far doth this fall short of expressing the unreasonableness of such as will rather enjoy present pleasures than prepare for future happinesse A Child is bound to an Apprenticeship and he perhaps dies before his time be out and so all his labour and charge is lost or he doth not live seven years a Freeman after he hath lived seven years in a hard service But he that gives up himself to the service of Christ let it be imagined to be as hard as some mens prejudice perswades them the sooner he dyes the sooner his service is ended and though he dye never so soon he loseth not his Freedom but is made a Citizen of Heaven and once entred there he never dyes but doth for ever reap the fruit of his labours Do we not give twenty times as much for the Fee-simple as they speak of an Estate as it will bring us in one year and according to the same rule were we sure to enjoy the pleasures of sin twenty years and could imagine them to be equal to the joyes of Heaven yet we should quit them for those everlasting pleasures which we should enjoy for ever our selves and not only for some Ages as we hope to do Estates on Earth not in our selves but only in our posterity Further yet we see it is in vain to lay a snare in the sight of any Bird. Prov. 1.17 they will not come into the Net to feed if they perceive it or swallow the bait when they see the hook yet foolish men do venture on Hell which they are told will certainly be the wages of sin and will enjoy the present pleasures of it though they have all the assurance that a man can have of any thing which he sees not with his eyes that it will cost him his life and that his Soul must rue for ever in Hell God indeed doth not manifest himself to us ordinarily here nor take us up as he did Paul into the third Heavens to shew us the Glory thereof but he will have us to exercise faith here and to take his word which he hath so fully confirmed to us that we may as certainly trust to it as if we had the clearest evidence in the world The Husband-man casts his seed into the ground without any fear or suspition of losing having been confirmed by many experiments in the hope of receiving it again with increase but a thousand experiments will not so fully perswade as a divine testimony confirmed by Covenants Oaths and Seals the ordinary wayes of confirmation amongst men so that a Divine faith founded upon the word of God is as the substance of things hoped for which are but future and makes them as it were really subsist and is the evidence of things not seen confirming them to us and as fully perswading us of them though they are not obvious to the sense as any Philosophical demonstration can confirm any truth so that notwithstanding the Apostle owns sence to be a great means to move affections in this frail state wherein we are yet faith serves believers for a sufficient foundation of love and delight Though they see not Jesus Christ they love him and rejoyce in him with joy unspeakable and full of Glory 1 Pet. 1.7 We are short sighted and cannot see a far off 2 Pet. 1.9 but faith as a perspective brings things nearer to us that we may judge of them as really present Let not our senses therefore usurp authority over Faith and Reason but lot Faith and Reason have their perfect work let not the Men of the World be wiser in their Generation than Children of light let us not be wiser in the things of the World than in the things of Heaven We chuse not the fairest of things for the most part but such as are more serviceable and durable nor the sweetest but that which is wholsom and nourishing we chuse not the cleanest or pleasantest way but that which leads to the place which we are going to So let us judge of things not according as they present themselves to our senses but as they have a real intrinsick worth to commend themselves to our judgments and let us not judge of things according to their suitablenesse to our present fancies but as they conduce to our abiding good measuring every thing not by Time but by Eternity SECT XV. Inconsideratenesse another great cause of Atheism against which the best remedies are a serious apprehension of the great moment and importance of spiritual things frequent reading and hearing the word of God Christian communion and conference about matters of Religion mutual admonition The prevalency of evil customs and habits the folly of deferring repentance ANother chief reason of that Atheism which abounds so much in the World is inconsideratenesse the most important truths do not affect us any longer than we consider them The Platonists observed this who made knowledge nothing but remembrance or an actual consideration of that which Man knows not reckoning that to be knowledge which lyes dead in the habit and doth not at all affect the Soul And we find that the Scripture layes much weight upon this consideration or remembrance yea as much as Mans salvation comes to We may observe Isa 1.3 There is an Epimone wherein the Prophet layes the sin of Israel upon this that they did not consider So 1 Kings 8.47 We may observe affliction brings men to bethink themselves that brings them to repentance and repentance is a means to obtain pardon and we find by experience that when Men are by sicknesse brought to a serious weighing of matters they are easily perswaded to make good promises and resolutions which when their minds are afterwards by the pleasures of the World diverted from the thoughts of they turn to their former course yea we see many times that Men are so ingenuous as to yield to reproofs and to condemn themselves and their own wayes when they are admonished of them as if they stood in need of no more but to be put in mind of such things as they have in their own hearts and only to have conscience awakened and we find Ezek 18.14.28 that the turning away of a wicked man from the evil of his wayes depends chiefly upon consideration I have already shewed that the Devil is the remote cause of that wickednesse and prophaneness which abounds in the World yet he useth this as the great means to draw Men from God to divert their minds from the thoughts of such things as may have an influence upon their affections and actions to make a change in them as we see plainly in the Parable of the Sower Luk. 8.12 Men hear the word then comes the Devil and takes it away out of their hearts lest they should believe and be saved First we find by experience that Mâ—n are oft seriously affected with those things that they hear while they are lively represented to their minds and pressed seriously upon their consciences
that is the effect of it is the whole Duty of Man founded on his Power and Wisdom ratio rei or reason it self the ground of such things as are of natural right Gods soveraignty the ground of such things as are of positive right I Shall begin with the Equity of Gods commands and shew how reasonably he requires the observance of them his nature most justly challenging and the excellency of his attributes really meriting whatsoever his Law exacts as our duty Man hath as the Moralists observe but a Political Dominion over his affections not such a despotical and absolute power as over his locomotive faculty and so over his outward actions so that he cannot love and hate and fear and desire as he list The Soul being a rational Agent moveth it self in respect of all Objects according to what it sees there of good or evil which begets liking or aversion Wherefore arrogancy is one of the most contemptible vanities amongst the Sons of men it being the most ridiculous thing in the World for men to require of others that Honour esteem reverence which they have no real worth in themselves to be a foundation of And it is worse tyranny than that of the Egyptian task-Masters who required brick without giving straw They say indeed honor est in honorante depending on the will of the giver yet it must be radically in him that is honoured there must be a Foundation laid by him whereon others must raise their esteem of him Wherefore the charge is given to Timothy and Titus that none should despise them that is they were to carry themselves with that gravity prudence integrity that none might have occasion to think meanly and contemptibly of them Now there is in God a real foundation for all those affections which he requires of us as the principles of all our outward actions whereby they are formed and fashioned First God requires that we should love him with all our might with all our strength with our whole Soul and this is in effect the keeping of his commands the fulfilling of his Law Love being the Queen-regent the commanding affection of the Soul the first mover that sets all on work as Austin saith Love is the byass which turns us where ever we go We may judge of the power of this affection by observing the effects of it in our selves where we do truly love how careful are we to please how fearful to offend how desirous to enjoy how ambitious to serve how unwearyed in serving how ready to run hazards to undergo difficulties what sympathy is there of all affections what jealousie So that God needs require no more of us for if he have our Love the rest will follow Now it were not beseeming the Majesty of God to require this of us were there not that in his nature and in his works that did justly deserve it but there is nothing in the creature attractive of our Love which is not eminently in him how great is his goodness how great is his beauty Zach. 9.17 that is those perfections of his nature which being found in the Creature infinitely below what they are in him make it amiable to us Goodness and greatnesse where they meet in Man are very desirable and lovely but God is Optimus Maximus as he is wont to be called the greatest and the best not exceeding us more in his greatnesse than in his goodnesse in his Glory than in his Grace Mich. 7.18 What narrow bounds did Peter set to his forbearance when he asked if he should forgive his brother seven times what would soon become of us if the forbearance of God were confined within such narrow limits we indeed pass by many offences in others because we know not how to revenge them but God could every moment by a word of his mouth an act of his will let us know what it is to contemn his authority And let us but consider the disproportion between God and Man how infinitely he is above him and the nature of God how holy and contrary to whatsoever is evil and we shall much more admire his patience and goodnesse We can do good to our Friends we who are evil but to do good to Enemies whom we have daily in our power and who still continue their enmity against us is too hard for us God is good to Angels that never sinned patient only to sinners Let us but recount the various acts of his Providence towards us consider the daily care which he hath of us the mercies which we daily receive from him the evil he preserveth us from what offers he makes to us of an eternal Glory with himself what means he affords for obtaining it how long space of repentance he gives us and we shall find our obligations to him to be infinitely beyond what they are to Parents Princes Friends disloyalty and ingratitude to whom is condemned abhorred of all Further the Fear of God is the whole Duty of Man Eccl. 12.13 that is efficienter though not formaliter for where ever it is it doth bind the Soul to its duty Job 28.28 Prov. 1.7 and I may say as much for this as for the Love of God Methinks it is a condescension in him to argue the matter as he doth with sinners Jer. 5.22 Mat. 10.28 when he might let them run upon their own ruine and know by experience the danger that they despise We should deride the threatnings of some vain boaster that should go about to affright us with such things as it were far above his power to effect but the frown of a Caesar an Alexander might make us tremble it is the most astonishing madnesse and folly in the World for men to account it generosity braveness of spirit not to be awed by the great words of Scripture to dare to sin to take courage against God like the Philistins 1 Sam. 4.9 and to account it meanness of spirit to be affrighted with the threatnings of an invisible God whose greatnesse we neither see nor feel though it is our own fault we seeing it in its effects every day It is he that hangs the Earth on nothing and when he pleaseth makes it tremble sends the Sun on his errand every day orders the host of Heaven making every Star keep its place thundring with his voice so as he can make the Emperors of the World run to hide themselves setting bounds to the raging waves of the Sea which they dare not passe and though he doth not every day reveal his wrath from Heaven against sinners yet he hath told us it is not because he approves of their ways or knows not how to right himself he only stays till the time of the Revelation of his righteous judgment and then he will pour out his wrath like fire and make the stoutest sinners run if it were possible for them under the Rocks and Mountains to hide themselves from his presence David and Solomon were both feared for
the nature of the object and the capacity of the sense for receiving it or acting upon it such is the pleasure that it finds therein and the more noble the faculty and the object are the more noble is the delight which ariseth from the Union betwixt them so that all Philosophers are agreed that intellectual delights exceed sensual pleasures Now in Heaven our Souls shall be perfected according to the capacity of a finite being otherwise they would be no more capable of enjoying God than a deaf man of being delighted with musick or a blind man in the most perfect beauty therefore we are said to be made meet to be partakers of an inheritance with the Saints in light sanctification qualifying us naturally for Heaven as justification doth morally and God himself shall be the object of our happinesse whom we shall see as he is and love him and delight in him according to his goodnesse and glory I know it is hard for us to conceive what it is to enjoy God but to help us in the conception of it let us consider a little what it is to enjoy a friend to have an absent friend is a comfort but to be with him is a great addition to our contentment to receive the expressions of their love and to testifie ours to them Those who are of a more noble and generous complexion find more true satisfaction herein than in whatever else this World can afford them and what is it that endears another to us but Love and Lovelinesse where there are amiable endowments in persons of worth they command an esteem from us though they know us not and though we are never the better for them but where they have a particular affection to us take us into their bosom make us of their entire friends this doth much more endear them to us Now as I have already said we find in God in a far more eminent degree that which renders the Creatures amiable and lovely Besides his goodnesse towards the whole Creation which the Earth is full of his special favour to Mankind and it may be to us above many thousands of others the exceeding Riches of Grace towards the Elect which Men and Angels shall admire to the days of Eternity there is that Beauty that is intellectual beauty or such Beauty as is objected to the understanding which will ravish the whole intellectual Creation His Wisdom is unsearchable his Power irresistable and his Grace and Clemency as far exceeding what is to be found in the Creature as his Majesty and Glory Job had heard of God but when he came to see him abhorred himself to see the infinite distance betwixt the Soveraign Creator and a poor Mortal that durst dispute the case with him Oh! what thoughts shall we have of God when we come to see him as he is What astonishment will seize upon us what confusion will cover us when we see what a God it is whose grace we have so oft despised whose patience we have so long abused whose authority we have so boldly contemned and yet see that he who had us alwayes at his mercy and could at his pleasure avenge himself on us should pardon us for his own sake and make such glorious preparations for us We shall then perfectly understand all the dimensions of his love and continually as it were read the stories of it We may the better conceive of it by fancying to our selves what a singular favour it would be to have some great Prince take a singular affection to us though we did the least of any in the World deserve it and had dis-obliged him by a thousand provocations if he should take us home to his house and maintain us alwayes at his table keep us alwayes in his presence this would fall infinitely short of that love which God will manifest to us and what an addition will it be to our happinesse to see him in his Glory who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his blood the story of whose love we have so oft read over a sight of whose Face though but through the Glass of Faith we have so oft so long desired and lamented a feer to have the society of the innumerable company of Angels and the general assembly of just men made perfect a meeting of the Saints of all Ages and places and these perfected both in Grace and Glory so that they shall have no infirmities no Pride Ignorance self-seeking to exercise our charity or patience no sufferings to move our pity or compassion and we shall never need to disquiet our selves with the thoughts of such a sad parting as Paul had Acts 20.39 We shall keep an everlasting Holy-Day the marriage of the Lamb shall be for ever celebrated by all his Friends and as Eternity will perpetuate our happinesse and make it the greater extensivè so the assurance and consideration hereof will heighten it and make it greater intensivè and every moment of our felicity will be more sweet to us in that we shall never be disquieted with the thoughts that our condition as happy as it is will one day have an end SECT X. The necessity of holiness to salvation proved by many plain Scriptures Objections answered The imprudence of being but formal half Christians and the advantages that stict serious Christians have above such THere is yet another consideration which will much enhance the glory of Heaven but before I come to speak of that I must shew how necessary an holy conversation is to the enjoyment of it Many have entertained a suspition that some morose Men peevishly envious against the happinesse and contentment of Mankind and too superstitiously precise would lay upon them a yoke which neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear confining their liberty to too narrow bounds and frighting them from Religion by exacting so much strictnesse and severity Now that I may not seem to any to make the way to Heaven more narrow than God hath made it I will but set down the plain words of God himself not to speak of what those have attained to who yet are plainly declared to be under the sentence of condemnation and in a state of wrath I shall only instance in some places where the Scripture sets down what is indispensibly necessary to salvation or what doth plainly argue a Man to be in the state of damnation Math. 5.20 I say unto you that except your righteousnesse exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees who yet went a great way in the Profession of Religion and in both Moral and Ceremonial righteousnesse you shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Cap. 6.20 Where your Treasure is there will your heart be also Cap. 7.13 Enter ye in at the strait Gate for wide is the Gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there be many which go in thereat but strait is the Gate and narrow is the Way that
wise to do evil but he hath no knowledge to do good Now experience doth more confirm us in the belief of this than a thousand Arguments Again we oft read of the enmity of the Devil against Mankind and though his power be not much discerned by many yet it is like the influence of Coelestial Bodies Sun Moon and Stars upon these sublunary things powerful and effectual though not discerned but in the effects hence we read of his working effectually in the hearts of the Children of disobedience of men being taken captive of him at his pleasure of the strength of delusion of his going about like a roaring Lion of wrestling with principalities and powers and resisting the Devil stedfast in the Faith He that should have seen the Poor Man cured by Christ offering violence to himself and casting himself sometimes into the fire sometimes into the water would have easily concluded that he was acted by some evil spirit to such things as were destructive to his own nature so to see men sin against their own souls and run such desperate hazards against their own interest is a clear argument that they are acted by some other nature which seeks their ruine and destruction Now these may be remote causes of the prevalency of that Atheism which we see and lament in the World but yet there must be some nearer causes searched out for unlesse it be in some secret Sympathies and Antipathies Man doth ordinarily act according to reason that is what is either really so or seems so to him and there must be some ratio motiva to elicite or draw forth the acts of his will The Grace of God is powerful in good actions yet it works congruously to our natures moving by the means of some rational arguments and principles so the efficacy of the Devil is very great in evil actions yet he makes use for the most part of moral arguments though he had such a hand in Judas his Treason and Annanias his cosenage as that he is said to put these things into their hearts yet by the whole tenor of their story we find that there were some moral motives he made use of and that it was covetousness that did more immediately sway in these sins Now it seems one main reason of Mens Atheism which is more near and immediate is the prevalency of sense as there are some actions which do prevent the reasonings of the mind which we call actiones hominis but not humanae which indeed are actions of Men but not humane actions proceeding from the essential principle of man objects coming to the sense before they can have access to the understanding the spirits move disorderly till the understanding taking cognizance of the matter do rectifie such motions of the spirits as in a sudden noise or unexpected sight the senses as the Centinels take the first alarm but as soon as the news is carryed to the understanding as the main guard or principal officer and found to be of no dangerous consequence this sudden commotion is allayed so in more important passages of our lives sense makes many disorderly sallies and motions without taking counsel of the understanding and objects do make very deep impressions upon them and the Scripture doth take notice how much we are led by sense in this frail state wherein we are so as we may all say with the Propher Law 3.51 Our eye affects our heart this is the foundation of the Apostles argument 1 John 4.20 He that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen We have a thousand times more reason to love God than to love our Brother considering the perfections and excellencies that are in God to render him amiable and the obligations which we are under to him who hath done more ten thousand times for us than all the friends which we have in the World but whatever reason there may be in the thing it self the Apostle argues according to our poor capacity the access that things have to us and doth clearly suppose that things which have accesse to out senses are more effectual for moving our affections than such things as are only the object of faith So though we hear of an infinite Majesty that created and sustains our selves and all other finite beings who seeth all our actions and will one day call us to an account for them and likewise of an eternal weight of glory made up of things which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor ever entred into the heart of Man to conceive these things do not move us because they are far out of our sight and the things of the World which are nearer to our senses and are the immediate objects of them pleasing the tast delighting the smell tickling and flattering the Ear dazling the eyes have more prevalency upon us But yet upon examination we shall find this is not sufficient to prevail against those important considerations which I have already proposed nor to leave mankind excusable for abandoning himself to the pleasures of this life so as to neglect those better things which are propounded as the reward of holiness Let us but quit our selves like men and exercise those common principles of reason which we exercise in other affairs of our lives and though we cannot perhaps thereby silence the clamors of sence yet we may confute them and reject them Do we not ordinarily see men correct the errors of sense by reason Do we not see them part with their blood to prevent the inconveniency of a disease which for the most part they do believe or suspect not upon the evident demonstrations but probable conjectures of a Physician or at best by their own reason Do not men endure the cutting off of a member to save the body and lengthen out a miserable life for some days or years Do not men drink the most unpleasing potions for the recovery of their health or repairing their decayed strength Do not men cast their seed into the earth in hopes of receiving the increase of it Doth not the Merchant send away his goods in hope to receive others for them which may bring him some gain and advantage And what is all this to denying ungodliness and worldly lusts denying our selves the pleasure of sin for the pleasure of Heaven yea do we not see men ordinarily binding their Sons to some Apprenticeship for many years that so they may learn a Trade to maintain themselves in some repute in the world when they shall come to years rather than let them live in idlenesse and pleasure giving up themselves to childish sports and vanities when they are young which would afterwards expose them to poverty and contempt And he is accounted a cruel and unjust Father that will not thus love his Child with such a prudent severity rather than undo him by a foolish indulgence yet how wide a difference is there in these cases And how