while enslaved and defiled in their Affections and the very Liberty they boast of in their Conduct and Management of themselves openly springs from their secret Servitude to some vile Passion or other Nor yet can I be so soft and easie as to grant that such Men as these either do or can arrive at the Liberty they pretend to I mean that of Regulating and Governing all their outward Actions by the Rules of Vertue They too often throw off the Disguise which either Hypocrisie or Enmity to Religion makes them put on and prove too plainly to the World that when they lay Restraints on themselves in this or that Sin 't is only to indulge themselves the more freely and securely in others Secondly My next Remark is That it is gross Stupidity or Impudence to deny a Providence and another World when the Belief of both is so indispensably necessary to the well-being of this The Frame and Nature of Man and the necessities of this World require both Without these selfishness must undoubtedly be the predominant Principle This would breed unreasonable Desires and these would fill us with Fears and Jealousies so that a State of Nature would indeed be a State of War and our Enmity against one another would not be extinguished by Civil Society but only concealed and restrained till a fit Occasion for its breaking out should present it self Laws would want that Force Common-wealths that Bond or Cement Conversation that Confidence and our Possessions that security which is necessary to render them Blessings to us § 3. A Third Fruit of Christian Liberty is that Relation which it creates between God and us We are no longer of the World but are separated and sanctified devoted and dedicated to God Thus St. Peter 1 Epist 2.9 Ye are a Chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar People And thus St. Paul Rom. 8.15 16. ye have not received the Spirit of Bondage again to fear but ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father The Spirit it self beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God and if Children then Heirs Heirs of God and Joint-Heirs with Christ God is our God we are his People He is our Father and we are his Children we are ingraffed into his Family The Consequence of this is his Dearly Beloved and Only Begotten Son is our Advocate at his right Hand the Propitiation for our Sins and Intercessour for us His Spirit resides with us to comfort and assist us his Angels guard us and minister to us for we are no longer the Object of his Wrath but of his Love and Care How does the Apostle triumph on this Argument Heb. 12.18 19 c. For ye are not come unto the Mount that might be touched and that burned with Fire nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of a Trumpet and the Voice of Words which voice they who heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more For they could not endure that which was commanded and if so much as a Beast touch the Mountain it shall be stoned or thrust thorow with a Dart And so terrible was the sight that Moses said I exceedingly fear and quake But ye are come unto Mount Sion and unto the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable Company of Angels To the general Assembly and Church of the First Born which are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the Spirits of just Men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediatour of the new Covenant and to the Blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things then that of Abel And thus again 1 Cor. 3.2 Therefore let no Man glory in Men for all things are yours whether Paul or Apollo or Cephus or the World or Life or Death or things present or things to come all are yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods These are great and glorious things What Dignity and Eminence does this Adoption raise us to what Blessedness flow from Communion and Fellowship with God what can we want or what can we fear when we have so mighty an Interest in the Soveraign of Heaven and Earth when all his Divine Perfections are employed to promote and secure our Happiness Now sure we may rejoyce now we may glory and triumph for certainly all things must work together for our good But as fallen Angels envied the Happiness of New Created Man so do Apostate and Debauched Men envy that of the Godly And one of these will be apt to say hold Sir you run too fast these glorious Priviledges are yet but in the Embrio and all your Happiness is yet but in the Reversion Notwithstanding all these big words you must grant me that you are yet but in a State of Probation that you are to undergo Hardships and Difficulties and to live upon the thin Diet of Hope and Expectation and so I think I might take you down from Heirs of God to Servants at the best Well I will grant that we yet live by Faith and wait for the Hope of Glory Nor will I at present contend about those Pleasures that are but in the bud I will for once quit all that Preference both as to Nobility and Pleasure which Adoption and the full Assurance of Hope gives a Godly Man above a Sinner and I will take the State of a Child of God to be as the Objector would have it I will suppose him to be under Age till he come to another Life and to differ nothing from a Servant whilst he is so though he be Heir of all Yet after all if I can prove that 't is our Duty to serve God it will be no contemptible Fruit no small Commendation of Liberty that it enables us to do our Duty And that it is our Duty to serve God is plain For is it not fit that He who made and still upholds the World should govern it ought we not to pay Obedience to His Laws whose Infinite Perfections and Immence Beneficence invest Him with an absolute and uncontroulable Sovereignty over us whom should we honour with our Soul and Body but Him who is the Author of both to whom should we devote and Sacrifice what we have but to Him from whom we received all whose Praise should we shew forth but His who has called us out of Darkness into his marvelous Light whom should we obey and adore but Him who has translated us out of Bondage into Liberty out of the servitude of Satan into the Kingdom of his dear Son having redeemed us by the Blood of his Son from that Wrath to which our Sins had deservedly subjected us But this is not all I shall prove it not only to be our Duty but our Honour and our Happiness to serve God even on the supposition on which the Objection proceeds and which I at present grant 1. 'T is our Honour to
inferiour Nature All which are I think compriz'd by Solomon in very few words Prov. 24.13 14. My Son saith he eat thou Honey because it is good and the Honey Comb which is sweet to thy taste so shall the knowledge of Wisdom be unto thy Soul when thou hast found it then there shall be a reward and thy expectation shall not be cut off Solomon here as is very usual with inspired Writers does compare Spiritual with Corporeal Things or Illustrates the one by the other He tells us that what Honey is to the Body that Wisdom is to the Soul And recommending the Former from two incomparable Properties its Ministring to Health and Pleasure he recommends the Latter from Advantages which bear indeed some Resemblance but are as much Superiour to these as the Soul is to the Body My Son eat thou Honey because it is good i. e. because it both cleanses and purges all noxious Humours and nourishes and strengthens the Body And the Honey Comb because it is sweet to the taste which is the second Excellence of this sort of Food namely its Pleasantness and properly urged to invite the Eater Then proceeding to compleat the Comparison he adds so shall the Knowledge of Wisdom be to thy Soul when thou hast found it i. e. it shall Minister to the Purification Strength and Delight of thy Soul But this is not all Though the Parallel can be extended no further between Honey and Wisdom yet he does not think fit for that Reason to omit one of the greatest Excellencies of Wisdom And therefore he adds then there shall be a reward and thy expectation shall not be cut off Wisdom does not only perfect and entertain our Minds but also it gives us a title to those Rewards for the enjoyment of which it prepares and fits us Here then we have from Solomon the true Properties of true Wisdom By these we may pronounce safely of all the different kinds of Knowledge distinguishing the precious from the vile and fixing the true Estimate of Each If there be any sort of Truths whose Knowledge does not promote but obstruct these great Ends these we are to despise and slight to shun and hate But if there be any Knowledge that does neither oppose or hinder nor yet contribute to these Ends unless accidentally and very remotely for this we may have some but no very great regard or esteem But whatever Knowledge that be which is attended by these Fruits this is that which we are to search for as for hidden Treasure This is that which when we have found it we are to value above the Gold of Ophir the Topaz and the Carbuncle and all precious Stones The distinguishing Characters then of Illuminating Truths are four 1. They Purifie us 2. They Nourish and Strengthen us 3. They Entertain and Delight us 4. They procure us a glorious Reward 1. They Purifie us This is a Property which the Royal Psalmist frequently attributes to the Word of God that it is pure and clean Psal 119. and elsewhere And the New Testament frequently ascribes to Faith and Hope that they purifie the Heart 1 Joh. 3.3 Acts 15. And this sure is the first thing necessary to the Perfecting the Soul of Man 'T is with the Soul as with the Body it must be first cleansed from hurtful Humours before it can be fed and nourished purged of its Errors and Vices e're it can be enriched with Divine Vertues and attain that Liberty and Strength wherein consists the true Greatness and Excellence of the Mind of Man The first Step towards the Perfection of Vertue is the relinquishing our Vice for we must cease to do Evil e're we can learn to do Good And the first Step towards the Perfection of Wisdom is the dispelling those Errors which deceive and mislead the Mind and pervert Life What these were in the Jew and Gentile and what they are at this day in us it is easie enough to discern The Mind of Man as far as I can observe is naturally prone to Religious Worship Not only the consideration of the wonderful Mechanism and contrivance of the World and of Events strange suddain and unaccountable but also the Conscience of his own Impotence and Obnoxiousness inclining him to the Belief and prompting him to seek the Patronage of an Invisible All-sufficient Power In the next place the Mind of Man is ever prone to propose to him some great some soveraign Good in which he may acquiesce and by which he may secure himself as well as he can against the Indigence and Poverty of his Nature and the Changes and Revolutions the Disasters and the Miseries to which this Mortal State is exposed These are two things of that Importance that no man can err in them but the Error must prove fatal to his Repose He that sets up to himself for his ultimate End an empty and uncertain Good instead of a Solid and Eternal one must needs be as miserably deluded and disappointed as he must who sets up to himself a false God instead of the true or goes about to endear and recommend himself to the true by a false and superstitious Worship Now in these points the Jew and Gentile were miserably though not equally mistaken The Gentile worshipped Devils instead of God Their Mysteries were either sensual or cruel their Religion did oftner incourage Sin than Vertue And as to their soveraign Good their Hearts were set upon this World upon the Pomp and Pleasure upon the Ease and Honour of it and they had either none or very dark and uncertain Prospects beyond the Grave All beyond it was an unknown Region full of Fables and idle Phantoms The Jews though they enjoy'd the Oracles of God and generally preserved the Worship of one true and living God yet were they not free from very deplorable Errors relating to these points They seemed to have turned the true God into an Idol and to have entertained some Notions of Him very repugnant to his Nature they looked upon him as the God of the Jews not of the Gentiles as a Respecter of Persons as fond and partial to their Nation and as delighted with a Religion made up of numerous Rites and Ceremonies and external Observances And this could not but have a very sad influence upon their Religion as it really had The Holiness which is truly acceptable to God being neglected and abolished and Sadducism or Pharisaism i. e. Sensuality or Hypocrisie introduced in the room of it And as to their ultimate End or supream Good the Sadducees denied the Resurrection Angels and Spirits and therefore 't is not to be expected they should entertain any design above the Pleasure of the Body And though the Pharisees acknowledged Angels and a Resurrection yet can we not discern that they had a real value for any thing besides the Honour Power and Wealth of this World And no wonder since they could upon their Principles satisfie themselves in a Religion which
serve Him whom Angels serve to whom all things in Heaven and in Earth do bow and obey 't is the highest Prerogative we can derive from Grace or Nature to be capable of serving Him His Divine Perfections transcend the Conceptions of inferiour Creatures and can be known contemplated and adored by none but such as are made but a little lower than the Angels such as are endued not only with the Light of Reason but with a far brighter that of the Spirit of God This is indeed our utmost Perfection and must be our utmost Ambition this alone makes us considerable who are in all other Respects but mean and contemptible for we draw but a precarious and dependant Breath and the World we inhabit is a dark and tempestuous one full of Folly and Misery But even this will serve for a further Confirmation of what I further contend for For being indigent and needy standing at an infinite Distance from self-Sufficiency 't is plain that what we cannot find within us we must seek without us Some All-sufficient Good we must find out something we must rest in and repose our selves upon and this will be our God this we shall serve and adore And what shall this be shall we serve Evil Spirits These are our avowed and inveterate Enemies and go about like a roaring Lion seeking whom they may devour Shall we serve the Good this were to dishonour our Nature to serve our Fellow-Creatures and Fellow-Servants Besides that such will never Sacrilegiously usurp their Maker's Honour nor admit that Service which is due to Him alone Shall we then serve Man Alass the Breath of great Ones is in their Nostrils their Life is but a Vapour tossed to and fro with restless Noise and Motion and then it vanishes they dye and all their Thoughts and Projects perish What then shall we at length be reduced to serve our Lust this is worse than Pagan Idolatry Stocks and Stones indeed could not help or reward their Votaries but our Lusts like wild and Savage Tyrants destroy where they rule and oppress and overwhelm us with Ruins and Mischiefs while we servily court and flatter them I have not done yet I have proved it indeed to be our Duty and Honour to serve God but these with some are cold and lifeless Topicks I will now prove it to be our Interest and Happiness and this too laying aside at present as I promised the Consideration of a future Reward and the Joys springing from it To make good this Assertion it will be necessary briefly to examine two things First the Design or End and Secondly the Nature of this Service If we enquire after the End of it 't is evidently our own Advantage and Happiness The Lusts or the Humours the Wants and Necessities of Man may put him upon invading our Liberty or purchasing and contracting with us for our Servitude But God is All-sufficient to himself and has no need of our Service When He will be glorified by us 't is that we may enjoy his Protection and Bounty When He obliges us to obey his Commands 't is in order to perfect our Natures and purifie and qualifie us for the Enjoyment of Spiritual and Divine Pleasures When He enjoyns us Prayer 't is because it does exalt and enlarge our Minds and fit us for the Blessings it obtains When He prescribes us self-Resignation 't is because he will choose for us and manage our Affairs better than we can our selves Let us in the Next place consider the Nature of this Service To serve God what is it but to love what is infinitely lovely to follow the Conduct of infinite Wisdom and to repose our Confidence in that Being whose Goodness is as boundless as his Power to serve God 't is to pursue the great End of our Creation to act consonant to the Dignity of our Nature and to govern our Lives by the Dictates of an enlighten'd Reason How wisely has Our Church in one of her Collects expressed her Notion of the Nature of God's Service whose service is perfect Freedom The Devil maintains his Dominion over us by infatuating our Vnderstandings by enfeebling and fettering our Will by deluding and corrupting our Affections But on the quite contrary the more clear and impartial our Vnderstandings the more free and absolute our Wills the more unbyass'd and rational our Affections the fitter are we to worship God nay indeed we cannot worship Him at all as we ought to do unless our Souls be thus qualified Therefore is the Service of God called a Rational Service 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Word of God is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sincere Milk to signifie to us that in the Service of God all is real and solid Good Such is the Perfection of our Natures the might and Joy of the Spirit the Protection and Conduct of Providence and all the great and precious Promises of God in Christ are yea and Amen But in the Service of Sin all is Cheat and Imposture and under a pompous shew of Good the Present is Vanity and the Future Repentance but such a Repentance as does not relieve but increase the Sinners Misery This is enough to be said of the Nature of God's Service And by the Concessions I made my Objector about the Beginning of this Head I am restrained from taking notice of the more glorious Effects of it Yet some there are very great and good ones that fall not within the Compass of the Objection which I will but just mention The first is Rest. While Religion regulates the Disorder and reduces the Extravagance of our Affections it does in Effect lay a storm and compose a Mutiny in our Bosoms Whilst it Enlightens our Minds and teaches us the true Value that is at least the comparative Worthlesness of Worldly things it extinguishes the Troubles which present Disappointments and Losses and prevents those Fears which the Prospect of future Changes and Revolutions is wont to create in us A Mind that is truly enlighten'd and has no Ambition but for Immortality and Glory whose Humility with reference to these temporal Things is built upon a true Notion of the Nature of them this Soul has entered already into its Rest. This is the Doctrine of our Lord and Master Matth. 11.28 29. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden that is all ye that are oppressed by the Weight of your own Cares and Fears that are fatigued and toil'd in the Designs and Projects of Avarice and Ambition and I will give you rest Take my Yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your Souls I need not I think here shew that the more we fear and serve God the more we love and admire Him the more clear is the Vnderstanding and the more pure the Heart For the more we converse with solid and eternal Good the more insignificant and trifling will temporal
dismissed from the Pilgrimage of this World and from the corruptible Tabernacle of the Body Nor do I Lastly doubt but that this Love is often sensibly transporting 't is a fire within that strives to break out and exert it self in the Fruitions of Heaven 't is a rich and mighty Cordial that raises Nature above it self and makes it all Purity all Glory Thus have I consider'd the Extent or Compass of the Perfect Man's Vertues And the Sum total is In some he must excell because Natural and Easie in others because necessary Universal ones he cannot want they are essential to Christianity others of a peculiar Nature he may unless his Circumstances exact them Nor is this any Diminutton of his Perfection Patience Fortitude Moderation Vigilance c. are the Vertues of Earth not Heaven and yet none thinks the blessed Inhabitants of that Place Imperfect because not endow'd with Habits which they do not want Above all he that will be Perfect must abound in those Graces which are of the most Heroick Nature Faith Love and Humility For these are they which most effectually exalt Man above himself and above the World which inflame him with a Zeal for the Honour of God and the Good of Man and enable him to surmount the Difficulties which he meets with in prosecuting this Glorious Design I am next to Enquire § 2. To what Height to what Degrees of Vertue the Perfect Man may advance I have in part anticipated this Enquiry already yet cannot forbear adding here two Observations First That Reason and Scripture seem to press us on towards an endless Progress in Vertue And yet Secondly That both seem to propose to us such a State of Perfection as attainable beyond which we cannot go that so the Beginner may not dispair of Perfection nor the Perfect abate any thing of their Vigilance and their Industry Such a Degree of Excellence to which nothing can be added such a Height above which there is no room to soar if apply'd to Man and this World is surely but an Imaginary Notion To dream of such a Perfection were to forget our Nature and our State no Sagacity of Judgment no Strength of Resolution no Felicity of Circumstances can ever advance us to this Height Such a Perfection as this that is incapable of any Increase belongs I believe to God alone or if we may allow it to Angels we must certainly deny it to Man In whom one would think the Appetites of the Body can never be so entrely subdued that there should be no place to extend his Conquest or render his Victory more entire and compleat and in whom one would think the Spirit of God should never reside in that Measure that there should be nothing to be added to his Fulness 'T is hard to conceive how we should study the Systeme of Divine Faith how we should daily reflect upon our Lives and Actions without growing in spiritual Wisdom and Understanding 'T is hard to conceive how we should give God the World and our selves repeated Proofs of our Integrity in the day of Tryal without increasing our Strength and Assurance and Love must naturally increase with these Whence it is that St. Paul acknowledging himself not yet Perfect resolves that forgetting those things that are behind and reaching forwards to those things that are before he would press on towards the Mark for the prize of the high Calling of God in Christ Jesus Phil. 3.13 14. And St. Austin resolves plenissima Charitas quam diu hîc homo vivit est in Nemine an absolute Plenitude of Charity is in no Mortal upon Earth And yet if we come to Fact and Practice one would be tempted to think that the Disciples of our Lord and Master had arrived at that State wherein their business was not to climb higher but rather to make good the Ground they had gain'd What could render St. Paul's Victory over the Body more compleat who assures us I am crucified with Christ And again I am crucified to the World and the World is crucified to me What could render the Authority and Dominion of his Mind more absolute or its Graces more consummate and entire who could say with Truth 't is not I who live but Christ who lives in me What would you have added to that Faith and Love which made him ready not only to be bound but to die at Jerusalem which made him long to be dissolved and to be with Christ As to those words of his Phil. 3.13 forgetting those things that are behind and reaching forwards c. they relate to his Tryals and Performances to his Perils and Conflicts not to his Attainments he does not here deny himself to be Perfect though that might well enough have become his Modesty and Humility but only that he was not to look upon himself as already at his Goal a Conqueror and Crown'd there being much yet behind to do and suffer notwithstanding all that he had passed through This is the Sense of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render not as though I were already perfect As to St. Austin I am of his Mind for he speaks Comparatively and does in effect no more than affirm That no Man living is as Perfect in this World as he will be in another which no Man sure can ever doubt If we consult Reason will it not be apt to tell us That as every Being has its Bounds set it so has every Perfection too That there is a Stature as of the Natural so of the Spiritual Man beyond which it cannot grow That as to Grace no more can be infused than our Natures are capable of Otherwise like too rich a Cordial it will not strengthen but fire our Natures or like too dazling a Light it will not assist but oppress our Faculties And does not the Parable of our Master countenance this Matth. 25.2 wherein he tells us That God gave to one five Talents to another two to another one to every Man according to his Ability By which one would think our Lord insinuates That the Measures of Grace are usually distributed in Proportion to the Capacities of Nature and that he who improved his two Talents into four arriv'd at his proper Perfection as well as he who improv'd his five into ten it being as absurd to expect That the Perfection of every Man should be the same as to expect that all Mens Bodies should be of the same Height or their Minds of the same Capacity Reflecting on all this together I cannot but be of Opinion That some have actually arriv'd at that strength of Faith at that ardour of Love that they seemed to have been uncapable of any considerable Accessions in this Life But yet new occasions may still demand new Vertues which were indeed before contained and included in Faith and Love but no otherwise than as Fruits and Trees are in their Seeds And some Degree of Original Corruption may still be lurking in the