Bodies and take leave of all the Pleasures of them it is very requisite that we should now before-hand wean and abstract our selves from the Enjoyments of corporeal Sense that so when we come to part with them we may know how to be happy without them and be fit to live the Lives of naked Spirits And therefore we find that there has scarce been any Religion whatsoever pretending to qualify Men for another Life but hath imposed Fasting and Abstinence and other bodily Severities as proper Means to lustrate and purify the Mind and to prepare it for immediate Converses with God and separated Spirits but then the Consequence was that the over-strict Imposition of these Instrumentals of Religion occasioned a world of Superstition for being so strictly imposed they obtained so far in the Opinion of the World as to be reckoned among the Essentials of Religion and counted absolutely good and in their own Nature pleasing and grateful unto God which possibly by degrees introduced those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 horrid and bloody Mysteries into the Heathen Religion For Mankind being once possessed with such an Opinion of God as to think he was pleased and delighted to see his poor Creatures afflict and punish themselves it was easie from thence to infer that he would be much more pleased to see them butcher themselves and sprinkle his Altars with their own Blood And as this over-weening Opinion did probably introduce humane Sacrifices into the Heathen Religion so it is certain that it hath introduced sundry false Doctrines into the Romish as particularly that Fasting and Whipping our selves and going on Pilgrimages are meritorious Things that by them we expiate our Sins and make Satisfaction to the Justice of God as if the Guilt that binds us over to eternal Perdition were to be expiated by a sound Whipping or a short Pilgrimage were a proportionable Commutation for the eternal Penance of Hell Fire But these are the vain Imaginations of Men who would faign impose Laws upon God and prescribe to him the Measures of Punishment who would do as wickedly as they please and suffer what they please for so doing But let us not deceive our selves if we will choose to sin it is reasonable that that God whom we offend by our Sin should choose and appoint our Punishment It is by no means fit that Criminals should be their own Iudges for if they were they would have very little Reason to be afraid of sinning because they would be obliged to suffer no more for it than what they pleased themselves but the Right of punishing is in the offended Party and therefore if we will offend God by violating his Laws we have no right to choose our own Penance but must whether we will or no submit to what He thinks fit to inflict upon us and what that is he hath told us before-hand even everlasting Expulsion from his Presence into the Society and Portion of Devils and damned Spirits So that for us to expect to attone and satisfy God by little voluntary Penances of our own is just as unreasonable as if a Murderer should cut off his little Finger and thereupon expect to be excused from the Penalty of the Law And as these bodily Severities are no Expiations of our Sins so neither are they in their own Nature pleasing and grateful unto God for he is a good God and an universal Lover of all his Creation and consequently can be no farther pleased with the Sufferings and Afflictions of any of his Creatures than as they are necessary either to do them good or to make them exemplary to others or to vindicate the Honour of his own violated Laws neither of which Ends are served by voluntary Penances and Severities as such if they be not subordinated to the Ends of Virtue and Religion For what can Fasting signify if it be not designed to famish our Lusts Can our hungry Bowels be a delightful Spectacle to that God who feeds the young Ravens and takes so much care to provide for all his Creation What Virtue is there in the Chastning of our Bodies if it be not intended to humble and mortify our Souls Do we think that that God who is so zealous of our Welfare can be recreated with our Miseries or take pleasure in our tragical Looks and bloody Shoulders 'T is true so far as these things are Instruments of Good to us they are pleasing unto God even as all other Instruments of Religion but it is not the suffering of our Bodies he is pleased with but the good which it doth our Souls but if they do our Souls no good if they do not purify our Affections and wean us from fleshly Desires and make us more fit for the heavenly State they are as insignificant in the Account of God as the paring of our Nails or the clipping of our Hair 3. Another sort of these bodily Exercises that are of some though but little account in Religion is bodily Passions in Religion There is I confess an excellent Use to be made of our bodily Passions in the Exercise of our Religion provided we do not place our Religion in them for if we do they will betray us into the grossest Cheats and Impostures For in the general we find that our Passions do wing our intellectual Faculties and render them more intense and expedite in their Operations For whilst the Soul and Body are united to one another there is a mutual Reflowing and Communication of Passions between them insomuch that whensoever the Soul is any ways affected with any Object there immediately follows a suitable Perturbation or Passion in the Body and then this Passion of the Body as it is grateful or ingrateful to it doth more vigorously affect the Soul with Love or Aversation and then the Soul being thus reaffected and incited by the bodily Passion will more vehemently pursue or shun the Object which caused its first Motion or Affection When therefore our Souls and Bodies do thus sympathize with each other in the Exercises of Religion we must necessarily perform them with greater Vigour and Intension But to make this more plain to you I will briefly instance in those four great Passions of Religion viz. Love and Hatred and Sorrow and Ioy. As for that of Love when the Soul is affected with God or Virtue or any other amiable Objects of Religion immediately there follows a sweet and grateful Passion in the Body For the Heart being dilated towards the beloved Object puts the Blood and Spirits into a free and placid Motion which diffuses a certain agreeable Heat into the Breast and invigorates the Brain with a flood of active Spirits and then the Soul being sensible of this grateful Emotion in the Body is thereby more vigorously incited to pursue those amiable Objects wherewith she was first affected And so for Hatred when the Soul is practically convinced by the Arguments of Religion of the Odiousness of any Evil it forbids the
the Age whereas in truth they would prove the rankest Hypocrites that ever appeared in a religious Vizard And of these he exhorts Timothy carefully to forewarn his Flock and for his own part to reject their profane and ridiculous Fables and rather to exercise himself in true substantial Godliness than in such outward bodily Rigors and Severities for which he subjoyns this general Reason for bodily exercise profiteth little that is mere outward bodily Exercise in Religion abstracted from inward Piety and Godliness is of very little avail in a Religious Account For the bodily Exercise here spoken of it seems was such as had some little Profit attending it and consequently was such as had some general Tendency to Good and was improveable to some advantage had it been wisely managed and directed For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here translated little is not so to be understood as if it signified nothing because it is here opposed to something that is greater viz. to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bodily Exercise profiteth little but Godliness is profitable for all things and therefore this bodily Exercise must profit something though less than Godliness which is profitable for all things As when Plato says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Socrates must be a little attended but Truth a great deal more And if it be such an Exercise as doth profit a little then it must be such as is Religious and is of some small account in Religion In the Prosecution of this Subject therefore I shall do these two things I. Shew you what this outward or bodily Exercise in Religion is II. In what Cases it is that it profits little I. Wherein doth this bodily Exercise consist I answer it consists in these six things 1. In an outward visible Profession of Religion 2. In bodily Severities upon Religious Accounts 3. In bodily Passions in Religion 4. In bodily Worship 5. In bodily Fluency and Volubility in Religious Exercises 6. In a mere outward Form or Round of Religious Duties 1. It consists in an outward visible Profession of Religion That we should make a visible Profession of the true Religion when it is sufficiently proposed to us is an unquestionable Duty and that for this Reason because not to profess visibly what we believe to be the true Religion is an open disowning of God who is the immediate Object of all true Religion For he that believes that this is the Will of God and yet is either ashamed or afraid openly to avow and acknowledge it declares that he is either ashamed of God or that he fears Man more than God both which are highly impious Besides by our visible owning of Religion we propose it to others who by our Example may be perswaded to embrace it as well as we and it is our Duty not only to entertain the true Religion our selves but so far as in us lies to propagate it to others that so diffusing our Light round about us others may be directed to Heaven by it as well as our selves This therefore is of some Account with God that we visibly profess the true Religion but if this be all we do it will profit us but very little For if we do not own Religion in our Actions while we profess it in our Words we contradict our selves our Practice gives the Lye to our Creed and our wicked Lives baffle our holy Profession for while a Man acts contrary to the Rules of his Religion he doth as effectually disown it as if he should openly renounce his Baptism and make a publick Recantation of Christianity For as our Profession of Religion is performed by a visible signification of our Belief of it and as this may be signified by our Actions as well as our Words so in effect we do renounce Religion when we give any visible signification that we do not believe it and this we do as well when we act like Infidels as when by Words we declare our Infidelity For by our Deeds we may signify our Minds as well as by our Words and he that acts as if he did not believe doth give a more convincing Argument of his Infidelity than all his Words or Professions can be of the contrary because it is rationally supposable that a Man will rather pretend to believe what he doth not than that he will act contrary to his own Belief and Judgment it being a greater degree of Violence to our selves to act contrary to what we do believe than to pretend to believe what we do not So that it is not all our Talk and verbal owning of Religion that will serve the end of a visible Profession which is so to own God as to induce others to own him as well as our selves because he that denies God in his Actions will never be able to induce others to believe that he doth sincerely own him in his Words and Profassions Wherefore unless we will live up to the Rules of our Religion we were as good not to make any visible Profession of it for our Profession will serve no good Ends of Religion it may indeed disgrace it in the Opinion of those who measure its Goodness by the Lives of its Votaries for either they will think that our Religion teaches us to live as we do and that will make them abhor it or else they will imagine that notwithstanding our Profession we do not believe it and that will make them suspect it to be a Cheat and Imposture So that for any Good Christianity is like to reap from wicked Christians professing it it were highly desirable that they would renounce their Baptism and openly declare themselves Atheists or Infidels because by their Actions they blaspheme the Religion they profess and by assuming to themselves the holy Name of Christians they do but more openly profane it 2. Another sort of bodily Exercise that is of some though but little Account in Religion is our voluntary undergoing of bodily Rigours or Severities upon the score of Religion There is doubtless a very wise use to be made of bodily Severities in Religion provided they be but used with that Prudence and Caution as they ought to be for they are excellent Remedies against many of our inordinate fleshly Inclinations to came our extravagant Appetites and to render them more tractable to the Commands of Reason and Religion besides that in the general they are of singular Use to wean our Souls from the Pleasures of the Body which do often corrupt the palate of the Mind and render it incapable of relishing divine Enjoyments For if we indulge to our Appetites all those lawful Pleasures which they crave our Souls will be apt to contract too great a Familiarity with the Flesh and to be so taken up with the Delights and Satisfactions of it as to neglect those diviner Pleasures for which they were created and which are more natural and congenial to them and considering that in our future State we must live without these
Enmity and Hatred she hath towards it causes an anxious Contraction of the Heart and Compression of the Animal Spirits which produces a Chilness in the Breast a retarding of the Blood and an unequal motion of the Pulse and then the Soul sympathizing with the Body cannot but be sensible of this ungrateful Passion it is put into which must needs add to her Hatred of those odious Objects which were the Cause of it and cause her more vehemently to shun and avoid them So again when the Soul is moved to Sorrow and Repentance for any past Sins and Miscarriages the sad Regrets she suffers within her self produce a very doleful Passion in the Body such as pinches the Heart congeals the Blood and causes an ungrateful Languor of the Spirits and then by compassionating her grieved Consort she is thereby excited to a higher degree of Displeasure against those Sins that caused its Grief and Disturbance Lastly when the Soul is joyed and delighted with any religious Object or Exercise by that sweet Complacency she enjoys within her self there is produced a most pleasant Emotion in the Body the Animal Spirits flowing to the Heart in an equal and placid Stream where being arrived through its dilated Orifices they sooth and tickle it into a most sensible Pleasure and then the Soul being affected with the Body's Pleasure doth from thence derive an additional Joy which doth more vigorously encourage her to pursue those Objects and continue those Exercises from whence her Original Joy proceeded So that you see that by reason of that perpetual Intercourse there is between our Souls and our Bodies there is an excellent Use even of our sensitive Passions in Religion And it cannot be denied but that a gentle Temper of Body whose Passions are soft and easie and ductile and apt to be commoved with the Soul may be of great advantage in our Religious Exercises because whensoever it is religiously affected its Passions will be apt to intend and quicken the Affections of the Soul and to render them more vigorous and active but farther than this they are of no account at all in Religion For as there are many Men who are sincerely good that yet cannot raise their sensitive Passions in their religious Exercises that are heartily sorry for their Sins and yet cannot weep for them that do entirely love God and delight in his Service and yet cannot put their Blood and Spirits into the enravishing Emotions of sensitive Love and Joy so on the other hand there are many gross Hypocrites that have not one dram of true Piety in them who yet in their Religious Exercises can put themselves into wondrous Transports of bodily Passion that can pour out their Confessions in Floods of Tears and cause their Hearts to dilate into Raptures of sensitive Love and their Spirits to tickle them into Ecstasies of Joy which is purely to be resolved into the different Tempers of Mens Bodies some Tempers being naturally so calm and sedate as that they are scarce capable of being disturbed into a Passion others again so soft and tender and impressible that the most frivolous Fancy is able to raise a Commotion in them And hence we see that some People can weep most heartily at the Misfortunes of Lovers in Plays and Romances and as much rejoyce at their good Successes though they know that both are Fictions and mere Idea's of Fancy whereas others can scarce shed a Tear or raise a sensitive Joy at the real Calamities or Prosperities of a Friend whom yet they love a great deal more than these Men can possibly do their feigned and Romantick Heroes And yet alas how very often do Men place the whole of their Religion in these mechanical Motions of their Blood and Spirits that think they are exceeding good if they can but chafe themselves into a devout Passion and that it is an infallible Sign of Godliness that their Blood and Spirits are easily moved by religious Idea's and apt to be elevated or dejected according as sad or joyous Arguments are pathetically represented to their Fancies and though they do not understand the Argument or which is all one to them though that which is delivered for Argument is mere Gibberish and insignificant Canting that hath nothing of Argument or Reality in it only some empty Fiction is conveyed to their Fancies by a musical Voice in fanciful Expressions yet because they are affected by it and it raises a sensible Perturbation in their Blood and Spirits they presently conclude it to be an Income of God and an infallible Token of his special Love and Favour to them as if it were a Sign of Godliness and a Mark of God's Favourites to be affected with Nonsense feathered with soft and delicate Phrases and pointed with pathetick Accents Thus there are some Men who believe themselves to be converted meerly because they have run through all the Stages of Passion in that new Road of Artificial Conversion which some modern Authors have found out for according as the Work of Conversion hath been described by some modern Authors it is wholly placed in so many different Scenes of Passion For first a Man must pass under the Discipline of the Law and the Spirit of Bondage that is he must be frightned into a Sense of his lost and undone Condition and in this Sense he must grieve bitterly for his Sins as the Causes of his Ruin and Perdition and this is that which they call Conviction and Compunction From hence he must proceed into the Evangelical State and pass into the Spirit of Adoption the Entrance of which is Contrition or Humiliation which consists in an ingenuous Sorrow for Sin proceeding from a passionate Sense of God's Love and Goodness and then having acted over all these mournful Passions he embraces and lays hold upon Christ which is the concluding Scene and is altogether made up of Ioy and Exultation and so the Work of Conversion is finish'd Now though I do not at all deny but to the Conversion of an habitual Sinner it is indispensably necessary that he should be convinc'd of his Danger and deeply affected with Sorrow and Remorse for his Folly and Wickedness and therefore would not be so understood as if I intended to discountenance these holy Passions which are such necessary Introductions to a sincere Conversion yet neither do I doubt but by the help of a melancholy Fancy attended with soft and easie Passions a Man may perform all these Parts of Conversion and yet be never the better for it for many times these Passions are only the necessary effects of a diseased Fancy and are altogether as mechanical as the beating of our Pulse or the Circulation of our Blood And hence we see that this kind of Conversion which wholly consists of bodily Passions doth commonly both begin and end with some languishing Distemper of the Body in which the Fancy is over-clouded and the Motion of the Blood and Spirits retarded by the Prevalence
the Charms of pathetical Oratory To be able therefore to word our Prayers in proper and ready Expressions is of considerable Advantage to our Devotions our Words being so apt to affect our Minds and our Passions to keep time with the Musick of our own Language and whilst we wear these Bodies about us and our Souls are so clogged and depressed with fleshly Desires we have need enough to use all Arts and Advantages of spiriting and enlivening our Devotions But yet I confess of all these bodily Exercises this is the least considerable in Religion because we may easily supply the Defect of natural Fluency by excellent Forms of Prayer the Use of which is doubtless far more expedient than the best of our extempore Effusions For he that uses a Form hath nothing else to do in Prayer but only to recollect his own Thoughts and fix them upon God and to keep his Mind affected with a due Sense of the Divine Majesty and his own Need of and Dependance upon him whereas he that prays extempore besides all this is concerned to invent proper and apt Expressions lest he should be impertinent or indecent in his Addresses unto God unless he expects that the Spirit should immediately dictate to him the Words of his Prayer which is to suppose himself a Person immediately inspired and his Prayer of Divine Revelation and consequently of equal Authority with the Scriptures themselves But the best Religious Use that can be made of Fluency and Volubility of Speech is in speaking to others of God and Things Divine here it is useful indeed to make a Man an Orator for Religion and to enable him to recommend it more effectually to others Thus far therefore this sort of bodily Exercise may be profitable both as it may be made instrumental to raise our own Devotions and to propagate true Piety unto others but beyond this I know no place at all that it hath in Religion for there is no doubt but we may be very good Men without this Gift of Fluency and very bad Men with it there being no Necessity of Consequence from an honest Heart to a voluble Tongue And certainly that which proceeds from no higher Principle than meer natural Enthusiasm and consequently may be easily attained by Persons grosly hypocritical and debauched ought not to be looked upon as a Mark of Godliness And yet alas how many Men are there that place all their Religion in their Tongues and esteem it as a certain Sign of Grace that they are able to pray in fluent Expressions and to talk of God in rapturous Flights of Fancy For they being most commonly straitned in their Religious Exercises and not able to vent themselves with any Freedom or Readiness when they fall into an extraordinary Fit of Fluency and Enlargement of which they can give no natural Account they presently conclude it to be an immediate Gift of God's Spirit and a special Token of his peculiar Favour to them And accordingly if you peruse the late Histories of the spiritual Experiences of our modern Converts you will find that they contain little else but strange Relations of their rapturous Discourses and wondrous Enlargements in Frayer which because they have something extraordinary in them are generally thought to be the immediate Effects of the Divine Spirit whereas commonly they proceed meerly from the present Temper of the Body and are as mechanical as any other Operations of Nature For let a Man's Body be but put into a fervent Temper his Spirits into quick but manageable Motions this will naturally produce in him a more fine and exquisite Power of Perception by causing the Images of Things to come faster into his Fancy and to appear more distinct there and then his Fancy being more pregnant with new Idea's and Images than it uses to be his Expressions must necessarily be more fluent and easie But then if when this natural Fervour of his Temper be intended with Vapours of heated Melancholy his Fancy be but often impressed and rubbed upon with the most vehement and moving Objects of Religion such as God and Christ and Heaven and Hell it must necessarily raise in him great and vehement Passions and dictate to him pathetick and rapturous Expressions And this hath been commonly experimented by the Devoto's of all Religions for even among the devouter Turks and Heathens we may find as notorious Instances of those Incomes and Enlargements as in any of our modern Histories of Christian Experiences Thus the Heathen Poets in all high Flushes of their Fancy conceited themselves divinely inspired Est Deus in nobis agitante calescimus illo And that great Orator Aristides positively affirms himself to be inspired in his Orations because sometimes he felt in himself an extraordinary Vein of Fluency which was only excited by a brisker Agitation of his Spirits Wherefore it is not at all to be wondered at if when Men are employed in Religious Exercises the same natural Enthusiasm especially when it is exalted by Religious Melancholy should so wing and inspire their Fancies For there is no Man whatsoever that is but religiously inclined and of a soft and impressive Temper but by familiarizing his Fancy to the great Objects of Religion and setting them before his Mind in distinct and affecting Idea's may easily chafe himself into such a Pathos as to be able to talk to or of God and Religion in lofty and rapturous Strains of Divine Rhetorick nor is it any Argument of such a Man 's being inspired that his Discourse doth so move and affect those that hear him because all Language that is soft fluent and pathetical is naturally apt to make deep Impressions on the Auditors For even the Grecian Sophists as Plutarch tells us by their singing Tones and honied Words and effeminate Phrases and Accents did very often transport their Auditors into a kind of Bacchical Enthusiasm And no doubt but the Hearers of whom he speaks who were wont to applaud their Orators at the End of their Declamations with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divinely heavenly preciously unimitably spoken found themselves as much moved as many a Man doth at a Sermon who yet thinks it is not the Art of the Preacher but the Spirit of God speaking in and by him that warms and excites them Wherefore as we would not deceive and undo our own Souls let us have a great care that we do not place our Religion in any such Enthusiastick Fervors of Spirit and Overflowings of Fancy for though this may be a helpful Instrument to us in our Religious Exercises yet it is not by this that we are to estimate the Goodness of them but by those Laws and Circumstances which do moralize humane Actions and render them reasonable and holy and good For 't is not in loud Noises or melting Expressions that the divine Spirit is discovered but in a divine Nature and God-like Disposition and the Effects of true Religion are not to be look'd for in
Words and Talk but in Life and Action and therefore St. Paul tells the Corinthians some of whom it seems had too great an Opinion of his Way of Religious Rhetorication that he would come among them and know not the speech of them that were puffed up but the power for the Kingdom of God saith he consisteth not in word but in power 1 Cor. iv 19 20. Fifthly Another sort of bodily Exercise that is of some though but little Account in Religion is outward and bodily Worship There is no doubt but we ought when we are worshipping God to signify the profound sense that we have of his Majesty and Greatness by outward Adorations and an humble and lowly Demeanour For though we may signify to God the Honour and Worship that we owe him by the internal Acts of our Mind by our Love and Fear and Hope and Admiration because he sees our Hearts and discerns the most secret Motions of our Souls yet since to him we owe the Members of our Bodies as well as the Faculties of our Minds it is very reasonable that we should worship him with both that both our Bodies and Minds should offer the Tribute of Homage which they owe to the Fountain of their Beings that so having each of them a share in the Bounties of God they may be Co-partners too in the Returns of Gratitude to him And though the internal Acts of our Minds do sufficiently signify unto God our Esteem and Veneration of Him yet it is highly reasonable especially in our publick Addresses to him that we should signify it to Men also that they may be excited by our Example to glorify God and to acknowledge and adore the infinite Perfections of his Nature and we have no other way to signify to Men our Veneration of God but only by corporeal Actions that is by such Actions or Gestures of the Body as either by Nature or by Custom are significant of our inward Esteem and Adoration of him And this without doubt is a Part of Natural Religion forasmuch as there never was any People of any Religion whatsoever but what have always expressed their Veneration of the Divinities whom they owned by such external Reverences as were customary amongst them And accordingly we are enjoined in Scripture to offer up unto God the Homage of our Bodies as well as of our Souls to worship and bow down and kneel before the Lord our Maker Psal. xcv 6. and to glorifie him with our Souls and Bodies which are his 1 Cor. vi 20. And when the Devil solicited our Saviour with the Promise of all the Kingdoms of the World to bow down and worship him that is to render him external Homage and Reverence our Saviour rejects the Motion with an it is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Matth. iv 10. which Words must be understood of external as well as internal Worship otherwise his Answer is no wise pertinent to the Devil's Proposals which extended only to external Worship and Adoration And as bodily Worship is enjoined by express Precept so it is warranted by the concurrent Examples of all holy Men for in the Old Testament you have almost as many Examples of it as there are Instances of devout and religious Persons and so observant were the Jews of all external Reverence in their Religious Exercises that to fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker seems to have been Proverbial of their Prayers and Publick Worship And lest any Man should imagine these bodily Reverences to have been Part of that Ceremonial Worship that was abolish'd by the Gospel there are sufficient Examples of it recorded in the New Testament both to excite and warrant our Imitation For even the blessed Iesus himself who thought it no Robbery to be equal with God yet being in the Form of a Servant he thought it no scorn to kneel and prostrate himself before him for thus when he was in his last Agony it is said that he fell on his face and prayed Matth. xxxvi 39. which in those Eastern Countries was a Signification of the profoundest Reverence and afterwards when having awoke his Disciples he returned to his Prayer again St. Luke tells us that he fell upon his knees and prayed Luke xxii 41. Thus of St. Stephen when he was breathing out his Soul in that hearty Prayer for his Enemies it is said that he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice Lord lay not this Sin to their Charge Acts vii 60. So also St. Peter when he came to raise Tabitha from the dead is said to kneel down and pray Acts ix 40. And St. Paul acquainting the Ephesians how earnestly he prayed for them thus expresses himself for this Cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ Ephes. iii. 14. And when he was going to Rome and had taken his last Farewel of the Brethren at Miletum it is said that he kneeled down and prayed with them Acts xx 36. And how loudly soever some of our new-fashioned Christians may explode external Reverence under a Pretence of worshipping God in a more spiritual Manner it is certain that there never was any thing even externally more devout and solemn than the Religious Assemblies of the Primitive Christians for generally at the Reading of their publick Liturgies the whole Congregation kneeled down upon the bare Floor with their Heads uncovered their Eyes lift up to Heaven and their Hands stretched forth in fashion of a Cross and then the whole Congregation being composed into a deep Silence the Minister began the publick Service in a most serious and humble manner not throwing about his Prayers at random with a clamorous wild and confused Voice but pronouncing them with a most decorous Calmness and Modesty the People in the mean time demeaning themselves so solemnly and uniformly that you would have thought the whole Assembly to have been animated with one Soul and that Soul to have been nothing else but a vital Sense of the adorable Majesty and supereminent Perfections of God So heavenly wide was the Primitive Pattern from the Rudeness and Irreverence of our modern Devotions that I doubt not should those blessed Martyrs and Confessors of our holy Religion arise from their Graves and come into our publick Assemblies they would suspect that we met together rather to be worshipp'd by God than to worship him our usual Postures being much fitter for Iudges than for Supplicants and such as rather bespeak us to be receiving Petitions from God than offering up Prayers to him For what Sign do we give that we come to worship the great Majesty above when we rudely squat upon our Seats with our Hats half on as if we thought it too great a Condescension to uncover our Heads and kneel before the Lord our Maker and that we made not bold enough with him unless we treated him as our Fellow and it were a piece of holy Familiarity to be
great reason to suspect it For now the Seasons of the Pleasures of Sin are over he cannot relish their Delights because his cloyed Appetite distastes them as the full Stomach doth the Honey-comb and his Soul being now uninterested in all sinful Pleasure and being naturally in continual Motion must necessarily divert the Current of its Action some other way and the future State to which it is so nearly allied being all it hath to work upon it is no wonder if the Freedom of its Motion turn thitherwards being diverted out of its old Channel for if he love his Sins or the World never so well he must leave them whether he will or no if he dislike God and his Holiness and an everlasting Abode with him never so much he is forced upon them or dashed upon eternal Misery which it is impossible for him to chuse So that now his good Resolution is scarce an Act of Choice for tho' he would not chuse to obey God if he could still enjoy his former Lusts yet they being out of his reach he must take what is to be had So that 't is mighty Suspicious that the Sense of his Resolution is no more than this Holiness is good when a Man is just dying but while he lives and can enjoy his Lusts they are a great deal better so that the Approach of Death makes Holiness good to him upon this account only because there would be some thing worse and there can no longer be any thing better and 't is to be feared he esteems it good only in comparison with Hell which without it will inevitably follow And when it thus purchases the reputation of being good from the near approach of such a mighty Evil it is not so much esteemed a Good as a lesser Evil which argues that the Mans Judgment is not at all altered for still he looks on Holiness as an Evil and in chusing it before Hell he only chuses of two Evils the least and 't is extreamly Suspicious that he would no more have chosen it now than he did while he was Well and in Health but that it stands at present out of the Air of Temptation and is presented to him without the Counterpoize of those sinful Delights for whose sake he formerly rejected it For there are many Apprehensions which make deep Impressions not only on our Brain and Fansies but on our Affections too whilst these are calm and unprovoked which impressions notwithstanding quickly vanish upon the starting of new Objects and the provocation of contrary Fansies and Affections by them so that it is impossible to be certain what those good Resolutions will come to which a Man makes when he hath no Temptation to the contrary The utmost therefore that can be said of them is this they may be sincere and they may hold out but there is an infinite Hazard in them they are easily made because at present there is no Temptation against them no vicious Appetite strong enough to controul them but there is vast Reason to fear that should the Man recover and his Appetites return again upon him the next Temptation would betray him and make him surrender up all his Resolution and consequently if he die before he hath made a Trial of himself his Condition must needs be extreamly uncertain his Hope must sit upon the Brinks of Despair and his Soul go trembling into Eternity to think what a Hazard it is now a running 3. He resolves under the Horrors and Agonies of an awakened Conscience and this also renders his Resolution extreamly Suspicious And indeed that Man must be in a dead Sleep that will not awake when Death is sounding the Trumpet of Iudgment in his Ears and calling him instantly away to give up his unprepared Accounts For though when Iudgment seems to us at the other end of Heaven all is quiet yet certainly when Death brings us to the very Seat of it the Awe of that dreadful Tribunal of which we are now in sight and the Sense of so many Guilts staring us in the face of which we must the next Moment acquit our selves or Die for ever must necessarily shake out sleepy Consciences into unspeakable Horrors and Agonies and make us infinitely Solicitous to fly from the Wrath that is to come And in this Distress being conscious to himself that the best thing he can do is to resolve upon Amendment for the future here he puts in for Sanctuary having no other hole to hide his guilty Head So that now to resolve well is hardly an Act of Choice and it is much to be feared that 't is only an Expedient snatched up for the present Extremity and though now he be very serious yet that prehaps is only the effect of a suddain Cast of Melancholy on his Thoughts and if it be when that removes his Thoughts will be quite of another Colour or if it be the Result of a more through Conviction yet it is very probable that may go off too when the Mans Circumstances are altered that when the present Tragick Scene is removed out of sight and the Alarm of his approaching Judgment sounds no longer in his Ears he will presently let fall those Resolutions again which he took up only as a shield against his Conscience And this being so uncertain what a fearful Hazard must that Man run that depends upon such Resolutions and imbarks his Soul into Eternity in them For though it is possible they may be sincere yet it is highly probable that they are not but as they were raised only by a Storm of Horror so if that were laid they would fall again and if they should be False and Hypocritical as God only knows whether they are or no the poor Man is certainly lost and undone for ever 4. And lastly he resolves in the near Neighbourhood of Eternity which also renders his Resolution very Suspicious For the Soul is never more sensible of Eternity than when 't is walking on the Confines of it for the very loosing it from the Body wherein it dwells and in which its Motions are all confined doth many times give her some lesser Degrees of those Advantages which free and naked Spirits have that are not imprisoned in Flesh. For the less the Soul is found to work by the Body the higher are its Operations and all her extraordinary Motions are a kind of Ravishment from Sense It is therefore very probable that when the Soul is leaving the Body it hath naturally a more sensible Touch and Feeling of its eternal State because the nearer any thing is to its Residence the more vehement is its Motion thither and consequently the nearer the Soul is to its eternal Abode the more quick and vigorous may we reasonably suppose its Motions thither so that when the other World is in view and it is just upon the Region of Spirits it is no wonder if the Sense of her approaching everlasting Fate put her into great Tremblings and
the Assistance whereof we cannot repent 4. It drives us nearer to the last Extremity 1. Every Delay of our Repentance is a nearer Approach towards final Impenitence For a sinful State is like a shelving Pool in which the farther a man wades the deeper it is and so deeper and deeper till he come to the bottom of it and when we are there we are sunk beyond all hope of Recovery so that at every step forward we are in Danger of going beyond our Depth and plunging into an irreversible Ruine For final Impenitence which is the Consummation and Perfection of all Sin is nothing but a persevering Neglect or Refusal to repent And as a Man is always dying and that which we call Death is only the last and finishing Act of it so final Impenitence is not the Sin of one Day or Moment unless it be by accident but it is a state of Sin begun as soon as ever the Sin is acted and carried on through each repeated Action and in fine is nothing but the same Sin so many times told over But if it should happen that he who sinned Yesterday should die to Day it would be final Impenitance in him to defer his Repentance that one Day So that our first Delay of Repentance is the beginning of our final Impenitence which in all its Periods differs from the Delay only by Chance and Accident it is materially the same Sin and if Death chance to strike the next Moment it will also have the same Formality For as he that dies young dies as really as he that dies after Fourscore Years so he that dies in the midst of a short Delay of his Repentance is as well finally Impenitent as he that is snatch'd away to die for ever after Fourscore Years Impenitence for though the Evil be hot so great nor the Judgment consequent to it so heavy yet is it as fatal and as irreversible as the Decree of Damnation on the fallen Angels So that all the Time we delay and put off our Repentance we are bordering on the worst of Evils we are just upon the Confines of an irreversible Mischief and the next step for all we know may carry us beyond Recovery For if Death should intervene between us and to morrow this Days delay will be fatal and irreparable And can we stand upon the brinks of this Precipice and feel how the ground sinks underneath us and yet sleep on securely without ever thinking whether we are falling or being in the least concerned at this amazing Prospect of our Danger Methinks if we had any concern for our own safety we should think it high time now to start up and run away from our neighbouring Ruin and not presume any longer to swim within the Circumference of this fatal Whirl-Pool that is every Moment sucking us in and for all we know the next Moment may swallow us up irrecoverably 2. Every Delay of our Repentance is a desperate Venture of the Opportunity we have to repent in and that is this present Life which is the Day in which we are to do our Work the Time of Tryal in which we are to pass our Probation and perform our Exercise for Eternity and therefore considering how uncertain this Life is and to how many Events and Casualties it is exposed it must needs be a most desperate Venture for a Man to delay his Repentance For who can tell but while we talk of repenting hereafter there may be some latent Disease undermining the Fort of Life and ready to seize the Garrison of our Souls So that perhaps before this Day is at an end we may be surprised in the midst of our Delay and lose all our hopes of to morrow For what is vain Man that he should talk of repenting hereafter when perhaps whilst the Word is in his Mouth there may be an Imposthume in his Head or Breast or a ripe harden'd Stone in his Kidney ready to drop down into his Bladder the next Moment when he may be inflamed with a Fever by what he drinks to Night or drowned in a Surfeit with what he eats to Morrow when he may expire his Soul with the next Breath or suck in Poison with the next Air and so many unlook'd for Accidents may put an end to his talk of repenting hereafter and render it impossible for ever And suppose we should be thus surprized as many others have been before us that while we are merry and jolly in our Sins that all on a suddain we should be hurried away out of the Company of our jovial Associates into that of howling and tormented Spirits and from our Songs and Laughter into weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth how should we be blanked and amazed and with what Horror and Astonishment should we reflect upon the woful Change and upon our own desperate Folly that was the Cause of it How dare we then talk of repenting hereafter who cannot command one Moment of future Time nor promise our selves one Day longer when for all we know the hope of Eternity that is now in our hands may be lost for ever and drop through our fingers before to Morrow Morning and we that lie down this Night and sleep securely in our Sins may before the next Twilight awake with Horror and Amazement in Hell Blessed God! that ever any reasonable Creatures should be so stupified to venture a Soul and an everlasting Interest on so great an Uncertainty and rather than begin his Repentance to day run the hazard of being eternally miserable to morrow Morning that he who will not trust his Gold one hour in the Possession of a Thief nor his Life one minute within the reach of a Lions Paw should abandon his Soul whole Months and Years together to the Mercy of a Danger great enough to distract all the Wits of Mankind did they but fully understand it Let us therefore consider that the present Time only is in our Power and that as for the future it is wholly in God's so that while we defer our Repentance to the future we do as it were cast Lots for our Souls and venture our everlasting Hopes upon a Contingency that is not in our Power to dispose of For all we know this may be the Evening of our Day of Tryal and if it be our Life and Eternity depends upon what we are now doing Wherefore it highly concerns us as we regard our own Safety wisely to manage this last Stake the winning or losing whereof may prove our making or undoing 3. Every Delay of our Repentance endangers the forfeiture of that Grace without the Assistance whereof we can never repent to purpose For we can no more repent without God's Grace than we can live without our Food No man can come to me saith our Saviour except the Father which hath sent me draw him Joh. 6. 44. But since God hath promised that if we draw near to him he will draw near unto us Jam. 4. 8.
into present purposes of Amendment And O would to God that this might be the happy Effect of it that Men at last would be but so wise as to consider these things how monstrously Wicked how shamefully Absurd how fearfully Dangerous it is for them to put off their Repentance and that considering this they would be so kind to themselves as now at last to betake themselves to the Discipline of a severe Repentance This I know is a Word that Men are extreamly frighted at they think if once they betake themselves to Repentance they must encounter with vast Difficulties and enter into a very dolorous and unpleasant Course of Life which while they can live merrily in their Sins they are very loath to do And indeed I cannot deny but after an habitual Course of Sin our Entrance into a penitent Life will in all probability be attended with a great deal of Sorrow and Disquiet but who can help this it is you that have brought this Inconvenience on your selves by deferring your Repentance so long and assure your selves the longer you defer it the more difficult it will be whenever you begin But for God's sake consider Sirs which do you think will be more uneasie to undergo the Severities of Repentance for a Time or Hell Fire for ever to weep for your Sins whilst you have Hope of Mercy to contest against them whilst you have a Prospect of Victory or sigh and groan for them to all Eternity without any hope of Ease or Redemption for whether you will or no you must endure Repentance or Hell and therefore since there is no other remedy at least be persuaded to choose that which is most tolerable and if you do so I am sure you must conclude that 't is infinitely easier to repent than to be damned But yet it is plain that Men do commonly fancy Repentance to be much more grievous than it is for could they once persuade themselves to resolve upon the Work and seriously to engage in it they would find the greatest part of the Trouble were over for the main Difficulty of Repentance lies in forming our first Resolution this indeed will exact great Consideration and vigorous Struggling with the wicked Habits and Inclinations of our own Natures but when we have so far overcome our selves as to obtain a full and clear Consent and Resolution we have past the main brunt of our spiritual Warfare and if we have but the Courage to keep our Ground shall soon be crowned with the Joys of Victory and that which seem'd at first so frightful and terrible to us will presently grow tolerable and soon after easie and after that by degrees so pleasant and delightful that we shall prefer it before all the Pleasures of Sense and feel our selves infinitely more blessed and happy in it than ever we were in the midst of the highest Ravishments of our sinful Delights Come then my Brethren let us stand no longer amusing our selves with the Difficulties but let us seriously consider the indispensible necessity of it the great Assistance God hath promised us if we will speedily undertake it and the immense Rewards he proffers to encourage us to it and let us never leave pressing our selves with these Considerations till we have obtained of our selves a full and free consent to it and wrought our Wills into a serious and hearty Resolution And when we have prevailed thus far we have gotten over the greatest Difficulty that lies between us and Heaven and if we do but vigorously pursue our Resolution our Work will every day grow easier and easier and so at last it will be our Recreation and we shall reap from it so much Peace of Conscience so much Ioy in the Holy Ghost such a calm and sweet Enjoyment of our selves and such a glorious Hope of a future blessed Immortality as will carry us with unspeakable Vigour through all the weary Stages of our Duty till we are arrived to our Journeys end where all the Sorrows of our Repentance shall be swallowed up in everlasting Joys and Triumphs LUKE XXII 42. Nevertheless not my Will but thine be done THESE Words are a Part of our Saviour's Prayer in his Agony in which his Soul being at present under a mighty Contest with the Powers of Darkness and under a vigorous Apprehension of his approaching Passion on the Cross expresses an earnest but yet natural and innocent Desire of Deliverance Father if thou be willing saith he remove this Cup from me For his Humanity being now in a great measure deprived of the Supports and comfortable Influence of his Divinity and left alone to grapple by its own single Strength with the powerful Malice of Men and Devils and being under a piercing Sense of those mighty Evils they intended against him began to recoil and shrink out of a natural desire to preserve it self but yet this natural desire being perfectly under the Government of his Reason and that as perfectly under the Government of God He does to this Effect address himself to God Father if it be thy Will remove this Cup away from me I do not desire in the least to controul or cross thy blessed Will in any thing no rather than thou shouldst suffer the least Disappointment in thy blessed Intentions I am ready to undergo the utmost that the Malice of Men and Devils can inflict upon me but alas the Evils that I feel and fear are so exceeding grievous unto Flesh and Blood that if it might be without Contradiction to thy Will or Prejudice to thy gracious Intentions to a sinful World I cannot but earnestly desire that they might be removed from me But if there be any the least Competition between thy Designs and my Desires so that they do not fairly agree and perfectly consist with one another whatsoever I endure not my Will but thine be done Behold here a most perfect Pattern of Submission to the Will of God and that under the most dismal and difficult Circumstances When he plainly saw it was the Will of his Father to expose him to the utmost Extremity of humane Misery to object his naked Breast to the utmost Malice of Men and Devils when by the Force of a most powerful Instinct his Nature recoiled at the Apprehension of it and would fain have been excused then did he supplicate on his bended Knees that his Father would not listen to the innocent Language of his natural Fears and Desires but that he would fully execute his own severe and terrible Will upon him not my Will O Father i. e. not the Will of my natural Fear and Desire of Self-preservation but thy Will be done though it be to inflict on me the utmost Misery that a poor Innocent as I am can be exposed to The Words being thus explained do naturally resolve themselves into this Proposition That God's Choices for us are much better than our own and consequently that if it were in our Power to determine which of
which is the reason of that Civil War there is between the Law in its Mind and the Law in its Members that is between its Reason and Conscience and its corrupt Lusts and Inclinations because while its Will takes Part against God it sides with its Lusts against its Reason and whilst it doth so it will be so far from being happy that it will be continually at War with its self and its Will and its Conscience will be perpetually clashing with one another For so long as a Man goes against his Reason his Reason must necessarily go against him and be continually reproaching and upbraiding him and vexing his Mind with severe and angry Reflections And how can a Man enjoy himself whilst he is thus divided or how can he enjoy the Happiness of a rational Nature whilst he is thus divided from his Reason and lives in perpetual Variance with it A Body may as soon be at Ease whilst its Bones are out of Joint as a Soul whilst its Faculties are thus broken and divided If ever we would be happy with our Reason about us we must be all of a piece with our Reason that is our Will must be rational our Affections must be rational and our Actions must be rational if they are not our Reason will be as much against them as they are against it and so there will be an everlasting Broil and Mutiny within us Till therefore we are throughout perfectly rational that is till all our Faculties are intirely compliant with our Reason it is impossible we can ever be perfectly happy and tho' we had Power enough to defend our selves from all hurtful Impressions from without and to ward off the Blows not only of Devils and Men but even of God himself yet so long as our Reason and our Will are at Variance our Will will be a spightful Devil to us and our Reason an angry God So that while we are imperfect you see we cannot be happy and while we follow our own Will against God we cannot be perfect For to follow God and Right Reason saith the Philosopher is the same thing and to present our selves saith a far greater Author a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God is our reasonable service Rom. 12. 1. For the Will of God being invariably determined in all its Choices and Refusals by the infinite Wisdom and Goodness of his Nature must be the most perfectly rational Will in the World and as such the Standard and Pattern of all other Wills and therefore so far forth as our Will doth deflect from his it must necessarily be imperfect and irrational But while I govern my Will by his and do choose and refuse by his Commands and Prohibitions I follow the Pattern of my Perfection and while I follow his Will which is a most perfect Transcript of his Nature I transcribe his Perfections into my own For while I am copying his Will I am imitating his Nature and while I am imitating his Nature I am growing into his Likeness and Resemblance And when once my Will is all god-like and its Affections and Inclinations are perfectly conformable to God's then I am perfectly rational and shall be perfectly happy For now as I resemble God in his Perfections I shall resemble him in his self-enjoyment my Reason will be perfectly satisfied with my Will even as God's Reason is with his and my Nature will be a fair and beautiful Prospect to my Understanding even as God's Nature is to his I shall contemplate my own Graces with a transcendent Pleasure and Delight and while I alternately turn my Eyes upon God and my self and compare Grace with Grace and Beauty with Beauty I shall feel as he doth a Heaven of Content and Joy springing up in my Bosom Thus by denying our own Will you see and submitting to God's which is the Standard of our Perfection we naturally grow up into Blessedness whereas by following our own Wills in Opposition to God's we fatally sink our selves into Wretchedness and Misery 3. It is also to be considered that the Conformity of our Nature to our Happiness consists not in what we will but in what God wills To make us blessed it is not only necessary that there should be blisful Objects for us to enjoy but that our Minds should agree with and be contempered to them for unless we are affected suitably to the Worth and Excellency of them all the Objects of Heaven cannot make us happy For as Delicacies are grateful only to delicate Palats and Musick to musical Ears so the glorious Entertainments of the World to come are a Heaven only to heavenly Minds For to dwell with a God whom I do not love and to be confined to a Society of Spirits whose Tempers I am averse to to be put upon Exercises against which I have an Antipathy would be a tedious Constraint instead of a free Enjoyment so that before ever Heaven can be a Heaven to me my Mind must be tuned and adapted to its Joys and Beatitudes And this is not to be effected by following our own Will but God's for our Will as it stands in Opposition to God's is either a sensual or a devilish one or both and 't is either Covetousness or Luxury which are the Lusts of the Flesh or Pride or Malice which are the Lusts of the Spirit that sway and determine it in all its Choices and Refusals both which are as repugnant to the heavenly Enjoyments as Light is to Darkness or one Contrary to to another For between a spiritual Heaven and a carnal Mind a divine Heaven and a devilish Mind there is an irreconcilable Distance and for such a Mind to live happily upon such a Heaven is as impossible in the nature of the Thing as it is for a hungry Wolf to fill his Belly with Syllogisms or to satisfy its Appetite upon a Lecture of Philosophy Whilst therefore we give way to our corrupt Will and Inclination we do contract an Antipathy to Heaven and do what in us lies to prepossess our own Minds with an implacable Aversion to all its Joys and Beatitudes We take an effectual Course to antidote our Souls against true Happiness and to secure our Minds from being ever touch'd and affected with the divine and spiritual Pleasures of the World to come So that if we are still resolved to take part with our own wicked Will against God we were best take our Pleasure while we may have it while we live among these sensitive Enjoyments that suit with our brutish Appetites and Affections for when we go hence into the Spiritual World that will be like a barren Wilderness to us where we shall find nothing to live upon but be forced to pine away a long Eternity under a desperate Hunger and Dissatisfaction But if we heartily resign up our selves to God and prostrate our Wills to his we shall thereby quickly acquire a heavenly Frame and Disposition For the proper Business of
that which is its Grace and Perfection begins at the wrong End of himself forgets his Iewels and estimates his Estate by his Lumber in so much that one would think it impossible did not too many woful Expeperiments daily evince the contrary that any Creature owning and believing a rational and immortal Spirit to be a Part of its Being should be so ridiculous as to value it self by such little trifling Advantages as a well-coloured Skin a Suit of fine Cloaths a Puff of Popular Applause a Bag of red or white Earth and yet God help us these are the only Things almost by which we difference our selves from one another You are a much better Man than your Neighbour who is a very poor contemptible Wretch a little creeping despicable Animal not worthy to be taken notice of by such a one as you Why in the name of God Sir what 's the matter Where is this mighty Difference between you and him Hath he not a Soul as well as you a Soul that is capable to live as long and be as happy as yours Yes that is true indeed but notwithstanding that you thank God for it you are another guize Man than he for you have a much bandsomer Body your Apparel is finer and more fashionable you live in a more splendid Equipage and have a larger Purse to maintain it and to your great Comfort your Name is more in Vogue and makes a far greater Rattle in the World And is this all the Difference then between your mighty Self and your poor Neighbour Alas a few Days more will put an End to all this and when your rich Attires are reduced to a Winding-sheet and all your vast Possessions to six Foot of Earth what will become of all these little Trifles by which you value your selves so highly Where now will be the Beauty the Wealth the Port and Garb of which you are so conceited Alas now that lovely Body will look as pale and gastly that lofty Soul will be left as bare as poor and naked as your despised Neighbours and should you now meet his wandring Ghost in the vast World of Spirits what will you have left to boast of more than he now that your Beauty is withered your Wealth vanished and all your outward Pomp and Splendor buried in a silent Grave Now you will have nothing left to distinguish you from the most Contemptible unless you have wiser and better Souls which are the only Preheminencies above other Men that will survive our Funerals and distinguish us from base and abject Souls for ever If we are now more pious and humble and just and charitable than other Men this will stick by us when our Heads are laid and to all Eternity render us glorious and happy And indeed when once we have thrown off our Body and all our bodily Passions and Necessities the only Goods we shall be capable of enjoying are God our selves and the Society of blessed Spirits and these are no otherwise enjoyable but only by Acts of Piety and Vertue It is only by our Contemplation and Worship our Love and Imitation of God that we can enjoy him it is only by our Prudence and Moderation our Temperance and Humility that we can enjoy our selves it is only by our Charity and Iustice our Modesty peaceable and mutual Submission and Condescention to one another that we can enjoy the glorious Society of blessed Spirits but if our unbodied Spirits carry with them these divine Graces into the other World we shall by them be possessed of every Thing our utmost Wishes can propose of a good God a god-like joyous and contented Mind a peaceful kind and righteous Neighbourhood and so all above within and without us will be a pure and perfect Heaven So that if when I go from hence to seek my fortune in the World of Spirits God should thus bespeak me O man seeing thou art now leaving all the Enjoyments of sense consult what will do thee good and thou shalt have whatever thou wilt ask to carry with thee into the spiritual State I say should God thus offer me I am sure the utmost Good I could wisely crave would be this Lord give me a Heart inflamed with Love and winged with Duty to thee that thereby I may but enjoy thee give me a sober and a temperate Mind that thereby I may enjoy my self give me a kind and peaceable and righteous Temper that thereby I may enjoy the sweet Society of blessed Spirits O give me but these blessed Things and thou hast crowned all my Wishes and to Eternity I will never ask any other Favour for my self but only this that I may continue a holy and a righteous Soul for ever for so long as I continue so I am sure I shall enjoy all spiritual Goods and be as happy as Heaven can make me What a prodigious Piece of Folly therefore is it for Men to value themselves more upon these outward Advantages of which ere long they must be stript than upon the Graces and Vertues of their own Minds on which they must subsist for ever Suppose now that you were a Merchant in a far Country where you were allowed for a short uncertain Time the Benefit of free Trade and Commerce in order to your gaining a good Estate to maintain you in your own Native Country when ever you are forced to return would you be so indiscreet as to lay out all the Product of your Merchandize in building fine Houses and purchasing great Farms when you know not how soon you may be commanded to depart and leave all these immoveable Goods behind you Or rather would you not think your selves obliged by all the Rules of Interest and Discretion to convert all your Gain into portable Wealth into Mony or Jewels or other such moveable Commodities as when ever you are forced to depart you might carry Home along with you and there maintain your selves with them in many years Ease and Plenty Do but think then and think it often that while you live here you are but Strangers and Foreign Merchants that you came hither from another World to which you know not how soon you may be forced to return that all the Wealth the Lands and Houses you gain by your present Commerce are immoveable Goods which you must leave behind you when you go from hence and that there is nothing portable of all that you can gain in this World but only the Graces and Vertues of your Minds and that therefore while you have Opportunity it concerns you above all Things to store and treasure up a plentiful Portion of these that so whenever you are shipt off into the eternal World you may carry such an Estate of them thither with you as may suffice to maintain you there in Glory and Happiness for ever which God of his infinite Mercy grant 1 JOHN III. 9. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he
which by so many glorious Instances hath demonstrated it self sufficient to support you under the heaviest Oppressions and therefore you have all the reason in the world to expect the same Aids and Supports from it if ever you should be reduced to the same Extremities Our great Care therefore ought to be that we do not desert our Saviour either by wilful Apostacy from his Faith or Disobedience to his Laws for so long as we continue faithful to him he cannot leave and desert us our main Concern ought to be that we do our Part and not that he doth his for he cannot fail tho' we may If we prove true to him we may assuredly depend upon it that he will prove true to us and not leave us destitute of any Help or Support that in any Condition is necessary for us If therefore to serve the wise and holy Ends of his Providence he should at any time think it meet to call us to suffer we may set our Hearts at rest upon this Assurance that so long as we take Care to maintain our Integrity he must take Care to maintain our Strength and not permit us to sink under any Burthen he lays upon us for want of any degree of Comfort and Support that our State and Condition requires Which Consideration duely applyed cannot fail of giving a great deal of Ease to our anxious and desponding Minds Having thus shewn at large what abundant Provision our Saviour hath made for the Peace and Satisfaction of our Minds I shall conclude all in a very few Words Our blessed Saviour hath long since told us that in this World we shall have Trouble but that in him we shall have Peace which tho' it were more eminently true in those early Days of Suffering and Persecution doth yet hold most certainly true not only in Times of Peace but even in the most prosperous Circumstances of humane Life For we cannot but know that we are dependent upon Chance we cannot but know that it is in the Power of ten thousand Contingencies to disturb us and this in despite of us will create a great many anxious Thoughts and vex us with melancholy Apprehensions of our Futurity And tho' at present we may hush them with Jolity and Mirth upon the next Reflection they will be sure to awake again and to revenge themselves upon us for those Moments of Ease we ravished from them and then when any evil Accident threatens or approaches us we can give our selves no certain Assurance of escaping it For when we have done all that lies within the Compass of our Wisdom and Power there may a thousand Crosses arise in our way which it is impossible for us either to foresee or prevent and turn our most promising Designs upon our selves and hasten the Evil upon us by those very Means which we chuse to prevent it the Sense of which must necessarily cause many a stinging Thought to swarm about our Minds and to vex and disturb us in our deepest Security Thus in our best Estate we are poor and indigent Creatures fain to seek abroad and to go a begging for our Happiness from Door to Door to depend upon Chance and live insecure of every thing we either possess or desire or hope for And considering how prone we are to be alarmed with the Prospect of a sad Futurity and to magnify distant Evils in our own Apprehensions and to aggravate present ones by our Impatience and Despair and in a word to pall our best Enjoyments by expecting more from them than their Nature will afford considering these Things I say it is the greatest Nonsense in the World for Men to expect Peace and Satisfaction of Mind from any thing here below And if we are thus liable to Disturbance in our best Estate alas what are we in our worst When Calamities come rolling upon us like the Waves of the Sea upon the back of one another and we have no Harbour in View to put in at In this vast Tumult of things therefore whither shall we betake our selves for Tranquility and Peace If we go into the World every thing in it tells us it is not in me If we go out of the World into Desarts and Solitudes the Stings we shall either find there or carry thither with us will soon convince us that it is not in them Where then can we hope to find Peace but only in Iesus the Prince of Peace To him therefore let us go with an humble Faith and obedient Will with a resolved Mind to adhere to his Truth and submit to his Laws and wholly to resign our selves to his Conduct and Government And if in him you do not find all that Peace and Satisfaction you have hitherto sought in vain never give Credit to anything that is sacred more I am sure it is to be found in him if we wisely and honesty and industriously seek it Thousands have found it in him who could find it no where else and having found it have enjoyed themselves all their Days after in sweet Content and Peace and at length have breathed out their Souls to him in Praises for the happy Discovery And therefore if it be not our own fault we may soon add our selves to this blessed Number by devoting our selves to him as they did and surrendring our Lives and Interests to his Goverment and Disposal And when once we have performed this with a sincere and resolute Intention we shall by degrees perceive these Tempests within us quieted and abated and our stormy Minds clearing up into an happy Serenity and still as we more and more subdue our Wills and Affections to him we shall feel and experience our selves more and more at Ease until at length we shall arrive to such a settled Peace and Tranquility of Soul as that it will be beyond the Power of any outward Concern to disturb us And now our Mind will be a Paradise to it self a Paradise wherein it will be able to live contented and happy and to breath calm and gentle Thoughts how tempestuous soever its Condition is without And finding all composed and quiet within we shall lead a Life far more easy and even and consistent than ever for now we shall no longer reserve our selves to follow Fortune and the Turns of outward Affairs to comply with all the Mutabilities of the Wind and still to transform our selves into new Shapes as we are running through the still-changing Fashions of the World Now we shall no longer perplex and intangle our selves by Knavish Tricks and sordid Complyances by being forced still to study how to act a new Part and to put on a new Garb of Humour and Conversation upon every new Alteration of Affairs but our Way will ly even easy and direct before us and whatsoever happens to us from without whether it rains or shines proves calm or tempestuous the inward Peace and Satisfaction we shall find in following Iesus by our firm Adherence to his