comes 1 Cor. xi 26 And that this doth not like the Precept of Baptism oblige us for once only and no more is evident from the foregoing words of this last recited Text as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup which plainly shews that these sacramental Elements are to be more than once received by us 'T is true how often 't is to be done neither Christ nor his Apostles have any where defined but if we consult primitive Example which in the Absence of express Precept is the best Rule to determine our selves by we shall find that it was very frequently received For from some Passages in the Acts of the Apostles it seems probable that Christians did then communicate every Day as particularly Acts ii 46 where they are said to continue daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking bread 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the house that is as it seems probable in some upper room of the Temple though perhaps this daily may refer only to the Lords Day agreeably to that Acts xx 7 on the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break bread Paul preached unto them But it 's certain that whensoever they assembled to the publick Worship they closed it with the Lords Supper which they did for a great while in the Western Churches every day in the Week and in the Eastern as St. Basil tells us Epist. 289. four times a Week besides Festivals So that allowing for our Declensions from the primitive Zeal and Devotion one would think that to communicate now once in four Weeks should be a very moderate Proportion But as for those that wholly neglect this sacred Institution for my own part I see not how they can excuse themselves from being guilty of a wilful Rebellion against their Saviour or with what Confidence they can expect either that he should assist them with his Grace on the Way or crown them with his Salvation in the End when they so perversly turn their backs upon an Ordinance which he hath solemnly instituted for a Conveyance of the one and a Seal of the other BUT would we take that Care that becomes us to prepare our selves for and frequent this holy Institution there is no doubt but we should find it of mighty Advantage to us in the whole Course of our Religion For till we are arived to a confirmed State of Good our holy Fervours will be very apt to cool our good Purposes to slacken and unwind and our vertuous Endeavours to languish and tire and therefore unless we take care frequently to revive our Religion with this spiritual Repast and Restorative and still to add new Fewel to it as the Flame decays it will quickly pine away and expire But if upon the solemn Returns of this sacred Festival we would constantly come with due Preparation to our masters Table and here renew our Vows re-invigorate our Resolutions repair our Decays and put our sluggish Graces into a new Fermentation we should find our Religion not only live but thrive and be still acquiring new Degrees of Strength and Activity But because this Argument hath been already so fully handled in our Practical Treatises particularly by the Reverend Dr. Patrick in his Mensa Mystica and Christian Sacrifice I shall refer the Reader thither for the farther Consideration of it And thus with all the Brevity I could I have indeavoured to give an Account of those Duties which are necessary in the Course and Progress of our Christian Warfare SECT IV. Containing certain Motives to animate men against the Difficulty of these Duties which appertain to the Course of our Christian Warfare HOW necessary and useful to us those aforenamed Duties are in the Course of our Christian Warfare hath been sufficiently shewn So that now there is nothing that our Sloth and Vnwillingness can object against them but only this that they are very difficult and do require more of our Time and Care and Pains than we can conveniently spare from our other necessary Occasions that the Practice of them is so unpleasant and severe and attended with so much Cumber and Trouble that we very much doubt we shall never be able to go through with them And therefore to remove this Objection out of mens way and to excite them to the Practice of these necessary Duties I shall for a Conclusion of this Argument add to what hath been said of it these following Considerations 1. That whatsoever Difficulty there is in the Practice of them we may thank our selves for it 2. That in the Course of our Sin there is a great deal of Difficulty as well as in our Warfare against it 3. That how difficult soever this Warfare may be it must be indured or that which is a great deal worse 4. That though it be difficult yet there is nothing in it but what the Grace of God will render possible to us if we be not wanting to our selves 5. That the Practice of these Duties is not so difficult but that it is fairly consistent with all our other necessary Occasions and Diversions 6. That the Difficulty of them is such as will certainly abate and wear off by Degrees if we constantly practice them 7. That with the difficulty of them there is a World of present Peace and Satisfaction intermingled 8. That their Difficulty is abundantly compensated by the final Reward of them I. CONSIDER that whatsoever Difficulty there is in the Practice of them we may thank our selves for it For if we had betaken our selves to the Practice of Religion as soon as we were capable of it before we had entered our selves into sinful Courses and had therein contracted sinful Habits and Inclinations we might have prevented those Difficulties which we now complain of For our Religion was made for and adapted to our Nature and would have sweetly accorded with all its Affections and Propensions had we not vitiated them by our own wilful Sin and clapt a preternatural Biass upon them But though the Light be naturally congruous to the Eye yet if through a Distillation of ill Humours into it the Eye grow sore and weak there is nothing more grievous and offensive to it And so it is with Religion which to the pure and uncontaminated Nature of a Man is the most grateful and aggreeable thing in the World but if by our own ill Government we disease our Nature and deprave its primitive Constitution it is no wonder that Religion which was so well proportioned to it in its Purity should sit hard and uneasie upon it in its Apostacy and Corruption For to a man that is in a Feaver every thing is bitter even Honey which when he is well is exceeding sweet and grateful but the Bitterness which he tasts is not in the Honey but in the Gall which overflows his own Palate and so to a Nature that is diseased with any unnatural Lust that which is most congruous to it self will be
THE Christian Life From its BEGINNING TO ITS CONSUMMATION In GLORY TOGETHER WITH The several Means and Instruments of Christianity conducing thereunto WITH Directions for private Devotion AND Forms of PRAYER Fitted to the several States of Christians By JOHN SCOTT Rector of Saint Peter Poor London LONDON Printed by M. Clark for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-Head in S. Pauls Church-yard 1681. To the Right Honourable AND Right Reverend Father in God HENRY Lord Bishop of LONDON And one of His Majesties most Honourable Privy-Council c. My Lord THAT I presume to lay these Papers at your Lordships feet is not because I imagin they deserve but because I am Conscious they need so great a Patronage Not but that were the Discourses they contain as great and meritorious as their Argument they might safely shelter themselves under their own Deserts and challenge Homage instead of begging Protection but though I have done my best Endeavour to treat this great Theme suitably to its own native Majesty yet I am very sensible it hath not escap'd the too common Fate of all such sublime and excellent Subjects which is to be foul'd and sullyed by coarse handling But my lot falling in this unhappy Age wherein the best Church and Religion in the World are in such apparent Danger of being Crucified like their blessed Author between those two Thieves and both alas impenitent ones Superstition and Enthusiasm I thought my self obliged not to sit still as an unconcerned Spectator of the Tragedy but in my little Sphere and according to my poor Ability to indeavour its Prevention And considering that the most effectual Means the Romanists have used to subvert this Church which they so much envy and all the Reformations do so much admire and depend on hath been to divide her own Children from her and arm them against her by starting new Opinions among them and ingaging their Zeal which was wont to be imploy'd to better Purposes in hot Disputes about the Modes and Circumstances of her Worship I thought a Discourse of the Christian Life which is the proper Sphere of Christian Zeal might be a good Expedient to take men off from those dangerous Contentions which were kindled and are fed and blown by such as design our common Ruin For sure did our People throughly understand what 't is to be Christians indeed and how much Duty that implies they could never find so much Leisure as they do to quarrel and wrangle about Trifles This my Lord is the sincere Design of what I here present to your Lordship and however it may succeed I have this Satisfaction that I meant well and have exprest my Good Will to this poor envied Church whose truly Primitive Constitution pure and undefiled Religion I shall always admire and reverence and whatsoever her Fate may be I am chain'd to her Fortunes by my Reason and Conscience and shall ever esteem it more eligible to be crusht in pieces by her Fall which God avert than to flourish and Triumph on her Ruines But among the many ill Omens that threaten our Church there is one which seems to presage its Prosperity and that is that such Eminent Stations in it as your Lordships are so excellently supplied For although whether the Part you are design'd for be to Grace her Triumphs or her Funeral is known only to the soveraign Disposer of Events yet this my Lord all that wish well to our Church conclude that God bestow'd You upon her as a Token of Love For which they have sufficient Warrant even from the daily Experience they have of the Prudence and Vigilance of your Government the Piety Integrity and Generosity of your Temper of your invincible Loyalty to your Prince your undaunted Zeal for the Reformed Religion and grave and Obliging Deportment towards all you converse with I shall trouble your Lordship no farther but conclude this Address with that which I am sure is the hearty Prayer of all your honest Clergy that the God of Heaven would long continue your Lordship a Blessing to the Church and to this Diocess an Honour to your Sacred Order and the Noble Stock you descend from and if what I here present prove but so prosperous as to do some good in the World and obtain your Lordships Acceptance it will be a noble Compensation of this well-meant Endeavour I am My Lord Your Lordships most Humble and most Obedient Servant IOHN SCOTT THE PREFACE I SHALL not trouble the Reader with a long Apology for the Publication of the ensuing Treatise though I might plead as other Authors do the Importunity of Friends whose Judgments I very much reverence For to say the Truth I do by no means think that in an Affair of this Nature it is safe or fit for a man to be over-born by the persuasions of those whose Judgments he hath just cause to suspect may be brib'd by their Friendships And therefore had I not hop'd that in such an Age as this wherein through our own Divisions and Debaucheries both in Opinion and Practice and the hellish Contrivances of our Enemies we have such a dismal Prospect of things before us these Papers might be of some Vse to Religion and the Souls of men I would never have troubled the World with them but hoping they might I have ventured upon that reason to publish them I HAVE for some years been a sorrowful Spectator of the black Cloud that is gathering over my Native Country and I must confess have not been without my share of the Fears and Anxieties of the Age but being at last quite sick of looking downwards upon this uncomfortable Scene of things I had no other way to relieve my oppressed Thoughts but to raise them above this miserable World and entertain them with the Comforts of Religion and the Hopes of a better State beyond the Grave wherein I thank God I have found such Rest and Satisfaction of Mind as render'd my blackest Apprehensions of the ensuing Storm very tolerable And now because I would not eat my Morsel alone and injoy my Satisfaction to my self I have indeavour'd by this following Treatise of Heaven and the Way thither to break and distribute it among my distressed Neighbours that so by carrying their Minds from these dismal Expectations into the quiet and happy Regions above and directing their Lives and Actions thither I may communicate to them the blessed Art how to live happily in a distracted World And methinks when our present State is so perplext and uncertain we should be more than ordinarily concerned to make sure of something and to provide for a future Well-being that so we may not be miserable in both Worlds As for the Argument I have undertaken I may without breach of Modesty say it is a great and a noble one it is the Christian Life which next to the Angelical approaches nearest to the Life of God But as for the Management of it all that I can say is this I have
recovers out of this sensual condition into a life of Reason we find by experience that its Understanding presently looks upwards by a natural Instinct and directs it self to God as to its proper Pole and Center And as it grows more and more indifferent to the objects of Sense so it becomes more and more vigorous in its tendency towards God and divine things And 't is no wonder it doth so since it is God only who is an infinite Truth that is able to satisfie its infinite Thirst after Truth And hence it is that till we have throughly fixed our Minds and Wills upon God we do naturally affect such an Infinity of Objects that our Desires are always reaching at new Pleasures and carried forth after new Possessions that our Fancy is always entertaining our mind with new Ideas and our Understanding continually calling for new Scenes of Contemplation By which as one hath well observed the Soul declares that it is not to be perfectly pleased with finite Truth or Good Which possibly may be the reason of that delight we take in Fables and Pictures of Anticks and Monsters because they exceed the limits of Truth and so do enlarge as it were the prospect of the Soul which by its unconfined motions shews that it is of a Divine Extract and that it can never be perfectly satisfied but in union with God who is an infinite ocean of Truth and Goodness For as for all other beings they are so very shallow that we quickly see or at least shall do when we see after the manner of Spirits to the very bottom of their Truth and Reality and when we have done that they have no more in them to feed and entertain our understandings So that when we have exhausted the Truth of finite Beings we must either cease to understand any more which would be to deprive our noblest Faculty of any farther Pleasure or we must at last fix our mind upon God in whom it will find such infinite Truth as will be sufficient to exercise it throughout all its infinite Duration But unless we do now acquaint our minds with God by frequent thinking and meditating upon him we shall by degrees grow such Strangers to him that by that time we go into the other world we shall be so far from being pleased with contemplating him that we shall look upon him as an uncouth object and out of distast avert and turn our eyes from him For the mind of man must be familiarized to its objects before it will be able to contemplate them with pleasure and though the objects themselves be never so amiable yet while the mind is unused to them its thoughts will start and flie off from them and without a great deal of violence will never be reduced to a fixt and serious attention to them So that if we go into eternity with minds unaccustomed to the thoughts of God we shall be continually flying away from him as Bats and Owls do from the light of the Sun and never be able to compose our awkward thoughts into a fixed contemplation of his glory And when we have thus banished our selves from the only object that can for ever bless and satisfie our understanding that can keep it in everlasting exercise and motion and feed its greedy thoughts eternally with fresh and glorious discoveries we have utterly lost one of the sweetest Pleasures that humane nature is capable of and so must necessarily pine and languish under an eternal discontentedness To prevent which the Gospel enjoins us to train up our minds to divine Contemplation and to be frequently thinking and meditating upon God to mind those things that are above for so the Greek word is to be rendred Coloss. iii. 1 to sanctifie the Lord God in our hearts 1 Pet. iii. 15 that is by entertaining great and worthy Thoughts of him And therefore the Gospel is set before us as a Glass that therein we may contemplate and behold the glory of God 2 Cor. iii. 18 namely that divine glory which is therein discovered and revealed to us that we may set him always before our minds and gather up our thoughts about him and force them to dwell and stay upon him that so they may taste and relish his heavenly beauties and please and satisfie themselves with the view and contemplation of them For though to meditate closely upon God may at first be irksome and tedious to our unexperienced minds yet when by the constant practice of it we have worn off that Strangeness towards God which renders the thoughts of him so troublesome to us and by frequent converses are grown better acquainted with him we shall grow by degrees so pleased and satisfied with the thoughts of him that we shall not know how to live without them and our minds at last will be toucht with such a lively sense of his attractive beauties that we shall never be well but while we are with him so that he will become the constant Companion of our thoughts and the daily theme of our Meditations and nothing in the world will be so grateful and acceptable to us as to retire now and then from the world and converse with God in holy Contemplations And though by reason of our present Circumstances and Necessities there is no remedy but our thoughts must be often diverted from him and forced to attend to our secular occasions yet after they have been used a while to God we shall find they will never be so well pleased nor so much at ease as when they are retired from every thing but God and composed and setled into divine meditations So that when we go away into the other world where we shall be removed from those troublesome Circumstances and Necessities which did here so often divert our thoughts from God our minds which have been so long accustomed and habituated to him will immediately fasten upon him and intirely devote themselves to the contemplation of his nature and glory For our minds being already strongly inclined and byass'd towards God by those grateful foretasts we have had of him in the warmths of our Meditation when we come in the still and quiet regions of the blessed where we shall immediately have a more close and intimate view of him than ever all our thoughts will naturally run towards him and be so captivated with the first sight of his glory that we shall never be able to look off again as long as eternity endures but one view will invite us to another and what we see will so transport and ravish us that we shall still desire to see further and further And because our finite mind will never be able fully to comprehend all that is knowable in his infinite being we shall be so delighted in every further Knowledge of him that we shall still desire to know further and that Desire as fast as it springs shall still be satisfied with a further Knowledge and so to eternal ages
to force and extort it when those that are superiour in Might and Power do all rule with a fierce and tyrannical Will and will condescend to nothing that is beneficial for their Subjects and those that are inferiour do obey with a perverse and stubborn Heart and will submit to nothing but what they are forced and compelled to and 't is nothing but meer Power and Dread by which they rule and are ruled in a word when they all mutually hate and abominate each other and those that command are a Company of cruel and imperious Devils that impose nothing but Grievances and Plagues and those that obey are a Company of surly and untractable Slaves that submit to nothing but what they are driven to by Plagues so that Plagues and Grievances are both the Matter and the Motive of all their Obedience and Subjection when this I say is the State of their Society with one another how is it possible but that they should be all of them in a most wretched and miserable Condition For where all is transacted by Force and Compulsion as to be sure all is among such a Company of perverse and self-willed Spirits there every one must be supposed to be so far as he is able a Fury and a Devil to every one and those that do compel are like so many salvage Tyrants continually vexed and enraged with stubborn Oppositions and Resistances and those that are compelled like so many obstinate Gally-Slaves are continually lashed into an unsufferable obedience and forced by one Torment to submit to another and thus all their Society with one another is a perpetual Intercourse of mutual Outrage and Violence THIS being therefore the miserable Fate and Issue of a perverse and stubborn and untractable Temper the Gospel whose great design is to direct us to our Happiness doth industriously endeavour to root it out of our Minds and to plant in its room a gentle obsequious and condescending Disposition For hither tend all those Evangelical Precepts which require us to become weak to the weak that we may gain them 1 Cor. ix 22 to bear with their infirmities Rom. xv 1 and support them and be patient towards them 1 Thess. v. 14 And on the other hand to submit our selves to our Elders 1 Pet. v. 5 and to those that have the rule over us Heb. xiii 17 to obey our Magistrates our Parents and our Masters to be subject to Principalities and not speak evil of Dignities to honour Kings and submit to their laws and Governours 1 Pet. ii 13 14. in a word to honour all men as they deserve 1 Pet. ii 17 and to hold good men in reputation Phil. ii 19 and in honour to prefer one another Rom. xii 10 The sense of all which is to oblige us to treat all men as becomes us in the Rank and Station we are placed in to honour those that are our Superiours whether in Place or Vertue to give that modest Deference to their Judgments that Reverence to their Persons that Respect to their Virtues and Homage to their Desires or Commands which the Degree or Kind of their Superiority requires to condescend to those that are our Inferiours and treat them with all that Candour and Ingenuity Sweetness and Affability that the respective Distances of our State will allow to consult their Conveniencies and do them all good Offices and pity and bear with their Infirmities so far as they are safely and wisely tolerable By the constant Practice of which our minds will be gradually cured of all that Perverseness and Surliness of Temper which indisposes us to the respective Duties of our Relations of all that Contempt and Selfishness which renders us averse to the proper Duty of Superiours and of all that Self-Conceit and Impatience of Command which indisposes us to the duty of Inferiours And our Wills being once wrought into an easie pliableness either to Submission or Condescension we are in a forward Preparation of Mind to live under the Government of of Heaven where doubtless under God the supream Lord and Sovereign there are numberless Degrees of Superiority and Inferiority For so some are said to reap sparingly and some abundantly some to be Rulers of five Cities and some of ten some to be the least and some the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven all which implies that in that blessed State there is a great Variety of Degrees of Glory and Advancement And indeed it cannot be otherwise in the Nature of the thing for our Happiness consisting in the Perfection of our Natures the more or less perfect we are the more or less happy we must necessarily be for every farther Degree of Goodness we attain to is a widening and enlargement of our Souls for farther Degrees of Glory and Beatitude And accordingly when we arrive at Heaven which is the Element of Beatitude we shall all be filled according to the Content and Measure of our Capacities and drink in more or less of its Rivers of Pleasure as we are more or less enlarged to contain them So that according as we do more and more improve our selves in true Goodness we do naturally make more and more Room in our Souls for Heaven which doth always fill the Vessels of Glory of all sizes and pour in happiness upon them till they all overflow and can contain no more Since therefore they are all of them entirely resigned to and guided by right Reason there is no doubt but in these their different Degrees of Glory and Dignity they mutually behave themselves towards one another as is most fit and becoming and that since under God the Head and King of their Society there is from the highest to the lowest a most exact and regular Subordination of Members they do every one perform their Parts and Duties towards every one in all those different Stations of Glory they are placed in and consequently do submit and condescend to each other according as they are of a superiour or inferiour Class and Order So that if when we go from hence into the other world we carry along with us a submissive and condescending Frame of Spirit we shall be trained up and predisposed to live under the blessed Hierarchy of Heaven to yield a chearful Conformity to the Laws and Customs of it and to render all the Honours to those above and all the Condescensions to those beneath us in Glory which the Statutes of that Heavenly Regiment do require in doing whereof we shall all of us enjoy a most unspeakable Content and Felicity For though in the Kingdom of Heaven as well as the Kingdoms of the Earth there are numberless Degrees of Advancement and Dignity and one Star there as well as here differeth from another Star in Glory yet so freely and chearfully do they all condescend and submit to each other in these their respective differences of Rank and Station that in the widest Distances of their State and Degrees of Glory they all
are of great Use to us in the Course and Progress of our spiritual Warfare For as for the Lords Day it is instituted and ever since the Apostles Time hath been observed in the Christian Church as a Day of publick Worship and weekly Thanksgiving for our Saviours Resurrection in which the great Work of our Redemption was consummated And certainly it must needs be of vast Advantage to be one day in seven sequester'd from the World and imployed in divine Offices in solemn Prayers Praises and Thanksgivings and be obliged to assist and edifie one another by the mutual Example and Vnion of our Devotions to hear the Duties of our Religion explained the Sins against it reprehended and the Doctrins of it unfolded and reduced to plain and easie Principles of Practice what a mighty advantage might we reap from all these blessed Ministries if we would but attend to them with that Concern and Seriousness which the matter of them requires and deserves Especially if when the publick Offices are over we would not let loose our selves all the rest of the Day as we too frequently do to our secular Cares and Diversions and thereby choak those good Instructions we have heard and stifle those devout and pious Affections which have been raised and excited in us but instead of so doing we would devote at least some good Portion of it to the Instruction of our Families and to the private Exercise of our Religion to Meditation and Prayer to the Examination of our selves concerning our past Behaviour and the reinforcing our Resolution to behave our selves better for the future if I say we would thus spend our Lords Day we should doubtless find our selves better Men for it all the Week after we should go into the World again with much better Affections and stronger Resolutions with our Graces more vigorous and our bad Inclinations more reduced and tamed and whereas the Jews were to gather Manna enough on their sixth Day to feed their Bodies on the ensuing Sabbath we should gather Manna enough upon our Sabbath to feed and strengthen our Souls all the six days after BUT to this we must also add frequent Communions with one another in the Holy Sacrament which is an Ordinance instituted on purpose by our blessed Saviour for the improving and furthering us in our Christian Warfare For besides that herein we have one of the most puissant Arguments against Sin represented by visible Signs to our Sense viz. the bloody Sacrifice of our blessed Lord to expiate and make Atonement for it besides that those bleeding Wounds of his which are here represented by the breaking of the Bread and pouring out of the Wine do proclaim our Sins his Asassines and Murderers the thought of which if we had any ingenuity in us were enough to incense in us the most implacable Indignation against them besides that his Sufferings for our Sins of which this sacred Solemnity is a lively Picture do horribly remonstrate Gods Displeasure against them who would not be induced to pardon them upon any meaner Expiation than the Blood of his Son than which Hell it self is not a more dreadful Argument to scare and terrifie us from them in a word besides that his so freely submitting and offering up himself to be a Propitiation for us of which this holy Festival is a solemn Commemoration is an expression of Kindness sufficient to captivate the most ungrateful Souls and extort Obedience from them besides all this I say as it is a Feast upon the Sacrifice of his Body and Blood it is a Federal Rite whereby God and we by feasting together do accordingly to the antient Customs both of Jews and Heathens mutually oblige our selves to one another whereby God by giving us the mystical Bread and Wine and we by receiving them do mutually ingage our selves to one another upon those sacred Pledges of Christs Body and Blood that we faithfully perform each others Part of that everlasting Covenant which was purchased by him And what can be a greater Restraint to us when we are solicited to any Sin than the sense of being under such a dreadful Vow and Obligation With what face dare we listen to any Temptation to Evil when we remember lately we solemnly ingaged our selves to the contrary and took the Sacrament upon it And verily I doubt 't is this that lies at the bottom of that seeming modest Pretence of Vnworthiness which men are wont to urge in Excuse for their Neglect of the Sacrament namely that they love their Lusts and cannot resolve to part with them and therefore are afraid to make such a solemn Abjuration of them as the eating and drinking the consecrated Elements implies And I confess if this be their Reason they are unworthy indeed the more shame for them but 't is such an Vnworthiness as is so far from excusing that it only aggravates their Neglect For for any man to plead that he dares not receive the Sacrament because he is resolved to sin on is to make that which is his Fault his Apology and to excuse one Sin with another Wherefore if we are heartily resolved by the Grace of God to reform and amend let us abstain no longer from this great Federal Rite upon Pretence of Vnworthiness For 't is by the use of this among other Means that we are to improve and grow more and more worthy For the very Repetition of our Resolution as I have shewed above is a proper Means of strengthning and confirming it and certainly it must needs be much more so when 't is renewed and repeated with the Solemnity of a Sacrament And therefore it is worth observing how much Care our Lord hath taken in the very Constitution of our Religion to oblige us to a constant solemn Repetition of our good Resolutions For at our first Entrance into Covenant with him we are to be baptized in which Solemnity we do openly renounce the Devil and all his Works and religiously devote our selves to his service But because we are apt to forget this our baptismal Vow and the Matter of it is continually to be performed and more than one World depends upon it therefore he hath thought fit not to trust wholly to this first Engagement but hath so methodized our Religion as that we are ever and anon obliged to give him new Security For which End he hath instituted this other Sacrament which is not like that of Baptism to be received by us once for all but to be often reiterated and repeated that so upon the frequent Returns of it we might still be obliged to repeat over our old Vows of Obedience For he hath not only injoyned us that we should do this in remembrance of him Luk. xxii 19 i. e. that we should celebrate this sacred Festival in the Memory of his Passion but by thus doing the Apostle tells us we are to continue the Memorial of it to the end of the World or to shew his death till he
are able do you but your Part which is only what you can and then doubt not but God will do his put forth but your honest hearty Endeavour and earnestly implore his Aid and Assistance and if then you miscarry let Heaven answer for it But if upon a Pretence that your Work is too difficult and your Enemies too mighty for you you lay down your Arms and resolve to contend with them no longer let Heaven and Earth judg between God and you which is to be charged with your ruine God that so graciously offer'd you his Help that stretch'd out his Hand to raise ye up tenderd you his spirit to guard and conduct ye through all Oppositions to eternal Happiness or you that would not be persuaded to do any thing for your selves but rather chose to perish with Ease than take any Pains to be saved V. CONSIDER that the Practice of these Duties is not so difficult but that it is fairly consistent with all your other necessary Occasions When men are told how many Duties are necessary to their successful Progress in Religion what Patience and Constancy what frequent Examinations and Tryals of themselves what lively Thoughts and Expectations of Heaven c. they are apt to conclude that if they should ingage to do all this they must resolve to do nothing else but even shake hands with all their secular Business and Diversions and Cloister up themselves from all other Affairs Which is a very great Mistake proceeding either from their not considering or not understanding the nature of these religious Exercises the greatest part of which are such as are to be wholly transacted in the Mind whose Motions and Operations are much more nimble and expedite than those of the Body and so may be very well intermixt with our secular Employments withour any Let or Hindrance to them For what great Time is there required for a man now and then to revolve a few wise and useful Thoughts in his Mind to consider the Nature of an Action when it occurs and reflect upon an Error when it 's past and hath escap'd him I can consider a Temptation when it 's approaching me and with a Thought or two of Heaven or Hell arm my Resolution against it in the twinkling of an eye I can look up to Heaven with an eye of earnest Expectance and send my Soul thither in a short Ejaculation without interrupting my Business and yet these and such as these do make up a great Part of those religious Exercises wherein the proper Duty of our Christian Warfare consists And though to the due performance of these Duties it will be sometimes necessary that our Minds should dwell longer upon them yet it is to be considered that when once we are entered upon the Practice of them our Mind will be much more at Leisure to attend to them for then 't will be in a great measure taken off from its wild and unreasonable Vagaries from its sinful Designs and lewd Contrivances from its Phantastick Complacencies in the Pleasures of Sin and anxious Reflections on the Guilt and Danger of it and when all this Rubbish is thrown out of the Mind there will be Room enough for good Thoughts to dwell in it without interfering with any of our necessary Cares and Diversions For would we but give these our religious Exercises as much Room in our Minds as we did heretofore freely allow to our Sins they would ask no more but leave us as much at Leisure for our other Affairs as ever I confess there are some of these Duties that exact of us their fixt and stated Portions of Time such as our Morning Consideration and Prayer our Evening Examination and Prayer our religious Observation of the Lords Day and our preparing for and receiving the Holy Sacrament but all this may be very well spared without any Prejudice to any of our lawful Occasions For what great matter of Time doth it ask for a man to think over a few good Thoughts in the Morning and fore-arm his Mind with them against the Temptations of the Day to recommend himself to God in a short pithy and affectionate Prayer and repeat his Purpose and Resolution of Obedience what an easie matter were it for you to borrow so many Moments as would suffice for this Purpose from your Bed and your Comb and Looking-glass And as for the Evening when your Business is over it 's a very hard case if you cannot spare so much time either from your Company or Refreshments as to make a short Review of the Actions of the Day to confess and beg Pardon for the Evils you have faln into or to bless God for the Good you have done and the Evils you have avoided and then to recommend your selves to his Grace and Protection for the future And as for your religious Observation of the Lords Day it is only the seventh Part of your Time and can you think much to devote that or at least the greatest Part of that to him who gives you your Being and Duration And lastly as for your receiving the Lords Supper 't is at most but once a Month that you are invited to it and 't is a hard Case if out of so great a proportion of Time you cannot afford a few Hours to examine your Defects and to quicken your Graces and to dress and prePare your selves for that blessed Commemoration Alass how easie were all this to a willing Mind and if we had but half that Concern for our Souls and everlasting Interest that we have for our Bodies we should count such things as these not worth our mentioning How disingenuous therefore is it for men to make such tragical Out-cries as they do of the Hardship and Difficulty of this spiritual Warfare when there is nothing at all in it that intrenches either on their secular Callings or necessary Diversions when they may be going onward to Heaven while they are doing their Business and mortifying their Lusts even in the Enjoyment of their Recreations and so take their Pleasure both here and hereafter VI. CONSIDER that the Difficulty of these Duties is such as will certainly abate and wear off by Degrees if we constantly practise them For in all Undertakings whatsoever it is Vse that makes Perfectness and that which is exceeding hard to us at first either through want of Skill to manage or Inclination to practise it will by degrees grow easier and easier as we are more and more accustomed and familiarized to it And this we shall find by Experience if we constantly exercise our selves in these progressive Duties of our Religion which to a Mind that hath been altogether unacquainted with them will at first be very difficult 'T will go against the grain of a wild and ungoverned Nature to be confined from its extravagant Ranges by the strict Ties of a religious Discipline and to reduce a roving Mind to severe Consideration or a fickle one to Constancy and Resolution
Endeavour So that unless thou wilt still go along with me and still quicken and animate me by thy blessed Spirit my Work is so great and my Strength so little that it will be in vain for me to proceed any farther These importunate Temptations that surround me will quickly conquer my present Resolution and I shall do as I have too often done already resolve and sin and sin and resolve and so increase my Guilt by the Treachery of my Vows and Engagements Wherefore for Jesus Christ his sake withdraw not thy self from me but continue to assist my weak Endeavours by thy powerful Grace till thou hast crown'd them with a perfect Victory For which End I beseech thee inspire me more and more with Patience and Constancy of Mind that I may stand fast in my good Resolution in despite of all Temptations to the contrary Suggest to my Mind those holy Examples thou hast set before me especially that of my blessed Saviour and incline my Heart to coppy and imitate them Direct me to some wise and faithful Guide that may be willing and able to assist me in all my spiritual Necessities and by frequently exciting me to dedicate my Actions to thee do thou purifie my Intentions from sinful and from carnal Aims that so I may always live to thy Glory And since thou art present with me wherever I am and dost always behold me whatsoever I am doing O do thou inspire me with such a strong continual and actual Sense of it as may be a constant Check to my sinful Inclinations and render me afraid of offending thee Let thy blessed Spirit be my constant Monitor to put me in mind to consider my Ways and frequently to examine my Actions that so whenever I go astray I may be immediatly convinc'd of it and by my speedy Repentance recover my self before I have wandered too far from my Duty And grant I beseech thee that the sense of my past Failings may still render me more watchful and circumspect for the future that whensoever I have been carelesly or wilfully faulty I may from thenceforth be more cautious of my Actions and more vigilant against the Temptations that betrayed me And that I may not run my self unnecessarily into Temptation for the future preserve me O Lord from sloth and idleness and from intermedling with matters that do not belong to me and do thou still put me in mind to do my own Business and to be faithful and diligent in the State and Calling wherein thou hast placed me And that I may always serve thee with Freedom and Alacrity remove from me I beseech thee all unprofitable Sadness and Melancholy and help me to acquire an equal Tranquillity of Mind and a becoming Chearfulness of Spirit For which end Good Lord do thou inspire me with a lively Sense and earnest Expectation of that blissful State towards which I am travelling that having this glorious Prospect always in my Eye I may go on with Joy and Triumph over all the Difficulties and Temptations that oppose me And that by all these means I may be more and more strengthened and confirmed in the good Resolution I have made do thou stir up my slothful mind to a dilligent Attendance on thy publick Ordinances that so in the solemn Assemblies of thy Saints I may constantly hear thy Word with Reverence and Attention offer up my Prayers with Fervency and Devotion and approach thy Table with all that Humility and Love Gratitude and Resignation of Soul that becomes this solemn Remembrance and Representation of my dying Saviour In these things and whatsoever else is needful to secure my Resolution of Obedience assist me O Lord for Jesus Christ his sake to whom with thy self and eternal Spirit be render'd all Honor Glory and Power from his time forth and for evermore After this Prayer bethink your self a little what Temptations you are like to meet with in the ensuing Business of the Day and briefly recollect those powerful Arguments which the Gospel urges to fortifie you against them and apply them particularly to the Sin or Sins you are most inclined to and then renew your Resolution to God in the following Prayer O God who art my Hope and Strength upon whose Aid and Assistance I depend look down I beseech thee upon a poor helpless Creature who am going forth into a busie World that is full of Snares and Temptations Blessed be thy Name my Heart continues still resolved upon a through Course of Amendment and therefore here in thy dreadful Presence I do again most solemnly promise and ingage my self that whatsoever Temptations I meet with this Day I will not wilfully commit any Sin no not the Sin I am most inclined to nor omit any Duty how contrary soever it may be too my Nature and that I will faithfully indeavour to keep such a constant Guard upon my self as that I may not be surprized and overtaken through my own Inadvertence and Vnwariness But this O Lord I promise not out of any Confidence in my own Strength but in Dependence upon thee and in Hope that out of thy tender Pity to a poor impotent Wretch thou wilt not be wanting to me in any necessary Assistance but that either thou wilt remove from me all great and importunate Temptations or inable me by thy Grace to repel and vanquish them and this I do most earnestly beseech in the Name and Mediation of Jesus Christ with whose Prayer I conclude this my morning Sacrifice Our Father c. In the Evening when you find your self best disposed for religious Exercise set apart such Portions of your Time as you can conveniently spare from your necessary Refreshment and Diversion to call your self to Account concerning the Actions of the Day and enquire whether they have been agreeable to your Morning Promise and Resolution and upon Enquiry you will find either that you have faithfully discharged what you promised or that you have sinned unawares or through Carelesness and Self-neglect or that you have sinned wilfully and against your own Conscience If upon Enquiry it appear that you have been faithful to your Morning Engagement represent to your self the great Reason you have to rejoice in it and to praise God for it and then offer up this following Thanksgiving BLessed be thy Name O most gracious and merciful Father for those great and numberless Favours which from time to time thou hast heaped upon me who am less than the least of all thy Mercies particularly for the signal Mercies of this Day for that thou hast not shut thine Ears against my Prayers nor withdrawn thy self from me but hast accompanied me with thy Grace through all those Snares and Temptations to which I have been exposed Praised be thy Name that thou hast not suffered me to be tempted above what I was able that thou hast so powerfully assisted me against those Temptations I have been ingag'd with and by putting so many good Thoughts into my
than these worldly things which are continually pressing upon our Senses we should as oft as we have Opportunity withdraw our Thoughts from these sensible Objects and retire into the immaterial World and there entertain our selves with the close View and Contemplation of the Joys and Glories it abounds with For we are a sort of Beings that being compounded of Flesh and Spirit are by these opposite Principles of our Nature ally'd to two opposite Worlds and placed in the middle between Heaven and Earth as the common Center wherein those distant Regions meet By our spiritual Nature we hold Communion with the spiritual World and by our corporeal with this earthly and sensible one whose Objects being always present with us and striking as they do immediately upon our Senses we lye much more bare and open to them than to those of the spiritual World So that unless we now and then withdraw our selves from these sensible things which hang like a Cloud between we can never have a free Prospect into that clear Heaven above them And hence it becomes necessary that we should now and then make a solemn Retirement of our Thoughts from earthly Objects and Enjoyments that so we may approach near enough to Heaven to touch and feel the Joys and Pleasures of it which while we transiently behold in this Croud of worldly Objects is plac'd at such a Distance from us that it looks like a thin blew Landskip next to nothing and hath not apparent Reality enough in it to raise our Desires and Expectations AND hence we are commanded to set our affections upon or as it is in the original to mind those things that are above Col. iii. 2 and that by these things above he means the Enjoyments of Heaven it 's plain from v. 1. where he expresly tells us that by the above in which these things are he means Heaven where Christ sits at the right hand of God So that the Sence of the Precept is this that we should fix in our Minds such lively Representations of the Glory and Reality of the Celestial State as may raise in our Hearts a longing Desire and earnest Expectation of being made partakers of it Which Hope and Expectation he elsewhere injoyns us to put on for an Helmet i. e. for a necessary Piece of defensive Armour against the Difficulties and Discouragements of our Christian Warfare 1 Thes. v. 8 and Heb. vi xix this hope which enters into that within the veil i. e. into Heaven is said to be the Anchor of the soul both sure and stedfast i. e. 't is that which stayes and secures the Soul in the midst of those many Storms of Temptation it meets withall in its Voyage to Heaven and it being so we are bid to look to and imitate our Blessed Lord who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is now sat down at the right hand of God Heb. xii 2 The meaning of all which is that we should earnestly indeavour to fix in our minds a vigorous Sense and Expectation of that immortal Happiness with which God hath promised to crown all that come off Conquerors from this spiritual Warfare that all along as we march we should keep Heaven in our Eye and incourage our selves with the Hope of it to charge through all those Difficulties and Temptations that oppose us in the way in a word that we should frequently awaken in our minds the glorious Thoughts of a blessed Immortality and possess our selves with a lively Expectation of injoying it if we hold out to the End WHICH is a Duty of a vast Consequence to us in the Course of our spiritual Warfare For Heaven being the End and Reward of our Warfare must needs be the grand Encouragement thereunto and consequently if once we lose Sight of Heaven and suffer earthly things to interpose and eclipse the Glory and Reality of it our Courage will never be able to bear up against those manifold Temptations that do continually assault us But whilst we continue under a lively Sense of that blessed Recompence of Reward that will so spirit and invigorate our Resolution that nothing will be able to withstand it and all the Terrors and Allurements that Sin can propose will be forced to fly before it and to retreat like so many impotent Waves that dash against a Rock of Adamant For while we are under a lively Sense and Expectance of the Happiness above we live as it were in the Mid-way between Heaven and Earth where we have an open Prospect of the Glories of both and do plainly see how faint and dim those below are in comparison with those above how they are forced to sneak and disappear in the presence of those eternal Splendors and to shroud their vanquisht Beauties as the Stars do when the Sun appears And whilst we interchangeably turn our eyes from one to t'other how fruitlesly do the Pleasures Profits and Honours below importune us to abandon the Joys and Glories above and with what Indignation do we listen to the proposals of such a senseless and ridiculous Exchange And could we but always keep our selves at this stand we should be so fortified with the Sight of those happy Regions above that no Temptation from below would ever be able to approach us and the sense that we are going on to that blessed State would carry us through all the weary Stages of our Duty with an indefatigable Vigour For what may a man not do with Heaven in his Eye with that potent I had almost said Omnipotent Encouragement before him To pull out a right Eye to cut off a right hand to tear a darling Lust from his Heart even when 't is wrapt about it and twisted with its Strings what an easie Atchievement is it to a man that hath a Heaven of immortal Glories in his View The Hope of which is enough to recommend even Racks Torments and turn the Flames of martyrdom into a Bed of Roses For 't was this blessed Prospect that inabled the Good old martyrs to triumph so gloriously as they did in the midst of their Sufferings they knew that a few Moments would put an End to their Miseries and that when once they had weather'd those short storms they should arive at a most blessed Harbour and be crowned at their landing and that from thence they should look back with infinite Joy and Delight upon the dangerous Sea they had escaped and for ever bless those Storms and Winds that drave them to that happy Ports for as the Author to the Hebrews tells us they sought a heavenly Countrey Heb. xi 14.16 XI AND lastly To the successful Progress of our Christian Warfare it is also necessary that we should live in the frequent use of the publick Ordinances and Institutions of our Religion namely in the religious Observation of the Lords Day and in frequent Communion with one another in the Holy Sacrament both which