Votaries a nobler perfection which will easily appear to any one who shall diligently consider 1. The great Motives to Holyness which it contains that is a declaration of the Divine Nature Jo. 1.18 The infinite Love of God to Mankind manifested in the blessed Jesus and the full Discovery of Life and Immortality or Secondly the mighty assistances it promises that is the blessed Spirit of God and Divine Providence employed either in preventing us from falling into temptations too big for this imperfect state or else in finding a way to our escape out of them Or Thirdly the immediate end of Christian Religion that is whilst we are here on Earth to fit us for Heaven He that shall seriously lay to heart these three things will be forc'd to conclude that in all reason the Gospel must require of us something proportionable to the extraordinary motives the powerful assistances and the glorious end it assures and proposes to its Children and this must be something more than a meer negative righteousness for it is unreasonable that this Light should beget in us no greater degrees of Love and Fear for God than what natural Reason might or if it doth that the instances of our Obedience now under the Gospel should be only such as the strength of nature might have enabled men to comply with under Gentilism tho it must be confest not so easily as now Agreeable to this Doctrine our Holy Saviour in his Sermon on the Mount which is the Rule and Standard of the Christian Life sets us as a more exalted patern Not onely to be True in our words and Just in our dealings with our Neighbour but to be Charitable Gentle Patient and to return good for evil to our very Enemies not only to avoid all unnatural Lusts and wild Excesses but also to be pure and holy to admit of no sensual Fancy or unchast Looks or idle words to fast and afflict our selves the Blessed are they which mourn he forbids us all Ambition and Covetousness and Vainglory not on the account of injustice for that doth not alwayes unavoidably cleave to them but as they are the Acts of a worldly mind which is perfectly contrary to poverty of Spirit and to laying up our Treasures in Heaven and to the taking up of the Cross of Christ so powerfully and sweetly recommended Our duty to God is couch'd all along in the whole Discourse but the Acts of worship more plainly express'd are Loving him as a Father praying to him endeavouring to promote his Glory and chearfully to obey his will relying upon him for assistance in our spiritual warfare for Provision Protection and Deliverance in this Life and add to all this this one circumstance that all this is to be done with delight constancy and vigour implied in those general Precepts Blessed are they that hunger and thirst c. Lay up c. for where your treasure is there will your Heart be also seek you first c. and strive to enter in at the strait Gate c. and then you have our Saviours Sense of Christian Holiness If we consult his Disciples the best Expositors of their Masters Text we shall find the whole of Religion compriz'd in two things The Mortification of the outward Man and the Resurrection of the inward by which they mean as appears from Colos 3. a setting our affections upon things above and not upon things on the Earth from whence I will infer two conclusions 1. That our affections are an essential part of Holiness that it is not enough to approve of invisible things in our understanding and then act not as Men who love God and Heaven and Goodness but as men who see it unavoidably necessary to do something and therefore go as far as is consistent with that carnality they yet resolve to gratifie but that we must love them also and this to that degree may be able to extinguish our passion for the World and therefore 2. The Life we are to lead must be such a one as may most tend to enkindle in us holy passions for the things above a delight in the survey of our hopes and defires of entring into the presence of God all which cannot be attain'd but by requent Prayer Meditation Hearing and Reading of Gods Word the holy Communion and heavenly Discourses and on the other side to take off our Affections from the world and beget in us a generous contempt of it which can never be effected but by repeated acts of self denyal fasting watching meditating on the example of a crucified Saviour the glories and pleasures of another Life the vanity and yet bewitcheries of this fadeing one I may be confident that a constant caressing the senses with feasting drinking wanton dalliances the pomp and vanities of Life cannot be a proper method to the mortification of the outward man or vivification of the inward So that if a very abstenious Life as to the general course of it be not requir'd as an essential part of Holiness yet it is necessary as the means and instrument of it conformable to this whole discourse is that of St. Paul 1 Cor. 7 29.30 But this I say Brethren the time is short it remaineth that both they that have wives be as tho they had none and they that weep as tho they wept not and they that rejoice as tho they rejoyced not and they that buy as tho they possess'd not and they that use this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away where we are not only interdicted unlawful pleasures but forbidden to give our selves up to lawful ones and commanded to use such moderation as may become men fully perswaded of the shortness and vanity of this Life and possess'd by the expectations of a better The Sum of all is this The Christian State is a State of extraordinary Holiness and Purity 't is a new nature wrought by principles motives assistances different from those of the natural man 't is in one word to be Heavenly minded and therefore that course of Life which can best serve to encrease this blessed temper is the Christians Duty and that course which quenches it which softens and sensualizes us is inconsistent with Christianity and inconsistent with Regeneration for if we be risen with Christ we shall not onely Love but seek those things which are above it being impossible for any man to live when he can choose quite contrary to his own desires so that he who loves God need not be told that he must Pray and Meditate and Communicate and be doing good c. When he knows he can enjoy him here below no way else he that hates Sin and loves Holiness needs not be told that he must lead an abstemious Life when he knows that feasting and drinking c. do feed the Body into wantonness and lust and quench the holy flame of Love and indispose it for Religious Duties From all this it is plain
and devotion do I behold the amazing instances of my Saviours Love whilst with so much affection and sweetness he laid down his life for me whilst his enemy and his persecutor O how I long to do something for such a Saviour as this to execute my lusts to bring his and mine Enemies before his face and slay them and now tho a survey of my sins hath filled me with amazement and shame yet since Christ hath died I look up with comfort and an humble hope Since he hath died did I say yea rather since he is risen again for By Faith I see him breaking forth with Power and great Glory out of his Sepulchre I behold him ascending in Triumph up to Heaven I see with Stephen the Heavens open'd and my Prince and Saviour sitting at the right hand of Power with one hand despencing his Graces with the other holding never fadeing wreaths to crown the patience of his Saints And now how I am exalted above Nature transported above the world and flesh how this prospect hath disarm'd the Beauties and glories of this life of all their Killing charms and Temptations how my soul leaps for joy to see a way open'd into the holy of holies and to consider the mighty interest I have in Heaven As for Earth I am so far from admiring it I value it not I know I must sojourn here a while and therefore I must be fed and cloath'd but my heavenly Father knows I have need of these things and his is the Earth and the fulness thereof and therefore he cannot want means and ability to provide for me and he is a wise and a good God and he hath promis'd by his Son to take care of me and all this will invite him to design and accomplish what is best for me Upon these grounds I think I could hope like Abraham even against hope I could relie upon God without any flattering appearances of promises Friends nay or any visible probabilities I am to seek the righteousness of the Kingdome and permit the Government of the World to the God of it I am his child and he is my Heavenly Father to obey is my Duty and with Reverence be it said to provide for me is his By this time it is easie to be discern'd what kind of Faith it is must save or justifie us one that enlightens our understanding and ravisheth our Heart one that prayes and watches that contends and struggles and fights and conquers one that makes us too great for Earth and fit for Heaven one that fears and loves and worships and seeks and relies and hopes And then 3. When it hath done this when I find my Faith made perfect in Love when through this belief I find my self a conqueror over the World and Flesh and have crucified those lusts I did before serve and gratifie then I am full of Joy and peace Then I feel that pledge of his Love that spirit which he hath given me assuring me of the pardon of my sins thorough the blood of Christ Then I have a foretaste of the powers of the world to come and I do in some measure anticipate my Heaven And not till then For this perswasion of the pardon of my sins call it what you please Faith Peace Hope Assurance is always proportionable to the success I have in my fight of Faith if I have either falsly betrayed or weakly deserted a good cause i.e. my virtue under a temptation which is in Scripture call'd a Tryal if I have turn'd my back in the day of battel then my own conscience condemns me and because I know that God is greater than my Conscience and knoweth all things therefore I cannot expect to stand when I am judged unless I rally and repair my fault But if upon a serious reflection upon my life each evening my conscience acquit me as a Conqueror through Faith and Love then I rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory what a beautiful morning doth this Faith shed upon any soul How I long that thy Kingdome O God may come And how I disdain all that this vain World can flatter me with Then like Peter tho all men should be offended fall through temptation yet will not I. Give me a temptation equal to this Faith till the sense of my frailty as in Peter do lower my confidence and yet heighten my resolutions And yet all this doth not in the least imply any reliance or confidence in my own Righteousness or works phrases of the same sense in Scripture But that I know Repentance and Faith are propos'd as the sole conditions of Justification thorough the bloud of Christ And that these fruits or effects of Righteousness I mean a holy life are the onely evidence of these habits and therefore I can never perswade my self that I believe and repent till I live well nor ever flatter my self with Peace Peace through his bloud till I thus believe and Repent to do otherwise is presumption not Faith 't is the fond and groundless confidence of foolish Virgins which shall be for ever shut out from the Bridegrooms presence There is not in the book of God any one plainer Doctrine than this Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdome of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven which is not every one that professes me to be Lord and so far relies upon me as to knock at the gates of Heaven with presumption of admission shall enter c. If we walk in the light as he God is in the light we have fellowship one with another and truely our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ v. 3. and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin Where walking in the light that is Holiness is suppos'd as a necessary condition to our purification by the blood of Christ and tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope and hope maketh not asham'd c. These are the steps or stages by which the Christian maketh his progress into assurance Tribulation being conquer'd worketh patience and Patience experience i.e. a conviction or proof of our Love of God and this experience worketh hope which contains in it th' assurance of pardon and the expectance of a better world and by the same method doth he who is attack'd by the temptations of pleasures proceed to a particular assurance The Sum of all is this man may be consider'd in Three states 1. Of unregeneration and then he is to be convinc'd of the truth of the Gospel if that be suppos'd this belief will easily convince him of his unrighteousness and shew him the wrath of God reveal'd from Heaven against all ungodly and impenitent sinners and on the other hand the blood of Christ who became a propiation for the sins of the World will encourage him to hope for reconciliation and pardon if he repent and
and unbelieving the abominable and Murtherers Whoremongers and Sorcerers Idolaters and Lyars and all the Enemies of God and Goodness The Duration of this State is for ever as Eternal as the Joys of Heaven an Everlasting Punishment the Worm never dies and the Fire cannot be quenched And though the Almighty may not be bound up to fulfil his threats which whether so applicable to God as Man I 'le not dispute yet certainly our Saviour and his Apostles in giving us a Narrative or History of the different Issues of things are bound to speak truth Hell then is a fixt state of misery wherein men have bid adieu to the pleasures of Earth and to all hopes of Heaven the memory of past pleasures doth but increase their pain and what 's beyond all the misery of this world they enjoy not as much as the deceitful Dreams of flattering hopes Hell where there 's no light nor ease nor God nor any harmless pleasure to divert the pain a moment Hell where only the wretched Objects of an Incens'd God do for ever weep and wail Is this the Death which is the wages of Sin Can Sin offer me any pleasure that can countervail this Eternity of miseries or is there any thing in poverty or shame or banishment or death equal to this Hell if not what blind brutish madness pusheth me on to sin Can I dwell with Everlasting Burnings Can I be content to live in an endless Night of pains and horrours Adieu my fatal pleasures I had rather starve and macerate this Body into sobriety than by Indulgence betray it to the rage and fury of Almighty Vengeance I 'le shut my eyes against all forbidden Fruits rather than for ever deprive 'm of the sight of Heaven and close them up in an Eternal Night Welcom whatever Penances Religion may impose upon me whatever the World may threaten me with for the discharge of a good Conscience I 'd watch and fast till Death rather than be Damn'd I 'd be the scorn and hate of Mankind rather than of God Are not these terrible Truths Are they not arm'd with Lightning and Thunder enough to startle the most harden'd sinner Good God what makes the World so dead so callous that such dreadful Objects cannot rouze nor pierce them It must needs be because they put that evil day so far off that the biggest terrours of it look but like Moats at such a distance But surely we mistake our selves in our computation we are now in Time how narrow is the Isthmus which parts Time from Eternity or is there any Partition at all but one groan that the frame of our Nature cracks with but one parting moment wafts us over upon the shore of another world Heaven and Hell they are not at the distance of so many years from this world but just of so much time as will serve us to die in And is this so much that we should frolick and wanton in our sins as if we were not within ken of danger there 's scarce a moment in the day wherein some Soul or other in some part of the world doth not make its Exit into another life and shall I sin as securely as if my time and death were at my own disposal I came but a few years ago into the world and within a few more I must go out on 't how soon this day will come I know not I 'm sure that the Sentence of Death is past upon me already I only wait the hour of Execution which any trifling cause can be the instrument of I may die of pleasure or of pain I may die of want or fulness I may die of desire or enjoyment what is it then which cannot give Death the very heighth of health is a degree of sickness my Scull is weak my skin and flesh thin and soft my heart tender and my passions easie my inner part is full of strange mazes vessels curiously contriv'd and subtilly dispos'd what a little will ravel this intricate contexture and discompose this delicate frame and shall I be as secure as if my strength were Iron and my sinews Brass and the position of my parts fixt as the Decrees of Heaven No no I 'le live in continual expectation of my Death I 'le examine my Soul each Evening and close my eyelids as if I were to awake next morning in another world I 'le often take my leave of this world and fancy I shall see this or that pleasant object no more no more and I 'le address my self to my God as if my Soul were ready to take wing and I 'le soberly consider the Nature of my God the value of Christs Sacrifice and the Truth of my Faith and so I shall learn to disingage my self from this world and to die handsomely and comfortably if not in rapture The Prayer O Most gracious God who hast hedg'd about our ways that we may not stray and wander into ruine who hast endeavour'd to frighten us into happiness by the dread and terrours of a Hell O grant that this fear may be fixt in my very flesh and produce in me a cautious and a wary depormtent that I remembring that our God is Consuming Fire may not dare to provoke thee to wrath and indignation against me And grant O most merciful Father that I may not put the day of death far from me and flatter my self into security and misery but live each day as if it were my last because I do not know but that it may be so that I may enter at last into that state where there shall be no more conflict with sin nor fear of death through Jesus Christ our Lord. SECT II. Of the second Motive to Holiness i.e. the consideration of the Divine Nature THe knowledge of the Nature of God is so powerful an inforcement to Vertue and a determent from Vice that Religion and the knowledge of God and Irreligion and a want of that knowledge are made use of by the Spirit of God as expressions of the same import as 1 Cor. 15.34 Awake to righteousness and sin not for some have not the knowledge of God And this not without reason for the knowledge of God will 1. Discover to us the Nature of Holiness and of Sin 2. It will convince us how reasonable it is that we should serve him And 3. It will confirm in us a full perswasion of the Reward of Vertue and Punishment of Vice To this purpose therefore let us consider the Nature of God as it is taught us in the Gospel of that Son of God who lay in the Bosom of his Father and hath declar'd him to us And the first thing is that God is a Spirit Jo. 4.24 and those Attributes which the Gospel assigns him and which are a fuller discovery of his Nature are Knowledge Wisdom Holiness under which may in the opinion of some be comprehended Goodness Justice and Power and Dominion Now from that resemblance which Religion
Temptations to Sin are very numerous yet they may be reduc'd to two Heads Pleasure and Pain for these are the great Springs of Love and Hate of Hope and Fear and consequently of all Humane actions I will begin with Pleasure CHAP. I. Of Pleasure consider'd as a Temptation PLeasure is the Idol of Mankind and not without reason for it is impossible to love our selves and not love our pleasure and never any man denied himself yet any the least portion of it but in order to a greater therefore though I first premise That he cannot be a true Christian who is not willing to forego all his present enjoyments for the hopes of Heaven because it is inconsistent with a true Faith of the things not seen but yet eternal to prefer these temporal ones because seen before them and inconsistent with the truth of our love to God to obey him no longer than he commands pleasant things Yet because a misperswasion about this matter may prove a snare and a burden to some in the practice of Religion and deter others from it I will enquire 1. How far Religion is an Enemy to our Sensual Pleasures 2. What Remedies it prescribes against them 3. What Motives it lays down to Abstinence As to those instances of enjoyments which are forbidden the case is plain all unnatural lusts are a Species of pleasure if they may deserve that name utterly interdicted the Christian As to our degrees of enjoyment in all the instances of pleasure which are allowed us and such are all our natural appetites it is first plain that all kind of excess is forbidden us and in this sense the Precepts of the Gospel are generally to be understood the Body we are to mortifie is describ'd to have such members as these Col. 3.5 Fornication uncleanness which involve too an unnaturalness in them inordinate affection evil concupiscence and covetousness which is Idolatry and to walk after the way of the Gentiles or according to the world is to have our conversation in lasciviousness lusts excess of Wine revellings banquetings which is call'd afterwards excess of Riot 1 Pet. 4.3 4. 2. It is not to be question'd but that the great design of Religion is to raise our hearts upwards to make us spiritually minded and therefore all Sensuality which is contrary to this is contrary to the Analogy of the Gospel and by consequence I humbly conceive that an immoderate love of any thing though an allowed instance of pleasure is contrary to the Gospel of our Lord accordingly I find that that enjoyment of this present life which it permits to us is such a one as is cool and moderate not warm and passionate 1 Cor. 7.29 But this I say Brethren the time is short it remains that both they that have Wives be as though they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyc'd not and they that buy as though they possess'd not and they that are of this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away And now thirdly by consequence whatever tends to the betraying of us into excess or dotage is unlawful consider'd purely as the means to such an end From hence we may learn how little injurious Religion is to mens present pleasures we are allowed all things but dotage unnatural lusts and excess and all these are contradictory to our present happiness as for excess and unnatural lust there 's no question as for dotage whoever shall consider the emptiness and uncertainty of this world must needs conclude that the greatest security of our pleasure is a moderate affection and bating now all these the Gospel of Christ is so far from injoyning us misery and trouble that we are expresly invited to it by this Motive amongst others that it hath the Promises of this life as well as that which is to come and we are permitted to look upon peace and prosperity as great blessings and we are allowed the delight of Friendly Conversation love without hypocrisie and to love our Wives even as our selves So that whatever is necessary to make our lives comfortable is not only permitted but promised us but if we would make this Earth our Heaven 't is this that is to be Sensual and Carnal it is easie to apply these Rules to our Cloathing Eating Drinking Conversation c. and they will make us wise and prudent Christians and Religion will appear pleasant and delightful There is one more limit affix'd to our enjoyments and that is by Charity we must take care our satisfactions by our examples do not betray or tempt others Brotherly affection is not very hot in his breast who rather than deny himself any little liberty will contribute to the damnation of his Neighbour 2. The Remedies against pleasure 1. A loose and a dissolute spirit a gay and inconsiderate temper is that which commonly betrays us into excess and vanity into softness and dotage and therefore Religion endeavours to possess our souls with sobriety and awe by the presence of a holy God by the Judgment to come by the value and preciousness of our souls and the manifold dangers and enemies they are incompass'd by and therefore ingages us to pass the time of our sojourning in fear to walk circumspectly to be upon our guard and watch always 2. Because the body is apt to grow wanton it prescribes us watchings fasts and frequent prayers as the great instruments that do most tame and mortifie it and at the same time improve and exalt the mind Besides these that I may at once conquer my pleasures and live pleasantly too I have drawn these other Rules from Scripture 1. I never frame to my self rich Idea's nor fancy I know not what Heaven in any object but am content with an indifferent pleasure and hope for no more than what befits mankind in this state on earth 2. I train up my self to endure hardship as a good Souldier of Jesus Christ by passing thorough some chosen difficulties by checking even a lawful passion by calling off my humour from too much freedom and by accustoming my outward man to endure a bridle and thus my temper grows strong and my mind stanch and firm 3. I observe that the Herd which aims at Sensual Pleasure either seldom meets it and what a misery is it to be damn'd for Lusts they never satisfied or else they know not how to use it or they are so soft and unmanly they droop in every interval wherein they want it and therefore I compose my self on the quite contrary to meet a Storm and to stem the Tide and to arrive at my Port through boystrous Seas and so a small blast doth not move me a great one doth not sink me and a Calm like an unexpected blessing is receiv'd the more thankfully and us'd the more moderately 4. I labour that my Conversation may be above and I endeavour to look beyond this dark