as such And as insignificant would this opinion render it to the happiness of Man for of what use will all the excellent rules of Justice Charity Meekness Temperance c. prove if we continue peevish and revengeful intemperate and lustful c. to what purpose are the fuller discoveries of another World Life and Immortality and the Belief of Jesus being the Son of God if they do not enable us to conquer the world and mortifie the flesh and if I walk according to the Laws of the Flesh i. e. Violate the Laws of the Spirit can I choose but dread a God whom I have wrong'd and will not unruly Passions and a troubled Conscience make a Christian as miserable as a Jew or Heathen If Goodness now be the end and drift of the holy belief of Christians then I infer 1. That the best Man is the best Son of the Church and he whose affections are more rais'd and heavenly and hath least of the mixture of sensuality is of the highest form in the School of Christ because he doth best answer the design of his Lord and walks in some measure as he walk'd 2. That the most infallible characters of a true Faith are to be taken from the government of our Passions our conquest o're the world and the increase of our inward joy and peace and hope Good Lord how apt are we to put a a cheat upon the World and our selves to perswade it and our selves that we believe tho there be no change in our Souls and Conversations and therefore consequently we do nothing less I shall hereafter never think that I believe aright till I have a Love for all his Commandments till I can meditate delightfully pray vigorously relie constantly obey readily suffer patiently rejoyce humbly expect reverently and happy is me if I attain that height earnestly too the hour of my death or the appearance of my Lord. I shall never hereafter think that I have studied or known divine truth to any purpose till the Truth hath made me free rescued me from the bondage of Sin and fears of Death The Prayer THou Holy Pure and Eternal Spirit who canst not indure iniquity who dost so love goodness that thou hast sent thy Son into the world to promote it his Life and his death his Pains and his blood were spent in this Cause O enable thy poor Servant who names the name of Christ to hunger and thirst after righteousness and to depart from iniquity Lord let thy truth and thy Spirit be powerful in me to the subduing all of evil inclinations I believe that all things are naked and bare before thee and therefore that thou canst not be mock'd or impos'd upon by specious pretences or formalities That I am not to expect to appear any other in thy Eyes than such as I am in my self inable me therefore to confess thee in my practice as well as words to live like one who believ'd thy holy Truths Let my heart be fixt in Honesty and uprightness to obey all thy Commandments Let the Belief of things not seen have the same influence upon me they had upon all thy holy Saints Martyrs and Confessors i. e. Perswade me to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and holily in this present world through Jesus Christ Sect. 2. Of doing Good There are a sort of People who indeavour all they can to withdraw from the world and rid their hands of business and think it abundantly sufficient if they can discharge their duty towards God in their Retirements This is Lawful nay commendable only upon two accounts 1. If my Temper or Circumstances be such that my Conversation cannot be publick and safe too for then the Salvation of my own Soul is naturally the most near and dear concern or 2. If my qualifications are such that my retirement is likely to prove more advantagious to the publick than my filling any other Post for then I act according to the Rules of Charity There are two other Inducements to a retir'd Private Life The one founded in a vice the other in a mistake 1. The First is when Men withdraw from the Business as from the trouble of the World and their Pleasure not Religion is their first and chief motive They meet with many rubs and oppositions in a busie Active Life and then they grow soft and weak and lasie and they want Courage and Industry and the frequent interruptions of their private peace and enjoyment is uneasie and they would withdraw to enjoy themselves and this is unchristian and unmanly 't is Epicurism not Contempt of the World 2. The mistake is when we look upon a Monastical kind of life as the whole of Christianity and the meer Perfection of the Regenerate state and place Piety so wholly in acts of solitary Devotion as to seclude the doing good and communicating c. It will behove such to consider 1. That true and apparent Motives Pretence and Religion are sometimes so twisted together that it is hard for a man to distinguish 'em and therefore some secret weakness or reserve may be the real whilst zeal is made the pretended cause of this choice 2. That the Busie and Active Life is the more Excellent and the more necessary 1. the more excellent as being fuller of hazards and troubles and temptations there is a larger field for virtues for Patience Courage Meekness Reliance c. in an active than speculative life and such will receive more Crowns And when I consider the Nature of God and necessities of Mankind I cannot but think acts of Charity as prevalent to the wiping off our guilt as the severest penances A vigorous and active life spent in promoting the welfare of others is a more perfect instance of self denial speaks a greater contradiction to our ease and pleasure commits more violence upon our inclinations than any acts of private Austerity can pretend to do for besides the Pains the watching and the fasting incident to both a like the trouble of Contrivance the industry of addresses the uneasiness of refusals c. sufficiently weigh down the one side Besides this Confinement imprisons our light under a bushel it is a Cover a Napkin for our Talents to conceal them and render them useless to others and therefore our reward will be less in another world and our graces the fainter in this For to him what hath i. e. useth shall be given Grace like the Widows Oile increases by being charitably imparted That Flame which warms my Neighbour reflects back with a double heat upon my self and that Goodness which cherishes his heart softens and sanctifies my own And over and above all this I enjoy a strange delight in doing good and in beholding the fruits which my own hands have planted And my assurance and the confidence of my hopes encreases by the conscience of that Love which my works convince me I have for my Brethren 2. That a busie
my self only in proportion to what I share of thee for I know this is the Standard by which God now value me and will hereafter judge me If this be the end of Religion onely to implant goodness and charity amongst us to make us holy and like God and kind and beneficial one to another what is it that the World hates it for I may say concerning those who persecute Christianity as St. Peter did of those who Crucified its Author I wot that through ignorance ye did it Act. 3 17. Surely it is because you do not discern its beauty that you do not Love it If any retir'd life promote the end I have mention'd as well as an Active once I would not be thought to condemne it The Prayer O God the Heaven and Earth are full of thy goodness the faculties of our souls and the senses of our bodies are all imploy'd in the contemplation and enjoyment of it O make us who worship thee to imitate thee too that we may be thy children indeed make our souls delight to do goood and imprint in us such tender and compassionate Bowels towards one another as our dear Lord and Master had towards us Amen Amen blessed Jesus CHAP. IV. Of Chrictian practice in particular HAving consider'd the Nature of Christianity in respect to practice in the general I am now to speak of it more particularly but not pretending to give an account of every single virtue I will dwell upon Three Which contain the substance of the Christian duty i.e. Faith Love and Humility I will not apologize for the unphilosophical placing of Faith amongst practical duties the following discourse will clear the reason of it I place humility in the last place not because there is not an humility which is precedent to and disposes men for the reception of faith but because I look upon that humility which is consequent to and caus'd by it and which must always accompany it to render it acceptable in a more peculiar and proper sense an Evangelical grace 1. Of Faith When I read the glorious Achievements of a true Faith Heb. 11. That it subdued Kingdomes wrought Righteousness obtained promises c. and in one word supported men under the greatest miseries and arm'd them against the most taking pleasures of this World I cannot sufficiently wonder that a fuller and clearer discovery of a Heaven confirm'd to us by the strongest evidences i. e. the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power should have so weak an influence upon us Christians we take no more pains for Heaven than if we did not believe there were such a place and we have the same cares and fears in respect of the things present which Heathens and Infidels have so that tho' we talk much of Faith we make little or no use at all of it Therefore least any man delude and fool himself with a perswasion of being endowed with that Faith which he hath not I 'le give such an account of it as agrees with the Gospel of the Kingdom as suits with and serves the necessities of mankind and the end and Aims of God Faith saith the blessed Apostle is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen the substance or presence the evidence or Proof 't is not a slight transient glance drowsie imperfect assent a staggering wavering opinion but 't is a lively representation an affective vision a full perswasion of the glorious truths of the Gospel when the Objects are so fully and clearly evident that they not onely convince but take us too it is having the mind enlightn'd and so looking upon things with the eys of Angels and judging by the light of the blessed Spirit It is not only to see that the things invisible are but to see them in some measure such as they are Eternity as Eternity and Heaven as Heaven that is a state of truely great and glorious happiness on this account the things present may have a different face and aspect when regarded by the eyes of Faith and when of Sense for sense stops in the things themselves and regards their usefulness to the pleasure or profit of this present life but Faith carries its sight forward and compares the things which are seen with those hoped for the things temporal with those eternal and then all below appears but meer vanity This whole account of Faith we may find in the 13 verse of Heb. 11. These all died in Faith and what it is to dye or live in Faith the following words explain not having reciev'd the promises i.e. the accomplishment of them but having seen them a far off i. e. by divine Revelation were perswaded of them and embraced them and the natural consequence of this was and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth Now Faith is unalterable as to its essence but its objects may vary they may be more or fewer clearer or darker according to the Nature of divine revelation Heb. 1.1 its evidence may be fuller or weaker but still it must be such as may suffice to convince man of the Divine authority of the Revelation As to the Christian Faith 2. Its objects are the whole Gospeâ—â— of Christ God the Father such as he is reveal'd by the Son God the Son incarnate crucified c. The Rewards and punishments contain'd in it and all in order to engage us to an entire obedience to its holy and righteous Precepts By Faith I see that God who is invisible who tho he dwels in Heaven doth yet humble himself to behold all that is done upon Earth nor doth he only behold but govern all things too And whilst I contemplate his Wisedom Power Truth Goodness Holiness Justice c. manifested to me in the Gospel I adore and worship him I love and fear him I call on and relie upon him I endeavour to walk before him and be perfect I know nothing like him and therefore I desire nothing beside him or equal to him in Heaven or in Earth By Faith I see the Son of God abandoning the bosome and the Glory of his Father descending upon Earth and assuming the form of a Servant that by his doctrine and example he might propagate Righteousness and holiness in the world I trace him thorough all the Stages of his sufferings and travel till I behold him fasten'd to the Cross and bleeding out his meek and holy Soul at those painful wounds the nails had made and all this for my sins and the sins of the whole World and then with what a strange mixture of Passions that sight fills me with grief and shame and yet with love and hope too How I am amaz'd to see what indignation a holy God hath discover'd against Sin and how my heart bleeds to think that my sins have treated thus despitefully and cruelly my dear Lord and Master and with what a melting passion and vigorous resolutions of a fervent industrious service and an everlasting zeal
stupid and senseless not only of their secular but eternal interest the former is utterly false and the latter absurd therefore it is more than probable no such confutation could beform'd That the Wisdome and Majesty the Purity and Holyness the Misteries and Prophesies of it are so many tracks of Divine Glory which bespeak God its Author it being very improbable that e're the Devil should be so set against himself as to promote that Holiness which is so contradictory to his nature and tho he should have blended it with speculative errors that cannot be thought a mischief able to satisfie him for all the good it hath done in the world nor would such a design savour enough of the malice of Hell for surely God will never make a good man eternally miserable for a speculalative Error into which his Humility and Resignation to God and such strong probabilities not to say more betray'd him But suppose against all Reason that it were Fictitious what can any man suffer by the belief of these Principles certainly they tend to make us like God and there is no article which reflects any disparagement upon the Divine Nature but discovers it to the World in the greatest and the loveliest characters and therefore unavoidably if any Religion than this will secure our future Life As to the present if our Life be clouded and o'recast by afflictions these Principles alone can support us under them because these only are substantial grounds of courage or content if our Life be calm and fair no man injoyes it with a more constant and untroubled satisfaction than the Religious for Religion only crowns our outward prosperities with a firm peace and content within And yet all the clamour rais'd against Religion is this that it enviously intrenches upon the pleasures of Nature and wheadles us out of the possession of present pleasures by the deceitful promises of future In answer I would fain know of any the most fortunate Epicure for I confess I have never been lucky enough to discover any such state whether there be any enjoyment rich as Fancy and ravishing as Dotage if there be of what constancy and unmixt purity it is for if it be not fixt and steady then a constant chearful Life as free from uneasie fears desires and troubles and repentances as from the taste of such luscious Meals is surely to be preferr'd before a few fortunate minutes of a Life in the general disorder'd and troubl'd or whether accounts being stated rightly we may not safely conclude that there is no such thing as such an enjoyment much less any permanent state of it and then I may easily defend Religion as to this point for then it is but reasonable that our desires should be calm and temperate and that we should sit down content with such easie and obvious pleasures as suit this state of imperfection and child-hood and if so what harm can Christianity do men as God expostulates with his People Testifie against me wherein have I wronged thee It doth not forbid us to like but dote it doth not forbid us to enjoy the World but it forbids us to equal it with Heaven And when it hath once fixt the limits of worldly happiness aright it is so far from driving us out of the reach of it that it is the onely path to it we sail within those Sea marks which if we slight we dash on Rocks and Sands for Answer me Are the Faculties of our Soul rendred more uncapable of Happiness because cultivated and improv'd imploy'd to useful and ingenious purposes not lost on trifles are our Senses less subtle and judicious because the Body is preserv'd in an entire and vigorous health by temperance and imployment and content of mind As to the Objects of our affections Is a Good Estate less useful or less creditable by being spent temperately and Charitably Is Greatness the less firm or the less glorious because its Basis is Vertue Is a Beauty the less taking because innocent and vertuous of all the pleasures of humane Life I have alwayes thought Friendship the dearest and certainly sense as well as wit true courage and honor and constancy the product of Religion as well as the Accomplishments of Nature and gentile Education must go to make it perfect and delightful when any are endear'd by a generous goodness by an innocent and undefigning passion by a combination of vertues and a confederacy of rational delights and glorious hopes I am confident no debauch'd mind can ever fancy any thing so charming and romantick and if this be the case if this be all that Religion doth that is if it be onely a wise method to happiness fet on foot by the goodness and contriv'd by the Wisdome of God I cannot discover any just ground of quarrel against it I cannot see how the sinner can get clear off from these Arguments remember then 't is a disingenious kind of confidence to return only raillery for answer to Arguments and to think a loud laughter a sufficient confutation of important truths Be not deceived God will not be mocked a day is coming when the secrets of all hearts shall be laid open when God will argue his own cause in a flaming vengeance and then what a miserable Tragedy will thy Mirth and Pleasure the Sinner and his World end in What astonishment and dread will seize upon every Soul which hath hardened it self against the Gospel of Christ how miserably fool'd and cheated will all the gay and jolly Sinners find themselves But glory honour and peace will be the portion of every one who worketh righteousness The Prayer O Thou holy Spirit of God thou divine principle of a divine life remove all blindness hardness and impenitence from off the hearts of all those who read the truths of the Gospel of Christ and grant that they may receive the word of Christ with an entire humility and pure Affections and bring forth the fruit of it in their Conversation that when the winds blow and the rain descends and the floods beat they may be like houses built upon a rock and stand unshaken in the great day of Judgement Amen Amen FINIS A Catalogue of Books printed for and sold by Robert Pawlet at the Sign of the Bible in Chancery Lane near Fleetstreet VIllare Anglicanum or a view of all Towns Villages c. In England and Wales alphabetically composed so that naming any Town or place you may readily find in what Shire Hundred Rape Wapenstake it is in Also the number of Bishopwricks Counties under their several jurisdictions and the Shire Towns Boroughs and Parishes in each County by the appointment of the eminent Sir Henry Spelman Kt. The Nuns Complaint against the Friers being the Charge given in the Court of France by the Nuns of St. Katharines near Province against the Father Fryers their Confessors shewing their abuses in their allowance of undecent Books and Love-letters and marriages of the Fryers and
unhallow them If after all this I chance to Err I do not doubt but that the purity of my intention the diligence of my inquiry the meekness and intireness of my Resignation will through the mercies and goodness of a gracious God secure my Heaven and render my error innocent and harmless All that is behind now is in the 3. Third place to preserve my Charity for my Neighbour least that Faith which should be the strong engagement to union become the unhappy Instrument of Divisions To this end I consider 1. That the Controversies now on foot in Christendome are not about the Truth but sense of Divine Revelation none at all calling into question the veracity but the meaning of God and therefore I cannot conceive the glory of God any more lessen'd or injur'd by variety of Opinions than by variety of Capacities unless in their consequence 2. As the bare assent to a Truth doth not save so I see no reason why the holding of an Error should damn unless it be such as hath a sinful Original or Issue or such as is not consistent with the Honour and Glory of the Most High God and indeed no Opinion which lessens the Majesty of the Most High God can be taken up by any one professing Christianity but that it must begin or end in Sin But yet the aggravation or extenuation of the guilt of a Man thus erring may depend upon so many circumstances as Capacity Education Means and Opportunity of better information the strength of prejudices c. That he must be left to the judgment of God alone and my duty as a private Christian is to love and pray for him and to endeavour his reducement by all the pious Subtleties I can This is the general Rule of the Apostle Let not the Weak judge the Strong nor the Strong despise the Weak I will live in the peaceful temper of these perswasions happy in the enjoyment of a smooth and settled Calm resign'd up to God stanch and consistent in my self and possess'd by charitable hopes of my Neighbour I 'le endeavour to keep a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards Man and then I hope I may at last resign my Spirit into the hands of a faithful Creator in the Joyes and Transports of this Precious Christian Faith The Prayer GLorious and incomprehensible God suppress in me all proud thoughts all wild and wanton Curiosities and keep my Soul in the humble frame of new born Babes Thou dwellest in Light inaccessible my Soul in a cloud of Flesh and Bloud my Faculties are weak and tainted and thy Light dazling and therefore it is not for me Lord it is not for me saucily to discuss or pragmatically to determine of but humbly to receive and heartily to embrace those Mysteries which thou a God of Truth of Goodness and of Power hast vouchsaf'd to reveal to us by the Son of thy Bosome Lord I confess that tho these Mysteries have a dark they have a bright side too for tho I cannot see thorow them yet I see enough to oblige me to worship Thee in Humility and Love and these these I hope will secure me in thy Love through Christ Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief enlighten my blindness quicken and enliven my dulness support my frailties disperse my Passions free me from all the prejudices which clog my sinful nature and finally beget in me an earnest desire after those blissful Mansions where my Faith shall be swallowed up in Vision Amen blessed Jesus Thus I have consider'd the Christian Faith and secur'd my own Peace But there are multitudes of People of a lower Rank and Capacity who may not it may be reach the design of this Section who are distracted by the numerous Controversies every where on foot and frightned by the rash zeal of their Abetters For the satisfaction of such I consider That it is easie to deduce from the Gospel That the Almighty will judge men by their several measures and opportunities 2. That the great Fundamentals of Religion are clear as day light and therefore the Gospel is call'd Light and the Grace of God is said to appear unto all men which tho I suppose primarily meant in opposition to the darkness of Gentilism and in some measure of Judaism too and to that narrower limitation of this Grace under the Mosaical Oeconomy implies with all the clearness of the Gospel of which were there no other proof this one would suffice That the Gospel was design'd for the benefit of all Mankind and more immediately preach'd to the Poor and Silly and Refuse of the World The consequence of this is that it seems at least to me wholly improbable that any Body should be betray'd into a necessity of Erring in Fundamentals unless they be accessory to their own error and therefore this being once granted I may resolve all I can think of necessary for the Multitude in to two directions 1. That holding fast to manifest Fundamentals they for the rest submit themselves to the Government they are under which will be safe for them upon three Accounts 1. That the points controverted are such which they are not of necessity oblig'd to know 2. That they themselves are not capable of making any solid inquiry and therefore to resign themselves to those set over them is the utmost of their duty 3. That in this Case their submission to the publick Authority of the Church they are of is an act of Obedience and Humility and most conformable to the command of God and the peace and unity of the world 2. That they never prefer a doubtful opinion to the prejudice of a plain Precept or Duty a Man may go to Heaven tho he be not of this or that opinion but without Obedience and Charity he cannot but to do this is to stickle for a Sect in violation of Obedience and Charity and to prefer an humor before ones Duty which is a certain Symptom of a mind infatuated by pride or perverted by interest CHAP. III. Of Christianity with respect to Practice and that 1. In general and 2. In particular Sect. 1. OF Practice in general which contains Being and Doing Good We are born into a World full of Snares and Temptations and we our selves are Creatures blind and yet wilful weak and yet wanton too and upon these accounts we are vouchsaf'd the favour of Divine Revelation to conduct us thorow our Pilgrimage to enable us to fight the good fight of Faith and to prevent our miscarrying thorow the Deceitfulness of Sin and the frailty of humane nature and therefore whoever doth not improve this gift of God into all these Advantages and Benefits defeats the design of Heaven and receives the grace of God in vain Besides all this the great Author of all things hath declar'd himself a God jealous of his honour and delighted in the happiness of his Creatures from whence I naturally infer that that only can be a design
implanted in the heart hath to these it is call'd the Divine Nature and the Image of God and it is highly reasonable that the worship should be suitable to the God it is paid to and therefore the Rule and Standard of Holiness is the Divine Nature and nothing else the beauty of Holiness and the deformity of sin is not to be deriv'd at least primarily from the conveniency or inconvenieney of the one or other in this present life but from a tendency to imprint or efface this Divine Image in us This is the way of our Saviour's and his Apostles arguing from the Divine Nature to our Duty thus because God is a Spirit therefore he is to be worshipp'd in Spirit and in Truth because he is pure therefore they must purifie themselves who approach him because he is holy therefore his worshippers must be holy too and because he is love therefore they who abide in him must abide in love all his Children must imitate the perfections of the Divine Nature Be ye perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect From hence it is easie to discover why the God of Heaven hath such an Everlasting Quarrel against sin and why he delights so much in Holiness and Righteousness Sin embases the man and depraves the spirit which is in him into a sensual natural man and sets him at the farthest distance from and contradiction to God but Holiness is a reflexion of his own Beauty and Excellency it is the exalting man into a spiritual and heavenly Nature This is a plain account of the Nature of Holiness and Sin how the one is so lovely and the other so ugly how the one is so dangerous and the other so advantagious 2. The knowledge of the Divine Nature convinces us of the reasonableness of serving God There can be but two reasons for service either 1. An Obligation to the person we serve and then our service is either Duty or Gratitude or else 2. A regard to our own interest or pleasure In the knowledge of the Divine Nature we shall find all these Obligations to his services If we consider God as that Principle in whom we live and move and have our being Act. 17.28 or as one who doth us good gives us rain from Heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness Act. 14.17 What can be more reasonable than that we should be thankful to him but if we consider him further as Redeeming us by the Blood of his Son instructing us by the Light of his Gospel assisting us by the Power of his Spirit and adopting us into the hopes of an Incorruptible Crown what can be more reasonable than that we should devote our selves to his service and offer up our selves a holy living and acceptable Sacrifice to him If we consider him as our Creator and the Lord of Heaven and Earth what can be more reasonable than that we his Creatures should obey his Laws If we have regard to our own Interest all our present enjoyments and future hopes depend upon him to be guided by Infinite Wisdom to be protected by Infinite Power to be blest by him who is above all things and can make us as happy as he pleases are things which a wise love of our selves would make us earnestly desire As for pleasure besides that which flows from the perswasion of all these advantages which accrue to us from his service and besides the peace and true freedom which Devotion gains us there is a strange pleasure in the contemplation of the most Excellent Being in whom is united all that is any way taking with a Rational and Immortal Soul 3. This knowledge of God will confirm us in a firm perswasion of the reward of Vertue and punishment of Vice for whilst it discovers sin so exceeding hateful not only upon the account of its contradiction to the Divine Nature but also its base ingratitude and folly and discovers the Excellency and Loveliness of Holiness it doth at the same time manifest the reason why God who is a holy God doth incourage the one by such glorious promises and deter us from the other by such amazing threats for whether we consider him in himself the purity of his own nature makes him love goodness and hate vice and how contemptible were either his love or hate if happiness be not the effect of one and misery of the other or if you consider him as the Governour of this world it is inconsistent with his Majesty to suffer the violation of his Laws without punishing the bold Offender So that now there 's nothing further necessary to work this perswasion in us but that 1. We should be perswaded that neither our good nor evil actions can be conceal'd from him And 2. That he is arm'd with sufficient power to bless and reward the righteous and avenge himself of the sinner and both these Truths we learn from his infinite Knowledge and infinite Power both which we are abundantly taught in the Gospel of Christ to belong to God God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell Mat. 10.28 And this God thus knowing and thus powerful without any respect of persons judgeth according to every mans work 1 Pet. 1.17 All this now amounts to thus much that Vertue and Vice are not indifferent things but that the one is most lovely the other most loathsom to God therefore the one is most fatal and the other most benificial to its Votaries for there is an infinitely glorious Being who is most deeply concern'd and every way able to poure forth blessings on the righteous and vengeance on the sinner The Prayer O Glorious God let my knowledge of thy Nature teach me to deny all iniquity and to be holy as thou art holy Let thy goodness make me love thee and thy Power and Justice make me fear thee and let both wing my Devotion and clog and damp my Lusts Let thy Truth and thy Power beget in me a perfect affiance in thee Let thy Wisdom and thy Love perswade me to submit quietly to thy Will that I may walk before an Almighty God and be perfect and so may enter into thy joys in the life to come thorough Jesus Christ our Lord. SECT III. Of the third Motive to Holiness i.e. the Consideration of the whole History of the Son of God Jesus Christ OUr Lord and Saviour may be consider'd either in his Life his Death or Glory beginning in his Resurrection the knowledge of him in each of these is a strong ingagement to Holiness and a determent from Vice 1. In his Life and here we may look upon him with reference to his Doctrine or Example both which conspire in this one aim to implant Holyness in the world and to root out sin for look upon him with reference to his
circumstances and is fear'd only by the vain and gay and scorn'd by fools for to be truly humble is to be truly honourable and to suffer Christianly is the infallible Character of a great mind Lord I know that I am here but a stranger and Pilgrim and I will not propose to my self rest and lushious pleasures I am now in a state of warfare and I expect not my ease and a Kingdom till I have vanquish'd I am the Servant of the Holy Jesus and I will take up my Cross and follow him and if he calls me to walk upon the waters I cannot believe that he will let me perish I have in this discourse of Pleasure and Pain had an eye to two things not only to shew that there can be no reasonable ground for a Temptation to Sin in either but also to demonstrate the Excellency of the Christian Principles by shewing how they serve to all the ends and necessities of this mortal life to regulate our Pleasures and alleviate our Pains for else it had been enough for me to have said that there is no reason to quit an Eternity of pleasure for a moment's and that no pain can be equal to that of Hell and therefore that no man can be seduced from his duty by either Pleasure or Pain if he do really believe the Gospel The Evils which disquiet the Minds of men as far as concerns this Head of Pain may be reduc'd to two 1. Doubting or uncertainty when we have no sure knowledge of matters of the greatest moment 2. Amazement and fear proceeding from guilt and the apprehension of future vengeance The first of these is now sufficiently remov'd by the Gospel of Christ which hath brought Life and Immortality to Light and discover'd all those glorious and important Truths which relate to our Eternal Welfare and our belief is herein founded upon Divine Revelation for God bore witness to the Authors of this Gospel by Miracles and by his holy Spirit by the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead c. and such is the purity and excellency of this holy Doctrine that no man who believes a God can chuse but see that an obedience to such holy Precepts must be acceptable to him The second proceeds from the Conscience of our sins and a dread of the Divine Nature either of which if they drive man into despair must necessarily plunge him into profaneness and immorality or into melancholly and madness The Gospel hath remov'd both these Evils 1. By the glad tidings of Reconciliation thorough the Blood of Christ whom he hath set forth to be a Propitiation for the sins of all who will believe and repent to deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Heb. 2.15 2. By a clear Revelation of the goodness and mercifulness of the Divine Nature which Courts our return beseeches us to be reconcil'd to him and waits for an opportunity to shew Mercy Whence the Gospel Characters of him now are that of a Father the God of Hope the God of Comfort and Consolation and Mercies and Love so that the minds of Christians are fill'd with joy and peace in believing and abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost From all which it follows that no man can have any temptation to sin from any rational suggestions from any rational fears or doubts for this discovery of the Divine Nature and this Death of Christ invites men to Holiness by the Obligations of Divine Love and their own interest But of this I have treated before The Prayer O Thou God of Hope of Love and Mercy thou art become exceeding gracious to thy people thou hast turn'd away our captivity and refresh'd us by an Eternal Redemption though this world be a Wilderness compar'd to the other yet thou here feedest us with Manna those bright Truths and that glorious assistance which are able to scatter all the melancholly Clouds of afflictions and sorrow which gather upon the face of this present life Lord grant that I may make this use of them to raise my self above the weaknesses and passions of this present life that the tryal of my Faith may be to praise and glory and to my everlasting felicity in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ Amen Amen blessed Jesus CHAP. III. Of some other particular sorts of Temptations THough these Pain and Pleasure are the great Magazines from whence the Devil brings forth all his Arms and Temptations yet there are some peculiar ways whereby he doth insnare and intangle us for he doth not assault us openly unless he hath before corrupted the Guards he deals with us as with Eve Ye shall not surely die for if he had told her plainly the fruit is fair and pleasant 't is worth your while to die for 't certainly she would have bid open defiance to him and scorn'd the temptation Thus he deals with us he cheats and deludes us into vain hopes and false presumptions we wound our selves to death and yet flatter our selves with life we forfeit our Innocence and yet impudently promise our selves a Heaven I will therefore conclude this Part with a particular Chapter concerning Temptations which are mostly 1. Infidelity This is the general way the Devil takes to destroy the Souls of men and to seduce them from their duty for it will necessarily follow that it is the most notorious folly imaginable to oppose our inclinations or to deny our selves any thing if there be no reward for holy souls and therefore against this we are exhorted to take up the Shield of Faith Eph. 6.16 to possess our hearts with a firm belief of the truth of the Gospel of Christ For this Reason the Evangelists and Apostles are so full and frequent in the proof of the Fundamentals of Christianity as the Resurrection c. and of this one Proposition That Jesus is the Son of God proving it from his Power and Holiness and Wisdom and his Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven and from the descent of his Spirit upon his Followers in such a publick manner and I heartily wish that all that profess the Name of Christ would 1. Lay seriously to heart the clearness and evidence of these proofs and not perfunctorily pass over all the passages of the Gospel which are written on purpose that we may believe without weighing them 2. That they would examine themselves what are the first Motives which prompt them to Infidelity Do they not love darkness because their deeds are evil and do they not rather wish the Gospel false than believe it so 3. That they would not stifle their Reason and refuse Audience to those Pleas the Gospel offers in its own defence when they cannot answer them do not think its enough to divert your Conscience awhile from its clamours and importunity but satisfie it and do not rest till you bring stronger proofs against the truth of the Gospel than those are which Patronize it for