according to the Difference of Good and Evil to do the one and to avoid the other Which are not positive and arbitrary Impositions but they arise from Conveniences and from Inconveniences of our Natures States and Relations So that the Sinner is a Person of violent Practice and one who doth unnatural Acts. And an Impenitent is one of a senceless and stupid Mind The Things that are the Bane of Mankind and that do alienate us from God are Sensuality Worldly-mindedness and Wickedness The two former of these do sink the Creation of God below it self so that it doth not continue the same that God made it A Man by these is render'd utterly unfit for Converse and Communication with God For by these he sinks himself below his Kind and makes himself equal to the Beast that perishes And by the latter * viz. Wickedness Man passeth into a clean contrary Nature becomes an Enemy to God and makes God an Enemy to him Against Sensuality and Worldliness I propose for Remedy the Application of the Principles of Reason and Vertue and the applying of our highest Faculties to their End and Object For while the Mind is employ'd in Heavenly Meditation or in extracting Spiritual Notions from material Things it is employ'd worthy of Intelectual Nature And our proper Business is to be thus employ'd By which the Concerns of the Body will be either laid aside or moderately engaged in and regarded Whereas this Power of our Souls is as it were lost where Men use themselves as if they had no Spirits but were altogether Body or as if the Body were the principal or governing Part. And in such a Condition are they who cannot understand what we mean when we bid them lift up their Hearts to God For the Candle of God's lighting within them whereby they are qualified to find God out in his Works and to follow him in his Ways either it burns so dim that they cannot see by it or it is quite put out For it is found by Experience that the Malignity of the Heart doth blind the Understanding And true Wisdom will never abide in a malicious and wicked Soul There are indeed Souls that are * so active and so well acquainted with Heavenly Meditation that they very well know what is the Food of Souls and have the fore-taste of the Delight and Pleasure of the other World And certainly these Men have the greatest Satisfaction in their Lives of any other Persons For there is more of Satisfaction in Meditation in Reading in Conference about Divine Things in Application to God by Prayer and other holy Exercises than in any bodily Pleasure whatsoever For all bodily Exercise comes off with disquiet of Spirit Whereas in the other Way there is Refreshment every Moment There is new Acquisition For if there be any thing like Infinite in the Creation under God it is in Invention and the Power of Thinking This is the Advantage of Intelectual Exercise above Bodily Exercise The one works inwardly is still on the getting hand and is still in use for what this Man gets he hath still in store and that which is got in this way of Intelectual Employment will still improve by Use and what we get we always keep for Knowledge is no burden Whereas in things of the Body Use and Want Spend and be ever after without But it is no wonder that they who never acquainted themselves with retiring from the World know not what these Things mean Who mind only Worldly Things and know no more than what belongs to the Animal Life But on the other side if a Man make Application to God he acts with all his Might he recollects himself and gathers himself into himself that he may receive from God what God hath to communicate And the Things that God hath and doth offer are so great and glorious that our narrow Vessels had need be wholly emptied to make room for them Therefore the Minds Substraction from the World is necessary by way of Preparation and holy Meditation to beget in us such a Disposition by which we may receive from God A Man that can enjoy himself alone by Consideration and exercising his Faculties may run through as it were all times For a Man may live before he lives and after in this way He may by Reading acquaint himself with what was in former Times and by what Things are he may guess what are to come If he reflect upon Things past and view Things that are present and take a Prospect of Things to come as the Effect of Causes that are in being in this way Rational Faculties have sufficient Employment Whereas they that are always drudging in the Affairs of the World and never enjoy themselves alone will find little Satisfaction in these Things It is the proper Work of Reason in Man to find God out in his Works and to follow him in his Ways It is the proper Employment of our intelectual Faculties to be conversant about God to conceive aright of him and then to resemble and imitate him Religion is an Obligation upon us to God The first Motion of Religion is to understand what is true of God And the second is to express it in our Lives and to copy it out in our Works The Former is our Wisdom And the Latter is our Goodness In these Two consist the Health and Pulchritude of our Minds For Health to the Body is not more than Vertue is to the Mind A deprav'd and vicious Mind is as really the Sickness and Deformity thereof as any foul and loathsome Disease is to the Body And as really as these tend to the Death and Dissolution of the Soul and Body so the Vices of the Mind tend to the Separation of God and the Soul What is short and inferior to Converse with God doth require a Recess from Worldly Business and Employment A Man can hardly compose an ordinary Poem without this But for the noblest Employment receiving from God and making Acknowledgment to him is a Man fit for this in the Hurry of Business and Confusion of Things It is also observed that this Life of Privacy and Retirement is either the best or the worst Life For in it we do as God doth or we imitate the Devil He who can be alone to his own Content in Measure and Degree is as God is For what other Employment had God from Eternity but satisfying himself in his own Goodness But as * this may be * the best so it may be the worst Life For a Man may be employ'd in contriving Mischief as the Devil is whose Work is said to be to bring Men into Condemnation If therefore * we are alone to ill Purposes and Designs then Solitariness and Retirement do make the worst Life * But if * Man be retired and alone and not intelectually employ'd then through Stupidity and Dulness he sinks down into the State of a Beast For take it for a certain Truth to be
Well and Unactive do not consist together No Man is well without Action nothing is more irksome than Idleness A Man must use his Faculties and put himself upon Action Therefore if he be alone and unactive he cannot be well In all honest Labour there is Satisfaction Whereas Sluggishness and Neglect are unaccountable and unsatisfactory The Mind diverted from God wanders in Darkness and Confusion But being directed to him soon finds its way and doth receive from him in a way that is abstracted from the Noise of the World and withdrawn from the Call of the Body having shut the Doors of our Sences to recommend our selves to the Divine Life which readily enters into the Eye of the Mind that is prepar'd to receive it For there is Light enough of God in the World if the Eye of our Minds were but fitted to receive it and let it in It is the Incapacity of the Subject where God is not for nothing in the World is more knowable than God God only is absent to them that are indisposed and disaffected For a Man cannot open his Eye nor lend his Ear but every thing will declare more or less of God It is our Fault that we are estranged from him For God doth not withdraw himself from us unless we first leave him The Distance is occasioned through our unnatural Use of our selves They who live the Life of Sence are apt to be beaten off from all regard to God by those Occurrences that discompose their Minds * But they who are separated from Body who sit loose to Earthly Things * which obstruct the Mind do easily receive the Divine Light Whereas those that are in Prison in gross Bodies need the Fire of Divine Affection to quicken them And this I understand in the Language of the Scripture to be Baptizing with Fire when Divine Affection burns up all contrary Principles in the Soul and brings the Soul into a Likeness and Similitude to God For the Divine Light received into the Mind doth first irradiate and clear the Mind from its gross and thick Darkness whereby it was unexercised and unemploy'd about God And this is the first Work Mental Illumination raising right Notions of God and Things in our Minds scattering * the Mists of Darkness * Yet Light alone works not a Change But there must be Holy Affection Knowledge is the first step to Vertue But Goodness * is not but by Delight and Choice It is a mighty unequal and unaccountable Distribution of Time for a Man to lay out himself for his Body and to neglect his Mind to feed the Beast for so the Body * is in respect of the Mind * It is but the Beast that carries the Soul And this for these Reasons Because the Mind is so much annoyed and disturbed by Body I speak not now of the Body as sinning and distemper'd But in ordinary Cases take the Body in all its Advantages 't is an Incumbrance to the Mind For when the Mind raiseth it self to Contemplation of immaterial Things the Imagination doth suggest the Management of Corporeal which are Things of an inferior Nature Bodily Sence reacheth but a little way whether by the Eye or by the Ear or any other Sence That which is equal just * and fit * that wherein we are most concerned in Point of Goodness Wisdom and Happiness these are all imperceptible Notions to every Thing of Body What is Fit what is Just what is Equal what is Good and Excellent what is Reasonable of these no bodily Sence doth judge And yet these are the Things that we are most concern'd in upon account of our Happiness A Mind subdued and subordinate to God in all its Actions and Motions is as the fublunary Bodies here below which are subject to the heavenly Bodies above as Wax under the Seal or Clay in the Potter's Hand The Motion is a great deal more noble and generous because it is in a higher Order by Illumination and Conviction by Perswasion and mental Satisfaction But it is not less effectual to * its Intent and Purpose Religion puts the Soul in a right Posture towards God For we are thereby renew'd in the Spirit of our Minds The Soul of Man to God is as the Flower of the Sun It opens at its approach and shuts when it withdraws Religion in the Mind is as a Byas upon the Spirit inclines it in all its Motions Tho' sometimes it be jogg'd and interrupted yet it comes to it self It is a Rule within a Law written in Man's Heart It is the Government of his Spirit We say Men shew their Spirit by their Carriage Behaviour and Words And it is true The good Man is an Instrument in Tune Excite a good Man give him an Occasion you shall have from him savoury Speeches out of his Mouth and good Actions in his Life Religion contains and comprehends in it all good Qualities and Dispositions of Mind It doth take in all the Vertues that Humane Nature is capable of which are the Qualifications and Ornaments thereof and which are the Mind's Instruments for good Actions Religion is rational accountable and intelligible The Difference is not more sensible between a Man that is weak and strong a Man that is sick and in health * than between a Man that is truly Religious and one falsly so You may observe it if you put them upon Action So a Man that is truly Religious if you put him in Motion he will acquit and approve himself so If he be false in his Religion you will see it by his Failing and Miscarriage of Life Such is the Christian Religion in respect of the Nature and Quality of it all the Principles of it all the Exercises and Performances that it puts Men upon it is so Sovereign to our Natures so satisfactory to the Reason of our Minds so quieting unto and of such Security against the Molestations of our Consciences so Sanatory so full for our Recovery that none who knows or doth seriously consider would chuse to have his Obligation to Religion either released cancell'd or discharged To conclude How unexcusable how unaccountable are they who have turn'd the Doctrine of the Gospel or the Grace of God into Lasciviousness and to use St. Paul's Phrase have made void the Law through Faith He represents it as the most sad Miscarriage to disoblige a Man in Morals to set a Man at liberty * as to those things that are reasonable and necessary For the Law of God's Creation is no way damnified but restor'd and secured by the Doctrine of the Gospel Yet these excuse themselves from strict Morality and Conscientious Living which the better sort of Heathens thought themselves obliged unto We prejudice our selves miserably by Mistakes Some think that the Hellish State is the Product of Omnipotency and Soveraignty the Effect of God's Power and they think of God that he useth his Greatures as he will giving no account of any of his Matters to Principles
Juice or Glebe of Earth should produce such Variety of Colours We say in Natural Philosophy we know not the Modes of any thing No Man knoweth the Mode how his Soul and Body are united How the several Particles of Matter meet We are puzzled to know what Motion is We can give no Account of these Things Now there being an Amplitude and Fulness of Being in God he is the more intelligible He hath all Being perfectly in him He is therefore more knowable than Creatures that are of limited confin'd narrow Beings The divided separated scatter'd Perfections of the whole Creation are united in God and with that Advance and Improvement extended to infinite Perfection 2 dly The Ways of our knowing do more truly hold of God than of any thing else * There are two Ways of coming to the Knowledge of Things The Way of Perfection and the Way of Negation By these two Ways we come to a more full Knowledge 1. In the Way of Perfection we cannot exceed we need not fear to add to much If you speak of Man's Soul you may say too much But speaking of God you cannot transcend Divine Existence in the Enumeration of any Perfections If we would express a Notion of our Maker we should employ our Mind and Understanding to find out what is best and what is most perfect and then attribute and ascribe it to God And this is the best Way to come to the Knowledge of God 2. In the Way of Negation we are also certain For we cannot remove Imperfection Contraction Limitation far enough from him Therefore we say that Words and Phrases are all to be purg'd and purified from their Contraction and Limitation before we can ascribe them to God Therefore where in Scripture God is represented by the Eyes or other Parts of our Body we must not understand these things formally but in a Way of Perfection So that our Ways of knowing do more truly hold of God than of any thing else For in the Way of adding Perfection we cannot do too much And in the Way of Limitation we cannot take away too much 3 dly Our Relation to God We stand nearer related to God than we do to any thing in the World Our Souls and Bodies are not nearer related than our Souls to God God is more inward to us than our very Souls In him we live move and have our Being God is nearer to us than what is most our selves Also it is the natural and proper Employment of Mind and Understanding to make Search and Enquiry after God The wise Man says God is known by the Fitness and Proportion of one thing to another Mind and Understanding in Man is given on purpose that Man should search after God and acknowledge him So that there is a greater Propriety of Man's Rational Faculties to God than there is of his Eye to Light or his Ear to Sound And it is of greater Deformity for a Man to be void of Sence of Deity than for any Man to be blind so as not to see 4 thly Our Dependance upon God his Conservation of us and his Co-operation with us this leads us to know him Universal and general Causes have ready Acknowledgment Because to them so many things are beholding Aristotle well observes the Sun which is the universal Cause doth concur with every particular Cause to every Production So the Psalmist Nothing is hid from the Heat of it For tho' the Earth be not perceptive of the Light of the Sun because of its Grossness and Opacity yet it hath the Vertue of it So God is acknowledg'd God's concerning himself in our Affairs and our Dependance upon him hath a kind of Universal Acknowledgment Take any Man of any Sobriety of Mind if he relate any thing that befals him he will interpose as God would have it If he escape any Danger he will say as God put it into my Mind and give God the chief Place Thus in several Cases As in Distress O God! our Undertakings in the Name of God Our Protestations in the Presence of God Tho these in the Mouths of many be but Words of course spoken without inward Sence of God in the Mind yet the Custom of them proceeds from a good Original They carry Reason in them and shew Nature's Sence What is without Ground is not of any long Continuance But these meet with no Reproof gain Credit give Assurance find Acceptance and become Religious Persons when us'd in weighty Cases and with serious Minds and due Intention Since therefore there is such a Dependance of our Souls upon God it is impossible but that we should know him They who are in any degree Spiritual or Intelectual and are not altogether sunk down into a brutish Spirit and sensual Affection find and feel within themselves Divine Suggestions Motions and Inspirations Any Man that hath obtain'd any Degree of the Perfection of Reason that doth follow the Divine Governour of Man's Life Reason he doth find that there are Suggestions and Inspirations and that many times when he was resolv'd another way there comes a Light into his Mind a still Voice he hears and he is better directed Except the Atheistical and Prophane and those that are Diabolical all others feel God in his Motions and Suggestions Thus is God most knowable of any thing in the World Here you have an Account of the Use of Reason in Matters of Religion The Natural Knowledge of God And the Knowledge of the Revelation of his Will The Natural Knowledge of God that is the very Issue Effect and Product of Reason Revelation is the other part of Religion And Reason is the Recipient What doth God give his Commands to or his Councels but to the intelligent Agent and the Reason of Man So that Reason hath great place in Religion For Reason is the Recipient of whatsoever God declares And those things that are according to the Nature of God the Reason of Man can discover It is either the Efficient or the Recipient of all that is call'd Religion of all that is communicated from God to Man The Natural Knowledge of God is the Product of Reason The Resolutions of his Will for our further Direction are proposed and communicated to Reason and * in both these ways we are taught of God In the former we are made to know And in the latter we are call'd to be made Partakers of God's Councel By the former we know what God is his Nature that he is By the latter what God would have us to do So here you see the Use of Mind and Understanding in the Way of Religion God teaches us in his Creation in giving us such Faculties he teaches us further in the Resolution of his Will because he satisfies us in what he doth impose upon us Therefore the Use of Reason in Matters of Religion is so far from doing any Harm to Religion that it is the proper Preparatory for Men to look out to God
or fear Whereas altogether they rob us of our selves and snatch us from what is Main and Principal We are apt to be troubled about many things while we omit the one thing necessary Men of any * sort of Religion think it necessary to observe the Difference of Good and Evil and therefore they will not be employ'd in that which is not Honest But there is something further Let Men consider that things of lawful Employment if too many may snatch a Man away from himself and keep him from attending upon God by which he may be happy Therefore we should not too much charge our selves nor be over busie in the World 2 dly Men are apt in the first place to save themselves harmless in this hurtful and dangerous World * It was St. Peter's Advice Master save thy self this Evil shall not befal thee who might have undone himself and all the World besides if his Councel had been followed A great Man of our Nation hath observ'd in History and it is so in this Case he that follows Truth close at the Heels may chance to have his Teeth struck out As the World may go to hold forth Truth impartially and severely to keep to the Practice of it may prove the difficultest and costliest Service Truth may carry us into Contests where other Mens Principles clash and interfere with ours Truth allows not base Compliance with Fancy Lust Will Humour but requires us to keep in the Way and to walk in it with all Simplicity Integrity Sincerity Plainness and Open-heartedness We must neither desert nor betray Truth to expedite our selves out of Difficulties or to open a Way to escape Man must walk in his Integrity through the World and must maintain his Truth and Uprightness as Job did his Righteousness So that By-standers may rectifie themselves by comparing with him and so find out how much they have departed from Rectitude Plutarch distinguisheth between a Friend and a Flatterer The former stands as steady as an Oak and he doth not at all yield to humour Will or Fancy so that the other when he returns from his Exorbitancy by comparing himself and finding where he left him may know how far he hath departed from his Integrity Whereas the Flatterer accomodates himself to Humour and Fancy applauds all Deeds and Sayings will do every thing to gratifie and will admire whatever is said But a true Friend hath Truth for a Rule to his Life and Spirit But as the World goes a Man of impartial Truth and Uprightness shall be laid aside as not conversible but as Morose and Cynical But here I superadd for Explication that all that I have said of adhering to Truth is to be understood of the undoubted Principles of Piety Sobriety and Righteousness For saving in these Cases to please every Body to give every one Satisfaction to go as far as you can with Men to live in a Universal Reconciliation if it be possible with the whole Creation of God this is Evangelical and Divine This is not to be limited but with Conscience to the great Rights of Sobriety Temperance and Justice 3 dly Men gratifie their Sences steep themselves in Worldly Delights and Pleasures Sensuality makes the Pallate of the Soul so dull and gross that it cannot perceive that which is sincere and true Wisdom is not in the Way of Epicurism but in the Way of Sobriety Righteousness and Temperance For Knowledge will not be relished till the Soul be purified by Abstinence by Mortification by Abstraction from gross Matter and by Separation from Sense 1 Tim. 5. 6. Jam. 5. 5. 2 Pet. 2. 13. 2 Tim. 3. 4. Titus 3. 3. Heb. 11. 25. These places represent the State when Men become brutish and sottish and fail in the Species of intelligent Agents go downward grow less by steeping themselves in worldly brutish and carnal Pleasures The Sensualist is no capable Recipient nor meet Discerner of Divine and Spiritual Truth 4 thly By long abuse of themselves Men come into a Temper that is wholly unnatural to Truth He that doth Evil hates the Light comes not to it least his Deeds be reproved This is most certain universally We have our selves as we use our selves He that doth accustom himself to Divine Meditation and Contemplation and to Thoughts of God raises his Soul and doth daily more and more ennoble his Faculties But he that lives wickedly the longer he lives the more limited and confined his Soul will be Every Man is for his Intelectuals and for his Principles according as he doth accustom himself according as he is in use Sui cuique mores fingunt fortunam This is most true of internal Endowments as well as of other things No Man knows what he may be brought unto by ill Use Custom and Practice Innocence is a Safe-guard and gives Protection The first base Act is against the Hair And as Saul forced himself to offer Sacrifice so the Sinner at first forces himself he doth it at first with Dissatisfaction he apprehends he doth himself Wrong A Man that hath been brought up vertuously ingenuously and hath maintain'd the Tenderness of his Soul and his Innocency he will stick at a base Proposal and abhor it Had many Men imagined when they began how far they should have gone on where Sin would have carried them they would have consider'd better of it But the breaking in of Sin is like a Torrent of Water which is easily stopt before the Way over the Banks be found But if once it hath found the Way over it bears all before it There is a Modesty belongs to our Nature till a Man hath prostituted it But when once a Man hath done a base Act he hath lost that which would restrain him Therefore we observe that no Man comes to be outragiously bad all on the suddain But he brings himself to it by havocking Conscience by confounding his Principles and putting away the Ingenuity of his Nature Thus have I shewn you how it comes to pass that Men do live so unanswerably to their Knowledge * Now to make some Observations from the whole We see the Course of this World and in it we may foresee the State of Men in the other World Can they look God in the Face hereafter with any Comfort who here like not to retain God in their Minds Will not the Issue of holding Truth in Unrighteousness of contradicting the Reason of our Minds of forcing our own Judgments of making Havock of Conscience be Confusion and Astonishmont What can a Man look for when he is not true to himself when he hath every thing rising up against him his Conscience condemning him This cannot but end in Confusion and Astonishment For things hold a Proportion one to another Force in one way brings on Force in another Consequents answer foregoing Principles So that the Business of the Day of Judgment may be plainly foreseen * It may be here accounted for by the Things of this State
the Places where they live as being Disturbers of the Quiet of Persons with whom they have their Habitation For their internal Rancour and Naughtiness of Mind still puts them upon plotting and contriving Mischief and makes them greedy of Opportunity to practise it * Now This Malignity and Naughtiness of Disposition is moral Pravity Deformity and Privation And therefore it cannot be natural but must be acquired For this is a certain Rule nothing Moral can be by Generation but must be by Acts Use Custom and Practice Nothing but what is purely natural can be in a Man by Traduction and Propagation We are not born with Habits but born only with Faculties This is so far true that any bodily Disposition or Inclination which is not acquired tho' it be to Good or to Evil it is neither a Vice if it be a Tendency to Evil nor a Vertue if it be a Tendency to Good For nothing is Vertue but what is the Product of a Mind actually considering and a Man's Choice upon Deliberation and Consideration And so nothing amounts unto the Degree of Vice * but in the same manner Only a Man may be wicked by Failure and Neglect Because a Man is to use the Principles of God's Creation he is to consider and he is to make use of his Reason and that is first to be set on work to discover the Way and to discern the Difference of Things It is most true in respect of every Man 's internal State every Man hath himself for Temper for Disposition for Complexion and Constitution of Soul according as he hath considered examined and used himself Now if a Man hath himself as he uses himself then whosoever is in Perverseness and Malignity of Mind he hath brought himself into it by abuse of himself Whosoever is in a naughty and malignant Disposition of Mind there is no Creature under Heaven nor nothing that is in being that brought him into that Temper but either his gross Self-neglect or voluntary Self-abuse And if there be gross Self-neglect he hath not acted according to his Principles That which is not of a Man's self it may be his Burden but never his Fault nor never is charged upon him on a moral Account 3 dly A sickly and distemper'd Body * This hath made work for the Physician and uncouth Remedies and hath prevented the natural Pleasure of temperate Eating Drinking Sleeping For in Nature's Way only is Health and Strength * Now I grant a Man may have a weak Body and unhappy Constitution without his own Fault whence some die so soon and others are so sickly But there are things which are in our Power that are mischievous to the Body I shall instance in three kinds of Vices in respect of which we may say with the Apostle These Men sin against their own Bodies 1 st Pride Envy and Malice These * carry Discontent which doth macerate the Body and melancholize the Blood Now * as the World is a very uncertain and unequal thing so * it affords frequent Matter of Offence to this * Temper If a Man will be offended he shall be offended every day The Proud and Conceited Man never hath Respect enough he is not valued by others according as he esteems himself No Man thinks so well of him as he thinks of himself And therefore he is necessarily agrieved at every Man and he lives in Discontent He is seldom satisfied but apt to interpret every Man's Carriage towards him Neglect at least if not Affront You have all this verified in the Temper of Haman to Mordecai who is dispossest of all his Enjoyments because Mordecai offends him so is in perpetual Discontent And if a Man is in Discontent he doth not only marr the Temper of his Mind but hurts his Body The Envious and Malicious are agrieved at every Body's Good They cannot enjoy the Comforts they might enjoy because others have the same Now whosoever he is that leads a grumbling repining Life as all envious Men do his very Life is a lingring pining Death Envy is the Rottenness of the Bones But the sound Heart is the Life of the Flesh. One * in whom Principles that are solid and sincere do govern he that is in the Use of sober Reason and Understanding this Man is of a sound Heart We have not more Sense of any thing in this World than that to live in Love and Good Will is to live at Hearts-ease * What great Content have they that live in Universal Love In Reconciliation with God and his whole Creation They are offended at no Body they rejoyce at any thing that happens well to any Creature whatsoever What should bear the Infirmities of the Body but the Courage and Resolution of the Mind If Men thro' Pride Envy and Malice do their Bodies Mischief is it to be imputed to God No But to themselves 2 dly Intemperance and Wantonness These bring our Bodies to noisom filthy loathsom Diseases sometimes even to Rottenness while our Souls inform them Those that live in these Vices sin against their own Bodies Dishonour themselves Make themselves vile and their Bodies unfit Tabernacles for their Souls to dwell in They alienate their Bodies from their proper Use. For what is the proper Use of the Body but to be * as the Tool and Instrument of our Mind in the Engagement * and Service of Vertue The Poet livelily describes the Effect of Drunkenness Aches in the Head Nauseousness in the Stomach Drought in the Throat Langour in the Parts Folly and Fury in the Mind a Feaver in the whole Now all these are avoided where there is due Self-government and where Men take upon them to order their Affairs according to the Dictates of true and sober Reason But if Men lay Reason aside and give themselves up to absurd Compliance if once they transgress the Principles of Reason and abuse the Principles of their Minds they abuse and spoil their Bodies 3 dly By Idleness and Sloth which are also our Bodies Enemies they come to putrifie as Water in Ponds by Stagnancy The Security of the natural State and Perfection of every thing is by Motion and Action By Lasiness and Sloth our Bodies come to be vitiated For they are deprived of their great Security And Nature's Remedy the All-preserving insensible Transpiration is advanced and maintained by Motion Whereas on the other side Vertue which is the Mind 's due Complexion is Soveraign to the Body And all the genuine and kindly Operations of Vertue and Religion are benign and favourable to our Bodies and * are our great Security Length of Days are secured by complying with the Principles of Religion Sobriety Reason and Understanding But in every Deviation from and Contradiction to Reason the contrary viz. Short Life and Diseases are founded and our Bodies spoiled and marred Thus you see God is not to be charged with that which we our selves are the sole Cause of We bring upon our selves the great
as doth become him a due Acknowledgment of God in respect of whatsoever Ability or Sufficiency he hath Let him duly acknowledge God and be apprehensive that he derives from him and therefore ought to submit to him and depend upon him and finally refer to him For a Life that is not acted govern'd and over-ruled by a determinate End and carried on by a certain Purpose it is both exorbitant weak and inconsistent Such Men live by chance and do what is next and not what they should and ought such Men live as if their Body had swallow'd up their Soul These Mens Lives are very uncertain things They live a kind of Lottery the Rules and Methods whereof no Body is acquainted with but things are as they fall out Such Men are guided by nothing else but a confused multitude of Fancies jumbled together as the things of this World were at the first Creation of them And this is true of all those whose Lives and Conversations are not made steady and directed by a right intended End and a true Purpose of Life In the third place I propose that we consider this that we are not to depend on Things without us as worldly Spirited Men do If we have as many of these things as are for use and as the Necessities of Life require we have enough For what are these things out of their use or beyond their use what are they then but Burthen and Cumber or at least the Gratification of Fancy and Imagination Now for a Man to affect a multitude of things and all Varieties it is but to discompose his own Mind For as we multiply Objects we multiply Thoughts and have more things to manage and order we multiply our Care which makes us less our selves and less free to Self-enjoyment This is the Temper of some Men Psal. 4. 6. who will shew us any Good it matters not who is the Agent * they are wholly undetermin'd as to Choice and undirected as to the Object This is the Voice of a Man in Confusion a Man without Notion and Principles a Man that hath not thought studied and considered But the good Man is determined Worldly things soon surfeit and cloy us they make a thick and gross Apprehension Their Variety doth occasion Distraction to the Mind and their Emptiness and Penury doth occasion Dissatisfaction In pursuit of worldly things there is certain Care and very uncertain Success No one that is in pursuit of Earthly things can assure himself of Success And if he be in pursuit and do not prevail Disappointments will break him Nothing is more grievous than Disappointment Fourthly I propose that we awaken in our selves an intelectual Sence of Divine and Spiritual Things which as they are in nearer relation to our Souls so they are more fitting and satisfactory Nothing is so satisfactory to the Mind which is improved or any way polished as the letting in of Light and the Communication of Truth This is more pleasant to such a Mind than any Pleasure of Sence whatsoever There is great Satisfaction in the Enjoyment of Mental * things By this means our Thoughts will stay at Home but if a Man wander from Home he shows his own Weakness Extravagant Appetites shew inward Poverty He that knows Better hath no Greediness after that which is Worse These are the things I propose to you for the obtaining of this Unity of Mind and Composedness of Spirit * Without this we shall have very little Enjoyment of our selves None think they are themselves when they are in Confusion of Thought Perplexity of Mind doubtful in Resolution and under sad Apprehensions * Without this there will be no Ability for the Discharge of our Duty in the World Till a Man hath well reformed his own ill-govern'd House till he hath cooled and calmed his heated and disturbed Fancy till he hath recovered himself from Mind-confounding and darkening Thoughts he will be in no Capacity or Disposition to act Abroad Is he fit to act in the World to direct and govern others that hath nothing but Darkness and Confusion Disorder and Distemper in his own Breast All his Faculties in conspiracy one against another Is this Man fit to act Abroad that hath not done his work within himself * Therefore let every Body take himself to task watch over himself and think that his best Discharge of Government is of himself and that there he ought to begin * And that a Man keep himself in Temper and the better govern his Thoughts and Apprehensions let him have a Sence of the Majesty of God The Moralist gave this for a Rule to set some great and worthy Person before a Man if he would do worthily Think saith one of Cato a Man that was exact according to the Moralist's Rule He thought that if a Man did but think of such a Person as that was it would keep him from consenting to Iniquity But how much more then the thinking of the Divine Majesty We never do any thing so secretly but in the presence of two Witnesses GOD and OUR OWN CONSCIENCE * Lastly to add more to your Thoughts concerning the necessity of SELF-GOVERNMENT It is * but little to say that I am placed in Authority or that I can command either Legions or Regions unless I have Free dispose of my self Tho' a Man could say of himself as the Centurion did I am a Man in Authority and I have Servants under me and to this Man I say go and he goeth and to another come and he cometh c. yet he is not a FREE Man unless he be Master of himself Unless I can bid my self do this and I do it without Difficulty Interruption or Disturbance my Command of others is insignificant unless I am intirely my self and can keep out all foreign Violence and Opposition from a hand without To have Thoughts imposed things injected when they are wholly inexpedient and we our selves otherwise better employ'd to have Suggestions thrust upon us neither to be refused nor commanded to have a Fire in our Breast which we cannot put out to be at every Beck and Call to have a Mind disquieted and discomposed and Meditation confounded or interrupted to have Thoughts running madly or snatched away from us If this be our case then I add * that for any seeming Glory from without or any vain Applause to compensate this home-bred Mischief a Man may as well be eased of the Pain of the Gout or Stone by being laid in a Bed of Down or of the Fit of a Burning-Feaver by the cool Air fanning him as he may be relieved in this internal Discomposure of Mind by worldly Application The true Remedy ariseth from within Admit Principles of Reason sow in thy Mind Seeds of Vertue be not through thine own Indisposition Tinder to every Temptation as he that is not settled in the habit of Vertue For Happiness is not from without To the chearful Spirit must be a richer Contribution
Victorious and overcomes the World Of these I shall treat but not severally and distinctly Nor will I undertake to give you a particular account of these in the Order I have now laid them for this would be to make this Text the whole Bible I will therefore speak of them in Conjunction as things offer themselves because these things run one into another RELIGION makes us live up to our Highest Faculties so as becomes Rational Beings that are indued with Intellectual Nature It enables us to live and to act suitably to our Height and Excellency so as to keep up the Grandure of our Being as Those that bear the Image of the Immortal GOD and are exalted above the Inferiour Creation * as Those that represent HIM in the World not only in respect of Intelligence but in respect of Authority and Power to dispose and govern It makes us to scorn all Actions that are base unhandsom or unworthy our State and the Relation we stand in to God To have GOD in our sight and to have right Apprehensions of Him doth above all things tend to the Nobleness Amplitude and Freedom of our Spirits For this we observe that the Greatness of an Object and the Excellency of the Act of any AGENT about a transcendent Object doth mightily tend to the Enlargement and Improvement of HIS Faculties Whereas those who are employ'd in mean Businesses and are conversant about little Objects have nothing in them that is excellent but are of limited and narrow Spirits It hath been observed that Men that have been of mean Parts and ordinary Perfections after they came to be truly RELIGIOUS their Parts have grown upon them and they have appear'd to be other kind of Men. The account of this is easie It is to be imputed to their Application to God who is the noblest Object in the World and to their Attendance upon Him For there is no Motion in the World so generous and tending to the Accomplishing the Agent as the Motions of Religion are By our RELIGION we are preserved from those things that would sink us into the order of Beasts by Sensuality and Carnal-Mindedness or that would transform us into the Likeness of Devils by Pride Presumption and Self-Conceit By Religion we come to imitate the Divine Perfection become God-like in Wisdom Righteousness Goodness Charity Compassion in forgiving Injuries pardoning Enemies and doing Hurt to None but Good to All as we have Ability and Opportunity RELIGION doth restrain the Extravagancy of Mens Passions and Appetites and regulates the Exorbitancy of Mens Wills IT is the most conducive instrument in the whole World to the Pleasure of Mind and Body Our Misery and Infelicity ariseth from our undue and naughty Practice And all that which we call Punishment is let in upon us by Sin Religion permits us the Pleasure of our Body as far as it is for our Health and not destructive of the Tranquility of our Mind nor the Indolency of the Body Religion produceth a sweet and gracious Temper of Mind calm in its self and loving to Men. It causeth a Universal Benevolence and Kindness to Mankind For these are the Things of which it doth consist Love Candour Ingenuity Clemency Patience Mildness Gentleness and all other Instances of GOOD-NATURE It hath such a Quality in it as will make them Good natur'd that it finds bad Religion makes Men Humble Affable Meek and Charitable Modest and Prudent Tender and Compassionate It detests nothing more than * either a Peevish Froward Passionate Furious or Troublesome Temper a Morose or Churlish Disposition RELIGION begets in us a true Liberty Freedom of Spirit and Largeness of Soul It causeth the greatest Serenity and Chearfulness to the Mind and prevents groundless Fears foolish Imaginations needless Suspicions and dastardly Thoughts It takes away from us all bad Thoughts of God or jealous Suspicions of Men. Religion makes us not suspect Evil from God but to look upon Him as the most Gracious and Benign Being that designs nothing more than the Happiness of his Creatures It is not Religion but SUPERSTITION that dreads God Religion makes us reverence him and delight in him It makes us to entertain good Thoughts of God and to conceive aright of him that He doth transact all things with Mankind as a Loving and Tender Father with his Child I further add that RELIGION advanceth the Soul to its just Power and Soveraignty enabling the Mind to govern all Bodily Appetites and Exorbitant Desires and this not only because of the intrinsick Baseness of Brutish and Sensual Lusts in a Nature that is indued with transcendant Faculties but also because of the mischievous Effects that follow upon it Intemperance doth by a natural Necessity weaken our Reason and thwart the very End and Purpose of Religion For Intemperance doth either stupifie or enrage our Spirits We see sometimes that Persons of a good Constitution well inclined to Vertue fair and conversable whose Company is pleasant and delightful that these very Persons are made Cholerick and Ungovernable when they are disorder'd by Intemperance And so they are not what they were but emptied of all those things to which their Constitutions did lead and incline them Our Work therefore in the World is to maintain the just Authority and Soveraignty of Reason against the Assaults of rude intemperate and boisterous Passions And so to tame that rude Beast THE BODY which by the Divine Providence is ty'd to our Souls in this State that it may not prove a constant Temptation and Provocation to our Mind but that it be kept in Subjection I add further that RELIGION is a most lively vigorous and sprightly Thing satisfying to the Subject and putting it upon all good Employment Worldly Men Persons of no Experience may think otherwise As that Religion would make a Man Morose and Soure and fill him with Discontent Whereas Religion drives away sad and gloomy Melancholy and begets in us a rational Confidence and gives a Man great Joy and Pleasure in the Divine Goodness And if any that are Religious think otherwise and are otherwise affected I must tell them that it doth not arise from Principles of Religion but from Bodily Temper in respect of which they are troubled or from some occasion from without And that their Religion is their Relief Of all the the Things in Religion none is so much suspected to tend to Melancholy and Sadness as is the Motion of Repentance So that if I can vindicate this Piece of Religion you will be satisfied for all the rest But to think that this is accompanied with Sadness and Melancholy is the greatest Mistake in the World True indeed Worldly Sorrow as the Apostle saith causeth Death This hath no Life in it because it hath no Respect to God but is rather an Act of Rebellion against him For here the Unquietness comes from Want of Submission to God The Person is discontented because Things are not to his Mind and as
he would have them Such was the Temper of Jonah He was displeased and angry to Death because he was not gratified and had his Will tho' it tended never so much to the Ruin of others But the Ground of SORROW for SIN is the Love of GOD * it is because we have done amiss varied from the Rule of Right and given God an Offence * because we have done that which was base and disingenuous to our loving Father and best Benefactor Now this doth quite alter the Case * and makes a Change which WORLDLY SORROW tho' never so much doth not For if we truly repent we undo the Action and morally disclaim it And upon this God doth pardon But Things without are not altered by Worldly Sorrow But go on as they did in their Course whether the Man be pleas'd or displeas'd But REPENTANCE doth afford us Heart's-ease and removes the Malady that did affect us For by our Repentance and God's Pardon THAT which hath been done is as if it never had been done So that in effect the Penitent may say I that was the Sinner am not the same Person And That which I have done amiss is as if I had never done it This is that Repentance which the Apostle calls Repentance to Salvation never to be repented of For it produceth good Effects Love to God and Thankfulness to Him And in These there is Heart's-ease and Satisfaction I will appeal to the Experience of any Man that hath ingenuously repented if He do not find more Satisfaction Heart's-ease and Pleasure in one Hour that he has spent in this Exercise and in Retirement from the World than ever he found in any Hour of Jollity and intemperate Mirth in all his Life And it must be so For in one Case there is Satisfaction to the Reason of the Mind which is Fundamental to inward Peace But in the other the Pleasure of the Sin is soon over and the Memory of it is grievous and remains All that Pleasure which worldly and ungovern'd Persons take in Sin has no Solidity in it But we may truly say of it as Solomon doth of Laughter it is Madness and of Mirth What doth it But in the Motion of Repentance there is ease to a Man's Heart So that a Man may say of * this Sorrow what the Poet saith of Grief That it is carried out with the Tears I have now spoken of Religion in its Use and Exercise in this State whilst we are here the Advantages that we have by it at present I am now to speak of it in its Issue when it is Victorious and Triumphant what it shall be in Souls when they have made their escape out of Time and finally conquer'd the World And here I shall declare the Effects of Religion partly as to Mens Bodies but chiefly as to their Minds As to Mens Bodies in this State and the Future In this State the greatest Work is Mortification Colossi 3. 5. Mortifie therefore your Members c. And 1 Cor. 9. 27. I beat down my Body And 1 St. John 2. 16. The Apostle saith All that is in the World the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life must be subdued Then hereafter our Bodies shall be Spiritualized 1 Cor. 15. 44. Nay Tho' it be sown a Natural Body it shall be raised a Spiritual Body Which would pass for Nonsense in the Ears of a Philosopher But he speaks emphatically A Body carried so much higher and to so great a Degree of Perfection as much as a Spirit is a far more excellent Being than an Earthly Body This that I now speak we cannot now fully understand because it is a State in Reversion For we must know that States are not known by Notion and Description but by Sense and Feeling and by being in the * very State * it self Beasts have no Notion of the State of Men Neither have we any certain Notion of the State of Angels because neither they nor we are in that State And as we do not know it because we feel it not so can we do nothing towards this happy Change of the Body otherwise than by the several Vertues and Graces in these Bodies to wit in the Exercise of Sobriety Chastity Temperance together with the moderate Use of the Conveniences and Accommodations of Nature by which we may fit and prepare them for the State of Glory But our main Work in this State is about the inward Man to wit that That be so conformable to the Law of God that it be brought to take Delight in it and to harmonize with it We must take Care that we do not make our highest Faculties to cater for the Flesh. The inferior Faculties are capable of this Employment and good enough for it Our great Care must be to subdue all inordinate Passions and boisterous Lusts which are said to fight against the Soul That gallant Resolution which was taken up by the Apostle must be taken up by us I will not saith he that any of these Things have Authority over me But I will have my Mind free from and above all these Things Let us take Care that all inordinate Appetites and Excesses be restrained such as that was in her who said Give me Children or else I die For WILL without Reason is a blind Man's Motion And WILL against Reason is a mad Man's Motion I add that our Care must be that we be not only Bodily-wise BODY indeed is a heavy Weight But let us bear up as well as we can against it 'T is true that God hath linked our Souls and Bodies together But it was always intended that the governing Part should be THE MIND And a Man by Wisdom and Vertue may overcome Bodily-Temper and Inclination We have had those that have said By my Bodily-Temper and Constitution I am so and so such are my Difficulties and Temptations Yet through the Power of my Mind all these Things are subject to my Reason This is the Creator's Law that all Things in Man should be subject to the Government of REASON which is God's Deputy And this is our Tryal in this State whether by the Weight of Body we will suffer our selves to be depress'd and to sink downward by minding Earthly Things and so take our Portion here and fall short of God or whether by the Reason of our Minds we will mount upwards mind Heavenly Things converse with God by Heavenly Meditation and make choice of the Things that are most excellent Whereby we shall naturalize our selves to the Employment of Eternity For this we observe that we readily and easily do those Things that we have been long accustomed unto Use makes Men ready apt and prompt So that it is no difficult Matter for Men to foresee what they shall approve hereafter by what they savour relish and delight in now By what they take Pleasure and Satisfaction in at present For it will be there