the Time before them and are so happy as not to have been yet seduced through the deceitfulness of Sin consider these things Let them consider what a Prize they have in their Hands and let them be zealous that no Man take their Crown Let them consider that if God and Angels rejoyce at the Conversion of an old and great Sinner much more must they be pleased to see a young Person amidst the alluring Glories and Pleasures of the World bravely resisting all its Temptations Let them consider that That time which a dying Sinner would if it were possible give Millions of Worlds to redeem is now in their Hands and they may make a glorious use of it Let them consider that they are yet cloathed with the white Robe of Innocence and if they be careful never to defile that Garment they may attain to a Portion among those few who shall walk with Christ in white for they are worthy Let them consider that if they zealously continue to maintain their Innocence and their good Works for a few Years they will soon be almost out of the danger of Temptation they will escape the bitter Pangs of Remorse and Repentance they will be wholly above that greatest of human Miseries the dread and horrour of Death and may not only without Fear but even with exceeding Joy expect the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ at the Judgment of the great Day and in the Glory of the World to come Lastly let them consider that if they hold fast the confidence and rejoycing of their Hope firm unto the end they shall be intitled to all those great and inconceivable Promises which our Saviour has made to those who shall overcome To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God Rev. 2. 7. He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second Death ver 11. He that overcometh the same shall be clothed in white Raiment and I will not blot his Name out of the Book of Life but I will confess his Name before my Father and before his Angels Rev. 3. 5. Him that overcometh will I make a Pillar in the Temple of my God and he shall go no more out and I will write upon him the Name of my God and the Name of the City of my God which is New Jerusalem ver 12. And To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my Throne even as I also overcame and am sit down with my Father in his Throne V. 21. CHAP. X. Of making Religion the principal Business of our Lives 1. THirdly Resolve to make Religion the main Scope of all your Actions and the principal Business of your Life One great reason why Religion which was the reigning Principle that wholly governed the Lives of the Primitive Christians has now so little influence upon the Actions of Men is because those Holy Men sought first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and relied upon the Providence of God to have all other things added unto them whereas now Men make Religion not their first but their last care and while their whole Hearts and Affections are set upon the things of this present World they think themselves sufficiently Religious if they spend but some small Portions of their time in the outward and Ceremonious Acts of Religion But if Religion be the same now that it was in the times of the Primitive Christians if the Happiness proposed to us be the same for which they so painfully contended if our Obligations excepting perhaps some few particular Cases be the same with theirs this slight careless and superficial Religion will not serve our turn He that will obtain that Crown of Immortality which God has promised to those who Love and Obey him must be effectually and Substantially Religious in the main Course of his Life and he that will be so truly and sincerely Religious must make that Religion his principal and his first Care 2. By making Religion the Principal Care and Study of our Lives I do not mean that Men should withdraw themselves from their Business and Imployments in the World to spend their time anxiously in Reading Praying Meditating the like I hese things are not the whole nor the principal part of Religion and it is an Antient and Notorious Errour to think that Men can become more truly Religious by the continued Exercises of a private Retirement than by living Soberly Righteously and Godlily in the World The Life and Substance of Religion is to have our Minds habitually possessed with the profoundest Veneration of the Divine Majesty and with a desire of expressing at all proper opportunities our Devotion to him and our Zeal for his Honour To endeavour constantly in the whole Course of our Lives to promote the good and the happiness of all Men and to be Temperate in the use of all earthly Enjoyments as those who expect their Happiness not in this World but in the next This is the Essence of true Religion And These things a Man may make his principal nay even his whole Care without any way neglecting or in the least withdrawing himself from his Secular and Worldly Business There is no Imployment wherein a Man may not be always doing something for the honour of God for the good of Men or for the Improvement of the Virtues of his own Mind There is no Business wherein a Man may not make it his main Care to act always like a good Man and a Christian There is no state of Life wherein a Man may not keep a constant Eye upon a future State and so use the things of this present World as that the great and ultimate Scope of all his Actions may always respect that which is to come 3. And to make Religion thus far the principal Business of our Lives is absolutely and indispensably necessary No Man can overcome the Temptations of the Word No Man can be truly and effectually Religious unless he stedfastly proposes to himself one great Design of his Life and indeavours to Act always regularly upon that Design He must constantly keep an eye upon his main End and in every thing he does must be careful always to have a respect to that Every thing he undertakes must be either directly conducive to that end or at least not contrary to and inconsistent with it In a word he must be True to himself and to his own happiness and be resolute never to be tempted to do any thing which he knows he shall afterwards wish undone For otherwise if a Man acts only uncertainly according to the present Appearances of things and without any fixt design it must needs be that every violent temptation will either surprize or overpower him and his Religion will be as inconstant as his Resolutions His Life will be at best no other than a continued Circle of sinning and repenting and his End will be in
Institution of Religion which requires no other Duties than what are perfectly agreeable to the eternal and unchangeable Law of God and manifestly perfective of the Moral Virtue and the Happiness of Men has already the Mark of God upon it and cannot possibly but come from him The Nature and Life of God are unchangeable and the Constitution of his Laws is also unchangeable Whoever therefore Preaches and Institutes such a Religion as leads men to nothing else but to the Obedience of the Laws and to the Imitation of the Nature and Life of God may without any other Testimonials be admitted as a Preacher of Divine Truth and that Religion which stands on such a Foundation is of it self sufficiently recommended to the Belief and to the Practice of all Wise Men. Now that the Christian Religion is such an Institution is so plain and evident that its greatest Adversaries have hardly been able to deny it The Duties of Love Fear and Adoration which it obliges us to render unto God are so manifestly incumbent upon us on consideration of the excellent Attributes of the Divine Nature and our relation to him as our Creator and Preserver that no man who considers can break loose from the Obligations which our Religion lays upon him to practise these Duties without denying the very Being of God and acting contrary to the reason and all the Natural Notions of his own Mind The Duties of Justice Righteousness and Truth which the Christian Religion commands us to exercise towards Men are so apparently reasonable and so directly conducive to the Happiness of Mankind that even those Men who have broken through all the Bonds of Religion and the Obligations of Virtue have yet thought it necessary to the preservation of Society and the well-being of Mankind that the observation of these Duties should be inforced by the Penalties of Humane Laws The Duties of Sobriety Temperance and Contentment which our Religion injoyns us to practise in our selves are so undeniably agreeable to the inward Constitution of Humane Nature and so perfective of it that the principal design of all true Philosophy was to recommend and set off these Duties to the best advantage though as the Philosophers themselves confessed it never was able to work men up to that pitch of cheerful and generous Obedience to the Rules of these Duties which the Christian Religion in its primitive and purest State was acknowledged to have done and which if it were now believed and practised as it then was it must still do Lastly Even those positive and external Observances such as the Sacraments c. which are Instituted in the Christian Religion as means and assistances to keep men stedfast in the practice of those great and moral Duties which are the weightier matters of the Law are so free from all appearance of Superstition and Vanity and so wisely fitted to the end for which they were designed that many of the Adversaries of our Religion have yet been forced to admire the Wisdom and the Excellency of their Institution 14. Again The Principal Motives of the Christian Religion I mean the Discovery of a Future State and the Rewards and Punishments therein to be dispenced are things so suitable to the excellent Wisdom of God and so agreeable to the unprejudiced Reason to the Natural Apprehensions and Expectations of Men that were their truth and reality confirmed by no other Argument or external proof yet were they sufficient to influence the practice and regulate the Actions of wise and considerate men That the Soul of Man is immortal and shall survive after the dissolution of this corruptible Body is a truth which has always been thought demonstrable from Principles of Reason and from the consideration of the nature of the thing That Man is a Creature capable of doing good or evil and consequently of giving account of his Actions and being judged for them is also evident That therefore in a future State there shall be a time of Retribution wherein every Man shall receive of God according to what he has done in this Life whether it be good or evil has been collected by the wiser and more considerate part of Men among the Heathens themselves The Resurrection of the Body has indeed been looked upon by most of the Philosophers as a thing utterly absurd and impossible But there is nothing impossible in the nature of the thing And the Jews who had no express Revelation of that matter did yet believe it upon a constant Tradition as appears from all their Writings and particularly from the Translation of the last verse of the Book of Job which according to the Seventy runs thus So Job died being old and full of days but 't is written that he shall rise again with those whom the Lord raises up 15. Further the peculiar Circumstances with which the Duties and the Motives of the Christian Religion are inlarged and inforced are such as are most exactly agreeable to the Light of Nature and most wisely perfective of it For what can be more perfective of the Light of Nature than to have those Duties which Nature hints at only in general explained fully and largely and urged in particular and inculcated upon the meanest Capacities and exemplified in the Lives of Holy Persons proposed as Patterns for Men's imitation What can be more perfective of the Light of Nature than to have those great Motives of Religion the Rewards and Punishments of a future State which Nature only obscurely points at described to us most plainly affectionately and lively What can be more perfective of the Light of Nature than to have the means of attoning for sin which Nature discovers only the want of plainly declared and exhibited to us What can be more perfective of the Light of Nature than such a Discovery of the heinousness of Sin and the necessity of Holiness as the Death of Christ and the Purity of the Gospel does make unto us In fine what can more effectually perfect the Religion of Nature than the gatbering the Worshippers of God into one Body the uniting them by certain positive Rites in one common Communion for mutual assistance and improvement and the establishing a certain Order of Men whose Business may be to promote the Interest of Religion by instructing the Ignorant and by admonishing the Wicked 16. Lastly Besides all these Proofs of the Truth of the Christian Revelation drawn from the Consideration of the Nature of the Thing God has moreover confirmed it by the most undeniable external evidence that ever was given to any Matter of Fact in the World The Great Motives of the Christian Religion are things not only most probable and most credible in themselves but God has moreover confirmed the certainty of them by most clear Testimony which is a proof suited to all Capacities and has most strongly urged upon Men the Rewards and Punishments of a future State by the Preaching and Exhortations of one who by
to act directly contrary to all Reason and Evidence 't is plain unless God should irresistibly compel them they might well continue to act as they do though the Evidence of these things were really greater than it is They are willing to imagine that if they had lived in our Saviour's time if they had heard his Preaching and seen his Miracles if they had had the advantage of beholding those mighty Works which he wrought for the proof of his Divine Commission as the Jews then had they should not like them have rejected the counsel of God against themselves but with all cheerfulness have believed his Doctrine and embraced his Religion They fansie they should immediately have become Disciples of Christ and that the Truths which he taught would have had a most powerful Influence upon the whole course of their Lives And if their Hearts and Affections were not set upon this World more than upon the next if they valued not the present enjoyments of Sense above the expectation of the Glory that shall be revealed most certainly they would do the same now But if their Hearts be set upon earthly things and their Passions be stronger than all the Arguments of Reason if they do indeed so love the Pleasures of Sin now as that they cannot persuade themselves by all the Motives of Religion to live like Christians we need not question to affirm that they might very well have been in the same case though they had lived in our Saviour's time The Jews are a notorious and standing Instance how far Prejudice and Affection are able to prevail over the strongest Convictions When our Saviour began to preach that he was sent from God to instruct them in their Duty they required a Sign of him and they would believe him but when he had wrought so many Miracles that even the World it self could not contain the Books if they should all be written they persisted still in their Infidelity When they saw him hanging upon the Cross and thought themselves secure of him they said Let him now come down from the Cross and we will believe him but when he arose out of the Grave wherein he had lien three Days which was a much greater and more convincing Miracle they grew more hardned and obstinate in their Unbelief 19. Others there are who imagine that if they could but be convinced of the Truth of another World by the appearance of one sent directly from that unknown State they would immediately become new Creatures but if God should satisfie their unreasonable Demands by sending one on purpose from the Dead to convince them I doubt not but as they listened not to Moses and the Prophets so neither would they be persuaded by one rising from the dead They might indeed at first be surprized and terrified at the appearance of so unusual and unexpected a Messenger But as wicked Men upon a Bed of Sickness at the amazing approach of Death and Eternity resolve in the utmost anguish of Horror and Despair to amend their Lives and forsake their Sins but as soon as the Terror is over and the danger of Death past return to their old habits of Sin and Folly so it is more than probable it would be in the present Case Should God send a Messenger from the Dead to assure Men of the certainty of a future state and the danger of their present Wickedness as soon as the Fright were over and their present terrible Apprehensions ceased 't is by no means impossible that their old vicious Habits and beloved Sins should again by degrees prevail over them Many there are in our present Age who pretend to be convinced of the being of Spirits by the powerful demonstration of their own Senses and yet we do not observe that their Lives are more remarkably eminent for exemplary Piety than theirs who being convinced by the less violent but more rational Evidence of the Gospel go on in a sober constant and regular exercise of Virtue and Righteousness 20. In summ therefore Consider that the Evidence of Religion is such as upon the fullest view of things and the exactest and most deliberate Judgment that we can possibly make ought infinitely to determine the Actions of a wise Man Consider that the great Doctrines of Religion are of such a nature that upon the final upshot of things if all our Knowledge be not Deceit if all our Hopes and Fears be not Vain if there be any Good if there be any Evil if there be any Excellency if there be any Happiness these things must be true Consider this I say throughly and then Resolve deliberately and with full persuasion of Mind to act always suitably to this Consideration and to put all upon this one Issue And when Temptation and Melancholy shall succeed when vain Scruples and unreasonable Suspitions shall cloud the Understanding and perplex the Mind be sure to stick immovably to that Resolution which has once been founded upon the wisest Judgment and the fullest Conviction possible and when the present Indisposition of Mind shall be over things will again appear in their true Light and the first Resolution will grow continually stronger 21. Only in the last place and above all be sure to fix these things deeply upon the Mind by frequent and serious Meditation The Passions and Affections of Men are strong and unless these also can by some means be interested the bare Conviction of a Man's Judgment will hardly be able to govern constantly all the Actions of his Life 'T is not enough that we be convinced in our Judgments of the Truth of the great Doctrines of Religion but we must by constant Meditation fix and inculcate them upon the Mind that they may move our Passions and excite our Affections Be not content to believe slightly the Being of God but represent him frequently in your Mind with the most lively Characters of Glory and Majesty consider him as that Supreme Being who hath measured the Waters in the hollow of his hand and meted out Heaven with the span and comprehended the Dust of the Earth in a measure and weighed the Mountains in scales and the Hills in a balance to whom all Nations are as a drop of the bucket and are counted as the small dust of the balance Consider him as that All-powerful Being before whom the Pillars of Heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof before whom all Nations are as nothing and they are counted to him less than nothing and vanity Be not content to believe in general the Providence of God but think of him always as actually present observing all our Words and Actions and understanding even our Thoughts afar off Be not content to believe in general a Judgment to come but frequently represent to your self the Solemnity and the Terrour of that great Day imagine our Saviour sitting in Judgment as in that Prophetical Allusion with his Throne like the