Nature but still it hangs upon me and sinks and weighs down my Soul as oft as 't is aspiring towards thee O my God have pity upon me deliver me from this Body of Sin ease my weary and heavy laden Soul of this grievous Burthen under which it labours and groans and suffer not this spark of divine Life which thou hast kindled in me to be opprest and extinguisht by it but so cherish it I beseech thee with the continual Influences of thy Grace as that it may at length it may break through all this Rubbish that suppresses it and finally rise into a glorious Flame Then shall I always approach thee with Joy and breath up my Soul to thee in every Prayer then shall my Heart be firmly united to thee in a devout and chearful Affection and my Prayers shall come up as incense before thee and breathe a sweet-smelling savour into thy Nostrils Hear me therefore O my God I beseech thee and strengthen me with all might in the inward man that for the future I may contend more vigorously and successfully against these vile Inclinations of my Nature which do so miserably hamper and depress my soul that so at last I may be a conqueror and more than a conquerer through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen If through any bodily Infirmity such as Melancholy Weariness Drousiness or Sickness you find your self indisposed to divine Offices indeavour to quicken your sluggish Mind with the Consideration of some one of the most moving Arguments of your Religion such as the Love of God and of your Saviour the Majesty of Gods Presence in which you are or the blessed Immortality you hope for and then address your self to God in this following Prayer O Blessed God thou art a most pure and active Spirit who doest always move with an uncontrolable Freedom and art never hindred or wearied in thy Operations have pity upon me I beseech thee thy poor infirm Creature who am cumbred with this Body of death and so deprest by its manifold Frailties that I cannot lift up my Heart unto thee Thou knowest O Lord my spirit is willing though my flesh is weak my labouring Soul aspires towards thee it stretches forth the Wings of its Desires toward thee and would fain mount up above all earthly things and unite it self with thee in eternal Love but alas its Fervours are dampt and its Endeavours tired by this clog of Flesh that hangs upon it and perpetually sinks and weighs it down again O my God draw near unto me and touch my Mind with such a powerful sense of thee as in despight of these my bodily Indispositions may attract and draw up my Soul unto thee And if it be thy blessed will release me from these fleshly Incumbrances and fit my Body to my Mind that I may serve thee as I desire to do with a fervent and a chearful Spirit But if it shall seem good in thine Eyes to leave me strugling under these bodily Oppressions Lord give me Patience and Submission to thy heavenly Will that so when I cannot approach thee with that Pleasure and Satisfaction I desire I may be heartily content to serve thee upon any Terms and that what I want of Vigour and Chearfulness in my Religion I may make up in Truth and in Reality And O let the Sense of these my present Indispositions cause me more vehemently to long after that free and blessed State wherein with fixt and steady Thoughts with flagrant Love and an entire Devotion of Soul I shall for ever worship praise and glorifie thy name Amen If through present Worldly-mindedness or Vanity of Spirit you find your self cold and apt to be distracted in your Religious Offices indeavour to stir up your Affections by representing to your self the Greatness and Urgency of your spiritual Wants the Vanity of all outward things and the Reality and Fulness of heavenly Enjoyments And do what you can to recollect your wandring Thoughts by setting your self in the Presence of the great God to whose All-seeing Eye every Thought and Motion of your Soul is open and naked And when by thus doing you have composed your Mind into a more serious Frame present this following Prayer O Thou ever blessed Majesty who fillest Heaven and Earth with thy Presence and art always listening to the Supplications of a world of Creatures that hang upon thee open I beseech thee thine Ears of Mercy to me who am unfit and unworthy to approach thee who by setting my Affections upon things below and plunging my self into the Cares and Pleasures of this Life have estrang'd and alienated my Mind from thee and lost that delightful Relish of thee with which I was wont to draw near unto thee And now that I am retired from the World to converse with thee and spread my wants and my desires before thee those worldly Cares and Delights with which I have been too too conversant are importunately thrusting themselves upon me to divert my Thoughts distract my Intentions and carry away my Affections from thee by reason whereof my Mind wanders my Hope droops and my Desires are frozen and whilst I am drawing near thee with my lips my heart is running away from thee O my God have pity upon me pluck my Soul out of this deep mire quicken raise and spiritualize these my groveling Affections Possess this Heart which opens it self to thy gracious Influences with such a strong and vigorous Love to thee as may lift me up above all earthly things and continually carry forth my Soul in vehement Desires after thee that so I may always approach thee with a joyful Heart being glad to leave the company of all other things to go to thee my God my exceeding Joy Give me a sober diligent and collected spirit that is neither choaked with Cares nor scattered with Levity nor discomposed with Passion nor estranged from thee with sinful Prejudice or Inadvertency but fix it fast to thy self with the Indissoluble Bands of an active Love and pregnant Devotion that so when-ever I prostrate my self before thee I may presently be born away far above all these sensible Goods in a high Admiration of thee and a passionate Longing after thee And now O Lord while I am addressing to thee gather in I beseech thee my wandering Thoughts and fix and stay them upon thy self And O do thou touch my cold and earthy Desires with an out-stretched Ray from thy self and cause them to rise and flame up to thee in Fervours answerable to my pressing Wants that I may so ask as that I may receive so seek as that I may find so knock as that it may be opened unto me through Jesus Christ my blessed Lord and Redeemer Amen If after this you find your Heart is very much enlarged and your Mind and Affections vigorously disposed towards God and heavenly things fix your Mind a little while upon the Beauty and Excellency of his Nature or upon some of the most
and Pleasures and in every act of our celestial Behaviour we should have some Foretast of the celestial Happiness So that now we shall no longer need external Arguments to convince us of the Truth and Reality of that blessed State for we shall feel it within our selves and be able to penetrate into its blessed Mysteries by the light of an infallible Experience Now we shall have no Occasion to search the Records of Heaven to assure our selves of our Interest in it for by a most sensible Earnest of Heaven within us we shall be as fully satisfied of our Title to it as if one of the winged Messengers of Heaven should come down from thence and tell us that he saw our Names inrolled in the Book of Life And with this sweet Experience of Heaven within us we shall go on to Heaven with unspeakable Triumph and Alacrity being tolled all along from step to step with the alluring Relishes of its Joys and Pleasures and in every vigorous Exercise of every Virtue of the Heavenly Life we shall have such lively tasts and sensations of Heaven as will continually excite us to exercise them still more vigorously and still the more vigorously we exert them the more of Heaven we shall tast in them and so the Vigour of our Virtue shall increase the Pleasure of it and the Pleasure of it shall increase its Vigour till both are perfected and grown up into the blessed State of Heaven Wherefore as we do love Pleasure which is the great Invitation to Action let us be persuaded once for all to make a through Experiment of the heavenly Life and if upon a sufficient Trial you do not find it the most pleasant kind of Life that ever you led if you do not experience a far more noble Satisfaction in it than ever you did in all your studied and artificial Luxuries I give you leave to brand me for an Impostor V. CONSIDER the great Repose and Ease of a Heavenly Life and Conversation In every sensual and devilish Course of Life we find by Experience there is a great deal of Vneasiness and Disquiet For the Mind is disturbed the Conscience galled the Affections divided into opposite Factions and the whole Soul in a most diseased and restless Posture And indeed it is no Wonder it should be so since 't is in an unnatural State and Condition For whilst 't is in any unreasonable Course of Action the very Frame and Constitution of it as it is a rational Being suffers an unnatural Violence and is all unjointed and disordered And therefore as a Body when its Bones are out is never at Rest till they are set again so a rational Soul when its Faculties and Powers are dislocated and put out of their natural i. e. rational Course of Action is continually restless and disturbed and always tossing to and fro shifting from one Posture to another turning it self from this to t'other Object and Enjoyment but finding no ease or satisfaction in any till 't is restored again to its own rational Course of Motion and that is to act and move towards God for whom it was made and in whom alone it can be happy And if its Reason were not strangely dozed and stupified with Sense and sensitive Pleasure it would doubtless be a thousand times more restless and dissatisfied in this its preternatural State than it is it would feel much more Distraction of Mind Anguish of Conscience and Tumult of Affections than 't is now capable of amidst the numerous Enjoyments and Diversions of this World For as a musical Instrument were it a living thing would doubtless be sensible of Harmony as its proper State as a great Author of our own ingeniously discourses and abhor Discord and Dissonancy as a thing preternatural to it even so were our Reason but alive and awake within us our Souls which according to their natural Frame were made Vnison with God would be exquisitely sensible of those divine Virtues wherein its Consonancy consists as of that which is its proper State and native Complection and complain as sadly of the vicious Distempers of its Faculties as the Body doth of Wounds and Diseases 't would be perfectly sick of every unreasonable Motion and never be able to rest till its disjointed Faculties were rectified and all its disordered Strings set in tune again Which being once effected as it will quickly be in a continued Course of heavenly Action we shall presently find our Souls disburthened of all those malignant Humours that do so perpetually disease disquet and disturb us For by relying upon God we shall totally quit and discharge our selves of all those restless Cares and Anxieties which circle and prick us like a Crown of Thorns by our hearty Submission to his heavenly Will we shall ease our Consciences of all that Horror Rage and Anguish which proceeds from the invenomed Stings of our Guilt by loving admiring and adoring him our Affections will be cured of all that Inconsistence and Inordinacy that render them so tumultuous and disquieting And these things being once accomplished the sick and restless Soul will presently find it self in perfect Health and Ease For now all her jarring Faculties being tuned to the musical Laws of Reason there will be a perfect Harmony in her Nature and she will have no disquieting Principle within her nothing but calm and gentle Thoughts soft and sweet Reflections tame and manageable Affections nothing but what abundantly contributes to her Repose and Satisfaction So that do but imagine what an Ease the Body enjoys when after a lingering Sickness it recovers a sound Constitution and feels a lively Vigour possessing every Part and actuating the Whole such and much more is the Ease and Quiet of the Soul when by the diligent Practice of the heavenly Life it feels it self recovered from the languishing Sickness of a sensual and devilish Nature Now she is no more tossed and agitated in a stormy sea of restless Thoughts and guilty Reflections no more scorched with Impatience or drowned with Grief or shook with Fear or bloated with Pride or Ambition but all her Affections are resigned to the blessed Empire of a spiritual Mind and cloathed in the Livery of her Reason Now all the War and Contest between the Law in her Members and the Law in her Mind is ended in a glorious Victory and happy Peace and those divided Streams her Will and Conscience her Passions and her Reason are united in one Channel and flow towards one and the same Ocean And being thus jointed and knit together by the Ties and Ligaments of Virtue the Soul is perfectly well and easie and enjoys a most sweet Repose within it self Wherefore as you value your own Rest and Ease and would not be endlesly turmoiled and disquieted be persuaded heartily to ingage your selves in the Course of a heavenly Conversation and then though at first you must expect to find some Difficulty in it by reason of its Contrariety to
and to be than to be seen His Heavenly-mindedness was such as rendred him neither too sour nor too talkative and his Patience was always equally distant from Stupidity and Effeminacy For so when he endured that miserable Death of the Cross he suffered like a Man that was sensible of Pain and yet very well knew how to undergo it as became him For as on the one hand he did not breath out his Soul like an effeminate Epicure in whining Complaints and wretched Lamentations so neither on the other hand did he give up the Ghost like a flanting Stoick in a huffing Contempt of death or an affected Insensibility of Pain and Misery But from the beginning to the end he acted his Part in that bloody Tragedy as one that was neither insensible of Torment nor conquered by it For the last words which he breathed which were a hearty Prayer for his Murderers manifested his Soul to be calm and serene under all the Agonies of his Body Thus is his great Example intirely composed of those excellent Virtues that are the proper Graces and Ornaments of humane Nature Now though there be some Actions of our Saviours Life which were never intended for our Imitation viz. such wherein he either exercised or proved and asserted his divine Authority yet whatsoever he did of precise Morality and in pursuance to his own Laws he designed and intended for our Imitation So that in all such matters as his Law is to be our Map and Rule so his Practice is to be our Guide and President FOR this is the great End of our Religion to which God hath predestinated us namely to be conformable to the Image of his Son Rom. viii 29 and in this consists our putting on of the Lord Jesus Christ namely in imitating his Manners and following the Garb and Fashion of his Conversation and accordingly our Saviour tells his Disciples John xiii 15 I have given you an example that is of Humility and Charity that you should do as I have done to you and 't is one of his great Commands that we should learn of him who was meek and lowly of heart with a promise that in so doing we should find rest unto our Souls Mat. xi 29 WHEREFORE if we would lead a holy Life pursuant to our holy Resolution we must set holy Examples before our eyes and especially that most holy one of our blessed Saviour We must peruse the History of his sacred Life and diligently observe his Carriage and Demeanour in all those Capacities and Circumstances wherein he was placed and closely apply it all to our selves as a perfect Pattern of Action Thus and thus did my Saviour Sic ille manus sic ora so he demeaned himself when he was in my Circumstances after this manner he acted and thus he suffered and can I follow a more glorious Example nay would it not be a burning Shame for me not to imitate his Manners whilst I profess my self his Disciple Think O my Soul what would he have now done if he were in thy Condition and had thy Temptations before him Would he have pawned his Innocence for such a Trifle or prostituted himself to such a base infamous Action to avoid such an inconsiderable Inconvenience No doubtless he would not and art thou not ashamed to comply with such a Temptation knowing with what Indignation thy Saviour would have rejected it If we would but thus inure our selves to reflect upon our Saviours Example and apply it to and compare it with our own Actions we cannot imagine with what a divine Emulation 't would inspire us how it would animate our Weaknesses and shame our Irregularities and inamour our Souls with true Virtue and Goodness III. TO the Course and Progress of our Christian Warfare it is also necessary that we should frequently apply our selves for Advice and Direction to our spiritual Guides For it is to be considered that men of a secular Life and Conversation are generally so engaged in the Business and Affairs of this World that they very rarely acquire Skill enough in Religion to conduct themselves safely to Heaven through all those Difficulties and Temptations that lie in their way For before they can be capable to guide themselves safely they must in all points of great moment be able to distinguish between Truth and Falshood and to make a difference between good and evil which in many Instances do border so near upon one another that it requires much greater Skill and Knowledge than the Generality of men are Masters of to discern the Point and Boundary that parts them And supposing their Vnderstandings to be so well instructed as to be able to resolve them truly in all those doubtful Cases wherein they are or may be concerned yet still there is generally such a fault in their Wills as renders them incompetent Judges for themselves and that is that through an Excess of Self-love they are prone to be partial in their own Concerns and consequently unless the Case be very plain to vote that true that is most for their Interest and determine on that side they are most inclined to For when a mans Judgment is before in Suspence a very small weight of Interest on the wrong side of the Question usually turns the Scale against the greater probability on the right And whilst Interest fees mens Affections and their Affections bribe their Judgments it will be almost impossible for them to secure their Innocence whilst they determine all Cases of Right and Wrong at the Tribunal of their own Reason For when once they have determined falsly as many times to be sure they will besides the many single Miscarriages in Practice that will be consequent thereunto by practising on upon their false Determinations they will intangle themselves in such evil Customs and Habits as by that time they have discovered the Error of their Judgment will render it very difficult for them to correct the error of their Practice And therefore to secure our selves in our Innocence and Duty it is mighty necessary that in all doubtful Cases we should appeal from our selves to the Judgment of others who having no Interest to biass them one way or t'other will be much more impartial and therefore if they have but equal Understanding more competent Judges of our Case than our selves UPON both which accounts the Christian Religion hath wisely separated an Order of Men from the World to be the Guides and Conducts of Souls to oversee and direct the secular Flock who upon the above-mentioned accounts cannot be supposed to be in all Cases competent Guides of themselves For 't was to this purpose that our Saviour before his Ascension commissioned his Disciples Mat. xxviii 18 19 20. All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth Go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded
whole he should maintain a Modest Opinion of himself and not think better of his own Conduct and Management of himself than it deserves For by so doing he will be apt to overlook his own Misgovernments and so incapacitate himself for any farther Improvements And in these five Particulars consists all that Virtue which belongs to a man considered meerly in the Capacity of a Rational Animal The First is the Virtue of Prudence The Second is the Virtue of Moderation The Third is the Virtue of Fortitude The Fourth is the Virtue of Temperance The Fifth is the Virtue of Humility All which as I shall shew are Essential Parts of the Christian Life and such as do effectually contribute to our Heavenly Happiness I. PRUDENCE And this is the Root and Ground-Work of all other Virtues 'T is this that gives Law and Scope to all our Motions that proposes the Ends and prescribes the Measures of our Actions For Prudence consists in being guided and directed by Right Reason as it proposes to us the worthiest Ends and directs us to the fittest and most effectual Means of obtaining them So that to live prudently is to live in the constant Exercise of our Reason and to be continually pursuing such Ends as Right Reason proposes by such Means as Right Reason directs us to which is the proper Business of all the Virtues of Religion And hence Religion in the Scripture is frequently called by the Name of Wisdom or Prudence The Fear of the Lord that is Wisdom saith Job and to depart from Evil that is Vnderstanding Job xxviii 28 And the fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom saith David Psal. cxi 10 where the Fear of the Lord comprehends all the Acts of Religion which are therefore wise and prudent because they are the fittest Means to those worthiest Ends which Right Reason proposes So that to exercise our Reason in the Search and Discovery of what is absolutely best for us and to follow our Reason in the Pursuit and Acquest of what it discovers to be so is that virtue of Prudence whereunto we stand obliged as we are Rational Animals FOR our Reason being the noblest Principle of our Nature That by which we are raised above the Level of Brutes yea by which we are allied to Angels and do border upon God himself ought upon that account to be submitted to as the supream Regent and Directress of all our other Powers and to be looked upon as the Rule of our Will and the Guide of all our Animal Motions And when to gratifie our sensual Appetites or unreasonable Passions we either neglect those Ends which our Reason proposes to us or pursue them by such Means as our Reason disallows of we reverse the very order of our Natures and tread Antipodes to our selves And while we do so it is impossible we should be happy either here or hereafter For every thing you see is diseased while it is in an unnatural State and Condition while its Parts are displaced or put into a Disorder or distorted into an unnatural Figure And so it is with a Man who while he preserves his Faculties in their natural Station and Subordination to each other while he keeps his Affections and Appetites in subjection to his Will and his Will to his Reason he is calm and quiet and enjoys within himself perpetual Ease and Tranquillity But when once he breaks this order and suffers his Passions or his Appetites to usurp the Place of his Reason to impose contrary Ends to it or prescribe contrary Means his Faculties like disjointed Members are in perpetual Anguish and Anxiety And hence it is that in the Course of a wicked Life we feel such restless Contentions between our Spirit and Flesh between the Law in our Minds and the Law in our Members because our Nature is out of Tune and its Faculties are displaced and disordered and that sovereign Principle of Reason which should sway and govern us is deposed and made a Vassal to our Appetites and Passions For in all our evil Courses we chuse and refuse resolve and act not as Reason directs us but as Sense and Passion biasses us and our Reason having nothing to do in all this Brutish Scene of Action either sleeps it out without minding or regarding or else sits by as an idle Spectator of it and only censures and condemns it And it is this that causes all that Tumult and Contest that is in our Natures and till by the Exercise of Prudence our Faculties are reduced and set in order again our Mind will be like our Body while its Bones are out of Joint continually restless and unquiet And therefore to remove this great Indisposition of our Nature to Happiness Prudence is required of us as one of the principal Virtues of the Heavenly Part of the Christian Life FOR thus our Saviour injoins that we should be wise as Serpents as well as harmless as Doves Mat. x. 16 which though it be here prescribed in a particular Case only viz. that of Persecution yet since the Reason of it extends to all other Cases and it is fit we should be Prudent in all our Undertakings as well as in suffering Persecution it is upon that account equivalent to an universal Command So also Ephes. v. 15 See that ye walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise i. e. In the whole Course of your Actions take heed that ye follow the Guidance of your Reason and do not suffer your selves to be seduced by your blind Passions and Appetites which are meer Ignes Fatui or the Guides of Fools And accordingly the Apostle prays for his Christian Colossians That they might be filled with the Knowledge of God in all Wisdom and spiritual Vnderstanding Coloss. i. 9 i. e. That they might have such a knowledge of Gods will as might render them truly prudent and cause them to pursue the best Ends by the best Means And though this Virtue seldom occurs in the new Testament under its own Name yet as in the above-named Places it is expressed by Wisdom so it is elsewhere by Knowledge as particularly 2 Cor. vi 6 where he commands the Ministers of the Church to approve themselves such by several Virtues and particularly by Pureness i. e. Continence and by Knowledge i. e. by Prudence For besides that Knowledge as it signifies an Vnderstanding of Divine Things was not a Virtue in the Apostles but a Gift of God and so not proper to be enumerated amongst these Virtues there is hardly any Account to be given why the Apostle should place Knowledge in the midst of so many Moral Virtues if he did not thereby mean the Virtue of Prudence which is as it were the Eye and Guide of all the other Virtues So again 2 Pet. i. 6 where he bids us add to Faith Virtue i. e. Fortitude or Constancy of Mind and to Virtue Knowledge and to Knowledge Temperance By Knowledge it is highly probable he means Prudence
Satisfaction and necessarily renders us by so many Degrees miserable as it exceeds the real worth and value of Things BESIDES which also it is to be considered that all these lesser Goods which are the Objects of our Extravagant Affections are things which we must ere long be for ever deprived of For the lesser Goods are those which are only good for the worser Part of us that is for our Body and Animal Life the proper Goods whereof are the Outward Sensitive Enjoyments of this World All which when we leave this world we must leave for ever and go away into Eternity with nothing about us but only the Good or Bad Dispositions of our Souls So that if our Soul be carnalized through our immoderate Affection to the things of this World we shall carry that Affection with us but leave the things which we thus vehemently affect behind us for ever For that which is the prevailing Temper of Souls in this Life will doubtless be so in the other too and so far is that of the Poet true Quae gratia currûm Armorúmque fuit vivis quae cura nitentes Pascere equos eadem sequitur tellure repostos For though the coming into the other world will questionless improve those Souls which are really good before yet it is not to be imagined how it should create those good who are habitually bad and if we retain in the other world that Prevailing Affection to these sensitive Goods which we contracted in this it must necessarily render us unspeakably miserable there For every Lust the Soul carries into the other world will by being eternally separated from its Pleasures convert into an Hopeless Desire and upon that account grow more furious and impatient For of all the Torments of the mind I know none that is comparable to that of an outragious Desire joined with Despair of Satisfaction which is just the case of sensual and worldly minded Souls in the other Life where they are full of sharp and unrebated Desires and like starving men that are shut up between two Dead Walls are tormented with a fierce but hopeless Hunger which having nothing else to feed on preys and quarries on themselves and in this desolate condition they are forced to wander to and fro tormented with a restless Rage an Hungry and Unsatisfied Desire craving food but neither finding nor expecting any and so in unexpressible Anguish they pine away a long Eternity And though they might find content and satisfaction could they but divert their Affections another way and reconcile them to the Heavenly Enjoyments yet being irrecoverably preingaged to sensual Goods they have no Savour or Relish of any thing else but are like Feaverish Tongues that disgust and nauseate the most grateful Liquors by reason of their own overflowing Gall. So impossible is it for men to be happy either here or hereafter so long as their Affections to the lesser Goods of this World do so immoderately exceed the worth and value of them ONE Essential Part therefore of the Christian Life which is the Great Means of our Happiness is the Virtue of Moderation the peculiar Office whereof is to bound our Concupiscible Affections and proportion them to the Intrinsic Worth of those outward Goods which we affect and desire For though the word Moderation according to our present Acceptation of it be no where to be found in the New Testament yet the Virtue expressed by it is frequently enjoined as particularly where we are forbid to set our Affections upon the Things of the Earth Col. iii. 2 To love the World or the Things that are in the World 1 John ii 15 Which Phrases are not to be so understood as if we were not to love the Enjoyments of the World at all for they are the Blessings of God and such as he has proposed to us in his Promises as the Rewards and Encouragements of our Obedience and to be sure he would never encourage us to obey him by the Hope of such Rewards as are unlawful for us to desire and love The meaning therefore of these Prohibitions is that we should so moderate our Affections to the world as not to permit them to exceed the Real Worth and Value of its Enjoyments For it is not simply our loving it but our loving it to such a Degree as is inconsistent with our Love of God that is here forbidden For he that loveth the world saith St. John the Love of the Father is not in him i. e. he that loves it to such a Degree as to prefer the Riches Honours and Pleasures of it before God and his Duty to him hath no real Love to God i. e. He loves not God as God as the Chiefest Good and Supream Beauty and Perfection And hence Covetousness which is an immoderate Desire of the world is called Idolatry Col. iii. 5 because it sets the world in the place of God and gives it that supream Degree of Affection which is only due to him And this the Apostle there calls Inordinate Affection because it extravagantly exceeds the Intrinsic Worth and Value of its Objects Wherefore we are strictly enjoined to take heed and beware of Covetousness Luke xii 15 And to let our Conversation be without Covetousness Heb. xiii 5 By all which and sundry other Commands and Prohibitions of the Gospel the Moderation of our Concupiscible Affections is made a necessary part of the Christian Life NOW that this also mightily contributes to our Acquisition of the Heavenly Happiness is evident not only from what hath been already said but also from hence that till our Affections are thus moderated we can have no Savour or Relish of the Heavenly Enjoyments For in this corrupt State of our Nature we generally understand by our Affections which like coloured Glass represent all Objects to us in their own Hue and Complexion When therefore a mans Affections are immoderately carried out towards worldly things they will be sure by Degrees to corrupt and deprave his Judgment and render him as unfit to judge of divine and spiritual Enjoyments as a Plowman is to be a Moderatour in the Schools For when a mans thoughts have been employed another way and the Delights of Sense have for a long while preoccupied his Vnderstanding he will judge things to be Good or Evil according as they disgust or gratifie his lower Appetites And this being the Standard by which he measures things 't is impossible he should have any Savour of those Spiritual Goods in which the Happiness of Heaven consists For though in his Nature there is a Tendency to Rational Pleasures yet this he may and very frequently does stifle and extinguish by addicting himself wholly to the Delights and Gratifications of his Sense which by degrees will so melt down his Rational Inclinations into his Sensual and confound and mingle them with his Carnal Appetites that his Soul will wholly sympathize with his Body and have all Likes and Dislikes in common with
when ever he surveys himself in the glorious mirrour of his own Mind he discerns nothing in himself but what is infinitely lovely nothing but what exactly corresponds with the fairest Ideas of his own infinite Reason Whereas if upon an impossible Supposal it were otherwise there would arise a Civil War within his own Bosom against which Omnipotence it self could not protect or defend him For in despight of himself he would be continually exposed to the just reproaches of his own Mind and his own All-seeing Eye would every moment detect and libel and upbraid him and render him a most inglorious Spectacle to himself So that he would be so far from being infinitely pleased and satisfied with himself that his own infallible Reason would be an everlasting vexation to him AND so will ours be to us unless we take care to imitate God in those his divine Perfections from whence his infinite self-satisfaction arises For so long as we are conscious to our selves that we wilfully swerve and deviate from the great Exemplar of our rational Natures we cannot but be ashamed of and condemn our selves and be highly dissatisfied with our own Actions Our Conscience must necessarily reproach our Will and our Reason upbraid our base Inclinations Now what an intolerable plague is it for a man to be forced to make Invectives against himself and continually to carry his own Satyrs in his bosom In this life indeed what by disguising our Faults with specious Names or colouring them over with plausible Pretences what by bribing our Consciences with false Presumptions or diverting our selves from listning to their reproaches by hurrying into Vice or Business we may happily make a shift to deal well enough with our selves But alas what shall we do when we come into the other world where all fair Colour and Pretence shall be wiped off our Vices and We shall appear to our selves in our own naked and undisguised Ugliness where all our false Presumption shall be baffled by a woful Experience and all the din of worldly Pleasure and Business in which we were wont to drown the clamours of our Conscience shall be for ever silenced so that we shall be exposed without Fence or Guard to the furious Reflections of our own mind and lie stark naked under the lash of an enraged Conscience for ever O good God! what Tongue can express the intolerable Anguish of such a State wherein our own Deformities shall be continually objected to our Eyes and we shall have nothing to palliate or excuse them but be always forced to condemn and hate and curse our selves for them and yet not be able to correct and reform them wherein we shall still be hurried on to such Actions by our own furious Inclinations as when we have done them will startle and amaze us set on our Reason and Conscience to worry us with their reproachful Reflections yet in despight of all their Reproaches we shall still reiterate and repeat them Like a desperate Murderer who having killed an innocent Person reflects with Horrour upon his own Act tears his Hair beats his Breast curses and calls himself a thousand Villains but being hereby chased into a greater Fury instead of reforming he grows more mischievous and so murthers another and then rages afresh at his own Act but still the more he rages the more he murthers And this will necessarily be our State in the other world if through our neglect of imitating God we go away thither under an habitual Contrariety of nature to him Besides that we shall be wholly indisposed to those beatifical Acts of divine Love Worship and Contemplation in which as I have shewed a great part of the pleasure Heaven consists For since all Love is founded in Likeness and Likeness is the effect of Imitation how is it possible we should love God unless we imitate him and if we do not love him what Pleasure can we take in contemplating and adoring him WHEREFORE in prosecution of its great Design which is to make us happy the Gospel strictly requires us to be always imitating so far as they are imitable the Perfections and Actions of our heavenly Father to endeavour to form our Natures to his to rectifie the Features and Lineaments of our Souls by his most amiable Idea to be continually framing our tempers by the noble pattern of his Mercy and Goodness his Justice Purity and Wisdom that so being new cast as it were in the perfect mould of his Nature we may be transformed into living Images of him So Ephes. v. 1 be ye therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imitators or followers of God as dear Children i. e. that so you may resemble him in the Qualities of your Minds as children do their Parents in the Lineaments of their Bodies And this is the sense of all those Evangelical Injunctions which require us to be pure as God is pure merciful as he is merciful and perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect that is to take example by God in the whole course of our lives and trace and follow him in all his imitable Perfections by putting on that new that god-like man that divine temper and disposition which after God that is according to the pattern of his Nature is created in righteousness and true holiness Ephes. iv 24 This therefore is an essential part of our Christian Life to set God always before our Eyes as the great Pattern of our Lives and Actions and to endeavour constantly to write after him and transcribe his Graces into our Natures that so when we go away into the other World we may carry with us at least a rude and imperfect draught of his blessed Image upon our Minds such as when we are removed from the manifold impediments of flesh and blood and the perpetual diversions of this sensitive World and admitted to a near view of God may be a prevailing byass upon our Wills and incline us to imitate him for ever For if for the main we are here transformed by imitating God into a godlike Temper and Disposition all those involuntary contrarieties to him which by reason of our Ignorance of his Nature of our bodily Temper and the manifold Temptations we are here exposed to are still remaining in our Natures will be immediately extinguished upon our arrival into the other World where being freed from all our misconceptions of God from all the repugnancies of our bodily Temper to him and from all those Temptations that were wont to avert us from him we shall have no involuntary Disposition or Inclination in us and then our Wills being already predominantly inclined to follow God and take example by him and having no contrary Inclination to contend with we shall presently attend to and imitate his Perfections with the greatest Vigour Freedom and Alacrity of Soul So that now we shall be so intensely fixed to chuse and act like God who is the Example and Pattern of our Natures that we shall everlastingly
you and lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the world And that he did not intend this meerly for a temporary Commission which was to expire with the first Bishops and Propagators of the Gospel but designed to have it derived from their hands to all the succeeding Ages of Christianity is evident not only from the Promise annexed to it that he would be with them to the end of the world which plainly shews that 't was to continue in force till then but also from hence that they to whom this Commission was immediately given did actually derive it to others 2 Tim. i. 6 with a strict Charge that these also should successively derive it to others Tit. i. 5 AND as by this perpetual Commission Christ hath Established a Succession of men to be the Guides of Souls to the end of the World so he hath obliged all Christian People to attend to and respect them as such For he that heareth you saith he heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me Luk. x. 16 and 1 Cor. iv 1 the Apostle injoins all Christians to account of these spiritual Guides as of the Ministers of Christ and stewards of the Mysteries of God so also 1 Thess. v. 12 13. he earnestly beseeches them as a matter of vast importance that they would know them which labour among them and are over them in the Lord and were to admonish them and esteem them very highly in love for their works sake and Heb. xiii 17 he gives this Injunction obey them which have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you THERE being therefore an Order of men that are thus sanctified and set apart from the World by the Commission of our Saviour to consult the various Necessities of Souls and administer to them in all their religious Concerns it would doubtless mightily contribute to their successful Progress in the Christian Warfare if in all their streights and difficulties men would apply themselves to them for Counsel and Direction with such Modesty and Sincerity as they ought to do For besides that they might reasonably expect a greater Blessing upon their Counsels than other mens they being commissioned Guides under the great Shepherd of Souls who we must needs suppose will more especially cooperate with the Means of his own Ordination besides this I say they being persons that are wholly devoted to the Study and Ministries of Religion must needs be supposed caeteris paribus to have a farther Insight into the Cases of Souls into their Dangers and Refuges Diseases and Remedies and consequently to be better able to counsel and direct them than men of a secular Life and Conversation If therefore men would be but so kind to themselves as to apply themselves in all their spiritual Exigencies to a holy wise and well-instructed Guide to uncover their Sores lay open their Cases and reveal the Secrets of their Souls to him so far as is necessary to enable him to make proper Applications it is not to be expressed what a vast Advantage they might make of him He would be instead of a good Genius or Tutelar Angel to their Souls to suggest many a good Thought to them and feed their Meditations with many an useful Notion to enable them to extract from the Articles of their Belief their just and proper Inferences and reduce them to practical Principles to rectifie their Wanderings and extricate them from their Doubts to comfort them in their Sorrows and quicken them in their Indispositions to warm their Indifferencies and moderate their Zeal so as that they may neither be becalmed by the one nor over-born by the too violent Gusts of the other and in a word to direct them to the proper Methods of mortifying their bad Inclinations and conducting their Religion so as to render it more easie and delightful to them These and a great many other good Offices a wise and well-experienced Guide would be able to do men if they would but take him along with them in their Journey to Heaven and modestly submit themselves to his Conduct and Direction And in thus doing they would act not only with greater Security to their Innocence but with greater satisfaction to their Consciences because then their Actions would be warranted not only by their own private Sentiments which in many Cases they will have just cause to suspect but also by the better and more impartial Judgment of an authorised Guide For if under his Conduct they should happen in any doubtful Instance to err from the way of Truth or Righteousness they will have this Satisfaction that they have used the best Means to prevent it the Means to which God himself hath remitted them to whom alone they are accountable for their Actions and who as they may well imagine will very much compassionate such Miscarriages as may follow upon their Submission to his own Appointments But if notwithstanding the great Care that he hath taken of their Souls in appointing them Pilots to steer them safely to Heaven they will embark without them and presume so far upon their own Skill as to venture to their eternal Port through all those Rocks and Quicksands that lie in their way they must needs be in great Danger of miscarrying which if they do they may thank themselves for it and can expect no Pity from God whose careful provision for their eternal Safety they have so ungratefully contemned and neglected IV. TO our prosperous Course and Progress in the Christian Warfare it is also necessary that as often as we can we should actually intend and aim at God in the Course of our Lives and Actions For it is of mighty Advantage to the Conduct of a mans Life to have his Intentions united and continually to act with one steady Drift and Aim Because while he intends but one thing he unites the whole Vigour of his Nature in the pursuit of it and is continually driving at it with all the Force and Activity of his Faculties 'T is an Italian Proverb From the man of one Business good Lord deliver me because minding that only he must needs be supposed to be the more expert and sagacious in it and consequently the more able to exceed and over-reach another man who hath only minded it by the by but when a man acts with a multifarious Intention he must needs be distracted in his Operations and the force of his Faculties being divided by the multiplicity of his Aims must needs be so weakned that 't will be impossible for him to pursue any one of them with Vigour and Activity 'T is one of Pythagoras his Maxims 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man ought to be one i. e. so far as he is able to fix all his Aims upon one End
affecting Instances of his Love or upon the blessed State above and then go on with this following Prayer O Thou most excellent Being thou infinitely amiable and adorable Majesty thou Pattern of Beauty and Standard of Goodness who art glorious beyond all Praise and dost out-reach all Wonder and comprehend all perfection blessed be thy Name thou hast touch'd my soul with a lively sense of thy Glory I feel it shining through me and like an active Flame insinuating into my Heart it fires my Love cherishes my Hope wings my Devotion and diffuses a vital Warmth over all my Faculties it raises me up into a heavenly State and fills me with joy unspeakable and full of glory it captivates every thought into Obedience to thy Will and brings every Power of my soul into Subjection to thee Blessed be thy Name thou hast conquered me by thy Love and I resign my self to thee with a chearful Heart I am intirely thine I am thy Servant truly I am thy Servant and in this Title I glory more than in all the Honours of the World But though I am highly advanc'd and exalted by serving thee yet thou art so infinitely happy in the boundless perfections of thy own Nature that thou canst reap no other Advantage from it but only the pleasure of seeing thy poor Creature blessed and made happy by it What then shall I render unto thee O thou Joy of my Life thou Treasure of my Love thou supream Felicity of my Nature Alas I have nothing but my self to give thee nothing but this poor Heart that burns with Love to thee that pants and breaths after thee and desires above all things in the world to be eternally united to thee in perfect Love If I had ten thousand Hearts to love thee ten thousand Tongues to praise thee I would devote them all to thee as freely and chearfully as I do my self For whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee O God thou art my God and my Portion for ever In thee I am blest and in the Light of thy Countenance I rejoice more than in all the Joys and Pleasures of the World I am ravisht with thy Beauty I admire thy Love and from the bottom of my Soul adore thy Wisdom and Goodness My heart is ready O Lord my Heart is ready I will sing and give praise Awake up my Glory awake all the Powers of my Soul I my self will awake and celebrate thy praises Praised be the God of Glory praised be the God of Love praised be the Father of Mercies praised be the best Friend of Souls for thy Goodness reaches to the heavens thy Glory shines throughout the Creation and thy Mercy is spread over all thy works Who can comprehend thine infinite Beauties who can rehearse thy noble Acts who can shew forth all thy Praise I do confess my Thoughts are infinitely too short my Affections too narrow my Expressions too scanty to comprehend and sufficiently admire and celebrate thy Glory But O my God thou knowest that I love thee and blessed be thy Name I feel infinite reasons so to do O that I could love thee more that I could love thee but as much as Angels and glorified Spirits do who yet cannot love thee as much as thou deservest because thou deservest to be belov'd infinitely But my soul thirsts for thee and longs after thee O when shall I be admitted into thy blessed Presence there to see and admire and love and adore thee for ever when shall I shake off this clog of sinful Mortality that sinks and depresses me and flee to those happy Regions of perfect Love where I shall continually feed upon thee with inexpressible Delight and be filled with a strong and everlasting Sense of thy goodness O thou that art the beginner and finisher of every good work be pleased to assist my holy Endeavours to withdraw my Mind more and more from these sensible things that it may have a clearer sight of its heavenly Country from whence it came and whither it desires to return that so having my Eye always fixt on that blessed recompence of reward I may live above this World and in despight of all its Terrors and Allurements persevere to the end in a steady and even Course of Obedience And now O Lord since thou hast been graciously pleas'd to inspire my Mind with these delightful Thoughts of thee and to enlarge my Heart with such sweet Transports of Love to thee grant I beseech thee that they may not only please but better me that they may lift me up above all the Temptations of this World and revive my Strength and quicken my Endeavours and compose my distrustful Heart into a stedfast Dependence upon thee that so I may be fruitful in all good works and my heart may be establisht unblameable in holiness before thee unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Amen Amen After you have used one or more of the foregoing Prayers according as they suit with the present Temper of your Mind take a short view of your Defects and Imperfections and especially of those that cleave most to your Nature and briefly represent to your Mind the intrinsick Evil and Vileness of them and how they clog your Religion blemish your Nature and obstruct your Happiness and then conclude with the following Prayer for Growth in Grace O God who art the most excellent Nature the Perfection of all Beauty and the Fountain of all Graces who doest infallibly understand what is best to be chosen and invariably chuse by the best and purest Reason look down I beseech thee upon me thy poor defective Creature who am ashamed of my self to see how unlike thee I am how I am laden with Imperfections and how after all my religious Endeavours my Nature is still vitiated with unreasonable Lusts and Affections how much Vanity and Impertinence there yet remains in my Mind how much Perverseness in my Will how much spiritual and carnal Iniquity in my Affections and Appetites Lord I have been long a contending with this corrupt Nature and yet upon all Occasions I find my self too too prone to be Wo is me even my fairest Graces have their Spots and Blemishes my purest Dispositions their sinful Intermixtures and my best Works their Flaws and Imperfections O my God have pity upon me who here lie sighing at thy Feet under a miserable diseased Nature and as thou hast begun the blessed Cure in me so for Christ his sake I beseech thee to compleat it that being intirely recovered and raised up unto newness of Life I may in the perfect Health and Vigour of my Soul serve and glorifie thee for ever For which end I beseech thee confirm me more and more in the Belief of those immortal Pleasures beyond the Grave which thou hast treasur'd up for those that love and obey thee that by the strength of a lively Faith and vigorous Hope my Soul may be rais'd above this World and learn to despise and trample upon all its gilded Vanities whensoever they present themselves either to allure or to terrifie me from pursuing the heavenly Enjoyments Excite in me such a vehement Thirst after those Rivers of Pleasures above as may every day render me more cool and indifferent towards earthly things more contented and satisfied under all the Events and Issues of thy Providence and more active and vigorous in my heavenly Calling And I beseech thee to inspire me with such clear and lively Apprehensions of thy essential Beauties and Perfections and of thy bountiful Love and boundless Benevolence to all thy Creatures as may every day more and more raise and improve my Love to thee that this being the great Spring and Principle of all my Actions may continually excite me to a chearful Obedience to thy Will and a vigorous Imitation of thy Perfections O cause me to love thee for thy self and Religion for thee and the Instruments of Religion in order to thy Glory and my own Happiness that so founding my Content upon thee and the blessed Interests of a virtuous Life I may grow in Grace and be rich in good Works and go on with a satisfied and triumphant Spirit from Imperfection to Strength from Acts to Habits and from Habits to Confirmation in Grace and may be still more and more confirmed in all the heavenly Graces till they are finally consummated into everlasting Glory And when by thy Grace and Assistance I have perfectly conquered the corrupt Nature within and the Temptations without me and am arrived into the State of everlasting Triumph I will lay all my Victories at thy Feet and with Palms in my hand and Halelujahs on my lips celebrate thy praises to Eternity Hear me O my God in this and whatever else thou knowest to be needful for me even for Jesus Christ his sake in whose Name and Words I further pray Our Father c. FINIS Plat. Phaed. pag. 398. Ibid. Pag. 386. Paedag. l. 2. c. 1. pag. 141. Ibid. Pag. 139. * Dr. Stillingfleets Origines Dr. Patricks Translation of Grotius Sir Charles Wolsely * Here make a particular Confession of all those sinful Courses you have lived in together with all their aggravating Circumstances of Impudence Obstinacy and Ingratitude c. * When you renew your Vow in the Sacrament add * Here name the sinful Act you have committed * Here name the particular Infirmities that stick closest to your Nature