all of it too little and can we think it too much There 's only one Objection obvious in this Case If we must Love God with all our Heart with all our Soul with all our Strength with all our Mind it seems to follow that we must Love nothing else Now this is evidently a great Mistake because the Scripture immediately adds that we must Love our Neighbour as our selves from whence it follows clearly 1. That we must Love our selves 2. That as we Love our selves so we must Love our Neighbour also 'T is enough therefore that with all our Mind we principally consider our Duty to our God with all our Strength endeavour chiefly to Serve him and with all our Heart and Soul Embrace him as the most Transcending Object of our best Affections 'T is enough I say that we never Love any thing else but either by his Order or with his Leave And that all our Love of any Creature whatsoever is always Subordinate to the Love of God and ready upon all occasions to give place to it without ever offering to stand one Moment in Competition with it Remember what our Saviour says Do this and you shall certainly possess Eternal Life But at the same time pray remember that unless you Do this you shall certainly never possess it It seems a little strange that this Lawyer who was so very skilful in the general Doctrine of the Law was yet so ignorant in the particular Application of it He knew that all the Precepts of the Law were comprehended in these Two of Loving God above all things and our Neighbour as our selves And yet he knew not who his Neighbour was but ask'd our Saviour the Question Who is my Neighbour Is it a Friend A Benefactor A Relation An Acquaintance A Partner A Fellow-Citizen A Countrey-Man Or is it generally any Person United to us in some Common Bond of Humane Society I am afraid that many Christians are as ignorant as this Pharisee was They generally Love themselves to that Degree as not to Care for any Body else but those who are some way or other Instrumental Useful or Serviceable to their Honour Interest or Pleasure Without something of this 't is no great matter what becomes of them Whether they Sink of Swim 't is all the same If this were all that is Commanded by the Second Precept of the Law this part of the way to Heaven would be Broad enough We then should have no need to fear that there are few that find it we might be assured there would be none that miss it To Love our Neighbour for our own sake is as easie as it is to Love our selves But on the contrary to Love him purely for God's sake is as hard a Task as 't is to Love our Maker better than our selves If we Love God above all things and consequently above our selves this Love when it extends to our Neighbour will naturally set a greater value upon his Relation to God than his Connexion with us We shall not then so much consider his Affinity his Kindness or his Usefulness but we shall chiefly regard his being made to the same Divine Image Redeemed by the same Precious Blood and therefore being capable of the same Grace in this World and the same Glory in the next Let a Man be never so much a Stranger to us nay let him be our greatest Enemy yet it is still true that his Creation his Redemption his Capacity of Grace and Glory are the same as ours And therefore if we Love God above all things and our selves in order to him we are bound to Love our Neighbour principally upon these Accounts that is to say we are obliged to Love him as we Love our selves The truth of this Doctrine is plain and clear in our Saviour's Parable of the Samaritan When he saw a Naked Man lye Bleeding and Half-dead of his Wounds 't was enough to move his Compassion and to make him overlook all private Considerations of his being not only a Stranger but perhaps an Enemy to him for the Jews in those Days had such a Mortal Enmity against the Samaritans that they would not endure either to Eat or Drink with them But not withstanding all this He was framed of the same Flesh and Blood he was made to the Image of the same God he had a Just Title to the Common Duties of Humanity and therefore the Samaritan went to him he pour'd Oyl and Wine into his Wounds he bound them up he set him upon his own Horse he brought him to an Inn and took Care on him This was not all When he had brought him thither another Person would perhaps have thought that he had done enough for one Man's share and would have left him to the mercy of the Inn where every Body else was as much oblig'd as he to have Compassion on him But the Samaritan was not content with doing half his Duty he was not certain that the People of the Inn were willing to supply the rest and therefore he not only left Money in the Hands of his Host but also left Orders to let him want for nothing assuring him that if the Money fell short whatsoever he laid out more he would faithfully repay every Farthing The Samaritan if he had been so Hard so Cruel and so Selfish as we are he might have alledged a Thousand of those cautious pretences which are common in the World But his Charity was too sincere to need any Excuse and too great to allow it Our Saviour not only Preach'd this Doctrine but also Practis'd it The Parable is not only His but He himself the principal Person represented in it When Adam Sinned he went down from Paradise into a Vale of Miseries where not only He but his Posterity are stript of all the Original Robes of Innocence and fallen into the Hands of their own disorderly Passions which are worse than Robbers by whom they are dangerously Wounded and left Half Dead Our Saviour Jesus Christ the true Samaritan saw our Condition and took Pity on us He descended from Heaven he pour'd his Precious Blood into our Wounds he Charged himself with the Burthen of our Frailties he brought us into his Church and there he took such Care of us that we are certain to be Cured unless we wilfully refuse to apply the Remedies which he provided for us He look'd upon us as his Neighbours He Loved us because we are made to the Divine Image which tho' defaced by Sin and possess'd by the Devil nevertheless was still capable of being Ransom'd by the Merit of his Passion Renew'd by the Power of his Grace and Perfected by the Brightness of his Glory These are the Reasons why our Saviour Loved us even when we were his Enemies For the same Reasons we truly and justly Love our selves in spite of all our Faults And tho' our Neighbour hates us yet these Motives still subsist and very well deserve our Love Let
us therefore Love God above all things Let us Love our Neighbour as our selves Love is the fulfilling of the Law Let us only Do this and we shall live Let us Do this and we shall possess Eternal Life Amen Discourse III. Of the Love of God and the World JEsus said to his Disciples No Man can serve two Masters For either he will Hate the one and Love the other or else he will Hold to the one and Despise the other You cannot serve God and Mammon Therefore I say unto you Be not Solicitous for your Life what you shall cat nor yet for your Body what you shall put on Is not the Life more than Meat and the Body more than Clothing Behold the Fowls of the Air For they Sow not neither do they Reap nor Gather into Barns and yet your Heavenly Father Feeds them Are not you much better than they Which of you by taking Care can add one Cubit unto his Stature And why are you Solicitous for Clothing Consider the Lilies of the Field how they Grow they Toil not neither do they Spin. And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his Glory was not arrayed like one of these Wherefore if God so Clothe the Grass of the Field which to Day is and to Morrow is cast into the Oven How much more will he Clothe you O you of little Faith Therefore be not Solicitous saying What shall we Eat Or what shall we Drink Or wherewithal shall we be Clothed For after all these things do the Gentiles seek And your Father knows that you want all these things Seek therefore First the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you Math. 6. v. 24 to 34. This Gospel teaches us Three Things 1. That we cannot serve God and Mammon we cannot serve God and the World they cannot both be Masters of our Heart and our Affections but if we Love God and hold to him above all things we must of necessity either Hate the World or at least Despise it 2. That it is a Dangerous thing to Love the World and be Solicitous for any thing belonging to it because when Love is grown Solicitous 't is certainly great and the worst of it is we cannot certainly judge how great it is it may for ought we know be greater than the Love of God and if it be so we have already quitted the Service of God to Embrace the Service of the World 3. That it is a needless thing to Love the World and be Solicitous for the necessary Conveniencies of it because God himself has faithfully promis'd us that as long as we make it our Chief Busito serve Him He will always make it part of his Care that the World shall be sure to serve Vs I. If God and the World were both of the same Mind if they commanded the same things by the same Authority and for the same End they would not then be two Masters Our Obedience to each of them would be one and the same thing and in obeying one we should obey them both But this is an impossible Supposition We all know very well that God and the World are Enemies which never can be reconciled They command opposite things by a different Authority and for contrary Ends. The Laws of the World are directly Repugnant to the Laws of God The usurped Authority by which they are imposed is derived originally from the Devil And the Ends they aim at are as different as Temporal and Eternal 'T is therefore impossible for God and the World at the same time to be each of them the Sovereign Master of our Heart If we Hold to the one we must Despise the other If we Love the one we must Hate the other And since they are engaged in a Continual War we cannot List our selves in Service of the one without Fighting against the other This is the Reason why our Life is said to be a Warfare upon Earth And this is the War which is described in the Epistle of this Day betwixt the Spirit of God and the Spirit of this World which are always contrary the one to the other For which Reason S. James in his Epistle tells us that the Friendship of this World is Enmity with God and whosoever will be the World's Friend is God's Enemy And yet although we cannot possibly be Friends to both we are under an absolute necessity of making Friends with one of them The Reason is natural and evident We are made to be happy and indeed happy we were when we were First made But being unfortunately fallen from the Original Happiness of our First Creation we feel the want of what we lost we cannot but be Conscious of our Emptiness and therefore cannot help desiring and endeavouring to satisfie it Such is our Nature that we must and will be happy one way or other if we can And because our Misery and our Corruption are such that 't is impossible to find our Happiness at home 'T is therefore no wonder that we go abroad to seek it Now there are only two sorts of Happiness that we can think of either our present Happiness in this Life or our future Happiness in the next God promises the one The World invites and tempts us to the other The one is True and Sincere the other False and Counterfeit The one Sensual and Beastly the other Manly and Rational The one Unmixt and Pure the other Sprinkled with Care and Sorrow The one Secure and Eternal the other short-liv'd and always dying either with us or before us One would think that so much difference in the case were more than enough to Determine our choice And yet This is not All. Our God is so infinitely Good so Merciful and Kind that He not only promises All This hereafter but even here affords us so much Comfort Satisfaction and Pleasure in a Vertuous Life that the World with all its Charms can never make a shew of any thing that 's able to compare with it He bestows at present more Happiness than the World can offer us and for the future He promises incomparably nay infinitely more than he now gives us So that we are evidently Guilty of a double Folly if we do not gladly accept of what we have in Hand and thankfully submit to give him Credit for the Rest Since therefore God has kindly left it to our choice what Master we please to serve and since we cannot avoid chusing let us gratefully and wisely chuse Himself Let us serve him because he made us let us love him because he lov'd us let us live and die for him because he redeem'd us let us obey him without reserve because he rewards us without Measure Let us banish the World from our Heart and leave the whole room to Him who only deserves to be the Sovereign Lord and Master of it The World does not deserve our Love and therefore we ought to Despise
it On the contrary it deserves God's hatred as well as ours the Maxims of it are Inconsistent with his Service and our Happiness 't is a declared Enemy to him and a pernicious Enemy to us and therefore we have a double Reason to Hate it If we Love God above all things the very Love of him is enough to set our Hearts at liberty It disarms the Power of the World It makes us generously scorn its Riches Vanities and Pleasures It calls home our Thoughts reclaims our Affections calms our Passions enlightens our Mind enflames our Heart and establishes the Kingdom of God within us When once we Love God as we ought we are led by the Spirit of God And S. Paul assures us that the Fruits of this Spirit are not only Love but Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance and all those other Vertues which begin our Heaven upon Earth But it is not so with those who Love this World above the next They are Slaves to their own Vncleanness Covetousness and Pride They begin their Hell before they end their Lives They wilsully condemn themselves to all the Troubles Anguishes and Torments which their eager violent and furious Passions can invent and when these Executioners have done their worst the Devil and his Angels do the rest for ever They have receiv'd the Spirit of this World whose Works according to the same Apostle are Manifest not only Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Lasciviousness Drunkenness and Revellings but also Covetousness which is Idolatry and Pride which naturally is attended with Hatred Variances Emulations Anger Strife Seditions Heresies Envyings Murders and such like concerning which says he I foretel you as I have also told you in time past that they who do such things shall not Inherit the Kingdom of God No no They shall whether they will or no Inherit the Slavery of the Devil But as for the Kingdom of God they have no Title to it Unless his Will be done his Kingdom cannot come Unless we Love him above all things we cannot be his Subjects nor can he be our King Our Heart is the Throne of God And when we begin to Balance betwixt him and the World when we refuse to let him Govern our Affections we Rebel we take up Arms against him and call in the Devil to help us to Dethrone him And can we expect to inherit his Kingdom if we wilfully renounce it and declare against it Can we be Heirs of his Kingdom hereafter if we are not Faithful and Loyal Subjects of it here II. I have said enough to shew the impossibility of serving two Masters the necessity of serving one and the Folly of preferring the World before the Maker of it I shall now consider the natural Consequences of this Doctrine If our present and future Happiness depend entirely upon our Loving God above all things If our Misery as well here as hereafter is the Effect and Punishment of loving the World too much It follows evidently that we ought to make it the Chief Business of our whole Life to improve the Love of God and to lessen the Love of this World 'T is true the Kingdom of God is never perfect upon Earth The Empire of Divine Love is never so absolute here as to exclude all Worldly Affection The Love of this World is entail'd upon our Corrupted Nature 'T is an Inseparable Companion of it and a Mortal Enemy to it And this is our unhappy Condition in this Vale of Misery We are engaged in a Continual War with our selves Our Heart is the Field of Battel where we must always Fight and may always Conquer but can never Kill our Enemy We can never quite destroy the Love of this World Let us do what we can 't will never die before us But as long as we live 't will still live in us and whilst it lives will always struggle with us and rebel against us But nevertheless although we cannot Kill this Love yet we can Moderate it we can Weaken it and keep it under And this is what we are strictly obliged to unless we have a mind to Cherish our Danger and to Perish in it This is the Reason why our Saviour had no sooner said to his Disciples You cannot serve God and Mammon but immediately he concludes Therefore I say unto you Be not Solicitous for this Life And the Reason is clear Because when once we Love the World to that Degree as to be Solicitous for it we are in very great danger of loving the World too much and of serving Mammon instead of God I have already told you that when Love is grown Solicitous 't is certainly great and that we cannot certainly judge how great it is It may for ought we know be greater than the Love of God And if it be only as great 't is enough to lose his Favour and make him leave us to our selves to seek our Fortune in the Service of this World In Matters of little Importance where our Heart is not much engaged we are not apt to be Solicitous our Minds are at ease we expect with a great deal of Patience and are disappointed with very little Disturbance But if our Thoughts are always stirring and busie our Desires eager and importune if our Hopes are unquiet and restless our Fears troublesome and painful if Delays very much mortifie us and even the Apprehensions of Disappointments very much disturb us we may be sure that the Love from whence all this Solicitude proceeds is very great And whether it be Honour Interest or Pleasure be it what it will 't is certain we are very much in Love with something or other which Influences all these Motions and Affections of our Mind and Heart when things are once come to this pass 't is time to look about us and stand upon our Guard We may hope indeed that still we Love God better than the World And I must needs Confess 't is possible we may but I am sure it is not very probable we do There are great odds against us For 't is a certain Truth that All our Inclinations are proportion'd to the Love from whence they proceed And if our Aversions and Desires our Hopes and Fears our Joy and Grief are stronger and more active in the Concerns of this World than in those of Heaven we have Reason to be very much afraid that our Love of this World is greater than the Love of God 'T is a gross Mistake to imagine that because we still Esteem God more Therefore we Love him better Alas This Esteem is only a Compliment of our Mind And this Compliment may easily pass for Current altho ' the strongest Affections of our Heart are otherwise engaged We know too well by sad Experience that there is a certain thing call'd Humour which often over-rules our Reason and steals away our Heart to doat upon those very Follies which in our Serious Thoughts we cannot but despise A Man
who is Solicitous for this World may easily deceive himself in this Matter He may Esteem God a great deal more and yet Love him a great deal less The Disciples had a great Esteem of our Saviour and thought they loved him better than their Lives They All declared they would rather die with him than deny him And yet immediately after the Chief of them denied him and all the rest forsook him When they look'd upon the time of Trial at a distance they had a great Opinion of their Strength But when the Occasion was present they soon discover'd their Weakness This was once their Case And God only knows how often it has been ours Their Case you 'll say was different because they were Guilty of a great Presumption But pray consider a little Are not we as guilty as they Do we not presume as much Are we not as confident of our own Strength We know very well that the Love of this World is a Mortal Enemy to the Love of God And therefore if we do not daily watch the Motions of this Enemy oppose its Progress and cut off all Communications which may any way Fortifie it if on the contrary we daily furnish it with all Provisions Ammunitions and Arms against us if we thus despise the Strength of our Enemy is it not Visible that we too much confide in in our own And if we commonly neglect those daily Considerations Exercises and Endeavours which are necessary to Encrease and Fortifie the Love of God is not this a downright Presumption in our own Sufficiency as if we already loved him enough Remember the Fall of the Apostles Remember how grievously they were mistaken Remember that not only their Doctrines but even their Failings ought to be an Instruction to us Never let us confide in our present Love of God but let us daily endeavour to Improve it Never let us despise the Strength of our Worldly Love but let us daily endeavour to abate it If we could serve two Masters we might be Solicitous for both But since we can only serve One 't is a dangerous thing to be Solicitous for any Other You cannot serve God and Mammon says our Saviour therefore I say unto you Be not Solicitous for this Life III. We have seen how Dangerous it is to be Solicitous for any thing in this World The rest of the Gospel shews us that his Solicitude is altogether needless If there were any necessity of it our Saviour would not forbid it The Words are plain Be not Solicitous for your Life And indeed if we seek first the Kingdom of God if the Service of God be truly and sincerely our first and principal Concern 't is evidently needless to be Solicitous for our Life He made us for himself and for his own sake he takes care of us Not that he is any way the better for us but because he naturally takes delight in doing good to All who do not wilfully oppose the overflowing of his Goodness He gave us our Life that if we please we may be Happy by employing it entirely in his Service And as long as we serve the Master who gave us this Life our Self-preservation is in better Hands than our own All the Malice of Men and Devils put together can never take away our Life without our Master's order or his leave And therefore whensoever either by his leave or by his order the appointed Hour of our Death approaches we may be assur'd our Master has no more occasion for our Service and therefore we have no Pretensions to Live longer There is only One thing Necessary in this World and that 's our Duty to our Master And whensoever our Duty stands in Competition with our Life if we are true and faithful Servants we shall always readily and cheerfully conclude Our Duty is Necessary but our Life is not When things are in this posture 't is evident that the Observance of this Duty is the last Piece of Service which our Master requires at our Hands And since our Service is the End for which our Life was given us if we wish to out-live our Service we are every jot as unreasonable as if we wish'd to out-live the End of our Life You 'll tell me perhaps you are very willing to Die when God pleases But you are afraid of wanting the Necessary Conveniences of Humane Life and therefore you are justly Solicitous for fear of being Miserable whilst you Live And truly you are partly in the right You have all the Reason in the World to be willing that God should chuse the Hour and appoint the Moment of your Death because He only knows what Time is best and fittest for us But since we are willing to trust him with our Life why should we not as willingly trust him with all things else belonging to it He has promis'd to take Care of us He knows better than we do what is good for us He loves us better than we love our selves His Power is boundless and cannot be obstructed Is not this enough to secure us He is infinitely Powerful He is able says S. Paul to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think He is infinitely Good He cannot but Delight in being so to those that serve him He is infinitely Wise He cannot commit the least mistake in our Concerns In a Word his Wisdom his Goodness and his Power all concurr to Ensure the Blessings of his Providence which by a Solemn Promise is engaged for ever to be favourable to us Seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and All these things shall be added to you 'T is the Voice of Truth it self Truth cannot tell a Lie His Promise cannot fail Is it not the First Article of our Creed to believe in God the Father Almighty Does not the First of all our Petitions begin with these comfortable Words Our Father who art in Heaven If we believe him to be Our Father ought we not to believe that he will certainly be careful of his Children And if we really believe He is always careful of us what need we at any time be Over-careful and Solicitous for our selves Therefore I say unto you says our Saviour Be not Solicitous for your Life what you shall eat nor yet for your Body what you shall put on He only forbids our being Solicitous He does not forbid us to Work and Labour for an Honest Livelyhood Our Heavenly Father does not encourage Idleness in his Children He expects that we should be industrious in doing of our part And when we have done that He 's always ready to supply the rest And to satisfie us concerning this matter our Saviour is not contented to give us his bare Word for it but uses several Arguments in order to convince us Is not the Life more than Meat says he and the Body more than Clothing He who freely and frankly bestows upon us what is more will he deny us
too little A Medium betwixt both is certainly the best And even then there 's enough to be done and a great deal more to be suffer'd Abatements of Humour must be made on the one side as well as the other there must be mutual Condescentions used they must have Patience if not always at least by turns And all this little enough to maintain that Peace at home and Credit abroad without both which they cannot expect to be easie For want of this we see the Ruin of many Families who are a grievous Scandal to their own Domesticks whilst they live together and a greater to the whole World when they part To prevent all these Disorders and to govern all their Passions with that Moderation and Discretion which is necessary for their present Happiness and for the future Welfare of themselves and Children both in this World and the next the Grace of God is indispensibly required Their Frailty and Temptations are greater than ordinary and therefore their Grace must be so too They are as Frail and Weak as Water And nothing but a Miracle of Grace can change their Water into Wine This is that Comfortable beginning of Miracles which Jesus did in Cana of Galilee to Manifest his Glory that all Married Christians may be true Disciples of him and firmly believe in him that though without him they are never able to Support the Difficulties of their State yet by his Presence and Assistance they may make those Duties easie which are otherwise impossible II. 'T is a great Comfort to Married People that the State wherein they engage is truly Honourable and that God himself his Virgin-Mother and Disciples were pleas'd to Honour it with their Presence 'T is yet a greater Comfort to Consider that the things which are Impossible with Men are Possible with God and that although sometimes it may be morally Impossible for Humane Nature to endure with Patience the Cares and Crosses which attend a Foolish or Unwary Choice yet still God's Mercy is so great that he will rather Work a Miracle in Favour of them than suffer his Omnipotent Assistance to be wanting to them But though these Comforts are Peculiar to Married Persons yet the Instructions of the Gospel are more general and may regard all Christians whatsoever not only those who are Married but even those who lead a single Life I. There was a Marriage says the Evangelist and Jesus was invited Without this Invitation He would not have been present And without his Presence they would have been deprived of his Assistance This is the Case not only of Marriage but of any other Calling or Profession whatsoever No good Christian dares presume in any State of Life to expect the Blessing of Christ without inviting him to give it He must be present in their Hearts by a Sincere Desire of serving him and saving their Souls Whatever they engage in they may perhaps have other Honest Motives but this must always be the Chief He must be also present in their Minds by a Sincere Enquiry into his Holy Will and Pleasure which they consult in every Deliberate Action and much more in any Solemn Undertaking which is like to have a greater and more lasting Influence upon their Lives They invite not only Jesus Christ but his Disciples also when in all things they consult those Holy Maxims which He and his Apostles preach'd and under the secure direction of Faith Hope and Charity they fix their steady Eye upon the Glories of another Life and Value this no farther than it is Subservient to that 'T is thus they prove themselves to be true Christians according to S. Paul's Description by denying all Vngodliness and Worldly Lusts by living Soberly and Righteously in this present World and by expecting the Glorious Appearance of him who is their God and Saviour Jesus Christ 'T is thus they shew to all the World the Sanctity of their Calling and make it appear as the Apostle says that God has not call'd them to Vncleanness but to Holiness that every one may know how to Possess their Vessel in Sanctification and Honour and not in the Lust of Concupiscence like the Heathens who know not God and therefore know no Rule but their unruly Appetites 'T is thus they Build their whole Morality upon a true Christian Foundation They believe they hope they love above all things that Blest Eternity whose Joys are set before them and therefore take no Measures but what are suitable to it and are always Prudent in chusing Patient in suffering Just and Temperate in all their doings Even those who differ from us in Matters of Faith are some of them of the same Opinion with us in these Important Maxims of Morality A very Abstemious Life if it be not required as an Essential Part of Holiness yet it is necessary as the Means and Instrument of it Conformably to that of S. Paul 1. Cor. ch 7. Brethren the time is short it remaineth that they who have Wives be as though they had none and they that Rejoice as though they rejoiced not for the Figure of this World passes away Where we are not only Interdicted unlawful Pleasures but forbidden to give our selyes up to lawful ones and commanded to use such Moderation as may become Men fully perswaded of the Shortness and Vanity of this Life and possessed by the Expectation of a better The Christian State is a State of Holiness and Purity 'T is in one Word to be Heavenly-minded And therefore that Course of Lise which can best serve to Encrease this Blessed Temper is the Christian's Duty and that which Softens and Sensualizes us is Inconsistent with Christianity The great End of Temperance according to S. Paul 1 Cor. ch 9. is the Mastery or Conquest over the World and Flesh whose Lusts and Pleasures War against the Soul Religion being nothing but the Love of God and Heavenly things the Gospel endeavours all it can to wean us from the World and Flesh it being Impossible to serve Two such contrary Interests And when the Soul is striving for the Mastery is it Sense to Arm the Enemy and Feed it into a Fierce and Brutish Courage by indulging those Enjoyments which are the Food and Fuel to its Lusts In plainer Words that Abstinence from Sensual Pleasures which renders the Body Governable and Serviceable to the Soul which Frees the Mind from its Captivity to Sence and Establishes its Dominion over the Brutish Part is that Temperance which the Gospel requires And by Consequence that Indulgence to Worldly Pleasures which tends to Pamper and Enrage the Body to awaken our Passions for this present State to make the Minds of Men Soft and Feeble Heavy and Sensual unable to Suffer and froward if their Appetite be not satisfied is flatly Contradictory to the Temperance of the Gospel of Christ II. To obtain this Temperance this Mastery over our selves we must observe another great Instruction of our present Gospel We must
in Council That without the Sacrament of Penance it cannot of it self justifie a Sinner The Question is Whether it sufficiently disposes him in that Sacrament to obtain the Grace of God To avoid mistakes in a matter of this Moment we must observe that in Hell there are Two sorts of Pain the one of Sense the other of Losing God And consequently there must be also admitted Two sorts of Fear and Sorrow the one proceeding from Self-love the other from the Love of God This Second sort of Sorrow although it falls short of Perfect Contrition yet nevertheless it pre-supposes a Fear of losing God's Friendship in this World and his Company in the next a desire to please him here and to enjoy him hereafter an actual Love of him as our last End and chiefest Good And since their Love Desire and Fear may be so great as to imply a Preference of him before all his Creatures it follows clearly that the Sorrow which is ground on this Love may possibly exclude all Actual Desire of Sinning which if it does the Council tell us That it is an Impulse of the Holy Spirit not yet dwelling in us but moving us by which a Penitent prepares the way for his being justified But the First sort of Sorrow is certainly insufficient and 't is very fit that we should know it in good time before we feel it And that we may discern what ground our Sorrow goes upon S. Austin thus proposes the Case in his 19. Sermon de verbis Apostoli Behold says he the Lord your God tries you as who should say Do what you will and whatsoever pleases you take it for granted that 't is lawful I do not Punish it I do not cast you into Hell for it only I shall certainly deny you the Sight of my Face for ever If you were afraid you Loved If you are more afraid of this than any other thing you Love him above all things Your Love inspires you with a Noble Detestation of all Sin a Strong Aversion against it a Continual Fear of incurring God's Displeasure by it and a True Penitential Sorrow for having been Guilty of it But if you Value not the Loss of God if you are unconcern'd for all the Joys of his Blest Company if you neither Care for Him nor his Heaven provided he allows you all your Pleasures upon Earth you may be very well assured that as long as you Love your Humour Ease and Pleasure above all things your Fear and Sorrow proceeding purely from this Love can never of themselves exclude your Actual Desire of Sinning This very Love is a Capital Sin which Breeds a Thousand Desires of Sinning And according to the eagerness of those Desires the greater is your Fear that they will all be Disappointed and severely Punisht and the greater is your Sorrow to think that all God's Penal Laws against these Criminal Desires will certainly be put in Execution for all Eternity The Fear of Sensible Pain and the Desire of Sinful Pleasure grow naturally both upon the same Stock they are both rooted in the same Self-love And how then can the one be able of it self to pull up the other by the Roots How can the Fear of Pain extirpate the Love of Pleasure and exclude the Will or the Desire of Sinning For this Reason S. Austin in his Book against the Adversaries of the Law affirms That the Desire of doing ill is not excluded but by a contrary Desire of doing well And in his Epistle 144. he says In vain does he think himself a Conquerour of Sin who abstains from it only for Fear of Pain For although he does not outwardly Accomplish his Wicked Desire yet this Desire this Enemy of his is still within him He who fears Hell does not fear Sinning but Burning Alas This Servile and Carnal Fear as S. Austin calls it can never change the Heart It can never alter our Minds Because as long as we fear nothing but Burning we are every â—oâ— as carnally-minded as before we mind nothing but the Satisfaction of our Senses this we love this we desire and by the same Rule are Afraid and Sorry when we think of Pain and Torment To be carnally-minded is Death says the Apostle but to be spiritually-minded is Life and Peace Our Repentance is not true unless it change our Hearts and make us spiritually-minded It must make to us a New Heart and a New Spirit It must make us Love a New Life and therefore Hate the Old One. Our Hatred of this is always grounded in the Love of that and as S. Austin says in his Epistle 144. So much as we Love the one so much we Hate the other O how I Loved thy Law Says the Psalmist therefore I Hated every Evil Way In a Word The Love of God must prepare the Way of our Lord because Self-love is Crooked and can therefore never make it Straight III. S. Paul in his Second Epistle to the Thessalonians humbly and heartily begs that our Lord may direct our Hearts in the Love of God and in the Patience of Christ And 't is a most Excellent Prayer For when once the Love of God has made the Way Straight there 's nothing wanting but the Patience of Christ to make it Smooth 1. The Apostle assures us we have need of Patience to do the Will of God to Fight and Conquer and Maintain our Conquest to the End self-Self-love and Pride the Mortal Enemies of our Eternal Happiness can never quite Die as long as we our selves are Living they lodge in our very Bosoms we cannot hinder their Living and Moving in us we cannot prevent the First Rebellious Insurrections of them But however we can prevent being Surprized by them we can always be upon our Guard we can throw them as fast as they Rise and we have this great Comfort left that every Fall Weakens them and every Victory Encreases our Power over them till at length they make so Small and Feeble a Resistance that those very Conflicts which at first were Painful to us now become a pleasing Exercise which seems to be the Sport and Pastime rather than the Trial of our Virtue This Degree of Patience is the surest Mark of true Repentance 'T is certain we are not truly Penitent unless we absolutely and fully resolve to Decline from Evil and to Do Good And though this Resolution may seem Strong and Firm yet we shall soon discover its Weakness we shall presently Break it if we have not Patience to keep it The longer we have liv'd in Sin the stronger are our Vicious Habits the harder it is to struggle with them the more Pains we must take to Master them and therefore so much greater Patience is requisite to overcome them But whatsoever difficulties we may meet with by the Way we must remember that these Obstacles which give us so much Trouble are the Work of our own Hands Our Sinful Habits are the woful Fruit of our own