Were there nothing in the Constitution of Man but that he could not be worthy to be compared with the vast bigness of the Earth and Heavens with the constant Motion the brightness and durableness of the Heavenly Bodies But the Soul of Man is in a Sense vaster and larger than these as it is capable to comprehend them It is of more unwearied motion than they it moves its self it is brighter far and far more durable than any of them It is then upon the account of the Spirit in Man that the making of him is thus set together with those great operations of the Creating Power Upon these grounds we may conclude that the Prophet Zachary does in our Text intimate the great excellency and dignity of the Soul of Man It shall be the business of this Discourse to insist upon some Proof and Application of this Truth And let us now perswade our selves for a little while to turn our Thoughts inward to view and consider our selves to know what a sort of Being God has given us Of all knowledge this may be reckon'd some of the most useful and important Hereby we shall come to understand what it becomes us to do what our true Interest is what great things we are capable of and should therefore pursue them To demonstrate the Excellency of the Soul of Man I shall insist only upon these two Heads of Discourse as containing what is sufficient for the present purpose They are the Nature of the Soul and the Capacities of it which do arise from and are the Consequents of such a Nature In the first place Let us consider the Nature of the Soul of Man And this I shall represent to you briefly under two Particulars 1. It is a Spirit 2. It is Immortal 1. The Soul of Man is a Spirit and therein it is an Excellent Being It is Invisible A thing that cannot be seen by the Eyes of the Body through the Excellency of it It is said of God in Praise of him that he cannot be seen The Apostle Paul calls him by way of Eminency the Invisible God 1 Tim. 1. 17. This then is an Excellency and does greatly recommend the Soul It is too pure and sublime a thing to fall under the gross apprehension of Bodily Senses It is a Pure Uncompounded and Unmix'd thing It is all the same is not made up of worse and better Parts It is in a sort all Light and has no Darkness is a bright celestial Ray sprung from the Great Father of Lights and Spirits Or at least it was very full of light and brightness in its Original State and before it was sullied with sinful Pollution in the Fall of our first Parents It has not diversity of Parts designed for divers Actions so as that what one Part can do another cannot which is the usual disparagement of Bodies But all the Soul can do whatever the Soul can do It can all of it understand and will apprehend or remember it can all chuse or refuse It has not some parts heavy and some active some to move and others to be moved but is all full of Action and is always working and busie It knows no weariness it needs no rest or refreshment It knows its own Actions and chuses what it does and acts freely and from its own Motion These are the Properties and Advantages that belong to it as it is a Spirit That the Soul of Man is a Spirit the Holy Scripture does abundantly declare When a man dies it says of his Body The Dust shall return to the Earth as it was and of his Soul The Spirit shall return to God that gave it Eccles 12. 7. This is a thing distinct from the Body it was not raised from the Dust as that was but came from God immediately nor does it return to the Dust but returns to God at our Death The Apostle says What man knoweth the things of a man that is the purposes wishes designs save the spirit of man which is in him speaking of the Soul of Man 1 Cor. 2. 11. And in the Fifth Chapter of that Epistle at the 5th Verse he directs the Corinthians to excommunicate an Eminent Person among them who had been Incestuous for the destruction of the Flesh that the Spirit might be saved in the Day of the Lord meaning his Soul I shall add no more to this particular but proceed 2. To what was next mentioned as declaring the Excellent Nature of our Souls which was that they are Immortal These Beings have a beginning indeed as every thing else has but One who is the first Cause and Author of all others But the Souls of men shall never come to an End When a man dies there is only a separation made for a while of his Soul from his Body with a dissolution indeed of the Body but the Soul remains the same that it was That lives still though not here and continues to be though it has changed its Habitation Do not imagine said the dying Cyrus to his Children That when I depart from you I shall be no where nor any longer For whilst I was with you ye could not see my Soul only ye knew by the Actions ye observed that it was in my Body Be assured then that it is still the same tho ye do never see it Thus the Learned Heathen could speak of the Soul And it is in the Nature of this to be Immortal as it is a Spirit It has nothing in its self to put an end to its being as it is an uncompounded thing It cannot be destroyed by any thing else but only by God that made it The Soul of man knows no decay it admits of no encrease of its Substance It remains always the same and is herein a Noble Image of the Unchangeable God It shall out-last the strongest works of Humane Art It shall endure longer than the Heavens and the Earth It shall weary time and then run on with Eternity This is a very great and important Excellency of it That it shall never cease to be and certainly if we are in any respect Immortal this deserves our very serious consideration And this also the Holy Scripture that source of all Saving-Knowledge and Wisdom does sufficiently teach us When it speaks of our Being after this Life and even before the Resurrection of our Bodies As when Christ said to the penitent Thief when he was dying This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise He was to Be therefore his Soul was not to be dissolved with his Body and he was to be in Paradise in a happy State When the Scripture calls Death a Departure out of this World it seems to intimate this The Apostle Paul who was to leave his Body in this World as all other dying Persons do yet speaks of his Death as a Departure 1 Tim. 1. 6. And in Phil. 1. 23. He speaks of his Death as what he desired in these words I desire to
said on this Subject 1. Let us with great Thankfulness acknowledge to the Creatour what he has made us and praise him for his Bounty towards us Let us consider and own it is God that hath made us and not we our selves It is one part of thankfulness to acknowledge the Benefits we have received Let us own this and endeavour to render to God all that which is due from us for it To shew forth his praise not only with our lips but in our lives by giving up our selves to his service Let each of us heartily say within himself Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his Holy Name Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his Benefits We may hereupon very justly thus expostulate with and admonish our selves Have I a power to think and shall my Thoughts neglect the excellent Being that gave it me Should he be seldom in my Thoughts by whom I constantly think How base and ungrateful a Character of a man is this That God is not in all his thoughts Am I capable of Knowledge and shall it not be my greatest Ambition to know him that made me so to know the most excellent of all Beings that I might thereby be inabled to render him the Homage that belongs to him Have I a Will to chuse good and shall I fix my choice on any thing before him Shall I not cleave to him by it who is the chiefest Good and who gave me this power for that Purpose Should I not always say it to him as the full Sense of my Soul Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none on Earth that I can desire besides thee Shall I not pay him the Homage of my Affections from whom I have them and the reason that I have wherewith to guide them I ought to love him above all things to fear him alone to entettain my Hope with the pleasing expectations of enjoying him I should be angry only with that which provokes his Anger and hate what he hates and forbids Thus ought we to admonish our selves upon this Foundation and to resolve accordingly Thus should we endeavour to honour him who hath crowned us with such Dignity and Honour 2. What has been said concerning the Excellency of our Souls should make all men prefer them before their Bodies and chiefly regard them The Soul of Man is plainly the chief and most important part of him as it is a Spirit and Immortal This ought then to have the chief Dominion in us All the Appetites and Passions of the Inferior Body ought to be subject to the Faculties of the Mind We should not suffer our Senses or the desires of the Flesh to force Objects and Thoughts upon the Mind but make it rather to chuse its own employment upon consideration and advice of our Judgment and Reason How much Folly and Sin would such a Course prevent And it highly becomes and concerns us to give this as absolute a Dominion in us as we can that it may not be clogg'd or biassed by particular Temper or Constitution The Obedience to Temper is a most effectual Hinderance both of Wisdom and Religion No man can govern himself well that does not set his Reason above his Constitution and make his Temper subject to the Rules of that and of Religion I confess that in some cases some severity towards the Body may be necessary to this purpose and a great deal of Self-denial and Mortification may be requisite to the bringing our selves to this But let us observe what our Saviour says to this Case If thy right hand says he offend thee cut it off and cast it from thee for it is better for thee to enter into life maimed than having two hands to be cast into Hell Fire We were better wrong the Flesh if that must be than to endanger the Spirit and a little hurt the Body than damn the Soul To bring our selves to this State of the Bodies absolute and compleat subjection to the Mind is of so great use and advantage as that 't is worth all that it can cost us For so we shall become free and easy in all our Actions We shall possess and enjoy our own Souls we shall will to do what we should and shall do it the more readily and do it the better and the more perfectly Thus shall a man have the greatest Comfort in his Actions He shall exercise the brighter vertues and obtain by them the more praise and favour with God and Man Let us prefer our Souls above our Bodies and chiefly mind the Interests of them We should make the Interests of the Body stand by when they come into competition with those of the Soul We should govern our selves in all things as far as this can be done with a chief regard of these It were but just and fitting and due to our selves that we govern our selves so in what we chuse to love or hate in what we pursue or avoid and that it be the grand business of our Lives to promote the advantage of our Immortal Souls 3. Let us be greatly ambitious of those Divine and high Qualifications that we have been made capable to possess since we may be wise and holy just and good faithful and prudent let us earnestly endeavour to be so To be endowed with these Vertues is to put on the greatest excellency and worth The Scripture very justly says The righteous is more excellent than his Neighbour These Vertues in truth are the greatest and the most becoming Ornaments These make the brightest and most lasting Beauty such as Angels love and God himself takes delight in These will encrease and not fade or decay with Time and will last to Eternity These are the truest and the most useful Riches they do in a sense deliver the Soul from Hell and entitle it to everlasting Blessedness These are not uncertain Riches but are such a sure and durable Possession as Moth and Rust cannot corrupt nor can Thieves break through to and steal them These in the Exercises of them in good Works do lay up a treasure in Heaven Let it be consider'd that as we are capable of these Vertues we are also capable of being the Subjects of the contrary Vices And that if we are not vertuous and holy we must needs be vicious and impious He that is not just and true in his dealings must be unjust and persidious He that is not merciful and good must be hard-hearted and cruel And as we are acceptable and lovely to God by those Vertues in us so we are odious and detestable with these Vices The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord but he loveth him that followeth after Righteousness The pure Angels abhor Sinners and do not care to be near them to see what is so odious and offensive as the sins of men are to them As Holiness and Vertue do exalt and honour and become us so does
as Idleness and that do and must needs dwell together If we apply our selves to this accomplishment in the proper Seasons for it that is on the Lords-Days and in the Intervals of Business and necessary Refreshment on other Days we shall have of this endeavour after such Knowledge a good Employment and we shall be so long kept from Idle and Vain Thoughts And then when a man does know much especially of Sacred things his Mind will not want good and useful Objects to entertain its self with at any time when he is at leisure for thinking He needs not at any time be idle but may be meditating on the Rules of Vertue and good living he may be applying them to his Actions and examining and regulating his Course of Life encouraging himself in the good he finds and rebuking himself for his Errours He may be very profitably meditating on the perfections of the Divine Nature and thereby raising in himself all those pious and devout Dispositions of Mind which are a suitable acknowledgment of those Perfections He may be often thinking of the World to come to which all Mankind are hastning and sending his Thoughts before him into Eternity and musing upon those two different States which will hereafter divide all Mankind between them and in one or other of which we must have our longest abode even to all Eternity These are Thoughts very fit to make the Mind wise and serious and to cure the levity of it and are certainly very good and profitable employment for it when no duty requires it attendance But he that is not acquainted with subjects worthy of his Thoughts will still think too and then he must needs think for the most part very idly and vain His Thoughts will seldom be employed about that which is his Duty nor will they be such as will dispose or lead him to it 3. We should accustom our selves frequently to review and reflect upon our Thoughts to think what we have been thinking upon and in what strain and way our Thoughts have been employed Let us endeavour always to know what passes within us what we do with our own Minds how we employ their noble powers and commune with our own Hearts as the Psalmist advises If we often do thus reflect upon our selves we cannot be long idle but we shall find our selves so and so may rectify our selves we shall apprehend our wanderings and may prevent our wild Imagination from polluting us with evil Thoughts and such as would actuate and cherish evil Inclinations and without this frequent reflection 't is impossible but we shall be often drawn away Besides if we are wont to call our selves thus to account we shall come to reverence our selves as the Philosophers speak we shall become desirous to be always able to give a good account to our own Consciences of the employment of our Thoughts we shall be liable to an wholesome Shame for all the Follies and Vagaries of our Minds and so by degrees we shall easily cure and prevent the vanity of them 4. Lastly We should endeavour to accustom our selves to good and pious Ejaculations Our constant dependance upon God and Obligations to him every moment and our constant danger and proneness to fall into Sin do greatly require this and without doubt it is a rule of special Usefulness to cure the vanity and levity of the Mind and to make it always serious and wise and directed to its main End the glorifying of God That which I mean by it is this Let us accustom our selves to make little short Addresses to God upon all occasions that occur to us to which purpose the Holy Scripture affords us an abundant Supply As for instance When we awake in the Morning to say I laid me down and slept I awaked for the Lord sustained me When the Light of the Day comes The Heavens declare the glory of God the Firmament sheweth his Handy-work When a man goes forth about his Business Hold up my goings in thy paths that my foot-steps slip not When we hear of any other mens Faults and Sins Lead me not into temptation but deliver me from evil When we see Children One Generation shall praise thy Name unto another and shall declare thy mighty Acts. Thus we shall well employ our Minds and besides thus we may set the Lord always before us as the Psalmist speaks and so be possest with such a constant Reverence of the Almighty as shall make us careful of our Duty and prevent this Idleness of Thoughts and all the Mischiefs of it Which Grace that may obtain let us earnestly seek it of Almighty God and join the constant use of this Means with all the other THE PRAYER O Lord the Infinite and Eternal Spirit and Father of Spirits who searchest the Hearts and triest the Reins of Men and from whom no secrets are hid Thou O Lord we believe knowest us altogether and thou seest our Thoughts even afar off We are ashamed to think how much vanity and folly and sin thou hast seen within us How little our Minds have attended and applied themselves to our Duty and to the main end of our Beings the living to thy Honour and Glory How seldom this comes into our Thoughts What we were made for what the Creator justly expects from us Hence are our Minds so often engaged in that which does not concern us and that which will not at all profit us and so often employed in gratifying and exercising inwardly some sinful and foolish Inclination While we neglect to set our Minds to that good Employment which our Business and Duty gives us our Adversary the Devil or our sinful Inclinations or the evil Company of the World find them very ill Employment And from hence do our Lives and Actions wretchedly and shamefully wander from the ways of thy excellent Commandments Thus we do instead of serving thee in Body Soul and Spirit most unjustly and unworthily sin against thee in all We ought to meditate on thy Law Day and Night that we might bring forth fruit in due season to study thy Law and learn thy Statutes but we have been those that care not for the Knowledge of thy ways and therefore we have not followed thy Paths This our way O Lord is our folly we condemn we abhor our selves for it and own our selves obnoxious to thy wrath and deserving that thou shouldst reject us from thy Care but since thy Goodness has yet been mindful of us even while we forgot thee we hope thy Mercy will receive us when we return unto thee Our Hope is in thy Word which tells us that to the Lord our God belong Mercies and Forgiveness tho we have rebelled against him Forgive us then O Lord we pray thee all our transgressions upon the account of that great Propitiation and Attonement which is made for us by the precious Blood of thy Son our only Saviour for his sake look mercifully upon our Infirmities and heal
State with a Loyal Obedient Peaceable and Loving People Grant that we may all live to thy Glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. In whose own words we further say Our Father c. THE GREAT DUTY OF THANKFULNESS Urged and Directed Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen 1 Thes 5. 18. In every thing give Thanks THere is an exceeding great evil and disorder which we may too frequently observe in the World and which every Man's reason condemns in others and yet all are apt to be often guilty of it themselves It is that we we do commonly remember long and retain a very deep resentment of an Injury whether it be a real or but an imagined one but we soon forget the Benefits we receive and lose the Impressions of them Thus do Mankind often deal with one another and thus also do they behave themselves towards God Tho he cannot wrong or injure us yet we are apt to think he does so when he does in any thing displease us and we behave our selves towards him as if he did We murmur against him and grow discontented and froward are ready to think 't is in vain to serve him and to throw off our Duty And on the other side we do at the same time forget his Benefits and take no notice of what we have many times through desire of what we want We are very earnest and importunate in our Requests for what we would have and are cold in our Thanksgivings or neglect to be thankful at all when we have obtain'd it The Spirit of God taking notice of this Fault in Mankind repeats his Instructions in Holy Scripture to the contrary He bids us take care to join with all our Prayers Thanksgivings in Phil. 4. 6. he says by the Apostle Be careful for nothing but in every thing by Prayer and Supplication with Thanksgiving let your request be made known to God However desirous ye are however sollicitous to obtain what ye want of God be sure to be thankful for what ye have Again in this Chapter where our present Text is he joins the Command of Thanksgiving with that of Prayer the 17th Ver. bids us Pray without ceasing and this 18th says In every thing give Thanks whatever your condition be recommend it to Almighty God by Prayer and how long soever it pleases God to deny or delay what you desire yet continue to pray And with your Prayers remember also to give Thanks In every thing give Thanks that is in every State and Condition endeavour to retain always a Sense of the Divine Benefits to praise him for what he has done for you and be free from all hard Thoughts of God and undecent Murmurings against him I confess this Command in this place seems to be chiefly directed to those Holy and good Men who are the peculiar Favourites of Heaven by the Interest of Jesus Christ But because this Duty is urged more generally elsewhere and there is no Duty requir'd of such good Men but it is also required of all Men at least by consequence and as all Men are required to be good I shall therefore take the words as exhorting to an universal Duty And I conclude from them that all Men are bound to express a thankful Acknowledgement unto God of the Benefits they receive from him and that in all Estates and Circumstances whatsoever In discoursing upon this Matter I shall endeavour these 2 things 1. To prove that every Man has Reason for great Thankfulness to Almighty God 2. To direct the right Expressions and Declarations of our Thankfulness In the first place I shall endeavour to make it evident That every Man has some reason to be thankful to God some reason to praise and love him and to be patient and contented in every Condition And this I think will evidently appear upon the making good the following Particulars 1. Let us consider That all Men are in some measure Partakers of the Divine Benefits There is not one among the Race of Mankind that can justly reckon himself not at all obliged to God Every man is beholden to God for his Being for the preservation and continuance of his Being so long as he subsists and for some things that comfort him in his Being and without doubt the Death of Christ is in some sense an universal Benefit Every Man is beholden to God for that Being which he has It is God that hath made us and not we our selves And from that sort of Being which God has given us are we engaged to be thankful We were made but little lower than the Angels and crowned with Honour and Dignity as the Psalmist says of all Men Psal 8. The meanest Man is next in Dignity to them in the Order of the Creation It is an exceeding Honour of our Bodies and their greatest Worth and Commendation that they are made fit to serve and entertain so noble a Guest as an immortal Spirit and this Honour the most deformed the weakest and the most crazy Body has belonging to it But our greatest Worth and Dignity lies in the Soul which God has given us There is in every Man an excellent Spirit which is capable of very great things however it is in some Men wretchedly neglected and deprest By this are all Men capable of the sublime Knowledge of the Creatour capable to love and praise and delight themselves in him by such a Being then we are capable of Happiness to a great and excellent Degree and even of the highest kind of Happiness that can be as we can enjoy or delight our selves in him who is the highest Good And our immortal Soul renders us capable of Everlasting Happiness in the Eternal fruition of an Infinite Eternal Good Every Man may reach this Happiness if he will This is that he was made and designed for and no Man shall fall short of it but by his own default Thus our Being then should engage us to be thankful to God that gave it Further 'T is to him we owe the continuance of our Being he supports and maintains us in this Life while it lasts and after it in the other This is a continual Obligation to Thankfulness it is a continual Creation As no Being can make its self so none can preserve or continue its self at all but all things have always a most necessary dependance upon the great Creatour We ought then all of us to acknowledge it is he that holds our Soul in Life And while he continues this Life he obliges us in that we are so long capable in some measure to see and enjoy the pleasant and good things of this World If we have good and vertuous Souls and are free from Envy and
us so there are in most of us much rather a vast multitude of idle and useless Thoughts there is a great deal of inconsiderate Thinking among men Every man that will but carefully observe himself may find that his Mind is always busie that it frames a multitude of Thoughts and entertains its self with them but that a great many of these are apt to be undirected and unchosen ones The vain and inconsiderate Mind acts within it self and thinks without government of its self and frames Thoughts just as a Tree shoots forth many superfluous and unbearing Branches And the Word here translated Thoughts does sometimes in the Sacred Language signify such Branches of a Tree One therefore very fitly calls Vain Thoughts Surculi mentis infructuosi Stearn de Obstin Pag. 224. The fruitless Suckers of the Mind Such employment of the Mind as this and the Temper which is apt to produce it the Psalmist said he hated but the Law of God he loved To study and meditate on that to learn it that might conform his Life and Actions to it to conform his Mind and Life to that Rule he desired but these roving unguided Thoughts he hated And by this setting thus these two together he plainly intimates their opposition to each other that he hated Vain Thoughts as contrary to the due observance of the Law of God and a hindrance of that To make the Discourse on this Subject as serviceable as I can I shall 1. Endeavour to make it more plain and evident what sort of Thoughts or what a Disposition of Mind the Psalmist here speaks of and I shall discourse against 2. To shew the Mischief of these 3. To propose the proper Remedies of them In the first place that I may render it plain and evident what I do at present discourse against and so may convince every man that there is such a Distemper of Mind as I speak of which all of us are liable to and which we may call The Vanity of the Mind or inconsideration I shall give you some Instances of Vain Thoughts which are common among men and in which this Temper of Mind is wont to exercise its self And First Such are those Thoughts which have no designed end nor purpose A multitude of these is apt to entertain our Minds There are very few men if any but if they look back upon themselves after they have been a good while thinking they would often find that their Minds had been engaged in such employment as they can give no reasonable or good account of If the Mind be not set to business it employs its self but without design and without fruit it is busie still and always so but often very idly busie and employed as we may justly speak It is true there may be some relaxations of the Mind and these are necessary to the Health of the Body and to relieve the Animal Spirits that would be too much spent and disturbed with continual commanded thinking this is necessary to the better peformance of our Tasks of Duty when we set about them At some times the Thoughts must be unbent as we may speak that is not directed nor confined to any particular Employment or Duty But that which is condemned is this when a Man's Mind is habitually so when it is never nor can well be fixed to any good purpose when a Man ordinarily spends a great deal of time thus relaxed and so neglects his Duty or through the wandering levity of his Mind performs it ill Especially does it condemn an idle unprofitable course of Life when a man never sets himself to any honourable or useful Business or Employment As how great is the multitude of those who thus live at ease as a very pious Man laments in a sad Catalogue of the Sins of our times who rather pass away their time than they do live who are every way unprofitable who have no tasks of Duty to God or of goodness and serviceableness to Mankind ever in their thoughts or in their hands Yea in our degenerate Age it has been counted gentile and noble according to the Mode of the Times to have nothing to do to be idle and useless tho thanks be to God we have better Examples over us now from whence we hope a wiser and nobler Fashion will take place And indeed the soft Education of many under the management of an indulgent Mother who is her self perhaps as useless as one that is dead while she liveth 1 Tim. 5. 6. does betray them to a contemptible worthlesness while the little Master must learn no more than it pleases 't is a chance whether he learns any thing or not If the Child happen to have a good natural Judgment and to discern the necessity and usefulness and credit of good Accomplishments betimes then he has some but otherwise he shall forsake his Tutor that teaches for his Livery Boy that flatters him and then the Gentleman is no better accomplisht than the Beggar And with such Persons the Thoughts Words and Actions of their whole life are in a sort undirected and unguided they live by no rule and they think and act by chance and as the Objects that present themselves or as the motions of Lusts and sensual Appetites lead them just as other Animals live Again we may often catch our selves at the vain Suppositions of what is perhaps never likely to come to pass thinking needlesly what if such or such a thing should be when there does not appear even the least probability of it We are often supposing our selves in the Circumstances which there is no likelihood or perhaps no possibility of our coming into and then tormenting or pleasing our selves with the thoughts of them according to what they are One fancies himself a King and pleases his Thoughts with the great and splendid circumstances of such a Condition and if he be an angry revengeful Man he is killing his Enemies if he be good natured and beneficent he is advancing and preferring his Friends Another it may be in his Melancholly Mood is fancying himself a Beggar and is gratifying himself with the ease and carelesness of such a Condition or afflicting himself with the Thoughts of the contempt and wretchedness which belong to it Often do we lose a great deal of Time and many Thoughts in musing upon the Condition we desire and design and may probably come into before it comes Again of this sort too are those Thoughts for the most part which correct and censure the Carriage of other Men in the Stations different from our own As when private Men will be directing a King how to Govern and they that sit at home will be teaching a General abroad how to order his Marches and Battels When we study the Duties of other Men rather than our own and censure what we cannot understand we are then very vainly and fruitlesly employed All consideration and study of the Duty of others in their places
them Vouchsafe to direct sanctifie and govern both our Hearts and Bodies in the way of thy Law and in the works of thy Commandments Cleanse thou the Thoughts of our Hearts by the Inspiration of thy Holy Spirit that we may sincerely love thee and duly magnify thy Holy Name truly serving thee with Soul and Body which are thine Lord have mercy upon us and write all thy Laws in our Hearts we beseech thee Enlighten our Darkness cure our Ignorance with all necessary Knowledge of thee and of thy Christ Change our Wills and turn the biass of them from this World towards thy Self from empty and vain Goods to full and Substantial ones from the pleasures of Sense to the accomplishments of the Mind Make us more indifferent about our outward Circumstances and more concern'd about the inward State and Disposition of our Souls and to account it our greatest Felicity to do well to please thee and approve our selves unto thee Make our vain and light Minds serious and wise furnish us with the Gifts of thy good Spirit for every good work for thou alone art the Giver of every Good and every perfect Gift it is by thee alone O Lord that we can be inabled to please thee we alas are not able of our selves to think a good Thought Help us to set thee always before us in the frequent Thoughts of thee and an habitual reverence and fear of thee that a sense of thy continual presence and observance may restrain us from all evil and encourage and quicken us to mind and do our Duty We humbly implore thy Mercy upon all Men Convert unto thy Self all Jews Turks and Heathens bring them from their several Ways of Vanity to know and worship thee the only true God by Jesus the true Christ and Mediator Give the Heathen for an Inheritance and the utmost parts of the Earth for a Possession to thy well-beloved Son Give unto thy Church all that is necessary to it to amend and purge away what is amiss and to supply what is defective in it and to make it fruitful in all good Works and that all who profess and call themselves Christians may have their Conversation such as become the Gospel Bless we pray thee and defend these Nations in which we live Bless us with a continuance of wise and kind and righteous Governours and of loyal peaceable and obedient Subjects Give peace in our Days we humbly beseech thee for there is none we rely upon to fight for us but only thou O God Establish Truth among us for all Generations bring into the way of Truth all such as have erred and are deceived Remember in Mercy all that are dear and related to us Give them things necessary for Life and Godliness Guide them O Lord by thy Counsel through this world and bring them at last unto thy Glory Sanctify us by thy word which has been this day spoken to us and promote in us thereby all Vertue and Godliness of living Forgive the wandring of our Minds in our attendance upon thee and all other defects in our Duty and comfort us with the light of thy Countenance Be thou our gracious Protector this Night for in thee alone do we put our Trust And if it please thee to allow another Day and yet a longer time on Earth Grant that it may be spent in thy fear and in a diligent and unwearied application to all that which is our Duty This we humbly ask and whatever thou seest to be most expedient for us committing and resigning our selves entirely to thy Conduct and disposal and hoping in thy Mercy through Jesus Christ to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost we desire to ascribe all Praise and Glory and Domihion for ever and ever Our Father c. OF True Happiness Wherein it lies DEMONSTRATED Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Psalm 4. 6 7. There be many that say who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us Thou hast put gladness in my Heart more than in the time that their Corn and their Wine encreased IT is the natural and common desire of Mankind to be happy and is the End which they aim at and propose to themselves in their several Pursuits and Endeavours But as the Psalmist speaks here There be many that say who will shew us good The Many the most of men are at a great loss in this Matter and do not know where their true Happiness lies nor in what course or way to attain it Their uncertainty in this Matter is represented by these words of the Psalmist and is too evidently seen in the common Practice of the World The Human Nature is the same in all Mankind we have all of us reasonable immortal Souls we have all the same Capacities And our Happiness rightly and truly considered must be to all the same The same Object must make all men Happy and they must obtain that in the same way But alas how is the World distracted and divided in the pursuit of Happiness Some of them running one way after it and some another and the most of them neglecting and diverting from the true Object With some there is no Felicity like the heaping up of Wealth like the sight of full Bags or great purchases and they delight in nothing so much as in gainful Bargains With others there is nothing so pleasant as to spend and they delight in this as much as the others do in getting The Pleasures of this World are their beloved Felicity to eat and drink and rise up to play With others there is no Heaven like Honour and Command the having Authority and Power among Men the being courted and sought to respected and obeyed With some how great a Felicity is it to be fine and to have all things about them so To have Themselves their Houses their Entertainments and all that belongs to them gaudy and pompous and much adorned Thus are Mankind disperst thus they wander in the pursuit of Happiness And thus the Many are taken up and employed in this great Concern Having exprest the Uncertainty and intimated the wandering of the Generality in this Affair The Psalmist next expresses what he sought as the Object of Happiness in these words Lord lift thou up the light of thy Countenance upon us Which is as much as to say Lord let us have an Interest in thy Favour regard us with kindness and Love let us enjoy the Exercises and Benefits of thy peculiar Favour and Mercy It might be shewn you by the use of this Phrase in other places of Scripture that this is the sense and meaning of it When he had made this Request he adds
and Service before the Things of the World When our Lord was dead and his Disciples were now come to Galilee according to his Appointment to meet him there while they staid there Peter returned to his Trade of Fishing and drew the rest of the Disciples who had been of that Employment to join with him After they had had a Night of fruitless Labour Jesus in in the Morning presents himself to them and as they were eating in his presence he propounds this Question to Peter in Verse 15. Now he had reason to single out Peter to this Examination because it was he that had made the motion of this return to their worldly Business and had drawn the others to it after he had separated them to be Fishers of Men. And since this was plainly the occasion of the Question we may most reasonably interpret it to intimate a Rebuke of that Apostle for this return to his Trade and what our Lord replies to Peter's Answer to his Question does sufficiently justify and even require this Interpretation of it for he says to him three times Feed my Lambs or my Sheep which was as much as to say to him Shew thy Love to me if thou hast it by betaking thy self intirely and industriously to the Office of an Apostle and leave this worldly Trade and Business from which I have called thee This then is without doubt the meaning of this Place The Question of our Lord intimates that he required of St. Peter that he should love him more than worldly Gains more than his Trade and the Business that he had called him from and should accordingly apply himself to that Service of him which he had called him to This then is a standing Law and Rule and Universally obliging That we love God more than the Things of the World And if so it is we may be sure a necessary condition to be performed for our partaking of the Things above If God requires us to prefer them we cannot but without ground expect that he will ever bestow them upon us unless we do so He has not made this Law only to dispense with it but to guide us to our Happiness thereby if we will obey it or to condemn us to misery if we will not 2. To encourage our selves thus to prefer the Things above we may consider that if we do so we shall certainly obtain them We shall not set our Hearts upon them in vain God is a rewarder of those that diligently seek them Heb. 11. 6. To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory Honour and Immortality God will give eternal Life the Apostle assures us Rom. 2. 7. In this course we shall be sure not to run in vain nor to labour in vain It pleases God that we despise the present Allurements and good things of this World in comparison to the matchless Blessings of his Love Therefore Moses is commended for having done so when he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater Riches than the Treasures of Egypt and chose rather to suffer affliction with the People of God than to enjoy the Pleasures of Sin which are but for a Season Heb. 11. 25 26. This renders any that do it the peculiar Favourites of Heaven as is plainly intimated Heb. 11. 16. where 't is said of some They desired a better Country even an Heavenly therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God He thought fit he was pleased to own a peculiar relation to such Persons he was willing to be called their God that is to be their God and it is added in the same Verse He hath prepared for them a City Since Heaven was that they chiefly desired he intended them for Heaven 3. Lastly It may be another encouragement to what the Apostle here requires That if we do thus prefer the Things above God will provide and bestow a competent Portion of the Things of this World If we value and seek most the Things of this World we may through God's displeasure miss of them For his over-ruling Providence disposes of all things and he can frustrate all our Designs if we displease him and make us low and poor and mean notwithstanding all our Endeavours to be otherwise and displease him we certainly do if we do not esteem and seek Him and his Love before all other things But if we do this we shall become as was said before the peculiar Favourites of his Love And if for this he will be our God it may be certainly concluded that we shall not want any of his Creatures If he will give the greater he will not with-hold the less he will not let such Persons want any manner of thing that is good for them And this indeed is what our Saviour has expresly promised Mat. 6. 33. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you By these things he means those he had been speaking of before not the superfluous Riches of this World not the great Dignities and Honours of it which things are but an useless Burden and not at all necessary to our Happiness but Meat and Drink and Cloathing and the necessary Accommodations of this present Life These things the Care of Providence will certainly provide for us if we love God with all our Heart and live according to a high esteem and value for his Favour and Love And thus we may see that to mind and prefer the things above is the surest and the shortest way to Happiness both in this Life and the next and more than this I hope need not be said to move us to it THE PRAYER O Most blessed and glorious God the only perfect and all-sufficient Being Thou art O Lord thine own Infinite and Eternal Happiness and thou givest being and happiness to all thy Creatures thy infinite Goodness delights in our well-fare and thou hatest nothing that thou hast made We adore thee O Lord we bless thee we praise thee we magnifie thee we give thee thanks for thy great and glorious Goodness and for the bounteous Exercises of it to the Sons of Men. We thank thee that thou hast given us such a Being as we have and hast made us so capable of happiness That we have Bodies and Senses suited to this very rich and plentiful World about us and capable to take delight in the good things here and for that the Earth is full of thy Goodness But we praise thee yet more for the Spirit in Man whereby we are capable of a rational and spiritual and so a most Honourable and Angelical Delight in the Objects of our Senses that we can please our selves with their beauty order wonderful contrivance and subserviency to each other and that we are capable to see upon them the impresses and marks of thy glorious Wisdom of thy mighty Power of thy infinite Fulness of thy Majesty and Glory And we thank thee O Lord most of all for
Soul take thine ease eat drink and be merry because he is allarm'd with fears of losing what he has and is troubled with the Uncertainty of his Condition He is now perhaps in more care and engag'd in greater toil and labour to keep than it cost him to get what he has And thus is he further hindered from the comfortable enjoyment of it 3. This very often comes to pass from the smart lashes of his own Conscience His own Mind will not let him enjoy what he has with any comfort while that is upbraiding and condemning him for base treachery and perfidiousness or barbarous cruelty and oppression which he used in the getting it That gives him great disturbance while it calls him fool and brute in the midst of his guilty Pleasures and tells him how he hurts his Body impairs his Estate wrongs his Neighbour offends God while he follows them What pleasure can a man take in the applause of Flatterers in the respect of Inferiors while his Conscience tells him that God above hates and despises him with the world of Holy Spirits he is odious and contemptible There can be no enjoyment of what a man has while his Mind tells him 't is all forfeited by his Sins he has it not with the favour of God but with his displeasure that He whom he has offended in getting it can take it away when he pleases that he is therefore in continual danger of losing it all he is always obnoxious to a divine Vengeance If he can hope to defend himself from Men he cannot hope to defend himself from God How unhappy must he be who considers that as he has heaped up riches he has treasured wrath too that this wrath shall be likely to course his Family that they shall never have a comfortable enjoyment of what he has gathered for them and that it shall lie heavy upon himself at farthest when he comes to die and must go to give an account for what he has done in the Flesh As it is no profit to a man so he shall have no comfort in the thoughts of it if he would gain the whole world and lose his own Soul for it And such Thoughts as these the guilty Conscience will often afflict a man with But the Stings and Rebukes of a guilty Conscience will make themselves incomparably more sensible than any sensual pleasures can be for while these stroke and tickle the Senses and reach but to the Body they pierce even to the Center of the Soul as some Philosophers would speak and fix themselves and dwell there 4. This often comes to pass by the Just Judgment of God upon the Sinner Here we may remember again what was said before that the Curse of the Lord is in the House of the wicked He in Judgment gives them up to the Temptations of the Devil and to the Conduct of their own violent Lusts He condemns them to suffer the Tyranny of their own Passions and the disorder of their Appetites their hearts shall be continually knawn with Envy their Spirits may be opprest with excessive griefs even for the smallest or for meerly Imaginary inconveniences their Minds shall be rost and continually agitated with vain fears doubtfull and anxious hopes with restless and inordinate desires And what comfort can a man take in his life when he is tormented with these painfull diseases of the Mind what can be the consequence of these things but offence and distast weariness and tribulation they know not what it is to moderate a Passion to curb a Desire to mortifie a Vice and so are subject to divers Masters are enslaved to many Tyrants and exposed to a multitude of Tormentors which like a Legion of Devils will not let a man rest Day nor Night Besides We are in this vale of tears surrounded with many outward calamities exposed to Innumerable Evils and we cannot be safe among them but from the constant protection of the Divine Providence And this the Sinner has no right to and he often wants it The just Providence of God often leaves him to the assaults of these and sometimes one cross shall make him uneasie and when that is gone another shall vex him one while he shall be afflicted with pain at another time with losses at another with contempt and reproaches The supream disposer of all things sets himself to mingle sorrows and grief and inconveniences with his portion He will not let him enjoy any thing pure or without the mixture of some sorrow in it And further there is sometimes a strange and secret dispensation of Providence attends the Sinner which hinders him from taking any delight or comfort in what he has and we can hardly tell why he does not This is exprest by Solomon Eccles. 6. 2. where he says he had seen A man to whom God had given riches wealth and honour so that he wanted nothing for his Soul of all that he desired yet God had not given him power to eat thereof that is God with-held from him a power to enjoy to comfort himself and take delight in what he had This is a strange case but is what we may see sometimes happening We may see some pining and discontented in that condition wherein they thought to be very happy and they cannot give a good reason why they are so they cannot take delight in what they thought would have been very delightful and that which is so to others But the power to enjoy is it seems from God and is another and a different gift from the things that we possess and the Sinner may gain large possessions by his guilty endeavours but may want the blessing of God upon them and the power to enjoy them How many covetous persons may we see wanting what they have while they have no heart to use it to their Credit or Comfort to what purpose are such men made rich And many may we see thinking themselves mighty unhappy in circumstances which others are ready to envy and afflicting themselves with Imaginary Inconveniences while they are under no other real one but onely that of their own sick and foolish Imagination Thus does the powerfull curse of God mingle its self with the Sinners Portion and spoil the pleasure of what he has while he possesses it And this is the third Proof of our Text. 4. It may be said he that soweth Iniquity shall reap but Vanity in that all the Felicity of a Sinner is of a very short and a transitory duration Let him gain what he will let him take what delight and comfort he can in it this will last but a very little while It is a Felicity but of a few moments continuance His happiness is like a fire of thorns which is almost as soon out as it is kindled It can last no longer than this present life and then it must needs be short This Life is continually hasting away and so is all his happiness The Psalmist truly says Man
some Application In the first place I shall endeavour to make this undeniably evident and clear that The way of the wicked is an Abomination to the Lord. To prove this in the shortest and most convincing method to the reason of Mankind I shall chuse to insist upon these Arguments which will shew whence this comes to pass that the Sins of men are so odious to Almighty God I shall make appear Why it is thus which will moreover prove That it is so And that by the following particulars 1. There is a sort of contrariety in Sin to the very Nature of God or a peculiar and extraordinary unlikeness to him Upon every thing besides this that is upon all that God has made there is some impression of some of the divine Attributes and so with the Infinite disproportion and inequality between God and a Creature there is yet some likeness But upon Sin there is nothing of this it has no Character of any Attribute of God and it utterly defaces all such things upon any Creature so far as it prevails in that Creature His excellent Law is but a Transcript or Copy as it were of perfections and excellencies that are in himself his Law is holy just and good as he is holy just and good When we break those Laws then we become as unlike him as 't is possible for us to be and we act as he in his Nature does abhor to act When we despise and dishonour him and act contrary to that superlative Esteem and profound Reverence which is his due This is contrary to what is natural as we may say to him who does necessarily and justly esteem himself and seek his own honour and glory as he is an infinitely excellent and perfect Being the source and first cause of all other and supream to all All true and sincere Love is conformity to God He that dwells in love dwells in God and God in him for God is love says the Apostle 1 John 4. 16. And then all Malice and Envy and all the Exercises of them are contrary to him When we are enrag'd with every little affront or will not forgive those that injure us these things are contrary to the Nature of God who is slow to anger and willing to be reconcil'd All the filthy and sensual Sins which men commit carry a Contrariety to the pure and spiritual Nature of God to his just preference and esteem of spiritual Properties and Qualities before those that are only belonging to material things When we lie and deceive and impose upon our Neighbour this is contrary to the divine Faithfulness and Truth When we proudly despise and disdain those that are below us rather than encourage and comfort them and insult over the afflictions and miseries of our Neighbours rather than endeavour to relieve and help them this is directly contrary to the condescending Goodness of the Almighty who though he be infinitely above us all yet he has regard to and takes care of the meanest of his Creatures and does not despise even the least of them Thus are the Sins of men contrary to the Nature of the Blessed God But from hence it must needs come to pass that they are also abominable and odious to him As the most holy God does necessarily love himself and takes delight in the incomparable Excellencies of his own Nature so that which is thus contrary to those Excellencies must needs be infinitely detestable and offensive He can never be out of love with himself therefore he can never be reconcil'd to any sinfull Act nor take notice of such a thing without infinite detestation and abhorrence 2. The Sins of men are contrary to the Creatour's design in making Mankind and therefore also are an abomination to him His first and immediate design and end in this as in all other of his Works was his own Glory To magnifie and honour himself by the Excellency of his Works by leaving upon them the Characters of those perfections that made them And the excellency and worth of his Works is to his praise hence 't is said by the Psalmist All thy works praise thee O God Psal 145. 10. that is they acknowledge thy glorious Perfections each of them according to their Nature by representing the Marks and Characters of those that are employ'd in the doing them Now Man having in his constitution an immortal Spirit which is capable of being wise just good and true the Creatour endow'd him with those Qualifications that he might represent as far as his Nature was capable these Excellencies and Perfections of his Authour And in retaining these we had done him that honour as we may speak but in that we have lost these we cannot pay it This our Church intimates in her excellent and most instructive Liturgy when we are there directed to pray to God that we may be enabled by his Grace to shew forth his Praise not only with our Lips but in our Lives by giving up our selves to his service and by walking before him in Righteousness and Holiness all our days In the Exercises of Righteousness and Holiness we praise and honour him who made us for such Exercises and that we should therein represent these perfections of our Maker But when we forsake the Rules of these Vertues in our practice we deprive him of that Honour Again we may doubtless suppose that it was the Creatour's design to entertain and delight himself in the reflections as it were of his own glorious perfections from the Creatures that he had made And this seems to be intimated at least in the History of the Creation where he is represented as taking a review of every days work and as approving or being pleased with it Now this reflection of his own excellencies and the satisfaction attending it he enjoyes in us when we are pure and holy and good and true But in all our Sins we contradict this design and do present to his view nothing but what is contrary to his nature nothing but what is therefore to the utmost degree displeasing to him And then as this is contrary to his design in making us it must needs be that the Sins of men must be highly offensive to God His design and end is Just and Excellent that which frustrates and contradicts it then must be Vile and Unjust But we speak after the manner of Men when we say that the Almighty and All-wise God does not attain his end in any of his works because the necessity of our weak capacities requires this and his condescending goodness allows it that we may be the more sensible of what is said of him We are therefore to conclude that the sins of men are most highly displeasing to God upon this account from what we may observe in our selves in a like case from the discontent and displeasure we conceive when we have laid out much care or labour or much cost upon a particular design and it is all frustrate and
comes to nothing of what we expected from it 3. The Sins of Men contradict all the Rights of the Great Creator and therefore must needs be detestible to him This necessarily follows from the former He that makes any thing may design it for what end he pleases and then he has right to expect it should serve that end which it was made for Since God raised up the Bodies of our first Parents from the Dust and breathed into them the breath of Life and he by a divine and secret operation fashions each of us in the womb and still formeth the Spirit of man within him he is then the Authour of all our Faculties and Powers both of Soul and Body And then he has right to design the end and purpose for which we shall serve And he directs us to that end by the Rule of his most excellent Laws when we observe them we answer our end when we break those Laws we do contradict it and therein we rob him of his due and deny him his right and we may be sure he is concern'd to have what is due to him from his Creatures He is sensible and provok't when we deny him his right This is a monstrous Affront and most unworthy behaviour towards him There arises from this foundation a Threefold right which God has to our Obedience all which is contradicted by the Sins of men and every particular makes some addition to the Evil and Vileness of Sin 1. All our Sins are against the right of a Sovereign Lord such an one has the great God over all his Creatures He is God over all as the Apostle speaks and the Prophet says Thou even thou art Lord alone Neh. 9. 6. He is our Sovereign Lord and in exercise of his Sovereignty has laid his Laws upon us and in submission to them we ought to acknowledge it Mankind are not left at liberty to act as they will and to own no Superiors we are all under a Law and that is the Law of him who is the King Eternal Immortal Invisible the only wise God 1 Tim. 1. 17. All our Sins then are contrary to an unquestionable right of Sovereignty over us The Sinner despises the Empire of the great Lord of the World he does as far as he can depose him from his Throne tramples upon his Laws and slights his Authority It is the implicite language at least of all Wickedness who is Lord over us who shall controul us we will not have the Lord to rule over us The Sinner makes himself his God and sets up his own Will and Inclinations for a Law to him What is said of the sensual and voluptuous Sinner that he makes his Belly his God may be applied to all other sorts He that is Covetous or Ambitious makes himself his God he makes it his End to gratifie his own desires in other kinds for this reason is Covetousness in particular call'd Idolatry Thus there is Rebellion and Idolatry in all Sin and the greatest Arrogance and Pride while the poor depending Creature will not own his dependance but will live to himself alone as if he were sufficient to himself and while we do not suffer him to dispose of and govern us who alone is Lord over us And can we think that the Jealous God will not highly resent what comes under these black characters 2. God has a right to our Obedience as he is Owner and Proprietor of us all He is our owner we are his Property God says of all things that he has made the world is mine and the fulness thereof Psal 50. 12. and Psal 100. 3. 't is said we are his people and the sheep of his pasture The Psalmist had acknowledged just before that it was he that made us and not we our selves To which this is added as what does truly follow from thence This then does give him an unquestionable right to dispose of Mankind as well as of the rest of his Creatures The Apostle makes use of this Argument and says Glorifie God in your Body and in your Spirit which are Gods 1 Cor. 6. 20. Should not God have Liberty to do what he will with his own to order and appoint the actions and use of it as pleases himself But the Sinners say in all the Transgressions of their Words our Tongues are our own and the same they pretend to concerning all their faculties and powers in all other their Sins These deny the universal Proprietor that right of governing and disposing as he pleases what is his But how would it enrage poor contemptible man to be denied this Liberty And if we think it reasonable and just for us to be angry in such a case how can we imagine but God must be highly displeased 3. God has the right of a Great and Bountifull Benefactor to the Obedience of Mankind He it is that has given us our selves and all that we have He freely made us He made us to enjoy large exercises and expressions of his Bounty He furnisht the world which we so much delight in with all the good things it contains and gives to every man the portion which he delights and comforts himself with We have nothing but what we receiv'd from Him He daily loads us with his benefits And when he has done so much for us without any obligation laid upon him by us to the doing of it does not this lay a great obligation upon us to study what will please him and to do his Will Ought we not to be very thankfull to him who has greatly favoured us to please him who so often pleases us to honour him who has crowned us with Honour and Dignity in making us little lower than the Angels and giving us dominion over the things about us In our Sins then there is the basest Ingratitude as well as Injustice and Arrogance and Pride We affront and Injure a Friend He gives to us in many things what he does not owe and demands of us nothing but what is his due He cannot be beholden to us we cannot oblige him This enhances the rate and value of his Benefits and by consequence the Obligation of them too and that as much heightens the Evil and Ingratitude of our Sins God expects a thankfull Obedience in return for the benefits he bestows This is the meaning of that Preface to the Ten Commandments I am the the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt out of the House of Bondage And he is very highly and justly offended if his Obligations do not meet with such a return It was said with a very angry resentment of the Nation of Jews I have nourisht and brought up Children and they have rebelled against me Isa 1. 2. Therefore the Heavens and the Earth are called to bear witness to or to admire so enormous a thing As if the Sun should be asham'd that he had shined upon such Creatures and the Earth that it had
Interest require and begin to treasure up joys to lay up rewards and happiness for our selves These are things surely that cannot be done too soon If there be good reason to forsake a wicked Life at all 't is unreasonable in the least to delay the doing so When we come to condemn our selves in earnest for our Sins we shall condemn our selves too for continuing so long in them Let us all then be able to say with David at least from this time I made hast and delayed not O Lord to keep thy Commandments THE PRAYER O Lord the eternal God Creator and Owner and Sovereign Lord of all things By thee the Heavens were framed and all the Host of them by the breath of thy Mouth Thou hast made the Earth and the Sea and all that is in them and all that thou hast made is thine the World is thine and the fulness thereof all is of thee and through and to thee We who are now before thee here are a small handful of Creatures whom thou hast brought into Being from the Ground thou raisest our living Bodies and by thy mighty Power hast formed the Spirit within us And we Lord are thine thy Right and Property we are in nothing our own our Tongues are not our own our Thoughts are not our own the Members of our Bodies the Faculties of our Minds are not our own but thou art Lord over us We owe thee the entire Homage of our Souls and Bodies which are thine for we are thy People O Lord and the Sheep of thy Pasture We are those whom thou hast oblig'd to Love and Honour thee by innumerable benefits Thou hast fed and clothed and nourisht and protected us thou hast given us all our Enjoyments and thou holdest our Soul in Life We humbly acknowledge O Lord thy Right in us and we now own the Obligations thou hast laid upon us And we here present to thee our Bodies to be a Holy and living Sacrifice which is our just and most reasonable Service O Lord let us be accepted with thee through Jesus Christ We Confess that we have deserved thou shouldest reject and abhor us who have been hitherto so little concern'd to please thee who have so often and so exceedingly polluted our selves with that which is most odious and offensive to thee We are exceeding guilty and obnoxious to thy wrath and vengeance in that we have been Rebels against thy Sovereignty over us We have been unjust to thy Propriety in us we have been ungrateful to thy Goodness towards us We judge we condemn we abhor our selves for these things O do not thou enter into Judgment with us for in thy sight shall no Man living be justifyed We are heartily sorry for all our mis-doings the remembrance of them is grievous to us the burden of them is intollerable but thou O Lord whose Property is always to have mercy who hast promised Forgiveness to all that with a penitent Heart and true Faith in the Blood of Christ turn unto thee have mercy upon us Deal not with us after our Sins neither reward us according to our Iniquities Have mercy upon us O Lord according to the multitude of thy tender Compassions and blot out all our Transgressions We fly from thy Justice to the Footstool of thy mercy and there prostrate our selves in the Name of Jesus Christ O Lord for his Sake forgive us all that is past and grant that we may ever hereafter serve and please thee in Newness and Holiness of Life to thy Honour and Glory Do thou make us sincere in the Dedication of our selves again unto thee in this renewal of our Resolutions to serve thee Create in us O Lord a clean Heart and renew in us a right Spirit Do thou make us to love thy Law and to hate every false Way Cause us without delay to turn our Feet unto thy Testimonies and make us to delight in the way of thy Testimonies more than in all Riches O Lord rescue us we pray thee from the Bonds of our Beloved or habitual Sins save and deliver us from the Pollutions of a wicked World let us be blameless and harmless the Children of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation Deliver us from all the Craft and Subtilty and from all the fiery Darts of the wicked One And let us never be hardened by the deceitfulness of any Sin We pray also O Lord for the Conversion of others as well as of our selves O Let thy Gospel run and be Glorified from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same and let many be turned from Darkness to Light and from the power of Satan unto God That the Dominion of the Enemy may be diminisht and the happy Kingdom of thy dear Son may be enlarged We especially pray for the good Estate of thy Catholick Church that thou wouldest purge out of it all that does offend thee and Grant that all who profess and call themselves Christians may hold the Faith in Unity of Spirit in the Bond of Peace and in Righteousness of Life Look in Mercy upon these Nations to which we belong forgive our crying Sins and turn us from every evil way Bless us with the continuance of pure Ordinances and with a mighty Efficacy and Effect of them for the promoting of Piety Righteousness Charity and Sobriety amonst us Bless we pray thee our most Gracious King and Queen our Subordinate Magistrates those that Minister to thee in Holy things amongst us and all Ranks and Degrees of Men besides make us to fear thee to depart from all Iniquity to serve to thy Glory and to the Happiness and Welfare of each other and defend us all from all foreign or domestick Enemies of our Peace We commend also to thy infinite Mercies all our Friends Relations or Enemies those that have done us kindness we pray thee O Lord abundantly to requite them and those that have done us any Injury Father forgive them Let thy Word which we have this day heard have power to sanctifie and cleanse us from all unrighteousness We humbly hope for the mercy we have sought of thee this Day and desire we may commit our selves to thy careful and gracious Providence this Night and for evermore Lord bless and keep us lift up the Light of thy Countenance and guide us by thy Counsel till thou hast brought us to thy Glory All we humbly ask upon the Merits of Jesus Christ beseeching thee to hear us for his Sake and further in his own Words saying Our Father c. The MEANNESS of THIS PRESENT LIFE Prov'd and Apply'd Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Job 14. 2. He cometh forth like
depart and to be with Christ Which does most plainly shew he expected to Be still and to be more happy after Death than he was here Again this is also plainly suggested by our Saviour in the Parable of the Rich man and Lazarus Luke 16. 19 Verse to the End The Soul of Man then is at his Death disposed to such Abodes as it deserves and is suited to till the time of the General Resurrection of the Bodies of Men and then it shall be united to its own Body again and live with it for ever in a State of endless Happiness or endless Misery Thus much may suffice to shew the Excellency of the Soul of Man from its Nature The Second Head of Proof of this which I shall now speak to is the Capacities of the Soul arising from its Nature It will give us a further apprehension of its Excellency to consider what great and honourable things it is capable of And these I shall speak of under three Heads It is capable of Knowledge of Moral Qualifications and of a most sublime and elevated kind of Happiness 1. It is capable of Knowledge It can know the Creatures about us which are the Objects of our Senses can understand their Nature and Use by vertue of which it has and exercises a Dominion over these things It knows how to apply them to the serving our Necessity and Delight By vertue of this it can make those things which have no use of reason themselves to serve for rational and wise Purposes It can tame the wild and correct the hurtful Creatures It can govern the Strong and by artful application give strength to the weak Ones It often fetches wholesome Food or very effectual Physick out of mortal Poysons The Soul of Man is capable of knowing himself To understand his own Nature in the principles and end of it To know his Ornaments and Disparagements the causes and means of his Happiness or Misery and wherein these do truly consist and lie Man is capable to understand and know very much of the Ever-blessed God the Highest Being to apprehend and meditate upon the most glorious and delightful Perfections of his Infinite Nature He can see the Marks and Characters of these perfections upon the sensible things which is the most excellent Knowledge and the best use of them as the Apostle suggests Rom. 1. 20. The Invisible things of God are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead The Soul of Man renders him capable of knowing the Rules of true Wisdom of that Wisdom which is from above Those Rules which direct us to render our selves acceptable and amiable to God and one another to Become and Honour our selves Those Rules by which the Wise and Holy Angels govern their behaviour and those by which the most Holy God tho in an Infinite Eminency above all his Creatures governs his And surely this Capacity of Knowledge may be lookt upon as a great and honourable Advantage especially that of such a Knowledge as hath been mentioned Knowledge finds the mind of man pleasant and useful Employment which as it is an active and busie thing must have such employment or 't is uneasy and unhappy Knowledge presents us with the Objects of our Happiness and inables us to enjoy them This is the light and brightness and beauty of the Mind Ignorance is dark and deform'd and leaves the Soul unpolisht and ugly Ignorance like darkness is uncomfortable and sad Knowledge like the light is chearing and delightful This improves and raises the activity and freedom of the Mind but ignorance is clogg'd and wretchedly confin'd Of Knowledge then it may be said It is more to be desired than Gold yea than much fine Gold But especially is that true of that Knowledge which the Psalmist speaks it of even that which presents to us the Rules of good living Of which also Solomon speaks thus Happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth understanding For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of Silver and the gain thereof than fine Gold She is more precious than Rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her Prov. 3. 13 14 15. 2. Another Capacity which greatly recommends the Soul of Man is That it is capable of Moral Qualifications By which word I mean the glorious Vertues of Holiness and Justice Goodness and Mercy Faithfulness and Prudence It is not only capable of knowing the Rules of these Vertues but also of possessing the Vertues themselves and of expressing them in our Actions Our behaviour towards God may be adorn'd with the bright Rays of Faith and Love of Piety and Devotion of Reverence and Humility Our behaviour towards men may all be regulated and adorned with Justice and Charity Meekness and Sincerity Goodness and Mercy None of the other Creatures about us can be possest of such Qualifications A Stone or a Beast cannot be just or good or faithful A Beast does not know what its self does it has not freedom of will does not chuse any of its actions therefore cannot be vertuous or vicious The Soul of Man has in this the Advantage of all the visible World and when 't is endowed with these Vertues at least it is brighter and more glorious than the Sun or Stars These render us like to God himself in the highest manner that a Creature is capable of In these things consisted the best part of the Divine Image in man before the unhappy Fall of our Nature in our first Parents and tho we then lost the things themselves yet we did not lose the capacity of receiving them again And when the Scripture speaks of the renewing or restoring that Image in us again this is said to be done by enduing us with Righteousness and true Holiness These are Excellencies which God ascribes to himself which he glories in and therefore it must be our greatest Advancement and Honour to be partakers of them and it must be accounted an argument of great worth in the Soul of Man to be capable of such Honourable Ornaments 3. It is another Argument of this that the Soul of Man is capable of enjoying a very high and honourable kind of Happiness even the best that any creatures can attain to When the Manna which the Children of Israel were fed with in the Wilderness is called Angel's Food it is intimated that this wonderful Provision did as a figure represent that Mankind are capable of the same Happiness with the glorious Angels and all holy and devoted Souls do in some measure partake of it in this Life By vertue of his Soul is every man even from the Prince to the Beggar capable of a Spiritual and Eternal Felicity As this is a Spirit it has a very high sense of things and a very lively perception of Pleasure or Pain No meer Body or Matter however 't is refin'd or made up into
an Animal can have so great a sense of Pleasure or Happiness as a Spirit may if it be proper to say that it has any at all Matter the best of it is dull in comparison to a Spirit and must be moved but a Spirit is active and moves its self and what is most capable of Action is most capable of Happiness for all fruition consists in Action Further The Objects of our Happiness are all spiritual things By vertue of this Spirit in us we can delight in and enjoy such which are the noblest and most excellent things in themselves and are able to afford the greatest Pleasure Sensible Objects have not that force with them nor that Power to please which spiritual things have that are the delights and blissful enjoyments of wise and refined Spirits Hence it must be said that Mankind cannot fall into a greater or more unhappy mistake than to think that there is no pleasure but in gratifying the Senses and Appetites of their Bodies with sensual Enjoyments or that this is the greatest pleasure of any This in truth is not worthy the Name of Pleasure if it be compared with the delight which a rectified mind can take in spiritual Objects and Enjoyments Further it is doubtless the greatest thing in Happiness and that which adds much to it still how great soever it was before That the Being which enjoys it can reflect upon it and so can consider and know its self happy This the Soul of Man can do and none but a rational and spiritual Nature can do this But since I have spoken of spiritual Things as the chief Object of our Happiness I shall particularly mention some of them The Soul of Man can please its self highly in good and vertuous Actions In those which we do our selves and in those we see done by others It is incomparably pleasant to view and consider the reasonableness and the fitness of these to see how necessary and just they are to consider how much Gratitude towards God and the Obligations we have received from him do require them of Mankind to consider the wisdom and vast advantages of them Hence did a good man acknowledge to God Thy Law is sweet to my taste yea sweeter than hony to my mouth There is not any thing among men so pleasant and charming to a rectified Soul as are the vertuous and pious Actions and Behaviour of good Men while the sensual Minds of others dote on a fair outside and sine cloaths he sees and takes a more just and true delight in the glory that dwells within and darts out its rays in Religious and good Actions The Soul of Man can take delight in the converse of holy and wise and kind Angels those glorious Creatures that are the Beauty and Flower as we may say of the Creation It can delight in what they are in what they say and in what they do when it shall be admitted into their Society And it is mentioned in Scripture as a part of that Felicity to which our conformity to the Laws of the Gospel does intitle and will bring us That we shall enjoy hereafter the Society of an innumerable company of Angels as well as that of the spirits of just men made perfect and of God the judge of all Heb. 12. 22. And very delightful it must needs be to good men in this Life to consider these noble Creatures and to know that they are Ministring spirits upon all occasions sent forth to minister for the good of the Elect To consider that whilst he is holy and vertuous he is a delight to them they love to be about him and they have the charge of him to keep him in all his ways and he is accordingly the object of their continual Care and they are most willing to do for him all the Offices of kindness that he has occasion for Further the Soul can enjoy after a very pleasing and satisfying manner the ever-blessed God who is an infinite unmeasurable Good a boundless Ocean of Excellencies and Perfections It can delight in all the discover'd Glories of this Incomprehensible Being and in considering him it is transported with pleasure while it finds it self in the utmost stretch of its Faculties lost in the Infinite Incomprehensible Object And this Happiness the Enjoyment of God may in some measure begin in this Life A most ravishing Pleasure the Soul can take to consider what this Excellent Being has said of himself in Holy Scripture and what discoveries he daily makes of himself in his Works When it can view in some of these his wonderful Wisdom and Power in others large and bounteous Goodness in others awful and bright Justice and Righteousness And when to these Meditations it can add the sweet thought that this God is reconciled that it is a Favourite of Heaven then it must needs be as the Psalmist said My Meditation of him shall be sweet I will be glad in the Lord. And then if to all this we add that this great Object of the Soul's Happiness will endure for ever and so will also the lesser ones that have been mentioned that being spiritual in their Nature they are all of them Eternal and Unchangeable they will never cease to Be nor cease to be delightful and pleasing If we consider that the Soul its self by its Immortal Nature is capable to be for ever blest with the Enjoyment of these Objects we shall from hence see that we are capable of an Everlasting Happiness of that which shall never be interrupted never decay nor diminish never come to an end We are capable of living beyond all reach of Thought beyond all measure of duration amidst unfading Pleasures unspeakable Joys and a pure unmix'd and perfect Felicity Oh that Men were so wise as to consider these things Thus much and more than we can now conceive our Souls are made capable to enjoy And these things all of them together at least I think do sufficiently prove the great Worth and Excellency of the Soul of Man Application And certainly if the things which have been now said were duly considered if they had their just and due Influence upon Mankind they would exceedingly alter and amend the lives and actions of a great many Men. They would make us act more suitable to the dignity and worth of our Souls and with more regard to their Interests and Happiness than we commonly do And in particular these things following the Influence of them upon us would effect and cause They would make us very Pious towards God and thankful for what he has made us they would make us prefer our Souls before our Bodies and ambitious of attaining those Divine and honourable Accomplishments which we are in our Nature capable of they would make us very Industrious to gain that Happiness which we were Originally and in our Nature designed for In these things I shall set before you the due Use and Improvement of what has been