the Children of God and the blessed Fruit of it Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost would easily furnish me with invincible Arguments Nor would the contrary Opinion ever have been able to have kept the Field so long as it has done had it not been favoured by a weak and decayed Piety by the Fondnesses of Men for themselves in spight of their Sins and Frailties and by many mistaken Texts But that this Matter may if possible be freed from all Objections 1. I here distinguish between Inordinate and Natural Affections By Inordinate Affections I mean the Tendencies of the Soul towards that which is Vnlawful by Natural its Propension to the Body with which it is invested the Desire of its Health and Ease and the Conveniencies and Necessaries of Life for this end Now when Religion enjoyns Repugnances to the former Appetites the Obedience of the Perfect Man has no Reluctancy in it but when it enjoyns things as sometimes occasionally it does which thwart and cross the latter here the Obedience even of Christ himself could not be exempt from Conflict for our Natural Appetites in this sense of them will never be put off till our Bodies be I think this is so clear it needs not be illustrated by Instances or else 't were easie to shew that though good men have practised Temperance Chastity Charity and other Vertues of this kind with ease and pleasure too yet has Nature shrunk and startled at Persecution and Martyrdom though even here too the Courage and Resolution of some hath appear'd to be much above what Human Nature ever seem'd capable of 2. I do not in the least suppose that Nature is so changed but that the Inclinations to sinful Pleasure or Profit or any other forbidden Object will soon revive again even in the Perfect Man unless he keep a watch and guard upon himself and pass the time of his sojourning here in fear Not to be subject to disorderly Desires not to be liable to irregular Motions is the Priviledge of Souls when stript of a Mortal Body or cloath'd with an Immortal one Till then the Conjunction of Flesh and Blood will ever render the poor Soul obnoxious to carnal and worldly Appetites And the natural Appetites of the Body do so easily pass those Bounds that divide them from sinful ones that the best of men can never be secure but when the Mind is taken up in Contemplation Devotion good Works or engaged in the Prosecution of some just and honest Design or amused by some innocent Recreation for in these Cases the Body is either made the Instrument of Righteousness or at least wise 't is innocently busied and diverted from those Objects to which it has too too impetuous a Tendency I have now I think sufficiently stated the Notion of true Liberty and I hope sufficiently guarded it And have nothing to do but to proceed to the Fruits of it Which will serve for so many Motives or Inducements to its Attainment § 2. Of the Fruits of Liberty These may be reduced under four Heads 1. Sin being a great Evil Deliverance from it is great Happiness 2. A second Fruit of this Liberty is Good Works 3. It gives us a near Relation to God 4. The great and last Fruit of it is Eternal Life These are all comprised by the Apostle in Rom. 6.2.1 22 23. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed For the end of those things is death But now being made free from Sin and become Servants to God ye have your fruit unto Holiness and the end everlasting Life For the wages of sin is Death but the Gift of God is Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And these are the great Ends which the Gospel that perfect Law of Liberty aims at and for which it was Preached to the World as appears from those Words of our Lord to St. Paul Acts 26.17 18. unto whom now I send thee to open their Eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of Sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by Faith that is in me I will here insist on these Blessed Effects of Christian Liberty not only because the Design of the Chapter demands it but also to prevent the being obliged to any tedious Repetition of them hereafter under every distinct Branch of Christian Liberty § 1. Sin is a great Evil and therefore Deliverance from the Dominion of it is a great Good To make this evident we need but reflect a little on the Nature and Effects of Sin If we enquire into the Nature of Sin we shall find that it is founded in the Subversion of the Dignity and defacing the Beauty of Human Nature and that it consists in the Darkness of our Understanding the Depravity of our Affections and the Feebleness and Impotence of the Will The Vnderstanding of a Sinner is incapable of discerning the Certainty and Force of Divine Truths the Loveliness of Vertue the unspeakable Pleasure which now flows from the great and precious Promises of the Gospel and the incomparably greater which will one day flow from the Accomplishment and Fruition of them His Affections which if fix't and bent on Vertue had been Incentives as they were designed by God to noble and worthy Actions being biass'd and perverted do now hurry him on to lewd and wicked ones And by these the Mind if at any time it chance to be awakened and render'd sensible of its Happiness and Duty is over-power'd and oppress'd If this were not the true State of a Sinner if the strength of Sin did not thus consist in the Disorder and Impotence of all the Faculties of the Soul whence is it that the Sinner acts as he does Is it not evident that his understanding is infatuated when he lives as if he were meerly wholly Body As if he had no Soul or none but one resulting from and dissolv'd with its Temperament and Contexture One designed to no higher purpose than to contrive minister to and partake in its Sensualities Is it not evident that He has little expectation of another World who laies up his Treasures only in this and lives as if he were Born only to make Provision for the Flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof 'T is true all Sinners are not equally stupid or obdurate but even in those in whom some sparks of Vnderstanding and Conscience remain unextinguished how are the weak Desires of Vertue baffled and over-power'd by the much stronger Passions which they have for the Body and the World Do they not find themselves reduced to that wretched state of Bondage wherein the good that they would do that they do not but the evil that they would not do that is present with them 'T is plain then that Sin is a Disease in our Nature that it not only extinguishes the Grace of the Spirit and obliterates the Image of God stampt
10.13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to Man but God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it The Design of which Words is certainly to encourage Christians against the bigest Temptations by an Assurance of Relief from God proportionable to our Necessities and consequently must imply that if we yield to a Temptation 't is our own fault God expects we should stand firm under the highest Trials Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a Crown of Life Rev. 2.10 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my Throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne Rev. 3.21 But whosoever shall deny me before Men him will I also deny before my Father which is in Heaven Matt. 10.33 If therefore by Sins of Infirmity Men mean such as are consistent with the state of Grace i. e. such as good Men may frequently fall into without forfeiting the Peace of Conscience and the Favour of God I cannot possibly think that any Deliberate Sin can be such upon the score of the Temptation or that any of those Sins reckoned in the Catalogue Gal. 5. and Eph. 5. can be such on the account of the Violence or Perseverance with which they attack us But Secondly if by Sins of Infirmity they mean such Sins as Righteous Men are liable to I know not what they are from which they are exempted But if Lastly by Sins of Infirmity they mean such for which God is more easily entreated then there is no Question to be made but that there is a Difference in Sins which is to be estimated by the different Measures of Grace and Knowledge by the different Degrees of Deliberation and Surprise and by the Force or Weakness the Continuance or Shortness of a Temptation And Finally by the different Effects and Tendencies of Sins To all which I do not question but that the Spirit has regard in those Directions which it gives us for our Behaviour towards such as fall Gal. 6.1 Brethren if a Man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the Spirit of Meekness considering thy self lest thou also be tempted And of some have compassion making a difference And others save with fear pulling them out of the fire Jude 22 23. § 2. A Second sort of Actions are such as we call Involuntary that is those wherein we exercise no Deliberation no Choice Some have reduced Sins of Infirmity to this Head but with what Colour of Reason any one may judge For since Actions truly Involuntary are neither the Object of the Understanding nor Will 't is hard to conceive what Morality there can be in them The Grounds on which this Opinion is built are such as these First the Measure say they of Good and Evil is the Law of God But Involuntary and unavoidable Actions are not a proper Subject of Laws for to what purpose is it to prescribe Rules or to propose Rewards and Punishments to such Actions as are no way subject to our Choice Secondly they tell us 't is inconsistent with the Goodness of God and the Riches of Gospel Grace to impute those things to a Man as Damnable Sins which fall not within the Compass of his Power of Deliberation Now I must confess I am so far from denying any Actions that can lay a just claim to this Apology to be Venial that I cannot forbear thinking that they are not sinful For where there is no Law there is no Transgression But how does this way of arguing for the Excusableness of Involuntary Transgressions consist with those other Doctrines which they maintain concerning them namely That we are bound to Repentance for them That these Sins are not Venial in their own Nature but only through the Favour of God For the Law taken in its Rigour denounces Death against all Sin in general without Limitation or Exception so that if God should judge rigorously even Involuntary Sin would fall under that Sentence the wages of Sin is Death This I must confess seems to me very incoherent For if an Action be of that Nature that it cannot properly be the Matter or Subject of a Law how can it fall under the Condemnation of Law If it be of that Nature that it is incapable of any Moral Regulation nor subject to the Influence of Reward or Punishment how can it be meer Matter of Grace that a Man is not Damned for it In a word if an Action be truly and properly Involuntary it can by no means be Sin and if it be Voluntary it is subject to the Regulation of Laws 'T is a proper Instance of Deliberation and Freedom and capable of Rewards and Punishments And the Truth is the one needs no Apology and the other is not capable of any the one is a Mortal Sin and the other no Sin at all And therefore we must look for Venial Sin in some other Species of Action § 3. The last Class of Actions are those which are of a mixt Nature partly Voluntary and partly Involuntary And here I think we must place Sins of Infirmity by whatever Names we may call them For these surely if they are be rankt as by all they are amongst Actual Sins must be such Actions as have in them something of Voluntary something of Involuntary much of Human Frailty and something of Sinful much of unavoidable and something of Moral Obliquity These are the Transgressions which the Scripture seems to me to intend by Errors Defects Slips Motes the Spots of God's Children and these certainly if any must be the Sins that can consist with a state of Grace For these do not imply a Deliberate Wickedness in the Will much less an Habitual one nay they do not include in them any Wickedness at all strictly speaking but are truly the Effects of Human Frailty and the unhappy Circumstances of this Mortal Life Thus then I describe a Venial Sin it has in it so much of Voluntary as to mak it Sin so much of Involuntary as to make it Frailty it has so much of the Will in it that it is capable of being reduced and yet so much of Necessity in it it is never utterly to be extirpated it has some thing in it Criminal enough to oblige us to watch against it repent of it and yet so much in it pitiable and excusable as to entitle us to Pardon under the Covenant of Grace And thus I distinguish Venial from Mortal Sin Mortal Sin proceeds from a Heart either Habitually corrupted or deceived and captived for the time but Venial Sin results from the Imperfections and Infelicities of our Nature and our State Mortal Sin is truly Voluntary and Deliberate in the Rice and Birth of it and mischievous and injurious in its Consequence But
we courted till we be possess'd of a Habit of that Vertue which is a direct Contradiction to it and take as much pleasure in the Obedience as ever we did in the Transgression of a Divine Command 2ly There are some Sins of that provoking Nature so criminal in their Birth and mischievous in their Consequences That one single Act or Commission of one of these is equivalent to a Habit of others such is Murther Idolatry Perjury Adultery these cannot be committed without renouncing Humanity as well as Christianity without resisting the Instincts and Impulses of Nature as well as the Eight of the Gospel and the Grace of the Spirit We must break thorough a great many Difficulties and Terrors e're we can come at these Sins we must commit many other in order to commit one of these we must deliberate long resolve desperately and in Defiance of God and Conscience and what is the Effect of Habit in other Instances is a necessary Preparative in these that is Obduration In this Case therefore the unhappy Man that has been guilty of any one of these must not look upon himself as set free when he is come to a Resolution of never repeating it again But then when he loaths and abhors himself in Dust and Ashes when he has made the utmost Reparation of the Wrong he is capable of when if the Interest of Vertue require it he is content to be oppress'd with Shame and Sufferings when in one word a long and constant Course of Mortification Prayers Tears and good Works have washed off the Stain and Guilt 2. We must be free not only from a Habit but from single Acts of deliberate presumptuous Sin The Reason is plain Mortal Sin cannot be committed without wounding the Conscience grieving the Spirit and renouncing our Hopes in God through Christ for the time at least The wages of Sin is Death is true not only of Habits but single Acts of Deliberate Sin Death is the penalty the Sanction of every Commandment and the Commandment does not prohibit Habits only but single Acts too Nor is there indeed any room for Doubt or Dispute here but in one Case which is If a Righteous Man should be taken off in the very Commission of a Sin which he was fallen into Here indeed much may be said and with much Uncertainty But the Resolution of this Point does not as far as I can see minister to any good or necessary End and therefore I will leave it to God In all other Cases every thing is clear and plain For if the Servant of God fall into a presumptuous Sin 't is universally acknowledg'd that he cannot recover his Station but by Repentance If he repent presently he is safe but if he continue in his Sin if he repeat it he passes into a state of Wickedness widens the Breach between God and his Soul declines insensibly into a Habit of sin and renders his Wound more and more incurable 'T is to little purpose I think here to consider the vast Difference there is in the Commission even of the same sin between a Child of God and a Child of Wrath because a Child of God must not commit it at all if he do though it be with Reluctancy though it be as it were with an imperfect Consent and with a divided Soul though the Awe of Religion and Conscience seems not utterly to have forsaken him even in the midst of his sin though his Heart smite him the very Minute it is finish'd and Repentance and Remorse take off the Relish of the unhappy Draught yet still 't is Sin 't is in its Nature Damnable and nothing but the Blood of Jesus can purge the Guilt 3. The Perfect Man may be supposed not only actually to abstain from Mortal Sin but to be advanced so far in the Mortification of all his inordinate Affections as to do it with Ease and Pleasure with Constancy and Delight For it must reasonably be presumed that his Victory over ungodly and worldly Lust is more confirm'd and absolute his Abhorrence of them more deep and sensible more fixt and lasting than that of a Beginner or Babe in Christ The Regenerate at first fears the Consequence of sin but by Degrees he hates the Sin it self The Purity of his Soul renders him now incapable of finding any pleasure in what he doted on before and the Love of God and Vertue raiseth him above the Temptations which he was wont to fall by old things are past away and all things are become new 4. Lastly The Perfect Man's Abstinence is not only more easie and steady but more entire and compleat also than that of others He has a regard to the End and Design of the Law to the Perfection of his Nature to the Purity and Elevation of his Sowl and therefore he expounds the Prohibitions of the Law in the most enlarg'd Sense and interprets them by a Spirit of Faith and Love He is not content to refrain from Actions directly criminal but shuns every Appearance of Evil and labours to mortifie all the Dispositions and Tendencies of his Nature towards it and to decline whatever Circumstances of Life are apt to betray the Soul into a Love of this World or the Body he has crucified the World and the Body too That Pleasure that Honour that Power that Profit which captives the Sinners tempts and tries and disquiets the Novice is but a burthen a trouble to him he finds no Gust no relish in these things He is so far from Intemperance so far from Wantonness so far from Pride and Vanity that could he without any Disadvantage to the Interest of Religion he would imitate the Meanness the Plainness the Laboriousness the Self-denial of our Saviour's Life not only in Disposition and Affection of his Soul but even in his outward State and Deportment and would prefer it far above the Pomp and Shew of Life In one word he enquires not how far he may Enjoy and be Safe but how far he may deny himself and be wise he is so far from desiring forbidden Satisfactions that he is unwilling and afraid to find too much Satisfaction in the natural and necessary Actions of an animal Life I need not prove this to any one who has read the foregoing Chapters for it is what I have been doing throughout this Treatise It is nothing but what is consonant to the whole Tenour of the Scripture and to the Example of the best Times And 't is conformable to what the best Authors have writ who have any thing of Life and Spirit in their Works or have any true Notion of the great Design of Christian Religion which is an heavenly Conversation Let any one but cast his Eye on St. Basil or any other after him who aim'd at the same thing I now do the promoting Holiness in the World in the Beauty and Perfection of it and he will acknowledge that I am far from having carried this matter too high I
aside the natural Right which He has over him as his Creature and to transact with him as free and Master of himself But this is all infinite condescension Secondly it seems unsuitable to the infinite Goodness of God to bereave Man of the Life and Happiness he has once conferr'd upon him unless he forfeits it by some Demerit The Gifts and calling of God are without Repentance nor can I think how Death which has so much Evil in it could have enter'd the World if Sin had not enter'd it first In this Sense unsinning Obedience gives a kind of right to the Continuance of those good things which are at first the meer Effects of Divine Grace and Bounty Lastly a Covenant of Works being once establish'd 't is plain that as Sin forfeits Life so Obedience must give a right to it and as the Penitent could not be restored but by an Act of Grace so he that commits no Sin would need no Pardon But then Life it self and an Ability to work Righteousness must be owing to Grace antecedent to the Covenant and so such a one would have whereof to boast comparatively with respect to others who fell but not before God The Sum of all is Man has nothing to render to God but what he has received from him and therefore can offer him nothing but his own Which is no very good Foundation for Merit But suppose him absolute Master of himself Suppose him holding all things independent of God Can the Service of a few Days merit Immortality and Glory Angelical Perfection and a Crown He must be made up of Vanity and Presumption that dares affirm this 3. God stands in no need of our Service and 't is our own not his Interest we promote by it The Foundation of Merit amongst Men is Impotence and Want the Prince wants the Service and Tribute of the Subject the Subject the Protection of the Prince the Rich needs the Ministry and the Labour of the Poor the Poor Support and Maintenance from the Rich. And it is thus in Imaginary as well as Real Wants The Luxury and Pleasure of one must be provided for and supported by the Care and Vigilance of others and the Pomp and the Pride of one part of the World cannot subsist but on the Servitude of the other In these Cases therefore mutual Wants create mutual Rights and mutual Merit But this is not the Case between God and Man God is not subject to any Wants or Necessities Nor is his Glory or Happiness capable of Diminution or Increase He is a Monarch that needs no Tribute to Support his Grandeur nor any Strength or Power besides his own to guard his Throne If we revolt or rebel we cannot injure Him if we be loyal and obedient we cannot profit Him He has all Fulness all Perfection in himself He is an Almighty and All-sufficient God But on the quite contrary though God have no Wants we have many and though his Majesty and Felicity be subject to no Vicissitude we are subject to many Our Service to God therefore is our own Interest and our Obedience is design'd to procure our own Advantage we need we daily need his Support and Protection we depend entirely on His Favour and Patronage in him we live and move and have our Being and from Him as from an inexhaustible Fountain we derive all the Streams of Good by which we are refreshed and improved To know and love Him is our Wisdom to depend upon Him our Happiness and Security to serve and worship Him our Perfection and Liberty to enjoy Him will be our Heaven and those Glimpses of his Presence which we are vouchsafed thorough the Spirit in this Life are the Pledges and Foretaste of it This is the constant Voice of Scripture Every good Gift and every perfect Gift is from above and cometh from the Father of Lights Jam. 1.17 If I were hungry I would not tell thee for the World is mine and the Fulness thereof Will I eat the Flesh of Bulls or drink the Blood of Goats Offer unto God Thanksgiving and pay thy Vows unto the most high and call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Psal 50.12 13. c. If thou be Righteous what givest thou unto him thy Wickedness may hurt a Man c. Job 35.7 8. SECT III. Of the Impediments of Perfection THough I have been all along carrying on the Design of this Section that is the Removing the Obstacles of Perfection yet I easily foresaw there might be some which would not be reduc'd within the Compass of the foregoing Heads For these therefore I reserv'd this Place These are Five 1. Too easie and loose a Notion of Religion 2. An Opinion that Perfection is not attainable 3. That Religion is an Enemy to Pleasure 4. The Love of the World in a higher Degree at least than will consist with Perfection 5. The Infirmity of the Flesh § 1. Some seem to have entertain'd such a Notion of Religion as if Moderation here were as necessary as any where else They look upon Zeal as as an Excess of Righteousness and can be well enough content to want Degrees of Glory if they can but save their Souls To which End they can see no Necessity of Perfection Now I would beseech such seriously to lay to Heart that Salvation and Damnation are Things of no common Importance and therefore it highly concerns them not to be mistaken in the Notion they form to themselves of Religion For the Nature of Things will not be altered by their Fancies nor will God be mocked or imposed on If we will deal sincerely with our selves as in this Case it certainly behoves us to do we must frame our Idea of Religion not from the Opinions the Manners or the Fashions of the World but from the Scriptures And we must not interpret these by our own Inclinations but we must judge of the Duties they prescribe by those Descriptions of them by those Properties and Effects which we find there We must weigh the Design and End of Religion which is to promote the Glory of God and the Good of Man and to raise us above the World and the Body and see how our Platform or Model of Religion suits with it And if after we have done this we are not fully satisfied in the true Bounds and Limits which part Vice and Vertue it cannot but be safest for us to err on the right hand We ought always to remember too That the repeated Exhortations in Scripture to Diligence and that the most earnest and indefatigable to Vigilance to Fear and Trembling to Patience to Steadfastness and such-like are utterly inconsistent with an easier lazy gentile Religion That the Life of Jesus is the fairest and fullest Comment on his Doctrine and That we never are to follow the Examples of a corrupt World but of the best Men and the best Ages This this one thing alone will convince
Nazian thought it very extravagant to pretend to be Perfecter then the Rule and Exacter then the Law The Quakers have made much noise and stir about the Doctrine of Perfection and have reflected very severely on others as subverting the great Design of our Redemption which is Deliverance from Sin and upholding the Kingdom of Darkness But with what Justice will easily appear when I have represented their Sense which I will do very Impartially and in as few and plain words as I can Mr. W. P. (d) A Key opening c. tells us that They are so far Infallible and Perfect as they are led by the Spirit This is indeed true but 't is meer trifling For This is an Infallibility and Perfection which no man denies who believes in the Holy Ghost since whoever follows His Guidance must be in the right unless the Holy Ghost himself be in the wrong He urges 't is true a great number of Scriptures to shew they are his own words that a State of Perfection from Sin though not in fulness of Wisdom and Glory is attainable in this Life But this is too dark and short a hint to infer the Sense of his Party from it Mr. Ed. Burroughs (e) Principles of Truth c. is more full We believe saith he that the Saints upon Earth may receive forgiveness of Sins and may be perfectly freed from the Body of Sin and Death and in Christ may be perfect and without Sin and may have victory over all Temptations by Faith in Jesus Christ And we believe every Saint that is called of God ought to press after Perfection and to over-come the Devil and all his Temptations upon Earth And we Believe they that faithfully wait for it shall obtain it and shall be presented without Sin in the Image of the Father And such walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit and are in Covenant with God and their sins are blotted out and remembred no more for they cease to commit sin being Born of the Seed of God If by Sin here he means as he seems to do Deliberate or Presumptuous Sin I do not think any Establish'd Church whether Protestant or Popish Teaches otherwise Mr. Barclay (f) Apol. Thes 8. goes very Methodically to work and first sets down the state of the Question then confutes those that differ from Him answers their Objections out of Scripture and lastly establishes his own Doctrine As to the Perfection which he asserts he lets us know That it is to be derived from the Spirit of Christ that it consists not in an Impossibility of Sinning but a Possibility of not Sinning And that his Perfect Man is capable of Daily Growth and Improvement When to This I have added that he speaks all along of That which we call Wilful Sin as appears from his Description of it for he calls it Iniquity Wickedness Impurity the Service of Satan and attributes such Effects to it as belong not at all to what we call Sins of Infirmity when I say This is added to render his Sense clear I can readily subscribe to him For I know no such Doctrines in our Church as Those which he there opposes namely that the Regenerate are to live in Sin and that their Good Works are Impure and Sinful But then he either mistakes the Main Point in Debate or prudently declines it For the Question is not whether good Men may live in Mortal or Wilful Sin but whether good Men are not subject to Frailties and Infirmities which are indeed Sins though not imputable under the Covenant of Grace Whether the Quakers are not in this Point Pelagians I do not now inquire because if they be they are already considered Two things there are in Mr. Barclay's state of the Question which I cannot so well approve of the One is that he expresses himself so injudiciously about the growth and improvement of his Perfect Man that he seems to forget the Difference the Scriptures make between Babes and full Grown Men in Christ and to place Perfection so low in reference to Positive Righteousness or Virtue as if it consisted in Negative only or ceasing from Sin The Other is That though he does not peremptorily affirm a State of Impeccability attainable in this Life yet he seems inclined to Believe it and imagines it countenanced by 1 Joh. 3.9 But he ought to have consider'd That whatever Impeccability may be inferr'd from that Text it is attributed not to some extraordinary Persons but to all whosoever they be that are Born of God but this is out of my way All that I am to observe upon the whole is that These Men place Perfection especially in refraining from Sin I advance higher and place it in a well-setled Habit of Righteousness And I believe they will be as little dissatisfied with me for this as I am with them for asserting the Perfect Man freed from Sin For as Mr. Barclay expresses himself I think he has in reality no Adversaries but Antinomians and Ranters As to That Perfection which is magnified by Mistical Writers some of Them have only darken'd and obscured the plain Sense of the Gospel by figurative and unintelligible Terms Those of Them which write with more Life and Heat than other Men ordinarily do recommend nothing but that Holiness which begins in the Fear and is consummate in the Love of God which enlightens the Mind purifies the Heart and fixes and unites Man to his Soveraign Good that is God And I am sure I shall not differ with These There are I confess almost innumerable sayings of the Fathers which sufficiently testifie how little Friends they were to Perfection in such a Notion of it as is too generally embraced in the Church of Rome The Primitive Spirit breathed Nothing but Humility It was a professed Enemy to All self-Confidence and Arrogance to Supererogation and Merit and it invited Men earnestly to reflect upon the Sins and Slips of Life and on that Opposition which the Law of the Body maintains against the Law of the Mind in some Degree or other in the Best Men. This Consideration forced the Bishop of Condome to that plain and honest Confession Itaque Justitia Nostra licet per Charitatis Infusionem sit vera c. though our Righteousness because of that Love which the Spirit sheds abroad in our Hearts be Sincere and Real yet is it not absolute and consummate because of the Opposition of Concupiscence So that it is an indispensable Duty of Christianity to be perpetually bewailing the Errors of Life Wherefore we are oblig'd humbly to confess with St. Austin That our Righteousness in this Life consists rather in the pardon of our Sins then in the perfection of our Virtues All this is undoubtedly true but concerns not me I never Dream of any man's passing the Course of Life without Sin Nor do I contend for such a Perfection as St. Austin calls Absolute which will admit of no Increase and
is kept awake and in its Vigour How Convictive how moving is the Discourse of a Devout and Pious Friend When he complains or when he rejoyces when he relates the History of his own Experience when he lets us see the Designs he has Form'd and the excellent Ends his Soul thirsts after how does our Heart burn within us What variety of Affections does it raise in us when he makes his remarks on Human Nature and the World when he bewails the dishonour of God and the decay of Religion amongst us when he relates the misery and misfortune of Sinners and observes the particular Sins and Follies that occasioned it How often does he hereby provoke us to wise Reflections on our selves How many new Beauties does he discover to us in Vertue how many Deformities in Sin which had escaped our Observations But 't is not the Conversation only of my Friend but his Life also from which I derive or may do so Instruction and Admonition The Perfections of my Friend are the gentlest and the mildest and yet the most awakening Reproofs too of my own Defects and by the Freshness and Lustre of his Vertue I discern best the Weakness and the Dimness of my own How often have I been moved to turn my Thoughts with some Indignation on my own Heats and Commotions while I have admired and blest the sweetness and the gentleness the softness and the calm very conspicuous in an excellent Friend And when I have heard another mention his Nightly Praises and those Divine Thoughts which filled the Intervals of his Sleep and made those Hours that are so burthensome to some the most entertaining and delightful parts of his Rest how have I been inwardly filled with Confusion and Shame How have I upbraided and reproached my self condemned the sluggishness of my Daies the dulness and the wandrings of my Soul by Night And I believe every sincere Man must find himself thus affected on the like occasions For in this kind of Reproof which I talk of there is something more of Force and Authority than is to be found in any other for the Example of Friends does not only teach us what we are to do but demonstrates also that it may be done Nor does Vertue any where appear with so lovely and charming an Air as in a Friend But after all amongst all the benefits we gain by excellent Friendships we ought not to reckon this as the least that it is one and that an indispensable Office of Friendship to admonish and reprove For the reproofs of Instruction are the Paths of Life Prov. 6.23 But then that we may be capable of this Blessing we must dispose our Minds to expect and bear reproof We must strive after an humble and teachable temper and we must invite and incourage our Friends to this kindest Office not only by unaffected requests but also by obeying their advice pardoning whatever Infirmity may be interspers'd with it and loving them the better as indeed they deserve For there is scarce any better proof of their Affection Prudence and Courage which they are capable of giving us 2ly A Second End of Instrumental Duties is the Increase of Spiritual Strength Now Spiritual Strength consists in the Power and Dominion we have over our Affections and Actions and it stands upon two Bases the Reduction of Sin and the Growth of Vertue whatever does weaken and reduce our propensions to Sin whatever promotes the subjection of the Body adds Power and Authority to the Mind and renders Vertue more easie and pleasant And because Vertues have a mutual Connexion and Dependance upon one another therefore whatever promotes any one promotes all But especially whatever strengthens our Hope or quickens our Fear or enlarges our Knowledge and increases our Faith this does confirm and establish our Resolution more then any thing else Faith is the Root Fear the Guard and Hope the Spur of all our Vertues Faith convinces us what is our Duty Fear makes us Impartial Diligent and Watchful Hope resolved and active in the Prosecution of it It being thus clear what our Spiritual Strength consists in it will be easie to discern by what means we are to gain it But I can here only suggest those Hints and Intimations which the Reader must upon occasion as he needs inlarge and improve 1. Meditation is the first thing necessary We must often survey the Grounds and Foundations of our Faith we must consider frequently and seriously the Scripture Topicks of Hope and Fear such are the Death of Jesus a Judgment to come the Holiness and Justice and the Omnipresence of God We must diligently observe the Wiles and Stratagems of Satan the Arts and Insinuations of the World and Flesh and mark the Progress of Sin from its very beginning to Maturity and all this with a particular regard to the Corruption of our own Nature and the deceitfulness of our own Hearts We must often ponder upon the Beauty and Peace of Holiness the love of God and of Jesus the Vertues sufferings and Crowns of Martyrs And finally if we will increase in strength we must practise this duty of Meditation often and we must not suffer our selves to be withdrawn from it or be prevail'd with to intermit it on any slight and trivial pretences And because we are not always Masters of our own Affairs nor consequently of our Time therefore ought we to have ever ready at hand a good Collection of Texts which contain in few words the Power and Spirit of Gospel Motives the Perfection and Beauty of Duties and the substance of Advice and Counsel And to fix these so in our Memory that they may serve as a Shield for us to oppose as our Saviour did against the Darts of the Devil and as a supply of excellent and useful Thoughts upon a suddain so that in all the little Interruptions of business and the many little vacancies of the Day the Mind which is an active and busie Spirit may never want a proper subject to work upon much less loose it self in wild and lasie amusements or defile it self by vain or Vicious Thoughts But we must not only take care that Meditation be frequent but also that it be not loose and roving To which end it will be necessary to Study our selves as well as the Scriptures and to be intimately acquainted with the advantages and disadvantages of our Constitution and our State that so in our Meditations on the Scriptures we may more particularly have an Eye on those Vices we are most obnoxious to and those Vertues which are either more necessary or more feeble and under-grown Next after Meditation must follow Prayer Great is the Power of Prayer in promoting Christian Strength and Fortitude whether we consider its Prevalence upon God or its natural Influence upon our selves If we consider the latter what Divine Force and Energy is there in the Confidences of Faith the Joys of Hope the earnest Longings and Desires of Love
the contrary consist in being able not only to will but to do good in obeying those Commandments which we cannot but acknowledge to be holy and just and good And this is the very Notion which our Lord and Master gives us of it Joh. 8. For when the Jews bragg'd of their Freedom he lets them know that Freedom could not consist with Subjection to Sin he that committeth Sin is the Servant of Sin ver 34. That honourable Parentage and the Freedom of the Body was but a false and ludicrous Appearance of Liberty that if they would be free indeed the Son must make them so ver 36. i. e. they must by his Spirit and Doctrine be rescued from the Servitude of Lust and Errour and be set at Liberty to work Righteousness If ye continue in my word then are ye my Disciples indeed and ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free ver 31 32. Finally not to multiply Proofs of a truth that is scarce liable to be controverted as the Apostle describes the Bondage of a Sinner in Rom. 7. so does he the Liberty of a Saint in Rom. 8. For there ver 2. he tells us That the Law of the Spirit of Life has set the true Christian free from the Law of Sin and Death And then he lets us know wherein this Liberty consists in walking not after the Flesh but after the Spirit in the Mortification of the Body of Sin and Restitution of the Mind to its just Empire and Authority If Christ be in you the Body is dead because of Sin but the Spirit is Life because of Righteousness ver 10. And all this is the same thing with his Description of Liberty Chapter 6. where 't is nothing else but for a Man to be made free from Sin and become the Servant of God Thus then we have a plain account of Bondage and Liberty Yet for the clearer understanding of both it will not be amiss to observe that they are each capable of different Degrees and both the one and the other may be more or less entire compleat and absolute according to the different Progress of Men in Vice and Vertue Thus in some Men not their Will only but their very Reason is enslaved Their Vnderstanding is so far infatuated their Affections so entirely captived that there is no Conflict at all between the Mind and the Body they commit Sin without any Reluctancy before-hand or any Remorse afterwards their sâ—ared Conscience making no Remonstrance inflicting no wounds nor denouncing any Threats This is the last Degree of Vassalage Such are said in Scripture to be dead in Trespasses and Sins Others there are in whom their Lust and Appetite prevails indeed but not without Opposition They Reason rightly and which is the natural Result of this have some Desires and wishes of Righteousness but through the Prevalency of the Body they are unable to act and live conformable to their Reason Their Vnderstanding has indeed Light but not Authority It consents to the Law of God but it has no Power no Force to make it be obeyed it produces indeed some good Inclinations Purposes and Efforts but they prove weak and ineffectual ones and unable to grapple with the stronger Passion raised by the Body And as Bondage so Liberty is of different Degrees and different Strength For though Liberty may be able to subsist where there is much Opposition from the Body yet 't is plain that Liberty is most absolute and compleat where the Opposition is least where the Body is reduced to an entire Submission and Obsequiousness and the Spirit reigns with an uncontroul'd and unlimited Authority And this latter is that Liberty which I would have my Perfect man possessed of I know very well 't is commonly taught by some that there is no such State But I think this Doctrine if it be throughly considered has neither Scripture Reason nor Experience to support it For as to those Places Rom. 7. and Gal. 5. urged in favour of an almost Incessant strong and too-frequently prevalent lusting of the Flesh against the Spirit it has been often answered and proved too that they are so far from belonging to the Perfect that they belong not to the Regenerate But on the contrary those Texts that represent the Yoke of Christ easie and his burden light which affirm the Commandments of Christ not to be grievous to such as are made Perfect in Love do all bear witness to that Liberty which I contend for Nor does Reason favour my Opinion less than Scripture For if the Perfect man be a New Creature if he be transformed into a New Nature if his Body be dead to sin and his Spirit live to Righteousness in one word if the World be as much crucified to him as he to it I cannot see why it should not be easie for him to act consonant to his Nature why he should not with Pleasure and Readiness follow that Spirit and obey those Affections which reign and rule in him Nor can I see why a Habit of Righteousness should not have the same Properties with other Habits that is be attended with ease and pleasure in its Operations and Actions 'T is true I can easily see why the Habits of Righteousness are acquired with more Difficulty than those of any other kind but I say I cannot see when they are acquired why they should not be as natural and delightful to us as any other Lastly how degenerate soever Ages past have been or the present is I dare not so far distrust the Goodness of my Cause or the Vertue of Mankind as not to refer my self willingly in this point to the Decision of Experience I am very well assured that Truth and Justice Devotion and Charity Honour and Integrity are to a great many so dear and delightful so natural so easie that it is hard to determine whether they are more strongly moved by a sense of Duty or the Instigations of Love and Inclination and that they cannot do a base thing without the utmost Mortification and Violence to their Nature Nor is all this to be wondred at if we again reflect on what I just now intimated that the Perfect Man is a new Creature transformed daily from Glory to Glory that he is moved by new Affections raised and fortified by new Principles that he is animated by a Divine Energy and sees all things by a truer and brighter Light through which the things of God appear lovely and beautiful the things of the World Deformed and worthless just as to him who views them through a Microscope the Works of God appear exact and elegant but those of Man coarse and bungling and ugly My Opinion then which asserts the absolute Liberty of the Perfect Man is sufficiently proved here and in Chap. the first And if I thought it were not I could easily reinforce it with fresh Recruits For the glorious Characters that are given us in Scripture of the Liberty of
on the Soul in its Creation but also scatters and diffuses I know not what Venome and Infection thorough it that makes it eagerly pursue its own Misery 'T is a Disease that produces more intollerable Effects in the Soul than any whatever can in the Body The Predominancy of any noxious Humour can breed no Pain no Disturbance equal to that of a Predominant Passionâ— no Scars or Ruins which the worst Disease leaves behind it are half so deformed and loathsom as those of Vice Nay that last Change which Death it self produces when it converts a beautiful Body into Dust and Rottenness is not half so contemptible or hateful as that of Sin when it transforms Man into a Beast or Devil If we do not yet sufficiently comprehend the Nature of Sin by viewing it as it exists in our Minds and Hearts we may Contemplate it in our Actions And here 't is Blindness and Folly Rashness and Madness Incogitance Levity Falshood and Cowardise 't is every thing that is mean and base and all this aggravated by the most accursed Ingratitude that Human Nature is capable of These and the like Reflections on the Nature of Sin cannot chuse but render it hateful And if Secondly we make any serious ones on the Effects of it they cannot fail of rendering it frightful and dreadful to us These Effects may be especially reduced to Three 1. The ill Influence Sin has upon our Temporal Concerns 2. Guilt And 3. Fear As to the First of these I shall only say that we suffer very few Evils but what are owing to our own Sins that it is very rarely any Calamity befalls us but we may put our Finger on the Fountain the Sin I mean from whence the Mischief flows Whence come Wars and Fighting amongst you saith St. James come they not from your Lusts which war in your Members This is every jot as applicable to Private as Publick Contentions and where Envy Strife and Contention is no evil Work no Disaster will be long absent I might run through all the different kinds of Evils that infest the Body or embroil the Fortune that blast our Hopes or stain our Desires and easily shew that they all generally spring from our Vices Nay what is worse yet I could shew that Sin converts our good things into evil and our Enjoyments into Punishments that it renders the slightest Evils intollerable turns Scratches into Wounds and Wounds into Gangrenes But this is too copious a subject and would insensibly render me Voluminous when I would be as short as possibly I can A Second Effect of Sin is Guilt which is nothing else but a Consciousness of having done ill and an Obligation to Punishment resulting from it And though Men often Sin with Hopes of Impunity yet it is hard to imagine even on this supposal that they should sin without suffering the Reproaches of their own Minds which surely must be very uneasie to them To be perpetually vex't at ones own Folly to commit those things which we inwardly condemn and be in continual Pain lest they should come to Light to be always displeased at ones self and afraid not only of the Reflections of others but our own This is methinks a great Evil did no other attend our sin But Thirdly Fear is almost inseparably joyned with Guilt for Guilt does not only damp the Chearfulness and enfeeble the Vigour of the Mind it does not only destroy that Confidence Man would otherwise naturally have in God and render him Cowardly and Pusillanimous but it terrifies his Soul with Melancholy Apprehensions and makes him live continually in fear of Death and Punishment And thus the Scripture represents the state of a sinner The wicked flee when none pursue but the righteous are bold as a lion Prov. 28.1 If our heart condemn us God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things 1 John 3.2 There is no peace to the wicked saith the Lord Isa 48.22 To deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Heb. 2.15 The sinners in Zion are afraid fearfulness has surpised the Hypocrites who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burnings Isa 23.14 Nor let any one wonder that notwithstanding the outward Gaiety of the sinner the Spirit thus describes the inward Condition of his Soul As long as Men retain the Belief of a God it is impossible they should wholly free themselves from the Fear of him They may indeed forget him in the Fits of Lust or Passion but in their Intermissions his Terrours will return upon them with more Violence Again as long as Men retain the common Principles of Truth and Justice if they acknowledge but the Obligation of that universal Law Thou shalt do to others as thou wouldest they should do unto thee 't is impossible they should reflect on their sins without Regret and uneasiness for there is no sin but has more or less Repugnancy in it to Truth Justice and Goodness Finally as long as Men are perswaded that there is such a Faculty as Conscience that God has prescribed them a Law and that they are accountable to Him the natural Conscience cannot chuse but by Fits and upon Occasions scourge and torture lance and gash them And 't is a hard matter to wear out these Notions they are so natural and obvious the Proofs of them are so clear their Reputation and Authority in the World is so well established and the Providence of God so frequently inculcates them Men may easily wear out all sense of the Beauty and of their Obligations to the Heights and Perfections of Vertue but they cannot so easily do this in reference to Virtue in general because 't is temper'd and accommodated to Human Nature and Society and necessary to the tollerable well-being of the World Men may soon I confess extinguish their Christianity but not Humanity and while this remains Sin will leave a Stain and Guilt behind it and Guilt will be attended by uneasiness and Fear The very Pagans who had advanced so far in Wickedness as to be given up to all dishonourable Passions and to commit all Vncleanness with Greediness had not yet so mortified and stupified their Consciences but that it gave them much Disturbance Rom. 1. ver 32. 't is said of them that they knew the Judgment of God that they which committed such things were worthy of Death And Rom. 2.15 their Consciences are said to accuse and condemn them And 't is of very wicked Men that the Author to the Hebrews affirms that through fear of Death they were all their life time subject to bondage But are there not will some say many Ingenious and Brave Spirits who have dispersed these vain Spectres and burst those superstitious Fetters by which you labour to scare and enslave the World I do not doubt indeed but that there are too many who have vigorously endeavour'd to cashier all Principles of Natural
Parts and Gallantry Blessed God! to what Degree of Madness and Stupidity may Men of the finest Natural Parts sink when abandon'd by Thee or rather when they themselves abandon Thee and that Light which Thou hast set up in the World Our Lord and Master thought the Profits and Pleasures of the whole World a poor Compensation for the Loss of the Soul What is a Man profited if he gain the whole World c. Matth. 16. But these Men rather than it should not perish for ever will charge through Shame and Pain Remorse and Sickness and all the Obstacles that God has set between us and a desperate Height of Wickedness 4. Though a Sinner may come to that Pass as to suppress his Conscience and master his Fears yet he must ever be conscious to himself of the Fruitlesness and the Meanness of a Course of Sin He must needs be inwardly sensible that he has wearied himself to commit Iniquity to no purpose that his Mind has been restless and tempestuous like a troubled Sea casting up its own Mire and Dirt He must be conscious to himself that he is false and unjust unconstant and ingrateful and in Bondage to such Lusts as are mean and poor and injurious to his Repose and which he has often wished himself free from And this no doubt must be a blessed Condition when a Man 's own Mind does to his face assure him that he is that very thing which all the World condemns and scorns and which he cannot endure to be charg'd with without resenting it as the highest Affront Certainly it were better that all the World should call me Fool and Knave and Villain than that I should call my self so and know it to be true My Peace and Happiness depends upon my own Opinion of my self not that of others 't is the inward sentiments that I have of my self that raise or deject me and my Mind can no more be pleased with any Sensation but its own than the Body can be gratified by the Relishes of another's Palate 5. The more insensible a Sinner grows the more intollerable is the Disorder and Distraction which Sin produces in his Affairs While Men are under any little restraints of Conscience while they are held in by Scruples and Fears and Fits of Regret while in a Word they Sin with any Modesty so long Sin will tollerably comport with their Interest and Reputation but as soon as they grow insensible and impudent they pass all bounds and there is nothing so dear and considerable to them which they will not Sacrifice to their Wickedness Now Wife and Children Friends Estate Laws Vows Compacts Oaths are no stronger Ties to them than Sampson's Wit hs or Cords Such a one as this is very well described in the Prophet Thou art a swift Dromedary traversing her ways a wild Ass used to the Wilderness that snuffeth up the Wind at her pleasure in her occasion who can turn her away Jer. 2.22 And again he is fitly represented to an Horse rushing into the Battel He has as much Contempt for his safety and Happiness as for Reason and Religion he defies Shame Ruin and Death as much as he does God and Providence in one word with an impudent and lewd stupidity he makes all the hast he can to be undone and since he will be so it were well if he could be undone alone I am sure we have too many Instances at this Day of the miserable and fatal Effects of Atheism and Deism to leave any room to doubt whether I have strained the point here or no. Upon the whole it does appear that Sin is a great Evil and that the Evil of it is not lessen'd but increased by Obduration And from hence the Proposition infer'd does naturally follow that Deliverance from it is a great Good so great that if we estimate it by the Evil there is in Sin Health to the Sick Liberty to the Captive Day to the benighted weary and wandring Traveller a Calm a Port to Passengers in a Storm Pardon to Men adjudged to Death are but weak and imperfect Images or Resemblances of it A Disease will at worst terminate with the Body and Life and Pain will have an End together But the Pain that Sin causes will endure to all Eternity for the Worm dies not and the Fire will not be quenched The Errour of the Traveller will be corrected by the approaching Day and his Weariness refreshed at the next Stage he comes to but he that errs impenitently from the Path of Life is lost for ever When the Day of Grace is once set upon him no Light shall e're recal his wandring Feet into the Path of Righteousness and Peace no Ease no Refreshment shall e're relieve his Toil and Misery Whilest the Feet of the Captive are loaded with Fetters his Soul may enjoy its truest Liberty and in the midst of Dangers and Dungeons like Paul and Silas he may sing Songs of Praise and Triumph but the Captivity of Sin defiles oppresses and enslaves the Mind and delivers up the miserable Man to those intollerable and endless Evils which inexorable Justice and Almighty Wrath inflicts upon Ingratitude and Obstinacy A Storm can but wreck the Body a frail and worthless Bark the Soul will escape safe to Shore the Blessed Shore where the happy Inhabitants enjoy an undisturbed an Everlasting Calm but Sin makes Shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience and he that perishes in it does but pass into a more miserable state for on the wicked God will rain Snares Fire and Brimstone storm and tempest this shall be their portion forever Psal 11. And Lastly a Pardon sends back a Condemned Criminal to Life that is to Sins and Sufferings to toils and troubles which Death if Death were the utmost he had to fear would have freed him from But he that is once delivered from Sin is past from Death to Life and from this Life of Faith of Love of Hope shall soon pass to another of Fruition and Glory § 2. A Second Fruit of Liberty is Good Works Here I will shew Two things First and this but briefly that the Works of Righteousness contribute mightily to our Happiness and that immediately Secondly That Deliverance from Sin removes the great Obstacles and Impediments of Righteousness and throws off that Weight which would otherwise encumber and tire us in our Race 1. Holiness is no small Pleasure no small Advantage to him who is exercised therein When Nature is renewed and restored the Works of Righteousness are properly and truly the Works of Nature and to do good to Man and offer up our Praises and Devotions to God is to gratifie the strongest and most delightful Inclinations we have These indeed are at first stifled and oppressed by Original Corruption false Principles and Vicious Customs But when once they have broke through these like Seeds through the Earthy Coats they are enclosed and imprisoned in and are impregnated warmed and cherished by
Things appear to us and the more the Mind rejoyces in the Lord the oftner 'tis rapt up into Heaven and as it were transfigured into a more glorious Being by the Joy of the Spirit and the Ardours of Divine Love the more flat and insipid are all earthly and carnal Satisfactions to it Another Effect that attends our shaking off the Dominion of Sin and our devoting our selves to the Service of God is our being purified from Guilt The Stains of the past Life are washed off by Repentance and the Blood of Jesus and the Servant of God contracts no new ones by wilful and presumptuous Sin Now therefore he can enter into himself and commune with his own Heart without any Vneasiness he can reflect upon his Actions and review each day when it is past without inward Regret or Shame To break off a vicious Course to vanquish both Terrours and Allurements when they perswade to that which is mean and base to be Master of ones self and entertain no Affections but what are wise and regular and such as one has Reason to wish should daily increase and grow stronger these are things so far from meriting Reproach and Reproof from ones own Mind that they are sufficient to support it against all Reproaches from without Such is the Beauty such the Pleasure of a well established Habit of Righteousness that it does more than compensate the Difficulties to which either the Attainment or the Practice of it can expose a Man Lastly He that is free from Guilt is free from Fear too And indeed this is the only way to get rid of all our Fears not by denying or renouncing God with Atheists but by doing the things that please Him He that is truly Religious is the only Man who upon rational Ground is raised above Melancholy and Fear For what should he fear God is his Glory his Boast his Joy his Strength and if God be for him who can be against him neither things present nor to come neither Life nor Death can separate him from the Love of God in Christ Jesus There is nothing within the Bounds of Time or Eternity that he needs fear Man cannot hurt him he is incompassed with the favour and loving kindness of God as with a Shield But if God permit him to suffer for Righteousness sake happy is he This does but increase his present Joy and future Glory But what is most considerable Death it self cannot hurt him Devils cannot hurt him the sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law but thanks be to God who giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. For there is no Condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit These Considerations prove the present Condition of a Servant of God happy Happy in Comparison of the Loose and Wicked but in Comparison with what he shall be hereafter he is infinitely short of the Joy and Glory of his End In this respect indeed he is yet in a state of Tryal and Trouble of Discipline and Probation in this respect his Perfection and Happiness do but just peep up above the Ground the Fulness and Maturity of both he cannot enjoy till he come to Heaven And this is § 4. The Last Fruit of Christian Liberty That Heaven will consist of all the Blessings of all the Enjoyments that Human Nature when raised to an Equality with Angels is capable of that Beauties and Glories Joys and Pleasures will as it were like a fruitful and ripe Harvest here grow up there in all the utmost Plenty and Perfection that Omnipotence it self will e're produce is not at all to be controverted Heaven is the Master-piece of God the Accomplishment and Consummation of all his wonderful Designs the last and most endearing Expression of boundless Love And hence it is that the Holy Spirit in Scripture describes it by the most taking and the most admired things upon Earth and yet we cannot but think that this Image though drawn by a Divine Pencil must fall infinitely short of it For what temporal things can yield Colours or Metaphors strong and rich enough to paint Heaven to the Life One thing there is indeed which seems to point us to a just and adequate Notion of an Heaven it seems to excite us to strive and attempt for Conceptions of what we cannot grasp we cannot comprehend and the labouring Mind the more it discovers concludes still the more behind and that is the Beatifick Vision This is that which as Divines generally teach does constitute Heaven and Scripture seems to teach so too I confess I have often doubted whether our seeing God in the Life to come did necessarily imply that God should be the immediate Object of our Fruition or only that we should there as it were drink at the Fountain Head and being near and dear to Him in the highest Degree should ever flourish in his Favour and enjoy all Good heap'd up press'd down and running over I thought the Scriptures might be easily reconciled to this sense and the Incomprehensible Glory of the Divine Majesty inclin'd me to believe it the most reasonable and most easily accountable Injoyment and especially where an Intelligent Being is the Object of it seem'd to imply something of Proportion something of Equality something of Familiarity But ah what Proportion thought I can there ever be between Finite and Infinite what Equality between a poor Creature and his incomprehensible Creatour what Eye shall gave on the splendours of his essential Beauty when the very Light He dwells in is inaccessible and even the Brightness he vailes himself in is too dazling even for Cherub and Seraphs for ought I know to behold Ah! what Familiarity can there be between this Eternal and inconceiveable Majesty and Beings which He has formed out of nothing And when on this occasion I reflected on the Effects which the Presence of Angels had upon the Prophets and saw Human Nature in Man Sinking and dying away because unable to sustain the Glory of one of their Fellow-Creatures I thought my self in a manner obliged to yield and stand out no longer against a Notion which though differing from what was generally received seemed to have more Reason on its side and to be more intelligible But when I called to mind that God does not disdain even while we are in a state of Probation and Humility of Infirmity and Mortality to account us not only his Servants and his People but his Friends and his Children I began to question the former Opinion and when I had survey'd the Nature of Fruition and the various Ways of it a little more attentively I wholly quitted it For I observed that the Enjoyment is most transporting where Admiration mingles with our Passion where the beloved Object stands not upon the same Level with us but condescends to meet a Vertuous and aspiring and ambitious Affection Thus the happy Favourite enjoys
this Chapter is grown much too big already And to the consideration of the Fruit of this Liberty which I have so long insisted on nothing more needs to be added but the Observation of those Rules which I shall lay down in the following Chapters For whatever Advice will secure the several Parts of our Liberty will consequently secure the whole I will therefore close this Chapter here with a brief Exhortation to endeavour after Deliverance from Sin How many and powerful Motives have we to it Would we free our selves from the Evils of this Life let us dam up the Source of them which is Sin Would we surmount the Fear of Death let us disarm it of its Sting and this is Sin Would we perfect and accomplish our Natures with all excellent Qualities 't is Righteousness wherein consists the Image of God and Participation of the Divine Nature 't is the cleansing our selves from all Filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit and the perfecting Holiness in the fear of God that must transform us from Glory to Glory Would we be Masters of the most glorious Fortunes 't is Righteousness that will make us Heirs of God and Joynt-Heirs with Christ 't is the Conquest of our Sins and the abounding in good Works that will make us rich towards God and lay up for us a good Foundation for the Life to come Are we ambitious of Honour let us free our selves from the servitude of Sin 'T is Vertue only that is truly honourable and Praise-worthy and nothing surely can entitle us to so noble a Relation for this allies us to God For as our Saviour speaks they only are the Children of Abraham who do the Works of Abraham the Children of God who do the Works of God These are they who are born again not of the Will of the Flesh or of the Will of Man but of God These are they who are incorporated into the Body of Christ and being ruled and animated by his Spirit are entitled to all the blessed Effects of his Merit and Intercession These are they in a word who have overcome and will one day sit down with Christ in his Throne even as He also overcame and is set down with his Father in his Throne Rev. 3.21 Good God! how absurd and perverse all our Desires and Projects are We complain of the Evils of the World and yet we hugg the Causes of them and cherish those Vices whose fatal Wounds are ever big with numerous and intollerable Plagues We fear Death and would get rid of this Fear not by disarming but sharpning its Sting not by subduing but forgetting it We love Wealth and Treasure but 't is that which is Temporal not Eternal We receive Honour one of another but we seek not that which comes from God only We are fond of Ease and Pleasure and at the same time we wander from those Paths of Wisdom which alone can bring us to it For in a word 't is this Christian Liberty that makes Men truly free not the being in bondage to no Man but to no Sin not the doing what we list but what we ought 'T is Christian Liberty that makes us truly great and truly glorious for this alone renders us Serviceable to others and Easie to our selves Benefactors to the World and delightsome at home 't is Christian Liberty makes us truly prosperous truly fortunate because it makes us truly happy filling us with Joy and Peace and making us abound in hope through the Power of the Holy Ghost CHAP. IV. Of Liberty as it relates to Original Sin WHatever Difficulties the Doctrine of Original Sin really be involved in or seem at least to some to be so they will not concern me who am no further obliged to consider it than as it is an Impediment of Perfection For though there be much Disputes about Original Sin there is little or none about Original Corruption the Reality of this is generally acknowledged though the Guilt the Sinfulness or Immorality of it be controverted And though there be Diversity of Opinions concerning the Effects of Original Corruption in Eternity yet there is no Doubt at all made but that it incites and instigates us to actual Sin and is the Seed-plot of Human Folly and Wickedness All Men I think are agreed that there is a Byass and strong Propension in our Nature towards the Things of the World and the Body That the subordination of the Body to the Soul and of the Soul to God wherein consists Righteousness is subverted and overthrown That we have Appetites which clash with and oppose the Commands of God not only when they threaten Violence to our Nature as in the Cases of Confession and Martyrdom but also when they only prune its Luxuriancy and Extravagance That we do not only desire sensitive Pleasure but even to that Degree that it hurries and transports us beyond the Bounds that Reason and Religion set us We have not only an Aversion for Pain and Toil and Death but to that Excess that it tempts us to renounce God and our Duty for the sake of Carnal Ease and Temporal safety And finally that we are so backward to entertain the Belief of revealed Truths so prone to terminate our Thoughts on and confine our Desires within this visible World as our Portion and to look upon our selves no other than the mortal and corruptible Inhabitants of it that this makes us selfish and sordid proud and ambitious false subtle and contentious to the endless Disturbance of Mankind and our selves That this I say is the state of Nature that this is the Corruption we Labour under all Men I think are agreed And no wonder for did a Controversie arise about this there would be no need to appeal any further for the Decision of it than to ones own Experience this would tell every one that thus it is in Fact and Reason if we will consult it will tell us why it is so for what other than this can be the Condition of Man who enters the World with a Soul so dark and destitute of Divine Light so deeply immerced and plung'd into Flesh and Blood so tenderly and intimately affected by Bodily Sensations and with a Body so adapted and suited to the Things of this World and fastened to it by the Charms of Pleasure and the Bonds of Interest Convenience and Necessity This Account of Original Corruption agrees very well with that St. Paul gives us of it Rom. 7. and elsewhere And with that Assertion of our Lord and Master on which he builds the necessity of Regeneration by Water and the Holy Spirit Joh. 3.6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit Having thus briefly explained what I mean in this Chapter by Original Sin I am next to consider these two Things 1. How far this Distemper of Nature is curable 2. Which way this Cure is to be effected As to the first Enquiry I would
Matter of Fact that the most Perfect upon Earth are not without Frailties and Infirmities and such Infirmities as discover themselves in actual Slips and Errors But the Question is whether these are to be accounted Sins I must confess if we strictly follow the Language of the Scripture we should rather call them by some other Name for this does so generally understand by Sin a Deliberate Transgression of the Law of God that it will be very difficult to produce many Texts wherein the Word Sin is used in any other sense As to Legal Pollutions I have not much considered the matter But as to Moral ones I am in some Degree confident that the word Sin does generally signifie such a Transgression as by the Gospel Covenant is punishable with Death and rarely does it occur in any other sense I say rarely for if I be not much mistaken the Scripture does sometimes call those Infirmities I am now talking of Sin But what if it did not 'T is plain That every Deviation from the Law of God if it has any Concurrence of the will in it is in strict speaking Sin and 't is as plain that the Scripture does frequently give us such Descriptions and Characters and such Names of these Sins of Infirmity as do oblige us both to strive and watch against them and repent of them For it calls them Spots Errors Defects Slips and the like But what is Lastly most to my purpose it is plain That this Distinction of Sins into Mortal and Venial or Sins of Infirmity has its Foundation in express Texts of Scripture Numerous are the Texts cited to this purpose But he that will deal fairly must confess that they are most of them improperly and impertinently urged as relating either to Falls into Temporal Calamity or to Mortal not Venial Sins or to the Sins of an unregenerate State or to a comparative Impurity I mean the Impurity of Man with respect to God a Form of Expression frequent in Job I will therefore content my self to cite three or four which seem not liable to these Exceptions Deut 32.4 they have corrupted themselves their Spot is not the spot of his Children They are a perverse and crooked Generation Here two things seem to be pointed out to us plainly First That the Children of God are not without their Spots Secondly That these are not of the same Nature with those of the wicked in comparison with whose wilful and perverse Transgressions the Children of God are elsewhere pronounced blameless without Offence without Spot Psal 19.12 13. Who can understand his Errors cleanse thou me from secret Faults keep back also thy Servant from presumptuous Sins let them not have dominion over me then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great Transgression Here again the Psalmist seems to me to place Uprightness in Freedom from Deliberate or Mortal Sin and to admit of another sort of Transgressions into which even upright Men slip sometimes Nor does the Psalmist here only assert Venial Sins but he seems to me to suggest the Springs and Sources of them namely some secret Dispositions in our Nature to Folly and Error which he prays God to cleanse and free him from more and more cleanse thou me from secret Faults The word Fault is not in the Original but something of that kind must be supplied to render the sense entire in our Language The words of Solomon Prov. 20.9 seem to relate to this Corruption lurking in us and never utterly to be extirpated Who can say I have made my Heart clean I am pure from my Sin For if this should be applied to Mortal Sin every one sees that it will contradict a hundred places in Scripture which attribute to Righteous Men Purity of Heart and Deliverance from Sin Lastly James 3.2 we are told plainly that in many things we offend all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not Sinners only but Righteous and Upright Men have their Defects and Slips And accordingly there is not any Life which we have the History of in Scripture how excellent soever the Person be but we meet with some of these recorded as will appear from those several Instances I shall produce when I come to describe the Nature of these Sins And certainly when David says of himself my Sins are more in number than the hairs of my head He that shall interpret this Place of Mortal or Presumptuous Sins will both contradict the Scriptures which acquit him except in the matter of Vriah and highly wrong the Memory of David making him a Prodigy of Wickedness instead of a Saint Nor does that make any thing against me which he adds in the next Words my heart fails me or that in the foregoing Verse mine Iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up For I do not affirm that the Psalmist here has regard only to Sins of Infirmity exclusively of others no he reckons all together and so discerns the one aggravated by the other and the Guilt of all together very far enhansed Nor do I Secondly interess my self here in that Dispute between Protestants and Papists whether Sins of Infirmity are not damnable in their own Nature though not imputed under the Covevenant of Grace Nor do I Lastly examine what a vast Heap of Sins of Infirmity may amount to though the Gilt of this or that alone were not so fatal I have then I think proved the matter in Question having shewed both from the Experience of Mankind and the Scripture That the best Men have their Infirmities and Defects And that these may properly enough be called Sins I think it superfluous to prove that they consist with a state of Salvation since 't is not by any that I know of denied and may be easily enough made out from what I have already said I am now to Enquire S. 2. What these Sins be and how distinguished from Mortal or Damnable ones To this purpose we may distinguish Human Actions under which I comprise both Internal and External into three sorts Voluntary Involuntary and Mixt. § 1. There are Actions properly and truly Voluntary such are those deliberate Transgressions of a Divine Law which Man commits in Opposition to the direct Remonstrances of Conscience he knows the Action is forbid he sees the Turpitude and Obliquity of it he is not ignorant of the punishment denounced against it and yet he ventures upon it This is plainly Mortal Damnable Sin and I cannot think that any Circumstance or Pretence whatever can render it Venial And therefore I must be pardoned if I cannot be of their Opinion who supposed that the smalness of the Matter the Reluctancy of Conscience or the Length and Force of a Temptation can so soften and mitigate a Voluntary Transgression as to diminish it into a Sin of Infirmity 1. As to the smalness of the Matter Some cannot but think those Transgressions Venial which are for the Matter of them so
Inadvertency in compleat Acts of crying Sins Secondly There is no pretence for Inadvertency if we had any Misgivings within or Warnings without concerning that particular Sin into which we fell afterwards much less if we cherish ill Motions till they grow too strong for us And Last of all if we repeat the same Sin frequently and contemptuously And to this I may add he cannot be said to Sin through Surprise who throws himself into the Way of Temptation even though he be conscious of his own Infirmity 3ly As to those Moral Defects which flow from natural Infirmity they will not destroy us if the Infirmity it self be pardonable There are Infirmities which we acquire Infirmities which grow stronger by Indulgence Infirmities which continue meerly because we do not take Pains to subdue them Our Moral Defects must not flow from these kinds of Infirmities but from such as considering Human Nature and the State of this World 't is impossible utterly to root out These moral Defects will do us no harm if First we take Care to settle in our Minds the Habits of those Vertues that are directly opposite to them Secondly If we watch and fight against our natural Infirmities and endeavour to reduce our Appetites even our natural Appetites within strict and narrow Bounds Thirdly If we wash off the Stains of our Slips and Defects by a general Repentance For upon the Notion I have here given of Venial Sin Repentance appears to be very necessary for I require in them something of Voluntary someting of Freedom enough to make an Action sinful though not to prove the Heart corrupt or wicked And because the Degrees of Voluntary and Involuntary are not so easily distinguishable from one another 't is plain our best security against any ill Consequence of our Defects and Frailties is a Godly Sorrow And therefore I wonder not if David charge himself more severely than God does my Sins are more in number than the hairs of my head this was a Confession that became the Humility and Sollicitude of a Penitent That became the Reflections of a wise and Perfect Man and the Corruption of Human Nature the Alloy of Human Performances the slips and Defects the Interruptions Neglects and Deviations of the best Life CHAP. VI. Of Liberty as it imports Freedom or Deliverance from Mortal Sin HERE I will Enquiry into three Things 1. What Mortal Sin is or what kind of Sins they be which are on all hands acknowledg'd to be Inconsistent with a state of Grace and Favour 2. How far the Perfect Man must be set free or deliver'd from this kind of Sins or how remote he is from the Guilt of them 3. Which way this Liberty may be best attained S. 1. The First thing necessary is to state the Notion of that Sin which passes under the Name of Mortal Wilful Presumptuous or Deliberate Sin For these in Writers are equivalent Terms and promiscuously used to signifie one and the same thing Sin saith St. John 1 Ep. 3.4 is the Transgression of the Law This is a plain and full Definition too of Sin For the Law of God is the Rule of Moral Actions 't is the Standard and Measure of Right and Wrong of moral Good and Evil whatever is not within the Compass of the Law is not within the Compass of Morality neither whatever cannot be comprehended within this Definition cannot have in it the entire and compleat Notion of Sin or which is all one it cannot be Sin in a strict proper and adequate Sense of the Word Hence St. John in the same Verse tells us That whosoer sinneth transgresseth a Law and St. Paul Rom. 4.15 where there is no Law there is no Transgression Sin then must alwaies suppose a Law without which there can be neither Vice nor Vertue Righteousness nor Wickedness For these are nothing else but the Violation or Observation of the Law of God or Habits and States resulting from the one or the other But this is not all Two Things more must be remark'd to render this Definition which the Apostle gives us of Sin clear and full First The Law must be sufficiently reveal'd Secondly The Transgression of it must be truly Voluntary 1. By sufficient Revelation of a Divine Law every one understands That the Law must be so publish'd to the Man who is to be govern'd by it that the Authority and Sense of it may be if it be not his own fault render'd evident to him If the Divine Authority of any Rule or Precept be doubtful and uncertain the Obligation of it will be so too And it is as necessary that the sense of the Law should be evident as its Authority The Law that is pen'd in dark and ambiguous Terms is properly speaking no Law at all Since the Mind of the Law-giver is not sufficiently made known by it Whatever is necessarily to be forborn or done by us must be fully and clearly prescribed in the Law of God and if it be not it can never be necessary Men through Weakness or Design may Enact Laws that are but a heap of Letters a Crowd of dubious Delphick Sentences But God can never do so because this is repugnant both to his Wisdom and Goodness and to the very End of a Law too which is to be a Rule not a Snare 't is to give Understanding to the Simple to be a Light to our Feet and a Lamp to our Paths not like an Ignis fatuus to betray us into Brakes and Precipices and Ruin and Death 2. Transgression must be a Voluntary one And this imports two Things 1. A Knowledge of Law 2. A Consent to the Breach of it First As to the Knowledge of the Law All that I have to say here in few words is That Ignorance of the Law excuses a Transgression when it is it self excusable but if the Ignorance it self be Criminal the effect of it must be so too We must never think of excusing our Sins by alledging an Ignorance into which not our own Incapacity or any other reasonable Cause but Neglect or Contempt of the Truth or some other vicious Lust or Passion has betray'd us Secondly As to the Consent of the Will This is necessary to demonstrate any Action sinful or vertuous without this the Mind will be no Partner in the Sin and by Consequence cannot be involved in the Guilt of it Whatever we cannot help is our Misfortune not our Fault Actions meerly natural or meerly forc'd can neither be good nor evil The concurrence of Reason and Choice is indispensably necessary to the Morality of an Action All this is plainly taught us by St. James 1.14 15. But every Man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own Lust and enticed then when Lust hath conceived it bringeth forth Sin and Sin when it is finished bringeth forth Death Which words do certainly imply That the Spring and Principle of Sin is within our selves That 't is our natural Corruption that entices
and allures us and 't is our Consent to its Enticements that gives Being to Sin and defiles us with Guilt From all this now put together 't is easie to conclude what sort of a Description we are to form of Mortal Sin 'T is such a Transgression of the Law of God as is vicious in its Original deliberate in its Commission and Mischievous in its Tendencies or Effects The Heart is corrupted and misled by some Lust or other and so consents to the Breach of the Moral Law of God a Law of Eternal and Immutable Goodness or if the Sin consists in the Breach of any Positive Law it must yet imply in it some moral Obliquity in the Will or in the Tendency of the Action or both So that Presumptuous or Mortal Sin call it by what Name we Will is a Deliberate Transgression of a known Law of God tending to the Dishonour of God the Injury of our Neighbour or the Depravation of our Nature Such are those sins which the Prophet Isaiah exhorts those who will repent to cease from And such are those we have a Catalogue of Eph. 5. Gal. 5. and elsewhere Now the Works of the Flesh are manifest which are these Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies Envyings Murders Drunkenness Revellings and such-like These are the sins of which as of so many Members the Body of sin consists These constitute the old Man These are sometimes called the filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit Vngodliness Wickedness Iniquity the Lusts of the Flesh worldly Lusts and such-like These and the like sins have as I said in them very apparent Symptoms of Malignity and Mortality They are always the Effect of some carnal and worldly Lusts prevailing over the Law of the Mind and they imply a contempt of God Injustice to our Neighbour and some kind of Defilement and Pollution of our Nature And that these are the plain Indications of such a Guilt as excludes a Man from Heaven and the Favour of God is very plain from the account which the Scripture gives us both of the Origine and Influence of sin from the Care it takes to fortifie the Heart against all Infection from the constant Representations it makes us of the shamefulness and the Mischief of sin even in Reference to this World as well as the other I cannot see any thing further necessary to the Explication of Deliberate or Presumptuous sin unless it be here fit to add That it is Mortal though it proceed no further than the Heart There is no need at all that it should be brought forth into Action to render it Fatal and Damnable This is evident not only from the Nature of Divine Worship which must be entire sincere and spiritual and therefore can no more be reconciled to the Wickedness of our Hearts than of our Actions but also from the express words of our Saviour Out of the Heart proceed Fornication Adultery Theft c. And elsewhere he pronounces the Adultery of the Heart Damnable as well as that of the Body Mat. 5.28 But I say unto you that whosoever looketh upon a Woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery already with her in his Heart S. 2. I am next to give some account of the Liberty of Perfect Man in reference to the sin I have been discoursing of I shall not need to stop at any General or Preliminary Observations as That Abstinence from sin regards all the Commandments of God alike and to do otherwise were to mutilate and maim Religion and to dishonour God while we pretend to worship and obey Him For the Breach of any single Commandment is a manifest Violation of the Majesty and Authority of God whatever Observance we may pay all the rest For he that said do not commit Adultery said also do not kill Now if thou commit no Adultery yet if thou kill thou art become a transgressor of the Law Jam. 2.11 That the Restraints Man is to lay upon himself relate no less to the Lusts of the Soul than the Actions of the Body Except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees you shall by no means enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 5.10 That to begin well will avail us little unless we finish well too Universality Sincerity and Perseverance are generally acknowledged to be essential and indispensable Properties of Saving Justifying Faith These things therefore being but just mentioned I proceed to the Point to be enquir'd into and resolve 1. To be free from the Dominion and Power of Mortal Sin is the first and lowest step this is indispensable to sincerity and absolutely necessary to Salvation Let not Sin reign in your mortal Bodies to fulfil the Lusts thereof Rom. 6.12 And the advancing thus far does I acknowledge constitute Man in a state of Grace For in Scripture Men are Denominated righteous or wicked not from single Acts of Vice or Vertue but from the Prevalence and Dominion from the Habit or Custom of the one or the other know ye not that to whom ye yeild your selves Servants to obey his Servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of Sin unto Death or of Obedience unto Righteousness Rom. 6.16 But then I must here add two Remarks by way of Caution 1st We must not presume too soon of Victory over an Habitual Sin An evil Habit is not soon broken off nor is it an easie Matter to resolve when we have set our selves free from the Power of it Sometimes the Temptation does not present it self as often as it was wont or not with the same Advantages sometimes one Vice restrains us from another sometimes worldly Considerations or some little Change in our Temper without any thorough Change in our Minds puts us out of humour for a little while with a darling Sin and sometimes the Force and Clearness of Conviction produces some pious Fits which though they do not utterly vanquish a Lust do yet force it to give way and retreat for a while and interrupt that Love which they do not exstinguish All this may be and the work not yet be done nor our Liberty yet gain'd If therefore we fall though but now and then and though at some Distance of time into the same sin we have great reason to be jealous of its Power and our Safety Nay though we restrain our selves from the outward Commission of it if yet we feel a strong Propension to it if we discern our selves ready to take fire on the Appearance of a Temptation if we are fond of approaching as near it as we can and are pleas'd with those Indulgencies which are very near a kin to it we have reason to doubt that our Conquest is not yet entire Nay the Truth is we cannot be on good Grounds assured that we are Masters of our selves till we have a setled Aversion for the sin which before we doted on and shun the Occasions which before
us what Endeavours what Vertues are necessary to gain an incorruptible Crown See with what Eagerness the Disciples of Jesus pressed towards the mark See with what Courage nay Joy too they took up their Cross and followed Him how generous were their Alms so that the Riches of their Liberality were conspicuous in the very Depth of their Poverty What Plainness and Singleness of Heart what Grace and Warmth what Peace and Joy shew'd it self in their Conversation what Modesty what Humility in their Garb Deportment and the whole Train of Life how frequent how fervent and how long too were their Prayers and Retirements In one word the Spirit and Genius of a Disciple of Christ discover'd it self in all they said and did and the Vertues of their Lives did as evidently distinguish a Christian from a Jew or Pagan as their Faith How lovely was Religion then how full its Joy how strong its Confidence Then did Christians truly overcome the World then did they live above the Body then was the Cross of Christ more delightful than the Ease or Honour the Pride or Pleasure of a sinful Life then did they truly thorough the Spirit wait for the Hope of Righteousness by Faith Let us now compare our Lives with theirs and then sit down content with poor and beggarly Attainments if we can Let us put our Vertues in the Scales against theirs and if we have any Modesty the Inequality will put us out of Countenance we shall blush at our Vanity and shall not have the Confidence to expect the same Crown the same Kingdom with them But as too laxe a Notion of Religion is apt to beget too much Indifference and Unconcernment so will it be said too exalted a one is apt to beget Despair which is a Second and no less Obstacle of Perfection § 2. Many there are who forming their Judgment upon the Slips and Defects of good Men and the Corruption of Human Nature conceive Perfection to be a meer imaginary Notion They believe indeed that considering how apt Man is to fall short of his Duty 't is very fit that the Rule prescrib'd him should be exact and that he should be frequently pressed and exhorted to Perfection but that the thing it self is too too difficult for Mortal Man to attain in this Life But to this Objection I must oppose these few things which I believe will be sufficient to remove it 1. The Beginning of Vertue is the most difficult part of it the nearer we approach to Perfection the easier as well as pleasanter is Religion And therefore whoever startles at the Difficulties which lie in the way to an exalted Vertue has as much reason to be startled at those which will encounter him in his first Enterance upon Religion and yet these must be conquered 2. The avoiding the Difficulties of Religion does but plung us into worse We are necessarily under this Dilemma If we will attain the Peace and Tranquility of the Mind we must mortifie and reduce the Appetites of the Body if on the other hand we propose to gratifie the Appetites of the Body and enjoy the Pleasure of Sin we cannot do so without offering much Violence to the Mind And if this be so if such be the War and Opposition between the Soul and the Body that there is no way to a true and well setled Peace and Pleasure but by the Reduction and Mortification of the one or the other then it will be easie to resolve what we are to do For those Appeals which Atheists themselves make to Reason proclaim the Soul of Man to be the Ruling and Nobler part of him Besides the Soul is the more vital the more tender and sensible part of us and consequently the Affliction of this must render us far more miserable than any Hardships or Difficulties Vertue can impose upon the Body 3. Whatever be the Difficulties of Vertue they will soon vanish if we often call to mind That Peace and Joy are the Fruit of Vertue but shame and Remorse of Sin That no Man ever yet did not repent of following his Lust unless he died as much a Brute as he lived That Heaven is a cheap purchase whatever it costs us but the Pleasure of Sin a very dear one how easily soever we come by it And finally That we are not our own Masters there is a God to whom we stand accountable for our Actions and consequently whether we will or will not we must either undergoe the Hardship and Discipline of Vertue or the Eternal Plagues and Punishments of Sin Lastly the Truth is this Opinion of the Impossibility of Perfection has both been begot and cherished by those wild Schemes of it which have been drawn by the hands of a flaming indeed but an indiscreet Zeal But I have here recommended to the World no fantastick or Enthusiastick Perfection I have advanced no Heights of Vertue but what many do I hope at this day actually feel and experiment in themselves none I am sure but what the Followers of the blessed Jesus actually attain and practise Be ye followers of us said the Apostle as we are of Christ Their Lives were as bright a Rule as their Doctrine and by their own Actions they demonstrated the Power of the Faith they taught They did not like the Scribes and Pharisees bind heavy Burdens upon others and not move them with their finger they did not like Plato and Aristotle magnifie Temperance and Modesty at the Tables and Carnivals of Princes nor commend the Pleasure of Wisdom in in the Gardens of Epicurus but they lived as they taught unspotted by the Pleasures unbroken by the Troubles of the World modest Serene equal and Heavenly minded in Honour or Dishonour Want or Abundance Liberty or Prison Life or Death Let us then no longer Object or Dispute but with Faith and Patience be followers of those who have inherited the Promises being encompass'd with a Cloud of Witnesses let us lay aside every Weight and the Sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with Patience the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our Faith who for the Joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God For consider him that endured such Contradiction of Sinners against himself lest ye be wearied and faint in your Mind Heb. 12.1 2. I have done with those who endeavour to soften or shun the Difficulties of Religion not to conquer them § 3. There are others who will look upon this setting up the Doctrine of Perfection as a Design against the Pleasures of Mankind What says such a one shall I let go my present Pleasures out of my hands to hunt after I know not what and I know not where Shall I quit Pleasures tha◠are every where obvious for such as have no Being it may be but in Speculation or at least are