iniquities testifie against thee to thy very face How can there be peace when thy lusts and debaucheries thy impieties to God and thy injuries to men have been so many How can there be peace when thy whole life hath been a continued contempt and provocation of Almighty God and a perpetual violence and affront to the light and reason of thy own mind Therefore whatever temptation there may be in sin at a distance whatever pleasure in the act and commission of it yet remember that it always goes off with trouble and will be bitterness in the end Those words of Solomon have a terrible sting in the conclusion of them Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth and walk in the ways of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment This one thought which will very often unavoidably break into our minds that God will bring us into judgment is enough to dash all our contentment and to spoil all the pleasure of a sinful life Never expect to be quiet in thine own mind and to have the true enjoyment of thy self till thou livest a virtuous and religious life And if this discourse be true as I am confident I have every mans conscience on my side I say if this be true let us venture to be wise and happy that is to be Religious Let us resolve to break off our sins by repentance to fear God and keep his Commandments as ever we desire to avoid the unspeakable torments of a guilty mind and would not be perpetually uneasie to our selves Grant we beseech thee Almighty God that we may every one of us know and do in this our day the things that belong to our peace before they be hid from our eyes And the God of peace which brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ the great Shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the everlasting Covenant make us perfect in every good work to do his will working in us always that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen A SERMON Preached before the KING Febr. 26 th 1674 5. A SERMON Preached before the KING Febr. 26 th 1674 5. PSAL. CXIX 59 I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto thy testimonies THE two great causes of the ruin of men are Infidelity and want of consideration Some do not believe the principles of Religion or at least have by arguing against them rendered them so doubtful to themselves as to take away the force and efficacy of them But these are but a ve-very small part of mankind in comparison of those who perish for want of considering these things For most men take the principles of Religion for granted That there is a God and a Providence and a State of Rewards and Punishments after this life and never entertained any considerable doubt in their minds to the contrary But for all this they never attended to the proper and natural consequences of these principles nor applyed them to their own case They never seriously considered the notorious inconsistency of their lives with this belief and what manner of persons they ought to be who are verily perswaded of the truth of these things For no man that is convinced that there is a God and considers the necessary and immediate consequences of such a perswasion can think it safe to affront Him by a wicked life No man that believes the infinite happiness and misery of another world and considers withall that one of these shall certainly be his portion according as he demeans himself in this present life can think it indifferent what course he takes Men may thrust away these thoughts and keep them out of their minds for a long time but no man that enters into the serious consideration of these matters can possibly think it a thing indifferent to him whether he be happy or miserable for ever So that a great part of the evils of mens lives would be cured if they would but once lay them to heart would they but seriously consider the consequences of a wicked life they would see so plain reason and so urgent a necessity for the reforming of it that they would not venture to continue any longer in it This course David took here in the Text and he found the happy success of it I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto thy testimonies In which Words there are these two things considerable I. The course which David here took for the reforming of his life I thought on my ways II. The success of this course It produced actual and speedy reformation I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto thy testimonies I made haste and delayed not to keep thy commandments These are the two heads of my following discourse which when I have spoken to I shall endeavour to perswade my self and you to take the same course which David here did and God grant that it may have the same effect I. We will consider the course which David here took for the reforming of his life I thought on my ways or as the words are rendered in our old Translation I called mine own ways to remembrance And this may either signifie a general survey and examination of his life respecting indifferently the good or bad actions of it Or else which is more probable it may specially refer to the sins and miscarriages of his life I thought on my ways that is I called my sins to remembrance Neither of these senses can be much amiss in order to the effect mentioned in the Text viz. the reformation and amendment of our lives and therefore neither of them can reasonably be excluded though I shall principally insist upon the later 1. This thinking of our ways may signifie a general survey and examination of our lives respecting indifferently our good and bad actions For Way is a Metaphorical word denoting the course of a mans life and actions I thought on my ways that is I examined my life and called my self to a strict account for the actions of it I compared them with the Law of God the rule and measure of my duty and considered how far I had obeyed that Law or offended against it how much evil I had been guilty of and how little good I had done in comparison of what I might and ought to have done That by this means I might come to understand the true state and condition of my soul and discerning how many and great my faults and defects were I might amend whatever was amiss and be more careful of my duty for the future And it must needs be a thing of excellent use for men to set apart some particular times for the examination of themselves that they may know how accounts stand between God and them Pythagoras or
the Reward of his goodness 1. The Description of a good man He is said to be one that loves the Law of God that is that loves to meditate upon it and to practise it 2. The Reward of his goodness Great peace have they that love thy Law The word Peace is many times used in Scripture in a very large sense so as to comprehend all kind of happiness sometimes it signifies outward peace and quiet in opposition to war and contention and sometimes inward peace and contentment in opposition to inward trouble and anguish I understand the Text chiefly in this last sense not wholly excluding either of the other My design at present from these words is to recommend Religion to men from the consideration of that inward peace and pleasure which attends it And surely nothing can be said more to the advantage of Religion in the opinion of considerate men than this For the aim of all Philosophy and the great search of wise men hath been how to attain peace and tranquillity of mind And if Religion be able to give this a greater commendation need not be given to Religion But before I enter upon this Argument I shall premise two things by way of Caution First That these kind of Observations are not to be taken too strictly and rigorously as if they never failed in any one instance Aristotle observed long since that moral and proverbial sayings are understood to be true generally and for the most part and that is all the truth that is to be expected in them As when Solomon says Train up a child in the way wherein he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it This is not to be so taken as if no child that is piously educated did ever miscarry afterwards but that the good education of children is the best way to make good men and commonly approved to be so by experience So here when it is said that great peace have they that love Gods Law the meaning is that Religion hath generally this effect though in some cases and as to some persons it may be accidentally hindered Secondly When I say that Religion gives peace and tranquillity to our minds this is chiefly to be understood of a Religious state in which a man is well settled and confirmed and not of our first entrance into it for that is more or less troublesome according as we make it If we begin a religious course betimes before we have contracted any great guilt and before the habits of sin be grown strong in us the work goes on easily without any great conflict or resistance But the case is otherwise when a man breaks off from a wicked life and becomes religious from the direct contrary course in which he hath been long and deeply engaged In this case no man is so unreasonable as to deny that there is a great deal of sensible trouble and difficulty in the making of this change but when it is once made peace and comfort will spring up by degrees and daily encrease as we grow more confirmed and established in a good course These two things being premised I shall now endeavour to shew that Religion gives a man the greatest pleasure and satisfaction of mind and that there is no true peace nor any comparable pleasure to be had in a contrary course And that from these two heads From Testimony of Scripture and from the Nature of Religion which is apt to produce peace and tranquility of mind I. First From Testimony of Scripture I shall select some of those Texts which are more full and express to this purpose Job 22.21 speaking of God Acquaint thy self now with him and be at peace To acquaint our selves with God is a phrase of the same importance with coming to God and seeking of him and many other like expressions in Scripture which signifie nothing else but to become religious Psal 37.38 Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace Or as these words are rendred according to the LXX in our old Translation Keep innocency take heed to the thing that is right for that shall bring thee peace at the last Prov. 3.17 Where Solomon speaking of Wisdom which with him is but another name for Religion says Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace Isa 32.17 The work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever Matt. 11.28 29 Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Now to come to Christ is to become his Disciples to believe and practise his Doctrine for so our Saviour explains himself in the next words Take my yoke upon you and learn of me and ye shall find rest for your souls Rom. 2.10 Glory and honour and peace to every man that worketh good And on the contray the Scripture represents the condition of a sinner to be full of trouble and disquiet David though he was a very good man yet when he had grievously offended God the anguish of his mind was such as even to disorder and distemper his body Psal 38.2 3 4 Thine arrows stick fast in me and thy hand presseth me sore there is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin for mine iniquities are gone over mine head and as an heavy burthen they are too heavy for me Isa 57.20 21 The wicked are like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt there is no peace saith my God to the wicked And Isa 59.7.8 Misery and destruction are in their paths and the way of peace they know not they have made themselves crooked paths whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace Rom. 2.9 Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil You see how full and express the Scripture is in this matter I come now in the II. Second place To give you a more particular account of this from the Nature of Religion which is apt to produce peace and tranquillity of mind And that I shall do in these three particulars 1. Religion is apt to remove the chief causes of inward trouble and disquiet 2. It furnisheth us with all the true causes of peace and tranquillity of mind 3. The reflection upon a religious course of life and all the actions of it doth afterwards yield great pleasure and satisfaction First Religion is apt to remove the chief causes of inward trouble and disquiet The chief causes of inward trouble and discontent are these two Doubting and anxiety of mind and Guilt of Conscience Now Religion is apt to free us from both these 1. From Doubting and anxiety of mind Irreligion and Atheism makes a man full of doubts and jealousies whether he be in the right and whether at last things will not prove quite otherwise than he hath rashly
bodies indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil So that if these pleasures were greater than they are a man had better be without them than purchase them at such dear rates To the second That Religion imposeth many harsh and grievous things which seem to be inconsistent with that pleasure and satisfaction I have spoken of As the bearing of persecution repentance and mortification fasting and abstinence and many other rigours and severities As to persecution This Discourse doth not pretend that Religion exempts men from outward troubles but that when they happen it supports men under them better than any thing else As for Repentance and mortification this chiefly concerns our first entrance into Religion after a wicked life which I acknowledged in the beginning of this discourse to be very grievous But this doth not hinder but that though Religion may be troublesome at first to some persons whose former sins and crimes have made it so it may be pleasant afterwards when we are accustomed to it And whatever the trouble of repentance be it is unavoidable unless we resolve to be miserable for except we repent we must perish Now there is always a rational satisfaction in submitting to a less inconvenience to remedy and prevent a greater As for Fasting and abstinence which is many times very helpful and subservient to the ends of Religion there is no such extraordinary trouble in it if it be discreetly managed as is worth the speaking of And as for other rigours and severities which some pretend Religion does impose I have only this to say that if men will play the fool and make Religion more troublesome than God hath made it I cannot help that And that this is a false representation of Religion which some in the world have made as if it did chiefly consist not in pleasing God but in displeasing and tormenting our selves This is not to paint Religion like her self but rather like one of the Furies with nothing but whips and snakes about her To the third That those who are religious are many times very disconsolate and full of trouble This I confess is a great Objection indeed if Religion were the cause of this trouble but there are other plain causes of it to which Religion rightly understood is not accessary As false and mistaken principles in Religion The imperfection of our Religion and obedience to God And a melancholly temper and disposition False and mistaken principles in Religion As this for one That God does not sincerely desire the salvation of men but hath from all eternity effectually barr'd the greatest part of mankind from all possibility of attaining that happiness which he offers to them and every one hath cause to fear that he may be in that number This were a melancholly consideration indeed if it were true but there is no ground either from Reason or Scripture to entertain any such thought of God Our destruction is of our selves and no man shall be ruined by any decree of God who does not ruin himself by his own fault Or else the imperfection of our Religion and obedience to God Some perhaps are very devout in serving God but not so kind and charitable so just and honest in their dealings with men No wonder if such persons be disquieted the natural consciences of men being not more apt to disquiet them for any thing than for the neglect of those moral duties which natural light teacheth them Peace of conscience is the effect of an impartial and universal obedience to the laws of God and I hope no man will blame Religion for that which plainly proceeds from the want of Religion Or lastly A melancholly temper and disposition which is not from Religion but from our nature and constituion and therefore Religion ought not to be charged with it And thus I have endeavoured as briefly and plainly as I could to represent to you what peace and pleasure what comfort and satisfaction Religion rightly understood and sincerely practised is apt to bring to the minds of men And I do not know by what sort of Argument Religion can be more effectually recommended to wise and considerate men For in perswading men to be religious I do not go about to rob them of any true pleasure and contentment but to direct them to the very best nay indeed the onely way of attaining and securing it I speak this in great pity and compassion to those who make it their great design to please themselves but do grievously mistake the way to it The direct way is that which I have set before you a holy and virtuous life to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world A good man saith Solomon is satisfied from himself He hath the pleasure of being wise and acting reasonably the pleasure of being justified to himself in what he doth and of being acquitted by the sentence of his own mind There is a great pleasure in being innocent because that prevents guilt and trouble It is pleasant to be virtuous and good because that is to excel many others and it is pleasant to grow better because that is to excel our selves Nay it is pleasant even to mortifie and subdue our lusts because that is Victory It is pleasant to command our appetites and passions and to keep them in due order within the bounds of Reason and Religion because this is a kind of Empire this is to govern It is naturally pleasant to rule and have power over others but he is the great and the absolute Prince who commands himself This is the Kingdom of God within us a dominion infinitely to be preferred before all the Kingdoms of this world and the glory of them It is the Kingdom of God described by the Apostle which consists in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost In a word The pleasure of being good and of doing good is the chief happiness of God himself But now the wicked man deprives himself of all this pleasure and creates perpetual discontent to his own mind O the torments of a guilty conscience which the sinner feels more or less all his life long But alas thou dost not yet know the worst of it no not in this World What wilt thou do when thou comest to die What comfort wilt thou then be able to give thy self or what comfort can any one else give thee when thy conscience is miserably rent and torn by those waking furies which will then rage in thy breast and thou knowest not which way to turn thy self for ease then perhaps at last the Priest is unwillingly sent for to patch up thy conscience as well as he can and to appease the cryes of it and to force himself out of very pity and good nature to say peace peace when there is no peace But alas man what can we do what comfort can we give thee when thine
and outward expressions of it 3. A serious consideration of the evil and unreasonableness of a sinful course That sin is the stain and blemish of our natures the reproach of our reason and understanding the disease and the deformity of our souls the great enemy of our peace the cause of all our fears and troubles That whenever we do a wicked action we go contrary to the clearest dictates of our reason and conscience to our plain and true interest and to the strongest tyes and obligations of duty and gratitude And which renders it yet more unreasonable sin is a voluntary evil which men wilfully bring upon themselves Other evils may be forced upon us whether we will or no a man may be poor or sick by misfortune but no man is wicked and vitious but by his own choice How do we betray our folly and weakness by suffering our selves to be hurried away by every foolish lust and passion to do things which we know to be prejudicial and hurtful to our selves and so base and unworthy in themselves that we are ashamed to do them not only in the presence of a wise man but even of a child or a fool So that if sin were followed with no other punishment besides the guilt of having done a shameful thing a man would not by intemperance make himself a fool and a beast one would not be false and unjust treacherous or unthankful if for no other reason yet out of meer greatness and generosity of mind out of respect to the dignity of his nature and out of very reverence to his own reason and understanding For let Witty men say what they will in defence of their vices there are so many natural acknowledgments of the evil and unreasonableness of sin that the matter is past all denial Men are generally galled and uneasie at the thoughts of an evil action both before and after they have committed it they are ashamed to be taken in a crime and heartily vexed and provoked whenever they are upbraided with it and 't is very observable that though the greater part of the world was always bad and vice hath ever had more servants and followers to cry it up yet never was there any Age so degenerate in which Vice could get the better of Vertue in point of general esteem and reputation Even they whose wills have been most enslaved to sin could never yet so far bribe and corrupt their understandings as to make them give full approbation to it 4. A due sense of the fearful and fatal consequences of a wicked life And these are so sad and dreadful and the danger of them so evident and so perpetually threatning us that no temptation can be sufficient to excuse a man to himself and his own reason for venturing upon them A principal point of wisdom is to look to the End of things not only to consider the present pleasure and advantage of any thing but also the ill consequences of it for the future and to ballance them one against the other Now sin in its own nature tends to make men miserable It certainly causes trouble and disquiet of mind And to a considerate man that knows how to value the ease and satisfaction of his own mind there cannot be a greater argument against sin than to consider that the forsaking of it is the only way to find rest to our souls Besides this every vice is naturally attended with some particular mischief and inconvenience which maketh it even in this life a punishment to it self and commonly the providence of God and his just judgment upon sinners strikes in to heighten the mischievous consequences of a sinful course This we have represented in the Parable of the Prodigal his riotous course of life did naturally and of it self bring him to want but the providence of God likewise concurred to render his condition more miserable at the same time there arose a mighty famine in the land so that he did not only want wherewithall to supply himself but was cut off from all hopes of relief from the abundance and superfluity of others Sin brings many miseries upon us and God many times sends more and greater than sin brings and the further we go on in a sinful course the more miseries and the greater difficulties we involve our selves in But all these are but light and inconsiderable in comparison of the dreadful miseries of another world to the danger whereof every man that lives a wicked life doth every moment expose himself So that if we could conquer shame and had stupidity enough to bear the infamy and reproach of our vices and the upbraidings of our consciences for them and the temporal mischiefs and inconveniences of them though for the present gratifying of our lusts we could brook and dispense with all these yet the consideration of the end and issue of a sinful course is an invincible objection against it and never to be answered though the violence of our sensual appetities and inclinations should be able to bear down all temporal considerations whatsoever yet methinks the interest of our everlasting happiness should lye near our hearts the consideration of another world should mightily amaze and startle us the horrors of eternal darkness and the dismal thought of being miserable for ever should effectually discourage any man from a wicked life And this danger continually threatens the sinner and may if God be not merciful to him happen to surprize him the next moment And can we make too much haste to flye from so great and apparent a danger When will we think of saving our selves if not when for ought we know we are upon the very brink of ruine and just ready to drop into destruction 5. Upon this naturally follows a full conviction of the necessity of quitting this wicked course And necessity is always a powerful and over-ruling argument and doth rather compel than perswade And after it is once evident leaves no place for further deliberation And the greater the necessity is it is still the more cogent argument For whatever is necessary is so in order to some end and the greater the end the greater is the necessity of the means without which that end cannot be obtained Now the chief and last end of all Reasonable creatures is happiness and therefore whatever is necessary in order to that hath the highest degree of rational and moral necessity We are not capable of happiness till we have left our sins for without holiness no man shall see the Lord. But though men are convinced of this necessity yet this doth not always enforce a present change because men hope they may continue in their sins and remedy all at last by repentance But this is so great a hazard in all respects that there is no venturing upon it And in matters of greatest concernment wise men will run no hazards if they can help it David was so sensible of this danger that he would not
Virtue or Vice People take their fashions from you as to the habits of their minds as well as their bodies So that upon you chiefly depends the ruine or reformation of manners our hopes or despair of a better world What way soever you go you are followed by troops If you run any sinful or dangerous course you cannot perish alone in your iniquity but thousands will fall by your side and ten thousands at your right hands And on the contrary 't is very much in your power and I hope in your wills and designs to be the sovereign restorers of piety and virtue to a degenerate Age. It is our part indeed to exhort men to their duty but 't is you that would be the powerful and effectual preachers of righteousness We may endeavour to make men proselytes to vertue but you would infallibly draw disciples after you We may try to perswade but you could certainly prevail either to make men good or to restrain them from being so bad Therefore consider your ways for the sake of others as well as your selves Consider what you have done and then consider what is fit for you to do and if you do it not what will be the end of these things And to help you forward in this work it is not necessary that I should rip up the vices of the Age and set mens sins in order before them It is much better that you your selves should call your own ways to remembrance We have every one a faithful Monitor and Witness in our own breasts who if we will but hearken to him will deal impartially with us and privately tell us the errors of our lives To this Monitor I refer you and to the grace of God to make these admonitions effectual Let us then every one of us in the fear of God search and try our ways and turn unto the Lord. Let us take to our selves words and say to God with those true Penitents in Scripture I have sinned what shall be done unto thee O thou preserver of men Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my hand upon my mouth I will abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes For surely it is meet to be said unto God I will not offend any more that which I know not teach thou me and if I have done iniquity I will do no more O that there were such an heart in us O that we were wise that we understood this that we would consider our latter end And God of his infinite mercy inspire into every one of our hearts this holy and happy resolution for the sake of our blessed Saviour and Redeemer to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory now and for ever Amen A SERMON Preached before the KING Apr. 18 th 1675. Psal CXIX 60 I made haste and delayed not to keep thy commandments IN the words immediately going before you have the course which David took for the reforming of his life and the success of that course I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto thy testimonies A serious reflection upon the past errors and miscarriages of his life produced the reformation of it And you have a considerable circumstance added in the words that I have now read to you viz. that this reformation was speedy and without delay I made haste and delayed not to keep thy commandments Upon due consideration of his former life and a full conviction of the necessity of a change he came to a resolution of a better life and immediately put this resolution in execution and to declare how presently and quickly he did it he expresses it both affirmatively and negatively after the manner of the Hebrews who when they would say a thing with great certainty and emphasis are wont to express it both ways I made haste and delayed not that is I did with all imaginable speed betake my self to a better course And this is the natural effect of Consideration and the true cause why men delay so necessary a work is because they stifle their reason and suffer themselves to be hurried into the embraces of present objects and do not consider their latter end and what will be the sad issue and event of a wicked life For if men would take an impartial view of their lives and but now and then reflect upon themselves and lay to heart the miserable and fatal consequences of a sinful course and think whither it will bring them at last and that the end of these things will be death and misery If the carnal and sensual person would but look about him and consider how many have been ruin'd in the way that he is in how many lye slain and wounded in it that it is the way to hell and leads down to the chambers of death this would certainly give a check to him and stop him in his course For it is not to be imagined but that that man who hath duly considered what sin is the shortness of its pleasures and the eternity of its punishment should resolve immediately to break off his sins and to live another kind of life Would any man be intemperate and walk after the flesh would any man be unjust and defraud or oppress his neighbour be prophane and live in the contempt of God and Religion or allow himself in any wicked course whatsoever that considers and believes a Judgment to come and that because of these things the terrible vengeance of God will one day fall upon the children of disobedience It is not credible that men who apply themselves seriously to the meditation of these matters should venture to continue in so imprudent and dangerous a course or could by any temptation whatsoever be trained on one step farther in a Way that does so certainly and visibly lead to ruin and destruction So that my work at this time shall be to endeavour to convince men of the monstrous folly and unreasonableness of delaying the reformation and amendment of their lives and to perswade us to resolve upon it and having resolved to set about it immediately and without delay in imitation of the good man here in the Text I made haste and delayed not to keep thy commandments And to this end I shall First Consider the reasons and excuses which men pretend for delaying this necessary work and shew the unreasonableness of them Secondly I shall add some farther Considerations to engage us effectually to set about this work speedily and without delay I. We will consider a little the reasons and excuses which men pretend for delaying this necessary work and not only shew the unreasonableness of them but that they are each of them a strong reason and powerful argument to the contrary 1. Many pretend that they are abundantly convinced of the great necessity of leaving their sins and betaking themselves to a better course and they fully intend to do so only they cannot at present bring themselves
it was long since judiciously noted by Aristotle That moral and proverbial speeches are not to be taken too strictly as if they were universally true and in all cases It is sufficient if they be true for the most part and in several respects which are very considerable And of this nature are most of the Proverbs of Solomon and whosoever shall go about to make out the truth of them in all cases does in my opinion take a very hard task upon himself But which is nearer to my purpose our Saviour himself in the Chapter before my Text and in the moral application of a Parable too namely that of the unjust steward useth a proverbial speech just in the same manner The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light Which is only a wise observation that is generally true and in many respects but not absolutely and universally For some men have been as wise and diligent for the glory of God and interest of their souls as ever any man was for this world and for the advancement of his temporal interest Of the like nature is this saying used by our Saviour probably taken as our Saviour did many other proverbial speeches from the Jews and applied to his own purpose For there are several sayings of the Jewish Masters much to this purpose As Great is the dignity of penitents Great is the vertue of them that repent so that no creature may stand in their rank and order And again The righteous may not stand in the same place with those that have repented These I confess were very high sayings but yet very well designed for the encouragement of repentance And they are not without good reason as will appear if we consider these two things First That the greater the difficulty of vertue is so much the greater is the praise and commendation of it And not only we our selves take the more joy and comfort in it but it is more admirable and delightful to others Now it cannot be denyed to be much more difficult to break off a vicious habit than to go on in a good way which we have been trained up in and always accustomed to Those that have been well educated have great cause to thank God and to acknowledg the care of their Parents and Teachers For piety and goodness are almost infinitely easier to such persons than to those who have wanted this advantage It is happy for them they never tasted of unlawful pleasures if they had they would possibly have drank as deep as others It is well they were never entangled in a sinful course nor enslaved to vicious habits nor hardened through the deceitfulness of sin if they had they might possibly never have been recovered out of the snare of the Devil By the happiness of a good education and the merciful providence of God a great part of many mens vertue consists in their ignorance of vice and their being kept out of the way of great and dangerous temptations rather in the good customs they have been bred up to than in the deliberate choice of their wills and rather in the happy preventions of evil than their resolute constancy in that which is good And God who knows what is in man and sees to the bottom of every man's temper and inclination knows how far this man would have fallen had he had the temptations of other men and how irrecoverably perhaps he would have been plunged in an evil course had he once entered upon it So that repentance is a very great thing and though it be the most just and fit and reasonable thing in the world yet for all that it deserves great commendation because it is for the most part so very hard and difficult And therefore though absolutely speaking innocence is better than repentance yet as the circumstances may be the vertue of some penitents may be greater than of many just and righteous persons Secondly There is this consideration further to recommend repentance that they who are reclaimed from a wicked course are many times more thoroughly and zealously good afterwards Their trouble and remorse for their sins does quicken and spur them on in the ways of vertue and goodness and a lively sense of their past errours is apt to make them more careful and conscientious of their duty more tender and fearful of offending God and desirous if it were possible to redeem their former miscarriages by their good behaviour for the future Their love to God is usually more vehement and burns with a brighter flame for to whomsoever much is forgiven they will love much And they are commonly more zealous for the conversion of others as being more sensible of the danger sinners are in and more apt to commiserate their case remembring that it was once their own condition and with what difficulty they were rescued from so great a danger And for the most part great penitents are more free from pride and contempt of others the consideration of what themselves once were being enough to keep them humble all their days So that penitents are many times more throughly and perfectly good and after their recovery do in several respects outstrip and excel those who were never engaged in a vicious course of life As a broken bone that is well set is sometimes stronger than it was before 2. It will conduce also very much to the extenuating of this difficulty to consider that our Saviour does not here compare repentance with absolute innocence and perfect righteousness but with the imperfect obedience of good men who are guilty of many sins and infirmities but yet upon account of the general course and tenour of their lives are by the mercy and favour of the Gospel esteemed just and righteous persons and for the merits and perfect obedience of our blessed Saviour so accepted by God Now this alters the case very much and brings the penitent and this sort of righteous persons much nearer to one another so that in comparing them together the true penitent may in some cases and in some respects have the advantage of the righteous and deserve upon some accounts to be prefer'd before him 3. Which is principally to be considered for the full clearing of this difficulty this passage of our Saviours is to be understood as spoken very much after the manner of men and suitably to the nature of humane passions and the usual occasions of moving them We are apt to be exceedingly affected with the obtaining of what we did not hope for and much more with the regaining of what we looked upon as lost and desperate Whatever be the reason of it such is the nature of man that we are not so sensibly moved at the continuance of a good which we have long possest as at the recovery of it after it was lost and gone from us And the reasons of a judicious value and esteem of a settled pleasure and contentment are one thing