is the Distance between him and us that it is impossible we should ever meet and agree What the Prophet therefore says of Sacrifice may be said of all bodily Religion Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or ten thousand rivers of Oil Will he be reconciled with zealous Professions fluent Prayers or melting Passions no no He hath shewed thee O man what is good And what doth the Lord require of thee but to do Iustice to love Mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Micah vi 7 8. 2. Bodily Exercise profits but little in comparison with Godliness as to the perfecting of our Natures 'T is true this bodily Exercise is instrumental of our Perfection so far as it promotes in us the Virtues of Godliness and Religion if it makes us meek and humble and just and charitable and temperate if it inspires us with a sincere Love to God and a dutiful Awe and Dread of his Majesty if it produces in us a hearty Submission to his Will and a constant Dependence upon his Truth and Goodness then indeed it doth effectually conduce to the Perfection and Accomplishment of our Natures it being productive of that wherein the Perfection of our Natures doth consist But if these are not the Effects of it we are never the better for it and after all our Hearing and Praying and Professing our Nature will be still as maim'd and imperfect as ever it was before For the Perfection of a Rational Nature consists not in Forms and Outsides and such and such bodily Motions and mechanical Exercises of our Sense and Passion but in being wise and good in having our Understandings informed with the Principles of right Reason and our Wills and Affections regulated by them For to be a perfect Man is to live up to the highest Principle of Humane Nature and that is Reason which is the proper Character of our Beings that distinguishes us from all sublunary Natures and sets us in a Form of Being above them When therefore we are released from the Slaveries of Sense and Passion and all our Powers are perfectly subdued to this superior Principle as to do every thing that it commands and nothing that it forbids and we choose and refuse and love and hate and hope and fear and desire and delight according as right Reason directs and dictates to us then and not till then we are come to the full Stature of perfect Men in Christ Iesus Now what else is Godliness but only an Habit of living according to the Laws of Reason or an accustoming our selves in all our Circumstances to do those Things that are most fit and reasonable to demean our selves towards God our Selves and all the World with that Devotion Sobriety and Justice as becomes Rational Beings placed in our Condition and Circumstances This is Godliness and till we are in some measure arrived to this our Faculties are wholly out of Joint notwithstanding all our bodily Religion For so long as we live in a state of Sin we live in Rebellion to our own Reason and the Natural Polity of our Souls is dissolved into a wild confused Anarchy Our Reason that was made to govern us is inslaved by its own Vassals and forced to truckle to our Passions and Appetites The Law in our Members controuls the Law in our Minds and countermands the Dictates of our purest Reason and so our Nature is turned upside-down and the Cardinal Points of our Motion changed into quite contrary Positions And so far is our Nature from being perfected without Godliness that it is the most wretched confused thing in the whole World a mere undistinguished Chaos where frigida cum calidis Sense and Reason Brute and Man are shuffled together in a heap of rude and undigested Ruins and being in this sick disorderly Condition what can recover us but only inuring and accustoming our selves to live godlily or which is all one according to the Prescripts of right Reason This by degrees will re-advance our Reason to its native Throne and reduce our rebellious Passions and Appetites to a pure and spiritual Mind This will set our disjointed Faculties in order and restore our decayed Nature to its primitive Health and Vigour For by inuring our selves to a Life of Reason our Passions and Appetites will by degrees be tamed and civiliz'd so that at length it will be natural and easie to us and then we shall chearfully go on from one degree of Virtue to another till all the Unevennesses of our Natures are filed off and our Souls are polished into living Images of the most perfect God till we come to that heavenly permanent state of ever knowing and doing that which is best and most reasonable and this is the utmost Pitch of Perfection that any reasonable Nature can aspire to So that it is Godliness alone that doth perfect our Natures and restore us to the pure state of reasonable Beings For to be perfectly godly is to be perfectly conformable to the eternal Laws of Reason and he that is so is advanced to the utmost Pitch of Perfection that his reasonable Nature is capable of 3. Bodily Exercise profits but little in comparison with Godliness as to the entitling us to Heaven and eternal Life For God hath been so gracious as not only to assure us that there is a Heaven and future Happiness but he hath also promised it to us upon certain Terms and Conditions that so by performing these we might not only believe that there is a Heaven but also be inspired with a certain Hope of enjoying it For upon our performing the Condition upon which Heaven is promised to us we are vested with such an inalienable Right to it as we can never be disseised of unless the God of Truth break his Word which he can never do until he ceases to be God This therefore is one great Advantage which Religion doth design us to beget in us such a lively Hope of that blessed Immortality which it promises to us as might carry us chearfully through all the weary Stages of our Duty and support our Minds under all the Calamities of this present World And without all doubt the Hope of Heaven is the greatest Blessing that we are capable of on this side Heaven for if we had all the World before us and every Pleasure of it were distilled to a Quintessence to feast our Desires and entertain our licorice Appetites what a poor inconsiderable Trifle would it be compared with the Hope of being transformed into the Likeness of God and dwelling for ever in His Presence there to spend a blissful Eternity with Saints and Angels Arch-angels and Seraphims in one continued everlasting Act of rapturous Love and Ioy What mean things are all the sickly Joys the empty flat evanid Pleasures this World doth afford us compared with the ravishing Pleasures and divine Contentments that spring from such vast and mighty Hopes This Hope of Heaven therefore being so highly advantageous
the Age whereas in truth they would prove the rankest Hypocrites that ever appeared in a religious Vizard And of these he exhorts Timothy carefully to forewarn his Flock and for his own part to reject their profane and ridiculous Fables and rather to exercise himself in true substantial Godliness than in such outward bodily Rigors and Severities for which he subjoyns this general Reason for bodily exercise profiteth little that is mere outward bodily Exercise in Religion abstracted from inward Piety and Godliness is of very little avail in a Religious Account For the bodily Exercise here spoken of it seems was such as had some little Profit attending it and consequently was such as had some general Tendency to Good and was improveable to some advantage had it been wisely managed and directed For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here translated little is not so to be understood as if it signified nothing because it is here opposed to something that is greater viz. to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bodily Exercise profiteth little but Godliness is profitable for all things and therefore this bodily Exercise must profit something though less than Godliness which is profitable for all things As when Plato says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Socrates must be a little attended but Truth a great deal more And if it be such an Exercise as doth profit a little then it must be such as is Religious and is of some small account in Religion In the Prosecution of this Subject therefore I shall do these two things I. Shew you what this outward or bodily Exercise in Religion is II. In what Cases it is that it profits little I. Wherein doth this bodily Exercise consist I answer it consists in these six things 1. In an outward visible Profession of Religion 2. In bodily Severities upon Religious Accounts 3. In bodily Passions in Religion 4. In bodily Worship 5. In bodily Fluency and Volubility in Religious Exercises 6. In a mere outward Form or Round of Religious Duties 1. It consists in an outward visible Profession of Religion That we should make a visible Profession of the true Religion when it is sufficiently proposed to us is an unquestionable Duty and that for this Reason because not to profess visibly what we believe to be the true Religion is an open disowning of God who is the immediate Object of all true Religion For he that believes that this is the Will of God and yet is either ashamed or afraid openly to avow and acknowledge it declares that he is either ashamed of God or that he fears Man more than God both which are highly impious Besides by our visible owning of Religion we propose it to others who by our Example may be perswaded to embrace it as well as we and it is our Duty not only to entertain the true Religion our selves but so far as in us lies to propagate it to others that so diffusing our Light round about us others may be directed to Heaven by it as well as our selves This therefore is of some Account with God that we visibly profess the true Religion but if this be all we do it will profit us but very little For if we do not own Religion in our Actions while we profess it in our Words we contradict our selves our Practice gives the Lye to our Creed and our wicked Lives baffle our holy Profession for while a Man acts contrary to the Rules of his Religion he doth as effectually disown it as if he should openly renounce his Baptism and make a publick Recantation of Christianity For as our Profession of Religion is performed by a visible signification of our Belief of it and as this may be signified by our Actions as well as our Words so in effect we do renounce Religion when we give any visible signification that we do not believe it and this we do as well when we act like Infidels as when by Words we declare our Infidelity For by our Deeds we may signify our Minds as well as by our Words and he that acts as if he did not believe doth give a more convincing Argument of his Infidelity than all his Words or Professions can be of the contrary because it is rationally supposable that a Man will rather pretend to believe what he doth not than that he will act contrary to his own Belief and Judgment it being a greater degree of Violence to our selves to act contrary to what we do believe than to pretend to believe what we do not So that it is not all our Talk and verbal owning of Religion that will serve the end of a visible Profession which is so to own God as to induce others to own him as well as our selves because he that denies God in his Actions will never be able to induce others to believe that he doth sincerely own him in his Words and Profassions Wherefore unless we will live up to the Rules of our Religion we were as good not to make any visible Profession of it for our Profession will serve no good Ends of Religion it may indeed disgrace it in the Opinion of those who measure its Goodness by the Lives of its Votaries for either they will think that our Religion teaches us to live as we do and that will make them abhor it or else they will imagine that notwithstanding our Profession we do not believe it and that will make them suspect it to be a Cheat and Imposture So that for any Good Christianity is like to reap from wicked Christians professing it it were highly desirable that they would renounce their Baptism and openly declare themselves Atheists or Infidels because by their Actions they blaspheme the Religion they profess and by assuming to themselves the holy Name of Christians they do but more openly profane it 2. Another sort of bodily Exercise that is of some though but little Account in Religion is our voluntary undergoing of bodily Rigours or Severities upon the score of Religion There is doubtless a very wise use to be made of bodily Severities in Religion provided they be but used with that Prudence and Caution as they ought to be for they are excellent Remedies against many of our inordinate fleshly Inclinations to came our extravagant Appetites and to render them more tractable to the Commands of Reason and Religion besides that in the general they are of singular Use to wean our Souls from the Pleasures of the Body which do often corrupt the palate of the Mind and render it incapable of relishing divine Enjoyments For if we indulge to our Appetites all those lawful Pleasures which they crave our Souls will be apt to contract too great a Familiarity with the Flesh and to be so taken up with the Delights and Satisfactions of it as to neglect those diviner Pleasures for which they were created and which are more natural and congenial to them and considering that in our future State we must live without these
Prophet that from thenceforth he would remit that Right he had to make them smart for their Fathers Iniquities and inflict no other Punishment upon them than what was due for their own personal Faults that if they did well they should fare well notwithstanding the Sins of their Parents and that if they did wickedly they should surely smart for it how well soever their Parents behaved themselves Nay says he your Fathers Merit or Demerit shall henceforth be so far from excusing you from or exposing you to Punishment that you shall not suffer for your own past Wickedness if you repent of it nor yet escape for your past Righteousness if you revolt from it This is the Sum of the whole Chapter to the 24th Verse and yet says he the house of Israel says the way of the Lord is not equal O house of Israel are not my ways equal Are not your ways unequal Can any method of rewarding and punishing be more equal than this which I now propose or can any Accusation be more injurious than this of yours against me but know 't is not your unjust reproaches shall make me desist from this my most righteous procedure Therefore says he Verse the 30th I will judge you O house of Israel every one according to his ways how much soever you reproach and calumniate me I will strictly insist upon this method of rewarding and Punishing you according as you repent of or persevere in your Iniquities and to let you see that I will be as ready to reward you upon the former as to punish you upon the latter do but for once make a tryal of me repent and turn your selves from all your trangressions and you shall surely find that your past iniquity shall not be your ruine The sense of which Words resolves into two Propositions 1. That the Iniquity of any People or Nation tends directly to their Ruine 2. That true Repentance and Amendment is the certain way to prevent the Ruine which Iniquity tends to I begin with the first that the Iniquity of any People or Nation tends directly to their Ruine So it shall not intimating that if they did not repent their Iniquity would certainly end in their Ruine And of the Truth of this the constant Experience of all Ages is a sufficient Testimony for if you consult either sacred or prophane History you will find that Iniquity like the Worm at the root of Ionah's gourd hath many times blasted the most flourishing Kingdoms pulled down their Banks and laid them open to such Inundations of Misery as have finally overwhelm'd and destroy'd them And those that have made the strictest Enquiries into humane Affairs have constantly observed that the Rise and Fall of Nations hath been more owing to their Virtue and Vice than to any other Cause and that upon these two Hinges generally the Fates of Empires turn that the Foundations of their Rise were laid in vertuous brave and generous Actions and that by Wickedness and Corruption of Manners they were undermined and sunk into a final Ruine But the Truth of this will yet more fully appear by considering how many ways Vice doth contribute to the Ruine and Destruction of a Kingdom all which I shall reduce to these eight Heads 1. It doth it by depriving Kingdoms and Nations of the Favour and Protection of God 2. By inflicting positive Plagues and Punishments upon them 3. By corrupting and infatuating their Counsels 4. By melting and emasculating their Courage 5. By breaking and disturbing their Order 6. By dissolving their Unity and Concord 7. By consuming their Wealth and Substance 8. By debasing their Esteem and Reputation 1. Wickedness directly tends to the Ruine of Kingdoms and Nations as it deprives them of the Divine Favour and Protection For if we acknowledge God to be the Almighty Lord and Soveraign of the World we cannot but confess that the Strength and Establishment of Kingdoms is founded in His Favour and Protection that his Goodness Wisdom and Power are the Pillars upon which those vast and mighty Structures lean and consequently that if he withdraw from them those necessary Supports they cannot stand but must inevitably sink under their own Weight into irreparable Ruines For nothing can subsist without God and much less Kingdoms and Nations which have so many Principles of Corruption lurking within their own Bowels and in which there are compounded so many boisterous Passions repugnant Humors inconsistent Designs and contesting Interests all which like the contrary Qualities of our Bodies do by their mutual jarring with one another continually tend to the Dissolution of the whole So that did not the wise and Almighty Providence of God continually superintend these contrary Principles and by its skilful mingling them with one another preserve them in a just and due Temper those great and unweildy Bodies in which they do reside would be every moment in danger of being diseased corrupted and destroyed by them But now the Sins of Nations do mightily contribute to the depriving them of this Benefit of Gods Providence and Protection for how can any Kingdom or Nation expect that God will continue to protect them in their Rebellions against Himself that he who is so implacable an Enemy of wickedness and so zealous an Assertor of his own Honour and Authority will employ his Power to patronize them in the one and take their part against the other and if he withdraw his upholding Providence from a Nation he needs do no more for now it must sink of its own accord and like a falling House when its prop is removed its Weight will bear it down and quickly crush it into Ruines 2. Wickedness tends to the Ruine of Kingdoms and Nations not only by engaging God to withdraw his Protection from but also to inflict positive Plagues and Punishments upon them For God being the supreme Soveraign of the World and especially of this World of Men who are so extreamly prone to contemn and violate the Laws of his Government it is necessary that since our Hopes and Fears are the master-springs of all our Motions he should take especial Care as on the one hand to allure us to our Duty by the Hope of Reward so on the other to awe us into it by the Fear of Punishment and if he should not there would be no confining such extravagant Creatures as we are within any Rule or Compass Now as for particular Offenders the great Scene of God's Rewarding and Punishing them is the future State where every Man must answer for himself and receive the just Retributions of his own Actions but as for sinful and vertuous Nations they are capable only of being rewarded and punished in this Life there being no such thing as particular Nations and Kingdoms in the Life to come where Heaven and Hell are the two Nations into which the Spirits of Men are distributed so that if wicked Nations were not punished here as such they could never be punished at
People as we are can make to our offended but most merciful God we may justly hope that if we render him this it will have an auspicious Influence upon him to incline him towards us and avert his just Displeasure from us When he shall sec us prostrate at his Feet acknowledging with sorrowful Hearts the infinite Injuries we have done him offering him all the poor Amends we can make him and grieving that we can offer him no more such a moving Spectacle cannot but kindle in him a Relenting towards us and cause his propitions Bowels to resound with Eccho's of Mercy 4. And lastly consider Repentance as the Condition upon which God hath voluntarily engaged himself to be reconciled unto us and as such also it must needs have a powerful Influence upon him So in the Text you see he hath obliged himself upon the Repentance of wicked People to interpose between their Sin and Ruine So iniquity shall not be your ruine So also Iob xxxvi 8 9 10 11. you have an excellent Account of Gods Readiness to relieve a repenting People In their Adversity if they be bound in fetters and holden in cords of affliction then he sheweth them their work and their trangression wherein they have exceeded He openeth also their ears to discipline and commandeth that they return from their iniquity If they obey and serve him they shall spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasure But this prehaps you will say is only a Relation of what God usually doth and not a Promise by which he obliges himself always to do so well but it supposes such a Promise on Gods part else there could have been no sure Foundation for Elihu to have promised it But then Isai. i. 16 17 18. you have Gods own word for it Wash ye make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord tho' your sins be as Scarlet they shall be white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool If ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the Land So also Hosea xiv 1 2. 4. O Israel return unto the Lord thy God for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity Take with you words and turn to the Lord say unto him take away all iniquity and receive us graciously so will we render thee the calves of our lips To which in the 4th Verse God returns this answer of mercy I will heal their backsliding I will love them freely for mine anger is turned away from him I will be as the dew unto Israel he shall grow as a lilly and cast forth his roots as Lebanon But these Promises perhaps you will say respect Israel only and consequently ought not to be extended unto other Nations well then let us see in the last place what he hath said to Nations in general Ierem. xviii 7 8 At what time I shall speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it if that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them So that what he had promised before to Israel his People here extends to all Nations viz. that upon their Repentance he will be favourable to them and repent of the Evil he intended against them which gives us as great a Certainty of the good Influence of our Repentance upon him as we can have of his eternal Truth which is the Foundation of all Certainty So that if to have God for our Friend can contribute any thing to the saving us from an impending Ruine then must our Repentance which makes him our Friend be so far the Means of our Salvation 2. As Repentance hath a great Influence upon God to move and incline him to rescue us from Ruine so it hath also a mighty Influence upon us towards the preventing and obviating our Ruine so that tho' there were no such thing as a God for it to work upon and engage in our Defence and Protection or tho' that God should wholly withdraw himself from Action and absolutely refuse to intermeddle in our Affairs yet would our Repentance it self by its own natural and necessary Influence most effectually operate towards the Prevention of that Publick Ruine and that these four ways 1. As it will throughly awaken us into a due sense of our Danger 2. As it will animate and encourage us with the Hope of Success upon the Use of due and proper Means 3. As it will take us off from those mischievous Actions which do so necessarily contribute to our Ruine 4. As it will put us upon such a regular Course of Action as doth naturally tend to the Publick Good In all which respects as I shall shew you it would be an effectual Means of our Recovery 1. True Repentance naturally awakens us into a due and serious Sense of our Danger For a vicious Life doth naturally lull men into a Sottish and Senseless Security it makes them stupid and reckless and bereaves them of their natural Foresight and Sagacity for besides that it takes off their Minds from the exercise of Reason and infatuates them with weak and phantastick Prejudices it renders them so soft and indulgent to their own luxurious and effeminate Genius that they cannot indure any sad or serious thoughts should intermingle with their Iovial Airs So that if Danger stands at any distance from them they wilfully wink at it and are afraid to look it in the face lest it should suggest such thoughts to them as would disturb the Scenes of their Mirth and dash their Draughts of sinful Pleasures with Wormwood Hence Amos vi 1. 3. it is made the Character of the wicked Israelites that lived at ease in Zion that they put far from them the evil day that is they would not entertain a thought of the Nearness of their Danger lest it should prove a Thorn in their Pillows and disturb their soft and beloved ease So also Hosea xi 9. Strangers have devoured his strength saith he speaking of that wicked People and he knoweth it not yea gray hairs are here and there upon him yet he perceiveth it not that is tho' they were exceedingly wasted already and had all the Symptoms of an approaching Ruine upon them yet they were so intent upon their Lusts and so besotted by them that they took no notice of it And if Men will be so stupid as to neglect their Danger and never think of retreating till they have run themselves into the Iaws of it what Remedy is there for them how can they escape that will sleep on securely upon the Brinks of a Precipice and will not regard their Danger till they are dropping headlong into it and are fallen beyond Prevention or Recovery But when once Men betake themselves to a course of serious
the Two should take Effect it would be very unreasonable not to choose what God hath chose for us The Truth of which will evidently appear if we consider these Two Things 1. That God doth as really and heartily will what is Good for us as we do for our selves 2. That he knows much better what is Good for us than we 1. That God doth as really and heartily will what is Good for us as we do for our selves i. e. So long as we are proper Objects of his good Will and have not sinned our selves into an utter Incapacity of being beloved by him for then the Case quite alters and that good Will which he formerly bore us converts into a severe Resolution of making us dreadful Examples to others that so when through our own Obstinacy and Incorrigibleness he can do no more good upon us he may do good to others by us and warn them not to imitate our Actions by the fearful Example of our Sufferings But so long as there is any Hope of doing good upon us he declares himself as heartily inclined to do good to us as ever any Man was to do good to himself for what mighty Designs hath he set on foot what expensive Methods hath he used to save us in what passionate Strains hath he expressed his good Will towards us and with what restless Importunity doth he court us to be happy He swears by his own Life that he desires not our Ruine but rather that we should return and live and solemnly professes that he would have all men to be saved and to come to the Knowledge of the Truth And when with all his Courtships and Addresses he cannot prevail upon our Obstinacy to disswade us from ruining our selves he puts on the Passions of a mournful Friend and with yearning Bowels laments our fatal Folly by all which tender Expressions he plainly declares that he doth as heartily will our Welfare as we can do our own But because a firm Belief of this Principle is indispensibly necessary to a free Submission to his heavenly Will I shall endeavour briefly to demonstrate the Truth of it from these Four Considerations 1. That his Interest in us is much greater than ours in our selves 2. That his own Self-love doth as strongly incline him to will our Good as ours doth to will our own 3. That in concerning himself about us he can have no other End to serve than what we have in being concern'd for our selves 4. That even that good Will that we bear to our selves is only a Derivation from and Participation of that infinite good Will which he bears us 1. That his Interest in us is much greater than ours in our selves If we believe him to be the Author of our Beings we must acknowledge him to have a most absolute and unalienable Propriety in us that what we are as well as what we have we hold from him who is the Head-Landlord and Supream Proprietor of all those Beings that are derived from him even as Brooks and Rivulets owe all their Streams to the Fountain from whence they flow And can we imagin him not to be greatly concern'd for what he hath so great an Interest in or that he who hath so much greater Propriety in us should have less Regard for us than we have for our selves Can it be thought that the great Father of Beings should be forgetful of his own Off-spring that he who hath imprinted on all other Parents such a tender Kindness toward their natural Issue should be so regardless of his own as to expose them to a wide Wilderness and leave them there to shift for themselves no doubtless the mighty Interest he hath in us cannot but indear his Affections to us and render him mightily concern'd for our welfare Can the Mother forget her sucking Child that she should not have Compassion on the Son of her Womb yea they may forget but I will not forget thee saith the Lord. Isai. 49. 14. For since every thing is naturally inclined to love its own we cannot but conclude that the God of Nature from whom all natural Inclinations spring hath in himself a most tender Regard for all that Family of Beings of which he is the Parent especially considering 2. That his own Self-love doth as strongly incline him to will our Good as ours doth to will our own For if he love himself as he cannot but do being infinitely lovely he must necessarily love what is like him and affect to propagate his own Resemblance But no miserable Thing can be like himself who is infinitely happy and therefore he cannot love to make others miserable since in so doing he must affect to produce what is contrary to himself which implies a plain Contradiction For unless he love our Misery he cannot be supposed to desire it because as I shall shew you by and by himself can never be the better for it and therefore if he desire it it must be for its own sake But how is it possible that the same Being should love Contraries at the same time that he should at once take Delight in himself and in what is most unlike him or which is the same thing that he should be pleased with his own Happiness and with our Misery together So that if he love himself who is infinitely happy his own Self-love must necessarily incline him to will the Happiness of others and unless our Happiness might be supposed to be prejudicial to his which is impossible it would be an Expression of Hatred to himself to wish ill to his Creatures In his willing Misery in us he would manifest himself to be displeased with his own Happiness and openly declare that Misery was much more grateful to him for how can he love Misery for it self as he must needs do if he take Pleasure in ours and at the same time love himself who is so infinitely happy This therefore we may build upon with as much Confidence as upon any first Principle in Philosophy that God hath the same Reason to will our Happiness as we have to will our own that as we would be happy because we love our selves so because he loves himself he would have us be so He loves that others should be like him even as every other Being doth that loves for what he loves in himself he must love in another and that which he loves in another where it is he must love to propagate to another where it is not and consequently as he must love our Happiness because he loves his own even so for the same Reason he must love to make us happy 3. That in concerning himself about us he can have no other End to serve but what we have in being concern'd for our selves He is so infinitely happy in himself that he can neither conceive nor desire any Good for himself beyond what is contain'd within the Immensity of his own Being and Perfections so that now he can
this is the real Case of those Men who have intirely denied their own Wills to choose and act in subordination to God For he is an infallible Physician and they have made him their Friend by submitting themselves to him and putting their Lives and Interests in his Hands and therefore since as he is God and their Friend he cannot but know and design what is good for them they have all the Security in the World that every thing he orders them shall conduce to their good so long as they follow his Prescriptions and that he will order them nothing but what they would order for themselves if they were but as infallible as he is and did fully comprehend all his Reasons and in a Word that tho' this or that Event may be for the present very troublesom in its Operation yet if they do not hinder the Effect of it by their own Irregularity it shall certainly conduce to their everlasting Health and Happiness And under this Perswasion how chearfully may a Man bear up under all Events and welcome the worst that can happen to him for being secure of the infallibility of God's Skill and of the sincerity of his Kindness to him he hath abundant Reason to conclude that since all Events are under God's Disposal he will take effectual Care that nothing shall happen to him but what is for his good For while his Will is subject to God's his Condition is a Thousand Times more safe and secure than if God's Will were subject to his because tho' there be the same Benevolence to him in both yet his Will might mislead God's but God's Will cannot mislead his And thus I have endeavoured to represent to you the abundant Advantages that do arise from Self-denyal i. e. from renouncing our own corrupt Will and Inclination and intirely submitting our selves to the Will of God which are such as one would think should prevail with any Man that doth but love himself and sincerely respect his own Interest For this is as certain a Truth and as much confirmed by Experience as any Maxim in Philosophy that there is no state of humane Life in which a Man can be happy whilst his own corrupt Will is his Law nor none in which he can be miserable whilst he is intirely resigned and devoted to the Will of God 3. I now proceed to the third and last Thing proposed which was to shew you how absolutely necessary it is to our eternal Happiness that in Obedience to God we should deny our own Will and corrupt inclinations and this will evidently appear if we consider 1. That the Disposal of our Happiness is not in our own Will but God's 2. That the Standard of our Perfection is not our own Will but God's 3. That the Conformity of our Nature to our Happiness consists not in what we will but in what God wills 4. That the essential Acts and Ingredients of our Happiness are not what we will but what God wills 1. That the Disposal of our Happiness is not in our own Will but in Gods If we would be everlastingly Happy we must comply with that blessed Will upon which our everlasting Happiness depends and the Apostle assures us that eternal Life is the Gift of God If it were in our Power to support and defend our selves in a blisful Existence to all Eternity we might with some Confidence set up for independent Free-willers and live as we list and after we have followed the Swing of our own corrupt Inclinations in this World promise to our selves an Eternity of Happiness in the other But alas we are a sort of poor precarious Beings that are beholding to God for every Breath we draw and for every Moment of our Existence and Duration and if he should withdraw from us the vital Influence of his Providence but for the Twinkling of an Eye we should be so far from continuing happy that we should vanish into nothing And therefore if we intend to be happy for ever it is necessary we should submit our selves to his Will upon whom every Moment of our Being depends For when meerly by withdrawing his Arm from us he can let us drop into nothing when he pleases how can we hope when we will not be ruled by him to be upheld by him in a happy Being for ever can we think that the wise and holy Governour of the World will be so regardless of his own Authority as to sustain and uphold his Subjects in their Rebellions against him unless it be with a design to reduce them or to make them everlasting Monuments of his Vengeance No no since our Being and Well-being doth for ever depend upon him we may build upon it that either he will be obey'd by us or that he will not so uphold us as to encourage us in our Rebellion and consequently that if he doth uphold us forever as he hath declared he will it will be with a dreadful Purpose viz. to continue us in an everlasting ill Being and hang us up in Chains for publick Spectacles of his Vengeance that all his Creation may take warning by us Wherefore if we are resolved to adhere to our own Will in Opposition to God's it is in vain for us to aspire after a happy Being hereafter unless we can find some way to deprive God of the Disposal of it and secure it in our own Power For so long as God remains the sole Arbitrator of our Fate we must make his Will ours or renounce all our Hopes of Happiness 2. It is to be considered that the Standard of our Perfection is not our own Wills but Gods For the Faculties of every Nature being the Senses by which it perceives and enjoys its own Happiness it is impossible we should ever enjoy a perfect Happiness so long as the Faculties by which we are to enjoy it are imperfect Ours therefore being a rational Nature all whose Motions are under the Direction of an understanding and the Command of a free Will is framed and designed for a rational Happiness which it is as impossible for us perfectly to enjoy whilst our rational Faculties are out of Order as it is to perceive the Pleasures of delicious Meats and Sounds and Odours whilst the Sensories of our Tast and Smell and Hearing are discomposed and obstructed by any bodily Disorder But now while we follow our own Will in Contradistinction to Gods our rational Nature is all over out of Tune for whereas according to the true Order and Constitution of our Nature our Understanding is to guide our Will and our Will to command all our Passions and Appetites so far forth as our Will swerves and deflects from Gods it goes quite counter to the Principles of its own Reason and Understanding and subjects it self to the Dominion of those Passions and Appetites which it ought to command it chooses and refuses by the Inclination of its Affections and not by the Directions of its Reason and Conscience
wilful And This is twofold viz. actual and habitual Actual is either when notwithstanding we have been sufficiently forewarned by precedent Surprizes we are wilfully neglective of our selves and take no Care to fortify our Minds by Consideration against them in Case they should return again upon us or when upon the Appearance of a prevailing Temptation we either quench the good Motions of our own Consciences and refuse to consider the Evil and Danger of the Sin we are tempted to lest we should be deterred from committing it or purposely contrive to baffle our own Consideration and to render it ineffectual by opposing against it either some ungrounded Hope of Impunity or some fallacious Promise of future Amendment In all which Cases our Inconsideration is apparently wilful and so consequently must the Sins be which follow upon it and he who pleads his own wilful Inconsideration as an Excuse for his Sin doth only Apologize for one Fault by another which instead of extenuating inflames and aggravates it And then as for habitual Inconsideration it is the Effect of our frequent stifling the Convictions of our own Consciences whereby we fear them into a deep Insensibility of Good and Evil so as that at last we Sin on without Remorse and return to our Lusts with a perfect Indifferency without ever considering what we do or reflecting upon what we have done Now as it is no Excuse for our Sin if it proceeds from a sinful Habit contracted by frequent Acts of wilful Sin so neither will it excuse our Sin that it proceeds from an habitual Inconsideration contracted by often refusing to consider And as vicious Habits have a proper Evil and Guiltiness in them distinct from those vicious Acts that produced them so habitual Inconsideration hath in it a peculiar Venom of its own beyond what was in those wilful Acts of Inconsideration whereby it was contracted And accordingly in Scripture it is described as the most desperate State of Sinners it is to be past feeling which was the Condition of the leudest and most irreclaimable Gentiles Eph. 4. 19. it is to have a seared conscience the Character of Sinners under the last Apostacy 1 Tim. 4. 2. it is to have a reprobate mind which was the Cause and Effect of the foulest Gentile Impieties 1 Rom. 28 29. In a word it is to have a hard and unrelenting Heart by which Men are said to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2. 5. 3. And lastly another Sort of wilful Sins are such as are wilfully committed against Knowledge and Consideration I say again wilfully to exclude those known Evils which either we do not all consent to or very imperfectly For it is a known Evil for a Man to rove in his Devotions or to think blasphemous Thoughts of God or to be drowsy and liftless in our Addresses to him and yet many times these are the necessary Effects even of innecent Causes such as Melancholy or Weariness or antecedent Thoughtfulness and therefore tho' they are evil in the Matter yet because they necessarily proceed from such Causes as are not evil we are no more accountable for them than for the Returns of our Appetite or the Palpitation of our Heart and if we do not indulge our Drowsiness nor harbour and entertain our evil Thoughts but throw them out of our Minds as soon as we observe them and keep a more careful Watch to prevent their Return our Will is innocent and so long we may be sure God will not condemn us for our Weakness Again it is a known Evil for a Man to be angry without a Cause or to have an unchast Desire or to love or hate or hope or fear or rejoyce or grieve unreasonably yet these Evils are such as no Care can wholly prevent and against which no Warchfulness is a sufficient Guard And tho' in many of these Instances there be many times so much of our Will intermingled as to render us culpable yet this is not sufficient to extinguish the Principle of our Regeneration or to degrade us into a State of Wickedness But when a Man knows that such an Action is evil and either actually considers that it is so or neglects to consider it through habitual Inconsideration and thereupon actually consents to it he doth hereby openly defy God and maliciously trample upon his Authority being desperately resolved to pursue his sinful Desire let God and his Conscience say what they can to the contrary which is such an Height of wilful Malice as no Apology can extenuate Hence our Saviour pronounces that the servant that knows his Masters will and doth it not shall be beaten with many stripes Luke 12. 47. And accordingly St. Iames tells us that he that knows to do good and doth it not to him it is sin that is 't is a very great and inexcusable Sin Iames 4. 17. and St. Paul assures us that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness that is who know the Truth and yet wilfully sin against their Knowledge Rom. 1. 18. and to name no more Heb. 10. 26. we are told that if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth there remains no more sacrifice for sin which Words are to be understood according to the general Analogy of the Gospel if we sin wilfully i. e. if we are deliberately guilty of any known Sin after we have received the knowledge of the truth i. e. have been chatechized and baptized in the Christian Faith there remains no mere sacrifice for sin i. e. unless we recover our selves by Repentance and Amendment of the Fact And seeing that where we sin wilfully the Vertue of the great Sacrifice for Sin hath no Place without a special and particular Repentance and consequently there is no other Remedy left for us in the Gospel all that remains is what follows in the next verse viz. a certain fearful looking for of Iudgment and fiery indignation to devour the adversary From whence it follows that upon our sinning knowingly and wilfully in any particular Instance we fall into a State of Wrath and Condemnation and consequently fall from the happy State of our Regeneration or being born of God And now to conclude this Argument from the whole I infer the horrible Evil of consenting to any known Sin after we have entered into good Resolutions to the contrary which will plainly appear upon the following Considerations 1. Consider the shameful Weakness and Impotency of it For such Resolutions if they are well formed are grounded on the strongest and most momentous Reasons in the world and for a Man to Cancel a Resolution inforced with such powerful Motives for a meer Vanity or to gratify some foolish and importunate Lust the Pleasure of which dyes away in the Enjoyment argues him to have a base and prostitute Mind that hath no Strength of Thought or stedfastness of