World to be Conformable to the Understanding of God those Immutable Ideal Representations which are in the Divine Mind so is it the Perfection of the Moral World to be Conformable to his Will and in both these the Second Person of the Sacred Trinity the Eternal Word seems equally and particularly concerned As to the Natural World St. John tells us that all things were made by him or according to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and without him was not any thing made that was made And St. Paul that by him were all things Created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth and that by him all things consist Again 't is said by whom also he made the Worlds And again Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the Foundation of the Earth and the Heavens are the Works of thy Hands Then as to the perfecting the frame of the Moral World as t was his Meat and Drink to do the Will of his Father himself so was it his principal business and the Main of his Undertaking to repair the Ruins of Morality to inlarge the bounds of his Fathers Kingdom to make others conformable to the Divine Will and Partakers of the Divine Nature which in part has already taken effect and of which as we are told we are yet to expect a further accomplishment under his glorious Millennial Reign when Righteousness shall flourish and be exalted and the Will of God be done on Earth to a very near degree as it is in Heaven To this end serves the great Mystery of Godliness that Grace of God which has appeared to the World teaching us that denying Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts we should live Soberly Righteously and Godlily in this present World the Covenant of Grace being so ordered and contrived that our Duty is secured as well as our Insirmity and Necessity relieved and our Repentance is only made effectual by the satisfaction of Christ not unnecessary To this End he gave us a new System of Christian Morals which though no addition to the Eternal Law of Nature and right Reason was yet a great Improvement of that of Moses And he took care also to second his excellent Precepts by as excellent an Example that they might appear to be Practicable as well as Reasonable And here because Example has the greater Influence of the Two he not only gave us an absolute one of his own and exhorted us to the imitation of it when he said Learn of me but also remits us to the excellent Example of the Angels those ready Performers of God's Will and winged Ministers of his Pleasure in that he bids us Pray Thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven That God's Will is done in Heaven is here supposed we are therefore further concerned only to inquire 1. Of what Will of God our Lord is to be here understood 2. By whom it is done in Heaven 3. After what manner it is there done 4. How far we are concerned to imitate this great Pattern of Obedience 5. How reasonable it is for us to do so And First by Will here our Lord cannot be supposed to mean that which is a Faculty in the Divine Essence or rather the very Essence it self for how may we Pray that that should be done which Eternally and Necessarily is Neither by Will here are we to understand the Act of Willing for this can no more properly be said to be done than the other but that Will for the doing of which we here Pray is the Res Volita or the Object of the Divine Will But then this is Two-fold either the Object of his Will Decreeing or the Object of his Will Commanding or to word it according to the ordinary distinction the Will of his Decrees or the Will of his Commands And 't is generally held that both these are to be here understood But I must confess it does not appear to me how the Will of God's Decrees can be at all here concerned any further than as our Submission to it is a part of the Will of his Commands for not to insist upon the necessary and uncontroulable accomplishinent of God's Decrees and that things necessary and certain are not so proper Objects of Prayer I only observe that this Will of God is here desired to be done in Earth as it is in Heaven which supposes it to be more perfectly performed in the one than in the other the latter being proposed as a Pattern and Precedent to the former But now as God is in all Places equally Almighty so are his Decrees in all Places alike performed in Earth as well as in Heaven according to that of the Psalmist Whatsoever the Lord pleased that did he in Heaven and in Earth and in the Sea and in all deep Places this therefore cannot be meant of the Will of God's Decrees any further than as 't is a part of the Will of his Commands that we should submit to them and acquiesce in them Neither indeed can this be directly and strictly intended but only by way of Proportion that as the whole Will of God which is capable of being done in Heaven is there done so all that is capable of being done on Earth should in like manner be there done But I say it cannot be directly intended there being no Afflictive Dispensations of Providence incident to those who do God's Will in Heaven and consequently no room for the Exercise of Patience and Submission as will further appear by considering the Second Inquiry namely by whom it is that this Will of God is done in Heaven And this indeed is of no great Difficulty to resolve since the nature of the Will does of it self point out to the Doers of it for it being the Will of God's Commands it can no more be done by God than 't is possible for God to obey himself Nor can it be done by the Celestial Bodies for however these in a large and improper sense are sometimes said to obey God as when the Psalmist says that the Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his Handy-work and that Wind and Storm fulfil his Word and the like Yet being necessary Agents they cannot yield any Moral and Acceptable Obedience much less in such an eminent and exemplary manner as to be a Pattern to us which yet is here supposed And yet they will be every whit as capable of this Obedience as we are if we be not free Agents which by the way leave to be considered by those who deny that Priviledge to Human Nature It remains therefore that the Holy Angels are they that do this Will of God in Heaven none else are capable of doing it and of these the Psalmist says expressly that they fulfil his Commandment and hearken to the Voice of his Word Proceed we therefore to the next Inquiry namely after what manner this Will of God is done by the Holy Angels in
Princes for this those Schools and Nurseries of Immorality for there is scarce any Society of Men free from it To this if I should add the unnatural Fewds of Relations the ungrateful Returns of obliged Persons the Treacheries of the Marriage-Bed the Falsnesses of Friends the ill offices of Neighbours and the intolerable Practices of Revenge not only upon pretences of Honour among the Duellifts but as they are generally carried on by the power and Interest of great Men by the corrupt and vexatious methods of the Law and by the common malice of the World if I say I should add this and a thousand times more that might be said what a Picture should I draw of Mankind and what intelligent Spirit is there that would not be afraid if such an account should be given him before-hand to be born into or to live in such a World as this But thus it was immediately upon the beginning of things thus it has been in all Ages and thus it will be till the Arch-Angel's Trump shall at once awaken us from the sleep of Death and from the sleep of Sin and Time it self shall be no more For no sooner had God finished his Creation and declared all things good in it and began to take a Complacency in the works of his Hands but through Envy of the Devil Sin came into the World and untuned the proportions of its new set Harmony and being once planted in the Earth it liked the Soil and increased and multiplied by the care and industry of the Devil as fast as Mankind could by the Benediction of God Insomuch that God who not long before was represented by Moses as Creating Man upon the most considerate Pause of Counsel and Deliberation is now brought in repenting that ever he had made him And accordingly he first shortens his Days and that expedient failing he proceeds to a severer Judgment and issues forth a Sentence to destroy him from the face of the Earth For God saw that the Wickedness of Man was great and that every Imagination of the Thoughts of his Heart was evil continually And again the Text says that God look'd upon the Earth and behold it was Corrupt for all Flesh had Corrupted his way upon the Earth And truly 't is incredible almost to think to what a pitch of Villany and Wickedness the World was then arrived in so short a time the World then like some of our Modern Sinners was young in Years and old in Debauchery it lookt as if the Devil being newly thrown out of Heaven were in the very height of his Malice and Resentment and to retrieve again the lost Field endeavoured to increase his Numbers to double his Ranks by making Men as very Devils as himself For Vice seem'd to reign Absolute and Uncontroll'd and to have taken full Possession of the whole Earth so that excepting only Four Persons Abel Seth Enos and Enoch we read not of one good Man from Adam to Noah so extreamly wicked and debauched was the World at that time and so highly deserving of that Emphatical Character which the Apostle St. Peter gives of it calling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the World of the Ungodly As if it were a state directly opposite to that of the blessed Millennium to that new Heaven and new Earth wherein as the same Apostle tells us dwelleth Righteousness But this you 'll say was at a time when God had not given any express Directory for the Manners of Men who were then left to the sole guidance of their natural light which at best is but a doubtful Twilight and is withall apt to be clouded and corrupted by ill Customs and Practices and in a little time to be quite extinguished with the Damps of Vice and Debauchery Let us see therefore how it fared with the course of the World after the giving of the Law when God had trim'd the dim Lamp of natural Conscience when Revelation had illustrated the obscure Text of Reason and the Moral like the Natural World was governed by a greater as well as by a lesser Light Now sure one would expect that Men should walk as Children of the Day and that works of Darkness should disappear like Mists before the Rising Sun And questionless it must be acknowledged that the State of the Moral World was considerably better'd by this new accession of Light and that there was less Vice and more Goodness among those who enjoy'd it the Peculiar People of God than among the rude Heathen who had no knowledge of his Laws For to what purpose should God visit them with this his Day-spring from on high and give Light to them that sate in Darkness and in the Shadow of Death but only that he might the better guide their Feet into the way of Peace In comparison therefore of the Heathen World this was a good state of things but yet Vice had still the upper hand and considering the vast disproportion between the Numbers of good and bad Men the World might still be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the World of the Ungodly For not to mention the particular Vices of that perverse and untractable People the Fews their Superstition their Idolatry their Infidelity their Rebelliousness their Lust and Luxury their Uncharity their Covetousness and the like the Scripture seems to speak of that state and age of the World in general as if'twere quite overgrown with Wickedness and as if Vertue were a Stranger among the Dwellings of Men. Thus the Psalmist Help me Lord for there is not one Godly Man left the Faithful are minished from among the Children of Men. And again The Lord lookt down from Heaven upon the Children of Men to see if there were any that would understand and seek after God And what was the result of this Scrutiny Why they are all gon out of the way they are altogether become abominable there is none that doth good no not one And again says the Psalmist speaking of the City of Jerusalem I have spied Unrighteousness and Strife in the City Day and Night they go about within the Walls thereof Mischief also and Sorrow are in the midst of of it Wickedness is therein Deceit and Guile go not out of their Streets And again more largely All the Earth is full of Darkness and Gruel Habitations And again lastly to add no more They will not be Learned nor Understand all the Foundations of the Earth are out of Course Thus miserably deformed was the face of things in this state and period of the World Nor were only the Morals of Men universally Corrupt but they had debauched and corrupted their very Principles too and defaced the Map that was to guide and direct them as well as lost their Way They had almost put out the light of Revelation as well as that of Natural Reason so that by that time our Saviour appeared in the World what by ill Glosses and worse Practices
the People of God had almost reduced themselves again to the state of Darkness and shadow of Death and defaced the Characters of the Mosaic Table as much as their Forefathers had done those of the Law of Nature But then again perhaps it will be said that this was at a time when God had not made any clear and express Revelation of Heaven or Hell and therefore though Men had a written Law to walk by yet it being supported by no other Sanctions than of Temporal Rewards and Punishments they wanted a sufficient Counterpoise against the violence of Temptations and then no wonder that Wickedness should so universally prevail when the Allurements to Vice were strong and the ingagements to Duty but weak and unconstraining But when once Obedience comes to be inforced by better Promises and by Severer Threatnings this certainly will introduce a new way of Living Men will consider more and live better and will never be so mad and silly as to spend a few days in Wickedness and Folly and then in a moment go down to the Grave and be Damned for ever Let us see therefore how 't is with the Moral World under the Revelation of the Great Mystery of Godliness and now Life and Immortality are brought to light by the Gospel this I think fully answers the Objection Now therefore certainly one would expect at least a state of Millennial Happiness that Men should be and live like Angels that we should see the Tabernacle of God come down and abide among Men with a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousuess But alas the Mystery of Iniquity began to work assoon as the Mystery of Godliness and altho the Primitive Christians were for a while kept bright and shining in the Furnace of Persecution yet no sooner was the heat of their Affliction over but their Zeal cool'd with it and they left their first Love For then it was that the great Dragon being wroth that the Woman was delivered of a Man-child that Constantine the Great was Converted by the Church to the Christian Faith thought to overwhelm her by casting out of his Mouth that mighty Flood of Arianism And altho' the Earth helped the Woman by opening her Mouth and swallowing up the Flood which was done when the First Council of Nice declared against that Pestilent and Prevailing Heresy yet 't was not long before the same Dragon cast forth two other mighty Floods out of his Mouth and the Christian World suffered almost an inundation by the breaking in of Popery and Mahumetism We have indeed by the Blessing of God and the Zealous Endeavours of good Men dried up one of those great Floods from a good part of the Christian World and restored the Doctrin of the Gospel to its Primitive Purity and Simplicity But has the Reformation gon on so prosperously in our Manners as it has in our Faith Are we as Good as we are Orthodox I doubt not for if we look abroad into the World how little true Goodness and Vertue shall we find in it How rare is it to meet with a Man that lives up within some tolerable measure to the Obligations of his Profession And how much more rare is it to see one that 's truly Serious and Confiderate Circumspect and Recollected that considers thoroughly and effectually the End of his coming into the World the shortness and uncertainty of his stay in it and what shall become of him when he is to go out of it and accordingly lives under a constant and lively sense of God and of his Duty to him walks with him and gives up himself wholly to him makes Religion and the care of his Soul the main business and concern of his Life works with all his Might while 't is Day and is utterly resolved whatever it costs him to mind and secure the One thing necessary This one would think were no more than what common Sense would prompt any Man to that would allow himself to think but one Minute in a Year and yet how few such Men shall we find in the World Do we not rather see Men drink down Iniquity like Water and commit Sin with Greediness Do not the generality of Men live as if they were resolved to Sin as much as they could in a little time and thought it not only safe but necessary to do ill Do they not live as if they were to be nothing after this Life or as if they were to be saved by their Vices rather than by their Vertues or lastly as if they thought Hell a better Place than Heaven and were in love with Damnation and Everlasting Burnings But to come a little nearer to our selves does not the present Age abound with a sort of Men who are Crafty and Designing False and Treacherous Rotten and Hypocritical Men that seem to have their Eye fixed upon and terminated with the Horizon of this World that make Gain their Godliness and Interest their Measure that will betray the Church for Preferment sell their Religion and their Souls for Mony that will depart from the way of Truth for the Wages of Unrighteousness and be Damned hereafter to be Rich and Great here Never was there more Religion pretended than now and never less in truth and reality never more noise about it and never a less hearty concern for it What Straining about the Knat of a Ceremony with those who can in the mean while Swallow down whole Camels of profitable Abominanations This we may talk of and lament but we can't help it 'T will be ever so with the general course of the World Vice will always have the Cry of her side and we are told that in the latter days Iniquity shall abound and the love of many shall wax cold And all this we may learn from the final issue and event of things we may measure the state of this World from the final distribution of things in the next Our Saviour tells us that broad is the Way that leads to Destruction and many there be that go in thereat And that strait is the Gate and narrow is the Way which leads to Life and few there be that find it And this we shall the less wonder at if we consider the universal pravity and corruptness of Human Nature the Multitude of Temptations we are all exposed to and the peculiar unhappy circumstances of Living that many Men are ingaged in To which if we add the great Strength Cunning and Malice of the Invisible Powers that the same Envy of the Devil that first brought Sin into the World is still concerned to uphold and increase it that there are two different Interests carrying on that there is a Kingdom of Darkness as well as a Kingdom of Light and a Mystery of Iniquity as well as a Mystery of Godliness we can't think any other but that the course of the World must needs be very bad And the wonder will fall yet lower if we further
consider how prone we are to confirm and strengthen an ill Custom by our Imitation and Compliance which leads me to the Second thing supposed that we are naturally apt to imitate that which is most prevailing and to conform to the Course and Way of the World Now this we are apt to do for one of these Two Reasons either because we think the generality has the Right of its side and that what most Men do is fit to be done Or if we do think they are in the wrong and do amiss yet we are loath to venture the Charge of Singularity and withal fancy that there is something of safety and excuse in Numbers and Multitudes And First we are apt to think that the generality has the Right of its side and that what most Men do is fit to be done There is nothing that carries so much Authority with it as the Example of a Multitude and though every Man is ready to imagin himself Wiser than any one of these singly yet when he looks upon them as a Body of Men there is something awful and commanding in it the Man blushes to himself as we are apt to do when we come into an Assembly in Publick though made up of Men every one of which we think inferior to our selves but their Numbers and Union give them another Air and Appearance and the Voice of the People becomes to us now as the Voice of God 'T is in Practice as in Opinion what the most hold we take to be True and so what the most do we take to be Good This is the only Rule some People have to go by and 't is the Measure that all Popular Spirits do go by and the Wisest can hardly refrain it for we can hardly think it likely that such an United and Complicated Wisdom should be mistaken either in the one or the other Every Man is apt to reason with himself in the conduct of his Manners as Luther did in the business of the Reformation Art thou the only Wise Man and can so many Worlds err What shall we oppose our selves against the Practice of Mankind set up for Reformers row against so great a Stream and live against the World Can there be any ill in that which so many do which is passed into a Custom and a Law which is practised all the World over Ought we not rather to suspect our own Judgments and conclude that that must needs be the right Point where so many Lines meet and that the right Way where we find so many Passengers This is the common and the natural Logick of most Men and by this Measure we proceed both in Opinion and in Practice but especially in Practice And this is one cause of our aptness to Conform to the Course and Way of the World But there is also another For Secondly if we do think that the Generality is in the wrong and does amiss yet we are loth to venture the charge of Singularity and withal fancy that there is something of safety and excuse in Numbers and Multitudes And first as to the Charge of Singularity 't is a dreadful and a frightful Word and there are but few that have the Courage and the Confidence to stand up against and face the Imputation We either think the World Wiser than our selves or would willingly be thought to do so since this has a shew of Modesty and good Manners and the contrary seems to carry in it an intolerable degree of Pride and Self-arrogancy But now to be Singular in any of our Actions is interpretatively and in effect to prefer our own Sense and Judgment before that of the World at least as far as concerns the particular case then before us For since our Actions are governed by our present Sentiments if we do otherwise than the World does 't is plain that we think otherwise too and that we set a higher value upon those private Thoughts of ours than upon the publick Sense and Judgment of the World which is a very odious and ingrateful thing to own and publish For we stand in awe of our Fellow Creatures more than we do of our own Consciences especially when combined and confederated together in great Numbers and Companies and cannot chuse but regard and revere their Censures and Animadversions And this makes us willing rather to err with the Multitude and be Fools for Company though we act all the while against the clear Light of our own Minds than incur the great Censure the heavy Anathema of Singularity And besides we think there is no necessity neither of running that risque for we reckon our selves secure enough without it and are apt to flatter our selves into a fancy that there is something of Safety and Excuse in Numbers and Multitudes Though we know we are in the ways of Sin yet we comfort and incourage our selves to go on in them by thinking how much they are frequented like Travellers wandring in the Dark who though they know they are out of their way yet solace themselves in their Number and Company This is very natural and ordinary for Men to do in all cases in the case of Sin and Error as well as in others and therefore the Psalmist speaking of the gathering together of the Froward and of the Insurrection of Wicked Doers which supposes them Many and in Companies immediately adds They incourage themselves in Mischief This is a very usual but vain confidence for however the Multitude of Offenders may be a Security against an Earthly Power yet God regards Numbers no more than Persons and though hand joyn in hand the Wicked shall not go unpunished These are the Grounds and Principles upon which we are inclined to be Conformable to the general Course of the World But 't is high time now to shew why we should not be so and this leads me to consider lastly the Caution it self that we should not be Conformable to the World But before I come to justifie this Caution as to its Equity end Reasonableness I must premise something concerning its Limits and Measures And First This Caution is not so rigorously to be understood as if we were not to yield some compliance and conformity with the Humours and Dispositions of those with whom we Converse for this is a necessary part of Homilitical Vertue and contributes very much to the sweetning and indearing of Society and is therefore Good and Commendable as well as Innocent and Lawful 'T is indeed that very thing which we call Good-nature when a Man bends and warps a little from his own natural Posture to meet and strike in with the inclination of his Companions And the contrary is so far from being a Vertue that 't is a culpable stiffness and obstinacy of Mind and we may take this for a rule that Religion is ever consistent with Civility and good Manners as indeed it is with whatever really conduces to the Comfort and Happiness of Human Life We
and if we will follow Christ we must forsake the Multitudes and ascend up to the Mount of Solitude and Holy Separation And that we may be the better incouraged to undertake this Religious Singularity let us to the Reason of the thing add two very remarkable Scripture Examples The First that invites our Consideration is that of Lot who happened to live in a City so prodigiously wicked and beyond all Measure or Example Debauched that though a very Populous Place it could not afford so much as Ten good Men they were so universally seiz'd with the Pest and Contagion of Vice And yet this good Man though he breath'd in so corrupt an Air was not at all infected with it the health and cleanness of his Soul like that of Socrates's Body was too strong for the Contagion and preserved him from the Malignity of a Plague that was more infectuous and more mortal too than that of Athens Indeed the filthy Conversation of that wicked Place disturb'd his quiet but it could not sully his Innocence it vex'd his Righteous Soul as the Text says but it could not Debauch it He dwelt like the Church of Pergamos where Satan's Seat was in the very Metropolis the Imperial City of the Devil's Kingdom but he Convers'd there like an Angel of Light among Fiends and evil Spirits He was surrounded with the works of Darkness but he had no Fellowship with them his Company was Devilish but his Conversation was Angelical though he could not make them better yet they could not make him worse he lived with them but he lived against them This indeed was great and extraordinary but there is an Example of Religious Singularity beyond this and that is in Noah who lived in a World that was as corrupt and more than the other's City the whole World then was but one Greater Sodom nay it was much worse than that Seat of Wickedness Sodom indeed was so given up to Debauchery that it could not yield Ten Righteous Persons but the whole World in Noah's time could not afford so much as Two he himself was the only good Man then in the World as may reasonably be concluded from that Reason expressed by God why he excepted him from the general Deluge For thee have I seen Righteous before me in this Generation Now 't is impossible to imagin that Vice should ever be more in mode and fashion than it was then when as the Text says all Flesh had Corrupted his way upon the Earth and the whole Earth it self was fill'd with Violence And yet in this allover-wicked World Noah maintained his Innocence and his Integrity shin'd forth as a Light in the midst of this Crooked and Perverse Generation and was not only a Doer but a Preacher of Righteousness In other Ages of the World though never so Corrupt Religion and Vertue has had some Party and the Singularity of Living well is shared and divided among several and one is a Countenance and Incouragement to another but here poor single Noah was sain to Live as Athanasius was to Dispute against the World and the whole Singularity lodged and center'd in his single Person which puts it beyond all Example or Parallel And thus have I gone through the several Stages of my Undertaking I shall now make one or two brief Reflections upon the whole and conclude In relation therefore to the First Supposition it may be inferr'd That the Multitude is no safe Guide and that the Measures of Right and Wrong are not always to be concluded from the consent of Majority for you see here that Vice has by much the Majority of its side and yet 't is Vice still From the Second it may be inferr'd That those who have already a Majority for their way ought not to think their Cause any whit the better for having new Proselytes every day brought over to them and because Men flock to their Standard from every Quarter For as it has been discoursed this is no more than what is to be expected from the ordinary course of things Men are naturally apt to imitate that which is most prevailing and to conform to the course and way of the World Those therefore that value themselves or their Cause the better for this seem not to understand the World but to be meer Strangers to the Inclinations of Human Nature for did they consider that they would quickly perceive that this does not reflect any Credit upon their Cause but rather upbraids the levity and weakness of Mankind and is no argument that they themselves are Wise but only that other Men are Fools Lastly from the Caution it self we may justly infer that the Censure of Preciseness and Singularity which the Men of this World commonly charge upon good Men and the Hatred and Spite wherewith they prosecute them upon that very account are both of them utterly senseless and extreamly absurd This has been an old Grudge Thus the Sinners in the Book of Wisdom Let us lie in wait for the Righteous because he is not for our turn and he is clean contrary to our doings He upbraideth us with our offending the Law and objecteth to our infamy the transgressings of our Education And again He was made to reprove our Thoughts He is grievous to us even to behold for his Life is not like other Mens his Ways are of another Fashion A very high Charge indeed and as notable an Inference he lives otherwise and better than we do and therefore we must hate and persecute him But this I say is a very absurd and unreasonable way of Proceeding for the ground of the business if sifted to the bottom comes to no more than this They are angry with a Man for not loving their Company so well as to be content to be Damned for the sake on 't But I think we may with great Civility beg their excuse in this matter if they will have us do as they do then let them take care to do as they should do But for a Man to make himself a Beast utterly unfit to be convers'd with and then to call me Singular and Unsociable because I won't keep him Company is hard measure And as these Men are guilty of an unreasonable Charge so shall we be guilty of an inexcusable Folly and Weakness if we depart from our Duty and our greatest Interest upon such a trifling inconsiderable Discouragement For then 't is plain that we are of the number of those low and unconsidering Spirits that love the Praise of Men more than the Praise of God Let us not therefore be led away with Noise and Popularity nor be frighted from our Duty by those empty Anathema's of the Multitude the Censure of Unsociableness Preciseness and Singularity Let us be sure by doing our Duty to satisfy our own Consciences whatever others do or think Let us not be carried away in the Polluted torrent of the Age nor be Fools for Company Let us for once
and he is neither Reasonable nor Modest that either Desires or Pretends to more since the other is sufficient for a Satisfactory though not for an Infallible Judgment And yet there is something further in this matter yet for to this Moral Assurance grounded upon the general Terms of Salvation which are matter of Divine Faith and upon the inward Consciousness of our being qualified accordingly which is matter of Experimencal Knowledge we may further add that Obsignation so often mentioned in Scripture whereby the Spirit it self is said to bear Witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God not by a clear and express Revelation for then the Assurance we have of our Salvation would be an Assurance of Divine Faith which is against what was before supposed but only by a secret Determination of our Minds to assent to this Comfortable Conclusion that we are in a state of Pardon and Salvation and by Confirming us in that Assent After what manner this Operation of God is performed I shall not be so curious as to inquire 't is enough to know that it is a certain impression of the Holy Spirit upon our Souls whereby we are inwardly perswaded beyond the force of Rational Conviction of our being interessed in the Divine Favour and in the Glory that shall be revealed This is the Seal of the Spirit and the Pledge or Earnest of our Inheritance which God often bestows upon the Children of Light in this Life as a Reward for their past and sometimes as an incouragement for their future Obedience For so says the Spirit to the Churches To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden Manna and I will give him a white Stone and in the Stone a new Name written which no Man knows saving he that receives it And now since Peace at the last is so valuable a Treasure and since a good life is a certain and the only way to obtain it what Consequence can be more natural and evident from these Premises than that it highly concerns us to keep Innocency and to take heed to the thing that is right in one word to Live well which was the Third and last Consideration Indeed were Peace at the last a thing of no great value or were not a good Life a sure and a necessary method to obtain it were there a failure in either of these Premises the Conclusion would fail with it and 't were no great matter how we Lived But since the quite contrary appears to be unquestionably true that Peace at the last is incomparably beyond any Temporal Interest we can propose and a good Life is a sure and necessary way to procure it nothing certainly in the World can be of such moment and consequence as to live well 'T is by infinite degrees the most important thing that can possibly imploy our Thoughts or our Time our Studies or our Endeavours nay indeed 't is the One thing needful Vain and Impertinent are all those other many things we are here troubled about all those Thoughts and Cares we have about Time and the things of Time which indeed would be of little value even to a Temporary Being much more to an Immortal Spirit who is to live in another State and there either Enjoy or Suffer to all Eternity To such a Being Time certainly can be no further considerable than as Eternity depends upon it no further than as it may serve as an Opportunity to secure the other which is all the use and all the value Time and this Mortal Life can have with a wise and considering Man The best use therefore we can make of our Time is to live well in it to spend it Innocently and Usefully Piously and Charitably in the Service of God and in doing good to Men. 'T is for this we have our Time and this is the right and proper use of it and that which will give the most Happy Conclusion to it This is that which will yield us Peace and Comfort when nothing else can and when we stand in most need of it in the Hour of Death and in the Day of Judgment in either of which there is no comfort like a good Conscience When I shall lie faint and languishing upon my Dying Bed with my Friends all sad about me and my Blood and Spirits waxing cold and slow within when I begin to reckon my Life not by the Striking of the Clock but by the throbbings of my Pulse every stroak of which beats a Surrender to the Pale Conqueror in this great Ebb of Nature when the Stream of Life runs low and the Wheel at the Cistern can hardly turn round its Circle it will be then no Pleasure or Comfort to my departing Soul to reflect upon the great Estate that I have got upon the Family and Name that I have raised or upon the Honours and Preferments that I have gone through No my Soul will then have a new Taste as well as my Body and these things will be as insipid to me as my Meat and Drink only the Conscience of having done well will then refresh me and yield me Peace and Consolation This is that Angel that must support and strengthen me in that great and last Agony nothing else is able to interpose for my relief in that dreadful juncture and this alone will be a sufficient Comforter and Assistant Many things there are that divert and ingage our Thoughts in the Course of our Life but at the end of it there is nothing that will be regarded by us or afford us any Satisfaction but a good Conscience Our rejoycing then will be this the Testimony of our Conscience that in Simplicity and Godly Sincerity we have had our Conversation in the World And how infinitely then are we concerned to take heed to our ways to walk circumspectly and heartily to apply our selves to that now which will stand us in such stead then Besides 't is our greatest Wisdom as well as Interest and the best Proof we can give of our being Rational Creatures We think it a great Commendation of our Reason to be able to Dispute well and Discourse well and we are generally more impatient of what reflects upon our Intellectuals than of what reflects upon our Morals But certainly to live well is the greatest argument of Wisdom and that which reflects upon our Morals reflects most of all upon our Understandings We live now in an Age wherein Craft and Worldly Policy nay and even downright Knavery has usurped the name of Wisdom and a Man is in danger of bringing his Parts in question by adhering to his Duty against his Worldly Interest But this is the Wisdom of Fools and Mad-men of those who either think not at all or else consider things by halves 't is in short the Wisdom of this World which the Apostle tells us is Foolishness with God But there is another Wisdom and that is the Wisdom of
the just and this is that Wisdom which God commends and which we our selves shall hereafter when best able to judge commend too for this is that Wisdom from above which is first Pure then Peaceable which will bring us Peace at the last and whereby we shall become Wise unto Salvation The Conclusion of all is Time it self is short the Time of Man is much shorter Eternity has neither end nor change and every Man is hastening to this Eternal and Unchangable State and therefore it infinitely concerns us all so to live while we sojourn in this World that when we come to dye we may have these Two things to support us in that dreadful Hour the Reflection upon the Innocency of our Life past and the Prospect of future Glory and Happiness Which God of his Goodness grant us all c. A DISCOURSE CONCERNING Heavenly-Mindedness Phil. 3. 20. For our Conversation is in Heaven THat Man is deeply lapsed and degenerated from a state of Excellency and Perfection is evident frem the Ruins of his Nature which is now too faulty and defective to be the first and original workmanship of God but in nothing is his Fall more fignalized than in that abject servile and groveling disposition of Mind he now labours under He has suffered indeed in all his Faculties and every String of his Soul is put out of Tune his Understanding has a Cloud dwelling upon it his Will has lost much of its Verticity or Magnetick Inclination towards the chief Good but that wherein he is most diminished and stands most alienated from the Life of God and the order of Grace is the Passionate part of him his Affections these have suffered such a vast Declination from their true and natural Point and are so depressed into the dregs of the Material World and are now become so unperceptive of any thing but the gusts and relishes of the Animal Nature that instead of serving as they were originally intended to the invigoration and actuation of the Soul they are her greatest clog and impediment in all her Endeavours and Aspirations after the Divine Life This is that so much Celebrated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Platonists the Moulting of the Plumes of the Soul she is not only broken and wounded in her Wings but utterly unpinioned she has dropt her Feathers and can no longer sustain her weight in the higher Regions but falls down and lies groveling upon the Ground as if besides the Primitive Curse upon Man of Tilling the Earth from whence he was taken he had inherited that of the Serpent too Upon thy Belly shalt thou go and Dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy Life And as this Demission of Soul is the most signal instance of the Degeneracy of Man so is it commonly the last from whence we recover our Affections are the most stubborn and unconquerable part about us as being blind and unperceptive Appetites and such as are set at the greatest distance from the Light of the Mind which shines first upon the Will and then upon the Passions whose illumination is therefore more feeble and languid Hence it comes to pass that this is the most difficult part to be managed as there is more trouble with One Fool than with Ten Wise Men and when the Understanding and Will are resigned up and given over to the importunity of him that stands at the Door and knocks these still maintain the Fort against the Heavenly Battery and are very often too successful in their resistence Indeed the regulation of the Pathetie part is commonly the last conquest of Divine Grace the consummating degree of Spiritual Life the closing feature of that Image of God which is form'd in us for nothing is more common than to see Men of singular Strictness and vertuous Conversation in all other respects who yet have their Affections deeply ingaged in Secular Interests who stoop and yield to the Magnetism of this dirty Planet and as the Apostle phrases it in the Verse before the Text Mind or relish Earthly things An eminent Example of this we have in the Story of the Young Man who came to our Saviour to inquire what he should do to inherit Eternal Life who though a diligent Observer of the Law and generally accomplished with moral Qualifications insomuch that our Lord began to have a kindness for him yet the affectionate part of his Soul had still a wrong Bias and was not sufficiently weaned from Earthly good One thing thou lackest and what was that not more Justice nor more Charity nor more Temperance but to have his Affections more loose and disingaged from the World for when he was bid go and Sell what he had and give it to the Poor he was sad at that Saying and went away grieved though he was told at the same time that it was to be only an Exchange and that far for the better that he should have Treasure in Heaven for what he quitted upon Earth But however difficult it may be for a Soul so low sunk in her Affections to recover again upon the Wing and bear up above the steams of the Flesh and the attractions of the Animal Nature yet this is that excellent end which the Christian Institution aims at and which every good Christian ought diligently to endeavour after For what the Author of our Faith and Happiness said of some particular words of his is true of all that they are Spirit and Life such as are able and were designed to reanimate the dead and senseless Minds of Men and to diffuse a-vital heat throughout the torpid and benumm'd World And accordingly St. Paul tells us that Christianity is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Law of the Spirit of Life and in another place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ministration of the Spirit such as becomes a Vital Form in us to give us Motion and Activity and to raise us from that Sown and Lethargy which by our Fall we were cast into And the same Apostle makes it here the Character of an accomplished Christian such who is fit to be proposed as an Example for our Imitation that he is one that is not only above but has nothing to do with the petty trifling Interests of this lower World but has his Thoughts and Affections wholly taken up and imployed about the Beatitudes of the next For says he Brethren be Followers together of me and mark them that walk so as ye have us for an Example for our Conversation is in Heaven In discoursing upon which Words I shall shew First What it is to have our Conversation in Heaven Secondly How reasonable and becoming it is for a Christian to do so Thirdly What are the Uses and Advantages of such an Heavenly Dispensation of Life Now concerning the First I consider that Heaven here may be understood either largely for the state of the other Life in general by way of opposition to this or more strictly for
of Christ and to be chiefly intended to express that steddy constant and actual Consideration which he had of the Power and Veracity of God to whom he was not so intimately and mysteriously united but that he endeavoured to be more intimate and familiar with him and if possible to place him in a nearer view by the arts of Attention and Recollection by the most actual and awaken'd application of Mind This as we have great reason to think was his constant Practice and Exercise all his Life long but especially about that dark and Cloudy Period of it when he was entring into the Troubles of his Passion Then he had occasion to make use of all the Aids and succours both of Reason and Grace particularly to renew and reinforce his Considerations of the Power and Veracity of God that he would not leave his Soul in Hell in the State of Separation from his Body nor suffer his Holy One to see Corruption Then therefore he set himself more industriously to Contemplate the Perfections of God especially those of his Power and Veracity and from hence he drew Arguments of Consolation for his Support under all the Terrors and Afflictions of his great Agony I have set God always before me because he is at my Right Hand I shall not be moved But I shall discourse upon the Words with greater Latitude and in treating of them shall concern my self about these Two things First To shew what it is to set God always before one or how many ways we may be said to set God before us Secondly To represent the many and great Advantages arising from each and what an Excellent Art and Spiritual Expedient it is for Holy Living thus to set God always before us Now as to the First to set God always before us is in the general to have him ever present in our Thoughts and Meditations under some Capacity or Consideration or other present to our Thoughts not by way of Object only for that he necessarily is and we cannot possibly exclude him thence but also by way of Object when we attend to him and reflect upon him under some Qualification or other either absolute or in relation to us And in this there is great variety even as much as there is in the several Attributes and Perfections of God but I shall consider only those that influence our Practice and serve to the Direction of our Manners Now in relation to this there are Three very excellent ways of setting God before us as the Supream Good as a Pattern and as an Observer First We may set God before us as the Supream Good this we do when we Contemplate the natural and absolute Perfection of his Essence that universal Plenitude of his whereby he contains all that is Good Lovely and Excellent all things that are requisite to the compleating of a most perfect and Sovereign Being that may be infinitely and unchangably Happy ' in himself and whereby he may become apt to be the greatest Good to his Creatures the true End of Man the Object of his Happiness and the last Centre of all his Desires This is to set God before us as the Supream Good Secondly We may set God before us as a Pattern this we do when we Contemplate the Moral Nature of God those imitable Perfections of his which answer to those Vertues and good Dispositions of Mind which he requires from us and which he contributes also to work in us by the Graces of his Spirit Such are that universal Sanctity and Holiness of his Nature and Will whereby all his Actions become Pure and Right whereby the Lord is Righteous in all his Ways and Holy in all his Works His Goodness wherein are comprehended all the Heights and Depths and the whole Length and Breadth of the Love the Kindess the Mercy the Grace the Benignity and Bounty of God that infinite diffusiveness of his Nature whereby he is as it were carried out of and beyond himself to Communicate the good that is in him to his Creatures according to their several Proportions and Capacities His Justice whereby he deals uprightly and equally with all his Creatures and renders to every one his own according to their Works Good or Bad without any Partiality or respect of Persons His Truth whereby all his Revelations are exactly correspondent and conformable First to his own Mind and then to the Nature of the things themselves so that he can neither be deceived nor deceive His Faithfulness whereby he most assuredly performs whatever he has Promised or Threatned but more especially is his Faithfulness remarked in Scripture for the Performance of his Promises there being a Right acquired from these by the Persons to whom they are made which is not in Threatnings and accordingly 't would be a greater breach of Fidelity to deny the one than not to execute the other And therefore the Scripture commending the Faithfulness of God restrains it chiefly to his Promises according to that of the Author to the Hebrews He is Faithful that has Promised Lastly when we Contemplate his Sincerity which consists in his candid open and ingenuous dealing with the Sons of Men in that he never thinks nor designs any thing contrary to what he Reveals either by Word or Deed in opposition to all Tricks Juglings Double-dealings Hypocrisie and the like These are those Vertues and Perfections which constitute the Moral Nature of God and when we propose these duly and sincerely to our Meditation as they are Excellencies in the Divine Nature we may be then said to set God before us as a Pattern I say as they are Excellencies in the Divine Nature otherwise the formality of the thing will be changed For if for instance I consider the Justice of God not as 't is a Moral Excellence in him but only as an Instrument of Evil to my self I do not then set God before me as a Pattern but as an Avenger The Third and Last way of setting God before us is as an Observer when we consider him as a Being Essentially present in all Places and with all Creatures who all live move and have their Being in him and beyond all Places and Creatures too in those infinite Spaces where he can erect new Worlds but where as yet there is nothing besides himself I shall not here enter into a nice Disquisition concerning the Omnipresence of God being willing rather to Suppose than Dispute it But however lest this way of setting God before us should be thought Imaginary and Precarious give me leave by the way only to remark that 't is every whit as reasonable to think the Essence of God to be every where as to be always and that Immensity is as rational as Eternity That Great and Stupendous Being who is allowed to reach through all Times may as well be allow'd to reach through all Places nay much rather since it seems to be a less Perfection to be every where than
Heaven that they do it after a very perfect and excellent manner far exceeding the highest Measures of Mortality is here implied in that they are proposed and commended to us as Patterns and might be further concluded from the Perfection of their Natures and Faculties which we cannot but suppose to be very extraordinary since the excellency of our future Condition is summ'd up in this short Description that we shall be like unto the Angels But waving this Consideration taken from the Powers and Faculties of Angels as somewhat too Nice and Metaphysical for a Practical Discourse I shall chuse rather to represent the great Excellency wherewith they perform the Will of God from Two Collateral Considerations First The Impediments they are free from Secondly The positive Advantages they enjoy And First as to the Impediments they are free from 'T is the great disadvantage of all Human Spirits in this Station as well as the complaint of some that they are united with Bodies that are not proportioned to the Native Excellency and Activity of their Natures for indeed the Soul has made an ill Match Marryed very much beneath her self and has met with a Clog instead of a Companion one that is too weak to obey her Dictates and Motions and too strong to be governed that cannot follow and that will not be led that sticks too close to her to be shaken off and yet is too loose from her to be well managed Such an untractable ill suited Consort as this must needs be a constant incumbrance to the Soul even in her Natural but much more in her Moral and Spiritual Operations because here the Consort has contrary Inclinations so that the Soul is put to incounter not only with her ordinary weight but with an Opposite Law even that Law of the Members which wars against the Law of the Mind and brings us into Captivity to the Law of Sin Neither is this all for we are not only cumbered with a weight of Flesh and depressed by its low tendencies and propensions but our Body which at best is but in an ill disposition for the Operations of the Rational and Divine Life is often discomposed and made worse by Sickness and then the Soul is forced to sympathize and condole with her ill-suited Companion and either not to act at all or to perform her Part upon an ill-tuned Instrument And he that is blessed with the strongest and most tunable Constitution and enjoys the most vigorous Health has yet a great many necessities of Nature to serve that will take up much of his Thoughts and much of his Time so that he can't chuse but be troubled about many things things below the concernment of a Rational Being and that though he has chosen the Better Part and is so well convinced of his true interest as to acknowledge only one thing to be needful Add to all this that we breath in an infected Air live in an ill World where every Object almost is a Temptation and have a Devil to tempt and seduce us one who makes it his proper and profest business to cross the Ends of God to disturb the Moral Harmony of the Universe and to hinder the symphony and agreement of the Two Worlds that so God's Will may not be done in Earth as it is in Heaven And with these disadvantages no wonder that it is not But now the Holy Angels have none of these Impediments they have either no Bodies or such as no way incommode or retard but rather help and further their Faculties for they are in the full height and last perfection of their Natures and consequently must not be supposed to have the least degree of any of their Natural Perfections detained or held back from exerting it self by any clog or impediment there being no reason imaginable why they should be invested with any degree of Power which must never be brought into Act as it never must be if not at present they being now supposed to be in the last Perfection of their Natures They must be therefore conceived in this respect to act like necessary Agents to the full and to the utmost of their natural Strength and to have nothing in them that is not put forth as far as possibly can be And besides the Scripture always speaks of them under the denomination of Spirits without making 〈◊〉 of any Bodies belonging to them which must needs imply that either they are all Pure Minds as the Platonists say of the highest Order or if they have Bodies they are of so refined and clarified a Mould so nigh to an Immaterial Substance that Spirit might serve as a common word for both They have therefore no weight or load upon their Faculties nothing to dead or slacken the Spring of their Nature no Concupiscence to darken their Understandings or to pervert their Wills no Indisposition Languor or Weariness occasioned through crazy and sickly Vehicles but are always Fresh Vigorous and Bright like the life and quickness of the Morning and rejoyce like the Sun to run their Course They have no Necessities to relieve or provide for no impertinent Avocations to call them off from their noble Exercises no ill Company to debauch them no Devil to tempt and insnare them and therefore must needs act with a full display of their Faculties and be carried out uncessantly and intirely toward the Supream Good with their whole bent and energy as a Stone would tend toward the Center through an unresisting Medium But this will further appear by considering Secondly the positive advantages which they enjoy Their great advantageis that they have a constant and clear Vision of the Essence of the great God Now I consider that the Essence of God is the very Essence of Goodness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Divine Philosopher fitly calls him whereupon I conceive that an Angel seeing God after this Essential manner must have the same Habitude and Disposition to him as one that does not thus see God has to the common nature of Good But now 't is impossible that a Man should either will or act any thing without attending to good in common and without proposing that as his aim And accordingly 't is as impossible that the Blessed Angels should will or act any thing without attending to God and making him their End as long as they have this Essential Vision of him and of this they are never deprived for our Lord says of them that they always behold the Face of his Father which is in Heaven This he speaks of the Missionary Angels that have the Charge and Office of Guardians here upon Earth that even they notwithstanding their imployment here have a constant view of the Divine Essence and are never interrupted in their Beatisick Vision much more then is this true of the Stationary Angels that wait upon the Throne of God the Residentiaries of Heaven Whence it further follows that 't is impossible they should