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
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
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
fatal nature of sin the blood of Bulls and of Goats purified the flesh indeed but to purge the Conscience another kind of Sacrifice was needful even the Blood of the Son of God I can easily read in these sufferings of my Saviour that the wages of sin is death and sin is not grown less ugly or less hateful to God since the Death of his Son before the strength of i. e. that which gives the fatality to sin was the Law but now much more the Gospel I mean not as the one was a Covenant of Works and the other is of Grace but as the one i. e. the Law had the Majesty of God stamp'd upon it and so each transgression was an affront to the Divine Glory this other i. e. the Gospel arms its Laws with a double Obligation of infinite Glory and inexpressible goodness so that the death of the Son of God doth exceedingly enhance the guilt and aggravation of sin and makes sin become exceeding sinful For 2. To lay down his life thus for our sakes to expiate our sins by his blood was an act of such amazing love as should transport us into a chearful and ready obedience The love of Christ should constrain us to live not to our selves but to him who died for us and rose again That the belief of his bitter passion for our sakes should beget in us no tenderness nor affection towards him at all is unnatural and unpardonable or that we should love him and not obey him is as unnatural but that we should be so far from loving him that we should hate and persecute him is a baseness I want words to express and yet not only Apostacy but any course of sin doth crucifie him afresh and put him to an open shame for whoever is an Enemy to Holiness and Goodness is so to him too If we look upon his Death as an Act of Obedience to his God then we learn from it the indispensable necessity of parting with life it self for the sake of those truths we profess that nothing ought to be so dear to us as obedience to God We learn the great Lesson of Mortification call'd in Scripture being crucified with him made conformable to his Death in the subduing all our carnal affections it being highly unreasonable that we should expect an entrance into Glory by any other path than that of suffering and unreasonable to expect a share in the Resurrection to Glory if we do not first die with him 3. His Glory is the third and last part of our Saviours History which is a powerful inducement to Holiness this begins in his Resurrection Now the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead is a very clear proof of our Resurrection as S. Paul argues 1 Cor. 15. and so the great Argument to a good Life i.e. a Resurrection being demonstrated to the very senses of Mankind leaves no excuse for sin the wicked cannot flatter their Consciences into confidence by denying it nor can the hopes of good men droop and languish thorough doubting of it No if Christ be risen then there is a Resurrection from the Dead and the same power which rais'd him will raise us too at his coming and they who have done well shall enter into that glory which Christ now enjoys at the right hand of God as a reward of his obedience unto death Phil. 2. and all who imitate his Life shall in their several degrees and proportions partake of a reward of the same nature for we shall reign with him we shall sit with him in his Throne And surely this example of the reward of goodness cannot but commit a kind of pleasing violence upon the affections of man and transport him above temptations this was that Prospect which ravish'd the first Martyr into an Extasie though on the brink of dangers and death Act. 7.56 Behold I see the Heavens open'd and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God And if we could often lift up our eyes and fasten them upon this pleasing sight it would unavoidably raise us above this present world we should not be discourag'd at the poverty or reproach of our Saviours Life at the pain or the anguish of his death if we did but often contemplate the peace and the glory and the happiness which now Crowns his Conquests It is very true that a life led in Prayers and Meditation and Sacraments and an Abstinence from sensual pleasures doth not appear very gaudy or taking to a carnal man but if the same man could but behold one who had liv'd thus translated into Heaven how would he adore the wisdom and happiness of the Saints and how devout and holy how pure and mortified would be his life afterwards It is said of the Disciples who saw our Saviour carried up into Heaven that they return'd to Hierusalem with great joy and were continually in the Temple praising and blessing God a clear proof that there would be no painfulness in the industry and fervency of a spiritual life if we did often reflect upon the joys such a life prepares us for there would be nothing harsh unpleasant or dishonorable in the modesty and mortification of a Christian state if we did but look forward to the Crown and Kingdom it doth gain for us who that had seen our Blessed Lord received up with glory into Heaven would not have wish'd it had been his turn too that he had liv'd and died suffer'd and conquer'd with him and had been to ascend with him out of a troublesome sinful World with joy and triumph into Heaven And thus now it evidently appears that every part of our Saviours History is full of very powerful Motives to Holiness that all he did and suffer'd tended to destroy the works of the Devil and to implant goodness and Holiness in the world and we must not think that a Design carried on by God in such a wonderful manner can be otherwise than strangely dear to him and that we must not think that if we through our obstinacy and unnatural disobedience defeat this Design we can ever escape utter Damnation a Damnation more unsufferable than that of sinful Heathens c. Therefore The Prayer O Blessed and holy Jesus grant me thy holy Spirit that I may lay to heart the instruction of thy Doctrine and thy Life and may not only know but do thy will when I look up on thy Crucified Body on the Cross may I tremble at the guilt and weight of my sins which stood in need of so bloody a Sacrifice and may thy bitter Agonies for me melt me into love and passion for thee and this love constrain me to obey thee O may I be willing to sacrifice all my pleasures to thy Commands who hast laid down thy Life for me and being made conformable to thy Death then I may look up with pleasure on thy Glory and Lord grant that the hope of partaking in it may make me purifie my self and walk as
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
his infinite wisedom thought it necessary to send his Son into the world and therefore it is necessary to eternal Life to believe in Jesus Christ whom he hath sent and about him we are inform'd in the Gospel that he is the Son of God that he was made Man and liv'd here upon Earth that he might teach us our Duty and leave us an Example of it that he was crucified for our sins that he rose again from the Dead and after forty dayes sojourning here he was received into glory and became the Head and Prince of his Church c. The Belief of all which illustrates the Justice and Mercy of the Most High God assures us of the truth of his promises i. e. The assistance of the Spirit of God and eternal Rewards and superadds most powerful Obligations to obedience and layes an unshaken foundation of Joy and Peace by shewing us on what account our sins are pardon'd and our services accepted So that now there will need but few words to prove 2. That this knowledge doth directly serve the End and Aims of Religion which must be Gods Glory and Mans Happiness the former is already prov'd for to Glorifie and to Worship God are equivalent terms the later easily appears thus in that this Belief doth 1. Rescue us from the power of sin by powerful motives and endearments to and by supernatural assistances of virtue and 2. From the guilt of it by the Blood of Christ and so it frees us from the misery of unruly passions and from the slavish Fears of Death and Hell 3. It composes our minds in all the various changes of the world by the firm perswasion of the wisedom power and goodness of the God who governs it And lastly it delights and satisfies our Souls by the discovery of Objects fit for their love and enjoyment which is no less essentially necessary to our present happiness than any of the former for Man being a weak and empty Creature cannot like God find his happiness in the fruition of himself but must seek it in something else which must be able to fill all his desires and appetites and satisfie all his Capacities of enjoyment O Happy Christian that conquers the World and himself that is freed from all fears and jealousies about a future State and enjoys the ravishing Objects of a glorious Faith well may the Holy Spirit make up the Description of this State of characters of Joy Peace and Hope 2. But now Secondly that this Happiness may be intire it is neessary to secure the peace of my own bosome as to the matters of Faith And this may be disturbed two wayes either by doubting of the Truth or else the Sence of Divine Revelation we are tempted to the former commonly by this Argument These things cannot be therefore the Book which contains the History of them is an imposture To the later by much the same Argument These things cannot be therefore since we cannot deny the authority of Scripture we must explain them in some other sense Both proceed upon this botome I cannot understand or conceive the possibility of this or that therefore it cannot be To secure my self from the first of these I consider the infinite Majesty of the God we worship and the trifling dwarfish Capacities of us Men and then I wonder not that some Articles should rather surprise and dazle my faculties than enlighten them To expect otherwise were to forget the nature of mysteries and of my self it is true to believe without a Reason for it is Credulity not Faith but then Revelation is the highest Reason for the belief of things supernatural there being no other mean left us to attain to their knowledge so that all that Reason can have to do here is not to discuss the probability of the Article revealed but the Authority of the revelation and this being once clear'd to surrender up our doubts and scruples which is weighing the shallowness of our understandings and the depths of mysteries no more than in a tedious long journey our eyes being dim and the way unknown and intricate to abandon our selves to the conduct of a kind skillful and faithful Guide The Sum of all is this Man is born like a wild Asses Colt and arrives into a rational Creature by painful institution and slow progressions the Soul being clouded by Passions imprison'd and limited by scanty Organs perverted by unhappy prejudices and therefore 't is a very wild and extravagant piece of folly to make ones own understanding the great standard and measure of all truth or to determine that the utmost of our Fancy is the utmost extent of Nature and of the Deity too for on the other hand God is a great and incomprehensible Being Great is the Lord and greatly to be prais'd and his greatness is unsearchable Psal 145.3 and therefore by a clear consequence our Faith is not the less reasonable because it is the more resign'd an awful distance and a modest Faith is as essential a part of Holiness as the conformity of our Wills to the Divine Law These very Considerations will serve to secure me 2. Against all doubts about the Sense of Revelation for the received and general sense appears to be the more natural and obvious and therefore no objection lies against it but what is already remov'd the seeming impossibility of it and if it be further consider'd that the Gospel was address'd to persons of very ordinary endowments and therefore to be understood in its most obvious sense that it is most conformable to that humble infant Spirit Christ requires in his Disciples to qualifie them for the reception of his Doctrine to Believe rather than Dispute That the receiv'd sense is the sense of the whole Catholick Church That an Errour of judgement which springs from Humility not Pride will be rather pitied than punish'd by a good God this all together will easily raise my Faith above all scruple and wavering Especially if I add to all this this one Observation That the Adversaries of any one Article of Faith have never made up one entire Body but several Sects divided by numerous and contradictory Tenents built up upon different Foundations that they have never been able to propagate any thing but wild and unaccountable fancies that they have set Scripture at a more irreconcileable distance from it self and instead of clearing its mysterious senses have made its plainest sense a Mystery From all this I am oblig'd to resolve not to gaze and stare upon Majesty lest I be blinded by the shine of it but worship and adore that I may be blest by it I 'le look upon my Creed like the Ark of God 2 Sam. 6. It must not be toucht by a bold hand though to support it all its Articles are like the Stones of the Altar Exod. 20. to lift up a tool of a Workman upon them tho with design to polish and adorn is nothing else but to profane and
and devotion do I behold the amazing instances of my Saviours Love whilst with so much affection and sweetness he laid down his life for me whilst his enemy and his persecutor O how I long to do something for such a Saviour as this to execute my lusts to bring his and mine Enemies before his face and slay them and now tho a survey of my sins hath filled me with amazement and shame yet since Christ hath died I look up with comfort and an humble hope Since he hath died did I say yea rather since he is risen again for By Faith I see him breaking forth with Power and great Glory out of his Sepulchre I behold him ascending in Triumph up to Heaven I see with Stephen the Heavens open'd and my Prince and Saviour sitting at the right hand of Power with one hand despencing his Graces with the other holding never fadeing wreaths to crown the patience of his Saints And now how I am exalted above Nature transported above the world and flesh how this prospect hath disarm'd the Beauties and glories of this life of all their Killing charms and Temptations how my soul leaps for joy to see a way open'd into the holy of holies and to consider the mighty interest I have in Heaven As for Earth I am so far from admiring it I value it not I know I must sojourn here a while and therefore I must be fed and cloath'd but my heavenly Father knows I have need of these things and his is the Earth and the fulness thereof and therefore he cannot want means and ability to provide for me and he is a wise and a good God and he hath promis'd by his Son to take care of me and all this will invite him to design and accomplish what is best for me Upon these grounds I think I could hope like Abraham even against hope I could relie upon God without any flattering appearances of promises Friends nay or any visible probabilities I am to seek the righteousness of the Kingdome and permit the Government of the World to the God of it I am his child and he is my Heavenly Father to obey is my Duty and with Reverence be it said to provide for me is his By this time it is easie to be discern'd what kind of Faith it is must save or justifie us one that enlightens our understanding and ravisheth our Heart one that prayes and watches that contends and struggles and fights and conquers one that makes us too great for Earth and fit for Heaven one that fears and loves and worships and seeks and relies and hopes And then 3. When it hath done this when I find my Faith made perfect in Love when through this belief I find my self a conqueror over the World and Flesh and have crucified those lusts I did before serve and gratifie then I am full of Joy and peace Then I feel that pledge of his Love that spirit which he hath given me assuring me of the pardon of my sins thorough the blood of Christ Then I have a foretaste of the powers of the world to come and I do in some measure anticipate my Heaven And not till then For this perswasion of the pardon of my sins call it what you please Faith Peace Hope Assurance is always proportionable to the success I have in my fight of Faith if I have either falsly betrayed or weakly deserted a good cause i.e. my virtue under a temptation which is in Scripture call'd a Tryal if I have turn'd my back in the day of battel then my own conscience condemns me and because I know that God is greater than my Conscience and knoweth all things therefore I cannot expect to stand when I am judged unless I rally and repair my fault But if upon a serious reflection upon my life each evening my conscience acquit me as a Conqueror through Faith and Love then I rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory what a beautiful morning doth this Faith shed upon any soul How I long that thy Kingdome O God may come And how I disdain all that this vain World can flatter me with Then like Peter tho all men should be offended fall through temptation yet will not I. Give me a temptation equal to this Faith till the sense of my frailty as in Peter do lower my confidence and yet heighten my resolutions And yet all this doth not in the least imply any reliance or confidence in my own Righteousness or works phrases of the same sense in Scripture But that I know Repentance and Faith are propos'd as the sole conditions of Justification thorough the bloud of Christ And that these fruits or effects of Righteousness I mean a holy life are the onely evidence of these habits and therefore I can never perswade my self that I believe and repent till I live well nor ever flatter my self with Peace Peace through his bloud till I thus believe and Repent to do otherwise is presumption not Faith 't is the fond and groundless confidence of foolish Virgins which shall be for ever shut out from the Bridegrooms presence There is not in the book of God any one plainer Doctrine than this Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdome of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven which is not every one that professes me to be Lord and so far relies upon me as to knock at the gates of Heaven with presumption of admission shall enter c. If we walk in the light as he God is in the light we have fellowship one with another and truely our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ v. 3. and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin Where walking in the light that is Holiness is suppos'd as a necessary condition to our purification by the blood of Christ and tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope and hope maketh not asham'd c. These are the steps or stages by which the Christian maketh his progress into assurance Tribulation being conquer'd worketh patience and Patience experience i.e. a conviction or proof of our Love of God and this experience worketh hope which contains in it th' assurance of pardon and the expectance of a better world and by the same method doth he who is attack'd by the temptations of pleasures proceed to a particular assurance The Sum of all is this man may be consider'd in Three states 1. Of unregeneration and then he is to be convinc'd of the truth of the Gospel if that be suppos'd this belief will easily convince him of his unrighteousness and shew him the wrath of God reveal'd from Heaven against all ungodly and impenitent sinners and on the other hand the blood of Christ who became a propiation for the sins of the World will encourage him to hope for reconciliation and pardon if he repent and
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
that its acts are easie and delightful for Habit is but another Nature so Holiness is call'd in Scripture a new Nature and what is natural is pleasant when our graces are full of Life and Vigour when our sight is grown clearer and our affections warmer and we converse with God and Heaven then it is that we begin to enjoy the sweets of Religion that we anticipate our Heaven by performing his will on earth as it is done in Heaven Religion is at first employed in the unpleasant tho wholesome severities of cutting off Right Hands and pulling out Right Eyes Lusts become so natural they were become our members but afterwards having conquer'd the World his commandements are not grievous but full of delight and satisfaction in Conversion as in the alteration of an Old building we first demolish those parts which are not uniform and beautiful and this presents us with nothing but rubbish and ruins but afterwards we raise up an orderly beautiful and lightsome building where we may solace and entertain our selves 3. An Exalted Holiness is not only delightsome in the very acts and exercises of its graces but in the fruits and effects of them Joy and Peace and Hope are the natural consequences of this State of Perfection and its actions because such a mans Love of God is now so evident and manifest he hath no longer room to doubt of it and then what a ravishing pleasure must it be to be able to survey all the glorious promises of the Gospel as such which himself is an heir to who can with full assurance think himself just upon the confines of Heaven within a moment of entring into joy without a very sensible transport 4. It 's entitled to greater measures of Glory in the Life to come Tho the lowest degree of future glory be above the merit of the most holy Life and tho God may do what he will with his own so that the chiefest Saint could not have just reason to complain tho the meanest were equall'd with him yet it is plain that there will be order in another World and those stars of the Morning of the Resurrection will differ in Glory and this will be proportion'd to their Behaviour in this life he which soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly and he which soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully 2 Cor. 9.6 Is it not therefore highly reasonable on this account that we should aspire after the greatest degrees of Holiness we can for who would not desire to be as happy and as glorious as he can It is now apparent that perfection is a duty propos'd to us upon very powerful and glorious motives for who that is wise will not take pains to arrive at that perfection which is a State of greater security greater ease and pleasure more acceptable to God and entitled to greater degrees of Glory in Heaven For the attainment of this State observe these few Rules 1. Believe a Holy Just Almighty God every where present neither is there any Creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and opened to the eyes of him with whom we have to do Heb. 4.13 Nay God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things If Heaven be his Throne Earth is his Footstool and therefore walk not only as preparing to meet him but as already before him this will awe a wandring spirit and it will not be easie to fear and sin and it will awaken a decaying affection and it will not be easie to omit a duty it will teach us how to judg our actions impartially and we shall neither impose upon our selvs by fondness nor do any thing for opinion sake when we consider that we have God for a Judge and Spectator I am th' almighty God walk before me and be thou perfect Gen. 17.2 2. Consider frequently and seriously the Life and Death the sufferings and the Crown of the blessed Jesus for his Life will convince you how lovely and pleasant virtue is altho' it seem to the World foolish contemptible and painful his death will inform you what Obligation you lye under to Holyness for will you not love and obey that Saviour who hath redeem'd you by his Blood and are you not sensible that our Heavenly Father is strangely in love with Holiness since he doth propagate it by such a method his Crown and his Kingdome will breath fresh Life and Spirits into your affections this is the motive which the Apostle Heb. 12. Makes use of to perswade us to lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and to run with patience the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despised the shame and is set down at the Right Hand of the Throne of God for consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself least ye be wearied and faint in your minds upon the same bottom is grounded that exhortation of St. Paul 1 Cor. 15.58 Therefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know that your Labour is not in vain in the Lord. 3. Each morning endeavour to foresee what temptations you are to encounter that day and summon up all the strengths of Grace and Nature of Religion and reason against the hour of Tryal survey each part of the Fort and having discover'd which is the weak place of the soul and most approachable secure it by a strong guard by arguments and Prayers and a diligent watch there are many things harsh to flesh and blood which are to be undergone for the sake of Christ and therefore weigh well the strength of your own resolutions whether you are able to engage so powerful an enemy as the World and Flesh thus our blessed Lord when Luk. 14.26 27. he had told them that if they would be his Disciples they must bear his Cross exhorts them to consider beforehand their engagement and to see that their preparations be suitable to the difficulty by the examples of a builder who first sitteth down to count the cost whether he have sufficient to finish his intended building and of a King who going to War with another King doth first sit down and consider whether he hath strength enough to meet him and when you have done this commit your self by Prayers to God and then march forth out of your Chamber into the World like a Souldier out of his Camp into the field upon the day of battle And each evening look over all the passages of the Day and see how you have behaved your self what victory you have gain'd what ground you have got what grace is most faint and sickly c. and alwayes close this exercise with a serious Reflection upon the nature of thy Life how fast it steals away into Eternity enter in fancy into the
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
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
please it self in the Imaginary Charms of Honour and Command and Beauty but it must be base and earthly degenerous and sottish e're it can be taken by these Emptiness were enough to deter our pursuit but besides 2. There is an alloy and mixture in this world which renders it very vain The face of our fortunes here below is like that of waters which the winds have curl'd and shrivell'd you can scarce discern the little smoothnesses for the numerous swellings though enjoyment be the sinners aim it is the least part of his portion for besides the cross accidents which befal things and the inconstancy of humours on which pleasure depends the sinner himself lodges in his bosom a whole Legion of mutinous lusts which though the Off-spring of the same parent do oppose and destroy one another Love will not give way to the Intrigues and Fatigue of busie Ambition nor Ambition stoop to the softness and laziness of Love Covetousness will not admit of the waste and prodigality of Lust nor Lust comply with the severities and stingyness and drudgery of Covetousness a great Fortune's necessary to support great sins and yet our sins lay waste our fortune our health is necessary to sensual pleasure and yet our sensual pleasures undermine our health and thus the change of things and humours and the contradiction of Lusts makes the sinners life a strange mixture of Desires and disappointments of pursuits and Repentances and after all suppose the best we can 3. Our pleasures are extreamly transient the fashion of this world passeth away every thing is in continual flux and change and what pleases most commonly takes wing first for the height and perfection of every thing consists in such a point that Nature seems rather to be still ascending to it or declining from it than standing still in it But if the World were constant we ourselves are not our Temper dayly alters and our fancies are seldome the same to day which they were yesterday and how can our pleasures be constant when though their Objects continue Lovely we cannot promise our selves that we can love them long We may therefore thus state our whole account Time is but a moment to Eternity Life but a moment in Time and enjoyment fills up but a very moment in Life Lord what a trifle and nothing is that which we prefer to an Eternity of Bliss Thus I have consider'd the Nature of the world objects to discover the nature of pleasure it will be proper to consider 2. Our own Nature who injoy for this will give us further light into the nature of sensual pleasure And here 1. That Ray of Reason and Wisdome which is shed upon the Soul is a meer check and restraint to our sensualities and renders the pleasures of the Body in Man less pure and entire than in children and Beasts and he that hath any greatness or wisdom in his mind sins with the uneasiness that the Learned and the Great feel when they descend to play the fool they scorn their own easiness and are asham'd of their pleasures Our Fancies I have spoken to Our Senses are narrow scanty things they can enjoy but a little and but for a moment Let our fortune be wide and large as it will our enjoyment can be no larger than our senses we may if we please study variety of Objects but all the while we onely change often and possess but little for such is the nature of our scanty Organs we can never enjoy a new pleasure without quitting the old i. e. Without losing as much as we gain Our change of Humours is unaccountable we are often sullen and froward and know not why and then like children we quarrel with our toyes and tear and throw away the bables which we doted on Blessed God that ever rational men should forfeit Heaven and incur a Hell for such a mixt uncertain state of empty pleasures as this is Could we like Moses climb some Mountain and arrive within Ken of Canaan with what regret and shame and scorn should we look down upon the dull pleasures of Earth Well doth thy Holy Spirit describe the Slaves of Sin to be blind and sleepy dead and senseless things for we need but open our eyes and see through all that paint and varnish that mocks and deludes the fancy we need but be Wise and we shall be holy too for if we but once understand the world we cannot but despise it 5. The consideration of what our sinful pleasures stands us in they are too too dear a purchase without the consideration of the life to come They distemper and decay the Body they exhaust our Estates and blast our reputations they are the Furies which haunt and disquiet us with desires and jealousies despight and Anger and Vexation c. They dissever the clossest Unions and the dearest Friendships They rob us of the more manly satisfactions of doing good of being Wise and Learned of a peaceful Conscience of a soul enlightned like Moses face by a daily converse with God of Meditations grown sprightly and chearful through a closser acquaintance with Heaven and the conscience of no guilt but what we have wept and prayed against they bereave us lastly of the satisfaction of a fixt and steady choise of an assured and confident mind of obsequious and governable tempers of an even and orderly life and of the joyes of glorious hopes and a growing assurance 6. And yet after all if we state the Case between the Good and Bad as to point of worldly pleasure according to the natural issue or consequence of things from their Causes those possess more and truer pleasures tahn these for whilst the Good only approve and the Bad dote the Good use and the Bad abuse the World the Good are prudent in their choice and constant and orderly in their deportment the bad are blind and rash in the former and light and disorderly in the latter it must needs follow that the Good are the Masters of their pleasures the Bad the Slaves that the Good meet with what they expect because they have true notions of the World and things of it but the Bad are defeated in their hopes because they swell and enlarge their desires beyond all possibility of receiving satisfaction from an empty Creature that the state of the Good is as well secur'd and settled as the nature of things below would admit but that of the Wicked is confused and uncertain What a silly thing now is Impiety and how wise and well contriv'd a thing is Religion what can we desire more of God if he give us a pleasant fortune he prescribes us rules how to injoy it prudently if he involve us in a cross one he supplies us pleasures and comforts to sweeten it and support us The Prayer O Almighty God and the kind and gracious Father of Mankind I desire to adore and bless thee that thou hast dealt thus by the poor Sons of Men
that thou hast secured our happiness by the Revelation of glorious truths by the encouragement of precious promises and by the sanction of wise Laws Grant most gracious God that I may be daily conversant in thy most glorious Gospel to this End that the pleasures of the world and the flesh may not ensnare and entangle me but that I may be enabled through thy word and Spirit to live above the corruptions of Lust to possess my vessel in purity and honour and to enjoy thy blessings moderately and thankfully that I may at last be received into an Eternity of Rest and Peace and Joy thorough Jesus Christ my Lord. CHAP. II. Of Pain consider'd as a Temptation to Sin BY Pain I mean every thing which is troublesome All troubles may be reduc'd under two Heads Imaginary and Real ones by Real I mean such as do actually injure the mind or bodies of men by Imaginary I mean such as could have no influence at all upon men but through the assistance of prejudice or fancy I 'le begin with the latter and in speaking to both I must premise this that I will not bring home every Argument by a close Application for then this very Head would swell into a vast proportion but content my self with proving That there is no pain which can be a just warrant for sin because the Gospel hath provided such Remedies as may render it supportable and such Rewards as may countervail all our sufferings There is no Temptation which befals us but what is common to men and God is faithful and will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able the strengths he allows us but will with the Temptation make a way to escape that we may be able to bear it There are many things which are not really harsh and unsufferable in themselves but they become such because it is the custom of the world to think them so For example a shallow Fortune but sufficient for the necessary comforts of life an inglorious solitude or privacy the Opinions of others concerning us these things have no real influence either upon mind or body they cannot make the Soul less rational nor the body less healthy a man may be happy here and go to Heaven afterwards without much fame or wealth that all the misery that is deriv'd from these things depends upon Opinion is plain because some have made that Poverty retirement and contempt their choice which is such a Bug-bear to others and so the same thing which is ones affliction becomes anothers pleasure So that it is plain fancy gives us the wound not the things themselves or else if misery were an inseparable Companion to the things themselves it were impossible that Content should ever sojourn in Cells or Cottages or ever be a stranger to Wealth and Honour Of this sort of troubles are all those other passions which are inkindled in us by the impressions of things from without for even Beauty Grandure Gaity c. though in their own nature innocent things are sharpen'd and arm'd by our fancies with trouble and danger to our repose Now though it be true that as the cold or heat of Climates are things innocent enough to bodies inur'd to them and yet are fatal to others so here though all temptations of the world are in themselves harmless things yet 't is plain that upon Beings so dispos'd and temper'd as ours are they make dangerous impressions Therefore in the Gospel of Christ the remedies prescrib'd by him do all tend to the removal of these ill dispositions and the reforming our false Opinions and the suppressing our inclinations As 1. Our first care must be to frame our Opinions of things by the Rule of Faith and to root out all false Notions of things to this end the holy Gospel doth every where insinuate the emptiness the transitoriness the uncertainty of all things here below the Excellency of Holiness and Righteousness and the little tendency which the things of the world have to promote it And lastly the Weight and Eternity of happiness in another world all which contribute to our happiness as they arm us against the impressions of outward objects by possessing us with a contempt of them and with desires far greater and nobler and contradictory to those other 2. The Gospel of Christ injoyns us to shun and fly temptations all that we can we are to block up all the Avenues by which the world may make its approaches the lustful must not gaze upon Beauty nor the ambitious on greatness c. and because sin usually gains by Parley we are carefully to shun the least appearance of evil not to entertain thoughts c. 3. We are to labour earnestly to mortifie all the lusts of the Body by Fasting and Watching and Prayer and a constant temperance incourag'd to it by the example of our Lord and a whole Cloud of Witnesses gone to Heaven before us and the promise of rewards annexed to the careful performance of and unwearied perseverance in these duties And 4. The assistance of the mighty Spirit of God and a certain Victory is promis'd to him who thus contends and unless men will willingly deprive themselves of such an Auxiliary by not contending or not begging him of Christ or grieving him it is not to be doubted but we shall obtain him and together with him sufficient strength and glory honour and immortality will be the end of our warfare These are the Means these are the Motives this is the Assistance which our blessed Jesus hath prescribed and offer'd us by which we may be inabled to live above those miseries which they are intangled in who obey not his Gospel and defeat those Airy Apparitions which would fright us into sin Therefore in whatever condition I am I will still ask what would my blessed Saviour have done or said or thought in this case what opinion of or value for this or that thing or condition hath God and I shall soon find that no condition can make me truly miserable but that wherein I cannot love God I cannot pray or cannot do good For if I can I am both great and happy If a man love me Joh. 14.23 my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him Happy abode what can my Soul desire more I cannot think my self mean who am his Favorite nor can I be poor who possess that God whose presence makes up Heaven My God how happy should I be could I be content to make thee alone my Portion but because I cannot be content to be poor and contemptible because I seek my comforts from without because I am not at leisure to entertain thee only therefore thou dost not dwell so ravishingly with me But I will seek thee more diligently hereafter vain world adieu I have Nobler hopes than thou canst feed and I shall have comforts thou canst not rob me of How can I be miserable if I be
place i. e. Sacraments Prayer and Fasting each of which may be consider'd in a threefold respect 1. As Parts of Divine Worship or of Holiness in general 2. As Instruments of advancing Holiness 3. As Remedies and Antidotes against Temptation In each of which Relations I will consider each of them a little And 1. Of Baptism COnsider'd in the first sense of the three it contains a Solemn Profession of the Christian Faith an actual Renunciation of those Enemies of Christianity the World the Flesh and the Devil and a listing ones self into the service and obedience of Christ And because I cannot think that there is any Essential part in the System of Christianity meerly Ceremonial I cannot think but that besides the Admission into the Church which is the Body of Christ and consequently a Title to all the glorious priviledges of its Members our blessed Saviour doth endow the Person baptized with power from on high to perform all those great ingagements he takes upon him as will appear to any one who shall consider the Nature of Christianity which doth alway annex a Grace to the external Mean or Instrument or 2. The great things spoken or this Sacrament or 3. The value all understanding Christians have had for it or the effects which follow'd it when practis'd in the Infancy of the Church and I humbly conceive this to be the sense of the Church of England which supposes the thing signified by the outward Ceremony of Baptism to be a Death unto sin and a New-birth unto Righteousness But whatever become of this motion it is certain that it is a strange Obligation to a Holy Life and a Remedy against Sin as being a most solemn ingagement of our selves to the obedience of Christ from which we cannot start back without drawing upon our selves the guilt and punishment of Perjury and forfeiting all those advantages we partake of by it and I wish all would lay this to heart who plead the Obligations of Civility and Friendship Custom and Fashion in defence of their sins as if any trifling Ceremony were sufficient to supersede our Obligation to Christ and acquit us of that guilt which the breach of the most sacred Covenant brings upon us The Prayer BLessed and holy Saviour give me grace to remember my Baptismal Vow to remember that I am a sworn Enemy to the World the Flesh and the Devil and inable me to fight the good fight of Faith under thy Banner the Cross Let me have no truce entertain no friendship with thine and my Enemies Let them flatter me if they will with smiles and promises I am sure they mean nothing to me but death and ruine how shall any fantastick Obligations Cancel my duty to thee resulting from so solemn a Covenant In vain doth the World disguize its temptations under the forms of Civility and Honour I know no Civility which can oblige me to renounce my Vows no Honour that can excuse my Perjury in vain doth the World assault me by Greatness and Wealth and Glory these are the very things I resolv'd against when I took up the Cross of my Crucified Saviour in my Baptism Grant O blessed Lord that I may have mortified affections and a Victorious Faith an humble meek Spirit and glorious Hopes that after this troublesome life is ended I may rest with thee in Everlasting Glory Amen Amen Of the Lords Supper THe Supper of our Lord may fall under the same forms of Consideration which Baptism did that is it may be consider'd 1. As a part of Divine Worship 2. As an Instrument of Holiness 3. As a Remedy against Temptation I will look upon it briefly under each of these notions and herein I will guide my self by that incomparable Office of this Church which hath admirably express'd and reduc'd to a method the whole mind of the Gospel relating to this matter for which I have often bless'd God whilst I beheld and reverenc'd that Primitive plainness and truly Christian Spirit visible in it First then our Lords Supper consider'd as an act or part of Religious Worship or Holiness contains in it these four things 1. An humble acknowledgment of our sins 2. A devout Profession of our Faith in Christ that we are the Disciples of a Crucified Saviour and expect Salvation by no other way than that Sacrifice of his Body and Blood offer'd upon the Cross 3. A solemn Oblation of most humble and hearty thanks to God for this inestimable benefit his bestowing his Son upon us to die for us and to our Master and only Saviour Christ for his exceeding great love in dying for us 4. A most solemn Oblation of our selves souls and bodies to be a holy lively and acceptable Sacrifice unto God so that this Sacrament consists of a whole Constellation of Graces Repentance Faith Hope Charity It is a nearer approach into the presence of God and more solemn exercise of the Graces of the Gospel and this gives a very fair account of the reason of its frequent practice for nothing can be Secondly A more effectual instrument of Holiness upon these and the following accounts 1. That the preparation necessary as a condition of our worthy Reception doth awaken our Souls and refresh all our Graces and mortifie all our sensual Lusts and draws us nearer to Heaven and the necessity of such a preparation as the Church-office prescribes appears from hence that Repentance and Faith and Charity are absolutely necessary to inable a man to exert those acts before-mention'd which constitute this Sacrament consider'd as a part of Divine Worship and therefore to approach that holy Table without a Soul so qualified is to affront and mock the Majesty of Heaven 2. That the exercise of our Graces in receiving doth increase and improve them that act of humble Adoration and profound Prostration of our selves before God under a sense of his Purity and Majesty and our sinfulness and meanness that lively Acts of Faith whereby the Soul doth profess its firm belief of and dependance upon the Death and Passion of its dear Lord and Saviour for Salvation that love whereby the Soul offers its praises and its self a Sacrifice to God do leave such lively and lasting impressions upon mens minds as are not quickly nor easily effac'd and the Soul by the delight it finds in its exerting these Graces is inkindled with a desire of repeating the same Acts. 3. That the Sacrament it self hath a natural tendency to promote Holiness 1. By its sensible Representations of a Crucified Saviour the Symbols themselves being fit to bring into our minds the pain and sufferings of our dear Lord and Master 2. By that inward Grace inseparable from the worthy Reception of it bestow'd upon us to refresh and strengthen our Souls to root and confirm our Faith to inflame our Love and perfect our Hopes 3. By being a Pledge and Assurance to us of the pardon of our sins thorough the Blood of Christ 4. That it is
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
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