our adverse state why do we repine and complain If we did indeed compare our Mercies with our Sufferings our Receipts with our Merits or our Condition with that of some others we could not but be convinced of our folly but we still pore upon the sore all our thoughts are taken up and in exercise about our affliction if we would deal rationally let us view the sufferings of our blessed Redeemer and see if we dare make a contrary conclusion to that of the Apostle 1 Pet. 4.1 Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in flesh let us arm our selves likewise with the same minde He suffered patiently and calmly for us and it is but reasonable that Servants imitate their Master and suffer the disasters they meet our rule yet how ready are we to despise it if in the least it cross our humours or carnal interest Alas little do we consider that obedience is essentially necessary in order to our supream happiness and that torments as severe and intolerable as they are lasting are the lot of the disobedient It were to be wished that the rebellious posterity of Adam would but seriously ponder what they will be able to say in the great day of Audit Sure I am the whole Contexture and Harmony of the divine Precepts and Doctrines are equitable and just and therefore call for our hearty compliance with them The wise God never issued out any Command which could not be obeyed he is not like the Aegyptian Task-masters to require Brick while there is no Straw Nay indeed our duty and interest are coupled together so closely that if we disobey and rebel we may thank our selves for the misery we have chosen And as his Obedience is set before us for imitation so is his Love Charity and Compassion also His whole life was spent in doing good to men how transcendent is his love in pitying us in our degenerate and forlorn estate when we were at odds with Heaven and incapable to help our selves then even then did he commiserate our case and by his own Blood reconciled us to the Father It is the greatest demonstration of love imaginable for a man to lay down his life for his friend Joh. 15.13 and yet more wonderful was the love of our Redeemer in passing through so many cruel sufferings for us who were but Rebels and Enenemies O how should the remembrance of his boundless compassions transport and ravish us with love how strange is it that the highest endearments of Love have not inflamed our spirits and made Love mutual and reciprocal Love is a most excellent affection of a noble original by which we resemble the best of beings the great God being by the beloved Disciple described to be Love and indeed well does this description sute with his dealings with men But alas how unlike are we to God in this there is scarce any duty more frequently inculcated by our Saviour than Love John 15.12 This is my commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you and yet how little efficacy has either his precept or example with us Blessed Redeemer how unworthy do since it hath produced so little love in us to himself But however I need not take much pains to prove that hereby we demonstrate our selves to be of all men the most ungrate and justly liable to the severest punishment ever inflicted upon the greatest criminal It would be too prolix to enumerate the several instances wherein Christ is set forth as our Pattern sure I am he hath by his example taught us the exercise of all vertues and I may say as himself said in another case If we know these things happy are we if we do them To sum up this Section it will not be amiss to obviate an Objection which is indeed but very trivial although it be too commonly urged the Objection is How is it possible for men to conform to Christ and be holy as he is holy Ans. I have already told that it is not expected that we should imitate our blessed Redeemer in all and every of those actions he performed but in all those moral duties which he hath enjoyned by his righteous precepts and encouraged us by his example to perform these we must by no means neglect and to manifest the possibility of doing these we may satisfie our selves by viewing the pious and devout lives of primitive Christians It is a great mistake to think we are commanded to a rigorous and strict conversation which cannot be attained the faithful in former ages have run the same race that is set before us they have fully enough cleared the possibility of our duty Wherefore seeing we also as the Apostle argues are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us Heb. 12.1 For shame let us rather imitate the excellent holiness of primitive Christians than the impure practices of those who are strangers from the sacred Covenant O the perfect love and imitable kindeness of the first professors of the Gospel what purity what integrity and innocence appeared in their lives how ravishing and splendant were their vertues and graces their Patience in suffering their Courage and Magnanimity in death their Temperance and Moderation their Charity and Compassion their Equality and Justice and their Contempt of this World and all earthly concerns for the sake and honour of their Master These were the vertues they were adorned with which There is nothing more certain than that onely holy souls are in a capacity of participating of that future felicity and these may without the least charge of presumption claim an interest in it But for those vitious wretches who are wholly polluted who have devoted themselves to commit sin with greediness and take pleasure in doing evil how utterly incapable are they if they continue such to dwell in his presence who is not a God that taketh pleasure in wickedness And now seeing there is such an inseparable connexion between Happiness and Holiness it cannot be amiss if we take a short view of the excellency of this coelestial felicity that it may more plainly appear what a notable encouragement and motive it is to holiness There be two things that forcibly recommend the excellency of that future state of bliss First A perfect freedom and immunity from all evils And Secondly a perpetual enjoyment of the chief good First it is a blessedness wholly exempt from evils whether of sense or loss 't is a happiness attended with no inconveniencies nor dismal circumstances as the happiest state here is we now walk in the midst of perplexing doubts and fears temptations increase our inquietudes and dangers our continual fears our complaints are by far more numerous than our joys nay what is our whole life but a scene where sorrow and fears act their parts Man that is
as ever any former age acquired and it may to the reproach of it be said as ever any is like to reach to yet till men cast quite off humanity it cannot be expected that Vice shall have Advocates to plead in its defence 'T is a noble saying of the great Moralist Seneca Licet Deus nesciret nec homo puniret peccatum non tamen peccarem ob peccati vilitatem 'T is no wonder then though Vice appear as the Devil in Samuel's mantle under the cloak of Vertue though Lust mask it self with the pretence of Love and Cruelty of Zeal but by this means it proclaims its timorousness not daring to own publickly what it really is It were a large field to descend to the consideration of every particular vertue and vice and shew that there is not any vertue but tends to the advancement of a mans honour and fame and no vice which is not ungentile mean and base But the brevity I have designed will not allow me to enlarge onely in brief I shall demonstrate the truth of this by some few Instances Justice is so gallant a vertue that it advanced the renown of those whom it adorned beyond what riches or preferment could ever bestow The Romans were more famous and where they were Enemies more formidable for their Justice than their Power it was this vertue which in a peculiar manner made Scepters and Kingdoms submit to their Government But Injustice is so base and contemptible a vice that it hath made those who are captivated by it despised as the unworthiest of men not deserving to be taken into friendship but to be excluded from humane Societies How unsavory hath the name of unjust Judges been to posterity while every one is ready to strew some Elogies in honour of the just To this I may annex Constancy in friendship as a vertue as noble as amiable For who will not admire and celebrate the man who remains fixt to his friend whatever alterations or changes there may be in his condition And sure whosoever fails in his friendship lays himself open to the most merciless condition and needs expect to be left to befriend himself when the wheel of Providence laies him below those he thought unworthy of his favour Of all vertues Liberality Charity and Compassion are so noble that common speech adapts this Elogie to them by way of emphasis and indeed I think I need not say much to raise an estimate of these for no man can be so base as to despise those who bestow favours upon him Sure there is no vertue that makes men more famous that wins the hearts and affections of people more than Liberality but Avarice is ungentile and sordid and so odious a vice that it ever lessens all other vertues and makes those it possesses the most hateful of men Charity is an obliging vertue and as it hath its original from so doth it also necessarily produce Love and esteem too he who prefers the necessities of others before his own superfluities and who does supply the wants of others does so chear the languishing hearts of the needy that nothing can be more generous nor generally meets with a greater recompence of honour and esteem To compassionate the case of the Fatherless of the Poor and Needy is so noble a vertue that the Apostle makes this qualification alone the evidence of pure and undefiled religion It is a most unnatural and more than bruitish sin to slight and forget such Meekness and Humility are such noble embellishments of humane nature as I have formerly shewed that none but proud and insolent spirits who have been always condemned as insufferable durst ever disesteem them To these I may joyn Affability or Courtesie as a vertue near allied to Humility and Meekness which being noble in its causes and effects cannot but denominate the person it illustrates both noble and amiable and lovely 'T is indeed an evidence of a very base and abject spirit to be sullen and morose Persons of a noble education and original are frequently known by their condescending and obliging behaviour and I am sure Reputation and Esteem are the apparent effects of Courtesie Temperance and Moderation are vertues more noble than that they need eloquence to advance their value as its contraries are too mean and beastly to be inveighed against How bruitish and contemptible is a drunken man who is rather an object of pity as mad-men are than reproach who being a more apt resemblance of a beast than a man deserves as little Honour as he is ignorant what Honour means SECT 7. Holiness attended with the most solid and real pleasures In all things that concern practice there is scarce any motive more forcible than Pleasure and of all plesures those that entertain the Soul are the most excellent We indeed need no argument but experience to demonstrate how ravishing sensual pleasures and delights are how much they are caressed and courted till men be glutted and filled with them But alas how inconsiderable are all sensitive delights the enjoyment of these cannot raise us above the beasts that perish but those pleasures which are fitted for the rational nature are noble and lasting and such are all those delights that arise from a holy conversation no joy without this being able to make a mans life pleasant and delightful There is in Holiness an internal delectability that is better felt than it can be expressed but how loathsome and odious is Vice it is compared in Scripture to the most ugly and unpleasant things But Holiness is so comely so delightful and ravishing that it is very fitly according to the Scripture-Epithet of it called the Beauty of Holiness It is this alone that produces a calm and serene Conscience from which necessarily results acquiescence and delight and indeed this is no fantastick and imaginary joy as the Atheists of this Age would make men believe but a true and real one affording much more complacency and satisfaction than all the pleasures of sense To the truth of which I doubt not but those men who question it should assent if they would but make the experiment and till they do this they give us too evident an instance of their folly in denying the reality of those raptures of joy resulting from a holy conversation But besides Experience this truth is likewise confirmed by Reason For who is in more probable circumstances to participate of pleasures than he who is Master of his Passions who hath subdued his appetites and freed himself from those imperious Lords who denied him the liberty of tasting and relishing pleasures The pious Soul may have no large allowance of temporal mercies yet having Contentment he is richer than the wicked man whose coffers are full But we need not doubt of the reality of those pleasures the Wise man hath long since put this out of question Prov. 3.17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness There is here a concurrence of all those circumstances that
contribute to make any thing delectable 't is a way pleasant for its plainness and desirable for its end There is not indeed any thing wanting in it that usually draws out mens delight All beauty falls inconceivably short of this it being Holiness alone that makes the righteous shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father without this all natural comeliness is imperfect and as the Wise man expresses it is deceitful and vain Prov. 3â— 30 And yet what an universal Empress is external beauty become nothing being of equal force to attract the eye of beholders as it doth How hath she conquered the mighty and made the Nobles of the Earth Vassals to lacquey after her There is an almost irresistible power and force in her charmings which conquereth the hearts of men insensibly Now if Beauty mixed with so much deformity accompanied with so much attendance and slavery be so enchanting and attractive how much more powerfully should the Beauty of Holiness which is every whit perfect and unspotted and attended with no dismal accidents raise our admiration and make us say as David of Goliah's Sword There is none like it Alas all earthly beauty will be quickly laid in the dust a little time will deface the fairest face and make its beauty consume like a Moth an unexpected accident may disfigure it and marre the most lovely features and there is no doubt but old Age which draws on apace will make wrinkles in the smoothest face and make it wither as a flower But the Beauty of Holiness is lasting it fades not with time nor can it be impaired by the most loathsome and nauseating disease Since then Pleasure is so ready to excite our affections and draw out our complacency 't is pity that the noblest the most satisfying and most lasting should be so much contemned Eccl. 5.10 He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver nor he that loveth abundance with increase All the caresses of this World are unable to satisfie the Soul but how ravishing are the joys of a holy conversation The pleasures of this world are short and momentary are onely as the Apostle phraseth them for a season which quickly passeth but the joy of the Holy Ghost is as lasting as unspeakble and this joy saith Christ to his Disciples no man shall take from you It is without the reach of the malice of men and Devils too Alas how dimunitive does it make the pleasures of the wicked to say they are short how exceedingly does this one circumstance diminish them But indeed this were not so very considerable if there were a concurrence of no worse circumstances but that which mostly is an allay and damp to temporal pleasures is the consequence a painful and lasting eternity of the severest punishments 'T is this life that puts a period and conclusion to the joys of wicked men whileas the pious have Rivers of pleasures for evermore to delight and ravish them 't is at Death that they enter into joy of their Lord. This is a subject so ravishing and pleasant that I cannot without reluctancy conclude it O how unsatisfactory are all the delights of Sense if compared with those Spiritual Joys the holy Soul partakes of The delights that the Drunkard hath in his Cups and Companions the Covetous in his Riches the Ambitious in his Preferments c. fall all incomparable short of that joy that is the lot of the righteous The delights that the holy man enjoys do upon a double account far over-poise the transitory pleasures of the wicked First the present satisfaction that the holy Soul tastes of in this valley of tears is incomparably greater than the delights that arise from sense The soul that hath once tasted of the love of God findes more pleasure in the very acts of mutual love than in all the feasts of delight that sense is capable to enjoy Food is indeed sweet to the hungry and drink to those who are languishing with thirst the taste does without doubt finde some meats sweet and relishing even where there is no extremity of hunger much more where it is for to the hungry every bitter thing is sweet Beauteous Sights ravish the Eye melodious Musick the Ear and Odoriferous things please the Smell But alas how far beyond these is the delight which the devout soul receives in Ordinances the antipasts of joy which their Heavenly Father bestows upon them are more delightful than the concurrence of all sensual pleasures The soul that is in trouble can fetch more consolation from the promises of the Word than the carnal man can from his pleasures Vnless thy Law had been my delight saith the Psalmist I had perished in my affliction Other things could not avail him they could afford no relief but to have access to God in prayer and to pour out our complaints to our willing God this is more ravishing than I can express And I am sure there is no man who hath tasted these joys who would part with them for sensual pleasures and no man dare inveigh against those spiritual delights but strangers who intermeddle not with this joy The very Heathens have taught us that Vertue is a reward to it self they experimented more real satisfaction in moderation and temperance than in Drinking and Whoring But Christianity gives us more uncontrolable evidences of the reality of that joy that good men even in this state of absence taste of Into what a rapture and unexpressible extasie of joy did the abundance of revelation St. Paul met with put him and the Apostle St. Peter was so transported with joy when he did see Christ in his Transfiguration that he could not forbear crying Master it is good being here How full of joy have Martyrs been in the midst of the flames what comforts have they even then expressed And is not all this evidence that the joy of holy men is more real more sweet and ravishing than the transitory pleasures of the wicked which in several seasons can afford no delight a little pain or disease is such an allay and damp to their pleasures that it quite extirps them But besides those foretastes of joy that the holy Soul experiments here which as I have shewed infinitely overwhelms all trouble and pain that which contributes most to advance the joy of good men are those felicities above which are prepared for them and to these wicked men can lay no claim their farthest prospect being confined to temporal delights What abundance of delights and unexpressible pleasures are laid up for the holy Soul above How delectable will it be to be constant residents in the Heavenly Jerusalem whose Streets are pure Gold and whose Gates are Pearl how ravishing will it be to be always in his presence where there are Streams and Rivers of perpetual pleasures How sweet will it be to be a member of that blessed Society of the first-born in Heaven where there is a perfect concord and agreement