and Instruments of Building I. ONE sort of Means necessary to the obtaining of Heaven and that which more directly and immediately respects it is the Practice of those Virtues in the Perfection whereof the Heavenly Life consists For we find by experience that all Heavenly Virtues are to be acquired and perfected only by Practice That as all bad Dispositions are acquired and improved into Habits by bad Practices and Customs so are all the contrary virtuous ones by the contrary Practices For Religion proceeds in the methods of Nature and carries us on from the Acts to the Dispositions and from the Dispositions to the Habits of Virtue And by the same method the Divine Grace which accompanies Religion does ordinarily work its Effects upon the spirits of men not by an instantaneous Infusion of virtuous Habits into the Will but by persuading them to the Practice of those Virtues that are contrary to their vicious Habits and to persist in the practice of them till they have mortified those Habits and throughly habituated and inured them selves to these So that the Grace of God is like a Graff which though it is put into a Stock which is quite of another kind doth yet make use of the Faculties and Juices of the Stock and so by cooperating with them converts it by degrees into its own Nature And this is exactly agreeable to the common experience of men who in the beginning of their Reformation are so far from acting vertuously from Habit and Inclination that it goes against the very Grain of their Nature and they would much rather return to their vicious courses if they were not chased and pursued by the Terrours of an awakened Conscience and when afterwards they come to act upon a more ingenuous Principle yet still they find in themselves a great Averseness and Reluctancy to it and 't is a great while usually ere they arrive to a Habit or Facility of acting virtuously But then by perseverance in the practice of Virtue they are more and more inclined and disposed to it and so by degrees it becomes easie and natural to them If therefore we would ever arrive to that Perfection of Virtue which the Heavenly State implies it must be by the Practice of Virtue by a continual training and exercising our selves in all the parts of the Heavenly Life which by degrees will wear off the Difficulty of it and adapt and familiarize our Nature to it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those things which they that learn ought to do they learn by doing them Thus we learn Devotion by Prayer Submission to God by Denying our selves Charity by giving Alms and Meekness by Forgiving Injuries And we may as reasonably expect to commence learned without study as virtuous without the Practice of Virtue Since therefore the Formal Happiness of our reasonable Natures consists in the Perfection of all the Heavenly virtues and 't is by these alone that we can rellish and enjoy the blissful Objects of Heaven it hence follows that the Practice of those virtues is the most direct and immediate Means to obtain the Blessed End of our Religion But then II. ANOTHER sort of Means necessary to our obtaining of Heaven consists of certain Instrumental Duties by which we are to acquire improve and perfect these Heavenly Virtues What these Means are will be hereafter largely shown All that I shall say of them at present is That they are such as are no farther good and useful than as they are the Means of Heavenly Virtue and do tend towards the acquiring improving and perfecting it For the whole Duty of Man may be distributed into these Two Generals viz. The Religion of the End and Religion of the Means The Religion of the End contains all that Heavenly Virtue wherein the Perfection and Happiness of Humane Nature consists and this the Apostle distributes into three particulars viz. Sobriety Righteousness and Godliness The Religion of the Means comprehends all that Duty which does either naturally or by Institution respect and drive at this Religion of the End and that all other Duty that is not it self a Natural Branch and Part of it doth respect and drive at it the Apostle assures us when he tells us that the Gospel or Grace of God was revealed from Heaven for this very purpose to teach us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world And if we do not use the Religion of the Means to this purpose it is altogether useless and insignificant For the purpose of all Religious Duties is either 1. To reconcile men to God and God to them or 2. To perfect the Humane Nature or 3. To intitle men to Heaven or 4. To qualifie and dispose them for the Heavenly Life To neither of which the Religion of the Means is any farther useful than as it produces and promotes in us those Heavenly Virtues which are implied in the Religion of the End For I. IT is no further useful towards the reconciling Us to God and God to Us. For there can be no hearty Reconciliation between adverse Parties without there be a mutual Likeness and Agreement of Natures Now the Carnal Mind which includes all that is repugnant to the Heavenly Virtues the Apostle tells us is Enmity against God Rom. vii 17 that is hath a natural Antipathy to the Purity and Goodness of the Divine Nature And this Antipathy the same Apostle tells us is founded in our wicked works Coloss. i. 21 So that though we should practise never so diligently all that is contained in the Religion of the Means though we should pray and hear and receive Sacraments c. with never so much Zeal and Constancy yet all this will be insignificant as to the reconciling our Natures to God unless it destroy in us that Carnal Mind and those wicked Works which render us so averse to his Goodness And though God bears a hearty good Will to all that are capable of Good and embraces his whole Creation with the out-stretched Arms of his Benevolence yet he cannot be supposed to be pleased with or delighted in any but such as resemble Him in those amiable Graces of Purity and Goodness for which he loves Himself For he loves not Himself meerly because he is Himself which would be a blind Instinct rather than a Reasonable Love but because He is Good and he loves Himself above all other things because he knows Himself to be the Highest and most Perfect Good and consequently He loves all other things proportionably as they approach and resemble Him in Goodness And indeed if He loved Vs for any other Reason besides that for which he loves Himself he would not have infinite Reason to love Himself because he would not have that Reason to love Himself for which he loves and takes delight in Vs. Since therefore there is nothing but our Resemblance of God can reconcile Him to Us and since our Resemblance of Him
the Law of Nature which seems to have been nothing else but only Right Reason dictating to us what is necessary to be done in order to an Earthly Happiness And accordingly the Duties of this Law were of a much lower strain than the Duties of Christianity they being intended for the Means and Instruments of a much lower Happiness For in this our Earthly and Animal State Right Reason could require nothing of us but what was subservient to our Earthly and Animal Felicity and nothing could be good for us but what tended thereunto nothing evil but what did obstruct and oppose it But now that our Happiness is placed in another World and in such vastly different Enjoyments from those of a Terrestrial Paradise we must proceed upon other Principles For now every Action is Good or Bad Wise or Foolish as it serves or hinders our Happiness in the World to come And therefore it is highly reasonable that now we should live at a different rate than what we were obliged to in that Animal state wherein we were first Created that we should submit our earthly to our heavenly Interest and renounce the Joyes and Pleasures of this Life whensoever they stand in competition with the spiritual Felicities of the Life to come Now we are no longer to look upon this World as our Native Countrey but as a Foreign Land and so we are to reckon our selves Strangers and Pilgrims upon Earth and accordingly to use the conveniencies of this Life as strangers do their Inns not to abide or take up our habitation in them but only to bait and away and refresh our selves that so we may be the better enabled to perform our Journey to the Eternal World For the scene of our Happiness being shifted from an Earthly Immortality to an Heavenly and consequently the Happiness it self being now much more sublime and pure and spiritual than it would have been had it continued Earthly it 's necessary that our Nature should be exalted with it and that we should be raised as high above the condion of mere Earthly Creatures as that is above the rank and quality of an Earthly Happiness otherwise it will be impossible for us to relish and enjoy it NOW every Agent hath need of more or fewer Means proportionably as he is farther off or nearer to the End he drives at As for instance the Husbandman that hath a fat and fruitful Soil to sow his Seed in is nearer to the attaining of a good Harvest than he that hath a barren or stony Ground to work upon and therefore hath much less to do For whereas the latter before he can plough and sow must manure his Ground and gather out the stones of it the former needs only plough up the fertile Earth and cast his Seed into it Or to come closer to the case in hand a man that is meerly ignorant is in a much nearer capacity of true Knowledge than he whose mind is altogether prejudiced with erroneous Principles and therefore needs much fewer Helps and Means to attain it For his mind being perfectly disengaged is like a fair Paper on which as there is nothing writ so there is nothing to be blotted out So that all that he hath to do is to inquire after and receive the Truth when it is fairly proposed to him But as for the Prejudiced man he hath a great deal to unlearn before he can be capable of Learning a great many false Principles to be expunged before ever the true Notions of Things can be imprinted on his Understanding IF therfore we would take a true account of all those Means that are necessary to our attaining of Heaven we must consider what a vast distance we are from it in this corrupt and degenerate state of our Nature If we were in a state of Indifference between Virtue and Vice we should be much nearer Heaven than we are For then as we should be without those Heavenly virtues in the free Exercise whereof the state of Heaven consists so we should be without all that Repugnance and Aversation to them which renders them so difficultly attainable and our Nature being already in an Aequilibrium would by the least over-weight of Motive be presently inclined to Virtue and Goodness But alas in this corrupt state whereinto we are sunk our Nature runs Evil-wards with a very strong and prevailing Biass and is not only void of virtue but averse to it And this sets us at a far greater distance from the blessed End of our Religion than otherwise we should be For every Degree of vicious Inclination that is in us is a Remove from Heaven a Descent from that Perfection of virtue wherein the Heavenly Blessedness consists And if so how remote from Heaven are the Generality of men in the Beginning of their Progress thither when to their natural Corruption they have superadded by their sinful Courses so many inordinate Inclinations and inveterate sinful Habits when by a long series of wicked Actions they have raised and blown up their Concupiscence into such raging flames of Lust as generally they do And being thus far gone back from our End there are sundry Means which otherwise would have been perfectly needless and superfluous that are now become absolutely necessary thereunto For had we begun our Progress towards Heaven from a state of Indifferency between virtue and vice we had had no more to do but to practise those several virtues of Religion of which the Heavenly Life and state consists to love and to contemplate to adore and to obey God and behave our selves justly and charitably towards one another all which would have been so easie that we should have had no occasion of any Instrumental Duties to facilitate them to us Whereas now starting Heaven-wards as we generally do from a most corrupt and degenerate State there are sundry other Means which we must use as Instruments that are necessary to our acquiring and persevering in the virtues of the Heavenly Life to our conquering the Difficulties of and killing the vicious Aversations of our Natures against them All which would have been needless at least in a great measure had not our Nature been so depraved and corrupt as it is SO that as the case now stands with us there are Two sorts of Means that are necessary to our obtaining of Heaven The first is the Practice of those Heavenly virtues in the Perfection whereof consists the state of Heaven the Second is the Practice of certain Instrumental Duties which are necessary to our acquiring those Heavenly virtues and overcoming the Difficulties of them The first sort of these are the proximate Means those which directly and immediatly respect the Great and Ultimate End The second the more remote Means which immediatly respect those Means that immediatly respect the End The first is like the Art of the Builder which immediatly respects the House The second like the Art of the Smith which immediately respects the Means
consists in Virtue and true Goodness it hence follows that all the Religion of the Means is insignificant to our Reconciliation with God if it doth not render us truly virtuous So that till this is effected there is so vast a Gulph between God and Us that neither We can go to Him nor He come to Vs and unless he alter his Nature by becoming impure as we are impure or we alter ours by becoming pure as He is pure there will be so immense a Distance between Him and Us as that it is impossible we should ever meet and agree So that what the Prophet saith of Sacrifice may be truly affirmed of all Religion of the Means Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or with ten thousands of Rivers of Oyl will He be reconciled upon our bare believing praying or receiving Sacraments c. No no He hath shewed thee O man what is good And what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Mich. vi 7 8. II. THIS Religion of the Means is of no farther Use as to the perfecting our Natures than as it is instrumental to produce and promote in us those Heavenly Virtues which are implied in the Religion of the End For doubtless to be a Perfect Man is to live up to the Highest Principle of Humane Nature which is Reason and till we are once released from the slavery of Sense and Passion and all our Powers of Action are so subdued to this superiour Principle as to be wholly regulated by it and we chuse and refuse and love and hate and hope and fear and desire and delight according as right Reason directs we are in a maimed and imperfect Condition Now what else is Virtue but a Habit of Living according to the Laws of Reason or of demeaning our selves towards God our selves and all the World as best becomes Rational Beings placed in our Condition and Circumstances And till we are in some measure arrived to this our Nature is so far from being perfect that it is the most wretched and confused thing in the whole world A more undistinguished Chaos where Frigida cum Calidis Sense and Reason Brute and Man are shuffled together without any order like a confounded Heap of Ruines And therefore as for this Religion of the Means it will be altogether insignificant to the Perfection of our Natures unless by the Practice of it we do acquire a Habit of acting according to the Law of our Reason which Habit includes all Heavenly Virtue For constantly to know and do what is best and most reasonable is the very Crown and Perfection of every reasonable Nature and therefore so far as our Faith and Consideration our Sorrow for Sin and the other Instrumentals of Religion promote this Heavenly Habit in us so far are they perfective of our Nature and no farther III. THIS Religion of the Means is of no farther Use to Us as to the Entitling us to Heaven than as it is productive of those Heavenly Virtues which the Religion of the End implies For our Title to Heaven depending wholly upon Gods Promise must immediately result from our performance of those Conditions upon which he hath promised it which till we have done we can have no more Claim or Title to it than if he had never promised it at all But the sole Condition upon which he hath promised it is Universal Righteousness and Goodness for so without Holiness we are assured that no man shall see God and Mat. v. our Saviour intails all the Beatitudes of Heaven upon those Heavenly Virtues of Purity of Heart Benignity of Temper c. So also Rom. ii 7 the Promise of Eternal Life is limited to our Patient Continuance in well doing And that we may know before hand what to trust to our Saviour plainly tells us that not every one that cries Lord Lord that makes solemn Prayers and Addresses to me shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven And this is the will of God saith the Apostle even our Sanctification that is our being purged from all Impurities of Flesh and Spirit and inspired with all Heavenly Virtues And the Apostle expresly enumerates those Virtues upon which our Entrance into Eternal Life is promised 2 Pet. i. 5 6 7 8. Add to your Faith Virtue and to Virtue Knowledge and to Knowledge Temperance and to Temperance Patience and to Patience Godliness and to Godliness Brotherly Kindness and to Brotherly Kindness Charity For if these things be in you and abound saith he they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the Knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ that is That you shall receive the proper Fruit of that Knowledge which is Eternal Life for thus v. xi he goes on For so or upon this Condition an Entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. So that unless our Faith purifies our Hearts and works by Love unless our sorrow for Sin works in us Repentance or a Change of Mind unless our Prayers raise in us Divine and Heavenly Affections that is unless we so practise the Duties of the Religion of the Means as thereby to acquire the Virtues of the Religion of the End it will be all as insignificant to our Title to Heaven as the most indifferent Actions in the World IV. THIS Religion of the Means is of no farther Use to the disposing and qualifying us for Heaven than as it is an effectual means of the Religion of the End Which is a perfectly distinct Consideration from the former For it would be no advantage to us to have a Right to Heaven unless we were antecedently qualified and disposed for it Because Pleasure which is a Relative thing implies a Correspondence and Agreement between the Object and the Faculty that tasts and enjoys it But in the Temper of every wicked Mind there is a strong Antipathy to the Pleasures of Heaven which being all chast and pure and spiritual can never agree with the vitiated Palat of a base and degenerate Soul For what concord can there be between a spiteful and devilish Spirit and the Fountain of all Love and Goodness between a sensual and carnalized one that understands no other Pleasures but only those of the Flesh and those Pure and Virgin Spirits that neither eat nor drink but live for ever upon Wisdom and Holiness and Love and Contemplation Certainly till our Mind is contempered to the Heavenly State and we are of the same disposition with God and Angels and Saints there is no Pleasure in Heaven that can be agreeable to us For as for the main we shall be of the same Temper and Disposition when we come into the other World as we are when we leave this it being unimaginable how a Total Change should be wrought in us meerly
be In a word so far shall we be from repining and murmuring at God for not rewarding us as liberally as others that we shall be thoroughly sensible that he hath been bountiful to us infinitely beyond our Desert or Expectation that 't was not out of a fond Partiality ot blind Respect of Persons that he raised others to higher Degrees of Glory than our selves but out of a Principle of strict Justice that exactly ballances and adjusts its Rewards according to the Degrees of our Desert and Improvement The sense of which will not only compose our Minds into a perfect Satisfaction but also continually excite us to those Beatifical Acts of Love and Praise Thanksgiving and Adoration Thus Humility you see tunes and composes us for Heaven and only casts us down like Balls that we may rebound the higher in Glory and Happiness THUS you see how all those Virtues which appertain to a man considered as a Reasonable Animal conduce to the Great Christian End viz. The Happiness of Heaven 'T is true indeed the immediate product of this sort of Virtues is only at least chiefly priâ—ative Happiness or the Happiness of Rest and Indolence which consists in not being miserable or in a perfect cessation from all such Acts and Motions as are hurtful and injurious to a Rational Spirit For as I have shewed you in the Beginning of this Section the proper office of Humane Virtue consists in so regulating all our Powers of Action as that we do nothing that is hurtful or injurious to our Rational Nature and thus you plainly see these Five aforenamed Virtues do most effectually perform But besides this Priâ—ative there is as I shewed you a Positive Part of Happiness which consists not in Rest but in Motion in the Vigorous Exercise of our Rational Faculties upon such Objects as are most suitable to them And to the obtaining of this Part of our Happiness there are other kinds of Vertues necessary to be practised by us of which I shall discourse in the two following Sections But though the immediate Effect of these Humane Virtues we have been discoursing of be only the Happiness of Rest yet do they tend a great deal farther even to the Happiness of Motion and Exercise For it is impossible so to suppress that Active Principle within us as to make it totally surcease from Motion and therefore as every intermission of its sober and regular Actings does but make way for wild and extravagant ones so every abatement of its hurtful and injurious motions makes way for beatifical ones And so the Humane Virtues by giving us rest from those Motions that are afflictive to our Natures incline and dispose us to such Motions and Exercises as are most pleasant and grateful to it SECT II. Concerning those Divine Virtues which belong to a Man considered as a Reasonable Creature related to God shewing that these also are comprehended in the heavenly part of the Christian Life and that the practice of them effectually conduces to our future happiness I PROCEED now to the second kind of Virtues viz. Divine to which I told you we are obliged in the capacity of reasonable Creatures related to God who being not only endowed with all possible perfections with infinite Truth and Justice Wisdom and Goodness and Power with all that can render any being most highly reverenced admired loved and adored who being not only the Author of our Being and Well-being as he is Creator and Preserver of all things but also our sovereign Lord and King as he is God almighty the supream and over-ruling Power of heaven and earth hath upon all these accounts a just and unalienable claim to sundry duties and homages from his Creatures all which I shall reduce to these six particulars 1. That we should frequently think of and contemplate the beauty and perfection of his nature 2. That upon the account of these perfections we should humbly worship and adore him 3. That we should ardently love and take complacency in him 4. That we should attentively and unweariedly imitate him in all his imitable perfections and actions 5. That we should intirely resign up our selves to his conduct and disposal 6. That we should chearfully rely and depend upon him All which as I shall shew are included in the heavenly part of the Christian Life and do most effectually contribute to our future happiness I. AS we are rational Creatures related to God we are obliged to be often contemplating and thinking upon him For the natural use of our understanding is to contemplate Truth and therefore the more of Truth and Reality there is in any knowable object and the farther it is removed from Falshood and Non-entity the more the Understanding is concerned to contemplate and think upon it God therefore being the most true and real object as he stands removed by the necessity of his existence from all possibility of not-being must needs be the most perfect Theme of our Understanding the best and greatest Subject on which it can employ its Meditations And besides that he is the most true and real of all beings he is also the source and spring of all Truth and Reality his Power conducted by his Wisdom and Goodness being the cause not only of all that is but of all that either shall be or can be And is it fit that our Understanding which was made to contemplate should wholly overlook the fountain of it But besides this too that he is the greatest Truth himself and the cause of every thing else that is true and real he is the Sovereign of Beings and the most amiable and perfect as he includes in his infinite Essence all possible perfections both in kind and degree And what a monstrous Irreverence is it for minds that were framed to the contemplation of Truth to pass by such a great and glorious one without any regard or observance as if he stood for a cypher in the world and were not worthy to be thought upon Nay and besides all this which one would think were enough to oblige our Understandings to the strictest attendance to him he is a Truth in which above all others we are most nearly concerned as he is not only the Father and Prop of our Beings and the Consolation of our lives but the sole Arbiter of our Fate too upon whom our everlasting well or ill being depends And what can we be more concerned to think and meditate upon than this great being from whom we sprang in whom we live and breath and of whom we are to expect all that evil or good that we can fear or hope for All which considered there is no doubt to be made but that our Understanding was chiefly made for God to look up to him and contemplate his Being and Perfections And though in this imperfect State it is too often averted from him by this vast variety of sensual things that surround it and intercept its Prospect yet as our Soul
the Mischief of them may abundantly out-weigh the Benefit of this And this being so how extremely unfit are we to make Choices for our selves since in most particulars 't is almost an equal lay whether what we chuse will prove our Food or our Poison But now God being the supreme Orderer and Disposer of things and having the first link of every Chain of Causes in his own hands must needs have an intire Comprehension of all the intermediate ones from the beginning to the end and his Power being not only the cause of all actual Events but also of the possibility of those that shall never be actual he must needs discern the utmost Issues and Concomitants of every possible as well as of every future Event and perfectly understand not only what will be beneficial or injurious to us but also what might be so So that 't is impossible for him to be mistaken in his Choices because he knows as well before hand what things would be to us if they were as what they are when they do actually exist Upon the whole therefore 't is doubtless of inestimable Advantage to us to be in the hands of God and verily next to Hell it self I know nothing that is more formidable than for God to let us alone and give us up to our own Wills and Desires And should he call to us from Heaven and tell us that he was resolved to cross our Desires no more but to comply with all our Wishes let the event prove good or bad we should have just reason to look upon our selves as the most forlorn and abandoned Creatures on this side Hell as Persons excluded from the greatest Blessing that belongs to a Creature and if we had any hope of his re-acceptance of us it would be infinitely our Interest to resign back our selves and all our concerns to him and on our bended knees to beseech him above all things not to leave us to our selves or throw us from his Care and Conduct It being therefore upon all accounts so highly fit and reasonable and so much to our Interest and Advantage that we should freely trust our selves and all our Affairs into the hands of God and depend upon him for the good success of all our honest Endeavours and Undertakings that we should acquiesce in his Disposal of things and under all outward events be pleased and satisfied with his Conduct as knowing that howsoever things may happen to us they cannot be otherwise than as the wise and good God is pleased either to permit or to order and determine them this I say being so fit in it self and so much for our Interest it is impossible that without it we can be happy either here or hereafter For since both our Being and Well-being are wholly dependent on the Will of God and we can neither be nor be happy one moment longer than he pleases how is it possible we should ever be quiet and satisfied in our own minds without a great Assurance of and Confidence in him When we consider what a mighty Stake we have in his hands how all our Fortunes lie at his feet and how easily he can frown us into nothing or spurn us into a Condition ten thousand times worse than nothing when ever he pleases how can we be otherwise secure in our own minds or avoid being eternally anxious and solicitous but by firmly relying on his Truth and Goodness to the want of which is to be attributed all that carking Care tormenting Fear and disquieting Thoughtfulness which perpetually haunts the minds of men They are sensible that their Condition is dependent and that it is not in their own Power either to make it what they would have it or to secure and continue it when it is made so they know that by a thousand Chances which in despight of their Foresight or Power may happen the next moment either themselves may be snatched from what they possess or what they possess may be snatched from them they find that their most probable Designs are liable to innumerable Miscarriages and that when they have formed their Projects never so wisely there are infinite cross Accidents may intercurr and dash them in pieces and in this uncertain State of their Affairs they either think not of God at all but live at the Courtesie of a fickle Chance and leave themselves to be tossed and bandied to and fro at the pleasure of a blind and undesigning Fortune upon whose ever-moving Wheel their wearied thoughts can never rest or if they think of God it is with great Mistrust and Despondency they fear he will not be regardful enough of them nor prove so kind to them as they could wish and are possest with an obstinate opinion that 't would be much better for them to be their own Carvers than to live at his Disposal and Allowance And hence proceed all those Anxieties and Discontents those fretting Cares dismaying Fears perplexing and misgiving Thoughts which do continually gaul and disquiet them and from these their thorny disquietudes it is impossible they should ever be wholly free no not in Heaven it self till they have wrought their Minds to a perfect Trust and Confidence in God For we shall be altogether as dependent upon God for our heavenly as we are for our earthly Happiness because though all those Acts of heavenly Virtue in which our heavenly Happiness consists will be much more in our own Power than any of these worldly goods are yet they will be no longer in our Power than God shall think fit to enable us to chuse and act and to support us in our Being and Existence which then we shall sensibly perceive entirely depends upon the All-enlivening vigour of his vital breath And therefore though he hath promised to continue our being in that most blessed State for ever yet unless we perfectly trust in his Veracity our Minds will be continually disturbed with anxious and misgiving Thoughts we shall be afraid lest one time or other he should forget his Promise and upon some unknown Reason or Emergency withdraw from us that Influence of his All-upholding Power upon which our Being and Well-being depends and let us drop into Nothing And the greater our Happiness is the more we should be afraid of losing it because we should be always sensible that it entirely depends upon the Pleasure of God whose Truth and Goodness we could not perfectly confide in So that were we placed in the midst of Heaven with a misgiving distrustful Mind of God that would imbitter all the joys of it and give them a harsh and ungrateful Farewel For the fearful Apprehensions we should continually have of being thrust out of Heaven again and tumbled headlong from all our Glory would be such a continual Affliction to us that we should even pine away our happy Eternity for fear of being eternally deprived of it So impossible it is for any dependent Being to be happy without an entire Trust
Shame and Fear and when we endeavour the former our Appetite bridles us with Dislike and Aversation In this extremity therefore what is to be done that we may be free Why the case is plain we must resolve to conquer either our Reason or our Lusts if we conquer our Reason which we shall find by far the harder Task of the two we shall acquire the Freedom of Devils and Brutes the Freedom to do Mischief and wallow in the mire without Shame or Remorse but if we conquer our Lusts we acquire the Freedom of Men yea of Saints and of Angels the freedom to act reasonably without Reluctance or Aversation and this being much more easily to be acquired than the former I dare appeal to any mans Reason which of the two is in it self most eligible If therefore we would vindicate our rational Freedom we must resolve to shake off those slavish Fetters our brutish and our devilish Appetites that do so perpetually turmoil and incumber us in all our virtuous Attempts and rational Operations we must tie up our selves from executing their Commands and serving their wicked Wills and Pleasures and heartily resolve to act as it becomes us in the Capacity of rational Creatures related to God and one another And then though at first we must expect to find our selves confined and straitned by our vicious Aversations we shall be immediately released from all that Shame and Fear which did so continually curb us in the carreer of our Wickedness and even our vicious Aversation if we couragiously persist in our good Resolution will grow weaker and weaker and be every day less and less combersome to us till it is totally extinguished And then we shall feel our selves intirely restored into our own Power and be able without Check or Controle to dispose of our selves and all our Motions according as it shall seem to us most fit and reasonable then we shall act with the greatest Vigour and Freedom having no counter-striving Principles to restrain or retard us no vicious Aversations on the one side or guilty Shame or Fear on the other to counterpoize us in our rational Motions then we shall move without Check or Confinement in a large and noble Sphere for we shall be pleased with what is fit and wise and good without any Reserve or Exception and we shall do what we please without any Let or Hindrance So that by ingaging our selves in the heavenly Life we enter into a state of glorious Liberty and if we constantly persist in it and do still prevalently list to live as becomes us we shall be more and more free to live as we list till at last we are arrived into a perfect Liberty wherein we shall live without Restraint or Controul without check of Conscience or reluctance of Inclination which are the two main Bars that confine and straiten men in their Operations If therefore we would ever be free let us immediately come off from our vicious Courses to the Practice of this divine and heavenly Life wherein by degrees if we couragiously hold on we shall wear off those Shackles that do so miserably hamper and intangle us and then we shall be intirely free to do whatsoever our reason dictates to us then we shall run the ways of Gods commandments and like our blessed Brethren above be all Life and Spirit and Wing in the discharge of our Duty to him IV. CONSIDER the Pleasure of this heavenly Life 'T is true there is a sort of Pleasure that results from all the Acts of a sensual and earthly Conversation but we find by Experience that though in the pursuit it strangely allures and inchants us yet in the Fruition it always disappoints our Expectation and scarce performs in the Enjoyment one half of what it promised to our Hope and at the best 't is but a present and transient Satisfaction of our brutish Sense a Satisfaction that dims the Light sullies the Beauty impairs the Vigour and restrains the Activity of the Mind diverting it from better Operations and indisposing it to the fruition of purer Delights leaving no comfortable Rellish or gladsome Memory behind it but oftentimes going out in a stink and determining in Bitterness Regret and Disgrace But in each act of this divine and celestial Life there is something of the Pleasure of Heaven something of those divine Refreshments and Consolations upon which the good People of Heaven do live For the greatest part of their Heaven springs from within their own Bosoms even from the Conformity of their Souls to the heavenly State and the sprightful out-goings of their Minds and Affections towards the heavenly Objects from their contemplating and loving their praising and adoring the most high God from their Imitation of his Perfections their Subjection to his Will and Dependance on his Veracity all which Acts as I have already shewed have the most ravishing Pleasures appendant to them and are so necessary to the Felicity of rational Creatures that the Wit of Man cannot fancy a rational Heaven without them For the heaven of a rational Creature consisting in the most intense and vigorous Exercise of its rational Faculties about the most suitable and convenient Objects what Object can be more convenient to such Faculties than that Almighty Sovereign of Beings whose Power is the Spring of all Truth and whose Nature is the Pattern of all Goodness So that without a perfect Union of our Minds and Wills and Affections with God there can be no possible Idea of a perfect Heaven of rational Pleasures but in this blessed Union lies the very Soul and Quintessence of Heaven Since therefore in every Act of every Virtue of the divine Life there is at least an imperfect Union of the Soul with God it necessarily follows that there must be some degree of the Pleasure of Heaven in every one So that if we do not experience much greater Joy and Delight in the Acts of this divine Life than ever we did in the highest Epicurisms and Sensualities 't is not because there are not much greater in them but because we never exerted them with that Sprightliness and Vigour as we do our sensual Appetites and Perceptions because we are clogg'd in the Exercise of them either by false Principles or bodily Indispositions or sinful Aversations But if we would take the pains to inure and accustom our selves to these heavenly Acts we should find by degrees they would grow natural and easie to us and our Souls would be so habituated contempered and disposed to them that we should upon all Occasions exert them with great Fredom and Inlargement And then we should begin to feel and relish the Pleasure of them then we should perceive a Heaven of Delights springing up from within us and unfolding it self in each beatifical Act of our heavenly Conversation then we should find our selves under the central force of Heaven most sweetly drawn along and attracted thither by the powerful Magnetism of its Joys
or an unreflecting one to Self-examination to raise up an earthly Mind to heavenly Thoughts and Expectations and confine a listless and regardless one to strict Watchfulness and Circumspection to confine a carnal mind to frequent Sacraments or an indevout and careless one to its daily and weekly periods of Devotion will at the first no doubt be very painful and tedious but after we have persisted in and for a while accustomed our selves to it we shall find it will quickly grow more natural and easie to us and from being grievous it will become tolerable from being tolerable easie and from being easie delightful For when once we come to feel the good Effects of those Duties in our Natures how fast our Lusts do decline our Dispositions mend and all our Graces improve in the Use of them the Sense of this will mightily indear and ingratiate them to us Just as it is with a Scholar when he first enters upon the Methods of Learning they are very tedious and irksome to him the Pains of reading observing and recollecting the Confinement to a Study and the racking his Brains with severe Reasoning and Discourse are things that he cannot easily away with till he hath been inured and accustomed to them a while and then they grow more natural and easie to him but when he comes to be sensible of the great Advantages he reaps by his Labour how it raises and improves his Understanding inlarges its prospect and furnishes its Conception with brave and useful Notions then do his Labours which were formerly so grievous become not only easie but delectable to him And even so it is with these spiritual Exercises of Religion which to unexperienced persons that are yet but newly enter'd upon them will be very painful and troublesome but if they have but Patience and Courage to hold on Custom will quickly render them more tolerable and when they have practised them so long as to find and perceive the blessed Effects of them how much they have contributed to the reforming their Tempers reducing their Inclinations filing and polishing their rough and mishapen Natures with what amiable Graces divine and godlike Dispositions they have adorned and beautified them their Sense and Feeling of this will convert them all into delightful Recreations Thus as the Custom of them will render them easie so the blessed Fruits of them will make them delectable the former will render them facil as Nature the later eligible as Reward And if so why should we be discouraged faint-hearted Creatures that we are at those little present Difficulties which our Diligence will soon wear off and convert into Ease and Pleasure VII CONSIDER that with the Difficulty of them there is a world of present Peace and Satisfaction intermingled If you fall back again to your old Lusts instead of these present Difficulties you start at you must expect to have the Trouble of a guilty Soul to contend with which if you have any sense of God and of Good and Evil will be much more grievous to you than they But if you go on you will carry with you a quiet and a satisfied Mind a Conscience that will entertain you all along with such sweet and calm Reflections as will abundantly compensate you for all the Hardships and Difficulties you encounter on the way that with innumerable Iterations will be always resounding to your honest Endeavours those best and sweetest Ecchoes Well done good and profitable servant how bravely hast thou acquitted thy self how manfully hast thou stood to thy Duty against all Oppositions and with what a Gallant Resolution hast thou repulsed those Temptations that bore up against thee Now for a man to have his own Mind continually applauding him and crowning his Actions with the Approbations of his Conscience is Encouragement enough to ballance a thousand Difficulties and the Sense that he hath done his Duty and that the God above and the Vice-god within him are both satisfied and pleased with him will give him such a grateful Relish of each Action of his Warfare that the Difficulty will only serve to inhance the Pleasure of it AND as he will have great Peace and Satisfaction whilst he is contending with these Difficulties so when he hath so far conquered them as that they are no longer able to curb and with-hold him from the free and vigorous Exercise of the heavenly Vertues but in despight of them he can easily moderate his Passions and Appetites by the Laws of his Reason and freely love adore and imitate submit to and confide in the ever blessed God and chearfully exert an unforced Plainess and Simplicity Good-will and Charity Submission and Condescension Peace and Concord towards all men when I say he hath so far surmounted the Difficulties of his Warfare as that with any Measure of Freedom and Vigor he can put forth all these heavenly Vertues he will find himself not only in a quiet but in a heavenly Condition For these heavenly Graces are the Palat by which the immortal Mind tasts and relishes its Heaven the blessed Organs and Sensories by which it feels and perceives the Joys of the World to come and without which it can no more relish and injoy them than the senseless Hive can the sweetness of the Honey that is in it And consequently the more quick and vivacious these heavenly Organs of the Mind are and the more they are disburthened of those carnal and devilish Lusts that blunt their Sense and Perception the more accurately they will taste the Joys and Pleasures of Heaven So that when by the constant Practice of the warfaring Duties of Religion we have conquered those bad Inclinations of our Natures which render the heavenly Vertues so difficult to us and do so clog and incumber us in the Exercise of them we shall find our selves in a Heaven upon Earth and each Act of Vertue will be Presention and Foretast of the Joys of a celestial Life And being arrived at this blessed State in which all heavenly Vertue is so connaturalized to us the sweet Experience we shall have of the unspeakable Joys and Pleasures it abounds with will cause us to look back with wondrous Content and Satisfaction upon all those Difficulties we contended with in our Way to it and bless those Prayers and Tears and Strivings with our selves those tedious Watchings and Self-exáminations c. by which we have now at last conquered and subdued them WHEREFORE since the Practice of these our warfaring Duties hath so much present Peace going along with it and since by its natural Drift and Tendency it's leading us forward to a State of so much Pleasure and Satisfaction what a Madness is it for a man to be beaten off from it by those present little Difficulties that attend it What man that consults his own Interest would ever desist from the prosecuting such a gainful Warfare in which to make him amends for the present Pains it puts him to he is not only
of Vnion and an open Rebellion against Christs Authority in his Church And being so it is no Wonder that in the purest Ages of Christianity 't was branded with such an infamous Character For thus in the 31 Canon of the Apostles 't is called Ambition and Tyranny and condemned by Ignatius the Disciple of St. John as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Original of Evils Ep. ad smyrn as a Sin that shuts men out of the Kingdom of Heaven Ep. ad Philad and by the African Code 't is stiled a destructive sacrilegious Sin Con. Carth c. Can. 100. and St. Cyprian makes it to be more Heinous than the Sin of the Lapsi that offered Sacrifice to Idols to avoid persecution and to be such a Sin as martyrdom it self would not expiate de Vnit. Eccles. and Dionysius Alexandrinus affirms that to suffer martyrdom rather than make a Schism in the Church is as Glorious an Act as to die refusing to offer Sacrifice to Idols Euseb. Eccl. Hist. lib. 6. And as they thus decry Schism so on the contrary they extol Union as the Nurse of Piety the Fence of Religion the Quintessence and Extract of all Christian Vertue AND indeed 't is to the Vnity of the members of the Church among themselves that the Scripture attributes their Growth and Emprovement in Piety and Vertue For thus the Apostle tells us not only that Charity or a mutual Agreement among Church-Members edifies 1 Cor. viii 1 but also assures us that the whole Church or Collection of Members becomes an holy Temple and an Habitation of God by being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compacted and closely united together in all its Parts Eph. ii 21 22. and Eph. iv 16 he tells us that the Church increases or improves unto the edifying it self in love by being closely compacted and united in all its parts and members and Col. ii 19 he tells us that 't is not only from its Vnion with Christ and those nourishing Influences that are thereby conveyed from him that the Church increases with the increase of God but also from its being knit together or firmly united in all its Parts And if Vnion be so necessary to the Growth and Perfection of the Church it can be no less necessary to the Improvement of each particular Member of it For 1. Schisms and unnecessary Breaches of Church Communion do naturally sour the Tempers of men and render them peevish and uncharitable towards one another For the separating Party must in their own Vindication be forced to accuse those they separate from of something that may be foul enough to justifie their Separation and what they want in Reality they must make up in Pretence otherwise they will be lookt upon as peevish and obstinate Schismaticks and then the Party they separate from will be sure to deem itself injured and in its own Defence be forced to recriminate and this will alarm the Separatists into greater Heats and Animosities and so like two Flints dash'd together they will be continually sparkling and spitting fire at one another till they have kindled the quarrel into an inquenchable Flame Whereas had the Dividers but continued their Communion all this might have been prevented and they might have easily continued their Charity though they had retain'd the Opinions upon which they separated For had they but exercised that Modesty and Goodness as not to prefer their own private Sentiments before the Reason and Peace of the whole Church they would either have kept their Opinions to themselves or at least not have advanced them into Principles of Separation and so by continuing in Communion with that Party of the Church from whom they dissented in Opinion they would have declared that they judged their Errors to be tolerable For by not separating from them they would have plainly manifested that they saw Reason enough to unite upon the score of those Points in which they were agreed but none to disunite upon the score of these in which they differed and consequently that they had a great deal of Reason to love but none to hate and persecute one another and whilst they mutually retain'd this good Opinion of one another 't is very unlikely that their little Differences should cause any great Breaches in their Charity Schism therefore being so destructive to our Charity which is one of the leading Vertues of our Religion must needs have a very malevolent Aspect upon our Perseverance For he that from a charitable Temper relapses into a spiteful and rancorous one is apostatised from one half of the Religion of a Christian and hath exchanged one of the fairest Graces of a Saint for one of the blackest Characters of a Devil But then 2. Schisms or unnecessary Breaches of Church Communion do naturally lead to the foulest Hypocrisies For he that separates from a Church is a very bad man if he hath not a great Opinion of and Zeal for those things upon which he separates which Zeal of his when once he is actually separated will be much more inflamed and that both by the Opposition of the Church he is separated from and the Instigation of the Sect he is separated to and so by Degrees that holy Fervour which should animate him in the plain and unquestionable Duties of Religion will blaze into a fierce Contention for those little Opinions that constitute the Sect he is ingaged in For our Nature being finite and limited in all its Operations it is impossible we should operate diverse ways at once with equal Force and Vigour but whatsoever Time and Attention we bestow upon one thing we must necessarily substract from another Now whilst we continue in a peaceable Communion with the Church we have no other use for our Zeal but to inspire our Devotions to quicken our Vertues and to fight against our Sins with it and this all men agree is the best Use it can be put to but when once we are entred into a schismatical Separation we shall find other Employment for it namely to quarrel at Ecclesiastical Constitutions to wrangle about Modes and Circumstances of Worship and contend for our trifling Speculations and Opinions Which must necessarily weaken it in its nobler Operations and render it more remiss and indifferent in the great and indispensible Duties of Religion and whilst 't is thus impertinently busied in picking Straws and contending about Mint and Cummin to be sure it must more or less neglect the great and weighty things of the Law and so proportionably as it grows warmer and warmer about little Opinions and Circumstances of Religion it will be continually waxing cooler and cooler in the necessary and essential Duties of it till at last 't is wholly degenerated into Peevishness and Faction and dwindled away into a fierce Contention about Trifles That this is the natural Effect of Schism appears by too many woful Experiments For how many Instances of men are there among our selves who had once an honest Zeal for the
and for evermore Amen After this Thanksgiving consider briefly with your self the indispensible Necessity of your Perseverance to the End and how not only vain and fruitless but also hurtful and mischievous to you all your past Labour in Religion will be without it and then conclude your morning Devotion with this Prayer for Perseverance O God who art unchangeably holy and blessed who art the same yesterday to day and for ever and dost never swerve or vary from the essential Goodness and Purity of thy own Nature look down I beseech thee upon me a fickle weak and mutable Creature whom thou hast redeemed to thy self and hitherto conducted by thy Grace and Spirit Thou knowest O Lord the Weakness of my Nature and how unable I am without thy Strength and Assistance to finish the Race which thou hast set before me thou knowest what Temptations I must struggle with and what Difficulties I must yet overcome before I am seiz'd of the blessed Prize I am contending for wherefore since thou hast hitherto been my constant Support and Defence forsake me not now for thy Names sake but as thou hast begun a good Work in me so I beseech thee to finish and compleat it to uphold my feeble Soul by thy free Spirit under all Temptations and Difficulties that so by patient continuance in well-doing I may seek for and at last obtain honour and glory immortality and eternal life For which end O Lord preserve me from being over-confident of my own Abilities and inspire me with a holy Jealousie of my self that whilst I stand I may take heed lest I fall And if at any time I should be so base and so unhappy as to offend thee wilfully which I beseech thee to prevent for thy Mercy and Compassion sake O suffer me not to sleep in my Sin but recal me instantly by the Checks of my Conscience and the Convictions of thy Spirit lest while I add Sin to Sin and one degree of Wickedness to another my Lusts should regain their Dominion over me and thou shouldest be angry with me and reject me from thy Covenant for ever And that I may every Day serve thee more freely and stedfastly wean me I beseech thee more and more from those Temptations to Sin that are round about me and give me such a true understanding of the Nature of all the Goods and Evils of this World as that neither the Flatteries of the one nor the Terrors of the other may ever be able to withdraw me from my Duty And lest while I am mortifying my old Sins I should carelesly permit new ones to spring up in my Nature good God do thou mind me to search and try my own Heart and take a severe Account even of the smallest Defects and Imperfections within me that so I may correct and reform them in time before they are improved into inveterate Habits And grant that I may be always so sensible of my own Imperfection as that I may never rest in any present Attainment but may still be pressing forward to the mark of my high calling in Jesus Christ. Suggest to me I beseech thee frequent Thoughts of my Mortality that so while I have Time and Opportunity I may be preparing for my Departure hence and making provision for a dying hour In order whereunto assist me O Lord I beseech thee strictly to examin and review my past sinful Courses that so if there be any remains of Guilt abiding upon my Conscience I may purge them away by proper Acts of Repentance before I go hence and be no more seen And grant that as I have formerly abounded in Sin so I may now redeem that precious Time I have lost by abounding in the contrary Vertues that so as far as in me lies I may revoke and undo the multitude of my past Sins by doing all the Good I am able for the future And that I may hold out and persevere to the end preserve and continue me in the Communion of thy Church and suffer me not to be led away by the errors of the wicked and to fall from my own stedfastness And finally I beseech thee to grant that in the use of these blessed Means I may so far prevail over the Infirmities and Corruptions of my Nature as that at last I may have a clear and certain Feeling of my own Integrity and Vprightness towards thee that so being from thence assur'd of thy Love and of my Title to eternal Happiness I may run the ways of thy commandments more chearfully and at last finish my Course with unspeakable joy And now O Lord I resign my self to thee take me I beseech thee into thy Care and Protection this Day preserve me from all Evil but especially from Sin and quicken me by thy Spirit unto every good work that so I may serve thee with a free and cheerful Mind and make it my meat and drink to do thy blessed will All which I humbly beg for Jesus Christ his sake in whose Name and Mediation I further pray Our Father c. In the Evening when you enter into your Closet consider what is the present Frame and Temper of your Mind and upon Enquiry you will perceive either that through the present Prevalency of your corrupt Nature you are averse to divine Offices or that through bodily Infirmity you are indisposed to them or that through Worldly-mindedness and Vanity of Spirit you are cold and apt to be distracted in them or lastly that your Heart is very much enlarged and your Mind and Affections vigorously disposed towards divine and heavenly things If upon Enquiry you find that through the present Prevalency of your corrupt Nature you are averse to divine Offices indeavour to affect your self with Shame and Sorrow for it by representing to your Mind the great Impiety and Baseness the monstrous Folly and Ingratitude of this your present Temper and then offer up this following Prayer O My most gracious God and most kind and merciful Father thou art the best Friend I have in all the World and hast shewn a thousand times more Love to me than ever I shew'd to my self but after all the vast and most indearing Obligations thou hast laid upon me this vile and ungrateful Heart of mine still retains some Dregs of its antient Enmity against thee Had I but the common Sense and Ingenuity of a Man in me how could I think of thee without Raptures of Love how could I draw neer unto thee without Transports of Delight and Complacency But vile and ungrateful that I am I can think of all thy Goodness with cold and frozen Affections and can come into thy Presence not only with Indifference but Reluctancy Good God what am I made of what an insensible Soul do I carry about me O I am asham'd of my self I am confounded with the sense of my own Baseness and yet woe is me I cannot help it I strive to shake off this Clog of my corrupt