God and his Relation to Men t is plain all that these things naturally led Men to was only to keep up in themselves such a Holy Temper and Disposition of Mind as might discover it self in a constant endeavour of being Like unto God and of obeying his Laws And though this most simple and absolute Religion did through the corruption of Mens Wills and Affections quickly degenerate into the grossest Idolatry and most ridiculous Superstition tho' instead of real and substantial Virtue the generality of Men soon fell into the Observance of foolish and absurd Rites and the World was overspread with Ignorance and Vice yet the wisest and most considerate Men amongst the Heathens always understood that God did not look so much at the Outward Pomp and Ceremony of Religion as at the Inward Holiness and Purity of the heart that God valued not Sacrifices and Rich Offerings but only the Piety and Devotion of the Mind and that the only way to keep the Favour of God was to imitate his Nature and to obey his Commands 8. Nor is it less evident that the great and ultimate design of the Jewish Religion was to preserve and increase the Moral Virtue of Men. For though God did impose upon the Jews a burdensom System of Rites and Ordinances yet 't is plain he did it not that he took any delight in that External and Ceremonial Service but that by condescending in that manner to the infirmities and prejudices of a stiff-necked People he might keep up the Worship of the True God and restore that Holiness and Inward Religion of Mens Minds which the Light of Nature had not been sufficient to maintain This therefore God perpetually inculcates to them by his Prophets that he did not value their Ceremonious Performances without Holiness and Obedience to the Moral Law I spake not to your Fathers saith he nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the Land of Egypt concerning Burnt-Offerings and Sacrifices but this thing commanded I them saying Obey my Voice Jer. 7. 22. Nay so far was God from Instituting the Jewish Service upon any other design than the making that People more holy than the Heathen about them were that whensoever it failed of having that desired Effect he declares that he even abhorred all their Religious Exercises He that killeth an Ox is as if he slew a Man he that sacrificeth a Lamb as if he cut off a Dogs neck he that offereth an Oblation as if he offered Swines Blood and he that burneth Incense as if he blessed an Idol yea they have chosen their own ways and their Soul delighteth in their Abominations Isa. 65. 3. And though the later Jews grew generally so superstitious in the observance of their Ceremonies as thereby even to neglect the weightier matters of the Law yet those who considered things more throughly always maintain'd taught zealously that it was not slaying a multitude of Sacrifices or bringing splendid Offerings or even building and adorning the Temple of God with all the cost and beauty in the World that could truly denominate a Man religious that it was a great deceit for Men to think that God would be flattered and put off with Outward Ceremonious Services instead of Truth Righteousness and Holiness of Mind and that nothing could be more ridiculous than for Men to be very careful not to enter into the Temple which is built of Wood and Stone without first washing and cleansing their bodies and yet not be afraid to appear before God in Prayer with unclean and polluted Minds 9. Lastly That the only design of God's Instituting the Christian Religion was to make Men yet more Vertuous and more Holy is evident from the whole Tenour of the Gospel The design of our Saviour's Life and Preaching was to give Men a body of more Spiritual and Refined Laws to set them an Example of a more perfect and holy Life and to make a clearer Revelation of the Wrath of God against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of Men The Design of his Death and Passion was to make an Expiation for Sins that are past and to make a fuller discovery of the heinous nature of Sin which God would not pardon even upon true Repentance without so great and sufficient a Satisfaction And the Design of his sending the Holy Spirit was to purifie to himself a peculiar People by teaching and enabling Men that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts they should live soberly righteously and godly in this present World 10. Accordingly we find the Apostles every where in their Epistles plainly declaring and giving Men warning that since they had now received a most full Revelation of the Will of God and a most clear Discovery of the Rewards and Punishments of a future State if their Virtue did not become proportionable to their Knowledge and they purified not themselves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God it would be even worse for them than if they had never known the way of Righteousness Be not deceived saith Saint Paul neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Thieves nor Covetous nor Drunkards c. i. e. no unrighteous person shall inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6. 9. And again Let no man deceive you with vain words For because of these things cometh the Wrath of God upon the Children of disobedience Eph. 5. 6. And again Of which things I tell you before as I have also told you in times past that they who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Gal. 5. 21. And all those Metaphorical Expressions such as the New Man the New Creature the New Birth Regeneration Conversion and the like by which the Apostles frequently represent Religion do manifestly tend to this that under the Gospel-dispensation nothing will stand a Man in any stead but an entire Reformation of Life and Manners and that all other things are nothing except only the keeping the Commandments of God 11. How miserably then do those Men abuse this great Salvation and turn the Grace of God into lasciviousness who imagine that because Christ has disannulled the Old Law which was appointed only for a time therefore we may be excused by our Christian Liberty from obeying the Eternal Commands of God that because Christ has established for us a Covenant of Grace therefore we need not be zealous to abound in good Works that because Christ has Redeemed us from the Punishment of Sin by the Sacrifice of himself therefore we need not be zealous to rescue our selves from under the Power and Dominion of it that because the Righteousness of Christ shall be available for us unto Justification therefore there is no necessity we should have any of our own In a word that because Christ has promised Salvation to those who believe the Gospel therefore there is no necessity we should be solicitous to
But then secondly To the keeping a man's Baptism pure and undefiled that which was thought further necessary was that from falling into an habitual practice of any of those smaller and less scandalous sins which carelesness and culpable ignorance would be very apt to betray a man into the Acts of he ought to indeavour to secure himself by great cautiousness and sincere enquiry after the knowledge of his Duty that from sins of omission from growing cool in Religion and remitting of his first Love he ought to indeavour to preserve himself by constant Meditation and hearty Prayer to God for the assistance of his holy Spirit that in order to grow in Grace he ought to be always humble and teachable penitent and devout meek in spirit and pure in mind and that to attain Perfection he ought to be always pressing forward towards the mark of the prize of the high calling with a perfect contempt of the World an entire Love of God and a boundless Charity to all Mankind 3. This was what the Primitive Christians understood by keeping their Baptism pure and undefiled viz. A regular and constant practice of all Holiness and Virtue from the time of their Baptism to their Death And to this they thought themselves most strongly obliged by the very Form of their Baptism They were immersed into the Water and they rise out of it again and this great Solemnity was never after to be repeated in token that as Christ once died for Sin and Rose again never to come under the power of Death any more so they were this once to have their Sins perfectly washt away by his Blood and were bound never to return under the Power of them any more Thus St. Paul himself most expresly and excellently argues Rom. p. 6. v. 9. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more death hath no more dominion over him For in that he died he died unto Sin once but in that he liveth he liveth unto God Likewise reckon ye also your selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof The force of which Argument is plainly this When we descended into the Water and rise out of it again we made publick profession that as we hoped for pardon of our past sins through the Merits of the Death of Christ so we our selves would thenceforth die unto sin that is utterly cast it off and forsake it and for the future rise again to walk with Christ in newness and holiness of Life So that unless from the time of our thus putting off sin we continue constantly to live in all holiness and righteousness we have no just reason to expect Remission by virtue of the Death of Christ into which we were baptized For it being the express Condition of the Remission of sin that we continue no longer in it but live from thencefotth unto God the Blood of Christ it self which was shed to be a Propitiation for the Sins of the whole World can avail nothing for one that continues in Sin whom our Saviour himself has particularly excepted from the benefit of the Pardon purchased by his Death and Passion 4. Accordingly Persons after their Baptism were instructed That they must now utterly and for ever renounce all the sinful pleasures and desires of the World They were told that they now received remission of their past sins by vertue of the Death of Christ and therefore they must take great heed that they sinned no more They were told that they now washed their Garments in the Blood of the Lamb for a signal whereof they were accordingly cloathed in white and that they must take care to bring this unspotted Innocence with them before the Tribunal of Christ To which Custom our Saviour himself seems to allude Rev. 3. 4. Thou hast a few Names even in Sardis which have not defiled their Garments and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy They were told that they were now baptized for the remission of all their past sins and if they kept not this Baptism pure and undefiled they could not be sure they should ever be able to obtain the like full and perfect Remission again They were told that they now started in that great Race which they were to run for the Crown of Immortality and if those who were found tardy in an earthly Race were beaten and disgraced of how much sorer punishment should they be thought worthy who negligently faultred in the race of Immortality They were told that they now entred into that Covenant of God the Seal whereof was Let every one that Names the Name of Christ depart from Iniquity and if they kept not this Seal their punishment would be among Apostates whose Worm shall not die and whose Fire shall not be quenched They were told that they had now escaped the Pollutions of the World through the Knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and if after this they should be again intangled therein and be overcome and turn from the Holy Commandment delivered unto them their Punishment should be double to that of those who had never known the way of Righteousness Finally They were told that they were now enlightned and had tasted of the heavenly Gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and were sealed thereby unto the day of Redemption and if after this they should fall away it would be exceeding difficult to renew them to Repentance That they had now received the perfect knowledge of the Truth and if after this they sinned wilfully there would remain no more Sacrifice for sin but a certain fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation which should devour the Adversary In a word That they now received a certain Promise and Assurance of Eternal Life but if they would sell this blessing for the momentary gratifications of sense they might perhaps afterwards be rejected when they should desire to inherit it and find no place for Repentance though they might seek it carefully with Tears 5. These were the severe cautions with which the Primitive Church obliged baptized Persons upon their utmost Peril to keep themselves stedfast from the time of their Baptism in all holy and blameless Conversation Those who did continue to walk suitably to this Profession were said to be washed to be sanctified to be justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God And because in those purest times there were hardly any among Christians who did not walk suitably to their Profession it being the same thing then to be a Christian and to be a good Man therefore those Terms Elect Regenerate Sanctified born of God and the like which we now appropriate only to the best and most holy Men are not in Scripture
so appropriated but applied promiscuously to all Christians as appears from the Titles of the Apostles Letters in which whole Churches in general are called Elect Sanctified and the like and most evidently from St. John who in his first Epistle chap. 5. ver 1. Whosoever saith he believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ i. e. every Christian there being hardly any one in those times who was not indeed what he professed and pretended to be a Regenerate Sanctified and Elect Person And as Christians who then lived thus suitably to their Profession were stiled Regenerate Sanctified and the like so they who continued to live thus suitably to the end were said to Persevere and of such only was it said that they Persevered in opposition to those who after their Baptism lapsed into any notorious Transgression For one that had thus lapsed they did not think it sufficient that he should repeat his Crime no more which was the condition of Baptismal Remission but he was obliged by a long course of Mortification Prayers Tears and good Works to endeavour to wash out the Stain and Guilt Nay and even this course also they allowed of but Once not that true Repentance would at any time be in vain and unacceptable to God but as an Ancient Writer expresses it that that which was the only remaining remedy might not by being made too easie grow contemptible and ineflectual 6. And now let Us think upon this let Us consider this with shame and confusion of Faces who I do not say after Baptism and the solemn taking upon our selves the Profession of Christianity but after frequent Purposes and Promises of Reformation after repeated Vows and Resolutions of Amendment nay perhaps after confirming all these by the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ do yet continue in sin and defer our Repentance The Primitive Christians thought themselves absolutely obliged to live in the constant Practice of all Holiness and Vertue from the time of their Baptism to their Death and can we hope to be accepted if notwithstanding all our Pretences to Repentance and Reformation we still continue under the weak excuses of Infirmity and Inadvertency to live in any known sin Doth our Baptismal Vow lay no obligation upon us or hath God established a Covenant with us upon slighter Terms and entail'd his Promises to us upon easier Conditions than he did to the first and purest Christians Let no Man deceive you saith St. John He that doth righteousness is righteous 1 John 3. 7. 'T is true the case is not altogether the same with us as it was with them We live in Christian Nations and under Christian Governments where there are no Pagans to be converted to Christianity and to be baptized after their Repentance and with a full conviction of Mind And of those who are born of Christian Parents there are very few so happy as not to be entangled in the Habit of any sin before they come to a perfect understanding and compleat conviction of all the Truths of Religion And in this case it must indeed be confessed that it cannot but require some time perfectly to overcome a vitious disposition and to obtain the Habit of the contrary Vertue But may we therefore spend our whole Lives in little and weak struglings against sin without ever arriving at that pitch of Vertue which was antiently thought necessary to prepare a Man for Baptism May we therefore be excused from ever becoming perfect Christians because we were all along brought up in the Christian Religion and were never converted by any sudden Conviction When a Man is in that state described by St. Paul in the 7th Chap. to the Romans that he is convinced of the evil of great and known sins and sets his Mind to resist and strive against them yet not so but that through the viciousness of his inclination or the force of evil Habits he frequently relapses and is intangled in them again 't is a Sign indeed that such a one is not yet hardened through the deceitfulness of sin there is hopes that through the Grace of God he may at length prevail and overcome his Temptations but he has not yet overcome he has not yet attained to be a good Christian nor can he be said to have done so till he has brought himself into such a state as that he be perfectly gotten above all the Temptations to know sin and assured by the Grace of God that he shall not fall into it any more To such a state as this he must resolve to arrive and he must resolve to arrive at it timely that he may have a certain Title to the reward of Obedience There is hardly any Man so wicked who does not design to repent at one time or other before he dies and our Saviour has indeed in his Gospel made the same Promises to Repentance that he has to innocence and continued Obedience But let no Man deceive himself by a fatal Errour The Repentance to which our Saviour has made such large Promises is not the late Repentance of a Christian but the timely Repentance of a Jew or a Heathen at his Conversion to Christianity and is therefore the very same and no other than Baptism it self Indeed if a Christian by an unhappy Education be brought up in sin and habituated to Wickedness whenever he comes by the Power of God's Word and the Influence of his Holy Spirit to be convinced of the evil of his Ways and of the necessity of Religion he is then in the same state that a Heathen Convert is supposed to be at his Baptism and the same Promises are made to them both But when a Christian who has a clear Knowledge of his Duty does notwitstanding that continue wilfully all his Life in sin our Saviour is so far from assuring him that God and Angels will rejoyce at his Conversion if when he grows old he leaves off sinning because he can sin no more that he has no where promised that such a Repentance shall be accepted at all We must therefore so break off our sins by Repentance as to attain the Habits of the contrary Vertues and to live in them Such a Repentance as this our Saviour will accept and he that after such a Repentance lives constantly Virtuous shall certainly be esteemed in the sight of God as if he had always been innocent but without the evidence of such a Life of Virtue and renewed Obedience how far soever the Mercy of God may possibly extend it self We can never have any assurance that our Repentance will be accepted CHAP. V. Of the Baptism of Infants 1. AS those who by the Preaching of the Apostles and their Successors had been converted from Judaism or Gentilism to Christianity were baptized at riper Years upon their publickly professing their Faith and their Repentance so those who were born of Christian Parents
and designed to be educated in the Christian Religion have by the general Practice of the Christian Church been baptized in their Infancy upon Promise made by Sureties that they should be instructed in the Faith and in the Obedience of the Gospel 2. And that Infants are rightly so admitted to this Ordinance besides the almost general consent and practice of the Christian Church I shall use but this One Argument to demonstrate Those who are fit to be admitted into the Kingdom of Christ in Heaven as our Saviour himself pronounces Infants to be Mar. 10. 14 and 15. are certainly qualified to be received as Members of his Church on Earth The Qualifications which fit Men for both are Repentance and Faith Now though Infants have not Repentance yet they have Innocence which is better than Repentance and which makes them that they need it not For if those who have been the most enormous sinners are yet by their Repentance qualified for Baptism how much more are Infants who have never sinned fitted for it by their Innocence And though Infants have not and cannot have actual Faith yet they are Sanctified by being born of Believing Parents they are already in some sense within the Limits of the Church and of the Covenant of Promise and are ready without Prejudice to be instructed in the Truth of the Gospel and in the Obedience thereof 3. Infants therefore are rightly admitted to Baptism and thereby to the Privileges appropriated by Christ to the Members of his Church But because Baptism is a Covenant wherein there is as well a Promise made on the part of the Person baptized of certain Duties to be performed as one on God's part of certain Graces and Privileges to be conferred and because Infants are not capable of making any Promise immediately by themselves it has therefore been the wisdom of the Church to appoint certain Sureties who should promise in the Name of the Child what it self should afterwards be obliged to perform i. e. who should undertake to see it instructed in the Nature and Obligation of those Duties which upon account of its being a Member of the Church of Christ it would at years of Discretion be bound to perform CHAP. VI. Of the Duty of God-Fathers and God-Mothers 1 THAT therefore which the Sureties undertake for a Child at its Baptism is briefly this That it shall be taught all the Articles of the Christian Faith with the reasonableness of their Belief that it shall be instructed in all the Duties of the Christian Life with the necessity of their Practice and that it shall be minded in convenient time to make a publick Declaration of its being hearty in this Belief and to enter into a renewed Engagement to continue constant in this Practice They promise that it shall be taught to Believe in one God the Father Almighty c. and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord c. and in the Holy Ghost the Holy Catholick Church c. They promise that it shall be instructed to renounce the Devil and all his Works the Pomps and Vanities of this wicked World and all the sinful Lusts of the Flesh i. e. that it shall be taught to live Soberly Righteously and Godly in this present World And they promise that it shall in fit season be brought to declare solemnly in the presence of God and of the whole Congregation its firmness in the Faith of these Articles of Religion and its Resolution to continue in the Obedience of these Commands 2. This is what the God-Fathers or God-Mothers promise for a Child at its Baptism This they promise solemnly in the presence of God and in the face of the Congregation And is it a small thing to undertake for the Soul of a Person to be admitted into the Church of Christ Is it a light thing to enter into such a Promise solemnly before God and his Church I doubt not but whoever considers the matter seriously will hardly find any Duty of greater Importance or any Promise of more solemn Obligation yet is there no Duty more generally and more shamefully neglected nor any Promise more lightly regarded 3. If a Man be made Guardian to the Son of a deceased Friend and be intrusted with the Care of his Education how justly do we expect that he should be careful to have him instructed in all that necessary Knowledge on which depends the management of his Life and Conversation that he should be zealous to have him further indued with all those useful Accomplishments which may become his Quality and recommend him in the World but above all that he should spare no pains to secure to him his Estate and to improve his Fortunes And do we not look upon that Man as the vilest and most unfaithful of Men who having such a charge committed unto him should wholly neglect all or any of these things Yet how much a greater Trust does he betray who having the Soul of a Child committed to his care by God and the Church neglects wholly to have it taught those necessary Truths in the Knowledge and Practice of which consists its everlasting Happiness who takes no care at all to secure to it that Portion which God hath designed and prepared for it in Heaven and who seeing the Soul of an Innocent Babe perhaps meerly for want of good Advice and Instruction beginning to be over-run with the Seeds of those Vices which in time must drown it in destruction and perdition does yet show no Care or Concern for it What greater Uncharitableness can a Man possibly be guilty of towards the Soul of his Brother or what greater Mockery of God 'T is True the Education of a Child is not wholly committed to the Care of those who are its Sureties in Baptism but first and principally to the Parents themselves But undoubtedly they are bound to be Assistants and if the Parents either thro' Wickedness neglect to instruct it or by Death are taken away from it the Sureties must look upon this Care as chiefly devolved upon Them and of which they must give a strict Account 4. In what Station soever God appoints any Man over the Soul of his Brother either to warn the wicked or to instruct the ignorant if he neglects his Duty and his Brother perish through his default the Blood of him that perisheth will be required at his hands Ezek 3â— 8. When I say unto the Wicked O Wicked Man thou shalt surely die if thou dost not speak to warn the Wicked from his ways that wicked Man shall die in his Iniquity but his Blood will I require at thine hand How much more when the Soul of an innocent Child is committed particularly to the care of any Person if thro' his neglect it be corrupted and perish shall its Blood be required at his hand With what Confusion and Amazement shall we at the day of Judgment hear those who have been committed to our Charge accuse us for having
shall have of things at the conclusion of our Lives when Death and Judgment approach and let us view things now in the same Light as we know certainly we shall be forced to do then We know we shall then lament the loss of every opportunity of doing good which we have omitted and shall grutch every minute of Folly and Vanity which might have been employ'd to the increase of the Portion of our future Happiness We know we shall then look upon all the past pleasures of Life as emptiness and nothing and be convinced that there is no Pleasure but in true Virtue and no Fruit in any thing but in having done much Good And if we do indeed know this what can be more miserably and more inexcusably foolish than not to make the same Judgment of things now as we know assuredly we shall do afterwards The reason why Men die full of Fears and Uncertainties full of dark Suspitions and confused Doubts is because they are conscious to themselves that they have lived carelesly and indifferently without having taken any Pains either for the Service of God or for the Good of Men and without having used any zealous Endeavours to overcome the present World or to obtain the future But if Men would consider things in time if they would pass true Judgments of things and act accordingly with Resolution and Constancy they might then know certainly their own State and might live with Comfort and die with Assurance CHAP. XII Of our Obligation to be particularly careful to avoid those Sins to which we are most in danger to be tempted 1. FIfthly Be particularly careful to resist and avoid those Sins to which either your Constitution Company or Employment make you most in danger to be tempted This is the great Trial of every Man's Sincerity and of his Growth in Virtue He that for the Love of God and the Hopes of Heaven can mortifie and deny his most darling Lusts can quell and keep under his most natural Passions can resist and constantly overcome those Temptations by which he is most in danger to be seduced into Sin such a one has an infallible Assurance of his own Sincerity and is very near to the Perfection of Virtue But if there be any one Instance wherein a Man habitually falls short of his Duty or indulges a Lust a Passion a sinful Desire 't is certain whatever other Virtues he may be indued with that he either acts upon wrong Principles and is not sincere or that his Resolutions are hitherto too weak and ineffectual to intitle him to the Comfort of Religion here or to the Assurance of Happiness hereafter 2. There is no Man whom either the Constitution of his Body or the Temper of his Mind the Nature of his Employment or the Humour of his Company does not make obnoxious to some particular sort of Temptations more than to any other And in this thing it is that those who have something of Sincerity and will not with others run into all excess of Riot do yet make shift to deceive and impose upon themselves They think they are indued with many good and virtuous Qualities they hate Profaneness and professed enormous Impiety they know themselves innocent of many great Sins which they see others continually commit But something to which they are particularly tempted they indulge themselves in and the fatal Mischief is that those Sins which they see others commit and to which themselves are not violently tempted seem most absurd and unreasonable and easie to be avoided but that to which they are themselves addicted they think to be either so small as not to be of any very evil Consequence or so difficult to be resisted as to be allowed for among the unavoidable Infirmities of Nature Thus to many who have little or no Dealings in the World the Sins of Fraud Injustice Deceit Over reaching and the like seem very heinous base and unreasonable while at the same time they allow themselves in habitual Intemperances and Impurities as either harmless Vices or almost insuperable Weaknesses On the other hand there is no less a Number of those who applaud themselves in their own Minds that they are not as other Men Intemperate Debauched Drunkards Revellers and the like while at the same time they look upon Fraud and Deceit Tricking and Over-reaching as the necessary Art and Mystery of Business 3. But this is a very great and a very fatal Cheat. No Man can have any true and solid Peace in himself no Man can have any just Confidence in his Addresses to God no Man can have any Title to the Promises and Comforts of Religion here much less to the Glory and Reward of it hereafter before his Obedience be if not Perfect yet at least Universal God will not share with any Impiety nor ever accept of any Man's Obedience so long as 't is mixed with the accursed thing If there be any Sin that we can hardly part with if there be any Lust that is like a right Hand or a right Eye this is the thing that God hath proposed to us to Conquer this is the good Fight which we must fight through Faith this is the Victory to which Heaven is proposed For this we must gather together all the Forces of Reason and Religion for this we must strengthen our selves by Prayer and Consideration In this Warfare we must resolve strongly persevere obstinately and though we be conquered yet resolve to overcome always remembring that this is the Stake for Life or Death Happiness or Misery Heaven or Hell 4. Here therefore let every Man consider with himself and let him well observe his own Temptations and his own Strength Let him consider not how many Sins he can easily avoid but by what Temptations he may most easily be seduced and let him make it his Business to guard himself there Let those who are young and not yet entred into the hurry and business of the World not value themselves upon their being innocent from the Sins of Fraud and Injustice of Covetousness and Extortion or the like for that perhaps they may be without any Pains and without overcoming any powerful Temptation but let them try themselves whether they be firm against the Temptations of Vanity and Lightness of Heat and Passion of Intemperance and Impurity and let them judge of themselves by their behaviour in these Instances wherein they are most obnoxious Let them consider that their peculiar Task is to overcome the wicked one 1 John 2. 13. to subdue the Flesh to the Spirit to conquer and get above those Pleasures which sensualize the Soul and inslave the Mind to the Body and thereby bring it under the Power of Death and Destruction And in fine to strive continually to cleanse themselves from all Impurity not only of Body but even of Mind and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the Fear of God Let them consider that they are by Baptism dedicated to the