Strangers from the Covenants of Promise having no hope and without God in the World did by Baptism enter into that Covenant wherein God assured the promise of Eternal Life to all those who should believe and repent And this is what the Apostle intends by our having our Citizen-ship in Heaven Phil. 3. 20. and by our being Heirs of God and joint Heirs with Christ that we may be glorified together with him Rom. 8. 17. 5. Another Privilege which was represented and conferred by Baptism was the Influence and Assistance of Gods Holy Spirit All Persons that were baptized as their Bodies were washed and purified with Water so their Minds were sanctified by the Spirit of God But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of our Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6. 11. At their Baptism they received the Holy Ghost as a Gift constantly annexed to that Ordinance and unless they quenched and grieved it by their sins committed afterwards it always continued with them from thenceforward assisting and enabling them to perform their Duty strengthning and comforting them under Temptations and Afflictions and bearing witness with their Spirit that they were the Children of God At the first Preaching of the Gospel this influence of the Holy Spirit frequently discovered it self in those extraordinary Gifts of Speaking with Tongues Working Miracles c. as appears in the History of the Acts of the Apostles But these by degrees ceasing it afterward continued to evidence it self in the strange and almost miraculous change which it made in the Minds of Men from the most corrupt and vicious to the most virtuous and heavenly Disposition almost in an instant upon their being baptized And when this effect also grew less frequent as the Zeal and Purity of the Christians declined it yet continued always by its secret Power to renew and transform Mens Minds to instruct Men in their Duty and to inable them to perform it Hence Baptism is called the Renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5. and a being born of Water and of the Spirit John 3. 5. and by the Antients frequently Illumination And Persons baptized are said to have been enlightned to have tasted of the heavenly Gift and to have been made Partakers of the Holy Ghost Heb. 6. 4. 6. The last Privilege which Persons Baptized were intitled to by virtue of that Ordinance was an Assurance of a Resurrection to Eternal Life They received as hath been said the Holy Spirit of God and that Spirit so long as it dwelt with them was a Seal and Earnest of their future Resurrection For if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you Rom. 8. 11. And this was most significantly represented by their descending into the Water and rising out of it again For as Christ descended into the Earth and was raised again from the dead by the Glory of the Father So Persons baptized were buried with him by Baptism into Death and rose again after the similitude of his Resurrection They were planted together in the likeness of his Death and they were by this Sign assured that they should be also in the likeness of his Resurrection Thus the Apostle St. Paul Colos. 2. 12. Ye are buried with him in Baptism wherein also you are risen with him through the Faith of the Operation of God who hath raised him from the dead To which St. Peter seems likewise to allude 1 Pet. 3. 21. The like figure whereunto viz. to the saving of the Ark by the Water of the Flood even Baptism doth also now save us by the Resurrection of Christ. 7. These are the Spiritual Graces or Privileges which were represented by the Outward and Visible Signs in Baptism and conferr'd by their means And These are what God on his part engageth and assures to us in that Great and Holy Covenant There are other things which the Persons Baptized obliged themselves to on their part in that Covenant and These are the Duties which by their Baptism they vow and take upon themselves to perform represented also by the same Outward and Visible Signs The first of these Duties which the Persons baptized promised and obliged themselves to perform was a Constant Confession of the Faith of Christ and Profession of his Religion They were admitted by Baptism into the Church and Family of Christ and they were bound at all times to own themselves his Disciples They were solemnly baptized into his Death and they were oblig'd not to be asham'd of the Cross of Christ and to confess the Faith of him crucified They owned publickly at their Baptism their Belief in God the Father Almighty and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord and they were bound at all times to make Profession of this Faith They had with the heart believed unto Righteousness and they thought that with the Mouth Confession was necessary to be made unto Salvation They were assured that if they confessed Christ before Men he would also confess them before his Father which is in Heaven and before the Angels of God but if they were ashamed of him and denyed him before Men he would also be ashamed of them when he came in the Glory of his Father with the Holy Angels And so mighty an effect had this consideration upon the primitive Christians that in the times of Persecution when they were tempted to deny their Saviour and renounce the Faith which they had once Embraced they chose rather to endure the most exquisite Torments that the wit of Man could invent than either to renounce or dissemble their Christianity and those who out of Fear denyed or were ashamed to confess their Faith they looked upon to have forfeited and renounced their Baptism as having crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame 8. The Second Thing to which Persons baptized solemnly obliged themselves by their Baptism was a Death unto Sin and a New-birth unto Righteousness i. e. they engaged utterly and for ever to forsake all manner of Sin and Wickedness all Idolatrous and Superstitious Worship of false Gods all Injustice Wrong Fraud and Uncharitableness towards Men all the Pride and Vanity the Pomp and Luxury of this present World all the Lusts of the Flesh Adultery Fornication Uncleanness Lasciviousness Gluttony Drunkenness Revellings and such like And for the future they promised to make it the business of their lives to fulfil all Righteousness according to the strictest Rules of the Christian Doctrine and Discipline to Worship the only true God with all Devotion Reverence and Humility to be exactly just in their Dealings with Men and generously charitable upon all occasions in fine to be Temperate and Sober Chast and Pure as the Worshippers of
be so 4. Again That the exercise of those great Moral Virtues of Godliness Righteousness and Temperance is a thing indispensably necessary to prepare Men for that Happiness which is the Reward of Religion is evident from the Consideration of the Nature of that Happiness The Happiness which Religion promises to holy and good Men is this That they shall be received into the blessed Society of Angels and of the Spirits of just Men made perfect and that with them they shall be admitted into the immediate presence of God to enjoy that Satisfaction which must necessarily arise from the Contemplation of his Perfections and from the 〈…〉 of his Favour And if this be the Case then nothing is more evident than that the exercise of Virtue is indispensably necessary to prepare Men for the enjoyment of this Happiness For what agreement can there be between a sensual spightful or malicious Soul and the pure Society of the Spirits of just Men made perfect We see even in this Life how ungrateful the Society of good Men is unto those that are wicked and as it is in this so doubtless it will be in the other World Those Souls which have been wholly immersed in Sense and given up to the Pleasures of this present World can never be fit Company for those spiritual and refined Minds whose Desires and Enjoyments are as far exalted above every thing that is gross and sensual as Heaven is above Earth And those malicious Spirits whose delight upon Earth was in nothing but Hatred Envy and Revenge can never converse in Heaven with those Divine Souls who feed and live upon no other Pleasures but those of Goodness Holiness and Love In like manner what can be more impossible than for an earthly and wicked Soul to be made happy by the Vision and Fruition of God To see God is to behold and contemplate those glorious Perfections of infinite Goodness Purity and Truth and to enjoy God is so to love and adore those amiable Perfections as to be transformed into the likeness and resemblance of them And is it possible for a wicked Soul to be made partaker of this Happiness Tell a covetous Worldling of a Treasure laid up in Heaven where neither Moth nor Rust doth corrupt and where Thieves do not break through and steal Tell him of a never-fading Inheritance in the World to come or of a City not made with Hands whose Builder and Maker is God Tell an ambitious aspiring Mind of the Glory that shall be revealed hereafter or a voluptuous Person of spiritual and refined Pleasures which Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entered into the Heart of Man to conceive them and will they have any relish of these things Will they not be much more inquisitive after the Glories of Earth and the Gratifications of Sense So that unless we suppose God should work a Miracle for these Men and when he removes them into another World should transform them also into new Creatures 't is no more possible for them to enjoy the Happiness of Heaven than for Body to enjoy the Pleasures of Spirit or for Darkness to have communion and agreement with Light I do not say That if God should transplant these Men into Heaven he could not make them happy there but while they are so exceedingly indisposed for it nothing is more certain than that he never will The exercise therefore of Virtue is the indispensable Condition of Happiness And in proportion as we draw nearer to the Perfection of Virtue so do we to the Fountain and Perfection of Happiness The greater degrees of Virtue any Being is indued with so much the higher Rank does it obtain in the Order of Creatures The highest Angels so much as they obey the Will of God more intirely and imitate the Divine Life more perfectly than Men do so much are they exalted above Men and have a nearer approach to the immediate presence and enjoyment of God And by how much one Man in this Life obtains a greater degree of Holiness than another so much a more excellent degree of Happi-ness is he prepared to receive in the World to come 5. And That God agreeably to this natural Order of things does truly and sincerely desire to make Men happy by the exercise of Virtue is evident both from our natural Notions of God and from the Revealed Declaration of his Will God who is a Being infinitely happy in the injoyment of himself and who created all things for no other reason but to communicate to them his Perfections and his Happiness cannot possibly but make every Man as happy as the condition of his Nature and the improvements of his Virtue make him capable to be And that he will do so he hath moreover assured us by most express and repeated declarations He declares that his Delight is in them that fear him and that he Rejoyces over them for good He invites men with all the tender promises of a compassionate Father to Repentance and Reformation and swears by himself that he hath no pleasure in the destruction of the wicked but earnestly desires that they should return and live And nothing can be more absurd than to imagine that God has secretly made any determination which may be contrary to what he has so openly and expresly revealed What sort of Men he has decreed to be happy or miserable he has clearly and fully declared to us in his Word And other Decrees than this if he has at all made any t is neither necessary nor possible for us to know Sufficient it is for us that as sure as God and his Scriptures are true so sure are we that he that believes and obeys the Gospel shall be happy and that God neither has nor can Decree any thing whereby a truly Religious Man may be excluded from Happiness or a Sincere Man from the possibility of becoming truly religious 6. Since therefore God truly and sincerely desires to make men Happy by the exercise of Virtue and since that Virtue which is the Condition of this Happiness is no other than the Practice of those great Moral Duties of Godliness Righteousness and Temperance which are the Eternal and Unchangeable Law of God as has already been shewn it follows necessarily that the great and ultimate design of all true Religion can be no other than to recommend these Virtues and to enforce their practice Other things may be Helps and Assistances of Religion many External Observances may for wise Reasons be positively commanded and may be of exceeding great use as means to promote Devotion and Piety but the Life and Substance of all true Religion the End and Scope in which all things else must terminate cannot possibly be any other than the Practice of these great and Eternal Duties 7. In Natural Religion this is very evident For the Foundation of its Obligations being nothing else but a due consideration of the Nature of
almost wholly Moral and Spiritual respecting the inward disposition of the Heart and Mind whereas on the contrary the Ceremonies of the Jewish Law were for the most part external and as the Apostle to the Hebrews calls them Carnal Ordinances respecting chiefly the outward purification of the Body therefore the Apostle calls the Christian Religion Spirit and the Jewish Religion Flesh. Thus in the Epistle to the Romans ch 8. ver 3 4. For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh and for sin condemned sin in the Flesh that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit that is whereas the Jewish Religion because of its outward and carnal Ordinances was weak and insufficient to make Men truly Righteous God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful Man to offer up himself a Sacrifice for the Sins of Mankind established the Christian Religion which purifying throughly the whole Heart and Mind and purging the Conscience from dead Works might through the Grace and Mercy of God avail to justifie Men from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law Thus also in the Epistle to the Galatians ch 3. ver 3. Are ye so foolish Having begun in the Spirit are ye now made perfect by the Flesh that is Are ye so foolish as to think that after ye have embraced the Truth of the Christian Religion you can become yet more perfect by observing the Ceremonies of the Jewish Law 8. These are the Terms which the Apostle expresses the Christian and Jewish Religion by in these Epistles And according to this Interpretation the substance of both these Epistles may clearly be resolved into certain Arguments by which the Apostle plainly and strongly proves against the Judaizing Believers that Obedience to the Christian Religion is sufficient to Salvation without observing the Ceremonies of the Jewish 9. His first Argument is this The Jewish Religion having proved insufficient to make Men truly good as the Natural Religion had before done there was a necessity of setting up another Institution of Religion which might be more available and effectual to that End now the setting up a new Institution of Religion necessarily implying the abolishing of the old it follows that Christianity was not to be added to Judaism but that Judaism was to be changed into Christianity that is that the Jewish Religion was from thenceforward to cease and the Christian Religion to succeed in its room This Argument the Apostle insists upon in the 1st 2d 5th 6th and 7th Chapters to the Romans and in the 1st and 4th Chapters to the Galatians In the 1st and 2d Chapters of the Epistle to the Romans he shows that the Jewish Religion had proved insufficient to make Men truly Holy as Natural Religion had also done In the 5th and 6th Chapters of that Epistle to the Romans and in the 1st to the Galatians he gives an account of the Institution of the Christian Religion as more available to that End in the 7th Chapter to the Romans he shews that this new Institution of Religion necessarily implies the abolishing of the old one and this he does from the similitude of a Womans being bound by the Law to her Husband so long as he lives but if her Husband be dead she is free from the Law of her Husband which Similitude he applies ver 4. Wherefore my Brethren ye also are become dead to the Law by the Body of Christ that ye should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God In the 4th Chapter to the Galatians he proves the same thing from the Similitude of a young Heirs being under Governors or Tutors ver 1. I say that the Heir as long as he is a Child differeth nothing from a Servant tho' he be Lord of all but is under Tutors and Governors until the time appointed of the Father even so we when we were Children were in bondage under the elements of the World But when the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law to redeem those that were under the Law that we might receive the adoption of Sons that is The Jewish Law was an Institution of Religion adapted by God in great Condescention to the weak Apprehensions of that People but when the fulness of time was come God sent his Son Jesus Christ to institute a more perfect Form of Religion after the settlement of which in the World the former Dispensation was to be disannulled for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof 10. The second Argument by which the Apostle proves that the Christian Religion is sufficient to justifie a Man without mixing therewith the Rites of the Jewish is this The Summ and Essence of all Religion is Obedience to the moral and eternal Law of God since therefore the Ceremonies of the Jewish Law were instituted only for that very reason that they might promote this great End and prepare Mens Hearts for the reception of that more perfect Institution of Religion wherein God was to be worshipped and obeyed in Spirit and in Truth 't is manifest that when this more perfect Institution of Religion was settled the former which was designed for no other reason but to be a preparatory to this must be abolished This Argument the Apostle insists on in the 2d Chapter to the Romans and in the 3d to the Galatians In the 2d to the Romans he shows that every Institution of Religion and particularly the Jewish was no otherwise of any esteem in the sight of God than as it promoted that great end of Obedience to his Moral and Eternal Law For Circumcision saith he verily profiteth if thou keep the Law but if thou be a breaker of the Law thy Circumcision is made Uncircumcision Therefore if the Uncircumcision keep the Righteousness of the Law shall not his Uncircumcision be counted for Circumcision And shall not Uncircumcision which is by nature if it keep the Law judge thee who by the Letter and Circumcision dost transgress the Law For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly neither is that Circumcision which is outward in the flesh But he is a Jew which is one inwardly and Circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit and not in the letter whose praise is not of Men but of God v. 25. to the end In the 3d to the Galatians he argues that the Jewish Religion having been thus instituted only to prepare Men for that Obedience to the Eternal Law of God which was to be the sum and essence of the Christian Religion it follows that when this latter and more perfect Institution took place there was no need of continuing the former The Law saith he was added because of transgressions till the Seed should
shall have of things at the conclusion of our Lives when Death and Judgment approach and let us view things now in the same Light as we know certainly we shall be forced to do then We know we shall then lament the loss of every opportunity of doing good which we have omitted and shall grutch every minute of Folly and Vanity which might have been employ'd to the increase of the Portion of our future Happiness We know we shall then look upon all the past pleasures of Life as emptiness and nothing and be convinced that there is no Pleasure but in true Virtue and no Fruit in any thing but in having done much Good And if we do indeed know this what can be more miserably and more inexcusably foolish than not to make the same Judgment of things now as we know assuredly we shall do afterwards The reason why Men die full of Fears and Uncertainties full of dark Suspitions and confused Doubts is because they are conscious to themselves that they have lived carelesly and indifferently without having taken any Pains either for the Service of God or for the Good of Men and without having used any zealous Endeavours to overcome the present World or to obtain the future But if Men would consider things in time if they would pass true Judgments of things and act accordingly with Resolution and Constancy they might then know certainly their own State and might live with Comfort and die with Assurance CHAP. XII Of our Obligation to be particularly careful to avoid those Sins to which we are most in danger to be tempted 1. FIfthly Be particularly careful to resist and avoid those Sins to which either your Constitution Company or Employment make you most in danger to be tempted This is the great Trial of every Man's Sincerity and of his Growth in Virtue He that for the Love of God and the Hopes of Heaven can mortifie and deny his most darling Lusts can quell and keep under his most natural Passions can resist and constantly overcome those Temptations by which he is most in danger to be seduced into Sin such a one has an infallible Assurance of his own Sincerity and is very near to the Perfection of Virtue But if there be any one Instance wherein a Man habitually falls short of his Duty or indulges a Lust a Passion a sinful Desire 't is certain whatever other Virtues he may be indued with that he either acts upon wrong Principles and is not sincere or that his Resolutions are hitherto too weak and ineffectual to intitle him to the Comfort of Religion here or to the Assurance of Happiness hereafter 2. There is no Man whom either the Constitution of his Body or the Temper of his Mind the Nature of his Employment or the Humour of his Company does not make obnoxious to some particular sort of Temptations more than to any other And in this thing it is that those who have something of Sincerity and will not with others run into all excess of Riot do yet make shift to deceive and impose upon themselves They think they are indued with many good and virtuous Qualities they hate Profaneness and professed enormous Impiety they know themselves innocent of many great Sins which they see others continually commit But something to which they are particularly tempted they indulge themselves in and the fatal Mischief is that those Sins which they see others commit and to which themselves are not violently tempted seem most absurd and unreasonable and easie to be avoided but that to which they are themselves addicted they think to be either so small as not to be of any very evil Consequence or so difficult to be resisted as to be allowed for among the unavoidable Infirmities of Nature Thus to many who have little or no Dealings in the World the Sins of Fraud Injustice Deceit Over reaching and the like seem very heinous base and unreasonable while at the same time they allow themselves in habitual Intemperances and Impurities as either harmless Vices or almost insuperable Weaknesses On the other hand there is no less a Number of those who applaud themselves in their own Minds that they are not as other Men Intemperate Debauched Drunkards Revellers and the like while at the same time they look upon Fraud and Deceit Tricking and Over-reaching as the necessary Art and Mystery of Business 3. But this is a very great and a very fatal Cheat. No Man can have any true and solid Peace in himself no Man can have any just Confidence in his Addresses to God no Man can have any Title to the Promises and Comforts of Religion here much less to the Glory and Reward of it hereafter before his Obedience be if not Perfect yet at least Universal God will not share with any Impiety nor ever accept of any Man's Obedience so long as 't is mixed with the accursed thing If there be any Sin that we can hardly part with if there be any Lust that is like a right Hand or a right Eye this is the thing that God hath proposed to us to Conquer this is the good Fight which we must fight through Faith this is the Victory to which Heaven is proposed For this we must gather together all the Forces of Reason and Religion for this we must strengthen our selves by Prayer and Consideration In this Warfare we must resolve strongly persevere obstinately and though we be conquered yet resolve to overcome always remembring that this is the Stake for Life or Death Happiness or Misery Heaven or Hell 4. Here therefore let every Man consider with himself and let him well observe his own Temptations and his own Strength Let him consider not how many Sins he can easily avoid but by what Temptations he may most easily be seduced and let him make it his Business to guard himself there Let those who are young and not yet entred into the hurry and business of the World not value themselves upon their being innocent from the Sins of Fraud and Injustice of Covetousness and Extortion or the like for that perhaps they may be without any Pains and without overcoming any powerful Temptation but let them try themselves whether they be firm against the Temptations of Vanity and Lightness of Heat and Passion of Intemperance and Impurity and let them judge of themselves by their behaviour in these Instances wherein they are most obnoxious Let them consider that their peculiar Task is to overcome the wicked one 1 John 2. 13. to subdue the Flesh to the Spirit to conquer and get above those Pleasures which sensualize the Soul and inslave the Mind to the Body and thereby bring it under the Power of Death and Destruction And in fine to strive continually to cleanse themselves from all Impurity not only of Body but even of Mind and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the Fear of God Let them consider that they are by Baptism dedicated to the
Service of God that they are by Confirmation assured of the Assistance of the Holy Spirit and that their Bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost which if they keep here in Temperance and Purity in Sanctification and Honour they shall hereafter appear with them in Glory but if they abuse them by any Intimperance or defile them with any Lust they drive away the Spirit whereby they are sealed unto the Day of Redemption and shall forfeit their Life Again on the other hand Those whose Age or Temper or Company or Business places them beyond the Follies and Extravagancies of Youth and out of the way of those Temptations with which others are hurried away continually must not esteem of themselves by their not running into those excesses of Riot to which perhaps they have little or no Temptation but must examine whether they be exactly Just in the Business they are employ'd in whether they be truly Useful and Charitable according to their Ability and whether they be sincerely Careful to resist those Temptations to which their particular Circumstances whatever they be do more especially expose them This is the true Trial of every Man's Sincerity and the most certain Rule by which every one may judge of his own State CHAP. XIII Of Growth in Grace and of Perfection 1. LAstly Strive continually to grow in Grace and press forward towards Perfection So long as we continue in these Houses of Clay encompassed perpetually with the Infirmities of the Flesh the Allurements of the World and the Temptations of the Devil we shall all offend indeed in many things and can never arrive at the Perfection of Virtue Yet unless we strive and press forward towards Perfection we shall never make any tolerable progress He that has no more Zeal for Religion than to desire just to keep within the Borders of Virtue and to escape the Punishment of Vice will in all probability be deceived in his Expectations and find when it is too late that those who are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot are but wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked and shall have no Portion among them that are arraied in fine Linnen which is the Righteousness and the good Works of the Saints He whose Heart is inflamed with an ardent Love of God and a truly zealous desire of the Happiness of Heaven will with St. Paul never think he has already attained or is already perfect enough but forgetting those ihings which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before will always press forward towards the Mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus He will never think himself good and holy enough but getting continually a more compleat Victory over his Frailties and Infirmities will go from strength to strength in the Improvements of Virtue here till he appear before God in the Perfection of Holiness and of Glory hereafter 2. Think not when you have once attained a clear knowledge of your Duty and framed hearty Resolutions to perform it and begun to live according to that Knowledge and those Resolutions that you are presently in a perfect and confirmed State of Virtue You must frequently review and meditate upon the Particulars of your Duty You must frequently renew and strengthen your good Resolutions and you must always be correcting and amending your Practice Till that which was well resolved upon and bravely begun arrive by the degrees of a diligent and perpetual Improvement to a confirmed Habit and settled Temper of Mind 3. Think not when you have performed your Duty according to the common Measures of Obedience and the vulgarly reputed Bounds of the Obligation of the Christian Laws and when you are by others looked upon as a good and just and holy Person that you are now arrived at the Perfection of Virtue For the Judgment of God is very different from the Opinion of Men and such a Life as is now look'd upon as very good and creditable would in the Times of the Apostles or Primitive Christians have been thought if not scandalous yet at best very cold and indifferent He that will be perfect must be above all Laws and Customs and Opinions and must not limit his Purity of Mind his Contempt of the World and his Desire of doing Good to any Degrees or Rules but must exalt them in proportion to his love of God and his hopes of Happiness 4. Further Think not when upon a loose and general view of your Life your Conscience does not accuse you of any scandalous and deliberate Sins that therefore you have attained to the highest pitch of Virtue There are many Sins with which Men easily impose upon their own Minds much indifferency in Religion and coldness of Devotion many omissions of Duties and neglects of opportunities of doing Good many faults of surprize and indecencies of Passion much sensuality and over-fond Love of the things of this present World many excesses and small degrees of Intemperance which are not to be discovered and overcome without entring into a more strict particular and impartial examination of our Actions and making repeated Resolutions and using constant unwearied Endeavours to correct whatever upon such strict search shall appear to be amiss 5. Many there have been and some even among the Heathens themselves who have every Night strictly examined into the Actions of the past Day that if they had done any thing for which they could reprove themselves they might resolve to be more careful in that Particular for the future and if they found they had in all Points performed their Duty they might confirm and incourage themselves to continue to perform it Others have done this yet more frequently and habitually never going about any thing without a short Thought how they might best act for the Honour of God for the Good of Men or for the Improvement of the Virtues of their own Mind and never having done any thing without a short Reflection whether they had acted so as was most agreeable to these great Ends. 6. These indeed are things not to be imposed upon any Man by any particular Rules but such as must be wholly left to the Discretion of every Man to be used according to each ones Prudence or Zeal Only in general 't is certain That by how much the more frequently a Man examines the Actions of his Life and by how much the more strictly he observes his smaller Failures and by how much the more particularly he resolves and endeavours to correct them by so much the more will his Religion be Uniform and his Obedience Perfect He that uses himself often to consider and to recollect the Particulars of his Duty will perform many things which others know indeed and understand in general but through habitual careless and inconsiderateness omit And he that often searches strictly into the smallest Errors of his Life and prays against them and resolves