Serviceableness to others The first of these challengeth Men's Esteem the other their Love Now both these Qualities Religion and Vertue do eminently possess us of For First The Religious Man is certainly the most Worthy and Excellent Person for he of all others lives most up to the great End for which he was designed which is the natural measure of the Goodness and Worth of Things Whatever External Advantages a Man may have yet if he be not endow'd with Vertuous Qualities he is far from having any true Worth or Excellence and consequently cannot be a fit Object of our Praise and Esteem because he wants that which should make him Perfect and Good in his Kind For it is not a comely Personage or a long Race of Famous Ancestors or a large Revenue or a multitude of Servants or many swelling Titles or any other thing without a Man that speaks him a Compleat Man or makes him to be what he should be But the right use of his Reason the employing his Liberty and Choice to the best purposes the exercising his Powers and Faculties about the fittest Objects and in the most due Measures these are the Things that make him Excellent Now none can be said to do this but only he that is Vertuous Secondly Religion also is that which makes a Man most Vseful and Profitable to others for it effectually secures his performance of all those Duties whereby both the Security and Welfare of the Publick and also the Good and Advantage of particular Persons is most attained It makes Men Lovers of their Country Loyal to their Prince Obedient to Laws It is the surest Bond and Preservative of Society in the World It obliges us to live peaceably and to submit our selves to our Rulers not only for Wrath but also for Conscience sake It renders us modest and governable in Prosperity and resolute and couragious to suffer bravely in a good Cause in the worst of Times It teacheth us to endeavour as much as in us lies to promote the Good of every particular Member of the Community to be inflexibly upright to do hurt to none but good Offices to all to be charitable to the Bodies and Souls of Men to do all manner of Kindnesses that lie within our power It takes off the Sowrness and Moroseness of our Spirits and makes us Affable and Courteous Gentle and Obliging and willing to embrace with open Arms and an hearty Love all Sorts and Conditions of Men. In every Relation wherein we can stand to one another it influenceth upon us in order to the making us more useful It makes Parents kind and indulgent and careful of the Education of their Children and Children loving and obedient to their Parents It makes Servants diligent to please their Masters and to do their Work in Singleness of Heart not with Eye-service as Men-pleasers but as unto God and it makes Masters gentle and forbearing and careful to make provision for their Family as those that know they have a Master in Heaven that is no Respecter of Persons In a word There is no Condition or Capacity in which Religion will not be signally an Instrument of making us more serviceable to others and of doing more good in the World And if such be the Spirit and Temper of it how is it possible but it must needs acquire a great deal of Respect and Love from all sorts of Men If Obligingness and doing good in one's Generation do not endear a Man to those that know him do not entitle him to their Love and Affections what thing in the World is there that is likely to do it But Secondly True and unaffected Goodness seldom misses of a good Reputation in the World How unjust to Vertue soever Men are in other respects yet in this they generally give it its due where-ever it appears it generally meets with Esteem and Approbation nay it has the good Word of many that otherwise are not over-fond of Religion Though they have not the Grace to be Good themselves yet they rarely have the Confidence not to commend Goodness in others Add to this that no Man ever raised to himself a Good Name in the World but it was upon the score of his Vertues either Real or Pretended Vice hath sometimes got Riches and advanced it self into Preferments but it never was accounted Honourable in any Nation It must be acknowledged indeed that it may and doth sometimes happen that Vicious Men may be had in Esteem but then it is to be considered that it is not for their Vices that they are esteemed but for some good Quality or other they are eminent in And there is no doubt if those Men were without those Vices their Reputation would be so far from being thereby diminished that it would become much more Considerable It must also be acknowledged on the other hand that even Vertuous and Good Men may sometimes fail of that Esteem and Respect that their Vertue seems to merit nay in that degree as to be slighted and despised and to have many Odious Terms and Nick-names put upon them But when we consider the Cases in which this happens it will appear to be of no force at all for the disproving what has been now delivered For First It ought to be considered what kind of Persons those are that treat Vertue and Vertuous Men thus Contemptuously we shall always find them to be the Worst and the Vilest of Mankind such who have debauched the natural Principles of their Minds have lost all the Notions and Distinctions of Good and Evil are fallen below the Dignity of Humane Nature and have nothing to bear up themselves with but Boldness and Confidence Drollery and Scurrility and turning into Ridicule every thing that is grave and serious But it is with these as it is with the Monsters and Extravagances of Nature they are but very Few Few in comparison of the rest of Mankind who have wiser and truer Sentiments of Things But if they were more numerous no Man of Understanding would value what such Men said of him It looks like a Crime to be commended by such Persons and may justly occasion a Man to reflect upon his own Actions and to cry out to himself as He did of old What have I done that these Men speak well of me But Secondly It cannot be denied but that some Persons who are otherwise Vertuous and Religious may be guilty of such Indiscretions as thereby to give others occasion to slight and despise them But then it is to be considered that this is not to be charged upon Vertue and Religion but is the particular Fault of the Persons Every one that is Religious is not Prudent the Meanness of a Man's Vnderstanding or his rash and intemperate Zeal or the Moroseness of his Temper or his too great Scrupulosity about little things may sometimes make his Behaviour Vncouth and Fantastick and betray him to do many Actions which he may think his Religion obliges him
do so perversly apply to their own Case as thereby to increase their trouble but not to get any relief I have known several well-disposed Persons and some of them sincerely Pious that have been in this Condition What now is to be said to this Why it is very certain that all these Thoughts and Fancies are thrust upon them and are not the free natural voluntary Operations of their own Minds but the effects of Vapours or Hypochondriac Melancholy Nor can the Persons themselves any more help their thus Thinking or Fancying than they can help the Disturbances of their Dreams when they have a mind to sleep quietly Indeed we may properly enough call these Fancies of theirs their waking Dreams as their Dreams are their sleeping Fancies Well but now of all Persons whatsoever these People are most desirous to have Rules given them for the Government of their Thoughts And I cannot blame them because their Thoughts are certainly very Troublesome But truely if we should speak pertinently to their Case instead of giving them Advices for the regulating their Thoughts they should rather be advised to look after their Bodies and by the help of good Prescriptions to get rid of those Fumes and Vapours which occasion these Fancies When the Cause is removed the effect will soon cease I do not in the least doubt whatever these People may think of their own Case but that this is as properly a Bodily Disease as a Feaver or Fits of the Falling Sickness In the mean time while they are in this Condition whatever Rules are proper to be given to other Persons for the Government of the Thoughts of all People living those Rules do the least concern them For those Thoughts which they complain of do not at all fall under Regulation or Government because they are suggested to their Minds whether they will or no. And for my part I think it a great deal more advisable if it could be to neglect and despise them than to be perpetually strugling and disputing with them and vexing themselves about them But you will say If Men be such Slaves to their Thoughts and are thus necessarily passive under them where is the Freedom of Thought To this I answer In the fourth place out of these three Cases I before mentioned we have Liberty of Thinking and may chuse our own Thoughts And that Liberty and Freedom we have in Thinking doth to my apprehension mainly consist in this viz. That all of us who are not in the Circumstances I have been hitherto speaking of can if we please apply our Minds more vigorously to one sort of thing than to another and accordingly as we do thus apply our Minds so will the most of our Thoughts be It is in our power among the multitude of Objects which present themselves to our Mind as for Instance God Vertue Holiness Heaven Wealth Power Greatness Preferments Fine Cloaths Splendid Equipage Sensual Pleasures Recreations Divertisements Knowledge Learning Arts and the like I say that among all this multitude of Objects that present themselves to our Minds it is in our power to determine our selves which of them we will dwell upon and make a Business of And accordingly when at any time we have pitched upon any of them as a Business it is in our power to mind that Business either more or less diligently And if it be such a one as that we mean in good earnest to concern our selves about it it will then so fill our Minds as that by attending to that we shall either prevent in a great measure other Thoughts from coming into our Heads or if they do come in they will not long stay there but will very speedily give place to that which is our main Business at that time And the Reason of this is plain Because our Natures are of that Make that two things at once cannot well possess our Minds and therefore if we be intent about one thing we cannot have much room or leisure for Thoughts of another Nature But then Fifthly and lastly Though this that I have said be the true Nature of that power we have over our Thoughts as to the directing them to a particular Object Yet there is another power we have over them that ought here more especially to be considered because in it are laid the very Foundations of Vertue and Vice and upon account of it all our thoughts become either morally good or evil That which I mean is this Though we cannot in many Cases think always of what we would nay though we cannot hinder abundance of Thoughts from coming into our Minds against our will Yet it is always in our power to assent to our Thoughts or to deny our Consent to them And here it is that the Morality of our Thoughts begins According as we Assent or Dissent to the Motions that are made in our Minds so will our Thoughts have the Notion of Vertuous or Sinful Thoughts When any Temptations are presented to us from without we cannot perhaps as I said before avoid the feeling an irregular Passion or Motion or Inclination stirring within us upon occasion thereof But yet at that very time it is in our power whether we will comply with those Passions and Inclinations or not whether we will consent to them or not whether we will pursue them further or not Now if we do not consent to them but endeavour to stop and stifle and resist them as soon as we are aware of them there is yet no harm done Our Thoughts how undecent or irregular soever they were are rather to be accounted the Infirmities of our Corrupt Nature than our Sins properly so called And thus it is likewise as to our Wandring Thoughts in our Prayers If we strive against them and endeavour to keep our Minds in a Devout Composed Temper and attend as well as we can to the Duty we are about I say if we do this I hope those Distractions and Wandrings will never rise up in Judgment against us And as for the frightful Blasphemous Fancies which as I told you some even Pious Persons are tormented with As to them I say they of all other irregular Thoughts have the least danger of Sin in them though they be not so solemnly and formally disputed with and contested against Because indeed they are so terrible in their own Nature that no Man in his Wits and that hath any sense of God or Goodness can be supposed to consent to them They are indeed great Infelicities but by no means any Sin any farther than we approve of them and to approve of them for any tolerable good Man is impossible But then on the other side If we consent to any wicked Motion or Inclination that we feel in our selves let it come in how it will never so suddenly never so unexpectedly if we close with any Thought that prompts us to Evil so as to be pleased with it to delight in it to think of pursuing it till
this state of Life we gratifie our Highest and Noblest Powers the intellectual Appetites of our Souls which as they are infinitely capacious so have they an infinite good to fill them whereas in the sensual Life the meanest the dullest and the most contracted Faculties of our Souls were only provided for But what need I carry you out into these Speculations when your own sense and experience will ascertain you in this matter above a thousand Arguments Do but seriously set your selves to serve God if you have yet never done it do but once try what it is to live up to the Precepts of Reason and Veriue and Religion and I dare confidently pronounce that you will in one mouth find more Joy more Peace more Content to arise in your spirits from the sense that you have resisted the Temptations of Evil and done what was your duty to do than in many years spent in Vanity and a Licentious course of living I doubt not in the least but that after you have once seen and tasted how gracious the Lord is how good all his ways are but you will proclaim to all the World that One day spent in his Courts is better than a thousand Nay you will be ready to cry out with the Roman Orator if it be lawful to quote the Testimony of a Heathen after that of the Divine Psalmist that One day lived according to the Precepts of Vertue is to be preferred before an Immortality of Sin You will then alter all your sentiments of things and wonder that you should have been so strangely abused by false representations of Vertue and Vice You will then see that Religion is quite another thing than it appeared to you before you became acquainted with it Instead of that grim sowre unpleasant Countenance in which you heretofore painted her to your self you will then discover nothing in her but what is infinitely Lovely and Charming Those very Actions of Religion which you now cannot think upon with Patience they seem so harsh and unpleasant you will then find to be accompanied with a wonderful Delight You will not then complain of the narrowness of the Bounds or the scantiness of the Measures that it hath confined your desires to for you will then find that you have hereby gained an entrance into a far greater and more perfect Liberty How ungentilely how much against the grain of Nature soever it now looks to forgive an Injury or an Affront you will then find it to be as far more easie so far more sweet than to revenge one You will no longer think works of Charity burdensome or expensive or that to do good Offices to every one is an employment too mean for you for you will then experience that there is no sensuality like that of doing Good and that it is a greater pleasure to do a kindness than to riceive one How will you chide your self for having been so averse to Prayer and other devout Exercises accounting them as tiresome unsavoury things when you begin to feel the delicious Relishes they leave upon your Spirit You will then confess that no Conversation is half so agreeable as that which we enjoy with God Almighty in Prayer no Cordial so reviving as heartily to pour out our Souls unto him And then to be affected with his Mercies to praise and give thanks to him for his Benefits what is it but a very Heaven upon Earth an anticipation of the Joys of Eternity Nay you will not be without your pleasures even in the very entrance of Religion then when you exercise acts of Repentance when you mourn and afflict your self for your sins which seems the frightfullest thing in all Religion For such is the nature of that holy sorrow that you would not for all the World be without it and you will find far greater Contentment and Satisfaction in grieving for your Offences than ever you did receive from the Committing them But O the ineffable Pleasures that do continually spring up in the heart of a good Man from the snse of God's Love and the hope of his Favour and the fair prospect he hath of the Joy and Happiness of the other World How pleasing how transporting will the thought of these things be to you To think that you are one of those happy Souls that are of an Enemy become the Friend of God that your ways please him and that you are not only Pardoned but Accepted and Beloved by him to think that you a poor Creature who were of your self nothing and by your sins had made your self far worse than nothing are yet by the goodness of your Saviour become so considerable a Being as to be able to give delight to the King of the World and to cause joy in Heaven among the Blessed Angels by your Repentance to think that God charges his Providence with you takes care of all your Concerns hears all your Prayers provides all things needful for you and that he will in his good time take you up unto himself to live everlastingly in his Presence to be partaker of his Glories to be ravished with his Love to be acquainted with his Counsels to know and be known by Angels Archangels and Seraphims to enjoy a Conversation with Prophets Apostles and Martyrs and all the Raised and Glorified Spirits of Brave Men and with all these to spend a happy and a rapturous Eternity in Adoring in Loving in Praising God for the Infiniteness of his Wisdom and the Miracles of his Mercy and Goodness to all his Creatures Can there be any Pleasure like this Can any thing in the World put you into such an Ecstasie of Joy as the very thought of these things With what a mighty scorn and contempt will you in the sense of them look down upon all the little Gauderies and sickly Satisfactions that the Men of this World keep such a stir about How empty and evanid how flat and unsavoury will the best Pleasures on Earth appear to you in comparison of these Divine Contentments You will perpetually rejoyce you will sing Praises to your Saviour you will bless they day that ever you became acquainted with him you will confess him to be the only master of Pleasure in the World and that you never knew what it was to be an Epicure indeed till you became a Christian Thus have I gone through all those Heads which I at first proposed to insist on What now remains but that I resume the Apostle's Exhortation with which I began this Discourse that since as you have seen Godliness is so exceedingly profitable to all the purposes of this Life as well as the other since as you have seen Length of days is in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honour and all her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace you would also be persuaded seriously to Apply your selves to the exercise of it Which that you may do God of his c. SERMON