to exhort those who are in any capacity intrusted with the Instruction of Children that they be careful for the Honour of God and for the Welfare of his Church to teach them to Love God and Religion with their first Love to improve in them those Natural Principles of Justice and Truth Honesty and Thankfulness Simplicity and Obedience which God hath planted in their very Creation to teach them to resist the Prejudices and first Insinuations of Vice and to be afraid of a Sin as of Death to fill their Minds with great and honourable thoughts of the Privileges of being made Members of Christ Children of God and Heirs of Heaven to instruct them fully in the Extent and Obligation of all the Duties of the Christian Life which in their Baptism they ingaged to perform and when they be thus Qualified to bring them with Understanding and Resolution with Desire and Zeal to receive at Confirmation the Consummation of Baptismal Grace and a joyful Assurance of Glory and Immortality if they shall persevere in their Faith and their Obedience to the end 8. My Design in the following Essay is not to enter into any Question of Dispute but only to lay down some brief and practical Directions by which one that designs to be Confirmed whom I always suppose of Age to understand the whole Doctrine of Religion or one that is already Confirmed and is sincerely desirous to lead a Religious Life may attain to that Primitive Holiness and that Perfection of Virtue which becomes the Truth and the Purity of the Gospel CHAP. II. What is to be done before Confirmation Of Faith of the Necessity of Religion of the Necessity of Revelation of the Evidence of the Christian Religion and of Consideration 1. FIrst then in order to receive Confirmation or to begin the great Work of Religion with due preparation of Mind Endeavour before all things to attain a real and firm Belief of the great Doctrines of the Christian Religion This is the only Foundation that will be able to support the Design of a truly Religious Life If we do really and firmly believe the Being and the Providence of God if we be indeed convinced that the Christian Religion is a Revelation of the Divine Will if we be in earnest persuaded that there will certainly come a Day of Retribution wherein every Man shall receive according to that he has done whether it be Good or Evil this is a Faith which will assuredly overcome the World this is a Belief which will certainly baffle all the Temptations of Sin and Satan this will make all the Glories of the World seem mean and all the Pleasures of Sense insipid in a word this will inspire Men with such a vigorous Zeal as will make them not only with Ease and Contentment but with a mighty Pleasure sacrifice all earthly Enjoyments to the doing the greatest Good here and obtaining the greatest Happiness hereafter But if we enter upon the Profession of Religion rashly and inconsiderately more for Form and Custom than upon any mature Deliberation and Conviction of Mind it is not possible we should persevere in well-doing with Resolution and Patience The Cares of the World and the Deceitfulness of Riches the Solicitations of Pleasure and the Lusts of other things will certainly prevail over us and seduce us into Sin Nothing but a firm Faith grounded upon an impartial View and a deep Consideration of things can possibly carry a Man through the Difficulties and Discouragements of a Religious Life But he that begins to build upon this Foundation and lays down his first Principles of Faith immovable as a Rock will be able to surmount all Difficulties with Bravery and Constancy and will attain the end of his Hopes with Triumph and Joy 2. The true Reason why so great a number of those who make Profession of Christianity are either wicked and licentious or at least cold and indifferent in Matters of Religion is plainly this That they do not in earnest believe as they pretend and profess to do the great Articles of Religion They in course profess themselves to be Christians without having ever considered what Christianity is and therefore it has little or no Influence upon their Lives and Actions For did Men indeed as firmly believe the Doctrines of the Christian Religion as the Character they are willing to bear in the World obliges them to pretend they do it would be in a manner as strange to find a Man whose Actions should give his Words the Lye and his Life be unsuitable to his Profession as to hear one disputing whether there were a Hell or no while he were actually tormented in the Flames thereof For though Faith has not the Evidence of Sense as indeed it is impossible it should yet if it be well grounded it could not but have in good measure the same effect upon the Lives of Men as the Evidence of Sense would have When a Temporal Prince declares that whoever be found guilty of such or such Crimes shall certainly undergo this or that particular Punishment such a Declaration has generally the same Influence upon all the Subjects concerned as if they saw the Punishment already actually inflicted upon the Criminals When therefore the Supreme Governour of the World declares to Mankind his Will which is their Law and Rule of Life and inforces the Obligation of that Law by such Threats and Promises as the Scripture which is that Declaration of his Will contains If these Threats and Promises of the Almighty have not the same influence upon the Hearts and Lives of Men as those of an earthly Prince in other Cases generally have is it not evident either that Men do not in earnest believe that these Threats and Promises are indeed the Declaration of his Will or else that they imagine that though he now so earnestly presses and seems so severely to exact Obedience to his Laws yet at last he will not punish the Contempt of them If this be not the case how comes the Christian Religion to have lost that Efficacy in reforming the Lives and Manners of Men for which it was once so eminent even amongst its Enemies themselves If We do indeed believe the same Gospel and live under the power of the same Religion that the Primitive Christians did how comes that Religion not to have the same Influence upon our Lives and Actions that it had upon theirs Can we hear Men daily profane the Sacred Name of God with impious and horrid Oaths and yet think they believe there is a God jealous of his Honour and that will avenge himself on such a Nation as this Can we see Men cheat and cozen destroy and prey upon one another without the least scruple or appearance of remorse and yet think they believe the Truth of the Christian Religion and the Severity thereof In a word can we see Men dally with Eternity and for the sake of a few empty and momentany Gratifications
indure to hear or read of them If all this I say be true 't is evident that if notwithstanding this we still continue in Wickedness all these specious Pretences will by no means excuse us but we shall be found to have done despite unto the Spirit of Grace and to have neglected our great Salvation 4. Think not therefore that the Corruption of your Nature is greater than that Grace and Assistance which God now affords you For so you may sit still under the Dominion of sin in a vain expectation of being converted by some sudden and All-powerful Grace of God till you be surprized by the Revelation of his righteous Judgment But know that to all those who are Baptized in his Name and who Profess and Endeavour to obey his Commandments God doth give both to will and to do of his good Pleasure and therefore you are from henceforward indispensably bound to work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling Think not that the Temptations of the World and the Devil are more powerful than that strength wherewith God now indues you For so you will be sure to be overcome by them But know that our Saviour has Overcome the World and the Devil so that they have no more power over the Servants of God and therefore we are bound to overcome them also and to be more than Conquerours through him that loved us Rom. 8. 37. Think not that the Commandments of God are hard and impossible to be kept For so you will certainly not be able to keep them But know that thro' Christ who now strengthens you you may make them easie and light and pleasant and therefore you are from henceforward indispensably obliged to keep them 5. These are the Qualifications with which a Person ought to come to Confirmation that he may receive it with Advantage and Profit I shall now give some brief Directions how one that has thus solemnly entred into the Profession of Religion may continue to live worthy of that Holy Profession CHAP. VIII What is to be done after Confirmation Of Perseverance and of the danger of Apostacy 1. AND First Persuade your self of the necessity of Persevering in the constant Practice of Religion and Virtue from this Period The Primitive Christians thought themselves absolutely obliged to live in the constant Practice of all Holiness and Virtue from the time of their Baptism to their Death And if we have taken upon our selves the same Baptismal Vow if We have entred into the same Profession of Religion We ought also from that time forward to have the same Apprehensions Think not that the making a Publick and Solemn Profession of Religion will be of any advantage to you unless the following part of your Life be suitable to and worthy of that Profession Think not that your present Zeal and warmth of Devotion will stand you in any stead unless it work in you such a lasting Disposition of Mind as will afterwards when Temptation and Trial shall succeed preserve you stedfast and unmoveable in the performance of your Duty 2. The Christian Life is a Spiritual Warfare wherein we must fight against the Temptations of this World for the Glories of the other and the Reward is promised not to him that shall fight but to him that shall overcome We are told that many should embrace the Doctrine of Christ and receive his Word even with joy but because in time of Temptation they would fall away it should profit them nothing to have once been Believers This whole Life is a state of Trial and Probation and however painfully we have laboured yet if we leave off before our Work be done we must lose our Reward They that run in a race saith the Apostle run all but 't is not they that rûn but they that continue to run without fainting to the end that shall obtain the Crown Men are exceeding apt to deceive themselves with an imagination that some warm fits of Devotion the doing now and then a work of Charity and the abstaining from Sin for some time when perhaps the Temptation is less violent than ordinary will be look'd upon as the running the Christian Race But let no Man deceive himself with vain Imaginations This is indeed running but not so as to obtain this is indeed fighting but not so as to conquer but to be overcome 'T is not the struggling with Sin or the interrupting a wicked Life by some short lived Repentance that will intitle us to a Crown of Righteousness but we must overcome and we must evidence our Victory by a steady course of Piety or our Labour will prove to be in vain 3. Many there are who upon some affecting Discourse or some remarkable Providence or some occasional warmth of Devotion do please themselves with good Resolutions do admire the Pleasures of Virtue and with a transporting glimpse of the Joys of Holiness do imagine themselves almost at the Gates of Heaven and yet when the Fit is over the Cares of this World and the Deceitfulness of Riches and the Lusts of other Things returning upon them choke the Word and it becometh unfruitful and all their Pious Intervals serve to no other purpose but to make their Misery so much the more lamentable and deplorable by how much they have come nearer to the Kingdom of God and have been almost upon the point of making themselves Happy What pity is it that they who have had a taste of the good Word of God and the Powers of the World to come should for want of being able to withstand the Allurements of some trifling Pleasure or for want of Resolution to incounter some short and temporal Hardship forfeit all their glorious Hopes of Happiness and lose the Crown of Immortality Yet that they must do so if their Love wax cold and they be offended at the appearance of any Temptation the Scripture every where most expresly assures us 4. He that endureth to the end saith our blessed Saviour the same shall be saved Matth. 24. 13. But if any one draw back my Soul shall have no pleasure in him Heb. 10. 38. For no Man having put his hand to the Plough and looking back is meet for the Kingdom God Luke 9. 62. Not every one that saith unto him Lord Lord not every one that embraces his Religion and makes Profession of it nay not every one that receiveth his Word with gladness and obeys it for a time even with Sincerity but he that with an unwearied constancy maintains his Resolutions and in the midst of all Temptations preserves his Integrity to the end he only has a certain Title to our Saviour's Promise 5. And to the same purpose the Apostle St. Paul Rom. 2. 7. assures the Promise of Eternal Life not to those who shall begin to do well or to those who shall by fits and at certain times do some works of Righteousness but to those only who shall persevere in a
return to your Duty For if your Resolutions when firmest are not able to resist much less will they do it when they have once been broken if you cannot withstand the temptations of Vice while it is yet at a distance much less will you be able to do it when it has interested your Passions and insinuated it self into your Affections if you cannot maintain your Ground while the Spirit of God is ready constantly to assist you much less will you do it when he has withdrawn himself from you But resolve bravely now while it is called to Day while you have Time and may do it with the greatest Advantages to make your Religion easie and your Happiness secure set out with a mighty Resolution in the Christian Race and press forward toward the Mark of the Prize of the high Calling Despise all the Temptations of the World and the Flesh and resist the Devil and he will flee from you 3. Again while one who has early entered into the Profession of Religion maintains his Integrity and stands firm against all the Temptations of Sin and Satan he carries with him not only a quiet Conscience and an undisturbed Mind but such a full Assurance and Joy in the Holy Ghost as inables him to perform his Duty not only willingly but cheerfully and to despise all the Temptations of this present World as Vanity and Nothing But when once he has made Shipwrack of a good Conscience and is overcome by the Temptations of the World and the Devil to sin in any gross and notorious Instances then Fears and Doubts Anxieties and Scruples must be his Portion and though by Repentance he may recover a well grounded Hope and through the Mercy of God a certain expectation of Pardon yet not easily the assurance and joy of Innocence Think not therefore when you are tempted by Sin that you may now yield to its Solicitations and afterwards by Repentance recover your first peace and quiet of Conscience For when once the support of a good Conscience is lost Obedience will be much more difficult and Peace will not return but after much Labour and many Fears after great Sorrow and long Doubts But resolve now to resist the very first Motions of Sin and be convinced there is no Pleasure but in a good Conscience nor any Joy but in the Obedience of God's Commands 4. Lastly While one who has entered betimes into the Profession of Religion continues resolutely to preserve his Innocence and conquers all the Temptations of Sin he has a certain Title to that exceeding weight of Glory that Crown of Righteousness which God has laid up for those who shall keep the Faith and patiently continue in well-doing But when once he turns from the holy Commandment delivered unto him and is overcome by the inticements and allurements of Sin he forfeits his Title to that Crown of Glory and to what degree his after-endeavours will restore him he cannot tell That Repentance will procure him Mercy and Pardon is certain but to recover the Reward and the Crown of Innocence it must be very early and very effectual All that a late Penitent can hope for is to obtain forgiveness and be admitted to Heaven The bright Crowns will be reserved for those who have fought the good Fight and overcome the World Think not therefore when you are assaulted by Temptation that you may now enjoy the Pleasures of Sin and afterward by Repentance attain to the Reward of Virtue also For though God hath indeed promised that those who are hired into the Vineyard at the eleventh hour that is those who are late instructed in the Religion of Christ or in the knowledge of their Duty shall have the same Reward with those who have born the burden and heat of the Day yet he has no where promised that those who stand idle in the Vineyard till the 11th Hour that is who notwithstanding they believe the Gospel and know their Duty yet defer their Repentance to the last shall receive likewise the same Reward But resolve now as a faithful Soldier of Christ to resist resolutely the Temptations of the Devil to despise the Glory and Vanity of the World to get above the Pleasures and Deceits of Sense and then your Labour will be sure not to be in vain in the Lord. 5. 'T is to those who thus overcome that those great and glorious Promises in the New Testament are made Rev. 21. 7. He that overcometh shall inherit all things and Rev. 3 21. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my Throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne and the like He that overcometh that is He that having embraced the Gospel of Christ and being firmly persuaded of the Truth of his Religion continues stedfast in this Faith and in the Obedience thereof in spight of all the Temptations of Sin and Satan to the contrary In the Primitive Times the great Temptation with which Christians were assaulted was Persecution by which they were tempted to deny their Saviour and to renounce that Faith which they had once embraced by returning again to the Idolatrous worship of the Heathen Gods This was their peculiar Conflict and Trial and he that in that great Trial resisted unto Blood chusing rather to endure the most exquisite Torments and to die the most cruel Death than to deny Christ was said in a peculiar and more emphatical Sense to have overcome And to those Persons we must understand these great Promises to be primarily and more immediately made But that they proportionably belong to all other Christians also who in the midst of any other Temptations shall keep the Works of Christ and victoriously persevere in their Integrity to the end is evident For the Promise is not made to him that overcometh for that reason because 't is this or that particular Temptation that he overcomes but because he maintains his Integritry inviolable to the last notwithstanding the force of any Temptation to the contrary And perhaps if we consider the Matter closely 't is not easie to determine which is more difficult and shews a greater constancy of Mind to die for the sake of Christ or to live in the constant contempt of all the Pleasures and Enjoyments of Life to part actually with all our temporal Goods for the Name of Christ or to keep them with such indifferency as if we enjoyed them not Those Persons therefore who entring early into the Profession of Religion when their temptations to Sin were most numerous and most powerful continued stedfast in the Love of God and of Virtue unmoved amidst the perpetual Allurements of Pleasure the dazling Vanities of worldly Glory and the manifold Deceitfulness of Riches were by the Ancients looked upon with no less Esteem than those who suffered for the Name of Christ and were thought to have a Title to as great a Reward 6. Let those who have still
the Time before them and are so happy as not to have been yet seduced through the deceitfulness of Sin consider these things Let them consider what a Prize they have in their Hands and let them be zealous that no Man take their Crown Let them consider that if God and Angels rejoyce at the Conversion of an old and great Sinner much more must they be pleased to see a young Person amidst the alluring Glories and Pleasures of the World bravely resisting all its Temptations Let them consider that That time which a dying Sinner would if it were possible give Millions of Worlds to redeem is now in their Hands and they may make a glorious use of it Let them consider that they are yet cloathed with the white Robe of Innocence and if they be careful never to defile that Garment they may attain to a Portion among those few who shall walk with Christ in white for they are worthy Let them consider that if they zealously continue to maintain their Innocence and their good Works for a few Years they will soon be almost out of the danger of Temptation they will escape the bitter Pangs of Remorse and Repentance they will be wholly above that greatest of human Miseries the dread and horrour of Death and may not only without Fear but even with exceeding Joy expect the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ at the Judgment of the great Day and in the Glory of the World to come Lastly let them consider that if they hold fast the confidence and rejoycing of their Hope firm unto the end they shall be intitled to all those great and inconceivable Promises which our Saviour has made to those who shall overcome To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God Rev. 2. 7. He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second Death ver 11. He that overcometh the same shall be clothed in white Raiment and I will not blot his Name out of the Book of Life but I will confess his Name before my Father and before his Angels Rev. 3. 5. Him that overcometh will I make a Pillar in the Temple of my God and he shall go no more out and I will write upon him the Name of my God and the Name of the City of my God which is New Jerusalem ver 12. And To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my Throne even as I also overcame and am sit down with my Father in his Throne V. 21. CHAP. X. Of making Religion the principal Business of our Lives 1. THirdly Resolve to make Religion the main Scope of all your Actions and the principal Business of your Life One great reason why Religion which was the reigning Principle that wholly governed the Lives of the Primitive Christians has now so little influence upon the Actions of Men is because those Holy Men sought first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and relied upon the Providence of God to have all other things added unto them whereas now Men make Religion not their first but their last care and while their whole Hearts and Affections are set upon the things of this present World they think themselves sufficiently Religious if they spend but some small Portions of their time in the outward and Ceremonious Acts of Religion But if Religion be the same now that it was in the times of the Primitive Christians if the Happiness proposed to us be the same for which they so painfully contended if our Obligations excepting perhaps some few particular Cases be the same with theirs this slight careless and superficial Religion will not serve our turn He that will obtain that Crown of Immortality which God has promised to those who Love and Obey him must be effectually and Substantially Religious in the main Course of his Life and he that will be so truly and sincerely Religious must make that Religion his principal and his first Care 2. By making Religion the Principal Care and Study of our Lives I do not mean that Men should withdraw themselves from their Business and Imployments in the World to spend their time anxiously in Reading Praying Meditating the like I hese things are not the whole nor the principal part of Religion and it is an Antient and Notorious Errour to think that Men can become more truly Religious by the continued Exercises of a private Retirement than by living Soberly Righteously and Godlily in the World The Life and Substance of Religion is to have our Minds habitually possessed with the profoundest Veneration of the Divine Majesty and with a desire of expressing at all proper opportunities our Devotion to him and our Zeal for his Honour To endeavour constantly in the whole Course of our Lives to promote the good and the happiness of all Men and to be Temperate in the use of all earthly Enjoyments as those who expect their Happiness not in this World but in the next This is the Essence of true Religion And These things a Man may make his principal nay even his whole Care without any way neglecting or in the least withdrawing himself from his Secular and Worldly Business There is no Imployment wherein a Man may not be always doing something for the honour of God for the good of Men or for the Improvement of the Virtues of his own Mind There is no Business wherein a Man may not make it his main Care to act always like a good Man and a Christian There is no state of Life wherein a Man may not keep a constant Eye upon a future State and so use the things of this present World as that the great and ultimate Scope of all his Actions may always respect that which is to come 3. And to make Religion thus far the principal Business of our Lives is absolutely and indispensably necessary No Man can overcome the Temptations of the Word No Man can be truly and effectually Religious unless he stedfastly proposes to himself one great Design of his Life and indeavours to Act always regularly upon that Design He must constantly keep an eye upon his main End and in every thing he does must be careful always to have a respect to that Every thing he undertakes must be either directly conducive to that end or at least not contrary to and inconsistent with it In a word he must be True to himself and to his own happiness and be resolute never to be tempted to do any thing which he knows he shall afterwards wish undone For otherwise if a Man acts only uncertainly according to the present Appearances of things and without any fixt design it must needs be that every violent temptation will either surprize or overpower him and his Religion will be as inconstant as his Resolutions His Life will be at best no other than a continued Circle of sinning and repenting and his End will be in
shall have of things at the conclusion of our Lives when Death and Judgment approach and let us view things now in the same Light as we know certainly we shall be forced to do then We know we shall then lament the loss of every opportunity of doing good which we have omitted and shall grutch every minute of Folly and Vanity which might have been employ'd to the increase of the Portion of our future Happiness We know we shall then look upon all the past pleasures of Life as emptiness and nothing and be convinced that there is no Pleasure but in true Virtue and no Fruit in any thing but in having done much Good And if we do indeed know this what can be more miserably and more inexcusably foolish than not to make the same Judgment of things now as we know assuredly we shall do afterwards The reason why Men die full of Fears and Uncertainties full of dark Suspitions and confused Doubts is because they are conscious to themselves that they have lived carelesly and indifferently without having taken any Pains either for the Service of God or for the Good of Men and without having used any zealous Endeavours to overcome the present World or to obtain the future But if Men would consider things in time if they would pass true Judgments of things and act accordingly with Resolution and Constancy they might then know certainly their own State and might live with Comfort and die with Assurance CHAP. XII Of our Obligation to be particularly careful to avoid those Sins to which we are most in danger to be tempted 1. FIfthly Be particularly careful to resist and avoid those Sins to which either your Constitution Company or Employment make you most in danger to be tempted This is the great Trial of every Man's Sincerity and of his Growth in Virtue He that for the Love of God and the Hopes of Heaven can mortifie and deny his most darling Lusts can quell and keep under his most natural Passions can resist and constantly overcome those Temptations by which he is most in danger to be seduced into Sin such a one has an infallible Assurance of his own Sincerity and is very near to the Perfection of Virtue But if there be any one Instance wherein a Man habitually falls short of his Duty or indulges a Lust a Passion a sinful Desire 't is certain whatever other Virtues he may be indued with that he either acts upon wrong Principles and is not sincere or that his Resolutions are hitherto too weak and ineffectual to intitle him to the Comfort of Religion here or to the Assurance of Happiness hereafter 2. There is no Man whom either the Constitution of his Body or the Temper of his Mind the Nature of his Employment or the Humour of his Company does not make obnoxious to some particular sort of Temptations more than to any other And in this thing it is that those who have something of Sincerity and will not with others run into all excess of Riot do yet make shift to deceive and impose upon themselves They think they are indued with many good and virtuous Qualities they hate Profaneness and professed enormous Impiety they know themselves innocent of many great Sins which they see others continually commit But something to which they are particularly tempted they indulge themselves in and the fatal Mischief is that those Sins which they see others commit and to which themselves are not violently tempted seem most absurd and unreasonable and easie to be avoided but that to which they are themselves addicted they think to be either so small as not to be of any very evil Consequence or so difficult to be resisted as to be allowed for among the unavoidable Infirmities of Nature Thus to many who have little or no Dealings in the World the Sins of Fraud Injustice Deceit Over reaching and the like seem very heinous base and unreasonable while at the same time they allow themselves in habitual Intemperances and Impurities as either harmless Vices or almost insuperable Weaknesses On the other hand there is no less a Number of those who applaud themselves in their own Minds that they are not as other Men Intemperate Debauched Drunkards Revellers and the like while at the same time they look upon Fraud and Deceit Tricking and Over-reaching as the necessary Art and Mystery of Business 3. But this is a very great and a very fatal Cheat. No Man can have any true and solid Peace in himself no Man can have any just Confidence in his Addresses to God no Man can have any Title to the Promises and Comforts of Religion here much less to the Glory and Reward of it hereafter before his Obedience be if not Perfect yet at least Universal God will not share with any Impiety nor ever accept of any Man's Obedience so long as 't is mixed with the accursed thing If there be any Sin that we can hardly part with if there be any Lust that is like a right Hand or a right Eye this is the thing that God hath proposed to us to Conquer this is the good Fight which we must fight through Faith this is the Victory to which Heaven is proposed For this we must gather together all the Forces of Reason and Religion for this we must strengthen our selves by Prayer and Consideration In this Warfare we must resolve strongly persevere obstinately and though we be conquered yet resolve to overcome always remembring that this is the Stake for Life or Death Happiness or Misery Heaven or Hell 4. Here therefore let every Man consider with himself and let him well observe his own Temptations and his own Strength Let him consider not how many Sins he can easily avoid but by what Temptations he may most easily be seduced and let him make it his Business to guard himself there Let those who are young and not yet entred into the hurry and business of the World not value themselves upon their being innocent from the Sins of Fraud and Injustice of Covetousness and Extortion or the like for that perhaps they may be without any Pains and without overcoming any powerful Temptation but let them try themselves whether they be firm against the Temptations of Vanity and Lightness of Heat and Passion of Intemperance and Impurity and let them judge of themselves by their behaviour in these Instances wherein they are most obnoxious Let them consider that their peculiar Task is to overcome the wicked one 1 John 2. 13. to subdue the Flesh to the Spirit to conquer and get above those Pleasures which sensualize the Soul and inslave the Mind to the Body and thereby bring it under the Power of Death and Destruction And in fine to strive continually to cleanse themselves from all Impurity not only of Body but even of Mind and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the Fear of God Let them consider that they are by Baptism dedicated to the
God and the Temples of the Holy Ghost This was indeed a Dying unto Sin and Living unto Righteousness This was properly a being Regenerated or Born again This was truly a being Washed Sanctified and Justified in the Name of Christ and by the Spirit of God And indeed this was the principal thing which was signified in Baptism and the principal end for which the whole Ordinance was designed This was what the Person to be baptized was to profess with his own Mouth when he renounced the Devil and all his Works and this was what was principally represented by that main part of the Ceremony the descending into the Water and rising out of it again For so the Apostle St. Paul most fully explains it Rom. 6. 3. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his Death Therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into Death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the Glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of Life Knowing this that our old Man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin that is the design of our descending into the Water to be baptized and rising again out of it was to mind us that as we then received remission of our past sins by Vertue of Christ's having died for sin so we our selves were in like manner to die and be buried to sin and rise again to walk for the future with Christ in newness and holiness of Life This therefore was the principal thing respected in Baptism and without this answer of a good Conscience towards God the washing or putting away of the filth of the Flesh could nothing avail in the sight of God Baptism is not the Washing and Cleansing of the Body but the Purifying of the Mind from every evil Work to serve the living God without which Baptism is so far from being available to the remission of sin that on the contrary it makes it far the more grievous and inexcusable But of this more in the next Chapter 9. The third and last thing to which Men were solemnly engaged at their Baptism was Self-denyal and Contempt of the World Our Saviour had told his Disciples That whosoever would come after him must deny himself and take up his Cross and follow him that whosoever was not willing to forsake all that he had Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own Life also he could not be his Disciple And therefore when any Man came to be baptized he was accordingly obliged to renounce the World and all its Glory the Pomps and Vanities the Splendor and Pleasures of it He professed himself a Candidate for the Glory that should be revealed hereafter and that therefore he would never be ambitious for that Honour which Men so earnestly contend for here He declared that he expected his Portion in those spiritual Joys which eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of Man to conceive them and therefore he would never set his heart and affections upon any gross and sensual Pleasure He professed that from thenceforward his Treasure should be in Heaven where neither Moth nor Rust doth corrupt and where Thieves do not break through and steal and that therefore he would never be covetous of any Riches or Possessions on Earth In a word he engaged to make it the main business of his Life to prepare and fit himself to be partaker of those things which God had for them that love him laid up in the next World and that therefore he would never be extreamly solicitous after any thing in this This was what the Primitive Christians understood by their Renouncing the World They thought themselves obliged not only to forsake all gross and palpably sinful Lusts but also to be very sparing in their Enjoyments of what was Lawful They looked upon this World and the next as Enemies to each other and that they were to fight as Soldiers under the Banner of Christ against the Pleasures and Temptations of this VVorld for the Glories of the other And for an Emblem of this it was that in some Churches they anointed the baptized Person with Oil He was compared to a Combatant to a Runner just preparing to start in the Christian Race and they minded him that if those who strive for the Mastery only to obtain a corruptible Crown are temperate in all things much more ought he to confirm and strengthen himself to prepare and harden himself to be ready and expedite to be temperate and abstemious and to get perfectly above all those earthly desires which would hinder and clog him in that great race which he was to run for the Crown of Immortality 'T is true the forsaking all worldly Possessions for the Name of Christ was a condition more particularly required in those Primitive times of Persecution But how far it still obliges us as it most certainly does in some Sense shall be considered in its proper place CHAP IV. What was required of Persons after Baptism 1. WHEN the whole Ceremony was finished the Person baptized was cloathed as has been already observed with a white Garment and then he was admitted to the Communion of the Faithful And that which was afterward required of him was this One Great and Necessary thing To keep his Baptism Pure and Undefiled the remaining part of his Life 2 To the keeping a Man's Baptism pure and undefiled through the remaining part of his Life that which was thought absolutely necessary in the Primitive Church was this First That he from that time forward preserved himself from falling not only into the Habit but even so much as into the single Act of any of these gross and palpable Wickednesses Idolatry Perjury Blasphemy Murder Sedition Theft manifest Injustice Cheating Adultery Fornication Uncleanness Drunkenness Revelling and such like of which St. Paul expresly and peremptorily declares and repeats it with great earnestness over and over again that they who do such things shall have no inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God One that was born of God might be surprized into an unheeded sin but into the gross Act of any of these manifest and notorious Impieties they thought he was never to be seduced and if he were that he ceased to be the Servant of God For whosoever abideth in him sinneth not and whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his Seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God From the Acts therefore of any of these great and plain Wickednesses which stare Men in the Face and at the first view terrifie Mens Consciences they thought it indispensably necessary that a Man abstained wholly and that these things were not so much as to be once named among Christians
other much less that he spent his Substance in Revelling and Drunkenness But here was his Fault his Heart was set upon his great Possessions and he could not persuade himself to part with them though upon the prospect of an extraordinary Reward So unfit is a Mind deeply immersed in the Love of this present World for the reception of the Truth and Severity of the Gospel and so difficult for those who have a large share of the good things of this World not to be thus immersed in the Love of it 15. For this reason it is that great Riches and continual Prosperity in the World are all along through the New Testament described as a very dangerous and unsafe State Persecution has not a greater power to force Men violently from their Duty than Riches and great Prosperity have to supplant them insensibly and to intice them from it Riches and Prosperity do by degrees soften and debase Mens Minds they do as it were tie Men down and fasten their Affections to the things of this present World they sensualize Mens Thoughts and divert them from taking any pleasure in the Contemplation of Spiritual and Divine things in a word they ply Men so constantly with fresh Baits and Temptations and are so continually pressing them to satisfie their sensual Appetites that without a very great Measure of the Grace of God and an extraordinary degree of Temperance and Contempt of the World Man's Mind is not able to keep it self free from the Service of so enticing a Master 16. And this I take to be the meaning of those severe Sayings of our Saviour Matth. 19. 23. Verily I say unto you that a rich Man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And again I say unto you It is easier for a Camel to go through the Eye of a Needle than for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of God At which when his Disciples taking his Words in too strict a Sense were astonished above measure he answered again and said unto them Mark 10 24. Children how hard is for them that trust in Riches to enter into the Kingdom of God! He does not say that 't is absolutely impossible for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven But because 't is certain that they who put their trust in Riches never shall and because 't is exceeding hard for them that have Riches not to put their trust in them therefore he says How hardly shall they that have Riches enter into the Kingdom of God! Riches and constant Prosperity are so great a temptation that with Men i. e. humanly speaking it is not possible for one who enjoys these things to be a good Christian though with God i. e. with the Grace of God to which all things are possible this Temptation may not only be overcome but those Riches which are to most Men an occasion of falling may become the matter of a more extraordinary Virtue and the occasion of a Man's doing much more good in this World and obtaining a much greater degree of happiness in the next Our Saviour therefore does not say That a rich Man cannot possibly be saved or that any Man shall be miserable in the other World for no other reason than because he has been happy in this but only that Riches are exceeding apt to lull Men into that trust in and love of the World which is inconsistent with that disposition of Mind and Soul which the Christian Religion requires of those who expect their Portion in another Life 17. And hence are those so frequent and repeated Exhortations in the New Testament to mortifie our earthly Desires and to deny our selves not to love the World neither the things that are in the World 1 Joh. 2. 15. Not to lay up for our selves treasure upon Earth where Moth and Rust doth corrupt and where Thieves break through and steal but to lay up for our selves treasure in Heaven Matth. 6. 19. To set our affections on things above not on things on the Earth Coloss. 3. 2. And to take heed and beware of Covetousness for that a Man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth Luke 12. 15. To beware of Covetousness that is not of hoarding up Riches to no use as we generally understand the word but of setting our Hearts upon Riches and employing them to no other End than living merrily and splendidly in the World as is most evident from the Parable of the rich Man whose Ground brought forth plentifully following immediately in the next words 18. 'T is therefore a necessary Duty in those who believe the Gospel of Christ and profess themselves his Disciples if God calls them not to suffer and to part with all for his sake yet at least to wean themselves from the love of this present World and to get above the Desires of it They must be careful to use the good things of this Life so as not to corrupt and soften to sensualize and debase their Minds and to clog and unfit them for the Contemplation of Spiritual and Divine Things They must remember that they receive this Worlds Goods not that they may live in Ease and Softness in Delicacy and Voluptuousness with them but that they may thankfully employ them to the Glory of God and to the Good of Men In a word they must always be careful so to behave themselves with respect to all earthly Enjoyments as may become those who look upon the present Life as a state of Labour and Trial but expect their Happiness and their Reward in the future This is as I have said the true Measure of Christian Temperance and this Temper of Mind every one who will be the Disciple of Christ must resolve to attain 19. If this seem hard to any one let him consider that as a Mind sensualized and wedded to earthly things is here utterly unfit for a spiritual and heavenly Life so it must also hereafter be as utterly incapable of the heavenly Glory If a Man places his Happiness in the Contemplation of God and the Exercise of Virtue here he shall continue to enjoy it also hereafter because God and Virtue continue for ever But if he places his Happiness in the Pleasures of this World and in the Enjoyments of Sense when these things are at an end his Happiness must be at an end also Mens Minds are by degrees tinctured and transformed into the Nature of the things they are fixed upon and in such things as they delight to dwell upon in such things must be their Portion Hence Tully and after him some Christian Writers have thought that the Souls of worldly-minded Men shall carry with them into the other State such strong Affections and Desires after the things they delighted in here that were a sensual Person to be admitted even into the Seat of the Blessed yet should he find nothing there that could make him happy 20. But hower this be which
Service of God that they are by Confirmation assured of the Assistance of the Holy Spirit and that their Bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost which if they keep here in Temperance and Purity in Sanctification and Honour they shall hereafter appear with them in Glory but if they abuse them by any Intimperance or defile them with any Lust they drive away the Spirit whereby they are sealed unto the Day of Redemption and shall forfeit their Life Again on the other hand Those whose Age or Temper or Company or Business places them beyond the Follies and Extravagancies of Youth and out of the way of those Temptations with which others are hurried away continually must not esteem of themselves by their not running into those excesses of Riot to which perhaps they have little or no Temptation but must examine whether they be exactly Just in the Business they are employ'd in whether they be truly Useful and Charitable according to their Ability and whether they be sincerely Careful to resist those Temptations to which their particular Circumstances whatever they be do more especially expose them This is the true Trial of every Man's Sincerity and the most certain Rule by which every one may judge of his own State CHAP. XIII Of Growth in Grace and of Perfection 1. LAstly Strive continually to grow in Grace and press forward towards Perfection So long as we continue in these Houses of Clay encompassed perpetually with the Infirmities of the Flesh the Allurements of the World and the Temptations of the Devil we shall all offend indeed in many things and can never arrive at the Perfection of Virtue Yet unless we strive and press forward towards Perfection we shall never make any tolerable progress He that has no more Zeal for Religion than to desire just to keep within the Borders of Virtue and to escape the Punishment of Vice will in all probability be deceived in his Expectations and find when it is too late that those who are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot are but wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked and shall have no Portion among them that are arraied in fine Linnen which is the Righteousness and the good Works of the Saints He whose Heart is inflamed with an ardent Love of God and a truly zealous desire of the Happiness of Heaven will with St. Paul never think he has already attained or is already perfect enough but forgetting those ihings which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before will always press forward towards the Mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus He will never think himself good and holy enough but getting continually a more compleat Victory over his Frailties and Infirmities will go from strength to strength in the Improvements of Virtue here till he appear before God in the Perfection of Holiness and of Glory hereafter 2. Think not when you have once attained a clear knowledge of your Duty and framed hearty Resolutions to perform it and begun to live according to that Knowledge and those Resolutions that you are presently in a perfect and confirmed State of Virtue You must frequently review and meditate upon the Particulars of your Duty You must frequently renew and strengthen your good Resolutions and you must always be correcting and amending your Practice Till that which was well resolved upon and bravely begun arrive by the degrees of a diligent and perpetual Improvement to a confirmed Habit and settled Temper of Mind 3. Think not when you have performed your Duty according to the common Measures of Obedience and the vulgarly reputed Bounds of the Obligation of the Christian Laws and when you are by others looked upon as a good and just and holy Person that you are now arrived at the Perfection of Virtue For the Judgment of God is very different from the Opinion of Men and such a Life as is now look'd upon as very good and creditable would in the Times of the Apostles or Primitive Christians have been thought if not scandalous yet at best very cold and indifferent He that will be perfect must be above all Laws and Customs and Opinions and must not limit his Purity of Mind his Contempt of the World and his Desire of doing Good to any Degrees or Rules but must exalt them in proportion to his love of God and his hopes of Happiness 4. Further Think not when upon a loose and general view of your Life your Conscience does not accuse you of any scandalous and deliberate Sins that therefore you have attained to the highest pitch of Virtue There are many Sins with which Men easily impose upon their own Minds much indifferency in Religion and coldness of Devotion many omissions of Duties and neglects of opportunities of doing Good many faults of surprize and indecencies of Passion much sensuality and over-fond Love of the things of this present World many excesses and small degrees of Intemperance which are not to be discovered and overcome without entring into a more strict particular and impartial examination of our Actions and making repeated Resolutions and using constant unwearied Endeavours to correct whatever upon such strict search shall appear to be amiss 5. Many there have been and some even among the Heathens themselves who have every Night strictly examined into the Actions of the past Day that if they had done any thing for which they could reprove themselves they might resolve to be more careful in that Particular for the future and if they found they had in all Points performed their Duty they might confirm and incourage themselves to continue to perform it Others have done this yet more frequently and habitually never going about any thing without a short Thought how they might best act for the Honour of God for the Good of Men or for the Improvement of the Virtues of their own Mind and never having done any thing without a short Reflection whether they had acted so as was most agreeable to these great Ends. 6. These indeed are things not to be imposed upon any Man by any particular Rules but such as must be wholly left to the Discretion of every Man to be used according to each ones Prudence or Zeal Only in general 't is certain That by how much the more frequently a Man examines the Actions of his Life and by how much the more strictly he observes his smaller Failures and by how much the more particularly he resolves and endeavours to correct them by so much the more will his Religion be Uniform and his Obedience Perfect He that uses himself often to consider and to recollect the Particulars of his Duty will perform many things which others know indeed and understand in general but through habitual careless and inconsiderateness omit And he that often searches strictly into the smallest Errors of his Life and prays against them and resolves
to the Assurance of Pardon They taught that the Holy Word and Church of God always admitted of true Repentance That he that had fallen might yet recover and escape if he repented truly of what was past and for the future amended his Life and made satisfaction to God That God not only gave full Remission of Sins in Baptism but allowed also to those who should afterward sin a further place of Repentance That to every one who heartily and sincerely repents God readily sets open a Door of Pardon and the Holy Spirit returns again into a Mind purified from the pollutions of Sin That all Men who repent even those who by reason of their great Sins did not deserve to have found any more Pardon shall be saved because God out of his great Compassion will be patient towards Men and keep the Invitation which he hath made by his Son That God will judge every Man in the Condition he finds him and that therefore as it will nothing avail a Man to have been formerly Righteous if he at last grows wicked so one who has formerly lived wickedly may afterwards by Repentance and renewed Obedience blot out his past Transgressions and attain to the Crown of Virtue and Immortality 6. Thus that God admits even the greatest of Sinners to Repentance is evident both from the Nature of God and the Design of the Gospel from the Practice of the Apostles and from the constant Doctrine of the Primitive Church But then to make this Repentance such as will be acceptable to God and effectually available to obtain Pardon there are several considerable Circumstances required And these I think may be reduced to these Three First That it must be Early Secondly That it must be Great and Thirdly That it must be constant and persevering in its Effects CHAP. III. That true Repentance must be Early 1. FIrst That Repentance may be true and available to obtain Pardon it is necessary that it be Early that is The Sinner must forsake his Vices so timely as to obtain the Habits of the contrary Virtues and to live in them Otherwise he can have no security that his Repentance is hearty or if it be that it will be accepted by God 2. First We can never have any security that a late Repentance is hearty and sincere A Man may very well at the amazing approach of Death and Judgment be extreamly sorry that he has lived wickedly he may strongly wish that he had lived the Life of the Righteous and resolve if he were to live over again that he would do so and yet all this may be meerly the Passion and not at all the Duty of Repentance The Duty of Repentance is an entire change of Mind and an effectual reformation of Life But the Passion of Sorrow and Remorse is such as accursed Spirits shall be for ever tormented with in vain and such as a dying Penitent can never be secure that this late Repentance will exceed Many upon a Bed of Sickness have made all the holy Vows and pious Resolutions that could be desired nay perhaps there is hardly any wicked Man who when he thinks he is about to die does not desire and design to amend yet how few are there of these who if they recover do ever make good those Vows and Resolutions And no late Penitent can ever be sure that this would not be his own Case When an habitual Sinner is in Time convinced of the evil of his ways and resolves and endeavours in earnest to reform while he has Life and Health and Strength to do it yet seldom does he at the first trial work himself up to such an effectual and prevailing Resolution against his Sin as to change his whole course of Life in an instant and at once deliver himself out of the Bondage of Corruption into the glorious Liberty of the Children of God Usually he proceeds by degrees and after many Relapses and renewed Resolutions arrives at last to a settled and steady course of Piety How much less then can a late Penitent who labours under all the contrary disadvantages ever be secure that his Repentance will be sincere and his Resolutions effectual enough to translate him at one effort from the Power of Darkness into the Kingdom of God 3. For this Reason the Ancients never admitted any to the Peace and Communion of the Church who began not their Repentance before the time of Sickness Those saith St. Cyprian who would not in time repent and by publick Lamentation testifie their hearty Sorrow for their Sins we utterly reject from all hope of Peace and Reconciliation if in the time of Sickness and Danger they begin to intreat because then 't is not true Repentance for their Sin but the fear of approaching Death that drives them to beg for Mercy and no one is worthy to receive any comfort in Death who never considered before hand that he was to die 4. But Secondly Supposing a late Repentance to be hearty and sincere yet have we no positive and absolute Promise that it shall be accepted The plain and express Condition of the Covenant established by Christ is a Holy Life that is a constant and persevering Obedience to all the Commands of God in a Gospel and Merciful Sense allowing for humane Weaknesses and Imperfections from the time of our Baptism or of our coming to the knowledge of the Truth until the end of our Lives And the least that can possibly lay Claim to the Reward promised upon this Condition is such a Repentance as produces the actual Obedience of at least some proportianable part of a Man's Life 5. To say that the Original Condition of the Christian Covenant is such that a Man may safely live wickedly all his Life and satisfie all his Lusts and Appetites to the utmost provided he does but leave off and forsake his Sins at the last is really to take away the necessity of a Holy Life and to undermine the very Foundation of all Virtue For considering on the one hand how prevailing the Custom of the World how deceitful the Temptations of the Devil and how powerful the Assaults of Lust and Passion are and on the other hand how seldom sudden Death happens and how little the Excellency of the Christian Life is understood it will be hard according to this Doctrine to find Arguments sufficiently strong to move Men to repent and to reform immediately If there be no other danger but in sudden Death and no greater malignity in Sin than what may be cured by an easie and short Repentance at last most Men will venture to be wicked at present and trust to the opportunities of growing better afterward Though therefore God may possibly have reserves of Mercy which in event he may exercise towards Men in their last extremity yet Originally 't is certain the Gospel Covenant gives no assurance of Comfort but either to a constant and persevering Holiness