more Sons to bestow upon us he being the only begotten of his Father Heaven and Earth are not able to furnish him with such another Gift to bestow upon us and if he should lay a Tax upon all his Creation to raise one great Contribution to the Happiness of Mankind and exact the utmost of every Creature that it is able to Contribute it would all fall infinitely short of what he hath done for us in this inestimable Gift of his own Son So that if this prove ineffectual it is beyond the Power of an omnipotent Bounty to relieve us For though God can do all Things that can be well and wisely done and do not imply a Contradiction yet this can be no Relief at all to us who reject his Son and refuse to be made happy in the gracious Method which he hath prescribed to us For after this mighty Gift of his own Son to save us according to the Method of his Gospel there remains nothing more to be done for us but either to save us whether we will or no or else to make us happy in our Sins and save us notwithstanding our Continuance in them the former of which can neither be well nor wisely done because by saving us against our Wills he must deal with us in such a Way as is repugnant to that Law of Liberty that is implanted in our Natures and use us not as Free but as Necessary Agents And if considering all things it was best and wisest that he should make us free Agents then it can neither be well nor wise to govern us as necessary ones since by so doing he must alter the Course of our Nature and consequently swerve and decline from what is best and wisest which would be to do Violence to the Perfection of his own Nature And then as for the latter he cannot do it because it implies a Contradiction For to make Men happy in their Sins is to make them happy in their Miseries Misery being as inseparable from Sin as Heat is from Fire and as intimately related to it as the Son is to the Father and consequently he may as possibly make a Father without a Son as a Sinner without Misery When therefore God hath done all for us that can possibly be done and we by our own Obstinacy have rendred all ineffectual we are beyond the Power of Remedy and must necessarily perish in our Sins And when we have no other Hope to depend on but this that the All-wise God will undo his own Workmanship and unravel our Nature by governing us contrary to the most wise Constitution of it or that the All-powerful God will effect Impossibilities and do that for us which is not an Object of Power how deplorable and desperate must our Condition be Wherefore as you would not run your selves beyond the Reach of all Mercy and excommunicate your own Souls from all Hope of Salvation be now at last persuaded to comply with Christ's Coming which was to reduce you from the Error of your Ways and to bring you to a serious Repentance JOHN III. 16 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life IN these Words you have the Love of God measured by a twofold Standard first by the Greatness of the Gift which he hath bestowed upon the World God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son Secondly by the blessed End for which he did bestow him that whosoever believeth in him should not perish c. The first of these I have already gone through and now I shall proceed to the Second viz. The blessed End for which he gave his only begotten Son That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life In which Words you have also two very great Instances of God's infinite Love and good Will to Mankind the First is his imposing upon us such a gentle and easie and merciful Condition That whosoever believeth in him Secondly His proposing such a vast Reward to us upon our performing of this Condition I begin with the first viz. His imposing upon us such a gentle and easie and merciful Condition That whosoever believeth in him should not perish In the Management of which I shall do these two Things 1. Shew you what it is that is included in this Condition whosoever believeth in him 2. How good God hath been to us in making the Condition which he hath imposed upon us so gentle and merciful 1. What is it that is included in this Condition To which I answer in general that believing in Christ doth not only denote a naked Assent to the Truth of this Proposition That he is the Son of Cod and the Messenger of Gods Mind and Will to the World and the Saviour of Mankind but that it also includes whatsoever is naturally consequent thereunto For thus it is very ordinary with the Scripture to express the natural Effects and Consequents of things by their Causes and Principles This is the love of God saith the Apostle that we keep his Commandments 1 Jo. v. 3 whereas in strictness of Speaking our keeping his Commandments is only the Effect or Consequence of our loving him So Prov. viii 13 The fear of the Lord is to hate evil whereas indeed this is only the Effect or Consequence of the Fear of the Lord. Thus by knowing and hearing and remembring of God the Scripture usually expresses the consequent Effects of them Thus Act. xxii 14 The God of our Fathers hath chosen thee that thou shouldst know his Will that is that thou mayst not only know it but by thy Knowledge mayst be suitably affected with it for it was not to a bare contemplative Knowledge of it that St. Paul was chosen and then it follows and see that Just one and shouldst hear the voice of his Mouth that is that hearing the Voice of his Mouth thou shouldst thereby be induced to obey it for he was not meerly to hear Christ speaking to him out of the Heavens but that hearing him he might submit to his Will and become his Apostle to the World Many other Places I might easily give you where the natural Effects and Consequents are in Scripture expressed by their Causes and Principles And thus also Faith or Believing whensoever it is used in Scripture to signify the Condition of the Gospel-Covenant always imploies its natural Effects and Consequents that is sincere and universal Obedience to those Rules of Holy Living which the Gospel prescribes for this is the most natural Effect of our believing in Jesus Christ. And hence it is called the obedience of Faith Rom. xvi 26 that is the Obedience which springs from Faith as from its Cause and Principle And accordingly Rom. x. 16 you find that to believe and to obey the Gospel signifies one and the same Thing But they have not all obeyed the Gospel saith he for Esaias saith Lord who hath believed our report that is who hath believed it so
Obedience to Superiors and Contempt of the World of Patience and Courage and Meekness and Resignation to the Will of God that so by his Example we might be excited to the Exercise of all those passive Virtues which are not only most glorious but most difficult to human Nature and that by beholding how mean and yet how good he was we might all become more ambitious of being good than great in the World Now what an amazing Instance of God's Goodness is this that meerly for our sakes and to promote our Happiness he should depress his own Son into such a miserable Condition that he who was in the Form of God who thought it no Robbery to be equal with God should by the Appointment of his own Father to whom he was so infinitely dear make himself of no Reputation take on him the Form of a Servant become a Man of sorrows and acquaint himself with Griefs and all this to put himself into a better Capacity of doing good to the World Good God! When I consider with my self that once there was a Time when thou didst send thy blessed Son from Heaven to assume my Nature that therein he dwelt upon this Earth and conversed with such poor Mortals as my self that he suffered himself to be despised and persecuted and by thy own Appointment wandred about like a poor Wretch naked and destitute of all those Comforts which I abundantly enjoy and all this that he might the more effectually do good to a World of ill-natured Sinners methinks this wonderous Prodigy of Love not only puzles my Conceit but outreaches my Wonder and Admiration And though it be a Love that exceeds my largest Thoughts such as I have infinite Cause to rejoyce in but could never have had the Impudence to expect yet while I stand gazing on it methinks I am like one that is looking down from a stupendous Precipice whose Height fills me with a trembling Horror and even oversets my Reason 6 thly And lastly The Greatness of God's Love and Goodness towards us appears also in this that he gave his only begotten Son to be a Sacrifice for the Sins of miserable Sinners and this is plainly implied in that Expression he gave his only begotten Son For in the two Verses foregoing the Text our Saviour foretells his own Death for as Moses saith he lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal Life and then it immediately follows for God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that is he gave him to be lifted up upon the Cross even as the Serpent was lifted up by Moses in the Wilderness that so by his precious Death and Sacrifice he might make an Atonement for the Sins of the World And accordingly he is said to be delivered up for our offences Rom. iv 25 even as the Sacrifice was delivered up at the Door of the Tabernacle to propitiate God for the Sins of the Offerer For to compleat the propitiatory Sacrifices under the Law three Things were requisite first the offering of it at the Door of the Tabernacle the slaying of it and the presenting of its Blood either within the Holy of Holies or elsewhere all which were found in the Sacrifice of our blessed Saviour First he offered himself to God as a willing Victim for the Sins of the World Hence Joh. xvii 19 for this cause saith he do I sanctify my self that is offer up my self as a Sacrifice to thee for so in Levit. xxii 2 3. and sundry other places to hallow or sanctify any Thing to the Lord denotes the offering it to him in Sacrifice And accordingly we find that that Prayer by which Christ consecrated himself to the Lord Joh. xvii was much like that by which the High Priest did consecrate his Victims before the Altar on the great day of Expiation for as he before he slew the Sacrifice did first commend himself and his own Family then the Family of Aaron and the whole Congregation to the Lord so our Saviour in this excellent Prayer whereby he sanctified himself to his Father a Sacrifice for the Sins of the World first commended himself to him then his Apostles then all those who should afterwards believe in his Name which having done he went forth presently to the Place where he was apprehended and carried to Judgment and condemned to Death Then as a propitiatory Sacrifice he was slain for our sins for so St. Peter tells us Ephes. ii 24 he bore our Sins in his own Body on the Tree that is that natural Evil of a most shameful and painful Death was inflicted on him for our Sins that so he might make an Expiation for them and free us from the Guilt and Punishment that was due to them Hence in that Prophecy of him Isa. liii we often meet with such Expressions as these surely he hath born our Griefs and carried our Sorrows he was Wounded for our Transgressions he was Bruised for our Iniquities The chastisement of our Peace was upon him and with his Stripes we are Healed The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all For the transgression of my people was he stricken Thou shalt make his Soul an offering for Sin and he shall bear their Iniquities He was numbered with the Transgressors and he bare the sin of Many and made intercession for the Transgressors All which Expressions do plainly imply that what he suffered he suffered for our Sins as a Sacrifice substituted in the Room of us who were the Offenders that so he might make Expiation for us and obtain our Pardon from his Father And accordingly in the New Testament he is said to be made a Curse for us to be our Ransom and Propitiation to redeem and reconcile us and obtain the Remission of our Sins by his Blood to die for us and for our Sins and to be our Propitiation all which Expressions being applyed to the Sacrifices of Atonement under the Law and from them derived upon our Saviour do plainly denote him to be a Sacrifice of Atonement for the Sins of the World And then lastly there is the presenting of his Blood for us in Heaven and in the Virtue thereof his interceeding for us with his Father And hence the Blood of Christ as it is now presented in Heaven is called the blood of Sprinkling which speaketh better things than that of Abel Heb. xii 24 In which he plainly alludes to the High Priest's sprinkling of the Blood of the Sacrifice in the Holy of Holies which was a Type of Christs presenting his Blood for us in Heaven as you may see Heb. ix 7 compared with the 11th and 12th Verses Verse 7th he tells us that the High Priest entered not into the Holy of Holies without blood But then Verse 12th it is said that Christ with his own blood entred in once into the holy
Porphery tells us that the first Rise of the Sacrifice of Animals was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 certain Occasions requiring that a Soul should be offered up for a Soul that is the Life of a Beast for the Life of a Man for it was the constant Opinion that the more worthy the Sacrifice which they offered the more effectual it was to appease their offended Divinities And hence in many Places the ordinary Sacrifice of Attonement which they offered was the Lives of Men and though this indeed was most used in the most barbarous Countries yet in Cases of great Danger and Extremity the Greeks and Romans themselves did frequently Sacrifice humane Lives to their Gods for so it is recorded of the Romans that when their City was in great Danger of being taken by Hanibal they sacrificed a Man to their Tutelar God And Servius tells us of the Massilians that in Time of Pestilence one of the poorer sort was wont to offer himself to be sacrificed for the whole City who being for a whole Year nourished with the purest Meat was then led about the City adorned with sacred Vestments and Cathartick Herbs the People following him making solemn Execrations that the Plague might be removed from the City and fall upon his Head which done they offered him up in a Sacrifice And in other Places they offered up pure Virgins of the noblest Families to propitiate their angry Gods and elsewhere as Servius tells us they were wont to cast a Man into the Sea with this Imprecation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is be thou our Purgament or Redemption So also it is said of the Athenians that they maintained some of the most unprofitable and ignoble of their People that so when any great Calamity befell the City they might offer them up in Sacrifice to appease their Gods And that Passage of Caesar concerning the Gallic Nation is very observable that in Cases of great Danger and Calamity they either devoted themselves to the Altar or else offered up some Man in their Stead quod pro vita hominis nisi hominis vita reddatur non posse Deorum immortalium Numen placari arbitrantur that is thinking that the immortal God's would never be appeased unless they offered up to them the Life of a Man for the Life of a Man All which is an Evidence that they not only thought Sacrifices necessary to appease God but that they also believed the better the Sacrifice was the more effectually it did appease him Nor did they think it less necessary that there should be some Intercessor between them and the Supream Divinity to Solicite their Cause and render Sin propitious to their Desires And hence it was the general Doctrin of their Divines that 't was great Prophaneness for any thing that was earthly and sinful immediately to approach that Pure and Divine Being but that the Demons were to be the Mediators and Agents between him and mortal Men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plato in his Sympos expresses it that is God is not approached by Men but all the Commerse and Intercourse between him and us is performed by the Mediation of Demons So that howsoever they came by this Principle it is apparent that they generally believed both Sacrifices and a Mediator to be necessary Means to reconcile them to God and that without these they could not satisfy themselves that God would be propitious to them no not upon their Repentance and Reformation Some good Hopes they might have and it is apparent they had from the Goodness and Benignity of the Divine Nature that if they forsook their Sins God would not be inexorable to them at least they could not tell but they might find Mercy but yet they durst not absolutely trust to this without devoting some other to suffer in their Stead and engaging some other to intercede in their Behalf And therefore we see that when the King of Nineveh upon Jonah's Preaching obliged his People to Fasting and Repentance the utmost Encouragement he could give them was only this Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not Jonah iii. 9 Wherefore to give us the highest Assurance of Pardon if we repent God hath been so infinitely good to us as to choose that very Method of reconciling us to himself which we had chalked out to him and to meet with us in our own Way thereby to give us a fuller Assurance of his most gracious and merciful Intentions to us for how could he have better satisfied the Anxiousness and Jealousy of our guilty Minds than in granting us our Pardon in that very Way wherein we did so universally hope for and expect it Good God! How indulgent hast thou been to thy poor Creatures that wast not only so ready to pardon them upon their Repentance but so careful to give them the most effectual Assurance of it that so thou might'st remove all discouragements out of the Way to our Amendment and Happiness For doubtless the Reason why he took this Way of Pardoning us more than another was not only because it was best in it self and most for the Interest of his own Government but also because of all others it was the most effectual to satisfy our guilty Fears and assure us of his merciful Intentions to receive us into Favour again upon our Repentance and Amendment For when Mankind were so unanimously agreed in this Belief that without a Sacrifice and a Mediator he would not be appeased how could he more effectually have convinced our Mistrust of his Mercy than by sending his own Son to be our Sacrifice and Mediator to die for our Sins upon Earth and intercede for our Pardon in Heaven So that if now we will heartily repent of our Sins and forsake them we have all the security of Mercy that we can desire our God being attoned by the noblest Sacrifice that ever was and interceded with on our Behalf by the most powerful and prevailing Mediator Having therefore such an High Priest over the House of God we may safely draw near with a true Heart in full assurance of Faith as the Apostle expresses it Heb. x. 21 22. Thus you see how good and gracious God hath been to us in the Way and Method which he hath prescribed of pardoning our Sins and releasing us from the obligation of Punishment for ever which is so wise and good and every way God-like that I think had I no other Reason to believe the Christian Religion but only this wondrous Contrivance of pardoning Sinners revealed in the Gospel this would have been enough to persuade me that none but a God could be the Author and Contriver of it And now I shall conclude this Argument with a few Inferences 1. From hence I infer what a very great Evil Sin is seeing it is such an Evil as binds us over to perish for ever and such as nothing can make Expiation for but only
disgraces the most righteous Religion and introduces the most gross Unrighteousness Again Thirdly 'T is a common Principle of Christianity that true Repentance is indispensably necessary to the Salvation of Sinners upon which they have superstructed their Sacrament of Pennance which joyned with Absolution is of such Sovereign Virtue as to Transubstantiate a Sorrow proceeding from the Fear of Hell into true and saving Repentance By which Doctrin they have most directly superseded all the Obligations of Righteousness For what need I put my self to the Trouble of a holy and righteous Life when for allarming my self before I go to Confession into some frightful Apprehensions of Hell I can be dubbed a true Penitent and receive the Remission of my Sins For now my old Score being all wiped off I may Sin on merrily on a new Account and when I make my next Reckoning 't is but being afraid of Hell again and I am sure to receive a new Acquittance in full of all Demands and Dues And when I have spent all my Life in this Round and Circle of Unrighteousnss 't is but sending for a Priest at my last Breath confessing my Sins and dreading the Punishment of them and with a few magical Words he shall immediately conjure me to Heaven or at least out of Danger of Hell Once more it is a common Principle of Christianity that the Wages of Sin is eternal Death upon which they have introduced their Doctrins of Purgatory and Indulgencies which like Simeon and Levi Brethren in Iniquity do both conspire to render Righteousness a needless Thing For by the Sacrament of Pennance the eternal Punishment of Hell is changed into the temporary one of Purgatory and by Indulgencies especially plenary ones the temporary Punishment of Purgatory is wholly remitted and extinguished so that the first lessens the Punishment of Sin and the last annihilates it And by this Means are Sinners mightily imboldened to go on being assured that upon the Sacrament of Pennance they shall commute Hell for Purgatory and that upon plenary Indulgence they shall exchange Purgatory for Heaven Many other Instances of this Nature might be given but it would be endless to enumerate all those unrighteous Principles with which their Casuistical Divinity abounds the Frauds and Falsifications the Treasons and Murders the Slanders and Perjuries which their Guides of Conscience do not only tolerate but commend For I will maintain that there is scarce any Villany in Nature so notorious which by the Principles of some or other of their allowed Casuists may not be wholly vindicated or at least extenuated into venial Crimes So that considering the whole Frame and Structure of the Popish Religion I do most seriously believe it to be one of the most effectual Engins to undermine and tear up the Foundations of Righteousness that ever the Devil forged or made use of and were it not for those common Principles of Christianity that are intermingled with it and do allay and sometimes I hope overpower the Venom of it I am verily persuaded that the Religion of Heathens would sooner make Men righteous than that of Papists For I do affirm that there is not one Principle of pure Popery that is either a Rule of Righteousness or a Motive to it but contrariwise that the most of its Principles seem to have been purposely calculated to affront Men's Reason and debauch their Manners and if so then we may easily guess whether this be a true Religion or no which in all its Parts is so repugnant to that which God most dearly loves 2 dly Hence I infer upon what Terms a Man may safely conclude that he is beloved of God for if he hath that amiable Quality within him which is the eternal Reason of God's Love he may be sure he is beloved of him If our Souls be adorned with that Righteousness which the righteous Lord loves we may safely conclude that we are his Favourites and shall never cease to be so whilst we continue so adorned For 't is as impossible for God not to love righteous Souls as not to be righteous himself for whilst he continues so his own Nature must needs incline him to love all those in whom he finds his own most amiable Image and Resemblance Let us not therefore persuade our selves that we are beloved of God either upon any inward Whispers and Suggestions or upon any particular Marks and Signs of Grace for both these may abuse and deceive us and flatter our Minds into false and groundless Assurances We may think 't is the Spirit of God that whispers to us when all of a suddain we feel our selves surprized with joyous and comfortable Thoughts and yet this may be nothing else but a Frisk of melancholy Vapors heated and fermented by a feverish Humour For those suddain Joys and Dejections which are so often interpreted the Incomes and Withdrawings of the Spirit of God do commonly proceed from no higher Cause than the Shiverings and Burnings of an Ague and I am very sure that Histerical Fits are very often mistaken for spiritual Experiences and that when Men have most confidently believed themselves overshadowed by the Holy Ghost their Fancies have been only hagged and ridden with the Enthusiastick Vapours of their own Spleen And sometimes I make no doubt but this suddain Flush of joyous Thoughts proceeds from a worse Cause even from the Suggestion of the Devil who though he hath no immediate Access to the Minds of Men can yet doubtless act upon our Spirits and Humours and by their Means figure our Fancies into spritely Ideas and tickle our Hearts into a Rapture And this Power of his we may reasonably suppose he is ready enough to exert upon any mischievous Occasion when he finds Men willing to be deceived and to rely upon ungrounded Confidences Let us not therefore build our Hopes of the divine Favour upon any such uncertain Foundations but impartially examin our selves whether we are really righteous for unless we are so it is not more certain that God is righteous than that these our pretended spiritual Incomes and Inundations of Joy and Comfort are either the Freaks of our own Temper or else the Injections of the Devil For how can you imagin that the God of all Righteousness and Truth can without infinite Violence to his own Nature either love or pretend Love to an unrighteous Soul But then you will say by what Signs and Tokens shall we know whether we are righteous or no To which I answer that there is nothing can be a true Sign and Token of Righteousness which is distinct from Righteousness it self For Righteousness is its own Sign and if any Man judges himself righteous by any Mark which is not an Act or Instance of Righteousness he deceives and abuses his own Soul But then we must have a Care that we do not argue from any one particular Mark or Instance of Righteousness to our being righteous in general For you may as well argue that
as to obey it So that wheresoever Faith is mentioned singly as the Condition of the Gospel-Covenant it is apparent it must be understood in the largest Sense as comprehending that Obedience which is the Effect and Consequence of it So 1 Joh. v. 1 Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God that is whosevever so believes the Truth of this Proposition as to practise upon it and govern his Life and Actions according to the Tenour and Direction of it is truly a Child of God For he who believes Christ to be the Messias but continues obstinately disobedient to his Laws is so far from being truly and really a Child of God that he thereby becomes ten Times more a Child of the Devil for saith the Apostle If I have all Faith and have not Charity I am nothing and Gal. v. 6 For in Jesus Christ neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Vncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love and if so then Faith it self is nothing abstracted from this blessed Effect of it i. e. working by love For in Gal. vi 15 he tells us that Circumcision is nothing but the new Creature by which new Creature he means an obedient Temper and Disposition of Mind as he plainly tells us 1 Cor. vii 19 Circumcision is nothing and Vncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the Commandments of God So that by these different Variations of expression it is apparent that by Faith as significant in the Account of Christ he always means a working Faith the Effect of which is the new Creature or keeping the Commandments of God And so I have done with the first Thing proposed which was to shew you what is included in this Condition whosoever believeth in him which you see is not to be confined to a bare and naked Belief of him but must be extended further even to that whole Course of Obedience which is the natural Effect of such a Belief So that whosoever believes in him is as much as if he had said Whosoever so believes in him as sincerely and universally to obey him 2. I proceed now to the next Thing which was to shew you how good God hath been to us in making the Condition which he hath imposed upon us so gentle and merciful and this will appear if we consider these five Things 1. That he hath put nothing into this Condition but what is in its own Nature exceeding good for us 2. That he hath most mercifully proportioned the Whole to the present State and Circumstances of our Nature 3. That he hath rendred the Whole almost necessarily consequent to our believing in Jesus Christ. 4. That to beget that Belief in us he hath given us the most plain and convincing Evidence 5. That to render this Belief operative he hath engaged himself to assist actuate and inliven it by his ow immediate Concurrence 1. That God hath put nothing into this Condition but what is in its own Nature exceeding good for us For there is no Precept in all the Gospel but what contains either some effectual Means or apparent Instance of what is morally and eternally Good and whatsoever is morally good is naturally so For the moral Goodness of Things consists in the Fitness and Reasonableness of them and that which is the moral Good or Duty of Men consists in doing that which is eternally fit and reasonable for them considering the Frame and Circumstances of their Natures and the different Relations wherein they are placed in the World But now for Men to do what is eternally fit and reasonable is naturally good for and beneficial to themselves because by so doing they perfect and advance their Natures and accomplish their own Satisfaction and Happiness For our Reason being that proper Character of our Natures that distinguishes us from all sublunary Beings and sets us in a Form of Being above them the Perfection of our Nature must necessarily consist in being perfectly reasonable in having our Vnderstandings informed with the Principles of right Reason and our Wills and Affections regulated by them and when once we are released from the Slaveries of Sense and Passion and all our Powers are so perfectly subdued to this superior Principle of Reason as to do every Thing that it commands and nothing that it forbids and we chuse and refuse and love and hate and hope and fear and delight according as right Reason directs and dictates then and not till then we are come to the full Stature of perfect Men in Christ Jesus Now all the Duty of the Gospel being a reasonable Service as the Apostle calls it Rom. xii 1 the End and Tendency of it must be to habituate us to live according to the Laws of right Reason which is all one as to advance us to the Perfection of reasonable Beings and being once arrived at this we shall find unspeakable Satisfaction from within our selves and feel a Heaven of Joys springing up within our own Bosoms For when once our disjointed Powers are set in Order and all our Faculties reduced to their natural Subordination our Nature will be in perfect Rest and Ease being freed from that unnatural Violence and Oppression under which it now groans and cured of all those Spasms and Convulsions of Mind which are the inseparable Effects of its Lapse and Degeneracy And all the Motions of our Wills and Affections being regulated by the eternal Reason of our Minds with what delightful Relishes and sweet Gusts of Pleasure shall we taste and review our own Actions they being always such as our best and purest Reason doth approve of with a full and ungainsaying Judgment So that God's Commands you see being all of them most reasonable must necessarily tend to the Perfection and Happiness of our Nature besides that they generally promote even our sensitive Happiness our Pleasure and Profit and Reputation in this World Now what a most endearing Instance is this of God's Goodness towards us that he should make our Benefit the Measure of our Duty and oblige us to nothing but what is for our good that he should so far concern himself in our Happiness as to impose it upon us under the Penalty of his severest displeasure and to inforce his Laws with such inviting and such dreadful Sanctions only to secure us from running away from our own Mercies So that to be a Christian is in Effect nothing else but only to be obliged to be kind to our selves and bound in Conscience to be happy Good God that thou shouldst be so infinitely Zealous of our Welfare as to make the Means of it the only Matter of thy Laws and to promise such vast Rewards and denounce such dreadful Punishments against us for no other Reason but only to affright and allure us out of Misery into Happiness That thou shouldst hate our Sins so implacably only because they are our irreconcilable Enemies and be so infinitely pleased with our Obedience only because it leads to our