of the Lords mercy that we are not consumed sure many who have offended less have been justly sent to everlasting burnings do now dwell with devouring flames and why should a living man complain it were certainly more rational to be humbled for the evil that occasioned the rod that our present misery may not be the prelude to more lasting torments Nay there is nothing that more offends God that is more contrary to the pattern set before us than to murmur and repine let us therefore study to bear the resemblance of our eldest Brother that our Heavenly Father may acknowledge us for his Children In the next place Christ's obedience to the Will of his Father is set forth as our president and can any thing more powerfully perswade us to obedience than his example which not onely discovers our duty but also inspirits and enables us to perform it If the marvelous pattern of Christ's entire obedience does not form our wills to do what God enjoyns I scarce know any argument that will prove â—ffectual And now how serious was our Lord Christ in dispatching that business his Father intrusted him with The work that his Father gave him to do he finished it Joh. 17.4 and he testifieth of himself That he did always those things that pleased his Father Joh. 8.29 and that he might more emphatically express this he tells us Joh. 4.34 My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work and indeed in that he so entirely resigned the whole power of his Will to his Father Not my will but thy will be done we have the most unquestionable proof of his perfect obedience He was as the great Apostle tells us Obedient to the death of the Cross submitted to the most dreadful sufferings that he might instruct us to keep his commandments even as he kept his Fathers commandments Joh. 15.10 and that the same mind be in us that was in him But God knows how little we regard either his Precepts or Examples for although our great Master has made his obedience our rule yet how ready are we to despise it if in the least it cross our humors or carnal interest Alas little do we consider that obedience is essentially necessary in order to our supream happiness and that torments as severe and intolerable as they are lasting are the lot of the disobedient It were to be wished that the rebellious posterity of Adam would but seriously ponder what they will be able to say in the great day of Audit Sure I am the whole Contexture and Harmony of the divine Precepts and Doctrines are equitable and just and therefore call for our hearty compliance with them The wise God never issued out any Command which could not be obeyed He is not like the Aegyptian Task-masters to require Brick while there is no Straw Nay indeed our duty and interest are coupled together so closely that if we disobey and rebel we may thank our selves for the misery we have chosen And as his obedience is set before us for imitation so is his Love Charity and Compassion also His whole life was spent in doing good to men how transcendent is his love in pitying us in our degenerate and forlorn estate when we were at odds with Heaven and incapable to help our selves then even then did he commiserate our case and by his own Blood reconciled us to the Father It is the greatest demonstration of love imaginable for a man to lay down his life for his friend Joh. 15.13 and yet more wonderful was the love of our Redeemer in passing through so many cruel sufferings for us who were but Rebels and Enemies O how should the remembrance of his boundless compassions transport and ravish us with love how strange is it that the highest endearments of Love have not inflamed our spirits and made Love mutual and reciprocal Love is a most excellent affection of a noble original by which we resemble the best of beings the great God being by the beloved Disciple described to be Love and indeed well does this description sute with his dealings with men But alas how unlike are we to God in this there is scarce any duty more frequently inculcated by our Saviour than Love John 15.12 This is my commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you and yet how little efficacy has either his precept or example with us Blessed Redeemer how unworthy do impure Earth-worms require thy love thou hast not been wanting to conquer our affections and to inflame our frozen hearts with love to thee and to our Neighbours also Thy life and Death comprehend the most endearing arguments imaginable and yet well maist thou ask us as once thou didst Peter Love you me but God knows there are but a very few who can unfeignedly say as this Disciple did Lord thou knowest that I love thee We can remember all thy sorrows without tears and look upon thy agonies with an unconcerned eye We can view thee in the Garden when grief and pain made thee sweat drops of bloud and behold thee as thou stoodst accused as a Malefactor before Pilate as thou wert contemned scourged and derided by impure worms and most spitefully represented in a fools habit we can ascend Mount Calvary and contemplate thee as enduring the most shameful death of the Cross and hanging betwixt two Thieves and all this time have Adamantine hearts which receive no impression Blessed Redeemer come touch these hearts of ours that they may be overcome with love that our wills and affections may be perfectly moulded according to thy pleasure Sure if we had any sparks of Generosity or common Ingenuity we could not thus despise so much love The very Publicans who were reputed the worst of men yet loved those that loved them And it hath even in the most degenerate times been reckoned the highest baseness to contemn Benefactors yet more brutish are we become than these and may very fitly be ranked in a Category inferior to that of bruits For the Ass as sacred Writ tells us knoweth his masters crib and the Ox his owner Isa 1.3 The very beasts in their own manner express a kinde of love to their Benefactors and yet although our Redeemer hath made our peace by his blood on the Cross and hath reversed that sentence of Damnation passed upon us although he hath endured the greatest dishonour and pain imaginable that we might be delivered from the wrath to come yet this unparallel'd kindness the greatest endearment of love hath not had the kindly effect to quicken our dead and benummed hearts but like a lifeless carcass we remain insensible without the least return of love And indeed it can scarce be well expected that the example of his love to us should engage us to love one another since it hath produced so little love in us to himself But however I need not take much pains to prove that hereby we demonstrate
Sir Joseph Copâ—ley Baâ—â— Without holiness no man shall see the lord Heb 12 14 Sold by R Sollers at the kings Armes Bible in St Pauls C yard F. H. Van Houe Sculp THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS WRITTEN By the Author of the Whole Duty of MAN c. To which is Added HOLY DEUOLIONS UPON Several Occasions Fitted to the Main Uses of A Christian Life 1. Chron. 16.29 Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness Heb. 12.14 Without Holiness no Man shall see the Lord The Fourth Impression LONDON Printed for Benjamin Crayle at the Lamb in Fleetstreet next White-Fryers-Gate 1684. THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. OF the Nature of Holiness page 7. CHAP. II. Of the Rule of Holiness 11 CHAP. III. Motives and inducements to the practice of Holiness 48 Sect. 1. The noble pattern of Holiness 49 Sect. 2. Holiness the condition of future happiness 74 Sect. 3. Holiness the onely safe way to escape the wrath to come 82 Sect. 4. Holiness the main designe of the Gospel and the end of all Christs sufferings 87 Sect. 5. Holiness the most proper and effectual means for obtaining length of days 91 Sect. 6. Holiness that which makes men honourable Vice rendering men mean and ignoble 96 Sect. 7. Holiness attended with the most solid and real Pleasures 106 Sect. 8. Holiness accompanied with peace 114 Sect. 9. Holiness the best evidence of true Wisdom and real Worth and Courage 119 Sect. 10. Holiness universally profitable and above all things most advantageous 124 CHAP. IV. Frivolous Cavils and Objections removed 142 THE INTRODUCTION MAN in his original condition when he first came out of the hands of his Maker was a very noble and venerable Creature adorned with many peculiar excellencies and as the Psalmist observes Onely made a little lower than glorious Angels But of all his perfections Holiness as it was the principal and most oriental so did it also give a beauty and lustre to the rest It made his Authority and Power lovely and desirable his Wisdom and Knowledge venerable and every other attribute which without this is terrible and dreadful to be comely and praise-worthy This was that single perfection that raised Man above the beasts that perish and made him Heavens great favourite and darling which if it had been carefully preserved had undoubtedly secured our first Parents in Paradise and prevented that dreadful calamity that hath seized upon their Posterity But alas how are we fallen from Heaven to Earth from a Paradise of pure pleasures to a miserable and painful Prison We have lost that divine Image that was impressed upon Man in his primitive state which indeed compleated and alone preserved its beauty and comeliness and with it have also lost every thing that did then contribute to make us happy and are now become vile and abominable and as miserable as we were formerly happy How much a serious view of that primitive felicity Man in his innocent state enjoyed would contribute to plant in us a holy life I know not but I am sure it could not but mightily inhaunce the value of Holiness and make it lovely and desirable That man that reflects upon the dismal miseries he is exposed to in this lapsed estate to what an infinite number of inexpressible evils of insupportable pains he lies upon how he is hurried from a state of perfect bliss to a woful hell of extream torments How exceedingly amazing is this The very Poet could say Miserum est suisse heatum But God knows this is out very seldom and if ever but faintly reflected upon we are to our sharow become contented slaves and satisfied to bear Fetters and Chains we continually live in the midst of all evil never enjoy a moments solace or comfort notwithstanding of which like mad-men we are content with our state and like the Sow take pleasure to puddle in the mire And although that same diffusive and boundless goodness that first breathed in us the breath of life and framed us in his own likeness and image again pitied us in our low estate and provided the most valuable and Soveraign remedie to recover us from this mortal disease though he has procured a compleat Ransom to liberate us from the insupportable slavery and tyranny of sin has offered to restore our former beautie to repossess us of that happiness we had lost and to make us again Favourites and Freemen yet how insolently have we rejected this kinde offer how impiously have we cut those cords of love asunder and refuse to be healed 'T is indeed matter of great sadness to consider the lofty and intolerable affronts that are now cast upon Holiness how men are arrived at that pitch of impietie to scorn and deride Religion which former ages were at some pains to advance as if Holiness were inconsistent with the principles of Generosity and onely becoming mean and morose spirits How transcendent a folly and madness this is will easily appear by what I shall afterwards lay down Methinks the naked representation of Holiness should be motive enough if not to court it yet to engage men to correct their unreasonable prejudices they entertain against it and even force its greatest Antagonists to become its Advocates But alas vice hath cast such a dark shadow upon mens Judgements that they are become as unfit Judges of its beauty as blind men are of colours otherwise we might yet expect to see contemned Vertue much more in vogue than ever Vice was To excite our desires Scripture has represented it under the most comely dress has discovered its beauty and excellencie and recommended it by the most endearing motives which are apt to work both upon our hope and fear Vpon our hope by proposing an infinitely valuable reward to the righteous besides the present advantages that attend it Vpon our fear by opening to our view the powers of the world to come and discovering the insupportable misery that the damned suffer day and night so that if men would but so far actuate their Reason as soberly to consult their own interest and happiness I doubt not but this alone should be motive enough to excite them to the practise of Holiness and scare them from those ways of sin that lead down to the chambers of death It would make one would think the greatest Sensualist to relinquish the momentary pleasures he enjoys here to be possest of those eternal joys that the pure in spirit shall reap in the Kingdom of their Father and the most hardned and impregnable sinner tremble to think of dwelling with devouring flames Now the onely infallible way to attain those coelestial felicities and to evite the miserable consequences of vice and those pains and tortures that it exposeth its votaries to is to abandon every lust be it never so impetuous and to cleanse our selves as the Apostle adviseth us from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit and to perfect holiness in the fear of God For the better directing our present
have ascertained our selves of the truth and lawfulness of it this the very Poet could dictate Nec Deus intersit nisi dign us vindice nodus Inciderit It were to be wished that the Hectors of this age would learn of the very Heathens more reverence and that those men that pretend to good breeding would be so civil even sometimes for the companies sake as to forbear those Oaths that tender ears cannot hear without offence In the last place the Divine Love if scattered in our Hearts will excite us to worship God after the method himself hath prescribed It will direct us to the rule of Piety where we shall finde every thing that relates to our immediate intercourse with God in Divine Ordinances and Worship exactly ordered I confess the Heathen world as they were confused in their notions of a Deity and almost quite ignorant of the eternal reward so were they superstitious in their Worship and sometimes ignorantly erected Altars to an unknown God Their Worship was attended with a great deal of external pomp was very grateful to their external senses but it reached not the Heart But the Christian rule instructs us to worship God in Spirit and prescribes the best method of devotion It requires that We worship and bow before the Lord our maker with all possible humility and reverence that we possess our Hearts with the greatness and glory of that Majesty we adore that we be intent in our devotion and not suffer sâ—â—nlar concerns to intrude and interrupt us that we act faith upon him and believe that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him and that we approach the throne of grace in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ If Devotion were not a duty yet methinks the advantages thereof should invite us to the performance But since God has coupled our duty and interest together how amazing is it to think we should so neglect it How many attractives are there to approach his presence who dwells in light unaccessible Have we not a multitude of sins to confess many wants we would fain have suppli'd How many temptations does every place present How numerous are the dangers and accidents to which we lie open and should not all these excite us to render homage to that omnipotent power which alone can guard us from inconveniences But besides our dangers we are freed from the mercies and favours he daily confers upon us the fresh communications of his bounty every morning nay minute require at least a return of praise and a grateful acknowledgment But yet alass in spight of all these inducements how is Devotion contemned by some and neglected by most But I dare not enlarge now on the particular Branches of Holiness nor insist in the recommendation of every particular duty lest I seem to digress from my proper subject I shall therefore proceed to the other two Branches of Holiness namely those duties that respect ourselves and others As to the first we are by the perfect rule of Holiness instructed to live soberly to be moderate in all things and to shun every kinde of excess as equally hurtful to Soul and Body it forbids complacency in those lusts that war against both restrains all irregular and impetuous inclinations retrenches all inordinate desires the first motions to forbidden objects and in a word enjoyns all those vertues which respect either our Bodies or Souls For those that respect our Bodies how straitly is chastity commanded For this is the will of God even your sanctification that ye should abstain from fornication 1 Thes 4.3 We are urged with the most affectionate earnestness to abstain from the very first motions to forbidden objects from the polluted glances and wanton lascivious speeches that are windows at which uncleanness enters and that by such invincible and cogent arguments as might prove effectual with men who but consider what they do Lust being a Vice mischievous to the body Prov. 7.26 hurtful to the Soul Prov. 6.32 casting an everlasting stain upon a mans good Name Prov. 6.33 undoing his Substance Prov. 6.26 Job 31.12 and that which finally excludes from the Kingdom of Heaven where nothing that pollutes can enter 2 Cor. 6.9 Rev. 21.27 'T is indeed no wonder though the Religion of the Gentiles which contained a prodigious mixture of vanity and impiety gratified the inclinations of uncleanness for if we consult their writings we shall observe that the most abominable vice wanted not a Deity to patronize it amongst them which upon the matter was an establishing iniquity by Law and an argument more sufficient to encourage than to correct vice And although the Writings of some Philosophers have been more refined yet the Lives even of such were full of the foulest actions Nay the rules which the best Masters of Morality amongst them prescribed never reached to the purifying of the Heart I confess that man that shall take notice and who having eves in his head can avoid this when men proclaim their sin like Sodom of the prodigious uncleanness this prophane age has arrived at shall be strongly tempted to suspect the purity of the Christian Rule if he make no farther enquiry than to the practices of most that are called Christians We may indeed very aptly write to the professors of this age as the great Apostle did to the Church of Corinth It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you and such fornication as is not so much as named amongst the Gentiles 1 Cor. 5.1 And I am a little afraid if the Church should strictly observe that charge that the Apostle gives there and excommunicate all such wicked persons that our Church should not need to brag much of the number of Christians 'T is indeed matter of great sadness to consider how much the Christian Religion has suffered upon the account of the scandalous practices of Titular Christians and I make no doubt but this age has been at more pains than any that precedes it to increase the scandal but sure 't is but a silly artifice to challenge the exactness of the Rule and with Celsus impudently alleadge that the Christian Religion encourageth men to the practice of immorality and vice since of all Religions the Christian onely can produce the strictest Laws against all filthiness of flesh and spirit 'T is a Doctrine as the blessed Apostle tells us according to godliness and lays undispensible obligations upon its followers both to think upon and to do whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are of good report and suchlike things which being general include all particulars and yet it doth not onely prescribe general rules but descendeth to the commanding of all particular vertues and the equal prohibition of particular vices Next to Chastity we might discourse largely of the commendation of Moderation in eating and drinking and shew that the excess of both is condemned as being mean and ignoble that it is the true cause of many
loathsome diseases is attended with a prodigious multitude of temporal evils Prov. 23.22 and threatned with lasting eternal torments hereafter Hence our Royal Master fails not to exhort his Disciples to Take heed to themselves lest at any time they be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness Luke 21.34 And one of his blessed Apostles tells us that Drunkards shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.10 And indeed daily experience puts it beyond all doubt that those ignoble sins naturally tend to impoverish men and fully verifie the wise mans prediction That the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty Prov. 23.21 But passing those vertues that concern our Bodies I come now to consider those that adorn our Souls and I shall confine my discourse to those which are the peculiar graces of Christians and which the Christian rule does more particularly recommend Such as Humility Meekness Contentment and Self-denial If we enquire narrowly into the Lives of Heathen Philosophers we shall finde their pride and vain-glory stained the best of their actions Self-denial was a vertue never taught in their Schools and for Contentment the rules they prescribed were but ineffectual to recommend it But the Gospel couples our Duty and Interest together it commands Humility and recommends its advantages and alluring attractives It discovers the dangers that attend Pride and the great folly of being vain of Beauty Strength Wit Riches Honours or Preferments Of all these I may use the Apostle's phrase 'T is not expedient doubtless for men to glory 2 Cor. 12.7 Are not these the free gifts of Divine goodness and what can be more unreasonable than for dependent creatures to be proud Humility is indeed so amiable so endearing dearing a quaâ—ity and so noble an embelishment of our nature that where this is wanting all other advantages are little regarded and not onely men but the great God also resists the proud it being a vice which besides Christianity Morality also condemns as universally unbecoming to Humane nature and that which not onely disturbs ones self but also disquiets whole societies But God gives grace to the humble he takes such persons into favour as being more pliable to receive the impress of his love And as a humble so also a meek and quiet spirit is in the sight of God of great price And can there be a more convincing motive than this to recommend meekness to Christians And indeed we cannot pretend to be the Disciples of holy Jesus if we refuse to learn that lesson he hath copied out to us Matth. 11.29 Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart Although a calm and quiet spirit is a reward to it self as every vertue is yet it wants not a claim to a temporal felicity also Matth. 5.5 Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth These be the persons to whom by right of promise this stately Fabrick of earth belongs And if we now view that unpleasant vice of Anger opposite to it this will yet adde more to its lustre and help to recommend it the more effectually Anger being such an unpleasant humour that it makes those men it possesses unfit for humane society it being not unfitly defined by the Poet to be a short madness which indeed agrees very well with the Wise mans verdict of it Eccl. Anger rests in the bosom of fools If then men would but compare the calm and happy serenity of Meekness with that inward and outward trouble and disquietment that is the effect of Anger they could not but esteem the one and declaim against the other In the next place our Christian rule recommends Contentment as the most precious Jewel in the Saints Diadem 't is that noble ingredient that makes the most bitter cup sweet and pleasant it renders things otherwise unsavory and burthensome to be indeed relishing and easie This is it that seasons the meanest meal makes a dish of herbs a feast and a cup of cold water please the palate This is that vertue which makes men in the midst of storms represent a calm and in the saddest circumstances to sing sweetly He who has learned St. Paul's lesson how to want and how to abound is not discomposed either by Prosperity or Adversity but in both cases can behave himself like a man in reason This is it which is inseparably connected with Godliness is the same thing expressed by different names This is a vertue so lovely and desirable attended with so many advantages that we have all imaginable encouragements to hearken to the Apostles advice Heb. 13.5 Be content with such things as ye have and in the evil day to heed that advice Christ gives his Disciples to possess our souls with patience But how disquieting and tormenting are its contraries Ambition makes men restless in raising their own value and esteem above others it prompts them to be always in dislike with their own present condition the least advancement of others above them gnaws and torments their spirits and oftentimes hurries them headlong to the greatest dangers Murmuring is a most fretting evil a most painful distemper a sin attended with the most dangerous consequents and which imbittereth the happiest state of life here Envy is a vice nothing less criminal attended with as dismal effects as any as the Apostle St. James tells Jam. 3.16 Where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work And lastly Covetousness is so mean and ignoble a vice that I think although it were not as the Apostle describes it the root of all evil yet gallant spirits should dislike it as being base and contemptible In the last place the Gospel recommends Self-denial as the Christians peculiar Character If any man says our Master Christ will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me And this precept he backs with the most powerful incitement For whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it Mat. 16.24 25. I doubt not but flesh and bloud will cry out as once Christ's own Disciples did in another case This is a hard saying who can bear it 'T is indeed no small matter to bring down the carnal part of man to submit to the loss of Relations Interest and Life But since the advantage and danger of both cases is so clearly revealed what fools will men prove if to gain this life they lose the recompence of a better rewad As the rule of Holiness does thus instruct us in those duties that concern our selves so it also teacheth us how to carry towards others And in the first place it recommends the Royal Law of love as the spring and source of all other duties Rom. 13.9 If there be any other commandment 't is briefly comprehended in this saying namely Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self This for its excellency and comprehensiveness is said to be the fulfilling of the Law as those
as the wise man tells us An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning but the end thereof shall not be blessed Prov. 20.21 Thirdly The Christian rule is a most compendious and compleat directory to men in every station and place Parents and Children Masters and Servants Husband and Wife may from hence learn their duty As it gives no encouragement to Tyrants so neither does it allow Rebellion in Subjects but condemns it as a sin heinous and unnatural But I cannot stand to enlarge upon every particular duty onely I shall infer that from the accomplishment of those duties enjoyned by the Christian rule is formed that Holiness I would fain perswade men to follow To put a close to this Chapter it will not I think be amiss to shew that the Christian rule of Holiness is the most noble and most excellent that was ever extant that it far excels the Schemes of Morality drawn by the best and most celebrated Masters of Pagan Philosophy and is more comprehensive and effectual to form men to true Holiness than the Mosaical Law I confess the Heathen Religion does not in the least deserve to be compared with the Christian no more I may say much less than the light of the dimmest Candle should be compared with the Sun in its brightness when all mists and clouds are dispelled It were indeed too great an honour to name the Alcoran with the New Testament the one being corrupt and imperfect the other pure and perfect in its tendency designing to make men truely vertuous and holy If we view the rules which the best and most refined Moralists prescribed we shall finde much Brass amongst their Gold many things exceedingly faulty which instead of forbidding encouraged many foul Vices Thus concerning piety towards God what unbecoming thoughts did they entertain of him They changed as the Apostle to the Romans observes the glory of an incorruptible God into an Image made like corruptible man Rom. 1.23 and in those moral duties that concerned themselves and others it were easie to shew how miserably they failed The famous Peripatetick pleaded for the revenging of Injuries The divine Plato allowed the community of Wives The strict Stoicks patronized the lawfulness of Self-murther and thus professing themselves to be wise they became fools And yet to the shame of Christians how conspicuous was the moral gallantry of the Romans how famous and glorious are they esteemed for their Justice and Constancy in friendship by all succeeding ages their vertue did conquer respect and esteem from their Enemies and made them beloved by those who fear'd their power And here I cannot but take notice of St. Augustin's commendation of the old Romans Because God says he would not bestow Heaven upon the Romans they being Pagans he bestowed the Empire of the world upon them because they were vertuous And yet the best rules those Illustrious Heroes and Law-givers taught are not comparable to the Laws of Christianity upon these three accounts First the Pagan Law is deficient in many things and many particular Laws mightily tend to the promoting of vice their Law-givers being ignorant of the introduction of sin never made any precepts against the first motions to forbidden objects Secondly those good Laws they taught are more clearly revealed in the Gospel Which hath brought life and immortality to light As the Gospel commands onely such things that are good and forbids onely vice so it more conspicuously manifests what is good that we may do it and what is evil that we may evite it The good Laws that Epaminondas in Thebes Lycurgus in Lacedemon and Aristides in Athens taught are in the Gospel-Oeconomy more excellently confirmed and we are now undoubtedly secured that we do well in observing what is commanded and in abstaining from what is prohibited which Numa Pompilius Marcus Antonius and all the Law-givers either of Greece or Rome could never be fully ascertained of Thirdly we have better encouragements and inducements to obey the Gospel-precepts than any other Religion prescribes The best motive to virtue amongst the Heathens was that vertue is a reward to it self that it is the means to be celebrated by after-ages and such-like which were but insignificant encouragements if compared with the eternal and unspeakably glorious reward which Christianity holds forth and those severe threatnings by which it secures its Laws of which I shall speak anon As for the Mosaical Law which next to the Christian is the most exact and incomparable there are three reasons why it is not to be compared with it being so far exceeded by the Gospel First the Mosaical dispensation is not unfitly called by the great Apostle A law of a carnal commandment Heb. 7.16 and A law which made nothing perfect v. 19. but the Gospel which is there called the bringing in of a better hope is more spiritual and refined and Jesus is said to be a surety of a better covenant v. 22. So that we may argue as the Apostle in the 11th verse of that cited Chapter doth If therefore perfection were by the Levitical Priesthood for under it the people received the Law what further need was there that another Priest should arise I confess the legal Sacrifices did shadow forth the satisfaction of Christs but yet I make no doubt but we may now understand the intent and meaning of all those Types much better than they could Secondly the Ceremonial Law as it was very burthensome so did it chiefly tend to make the observers thereof externally righteous and did not so strongly enforce the purifying of the heart As for the Moral Law the Christian rule as it does as strictly enjoyn it so it does much more powerfully excite men to the performance of it promising not a temporal but aâ— eternal reward Thirdly the Mosaical dispensation did indulge many practices which the Christian rule justly condemns such as Polygamy and Divorce and several Marriages allowed by no other Law and indeed the whole contexture of the Jewish Religion seems to be onely calculate as it did well correspond with the humour and genius of that people and could not therefore be a general Law agreeing with and well attemperate to the inclinations and humours of all Nations as the Christian rule is Any man that shall compare the Jewish Religion with the Christian shall be easily convinced that this does more effectually conduce to the purifying of us from all filthiness both of the flesh and of the spirit than the former and that of all the Schemes of Religion that ever were published none does deserve to be parallel'd with Christianity nor can adopt to them that noble character the great Apostle gives of the Gospel Rom. 1.16 That it is the power of God to salvation CHAP. III. Motives and inducements to the practice of Holiness AS the naked proposal and representation of an excellent and beautiful object is motive enough to excite our love and draw out our affections to it so methinks
how careless how negligent and foolish do ye prove If I had not been held forth as the most desirable copy as a pattern most accommodate to your state your case had been more tolerable but since you can pretend no rational excuse for your rejecting of me Behold ye despisers wonder and perish I confess our blessed Prince performed many extraordinary and miraculous actions which could have no other author but one invested with omnipotency and although we cannot are not required to set Christ as our president in these as likewise in many other special actions he performed as his fasting forty days c. yet even these we are called to admire and must in so far imitate as they were expressions of his great charity and kindness to men and of his trust and dependancy upon his Heavenly Father But as for those moral actions he performed we are extreamly culpable if we do not make him our pattern if we walk not as he walked And it is sure the most unaccountable thing that can be to profess our selves to be his Disciples and to despise the lessons he hath copied out to us The whole life of Christ being one continued lecture of Holiness presents to our view a large field to discourse upon but my intended brevity will not allow me to mention all those particular actions and vertues of his which we ought to imitate I shall therefore contract my discourse to those more remarkable instances wherein we should industriously endeavour to imitate the holy Jesus in his spirit and actions and sure there cannot be a more powerful motive to form us to holiness than his most excellent life which is a pattern absolutely perfect and designed as a fair copy after which we should write In the first place our blessed Leader for so he is called Isa 55.4 hath by his precept as well as his practice enjoyned us to learn meekness and humility of him Mat. 11.29 Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart Throughout the whole course of his life he did evidence a spirit full of calmness and quietness If we trace his foorsteps from the Cradle to the Cross we shall not fined him either by his words or actions discovering the least expression of wrath or revenge but the most admirable disposition of gentleness and meekness even then when his insulting Enemies endeavoured to cast upon him the most ignominious affronts We read Numb 12.3 of Moses his great meekness but how was he once and again transported with passion but never did our meek Jesus by the most insufferable abuses he received ever discover a discomposed spirit Isa 53.7 He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so he openeth not his mouth He did indeed frequently meet with extraordinary provocations to anger but yet how sweet were his reproofs when the Samaritans refused to receive him Luke 9.53 he did not treat them with contumelious speeches nor revenge himself upon them although he could have done it with ease but being desired by his exasperated Disciples to call for fire from Heaven to consume them he rebuked their revengeful motion with The Son of man is not come to destroy mens lives but to save them It would be too prolix a business to instance the several examples of his Gentleness and Meekness only let us view the last scene of his life where we shall behold lively instances to confirm this When he did finde his three Disciples whom he had commanded to watch sleeping he did not upbraid them for their negligence but gently asks them What could not ye watch with me one hour and when he was treacherously accoasted by his own Disciple who became leader to a great multitude who came out with Swords and Staves to apprehend him with what astonishing mildness did he entertain this Traytor who had the impudence to betray him with a kiss Friend wherefore art thou come Mat. 26.50 or as another of the Evangelists expresseth it Judas betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss This was all the hard language he treated him with And after he was apprehended with what horrid contumelies and affronts did his barbarous Enemies entertain him they did spit in his face and buffet him the highest affronts imaginable they stripped him of his ordinary cloaths and put upon him a fools robe and a Crown of Thorns and being thus disguised they expose him to the mockery and contempt of the Spectators Notwithstanding of all which he opened not his mouth but with a most sedate and serene temper he received all these abuses as the Apostle Peter expresseth it 1 Pet. 2.23 When he was reviled he reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously Meekness I confess is so noble a vertue accompanied with so many admirable and charming advantages that it needs as one would think but few words to recommend it to men but no argument is like to prevail more with generous mindes than the example of so excellent and perfect a Pattern Sure I am it is the most unaccountable thing imaginable for the Disciples of so meek a Master to be of a disposition and temper quite opposite to his But as his meekness so is his humility also recommended to our imitation As he was of a meek so also of a lowly spirit His first appearance upon earth was but mean and despicable he was born as the Scripture informs us in a low estate more fit for the meanest of his Disciples than for so great a Prince He was not brought forth in some stately Palace nor born in a Chamber curiously deckt but in a vile Stable where the bruit beasts had their residence Nay after he had discovered himself by his Illustrious works to be a great Prophet the true Messiah who enlightneth every one that cometh into the world yet how humbly did he walk his Companions he did chuse were but mean Fishermen his Occupation and Employment was no ways honourable and his Revenues were but small as he himself did testifie The foxes have holes and the birds of the air nests but the Son of man hath not where he may lay his head Although his descent and extraction was incomparably great yet he rather endeavoured to conceal than to brag of it and so humble was he that he chose rather to attribute the praise of his admired works to his Father than take the honour of them to himself Joh. 8.28 I do nothing of my self but as my Father hath taught me I speak these things He was not ambitious of Rule and Government but modestly refused to be a Ruler and Judge Nay when the multitude thought to make him a King he shunned their society by an invisible removal it being quite contrary to his designe in coming into the world as he tells us Matth. 20.28 he came not
to be ministred unto but to minister And to correct the insolent pride and ambition of his followers how did he stoop to wash his Disciples feet a most admirable evidence of his lowliness of spirit And now since our great Lord and Master did so wonderfully debase himself to the form of a Servant since in all his actions he did manifest that he was meek and lowly how prodigiously incongruous is it for those who profess themselves to be his Disciples to be proud and lofty I confess Humility is a grace well becoming our state as creatures we are but dependent beings having life and motion and all those endowments we are proud of from the Father of spirits from whom every good giâ—â— cometh The fresh communications of his love we constantly participate of are freely bestowed which he may therefore when he thinks fit with an equal freedom and ease remove without being guilty of injuring us Humility is that peculiar grace that qualifies and fits us to receive the divine aid and assistance as the Apostle St. James tells us he gives grace to the humble Upon which account we may with the Wise man well conclude Better is it to be of an humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud Prov. 16.19 I doubt not but every considering man will finde his own Reason suggest a sufficient store of arguments to confute the imperious assaults of Pride and Ambition but methinks none can more powerfully prevail with ingenuous spirits than the consideration of Christ's humility with this how effectually may he repel every temptation to pride by saying Was my Master lowly of spirit and does it become me to be proud Thirdly Christ is also set forth as our Pattern in his sufferings If when ye do well saith the Apostle and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God for even hitherto were ye called for Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps c. 1 Pet. 2.20 21. c. Heb. 12.1 2. His patience under his sufferings was very admirable for although he was flouted and contemned by his unworthy creatures was exposed to the base outrages of scandalous sinners was made a spectacle set at nought spit upon and smitten by unworthy worms whom with a word he could have easily dashed into nothing in a word though he endured all that malice could invent suffered the worst of temporal evils and became obedient to the cursed death of the cross yet notwithstanding how patiently did he endure the contradiction of sinners how entirely did he submit to his Fathers Will Although he was extreamly sensible of the weight of his sufferings yet he did not in the least evidence any revengeful mind in the midst of his extream tortures but sweetly recommended his soul into his Fathers hands And now can any motive more effectually convince us to suffer patiently But God knows how much we set at nought this president fain would we enjoy a continual prosperity a life of ease without the least mixture or allay of trouble When we meet with any thing that imbitters our condition like the murmuring Israelites we fret and repine and our spirits begin to boil with rage and discontent we cannot endure to have our pleasures impaired but Jonah-like we are discontented and ready to say we do well to be angry we aggravate the most minute trouble with imagined circumstances and are ready to say Come behold and see if there be any affliction like mine And although we are assured that our repinings cannot remove or lighten our burthen cannot give us the least ease or relief yet we never rest till those puddled streams be stirred up Our grumblings are almost inseparable concomitants of our sufferings and if our Father smite us we begin to accuse his love and tenderness notwithstanding he hath instructed us that whom he loveth he chasteneth If we meet with reproaches our revenge is on the wing the least affront kindles this unsanctified fire No arguments can tame our Fury no president proves effectual to form our Souls to true patience If we drink of the waters of Marah we complain of their bitterness like foolish Children think we are hardly dealt with And although impatience enflames rather than allays the distemper though it augments the degrees of our trouble and disenables us to bear the stroke of Adversity yet we will not be perswaded to a calm and quiet submission to the Divine Will Though impatience exasperates the pain yet we think we do well to be angry If we meet with injuries our appetite of revenge is stirred up flesh and bloud we say cannot endure such affronts we imagine it stains our Reputation and Honour in the world and is degenerous and servile Thus do we sew Fig-leaves to cover our nakedness but the all-seeing God knows that all these repinings are arrows directed against his Providence otherwise we should with the Royal Psalmist say I will not open my mouth for thou didst it To this impregnable Fortress he had his recourse when causlesly cursed and reviled by Shimei it was this that silenced old Eli It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good he durst not quarrel at the message but quietly he submits There is a secret Providence which doth over-rule the most terrible accidents and is not accountable to humane Reason All those calamities and sufferings we undergo are ordered by infinite Counsel and in repining at such dispensations we indirectly blame Almighty Goodness and Wisdome Is it fit and congruous that God should take measures from men in his Oeconomy of the World is it reasonable that the whole course of things should be put out of order to satisfie every private mans humor can there be any greater madness than to prescribe rules of Government to infinite Wisdom Why then are we dissatisfied with our adverse state why do we repine and complain If we did indeed compare our Mercies with our Sufferings our Receipts with our Merits or our Condition with that of some others we could not but be convinced of our folly but we still pore upon the sore all our thoughts are taken up and in exercise about our affliction if we would deal rationally let us view the sufferings of our blessed Redeemer and see if we dare make a contrary conclusion to that of the Apostle 1 Pet. 4.1 Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh let us arm our selves likewise with the same mind He suffered patiently and calmly for us and it is but reasonable that Servants imitate their Master and suffer the disasters they meet with with the same mind that he did that being thus made conform to our head we may be also partakers with him of his joy 'T is indeed an unchild-like behaviour to quarrel at the dispensations of our Heavenly Father Alas all we merit by our sins is stripes and chastisements and it is
our selves to be of all men the most ungrate and justly liable to the severest punishment ever inflicted upon the greatest criminal It would be too prolix to enumerate the several instances wherein Christ is set forth as our Pattern sure I am he hath by his example taught us the exercise of all vertues and I may say as himself said in another case If we know these things happy are we if we do them To sum up this Section it will not be amiss to obviate an Objection which is indeed but very trivial although it be too commonly urged the Objection is How is it possible for men to conform to Christ and be holy as he is holy Ans I have already told that it is not expected that we should imitate our blessed Redeemer in all and every of those actions he performed but in all those moral duties which he hath enjoyned by his righteous precepts and encouraged us by his example to perform these we must by no means neglect and to manifest the possibility of doing these we may satisfie our selves by viewing the pious and devout lives of primitive Christians It is a great mistake to think we are commanded to a rigorous and strict conversation which cannot be attained the faithful in former ages have run the same race that is set before us they have fully enough cleared the possibility of our duty Wherefore seeing we also as the Apostle argues are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us Heb. 12.1 For shame let us rather imitate the excellent holiness of primitive Christians than the impure practices of those who are strangers from the sacred Covenant O the perfect love and imitable kindness of the first professors of the Gospel what purity what integrity and innocence appeared in their lives how ravishing and splendent were their vertues and graces their Patience in suffering their Courage and Magnanimity in death their Temperance and Moderation their Charity and Compassion their Equality and Justice and their Contempt of this World and all earthly concerns for the sake and honour of their Master These were the vertues they were adorned with which made the Heathen world who hated the Doctrine they professed yet esteem and reverence them Bonus vir Cajus Sejus nisi Christianus SECT 2. Holiness the condition of future Happiness The desire of Happiness is so natural to all that partake of humane nature that it can no more be separate from it than heat can be from fire 'T is true the mistakes concerning happiness are as numerous as dangerous every one in this corrupt state is apt to frame a happiness which best suits his inclinations but yet there is no man so devoid of reason who doth not desire to be happy although indeed there be but a few who make use of the right means to attain to true felicity Daily experience puts it beyond doubt that a carnal and fictitious felicity is by the unwise sons of men pursued with the most indefatigable pains and industry possible Now how strange to amazement is it to think that men should be so sedulous in hunting after a fancied felicity and yet so negligent so careless and unconcerned about a real happiness which is both satisfying and lasting But not to digress that which I am now to urge is since happiness is that which excites men to perform any thing chearfully in order to the attaining of it how mightily should the expectation of a future felicity induce them to the practice of Holiness for betwixt the two our blessed Saviour has made an inseparable connexion Matth. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in spirit for they shall see God and indeed it is the height of folly and madness for impure wretches to expect they shall be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints of light for as the Apostle tells us There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth Rev. 21.27 Holiness is the established condition of happiness Heb. 12.14 Without holiness no man shall see God Hence is it that all the promises concerning our future felicity are onely made to those men who purifie themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit and the great design of them is to encourage us to Holiness upon which account St. Paul draws a very pressing inference 2 Cor. 7.1 Having therefore these promises of which he spake in the foregoing Chapter let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God There is nothing more certain than that onely holy souls are in a capacity of participating of that future felicity and these may without the least charge of presumption claim an interest in it But for those vitious wretches who are wholly polluted who have devoted themselves to commit sin with greediness and take pleasure in doing evil how utterly incapable are they if they continue such to dwell in his presence who is not a God that taketh pleasure in wickedness And now seeing there is such an inseparable connexion between Happiness and Holiness it cannot be amiss if we take a short view of the excellency of this coelestial felicity that it may more plainly appear what a notable encouragement and motive it is to holiness There be two things that forcibly recommend the excellency of that future state of bliss First A perfect freedom and immunity from all evils And Secondly a perpetual enjoyment of the chief good First it is a blessedness wholly exempt from evils whether of sense or loss 't is a happiness attended with no inconveniencies nor dismal circumstances as the happiest state here is we now walk in the midst of perplexing doubts and fears temptations increase our inquietudes and dangers our continual fears our complaints are by far more numerous than our joys nay what is our whole life but a scene where sorrow and fears act their parts Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of evil But our future blessedness quite excludes all those evils there is nothing admitted to imbitter that pleasant state Rev. 21.4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away The holy soul shall then no more complain of any dolorous hours the heavenly Jerusalem is a place unacquainted with every thing that is uneasie and troublesome And yet this is but the least part of the Saints felicity for as they shall enjoy a perfect freedom from evil so shall they also be advanced to the fullest fruition of that God where all the streams of goodness do finally empty themselves Blessed are the pure in spirit for they shall see God Matth. 5.8 They shall see him not as now through a Glass
blood can attest the evils and mischiefs of War much more pathetically than words can express How sweet and acceptable would Peace a word always sounding sweetly be to them Now the Apostle St. James hath given us a brief but unquestionably true account of the real causes of Wars and Fightings Jam. 4.1 From whence come wars and fightings among you come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members From these sinful causes have all the disorders and jars in Kingdoms and private Societies had their real I speak not of their pretended original How impetuous are the lusts of turbulent spirits like the raging waves of the Sea they are still in motion casting forth filth and dirt Ambition is so unquiet and restless a passion that no man is ignorant what desolations it hath wrought in the earth How many famous Kingdoms hath it ruined and destroyed what inquietudes and disorders are occasioned by discontentment All these are things so evident that I need not enlarge upon them but how repugnant are these vices to Holiness and can it be rationally imagined that their genuine and proper effects can be more reconcilable with it I confess Religion hath too frequently been pretended as a Cloak to dover the greatest Villanies Confusions and Rebellions but sure I am nothing imaginable contains a greater contradiction than to say these impieties have a warrant from the sacred Laws of the Gospel the combination of which is the rule of Holiness as I have formerly explained Is not Christ called the Prince of Peace and the Gospel the Gospel of Peace And it is certain if men would be ruled by the Laws of so peaceable a Prince they should be of a calm and quiet spirit then should we indeed see Righteousness and Peace kissing each other When ever therefore we read in ancient prophesies of the great peace that shall be in the Messiahs reign we must thereby understand that the nature of the Gospel and its precepts are such that if men would conform their lives to them there should be an universal Peace How strictly are all the causes of Envy Contention Ambition and Rebellion prohibited and sure if these causes were removed their effect should have no place Then should the Bow be broken and the Spear cut in sunder Swords should be turned into Plough-shares and the Instruments of War into more necessary uses War should cease unto the ends of the earth and Peace should be within each wall By this it is apparent how much holiness conduceth to the establishment of publick peace But that which I would more especially take notice of is the internal serenity and calmness of Conscience which is the onely effect of holiness and truly upon this account there is no peace to the wicked I might here appeal to every mans breast whether Holiness does not calm and quiet the Consciences of men whileas a natural horrour results from the commission of vice more heavy than the severest lashes ever inflicted by Tityus or Rhadamanthus What unspeakable peace and ease does attend holiness of life there is no jar nor contention no check of Conscience nor wound of spirit to disturb the inward repose of the Righteous but that remorse that results from the commission of sin even after men have acquired what they sinfully lusted after is like that hand-writing Dan. 5.5 which made the stout heart Belshazzer to tremble and his knees to smite one against another It troubles the thoughts of the most daring sinner and makes him a terrour to himself There is no imaginable torment that can equal the terrours of an awakened guilty Conscience it hath put men to chuse strangling and death rather than life all which is fully verified by the Word of truth The spirit of a man can sustain his infirmity but a wounded spirit who can bear O the secret pangs and fears that possess the spirits of wicked men the severe checks and lashes of Conscience that seize upon transgressors which all imaginable divertisements cannot quite stifle and suppress All the attendance of the most dear Relations cannot give ease and comfort to them How dismal and inconsolable was Spira's condition how amazing are the very thoughts of those gnawings and horrours of Conscience he suffered The fears and apprehensions of a future misery mar all the joy and mirth of carnal men In their most flourishing state it continually haunts them and so fills them with horror and inquietude that they cannot quietly enjoy themselves Whilst the Soul acts within the Body it cannot but present those horrid and disquieting reflections Hi sunt qui trepidant ad omnia fulgor a pallent These are the men who in the midst of outward felicity are amazed with tormenting fears which cannot be eradicated but by a sincere repentance But the holy Soul in the extremity of outward troubles enjoys an internal calmness and quiet of minde the very Pagan who could not be beyond doubt assured of the certainty of a future reward could yet say Hic murus ahenaeus esto Nil conscire sibi nulla palescere culpa But the Word of truth hath made this more unquestionably sure Psal 119.165 Great peace have they that love thy Law and nothing shall offend them SECT 9. Holiness the best evidence of true Wisdom and real Worth and Courage Wisdom and Courage having their rise and source from nobler Principles than external helps have therefore in all Ages been esteemed excellent and venerable vertues and much preferable to those others which depend upon external advantages Wisdom is as the Wise man speaks the principal thing Prov. 4.7 It is that vertue which in a peculiar manner raiseth the Humane nature above that of Bruits who act without consideration and counsel And Courage is that which subdueth that ignoble passion of fear which hindreth men from attempting actions praise-worthy Hence it is that to be called a Fool or Coward are such reproachful denominations that nothing imaginable is more shameful That Holiness is an infallible evidence of true Wisdom is more plain than it can be doubted In sacred Writ Wisdom and Religion are used as convertible terms as words expressing the same thing And unto man he said Behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdom and to depart from evil that is understanding Job 28.28 Hence the impious and wicked are frequently called Fools and men void of understanding and wisdom And however this prophane Age of ours hath accounted those men great Wits who have cast off all Religion and who Burleseque Scripture who think it the greatest folly to be kept in awe by the fears of future danger and to be kept in thraldom by the apprehension of an invisible being yet men who consider things aright have in all ages accounted those Atheists both fools and mad-men Fools in condemning that which all wise men have assented to But 't is no wonder since sin is that which overclouds and stupifies the judgment and deprives them
expedient to secure the obedience of Subjects And I confess I know not how that man can be a true Subject to his earthly Prince who stands not to offend the God of Heaven I know some who have pretended to much Holiness have been the greatest villains but this proves not that the rule of Holiness gives a Supersedeas or allowance to any to disobey Authority Art thou a Parent the rule of Holiness to which holy men conform will instruct thee to be gentle and tender to thy Children and not to provoke them to wrath which is the onely thing that lessens their affection Art thou a Childe it will teach thee to reverence and honour thy parents in doing of which thou entitlest thy self to the promise annexed to the fifth Commandment In a word it is profitable to make all manner of Relations live in quietness and peace and to bestow mutual offices of love upon each other It instructs men to be faithful in every calling and employment and certainly the good man is to be trusted far rather than the wicked for Religion lays an awe and restraint upon the one but the other pretends no such motive to engage him to fidelity especially if he may deceive and not be noticed To this purpose Plutarch hath a notable saying Pietate saith he Nat. Deor. lib. 1. sublata fides etiam Societas humanae generis una excellentissima virtus justitia tollitur There are several things useful for some men but altogether unprofitable for others but Holiness is equally profitable for all there are none exempt from tasting its utility but those who exclude themselves by a vitious conversation Secondly Holiness is attended with all outward blessings and wants not a claim to a temporal felicity Matth. 6.33 Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all other things shall be added unto you The promise of inheriting the Earth by which all temporal felicity is meant is made to the meek Matth. 5.8 Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth And indeed we finde this blessing even promised to the posterity of those that fear the Lord Psal 25.13 And to put this beyond all doubt we finde the Psalmist repeating this five times in one Psalm Psal 37.9 11 22 29 34. And the great Apostle tells us that it is Godliness that hath the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 The God of Heaven hath also assured us that he will withhold no good thing from them that walk uprightly Upon this account well might Wisdom say Prov. 8.18 Riches and honour are with me a plain instance of which we have in Solomon who because of his asking Wisdom to govern his Subjects when he might as freely have ask'd Riches and Honour he receives this answer from God I have also given thee both riches and honour 1 King 3.13 But however this discriminating providence doth not so discernedly appear here yet there is no man but can attest Vice hath impoverished thousands there being several sins that have a natural tendency to poverty By means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread Prov. 6.26 The like we may truely enough say of several other sins I have seen saith the Psalmist the wicked great in power and spreading himself like a green bay-tree yet he passed away and lo he was not yea I sought him but he could not be found Psal 37.35 36. I confess good men may be reduced to great wants may be destitute of necessary provisions nay how frequently is this the lot of the most excellent and gallant Souls yet this may be safely said That a little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked But then those things that best deserve the name of riches because of their enriching the Soul which being more excellent than the Body must upon that account be of greater value than these things that onely respect the Body these are onely peculiar to holy men and such are the graces of the Holy Spirit the combination of Christian vertues the price of which is above that of Rubies These are riches which are of a more lasting nature than those which the ignoble of the world call riches they are not subject to the casualties which Gold and Silver and precious Stones are which upon that account cannot be called a mans own as Pagan Moralists have largely and excellently confirmed And if we will not dispute with God and contest his determination we shall finde one single vertue receiving a more ample commendation than ever riches did 1 Pet. 3.4 The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is in the sight of God of great price Although the holy and devout Soul may be reduced to our Savours straits not to have where to lay his head yet how can he be said to be poor since he possesses him who is All The most adverse chances that befal such a Soul cannot denominate it poor there is a Crown and Princely Inheritance which belongs to it Nay besides that glorious reversion we have express promises that such Souls shall not be altogether destitute of necessaries to sustain and support them in this their pilgrimage I have already shewed that Honour and Pleasures are the attendants of Holiness What in the world is more glorious than for a man to conquer those lusts and inordinate appetites that seek the mastery over him what pleasure is able to contest with those ravishing joys which result from a holy conversation There is nothing imaginable that so exhilarates and revives men as a calm and quiet Conscience But I pass this In the next place I come to shew that the enjoyment of all other blessings can never profit that man that wants Holiness This is plainly attested by our Saviour saying What hath a man profited if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul To have an affluence of temporal mercies cannot so much as contribute to a present felicity where the forementioned qualification is lacking Outward favours not attended and chained with real Holiness contribute onely to enhance the misery of their possessor they being proper fewel to increase the flame of inquietude and restlesness but unfit to allay it The greatest plenty of riches cannot satisfie the covetous minde which like the Grave cries Give give The whole world could not satisfie Alexander's insatiable ambition but as the Poet speaks Aestuat infoelix angusto limite mundi 'T is indeed impossible for a man to enjoy that earthly felicity he designs if he want Holiness For suppose he be possessed of it yet the secret acknowledgement of a superiour power impairs the delights that do arise from such a state and makes him in the height of his fancied felicity startle and quake Conscience upon the apprehension of guilt and the vengeance due to it recoils upon the sinner and disturbs his quiet enjoyment of the
evermore the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort How precious are thy promises to us-wards how great is the sum of them Thou renewest thy favours continually and art still pouring upon us innumerable benefits of which this is not the least that thou givest us leave to come into thy Presence to call thee Father and to make known our requests to thee by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving We accept O Lord with all thankfulness this thy great Grace and Loving kindness to us and are here again prostrate before thee this Evening to acknowledge thy goodness in making us such excellent Creatures capable to know thee and acknowledge thee and love thee and by being made like thee to be Eternally happy with thee Blessed be thy Name that we are now alive and that we have lived so long in health and strength and peace and plenty of all good things whereas our Eyes might have been consumed with grief our Bones sore vexed and we might have mingled our Drink with continual weeping We are bound unto thee for the free use of our understandings for the good inclinations we find in our will for any devout affections which are stirring in our Hearts for all the advantages we have had by our educations good company and holy Examples and more especially for the Illuminations of the Holy Ghost by thy blessed Gospel the breathings of it frequently into our Spirits the importunities thou hast used to draw us to thee and the great and precious promises whereby thy love in Christ Jesus constrains us to resign our selves entirely to the Obedience of thy Precepts We ought likwise to admire and praise thee for thy Goodness to all thy Creatures who live daily upon thy bountious allowance The eyes of all wait on thee and thou givest them their Food in due season thou diffusest thy blessings in several Streams to every one of them according to their needs That thou givest them they gather thou openest thy hand they are filled with good We give thee the Glory of thy plentiful provision thou hast made for them and more particularly admire thy great liberality to the Children of men under whose Feet thou hast put in subjection all Sheep and Oxen yea and the Beasts of the field the Fowl of the Air and the Fish of the Sea and whatsoever passeth through the Paths of the Waters O Lord we praise thee for thy Goodness to those who praise thee not themselves Be thou adored and acknowledged in thy bounty which bestows so many blessings unasked and unsought and continues them notwithstanding abundance of provocations and most high Offences that they have given to thy merciful kindness And let thy Goodness to thy Church be never forgotten by us which thou hast in all Ages Protected and defended in a marvelous manner propagating the Gospel of our Saviour confounding its opposers and spreading it by the power of the Holy Ghost over the face of the Earth We thank thee for thy singular favor to these Countries wherein we live to whom these glad tydings of Salvation have reached and who have long enjoyed a more glorious light than many other places and been delivered from the Darkness of Popish superstition and from sundry attempts that have been made to bereave us of this Happiness and are again setled after many Confusions in a peaceable enjoyment of thy true Religion which thou hast also continued to us though we have not brought forth Fruit worthy of the Gospel of thy Grace O that all thy undeserved Goodness may have this effect upon us to make us heartily love thee and devoutly worship thee and zealously obey thee and stedfastly trust and hope in thee for ever That by a careful improvement of the knowledge of thee our God and our Lord Jesus Christ by whom thou hast given us all things that pertain unto life and goodness we may still enjoy this inestimable treasure and all thy love to us may at last be finished in those eternal Joys which he hath promised to the Faithful And as we have been taught exhorted and encouraged this day out of thy holy word and have likewise publickly acknowledged our obligations to thee and made profession of Love and Gratitude and Durifulness to thy Divine Majesty So help us all the Week following openly to testifie the Truth and Honesty of our Hearts in all this by a blameless conversation in all Humility Meekness Temperance Righteousness Charity and Peace with all them that call on the Lord out of a pure Heart Bless our Soveraign the defender of the Faith we profess and all imploy'd under him in their several Offices that they may be Instruments of continuing to us these Holy opportunities with all other good things that may make these Kingdoms happy O that all our friends may be thine and if we have any Enemies Father forgive them comfort and support the Sick the Needy and all other distressed persons with an immoveable belief of thy wise and good Providence to which give them Grace patiently and obediently to resign themselves And when all our senses this Night shall be bound up with sleep be thou O Lord our keeper and after the refreshment of that repose and this Holy rest from our Labours raise us in the Morning to return unto them with cheerful minds and ready wills Praising still and Magnifying thy multiplied Mercies to us in Christ Jesus by whom we present our selves and petitions to thee saying farther as he hath taught us Our Father c. A Prayer for a Family on any Morning O Most holy most glorious and eternal Lord God we thy poor and unworthy Servants in all humility of Soul and Body and unfeigned acknowledgements of our duty prostrate our selves before the throne of thy Mercy praising magnifying thy Fatherly goodness for the abundance of thy blessings and for the multitude of thy Mercies heaped upon us beseeching thee for Christ his sake to be merciful to all our sins committed against thy Divine Majestie upon the consideration of which we confess we are not worthy to appear in thy presence much less to ask a blessing at thy hands for by reason of our corrupt Nature in us derived from our first Parents our inclinations have been prone to commit all manner of sin and wickedness against thy Goodness Thy Laws and Precepts we have broken both in thought word and deed out of our hearts proceed evil and wicked imaginations which defile the soul and body Yet O Lord thou art our Creator thou hast sent thy dear Son Jesus Christ to die for us and thy Holy Spirit to sanctifie us and many are the benefits and blessings which thou hast bestowed upon us and which by thy goodness we enjoy both of soul and body and therefore by the Testimony of our own Consciences we stand convicted and the thoughts of our great sins and transgressions do much astonish us What shall we say therefore or wherein shall we open
dejections of spirit keep me from charging thee foolishly Bestow upon me a chearful spirit by an humble hope in thee and by referring my self wholly to thee Endue me with such wisdom and uprightness that I may neither neglect my duty nor suspect thy gracious acceptance of me Give me an hearty zeal to do the best that I am able and a setled perswasion that thou requirest no more of me Defend me O my gracious God from dishonouring thee and my Religion by distrusting thy goodness and calling thy loving kindness in question towards those that are sincerely bent to please thee Remove all troublesome imaginations from me and give me a clear understanding of thee and of my self or when I am in darkness and confusion of thoughts grant me so much light and judgment as not to conclude my self forsaken by thee but to reflect upon thy long-continued favours to me and many deliverances of me that so I may resolve still to hope in thee to bear my present trouble patiently and to resign my will absolutely to thy good pleasure And good Lord enable me to look beyond these clouds to that blessed state whither my Saviour is gone in which there is no darkness at all and in an humble hope of coming to the same place where he is to content my self with any condition whilst I am here so far remote from that Region of light and glorie Hear me most loving and merciful Father I most humbly beseech thee Pity my great dulness and deadness of heart Strengthen my weak and feeble endeavours support my fainting spirit and cause it humbly to hope in thee for ever Confirm and establish every good thought desire and purpose which thou hast wrought in me perfect that which thou hast begun make me to grow in wisdom faith love and willing obedience conduct me hereafter so evenly and steadily so peaceably and quietly so cheerfully and sincerely in thy ways that I may Glorifie thee whilst I live by encouraging others to accompany me in thy service and when I come to die may resign my Soul unto thee with an undisturbed mind and in an holy hope also of a joyful resurrection of the body at the great day of the Lord Jesus to whom be glory and dominion for ever Amen The Prayer for a Woman with Child MOst merciful and gracious God who wilt not turn away thine ear from those that call upon thee in sincerity and truth look down with an Eye of pity and compassion upon thy unworthy Servant I must confess my sins are very great and so is my danger which is at hand my pains to come will be grievous and my life is now most uncertain Assure me I beseech thee of the forgiveness of all my sins mitigate my fear and sorrows strengthen me with the comforts of thy Spirit confirm me in the faith of my Saviour and bless all good means appointed for my comfort that in due time I may be a joyful Mother and see the fruit of my Body safe sound and perfect without blemish or deformitie O Lord I know not how soon my travel will steal on me when I must fight that battle of Life and Death one drop of thy mercy hath soveraign power to cure all the Wounds of those sorrows shed therefore O holy Father that drop of grace upon me in that minute when I am to encounter with so stern an adversary strengthen me with patience bless me that I perish not bless the work of my Midwife let not the Child yet unborn the Babe in my womb be punished for mine offences but give it growth give it flourishing and form and when the time is come that thou wilt call it out of this close House of flesh where it now inhabiteth to dwell in the open World sanctifie thy Creature make it by Baptism a member of thy Church a Lamb of thy flock and direct it in the ways of Godliness to its lives end And all through Jesus Christ our Lord in whose blessed words I continue to pray Our Father c. A Thanksgiving by the Woman after safe deliverance to be used when she is able MY Soul doth magnify the Lord and my Spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour He hath given me my Hearts desire and not denied me the request of my lips Children are his heritage and the fruit of the Womb is his reward Glory be to thee O Lord God eternal who hast now delivered me from the great pains and peril of Child-birth who hast taken away my reproach and made me an instrument to increase thy Kingdom It is in thy power to strike death into my Womb but thou hast given me a double life all mine anguishes thou hast sweetned with gladness Continue thy mercies and favours to me thy servant put strength into my bloud bloud into my Veins and courage into mine Heart that my lips may render thee deserved thanks Thou that art the Father of love and life look upon this mine Infant which thou hast given me preserve it in health quicken it with grace crown it with long life that it may grow up to be a servant in thy houshold Send the Father of it and me much comfort by it that it may be a staff to our old age Bless it with store of friends in this World and be thou the chief friend to it for evermore and for the better growth in godliness feed it with the Milk of thy Word defend it from all dangers and all enemies Bodily and Ghostly And whereas it is written that the great red Dragon stood before the Woman which was ready to be delivered that he might devour her Child when she had brought it forth so guard me and regard this my birth that Satan rule not nor reign within us but deliver us still out of his Jaws as a Bird out of the Snare of the Fowler Let thy blessing O Lord be upon me and my Children strongly to help keep and defend us from this time forth for evermore Amen A Prayer to be used by one that is sick O Eternal and most merciful Father look down I beseech thee upon thy poor servant who is punished and afflicted in Body with the smart of my pain and sickness and who is also troubled with the fear of thy heavy displeasure for my many sins and iniquities wherewith I have provoked thy holy Majesty in the time of my health I confess that of very faithfulness and goodness to me thou hast laid this scourge upon me to the end that by the stripes of my flesh my Spirit might be healed and saved in the day of the Lord Jesus I valued not the benefit of health as I should have done and therefore thou hast made me sensible of it by the want of it in prosperitie I remembred not the afflictions of my Brethren and therefore thou hast afflicted me like unto them I was in a kind of Spiritual lethargy till thou didst awake me with the stroke of thy