what punishment is so terrible as that of Fire and how unspeakably does it inhance the misery in that it is eternal and that too as inflicted by an offended God who is executing his vengeance upon sinners Would God sinners would seriously consider whether they are able to endure the eternal pains of a gnawing Conscience or can patiently dwell with devouring Flames Whether the momentary pleasures of sin are to be balanced with those furious reflections those horrid stings and intolerable tortures the damned suffer day and night where nothing of life remains but the sense of pain Alas will no argument prevail with men how amazing is it to think that the everlasting God has used all the methods of love to excite men to Holiness and to reclaim them from sin and all to no purpose May I not well say to such men as St. Paul said to the Galatians Vnwise sinners who hath bewitched you they endure we may also adde that celestial felicity they are for ever excluded from How tormenting will it be to think of an everlasting separation from the divine Presence and instead of a holy Society to keep a continual correspondency with impure Spirits Would God that this brief discovery of the powers of the world to come might prevail with men to be holy in all manner of conversation But methinks I hear the over-zealous Professor too ignorantly objecting that it is servile mercenary and legal to be holy for love of Heaven or fear of Hell Truely if it were so as these men teach I know not what can be the intent and designe of all the promises and threatnings of the Gospel And although I question not but it is a generous and Christian principle to serve God out of pure love yet I can never be induced to think that to be holy for love of Heaven and fear of Hell can be separate from that principle of love to God God knows how much in need men stand both of arguments to work upon their hope and fear to excite them to duty And since he who knows our natures has used promises to allure us and threatnings to awaken us we must not pretend to be wiser than God and reject those motives he has thought fit to prescribe and indeed if it were not for the fear of evil and the hope of good 't is to be feared the pressing of other motives should be but a mere beating of the Air. But that this is not servile and mercenary needs no other argument to prove it but our Saviour's enduring the Cross and despising the Shame for the joy that was set before him a Scripture sufficient enough to stop the mouths of all opponents SECT 4. Holiness the main designe of the Gospel and the end of all Christs sufferings Subjects who know the intent and designe of those Laws issued forth by their Prince will be loath to contemn his Authority especially when the whole intent of these is to make them by their obedience the more happy and sure 't is the most unaccountable thing that can be if they notwithstanding despise his Laws and quite counter-act his designe Now the main designe of the Christian help himself our blessed Lord redeemed us from our captivity by offering up himself a ransom to satisfie divine Justice and all this that we might walk in newness of life And now what ingratitude is it to despise so much love Sure If he that despised Moses law died without mercy of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the Bloud of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing Heb. 10.28 29. He must certainly be of a very base and disingenuous spirit who takes pleasure in sin when he considers how dearly Christ paid for it Hath he been at so much pains undergone such dismal sufferings to purchase our peace and will we notwithstanding frustrate his designe how strange to astonishment is this that men should prefer captivity to freedom Alas is it not enough that our blessed Master was so barbarously and despitefully used by the Jews and Roman Souldiers but must we be also Actors in the Tragedy and by our sins crucifie him again Did he not die that we might live and shall we spend our life in offering despite unto him Strange that so much madness should lodge in the breasts of any into whom God hath breathed the breath of life I might here also adde that it is a contemning and offering of the greatest despite to the Holy Spirit to despise Holiness for upon this account is the third person of the blessed Trinity called the Holy Ghost because his peculiar office is to enable us to perform holy actions now if we continue in our rebellion if we reject the offers of grace and the internal motions of the Spirit to Holiness we do hereby become guilty of quenching the Spirit of God and offering despite unto him which is so horrid a piece of villany that Heaven threatens it with the severest torments SECT 5. Holiness the most proper and effectual means for attaining length of days Of all outward and temporal blessings length of days hath justly the precedency since without this all others can afford little or no comfort The possession and enjoyment of other mercies can bestow no satisfaction to men lying on their beds Prov. 23.29 30. Who hath woe who hath sorrow who hath wounds without cause they that tarry long at the wine c. Holiness is repugnant and inconsistent with excess which naturally puts a period to the lives of men It forbids all manner of vice which leads down to the chambers of death and keeps men within due bounds in their eating and drinking Before mankinde had corrupted themselves by their notorious and impudent vitiousness we read of their great length of days but the increase of sin multiplied diseases which hurry men to untimely deaths I deny not but the great Lord and Master of the Universe may for holy and wise ends known unto himself cut short the lives of the righteous yet surely if we consult either Experience or Reason we shall finde it certain beyond doubt that vertuous men enjoy for ordinary far the longest lives Some good men may be naturally of a brittle constitution yet how strangely has their life been protracted by their moderation and sobriety and how many strong men have had their days shortened by their intemperance and excess Indeed he that considers this well shall finde that Holiness is the most effectual means to promote long life both upon a moral and natural account Upon a moral account long life is the reward which the divine promises do secure to such men and on the contrary wickedness is threatned with shortness of days Upon a natural account the fire doth not more naturally produce heat than Holiness does procure health and length of days and there is nothing more evident than that the most
the Book of Life or not He that doth righteousness needs not fear any latent Decree concerning his reprobation and it is the vainest thing imaginable for impenitent and obstinate sinners to dream that God hath from eternity elected them to life The pure nature of God is so perfectly opposite to sin that it is quite impossible there can be any agreement betwixt him and sinners no more than there can be betwixt light and darkness The Psalmist acquaints us That he is not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness And the Apostle hath told us That the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men But yet the righteous Lord loveth the righteous These are the men whom he esteems his Children to whom the promises of eternal life belong In the last place there is nothing in the world that will prove so effectual to comfort men at the hour of death as the sweet thoughts of their being separated from the pollutions of the world How unspeakably comfortable is it for men when they are just stepping into the other world to reflect upon the good life they have led and that they carry in their bosoms Consciences void of offence both toward God and towards man This is indeed that noble and Sovereign Cordial that revives the spirits of good men in their passage through the valley and shadow of death and makes their comforts abound and overflow Death is not so small a matter as some men think in Scripture it is not unfitly called the King of terrours Now nothing can free men from the terrour of it but a good Conscience and this cannot be had without Holiness which makes all calm and serene within It will afford men little pleasure when they come to die to reflect upon the earthly pleasures they have enjoyed these things profit not in the day of wrath but the Conscience of well doing makes men salute death without dread and astonishment and lift up their heads with joy because the day of their redemption approacheth But with the ungodly and wicked it is not so then their sins stare them in their face and so terrifie and affright them that no wonder though in the extremity of their agony they prefer strangling and death to life If holy Job doth so heavily complain of the terrours of God how much more terrifying shall the apprehensions of a severe and terrible judgement be to the unsanctified and polluted To think how shortly he must be everlastingly separate from the good things he enjoyed here and be cast into utter darkness to have his portion with the damned in devouring Flames to be an everlasting resident in the Lake of fire and brimstone where he shall be continually tormented with that gnawing worm that never dies These are the amazing thoughts that will seize upon the sinner his Conscience then will not sleep nothing will be able to allay those Storms and Tempests that are raised by the fearful expectation of the reward due to sin At death men are generally wiser than at other times then they begin to consider what they have been doing and call themselves fool a thousand times for their disobedience and wickedness The smoak of worldly cares that formerly blinded their eyes are now dispelled they see their folly when it is too late to mend it and if they do no more yet Balaam-like they will cry O that I might die the death of the righteous CHAP. IV. Frivolous Cavils and Objections removed THe former Chapters having discovered the Beauty of Holiness and the mighty power and force of Arguments that excite to the practice of it one who weighs all this by the measures of equity cannot as any man would think but look upon it as the strangest prodigie that so just a Cause should raiss of its effect and finde the sons of men who pretend to be such Masters of Reason so monstrously foolish in rejecting it upon the account of some frivolous and very fallacious cavils But the truth is resolute Impiety is set upon the bench and made Judge and no wonder though it pass an unjust sentence and condemn Holiness because of its opposition to Vice The common imputations and prejudices which wicked men load Holiness with I shall reduce to the four following Heads First Holiness lays upon men heavy burdens and grievous to be born which makes humane life joyless and uneasie they being so inconsistent first with Peace and secondly with Pleasure and Satisfaction Secondly Experience informs us that wicked men enjoy pleasure and satisfaction in their ways there being no men so jovial and merry as they and that men who pretend to Holiness are fullen and melancholy and are exposed to heavy sufferings and trials Thirdly 'T is singularity and ambition that prevail more with men than any other motive to be holy Fourthly 'T is the greatest piece of folly ignorance and impudence for men to quit with present pleasures for mere uncertainties The first being the most material Objection I shall therefore more largely and distinctly examine it and in doing of this I shall desire these four things may be considered First that the divine Laws are not grievous and uneasie Secondly that Vice is much more troublesom and difficult than Vertue Thirdly that Holiness conduceth both to the Peace and Happiness of humane Societies and to the temporal Advantage of private persons And Fourthly that there is a great deal of more pleasure in the ways of Holiness than in the commission of sin That the divine Laws are not grievous and uneasie but extreamly reasonable and wise is a truth I have already made plain when I discoursed of the rule of Holiness The whole tenour of the Laws of Christianity being so exceedingly suitable to the very nature of men it cannot be rationally supposed that they can be grievous to them St. Paul to the Philippians gives us a brief and compendious but very full and comprehensive account of what things the Laws of our Christianity enjoyn viz. Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely and whatsoever things are of good report all which are so agreeable to Reason that even the light of Nature prompts men to the doing of them and fully discovers it self to be an irreconcilable Enemy to all kinde of vices 'T is not then Reason but the impetuous Lusts of men that determines a holy Law to be grievous and uneasie and indeed no wonder though this unjust Judge make Holiness appear formidable and represent it as grievous to Mankinde it being so much the interest of this partial Judge to condemn it as criminal and to decrie it as a yoak intolerable and grievous to be born 'T is not probable that the most innocent shall pass uncondemned when an Enemy is set up in the Judgement-seat to pass Sentence our blessed Saviour must be pronounced guilty by Pilat although even this
born of a woman is of few days and full of evil But our future blessedness quite excludes all those evils there is nothing admitted to imbitter that pleasant state Rev. 21.4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away The holy soul shall then no more complain of any dolorous hours the heavenly Jerusalem is a place unacquainted with every thing that is uneasie and troublesome And yet this is but the least part of the Saints felicity for as they shall enjoy a perfect freedom from evil so shall they also be advanced to the fullest fruition of that God where all the streams of goodness do finally empty themselves Blessed are the pure in spirit for they shall see God Matth. 5.8 They shall see him not as now through a Glass darkly but then face to face 1 Cor. 13.12 they shall as the Angels in heaven always behold the face of their Father Matth. 18.10 in whose presence as the Psalmist assures us is fulness of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore Psal. 16.11 O the unspeakable delectability of the Saints future state where the most blessed God shines forth in his Glory where the beams of beauty ravish the beholders who stand continually in his presence receiving the manifestations of his Glory Sure if the faint expectation of enjoying the company of vertuous men in their fancied Elyzium did instigate some Heathens to imitate their vertues how much more perswasive should the heavenly Jerusalem and the City of the living God be where the holy Soul shall be admitted to converse with an innumerable company of holy Angels and taken into the blessed Society and Church of the first-born where all those imperfections that imbitter our communion here are removed where the holy Soul shall see Jesus the blessed Mediator of the new Covenant Heb. 12. who suffered so much for sinners now sitting in glory and majesty not crowned as once he was with thorns nor wearing a purple robe but having on his head the most transplendent Diadem and cloathed with Majesty and Beauty Methinks the thoughts of beholding this glory and participating of so much felicity should excite the most lazie to follow Holiness and to walk worthy of him who hath called us to his Kingdom and glory But I confess I am not able to express half of the glory of that future felicity The blessed Apostle seems to intimate that all Hyperbolical expressions fall short in describing it 2 Cor. 4.17 where he stiles it A far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory and 1 Cor. 2.9 he tells us Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive what God hath pepared for those that love him For although we may be assured that the reward is of infinite value and that the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father yet the most glorious part is hid from the eyes of viators 't is onely those who taste the Honey-comb that can best discover its sweetness And yet it is prodigiously strange that the imperfect glance of future Glory that men may here behold is so ineffectual to form them to Holiness that men who know they may be for ever happy if they would study and endeavour to be holy in all manner of conversation yet live as if they thought such a happy state not worthy to be noticed I confess if the faithful and true God had not promised this state of blessedness and discovered by revelation the truth and reality of it we could never have dreamed of partaking of so much happiness The Heathen world could never be ascertained by Natures dim light that the Soul is beyond all doubt immortal and that there is a future state of rewards and punishments The wisest of their Philosophers by their most laborious search were exceedingly confused in their thoughts about it and could at the most onely entertain some probable guesses and conjectures founded upon moral arguments which could never perfectly conquer their doubts They did indeed think it was very reasonable to believe that God who is holy just and good would in another life since he did it not in this reward good men and punish the bad but they could not be beyond all doubt ascertained that it would be so The most celebrated Socrates who parted with this life in expectation of a better plainly told his Friends it was God onely who knew whether there were a future felicity or not much less could either he or any other without revelation discover the nature and quality of the blessedness of that future state And indeed although they entertained some imperfect notions of a future life of bliss for the Soul yet they never thought of the resurrection of the Body although 't is true the felicity they formed was more congruous by far to satisfie sensual appetites than rational Soule the Poets Elyzium being much of the same nature with the Mahometan Paradise exactly accommodated to their flesh and senses In these thick clouds of darkness and ignorance did the wisest of the Heathens walk Exceedingly perplexed they were what to think their doubts being greater than their hopes But the arising of the Sunshine of Righteousness hath wholly dispelled all that darkness the Gospel hath brought life and immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 and hath undoubtedly assured us that there is a reward for the Righteous and that Holiness shall be crowned with Happiness SECT 3. Holiness the onely safe way to escape the wrath to come Fear is a passion so extreamly violent and repugnant to Humane nature that nothing imaginable is of more force to conquer the unruly wills of men to duty Hence is it that even humane Laws are much more secured by punishments than rewards Therefore if the promise of Heaven be not forcible enough to work upon our rebellious Wills we have a Map of eternal and intolerable torments to excite our fear and to affright us from the commission of those sins that lead down to the chambers of death and that drawn so exactly that it is the greatest miracle that men will notwithstanding slight Holiness which is the onely means to evite these lasting tortures In sacred Writ the torments of the damned are represented by such terrifying expressions that it is a wonder they impress not a fear and terrour upon the most daring sinner The Apostle St. Jude describing Hell calls it The vengeance of eternal fire and the blackness of darkness for ever Jude 7 13. And the Apostle St. John calls it A lake of fire and brimstone Rev. 20.10 15. Our Saviour more emphatically describes it to be A fire that can never be quenched and where the worm dieth not Mark 9.46 All which phrases do most significantly express the severity and intolerableness of the torments for
But I confess I am not able to express half the joy of this future felicity Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entred into the hearts of men to conceive what a store of happiness God hath laid up in Heaven for those who are holy in all manner of conversation SECT 8. Holiness accompanied with Peace There is nothing more suitable to and agreeable with Humane nature that Peace as those who endure trouble and vexation can fully attest Amongst earthly blessings it deserves not the last place it being a mercy which crowns all others and without which the fullest fruition could not prove satisfactory Those languishing and much to be pitied Kingdoms which now lie bathed in blood can attest the evils and mischiefs of War much more pathetically than words can express How sweet and acceptable would Peace a word always sounding sweetly be to them Now the Apostle St. James hath given us a brief but unquestionably true account of the real causes of Wars and Fightings Jam. 4.1 From whence come wars and fightings among you come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members From these sinful causes have all the disorders and jars in Kingdomes and private Societies had their real I speak not of their pretended original How impetuous are the lusts of turbulent spirits like the raging waves of the Sea they are still in motion casting forth filth and dirt Ambition is so unquiet and restless a passion that no man is ignorant what desolations it hath wrought in the earth How many famous Kingdoms hath it ruined and destroyed what inquietudes and disorders are occasioned by discontentment All these are things so evident that I need not enlarge upon them but how repugnant are these vices to Holiness and can it be rationally imagined that their genuine and proper effects can be more reconcilable with it I confess Religion hath too frequently been pretended as a Cloak to cover the greatest Villanies Confusions and Rebellions but sure I am nothing imaginable contains a greater contradiction than to say these impieties have a warrant from the sacred Laws of the Gospel the combination of which is the rule of Holiness as I have formerly explained Is not Christ called the Prince of Peace and the Gospel the Gospel of Peace and it is certain if men would be ruled by the Laws of so peaceable a Prince they should be of a calm and quiet spirit then should we indeed see Righteousness and Peace kissing each other When ever therefore we read in ancient prophesies of the great peace that shall be in the Messiahs reign we must thereby understand that the nature of the Gospel and its precepts are such that if men would conform their lives to them there should be an universal Peace How strictly are all the causes of Envy Contention Ambition and Rebellion prohibited and sure if these causes were removed their effect should have no place Then should the Bow be broken and the Spear cut in sunder Swords should be turned into Plough shares and the Instruments of War into more necessary uses War should cease unto the ends of the earth and Peace should be within each wall By this it is apparent how much holiness conduceth to the establishment of publick peace But that which I would more especially take notice of is the internal serenity and calmness of Conscience which is the onely effect of holiness and truely upon this account there is no peace to the wicked I might here appeal to every mans breast whether Holiness does not calm and quiet the Consciences of men whileas a natural horrour results from the commission of vice more heavy than the severest lashes ever inflicted by Ceditius or Rhadamanthus What unspeakable peace and ease does attend holiness of life there is no jar nor contention no check of Conscience nor wound of spirit to disturb the inward repose of the Righteous but that remorse that results from the commission of sin even after men have acquired what they sinfully lusted after is like that hand-writing Dan. 5.5 which made the stout heart of Belshazzer to tremble and his knees to smite one against another It troubles the thoughts of the most daring sinner and makes him a terrour to himself There is no imaginable torment that can equal the terrours of an awakened guilty Conscience it hath put men to chuse strangling and death rather than life all which is fully verified by the Word of truth The spirit of a man can sustain his infirmity but a wounded spirit who can bear O the secret pangs and fears that possess the spirits of wicked men the severe checks and lashes of Conscience that seize upon transgressors which all imaginable divertisements cannot quite stifle and suppress All the attendance of the most dear Relations cannot give ease and comfort to them How dismal and inconsolable was Spira's condition how amazing are the very thoughts of those gnawings and horrours of Conscience he suffered The fears and apprehensions of a future misery mar all the joy and mirth of carnal men In their most flourishing state it continually haunts them and so fills them with horror and inquietude that they cannot quietly enjoy themselves Whilst the Soul acts within the Body it cannot but present those horrid and disquieting reflections Hi sunt qui trepidant ad omnia fulgora pallent These are the men who in the midst of outward felicity are amazed with tormenting fears which cannot be eradicated but by a sincere repentance But the holy Soul in the extremity of outward troubles enjoys an internal calmness and quiet of minde the very Pagan who could not be beyond doubt assured of the certainty of a future reward could yet say Hic murus ahenaeus esto Nil conscire sibi nulla palescere culpa But the Word of truth hath made this more unquestionably sure Psal. 119.165 Great peace have they that love thy Law and nothing shall offend them SECT 9. Holiness the best evidence of true Wisdom and real Worth and Courage Wisdom and Courage having their rise and source from nobler Principles than external helps have therefore in all Ages been esteemed excellent and venerable vertues and much preferable to those others which depend upon external advantages Wisdom is as the Wise man speaks the principal thing Prov. 4.7 It is that vertue which in a peculiar manner raiseth the Humane nature above that of Bruits who act without consideration and counsel And Courage is that which subdueth that ignoble passion of fear which hindreth men from attempting aâ—tions praise-worthy Hence it is that to be called a Fool or Coward are such reproachful denominations that nothing imaginable is more shameful That Holiness is an infallible evidence of true Wisdom is more plain than it can be doubted In sacred Writ Wisdom and Religion are used as convertible terms as words expressing the same thing And unto man he said Behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdom