c. Christ may seem to walk with us when he is not in all our wayes And as in dreams we seem to perform many things we do all things and we do nothing Nunc fora nunc lites laeti modò pompa theatri c. Auson Ephem we plead we wrestle we fight we triumph we sayl we fly we see not what is but hath been or should be done and all is but a dream So when we have made a phansiful peregrination through all the pleasant fields and rivers of milk through all the riches and glory of the Gospel and delights which it affordeth when we have seen our Saviour in his cratch led him to mount Calvary beheld him on his cross brought him back with triumph from his grave and placed him at the right hand of God we may think indeed we have walked all this while with Christ but when our conscience shall recover her light which was darkned with the pleasures and follies of this present life when she shall dart this light upon us and plainly tell us that we have not fasted with Christ that we have not watched one hour with him Matth. 26.18 Acts 10.38 Gal. 5.24 Hebr. 6.6 Rom. 13.14 that we have not gone about with him doing good that we have loved those enemies which he came to destroy that we have been so far from crucifying our flesh that we have crucified him again to fulfill the lusts thereof that the World and not Christ hath been the Form which moved us in the whole course of our life behold then it will appear that all was but a dream Foolish men that we are who hath bewitched us We dispute we write books we coin distinctions we study for the Truth we are angry for the Truth we lose our Peace for the Truth we fight for the Truth we die for the Truth and when all is done upon due examination nothing is done but we have spun a spiders web which the least breath of Gods displeasure will blow away We have known the way and approved it have subscribed that This is the way but have made no more progress towards our journeyes end then our picture hath we have but dreamt of Life Psal 23.4 Isa 9.2 and are still in the valley of the shadow of death And now what saith the Scripture Awake thou that sleepest Ephes 5.14 that dreamest and stand up from the dead Let us not please our selves with visions and dreams with the suborned flattery of our own imaginations Let us not think that if we seek the way and like it and speak well of it we are in heaven already or have that Hope that well grounded never-failing Hope which may entitle us to it Why should such a thought arise in our heart a thought that maketh us worse then fools or mad-men and will keep us so courting of sin labouring in iniquity and with greediness working out our own destruction a thought that shutteth out God and maketh an open entrance for a legion of Devils and then welcometh and attendeth them For all the sins which the Flesh is subject to or the Devil can suggest may well stay and find a place of rest with such a thought Why should we please and loose our selves in such a thought See here is water what doth let me to be baptized Acts 8.36 said the Eunuch to the Philip. Here is light what hindreth that we do not walk in it Behold Heaven openeth it self and displayeth all its beauty and glory why do we run from it Knowledge directeth but we will not follow Knowledge perswadeth but we will not hearken Knowledge commandeth but we rebel We are illuminated we profess we know Christ but we will not be sanctified Tit. 1.16 For by our works we deny him Our knowledge followeth and pursueth us we cannot shake it off it staieth with us whether we will or no it goadeth it provoketh it chideth it importuneth it triumpheth within us but yet not over us because those vanities which we are too familiar with will not suffer us to yield We cannot be ignorant of what we know but we are too often unwilling to do that of which we cannot be ignorant Our Self love undoeth us and our own Will driveth us on the rocks whilst the light within us pointeth out to the haven where we should be And the Knowledge within us which did exhort instruct and correct is made a Witness against us Luk 12.47 48 Matth. 4.16 and a Judge to condemn us to more stripes then they shall feel who had not so much as a glance of light but did sit in darkness and in the shadow of Death Let us then not fly but walk not hover aloft in the contemplation of what is to be done but stoop down and do it subdue our Will to our Knowledge our Sense to Reason Let us learn to walk and by walking be more learned then before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. 3. For Practice saith Nazianzene is to Knowledge what Knowledge is to it a foundation As we build our Practice upon Knowledge for we must know before we can walk so we raise our Knowledge higher and higher upon Practice as Heat helpeth Motion and is increased by it and the torch burneth brighter being fanned by that air which it inlightneth Psal 25.14 The secret of the Lord is revealed to them that fear him and his covenant to give them more understanding saith David Let us then joyn 2 Pet. 1.6 8. as S. Peter exhorteth with Knowledge Temperance and with Temperance Patience and with Patience Godliness And these will make that we shall neither be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 idle and not walk nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 walk but to no purpose unfruitful in the knowledge of Jesus Christ For to joyn these two Knowledge and Practice and to abound more and more is to walk in Christ And thus we see a Christian mans life is not an empty and aery speculation a Sitting still or Standing but a Walk Let us now in the second place see wherein this motion or Walk principally consisteth And you may think perhaps that I shall now point out to the Denial of our selves Matth. 16.24 shew you Christ's Cross to take up and bid you follow him bid you fight against the World and all that is in the World the lust of the flesh 1 John ◠16 the lust of the eyes and the pride of life bid you lay hold on Christ love Christ be adopted be regenerate be called and converted With these generalities the Religion of too many is carried along not with the thing it self but the name And with these names and notions they play and please themselves as the silly Fly doth with the flame of the taper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till they lose their wings and feet and become but a body a lump that can neither walk nor move They deny themselves with an oath and
man else They leap over all their Alphabet and are at their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their end before they begin They are at the top of the ladder before they have set a foot to the first step or round They study heaven but not the way to it Faith but not Good works Repentance without a Change or Restitution Religion without Order They are as high as Gods closet in heaven when they should be busie at his foot-stool They study Predestination but not Sanctity of life Assurance but not that Piety which should work it Heaven and not Grace and Grace but not their Duty And now no marvel if they meet not with saving Truth in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this so great disorder and confusion No marvel when we have broke all rules and order and not observed the method of the Spirit if the Spirit lead us not who is a Spirit that loveth order and in a right method and orderly course leadeth us into the truth 4. The last is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exercitation and Practice of the truths we learn This is so proper and necessary for a Christian that Christian Religion goeth under that name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Al. Strom. l. 4. and is called an exercise by Clemens Alexandrinus Nyssene Cyrill of Hierusalem and others And though they who lead a Monastical life have laid claim to it as their own they were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet it may well belong to every one that is the Spirit 's Scholar who is as a Monk in the world shut up out of it even while he is in it exercising himself in those lessons which the Spirit teacheth and following as he leadeth Which is to make the World it self a Monastery A good Christian is the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by this dayly exercise in the doctrines of the Spirit doth drive the Truth home and make it enter into the soul and spirit Talis quisque est qualibus delectatur Inter artificem artificium mira cognatio est Anaxagoras said well Manus causa sapientiae It is not the brain but the hand that causeth knowledge and worketh wisdome And true wisdome that which the Spirit teacheth consisteth not in being a good Critick and rightly judging of the sense of words or in being a good Logician drawing out a true and perfect definition of Faith and Charity or discoursing aptly and methodically of the Lessons of the Spirit or in being a good Oratour setting out the beauty and lustre of Religion to the very eye No saith the Son of Sirach Ecclus. 34.10 He that hath no experience knoweth little Ex mandato mandatum cernimus By practising the command we gain a kind of familiarity a more inward and certain knowledge of it If any man will do the will of God Joh 7.17 he shall know the Doctrine In Divinity and indeed in all knowledge whose end is practice that of Aristotle is true Those things we learn to do we learn by doing them We learn Devotion by prayer Charity by giving of alms Meekness by forgiving injuries Humility and Patience by suffering Temperance by every-day-fighting against our lusts As we know meat by the tast so do we the things of God by practice and experience and at last discover Heaven it self in piety And this is that which S. Paul calleth doctrine according to godliness We taste and see how gracious the Lord is 1 Tim. 6.3 Psal 34.8 1 Joh. 1.1 we do as it were see with our eyes and with our hands handle the word of truth In a word when we manifest the Truth and make it visible in our actions the Spirit is with us and ready in his office to lead us further even to the inner house and closet of Truth He displayeth his beams of light as we press forward and mend our pace He every day shineth upon us with more brightness as we every day strive to increase He teacheth us not so much by words as by actions and practice by the practice of those virtues which are his lessons and our duties We learn that we may practice and by practice we become as David speaketh Psal 119 99. Psal 19.2 wiser then our teachers To conclude Day unto day teacheth knowledge and every act of piety is apt to promote and produce a second to beget more light which may yet lead us further from truth to truth till at last we be strengthned and established in the Truth and brought to that happy estate which hath no shadow of falshood but like the Spirit of Truth endureth for evermore The First SERMON PART I. MICAH VI. 6 8. v. 6. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God Shall I come before him with burnt offerings c. v. 8. He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Psal 4.6 THere be many who say Who will shew us any good saith the Prophet David For Good is that which men naturally desire And here the Prophet Micah hath fitted an answer to this question He hath shewed thee O man what is good And in the discovery of this Good he useth the same method which the Philosopher doth in the description of his moral Happiness First he sheweth us what it is not and then what it is And as the Philosopher shutteth out Honour and Riches and Pleasure as being so little necessary that we may be happy without them so doth the Prophet in the verses going before my Text in a manner reject and cast by Burnt-offerings and all the cerimonial and typical part of Moses Law all that outward busie expensive and sacrificing Religion as no whit esseâ—tial to that Good which he here fixeth up as upon a pillar for all eyes to look upon as being of no great alliance or nearness nor fit to incorporate it self with that Piety which must commend us to God And as a true Prophet he doth not only discover to the Jews the common errour of their lives but sheweth them yet a more excellent way first asking the question Non satis est reprehendisse peccantem si non doceas recti viam Colum. de Re Rust l. 11. c 1. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams Whether Sacrifice be that part of Religion with which we may appear and bow before our God and be accepted and then in his answer in the words of my Text quite excluding it as not absolutely necessary and essential to that which is indeed Religion And here the Question Will the Lord be pleased with sacrifice addeth emphasis and energy and maketh the Denyal more strong and the Conclusion in the Text more positive and binding then if it had been in plain terms and formally denyed Then this Good had been shewed naked and alone and not brought in with
which commend us to God are as the branches and veins and Holiness as the blood and juice to make them live I do not intend to compare them one with the other because all are necessary and the neglect of any one doth frustrate all the rest And the Wise-man hath forbid us to ask why this is better then that for every one of them in his due time and place is necessary It hath been the great mistake and fault of those who profess Christianity to shrink up its veins and lop off its branches contenting themselves with a partial Holiness Some have placed it in a sigh or sad look and called it Repentance others in the tongue and hand and called it Zeal others in the heart in a good intention and called it Piety Others have made it verbum abbreviatum a short word indeed and called it Faith Few have been solicitous and careful to preserve it in integritate tota solida solid and entire but vaunt and boast themselves as great poficients in Holiness and yet never study to be quiet have little peace with others yet are at peace with themselves are very religious and very profane are very religious and very turbulent have the tongues of Angels but no hand at all to do their own business and to work in their calling And therefore we may observe that the Apostle in every Epistle almost taketh pains to give a full and exact enumeration of every duty of our lives that the man of God may be perfect to every good work 2 Tim. 3.17 He teacheth us not onely those domestick and immanent virtues if I may so call them which are advantageous to our selves alone as Faith and Hope and the like which justifie that person onely in whom they dwell but emanant publick and homiletical virtues of common conversation which are for the edification and good of others as Patience Meekness Liberality and Love of quietness and peace My Faith saveth none but my self my Hope cannot raise my brother from despair yet my Faith is holy Jude 20. saith S. Jude and my Hope is a branch and vein of Holiness and issueth from it But my Patience my Meekness my Bounty my Love and Study of quietness and peace sibi parciores forìs totae sunt Ambros exercise their act and empty themselves on others These link and unite men together in the bond of Love in which they are one and move together as one build up one anothers Faith cherish one anothers Hope pardon one anothers injuries bear one anothers burden and so in this bond in this mutual and reciprocal discharge of all the duties and offices of holiness are carried together to the same place of rest So that to Holiness of life more is required then to believe or hope or pour forth our souls or rather our words before God It is true this is the will of God but we must go farther even to perfection and love the brethren and study to be quiet for this also is the will of God and our sanctification What is a Sigh if my Murmuring drown it What is my Devotion If my Impatience disturb it What is my Faith if my Malice make me worse then an infidel What are my Prayers if the Spirit of Unquietness scatter them Will we indeed please God and walk as we ought We must then as S. Peter exhorteth adde to our faith virtue to our virtue knowledge 2 Pet. 1.5 c. to knowledge temperance to temperance patience to patience godliness to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness love or as S. Paul here commandeth not onely abstain from fornication from those vices which the worst of men are ready to fling a stone at but those gallant and heroick vices which shew themselves openly before the Sun and the people who look savourably and friendly on them and cry them up for zeal and religion even from all animosity and turbulent behaviour we must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 study to be quiet and be ambitious of it Thus our Apostle bespeaketh the Thessalonians We beseech you brethren that ye increase more and more and in the words of my Text that ye study to be quiet and do your own business and work with your own hands as we commanded you In which words first a Duty is proposed Study to be quiet Secondly the Means promoting this duty are prescribed causae producentes and conservantes the causes which bring it forward and hold it up laid down 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to do your own business 2. work with your own hands The former shutteth out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all pragmatical curiosity and stretching beyond our line and that compass wherein God hath bound and circumscribed us the later 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all unactiveness and supine negligence in our own place and station The third and last part makes this a necessary Study and bringeth it under command you must do it as I commanded you Or because to be quiet is here proposed as matter of study we will consider 2. the Object or thing it self in which our study must be seen and it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a quiet and peaceable behaviour 2. the Act which requireth the intention of our mind thoughtfulness and a diligent luctation and contention with our selves We must make it our study 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be ambitious of it 3. the Method we must use We must meddle with our own business and work with our hands 4. the Warrant of this method I have commanded it And of these we shall speak in their order First to be quiet is nothing else but to be peaceable to keep our selves in an even and constant temper to settle and compose our affections that they carry us not in a violent and unwarranted motion against those with whom we live though they speak what we are unwilling to hear and do what we would not behold though their thoughts be not as our thoughts nor their wayes as our wayes though they be contrary to us that there be 1 Cor. 12.25 as S. Paul speaketh no schisme in the body but that the members may have the same care one of another that we do not start out of the orb wherein we are fixt and then set it on fire because we think it moveth disorderly but that we look on all with a charitable and Evangelical eye not pale because others are rich not sick for our neighbours vineyard not sullen because others are chearful not angry because others are weak not clouded with envy and malice because others in some respects outshine us 1 Tim. 2.2 but as S. Paul speaketh leading a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty for the Gospel of Christ hath left us no other eye but that of Charity to look abroad with that the peace of God rule in our hearts Col. 3.15 to the which also we are called in one body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
God's benefits whether Beauty or Wit or Riches or Health is to make them benefits indeed But if we turn them into wantonness they will be turned into judgements we shall be the verier fools for our Wit the poorer for our Riches the more deformed for our Beauty the more despicable for our Power our Health shall be worse then a disease and Miracles themselves shall stand up to condemn us But if we behold that is consider them they will be as the influences of heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 defluxions from God himself distilling upon us to refresh and quicken us and make us active in those duties which return them back again with praise unto their Fountain And in the strength of them we shall walk on from faith to virtue from virtue to knowledge from knowledge to temperance from temperance to patience till we are brought into the presence of God who is the giver of all things In a word If we thus behold and consider God's benefits we shall sin no more nor shall a worse thing come unto us Which is our third and last part and cometh next to be handled The Fifth SERMON PART III. JOHN V. 14. Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee MAN hath not found out more wayes to destroy himself then God hath to save him You shall find God's preventing mercy his following mercy Psal 59.10 Psal 23.6 Psal 119. Psal 6.2 his reviving and quickening mercy his healing mercy Here they are all even a multitude of mercies Healing Preventing Following and Reviving Here I told you is 1. Misericordia solicita Mercy sollicitous to perfect and complete the cure The healing of this impotent mans body was but as a glimmering light as the dawning of the day Mercy will yet shine brighter upon him 2. Misericordia excitans Mercy rousing him up to remember what he was by the pool's side and to consider what he now is in the Temple And these two we have already displayed before you 3. The last now sheweth it self in rayes and light and full beauty Misericordia praecipiens Mercy teaching and prescribing for the future I may call it a Logical Rational Concluding Mercy making the miracle as the Premisses and drawing from it Salvation as the Conclusion Behold thou art made whole Therefore sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee The words are plain and need not the gloss of any learned Interpreter And we find that those lessons which are most plain are most necessary as those things which are most common are most useful When we are to build an house we do not go to the mines for gold or to the rocks for perle but to the quarry for stone Corn which feedeth us groweth almost in every field and Sheep which clothe us grase in flocks upon the mountains But those things quibus luxuria Pretium fecit which would be of little esteem did not our luxury set a price upon them are remote and in a manner hidden from us and we find them out with labour and hazard of our lives So it is in spiritual matters Those truths which are necessary lie open and naked to the understanding so that he that runneth may read them But more abstruse and subtle speculations as they are not necessary so are they set at distance and are hard to find out For it is not Curiosity but Humility that must build us up in our most holy Faith And yet the plainest truths in Scripture require our pains and labour as much as the obscurest We may observe that in the winter-season when the Sun is far removed from us we lay our selves open and walk the fields and use means to receive the light and heat of it but in the summer when it is almost over our heads we retire our selves and draw a curtain to exclude both light and heat The same behaviour we put on in our Christian walk When the Sun of righteousness cometh near us and shineth in our very faces we run with Adam into the thicket and hide our selves in excuses but when he withdraweth and as it were hideth himself and will not tell us what is not necessary for us to know we gaze after him and are most busie to walk where we have no light The obscurer places in Scripture are like unto the Sun in winter We delight to use all means to gain the light and meaning of them But the plainest are like the Sun in summer They come too near our Zenith their light and heat offend us they scald and trouble us by telling us plainly of our duty and therefore we use art and draw the curtain against them to keep off their heat As we have heard of the people of Africk that they every morning curse the Sun because the heat of it annoyeth them These plain words of the Text are a notable instance For to defeat the true meaning of them what art do we use what curtains do we draw When we should sin no more we question the possibility of the precept and whether there be any such estate or no As if Christ did bid us sin no more when he knew we could not but sin again and again And then we multiply our sins as we do our dayes and make them keep time almost with every hour and moment of our life And to this end we draw distinctions before the words to keep of their light SIN NO MORE that is Not unto death or SIN NO MORE that is Not with a full consent Not without some reluctancy or strugling of conscience And now where is this Text Even lost and swallowed up and buried in the glosses of flesh and bloud We may we think observe it and yet sin as oft as the flesh or the world shall require it Let us then take some pains to raise the Text from this grave and take off those cloths in which it is enwrapped let us draw it from those clouds and curtains wherewith it is obscured In the course of our speech we shall meet with some of them Now we shall take the words in their natural meaning as they lie And in them you may observe 1. the Prescript or Caution Sin no more 2. the Danger of not observing it If we sin again a worse thing will come unto us And by these we may try our selves as the Eagle doth her young ones If with open eyes w◠can look upon the Text as it lies in its full strength and meaning then are we of the true airy but if we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if we be weak sighted and cannot endure the light and heat of it we may then justly suspect our selves to be but bastard and counterfeit Christians First of all we shall consider how far the words Sin no more do extend and stretch themselves secondly the Possibility of keeping of them The first is a consideration of some consequence that we may not violate the word of God nor do the Scripture any
conditions of life to all sexes to all actions whatsoever It may be fitted to Riches as well as to Poverty it will live with Married men as well as with Votaries it will abide in Cities as well as in a Cell or Monastery Why should I prescribe Poverty I may make Riches my way Why do I enjoyn Single life I may make Marriage my way Why should I not think my self safe but when I am alone I may be perfect amidst a multitude Whether in riches or poverty in marriage or single life in retiredness or in the city Religion is still one and the same And in what estate soever I am I must be perfect as perfect as the Evangelical Law requireth In every estate I must deny my self and take up the cross and follow Christ I fear this tying Perfection to particular states and conditions of men hath made men less careful to press toward it as a thing which concerneth them not For why should a Lay-man be so severe to himself as he that weareth a gown Why should a Knight be so reserved as a Bishop It is a language which we have heard But I conclude this with that which the Wise-man spake on another occasion Say not thou Why is this thing better then that For every thing in its time is seasonable Poverty or Riches Marriage or Single life Solitude or Business And in any of these we may be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect For conclusion then Let this perfect Law of Christ be alwayes before our eyes till Christ be fully formed in us till we be the new creature which is made up in holiness and righteousness Let us press forward in whatsoever state we are placed with all our strength to perfection from degree to degree from holiness to holiness till we come ad culmen Sionis to the top of all Art thou called a Servant Be obedient to thy Master with fear and with singleness of heart as unto Christ Art thou called a Master Know that thy Master also is in heaven Let every man abide in that calling wherein he was called to be a Christian and in that calling work out Perfection Place it not on the Tongue in an outward profession For the Perfect man is not made up of words and air and sounds If he be raised up out of the dust out of filth and corruption it must be in the name that is in the power of Christ. There be many good intentions saith Bernard and it is as true There be many good professions in hell Place it not in the Ear. For we may read of a perfect Heart but we have not heard of a perfect Ear. If there be such an attribute given to it it is when it is in conjunction with the Heart Faith cometh by hearing It is true it cometh The perfect man may pass by through this gate but he doth not dwell there Neither place it in thy Phansie The Perfection which is wrought there is but a thought but the image of Perfection the picture of a Saint And such Images too oft are made and set up there and they that made them fall down and worship them Neither let us place it in a faint and feeble Wish For if it were serious it were a Will but being supine and negligent it is but a Declaration of our mind a Sentence against our selves that we approve that which is best and chuse the contrary turn the back to heaven and wish we were there It was Balaam's wish but it was not his alone Oh let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his And let us not interpret Scripture for and against our selves and when we read BE YE PERFECT make it our marginal note Be ye perfect as far as you are able as far as your lusts and desires and the business of this world will permit That is Be ye imperfect I will not say If one of our Angels and such Angels there be amongst us but If an Angel from heaven bring such a Gloss let him be Anathema Neither let us because we are taught to say when we have done all that is commanded us that we are unprofitable servants resolve to be so unprofitable For we are taught to say so that we may be more and more profitable For it is not the scope of that place to shew us the unprofitableness of our Obedience but rather the contrary Beacuse when we have made ready and girded our selves and served it shall be said to us also Luk 17.8 that we shall afterward eat and drink Much less doth it discover our weakness and impotency to that which is good and our propensity to evil For the Text is plain We must say this when we have done all that is commanded us And if we have done it we can doe more Nor is it set up against Vain-glory and Boasting but against Idleness and careless neglect in preforming that which remaineth of our duty Because that which remaineth is of the same nature with that which is done already as due to the Lord that commandeth it as our first obedience when you have gone thus far you have done nothing unless you go further When you have laboured in the heat of the day it is nothing unless you continue till the evening Something you have done which is commanded behold God commandeth more and you must do it Continue to the end and then he will bid you sit down and eat He that beginneth and leaveth off and bringeth not his work to an end he that doeth not all hath done nothing Thus let us make forward to Perfection and not faint in the way Let us not be weary of well-doing as if we were lame and imperfect but let us press forward to the end stand it out against tentations fight against the principalities and powers of this world and resist unto bloud Let us make up our breaches and strengthen our selves every day take in some strong hold from the adversary beat down the flesh and keep it in subjection that it may be a ready servant to the Spirit weaken the lust of the eyes humble our pride of life and abate the lust of the flesh be more severe and rigid to our fleshly appetite and never leave off whilest we carry this body of sin about us And then as S. Peter exhorteth let us give diligence to adde to our faith virtue and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and let these abound in us more and more that we be not barren and unfruitful And when we have thus begun and prest forward though with many slips and failings which yet do not cut us from the covenant of grace nor interrupt our perseverance and at last finished our course we shall come unto mount Sion and to the City of the living God and to an innumerable company of Angels and to the spirits of just men