keep silence in the Church Now here I cannot but observe the most insufferable contradiction of the practice of the Roman Church to the Apostles determination The Apostles you see would not allow that the prayers of the Church should be uttered in an unknown tongue but there they pray in a tongue unknown unto the people The Apostle would not allow this no not in them who spake by immediate Inspiration they practise contrary to the Apostles express Decree and that where no such Inspiration can be pretended with the least appearance and shew of reason The Apostle supposes no man edified by the prayers which he doth not understand they either judge that a man may be edified by such prayers or that they may be duly used although the Church be not edified by them both which expresly contradict the Apostle If the Church of Rome be in the right then the Apostle is mistaken if the Apostle be not mistaken the Church of Rome doth grosly erre in judging such prayers edifie which St. Paul affirms cannot edifie or in judging them fit to be used in the Church although they do not edifie at all And is it not now a wonderful thing that they who so grosly so expresly contradict the Doctrine of Sr. Paul should boast themselves to be infallible Is it not yet a greater wonder that any who have had the education where the Scriptures are read in a known tongue should suffer themselves to be overborn into a belief that they are infallible who erre in so plain and clear an instance and in a thing of such concernment Certainly if men were not infatuated by most unreasonable lusts and passions they would never apostatize never adhere to such a Church as sound nay infallible in all her Doctrines who uses its publick Prayers and Offices in a tongue unknown unto the people a thing so contrary to common sense and to the practice of primitive times and to what the Apostle himself teaches in as full and clear and express words as any thing possibly can be spoken 2. But to proceed to the second kind of the extraordinary gift of prayer which was when a man received all the conceptions in prayer from an immediate Inspiration but so far used his understanding as to contrive the expression of them into a tongue known to them that heard him and into plain and easie expressions in that tongue Concerning this I must observe that it was a gift of the Holy Ghost peculiar to the Apostles times or at least to those that immediately followed as the rest of those miraculous powers and gifts were which God did then bestow on the Church to confirm the truth of Christianity I do not deny but that God doth still in some cases suggest to the minds of good men that is convenient for their condition and what it is they should pray for I do not deny but that when they fall into such straits as that they know not what it is best to pray for God doth direct and guide their minds by the assistance of his Spirit For as there is need of such assistance in such cases so God denies not what is needful to such persons And this is the meaning of the Apostle Rom. 8.26 Likewise also the Spirit helpeth our infirmities for we know not what to pray for as we ought He speaks in this place of times of great distress and danger when the Christians were often in such perplexities and doubts of mind that they knew not what to pray for at least with faith and resignation entire resignation to Gods will Now here it was that the Spirit of God directed them to pray for such things and in such a manner as might tend effectually to Gods glory though to their sufferings in the world And thus far I doubt not may we expect the like assistance of Gods Spirit in the like cases if we heartily pray for it But now for any man in these days to expect an immediate Inspiration of all the conceptions of a prayer such as the Apostles arid Prophets had in the primitive times of Christianity for any man to pretend to pray by the same immediate Revelation Whereby they prayed in the Christian Churches is a very groundless and great presumption And therefore when you hear men pray with a great torrent and flow of words you are not presently to imagine as divers ignorant persons do that such a man prays by an immediate Inspiration that what he speaks is just then dictated and suggested by the Holy Ghost as things were suggested to the Apostles unless he could also speak with tongues and heal the sick and cure the lame and in a word do such Miracles as they did and give the same proof of his Inspiration which they did evidently give of theirs which is a thing that is not done by any that now pretend unto it and therefore shews the pretence is vain and the Pretender to be deceived if not a cheat and Impostor likewise Is there then no way in these days whereby a man may truly be said to pray by the Spirit in the sense and language of the Scriptures and that in ordinary and common cases Yes that there is For 2. Such is that other way of praying which I have before mentioned to you which is when a man prays in the use of Faith and Hope and all the Graces of Gods Spirit and with such pious and good affections as are the effects of those Graces though not by immediate Inspiration that is to say the immediate dictate of the Spirit Such is the prayer our Saviour supposes in those words Joh. 4.24 God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth not carelesly and without attention not without the affections of the heart and inward sense of the mind and spirit as the Jews had worshipped him in former Ages but fervently heartily and sincerely Such is the prayer the Apostle mentions Eph. 6.18 where he requires them to pray always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit that is with spiritual and holy minds with fervent and devout affections Like whereunto was that singing also which he represents in these words Speaking to your selves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in your hearts Eph. 5.19 Where you plainly see that the holy offices wherein the heart was moved and affected are said to be spiritual on that account See also Col. 3.16 Now concerning this way of praying by the Spirit wherein men pray in the use of Faith and with real and hearty and devout affections though not by immediate Inspiration I shall observe several things 1. That this way or manner of praying is grateful and acceptable to God This is in truth such a worship of God as our Saviour himself did understand when he said that they that worship God must worship him in spirit and truth This is the worship that God requires and therefore
judgment in them is not only the cure of Ignorance the first disease of the understanding but what is more than I said at first a powerful and a sovereign medicine to the distempers of our wills to all our inordinate lusts and passions Secondly Let us now proceed to the second malady of our minds from which it is a like deliverance and that is Scepticism and suspense in things both evident and useful to us for general assurance and general doubt to believe every thing and nothing at all are equal distempers of the mind although of very different kinds the one proceeding from vain confidence the other from the weak suspicions of a shattered and broken understanding There are some men that can make themselves believe any thing even that their senses are deceived though duly applyed to their proper objects and yet pretend the proof of this from a Doctrine which being grounded on miracle the proper object of our senses is grounded upon the truth of sense So do they that believe the Doctrine of Transubstantiation others had rather deceive themselves by the Sophistry of their own wits in nice and uncertain speculations than content or owne themselves to be ignorant in things the knowledge whereof is useless But then as it cannot be denied that this is a levity of understanding to pretend certainty in things uncertain So is it a more unhappy weakness and a greater craziness of understanding to doubt and suspend in those things which are both evident and useful likewise A man may doubt in things impertinent to life and happiness without any danger or fear either because he neither really is nor judges himself concerned in them but if he be doubtful in those things wherein his greatest concernments lie if he question the difference of good and evil if he call Divine Revelation in question if he doubt of the very truth of the Gospel if he scruple what Christ hath brought to light eternal life and immortality if he be under suspense and fear what is the way to life immortal if he question what he shall be hereafter happy or miserable or neither of both that is as the very brute that perishes if he be held in suspense and doubt of such important things as these what reelings and fluctuations of mind what anxieties and pangs of heart what irresolution in life and practice must these uncertainties bring upon him This is part of that very bondage from which our Saviour came to free us who was made partaker of flesh and blood that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Heb. 2.15 Which very deliverance Christ hath wrought by the clear discovery and certain proof of life eternal and all the means of attaining to it for so hath he given us a firm foundation of clear and certain and stable judgment both in our duties and rewards and so delivered the minds of men from the bondage of suspense and doubt in their only true and great concernments Thirdly Now for the vanity of the mind in applying itself to useless things the last disease of the understanding this also is effectually cured by the approbation of things excellent that is to say by sound judgment in all our duties and rewards for such a judgment cannot fall to divert our thoughts from needless things from vain speculations from idle subtilties from trivial questions from angry contentions and disputes about impertinent and useless things the itch whereof hath been an epidemical disease in the minds and understandings of men in most ages and professions in the Philosophers among the heathen in the Pharisees among the Jews in the Schoolmen among the Christians to say nothing of the Mahometan imposture which is a trifle from beginning to end multitudes of volumes have been written upon impertinent and trivial subjects multitudes of Libraries hive been filled with troublesome and unuseful rubbish with the ruines of humane understanding for all the vanity we find in books was first of all in the minds of men It was the complaint of one of the greatest of the heathen that all the Philosophers before Socrates imployed their studies in the speculation of those things which were of very small concernment and did not only all that while neglect the culture of life and manners but left the very things they studied in the same obscurity they found them in Socrates indeed made an attempt to transfer knowledge from useless things into the lives and manners of men and certainly the attempt was great but the success was not such but that still many professours of wisdom mispent their studies in useless trifles and obscurities the knowledge whereof made no man better nor ignorance any man ever the worse The same disease hath long reign'd among the Jews those of their writings that are most trifling fable in history and tattle in dispute so is their very Talmud itself are most of all valued amongst them This first began amongst the Pharisees and was so infections in that Nation and so difficult to be removed when it had once seized the mind that several Proselytes to Christianity abused themselves and troubled others with foolish questions and genealogies and contentions and strivings about the law which the Apostle reprehends as unprofitable and vain Tit. 3.9 These are the men whom he describes 1 Tim. 6.4 5. who were proud knowing nothing doting about questions and strifes of words whereof cometh envy strife railings evil surmizings perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth where by the way we may observe that they that made the greatest pretence of striving for truth lost piety nay truth itself while they pretended to strive for it Now I will not say that the same dust hath been raised by the Schoolmen among the Christians that the same vanity and curiosity hath had all the same effects But this I think I may aver that whatsoever wit the Schoolmen shew in the subjects whereupon they treat the choice of many of those subjects demonstrates a strange want of judgment But to what purpose is this discourse To clear the use to shew the necessity of sound judgment in the things the Apostle styles excellent in things pertinent to life and happiness which very judgment is in itself an effectual cure of all this vanity of understanding that diverts the mind from its proper food from solid useful pertinent truth from the knowledge of God and of our selves to trivial disputes and speculations which after all a man's pains and studies leave his mind vain and empty his temper proud and supercilious and his life for any thing gained by them utterly unreform'd and vitious So is not he that stedily approves the things that are excellent for the very excellency of these things throughly digested and approved clears his thoughts and feeds his mind and calms
reason is because our Saviour in his following discourse in this Chapter takes no notice of matter of history or prediction but only of matter of Law and Precept 2. And then further as the Law and the Prophets signifie the precepts delivered in the Books of the Old Testament so when our Lord assures his hearers that he came not to destroy those precepts his meaning is that he did not come to thwart or oppose or contradict them or any thing which God designed in them for so is the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken in several places of the Scripture 3. And lastly when he further adds that he came to fulfil those precepts his sense necessarily must be this that he came to advance and improve or accomplish whatsoever God intended in them Having now sufficiently cleared the sense of the words before us I shall proceed to shew the truth of the several parts contained in them 1. And first of all of the negative part I am not come to destroy the Law or the Prophets 2. And secondly of that which is affirmative But I am come to fulfil them In my discourse on both which parts it will be convenient to consider the several kinds of Laws or Precepts given to the Jews Moral Ceremonial and Judicial apart or severally by themselves 1. And to begin with the negative part plain it is 1. In the first place That our Lord did no way contradict any moral precept of the Law but left his followers under perpetual obligations to obey all precepts of that kind All things saith he whatsoever you would that men should do to you do ye even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets Matt. 7.12 Where we find him confirming that general rule which the Law and Prophets had delivered touching our duty towards our neighbours and consequently setling all particular acts of duty which the moral Law required toward them by the confirmation of that rule The same is done as to our duties both to God and man Matt. 22.37 39. where he establishes and approves the two great commands of the Law that we love God with all our heart and with all our mind and that we love our neighbour as our selves whereunto he presently adds these words on these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets These were the things which the Law and Prophets aimed at in all their precepts and exhortations and these hath Christ confirmed and ratified but no way prejudiced by the Gospel I say not now how much more holy rules of life our Lord hath given in several cases than were given by the Law or Prophets of that I shall give an account anon all that I now observe unto you is that an addition of higher precepts of obedience was no destruction or violation of those that were not so high as they but really an improvement of them just as the growth of a child to a man is no destruction but an improvement of the person or as a greater degree of vertues includes but doth not destroy the less from whence I conclude that although our Lord hath added perfecter rules of holiness than the Law or the Prophets had delivered yet he did not destroy them by so doing but further improved what they designed But the great difficulty doth not lie in reconcileing our Saviours words I came not to destroy the Law or the Prophets with what he did as to the moral part of the Law but with what befel its other branches namely the ceremonial and judicial both which parts fell to the ground after his coming into the World and what he did and suffered in it and yet in truth he did not destroy either of them in the sense wherein destruction is taken in these words that is to say he did not oppose or contradict them or otherwise behave himself toward them than was suitable to the mind and will of the Law-giver 2. He did not violate much less oppose any precept of the ceremonial Law but caused the Law it self to cease not by any opposition to it but by removeing all occasion of any further use of it as the Laws of war are not violated but cease and take no place in peace He introduced that very thing which the ceremonial Law designed the introduced the life and substance of those things which were foreshadowed in that Law and so he made it cease and vanish not by opposing or contradicting but by accomplishing the end of it as it will further appear to you when I shall shew how he fufilled it 3. Nor lastly did our Lord destroy that is violate or contradict the judicial part of Moses his Law namely the Law of the Jewish State for that Law fell of it self in the Jewish Common-wealth when the City of Jerusalem was destroyed when the generality of the people were carried away into captivity when the whole Government was dissolved and the Country became a Roman Province there was an end of that Common-wealth and so an end of those Laws whereby that Common-wealth was governed For the Laws of the Jewish Common-wealth were not given save only to the people of the Jews nor were they designed to continue longer than the Common-wealth it self continued so that when this was once dissolved those also fell of their own accord without any violation offered unto them by our Saviour from all which several considerations it plainly appears that he did not come to destroy or opose the Law or the Prophets or any precept contained in them and that he did not behave himself to either of them as one that came to oppose or thwart them So careful was he to give no scandal to create no real offence to the Jews by contradicting in any precepts moral ceremonial or judicial which the Law or the Prophets had established 2. Having shewed the truth of the negative part of our Saviours words which is that he came not into the World to destroy either the Law or the Prophets let us now proceed to give an account of the other part wherein he affirms that he came to fulfil them that is as I have before explained it to improve and accomplish what they contained and what was mainly designed in them And here proceeding in that method which I have used in the former part 1. I first observe that our blessed Lord fulfilled the moral part of the Law by giving stricter rules of holiness than either Moses or the Prophets had formerly given unto the Jews according to the received sense amongst the best of their Interpreters and no doubt in several cases stricter than Moses himself design'd and this is the sense wherein St Chrysostom and Tertullian and divers others of the ancient Christians affirm our Saviour to have fulfilled the moral Law as well as by personal obedience to it They teach that he filled up those vacuities that Moses had left in moral duties because the Jews were not able to bear them
by adding higher rules of holiness for as he established the New Covenant upon better promises than those the Old was built upon so he gave sublimer and higher precepts than those that were given in the Old If the Law and the Prophets forbad murder murder committed by the hand our Saviour stifled it in the heart for he hath forbiden causeless anger I say unto you whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment Matt. 5.22 If Moses condemned adultery in the body our Lord condemns the very impurity of the mind and styles it the adultery of the heart ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old thou shalt not commit adultery but I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart v. 27 28. If the Law of Moses allowed divorce upon small disgusts and animosities our blessed Lord doth not allow it save only in the case of Adultery which is the peculiar and proper breach of matrimonial obligation v. 32. of the same Chapter If the Law allowed a retaliation of evil for evil an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth our Lord hath forbidden us to resist evil v. 39. that is to say to revenge it for not to resist the evil done us is to give place to the wrath of our Enemy and this is the same as not to avenge it and so we learn from St Paul's words Rom. 12.19 Dearly beloved avenge not your selves but rather give place unto wrath for it is written vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord. If the Law and the Prophets forbad perjury our Lord hath forbidden all swearing in our common and ordinary conversation let your communication be yea yea nay nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil v. 37. If the Law allowed to hate an Enemy that is to say any person of the seven Nations whom God had devoted to destruction our blessed Lord hath commanded us to love our Enemies I say unto you love your Enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you v. 44. of the same Chapter Thus hath he fulfilled the moral Law by filling up several vacuities that Moses was forced to leave in it in condescension unto the Jews and to the hardness of their hearts and by adding higher rules of holiness than the Law or the Prophets had delivered 2. Now to proceed in the second place to the ceremonial part of the Law this did our Lord fulfil likewise and that also two several ways 1. By personal obedience to it and all the rights therein enjoyned whereunto he freely became subject He was circumcised the eighth day according as that Law enjoyned he was redeemed by a certain price being a Son and a First-born he observed the feasts prescribed in the Law yea and that of the dedication also although but of humane institution as appears in the history of the Gospel he did and permitted to be done in and upon his own Person whatsoever it was that Law required whence he is said to have been made of a woman made under the Law that is to say subject to all its Rites and Ceremonies Gal. 4.4 2. But secondly there is another way wherein our Lord fulfilled the ritual part of the Law which was by accomplishing all those things and introduceing all those graces which were typically figured and shadowed in it That had a shadow of good things to come and not the very Image of the things that is to say not the things themselves Heb. 10.1 and so is the word effigies taken by no worse an Author than Tully himself nos solidam et expressan effigiem virtutis nullam tenemus but Christ introduced the very things which were foreshadowed in that Law His Priesthood was antitype to that of Aaron his Sacrifice to the Sacrifices of the Law his entrance into heaven it self to appear in the presence of God for us to the High Priests entrance into the Holy of Holies on the solemn day of expiation the expiation made by his Sacrifice to that which was made by those of the Law the spiritual purity of the Gospel to the legal washings and purification and abstinences from things then impure the eternal rest that he hath prepared for the people of God to the Jewish Sabbaths and new moons all which things were only shadows of things to come and so the Apostle himself assures us Col. 2.16 17. Let no man therefore judge you in meat or drink or in respect of an holy day or of the new moon or of the Sabbath days which are a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ that is to say Christ introduced the things themselves which were but shadowed in the Law by typical figures and similitudes which is likewise the meaning of these words John 1.17 The Law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ he brought in the very life and substance of what was but pictured in the Law and thus he fulfilled the ritual part of Moses his Law as well as personal obedience to it 3. Now for the judicial part of the Law whereby the Jewish State was governed I need not say how our Lord fulfilled it by submitting himself both to the Roman and Jewish Magistrate He was contented to pay tribute he suffered himself to be apprehended by the Officers sent to this purpose he suffered himself to be tried and sentenced and yielded himself to the Execution of the sentence unjustly passed upon him and though he could not owne the guilt yet did he quietly receive the punishment for he was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so opened he not his mouth Isa 53.7 But the way whereby he did more especially fulfil the judicial Law of Moses was by introducing the royal Law of universal love and kindness which if observed would more effectually attain the end of humane Laws than all the wisdom force or power which can accompany and attend them The end of all political Laws is only the safety and the prosperity of the Common-wealth that men may live in mutual peace that every man may possess and enjoy his life and estate and reputation and whatsoever belongs unto him without the trouble of fraud or violence from other persons all which ends would more sucessfully be attained by the Law of universal love peculiarly setled by our Lord than by the wisest of humane Laws and the strictest execution of them those can but bind the outward man they cannot change the hearts of men those can but tie the hands of violence and muzzle the mouth of the wild beast they cannot alter and mend his nature nor make him further abstain from injury than the fear of punishment and revenge may put a restraint
is God serious in his Commands or is he not Is he in earnest or doth he only amuse us with them If he be not serious if he not in good earnest with us in the Laws which he hath prescribed unto us where is his wisdom where his Majesty where the perfection of his nature Doth infinite wisdom trifle with us doth he give us Laws without design that we should obey them or accept of us without obedience If he be serious and in earnest then hath he given us his holy Laws with real purpose and design that we should yield obedience to them nor can he chuse but be displeased when we wilfully violate or neglect them nor yet be reconciled unto us while he is so displeased with us while we continue in disobedience Now therefore for men to flatter themselves with hope of the favour and grace of God hope of the pardon of their sins while they continue in those sins is nothing less by good consequence than to imagine that God hath given us his holy Laws without intending they should oblige us that his wisdom doth but trifle with us which is an evident contradiction both to his Laws and wisdom also Those are no Laws that do not oblige nor is that wisdom which is not serious Secondly Add hereunto in the second place That a presumption on Gods favour in men continuing in their sins is flatly contrary to all those pressing exhortations whereby we find our selves invited nay vehemently pressed unto obedience in numerous places of the Scriptures such as that Prov. 1.22 23. How long will ye simple ones love simplicity and the scorner delight in scorning and fools hate knowledge Turn ye at my reproof Such is that Ezek. 18.31 32. Cast away from you all your transgressions and make you a new heart and a new spirit Such is that Deut. 5.29 O that there were such an heart in them that they would fear me and keep my Commandments always that it might be well with them Such is that used by St Paul 2 Cor. 5.20 God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses to them Now then we are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray yon in Christs stead be ye reconciled unto God Now what shall we say to these and many such exhortations wherein the Writers of the holy Scriptures wherein God himself by them exhorts invites and mightily perswades unto repentance and reformation unto obedience to Gods Laws Do not we see that they are most earnest most serious applications to us and can we imagine he would apply himself unto us with so much vehemence of address so much strength and importunity if he could be pleased and satisfied with us if he would pardon and accept us without reformation of wilful sins sins we cherish and indulge Is all this importunity used to press and perswade a needless thing a thing which is not absolutely necessary to recommend us to God's favour to obtain grace and acceptance with him Let no man have such thoughts of God as to believe him so importunate in pressing obedience to his Laws had he not decreed to remit and pardon no mans sins and to accept of no mans person who lives in disobedience to them The words I have before cited plainly shew he hath so decreed For when he hath said O that there were such an heart in them that they would fear me and keep my Commandments always that it might be well with them He clearly speaks his own Decree namely that it shall be well with no man who doth not fear him and keep his Precepts 3. But then thirdly What shall we say to the great promise of the Gospel namely that of pardon of sin and life eternal Is not this made to those only that believe and sincerely obey the Gospel is it made to the wicked and disobedient is it made to the cruel and unjust is it made to the sensual and impure is it made to any but those only who study obedience to our Lord and to the Laws by him prescribed Read and observe the whole Gospel turn it over leaf by leaf from the beginning unto the end and see if you find any one passage promising pardon and remission promising grace and favour with God to the impenitent and disobedient and is it not then a great presumption for the impenitent and disobedient to promise that to themselves which the Gospel hath no where promised to them And yet again what is the reason why God hath promised eternal life to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and immortality Rom. 2.7 What is the reason why he hath promised remission of sins upon repentance Luke 24.47 but that the assured expectation of these so great rewards and mercies might most effectually stir us up to the performance of our Duties and that we may clearly understand that there is no ground to hope the one without performance of the other Surely this is the reason of it and yet it were no reason at all if the reward might be expected without the performance of the Duty Now therefore although we could imagine that God was not in earnest with us in the Laws and Precepts of the Gospel nor in the pressing exhortations which are annexed unto its Precepts which yet would be an infinite folly yet the express and clear promise of pardon of sins and life eternal upon faith and obedience to the Gospel evidently shews how real and serious God is with us when he requires obedience from us He would never have added so great a motive as the promise of glory and immortality to perswade obedience to his Laws had it not been his real design that we should yield obedience to him or forfeit his grace and favour to us 4. But to pass on to the fourth Particular there is nothing so flatly so expresly contradicted by a presumption of Gods favour in men continuing in their sins as the threats and menaces of the Gospel For what is the thing these threats denounce Nothing less than the wrath of God nothing less than eternal misery as the sure effect of that wrath and who are the persons upon whom that wrath and this misery is denounced are they not the impenitent and disobedient are they not those who live in habitual disobedience to the holy Precepts of the Gospel Hear the Apostle speak in the Case Rom. 2.8 9. Vnto them who are contentious and obey not the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile And then that no disobedient person may deceive himself as judging himself exempt or quit from the common doom of the disobedient he further adds at the 11. verse There is no respect of persons with God He judges of all men as they are nor doth admit of any excuse of wilful sin
and where thieves do not break through and steal He knew that where we place our happiness styled our treasure in these words there should we also place our hearts For saith he where your treasure is there will your heart be also Upon which words I shall discourse in this method 1. I shall shew in what manner and in what degree men set their hearts upon that which they judge their chief good whether it be the wealth and honours the ease and pleasures of this World or the Bliss and Glory of the future 2. And then secondly I shall consider the several consequences of the words and draw such conclusions from them as deserve especial consideration 1. And to begin with the former general 1. The first application of mens souls to that which they judge their supreme good is a fixt and earnest desire of it 2. The next to this is a firm design and resolution to apply themselves to the gaining of it 3. And both these in the third place in such degrees that if ever any competition arise between this end and any other this is preferred and still pursued the other neglected and laid aside 1. The first application of mens Souls to that they judge their chief good is a fixt and earnest desire of it which is so rooted in humane nature that no man can ever shake it off wholly extinguish or remove it And the truth is were it not so that God had planted this desire in the very frame of mans nature the World would presently fall asleep the minds of men would drowze and slumber having nothing to quicken and to awake them the Soul itself as busie and active as it is as full of various thoughts and passions would be as unactive in the body as the very body without the Soul Desire is the principle of all action and this desire of being happy the spring of all our other desires this moves and quickens all within us this puts life into all our powers excites our thoughts forms our Counsels lays our designs stirs up and animates all endeavours This holds the eye of the mind open this keeps the Soul it self awake and puts it into continual motion for whatsoever it be we do 't is done in the view and consideration of what we believe to be good for us and some way tending to our happiness remove this out of the eye of a man and the clearest reasons that you can urge will never excite his will to choice much less engage him unto action He cannot act where he cannot hope nor can he hope where he sees nothing to be desired Say you whatsoever you can to move him he will always have this to say for himself the thing you propound no way tends to any advantage it doth not serve any end of mine and therefore why should I undertake it give me that which will do me good let me see how it tends unto my welfare let me know what account I shall find in it prove that I shall be better for it either in this or another World and then you may perswade me to it Nor doth this desire of a mans own happiness contradict or prejudice publick welfare for every wise man understands that his own particular and private good is always involved in publick welfare and every good man makes it a part of his own happiness to serve the advantage of other persons and besides he knows that he shall be rewarded hereafter for it And although we cannot all be wise yet every man may at least be good But after all both the good and evil wise and unwise always desire and chuse that which makes at least the fairest appearance of contributing to their own felicity This is the reason why God himself applies himself to this desire in the whole oeconomy of his providence in all his dealings with mankind When he prescribes his Laws to us he urges obedience to these Laws by promising happiness thereunto which promise yet could have no effect upon us had we no desire of being happy on the same account he threatens misery to the violation of his precepts which yet would be to little purpose could we be contented to be miserable or cease to desire our own felicity 'T is the same method which he uses in all his other addresses to us when he rebukes when he perswades when he expostulates and reasons with us he still accommodates all these things to that desire of being happy which he hath ingrafted in our natures as the first mover in all our actions Sometimes indeed he applies himself unto the natural desire men have of peace and safety in the world And so he did to the Jewish Nation Deut. 30.15 See saith he I have set before thee this day life and good death and evil and after that at the 9. v. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you that I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing therefore chuse life that is to say chuse obedience that both thou and thy seed may live But the great applications made unto us in the Gospel are addressed to that desire in man which moves him both to desire to be and to be happy to all eternity This is the promise saith St John that he hath promised us even eternal life 1 John 2.25 And so St Paul Rom. 2.6 7 8 9. where he tell us that God will render to every man according to his deeds to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life but unto them that are contentious and obey not the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation tribulation and wrath and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile Thus he that made us and knows our nature and all the springs of motion in us in all his applications to us accommodates himself to that desire of being happy which he himself hath planted in us as knowing this to be the way to gain a ready complyance from us On the same account the great deceiver of mankind paints his baits covers his snares gilds his temptations with an appearance of what is good He knows it would be a vain thing to attempt to press us unto the choice of what is evil what is destructive to our selves should it appear in its own likeness and therefore he puts a disguise upon it He boldly told the woman in paradise that if they would eat what God had forbidden their eyes should be opened they should be as Gods knowing good and evil for if as Gods then surely wise and blessed and happy And thus the temptation found success which first brought sin into the World and death as the wages due unto it Nor was it a much different method whereby he applyed himself to Christ for he took him as the Gospel tells us into an exceeding high mountain and shewed him all the Kingdoms