Well and Unactive do not consist together No Man is well without Action nothing is more irksome than Idleness A Man must use his Faculties and put himself upon Action Therefore if he be alone and unactive he cannot be well In all honest Labour there is Satisfaction Whereas Sluggishness and Neglect are unaccountable and unsatisfactory The Mind diverted from God wanders in Darkness and Confusion But being directed to him soon finds its way and doth receive from him in a way that is abstracted from the Noise of the World and withdrawn from the Call of the Body having shut the Doors of our Sences to recommend our selves to the Divine Life which readily enters into the Eye of the Mind that is prepar'd to receive it For there is Light enough of God in the World if the Eye of our Minds were but fitted to receive it and let it in It is the Incapacity of the Subject where God is not for nothing in the World is more knowable than God God only is absent to them that are indisposed and disaffected For a Man cannot open his Eye nor lend his Ear but every thing will declare more or less of God It is our Fault that we are estranged from him For God doth not withdraw himself from us unless we first leave him The Distance is occasioned through our unnatural Use of our selves They who live the Life of Sence are apt to be beaten off from all regard to God by those Occurrences that discompose their Minds * But they who are separated from Body who sit loose to Earthly Things * which obstruct the Mind do easily receive the Divine Light Whereas those that are in Prison in gross Bodies need the Fire of Divine Affection to quicken them And this I understand in the Language of the Scripture to be Baptizing with Fire when Divine Affection burns up all contrary Principles in the Soul and brings the Soul into a Likeness and Similitude to God For the Divine Light received into the Mind doth first irradiate and clear the Mind from its gross and thick Darkness whereby it was unexercised and unemploy'd about God And this is the first Work Mental Illumination raising right Notions of God and Things in our Minds scattering * the Mists of Darkness * Yet Light alone works not a Change But there must be Holy Affection Knowledge is the first step to Vertue But Goodness * is not but by Delight and Choice It is a mighty unequal and unaccountable Distribution of Time for a Man to lay out himself for his Body and to neglect his Mind to feed the Beast for so the Body * is in respect of the Mind * It is but the Beast that carries the Soul And this for these Reasons Because the Mind is so much annoyed and disturbed by Body I speak not now of the Body as sinning and distemper'd But in ordinary Cases take the Body in all its Advantages 't is an Incumbrance to the Mind For when the Mind raiseth it self to Contemplation of immaterial Things the Imagination doth suggest the Management of Corporeal which are Things of an inferior Nature Bodily Sence reacheth but a little way whether by the Eye or by the Ear or any other Sence That which is equal just * and fit * that wherein we are most concerned in Point of Goodness Wisdom and Happiness these are all imperceptible Notions to every Thing of Body What is Fit what is Just what is Equal what is Good and Excellent what is Reasonable of these no bodily Sence doth judge And yet these are the Things that we are most concern'd in upon account of our Happiness A Mind subdued and subordinate to God in all its Actions and Motions is as the fublunary Bodies here below which are subject to the heavenly Bodies above as Wax under the Seal or Clay in the Potter's Hand The Motion is a great deal more noble and generous because it is in a higher Order by Illumination and Conviction by Perswasion and mental Satisfaction But it is not less effectual to * its Intent and Purpose Religion puts the Soul in a right Posture towards God For we are thereby renew'd in the Spirit of our Minds The Soul of Man to God is as the Flower of the Sun It opens at its approach and shuts when it withdraws Religion in the Mind is as a Byas upon the Spirit inclines it in all its Motions Tho' sometimes it be jogg'd and interrupted yet it comes to it self It is a Rule within a Law written in Man's Heart It is the Government of his Spirit We say Men shew their Spirit by their Carriage Behaviour and Words And it is true The good Man is an Instrument in Tune Excite a good Man give him an Occasion you shall have from him savoury Speeches out of his Mouth and good Actions in his Life Religion contains and comprehends in it all good Qualities and Dispositions of Mind It doth take in all the Vertues that Humane Nature is capable of which are the Qualifications and Ornaments thereof and which are the Mind's Instruments for good Actions Religion is rational accountable and intelligible The Difference is not more sensible between a Man that is weak and strong a Man that is sick and in health * than between a Man that is truly Religious and one falsly so You may observe it if you put them upon Action So a Man that is truly Religious if you put him in Motion he will acquit and approve himself so If he be false in his Religion you will see it by his Failing and Miscarriage of Life Such is the Christian Religion in respect of the Nature and Quality of it all the Principles of it all the Exercises and Performances that it puts Men upon it is so Sovereign to our Natures so satisfactory to the Reason of our Minds so quieting unto and of such Security against the Molestations of our Consciences so Sanatory so full for our Recovery that none who knows or doth seriously consider would chuse to have his Obligation to Religion either released cancell'd or discharged To conclude How unexcusable how unaccountable are they who have turn'd the Doctrine of the Gospel or the Grace of God into Lasciviousness and to use St. Paul's Phrase have made void the Law through Faith He represents it as the most sad Miscarriage to disoblige a Man in Morals to set a Man at liberty * as to those things that are reasonable and necessary For the Law of God's Creation is no way damnified but restor'd and secured by the Doctrine of the Gospel Yet these excuse themselves from strict Morality and Conscientious Living which the better sort of Heathens thought themselves obliged unto We prejudice our selves miserably by Mistakes Some think that the Hellish State is the Product of Omnipotency and Soveraignty the Effect of God's Power and they think of God that he useth his Greatures as he will giving no account of any of his Matters to Principles
Heart's Ease Quiet Content and Satisfaction The Grace of the Gospel whereby we hope to be saved doth not only give Continuance Help real Furtherance and Assistance to Natural Truth which lost much by Man's Apostacy from God and so needed a hand to help it up but it also doth its own proper work by emptying the Mind of Man of Wilfulness Presumption and Self-conceit which is incident to his Nature and so making room for the help of Grace and Divine Assistance and Forgiveness But to pursue this Argument a little further A Gospel-Spirit doth excel in Meekness Gentleness Modesty Humility Patience Forbearance and these are eminent Endowments and mightily qualify Men to live in the World This is that which makes Men bear universal Love and Good-will and over-comes Evil with Good This I dare say had we a Man among us that we could produce that did live an exact Gospel-Life were the Gospel a Life a Soul and a Spirit to him as Principles upon Moral Considerations are this Man for every thing that is excellent and worthy and useful would be miraculous and extraordinary in the Eyes of all Men in the World Christianity would be recommended to the World by his Spirit Were a Man sincere honest and true in the way of his Religion he would not be grievous intollerable or unsufferable to any Body but he would command due Honour and draw unto himself Love and Esteem For the true gospel-Gospel-Spirit is transcendently and eminently remarkable every way for those things that are Lovely in the Eyes of Men for Ingenuity Modesty Humility Gravity Patience Meekness Charity Kindness c. And for all this that I have said I will refer you but to that of the Apostle where he doth set out the fruits of the Spirit and the works of the Flesh He tells you that the works of the Flesh are Hatred Malice Emulation Strife Sedition and such like All of a kind and all of them do speak Hell broke-loose and come in upon us in the World For these are from Hell and tend to Hell and represent to us in this World the Hellish State that we dread to meet with hereafter But on the other side the fruits of the Divine-Spirit in Men they are Love Joy Patience Long-suffering Meekness Gentleness and such like And all of these are such lovely things that they make Heaven in a degree where they are found * Whereas the former turn the World into a kind of Hell Such is the Nature of Religion that it keeps the Mind in a good Frame and Temper it establishes a healthful Complexion of Soul and makes it fit to discharge it self duly in all its Offices towards God with its self and with Men. Whereas the Mind of a wicked and profane Man is a very Wilderness where Lust and exorbitant Passions bear down all before them and are more fierce and cruel than Wolves and Tygers So the Prophet Isaiah 57. 20. The Wicked is like the Raging Sea always casting forth Mire and Dirt and Prov. 17. ver 12. One had better meet a Bear robbed of her Whelps than a Fool in his Folly and you all know who is Solomon's Fool even every wicked Man The Heavenly State consists in the Mind's Freedom from these kind of things It doth clear the Mind from all impotent and unsatiable Desires which do abuse a Man's Soul and make it restless and unquiet It sets a Man free from eager impetuous Loves from vain and disappointing Hopes from lawless and exorbitant Appetites from frothy and empty Joys from dismal presaging Fears and anxious Cares from inward Heart-burnings from Self-eating Envy from swelling Pride and Ambition from dull and black Melancholly from boyling Anger and rageing Fury from a gnawing aking Conscience from Arbitrary Presumption from rigid Sowerness and Severity of Spirit for these make the Man that is not byass'd and principled with Religion inwardly to boyl to be Hot with the Fervours of Hell and like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest whose Waters cast up Mire and Dirt. But on the other side Things that are con-natural in the way of Religion the Illapses and Breakin gs in of God upon us these require a Mind that is not subject to Passion but in a serene and quiet Posture where there is no tumult of Imagination It is observed among the Rabins that if a Prophet fall into a Rage and Passion the Spirit of Prophesie leaves him They say that Moses did not prophesie after the Spirit of Passion moved him But sure it is there is no genuine and proper effect of Religion where the Mind of Man is not composed Sedate and calm I find among the Philosophers that they never had expectation of any Noble Truth from any Man that was under the Power of Lust or under the Command of Fancy and Imagination or that lived in the Common Spirit of the World They thought that God did not communicate himself to such But this is certain that no Man that is immers'd in a sensual Brutish Life can have any true Notion of Heaven or of Glory These things must signifie no more to him than a Local Happiness and sensual Enjoyment than the highest and greatest Gratification of the Animal Principle all that he can think of Heaven is that it is a Place of great Enjoyment some Local Glory something that is suitable to the sensual Mind For we cannot ascend higher in our Actings than we are in our Beings and Understandings And these Men that think our Happiness lyes in the sensual Objects of Delight are not capable of understanding either the Reason or Necessity of Mortification inward Renewal and Regeneration in order to admittance into Heaven For they do not look upon Heaven as a State and Temper of Mind which is requisite to be reconciled to the Nature of God and to be according to his Mind and Will But Religion is the Introduction of the Divine Life into the Soul of Man and Men cannot possibly be really happy in the separate State but by these things by having a Divine Love ruling in their Hearts by Self-resignation and Submission to the Divine Will and by being like unto God Things are very well known what they are in being by what they are in working what the Principle of them is by the effect that flows from them Now I may say of Divine Truth whether Natural or Reveal'd that these do satisfie the Mind of Man and keep him from being barbarous cruel and inhumane Raligion doth give such Evidence and Assurance of it self that if you put it in competition with any thing that any Natural Man whether Atheist or Infidel doth ever rest upon it will appear to have a greater Foundation in Nature and * on the Grounds and Principles of common Reason Equity and Justice than any thing which can be set up against it to counterballance it And Reveal'd Truth super-added to Natural doth not only give assurance to it and helps to recover
according to the Difference of Good and Evil to do the one and to avoid the other Which are not positive and arbitrary Impositions but they arise from Conveniences and from Inconveniences of our Natures States and Relations So that the Sinner is a Person of violent Practice and one who doth unnatural Acts. And an Impenitent is one of a senceless and stupid Mind The Things that are the Bane of Mankind and that do alienate us from God are Sensuality Worldly-mindedness and Wickedness The two former of these do sink the Creation of God below it self so that it doth not continue the same that God made it A Man by these is render'd utterly unfit for Converse and Communication with God For by these he sinks himself below his Kind and makes himself equal to the Beast that perishes And by the latter * viz. Wickedness Man passeth into a clean contrary Nature becomes an Enemy to God and makes God an Enemy to him Against Sensuality and Worldliness I propose for Remedy the Application of the Principles of Reason and Vertue and the applying of our highest Faculties to their End and Object For while the Mind is employ'd in Heavenly Meditation or in extracting Spiritual Notions from material Things it is employ'd worthy of Intelectual Nature And our proper Business is to be thus employ'd By which the Concerns of the Body will be either laid aside or moderately engaged in and regarded Whereas this Power of our Souls is as it were lost where Men use themselves as if they had no Spirits but were altogether Body or as if the Body were the principal or governing Part. And in such a Condition are they who cannot understand what we mean when we bid them lift up their Hearts to God For the Candle of God's lighting within them whereby they are qualified to find God out in his Works and to follow him in his Ways either it burns so dim that they cannot see by it or it is quite put out For it is found by Experience that the Malignity of the Heart doth blind the Understanding And true Wisdom will never abide in a malicious and wicked Soul There are indeed Souls that are * so active and so well acquainted with Heavenly Meditation that they very well know what is the Food of Souls and have the fore-taste of the Delight and Pleasure of the other World And certainly these Men have the greatest Satisfaction in their Lives of any other Persons For there is more of Satisfaction in Meditation in Reading in Conference about Divine Things in Application to God by Prayer and other holy Exercises than in any bodily Pleasure whatsoever For all bodily Exercise comes off with disquiet of Spirit Whereas in the other Way there is Refreshment every Moment There is new Acquisition For if there be any thing like Infinite in the Creation under God it is in Invention and the Power of Thinking This is the Advantage of Intelectual Exercise above Bodily Exercise The one works inwardly is still on the getting hand and is still in use for what this Man gets he hath still in store and that which is got in this way of Intelectual Employment will still improve by Use and what we get we always keep for Knowledge is no burden Whereas in things of the Body Use and Want Spend and be ever after without But it is no wonder that they who never acquainted themselves with retiring from the World know not what these Things mean Who mind only Worldly Things and know no more than what belongs to the Animal Life But on the other side if a Man make Application to God he acts with all his Might he recollects himself and gathers himself into himself that he may receive from God what God hath to communicate And the Things that God hath and doth offer are so great and glorious that our narrow Vessels had need be wholly emptied to make room for them Therefore the Minds Substraction from the World is necessary by way of Preparation and holy Meditation to beget in us such a Disposition by which we may receive from God A Man that can enjoy himself alone by Consideration and exercising his Faculties may run through as it were all times For a Man may live before he lives and after in this way He may by Reading acquaint himself with what was in former Times and by what Things are he may guess what are to come If he reflect upon Things past and view Things that are present and take a Prospect of Things to come as the Effect of Causes that are in being in this way Rational Faculties have sufficient Employment Whereas they that are always drudging in the Affairs of the World and never enjoy themselves alone will find little Satisfaction in these Things It is the proper Work of Reason in Man to find God out in his Works and to follow him in his Ways It is the proper Employment of our intelectual Faculties to be conversant about God to conceive aright of him and then to resemble and imitate him Religion is an Obligation upon us to God The first Motion of Religion is to understand what is true of God And the second is to express it in our Lives and to copy it out in our Works The Former is our Wisdom And the Latter is our Goodness In these Two consist the Health and Pulchritude of our Minds For Health to the Body is not more than Vertue is to the Mind A deprav'd and vicious Mind is as really the Sickness and Deformity thereof as any foul and loathsome Disease is to the Body And as really as these tend to the Death and Dissolution of the Soul and Body so the Vices of the Mind tend to the Separation of God and the Soul What is short and inferior to Converse with God doth require a Recess from Worldly Business and Employment A Man can hardly compose an ordinary Poem without this But for the noblest Employment receiving from God and making Acknowledgment to him is a Man fit for this in the Hurry of Business and Confusion of Things It is also observed that this Life of Privacy and Retirement is either the best or the worst Life For in it we do as God doth or we imitate the Devil He who can be alone to his own Content in Measure and Degree is as God is For what other Employment had God from Eternity but satisfying himself in his own Goodness But as * this may be * the best so it may be the worst Life For a Man may be employ'd in contriving Mischief as the Devil is whose Work is said to be to bring Men into Condemnation If therefore * we are alone to ill Purposes and Designs then Solitariness and Retirement do make the worst Life * But if * Man be retired and alone and not intelectually employ'd then through Stupidity and Dulness he sinks down into the State of a Beast For take it for a certain Truth to be
that is made to us by Truth concerning God He is represented worthy himself and so as we may credit what is said of him III. The ingenuous Operation that Divine Truth hath upon Mens Minds IV. Its Fitness to Man's State V. The Agency of the Divine Spirit in pursuance of it As to Morals we have the full Concurrence with us of Heathen Authors all those that are any whit reform'd And for the rest we have a good Rule in Philosophy which tells us that he is incompetent to give Testimony upon account of Morality that is himself vicious For he that is vicious is himself a Moral Monster And upon a Moral Consideration every Man is vicious that either is stupidly ignorant or dissolute and profane And their Judgment in point of Truth is considerable In Morals all those of the Heathens that have attain'd to any Reformation either to the Improvement of their Intellectuals or the Refinement of their Morals they all concur with these immutable and indispensable Verities And as to those reveal'd the several Parts of History concur in all the Things that the Evangelists do declare concerning Christ. It is very true there have been in the World several Persons that have grosly neglected the Materials of Natural Knowledge so that Men have suffered their Faculties to lie asleep The Mind and Understanding have been in most Men useless and unemploy'd And there hath been invincible Ignorance as to the great Points of Reveal'd Truth in several Ages and Places of the World But this I dare assure you that there never was any considerable Opposition against the main Principles of Natural or Reveal'd Truth by those that have any knowledge of it No Man of any Competency of Knowledge or Proportion of Goodness hath risen up against any of these great Instances of Morality or the main Articles of Christian Faith But these have had as I may say Universal Acknowledgment For if any have risen up against them they have been incompetent and so of no Moral Consideration The Universal Acknowledgement of a Thing for Truth doth not lie in every individual Persons receiving it for then you have nothing that is of Universal Acknowledgement but in the due and even Proportion it bears to the Universal Reason of Mankind This Principle no Man in his Wits will deny That it is impossible that the same thing should be and not be at the same time Yet some were so perverse and cross absurd and degenerate from sober Reason that they did deny it And Plutarch saith That nothing yet was ever in the World so absurd but some have held it Therefore we may entertain that which any sober Man in the due Use of Reason hath entertain'd and proposed upon Terms of Reason for the Satisfaction of others And we may conclude that the Universal Acknowledgement of a Thing as Truth it doth not depend upon every individual Persons receiving of it but upon the even and true Proportion that things bear to the Universal Reason of Mankind This is all that can be said when Men pretend to prove any thing by Universal Reason Thus the Being of a God is proved by Universal Reason For except only Monsters those that are upon the Account of Morality very Monsters Persons that have grosly neglected their Understandings and lived like Beasts none else but have acknowledged Deity Men improved in their Intellectuals and refin'd in their Morals have received and entertain'd it on Grounds of Reason It is observable that the great Differences that have been between Men in the several Ages of the World they have not been about any necessary and indispensable Truth nor any thing that is declared plainly in any Text of Scripture But all the Differences have been either in Points of very curious and nice Speculation or in Arbitrary Modes of Worship Now notwithstanding these Differences I dare say and give assurance that God gives Men leave with a safe Conscience to live in Peace and to keep the Communion of the Church of God in the World and to submit to the Government Whosoever hath professed himself a Christian doth acknowledge Christ to be the Head The Christian World scattered into particular Ways and multiplied into Sects and Parties yet do agree in the great and bright Truths of Reason and Christianity such as are fixed and of the greatest Magnitude The Mahometans themselves did never charge Moses or Christ as being Impostors For they acknowledge Moses as we do for a true Prophet and go along with us in the History of Christ till the Fourteenth of John and Vers. 16. and there is their first Departure They acknowledge all that is related concerning Christ Only they tell us that what Christ said of sending the Spirit and another Comforter is meant of Mahomet and they tell us that our Saviour set down his Name but afterwards his Disciples put it out They acknowledge Christ to be a true Prophet and beyond Moses and out of respect to him they deny all that is said about his Death and Crucifixion Reason doth suppose two things by which we may be further confirm'd in the Truth of our Religion 1 st That if it had been a Cheat and an Imposture it would have been deprehended in length of Time being often told and in several Ages and Companies sometimes by parts sometimes together and under several Circumstances and upon several Occasions there would have been some Differences in the Relations Had there been any thing false in our Religion * or that were not solid true and substantial it having past through sixteen Ages being above Sixteen hundred Years old those Men that lived before us being inferiour to none of us for Parts they would have deprehended it as guilty and forewarn'd us of it Therefore we may take it for granted that the great Matters of Natural Knowledge and Faith that have pass'd through so many Ages and Generations are solid true and substantial and that the Book call'd the Bible which hath run done from the time of our Saviour and his Apostles to this Day may be received with double Assurance Credit and Advantage For Error and Falshood is never long-liv'd but Truth is Eternal and that which will continue for ever 2 dly I do suppose another thing with great Reason and that is considering the Goodness of God the Care he has of his Creatures his Love to Truth and the Respect that he bears to those that worship him that he would not suffer the Good Intentions of such to be abused by any Imposture nor suffer that which is false to take such place in all Times and Ages of the World without the least Check or Controul But some may object if this be so what say you to the Mahometans and the great Factions that have been in the World and prevailed Are not these Testimonies against the Truth of our Religion As for Mahomet he had only the Assistance of an Apostate Monk who taught him to compound a Religion
They are such as are possible through the Grace and Assistance of God So that there is nothing in the whole World that we have more Reason to desire and pray for than that they be verified fulfilled and accomplished in us There are no two things more inward to us than Satisfaction to our Reason that we may be at quiet and the settling of our Minds in Frame and Temper that we may enjoy our selves In these two the Life of Man consists and these depend on the Knowledge of the Gospel * Now the Matter of the Gospel is * also a Vital Principle as it is a byass upon our Spirits an Habitual Temper and Disposition constantly affecting us and inclining us God-ward and to ways of Goodness Righteousness and Truth For it is inwardly received so as to dye and colour the Soul so as to settle a Temper and Constitution and so it is restorative to our Natures That which we do but indifferently by our Ability we are able to do dexterously and easily by Custom Through the Divine Grace and Assistance we are both able and freely willing The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ frees us from the Law of Sin and Death The Principles of the Christian Religion do not only controul intemperate and exorbitant Acts but regulate the inward Frame and Temper of Mind the Inclinations elicit Acts and first Motions As Christ said to God not my Will but thy Will so we must through Participation of Christ be let into a Temper of Meekness and Gentleness to our fellow-Creatures and a submissive self-denying Frame in respect of God Hence our Lives and Manners are of another fashion By the Spirit of the Gospel we are transformed into another Nature Life and Temper Neither do I terminate the Ultimate Issue of Christ in the happy Effects of Renovation in our selves and Reconciliation to God tho' these are Benefits transcendent to all worldly Wealth Greatness and Power but it doth not now appear neither can we now bear the thought of it what we may be when God shall be all in all and all Enmity subdued These are two things and very different what Man may come to by the Improvement of himself in the right use of himself his natural Power and Faculties directing himself by his ordinary Rules * as he is God's Creature and may attain his Natural State and End and what Man may come to as he is indued with Power from above as he is assumed into a Relation to God by Jesus Christ as he is a Member of that Body whereof Christ is the Head as the Adoption of God by Jesus Christ and as he is so enliven'd by the Divine Spirit as did not belong to Man in the State of Innocency But these are not things of our present State for even Adam as he was made was not fit For Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God The Application now only remains Having made appear to you that the Doctrine of the Gospel both in respect of its proper Vertue and Efficiency as also in respect of Divine Intention is effectual to the bringing of Men to Salvation then are you First to acquaint your selves throughly with the Terms of the Gospel to pass * Judgment upon it to consider well all the Circumstances that make up the case Our contracted Impotency and great Deformity by our Fall the Necessity of Recovery and Restoration The Efficacy and the Freeness of the Grace of God to Conversion So that we may resolve our Minds tho' our Case be very forlorn because of our Defection and Apostacy from the Innocency of our Creation and self-contracted Misery yet nothing is desperate nothing is impossible in the Case but our Recovery through the Grace of God is fairly easie And being thus prepar'd by such Knowledge and Apprehensions pursue the Intent of the Gospel in your own Spirits and in Conjunction of your selves with others by free Communication in Converse For this is certain and found by Experience that the only way to do a Man's self good in Intellectuals and Spirituals is to do good to others No Man gains so much as by Teaching No Man so improves in Intellectuals as by Communication which doth much commend Intellectuals that they increase by expence If a Man hath brought himself to some Perfection by Consideration he will make himself much more by free Communication and in free Communication you will have another suggest that which it may be you did not think of So he will put you upon further Consideration or else preserve you from Presumption None are of such modest Spirits as * they who live in free Communication and Converse This I subjoyn for the improving of a Man's self in the way of the Gospel and answering the vigorous Spirit of the Gospel be communicative And this is the Purpose of all our Meetings free Communication to answer every Man's Doubts to give every one Satisfaction It is the highest Service and greatest Courtesie we can do one another freely to tell what we have conceiv'd and we do our selves most effectual Good when we carry on others with us when we do Good unto others The first thing in Religion is to teach a Man 's own Mind to satisfie a Man's self in the Reason of things to look to the Grounds and Assurance that a Man hath for his Thoughts Apprehensions and Perswasions But then it is prodigious and monstrous if that wherein my Reason is resolv'd and satisfied should not have such an Influence upon my Mind as to establish me in Life accordingly and to be a Rule both in Temper and Practice That which we call in Morals against the Order of Reason is so much more horrid unnatural and prodigious than in inferiour Nature for Sensitives to go against the Guidance of Sense * or for Inanimates against the Force of Nature * it is I say so much more unnatural as Intelligent Agents transcend in Perfection Sensitives and Inanimates Reason being as proportionable to its Effects as any Principle in inferiour Nature There are two Orders or Ranks of Creatures in this visible World the Order of Sensitives and of Inanimates The World of Sensitives they are true and infallible they are true to that which is their predominant Principle that is sence and they never vary And Inanimates they certainly tend according to their Nature Now the Principle in the higher Order of Creatures viz. of Rational and Intelligent Agents is Apprehension of the Reason of things Now the Reasons of things are Eternal they are not subject to any Power we practice not upon them It is our Wisdom to observe them and our Goodness to comply with them but they are as much our Rule as Sense to Sensitives and the Impetus of Nature to Inanimates Now you would think it Monstrous Prodigious and Unnatural for the Sun to give over shining for heavy things to ascend for light things to descend for Fire not to burn yet it is
eldest and first Acquaintance So Gen. 39. 9. How can I do this Wickedness We see that the Mind of a good Man takes Offence at Evil is grieved at it not at all fitted to it There arises a Displacency as in all Force and Contra-natural Impression Iniquity and Sin in the Conscience are of * the most mischievous Nature and Quality Should all the World agree and concur to sink a Man into a State of Lowness Beggary and Misery it would not be brought about so effectually by any other Means as by Sin and Guilt Where there is a pure Mind and an upright Conscience Innocency and Integrity there consequently are internal Peace Satisfaction Composure But on the other side if a Man have Sence of Guilt on his Mind where a Man knows himself faulty he fears uncertainly infinitely He fears every thing that appears yea that which doth not appear as the Poet expresses it for Guilt is always Prophetical of what is mischievous A Man may better apply here in this Case the Words of Ahab Kings 22. ver 8. than he did to the Prophet He always prophesies Evil concerning me 3 dly In respect of our selves As we consist of two Parts of Spirit and of Body so we shall fall under a double Obligation as to our selves And if we do our selves right we are under Obligation to our Minds doubly To inform our Understandings and to refine our Spirits by moral Principles The Mind is to be inform'd with Knowledge and refin'd with moral Vertue Ignorance and Improbity are mental Diseases And it is worse for a Man to have an ill affected Mind than an ill dispos'd Body It is so much the worse as the Mind of Man is better than his Body We find that Nature hath given Faculties And Industry and Study acquires Habits A neglected Mind is according to Solomon's Observation A Sluggard's Field grown over with Thistles and Thorns We may say of such a Man that he hath his Mind only for Salt But can any Man that is rational or sober think that God gave him an immortal Spirit but as Salt to keep his Body from Stench and Putrifaction The Mind being Superiour is not to be subjected to the Body nor to the things of the Body neither ought there to be an unequal Distribution of Attendance but according to the Proportion of the Worth and Value We ought to improve our Minds so far as much over and above as our Minds do transcend the Body Whosoever is proud and conceited whosoever is intemperate lascivious or wanton he doth hold the Truth in Unrighteousness For these things have Foundation and are grounded in Man * viz. Sobriety Modesty and an humble Sense the Desires of Nature are moderate and do keep within bounds So that in whatsoever Miscarriages Men do fall in all these they do go against their Light and hold the Truth in Unrighteousness Therefore Vertue in every kind is according to the Sense of Humane Nature the Dictates of Reason and Understanding and the Sense of Man's Mind And Vice in every kind is grievous monstrous and unnatural A Man forces himself when he is vicious and a Man kindly uses himself when he acts according to the Rules of Vertue And this is so true that all those that have abused themselves all but habituated Sinners understand that Vertue is conservative to the Nature of Man and that all Evil Practices destroy it Vertue is conservative to the Reason of Man's Mind by Sobriety and Modesty for these keep Men in their Wits And then it preserves the Health and the Strength of our Bodies by Chastity and by Temperance Thus have I shewn you the three Fundamentals of Religion the three great Materials of Conscience which are immutable unalterable and indispensible that are settled in the very Foundation of God's Creation I have also shew'd you that Vertue is connatural and well-founded and * that Vice is unnatural and destructive to the Nature of Man So that there is no Man hath internal Peace that is either neglective of his Duty to God or that is unrighteous or that is intemperate as to the use of the things of the Body or intoxicated by fond Conceits in the Sense of his Mind For as it is requisite and comely that Sobriety be the Mind's Temper so * it is that there be a moderate and sober use of the things of the Body For Nature is content with a few things That which is violent is unnatural That Excess which is unhealthy for the Body doth also stupifie the Mind So that upon this account also Vice is unnatural * What is contrary to the Order of Reason is contrary to the State of Nature in Intellectuals Those that are ungodly or unrighteous in these three great Instances that bear no Reverence to God that do not act towards their fellow-Creatures according to the Rules of Justice that abuse their Bodies do not govern their Minds * neither improve them in Knowledge nor refine them by Vertue All these do controul their Natural Light and are self-condemn'd Now if the Unrighteous and Ungodly are self-condemn'd can it be imputed to God as Severity to condemn them That Judge will be excused from all Severity who passes Sentence of Execution upon a Malefactor * whom his own Conscience accuses This will be the World's Condemnation that where Men either did know or might know they go against their Light that Men put out the Candle of God in them that they may do Evil without Check or Controul that Men take upon them to controul the settled and immutable Laws of Everlasting Righteousness Goodness and Truth which is the Law of Heaven that Men are bold to confound Order and Government in God's Family for so the World is that Men do Evil knowingly in the use of their Liberty and Freedom whereas God himself in whom there is the Fulness of all Liberty doth declare of himself that all his Ways are Ways of Goodness Righteousness and Truth And can God by Power or Priviledge do that which is not just Is there any Unrighteousness in God God forbid Yet those that have Liberty but by Participation pretending the Use of Liberty do that which is not fit to be done This will be the World's Condemnation In the case of Sin there is internal Guilt a Man doth wrong the Principles of his Mind he breaks his Internal Peace and will rue it to Eternity The Judgment of God at the last day will be easie for there will be none to be condemn'd but what were condemn'd before For Man's Misery arises out of himself and is not by Positive Infliction Men run upon Mistakes the Wicked and Prophane think that if God would they may please themselves and no harm done and that it is the Will of God only that limits and restrains them and they think that they were out of Danger if God would forbear a Positive Infliction This is the Grand Mistake Hell is not a Positive Infliction
who is of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity cannot be pleas'd with any thing that may pretend by way of recompence for any impure filthy immoral Acts. So Isaiah 1. 11 12 13 c. these things were instituted by God and required under great Penalties What work doth this Prophet make to cry down all Religion among them If he lived in our days he would cry down a great deal of Formality yea things really Good if in Conjunction with Immorality If Men be immoral in any way whatsoever if they consent to any Iniquity if they allow themselves in any evil Practice if they admit any such thing it doth spoil all their Religion We may conclude concerning all our Devotions and all those things that are but the Ministries and Instruments of Piety which are good in their right use if they are performed to be glorified in to be boasted of it is but as magnifying the Name of God and not departing from Iniquity If there be any Act of Unrighteousness it doth not only blemish but marr and spoil all And is it not plainly said the Sacrifice of the Wicked is an Abomination to the Lord as also Mich. 6. 6 7 8. Wherefore Thankfulness and Obedience that is the true Sacrifice that is what is worthy of the Creature to the Creator and that which God will certainly accept But it is most certain that the Zeal of any Institution tho' it be Divine Institution is to God unacceptable if in Conjunction with Immorality THANKSGIVING is an eminent piece of that Worship we call Invocation of God Three things are proper Prayer-Matter * and if Men confine themselves to these keep to proper Prayer-Matter and avoid unnecessary Repetitions none can be too long but if Men take liberty in Prayer to declare and to tell God Stories then I do not know when or where it will end 1 st Confession of Sin with desire of Pardon And as for that if Men live Christian Lives they will not have the same Sins to confess the second time For Christian Religion is not to Sin and Pray and Pray and Sin You may indeed acknowledge you have done it before but to confess it as practised again and again this doth declare that you are not Religious but Prophane 2 dly Acknowledgment of the Perfections of the Divine Being of his Superiority and of our Dependance upon God with a sence of our Insufficiency and Weakness and Desire of Divine Grace Influence and Assistance This is always to be in Prayer and this is a great Matter of Prayer Because tho' we are in a growing Condition yet we may say in this State that we have not attained Therefore to come to God in sence of our Insufficiency and of the Necessity of God's Influencing and Co-operating Grace this is work for us every day 3 dly Resentments of God's Goodness and Faithfulness to us and thankful Apprehensions and Expressions * of this And whatsoever is not comprehended in or referred to in these is Heterogenial to Prayer is Exorbitant and is not Prayer By the two former we daily fetch from God we obtain Pardon of Sin through Christ we obtain Guidance Aid and Assistance By the last we bring to him and this is our only Return Grateful Resentments and Apprehensions of the various Effects of the Divine Providence over us for averting of Evils from us and conferring of Good as they express our Ingenuity of Spirit towards God so they are the best things in our hands for God * the best Returns to God Galen the famous Physician having occasion to observe the Curiosity that is in the Make of Man's Body doth make a Hymn to God This * says he is the truest Worship of God the Creator and this is far more acceptable and better in it self than if I were able to bring a thousand Sacrifices or should offer the choicest Incense and Perfumes if I my self be sensible acknowledge and upon occasion exhibit and represent the Power of the Creator the Wisdom of the Creator and his Goodness His Power * and Wisdom for that he hath contrived in Mode and Figure so many Fitnesses and his Goodness in that he hath so fully communicated himself For what are Creatures but Divine Communications and this do I understand to be the best Worship of God and transcendent of that Sacrifice which may consist of Hecatombs of Beasts and of the purest Incense One thing we have and but one thing which we may call our own I mean the Consent of our Minds and that must be ours or else it is not our Consent it is not what it is unless it be our own And yet we must acknowledge the Grace of God that it is our own by Divine Concurrence Now let us by our own voluntary Act addict and determine our selves to God Let us afford him the Consent of our Minds i. e. make him our Delight and our Choice take Pleasure Content and Satisfaction in him This is the fullest way of Thankfulness to God out of sence of his Excellency and Goodness to reckon all our Happiness to consist in our Enjoyment of him our being and living in Communion and Acquaintance with him So that we have where-withal to sacrifice to God We have the Consent of our Minds We have this from God to be our own Act. We may make him our Choice breath after Interest in him and Communion with * him This is the best Expression of Thankfulness and this is the Christian 's Free-will Offering * Thus I * have made Explication of Unthankfulness We owe Thankfulness to God because we live by his Influence It is most natural to make Acknowledgment and to make thankful Returns to God Their Accusation is that they did not glorifie him as God and were unthankful The Argument of Conviction and the Aggravation of the Fault is because God made them capable of knowing that God is and that willingly and knowingly they were thus wanting and so did transgress That Person is altogether unexcusable * and self-condemned who knowing that he hath a Creator that is of infinite Power Goodness and Wisdom and having Sense and Knowledge that there is a God as God hath made Man to have doth not adore him fulfil his Will is not observant of him not affected toward him doth not rejoyce and delight in him * So that Irreligion is the most unnatural thing in the World Truth is a seminal Principle with which the Mind of Man being impregnated ought to bring forth and in this case * there should be neither Barrenness nor Abortions For Rational Nature is as sufficient and proportionable to its Effects as any vital Principle besides in the World If hurting a Woman with Child so as Mischief followeth be so punishable Exod. 21. 23. what is this case of Destroying the Seed of God in Man's Minds For so it is called 1 John 3. 9. Seed is accounted lost when * being sown in the Ground it never comes up So are
Evils We and We alone cause Guilt in our Consciences We and We alone do deform and deprave our Minds We and We alone are the Causes of Diseases and the marring of our Bodies when * we are intemperate Further to prove that MISERY IS OF OUR SELVES I shall take Two Grounds from the Apostle 1 st Man is a Law to himself That is the Effect and Purport of the Law is written in his Heart So that Man is felfcondemned if he transgress he himself being Judge And Self-condemnation is the Life of Hell What the Apostle saith of the Word of Faith of After-Revelation We need not ask who shall ascend c. But the Word of Faith which we preach is nigh thee even in thy Heart the same also may we say of the Principles of God's Creation in us which belongs to our very Make. For Man by Vertue of his Nature and Principles is as sufficient and proportionable to Acts of Reason and Understanding as any inferiour Nature is to Acts Homogenial and Con-natural And we observe that inferiour Nature fails not if it meets not with Foreign Disturbance and Impediment Man therefore out of the Way of right Reason is a Monster a Prodigy in a State of Delinquency and Deformity and he returns not to himself but by Revocation of what is unduly done and renewal by Repentance Otherwise he remains under Self-condemnation So cannot but be miserable 2 dly Great Sinners leave natural Use. Now the Propensions and Inclinations of the Powers and Faculties of our Natures are not controuled without great Violence to our selves and Affront given to God As to instance it is horrid monstrous degenerate and unnatural to live without God in the World because Mind and Understanding are God's peculiar Reserve in Man given to be employed about him So that it is Alienation and Sacriledge to divert them from him It is unnatural to be Intemperate The Desires of Nature are Modest and within Bounds and Compass And all Excess is burthensome It is Devilish to be Spiteful and Revengeful For Man by Nature is Sociable and wishes well to them in whose Company he takes delight This must be understood of Nature before it be abused by unnatural Acts ill Use Custom and Practice For the better any thing is in its Constitution and Integrity the worse it is in its Degeneracy and Depravation I infer Four Things from * hence 1. If Man's Misery be from within * and from Man's self then no Imputation lies upon God of hard Usage of his Creatures Let us therefore resolve with Elihu to give all Honour to our Maker and ascribe Righteousness to him and not entertain such Thoughts and Apprehensions of God as will not recommend him to us nor encourage our Applications to him For it is the leading Point in Religion to have in our Minds right Suppositions of God 2. If this were duly considered Men would not allow themselves to be Lawless Arbitrary Licentious Exorbitant tho' they might avoid the Danger of Divine and Human Laws For Misery arising from within Sinners would be miserable and unhappy tho' God and Man should let them alone 3. If this were duly considered Men would not be agrieved at the Shews and Appearances of this vain World so as to envy the Condition of the Fond and Foolish who intoxicate themselves with Fancies and are Self-flatterers The seeming Prosperity of the Wicked hath been a Stumbling-block to good Men in * all Ages to David Job Jeremiah till they have bethought themselves examin'd and considered But that is well which ends well The Tempter abuses credulous Persons suggesting the Day of Vengeance to be a long time hence Whereas the Sins of Men do not stay for all their Punishment till the Day of Judgment But whether external Punishment be sooner or later Wickedness carries Misery in its own Bowels Were we but at times to see the Torture and Anguish that Guiltiness gives occasion to the Unquietness of naughty malicious Minds the Perplexities and Vexations of the Envious a Man of Poverty if of Innocency and Integrity would not change Conditions with them notwithstanding their worldly Accommodations and gay Out-sides 4. This effectually recommends to us Principles of Reason and Religion as things fit to rule and govern in the Life of Man as things Soveraign to Nature * as the Law of Mens Apprehensions and the Rule of Mens Actions They moderate Mens Passions compose Mens Spirits quiet Mens Minds keep Men in their Wits suffer no abuse to their Bodies A discomposed Mind doth disaffect the Body and a distemper'd Body doth disturb the Mind There is more Satisfaction in good SELF-GOVERNMENT than in all the forced Jollities and Pleasures in the World * Therefore to obtain this Composedness of Spirit and in order to this great Work of Self-Government First I propose that we do not attempt to compound and make things stand together that are of a contrary Nature and Quality as Worldly Policy and Divine Wisdom These two things are as distinct as any things in the World the one is for compassing Ends by all Ways and Arts the other is for all Ways of Righteousness Peaceableness and Universal Good-will * Thus for a Man to resolve to get an Estate by any Ways or Means to haste to be rich and with this to retain Innocency Uprightness and Integrity than which nothing is more impossible For a Man to compound inordinate Self-love with the Love of God and his Neighbour For a Man to make * it the Employment of Mind and Understanding to gratifie Sense and serve Brutish Lusts and yet think that he may * be acted and guided by the good Spirit of God These * things will not consist together Secondly I propose that in all the Variety Difficulties and Uncertainties of this World which is subject to so many and various Changes a Man resolve to be himself as to the great things of Humane Life Let him be the same in respect of his End both intermediate and ultimate the next and the last that is let his immediate End be warrantable and lawful and the ultimate End be that which is universally good as the Observance of God and his own Happiness For these are the same and concur together Let him be the same in respect of his Aims Designs and Intentions Let these be always worthy and let him hold to them Let him be the same in respect of his Rule and Principle of Living and of Acting Tho' he fail in a particular Action yet let him hold to his Rule and as soon as he can recover himself to his Rule and Law Let him be the same in respect of his Contentment and Satisfaction Let not a Man take up and applaud himself in any Attainment or Acquisition that is short of that which will finally accomplish a Man and make him happy Let a Man always be himself in respect of his Engagements and Undertakings Let a Man conjoin with his Natural Powers
communicable Perfections Holiness Righteousness and Goodness we imitate and resemble him If we would be happy as He is we are to be holy as he is in our Measure Degree and Proportion SERMONS OF D R WHICHCOT PART II. LONDON Printed for Awnsham and John Churchill MDCXCVIII SERMON I. PHILIPPIANS IV. 8. Finally Brethren Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report If there be any Vertue if there be any Praise think on these things A Weightier Scripture more summary and comprehensive of all Perfection I do not find any where It shews how compleat and well furnish'd the Man of God shou'd be one who professeth himself a Christian names Christ and pretends to the Faith of the Gospel Whatsoever is Good in its Nature and Quality shou'd be well known to him shou'd be his Ornament and Accomplishment endow his Mind and qualifie his Spirit Whatsoever Things are TRUE And here we must take up Pilate's Question What is Truth Truth is first in Things then in our Apprehensions For the First the Truth of Things lies in this that Things do exist of their own Principles Now this Truth of Things is no Charge of ours it is God's Charge it is the Effect of God's Creation For he hath made all Things True and therefore Things must be True For God cannot fail either through Impotency or want of Power or through Error of Judgment This is Truth metaphysically But then that that we are concern'd in is the Truth of our Apprehensions And our Apprehensions are then True when they agree with the Truth and Existence of Things when we conceive of Things as they are And if we think otherwise then there is a Lye in our Understanding And here is the Occasion of all the Evil that breaks in upon Mortals that we do not conceive of Things as they are but that all Men except some few either worship the Idol of particular Imagination or the Idol of Popular Superstition They either follow private Imagination of their own or general Mistakes And he is a Man of a thousand that can rise up and quit himself of these two Idols Solomon observes that the Simple or the Fool believes every thing that is represented But the State of Things is determined fixed by God in the Moment of Creation And our Judgments and Apprehensions are to be conformable to the Reality and Existence of Things And when our Affections and Actions are suitable to such a Judgment and Sense of our Minds we are then in the Truth and never else The first belongs to a Man's Understanding and that speaks him an able Man a Man of Judgment a Man of Sense and Experience The latter speaks him a good Man And indeed if Mens Actions comply not with the Sense of their Judgments there will be Self-condemnation and no Peace within The next Distinction is the Truth of Things either upon a natural Consideration to know Things in their Natures and Qualities and this is * Natural Philosophy and is of great Use in the Life of Man and tends to the enlarging Man's Understanding But this is not the Concernment of Religion and Conscience Or else it is Truth upon a Moral Consideration And this only is the Concernment of Conscience And here we do enquire whether Things be right or wrong good or evil and accordingly charge our selves We are to be in Reconciliation with Things that are good and to have a Displacency against Things that are impure unholy and contrary to the Mind and Will of God And this is the Concernment of Conscience and the Business of Religion and is every Body's Charge For both a good State here and a future good State hereafter depends upon it Now Man's Obligation to Truth viz. That Truth should be in all his Actions and Apprehensions it is grounded upon the State and Principles of his Creation Man's Capacity Man's proper Employment Man's true End Man's Relation Of which there has been mention elsewhere I will * now give you certain Instances by which I will first show you when there is Truth on our part respectively to God And if I discover when we are said to Lye to God I shall by the same shew you when there is Truth towards God Now we put a Lye upon him in these * several ways To profess and not to believe this is high Dissimulation and a horrible Indignity put upon God This represents God as if he might be mistaken or imposed upon To believe and not to do and this is to hold the Truth in Unrighteousness Which in Scripture is look'd upon to be an Act of the greatest Violence Deformity and Malignity To begin and not to persevere To pretend God and mean a Man's self or the World To make God a Mean and the World an End I dread to have to do with any Man that will make Use of his Religion to gain him Credit and to make a Bargain Of such a Man one had need take double Security * Lastly to name the Name of God and not to depart from Evil. In these Cases we do not abide in the Truth But we put a Lye upon God In the second place As there is a Lye to God so a Man may put a Lye upon himself * viz. Either to gratifie his Lust for Lust is a false Principle Lusts are Exorbitances and Irregularities They are false Births They have not true Existence Or to give way to found Imagination It is also to put a Lye upon a Man's self to live after Temper For this is below Reason and short of Vertue And hence it is that every petty Astrologer pretends to tell Fools their Fortunes * There is no Man that is wise but he is more than Temper A Man by Wisdom doth govern himself and over-rule all Fate and Destiny whatsoever For Man under God hath a kind of Sovereignty over himself A Man hath Power to use Diligence that he may attain to right Apprehensions of Things And then he hath Power to execute and perform according to his Apprehensions This also is to put a Lye upon a Man's self to perswade ones self in any thing without warrant of Reason or Scripture To settle in an Opinion without warrant of Reason or credible Testimony is Impotency and Fondness CREDULITY is a Stranger to Wisdom and the very Nurse of Superstition * Also a Man puts a Lye upon himself if he have his Will for his Rule For Will is no Rule at all Will signifies nothing unless it be that Will which is in Conjunction with infallible Understanding which is the Will of God Some Men think it is the highest Perfection to be Arbitrary But really if they do consider it is a Piece of the greatest Impotency and foulest Deformity In these Cases a Man puts a Lye on himself In the Third place To give an Account of Truth between Man
Vileness out of the Sense of his own Nature because he hath done that that is contrary to the Light of Reason and Conscience he will not blush out of Respect and Reverence to God The Ingredients that are requisite and necessary to the Qualification of that Man that would render himself valuable are these First A Constancy immoveable so as always to be found the same A great many differ one Day and another more from themselves than any two Men do Many Men do so little govern themselves that those that are acquainted with them do not know how Reason may take with them if they be out of Temper A Man shou'd take care to be always the same I know there is some Difficulty in this because of our Bodies Every Man is sollicited by his Body And our Bodies are over-ruled by the * very Temper and Variation of the Air And no Man can overcome his bodily Temper but by great Wisdom Yet this is attainable For if Reason were as it ought to be the settled Law of Life and Action it wou'd be then easie For Reason is regular uniform and always self-consistent It is Humour that is various and unconstant and that drives a Man from himself Secondly A Patience invincible so as never to be disturbed by things that are without us A Man doth not do himself right if he do not live from within but from without For what are the Things without a Man in Comparison with his Self-enjoyment which lies in the Serenity of his Mind the Calmness and good Composure of his Spirit the Peace and Quiet of his Conscience And this good Composure of our Spirit is attainable if we be resolv'd that neither the partial and incompetent Opinion and Sense of By-standers and uncapable Judges nor the Change of Things which are mutable and uncertain nor the various Accidents of this uncertain World that none of these drive a Man from himself For a Man is a little World to himself And may enjoy himself within If things * there be right and streight however disturbed they are without Thirdly A Composure of Mind and Evenness of Temper So as not to be sometimes up sometimes down sometimes high sometimes low This is to be one day a Man another day no Body One while more than himself another while less than any Body Who would be so unlike himself Certainly every Man in his Reason will conclude that this is unbecoming and unsatisfactory to be sometimes triumphant and full of Confidence and other whiles to be drown'd * sunk unactive and deficient Fourthly Such a Gesture and Carriage as may no ways argue a Spirit either over-eager or forward And truly if a Man consider that there is a bitter-sweet in all the Things of this World a Shortness and an Unsatisfactoriness in all our Enjoyments he will then find that it is fit he shou'd maintain an Indifferency towards them and an Independency upon them There is that in them that doth abate the Content and Satisfaction that any Man can have in them For they are limited and restrained good-Things And therefore it is mainly requisite for a Man of Reason and Religion to retain an Indifferency towards them and an Independency upon them To express this I will repeat a Character * of one in a former Age one of whom it was said that he had A Constancy immoveable A Modesty so well behaving it self an Evenness so marvellous that he spoke not one Word higher than another nor us'd any Gesture which might argue a Spirit over-eager or forward These Four Things I propose as Things whereof this gallant Temper doth consist as Principles of it or as Ingredients with it Now to recommend all that I have said I shall show you several eminent Advantages which attend upon this I call Gravity Sobriety c. First These prepare the Mind for Learning and Knowledge For nothing is to be fasten'd upon a light and airy Temper Without these a Man will not be capable of Culture Instruction and Education They are the true Companions of Wisdom Wisdom walks with such Attendants in such an Equipage These are the proper Retinues of Wisdom None are truly wise but those that are competently at least furnished with these There is that which we call Wit and that which we call Wisdom Wit in compare with Wisdom is a Fit a Flash a Vapour of no Continuance But Wisdom is conjoyn'd with Prudence and Discretion They dispose the Mind to all Vertue In this rich and fruitful SOIL for such is a Mind thus qualified and govern'd all the Seeds of universal Goodness being sown will grow apace For Goodness is really Knowledge digested concocted entertain'd submitted to consented to They procure from others Veneration an Esteem It hath been shew'd you that Men render themselves despicable Men are slighted and neglected because they show their own Weakness Emptiness Vanity and Folly They uphold Mens Superiority Dignity and Authority Whereas Frothiness and Vanity of Spirit Rudeness and Lightness of Behaviour level Persons of * greatest Difference and Distinction They raise Mens Thoughts to the Consideration of Things that are excellent They represent the Divine Majesty and Presence Acquaintance with such Men as these Men of Gravity of Seriousness and Sobriety doth discharge us of that Levity Rudeness and Irreverence that else is apt to follow us and accompany us in our Approaches and Addresses unto God For he that doth use to play the Fool will be a Fool in every Company And they who by Disposition and Tempet and by long Custom and Practice have brought themselves into a Habit of Vanity and Lightness they are in a great Aversation and Indisposition to Gravity and Seriousness at all times and in every Presence So that even the Sense of * the Divine Majesty of Heaven and Earth and the Consideration of his Greatness awes them not neither can prevail with them to discharge their Minds of their habitual Rudeness and Levity These are the Considerations whereby this Moral Perfection of Staidness of Mind Soberness of Spirit Gravity Seemlyness of Behaviour good Carriage and Self-government stands recommended unto you Whatsoever Things are JUST 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our English Translation is a little too short for the Greek The Words in the Greek do comprehend Two Things that in our English Language we call Just and Equal Justice and Equity I know oft-times are indifferently used for the self-same thing But if we speak strictly and exactly then they are to be distinguish'd For whatsoever either Reason or Law will admit that may pass for Just. But Equity will take all Things into Consideration that do accompany the Case And if the Case require Equity will abate of what strict Right will afford Therefore that that we call Equity is to moderate strict Right And indeed strict Right may be down-right Injury and Wrong Strict Right is not to be stood upon by Persons of Reason and Conscience where Equity calls for another
Now OUR Holiness is our Imitation and Resemblance of God And consists of Three Things First Our Straitness Uprightness Rectitude IN OUR SELVES in Respect of our Temper Make Constitution and Principles of which we do consist Secondly Our Rectitude and Uprightness towards GOD who is our principal Object By whom we were to whom we tend Who stands in all Places and fills all Relations to us The Object of all Adoration and Worship He is to us Original and ought to be Final the Center of our Souls and the only Object in the Enjoyment of whom we are happy Thirdly It is our Rectitude and Uprightness IN RESPECT OF OUR FELLOW CREATURES * As to the First Man as an intelligent an voluntary Agent indued with Reason and Understanding and priviledged with Liberty and Freedom having Dominion and Government over Body and Bodily Sense and having the Rule and Government of his own Spirit * It is requisite that his better Part be Predominant over his Inferior to wit that his Intelectual Nature do govern his inferior and sensitive Powers and Faculties Therefore that a Man may be right and strait in himself it is requisite that he do maintain an Order of his Powers and Faculties and that there be a Subordination and Dependance of all inferior Faculties in him to those which are superior and which ought to govern And this belongs to our Rectitude and Uprightness in our selves It is Obliquity and Unholiness when the Powers and Faculties of Mens Souls are in Confusion and in mutual Opposition and Contestation When it is with a Man as it is said in the Tragedy By my Reason and Understanding by my Superior Powers and Faculties I judge and discern that this is best and convenientest But my inferior Faculties draw me from it This is an unholy and impure State when THAT that is by God's Order and Institution and the original Appointment of Nature the Governour in Man and that should and ought to govern when that is dethroned and put out of Possession and the inferior Faculties have usurp'd Authority And all Things are in Hurly-burly and Confusion Impotent Passions have the Rule And Man's REASON is disturbed Rectitude and Uprightness are the Health and Purity of a Man's Soul A Man is then right and strait He is whole within himself and all Things are as they shou'd be There should never be any transporting Imaginations no Discomposure of Mind For that is a Failure in the Government of a Man's Spirit There ought to be no Eagerness or Inordinacy towards the Things of this World We should not be born down towards Objects of Sense There ought to be Serenity and Calmness and clear Apprehensions fair Weather within that that the noble Platonist calls Steadiness of Mind and Understanding an Intelectual Calmness A just Balance an equal Poise of a Man's Mind No Perplexity of Soul no Confusion no Provocation no Disturbance no Perturbation A Man shou'd not be born off from himself or put out of himself because Things without him are ungovern'd and disorder'd For these * Disturbances do unhallow the Mind lay it it open and make it common If the Mind be thus disturb'd and discomposed then that whereby a Man shou'd judge and discern that whereby a Man shou'd resolve and determine that whereby a Man shou'd govern himself is diseased and sick And then a Man is in a lost Case This is as if a Man's Eye were Blood-shot and less fit for its Office So * in the same Manner the Mind not being pure is not apt to receive nor able to discern the Truth of Things it is an injudicious Mind not qualified for its Operation Modesty Meekness Gentleness are the Minds Qualifications The Rule of Equity is the Mind's Balance Its Temper the Love of Rectitude These Things belong to the Health of a Man's Mind and Soul These are the just Temper Complexion and happy Constitution of a Man's Mind To conclude To the State of Rectitude belongs Right Reason in the Throne Submission of the Will hereunto Obedience of the Appetite to the apprehensive Parts Harmony of the Affections to the Mind's Sense Love and Delight to all known Truth The contrary to these is impure untrue unsincere neither complying with God's Creation nor any After-Institution but is base-born illigitimate upstart and maintain'd by Violence I will conclude this with the Saying of Boetius Rid your selves of transporting Joy and discouraging Fear deluding Hope and confounding Grief For the Mind is clouded fetter'd and in Bonds where these have any place The Second * Thing in which Holiness consists is Rectitude and Uprightness in Respect of God For the Intelectual Nature hath special Reference and Relation to God All Mind and Understanding hath Tendency towards God It was well said by the Philosopher God is more Essential to us than that that is most our selves and is Supream to that which is in us Sovereign And so long as the Soul of Man is fix'd and and fasten'd and rooted in God so long it draws Sap and Life and Nourishment and Vital Influence thrives prospers and retains all its Perfections Emoluments and Qualifications with which God did at first make it All its Powers Abilities and Faculties remain whole and entire But if any way the Soul of Man be torn off from God either by our own Act of wilful Departure or by Ignorance or by any other ways it withers and fades shrivels up and comes to nothing till it do again by Regeneration and good Affection return to God and rest in him For if the Mind be off from God it is off from its Original And that is Mischief enough For that that is Original to first being is conservative to all after-being If a Man by Degeneration be fallen off from God he is deprived of his conservative Cause he is off from his Center he is cross to his End he is in a State of deadly Sickness and present Death God is our principal Object And our chief and proper Employment is about him And indeed were it not for Man's Capacity for God if our Rational Faculties had no Employment about God but were intended only for the Drudgeries of the World it had been better for Man to have been made in a lower Order Had we been to have had our adequate Employment here below been made to converse with the Creatures which now we govern we shou'd have been more happy a great deal if more equal to them For there is not so free converse where is there unequality A Man cannot communicate himself to the Creatures below him They cannot understand Man as an Equal but as a Governour It had therefore been better for Man had he been made less if he had been only to have employed himself about Beasts Because he and his Employment wou'd have had a greater Harmony It is therefore in Nature * that this is founded viz. Our Relation God-ward our Motion upwards our Converse with separate
Spirit than he that taketh a City He that doth subdue the Motion of irregular Passion doth a greater Matter than he who conquers Nations or beats down Walls and Bulwarks Therefore give me the Man of whom I may * say This is the Person who in the true Use of REASON the Perfection of Humane Nature who in the Practice and Exercise of VERTUE its Accomplishment hath brought himself into such a Temper as is con-natural to those Principles and warranted thereby Of all other Men I may say that they have neglected their chief Business and have forgot the great Work that was in their hand and what ought chiefly to be done in the World For the greatest thing that lies upon every one to do is the Regulating of his own Mind and Spirit And he that hath not done this hath been in the World to little purpose For this is the Business of Life to inform our Understandings to refine our Spirits and then to regulate the Actions of our Lives to settle * I say such a Temper of Mind as is agreeable to the Dictates of sober Reason and constituted by the Graces of the Divine Spirit Now that I may give you an account of this * in the Text this MEEK and quiet Spirit I must do it by looking into the State and Operation of it Through MEEKNESS a Man hath always fair Weather within Through MEEKNESS he gives no manner of Offence or Disturbance any where abroad And in particular I may say these * several things of the Meek and quiet Spirit First There is no ungrounded Passion no boisterous Motion no Exorbitancy nothing of Fury No Perplexity of Mind nor Over-thoughtfulness Men that are thus * disquieted know not what to do can give no answer nor can resolve on any thing No Confusion of Thought for that is Darkness within and brings Men into such * Disorder that they know not what is before them No Eagerness of Desire no Impetuousity They do not say with her * in the Scripture Give me Children or else I die No Respect to God or Man will quiet or moderate such Spirits if they have not what they are bent upon No Inordinacy of Appetite but * so as always * to be governed according to the Measures and Rules of Reason and Vertue No Partiality or Self-flattery * One of a meek Spirit does not over-value himself * Those of the contrary Temper are always putting themselves into a Fool 's Paradise conceiting above what there is Sense or Reason for No impotent Self-will He that gives way to Self-will is an Enemy to his own Peace and is the great Disturber of the World He is an Anti-God imposeth upon God himself and is within no Law * And in the last place No fond Self-Love All these are Verities of this MEEK and quiet Spirit And these are great things and tend to Happiness are suitable to our State becoming the Relation we stand in to God and to one another The Meek in Temper are freed from all those internal Dispositions that cause a great deal of Unquietness in the World For as mischievous as the World either is or is thought to be our Sufferings from abroad all the Injuries that we meet with from without are neither so great nor so frequent as the Annoyances that arise from the Discomposure of our own Minds and from inward Malignity I say that they who complain * so much of the Times and of the World * may learn this that the Sufferings from injurious Dealings from any without us are nothing in comparison to those we find from within For this inward Malady doth altogether disable the Fences and Succours of Reason This is a constant Malady and * by this Self-enjoyment is * made very uncertain This is the First thing that through MEEKNESS OF SPIRIT we are always in a Calm have fair Weather within our own Breasts and do arrive to a good State of Health and Settlement Secondly Through this MEEKNESS OF SPIRIT there is good Carriage and Behaviour towards others The Meek are never injurious or censorious but are ready to take in good part and make the best Construction that the Case will bear They will account other Mens Faults rather their Infirmity than their Crime and they look upon the Harm done them by others to be rather Inadvertency than Design rather contingent ill Accidents than bad Meaning The Meek Man is a good Neighbour a good Friend a Credit to Religion one that governs himself according to Reason makes no Injury by any Misconstruction and in case of any Wrong done sits down with easie Satisfaction How much do Men differ upon account of Moderation Meekness and Fairness We find upon our ordinary Application to some Persons that they will admit any reasonable and fair Proposal be ready to hear and take in good part are of easie Access fair conditioned easie to be intreated but others * there are of so bad a Condition that you may come twenty times to them before you find them in a good Mood or fit to be dealt withal They are seldom in so good a Disposition that an indifferent Proposal may be made to them But * for those that are of Meek and quiet Spirits I may say of such Persons either that they are very ready to grant what is desired or else if they do deny it shall be upon such Grounds of Reason as will satisfie But because things are best known by their Contraries I will shew you WHO those Persons are of whom it cannot be said that they are OF MEEK AND QUIET SPIRITS to wit the Proud the Arrogant Insolent Haughty Presumptuous Self-confident and Assuming For these are Boisterous Stormy Tempestuous Clamorous These Persons wil put themselves and others as much as they can into a Flame These are the Disturbers of Mankind and their Neighbours are rid of a Burthen when they are removed What Storms and Tempests are in the World Natural these are in the World Moral Earthquakes Storms and Tempests do not lie more heavy upon the World Natural than these Men do upon the World of Mankind But Meekness doth so qualifie the Soil where it is that all the Moral Vertues will * there thrive and prosper such as Humility Modesty Patience Ingenuity Candour But Malice and Envy are the worst of Vices being the greatest Degeneracy and Participation of the Devilish Nature These have no place in this Meek and quiet Spirit Lastly I add that an ILL-NATURED Person is altogether uncapable of Happiness If therefore it hath been any one's Lot either to have been born or bred to an Ill-nature I say in this case He is more concerned to apply a Remedy than he that hath received a Deadly Wound or is Bodily Sick hath to apply himself to the Chyrurgion or to the Physician least his Wound or Disease should prove Mortal For these inward Maladies will otherwise prove fatal to his Soul and the only Remedy to be applyed is
he would have them Such was the Temper of Jonah He was displeased and angry to Death because he was not gratified and had his Will tho' it tended never so much to the Ruin of others But the Ground of SORROW for SIN is the Love of GOD * it is because we have done amiss varied from the Rule of Right and given God an Offence * because we have done that which was base and disingenuous to our loving Father and best Benefactor Now this doth quite alter the Case * and makes a Change which WORLDLY SORROW tho' never so much doth not For if we truly repent we undo the Action and morally disclaim it And upon this God doth pardon But Things without are not altered by Worldly Sorrow But go on as they did in their Course whether the Man be pleas'd or displeas'd But REPENTANCE doth afford us Heart's-ease and removes the Malady that did affect us For by our Repentance and God's Pardon THAT which hath been done is as if it never had been done So that in effect the Penitent may say I that was the Sinner am not the same Person And That which I have done amiss is as if I had never done it This is that Repentance which the Apostle calls Repentance to Salvation never to be repented of For it produceth good Effects Love to God and Thankfulness to Him And in These there is Heart's-ease and Satisfaction I will appeal to the Experience of any Man that hath ingenuously repented if He do not find more Satisfaction Heart's-ease and Pleasure in one Hour that he has spent in this Exercise and in Retirement from the World than ever he found in any Hour of Jollity and intemperate Mirth in all his Life And it must be so For in one Case there is Satisfaction to the Reason of the Mind which is Fundamental to inward Peace But in the other the Pleasure of the Sin is soon over and the Memory of it is grievous and remains All that Pleasure which worldly and ungovern'd Persons take in Sin has no Solidity in it But we may truly say of it as Solomon doth of Laughter it is Madness and of Mirth What doth it But in the Motion of Repentance there is ease to a Man's Heart So that a Man may say of * this Sorrow what the Poet saith of Grief That it is carried out with the Tears I have now spoken of Religion in its Use and Exercise in this State whilst we are here the Advantages that we have by it at present I am now to speak of it in its Issue when it is Victorious and Triumphant what it shall be in Souls when they have made their escape out of Time and finally conquer'd the World And here I shall declare the Effects of Religion partly as to Mens Bodies but chiefly as to their Minds As to Mens Bodies in this State and the Future In this State the greatest Work is Mortification Colossi 3. 5. Mortifie therefore your Members c. And 1 Cor. 9. 27. I beat down my Body And 1 St. John 2. 16. The Apostle saith All that is in the World the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life must be subdued Then hereafter our Bodies shall be Spiritualized 1 Cor. 15. 44. Nay Tho' it be sown a Natural Body it shall be raised a Spiritual Body Which would pass for Nonsense in the Ears of a Philosopher But he speaks emphatically A Body carried so much higher and to so great a Degree of Perfection as much as a Spirit is a far more excellent Being than an Earthly Body This that I now speak we cannot now fully understand because it is a State in Reversion For we must know that States are not known by Notion and Description but by Sense and Feeling and by being in the * very State * it self Beasts have no Notion of the State of Men Neither have we any certain Notion of the State of Angels because neither they nor we are in that State And as we do not know it because we feel it not so can we do nothing towards this happy Change of the Body otherwise than by the several Vertues and Graces in these Bodies to wit in the Exercise of Sobriety Chastity Temperance together with the moderate Use of the Conveniences and Accommodations of Nature by which we may fit and prepare them for the State of Glory But our main Work in this State is about the inward Man to wit that That be so conformable to the Law of God that it be brought to take Delight in it and to harmonize with it We must take Care that we do not make our highest Faculties to cater for the Flesh. The inferior Faculties are capable of this Employment and good enough for it Our great Care must be to subdue all inordinate Passions and boisterous Lusts which are said to fight against the Soul That gallant Resolution which was taken up by the Apostle must be taken up by us I will not saith he that any of these Things have Authority over me But I will have my Mind free from and above all these Things Let us take Care that all inordinate Appetites and Excesses be restrained such as that was in her who said Give me Children or else I die For WILL without Reason is a blind Man's Motion And WILL against Reason is a mad Man's Motion I add that our Care must be that we be not only Bodily-wise BODY indeed is a heavy Weight But let us bear up as well as we can against it 'T is true that God hath linked our Souls and Bodies together But it was always intended that the governing Part should be THE MIND And a Man by Wisdom and Vertue may overcome Bodily-Temper and Inclination We have had those that have said By my Bodily-Temper and Constitution I am so and so such are my Difficulties and Temptations Yet through the Power of my Mind all these Things are subject to my Reason This is the Creator's Law that all Things in Man should be subject to the Government of REASON which is God's Deputy And this is our Tryal in this State whether by the Weight of Body we will suffer our selves to be depress'd and to sink downward by minding Earthly Things and so take our Portion here and fall short of God or whether by the Reason of our Minds we will mount upwards mind Heavenly Things converse with God by Heavenly Meditation and make choice of the Things that are most excellent Whereby we shall naturalize our selves to the Employment of Eternity For this we observe that we readily and easily do those Things that we have been long accustomed unto Use makes Men ready apt and prompt So that it is no difficult Matter for Men to foresee what they shall approve hereafter by what they savour relish and delight in now By what they take Pleasure and Satisfaction in at present For it will be there
more of the same Therefore our Business in time is to get the Victory over those unreasonable Passions which annoy us that so we may readily ascend into the State of Intelectual Beings * Our Business here is to qualifie our Souls by Holiness and Vertue for the Happiness of Heaven and to separate our Minds from the Dregs of Matter and Bodily-Sense Which will not be till the Mind get the Victory and the Soul become God-like and in some Measure partake of the Divine Nature But here I might lose my self and yet can speak but little of the Happiness of that State Let it be our Care at present to cleanse our selves from all Pollutions of Flesh and Spirit For can we be so blind as to think that a contrary Way will bring us to our intended End We do observe that Things are in Men according to their Temper What is Food tho' never so wholesome if a Person be sick Or Musick to those that are Melancholy What is Exercise or Recreation to Men that are weak and feeble What are the Things of the World to him that hath no Power to enjoy them So it is in this Case They that take no delight in the Exercise of Vertue in this State if after this Life God should remove them into Local Heaven they would take little Satisfaction in the Place because of an unsuitable Frame of Spirit For Men must be suitable to the Object in the Enjoyment of which they receive Satisfaction Therefore suppose tho' it is impossible that a Man * being unregenerate and not renew'd in his Spirit nor refined in his Temper that God by Power should remove such a Man into Heaven when he came thither he would not be satisfied either in the Persons or in the Employment of that Place Because all these would be contrary unto him Tho' when we speak of Heaven we understand rather a State than a Place A Frame and Temper Within rather than any thing Without Therefore it is absolutely necessary that we should by Goodness here qualifie and prepare our selves for Happiness hereafter For there is no Happiness in the Meeting of Things that are Unlike Thus now I have given you an Account of the State of Religion and its Operation upon the Body and the Mind in this State and the other And this is enough to recommend Religion and to make us to look upon it not as an Arbitrary Exaction but as a Thing highly pleasurable and most desirable as that which is effectual to purifie our Natures and to raise our Minds as that which is the Health and Strength and good Temper of our Minds For as a Man knows that he is in Health when the Offices of Nature are well performed and discharged * So is he sure of his Mind's Health and Strength when all the several Offices and Duties of Life are easily and well perform'd They are very little acquainted with Religion that look upon it as a Burthen as that which puts too great a Restraint upon Human Nature and upon Liberty And therefore the Poet wrote his Book to release the Minds of Men from the Obligation of Religion I confefs he might well do so * as to that which he call'd Religion For that was to release the Minds of Men from those UNNATURAL Obligations their Religion laid upon them But no such Thing can be said of that Religion which we profess For the Work of our Religion is to teach Men to avoid Evil and to do Good And this doth no more confine Mens Liberty than for Men to confine themselves within the Measures of Sobriety and Temperance and to avoid those Things which would do them Hurt and Prejudice No Man thinks he is under Restraint if he be confin'd to eat and drink only those Things that will do him Good For if this were Liberty and Perfection to do one thing as well as another Evil as well as Good without Difference or Distinction then let me ask you Where is GOD's Liberty From hence it would follow that of all the World God is most tied and bound that HE in whom there is Fulness of Liberty having all Power is most limited For God saith of himself that he cannot do Evil that he doth banish it from his Throne and that he is of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity I conclude therefore 't is not Power but Weakness not Perfection but Deformity for any one to be able to do otherwise than what is right and fit to be done For this cannot be said of God himself For all the Ways of God are Ways of Goodness Righteousness and Truth Now the better to inforce what hath been said about Religion I will balance the two opposite States that which is founded in Religion and that which is founded in Evil and Sin That by comparing both together you may understand the one and the other For Contraries are tâ—â— best Comments one upon another And to this purpose I will take into Consideration these Particulars First It doth not deserve the honourable Title of RELIGION or to be taken for the Effect of Respect to God or Conscience to Right which doth not refine Mens Spirits rectifie their Apprehensions and regulate their Actions Even Nature's Sense as depraved as it is doth startle at any vile Practice For nothing is more true than that all Evil is against the NATURE of Man till it is marr'd and spoil'd by consenting to Iniquity For witness hereof take Hazael as an Instance Who startled at the Mention of those Sins which the Prophet told him of Insomuch that he saith Is thy Servant a Dog that he should do such Things For Impudency Immodesty and Cruelty are not primarily in the Nature of Man but they are contracted by base Use Custom and Practice Of Wickedness there is no Account to be given either of its Self or of the Degree of it For it is contrary to Reason And when the Rule of Right is once broken and violated no Man knows where a Person will stay Let us consider the open Declarations that are from God agaiâ—â—â— Wickedness both by Denunciation and Execution 'T is true God oftentimes hath long Patience with a wicked World But it is in order to their Repentance Tho' Men are very apt to mis-understand this Compassion of God towards Sinners For it is observed Ecclesiastes 8. 11. That because Sentence against an evil Work is not speedily executed therefore the Hearts of the Sons of Men are set to do Mischief But yet there is a present Recompence of Evil For all Inordinacy of Mind carries with it it s own Punishment All Wickedness carries with it Uneasiness of Spirit and Dissatisfaction Another Thing that I would offer to your Consideration is the malign Nature of Evil and the dismal Consequenence thereof For it is that which poysons the Nature of Man and turns Angels into Devils MAN which by Nature is a loving mild and gentle Creature it makes fierce and cruel
as doth become him a due Acknowledgment of God in respect of whatsoever Ability or Sufficiency he hath Let him duly acknowledge God and be apprehensive that he derives from him and therefore ought to submit to him and depend upon him and finally refer to him For a Life that is not acted govern'd and over-ruled by a determinate End and carried on by a certain Purpose it is both exorbitant weak and inconsistent Such Men live by chance and do what is next and not what they should and ought such Men live as if their Body had swallow'd up their Soul These Mens Lives are very uncertain things They live a kind of Lottery the Rules and Methods whereof no Body is acquainted with but things are as they fall out Such Men are guided by nothing else but a confused multitude of Fancies jumbled together as the things of this World were at the first Creation of them And this is true of all those whose Lives and Conversations are not made steady and directed by a right intended End and a true Purpose of Life In the third place I propose that we consider this that we are not to depend on Things without us as worldly Spirited Men do If we have as many of these things as are for use and as the Necessities of Life require we have enough For what are these things out of their use or beyond their use what are they then but Burthen and Cumber or at least the Gratification of Fancy and Imagination Now for a Man to affect a multitude of things and all Varieties it is but to discompose his own Mind For as we multiply Objects we multiply Thoughts and have more things to manage and order we multiply our Care which makes us less our selves and less free to Self-enjoyment This is the Temper of some Men Psal. 4. 6. who will shew us any Good it matters not who is the Agent * they are wholly undetermin'd as to Choice and undirected as to the Object This is the Voice of a Man in Confusion a Man without Notion and Principles a Man that hath not thought studied and considered But the good Man is determined Worldly things soon surfeit and cloy us they make a thick and gross Apprehension Their Variety doth occasion Distraction to the Mind and their Emptiness and Penury doth occasion Dissatisfaction In pursuit of worldly things there is certain Care and very uncertain Success No one that is in pursuit of Earthly things can assure himself of Success And if he be in pursuit and do not prevail Disappointments will break him Nothing is more grievous than Disappointment Fourthly I propose that we awaken in our selves an intelectual Sence of Divine and Spiritual Things which as they are in nearer relation to our Souls so they are more fitting and satisfactory Nothing is so satisfactory to the Mind which is improved or any way polished as the letting in of Light and the Communication of Truth This is more pleasant to such a Mind than any Pleasure of Sence whatsoever There is great Satisfaction in the Enjoyment of Mental * things By this means our Thoughts will stay at Home but if a Man wander from Home he shows his own Weakness Extravagant Appetites shew inward Poverty He that knows Better hath no Greediness after that which is Worse These are the things I propose to you for the obtaining of this Unity of Mind and Composedness of Spirit * Without this we shall have very little Enjoyment of our selves None think they are themselves when they are in Confusion of Thought Perplexity of Mind doubtful in Resolution and under sad Apprehensions * Without this there will be no Ability for the Discharge of our Duty in the World Till a Man hath well reformed his own ill-govern'd House till he hath cooled and calmed his heated and disturbed Fancy till he hath recovered himself from Mind-confounding and darkening Thoughts he will be in no Capacity or Disposition to act Abroad Is he fit to act in the World to direct and govern others that hath nothing but Darkness and Confusion Disorder and Distemper in his own Breast All his Faculties in conspiracy one against another Is this Man fit to act Abroad that hath not done his work within himself * Therefore let every Body take himself to task watch over himself and think that his best Discharge of Government is of himself and that there he ought to begin * And that a Man keep himself in Temper and the better govern his Thoughts and Apprehensions let him have a Sence of the Majesty of God The Moralist gave this for a Rule to set some great and worthy Person before a Man if he would do worthily Think saith one of Cato a Man that was exact according to the Moralist's Rule He thought that if a Man did but think of such a Person as that was it would keep him from consenting to Iniquity But how much more then the thinking of the Divine Majesty We never do any thing so secretly but in the presence of two Witnesses GOD and OUR OWN CONSCIENCE * Lastly to add more to your Thoughts concerning the necessity of SELF-GOVERNMENT It is * but little to say that I am placed in Authority or that I can command either Legions or Regions unless I have Free dispose of my self Tho' a Man could say of himself as the Centurion did I am a Man in Authority and I have Servants under me and to this Man I say go and he goeth and to another come and he cometh c. yet he is not a FREE Man unless he be Master of himself Unless I can bid my self do this and I do it without Difficulty Interruption or Disturbance my Command of others is insignificant unless I am intirely my self and can keep out all foreign Violence and Opposition from a hand without To have Thoughts imposed things injected when they are wholly inexpedient and we our selves otherwise better employ'd to have Suggestions thrust upon us neither to be refused nor commanded to have a Fire in our Breast which we cannot put out to be at every Beck and Call to have a Mind disquieted and discomposed and Meditation confounded or interrupted to have Thoughts running madly or snatched away from us If this be our case then I add * that for any seeming Glory from without or any vain Applause to compensate this home-bred Mischief a Man may as well be eased of the Pain of the Gout or Stone by being laid in a Bed of Down or of the Fit of a Burning-Feaver by the cool Air fanning him as he may be relieved in this internal Discomposure of Mind by worldly Application The true Remedy ariseth from within Admit Principles of Reason sow in thy Mind Seeds of Vertue be not through thine own Indisposition Tinder to every Temptation as he that is not settled in the habit of Vertue For Happiness is not from without To the chearful Spirit must be a richer Contribution
than a Joint Concurrence of worldly things internal Peace Ease and Satisfaction of Mind Rational Apprehensions calm and quiet Thoughts a serene Heaven within which are the true Ingredients of Self-Enjoyment There is no Man Free unless he be Wise and there is no Man Wise who hath not the Government of himself For this Man is a Slave Solomon hath told us that he who ruleth his Spirit is greater than he that taketh a City And he that doth not this doth not enjoy himself Wherefore let us have clear Perceptions of the Reason of Things and Power within our selves without Distraction to do and resolve accordingly And then I account a Man a good Man a wise Man and well accomplish'd And he that arrives not to this lives at Peradventure and acts like a Fool He doth nothing worthy his own Species or the Rank and Order of a rational and intelligent Being For we are bound by Vertue of our Creation to act out of a Fore-sight of the Reason of Things as inferior Beings act according to their Con-natural Qualities And it is monstrous and horrid if they do not In like manner it is ugly and degenerate for Man that is indued with Reason to act at Hap-hazard and not out of Fore-sight of the Reason of Things This is as monstrous as it is for the Sun not to shine and to fill the Air with Stench and Putrifaction The Irreligious * therefore leave natural Use which till Nature be put out of Course and by Custom habituated to the contrary cannot but be grievous Things easily go on in Nature's way but being interrupted for a while at least strive to return to their natural Course Nothing doth well under Force and Violence The World hath an ill Opinion of Religion But if we will believe our Saviour His Yoke is easie and his Burthen is light His Commandments are not grievous David found high Content in them And Solomon all else to be Vanity It sometimes comes to pass through the Grace of God that some after a wild Course run if Incorrigibleness and invincible Hardness be not contracted by unnatural Practice upon Reflection and After-consideration greatly condemn themselves in what they have done and return to Ways of Sobriety and Religion and hold better to it because of former costly Experience Such an Instance is a great Condemnation to licentious and exorbitant Practices and a Testimony from Persons of double Experience of the better Ways of Vertue SERMON VI. ROMANS I. 29. Being filled with all Unrighteousness Fornication Wickedness Covetousness Maliciousness full of Envy Murder Debate Deceit Malignity Whisperers c. IN these words you have the ultimate Issue of the horrid monstrous degenerate State of Mortals This Catalogue of Vice is enough to startle and awaken any one make him considerate and apprehensive of his Danger * so as to betake himself to Religion and to come within the Confines of it that he may be delivered from such Abominations One would wonder that Humane Nature should so degenerate that these Villanies should ever be reported of any who by their Institution are Intelligent Agents Of this Catalogue I have singled out one and that is COVETOUSNESS which because it is a subtle Evil and very mischievous I shall endeavour to discover it There is nothing in all the Scripture that is put in worse Company than this for it is reckon'd with all the horrid Effects of Degeneracy and Apostacy Yet Covetousness shelters it self under honest Names It is sometimes thought to be Diligence Prudence and Forecast Good-Husbandry Cautiousness Weariness So often do Men ruine themselves by entertaining this Viper under gilded Names Tho' I cannot discover it in all its Practices and Degrees yet I shall do you some Service in discovering that which is in any degree gross destructive to Religion and against Reason and Conscience Covetousness is much branded and spoken very ill of in Scripture It is put in adequate opposition to all Religion It is a Principle of the basest Practice for it hardens it self to any purpose Through Covetousness Men make Merchandize of the Word of God and * it is amongst the things that defile a Man The Covetous God abhors The Apostle saith it is Idolatry Nothing is more threatned in the Bible We are specially warned against it and told it is the root of all Evil. But it is a cunning subtle Sin No Man doth so justifie himself or is so hardly brought to repent as he that hath a touch of Covetousness I am of opinion that our Saviour hath in his Beatitudes ONE that he doth direct expresly against the Sin of Covetousness tho' it hath been alienated from the Sence by the generality of Interpreters viz. Blessed are the poor in Spirit for that which the Interpreters do fasten upon this hath place otherwhere and * therefore if it be here it is supernumerary They understand by it Dejection Humility of Mind and Contempt of our selves so they make it to comply with these Scriptures the Lord is nigh to the broken Heart and contrite Spirit To him will I look who is of a poor and contrite Spirit I heartily close with their Sence but find it in another place for that which they call Poverty of Spirit viz. Humility may be referred to another Beatitude Blessed are the Meek which doth not only import Gentleness Affability and Sweetness of Behaviour towards Men but also every degree of Humility and Subjection to God And for poor in Spirit thus I interpret it He may be poor in Spirit tho' he hath an abundance of Wealth and Honour who is a Man of moderate Desires and is satisfied with those things which God hath given him and may be poorer in this respect than the lowest Beggar * who hath unsatiable Desires of Riches and an Affectation of Power Command and Wealth for he is poor in Spirit tho' he hath an Affluent Estate and can command the World if his Mind stand right and he be loose to it and above it as to any Trust and Confidence in it And he that hath but from Hand to Mouth yet if he hath inordinate Desires tho' he be a Beggar he is covetous By Poverty of Spirit I do understand a kind of want of Affection to the World A Disposition of Mind spiritually steered so as not to decline to the Wealth and Pomp of the World looking upon them as Means and not giving them the Honour nor at all placing them in the room of Ends. So that if a Man hath the World's Goods and yet in his Heart he doth not lean to them and if having them not he doth not thirst after them nor hath inordinate Desires to them he is poor in Spirit He may be rich in outward Wealth and poor in Spirit if he love them not and he may be poor in outward Estate and yet covetous if he desire them Poor he may be and have but little in the World