with or the frequent sins to which the lusts of it have betraid us will discern Reason enough to invite him to this Duty either in order to our Mortification and our future security or as an act of Affliction and Revenge for our past faults Therefore 2. Who ever totally neglects this Duty upon pretence of the ill effects it hath upon either Body or Mind ought well to be assur'd that the uneasiness of the one or other be not the effect of a wanton and carnal Mind rather than of the temper of the Body and that his Body will admit of no degrees of this Duty otherwise he is oblig'd according to his capacity 3. To Fasting must be joyn'd Alms and Prayer and Vain-glory must be separated from it without the former it is insignificant with the latter it is a sin But if any just Reasons disable any man to give Alms or to devote the day intirely to Spiritual Exercise I cannot yet think but that Fasting may be us'd as an act of Affliction provided it be consecrated to God by a holy intention at least The Prayer GLorious God I see in what a world I live and what a Body this Soul of mine doth dwell in how little kindles those Lusts which blast the Innocence of my Soul and destroy my peace I remember how often I have behav'd my self unbeseeming a Child of God only to gratifie the inclinations of an ungovernable Body Enable me therefore so to mortifie and subdue it that I may enjoy an entire peace and conquest so to humble and afflict it that my revenge may testifie the sorrow I feel for my misdemeanours and accept thou my sorrow to the attonement of my sins thorough the Blood of Christ Amen The Conclusion I Am now earnestly to beseech the Reader to reflect seriously upon this whole Discourse and consider whether the Christian Religion be not a System of most glorious delightful and important Truths whether any Principles can raise Man to such an entire Conquest o're the world and himself whether Holiness doth not transform him into a great and a glorious thing whether any knowledge can create in him so perfect a peace and so undisturb'd a joy whether there be any thing besides Religion can make a man spurn fawning pleasures and out-brave his fears whether there be any thing which would turn the world into so much Paradise and secure our peace and interest on such unshaken bottoms and lead on the whole Train of a publique or a private life in such a safe and pleasant method What then Art thou fond of ruin or hath damnation any charm in it that thou wilt still resolve to persevere in such a manifold contradiction to the Laws of the blessed Jesus Wilt thou suffer thy soul to be miserable here through those numerous lusts which are the incessant torments of it and canst thou think of abandoning all the hopes of a glorious immortality Or dost thou indeed look upon the Gospel of Christ as cunningly devised Fables and readest these kind of arguings as only wise and politique harangues Surely so much Holiness confirm'd by so many miracles must needs witness its divine authority and if thou wouldst but trie thy self the practice of it thou wouldst feel its divine principle in the Life and the joyes of the Spirit But I am perswaded the greater part of mankind cannot choose but indespight of Inclination acknowledge the truth of the Gospel and the Excellency of virtue and confess that their vices are the effect not of their choice but weakness Blessed God! What account then will these men give of their Disobedience at that day when Christ shall come to render the vengeance to all who have not obeyed his Gospel when they shall be put in mind of the prevalent motives made use of to endear Holiness to them and of the mighty assistance of the Divine Spirit which was offer'd them towards enabling 'em to live well when they shall see as a perfect Refutation of all such excuses so many millions I hope of blessed Saints who tho liable to the same Passion and encompass'd by the same Temptations did yet conquer all and enter'd into Life thorough the Strait-gate But if this little Treatise should light into the hands of a perfect Atheist or at least of one who laughs at every particular Sect of Religion to such a one I address these last lines and I beseech him to allow them so much Consideration as he would to any other thing which pretended to so much concernment and importance 1. If there be a God Nature seems to dictate that he is a Rewarder of those that seek him and forgets not the Wise and Virtuous neither in Life nor Death and Men as wise and rational Creatures are his peculiar Off-spring and more nearly related to him and on this Argument Socrates in his Apology founded his hopes of another life an argument much of a kin to that of our Saviour God is the God of Abraham the God of Isaac the God of Jacob now God is not the God of the dead but of the living at the smartness and clearness of which arguing the people were astonish'd And If there be another Life Virtue and Goodness must needs be the proper qualities to recommend and endear us to the God who presides in that other World for I can never fancy a Bruitish and irrational Deity If there be no God which is impossible it is a thing impossible to be prov'd and therefore an Atheist can never possess his Soul in any Rest and Peace and besides if there be none the belief and practice of this Religion of Christianity as I 'le make appear presently can do no man any harm and what madness then is it not to take the safest side in a mat-ter of this dear concernment 2. In behalf of Christianity in perticular I beseech such a one to consider That if those Miracles and Proofs of Divine Authority which the Gospel relates were true and real then the matter is beyond dispute If they were not I would fain see some probable account how Christianity could so generally obtain in despight of all the disadvantages it was to encounterâ— having neither interest nor pleasure nor force to countenance it against the establish'd Superstitions and Vices of the Age. That it concern'd them of Judea which was the Scene of our Saviours Actions to have given the world a manifest account of the Imposture and so have provided for the security of Judaisme which was subverted by it that the wisest and most religious Sects amongst both Jew and Gentile were quickly swallowed up into Christianity That those early dayes were the most fit for a confutation of the Proofs on which Christianity is bottom'd as being most nearly conjoyn'd to the times of our Saviours and his Apostles actions and therefore capable of being easily inform'd and yet we find no such thing done which must needs suppose the world either monstruously ignorant or
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
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
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
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
Votaries a nobler perfection which will easily appear to any one who shall diligently consider 1. The great Motives to Holyness which it contains that is a declaration of the Divine Nature Jo. 1.18 The infinite Love of God to Mankind manifested in the blessed Jesus and the full Discovery of Life and Immortality or Secondly the mighty assistances it promises that is the blessed Spirit of God and Divine Providence employed either in preventing us from falling into temptations too big for this imperfect state or else in finding a way to our escape out of them Or Thirdly the immediate end of Christian Religion that is whilst we are here on Earth to fit us for Heaven He that shall seriously lay to heart these three things will be forc'd to conclude that in all reason the Gospel must require of us something proportionable to the extraordinary motives the powerful assistances and the glorious end it assures and proposes to its Children and this must be something more than a meer negative righteousness for it is unreasonable that this Light should beget in us no greater degrees of Love and Fear for God than what natural Reason might or if it doth that the instances of our Obedience now under the Gospel should be only such as the strength of nature might have enabled men to comply with under Gentilism tho it must be confest not so easily as now Agreeable to this Doctrine our Holy Saviour in his Sermon on the Mount which is the Rule and Standard of the Christian Life sets us as a more exalted patern Not onely to be True in our words and Just in our dealings with our Neighbour but to be Charitable Gentle Patient and to return good for evil to our very Enemies not only to avoid all unnatural Lusts and wild Excesses but also to be pure and holy to admit of no sensual Fancy or unchast Looks or idle words to fast and afflict our selves the Blessed are they which mourn he forbids us all Ambition and Covetousness and Vainglory not on the account of injustice for that doth not alwayes unavoidably cleave to them but as they are the Acts of a worldly mind which is perfectly contrary to poverty of Spirit and to laying up our Treasures in Heaven and to the taking up of the Cross of Christ so powerfully and sweetly recommended Our duty to God is couch'd all along in the whole Discourse but the Acts of worship more plainly express'd are Loving him as a Father praying to him endeavouring to promote his Glory and chearfully to obey his will relying upon him for assistance in our spiritual warfare for Provision Protection and Deliverance in this Life and add to all this this one circumstance that all this is to be done with delight constancy and vigour implied in those general Precepts Blessed are they that hunger and thirst c. Lay up c. for where your treasure is there will your Heart be also seek you first c. and strive to enter in at the strait Gate c. and then you have our Saviours Sense of Christian Holiness If we consult his Disciples the best Expositors of their Masters Text we shall find the whole of Religion compriz'd in two things The Mortification of the outward Man and the Resurrection of the inward by which they mean as appears from Colos 3. a setting our affections upon things above and not upon things on the Earth from whence I will infer two conclusions 1. That our affections are an essential part of Holiness that it is not enough to approve of invisible things in our understanding and then act not as Men who love God and Heaven and Goodness but as men who see it unavoidably necessary to do something and therefore go as far as is consistent with that carnality they yet resolve to gratifie but that we must love them also and this to that degree may be able to extinguish our passion for the World and therefore 2. The Life we are to lead must be such a one as may most tend to enkindle in us holy passions for the things above a delight in the survey of our hopes and defires of entring into the presence of God all which cannot be attain'd but by requent Prayer Meditation Hearing and Reading of Gods Word the holy Communion and heavenly Discourses and on the other side to take off our Affections from the world and beget in us a generous contempt of it which can never be effected but by repeated acts of self denyal fasting watching meditating on the example of a crucified Saviour the glories and pleasures of another Life the vanity and yet bewitcheries of this fadeing one I may be confident that a constant caressing the senses with feasting drinking wanton dalliances the pomp and vanities of Life cannot be a proper method to the mortification of the outward man or vivification of the inward So that if a very abstenious Life as to the general course of it be not requir'd as an essential part of Holiness yet it is necessary as the means and instrument of it conformable to this whole discourse is that of St. Paul 1 Cor. 7 29.30 But this I say Brethren the time is short it remaineth that both they that have wives be as tho they had none and they that weep as tho they wept not and they that rejoice as tho they rejoyced not and they that buy as tho they possess'd not and they that use this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away where we are not only interdicted unlawful pleasures but forbidden to give our selves up to lawful ones and commanded to use such moderation as may become men fully perswaded of the shortness and vanity of this Life and possess'd by the expectations of a better The Sum of all is this The Christian State is a State of extraordinary Holiness and Purity 't is a new nature wrought by principles motives assistances different from those of the natural man 't is in one word to be Heavenly minded and therefore that course of Life which can best serve to encrease this blessed temper is the Christians Duty and that course which quenches it which softens and sensualizes us is inconsistent with Christianity and inconsistent with Regeneration for if we be risen with Christ we shall not onely Love but seek those things which are above it being impossible for any man to live when he can choose quite contrary to his own desires so that he who loves God need not be told that he must Pray and Meditate and Communicate and be doing good c. When he knows he can enjoy him here below no way else he that hates Sin and loves Holiness needs not be told that he must lead an abstemious Life when he knows that feasting and drinking c. do feed the Body into wantonness and lust and quench the holy flame of Love and indispose it for Religious Duties From all this it is plain
as such And as insignificant would this opinion render it to the happiness of Man for of what use will all the excellent rules of Justice Charity Meekness Temperance c. prove if we continue peevish and revengeful intemperate and lustful c. to what purpose are the fuller discoveries of another World Life and Immortality and the Belief of Jesus being the Son of God if they do not enable us to conquer the world and mortifie the flesh and if I walk according to the Laws of the Flesh i. e. Violate the Laws of the Spirit can I choose but dread a God whom I have wrong'd and will not unruly Passions and a troubled Conscience make a Christian as miserable as a Jew or Heathen If Goodness now be the end and drift of the holy belief of Christians then I infer 1. That the best Man is the best Son of the Church and he whose affections are more rais'd and heavenly and hath least of the mixture of sensuality is of the highest form in the School of Christ because he doth best answer the design of his Lord and walks in some measure as he walk'd 2. That the most infallible characters of a true Faith are to be taken from the government of our Passions our conquest o're the world and the increase of our inward joy and peace and hope Good Lord how apt are we to put a a cheat upon the World and our selves to perswade it and our selves that we believe tho there be no change in our Souls and Conversations and therefore consequently we do nothing less I shall hereafter never think that I believe aright till I have a Love for all his Commandments till I can meditate delightfully pray vigorously relie constantly obey readily suffer patiently rejoyce humbly expect reverently and happy is me if I attain that height earnestly too the hour of my death or the appearance of my Lord. I shall never hereafter think that I have studied or known divine truth to any purpose till the Truth hath made me free rescued me from the bondage of Sin and fears of Death The Prayer THou Holy Pure and Eternal Spirit who canst not indure iniquity who dost so love goodness that thou hast sent thy Son into the world to promote it his Life and his death his Pains and his blood were spent in this Cause O enable thy poor Servant who names the name of Christ to hunger and thirst after righteousness and to depart from iniquity Lord let thy truth and thy Spirit be powerful in me to the subduing all of evil inclinations I believe that all things are naked and bare before thee and therefore that thou canst not be mock'd or impos'd upon by specious pretences or formalities That I am not to expect to appear any other in thy Eyes than such as I am in my self inable me therefore to confess thee in my practice as well as words to live like one who believ'd thy holy Truths Let my heart be fixt in Honesty and uprightness to obey all thy Commandments Let the Belief of things not seen have the same influence upon me they had upon all thy holy Saints Martyrs and Confessors i. e. Perswade me to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and holily in this present world through Jesus Christ Sect. 2. Of doing Good There are a sort of People who indeavour all they can to withdraw from the world and rid their hands of business and think it abundantly sufficient if they can discharge their duty towards God in their Retirements This is Lawful nay commendable only upon two accounts 1. If my Temper or Circumstances be such that my Conversation cannot be publick and safe too for then the Salvation of my own Soul is naturally the most near and dear concern or 2. If my qualifications are such that my retirement is likely to prove more advantagious to the publick than my filling any other Post for then I act according to the Rules of Charity There are two other Inducements to a retir'd Private Life The one founded in a vice the other in a mistake 1. The First is when Men withdraw from the Business as from the trouble of the World and their Pleasure not Religion is their first and chief motive They meet with many rubs and oppositions in a busie Active Life and then they grow soft and weak and lasie and they want Courage and Industry and the frequent interruptions of their private peace and enjoyment is uneasie and they would withdraw to enjoy themselves and this is unchristian and unmanly 't is Epicurism not Contempt of the World 2. The mistake is when we look upon a Monastical kind of life as the whole of Christianity and the meer Perfection of the Regenerate state and place Piety so wholly in acts of solitary Devotion as to seclude the doing good and communicating c. It will behove such to consider 1. That true and apparent Motives Pretence and Religion are sometimes so twisted together that it is hard for a man to distinguish 'em and therefore some secret weakness or reserve may be the real whilst zeal is made the pretended cause of this choice 2. That the Busie and Active Life is the more Excellent and the more necessary 1. the more excellent as being fuller of hazards and troubles and temptations there is a larger field for virtues for Patience Courage Meekness Reliance c. in an active than speculative life and such will receive more Crowns And when I consider the Nature of God and necessities of Mankind I cannot but think acts of Charity as prevalent to the wiping off our guilt as the severest penances A vigorous and active life spent in promoting the welfare of others is a more perfect instance of self denial speaks a greater contradiction to our ease and pleasure commits more violence upon our inclinations than any acts of private Austerity can pretend to do for besides the Pains the watching and the fasting incident to both a like the trouble of Contrivance the industry of addresses the uneasiness of refusals c. sufficiently weigh down the one side Besides this Confinement imprisons our light under a bushel it is a Cover a Napkin for our Talents to conceal them and render them useless to others and therefore our reward will be less in another world and our graces the fainter in this For to him what hath i. e. useth shall be given Grace like the Widows Oile increases by being charitably imparted That Flame which warms my Neighbour reflects back with a double heat upon my self and that Goodness which cherishes his heart softens and sanctifies my own And over and above all this I enjoy a strange delight in doing good and in beholding the fruits which my own hands have planted And my assurance and the confidence of my hopes encreases by the conscience of that Love which my works convince me I have for my Brethren 2. That a busie
my self only in proportion to what I share of thee for I know this is the Standard by which God now value me and will hereafter judge me If this be the end of Religion onely to implant goodness and charity amongst us to make us holy and like God and kind and beneficial one to another what is it that the World hates it for I may say concerning those who persecute Christianity as St. Peter did of those who Crucified its Author I wot that through ignorance ye did it Act. 3 17. Surely it is because you do not discern its beauty that you do not Love it If any retir'd life promote the end I have mention'd as well as an Active once I would not be thought to condemne it The Prayer O God the Heaven and Earth are full of thy goodness the faculties of our souls and the senses of our bodies are all imploy'd in the contemplation and enjoyment of it O make us who worship thee to imitate thee too that we may be thy children indeed make our souls delight to do goood and imprint in us such tender and compassionate Bowels towards one another as our dear Lord and Master had towards us Amen Amen blessed Jesus CHAP. IV. Of Chrictian practice in particular HAving consider'd the Nature of Christianity in respect to practice in the general I am now to speak of it more particularly but not pretending to give an account of every single virtue I will dwell upon Three Which contain the substance of the Christian duty i.e. Faith Love and Humility I will not apologize for the unphilosophical placing of Faith amongst practical duties the following discourse will clear the reason of it I place humility in the last place not because there is not an humility which is precedent to and disposes men for the reception of faith but because I look upon that humility which is consequent to and caus'd by it and which must always accompany it to render it acceptable in a more peculiar and proper sense an Evangelical grace 1. Of Faith When I read the glorious Achievements of a true Faith Heb. 11. That it subdued Kingdomes wrought Righteousness obtained promises c. and in one word supported men under the greatest miseries and arm'd them against the most taking pleasures of this World I cannot sufficiently wonder that a fuller and clearer discovery of a Heaven confirm'd to us by the strongest evidences i. e. the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power should have so weak an influence upon us Christians we take no more pains for Heaven than if we did not believe there were such a place and we have the same cares and fears in respect of the things present which Heathens and Infidels have so that tho' we talk much of Faith we make little or no use at all of it Therefore least any man delude and fool himself with a perswasion of being endowed with that Faith which he hath not I 'le give such an account of it as agrees with the Gospel of the Kingdom as suits with and serves the necessities of mankind and the end and Aims of God Faith saith the blessed Apostle is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen the substance or presence the evidence or Proof 't is not a slight transient glance drowsie imperfect assent a staggering wavering opinion but 't is a lively representation an affective vision a full perswasion of the glorious truths of the Gospel when the Objects are so fully and clearly evident that they not onely convince but take us too it is having the mind enlightn'd and so looking upon things with the eys of Angels and judging by the light of the blessed Spirit It is not only to see that the things invisible are but to see them in some measure such as they are Eternity as Eternity and Heaven as Heaven that is a state of truely great and glorious happiness on this account the things present may have a different face and aspect when regarded by the eyes of Faith and when of Sense for sense stops in the things themselves and regards their usefulness to the pleasure or profit of this present life but Faith carries its sight forward and compares the things which are seen with those hoped for the things temporal with those eternal and then all below appears but meer vanity This whole account of Faith we may find in the 13 verse of Heb. 11. These all died in Faith and what it is to dye or live in Faith the following words explain not having reciev'd the promises i.e. the accomplishment of them but having seen them a far off i. e. by divine Revelation were perswaded of them and embraced them and the natural consequence of this was and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth Now Faith is unalterable as to its essence but its objects may vary they may be more or fewer clearer or darker according to the Nature of divine revelation Heb. 1.1 its evidence may be fuller or weaker but still it must be such as may suffice to convince man of the Divine authority of the Revelation As to the Christian Faith 2. Its objects are the whole Gospeâ—â— of Christ God the Father such as he is reveal'd by the Son God the Son incarnate crucified c. The Rewards and punishments contain'd in it and all in order to engage us to an entire obedience to its holy and righteous Precepts By Faith I see that God who is invisible who tho he dwels in Heaven doth yet humble himself to behold all that is done upon Earth nor doth he only behold but govern all things too And whilst I contemplate his Wisedom Power Truth Goodness Holiness Justice c. manifested to me in the Gospel I adore and worship him I love and fear him I call on and relie upon him I endeavour to walk before him and be perfect I know nothing like him and therefore I desire nothing beside him or equal to him in Heaven or in Earth By Faith I see the Son of God abandoning the bosome and the Glory of his Father descending upon Earth and assuming the form of a Servant that by his doctrine and example he might propagate Righteousness and holiness in the world I trace him thorough all the Stages of his sufferings and travel till I behold him fasten'd to the Cross and bleeding out his meek and holy Soul at those painful wounds the nails had made and all this for my sins and the sins of the whole World and then with what a strange mixture of Passions that sight fills me with grief and shame and yet with love and hope too How I am amaz'd to see what indignation a holy God hath discover'd against Sin and how my heart bleeds to think that my sins have treated thus despitefully and cruelly my dear Lord and Master and with what a melting passion and vigorous resolutions of a fervent industrious service and an everlasting zeal
relye upon Christ And it will highly oblige him to both or 2. In a state of Regeneration and then according to that experience and proof a man hath of the truth and sincerity of his Conversion such is the proportion and degree of his assurance and hopes which doth not exclude but suppose Faith in Christ for this is no more then to believe that now his sins are pardon'd his prayers heard his services accepted and he shall at last bere warded if he persevere unto the end in and thorough Christ Or 3. In a state of Relapse and even here he hath yet hopes if he repent thorough the blood of Christ For this is frequently asserted in Scripture I 'le urge but one place 1. Jo 2. 1 2. My little Children regenerate certainly These things write I unto you that ye sin not and if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins c. that by these sins are not understood the unavoidable frailties and imperfections of the best men but plain and manifest transgressions of the Law is plain 1. From hence that this is the general notion of sin in this Epistle 2. from the manner of speaking that ye sin not if any man sin which cannot be sense if applied to the unavoidable errours and imperfections of the best of men 3. They are here said to be of the number of those sins for which Christ shed his blood and are equall'd with the sins of the rest of the World And besides these Three uses of Faith I know none nor what more can be attributed to or desir'd from the blood of Christ I cannot see unless men will wilfully abuse their Faith into an impunity and patronage for sin or what disparagement it can reflect upon this sacrifice of Christ That it obligeth us to Holiness and rescues us from the power as well as guilt of sin I am not able to comprehend as to the silly scandal of trusting in works they that know what these words or terms Justified by works and justified by Repentance and Faith mean know that the one implies a perfect contradiction to the other for the former denyes any sin or iniquity and the latter doth directly suppose it 4. Without some degrees of Faith it is impossible that a wicked man should be awaken'd into any serious sence of his condition or should be induc'd to set himself in good earnest to please and obey God without a good measure of this Faith the very regenerate will never be able to conquer the World and subdue the flesh and enter into their rest I mean with th' Apostle a Rest from sin for their endeavours will be but weak and languishing their prayers cold and faint the Acts and instances of Religion will be undertaken as a Duty of necessity not delight the whole Progress of their Christian warfare will like the driving of Pharoahs Charriots when the Wheels were off beslow and uneasie they will be liable to frequent relapses their Life will not be a firm Peace but an unstedy truce with conscience and their Death will be mixt and checker'd with jealousies Distrusts and faint hopes like a sky spotted with numerous Clouds But if we arrive at a good degree of this precious Faith we shall be more than Conquerors o're the World and ourselves we shall be plac'd above the Reach of Temptations preserv'd thorough the power of Faith unto Salvation we shall be too great to be swoln with vanity in prosperity or to be cast down in affliction we shall find all the wayes of wisedome wayes of pleasantness and all her paths peace in one word we shall rejoyce always with joy unspeakable and full of Glory and when our glass is run and our Lives spent we shall be translated to the blesed Seats of Perfection and Peace 5. For the obtaining and improving and confirming of this holy Faith it is necessary that our Religion be not meer Credulity or Custome but that we seriously weigh those two great witnesses our Saviour appeals to for the proof of his coming from God his Works and Doctrine the Power of the one and Holiness of the other being sufficient evidences of his Commission from above To which we must add the Testimonies God himself gave him from Heaven his resurrection from the Dead and ascention into glory and all those mighty works perform'd by his followers in the virtue of Faith in his name and to be firmly rooted and grounded in Faith through these arguments is that which St. Peter exhorts Christians to 1 Pet. 3.15 To be ready alwayes to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you 2. By frequent retirements and sosolemn and devout Meditation to acquaint our selves as intimately as we can with the glorious Truths of the Gospel of Christ to draw the representations of them as lovely as may be and to dwell and gaze on the things we believe till the light of the understanding hath shed it self thorough the inferiour Soul warm'd all our passions and the Body it self seem to relish and partake of the pleasure of the mind The most useful matter of our Meditations will be 1. The Nature of the the God we worship I mean the glorious Attributes Mankind is most concern'd in His Truth and Wisedom his Power and his Goodness And 2. The Sufferings and the Glory of our blessed Redeemer as the sole ground of inexpressible comfort as the most indearing Obligation to Holiness as the most perfect pattern of Virtue and the most lively instance of its reward 3. We must add to both these means incessant prayers offer'd up with a fervent Spirit at the Throne of Grace for considering the darkness and indisposition of our Natures we have altogether need of the assistances of the Divine Spirit and therefore The Prayer O Eternal God the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Author of all good gifts enlighten my understanding that I may believe thy Gospel set at liberty my will that I may approve and love the things that are excellent that the belief of the Gospel of the blessed Jesus may engage me to Love Obey and Relie upon him give me such a lively sight and firm belief of the things not seen as may raise me above all the corruptions which are in the world through Lust and make me partake of the Divine Nature that so my Life may be full of Joy my latter end of Peace my Soul in its Separation of Rest and my whole man in the Resurrection full of Delight and Glory Amen Amen Blessed Jesus Section 2. Of Love 1. Of God 2. Of our Neighbour Of the Love of God Love is not a meet Approbation of the understanding but also an affection of the Will or Heart in Scripture phrase And therefore Coldness and Indifferency in Religion and warmth and passion for the world cannot be justified by
look for my reward from God not man and therefore I am not at all concern'd that he doth not requite my kindness by gratitude in his behaviour I am the Disciple of Christ who laid down his life for his enemies and the Child of that God who is kind even to Rebels and sinners and why should I think it enough to divide my kindnesses only amongst my friends I am press'd by the Conscience of a duty and I do not so much mind an injury as in what manner I am oblig'd to receive it least I transgress as much by impatience as mine enemy hath done by injustice I love my own peace and rest and would not be disorder'd and breed a storm and tempest in my bosome for why should I be so foolish as to transform another mans sin into my punishment and lastly I am now upon my journey and am hastening toward my Heaven and I would not be stopp'd and detain'd in my way much less turn'd out of it by the silliness and impertinency of a trifling sinner And besides all this I consider that these men who wrong me tho thus kind and unjust they are yet my brethren the workmanship of my Fathers hands the purchase of my dear Lord and Masters blood partakers of the same promise and salvation unless they receive the Grace of God in vain and how can I do any thing to them but pray for 'em and bless them Yet after all being still but mortal but flesh and blood some little aptnesnesses to impatience and revenge may remain in me and therefore if at any time my blood begin to Chafe my Choler boil my Spirits chill with envy or mutiny with despight I retire from the provoking object to my God and am not at rest till I have laid the evil spirit till I have stifled the sin in its first throws and pangs I bemoan my unhappy nature and blush at my own weaknesses and strive and meditate and read and pray till my Tears refresh me and my repentance ease me and upon this sometimes I find an extroardinary calm and lightsomeness ensue such as I fancy that of a demoniack when the ill spirit was cast out or of one suddenly cur'd of a disease by th' Almightiness of our Saviours word sometimes I continue a little heavy and oppress'd as when the ill spirit went out yet so as to rend the man and then not leaving off but in ejaculations repeating my instances to God I betake my self to something which may divert my thoughts and deceive my pain Secondly In the survey of my daily Deportment which I make each night I drag forth the Crime into the awful preence of an holy God and there araigning it of all the mischiefs it hath done me of all the troubles it hath given me and laying before my self seriously and devoutly all the obligations I have to the practice of the contrary virtue I condemn it with an holy indignation I cover my self with shame and sorrow and renew most solemn resolutions against it and earnestly beg of God his assistance against his and mine enemy This is a method which will undoubtedly lead us to a most certain conquest for it doth naturally tend to soften and calm the mind to possess it with greater degrees of meekness and deeper aversions for causeless wrath and it sets the soul upon its Watch and Guard so that it cannot be frequently surpriz'd into passion and lastly it engages the Divine Spirit in the quarrel which sure is no impotent assistance And therefore I cannot for my life reconcile this deportment each night with a repeated frowardness and peevishness each day much less with anger digested into a sullen hatred such I am afraid do not strive and therefore they do not conquer they neglect the means God prescribes them and therefore he doth not vouchsafe to relieve them either they do not at all examine and repent in the presence of God or else they do it transiently and perfunctorily or else they Love the sin and therefore conceal and shelter it or else they are fond and partial to themselves and therefore cover and excuse it and any of these falts is enough to undo them Having taken this survey of Charity it is now time in the last place to consider by what powerful motives the Gospel obligeth us to this duty 1. The first may be taken from the nature of Charity it self it is remarkable that St. Paul 1 Cor. 13. Designing to prove the excellence of Charity above any other spiritual gifts thought it enough to describe it for no body can know what it is and not presently discern how useful and serviceable it is to the happiness of mankind the pleasures of the Rich and comforts of the Poor the safety of Government the peace of Families and the delight of Friendships are all built up upon it Next Charity fails not but abides for ever ver 8. of this same Chap. It is a vertue that constitutes a part of Heaven and helps to make up the enjoyments of that state of most perfect bliss and certainly if we could but imitate the virtue and perfections of Heaven we should in the same degrees and proportion pertake of its happiness too and that which is one of the great ingredients of the pleasure of the other World would if practic'd be no small addition to that of this These being the glorious consequents of Charity it is but natural and reasonable that we should love it as we do our selves and persue it with the same eagerness we do our pleasure our happiness 2. From the nature of God who hath sufficiently manifested himself to the world in all his works to be Love God is Love Of which what more amazing instance can we have in him than his giving his Son to die for us and pardoning us freely thorough his blood and in his Son than in offering up himself for us And because uncharitableness bears such a contradiction to his Nature he therefore resolves that no such monstrous and ill-natur'd Creature shall enter into Heaven and hath frequently assur'd us that our deportment towards one another shall be the Standard and measure of his towards us If ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you but if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses Mat. 6.14 15. The natural influences deducible from hence are that he who loves God must love his Neighbour also because he cannot be the Child of God nor acceptable to him without sharing of that blessed affection which God hath for the world and tho the provocation of a Neighbour may have very justly incens'd him into hatred and desire of revenge yet he cannot refuse his pardon to the requests of a God who hath done so much for him and of Jesus who hath died for him And Secondly if we cannot be pardon'd our selves unless we pardon others it seems our own necessities
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
God and inform'd by man and therefore on all these accounts an humble Man can never be enthusiastical obstinate or seditious for he can never arrive at that height of Spiritual pride as to conceit himself the onely favourite of Heaven and fit for extroardinary illuminations nor at that height of carnal pride as to be a buisie body a stiff asserter of his own humour or judg of his superiours on earth and so think himself more fit to Reign than to suffer In one word Humilities whole deportment is sweet and gentle its very zeal is modest its reprehension soft and timerous its Prayers awful its reflections mournful and its hopes of Heaven softly growing it is neither severe nor peevish obstinate nor hasty bold nor selfish insolent nor querulous it can suffer its wounds to be prov'd and search'd and kisses the hand whilest it loaths the filth it doth not insult o're anothers errours nor excuse its own nay rather its modesty conceals its beauties and blushes at the discovery of its own excellencies it never prostitutes to beg praises nay if it accidentally meet them it is rather burden'd and oppress'd than puff'd up by them I will then account my self to have attain'd to some degree of this grace when I can possess my soul at rest when I delight in the milk of Gods word more than its heights and entricacies in obedience more than disputes and fancies when I can receive evil from the hand of God as well as good when I can sacrifice my own will to the caprice of a Superiour the obstinacy of an inferiour or the humour of an equal when I can suffer wrongfully and yet meekly when I can look upon the glories and the power of this World and contentedly say I am not born for these I am not call'd to the enjoyment of these but of the Cross here and Glory hereafter I am to tread in the steps of my dear Lord and Master and nothing shall make me have any other designs than those he had and when I have done all this and am assur'd that I love and serve my God I relie onely upon the merits and sufferings of my Saviour for Salvation and a Crown This duty of Humility is the most useful and the most difficult in Christianity the most useful for it recommends us to God indears us to men and establishes a Peace and calm in our own bosomes the most difficult for it is to renounce what is most near and dear to us our interest and pleasures our reputation nay our very selves our understanding will and affections There are two mighty motives wich are most insisted on by the holy Spirit the one is that Humility is the way to the increase of Grace here and to greater measures of Glory hereafter God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted the other is the example of our Saviour who tho so great as to be the Son of God and to think it no Robbery to be equal to God so innocent that he had no guilt upo him none could accuse him of sin so dignified as to be Prophet Priest and King did yet debase himself to the meanest services on purpose that he might leave his Disciples a pattern to imitate tho he were adorn'd by all that might give him a just claim to Honour as Birth Virtue and the Dignity of the most illustrious functions yet he was as much the humblest as he was the greatest as much the most meek as the most innocent of the Sons of Men and if he our Lord and Master stoopt so low what can we who are at that vast distance beneath him do or suffer that is capable of disparaging us Besides these considerations it will be very useful towards implanting humility in us to know God and our selves his Dayes are without Beginning or Ending his perfections have no bounds he is Independent and immutable he is his own Heaven and his own happiness but we are dust and the Sons of Corruption born yesterday and we shall dye to morrow our bodies heavy sluggish crafie beings of a few spans long our souls are blind and ambitious passionate froward jealous inconstant foolish things those are the seat or abode of numerous pains and diseases These of as numerous and as painful passions the World we live in is a meer phantasm and cheat that first invites and then deludes our appetites for enjoyment it self is but a dying itch and the mockery of a waking dream the time past reflects our sins and follies the present is troubled with regret and desires and vexations and the future will be what the present now is for when all is nothing what can be the end of our hopes and cares but disappointment And all this consider'd is not God most fit to Govern and we to obey he to be exalted and we to be humbled but why do I compare Man to God! let us compare him but to the Angels of God and how inconceiveably more excellent is their being and their state than ours how wise and knowing how refin'd and pure their substances we see but thorough a Cloud and are clad with an earthy body they dwell in the Circles of Glory in the Sun-shine of the Almighty's presence and in a numerous Choire of the most pleasant and delightful company We in long Nights and cold Winters and barren Soils and lonesome-shades tir'd with sullen toilsome business and dull insipid conversation and only wait for the approaching day and the rendevouz of blessed Spirits in Heaven Lord what is Man The Prayer O Thou God who resistest the Proud and givest grace to the Humble possess me with a meek and humble Spirit teach me to tread in the steps of my blessed Saviour to serve and Minister to obey and suffer teach me to know Thee my God and my self that the sence of thy incomprehensible glory and my meanness may level all my foolish conceits of my self and cloath me with humility through Jesus Christ our Lord. O my God make me resign'd and obedient to thee Subject to my Superiours modest towards my equals and meek to my Inferiours make me to despise the praise and honour of man being content with the conscience of doing good make me see the imperfections of my best actions and relye upon thy mercy for Salvation thorough the blood of Christ that my Soul may here find rest and hereafter Glory Amen Amen Blessed Jesus Sect. 5. Of Perfection It is an opinion generally receiv'd that the least degree of true Faith will save the soul but I hope men mean such a degree of it as overcomes the World and subdues the Flesh for otherwise I should very much question whether it be not that seed which becometh unfruitful thorough the cares of the World and deceitfulness of riches and the lusts of other things Mar. 4.19 If they say that that Faith which doth not overcome the World and the Flesh is
dark chamber and mark how thou must lie in thy bed of sickness and of Death consider how all thy hopes and comforts all thy designs and purposes as far as they concern this world must vanish like a dream and think what need thou wilt then stand in of all the strength and comfort which Reason and Religion the Ministry and Prayers of thy Spiritual guide and Friend and the Conscience of a well spent Life can furnish thee with then thou wilt need a strong Faith and a vigorous Love and an entire Humility to enable thee to bear thy agonies patiently and part with the world chearfully and meet thy God compos'dly 4. Do not indulge thy self in the Enjoyment of the utmost liberty which is consistent with Innocence vice borders very closely upon vertue he that will not be burnt must not approach so nigh the fire as to be sing'd besides such freedomes do insensibly instill sensuality into the soul at leastwise if so thick an aire do not sully the soul it is too gross and mixt to whiten and clear it 5. Catch at every opportunity of a holy discourse and learn to raise from every thing a heavenly thought and to mannage every Accident to some spiritual purpose embrace all examples of an Excellent vertue and search after all occasions of doing good declining by all the Arts of prudence and Religion what ever either company or discourse whatever either sight or entertainement may soften thy temper thaw thy Resolutions discompose thy calm or alay thy heavenly mindedness or endear the world to thee sin steals in thorough the eye or ear c. dressed up in Beauty Mirth Luxury c. but it wounds whilst it delights and it stains where it touches and it captives what it once possesses 6. Be sure that thy Religion be plac'd in substantial and weighty things not fancyful and conceited for example 1. As to matters of Faith make it thy business to know God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent the riches of divine Love and the merit of Christs sacrifice and do not mispend thy time nor weary and disturb thy Soul with Curiosities and vain disputes which usually grow out of interest and pride or an impertinent and trifling spirit 2. As to practice let thy Religion be made up of Fundamental Duties not conceits or will worship of Charity and Humility Obedience Mortification and Purity pure Religion and undefiled is this to visit the Fatherless and the Widowes and to keep ones selfe unspotted from the world Religion is not a devout whimsey a sullen Austerity or a blind and giddy passion but all that promotes the Honor of God the good of Mankind and the peace of our own Souls The Prayer O Most glorious and Eternal God guide me I beseech thee in the paths of Holyness I am the purchase of thy Sons blood I have known the truth of thy glorious Gospel and receiv'd the earnest of thy Love thy Holy Spirit O grant that I may not receive thy Grace in vain that I may not suffer wreck in the sight of my Haven But assist me by the might of thy Spirit in the inward Man to perfect Holyness in the fear of God to go on to the full assurance of Hope mortifying each day more and more the outward man and growing in all godliness and vertue and every thing that is praise worthy that so the nearer I approach Eternity the fitter for it I may be that my state here being a state of spiritual delight and pleasure each day may give fresh vigour to my Devotion so that I may not faint till I enter into the Joyes of my Master and receive a Crown Amen Amen Holy Jesus I have consider'd 1. Our Obligation to Religion upon the account of our own Souls which can neither be happy in this Life nor that to come without it 2. The Nature and Substance of that Religion we profess as it regards either Belief or Practice from all which it appears that the Christian Philosophy is nothing else but a Systeme of most exalted Holyness such as may become Men who are design'd for another life it remains now 3. To consider by what powerful motives the Gospel engages us to duties which are so far above our natural state and strengths Practical Christianity Part II. CHAP. I. Of the Motives which the Gospel proposes to Holiness THe Motives by which the Gospel obliges us to Holiness are 1. The Reward of Vertue and Punishment of Vice in another World 2. The Consideration of the Divine Nature 3. The Consideration of the whole History of our Saviour 4. The consideration of the vanity of all those things which are the temptations to sin 5. The nature of virtue and of vice 6. The assistance of the Divine spirit and 7. The consideration of the nature of the Gospel Covenant which leaves a place for Repentance 1. Of the first Motive Upon what account Life and Immortality is said to be brought to light thorough the Gospel I 'le not determine but it is certain that the Gospel shews us how Death is abolish'd and how Life and Immortality may be attain'd 2 that it hath manifested this to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews and that 3. The Discovery of it is in full and clear words laid down in almost every Page of it The Wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment and the Righteous into Life eternal Mat. 25. and Ro. 2.5 there is a day mention'd which is call'd The Day of the Revelation of the righteous judgement of God because he will then render to every man according to his Deeds to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory and honour and immortality eternal Life but unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile but glory honour and peace to every man that worketh good to the Jew first and also to the Gentile This being so to sin must needs be so silly and weak a thing no man of common sense would be guilty of for can any man of reason be at a loss in such a choice as this whether he will live eternally or die whether he will be happy for ever or for a moment upon supposal that sin could make me live one happy moment 'T is true if there were no prospect of another Life no account to be taken in another world the case would be much alter'd for the Law of our nature being I humbly conceive nothing else but the Law or Dictates of Reason and the business of Reason being in this respect at least only to distinguish between good and evil our Reason would talk to us at another rate because it would proceed by different principles good and evil would then peradventure be different things for whatever would make for the pleasure and interest of
and unbelieving the abominable and Murtherers Whoremongers and Sorcerers Idolaters and Lyars and all the Enemies of God and Goodness The Duration of this State is for ever as Eternal as the Joys of Heaven an Everlasting Punishment the Worm never dies and the Fire cannot be quenched And though the Almighty may not be bound up to fulfil his threats which whether so applicable to God as Man I 'le not dispute yet certainly our Saviour and his Apostles in giving us a Narrative or History of the different Issues of things are bound to speak truth Hell then is a fixt state of misery wherein men have bid adieu to the pleasures of Earth and to all hopes of Heaven the memory of past pleasures doth but increase their pain and what 's beyond all the misery of this world they enjoy not as much as the deceitful Dreams of flattering hopes Hell where there 's no light nor ease nor God nor any harmless pleasure to divert the pain a moment Hell where only the wretched Objects of an Incens'd God do for ever weep and wail Is this the Death which is the wages of Sin Can Sin offer me any pleasure that can countervail this Eternity of miseries or is there any thing in poverty or shame or banishment or death equal to this Hell if not what blind brutish madness pusheth me on to sin Can I dwell with Everlasting Burnings Can I be content to live in an endless Night of pains and horrours Adieu my fatal pleasures I had rather starve and macerate this Body into sobriety than by Indulgence betray it to the rage and fury of Almighty Vengeance I 'le shut my eyes against all forbidden Fruits rather than for ever deprive 'm of the sight of Heaven and close them up in an Eternal Night Welcom whatever Penances Religion may impose upon me whatever the World may threaten me with for the discharge of a good Conscience I 'd watch and fast till Death rather than be Damn'd I 'd be the scorn and hate of Mankind rather than of God Are not these terrible Truths Are they not arm'd with Lightning and Thunder enough to startle the most harden'd sinner Good God what makes the World so dead so callous that such dreadful Objects cannot rouze nor pierce them It must needs be because they put that evil day so far off that the biggest terrours of it look but like Moats at such a distance But surely we mistake our selves in our computation we are now in Time how narrow is the Isthmus which parts Time from Eternity or is there any Partition at all but one groan that the frame of our Nature cracks with but one parting moment wafts us over upon the shore of another world Heaven and Hell they are not at the distance of so many years from this world but just of so much time as will serve us to die in And is this so much that we should frolick and wanton in our sins as if we were not within ken of danger there 's scarce a moment in the day wherein some Soul or other in some part of the world doth not make its Exit into another life and shall I sin as securely as if my time and death were at my own disposal I came but a few years ago into the world and within a few more I must go out on 't how soon this day will come I know not I 'm sure that the Sentence of Death is past upon me already I only wait the hour of Execution which any trifling cause can be the instrument of I may die of pleasure or of pain I may die of want or fulness I may die of desire or enjoyment what is it then which cannot give Death the very heighth of health is a degree of sickness my Scull is weak my skin and flesh thin and soft my heart tender and my passions easie my inner part is full of strange mazes vessels curiously contriv'd and subtilly dispos'd what a little will ravel this intricate contexture and discompose this delicate frame and shall I be as secure as if my strength were Iron and my sinews Brass and the position of my parts fixt as the Decrees of Heaven No no I 'le live in continual expectation of my Death I 'le examine my Soul each Evening and close my eyelids as if I were to awake next morning in another world I 'le often take my leave of this world and fancy I shall see this or that pleasant object no more no more and I 'le address my self to my God as if my Soul were ready to take wing and I 'le soberly consider the Nature of my God the value of Christs Sacrifice and the Truth of my Faith and so I shall learn to disingage my self from this world and to die handsomely and comfortably if not in rapture The Prayer O Most gracious God who hast hedg'd about our ways that we may not stray and wander into ruine who hast endeavour'd to frighten us into happiness by the dread and terrours of a Hell O grant that this fear may be fixt in my very flesh and produce in me a cautious and a wary depormtent that I remembring that our God is Consuming Fire may not dare to provoke thee to wrath and indignation against me And grant O most merciful Father that I may not put the day of death far from me and flatter my self into security and misery but live each day as if it were my last because I do not know but that it may be so that I may enter at last into that state where there shall be no more conflict with sin nor fear of death through Jesus Christ our Lord. SECT II. Of the second Motive to Holiness i.e. the consideration of the Divine Nature THe knowledge of the Nature of God is so powerful an inforcement to Vertue and a determent from Vice that Religion and the knowledge of God and Irreligion and a want of that knowledge are made use of by the Spirit of God as expressions of the same import as 1 Cor. 15.34 Awake to righteousness and sin not for some have not the knowledge of God And this not without reason for the knowledge of God will 1. Discover to us the Nature of Holiness and of Sin 2. It will convince us how reasonable it is that we should serve him And 3. It will confirm in us a full perswasion of the Reward of Vertue and Punishment of Vice To this purpose therefore let us consider the Nature of God as it is taught us in the Gospel of that Son of God who lay in the Bosom of his Father and hath declar'd him to us And the first thing is that God is a Spirit Jo. 4.24 and those Attributes which the Gospel assigns him and which are a fuller discovery of his Nature are Knowledge Wisdom Holiness under which may in the opinion of some be comprehended Goodness Justice and Power and Dominion Now from that resemblance which Religion
implanted in the heart hath to these it is call'd the Divine Nature and the Image of God and it is highly reasonable that the worship should be suitable to the God it is paid to and therefore the Rule and Standard of Holiness is the Divine Nature and nothing else the beauty of Holiness and the deformity of sin is not to be deriv'd at least primarily from the conveniency or inconvenieney of the one or other in this present life but from a tendency to imprint or efface this Divine Image in us This is the way of our Saviour's and his Apostles arguing from the Divine Nature to our Duty thus because God is a Spirit therefore he is to be worshipp'd in Spirit and in Truth because he is pure therefore they must purifie themselves who approach him because he is holy therefore his worshippers must be holy too and because he is love therefore they who abide in him must abide in love all his Children must imitate the perfections of the Divine Nature Be ye perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect From hence it is easie to discover why the God of Heaven hath such an Everlasting Quarrel against sin and why he delights so much in Holiness and Righteousness Sin embases the man and depraves the spirit which is in him into a sensual natural man and sets him at the farthest distance from and contradiction to God but Holiness is a reflexion of his own Beauty and Excellency it is the exalting man into a spiritual and heavenly Nature This is a plain account of the Nature of Holiness and Sin how the one is so lovely and the other so ugly how the one is so dangerous and the other so advantagious 2. The knowledge of the Divine Nature convinces us of the reasonableness of serving God There can be but two reasons for service either 1. An Obligation to the person we serve and then our service is either Duty or Gratitude or else 2. A regard to our own interest or pleasure In the knowledge of the Divine Nature we shall find all these Obligations to his services If we consider God as that Principle in whom we live and move and have our being Act. 17.28 or as one who doth us good gives us rain from Heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness Act. 14.17 What can be more reasonable than that we should be thankful to him but if we consider him further as Redeeming us by the Blood of his Son instructing us by the Light of his Gospel assisting us by the Power of his Spirit and adopting us into the hopes of an Incorruptible Crown what can be more reasonable than that we should devote our selves to his service and offer up our selves a holy living and acceptable Sacrifice to him If we consider him as our Creator and the Lord of Heaven and Earth what can be more reasonable than that we his Creatures should obey his Laws If we have regard to our own Interest all our present enjoyments and future hopes depend upon him to be guided by Infinite Wisdom to be protected by Infinite Power to be blest by him who is above all things and can make us as happy as he pleases are things which a wise love of our selves would make us earnestly desire As for pleasure besides that which flows from the perswasion of all these advantages which accrue to us from his service and besides the peace and true freedom which Devotion gains us there is a strange pleasure in the contemplation of the most Excellent Being in whom is united all that is any way taking with a Rational and Immortal Soul 3. This knowledge of God will confirm us in a firm perswasion of the reward of Vertue and punishment of Vice for whilst it discovers sin so exceeding hateful not only upon the account of its contradiction to the Divine Nature but also its base ingratitude and folly and discovers the Excellency and Loveliness of Holiness it doth at the same time manifest the reason why God who is a holy God doth incourage the one by such glorious promises and deter us from the other by such amazing threats for whether we consider him in himself the purity of his own nature makes him love goodness and hate vice and how contemptible were either his love or hate if happiness be not the effect of one and misery of the other or if you consider him as the Governour of this world it is inconsistent with his Majesty to suffer the violation of his Laws without punishing the bold Offender So that now there 's nothing further necessary to work this perswasion in us but that 1. We should be perswaded that neither our good nor evil actions can be conceal'd from him And 2. That he is arm'd with sufficient power to bless and reward the righteous and avenge himself of the sinner and both these Truths we learn from his infinite Knowledge and infinite Power both which we are abundantly taught in the Gospel of Christ to belong to God God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell Mat. 10.28 And this God thus knowing and thus powerful without any respect of persons judgeth according to every mans work 1 Pet. 1.17 All this now amounts to thus much that Vertue and Vice are not indifferent things but that the one is most lovely the other most loathsom to God therefore the one is most fatal and the other most benificial to its Votaries for there is an infinitely glorious Being who is most deeply concern'd and every way able to poure forth blessings on the righteous and vengeance on the sinner The Prayer O Glorious God let my knowledge of thy Nature teach me to deny all iniquity and to be holy as thou art holy Let thy goodness make me love thee and thy Power and Justice make me fear thee and let both wing my Devotion and clog and damp my Lusts Let thy Truth and thy Power beget in me a perfect affiance in thee Let thy Wisdom and thy Love perswade me to submit quietly to thy Will that I may walk before an Almighty God and be perfect and so may enter into thy joys in the life to come thorough Jesus Christ our Lord. SECT III. Of the third Motive to Holiness i.e. the Consideration of the whole History of the Son of God Jesus Christ OUr Lord and Saviour may be consider'd either in his Life his Death or Glory beginning in his Resurrection the knowledge of him in each of these is a strong ingagement to Holiness and a determent from Vice 1. In his Life and here we may look upon him with reference to his Doctrine or Example both which conspire in this one aim to implant Holyness in the world and to root out sin for look upon him with reference to his
Doectrine and we shal find this was the great business of his Life to instruct men in the will of God to acquaint them with a true and spiritual holyness for as the Law came by Moses so grace and truth came by Jesus Christ in regard of which he calls himself the way the truth and the Life and all this by Commission from the Father Jo. 15.15 All that I have heard of the Father I have manifested unto you From hence I may infer That the planting the world with Holyness was an undertaking becoming the Son of God a Design worthy of his Incarnation the Jewes vainly expected that he should have built them up into a glorious Empire and secured to them the Enjoyment of Honour and pleasure in this Life but since the meek and humble Jesus despis'd this as a trifling design it manifestly appears that Mortification in him self denial is above all the Romantick gallantry of ambitious spirits That to be Good is somewhat more noble than to be Great to despise the world is more than to conquer it to subdue the flesh a richer happyness than to be able to caress it with all the flatteries of Luxury and greatness and to know God and obey his will a greater honour and happyness than to command the Lives and fortunes of Mankind How can this consideration chuse but beget in the minds of men a strange veneration for Religon and a Love of Holyness why should we with a prepostrous ambition affect those fooleries of the world and neglect true honor and happiness true greatness perfection tho we our selvs should not be able to discover it yet we may very reasonably collect both the beauty and necessity of Holyness from the value an infinitly wise God hath of it which he doth sufficently express in labouring the reformation of the world with so much earnestness in imploying so much care and so much wisdome about it in makeing use of so glorious an instrument as his own Son the brightness of his Fathers Image c. The works of nature and providence together with that light he shed upon our nature being sufficient to work in us a natural Religion had left our disobedience inexcusable when he added so many other miraculous manifestations of his glory and his will and the instruction of Prophets authoriz'd by Miracles and foreknowledge of things to come all this must needs render them to whom it was address'd much more inexcusable and what shall we think of our selves to whom he hath in the dispensation of the fullness of time sent Jesus Christ declared to be the Son of God by Power by the spirit of Holiness by the Resurrection from the Dead God might well expect as the Lord in the Parable Surely they will reverence my Son The greatness of his Person is very fit to beget an Awe and Belief too therefore as the Grace is greater so must the punishment of its rejection This is the conclusion S. Paul draws from the Divinity of his Person prov'd in the first Chapt. to the Heb. Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard lest at any time we should let them slip for if the word spoken by Angels was stedfast And every transgression and disobedience receiv'd a just recompence of reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great a Salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord c. Heb. 2. If we secondly consider the Life of Jesus only as a great example of the most exalted Holiness of obedience towards God charity towards his Neighbour purity and self-denial towards himself we shall not only find in it a clear light to direct us in the practice of vertue but also powerful motives to ingage us to it for if our great Lord and Master the Son of God did thus deny himself and renounce the world what kind of Humility and Mortification will become us who are so far beneath him and in whom are such violent propensions to sin how will it become us to walk who profess our selves the Disciples of so holy and so excellent a Master we cannot be his Disciples unless we walk as he walk'd for this was it he aim'd at to set us an example and the thing we are to learn of him is his Holiness If ye continue in my word then are ye my Disciples indeed c. Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest to your souls He that saith he abides in him ought himself also to walk so even as he walked All which imports a necessity of our imitation of him and implies our straying from his example to be an interpretative Renunciation of our Discipleship Secondly In the example of his Life we may discern the Beauty and the Happiness of a Holy Life how lovely how great how Majestick was that Goodness and Innocence which shin'd in him and as a consequence of this Holiness with what serenity and calmness of affections did he enjoy himself with what assurance of mind did he encounter all afflictions and look forward towards another life these are pleasures which all must needs value who can understand them and all may enjoy them who will lead godly lives Thirdly from him we learn how wise and reasonable a thing it is to prefer all the hardships which accompany Religion to the vanities of this world since he who was best acquainted with the happiness of another life and could have commanded all the advantages of this despis'd all the flattering pleasures of this life and chose the Cross and the afflictions of Righteousness that he might obtain an Everlasting Crown Let us chuse as he did and we shall never be mistaken nor let us be frighten'd at any difficulty the same Spirit which strengthen'd him shall make us too Conquerours nor can the World menace us with any thing worse than what he endur'd Want and Scorn and Travel and Death a shameful and a painful death which is that which constitutes the Second part of the History of our Saviour and is a very passionate invitation to Holiness considered either as an Expiatian of our sins or as an act of his obedience to God as an Expiation it must 1. Plainly convince the world of the fatal deadly nature of sin for when I see the Son of God strugling with the torments of the Cross groaning under the pain of his Wounds pale and gastly breathing forth his Soul in the agonies of Death I cannot think that the goodness as well as wisdom of the Divine Nature could have thought fit for sin to have been atton'd by so bitter a Sacrifice unless the weight and horrour of it had call'd for such an Expiation and shall I play and fool with sin as a harmless thing when its guilt can't be cleans'd but by the Blood of the Son of God Surely the greatness of the Sacrifice was intended to intimate to mankind the
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
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
circumstances and is fear'd only by the vain and gay and scorn'd by fools for to be truly humble is to be truly honourable and to suffer Christianly is the infallible Character of a great mind Lord I know that I am here but a stranger and Pilgrim and I will not propose to my self rest and lushious pleasures I am now in a state of warfare and I expect not my ease and a Kingdom till I have vanquish'd I am the Servant of the Holy Jesus and I will take up my Cross and follow him and if he calls me to walk upon the waters I cannot believe that he will let me perish I have in this discourse of Pleasure and Pain had an eye to two things not only to shew that there can be no reasonable ground for a Temptation to Sin in either but also to demonstrate the Excellency of the Christian Principles by shewing how they serve to all the ends and necessities of this mortal life to regulate our Pleasures and alleviate our Pains for else it had been enough for me to have said that there is no reason to quit an Eternity of pleasure for a moment's and that no pain can be equal to that of Hell and therefore that no man can be seduced from his duty by either Pleasure or Pain if he do really believe the Gospel The Evils which disquiet the Minds of men as far as concerns this Head of Pain may be reduc'd to two 1. Doubting or uncertainty when we have no sure knowledge of matters of the greatest moment 2. Amazement and fear proceeding from guilt and the apprehension of future vengeance The first of these is now sufficiently remov'd by the Gospel of Christ which hath brought Life and Immortality to Light and discover'd all those glorious and important Truths which relate to our Eternal Welfare and our belief is herein founded upon Divine Revelation for God bore witness to the Authors of this Gospel by Miracles and by his holy Spirit by the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead c. and such is the purity and excellency of this holy Doctrine that no man who believes a God can chuse but see that an obedience to such holy Precepts must be acceptable to him The second proceeds from the Conscience of our sins and a dread of the Divine Nature either of which if they drive man into despair must necessarily plunge him into profaneness and immorality or into melancholly and madness The Gospel hath remov'd both these Evils 1. By the glad tidings of Reconciliation thorough the Blood of Christ whom he hath set forth to be a Propitiation for the sins of all who will believe and repent to deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Heb. 2.15 2. By a clear Revelation of the goodness and mercifulness of the Divine Nature which Courts our return beseeches us to be reconcil'd to him and waits for an opportunity to shew Mercy Whence the Gospel Characters of him now are that of a Father the God of Hope the God of Comfort and Consolation and Mercies and Love so that the minds of Christians are fill'd with joy and peace in believing and abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost From all which it follows that no man can have any temptation to sin from any rational suggestions from any rational fears or doubts for this discovery of the Divine Nature and this Death of Christ invites men to Holiness by the Obligations of Divine Love and their own interest But of this I have treated before The Prayer O Thou God of Hope of Love and Mercy thou art become exceeding gracious to thy people thou hast turn'd away our captivity and refresh'd us by an Eternal Redemption though this world be a Wilderness compar'd to the other yet thou here feedest us with Manna those bright Truths and that glorious assistance which are able to scatter all the melancholly Clouds of afflictions and sorrow which gather upon the face of this present life Lord grant that I may make this use of them to raise my self above the weaknesses and passions of this present life that the tryal of my Faith may be to praise and glory and to my everlasting felicity in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ Amen Amen blessed Jesus CHAP. III. Of some other particular sorts of Temptations THough these Pain and Pleasure are the great Magazines from whence the Devil brings forth all his Arms and Temptations yet there are some peculiar ways whereby he doth insnare and intangle us for he doth not assault us openly unless he hath before corrupted the Guards he deals with us as with Eve Ye shall not surely die for if he had told her plainly the fruit is fair and pleasant 't is worth your while to die for 't certainly she would have bid open defiance to him and scorn'd the temptation Thus he deals with us he cheats and deludes us into vain hopes and false presumptions we wound our selves to death and yet flatter our selves with life we forfeit our Innocence and yet impudently promise our selves a Heaven I will therefore conclude this Part with a particular Chapter concerning Temptations which are mostly 1. Infidelity This is the general way the Devil takes to destroy the Souls of men and to seduce them from their duty for it will necessarily follow that it is the most notorious folly imaginable to oppose our inclinations or to deny our selves any thing if there be no reward for holy souls and therefore against this we are exhorted to take up the Shield of Faith Eph. 6.16 to possess our hearts with a firm belief of the truth of the Gospel of Christ For this Reason the Evangelists and Apostles are so full and frequent in the proof of the Fundamentals of Christianity as the Resurrection c. and of this one Proposition That Jesus is the Son of God proving it from his Power and Holiness and Wisdom and his Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven and from the descent of his Spirit upon his Followers in such a publick manner and I heartily wish that all that profess the Name of Christ would 1. Lay seriously to heart the clearness and evidence of these proofs and not perfunctorily pass over all the passages of the Gospel which are written on purpose that we may believe without weighing them 2. That they would examine themselves what are the first Motives which prompt them to Infidelity Do they not love darkness because their deeds are evil and do they not rather wish the Gospel false than believe it so 3. That they would not stifle their Reason and refuse Audience to those Pleas the Gospel offers in its own defence when they cannot answer them do not think its enough to divert your Conscience awhile from its clamours and importunity but satisfie it and do not rest till you bring stronger proofs against the truth of the Gospel than those are which Patronize it for