still leaving 'em in the Dark as to their Enquires how it could be so And so for the Mystery of Trinity in Vnity which is plainly enough Asserted both by himself and his Apostles neither he nor they ever attempted the Explication of this Mystery any more than they did of the rest Indeed St. Paul gives the Corinthians some Description of the manner of the Resurrection of the Dead 1 Cor. 15. which yet must be allow'd to be One of the Great Mysteries of Christianity But then we may take Notice that to the curious Enquirer How are they Dead rais'd up and with what Body do they come He ushers in his Answer with this very plain Rebuke Thou Fool. Now since our Blessed Lord and his Apostles thus wav'd the giving any Particular Explications of these and the like Mysterious Truths which yet they would have given had it been needful nay so much as expedient especially when so often urg'd to do it methinks it should be a sufficient Caution to every Man else not to Intrude too far into those things which he has not seen What they thought fit to leave as Mysteries to be only Believ'd and Reverenc'd by Christians methinks none that come after them should offer to unveil but chuse to exercise their Faith about 'em rather than their weak benighted Reason and ev'n in the necessary Defence of them follow the Scriptures as their surest Guide And how happy would it have been for the Christian Church had these Depths been always venerated at a Distance And that Quickness of Parts and Warmth of Temper duly employ'd in Provoking to Love and Good Works and in Confirming more and more the Foundation of our Faith which was abus'd in Digging up and Destroying it and Ruining that Charity without which tho' a Man speaks with the Tongues of Men and Angels and understands all Mysteries 1 Cor. 13.2 and all knowledge St. Paul says He is nothing And if such way of Proceeding in these matters would have been the truest Wisdom in the Ages past no doubt but it is so still in this The sad Consequences of the want of which and crying up the contrary Practcie of laying open all Mysteries are but too well known It has indeed expos'd Religion to Innumerable Wounds from all its Adversaries and tends more than we can imagine to Atheism and all manner of Looseness and Debauchery Highly needful therefore is it to give our young Reasoners Warning of so Dangerous a Rock as this and perswade them to avoid it And before I put an end to this Advice which is of such mighty Consequence let me appeal to their own Unbyass'd Reason Whether a Man would not be better much better employ'd in humbly and thankfully embracing what God has been pleas'd plainly to Reveal to his Church concerning the Incarnation of his Divine Son for Instance God Manifest in the Flesh to destroy the Works of the Devil and in sincerely endeavouring to Imitate his most excellent Example and pay Obedience to his Holy Precepts than in making curious and nice Enquiries into the Nature of the Personal Union which the more it is pry'd into the more Humane Wit will be confounded and nothing in the Conclusion but a Pernicious Brood of Heresies Does it not more become us heartily to rejoyce in the Satisfaction Christ has made for Sinners by his Bitter Death and Sufferings and continually to pay our Humblest Acknowledgements and Devoutest Praises to God and Jesus for their wondrous Love and make it our great Endeavour to perform those Conditions upon which alone we can be Sharers in his Merits Does not this become us better than to raise subtile Questions and be always Quarreling about the Nature of that Satisfaction and in the Scuffle commit such Wickedness as will render it unavailable if persisted in to those that are so unchristianly engag'd The like may be said of the Mystery of the Adorable Trinity in Vnity concerning which Thus much I may say I hope without Offence That to be contented with what the Scriptures have plainly told us in this matter and to give all Honour and Glory Love and Obedience to the Great Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier of the World God Blessed for evermore is more agreeable to the Piety and Humility of a Christian than to tear the Church in pieces and give the Enemies of our Faith too much occasion to Blaspheme and Ridicule it by so fiercely opposing one another in our Explanations of what will be an Inscrutable Mystery when we have done all Finally I may add That he is much the wiser Man and better Christian who with all due Awe and Reverence and Preparation frequently Adresses himself to the Holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ and endeavours in good earnest to keep the Pious Resolutions he then makes than he who perplexes himself and disturbs and embroyls the Church about the manner of our Saviour's Presence there and of our receiving him And I can't but think Solomon's Counsel in this as well as other Cases to be very excellent and worthy of our greatest Regard Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own understanding Prov. 3.5 The Fourth Advice HAVING thus endeavour'd to secure the Faith of young Persons the next thing to be taken care of is their Obedience Now the Main Spring of this is a Devotional Temper of Mind and a Quick Taste and Relish of good things whereby we become fully perswaded that 't is not only our Duty but our greatest Interest upon all Accounts to be Religious This will make us employ our Thoughts our Desires and Affections upon Divine Objects in Good Earnest and Quicken us on in the ways of Christian Vertue with Satisfaction and Delight Whereas when Men are Cool and Indifferent to things of this Nature Religion soon degenerates into bare Formality and from thence decays into Nothing The great Business then is to engage the warm Affections of Youth upon Religion before they are too far taken up with other things to turn the stream of their Passions into the right Channel betimes before they are Habituated to some other Course nothing being more Difficult than when they are so effectually to direct and keep 'em right My next Advice therefore is That they would cherish that Natural Disposition to Devotion which is in most young People before it is Destroy'd and Quench'd by Vice Now by Devotion I mean A settled Temper of Mind arising from a Due and Lively Sense of the Supreme Excellency of God and Religion whereby we entirely dedicate our selves to his Service in the way he has directed and in all things endeavour and that with Warmth and Spirit to behave our selves towards him as befits both him and our selves I have given this Description of it that we may know how to Distinguish it from Superstition and Enthusiasm which are the two Mimicks of Devotion and often borrow its venerable Name And 't will not be
Promises and Vows which every Christian we know as such lies under And therefore unless we think that Youth will excuse us from every thing of this Serious Nature and that the Promises we make to our Creator and our Saviour are of less Regard than those we make to Men we must upon all accounts of Honour and Justice as well as the Reason of the Thing apply our selves and that with the soonest to be as good as our Word and conform our Faith and Practice to the Gospel Revelation as being the Condition necessary to be perform'd on our Part in order to our being finally the better for what Christ has done on His. And that such is the Condition no grown Christian that has been duly instructed in his Religion as we all along suppose those to be to whom these Advices are given can be to learn The Third Advice OUR next Advice therefore to Young Persons shall be relating to their Christian Faith or in what manner they are to give their Assents to the Great Truths revealed to us in the Gospel And but too much need there is of Advice in this Case in an Age when 't is accounted a great piece of Folly and Meanness of Spirit strange Credulity unbecoming Rational Creatures to Believe any thing that they cannot fully understand and Comprehend whereby the Aweful Mysteries of our Holy Religion which make it to be what it is and distinguish it from all others by the ill Arts of Sophistry far-fetch'd Glosses and Interpretations of Men over-confident of the reach of their own Understandings are brought down even to nothing and made Contemptible But if this be not the very Height of Prophane Arrogance what is 'T is the Destruction of all Divine Faith and the greatest Ridiculing of Religion when the most exalted Truths of it shall be twisted about and distorted according to Mens extravagant Fancies and made to submit to the Imperfect Reasonings of every Bold Intruder that is Wise in his own Conceit The Advice of St. Paul therefore is Highly needful to be recommended to all young Persons whose forwardness and warmth of temper makes 'em generally too apt to grasp at every thing and confide too much in their own Wit and Parts St. Paul's Advice I say is very necessary for all young Persons in this Age of Religious Scepticism and Infidelity which we have in 1 Cor. 3.18 Let no man deceive himself if any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world let him become a fool that he may be wise That is they should so far distrust their own Reason in things of so Sublime a Nature as those we are now speaking of as to move with the greatest Caution and Modesty in their Enquiries about such Truths as these And tho as 't is fit they should they make the best use they can of the Understanding God has given them and endeavour by all due Means to Brighten and Improve it yet still Revelation should be valu'd as the surest Guide and all their own Notions humbly submitted to it For consider a little Does not common Experience assure any Man that will attend to it how very Imperfect Humane Reason is at best Don't we daily find that every Man's Understanding is of a very narrow Capacity in this World and that in things much more within our Reach than the Depths of our Religion are Now let any sensible Man say which is the most rational Course for a Man contrary to his own manifold Experience and that of all the World to centre in Himself in his Enquiry after Truths of the most exalted Nature or in a due Sense of the Defects of his own Reason to be very Diligent in seeking out and making use of better Helps and readily Assent to them upon the Testimony of the Divine Revealer tho' he cannot Comprehend the Immense Truth no r say How such things can be The things we now speak of are such as are utterly beyond the Reach not only of Humane but perhaps of any Created Understanding and which as they cou'd never have been known by us at all had not God been pleased to Reveal 'em so now they are Reveal'd cannot be known perfectly and throughly by any but the Divine Revealer But now every Man must needs confess that things of so High a Nature may be nevertheless True for being Inconsistent with a poor ignorant Mortal's former Notions and Conceptions That is in short an Infinite Understanding may Reveal what a Finite Understanding cannot Comprehend which yet ought by no means to be an Argument against the Truth of the Revelation And who that is a sincere Lover of Truth but would most willingly embrace it in what manner soever it might come to his Notice How glad of greater Light in this Dark World tho' for the present it may Dazle his Undestanding by its unusual Brightness and make him the more sensible of the Darkness he was in before Especially when assur'd that it proceeds from the Father of Lights in whom is no Darkness at all who is the Eternal Source of Truth Infinitely Wise and Good that can neither Deceive nor be Deceiv'd Psal 36.9 and in whose Light above it is that we can really see Light 'T is worth our while to take Notice here of the Behaviour of our Lord and his Apostles towads the too curious Inquirers into the Secrets of the Kingdom who we shall find have met with a Reprimand from them instead of any more Particular Satisfaction Thus when Nicodemus hear'd our Saviour Discoursing of the New Birth of a Christian John 3. and Interpos'd this Question How can these things be He could have no direct Solution of his Doubt our Lord only upbraids his Ignorance of what his own Religion might have furnish'd him with some Notion of and again affirms the Truth of what he had before asserted and then Diverts to something else And at another time when talking with the Jews about his being the True Bread that came down from Heaven John 6. and of the necessity of Eating his Flesh and Drinking his Blood if they would have the true Life and Spirit of Religion in them He returns no other Answer to their Question How can this Man give us his Flesh to eat than by Affirming that His Flesh and Blood were Meat and Drink indeed and how exceeding happy the Effect would be of eating the one and drinking the other and even to his own Disciples all the Satisfaction he thought fit to give so far as we can learn was only this The Words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are Life When he discours'd of his being the Son of God and One with the Father and that from all Eternity tho' in appearance but a mean afflicted Man which exceedingly enrag'd the Jews against him and urg'd them to Blaspheme His way was only again and again to assert and affirm it and demonstrate that it was so by his Miracles
amiss if before we proceed any further we consider a little the Several Parts of this Description in order to our Forming right Apprehensions in a thing of so great Consequence First then True Devotion is a Settled Frame and Disposition of Mind or such an Habitual quick Sense and Relish of Divine Things as is ready to exert it self in Proper Acts upon Just Occasion and Converse with God in Pious Thoughts and Desires or Discourse of Pious Subjects pro Re Nata as Things offer themselves and that with a kind of natural Freedom Ease and Pleasure as a Man talks with or of a Friend or any thing else that he Admires Reverences and Loves Our seating it in the Mind is to shew that those who place it in any thing that is external are mistaken in it and the greatest Bodily Severities the Life of a Hermit Pilgrimages and Prayers and Presents tho' made to the greatest Favourite of Heaven Pomp and Splendor in Religious Worship to the highest Degree and the like all this is not Devotion for that 's seated within and if the Mind may all the while remain Dead and Cold to Religion as certainly it may we must then call it by some other Name For the same Reason Devotion does not consist in Rejecting all this and conversing with Heaven only in hollow Sighs and Groans without any outward Expressions of it at all unless it be some odd convulsive Motions which are to shew it seems as some will have it the mighty Force of the Impressions made within upon their Spirits Men may be equally devoid of a truly Pious and Devout Temper and Disposition that over-value or utterly cry down such outward Religion as this And 't is always a sign of Mens not knowing what True Devotion is or else of their real want of it when they are fierce and eager about what is so foreign to it whether it be for or against it is all one Again We say 't is a settled Frame of Mind that sudden Heats and Flights of Fancy and bold Pretences to great Familiarities and Intimaces with God express'd in long and warm Discourses with him accompanied with Melting Accents an easy Flow of Words and Gestures full of Ecstacy and Rapture and it may be Tears too that such Fits as these may not be taken for Devotion If a Long Prayer would bespeak a Man Devout then the Pharisees were so who yet as soon as Grace was say'd Devour'd the Houses of the Widow and were in our Lord 's own Judgment the very worst of Men. And as for the other Ornaments of Devotion they are partly Nature and partly Art for which Men are beholden to their Constitutions and to frequent Use and Practice and there are abundance of Instances of very bad Men who have Pray'd like Angels when at the same time they were carrying on the most Hellish Practices Warmth and Fervour relating to things Sacred no doubt does highly become us and will be in some measure where true Devotion is and 't is what we are now perswading to and nothing in the World can be more apt to excite it nor deserve it more than the wondrous things of our most excellent Religion But then it ought to be consider'd that even this is not Devotion but only an Attendant of it a Bodily Passion that is stirr'd up by it altho' it may and does react upon the Mind and heighten and encrease that which is truly so Thus the Fire that is brought to the Altar first enkindles the matter to which it is apply'd but then that again adds Strength to the Flame and makes it more vigorous and bright till the Sacrifice becomes a whole Burnt-offering All Tempers are not alike nor are the best always equally in Tune some are so Cool and Quiet that nothing can Warm 'em to any sort of Passion others on the contrary immediately set on fire by every thing In some the prevailing Mixture is Heavy Melancholy and others are Lively Brisk and Forward which must needs cause great Variety in Mens outward Expressions of Religion but to draw Conclusions from hence as to the Inward Disposition of their Souls is of very Dangerous Consequence This indeed may be said that those who are naturally Warm in every thing else as young Persons generally are 't is an Ill sign if they are not so in Religion too and the Colder a Man's Temper and Constitution is the more ought he to endeavour to Chafe and Warm and Inspirit it that he may proceed more chearfully and feelingly in his Religious Duties But after all Sensitive Passions or the Ferment of our Blood and Spirits must not be call'd Devotion which as was said is a Divine God-like Temper of Mind and entire Resignation of our whole selves to God in the midst of our coolest Thoughts and calm Deliberation nay of our greatest Aridites and Dejections of Spirit In short as an excellent Author neatly expresses it Dr. Scot. It does not come and go like the Colours of a Blushing Face but is the natural and true Compleâ—â—ion of the Soul The Last Part of the Description of True Devotion wich I gave tells us That the Service it pays to God is in the Way that he has directed and in a manner agreeable to the Divine Nature and our own By this is excluded in the first Place all Superstitious Expressions of Religion such as the Roman Fopperies we mention'd before For tho' outward Reverence be highly becoming in all Religious Exercises especially in Publick yet it should be such as is Worthy of God and may encrease as well as express the Devotion of our Minds that so we may Glorisie the Infinite Majesty of Heaven both with our Bodies and our Spirits which are his Now God is a Spirit and Man is Rational and his Creature and therefore his Devotion and his Worship should be Rational and Manly in Spirit and in Truth Sincere and issuing from his very Soul as touch'd with the most Aweful Sence of the Infinite Excellency of God and the vast Distance of even the noblest Creatures from Him especially of a vile ungrateful Sinner who is the Object of his Anger and Hate and should therefore humble himself to the very Dust before him and be fill'd with deep Impressions of Shame and Self-abhorrence in all his Addresses to him Which yet the Wondrous Expressions of his Love to Mankind in our Redemption by the Blood of Jesus should clear up into Praise and Joy and Love and highest Admiration at that which passes Knowledge But for a Christian so far to consult the Affecting of his Senses in Religious Worship whether by a multitude of glittering Ceremonies by Bodily Pain or Pleasure or any thing of this Nature as that he can attend to little else I can't but think to be a very odd sort of a Devotion and such as betrays unworthy Apprehensions of the Divine Nature in thinking he will be pleased with such Performances and no less
this rate every Man will change his Religion according to the Alterations of his Constitution Or rather He will change the Instances of his Impiety for True Religion is always the same Nay not only such and such a Constitution but a vigorous Health and a full Fortune are necessary to the Commission of some Vices and he who in a Consumption of his Body or Estate may pass for a Man of a very good Life may yet when Health and Plenty mortify these vile Affections spending our Zeal and Warmth upon things of infinitely less Consequence it must be concluded that we are not yet Christians in Sincerity Our best Performances at this rate are but as a Sacrifice without a Heart which was always esteem'd as one of the worst of Omens and an Argument of God's great Displeasure Thirdly 'T is a very Ill sign when People pick and choose the Instances of their Obedience to the Christian Law and make a great Shew of and Stir about some Particular Duties which are agreeable to their Natural Temper and which they have no Temptation or it may be Ability to Transgress and all the while Indulge themselves in the Sins they Love and Delight in tho' never so expresly forbidden in the Gospel As if for Instance Because a Man's Constitution inclines him to be Temperate and Chaste he should therefore place the greatest Part of his Religion in Chastity and Temperance and in the mean time allow himself to be Censorious Malicious Covetous Unjust or the like or on the Contrary because he is honest and good natur'd tho' he Whores and Drinks and lives like a Brute yet shall imagine he may fare well enough because he has no Gall in him wishes no body any Harm and is no ones Enemy but his own But this is a Religion of every Man 's own making not that which our Saviour taught the World 't is as various as Mens Tempers and at this rate every Man will change his Religion according to the Alterations of his Constitution Or rather He will change the Instances of his Impiety for True Religion is always the same Nay not only such and such a Constitution but a vigorous Health and a full Fortune are necessary to the Commission of some Vices and he who in a Consumption of his Body or Estate may pass for a Man of a very good Life may yet when Health and Plenty comes be quite another sort of a Creature But now True Religion is an Vniform State of compleat Virtue that is is always the same in Kind tho' not in Degree The sincere Christian whatever he may do by Surprize or Inadvertency will not at any time or in any Circumstances allow himself in the Commission of any known Sinful Action or the Neglect of any known Duty let his Constitution or his Fortune be what it will But is heartily griev'd not only for his Sins but for his Infirmities too and in good earnest endeavours in every thing to preserve a Conscience void of offence both towards God and Man Tho' nevertheless the Degrees of his Virtue may and will vary that is be sometimes more Intense and sometimes more Remiss than usual as long as he continues in this state of Imperfection Let every Man therefore have a care of a Partial Humoursome Religion which will prove in the Conclusion to be very little better than none at all And now having Caution'd Young People against a Feign'd Hypocritical Religion and shewn 'em by what Marks it may be known let me desire 'em to consider the Ill Consequences of it And First as to this World Whatever Advantages a Pretended Religionist may Propose to himself he for the most Fails of them and is at length Detected and found to be what he is After all the Pains he takes to act his Part dextrously and make his Disguise sit natural and easy after all his Fears of being out and letting his Visour fall and the continual Restraint he 's fain to put upon his Natural Temper denying himself many things which otherwise he would and might enjoy After all this which is really more Trouble than he need be at to be a Christian indeed some unlucky Accident or other usually lays open all Vnlucky did I say rather the contrary Prosperous Hipocrisie being the greatest Curse that God can Inflict as confirming the Wretch in it and so sealing him up to Destruction Ill Practices can't long be so conceal'd but thatsome body or other will find 'em out and bad Practices and sanctify'd Pretences agree so very Ill that more Notice than ordinary will be taken of so great a Discord and People have a strange Itch of telling to one and then to another the little Miscarrriages much more the Crimes of such as have the Repute of better Men than their Neighbours To be cheated and it may be ruin'd by one whom we took for a Saint is extremely surprizing and will raise Mens Indignation to an extraordinary heighth and make their Complaints loud and clamorous and so the thing flies and spreads and the Man is discover'd to be a Wolf in Sheeps Cloathing and then there 's an end of his Gaining by his Hypocrisie for none but a Fool will have to do with a known Cheat especially a Religious one So that Men are often ruin'd rather than advanc'd by such Mock-Religion and the Praise that for a little while attended their fair Shews becomes chang'd into lasting Infamy and Contempt But suppose the Cheat is carry'd on so artificially that 't is not discover'd by Men and as to this World the counterfeit Christian has his End The poor Wretches Condition as was hinted but now is then but so much the worse and really next to desperate with respect to the Eternal World which follows this For indeed Sincerity is all in all 't is that when all 's done that must recommend us to the Divine Acceptance for what is there else on our Part that can do it How imperfect is the Religion of both Tables and that even of the best and most truly good Christian upon Earth How full of Ill Ingredients too thro' the Curruption os sinful Nature and the Temptations of the Devil How guilty are we all of Sins innumerable in all our Relations and those not of Surprize only and Infirmity but too often with the Consent of our Wills and that against the Disswasives of our Reason and our Conscience For this in Vertue of Christ's Blood Repentance is the only Remedy But then how imperfect even at the best is that So that unless the Sincerity of our Religion might be accepted instead of the Perfection of it what would become even of the best Man living What have they to trust to then that have no Sincerity who in their Intercourse with God and Man are all over a Trick and a Lye Do they think that God can't see through their Disguise because perhaps Man could not and that they shall pass undiscover'd into Heaven
but be so since 't is order'd by him who is infinitely Wise and Good and withall so Powerful that no Affliction can be too great for him to remove when his Wisdom and his Goodness see it fit to do so Infinite Wisdom knows best when and Infinite Goodness will not suffer it to last a Moment longer and Infinite Power can remove it with a Word Again as is evident at the first Glance excessive Trouble is very unbecoming a Christian because 't is utterly inconsistent with Patience which is that Temper of Mind whereby a Christian calmly and quietly bears all Pressures however heavy and afflicting with entire Submission to the Divine Will as being assur'd that God's great Design tho' by various Methods is to make us compleatly happy He that thus evenly behaves himself under the Discipline of Providence and will not be tempted to think ill of God or Desert his Service tho' he smarts under his Corrections nor take Ill Courses to remove his Trouble this is the Patient Christian And the more he may be sensible of Affliction in other respects the greater is his Patience if he thus calmly and quietly submits Very remarkable are our Saviour's Words to his Apostles when he foretold them what they should suffer for his sake and such as bespeak this quiet submissive Temper to be the Great Security of all our other Duty Luk. 21.19 Possess ye your Souls in Patience As if without it ev'n a Man's Soul all the Powers of it not only his Will and Affections but his very Vnderstanding could not be his own but perfectly at the Command of any other who could lay more Troubles on him than he had Patience to bear And therefore the Scripture frequently joins Faith and Patience together Heb. 6.12 10.36 as each others Mutual Support And indeed in a World so thick set with Troubles and Vexations Eccl. 2.15 Woe be to him as the Wise Man says that has lost Patience and what will he do when the Lord shall visit him That is when God shall lay any great Calamity upon him how will he do to bear it who can bear nothing with any tolerable Temper not so much as common Crosses and Disappointments Another great Duty of our Holy Religion is Contempt of the World or at least such an Indifference to it as that we may hang loose from things below and employ our chief Care and Endeavour to make sure of our Glorious Reversion above 〈◊〉 19.26 Lay not up for your selves Treasures upon Earth says our Lord but in Heaven for where your Treasure is there will your Hearts be also What shall we think then of their Religion who are so inseparably fastned to the World in their Affections as not to be able to bear any of its Frowns without an excessive Concern as if their whole Happiness was torn from them and nothing worth their Notice left to hope for or expect What we lightly esteem we can easily part with and live contentedly without especially if what we value most of all be secure and safe If therefore we had Religion enough to fix our Hearts there where our Heavenly Treasure is and set a due Estimate upon it and believed it as certain to the Sincerely Good as it is Glorious and Everlasting and look'd upon the World as empty in Comparison and of no Esteem we should with much less Regrett part with the Enjoyments of it than we do and bear its Troubles with more Sedateness and Evenness of Temper I don't say with no Concern at all for that 's Impossible and during our Abode in the state of Mortality there are many things so necessary to our Support and Comfort in it that as we may and ought to Pray for 'em and be thankful when we receive 'em so may we in Due Degree desire to keep them and be Loath to part with 'em and when they 're gone resent their Loss But then all this must be Temper'd with so prevailing a Mixture of Heavenly-mindedness as may soon make us lose our Resentment of any Worldly Crosses in the cheering Thoughts of what a Glorious Reversion we have in the Kingdom of God This is the True Noble Spirit of Christianity which makes a Man so much Above these little things of Earth as to permit no more than a Transient Uneasiness to affect him at the â—â—ss of any of them reflecting presently upon there Immense Treasures of Eternal Happiness which are Reserv'd in Heaven for Him and which his Comparatively Light Afflictions Here do only serve to raise his Value of and increase his Desire of enjoying Nothing more demonstrates the Strength and Power of Religion than this nor does any thing more betray the Weakness and Infirmity of it than the contrary In the Last Place Immoderate Trouble removes a Man to a vast distance from the Temper and Example of Jesus our Blessed Saviour For if we enquire how he behav'd himself under those almost continual Troubles which he met with we shall find no Turbulency of Passion no Murmurings and Repinings but a quiet Resignation of Soul a Calm Sedateness of Demeanour an entire Trust in God and an Admirable Charity to the worst of his Enemies This the Story of his whole Life will Witness and when his Days grew near their End with what incomparable Patience and Submission to the Divine Will did he receive the bitter Cup of his approaching Sufferings Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me there are express'd the feeling Resentments of relucting Nature Nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt there is his entire Acquiescence in God's Will concerning him And when he Actually Sufferd what was so Dreadful to him in the Expectation with what Meeâ—â—s and Silence and Wondrous Deâ—ency and Presence of Mind did he demean himself and that under the sharpest Afflictions both of Body and Soul And when in the midst of his Agonies upon the Cross he was Barbarously Insulted by the Meâ—ciless Spectators all they could Provoke him to utter was this strangely Good Prayer Father forgive them they know not what they do This is our Lord's Example in this matter and which in some measure at least he expects that we should Imitate and 't is a great part of our Religion to do so But now if we 're so far from this as to Indulge that Passion to Excess which our Lord's Practice as well as Precept engages us to keep under and Controul if we lose all Patience when we 're afflicted tho' our Lord when he was so was a Perfect Lamb if we can bear nothing when our great Master with admirable Temper did bear so much and that too for our sakes and in our stead If Christ and Christians are so very much unlike in this Respect what is their Religion Such Considerations as these if we go no further will let us see both how unreasonable and unchristian a thing it is to suffer Trouble to proceed without
and upon such easie terms we may thank our selves if we are as we deserve to be Diseas'd and Miserable I hope we are Sensible that without God's Grace and Divine Assistance we can do nothing that is Good which Grace being His free Gift 't is necessary that we make use of those Means and observe those Times and Seasons which he hath made choice of in order to our Receiving that his Charity and Bounty Now the Chief of these is the Sacrament of the Lords Supper by which we are made one with Christ and Christ with us and he dwelleth in us and we in him as our Church expresses it in the Exhortation at the time of the Celebration That is 't is the great Conveyance of every thing that is needful to the Strengthning and Refreshing the Soul of a Christian and making him run with chearfulness the Race that is set before him This then being the great Dispensatory of the Riches of God's Goodness hither must we come if we would be Partakers of it and wilfully to Absent our selves is so great a Slight both of the Dying Institution of our Saviour and the Blessings that will attend the due observance of it as is utterly inexcusable and will be of very Melancholly consequence But I shall not Proceed further upon this Particular either in giving an Account of the Nature of this great Duty or the Manner of Performing it and the Preparation requisite in order to it there being so many excellent Books already written upon this Subject Only give me leave to make one Observation or two For the true meaning of which Words See Archbishop Tillotson's Seventh Sermon Volume the third Printed before his Death in Answer to the usual Plea for Mens neglect of this Holy Sacrament viz. That they are unfit for and unworthy of it and fear therefore that if they do Receive it they shall Receive it unworthily and eat and drink their own damnation As for the latter part of this Plea it proceeds from a great Mistake namely the confounding these two very different things being unworthy to Receive and Receiving unworthily And which when rectified the thing will stand in a clear light 'T is True every Man as a Sinner is unworthy not only of so great a Favour as the Sacrament at the hands of God but of every breath of Air he breaths of every Crumb of Bread he eats in short of every the least Blessing he enjoys and 't is very fit he should be intimately sensible of this his Vnworthiness but yet for all this he that uses any of these Blessings soberly and gives God thanks may very Worthily partake of and enjoy them So here in this Case of the Sacrament the best Man living can't say he is Worthy to Receive it but yet may nevertheless Receive it Worthily or in a manner becoming so sacred a Duty Nay the more deeply sensible he is of his not being Worthy to Receive the more Worthily no doubt he will Receive it And 't is he that Receives Vnworthily not he that is Vnworthy to Receive that incurs the Guilt and the Punishment which the Apostle mentions 1 Cor. 11.29 As for Mens being unfit to Receive or unprepared not to take Notice of the oddness of the Excuse which is in effect the same as to make carelesness and idleness a Plea for Disobedience I only desire they would ask themselves upon what terms they hope to go to Heaven If they know any thing of Christianity they must answer thus I hope to arrive at that happy place thro' the Merits of Jesus my Saviour upon Condition of my own true Faith and sincere Repentance Now if this be thus absolutely necessary to our Salvation we must either quit our Hopes of being sav'd or else sincerely Believe and Repent that is have such a Faith as purifies the heart and works by love and resembles us to Jesus and makes us partakers of a Divine Nature and so Repent as thoroughly to amend and reform our lives and entirely to turn from Sin to God This we see is indispensibly requir'd of us in order to our future happiness and was so before the Sacrament was Instituted and would have been so had it never been Instituted at all Now that which is so necessary as on our part to bring us to Heaven is the very Preparation that is requisite to fit us for the Sacrament the Qualifications for both are exactly the same And therefore he that hopes to be Saved must so Believe and Live as to be fit to Receive the Sacrament unless we 'll say that more is requir'd to our Receiving the Sacrament Worthily than to Eternal Salvation and he that makes his Vnfitness the Excuse of his neglect of it either knows not what he says or else must know that he must cure that Fault or be for ever miserable A Good Life as we all must own if we believe the Scriptures is absolutely necessary to the Happiness we hope for in the other World for without Holiness no Man shall see the Lord and a Good life is without doubt the best Preparation for the Sacrament So that he that lives like a Christian is fit to Communicate and he that does not is fit for nothing but ruine How strange an Excuse then is this which is so often made for Peoples neglect of the Sacrament For with the very same Breath they conclude themselves to have no reasonable Hopes of being Sav'd And so long as they continue unfit for the one they are uncapable of the other And dare they continue in such a state as this Would not such thoughts as these therefore be more becoming every one that names the Name of Jesus I am unfit for Heaven therefore will I frequent the Sacrament Tho' I am Young and probably may live for many Years to come yet since 't is so uncertain whether I shall or no and I can't begin too soon to fit and prepare my self for a happy future state therefore will I address my self to the Receâ—tion of those conveyances of the Divine Grace and Assistance without which I can do nothing and with which I shall be able to do every thing that 's needful to be done to my Salvation thro' Christ that strengthneth me This will compleat my Repentance confirm and enliven my Faith and in every respect make my Obedience more sincere and full the more Defects therefore in each of these I am sensible of the more need have I to approach that Holy Table where all my Spiritual wants shall be supplyed To thee therefore Blessed Saviour I humbly come for help that my sinful Body may be made clean by thy Body wounded and torn for my Offences and my Soul washed by thy most precious Blood which thou didst shed for the remission of my Sins I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my polluted Roof but prepare for thy self an Habitation by the Influences of thy Blessed Spirit and then come Lord