from the other for they are all vain and uncertain and in a moment they come to nothing Wherefore David the man after Gods own heart passing by all temporal things entertain'd his meditation with things Eternal I have considered the days of old and the years of Eternity Psal 77.5 And Solomon his Son the wisest of men after a long and comprehensive enumeration of all things good and bad under the Sun concludes that all is vanity vanity of vanities Eccles 1.2 CHAP. XXXVI Three things very profitable and necessary to every Christian 1. THat we may be faithful to God as we are oblig'd we must of necessity attend to these three things First to watch and observe our selves and our actions at all times that we turn not aside out of the right path into by-ways difficult and unpassable seeking for happiness where it is not in spight of all admonitions By reason a Christian differs from the brutes and by Faith from unbelievers so that when he doth any thing rashly and basely meerly to satisfie his unruly passion and his appetite so far he becomes a beast and ceaseth to act as man and likewise when for vain-glory or self-interest he is drawn to action in this he acts like a Heathen Faith hath no hand in it As Arts are attained and perfected by working according to the rules of them so a man becomes Wise Just Sober and Patient by living according to the prescript of those Virtues 2. The second thing recommended is a good and careful use of our time on which depends Eternity Philosophers would have us not only know things useful but also be studious and watchful to take hold of all opportunities of virtue because time passeth away and comes not again and once lost is lost for ever Time flies away and the unwise man considers not that 't is never to be recall'd and that with time he loseth more than he can think or ever recover It may be pleasant indeed to pass away the time in sports and merry company but so doth our day go away and the night comes when no man can work and we lose the acceptable time that time that was given us to obtain our Pardon and work out our Salvation in We must give an account for every idle word much more for that time which is spent idly 3. The third thing we are carefully to mind is to make a right use of the Sacraments especially that of the Lord's Supper which if frequently and devoutly received would be to us a fountain of grace profitable beyond expression and the more in that penitence as a Sacramental is joyn'd to it whereby we are humbled and cleansed and our hearts prepar'd to entertain Christ whom we receive in the Holy Communion and from whom we receive increase of love to God and of meekness and charity to men As a covetous man minds nothing but gain and money and is always gasping after it so the devout Christian duly and often receives the Blessed Eucharist always pants and longs after God and cannot without trouble mind any thing but him And it is the principle of a heavenly life to despise and forsake all things that have not a relation to God CHAP. XXXVII That Repentance is necessary to all Christians 1. EVery Christian ought so to live and die in such continual regret and mortification as to make it appear he is a true Penitent who endeavours to make what satisfaction he can for his sins and entirely to be cleansed from the guilt of them This was the beginning and is the sum of the Gospel Mark 1.4 John did baptize in the Wilderness and Preach the Baptism of Repentance for the Remission of sins And the Blessed Jesus himself the Author and finisher of our Faith made it the first subject of his preaching Verse 14. Jesus came into Galilee Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and saying the time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand repent ye and believe the Gospel Or as Saint Matthew relates it 4.17 Jesus began to preach and to say Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand Repentance was first sent to prepare men duly to entertain the Gospel that their Souls might be purified and fitted to receive Divine Grace which never enters wicked hearts nor abides with them that yield their bodies to be instruments of unrighteousness 2. But Penitence is a Sacrifice well pleasing to God when a man is sensible of his sin and confesseth it with shame and sorrow and with a broken contrite heart begs Pardon of his offended God For the greatest evil in sin is a contempt of the Divine Majesty to live in sin is to live in enmity and defiance against the Great and Holy God and to this desperate impiety men are betrayed by infidelity and by inconsideration For who is there so mad and presumptuous that would dare transgress the Divine Laws if he believed and understood that God is Almighty and infinitely Good and Glorious and that an offence against so high a Majesty is heinous beyond expression But to this height of wretched folly men are carried by original depravation that as being seiz'd on by an unhappy frenzy they have a secret aversion to God the chiefest good and delight themselves in impure shadows in base and false enjoyments and this because they see not the truth or they have not power to follow it 3. How great and deplorable is this blindness and impotency we cannot well understand except we seriously consider that the guilt and malignancy of sin was so extreme that nothing could make expiation for it but the bitter death and passion of the Blessed and only Son of God This if we believe and if we are sensible of the intolerable burthen of our sins we are to pass our days in sorrow and to spend our years in mourning thereby to own our selves guilty and that we have deserv'd the worst the greatest of evils For God readily forgives those sins which penitence and amendment indeavour to undo CHAP. XXXVIII Of the signs and effects of true Repentance 1. WE shall never be in a capacity to avoid sin when the temptation comes except the soul hath conceiv'd a great horror and detestation of it and our penitential exercises will soon be at an end except we hunger and thirst after Righteousness so as never to be satiated without it Therefore when we humble and punish our selves and when we make our confession to God or his ministers we should besides contrition and a resolution in general to sin no more design the extirpation of some one particular sin to avoid and prevent the occasions of that one sin which is most dangerous and importunate Hence will accrue to us a great advantage of our penitence and we shall the better bring forth fruits worthy of Repentance such as these fear to offend and displease God any ways a great dread of his just judgment to check and reprove our selves
that it is good for me to hold me fast by my God and to put in him alone my whole confidence and not in Princes or Friends or even Brothers who as they have all a distinct being have also different ends and seek from us every one his own advantage being ever ready to forsake us as soon as they shall think we are become useless to them This light therefore we ought gladly to receive and follow that appearances and pleasing illusions put not a cheat upon us and make us seek for happiness in the creatures which are as if they were not and have no value but what the ignorant vulgar attributes to them and make us forsake God who remains for ever who is the fountain of all being and the author of all good things out of whom there is no rest no peace no felicity to be had He that departs from the supreme happiness thereby becomes miserable in the highest degree CHAP. XIII How men spend themselves and their time and abuse all things to their own ruine 1. THE Life of man runs round and spends it self within this circle they eat and drink they sleep and wake that they may return to the same again they scrape together as much as they are able and there is no end of their acquists they will live as merrily as they can and die as late as possible may be betwixt their baptism and the hour of death there lies a confused heap of acts of sin and acts of Religion of penitent confessions and wilful relapses of Sacramental vows and breaches of them No day passeth over without they add to the number of their transgressions and they all go on heedlesly without considering what will be the end of their course of life and they all run when but a few care how they come to the end of their race because they consider not what reward and glory is prepared in Heaven to them that remain faithful to their Christian engagements overcoming the world and the flesh for to follow Christ 2. God created the whole universe and in it man to his image giving him an understanding to know his maker a will to love and obey him a memory to think of his laws faculties to serve him and a tongue to praise him but then as he made man for himself so he created the whole world for man that he might use all things for his own happiness and for the glory of God the giver of all But ungrateful man unmindful of his duty drawn by the deceit of voluptuousness minds only his sensual pleasure useth or rather abuseth his knowledge and reason his riches and honours his health and life and all other enjoyments to the displeasure and dishonour of God his gracious benefactor who freely granted him all those things that if he would make a good use of them they might be instruments of his present ease and well being and of his future eternal happiness So great is the folly and perversness of man that he abuseth that to his own ruine which God intended and gave him for his greater good CHAP. XIV That the right way to Heaven is every one to remain in the station Providence hath appointed him and therein bear the crosses which he meets withal 1. EVery man that aims at the right end must guide his course thither by the measures of Eternity and that in a way sutable to the circumstances of his condition This necessary Rule is not observ'd by all for many following their own fancies unadvisedly forsake that way wherein Divine providence had brought them and take some other of their own chusing Like Naaman the Syrian who though he much longed to be cur'd of his leprosie yet refused to use the easie remedy prescrib'd by the Prophet and preferring what he himself had fancied had gone away in anger diseased as he came had not his wiser servant hindred it After this manner many following their own heads undertake many things which they cannot perform but which only vex and distract them being above their abilities or inconsistent with the necessary occupations which they lie under so that they can neither act nor advance towards the desired end but spend themselves in unprofitably wishing that things were otherwise than they are 2. But the short and ready way to Bliss is that which our Blessed Saviour hath shew'd us saying Let him that will come after me take up his Cross and follow me His Cross he saith not that which was to be another man's burthen the Cross which God lays upon him and hath fitted for him and given him strength to bear not that which he foolishly shall take up and soon after poorly sink under These two things must therefore carefully be heeded first that a man understand perfectly what is the right end at which he should aim without this all deliberations concerning the means are to no purpose and secondly that knowing that good end he keeps his mind intent upon 't and take that plain path towards it which lies before him and agrees with his state and condition therein bearing his Cross chearfully as the Lord hath commanded Now this is every man's Cross to discharge well the duties of his place and of his several relations to bear patiently those afflictions which he daily meets in his way and constantly by doing better and better that which belongs to his province to endeavour after the highest perfection attainable therein Every man in his proper station in that calling wherein he is called may best become a good Christian perfect holiness in the fear of God and at last obtain happiness CHAP. XV. How man 's last end or supreme happiness is qualified and how so many mistake and miss it 1. THese be the inseparable properties of the last and highest end at which man should aim that it be perfectly good and perfectly satisfactory so that being once obtain'd nothing else is wanted and nothing else desir'd for whoever wants any thing desires it also and he that desires is not satisfied is not yet come to that last end beyond which his wishes can go no further that is is not possest of God who alone is infinitely good and can alone replenish all our desires and capacities I shall be satisfied when thy glory appears saith the Psalmist or I shall be satisfied with thy likeness Psal 17.15 that and nothing else can perfectly do it 2. Yet such is the perverse and incurable folly of man that he will have that to be best which he loves best though by the testimony of others and the conviction of his own conscience he knows it to be evil And therefore many either ignorantly or perversly pursue after that which is good only in appearance and forsake that which is good indeed And they thereby become disorderly wretched and criminal enemies to God lovers of the thorny pleasures of sin and lovers of that fatal darkness which hides their sorrows the snares among which
with shame and confusion of face to be ready to make all satisfaction and amends possible for past offences to restrain and mortify all sinful appetites carefully to avoid all the ways and allurements to sin to humble our selves and willingly to bear contempt frequently to examine our conscience and search the secrets of our hearts to root out as much as is possible all vicious desires and inclinations and to set in their stead all virtuous and holy affections 2. They that make this their serious and constant employment have their own sins before their eyes but have no eyes for the sins of others they grieve for their own offences and punish their own follies but they pass by or excuse the faults of others they see their own danger and are always afraid of falling and always watchful not to fall For our necessary converse with the World our ill customs and our dwelling with baits and temptations exposeth us to sin and yet takes the sense of it from us especially our evil inclinations which being born with us have a strong party in our hearts and begin by times to deprave or harden Conscience that it shall hardly have any feeling of sins daily committed And then this is the unhappiness of contracting ill habits that the oftner we act by them the more we confirm them and the less we observe our faults and errors CHAP. XXXIX Remedies against ordinary failings and greater sins 1. TO fall into those sins which some call Venial or sins of daily incursion is hardly to be avoided and yet even those sins cannot be said to be little that are committed against a great God and for which we must suffer Eternal Torments if we our selves were to make expiation for them But though there is pardon for those unavoidable errors which without a special grace we cannot but commit at some time yet ought we to endeavour with all our power daily to lessen the number of them and to prevent them by acts of contrary virtues one by one To that end we should be as careful as men are in contagious times who not only avoid infected persons but also all that hath toucht and been about them so should we in the case of those sins that are counted light avoid and stop all the ways and avenues that lead to them Lest we falling frequently at last fall into the pit of death 2. Every moment almost we have some temptation to vain talk or vain inquisitiveness to anger or unseemly jesting to contention or impatience to idle thoughts and distraction or to such like sins which are the more difficult to be avoided that being mixt with all our worldly affairs they are hardly to be discern'd Therefore we must at least secure this that however our nature stands affected to any of those lesser sins yet our hearts may not entertain any love for them lest our own affections hinder us carefully to watch and strive against them Without this our after-Repentance and our Sacramental vow will signifie little to obtain remission of them or victory against them I know that 't is said of these failings that the just man falls seven times a day but yet certain it is that the just man endeavours against it and that he never falls but by frailty or by sudden surprise 3. Likewise for vices or greater sins to conquer them you must stifle them in the birth suppress the first motion to them and meet the temptation with an act of virtue contrary to it As for example if you be abused and provok'd refrain the first stirring of Anger and then busie your mind with some act of Patience and Humility considering that you suffer that and less than that you deserve praying for him that doth you wrong and resolving to do him any kindness you can For thus we best avoid evil by studying to do that which is good and the last is as much our duty as the first and that servant deserves no great reward who doth not strike and revile his master if he doth not withal faithfully serve and obey him In this many deceive themselves who think to have made sure work of their Salvation because they have not been wicked when yet they have neglected positive duties and have not done those good works which God requir'd from them Cease to do evil learn to do good both are equally commanded not to transgress by omission no more than commission CHAP. XL. Clergy-men have some especial obligations though all are bound to endeavour after perfection 1. THough the same institutes of Christian perfection be delivered to all and all are to walk by the same rule as has been shew'd before Chap. 7. Yet it cannot be denyed but that Clergy-mens obligations to a strict devout life are much inforced upon them by their particular calling For they are not only oblig'd to be holy themselves but also by their life and doctrine to set forth the glory of God and set forward the Salvation of all men In order to which they must be very careful so to follow after virtue and all things that are honest and of good report so to live and so to converse with men that their words and actions may speak them and others may acknowledge them to be indeed the sons of God and ministers of Christ and to this the least neglect and remissness will be very prejudicial because they are observ'd by all and men generally are apt to judge and to follow the worst 2. They must remember that as all Christians are but Stewards and have nothing of their own and must use the World as not possessing it and as being ready to part with it so they more especially are to count nothing their own and that little they have as well as themselves must be subservient to the design of their function They must remember that they are not only as others oblig'd to live by the Gospel-Rules but that besides they have devoted themselves to the service of the Church and have vow'd obedience to its constitutions and so far are barr'd from their own will which must comply with that order and commission they have taken And most of all let them remember that Christ himself whose servant they are humbled himself came in the form of a servant became of no reputation became poor for us though he were Lord of all and became obedient to the death Professing he was not come do his own will but the will of him that sent him 3. What will it avail to read the instructions and examples of Christ and his Saints if we follow them not those things were written for our learning and are set before us for our imitation It hath been said by some that no Christian comes to Heaven that is not a Martyr we must all be prepar'd for it and indeed that mortification and self-denyal which all Christians especially spiritual guides are oblig'd to use is a kind of Martyrdom without bloud is