Sense doth multiply its Temptations we shall still multiply our Desires and Affections and at every new Game that springs we shall still let fly new Passions But now the Ends of Vice are not only various but also contrary to and inconsistent with one another For all Vices consisting in Extreams either in Excesses or Defects their Ends must be contrary too and so they cannot but disagree Excess and Defect being in themselves most contrary And these contrary Vices must needs raise contrary Factions in the Mind and people it with a Rabble of wild and inconsistent Passions which will be always bandying one against another and consequently embroiling the Soul in eternal Mutinies and Tumults And this is the State of every vicious Man he is divided into infinite Schisms and Separations and like a barbarous Countrey cantoned out into a World of petty Principalities which are always together by the Ears and continually invading one anothers Dominions Now what a miserable Distraction must a Man's Mind be in when it is thus justl'd to and fro in such a crowd of contrary and impetuous Passions when Pride shoves it one way and Covetousness another when Ambition thrusts it forward and Cowardise pulls it back again and so many different Lusts do at the same time hurry it so many different and contrary Ways How is it possible it should escape Actaeon's Fate to be worried till it is torn in pieces by its own Hounds And therefore as we value the Peace of our own Minds and would not have the inward Harmony discompos'd by the perpetual Iarrings of so many contrary Passions it concerns us to subdue and mortify our Lusts For so long as we entertain these seditious Incendiaries they will be perpetually raising Tumults within us and our Minds will never be at quiet for them For the only Way to keep our Minds at Peace is to unite our Affections which we can never hope to do till we have subdu'd them to the Empire of our Reason But when we come to be under the Command of that one supreme End which our Reason will propose to us as the utmost Scope of our Desires then and not till then will these scattered Rivulets of our Affections unite themselves in one and the same Channel and flow towards one and the same Ocean And then our Mind will be at Rest and all its contrary Passions being laid which now like the boisterous Waves dash one against another it will no longer be capable of being ruffl'd into a Storm but in the midst of all the Changes of this World will find it self perpetually inspired with the most calm and gentle Thoughts CHAP. IV. Of Helps to Mortification given us by the Spirit of God THE Motives and Arguments for Mortification which arise from considering the Mischiefs and Inconveniences of Sin having been spoken to I shall now proceed to such Helps to this Duty as are given us by the Spirit of God And I shall consider them under these four Heads First THE external Arguments and Motives of the Gospel Secondly THE external Providences of the Divine Spirit by which he excites us to our Duty Thirdly THE Aids and Assistances which the Holy Angels give us who are the Agents and Ministers of the Holy Ghost Fourthly THE internal Motions and Operations of the Holy Ghost upon our Souls I. LET us consider the external Arguments and Motives of the Gospel such as the Promises and Threats of it the great Example of our Saviour describ'd in it together with all those mighty Considerations out of his Passion and Resurrection his Intercession for us at the right hand of God and his Coming to judge the World in the last day All which are the Aids and Assistances of the Holy Spirit who hath revealed them to us and demonstrated their Truth and Divinity by sundry miraculous Operations which are therefore called the Evidences and Demonstrations of the Spirit So that whatsoever there is in the Gospel to enable us to our Duty whatsoever Counter-charms its Promises afford us against the Charms and Allurements of our own Lusts whatsoever Antidotes its Threatnings prescribe us against the terrours of the Devil's Temptations whatsoever Motives there are in the Life or Death Resurrection and Intercession of our Blessed Saviour and in his final Iudgment by which we must stand or fall for ever In a word whatsoever Arguments the Laws or the Creed of our Holy Religion offer us either to incite us to our Duty or to enable us to baffle the Temptations of Vice they are all from the Spirit and consequently are to be reckon'd among those gracious Aids and Assistances which He affords us And hence the Gospel which teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly is called the grace of God which bringeth salvation unto all men Tit. ii 11 12. And in Rom. viii 2. the Apostle calleth it the law of the spirit of life in Christ Iesus by which he was made free from the law of sin and death Nay sometimes the Gospel is called the Spirit 2 Cor. iii. 6. who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament not of the letter but of the spiri i. e. not of the Law but of the Gospel for the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life That is as he elsewhere explains himself the Law is a Ministration of Death but the Gospel brings Life and Immortality to light And that this is the Meaning is plain from what follows v. 7 8. but if the ministration of death written and ingraven in stones was glorious which is a plain description of the Law of Moses how shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious And consonantly hereunto by the Spirit we may understand the Motives and Arguments of the Gospel II. LET us consider the external Providences of the divine Spirit by which he excites us to our Duty and doth many ways administer to our Reformation which are so considerable a part of God's Grace and Assistance that there are very few good Thoughts or Purposes that spring up in our Minds which have not their Rise from some external Event of Divine Providence And this we may easily observe by following the Train of our own Thoughts and pursuing the Stream of them to their Spring and Original For though many times we find good Thoughts injected into us we know not how nor whence yet if we do but curiously observe the Rise of our soberest Thoughts and Purposes we shall generally find that it is some external Accident or other that occasions them Either our Sin betrays us into some great Shame or Infelicity or our wicked Designs are baffled by some intervening Accident or some remarkable Iudgment meets us as the Angel did Balaam in the Road of our Folly and Wickedness by which our stupid Consciences are many times startled into Reflections or by some good Providence we are directed to a serious Book or faithful Guide
concluded that doubtless he was employed upon some great Design of Love to communicate from the Almighty Father some mighty Blessing to the World and accordingly we find that though the holy Angels did not comprehend the particular Intention and Mystery of Christ's Incarnation yet they concluded in the general that it was intended for some great Good to the World as is apparent by the Anthem they sung at his Nativity Glory be to God on high on Earth peace good will towards Men. Now the greatest Expression of God's good Will towards Men is to rescue them from all Iniquity and restore them to the Purity and Perfection of their Natures for without this all the Blessings of Heaven and Earth are not sufficient to make us happy While our Nature is debauch'd and overgrown with unreasonable Lusts and Passions we must be miserable notwithstanding all that an Omnipotent Goodness can do for us for Misery is so essential to Sin that we may as well be Men without being reasonable as sinful Men without being miserable Since therefore the End of Christ's coming into the World was to dispense God's greatest Blessings to Mankind and since the greatest Blessing that we can receive from God is to be redeemed by his Grace from our Iniquities and to be made Partakers of the Divine Nature we may reasonably conclude that this was his main Design in the World and the great End of that everlasting Gospel which he revealed to it And hence the name Iesus was given him by the Direction of an Angel because he should save his people from their Sins Matth. i. 21. and indeed I cannot imagine any Design whatsoever excepting this that could be worthy the Son of God's coming down into the World to live such a miserable Life and die such a shameful Death Had it been only to save us from a Plague or War or Famine it had been an Undertaking fit for the lowest Angel in the heavenly Hierarchy but to save us from our sins was an Enterprize so great and good as none in Heaven or Earth but the Son of God himself was thought worthy to be employed in This therefore was the Mark of all his Aims while he was upon Earth the Center in which all his Actions and Sufferings met to save us from our Sins and to inspire us with a divine Life and God-like Nature that thereby we might be disposed for the Enjoyment of Heaven and made to be meet Partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light 'T is true he died to procure our Pardon too but it was with respect to a farther End namely that we might not grow desperate with the Sense of our Guilts but that by the Promise of Pardon which he hath purchased for us we might be encouraged to repent and amend But should he have procured a Pardon for our Sin whether we had repented of it or no he would have only skinned over a Wound which if it be not perfectly cured will rankle of its own accord into an incurable Gangrene Christ therefore by the offering of himself is said to purge our consciences from dead works that we might serve the living God Heb. ix 14. and the great Apostle makes the ultimate Intention of his giving himself for us to be this that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. ii 14. And until his Death hath had this Effect upon us it is not all the Merit of his Blood and Vertue of his Sacrifice that can release us from the direful Punishments of the other Life For unless he by his Death had so altered the Nature of Sin as that it might be in us without being a Plague to us it must necessarily if we carry it with us into the other World prove a perpetual Hell and Torment to us So that it is apparent that the great and ultimate Design of Christ was not to hide our filthy sores but to heal and cure them and for this End it was that he revealed to us the grace of God from Heaven to teach us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world Tit. ii 12. Let us not therefore cheat our own Souls by thinking that the Gospel requires nothing of us but only to be holy by Proxy righteous by being cloathed in the Garments of another's Righteousness as if its Design was not so much to cure as cover our filthy Sores not to make us whole but to make us accounted so For can any Man imagin that Christ would ever have undertaken such a mighty Design and made so great a noise of doing something which when it is all summed up is nothing but a Notion and doth not at last amount unto a Reality As if the great Design of his coming down from Heaven to live and die for us was only to make a Cloak for our sins wherein we might appear righteous before God without being so But do not deceive your selves it is not all the Innocence and Obedience of Christ's Life nor all the Virtue and Merit of his Death that can render you pure and holy in God's eyes unless you really are so and you may as well be Well with another's Health or wise with another's Wisdom as righteous before God with the Righteousness of Christ while you abide in your Sins For God sees you as you are and the most glorious Disguise you can appear in before him will never be able to delude his all-seeing Eye so as to make him account you righteous when you are not and if it were possible for you to impose upon God yet unless you could also impose upon the Nature of Things and by fancying them to be otherwise than they are make them to be what they are not it will be to no purpose For if you could be cloathed in Christ's Righteousness while you continue wicked it would signifie no more to your Happiness than it would to be cloathed in a most splendid Garment while you were pining with Famine or tortured with the Gout or Strangury Wherefore as we love our own Souls and would not betray our selves into an irrecoverable Ruin let us firmly conclude with our selves that the great Design of our Religion is internal Holiness and Righteousness and that without this all that Christ hath done and suffered for us will be so far from contributing to our Happiness that it will prove an eternal Aggravation to our Misery and that all that precious Blood which he shed in our behalf will be so far from obtaining Pardon and eternal Happiness for us that it will arise in Iudgment against us and like the innocent blood of Abel instead of interceeding for us will cry down Vengance from Heaven upon us For how can we imagine that the pure and holy Iesus who hated our Sins more than all the Pangs and Horrors of a woful Death should all of a
as so many Sacrifices to the Devil Wherefore we stand obliged not only in Fidelity to God who hath committed their Souls to our charge and will one day require an account of them at our Hands but also in Mercy to them that they may not perish eternally for lack of knowledge to take all possible care to instruct their minds in the Duties and Obligations of Religion And as Mercy obliges us to instruct our Children and Servants who are in our power and disposal so it also obliges us to instruct others whom we know to be ignorant of God and their Duty to take all fair opportunities to insinuate the Knowledge of Divine Things to them and to cultivate their rude and barbarous Minds with the Principles of Vertue and Religion or at least where we cannot be admitted to do them this good Office our selves or our endeavouring it may be looked upon as a piece of Sauciness or Pedantry to recommend their miserable Case to others who have more Authority with them or from whose hands it may be better taken For sure if we have any Mercy or Compassion in us we cannot sit still and see a miserable Wretch wandring in the dark upon the Confines of eternal Ruin without endeavouring by some way or other to reduce and light him back to Heaven Hence 2 Tim. ii 25 26. 'T is made a necessary act of Mercy Meekly to instruct those that oppose themselves that is out of ignorance of the Gospel if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the Truth that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil who are taken captive by him at his will IV. ANOTHER of the Miseries which affect Mens Souls is Malice and Obstinacy of Will in mischievous and destructive courses which is doubtless one of the greatest Infelicities that can happen to a Man on this side Hell For to be obstinate in mischievous courses is but one remove from the forlorn Condition of a damned Soul which being fixed and determined to Evil by the invincible Obstinacy of its own will lies under a fatal Necessity of being its own eternal Hell and Devil so that every degree of Obstinacy in Wickedness is a nearer Approach to eternal Damnation and will at last inevitably center in it if it be not stopped in its Course and Progress and cured by a timely Application Now what a deplorable sight is this to see a wretched Soul obstinately pursuing his own destruction and even forcing his way to Hell through all the resistances of his Religion and Reason and Conscience together Should you see a mad Man break loose from his Chain and run his Head against a Wall or catch up a Knife or Dagger and thrust it into his own Breast and repeat Stab after Stab in despight of all your Counsels and Dissuasives would you not pity and lament his Case and heartily wish him deprived of all that Liberty which he employs only to his own Destruction And is it not a much more lamentable spectacle to see a wild and desperate Soul break loose from those ties of Religion and Conscience which bind it to its Duty and Happiness and in a deaf and obstinate Rage seize on the Weapons of Perdition and plunge them into its own Bowels and by repeated Acts of Wickedness imbrue its hands in its own blood whilst the blessed Spirit with its own natural sense of God are strugling with it in vain and fruitlesly endeavouring to disarm its desperate Fury that it may not wound it self to eternal Death What merciful Heart can forbear wishing O would to God this miserable Soul had no Will that it had not the Liberty to choose or act Would to God it were a Stone or a Tree that have no power to dispose of or determine their own Motions rather than be thus left at liberty as it is only to murder and destroy it self But since to wish thus would be in vain who that hath any Pity can sit still and see a miserable Wretch thus outrage himself without endeavouring to hold his Hands and bind him down with Reason and good Counsel And this is the proper Act of Mercy which the miserable Case in hand requires viz. When we see an obstinate Sinner resolutely pursuing his own Destruction to endeavour by prudent and seasonable Reproofs by pious and compassionate Counsels and Admonitions to reclaim him from the Error of his way For thus our Holy Religion directeth us to exhort one another daily while it is called to day least any of us should be hardened i. e. irrecoverably hardened through the deceitfulness of sin Heb. iii. 13. And how acceptable a work this is to God St. Iames informeth us Chap. v. 19 20. Brethren if any of you err from the truth and one convert him let him know that he who converteth a Sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins Whereas by permitting Men to run on in their sins without any check or disturbance under a pretence of Complaisance and Civility is as much as to say Sir you are going headlong to destruction and go you are like for me for my part whether you are damned or saved is much at one to me if you are minded to make an experiment of damnation much good may it do you I know should I attempt to hinder or disturb you you will think me rude and troublesome and therefore rather than I will run the hazard e'en let the Devil take you And would it not be a high Complement if you saw a Man plunging a Sword into his Bowels to cry Sir I would hold your Arm but that I am afraid you will be angry with me 'T is true this merciful Work of Reproof and Admonition ought to be managed with a great deal of Caution if the Person we reprove be out of our power we ought to observe the mollia tempora fandi to forbear him till his Passion is down or his intemperate Draught digested till his Mind is sedate and calm and best disposed to attend to and receive a pious Admonition for he who reproves a Man when his Mind is disordered by Passion or Intemperance doth but Preach Patience to a Northern Wind which the more he endeavours to resist the lowder it will storm and bluster But then when he is fit to receive a Reprehension we ought to give it with the greatest Privacy If he offend in publick Conversation where there are other Witnesses of it besides our selves unless the matter be highly scandalous it is sufficient for the present that we express our Dislike of it by the Severity of our Looks and the Seriousness of our Behaviour and afterwards between him and our selves to remonstrate to him the Folly and Danger of his Sin For to reprove Men publickly looks more like Malice then Mercy especially till we have first made Trial of private Reprehensions and found them ineffectual But
against our sin frequently to renew our Resolution II. ANOTHER Part of it is frequent Reflection upon and Examination of our selves And indeed if we do not inure our selves to this we shall very often sin unawares without either considering what we are doing or reflecting upon what we have done and while we can thus sin without Check or Controul it will be in vain for us to make Resolutions of Obedience For still the Pleasure of one Act will invite us to another and so in the hurry of our worldly Occasions we shall go on to repeat sin after sin without heeding what we do or repenting of what we have done and if we suffer one sin to break through the Fence that will open a gap for others to follow and if these are not presently stopp'd by serious Reflection they will make the Breach yet wider for others till at last they have trodden down all the Enclosures of our Resolution and laid open our whole Souls into a Common and Throughfare of Iniquity But now by inuring our selves to a frequent Reflection upon and Examination of our own Actions we shall in a great measure prevent those many Surprizes which otherwise will be unavoidable to us and when at any time we stumble at unawares the Penance we shall undergo in reflecting upon our fault will so embitter the Pleasure of it as to render it incapable of seducing us again Wherefore to secure the Mortification of our sins as it is necessary that every Morning we should renew our Resolution against it so it is no less requisite that every Night especially till we have made some considerable Progress we should seriously examin our Performances whether they have comported with our Resolutions and if upon an impartial Survey of our own Actions we find that they have let us lie down in Peace blessing and adoring that Grace by which we have been preserved But if we are conscious to our selves of any Breach that we have made upon our Morning Vows of Obedience let us bitterly bewail our own Folly and Baseness and reflect upon it with the greatest Shame and Indignation What have I done O wretched Traitor that I am both to God and my own Soul I have mocked the great Majesty of Heaven with solemn vows of Obedience and broke the most sacred Ties to come at those Lusts which will be my ruin what can I plead for my self Base and Unworthy that I am With what face can I go into his dreadful presence whom I so lately invoked to be Witness to those Vows which I have this day falsified Yet go I will though I am all ashamed and confounded and confess and bewail mine Iniquity before him And if we would but keep our selves a while to this strict Discipline we cannot imagin how mightily it would contribute to the Mortification of our Lusts it would make our Reason so vigilant and our Conscience so tender that in a little while we should be startled with every Appearance of Evil and Death it self would not be so terrible as Sin to to us the Pleasure of our sin would be so allayed and abated by those stinging Reflections that would follow it upon that it would be no longer capable of alluring and seducing us and the dread of that bitter Penance which we must undergo at Night would sufficiently secure us against the Temptations of the Day Thirdly and Lastly ANOTHER Part of that prudent Discipline which we are to exercise upon our selves is to keep our selves at as great a distance from Sin as prudently and conveniently we can He that will mortifie his Sin must at first not only abstain from sinning but also from every thing that doth nearly approach and border upon it as for instance it is not sufficient to mortifie an intemperate Appetite that we abstain from Drunkenness and Gluttony but besides this we must for a while at least be very abstemious till we have reduced our Appetite from its wild Exorbitances and not indulge to our selves the utmost Liberties of lawful Eating and Drinking it is not sufficient for the subduing our wanton Inclinations that we abstain from Adultery and Fornication but we must also forbear those Meats and Drinks those Gestures and Societies those Sights and Sports which are apt to administer Fuel to our immodest Flames to tame our malicious and revengful Passions it is not enough that we abstain from all unjust Retaliations of Injuries but we must moreover restrain our selves even from that lawful Displeasure and just Resentment which may safely be allowed to a meek and charitable Disposition And under these strict Restraints we must keep our selves for a while till we have worn off our evil Inclinations by habituating our selves to the contrary Vertues and then we may safely unloose our Bands and return again to our lawful Freedoms But if while we are strongly inclined to any sin we will venture as near to it as lawfully we may it is a mighty Hazard but our Inclination will carry us a great deal farther than we should go For generally the Transition out of the utmost of what is lawful into the nearmost of what is sinful is undiscernable the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Line that metes out a Vertue form its neighbouring Vice being commonly so small that it is hard to distinguish where they part or to find out the just Boundary whereto we may go and no farther so that when we think we are only upon the Extremities of what is lawful we are many times passed the Line and are far gone within the Borders of what is sinful So that unless we had an infallible Guide to accompany us in all our Actions and Circumstances and to point out to us the particular Limits of lawful and unlawful it is impossible we should be safe within the Neighbourhood of Evil but like those who dwell upon the Confines of two hostile Countries we shall still lie open to Invasion on every side For our bad Inclinations are never so impatient of Restraint as when they are within Prospect of Satisfaction and the objects which attract them are near and easie to be enjoy'd now they will struggle with all their Might against our Resolution and taking a new scent of those beloved Lusts whose alluring Relishes they had almost forgotten with all the ties of Conscience we shall hardly be able to withhold them from following the beloved Game So that unless we keep our selves at a convenient Distance from sin our bad Inclinations will be always within View of Temptation which the nearer it is the more it will court and importune them and while we keep near our sin and do not enjoy it we do but tantalize our selves and enrage our own Hunger by keeing a Bait before us which we dare not swallow If ever therefore we mean to mortifie our Lusts we must not only avoid coming at them but so far as we can approaching towards them at least till we have so weaned our
Inclination from them that their Nearness ceases to be a Temptation to us These are the Parts of that wise and prudent Discipline which we are to exercise upon our selves as a Mean and Instrument to mortifie our Lusts. V. ANOTHER Instrument of Mortification is frequent Receiving of the Sacrament And indeed I do not know any one more effectual Cause or more fatal Symptom of the Decay of Christian Piety among us than is the common and woful Neglect of this solemn Ordinance which were it but frequented with that wise and due Preparation that it ought to be would doubtless be highly instrumental to reform the World and to make Men good in good earnest For besides that those sacred Elements are by God's Institution become moral Conveyances of the Divine Grace whereby our good Resolutions are nourish'd and confirm'd there we have represented openly to our Senses one of the greatest Arguments against Sin in all our Religion viz. the Passion and Sacrifice of our blessed Saviour There he is represented to my Eyes in all his Wounds and Agonies bruised and broken for my Sin and bleeding to expiate my Transgressions And O my obdurate Soul canst thou behold this tragical Spectacle without Indignation against thy Sins which were the Cause of it Does not thy Heart rise against thy Sins whilst thou here beholdest him weltering in his Blood and hearest those gaping Wounds it issueth from proclaiming them his Assassines and Murderers But if thou hast not Ingenuity enough to prompt thee to revenge thy Saviour's quarrel upon these his mortal Enemies yet methinks Self-love would move thee not to be fond of thy Sins when thou here beholdest how much the Son of God endured to expiate them For how canst thou think of sinning without Trembling and Astonishment who hast here before thine Eyes such a dreadful Example of God's Severity against it Does it not strike thy Soul into an Agony to behold this bloody Tragedy wherein the all-merciful Father is represented so inexorably incensed against thy Sins that he that was the most innocent Person that ever was upon Earth and also the greatest Favourite that ever was in Heaven could not with all his Prayers and Tears obtain thy Pardon without undergoing for thee the bitter Agonies of a woful Death Sure if thou hast any one Spark of Love in thee either towards thy Saviour or thy self this solemn Commemoration of his Passion cannot but affect thee with Horror and Indignation against thy Sins But then as in this great Solemnity we do commemorate our Saviour's Passion so we do also renew the Vows of our Obedience to him which as I have shewed you is very instrumental in it self to the subduing of our sins but much more when it is done in so sacred a manner For as Feasting upon Sacrifices was always used as a federal Rite both among the Iews and Heathens whereby God and Men by eating together did mutually oblige themselves to one another so the Lords Supper being a Feast upon the Sacrifice of Christ's Body and Blood when we come thither we eat and drink of his Sacrifice and do thereby devote our selves in the most solemn manner to his Service We swear Allegiance to him upon his own Body and Blood and take the Sacrament upon it that we will be his faithful Votaries When we take the Consecrated Symbols into our hands we make this solemn Dedication of our selves to God Here we offer and present unto thee O Lord our selves our Souls and Bodies to be a reasonable holy and lively sacrifice unto thee and here we call to witness this sacred Blood that redeemed us and those vocal Wounds that interceded for us that from henceforth we oblige our selves never to start from thy service what Difficulties soever we may encounter in it and what Temptations soever we may have to forsake it Now what can be a greater Restraint to us when we are solicited to any Evil than such a solemn and sacred Obligation Methinks the Sense of that dreadful Vow that is upon us should so over-awe us that we should not be able to think of sinning without Horror For Lord how shall I dare to cheat and defraud my Neighbour when 't was but the other day that I vowed to be honest and took the Sacrament upon it with what Conscience can I now hate or design revenge against my Brother when I so lately swore unto God upon the Body and Blood of my Saviour that I would love and forgive all the world Surely if Men had any Sense of God any Dram of Religion in them they would not be able after such engagements to look upon any Temptation to sin without Trembling And whatsoever Pretences of Unworthiness Men may make to keep themselves from this Ordinance I doubt not but the great Reason of their Neglect is this that they love their Lusts and are resolved whatsoever comes of it they will not part with them and so they will not come to the Sacrament because they must be obliged to renounce their Lusts there which they are extreamly unwilling to do And if this be their Reason as I fear it is they are unworthy indeed the more Shame for them but it is such an Unworthiness as is so far from excusing their Neglect that it is a foul Aggravation of it For he that will not receive the Sacrament because he will not renounce his Lusts makes one Sin the Reason of another and so pleads that for his Excuse which will be the Cause of his Condemnation But if we are honestly resolved to part with all our Sins and can but willingly devote them as Sacrifices to the Altar we are sufficiently prepared for this great Solemnity and shall be welcome Guests to the Table of our Lord If we can sincerely pay our Vows at his Altar we may confidently take the Cup of Salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord. And having thus chained up our Lusts by the Vows of Obedience we have paid there it will be hard for them to shake off such mighty Fetters or ever to get loose again from so strict a Confinement especially if we take care to repeat this our Sacramental Vow as often as conveniently we can For as I have already shewed you the frequent Renewal of our holy Vows and Resolutions does mightily tend to strengthen and reinforce them And therefore it is worth observing how much care Christ hath taken in the very Constitution of his Religion to oblige us to a constant Repetition of our Vows and good Purposes For at our first Entrance into Covenant with him we are to be baptized in which Solemnity we do renounce the Devil and all his Works and religiously devote our selves to his Service But because we are apt to forget our Vows and the matter of it is continually to be performed and more than one World doth depend upon it therefore he hath thought fit not to trust to our first Engagement but so to methodize