holy Living and make Heaven their first and greatest care These are the Men who fill the House and partake of that Supper And This signification being equally proper and more pertinent and suitable to Our Condition than Either of the Former I shall endeavour to fix my own and your attention upon it by considering these two General Heads First The Justice of those Men's losing Heaven and Happiness who for any Worldly Respects refuse the proffers of it made to them Secondly The Great Mercy and Goodness of God in the means used for the Conversion of those who do accept and profit under them For upon these Two Points the whole Substance of the Passage turns and They together make up the Moral of this Figurative Representation 1. Let us consider First The Justice of God in debarring those Men any Access to Heaven and Happiness hereafter who refuse the proffers of it made to them here For that is the Importance of the Twenty fourth Verse I say unto You that none of Those men which were bidden shall taste of my Supper This though last in order of the Text yet because depending upon that which is first in the Parable I chuse to begin with And for the clearer Manifestation of the Matter before us These two things should be attended to 1. The Character and Condition of the Refusers and then 2. The Insufficiency of those Excuses they made for themselves I. The Character and Condition of them who absented is easily to be gathered from the Excuses made to soften their Refusal Three whereof are positively alledged here as sent back by Three Persons respectively The first said * V. 18 19 20. I have bought a piece of Ground and I must needs go and see it The second is I have bought five Yoke of Oxen and I go to prove them And the third I have married a Wife and therefore I cannot come The Two former of These will fall under the same denomination and the ground of their absenting seems to proceed from the same Cause Which is The Love of the World and immoderate pursuits of Business and Riches For the Wealth of those Eastern Countries consisting partly in Land and partly in Cattel Avaâ—ice is the distemper common to them both The Third is more properly reduced to Love of Pleasure and Fondness of Sensual Delights which carries some signs of a worse and more untractable Disposition along with it Thus much Some have thought intimated by the differing Forms in which the Answers are returned For whereas the Purchasers of Land and Oxen make a shew at least of Civility and Modesty desire the Servant to make their Excuse and express some sort of Concern that their Weightier Affairs detain'd them He that had married a Wife in a more blunt and sullen manner replies roughly I cannot come A Reply which speaks that Air of Scorn usual in Men abandoned to Sense and Appetite Who disdain every Thing and every Person whose Business and Aim it is to divert them from such present Gratifications This likewise is farther remarkable in all Three That our Lord introduces not the bold and daring Sinners defiers of God and good Manners and such as by long shameless Vice have worn out all Distinctions between Good and Evil But such as indulge those Cares and those Pleasures only which in their own Nature are lawful and allowable He sets before us not the Vile Oppressor the Impious Perjured or the Actors of Violence and Rapine of Forgery or Fraud But Men intent upon their own Affairs Patterns of Provident and Honest Industry so far as the Quality of the Things themselves is concerned Had he done otherwise we should be apt to fancy that no degree of Anxiety had been Criminal so long as our hands were clean of Injustice and Deceit As we were cautious not to heap polluted Treasures nor give our selves the liberty of being foul and dishonest in our Dealings Or Had he instanced in Adulterers in Lewd and Impudent Sensuality that prostitutes Mens Souls their Bodies their Tongues to Filthiness and Lust We might imagine none could be to blame in giving scope to loose Desires and fleshly Satisfactions And that no Bounds no Laws restrained our Pleasures where Modesty and Decency were observed where no Man's Property had been Invaded no injured Bed or violated Honour could be laid to our Charge But now by producing honest Purchases and honourable Marriage he plainly teaches us That even the most Innocent Profits and Pleasures may cease to be Innocent in our manner of using them As If they engross our Hearts and draw us off from better Thoughts and Practices If they intrude upon our Spiritual Affairs vitiate our Affections and in a word grow to Excess or prove Unseasonable For how reasonable soever these Allegations appear'd to those who made them here and do no doubt still to Millions more that urge them daily yet you see they found no favour with Almighty God These Men of Honest Business and Innocent Delights are notwithstanding declared to be unworthy and all their Avocations supposing them both real and important could not nor ever will acquit the Persons or bear out their refusal to attend upon higher Duties These are the Bidden the Vngrateful Wretches whom Christ rejects with Anger and not one of them is admitted to taste of his Supper Which brings me to the second branch of this Argument II. The Insufficiency of those Excuses made for not complying with this Invitation And This appears much more from the Thing designed by the Parable than it does by any express words in the Parable it self There we are left to gather that there was Reason good why the Guests should have preferred this Feast before their own Worldly Advantages and Delights But in the Benefits of the Gospel Goodness and Truth in This and Glory in the next Life the Obligation and Necessity of making these our first care approves it self to every common Understanding As will soon appear Whether the Person Inviting the Feast it self or the Causes that detain Man from attending it be regarded 1. The Person Inviting us is God And this alone is cause sufficient why we should come In Humane Conversation we may make great Distinctions and proportion our Respects according to the Quality or the Friendship of those that ask our Company With Them whom Birth or Fortune make our Equals we can be bold and use those Liberties which good Breeding will forbid to Them above us And if a mighty Prince or kind Benefactor a Patron and a Friend require our Presence all our Affairs must be dispensed with all Business and Diversion laid aside to testify our Gratitude and Honour and nothing waited on but He. Shall we not then obey the Gracious Offer when the Great King of Heaven and Lord of Lords vouchsafes to call us He is our Best our Only Friend from Him we derive all our Comforts all our Hopes nay even our very Selves He commands all
Publick employment and enable him to lead and to warn others by becoming a burning and shining Light in his Generation and inspiring his Charge by a pious Example And even in the most private Station as Temptations and Tryals assault a Man so there is more pressing want of Faith And of a greater steadiness and abundance still the thicker those Darts of the Wicked are shot against us and the more furious and fiery they are which this Faith alone can quench The Wisdom of Governours does not think the same preparations necessary in time of Peace as when actually in a State of War But provides against Surprises and is content to defer the Arming or drawing out their Forces till Action calls for them And thus it is sufficient to be assured that upon great Emergencies God's Strength shall be always ready at hand and made perfect in our weakness provided we be diligent and honest that is if we use the Strength we have and do not indulge nor industriously contribute to our own Weakness Let it be allowed then that a Man is not deceived in these Apprehensions of himself And that his Faith do not make any considerable Advance yet if his Condition be such as does not call for any extraordinary Additions the Case is still well enough For as no Man hath need to call his Health in question who feels no indisposition of Body though he do not perceive himself to grow every day stronger So if our Faith be but a preservative from Lapses and Errors and secure us against Spiritual Sickness and Death if we do not Languish and become manifestly cold and feeble in God's Service nor find our Souls infected with Sin and Lust This is a good Argument that our Spiritual Health is good And though a greater Degree and higher perfections may be Desirable perhaps yet still they are not Necessary nor shall we perish for the want of them Besides where all these Blessings depend upon the mere Bounty and free Gift of our Master we ought not to disquiet our selves with Reflections upon what we have not but rejoyce and be thankful for what we have It is enough that we are admitted into his Favour that he snatches us from Ruine and allows us any place at all in his presence and will much better become us to sit down pleased and take the lowest Room than to discontent our selves and lose the comfort of what we Enjoy by repining that we are not taken to sit on his right hand and an his left in his Kingdom 2. But then we are to consider in the next place that our Faith and other Graces do very often increase and we in the mean while perceive it not What our Church in one of her Articles teaches us to confess is most certain Acts XII That Good Works do naturally flow from Faith so that by them a true Faith may be known as evidently as a Tree by its Fruit. The meaning whereof is this that what we call Faith if it produce no good Deeds is no better than Dead and none at all But it is by no means a just Consequence from hence that no Faith is lively and true which is not perpetually exerting it self in New instances any more than that the Tree is Dead which is not always Green and always bearing For our Souls have in some sense their Winters too and the Seasons of sprouting again into Verdancy and Fruitfulness If therefore either want of Opportunities to shew it self keep it hid or the Storms of Affliction suppress and put it back for a while we have no reason to be discouraged or despair of its Life But may conclude that as the Corn lies covered and yet gathers Strength when under Ground so this Faith may grow and flourish and fit it self for great and glorious undertakings even when we have no visible signs nor sensible proofs of its doing so And such indeed is the nature of all Habits whatsoever whose Excellency consists not in perpetual Action but in a Readiness and masterly Disposition to act as becomes them so often only as proper occasions are offered to exercise them Nay farther yet I add that though some things should appear to us which look very suspicious and seem to argue great Decays at least if not absolute Deadness of Faith such as the being sometimes indisposed to the Duties of Religion and feeling our Zeal less warm and vigorous than formerly yet are not these Symptoms of so fatal Consequence that we should conclude against the Reality of our Faith or at all despair of our Spiritual Health and Safety from them Were the Soul indeed single by it self and in a Condition to exert its own Powers without any Lett or Contradiction then we might expect that it should be steddy and uniform in all its Operations But here the Wise-Man's Observation takes place That * Wisd IX 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the corruptible body presseth down the Soul and the Earthly tabernacle weigheth down the Mind that museth upon many things or as the word might properly enough be render'd the mind encumbred with many cares And This in truth is Our Case We are Subject to all the Necessities and detain'd by all the Clogs and Hindrances of a Body Exposed to all the Trouble of supplying its Wants and by that means to all the Uncertainties and all the Anxieties of the World subject to all its Disorders and Infirmities forced to act by as well as with it and so liable to be obstructed and diverted by its Passions and Pleasures its Pains and its Diseases This is the very Reason Not only why One Man differs so vastly from Another but why the Same Man differs sometimes so strangely from Himself that he scarce appears to be the Same And since the very same Affections are the Springs of our Actions and Resentments in Religious Matters which are in all Other Affairs it must needs follow that as those Springs are differently set and we differently moved by them the alterations we feel in point of Duty and Devotion as they belong to the same Causes so they will vary in like proportions as in our common and worldly Concerns So that as we have differing Constitutions given us at first or as any Accidents afterwards change those we have it ought not to seem strange much less to create us any great Trouble or Disquiet if the Temper of our Minds and our Dispositions to God and Goodness shall happen to vary accordingly The Cold and Phlegmatick will not find all those sprightly Emotions of Heart as the Sanguine and Airy Man Nor will This Man again feel the same Depth of Godly Sorrow and sad Remorse nor the like complacency in the Austerities and Mortifications of a penitent State with one of a blacker and more heavy Blood Thus Fear and Love of God and a stedfast Affiance in him and Charity and Kindness to one another though they be general Duties such as All are
the direct and great Business of Religion For These are the Springs that move us and according as They are set higher or lower we shall be sure to act with more or less Vigour It is therefore in Reality the very Commendation and Excellence of these Doctrines that they are so far above us because the height and greatness of the Subject is more serviceable to the ends they were designed to promote than their being obvious and intelligible throughout could possibly have rendred them We should esteem it an instance of the Divine Goodness no less than Wisdom so to have tempered his Revelations that we want no Knowledge fit to engage our Piety and holy Wonder and yet we have not so much as should destroy our Humility and Reverence In a Word both the Light which is allowed us and that which is denied us if a right use be made of both do mutually conspire to carry on the Advantage of Religion And we have reason to believe it could not have been better nay probably not near so well if either less had been discovered to us or less concealed from us So small Improvement is there to be had from bold and busy Intrusions into those Secrets which God hath like the Ark of old forbidden to be seen But now a diligent Attendance upon the plain Preceptive parts of the Christian Institution This brings in vast and present Profit such as grows every day upon our hands and approves it self to all the World by its visible and excellent Effects For This hath a direct Influence upon the Dispositions and Manners of Men corrects depraved Nature and cultivates those Virtues which contribute to our own Perfection and the Good of Others This puts us upon making our Light shine before men by filling the Post Providence hath placed us in It secures a diligent and faithful Regard to those several Capacities and Relations in the satisfying whereof not only the Peace and Happiness of the World but the good Pleasure of God and the Duty of each Person 's particular Calling consists And God who is a Lover of men thinks himself much better served when we become useful and publick Blessings to the Age we live in than by the most refined Knowledge and rapturous Contemplation These at the best are but Personal and solitary Excellencies and contribute little or nothing to the Common good From hence I presume it is that St. Paul prefers * Cor. XIII 1. Charity before the Gift of Prophecy and understanding all mysteries and all knowledge assuring us at the same time That these are glittering Advantages which dazzle our Eyes with a false Light as oft as Christian Perfection is placed in them for that it is very possible for a Man even supposing him to attain to all these yet in the Esteem of God still to be nothing Such Enforcement hath even the Authority of an Apostle given to my Second which yet is not the greatest Discouragement I have to urge For III. Thirdly Such Speculations are not only useless but extreamly dangerous too and many times of very dreadful Consequence To the Persons employed in them To others and To Religion in general 1. The Persons themselves suffer by them in being taken off from more useful and important Subjects For the Difficulty of these devours their time engrosses their Thoughts and leaves them neither Leisure nor Inclination for attending to the plainer and weightier Matters of the Law The Knowledge of our Duty 't is true may be brought within a small compass but the Practice of it requires all our time and pains Passions and Lusts are not subdued in an Instant and the Attacks of Temptation come on so thick that our constant Watchfulness and utmost Care is no more than needs They who employ themselves as they ought upon these Occasions will find that Providence hath cut them out Work enough for their whole Lives And were there no other Inconvenience attending these nice Speculations yet this alone is too much in all Conscience that they rob those men of a great portion of their time who have no time to spare The Knowledge of these will make no Article in our last great Account and is what we may be very good Christians without but the practical Precepts are expresly given us in charge and will be sure to be strictly reckon'd for These are so many Branches of the One thing necessary and all is lost if we suffer any thing else to come in between and take That away from us But further yet Such Curiosity does not only divert our more vigorous pursuit after Vertue but it tinctures the Mind very strongly with several sorts of Vice Hence the Apostle takes notice of a * 1 Cor. VIII 2. Knowledge which puffeth up and sets this in Opposition to Charity which edifieth And in another place he describes the Consequence of not being content to rest in the plain wholesome words of our Lord Jesus Christ by saying * 1 Tim. VI. 45. That such Persons are proud knowing nothing but doting about Questions and Strifes of words whereof cometh Envy Strife Railings Evil Surmisings Perverse Disputings of men of corrupt minds And this is likewise but too visible that such men grow immoderately sond of some peculiar Notions by which they affect to distinguish themselves This engages them in Controversy which sowrs their Temper and sharpens their Pens and makes the Contention as hot and fierce as if in these Quarrels too that false Punctilio of fantastick Honour were to take place never to acknowledge Satisfaction till they have drawn Blood of their Adversary All which as it is of infinite ill Consequence to themselves so is it 2. Secondly Matter of mighty Scandal to Others For Standers-by though they ought not to do so yet if they be ill disposed they will be but too apt to cover their own Irreligion with the pretence of vehement Disputes and indecent Heats about Religion to fall into Scepticism and universal doubting when they find men so eager in Differences wherein if others cannot form a clear Judgment it is not to be wondred at And such as all People are never like to be brought to one mind about while the World endures Nay even Good men cannot but lament and be displeased to see such intemperate Admirers of Singularity and Distinctions lose Charity and Moderation the very Life and Substance of Religion while they are contending for the Subtleties of the Schools which are in comparison but as thin Air and empty Shadows And it would really move ones Indignation that men should have the Vanity to imagine they do any true Service to the Cause of God and Religion by an ungovern'd Fervour which seems to be little or not at all concern'd what becomes of Humanity and Justice good Nature or good Manners provided the Writer can but acquire to himself the Reputation of Smartness and Subtlety and Skill And can there happen a greater Calamity not only to
nor Leisure for nice Enquiries believe it as firmly and know it as assuredly as They. In like manner if there be certain Marks by which a Man born of the Spirit is evidently discerned and distinguished from another that is not so born We may from those Marks conclude that such a Man is Regenerate though we could not positively determine from whence this Principle of new Life took its rise Or if we knew as know we may that it could be owing to no other Cause but the Operations of the Holy Ghost we may then where such Marks appear be confident that the sanctifying Operations of the Holy Ghost have passed upon that Person though neither We who were Standers-by nor perhaps the Man himself was conscious of the Manner in which they were begun and carried on in his mind 2. Secondly A thing may be sufficiently perceivable One way which is not at all so in another For in all Objects of Knowledge there is something of Agreement and Proportion betwixt that Object and the Organ or Faculty that is contrived to apprehend it and upon this mutual Suitableness depends the Perception Thus it is with our Bodily Senses Each of them have parts fitted for receiving such Impressions as are proper to their purpose and the Qualities of Bodies are not applied to All these parts indifferently but severally to Each as Each is by Nature accommodated for the entertaining and making a Report of them to the Soul Thus we do not hear Colours nor see Perfumes nor smell Sounds and yet we are as fully satisfied that there are Sounds though we hear them only as if we saw and smelt them too To the same purpose it is that our Saviour argues in the Text. A Man sees not either any Shape or any Motion of the Wind it self All that he knows of this kind is only the motion of other Bodies agitated by it And yet he makes no difficulty to allow that it blows when he hears the sound of it because the Wind is not an Object proportioned to the Eye but the noise of it is to the Ear and therefore he receives the Testimony of that Sense which has a Competent Knowledge without troubling himself that this is not confirmed by the other Senses which are incapable of knowing any thing in the matter This is the force of the Allusion and that which by Parity of Reason arises from it is this That the Case is the same between the Intellectual Faculties and the Sensitive in general with that betwixt One Sense and Another And if we acknowledge a thing 's Reality when we hear the Sound but see no Shape of it because it is in Nature fitted to affect our Hearing but not our Sight There is the same Reason why we should assent to what our Understanding can apprehend though our Senses do not if it be of that kind which may give evidence to the mind and make it self understood though it cannot make it self seen or heard or felt by us Now a Spirit cannot work upon the outward Organs which can never be moved by any other Impressions than those of Body and Matter But if by help of Meditation by laying and comparing things together and considering the Consequences that naturally result from them we find that such a thing there is and such Footsteps there are of its Working we then may and ought to rest satisfied both of the Existence and the Operation of that Spirit Because we have the Evidence proper for the Condition of the thing such as it is capable of And the Intellectual Faculties of the Mind were intended by God for Helps and Instruments of attaining Knowledge no less than the Sensitive Organs of the Body Different Objects require different Perceptions and * 1 Cor. XII St. Paul hath observed it as an Ornament and Excellence rather than any Imperfection of Humane Nature that the several Parts have their several Offices allotted to them 3. Thirdly It is implyed by this Similitude that some things are capable of being known by the Essects which we cannot come to the Knowledge of any other way No man need go far for Proof of This. Intùs habes quod poscis We all are sure that we carry somewhat about us which we call a Soul Somewhat that thinks and deliberates and chuses that imagines and judges and remembers that fears and hopes and loves and hates and desires and refuses and grieves and rejoyces according to the different Apprehensions we receive of the Objects about which we are conversant This we know from our own Feeling and Experience And yet the Wisest of us all do not know the time when or the manner how this Soul was created and united to our Bodies nor a Thousand Difficulties more which might be started but yet stagger not any reasonable Man's assent because he is satisfied that these Effects must have a Cause adequate to them So likewise Our Saviour takes for granted that the noise and Sound was Proof sufficient that the Wind blows the shakings and rattlings of Boughs the raising Storms at Sea the tearing up Trees and rocking of Houses All convince us that the Air is in a Violent Agitation and yet we are not privy to the first beginnings of it We cannot tell what raised this mighty Ferment nor where it set out nor how far it intends nor what becomes of it when it ceases The Mariners are sure they are carried up to the Heaven and down again to the deep they see the Waves boil and foam like a Pot and feel their Vessel stagger like a drunken Man and they doubt not to conclude the Wind is the doer of it without ever disputing how it was able to disturb the face of the Deep or blow up the Waters into such Rage and Tumult And it is here urged to Nicodemus as a thing equally agreeable to Reason that men should submit to the Belief of a Second Birth if the Effects of that Birth appear though the Cause and Progress of it do not For instance St. John says He * 1 John III. 9 10. that doth Righteousness is born of God in this the Children of God are manifest and the Children of the Devil St. Paul acquaints us That * Gal. V. 6. VI. 15. the New Creature is Faith which worketh by Love †Gal. V. 22. that the Fruits of the Spirit are Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness and Temperance We are likewise told ‖ Phil. II. 13. That it is God who worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure Now from hence it follows most undeniably that let Moral Duties be never so much disparaged as mean and low and Legal Yet wheresoever we see any Man living Righteously where we find such a mixture of Faith and Charity and all that bright Constellation of Virtues mentioned just now we may and ought to pronounce that Man born of the Spirit For though the Tree be
into some grievous Sin The seeming decay of Grace and this is gathered from their not perceiving themselves to grow in it Their being not always so well disposed to Religious Duties or so zealous in the performance of them as they used and ought to be Not Sorrowing enough for past Offences Or coming short of some Virtues which they would fain attain to I think These are either the chief Objections that Men use to urge against themselves Or at least that the Rest may easily be reduced within this compass and will admit of the same Answers with these In which I shall not need to enlarge very much because what I have already discoursed concerning the general Causes of Weakness of Faith and the Reality even of that Faith which is but Weak does in a great measure contain the Substance of what is requisite to be said upon these several occasions Now First The falling back into old sins is indeed a very sad Consideration and so much the more so as those falls are more frequent and the Sins into which we fall are more heinous But when we have remembred withal that the most vigilant mind is not always awake that the Impressions of Faith and Zeal for Religion are not always enforced to the utmost nor will the Nature of Man bear perpetual Application and intense Thought Though this unhappiness may well be allowed to create us some dissatisfaction yet is it not of so evil Consequence as to minister any just occasion of Distrust or absolute Despair For still we have this Consideration to support us That the great Judge of all the Earth will not fail to do Right that when He brings us to Account all fair and reasonable Allowances will be made both for the weak and blind sides of the Nature he hath given us the surprises and sudden Accidents which prevail upon our impotence and ensnare us before we have leisure to make head against them the Intanglements of the World and the vast variety of Temptations that hem us in and the strength of sensual Appetite which wearies out the Soul in our continual struggles with it These are such misfortunes as every Man's Condition lays him open to And from hence it comes to pass that the Virtue even of the most perfect is not without its Blemishes That Repentance is the constant Business of Life For though a total change should be made once for all yet They who purpose most and prosecute their good Intentions best will every day discover something that had better not have been done or at least something that might have been done better Something that either needs to be corrected or is capable of being improved And indeed the most cautions walker with God does not always order his goings not only so as to prevent false Steps and small Errors but now and then wanders very far and stumbles and falls very dangerously To this very purpose is it that our Bl. Saviour excepted who was God as well as Man the Holy Scripture hath no where proposed any Person whatever as an eminent pattern of Virtue without taking particular notice of some very remarkable Fault or other in that Man's Conversation And surely the Anger and Impatience of Moses the Adultery and Murder committed by David and the Denial of Christ by St. Peter were not only intended to humble those who are so far transported with an Opinion of their own Excellencies as to think they cannot fall But also to raise and strengthen them that do fall For these prove that there is a wide difference between a Mans doing things things unworthy of Religion and wholly abandoning all the Principles of it Between forgetting God for a Season and totally denying or departing from him altogether And that He is often provoked to be very angry with those whom yet he sees fit to Compassionate and not cast off utterly The plain Truth of this Matter is Humane Nature stands upon so slippery Ground is thrust at so sore and so fatally prone to strike in with the Enemies and Temptations that seek its Ruine that it may well exercise our wonder how Men preserve themselves so often and recover so successfully but that the Best should sometimes fall and need such Recoveries cannot to any considering Man appear strange at all Again Secondly Some there are who though they cannot accuse themselves of any notorious Relapses such as those we last mentitioned yet question the truth of their Faith because they do not perceive themselves to grow in it nor do they find their Souls at all times so well disposed to the Duties of Religon or so zealous in the performance of them as they desire and ought to be and therefore what they see stand still or at least imagine to do so they conclude goes backward That the Fruits of the Spirit are blasted which do not apparently thrive and approach to visible maturity And that their Graces are quite extinct because they do not always burn bright and shine out with a clear flame Now in Answer to any dissatisfactions of this kind we are to consider that These are very false measures to take an Estimate of our selves by and that our Graces are not always to be judged according to their visible increase And that for these Two very good Reasons First Because such Increases are not always necessary to our Safety And then Secondly Because indeed they are not always visible to us even when they are actually made I. First I say such Increases are not always necessary to our Safety In the Products of Nature we know there is a set proportion beyond which if any thing grow All afterwards is exorbitant and rather Excrescence and Deformity than any just Perfection This indeed cannot be said in the case of our Souls for no man can be too Virtuous or too excellently Good But then it is as true That the same pitch of Spiritual Strength and Grace is no more requisite to make all Persons true Christians and true Believers than the same Tallness of Stature and Largeness of Limbs are required in every one to make him a true Man And therefore when our Saviour promises his assistance it is only thus that his * 2 Cor. XII 9. Grace shall be sufficient for us That is we shall have all necessary Supplies But it is very certain that the Necessities of Men differ according to their several Circumstances and Capacities in the World and as These change so their occasions change also Now from hence it will follow both that what is sufficient for One Man is not so for Another And likewise that what is sufficient for the same Person at One time may not Answer his Exigencies nor suffice for his purpose at Another time In a Post of Eminence and Authority where a Man's Office obliges him to instruct or govern others a larger share of Wisdom and Prudence and Piety is needful to arm such a one against the hazards of a