encourage our affections and indeavours to constancy in a holy life Besides the examples of punishments upon bad men Against the evil Spirit we have the good Spirit of God which is infinitely stronger Against the Devil and all wicked Spirits we have the ministry of good Angels who cannot be supposed to have less power and will to assist and further us unto all well doing than the Devils have to hinder us or tempt us to evil The opinion of an * Angelus-Custos Angel-keeper allotted to every good man is more received and more probable than that of the evil Genius or the * Et tentans tempting Angel And if neither be certain as to the particularity yet the common assistance of the one is as credible as the opposition of the other sort of Spirits But that which gives us the most certain advantage is the promised assistance of God himself by his all-sufficient grace if we will seek embrace and improve it The Father is our gracious Father ready to hear and help us knows our weakness and how to deliver us from or out of temptation The Lord Jesus Christ the Son hath overcome both World and Devil John 16.33 not for himself only but for us having merited for us a sufficiency of Grace to do the like As our Head and King he is able and willing to assist us against all temptation and to furnish us with all grace for grace John 1.16 The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpents Head Gen. 3.15 And The holy Spirit abideth in us if we be true Christians to work in us to will and to do what ever is required at our hands Besides all these we have the Holy Word of God to teach us our Duty by way of instruction and to excite us to the performance thereof by rich and precious promises and to deterr us from sin by severe threatnings And special Promises we have too in the same Word if we will take any care to observe the implicite conditions of them in our own indeavours Rom. 6.14 That Sin shall not have dominion over us That God will beat down Satan under our feet Rom. 16.20 That he will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able but will with the temptation make way for our escape 1 Cor. 10.13 that we may be able to bear it All these things considered and compared it is evident that those that are with us are more and stronger than those that are against us Our aids and our Counter-forces against temptations are stronger than all our Enemies which abundantly clears the Justice and Goodness of God in permitting and ordering all the temptations which we meet withall in this World And leaves us without excuse from any of them Affording us a sufficient incouragement to the work we have to do 5. A fift Motive to the prosecution of this Work with fear and trembling is to be drawn from the shortness and uncertainty of the time wherein it is to be wrought out which we all know is indispensably limited to the term of this life And therefore that which our Saviour saith concerning himself Jo. 9.4 I must work the Works of him that sent me while it is Day the Night cometh when no man can work doth as much concern every one of us to consider and something more in in respect that he knew the length of his Day and the certain Hour of the Night 's approaching which is impossible for us to do We are sure There is no Work nor Invention in the Grave whither we are going and how near we may be to the brink of that we cannot learn without a Revelation which no man in his Wits will expect They are in a sad condition then that have all this work to do when they know not whether they shall have an hour to dispatch it in but they in a sadder that will still deferr it Certainly there is no instance of presumption in the World that can parallel the desperate folly of this dilatoriness in a Business of such infinite Concernment And because I know it is not in the power of words to express the madness of this practise I shall not make any further attempt to such a purpose But instead of a weak declamation against such a folly as is above all measures of rhetorical aggravation I shall only in compassion to the Souls of men propound to them that may be perswaded to weigh them a few serious Considerations First that although we be fully assured by our Saviour's Parable that he that comes in at the eleventh hour may possibly find time enough to finish this Work Mat. 20.6.12 yet that for ought any man can know that hour may be already past with him yea and the very twelfth may not want many minutes of being spent already with which the day of Salvation must necessarily expire and to recover any minute of it will be as impossible as to recall Yesterday Secondly It is worth the inquiry Whether those persons that came in and were accepted at the eleventh hour had ever been called before and refused to obey For if they had not or it cannot appear that they had their Example is vastly different from the Case of such as have perhaps been called every hour of the day and have always refused with a pertinacious wilfulness presumptuously deferring their obedience to the last And though the negative of their former Calling cannot be fully proved yet there is a strong presumption for it from their own words if they signifie any thing in the Parable Matth. 20.6 7. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle and saith unto them Why stand ye here all the day idle They say unto him Because no man hath hired us What these words should mean is scarce accountable if they do not signifie that that was the first time they had been called to work And for the Thief upon the Cross who came not in till the end of the twelfth hour and yet had the priviledge of accompanying his Saviour the same day into the Heavenly Paradise it is no less uncertain whether ever he met with Christ before or had heard so much of him as could rationally oblige his Faith Besides there were so many singularities of Circumstance in his Case impossible to be found in any other as being considered by one that is not willing to deceive his own Soul can afford no more than a bare Remedy against absolute Despair at the last Moment It is doubtless a very rational truth that one heroïcal act of Vertue may have a just Equivalency to a multitude of ordinary ones And the service of a quarter of an hour may possibly by it's degrees of intension in the zeal as well as by the extraordinary matter of it be as considerable as that of many years Such perhaps is that of a sudden free and zealous Martyrdom whereof
this Duty are also useful by way of direction to the conscientious performance thereof 1. Wouldst thou conform all thy actions to the Glory of God Then labour to understand â—nd know the Minde and Will of God For as before hath been signified God is glorified or dishonoured according as things are done agreeable to or against his Will He therefore that will make Gods Glory the end of his actions must â—ake his Will to be the rule of them and thereâ—re is obliged to enquire diligently into it It beâ—oves Christians to take great heed of determining â—e concernments of Gods Glory by their own â—aginations or opinions And because the â—ost certain declaration of Gods Will is to be had from his Word every one that desires to be informed concerning it is obliged to attend diligently to the reading hearing and meditatinâ— of that Word as it is contained in the holy Scriptures and expounded by the Words and Writings of the most able and faithful Interpreters Hâ— that doth sincerely and earnestly desire to know the Will of God for this end that by doing it hâ— may glorifie God using his best industry to gaâ— this knowledge shall undoubtedly obtain so mucâ— of it as will be sufficient to render both his person and his actions acceptable to God And thougâ— he may in some particulars be mistaken or mis-leâ—â— into some erroneous apprehensions or misprision of Gods Will and thereby also into some action materially disagreeble thereunto Yet he who 〈◊〉 infinitely Wise and Just and Gracious can anâ— will distinguish the integrity of his intentions and will from the error of his understanding 〈◊〉 as to accept the one and not impute the otheâ— Such ignorance or error in a practical matter 〈◊〉 is Morally invincible and therefore inculpable as it is no sin in it self so neither doth it so vitâ— the action as to destroy or evacuate the vertâ— of the good intention 2. Wouldst thou do all that thou dost to tâ— Glory of God It behooves thee then to pâ— earnesty and constantly that God will teach thâ— and guide thee in all thy actions to the service this End Beg of him Wisdom to discern wâ—â— is to be done by thee and how That thou 〈◊〉 be filled with the knowledge of his Will in all Wisdâ—â— and spiritual understanding Col. 1.9 Pray 〈◊〉 the man after Gods own heart Order my 〈◊〉 according to thy word Psal 119.133 Psal 31.3.25.4 and let not any iniquity have dominion over me For thy name sake that is for thy glory sake lead me and guide me Shew me thy ways O Lord and teach me thy paths Teach me thy way O Lord and lead me in a plain path Teach Teach me O Lord the way of thy Statutes and I will keep it unto the end Give me understanding and I shall keep thy Law yea I shall or will observe it with my whole heart Make me to go in the path of thy commandments for therein is my delight Incline my heart unto thy testimonies c. Teach me to do thy Will for thou art my God There is no one petition which the holy man who had as great a zeal for Gods Glory as ever any meer-man had doth so often and so earnestly offer unto God as this And after these divine forms dictated by the Spirit of God there cannot be a more exquisite form of humane invention than is that Collect in our Church-Liturgy Prevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorifie thy holy Name and finally by thy mercy obtain everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen The exâ—ressions of that godly Prayer do evidently â—elate to the Catholique Doctrine concerning the necessity of the preventing operating and coperating Grace of God without which nothing â—an be sincerely done to the glory of God For â—t is he that worketh in us to will and to do of his good â—easure This holy practice of constant Prayer â—o God for his Grace hath a double way of promoting his Glory First by the impetration of his Grace promised to them that so seek it Secondly by importing an acknowledgment that whatever shall or can be done to this end is the intire effect of his Grace which gives him the whole glory oâ— whatever is done to or for it 3. If thou dost seriously and habitually desire to glorifie God in all that thou dost thou canst noâ— better express it than by making frequent actualâ— and explicite resignations and oblations of thy self and all that thou hast and dost to God in holy vows answerable to that by which thou wenâ— first conse crated to his service in holy Baptism because that is done Mystically and Vicariously rather for us than by us whilst it is now generally practised in the state of infancie and so as without our knowledge so neither with nor against our wills It behooves us being once come tâ— years of understanding and choice to recogniâ—â— renew and confirm that Vow by free acts of 〈◊〉 own And though this be religiously done in the solemn Office of Confirmation yet because that iâ— too much neglected there being indeed but fâ—â— that have the desire and opportunity of partaking thereof as also because the same is most ordinatâ—ly passed in years of Childhood having but a feâ— measures of choice and freedom above the Baptismal Consecration in infancie it is the part of devout Christian with due reflection upon and â—cognition of both those publick and solemn is gagements to make repetitions of that sacrâ— Vow in a way of private Devotion And this will be most conveniently done 〈◊〉 consecrating every day and the works thereof aâ— soon as it begins to the glory of God in soâ— short form of Meditated Prayer to that special end or at least in an explicite Ejaculation As soon as thou awakest in the morning set God and his Glory before thee as the ultimate end of that daies work with a fervent desire and firm resolution First of doing nothing wittingly contrary to the Will of God Secondly of taking all opportunities and improving all talents that shall be found in thy hands to honour and serve him And lest thou shouldst be discouraged from such a strict Exercise of Piety by the fear of being thereby prejudiced or restrained in thy secular imployments or at least in the use of lawful liberties and recreations thou art to remember thou hast to do with a wise and gracious Father who accounts himself served and honoured by his Children as well in the honest and necessary works of their respective callings as in the solemn Exercises of Religion and is not at all displeased with a sober and moderate use of innocent recreations either of minde or body But when they are used in his fear and limited by the known bounds of his Will doth therein also esteem himself honoured After this
Means how hainous a Sin must it needs be To tread under foot the Bloud of the Son of God! I shall conclude my Discourse with some special Directions how to prosecute this Work with the best advantage 1. Because as we read in the following verse It is God that worketh in us to will and to do of his good pleasure it behoves us to pray earnestly frequently and constantly for the effectual assistance of his grace That Godly fear and trembling which the Text requires serves to drive us to God in the humble sense of our own danger and impotency And we have a promise that Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved Rom. 10.13 Not that this is all that is required to Salvation but that he that doth so shall not want any assistance of Gods grace necessary to Salvation And that he will give the holy Spirit to them that aske it Luk 11.13 Alwaies supposed that we aske aright with sincere and earnest desire to receive and improve the gift which requires that we be carefull not to receive the grace of God in vain not to resist or quench the spirit as is usually done by many that daily pray for his grace in a formal and hypocritical manner The successe of our prayers depends upon the sincerity of our desires which is only verified by our diligent indeavors to obtain the things we pray for Secondly Because the Word of God and especially the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation able to save our soules to make us wise unto Salvation it concerns us to attend diligently to the reading hearing and meditating of this Divine Word and that not only because it affords unto us direction how to attain this end by informing us concerning the conditions thereof but also because it is a powerfull mean to work them in uâ— The holy Spirit by which God worketh in us both to Will and to do breathes in the Word and is ordinarily conveyed thereby into the souls of men Thirdly Because although this work cannoâ— be done for us by any other persons yet it may bâ— promoted by their assistance we have great reason to desire the assistance of Christian brethren by their charitable admonitions counsel conference and prayers And this help is most desirable from them that are best qualified to afford it and therefore especially from our spirituall Pastors and Teachers without neglect of faithful brethren It is Saint James his advice Confess your sins one to another and pray one for another Jam. 5 16. the effectual prayer of a righteous man availeth much When men are to work out some temporall interest to save themselves from danger or to obtain any preferment they will desire the assistance of others especially such as are most able to further them in it And have we not as much and a great deal more reason to do so in this spiritual design Fourthly It behooves us to take great heed not only of all such things as do directly oppose this work as being contrary to it such are all sinful practices and customes but also of all hinderances and divertisements from it Such as are found in the world The men of the world and the things of the world First The men of the world by their vain company evil example and otherwayes are great impediments to the serious prosecution of this work And therefore it behooves Christians to have as little familiarity with them as they may Depart from me saith David for I will keep the commandments of my God Psal 119.115 it is not an easie thing to keep the commandements of God in the company of evil doers I have not sate with vain persons saith he again neither will I go in with dissemblers I have hated the congregation of evil doers and will not sit with the wicked As we shall have none of their company in Heaven so neither should we desire or delight in it on Earth because it hinders us in our way to Heaven Secondly The things of the World are very great incumbrances and lets in this holy work The profits Pleasures and Preferments of this world though innocent in themselves yet do very much â—ivert men from the pursuit of true holiness and happiness They that will be rich saith Saint Paul fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts 1 Tim. 6.9 which drown men in destruction and perdition 2 Tim 2.4 No man that warreth intangleth himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a souldier Take heed of being too sollicitous for thy portion in this world lest that prove to be all that thou shalt have The generality of men lose all the treasures joys and glories of Heaven by being too covetous of the supposed lawfull riches pleasures and honours of this world Remember the words of our Saviour how hard a thing it is though not impossible for a rich man to enter into the Kingdome of Heaven If thou wouldest be sure to save thy soul Love not the world nor the things of the world 1 Joh. 2.15 If thou wouldst once be happy indeed content thy self here in this world with the hopes of it in an other life and doe not seek to anticipate it in the injoyments of this world Fifthly Examine thy self often and seriously whether this work be truly begun and how it goes forward It is the exhortation of the Apostle Examine your selves whether ye be in the faith prove your own selves 1 Cor 13.5 It behooveth Christians to put the question to themselves whether they be in the right Faith whether they be true beleevers or no whether they be duly qualified for this Salvation according to the conditions declared in the promises Do I indeed believe in the Lord Jesus with an unfained Faith How is this Faith perfected or verified by my works Have I truly repented and brought forth fruits worthy of repentance Do I live after the flesh or after the spirit Is it my study and diligent indeavour to cleanse my self from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and to perfect holiness in the fear of God Am I in the right way to Heaven or no This practice of self examination is so much the more necessary as it is easie to be deceived in a mans pretended title to this salvation multitude of persons are deceived and wil finally perish that make account to be saved and do not suspect their own condition This is certainly the case of most men For almost all men do hope to be saved and yet our Saviour tells us that the gate is so narrow and the way so straight that they are but few that will find it How much then doth it concern us To work out our Salvation with fear and trembling to be exact and curious in this business and to take heed of flattering our selves with vain hopes and false grounds 6. Lastly To secure this work let us remember and observe carefully the precept of our Saviour and his Apostles Mat. 13.13 Take heed watch and pray Watch ye stand fast in the faith 1 Cor. 16.13 Be sober be vigilant because your adversary the devil 1 Pet. 5.8 as a roaring Lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour 1 Thes 5.6 Let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober Take heed of spiritual sloth and that thou fall not asleep in sin and security Remember the parable of the foolish Virgins that slept away their opportunity of meeting their Lord and were shut out of his company There is no general practice so usefull and necessary to the keeping of a good conscience and the perfecting of holmess as this of constant watchfulness over our selves The want whereof is the cause of mens neglect of and miscarriage in this work THE END
2.11.17 c. And to quote no more Texts in so evident a matter whosoever understands what this work is cannot be ignorant of the difficultie thereof Wherein so many strong lusts of the flesh are to be mortified the Old man to be crucified Self to be denied the Cross to be taken up So many duties to God Our selves and our Neighbours to be diligently performed An infinite number of temptations impediments and snares must be overcome even as many as can be raised or laid by the wit and malice of the Devell by all the variety of worldly things both good and bad that may be desired or feared to the prejudice of this designe and by al lthe men that we converse with in the world The evil examples inticements discouragements and seducement of bad men The errors infirmities and scandalous miscarriages of good men There is scarce any person or thing in the world that we can have to do withall but may minister some kind of temptation to divert us from the strictness of a holy life But to all those difficulties that can be created to us from without the greatest addition is given by our Selves from our own manifold imperfections infirmities corruptions and carnal dispositions comprehended under the general name of the flesh For the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the thing that ye would Gal. 5.17 By all which considerations it is abundantly evident that this saving work is full of difficultie and therefore not to be finished without great diligence Neither ought it to be a wonder that such an immense reward as that of an eternal felicity should be charged with so much difficultie as is enough to exercise the best of our diligence it being Proverbiably true amongst men that all excellent things are difficult to obtain and if they were not so they would be of no such esteem A cheap and easie Victory gives not so much joy as a difficult one So undoubtedly the difficulties that we meet withall in the way of Salvation being overcome by the Grace of God will much advance the joy of that victory and render us capable of greater degrees of glory than otherwise we should be That glory as it is promised in Scripture being to be dispensed by way of reward will bear proportion to the labour and difficultie of the work not as meritorious in a strict sense but as the effect and exercise of Divine grace For glory is the Crown of grace not as that signifies a gift habit or infused quality but as it works or is exercised in us by the co-operation of our own wills effectually assisted thereby Hence it is that both Scripture and Catholick sense of the Church doth attribute a special eminent degree of glory to Martyrs above other ordinary Saints I say ordinary Saints conceiving there will be as great a distinction of Saints as Scripture intimates there is of Angels As in the Catholick Church here below there is a plebs or vulgus a populacy and a Nobless Some * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 17.11 more noble than others in the perfection of holiness Some Heroes such as Enoch and Elias Ahraham and David Peter and Paul and their collegues So will it be in the Kingdom of Heaven One Starre will differ from anothr in glory And though Infants and Ideots baptized especially will be saved yet it is not probable that their glory will be equal to that of other Saints who had less of Innocency but more of vertue in their Lives And upon this account it is justly desirable that Infants Baptized may live to adult years though therehy they cannot but incurre some hazard of that salvation whereof they were for that state secured by their Baptism as including the whole of the condition or qualification required in them not only that they may glorifie God here which is the end of our Being and therefore ought to be desired but also that themselves may be qualified for a further degree of glory than their baptismal grace never proved or excercised can be concluded to give them Upon the same reason I suppose it not to be the interest of Christians to desire to get to Heaven with the least difficultie that may be Not only because thereby we shall glorifie God so much the lesse by how much the less the excercise and trial of our love and obedience shall be But also because by that means also the state and degree of our future glory and happiness may be abated and that for ought we know to all eternity This consideration may afford great incouragement and consolation to Christians against the special and extraordinary difficulties that they may meet withall in the way of Salvation above others Namely that all their labour of love will be undoubtedly considered in the free and bountifull reward But now against all the difficulties and impediments that are to be mett with in this great work we have also this further comfort and incouragement viz. That as we have many sorts of temptations many lets impediments and difficulties to passe through in this business so have we as many and indeed more variety of helps aids succours assistances and incouragements towards our inabling to go through withall The means of graâ—e are more various and more potent than the motives to sin For in opposition to the three generall principles and causes of temptation the Flesh the World and the Devil we have more than so many counterforces strengths auxiliaries and motives to withstand those temptations As for instance to incounter the Flesh and corrupt nature every Christian hath the promised assistance of the Spirit and grace of God For the spirit lusteth against the flesh Besides to oppose the inordinate lust of carnal affections and passions every man hath the faculties of Reason and Conscience which if they be not rejected or neglected will do him some service in this spiritual warfarre Against the temptations of the World that is of the things of the World good or evil by way of desire or fear a man hath if he believes the Scripture first the same kind of things of both sorts to confront his temptations in the Promises of Blessings in this Life to him that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts will live soberly righteously and godly in this present World For Godliness hath the promise of this Life and in the Threatnings of all sorts of Punishments in this World to him that doth not so And secondly he hath besides this the things of an other World both good and evil to desire and fear infinitely greater than any thing wherewith he is liable to be tempted in this World Then against temptations from the men of the World of all sorts we have also the Exhortations Counsels Admonitions and Examples of good men together with the Prayers of the whole Church to strengthen our patience excite and