intended but as tents or tabernacles for our short and temporary residence thenceforward we shall be in a more settled state of life and happiness And that 's the reason why we groan and desire to die not meerly because we are weary of our station and impatient of this present life but because we have then hope to be forthwith in a far better condition being put into an unalterable estate of life NOTWITHSTANDING the truth of all which it would nevertheless be uncomfortable to good men if they had not a prospect of the union of their Souls again with their Bodies not only because few men are so metaphysical as to have any clear and satisfying notion of this separate state and the most of men having been always used to a Body would be in fear of losing their Being if they were not relieved with the expectation of being united to them again But principally because it is certain that however the Soul can exist and perform some actions of life without the Organs of the Body yet it being created in a middle rank between purely spiritual and meerly corporeal Beings and being apta nata fit and ordained to inform a Body must needs have an inclination thereunto and especially in regard most of its accustomed actions do require the help of the bodily powers for though it may understand without them love God adhere to goodness reflect upon it self and feel the comforts of a good Conscience upon a well-performed life c. yet it is not intelligible how it can see without eyes move locally or apply it self to society without them NOW forasmuch as God intends that the whole man should be happy and compleatly comfortable in the other world therefore he hath resolved with himself and assured us that the Body shall be raised again and therefore the Scripture lays so much stress upon the Resurrection as if men's happiness were adjourned to that great day TO which this is also to be added that the Bodies we then are incouraged to expect will be as the Apostle calls them Spiritual Bodies that is raised and sublimed from this drossy feculency freed from sickness pain weariness hunger heaviness and all the other imperfections of gross matter and so be fit to correspond with the vigour of the Soul and the glories of that blessed state In all which together I place the first instance of the happiness of the other world and whoever well considers will find it to be a very great and glorious one But SECONDLY man shall not only be restored to himself and to all his capacities but in the world to come there shall be the most delightfull objects and entertainments provided for and presented to all his powers so as to employ fill and ravish them We intimated under the former Head that the powers of the Body should be raised and improved the Body being made spiritual and fine by which means also the intellectual powers will be much advanced having then exteriour Organs capable of more generous use and imployment But to have powers inlarged without objects whereupon to imploy and wherein to delight themselves would be a torment instead of an happiness For the very reason of pain and grief lies in nothing else but either that some powers are destitute of their proper objects or that the powers and objects are mis-matched and unproportionate to each other Who will goe about to appease hunger with musick or content any one sense with the objects of another or think to satisfy the desires of a man with the repast of a Beast We see both extream little and excessively great and glorious objects are alike troublesome to the eye and as well excessive joy as grief break and disturb the mind all discontent and uneasiness of men's spirit with their condition is from hence that some power of theirs is either not provided for or less benignly dealt with then it desires So that felicity or misery arise neither from the absolute nature of things but from their relative consideration nor from that meerly unless those things that are relatively good and proper be also proportioned to the capacity of the power that receives and feels them NOW therefore as the wise and good Creatour of all things never brought any Creature into being which he had not fitted with a satisfaction in its kind nor opened any power for which he had not provided proportionable enjoyments because had he done otherwise he had been the authour of evil and misery and could not have looked over his works and pronounced of them that they were good So much less will he permit that in the other world wherein he intends to make the fullest demonstration of his goodness there should be any instance of unhappiness by reason of defect or disproportion or especially that such holy men as he there designs to reward for all their faithfull adherence and service to him should have inlarged powers and scanty satisfactions but the one answerable to the other agreeably to which it is that that state is represented by a Feast as we have observed already where care is always taken that there be nothing offensive to the Guests and that none of the participants may goe away without full measures of what is desirable to them wherewith also accord those other expressions of Holy Scripture which describe God as making preparations from the beginning of the world 1 Cor. 2. 9. Matth. 25. 34. as we have intimated before IN conformity to this notion it must needs be that in the Kingdom of Heaven in the first place the mind of man will be adorned with a greater measure of knowledge and wisedom then is attainable in this life partly as it is exercised about higher and more noble objects then those we converse withall here below partly also as it will have a clearer apprehension and quicker perception then it is capable of whilst it is clouded by the fumes of a gross Body Hence it is that the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 13. 12. Here we see through a glass darkly but there we shall see clearly as we are seen There we shall contemplate things in themselves and in their causes which here we have but a faint reflection of there we shall understand all the admirable wisedom of divine providence which is here a mystery to us Whilst we were in this world we modestly and humbly believed that all things wrought for good but then we shall clearly understand the manner thereof here we have a narrow sphere but there we move in a clear and free air and have a vast and unbounded prospect before us in which our minds may ravish themselves with admiration and expatiate without bounds or limits There all the secrets of nature the mysteries of grace the knots of Theology and the very areana imperii will be open to us as being now interioris admissionis of the privy Council of Heaven AND this will be as much more pleasant then
Allegorical way of the Old Testament p. 8 9. Of the Figures and Parables of our Saviour p. 10 11 12. Of the danger and mischief of Allegorical interpretations p. 13. And the caution of the Author in this particular p. 15. CHAP. II. The self-contradiction amongst the Adversaries of Christianity both Jews and Gentiles some accusing it as too difficult an institution others as a doctrine of looseness p. 17 18. A famous but feigned Story of Constantine M. to that purpose p. 19. The special occasion of the Jew's mistake of our Saviour's designs p. 20. Three ranks of the Jewish Religionists a mistake of theirs built upon that distinction p. 23. Their misunderstanding the design of God in the covenant made with them on Mount Sinai and consequently of the meaning of the Prophets p. 25. Vpon account of both which it is no wonder that they mistake our Saviour who therefore vindicates himself by this Parable p. 27. A literal Paraphrase of this Parable p. 28. Particularly who is meant by the Elder and who by the Younger Son p. 35. The division and parts of the Parable p. 43. CHAP. III. The three sorts of Laws mankind is under viz. Natural Divine and Humane and that all sin is a violation of some of these the mischief of mistake herein p. 45. Sin is a violation of a known Law and that God hath some way or other sufficiently promulged his Laws p. 51. The danger of mistake herein p. 54. All sin is voluntary Cautions in that point p. 56. A remarkable passage in S. James paraphrased p. 61. The difference between sins of infirmity and presumption p. 65. Instances of sins of infirmity p. 66. Instances of presumptuous sins p. 68. S. John 1 Ep. 3. Chap. 4. Vers opened p. 69. About reluctancy of Conscience and whether that abates of the guilt of sin p. 71. Of the several stations of Vertue and divers ranks of Sinners p. 74. CHAP. IV. The Sinner's Progress Pride is ordinarily the first beginning of a sinfull course As appears in the Apostasy of Angels the Fall of Man the Temptations of our Saviour and the Method of the Gospel p. 83. Neglect of God's Worship c. the second step towards a wicked life the dependence between Piety and Morality p. 92. Riot and Intemperance the third step towards Hell an account of the Talents God ordinarily vouchsafes men and how vice imbezils them p. 96. When men have abused their faculties and mis-spent their talents they become slaves to Sathan p. 106. The drudgery he puts them to p. 109. The desolate condition of an habitual sinner when the pleasures of sin fail him p. 116. CHAP. V. The import of the phrase when he came to himself That sin is a kind of madness p. 121. Proved by the description of madness and the usual symptoms of it p. 123. An objection against this assertion answered p. 129. The application and conclusion of the First Part. p. 130. PART II. Of Repentance CHAP. I. THE general importance of Repentance and why notwithstanding little notice is taken of it in the Law of Moses p. 135. Three parts of Repentance 1. Consideration What is meant thereby and the great necessity thereof p. 140. It is usually affliction which brings vicious men to consideration prosperity rendring them light and vain p. 149. The special considerations and thoughts of a Penitent p. 153. CHAP. II. Of Resolution the second step towards Repentance What is meant thereby and the force and efficacy thereof against the Devil Sense Custom Example and Reason it self p. 162. The properties of a penitent resolution p. 167. First It is serious and deliberate not rash and sudden Secondly It is peremptory p. 171. Thirdly It must be present not dilatory p. 173. Lastly It is uniform and universal p. 176. The principal motives that bring the Sinner when he considers to a resolution of Repentance 1. That it will be acceptable to God even yet p. 179. 2. Not impossible to reform p. 187. 3. That it is easy p. 191. 4. Absolutely necessary p. 194. CHAP. III. Of Confession and Contrition The nature and instances of hearty contrition p. 199. The efficacy and availableness thereof as doing right to the Divine Sovereignty to his Wisedom Justice and Goodness to his Omniscience to the holiness and pity of his Nature p. 205. It gives security against relapses into sin p. 208. CHAP. IV. Of Actual Reformation It consists in 1. A singular care of God's Worship in all the parts thereof p. 212. 2. Conscientious obedience to his commands p. 216. 3. Submission to his providence p. 221. CHAP. V. A recital of several opinions which debauch men's minds in this great affair of Repentance p. 226. Several arguments demonstrating the absurdity of all those opinions jointly and the necessity of such reformation as is before described p. 229. Exceptions removed p. 238. PART III. CHAP. I. Of Reconciliation THE passionate Story of Jacob and Joseph parallel to this of the Prodigal Son p. 242. The notice God takes of the beginnings of goodness and the use of that consideration p. 247. God's Spirit assists all beginnings of good p. 250. A memorable Story out of Eusebius and reflections thereupon p. 254. God fully and freely pardons all sin upon Repentance p. 257. 1. Great and many sins p. 259. 2. Relapsed sinners p. 261. The Novatian Doctrine 3. Without Reservation p. 263. Applications of the former Doctrine 1. The comfortableness of a state of pardon p. 265. 2. The great obligation to love God p. 267. 3. That we imitate the Divine Goodness in our dealing with our Brethren p. 268. 4. It should lead us to repentance p. 269. CHAP. II. Of Sanctification What is meant by the Best Robe p. 273. In what sense Sanctification goes before Justification and in what sense it follows after it p. 275. Three remarkable differences in the measures of Sanctification in a beginner and in a grown Christian p. 277. By what means those fuller measures of Sanctification are attained p. 284. CHAP. III. Of the gift of the Holy Ghost and that by the Ring this is intimated p. 290. The difference between the motions of God's Spirit and the gift or residence of it p. 291. The great advantages of the residence of the Holy Spirit in several respects p. 293. A passage of the Revel 2. 17. opened p. 297. Whence it comes to pass that some good men have no experience of the residence of the Holy Spirit p. 300. How to distinguish the motions of God's Spirit from our own fancies or the illusions of Sathan p. 303. CHAP. IV. The great trust God reposes in those he pardons and their obligations to faithfullness and activity in his service p. 306. Several ways wherein a pious man may be serviceable to the Souls of men without invading the Ministerial Office p. 312. The peculiar fitness of those that have been converted from an evil course for this purpose in many respects p. 314. A brief description of
saith he which the Father divided amongst his Sons was Reason which God gave in common to all mankind and that in conjunction with freedom of mind for every being that hath the use of reason hath also liberty of election the latter affording a Field or Theatre for the former to act upon and the former enabling him to use the latter well And indeed it was wondrous expedient that since God had given mankind the Talent of liberty that he should therewith bestow upon him a principle of reason to restrain and govern that liberty that so having not only Sails to move him but a Compass to direct him he might shape his course agreeably to those ends God designed him for or more plainly having a copy of the divine mind implanted in his Soul he might make the elections of his will conformable to those of his Maker For since as I said before Men and Angels are not naturally and necessarily carried to their ends as other beings are but may either move regularly towards them or decline from them at their own choice had not God put upon them this bias of reason to incline them the right way they would have been in danger to have made such an exorbitant use of their freedom as to have given the whole Creation much greater disturbance then yet they have done And as well the truth of this assertion as the value of this Talent will appear most remarkably if we do but consider what great improvements some have attained to by the alone use of Reason having never any other Talent of supernatural revelation afforded them that we know of In contemplation of which Tully recounts it a prime favour of the divine Majesty to humane nature That he had endowed their minds with natural notions which are to them the seeds and principles of knowledge and vertue And he further adds Were it not that God hath thus furnished the mind with such a stock of proleptick principles of knowledge we could not have ever come to understand any thing and all industry study and inquity had been utterly lost and fruitless but by the means of these natural notions we have a kind of anticipation an intellectual taste and relish of truth and falshood good and evil and so a measure to govern our selves by in our elections and prosecutions 3. The third Talent given to all mankind for their improvement is the observable wise order and method of Divine Providence wherein there is such an admirable intertexture of mercies and afflictions as that neither a constant series of adversities and cros accidents shall break their spirit or ingulph men in despair nor yet such a constant course of perpetual prosperity as to render them too light and airy but a moderate interchange of both to make them grave and serious And besides both these dispensed not fortuitously but with such discrimination as that ordinarily men may not only be assured of a Providence in the general but be able to observe the divine displeasure against sin and wickedness by the one and his approbation of honesty and goodness by the other and so consequently be both directed in their choice and provoked to an answerable prosecution AND although it be very true that such exact course of providence be not now ordinarily observable in the world because God having now made a full and clear discovery of his whole mind to the Sons of Men by extraordinary revelation as there is no need of this lesser light when a far greater shines clearly so also it seems good to his divine wisedom to make the course of his providence more involved and intricate in many cases both for the tryal of good men and the just hardening of the wicked and unbelieving Nevertheless it is not credible that such a cryptick method should be the common course of his providence where those reasons cease and where he hath afforded no better light AND besides we are sure de facto that there was such a legible providence as we speak of in the most ancient and Patriarchal times when it was common to observe the finger of God by some calamity or other pointing out and branding the offender and his blessing visibly descending upon and crowning worthy and vertuous persons THUS God whilst as yet there was no revealed Law did confirm and bear testimony to the laws of reason and provide against the staggering and fluctuation of men's minds in deducing those natural conclusions by which they were then to govern themselves by the suffrage of his own providence Consonantly to which it was that the Scripture or Holy Writ concerning those times is little more then an history of providence or remarks of the good and evil that befell men according to the demerits of their either vertuous or vicious behaviour as whosoever considers the Books of Moses must acknowledge AND for the people of the Jews it is notorious that the course of divine providence ran all along above ground amongst them although they were not without written laws and the lively Oracles of God of which without prying into the counsels of the Almighty we may easily satisfie our selves by a double account namely partly to afford the more full testimony to those sanctions of his amongst a hard hearted People partly also to supply the visible defect of those Laws in the most material rules of vertue it pleased God to give intimation of his mind and confirmation to the dictates of nature by such extraordinary attestations of his providence BUT as for the Gentiles who were destitute of the aforesaid advantage having not the more sure word of Prophecie as the Apostle calls it there is no doubt to be made but the divine goodness did supply that defect as to the greater lines of vertue and vice by the plain legibility of his providence at least ordinarily and far beyond what he doth amongst those that live under the full light of the Gospel which whoso will not be induced to believe must justifie his incredulity by perverseness and call in question the faith of all the Histories of those times and Countreys And although we cannot deny that it pleased God sometimes even amongst those people to walk in the dark suffering the good and evil things that befell men to be no sure indications of his favour or displeasure yet the rarity of the case appears by the salvo they found out for this Phaenomenon namely they imagined that when rewards and punishments or rather good and evil were mismatched and did not apply themselves to vertue and vice respectively that it proceeded from some fatal necessity which was superiour to the Gods and not to be withstood or hindred by them By which it appears that for the most part they observed a just Nemesis and righteous distribution of rewards and punishments in the course of the world Which direction of providence added to the two former talents might be of great advantage to them
gratification the little time of pleasure and the long hours of shame and repentance the dull relish of the bodily Senses to the quick and pungent sense of the Mind and Conscience we shall be put out of doubt and assured of the unreasonableness of such a course But if we consider withall the severe denunciations of the Almighty the inconsistency of such a course with any interest in the joys of another life the no compare between a fools paradise of sesuality and the felicities of the Kingdom of Heaven we cannot pronounce of such a man as notwitstanding all these considerations shall give himself up to these bruitish passions otherwise then that he hath forfeited his reason forgoing his greatest interests for the veriest trifle and selling his birthright for a mess of pottage THE like may be said of Drunkenness To see a man tunn up himself like a barrel and fill his head with froth which his tongue discharges again to see a mans face deformed his eyes staring his feet faultering his motions antick his thoughts open and undecent his speech much and reason little And herewith to observe his estate poured down a common sewer and his credit and reputation utterly ruined but above all his Soul indangered to come into everlasting burnings and all this for the love of drink who can chuse but in his thoughts score up such a man as fit for Bethlehem LET us take only one instance more and that shall be in that passion which hath gotten the name from all the rest I mean Anger Every man knoweth that health is best preserved by calmness and evenness of mind that mens interest is best secured by gentleness and an obliging temper their safety by cession and placableness that reason is highest when rage is down that business is best carried on by the most sedate prosecution insomuch that no men count him wise whom they observe to be violent nor do they think those to be valiant that they see huff and swagger Besides passion disguises a man's very countenance dries up his body brings wrinkles upon his face gray hairs upon his head hollowness of eyes withers and destroys him It puts him upon the most foolish shamefull and dangerous adventures which at the same time it usually renders him impotent to effect or if he effect them he only makes matter for his own repentance as long as he lives or it may be work for the Executioner to shorten his unhappy days Above all it is contrary to the nature of God who is a God of peace to the temper of the blessed Jesus who was an example of meeknesse and patience it utterly unfits a man for the peacefull and amicable society of Saints and Angels in the Kingdom of Heaven and disposes him for the horrid fellowship of fell and desperate Fiends in the regions below All which things considered when we see a man boil with choler foam with rage pale with envy and indulging himself in this humour what can we say or think of this man but that he hath lost the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very principles of manhood BUT perhaps it may be said that all this while we have but maintained a Stoical Paradox and for all this that hath been said vicious men cannot be reputed mad because upon other occasions we see many of them give proof of wit and parts To which I answer that neither do I in all this intend to intimate that they are in all respects mad though it were well for many of them that it were strictly true But when men shall betray the most egregious folly and act the most extravagantly in the matters of greatest moment I may leave it to themselves in their sober moods to judge what name they ought to be called by whatever ingenie they may discover in lesser occasions Besides neither is it the condition of all those that are acknowledged mad to do nothing soberly or ingeniously all or most have their Lucid intervals and there are some in whom the humour betrays it self in some peculiar instances onely Melancholici quoad hoc as they say Talk with them in the general and they are like other men but touch upon some peculiar point and they rave presently So it is with these men we speak of As to common conversation and the affairs of the world they may be ingenious and perhaps in some repartee or other trifle by reason of the heat of their Spirits aforesaid beyond other men but as to the businesse of their Souls and Eternity they have no manly sense at all And indeed there is nothing can be more pat to verify what I have been saying then this very circumstances for when men that otherwise have sense and understanding in lesser matters shall be so extreamly absurd in that which especially requires the most manly proceedings it is the very Symptom that we have been all this while describing WHICH being so the consequence is that in the first place it is an absurdity next to theirs to follow the counsell or example of such men The Psalmist makes it the first step to felicity not to stand in the counsel of the ungodly Will any man think it reasonable to imitate the mad freaks of a Bedlam because he sees him jolly and brisk when he plays them no more let any man incourage himself in wickednesse because he sees the high rants of sinners rather let him say in the words of our Saviour Father forgive them they know not what they doe Fools they are with a witnesse that make a mock of sin little do they think how ill this jollity becomes them and lesse do they forethink what will be the end of such courses NOR let the authority of the number or quality of such persons bear us down for folly is folly let who will be the Patron of it Can precedent change the nature of things is there any prescription against reason will publick vogue justify Conscience or multitude of voices carry it against God Unlesse wicked men could not only efface the principles of their own minds and Consciences but also remove the Pillars of the world change the course of nature and by a Gigantick enterprize wage war against and conquer Heaven i. e. force the Almighty to alter his opinion repeal his laws and revoke his threatnings sin will everlastingly be folly and perseverance therein madnesse in spight of multitude fashion custome and example Shall I therefore follow their examples that thwart God that contradict their own Consciences whom all men at least tacitly condemn even those that bruitishly and sillily are lead by them Shall I make those my guide who have so little foresight as not to see beyond the short stage of life Shall I make them my Counsellors that make so foolish a bargain as to give eternal life in exchange for momentany pleasure that have so bad memories as to forget they have immortal Souls or so little reason as to think there is no
resolution and that practice so much more on the other from a man's practice we may ordinarily pronounce of his resolutions and from that certainly calculate his meditations But to the point in hand I saith the Prodigal have delayed too long already I may consider and make resolutions and yet sit and starve it must be doing must rescue me from my misery So he arose and so doth the true Penitent BUT these things are not to be passed over thus superficially therefore we will handle them particularly And accordingly § II. I Begin with the first viz. Consideration or Deliberation By which I mean not a mopish and ineffective dozinesse when men seem to think profoundly but apprehend nothing at all distinctly their understandings being amused and baffled with a new and strange prospect as if looking back upon their former miscarriages had with Lot's Wife transformed them into a Pillar of Salt Much lesse do I mean a solemn austerity of temper and rigid fixation of spirits as if men had forgone all touches of humanity and were become a kind of walking Ghosts Both these are passions of the body not motions of the mind and if they are not counterfeit tend more to desperation then conversion and there is danger lest such men are falling from a vicious phrenzy as we not long since called it to a strictly literal and more incurable madnesse BUT by Consideration so far as concerns the business in hand I understand nothing more nor less but a manly and a serious application of our minds to take a just and impartial view of our selves and of all such things as most concern us to the end that we may govern our determinations and carriage accordingly For the fuller apprehension of this we are to remember what I have in part intimated before that the mind of man hath these four priviledges 1. IT hath not only a perceptive power of such things as are present which is common to the inferiour and animal faculties but hath a large sphere of cognizance recalling things past and having a solicitude and forethought of things to come 2. THE rational powers of the Soul are not meerly passive as the inferiour are which only take notice of such images of things in transitu and glance as are reflected upon them from the Senses but these can fix themselves and their objects can hold the images of things steddy and stay and arrest their own motions towards them 3. THE mind of man doth not take so superficial a view of things as to discern only the pleasantness or unpleasantness of them wherein natural good and evil consists but is able to discern and pronounce of an higher and more exquisite beauty or deformity excellency or turpitude from the relation to God to the community to the nature of our own Souls and to the time to come wherein consists that which we call moral good and evil And this is that rational sense or relish the Criterion or standard of the Soul I formerly spoke of LASTLY the Soul is able also to reflect upon it self to measure its own motions and its own state by the standard aforesaid and so becomes aware of and corrects its own errours for the time past and takes better aim for the time to come NOW the exercising of these several capacities of the Soul is that which we mean by Consideration Namely then a man considers when in the first place he suffers not himself to be carried away with the prejudice of Sense nor confines his thoughts to such things as are thereby presented to him but inlarges his prospect looks round about him takes one thing with another and embraces in his mind the whole nature tendency and all the circumstances of things This is well intimated by the Latines in either of these words Contemplari and Considerare which seem to allude to Astronomical Calculations wherein men ought not ad pauca respicere to confine their observations to some one appearance but to look round about them to survey the whole Orb and salve all the Phaenomena Thus a man considers morally that observes his own actions that recollects what hath befallen himself or other men upon so doing and forecasts what may befall him or them hereafter AGAIN when a man lives not extempore but premeditates nor suffers himself to be overborn either by the presence and importunity of sensual objects or by the solicitation and hurry of passions but checks his own carrier and gives himself leisure calmly and maturely to understand the just nature of things defixes his thoughts and suspends his determination till he see plain reason to incline him this way or that this is a considerative man Especially when a man takes not things in the gross as if all were alike trivial or alike momentous nor suffers himself to be led along by common custome opinion and example that takes not the price of things from publick fame but appeals to and estimates all things by the just standard of reason and accordingly governs his desires and prosecutions the man I say that distinguishes and makes a discrimination betwixt one thing and another that goes not by tale and number but by weight and proof is justly esteemed a thinking and serious person For so the Greek words used in this case import 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to confer compare and distinguish as also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to state the matter to cast up accounts and so also the Latine word deliberare which Festus derives from libra as deciding the matter by the scale in like manner examinare to observe quà lanx exeat which way the scale turns LASTLY when a man turns his eyes inward studies himself makes himself his theam and comments upon himself and his own actions hath his eyes in his head minding his own way having propounded a destined mark and aim of his actions keeps it constantly in his eye and shapes his course accordingly not like the fool in the Proverbs of Solomon that hath his eyes roving and in the ends of the earth This is that the Hebrews express by the phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to lay to heart or in the other phrase of the Psalmist Psal 4. 4. To commune with ones own heart This is that which we mean by considerativeness or in other words the working of Conscience and the discharge of both its offices AND by such kind of consideration as this doth the grace of God and his holy Spirit begin the work of conversion and herein do the first strictures and essays of piety discover themselves It was wont to be said by the Platonists that knowledge is nothing but remembrance and that all the discovery of truth which we in this state are able with all our labour and diligence to make is but a revival and recovery of those Idea's of things we had in a former state and which now became obscure and confused by our being immersed in matter and body But let that
most frequent and most remarkable instances of such conversions In the Old Testament we have Manasses who was an Idolater a Witch and did evil in the sight of the Lord above all the abominations of the Amorites who seem to have been the most profligate people in the world and yet became at last a true penitent a holy and a vertuous person In the New Testament to omit St. Paul who saith of himself that from a blasphemer a persecutour and the chief of sinners he became an exemplary Christian and a zealous Apostle and Preacher of the Doctrine which before he destroyed We have great numbers of the most obstinate and wicked Jews converted and no less of Romans Corinthians Ephesians and of all other Cities and Countries who had grown old and hardened in a course of sin but became new and holy men Particularly the Apostle assures us of the Corinthians That they had been Fornicators Idolaters Adulterers Effeminate Thieves Covetous Drunkards And yet were washed were sanctified were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6. 9 10 11. It is not therefore impossible saith the sinner but I may also recover my self out of the snares of the Devil I found it in my power to chuse evil why may I not hope to be able to chuse good nothing determined or necessitated me heretofore to sin why may I not then cast off the yoke of custome and by the grace of God apply my self to my duty This is a second consideration which inflames the Penitent to a resolution of amendment which when he hath in earnest entered upon he finds 3. AS his third inducement not onely to be possible but also easy at least far beyond what he heretofore imagined It was perhaps not an extenuating but a just reflection which the Historian makes upon all the famous exploits of Alexander the Great in Asia and in the Indies which had swelled his name to such a bulk Primus ausus est vana contemnere that it was not so much his more then humane courage or conduct which gave him those successes but that he had the luck or the sagacity to see through and despise the pageantry and empty shew of force and formidableness which those soft and luxurious Nations were only furnished with So it is in this case he that can but once despise those Ludibria oculorum those scare-crows and phantastical Ideas which men's own fear and cowardise represent to them he will presently find the business of Religion easy and expedite and that it is but resolving generously and the thing is done The way of vertue though through the folly of men it be an unfrequented path yet is it no sad and uncomfortable way no man abridges himself the delight of life by becoming vertuous no just contentment is denied him no power or so much as passion he hath that is altogether denied its proper satisfaction There is no inhumane austerity required of us no contradiction to our reason or violence to our nature imposed upon us God is no hard Pharaoh that seeks to break us with bitter bondage requiring the tale of bricks without straw He doth not bid us continue in the fire and not burn or require us to converse with the occasions of sin and escape the pollution but only to moderate our desires to mind our selves to set our intentions right and in a word to resolve to doe what we can both to avoid the occasion and to escape the infection AND as for that great bug-bear Custome why may we not break the fetters of our own making and dissolve an habit of our own beginning Sin it self was weak and timorous and bashfull at first but it got strength by time and by degrees and in the same manner it is to be supplanted oppose beginnings of good to beginnings of evil and an habit will be obtained and we shall confront one custome with another He that goeth forth weeping bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again rejoycing and bringing his sheaves with him THE way of vertue is therefore easy because it is recommended by our own reason though sense oppose it for the present let us be true to the former and the latter must and will give way A Law enacted by our own consent uses to find a ready and chearfull compliance that which is voted within us and carried by the free suffrage of our minds surely can never be accounted harsh and difficult and such are all the laws of vertue the rules thereof are convenient for the community suitable to our own natures and as fit for us to consent to as for God to enact ALL the opposition which the Devil or the flesh can make to the determination of our minds will quickly cease if we stand firm to our selves reason is as able to restrain sense as that is to bewitch and fascinate our minds or at least if we stop our ears we shall avoid all its charms charm it never so cunningly Besides all the importunities of the flesh will from such time as they begin to be denied grow sensibly weaker and weaker And for the Devil there is nothing so much incourages his attempts as our irresolution and feeble opposition he is both a more proud and a more cunning enemy then to endure too many repulses without hopes of success He knows well enough he cannot force us and if he cannot corrupt us will not long labour in vain This the Apostle St. James assures us of Resist the Devil and he will flee from you St. James 4. 7. ABOVE all the Holy Spirit of God will not fail to set in with us and make all easy to us if we cease to resist and quench his motions How that worketh in and upon us is not easy to discover for As the wind bloweth where it listeth and we hear the sound thereof but know not whence it cometh nor whither it goeth so is every one that is born of the Spirit notwithstanding we are assured that God will give his Holy Spirit to them that ask it and that that Spirit hath a mighty influence upon us without doing any violence to us and that its aids are incomparably greater then the Devils opposition For greater is he that is in us then he that is in the world and this is our great incouragement to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling because God worketh in us to will and to doe of his good pleasure THE mischief of all is therefore our want of resolution that we do but dally and trifle in this great business and hence all the difficulty arises Quo minùs timoris eo minùs fermè periculi Cowards run the greatest dangers in war and irresolute men find the most opposition and the greatest difficulty in a course of vertue Did we but collect our selves we should quickly find the face of things altered and all discouragements vanish ALL
notions of God are either extinct by the profaneness of his life or languish by the neglect of religious duties there is no Angel Guardian about his Soul no generous disdain of sin in his heart he hath neither the help of God nor the strength of a man Upon all which it is apparent that departing from our Father's House living beside the notions of God and without the exercises of devotion to actuate those notions is the ready way to all sin and folly Wherefore as pride and self-conceit begin the mutiny in our Souls against God so neglecting his presence suffers it to grow to a dangerous head and as that was the first step towards a wicked course this is the second 3. THIRDLY the Prodigal having now gotten from under the eye of his Father gives himself a full swinge of liberty lives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sottishly and viciously and by that means quickly exhausts the stock his Father had given him Wherever there is temperance and prudent management a little will suffice and will quickly grow to great riches by frugality and industry most of the great States and Kingdoms in the world have been raised as well as private fortunes but luxury and riot have dilapidated and destroyed both the one and the other For these making continual abstractions without addition quickly reduce the greatest summe to a Cypher and bring him to want of all things who before had need of nothing but grace and wisedom to use that which he had This the Prodigal Son finds true by sad experience And so it fares also with the sinner or mystical Prodigal when once he hath withdrawn himself from God's presence that is hath cast off the sense of God and Religion and broken those reins that restrained his extravagancy he presently rushes into all kind of debauchery and in so doing besides the black guilt he derives upon his Conscience he wastes and imbezils the very talents and abilities God had endowed him with For the more clear understanding of which we will briefly but distinctly consider these two things 1. What is that portion or stock which God sets mankind up withall 2. How and in what manner vice and dissolution of manners mispend and exhaust it The younger son wasted his substance with riotous living S t LUKE XV 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theogn And for the former of these though it is not to be doubted but that God according to his paternal prerogative and wisedom may and doth variously dispense his gifts to his Children yet it is certain he sends none of them out into the world without some talents to employ themselves upon and to make a vertuous improvement of And amongst all of that kind these four following are both the most rich and valuable in themselves and also such is the divine bounty most generally bestowed viz. 1. Freedome of choice 2. Understanding Mind or Conscience 3. Experience of a wise and gracious intertexture of favours and chastisements in the course of Providence 4. Special intimations of his own mind and will IN the first place I recount freedom of chusing for our selves as part of the common portion of mankind in general which I do the rather because I observe the Fathers generally to understand this to be the special intendment of this passage of the Parable Divisit iis substantiam He divided unto them his living that is saith S. Jerome He bound not man under the rigid bonds of necessity whereby he should be forcibly overruled and determined to one thing but put him in a capacity of making his own choice to the end that being hereby distinguished from beasts and more like his Maker he might be capable of vertue and reward and that as nothing should make him miserable without his own act and consent so he might have the comfort and delight of co-operating freely towards his own good and felicity THAT this accomplishment of humane nature is a great and inestimable talent no man can doubt forasmuch as hereby man is made to be what he is that is to be master of himself and his own actions and obnoxious to none but God himself being neither drawn by invisible wires but moved voluntarily and from an inward principle nor hurried by external accidents but steers his own course is not at the mercy of every temptation but can make his own choice in spite of the Devil AND that God set out man into the world thus endowed there is as little reason to question For in the first place we are sure God made all things good that is designed for good ends and also capable of attaining them And he that sitted all the inferiour Creation for their proper ends most certainly did not leave that excellent piece of his workmanship so defective as not to be endowed with powers sufficient for the pursuit and attainment of his peculiar happiness At least it cannot be imagined that infinite wisedom should contrive such a Creature as should be only able to cross and act contrary to himself but not to comply with him which must be true if man had not originally a power of chusing good as well as evil Again were it not for this there would be an absolute impossibility of giving account how sin came into the world and of vindicating the providence of God in tying that clog of an earthly Body to an immortal Soul but that by this concession the latter is made capable of governing the former and abundance other great Phaenomena of providence which it is no time now to insist upon are plainly insoluble otherwise then upon this supposition But we need not insist upon the proof of fact that this was the condition of man in his first Greation when he came out of the hands of God for it is acknowledged by all Divines and if it be otherwise with him since we have intimated already where the fault lies and shall shew it more particularly by and by 2. THE second Talent of mankind is Mind or Conscience and I make use of both those terms because I intend to join together both that which is called Synteresis and that which is called properly Syneidesis or Conscience By the former of which man having as it were a Standard within himself of good and evil he may guide himself in the choice of his actions and by the latter he is able to reflect upon himself and comparing his actions and carriage with the Standard or Law of reason in his own mind pass a judgment upon himself that is either blame and condemn or acquit and comfort himself accordingly This Talent the old Saint Justin calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A particle of the Divine and Original Wisedom or a scien of the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or eternal word ingrafted upon the Soul of every man And it is that which Theophylact takes to be especially meant in this text The substance