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
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
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
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
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