shew Mercy to all Mankind Pour out thy Spirit upon all Flesh that they may know thee and seek thee and find and praise thee and rejoice in thy abundant Goodness Let thy continual Pity cleanse and defend thy Church Lord look down in mercy upon us and bless us that all the ends of the World may fear thee We pray thee do good to these Nations in which we live according thy infinite Sufficiency and our Necessities Oh let not our Iniquities with-hold good things from us but according to the multitude of thy tender Compassions blot out all our Transgressions Bless our Gracious King and Queen and make the one a Nursing Father and the other a Nursing Mother to that part of thy Church which thou hast planted among us and let their good Influence extend further to the Benefit of it and make Them the Honourable Instruments of Establishing Peace and Truth not only in these but also in the Neighbouring Nations to the Glory of thy great Name Bless all Ranks and Degrees of Men among us and make them to live to thy Glory to be conformable and obedient to our Governours and useful peaceable righteous and charitable one towards another in their several Stations We humbly pray for all Friends Relations Benefactors bless and preserve them from every evil Work and conduct them to thy Heavenly Kingdom Let this Day Oh Lord be happy to us in the fruitful and effectual Influences of thy Ordinances upon our Hearts and Lives Let us not be forgetful Hearers but be Doers of thy Word that we may be blest in our Deed. Grant us to lie down in Peace this Night to rest in Safety And be thou O God our Portion and Refuge in the Land of the Living and hereafter our exceeding great Reward for the sake of Jesus Christ in whose Name and Words we further present our Requests unto thee saying OVR Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil Amen THE Heavenly Mind DESCRIBED and URGED Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Colos 3. 2. Set your Affections on Things above and not on things on the Earth HOW well did the Bounteous Creatour of all things contrive the Nature of Man for the making him exceedingly Happy He put into our Constitution an Immortal Spirit join'd to a Living and Sensible Body And so he made us capable of the Delights of both Worlds the Spiritual and the Material By our Souls we are capable to enjoy and delight in Spiritual Objects and their Properties and Qualities We are capable of a rational spiritual Delight in sensible Objects and we are capable to enjoy and delight in God himself and his Infinite Eternal Perfections And by our Bodies which are allied to this World we are capable of a sensual Delight in the things of it to enjoy and please our selves with the Properties Vertues and Qualities belonging to Material things So bounteous and kind was the Creatour to Man in the Forming of him But alas Man has not been kind to himself He did not remain long in the happy State which he was first set in but by following too much the Pleasures of his Sense he lost all the greatest Pleasures of his Mind By eating the Forbidden Fruit he sinned against God lost his Favour and the Enjoyment of him became alienated from God and his Mind became subject to the shameful Disease of Sensuality A low and sordid Propensity to Earthly things did from henceforth possess him and a wretched Incapacity and Averseness towards Heavenly and Spiritual things We are condemned to enjoy only the lowest and weakest and the least part of our Happiness to gnaw as it were on the Shell of Pleasure and enjoy no more than the Brute Beasts do We following the unhappy Fall of our Nature do amuse and entertain our selves only with the poor Objects of Sense utterly forget and neglect our higher Capacities and our true Happiness It is the whole Business of our Religion in all the parts of it to recover us from this shameful and deadly Fall to draw us off from this our wretched Attachment to this World and turn us from a false Happiness to a true one The scope and aim of all its Doctrins Precepts Promises Threatnings Motives and Assistances is this to make us truly happy And the Sum of all is to bring us to what the Apostle here exhorts to in saying Set your Affections on Things above not on Things on the Earth By Things above he means those very things which were recommended to you by the Discourse immediately foregoing this as the chiefest and the true Objects of our Happiness He means God himself who is our Chief Good and the Expressions and Exercises of his peculiar Favour and Love He meâ—â—â— the Graces which the Holy Spirit works 〈◊〉 the Souls of Men which perfect and adorn and compose the Mind He means the everlasting Blessedness which is to come the Happiness and Joys of Heaven By advising to set our Affections on those things he means they should be much the Objects of our Minds he intends the Application of the whole Soul to them and the employing of all our Powers about them The Original word which we render here set your Affections has this large Import and Signification and might be rendered Mind those things which are above Let your Judgments esteem them your Wills chuse and your Affections follow them And not on Things on the Earth that is rather than the Things of the Earth It is according to the Custom and Phrase of the Hebrew Language to express thus when it only intends to prefer the former things it speaks of before the latter So in Hos 6. 6. The Prophet in the Person of God says I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice that is rather than Sacrifice he intended to express God's preference of Mercy before Sacrifice Here then the Apostle who was an Hebrew of Hebrews speaking after the Phrase and Manner of his own Language must be understood to mean Set your Affections on Things above rather than on Things on the Earth Mind those Things most let them have the preference with you He does not forbid nor does our Religion forbid the moderate seeking and enjoyment of the Good things of this World We are not bound to be unsensible of their Goodness to take no delight in them nor absolutely and wholly to refuse or reject all sensual Pleasures The things of this World are good in their Kind and
that thou hast been pleased to make us capable to know and meditate on thy Self to chuse and love thee to desire and enjoy thee who art an Infinite Eternal Good and in whose presence is fulness of Joy Oh how ready should our Hearts be at all times to say Whom have we in Heaven but thee and there is none on Earth that we can desire besides thee But alas we are degenerated we are fallen from our Original Excellency we are sunk into Sensuality we need to be put in mind and told wherein our true Happiness lies and to be excited urged and exhorted to pursue it We hover here below and seldom have any thoughts or desires moving upwards the objects of Sense detain us with them and we feed on Husks among Beasts we stay and abide upon the lowest and the smallest part of our Happiness Lord we are miserable we are undone and shall perish for ever if thy pity do not rescue us from the Love of these low Things Oh Pardon our guilty and heal our distempered Souls Discover thy self to us and make us love thee shed abroad thy Love abundantly in our Hearts Make us to rise by the Creature to the Creator Guide us by the streams to thee the Fountain of their Goodness and make us as we ought to love thee above all things Let us be governed by thy Love in the whole course of our lives and readily deny our selves to please thee and keep thy Commandments Let us firmly believe the glorious Things which thou hast prepared for them that love thee and draw our Hearts after them to endeavour that our Treasure may be in Heaven in Immutable things And direct us we pray thee so to pass through things Temporal as that we finally lose not the things Eternal Have mercy O Lord upon all Mankind Let the Earth be filled with Knowledge of the Lord as waters cover the Sea and all Men be directed and led in the way to true Happiness Give to all Nations Unity Peace and Concord Pour down an abundant measure of thy Spirit upon thy Church that the Gospel may run and be glorified from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same Let them prosper that love it and let not the Gates of Hell ever prevail against it We pray especially for that part of it which thou hast graciously placed in these Nations and hitherto wonderfully detended Lord make it a very fruitful Vineyard and purge out of it all that is contrary to true Doctrin and Godliness Bless we pray thee our Gracious King and Queen and the Royal Family with all Spiritual and Eternal Blessings and give them long and happy Possession of the Throne of these Kingdoms to thy Glory and our Comfort Bless all in Authority under them help them truly and indifferently to administer Justice to the punishment of Wickedness and Vice and to the maintainance of thy true Religion and Vertue Give grace O Heavenly Father to all Bishops and Curates that they may both by their Life and Doctrin honour thee and guide thy People committed to them in the way of Blessedness Let all the Subjects of this Realm be subject to thee in Loyalty and Subjection and due Obedience to those that are over them in Church and State and let Piety Love Righteousness and Peace and Truth abound among us We commend to thy Fatherly goodness all that are in any Distress and Affliction all our Friends and Relations we pray for our Enemies do for all beyond what we are able to ask or think We humbly ask a comfortable and safe rest this Night and that it may please thee to make the out-goings of the Morning to rejoice Let thy word which we have heard this Day guide our Conversations and let us bring forth in them the Fruits of the Spirit let not the Cares of this World or the Deceitfulness of Riches choke the Word and render it unfruitful but grant we may live to the Glory of thy Name and to the Peace and Salvation of our own Souls by Jesus Christ in whose most comprehensive words we sum up our Requests saying OVR Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil For thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen THE Necessity of Obedience TO THE COMMANDS of GOD Proved and Stated Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Mat. 7. 21. Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven HOW common a thing is it among those that have heard the glad Tidings of the Gospel for Men to take up a presumptuous reliance upon the Merits of Jesus Christ with neglect of Obedience to the Commands of God! Some of the most profligate and careless Sinners will hope to be saved And if one ask them how They will say by the Merits of Jesus Christ Many indulge themselves in their darling Sins and yet hope to be saved by the Merits of Christ And most certain it is that the Doctrins of some Teachers give occasion to this presumption They occasion Men to think there is nothing necessary to their Salvation but strong Believing and so to endeavour nothing but that and to rely upon the Righteousness of Christ so as to neglect all Endeavour after any Righteousness of their own And this Error and Delusion where it obtains does often prove able to harden a Man against the most earnest Exhortations to leave his Sins yea and even against the most plain Rebukes of Providence for them and to frustrate all other Means of Grace and Conversion whatever It is therefore of great Importance to remove it out of the way and this I shall endeavour by discoursing on these words of our Saviour which if they had been well considered together with many other plain Scriptures it had prevented the entertainment of such Imaginations in the Minds of Men. He had been in a long Discourse enforcing many of the Commands of the Moral Law And now towards the close of this Discourse he begins in this Verse to tell them of what importance and necessity it was to them to practise what he had taught He plainly teaches that no belief in him would avail them any thing if they did not together with it keep the Commands of God Not every one says he that saith to me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven
thy Mercies our Friends Relations and even our Enemies and all that are in Adversity We render thee Thanks O Lord for all the Mercies of this Day in particular but especially for the Liberty of thy House and for the Means of Grace we have there enjoyed Hear O Lord the Prayers we have offered to thee Bless thy Word and Sacraments to us whenever we enjoy them let them be thy power to our Salvation We humbly beg thy Protection for this Night and evermore even unto thy Heavenly Kingdom for the sake of Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory world without End OVR Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil For thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen THE Pleasantness of Religion Demonstrated and Improved Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Prov. 3. 17. Her Ways are Ways of Pleasantness THese words are spoken of Wisdom as you may see by Verse 13. of this Chapter where Solomon begins the Commendation of that Saying Happy is the Man that findeth Wisdom and the Man that getteth Vnderstanding The Merchandize of it is better than the Merchandize of Silver and the gain thereof than fine Gold She is more precious than Rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her Length of Days is in her right Hand and in her left Hand Riches and Honour then he adds Her ways are ways of Pleasantness And by Wisdom of which he says these great things he means Religion or the Wisdom of good and vertuous living to which the Scripture it self does elsewhere plainly give that Name Job 28. 28. The Fear of the Lord that is Wisdom and to depart from Evil is Vnderstanding The Ways of Wisdom then means the Practice of Religion and Vertue This he says is very pleasant He has Joy and Pleasure in abundance who steadily lives in a religious and good course of Life This is the import and sense of these Words And if this be true here is a very sensible and important inducement to a good Life contained in them There is nothing usually more powerful and attractive with Mankind than Pleasure nothing which they more earnestly or more universally covet If then it can be made appear that there is a great deal of this even in well-doing this may be a means to allure Men to the trial of it and to divert them from those courses of Wickedness which draw many into Everlasting Perdition by the allurement of Pleasure To make this good and to prove what Solomon here says will be the chief business of this Discourse And I do not doubt but it will be beyond any Man's Power to deny or question this who shall soberly consider the following Particulars 1. The Principle from whence all true and sincere Religion proceeds and springs is Love and that must needs render it highly pleasant in the Practice of it This must be the Principle and Spring of true and sincere Religion All the Duties we perform towards God or Man must proceed from Love to God and Man This must be the Principle of our good Actions and wherever true Love is it will be a Principle of good Actions All the instances of Duty required of us are but such things as Love it self will put us upon such as Love naturally suggests and does incline to He that truly loves God cannot chuse but seek what will please him and endeavour to do all that and he must endeavour to avoid whatever would offend God He must delight to contemplate the Divine Perfections to think upon the Object that he loves to adore and worship God to seek and promote the Love and Honour of him So he that loves his Neighbour sincerely must delight in and desire the Wellfare and Happiness of Men he must endeavour to promote it as much as he can and will be far from wishing or endeavouring any evil to any Man or from delighting in what does happen to any And this now is even a Demonstration of the Pleasantness of a Religious Life that all of it is nothing else but the Exercise of Love He that is driven to do his Duty by Fears and Terrors performs indeed an ungrateful Task and goes on in these ways with Reluctancy and Sorrow But he that is drawn with the Cords of Love follows with Joyfulness He will run and not be weary whom Love inspires He minds not is not discouraged with any Ruggedness of the way but is rather pleased with Difficulties and put on than troubled or retarded because they give him opportunity to express the greater Love This renders the Labours of Religion easy and even Sufferings delightful I take pleasure in Infirmities in Reproaches in Necessities in Persecutions in Distresses for Christ's sake says a great Lover of Jesus 2 Cor. 12. 10. It was the strength of Love in the Primitive Followers of Jesus which made them very laborious and diligent in Religion and made them suffer much even to the most cruel and tormenting Deaths and do both with unspeakable Joy and Pleasure They prov'd what a great Lover of God said long ago Cant. 8. 6 7. Love is strong as Death Many waters cannot quench Love neither the Floods drown it All the Task of Love is pleasant and nothing is counted hard or uneasy which that enjoins us 2. Another thing that renders the Practice of Piety and Vertue very pleasant and therefore proves it so is the fitness and reasonableness of all that which Religion enjoins us to do It is most highly equitable and just in all the parts of it and is most perfectly what the Apostle calls it Rom. 12. 1. namely Reasonable Service There is nothing required of us within the whole compass of our Duty but what a Man 's own Mind and Reason upon serious consideration must needs be perfectly satisfied in nothing that he can have any reason to be ashamed of or to think below him or unfit for him to do or that he can justly upbraid or condemn himself for doing How reasonable and just are all the Duties of Piety towards God This will appear upon a fair stating and proposal of them Is it not highly so that we reverence and adore an infinitely glorious and excellent Being That we trust the Original Truth That we love the Sovereign and the Fountain Good That we obey the supream Authority of the World in all
Heritage govern them and lift them up for ever And make all that name the Name of Christ duly concern'd to adorn the Doctrin of God our Saviour in all things Let thy gracious Presence dwell in the Land of our Nativity bless us with Peace and Plenty with the Means of Grace and the Efficacy of them to enlighten our Minds to cleanse our Hearts to heal our Divisions to teach us all from the Highest to the Lowest our several Duties towards thee Give Health and Happiness to our King and Queen and teach us and all their Subjects our Duty towards them Bless and direct all inferiour Magistrates make them a Terror to evil Doers and a Praise to them that do well Let those that Minister in Holy things be a good Example to the Flock and make us Followers of them as they are of Christ We Implore thy Mercy upon all that are in Affliction especially upon those who are persecuted for Righteousness Sake give them Patience under their Sufferings and a happy Issue out of all their Afflictions Accept our humble Sacrifices of Praise and Thanksgiving which we have this day offer'd to thee in thy Sons Name And make the Word which we have heard to have such Influence upon our Hearts and to bring forth such Fruit in our Lives as thou dost expect from it Give us a Night of safe and comfortable Rest preserving us from Fear and Danger And when we awake in the Morning let us chearfully return to our Duty in all our ways acknowledge thee and do thou graciously direct our Steps for the Sake of Jesus Christ In whose Words we conclude these our poor imperfect Addresses OVR Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil For thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen THE Easiness of Religion EXPLAINED and IMPROVED Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Mat. 11. 29 30. Take my Yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart And ye shall find rest to your Souls For my Yoke is easie and my Burden is light IT is a strange and wonderful Degeneracy that the Humane Nature is fallen under as appears from the wonderful Aversness that is in all Mankind to a religious and a vertuous Life Religion is the greatest Ornament and Glory of the Humane Nature It is the Cure of all our Defects and Disparagements It is our true and compleat Perfection And yet we commonly appear to be most easily withheld from the Practice of it We devise Excuses to neglect it we receive the most false and unreasonable Prejudices against it without any Examination of them We do often obstinately persist in Wickedness against the most weighty Inducements to do well These Words of the Blessed Jesus who came into the World to save Sinners and to that Purpose has taught us as well as died for us do meet with one of the Prejudices against an Holy Life which he knew to be very common in the Hearts of Men And that is the Imagination that Religion is a Task too hard for Humane Nature and utterly impossible to be perform'd Because we must indeed take some Pains to be Religious our lazy and unwilling Souls magnify the little Oppositions into Mountains of Difficulties and make us think we shall never be able to get over them and the way down to the bottomless Pit seems easie and smooth is strow'd with Pleasures Riches and Worldly Honours and these things easily allure and engage us to follow that Against this fatal and discouraging Prejudice our Saviour says in the Words of our Text Take my Yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart And ye shall find rest unto your Souls For my Yoke is easie and my Burden is light Take my Yoke upon you That is charge your selves with the keeping my Commands submit to my Government For this Meaning the Word Yoke is wont to have in Scripture For my Yoke is easie and my Burden is light It shall be possible to you to keep my Commands you shall find I do not require of you that which you cannot perform that the Difficulties you may meet with are not invincible And further to encourage the taking up his Yoke he adds Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart If ye take up this Yoke ye but take up that which I have born my self I am of a meek and submissive mind I do not disdain to be subject to the Laws of Religion I then command you nothing but what I have practised my self and your Obedience to these Laws will be your Imitation of me And he adds further Ye shall find rest to your Souls This shall be Peace and Happiness to you In discoursing upon these Words I think it may be useful for the better promoting the Design of them to insist upon these Three Heads 1. To shew in what Sense it may be said that the Commands of God are easie to be observ'd Which will be both Explication and Proof of our Saviours Words 2. To suggest by what means we may best render this easie to our selves 3. To urge by some proper Motives the Use of those Means In the First place I shall shew you in what Sense we may understand this that 't is easie to keep the Commands of God And this will be sufficiently represented in the Three following Particulars 1. This is easie to a vigorous and earnest Endeavour ' Tit true there will be continual Opposition made against it by that Corruption that has gotten Possession in our Souls and by the frequent Assaults of Temptation from the World and the Devil But yet these are Difficulties that shall be overcome by an earnest and diligent Endeavour Our Saviour says Strive to enter in at the strait Gate for many I say unto you shall seek to enter in and shall not be able Luke 13. 24. By the strait Gate he means the way of Religion which the Opposition of our Spiritual Enemies and our own unworthy Averseness do render a strait Gate This we cannot pass without Striving and a good Endeavour but with this he intimates we may do so This will ccomplish what we desire but many seek to enter in and shall not be able To lazy Wishes 't is exceeding difficult indeed invincibly Difficult to be Religious He that cannot persuade himself to strive with Earnestness and Patience shall never become so And this
that is Not he that only believes I am the true Messiah and the Redeemer of the World not every one that pretends to rely upon me for Salvation shall be saved But he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven This is required to Salvation as well as the other I come not to save Rebels continuing such but to save them who set themselves to do my Father's Will and to obey his Commands And from hencesorth to the end of his Sermon on the Mount and to the end of this Chapter does our Saviour very evidently set himself to enforce and urge the same thing The following Discourse on this Subject I shall divide into these 3 Parts 1. I shall shew that it is necessary and required even now under the Gospel that we set our selves to obey and keep the Commands of God 2. I shall shew how far we are bound to do this 3. I shall make some Application In the first place I shall make it evident that it is necessary and required of Christians that they set themselves to keep the Commands of God This is required of all those who are grown Persons and are come to the exercise of their Reason they who have opportunity to do this must do it and they cannot be saved without this by any Merits or Mediation of Jesus Christ Indeed Infants baptized and dying in their Infancy may be saved by the Merits of Jesus Christ without the exercise and practice of good Works which they had not capacity or opportunity to perform but grown Persons cannot Good works or the keeping the Commands of God are necessary to our finding Favour and to Salvation as Conditions required to precede and concur tho they do not gain Favour and Salvation for us as efficient or meritorious Causes For proof of this I shall to make the Discourse as short as I can only insist upon two Arguments omitting many other which might be produced to this purpose and they that I shall insist upon are these 1. We shall find the Duties of the Moral Law frequently urg'd and enjoined to Christians by Christ and his Apostles 2. So far is the Gospel from excusing our Obedience to the Laws of God that it makes this the necessary Condition of our having an Interest in Jesus Christ or in the Benefits of the Covenant of Grace 1. We shall find if we look fairly into the New Testament that the Duties of the Moral Law are there very frequently urg'd and enjoin'd to Christians by our Lord and his Apostles Our Lord himself says He came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets but to fulfil them Mat. 5. 17. How can it then be a Doubt but that Christians are obliged to keep the Laws of God when our Saviour says He came not to destroy but to fulfil them That is He came not to take away the Force and Obligation of any but to fulfil and obey them Himself and to enforce the Observance of them by his Followers His whole Sermon in the Mount contained in the 5 6 and 7th Chapters of Matthew is made up of Moral Instructions wherein he rescues these from the corrupt Glosses and Interpretations of the Pharisees and establishes and confirms the pure Precepts themselves Again our Saviour does enjoin at once the Observation of the whole Moral Law as necessary to Salvation under these two general Heads The Love of God and of our Neighbour In Luke 10. it is said Ver. 25. A certain Lawyer stood up and tempted him saying Master what shall I do to inherit Eternal Life Jesus answers in the next Verse What is written in the Law How readest thou He answering said Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Strength and with all thy Mind and thy Neighbour as thy Self Jesus replies in Verse 28. This do and thou shalt live Intimating that he knew no other way to Life that he could take than by a diligent Endeavour and Application of himself to the keeping of the Commands of God That this was the way always appointed to the Jews and that he came not to teach or procure a new way of Salvation He therefore intimates that he might learn in what was then written the way of Salvation that is in the Writings of the Old Testament Jesus Christ came not to alter the terms and way to Salvation which had been appointed to all the World since the Fall of Man but only to teach that way more perfectly Further the Apostles also after Christ and by the Direction of the Holy Ghost poured upon them do urge and require the Obedience of Christians to the Precepts of the Moral Law Out of the many Instances which might be produced from every one of them to this purpose I shall content my self to take but one from the Writings of St. Paul and another from the Epistle of St. James to shew how well these two Apostles agree in this Matter and to contract this head The Apostle Paul in Eph. 6. 1. 23. says Chidren obey your Parents in the Lord for this is right Honour thy Father and Mother which is the First Commandment with Promise that it may be well with thee and that thou mayest live long on the Earth We may see he presses there the same Duty which is enjoined in the 5th Commandment And we may observe moreover that he presses it as enjoin'd there He quotes the 5th Commandment as an obliging Law and a Rule still in force And herein he plainly allows and establishes the Force of all the Law that is Moral St. James also in the 2d Chap. to his Epist does enforce and urge the Obedience of Christians to the Moral Law Nothing less can be the meaning of the 8th Ver. If ye fulfil the Royal Law according to the Scripture Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self Thou shalt do well And in the following Ver. he further urges the Obedience to this general Precept and says He that offends in one Point is guilty of all and brings his Discourse to this Point That he who despises his poor Neighbour and neglects works of Mercy transgresses the Law as well as he that should kill or commit Adultery which things are also forbidden still as he there intimates Thus we see that Jesus Christ and his Apostles have unanimously urg'd the Christian Church to observe the Precepts of the Moral Law 2. Another thing that proves the Necessity of Obedience and a good Life under the Times of the Gospel is this That even the Gospel its self makes this the necessary Condition of an Interest in Jesus Christ Good works indeed do not constitute a justified State but they are necessary to the attaining it as they are the necessary Conditions of our being justified by Christ We are certainly not admitted into the Covenant of Grace without a sincere Engagement to be the Lord's Or without a solemn Vow and Promise to keep
that he commands That we resign and submit our selves entirely to his disposing Providence who is rightful Owner and just Disposer of all things That we praise and acknowledge those glorious Perfections which are daily exercised to our Comfort and Advantage and give him Thanks for all the good things that we enjoy since it is he that freely bestows them What can be more equitable and more agreeing to right reason than these things Again That the things which are made to be our Duty in our carriage towards Men are all highly reasonable and just does sufficiently appear in that these two are the Fundamental Rules of that Duty Namely That we do to others as we would they should do unto us and that we love our Neighbour as our selves What can be more agreeing to reason and more satisfactory to a Man 's own Mind than to give my Neighbour what in his Circumstances I my self might desire or than to love him as my self who is my Fellow-Creature and in all Points like my self How reasonable is it for me to shew mercy who need mercy For me to be ready to do good and perform all manner of kind Offices to my Neighbour when I must needs desire that others should be so disposed towards me How ready should I be to forgive who must often need forgiveness How reasonable is it that I should be honest and faithful to others when I desire them to be so towards me A little sober Consideration would make it evidently appear concerning every instance of Duty towards our Neighbour that it is most highly reasonable and just And when a Man apprehends and considers this thing he will perform his Duty with an entire satisfaction And it must please him to think that in what he has done he has paid a just Debt to Almighty God he has render'd what was due to him to think he has acted as becomes his Reason and so as he must needs be justified by the Wisdom and Consciences of his Neighbours in his carriage towards them He finds in himself what David said Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy Commands he sees he has no reason to be ashamed of his Actions but they are such as he can justify and applaud himself for and certainly there can be nothing more pleasant to a Man than the just applauses of himself 3. The Dignity and Nobleness of good Actions does render it very pleasant to do well and therefore also proves that it is so He that lives well lives up to the highest and most noble capacities of his Nature In pious and vertuous Actions alone do we greatly excel the Beasts that perish not in any sensual Pleasures or Enjoyments They have Senses as well as we and as many and can delight in the Objects of them and have perhaps as many delights of that kind as we But they cannot be pious or wise they cannot be vertuous or good because they do not know or chuse their own Actions In these things the religious Man excels them and advances himself truly above them and he only among Men does in any considerable measure excel them Further so far as we become Religious we are already here on Earth become like the Angels which are in Heaven He that lives religiously is employed as they are and conforms himself to them as our Saviour does plainly intimate when he bids us pray that the Will of God may be done on Earth as it is done in Heaven The Psalmist says of the Angels They perform the Commandments of God they hearken to the voice of his word Psal 103. 20. The pious Man then that carefully performs his Duty towards God joins himself to that noble Company he is a Fellow-Citizen of the Saints or holy Ones which may mean the Angels And of the Houshold of God as the Apostle speaks Eph. 2. 19. I am thy Fellow-Servant said an Angel to St. John And Fellow-Servant of the Prophets and of them which keep the Sayings of this Book Rev. 22. 9. When we worship and praise God we join with Angels and Arch-Angels and all the Company of Heaven When we pay him a profound Reverence and come before him with a godly Fear we do as they who are represented as covering their Faces in their solemn Addresses to him When we are concern'd and endeavouring to promote his Glory in the World this is what they constantly endeavour When we combat the Temptations that assault our selves and set our selves against the works of the Devil in others we are on the same side with Michael and his Angels are join'd and taking part with those bright Hosts against the Devil and his Angels And this surely is greatly to our Honour And there is a further Dignity and Excellence in a good and vertuous Life and that is it is conformity to the Ever-blessed God himself And therefore when any are made righteous and holy they are said to be renewed after his Image and Likeness Eph. 4. 24. When we best perform our Duties to Men then we do best imitate and most resemble the most excellent and perfect Being When we are merciful 't is as our Father in Heaven is merciful When we return good for evil 't is to do like him who is good to the Unthankful and the Evil. When we are sincere and true just and righteous in all our behaviour this is to resemble him who is a God of Truth and without Iniquity When we patiently bear with the Infirmities of others this is a noble imitation of his long-sufferings with us all When we forgive those that injure us this is as he does who is a God forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin When we set our selves to do all the Offices of kindness that we can to be beneficial to Mankind in our several Stations this is a very Honourable Imitation of his abundant Goodness Upon these accounts a good and vertuous Life is truly great and honourable and noble This puts upon a Man the greatest worth and value that he can attain to this is his best accomplishment and as it raises him in the esteem of God so it renders him truly deserving the respect and esteem of Men and is that which does best deserve it Hence it is said The Righteous is more excellent than his Neighbour Prov. 12. 26. Now though it were very unreasonable that the Sense of this should make any Man Proud and Disdainful of his Neighbour whom he thinks not to be so good as himself when in all this he has nothing but what he receiv'd and it was the free Grace of God that made him to differ and in becoming Proud he ceases to be the good Man Yet a thankful humble Sense of this a Man may have and the Thoughts of it may afford him a great deal of Delight and Pleasure To think the Creatour made the Humane Nature at first but little lower than the Angels and Crown'd it with Honour and Dignity