Strangers to themselves that they do not suspect themselves for those Sins which others easily discern in them as is common in the case of â—ride and Envy and Covetousness and Superstition It cannot be supposed that Persons should so particularly repent of such Sins which they are not sensible of but where Self-love blindâ— it cannot excuse And where such evil habits prevail persons must repent and search and examine themselves in order to a particular Repentance There are other Sins which are really perpetual burthens to a good Mind but it knows not how to get rid of them with the utmost Care such as inward Motions to Sin sudden Heats and Surprises mixt Infirmities Coldness in Devotion Distractions in Prayer and many Omissions of Personal Duties in such Cases as these if we do not allow Sincerity of Repentance without through Amendment we make a General Repentance insignificant and make the Condition of many good Men desperate for none can be saved without true Repentance And if there can be no true Repentance without actual forsaking all such kinds of Sins there is no such thing as true Repentance to be found But there are other Sins of a more dangerous and malignant Nature which argue a very bad Mind such as Malice and Hatred a rooted Aversion to what is Good and a strong Inclination to Evil. There are some Sins that are gross and notorious of which St. Paul saith The lusts of the Flesh are manifest i. e. such Sins are easily known to be Sins and Mens Consciences condemn them even while they commit them such as Murther Adultery Intemperance Injustice Perjury and such like Of which the Apostle after declares That they who doe such things shall never come to Heaven Therefore as to them such a Repentance is necessary as implies not merely a dislike and sorrow for them but a thorough Change of a Man's Mind and the Course of his Life with respect to them And surely it is no easie matter to new mold the Temper of ones Mind and to turn the Tide of our Actions to break off our beloved Sins and to bring forth fruits worthy of Repentance This is indeed a hard Work but yet it is a most reasonable Work. It is hard but it is like the taking violent Physick in some Diseases where the humour must be purged out or the Party must dye the Uneasiness is not to be considered but the Necessity and in such a Case the Mind cannot be at Ease till it be done So that the very Difficulty of Repentance lays the Foundation for greater Peace of Mind afterwards And who will think much of such a Difficulty which is so necessary to Peace with God and his own Conscience 2. The Love of God is above all things This is so Fundamental a Duty that we cannot place our Happiness in God without it For if we do not love God above all things we must love somewhat else so and whatever we love above all things that we make our Happiness But I am affraid the greatest part of the World love all things above him For we are to judge of Mens love and esteem by what they court and pursue and desire and delight in it is impossible there should be such a Love of God where the Stream of the Affections and Course of Actions run quite another way I mean to the vanities of this World of which the Apostle hath said If any man loves it the love of the Father is not in him But this is a hard Point For some degree of love to this World is allowable else how can we thank God for the Comforts of it And all Persons who know God do grant that his Perfections are far above all the World and therefore they seem to have a value and esteem for him above it We must here distinguish a Notional Esteem from that which is Practical A Notional Esteem implies no more than a mere Conviction that God must exceed all the Excellencies which are scattered in the Creatures but a Practical Esteem is when the Acts of our Souls towards him are suitable to the Apprehensions we have in our Minds concerning him When we adore his infinite Perfections and delight in the Meditation of them when we desire to doe all things pleasing to him and avoid what we know to offend him when we believe and hope and trust in him and commit our selves to his Conduct in this World in hopes of being happy with him in another This is the Love of God above all things but alas Where is this Love of God to be found It is no very hard matter to work up a heated and devout Imagination to the Fancy of Raptures and Ecstasies and Mystical Unions but after all This is the love of God that we keep his Commandments As the true Love of a Prince is not to flatter and admire him and watch for his Smiles but to observe his Directions and obey his Orders and to doe what is most for his Service And although such a Love of God be hard to those whose hearts are full of carnal Affections and are taken up with the Follies and Vanities of this World yet we cannot take one true step in the way to Heaven without the Love of God. For even those who have most corrupted the Doctrine of Repentance do confess that there can be no true Contrition of Sin which is not founded on the Love of God as the Principle of it and however they have dangerously flattered and deceived those who are so weak to believe them that Attrition with the Sacrament of Penance is sufficient to put men into the state of Grace yet St. Peter's Keys must have an extraordinary virtue if they can change Nature into Grace or Fear into Love or mere Horrour of Conscience into true Repentance But although such a Love of God above all things be so hard a thing to minds prepossessed with the Love of other things yet no one can deny that it is the most reasonable Duty in the World. The very Thoughts of God if they are such as we ought to have imply that he is the Best the Wisest the most Perfect Being and therefore the most amiable and desirable Object And whither then should the most natural Stream of our Affections run but towards him What do we mean to suffer so much earth and filthiness to obstruct the free passage of them in their most proper Course What can we meet with in this deceitfull World that can bear the least proportion to such Infinite Goodness Oh what a difference is there between our Reason and our Love We verily believe that God deserves our Love above all things and yet how small a share hath he in it We love what we profess to despise above all things viz. our Sins and this vain World and we really too much despise what we still profess to love above all things viz. God and our Eternal Happiness O miserable
well doing as unto a faithfull Creatour And if they did think it hard for them to suffer these things they ought to consider there was a Wise Directour of them above who had beforehand appointed such a Series of Events that although their Enemies rejoyced to see them suffer in the first Place yet their Turn would come not long after and then these Enemies of the Gospel would feel the Severity of God's Wrath and Displeasure against them Which is the meaning of the foregoing Verse For the time is come that Iudgment must begin at the House of God and if it first begin at us what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God i. e. Christ hath foretold Desolation and Ruine to come upon the Jewish Nation for rejecting him when he came to save them but he withall saith that before these things they shall lay their hands on you and persecute you delivering you up to the Synagogues and into Prisons being brought before Kings and rulers for my name's sake Which implies a severe persecution of the Christian Church begun by the Iews but carried on by the Governours of Kingdoms and Provinces And therefore saith the Apostle although the time be now come that Iudgment begins at the House of God yet it will not end there but that which is onely a Cup of Trembling and Astonishment to them shall be a Cup of Fury and Destruction to the Obstinate and Impenitent Iews The case was hard to the poor Christians but it would be much more severe towards their cruel Persecutours for if the righteous whom God loves meet with such sharp usage by his Permission for a time the day will come when God will avenge the Cause of his suffering People and make their ungodly and perfidious Enemies feel the smart of his displeasure in such manner that they shall not know where to hide themselves Where shall the sinner and ungodly appear But that which I observe from hence is that there are some Accidental Circumstances which depend on Divine Providence which may make the condition of some Men as to Salvation much more difficult than that of others For it is no such easie matter to go through many Tribulations into the Kingdom of God i. e. to be content to be contemned and reproached as the worst of Men to be torn from Friends and Relations and all the Comforts of Life to be cast into loathsome Prisons and more loathsome Company in them to be in continual expectation of such cruel Usage and Torments as make Death be look'd on as their best Friend and most seasonable Deliverer If Sufferings do not rise so high yet when men cannot keep Faith and a good Conscience without hazarding the loss of what mankind are apt to set too great a value upon their Ease and Riches and Expectations in this World even these make it harder for such Persons to get to Heaven because Sincerity and Constancy are the necessary Conditions of it which may be tryed much more in some than it is in others We must all have the same Journey's-end if we hope to get to Heaven but some may meet with a freer Road and a calmer Season and better Company in their Journey than others However it happens we must go through all and not be discourag'd at any appearance of Difficulties upon our way But herein Mankind are apt to be deceived as though all the Difficulties lay in a suffering Condition whereas a soft and careless and voluptuous Life is rather more dangerous to their Souls because persons are less apt to suspect their danger He that is set upon by force and violence endeavours to defend himself as well as he can but he that is betrayed under a pretence of Kindness is drawn into his Ruine before he is aware and goes on chearfully to his own Destruction Prosperity hath the true nature of an Opiate for it stupifies and pleases at the same time The Temptations of the suffering Side are apt to allarm awake and rouse up the sleepy Powers of the Soul whereas the gentle and easie Condition of Life either lays them asleep by a kind of Intoxication or so diverts them from all serious things as puts them out of the very way to Heaven For the first thing in it is a steady and serious Resolution of Mind to doe what lies in them to go thither which can never be done without a true Consideration of the vanities of this world how pleasing soever and a fixed and settled Judgment preferring the Happiness of Heaven before all the most alluring Pleasures of this Life So that the different Circumstances of Life do make the way of Salvation more difficult to some than to others But this is not all for there are many things which make it more difficult to some than to others which are of another Nature Some Tempers are more flexible and pliable than others more capable of hearkning to Reason and more apt to reflect on their own Actions whereas others are naturally Stiff and Obstinate who stick as fast to an Opinion or Prejudice which they have once taken up as if they were fatally determined to it and such as these can hardly ever be convinced they are in an Errour unless by a Power superiour to Nature Some again are very easily convinced of a Fault but very hardly reclaimed for that facility of Temper which makes them easie to be convinced lays them open to the next Temptation which they are not able to withstand These are always repenting and amending and beginning to reform but without the Grace of God not able to go through with it Some are modest and bashfull Sinners whom Fear and Shame may restrain others are so hardned and impudent in their Wickedness that they deny even the very first Principles of Morality as well as Religion and not onely refuse to hearken to Reproof but reject it with Scorn and Indignation And it cannot be supposed that the Grace of God working on mens Minds in a way suitable to them should have as easie an Admittance into one as into the other for the one are like a House with doors shut but easily opened the other like a House not onely shut but bolted and barracadoed Again some have had the Advantage of a Pious and Religious Education by which the Principles of Piety and Vertue have made an early Impression on their minds and have been a continual Check upon evil Inclinations and if they have been too weak to subdue them yet they have been strong enough to prevent their Extravagancies or to bring them to a speedy Repentance and to take up firmer Resolutions and such are more easily brought to themselves and settled in a vertuous course of Life But the generality of Mankind through a wretched Carelesness mind not the early Improvement of their Children in what is good and what education they give them tends to any thing more than the Planting the
to attain to any thing that looked like Happiness without some real Difficulty which was necessary to be undergone although the Success were uncertain 2. Let us now consider the Difficulties relating to Salvation or that Happiness which Christians expect And here I shall shew 1. That it is far more Reasonable to go through Difficulties for the sake of it 2. That they are not such but that we may reasonably hope to overcome them 1. It is more Reasonable to expect Difficulties in the way of Salvation For the more excellent and desirable the Happiness is the more it is worth the while for us to take pains about it especially when there is a Certainty of attaining it The Moralists had but very dark and confused and uncertain Notions of Happiness something they saw but with a very glimmering light They found that all Men desired it and wise Men sought after it but wherein it lay and how to be attained they could not agree The most considering Men were convinced it must be in the best part of our selves and that is our minds and in the greatest Perfection of that viz. Vertue and Goodness But they met with insuperable Difficulties in the way to it and the best among them sadly lamented the state of humane Nature after all the pains and endeavours they had used to rectifie their Opinions and to subdue their Passions For they found it too restiff and untractable too much under the Sway and Dominion of the sensitive Appetite for them ever to hope by the mere Power of Reason to bring it into such Subjection as to pretend to a total Conquest And those who refined Pleasure so much as to make it a Happiness fit for Mankind to own did make a Happiness just as they made their Gods viz. a Fine Subtil Airy Pleasant No-thing or that had no Solidity in it For the Epicurean Happiness with all its Refinements was rather a matter of Speculation than Practice and after all was not worth so much pains about it but like the Gourd which after its paring and cleansing and dressing is fit onely to be cast upon the Dunghill But it cannot be said that the Happiness offered to Christians is of such a Nature For it is really the best the most valuable and desirable Good not promised to be enjoyed in this mean despicable and uncertain state of Life but reserved for a more free spiritual and continuing State. So our Apostle calls it an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you Such is the Condition of the World without us here and of the Passions and Infirmities within us that it is a vain thing to expect a true Happiness to be enjoyed in this Life the utmost we can hope for is to be prepared for a better and God knows there is Difficulty enough in that We have Hearts so vain and sensual so addicted to the Pleasures and Impertinencies of this World so prepossessed with the Objects of Sense that it is no easie matter to bring them so much as in earnest to consider of another World. But it is yet harder to fix the Thoughts of it upon our Minds so as to make a deep Impression upon them as they must do if we make the Happiness of Heaven our Chief End and Design Supposing that Paradise were still upon Earth in its first Glory and to be found by the Description which Moses gives of it a man may think often concerning it where it lies what the Rivers are by which it is to be discovered but all this amounts but to a mere Speculation But suppose that he takes up a Resolution to go thither what other kind of thoughts hath he then about it as to the Truth and Certainty of the Place and the Way that leads thither and the Difficulties he is like to meet with Which make another kind of Impression than the former dry Speculation did If a Man doth not think Heaven worth all the Pains and Difficulties which lie in our way to it he never yet had one serious and becoming thought concerning it For the Happiness proposed is really so great and invaluable that the more we think of it the more we shall esteem it and the more we shall despise and triumph over the greatest Difficulties in order to it it being no less than the Perfect Enjoyment of the most Perfect Good in a most Perfect State of Life and nothing can be desired by humane Nature greater than this 2. The Difficulties in our Way to Salvation are not such but we may reasonably hope to overcome them i. e. if we set our selves about it otherwise a very mean Difficulty will appear too great for us Therefore we must suppose not onely a willing Mind but a firm Resolution to doe what lies in us And there are two things to shew that we may hope to overcome them 1. That the most difficult Duties are in themselves reasonable to be performed by us 2. That God offers his Gratious Assistence for the Performance of them 1. That the most difficult Duties are in themselves reasonable I mean such whose Difficulty doth not arise from accidental outward Circumstances but from a respect to the present state and condition of humane Nature Such as 1. True Repentance which is one of the hardest Works of a Man's Life when he hath been long engaged in a Course of Sinning against Conscience It is not hard for such a one to be made sensible that he hath done amiss for he that acts against his Judgment is as Aristotle observes apt to Repent i. e. to find fault with himself for his own Actions and to resolve to amend There is a sort of Displeasure against Sin which is consistent with the Practice of it which is called by the Casuists Attritio Impoenitentium but they say it is without a purpose of forsaking it if there be such a purpose that they say is Attritio Poenitentium but if it be an ineffectual Purpose the Scripture no where calls it Repentance For as long as the habitual Practice continues it is certain that man's Love to his Sin exceeds his Hatred of it and what Repentance can that be which is consistent with a prevailing Love of Sin When persons were first made Christians their Repentance was easily discerned whether true or false because it was a publick and solâ—mn Renunciation of all their former Sins but when men have accustomed themselves to Sin under a Profession to renounce their Sins it is a harder matter to find out the Sincerity of their Repentance as to those Sins And here a difference must be made as to the Nature and Kind of Sins For there are some Sins which all agree to be Sins yet is a hard matter to convince Persons that they are guilty of them such as Hypocrisie Schism and Idolatry which men will find something to excuse themselves from notwithstanding the clearest Evidence against them Some are such
condition of Humanity Made to be Happy and yet fond of Misery Loving what 's vain and yet despising Vanity Hating what 's Good and yet accounts it best And therefore fittest for our Choice and Love. The Love of God above all things is so just and reasonable that those who doe it least approve it as the most excellent Imployment of our Minds and those that doe it most think they fall short of what God deserves from them The more we know of God the more we know that we ought to love and delight in him and all our Difficulty in the Practice of it can never make us think it is unreasonable to love Him above all things without whom nothing can make us happy and who alone can doe it 3. Vniversal Holiness of Heart and Life If this were not necessary to Salvation our Apostle would not have pressed it with so much earnestness as he doth As obedient children not fashioning your selves according to the former lusts in your ignorance but as he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation because it is written be ye holy for I am holy Again Dearly beloved I beseech you as Strangers and Pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the Soul. And again That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God. This is a hard saying to Mankind who part with nothing so hardly as with their Sins yet these must be parted with if ever we hope to get to Heaven I do not say that a Perfection in Holiness is required for that were to suppose Happiness in this World since there can be no perfect holiness without it but there must be a constant uniform and sincere endeavour after it by avoiding all known and wilfull Sins and doing all our Duties to God in such a manner as our Conscience cannot charge us with gross Neglect or Insincerity There are some things we cannot say are downright Sins yet if they lead to them if they indispose our Minds to God and his Service if they tend to Lightness and Vanity and make us more easie to entertain the Devil's Temptations we ought to avoid them as the Snares of the Devil So on the other side there are some things which we cannot say are plain and express and necessary Duties of Religion yet they tend so much to keep up the Life and Spirit of it that a general Design of Holiness is enough to recommend them As to positive Duties of Religion we cannot exactly fix the Time and Measure and Season of their Performance which must vary according to Circumstances but this we can say that the more Persons set themselves to the Practice of Holiness and the greater Preparation they make for another World the more they will delight in the performance of God's Service and the more ready to embrace any Opportunities for it Those who would have all Religious Duties determined as to the Circumstances of them are like Men who would have punctual Rules set down how often two Friends should converse with each other and how long time they are to stay together True Friendship will need none of those things but will incline them to embrace the best opportunities for mutual Conversation lest too long distance beget a Coldness first and then the Friendship dissolves It is no hard matter to pray as far as words go but to pray with Zeal and Devotion to attend upon God with that seriousness of Mind we ought to doe will require our utmost Attention And it is no easie matter to keep our Minds composed and fit to converse with God in Prayer and other solemn Duties of Religion But as hard as this appears to us it is most fit and reasonable that we should doe it For what an unbecoming thing it is to worship God in a careless trifling perfunctory manner as though nothing less deserved the imploying the Vigour of our Minds about than the Service of God. But how can we love him with all our Hearts if we do not serve him with all our Mind and Strength 4. Resignation of our selves to God This the Apostle calls casting all our Care upon him This is a very wise Duty if we can attain to it because it eases our minds of many Fears and Perplexities both as to our selves and others But it is no easie thing to set our minds free from solicitous thoughts about possible Evils We cannot mend our Condition nor prevent what is determined by our most anxious Care but we may enjoy our selves with far greater Peace and Tranquillity if we can be content to commit our selves to the best Conduct and that is of him that Governs the World. And whatever strugglings we may find within our selves about it yet the more we search and weigh and consider things the more we shall be satisfied that the Resignation of our selves to God as to all our Concernments in this World is the best means to calm our Passions to abate our Fears to prevent our Impatience and so to attain to that Ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit which is with God of great Price But if all these Duties be so necessary to our being saved and we lie under such Difficulties as to the Performance of them their appearing to be Reasonable makes our Condition so much worse For to find it so hard to doe what we are convinced is most Reasonable to be done is one of the worst Circumstances of our Condition It s true we do not want Faculties of Understanding and Will but what then if our Moral Indispositions make these useless to our Spiritual Advantage A man that is like to be stifled in a large Vessel full of Downy Feathers cannot complain of the hardness of what he lies upon for all things feel soft and easie about him yet he may be stifled with them our evil Habits and corrupt Inclinations have nothing that feels hard or troublesome to us but if we cannot overcome them they will certainly Ruine and Destroy us There is therefore a Necessity of a higher Principle of Divine Grace to enable us to break thorough all these Difficulties Which Grace is so abundantly promised by the Gospel to those who seek it that it comes at last to be our own fault if we be not saved II. And this helps us to Reconcile the Difficulty of Salvation with the Easiness of the Terms of the Gospel For that which is not onely hard but impossible to us in our own strength may by the mighty Power of Divine Grace become not onely possible but easie to us And withall those things are accounted easie which bring ease and that is a light burthen which rids one of a far harder And thus the Commands of Christ however hard in themselves to us yet being considered with the Grace of the Gospel and the blessed effect of inward Peace