comprehensions of the whole Duty of Man that may be excellent guides to us in this particular Heb. 12.1 Let us lay aside every weight and the Sin that doth so easily beset us For he that contendeth for Mastery is temperate in all things saith St. Paul There is first an obligation of all Sin whatsoever every weight every Sin every hindrance abstaining from all things whatsoever that are impediments And we do not strive to do this unless we use all the means we can to learn what is our Duty and what infinite variety of Sins there are that so easily beset us And let me desire you to observe one thing make a tryal in any one Sin that is or hath been most pleasing to any of you and according to your Duty set upon its mortification heartily and throughly and try whether it will not be a hard strife with flesh and blood and a great contention to kill that one crime I mean in the midst of your temptations to it and opportunities of acting it and by this you may make a short conjecture at the greatness of this Duty And this is but the one half For the extirpation of Vices is not always the introduction of Virtues For there are some Men that have ceased from an act of Sin that still retain the affection and there are others who have quitted their affection to Sin who yet are not reconciled to the difficulty and pains of acquiring Vertues I thank God I am no Extortioner no Adulterer not as this Publican saith the Pharisee So far many go and then they think themselves fairly assoiled who are only like misguided Travellers that upon discovery of their error cease to wander further but are not yet returned nor have made any progress in the true way Some Men cease to oppress their Neighbours and will do so no more but they think not of making restitution of what wrongs have been done by them long since Some Men will leave off from Drunkenness but they think not of fasting and enduring Hunger and Thirst and Pains to punish their past Intemperance There is a further striving or we shall not enter into the narrow Gate St. Peter gives an excellent account of it 2 Pet. 1.4 Having escaped the corruption that is in the World through Lust that 's one half but he adds And besides this giving all diligence add to your Faith Vertue and to Vertue Knowledge to Knowledg Temperance to Temperance Patience to Patience Godliness to Godliness Brotherly kindness to Brotherly kindness Charity these things must be in you and abound saith St. Peter and therefore as himself prefaces you had need give all diligence and strive earnestly to all these purposes In the mean time I pray remember that this is not to strive when we only do perform those Offices of Religion which Custom or the Laws of a Church enjoyn us to nor this when our Religion is cheap and easy when we use arts to satisfie our Conscience and heap up Teachers of our own to that purpose that by a stratagem they and we may bend the Duty to our Conscience not measure our Conscience by our Duty when we call security a just peace want of understanding a sufficient warrant for quietness the not-committing of deformed and scandalous Sins a pious Life this is far from striving here is no striving in this but how to cozen and abuse our selves If the affairs of the World I do not say take up not only most of our time but most of our affections if the returns of Sin be frequent and of Religion be seldom and unpleasant If any Vice hath got possession of us or that we have not got possession of all those Virtues we have use of we have not striven Lawfully Shall I tell you how St. Paul did strive that thence we a so may have a fair patern and president to imitate 2 Cor. 6. you have his course of Life largely described Giving no offence in any thing but approving our selves in much Patience in Afflictions in Labours in Watchings in fastâ—ngs by Pureness by Knowledge by Long-suffering by kindness by the Holy Ghost by Love unfeigned by the Word of Truth by the Power of God by the Armour of Righteousness and by an evenness of Temper in the midst of an uneven unquiet and contradictory condition this was his course of Life thus did he labour Mortifying his Soul heightening his Devotion bringing his Body under and advancing the interests of the Gospel lest by any means he had run or should run in vain I speak not these things to discourage you but to provoke you to good Works and a Holy Life For if you ask who does all this or indeed who is able I answer it is no good argument of an affection to God when we make such scrupulous questions concerning his Injunctions He that loves God does all this Love is the fulfilling of the Commandments Love hopeth all things endureth all things thinketh nothing impossible attempteth those things as most easie which to natural Reason seem impossible For consider that as without God's Grace we can do nothing so by his Grace strengthening us we can do any thing Faith works Miracles and Charity does more Through Christ that strengthens me I can do all things saith St. Paul and Christ's Grace is sufficient for me sufficient to all God's purposes and to all mine For it is not commanded to us to remove Mountains from their places which we never plac'd there but to remove our Sins which we our selves have made We are not commanded to do things which are not in our Power but such things which God enables us to and to which we disable our selves by cowardice intimidating our own Spirits by despairing of God's Grace by refusing to labour by deferring our endeavours till the weight of our sin grows great and our strength grows less till our iniquities are many and our days are few and then indeed we have some reason to say we cannot strive in such measure as the greatness of these Duties does require And yet remember 't is but striving that is doing the utmost of our endeavour the best Man in the World can do no more than use all his endeavour and he that is weakest can do so much that is he can do his endeavour And although a Boy cannot strike so great a stroke as a strong Man yet he can put forth all his strength and the just and merciful Lawgiver never requires more of us than all we have upon the stock of Nature and all he hath given us in the Banks of Grace So that the Duty we are here engaged upon is but an earnest endeavour to do our best and all we can and every Man can do that But because they will not because Men have habitual aversations from the practices of a holy life because to do actions of severe Religion and strict Piety is troublesom to their affections because contrariant to their
cooperate But the next instance of the reward of Holy Obedience and conformity to Christ's Laws is it self a duty and needs no more but a meer repetition of it We must be content in every State and because Christianity teaches us this lesson it teaches us to be Happy for nothing from without can make us miserable unless we joyn our own consents to it and apprehend it such and entertain it in our sad and melancholy retirements A Prison is but a retirement and opportunity of serious thoughts to a person whose Spirit is confin'd and apt to sit still and desires no enlargement beyond the cancels of the Body till the state of separation calls it forth into a fair liberty But every Retirement is a Prison to a loose and wandring fancy for whose wildness no precepts are restraint no band of duty is confinement who when he hath broken the hedge of duty can never after endure any enclosure so much as in Symbol But this Precept is so necessary that it is no more a Duty than a rule of Prudence and in many accidents of our Lives it is the only cure of sadness for 't is certain that no Providence less than Divine can prevent evil and cross accidents but that is an excellent Remedy to the evils that receives the accident within its power and takes out the sting paring the Nails and drawing the Teeth of the Wild-beast that it may be tame or harmless and Medicinal For all content consists in the in the proportion of the Object to the appetite And because external accidents are not in our power and it were nothing excellent that things happened to us according to our first desires God hath by his Grace put it into our own power to make the happiness by making our desires descend to the event and comply with the chance and combine with all the issues of Divine Providence And then we are noble persons when we borrow not our content from things below us but make our satisfactions from within And it may be considered that every little Care may disquiet us and may encrease it self by reflexion upon its own Acts and every discontent may discompose our Spirits and put an edge and make afflictions poynant but cannot take off one from us but makes every one to be two But content removes not the accident but complyes with it it takes away the sharpness and displeasure of it and by stooping down makes the heights equal proportionate and commensurate Impatience makes an Ague to be a Fever and every Fever to be a Calenture and that Calenture may expire in madness But a quiet Spirit is a great disposition to Health and for the present does alleviate the Sickness And this also is notorious in the instance of Covetousness The love of money is the root of all evil which while some have coveted after they have pierced themselves with many Sorrows Vice makes poor and does ill endure it For he that in the school of Christ hath learnt to determine his desires when his needs are served and to judg of his needs by the proportions of Nature hath nothing wanting towards Riches Vertue makes Poverty to become rich and no riches can satisfie a covetous mind or rescue him from the affliction of the worst kind of Poverty He only wants that is not satisfied And there is great infelicity in a Family where Poverty dwells with discontent there the Husband and Wife quarrel for want of a full Table and a rich Wardrobe and their Love that was built upon false Riches sinks when such temporary supporters are removed They are like two Milstones which set the Mill on fire when they want Corn. And then their combinations and society were unions of Lust when not supported with Sacramental and Religious Love But we may easily suppose St. Joseph and the Holy Virgin Mother in Egypt poor as hunger forsaken as banishment disconsolate as strangers and yet their present lot gave them no affliction because the Angel fed them with a necessary Hospitality and their desires were no larger than their Tables their Eyes look'd only upwards and they were carless of the future and careful of their duty and so made their life pleasant by the measures and discourses of Divine Philosophy When Elisha stretch'd himself upon the body of the Child and laid hands to hands and applied mouth to mouth and so shrunk himself into the posture of commensuration with the Child he brought life into the dead Trunk and so may we by applying our Spirits to the proportion of a narrow fortune bring life and vivacity into our dead and lost condition and make it live till it grows bigger or else returns to health and salutary uses And besides this Philosophical extraction of Gold from Stones and Riches from the dungeon of Poverty a holy life does most probably procure such a proportion of Riches which can be useful to us or consistent with our felicity For besides that the Holy Jesus hath promised all things which our Heavenly Father knows we need provided we do our duty and that we find great securities and rest from care when we have once cast our cares upon our God and plac'd our hopes in his bosome besides all this the Temperance Sobriety and Prudence of a Christian is a great income and by not despising it a small revenue combines its parts till it grows to a heap big enough for the emissions of Charity and all the offices of Justice and the supplies of all necessities Whilest Vice is unwary prodigal indiscreet throwing away great revenues as tributes to intemperance and vanity and suffering dissolution and forfeiture of estates as a punishment and curse Some Sins are direct improvidence and ill-husbandry I reckon in this number Intemperance Lust Litigiousness Ambition Bribery Prodigality Gaming Pride Sacriledge which is the greatest spender of them all and makes a fair estate evaporate like Camphire turning it into nothing no Man knows which way But what a Roman gave as an estimate of a Rich Man saying He that can maintain an Army is Rich was but a short account for he that can maintain an Army may be begger'd by one Vice and it is a vast revenue that will pay the Debt-Books of Intemperance or Lust. To these if we add that Vertue is honourable and a great advantage to a fair reputation that it is praised by them that love it not that it is honour'd by the followers and Family of Vice that it forces Glory out of shame Honour from contempt that it reconciles Men to the fountain of Honour the Almighty God who will honour them that honour him There are but a few more Excellencies in the World to make up the Rosary of temporal felicity And it is so certain that Religion serves even our temporal ends that no great end of State can well be served without it not ambition not desires of wealth not any great designs but Religion must be made its usher
wills therefore it is they call it hard and impossible whereas it is not the impossibility of the thing but their own disaffections that have heightned the difficulty to a seeming impossibility And thus I have done with the first Part of the Text the Duty it self with its manner of performance We must strive to enter into the narrow Gate of Life and Blisful Immortality II. And that leads to the second Part or the first Argument to engage our endeavours and earnest strivings because the passage is hard and difficult and not to be acquirâ—d by men that love their ease but by those that with Christian fortitude encounter all difficulties and oppositions Porta est angusta the Gate is narrow therefore strive And 1. I consider that Virtues and Vices many of them are so very like that it is very often extreamly difficult to distinguish them exactly and pursue the Virtue curiously Virtue lies between two Vices not as a mediocrity but as a thing assaulted by two enemies for one Vertue two Vices and each of the extreams hath something of the Virtue in it A Prodigal hath the open-handedness of a liberal person and a covetous person is as wary as he that spends nothing in vain and both these would think themselves uncivilly dealt withal if the freeness of the one or the restraint of the other should be called vicious And there are some Precepts which some will think they have Reason to say they have strictly observed when they have been most notorious Prevaricators of it For may not a vain-glorious person that gives Alms out of the promptness of his Spirit think he hath done his Alms well although he hath done them publickly it being a Divine Precept That our Light so shine before Men that other Men seeing our good Works might glorifie our heavenly Father And if this be a Precept possibly also some who transgress this Precept may think themselves safe on the surer side of Humility And truly that we may see how dangerous our condition is and yet how safe our imaginations are I think no Man will doubt but all God's Commandments have been broken and this of Luceat lux vestra Let your Light shine amongst the rest and yet I never read or heard any man in the greatest and largest of his Confessions ever acknowledge that Crime that he had not done his good deeds publickly But between the Duty of publication of good Deeds and the Duty of Humility the way is so narrow that it is hard to hit it right and when and how and in what manner and in what circumstances to do either is the work of great understanding and much observation I consider yet further many times a Virtue and a Vice differ but in one degree For there is a Rule of Justice to which if any Man adds but one degree of severity more it degenerates into cruelty and a little more than mercy is remisness and want of Discipline introduces licentiousness and becomes unmerciful as to the publick and unjust as to the particular Now this Consideration is heightned if we observe that Vertue and Vice consist not in indivisibili but there is a latitude for either which is not to be judg'd of by any certain Rules drawn from the nature of the thing but to be estimated in proportion to the persons and other accidental circumstances Vertue and Vice dwell too near together unless they were better friends All the Learning of the Sanhedrim could not distinguish between the Humiliation of Ahab and Manasses nor between the Zeal of Jehu and Josiah nor between Joshuah's and David's numbring the people and yet Aâ—ab was but an imperfect penitent Jehu was a furious Zealot and David sinned grievously whereas Manasses was truly contrite and Josiah was a zealous Reformer and Joshuah in the same action was a wise and provident Captain Abraham was called the friend of God for offering Isaac at God's command Now God commanded men to perform their Vows and yet Jepthah for offering up his Daughter hath left to Posterity the reputation of a temerarious and inconsiderate person There is a right hand and a left in the paths of our life and if we decline to either we are undone And therefore pious and holy persons are called upright men and the Precept in Scripture is frequently ingeminated to walk in all God's Commandments with an upright heart For on the right hand of Man is ruine and on the left is destruction and in all the infinite variety of sins there is no other variety of conditions but either to perish or to be undone For every one Vice kills the Soul but every Vertue does not make alive Adultery condemns a Man to the lowest misery but Chastity alone does not keep our Souls from death Because we are forbidden to commit any sin Every crime lies under a prohibition and the same Laws of God command us to pursue all Vertues and enjoyn the integrity of a holy life Now as he that commits one sin or entertains a single Vice breaks the Commandment which enjoyns him to forsake all sin so he observes not the Precept of God concerning Vertues that does not acquire and entertain all universally all A Man is spotted although he have but one stain but he is not clean unless he be all clean A Cup is broken if only the top be broken but is not entire unless every part of it be inviolate One Disease can make a whole man sick but the taking away one Disease will not make all men well and there are a hundred wayes to wander in but one only way to Life and Immortality So that I shall not need to urge the variety of Temptations the subtilty of Sin the watchfulness and malice of the Devil the infirmities of our Spirits the Ignorance of our Understandings the obliquity of our Will the mutiny and disorder of our Affections the inconstancy of our good Purposes the unstableness of our Resolutions the pleasingness of sensual Objects the variety of evil Occasions the perpetual readiness of Opportunities for evil our unwillingness to Good so great that we are loth to beg Blessings and Benefits of God Almighty These and thousands more are but the particular Instances of this first Argument to engage our striving For the Gate that is strait enough in its own abstract consideration is made ten thousand times straiter by the supervening enmities of the Devil the allurements of the World the solicitations and impudent temptations of the Flesh and the imperfections and great weaknesses of Mortality III. I now come to the last Notandum of the Text or the second Argument to enforce our striving the Caution and Example of such persons who have fallen short of entring for want of due striving For many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able Many shall seek The five foolish Virgins sought and they who shall tell Christ that they did Miracles in his Name they sought and
to follow St. Paul as he followed Christ. But then on the other side how apt are Men when they humble themselves to do it with greater pride Est qui nequiter humiliat se there is that humbleth himself wickedly I cannot insist upon the particulars but actions Spiritual are of so nice and immaterial consideration that both not to be deceiv'd and to discover it when we are deceived are matters of no small difficulty You may see in little that a Man may go a great way in Piety and yet not enter into Heaven What then shall we think of such persons whose Piety hath no more age than a Fly no more labour in it than walking in a shadow no more expence than in the farthing-alms of the street or high-way no more Devotion than going to Church on Sundays no more Justice than in preserving the rules of Civil Society and obeying the compulsion of Laws no more Mortification than fasting upon a Friday without denying one Lust and the importunity of sinful Desires These certainly are far from entring into the Gate because they are far from striving to enter And yet there want not some Men will not do a quarter of this and yet would spit in your face if you should put them in doubt or question their Salvation Some Men are so fond as to think Heaven is intail'd upon a Sect or an Opinion and then nothing is wanting to them when they once have entred their name into that perswasion Some are confident they shall be saved because of their good meaning and they think they mean well because they understand nothing and in the mean time refuse not any opportunity to an evil Alas they cannot help it Flesh and Blood is frail for who can forgive him that hath undone me and my Family 'T is true indeed I should if you speak like a Divine but we have Flesh and Blood about us Alas I hate Drunkenness and I am never intemperate for love of the Drink but when a Man is in company he cannot do as he would do And yet these Men will think to go to Heaven and yet will not do so much for it as either decline the company and opportunity of it or the inconveniences of it Flesh and Blood is the excuse and yet we remember not that Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God but we by mâ—king it to be our excuse hope to enter the rather for it Remember those great words and terrible spoken by an Oracle by the Blessed St. Peter If the Righteous scarcely be saved where shall the wicked and Sinner appear If after much striving many fall short and the Best is to work out his Salvation with fear and trembling What confidence can they have that are indifferent in their Religion that have no engagement to it but custom no monitors but Sermons and the checks of a drowsy Conscience no fruits of it but not to be accounted a Man without a Religion But as for a holy life they are as far from it as from doing Miracles and he that is so and remains so no Miracle will save him These are the Men that when the Eternal scrutiny shall come then they shall seek for they never seek till then to enter and then it is as fruitless as it is late as ineffectual as unreasonable Christ is the Way and the Truth and the Light and he that openeth only the way for us to go in there whither himself is entred before if we strive according to his holy Injunctions we shall certainly enter according to his holy Promises but else upon no Condition FINIS A TABLE OF THE CONTENTS CHrist's Yoke though easie quits us not of Duty Page 2 Christian Duties carry along with them a Reward so great as to wake the Considerate willing to do violence to all their passions Page 4 Vertue hath more pleasure in it than Sin Page 5 Every degree of love makes Duty delectable Page 8 There is even in our very nature a principle as strong to restrain from Vice as disposition to invite thereto Page 9 10 Our Vertues are difficult because we at first get ill habits Page 13 In the strict observance of the Law of Christianity there is less trouble than in the habitual courses of Sin Page 14 The ways of Vertue are much upon the defensive part Page 15 There is more pain in Sin than in the strictness of holy and severe Temperance Page 18 19 The ways of Vertue are strait but not crooked narrow but not unpleasant Page 21 Peaceless spirits give an Alarm to all about them Page 28 If we would live according to the discipline of Christian Religion one of the great plagues that vex the world would be no more Page 31 A Prison is but a retirement to a person of a peaceable spirit Page 32 All Content consists in the proportion of the object to the appetite Page 34 Impatience makes an Ague become a Fever and a Fever a Calenture Page 35 He only wants that is not satisfied Page 36 Humility the ready way to Honour Page 42 The Gate to Heaven a strait Gate and cvlls for a continual striving Page 45 Good Ends are the Crown of good Actions Page 48 49 We are apt to learn to love God as to learn to love our Parents if we be taught it Page 52 54 All striving in Christianity is little enough towards doing our Duty Page 57 58. A man may cease from the act of Sin and yet retain the Affection Page 59 60 A bad sign when returns of Sin is frequent and of Religion seldom and unpleasant Page 62 Faith works Miracles but Charity works more Page 64 God requires no more than he gives us Nature and Grace to perform Page 65 Many Vertues and Vices are so alike that it 's often difficult to distinguish them exactly Page 67 68 Sometimes Vertue and Vice differ but in one degree Page 69 There is a right hand and a left in the paths of our Life and if we decline to either we are undon Page 71 There 's an hundred ways to wander in but one only way to Life and Immortality Page 73 God's Counsels are secret but they are ever just Page 78 A thought a minute may destroy all our hopes of a blissful lmmortality which twenty or forty years have been with great labour in erecting Page 79 Spiritual Vices are most dangerous and yet most apt to insinuate themselves in the actions of greatest perfections Page 82 A Man may go a great way in Piety and not enter into Heaven Page 83 If after much striving many fall short and the best is to work out his Salvation with fear and trembling what confidence can they have that are indifferent in their Religion Page 86 FINIS