occasion administred by any of them of any Schism or rupture of Communion And so those happy People live in the most perfect Unity and Concord as being all united in their Ends and tied together by their heart-strings For they having no counter Opinions or cross Interests to divide them nothing but Truth shining in their Minds nothing but Goodness reigning in their Wills it is impossible there should be any dissenting Brother among them any Non-conformist to the blessed Laws of their Communion but conspiring together as they do in the same Mind and Interest and in the same peaceable Intentions and Affections they must needs walk hand in hand together in a most perfect Vniformity So that if we would live for ever with these blessed Folk we must now endeavour to calm and compose our selves into their Temper to discharge our Minds as much as we are able of every froward and contentious Humour and reduce our Wills to a perfect loathing of them that so being qualified for their Society we may be admitted to it when we go away from this wrangling World And then how unspeakably happy shall we be when with Minds perfectly refined from all Contention and Bitterness we shall be received into the Company of those calm and sedate Spirits and bear our part in their sweet and placid Conversation wherein they freely communicate their minds to one another without the least Fierceness or Insolence Captiousness or Misconstruction Clamour or Contention for Victory and do eternally discourse over the wise things of Heaven and still perfectly concenter both in their Vnderstandings and Wills wherein like so many Stars in Conjunction they mingle Light with one another and do peaceably communicate the treasures of their Knowledge