present grateful relishes thereof in the mean time and hence That they can be happy without the world's kindness and in despite of its unkindness That they have somewhat within them by which they are enabled to rejoyce in tribulation being troubled on every side yet not to be distress'd To take joyfully the spoiling of goods knowing within themselves they have in Heaven a better and enduring substance Not to suffer or discover any perturbation or disquiet Not to have their Souls ruffled or put into disorder Nor let any Cloud sit on their brow though dark and dismal ones seem to hang over their heads And the same absurdity it would be to indulge to themselves an unbounded liberty of sensual pleasures For that looks like a despair of futurity as if a day were a mighty gain for eating and drinking because to morrow we must dye An abstemious shyness here is comely A tasting only the delights whereof others suffer themselves to be ingulft A prudent reservednes and restraint so as that what shall cause with others an unbeseeming transport and diffusion of themselves be entertain'd not with a Cynical morosity but a pleasant composure and well order'd complacence keeping a due and even distance between levity and sourness Yet there is a natural retiredness in some mens tempers and in others an aversion to pleasures proceeding only of a rational estimate of their emptiness and vanity in themselves which may however much fall short of whaâ— the present case requires The exigency whereof is no way satisfied but where such a moderation to the product of a comparative judgment between the delights of the present and those of the future state When one so enjoys any thing in this world as to be under the power of nothing because of the more prevailing influence he is under from the power of the world to come When his Faith is the Parent of his Sobriety and his denial of worldly lusts flows from the expectation of the blessed hope When because he more highly prizes and lest he forfeit eternal pleasures he so behaves himself towards all temporary ones as neither to abuse those that are lawful nor to be abused by the unlawful not to exceed in the one nor to touch with the other Thus also ought we to look upon Secular Honours and Dignity neither to make them the matter of our admiration affectation or envy We are not to behold them with a libidinous eye or let our hearts thirst after them Not to value our selves the more for them if they be our Lot nor let our eye be dazled with admiration or distorted with envy when we behold them the ornaments of others We are not to express that contempt of them which may make a breach on civility or disturb the order and policy of the Communities whereto we belong Though this be none of our own Countrey and we are still to reckon our selves but as pilgrims and strangers while we are here yet it becomes not strangers to be insolent or rude in their behaviour where they sojourn how much soever greater value they may justly have of their own Countrey We should pay to Secular Greatness a due respect without Idolatry and neither despise nor adore it considering at once the requisiteness of such a thing in the present state and the excelling glory of the other As though in prudence and good manners we would abstain from provoking affronts towards an American Sachim or Sagamore if we did travel or converse in their Countrey yet we could have no great veneration for them having beheld the royal pomp and grandeur of our own Prince especially he who were himself a Courtier and Favourite to his much more glorious Soveraign whom he is shortly to attend at home could have no great temptation to sue for Offices and Honours or bear a very profound intrinsick homage to so mean and unexpressive an Image of Regality It can surely no way become one who seeks and expects the honour and glory which is conjunct with immortality to be fond of the airy titles that poor Mortals are wont to please themselves with or to make one among the obsequious servile company of them whose business it is to court a vanishing shadow and tempt a dignified trifle into the belief it is a Deity to sneak and cringe for a smile from a supercilious brow and place his Heaven in the disdainful favours of him who it may be places his own as much in thy homage so that it befalls into the Supplicant's power to be his Creator whose Creature he affects to be What eye would not soon spy out the grosness of this absurdity And what ingenuity would not blush to be guilty of it Let then the joyful expectants of a blessed immortality pass by the busie throng of this fanciful Exchange and behold it with as little concern as a grave Statesman would the sports and ludicrous actions of little Children and with as little inclination of mind as he would have to leave his business and go play with them bestowing there only the transient glance of a careless or a compassionate eye and still reserving their intent steddy views for the glorious hope set before them And with a proportionable unconcernedness should they look on and behold the various alternations of Political Affairs no further minding either the constitution or administration of Government than as the Interest of the universal Ruler the weal and safety of their Prince or Countrey are concerned in them But how many under the specious pretence of a publike spirit make it their whole business to inspect and pry into these affairs even with a most meanly private and interested one watching over the Publike beyond the bounds of their own Calling and with no other design than to catch at an opportunity of serving their own turns How many that stand perpetually at a gaze in a suspenceful expectation how things will go either joying or hoping to behold any favourable prognosticks to the Party whereto they have thought fit to addict themselves Glad or desirous to see it ingross power and grasp the sum of things not from any sense of duties towards God's Vicegerents not from love of Justice or study of publike advantage but that the happier loâ— may befall or remain to themselves These men are absorpt and swallowed up of the spirit of this World contemper'd only to this sublunary Region concorporate with the earth so as to partake in all its pangs and paroxisms and tremulâ—us motions By the beating of their pulse you may know the state of things in this lower World as if they were of the same piece and had but one soul with it Let them see times and a state of things on earth suitable to their Genius and you put a new life and soul into them Reduce them to a despair here and so little communion have they with the affairs of that other Countrey the most specious inviting representation that can
suitable aliment from our bodies affect to dwell there and is loath to leave us It were a ludicrous pity to be there-therefore content to endure its troublesome vâ—llications because we fear the poor Animal should be put to its shifts and not to be otherwise able to find a subsistence 'T is true that the great Creator and Lord of the Universe hath not permitted us the liberty of so throwing off our bodies when we will which otherwise are in dignity far more beneath our spirits than so despicable a Creature is beneath them And to his dispose that hath order'd this conjunction for a time whether we look upon it as an effect of his simple pleasure or of his displeasure we must yeild an awful and a patient submission till this part of his Providence towards us have run its course and attain'd its ends And then how welcome should the hour of our discharge and freedom be from so troublesome an Associate which upon no other account than that of duty towards the Author of our beings one would more endure than to have the most noysome offensive Vermine always preying upon his flesh At least though the consideration of our own advantage had no place with us in this matter the same sense of duty towards our great Creator which should make us patient of an abode in the body while he will have it so should also form our spirits to a willing departure when it shall be his pleasure to release us thence But that neither a regard to his pleâ—sure nor our own blessednâ—ss should prevail against our love to the body is the unaccountable thing I speak of And to plead only in the case the corruption of our natures that sets us at odds with God and our selves is to justifie the thing by what is it self most unjustifiable or rather as some that have affected to be styl'd Philosophers have been wont to expedite difficulties by resolving the matter into the usual course of Nature which is to resolve the thing into it self and say It is so because it is so or is wont to be and indeed plainly to confess there is no account to be given of it This being the very thing about which we expostulate that reasonable nature should so prevaricate The commonness whereof doth not take away the wonder but rather render it more dreadful and astonishing The truth is the incongruity in the present case is only to be solved by redress by earnest strivings with God and our own souls till we find our selves recovered into a right mind into the constitution and composure whereof a generous fortitude hath a necessary ingrediency that usually upon lower motives refuses no change of Climate and will carry a man into unknown Countreys and through greatest hazards in the pursuit of honourable enterprizes of a much inferior kind It is reckon'd a brave and manly thing to be in the temper of one's mind a Citizen of the World meaning it of this lower one But why not rather of the Universe And 't is accounted mean and base that one should be so confin'd by his fear or sloath to that spot of ground where he was born as not upon just inducement to look abroad and go for warrantable and worthy purposes yea if it were only honest self-advantage as far as the utmost ends of the earth But dare we not venture a little farther These are too narrow bounds for a truly great spirit Any thing that is tinctur'd with earth or favours of mortality we should reckon too mean for us and not regret it that Heaven and Immortality are not to be attained but by dying so should the love of our own souls and the desire of a perpetual state of life triumph over the fear of death But it may be alledged by some That 't is only a solicitous love to their souls that makes them dread this change They know it wiâ—l not sare with all alike hereafter and know not what their own lot shall be And is this indeed our case then what have we been doing all this while and how are we concerned to lose no more time But too often a terrene spirit lurks under this pretence and men alledg their want of assurance of Heaven when the love of this earth which they cannot endure to think of leaving holds their hearts And a little to discuss this matter what would we have to assure us Do we expect a vision or a voice or are we not to try our selves and search for such characters in our own souls as may distinguish and note us out for Heaven Among these what can be more clear and certain than this that we have our hearts much set upon it They that have their conversations in Heaven may from thence expect the Saviour who shall change their vile bodies the bodies of their â—â—milâ—â—tion or low abject state and make them like his own glorious body God who will render to every man according to his works will give them that by patient continuance in well doing seek honour and glory and immortality eternal life They that set their affections or mind on the things above not those on the earth when Christ shall appear who is their life shall appear with him in glory Mistake not the notion of Heaven or the blessedness of the other world render it not to your selves a composition of sensual enjoyments Understand it principally to consist in perfect holiness and communion with God as his own word represents it and as reason hath taught even some Pagans to reckon of it and you cannot judg of your own Right by a surer and plainer Rule than that eternal blessedness shall be theirs whose hearts are truly bent and directed towards it Admit we then this Principle and now let us reason with our selves from it We have a discovery made to us of a future state of blessedness in God not as desirable only in it self but as attainable and possible to be enjoyed the Redeemer having opened the way to it by his blood and given us at once both the prospect and the offer of it so that it is before us as the object of a reasonable desire Now either our hearts are so taken with this discovery that we above all things desire this state or not If they be we desire it more than our earthly stations and enjoyments and are willing to leave the world and the body to enjoy it and so did falsly accuse our selves of a prevailing aversion to this change If they be not the thing is true that we are upon no terms willing to dye but the cause is falsly or partially assigned It is not so much because we are unassured of Heaven but as was above suspected because we love this world better and our hearts center in it as our most desirable good Therefore we see how unreasonably this is often said We are unwilling to change states because we are unassured the truth is they are unassured because they are unwilling and what then ensues They are unwilling because they are unwilling And so they may endlesly dispute themselves round from unwillingness to unwillingness But is there no way to get out of this unhappy Circle In order to it let the case be more fully understood Either this double unwillingness must be refer'd to the same thing or to divers If to the same thing it is not sense they say what signifies nothing For being to assign a cause of their unwillingness to quit the body to say because they are unwilling viz. of that is to assign no cause for nothing can be the cause of it self But if they refer to divers things and say They are unwilling to go out of the body because they are unwilling to forsake Earth for Heaven The case is then plain but sad and not alterable but with the alteration of the temper of their spirits Wherefore let us all apply our selves since with none this is so fully done that no more is needful to the serious endeavour of getting our souls purged from the dross of this world and enamoured of the purity and blessedness of Heaven so the cause and effect will vanish together we shall find that suitableness and inclination in our spirits to that blessedness as may yeild us the ground of a comfortable perswasion that it belongs to us us and then not be unwilling though many deaths stood in our way to break through to attain it FINIS * Mr. Anthony Vpton the Son of John Vpton of Lupton Esq V. 49. V 27. V. 29. V. 36 37. Act. 2. 30 V. 28. 34. â—â—9 V. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35 Isa. 55. V. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Mat. 22. Psal. 110. Act. 2. V. 25 c. V. 25. 26. V. 31. Acts 13. V. 32 33 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. 9. Plotin En. 2. 1 6 Isa. 40. Job 27. 19 Heracl 1 Cor. 7. Job 20. 7 8 9. Psal. 73. 20. Psal. 39. 5 6. Jer. 9. 24 Rom. 11. 36. Psal. 119. 68. Psal. 33. 5 2 Cor. 5. 4. 1 Cor. 15. 19. Heb. 11. Rom. 2. 7. Non qua eundum est sed qua itur Sen. 1 Cor. 8. Phil. 3. 20 21. Gr. Rom. 2. 6 7. Col. 3. 2 3 4.
stâ—urishâ—l for same generations do challenge observation both as to thâ—se braaches of it which grow in their â—wn more natural sâ—il and thâ—se as I have nâ—w occasion to take further notice that I find to have been transplanted into another Countrey But that such into whose hands this little Treatise shall fall may be induced to consider the true end of their beings to examine and discuss the matter more throughly with themselves what it may or can be supposed such a sort of Creatures was made and placed on this Earth for That when they shall have reasoned themselves into a setled apprehension of the worthy and important Ends they are capable of attaining and are visibly designed to They may be seized with a noble disdain of living beneath themselves and the bounty of their Creator It is obvious to common observation how flagrant and intense a zeal men are often wont to express for their personal reputation the honour of their Families yea or for the glory of their Nation but how few are acted by that more laudable and enlarged zeal for the dignity of Mankind How few are they that resent the common and vile depression of their own species Or that while in things of lightest consideration they strive with emulous endeavour that they and their relatives may excel other men do reckon it a reproach if in matters of the greatest consequence they and all men should not excel Beasts How few that are not contented to confine their utmost designs and expectations within the same narrow limits Through a mean and inglorious self-despiciency confessing in themselves to the Truth 's and their own wrong an incapacity of greater things and with most injurious falshood proclaiming the same of all Mankind besides If he that amidst the hazards of a dubious Warr betrays the Interest and Honour of his Countrey be justly infamous and thought worthy severest punishments I see not why a debaucht Sensualist that lives as if he were created only to indulge his appetite that so vilifies the notion of man as if he were made but to eat and drink and sport to please only his sense and sancy that in this time and state of conflict between the powers of this present world and those of the world to come quits his Party bids open defiance to Humanity abjures the Noble Principles and Ends forsakes the Laws and Society of all that are worthy to be esteemed men abandons the common and rational hope of mankind concerning a future immortality and herds himself among brute Creatures I say I see not why such a one should not be scorn'd and abhorr'd as a Traytor to the whâ—le Race and Nation of reasonable Creatures as a fugitive from the Tâ—nts and desertor of the common Interest of men and that both for the vileness of his practice and the danger of his example And who that hath open eyes beholds not the dreadful instances and increase of this difection When it hath prevailed to that degree already that in Civiliz'd yea in Christian Countreys as they yet affect to be calâ—'d the practice is become fashionable and in credit which can square with no other Principle than the disbelief of a future state as if it were but a meer Poetick or at best a Political Fiction And as if so impudent inâ—idelity would pretend not to a connivence only but a sanction 't is rockâ—â—'d an odd and uncâ—â—th 〈◊〉 for a man to live as if he thou◠〈…〉 and a great presumption to seem to dissent from the prophane infidel Crew As if the matter were already formally determined in the behalf of Irreligion and the Doctrine of the life to come had been clearly condemned in open Council as a detestable Heresie For what Tenet was ever more exploded and hooted at than that practice is which alone agrees with this Or what series or course of repeated Villanies can ever be more ignominious than in vulgar estimate a course of life so transacted as doth become the expectation of a blessed immortality And what After so much written and spoken by persons of all times and Religious for the immortality of the humane Soul and so common an acknowledgment thereof by Pagans Mahometans Jews and Christians Is man now at last condemn'd and doom'd to a perpetual death as it were by the consent and suffrage even of men and that too without trial or hearing and not by the reason of men but their lusts only As if with a loud and violent cry they would assassinate and stifle this belief and hope but not judg it And shall the matter be thus given up as hopeless and the victory be yeilded to prosperous wickedness and a too succesful conspiracy of vile Miscreants against both their Maker and their own Stock and Race One would think whosoever have remaining in them any conscience of obligation and duty to the common Parent and Author of our Beings any remembrance of our Divine Original any breathings of our ancient hope any sense of humane honour any resentments of so vile an indignity to the nature of man any spark of a just and generous indignation for so opprobrious a contumely to their own Kind and Order in the Creation should oppose themselves with an Heroick vigour to this treacherous and unnatural combination And let us my worthy Friends he provoked in our several capacities to do our parts herein and at least so to live and converse in this world that the course and tenour of our lives may import an open asserting of our hopes in another and may let men see we are not ashamed to own the belief of a life to come Let us by a patient continuance in well-doing how low designs soever others content themselves to pursue seek honour glory and immortality to our selves and by our avowed warrantable ambition in this pursuit justifie our great and bountiful Creator who hath made us not in vain but for so high and great things And glorifie our blessed Redeemer who amidst the gloomy and disconsolate darkness of this wretched world when it was overspred with the shadow of death hath brought life and immortality to light in the Gospel Let us labour both to seel and express the power of that Religion which hath the inchoation of the participated divine life for its principle and the perfection and eternal perpetuation thereof for its scope and end Nor let the time that hath since elapsed be found to have worn out with you the useful impressions which this monitory surprising instance of our Mortality did at first make But give me leave to inculcate from it what was said to you when the occasion was fresh and new That we labour more deeply to apprehend Gods dominion over his Creatures And that he made us principally for himself and for ends that are to be compast in the future state not for the temporary satisfaction and pleasure of one another in this world Otherwise Providence had never been guilty of such a