and steep about it Hence is the address of the Spirit Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead c. Eph. 5.4 3. Power is the third Attribute of God Religion promotes even this in us by inspiring the mind with courage and by the addition of strength conjoyn'd to it Innocence makes a man bold as a Lyon it makes one dare and hope well Religion is a confederacy with th' Almighty and he becomes the good mans strength Ps 18.1 19.4 it creates an awe and reverence for him amongst men and it makes him approach as near to self-sufficiency as the state of a Creature will let him he is independent on the world and hath not half the hopes nor fears nor cares that the wicked man hath for this man hath an ill Conscience and is therefore timerous he that fears not God dreads every thing besides he hath many passions that are to be gratified and therefore he is very dependent on the world he lives ill and therefore is the scorn of Man and the hate of God 4. Wisdom The fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom and therefore this is easily prov'd for Religion is nothing else but the knowledge of the most Excellent Truths the contemplation of the most glorious Objects and the hope of the most ravishing Pleasures and the practice of such Duties as are most serviceable to our happiness and to our peace our health our honour our prosperity and our eternal welfare but sin on the other hand besots and infatuates the man it makes him passionate and foolish consult ill and execute worse he is blind to the most glorious Truths and hath no taste or relish of those glorious Objects of another world and he lives as if he were in love with ruine and though he see death and confess it in the way he is spurr'd on by his passions and dares not shun it he covets meer trifles vanishing fading pleasures meer apparitions and dreams of happiness and he flies from real and substantial delights and satisfactions that would never have an end he trembles where no fear is and yet is steeled and senseless against Almighty Vengeance and if this be not to be foolish I know not what is The fifth and last now is Goodness by which I mean kindness and serviceableness to others this Religion so far advances that each man is so far Christian as he is thus good this goodness or love is the meer substance of the Gospel so that where ever the Spirit of Christianity hath planted it self the man is not only just but good and kind he doth not only put off revenge and frowardness and hard-heartedness but he puts on the contrary Vertues Meekness Tenderness Charity his goods and life are not too dear a price to pay for the welfare of a Brother but sin on the quite contrary arms man against another and sows nothing but dissention and ruine amongst mankind injustice cruelty rapin murther covetousness hard-heartedness are the Characters which constitute a sinner Justice and Truth are as Essential parts of Holiness as Goodness and therefore need not be spoken to Thus you see how Vertue and Holiness perfect and exalt the man how it makes him more spiritual gives him power life wisdom goodness allies him to the Angels and makes him like God but sin defaces all those Excellencies makes him a meer heap of Rubbish and Ruines a silly empty Creature that the Spirit might well say of such Rev. 3.17 That they are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked And who can now look upon sin as a little harmless indifferent thing He that should rob the ambitious man of his Honour the covetous of his Wealth the vain person of his trifling gaity should be thought to have committed an unpardonable offence against them and yet sure power and wisdom and goodness are things of far greater Excellency than wealth or honour or gaity they are the Attributes of God the things that make him God and when he pleases to communicate and impart to his Creatures some tho slender proportions of these what can be a more fatal Enemy to the Creature than that sin which spoils and rifles him of these he that should stab the body and through as many gashes as those of Caesar in the Senate let out the imprison'd Soul commits no murther like that of sin which quenches in man the spiritual life and robs him of Eternity O my Soul doth every intemperate draught every sensual pleasure quench the light and damp the spirit within me and yet shall I still go on Is it so inconsiderable a loss to change from Spirit into Flesh Doth all my sinful passions for this world Ambition Covetousness Dotage c. deface all Power Wisdom and Goodness in me and make me weak and wicked impotent and foolish and yet shall I still go on to dote Is it so little desirable to be like God Is it so inconsiderable a change like the unhappy Angels to fall from light to darkness forgive me O my God I now begin to see a horrour in my sins I see its poysonous nature and the mighty wounds it gives and I will shun it hereafter more than Death and Ruine more than the Sword the Plague or Famine for I am well convinc'd that there is nothing so excellent as Spiritual Life Peace Power Wisdom and Goodness and nothing can wound or blast these but sin And if secondly Life and Goodness Power and Wisdom are such excellent things how dear must they be to God and how contradictory to his Will must be all those Methods which men take to deface them and this he hath sufficiently taught in that he hath thought it worthy the Incarnation Life and Passion of his own Son to root out and banish iniquity and transgression from the Earth being things contradictory to his Nature and to his Design too in the Creation From all this you see that Holiness is agreeable to the Divine Nature sin is contradictory to it and by consequence that he who works Righteousness is born of God and he who commits sin is of the Devil and that it is as necessary to be really holy as it is to be in the favour of God for he cannot love the unholy unless he can renounce his own Nature The Prayer O Thou God who art light and in whom there is no darkness at all a holy and pure Spirit how infinitely are the sons of men oblig'd to thee that thou hast givee them Immortal Spirits and dost travel by thy Word and Spirit to form and fashion them into thy glorious Image to make them share in thy Perfections that they may do so in thy Happiness too O grant that I may hunger and thirst after Righteousness that I may labour day and night to water and improve those Resemblances of thy Divine Perfections which thou hast imparted to me by thy Spirit that so I may through Christ increase in favour with God and Man
set my self to my duty and submit to his blessed Will whether he think fit to Crown my Cup with over-flowing joy and to reward my labour by inward transports or not And is it not fit I should thus Love my God whatever there be which can take and endear a rational and excellent spirit is to be found in him all the notions I can possibly frame to my self of a spiritual perfection and Beauty I conceive united in him Goodness Wisdome Power Truth Constancy are the Characters by which the Gospel discovers him to us and these have unspeakable charms upon all ingenious minds and they are intelligible enough to any that will consider them it is true he is a spirit and so incomprehensible to us in his essence and therefore I cannot frame to my self an Image for my Love as one friend doth of another but the time will come when I shall be spiritual enough to see him as I am seen and then my delight and Love will be proportionable in some measure to his beauty and perfection in the mean time my Reason as well as the Gospel assures me that he is infinitely aimable tho that beauty be now a Light that is inaccessible But besides this that great Character of Love and Mercy manifested in its most excellent lustre in the Gospel is enough to endear him to us He is not now our Father only upon the account of Creation and Providence because he hath made us fed and cloathed us these are Common and trivial mercies compar'd to the obligations of the Gospel i. e. the Redeeming us from our evil conversation by the blood of Chriâ—â— and the power of his Spirit into that holiness which is his own Image and resemblance the designing us for the joys and pleasures of his own Heaven his readiness to pardon our transgressions his care employ'd upon us against temptations his delight in us c. If the World could shew us such evidences of Love or could assure us of such an Eternity if it could tell us as the Serpent did Eve eat and ye shall be as God then indeed there were temptation in it but till it does there 's none really Besides these two considerations of the aimableness of the divine nature in himself his goodness to us including his infinite power too there is but one thing more which can be a proper motive to engage our affections that is that such an object be lasting and this is the great prerogative of God alone that he never changes nor dies he will for ever be what he is now most perfect and most gracious The Prayer O Glorious God it is the sole excellence of my Nature that I am capable of loving thee and it is my glorious priviledge that thou art pleas'd to suffer and admit of the addresses of my Soul in this only I am a kin to Angels In those talents which serve only to the end of a corporal life I am out done by Brutes O therefore give me grace to dwel as often as I can in the divine contemplations of thy nature to look forward to that glory which thy bounty hath reveal'd and promis'd me to consider by what methods of infinite Love thou dost prepare me for it and let all this make me love thee above all things and desire to know nothing but Thee my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and him crucified Amen Amen 2. The Second part of Charity is the Love of our Neighbour of which now Charity is in short the Love of our Brethren or a kind of Brotherly affection one towards another the Rule and Standard by which we are to examine and regulate this Habit is that love we bear Ourselves or that which Christ bore us that is that it be unfeigned constant and out of no other design but their happyness The Apostle 1. Cor. 13. taking Charity in a most comprehensive sense as it animates all other graces and influences all our actions which relate to our Neighbour doth thus divinely describe it Charity suffereth long and is kind Charity envieth not Charity vaunteth not it self is not puffed up doth not behave it self unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evil rejoyceth not in iniquity or wrong but rejoyceth in the truth faithfulness or fair dealing beareth all things or rather covereth or concealeth i. e. others Error believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things But now to reduce all to fewer heads and to consider Charity in a closser sense it contains two things 1. The doing good to and 2. Forgiving one another The things which are capable of receiving any benefit by our Charity are our Neighbours Reputation Body Soul and therefore 1. Charity secures mans credit by denouncing a Hell to the Slanderer and Whisperer and Evil speaker c. This Charity obligeth us not to give way to weak surmises but to be forward to believe the best in favour and excuse of an Error not to proclaim anothers faults though true and real unless the discovery may serve a better end than the concealment which is that thinkest no evil beareth all things that believeth all things in the Apostle and if it forbid these sins much more those blacker of open Slanders and private whispers Nor doth this Charity oblige us only not to wrong our Neighbours credit but as far as we can not to suffer it to be wrong'd to protect and generously rescue their Reputations from the jaws of the Persecutor to awe and check the Slanderer by the Majesty of an holy Anger into shame and Confusion for otherwise we become accessary to those slanders we entertain and give ear to If we consider that to blast a mans Reputation is to render him the Scorn and Hate of others and a Burden to himself it cannot be that we should be willing to heap such killing mischiefs upon the Head of one we Love and Charity is suppos'd to love all 2. Charity ministers to the Body of our Neighbour if we will act like men possess'd by that Charity which suits with the Spirit of the Gospel our Hearts and Hands must be alwayes open to our Brothers necessities our Souls must delight to do good and to be kind And if we are not able to redress their grievances or relieve their pressures by our wealth or interest we must ease them by our compassion comfort 'em by holy advice and succour them by our Prayers ' All that profess Christianity believe this a Duty and yet how great and numerous are the sufferings of the needy and distressed and more great and numerous are the luxuries and the wantonnesses of the Rich but it happens thus all acknowledge the duty but shift it off by two pretences 1. Their own inability 2. The demerit or unworthiness of the needy person In answer to the first pretence it must be confess'd that it is not only Lawful but our duty to make provision first for our selves and those who are more
it is the Gospel means by temperance by enquiring 1. What is the end it aims at in enjoyning this Duty 2. By what words it describes and expresses it 3. The examples of our Saviour and his followers in this point Likewise the motives it adds and the method it prescribes will serve to clear up its intention to us The great end St Paul suggests to me 1 Cor. 9.25 Every man who striveth for the Mastery is temperate in all things intimating that the means are then proper when they are suited and fitted for the attainment of their end and by the allusion implying that the end of our Temperance is a striving for the Mastery that is a Conquest over the World and the body for the Gospel represents the World and the Flesh as those enemies against which the Christian is to be engag'd in a continual warfare and tells us that the lusts and pleasures of them do War against the Soul Religion being nothing else but the Love of God and heavenly things the Gospel endeavours all that it can to wean us from all fondness for or delight in the world and the flesh it being impossible to serve two such contrary interests By a clear consequence from all this I conclude that we are to endure hardship as good Souldiers of Jesus Christ that we are to abstain from fleshly lusts as strangers and pilgrims in plainer words that that abstinence from sensual pleasures which renders the body tame and governable serviceable to the soul and chearful in the exercise of Religion which doth enfranchise the mind of men from its captivity to sense which doth establish its dominion over the brutish part so that the man lives the life of faith and not of sense is disengag'd from the World and so ready to depart is that Temperance which the Gospel of Christ requires and by consequence on the other hand that that indulgence to worldly pleasures which tends to pamper and enrage the body to awaken our passions for this present state to endear and recommend the World to us to make the minds of men soft and feeble heavy and sensual to make our temper delicate and wanton unable to suffer and froward if our appetite be not satisfied is flatly contradictory to the Temperance of the Gospel of Christ This is a Rule which if well consider'd and conscientiously applyed to every particular will sufficiently conduct man in the paths of this great duty and answer all scruples concerning the enjoyment of pleasures whether they be real or phantastick ones For is any man such a stranger to himself that he doth not understand the working of his own soul that he cannot give an account of the passions which he feels nor know by what methods he is betray'd into the Love of the World and a decay of his Religion Doth not every man feel what kind of eating and drinking clogs the soul and emboldens the body what kind of sights or dalliance doth dart the poison of lust and ambition into our very souls Or what doth thaw and melt us and make us Love and hate delight or grieve hope and fear like the Children not of Light but of the World certainly unless a man will impose upon himself he must needs discern the birth and growth of his own Passions and discover the methods by which he doth insensibly degenerate into a loose or cold or senceless Spirit 2. This Temperance is in general express'd in Holy Writ by Mortification and Holyness the former imports such a change in the body as flattens and deads its appetites for the World I am crucified to the World and the World is crucified to me The latter imports an excellent and Godlike nature a transformation of mans into a spiritual a frame as man in this imperfect State is capable of arriving at And certainly men thus qualified can not place their delight in the sensual enjoyments of this life how innocent soever they might be the World hath nothing agreeable to souls of this Heavenly nature nor nothing worthy of them Temperance in the particular branches of it is call'd Purity Sobriety Abstinence Modesty c. all which are to be interpreted according to the method of the Spirit in a sense which doth not onely restrain the outward Acts but also the inward passions of man in a sense which doth not onely forbid the commission of gross sins but also all tendencies towards them in the body and in the soul Conformable to this Doctrine were 3. The lifes and examples of the Holy Jesus and his followers tho' peradventure it would not be altogether errational to suppose that the extraordinary measures of the Divine Spirit in his immediate Disciples and their conversation with the blessed Jesus and afterwards the fresh memory of all his Power and Glory might render a corporal discipline the less necessary I will not deny but that our blessed Master did often accept of entertainments nor did I ever design to forbid any such thing on particular occasions which may warrant them but it is easie to observe how course and plain and sparing his constant Diet with his Disciples was how frequent in his fastings and his watchings he was As for his Disciples after his departure their lives were but a constant warfare and the World and the flesh their enemies they Liv'd like strangers and Pilgrims upon earth and their pleasures were altogether Spiritual and Holy These were the paths that they trod towards conquest and a glorious Crown and I can easily conceive how their Life was fill'd with such spiritual ravishments how they long'd for the appearance of Christ and how they left the World with such glorious assurances as that I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith all which may have regard not only to his sufferings but also to his conflict with the flesh too henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge shall give me at that Day and not to me onely but unto them also that Love his appearance But how that softeness of conversation that full and luxurious feeding and drinking that garishness and wantonness of dress that sloth and lazyness of Spirit which is so universal in the world can become the life of a Souldier of Christ I am not wise nor lucky enough to comprehend But I can now easily discern from whence it proceeds that Religion seems so unpleasant a thing and that men are so unwilling to depart hence into another life it is because we are such imperfect Christians and we live sensually It will therefore behove us to lay to heart the great motives by which the Gospel engages us to this duty as 1. The nature of our present State in this World the poor soul lives in a treacherous body and a tempting World both which conspire its ruin and therefore it must be upon its watch upon its guard it is not a time
thou hast done in all Meekness and Charity and Faith and Hope that I may be fitted for those Mansions thou art gone before to prepare for me Amen Amen SECT IV. Cantaining the fourth Motive to Holiness i. e. the Consideration of the vanity of all those things which tempt us to sin A Man who should have seriously laid to heart the strength and importance of these Motives to Holiness which I have considered would be apt to think that nothing less than some unimaginable temptation or some unavoidable necessity in the contrivance of our natures could provoke men to cast off all these Obligations and break thorough all these obstructions that he might sin and die but on the quite contraty which doth strangely reproach the folly of the sinner 1. Those things which are the allurements to fin have little or no temptation in them 2. Sin it self is a silly base thing And 3. Man hath strength enough offer'd to enable him to avoid it 1. The first I shall have occasion to consider fully in the third part of this Treatise and thither I refer the Reader only by the way we must take notice there is no more sttess to be laid upon this Argument than it will bear and that this Argument hath still respect to the joys and punishments of another life the sensual satisfactions of Man are very little and trifling compar'd with the pleasures of Heaven and it can never be worth a mans while to be damn'd for them yet sure if there were no life to come it would behove every man to be content with and make the most of this nor do I at all doubt but that men may manage their lusts so as that they may not be able to infer Reason enough to relinquish them from any influence they have upon their interest or if any one should think it necessary to purchase a pleasure by the shortning of his life or the lessening of his Estate I cannot see why he may not have reason on his side for a short life and a merry one and my mind to me a Kingdom is would upon the former supposition be a wise Proverb for upon this supposition the pleasure of the mind would be very narrow and faint and the checks of Conscience would be none or insignificant But as the case stands now though there be pleasure in sin and deceitfulness in lust granted in Scripture to abandon the hopes of Heaven for some carnal pleasures upon Earth is like Esau to sell his Birth-right for a Mess of Pottage and on the other hand to renounce all present enjoyments for the sake of Heaven is like Peter to forsake a worn Fisher-boat and broken Nets a troubled Lake and uncertain Hopes for the assurance of a Crown and Kingdom which is surely very reasonable And now I pass on to the second thing and fifth Section SECT V. Containing a fifth Motive to Holiness from the Nature of Vertue and Vice IN 1 Ep. Jo. 1. this is set down as the great Message which Christ came to acquaint the world with that God is light and in him is no darkness at all and therefore they who walk in the light have fellowship with him and they that walk in darkness have none where it is plain that S. John founded the necessity of Holiness in the Divine Nature because God is holy therefore he must first renounce his own Nature e're he can establish any other contrary Laws or love or hate on any other condition than Holiness and sin This being so I think the best way to discover the Nature of Vertue and Vice is to consider how the one renders us like God and the other unlike him The Account we have of the Nature of God is that he is a Spirit of Eternal Life Infinite Power Wisdom Goodness Justice and Truth these are the chief of his Attributes and such as Reason it self acknowledges to be the highest perfections and excellencies imaginable If Holiness therefore tend to implant and improve some resemblances of them in men and Vice to efface and extinguish them it will easily appear how the one makes us like God and the other unlike him 1 God is a Spirit it is true that Vertue and Vice do not change the substances of things and make Spirit Flesh or Flesh Spirit yet because they do so wonderfully transform things by instilling new qualities and so altering the operations of beings they are in Scripture said to do so Thus because Vertue raises and refines the Soul frees it from those Fogs which a sensual dotage casts about it scatters a new light upon it and mortifies those affections which reign in the body and render it more obedient to the mind so that the man lives the life of Faith as becomes a wise and an immortal being therefore it is said in the Language of the Holy Ghost to have render'd him a spiritual man and on the other side because sin doth stupifie and sensualize the mind imbolden and pamper the body so that the soul seems to have chang'd its nature into flesh and relishes nothing of those pleasures which are properly spiritual but is wholly taken up with those enjoyments which are the proper and natural entertainments of flesh and blood not a Spirit therefore sin is said to have rendred the man a natural man 2. Eternal Life is the second Attribute of God Life in man is either of the Body or Soul as to the former Temperance Imployment and a chearful spirit are the great Preservatives of Health and the best supports of such crazy beings as our bodies are Religion injoyns the two former for no man can be holy without being temperate and imploid at least in doing good and it contributes very effectually to the later i. e. chearfulness of spirit by begetting in us a peaceful Conscience a resign'd mind and glorious hopes but sin shortens our hasty days by exposing us to diseases violence the Law and by the ill influence which a distemper'd mind hath upon the body as to the Soul Righteousness is the life of it it is the nourishment and pleasure the freedom and the security of it but sin is the death and plague of it non est vivere sed valere vita it is not the meer existing but the welfare and happiness of a being which is its life and if so how can a soul which is sick of passions daily tortur'd and distracted by an ill Conscience be said to live Besides sin doth impair the faculties o'recast the light and fetter the powers of the mind so that it neither understands nor wills nor commands as it ought to do it is rendred a poor sickly despicable being and therefore the sinner is said to be dead in trespasses and sins or at least because the Metaphor is not to be press'd too far as appears from the Text following if it hath any life it is as imperfect as that of a Lethargick drowsie body all 's a thick night
Practical Christianity Or an Account of the HOLINESSE WHICH THE Gospel Enjoyns WITH The MOTIVES to it AND THE REMEDIES it proposes AGAINST TEMPTATIONS With a Prayer concluding each distinct Head Imprimatur Ex Aedib Lambethanis 23. Decemb. 1676. GEO. HOOPER LONDON Printed by S. and B. G. for R. Pawlet at the Sign of the Bible in Chancery-lane 1677. TO THE READER Reader I Have endeavour'd in this following Discourse to endear Holiness to the Love and Practice of Mankind which is a design neither so trifling nor criminal as to stand in need of an excuse But because a very worthy design may miscarry in the contrivance and method of its prosecution therefore I think my self oblig'd to give you some account of that which is thus I have endeavour'd to represenâ— Religion in its true and natural Character purified from the sensual Freedomes which some and the frantick and conceited Whimsies which others deform it by I have propos'd the glorious Motives to Holiness and the powerful Remedies against Temptation which it contains I have perform'd this as near as I could in an easie Method and familiar Stile I have not intermixt either Fancy or Passion which seems to me too light and garish a dress for Divine thoughts but writ them in as natural a plainness and Majesty as I could give them hoping all from the conquering power and influence of clear truth and therefore it will be necessary to him who shall design any advantage to himself from this Treatise to read it deliberately and allow each sentence a proper Consideration for being forc'd to crowd many Truths into a narrow compass I have wove the matter a little closser and chose a conciser Stile than otherwise I should have done and therefore do not expect to be betray'd by me into a wise Love of Religion at unawares or to be heated into a Romantick Passion for Vertue the former is impossible and the latter of little use but if you bring an honest and attentive mind I hope you may find something in this Discourse which may be of very important service to your Soul And besides this I had one inducement more to the Publication of this Treatise that is I am sufficiently assur'd that no kind of Discourses contribute more to the peace and welfare of Church and State than those practical ones which aim at implanting a real goodness in the minds of men for the want of this goodness is it which hath betraid us into Errors so numerous and so fatal to the publique Peace and Charity and to the very vitals of Religion for if our minds were possess'd with that Charity and Meekness and true Zeal for the Divine Glory which becomes Christians we should consider more calmly and see more clearly and act more sincerely we should discern a more manifest contradiction to Religion in those unnatural Feuds which are carried on by so much passion in such irreligious methods and made use of to such unchristian purposes than in any thing which is the subject of our contests and we should follow after peace by a compliance if not to all yet to all we could and then I am confident we should soon put an end if not to our Mistakes yet to our Divisions If I have contributed my endeavours to this in my degree and capacity I hope for pardon at least here and am assur'd of a Reward hereafter Farewell ERRATA PAge 15. l. 26. after all which add gives us an excellent notion of God and. p. 48. l. 11. r. Thee or four l. 13. r. Faith Love Temperance and Humility p. 98. l. 2. r. his happiness or glory p 102. l. 14. r. unkind p. 123. before the prayer adde Sect. 3. As to the means of attaining Temperance I refer my Reader to the Section of Fasting p. 138. l. 14. for better r. lesser p. 164. l. 11. for word r. world p. 223. l. 9. for are of r. use p. 249. l. 23. r. or universal yet THE CONTENTS PART I. Chap. 1. THe great Motive to Religion 1. The Salvation of the Soul Chap. 2. Of the Nature of Christianity in general in relation to Faith pag. 13 Chap. 3. Of Christianity with respect to practice in general p. 29 Chap. 4. Of Christianity with respect to practice in particular Of Faith 65 Of the Love of God 82 Of the Love of our Neighbour 91 Of Temperance 112 Of Humility 124 Of Perfection 133 PART II. OF the Motives to Holiness contain'd in the Gospel Of the Reward and punishment in another Life 152 The Second Motive the Consideration of Divine Nature 172 The Third the Consideration of Jesus Christ 179 The Fourth the Vanity of Temptations 193 The Fifth the Nature of Virtue and Vice 195 The Sixth the assistance of the Divine Spirit 206 The Seventh the Nature of the Gospel Covenant 207 PART III. OF Temptations to Sin Of Pleasure 220 Of Pain 241 Of some particular Methods by which we are betraid into Sin 265 Of the Instruments of Holiness the Sacraments Prayer and Fasting 280 The Conclusion 296 Practical Christianity CHAP. I. Shewing the necessity of being Religious because the Salvation of our Souls depends on it Sect. 1. 1. WHat is a Man profited saith our Blessed Saviour Mat. 16.26 if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own Soul That I have in this state I am now in a Soul as well as a Body whose interest concerns me is a truth my own sence sufficiently discovers for I feel Joyes and Sorrows which do not make their abode in the Organs of the Body but in the inmost recesses of the Mind pains and pleasures which Sence is too gross and heavy to pertake of as the peace or trouble of Conscience in the Reflexion upon good or evil Actions the delight or vexation of the mind in the contemplation of or a fruitless inquiry after excellent and important Truths 2. And since I have such a Soul capable of Happiness or Misery it naturally follows that it were sottish and unreasonable to lose this Soul for the gain of the whole World For my Soul is I my self and if That be miserable I must needs be so outward circumstances of Fortune may give the World occasion to think me happy but they can never make me so Shall I call my self happy if Discontent and Sorrow eat out the life and spirit of my Soul if lusts and passions riot and mutiny in my bosome if my sins scatter an uneasie shame all o're me and my guilt apales and frights me what avails it me that my Rooms are stately my tables full my attendanrs numerous and my attire gawdy if all this while my very Being pines and languishes away These indeed are rich and pleasant things but I nevertheless am poor and miserable Man Therefore I conclude that whatever this thing be I call a Soul tho it were a perishing dying thing and would not out-live the Body yet it were my wisdome and interest to prefer its content and
satisfaction before all the world unless I could chose to be miserable and delight to be unhappy 3. This very Consideration supposing the uncertainty of another World would yet strongly engage me to the service of Religion for all it aims at is to banish sin out of the world which is the source and Original of all the troubles that disquiet the mind for 1. Sin in its very Essence is nothing else but disordered distempered passions affections foolish and preposterous in their choice or wild and extravagant in their proportion which our own experience sufficiently convinces us to be painful and uneasie 2. It engages us in desperate hazards wearies us with daily toils and often buries us in the ruins we bring upon our selves and lastly it fills our hearts with distrust and fear and shame for we shall never be able to perswade our selves fully that there is no difference between good and evil that there is no God or none that concerns himself at the Actions of this life and if we cannot we can never rid our selves of the pangs and stings of a trembling Soul we shall never be able to establish a peace and calm in our bosomes and so injoy our Pleasure with a clear and uninterrupted freedome But if we could perswade ourselves into the utmost height of Atheism yet still we shall be under these two strange inconveniences 1. That a life of Sin will be still irregular and disorderly and therefore troublesome 2. That we shall have dismantled our Souls of their greatest strengths disarm'd them of that Faith which only can support them under th' afflictions of this present Life Not to mention that after all the sad Stories of another Life will not be strait way nonsense because we think them so they will continue at leastwise disputable and who would but a desperate-Sot commit his Soul to such a venture Sect. 2. 4. But when I consider that the immortality of the Soul is a perswasion which generally obtain'd in the Heathen world That the more wise and virtuous any of 'em were the more deeply were they possess'd by the belief and hopes of it that the reasons Plato Cicero c. founded this assertion in deriv'd from the nature of the Soul its operations its little affinity to any visible matter its resemblance of the Deity c. have rendred it so highly probable that it hath shed a very powerfull influence upon the Lives of many 5. But especially and above all when I consider that the Holy Scripture whose Divine Authority is clear'd by as strong evidences as any matter of that nature is capable of assures me that this Soul whether in its own nature immortal or no I 'le not now examine shall not perish in the Dissolution of this Earthly Tabernacle as Eccles 12.7 Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God who gave it and Mat. 10.28 Fear not them which kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul The Soul it seems is not liable to the injuries of a Disease or the violence commited on the Body but doth subsist when the Body is dissolv'd into its dust When I consider all this I can never so far renounce my Reason and harden my self against all the tenderness and passion I have for my self as to be content that this Soul should be lost in that other State provided I be fortunate and successeful in this for what satisfaction can I then reap from a patrimony or purchase wide as the world it self in a state wherein I shall be depriv'd of all means and opportunity of enjoyment What can the Wealth or Power or Beauty of the World signifie to me when the Body which is the proper instrument of earthly pleasure shall lie stark dead and cold in the Grave shall have no passions no appetites nor can all the Rhetorick or wanton charms on Earth awaken in it one languishing desire or one imperfect act of Life and as to the Soul it must dwell in the Mansions of a new world far far remote from this wherein every thing will be strange wonderful unalterable and eternal But I must pursue this thought a little further and not stopping in the contemplation of the uselessness of the World after the Souls departure from it go on to consider the Soul in its intermediate state between Death and the Resurrection that I may know the utmost if I can that the loss of a Soul imports and here I would suppose my self surprised in the midst of gavety and pleasures of Love and Honour by a violent inexorable disease I resign up my dear objects and my dotage together I am torn from my possessions and my hopes and when the storm hath burst the Cable and shatter'd the Hulk of this frail Bark the Body it casts my Soul that is all that remains of me upon an unknown strand naked and poor and desolate without interests or friends or hopes it must dwell in the dismal blackness of eternal night and Melancholly rackt by despair and guilt scourg'd by shame and rage tortur'd with envy and vexation stab'd by regret and repentance not a calm and soft but a tempestuous and painful one then like some sick body which rowles and tumbles for an easie posture rather out of an inability to suffer pain than any hope of finding rest it sometimes languishes and looks back upon the world vanisht like a dream and repeats ineffective wishes for the Body but it shall return to its dear wealth and beauty no more for ever Sometimes like Dives in the flames it looks towards that Region where Light and holy Souls do dwell but the unpassable gulph of the Almighty's Decree cuts off all hopes of that so that that Light onely augments its envy and despair and Heaven it self adds misery to the wretched Souls hell This is the natural and unavoydable state of a wretched Soul dislodg'd from the body despair and rage and shame and guilt and fear and grief and anguish gnaw and devour the miserable creature and for ever must encrease Blessed God! need there any chains to sink it lower than its own weight hath done Needs there any other darkness cover that Soul which such a cloud of sorrows hath benighted Tell me no more of pleasures these thoughts are enough to make me tremble and grow pale at the approach of a temptation rather than my Soul should dwell in such a state a thousand years may shame and poverty be my portion in this life may the hatred of powerful enemies or what is worse the scorn of my dearest friends persue me may my Body be but a Scene of Diseases and so incapable of the least gust of pleasure and more than this may an awakened tender Conscience every moment flash Death and Hell into my face or if there be any thing worse let me suffer it so it but preserve my Soul from Sin here and from that inexpressible
state of torments afterward And yet all this while I have taken no notice of those additional sufferings which Divine Vengeance will no doubt inflict upon the Soul nor of the nature of the Soul the exaltedness of whose Essence heightens and sharpens the pain for the more delicate the Being the more subtle its perception and the more exquisite the torment Sect. 3. There is a third State wherein misery swels to the highest marke it can possibly when the Body being rais'd again shall follow the Fate of the Soul and both shall be condemn'd to inextinguishable flames O Hell where only the Enemies of God and Goodness dwell where wretched men undergo all that sullying the Divine Glory and trampling on the blood of Christ can merit But I have reserv'd a place for a further survey of this state I am sufficiently convinc'd that the gaining of the whole World cannot recompence the loss of my Soul since its loss implies all this and more for what would I take to be miserable or rather what would I take to be eternally so is it a rational question if I lose my self what can be gain to me the world peradventure will continue amiable many ages after I am gone but what is that to me And if to gain the whole world at so dear a price be so ill a Bargain how fatal a purchase should I make who am like to gain so little being none of the worlds greatest Favourites My Soul is not so cheap yet that I can set it at so low a rate as a few hundreds a year I am as immortal as any Monarch in Christendome and my pretensions to the Almighties favour may grow equal to that of any of the Sons of men and I should be a Profligate and Reprobate a Brute indeed if I should abandon my poor Soul to Misery and renounce the interest I have in the God of Heaven and Earth for I know not what Let who will therefore sweat and toil for wealth and greatness I have but this one business to do to insure this dear dear Soul of mine in its voyage to eternity let who will gain the Reputation of a wise man by a clearer fore-sight and thriftier management of affairs by an unwearied Attendance and insinuating applications I shall think my self wise enough if I can but be sav'd and great enough if I enjoy but the Smiles of Heaven Let who will applaud themselves for the contempt of intrigue and sullen business whilst they thaw and dissolve in soft and delicate pleasures or waste and spend themselves in course and toilsome Lusts If I may enjoy the pleasure of a manly rational life spent in a constant course of Religion and virtue without Superstition or frowardness of a mind unharass'd by desires and fears of a peaceful assur'd conscience of the contemplation of glorious Truths and the hopes of a blessed immortality I shall envy none the happiness of the most luscious pleasure or kindest fortune the World affords A Prayer reflecting on the precedent Discourse BLessed God give me grace to prefer the interest of my Soul to the World and Flesh the things eternal to the things temporal that amidst the pleasures of Prosperity and Peace and the flatteries of Reputation I may not forget to think what will be the condition of my future State and that amidst the troubles which besiege this mortal Life I may be supported by the blessed hopes of a better world that the confident belief of the Souls immortality may render me industrious to lay up a good foundation for the time to come so that when I shall have put off this Tabernacle of clay I may be cloath'd with a building of God not made with hands eternal in the Heavens all this I beg through Jesus Christ our Lord. CHAP. II. Of the Nature of Christianity Sect. 1. CHristianity may be considered either in Relation to Faith or Practice I will first consider the Christian Faith and that in the most practical manner I can In my Creed I have regard to three things especially 1. To the use and end of Faith which is certainly to guide and influence our lives 2. To the peace of my own Breast And 3. To the preservation of Charity My Reason for the first is evident of it self for the two later is this Tho I may doubt whether I believe aright all that is necessary to my eternal salvation and yet that doubt not prove injurious to my happiness at the last day because I did both believe aright and live conformably to it and the scruple arose only from the Disputes and Contests of men and the weakness of my own understanding not from any iniquity of my will yet this doubt will disquiet and disturb my repose damp my cheerfulness and vigour and may peradventure unsettle my faith and end if not in Atheism in coldness and indifferency And tho 2. I may believe Another in a damnable Errour when he is not without prejudice to my own Soul because I may make this judgement in the Simplicity of my heart by the best light and Rule I have yet peradventure this opinion may improve it self insensibly upon my affections to a very ill consequence and invite me to an uncharitable and unfriendly deportment 1. If I consider the Christian Faith with regard to the great end of it Holyness I observe that the Gospel contains two great things the Knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ This is Life eternal Joh. 17.3 To know thee the onely true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent This knowledge contains in it all the Obligations imaginable to a Holy Life and secures the hopes and comforts of Christians upon an unmovable foundation and this knowledge agrees perfectly with the Nature and Ends of Religion 1. First With the Nature of Religion Religion is nothing else but the true and spiritual worship of the only true God who is a Spirit Now all the worship we are capable of paying him consists either in the Affections of the Soul or Actions of the Body so that that Belief or Knowledge which tends to render these proper and acceptable to God is directly conformable to the Nature of Religion The Gospel therefore hath discovered God to us 1. One infinite in Wisedom Power Holyness Goodness c. And secondly as he stands more particularly related to us in the Work of Creation Providence Redemption All this put together proves him to be God and to be Ours it evinces his Excellency and his Supremacy it represents him infinitely Lovely and Adorable in himself and entitles him to all the service and affection which Dominion Love and Munificence can lay a just claim to all which is enforcement enough which is the use of Faith to our Duty when we are acquainted with it Which that we might be and that we might have assistance to enable us to performe it and that there might be a Provision made for the pardon of our errors God in
unhallow them If after all this I chance to Err I do not doubt but that the purity of my intention the diligence of my inquiry the meekness and intireness of my Resignation will through the mercies and goodness of a gracious God secure my Heaven and render my error innocent and harmless All that is behind now is in the 3. Third place to preserve my Charity for my Neighbour least that Faith which should be the strong engagement to union become the unhappy Instrument of Divisions To this end I consider 1. That the Controversies now on foot in Christendome are not about the Truth but sense of Divine Revelation none at all calling into question the veracity but the meaning of God and therefore I cannot conceive the glory of God any more lessen'd or injur'd by variety of Opinions than by variety of Capacities unless in their consequence 2. As the bare assent to a Truth doth not save so I see no reason why the holding of an Error should damn unless it be such as hath a sinful Original or Issue or such as is not consistent with the Honour and Glory of the Most High God and indeed no Opinion which lessens the Majesty of the Most High God can be taken up by any one professing Christianity but that it must begin or end in Sin But yet the aggravation or extenuation of the guilt of a Man thus erring may depend upon so many circumstances as Capacity Education Means and Opportunity of better information the strength of prejudices c. That he must be left to the judgment of God alone and my duty as a private Christian is to love and pray for him and to endeavour his reducement by all the pious Subtleties I can This is the general Rule of the Apostle Let not the Weak judge the Strong nor the Strong despise the Weak I will live in the peaceful temper of these perswasions happy in the enjoyment of a smooth and settled Calm resign'd up to God stanch and consistent in my self and possess'd by charitable hopes of my Neighbour I 'le endeavour to keep a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards Man and then I hope I may at last resign my Spirit into the hands of a faithful Creator in the Joyes and Transports of this Precious Christian Faith The Prayer GLorious and incomprehensible God suppress in me all proud thoughts all wild and wanton Curiosities and keep my Soul in the humble frame of new born Babes Thou dwellest in Light inaccessible my Soul in a cloud of Flesh and Bloud my Faculties are weak and tainted and thy Light dazling and therefore it is not for me Lord it is not for me saucily to discuss or pragmatically to determine of but humbly to receive and heartily to embrace those Mysteries which thou a God of Truth of Goodness and of Power hast vouchsaf'd to reveal to us by the Son of thy Bosome Lord I confess that tho these Mysteries have a dark they have a bright side too for tho I cannot see thorow them yet I see enough to oblige me to worship Thee in Humility and Love and these these I hope will secure me in thy Love through Christ Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief enlighten my blindness quicken and enliven my dulness support my frailties disperse my Passions free me from all the prejudices which clog my sinful nature and finally beget in me an earnest desire after those blissful Mansions where my Faith shall be swallowed up in Vision Amen blessed Jesus Thus I have consider'd the Christian Faith and secur'd my own Peace But there are multitudes of People of a lower Rank and Capacity who may not it may be reach the design of this Section who are distracted by the numerous Controversies every where on foot and frightned by the rash zeal of their Abetters For the satisfaction of such I consider That it is easie to deduce from the Gospel That the Almighty will judge men by their several measures and opportunities 2. That the great Fundamentals of Religion are clear as day light and therefore the Gospel is call'd Light and the Grace of God is said to appear unto all men which tho I suppose primarily meant in opposition to the darkness of Gentilism and in some measure of Judaism too and to that narrower limitation of this Grace under the Mosaical Oeconomy implies with all the clearness of the Gospel of which were there no other proof this one would suffice That the Gospel was design'd for the benefit of all Mankind and more immediately preach'd to the Poor and Silly and Refuse of the World The consequence of this is that it seems at least to me wholly improbable that any Body should be betray'd into a necessity of Erring in Fundamentals unless they be accessory to their own error and therefore this being once granted I may resolve all I can think of necessary for the Multitude in to two directions 1. That holding fast to manifest Fundamentals they for the rest submit themselves to the Government they are under which will be safe for them upon three Accounts 1. That the points controverted are such which they are not of necessity oblig'd to know 2. That they themselves are not capable of making any solid inquiry and therefore to resign themselves to those set over them is the utmost of their duty 3. That in this Case their submission to the publick Authority of the Church they are of is an act of Obedience and Humility and most conformable to the command of God and the peace and unity of the world 2. That they never prefer a doubtful opinion to the prejudice of a plain Precept or Duty a Man may go to Heaven tho he be not of this or that opinion but without Obedience and Charity he cannot but to do this is to stickle for a Sect in violation of Obedience and Charity and to prefer an humor before ones Duty which is a certain Symptom of a mind infatuated by pride or perverted by interest CHAP. III. Of Christianity with respect to Practice and that 1. In general and 2. In particular Sect. 1. OF Practice in general which contains Being and Doing Good We are born into a World full of Snares and Temptations and we our selves are Creatures blind and yet wilful weak and yet wanton too and upon these accounts we are vouchsaf'd the favour of Divine Revelation to conduct us thorow our Pilgrimage to enable us to fight the good fight of Faith and to prevent our miscarrying thorow the Deceitfulness of Sin and the frailty of humane nature and therefore whoever doth not improve this gift of God into all these Advantages and Benefits defeats the design of Heaven and receives the grace of God in vain Besides all this the great Author of all things hath declar'd himself a God jealous of his honour and delighted in the happiness of his Creatures from whence I naturally infer that that only can be a design
Religion is in its essence an inward and spiritual Holiness outward actions can be considered but two wayes either as the means and instruments or else as the fruits and effects of Holiness and both ways a sober temperate Life as to the general course of it is indispensably necessary tho I cannot here deny but that there must be an allowance made for the variety of Tempers and the different strengths of grace c. proportionable to each mans different case Having thus given an Account of the nature of the Holiness which the Gospel requires I come 2. To shew that it tends to promote Gods Glory and Mans Happiness 1. Gods Glory 1. Though a right understanding be wholly necessary to yet it self is no part of Divine worship it is not meer knowledge or belief of a truth but Love and Fear and Obedience by which we honour God and devote our selves to him there is no where more light of knowledge Heaven excepted than in those Regions of darkness where the most impious Spirits dwell but no body will say that they there worship God 't is true an understanding illuminated is certainly a beautiful thing but then if it be joyn'd to an unsanctified will the Man in the whole is the most deform'd and loathsome thing imaginable for he is made up of two the most disproportionable and contradictory things as if he were formed as the Poet fancies men growing out of the slime of the Deluge the upper parts enlivened flesh and bloud the lower mud and clay the light of the understanding enhaunces the guilt of malice and degeneracy in the Will for to see God and not love and obey him is strangely malicious but if his beauty be not ador'd by things that have no eyes to see it 't is not to be wondred at If you had been blind then had you had no sin 2. The Heavens saith the Psalmist declare the glory of God c. Their brightness and vastness whilst they engage our wonder invite us to the contemplation of the Power and Infiniteness and Majesty of their Architect so Holy and Good men declare his glory too for being renewed after his Image in Holiness and righteousness they represent to the World an imperfect draught of some of the glorious attributes 〈◊〉 God they worship thus as the power of Miracles imported to the Apostles forc'd the Beholders to glorifie God who had given such gifts unto men so too Christ exhorts his Disciples to let their Light shine before men that when they see those good works they may glorifie God who is in Heaven induc'd by the loveliness of that Goodness deriv'd from him as the other were by his power 3. It is Goodness by which we own a God and acknowledge him to be ours Divine worship is the confession of our meanness and his Majesty and conformity to his Laws is the fullest proof we can give of our Allegiance and his Supremacy and therefore they who live irreligiously let 'em pretend to believe and think what they will are said to be without God in the world and to deny him in their works 4. Holiness or Goodness is really Divine worship and therefore it is in Scripture defin'd to be Religion and Wisdome and Knowledge To know God this is Wisdom and to depart from evil this is understanding To do Justice to releive the Poor and Needy is not this to know God saith the Lord pure Religion and undefiled is this to visit the Fatherless and Widows in their affliction and to keep ones self unspotted from the world more plainly what is worship but the cleaving to God with purity and earnestness of Affections acting in conformity to his Law as those Affections shall invite and inable us and this is the very same thing with Holiness So that it is plain that Holiness and Goodness contribute to Gods Glory the two only wayes we are only capable of glorifying him that is by our own particular worship and by the influence our example hath upon others § 2. It is most serviceable to the Happiness of Man here and hereafter 1. Here. 1. All the advantage of peacefu Governments friendly Neighborhood I comfortable and closer unions and pleasant Retirements depend on and arise from Goodness But suppose the World planted with Covetousness instead of Justice Pride instead of Meekness Cruelty instead of Compassion Revenge and Malice instead of Mildness and Charity falshood and lying instead of Constancy and Truth c. and imagine if you can whether all Societies would not be torn into as many Factions as there are cross interests and opposite passions whether any Commerce could be just and smooth any tie lasting and delightful whether it were possible to find security or pleasure either in a private or a publick Life 2. It is Holiness which best secures a mans inward peace guards and arms him against those impressions which outward temptations make prescribes bounds to our Desires scatters our Fears confirms our Hopes raises our Affections to things of true and lasting Excellency that is in few words it not only settles our peace by establishing the empire of the mind over the inferiour Appetites but also provides for our pleasure by filling the mind with spiritual Joyes and Peace and Hope 2. Hereafter 3. Goodness is wholly necessary 1. To recommend us to the Love of God whose infinite purity and excellency cannot approve of any thing that is sinful and unholy This is the Message that we have received of him that God is Light c. Where you see that the Law is founded in his Nature hath an intrinsick resemblance to his own Holiness and by consequence he can neither alter it nor dispence with its Observation 2. To qualifie us for Heaven for it is Goodness which weans the Soul from all fondness for the Body and the World and possesses it with an intense Love of God and Holiness which two things do first capacitate it for that world wherein God and holy Spirits dwell and Secondly recommend it to greater degrees of Glory and Happyness in it Besides all this the Scripture speaks This Doctrine in express terms the grace of God which hath appear'd unto all men teacheth us c. This was the great business of our Saviours Life he was still instructing men in the doctrine of the Kingdome that is Godliness Righteousness and Sobriety His Miracles did confirm the Divinity of his Person and this too was carefully secur'd to gain authority to his Doctrine I will conclude this Chapter with the absurdity of the contrary Doctrine Of what use would the Gospel be in relation either to God's Glory or Mans happiness if it were onely to be believ'd and not obeyed To what purpose is light come into the world if men may still love darkness to what purpose did the Son who lay in the bosome of the Father reveal him more gloriously to us if knowing him as God it be yet lawful for us not to glorifie him
nearly related to us but then 1. The measure of this provision must be our necessities not wantonness for if we refuse relief to the poor on this pretence that we cannot support our vanity and gaiety and their poverty together undoubtedly we shall perish under the guilt of uncharitableness 2. The present time not the vain fears of the future must determine this necessity for if we deny an alms out of our present plenty upon an idle fear of future want it is so far from being a just excuse that it is a double crime distrust in God as well as hard heartedness to our Brother contradictory to Faith as well as Charity I will answer to the Second pretence by degrees and therefore 1. Suppose the worth or worthlesness or what 's more unworthiness of the distress'd person be only doubtful and suspected then certainly it is not agreeable to Charity to give up a Brother to ruine upon a vain surmise we are not to dispute their deserts but to regard their wants I 'me sure this is the safest side Charity may be mistaken but shall never be unrewarded we are herein I think to imitate that Wisdome and Goodness which dispenses th' Alms of our Heavenly Father he hath no doubt on 't particular favours as well as a particular kindness for the good and holy but as he is the God of all so those his benefits which all stand in absolute need of are common to all but 2. Suppose the distress'd person be really as Evil as Needy unless I am sure that my Charity will feed his vices I cannot tell tho' God hath pleas'd to pass a sentence of affliction upon him whether he hath appointed me to be the Executioner of it by withholding that aid which may reprieve his life how know I but that in those moments I lend him he may return to himself and to his God nay more whether my Charity may not be a motive to reduce him and happy I if I may so cheaply bestow a double life of body and of soul if I may so easily retrieve a soul my Saviour died for and whilst I give an alms in some sence bestow a Heaven too But if those I relieve should be the Children of my Father the fellow heirs of Salvation how happy an opportunity is light into my hands of obliging those who are so dear to Heaven whose interest is so powerful with the God I worship Yet Lastly in general whatever the occasion be whatever the persons blest be the hour wherein I have an opportunity to evidence my Love to God and to part with something for the sake of my dear Saviour Blest be the hour wherein I can lay out the very superfluities of my trifling stock for a Mansion in Heaven for an abode in everlasting bliss where in I can honestly buy the Prayers of the poor i. e. it may be the intercession of the blessed spirit for me however they are prayers which are very seldome insignificant for if God hears when they curse in bitterness of Spirit when certainly 't is his goodness not their piety which makes their Prayers heard how much more shall his goodness invite him to hear when they bless in the cheerfulness and refreshment of their soul Lastly how comfortable will my reflexions on my Charity be at the hour of Death and in the day of Judgement for be it with an humble reverence spoken tho in imitation of my Saviour how will that Jesus whom I have fed when hungry cloath'd when nak'd visited and comforted when sick and imprison'd ever give me up to an Eternity of flames 3. But yet this is not the whole of the object of our Charity there are whose souls are poor diseas'd and destress'd as well as their bodies and can an ulcer'd Leg or withered Arm deserve my pity more than a leprous soul can I chuse but melt and soften at a sight which speaks a present and boades a future misery is the eternal welfare of my Brother grown so contemptible in my fight that I 'le not spend an hour or word to ensure it Alass how then dwells the same spirit in me which was in Christ Jesus Well then I will go and visit sick souls I will prescribe and presse and Watch and Court and if I see them profligate beyond the hopes of recovery I 'le recommend them as I do departing friends in Prayers and Tears to God and whatever the success prove to them it will be kind and favourable to me Angels will offer up the incense of my Prayers and bottle up my Tears as well as those spent on my own sins and my God will multiply and encrease my Talents when he sees that I spend them well and the World will Love me and the very wicked will praise and justifie my God for these effects of his good spirit Sect. 2. But nature it self seems to encline us to these Acts of Charity as far as they concern the Relief of the necessitous the comfort of the afflicted and Ministry to souls nor can we share in humanity but that we must pertake of some degrees of and aptnesses to Christianity the most difficult part of Charity is still behind i.e. the forgiving injuries or more the returning good for evil and yet if we will be the followers of our blessed Saviour the Children of our Heavenly Father This is it that we must labour after that our souls may be so exalted and heavenly so good and holy that they may not be easily ruffled into peevishness and frowardness much less rankle into a settled malice and a resolv'd revenge but that they may be all calm and smoothness all Love and sweetness Then indeed we may think our selves the Children of God when we can look upon injuries done us with the mildness which arises from a sense of our own frailties with a meekness which is grounded upon our own worthlesness with a compos'dness of midn which remits all to an Almighty and wise God and with a compassion which the consideration of their folly and sin doth awaken in us when we can have the Charity to believe a just cause of mens actions conceal'd tho we can discover none or if the malice be as plain and evident as the wrong then if we can pray for those who curse us honour and Love those who treat us with despight and scorn if we can support the interest and buoy up the reputation of those who have us'd us shamefully and ungratefully after we have Lov'd and after we have serv'd them if we can do this then indeed the spirit of the Gospel a Spirit of Peace and Love abides in us And that I may arrive at this perfection I reason thus with my self 'T is true he hath wrong'd me but unless it were for conquering wrongs what need have I of Christian patience Where is the meekness of the Christian spirit if I am hurried away by the same passion with an Heathen and Infidel I
for mirth and pleasure and feasting when the enemy hath seiz'd the outworks and entred into the very Subburbs the soul is striving for the Mastery and is it sense to arm its enemy and feed it into a fierce and brutish courage by indulging to those enjoyments which are the food and fuel to its lusts every sensual pleasure it indulges to the body is a plain giving ground before the face of its enemy 2. The reward of this spiritual conquest which is fullness of pleasures in the life to come an Eternity of bliss and happiness and how rational is it to prefer Eternity to a moment and that exceeding weight of glory and unspeakable unconceiveable pleasure to the dreams and mockeries of this imperfect State even in this present life we think it becomes our wisdome to renounce trifling pleasures out of the prospect of greater what a Discipline of severities did those contenders in the Grecian games run through out of the hopes of honour and applause from whence St. Paul excellently argues if they did this for a corruptible Crown a Crown of Leaves how much more should the Christian for an incorruptible one 3. The example of a whole Cloud of witnesses gone to Heaven before us who press'd in thorough this narrow way and strait gate but especially the consideration of a crucified Saviour for what have we to do who have taken up the Cross of Christ with rioting and drunkenness with Chambering and wantonness What resemblance is there between his Crown of Thorns his Scourging his Agony c. and the security and sloth the gaiety and vanity of a sensual life for shame let those who profess Christianity do something which may become men who have taken up the Banner of the Cross 4. The great advantage and pleasure of the State of Mortification 1. The Soul enjoys a more entire peace a more absolute empire and is not alarm'd by the daily mutinies of rebellious lusts 2. It is become a fit Temple for the Spirit of purity to dwell in for the Spirit of glory and of God to rest upon and the consequence of this will be abundance of inward pleasure of peace and joy and hope 5. The uncertainty of the time of our Saviours appearance to judgement and who that hath a grain of sense would be surpriz'd by that day at unawares who would be overtaken by the Judge of the World in surfieting and drunkenness or any other of the sinful pleasures of this Life The Prayer O Thou God who art a holy and a pure Spirit sanctifie me in Spirit Soul and Body that I may offer up my self unto thee a holy living and acceptable sacrifice Enable me to fight the good fight of Faith to take up the banner of the Cross against the World the Flesh and the Devil to imitate my holy Saviour and his blessed Apostles that having subdued the Flesh and conquer'd the World I may enjoy a more entire peace and pleasure in my life and may at last depart with the greater chearfulness and triumph out of it and receive from my blessed Saviour an incorruptible Crown Amen Amen blessed Jesus Sect. 4. Of Humility This is the Ornament and Guard of all our Graces that which sets off and illustrates all our excellencies and keeps us upon our Watch to secure them it is both the foundation and perfection of all virtue even holiness and goodness without it would be unacceptable to God and therefore it is well worth your consideration in the next place Humility is a mean opinion or rather the true knowledge of our selves a sober contemplation of our infirmities and a real perswasion of our imperfection which is St. Pauls sobriety of Spirit or humility of mind contrary to the being puff'd up The sense of this shedding it self upon the will renders men modest in their desires and humble in their deportment which is that other part of humility whereby a man is enabled to reject praise and honour and to debase himself to the meanest offices thus the blessed Jesus sought not his own honour and he came not to be ministred unto but to minister There are three things which are liable to be made the grounds of pride the gifts of Grace of Nature and of Fortune but the humble man in respect of the gifts of Grace looks not upon what he hath attain'd but what is still before he payes his sacrifice of honour not to that earthen vessel which contains the treasure but to the God from whose fulness it is deriv'd he dwells not upon the pleasing spectacle of his good Actions but mostly on the catalogue of his frailties and his sins and therefore rests himself on the mercy of God thorough the blood of Christ and from fresh repentances he takes up fresh resolutions and Spirits every Day As to the gifts of Fortune the World is too much a trifle in the sight of an enlighten'd understanding to raise in a good man any esteem or Love of it and if so a man can never prize himself for the possession of what he slights nor be proud of what he despises As to the gifts of Nature he must value them as they are the gifts of God but he considers withal that they are but common ones and are but the imperfect ornaments of this imperfect State which must be done away when we come into a better and withal he reflects often upon his blemishes and imperfections his follies and miscarriages and considering how poor miserable and comfortless a thing he should have been if abandon'd to the conduct of Nature he layes his mouth in the dust and at once admires the bounty and Goodness of God and confesses his own vanity 2. The fruit of this humility is an entire subjection resignation of ones self to God meekness and patience towards man a calm and tranquillity in ones own bosome for as to God considering him as infinitely Glorious and himself intirely dependent of him the humble man composes himself to believe all he reveals to obey what he commands to trust in him to attend the Decrees and the leisure of Heaven to suffer meekly and enjoy modestly As to himself out of the conscience of how little he deserves he is neither ambitious of wealth nor honour but he is thankful for the past satisfied with the present and neither impatient for nor distrustful of the future And out of a sense of his own indisposition to good and the weakness of his own strength he blesses God for the grace he hath receiv'd and tho he stands he takes heed least he fall As to his Neighbour out of the distrust of his own abilities the sense of his own infirmities or else taught by the example of his great Master who took upon himself the form of a Servant the humble man is more forward to obey than to command to believe than to dispute he is slow to speak swift to hear not fond of opinions but desirous to be enlighten'd by
this present State would be good and even pleasure and interest would not peradventure be the same thing then that now for the soul would not challenge so distinct a consideration or provision as now for it would not be onely lawful but wise for it to become sensual and worldly and so the same pleasure and interest would minister to the happiness of both Body and Soul But now that we are assur'd that we are to live to all Eternity and that every action of ours hath an influence on that other life we must needs conclude that every action is good or bad wise or foolish as it serves or hinders our happiness in that State to come that this motive may have its full force it will behove every man to take as lively a survey as he can of the joys and miseries of another Life And 1. Of Heaven It must be confest that to be able to speak properly of Heaven we have need like St. Paul to be rapt up into it for the richest fancy would be but flat and barren in its framing any resemblance of the joyes and glory of that place they are unconceiveable Heaven is like the God of it there is no searching of him out unto perfection but yet there is enough of him manifested to prove him to us strangely aimable and therefore I 'le consider what is manifested to us of Heaven 1. The place 2. The persons for the objects they will fall in with these which constitute the happiness of Heaven 1. As to the Place Heaven it is the sacred abode of God and Angels and therefore it must as much exceed this World as they do us for no doubt on 't the wise Architect of all things made each Pallace proper and fit for the entertainment of that family it was to receive and indeed it appears to be a place fit for the Favorits of God to live in for Heaven is a place of everlasting life and everlasting happiness Heaven is the end and consummation of all things all things will there be in their highest perfection which they are capable of we are now the rough draught of what the great Artificer intends us imagine to what glory we may be rais'd we once were dirt and clay see now what comely glorious beings yet we are to be refin'd much more above what we are now than flesh and blood is above dirt and clay what difference there is between Time and Eternity between corruption and incorruption so much we differ in our existence and essence now from what we shall be afterwards for mortality must be swallowed up of immortality and corruption of incorruption If Heaven be a state wherein all things are consummated an end which hath none beyond it then I infer 1. That there will be nothing more for us either to hope or fear all will be full of quiet and peace no passions there but Love and Joy and Wonder there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain Rev. 21. 2. Having obtain'd our end we shall have no further need of means there will be nothing which is to be done meerly for the sake of something else as here below the covetous man suffers hardship and the toil of constant business not because he loves trouble but because he would be rich the Religious man offers violence to his own body not because it is actually pleasant to do so but because it is in order to a greater good therefore there being nothing of this to be done in Heaven all the business and imployment of that Life will be delight and pleasure hence it is every where in Scripture describ'd as a State of Peace and Rest and Joy and Pleasure 2. As to the Persons I a poor creature of this World below I who have felt the troubles of this mortal State been tortur'd by the passions of Flesh and Bloud Fears and Cares Despairs and Hopes even I am going to a Heaven where none of these can enter where I shall be made happy with those enjoyments which make God and Angels so I shall be made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to the Angels in Heaven how far above them in my happiness for what a value will the experience of this World make me set upon the joyes of another the sense and memory of misery will make my Heaven double I consider that in that Life to come we shall have Soul and Bodies tho not such as we have now our Souls will be strangely rais'd and refin'd in their nature and endow'd with strange measures of knowledge this compar'd to the other Life being like Childhood to Manhood 1 Cor. 13.9 10 11 12. We know in part but when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away when I was a Child I spake as a Child I understood as a Child I thought as a Child but when I became a Man I put away Childish things for now we see tborough a glass darkly but then face to face now I know in part but then shall I know even as also I am known I am not willing to infer what kind of measures of knowledge this Text imports to determine how well we shall be vers'd in the Philosophy of Grace and Nature and the World above how experienc'd we shall be in the Annals and History of this Life and the other 't is enough to say as the Text doth that what we do see we shall see plainly not darkly and what can we see in another Life but God c. How rich a pleasure this will be only ingenious and excellent spirits are capable of fancying all may be able to guess that it will be a most unspeakable pleasure because knowledge is one of the Excellencies of God and Angels and the delight of the wiser part of Mankind As for the Souls Affections they will surely be settled on God or whatever other objects there may be subordinate they will be such as will become so pure and holy a Being for the Appetite of each Being flows from the Constitution and Nature of it it now indeed derives mean and degenerous inclinations from its communion with the Body whose contrivance is proper for the state it lives in But then the Body will be rais'd a spiritual glorified Body which is to be understood in opposition to a carnal natural one 1 Cor. 15. a Body proper to be an Inhabitant of such a place and to be a suitable companion to such a Soul fit to comply with its desires and in some measure sure to partake of its joyes which I may place as the first ingredient of the happiness of the Body in that Life to come i.e. As it here grieves and joyes in the pain or pleasure of the Soul so there it will much more if the satisfaction of the Soul now do by a happy influence impart health and chearfulness and pleasure to the body it will
And grant that I may abhor those sins which efface thy Image and debase my Nature which render me a burthen to my self the hate of God and scorn of Man which make me unhappy here and miserable hereafter Grant this I beseech thee through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour Amen SECT VI. Containing the sixth Motive to Holiness the assistance of the Divine Spirit I Do not think that in a Discourse of this Practical Nature it will behove me to enter into any Dispute about the strengths of laps'd Nature about the nature and necessity of Supernatural Grace I may in short affirm that we find in Scripture sometimes the birth sometimes the growth sometimes the perfection of the New Creature assign'd to the Holy Spirit as the great Author of it all which doth not yet discharge Man from the necessity of exerting all the strength and endeavour that he can for by those frequent Exhortations address'd to Man we may justly infer some ability suppos'd in him and by the frequent promises of the assistance of the Divine Spirit we may as reasonably infer an impotence which stands in need of this relief and from altogether we may conclude that the Spirit of God is so far forth dispens'd as serves the end of the Gospel and the necessities of mankind Our blessed Saviour after he had deliver'd upon the Mount a System of the most refin'd Precepts of Devotion and Purity Mortification and Charity as if he had foreseen that his Hearers would be dazled by the brightness of this Divine Image and look upon the Pattern as too high for the attainments of Humane Nature doth close the discourse first with an assurance of a Supernatural assistance of the Spirit of God And then secondly with asserting the necessity of a real and actual conformity of our lives to those holy Precepts Matth 7. v. 7. c. Ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be open'd unto you for every one that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be open'd Where our Endeavours and the Divine Assistance are joyn'd together as being both necessary towards the great Work of Sanctification in the 9 10 11. verses he goes on to confirm them in the belief of this Promise from the example of Natural Parents who though evil have that Natural Affection for their Children that if a Son ask bread they will not give him a stone or if he ask a Fish they will not give him a Scorpion Much more is it inconsistent with the goodness of the Divine Nature to refuse Man that assistance which is indispensably necessary to the propagation of Holiness inconsistent with his Paternity to deny his craving Children that which is as necessary to their spiritual life as food is to their natural If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts to your Children how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things his holy Spirit as appears from parallel places to them that ask him And when he had acquainted them with this I do not wonder that he concludes all with averring the necessity of Obedience to all those Excellent Precepts from verse 13. to the end for in vain do men quarrel at the purity of the Christian Doctrine as if it were a Religion fit for Angels rather than men in vain do they complain of the prevailing passions of flesh and blood and of the soft insinuations of a flattering World our ability to obey the Gospel is not to be measur'd by the strength of Nature but of the Spirit that God who hath call'd us to the profession of such Exalted Vertue hath allotted us an assistance suitable to so glorious an end so that these complaints are not the groans of a Penitent but the excuses of a fond and carnal mind All this certainly amounts to a very clear proof of the necessity and Excellency of Real and Inherent Holiness for to what purpose should we call down an assistance from Heaven to what purpose should the Divine Spirit be powred forth upon men if either there were no need or no use of such a Holiness which he is the Divine Principle of or if this Holiness were so impure and imperfect that it were not acceptable to God thorough Christ And which way now shall the impenitent sinner escape Divine Justice what Excuse can he frame for the defence of his Impiety he sins and dies not because he cannot do otherwise but because he will do so he perisheth not through impotence but obstinacy and what punishment think we can sufficiently avenge a contempt of or despight done to the Spirit of God! The Gentile is unexcusable because he did not obey those Laws which his Conscience did dictate to him though the Characters they were publish'd in were dark the Motives to and the Principles of his Obedience weak and feeble at least comparatively what tribulation and wrath and anguish then will punish our disobedience who have not only our duty openly publish'd by the Son of God and inforc'd upon our hopes and fears by glorious promises and dreadful threats but also the Spirit of God promis'd to enlighten our understandings to enfranchise and strengthen our wills to imprint the Motives of the Gospel in more sensible Characters on our spirits c. We must expect that our tribulation in the world to come will be proportion'd to our obstinacy in this and the anger of Almighty wrath will boil to a heat answerable to that infinite love and goodness we have despis'd The Prayer O My God how reasonable is it that I should obey thee since thou commandst me nothing but what thou giv'st me strength to perform I feel the weakness of my Nature and the strength of Temptations but this shall never discourage me thorough the might of thy Spirit I shall be sure to conquer it must be a weakness indeed which Omnipotence cannot relieve it must be a strange assault made by the world which can storm that Fort which the Spirit of the Almighty defends and that Law must be more than Seraphick which is exalted above the imitation of a Soul inspir'd and actuated by thee No no if thou vouchsafe but one Ray of thine Infinite Power I shall soon subdue the World and mortifie the Flesh I shall do the things which please thee here and I shall obtain everlasting life afterwards which grant for thy Mercies sake and thy Son Christ Jesus sake Amen SECT VII Of the Gospel-Covenant as it is a Motive to Holiness THe Covenant of Works was Do this and live Life was the reward of an unerring obedience and Death the punishment of every transgression of the Law so that by vertue of this Covenant none could expect to be Justified but he who had no sin to be charg'd with and therefore since there never was any such Man but Christ Righteousness could not be by the Law but now the
Temptations to Sin are very numerous yet they may be reduc'd to two Heads Pleasure and Pain for these are the great Springs of Love and Hate of Hope and Fear and consequently of all Humane actions I will begin with Pleasure CHAP. I. Of Pleasure consider'd as a Temptation PLeasure is the Idol of Mankind and not without reason for it is impossible to love our selves and not love our pleasure and never any man denied himself yet any the least portion of it but in order to a greater therefore though I first premise That he cannot be a true Christian who is not willing to forego all his present enjoyments for the hopes of Heaven because it is inconsistent with a true Faith of the things not seen but yet eternal to prefer these temporal ones because seen before them and inconsistent with the truth of our love to God to obey him no longer than he commands pleasant things Yet because a misperswasion about this matter may prove a snare and a burden to some in the practice of Religion and deter others from it I will enquire 1. How far Religion is an Enemy to our Sensual Pleasures 2. What Remedies it prescribes against them 3. What Motives it lays down to Abstinence As to those instances of enjoyments which are forbidden the case is plain all unnatural lusts are a Species of pleasure if they may deserve that name utterly interdicted the Christian As to our degrees of enjoyment in all the instances of pleasure which are allowed us and such are all our natural appetites it is first plain that all kind of excess is forbidden us and in this sense the Precepts of the Gospel are generally to be understood the Body we are to mortifie is describ'd to have such members as these Col. 3.5 Fornication uncleanness which involve too an unnaturalness in them inordinate affection evil concupiscence and covetousness which is Idolatry and to walk after the way of the Gentiles or according to the world is to have our conversation in lasciviousness lusts excess of Wine revellings banquetings which is call'd afterwards excess of Riot 1 Pet. 4.3 4. 2. It is not to be question'd but that the great design of Religion is to raise our hearts upwards to make us spiritually minded and therefore all Sensuality which is contrary to this is contrary to the Analogy of the Gospel and by consequence I humbly conceive that an immoderate love of any thing though an allowed instance of pleasure is contrary to the Gospel of our Lord accordingly I find that that enjoyment of this present life which it permits to us is such a one as is cool and moderate not warm and passionate 1 Cor. 7.29 But this I say Brethren the time is short it remains that both they that have Wives be as though they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyc'd not and they that buy as though they possess'd not and they that are of this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away And now thirdly by consequence whatever tends to the betraying of us into excess or dotage is unlawful consider'd purely as the means to such an end From hence we may learn how little injurious Religion is to mens present pleasures we are allowed all things but dotage unnatural lusts and excess and all these are contradictory to our present happiness as for excess and unnatural lust there 's no question as for dotage whoever shall consider the emptiness and uncertainty of this world must needs conclude that the greatest security of our pleasure is a moderate affection and bating now all these the Gospel of Christ is so far from injoyning us misery and trouble that we are expresly invited to it by this Motive amongst others that it hath the Promises of this life as well as that which is to come and we are permitted to look upon peace and prosperity as great blessings and we are allowed the delight of Friendly Conversation love without hypocrisie and to love our Wives even as our selves So that whatever is necessary to make our lives comfortable is not only permitted but promised us but if we would make this Earth our Heaven 't is this that is to be Sensual and Carnal it is easie to apply these Rules to our Cloathing Eating Drinking Conversation c. and they will make us wise and prudent Christians and Religion will appear pleasant and delightful There is one more limit affix'd to our enjoyments and that is by Charity we must take care our satisfactions by our examples do not betray or tempt others Brotherly affection is not very hot in his breast who rather than deny himself any little liberty will contribute to the damnation of his Neighbour 2. The Remedies against pleasure 1. A loose and a dissolute spirit a gay and inconsiderate temper is that which commonly betrays us into excess and vanity into softness and dotage and therefore Religion endeavours to possess our souls with sobriety and awe by the presence of a holy God by the Judgment to come by the value and preciousness of our souls and the manifold dangers and enemies they are incompass'd by and therefore ingages us to pass the time of our sojourning in fear to walk circumspectly to be upon our guard and watch always 2. Because the body is apt to grow wanton it prescribes us watchings fasts and frequent prayers as the great instruments that do most tame and mortifie it and at the same time improve and exalt the mind Besides these that I may at once conquer my pleasures and live pleasantly too I have drawn these other Rules from Scripture 1. I never frame to my self rich Idea's nor fancy I know not what Heaven in any object but am content with an indifferent pleasure and hope for no more than what befits mankind in this state on earth 2. I train up my self to endure hardship as a good Souldier of Jesus Christ by passing thorough some chosen difficulties by checking even a lawful passion by calling off my humour from too much freedom and by accustoming my outward man to endure a bridle and thus my temper grows strong and my mind stanch and firm 3. I observe that the Herd which aims at Sensual Pleasure either seldom meets it and what a misery is it to be damn'd for Lusts they never satisfied or else they know not how to use it or they are so soft and unmanly they droop in every interval wherein they want it and therefore I compose my self on the quite contrary to meet a Storm and to stem the Tide and to arrive at my Port through boystrous Seas and so a small blast doth not move me a great one doth not sink me and a Calm like an unexpected blessing is receiv'd the more thankfully and us'd the more moderately 4. I labour that my Conversation may be above and I endeavour to look beyond this dark
fill'd with joy and peace through believing or if I abound with hope through the power of the Holy Ghost I can think of that shine of Glory with which I shall be once invested and then suffer these Rags with patience till my Nuptials come and my new Suits be made I can love this contempt and poverty because it shall make my Crown more weighty and my being more glorious What is it O my Soul for which I complain what is it that I have lost Estate Reputation It is affirm'd by the Spirit of God concerning all sensual pleasures in general That they war against the Soul 1 Pet. 2.11 in particular concerning wealth How hardly shall a rich man enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 19.23 concerning vain-glory and how can they believe who receive the praise of men c. Am I then so much troubled because my difficulties in the way to Heaven are diminished my Chains grown lighter and mine Enemies fewer because my tyes to or dependances on the world are few and consequently my distractions in and diversions from holy duties are the fewer I have no fears no cares no contrivances no jealousies because I have no concern in it How near Heaven am I grown who am thus remov'd from Earth And being in this condition I am not expos'd to the changes of the world I have nothing wherein ill fortune can attacque or wound me This state is not so contemptible which is thus full of peace wherein I may possess my self and need not spend the greater portions of my life in things which fame or greatness requires of me not inclination or choice The Prayer LOrd teach me to form my Opinions according to the light of thy Gospel to guard my Soul against all the impressions of the World and Flesh to mortifie the inbred Inclinations of my Body to Lust and to fix my mind so upon the things that are not seen that when ever vain fears assault me from without they may find the House guarded by the strongest Man Amen Amen SECT II. Of Real Evils whereof some are unavoidable others only common to this life THere are some Evils so natural and constant Appendages to this state of Mortality and Imperfection that unless men can cease to think them Evils they cannot be happy For example a Friend dies or proves false c. or I am to die my self i. e. things happen in their natural course and as I ought to expect them I may as well quarrel with God that he did not create me an Angel and that my first Station was not in the Courts of Heaven Now though it be true that an Evil is not the less an Evil because it is incurable or unavoidable or yet universal I must from hence infer that the wise man ought to be better provided and confirm'd against such and that he gains no small step towards happiness who can divest these Evils of their affrighting shapes which the man shall in a great measure do who shall expect nothing more in this state than what is proper to it and then can no more be aggriev'd at Death Chance Folly c. than at the imperfection of our intellectual capacities the meanness of our natural inclinations and the frailties of our bodies for those other are the effects of these and yet no man thinks himself miserable because he doth not understand as much as God does because being flesh and blood he doth not will as Nobly as Angels and why should he think it amiss or hard that being mortal any thing should die or being imprudent or passionate any thing should act so It is highly reasonable that he who Created us out of nothing should Create us as he pleas'd for he who was not bound to do any thing cannot be blam'd for doing so much But Christianity rests not here it provides a Remedy for all these Evils 1. By the discovery of the Souls Immortality of the Bodies Resurrection and of glorious Rewards which shall Crown those who suffer contentedly and patiently 2. By the discovery of Objects fitted for the affections of an Immortal Soul noble and great enough to fill the biggest capacities and most inlarg'd desires such are God and Jesus Christ and the glories of another life which are unalterable and unchangeable so that the happiness and pleasure of a Christian Soul depends not upon these uncertain things below but upon those things which are above 3. Since these misfortunes are such as are unavoidable in this life they can be no temptation to sin because we cannot avoid them by sinning and they who endeavour to drown their sense of worldly afflictions by an indulgence in any sins do worse than those who kill themselves to get rid of some uneasie passion the very Remedy is the worst of mischiefs But to proceed as to pains which are common to though not unavoidable in this life I cannot chuse but see there are a sort of men who suffer bravely and yet I must confess they suffer and though they are patient cease not to be miserable these are the only things which I could ever think so unhappy as to deserve my pity and yet it will not be reasonable to sin for the avoiding such sufferings as these for though Religion cannot remove all sense and pain and passion for then this world would be a Heaven and the Scripture is plain that no affliction for the present is joyous and if they were not Fiery Tryals they would be no temptations yet it supplies all the ease and comfort which such a state is capable of and such as is enough to make it supportable Therefore I first premise these two Propositions 1. That no temptation befals us but what is common to men That a whole Cloud of Witnesses is gone before us in the severest and bloudiest paths and therefore that there is no state which is not supportable by Divine Assistance and may not be pass'd thorough without such an ill demeanour as may forfeit our everlasting happiness 2. That there is no condition so miserable but it is capable of some mixture of comforts let us for an example in matter of fact regard the Apostle of our Lord 2 Cor. 6. In affliction in necessities in distresses in stripes in imprisonments in tumults in labours in watchings in fastings and yet the Cloud had a bright as well as dark side for v. 10. Though dying yet behold we live though chasten'd yet not kill'd though sorrowful yet alway rejoycing though having nothing yet possessing all things Now it matters not I confess as to entire happiness whether Scale of sorrow or comfort outweighs because to entire happiness it is requir'd that both parts of us as well Body as Soul enjoy good yet it will become a wise man to get as much ease as he can and when the Sun is set not to despise a Candle And this proves thus much that no man can be necessitated to sin since a man can
a new and repeated Engagement of our selves to the service of Christ to an obedience to his Laws and a Renunciation of those Enemies of the Christian the World the Flesh and the Devil From all this it is easie to infer 3. That it is a strong Fence and Antidote against Temptations for these fresh impressions of our Saviours love the new strengths of Divine Grace the vigour of a new and solemn Ingagement to Obedience fill the Soul with a holy zeal against sin and with a glorious contempt of sensual pleasures The Prayer ANd now O my God what should make me so prodigally venturous of my own safety as to neglect the frequent use of this holy Sacrament Have I not need frequently to examine my self Are not thy Graces apt to wither and decay unless thus water'd and refresh'd Doth not my converse with the World and my communication with Flesh and Blood render it necessary for me to renew my resolutions against them as often as I can or is there not a holy delight in the exercise of all this that surpasses all the pleasures of a sensual life and is it not a Sacrifice that my Lord and Saviour is highly pleas'd with and is it not reasonable that I should oblige him who died for me with this frequent acknowledgment of his infinite love evidenc'd in his death Pardon me O my God that I have been so ungrateful to thee so sensless of my own welfare and advantage for the time to come I will delight in this holy Communion I will often offer up my self a Sacrifice to thee and profess my Faith in a Crucified Saviour and there beg thy assistance and conduct through the difficult paths of this present life And O my God accept thou of my addresses and praises thorough thine infinite Mercies and the Blood of Christ Amen Of Prayer PRayer may be consider'd under those three Heads I before mention'd And 1. As a part of Holiness It is an acknowledgment of God's being our God a confession of his Majesty and our meanness being a solemn Adoration and Worship of him 't is a Sacrifice of praise to him 't is an act of Humiliation and of Repentance and of Faith and Reliance upon him And from hence we may infer what preparation of the Soul is necessary to a right discharge of this Duty that extempore Addresses are the most improper and the most unwelcom to God for these are at best but imagin'd to raise those passions or dispositions in the Soul which ought to be presuppos'd in it before-hand to the rendring of our Prayers acceptable for we draw near in prayer to offer up a Sacrifice which we had prepar'd before And we may secondly conclude that what ever the gifts of Prayer be the Spirit of Prayer is that which doth dispose and prepare the mind by such qualities as are fit to exert the acts I nam'd before and I am apt to think that a Soul which thus prepar'd and fixing it self in the immediate presence of God dwells with an inward devotion upon those acts of Adoration and Praise Humiliation and Faith without expressing these actings of the mind in words I speak of private prayer doth in S. Pauls sense Rom. 8.26 pray by the Spirit and consequently in publick those prayers are most spiritual which share most of this preparation 2. As an Instrument of Holiness it doth exercise all our graces and refresh and improve them by exercising the breathings of the Divine Spirit which is in an extraordinary manner assistant in this holy exercise fill the minds of men with joy and peace and hope which confirms them in their Christian Warfare and makes them disrelish all the pleasures of a sinful life Lastly Prayer hath extraordinary promises annext to it of receiving whatsoever we ask with Faith Mat. 7.7 Ask and it shall be given to you 3. It is an Antidote against Temptation for it possesses the Soul with an Awe of the Divine Majesty with a sense of his unspeakable love and with a horrour against sin whilst we enumerate his benefits and our sins with all their aggravating circumstances And certainly no man can be so sensless as to repeat those sins which he did just now bemoan and abhor renounce and resolve against before God nor will it be easie for him to fall who comes forth forewarn'd and arm'd to encounter a Temptation Lastly Prayer convinces a man of the loveliness and happiness of a holy life for he finds that his peace and reliance grows up or decays together with his Vertue If I did pray earnestly and often how humble how holy how heavenly and exalted would my Soul be with what glorious Notions of the Divine Majesty what dreadful apprehensions of sin what an unquenchable thirst of Holiness what fears and jealousies of the World and Flesh would my Spirit be possess'd by and what a mighty influence would all this have upon my Conversation how humbly how warily how fervently should I walk But when I do not pray often or with this care and preparation how lazy and careless is my life how dim and imperfect my conceptions how stat and tastless my relish of spiritual things how doth a worldly sensual temper grow and increase upon me and the Divine Life within droop and languish The Prayer O Therefore my God give me grace to be frequent and fervent in Prayer assist me by thy Spirit to dress and prepare my Soul for this more solemn approach to thee and then I shall experience this to be the high way of Commerce with Heaven I shall feel the wind blowing upon the Garden of my heart and the Spices flowing forth I shall feel the Spirit fanning that spark of holy life it kindled into a flame and I shall feel my self transported and ascending up above this vain world and all the allurements of it O therefore grant me O my God thy holy Spirit that I may pray with understanding and fervency with a prepar'd and a devout Soul that my prayer may not be the sacrifice of Fools and turn'd into sin but an acceptable Sacrifice to thee an Instrument of Holiness and a Guard against sin enabling us to fight the good fight of Faith that I may receive an Everlasting Crown and all for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen I should now add something concerning Fasting which the Universal practice of the Church besides our Saviours Rules prescrib'd to it do plainly suppose to be a Duty of Christianity but yet such a one as is a Free-will offering and so dependent of various circumstances that the practice of it cannot be fixt by particular Rules and therefore as I did on purpose omit speaking to it when I had a fair offer under that Head the means to obtaining Temperance consider'd as a habit in the mind so now I 'le only consider it very briefly 1. Who ever shall consider the constant practice of the devoutest men the Nature of this Body we are cloathed