are given to them and which some very indiscreetly apply to all alike even in their Prayers and Confessions without considering the plain difference of the case such as those spoke to the wicked Jews and whole Jewish Nation The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores Isai 1.5 6. and therefore those were Commanded to wash themselves make themselves clean put away the evil of their doings v. 16. and they were promised tho' their sins were as Scarlet they should be white as Snow tho' they were red as Crimson they should be as Wool v. 18. which is great encouragement to the worst of Sinners to Repent but God forbid that the sins of all should be of so deep a die or deserve so black and sad a Character No many I hope a great many have kept their Innocence and Whiteness and Purity and not defil'd themselves with any great Sin since they came out of the Laver of Regeneration and these are they who need no Repentance i. e. not that great Repentance that a willfull sinner does All stand in need in daily need of Repentance in some sense and are to pray God to forgive them their Trespasses every day i. e. their lesser Sins of frailty and infirmity which the best Men are not free from but this is very different from such willfull great Sins as destroy a Mans good state and put him into a state of Damnation and exclude him out of Heaven if he live in them The exhortations and advices to Repentance in the New Testament as well as the Old are given chiefly to very Vile and Lewd Sinners and in this Sense Christ came not so much to call the Righteous as Sinners to Repentance The Jews even the most Famous amongst them for Sanctity and Piety were guilty of wretched Hypocrisie and horrid Immorality as our Saviour charges the Scribe and Pharisees and the Heathens before they turned Christians lived in all manner of Impurity and Immorality Walking according to the course of this World according to the Prince of the power of the Air the spirit that now worketh in the Children of Disobedience having their Conversation in the Lusts of the Flesh fullfilling the desires of the Flesh and of the Mind Ephes 2.2 3. who walked some time and lived in Fornication Vncleanness inordinate Affection Concupiscence and Covetousness which is Idolatry Colos 3.5 who were Adulterers Idolaters Effeminate abusers of themselves with mankind Thieves Covetous Drunkards Revilers Extortioners as the same Apostle tells them some of them were 1 Cor. 6.9 10. In the first Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans he gives still a worse and more abominable account of them now even these were Washed were Sanctified were Justified by becoming true Penitents and true Christians in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6.11 by putting off the old Man i. e. the old Heathenish Sinfull life and putting on the new Man i. e. a Christian Conversation Col. 3.9 10. they who were once the Servants of sin being now made free from sin and become Servants of Righteousness Rom. 6.18 and they who yielded their members Servants to Vncleanness and to Iniquity unto Iniquity now yielding their members Servants to Righteousness unto Holiness v. 19. Now all this is spoke to those who were vile sinners and Heathens before they became Christians and it must be a sad and lamentable case to apply it to any that have been bred up in Christianity their condition must be much worse and more inexcusable and not so easily remediable as the others but none of this can or ought in any manner to be applied to those who have lived Vertuously thro' the general course of their lives and have tho' with many failings never been sinners in a high sense for in a low one we have all been so but many I doubt not all their lives were not in an ill state nor committed any sin to put 'em into it but like Enoch walked with God all their lives and like Job were Perject and Vpright that feared God and eschewed evil Job 1.1 that were always Children of God and never Children of the Devil that were never Prodigals but always served their Father neither transgressed at any time his Commandments Now the condition of these is a great deal more Happy and Preferable to that of the most Penitent sinner they are more in the savour of God and shall be more highly rewarded by him Son thou art always with me and all that I have is thine 2. The difficulties and hazards and dangers are nothing so great to those as to penitent Sinners and Prodigals Nothing is so hard and difficult as to overcome old Vitious Customs and root out old Sinfull Habits that have been a great while growing and prevailing upon us this is plucking out a right Eye and cutting off a right Hand for sins grow dear and natural to men by Custom and very hard to be parted with like Diseases that are grown Chronical they are hard to be cured and tho' with long Courses and many Remedies they may be cured and abated yet there will be great danger of having some spices of them now and then and of their often returning and the sinner's Relapsing again into them for there will be a disposition and Inclination to them and upon every little Temptation the Fancy and Imagination will be apt to be turned to them and put a strong byass upon the Mind to carry it that way many a good Man finds it very hard to govern the Passions the desires and inclinations he has given way to before he came to such a full sense of Religion and how must a sinner deny all his old Lusts and Affections that he has indulged so long and break off the old customs and ways he has been used to and be always strugling with those Enemies that he has let in so that they have made many strong holds to themselves and 't is now more hard to expell and drive them out and tho' they are sometimes vanquisht yet they will often rally again and a Man must keep a perpetual Watch and Guard against them Vice when it has once got possession of a Man is not easily cast out but the fancied good and the imagined pleasure sticks and remains in the Thoughts Fancy and Memory and the Appetite is not easily weaned from what it has so long indulged but the Lust and Inclination is apt to kindle upon every like Object and Temptation so hard and so rare it is to recover an old sinner from a long habit of wickedness that as Experience gives us but few Examples of this and most of the good Men in the World are such as were never bad so that the Prophet to show its great difficulty compares it to a natural impossibility Can
need it or make use of it for tho' the goodness of it be never so great yet 't is but in order to an end which is to recover health that was lost and to restore us to that soundness that we wanted 'T is the great Mercy of God and the great Grace and Favour of the Gospel and the great Purchase of Christ's Blood to have the Privilege of Repentance granted to Sinners in so large and full a manner so as to be restored to God's Favour and reconciled to him upon their return as if they had never offended him to have all the guilt and punishment of their past Sins wholly taken off as if they had never committed them to be recti in curia pardoned and in as good state as if they had been always Innocent This should mightily encourage and prevail upon Sinners to Repent and leave their Sins when they are sure of this as they are by the Gospel When tho' their Sins be as Scarlet they shall be white as Snow tho they were red like Crimson they should be as Wool as the Evangelical Prophet speaks Isai 1.18 i. e. tho' they were sins of the deepest Die or highest Nature yet they should be wholly done away and forgiven upon true Repentance from which no Person is excluded How must this encourage the greatest Sinners if they have any sense of Religion or another World left upon 'em to come off from their Sins how comfortable must it be to a poor wretch lying under the sense of his own guilt and the fears and horrors of his own Conscience and the dread of God's Judgments and of Eternal Misery to have these glad Tydings proclaimed to him how will this revive his desponding Soul and chear his sunk Spirit and like a pardon brought to a Condemned Malefactor in the Cart or upon the Gibbet restore him to life and to unspeakable joy and gladness Now this is offered to every Sinner by the Gospel if he repent and turn from his Sins however great they have been and lead a new life and become a new Man and a new Creature before he dies What can be desired more by any reasonable Creature or what more can God offer Would any desire to live and go on in his Sins and yet be forgiven This is for God to give up his Laws his Government and to grant a Liberty to his Creatures to be Rebellious and Disobedient and have no Check or Controul upon them 't is the utmost a good God can grant or a wicked man can desire to be pardoned upon his Repentance and Amendment but his Repenting and Amending is with sorrow for what is past doing his duty for the future as he ought always to have done it performing that Obedience which he ought always to have performed and now this is the best thing next to the having done it and performed it always but it can by no means be thought to be so good as that Repenting is like a Man's setting up again that was once broke and compounding with his Creditors and paying a part he owed them instead of the whole God is pleased to accept of the broken and after-obedience of a Sinner for some part of his Life instead of that entire and unbroken one which is due from him all his life 'T is God's great Grace and Mercy to do this and what he is no way obliged to for he might have damned us for every willfull sin and never have pardoned us tho' we had afterwards Repented of it this is meer free Grace which we owe to Christ and the Gospel and God was no way obliged to it either in Justice or by his natural Goodness but he might have denied it to mankind as he has done to other of his Creatures the Devils and the fallen Angels but still the design of God in granting us this Favour and this mighty privilege by the Gospel is to encourage us to Obedience to perswade us to leave our Sins and to bring us to true Holiness and Goodness of Life when we have been faulty and defective in these before 't is not to encourage us in our Sins or give us any Licence or Dispensation to commit 'em because we may Repent of them this is a horrid abuse and perverting the Grace of the Gospel and turning it into Wantonness and Looseness but the End and Design of all this is to make those good men who have been Sinners to make those Obedient who have been Disobedient either in general or any instance Now therefore 't is much better to have been always thus to have been always Good and always Obedient thro' the whole course of our lives this is the best thing and the very same End more fully and perfectly attained this is designed by Repentance As Health is the design of taking Physick and to be well and sound of using Remedies and Medicines and those who are always healthfull and always sound and always well are in a much better condition than those who stand in need of a Cure tho' it be never so certain and infallible 2. I speak this all the while of Repentance from great and wilfull sins from a habit of them in our lives or at least a voluntary practice of them at some time or other and this Repentance I hope there are many that need not who were never ill persons all their lives nor ever guilty of any such one great and mortal sin as should put them into an ill and damnable state and exclude them out of Heaven had they died I speak not now of the ill state of all mankind by the fall or by our original Corruption and Depravation for that is took off by Christ the second Adam and we are put into a good state by the Gospel and by our Baptism so that no Man is in any danger of Damnation but upon his committing some wilfull and known sins such as the Scripture declares are damnable and exclude from Heaven He therefore that has been free from those tho' not free from all sins which no man is or can be all his life no not in his best state but some Infirmity some Imperfection some sin of Frailty or Ignorance or Surprize will beset him He I say that has lived free from all wilfull known sins and not allowed himself in any voluntary breach of God's Laws tho' he has not kept them so perfectly and exactly as he ought to do but has always had a regard to Religion and his Duty and never violated them in any great instance he was always a Child of God and never forfeited that Title he was never a Prodigal and run away from his Father's house nor wasted his Substance in Riotous living but like the dutifull and elder Son always served his Father neither at any time transgress'd his Commandments He never wandered out of the paths of Vertue nor never let his steps take hold of death he never defil'd his Virgin Innocence nor sullied
and Duties of it Take my Yoke upon you and learn of me and ye shall find rest to your Souls I shall premise a few cautions to prevent any mistake in this matter and the better to state and explain it Then show how we may by the help and means of Religion attain to this Rest Peace and Tranquility of Mind 1. First then I do not pretend that Religion and Virtue will set Men free from all the evils of this World and be a protection against any manner of outward Troubles or Calamities ever falling upon us This cannot be For Man is born to Trouble as the Sparks fly upwards Job 5.7 They are a great many of them natural and necessary and unavoidable and God must alter the nature of Things and the nature of the World and work perpetual Miracles to free us always from them to have our Bodies subject to no Diseases and Indispositions our Estates subject to no Losses and Casualities or Children or Friends not subject to Death or to be taken away from us this is impossible and what no good Man must expect that the Rain or Drought should not sometimes spoil his Corn the Sea shipwrack his Goods or Vessel the Fire burn his House as well as anothers these common misfortunes which happen alike to all and a great many Losses from the fraud and injustice of others as well as abundance of natural evils arising from the Mechanism of our selves and the World these the most Virtuous cannot expect to be exempted from but like Travellers through this World they must all pass thro' the common Road with others and sometimes meet with bad and unpleasant way and now and then with a shower that may fall upon 'em but the Religious Man is however much better provided against those against the common and unavoidable evils of life than another who is but equally subject to them his Mind is Armed against all the darts of Fortune and they shall not enter so deep nor smart so grievously as to the wicked he has something within to support him under all the Calamities and Afflictions of this World a good God a good Conscience and a good Prospect and Hopes of Heaven when a wicked Man has none of those to keep him up but must wholly sink and fall under them The one will have the Peace of his Mind and a Comfort within that shall pour Oyl and Balsam into all the Wounds of Fortune and make Afflictions more easie and tolerable but the other will increase the smart of them by his wickedness that will then lie heavier upon him when his Spirit is oppressed with other troubles the load of those and of his sins both will be insupportable to him and when his mind is sore by its inward guilt every hard thing from without will more pinch and gall him A good Man may keep this Peace of Mind under any Worldly afflictions but a bad Man cannot 2. Neither will Religion make all things equal as to the outward Happiness of this life arising from Mens different States and Conditions and unequal Circumstances in this World It may be allowed that there is a proper and real good in the Plenty Riches and Conveniences of life and that a good Man is not quite so happy that wants them as if he had 'em but they might be an accession a small Addition to his more true and greater Happiness of Vertue tho' that be infinitely more Great and Valuable and Desirable yet I do not know that Religion takes away or disallows the other we may therefore both Lawfully Desire and Endeavour to make our outward Circumstances in this World as good and easie and comfortable as we can within the bounds of Vertue and 't is both Natural and Lawful to do it and it borders I doubt upon Hypocrisie or Superstition to pretend the contrary and is always confuted by a contrary Desire and Practice in those who have talked otherwise But still a good Man can be contented and easie in a very mean and strait Condition if Providence allots this to him and he will not Disquiet or Disturb himself for what he sees others enjoy if God sees not sit for him to have them and tho he can allow a lesser good and a proper use and conveniency and some small Happiness perhaps as to this life to belong to those outward things in respect of the Wants and Necessities and the State we are in here which made Aristotle and the Peripateticks put the Externa Bona into the Ingredients of compleat Happiness yet he can be very Happy with a few of those as knowing that Man's Life consisteth not in abundance as Christ says Luk. 12.15 and that a few things will suffice nature and having Food and Raiment which is the Apostles as well as Natures competency he can be content and make up a Happiness to himself out of the better and more essential Parts and Ingredients of it to wit Vertue and Wisdom and a good Mind without those Appendages and Ornaments Trimmings and Garnishings of it which we call outward Happiness and Prosperity I am not for maintaining that Stoical Paradox That a virtuous Man was thereby Rich and a King and every thing that 's Great They might as well have said also he is always Strong and Healthfull tho 't is plain he may be both Sickly and Poor and his greatest Virtues may take away neither of those evils and their contraries may be allowed to be both goods in a lower Sence and so Desir'd by us but he will be Happier a Thousand times without those than without his Vertue they can never make him truly Happy without that but he may be Happy without those by the Peace and Comfort the Firmness and Goodness of his own Mind altho' if he had them too they might add something to his present Happiness and Good Condition this I will not Cynically deny Nor yet 3. That Religion will quite alter his bodily Temper any more than his Worldly Circumstances but a good Man may labour under an unhappy Temper and ill Crasis and Disposition of Blood and Humours His Wise and Vertuous Soul may male habitare be lodged not only in a Deformed but a Sickly and Unhealthfull or otherwise ill-framed Body A natural Sulphur and Choler may lodge in his Blood that may be too apt to Fire and heat him or too much dull and heavy Phlegm may clog his Spirits and make them Listless and Unactive and not rise to Warmth and fervor in his Religious Duties the Salts that keep the Humours from putrefying may make them too Sharp or Sowre and apt to make a Temper too Fretfull and Peevish or a black melancholy Humour may be thus produced and become Predominant that will disorder the Spirits and fill the Head and other Parts with dark Vapours and irregular Ferments and draw a Cloud of Darkness and Disconsolateness over the Brain and even the Soul it self Now Religion will not nor cannot
cure this any more than any other Bodily Diseases and he that is afflicted with them must bear them as he would the Gout or Stone or any other Disease that is incident to us but since these affect the Mind more and the Mind also by its close Union and Re-action upon the Body does in great measure raise and excite or abate and allay those therefore it is a great part of Human Vertue and a proper Work of Religion to take as much care as can be of those natural Passions which are caused in 〈◊〉 those different Humours and Temperaments of Body for all Anger and First and the other Bodily Passions that are so troublesome both to our selves and others arise from them The Soul is the same in all Men not more inclined to any of those Passions by its Original make and nature than the contrary they all arise from our Body and our lower Nature and are the results of that and therefore they are in Brutes we often see as well as Men but the Soul by being Vitally united to the Body has a Preception and Sensation of them and such thoughts are necessarily caused in it by them Now neither the first motions of the Body nor first thoughts of the Soul upon them are sinful because they are both necessary but the Soul has a Power within it self either to consent or not consent to these Bodily Motions and Inclinations which we call Passions and this Principle of the Soul we call the Will I do not mean a power to consent to their first rising or not rising in us that is often necessary and unavoidable and so not within the power of the Soul but perfectly unvoluntary but then whether it shall continue such a thought that is excited upon such a Passion at least continue it so far as to approve and like it and consent to it and put it into Act if it can and actually execute it and let it produce any outward and lasting Effects this is in the power of the Soul and herein lies the great Exercise of its Virtues in governing and subduing the Passions and mortifying the carnal Lusts and Bodily Inclinations if it yields to those so as to commit any Unlawfull Actions or any sin in pursuance of them then it fulfills the Lusts of the Flesh and walks after the Flesh and is carnal and carnally minded in St. Paul's phrase Rom. 8.6 but if thro' the Spirit and by help of Religion it does mortify these deeds of the Body it shall live v. 13. If it suffer no sin to reign in its mortal Body nor give way to those Passions and Lusts so as to commit sin by them but with the greatest care and pains keep them within the bounds of Reason and Religion then it does Crucisie the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts Galat. 5.24 not that they must become quite dead and extinct so that we feel no motions of them no they may remain in the best and most regenerate Man as to some inward motions of Concupiscence but they are not sinfull unless they conceive i.e. are consented to in the heart and bring forth sin in the life James 1.15 Now Religion is so to Govern and keep under all these Passions and bodily inclinations that they run not into Sin but it cannot quite cut them up and extirpate them it is to improve and perfect Nature by Grace but not to destroy it These Passions therefore caused by those Bodily Humours and Tempers which we are naturally inclined to these which are one of the greatest causes of the troubles and disorders of the mind and which bring the greatest Uneasiness and Perturbation to it and rob it of that Evenness and Calmness and Tranquility which is the great Happiness of it these Religion cannot so wholly remove and take away as that we should be perfectly free from them and from all the motions and risings of them but it will and must so far subdue and conquer them as that they neither have Sinful and Unlawful Effects upon others nor so far disorder our selves as to spoil and destroy the Peace and Rest and Quiet of our minds I do not mean that they should never disturb us for so they will a little as often as we feel them but not to that degree as to take away the Peace and Tranquillity of our mind and to destroy the habit and temper of it if they do we can never be Happy with them How Religion cures them and to what degree it must overcome them I shall consider afterwards at present I shall only observe that Religion does not wholly destroy and root them up nor alter our bodily Temper and Constitution but a good Man still lies open to the first motions of Anger Peevishness Melancholy and the like and may never be quite otherwise any more than alter his Complexion or his Stature and make his Hair White or black but he may have Peace in his Mind and Rest in his Soul notwithstanding that in the rational Frame and Habit and Temper of it founded upon the Hopes and Principles of Religion these are troublesome and uneasie to him and will also affect his Mind as well as any other bodily Pain and Disease but yet his Rest and Tranquility may be consistent with both those for 't is a rational intellectual Sense and Perception in the Soul which depends upon Principles and Rules and not upon mere Temper and Mechanism of body for then ill Weather as well as an ill body would alter and destroy it I come now to show how we may attain it which is the most considerable thing of all and when we have if we shall better understand it than by any other account of it like Health we know what it is tho' we cannot so well describe it and like ease and pleasure we can best Judge of it by feeling it 'T is as Tully calls it sanitas animi the Health and Soundness and good Temper of the Soul and when the Soul wants it it is Sick and under a Disease in Pain and Disorder We all know how good and sweet a thing health and ease is both of Body and Mind so that there need not many words to commend them how to get it and preserve it and recover it when it is lost is the greatest Question Our Saviour here tells us we may find rest to our Souls and obtain this Peace and Tranquility of mind I shall consider what the means are and by what ways Religion does effect this in the following particulars 1. Religion teaches us that Happiness lies chiefly in our Mind that that is the proper seat of it and that it lies not in things without us but is a Treasure in our own Breasts something within ourselves which belongs to our Souls and consists in the Perfection Improvement and Enjoyment of them this is in other words called the Salvation of the Soul restoring it to its lost Happiness and freeing it from the
of Religion to mortify these bodily Passions and lower Inclinations to Crucify the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts to put away all Wrath and Clamour and Bitterness and to take off the Corruptions and Weaknesses of Humane Nature by the rules of Religion and the assistances of the Holy Spirit and to Guard us where sin doth so easily beset us by the Considerations of Heaven and Eternity and another World which are only Arguments strong enough to make men conquer and deny those passions and Inclinations which are in great part natural to them Religion has a Power in it if duly applied and attended to to make the most passionate Man Calm and Gentle the most Lustfull Man Chast to Sweeten the most Sowre and ill-natured Temper and Tame the most Outrageous and Violent This Christianity did of old as Lactantius and other Fathers assure us and boast of its Vertue and Efficacy and this it no doubt will and must do in order to our Eternal Happiness if we come under the full Sense and perfect Government of it for no Man can go to Heaven with those irregular and unmortified Passions about him any more than come to Peace and Tranquility of Mind here what is required and is necessary to the one is necessary to the other also and what promotes the one does at the same time promote the other for the more approaches we make towards Heaven hereafter the more we make at present to this Peace and Tranquillity of Mind and whatever tends to acquire the one tends also to acquire the other Religion by the same way leads to both and the more we grow in one the more we shall grow in the other 't is one of the greatest Perfections Religion is to bring us to not to Destroy or Extirpate but Govern and Master our natural Inclinations and bodily Passions and make them always easie to our selves and subject to Reason Wisdom and Vertue and when they are so then we shall be in this most Pleasant and Happy State which we call Rest and Tranquility and Calmness of Mind 6. Religion and especially Christianity removes all Guilt and all Reason of inward Trouble of Mind and Disquiet of Conscience nothing is so contrary to this Peace and Rest and Tranquility of Soul as an inward Consciousness of a Man 's own Guilt and a dread of what he Deserves upon it this will always disturb and make him uneasie in whatever outward Condition he be it will be a Wound at his very Heart and like a Dart struck thro' his Liver he will feel it like a Prick upon a Nerve a Pain in the Tenderest and most Sensible part of his Mind for such is a Sense of Guilt and the Fears and Horrors that go along with it Now what shall Cure this if a Man has faln into it and what shall best preserve him from it but Religion Christianity has provided a Remedy for the greatest Guilt which is the Blood of Christ and thereby pours in Oyl and Balsam into the most wounded Conscience and by the Privilege of Repentance and New Obedience restores it to Peace and Comfort and a good State and frees it from its Dreadfull Fears and Apprehensions it gives a Man firm Grounds of Hope and Comfort upon his return to his Duty tho' he has not always observed it and assures him that he shall be well treated by God upon it This is a great thing which is owing to the Grace of God in and thorough Christ and is the great Grace of the Gospel and what natural Religion could not Discover or Ensure to us Christ alone giveth this Rest to those who are weary and heavy Laden with the Burthen of their Sins and Guilt is a Load and Burthen too heavy for us to bear but what he has done takes it off from us upon our Repentance and Amendment and becoming good Men tho' after we have been otherwise Religion will best Guard and Preserve us against all Sin and keep us from doing any thing rashly and inconsiderately that should afterwards trouble and vex us when we reflect upon it and will therefore prevent as well as cure the painfull Disorders and Disturbances of a Guilty Conscience and Uneasie Mind and keep it always in the most Virtuous and therefore most Comfortable state for nothing is such a ground of Peace and inward Comfort as to live always in a Habit of Virtue and Religion in the practice of one and by the principles of the other and never to act contrary to them or oppose them in any thing we do this will make a good Man always pleased and satisfied from himself as the Scripture speaks Prov. 14.14 and give him the closest and the truest Happiness which is the Peace of his own Mind What a Comfort a good Conscience is it is like Health or Pleasure better felt than described 't is a continual Feast in all Conditions a perpetual spring of Joy and Comfort rising up in a Man 's own Mind and overflowing his Heart with unspeakable Pleasure and Delight What will make a Man bear any Circumstances Endure any evil Suffer any Affliction Go through any Cross or Reproach and be tho' not without Sense yet without any great Trouble When his Innocent Mind speaks Cheerfully to him and Refreshes him from within A Man can never have true Peace and Tranquility of Mind without Virtue and Religion for none but a good Man conscious to himself of his own Integrity and Sincerity can have a good Conscience and nothing is so contrary to this Ease and Rest this Tranquility of Soul as an evil Conscience which like the troubled Sea is always Stormy and Boisterous and casteth up Mire and Dirt as the Prophet speaks Isa 57.20 the filth that is at the bottom of it and is therefore the most directly opposite to the Calm and Serene State and Temper of Mind that we are seeking after An evil Conscience is always full of Fears and Horrors of Dread and Disquietude 't is a Worm gnawing on a Mans Vitals a Vultur preying on his Liver a Snake stinging him to the Heart a Fury Whipping him a Devil tormenting him a Hell kindled in his own Breast Nothing can be too great and terrible to represent it by and hardly any thing can come up to the misery of it when it is in a high degree Religion by delivering us from that delivers us from the greatest trouble and uneasiness of Mind and whoever is not stupid and senseless will fall into that some time or other unless he live Vertuously and Religiously 7. Religion gives us Cheerfull Hopes as to another World and so takes off the immoderate fear of Death which must otherwise all our life make us Subject to Bondage as the Apostle speaks Heb. 2.15 and fill us with wretched and servile Fear whenever we think of dying and we cannot but think of it sometimes when we see the common Fate of Mortality in all others and have some Warnings and
mind which way the wind sits or the Weather-cock turns on which side the Birds fly or which is as uncertain what is the opinion of unthinking Men to judge of himself by Indeed the opinion of good and wise Men who are able to judge is very much to be minded and is truly credit which is to be preserved next to Conscience but he that is not above the little noise and the ignorant censures and the brutish Clamours and the petty injuries of others is a very weak and will be often a very unhappy Man 2. It 's one of the greatest and most pleasant Virtues to gain a Victory over our own passions and to overcome the brutish inclinations of Anger and Revenge which are apt to rise in us at first upon the sense of an injury He that can calm and quiet those and by wise thoughts subdue the boysterous rage and furiousness of an angry spirit is a greater Man and a greater Conqueror than he that Conquers whole Countries and Cities and fenced Places and overcomes many thousands of Enemies by the Sword as the Wise man observes He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a City Prov. 16.32 This is the true Virtue of a Man that masters the beast the brutish Appetites and Inclinations that are in him which if he let loose they will rage and tear and devour him and hurry him to revenge and madness and all the dismal effects of them Nothing is so rash and inconsiderate and shows so much impotency and weakness of mind as those passions which are apt to rise up in us and nothing shows greater Wisdom and more true greatness of mind than to Command and Conquer them and bear a provocation and forgive it instead of being set on fire and overcome by it nor can any thing be more pleasant than to gain this Victory over our passions for they are very troublesome and uneasie and all find them so who are under them but it 's the greatest ease and pleasure of mind and body too to be free from them and to be in a calm and gentle and meek and undisturbed state Anger and revenge are the most uneasie and vexatious and tormenting passions that belong to human nature that fire and inflame the spirits put the blood into an Unnatural and Venemous Ferment and the whole Man under the gall of bitterness and the greatest uneasiness so that his mind can enjoy nothing but is restless and tumultuous and under a thousand fearfull and vexatious thoughts how to contrive and how to accomplish it's Mischievous and Revengfull designs upon others But to lay all these aside and to pass by and forgive an injury and let our passions be quiet without any great resentment of it is to be at ease within our selves and has more sweetness and comfort in it than all the revenge in the World 3. As this is overcoming our selves so it 's overcoming our Enemies too and the best and the least troublesom and the most generous way of Conquering them for first it disappoints all their malice and avoids the blow they intended to give us for this puts by the injury which was thrust at us or at least takes off the smart and the sense of it which is the greatest evil that they designed by it and they have lost their design if they see us not concerned at it But further if we can bring our selves to return kindness for injury and overcome evil with good this if any thing will overcome an Enemy by making him become a Friend which is the greatest and perfectest Victory in the World and subdue him with such powerfull force and conduct that he cannot but yield to it A soft answer will turn away his wrath as the wise man speaks Prov. 15.1 and showing the kind offices of love and kindness and civility to him will not only heap coals of fire upon his head if he still continue to injure us but in all probability melt him into kindness and goodness for he must be a very barbarous wretch and void of all sense of humanity beyond the rate of most Men who will not be obliged by a generous kindness from an Enemy and he must be a mere Savage who is not to be wrought upon by civility and good will Revenging an injury is the way to double and encrease it and to keep up the War and Hostility with vast trouble and expence but the other presently procures a Fair and a Comfortable and an Honourable Peace and Reconciliation Many think it will draw more injuries upon them if they do not revenge themselves for those past and make it cost others dear to hurt them so that it 's their Motto nemo me impune lacesset but this for the most part fails and is the worst and longest and most troublesome way to get rid of them every Man may indeed preserve his right if it be valuable and not better to part with it than to lose it and yet keep up fully to this temper of doing any good in his power to those who would do this evil to him but to return evil for evil injury for injury is no more the best way to overcome it than it 's to heal a wound by cutting it deeper and lancing it wider when otherwise it would quickly close of it self and love would be like oyl poured in to supple and heal it 4. The overcoming evil with good is so like to God who does good every day to us and all mankind tho' we injure and provoke him that our having such usage from him should teach and learn us it and incline us to practise it to our Brethren If God should be presently enraged and resolve to revenge himself upon us for every injury we offer to Heaven i. e. for every sin we commit how sad and lamentable a case must we be in we therefore that live by virtue of this good principle that owe our lives and all the mercies we enjoy to this virtue in God whereby he spares us tho' we provoke him and is slow to anger tho' we sin against him and revenges not himself upon us weak and impotent and yet bold and daring Enemies How should we feel the good of it to our selves and not practise it to others Did not God deal otherwise with us than revenge and anger inclines us to deal with others how might he consume us every moment and never wait to be gracious nor let his goodness lead us to repentance nor never let us enjoy the blessings of his common providence but shut up the Heavens that they should not rain and put out the Sun that it should not shine upon such evil and unjust such sinfull and rebellious Creatures as we are Nay had he not been disposed to this Vittue which is the very perfection and excellence of the Divine Nature he had not shown so much love and done so much
Now the Soul can never be so lost as to lose its Being or its Power of thinking Happy would it be for a great many if it could so lose it self and vanish into air or nothing but 't is the loss of its proper Life and Happiness of the right use of its noble Powers and Faculties and of those Operations and Enjoyments it was made for and suffering the Misery and Anguish which its own thoughts bring upon it This is the unvaluable loss of the Soul and a great part of its Hell as I shall show immediately Sin indeed brings the Mind to this lost and wretched condition by degrees it darkens and blinds the Mind and spoils its powers of rightly Judging and Understanding not in an instant but as darkness comes upon the Earth by gradual approaches 'T is hard perhaps to give a full Account how it does this but it employs the thoughts upon wrong and undue objects it immerses and sinks 'em in carnal Fancies and sensual Ideas it perverts and distorts the Judgment and gives it undue representations of things or it takes it off from thinking and considering at all by such means it brings it to this pass tho' it have eyes to see yet it sees not tho' it have Understanding that is the natural power of it yet it understands not Mat. 13.14 so tho' it have its power of willing yet it wills only evil and has no moral ability to will good from the strong prevalency of its own evil desires and affections This is losing the Soul and the right powers of it and making it like an absorpt Star lose its proper light center and motion tho' it be still a Star but fallen dark and wandring 3. And this I take in the third place to be the Scripture-notion of hardning when Men's sins bring 'em to this state and when God is said to harden them 't is not by any positive influx or poysonous infusion nor yet perhaps by withdrawing his ordinary Grace and the means of conversion from them this he did not from Pharaoh or the Jews or any other Sinners that we know of 'T is only Sin that hardens them and their own Lusts and Vices that blind them and when God is said to do it 't is generally by doing such things as are the occasion not the cause of it which are in themselves proper means of working quite other effects upon them not of hardning and blinding but rather of converting and convincing them Such were all the Miracles God wrought and all the Methods he used both with the Jews and with Pharaoh where he tried all ways to bring them off from their Obstinacy and Infidelity and continued so to do notwithstanding their abuse of them God strikes no Man spiritually blind nor takes away that light which is necessary for him to see by or that strength and assistance which is necessary to convert him 'T is the Clouds only darken the Earth and not the Sun 't is the interposal of the dark body of the one and not the withdrawing the beams of the other which properly brings night upon it I very much question whether there be any other judicial hardness and blindness especially in this Life than what Mens sins bring upon them their being left to the malignant Power and efficacy of those is without any other influence or causality the entire reason of their hardness and blindness and God is said to leave them and give them up to hardness of heart just as a Physician leaves his Patient to the incurable malignity of his Distemper without either giving him any thing to encrease it or without withdrawing the Application of any proper Remedies that might help to cure it 4. Fourthly and Lastly By this we may conceive and understand the misery and wretched state of the Devils and damned Souls who are under the utmost and irreversible state of this hardned and depraved temper of Soul which will naturally and necessarily make them miserable Those accursed Spirits were once capable of noble pleasures and improvements of mind but Sin and Disobedience to God has spoil'd and sunk and corrupted them and brought them to this wretched condition where their thoughts are filled only with rage and malice against God and with an extream horror and dread of him joyned with as great rage and vexation against themselves 'T is a terrible thing for a poor Creature willfully to offend and sin against its Great God impudently to affront and defie its Maker and trample upon his Laws and Government which is setting up its own Will Thoughts and Reason against his This will bring it to dreadfull Thoughts and Resentments one day whatever we think of it or however we slight it now Sin would not have had a Hell and Eternal torments prepared for it by a good God had it not been an opposition to the Will and Counsels of Heaven to all God's designs in making Us and making the World and contrary to all the measures of God's Wisdom and Government and to the Good and Welfare of the whole System of Beings Vice therefore by the order of things throws Men into this miserable state and a lower spirit by having its Thoughts its Will and Understanding so contrary and opposite to the highest spirit and by not having due regards and observances to him must necessarily fall into this state of Misery as well as of his utmost Wrath and Displeasure It 's Vices have depraved and corrupted its mind given it wrong Thoughts of God and of every thing else and sunk it into the love of evil and of every thing contrary to God and Goodness made it delight in mischief and in doing such things as are directly contrary to the good of its fellow Creatures if it were but a little gratifying to it self And now that false pleasure is gone off and it is left wholly to the sting of its Vices and it therefore reflects with infinite remorse upon the folly and the madness and the mischief of them but it cannot now redress or amend them or what injury it has done by them and therefore it must lie for ever under the insupportable weight and burden of them It cannot now raise up its thoughts to any love or desire of God whom it has always had a fix'd contempt and neglect of it cannot now take any delight in him or the apprehensions of him whom it seldom or ever thought of or ever car'd to Worship or Acknowledge before and there is nothing now to divert or entertain it its bodily Pleasures and worldly Enjoyments are gone off and not here to be met with and it is left wholly to its own uncomfortable thoughts and to the extream anguish and bitterness of them It never rightly understood nor loved either God or Goodness and now there is nothing else to be loved and therefore it must hate it self and every thing else It must now bear the misery of its own ill mind which it has been