Assistance to sincere and humble Minds And that Assistance carries a Lumen Fidei into the Mind as Aquinas calls it 2. 2. a 3 ad 2. and by that he saith the Mind is united to Truth that its Assent is only fixed upon it and therefore there is no danger of Damnation to those who are in Christ Jesus and are thus illuminated by Faith in him Not that this is an Argument to convince others who have not that inward Sense which they have but the same Holy Spirit which did at first indite them may give such an inward and effectual Testimony as to the Truth of the Matter contained in them that from thence they may firmly conclude these Books to contain the Word of God And that Assurance which the Minds of good Men have from the Influence of Divine Grace may be more effectual and powerfull in them than all the pretended Infallibility or Demonstration in the World It is certain those cannot be deceived whom the Holy Spirit teacheth and the best and wisest of the Antient Schoolmen did make the great firmness and certainty of Faith not to depend on outward Motives but on inward Grace which so inlightned the Mind and fixed the Inclinations of the Soul that nothing is able to remove it This sort of Faith is no blind Assent but after all the Evidence which it hath to make its Assent reasonable it takes so fast a hold of Divine Truths by discerning the excellency and value of them that he that hath it is willing to let go any thing rather than that and although the Apprehension of Faith be not so clear as that of Science yet the Hypostasis as the Apostle calls it may be so firm that no Temptations may be able to shake it And he that can die for his Religion hath a stronger and better Fâ—ith than he that thinks himself never so infallible in the Grounds of it That is a true Divine Faith which purifies the Heart and thereby enlightens the Mind which works by Love and not by cavilling and wrangling about the Grounds of it which overcomes the World and not that which is overcome by the Temptations of it And such a Faith and only such a one will carry us to Heaven when if it were possible for us to have the utmost Infallibility in the Act of believing yet if it did not work effectually on our Hearts and Lives we might go infallibly to Hell And so I shall conclude this Discourse with the second Sense of the Obligation which lies on those who have received Christ Jesus the Lord so to walk in him i. e. to improve their sound Faith into the Practice of a good Life For alas What advantage will it be to us to have the most Primitive and Apostolical Faith if our Works be not answerable to it Why call ye me Lord Lord saith Christ and do not the things which I say Why do we pretend to receive Christ Jesus the Lord if we do not observe his Commands It is good saith St. Paul to be zealously affected always in a good thing And no doubt our Faith is such but then let us be zealous of good Works too that we may shew our selves to be that peculiar People who are redeemed by Jesus Christ. So that our Obligation arises every way from Christ Jesus the Lord to walk in him if we consider him as our Lord so we are to obey him if as Christ Jesus so he died for us to redeem us from all iniquity We can have no pretence to live in our sins if we have received him who commands us to forsake them for then we receive and reject him at the same time Let every one that names the Name of Christ depart from iniquity saith St. Paul what should those then do that profess to receive him as their Lord who are thereby bound to yield obedience to his Laws one of the great causes of the Degeneracy of the Heathen World was the separating Religion and Morality when this was left to the Schools of Philosophers to instruct men in whereas their Religion consisted only of some Solemn Rites and Sacrifices Let us have a care of as dangerous a Separation between Faith and Works or which is all one between receiving Christ and doing his Will For those are the proper Works of the Gospel wherein we own Christ as our Lord and do them because he commands us And the Apostle hath summ'd up the whole Duty of Christians in those comprehensive words Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present World looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. To whom c. SERMON III. Preached before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL February the 22 d 1688 9. 1 Pet. IV. 18. And if the Righteous scarcely be saved where shall the Ungodly and the Sinner appear THis Epistle was written by S. Peter for the Incouragement of Christians under all their Sufferings but these Words seem to carry so much Terrour and Severity in them as though none but Martyrs and Confessors could have any Reason to hope for Salvation and all others were to be left in Despair Although Mankind be not easily satisfied concerning the Punishment denounced against the Ungodly and Sinner yet the Justice of God the Equity of his Commands the Freedom of their Choice the Contempt of Grace and their wilfull and obstinate Impenitency take away all just Cause of Complaint But that the Righteous should scarcely be saved seems hardly reconcilable with the Grace and Design and Promises of the Gospel For the Righteous here are not vain proud self-conceited Hypocrites such who think they need no Repentance but such who by the Grace of God were brought off from their former Sins and were redeemed from their vain Conversation with the precious Blood of Christ who had purified their Souls in obeying the Truth through the Spirit Who were a chosen Generation a royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar People yet of such as these it is said if the Righteous scarcely be saved But how can this agree with the infinite Goodness and Mercy of God declared in the Gospel whereby Sinners are courted and encouraged to repent with the Hopes and Promise of Salvation Did not Christ come to save Sinners and St. Paul call this a faithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation and yet after all shall the Righteous scarcely be saved What Joy in Heaven can there be over one Sinner that repents if after his Repentance it be so hard to come to Heaven Doth not Christ himself invite those who are weary and heavy laden to come to him with a Promise that he will give rest to their Souls But what Rest can they have who notwithstanding their coming to him do with so much difficulty attain to Eternal Rest How can that
which might easily be accommodated to the Christian Doctrine and so a great deal of the Animosities both of the Jews and Heathens would be removed and Christianity would thereby gain more Friends and meet with fewer Enemies The Apostle finding how necessary it was at this time if possible to keep them stedfast in the Faith 1. He assures them that the Christian Doctrine was of it self so sufficient for the good of Mankind that it needed no Additions either from the Law of Moses or the Philosophy of the Gentiles which might introduce several things with a specious Appearance of Wisdom Humility and Mortification but they ought to be assured that from Christ they had all that was necessary or usefull for Salvation For in him are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge 2. That this Doctrine was at first truly delivered to them and they ought to be stedfast in it which is the design of the Text. But they might object that Epaphras was no Apostle of Christ himself and if he were yet there were many Apostles and the false Apostles pretended to be true ones and although St. Paul interposed his Authority yet he was but one and the Judaizers would not yield to it but were ready to suggest that the other Apostles were more favourable to the Jewish Customs than he and therefore it was necessary some more general and common Rule be found out whereby to distinguish the Original and Genuine Doctrine of Christ from that of Pretenders and Seducers The clearing of this is in it self a Matter of great Consequence and not only was to those of that Age but is so in every Age of the Christian Church where the same Question may be put What was the true Primitive Doctrine of Christ and by what means may we come to it which concerns us at this day as well as them And the Answer lay in two particulars which I shall endeavour to clear 1. That which the Apostles did in common deliver to the Churches planted by them was the Genuine Doctrine of Christ. 2. That which they have left in their Writings after it came to be contested which was the true Doctrine of Christ. 1. That which the Apostles did in common deliver to the Churches planted by them For we have all the reason in the World to believe that the Apostles delivered one and the same Faith to all the Churches having the same infallible Spirit to direct them There was no need for them to meet together before their dispersion and to agree upon some common Article of Faith as Ruffinus imagines lest they should differ from each other For how could they differ who had the same Spirit of Truth to lead them into all Truth And we find nothing like a Combination among the Apostles as to Matters of Doctrinâ— And if there had been it would have rendred the Faith they delivered more suspicious in that they durst not trust particular Persons with delivery of it without an antecedent Confederacy among themselves which would have looked like a mistrust of that Promise of the Spirits being fulfilled upon all of them And we find when the Gospels were to be written there was no such meeting together to settle the several Parts of it and yet this was of as much consequence to the Church of God but St. Matthew writes his Gospel in Judoea at the time saith Irenoeus that Peter and Paul preached and founded a Church in Rome St. Mark either at Rome or in Egypt not till after their decease saith the same very Ancient Father St. Luke in Greece after St. Paul planted Churches in Rome and St. John in Asia after all the rest But there was the same Divine Spirit which assisted them all and therefore there was such a concurrence as shewed their veracity but such a variety as shewed there was no Combination But it is observable that none of the Gospels were written till the Doctrine of Christ had been preached by the Apostles in many Places and many Churches were formed and established by them And there were two great Advantages thereby 1. The Unity of the Faith delivered by the Apostles was the more seen because then without the help of a written Rule they so unanimously agreed in the Doctrines they delivered Not as though it were less possible to mistake without it but on the contrary there being a much greater liableness to mistake so Universal a consent was the stronger Argument of a Divine Assistance If there had been any difference in the Doctrines preached by the Apostles there were so many Enemies both of Jews and Infidels and false Apostles who would presently have reproached the Christian Churches with it But no disagreement is ever so much as mention'd as to what the Apostles themselves taught They had one Body one Spirit one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all Where-ever the Apostles went whether into Scythia Parthia Mesopotamia or any Provinces of the Roman Empire all who were converted by them were baptized into the same Faith which St. Jude calls the Faith once delivered to the Saints But once delivered though by many Persons and in very distant places and so once delivered as the same Faith once delivered is to continue to the World's end For nothing can be made the Faith of Christ which was not always so for that were to lay a new foundation and to make another Covenant than what Christ hath sealed with his Blood But he is the same yesterday to day and for ever The Terms of Salvation can never be altered unless there be a new Saviour and new Apostles and new Teachers But if we go to Heaven by Christ we must go that way that himself hath directed For Men and Angels joining their Powers together cannot save one Soul Christ alone being the Way the Truth and the Life and none can come to the Father but by him This the Apostles very well knew and were therefore carefull to deliver nothing to the Church but what they received from Christ as St. Paul saith of himself For I have received of the Lord that which I delivered unto you Not by way of Tradition from Men but by immediate Divine Revelation for as he saith he was not an Apostle of Men or by Men but by Jesus Christ and God the Father and not long after he saith he neither received the Gospel of Man neither was I taught it but by Revelation of Jesus Christ. There was none of all the first Preachers of the Gospel so liable to the Suspicion of setting up for himself and varying from the rest as St. Paul was For he was none of the Original Number of Apostles and he was a known Persecutor of the Disciples of Christ and sudden Converts are always suspected and Ananias had a Vision to satisfie him and yet he could not tell what to think at first concerning him and the Disciples when they
Word if the Thing it self be granted The chief thing therefore to be done is to shew that God may require from us the belief of such things which are incomprehensible by us For God may require any thing from us which it is reasonable for us to do if it be then reasonable for us to give assent where the manner of what God hath revealed is not comprehended then God may certainly require it from us Hath not God revealed to us that in six days he made Heaven and Earth and all that is therein But is it not reasonable for us to believe this unless we are able to comprehend the manner of God's production of things Here we have something revealed and that plainly enough viz. that God created all things and yet here is a Mystery remaining as to the manner of doing it Hath not God plainly revealed that there shall be a Resurrection of the dead and must we think it unreasonable to believe it till we are able to comprehend all the Changes of the Particles of Matter from the Creation to the General Resurrection But it is said that there is no Contradiction in this but there is in the Mystery of the Trinity and Incarnation It is strange Boldness in Men to talk thus of Monstrous Contradictions in things above their Reach The Atheists may as well say Infinite Power is a Monstrous Contradiction and God's Immensity and his other unsearchable Perfections are Monstrous Paradoxes and Contradictions Will Men never learn to distinguish between Numbers and the Nature of Things For three to be one is a Contradiction in Numbers but whether an Infinite Nature can communicate it self to three different Subsistences without fuch a Division as is among created Beings must not be determin'd by bare Numbers but by the absolute Perfections of the Divine Nature which must be owned to be above our Comprehension For let us examine some of those Perfections which are most clearly revealed and we shall find this true The Scripture plainly reveals that God is from everlasting to everlasting that he was and is and is to come but shall we not believe the Truth of this till we are able to fathom the Abyss of God's Eternity I am apt to think and I have some thoughtfull Men concurring with me that there is no greater Difficulty in the Conception of the Trinity and Incarnation than there is of Eternity Not but that there is great Reason to believe it but from hence it appears that our Reason may oblige us to believe some things which it is not possible for us to comprehend We know that either God must have been for ever or it is impossible he ever should be for if he should come into Being when he was not he must have some Cause of his Being and that which was the first Cause would be God But if he was for ever he must be from himself and what Notion or Conception can we have in our Minds concerning it And yet Atheistical Men can take no Advantage from hence because their own most absurd Hypothesis hath the very same Difficulty in it For something must have been for ever And it is far more reasonable to suppose it of an Infinite and Eternal Mind which hath Wisdom and Power and Goodness to give Being to other things than of dull stupid and senâ—eless Matter which could never move it self nor give Being to any thing besides Here we have therefore a thing which must be owned by all and yet such a thing which can be conceived by none Which shews the narrowness and shortness of our Understandings and how unfit they are to be the Measures of the Possibilities of things Vain men would be wise they would fain go to the very bottom of things when alass they scarce understand the very Surface of them They will allow no Mysteries in Religion and yet every thing is a Mystery to them They cry out of Cheats and Impostures under the Notion of Mysteries and yet there is not a Spire of Grass but is a Mystery to them they will bear with nothing in Religion which they cannot comprehend and yet there is scarce any thing in the World which they can comprehend But above other things the Divine Perfections even those which are most absolute and necessary are above their Reach For let such Men try â—heir Imaginations about God's Eternity not meerly how he should be from himself but how God should coexist with all the Differences of Times and yet there be no Succession in his own Being I do not say there is such Difficulty to conceive a Rock standing still when the Waves run by it or the Gnomon of a Dial when the Shadow Passes from one Figure to another because these are gross un-active things but the Difficulty is far greater where the Being is perfect and always active For where there is Succession there is a passing out of not being in such a duration into being in it which is not consistent with the absolute Perfection of the Divine Nature And therefore God must be all at once what he is without any Respect to the Difference of Time past present or to come From whence Eternity was defined by Boethius to be a perfect and complete Possession all at once of everlasting Life But how can we form any Conception in our Minds of that being all at once which hath such different Acts as must be measur'd by a long Succession of Time As the creating and dissolving the Frame of the World the promising and sending the Messias the declaring and executing a general Judgment how can these things be consistent with a permanent Instant or a Continuance of being without Succession For it is impossible for us in this Case as to God's Eternity to form a clear and distinct Idea in our Mind of that which both Reason and Revelation convince us must be The most we can make of our Conception of it is that God hath neither Beginning of Being nor End of Days but that he always was and always must be And this is rather a necessary Conclusion from Reason and Scripture than any distinct Notion or Conception of Eternity in our Minds From whence it evidently follows that God may reveal something to us which we are bound to believe and yet after that Revelation the Manner of it may be incomprehensible by us and consequently a Mystery to us Hath not God revealed to us in Scripture the Spirituality of his own Nature That he is a Spirit and therefore will be worshipp'd in Spirit and in Truth For that is a true Reason why Spiritual Worship should be most agreeable to him Now if we could have a clear distinct 〈◊〉 Notion in our Minds of God's Spiritual Nature we might then pretend that there is nothing mysterious in this since it is revealed But let such Men examine their own thoughts about this Matter and try whether the utmost they can attain to
believe no Life after this be compared with the Pains and Martyrdoms of those who have suffer'd for their Religion these will appear to be far more eligible than the other because the Mind hath far greater Satisfaction under them and a certain Expectation of an infinite Reward to follow upon them Whereas the other can have no Comfort in looking back on what they have done or forward in what they are to expect For they have destroy'd their own Happiness and hasten'd that upon themselves which they account their only Misery 2. As to the common Calamities of Life which none can prevent or avoid the spiritual Mind hath very much the Advantage of the carnal for the one â—ills them with inward Peace and Satisfaction of Mind which of all things carry Men best through the Troubles of Life being joyned with Patience Humility Self-denial and Submission to the Will of God which are all the genuine Effects of a spiritual Mind but a carnal Mind is froward and impatient uneasie to it self and to all about it and this makes every Pain and Trouble to be much greater than it would have been like the Ass in the Fable Which lay down in the Water with his Burthen of Wool and so made it heavier than before There were two things the philosophical Men of Pleasure sought to comfort themselves by under the unavoidable Troubles of Life which the spiritual Mind hath far greater Advantages than any of them had as to both of them and these are Reflection and Expectation 1. Reflection When Epicurus was in his last Agonies under the Stone what a miserable way was it for him to go about to comfort himself by reflecting upon his Atoms and his Maxims his imaginary Notion of the Happiness of Life consisting in Pleasure when his Life was so near being ended by excessive Pain But a good Man that hath sincerely endeavour'd to serve God in his Generation and to do all the good he could and to promote the Interests of Religion and Vertue in the World may in the Midst of many Failings and Infirmities look back with comfort on the Course of his former Life and by the Peace of a good Conscience may injoy inward Satisfaction under such Pains and Distempers which make Life uneasie and Death more welcome as it is a Passage to a far better State And that is the next thing 2. Expectation It was a sorrowfull Expectation which Epicurus supported himself with when he was in the Prospect of Death which was no more than that the subtle Atoms which made up his Soul would soon be scatter'd and dispersed he knew not where and then he should be as if he had never been But what Comfort is there in such a Dissolution Men that have deserved it may heartily wish it but they have deserved something worse and that they must expect For the just and holy God will certainly call them to an Account for all their Vices and Follies and it is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God and what a miserable Case are those in who have nothing to look for but Judgment and fiery Indignation which shall consume the Adversaries of God and Religion But O the blessed Hope and joyfull Expectation that attends a spiritual Mind Especially when it is enliven'd and assisted by the powerfull Influences of Divine Grace For without that even good Men may be liable to some Dejections and Fears as to another World from the Vastness of the Change the Sense of their Failings the Weakness of their Minds and Mistrust of their own Fitness for Heaven but so great is the Goodness and Mercy of God towards them that sincerely love and fear him that he always makes their Passage safe though it be not so triumphant And although the Valley of the Shadow of Death may seem gloomy and uncomfortable at a Distance yet when God is pleased to conduct his Servants through it he makes it a happy Passage into a State of a glorious Immortality and everlasting Life and Peace To which God c. SERMON IX Preached before the King and Queen AT WHITE-HALL ON Christmass-Day 1693. St. John III. 17. For God sent not his Son into the World to condemn the World but that the World through him might be saved THese words are part of the Gospel written by St. John wherein he doth not only fill up the History of our Saviour with many particular Discourses omitted by the other Evangelists but the whole seems to be penned in another Strain and with some different Purpose and Design It 's true that they all agree in the same general End of Writing which St. John mentions viz. That we might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing we might have life through his Name but they make use of several Methods as most agreeable to the Circumstances of the Time and Place and Occasion of their Writing St. Matthew wrote his Gospel for the sake of the Jews and therefore he begins with the Genealogy of Jesus Christ from Abraham and shews that the Prophecies were accomplished in him and how he came not to destroy the Law but to fulfill it and that his Miracles and Doctrine were sufficient to convince them that he was the promised Messias St. Mark wrote only a summary Account of the most material Passages relating to the Person and Doctrine of Christ for the sake of the Gentiles St. Luke takes a larger Compass and puts things into an exacter Order of Time as himself tells us and adds many Circumstances relating to the Birth of Christ and the general Advantage to Mankind by his coming that he was to be a Light to lighten the Gentiles as well as the Glory of his People Israel St. John succeeding the rest found two great things which gave him occasion of writing his Gospel 1. The perverting the Doctrine of Christ by the Ebionites and Cerinthians who pretended to give great Honour to Christ as an excellent Person both for Wisdom and Holiness but yet so that he was but a meer Man to whom God upon his Baptism had given extraordinary Gifts and Assistances of his Holy Spirit 2. The other was that the Gospel which was designed for the Universal good of the World met with such cold Reception and Entertainment from it He was in the World and the World was made by him and the World knew him not He came unto his own and his own received him not What could be more uneasie to so true a lover of Christ as St. John was than that he lived to see his Doctrine perverted and his Design in so great a Measure rendred ineffectual And therefore in the writing of this Gospel 1. He begins after another manner and in a very short significant and lofty Style he sets forth his Eternal Being and Godhead In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word
Grace and Holy Spirit as may enable us to withstand the force of the Temptation so as we be not overcome by it And these two take in the whole sense of this Expression That ye enter not into Temptation We are allowed to pray to be kept out of it but we are bound to pray and to watch too least we fall by the Power of Temptation which is then done when the Motives proper to this World prevail over those which relate to another The Motives of another world are those of a future and eternal Happiness the Motives of this World are those of present Pleasure Honour and Riches and when these come to be inconsistent with our Duty or apt to draw us from it they are said to be Temptations to us For no Sin of it self is a Temptation but something else to be enjoyed by the Commission of Sin or which cannot be enjoyed without it As in the Case here mentioned by our Saviour of St. Peter's denying his Master there was no Temptation in the Sin it self for what was there in an Act so mean so shameful so ungrateful to tempt him to commit it but it was the desire of his present Safety and the fear of running into the same Danger in which he saw his Lord which was the Temptation to him The Sins of Luxury and Intemperance that of Riot and Drunkenness of Chambring and Wantonness are not Temptations in themselves but the sensual Pleasure which accompanies them though it be forbidden is apt to draw the Lovers of it from the strict Rules of Sobriety and Chastity It is the love of this World i. e. of the Riches and Honours of it which make the sins of Ambition and Covetousness so plausible and prevailing among those who profess to believe another world Their Souls are like a piece of Iron between two Load-stones of an unequal magnitude and distance the one is far greater and hath more force in it self to attract but it is placed at a far greater distance the other is much less but very near and therefore may more powerfully draw than that which is more forcible but farther off I do not think that all those who commit Sin by the Power of Temptation are presently Infidels and dis-believe another world but although they do believe the Happiness of another Life yet it is at a distance it is out of their view and beyond their apprehension and therefore doth not work so effectually as present visible sensible Delights do which have all the advantage of suitableness to our present State of Familiarity Nearness and Insinuation It is the great Excellency and Usefulness of Faith that by it we not only believe the things of another world but that it makes things future to be to us as if they were present and things invisible to have such an influence as if they were visible and therefore the Apostle calls it The substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen Invisible things must have a real Being before they can be believed and there must be evidence to the Mind before there can be true Faith how then can Faith be the Substance and Evidence of things future and possible I answer That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not meerly signifie a real Being in opposition to Fancies and Chimera's but a firm solid and permanent Being therefore things which are passing even as Time and Motion are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things that had no Consistence or Hypostasis and being applied to the Mind it signifies a firm and unshaken Confidence an inward satisfaction of the Truth of Divine Revelation an assured Expectation of what God hath promised and from hence arises that influence which Faith hath on the Minds of Men in resisting the Temptations of this World Therefore the two great Principles which govern Mankind are Faith and Sense while they are acted by the former they are said to resist Temptation when they are sway'd by Sense as it is opposed to Faith and includes in it the Motives of this World then they are said to give way to Temptation or to be overcome by it And so I come to consider 1. The Insufficiency of present Resolution to keep us from the Power of Temptation without Watchfulness and Prayer It is hard to imagine a greater Instance of a firm present Resolution than there was in St. Peter and the rest of the Apostles nor a sadder example of the Insufficiency of it which ought to make us hear and fear and not be too presumptuous Resolution is certainly one of the best means in the World to withstand Temptations to sin for it hath these Advantages 1. It keeps the Mind steady and fixed and therefore prepared to resist a Temptation when it comes Whereas an irresolved Mind leaves a Man open to the first Assault It is like disputing in a Garrison who shall Command when the Enemy is at the Gates A fixed and settled Mind in Religion is of mighty consequence against all Temptations for then every thing is in order for resisting when Reason governs the Mind and the Mind determines the Will and the Will stands bent and resolved upon that which upon due Consideration appears to conduce most to our eternal Happiness 2. It takes off the false Colours and Appearances of things for every thing may be represented plausibly to an irresolute Mind Temptations to Sin would never be called so if there were not something tempting in them and whatever is tempting must have a free appearance in one respect or other and while a Person is irresolved he suffers all the force of Temptation to come upon him But a resolved Mind keeps it at a distance and so breaks the Power of it whereas he who lets go his Resolution and treats with a Temptation is like one who plays with a Tarantula and is bitten before he is aware of it But there are two sorts of Resolutions 1. Some that are sudden and made in a heat and passion without due Consideration and weighing of things and such as these are of no great force or continuance And it is often seen that the same heat which caused the Resolution to be made proves the occasion of breaking it when it is carried another way The inconstancy of their Temper makes them resolve hoping thereby to bind up themselves the faster but Nature and Temptations soon grow too hard for such Resolutions which are made only by a sudden Passion 2. There are others which are made about Matters of plain Duty and against known Temptations to Sin after a due sense of our own Folly and Weakness and a firm Purpose never more to return to the practise of Sin And these are Wise and Pious as well as serious and deliberate Resolutions such no doubt the Disciples of Christ had when they left all and followed Christ besides this sudden Resolution they took up that they would rather die with Christ than deny him