happy shalt thou be This says the Wiseman is a continual feast and will bear a Man up under all the uncertainties disappointments conflicts and miseries of this Life He need not resort to Drink or Company to replenish his Mind and relax his Thoughts who is thus caressed and crowned with the pleasing Ecchoes of an unprejudic'd Spirit This was Holy Job's Consolation during his Exilement from Prosperity while his Flesh groaned under a sad Catastrophe and dismal Change of Things Upon a review of his Life past he discovered that he had walked uprightly with God that amidst all the Temptations which Wealth and Fortune could caress him with he had a special regard to the thing that was just and though Providence was pleased to alter his Condition and strip him of all External Goods yet this was his Comfort My righteousness I hold fast I have hitherto retained my integrity and am resolved through the Assistance of Divine Grace that my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live Now my design from these words is First of all To shew the Necessity of Holy Resolution wherewith Job fortifies himself against the very worst that may happen to him Till I die I will not remove my integrity from me and so on Secondly To shew how far Holy Resolution is virtuous and in what sense it turns to a good account Thirdly To lay down some Motives to resolve well and timely And then conclude First then I am to shew the Necessity of Holy Resolution wherewith Job fortifies himself against the very worst that may happen to him saying in the Text Till I die I will not remove my integrity from me We all well know by experience that we are naturally depraved by the Presumption and Fall of our first Parents our Inclinations are vile and propense to Evil our Wills stubborn and irregular our Passions violent and mutinous In fine in us that is in our Flesh dwelleth no good thing at all What Motions to Evil do we ever and anon perceive stirred up within us How greedy are our Appetites of the forbidden Fruit What abundance of unbecoming Thoughts invade our Minds and invelop our Spirits in Hurry and Confusion How naturally averse are we from Holy Things How disagreeable is Duty to our Affections In a word how unsuitable is the knowledge of God and another World to us in our Natural State When a Good presents it self and uses forcible Arguments to court our Acceptance how apt are we to boggle and protract to make excuses or to give a flat denial Nay so unhappy are we that interpretatively we take more pains to damn than to save our selves For what a deal of our time do we waste in catering for our Lusts What Difficulties and Hardships do we rub through to gratify our foolish Appetites How many restless Nights and broken Sleeps do we patiently endure to bring an unmanly project to bear In fine what a train of tumultuous Noises will we charge through to oblige a fond Humour and answer a whimsical Disposition This is our Condition by Nature this our Unhappiness through the Transgression of our First Parents But this is not all As we are thus interrupted by our own corrupt Nature so we are in as much danger by Temptations from without The Devil who is rendred for ever incapable of Repentance as sinning without a Tempter envies the hopeful Condition of Man who is admitted to Sorrow and Pardon through the Merits and Satisfaction of a Saviour And therefore uses all his Art and Cunning to stain his Innocence and to bring him into the same miserable Condition with himself He has Apples to please those of tender and Gold to enchant those of riper Years he has Kingdoms to allure the Ambitious and flattering Arguments to betray the Pretenders to Reason The Apostle gives this Character of him That he goes up and down like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour and whom he exhorts us to resist stedfast in the Faith He examines and observes Mens Humours and then suits his Temptations proportionably He well knew that Cain was Proud Ambitious and Self-conceited and by degrees induced him to imbrue his Hands in the Innocent Blood of his Brother Abel He knew that Peter was fearful and pusillanimous and so tempted him to deny his Master with Oaths and Curses He knew that Judas was selfish and covetous and therefore prompted him to betay the Holy Jesus for thirty pieces of Silver He is a restless Enemy and purposes to make all he can as miserable as himself But this is our happiness though he is admitted to tempt yet he cannot sorce us to Sin he lays the bait but cannot compel us to swallow it without our consent He importuned our Blessed Saviour to cast himself down from the Pinacle of the Temple but was not impowered to do him the mischief When we stain our Innocence and lose our Peace the blame lies at our own Door the Adversary is not so much in fault It is true he used Arguements insinuated closely and left no means unattempted but it was yet in our choice whether we would hearken to and be overcome by his Allurements Nor can we lay the blame upon God in suffering us to fall but upon our selves for living careless and secure and giving the Enemy fair opportunities and advantages of committing a Rape upon our Integrity Let no man says St. James say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with Evil neither tempteth he any man But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and inticed James 1.13 14. Were we but solicitous and thoughtful aware of the Adversary sensible of our own weaknesses and furnished with wise Considerations we should not be so easily courted to lose our Innocence nor would Temptations have such Influence upon us St. Paul in this Case thus exhorts us Ephes 6.13 14 c. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand Stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth having on the breast-plate of righteousness and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace Above all taking the shield of faith wherewith you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the devil and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God But considering I say our natural Depravation whereby we are strongly propense to Evil and averse from that which is Good are liable to the Incursions of Satan and in imminent danger of falling as so many Victims to him what necessity is there of Holy Resolution that seeing we are set in the midst of so many and great Temptations we forthwith wisely resolve to use our utmost care and diligence to stem the tide of our evil Inclinations within and to confront the insinuating Arguments of Temptations
in the best of our performances or those petulant follies we are guilty of when in a converted and regenerate state they were enough by their own weight to sink us into Eternal Perdition So that considering how defective we are at best there is work enough for Repentance and for the Exercising of Christian Graces so long as we live It is not such an easy thing to change an evil mind to correct a rude nature and to defend our selves against a Relapse for this it seems is our unhappiness the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh so that we cannot do the things that we would Galat. 5.17 While we are in the body we shall meet with difficulties and oppositions occasioned by the Flesh warring against the Spirit and ostentimes we are put to it to keep our integrity and too frequently either by surprize or for want of a good Judgment or substantial Arguments and suitable Considerations we fall and make work for our Repentance and this is the business of our whole lives to repent as soon as we have slipped and to fortify our selves with the whole Armour of God against Temptations But thus much for the first proposition namely That a Christian while he continues in this Life must not stop at any determinate degree in Holiness out of a fond conceit that he is good enough already From this I proceed to the Second Proposition which is Secondly That Perfection as such is not attainable in this Life and therefore we ought to strive to be as good as is possible I count not my self says the Apostle to have apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth to those things which are before I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus To be perfect in a strict sense is to be free from imbecility whether natural or contracted from any blemish or appearance of insirmity in fine it implies such an advancement which admits of no degree beyond it when a Christian by special arts has furnished himself with such a Complication of Graces that he cannot err nor be in danger of falling now it is impossible while our Spirits are clogged with Flesh and detained by the infirmities of human nature to be thus compleat and spotless for even the best of men by sad experience find how imperfect and weak they are how apt to fall that to regain their innocence are forced to renew their sorrows Accordingly we read one of the greatest Proficients in the School of Christ lamenting the corruption of his nature Rom. 7.24 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Some of the Ancients call this Verse genitus sanctorum the groan or lamentation of good Christians who are troubled at heart that they are so much interrupted by the importunities of the Flesh that they cannot serve God with better attention with that strictness of Zeal and ardency of Affection they would For what through the prevalency of the Flesh and the subtle but almost inconceivable insinuations of the common Adversary they are sometimes indifferent to holy duties disturbed by a multitude of unbecoming thoughts when engaged in them send up their prayers with cold desires are more insensible of their spiritual wants are sometimes more inclinable to comply with a temptation and are at a loss for Arguments to preserve their innocence these unhappinesses and many more too tedious to insert attending the best of men are as so many incentives to Repentance to quicken and spur them on in watchings and strivings these oblige them to keep a jealous Eye upon the inconstancy of their nature and to be still furnishing themselves with wise considerations that they may regulate their infirmities and reduce themselves to a better compliance with the duties of Religion The condition of nature is such that as long as we are in the World we shall be courted by temptations to lose our innocence and though we have by hearty endeavours stemmed the Tyde of our evil inclinations and made our Wills corrective and governable so that temptations are not so taking nor we in such manifest danger of being deluded by them yet oftentimes on a sudden not being immediately upon our guard we are insensibly betrayed and make fresh work for our Repentance Peter little thought when he told our Saviour that he would die with him before he would deny him that ever he should have been guilty of such a disingenuous act yet no sooner was he put to proof but he degenerated from his so solemn a promise and accordingly we read him a weeping for what he had done nay bitterly that he who was such an eminent Apostle had made so great a progress in holy Discipline should stain his innocence and lose his peace In fine while Flesh and Spirit are joined together there will be contention and war and during that it is impossible to be void of weaknesses and infirmities Says St. Paul here we see as through a glass darkly here we know but in part in this Life at best we are frail defective Creatures but in another World we we shall see more clearly there the infirmities of humane nature will be done away all temptation to sin shall cease nothing shall interrupt us in our devotion nor call us off from our enjoyments then the tempter who now has permission to use arguments and lay his baits shall be confined in the Prison of Hell for ever and shall never betray or hurt us more But while we are in this state through the interruption of the flesh we are mainly hindered so that we cannot do the things which we would And in regard that such is our unhappiness we must not limit our selves to any present attainments stop at any determinate degree in Holiness out of a fond conceit that we are good enough already but follow the Apostle's example who thus speaks of himself I count not my self to have apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth to those things which are before I press toward the mark for the prize of the high caling of God in Christ Jesus But I hasten to the Third and Last Proposition viz. Thirdly That it is dangerous to make a stop in the Christian warfare out of a fond conceit that we are good enough already as being at leisure to listen to Temptations and so be betrayed into our first and natural State For as it argues the being weary of well-doing that we begin to be cloyed with Virtue and strict Discipline are tired out by Watchings and Strivings when we thus slacken our pace in the Christian warfare and only entertain our selves with the consideration how much of our race we have run and are contented with what we have already done so we give the fairest advantage imaginable for Temptations to insinuate with and the
without us To hold fast our righteousness and not to let our hearts reproach us so long as we live Which leads me in the second place Secondly To shew how far Holy Resolution is virtuous and in what sense it turns to a good account To be religiously disposed by fits and girds to load our selves with solemn Vows and Protestations in a melancholly Humour or when we have taken some disgust at our Sins but so soon as this Mood is over and our Passion allayed we return to our wonted Extravagances like the Dog to his vomit and the Sow that is washed to her wallowing in the mire I say to be thus uncertainly Good and to resolve peremptorily upon a sudden surreption or surprize is not an Argument of a virtuous but of an unconstant and wavering spirit Many after a long and tedious fatigue in pursuit of their Sins have resolved upon amendment but no sooner a Temptation hath come in their way which pleased their Humour but have forgotten what they said and swallowed the Bait with as much eagerness as ever Some on their Sick Beds have bound themselves under certain Obligations to become new and better Christians should they be blessed with a recovery of Health and Strength but so soon as they have been able to relish a pleasing Lust and comply with a suitable Temptation have basely degenerated from their late Promise and sold their Innocence for a trifle True indeed it is a kind of Virtue to resolve well to vow amendment of Life to be serious and thoughtful sometimes but it is much more virtuous to pass into Action and express our sincerity by an absolute and thorough Conversion And unless Holy Promises terminate into Pious Practices they will be so far from contributing to our happiness that they will appear as so many instances of our Folly and induce a crimson Guilt How many Spirits are there wandring to and fro in the infernal Shades who while they were in this Life made repeated Protestations to change their Minds and Manners and because they did protract and linger and took no care to pay that which they had vowed are repenting of their Negligences and must live out a long Eternity in unpitied Sighs and Groans It is the easiest part of Religion to make fair Promises and did it consist in nothing else there are but few who would boggle at it For it is no great difficulty now and then to be seriously disposed and during the Mood to protest a Reformation hereafter That which evidences our Piety is the mortifying our Lusts and Passions subduing our Wills and bringing the Flesh in subjection to the Spirit And without this piece of Religion all external Pretences are of no significancy If thou vowest to God thou dost well and if thou makest it good thou dost better for he has no pleasure in the Sacrifice of Fools He dates our Conversion from that time we have slain our Lusts changed our Minds subdued our Appetites and are reduced to the evennesses of Virtue and a good Nature Resolution without practice is only an argument of a hasty Spirit of a rash and injudicious Mind that considers not what he says as well as intends not what he solemnly promises But to be more concise He that resolves well and does not perform is a Sinner in the highest degree because he condemns that Course of Life he continues in or otherwise why did he vow to forsake it And let me add There is less hopes of that Man's Conversion who threatneth it by promises but yet protracts and lingers than of his who never made any because it plainly argues that his Conscience is feared who notwithstanding all the Appeals he has made unto God and the Resolution he has confirmed of becoming better he still continues in his Original State as Vicious as Sensual as ever For were he truly affected with a sense of his Condition were he struck with a thorough Compunction for Sin his Resoultion would quicken and spur him on to deny all Ungodliness and worldly Lust to live soberly and righteously Therefore to sum up this Head Holy Resolution is of no force and validity distinct and separate by it self it carries in it nothing of true Religion unless it pass into Action and oblige a Man to enter upon strict Discipline to mortify his Passions and Lusts and to proceed in all Virtue and Godliness of Living And he that reckons himself in a happy Condition because he now and then in a melancholly pensive Mood promises to become a new Creature is miserably deceived and will in the end sorrowfully find That without holiness no man shall see the Lord. For when by the mighty Sound of the last Trump we shall be awakened and summoned to the dread Tribunal of Christ it will be of no use to us that we many times resolved to do well then we shall stand or fall by our Actions according to that saying of the Apostle We shall all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ to give an account for what we have done in the flesh and to receive according to that we have done whether it be good or bad And thus much may suffice for the Second thing which was to shew how far Holy Resolution is virtuous and in what sense it turns to a good Account with relation to that of Job's in the Text saying Till I die I will not remove my integrity from me My righteousness I hold fast and will not let it go my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live I pass on now in the third place Thirdly To lay down some Motives to excite you to resolve well and timely And here First consider how difficult it is to change a mind that is naturally depraved and to bring an originally corrupted Constitution into a good Frame and Order For besides that Sin is innate born in us so it has been springing up and growing in our Nature ever since our Birth that it is become head-strong and tumultuous and requires much Pains and Care Courage Resolution and Patience Watchings and Strivings Prayers and Tears to root it out Sin is not soon mastered for as it has taken time to gather together so it must be the Work of much time to loosen it from its strong holds and to banish it from thence where it has so long continued Faint Velleities and Pusillanimity will never accomplish this great Concernment nor is that Resolution immediately formed which can go on with such a painful undertaking For if there be any leak left open in our Resolution for any Sin to creep in at that will be sure to insinuate in the next Storm of Temptation and if it should not let in other Sins after it as it is a thousand to one but it will it will by its own single weight sink us into Eternal Perdition Wherefore before we enter into the Resolution of amendment we ought to be very careful that our Wills be thoroughly prepared
Devil to exercise his Arts upon us A Self-conceited Christian is a fair invitation to him nor can he have a better prospect of success than when he finds a Man puffed up with an over-weaning Confidence of his own strength For then sometimes he works upon him by a sudden surreption or surprize as being not thoughtfully disposed nor in a watchful posture sometimes again he insinuates with and prevails upon him he not having his Mind furnished with wise Considerations He that once begins to abate his Endeavours to disuse that strict discipline he was wont to exercise himself under to admit of larger allowances and to limit himself to present attainments will go back much faster than ever he went forward for those Vertues he has acquired being not constantly exercised will by degrees grow weak and faint and at length terminate into final Apostacy And besides this it is just with God to suffer such a one finally to miscarry who has been so long taking Heaven by storm and violence has broken through so many oppositions to come at it and in despite of all the darts of temptation from without and of all the weights and pressures of inclination from within was gotten up as it were to the top of the Scaling Ladder had laid his hands on the Battlements of Heaven and was ready to leap in and take possession of the joys of it and at last slackens his hold abates his industry and sits down secure and careless I say it is just with God to permit such a one to fall and that finally That after the blessed Spirit has cultivated his Nature and planted it with Vertues he unravels his Workmanship and turns his growing Sharon into a barren Wilderness Thus we see how dangerous it is to stop at any determinate degree in goodness out of a fond conceit that we are good enough already that we are liable to relapse into our former state and shall plunge our selves into a miseferable condition The Apostle therefore wisely considered this and resolved to be still advancing more and more in the Christian Warfare I count not my self says he to have apprehended or either were already perfect but I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth to those things which are before I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus I now proceed to draw some useful and practical Inferences from what hath been said and so conclude And here First If this Life be a time of Trial and probation wherein God has appointed much work to be finished by us let us forthwith set our selves about it especially considering how uncertain our stay is here Let us never abate our endeavours nor slacken our diligence out of a fond conceit that we are good enough already lest we finally miscarry It is not enough that we correct the indecencies of our natures and stem the Tide of our evil inclinations that we forsake our Sins and hate them but that we also attain all the Christian Vertues and Graces and these to grow and flourish by exercising them about their proper Object even God Now this is not a fatigue to be accomplished on a sudden it is not an easy thing to make an evil mind comply with a Vertue here must be many Strifes and Contentions strong Disputes and shrewd Arguings before our stubborn Wills can be brought to a fair compliance with a Christian Grace and then here must be great industry used to digest it into habit and Custom or otherwise it is sooner lost than it was gained And then considering the many Temptations from without us which are continually interrupting us by their restless importunities it is very difficult to retain a Vertue after a long and tedious pursuit after it and the case being so this will keep us for ever sufficiently Employed and oblige us to Eternity to be still aspiring beyond our present Attainments Secondly Nor is there the want of Encouragement to spur us on in the Christian Warfare The Reward far exceeds our Labour will make us amends for the very worst we can undergo What is it to spend a few days or years in striving and contending with our inclinations in Consideration and Watchfulness in Earnest Prayer and Severe Refiections on our selves when we are assured before-hand that at the End of this short conflict we shall be carried off by Angels in Triumph into Heaven and there receive from the Captain of our Salvation a Crown of Everlasting Joys and Pleasures when after a few moments Pains and Labour we shall live Millions of most happy Ages in the ravishing fruition of a boundless Good I say Who that considers what great things God has prepared for them that love him would boggle at the difficulties in the Christian Warfare Is it not a ravishing Contemplation to think that the time is coming when we shall bathe our dilated Faculties in an overflowing River of Pleasures and feed upon an Happiness which is as large as our Capacities and as lasting as our Beings Let us therefore run with Patience the Race that is set before us And may the God of Peace which brought again from the Dead our Lord Jesus Christ the great Shepherd of the Sheep through the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good Work to do his Will Working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ our Lord. To whom with the Father and Ever Blessed Spirit be goven all Honour Praise Thanksgiving and Obedience now henceforth and for Evermore Amen THE THIRD SERMON Prov. XIV Latter part of the 32d verse But the Righteous lath hope in his Death BESIDES the many Blessings which Religion Intitles a good Christian to while he continues in this Life such as God's special Favour and Protection Success to his Endeavours a reputable Name and such like there is yet one eminent advantage which it produces at the last gasp as our Wise man observes in the Text and that is a solid Hope and Considence of an Inheritance with the Saints in Light an assurance of going to God and living with him to all Eternity This was it which solaced the Apostle St. Paul when under the apprehension of an approaching and cruel Death 2 Ep. Tim. 4.6 I am now ready to be offered up and the time of my departure is at hand but still this is my Comfort my Life hath been spent in God's Service I have fought the good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith and therefore I rest in this that henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge will bestow upon me when he comes in the last Day to dispense his Rewards and Punishments It is a sweet Reflection to a good man when he is packing up for Eternity that
not to prefer the Creature to or bring it in competition with the Creator but to use this World as not abusing it moderately embracing sublunary Blessings with a generous Resignation of mind to leave them without murmuring if Providence so ordains it either to take them from us or we from them In fine Religion also learns the Man who is fortunately blessed to be charitably disposed to feed the hungry to clothe the naked to minister to persons according to their unhappy circumstances If a man be poor Religion teaches him to be content with his Lot and to submit cheerfully to him that governs the World who knows what condition is best for us it learns him not to covet the Goods of another it being a mighty disturbance to the Tranquility of the mind to Desire and not to have it also instructs to be honestly inclined by abstaining from pilfering and stealing poverty being a strong temptation thereto without the prevention of Divine Grace In brief Religion prompts us to whatsoever things are honest just pure lovely and of good Report and he that by special arts and strengths of Mortification has reduced his nature to the evenness of Vertue and a good disposition has laid up a good foundation against the time to come Whenever God sends his Messenger to call him off the Stage of this World he comforts himself as the holy Apostle did The time of my departure is at hand I am now ready to be stripped into a naked Spirit and to lanch into a wide Eternity but this is my Consolation I have fought the good fight I have finished my course and have kept the Faith upon which I ground this assurance That when Christ who is my Life shall appear I also shall appear with him in Glory Whereas when a man whose Life has been a perpetual course of uninterrupted iniquity comes to dye with what reluctancy does he submit to the Condition of Nature and the Will of Providence What dreadful Apprehensions is his crazy mind infested with What Fears and Amazements does he labour under Conscience which before was lulled into a fatal slumber is now awakened and alarms him with a repetition of his wonted insolencies and at once gives him a View of his whole Life These things hast thou done and I kept silence but I will reprove thee and set all thy sins in order before thee This is but a bad Character to be given of a man by his own Spirit and the very consideration of it must needs invade his Mind with abundance of ill-aboding Thoughts and scaring Reflections and the more because he has no time to recover himself by Repentance and a new Life he has neither strength nor opportunity to express such sorrow for his miscarriages as may move an offended God to Reconciliation but must leave this World in doubts and fears and which he has too much reason to believe must endure the despair of a damned Ghost for ever This I say is the sorrowful conflict of a wicked man upon his death-bed a sad Reflection upon what is past and a dismal Prospect of what is to come But it is not so with him who has ordered his Conversation aright he says my Text has hope in his death that after this painful Life is ended he shall enter into an house not made with hands whose builder and maker is God where nothing shall interrupt or call him off from his Enjoyments no satiety shall render his fruition loathsom or tedious but shall spend a long Eternity in perfect constant and unmixed Happiness But thus much for the first thing which was That a truly pious and holy Life produces a happy and comfortable Death according to the Wiseman's assertion in the Text The righteous has hope in his death I proceed from hence to the Second thing which is Secondly To persuade Men to a Holy and Religious Life from the consideration that it brings peace at the last and prepares our Souls for the embraces of the Father of Spirits And here First of all Religion does not put a man upon any thing which he shall be ashamed of but as he is a rational Creature capable of distinguishing between Good and Evil only obliges him to such actions which he may give a good account of to his own Conscience and to God who is greater than his Conscience It instructs him to chuse what is good in it self and to reject what is sinfully evil Now to be thus prudent and circumspect in matters of choice in the general course of our actions What a comfort is it to a man to be followed with the joyful whispers of a well-pleased mind where-ever he goes to be caressed by an innocent Conscience and continually entertained with a sweet Reflection upon what he has done Whereas a man of a cajative disposition who gives Reins to his Passions and no Bounds to his Lusts is often put upon unmanly Prosecutions and hurried into abundance of Inconveniences to gratify his greedy and unsatiable Appetite he is frequently tempted to such low-spirited actions which he is ashamed to own and blushes at them though no body be privy To how many inconveniences is a wicked man daily exposed And what base and unmanly shifts is he put upon to extricate himself out of those difficulties wherein he involves himself What violent passions and perturbations are raised in his mind And into what wild tumults of action doth sin frequently hurry him How doth it perplex and intriegue the whole course of his Life and intangle him in a Labyrinth of Knavish Tricks and Collusions so that many times he is at his wits end and knows not which way to turn himself These difficulties and many more attend a vicious and irregular course But now Religion only engages a man to do those things which in their very nature contrive his good are commendable and praise-worthy and administer abundance of satisfaction to him when he thinks upon them it diverts him from every transaction which confronts the Law of Reason and would disturb his mind upon an after-thought In fine the very purpose and design of Religion is to make a Man happy even in this Life by managing his Concernments so that he may neither be afraid or ashamed to think upon what he has done at any time And what a comfortable state is it to be always at peace within from the consideration of a Conversation managed with Christian prudence To lie down and rise with a mind resounding those best and sweetest Ecchoes Well done good and faithful Servant How bravely dost thou acquit thy self how manfully dost thou stand to thy duty against all oppositions And with what a gallant resolution dost thou repulse temptations that bear up against thee This therefore I take to be one great and forcible Argument to a holy Life That it preserves tranquility of Mind peace of Conscience as consisting of the best actions and the best choice But Secondly As Religion
good or bad And in regard that God made us rational and considering creatures he has prescribed certain Laws to observe and keep and by these he also intends to judge us that is whether we have obeyed or violated them he having suited his Commandments to our capacities which are able to distinguish between good and evil right and wrong And therefore by way of exprobration How wretchedly does Man degrade himself while he acts in opposition to his reason and allows himself in those things which his own mind disapproves of and condemns How inferior is he to the beasts they act according to sense they move in their sphere and what they do is agreeable to their nature and being But when Man by the order of his superior faculties is directed to good he commIts evil as he does that which he cannot give a good account of to himself so he acts contrary to his very nature and the knowledge he has of things for by the very design of his constitution he knows what is good and what is evil and that the former is beneficial and the latter hurtful unto him And how inexcusable must he needs be that all the injury which is done unto him he did it himself and was conscious thereof when he transacted it And this is it which will vindicate the Divine Justice in passing sentence of eternal death upon wicked men That they are condemned for doing of evil which they knew was so in it self and resusing of good which they also knew was really so It generally prevents men from pitying one who wilfully and wittingly worked his own ruin when it was in his power to have avoided the mischief and so ungodly men shall go off unpitied in the day of Judgment because they might have obtained mercy but would not It will be an ill plea in the day of Judgment to say That we did not consider what we did that we lived without care without thought without observation for this is not an allowable plea for a reasonable creature much less for one who knows he must be judged for why did you live without thought without consideration Had you not the power of thinking of reasoning of considering And did not God give these powers and saculties to you to direct and govern your lives Did he not make you reasonable creatures that you might consider and live by reason And is it any excuse then for a reasonable creature that he lived and acted without reason and a wise consideration of things This is the great degeneracy of humane nature the abuse and corruption of those natural powers which God has given us the source of all the evils that are in this world and therefore can be no excuse And this seriously layed to heart must needs make men have a special regard to their discerning faculties and that since they must be judged and that is to give a reason for what they do to consider what reason to give before they do it And this leads me to draw some practical and useful inferences from what has been said and so come to a Conclusion And here First of all it is true That to him that knows to do good and doth it not to him it is sin What a woful reckoning will those Wretches have who here live without care thought or consideration Who that they may come at and enjoy their Lusts lay aside their reason and understanding that they may not be disturbed in their vicious enjoyments nor plagued with uneasy reflections What a sad consideration will it be at the hour of death when all arguments to and opportunities of sin cease that they have allowed themselves in the practice of those things which they are now ashamed of and condemn as disagreeable to rational Creatures and should heretofore had they but given way suffered their discerning faculties to have interposed and given judgment before they had passed into action It seems a Paradox that man who has a right notion of Good and Evil that the one is profitable and the other mischievous unto him that he should refuse his comfort and court his own misery by withstanding the Good and embracing the Evil In fine that he should do that which he cannot give a sufficient reason for to his own Conscience and if it be so How will he be able to stand in the great Assembly of Angels and Saints before the Judge Christ Jesus to render a reason wherefore he so often drank to Excess committed Adultery prophaned God's Holy Name by Oaths Curses and Imprecations Why he lived in the 〈◊〉 observance of his Sabbath and offered contempt to his most righteous Laws Why he omitted known Duties and committed as palpable Wickednesses In fine Why he hated reproof and cast God's Holy Word behind How will Wicked men be able to stand in the Judgment and answer to these things Sometimes Sinners are here sadly put to it to invent excuses to inculcate arguments and raise propositions to extenuate their guilt and obtain a favourable judgment they are forced to endure many shameful retreats false colours and loose dawbings with untempered Mortar to prevent contradiction and discovery But in the day of Judgment such pleas will not be admitted nor need they then endeavour to conceal their Villanies for all things are naked and open to him with whom we have to do he knows our down-sitting and up-rising he understands all our ways he enters every Item of our guilt into his Debt-book with the purpose to bring every Evil into Judgment whether committed publickly or privately and this considered What a forcible argument is it to be careful thoughtful and considerate to examine wisely to judge prudently and to give a good reason for what we do before we commit it in all our prosecutions to call in the Auxiliaries of Nature and Grace Religion and Reason in fine to do those things approved of by our more refined Faculties and to omit those which they condemn Such a wary Conversation as this would administer much satisfaction to our Spirits defend us from many Dangers and Mischiefs produce a comfortable Death and a joyful Resurrection Secondly It is a pleasant consideration That God has created us Rational Beings capable of knowing Good and Evil of contriving our safety and shunning our destruction What a comfortable thought is it that we are not meer Machines moved and actuated only by Sense like the brute Beasts but understanding thinking and considerate Creatures that can judge of the nature of things debate and examine before we approve or disapprove of them Let us then live like such especially considering that we must give an account how we have used our Talents what improvement we have made of our Faculties and what we are the better for being furnished with such large capacities They were not given us merely to be useful in our secular businesses but to help us to the knowledge of God of our selves and of those things which belong to our Everlasting peace that we may rightly understand our duty and dispose our selves to serve him acceptably with reverence and godly fear We rather abuse our Natural Powers when we only imploy them in plodding and contriving about worldly matters their proper business is to search after truth to find out the way of the Kingdom and to remove those impediments which retard our spiritual warfare and hinder us from bringing our holy concernments to a happy and comfortable conclusion Let us then bend all our powers this way Are we rational Creatures Let us be able to give a good reason for a thing before we do it this will render our Judgment hereafter more feisible and less tremendous when our Consciences testify that in simplicity and godly sincerity we passed the time of our sojourning here I conclude my Discourse with that Collect of our Church We beseech thee O Lord to grant unto us the spirit to think and do always such things as be rightful that we who cannot do any thing that is good without thee may be thee be enabled to live according to thy will through Jesus Christ our Lord To whom with Thee O Father and the Ever Blessed Spirit be given all Honour Praise Thanksgiving and Obedience now henceforth and for Evermore Amen FINIS