unseen state which above all things it concerns us to take care about and wisely to provide for This Life is a continu'd round and circle of bodily Actions and Business but in death these cease and have an end that let 's down the Curtain and the Drama of Life is over and whatever parts we Acted on this Stage we lay them all aside and what we enjoy'd in this Body and this World is to be no more and as if it had never been and we only had dream'd of it for a while He taketh away their breath they die and turn again to their dust That said he is my present Case and in that very day all their Thoughts perish i. e. all their apprehensions of Worldly Happiness and Enjoyments with all their mighty projects and designs they had here how reasonable then is it for us frequently to meditate upon dying and how properly was it plac'd of old among the first rules and principles of Wisdom And upon my saying to him that as he seemed to be got almost to the end of the race of Life his Friends were running hard after him and would in a short space overtake him he replied True but prithee remember that I have got the start of thee Here he took occasion to discourse of the Christian Revelation which has discovered the most amazing but the most important and momentous Truths for Man to know 'T is this said he that gives me the greatest ease and satisfaction in my present Circumstances and fills my mind with the most serene hopes when I can find pleasure in nothing else and without it all my thoughts when I stretch them as far as ever they will go are either dark or troublesome That God should send his only begotten Son into the World in our likeness to redeem and save Mankind that he should propose by him the advancing us who are very inconsiderable yea sinfull Creatures to such a height of Glory as to be equal to Angels to see God as he is and to have eternally communicated to us of his own Excellencies and Perfections cannot but affect every one who believes and exercises his thoughts about these matters with Wonder and Admiration with all possible Love and Gratitude and a most sollicitous study and endeavour to obey God universally in hopes of that eternal Life which God who cannot lie as the Apostle speaks has promised He added That the design of Christianity and the Terms of Life therein propos'd did appear to him so very plain that it was just matter of amazement how any Men who had look'd into those records and consider'd their own nature and had any notion of the happiness of reasonable Creatures could miss of understanding them aright The Antinomian Scheme he look'd upon as directly Antichristian and the very worst that the most malicious Enemies of the Christian name could possibly have invented and he gave me a very sad instance of a Person who liv'd many years in the habit of a very gross sin and yet had a quiet Conscience and thought himself very safe upon those principles 'till being startled by a publick Discourse of his God made him an Instrument of setting the poor Man right in his Notions and engaging him to reform his Life for which his new Convert was very thankfull and assur'd him That he would not for all the World have liv'd so long in the habit of that sin if he had believed as he thoroughly did now that it would have hazarded his Salvation Here he took occasion to say that he was much confirm'd in his notion of the nullity of a Death-bed Repentance by considering his present Circumstances What could I do said he Were I now to begin to Repent of a long Wicked life I profess I could not have the least hopes of my Salvation but blessed be God this is not my own Case I am sensible of a vast number of Weaknesses and Imperfections but they are such as I am well assur'd the Covenant of Grace will make an allowance for I can say I have been Sincere in the main designs of my Life and I thank God I make no question of being happy when I can once get loose from this Prison of an Earthly infirm body and shall be set above those Imperfections which cannot be wholly remedied in this state and to be freed from which is the reward of the next He gave me his thoughts at large about the Doctrine of the ever blessed Trinity which are not needfull to be here set down especially since I have already taken some notice of that Matter All that I shall add is That he never intended any Controversie with those who believed this Doctrine his business was to defend it against those who opposed it and he was fully satisfied that what he had Preach'd and Wrote on this subject was agreeable to the Scriptures and the sense of the Church and he was fully confirmed in his Thoughts by the judgment of the most Learned and unexceptionable Divines of our Church The Right Reverend Bishop Pearson explains the Divine Vnity as he has done and asserts the necessity of it for avoiding that old and so often urg'd objection Tritheism It is most necessary says he To assert that there is but one Person who is from none for if there were more than one which were from none it could not be deny'd but that there were more Gods than one This Origination of the Divine Paternity hath anciently been look'd upon as the assertion of the Unity and therefore the Son and the Holy Ghost are but one God with the Father because both from the Father who is one and so the Union of them He perfectly concurred with this excellent Person who without any question is allow'd to speak the sense of the Catholick Church and with the Fathers of the Nicene Council as their sense is exprest in their Creed which is a part of our Liturgy He believed the Father Son and Holy Ghost were one God and yet three real distinct Persons as evidently distinguish'd in their Persons as united in their Nature The Father is not the Son nor the Holy Ghost the Son is not the Father nor the Holy Ghost the Holy Ghost is neither the Father nor the Son the true and living God can be but one the Father is originally the one God the Son is the same God but not originally of himself but has his Divine Essence by Communication from the Father the Holy Spirit is the same God not originally subsisting of himself but having the same Divine Nature and Essence common both to the Father and the Son communicated by them both to him So that Father Son and Holy Ghost are one God The Father originally that one Essence of infinite Wisdom Power and Majesty The one Person originally of himself subsisting in that infinite Being The Son is God of God by being of the Father the Holy Ghost is God of God by being of the Father and the Son as receiving that Infinite and Eternal Essence from them both this is the explication of that adorable Mystery as 't is deliver'd by that excellent Prelate forementioned in his Authentick Book upon the Apostles Creed By this time his spirits and
Monitors of it in our own Bodies then what a melancholy thing must it be for a Man to think of going down into the place of darkness and forgetfulness to become a cold heavy lump a stiff dead Corps to have all his brisk and vigorous Spirits put out and extinguish'd and an end put to all his Pleasures and Enjoyments if he have not some Hopes of an after Immortality and of a better Life after this No Man could enjoy himself or be easie in his thoughts if he thinks at all who knows he must die in a little time if he has not the fears of Death took off and moderated by the Hopes and Expectations of Religion He that considers says Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the nature of his Soul and that Death Translates us into a better State or at least one that is not at all evil has made an excellent provision both for the Happiness of life and against the fear of death and he make this one of the great means of procuring this Tranquility of Mind thus to overcome the fears of Death for otherwise that will embitter all our present Enjoyments and spoil all our Mirth and Jollity and draw a dark Cloud over all our Cheerfullness and Gaity to have the thoughts of Death steal in now and then upon us as they unavoidably will if we have nothing to make them less terrible and frightfull than they will be to a wicked Man he must be sadly scared and amazed at any such thing and cannot think much less look on Death without sad Misgivings and Horrors of Mind and therefore can never have any setled Peace and Tranquility in himself but it will be all broke by one thought of Mortality by the hearing a Knell or seeing a Coffin for let him seem to put on never so much false Courage and to laugh at these things in the midst of his Company and his Vices yet he trembles at them when he is alone and a cold and clammy sweat feizes upon him whenever he thinks of dying in earnest nothing can prevent this Despondency and dying of Mind and arm even against the natural fear of bodily Death which will often come upon us and scatter all our other Comfortable thoughts but Religion which takes out the sting of Death which lessens and abates its terror and fortifies us against it by the Christian Hopes of being free from all Guilt and Punishment hereafter and of having a better Life and being in another World when we are to part with this here Death must be very terrible to the thoughts either of an Atheist by Depriving him of all Being and of all Enjoyment or of a wicked Christian by consigning him to Judgment and Punishment and Translating him to Eternal Death and Misery only Religion can take off its Terror and sweeten the bitter Cup with the Supports and Comforts the Aids and Assistances the Hopes and Expectations it affords to a good Man in his last Agonies and Extremities and at all other Times when he thinks of dying Lastly Religion infuses inward and unspeakable Comforts into our Minds from its present Privileges and future Hopes from God and his Spirit and their secret Communications Operations and Influences upon our Souls which are the highest improvement and the highest degrees of Peace and Tranquility of Mind Nature and Philosophy knew nothing of this but Revelation and especially the Christian give us the Knowledge and Assurance of it and many a Pious and good Christian has felt the Effects and Comforts of it in his Soul when he has had a Cheerfull and well grounded Sense that his sins are pardoned in and through Christ upon his true Repentance and that he is justified by the Grace of the Gospel upon the Terms and Conditions of it and that he has a Title to Heaven by God's promise upon his own sincerity and has reason to Hope that he shall partake of all the great and glorious things that belong to the Christian Salvation these will raise and inspire him as it did the Apostles and first Christians with a more than ordinary Comfort Peace and Cheerfullness of Soul and make him very Happy tho' in the greatest Sufferings and outward Afflictions 'T was this which made the Christians Rejoyce always in the Lord Rejoyce in Tribulations Sing and be Cheerfull in Prisons and be more than Conquerors over all their Troubles when they had these inward Comforts to support and raise and invigorate their Minds when tho' their Enemies were implacable and irreconcileable yet God they knew was reconciled to them and tho' the World hated thom yet he loved them tho' they had Tribulation from without yet they had Peace in themselves and Peace in Christ as he promised them Mat. 16.32 and tho' all things were very dark and dismal about them yet they had a clear prospect of Heaven and like St. Stephen could see that opened thro a shower of Stones and Christ sitting at the right hand of God One such view of Christ and Heaven tho' but by the Eye of Faith would give a Man a Pleasure and Courage of Mind above not only the Pains and Torments he endured but all other Pleasures he ever felt in his Life A great but ill Man could say That the Pleasures and Comforts of Religion even when they are Mistaken and Enthusiastick are greater than all the Pleasures of Sense and Carnality What are they then when they are true and well grounded how do they not only give Peace to a Mans Mind but even Rapture not only Calm and Quiet it but Transport it not only give it Rest and Tranquility but Extasie and Joy This is called in Scripture the Joy of the Holy Ghost Rom. 14.17 and the Peace of God which passeth all Vnderstanding Philip. 4.7 for we do not know how God who is a Spirit can Communicate inward Joy and Peace to our Spirits and convey a secret Sense of his Favour and Relish of his Kindness and make us taste and see how Gracious he is as the Psalmist speaks Psa 34.8 and lift up the light of his Countenance upon us There is more in all this not only in the extraordinary supports promised in particular Cases and Circumstances but in the ordinary Hopes and Comforts of Religion to a good Man than all the Pleasures of this World all the Charms and Enjoyments of Flesh and Blood can ever amount to and as we plainly feel Peace and Ease of Mind to be a greater good than any bodily Pleasure and know this from Sense and Experience as well as Religion so when this is heighten'd by those unspeakable Joys and that inconceiveable Peace which is derived from God and Religion and his Holy Spirit these give such an improvement to this Peace and Tranquility of Mind as nothing can equal but the Enjoyment of Heaven and which the wife Heathens and Philosophers knew nothing of in their Discourses on this Subject Religion and Christianity therefore out-doe
and blemish'd his Baptismal Purity nor fell into nor wallowed in any great sin and so needeth not to be washed and cleansed and purisied as a sinner in a higher sense needeth and this is the Happy the Blessed Person whom I prefer to the best Penitent and the truest Convert as the Parable here does 3. This shows the good of early Obedience and the great Happiness and Advantage of a Vertuous and Religious Education and the great Obligation there is for Parents to take care of this and the great thankfullness which those owe to God and their Parents who have had the benefit of it for nothing makes Virtue and Religion so easie or so acceptable to us as to have them taught and instill'd into us in our tender yearâ— when like soft Wax we are capable of any impressions and yet grow hard and retain them afterwards When the Seeds of Virtue are early Planted in our hearts before Vitious Habits or Inclinations are grown up in them and a sense of Religion takes the first possession of us and anticipates and prevents the power of our own Lusts or of evil Examples then Virtue becomes natural to us and Custom makes it both very easie to be practis'd and hard to be overcome for let the Habit and Custom be equal and I doubt not but there is as much difficulty for a Vertuous Person to become Vitious as for a Vitious Person to be made Vertuous It must be with great violence and reluctancy that such an one is brought to commit a wilfull Sin as well as the other to forsake it and therefore Scripture represents both the one and the other as if they were morally impossible As they who are accustomed to do Evil can as hardly learn to do Good as the Aethiopian can change his Skin or the Leopard his Spots so he that is born of God cannot Sin 1 John 3.9 I doubt not therefore but most of the good men that are or ever were in the World are such as have been Vertuously and Religiously Educated and brought up and but few of those in proportion who have been otherwise have been reclaim'd and brought off from the Lewdness and Debauchery they contracted when they were young T is a very hard and difficult thing to make a bad Man a good one the hardest thing in the World what the powerfull Operation of God's Grace is necessary to and what it often cannot effect thro' the stubbornness of the Will and indisposition of the Subject hence those complaints and expostulations I would have healed them but they would not be healed Jerem. 51.9 Turn ye turn ye why will ye die Oh that my people would have hearkned unto me and of Sinners resisting grieving and quenching the Holy Ghost and that God's Spirit shall not always strive with them and the like which shows the strength and power of ill habits and how hard 't is even by all means to get rid of them and how much happier it is to be engaged in an early Obedience and determined by a Vertuous Education than to be afterwards struggling with them 4. This prevents the common and dangerous mistakes about Repentance whereby Men make it a reserve to themselves to excuse them from a Religious and Vertuous and Holy life and think that by means of that they shall avoid all the mischief of their sins at last and be as safe and as secure of Heaven and their eternal Salvation tho' they live never so loosely and carelesly as if their whole lives had been spent in a course of Vertue and Religion 'T is but Repenting before they die and that as little before as they can if they can nick it right and are not cut off suddenly and unexpectedly which is but an accident that happens only to few and the great work and business is done by a true Sorrow and some sincere Resolutions and an Instantaneous change of mind as well as by the most intire Vertue and constant Obedience of a Man's whole life If so most Men's Sins and Lusts will perswade 'em to indulge and gratify 'em the greatest part of their lives if they cannot wholly bring 'em off from a sense and belief of Religion they will thus corrupt Religion and make it thereby comply with them and by these false notions of Repentance raise hopes to themselves of escaping all the mischief of their Sins and their ill lives and saving themselves by virtue of this Repentance at the last without leading a good life which they will therefore be glad to excuse themselves from as not absolutely necessary and so wholly trust and depend and venture upon the other way Now this is putting a trick upon God and Religion and being too hard for 'em upon their own Terms as they think tho' it is indeed putting a trick upon themselves and miserably deluding themselves into destruction by thus abusing this privilege of Repentance and making this Grant and Concession of the Gospel to destroy the Gospel it self and all the design of it which was to make men live well and bring them off from their Sins and not at all encourage them in 'em whereas by thus perverting the Grace of the Gospel and by wrong notions and wretched mistakes about Repentance the Obligations to actual Holiness and Obedienâ—â— are taken off and a Man may secure Heaven and his own Salvation without those by another and much shorter and easier way which is by Repentance at the last which shall be as safe to our selves and as acceptable to God and as well rewarded by him as the other Now I know but one way of saving a Man's Soul and going to Heaven and that is by a good life and by actual Holiness and Obedience Repentance is the bringing a sinner to these and if he do not do this tho' the Sorrow be never so great it is not true Repentance nor will be effectual to his Salvation 't is the Obedience and Holiness that he performs after his Disobedience and Wickedness which constitutes and compleats his Repentance and entitles him to the Divine favour and acceptance and to the rewards of Heaven and another World and the greater and perfecter and more entire this Obedience hath been the more it will be accepted and the more rewarded by a Righteous and Just God who will be Mercifull to Sinners when they Repent and turn to their Duty and Obedience and will accept and reward their broken and imperfect Obedience but not in so high a degree as the constant and unbroken and early and entire Obedience of Vertuous and Good men all their lives Lastly this Notion of an early Virtue and constant Obedience being prefertable to the truest Repentance stands upon the plainest principles of Religion and secures those evident Doctrines upon which all Practical Religion and the obligations of it are built such as these that God will reward every one at the last day according to their works and therefore in proportion to them and
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
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
through and steal But lay up for your selves Treasures in Heaven where neither Moth nor Rust doth corrupt and where Thieves do not break through and steal THis most Excellent Sermon of our Blessed Saviour as in every thing it gives us the highest and the noblest precepts of Vertue that are above all the Morals of the wisest Heathen and far excell the best rules of the greatest Masters in Philosophy which might have convinced Greece and Athens it self that he must be if not the Son of God yet some great and extraordinary Person sent from above that without Travel abroad or Education at home unless in a poor Trade should outdo even Socrates or the more admired Moralists amongst 'em so he has all along adapted 'em to Humane Nature and our present State and Circumstances in this World which was a thing that they were deficient in for as they often were too short in their precepts and much below the things so at other times they were as much too high and gave precepts that were too big and not at all fitted to the size and scantling of our present State or the make of Humane Nature they were not only for wisely Moderating and Governing but quite rooting all Passions and Affections whatever out of their wise man which was to make him not a Man or such a Creature with such Faculties and Powers as God thought for wise reasons fit to do this was not to improve but destroy Human Nature and to set Vertue beyond its pitch and out of its reach which our Saviour who knew our Frame and our outmost Capacities has never done they went so far in their rants about the contempt of this World and despising riches as to commend him that foolishly threw them into the Sea that they might be no hindrance to his deeper Philosophizing Now this as it betrayed a great weakness in him that could not otherwise better use 'em so 't is Calculating Virtue not for this World but for some other Eutopian Meridian the making it not Useful and Comfortable but Destructive of our present State and Condition in this World and tho our Blessed Saviour both by his Life and his precepts showed as great contempt of the things of this World as ever any person did and has given the best Arguments that can be not to be sollicitous for outward things nor take any thought for the Morrow in the latter part of this Chapter by trusting in the Divine Providence and being especially carefull about better things the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness yet he has no where told us that these are inconsistent and that a Man must throw away his Estate and renounce all his worldly goods as well as the Pomps and Vanities of this World if he will become a Christian and go to Heaven this indeed is said to be the Heresie of Pelagius in which he was not likely to have very many Followers and tho several places of Scripture tell us how hardly they that have Riches shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Mark 10.23 and that it is easier for a Camel to go through the Eye of a Needle than for a Rich Man is enter into the Kingdom of Heaven v. 25. which is all meant of them that trust in Riches v. 24. that we cannot serve God and Mammon bids us not love the World nor the things that are in the World for if any Man love the World the love of the Father is not in him 1 John 2.15 yet they all import no more and so will be fairly understood by this excellent direction of our Saviour that I am now to discourse of Lay not up for your selves Trusures Neither is that purely a Negative an Universal forbidding us to lay up any Treasures upon Earth for if we do not that in some measure we are not guilty only of great Imprudence but even of Infidelity too If any provide not for his own and especially for those of his own House he hath denied the Faith and is worse than an Insidel 1 Tim. 5.8 not to make provision for ones own Off-spring and Children is to be more Unnatural than the Heathens nay than the very Fowls and the most Ravenous Beasts and not to supply an Aged Helpless Parent is to be guilty of that which the Heathens counted the most infamous Ingratitude nay if by an honest Industry and lawful Profession we do not some way or other make our selves serviceable to the publick and able to procure some good to the whole of which we are parts we are like dead and useless Members that serve neither for Life nor Motion nor the conveyance of Blood and Spirits and as in the Natural body so also in the civil 't is impossible to maintain either its Life or Strength unless some greater parts are Replenished with a larger abundance of Blood and Spirits and there be a general Circulation and lesser conveyance of 'em to every part Neither Government nor the World could subsist so long as God intends it if Men should lay aside all prudent care about the things of this World all would be put into a dead Hand and that would quickly make a dead Body if it were not Lawfull for some Men to Trade and grow Rich the present state of this World makes this to be necessary and is utterly inconsistent with general Vows of Poverty and as a Man may Lawfully work for his livelihood and according to the Apostles Rule He that will not work neither should he eat 2. Thes 3.10 without breaking our Saviour's command John 6.27 Labour not for the Meat that perisheth but for the Meat which endureth unto everlasting Life so he may by prudent and honest ways take care of his Worldly Concerns and add to his Estate and grow Rich without any Violation of our Saviour's Rule Ley not up for your selves Treasures on Earth for those Treasures on Earth are not of themselves Evil and may be matter of very great Vertues such as the rich Men are particularly charged with 1 I'im 6.17 18 19. Charge them that are rich in this World that they do good that they be Rich in good Works ready to Distribute willing to Communicate laying up in store for themselves a good Foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life which it seems they may be made the means of attaining so that by these Negatives is meant only a comparative command that we rather lay up to our selves Treasures in Heaven than in Earth that we be more carefull for the one than the other not that one is forbidden by the other but to be preferred before it as we have the like manner of expression most frequently in Scripture Prov. 8.10 Receive my Instruction and not Silver and Knowledge rather than Gold so Mat. 9.13 I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice i. e. rather than Sacrifice God did so much value inward and real Righteousness before outward Rites and
perfections which are the bounds also which the Divine power can never violate is so plain that it rather seems to follow and be fairly inferred from them for what more agreeable to Gods goodness than as that he gave us our Souls at first and put those Souls into curious and well framed bodies which are the other part of Humane Nature which makes us to be Men and Beings of such a rank and order in the Creation so that he should continue the same entire nature to us as long as he is pleased to continue us in being It wou'd be a charge methinks upon the Wisdom of God that he should give Man so curious a body above any other Creatures and yet suffer that to continue and last a much shorter time than the bodies of many other not only Animals but Plants and Trees do if he did not design that this noble fabrick should be rebuilt and repaired again after death and that the Soul should have a longer term of aboad in it afterwards and in reversion than it enjoys in this present life It would seem strange if these two Friends should be so closely and intimately united here but for a few days if they were not to meet again and dwell together for ever and that God should make us of such a compound nature in this life and of a quite other nature in the next this would not be to keep that wise order and regular course of thing that he does in the whole System of the Creation As to the Divine Justice that seems to be more exactly answered by raising the same bodies without which we are hardly the same persons that every one may receive in his body according to that he has done whether it be good or bad as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 5.10 that not only the same Souls but the same Bodies which have either glorified God by Suffering or any other Vertue or have been the Instrument of any sin should be glorified or tormented in another World and that the whole of Humane Nature and not only a part of it which the Soul is should be made capable of the everlasting rewards and punishments that are proper to it The Resurrection then is every way consistent with the perfections of the Divine Nature and is no way contrary to any natural principle of truth nor implys any contradiction in it and therefore is a proper object of God's Almighty Power and by the help of that may be easily effected and accounted for 4. And without this power of God nothing else can be effected in nature we must take in this not only to give an account of the Resurrection but of every thing else we see done before us and of every effect and appearance in the visible World how we were made at first and how our bodies were formed is as perfectly unaccountable without taking in the Divine Power and Wisdom as how we shall rise again and so is every other Mystery of nature if we well consider it and follow and trace it thro' all second causes it will necessarily bring us to the first and we must resolve all at last into the Power and Wisdom of that How we move our bodies by the thought of our minds we know no more than how God shall raise them what directs the spirits into such Tracts and Muscles and by what pullies they draw up the heavy parts is so admirable a Mechanism that it requires the same Divine Wisdom as to raise the dead how we live how we think and how we speak is to a Philosopher as curious and as secret as how we shall rise every thing indeed is so in the Volume of Nature which has the plainest Characters of Divine Power and Wisdom every where writ upon it as being to teach every one that there is a God To look upward we see the Sun shines but can we tell what light is or how it streams from the Sun to our Eye how such a mass of sire should so long hold together without being quenched or lessened do we know how the Stars are sixt to their Orbs how those glistering gemms are set and fastned to the fluid firmament can we imagine what Pillars there are upon which the Earth is founded and what it is supports the heavy Globe and keeps it from sinking what it is that poizes and makes it swim in the liquid Aether and keeps it at so just and exact a distance from the heavenly Bodies so as to be neither frozen nor burnt up and can we be able to know what it is makes their motions so regular and harmonious so usefull and serviceable to the World what guides their mighty bodies in such even Tracts what draws the crooked Zodiac for the Sun or Earth to move in and keeps the violent and rapid matter from going on in an infinite streight line or some other way sallying and running out of order Can any man who justly considers these things give any account of them without a wise God and Almighty Intelligence not only a Sparrow cannot fall to the ground without our Heavenly Father as our Saviour speaks Matth. 10.29 but not a stone can sall thither nor a spark fly upwards however necessary and natural that be without such a frame and such laws of matter and motion as nothing but a wise Being can establish or cause to be observed Why matter is thus figured and disposed and why such effects come from it we cannot tell as why grass is green blood red and not the quite contrary as we cannot of our selves make one hair white or black as our Saviour saith so neither can we tell why it is so but every Phaenomenon must at last be resolved into the Will and Wisdom of the first cause and thither all true Philosophy must bring us and the same Divine Power is requir'd in every the most common effect of Nature as in the Resurrection But 5. Our not fully knowing the uses and designs our bodies shall serve for after they are rais'd should not make the Resurrection incredible to us What use some say will there be of the body in another World when the Soul alone is capable of the rewards of it I answer who can tell but the body may be of extraordinary use to us in another World perhaps it is a necessary part of Humane Nature and we are not our whole selves without it perhaps the Soul is never to be quite naked and wholly stript of all matter and bodily indowment and that it is cloathed with a thinner Vehicle when it puts off the thicker and grosser flesh perhaps no Beings in the World but God himself are to be pure spirits which was a very ancient opinion of some wise Men perhaps the Angels themselves have material vestures of a slaming fire and a resplendent brightness as they used always to appear and if the Human Souls are not to be uncloathed but cloathed upon with our house which is
it will do even by the help of Religion it self to be too hard for Heaven upon its own Terms and Concessions but God is not to be thus mocked or over-reached No Repentance will do but what brings forth the fruits of obedience and a good life nor is a sin so easily repented of after it is committed especially upon such presumptuous terms as may justly provoke God to give it up to an harden'd and impenitent heart and to that wretched state which sin by being continued in will bring it to Which is the next thing I am to consider 2. How Men are hardened by their sins or how sin hardens their minds afterwards and brings them to the most wretched and depraved state and temper And this I shall show 1. In the gross or in general 2. More particularly how and to what degrees it hardens them 3. Make some remarks and observations from the whole 1. How Sin hardens in general When a Man has given way to it in any great and willfull instances and it has made a breach upon his purposes and resolutions which were too weak to hold out against it it will enter with all its force and gain ground daily upon him and quickly conquer and overcome him if he do not repulse it immediately and drive it out by Repentance tho' he may a little struggle and rally against it especially at the first beginning when natural Conscience will strive a while with his carnal Lusts and Inclinations yet if in this conflict the Sin prevails and is too hard for the Spirit and he continues to commit it it will at last wholly master him and bring him into such Bondage and Vassallage that he shall lose the moral liberty and freedom of his mind and be such a slave to it as to be led Captive by it at its will so that in the same sense he both will not and cannot get rid of it for he has then lost the power of his mind and is brought under the perfect dominion of his Lusts and Vices so that tho' he sees the plainest mischief of them and wishes he could leave them and would do so if a faint wish and a mere velleity were sufficient yet he still lives in them to the plainest ruin both of his Body and Soul to his undoing both in this World and another and tho' he sees and seels the pernicious consequences and effects of them yet neither a decayed Body nor a disordered Mind nor a shattered Estate nor Conscience nor Credit nor his own Reason which condemns and reproaches him for them can ever prevail upon him to forsake and abandon them They have taken such strong hold of him and he is so much under their power that he cannot for all these strong arguments and considerations resist the next temptation or opportunity that invites to them His Lusts and sensual Inclinations and disorderly Appetites are grown so strong and his Reason and Religion so weak and unable to resist them that like a mighty Torrent they carry all before them and indeed he himself has broke down all the banks that should withstand them and he is carried down by the violent stream of his Lusts till it dryes up of it self and age and infirmity abate and sink it and his sins as we commonly say leave him and even then when he is dead to sin in some sense yet the Ghosts of his departed Vices still haunt him and the Phantoms or fancies the Spirits if I may so call them of his Lewdness and Debauchery still hover over the Grave and the Carkass as it were of an old sinner and will not quite depart from him This hardning of a sinner is gradual and comes not all at once upon him but by the power of Custom and the strength of Vitious Habits he is brought by time and degrees to this hardned state and by an unaccountable quality in sin it self whereby the mind is as it were petrified by it and brought to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Platonists often speak of such a deadness and stupidness of its faculties and its moral powers as we cannot well express Every sin hardens the mind a little and weakens the first tender sense of good and evil that is natural to it and the longer it continues in it it sensibly hardens it the more tho' by secret and insensible means as even Stones grow out of the Earth that was at first soft and fluid but by time and a saline and other qualities they grow hard and rocky A Sinner at first had great tenderness of mind and could hardly be brought to commit a willfull Sin 'till by Custom and many repeated Acts he grew more harden'd and embolden'd So that what he committed at first with reluctancy he commits afterwards with greediness the first conception and formation of Sin in his mind was by a small seed or principle and by an unaccountable growth and increase a wicked thought became at first an Inclination or rather a natural Inclination produced a Thought a Thought increased the Inclination that begot a Delight a Delight a Consent a Consent an Act an Act by degrees a Habit and that becomes stronger and stronger by time As in the growth of our bodies Anatomists tell us a Gelly becomes a Nerve a Fibre a Tendon a Muscle or a Bone by strange and imperceptible ways The Body of Sin which the Scripture speaks of is formed by custom and grows still more and more and has no fixt stature set to it but is harder to be put off the older it is and gets strength every day and renews it by age The Sin which at first might have been easily withstood and overcome and like a young Weed readily pluck'd up afterwards takes such deep root in a Man's mind that 't is the hardest thing in the World to remove it and to get rid of a long and confirmed habit that has been a great while growing upon us This hardning of the Mind by Sin I take to proceed from Custom which has an unaccountable force and power upon us and does as it were bend the Will that way and put so strong a byass upon the Thoughts and Inclinations of the Mind that it can hardly with all its natural Liberty and God's ordinary Grace get off of it and when the Will is thus obstinately bent to any Lust or Wickedness it affects and draws in the Understanding and corrupts the Judgment and the mind at the same time it is thus hardned by its Vices is blinded also by them and so the two great powers and faculties of the Soul are corrupted by it both at once for hardning respects properly the Will and blinding the Understanding and they always go together and are promiscuously mention'd the one for the other in Scripture Mens Lusts and Vices as they harden them and bring as it were a Callus upon the mind by long use and make it to be past